The Department of Justice rejected a request from psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell to give the CIA the power to pretend to bury terror suspects during interrogations in the years after the 9/11 attacks. A report (PDF, 289 pages) from the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, released last Friday, documents ten interrogation techniques approved by Bush administration lawyers Jay Bybee and John Yoo. The psychologists had requested twelve techniques. One of those two techniques has already been revealed to be prolonged diapering.

The March 7 election may be a critical event in the contest to decide Iraq’s future, but for some of the nation’s poor, the right to vote does not mean having a say in who leads the country; it means having something to sell to make desperately needed cash. With intensive campaigning now under way in what is shaping up to be a highly competitive ballot, votes have become a precious commodity, a fact not lost on many ordinary people who care little for politics but who struggle to make ends meet. "Elections are a beautiful opportunity to get some money," Ahmad Salam said. "There are lots of people willing to sell their votes, and lots of people who want to buy them." AWIP/Dahr Jamail: US Using Iraqi Political Discord to Justify Continuance of Occupation.

Anthony Lawson is a retired, international-prize-winning TV commercials director, cameraman and editor, and a professional voiceover artist living in Thailand. His entire catalog of YouTube videos can be viewed online. Palestinian Center for Human Rights: Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Moshe Dayan's widow: Zionism's role is over ... We don't know how to make peace. We go from war to war and this will never end.

[Editor's Comment:] But even at this late stage, she can't help herself from lying: "We didn't expel. During my childhood, we didn't expel. We bought those tracts of land. Since then, however, many things have happened and today Israel is not the same. It's cliche to talk about how we're in a state of occupation and we're trying to occupy more and more. I'm at that age where I don't even talk about peace anymore. We don't know how to make peace. We go from war to war and this will never end." Oh, yes, they did "expel", and thousands too. About 7-800.000 of "them" in fact. More HERE, HERE, HERE and here: New Israeli Law Forbids Palestinians From Mourning Or “Showing Signs Of Sadness”.

And what exactly was Zionism's "role"? -Jewish fascism ("Zionism") set out to steal all of historical Palestine. They now have come very close to their goal. (Check these maps.) Translating Ruth Dayan's statement, we get closer to the truth: We don't know how to be happy with the land we've already stolen. We go from war to war to steal ever more and this will never end.

Israeli settlers in Hebron intend to rally Saturday, commemorating the 1994 massacre that saw a Jewish-American open fire on praying Palestinians, killing 29, the Israeli news site Yedioth Ahronoth reported. AWIP: US: Israel's national heritage plan 'provocative'.

Israel is urging instructing the United States to freeze its decision to send a new envoy to Syria, in the wake of this week's tripartite meeting between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to a report Saturday in London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat.

“I strongly support the dedicated public servants of our intelligence community. Their work to ensure our national security is to be commended. However, I must oppose the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2010. “This legislation contains provisions that implement vital measures of accountability, such as a provision to prohibit the use of funds for payment to any contractor to conduct interrogations of detainees currently in custody. I also support the provision in this legislation to establish an independent Intelligence Community-wide Inspector General. These provisions are an important step to ensure that mechanisms of accountability and oversight are in place. However, I remain concerned that some of the methods being employed by our intelligence community may amount to serious violations of international law and our Constitution." AWIP/Jayne Lyn Stahl: A Refuge for Cowards: Senate Extends Patriot Act. AntiWar: Obama signs one-year extension of Patriot Act.

They will interview six British-Israeli nationals whose identities were stolen by the suspected killers. The officers said the men were being treated as potential witnesses to a crime and not as suspects. It is widely believed Israel's secret service, Mossad, killed Mahmoud al-Mabouh in a Dubai hotel last month. Israel has declined to confirm or deny that it was responsible. AWIP: 'Netanyahu authorized Dubai assassination'.

A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile this morning crumbling buildings, destroying bridges and causing an unknown number of deaths. The temblor struck near where the largest earthquake on history was recorded in 1960 and ties as the fifth largest since 1900.

The quake has caused tsunami warnings to be issued for most of the nations along the Pacific including Australia, Japan, Russia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In Hawaii, the tsunami arrived in recent hours and it appears the state will escape relatively unscathed.

In the aftermath, buildings in Chile’s capital of Santiago caught fire sending smoke into the sky. The temblor that shook the ground for nearly a full minute also sent a cloud of dust into the air. Click here for a slideshow of some of the first images after the quake. NASA’s Terra satellite flew over the stricken area today and the agency released ‘before and after’ photos that clearly show the smoke and dust. Al Jazeera: Chile quake leaves hundreds dead -Video. PressTV: Chile's killer quake toll passes 300. Boston.com: Disaster pictures from Chile [The Big Picture set]

Google Person Finder: Chile Earthquake

The head of Russia's federal drug control agency has lambasted the US-led forces for failing to stamp out drug production in Afghanistan. Victor Ivanov blamed US President Barack Obama's administration for not doing enough to destroy opium poppy crops and curb the production of heroin in Afghanistan, the BBC reported on Saturday. At least 30,000 people die in Russia every year due to heroin, 90% of which comes from Afghanistan, Ivanov added. PressTV: 40-fold drug surge in Afghanistan: report. Afghanistan Conflict Monitor: Afghan Opium Production Up 34 Percent in 2007; New Record Set. Uruknet: Afghan drug trafficking brings US $50 billion a year.

[Background info:] Interview with Alfred McCoy. + The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade [Interview]. + Afghanistan: Drug Addiction Lucrative for Neolib Banksters, CIA. + Washington's Hidden Agenda: Restore the Drug Trade. + Halliburton Corporation's Brown and Root is one of the major components of THE BUSH-CHENEY DRUG EMPIRE.

Afghan collaborators will begin to take charge of the prison facility at Bagram, currently run by the US military, from next week. Addressing a news conference at the jail near the capital Kabul on Saturday, US and Afghan officials collaborators said the handover of the prison would be gradual over the coming year as Afghan officers traitors still require torture training.

Libyan leader dictator Muammar Gaddafi has called for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland, as an ongoing diplomatic row between the two nations heats up. He criticised a recent Swiss vote against the building of minarets and said Muslims must boycott the country. A Swiss foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on the jihad call.

Tens of thousands of Italians have taken to the streets of Rome to protest a court decision to adjourn Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's trial for a month. Tens of thousands of Italians congregated on Saturday in Piazza del Popolo in central Rome to protest against Berlusconi under a banner reading "Enough. The law is the same for everyone." BBC: Tens of thousands of Italians have demonstrated in Rome against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake has struck central Chile, shaking the capital for a minute-and-a-half and setting off a tsunami, which triggered international alerts. Buildings collapsed and phone lines and electricity were down, making the extent of the damage difficult to determine. At least 16 people were killed when the earthquake struck, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced. "We have had a huge earthquake," Bachelet said, speaking from an emergency response centre in an appeal for Chileans to remain calm. ABC News: Massive earthquake hits Chile: President Michelle Bachelet said 47 people were killed and that more deaths were possible, as the US government reported aftershocks in Chile measuring 6.2, 5.6 and 6.9. "With the quake of this magnitude, we cannot rule out other casualties," she said. USGS: Magnitude 8.8 - OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE. [Internet Not Working in Chile - all sites with .cl are dead at the moment.] Al Jazeera: Scores killed in Chile earthquake -Video. The AtlanticWire: The Chile Quake: How Bad Will the Damage Be?

Russia's foreign minister says Moscow will not agree to harsh sanctions against Iran, reasoning that there is nothing to prove Tehran is working on nuclear weapons. "There is no evidence that Iran has made a decision to produce nuclear weapons," Sergei Lavrov said in a recent interview with RIA Novosti. Lavrov went on to add hat he did not believe that sanctions were an effective course to take. "If we go with the sanctions, we'll not go beyond the goal of our purpose of defending the nonproliferation regime. "We don't want the nonproliferation regime to be used for ... strangling Iran, or taking some steps to deteriorate the situation [and] the living standards of people in Iran," he said clarifing that Moscow did not plan to agree to embargoes that could seriously damage Iran's economy. AntiWar: Israeli DM: No Need to Coordinate With US on Attacking Iran. WRH: Barak: 'Iran challenges world's stability'.

"I didn't like it when a certain former president -- and it wasn't 41 or 42 -- made my life miserable," he said in a reference to Jimmy Carter, who infuriated the Bush White House in 2007 when he accused the administration of allowing the use of torture on terror suspects.

Dubai police say they have recovered the DNA of assassins, who killed a senior Hamas commander in January. "We have DNA evidence ... from the crime scene. The DNA of the criminals is there," police chief Dhahi Khalfan said on Friday on the Arab satellite television Al-Arabiya. On January 20, the lifeless body of Mahmud al-Mabhouh was found in his hotel with Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, being widely deemed to be behind the hit, given the agency's record of overseas assassinations. The case dipped into soaring controversy when the 11 people, initially identified by the Dubai police as suspected murderers of Mabhouh, were found to have been traveling on fake European passports. AWIP: 'Netanyahu authorized Dubai assassination'.

"Would you be prepared to cross-dress? And kill a guest in an adjacent hotel room? If the answer to these questions is a resounding “yes”, and you can also act, enjoy luxury international travel with a twist and can carry off a convincing Irish or Australian accent, then the job could be yours." The Israeli spy agency Mossad may be the target of international reproach since it allegedly killed the Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel this month, but at home emerging details of the operation have generated Mossad mania. It has never been more popular in Israel, with stores selling out of Mossad memorabilia and its official website reporting a soaring number of visitors interested in applying to become agents. AWIP: 'Netanyahu authorized Dubai assassination'.

In southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, thousands of American, Afghan Quisling and British troops entered Marja in the biggest offensive of the war, with the goal of destroying the Taliban's Afghans' largest haven main positions and restoring the Quisling government's presence in southern Afghanistan. Resistance was sporadic and fierce as troops seized positions around the area. Allegedly stricter combat rules and a concerted effort by the Afghan Quisling government and NATO forces were aimed at not only protecting the civilian population improving the US' image problem, but planning for the aftermath a permant occupation, building infrastructure, support and trust compliance & submission in an area long dominated by the Taliban Afghans. Collected here are images of the country and conflict over the past month, part of an ongoing monthly series on illegally occupied Afghanistan. (43 photos total)

[Editor's Comment:] Sorry for the annoying number of corrections. They seem to be necessary in order to flush out the true story, or to at least to get past the government fairy-tale and closer to the truth. -That's the MSM for you; chock full of lies & distortions, so please don't blame us. :-) Thank you.

“The Washington Post reports that nearly one billion dollars per year in cash, suspected to include U.S. aid, opium receipts or both, is moving from Afghanistan to Dubai, where friends and family of Afghanistan’s President Karzai have multimillion dollar villas. “Dubai real estate deals and a number of crooked enterprises connected to the Karzai family have created crony capitalism in a country awash with U.S. cash and U.S. blood."

BANGALORE: Criticising Genetically Modified (GM) products could land you in jail — if the draconian draft Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill (BRAB) of 2009, which will be tabled in the current session of the parliament by the UPA government, is passed. In an unprecedented muzzle on the right to freedom of speech of the citizen, Chapter 13 section 63 of the draft bill says, “Whoever, without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public about the safety of the organisms and products…shall be punished with imprisonment for a term that shall not be less than six months but which may extend to one year and with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees or with both.” The BRAI Bill drafted by the department of bio-technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology comes on the heels of a moratorium on Bt Brinjal announced by the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. “What they are doing is much worse than what Hitler or Mussolini did. Through this bill, they want to take absolute authority. They are behaving like a vendor instead of a regulator,” Pushpa M Bhargava, a member of the Supreme Court appointed Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested Friday the organization might one day be called on to provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. "That day has not yet come, but I think it is intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now," he said in a speech on the future mandate of the 186-nation Washington-based lending organization. Strauss-Kahn said such an asset could be similar to but distinctly different from the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs, the accounting unit that countries use to hold funds within the IMF. It is based on a basket of major currencies. Truth Serum: BILDERBERG IMF CHIEF STRAUSS-KHAN PROPOSES CONVERGENCE OF BANKING LEGISLATION. [More about the Bilderbergers here.]

Canada and U.S. authorities are talking about extending cross-border security measures that were implemented for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and were to end with the closing of the Winter Games. The RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard have jointly patrolled the waters off Vancouver since the beginning of the month, boarding nearly 200 vessels and interviewing about 500 people in their efforts to maintain security, RCMP Sergeant Duncan Pound of the border integrity program said in an interview. The Atlantic: Is America Really Ahead in the Olympic Medal Count?

Tens of thousands of striking Greek workers took to the streets today, some throwing stones at police, in a defiant show of protest against austerity measures aimed at averting the debt-plagued country's economic collapse. Riot police responded with teargas when, in sporadic bursts, masked youths charged them in Athens city centre. The violence coincided with a general strike that shut down public services and closed off Greece to the outside world. For trade unions the mass show of force was a warning shot to a government struggling to satisfy its eurozone partners with policies deemed vital for the nation's fiscal health while appeasing angry workers at home. AWIP: Greece not on the brink of bankruptcy, actually attacked by Goldman Sachs.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s major sources of instability. Americans are directly connected to this conflict, and increasingly imperiled by its devastation. It is the goal of If Americans Knew to provide full and accurate information on this critical issue, and on our power – and duty – to bring a resolution.

Here are the simple facts of the great betrayal. Wilson and House knew that they were doing something momentous. One cannot fathom men’s motives and this pair probably believed in what they were up to. What they did not believe in was representative government. They believed in government by an uncontrolled oligarchy whose acts would only become apparent after an interval so long that the electorate would be forever incapable of doing anything efficient to remedy depredations.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree. The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Independents and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans. According to CNN poll numbers released Sunday, Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken - though the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what's broken can be fixed. (The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey.)

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak has urged the US administration to impose crippling sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. "At this stage it's important to impose serious and crippling sanctions in order to prevent it from achieving nuclear ability," Barak said referring to Iran during a meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Washington on Thursday.

The captured ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, has confessed that the US administration had assured him of unlimited military aid and funding for waging an insurgency against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The following is the detailed transcript of Rigi's confession, stated in Farsi, as broadcasted on Press TV. AWIP: Iran to reveal evidence of Jundallah ties with US.

Call them what you will: bottom feeders, corporate con-men, flim-flam artists, peddlers of crisis, you name it. You can't help but marvel how enterprising security firms have the uncanny ability to sniff-out new opportunities wherever they can find, or manufacture, them. After all, nothing sells like fear and in "new normal" America fear is an industry with a limitless growth potential.

Scientists have discovered an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The region is said to compare with the well-documented "great Pacific garbage patch". Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association told the BBC that the issue of plastics had been "largely ignored" in the Atlantic. She announced the findings of a two-decade-long study at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, US.

A commercial ­dispute breaks out in the South Atlantic. ­Argentina asserts a hoary claim to the Falklands and takes it to the UN. Britain says push off, you must be joking. Nobody takes it ­seriously as war is inconceivable. ­Downing Street is more concerned with domestic unpopularity. That was in March 1982. It was also last week. Then the tabloids greeted Argentina's claim with Stick It Up Your Junta. Now they are equally nuanced, calling the Argentine president, Cristina Kirchner, Queen Argie Bargy and Old Plastic Face. Then it took nine weeks of counter-invasion, with 1,000 deaths and £3bn spent, for Britain to restore the status quo ante. The Falklands war was a catastrophic failure of diplomacy and deterrence. Now, at least, war is unlikely. AWIP: Escalating Falklands oil dispute goes to UN.

A British court on Friday made public a ruling criticizing domestic intelligence agency MI5's handling of alleged victim of torture overseas, rejecting a government attempt to keep it secret. A three-judge panel at Britain's Court of Appeal published a paragraph of a judge's draft ruling that was previously withheld after government lawyer Jonathan Sumption complained it contained unsubstantiated criticism. That ruling published details of the mistreatment of ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, who alleges he was tortured in Pakistan in 2002.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Israeli goods made in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank cannot be considered Israeli. This means goods made by Israelis or Jews in the West Bank cannot benefit from a trade deal giving Israel preferential access to EU markets. EU import duties on Israeli goods from the settlements may now be imposed, making them less competitive.

The Islamic bloc at the UN calls for international action against Israel's decision to designate two shrines in the occupied West Bank as "national heritage sites." Speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) UN ambassadors, Syria's United Nations Ambassador Bashar Jaafari condemned the "illegality and illegitimacy" of the Israeli decision which they view as "null and void." They called on all relevant UN bodies to take urgent, required measures to force Israel to rescind this decision and urged the Security Council, the General Assembly and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to shoulder their responsibility. AWIP/Khalid Amayreh: Fabricating history.

The rumors of a possible partnership by John Paulson and Goldman Sachs in the speculative attacks on Greece, which I first reported on last week, are now heating up in Europe to the point where one French journalist has multiple sources corroborating them. No one can point to hard evidence, just yet, because these are opaque, unregulated markets. But the news is quickly rising above the status of rumor. NYT: In Greece’s Crisis, Fed Studies Wall St.’s Activities. + Banks Helped Create Greece's Financial Crisis -- Now They're Betting It Will Get Worse.

MEP and UKIP leader Nigel Farage on Wednesday delivered another major tirade brilliant verbal attack on EU President Herman van Rompuy and, along the way, severely insulted Belgium and Greece during a plenary debate.

[Editor's Comment:] Strong words alright, but then democracy in Europe may soon be history. The situation is very, very serious. Mr. Farage obviously understands what is at stake and has what it takes, and more. (The Mexicans would refer to it as "cojones". In case you're still in doubt, think of an American politician -but just the opposite of such a spineless creature. -See?)

Ban Ki-moon urges environment ministers to reject attempts by sceptics to undermine negotiations by "exaggerating" shortcomings in Himalayan glaciers report. The UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, today urged environment ministers to reject attempts by sceptics to undermine efforts to forge a climate change deal, stressing that global warming poses "a clear and present danger."

[Editor's Comment:] Geez, where does this guy Ban Ki-moon get his ideas from? "A clear and present danger" is an American political phrase used to justify the unjustifiable. -Ever since a Hollywood production named A clear and Present Danger (1994) (actually since even before 1994) where CIA Analyst Jack Ryan is drawn into an illegal war fought by the US government against a Colombian drug cartel, through the US government's scare tactics like "Bioterrorism: a clear and present danger" and "Cyber terrorism: a clear and present danger, the sum of all fears, breaking point or patriot games?" to the American think tanks' warmongering & lies, their "Two-War Construct" to justify the illegal & unwarranted attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan, it is now universally recognized that only American war hawks talk like that. -And now apparently this US/NWO stooge from the US client state of Korea does so too...Well, the science is not "settled" and never will be, and the so-called "errors" & "inaccuracies" in the IPCC's reports are nothing of the sort. -We're talking about consciously manipulated data here and they did it for a purpose! This is the science scam of our generation, involving a clear and present conspiracy to deceive, exploit and enslave us all. -This is what the movers & shakers want: a global government and the end of national sovereignty. Or, in the words of Ban Ki-moon himself: “We will establish a global governance structure to monitor and manage the implementation of this.”

AWIP: Global Warming Emerging Science and Understanding Part 6 + UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance. + Obama urges action at Copenhagen. + Draft text 'threatens' UN climate deal. Daily Telegraph: Climategate: the official cover-up continues: If there’s one thing that stinks even more than Climategate, it’s the attempts we’re seeing everywhere from the IPCC and Penn State University to the BBC to pretend that nothing seriously bad has happened, that “the science” is still “settled”, and that it’s perfectly OK for the authorities go on throwing loads more of our money at a problem that doesn’t exist. Examiner: U.N. announces independent review of IPCC climate agency as skepticism grows.

Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has called for a jihad or armed struggle against Switzerland branding it an "infidel state". Libya's relations with Switzerland broke down in 2008 when one of Colonel Gaddafi's sons, Hannibal, was arrested in a Geneva hotel and charged with assaulting a member of his staff. He was detained for two days before being released, but in protest Libya cut oil supplies to Switzerland, withdrew billions of dollars from Swiss bank accounts and arrested two Swiss businessmen working in the North African country.

American troops will remain in Haiti for the foreseeable future to help the quake-ravaged country get back on its feet, the US ambassador to the Caribbean nation told AFP Thursday. "There are about 6,500 soldiers in Haiti at the moment. There were some 20,000 for the emergency effort launched in the wake of January 12," ambassador Kenneth Merten said. AWIP/Stephen Lendman: Focus on Haiti: Washington's Militarized Takeover. AWIP/Michel Chossudovsky: The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion? AWIP/Marguerite Laurent: Oil in Haiti – Economic Reasons for the UN/US Occupation. AWIP/William Bowles: Disasters are Big Business.

An 18-year-old Tampa man was jailed Tuesday afternoon, charged with wearing a clown mask on a public road. Deputies say Matthew David Lopez, of 7003 Ponderosa Drive, was seen with two other people walking south on N 58th Street, just north of E Fowler Avenue. What caught a deputy's attention was Lopez's masked face with a bright red-and-orange wig, according to an arrest affidavit.

US drones fired at least three missiles against a home near Miramshah, North Waziristan today, killing at least nine people described by the Pakistani government as “suspected militants.” The target’s affiliation remains unclear, as do the identities of the people inside, but the death toll has risen throughout the day and may rise further going forward. Originally, Pakistani officials identified the house as a “compound” used by the Haqqani family. They later revised this, saying the house belonged to the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Now some officials say a group calling itself the “Punjabi Taliban” used the house, while some others are saying it was al-Qaeda’s.

A night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan in which eight schoolboys from one family were killed was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence and should never have been authorised, a Times investigation has found. Ten children and teenagers died when troops stormed a remote mountain compound near the border with Pakistan in December. At the time, US/Nato claimed lied, saying that the assault force was targeting a “known insurgent group responsible for a series of violent attacks”.

When the record 2009 civilian death toll began to emerge, NATO was quick to brag that they had actually killed fewer civilians than the Taliban. This appears to be the case still, though UN reports suggested the difference wasn’t nearly as dramatic as NATO initially claimed. There is one thing the Taliban can’t compete with NATO on, however, and that’s the killing of children. AWIP: Many Thousand Gone.

Human Rights Watch has blasted US President Barack Obama's change in "rhetoric" rather than "policies" as US transfers more Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Europe. Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, says that vows of change in the US administration have been limited to presidential rhetoric, US media said Wednesday. When it came to promoting human rights, there has undoubtedly been a marked improvement in presidential rhetoric, Roth said. However, he added, the translation of those words into deeds remains incomplete.

Key US lawmakers passed legislation Thursday extending three key provisions of the PATRIOT Act, the sweeping intelligence bill enacted after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Backing a White House request, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the measure 11 votes to 8 to extend until 2013 three clauses that would have expired by 31 December. The bill now heads to the full Senate for a vote. The provisions include the "roving wiretap" clause, used to monitor mobile communications of individuals using multiple telephone lines, and the "lone-wolf" provision, which enables spying on individuals suspected of terrorist activity but with no obvious connection to extremist groups.

CIA officials briefed at least 68 U.S. lawmakers between 2001 and 2007 on enhanced interrogation methods like simulated drowning that were being considered or used against captured al Qaeda members, according to declassified documents released on Tuesday. The once-secret CIA papers, obtained in a lawsuit by the conservative legal foundation Judicial Watch, shed new light on which lawmakers knew the details of the controversial interrogation program and when. Human rights groups have argued the harsh interrogation methods torture were forms of torture and violated U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions on treatment of war prisoners. President Barack Obama banned the techniques shortly after taking office in January 2009.

Reality television often ends in humiliation and ridicule for those taking part. But who would be prepared to take part in a game show which featured torture and even death? The answer is most of us, judging by the results of a French experiment which involved asking people to inflict electric shocks on a fellow contestant in what they thought was a new reality TV concept. Eighty per cent of the participants ignored pleas to stop and shrieks of pain as they continued increasing the voltage in response to wrong answers on Zone Xtreme. ''Is he dead?'' asked one contestant when the voltage reached 400 and the victim fell silent.

We, the undersigned, object to the dismissal of Baroness Jenny Tonge from her post as health spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats simply because she suggested that Israel investigate charges made against it. AWIP: British politician Jenny Tonge sacrificed (again) to appease Zionists.

The US has bashed Israel for jeopardizing the Middle East peace process by designating two shrines in the occupied West Bank as Israeli "national heritage sites." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that Tel Aviv was planning to include Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron Al-Khalil in a "national heritage plan." US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Wednesday said Washington viewed the move as provocative and unhelpful to the goal of getting the two sides back to the negotiation table. Toner said Washington had conveyed its displeasure with the move to senior Israeli officials. AWIP/Irish4Palestine: Israeli "Heritage Sights": Hamas lawmaker Samira Al-Halaiqa warned Sunday that Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to annex the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil and Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem to the list of Jewish religious sites is a declaration of war on Muslims. + One Friday Morning in Occupied Palestine – The Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre 25.02.1994.