Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over their use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq, an Iraqi minister says. Iraq's Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Mikhail Salim, told Assabah newspaper that the lawsuit will be launched based on reports from the Iraqi ministries of science and the environment. Google Search: iraq depleted uranium. (Graphic) AWIP/Julian Assange & staff: US Violates Chemical Weapons Convention + AWIP/Doug Westerman: Depleted Uranium – Far Worse Than 9/11.

Secret document signalled support for Iraqi dissidents and promised aid, oil and trade deals in return for regime change. Whitehall officials drafted the "contract with the Iraqi people" as a way of signalling to dissenters in Iraq that an overthrow of Saddam would be supported by Britain. It promised aid, oil contracts, debt cancellations and trade deals once the dictator had been removed. Tony Blair's team saw it as a way of creating regime change in Iraq even before the 9/11 attack on New York.

Afghanistan-based US predators carried out a record number of 12 deadly missile strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan in January 2010, of which 10 went wrong and failed to hit their targets, killing 123 innocent Pakistanis. The remaining two successful drone strikes killed three al-Qaeda leaders, wanted by the Americans. The rapid increase in the US drone attacks in the Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan can be gauged from the fact that only two such strikes were carried out in January 2009, which killed 36 people. The highest number of drone attacks carried out in a single month in 2009 was six, which were conducted in December last year. But the dawn of the New Year has already seen a dozen such attacks. AWIP: U.S. Drone Strike deaths prompt AF/PAK payback. This gives the CIA a pretext for more US terror. There will be more AF/PAK payback.

The Senate quietly passed legislation Thursday implementing tough evil new sanctions against Iran that advocacy groups say will cause more pain for the citizens of the country than for the government it's intended to cripple. They obediently did this for Israel, their Lord & Master. Global Research: Another U.S. War? Obama Threatens China and Iran. PressTV: Secret CIA-Mossad meeting, preparation for new war?

The Obama administration is quietly working with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to speed up arms sales and rapidly upgrade defenses for oil terminals and other key infrastructure in a bid to thwart future military attacks defensive actions taken by Iran after a US/Israeli attack, according to former and current U.S. and Middle Eastern government "officials".

Tension between the US and Iran heightened dramatically today with the disclosure that Barack Obama is deploying a missile shield to protect American allies in the Gulf from attack by Tehran. The US is dispatching Patriot defensive missiles to four countries – Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait – and keeping two ships in the Gulf capable of shooting down Iranian missiles. Washington is also helping Saudi Arabia develop a force to protect its oil installations.

Just over two hours into progressive radio host Jeff Farias’ Thursday show (available here), I joined Jeff to discuss Scott Horton’s extraordinary article for Harper’s Magazine (which I discussed here), in which, through interviews with four members of the US military who were serving at Guantánamo in June 2006, Scott established a viable and chilling alternative to the authorities’ prevailing story about the deaths: that they were coordinated suicides, presented at the time as an act of “asymmetrical warfare.” AWIP/Scott Hoton: The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle.

Behind the smoke, rubble and unending drama of human tragedy in the hapless Caribbean country, a drama is in full play for control of what geophysicists believe may be one of the world’s richest zones for hydrocarbons-oil and gas outside the Middle East, possibly orders of magnitude greater than that of nearby Venezuela. AWIP/Marguerite Laurent: Oil in Haiti – Economic Reasons for the UN/US Occupation + AWIP/Stephen Lendman: Haiti's Earthquake: Natural or Engineered.

Additional charges have been leveled against an American national once indicted for abusing Haitian boys he was supposed to be helping. Douglas Perlitz, 39, founded and operated a home and school for needy children in Haiti, known as Project Pierre Toussaint. But he was arrested in his home in Colorado in September 2009 after a federal grand jury indicted him on 10 counts related to the abuse of nine boys over a period of 10 years. Prosecutors on Thursday pushed an additional nine counts against Perlitz, bringing the number of his abuse victims to a total of 18. Reuters: Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti. Daily Mail: Ten American Christians arrested in Haiti trying to take 33 orphans out of the country.

Thousands of protesters from across Japan marched today in Tokyo to protest against U.S. military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to get rid of a marine base Washington considers crucial. Some 47,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, with more than half on the southern island of Okinawa. Residents have complained for years about noise, pollution and crime around the bases. Japan and the U.S. signed a pact in 2006 that called for the realignment of American troops in the country and for a Marine base on the island to be moved to a less populated area.

Zionist doctrine is based on the racist Orientalist cliche that ‘Arabs understand only the language of force’. Zionists have always approached Palestinians as people whom needed to be subdued and if they revolt to be killed in the cause of building and maintaining a Jewish on Arab land.

They have always used disproportionate force against the Palestinians. Back in the 1970s, for every Israeli killed, 100 Arabs were killed. Now the ration is 1-4. It has declined, but Israel still intentionally kills more. But, as Hannah Arendt once wrote: “If there is one language the Arabs don’t understand it is the language of force.” All of Israel’s actions have ensured that the Jewish state while powerful now will not survive in the end. A nation seeking acceptance from its neighbors would not behave like Israel. But Israel is blinded by hubris, racism and short-sightedness.

Israel has revealed it has "disciplined" two senior army officers for using white phosphorus shells during an offensive in Gaza. The admission is contained in the Israeli response to the Goldstone report, which concluded both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes. Details of any punishment given to the pair have not yet been made clear [never will be]. During the 22-day conflict last year media pictures showed incendiary shells raining down on a UN compound. The officers' ranks have been confirmed as a Brigadier-General and a Colonel. They were named in Israeli media reports as Gaza Division Commander Brig Gen Eyal Eisenberg and Givati Brigade Commander Col Ilan Malka. Haaretz: IDF denies disciplining top officers over white phosphorous use in Gaza war. BBC: The 'explosive admission' in Israel's Gaza report.

Sat, Jan 30: Two weeks ago, Jeb’s brother, former President George W. Bush, was at the White House talking about Haiti relief with Obama and ex-President Bill Clinton. President Barack Obama hosted a pair of Bushes this morning in the Oval Office: former President George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Two weeks ago, Jeb's brother, former President George W. Bush, was at the White House talking about Haiti relief with Obama and ex-President Bill Clinton. The White House described it as a social call, but feel free to speculate. Jeb Bush's presence was unexpected -- the White House hadn't said anything about him being invited. It's all very... bipartisan.

Television viewers in the United States seeking international news are starting to switch over to foreign channels to learn what is happening in the outside world, media watchers here say. Russia Today easily led the pack, with a daily audience over 6.5 times bigger than that of Al Jazeera English, the second most popular source of TV news among foreign broadcasters in the U.S. after BBC.

The Justice Department is investigating whether officials of Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi government officials in hopes of retaining the firm’s security work in Iraq after a deadly shooting episode in 2007, according to current and former government officials.

It was [...] Ronald Reagan who signed the Convention Against Torture in 1988 -- after many years of countless, horrific Terrorist attacks -- which not only declared that there are "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever" justifying torture, but also required all signatory countries to "ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law" and -- and Reagan put it -- "either to prosecute torturers who are found in its territory or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution." And, of course, even George W. Bush -- at the height of 9/11-induced Terrorism hysteria -- charged attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid with actual crimes and processed him through our civilian courts. AWIP/Greenwald: America's regression.

Police community support officers (PCSOs) stopped Italian student Simona Bonomo under anti-terrorism legislation for filming buildings in London. Moments later, she was arrested by other officers, held in a police cell and fined. She talks Paul Lewis through the footage she recorded of her conversation with the PSCOs.

Who is running things here? The elected government or the military? Why is Obama afraid to prosecute John Yoo? Why have elections if the people we elect can't execute the laws because they are afraid of the CIA and Pentagon? John Woo and Jay Bybee Walk - Bush lawyers who paved the way for sleep deprivation and waterboarding of terrorism suspects exercised poor judgment but will not be referred to authorities for possible sanctions, according to a forthcoming ethics report.

What a big surprise, fanatical Zionist and New York Times bureau chief Ethan Bronner in Israeli occupied Jerusalem has a son in the Israeli terrorist army - the Israeli “Defense” Forces. The great pro-Palestinian website, Electronic Intifada, broke the story: "The New York Times does not consider this situation to be a problematic case. It had not even disclosed the situation to its readers — until now."

The country recently changed its constitution to ensure the protection of the dignity of plant life and passed a law last year guaranteeing rights for all creatures - from guinea pigs to goldfish. If Swiss voters approve the referendum in March, every canton in the country will be obliged to appoint a lawyer to act on behalf of pets and barnyard animals in order to protect them from abuse.

"The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race, which was trapped in the dead ends of materialism," Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday. "If the Islamic Revolution had not occurred, liberalism and Marxism would have crushed all human dignity in their power-seeking and money-grubbing claws. Nothing would have remained of human and spiritual principles," he added. "A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider to be God-fearing and pious."-- Aristotle, 343 B.C.

Perhaps Mr Blair's greatest error was in his view of America. There is nothing surprising about him wanting to be the main ally of the US in the world. But the war which followed showed that the US is more dysfunctional politically and militarily than Mr Blair supposed. For all the pitfalls of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein should not have been quite such hard acts to follow. One extraordinary revelation did emerge in Mr Blair's evidence. The disasters of the Iraq war largely discredited the neoconservatives in Washington, but his repeated rants in favour of confrontation with Iran last week shows that Mr Blair has himself joined their ranks. AWIP: "I wanted to shout out. 'Blair, look at me, you have brought shame on yourself.' I wish I had spoken out". PetitionOnline: Petition To bring Tony Blair to trial for war crimes. Daily Mail: Chilcot War Inquiry: Professor to launch 'Nuremberg' war crimes prosecution against Blair. Uruknet/SW: Tony Blair is guilty of mass murder.

For years there's been a flood of anecdotal complaints from professors about what they say is the wretched state of English grammar coming from some of their students. Now there seems to be some solid evidence. Ontario's Waterloo University is one of the few post-secondary institutions in Canada to require the students they accept to pass an exam testing their English language skills. Almost a third of those students are failing.

A hit squad that killed a top Hamas commander in his Dubai hotel room injected him with a drug that induced a heart attack, photographed all the documents in his briefcase and left a “do not disturb” sign on the door. The body of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, 50, was discovered by staff at the luxury Al Bustan Rotana hotel after lunch on January 20. There were no suspicious signs and local doctors diagnosed a "heart attack." Haaretz: Dubai not ruling out Mossad hand in murder of Hamas official: Latest theories contradict a version of events given last week by Al-Mabhouh's brother, who told Haaretz that a medical team had determined the cause of death as a massive electric shock sustained to the head. Doctors had also found evidence of strangulation, he said.