Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has warned of Israeli attempts to start a military confrontation with Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Hariri, who was in Italy to meet with Pope Benedict XVI, urged Rome to pressure Israel to take part in peace negotiations. "Israel can't claim to be interested in the peace process without doing anything tangible in this regard," Hariri said, noting that the Israelis were currently gripped with division. VoltaireNet: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri: A Biased Investigation. WRMEA: The Assassination of Imad Mugniyah: Just Another Mossad Extrajudicial Execution?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly authorized the assassination of senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh early January in Tel Aviv. According to a report published by Times Online Netanyahu held a meeting with Mossad chief Meir Dagan in early January inside the briefing room of the headquarters of the spy agency where "some members of a hit squad" were also present. Citing Mossad sources, the report said "as the man who gives final authorization for such operations, Netanyahu was briefed on plans to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh." Sources said Mossad had received intelligence that the Hamas commander was planning a Dubai trip and they started preparing for an operation to assassinate him. "The team had already rehearsed, using a hotel in Tel Aviv as a training ground without alerting its owners," according to the report. TimesOnline: Dubai wants head of Mossad arrested over Hamas assassination. + Meir Dagan: the mastermind behind Mossad's secret war: Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was greeted by Meir Dagan, the 64-year-old head of the agency. [He] led Netanyahu and a general to a briefing room. According to sources with knowledge of Mossad, inside the briefing room were some members of a hit squad. As the man who gives final authorisation for such operations, Netanyahu was briefed on plans to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a member of Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza. The mission was not regarded as unduly complicated or risky, and Netanyahu gave his authorisation, in effect signing Mabhouh’s death warrant. AWIP: After Dubai, Israelis question Mossad methods: Gilad Atzmon argues that, given the close relationship between the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the Mossad intelligence agency, Premier Binyamin Netanyahu must be held to account personally for the murder of a Hamas official in Dubai by Israeli Mossad agents travelling on cloned European passports. SOTT: Mossad Psychopaths Behind Murder of Hamas Official In Dubai. Daily Telegraph: How murder became an accepted tool of foreign policy. + Daily Telegraph’s Andrew Gilligan doesn’t believe the British Foreign Office.

Dubai police officials claimed on Saturday they expected to soon announce they have firm evidence that the Mossad was involved in the killing last month of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Records of credit card payments and cellphone calls made by members of the 11-person hit squad that entered Dubai on European passports would provide the details needed to tie the assassination of Mabhouh to the Mossad, the police said. AWIP: After Dubai, Israelis question Mossad methods. AWIP/Gilad Atzmon: The tide in Britain turns against Israel.

Karzai warns Operation Moshtarak is killing "too many" civilians. Coalition US forces in southern Afghanistan were trying to break down stiff resistance from insurgents Afghans yesterday as Operation Moshtarak entered its second week amid fresh warnings about civilian casualties.

Collapse of Dutch government over its Afghan mission bodes ill for NATO US ambitions. A furious dispute over the war in Afghanistan brought down the Dutch government Saturday, bitterly divided on whether its forces should stay or go as NATO deepens its engagement against the Taliban Afghans. Daily Telegraph: Dutch troops to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of year after coalition falls. AWIP/Christopher King: Dutch government falls over Afghanistan.

More than 1,000 British troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since 2006. Figures released by the Ministry of Defence also disclose that up until the end of 2009, 168 troops are classed as having suffered the loss of limbs, parts of limbs or eyes, in battle with the Taliban or from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). According to a charity, at least 84 of these have lost arms or legs, including 24 who have had two limbs amputated and eight who are triple amputees. Last year was the bloodiest to date in the current campaign with 109 fatalities. A further 508 soldiers and marines were wounded in action, more than double the number of the previous year. PressTV: Two more NATO soldiers fall in Afghanistan.

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister says his country has every intention of delivering the advanced S-300 air defense missile systems to the Islamic Republic. The Russian official warned against attempts in Israel and the US to politicize and, to some extent, demonize the nature of Russia's arms export to Iran. Faced with a looming threat against its enrichment infrastructure, Tehran has decided to acquire the sophisticated S-300, a mobile land-based system designed to detect and shoot down aircraft within a 120 km (75 miles) distance. Codenamed 'the SA-20 Gargoyle' by NATO, the system also features high jamming immunity and is capable of simultaneously engaging up to 100 targets. If delivered, SA-20 would make Iranian nuclear sites 'invincible' in the face of any attack, including aerial saturation bombings typical of Israel.

Pressed on his views in an interview with OPR investigators, Yoo was asked: "What about ordering a village of resistants to be massacred? ... Is that a power that the president could legally -" "Yeah," Yoo replied, according to a partial transcript included in the report. "Although, let me say this: So, certainly, that would fall within the commander-in-chief's power over tactical decisions." "To order a village of civilians to be [exterminated]?" the OPR investigator asked again. "Sure," said Yoo.

The most fraudulent scheme ever foisted on humankind is the Pentagon budget. Since 2001, under the guise of defending the country, the DOD has scammed from US taxpayers $5.1 trillion. Since its inception, it has never passed an audit and thus not accounted for the money that pours into its coffers. AWIP: Wall Street's Bailout Hustle: Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren't just pocketing the trillions we gave them to rescue the economy - they're re-creating the conditions for another crash.

And so the tragicomic becomes surreal. Yesterday's news about the departure of the head of the debt management agency, Spyros Papanicolaou, was somewhat of a yawner, until we realized that his replacement would be none other than Petros Christodoulou, who until today was head of Private Banking and Group Treasury at the National Bank of Greece (reporting directly to the CEO of the NBG Tamvakakis), as can be seen on the org chart below. Yet was is oddest, is that Mr. Christodoulou worked not only as head of derivatives at JP Morgan but also held comparable posts at Credit Suisse, and... wait for it, Goldman Sachs... Uh, say what? NYT: Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.

Imagine being a 5 year-old, like Sulaiman Jamal. In order for Jamal to get to school in the morning, hell – snow – or sunshine, he must walk around 4 kilometres to get to school because his school bus can't get anywhere close to his house. And since he doesn't have an Identification Card, little Sulaiman must always have his birth certificate handy; because a soldier at the gate to his village must verify it before allowing him out to school in the morning or back home in the afternoon. Now you can begin to imagine what life is like for Sulaiman and dozens of children like him who live in Al-Nu'man, a dwindling village on the outskirts of Bethlehem…

Exactly what happened in August, 2008, remains a subject of bitter dispute. So I have greatly enjoyed reading the painstaking reconstruction of events, by Ron Asmus, in a recently published book called, “A Little War that Shook the World” (Palgrave Macmillan). Asmus’s sympathies clearly lie strongly with the Georgian side. But his research seems to be impeccable. For me, the most fascinating revelation in the book comes on p.186, where Asmus appears to reveal that Vice-President Dick Cheney was pressing for the US to bomb Russia’s invading troops in Georgia.

Richard North of the EU Referendum reports on this bizarre twist with IPCC Chairman Rajenda Pachauri’s use of land that was designated for public use, now runs afoul of the grant terms under which the land was given. Plus a lot of water in a city that has water shortages. So much for sustainability. Pachauri, famous for telling other how to live sustainable lives has a private chauffeur, spurns his electric cars provided for him, and once said in a newspaper interview: ‘Unfortunately, “social and environmental issues are often left without effective support when economic growth takes precedence,” he added.’ So, that’s why you charge memberships to your golf course and keep out the public from land given to you designated for public use? The Age: Greens take on sceptics: Australian green groups have called a strategy meeting to devise ways to hit back at the climate sceptics movement, amid fears they are losing the PR war. The groups, including Greenpeace, the Wilderness Society, World Wide Fund for Nature, Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth, have acknowledged that the public mood has shifted following the collapse of the Copenhagen climate talks and blows to the credibility of the IPCC.

A whopping 71 percent of Americans believe that Iran currently has nuclear weapons, according to a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey. I like this part: “with only a quarter calling for immediate military action.” In reality, Iran doesn’t have The Bomb. They have a small amount of refined uranium (19.5%, cutely rounded up to 20% by NRO’s Mark Steyn), which is allowed under the treaty that they have signed. This is the refinement level for use in medical facilities and supplying electricity. There is little evidence they’re working on a nuclear warhead.