A bombing incident at a U.S. consulate in Mexico received very little news media attention and absolutely no response from President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Attorney General Eric Holder.

The S-300's surface-to-air rockets can hit many targets at once, including in-coming cruise missiles, making any Western or Israeli strike on Iran much more difficult. News of the multi-billion pound deal with Moscow has caused fury and fear among Western powers as they desperately try to stop the country developing nuclear weapons.

The so-called president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has cast doubt over Nato’s planned summer offensive against the Taliban in the southern province of Kandahar, as more than 10,000 American troops pour in for the fight. Karzai threatened to delay or even cancel the operation — one of the biggest of the nine-year war — after being confronted in Kandahar by elders who said it would bring strife, not security, to his home province. Visiting last week to rally support for the offensive, the president was instead overwhelmed by a barrage of complaints about corruption and misrule. As he was heckled at a shura of 1,500 tribal leaders and elders, he appeared to offer them a veto over military action. “Are you happy or unhappy for the operation to be carried out?” he asked. The elders shouted back: “We are not happy.” Eric Margolis: U.S. puppet cuts his strings.

AntiWar: http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/04/11/hamid-karzai-r-i-p/Hamid Karzai, R.I.P.:

Karzai is either going to change his tune, or else find himself the victim of an "accident": a military coup is not out of the question.

Wikileaks, the whistle-blower website, is reportedly preparing to release secret video of a notorious US air strike said to have killed scores of Afghan civilians. 11 Apr 2010 The video apparently shows previously classified footage from US warplanes called in to bomb Taliban fighters during a fire fight in Farah province last year. The Afghan government said at the time that the strikes by F-18 and B1 planes near Granai killed 147 civilians. An independent Afghan inquiry later put the toll at 86. David Lindorff: Obama’s War: Death to Women and Children, Cover-Ups to Protect the US Killers.

At least four Afghan civilians have been killed and 18 others wounded in Afghanistan after US-led troops opened fire on a bus. The foreign troops attacked a bus in Kandahar's Zhari district early Monday. Women and one child were among those who were killed. The Western alliance is already probing the murder of four civilians in Helmand province. PressTV: Afghans protest killing of civilians.

George Bush left a big problem in the shape of Guantánamo. The solution? Don't capture bad guys, assassinate by drone. The ambitious desire to close Guantánamo hailed the coming of a new era, a feeling implicitly recognised by the Nobel peace prize that President Obama received. Unfortunately, what we witnessed was a false dawn. The lawyers for the Guantánamo detainees with whom I am in touch in the US speak of their dismay as they prepare for Obama to do the one thing they never expected – to send the detainees back to the military commissions – a decision that will lose Obama all support he once had within the human rights community. Worse still, a completely new trend has emerged that, in many ways, is more dangerous than the trends under Bush. Extrajudicial killings and targeted assassinations will soon become the main point of contention that Obama's administration will need to justify. Although Bush was known for his support for such policies, the extensive use of drones under Obama have taken the death count well beyond anything that has been seen before.

Activists behind a website dedicated to revealing secret documents have complained of harassment by police and intelligence services as they prepare to release a video showing an American attack in which 97 civilians were killed in Afghanistan. Julian Assange, one of the founders of Wikileaks, has claimed that a restaurant where the group met in Reykjavic, the capital of Iceland, came under surveillance in March and one of the group’s volunteers was detained for 21 hours by police. Assange, an Australian, says he was followed on a flight from Reykjavik to Copenhagen by two American agents.

A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace - alongside genocide and crimes against humanity - is being launched in the UK. The radical idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread damage to the environment like fossil fuels, mining, agriculture, chemicals and forestry. Supporters of a new ecocide law also believe it could be used to prosecute "climate deniers" who "distort" science and facts to discourage voters and politicians from taking action to tackle global warming and climate change. AWIP: CLIMATE Archive.

[Editor's Comment:] By now it is abundantly clear that the alarmists distorted the science and manipulated the facts in an effort to deceive the world into taking precipitous action. The alarmists have been caught red-handed doing so and their so-called "settled science" has been debunked and their dangerous world government agenda exposed. This nonsense about the "deniers" "distorting" science shows a certain 'chutzpah', but their repulsive fascist agenda now is becoming more apparent by the day.

IndictBushNow.org reports that on April 3, at a meeting of over 150 lawyers, legal scholars and human rights campaigners, Ramsey Clark, founder of Indict Bush Now, was chosen to be the chairperson of an international campaign to investigate war crimes committed by officials from the Bush administration. Representatives at the meeting held in Beirut, Lebanon, came from all over the world. The campaign will investigate the lies, deceit and manipulation leading up to the Iraq war; the conduct of the war itself against an essentially defenseless country; and the horrors of the continued occupation. Lawyers and judges in several countries are exploring prosecution.

A senior Iranian official on Monday blasted US President Barack Obama for his recent threat of a nuclear attack against Iran, urging that Obama should be tried in a tribunal for uttering "criminal" statements against Tehran.

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan told a crowd of about 100 people at the Women's Community Building on Saturday night that new voices and bodies were needed to stand up to attain "victory" in the fight for peace against the "robber" class orchestrating wars.

Israel's military has issued new orders that human rights groups warned Sunday could lead to the expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank. Under the new rules, anyone caught living in the West Bank without an Israeli permit could face expulsion within as little as three days or be sentenced to up to seven years in prison. The orders are to go into effect Tuesday. The rights groups said the orders are so vague and sweeping that virtually all West Bankers are potentially at risk. For example, the military does not define what permits are required to shield against deportation, the groups said. The military later clarified that West Bankers with residency rights would not be targeted. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denounced the new measures as "an assault on ordinary Palestinians, and an affront to the most fundamental principles of human rights." He said Palestinians are being turned into criminals in their own homes. TimesOnline: Mass deportation feared after West Bank permit ruling. AWIP: Israel forces out Palestinians from WB. AWIP: Israel plans massive settlement expansion.

Ma'an: Report: Israel shuts off water to Jordan Valley farms:

Four days after an Israeli minister threatened to restrict the West Bank's water supply, Israeli authorities closed off the main water source used for agriculture in a Jordan Valley village on Sunday, committee members and lawyers said. The Bardalah village's farmers could stand to lose not only profit, but the land's viability, and have protested the decision.

Turkey's prime minister said Sunday that the world is turning a blind eye to Israel's nuclear program and that he intends to raise the issue at the nuclear summit in Washington. Recep Tayyip Erdogan remarked that Iran's nuclear program is being scrutinized because of its membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency whereas Israel, which has not signed a nonproliferation treaty, is free to do what it wants. "We are disturbed by this and will say so," Erdogan told reporters before his departure for Washington on Sunday. AWIP: Israel viewed as world's sixth nuclear power: analysts -Video. PressTV: Israel must denuclearize, Erdogan says. Big News: Israel has nearly 300 nuclear weapons. Unredacted: 1974 CIA Estimate Declared,“We believe that Israel already has produced nuclear weapons.”