An offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing 13 people into the water, one of whom was injured, the US Coast Guard said. "All 13 are accounted for and they are all wearing some sort of an immersion suit that protects them from the water," Coast Guard chief petty officer John Edwards told MSNBC, adding that the extent of any injuries suffered by the workers was not immediately clear. The new blast has raised fresh pollution concerns in the region, as the rig was still ablaze. The new explosion comes more than four months after a blast on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

CNN: Coast Guard: Platform on fire in Gulf; 13 workers rescued:

[Updated at 2:08 p.m.] U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Elizabeth Bordelon tells CNN there is a sheen at the site of the production platform that measures approximately 1 mile by 100 feet. This information comes after Gov. Bobby Jindal who said there were reports of a mile-long sheen.

[Updated at 1:03 p.m.] Mariner Energy, owner of the production platform, said in a press release that no hydrocarbon spill has been reported after an initial flyover of the incident. "Mariner has notified and is working with regulatory authorities in response to this incident," the statement said. "The cause is not known, and an investigation will be undertaken. During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate." The company also said no injuries have been reported.

[Updated at 12:48 p.m.] David Reed, a paramedic on board the Rowan Gorilla II oil rig located 14 miles from the platform that exploded told submitted an iReport saying he saw all thirteen workers rescued from the water. “We were up here in the radio room and all of sudden we saw a whole bunch of smoke coming from the platform," Reed said. "Shortly after all the radios started lighting up like a Christmas tree. They called any helicopters in the area, any boats in the area to respond, they were saying there were people in the water. There were multiple people in the water.”

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Hundreds of Israeli settlers began Wednesday erecting new settlement outposts in various West Bank locations in what one of them called "the proper Zionist response to the attack (by Palestinian resistance against settlers in Al-Khalil on Tuesday".

Relaying one such incident, a villager named Jabir told the Safa news agency that large numbers of settlers raided the Buq’a agricultural town east of Al-Khalil in the evening carrying large amounts of cement, sand, wood, and water tanks gearing themselves to build illegal outposts in the mountainous region east of the village. The land, which has an area of hundreds of acres, is owned by Abdel-Jawad Jabr, the source said.

“Citizens live in a state of fear and wish to stay in the mountains for fear of settler attacks,” Jabir said, adding that settlers are renewing attacks on the region in wake of resistance operations against them.

The move is one of a series of re-launched settlement activities in Al-Khalil which were put on hold because of the settlement freeze which will come to its term on Sept. 26.

In a separate incident, more than 50 Israeli settlers attacked Wednesday the home of Palestinian man Younis Idris near the scene of the operation that killed four settlers Tuesday evening in the Karyat Arba settlement east of Al-Khalil. Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli settlers attacked the house with stones and empty bottles and tried to set fire to it. A special Israeli force rushed to the scene to protect the settlers, who withdrew after terrorising the Palestinian residents of the house.

A similar attack was recorded on Wednesday afternoon by Zionist settlers on the Burqa village, north of Nablus. The unruly settlers threw stones at inhabitants and a nearby park. Local sources reported that a young man was taken to hospital after the settlers threw rocks at him.

Israel carries out an incursion into the Gaza Strip on the first day of the renewed reconciliation talks between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority (PA). "Few hours ago, Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun…, where Israeli laborers were seen fixing the security fence in the so-called buffer zone," said Press TV's correspondent in the enclave, Ashraf Shannon, reporting on the Thursday incident.

"The buffer zone is an area of 300 meters along the Gaza Strip, declared by Israel, to prevent people from reaching there, especially farmers. But basically they are forcing a 1,000-meter no-go zone in that area. All the people were killed there, including civilians, women and children as well as farmers," he added.

The intrusion came as Israeli and PA officials are in Washington to resume the direct negotiations that broke off at the turn of 2009, when Israel launched a full-scale war on Gaza, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians. Many Palestinian groups have already abandoned hope in the US-brokered revival of talks, citing the White House's partiality towards Tel Aviv and saying that the acting PA chief, Mahmoud Abbas, does not represent all the Palestinians.

On the last night of August, the president used an Oval Office speech to boost a policy of perpetual war. Hours later, the New York Times front page offered a credulous gloss for the end of "the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq." The first sentence of the coverage described the speech as saying "that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home." The story went on to assert that Obama "used the moment to emphasize that he sees his primary job as addressing the weak economy and other domestic issues — and to make clear that he intends to begin disengaging from the war in Afghanistan next summer." But the speech gave no real indication of a shift in priorities from making war to creating jobs. And the oratory "made clear" only the repetition of vague vows to "begin" disengaging from the Afghanistan war next summer. In fact, top administration officials have been signaling that only token military withdrawals are apt to occur in mid-2011, and Obama said nothing to the contrary.

Chris Floyd: Emissions of Evil From the Oval Office
Bill Van Auken: “The steel in our ship of state”: Obama cowers before the military.
Bill Van Auken: Obama’s Iraq speech: An exercise in cowardice and deceit

[Sep 2, 2010] US-led forces in Afghanistan have killed at least 16 civilians over the past 24 hours, amid growing public rage over such attacks. Ten civilians have been killed in a NATO airstrike in the northern Takhar province. The victims were reportedly election campaign workers. Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the attack on three vehicles carrying election campaign workers. "In the war on terror, pro-democracy people should be distinguished from those who fight against democracy," a statement quoted Karzai as saying. Earlier on Wednesday, six civilians were killed and several others injured in another aerial attack in the southern province of Kandahar. Witnesses say most of the victims were women and children. Loss of civilian lives at the hands of foreign forces has dramatically heightened anti-American sentiment among Afghans. Thousands have taken to the streets in recent months, protesting against rising civilian deaths by US-led forces. Large numbers of Afghans have been killed during NATO's air and ground operations since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

PressTV: [Sep 1, 2010] US-led strike kills more Afghan civilians Another US-led airstrike has killed several civilians in Afghanistan's troubled south, amid growing public discontent over such attacks. Afghan provincial officials say at least a dozen people were also injured in the attack, which took place in Kandahar Province on Wednesday, a press TV correspondent reported. NATO has yet to comment on the incident. The incident comes after foreign troops killed three civilians and injured three others in the southern province of Helmand. The US-led military alliance says two women died on Tuesday during an airstrike against alleged Taliban militants. Another civilian was killed in a separate NATO attack in the same region. Most of the NATO forces in Helmand are British and American service members. Loss of civilian lives at the hands of foreign forces has caused anti-American sentiments and deep anger among Afghans. Thousands have taken to the streets in recent months, protesting against rising civilian deaths by US-led forces.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will initiate Predator Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) flights out of Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning on Wednesday, according to a DHS press release. Flights will cover the Texas stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, which means that aerial surveillance of the entire border, from California to Texas, is now complete.

"With the deployment of the Predator in Texas, we will now be able to cover the Southwest border from the El Centro sector in California all the way to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, providing critical aerial surveillance assistance to personnel on the ground,"

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano stated on Monday, according to a Reuters report. The deployment comes just weeks after President Obama’s signing of the Southwest Border Security Bill, a supplement to the administration’s Southwest Border Initiative, which provides funding for beefing up border security, including the deployment of additional reconnaissance aircraft.

According to Der Spiegel, the report from a think-tank inside the German military warns that shrinking global oil supplies will threaten the world's economic foundations and possibly lead to mass-scale upheaval within the next 15 to 30 years. International trade would suffer as the cost of transporting goods across oceans would soar, resulting in "shortages in the supply of vital goods," the report states, as translated by Der Spiegel. The result would be the collapse of the industrial supply chain. "In the medium term the global economic system and every market-oriented national economy would collapse," the report states. That collapse could, in turn, cause many countries to abandon free markets principles, the report states. Deals would be struck between oil-exporting and oil-importing countries that would fix prices and remove large amounts of oil from the global market place.

From those same lovable folks who brought you the crimes and abuses of COINTELPRO comes the following brochure, printed at taxpayer expense by the FBI and intended to be issued to law enforcement, requesting that the Joint Terrorism Task Force be called in the event suspicious behavior is witnessed. And what is "suspicious behavior"? Defending the Constitution! Read it yourself on the inside page of the brochure. Defending the Constitution is cause to label you a terrorist suspect. Even referring to it is grounds for suspicion that you are a terrorist, with all the harassment that this suspicion implies!

Before we begin, a challenge: I defy anyone to find a single phrase in Obama’s speech on Iraq last night that couldn’t have issued forth from the foetid maw of George W. Bush (with the possible exception of his mentions of George W. Bush). Barack Obama’s Iraq speech last night is an impressive entry in the annals of war propaganda. In it, he glosses over a criminal war as ‘a remarkable chapter’ in US history, and creates the false impression that the occupation of Iraq is over. He places the responsibility rebuilding a society out of the rubble we created on the shoulders of the Iraqi people (we are, of course, blameless), and tells us that it’s time to ‘turn the page’ on a crime that is continuing, and for which not a single perpetrator has yet even been indicted. It is a wonder that he wasn’t struck by lightning before finishing.

While the US invasion and occupation of Iraq over the past seven years has inflicted multiple disasters on the country, many argue that the US assault on Iraq really began twenty years ago with the US-imposed economic sanctions. Joy Gordon, author of Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, writes, "U.S. policymakers effectively turned a program of international governance into a legitimized act of mass slaughter." [includes rush transcript]

PARIS — The Swedish authorities announced Wednesday that they were reopening an investigation of rape allegations against Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks Web site, saying there was “reason to believe that a crime has been committed.” The announcement by Marianne Ny, director of public prosecution, marked yet another reversal in the convoluted case. Last month, Swedish prosecutors confirmed they had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Assange on rape and molestation allegations, but dropped the rape charge after saying it was unfounded. But on Wednesday, Ms. Ny said in a statement that “considering information available at present, my judgment is that the classification of the crime is rape.” She said additional investigation was needed “before a final decision can be made.”

Xymphora: "Prosecutor reopens rape probe against WikiLeaks founder" - reopening what they previously said was a mistake, based on a re-complaint by a woman who was previously reported to be upset at the rape charge. The check from the CIA must have cleared.

Swedish Wire: "I expect the prosecutor will drop the whole thing," WikiLeak founder's star lawyer Leif Silbersky said.

Aftonbladet: ”Jag har varnats för sexfällor”.
[SOTT.net translation here: Julian Assange: I have been warned about sex related traps.
Google Translation HERE.]

Fabius Maximus: The full story of the rape charges against Julian Assange of Wikileaks, a possible covert op. Summary: Here’s the chronology for the Wikileaks rape incident, based on the little we know so far. It’s necessary since journalists seldom can assemble data to tell a coherent story. Esp when the story suggests (nothing more than suggests) a US disinformation operation. This is a follow-up to Sad news about the CIA. Part 3 is Update to the Wikeleaks rape story, and why it’s important.

Brian Springer - Spin: Using the 1992 presidential election as his springboard, documentary filmmaker Brian Springer captures the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of politicians and newscasters in the early 1990s. Pat Robertson banters about "homos," Al Gore learns how to avoid abortion questions, George Bush talks to Larry King about halcyon -- all presuming they're off camera. Composed of 100% unauthorized satellite footage, Spin is a surreal expose of media-constructed reality.