Hillary Clinton, Julian Assange said, "should resign." Speaking over Skype from an undisclosed location on Tuesday, the WikiLeaks founder was replying to a question by TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel over the diplomatic cable dump Assange's organization began loosing on the world over the weekend. Stengel said that the U.S. Secretary of State was looking like "the fall guy" in the ensuing controversy and was her firing or resignation an outcome that Assange would want? "I don't think it would make much of a difference either way," he said. "But she should resign, if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the U.S. has signed up. Yes, she should resign over that."

Assange spoke about the latest tranche of documents from WikiLeaks in a 36-minute interview with TIME (the full audio will be available soon on TIME.com). He said there would be more. "We're doing about 80 a day, presently, and that will gradually step up as the other media partners step in." Indeed, every region of the world appeared to be bracing for its turn in the WikiLeaks mill. Pakistani officials are almost certain more revealing documents will come out focusing on their country soon. Russian media is anxious to see if future leaks will detail behind-the-scenes dealing over the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war.

Asked what his "moral calculus" is to justify publishing the leaks and whether he considered what he was doing to be "civil disobedience," Assange said, "Not at all. This organization practices civil obedience, that is, we are an organization that tries to make the world more civil and act against abusive organizations that are pushing it in the opposite direction." As for whether WikiLeaks was breaking the law, he said, "We have now in our four year history and over one hundred legal attacks of various kinds and have been victorious in all of those matters." He added, "It's very important to remember the law is not what, not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is. The law is not what a general says it is. The law is not what Hillary Clinton says it is."

AWIP: Hillary Clinton ordered diplomats to spy on UN: WikiLeaks docs

We are currently under another DDOS attack.

Slashdot: DDoS Attack On Wikileaks Increasing "According to the Twitter feed for Wikileaks, the attack on the controversial site is increasing and is now at 10 Gigabits per second. In light of the recent release of highly sensitive documents and calls by many lawmakers around the world to swiftly find, extradite, and try suspected rapist Julius Assange for breaches of national security, one nation, Ecuador, has offered asylum."

BBC: Attack hits Wikileaks cable site
Computerworld: China blocks access to WikiLeaks

Givot's Meged reserve estimated at $830. Givot Olam Oil Exploration LP (TASE:GIVO.L) today held a press briefing at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) building. Givot geologist Tuvia Luskin, strategic consultant Giora Eiland, communications advisor Motti Morrell, and geologist Nick Wright of Greensand Associates Ltd., an oil and gas exploration consultancy, were present. Wright gave a presentation for institutional investors.

On the basis of the probable and contingent reserves evaluations for the Meged 5 well and the planned Meged 6 and Meged 7 wells, the value of the Meged field is $830 million. Givot's share price rose 2.6% today to NIS 0.08, giving a market cap of NIS 800 million.

Wright's evaluation was broken down to proven oil and gas reserves, probable reserves (classified as P1 - proven; P2 - probable; and P3 - possible). The probable reserves, which have a 50% geologic chance of success, include the P1 proven reserves, which have a 90% geologic chance of success. The P3 possible reserves include the quantities included in the P1 and P2 categories.

Wright's report, based on a Reserves Classification Report by Baker RDS Ltd. of the UK, covered the Meged 5 well and planned Meged 6 and Meged 7 well, which are scheduled to be drilled in 2012, under Givot's work plan. Baker RDS estimates Meged's proven reserves at 2.2 million barrels of oil, from Meged 5's sections 1 through 6, which have been analyzed so far. When the Meged 6 and 7 wells are added to the equation, the P2 probable reserves increase to 10.5 million barrels of oil, with a 10% geological chance of success. The P3 possible reserves total 16.9 million barrels.

Givot had asked Wright to prepare an independent evaluation of the Meged oil reserve and the chances and risks of drilling another well into the structure before Givot drilled the Meged 5 well.

AWIP: The Issue of Territorial Waters: Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields Israel's blockade of Gaza is in large part motivated by the broader issue of control of Gaza's territorial waters, which contain significant reserves of natural gas. What is at stake is the confiscation of Palestinian gas fields and the unilateral de facto declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Gaza's maritime areas. If the blockade were to be broken, Israel's de facto control over Gaza's offshore gas reserves would be jeopardy.

Oil in Israel: Israel’s Future as an Energy Exporter
AWIP: US-Israeli group to start drilling for gas, oil off coast

The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Turkey have US nuclear weapons situated on their soil, the Wikileaks whistleblower files have revealed. The Netherlands is a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has signed and ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), being one of the 44 listed countries needed to sign and ratify for the CTBT to enter into force. Earlier suspicions have been confirmed.

Wikileaks: Viewing cable 09BERLIN1433, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR HEUSGEN ON AFGHANISTAN

TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS
¶8. (C) In response to Gordon's question about how the
government planned to take forward the commitment in the
coalition agreement to seek the removal of all remaining
nuclear weapons from Germany, Heusgen distanced the
Chancellery from the proposal, claiming that this had been
forced upon them by FM Westerwelle. Heusgen said that from
his perspective, it made no sense to unilaterally withdraw
"the 20" tactical nuclear weapons still in Germany while
Russia maintains "thousands" of them. It would only be worth
it if both sides drew down. Gordon noted that it was
important to think through all the potential consequences of
the German proposal before going forward. For example, a
withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Germany and perhaps from
Belgium and the Netherlands could make it very difficult
politically for Turkey to maintain its own stockpile, even
though it was still convinced of the need to do so.

Speaking to Forbes magazine, Mr Assange said he was ready to unleash tens of thousands of documents that could "take down a bank or two".

Comparing the documents to the emails that exposed Enron's dealings amid its collapse, the controversial Australian said an existing "big US bank" was the subject of a pending data dump. Asked about any future leaks, he said: "Yes. We have one related to a bank coming up, that's a mega leak. "It's not as big a scale as the Iraq material, but it's either tens or hundreds of thousands of documents depending on how you define it."

Daily Bail: Wikileaks Will Unveil Major U.S. Banking Scandal In Early 2011 - "An Ecosystem Of Corruption" »

Georgian soldiers sit on a tank moving near the town of
Tskhinvali, Georgia. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/ Reuters

US diplomats in Georgia knew Tbilisi concentrated military force prior to the war over South Ossetia in 2008, the classified documents exposed by WikiLeaks show.

Part of the new portion of materials published by Wikileaks were dedicated to the 2008 conflict over South Ossetia. The cables sent by the US embassy in Georgia to Washington show signs of intensifying military confrontation between Georgians and South Ossetians in the conflict zone in the run-up to the full-scale war. The US ambassador to Tbilisi John Tefft reportedly urged the Georgian Foreign Minister and the Deputy Minister of Defense “to remain calm, not overreact, and to de-escalate the situation,” the document reads. According to the embassy’s cable to Washington, Georgians explained their moves since August 6, 2008, by South Ossetia’s “shelling” of Georgian villages in the conflict zone.

Meanwhile, foreign military observers in the region issued “numerous reports that the Georgians are moving military equipment and forces toward the north.” According to the cable of the US embassy in Georgia, “OSCE observers indicated that Georgian forces along with GRAD artillery are on the move, either as part of a show of force or readiness, or both.” Despite Ambassador Tefft’s awareness of Georgia’s moves prior to the war, after it started he wrote to the US State Department that “a coordinated position should be prepared to respond to those who are not sure of ‘Georgia’s absolute innocence,’” the magazine said.

The family of Bradley Manning, a suspect in the passing of secret documents to WikiLeaks, have been unable to visit him in jail despite making the journey to America.

Four members of Mr Manning’s family, including his mother, Susan, made the trip from Pembrokeshire in the past two weeks in the hope of seeing him, a friend said. But it is understood that a request to visit the 23-year-old soldier, who is being held in solitary confinement at a military base in Quantico, Virginia, was turned down. The friend said: “They hoped to be able to see Bradley but were not able to do so because he is in a military prison.” Mr Manning’s family has been asked not to speak to the media about the case by his American father, Brian, a former serviceman.

Christian Science Monitor: Bradley Manning isn't a criminal. He's a hero. Bradley Manning Is A Hero - Many are condemning Bradley Manning for allegedly providing WikiLeaks with sensitive reports about US foreign policy. But a govt that can make war while keeping essential information about its justification and conduct secret is neither open nor fit for free people.

A Palestinian farmer picks strawberries for export at a farm in
Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, yesterday. (Mohammed Othman/Demotix)

Report calls for end to embargo, saying easing agreed by Israel six months ago has done little to improve plight of Gaza civilians.

Gaza’s 1.5 million people are still suffering from a shortage of construction materials, a ban on exports and severe restrictions on movement six months after Israel agreed to ease its blockade on the territory, according to a report from 21 international organisations.

The loosening of the embargo has done little to improve the plight of Gaza’s civilians, according to the coalition, which includes Amnesty, Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid and Medical Aid for Palestinians. It calls for fresh international action to persuade Israel to unconditionally lift the blockade.

Israel agreed to ease its restrictions on goods and materials allowed into Gaza following its attack on a flotilla of aid boats in May, in which nine Turkish activists were killed. Since then the import of food and many other consumer items has resumed, although there is still a ban on exports and severe restrictions on construction materials. Israel argues that the latter could be used by militants for military purposes.

International Solidarity Movement: Buffer zone attacks continue: three more workers shot
PressTV: Israeli soldiers open fire on Gazans

A number of the nation's biggest polluters received exemptions from basic environmental oversight for federally funded stimulus projects, according to a published report.

While the stimulus bill was being debated in Congress in 2009, numerous companies lobbied for environmental exemptions, but their efforts were ultimately rebuffed by environmental advocates. But while companies may have failed to pressure Congress into issuing legislative exemptions from environmental oversight, federal agencies granted exemptions to 96 percent of stimulus projects so far, according to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. The energy companies BP, Westar Energy and Duke Energy, chemical manufacturer DuPont, and ethanol maker Didion Milling were among the companies to receive "categorical exclusions" from the National Environmental Policy Act.

A group of military veterans are suing to get the CIA to come clean about allegedly implanting remote control devices in their brains.

It's well known that the CIA began testing substances like LSD on soldiers beginning in the 1950s but less is known about allegations that the agency implanted electrodes in subjects. A 2009 lawsuit (.pdf) claimed that the CIA intended to design and test septal electrodes that would enable them to control human behavior. The lawsuit said that because the government never disclosed the risks, the subjects were not able to give informed consent.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – A Pakistani tribesman is seeking 500 million dollars in compensation from the CIA after his son and brother were killed in America's covert drone war against "Al-Qaeda", his lawyer said Monday. Kareem Khan from North Waziristan, the district on the Afghan border where the US campaign has stepped up in recent months, said his house was hit by US missiles on December 31, 2009. "That drone attack killed my son, my brother and a local man. We are not terrorists, we are common citizens," he told a news conference. Pakistani intelligence officials said at the time that four militants were killed in the US missile strike in the Mir Ali area. "We need justice. We are innocent people," Khan said Monday.

Forget Oliver Stone and politics for a minute, and just watch this clip. Stone is interviewing former President of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner. He relates a personal conversation with GW from Monterrey, Mexico in January of 2004. Anyone needing any more proof regarding the ingrained power of the military-industrial complex is advised to contact the Bushes in Crawford, Texas. And then call on fellow war-monger Deficit Obama, who has long since broken his promise for a quick pullout from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stephen Lendman: The Case for War: The Iron Mountain Report

SO which one of Obama's cabinet OWNS majority shares in Battelle, Farber or Draper? OR IS IT OBAMA HIMSELF? Someone wants to shove this down Americans' throats so they can get rich, just like CHERTOFF. LET'S SEE WHERE THEY MONEY IS GOING ON THIS......AND STOP IT NOW.

Revolutionary Politics: POLICE STATE - TSA, Homeland Security & Tampa Police Set Up Nazi Checkpoints At Bus Stations
Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers: Big Sister's 1984 Post Office (Sealed With a Kiss)
Linh Dinh: Enabling bullies

My worldly co-blogger characterises the content of the tens of thousands classified diplomatic cables as mere "gossip", and maintains "that grabbing as many diplomatic cables as you can get your hands on and making them public is not a socially worthy activity". I strongly disagree.

The actually-existing structure and strategy of the American empire remains a near-total mystery to those who foot the bill and whose children fight its wars. And that is the way the elite of America's unelected permanent state, perhaps the most powerful class of people on Earth, like it.

Gilad Atzmon: A Surge of Truth Clinton is correct, this is indeed a long overdue, necessary attack on an ‘international community’ of war mongers and war criminals. The leaked cables reveal a very gloomy picture of the state of our world current affairs : It unveils a clear dichotomy between the people of the world and our conflict driven political leadership. For most of us, it is plainly clear that Wikileaks is not just an act of pure journalism -- it is also the ultimate form of true democracy : it respects the most sacred liberal principle, namely, ‘the right to know’.

Mondoweiss: Clinton ‘tore the fabric’ herself long before we ever heard of Wikileaks

WikiLeaks recently released classified State Department documents that the U.S. government says jeopardizes the security of the nation, along with damaging relationships with foreign governments. This is just one of several document dumps the site has engaged in that involve sensitive government documents.

Ecuadorian Deputy Foreign Minister Kinto Lucas told Ecuadorinmediato, “We are ready to give him [Assange] residence in Ecuador, with no problems and no conditions… We are going to invite him to come to Ecuador so he can freely present the information he possesses and all the documentation, not just on the Internet, but in various public forums.”

Australian Times: Assange refused protection by Australian government as full investigation launched
Ottawa Citizen: Ecuador offers WikiLeak's founder Assange residency, no questions asked

El-Masri, a greengrocer from Neu-Ulm, was vacationing with his family in Skopje in 2003 when he was stopped by Macedonian border guards because his name is similar to that of Khalid al-Masri, an alleged and at large mentor of the Hamburg al-Qaeda cell (the two men’s names have different transliterated spellings in Roman letters). The Macedonians also believed that his German passport was a forgery. They contacted the local CIA station, whose operatives contacted the CIA headquarters in Langley, VA. There it was decided to “extraordinarily render” El-Masri to Afghanistan, on the assumption that he was al-Qaeda al-Masri. When the Macedonians released him on January 23, 2004, a black-ops snatch-and-grab team kidnapped him, beat and stripped him naked, gave him an enema tranquilizer, and put him on a ghost plane for Afghanistan, via Baghdad.

Harper's: The El-Masri Cable Despite El-Masri’s protests that he was not al-Masri, he was beaten, stripped naked, shot full of drugs, given an enema and a diaper, and flown first to Baghdad and then to the notorious “salt pit,” the CIA’s secret interrogation facility in Afghanistan.

Almost half of humanity could lose clean water access due to climate change, according to a British report to be released tomorrow ahead of an international climate change conference in Mexico.

"The main message is that the closer we get to a four-degree rise, the harder it will be to deal with the consequences," Dr. Mark New, a climate expert at Oxford University, told The Observer.

The report will assume [a politically correct assumption] that global temperatures will rise 2 degree Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century even if nations agree to curb carbon emissions this year. Climate change scientists believe that a mass global movement to "decarbonize" human activity in order to stay below this temperature is virtually impossible, especially after the UN climate talks in Copenhagen failed last December. Still, nearly 200 countries will take part in the 12-day conference in the Mexican resort of Cancun.

The Telegraph: Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in developed world

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told a senior White House official to consider surgically implanting homing devices under Guantanamo Bay detainees’ skin. That’s one of the many potentially embarrassing comments from diplomatic back rooms now being made public by WikiLeaks.

During a March 2009 meeting with John Brennan, President Obama’s closest counterterrorism adviser, Abdullah proposed shooting electronic chips into the residual Guantanamo population, “allowing their movements to be tracked with Bluetooth.” Abdullah appears to have come up with the idea on the fly during their meeting — “I’ve just thought of something,” the cable quotes him saying — and considered forced subcutaneous chip implantation uncontroversial, since it’s already “done with horses and falcons.”

In response to a question by Press TV on Monday over the whistleblower website's "leaks," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "let me first correct you. The material was not leaked, but rather released in an organized way." "The US administration released them and based on them they pass judgment …. [The documents] have no legal value and will not have the political effect they seek," the Iranian chief executive added at the press briefing in Tehran. Ahmadinejad stressed that the Wikileaks "game" is "not worth commenting upon and that no one would waste their time reviewing them."

WikiLeaks boosted Israel by revealing that most world leaders share Israel's views. [If WikiLeaks hadn’t] existed, Israel would have had to invent it. The massive leak of US diplomatic documents produces a clear, unequivocal picture: The whole world, and not only Israel, is terrified by the Iranian nuclear threat. Iran’s nuclearization is not Israeli paranoia, as certain camps try to argue. It makes all world leaders, from Riyadh to Moscow, lose sleep. The Iranian issue is the common thread in the hundreds of thousands of documents that were leaked and it produces a narrative whereby the world expects Israel and the United States, in this order, to do something to stop “Hitler from Tehran.”

Some people feared WikiLeaks’ leaks because of the embarrassment to American diplomacy and the fears that the lives of US agents would be jeopardized. Yet that was a false alarm. The leak does not hurt America’s foreign policy, with the exception of a few tales recounted by junior diplomats.

The leak reinforces the main message of two US administrations – which turned out to be incredibly similar to the main message conveyed by Israeli governments: Iran constitutes the clear, immediate and greatest threat to the world’s stability, and the world needs to act towards uprooting this malignant tumor. All the rest is dwarfed by it. [Source: Ynet News]

Ynet News: Der Spiegel: US officials called Ahmadinejad 'Hitler'
PressTV: Iran's President has questioned the recent leaked documents obtained and published by the Wikileaks website, saying the US administration "released" material intentionally.

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been rebuffed by the US government after he sought information "regarding individuals who may be 'at significant risk of harm'" because of" his release of classified documents.

His unusual move to open an 11th-hour dialogue about the documents came after a Swedish appeals court last week upheld an arrest warrant on rape charges for Mr Assange, validating an international warrant.

Mr Assange, who denies he has committed any crime, was believed to have recently spent time in London but his whereabouts on Sunday were unknown. He had been under investigation in Sweden since August over rape allegations. His approach to the State Department, in a letter co-signed by his lawyer Jennifer Robinson, suggested that Mr Assange might be feeling under growing pressure after the Swedish court decision and the US government accused him of endangering lives.

Harold Koh, the State Department legal adviser, rejected the overture from Mr Assange, warning that the expected release of approximately 250,000 secret State Department documents would have "grave consequences" and place at risk the lives of journalists, human rights activists and troops.

The Obama administration, Mr Koh wrote, would "not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained US Government classified materials". Mr Koh urged Mr Assange not to publish the materials and destroy all copies.

He also indicated that there would be legal repercussions for Mr Assange. "If any of the materials you intend to publish were provided by any government officials, or any intermediary without proper authorisation, they were provided in violation of U.S. law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action. As long as WikiLeaks holds such material, the violation of the law is ongoing."

Index on Censorship: Wikileaks and State Department correspondence: WikiLeaks asked the US for help redacting potentially injurious information. The US refused.

Thursday, 26 July 2007, 13:52
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 002280
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
WHITE HOUSE FOR APHSCT TOWNSEND.
EO 12958 DECL: 07/13/2017
TAGS PTER, PREL, KNNP, KWBG, EFIN, IR, IS
SUBJECT: APHSCT TOWNSEND TAKES STOCK OF BMENA REGION WITH
MOSSAD DIRECTOR DAGAN
Classified By: Charge d'affaires Gene A. Cretz for reasons 1.4 (B/D).

1. (S) SUMMARY: Frances Fragos Townsend, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (AFHSC), met Mossad Director Meir Dagan on July 12 for a general discussion of regional security threats. On the Iranian nuclear program, Dagan proved surprisingly optimistic about the effects of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and their impact on Iranian elites. On most other fronts, however, Dagan expressed deep skepticism regarding any near-term solutions. Dagan believes that the Syrians were emboldened by the Second Lebanon War, and argued for a concerted international effort to enforce UNSC resolutions in Lebanon as a means of removing Syria from Iranian influence. In Dagan's personal opinion, present attempts to prop up the government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will fail, and "an entirely new approach" with the Palestinians is required. Dagan and Townsend surveyed political developments in North Africa, Turkey, and the Gulf, and shared concerns about Pakistan's ability to withstand the challenge of Islamic radicals. END SUMMARY.

Mondoweiss: Wexler told Israelis, American people will support attack on Iran if talks are tried and fail

A classified directive signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered US diplomats to spy on the highest-ranking officials in the United Nations, according to documents obtained from the latest WikiLeaks document dump.

The targets of the spying reportedly included UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, as well as the ambassadors of the permanent members of the UN Security Council -- China, Russia, France and the UK.

The Guardian, which along with the New York Times, Germany's Der Spiegel, France's Le Monde and Spain's El País received the WikiLeaks materials in advance, dug up a cable signed by Clinton in June of 2009, "demanding forensic technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications." The order "appears to blur the line between diplomacy and spying," write the Guardian's Robert Booth and Julian Borger.

David Walsh: New WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies The leaked material consists of classified cables from US embassies, some dispatched as recently as early 2010. The cables, most of which date from 2007-2010, contain US officials’ comments on foreign governments and leaders and speculation about the activities and maneuvers of the latter, as well as details about American foreign policy operations. In a revelation that should surprise no one, the US State Department and American diplomacy in general turn out to be a vast nest of spies.

Der Spiegel: US Diplomats Told to Spy on Other Countries at United Nations

The incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says WikiLeaks should be officially designated as a terrorist organization. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the panel's next head, asked the Obama administration today to "determine whether WikiLeaks could be designated a foreign terrorist organization," putting the group in the same company as Al Qaeda and Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese cult that released deadly sarin gas on the Tokyo subway. "WikiLeaks appears to meet the legal criteria" of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, King wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reviewed by CNET. He added:

"WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States."

Cnet: WikiLeaks files detail U.S. electronic surveillance
TechRadar: Australian Government adds Wikileaks to banned website list

Hunger and Homelessness in America. America’s top 72 wage earners averaged 84 million dollars each in income in 2009, according to Social Security Administration data. The richest 1 percent of us earned 24 % of the nation's total income, the highest since 1928, just before the Great Depression. On the other hand, 14.3 % were living in poverty in 2009, according to the U. S Census Bureau. 50 million people from 17.4 million families are so poor they couldn’t buy sufficient food last year. About one million children from more than a third of these households missed meals regularly according to a recent study by the Department of Agriculture. At dinner, families gather to share together. But for the children, dinner time can be the cruelest part of the day. Almost 1 in 4 of them doesn’t know when they will have their next meal.

Uruknet: Why Poverty Spreads Across America

The conduct of soldiers on the battlefield is governed by "Rules of Engagement." When Lemieux was first sent to Iraq in 2003, they were as follows:

"Do not target or strike any of the following except in self-defense ... civilians, hospitals, mosques ... ." However, as the fighting intensified, this rule was frequently revised, and was effectively attenuated. "Do it to them, before they do it to you." This was the general attitude of his superiors.

In April 2004, Lemieux's unit received an order.

"My platoon was called out to go rescue a recon unit that was surrounded." One of the rules of engagement now was that "Everyone on the street is supposed to be an enemy." Lemieux couldn't differentiate between combatants and civilians, and he didn't know who the enemy was. He recalled being very scared. "Some of my Marines in my section were killed. One of them was my roommate for a year." On one occasion, the door of a building suddenly opened, and an unarmed Iraqi emerged. A Marine in front of Lemieux shot him dead on the spot. The rules of engagement became even more haphazard. It had become, "Shoot anyone on the street."

■ If you don’t know that all “reasons” for war with Iraq were known to be lies as they were told, you’re unaware of the admissions of our own US government agencies.

■ If you don’t know that all “reasons” for war with Iran are known to be lies as they are being told now, you’re unaware of the admissions of our own US government agencies along with international agencies, and the uncontested content of a speech by Iran’s President that you can confirm with less than five-minutes of attention poses zero threat to “wipe Israel off the map.”

■ If you don't know that current US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not even close to lawful, and that any attack on Iran would also be unlawful, you're unaware of arguably the most important law for American citizens to understand (and it's easier to know than what makes a baseball base-runner safe or out at first base).

■ If you didn’t know that the US killed 30% of North Korea’s population in the Korean War, you're unaware of crucial history to understand how easily North Korea can be provoked by US military action.

■ If you don’t know that the US-advised South Korea began this confrontation by firing live ammunition into disputed territorial waters, you’re unaware of the risk that the American public is being lied-into another US war. US war ships are moving now to join South Korean forces.

■ If you don’t know the similarity of this recent Korea conflict to the lies that began the Vietnam War, you're unaware of predictable and historical acts the US has used to begin unlawful wars of choice.

■ If you don't know why US corporate media doesn't report the above, you're unaware that the Director of the CIA already disclosed in US Senate testimony that the CIA dominates corporate media in key policy areas of power and money.

Use our interactive guide to discover what has been revealed in the leak of 250,000 US diplomatic cables. Mouse over the map below to find stories and original documents by country, subject or people.

Wikileaks: Secret US Embassy Cables
ReadWriteWeb: Over 250,000 U.S. Diplomatic Documents Released by Wikileaks
The Guardian: US embassy cables leak sparks global diplomacy crisis
NYT: Cables Obtained by WikiLeaks Shine Light Into Secret Diplomatic Channels
The Guardian: The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment
Daily Mail: Withering assessments: Gordon Brown and David Cameron are the subject of secret cables by U.S. diplomats
The Lede/NYT: Updates on the Reaction to U.S. Diplomatic Cables Released by Wikileaks
CNN: WikiLeaks said Sunday that it was under cyber attack

Israeli officers haunted by atrocities committed in gaza -IDF officers get photo of dead child

Colonel (res.) Bentzi Gruber, a deputy commander of an Israel Defense Forces division, was at a training base in Tze’elim last week. His wife called to tell him that he had received a letter from Spain, which didn’t particularly surprise him. But when she opened the envelope, she was shocked.

“Unfortunately, I’ve gotten used to curses and scathing words against me, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it’s very unpleasant,” he tells Ynet.

Gruber is just one of the officers who received a threatening poster from Spain, after his name appeared on a website referring to IDF soldiers involved in Operation Cast Lead as “war criminals”.

The poster includes a picture of a young child buried in the sand. His head is the only thing sticking out and he appears to be dead. Two hands in the background, apparently belonging to a soldier, are directed at him. The picture’s caption reads, “How will you explain this to God?’ The letter was sent in an envelope from Madrid to the homes of Colonel (res.) Gruber and several other IDF officers, including Central Command Chief Avi Mizrahi and outgoing Military Intelligence Director Amos Yadlin. Some of the posters include a picture of an injured or dead young woman being held by a soldier. The English sentence is similar.

[Editor's Comment:] This is neither a "curse", nor is it "such a thing". It's a simple, trenchant question from one human being to another. It is in fact a question of the utmost importance. By casting his response to it in this way, this war criminal gives proof of cowardice and dishonesty. (Goes without saying, it is not a "threat" either, like Hanan Greenberg at Ynet says.) The general mechanism is as follows: They have little or no conscience and thus these people (psychopaths?) feel free to go where no one else dares to set foot. Having no conscience may of course be a great plus for a soldier, but there still is a price to pay, even for people such as these: Like a shadow that is ever right behind them, they are hunted by deep fear. The fear is intolerable (for a soldier in particular), and consequently is repressed and then projected. They now see their own fear as a threat from the outside. This solves the problem in the short term and has the added boon of justifying even more aggression in order to deal with the perceived threat. But even here there is a price to pay. Having projected their own fear, they now are left with a sense of being vulnerable and therefore disquiet and a sense of foreboding never are far behind. This is why the simple question "How will you explain this to God?" causes twisted and dishonest reactions ("it’s very unpleasant") in people such as these. There is no solution to this problem other than to humbly and courageouly face the original crime and to deal honestly with the deep personal responsibility for it. PS: Hanan Greenberg: This child was not buried in the "sand". You make it sound like a friendly beach. The child was buried alive in the rubble of a home blown apart by your armed forces. (-What a whitewash!) Neither does this child just "appear to be dead"; sadly, Hanan Greenberg, she is well and truly dead. -Irrevocably so.

As I watched the whole TSA swarm descend on the media and Internet over the past month, I was surprised at the violent reaction from the left AND right on airport screenings. Blowing this issue up right before the holidays seemed to be a Tea Party tactic from beginning to end, as far as I was concerned.

Mark Ames and Yasha Levine at The Nation contended in a post yesterday that the current publicity surge was orchestrated and magnified by organizations with ties to Koch Industries. With one exception, they list a solid trail that leads back to organizations with a vested interest in: a) discrediting government agencies and the TSA specifically; and b) discrediting the current administration's ability to handle national security. Unfortunately, they led off the article by trying to link up John Tyner ("Don't Touch My Junk") with these organizations, and as many critics have pointed out, there is no "there", there. [H/T: Xymphora]

The World is at a dangerous crossroads. The US is seeking a pretext to wage war on North Korea. North Korea is said to constitute a threat to Global Security. From the Truman Doctrine to Obama. The history of the 1950s Korean confirms that extensive war crimes were committed against the Korean people. General Curtis Lemay:

"After destroying North Korea's 78 cities and thousands of her villages, and killing countless numbers of her civilians, [General] LeMay remarked, "Over a period of three years or so we killed off - what - twenty percent of the population." It is now believed that the population north of the imposed 38th Parallel lost nearly a third its population of 8 - 9 million people during the 37-month long "hot" war, 1950 - 1953, perhaps an unprecedented percentage of mortality suffered by one nation due to the belligerance of another."

Una serie de videos numerados que muestra el violento desalojo por parte de las fuerzas policiales y militares marroquíes en el campamento de Protesta y las intifadas en la ciudad del Aaiún en el Sahara Occidental.

Recently declassified Pentagon documents reveal a strange, not to say illicit, 1980s operation called 'Tipped Kettle,' in which weapons stolen by Israel from the PLO in Lebanon were transferred to the Contras and to anti-American elements in Iran. [H/T: Xymphora]

Since all of Europe is about to be bailed out by the now insolvent ECB and the still somewhat solvent IMF, it strikes us as an opportune time to recall just who will bear the cost of this pan-European rescue. Surely, by now even idiots realize since the ECB is bailing out Europe, it is really bailing out itself.

It is not at all surprising that new capital will come from the US, Japan and China, in that order: the trio is about to spend over $250 billion (and soon much more) to rescue Club Med, as the Ponzi unwind shifts into a higher gear.

Zero Hedge: European Debt Crisis Cheat Sheet

When it comes to food, they’re particularly fond of squirrel and hamster. But there comes a time when every wolf fancies a change. After watching bear after bear catching salmon from the local falls, this one decided he might like a piece of the action. He [probably] copied the grizzly technique of fishing, leaping in the water to net himself a tasty haul.

Wildlife photographer Paul Stinsa, who captured the images in Katmai National Park, Alaska, insisted there had been no camera trickery. He described how the wolf cautiously tiptoed round the territorial bears before taking up position close to resting salmon.

‘As it neared the base of the falls, it dived headfirst into the pool,’ he said. ‘In a flurry of splashing water, it pulled its head out of the river with a salmon, desperately flopping, clamped in its jaws. ‘It’s fishing skill wasn’t an accident, rather a repeatable, successful process.’

He said the wolf managed to catch 15 salmon, heading into nearby woods with each individual haul. Ranger Peter Hamel said he’d never seen such behaviour. ‘The wolf had probably decided to start fishing after scavenging on fish bones left by the bears in the woods.

A rather indicative poll released by Rasmussen earlier this week finds that a majority of Americans (44%) now believe that the government operates outside the confines of the Constitution, compared to just 39% who believe government does not take liberties with the precepts laid out by the founding fathers (and 17% were busy watching dancing with the stars to have an opinion either way). Some other unflattering findings on US democracy: "Earlier surveys have shown that just one-in-five voters believe that the government today has the consent of the governed. Forty-eight percent (48%) see the government as a threat to individual rights. According to the Declaration of Independence, governments are formed to protect certain inalienable rights." Not surprisingly, politicians are shown to not only be usurping and incompetent despots but biased as well: "As is often the case, there’s a wide gap between the perceptions of the Political Class and those of Mainstream voters when it comes to the federal government. Eighty-three percent (83%) of Political Class voters say the government now operates within constitutional limits, but 62% of those in the Mainstream don’t share that view." Most worryingly, "nearly two-out-of-three voters (65%) are at least somewhat angry at the current policies of the federal government, including 40% who are Very Angry." That's 65% with not even a whiff of austerity on the horizon...

Whistle-blower website reportedly to release millions of confidential diplomatic cables between US government officials. WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website, is said to be hours away from releasing around three million secret US government files.

The classified documents reportedly cover correspondence between US diplomatic missions abroad and the state department in Washington and could reveal "unflattering" views that American officials held about close EU allies and countries like Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. Governments around the world on Saturday braced for the publication of potentially embarrassing diplomatic cables, as Washington raced to contain the fallout. US diplomats skipped their Thanksgiving holiday weekend and headed to foreign ministries hoping to stave off anger over the cables, which are internal messages that often lack the niceties diplomats voice in public.

According to Der Spiegel, which was granted early access to the files, the release will contain more than 250,000 cables and 8,000 diplomatic directives - mostly from the last five years. The German newsmagazine has taken down its article summarising the data dumpafter publishing it briefly online.

AWIP: Embarrassing chatter in WikiLeaks will need context [context = spin]
Daily Mail: New WikiLeaks files 'to reveal American criticism of Mandela'
Daily Mail: U.S. warns world leaders that new WikiLeaks revelations will 'expose corruption between allies' and show what America REALLY thinks of its friends

Thanksgiving day at a gathering of over 20 family and extended family members we had a 9/11 discussion. It was initiated by a guy in his twenties who began spouting the standard anti-muslim 9/11 story and the need for wars and who really got worked up when my wife stated that it was our government with help that did 9/11 and that the buildings were brought down by controlled demolition.

Almost everyone there was college educated but no one had done one iota of research on the events of that day and only knew the official story. No one had even heard of building 7.

Now everyone admitted that the government and media lies to us on a constant basis but to a person they refused to believe that 9/11 was not done by 19 arabs with boxcutters and their boss bin Laden. They cannot grasp the fact that there are Americans who will kill their own for profit and power. Good people who can't quite understand that psychopaths in power are not like us. They want to believe that there are lines that the crooks in government, as they freely call them, won't cross. I think this attitude is typical of so many. It's what we are dealing with.

Even eyewitnesses are passed off as being mistaken in the fog of disaster. A man clearly states he witnessed the building come straight down as a result of bombs/explosions/flashes popping BELOW the impact zone. A so-called expert tried telling him he didn't see or hear any such things.

Christopher Bollyn: A Letter to Nancy Pelosi About 9/11 - P.S. Is an American government in the United States too much to ask?

Special report: In the last of his series from Afghanistan, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad asks Taliban leaders past and present what kind of regime they would run – and whether there is a chance of negotiated peace. Taliban:

"[The Americans] have no right to tell us about democracy and human rights. That's an Afghan issue and it will be decided by the Afghans. The Americans behave with arrogance ...They don't belong here. They are foreigners, outsiders."

The holiday of Eid al-Ahda — the Feast of the Sacrifice — is celebrated by Muslims across the world to commemorate the prophet Abraham’s sacrifice of a sheep in the place of his son Ishmael.

Palestine is no different than most countries where the holiday is observed, but with one notable exception: the Israeli occupation. While sheep are smuggled into Gaza from Egypt through underground tunnels, Palestinians in the West Bank face their own Israeli-imposed restrictions. These hardships however fail to dim the generosity, grace and sense of community that mark these three holy days of Eid.

Israeli military checkpoints limit the access of family visits to the homes of relatives and deny the exit of hundreds of Palestinians wanting to leave the West Bank to make the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The Stop the Wall Campaign reported that 46 percent of the West Bank will be annexed to Israel once the separation wall is completed, denying farmers and villagers access to their land. More than one-third of the West Bank land is “closed” for Israeli military training and a further 31 percent is controlled by Israeli settlements, according to the UNHCR. The result is that Palestinian farmers including sheep herders are left in severe economic difficulty at a time when business should be thriving.

Despite the Israeli control over the area, the spirit and kindness of the festivities prevails even among those worst affected by the occupation. Curious to experience the true meaning of this special holiday, I visited with families and friends in Aida refugee camp in the Bethlehem district.

Statistics have revealed that the suicide rate among non-active members of the US National Guard has almost doubled this year. Nearly twice as many American soldiers, who are not on active duty, have committed suicide in 2010 as the number that took their own lives last year, while the suicide rate among active duty soldiers has not increased, USA TODAY reports. This growth in suicide rates has been linked to drug abuse, brain injuries incurred during active service, depression, and the country's current bleak economic situation (home foreclosures, debt and unemployment), said Chris Philbrick, the deputy commander of an Army task force working to reduce suicides. As of October, 86 non-active soldiers have taken their own lives this year, which is nearly double the entire 2009 number of suicides, which was 48.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Cliché, sure, but it's more true than at any time since the Gilded Age. While politicians gloat about our "recovery," our poor are getting poorer, our average wages are still falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low. But, yes, if you're in that top 1%, life in America is grand.

China has warned against military activity near its coastline ahead of U.S.-Korea naval exercises, according to Reuters. China's Foreign Ministry said in an online posting that naval exercises risks starting a war: "We oppose any military act by any party conducted in China's exclusive economic zone without approval." North Korea has also threatened to respond to military gestures with more attacks: "The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage again war exercises targeted against the (North)."

The police are seeking powers to shut down websites deemed to be engaged in "criminal" activity. The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has tabled a plan for Nominet, which oversees .uk web addresses, to be given the domain closing power. Nominet said the idea was only a proposal and invited people to join the debate on the form of the final policy. IT lawyers said the proposal would be "worrying" if it led to websites going offline without judicial oversight. "It's not policy at this stage," said Eleanor Bradley, director of operations at Nominet.

The Department of Homeland Security's ICE has launched a major crackdown on websites enabling copyright infringement or selling counterfeits of trademarked goods. In just the past few days ICE has seized at least 12 domains, TorrentFreak reports. The sites fall into two categories: torrent sites that enable the download of copyrighted music, and sites selling knockoffs of trademarked goods like designer handbags. A controversial bill that would allow the Attorney General to shut down domains on similar grounds was recently derailed (temporarily) by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. The owner of an affected site told TorrentFreak that his domain was taken over without any prior complaints or notification from the court.

Plain talk from American diplomats could lead to red faces around the world this weekend as whistleblower website WikiLeaks gets set for another massive dump of secret U.S. documents. American diplomats have already made calls to allies around the world to warn them that some “compromising” conversations may have been released. David Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa, called Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon earlier this week to give the Canadian government the heads-up. Yet before jumping to conclusions about what might be released, experts are warning the public to sit back and wait. “I think you have to be cautious about drawing too broad conclusions from too little data. It is important to look at which American said what and to whom,” said Paul Chapin, a former Canadian diplomat. Chapin said the document dump may include low-level conversations with disparaging remarks about Canada, but those conversations wouldn't really matter.

Dawn: WikiLeaks plans to release 94 papers about Pakistan
International Business Times: Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'?
Slashdot: UK Department of Defense "Asks" News Outlets Not To Publish WikiLeaks Bombshell
The Guardian: Expected WikiLeaks disclosures prompts warning for editors ["D-notice" = government censorship]
Bloomberg: Italy Says Wikileaks Reports on U.S. May Harm Nation
Eurasianet: Turkey Hits Back at Wikileaks Accusations

The segregation of Jews and Arabs in Israel of 2010 is almost absolute. For those of us who live here, it is something we take for granted. But visitors from abroad cannot believe their eyes: segregated education, segregated businesses, separate entertainment venues.

Under the guise of the deceptively mundane name "Amendment to the Cooperative Associations Bill," the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee this week finalized a bill intended to bypass previous rulings of the High Court of Justice. If indeed this legislation is approved by the Knesset plenum, it will not be possible to describe it as anything other than an apartheid law. Using polished and sanitized language, the bill would allow such committees in small rural suburbs to reject applications from families that "are incompatible with the social-cultural fabric of the community, and where there are grounds to assume that they will disrupt this fabric."