Mamdouh Habib interview on new US/Israeli Egyptian pet Omar Suleiman

Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was captured and tortured in the years after September 11 in both Egypt and Guantanamo Bay. For years, “war on terror” supporters defamed Habib and claimed he was lying about his allegations of mistreatment. However last year in just one case against the Australian Murdoch press, he won a small victory:

The courts have delivered another win to former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib, declaring that he was defamed by News Ltd columnist Piers Akerman, paving the way for a hefty payout. The New South Wales Court of Appeal overturned a 2008 judgment in favour of Mr Akerman’s publisher Nationwide News and yesterday ordered them to pay Mr Habib’s legal costs in the five-year-old battle. It was the second win for Mr Habib in a month after the full court of the Federal Court upheld an appeal in his mammoth compensation case against the federal government for allegedly aiding and abetting his torture by foreign agents. Another hearing will now be held to determine what damages he will receive for the 2005 article in The Daily Telegraph and other News Ltd newspapers, headlined ”Mr Habib, it’s time to tell the full story”. [By Antony Loewenstein]

"Other than Native Americans who were here, all of us have the same story," Bachmann told the National Press Club at a "Tea Party Express Forum" Tuesday. She went on to insist that all Americans are descendants of "a risk-taker from their home country, doesn't matter what the country is, but they took a risk, and they came here." "And they knew when they came here they weren't coming for a welfare state," Bachmann continued. "They were coming here for the thrill of writing their own ticket. Who did we attract? People that wanted a better life and were willing to do what it took to get it."

Bachmann's remarks completely ignored the fact that the ancestors of today's African-Americans were brought to the United States involuntarily as slaves. One of the framers, Thomas Jefferson, famously fathered children with Sally Hemmings, one of his slaves. Her whitewash of US history is her second in as many months, following her statement in Iowa that race was not a factor in the creation of the US government.

A woman from Stratford, Ont., has launched a $500,000 lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against two female U.S. border guards in Detroit. In March 2010, Loretta Van Beek was travelling to Savannah, Ga., where she owns a small vacation home, when she was pulled over by customs agents at the Ambassador Bridge, across the river from Windsor, Ont. Van Beek, 46, told CBC News she was sent to secondary inspection when customs officers found a few raspberries in her car that she'd forgotten to declare. After more than an hour of questions, Van Beek was told she was being denied entry on suspicion that she was living illegally in the U.S. Van Beek said she was marched into a holding cell by two female agents and ordered to remove her shirt and stand spread-eagled against the wall.

Attacks on Wikileaks and Journalists Exposed - This really needs to go viral.

Salon.com: A disturbing threat against one of our own
Raw Story: Intel firm apologizes for role in plot against WikiLeaks

[ThinkProgress/AWIP: EXCLUSIVE: US Chamber’s Lobbyists Solicited Hackers To Sabotage Unions, Smear Chamber’s Political Opponents]

Ahead of protests planned to take place in Bahrain next week, the nation's king has said he will give 1,000 dinars ($2,650) to each Bahraini family. Friday's announcement on state media came as the latest step that Sunni rulers have taken to appease the majority Shia public. Activists have called for protests in Bahrain, starting from Monday, to demand political, social and economic reforms. The demonstrations will coincide with the tenth anniversary of Bahrain's constitution. Although most analysts do not see any immediate risk of revolt after popular uprisings toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, the small island nation is considered the most vulnerable to unrest among Gulf Arab countries. The Bahraini government has made several concessions in recent weeks, such as higher social spending and offering to release some minors arrested during a security crackdown against some Shi'ite groups last August.

Algeria police deployed ahead of banned democracy rally. Riot police have been deployed in the centre of the Algerian capital, Algiers, ahead of a planned anti-government rally. The government has banned the protest, but opposition and rights groups say they intend to go ahead with the march. Algeria - like other countries in the region - has recently witnessed demonstrations for greater freedoms. On Friday, police stopped people from gathering to celebrate the fall of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. The BBC's Chloe Arnold in Algiers say the authorities want to avert any popular uprising similar to those in Tunisia and Egypt. "We are ready for the march," Mohsen Belabes, a spokesman for the small Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) opposition party, said. "It's going to be a great day for democracy in Algeria," he told Reuters news agency.

PressTV: Algerians to hold massive protests Saturday
WSWS: Popular anger boils over: Further protests in Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia and Yemen

EGYPT REMEMBERS

A high-ranking Iranian official says it has taken Hosni Mubarak and his American and European supporters 30 years to hear the voice of the Egyptian people. In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Friday, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili said,

"The United States and Europe must be answerable to the Egyptian people for supporting a dictatorship for 30 years." "The victory of the Egyptian Revolution coinciding with the victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution proved that 22 Bahman (February 11) is the day of triumph for regional nations and is the day of defeat for the US and the Zionist regime [of Israel]," he said.

Der Spiegel: The West Loses Its Favorite Tyrant
WSWS: Mubarak resignation staggers Obama administration

Protesters across Cairo reveled at the victory they had wrought, and Egyptian reporters on cable TV channels were reduced to tears as they sought to convey their happiness. But many questions remain about what comes next — and there are strong doubts about whether military rule will lead to the demonstrators' ultimate goal: a credible transition to democracy.

PressTV: Egypt opposition calls for civilian rule