While the United States has sharply criticized the Libyan government for brutally cracking down on opposition protesters, it has remained noticeably silent on the recent attacks against Iraqi dissidents. On Friday, tens of thousands of people participated in Iraq’s largest protest in years. Although the protests were largely peaceful, authorities fired water cannons, sound bombs and live bullets to disperse crowds as Iraqi army helicopters buzzed overhead, killing an estimated 29 people. Then on Sunday, U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces detained about 300 people, including prominent journalists, artists and lawyers who had taken part in the rallies.

Jason Ditz: Iraq’s Opposition Seethes As Arrests, Beatings Continue

Veteran diplomat Ilan Baruch quits, says he can no longer represent government; Israel's foreign policy is 'wrong,' he says, adds that blaming global anti-occupation views on anti-Semitism is 'simplistic, artificial'. A veteran diplomat says he has resigned from his post because he had a hard time defending the policies of Israel's current government, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday. Ilan Baruch says he quit because "Israel's foreign policy is wrong," pointing to the Palestinian issue. Should this trend continue, he warned, Israel will turn into a pariah state and face growing de-legitimization. Baruch told Israel TV Wednesday that Israel's standing was in danger because of its policies, which he said were "difficult to explain."

Several images have been covered over, about one minute into the video, because they were cited as being 'disturbing', after the original video was uploaded, on February 6, 2010. The images of burnt children are certainly disturbing, but not nearly as disturbing as the lack of censure for those who were responsible for burning them.

The article "Gaza in Plain Language", by Joe Mowrey, first published by Dissident Voice, was brought to my attention by Robert H. Stiver, and I immediately agreed to do a video treatment of it. Joe and I shared the research effort, and we would like to thank all of those whose video and photographic work is included in this chilling tale of a fledgling nation gone mad. We have used this material in good faith; as fair comment; for no personal gain and in the interests of truth and justice.

We have not been able to contact and thank every contributor, personally, but we do so now. Without your efforts, which were so much more harrowing than ours, because you saw the slaughter, the devastation and the grief first hand, this video would not have been possible. We dedicate this video to the people of Gaza, and to all of those decent people who are trying to help them.

Although some people will attempt to characterised it as such, what I have read and the pictures put to Joe Mowrey's words do not amount to anti-Semitism. If it needs an "ism", call it anti-Nasty-Peopleism. Which is an ism that decent people, the world over, should adopt and develop, because if we don't, the nasty people will always win.

[Google Translate] In an attack on an American military bus at Frankfurt airport two people were shot. According to police, was the 21-year-old alleged perpetrator from Kosovo were arrested. A man from Kosovo on Wednesday attacked a bus with American soldiers and shot two men. At least one other occupant of the military bus was seriously injured, probably it is also an American soldier, it said.

According to police, the 21-year-old alleged assailant was arrested. A politically motivated terrorist attack was not immediately ruled out this it was too early, said a police spokesman. The exact sequence of events was the police in the hours after the murder remain unclear. "It all seems to have happened in the bus," said police spokesman Juergen Linker news agency dpa.

The Local: Two shot dead at Frankfurt Airport
MSNBC: 2 US Soldiers Reported Killed at German Airport

Latest media reports suggest that the United States and its allies may be preparing the ground for a military intervention in Libya. The US Senate has unanimously passed a resolution calling for a no-fly zone over Libya.

The US Senate Armed Services Committee said all options, including the military option, should be on the table. Earlier, the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Washington is looking at a full range of options for Libya.

Meanwhile, the US dailies, New York Times and Washington Post said the dissident leaders in the Libyan city of Benghazi have debated about a request for foreign air strikes against Gaddafi forces. The report said the dissident leaders are growing frustrated over Gaddafi's iron grip on power. Many observers believe that the US is concerned about the safety of Libya's oil reserves, not the country's people. Libya holds the largest proven oil reserves in North Africa.

At the same time, the Israeli regime has reportedly authorized a security firm to send mercenaries to Libya to crush anti-government protesters there. A journalist from Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot states that Tel Aviv has decided to recruit African mercenaries to fight against anti-government protesters in Libya.

PressTV: Israel provides henchmen for Gaddafi
Stephen Lendman: Major Media Promote War on Libya
Jason Ditz: US, Allies Ratchet Up Threats of Libya Invasion

PressTV: US warships enter Egypt's Suez Canal - The USS Kearsarge and the Ponce, two US amphibious assault ships, have entered the Suez Canal on their way to Libya as Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi continues his harsh crackdown on anti-government protesters, a canal official says.

Julie Hyland: Materiel and personnel in place for military intervention in Libya - The United States, Britain and the European powers are deepening their preparations for intervention in Libya, including military action. They hope to exploit the popular revolt against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi to take control of Libya’s oil fields and establish a crucial base for further operations in the region under conditions where dictatorships on which they have relied for years are under siege.

Ten days ago, when we first looked at the Libyan investment authority (its sovereign wealth fund), we asked "Which US Banks Are Managing Billions For The $32 Billion Libyan Sovereign Wealth Fund?" Based on Wikileaks data, it was disclosed that various US banks manage billions for the country which has just seen $30 billion of its assets largely frozen (although this is merely half of its total deposits). Obviously, we had "some" banks in mind, most of the variety whose directors believe they are above the law and can share inside information with criminal intent with utter disdain for the law. Now, courtesy of Marcus Baram of the Huffington Post we find that the usual suspects are, naturally, all here: among the key banks that serve as advisors and asset managers are Goldman Sachs (and not just anyone, but Jim "Revolutions are Bullish" O'Neill's GSAM, Citi and JP Morgan. The only question now is how long before we get some sort of public statement out of the likes of Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon: on the 22nd we said: "perhaps it is time for the US banks who manage billions in capital for the LIA, to step up." Now that they have been exposed by a third party, the CEOs should really take the hint before this escalates into a full blown PR disaster.

[This figure shows 12 consecutive states of a system driven by the model, with one unit of time equaling one update for every agent. In the first picture, a new idea is dominating but small specks of color represent a finite innovation rate. A new state dominates between the third and fourth pictures, and in the fourth, fifth, and sixth pictures, two coherent states coexist. New individual dominant states arise in pictures nine and twelve. Image credit: S. Bornholdt, et al. ©2011 American Physical Society.]

Scientific concepts such as climate change, nanotechnology, and chaos theory can sometimes spring up and capture the attention of both the scientific and public communities, only to be replaced by new ideas later on. Although many factors influence the emergence and decline of such scientific paradigms, a new model has captured how these ideas spread, providing a better understanding of paradigm shifts and the culture of innovation.

The model shows how a system with one dominating scientific paradigm transitions into a system with small clusters of ideas, some of which continue to grow until one dominates, and the process repeats with new ideas. The dynamics of the rise and fall of scientific paradigms depends on the system’s innovation rate. Systems with high innovation rates tend to contain a high degree of noise, along with many small domains of ideas that are constantly generated and replaced. In contrast, systems with low innovation rates tend to have low noise and a state that remains dominant for a long time until a single event replaces it.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Tuesday that the 2011 field includes 53 organizations and tops last year's 237 nominees. Known nominees also include Afghan rights advocate Sima Samar, the European Union, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, Russian rights group Memorial and its founder Svetlana Gannushkina. "Looking at the long term, we can say interest in the prize is strong and growing along with the number of candidates," Geir Lundestad, a non-voting member of the Nobel panel, told Reuters. WikiLeaks grabbed the world's attention and angered a number of governments by publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables. Its controversial founder, Julian Assange, faces extradition from Britain to Sweden on sex crime allegations, which he denies.

Robert Stevens: Defend Julian Assange
Francis Shor: WikiLeaks, Ideological Legitimacy and the Crisis of Empire
OpenDemocracy: A summary of what WikiLeaks has uncovered so far. -Staggering

Offshore drilling regulators this week approved the first deepwater drilling permit since BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, and as many have pointed out, it’s going to a well owned and operated by Noble Energy.

But here’s a lesser-noticed fact, which Reuters reported today: BP co-owns the well—46.5 percent of it, to be exact. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the revamped offshore drilling agency, made no mention of BP’s ownership of the well in its press release, which touted the newly approved permit as a “an important step towards safely developing deepwater energy supplies offshore.”

(BP confirmed with us its stake in the well, but referred further questions about its involvement in operating the well and its expected revenue to Noble Energy.)