HAGERSTOWN, Md.—The death penalty is still possible for the Army private suspected of giving classified material to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks despite prosecutors' promise not to recommend it, military law experts said Thursday. Military District of Washington commander Maj. Gen. Karl R. Horst could ignore the prosecutors' recommendation and refer for trial as a capital offense the charge that Pfc. Bradley Manning aided the enemy, the experts said. In that event, a court-martial jury of at least 12 members could vote for execution if Manning were convicted. It would be unusual but not unheard of for the commander to ignore the recommendation, said Dwight Sullivan, a Marine Corps Reserve lawyer who blogs about military justice on CAAFlog.com. Jon W. Shelburne, who teaches at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., said he hasn't seen a commander override a prosecutor's death-penalty recommendation in his 19 years as military judge advocate.

The charge of aiding the enemy is among 22 new counts filed Wednesday against Manning, a former intelligence analyst suspected of passing to WikiLeaks more than 250,000 confidential State Department cables, classified video of a deadly U.S. helicopter attack and a raft of Iraq and Afghanistan war logs. The video and thousands of the documents have been published on the WikiLeaks website.

The Independent: Anger at Manning's naked punishment
Glenn Greenwald: Bradley Manning's forced nudity to occur daily

The United States ambassador to NATO says the military alliance has launched 24-hour surveillance over Libya with AWACS reconnaissance aircraft.

NATO has launched 24-hour surveillance of Libya with AWACS reconnaissance aircraft, US ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Pressing the United States to allow no-fly zone in crisis-hit Libya, Britain and France said they are seeking UN authorization for the plan, as Libyan troubled ruler Muammar Gaddafi's warplanes counter-attacked against revolutionary forces. But neither the United States nor any other country brought up the idea of a no-fly zone, an idea that has attracted support from many in US Congress. "We're looking at the no-fly zone in a variety of different options. We haven't actually had a discussion yet. The military authorities haven't finalized that planning," Daalder added. Reports coming out of Libya suggest that forces loyal to embattled Gaddafi are escalating attacks on revolutionary forces that have parts of the county under their control. Civilians are reportedly surrounded by forces loyal to Gaddafi in two Libyan western towns, Misrata and Zawiyah. According to the United Nations, more than one million people fleeing or inside the country need humanitarian aid.

Wikileaks cables leaked information regarding global food policy as it relates to U.S. officials — in the highest levels of government — that involves a conspiracy with Monsanto to force the global sale and use of genetically-modified foods. Recent Wikileaks cables are typically associated with information leaks related to U.S. war strategy, and foreign policy, which has led some people to conclude that leaked information of this nature is a possible threat to national security. But in this case, Wikileaks cables leaked information regarding global food policy as it relates to U.S. officials — in the highest levels of government — that involves a conspiracy with Monsanto to force the global sale and use of genetically-modified foods.

In 2007, then-U.S. ambassador to France Craig Stapleton conspired to retaliate against European countries for their anti-biotech policies. U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal the Bush administration formulated battle plans to extract revenge against Europe for refusing to use genetically modified seeds. In the leaked cable, Stapleton writes:

“Europe is moving backwards not forwards on this issue with France playing a leading role, along with Austria, Italy and even the [European] Commission…Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voice.” [Ambassador Stapleton goes on to write:] “Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory,” he wrote.

A West Covina Mobile Gas Station is charging $4.99 9/10 for premium gasoline. Not quite $5.00 but almost. It’s amazing how fast prices for gasoline have gone up in Southern California. Inflation? Oil speculation? Middle east tensions? Who really know… only thing I know for sure is that the common commuter will be paying the price.

crisisboom: If You Think This Oil Spike Is Temporary, Check Out This Chart
PressTV: US considers tapping oil reserves -Video

Meet one of the settler leaders, Miriam Levinger, U.S. citizen from the Bronx, New York… the mother of the Israeli colonial settlers Filmed in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, Palestine.

PressTV: West Bank settlements quadrupled: Report

White Evangelical Christians are the group least likely to support politicians or policies that reflect the actual teachings of Jesus. Evangelicals don't exactly hate Jesus -- as we've provocatively asserted in the title of this piece. They do love him dearly. But not because of what he tried to teach humanity. Rather, Evangelicals love Jesus for what he does for them. Through his magical grace, and by shedding his precious blood, Jesus saves Evangelicals from everlasting torture in hell, and guarantees them a premium, luxury villa in heaven. For this, and this only, they love him. They can't stop thanking him. And yet, as for Jesus himself -- his core values of peace, his core teachings of social justice, his core commandments of goodwill -- most Evangelicals seem to have nothing but disdain. -- Of course, conservative Americans have every right to support corporate greed, militarism, gun possession, and the death penalty, and to oppose welfare, food stamps, health care for those in need, etc. -- it is just strange and contradictory when they claim these positions as somehow "Christian." They aren't.

Any last vestiges of doubt that President Barack Obama had abandoned entirely on his election pledge to close down Guantanamo Bay evaporated last night as he gave the green light for military trials there to resume and laid down the rules for holding some of the detainees inside the camp indefinitely. In the wake of a long Pentagon review on how the tribunals should be conducted, Defence Secretary Robert Gates will now be expected to lift a ban on new trials at Guantanamo that has been in place since early 2009 when Mr Obama came to office promising to shut the infamous facility within 12 months. He contended at the time that Guantanamo served as a recruitment tool for America's [alleged] terrorist enemies.

Antiwar: Obama Approves Indefinite Detention Without Trial
Washington Post: Obama creates indefinite detention system for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
Glenn Greenwald: Obama's new executive order on Guantanamo

The KGB headquarters in the centre of Minsk is known to locals as "Amerikanka". No one is really sure how the sprawling complex got its name, but everyone in Belarus knows it is not a place you want to end up. With its Corinthian columns and bright yellow walls, the building looks harmless from the outside. But it is in fact a cage for Europe's last prisoners of conscience and the epicentre of a brutal crackdown carried out by the continent's last dictator. As the Middle East burns with popular anger over the region's lack of democratic progress it is easy to forget that one corner of Europe still steadfastly refuses to abandon its dictatorial past.

Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, has ruled his country with an iron fist ever since the republic achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1994. But over the past two months his security forces have gone after his opponents with a ferocity that would not have looked out of place in Soviet times. Virtually all the presidential candidates who dared to stand against Mr Lukashenko in last December's flawed elections have been imprisoned or placed under house arrest. Multiple allegations of torture have been made, while candidates have been pressured to denounce each other in video statements.

The Independent: How Lukashenko's Soviet-style regime maintains its iron grip

US federal prisons for the past three years have housed special units filled disproportionately with Muslim inmates whose every communication with the outside world is strictly monitored. Known as "Guantanamo North," the so-called Communication Management Units (CMU) were secretly opened in 2007 in maximum security prisons in Terre Haute, Indiana and Marion, Illinois and currently have 71 prisoners, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) told AFP. The US public radio network, NPR, recently published the names, nationalities and reasons for incarceration of 86 of more than 100 detainees who have passed through them, information never before disclosed by the Bureau of Prisons.

William O’Brien, Republican speaker of the New Hampshire (NH) House of Representatives is quite sure that college students are “foolish.” That’s just one of the ludicrous reasons NH Republicans are promoting legislation that would prohibit out-of -state college students from registering to vote. Only students whose parent(s) reside in NH will be able to participate in the democratic process. Thank God one state has the courage to finally do something about those damn marauding student ALIENS! O’Brien doesn’t even bother to play the PC game of hiding his political agenda in promoting such legislation. The last thing the conservative Republican wants are more foolish liberal voters in his state. To quote esteemed speaker:

"Voting as a liberal. That's what kids do," he added, they don’t have any real "life experience," and "they just vote their feelings."

While accompanying a Bulgarian delegation through the Old City of Al-Khalil/Hebron, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi was detained without reason in what can only be described as a racist violation of his human and civil rights. Just outside the Ibrahim Mosque this morning, Israeli police attempted to keep Dr. Barghouthi and the Bulgarian delegation from crossing the street in the H2 zone of the Old City in Al-Khalil/Hebron. Before Dr. Barghouti crossed the street with the delegation, Israeli officers approached him and told him that he may not cross the street to enter the mosque.

“They are trying to segregate the street for the settlers,” said Dr. Barghouthi, the Secretary General of the Palestine National Initiative. “It is discrimination based on nationality.”

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: Middle East turmoil seen inspiring Palestinians

The unnamed “junior diplomat” that the British government deployed to Eastern Libya over the weekend in a failed mission with several SAS soldiers was, according to media reports, not a diplomat but a member of the MI6. The reports suggest that the MI6 agent was, as the previous story indicated, there to make contact with the rebel faction, and was to lay out a plan to allow actual diplomats to deploy to East Libya formally. The troops were quickly captured by a militia loyal to the East Libyan rebel faction and, after being brought before the leadership and spent the weekend in a military brig. They were expelled on Sunday. British Prime Minister David Cameron has been distancing himself from the fiasco since then, and Foreign Secretary William Hague is said to accept “full responsiblity” for the mission, though he insisted he was blameless for its failure. The move has seriously embarrassed Hague.

The trial of the former French president Jacques Chirac for misuse of public funds began yesterday, but proceedings were promptly delayed by an appeal from a co-defendant, which could see the trial postponed for months. Mr Chirac, 78, was excused from attending the first day of the trial, which marks the first time since 1945 that a former French head of state has faced criminal charges. Mr Chirac, still one of France's most popular politicians, is accused of embezzling public money to fund his political party during his time as mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995, when he became president. He denies any wrongdoing.