The Obama Administration’s position on Libya appears to have transitioned yet again toward a more hawkish stance, and they are now said to be pressuring the United Nations to expand their Thursday vote on Libya beyond a “no-fly zone” into a full authorization for attack. The Obama Administration’s position on Libya appears to have transitioned yet again toward a more hawkish stance, and they are now said to be pressuring the United Nations to expand their Thursday vote on Libya beyond a “no-fly zone” into a full authorization for attack.

Politico: Caution: Another war beckons

I spoke about Jewish Ideology & Zionism at Cafe Palestine, Freiburg, Germany last Sunday (13 March). The room was full. The tide has changed, no one can stop us now!

A US drone missile strike on Thursday killed at least 41 people tribal region, Pakistani intelligence officials said. There were conflicting accounts about the target of the attack and those killed in the Datta Khel region of North Waziristan. The death toll was one of the highest in a drone missile strike. An official said the drone attacked a vehicle in the area that was passing by a house where local tribesmen were holding a meeting, killing them. A tribesman in the area supported his account.

Jason Ditz: At Least 41 Killed as US Drones Attack Tribal Jirga in North Waziristan

Riots broke out on the streets of Pakistan following the revelation that double murder-accused CIA contractor Raymond Davis was released over a 'blood-money' deal, and hundreds of protesters attempted to attack the US Consulate building in Lahore on Wednesday evening.

Davis' release sparked countrywide angry protests, and a large number of protesters - mostly belonging to religious and opposition political parties - converged outside the Lahore Press Club soon after the local media flashed the news. Tehrik-e-Insaaf and Jamaat-i-Islami activists were leading the protests as they blocked the busy road by setting tyres on fire, creating a traffic mess in the highly sensitive and busy location of the city. As the angry protesters tried to attack the US consulate, dozens of them sustained injuries as the police resorted to baton-charge to disperse the protesters.

The News: Pakistan court releases Raymond Davis - An Additional Sessions judge Wednesday set free CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who killed two Pakistanis on a busy road in Lahore, after payment of blood money (Diyat) in accordance with Sharia law of Pakistan, sources said. The families of the murdered men, Fahim and Faizan, accepted the blood money of 2.34 million dollars (equal to Rs200 million) while, according to sources, four US visas were also part of the deal. Blood money, or ‘Diyat’ is a provision under Islamic sharia law in which compensation can be paid to relatives of those killed to secure a pardon, and is commonly used to resolve such cases in Pakistan.

The News: U.S. denies paying blood money for Davis release - The U.S. government did not pay any compensation to the families of two Pakistanis killed by Raymond Davis, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. "The United States did not pay any compensation or blood money," Clinton told reporters in Cairo. Asked who paid the families, she replied: "You will have to ask the families." Asked if the Pakistani government had paid compensation, the U.S. secretary of state said: "you will have to ask the Pakistani government."

AWIP: CIA Contractor Raymond Davis Organized Terrorist Activities
AWIP: Raymond Davis 'was acting head of CIA in Pakistan'

Bahrain clashes Bahrain protests Manama protests Manama riots Bahrain riots Bahrain video violence shot dead Egypt protests Cairo Tunisia Iran police fire Bahrain gunfire Bahrein killed injured crackdown army Pearl Square.

LANSING -- Thousands of people gathered at the Capitol in Lansing today for a union-sponsored rally against Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget proposal. Josh Windy, 31, of the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 85 of Saginaw was beginning to grill about 10,000 hot dogs this morning for the hungry crowd, estimated to be between 3,000 and 4,000 strong.

“This is not about unions. It’s about working people,” he said. “He’s giving money to businesses and taking money from working people.” “But we shouldn’t take them unless they take them, too,” she said, pointing to the Capitol and referring to the legislature, governor and his appointees.

Corrine Carey thinks all public employees from the governor on down to building janitors should take cuts in wages and benefits from 3-5% to help deal with the budget crisis. The 84-year-old retired Grand Rapids teacher came to Lansing today to protest Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget proposal.

Latest images from the developing humanitarian crisis

WSWS: Tsunami survivors endure freezing conditions and food shortages

Japan says it is stepping up efforts to cool overheating fuel at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Helicopters dumped tonnes of sea water to try to prevent a meltdown of fuel rods, and media reports said water cannon had now joined in the operation on the ground. Following the crisis, China suspended approval for new nuclear plants. The confirmed death toll from Friday's 9.0 magnitude quake, which triggered the tsunami, has risen above 5,000. Police say more than 5,400 people are confirmed dead and about 9,500 more are still missing. [Professor Andrew Sherry explains the situation as helicopters spray water to cool nuclear reactors]

WSWS: Japan nuclear emergency deepens

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media using fake online personas designed to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda. A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with the US Central Command (Centcom) to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities at once. The contract stipulates each persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 controllers must be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries". The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet.

Times of India: Internet is biggest spying machine: Assange

Israeli settlers running wild, car set alight in
Dowar al-Qara' village, northeast Ramallah

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (10 – 16 March 2011)

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed two Palestinians and wounded 3 others in the Gaza Strip. On 16 March 2011, IOF warplanes fired 3 missiles at a site of the Palestinian National Security Forces south of Gaza City. As a result, a guard of the site and a member of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) were killed. Two workers of the Palestinian Ministry of Public Works, who were working nearly 20 meters away from the site, were wounded. Additionally, three buildings on the site were also destroyed. On the same day, IOF wounded a Palestinian fisherman in the northern Gaza Strip. During the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation. IOF also arrested two international human rights defenders.

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 47 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 66 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children. The widest incursion was into 'Awarta village, southeast of Nablus, during which IOF arrested 52 Palestinian civilians. In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted a limited incursion into al-Boreij refugee camp, during which they leaved areas of Palestinian land.

Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

The US has asked Saudi Arabia to intervene in Bahrain as such a move would benefit Israel and other unpopular regimes in the Middle East, says a former US Senate contender.

“I think... there was an agreement between [US Defense Secretary Robert] Gates and the Saudi regime that they would carry this out either at the behest of the United States or the bare minimum with a green light from the United States to proceed,” Mark Dankof told Press TV on Thursday. Dankof said that the American foreign policy in the Middle East was ultimately about three things, namely "supporting Israel at all costs; supporting international central banking interests at all costs... and then of course, the natural gas and oil consortiums."

He stressed that the American Fifth Fleet is in Bahrain to enforce the interests of these three constituencies.

PressTV: Bahraini police shoot protesters
PressTV: Iranians slam Bahrain invasion

Soldiers toured Awarta village on Monday morning, calling over loud speakers for all residents aged 15-40 to gather in the yard of the community's school. Local sources said a village council official and a local man working for the Palestinian security departments were said to have been detained overnight. Palestinian security officials told AFP that two Palestinian Authority intelligence officers were among over 300 residents detained by Israeli soldiers.

Desert Peace: SUSPECT IN SETTLEMENT MURDERS NOT A PALESTINIAN ~~ ARMY SILENT ON THIS
AWIP: Israel’s New ‘Revenge’ Settlement Expansions Spark Anger

In the West Bank outposts, the inhabitants view the machinations of their government as mostly irrelevant. Pnina Ben Ali says life is sometimes hard, but the air is sweet and she is fulfilling a mission given to her by God. "I wanted to do something important in my life for the Jewish people, and this was the best way," she says. "We believe in God and the bible and our right to be here. We will never leave."

Obama administration will seek UN approval for air strikes on Libyan military targets seeking to create no-fly and no-drive zones. The prospect of a deadly siege of the rebel stronghold in Benghazi, Libya, has produced a striking shift in tone from the Obama administration, which is now pushing for the United Nations to authorize aerial bombing of Libyan tanks and heavy artillery to try to halt the advance of forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. President Obama is under pressure from both foreign leaders and allies in Congress to take decisive action. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, sent a letter to the United States and other members of the Security Council, urging them to vote for the Lebanese resolution authorizing a no-flight zone, saying that the world had only days, or even hours, to head off a Qaddafi victory.

Salem-News: Israel Intervenes in Libya... for Gaddafi

Today new information was released by Australian newspaper The age. This information raises questions about CIA and ASIO (australian spy organisation), and whether the sexcharges against Julian Assange was in fact a so called "honeytrap" to smear his name and possibly deliver him into the hands of the US government. The Australian intelligence official is also claimed to have specifically warned that Assange could be at risk of ''dirty tricks'' from the US intelligence community, including the possibility of sexual entrapment.

The Age: Assange told of ASIO snooping

Police and prosecutors won't give up their license to steal. In Jan, 2009, a 22-yr-old student was pulled over on Interstate 70 in Putnam County, Indiana with $17.5K in his pocket. A record check showed he had previous drug arrest... cop seized the money under asset forfeiture law, and initiated legal proceedings to confiscate it permanently!

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) plans to introduce a bill that would make net neutrality violations a crime.

The Justice Department cannot take enforcement actions against cable and phone companies who block websites, according to experts and congressional Democrats. [...] Franken framed net neutrality as a fight against profit-driven corporations… “They’ll tell you that putting rules in place to preserve net neutrality as it exists today amounts to a ‘government takeover’ of the Internet, a talking point that deserves a place alongside ‘death panels’ and ‘Obama’s a Muslim’ in the pantheon of lies that aren’t just baldly false, but completely ridiculous,” he said.

Key words: “Block websites.” If you enjoy streaming Nicole Sandler or other shows like hers online, or visiting sites you trust to give you reliable information instead of, say, Fox, then you need to encourage others to do some reading up on this subject. Franken wants to amend antitrust laws to “call violations of net neutrality out for what they are: anti-competitive actions by powerful media conglomerates that represent violations of our anti-trust laws.”

Sarah Palin, darling of the US Republican right, is to arrive in Israel at the weekend for a "private visit" during which she will meet Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, media reports said on Thursday. A spokesman for the Israeli premier could not immediately confirm a report in the top-selling Yedioth Aharonot newspaper that the former Alaska governor was due to arrive on Sunday with her husband Todd for a two-day visit. The ultra-conservative politician, who was the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee in 2008, is expected to arrive late on Sunday and to meet Netanyahu on Tuesday morning before leaving for the Far East later that day, the paper said. The aim of the trip is to become acquainted with Israel ahead of an official visit she is planning in the coming months, Yedioth said.