Washington (CNN) -- Despite mounting pressure from some lawmakers and public opinion, President Barack Obama on Wednesday decided not to release photos of Osama bin Laden's body as evidence of his death, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

The decision settles the debate over whether to release the images, though Obama's choice is sure to garner criticism. A senior Democratic official close to the White House told CNN that the president was "never in favor" of releasing the photos, even as CIA chief Leon Panetta made it sound like their release was imminent. Obama felt that releasing the photos was unnecessary given the fact that so few credible voices have questioned the death, and that the conspiracy theorists would never be satisfied, the official said.

[Tum, non habemus corpus. We're not surprised. In all probability, Osama bin Laden died years ago. Hopefully we'll now be spared the pathetic US government forgeries (like the one above) that we've been treated to since the 911 conspiracy a decade ago. - However Pakistan will now be destroyed...]

Stephen Lendman: Media Lies and Misinformation on Bin Laden
Stephen Lendman: Lies, Damn Lies, and Bin Laden's Death
Paul Craig Roberts: Osama bin Laden’s Second Death

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Facebook, Google, and Yahoo are being used by the U.S. intelligence community to spy on users.

In an interview, Assange was especially critical of Facebook, the world's top social network. The information Facebook houses is a potential boon for the U.S. government if it tries to build up a dossier on users, he told the Russian news site RT. Assange also told RT that Google and Yahoo "have built-in interfaces for U.S. intelligence." "Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented," Assange said. "Here we have the world's most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations and the communications with each other, their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to U.S. intelligence." "It's not a matter of serving a subpoena," he said. "They have an interface that they have developed for U.S. intelligence to use."

Tal Aviv – PNN – Chirman of the Israeli Parliamentary Committee for Forging Affairs and Security Shaul Mofaz of the right wing Kadima asked the Israeli government to assassinate Palestinian leaders like the US did with Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.

Mofaz added that the US new assassination strategy comes from Israel’s policies of targeting Palestinian leaders after the attack on the Israeli Olympics team in Germany back in 1972. During an interview with the Israeli radio on Tuesday morning Mofaz said that assassination strategy Israel did proved to be successful adding that it must be resumed targeting Hamas leaders based in Gaza if attacks comes from there. Even though the international law prohibits the use of extra judicial assassination policies, Mofaz said that this is legitimate act.

Before the breaking news of Bin Laden's death, U.S.-led NATO forces attacked Colonel Gaddafi's compound. The Libyan leader escaped harm, but his son and three grandchildren were reportedly killed in the air strikes. However, despite NATO claims they bombed a military target, some say it was an attempt to get rid of Gaddafi.

In late February, back at the outset of the eastern Libyan rebellion against the rule of Muammar al-Gaddafi, I pointed to visual evidence of anti-Semitism and/or “anti-Zionism” among the protestors who provided the initial face of the rebellion vis-à-vis the outside world. Although there were already hints, it was only somewhat later that it became generally clear that the “opposition” to Gaddafi was in fact armed. In the meanwhile, of course, the United States and some of its European allies have entered the fray on the side of the rebel forces, and American and other Western media have become firmly installed in the rebel capital of Benghazi.

As a result we have much more visual evidence than two months ago. Numerous Western media outlets — including the New York Times, National Public Radio, Foreign Policy, and The Telegraph — have indeed run features on caricatures of Muammar al-Gaddafi created by supporters of the rebellion. The caricatures have been painted directly on walls or drawn on paper and attached to them.

Pro-Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan have destroyed three oil tankers transporting fuel to US-led foreign forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

One vehicle was destroyed in the Torkham area of the Khyber agency and the other two were blown up in a bomb blast in Alu Masjid in incidents that took place late on Tuesday. The explosion also caused damage to nearby buildings. However, no casualties have been reported. On Monday, four Pakistani police officers were killed and six others were injured after gunmen attacked vehicles carrying oil for NATO forces in Afghanistan. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants have routinely attacked NATO containers in northwest and southwest Pakistan for the past three years. Pakistan is the only route through which supplies can be sent to NATO troops in landlocked Afghanistan. Other routes, largely through Russia and the Central Asian states, have proved too costly, both politically and economically.

Support for President Obama has risen sharply following the killing of Osama bin Laden by American military forces in Pakistan, with a majority now approving of his overall job performance, as well as his handling of foreign policy, the war in Afghanistan and the threat of terrorism, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The glow of national pride seemed to rise above partisan politics, as support for the president rose significantly among both Republicans and independents. In all, 57 percent said they now approved of the president’s job performance, up from 46 percent last month.

AV referendum: full details of donations to yes and no campaigns. Publication of donors reveals extent of Tory money funding NO to AV group and the yes campaign's dependence on two main backers. [AV = Alternative Vote] The fullest yet account of the donations made to the campaigns for and against electoral reform reveal the extent of the Tory money funding the NO to AV group and the yes campaign's dependence on organisations such as the Electoral Reform Society. Among around 50 donors to the NOtoAV campaign are several high-profile City figures, including hedge fund financiers, bankers and businessmen.

Ian Tomlinson killing: officer could face manslaughter charge: Decision not to prosecute PC Simon Harwood under review after inquest rules that Tomlinson was unlawfully killed.

The police officer who attacked Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests in London in 2009 could be prosecuted for manslaughter after an inquest jury ruled that the newspaper seller was unlawfully killed. Returning their verdict after three hours of deliberation, jurors said Tomlinson died of internal bleeding in the abdomen after being struck with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer. For legal reasons, the verdict did not name the officer, Metropolitan police constable Simon Harwood. However, the jury said that "excessive and unreasonable" force was used when he struck the newspaper vendor who "posed no threat".

The first pathologist to conduct a postmortem examination on Tomlinson, Dr Freddy Patel, said he died of a heart attack as a result of coronary heart disease. He was contradicted by three other pathologists who examined the body, all of whom found he died of internal bleeding in the abdomen.

BBC: Ian Tomlinson G20 push witness recalls nightmares
New Statesman: Ian Tomlinson "unlawfully killed", rules inquest
Evening Standard: G20 victim Ian Tomlinson unlawfully killed: Riot officer could face trial
Mirror: G20 heart [police] attack victim Ian Tomlinson was shoved by police video shows [There was no heart attack here, just an unlawful killing] [7/04/2009]
Daily Mail: Four police officers ' beat up and mocked terror suspect accused of helping Al Qaeda'

ANTI-CLUSTER bomb campaigners have reacted furiously to revelations that the federal government secretly worked with the US to weaken a key international treaty to ban the notorious weapons. The reaction came as the Future Fund confirmed that this year it dumped its investments in 10 munitions companies ahead of the ratification of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Leaked US diplomatic cables show Kevin Rudd's government was privately prepared to pull out of international negotiations for a global ban of the weapons if this threatened ties with US forces. As The Age reported earlier this year, an article was inserted in the treaty as a result of the US-influenced lobbying. Legislation to enact the treaty domestically now contains loopholes that could allow Australian troops to participate in attacks using the bombs, and allow the US to store them on Australian soil. The legislation is expected to be passed by Parliament soon.

"It gets worse. Not only did the Australian government despicably and secretively act to water down the convention during the negotiation process - but now our own legislation to ratify that convention contains serious loopholes which further weaken Australia's commitment,'' Cluster Munitions Coalition founder John Rodstead said. ''The legislation allows Australian troops to actively assist in the use of cluster bombs by non-signatory allies, doing everything short of pulling the trigger, like locating targets for attack, refuelling planes carrying clusters, directing attacks on to a target, and providing cover while cluster bombs are used.''

A photo of the Oh family from 1991 is the only
known picture taken inside Yodok.

Amnesty International has published satellite imagery and new testimony that shed light on the horrific conditions in North Korea’s network of political prison camps, which hold an estimated 200,000 people.

The images reveal the location, size and conditions inside the camps. Amnesty International spoke to a number of people, including former inmates from the political prison camp at Yodok as well as guards in other political prison camps, to obtain information about life in the camps.

According to former detainees at the political prison camp at Yodok, prisoners are forced to work in conditions approaching slavery and are frequently subjected to torture and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. All the detainees at Yodok have witnessed public executions.

“North Korea can no longer deny the undeniable. For decades the authorities have refused to admit to the existence of mass political prison camps,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International Asia Pacific Director.

Even more details on the "OBL photos": A Senior US Official tells [claims] CNN 10 hard drives, 5 computers and more than 100 storage devices which includes discs, DVDs and thumb drives were taken from the compound. The senior us official also says the White House received 3 sets of photos yesterday. The [alleged] photos included:

1. Photos of OBLs body at a hangar after he was brought back to Afghanistan. This is the most recognizable with a clear picture of his face. The picture is gruesome because he has a massive open head wound across both eyes. It’s very bloody and gory.
2. Photos from the burial at sea on the USS Carl Vinson. Photos of OBL before the shroud was put on and then wrapped in the shroud.
3. There are photos of the raid itself that include photos of the two dead brothers, one of OBLs dead son (adult adolescent, maybe approx 18 yrs old) and some of the inside scene of the compound.

The official says the challenge is that the picture that includes the most recognizable image of OBLs face – from the hangar in Afghanistan – is so gruesome and mangled its not appropriate for say the front page of the newspaper. On the other hand, this is the one that is most identifiable as him.

The Independent: US 'alerted to Bin Laden compound in 2009'