According to first-hand accounts and reports provided to Boiling Frogs Post by several sources in Jordan, during the last few hours foreign military groups, estimated at hundreds of individuals, began to spread near the villages of the north-Jordan city of “Al-Mafraq”, which is adjacent to the Jordanian and Syrian border. - According to one Jordanian military officer who asked to remain anonymous, hundreds of soldiers who speak languages ​other than Arabic were seen during the past two days in those areas moving back and forth in military vehicles between the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq (10 km from the Syrian border), and the vicinity of Jordanian villages adjacent to the Syrian border, such as village Albaej (5 km from the border), the area around the dam of Sarhan, the villages of Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah adjacent to the Syrian border. Another report received from our source in Amman identified an additional US-NATO Command Center in “al-Houshah,’ a village near Mafraq. Our Iraqi journalist source in London provided us with the following related information:

“Some of the US forces that left the Ain al-Assad Air base in Iraq last Thursday, did not come back to the USA or its base in Germany, but were transferred to Jordan during the evening hours.”

Oil rose the most in almost four weeks on speculation supplies will be disrupted after a report that Iran will hold drills to close the Strait of Hormuz and that the Federal Reserve may announce additional stimulus. - Crude advanced as much as 3.6 percent as the state-run Fars news agency reported the plans for military maneuvers at the strait, a bottleneck for oil exports from the Persian Gulf. Futures pared gains on a denial by Iran’s Foreign Ministry. The Fed will release a statement on monetary policy later today.

English abstract: The terrorist attacks in Norway on 22 July 2011 were first described as an al-Qaeda operation. When Anders Behring Breivik was arrested and we were able to look at his video and read his manifesto, it became clear that he was inspired by Jewish-Christian anti-jihadist writers, the very individuals that had pointed to al-Qaeda in the first place. Some critics argued that Breivik had been used by Israeli forces with an interest in changing Norway’s policy towards Palestine, as if Breivik had copied the Israeli bombing of the British headquarters in Jerusalem in 1946, on the very anniversary of that attack. However, inspiration and interests are not enough. One also has to look at Breivik’s contacts that supposedly financed him and initiated him into his crusading «Knights Templar» order. Breivik himself points to Serbian crusaders, while others points to an East-European military mafia. The two converge, however, into one network that is surprisingly close to Saudi and Chechen intelligence and to the very Islamists that Breivik detests, as though Breivik’s Knights Templar were the mirror image of al-Qaeda. [Article in Norwegian]

Charles E. Carlson: Anders Breivik Declared Insane: Who is Guilty? (Part1)
left flank: Breivik update: Politics, terrorism and psychiatry

Mustafa Tamimi

“Ambulance! Ambulance!” - So far, there were three people who had suffocated from the tear gas, and three people injured by rubber bullets. I saw gas, and so assumed that it was another case of suffocation. But the cries got louder, urgent, desperate — quite unlike the previous calls. Along with those around me, we began running to where the injured person lay, 50 meters away. Screams. “Mustafa! Mustafa!” - I ran faster. I stopped. The youth I was so used to, the same ones who were always teasing and joking and smoking, were crying. One turned to me and groaned, “His head. His head is split into two!” My stomach plummeted and I forgot to breathe. Exaggeration, I thought. Impossible. Not here. More screams of “Mustafa!”

I saw the man lying on the ground. I saw the medic with one knee on the ground, his face a mask of shock. I saw his bloodied gloved hands. Mustafa’s sister was screaming his name. I saw Mustafa. I saw the blood, the big pool of dark red blood. I saw the blood dripping from his head to the ground as they carried him and put him in a taxi, since the ambulance was nowhere to be found. I saw other the tear-streaked faces of other activists, and all I felt was numbness. Mustafa’s sister Ola was still screaming, so I put my arms around her as she buried her head in my chest. I was babbling, “It’s ok, he’s gonna be fine, it’s ok” but she kept on screaming. Her screams and the disturbing reactions of those around me made my legs numb. Ola then left to go to the watchtower where the taxi with her brother was, and my state of shock crumbled as I gasped out my tears in the arms of my friend.

Stephen Lendman: Treating Palestinians Lawlessly
Khalid Amayreh: Gingrich's obscene canard

Joharah Baker: Gingrich, the Fight is on - Two things happened this week that shook the Palestinians to their core. The first was the killing of Mustapha Tamimi, the 27-year old popular resistance activist who was shot directly in the face with a teargas canister while protesting Israel’s measures in his village. The second thing that shook us was the comments made by Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich. By now, almost everyone has heard about his racist, outrageous rant, about how he offensively called the Palestinians an “invented people” and how we were all “terrorists.” These two events epitomize all that is right and all that is wrong with Palestine’s affairs today. Mustapha Tamimi lived and died a hero for his cause. The popular resistance led by his village is what all revolutionary movements are striving for – consistency, efficacy and passion. He has died, but his cause has not, his memory has not and the throes of people who stood beside him will not give up the fight even as they bitterly mourn their brother and friend. Gingrich represents the dark side of affairs. He is not alone in his own twisted and racist way of thinking. A slice of America – no matter how small we may make it might to be – adheres to this mindset and blindly supports Israel regardless of what it does or who it hurts.

Settlers acted following rumors IDF planning to evict West Bank settlement; no one arrested; earlier, right-wing activists arrested on Jordan border. - In the attack on the Efraim Regional Brigade's base near the West Bank city of Qalqilya, right-wing activists threw stones at region's brigade commander and his deputy after forcefully opening the door to their jeep. The brigade commander was lightly wounded after a stone hit his head. In addition to the attack on the IDF base, right-wing activists blocked a main West Bank road and threw stones at passing Palestinian vehicles and IDF soldiers in the area.

Video footage shows an unidentified flying object hovering above protesters in Bolotnaya Square in Moscow.

Witnessed by hundreds of pro-democracy protestors in the Russian capital's Bolotnaya Square on Saturday, the unidentified craft drew confused stares. Clearly not a helicopter, the silent UFO pulsated coloured lights and had five extended tendrils or pylons emanating from the body of the vehicle. Onlookers, protesting against election results, climbed trees to grab a closer look at the mysterious craft which seemed to be observing the 25,000 people who had made their way down to Bolotnaya Square to protest. Russia has been rocked by mass protests against elections in early December which pro-democracy organisers say were rigged in favour of Vladimir Putin and his party.

Meanwhile in "the land of the free": href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/12/sovereign-citizens-members-arrested-with-help-of-predator-drone/">‘Sovereign Citizens’ members arrested with help of Predator drone

The severity and the extent of the CIA’s involvement with Nazi war criminals has remained undisclosed for years, with the U.S. Department of Justice stifling masses of pages and documents of a frank and open history of how the U.S. government collaborated and even protected Nazis. - In 2005, the National Security Archive finally posted formerly classified secret documents that linked the CIA to the notorious Nazi general Reinhard Gehlen, despite the fact that Gehlen had employed numerous known Nazi war criminals. The released two-volume history, known as the “Secret Relger”, was compiled by Kevin Ruffner, a CIA historian. In 1999, the report was presented to the German Intelligence Service by Jack Downing, CIA Deputy Director for Operations, in remembrance of the “new and close ties” formed between the CIA and German officials during post-war Germany.

Hezbollah has revealed the identities of CIA officers working undercover in Lebanon, a blow to agency operations in the region and the latest salvo in an escalating spy war. - Hezbollah made the names public in a broadcast Friday night on a Lebanese television station, al-Manar. Using animated videos, the station recreated meetings purported to take place between CIA officers and paid informants at Starbucks and Pizza Hut. The disclosure comes after Hezbollah managed to partially unravel the agency's spy network in Lebanon after running a double agent against the CIA, former and current U.S. intelligence officials said. They requested anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence. The fiasco happened despite top CIA officials being warned to be extra careful when handling informants after Hezbollah and Lebanese officials arrested scores of Israeli spies in 2009. The outing of the officers is particularly damaging because it will hinder the ability of these CIA employees to work overseas again - especially in the Internet age where references to their names will be widely available to other foreign intelligence agencies.

Al-Manar TV: Information on CIA’s Work in Lebanon, Published for First Time by Hezbollah

The Islamic Republic announced it will reverse engineering on the US spy drone downed by its military, and is in the “final stages” of unlocking the aircraft's software secrets, the head of Iran’s Parliamentary National Security Committee Parviz Sorouri said on Monday. - According to the website of Iranian state television, Sorouri said that “in the near future, we will be able to mass produce it... Iranian engineers will soon build an aircraft superior to the American [drone] using reverse-engineering.” Sorouri said “we are in the final stages of cracking [the drone's] code.” He indicated that “we will acquire valuable intelligence through deciphering the Americans' covert intelligence and espionage methods once the code is cracked,” but added he could not say when the software would be finally unlocked.

PressTV: Returning US spy drone out of question

Jason Ditz: Obama Confirms Asking Iran for Drone Back - After initially declining comment on the matter, President Barack Obama confirmed today at a news conference with Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki that the US would really like to have back that RQ-170 Sentinel drone that Iran shot down over Iranian airspace, and that the US “have asked for it back.” The drone is considered one of the more advanced in the US arsenal, and was captured virtually undamaged by the Iranian military while it was spying on eastern Iran. The loss is expected to allow the technology to reach a number of other countries, with Russia and China both particularly keen on having a look at it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also confirmed a “formal request” that Iran give them back the drone, while saying that “given Iran’s behavior to date, we do not expect them to comply.”

A group of fuel tankers contracted to NATO forces in Afghanistan were set on fire by armed militants on motorcycles who ambushed the convoy in southwest Pakistan, officials said. - The gunmen opened fire on the trucks, killing one driver and forcing the others to stop in an area 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, police official Abdul Qadir said. The eight trucks were then set alight. Fuel tankers, which normally would supply NATO forces in Afghanistan, have been left stranded in Pakistan and vulnerable to militant attack ever since the Pakistani government closed the border to NATO supply vehicles. Sunday's attack was the second of its kind in four days. Pakistan closed the routes to protest a NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last month, an attack that plunged Islamabad and Washington into one of their worst diplomatic crises ever. Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the blockade of Pakistan's NATO supply routes will continue for weeks until "new rules of engagement" are established with Washington.

NASA scientists have identified a new planet they believe to have several similarities to Earth. - Kepler-22b, named for the Kepler planet-hunting telescope it was spotted with, is the first planet to be confirmed beyond our solar system in what the Guardian called the "Goldilocks zone": not too hot, not too cold, and therefore possibly habitable. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth. It orbits a star similar to the Earth's sun and is believed to have a surface temperature of around 22 degrees Celsius, according to NASA. Astronomers say Kepler-22b's temperate climate makes it possible that it possesses liquid water, CNN reported. Kepler program scientist Douglas Hudgins described the discovery as "a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin." NASA still does not know what the planet is made of, however; it could be predominantly rock, gas or liquid. Scientists have "no idea" about the typical composition of planets of this size, Kepler deputy science team lead Natalie Batalha said, since there is no precedent in our own solar system. Since Kepler-22b is about 600 light years - or 3,600 trillion miles - from Earth, the chances of any earthlings ever making it there are slim.

Discover Magazine: Kepler confirms first planet found in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star!