A former official from within the ranks of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reporting that US and NATO forces have landed outside of Syria and are training militants to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. - Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, formerly a translator with the FBI, wrote over the weekend that American soldiers are among the NATO troops that have mysteriously and suddenly landed on the Jordanian and Syrian border. According to her, several sources internationally have confirmed the news, although the US media has been instructed to temporarily censor itself from reporting the news. Additionally, Edmonds says that American and NATO forces are training Turkish troops as well, to possibly launch a strike from the north of Syria. Edmonds writes that an Iraqi journalist based out of London has confirmed that US forces that vacated the Ain al-Assad Air Base in Iraq last week did in fact leave the country as part of President Obama’s drawdown of troops, but rather than return home, the soldiers were transferred into Jordan during the late hours of Thursday evening. Another source, writes Edmonds, informs her that “soldiers who speak languages other than Arabic” have been moving through Jordan mere miles from the country’s border with Syria. Troops believed to be NATO/American-affiliated have been spotted between the King Hussein Air Base in al-Mafraq and the Jordanian village of Albaej and its vicinity.

Boiling Frogs: US Special Forces Mass On Syrian Border

A documentary giving an insight into the events that led up to NATO intervention in Libya.

"This is a giant step – this should be the biggest news going right now – literally legalizing martial law. This is arrogant and bold and dangerous" said Paul. - Outside of the independent media, opposition to NDAA has remained almost nonexistent, with the mainstream neglecting to discuss the colossal implications the bill would have if it is signed into law. Speaking to radio host Alex Jones on Tuesday, however, Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul finally became one of the first main figures to attack the act.

Stephen Lendman: Legislating Tyranny in America
Washington's Blog: The Indefinite Detention Bill DOES Apply to American Citizens on U.S. Soil
Paul Joseph Watson: 40 Members of Congress Protest ‘Indefinite Detention’ Bill

In a statement released Tuesday, House oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa criticized an amendment proposed by Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, saying it does not fix anything and would give “Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice broad new powers to police the Internet.” - SOPA, which is Smith’s bill, would place authority over websites that facilitate copyright infringement under Justice Department jurisdiction. The bill — heavily criticized by politicians, social networking sites and political advocacy groups for its “broad reach” — is expected to see full committee markup before Smith’s House Judiciary Committee Thursday. “The manager’s amendment retains the fundamental flaws of its predecessor by blocking Americans’ ability to access websites, imposing costly regulation on web companies and giving Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice broad new powers to police the internet,” said Issa.

kenny's sideshow: I'll Never Do It Again

Egyptians went to the polls on Wednesday morning in the second stage voting for a new parliament, after the first stage concluded with the Islamic parties being the biggest winners. - The polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. (0600GMT) in Giza, Minufiya, Sharqiya, Ismailia, Beni Suef, Suez, Beheira, Sohag and Aswan governorates. Soldiers and police were deployed in the polling stations to ensure security of the process. This two-day stage has around 18.7 million eligible voters. More than 3,000 party candidates and independents are competing for 180 seats. The first stage saw a high turnout of 60 percent. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party captured 36.6 percent of the 9.73 million valid votes. It was followed by the ultra- conservative Salafist Nour Party, which garnered 24.4 percent of the votes. Islamic parties are so far the biggest winners.

Mustafa Tamimi, 28 was pronounced dead Saturday after being hit with a teargas canister directly to his face at a short range. Palestinian media sources said Tamimi was throwing rocks at the armored Israeli jeep when one of the soldiers opened the door and fired the teargas canister at him. [Video]

AWIP: No miracle yesterday in Nabi Saleh: Mustafa Tamimi murdered
Al Manar TV: Mustafa Tamimi, Latest Victim of Israel’s Barbarism

Gotta hand it to the IDF. We could never have high-lighted its apartheid policy better. - Monday night, three days after the killing of Mustafa Tamimi – who was killed by a 40mm grenade to the face by a soldier sitting in an armored vehicle – several young settler hoodlums tried to forcibly cross the border to Jordan, in order to create an outpost there. Ha’Kol Hayehudi, Israel’s equivalent of Radio Rwanda, claimed their purpose was to remind us all that Jordan, too, is a part of Israel. Others said this was retaliation for Jordan’s participation in the crisis over a bridge near the Western Wall. I have seen with my own eyes people arrested and cuffed for the crime of entering a closed military zone. I have listened as a major explained patiently that the army has declared the entire village of Al Ma’asara such a zone. I have seen the detainees being hooded and forced into military vehicle. Somehow, when it comes to right wing rioters in the West Bank, that doesn’t happen. Hours later, some arrests were made – presumably the police showed up.

Xinhuanet: Mosque torched in Jerusalem in suspected attack by extremists

Israel has torn down twice as many Palestinian homes in 2011 as it did in 2010 in the occupied land to build Jewish settlements, human rights groups say.

Twenty human rights groups, including UK-based Amnesty International and US-based Human Rights Watch, released a statement on Tuesday, warning of the escalation in Israeli settlement construction and Jewish settlers' violence against Palestinians, Reuters reported.

The rights organizations urged the Middle East Quartet group -- the US, UN, European Union (EU) and Russia -- to pressure Tel Aviv to "reverse its settlement policies and freeze all demolitions that violate international law.” “The Quartet should call ongoing settlement expansion and house demolitions what they are: violations of international humanitarian law that Israel should stop,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

The statement cited UN figures as showing that Israel demolished more than 500 Palestinian homes and other structures in 2011 and displaced over 1,000 Palestinians, which is the greatest number in a single year since 2005. The figures also demonstrate that Jewish settlers' attacks on Palestinians have climbed to their worst level since 2005, with a 50 percent increase compared to 2010, and more than a 160 percent rise over 2009. According to the statement, Israel endorsed plans to construct 4,000 more illegal settler units in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem) last year.

PIC: 20 NGOs demand int'l quartet to end demolition of Palestinian homes
PIC: Mizan: IOF soldiers killed 30 Palestinians in one year including 16 children
Uruknet: URGENT APPEAL (UA 4/10) - Gaza: Children of the Gravel
Electronic Intifada: West Bank village steps up protests against Israel’s theft of land
Stephen Lendman: Lawless Israeli Oppression in Palestine
Stephen Lendman: Treating Palestinians Lawlessly

For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt." Wukan denizens clash with Chinese police and run all Party officials out of their town. - The last of Wukan’s dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm against tear gas and water cannons. Since then, the police have retreated to a roadblock, some three miles away, in order to prevent food and water from entering, and villagers from leaving. Wukan’s fishing fleet, its main source of income, has also been stopped from leaving harbour. The plan appears to be to lay siege to Wukan and choke a rebellion which began three months ago when an angry mob, incensed at having the village’s land sold off, rampaged through the streets and overturned cars. Although China suffers an estimated 180,000 “mass incidents” a year, it is unheard of for the Party to sound a retreat.

Despite the 1855 occupation soldiers killed in the war-torn country since the US-led invasion in 2003, the US Defense Chief boasts and says his country is “winning”. - During a visit to Afghanistan, Panetta reviews the war effort between Kabul and Washington, which is on track to recall 33,000 troops by the end of the next year and is shifting its focus to an advisory role in “training” Afghan security forces. "We're moving in the right direction and we're winning this very tough conflict," he told troops at Forward Operating Base Sharana, 56 kilometers from the Pakistan border, in the eastern province of Paktika.

TEHRAN (FNA)- With America still scrambling to explain why and how they lost a drone aircraft over Iran last week, the Pentagon is trying to make sense of how another high-tech unmanned spy craft crashed Tuesday morning in the Seychelles. - For the second time in two weeks, American authorities lost contact with a drone aircraft, this time resulting in a fiery crash in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The United States has operated an Air Force base there since 2009 to dispatch drones for use in anti-piracy missions and to patrol the skies over Somalia and elsewhere. Officials at the US embassy in Mauritius confirmed the crash on Tuesday morning, revealing that an MQ-9, or "Reaper" drone, had landed at Seychelles International Airport, citing mechanical issues. A week earlier, the US Department of Defense denied losing a drone, only for Iran authorities to in turn publish video proof of an American craft that they have recovered. The Pentagon later admitted that they lost contact with the drone while allegedly flying it over Afghanistan. But they later confessed that the drone was carrying a mission in Iran, prompting President Obama to ask Tehran to return the spy plane. Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shot down Obama's plea, however.

Fars News Agency: Afghan Analyst Links Panetta's Visit to Kabul with Loss of US Spy Drone
Russia Today: Cyber war on US drones? Another spy craft crash, now in Seychelles
PressTV: NATO to stay in Afghanistan after 2014
PressTV: Returning US spy drone out of question

The ill-fated Phobos-Grunt probe that got stuck in the orbit after an unsuccessful launch will fall to Earth on January 11, probably affecting four continents, the US Strategic Command shared its latest forecast. - The current orbit of the vehicle suggests that it could collide with the surface on a vast part of the globe, from latitude 51.4°N to latitude 51.4°S. anywhere in Africa, Australia, Japan, North America or southern part of Western Europe, but definitely not on the larger part of the Russian territory. A more-or-less exact prognosis on the coordinates of the crash can only be made several hours before the collision. According to the previous forecast, the probe was due to enter atmosphere on January 9.

[Part 2] A very interesting interview. Veronica Keen of the Montague Keen Foundation, interviews Gilad Atzmon about his popular new book, The Wandering Who? (A Study of Jewish Identity Politics) Veronica Keen is the wife of the late Montague Keen, a prominent academic and researcher with the Society for Psychical Research in London, England.

Gilad Atzmon: Liam Fox Is Not a ‘Useful Idiot’
Craig Murray: Matthew Gould and the Plot to Attack Iran