OWS Protester 'banned' from flight home for Christmas after he was found carrying anarchist literature. - A member of the Occupy London protests was stopped from boarding his flight home for Christmas after he was found carrying anarchist literature, it has been claimed. The demonstrator, who is part of the group occupying the empty UBS building dubbed the "Bank of Ideas", said he was told he would not be allowed on the Ryanair flight to Malaga because the pilot feared he might distribute leaflets and "upset other passengers".

The sale of surveillance software from Western companies to authoritarian regimes has been criticized at the annual conference of Germany's Chaos Computer Club. The software has been used to track political opponents. - The US government may have imposed sanctions against Syria, yet software used by the regime for tracking dissidents is provided by an American company. In the intelligence headquarters of the overthrown Mubarak and Gadhafi regimes, supply contracts with European electronics companies could be found providing devices which monitor the Internet. It's deals like these between Western companies and authoritarian regimes looking to censor and track Internet use that attracted hackers' attention at the beginning of the annual meeting of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) on Wednesday in Berlin. Evgeny Morozov, a lecturer at Stanford University in the United States, called this collaboration between Western software companies and authoritarian regimes in the persecution of dissenters as a "marriage from hell."

Tensions between the US and Iran have all but reached a breaking point with a naval standoff moments away from occurring in the Strait of Hormuz. - Following rumors of a budding nuclear program in the works from Tehran, American authorities attempted to infiltrate Iran, most notable with a filed stealth surveillance mission that ended with a US spy drone being downed, recovered and decoded by overseas authorities. After Iran mocked America for the country’s inability to manage and command their own aircraft, the European Union fired back in recent days by threatening sanctions against Iran. In response, overseas authorities say that they would respond by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a notable channel in the Persian Gulf that serves as a key component in Iran’s oil export exhibitions.

EuroNews: US warns Iran over threat to close vital oil route
Russia Today: Conflict between Iran and West ‘the greatest danger’ of 2012 – Russia’s UN envoy

The US has resorted to “any possible means”, ranging from implicit to explicit acts of enmity, to undermine the Iranian nation and break its resistance to subjugation, a political analyst tells Press TV. - In consonance with its animus-charged measures against the Islamic Republic, “a US court in Manhattan made a mockery of justice, issued a default judgment against Iran, and accused Tehran of being involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” Ismail Salami, a Middle East expert, said, citing one such anti-Iran push in an article published on Press TV on Tuesday. Such an allegation “stands in stark contrast to reason in view of the plethora of evidence pointing with force and logic to the joint role of the CIA and the Mossad in the tragic incident,” he added. On December 22, a US federal judge in Manhattan alleged that Iran, together with Taliban and al-Qaeda, had been involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The court, meanwhile, withdrew Saudi Arabia's name from the 10-year-old case, even though 15 of the 19 attackers were of Saudi nationality. The Iranian author went on to say that the association of the Islamic Republic of Iran with Taliban and al-Qaeda was a move aimed to “further drag Iran into the margins of isolation.” The US government's effort to incriminate Iran in the 9/11 case followed another attempt in early October, when the US Justice Department accused Tehran of involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Jason Ditz: Report: Israel, US Discuss Excuses for Attacking Iran - Officially, of course, both sides would insist such an attack was about Iran’s nuclear program. But since both nations have been claiming Iran is within striking distance of acquiring nuclear weapons since the mid-1980s, the excuse isn’t going to really fly internationally, so both nations are hoping to settle on something which could be the “trigger” for the attack.

A Jewish man, who arrived in Israel in 2009 to join his mother and brother who were already living here, has been denied immigrant status, apparently because of his psychiatric history. - The Interior Ministry's Population and Immigration Administration has rejected the application of the man, although it did not provide any formal explanation for the decision, which is now being challenged in the High Court of Justice. The man, who suffers from psychiatric problems, applied for immigrant status and citizenship under the Law of Return which, subject to narrow exceptions, allows any Jew as well as members of the extended family of Jews to acquire Israeli citizenship and immigrate to the country. His application was rejected despite a psychiatric opinion that he did not pose a danger to those around him and that he was capable of working and would not pose a burden on society.

The following were the top 10 news events around the world in 2011 as selected by Xinhua (in chronological order):

ESA Satellite Images

The U.S. Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday it will not allow any disruption of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran threatened to stop ships moving through the strategic oil route. - "The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity," a spokesperson for the Bahrain-based fleet said in a written response to queries from Reuters about the possibility of Iran trying to close the waterway. "Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated." Asked whether it was taking specific measures in response to the threat to close the Strait, the fleet said it "maintains a robust presence in the region to deter or counter destabilizing activities," without providing further detail.

Russia Today: Oil standoff: Iran, West on brink of war?
AWIP: Hormuz naval drill, message to West
AWIP: Persian Gulf red line for US: Panetta

PressTV: 'War on Iran thundering in all fury' - The idea of attacking Iran's nuclear facilities, thundering in all its fury, comes from the neocons of the administration of former US President George W. Bush, a historian says. "The Iran war is the brainchild of the neocons of the Bush-Cheney administration," Michael Carmichael wrote in an article, A Call for Peace: Say NO to America's Military Adventure, published in Global Research. "Over the past eight years, our military intelligence establishment working hand-in-glove with other shadow agencies of other nations has been building up the notion of a casus belli against Iran predicated upon their allegedly clandestine nuclear arms program," he added. Carmichael also pointed out that former US Vice President Dick Cheney argued for war against Iran as early as 2002 and 2003 in top secret meetings of the national Security Council.

Afghan officials say an American reconnaissance drone has crashed in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Paktia, Press TV reports. - A Tuesday statement released by NATO confirmed the incident but claimed that the unmanned aircraft made an emergency landing “due to technical malfunction.” According to locals, US-led forces have cordoned off the site of the incident. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid also claimed that members of the militant group shot down the drone in the Ahmadabad district of the province. The Taliban say they have shot down several aircraft and NATO choppers in different parts of Afghanistan over the past few months. Activities by the militants have persisted despite the presence of around 150,000 US-led forces in Afghanistan. The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of combating terrorism and eradicating the Taliban militancy but its failure has forced Washington to turn to negotiation with the militants. The Taliban have steadily stepped up their attacks on the US-led forces, inflicting heavy casualties and damage on them.

Today marks the third anniversary of the commencement of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 offensive on the Gaza Strip. 27 December also marks the anniversary of the single bloodiest day in the history of the occupation; on this day three years ago 334 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, 76.6% of whom were civilians. Three years after the fact…. the atrocities continue.

We, Palestinians of Gaza, 3 years on from the 22-day long massacre in Israel’s operation ‘Cast Lead’, are calling on international civil society to make 2012 the year when solidarity with us in Palestine captures the spark of the revolutions around the Arab world and never looks back. On this anniversary we demand an international liberation movement that eventually leads to just that, liberation for us Palestinians from 63 years of brutal military occupation and ethnic cleansing that pours shame on any organisation or government claiming to endorse universal human rights. We will never forget the hurt of 3 years ago, the criminal onslaught that we lived through, the blood of over 1400 murdered men, women and hundreds of children running through the streets of Gaza, between the rubble, soaking our beds and etched on our minds. We will never forget. For they are still dead, and thousands more are still maimed.

The WE!: US Israel Murder - Photos
Stephen Lendman: Gaza: Remembering Cast Lead
Palestine Chronicle: Remember These Children Mr. President
PCHR: Operation Cast Lead Aftermath : The Al Ashi Family
Norman G. Finkelstein: GAZA Photoalbum [PDF]
Norman G. Finkelstein: Finkelstein on the Gaza Massacre - Video
IMEMC: Palestinian Killed, 11 Wounded, As Army Bombards Gaza
PIC: Palestinian child wounded in IOF shooting in central Gaza
PCHR: 3 Years After Operation Cast Lead Justice has been Comprehensively Denied

Since 1948, millions of Palestinians have been forced into exile from their own lands.

Steve Irwin Responding to Distress Call from the Brigitte Bardot. - While fighting heavy seas in pursuit of the Japanese whaling fleet, the Sea Shepherd scout vessel Brigitte Bardot was struck by a rogue wave that has cracked the hull and severely damaged one of the pontoons on the vessel. Captain Paul Watson, onboard the Sea Shepherd flagship Steve Irwin, reports that they are fighting heavy seas to reach the position of the Brigitte Bardot some 240 miles to the southeast. It is expected to take twenty hours to reach the damaged vessel. The Brigitte Bardot is at 51 degrees 42 minutes South and 99 Degrees 21 minutes East, or 1500 miles southwest of Fremantle, Western Australia.

Rule change will help stretch Tokyo's defence budget further in response to China's increased military spending. - Japan has relaxed its self-imposed decades-old ban on military equipment exports in a move that will open up new markets to its defence contractors and help it squeeze more out of its defence budget. The rule adopted in 1967 banned sales to communist countries, and those involved in international conflicts or subject to United Nations sanctions. It later became a blanket ban on exports and on the development and production of weapons with countries other than the United States, making it impossible for manufacturers to participate in multinational projects. The government's security council agreed to the relaxing of the ban to allow Japan to take part in the joint development and production of arms with other countries and to supply military equipment for humanitarian missions, chief cabinet secretary Osamu Fujimura said.

A Pentagon public relations program that sought to transform high-profile military analysts into “surrogates” and “message force multipliers” for the Bush administration complied with Defense Department regulations and directives, the Pentagon’s inspector general has concluded after a two-year investigation. - The inquiry was prompted by articles published in The New York Times in 2008 that describedhow the Pentagon, in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, cultivated close ties with retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks. The articles also showed how military analysts affiliated with defense contractors sometimes used their special access to seek advantage in the competition for contracts. In response to the articles, the Pentagon suspended the program and members of Congress asked the Defense Department’s inspector general to investigate. In January 2009, the inspector general’s office issued a report that said it had found no wrongdoing in the program. But soon after, the inspector general’s office retracted the entire report, saying it was so riddled with inaccuracies and flaws that none of its conclusions could be relied upon. In late 2009, the inspector general’s office began a new inquiry. The results of the new inquiry, first reported by The Washington Times, confirm that the Pentagon under Donald H. Rumsfeld made a concerted effort starting in 2002 to reach out to network military analysts to build and sustain public support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to a study reported Tuesday, nearly half the members of the United States Congress are millionaires. Of the 535 legislators (100 members of the Senate and 435 members of the House of Representatives), at least 250 are millionaires and the median net worth is $913,000. Sixty-seven senators are millionaires and the median wealth of the body’s 100 members is $2.63 million. While the Senate has long been known as a millionaires’ club, the transformation of the House is a relatively recent phenomenon. The median net worth of members of the House of Representatives, excluding home equity, has more than doubled over the last 25 years, from $280,000 in 1984 to $725,000 in 2009 in inflation-adjusted dollars. During that same period, the median net worth of an American family fell from $20,600 to $20,500.

New Yourk Times: Economic Downturn Took a Detour at Capitol Hill
Washington Post: Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers and constituents
Washington Post: Richest members of Congress - Photos
Russia Today: Congressmen's incomes triple while America gets poorer

While on vacation in Hawaii, Obama tapped Jerome Powell to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. - Powel served as the undersecretary for finance under the president George H. W. Bush and was a partner of The Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group is a massive private equity firm and one of the largest defense contractors in the world. They're made up of some of the most influential policymakers over the last five administrations including both Bush presidents, former Secretary of State James Baker III, former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, former Clinton Chief of Staff Mack McLarty, and former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt to name a few. Other notable investors in The Carlyle Group include the bin Laden family and the Saudi Royal Family. Coincidentally, George H. W. Bush was meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington on the morning of September 11th with one of Osama Bin Laden's brothers. This is not the first time Barack Obama has placed Bush Sr.'s minions into influential positions. In August 2010, Daniel F. Akerson, a managing director of the Carlyle Group, in what was called a "surprise move" was named the CEO of General Motors (GM), otherwise known as Government Motors. Once again, Obama reveals that change will remain absent under his leadership, and the military-industrial complex will continue to garner powerful positions during his administration.

No doubt you've heard the adage: a picture is worth a thousand words. A picture of 62-year-old Nick Christie could be worth thousands of dollars when a jury sees it. The photo shows the Ohio man restrained inside the Lee County Jail with his body covered in pepper spray. "This photo is a picture of a man who is strapped to a chair naked inside a jail for hours with a hood over his face. That evokes thoughts of being tortured," says Cleveland-based lawyer Nick DiCello who represents the Christie family. The photo, which was obtained by FOX 13's investigative unit, was taken in the final hours of Christie's life.

Newly-disclosed documents have revealed that the Israeli regime stole nuclear material from a US stockpile of enriched uranium to build Tel Aviv's first atomic weapons. - The Institute for Research on Middle Eastern Policy examined hundreds of newly-declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies. The study revealed that Israel used its intelligence operatives in the US as well as American Jews to infiltrate a US uranium stockpile between the 1950s and the 1960s and stole hundreds of kilograms of weapon-grade nuclear materials to manufacture its first atomic bombs. After decades of Washington-imposed information blackout over the issue, the US Department of Energy finally confirmed in 2001 that 269 kilograms of uranium were stolen from the Numec nuclear facility in Apollo, Pennsylvania. In the 50s, the US had contracted the supervision of the Numec to Zalman Shapiro, an American Jew suspected to have ties with Tel Aviv. Over a period of 11 years, following Shapiro's appointment, 269 kilograms of enriched uranium were stolen from the plant under the course of an operation conducted by four Mossad intelligence agents, Rafael Eitan, Avraham Ben-Dor, Ephraim Biegun and Avraham Hermoni.

An eight-year-old girl who said she was terrified to walk to school after being spat on by Jewish extremists has highlighted growing anger at the treatment of women in Israel. - Blonde-haired Naama Margolese told the country's Channel Two television she was scared passers-by might hurt her during her journey to her moderate Orthodox school in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. It was a realisation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fears over the actions of ultra-Orthodox groups, as the girl spoke out on a damning report broadcast on Friday. The blonde, blue-eyed child told Israel's most popular weekend news show that she was spat on and verbally abused by ultra-Orthodox men who thought she was immodestly dressed. They wanted her 'to dress like a Haredi', she explained - the Hebrew term for strict, black-coated Jews who are in 'awe' of God. 'I'm afraid I might get hurt or something,' she added.

Global Post: Ultra-Orthodox men rise up in Israel over women's rights

The Private Global Power Elite embedded in major governments is dead set on imposing World Government on us sooner rather than later. Let’s look at 12 mega-processes – veritable “Triggers” – that we infer they are using to achieve their goals. - All roads lead to World Government. This should come as no surprise. London’s Financial Times openly articulated this view in an article by their chief foreign affairs commentator, Gideon Rachman, published on 8 December 2009, whose title said it all: “And Now for a World Government.” These goals are echoed by the Trilateral Commission, CFR and Bilderberg insiders – even by the Vatican.

Iran by many is considered to be technologically inferior to most countries around the world. But earlier this month, Iran was able to hack the GPS system of a US spy drone and safely land it. Now concerns have been raised on the vulnerability of our military drones and have many wondering how else these vulnerabilities could be used against the US. Doctor Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan administration official, joins us to give us his take on how this could affect the military defense industry.

In an historic hearing in the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels said he planned to issue a ruling in the coming days declaring that Iran shares in the responsibility for the 9/11 terror attacks. - “The extensive record submitted to this court, including fact witnesses and expert testimony, is satisfactory to this court,” Judge Daniels said. The court “accepts as true” the various allegations of the plaintiffs and their experts, he declared, and “will issue an order” in the coming days that Iran bears legal responsibility for providing “material support” to the 9/11 plotters and hijackers. Family members of 9/11 victims who attended the open-court hearing broke into tears. They had nervously sat through a four-hour presentation by attorneys Thomas E. Mellon, Jr., and Timothy B. Fleming, consisting of evidence backing up their claims that Iran had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks and actively assisted the hijackers in planning, preparing, and executing their plan.

GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul warned that the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by Congress this month, will accelerate the country’s “slip into tyranny” and virtually assures “our descent into totalitarianism.” - “The founders wanted to set a high bar for the government to overcome in order to deprive an individual of life or liberty,” Paul, the libertarian congressman, said Monday in a weekly phone message to supporters. “To lower that bar is to endanger everyone. When the bar is low enough to include political enemies, our descent into totalitarianism is virtually assured. The Patriot Act, as bad as its violations against the Fourth Amendment was, was just one step down the slippery slope. The recently passed National Defense Authorization Act continues that slip into tyranny, and in fact, accelerates it significantly.”

A key chemical of one of the most horrifying elements of the Vietnam War -- Agent Orange -- may soon be unleashed on America's farmlands. Considered by world nations to be a "Weapon of Mass Destruction" (WMD), Agent Orange was dropped in the millions of gallons on civilian populations during the Vietnam War in order to destroy foliage and poison North Vietnamese soldiers. The former president of the Vietnamese Red Cross, Professor Nhan, described it as, "...a massive violation of human rights of the civilian population, and a weapon of mass destruction."

A key chemical in that weapon -- 2,4-D -- is just months away from being dropped on agricultural land across the United States. Dow AgroSciences, which along with DuPont and Monsanto is heavily invested in genetically engineered crops, has petitioned the U.S. government to deregulate a variety of GE corn that's resistant to 2,4-D, which comprises 50% of the recipe of Agent Orange.

Google Image Search for 'Agent Orange'

Former detainee and Palestinian researcher specializing in detainees’ affairs, Abdul-Nasser Farawna, stated that Israeli soldiers arrested 3,312 Palestinians, including children, since the beginning of this year. - He said that the army conducted an average of 276 arrests each month, nearly nine arrests a day. Farawna stated that the army detained men, women and children, and even went on to take patients and people with special needs. This is besides arrests targeting elected Palestinian political officials and legislators. The Palestinian researcher said that the vast majority of the arrests were carried out in the West Bank and Jerusalem, in addition to 38 carried out in the Gaza Strip, including those that targeted fishermen, and even patients at the Erez terminal, while on their way to receive medical treatment in Israel or in the West Bank. In a report published on December 19, the Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association stated that since October 18, 2011, when Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was released in exchange for 477 detainees in the first stage of the swap-deal, Israeli soldiers abducted nearly 470 Palestinians, seventy of whom were children. It said that in the first 15 days of December, the army kidnapped more than 21 youth, including 11 children, from the Shu’fat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem.

On Saturday, December 24, Iran's Navy launched a massive 10-day Velayat 90 naval exercise, covering an area stretching from the east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden. - A senior Iranian lawmaker says the ongoing Velayat 90 naval drill aim to send a warning to the West that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed if Iran is threatened. “The [Iranian] Navy's military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman indicate the power and dominance of Iran's Navy in regional waters,” member of the Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Zohreh Elahian said Monday. The lawmaker stated that military drills also aim to increase Iran's deterrence power and prove its regional dominance. “The exercises send an important message to the whole world, especially the colonialist powers…and also show the power of [Iran's] armed forces, particularly [the country's] Navy,” she noted. Elahian added foreign media have admitted that Iran and its Navy are so powerful that if threatened, the country can take control of the Strait of Hormuz as the global economic and energy conduit.

PressTV: Iran capable of closing Hormuz Strait