Obama has made it clear that China is a threat to the US in more ways than one. The countries are two of the world's largest economies, but some economists believe China's economy will surpass the US' economy in five years. Critics believe that is the motive behind President Obama's announcement to station 2500 Marines in Australia. China considers the shift of power as an attempt to escalate military tension in the Asia-Pacific. Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan Administration official and columnist, joins us to give us insight on whats going on between the US and China.

PressTV: China rebuffs US over Iran sanctions

Just one day after reports began trickling out that the US was close to a deal with the Zardari government to resume their drone strikes against the tribal areas, the first drone attack in nearly two months was launched, killing four and injuring several others. - US officials declined to comment publicly, saying that the attack was “classified,” but reports are that it was “probably” a CIA strike. The US stopped all attacks in late November after a US warplane attacked two military bases in Pakistan, killing 24 soldiers. In December it was even reported that the Pakistani military was planning to shoot down future US drones invading the country’s airspace, though this threat apparently was an empty one, as there is no indication any such attempt was made. As usual, the identities of the victims are entirely unknown, as is the reason for the strike. We can expect a future comment from Pakistani officials to term the slain “suspects,” but in all likelihood their identities will never be made public.

Citing recent ethnic violence and with the apparent certainty that every nation on the planet needs at least a few US boots on the ground, President Obama has announced his intention to send troops to the Republic of South Sudan to help the new government with “strategic planning.” - The deployment, which will only include five troops so far, comes after a report of a massacre was refuted by the United Nations, and also as South Sudan continues to accuse the Sudanese government of preventing it from shipping oil more efficiently. It also comes just days after President Obama announced his intention to sell weapons to the South Sudanese government‘s “People’s Liberation Army” saying that the sales would be a key to “world peace.”

Charles Davis & Medea Benjamin: Obama's Pentagon Strategy: A Leaner, More Efficient Empire

The United States is sponsoring the construction of facilities in Georgia on the threshold of a military conflict in Iran, a member of Georgian opposition movement Public Assembly, Elizbar Javelidze has stated. - According to the academician, that explains why President Mikhail Saakashvili is roaming the republic opening new hospitals in its regions. “These are 20-bed hospitals…It’s an American project. A big war between the US and Iran is beginning in the Persian Gulf. $5 billion was allocated for the construction of these 20-bed military hospitals,” Javelidze said in an interview with Georgian paper Kviris Kronika (News of the Week), as cited by Newsgeorgia website. The opposition member stated that the construction is mainly paid from the American pocket. In addition, airports are being briskly built in Georgia and there are talks of constructing a port for underwater vessels in Kulevi on the eastern Black Sea coast in Georgia.

Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and wounding two people on Wednesday, a semiofficial news agency reported.

The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to reinforce authorities' claims of widening clandestine operations by Western powers and allies to try to cripple nuclear advancements.

The bomb killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. Natanz is Iran's main enrichment site, but officials claimed earlier this week that they are expanding some operations to an underground site south of Tehran with more advanced equipment.

PressTV: 'Mossad, MKO killed Iranian scientist'
Fars News Agency: Terrorists Kill Commerce Deputy of Iran's Nuclear Enrichment Site
The Age: Car bomb kills nuke scientist in Iran
BBC: Iran car explosion kills nuclear scientist in Tehran
Russia Today: Mossad it again? 4th Iranian nuclear scientist bombed
Fars News Agency: Official Blames Zionist Regime for Assassination of Natanz Official

It had been widely reported that Daley was the focus of tensions within the White House, and last November, after the administration failed to secure a “grand bargain” deficit-cutting deal with the Republicans, Daley announced he was giving up day-to-day management of White House affairs. There was some press speculation that Daley’s departure was related to Obama’s decision to base his reelection campaign on attacking congressional Republicans for obstructing his supposed jobs initiatives, combined with doses of populist rhetoric about defending the middle class and fighting Wall Street. Whatever electoral calculations may have been involved, however, the shift in White House personnel does not reflect any change in the right-wing, pro-corporate policies of the Obama administration. On the contrary, the appointment of Lew underscores the incestuous relationship between the Obama White House and Wall Street. All three of Obama’s chiefs of staff—Rahm Emanuel (2009-2010), Daley (2011-2012) and Lew—are multi-millionaires who made their fortunes as top executives of major banks.

[Editor's Comment:] Jacob Lew is an American Orthodox Jew and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. (Wikipedia). This speaks volumes about the state of affairs in American governance. Clearly, the American President is a puppet of Israel & the financial elite. It has been like this for a very long time. We have to ask ourselves, in all honesty: If the White House, House & Senate had been this saturated with Muslims and their non-Muslim friends, controlling everything with their money, this would have been a big problem too, wouldn't it? And how could the Government possibly be representing the American people as a whole when a tiny group of extremely wealthy people, representing just under 2% of the population, are in charge year after year? And when this particular group is working for a foreign country instead of for America, doesn't this seem to be...well, problematic, for lack of a better word? It's about time to take America back, isn't it?

Kenny's Sideshow: Lew(d) - In US discourse it is normally considered anti-Semitic to suggest that individuals are appointed to senior positions because they are Jewish, or represent the Jewish community. We'll suggest it anyway. Jacob (Jack) Lew, an Orthodox Jew, will be taking over as the White House Chief of Staff, a position considered to be closest to the President’s ear. Did Obama appoint Lew as a signal to jewish money and influence that he is on board with all things Israel or was he just the best man for the job?

Alan Hart/Occupied Palestine: The Zionization of American politics and how it could be terminated

Israel's government broke all its settlement-building records in 2011, diminishing prospects for establishing a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Israel's activist group Peace Now said on Tuesday. - The group's annual report on building in Palestinian East Jerusalem and the West Bank -- land the Palestinians want for a future state along with the Gaza Strip -- showed that despite international calls to halt construction, thousands of new homes were being built.

"In 2011 (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu broke his government's building records and turned it into a very fruitful year for the settlers and a very sad one for the citizens of Israel," Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer said. "At the current rate of building we will lose the chance for a two-state solution."

In the ‘only Democracy in the Middle East’, Jewish Knesset Member Anastasia Michaeli was caught today on camera throwing water in the face of Palestinian Knesset Member Ghaleb Majadele. The violent incident took place during a Knesset's Education, Culture and Sports Committee meeting. - In the Jewish State, people like MK Michaeli are in charge of ‘education’ and ‘culture’. Its no wonder that Israel has become a criminal collective. A poll taken at the time of Operation Cast Lead (January 4-6, 2009) revealed that 94% of the Jewish population strongly supported the murderous operation; 92% thought it had security benefits for Israel; 92% justified the air force strikes on Gaza. We are clearly dealing with a very problematic continuum.

A proposed bill would make it a crime in Israel to criticize people by comparing them to Nazis. - The draft legislation would impose penalties of up to six months in jail and a $25,000 fine for using the word "Nazi" or Holocaust symbols for purposes other than teaching, documentation or research. The draft legislation passed its first hurdle Monday when Cabinet ministers approved it. It now goes to the full parliament for a vote. The bill was proposed after ultra-Orthodox demonstrators set off a furor by dressing young boys as Nazi concentration camp inmates during a protest against what they said was incitement against their community. Protesters have also called police "Nazis."

Jason Ditz: Israeli Cabinet Pushes Bill to Ban Using ‘Nazi’ and ‘Similar-Sounding Words’ in Protests

Tensions are rising along the Israeli-Lebanese border today as a reported 75 Israeli artillery shells exploded inside Lebanese territory during a military exercise in the occupied Golan Heights. - The shells were only part of the mystery today, as Israeli warplanes also dropped an unidentified object into a ravine in southern Lebanon during the operations. Lebanese forces have been unable to get close to the object because the area is littered with Israeli cluster bomblets from the 2006 war. The area hit with the shells was near the border, and likely was a case of accidental fire, though it is sure to raise questions as to why the operations were so close to the contested border to begin with, even if no injuries were reported. The area around the mystery object is likely unoccupied, since cluster bombs have rendered it uninhabitable. Lebanon’s National News Agency was quoted as identifying the shells as 75 mm, 155 mm, and 175 mm artillery shells. Israel occupied the Shebaa Farms and Golan Heights in 1967, and claims it is now part of Israel.

Alex Salmond's disclosure of when he wants to hold the referendum was unexpected but his preferred date was less so. - So Alex Salmond has named the day he wants to see Scotland vote for divorce; well, if not the day, then the season. The referendum on Scottish independence will be staged in autumn 2014, he suddenly declared on Tuesday night. His announcement, while long-awaited, was still unexpectedly sudden. Many suspect the disclosure was forced on the first minister. Salmond was desperate to check-mate David Cameron's government in London, just as it warned in the Commons that a Holyrood-run referendum would be illegal without explicit powers from Westminster. Why autumn 2014? Salmond insists it is the date which allows all sides the time to deliver the strongest campaigns, both for and against. As Wednesday's splash headline in the Scotsman loosely has it, this means "1,000 days to decide our future".

[Editor's Comment:] Now that England (London, really) has wasted Scotland's oil fortune and poverty comes in the door, England all of a sudden considers a referendum to be convenient. Now why is that? - After all these years of dragging it's feet, why just now?

Rights campaigners and politicians Wednesday condemned a video showing women from a protected and primitive tribe dancing for tourists in exchange for food on India's far-flung Andaman Islands. - British newspaper The Observer released the video showing Jarawa tribal women -- some of them naked -- being lured to dance and sing after a bribe was allegedly paid to a policeman to produce them. Under Indian laws designed to protect ancient tribal groups susceptible to outside influence and disease, photographing or coming into contact with the Jarawa is illegal. The tribe, thought to have been among the first people to migrate successfully from Africa to Asia, lives a nomadic existence in the lush, tropical forests of the Andamans in the Bay of Bengal.