The artistic power of PuppetGov‘s The Uprising video communicates to a different part of us than academic facts, no matter how powerfully presented. Let this art touch, inspire, and move your actions. Resources:

● US overthrew Iran’s democracy 1953-1979, helped Iraq invade 1980-1988, now lies for more war and
an analogy if the US were the victim of empire
● What Iran’s president said about Israel, and how US War Criminal 1% lie for war
● What IAEA reports on Iran’s nuclear energy/medicine, how US War Criminal 1% lie
● US constantly violates war law: arrest Obama before ‘false flag’ war on Iran
● Analogy: US wars on Iraq, Iran as US criminal gangster “business”
● Occupy This: US History exposes the 1%’s crimes then and now (6-part series)
● Are US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan well-intended mistakes? What we now know from the evidence
● US war laws explained, why Afghanistan and Iraq wars are unlawful, how to end them
● US war history in 2 minutes: arrest US War Criminals to stop war on Iran

Human Rights Chief Slams Arbitrary Detentions. - In a statement issued today, UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay slammed the Obama Administrationfor reneging on promises to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. “It is ten years since the US Government opened the prison at Guantánamo, and now three years since 22 January 2009, when the President ordered its closure within twelve months,” the statement noted. “Yet the facility continues to exist and individuals remain arbitrarily detained – indefinitely – in clear breach of international law.” The massive facility has seen eight detainees die in custody, including six termed “suicides” by the US government, and only six “trials” have ever been completed. President Obama has expressed the belief that many of the detainees will be held without trial for the rest of their lives. Despite making no effort to close the facility, President Obama’s advisers insist he remains “committed” to closing Guantánamo. The new commander at the facility has also imposed strict new rules, sparking increasing unrest among the inmates, who after a decade are growing less and less confident they will ever see anything resembling a courtroom.

More than six years after Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich led a squad of Marines into two Haditha, Iraq homes and massacred two dozen civilians, the American serviceman in charge has reached a plea deal. For nine counts of manslaughter, Wuterich will get three months of confinement.

Wuterich is the last of eight men tied to the November 2005 killing that left 24 Iraqis dead, including women, children and the elderly. It was announced on Monday this week that he had reached a plea with prosecutors during his military tribunal and is now expected to be sentenced as early as Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, Wuterich will face a maximum of three months of confinement, the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a rank demotion. Of the other seven Marines charged with the now-notorious massacre, one was acquitted and six had their charges dismissed. Wuterich’s attorneys have been confident throughout the ordeal that he would see a similar outcome. "He's going to be glad to have it over because he knows that he'll be exonerated," lawyer Neal Puckett told National Public Radio earlier this month. On November 19, 2005, Wuterich led a squad of men into two separate homes in the town of Haditha and opened fire on everyone in sight. Prosecutors say that a roadside bomb exploded moments before the Marines stormed the home, and were brought into hysterics by seeing a fellow soldier die in the attack. In response, they went on a rampage and for 45 minutes raided the two homes and were never faced with gunfire. Wuterich later said he instructed his team to “shoot first and ask questions later.”

The WE!: Haditha massacre
The WE!: An Illegal War Degenerates - "So I grabbed her little sister and pulled her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. Then I hid behind the TV, and I locked and loaded my M-16, and I blew those little fuckers to eternity."

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman says unilateral sanctions adopted by the European Union against Iran are "unfair" and "doomed to fail." - "The method of threat, pressure and unfair sanctions against a nation that has a strong reason for its approach is doomed to fail," Ramin Mehmanparast said Monday. He added that such measures will not "prevent Iran from achieving its inalienable right" to peacefully use nuclear energy. The spokesman further stated that the EU had adopted the decision under the political pressure of the United States, and advised the bloc to value its interests instead of bowing to Washington. "It seems the American authorities want to disrupt the energy sources of their rivals and weaken their economic rivals under the pretext of piling up political pressure on Iran," he said. Mehmanparast said the oil embargo cannot become real given the European Union's "economic crisis." He emphasized that any country that wants to deprive itself of Iran's vast energy reserves will be "immediately replaced by other countries."

PressTV: Chinese supertankers hired for Iran oil
PressTV: 'Europeans to suffer from Iran oil ban'
Jason Ditz: EU Agrees on ‘Gradual’ Iran Oil Embargo
Peter Symonds: European Union imposes oil embargo on Iran

Moammar Gadhafi loyalists have seized control of a Libyan town and raised the ousted regime's green flag, an official and commander said Tuesday. - The retaking of Bani Walid comes as Libya's new leaders have struggled to unify the oil-rich North African nation three months after Gadhafi was captured and killed. Hundreds of well-equipped and highly trained remnants of Gadhafi's forces raised the green flag over buildings in the western city late Monday after hours of clashes, said Mubarak al-Fatamni, the head of Bani Walid local council. The bold attacks, which have led authorities to declare states of emergency in several areas, are the latest breakdown in security, three months after Gadhafi's capture and killing. Protests have surged in recent weeks, with people demanding that the interim leaders deliver on promises of transparency and compensation for those injured in the fighting.

Jason Ditz: Gadhafi Loyalists ‘Retake’ Town of Bani Walid

A report released last week by Middle East human rights groups presents extensive evidence of war crimes carried out in Libya by the United States, NATO and their proxy “rebel” forces during last year’s war, which brought down the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The “Report of the Independent Civil Society Fact-Finding Mission to Libya” presents findings of an investigation carried out last November by the Arab Organization for Human Rights, together with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the International Legal Assistance Consortium. Based on interviews with victims of war crimes as well as with witnesses and Libyan officials in Tripoli, Zawiya, Sibrata, Khoms, Zliten, Misrata, Tawergha and Sirte, the report calls for the investigation of evidence that NATO targeted civilian sites, causing many deaths and injuries. Civilian facilities targeted by NATO bombs and missiles included schools, government buildings, at least one food warehouse, and private homes.

Bill Van Auken: Human rights groups charge NATO with war crimes in Libya

Attacks by Islamist group Boko Haram have killed at least 935 people since the sect launched a violent campaign in 2009, including 250 this year alone, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. - "More than 935 people have been killed in some 164 suspected attacks” since Boko Haram launched its campaign of shooting and bomb attacks in July 2009, the New York-based global rights group. "In the first three weeks of January 2012 alone, more than 253 people have been killed in 21 separate attacks,” it said. It said 185 police and residents were killed in coordinated attacks targeting mainly police stations in Kano — the country’s second largest city — on January 20, Boko Haram’s deadliest single operation.

Jason Ditz: Boko Haram – An Overview on America’s Latest‘Threat’ [The CIA's latest "Islamist" outfit]

A new law promising internet users the "right to be forgotten" will be proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday. - It says people will be able to ask for data about them to be deleted and firms will have to comply unless there are "legitimate" grounds to retain it. The move is part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the commission's 1995 Data Protection Directive. Some tech firms have expressed concern about the reach of the new bill. Details of the revised law were unveiled by the Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich. A spokesman for the commissioner clarified that the action was designed to help teenagers and young adults manage their online reputations. "These rules are particularly aimed at young people as they are not always as aware as they could be about the consequence of putting photos and other information on social network websites, or about the various privacy settings available," said Matthew Newman.

Alexander Cockburn writing about Sheldon Adelson's financing of Newt Gingrich:

"Some things don’t change in American politics, and rich people sitting in Las Vegas with pots of cash is one of them. Joel McCleary, a friend, remembers fund-raising in Las Vegas when he was working for the Jimmy Carter campaign in 1976. The crucial Pennsylvania primary was coming up and the Carter people (their chief fundraiser was Morris Dees) needed a big wad of cash for the final push against Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington, known as “the senator from Boeing,” also running for the Democratic nomination and favored by powerful labor chieftains in Pennsylvania.
Joel was told the go-to guy for untraceable campaign cash was Hank Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun. Greenspun was a notoriously tough egg, former gun-runner for the Haganah, the man who, in the midst of the Cold War witch hunts, outed Senator Joe McCarthy in the Sun as a homosexual. Joel was told to act manly. Greenspun duly received him in his office. “Why the hell should I get money for Jimmy Carter?” he asked.
“Because Jimmy Carter is going to be president,” Joel answered boldly, “and if you don’t support his campaign he’ll fuck you.”
Greenspun told Joel to come back in two hours. He returned to find Greenspan sitting at a table surrounded by other toughs. In the middle of the table was a paper bag. “So the Baptist fuck wants money,” Greenspun growled, as he pushed the bag over to Joel. “Remember, this comes from the state of Israel. Don’t you ever forget it"

Ominous music plays as images appear on the screen: Muslim terrorists shoot Christians in the head, car bombs explode, executed children lie covered by sheets and a doctored photograph shows an Islamic flag flying over the White House.

“This is the true agenda of much of Islam in America,” a narrator intones. “A strategy to infiltrate and dominate America...This is the war you don’t know about.”

This is the feature-length film titled “The Third Jihad,” paid for by a nonprofit group, which was shown to more than a thousand officers as part of training in the New York Police Department. In January 2011, when news broke that the department had used the film in training, a top police official denied it, then said it had been mistakenly screened “a couple of times” for a few officers. A year later, police documents obtained under the state’s Freedom of Information Law reveal a different reality: “The Third Jihad,” which includes an interview with Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, was shown, according to internal police reports, “on a continuous loop” for between three months and one year of training. During that time, at least 1,489 police officers, from lieutenants to detectives to patrol officers, saw the film.

The Justice Department on Monday charged a former Central Intelligence Agency officer with disclosing classified information to journalists about the capture and brutal interrogation of a suspected member of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah — adding another chapter to the Obama administration’s crackdown on leaks. - The Justice Department on Monday charged a former Central Intelligence Agency officer with disclosing classified information to journalists about the capture and brutal interrogation of a suspected member of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah — adding another chapter to the Obama administration’s crackdown on leaks. Mr. Kiriakou, who was released on a $250,000 bond after appearing in federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Monday, was a leader of the team that captured Abu Zubaydah, and he came to public attention in late 2007 when he gave an interview to ABC News portraying the suffocation technique called waterboarding as torture, but calling it necessary. (It later emerged that he significantly understated the C.I.A.’s use of the technique.) His lawyer did not return a call for comment on Monday.

LA Times: Ex-CIA officer charged with disclosing classified information

Surrey Police faces "serious questions" about whether it ignored evidence of phone hacking after it emerged that a News of the World reporter played officers a recording of Milly Dowler's voicemails within a month of her disappearance. - Instead of pressing charges against the newspaper for illegally accessing the schoolgirl's messages, a senior officer from Surrey Police invited two of the tabloid's staff to a private meeting to discuss the case. An internal investigation by the Surrey force An internal investigation by the Surrey force found that a reporter told police that the newspaper had obtained Milly's mobile number and voicemail PIN from her schoolfriends. In fact, the tabloid had paid the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to do so. The newly released report also suggested that a News of the World investigator posed as Milly's mother, Sally, in an attempt to gain information about her. Milly was abducted on her way home from school in Walton–on–Thames, Surrey, on March 21, 2002. Her body was found six months later.