Colombia's neo-paramilitary groups continue to enjoy the protection of elements of the state, the director of a leading think tank said Tuesday. - In an interview with Colombia Reports, Leon Valencia, director of Corporacion Nuevo Arco Iris, which monitors Colombia's illegal armed groups, said "it is impossible to exhibit such a degree of illegal activity without the protection of the security forces and without ties to politicians." "The day the state as a whole is directed to pursue all of these people is the only time it can be over," he added. Explaining his remarks, Valencia outlined how the organizational structure supporting such groups is made up of three essential elements. "On the one side there is the illegal [neo-paramilitaries], who are hidden away and have a secret life, the second tie is the one in civil life, who are lawyers, businessmen and people who have a good stature, and then there are the police and military." Valencia went on to explain that the frequency of failed police actions against drug trafficking operations, whereby no illegal activity could be detected despite good intelligence supporting the action, can only be the result of "immediate feedback" from within the security forces warning of the impending sting.

After agreeing to a plea bargain on Monday, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich expected a sentence of 90 days in jail for slaughtering civilians during a 2005 massacre in Iraq. On Tuesday that term was nixed, and now the confessed killer will only be demoted. - A spokesman for the US Marine Corps base near San Diego, California told the media on Monday that "By pleading guilty to this charge, Staff Sergeant Wuterich has accepted responsibility for his actions.” Those actions — a starring role in a brutal massacre that left 24 people dead in Haditha, Iraq back in 2005 — led to eight Marines being faced with a multitude of charges over the last six-plus years. Wuterich was the last of the eight men to be brought to trial, but on Monday he accepted a plea bargain in lieu of continuing with his trial that involved, among other charges, nine counts of manslaughter against him. The terms of the plea bargain, as reported Monday, were believed to include three months of containment in a military prison, the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a rank demotion. On Tuesday, however, the harshest penalty for the staff sergeant was revoked and now Wuterich will see no jail time for his role in the murders.

Police were forced to escort Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard from a restaurant near Parliament House in Canberra on Australia Day, when protesters surrounded the eatery.

Supporters of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra picketed the Lobby restaurant over comments by the opposotion leader Tony Abbott who was dining with the Prime Minister at an Australia Day celebration. At least 50 police, including the riot squad, were called to the scene shortly after 2.30pm local time. The two leaders, protected security officers, escaped out a side door after about 20 minutes. Protesters chased their car down the road, banging on its roof and bonnet. The mayhem was apparently sparked after Mr Abbott questioned the relevance of a makeshift Aboriginal tent embassy, which was celebrating its fortieth anniversary on the lawns of Federal Parliament. Fred Hooper, an Aboriginal community leader who was at the protest said the event had been peaceful until Mr Abbott made his remarks. "The opposition leader on national television made a comment to tear down something that have built over 40 years, which is sacred to us,'' he said.

Deadly clashes between ethnic Tibetans and Chinese security forces have spread to a second area in southwestern China, the government and an overseas activist group said Wednesday. - The group Free Tibet said two Tibetans were killed and several more were wounded Tuesday when security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Seda county in politically sensitive Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province. It quoted local sources as saying the area was under a curfew. According to the Chinese government, a "mob" of people charged a police station in Seda and injured 14 officers, forcing police to open fire on them.

Elders in Bani Walid abolish government-appointed military council and appoint own representatives following gun battle. Negotiations were going on in Bani Walid on Tuesday, a day after fighters seized control of the Libyan town from the militias loyal to the country's provisional government. Elders in Bani Walid said they were appointing their own local government and rejected any interference from the authorities in the capital, Tripoli. On Monday, the fighters drove out militias loyal to Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in a bloody gun battle, with at least four people reported dead. The elders denied claims they were loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed in October after weeks on the run.

Jason Ditz: Clashes, Torture on the Rise in ‘Disillusioned’ Libya

Mahmoud Abbas the unelected Palestinian leader was in London last week holding discussions with David Cameron the Prime Minister at Downing Street. However, a planned meeting with British Jewish Leaders was cancelled by the Prime Minister of Israel Benyamin Netanyahu.

British Jews cancel meeting with Abbas in wake of pressure from Netanyahu

According to Haaretz British Leaders and the U.K. Israeli Embassy pushed for the meeting, however the order came from Tel Aviv saying not to go ahead. Such incidents can only add to the thorny issue of where the loyalties of The Leaders of British Jewry lie. More on this subject can be found here.

Photographers who compose a picture in a similar way to an existing image risk copyright infringement, lawyers have warned following the first court ruling of its kind. - UK souvenir maker Temple Island Collection Ltd has won a ruling against New English Teas which it had accused of breaching copyright by using a photo of a London bus on its packaging. Welcoming the news, Temple Island Collection's managing director Justin Fielder – who shot the image in August 2005 and then manipulated it using Photoshop – said: 'As creator of the Red Bus image, and originators of the product concept, we gave New England Teas the opportunity to license with us and work collaboratively, but this was declined.' The case, heard at the Patents County Court in London on 12 January, could have serious implications for photographers, according to photographic copyright expert Charles Swan, a lawyer at Swan Turton, who said: 'His honour Judge Birss QC decided that a photograph of a red London bus against a black and white background of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, with a blank sky, was similar enough to another photograph of the same subject matter to infringe copyright.'

I know many may disagree, but these colored famous photos are much more powerful than the black and white originals. The perfect coloring takes away all the stylization of the black and white and pushes the violence right into your eyes. Unlike those old colored classic movies colored by Turner, which were horrible, these are perfectly executed. Digitally modified by Swedish artist Sanna Dullaway, the realism of the color is truly outstanding. She made them to show her skills and sell her restoration and colorization services on the web. I like her non-violent examples too. V-J Day in Times Square looks fresh and accurate. Her portraits too. There are a lot more examples on her pages. [Förr i Färg, DevianArt, Imgur via Petapixel]

UPDATE: Sanna Dullaway has been bullied by the usual copyright sharks, who have sent her an email threatening her with legal action and asking her to take her pictures down. Following that email Sanna has asked us to delete a number of images from this article, including her modifications. While her modifications would probably fall under fair use, it's her decision. We are respecting it and following her kind request. Following Sanna's mail, we only left those which are in the public domain.

Staff Sergeant Faces Pay Cut Over Butchering of Civilians. - In the mother of all plea bargains, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who was charged with leading the US Marines’ massacre of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha, plead guilty to a single count of “dereliction of duty.” His “sentence,” such as it is, will amount to a demotion to the rank of private and a pay cut related to his loss of rank. He will serve no jail time. The announcement has angered a number of Iraqis, particularly the relatives of the slain, who say the verdict is an insult. Khalid Salman, a lawyer for the relatives of the victims, and a cousin of one of the slain, condemned the decision. “This is not a traffic felony,” he said. Even skeptical Iraqis weren’t prepared for this total dismissal. Saleem al-Jubouri, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s human rights committee, had already issued a condemnation on the assumption that Wuterich would face a three-month jail sentence, the maximum for the soldier’s plea bargain.

AWIP: Marine gets three months in jail for massacring two dozen civilians

The Republican presidential candidate collected as much in a single day as the average American family makes in a full year. - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released his tax returns Tuesday morning, revealing that he collected income of $21.7 million in 2010 and $20.9 million in 2011, nearly $42.6 million over the two-year period. Not a penny of this income was from salary or wages reported on a W-2. Nearly all of it was investment income, including capital gains, dividends and interest.

Justin Raimondo: Adelson, Gingrich, and the Selling of America - If you want to know what’s wrong with our campaign finance laws – and our political system in a more general sense – look at the way Sheldon Adelson is buying the Republican nomination for his sock puppet, Newt Gingrich. So what is Adelson’s agenda? He and his allies have been campaigning for war with Iran for years, not only here but in the Middle East. Adelson is a major financial backer of Israel’s ultra-nationalist Likud party, which calls in its platform for a “Greater Israel,” and he has backed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the hilt.

PressTV: Obama renews anti-Iran war rhetoric

AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 1: The Orange and the Pea
AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 2 The Treasonous Dollar Drain

[PUKE READ:] Following is the transcript of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 24, 2012, as released by the White House: THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought — and several thousand gave their lives. We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. (Applause.) For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. (Applause.) For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. (Applause.) Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home. These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

PressTV: Obama renews anti-Iran war rhetoric
Russia Today: Obama’s new fairytale: Peace and prosperity for war-bent US
Patrick Martin: Obama’s State of the Union address: War and wage-cutting

Film Accuses All Muslims of Plotting to Overthrow US. - Last year, the New York Police Dept. was caught in an ugly scandal when the Village Voice reported it showed a 72-minute film titled The Third Jihad to police as a “terrorist training” video. Officials at the time downplayed the number of officers who saw it, and claimed it was quickly pulled when it was deemed “inappropriate.” The video condemns Muslims in general and moderate American Muslims in particular, claiming that all non-violent Muslims are part of a secret conspiracy to overthrow the US government and impose Sharia law in its place.

AWIP: In Police Training, a Dark Film on U.S. Muslims

Aziz Dweik's six-month imprisonment is an attempt by Israel to thwart reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, says his office. - An Israeli military court has ordered the speaker of the Palestinian legislative body to be jailed for six months without trial after he was arrested at a checkpoint last week. Aziz Dweik, a member of Hamas and a senior elected politician, was imprisoned "without charge or legal justification", a statement from his office said. It claimed Israel was attempting to thwart moves towards reconciliation between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas. Dweik was arrested at a checkpoint near Ramallah last Thursday. According to reports, he was handcuffed and blindfolded by Israeli soldiers, who said he was being detained for "involvement in terrorist activities". Dweik has been the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council since elections six years ago. However the PLC has not sat since the summer of 2007, when Hamas – which had won elections the previous year – took control of Gaza in a bloody battle with Fatah.

PIC: Israel imprisons Dweik for six months without trial
PIC: Hamas condemns Israel's systematic detention of lawmakers
Khalid Amayreh: Dweik's abduction is state terror, pure and simple

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The Lebanese Cabinet has a meeting scheduled regarding the contentious issue of Beirut’s energy policies in relation to the country’s offshore energy assets.

At stake are massive offshore Mediterranean sub-sea natural gas reserves but the issue involves competing seabed claims with Israel, Cyprus and Turkey. Offshore maritime assets fall under the general delineation terms of the 1982 U.N. Law of the Sea Convention. That provides each country with a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone for unilateral development of offshore assets. But the issue becomes complicated in congested waters with overlapping claims, as in the eastern Mediterranean. Massive natural gas reserves have been discovered in the region and the fields cross international boundaries. Sources familiar with the governmental discussions said that the 2007 rejection by the Turkish government of the proposed demarcation maritime border between Lebanon and the Republic of Cyprus resulted in the failure of the governments to ratify a proposed bilateral agreement. Issues between Turkey and the Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, remain complex and delicate. According to UNCLOS terms, countries with shared maritime borders must reach bilateral agreements for the demarcation of the borders. Accordingly, Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus are obliged to complete a tripartite agreement on the demarcation of the maritime area they share. Last week Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said Lebanon is studying the maritime issues related to Mediterranean energy assets and intends to take the dispute to the United Nations.

The top United Nations human rights official criticized Iraq on Tuesday for carrying out a large number of executions, including 34 on a single day last week, and voiced concern about due process and the fairness of trials. - "Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, in a statement referring to executions carried out on January 19. "Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure," she added. At least 63 people are believed to have been executed since mid-November in Iraq, where the death penalty can be imposed for some 48 crimes including a number related to non-fatal crimes such as damage to public property, Pillay said. "Most disturbingly, we do not have a single report of anyone on death row being pardoned, despite the fact there are well documented cases of confessions being extracted under duress," she said.

AWIP: US rights group says Iraq becoming 'police state'

William Hague claims blockading Iran is aimed at avoiding conflict, instead of stoking it. Columbia University Professor Gary Sick, who has a special expertise on Iran, viewed the EU oil embargo much differently. He called the efforts “the equivalent of a blockade. It’s an act of war.” - The European Union embargo on Iranian oil imports that was pushed for aggressively by the U.S. is aimed at reducing the risk of conflict and stressing the need for peace talks, according to British Foreign Secretary William Hague. “This is not a set of actions designed to lead to any conflict but to lead us away from any conflict by increasing the pressure for peaceful settlement of these disputes,” he said on Tuesday. Despite years of evidence to the contrary, Hague’s comments passed without an outburst of laughter on the world stage. Washington, and most of the EU, has approached Iran in largely the same way since the Iranian revolution in 1979. That is, with threats, sanctions, and isolation. Instead of bringing diplomacy, it has brought only more bitterness and mistrust.

PressTV: 'EU in for severe crisis due to Iran ban'
PressTV: Norway's Statoil says Iran can still repay its debt to the company despite the EU ban on the country
Peter Symonds: European Union imposes oil embargo on Iran
Chris Floyd: Pups on Parade: EU Obediently Pushes Toward War with Iran

Little known fact about Sweden, that supposed bastion of liberal idealism: If a Swedish transgendered person wants to legally update their gender on official ID papers, a 1972 law requires them to get both divorced and sterilized first. - Sweden is considered extremely gay-friendly, with one of the highest rates of popular support for same-sex marriage, and more than half the population supports gay adoption. Arguing that the current law is both unpopular and abusive, the country's moderate and liberal parties want to see it repealed. In response, the small but powerful Christian Democrat party formed a coalition with other right-of-center parties to join in upholding the requirement for sterilization. End result: a proposal for new legislation that allows trans—a preferred term for many people who undergo gender reassignment—to be married, but continues to force them to be sterilized.

Europe is considering a sweeping new law that would force Internet companies like Amazon.com and Facebook to obtain explicit consent from consumers about the use of their personal data, delete that data forever at the consumer’s request and face fines for failing to comply. - The proposed data protection regulation from the European Commission, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, could have significant consequences for all Internet companies that trade in personal data, whether it is pictures that people post on social networks or what they buy on retail sites or look for on a search engine. The regulation would compel Web sites to tell consumers why their data is being collected and retain it for only as long as necessary. If data is stolen, sites would have to notify regulators within 24 hours. It also offers consumers the right to transport their data from one service to another — to deactivate a Facebook account, for example, and take one’s trove of pictures and posts and contacts to Google Plus. The proposed law strikes at the heart of some of the knottiest questions governing digital life and commerce: who owns personal data, what happens to it once it is posted online, and what the proper balance is between guarding privacy and leveraging that data to aim commercial or political advertising at ordinary people.

AWIP: EU proposes 'right to be forgotten' by internet firms

The assumption that the US has the technological know-how to cripple a competing nation has always been just that: as assumption. In a recent sit-down interview, however, a former spy chief confirmed that America has already waged cyber attacks. - Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence at the National Security Agency under George W Bush, tells Reuters this week that cyber war is more than a distant possibility. According to the current vice chairman at Booz Allen Hamilton, the US has already launched attacks on the computer networks of other nations. McConnell did not add any input as to what countries have been hit with American cyber warfare in the past, but he did confirm that the US has already used the ability. When asked by Reuters if the United States had the capability to destroy the computer system of an adversary, McConnell responded “Yes.” When asked if it worked, he confirmed “yes” as well. "Do we have the ability to attack, degrade or destroy? Sure. If you do that, what are the consequences? That is the question,” added McConnell.

Russia Today: An ACTA of war: Secret censor tool to shake up world wide web

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