Just when you thought the government couldn’t ruin the First Amendment any further: The House of Representatives approved a bill on Monday that outlaws protests in instances where some government officials are nearby, whether or not you even know it. - The US House of Representatives voted 388-to-3 in favor of H.R. 347 late Monday, a bill which is being dubbed the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. In the bill, Congress officially makes it illegal to trespass on the grounds of the White House, which, on the surface, seems not just harmless and necessary, but somewhat shocking that such a rule isn’t already on the books. The wording in the bill, however, extends to allow the government to go after much more than tourists that transverse the wrought iron White House fence. Under the act, the government is also given the power to bring charges against Americans engaged in political protest anywhere in the country.

Fewer than one in eight Google users have bothered to read the internet giant's new privacy policy, a poll found yesterday. The great majority are in the dark about the way the biggest search engine operator will use information about what they look for and what they do on-line, it said. The findings came amid deepening concerns about the abuse of private information by internet companies. Its new privacy policy, which comes into effect on Thursday, sets out how the search engine company will exploit detailed information on its users, down to the locations where they use their smartphones, and how it will distribute it to other organisations. The company's new policy replaces around 60 different existing privacy policies. Nick Pickles, of Big Brother Watch, said:

'The impact of Google's new policy cannot be understated, but the public are in the dark about what the changes actually mean.'Companies should not be allowed to bury in legal jargon and vague statements how they may monitor what we do online, where we use our phones and even listen to what we say in calls. 'This change isn't about Google collecting more data, it's about letting the company combine what's in your emails with the videos you watch and the things you search for.'

BBC: Google 'fails to meet EU rules' on new privacy policy

Intensive preparations underway to ensure a successful meeting between the two leaders next week in Washington, despite lack of trust between two sides. [Translation: Intensive preparations underway to make sure Obama will do as he's told.] - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to publicly harden his line against Iran during a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on March 5, according to a senior Israeli official. Israel wants Obama to make further-reaching declarations than the vague assertion that "all options are on the table," the official said. In particular, Netanyahu wants Obama to state unequivocally that the United States is preparing for a military operation in the event that Iran crosses certain "red lines," said the official; Israel feels this will increase pressure on Iran by making clear that there exists a real U.S. threat.

Israeli officials say they won't warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the discussions. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill.

Israeli officials said that if they eventually decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood that the U.S. would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel's potential attack. The U.S. has been working with the Israelis for months to persuade them that an attack would be only a temporary setback to Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered the message to a series of top-level U.S. visitors to the country, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the White House national security adviser and the director of national intelligence, and top U.S. lawmakers, all trying to close the trust gap between Israel and the U.S. over how to deal with Iran's [alleged] nuclear ambitions. Netanyahu delivered the same message to all the Americans who have traveled to Israel for talks, the U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategic negotiations.

Sydney Morning Herald: Israel won't warn US before Iran strike
Jason Ditz: Israel Won’t Warn US Before Attacking Iran

Justin Raimondo: The ‘Trust Gap’/The US-Israeli divide: it’s a chasm - While diplomats speak a language made up almost entirely of euphemisms, the reality is that the “trust gap” is a veritable chasm. For the Israelis to tell us – their chief benefactors and defenders – they have no intention of warning us before undertaking an action which will put US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the entire region in mortal danger, is beyond outrageous. It is an overtly hostile act. In effect, what they are threatening amounts to the Middle Eastern Pearl Harbor. The irony is that the means to launch such an attack were given to them by us.

The U.S. launched a drone strike in the southern Philippines early this month that reportedly killed 15 members of the Islamic terrorist groups Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, raising concerns about the legality of U.S. drones in the country. - One of those killed was reportedly Zulkifli bin Hir (aka Marwan) had a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S. State Department. Not all of the identities of those killed were released. The airstrike prompted angry reactions from some in the Philippines weary of U.S. breach of their sovereignty. One Philippine representative, Luz Ilagan, called for repealing the U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement and an end to U.S. military intervention in national affairs. Ilagan also called for a probe into what she referred to as the “extensive and intensive intrusion of the U.S. military in Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) operations”. She added, “If these reports are true, then U.S. troops are participating in and conducting operations beyond what is allowed in the Visiting Forces Agreement and directly transgressing our sovereignty. More importantly, their participation in these operations is a potential magnet for the Philippines’ participation in a brewing U.S.-instigated regional conflict.”

The Dover Air Force Base scandal continues to grow today, as the Pentagon is now admitting that not only the remains of slain soldiers, but the remains of a number of civilians killed on 9/11 were disposed off in a Virginia landfill. - The scandal initial broke late last year, with the revelation that the Air Force had disposed of unclaimed soldiers’ remains in the landfill, and later they said records showed at least 274 US soldiers were dumped in this manner. The new report says that the base cremated “unidentified” remains from the 9/11 attacks and then shipped them off to be dumped by a contractor. Retired Gen. John Abizaid, who was leading the panel that issued the report, declined to offer further details.

Mr Assange, who has not been charged with any offence in Sweden, fears extradition to Stockholm will open the way for his extradition to the US on possible espionage or conspiracy charges over WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked classified US reports. - Raw Story reports:

The U.S. Department of Justice is refusing to comment on whether it has prepared espionage charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, even after emails allegedly stolen from the Austin, Texas firm Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) and published Tuesday revealed that the company claims to have a sealed indictment against him. [...]

Speaking to Raw Story Tuesday morning, U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said that they cannot comment “on whether anyone has been charged in a sealed indictment.”

On Monday, Wikileaks began publishing documents it is calling "The Global Intelligence Files" which includes over 5 million e-mails from the US-based "Global Intelligence" company Stratfor, the Global Intelligence Company described by Barons as the Shadow CIA. The Age, along with 25 other media outlets, has access to the emails through an investigative partnership with WikiLeaks.

A front page article in the Australian Financial Review on February 22 reported that the US ambassador in Canberra, Jeffrey Bleich, has floated the possibility of Washington selling or leasing nuclear submarines to Australia—a first for any country. - While Defence Minister Stephen Smith restated the Labor Party’s position that it would not consider the “nuclear option”, the report is a further indication of Washington’s moves to strengthen military ties with Australia as it aggressively confronts China. According to the Review, Bleich stressed that “Washington viewed Australia’s subs program as crucial to security in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Monsanto tentatively agreed to a $93 million settlement with some residents of Nitro, West Virginia. Nitro is a small town that got its name from manufacturing explosives during WWI. It was also the site of a Monsanto chemical plant that manufactured 2,4,5-T herbicide that was half of the Agent Orange recipe. Herbicide 2,4,5-T was contaminated with the caustic by-product dioxin. This settlement may open the floodgates to successfully suing Monsanto for its poison.

Interpol's main website has been downed by the Anonymous hacker group in retaliation for the international police agency’s hacker arrests worldwide. And such attacks will continue, the hacktivists promise. - The website Interpol.int was unreachable for a half hour on Wednesday. Access was later restored, although the loading time remains slow. The attack appears to have been conducted using a botnet. Anonymous Twitter accounts tweeted “interpol.int seems to be #TangoDown. We can’t say that this surprises us much," and "Looks like interpol.int is having some traffic issues. Now who would have expected that?” - The attacks came as Interpol announced the arrests of 25 suspected Anonymous members, aged between 17 and 40, who it alleges planned coordinated cyber-attacks against Colombia’s defense ministry and presidential websites, Chile’s Endesa electricity company and national library, among other targets. The arrests were part of Operation Unmask, during which police in Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Spain seized computers, mobile phones, credit cards and cash at 40 locations in 15 cities.

Love him, hate him, ignore him, think he's a fraud or for real, Louis Farrakhan says some things rarely addressed in a public forum. Covering topics such as Obama and his failures, Obama's critics, jewish influence, the mossad, 9/11 and even fast foods in an excerpt from his 'Saviors Day' keynote speech, Farrakhan is interesting to say the least.

WikiLeaks has released the first 200 of a cache of 5m emails obtained from the servers of Stratfor, a US-based intelligence firm. The emails originated not from a whistleblower, but instead from a series of hacking attacks against Stratfor in December 2011, carried out by the online activist collective Anonymous. Anonymous apparently passed the emails to WikiLeaks in the weeks following the attack. The whistleblowing website then recruited, according to its statement, 25 media partners to work on the document cache.

AWIP: WikiLeaks begins disclosing intelligence firm's e-mails

Israel, Kurdish fighters destroyed Iran nuclear facility, email released by WikiLeaks claims. In exchange released by website, worker at Stratfor intelligence firm doubts validity of a source claiming an Israeli ground force had already wiped out Iran's nuclear infrastructure. - The mega-leaks website, WikiLeaks, has partnered with the hackers cooperative Anonymous, to publish internal emails of the American strategic intelligence company Stratfor. In one of the hacked emails, Stratfor officials discuss information obtained from one of their sources who reports that Israeli commandos, in cooperation with Kurdish fighters, have destroyed Iranian nuclear installations. WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, will hold a press conference today in London where he plans to reveal new details from the Stratfor emails, including details on the company's dealings with the American government and major corporations, and its network of paid sources.

It was a kindergarten class piece of art that Jessie Sansone probably won’t want to hang on the refrigerator anytime soon. - After Jesse Sansone’s 4-year-old daughter drew a picture of a gun, cops handcuffed the clueless father and dragged him off to jail. It was there that the dad was stripped of his clothes and searched by the authorities. Sansone was never charged with a crime. Sansone wasn’t expecting to be greeted by police when he went to pick up his three children from school last week. Faculty there had become concerned, however, after the man’s 4-year-old daughter drew an image last Wednesday that they thought warranted investigation. It was a picture of a man holding a gun, and when teachers asked the girl to explain it, she said it was a depiction of her father. “He uses it to shoot bad guys and monsters,” teachers say the girl explained. The father says he doesn’t own a gun. Nor does he kill monsters.

“I’m picking up my kids and then, next thing you know, I’m locked up,” Sansone, 26, tells The Record out of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. “I was in shock. This is completely insane. My daughter drew a gun on a piece of paper at school,” he says.

After seeing the image in question, the school’s staff became shocked as well. So much so, in fact, that they rang up child welfare officials and local law enforcement and arranged for them to meet the girl’s father at the end of the school day. By that evening, Sansone had been handcuffed, whisked away to jail and forced to remove his clothes so he could be subjected to a strip search. Authorities took all three of Sansone’s children and dragged them to Family and Children’s Services to be interviewed. His wife, Stephanie Squires, tells The Record that authorities never explained themselves.

Israel is reportedly fuming over what it describes as the United States’ soft stance on Iran’s nuclear energy program, pushing the White House to adopt a more hawkish position against Tehran. - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials have reportedly put the US President Barack Obama administration under pressure due to their rage over the “deliberate attempts” by the White House to undermine the effectiveness of Israel’s war threats against Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. According to the report, the Israeli premier has told US officials that he wants Obama to outline specifically what Washington considers as the "red lines" that Iran cannot cross. “Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials also are pressing for Obama to publicly clarify his insistence that ‘all options are on the table,’” regarding Iran, the report said.

Bill Van Auken: US, Britain gear up for war on Iran

AIPAC’s Washington policy conference next month is drawing intense scrutiny and unprecedented resistance. AIPAC has worked quietly for years to tripwire the United States into war with Iran. Soon it will “ask” Congress and the president to define “nuclear weapons capability” as the threshold for war, essentially demanding an immediate attack. Because Iran presents no military threat to the United States, many Americans wonder exactly where such costly and potentially disastrous policies are formulated. Recently declassified FBI files reveal how Israeli government officials first orchestrated public relations and policies through the U.S. lobby. Counter-espionage investigations of proto-AIPAC’s first coordinating meetings with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the head of Mossad provide a timely and useful framework for understanding how AIPAC continues to localize and market Israeli government policies in America.

The Obama administration, which promised during its transition to power that it would enhance "whistle-blower laws to protect federal workers," has been more prone than any administration in history in trying to silence and prosecute federal workers. The Espionage Act, enacted in 1917 to punish those who gave aid to US enemies, has been used six times since the current president took office. In the most recent case, John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer who became a Democratic staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was charged under the Espionage Act with leaking information to journalists about other C.I.A. officers, some of whom were involved in the agency's interrogation program, which included waterboarding.

Vaccination rights attorney Patricia Finn threatened with criminal charges; New York State demands she surrender names of all clients. - Vaccine rights attorney Patricia Finn is being targeted by the Ninth Judicial District of New York State, which has threatened to strip her of her license to practice law and even file criminal charges against her. Finn is one of several "vaccine rights" attorneys across America who helps parents assert their rights to protect their children from potentially deadly vaccines. She's considered a hero by many, but a villain by the status quo for daring to stand up against the vaccine-pimping medical police state that exists in America today.

The upper class has a higher propensity for unethical behavior, being more likely to believe – as did Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street” – that “greed is good,” according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley.

In seven separate studies conducted on the UC Berkeley campus, in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationwide, UC Berkeley researchers consistently found that upper-class participants were more likely to lie and cheat when gambling or negotiating; cut people off when driving, and endorse unethical behavior in the workplace.

“The increased unethical tendencies of upper-class individuals are driven, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed,” said Paul Piff, a doctoral student in psychology at UC Berkeley and lead author of the paper published today (Monday, Feb. 27) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Piff’s study is the latest in a series of UC Berkeley scholarly investigations into the relationship between socio-economic class and prosocial and antisocial emotions and behaviors, revealing new information about class differences during a time of rising economic tension.

Raw Story: Upper class people more likely to cheat: study
AWIP: The rich are different — and not in a good way, studies suggest

Even as the transvaginal ultrasound bill in Virginia was causing national outrage, Pennsylvania conservatives were quietly pushing a even more restrictive abortion bill. The legislation is designed with so many difficult and differing restrictions that long-time abortion policy analyst Elizabeth Nash at the Guttmacher Institute told Raw Story, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” In addition to mandating the much-maligned transvaginal ultrasound requirements since rejected by the state of Virginia, Pennsylvania legislators proposed strongly encouraging women to view and listen to the ultrasounds, forcing technicians to give the women personalized copies of the results and mandating how long before any abortion the ultrasound much be preformed — and that’s just for starters.

Raw Story: Brownback: ‘Go work somewhere else’ if you want contraception

Amid reports of fresh atrocities in the besieged city of Homs, the Syrian government said Monday that an overwhelming majority of voters - 89 percent - had approved a new constitution that is billed as President Bashar Assad's most serious concession yet in the nearly year-old uprising against his rule. - Opposition activists, backed by the Free Syrian Army guerrilla movement, rejected the results and vowed to continue their fight to end the Assad dynasty's four-decade hold on the country. They renewed their calls for foreign assistance such as weapons and "safe zones" along the borders, saying that the bloodshed of the past year renders moot any more regime promises of reform. The results, however, bolstered Assad's support from China and Russia, the two nations that had vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution earlier this month that called for new sanctions on Assad.

Stephen Lendman: Syrians Overwhelmingly Approve New Constitution

At dawn last Wednesday, February 22nd, between 250 and 300 Israeli soldiers came through the occupied Palestinian village, Al Aqaba, as part of their training. They were going on little to no sleep, so they took the opportunity to sleep in their jeeps, on the street, and between village houses. After they awoke, they proceeded eastward towards the valley.

The contention that they are "accidents" is balderdash, this is U.S. military doctrine taught from the top down. - The US claim that they were unaware of the sacredness and importance of the Qur’an defies logic as Americans have repeatedly desecrated Islam’s holy book, a political analyst tells Press TV. The comment comes as the US has asked the Afghan government to protect the foreign troops in the war-ravaged country from public outrage over the recent desecration of the Holy Qur'an by US-led forces.

Within hours of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s defeat of Kevin Rudd in yesterday’s Labor Party leadership ballot, Labor Senator Mark Arbib announced that he was quitting politics. A career apparatchik within the powerful New South Wales Right faction, Arbib played the key role in removing Rudd and installing Gillard as prime minister in the June 2010 coup. In this, he worked closely with Washington, having been a secret “protected source” for the US embassy in Canberra from early on in his political career. Arbib indicated that his decision to resign was centrally bound up with the coup. While insisting that he “stands by the decision” to axe Rudd, the senator declared that “we need to close the door on that period and we need to start afresh.” He continued: “I want to be able to mend some of the conflict that has happened in the past... What I’m trying to do is try to ensure that the party gets over the past week, the past period, it’s a gesture of goodwill to the party.”

AWIP/WSWS: Australia’s political coup leaders and their big business connections
Mike Head: Australian media organisations, Labor MPs attack persecution of Julian Assange
Patrick O’Connor: WikiLeaks cables reveal secret ties between Rudd coup plotters and US embassy

Police and bailiffs have evicted anti-capitalist protesters and removed tents from the Occupy London camp at St Paul's Cathedral. - The operation, which began just after midnight, was mostly peaceful but there were 20 arrests. A St Paul's spokesman said: "We regret the camp had to be removed by bailiffs." The City of London Corporation said it "regretted" that it had become necessary to evict the protesters. Occupy London, which campaigns against corporate greed, set up the camp on 15 October. The campaigners were refused permission to appeal against a High Court decision to allow their eviction to proceed.

Russia Today: Occupy London camp destroyed by police in riot gear PHOTOS, VIDEO

The website WikiLeaks has begun releasing what it says are 5 million e-mails from the private intelligence company Stratfor, starting with a company "glossary" that features unflattering descriptions of U.S. government agencies. - In a statement released early Monday in Europe (Sunday evening ET), the website promises a raft of juicy disclosures about Stratfor, a Texas-based firm that promotes itself to corporate and government clients as a source of intelligence on international affairs. The company has been targeted by hackers who have released private data about subscribers in recent months, prompting the company to offer its clients a year of paid identity-protection coverage. There was no immediate comment on the disclosures from Stratfor, and the authenticity of the documents could not be independently confirmed Sunday night.

Wikileaks: The Global Intelligence Files - LONDON—Today, Monday 27 February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods, for example :

"[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control... This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase" – CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.

The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States. Government and diplomatic sources from around the world give Stratfor advance knowledge of global politics and events in exchange for money. The Global Intelligence Files exposes how Stratfor has recruited a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.

BusinessInsider: That 'Extraordinary' Wikileaks Dump: A Big Pile Of Emails From STRATFOR

Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has expressed concern over the growing threat of a military strike on Iran, saying such an attack will have catastrophic repercussions. - “Russia is alarmed by the growing threat of a military strike” against Iran, Putin wrote in article in the daily Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper on Monday. “If this happens, the consequences will be truly catastrophic, their real scope impossible to imagine,” he added. “We propose to recognize Iran’s right to develop a civilian nuclear program, including the right to enrich uranium” in exchange for placing the country’s nuclear activities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Russian premier further said. Putin added that in this case, all unilateral and international sanctions imposed against Iran need to be lifted.

PressTV: Britain prepares for military strike against Iran
Google/AP: Putin warns West over Syria, Iran

After more than 40 years of development and extensive use by the military, the United States has set the date when the nation’s airspace will be open for drones. Should you be scared? - Short answer: No, but like any new technology, unmanned aerial vehicles have their dark side. Legislation passed by Congress last week gives the Federal Aviation Administration until Sept. 30, 2015, to open the nation’s skies to drones. The first step comes in 90 days when police, firefighters and other civilian first-response agencies can start flying UAVs weighing no more than 4.4 pounds, provided they meet still-to-be-determined requirements, such as having an operator on the ground within line-of-sight of the drone and flying it at least 400 feet above ground. Currently, UAVs can only fly in restricted airspace zones controlled by the U.S. military.

A US-led NATO airstrike carried out by French troops has claimed the lives of four Afghan civilians, including children.

The airstrike targeted Kapisa’s Tagab district, leaving another four people injured. The attack comes less than two weeks after another US-led strike killed eight Afghan civilians in the same province. The victims were reportedly bombed twice while herding sheep in the snow.

Afghans have been holding almost six consecutive days of rallies against US-led forces in Afghanistan and the recent desecration of the holy Quran by US troops.

On February 4, the United Nations announced that last year was the deadliest year on record for Afghan civilians. The number of deaths marked a rise of eight percent from the previous year, and was roughly double the number from 2007. Thousands of civilians, including women and children, have been killed as a result of the war. The US-led invasion of Afghanistan took place in 2001. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence of thousands of US-led troops there.

A trial to determine how much BP owes for the worst oil spill ever in the U.S. was adjourned by one week to allow more settlement talks between the oil company and plaintiffs’ lawyers. - The civil trial in New Orleans was originally scheduled for Monday, but BP and the group of attorneys known as the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC) announced in a joint statement late on Sunday the trial will be delayed “to allow BP and the PSC more time to continue settlement discussions and attempt to reach an agreement.” British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, and sank two days later after burning for 36 hours in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. The blast claimed the lives of 11 people. An oil spill ensued, damaging Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

It appears that a growing band of Israeli messianic settlers have banded together to orchestrate a crisis on the Temple Mount. Their ultimate goal seems to be taking Jewish control over the sacred ground, including two of the holiest sites in Islam, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. - For many years, there have been radical settler groups preparing for such a day. Ateret Cohanim maintains a yeshiva which is training priests to resume the Temple rituals including animal sacrifice. Dov Hikind’s wife earns $150,000 a year as its U.S. fundraiser. They’re also breeding cattle in the hopes of find that miraculous red heifer which would serve as a sign that God is ready to resume Jewish rites on this sacred ground. The settlers know that for Jews to rebuild the Temple would mean a holy war in the Holy Land that would likely dwarf the Crusades for passion and bloodletting. For these Jews, such an eventuality would bring the days of the coming of the Messiah closer, thus making the human suffering not just acceptable, but even desirable.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard defeated Kevin Rudd, her predecessor and former foreign minister, in a Labor Party leadership ballot held earlier today. Gillard was backed by 71 of her parliamentary colleagues, against 31 who voted for Rudd. Far from overcoming the crisis wracking the government, the leadership ballot has resolved none of the key policy issues underlying the vitriolic infighting within the Labor Party. Gillard declared that “we will move forward as a united team.” No one in her party, however, or in the political and media establishment as a whole, believes that the bitter divisions opened up by the rancorous public debate over the Labor leadership—unprecedented in post-war Australian politics—will be patched up.

Peter Symonds: Australian government torn apart by US-China tensions - The underlying causes of the conflict are not to be found, primarily, in the sphere of domestic politics. Both Rudd and Gillard are committed to the austerity agenda demanded by finance capital and are pitching themselves to big business as the best instrument for implementing the required assault on the working class. Rather, the fracturing of the Labor Party is bound up with powerful geo-political rivalries centred on the Obama administration’s growing confrontation with China. The Australian ruling class has been swept into this maelstrom, confronted point blank with the longstanding dilemma posed by its heavy economic dependence on China, on the one hand, and its geo-strategic reliance on its military alliance with the United States, on the other.

Afghan policemen form a line during an anti-U.S. demonstration
in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. Thousands of Af-
ghans staged new demonstrations Friday over the burning of
Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. (AP / M. Sadeq)

This latest US offense has fanned the flames of intense anti-American sentiment in the two countries.

Massive protests over the U.S. military’s burning of Muslim holy books have caused two dozen deaths in Afghanistan and has now spread to Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment has hit unprecedented levels.

Afghan protesters tried to storm a U.S. consulate in Herat and march on NATO headquarters in Kabul on Friday in the fourth straight day of demonstrations, which ended up killing 24 people due to violent crowds and harsh attacks from Afghan security forces.

Afghan provincial spokesman Moheedin Noori said up to 50 people had been wounded in Herat, mostly by gunfire. Two U.S. troops have been killed in a shooting earlier in the week and four others wounded. German troops in northern Afghanistan have even withdrawn early from a military base because of the unrest.

Hundreds of Pakistani protesters took to the streets on Friday too, chanting “Death to America,” demanding that U.S. leaders resign and setting fire to a U.S. flag over the burning of Qurans in Afghanistan. Up to 300 people angrily demonstrated in the northwestern city of Peshawar, along with hundreds more in Islamabad and Karachi.

Google/AFP: Afghan Quran protests enter 5th day

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the Western powers of trying to topple the Iranian government under the cover of fighting nuclear proliferation. - "Under the guise of trying to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction... they (Western powers) are attempting something else entirely and setting different goals -- regime change," Putin said on Friday. He reiterated that Moscow is taking a different stance from what the West is trying to impose on it. "We have such suspicions," the Russian premier said, adding, "And we are trying to take a stand that differs from the one they are trying to force on us” about Iran’s nuclear issue. Putin's comments come as the latest US intelligence report on Iran's nuclear energy program has confirmed its peaceful nature.

Russia Today: US media Iran hysteria
AWIP: Israel's threats against Iran "ridiculous"
ABC News: Iran: Attack Will Lead to Israel's Collapse

Will President Bashar al-Asad make it to 2013? Chances are he will. Despite his regime's rapid loss of legitimacy, its growing isolation and tanking economy, no countervailing force has yet emerged that can take it down. - Many opposition and foreign leaders are predicting that the regime will fall within months. Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Riad al-Shaqfa stated that Bashar would fall "in the next few months."1 The U.S. State Department has called President Asad a "dead man walking." Israel's defense minister has insisted that Asad will fall in a matter of weeks. Certainly, the revolutionary process that began to sweep the Middle East a year ago is powerful; most Syrians want change, and many are willing to fight for freedom and dignity. One cannot envision the Asad family retaining power in the long run; all the same, predictions of its rapid demise may be wishful thinking. Four elements are important in assessing the regime's chances of surviving to 2013: its own strengths, the opposition's weaknesses, the chances of foreign intervention, and the impact of sanctions and economic decline. [Joshua Landis' Blog: Syria Comment][Via Moon of Alabama]

Russia Today: Head in sand: UK recognizes Syrian rebels
Reuters: Hamas ditches Assad, backs Syrian revolt
Stephen Lendman: Spoiling for War on Syria

A new video showing Israeli soldiers abusing a cuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee was released after being shot by a hidden camera in Ni’lin village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

The video shows a cuffed and blindfolded Palestinian youth who was kidnapped during the weekly nonviolent protest against the illegal Israeli Annexation Wall and Settlements. These protests are organized by the local residents, along with Israel and International peace activists.

The cuffed Palestinian is seen on the ground while the soldiers are just moving him around, dragging his feet sometimes, and placing him in a sitting position against a wall next to another blindfolded and cuffed Palestinian.

It also shows the one of the soldiers standing next to him with his foot raised close to the head of the youth, posing as if he is going to crush his head while filming the abuse using what seems to be his mobile phone.

There have been several incidents where soldiers filmed themselves abusing detained Palestinians at roadblocks, and in other areas in the occupied territories.

In many other incidents, soldiers were caught on tape abusing the Palestinians, similar to the case of Ashraf Abu Rahma who was kidnapped in 2008, during a nonviolent protest against the Wall in Bil’in village, near Ramallah, and one soldiers had him stand near the military jeep while another soldier shot him in the leg at a close range.

Several soldiers even posted on Facebook videos they took of themselves or fellow soldiers while abusing Palestinians in the occupied territories.

In 2010, Israeli soldier Eden Abergil posted pictures on her personal Facebook page posing in front of Palestinians detained, cuffed and blindfolded at a roadblock in the West Bank.

An army private has declined to enter a plea to charges he engineered the biggest leak of classified information in US history. - Bradley Manning also deferred a choice of whether to be tried by a military jury or judge alone. Military judge Colonel Denise Lind presided over the 50-minute hearing at Fort Meade near Baltimore. She did not set a trial date but scheduled another court session for March 15-16. Defence lawyer David Coombs proposed a trial date some time in April. He said the government's proposed calendar could push the start of the trial to August 3, which could jeopardise his client's right to a speedy trial. Manning has been in pretrial confinement since May 2010. He faces 22 counts, including aiding the enemy. That charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. The others carry a combined maximum of more than 150 years. The 24-year-old from Oklahoma allegedly gave the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks more than 700,000 documents and video clips.

The website of an international prison contractor was defaced by hackers who on Friday replaced the company’s home page with a hip-hop homage devoted to former death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal. - Hackers allied to the loose-knit Anonymous movement claimed responsibility for vandalizing the site of Boca Raton, Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which manages some 60 custodial facilities in Europe, North America, Australia and South Africa. Anonymous said in a statement posted to the stricken website that its hack was “part of our ongoing efforts to dismantle the prison industrial complex.”

Russia Today: Anonymous takes on prison industrial complex with latest hack

A policy brief recently issued by the National Poverty Center (NPC) reveals that the number of households in the US living on less than $2 a day per person has increased by 130 percent since 1996, from 636,000 to some 1.46 million today. This means that some 4 million people in “the richest country on earth” (according to US capitalism’s apologists) are surviving on less than $60 a month each, i.e., essentially on no income whatsoever.

Google is rolling out its selective censorship program. 'Not being evil' now means that upon request by intelligence services and law enforcement in a particular country, a blogspot may be blocked from that specific country while being left open to others. - Where this will lead is anyone's guess but it seems to be just another day at the office towards repressing the semi-free internet as we know it. As blogger's new comment word verification system with its often illegible secret words makes it difficult to post replies, I disabled the WV and what do I get? Foreign based spam bots are having a field day trying to infiltrate the comment section with their sales pitches for Viagra and knock-off watches. Over 50 of them the last three days and most not even in English. Many will suggest moving away from google but aren't all the 'free' but not really free blogging platforms going in the same direction; data mining, advertising and spooks keeping an eye on you? They don't call it Zio-blogger for nothing. [...] Self-censorship is one of the goals. "Don't even think about researching and writing (or speaking) about a topic that some group or prominent individual declares insensitive and offensive. It will only get you in trouble." That is a trap. A mind trap where we question ourselves and the results are paralysis. We all know who benefits the most from this self-censorship.

US Army analyst Bradley Manning, who is accused of leaking thousands of “classified” documents to WikiLeaks, has deferred his plea to the 22 charges, also postponing a decision on whether he wants a military judge or a jury to hear his case.

Kevin Zeese, attorney to the Bradley Manning support network, believes that a fair hearing in front of a military court and a jury of officers is “almost impossible” for Manning.

“President Obama has already announced that Bradley Manning is guilty,” he told RT. “President Obama is the commander-in-chief. The judge, the jurors, the prosecutor – everybody working in that court is under President Obama’s command. I can’t imagine anyone in that court thinking they'll have much of a career if they find Bradley Manning not guilty.”

Zeese states that, so far, the preliminary hearing on Manning’s case has been a “kangaroo court”. “They were denying information that Bradley Manning needs for his defense. It looks like it’s a railroad job – a kangaroo court trying to set an example and prevent anyone else from being a future Bradley Manning,” he said.

PressTV: US soldier Bradley Manning charged with ‘aiding the enemy’
Jason Ditz: Manning Defers Plea as Arraignment Begins

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who dramatically resigned as foreign minister in Washington on Wednesday morning, today launched a challenge to the leadership of Julia Gillard. Gillard replaced Rudd in a backroom coup in mid-2010. - On his arrival back in Australia this morning, Rudd revealed new details of what he termed the “midnight coup” of 2010—revelations that raise key questions about the events of June 23-24 and the forces that orchestrated them. At an airport media conference, Rudd said he had been given no notice of the move against him, despite the evidence that emerged last week that Gillard’s office had been preparing for his removal for two weeks. Rudd went on to confirm that on the evening of June 23, 2010 Gillard had initially made an agreement with him, witnessed by an “independent person,” to allow him four months to “work through” the complaints she had raised about his leadership. Ten minutes later, however, Gillard returned to his office and declared that “all bets were off” and she would move immediately against him. [...] Whoever prevails, the government will be bitterly split, with leading figures camped in exile on the parliamentary backbenches. The outright character assassinations and full-blown battle are symptoms of a profound and systemic crisis wracking the entire ruling establishment.

John Pilger: Julia Gillard, the new warlord of Oz
Patrick O’Connor: WikiLeaks cables reveal secret ties between Rudd coup plotters and US embassy
Patrick O’Connor: Gillard spruiks her economic “reform” credentials but coup questions persist

BBC: Rudd and Gillard set for showdown
Bloomberg: Gillard-Rudd Rift Endangers Labor Agenda
Thirteenth Monkey: Politics Down Under: Challenge for the Leadership of Australia

The US and other NATO countries could soon launch a ground assault on Syria. The final decision will be made soon, following this week’s Tunis conference where allied countries will meet to discuss possible scenarios of military intervention. - Sources in Washington tell Israeli news agency Debka that the Pentagon is currently drafting the approach they want America to take in the Syria ordeal, and once it is ready for the president, Obama could approve military action. Debka adds, however, that the decision will also depend on what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes away from this week’s Tunis conference. Representatives from 80 countries across the glove are expected to descend on Tunis on Friday under the name “Friends of Syria.” Should Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and the UAR support a western intervention in Syria, Clinton could offer an endorsement to the Pentagon, who will in turn finish their draft for war plans and send them to the White House for approval. According to Debka's sources, UK, France, Italy and Turkey also prepare to send their troops into Syria.

Stephen Lendman: Escalating Syrian Tensions
Patrick Martin: International tensions mount over Syria conflict
Alex Lantier: US sends drones over Syria as fighting spreads

Jason Ditz: Clinton: Syria Rebels to Find Arms ‘Somewhere’

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi has severely criticized Israeli military threats against Iran over its peaceful nuclear program, saying such saber-rattling is “ridiculous.”

“Zionists make a lot of noise and rhetorically threaten to take military action against Iran but these remarks are ridiculous,” Vahidi said during an address to an international conference in Tehran, held on Thursday to commemorate the martyred commanders in the Islamic world. “The Zionist regime is on the verge of dissolution and undoubtedly its [potential military] action against the Islamic Republic of Iran will certainly lead to the disintegration of the occupying regime,” the Iranian defense minister added.

PressTV: NIE report shows US knows Iran not after nuclear weapon
Los Angeles Times: Iran is not trying to build nuclear bomb concludes U.S. intelligence

It appears that a growing band of Israeli messianic settlers have banded together to orchestrate a crisis on the Temple Mount. Their ultimate goal seems to be taking Jewish control over the sacred ground, including two of the holiest sites in Islam, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. - For many years, there have been radical settler groups preparing for such a day. Ateret Cohanim maintains a yeshiva which is training priests to resume the Temple rituals including animal sacrifice. Dov Hikind’s wife earns $150,000 a year as its U.S. fundraiser. They’re also breeding cattle in the hopes of find that miraculous red heifer which would serve as a sign that God is ready to resume Jewish rites on this sacred ground. The settlers know that for Jews to rebuild the Temple would mean a holy war in the Holy Land that would likely dwarf the Crusades for passion and bloodletting. For these Jews, such an eventuality would bring the days of the coming of the Messiah closer, thus making the human suffering not just acceptable, but even desirable. These Temple activists are also fundraising on behalf of their messianic Armageddon.

Afghanistan wants NATO to put on public trial those who burned copies of the Koran at a NATO base, President Hamid Karzai's office said on Thursday, after a third day of bloody protests over the incident.

It said NATO had agreed to a trial, but that could not be immediately confirmed. Karzai had earlier accused a U.S. officer of "ignorantly" burning copies of the Koran, in an incident that has deepened anti-Western sentiment in a country NATO is trying to stabilize before foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014. Demonstrations have drawn thousands of angry Afghans to the streets, chanting "Death to America!" amid violence that has killed 11 people including two U.S. service personnel. "NATO officials, in response to a request for the trial and punishment of the perpetrators ... promised this crime will brought to court as soon as possible," Karzai's office said in a statement.

Robert Dreyfuss: Counting the Dead in Afghanistan
Bill van Auken: Afghans besiege US bases in Koran protests
PressTV: OIC slams Qur’an burning at US base in Afghanistan

In an unusual legal move, when a New York City man goes on trial this spring for allegedly plotting to blow up the subway, it will be an anonymous jury that determines his fate. - U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Dearie sided with prosecutors who argued for an anonymous jury because the charges against Adis Medunjanin "are of the highest possible seriousness." [- Hardly]

Civil rights group Big Brother Watch has accused Britain of having an out-of-control surveillance culture that is doing little to improve public safety. - London is considered the most spied-on city in the world, courtesy of its ubiquitous CCTV cameras, purportedly there to reduce crime. But according to a recent report, there's been little or no change in London's crime rates since they were more widely installed in the mid 1980s. Privacy activists are worried that Britain will become the bleak totalitarian society George Orwell painted in his classic novel “1984,” where citizens were spied on and personal freedom sacrificed for the benefit of an all-powerful state.

NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge has ruled that BP PLC and one of its minority partners in the blown-out Macondo well are liable for civil penalties under the Clean Water Act for their roles in the nation's worst offshore oil spill. - U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier also ruled Wednesday that Deepwater Horizon rig owner Transocean Ltd. may be liable under the same law as an "operator" of the well. The judge, however, said he couldn't decide before a trial scheduled to start Feb. 27 whether Transocean meets the definition of that term. The Justice Department argued that BP, minority partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Transocean are each liable for per barrel civil penalties for oil discharged from the well. Barbier rejected Anadarko's argument that oil discharged from Transocean's rig, not the well.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war threat, saying that Lebanon’s existence will not be affected by the remarks. On Wednesday, Netanyahu said that an Israeli strike against Lebanon would be supported by the United States and countries of the Persian Gulf. Speaking at a press conference during his visit to Switzerland, the Israeli premier said that “would be no Lebanon in the new world map.” Sleiman [also] said Lebanon’s diversity came in absolute contrast to “Israel’s racist system, which has no place in the world”.