Interestingly enough, particularly when the speech repeatedly made reference to his possible decision to attack Iran in the near future, Obama warned the public against “loose talk” of a war, saying that discussion of the potential attack was benefiting Iran “by driving up the price of oil, which they depend on to fund their nuclear program.” Not only did President Obama make several pointed comments about attacking Iran in that particular speech in which he warned about doing so, the president had repeatedly done so over the past few days, including insisting on Friday that he was “not bluffing” in his constant threats.

Peter Symonds: Obama hardens threat of war against Iran - Whatever the exact outcome of today’s haggling between Obama and Netanyahu, it has the character of two gangsters plotting the details of their next crime. Any attack on Iran would be an utterly reckless enterprise that would inevitably inflame tensions throughout the Middle East and has the potential to trigger a broader regional and international conflict.

Justin Raimondo: Obama’s Red Line
Silvia Cattori: Mordechai Vanunu: "Iran poses no threat" (Interview)
Adrian Blomfield: Israel delivers ultimatum to Barack Obama on Iran's nuclear plans
Jason Ditz: Netanyahu Praises Obama’s Statements on Israel’s ‘Right’ to Attack Iran

American scholar Noam Chomsky says the world does not accept the US portrayal of Iran as an “imminent threat” to global peace, and that Washington and Tel Aviv are instead seen as greater evils. - "There is little credible discussion of just what constitutes the Iranian threat, though we do have an authoritative answer, provided by US military and intelligence. Their presentations to Congress make it clear that Iran doesn’t pose a military threat,” Chomsky wrote in his latest article titled “What Are Iran’s Intensions?” published Friday. Chomsky added that even "the majority of Americans" recognized Iran’s right to its nuclear energy program before Washington officials and media launched a “massive propaganda onslaught” against the Islamic Republic over the past two years.

U.S. police can search a cell phone for its number without having a warrant, according to a federal appeals court ruling. - Officers in Indiana found a number of cell phones at the scene of a drug bust, and searched each phone for its telephone number. Having the numbers allowed the government to subpoena the owners' call histories, linking them to the drug-selling scheme. One of the suspects, Abel Flores-Lopez, who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, argued on appeal that the police had no right to search the phone's contents without a warrant. The U.S. Court of Appeal for the 7th Circuit rejected that argument on Wednesday, finding that the invasion of privacy was so slight that the police's actions did not violate the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches. The case gave the court an occasion to examine just how far police can go when it comes to searching electronic gadgets.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning has been imprisoned in the Quantico Marine Corps Brig for nine months, suspected of giving highly classified State Department cables to the website WikiLeaks. He has not been tried, yet is kept in solitary confinement in a windowless room 23 hours a day and forced to sleep naked without pillows or blankets. - Human rights groups have condemned his treatment, and even State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley spoke out against it. Crowley has resigned, allegedly under pressure from the Obama administration. Defense officials say Manning is stripped of his clothes nightly to prevent him from committing suicide, yet his civilian lawyer says his client is at no risk. The problem with the argument that Manning is being kept in long-term solitary confinement to prevent his suicide is that long-term solitary confinement causes suicide.

Nearly two years after an explosion on an oil platform killed 11 workers and sent millions of gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, deepwater drilling has regained momentum in the gulf and is spreading around the world.

The announcement of an agreement late Friday by BP and lawyers representing individuals and businesses hurt by the disaster represented something of a turning of the page, though BP and its drilling partners continue to face legal challenges. After a yearlong drilling moratorium, BP and other oil companies are intensifying their exploration and production in the gulf, which will soon surpass the levels attained before the accident. Drilling in the area is about to be expanded in Mexican and Cuban waters, beyond most American controls, even though any accident would almost inevitably affect the United States shoreline. Oil companies are also moving into new areas off the coast of East Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. The reason for the resumption of such drilling, analysts say, is continuing high "demand for energy" worldwide.

Stephen Lendman: BP Stonewalling Compensation to Gulf Residents
AWIP: BP and White House continue cover-up of oil spill
AWIP: Obama “claims czar” provides no relief for the people of the Gulf

With wages stagnant or declining, gasoline and electricity prices on the rise and food prices steadily increasing, the last thing American families need is another increase in a basic necessity. Yet, a new report says that's exactly what you're going to get: Water bills that will likely double or triple over the next few years, thanks to the nation's crumbling water system infrastructure. - A new study and report by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) entitled, Buried No Longer: Confronting America's Water Infrastructure Challenge, improving and expanding the nation's underground water systems will cost upwards of $1 trillion over the next 25 years. And, as is always the case, water system users are going to get soaked with the bill. What does that mean in real dollars and cents? Right now the average family household pays about $400 a year. The fixes that are needed over the next quarter century mean that bills could rise anywhere from $300-$550 a year, meaning water bills could skyrocket to $900 a year or more.

Carlos Latuff: In recent days, pro-Israel blogs have been published articles accusing me (guess what) of being a Holocaust denier. This happened because in 2006 I participated in the Holocaust Cartoon Contest that had been set up by the House of Cartoon in Tehran. This contest was a response to the Prophet Mohammed cartoons that had been published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and was intended to test the Western limits of the freedom of speech. This new smear campaign was launched by Zionist bloggers due to some cartoons I had made for the activist group Code Pink for use in the Occupy AIPAC protests. It was intended to pressure the group into not using the artworks which were made by me, a so-called “Holocaust denier”. They say, among other things, that I am a Holocaust denier, but fail to prove their point. In the article, reproduced ad nauseam by them, there is not one article, opinion or cartoon made by me where I deny the existence of the Nazi Holocaust. It’s because I have never made such cartoons. These bloggers are trying to apply the old “a lie repeated many times over becomes a truth” tactic./strong

A day after reducing the sentence of Palestinian political prisoner Hana Shalabi from six months to four months, Israeli authorities denied a request by the Palestinian Prisoner support group Addameer demanding that the arresting officer and two others accused of torturing Shalabi be forced to testify.

Sunday marks the 17th day of Shalabi's open-ended hunger strike, which she vowed to continue despite the reduction in her sentence. On 23 February, Shalabi's 65-year old mother and 67-year old father joined her hunger strike in solidarity. She began her hunger strike soon after the 66-day hunger strike by prisoner Khader Adnan ended when he was promised an early release. According to Addameer, Shalabi was arrested on 16 February, less than four months after being released from over two years in administrative detention on 18 October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal concluded by the Israeli government and Hamas, whereby 1,027 Palestinian political prisoners were released in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Stephen Lendman: Hana Shalabi: Hunger Striking for Justice
IMEMC: Army Prevents Medical Committee From Visiting Hunger-Striking Detainee

US Attorney General Eric Holder is prepared to deliver a major policy speech at Northwestern University on Monday afternoon, explaining for the first time his Justice Department’s rationale related to the President’s putative power to order the assassination of American citizens without judicial oversight. - The explanation has long been speculated at by legal experts and civil rights activists, as the Obama Administration is known to have a “kill list” and has assassinated multiple American citizens inside Yemen without providing any charges against them beforehand. Exactly what the explanation will be, however, will remain a secret for now, as officials who confirmed the planned speech refused to provide any details of what he would say, beyond some vague appeal to “self defense” by the state, until after the speech is made.

Outgoing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claimed victory in Russia’s presidential elections held Sunday. Last night the Central Election Commission (CEC) reported that he had so far secured 65 percent of the vote, with about two-thirds of all precincts reporting (as of the writing of this article). - Turnout in Sunday’s election appears to have been substantial, with 64 percent of the electorate going to the polls. This number may rise as more votes are counted. If it holds, it would represent an increase of four percent over the parliamentary contest in December 2011, but a decrease of six percent from the 2008 presidential race. There have been thousands of allegations of vote fraud from various corners of the country, with upwards of 20,000 observers stationed around the country. According to the election watchdog Golos, so-called “carouseling”—the bussing of voters from one polling station to the next so they could vote multiple times using absentee ballots—was reported in Moscow, Vladivostok, Voronezh and numerous other cities. Other complaints include tampering with ballot boxes, the absence of ballot papers, broken surveillance cameras, the removal of observers from polling places, ballot-box stuffing, voting by proxy, and voter harassment.

Russia Today: Putin declared president-elect - Video
BBC: Vladimir Putin wins, exit polls say
New Statesman: One man versus the people
Tony Cartalucci: US to Attempt Overthrow of Putin Government

The Tyrolean Iceman, a 5,300-year-old Copper age individual, was discovered in 1991 on the Tisenjoch Pass in the Italian part of the Ötztal Alps. Here we report the complete genome sequence of the Iceman and show 100% concordance between the previously reported mitochondrial genome sequence and the consensus sequence generated from our genomic data. We present indications for recent common ancestry between the Iceman and present-day inhabitants of the Tyrrhenian Sea, that the Iceman probably had brown eyes, belonged to blood group O and was lactose intolerant. His genetic predisposition shows an increased risk for coronary heart disease and may have contributed to the development of previously reported vascular calcifications. Sequences corresponding to ~60% of the genome of Borrelia burgdorferi are indicative of the earliest human case of infection with the pathogen for Lyme borreliosis.