For more than two years, a handful of Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee have warned that the government is secretly interpreting its surveillance powers under the Patriot Act in a way that would be alarming if the public — or even others in Congress — knew about it. - On Thursday, two of those senators — Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado — went further. They said a top-secret intelligence operation that is based on that secret legal theory is not as crucial to national security as executive branch officials have maintained. The senators, who also said that Americans would be “stunned” to know what the government thought the Patriot Act allowed it to do, made their remarks in a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. after a Justice Department official last month told a judge that disclosing anything about the program “could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.” The Justice Department has argued that disclosing information about its interpretation of the Patriot Act could alert adversaries to how the government collects certain intelligence. It is seeking the dismissal of two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits — by The New York Times and by the American Civil Liberties Union — related to how the Patriot Act has been interpreted.

The Pentagon acknowledged Thursday that a security breach during Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s visit to Afghanistan was much more serious than officials first reported, saying that an Afghan man tried to ram a stolen truck into a group of VIPs who were waiting to greet Panetta just moments after his plane landed at a military base. The driver set himself on fire Wednesday and apparently tried to ignite containers of gasoline in the cab of the truck as he attempted to run over several high-ranking Marine officers and others who were waiting for Panetta’s plane to park, said Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.

An Afghan parliamentary investigation team has implicated up to 20 US troops in the massacre of 16 civilians in Kandahar early on Sunday morning. It contradicts NATO's account that insists one rogue soldier was behind the slaughter.

The team of Afghan lawmakers has spent two days collating reports from witnesses, survivors and inhabitants of the villages where the tragedy took place. “We are convinced that one soldier cannot kill so many people in two villages within one hour at the same time, and the 16 civilians, most of them children and women, have been killed by the two groups,” investigator Hamizai Lali told Afghan News. Lali also said their investigations led them to believe 15 to 20 US soldiers had been involved in the killings. He appealed to the international community to ensure that the responsible parties were brought to justice, stressing the Afghan parliament would not rest until the killers were prosecuted. "If the international community does not play its role in punishing the perpetrators, the Wolesi Jirga [parliament] would declare foreign troops as occupying forces,” he said.

The head of the Afghan parliamentary investigation, Sayed Ishaq Gillani, told the BBC that witnesses report seeing helicopters dropping chaff during the attack, a measure used to hide targets from ground attack. Gillani added that locals suspect the massacre was revenge for attacks carried out last week on US forces that left several injured. In response to the massacre Afghan PM Hamid Karzai called for US troops to quit Afghan villages and confine themselves to their military bases across the country. Furthermore, the Taliban announced that talks with US forces would be suspended.

Stephen Lendman: A Decade of America Ravaging Afghanistan ■ US imperial wars treat civilians like combatants. To facilitate killing, soldiers are taught to dehumanize enemies, especially darker-skinned ones and Muslims. ■ Training involves instilling Groupthink hate. Individuality and free thought are erased. Recruits are intimidated to go along. When America goes to war, scoundrel journalism hardens support. ■ So do politicians, academics, religious and other leaders. They euphemize killing to justify lawlessness. At issue is conditioning public opinion to accept imperial policy like military trainers brainwash young recruits. ■ Massacring 16 Afghans, including nine children, reflects state-sponsored murder.

Stephen Lendman: America's Afghanistan Legacy
Ross Caputi: The systemic atrocity of Afghanistan's occupation
Bill Van Auken: US Afghan strategy unravels in wake of Kandahar massacre

Police in Afghanistan say at least 12 US-led Turkish soldiers and three Afghan civilians have been killed after a helicopter belonging to the US-led forces in Afghanistan crashed into a house in the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, Press TV reports. - The helicopter, which flew for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), went down in the Bagrami district of Kabul at 10:10 a.m. local time due to technical glitches, a senior police official said. Turkey has confirmed the fatalities, but there has been no immediate comment on the crash from the ISAF. Turkey has more than 1,800 soldiers in Afghanistan, who are solely tasked with patrols and do not participate in combat operations. The Taliban have also said a helicopter manned by US-led foreign forces has crashed in northern Afghanistan.

BBC: Deadly Turkish army helicopter crash in Afghanistan

Pentagon chief says he is ‘confident’ that the United States and Afghanistan would work out a treaty allowing the US military to stay longer in the country beyond the withdrawal deadline of 2014. - Speaking to reporters after talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday, the US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the situation in Afghanistan will change once the two countries sign the strategic pact. During the meeting Karzai urged visiting Panetta to accelerate the handover of security to the country’s army and police forces, and let Afghans take the lead responsibility one year earlier than previously planned. “The Afghan government is ready to take overall security responsibility,” Karzai said. Panetta’s visit comes after a US trooper on Sunday shot dead more than 16 Afghan civilians inside their homes-- most of them women and children -- in southern province of Kandahar.

Boston Globe: Karzai calls for US troop curtailment by 2013
Bill Van Auken: US Afghan strategy unravels in wake of Kandahar massacre

Prof. Chossudovsky: It hasn’t happened because these civilian casualties are the result of actions undertaken by terrorist organizations linked to al-Qaeda. These terrorist organizations are also supported by foreign forces. There’s ample evidence from official statements from the Arab League observer mission, from the Israeli media, that there are terrorist organizations involved in killing civilians and this, in a very cynical mode, provides the justification for the so-called international community to blame Bashar al-Assad when in fact these civilian casualties were ordered by foreign forces. It is what is called an intelligence parlance and I quote from the Pentagon, “a mass civilian casualty event” which “creates a useful wave of indignation”.

Top diplomats from around the world, discuss Syria again. The US and its allies say Russia and China are blocking actions to stop the bloodshed. Moscow says the solution they advocating is a recipe for more bloodshed. Moscow has accused the US and its allies of manipulating the UN Security Council and misleading the international community on Syria to provoke instability. [PressTV]

With deep pain and bitterness she asked, while her tears were falling on her cheeks like rain. She was carrying the remains of a school bag and some books in her hands. She asked: “Will the israeli killers of my little child, a piece from my heart and my liver find their way to justice, or they will survive their crime unpunished, as usual? I hope that they will be tried, or does the justice, which the international community is talking about so effusively, ONLY apply in Libya and Sudan but when the Israeli occupation murders, it is outside of the reach of their justice?

These are the very simple and clear words of the mother of Ayyoub Useila, 12, who was murdered in Gaza by an Israeli-American missile on last Sunday 11 March 2012. His body was torn to small pieces that were difficult to collect because the explosion caused the pieces of his body to fly even over the trees.

PCHR Weekly Report: Israeli Human Rights Violations in Occupied Palestine
PIC: Death of child raises toll to 26 Palestinians

At his presidential election rally Sunday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to oblige the European Union to end the free circulation of people in the Schengen area and strengthen the area's borders, known as “Fortress Europe”, against immigration from outside the EU. Claiming that Europe was “in danger of dislocation,” Sarkozy said: “There must be a common discipline in the controls at the frontiers. ... If I were to see that over the next 12 months there is no serious progress on this, then France would suspend its participation in the Schengen agreements until negotiations are concluded.” Sarkozy’s provocative statements at the rally included an attack on “multiculturalism”, and calls for referendums to toughen conditions for naturalisation and residence rights for immigrants. He also proposed forcing the unemployed to take the first job offered to them after compulsory training.

Dozens of cops equipped with shotguns and assault rifles stormed a Miami, Florida apartment building on Tuesday, drawing weapons at peaceful protesters and children with the local Occupy Wall Street campaign that were lawfully residing inside.

Members of Occupy Miami moved into an Overtown safehouse last month after their previous encampment outside of the city’s Government Center was shut down by authorities earlier this year. Now for the second time in only six weeks, cops donned in SWAT-team style gear and brandishing weapons swarmed the residence of several occupiers again, allegedly acting on reports that the residents inside were stockpiling weapons to use in an upcoming demonstration. “They said that they had gotten a tip that we had 'long guns' and were going to use them at our protest," Occupy member Thomas Parisi tells the Miami New Times. "But we are a peaceful movement and told them that we had no intention of doing anything like that." Following the shut-down of the outdoor Occupy Miami encampment on January 31, some members of the group began living in an apartment building owned by a fellow protester. Rodrigo Duque, who now calls himself Señor Paz — or “Mister Peace” — told the Miami New Times last month that he opened the doors of his building to those who were evicted from the outdoor demonstration and told the paper, “Basically, all peaceful people are welcome."

Iran's decision to halt crude supplies to a number of European states has resulted in a rapid increase in oil prices in the international markets. - Brent crude gained 55 cents to $123.15 a barrel on Friday, after falling $2 in the previous session. The US crude also rose 49 cents to $105.60. Oil prices dropped on Thursday following a report that Britain and the United States were preparing to release their strategic oil reserves this year. The report said that Britain had agreed to cooperate with the United States in tapping into its stockpiles in an effort to bring down oil prices, but volumes and exact timelines have yet to be determined. Meanwhile, in the wake of the oil price hikes, gasoline prices shot up in both the United Kingdom and the United States, fueling anger among consumers. Iran's Oil Ministry announced on February 19 that it had cut oil sales to British and French firms. Tehran also announced it may also halt oil exports to more European countries. The decision by Iran came after European Union foreign ministers agreed to ban oil imports from Iran and freeze the assets of the Iran's Central Bank across the EU in line with a US-led effort to impose further pressure on the Iranian economy over its civilian nuclear program.