Congressman Bobby Rush was escorted off the floor of the US House of Representatives after he donned a hoodie in tribute to the slain teenager Trayvon Martin.

The hooded sweatshirt has become a symbol of protest against racial profiling in the weeks since the 17-year-old was killed while wearing one by a Hispanic neighbourhood watch captain in Florida. Thousands of people in cities across the US wore sweatshirts as they marched to demand that George Zimmerman be arrested and charged for the killing. Mr Rush, an Illinois Democrat, took the floor to denounce the killing and speak out against vigilantism. Too often, this violent act that resulted in the murder of Trayvon Martin is repeated in the streets of our nation," Rush said in his statement. "I applaud the young people all across the land who are making a statement about hoodies, about the hoodlums in this nation, particularly those who tread on our laws wearing official or quasi-official clothes." As he spoke he removed his suit jacket to reveal a grey sweatshirt underneath. He pulled up the hood and replaced his spectacles with dark sunglasses as he spoke. "Racial profiling has to stop, Mr Speaker," he continued "Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum." He was interrupted by the presiding speaker, Gregg Harper, who repeatedly banged his gavel as he warned Mr Rush that he was violating parliamentary rules by covering his head in the chamber.

Wikipedia: Shooting of Trayvon Martin
MSNBC: Police video shows George Zimmerman shortly after Trayvon Martin shooting
Boston.com: Video of handcuffed Fla. shooter adds to debate
Stephen Lendman: Stand Your Ground Laws Legalize Murder
WSWS: Parents of Trayvon Martin speak to the WSWS - VIDEO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has suspended planned food aid to North Korea as Pyongyang vows to push ahead with a plan to launch a long-range missile in defiance of international warnings, U.S. military officials said on Wednesday. - Reclusive North Korea has said it is merely sending a weather satellite into space, but South Korea and the United States say it is a disguised ballistic missile test. North Korea said on Tuesday there was no reason to fire a missile after February’s agreement to suspend nuclear and missile tests in return for food aid with the United States.

Peter Symonds: Obama’s nuclear disarmament hoax - While it is not upgrading American nuclear warheads, the Obama administration is committed to spending at least $600 billion over the next decade to modernise weapons production facilities and delivery systems. These include a new generation of land-based ballistic missiles, a new fleet of nuclear-armed submarines and 100 new strategic bombers. What is under way is not nuclear disarmament, but an arms race. Under the guise of “disarmament”, the US is determined to maintain its absolute nuclear supremacy. The real purpose of the South Korean summit was to bar access to fissile material and thus nuclear weapons to countries that do not already have nuclear weapons. In that way, the US does not have to take a potentially nuclear-armed foe into account as it wages new wars of aggression.

SYDNEY: Australia on Wednesday said it may allow Washington to use its territory to operate long-range spy drones, as part of an increased US presence in the Asia-Pacific that has rankled China.

The United States and Canberra are planning a major expansion of military ties, with the first of a 2,500-strong Marine deployment to northern Australia unveiled last November by President Barack Obama due to arrive next month. The plan has irked Beijing and worried some Asian countries who see it as a statement by Washington that it intends to stand up for its interests in the region amid concerns of increasing assertiveness by China. Australian media carried reports Wednesday citing a Washington Post story that the United States was considering using the Cocos Islands, atolls in the Indian Ocean off northwest Australia, to launch unmanned surveillance aircraft. They said the Cocos, which has a population of around 600 people, would replace the present US Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia, which America leases from Britain and is due to be mothballed in 2016.

‘Guardian angels’ are special troops to be used to monitor their comrades 24/7. [Note their satanic perversion of language] - With growing incidence of Afghan attacks on American soldiers, the US military is taking desperate measures to protect its personnel. This includes assigning ‘guardian angels’ to monitor soldiers, and rearranging furniture. The new measures are part of a directive issued by General John Allen, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and are primarily aimed at curbing insider attacks. “We have taken steps necessary on our side to protect ourselves with respect to, in fact, sleeping arrangements, internal defenses associated with those small bases in which we operate,” Allen said. Other measures to ramp up security include rearranging office desks to face the door, so that those behind them would have a clear view of the people coming in. Americans have also been permitted guns in several Afghan ministries. All these steps come after a number of deadly attacks on American troops and other military personnel.

PressTV: ‘Guardian angels’ to protect US troops in Afghanistan
USA Today: New security for U.S. troops in Afghanistan

The FBI taught its agents that “bending or suspending the law” is sometimes OK, a review of training papers reveals. The documents also say Arabs are prone to “Jekyll and Hyde temper tantrums” and advise agents to “never shake hands with an Asian".

The FBI has completed a six month-long review of materials and methods used to train counterterrorism agents. “Under certain circumstances, the FBI has the ability to bend or suspend the law to impinge on the freedom of others,” one FBI PowerPoint presentation bluntly stated. The circumstances under which the FBI could get the carte blanche to violate one of the pillars of American society were not stated. The files also contain samples of offensive stereotypes in training documents. One of the documents, titled “Establishing Relations” instructs trainees: “Never attempt to shake hands with an Asian. Never stare at an Asian. Never try to speak to an Arab female prior to approaching the Arab male first.” Another document, called “Control and Temper” contrasted the supposedly stoic Western mind to that of the “Arab world.” In the Arab world, “outburst and loss of control [is] expected,” the document states. In another bullet point, these outbursts are also called “Jekyll & Hyde temper tantrums.”

Wired [Probably CIA infiltrated]: Read the FBI Memo: Agents Can ‘Suspend the Law’

Clinton Pushes So-called Opposition’s Demand For ‘Regime Change Or Nothing’ - No sooner had Kofi Annan, the special United Nations envoy to Syria, announced scoring “an important first step” towards implementing a peace plan in the war-torn country, the US and Western powers were scrambling to scupper the goalposts. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton led Western efforts to undermine the peace bid by appearing to abandon recently agreed terms for a ceasefire that would have included all parties in Syria. In responding to the peace plan development, Clinton shifted the burden of responsibility for violence on to the Syrian government and backed the demands of fractious “opposition groups” for Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad to step down. After more than a week of shuttle diplomacy that first began with Kofi Annan winning the unanimous support for his plan at the United Nations Security Council, the former UN secretary general revealed on Tuesday that the government of Syria’s President Assad had accepted his six-point proposal to bring an end to the violence that has racked Syria for the past year. The primary point of the peace plan is for all armed groups, including the Syrian state forces, to call a ceasefire to enable a process of dialogue.

Bill Van Auken: In wake of Syria peace plan, US steps up bid for regime-change

Italy’s financial police seized over 1.1 billion euros (some $1.5 billion) of assets controlled by the family of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Italian media reported. - A statement from the police said that the assets seized included shares in top Italian firms, particularly in the country’s largest banking group UniCredit, carmaker Fiat, oil major Eni and aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica. The seizure is following a request from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The ICC seeks extradition of Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, from Libya on [trumped-up] charges of crimes against humanity. Police said it also seized a stock in the football club Juventus as well as 150 hectares of land on Pantelleria, which is an Italian island between Sicily and the Tunisian coast, and also a building in Rome.

A list that puts this issue completely to bed:

1) When under attack, the patsy attempts to reach out for help from his intelligence handler (with plenty of government lies claiming they had no connection in the patsy, no knowledge of him, and no reason to place him on any list of possible dangers).
2) A patsy assassinated when he could have been taken alive (and then defended himself by stating his mission was authorized by the French government)
3) A 'radical Islamist terrorist' with no interest in religion.
4) The first killer was obviously a different person (based on witness descriptions), a fact ignored by the media and government.
5) Sent to Israel, of all places, using cover provided by a French intelligence agency (the Jewish targets seem to be part of a Zionist plan to scare French Jews to flee to Israel).
6) An inexplicable cache of weapons.
7) Travels to Afghanistan and Pakistan, suspected of training at 'al-Qaeda' training camps, picked up by the Americans, and just sent home?

No, this was an authorized French intelligence operation - coordinated with the American and Israeli governments - to assist in Sarko's reelection (and prod French Jews into helping with the 'demographic problem' in Israel). This is so clear it is not worthy of discussion.

Le Parisien: Abdelkader Merah confirme l’existence d’un troisième homme

NABLUS, (PIC)-- The international Tadamun (solidarity) society for human rights revealed the circumstances of the brutal assault on Hamas-affiliated prisoner Abbas Assayed that happened six days ago in Gilboa prison, affirming that he is in very bad shape.

Spokesman for Tadamun society Ahmed Al-Betawi explained that prisoner Sayed miraculously survived after he was beaten savagely by dozens of Israeli policemen who embarked on booting him in all sensitive areas of his body, including his head, while he was handcuffed and shackled. Betawi said that this physical assault had nothing to do with Sayed's refusal to have a DNA test and that the prisoner was attacked without warning by Israeli policemen who told him that they did that to remind him of the attack on Park Hotel that took place in 2002 and which he is accused of planning. "I have never seen in my life someone in the status of Abbas Assayed. His facial features have changed as a result of the strikes, bunches and bruises he had. I am shocked by what I have seen. It was beyond my expectations despite my prior knowledge of his exposure to an assault before I came to visit him," the spokesman affirmed. He added that prisoner Sayed has not received any medical treatment and still suffers from severe internal pains, noting that the prisoner was unable to identify the assailants.

PIC: Arouri: Assault on Sayed is a criminal act

Israeli interrogated en route back to Israel for her activism in Palestinian cause. The activist tells of her experience being held for hours, harassed and intimidated by Israel Security Agency officials – for doing nothing illegal or suspicious.

At the gate, I was taken into a small room. The plastic carry-on bag was taken away for inspection, and I had to strip behind a curtain. For what seemed like I ages I stood shivering in tights and an undershirt while they scanned my cloths, from jeans to bra. Then another woman scanned me, feeling me all over, touching the clothes I still wore with gauze, taking samples for “chemical inspection.” When I protested, she said that objections will make me miss my flight. They finally returned my clothes, then spent another 20 minutes checking my phone contacts. They walked me onto the plane five minutes before the flight took off.[...]They threatened to make me spend the night there. They said things suggesting that they were tapping my phone, reading my emails, and bugging my apartment. They tried playing good cop, bad cop, and took turns leaving the room.[...]They recommended that I keep it private, which was one motive for publishing this story.[...]They want us to know that we are being watched, tapped, and followed. They try to frighten us into submission, and to terrorize us into silence. They will fail. Three hours of interrogation were a small price to pay compared with the suffering of my Palestinian partners, and I will keep on raising my voice for freedom and justice, until the whole world will chant along.

The gas leak at the Total oil conglomerate Elgin platform in the North Sea threatens an environmental disaster. - The platform is around 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland. The leak was first detected at 12.15 p.m. on Sunday, after which Total evacuated all 238 workers. Although not classified as a deepwater well, the Elgin drilling rig is still very deep with gas being extracted at a depth of 6,000 meters, nearly four miles into the sea bed. A flare is still alight on the main platform. David Hainsworth, the health, safety and environment manager for Total E&P UK, speculated that the leak could have occurred as the result of Total engineers pumping in mud to piping on a gas reservoir that had been plugged about a year ago. He said, “We believe the leak is coming out of the outer casing of the well.” Although the leak was discovered on Sunday afternoon, it wasn’t until 11 a.m. on Monday that an exclusion zone around the rig was set up. Ships are excluded within two miles of the site and aircraft no nearer than three miles if they fly lower than 4,000 feet. This affects helicopters but not commercial aircraft. On Monday, surveillance flights were sent to investigate a large sheen in the water surrounding the platform, a massive cloud of between 2 and 26 tonnes of underwater gas condensate, around 6 nautical miles in length.

Der Spiegel: North Sea Gas Leak: Total Weighs Options As Explosion Fears Mount

Amnesty International slams US policing along the Mexican border saying America discriminates against Hispanics and Native Americans, and contributes to the deaths of illegal immigrants.

The rights group accuses the federal, state, and local authorities of systematic failure to enforce immigration laws without discrimination. A study by Amnesty International USA shows such discrimination results in human rights violations. "All immigrants, irrespective of their legal status, have human rights. Amnesty International's report shows that the USA is failing in its obligations under international law to ensure these rights," says the Amnesty report titled ‘In Hostile Terrain: Human Rights Violations in Immigration Enforcement in the US Southwest.’ The report adds that federal immigration programs that operated in conjunction with state and local police put "Latino communities, indigenous communities and communities of color along the border at risk of discriminatory profiling."

Yahoo: Rights group accuses U.S. of abuses on Mexican border