The United States military has been training terrorists in a military base in Kuwait, preparing them for attacks in the Middle Eastern countries. - The recruits are sent to the “Arifjan” base where they receive military training and learn methods of bombing and terror operations within a three month period, according to reports. The US military then sends the trained terrorists as ringleaders to countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria to set up terror networks inside these countries and embark on terrorist activities and carry out acts of sabotage with the support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The US military is currently in control of large parts of Kuwait and thousands of soldiers who have left Iraq are currently stationed there. The US dispatched some 15,000 troops to Kuwait late last year after withdrawing its forces from Iraq.

Search giant's co-founder hits back at critics of his comments to the Guardian, echoing remarks made by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. - Google co-founder Sergey Brin has hit back at critics of his exclusive comments to the Guardian about the importance of the open web, and emphasised that he thinks "government filtering of political dissent" poses the biggest threat to internet freedom. His words echo those of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, who told the Guardian this week that the UK government's plans for internet surveillance were dangerous. Writing on his personal account on the Google+ network , Brin said that his remarks "got particularly distorted in the secondary coverage" by rehashed versions of his discussion "in a way that distracts from my central tenets". Brin comes from a family who fled antisemitism in the Soviet Union. In his blogpost he reiterates the point made in the original article that he thinks governments, rather than individual companies, pose the biggest and most immediate threat to everyone's freedoms online.

Photo: A group of captured U.S.-backed Cuban exiles, known as Brigade 2506, being lined up by Fidel Castro’s soldiers at the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), Cuba, following an unsuccessful invasion of the island, April 1961. (Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Fifty-one years after the failed attempt to invade Cuba, the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Justice continue to claim that releasing the final volume of a CIA history of the debacle would “confuse the public” and should therefore remain withheld.

The National Security Archive originally requested the document in 2005. Last year, the Archive filed a FOIA lawsuit to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bay of Pigs debacle. That prompted the release of three volumes of the five volume history (one volume was already available at the Johnson Presidential Library); the CIA and DOJ have continued to fight the release of the fifth volume. Judge Kessler, of the US District Court in Washington DC, is expected to soon rule on the case.

The grisly photographs of American soldiers posing with the body parts of Afghan insurgents during a 2010 deployment in Afghanistan were the source of a dispute between The Los Angeles Times and the Pentagon lasting weeks. Two of the 18 photographs given to the paper were published Wednesday by The Times over fierce objections by military officials who said that the photographs could incite violence. The officials had asked The Times not to publish any of the photographs, a fact that the defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, reiterated on Wednesday as the images spread across the Internet.

David Walsh: Photos of US troops defiling corpses expose Afghan war’s savagery
LA Times: U.S. troops posed with body parts of Afghan bombers

When did we decide that it was okay to treat very young school children as if they were terror suspects? When I was growing up, I don't remember a single time that the police ever came to my school and arrested anyone. But now police are being called out to public schools at the drop of a hat. All over America, very young school children are being arrested and marched out of their schools in handcuffs in front of all their friends. For example, down in Georgia the other day police were called out because a 6-year-old girl was throwing a tantrum. The police subdued her, slapped handcuffs on her and hauled her off to the police station. Instead of apologizing for this outrageous incident, the police are defending the actions of the officer involved. But this is not an isolated incident. All over the country young kids are being handcuffed and mistreated by police.

Announcing the Iraq war was ended, Barack Obama told US troops on 14 December 2011, "The United States military is the finest fighting force in the history of the world." What he didn't say is that since 1945 the US military has been directly responsible for the deaths of over 10 million people and that America has in that time overthrown 50 governments, including democracies, and intervened in at least 30 more. John Pilger has something to say about that.

Israeli soldiers and policemen displaced resident Khaled An-Natsha and his family from their home in Al-Ashqariyya area, in Beit Hanina, north of Israeli controlled East Jerusalem. The eviction came following a court order that granted Israeli settlers ownership over the property. - The Palestinian News and Info Agency, WAFA, reported that the soldiers also detained An-Natsha after “arguing with the soldiers”. The Israeli District Court in Jerusalem previously issued an eviction notice ordering An-Natsha to vacate the property, claiming that the land on which his home is built belonged to a Jewish man since 1936.

IMEMC: 20 New Homes Built In Illegal Settlement Outpost
IMEMC: Soldiers Demolish Sheds And Tents In Bedouin Camp Near Jerusalem
IMEMC: Settlers Chop Down 250 Olive Trees Near Ramallah

Just days after international talks in Istanbul on Iran’s nuclear programs, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak dismissed the negotiations as a waste of time and made clear that an Israeli attack was possible, even as talks proceeded. - Speaking on Israel’s Army Radio on Tuesday, Barak denied that his country had promised the US to hold off military action during negotiations. “We are not committed to anything,” he said. “There is not, there had not been, there should not be and there cannot be [such a promise].” Barak added: “I do not believe the efforts of the international community to stop Iran’s nuclear program will bear fruit. The time spent in this process is very precious.” He called for a quick conclusion to negotiations, declaring that any time-outs “do not serve our interests.”

Secret Service agents who partied with prostitutes in Colombia last week brought the girls into contact with "sensitive security information," according to a new letter from the House Oversight Committee to Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan. - The letter was obtained by ABC News reporter Jake Tapper, who reports that the charge refers to a meeting Sullivan had with Congressional investigators Monday, in which he provided an update on the probe into the scandal. The letter requests additional details about the alleged misconduct and the agents involved. Here's the relevant excerpt, courtesy of ABC News:

“The facts as you described them raised questions about the agency’s culture,” the two congressmen write. “The incident in Cartagena is troubling because Secret Service agents and officers made a range of bad decisions, from drinking too much, to engaging with prostitutes, to bringing foreign nationals into contact with sensitive security information, to exposing themselves to blackmail and other forms of potential compromise.”

Discovery of up to 40,000 leatherback sea turtles may see species removed from critically endangered list.

The world's largest colony of leatherback sea turtles has been identified by scientists, raising hopes that the giant creature may not be as endangered as previously thought. A new survey [PDF] has revealed that Gabon, west Africa, has between 15,730 and 41,373 female turtles using its nesting beaches. Matthew Witt of the University of Exeter, who led the research, said: "We knew that Gabon was an important nesting site for leatherback turtles but until now had little idea of the size of the population or its global ranking. We are now focusing our efforts on working with local agencies, to coordinate conservation efforts to ensure this population is protected against the threats from illegal fisheries, nest poaching, pollution and habitat disturbance." Concern for the leatherback grew after populations in the Indo-Pacific crashed by more than 90 percent in the 1980s and 1990s. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the species as critically endangered globally, with numbers of females thought to be as low as 34,000, but detailed population assessments in much of the Atlantic, especially Africa, had not previously been carried out. The new research is published in the journal Biological Conservation. The survey, led by the University of Exeter with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), counted nests and nesting females during three nesting seasons between 2002 and 2007. They found 79% of nesting happens within national parks and other already protected areas.

Microsoft executive named Mali prime minister. - Armed men on Tuesday arrested ex-prime minister Modibo Sidibe and Soumaila Cisse, a former minister who led the West African Economic and Monetary Union until November last year. Cisse suffered an unspecified injury while fleeing his home, and was later arrested at a hospital and taken by ambulance to the junta's headquarters in Kati, near Bamako, his office said. Cisse's home was "vandalised" and a nephew and a caretaker were also injured, the office said. Both Sidibe and Cisse were leading candidates in a presidential election set for 29 April that was derailed by the 22 March coup. [...] The new premier, Cheick Modibo Diarra, is a noted astrophysicist who served as Microsoft's chairman for Africa and taught mechanical and aerospace engineering at Howard University in Washington DC. Also a US citizen, he had planned to run in the aborted election this month as the candidate of the Rally for Mali's Development that he founded last year.

Iran’s official news agency says more than 15 Iranian and foreign nationals have been arrested for allegedly spying for Israel, attempted assassination and sabotage. - The Tuesday IRNA report says the group planned to assassinate an Iranian expert as well sabotage the country’s infrastructure. It added details to a report released earlier this month. It said the group used Israeli diplomatic missions in Western counties to prepare plans. The expert’s field was not identified. In the past, several Iranian nuclear experts have been killed. The latest report did not elaborate on nationality of the foreign detainees. It claimed Iranian intelligence also uncovered a spy base of Israeli Mossad in a neighboring country. Israel’s Foreign Ministry refused to comment.

As if my words in the above speech were not clear, let me repeat, I seek the destruction of every government and institution that is actively participating in the destruction of our world. Some being so corrupt and vile that there seems little to no chance in them being reformed, I include the US, British and Israeli governments in this category, along with the United Nations. All of these entities are vile and disgusting and are taking us straight to hell on Earth via World War III. Let me be clear however, I do not give a free pass to the crimes of all the other corrupt, racist and violent entities and governments out there. I simply recognize the obvious, in terms of total destruction and suffering, the entities I reserve my greatest scorn for, specifically the so-called ‘western civilisation’ I come from, represents the gravest threats we face in this tragic world of ours… we are in truth, barbarians.