Russia says it is prepared to use "destructive force pre-emptively" if the US goes ahead with controversial plans for a missile defence system based in Central Europe. - The warning came after the Russian defence minister said talks on missile defence were nearing a dead end. Moscow fears that missile interceptors would be a threat to Russia's security. But the US and Nato say they are intended to protect against attacks from Iran or North Korea. "A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens," chief of the Russian defence staff Gen Nikolai Makarov said. President Barack Obama, who succeeded Mr Bush in the White House in 2008, scrapped plans for a network of bases spread across Poland and the Czech Republic with the capacity to intercept long-range missiles. But in 2010, it signed an agreement with Poland to use an old airstrip at Redzikowo, near the Baltic coast, as a missile defence base.

The IDF has issued emergency call up orders to six reserve battalions in light of new dangers on the Egyptian and Syrian borders. And the Knesset has given the IDF permission to summon a further 16 reserve battalions if necessary, Israeli media reported on Wednesday. An IDF spokesperson said intelligence assessments called for the deployment of more soldiers. An army statement highlighted last August’s infiltration from the Sinai north of Eilat in which eight Israelis were killed, and said the subsequent division of that area into two distinct military zones necessitated additional manpower.

Daily Yomiuri: Japan's foreign minister calls on Israel to refrain from taking military action against Iran

The city of Oakland, California has been issued an ultimatum by a federal judge: either figure out a way to handle the flood of complaints against the police or start being sanctioned. - District Judge Thelton Henderson has demanded that officials in the Bay Area city start determining this week how to deal with the abundance of accusatory statements filed with Oakland authorities, specifically citing the flood of complaints that have come in over how law enforcement conducted themselves during raids on the city’s Occupy Wall Street protests. In a decision made this week, Judge Henderson says that the Oakland Police Department must submit their proposal on how to handle the grievances within the next week or else be sanctioned by federal authorities.

Victim of Obama's drone attacks - To date, 175 children
have been killed by him in Pakistan...

The pact between the United States and Afghanistan could leave the door open for continued drone strikes against insurgent targets in Pakistan after 2014, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker indicated Wednesday.

“There is nothing in this agreement that precludes the right of self-defense for either party and if there are attacks from the territory of any state aimed at us we have the inherent right of self defense and will employ it,” he said. Crocker was responding to a question about controversial drone strikes on Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan at a briefing on the deal signed in Kabul overnight by U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai. The Strategic Partnership Agreement states that the United States will not use its presence in Afghanistan to launch offensive actions against other states from Afghan soil. However, it does say that in the event of threats to Afghanistan the two countries would consult on an appropriate response. “This is defensive in nature, not offensive, doesn’t threaten any one, but I hope the region takes notice,” Crocker said. US officials are loath to discuss the secretive CIA program, the source of sharp tensions between Washington and Islamabad. Drones have killed scores of what the U.S. government says are Al-Qaeda suspects in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. [Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images]

Patrick Martin: US makes a pact with its Afghan puppet
Google/AP: Afghanistan "security deal" Obama signed has holes

Israel is reportedly seeking to relocate the members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to the Republic of Azerbaijan as part of attempts to station the anti-Iran terrorists in five US-allied countries in the Middle East. - There are reportedly 16 abandoned airfields and military bases in Azerbaijan. The Azeri government has already reactivated four of them, which the Tel Aviv regime has rented. Azerbaijan plans to bring the other facilities into full operation as well. Israel is apparently looking for bases in Azerbaijan with conditions similar to those of the notorious Camp Ashraf in Iraq, located about 120 kilometers (74 miles) west of the border with Iran, in order to prevent the complete dissolution of the MKO. Following the Iraqi government’s decision to expel the MKO terrorist group from its soil, the White House is in talks with senior officials from Azerbaijan, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in a bid to coax them into sheltering the MKO members in their countries. The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq's executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border. The group is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and carrying out the massacre of Iraqi Kurds. The group has carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

The paid informant who helped orchestrate the FBI sting that resulted in the arrest of five anarchists for allegedly plotting to blow up an Ohio bridge is a convicted felon who was arrested on bad check and theft charges in the midst of his cooperation with federal investigators, The Smoking Gun has learned. - Shaquille Azir, 39, was named in a pair of felony indictments filed in January in Cuyahoga County, according to court records. Azir, who TSG has identified as the informant in the federal bombing case, is accused in the indictments of passing bad checks on July 25, 2011 and December 22, 2011. Azir “has been working as a source for the FBI since July 20, 2011,” according to the U.S. District Court complaint filed yesterday against the alleged bomb plotters. Wearing a body recorder, Azir captured the five self-styled anarchists plotting to use C-4 explosive to take down a Cleveland-area bridge. Azir arranged for the purchase of the C-4 from an undercover FBI agent. He also fronted the alleged conspirators money for the buy of the material, which had been rendered inert by federal investigators. If the bombing case goes to trial, defense lawyers will certainly portray the 6’ 5”, 350-pound Azir as the plot’s instigator, a snitch who pocketed the FBI’s money to help entrap the five defendants, who range in age from 20 to 35.

Jason Ditz: FBI Arrests Five in Fake Cleveland ‘Terror Plot’

Bill Van Auken: FBI provocateur ensnares Cleveland protesters in “bomb plot” - As with scores of Muslims who have been framed up and jailed, they were lured by an informer and undercover agents into playing assigned roles in a crime that was staged and controlled from the outset by the FBI. - Federal authorities Tuesday, May 1, charged five men described as “anarchists” with plotting to blow up a bridge linking two Cleveland, Ohio suburbs. The charges were the culmination of a six-month long sting operation involving a paid confidential informant that ended with undercover FBI operatives supplying the five with fake explosives and then arresting them.

‘Anything you write can and will be held against you in a court of law’ …Israel’s military censor to monitor Facebook, Twitter, blogs

Facebook, Twitter and Blogs will soon be monitored in Israel … “The censor can only touch things that are likely to harm the security of the state, and these incidents are few.”

Chief ensor says new system will not infringe on personal information nor scrutinize private Facebook accounts.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

So why bother? Just to let us know that Big Brother is watching?? We already knew that.

Looks like we will have a censor that does not censor, and a monitor that does not monitor …. What then will we have? Perhaps the beginnings of a police state? Nah….. that can’t be possible in the ‘Only Democracy In The Middle East’, can it?

Russia Today: Israeli military to keep tabs on Facebook, Twitter

The Israeli military closed its investigation into the shelling deaths of 21 members of a Palestinian family, and said it would not file any charge in what was one of the gravest incidents in the 2009 war in the Gaza Strip. - The military's move, which exonerates Israeli soldiers from any responsibility in the killings, outraged relatives and the Israeli human-rights group that had pressed for the inquiry. They said the findings proved the army is not capable of investigating the conduct of its soldiers.

AWIP: Inquiry Defends Israeli Fatal Airstrike in Gaza

The MI6 spy found dead in a padlocked sports holdall was probably 'unlawfully killed' in a criminal act, a coroner concluded. - Gareth Williams’s death most likely involved a third party and he was either poisoned or suffocated, Dr Fiona Wilcox said. She said the possibility that a member of the intelligence services was involved in the maths prodigy’s death remained a “legitimate line of inquiry” for police. The head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, apologised to Mr Williams’s family for failing to report him missing for a week. In a statement, family members said the delay had “exacerbated” their grief. They also criticised the intelligence service for its “failure and reluctance” to make information available.

Wayne Madsen: British spy was assassinated by Mossad team [PayWall]

Last week, Iceland’s high court, the Landsdómir, acquitted ex-Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde of all major charges in the case brought against him over his role in the 2008 financial crisis. The crisis led to the collapse of the country’s three main banks in a matter of days, as the economy entered a deep recession. - On three out of the four charges against him, Haarde was found not guilty. The court judged that he had done all he could to urge the banks to reduce their exposure to foreign debt, that he had not been negligent by failing to react to the danger of a financial crisis, and that he could not be held responsible for having failed to compel the banks to transfer the liabilities for foreign deposits in savings accounts to subsidiaries based in other countries. The only count on which he was found guilty was the token charge of failing to organise a sufficient number of cabinet meetings to discuss the issue of the financial crisis. The court indicated its approval of Haarde’s activities, declaring that he would face no punishment. The judges ruled that his legal expenses for the trial would be borne by the state.

New York (CNN) -- A pastel version of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch fetched nearly $120 million from an anonymous buyer Wednesday at Sotheby's in New York, setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction.

Experts had expected the masterpiece to break new ground at the famed New York auction house; its presale estimate of at least $80 million was the highest ever listed at Sotheby's. It sold for $119,922,500, which includes the premium paid to Sotheby's. Previously, the most expensive artwork ever sold there was Pablo Picasso's painting "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," which brought in $106.5 million two years ago. The previous record for a Munch work of art was just over $38 million. The version of "The Scream" on the block Wednesday was one of four -- two pastels and two paintings -- executed between 1893 and 1910, Sotheby's said, and is one of the best-known images in modern art. It's also the only version a private collector can get their hands on at public auction. The other three are housed in National Gallery of Norway and at the Munch Museum in the Norwegian capital, according to Sotheby's. Munch also created a lithograph of "The Scream" in 1895, the same year he executed the pastel auctioned on Wednesday.

"Pioneer of global peace studies hints at link between Norway massacre and Mossad" And that's the least interesting thing he said!:

"Johan Galtung, Norwegian sociologist nicknamed the “father of peace studies,” made anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli remarks while lecturing at the University of Oslo, in an article published afterward in the Norwegian press and in an interview with Haaretz that followed. Among other statements, Galtung claimed that a possible connection exists between the terrorist responsible for the massacre of children in Norway last summer, and the Mossad. “The Jews control U.S. media, and divert for the sake of Israel,” wrote Galtung in an article published in Norway. He pointed out that one of the factors behind the anti-Semitic sentiment that led to Auschwitz was the fact that Jews held influential positions in German society. Galtung also recommended reading “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” – one of the most popular anti-Semitic texts in the world. Professor Galtung, 82-years-old, is one of the founders of the discipline called “Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution,” as well as a founder of the international Peace Research Institute in Oslo. He is considered well-respected sociological researcher, has been awarded many prizes, and is the author of over a thousand articles and over a hundred books. Some of his work has also been translated into Hebrew. "

and:

"In the correspondence with Haaretz, Galtung mentioned what he calls the “ambiguity of everything human.” To explain, he raised examples from the Middle Ages and the modern period. According to Galtung, “The terrible programs,” carried out upon the Jews, had another “problematic” side as well. “The Jews played a role in demanding payment from indebted peasants,” wrote Galtung. According to Galtung, “terrible Auschwitz,” had two sides as well. “[It was] not unproblematic that Jews had key niches in a society humiliated by defeat at Versailles,” wrote Galtung, referencing Germany following World War I. Galtung continued, “In no way, absolutely no way, does this justify the atrocities. But it created anti-Semitism that could have been predicted.” Another claim, made by Galtung in a Norwegian periodical, is that Jews control the American media. “Six Jewish companies control 96% of the media,” wrote Galtung. He included the names of journalists, publishers, TV networks, and movie studios, that he claims are controlled by Jews. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was also included on the list. “He’s not Jewish, but many of the people under him are,” wrote Galtung, in reference to Murdoch. “Many of them are fanatically pro-Israel,” he pointed out. Immediately following these claims, Galtung wrote that “seventy percent of the professors at the 20 most important American universities are Jewish.” "

Humanist: Om klare linjer og tvisyn
AWIP: Johan Galtung : America an Empire in Decline counting its last Days - Video
Radio NOVA: Det norske demokratiet er opphevet - AUDIO (Norwegian)

Right now, the Avaaz website is under massive attack. An expert is telling us that an attack this large is likely coming from a government or large corporation, with massive, simultaneous and sophisticated assaults from across the world to take down our site.

We were expecting this. Our people-powered campaigning has been fearless, and we've taken on the world's worst actors head-on, in ways that genuinely hurt them - from the Syrian and Chinese regimes to Rupert Murdoch, Big Oil and organized crime. The Syrian dictatorship called our campaigner 'the most dangerous man in the world', and a UK inquiry recently revealed emails between Murdoch's news corporation and top levels of government saying the Avaaz campaign against Murdoch was their biggest concern. Sometimes I lie awake at night wondering when these people are going to come after us. And it's begun. We have urgent campaigns on oceans, forests and Syria we need to run, but the attack has been going on for 36 hours straight, threatening our ability to keep campaigning.