It is CNN International that is, by far, the most-watched English-speaking news outlet in the Middle East. By refusing to broadcast "iRevolution", the network's executives ensured it was never seen on television by Bahrainis or anyone else in the region.

Glenn Greenwald: "Why didn't CNN's international arm air its own documentary on Bahrain's Arab Spring repression?" - A former CNN correspondent defies threats from her former employer to speak out about self-censorship at the network.

Gulf Center for Human Rights: Bahrain emboldened by international silence, sentences Nabeel Rajab to 3 years imprisonment - The BCHR and GCHR condemn in the strongest terms the sentence passed today against the detained human rights defender Nabeel Rajab by the Bahraini government on charges related to protesting. Rajab was sentenced to a total of three years imprisonment in three cases, to be immediately carried out. He is already serving a 3 months imprisonment sentence on charges of “libeling the citizens of the town of Muharraq over twitter”, another case of an ongoing campaign of judicial harassment against Rajab. He is in prison since 9 July 2012 for this charge.

[US General] Martin Dempsey warns that, while it may delay the Iranian nuclear program, an Israeli military campaign could also unravel international sanctions on the Tehran regime. - The US should not become embroiled in an Israeli military strike on Iran that would not only fail to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, but could also undo international diplomatic pressure on Tehran, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said Thursday in London. Such an attack by Israel would “clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program,” Dempsey said, adding: ”I don’t want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it.” The US’s top general – the Guardian reported – said that he could not presume to know Iran’s ultimate intentions in pursuing a nuclear program, as intelligence was inconclusive on that score. It was clear, however, he maintained, that mounting pressure from the American-led “international coalition… could be undone if [Iran] was attacked prematurely.”

Justin Raimondo: Dempsey’s Dissent: Joint Chiefs chairman stands up for America — because Obama won't - “Dempsey’s announcement changed something” — it’s the understatement of the year, perhaps the decade. Because this is the first time since the days of George Herbert Walker Bush that a major player has reminded that Shitty Little Country of its littleness. For months, the Israelis have been going around acting like they are the superpower, and we are a minuscule dependency relying entirely on our patron’s generosity — and endless forbearance.

A family have claimed they were stopped from boarding a flight because their son has Down's Syndrome and was not wanted in the first class section. - Joan and Robert Vanderhorst are threatening to sue American Airlines after they say they were victims of discrimination over their 16 year old son Bede. The couple claim as they waited to board their flight back to their home near Los Angeles they were told by airline staff they were not allowed to take their seats. Airline staff allegedly told them their son was disruptive and a danger to the flight crew. But Mrs Vanderhorst told KLTA TV that she began filming her son as he waited in the departure lounge showing him sitting silently waiting to board the flight at Newark, New Jersey. In the video, she can be heard sobbing and her husband expressing disbelief. 'He's behaving,' Mr Vanderhorst says. 'He's demonstrating he's not a problem.' 'Of course he's behaving. He's never not behaved,' his wife added. The family, who have flown together dozens of times insist Bede was singled out on this occasion as they had upgraded to the first class section. 'This little boy had a seat in the first class area, and for some reason, they didn't want that. That wasn't acceptable,' Joan said.

The bankers and the One Percent will win this election. They will win whether it is the Democrats or the Republicans; and they will continue to have their agenda pushed forward.” - The banking mafia and the one-percent capitalist cartels will be the ultimate winners in the upcoming US presidential election as America’s de facto ruling elite, a US “Occupy” movement organizer tells Press TV.

“Who is in office [is] still the bankers and corporations who control all the politicians; the Democrat, the Republican or what have you,” he added. The activist argued that the existing flaws in the American ruling system cannot be merely attributed to corruption and noted that such deficiencies are vital for the existence of the dominant ruling elite.

Patrick Martin: Phony populism from a party of corporate America

The US national debt has swelled past USD 16 trillion, giving cause to Republican’s criticism of President Barack Obama just as the National Democratic Convention (NDC) begins. - When Obama took office in 2009, the US debt stood at USD 10.6 trillion, but the figure has soared despite his pledge to cut it by half by 2012. Immediately after the US Treasury announced the figure, Obama’s Republican rival Mitt Romney released a one-minute video highlighting Obama's pledge to halve the debt by the end of his term in office. Back in 2008 and during his first presidential campaign, Obama had slammed the USD 4-trillion rise in national debt under his predecessor George W. Bush as "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic."

A gunman shot and badly injured two people inside the Montreal theater where separatist leader Pauline Marois was giving a speech in the wake of a narrow election win, police said early on Wednesday.

Bodyguards rushed Marois from the stage in the wake of the shooting. She later returned to the podium to finish her speech. Police spokesman Danny Richer said a man of around 50 had been arrested. The suspect also set fire to the back of the building, he told reporters. The incident is highly unusual for Canada, where rates of gun crime are relatively low and many politicians move around without bodyguards.

Wayne Madsen: Partially-masked gunman shoots up Parti Quebecois victory rally in Montreal. One dead. one critically wounded as new separatist Prime Minister Pauline Marois was giving her victory speech. Quebec is now in the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and the Pentagon is tasked with putting down separatist movements everywhere - from the Kenyan coast to Quebec and Scotland to West Papua. EUCOM will stage similar acts of violence before the upcoming Scottish referendum on independence. Count on it.

PressTV: Quebec separatist party to win elections: Media

Hamilton Spectator: Shooting mars PQ victory party; two shot, one dead - Just before the shooting, Marois took the rare step for a PQ leader of speaking English at a partisan event. Marois reassured anglophones that their rights would be protected, following a campaign that featured heated debates about new language laws.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) really has gone rogue; at least that's what a high-level FBI official believes. - Among the 5 million emails the group Anonymous hacked from the servers of private intelligence firm Stratfor in February, one seems to not only confirm the controversial NYPD surveillance activities uncovered by the Associated Press, but hints at even worse civil liberties violations not yet disclosed. Anonymous later turned the emails over to WikiLeaks, with which Truthout has entered into an investigative partnership.

I keep telling you, you and I are going to laugh and raise a beer one day, when everything Intel (NYPD's Intelligence Division) has been involved in during the last 10 years comes out - it always eventually comes out. They are going to make Hoover, COINTEL, Red Squads, etc look like rank amatures [sic] compared to some of the damn right felonious activity, and violations of US citizen's rights they have been engaged in.

Hacker group Antisec has leaked what it says is evidence that the FBI is actively monitoring the communications of every American using an iPhone. - The hackers released a statement Tuesday claiming that it had obtained detailed information on some 12 million iphone users, taken from an FBI agent’s laptop. The group, long associated with the more notorious Anonymous hacktivist organisation, released 1 million iOS device IDs to back up its claims. Antisec says that its motivation for leaking the information is to make it more evident that innocent people are being tracked and monitored by covert Western intelligence agencies. “We have learnt it seems quite clear nobody pays attention if you just come and say ‘Hey, FBI is using your device details and info’,” the group states. The full profanity laced AntiSec post can be read in full here.

Hang the Bankers: Find out if your Apple device was among the 12 million units hacked and tracked by the FBI

Iran says it will counter US presence in its waters by sending ships to the international waters off the US coast, says Iranian Navy chief Admiral Sayyari.

No specifics were mentioned, but during an interview broadcast on state TV, Sayyari said the plans were aimed for “the next few years.” In the past two years Iran has broadened the range of its navy, sending ships to the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Sayyari did not deny that the proposed measure was a response to the increase in the number of US vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil passageway off the coast of Iran, which Tehran previously threatened to shut off. “We will not allow anyone to trespass our country’s waters. There is no need for anyone else to establish security in our region,” said Sayyari. The US Fifth Fleet is currently located in Bahrain, on the southern coast of the Strait of Hormuz.

More than a third of all the seaborne oil in the world passes through the narrow waterway. Due to US and EU-led sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which the West suspects of covertly developing nuclear weapons, Iran’s export of oil has halved in the past year. Financial data company Bloomberg reports that the country is missing out on $130 million a day in lost sales as a result. In response to the sanctions, Tehran threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz. A majority of Iranian parliamentarians voted in favor of the blockade in July, and although the vote was seen as largely symbolic, the option is still on the table. The US then upped its presence, and currently has two aircraft carriers in the region, also scheduling extensive war games for later this month. Iranian high command has previously claimed that it will send its ships towards the US, but the threats have not yet resulted in actions. Tension between the two countries are at a high, as speculation mounts that Washington’s close ally Israel may carry out a (possibly US-supported) strike on Iran to derail its incipient nuclear program.

Desmond Tutu has helped us see the true nature of what the former prime minister did to Iraq and increased pressure for a prosecution. - For years it seems impregnable, then suddenly the citadel collapses. An ideology, a fact, a regime appears fixed, unshakeable, almost geological. Then an inch of mortar falls, and the stonework begins to slide. Something of this kind happened over the weekend. When Desmond Tutu wrote that Tony Blair should be treading the path to The Hague, he de-normalised what Blair has done. Tutu broke the protocol of power – the implicit accord between those who flit from one grand meeting to another – and named his crime. I expect that Blair will never recover from it.

Christians may have to sacrifice their jobs if they want to express their religion at work, government lawyers declared yesterday. - They urged human rights judges in Strasbourg to reject a landmark case brought by four Christians who said they suffered faith-based discrimination. The state lawyers insisted workers are not entitled to wear a crucifix at work against the wishes of their employers – and if that is incompatible with their faith they ‘are free to resign’. The hard line contrasts starkly with David Cameron telling the Commons in July that the right to wear the cross at work was ‘an absolutely vital freedom’. He even pledged to change the law to ‘make clear that people can wear religious symbols at work.’ Last night the Government’s handling of the case was attacked by Christians for its ‘astonishing double standards’. Government lawyers said the wearing of the crucifix was not a ‘scriptural requirement’ of Christianity, so employers had no obligation to recognise it.

Morocco: Mossad in the Maghreb (II): Historic services from Morocco - Earlier this year, Jacob Cohen, a Moroccan-French Jewish writer known for his anti-Zionist writings, posted an article on his blog which caused a sensation in Morocco. He revealed that Andre Azoulay, a veteran royal counsellor to both former King Hassan II and his son Mohamed VI, is also employed as an Israeli spy. The article said 71-year-old Azoulay, who hails from a Jewish family from the southern town of Essaouira, was a key member of the Mossad’s sayanim organization, a worldwide network of non-Israeli Jewish operatives.

Israel has long starred in other countries' travel advisories, and reading these warnings isn't particularly flattering. - The warnings about terror attacks are predictable: Most countries urge their citizens to stay alert while visiting Israel and to avoid certain areas, such as Gaza, the Lebanese and Egyptian borders, and sometimes the West Bank - though no country has yet included a warning about the Iranian threat. But many of these warnings also paint Israel as a primitive, crime-ridden country, full of bad drivers, religious extremists and even undrinkable water. But many advisories go way beyond security problems. Britain, for instance, warns its citizens against giving their passports to anyone in Israel, since it is currently investigating Israel on suspicion of fraudulently using British passports in the 2010 assassination of senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. "This has raised the possibility that your passport details could be captured for improper uses while your passport is out of your control," it says. "The risk applies in particular to passports without biometric security features. Only hand your passport over to third parties, including Israeli officials, when absolutely necessary."

The resolution (available here) uses the classic trick employed by defenders of Israel’s Zionist regime: lumping together any criticism of the Israeli state’s policies or of the US government’s support for them with racist attacks on Jews. - The resolution was drafted by Republican Linda Halderman and passed without public discussion. The vote on the resolution came when most students were between semesters and away from their campuses. On the one hand, the resolution denounces “swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti in residential halls, public areas on campus, and Hillel houses,” and denounces those who accuse “the Jewish people, or Israel, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.” On the other hand, the bulk of the resolution is dedicated to defining criticism of the state of Israel as “anti-Semitism.” It lists the following as examples of “anti-Semitism”:

• “language or behavior [that] demonizes and delegitimizes Israel;”
• “speakers, films, and exhibits” that indicate that “Israel is guilty of heinous crimes against humanity such as ethnic cleansing and genocide;”
• describing Israel as a “racist” or “apartheid” state;
• “student-and faculty-sponsored boycott, divestment, and sanction campaigns against Israel;”
• “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination;”
• “applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation;” and
• “actions of student groups that encourage support for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Desert Peace: SOUTH AFRICAN ZIONISTS DEFEND APARTHEID IN COURT - Nearly two weeks after South Africa’s government adopted a regulation to label goods produced in the West Bank as originating from the “Israeli Occupied Territories,” it has emerged that the country’s Zionist Federation decided long before then to take the issue to a Pretoria court.