Robert Gibbs said if US citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki didn't want to be killed he "should have a far more responsible father". - When Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary and a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, was asked why the administration killed the 16-year old son of suspected al-Qaeda member and US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki via a drone strike last year, he said it was the boy’s fault for having a father like Awlaki.

The U.S. and Israel simulated rocket attacks during their largest-ever joint military drill Wednesday, just as as real ones fired from Gaza exploded in southern Israel. - U.S. military officials insisted the joint exercise, called Austere Challenge 2012, was planned long before the latest flare-up between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza and a long-running debate over how to deal with Iran, unrelated to specific threats facing Israel. It comes at a time when Israel and the U.S. have openly debated the merits of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and as US support for Israel has emerged as a central issue in the upcoming American presidential elections. “Make no mistake. The U.S. is 100 percent committed to the security of Israel. That commitment drives this exercise,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin in a news conference at a training site near a beach in the Tel Aviv area.

Jason Ditz: Netanyahu, Lieberman Merge Parties for Next Election War

Amid conflicting reports that the Libyan city of Bani Walid was captured by army forces, RT has learned that 600 people were allegedly killed in Wednesday’s fighting, and over 1,000 have been hospitalized. Locals are appealing for international aid.

Libyan officials claimed that government forces conducted a 20-day siege before capturing Bani Walid, the last stronghold for supporters of the Gaddafi regime, and seized the city. Sources in the town gave conflicting reports, saying that local militias were responsible for the siege and now control of the area. “We continue to receive conflicting reports. From sources on the ground, we’re hearing that the army is withdrawing from the city, although we are hearing of widespread killings. Government sources say the city has fallen,” RT correspondent in neighboring Lebanon, Paula Slier, said. An individual in Italy who allegedly has relatives in Bani Walid spoke to RT about the current state of the city. Calling himself ‘Alwarfally’ – referring to a tribe from Bani Walid – he asked to remain anonymous for the interview.

Mitt Romney’s single mention of Latin America last night, calling it a “huge opportunity" for the United States, generated immediate glee from Latin Americanists across Twitter – but the hemisphere got no nod from President Obama, and then both went silent on the topic. Given that the final presidential debate Monday evening was dominated by the Middle East and terrorism, most of the world was left out by President Obama and Mr. Romney. That includes the whole of Europe and its debt crisis. India. South Africa. And not a single mention of any country in Latin America or the Caribbean: neither Cuba specifically, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, nor Peru. (Read a transcript here.) That means no candidate talked about the drug trade, despite historic violence playing out in Mexico, much of it along the 2,000-mile border that the US shares. They did not talk about energy policy in the Americas. Or the economies of Brazil and Mexico.

WikiLeaks will publish documents from the Department of Defense on detainee policies over the past decade.

WikiLeaks will begin releasing a new set of secret US government documents on Thursday regarding detainee policies over the past decade. The whistleblowing website will release more than 100 classified or otherwise restricted files from the Department of Defense covering the rules and procedures for detainees in US military custody, an issue of particular importance in the post-9/11 era. The internal documents will cover detainee policies in Iraq – from Abu Ghraib to Camp Bucca – and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as interrogation manuals and detainee treatment. The documents will be released by WikiLeaks over the course of the next month. Among the first to be published is the founding document for the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay (Camp Delta). The previously unpublished 2002 manual went on to shape detention policies in subsequent years of the George W. Bush administration. [Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty]

A entire tribe of 170 Indians have vowed to commit mass suicide after a court in Brazil ruled they must leave what they believe is sacred land, it was reported today. - The community of 50 men, 50 women and 70 children from the Guarani-kaiowa tribe are camped inside a ranch in Brazil's southern state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The Indians claim the land has been the graveyard of their ancestors for centuries, according to Brazil's Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI). But this week, Judge Henrique Bonachela upheld a petition made by the ranch's owner to have the tribe evicted from the land. He decreed a fine of £150 for every day the tribe remains on the land, on the banks of Brazil's Joguico River. A spokesman for the tribe today said they do not intend to fight the judge's decision but would rather die on the land than be made to leave.

A US drone fired two missiles at near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one person and possibly three, although officials said “It was not clear whether the three dead were men or women or whether they had any link to militancy,” according to the Associated Press. The attack occurred in the North Waziristan tribal area. Pakistani intelligence officials provided the AP with conflicting accounts of how many were killed, though, and could not confirm that those killed had any connection to militancy at all.

US troops engaged in a firefight with Taliban fighters killed four Afghan children tending to their livestock in Logar province on Saturday. - The New York Times reports that the incident occurred in the Baraki Barak district south of Kabul, site of many attacks by Afghan resistance fighters attempting to control one of the main routes to and from the capital. A spokesman for the provincial governor said that the firefight began around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday after Taliban gunmen opened fire on NATO foot patrol.

Bill Van Auken: Four Afghan children killed in US raid

US-led drone strikes — the targeted executions of suspected insurgents using remote-controlled, killing machines from tens of thousands of feet above the Earth — are not about to end. - In this week’s article, journalist Greg Miller suggests that the White House is ready to do more than just cross suspected terrorists off their kill-list one-by-one with each subsequent UAV strike. The real-world man-hunt will soon be operated by means of a “disposition matrix,” more modernized terminology and technology that will let counterterrorism experts in Washington plot not just who and how to kill, but where to find them and what to do in order to bring them to justice.

“The matrix contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being marshaled to track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations,” Miller explains. “US officials said the database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the ‘disposition’ of suspects beyond the reach of American drones.”

Miller goes on to say that these claims have been confirmed by dozens of current and former national security officials, intelligence analysts and others, and all but explains exactly the algorithms developed and the answers required to warrant a full-fledged manhunt and execution for any alleged enemy of the state. The disposition matrix, it would seem, is outlined perfectly in Miller’s report. One question, however, does remain: Why?

Bill Van Auken: Obama institutionalizes state assassinations
Washington Post: Plan for hunting terrorists signals U.S. intends to keep adding names to kill lists