The UN nuclear agency has confirmed that one of its servers has been hacked. A previously unknown group posted contact details of more than 100 experts working with the IAEA, calling on them to act against Israel’s alleged nuclear activities. The group, called "Parastoo" – Farsi for the swallow bird and a common Iranian girl's name – published the names along with a statement "Parastoo Hacks IAEA" on November 25.

"Israel owns a practical nuclear arsenal, tied to a growing military body and it is not a member of internationally respected nuclear, biochemical and chemical agreements," the group said demanding the experts sign a petition calling for an “open IAEA investigation” into activities at Israel’s Negev Nuclear Research Center located near the city of Dimona.

It is commonly believed that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, though it has never confirmed, nor denied the fact. Tel Aviv however takes a hawkish stance against Iran, claiming that it is seeking to create weapons of mass destruction and describes the Islamic Republic as the greatest threat to the Middle East.

PressTV: Hackers break into IAEA server, call for inquiry into Israel N-facility

Lawyer Argues Harsh Mistreatment Endured in Detention Sufficient Punishment.

Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of being behind the WikiLeaks document releases, is expected to testify on his own behalf this week, the first time he will speak publicly since his initial capture in 2010. Manning’s comments will be part of pre-trial testimony leading up to a planned February court-martial, with much of the testimony centering around Manning’s harsh mistreatment in detention at Quantico. During Manning’s multi-year detention he was subject to repeated abuse, imposing harsh restrictions on him and at one point seizing all of his clothing and ordering him to stand naked outside his cell. They later decided he could be allowed underpants, but only during certain times of the day. The criticism of his mistreatment at Quantico eventually forced his relocation, and the military brig was even shut down in 2011, though officials insisted the move wasn’t because of the abuse of detainees. The abuse could play a major role in sentencing, however, as his attorneys intend to argue that several years in a maximum security prison and pre-trial abuse rising to the level that even the UN was trying to investigate the matter needs to factor into any sentence, and indeed ought to be sufficient punishment for the crimes he is charged with.

Naomi Spencer: Bradley Manning hearing focuses on unlawful pre-trial punishment

Press TV: Franklin our guest there talks about the geopolitical purpose that Afghanistan as a whole serves for the United States. Can you expand on that for us?

Franklin Lamb: Well, frankly I can not think about legitimate purpose that it solves, the day that we began ten years ago, it was a tragedy, it has been a tragedy for ten years and the tragedy will continue even if we do pullout next year. What we tried to do failed, as an empire we tried to keep influence there, we tried to dominate, the same thing that the Soviet Union tried and failed to do. Now I think that history is going to note the ugly iconic images which are the death of the wedding parties by the so-called collateral damages and also the innocent civilians -who- were killed and also the burning of the Qur’an. There is no way we can stay there and there was an interesting conferences this weekend in the University of Oregon and the subject to the whole conference was about, why Afghanistan? Nobody wants to be there except some militarists in the American society. It is tragic; we have got to compensate to those people after we leave, we have got to submit reparations but I see no geopolitical advantage that we can now obtain and I think that we must just must leave as quickly as possible.

A Syrian newspaper yesterday published the names of 142 foreign fighters from 18 countries the regime said were killed alongside rebels in Syria's conflict. - The list, which the pro-regime Al Watan reported was sent to the United Nations Security Council by the Syrian government last month, included Arab, North African, Central and South Asian "terrorists", giving the date and place of their death. "Most are jihadists who belong to Al Qaeda's network, or who joined it after arriving in Syria," the paper reported. Among the people named were 47 Saudis, 24 Libyans, 10 Tunisians, nine Egyptians, six Qataris and five Lebanese. It also listed 11 Afghans, five Turks, three Chechens, one Chadian and one Azerbaijani.

SANA: Armed Forces Eliminate Armed Terrorist Groups' Leaders in Homs

A Canadian think tank warned oft the prevalence of hunger and poverty in the United States, and said that the number of Americans who received food stamps reached a new record in August. - The Global Research wrote that according to the latest figures released by the US Department of Agriculture a total of 47.1 million Americans received food stamps in August which is up by one million from last year, and up by more than half since October 2008 when the figure was 30 million. The word "poverty" virtually never appears in the speeches and comments of US President Barack Obama, elected to the highest office in a country where half the population is poor or near poor. The Obama administration epitomizes the callousness of the financial aristocracy and its political servants.

AP claims a mysterious diagram leaked by "a country critical of Iran's atomic program" suggests Iranian bomb-making. - An Associated Press report by a journalist with a reputation for speculative and misleading coverage of Iran’s nuclear program claims that a shoddy Iranian diagram, leaked by “a country critical of Iran’s atomic program” suggests the Islamic Republic is working on a nuclear weapon. “The diagram was leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran’s atomic program to bolster their arguments that Iran’s nuclear program must be halted before it produces a weapon,” reports George Jahn. “The officials provided the diagram only on condition that they and their country not be named.” Jahn provides anonymity to the leakers of the diagram, who even he admits are biased against Iran, not in order to protect them from punishment but to protect them from being held accountable to public scrutiny.

Members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot were nominated by Time magazine for the 2012 Person of the Year. - The punk band is among 40 candidates, who influenced news this year for better or worse. The list also includes US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Olympic champion Michael Phelps and others. "In a year when so many voices of liberty and dissent have suffered harsh retribution, the Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot has paid a particularly steep price for provocative political expression," the Time wrote describing the nominee. Five women from Pussy Riot performed in late February a "punk prayer" in downtown Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, which is Russia's biggest Orthodox church. An edited clip of the band's protest posted online showed the group high-kicking near the entrance to the altar of the cathedral accompanied by the song "Holy S**t" urging the Virgin Mary to "drive (Vladimir) Putin out". The song mocked Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and believers in insulting terms.

Police in Cairo used teargas against protesters after clashes erupted on Tahrir Square, leaving one dead. The violence came before a 100,000-strong rally demanding the country’s Islamist president withdraw decrees vastly expanding his power.

Police fired tear gas after hundreds of demonstrators began pelting them with rocks on a street between the US Embassy and the historic square which served as the epicenter of the uprising that toppled authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago. Meanwhile, protesters stormed the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country’s second largest city of Alexandria. The crowd broke into the building hurling papers and furniture from a balcony. Activists reported that a protester in his 20s died in Cairo as a result of being exposed to too much tear gas, making him the fourth person to lose his life in clashes across Egypt over the last five days. Egypt’s ministry of interior reported on Tuesday 348 “troublemakers” had been arrested following street battles between police and protesters. Around 216 policemen were reportedly injured in the clashes. Liberal and secular demonstrators, as well as those loyal to former president Hosni Mubarak, have been staging sit-in protests on the square since Friday to demand President Mohamed Morsi revoke recent decrees granting him sweeping powers. Later in the evening, tends of thousands poured onto Tahrir Square aftering marching from various points throughout the city. Amidst a sea of Egyptian flags, the crowd chanted slogans against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Reuters: Egyptians challenge Mursi in nationwide protests
Johannes Stern: Mass protests against Egyptian President Mursi

The first and second places are taken by Finland and South Korea. The rankings combine international test results and data such as graduation rates between 2006 and 2010. - The two education superpowers - Finland and South Korea - are followed by three other high-performing Asian education systems - Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. The UK - which is considered as a single system, rather than four devolved administrations - is then ranked at the head of an above-average group including the Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland. These are ahead of a middle-ranking group including the United States, Germany and France. At the lowest end are Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia. These comparisons draw upon tests that are taken every three or four years, in areas such as maths, science and literacy - and so present a picture lagging by several years.

Vote Expects to Win Overwhelming Support from General Assembly. - The long-discussed UN draft resolution on upgrading Palestine’s status to “non-member observer state” is expected to come to a vote on Thursday, and is receiving a last-minute shot in the arm with an endorsement from Hamas. Hamas had previously expressed ambivalence about the move, but in the wake of last week’s Gaza War is moving toward reconciliation with Fatah, and today’s endorsement underscores how much those unity talks have already progressed. Israel and the United States have repeatedly pressed Fatah to scrap the plan, with the US insisting it would hurt peace negotiations (that have been stalled for over a year at any rate) and Israel threatening unspecified retaliation.

Jason Ditz: Israeli Cabinet Split on Taking Revenge for Palestinian UN Bid - Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is leading the call for an immediate forcible ouster of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, while others say Israel is in no position to do this so soon after the Gaza War. A moderate group led by cabinet ministers Dan Meridor and Benny Begin are calling for Israel to hold off on any move to see if Abbas tries to take action against Israel in the Hague, saying they should only oust him after such a move. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz is proposing a “compromise” between the two of simply seizing all Palestinian tax dollars in retaliation.

Leading US strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, unofficial dean of the realist school of American foreign policy experts, has drawn an unflattering picture of US-Israel relations. - In a speech to the National Iranian American Council, Brzezinski said, “I don’t think there is an implicit obligation for the United States to follow like a stupid mule whatever the Israelis do. If they decide to start a war, simply on the assumption that we’ll automatically be drawn into it, I think it is the obligation of friendship to say, ‘you’re not going to be making national decision for us.’ I think that the United States has the right to have its own national security policy.”

Back on July 3, we made an explicit and very simple prediction: "now that the natural succession path at the BOE has been terminally derailed, it brings up those two other gentlemen already brought up previously as potential future heads of the BOE, both of whom just happened to work, or still do, at... Goldman Sachs: Canada's Mark Carney or Goldman's Jim O'Neil. Granted both have denied press speculation they will replace Mervyn King, but it's not like it would be the first time a banker lied to anyone now, would it (and makes one wonder if this whole affair was not merely orchestrated by the Squid from the get go... but no, that would be a 'conspiracy theory'.)" A few weeks later, in "On The Path To Global Goldmanation: Former Goldmanite Mark Carney To Head The BOE After All?" we added:

Granted both have denied press speculation they will replace Mervyn King, but it's not like it would be the first time a banker lied to anyone now, would it (and makes one wonder if this whole affair was not merely orchestrated by the Squid from the get go... but no, that would be a 'conspiracy theory'.)" We wonder if this speculation can be upgraded from conspiracy theory to conspiracy fact, now that Bloomberg itself has written a major article discussing just this suddenly very likely outcome.

AWIP: Banker Coup: Goldman Sachs Takes Over Europe
Paul Craig Roberts: Bankers have seized Europe: Goldman Sachs Has Taken Over
Stephen Lendman: Goldman Sachs: Master of the Universe
Matt Taibbi: Goldman Sachs -the Root of All Evil?

Over 2 years, Corzine gradually increased his ill-advised bets on European sovereign debt. Along the way he tossed aside anyone who got in the way. From the sound of it, Corzine seemed to think he had a sure thing—which given who he was, was plausible. (Of course even sure things aren’t ever sure.) Goldman Sachs continues to pull strings all over Europe. Corzine was, of course, a former Goldman Sachs CEO. As a former senator and governor, he was also well positioned to benefit from anything that might move things on the government front. Yet, even with all his privilege and insight his bet went the wrong way, in a big way. Then, in a desperate effort to save MF Global’s collective posterior, desperate measures were taken.

Ten thousand US troops will stay in Afghanistan past 2014, senior officials say, despite earlier demands from President Barack Obama to end the war during the second year of his upcoming term. - Most of the 66,000 or so troops currently positioned in Afghanistan will be removed by President Obama’s predetermined deadline, sources say, but a substantial amount of Americans will be asked to remain indefinitely to conduct training and counterterrorism operations after allied North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops are expunged in late 2014. According to the Wall Street Journal, Gen. John Allen, the top US commander overseeing the war in Afghanistan, proposed that anywhere from 6,000 to 15,000 troops remain overseas following the end of the current NATO operation occurring there. A number closer to 10,000 was established after top Obama administration officials reached a compromise with the Pentagon, the paper reports.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has met with the country’s top judges to reassure them that last Thursday's decree granting him sweeping powers is “temporary” and limited only to “sovereignty-related issues.” - According to a presidential spokesman, no amendments were made to the decree after the meeting, Al-Ahram newspaper reported. The talks with the Supreme Judicial Council (SNJ) come as demonstrators in Cairo continue a week-long sit-in protesting the Morsi's move to grant himself near-absolute powers, including immunity from judicial oversight. Meanwhile the ruling Muslim Brotherhood party has announced that it has canceled a massive pro-Morsi rally to avoid “public tension.” The president told the judges that he acted within his rights when issuing the decree, and that the declaration did not "infringe" on the judiciary, according to Morsi's spokesperson, Yasser Ali. On Sunday, the SNJ said the declaration – which shields Morsi’s decisions from judicial review – must only be applied to “sovereign matters,” suggesting that the council does not completely reject the decree.

The remains of Yasser Arafat have been exhumed as experts try to ascertain whether the Palestinian leader was poisoned. The probe comes less than a week after the ceasefire between Gaza and Israel and precedes a UN vote on Palestine’s nation status. - Traces of a radioactive substance were found of Arafat’s effects in July, adding impetus to the theory he was murdered. The procedure began at 05:00 GMT and was carried out in the presence of French, Russian and Swiss experts to verify its validity. Scientists took samples of Arafat’s bones, which they will take back to their respective countries. There they will be analyzed for traces of radioactive material and other lethal substances. Experts have said a full investigation into the causes of Arafat’s death could take several months.

BBC: Yasser Arafat's remains exhumed in murder inquiry

Governments Target Reporters Worldwide. - We’ve reported that reporters are an endangered species, are targeted as terrorists, and journalists have been killed all over the world. And see this. The New York Times notes:

In many parts of the globe, its profession is under murderous assault. [...] “Targeting journalism has become a trend, and now the people who are harassing and killing journalists include governments as well as the people you would expect,” said [Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of The Guardian]. Journalists who dig into murky and dangerous corners of the world have become accustomed to being threatened and sometimes hunted by drug lords and gangsters, but now some governments have decided shooting the messenger is a viable option. The [Committee to Protect Journalists] reports that government officials and their allies are now suspected of being responsible for more than a third of the murders of journalists, a higher proportion than killings attributed to terrorist groups or criminal enterprises.

Palestinian rights groups have condemned Western countries for their silence about Israel’s massacre of children during the eight-day war on the Gaza Strip, Press TV reports. - On Monday, the al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, based in the Jabalia Palestinian refugee camp in the besieged enclave, accused Israeli military forces of systematically targeting Palestinian children. “Children were the most targeted by the Israeli airstrikes. This is not the first time because during the last war children were also systematically targeted. This is nothing but another Israeli war crime, and Israel leaders must be brought to justice,” Samir Zaqqut, an official of the center said. Many local nongovernmental organizations are attempting to alleviate the trauma in children who were affected by the airstrikes.

Stephen Zunes: Abetting Murder in Gaza
PressTV: Israeli troops injure 2 Palestinians in southern Gaza Strip
IMEMC: Three Injured By Israeli Fire In Khan Younis
IMEMC: Woman Dies Of Wounds Suffered During Israel’s War On Gaza
Al Mezan: As ceasefire holds, more hurt to civilians and civilian objects is revealed, 162 Palestinians killed and 1,039 injured

“There is no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” President Barack Obama said at a press conference last week. He drew on this general observation in order to justify Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel’s most recent military campaign in the Gaza Strip. In describing the situation this way, he assumes, like many others, that Gaza is a political entity external and independent of Israel. This is not so. It is true that Israel officially disengaged from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, withdrawing its ground troops and evacuating the Israeli settlements there. But despite the absence of a permanent ground presence, Israel has maintained a crushing control over Gaza from that moment until today. The testimonies of Israeli army veterans expose the truth of that “disengagement.” Before Operation Pillar of Defense, after all, Israel launched Operations Summer Rains and Autumn Clouds in 2006, and Hot Winter and Cast Lead in 2008 -- all involving ground invasions. In one testimony, a veteran speaks of “a battalion operation” in Gaza that lasted for five months, where the soldiers were ordered to shoot “to draw out terrorists” so they “could kill a few.”

A bitter and hard fought election campaign in Catalonia was dominated by the issue of independence from Spain. - The elections were called by the Catalan president Artur Mas in a bid to get a mandate for a referendum, something the government in Madrid has ruled out. Parties seeking Catalan independence won a majority, although Mr Mas' centre-right CiU party lost seats. Ahead of the result being declared, BBC Scotland's political correspondent Niall O'Gallagher reported from Barcelona for the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland programme.

Niall O'Gallagher: Catalonia's 'bitter and personal election' - Video

For the past few months the Occupy Wall Street movement has been fairly quiet. But due to Superstorm Sandy, OWS has proven to be alive and well. The demonstrators have banned together to provide aid to the people of New York and New Jersey who were affected by Sandy. Sara Jaffe, associate editor for AlterNet, joins us with more.

The administration of US President Barack Obama is trying to “legalize” its assassination drone attacks in six Muslim countries, as the targeted killing program draws global condemnations. - Citing two unnamed US officials, the New York Times reported that the US government has been drawing up a formal rulebook to justify the targeted killings by its assassination drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Libya. The “explicit rules” would give the new US administration “clear standards and procedures” to continue its targeted killing program. The report added that the US administration had accelerated the plan in the weeks before the presidential election on November 6, as the likelihood of Obama’s reelection was deemed low. The US administration “is still pushing to make the rules formal and resolve internal uncertainty and disagreement about exactly when lethal action is justified,” the daily wrote.

Patrick Martin: Obama administration pushes ahead with drone killings

In a dramatic press conference, the Defense Minister, who has seen a recent spike in popularity following Operation Pillar of Defense, announces he will not run in the upcoming Israeli elections; Netanyahu says he respects Barak's decision. Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced Monday that he will retire from political life and will not run in the upcoming Israeli elections.

Globes: Ehud Barak announces retirement from politics
Ynet News: Erdan: Barak misread Mideast politics
Ynet News: Likud: We did not ask Barak to resign
Haaretz: Ehud Barak is the only leader who can take on Netanyahu

Israel has reportedly vowed to destroy rockets and other weapons being sent to Gaza by Iran. Tel Aviv issued this threat despite a recent ceasefire following eight days of bitter conflict between Gaza and Israel.

Israeli spy satellites spotted a cargo vessel in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas that was allegedly Gaza-bound and carrying arms, [Murdoch's] Sunday Times reported. “Regardless of the ceasefire agreement, we will attack and destroy any shipment of arms to Gaza once we have spotted it,” an Israeli defense official told the newspaper. The vessel reportedly began its voyage last week just as Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire ending eight days of violence in Gaza, in which over 150 Palestinians died. The cargo is believed to include Fajr-5 rockets, similar to those used by Hamas in the conflict, and Shahab-3 ballistic missiles. The ship is set to travel through the Red Sea, Sudan and Egypt, according to the Sunday Times report. The newspaper also cited Israeli officials speculating that Iran could be moving longer-range ballistic missiles into Sudan, which could be aimed at Israel from the African country. The Sunday Times’ report comes a day after the Hamas leadership announced they aren’t ready to stop arming themselves, despite the recently-agreed truce and ceasefire.

Stephen Lendman: Netanyahu Plans More War - Anti-Hamas accusations [have begun again]. It didn't take long. Haaretz headlined the following: "Report: Israeli spy satellites spot Iranian ship being loaded with rockets for Gaza." Rupert Murdoch's The Sunday Times was cited. Satellites can identify much on the ground. While still in port, they don't know cargo ship destinations. They may not determine contents accurately. Haaretz's headline is irresponsible. Consider the source. Murdoch is a longtime pro-Israeli stalwart. Jewish organizations gave him numerous awards. He got them for decades of supporting Israel's worst crimes.

Israeli forces have shot and wounded a Palestinian in the southern Gaza Strip despite a cease-fire has been in place between the two sides since Wednesday, medical sources say. - According to Palestinian sources, the incident occurred east of Khan Yunis on Sunday, four days after Hamas resistance movement and Tel Aviv agreed to an Egyptian-brokered truce which ended an eight-day conflict. Sunday's shooting is Israeli's second violation of the truce. On Friday, Israeli soldiers opened fire on residents of Khouzaa, near Khan Yunis, killing one Palestinian and wounding many others.

PressTV: Gazan dies of injuries sustained in recent Israeli attacks