Refrain from watching if you don’t have a strong stomach!

Federal detectives won’t need a warrant to eavesdrop on the emails and phone calls of Americans for another five years. President Obama reauthorized an intelligence gathering bill on Sunday that puts national security over constitutional rights. - President Barack Obama inked his name over the weekend to an extension of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, a George W. Bush-era legislation that has allowed the government expansive spy powers that has been considered by some to be dragnet surveillance. FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was first signed into law in the 1970s in order to put into place rules regarding domestic spying within the United States. Upon the passing of the FAA in 2008, however, the online and over-the-phone activities of Americans became subject to sweeping, warrantless wiretapping in instances where investigators reasonably suspect US citizens to be engaged in conversation with "persons located outside of the country" [???]. Congress had only up until the end of 2012 to either reauthorize FISA and the FAA, or let the bill expire. Despite a large grassroots campaign from privacy advocates and civil liberties organization to ensure the acts would fade from history, though, the Senate approved a five-year extension of the legislation on Friday. Just two days later, Pres. Obama signed his name to the act, opening up the inboxes and phone records of US citizens to the federal government until at least 2018.

Stephen Lendman: Congress Extends Warrantless Spying

Syrian Army troops have reportedly arrested four Turkish fighter jet pilots near a military airport in Syria’s northwestern province of Aleppo. - The Turkish pilots were arrested by the Syrian troops at the Koerc military airport while trying to sneak into the airfield with the help of a militant group, Arabic-language newspaper Al-Watan reported on Monday. The report gave no further details on the development, but said the incident attests to Turkey’s direct involvement in the Syrian conflict. Tensions have been running high between Syria and Turkey, with Damascus accusing Turkey - along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar - of backing a deadly militancy that has claimed the lives of many Syrians, including security and army personnel.

In an interview with the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet in July, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Ankara “has supplied all logistic support to the terrorists who have killed our people.”

Top marine scientists are denouncing Canada’s management of fish stocks as a commercially driven approach threatening to wipe out species at risk. - The attack comes from two senior members of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) — the body mandated by federal law to advise the government on species at risk. They note the federal government has consistently refused to list several endangered fish under the Species at Risk Act, which would make their fishing or trade illegal. They include Atlantic cod, cusk and porbeagle shark. During the act’s 10-year history, “there has not been a commercially exploited fish — assessed as endangered or threatened — that has been included on that list,” says Jeffrey Hutchings, a biology professor at Dalhousie University and member and former chair of COSEWIC.

Legislation which aims to effectively end homelessness in Scotland has come into force.

The change entitles anyone finding themselves homeless through no fault of their own to settled accommodation. Previously, only those classed as being in priority need - often families with children - had that right. It meets Scotland's historic 2012 homelessness commitment, first set 10 years ago by the Labour/Lib Dem government. The change, passed unanimously last month under the Homelessness (Abolition of Priority Need Test) (Scotland) Order 2012, will give an estimated 3,000 more people a year the right to settled accommodation. As the changes came into force, the deputy first minister also announced £300,000 would be spent over the next two years to help councils with their efforts to prevent homelessness.

A federal judge in California has rejected the Obama administration's effort to use secret arguments and evidence to defeat a lawsuit relating to the so-called no-fly list designed to keep suspected terrorists off of airline flights. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup turned down a motion by the Justice Department to dismiss former Stanford student Rahinah Ibrahim's lawsuit against various federal government agencies over her reported inclusion on the no-fly list as well as an incident in September 2005 where she was barred from taking a flight from San Francisco and detained for a couple of hours. Alsup, who sits in San Francisco, also refused the Justice Department's offer to show him affidavits from law enforcement officials which the government would not share with Ibrahim or her attorneys.

Americans Chained by Illusion | Brainwash Update - Abby Martin takes a look back at philosopher Plato's the 'Allegory of the Cave' and its application to today's society.

Eric Peters: On Us vs. Them
Paul Craig Roberts: A Culture of Delusion
Paul Craig Roberts: Agenda Prevails Over Truth
Paul Craig Roberts: The Osama bin Laden Myth
Paul Craig Roberts: The 11th Anniversary of 9/11

A fresh video has surfaced online apparently showing foreign-backed militants in Syria killing an unarmed civilian execution style. - The man is said to have been killed in late December for supporting the Syrian government. Press TV could not independently verify the authenticity of the video. This is not the first time civilians are killed over such accusations by the militants, who have been widely criticized for committing war crimes, such as the execution of prisoners. The so-called Free Syrian Army militants have also posted two troubling videos on the Net. They show the militant testing chemical weapons on lab rabbits and threatening to use chemical weapons to massacre Alawite Shias and supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

PressTV: Bloodbath awaits Syria if militants gain control: Historian - VIDEO

A US assassination drone attack has killed three people in Yemen’s al-Bayda’ province as Washington continues its terror operations overseas.

On Saturday, a US drone attacked a Land Cruiser in el-Manaseh village near the Radda district, The Associated Press reported. A Yemeni security official claimed the men killed in the attack, the fourth such strike this week, were al-Qaeda militants. Earlier this week, another US drone strike killed two militants in the same province. Elsewhere, seven others were killed in two other drone operations in the southeastern province of Hadramawt. Statistics gathered by the Long War Journal prior to the Saturday attack show that the United States "is known to have carried out 41 airstrikes" in Yemen in 2102, which is an average of around three to four strikes per month. The Journal says that since December 2009, the CIA and the US military's Joint Special Operations Command have conducted more than 54 air and missile strikes in Yemen. Washington claims the targets of the attacks are al-Qaeda militants, but local officials and witnesses maintain that civilians have been the main victims of the attacks over the past few years. The United States also carries out targeted killings through drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia.

John Glaser: US Drone Strike Kills Three in Yemen

Why are we not allowing our farmers to grow hemp? Well, we know the reasons – big oil, pharma, timber, and chemical companies do not want to lose their investment dollars; the military – using OUR dollars to fund wars, some of which have to do with…yes, you guessed it…OIL. - What would happen if in the next few years we, in the U.S., farmed hemp on a large scale? We would have no more dependence on foreign oil, we certainly wouldn’t need so much money spent on the military, we would have a clean, safe alternative, and every single factor in our lives when it comes to food, clothing, health, transportation, housing, etc. – it would all be thanks to HEMP. Our economy would start to heal. The government wouldn’t need to print new money, causing more debt (which, by the way, is NOT the answer to reviving a sucky economy).

To save wildlife, and tourism, Kenyans take up arms. 'In a growing number of communities here, people are so eager, even desperate, to protect their wildlife that civilians with no military experience are banding together and risking their lives to confront heavily armed poaching gangs'. - Julius Lokinyi was one of the most notorious poachers in this part of Kenya, accused of single-handedly killing as many as 100 elephants and selling the tusks by the side of the road in the dead of night, pumping vast amounts of ivory into a shadowy global underground trade. But after being hounded, shamed, browbeaten and finally persuaded by his elders, he recently made a remarkable transformation. Elephants, he has come to believe, are actually worth more alive than dead, because of the tourists they attract. So Mr. Lokinyi stopped poaching and joined a grass-roots squad of rangers — essentially a conservation militia — to protect the wildlife he once slaughtered.

Photo: Reuters/Victor Jara Foundation

Eight retired army officers were charged on Friday with the murder of a popular songwriter and theater director, Víctor Jara, who was tortured and killed days after the 1973 military coup in a stadium that had been turned into a detention center.

Chile’s Court of Appeal on Friday arrested seven retired servicemen over their suspected involvement in the 1973 killing of folk singer Victor Jara, one of the highest-profile victims of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, Latin American media reported on Friday. On September 12, 1973, after the military coup which overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende, Jara, along with thousands of Chileans, was arrested and then held prisoner at the Estadio Chile. The 40-year-old singer was tortured for four days in the stadium that now bears his name. On September 15 he was machine-gunned, with 34 bullet wounds later found on his body. To date, Ret. Col. Mario Manríquez Bravo, the former chief of the Estadio Chile internment camp, is the only person convicted for the killing. Jara’s relatives earlier called for the masterminds and immediate perpetrators of the killing to be held to account.

El Mostrador: Justicia identifica al asesino de Víctor Jara y ordena su captura internacional
La Nación: Víctor Jara, un ícono de la música chilena, fue asesinado por la dictadura de Pinochet
Semana: Chile: acusan a exoficiales de muerte de Víctor Jara
Hispanically Speaking: Chile Indicts 8 Former Army Officers For Murder of Victor Jara
Deutsche Welle: Chile charges eight people in Victor Jara killing
BBC: Chile ex-army officers implicated in Victor Jara death - VIDEO
Socialist Worker: The dirty role of Kissinger and the CIA
The Guardian: Kissinger may face extradition to Chile
Third World Traveler: New Transcripts of Kissinger's Role in Chilean Coup

The reports are absolutely true. Facebook suspended the Natural News account earlier today after we posted an historical quote from Mohandas Gandhi. The quote reads:

"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." - Mohandas Gandhi, an Autobiography, page 446.

This historical quote was apparently too much for Facebook's censors to bear. They suspended our account and gave us a "final warning" that one more violation of their so-called "community guidelines" would result in our account being permanently deactivated. [...] Collectivist propaganda has now reached a point where you can't even discuss liberty or anything out of history that supported the right to keep and bear arms. You are required to stay focused solely on celebrity gossip, sports stars, fashion distractions and tabloid garbage. Anyone who wishes to discuss actual American history must now go underground and speak softly in dimly-lit rooms, behind secret walls and drawn curtains.

Natural News: Traitorous Senator Feinstein seeking to criminalize nearly all firearms, require nationwide registration and fingerprinting of all gun owners - This law follows in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler who first required gun registration, then gun confiscation, and then unleashed genocide. The traitorous, demonic U.S. Senator Feinstein -- one of the most evil, wretched women to have ever disgraced the floor of the U.S. Senate -- has patterned her gun confiscation and criminalization law after Adolf Hitler's laws. This is not surprising, as her desired outcome is exactly the same: the destruction of freedom, the enslavement of the population and the rise of government tyranny in America.

Behind the smoke and mirrors of the “conflict” between the Democrats and Republicans over the fiscal cliff is a common agreement that the working class must pay for the capitalist crisis through a drastic reduction in social programs and living standards. - The “fiscal cliff” is an arbitrary deadline that includes the expiration of Bush-era income tax cuts, federal extended unemployment benefits, and payroll tax cuts that affect the majority of workers. It also includes automatic spending cuts to domestic spending and the military. The Obama administration and the Republicans have sought to create a crisis atmosphere around the “cliff” to facilitate passage of highly unpopular measures. These efforts will continue in the new year if no comprehensive agreement is reached by December 31.

Ellen Brown: Fiscal Cliff: Time to Call Their Bluff
Stephen Lendman: Obama-Boehner Two-Step
Stephen Lendman: Fiscal Cliff Doublespeak Duplicity
James Petras: The Great Social Security Robbery
Patrick Martin: ...Democrats, Republicans prepare major cuts in workers’ wages, benefits
Paul Craig Roberts: The Fiscal Cliff Is A Diversion: The Derivatives Tsunami and the Dollar Bubble

The Senate agreed on Friday to approve an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, legislation that allows the NSA and other US intelligence agencies to wiretap conversations involving foreign citizens without obtaining a warrant. - Despite growing opposition to one of the most notorious and secretive US spying programs, the Senate voted 73-23 early Friday to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. First signed into law in 1978, FISA prescribes how the US government collects intelligence from foreign parties that may be detrimental to national security. Of particular significance, however, is the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, or FAA, which includes a provision that puts any US citizen engaged in correspondence with a person overseas at direct risk of being spied on. Under the FAA, the government can eavesdrop on emails and phone calls made or received by Americans, as long as they reasonably suspect those conversations to include at least one person residing outside of the United States.

John Glaser: Senate Renews FISA Warrantless Wiretapping Program

Trevor Timm/EFF: Congress Disgracefully Approves the FISA Warrantless Spying Bill for Five More Years, Rejects All Privacy Amendments - Incredibly, the Senate rejected all the proposed amendments that would have brought a modicum of transparency and oversight to the government's activities, despite previous refusals by the Executive branch to even estimate how many Americans are surveilled by this program or reveal critical secret court rulings interpreting it. The common-sense amendments the Senate hastily rejected were modest in scope and written with the utmost deference to national security concerns. The Senate had months to consider them, but waited until four days before the law was to expire to bring them to the floor, and then used the contrived time crunch to stifle any chances of them passing.

Various Western, Arab and Israeli media reports have been claiming for over a month now that Israeli special forces are on the ground in Syria [allegedly] in an effort to keep tabs on its chemical weapons stockpile. - Those reports mesh well with news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited neighboring Jordan this week to discuss with King Abdullah a possible air strike on the bulk of Syria's weapons of mass destruction. Such an air strike would require targeting groups to be on the ground. On Thursday, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon said that American forces were also gearing up for possible intervention in Syria should the embattled regime of dictator Bashar Assad employ chemical weapons against rebels. US President Barack Obama has already stated that the use of chemical weapons by Assad would be a "red line." Despite a flurry of reports earlier this week that Assad's forces had in fact used chemical weapons against rebels in several battles, Ya'alon told Israel Radio that there was no evidence of this being true.

Stephen Lendman: Islamofascist Killers Threaten Syria
Tony Cartalucci: Syrian Military: Militants Using Chemical Weapons

Jason Ditz: Syrian Rebels Spurn Russian Call for Peace Talks - Syrian rebel leader Mouaz al-Khatib has publicly condemned the Russian Foreign Ministry for offering to organize peace talks aimed at ending the civil war, insisting that no talks were possible until Russia forcibly removed Bashar Assad from power.

PressTV: Blast in northwestern Syria kills several civilians - Several Syrian civilians have been killed in an explosion in the northwestern province of Idlib, as militant groups continue their attacks on the Syrian government. It was not immediately clear how many people were killed or injured in the bombing on Friday, but according to Press TV correspondent in Damascus, the blast caused huge material damage. There are also reports of a bomb explosion near the northern city of Jisr al-Shughur, though no details have been made available on potential casualties. Syrian troops also managed to defuse a car bomb in a Damascus suburb.

Iran’s Navy has started the second day of a specialized naval exercise, dubbed Velayat 91, in a vast area to display the country’s capabilities to defend its maritime borders and maintain durable peace in the region. - The six-day maritime maneuvers, launched on Friday, are carried out in the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman, north of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. On the first day of the massive drill, a fleet of surface and subsurface vessels were sent to the location of the exercise. “Among the aims of the drill is to display the capabilities of Iran’s Armed Forces and the Navy to defend our country’s water borders and interests in line with establishing durable security in the region and conveying the message of peace and friendship to the neighboring states,” Iran’s Navy commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on Friday. He said that the Velayat 91 drill also sends this message to enemies that the Iranian nation seriously defends its vital interests in all areas, in particular in free waters.

PressTV: Iran Navy to test-fire Ra’d surface-to-air missile: Iran cmdr.

US President Barack Obama has enacted a legislation aimed at countering Iran’s growing relations with the Latin American countries. - The “Countering Iran in Western Hemisphere Act” [?] which was signed into law on Friday, requires the State Department to develop a strategy within 180 days to “address Iran's growing hostile presence and activity” in Latin America. The law also incorporates a multiagency action plan in the Latin American countries in an attempt to isolate the Islamic Republic and its allies. The US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs subcommittee on terrorism had endorsed the legislation earlier in March. Iran has increased the number of its embassies in Latin America from five in 2005 to 11 in 2012.

Heirs of Mao’s Comrades Rise as New Capitalist Nobility - How children of China's Communist old guard got so rich. They were put in charge of state corporations created in 1980s. Used assets and cashflow to build private real estate empires in 1990s. Now their kids crash Ferraris. - To reveal the scale and origins of this red aristocracy, Bloomberg News traced the fortunes of 103 people, the Immortals’ direct descendants and their spouses. The result is a detailed look at one part of China’s elite and how its members reaped benefits from the country’s boom. In the 1980s, they were chosen to run the new state conglomerates. In the 1990s, they tapped into real estate and the nation’s growing hunger for coal and steel. Today the Immortals’ grandchildren are players in private equity amid China’s integration into the global economy. Twenty-six of the heirs ran or held top positions in state- owned companies that dominate the economy, data compiled by Bloomberg News show. Three children alone -- General Wang’s son, Wang Jun; Deng’s son-in-law, He Ping; and Chen Yuan, the son of Mao’s economic tsar -- headed or still run state-owned companies with combined assets of about $1.6 trillion in 2011. That is equivalent to more than a fifth of China’s annual economic output. The families benefited from their control of state companies, amassing private wealth as they embraced the market economy. Forty-three of the 103 ran their own business or became executives in private firms, according to Bloomberg data.

The United States Army will be deploying troops to nearly three-dozen African nations in the coming year. - Soldiers based out of Fort Riley, Kansas’ 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division will begin training in March 2013 in order to prepare for a project that will send troops to as many as 35 African nations, the Associated Press reports. Citing a growing threat from extremist groups, including those with ties to al-Qaeda, the Department of Defense is hoping to install American soldiers overseas in order to prepare local troops there for any future crises as tensions escalate. Earlier this month, DoD sources with insider knowledge told the Washington Post that US troops will soon be en route to the nation of Mali in order to thwart the emerging alleged threat of Islamic extremists, including al-Qaeda aligned insurgents. With the latest news from the Pentagon, though, Mali will be just one of many African nations hosting US troops in the coming year.

A panoramic view of “Har Homa” settlement between al-Quds
(Jerusalem) and Bethlehem where hundreds of settlement units
will be built according to Israeli plans (Photo: upi.com)

● The Israeli Forces Continued to fire at Palestinian fishermen in the northern Gaza Strip.
● 4 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, were wounded.
● The Israeli Forces conducted 71 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
● The Israeli Forces continued to use excessive force against peaceful protests in the West Bank.
● Israel has continued to impose a total closure on the oPt and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
● The Israeli Forces have continued settlement activities in the West Bank, and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

Shooting: During the reporting period, the Israeli forces wounded 12 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; 8 of whom, including a child, were wounded in the West Bank and the 4 others, including 2 children, were wounded in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, on 20 December 2012, the Israeli forces wounded and arrested 2 Palestinian civilians from Rumanna village, northwest of Jenin. The 2 wounded civilians were transported by military ambulances to al-Khdeira hospital in Israel. The aforementioned persons were wounded when the Israeli Forces moved into the said village and fired at a group of persons in the center of the village. On 22 December 2012, 6 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded when the Israeli forces opened fire at dozens of Palestinians, who went out in a funeral of a dead person to the cemetery near the entrance of Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron. 2 of whom were wounded by live bullets, while the other 4 ones were wounded by rubber-coated metal bullets. The wounded were transported by the Palestine Red Crescent Society's (PRCS) ambulances to hospitals in Hebron. Wounds of 2 of them were serious.

Palestine Remembered: Har Homa (Exclusive Jewish Colony): General view (Photos)
IMEMC: Israel To Build 632 Homes In “Har Homa” Settlement (April 05, 2012)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party is set to win a parliamentary election on January 22 although the popularity of a far-right party opposed to Palestinian statehood is growing, polls showed on Friday. - Two out of three surveys showed the right-wing Likud losing voters to political newcomer Naftali Bennett's religious party Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home)and to a fractured center-left bloc. All still predicted a strong right-wing coalition emerging in the 120-seat parliament, which would assure Netanyahu another term. The daily Yedioth Ahronoth published a poll with Likud winning 33 seats, four less than a month ago. A poll in the Jerusalem Post showed Likud fell to 34, down from 39 just two weeks ago. A survey by Maariv said Likud held ground at 37. Without a majority in parliament, Likud would have to join forces with other parties to form a government. Netanyahu could choose Bennett and ultra-Orthodox religious parties or team up with members of the center-left bloc.

Truth is, retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf didn't care much for his popular "Stormin' Norman" nickname. The seemingly no-nonsense Desert Storm commander's reputed temper with aides and subordinates supposedly earned him that rough-and-ready moniker. But others around the general, who died Thursday in Tampa, Florida, at age 78 from complications from pneumonia, knew him as a friendly, talkative and even jovial figure who preferred the somewhat milder sobriquet given by his troops: "The Bear." That one perhaps suited him better later in his life, when he supported various national causes and children's charities [very touching!] while eschewing the spotlight and resisting efforts to draft him to run for political office. [How many Iraqi children did he kill? - We may never know.]

BBC: 1991: US bombers strike civilians in Baghdad
Revolution: The First Iraq War 1991: Mass Murder From A Safe Distance
Casi.org: Morbidity and Mortality Among Iraqi Children from 1990 Through 1998
G. Georgatos: Victims of war: Iraqi children and families - Depleted uranium and trauma
A. Bult Ito: Nothing de-pleted about 'depleted uranium'
Miami Herald: Iraq children killed by radioactive depleted uranium particles

Yeah, these brave Zionist soldiers in our photo here would
appear to be pretty..."concerned", alright. They're used to
beating up pregnant mothers, arresting elderly people and
children, so they're ill prepared for being targeted by rockets.

The Israeli regime says it is concerned over the improvement of the defense capabilities of Palestinians. Israeli Minister of Home Front Military Affairs Avi Dichter said on Thursday, “The accuracy rate of their (Palestinians) rockets is increasing.” Dichter added that the Tel Aviv regime should be careful of such capabilities across the occupied Palestinian territories. The minister also stated that the firing of the Iron Dome interceptor missiles during the eight-day Israeli war on the Gaza Strip cost Tel Aviv around 27 million dollars. According to Israeli military sources, the Iron Dome missile shield managed to only intercept 421 out of a total of 1,506 rockets shot by Palestinians during the November war.

Over 160 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed and about 1,200 others were injured in the Israeli attacks on Gaza that were carried out during the eight-day period of November 14-21. Palestinian resistance fighters incessantly poured rockets and missiles onto Israeli cities, killing at least five Israelis, including one soldier, in retaliation for the deadly aerial assaults on Gaza.

A senior Israeli official says the United States is gearing up for a possible military intervention in Syria to prevent Syria's alleged chemical weapons from being used against civilians or falling into "wrong hands". Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon told Israel Radio on Thursday that Israeli officials were in close touch with their American counterparts about the latest developments in Syria. He added that at the current juncture there was no fear that Syria would use its alleged chemical weapons against Israel. [...] Ya’alon refused to comment on media reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had secretly met with Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman to discuss Syria's alleged stockpile of chemical weapons. During the meeting, Netanyahu proposed a coordinated Israeli-Jordanian lightning air strike to destroy Syria's alleged stockpile of chemical weapons. Jordanians, however, have reportedly declined the option over concerns that it would cause chemical fallout around the target sites. Israel then proposed a second option, a comprehensive joint military incursion into Syria. The operation would include at least 8,000 soldiers entering Syria from different directions to neutralize the alleged chemical weapons sites.

Stephen Lendman: Syria's Liberating Struggle Continues

Tony Cartalucci: UN Syria "Peace Plan" a Fraud - Syria is Being Invaded by Foreign Terrorists: UN "peace envoy" Lakhdar Brahimi is attempting to broker a transitional government ahead of proposed elections in Syria. For Brahimi, his efforts are not only in vain, they are entirely disingenuous. The proposal of a "transitional government" in the midst of what is in fact a foreign invasion, funded, armed, and perpetuated openly by foreign interests violates both Syria's sovereignty and the UN's own founding charter. It would be not unlike a UN envoy visiting Poland at the beginning of World War II, and proposing a transitional government in the midst of the Nazi invasion. The UN would clearly be a facilitator of injustice, not a broker of peace.