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.

With less than a week until a powerful legislation expires that lets the government eavesdrop on the phone and email conversations of Americans, the Senate has convened in DC to discuss whether or not to renew the FISA Amendment Act. The 2008 FISA Amendment Act, an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of the 1970s, allows the government to wiretap any conversation involving US citizens, without obtaining a warrant, as long as investigators "reasonably" suspect those talks to involve at least one party located outside of the United States. Despite demands from members of Washington’s intelligence committee, though, very little information if any has been made available about how the government uses the FISA Amendment Act, or FAA, and whom they target. “Everyone becomes suspect when big brother is listening,” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said recently while arguing against renewing the FAA in the House of Representatives. Despite pleas from Rep. Kucinich and others, the House has agreed to support renewing the FAA, a decision that has met the approval of the Obama White House as well.