Everyone agrees the Sandy Hook shooting was a tragedy. Lots of people subsequently exploited the deaths of those children to push a political agenda of disarming Americans by claiming "guns kill people." But compared to what? Swimming pools kill people. Horseback riding kills people. And yes, even childbirth kills people. (Does that mean we should criminalize getting pregnant?) To make any sense of death statistics, we have to ask, "Compared to what?" Because if we compare deaths by firearms to other causes of death, the picture is very, very different from the doomsday fear mongering scenarios CNN and other gun control pushers have whipped up into a nationwide frenzy. In fact, as the following infographic shows, doctors kill 2,450% more Americans than all gun-related deaths combined.

Your doctor is FAR more likely to kill you than an armed criminal - It's true: You are 64 times more likely to be killed by your doctor than by someone else wielding a gun. That's because 19,766 of the total 31,940 gun deaths in the USA (in the year 2011) were suicides. So the actual number of deaths from other people shooting you is only 12,174. Doctors, comparatively, kill 783,936 people each year, which is 64 times higher than 12,174. Doctors shoot you not with bullets, but with vaccines, chemotherapy and pharmaceuticals... all of which turn out to be FAR more deadly than guns. This is especially amazing, given that there are just under 700,000 doctors in America, while there are roughly about 80 million gun owners in America.

AWIP: Eric Holder in 1995: Gun Owners Should 'Cower' in Shame Like Smokers

Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense told Congress he will ensure the US can strike Iran, if necessary. Former Senator Chuck Hagel, who was criticized for his dovish stance on Iran, has made an apparent U-turn by saber-rattling towards Tehran. - Hagel addressed Congress ahead of his confirmation hearing on Thursday, stressing that although there is “time and space” for negotiation with Iran, “the window is closing” on a diplomatic solution. "If confirmed, I will focus intently on ensuring that [the] US military is in fact prepared for any contingency," Hagel said in a write-up of questions and answers for the confirmation hearing obtained by Reuters. He also wrote that Iran needs to show signs that it is ready to negotiate seriously: “If Iran continues to flout its international obligations, it should continue to face severe and growing consequences.” However, Hagel warned that the US must be “cautious and certain” before taking action. Hagel also outlined his “unshakable” commitment to maintaining the longstanding US alliance with Israel.

PressTV: Hagel’s new anti-Iran stance beggars belief

[Michael Boyle:] "Obama has been just as ruthless and indifferent to the rule of law as his predecessor... while President Bush issued a call to arms to defend 'civilisation' against the threat of terrorism, President Obama has waged his war on terror in the shadows, using drone strikes, special operations and sophisticated surveillance to fight a brutal covert war against al-Qaida and other Islamist networks."

Back in the US, at least ten law enforcement agencies already have drones for surveillance purposes. Soon the largest local law enforcement agency, the NYPD, will be added to that list. Drones have already been approved by courts for assisting in arrests of citizens on US soil. The FAA has received at least 60 applications for drone deployment in the US and this month alone approved 348 drones for domestic use, mostly for monitoring illegal immigration along the Mexican border, but drones will soon be used to monitor cities nationwide.

Iran Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says foreign-backed “mercenaries” are spreading chaos in Syria. - “It is clear to everyone that those committing atrocities in Syria are mercenaries who have come from outside Syria and have been armed and are fighting against the Syrian government,” Salehi said Wednesday in a joint press conference with his Omani counterpart Yousef bin Alawi. “All power plants, silos, factories, institutes and organizations serving people have been destroyed by these terrorists,” the Iranian minister added. Salehi noted that people are the ones suffering from the problems caused by the the Syrian crisis in the past two years. “However, the [present] conditions are such that the people are currently standing against the mercenaries, and wherever the government retakes an area [from militants] the people support it themselves,” he said. The minister added that the “real opposition” in Syria is seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis in the country.

Stephen Lendman: Washington's War of Aggression on Syria - Israel partners with Washington's wars. It's been largely covertly involved against Syria. It's now blatantly overt. Since last weekend, Israeli warplanes violated Syrian airspace multiple times. They overflew the Beka Valley. They attacked a weapons storage facility. They struck a convoy allegedly en route to Lebanon. On Wednesday, they bombed a scientific research center near Damascus. These actions and similar ones are naked acts of aggression.

Israeli fighter jets targeted a military research center near Damascus early on Wednesday morning, the Syrian army said. The statement follows earlier reports of an Israeli airstrike on a convoy with Syrian weapons heading to Lebanon.

The Syrian army’s general command has issued a statement, saying an airstrike was launched by the IAF targeting a military research center in Jamraya, rural Damascus. “Israeli fighter jets violated our air space at dawn today and carried out a direct strike on a scientific research center in charge of raising our level of resistance and self-defense,” the army statement said as cited by SANA. The strike caused material damage to the center and a nearby building, killing two workers and wounding five others, the statement added. The Israeli warplanes were flying low under the radars and “snuck in from the north of Al-Sheikh Mountain” according to the report. It called the strike a “blatant act of aggression” against Syria and accused Israel of supporting terrorist activity in the country. Earlier there were reports in the media of an attack by Israeli jets on Wednesday morning striking a target on the Syrian-Lebanese border amid repeated violations of Lebanese airspace. A US government official has confirmed reports that Israeli warplanes targeted a convoy headed from Syria to Lebanon, the Associated Press says.

Al-Manar News: Russia Warns against Brazen Israeli Strike on Syria - "If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked strikes against targets located on the territory of a sovereign state, which brazenly infringes on the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motive used for its justification."

PressTV: Iran: Strike on Syria will have consequences for Israel
Russia Today: Syria files UN complaint over Israeli airstrike, Iran warns of ‘serious consequences’
RIA Novosti: Russia Concerned Over Israeli Air Strike in Syria
Haaretz: Israel [officially] enters the "civil war" in Syria
Naharnet: Israel Bombed Military Center near Damascus -Arms Convoy Hit near Lebanon
Jason Ditz: Conflicting Stories of What Was Attacked
PressTV: Israeli airstrike kills two people in Syria
AWIP: Israeli warplane 'struck target on Syria-Lebanon border' amid weapons fears

A senior Egyptian analyst revealed that the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, as well as a mysterious group of masked young men called the Black Bloc who present themselves as defenders of the opposition to President Mohammad Mursi's rule and Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan have played the major roles in fomenting the recent unrests in Egypt.

Micah Zenko is betting that the latest UN investigation into drone killings by the United States “is unlikely to compel increased transparency from the Obama administration.” Essentially, this is because similar investigations have been going on for about ten years and the Bush and Obama administrations have had the same response to them: “Screw off.”

The PBS Nova broadcast "Rise of the Drones" was sponsored by drone manufacturer Lockheed Martin--a clear violation of PBS's underwriting guidelines. As Kevin Gosztola reported (FireDogLake, 1/24/13), the January 23 broadcast was a mostly upbeat look at surveillance and weaponized drones. "Discover the cutting edge technologies that are propelling us toward a new chapter in aviation history," PBS urged, promising to reveal "the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful."

As the UN Security Council continues its Yemen visit after holding a closed meeting with Yemeni and GCC - Gulf Cooperation Council - officials in Sana'a, the capital, residents woke up under foreign military occupation. - Keen to guarantee the safety of its state officials and ensure that no faction, group or individual will try to derail efforts being made in regards to moving Yemen transition of power forward, the United States of America, France and the United Kingdom took control between them of the sky and the ground.

Israeli Forces Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)

During the reporting period, the Israeli forced killed Palestinian woman, while a child died of previous wounds in the West Bank. They also wounded 15 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children and a woman. ■ In the West Bank, on 23 January 2013, in excessive use of force, the Israeli forces killed a Palestinian woman and wounded another one north of Hebron. ■ On the same day, a Palestinian child of wounds he had sustained on 18 January 2013. ■ On 25 January 2013, a Palestinian civilian was wounded by shrapnel from a sound bomb southeast of Hebron. ■ In the same context, the Israeli forces continued to systematically use excessive force against peaceful protests organized by Palestinians and Israeli and international activists against the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank. As a result, 5 civilians, including 2 children, were wounded. Besides, dozens of Palestinians suffered from tear gas inhalation or sustained bruises. ■ In the Gaza Strip, 5 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, were wounded by the Israeli forces in border areas in the northern Gaza Strip. ■ During the reporting period, Israeli naval forces opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in the northern Gaza Strip on 5 occasions. No casualties were reported.

Occupied Palestine | فلسطين: EU, UN concerned by Israeli live fire against Palestinians
Stephen Lendman: Intifada Activism Needed

Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar GRIMMSON was interviewed over the weekend (26./27.01.2013) at the World Economic Forum in Davos on why Iceland has enjoyed such a strong recovery after it’s complete financial collapse in 2008, while the rest of the Western world struggles with a recovery that has no clothes. Grimsson gave a famous reply to the financial MSM reporter, stating that Iceland’s recovery was due to the following primary reason: "… We were wise enough not to follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western financial world in the last 30 years. We introduced currency controls, we let the banks fail, we provided support for the poor, and we didn’t introduce austerity measures like you’re seeing here in Europe. …“

When asked whether Iceland’s policy of letting the banks fail would have worked in the rest of Europe, Grimsson replied: "… Why are the banks considered to be the holy churches of the modern economy? Why are private banks not like airlines and tele-communication companies and allowed to go bankrupt if they have been run in an irresponsible way? The theory that you have to bail-out banks is a theory that you allow bankers enjoy for their own profit their success, and then let ordinary people bear their failure through taxes and austerity. People in enlightened democracies are not going to accept that in the long run. …“

Severe flooding in southern Mozambique has affected a quarter of a million people, while heavy rains are pounding the north of the country and a tropical cyclone threatens the island of Madagascar, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Floods that started around 10 days ago have killed at least 48 people in the south of Mozambique, and 146,000 people are still being housed in temporary shelters in the Limpopo Basin, the United Nations said in an update. Government officials put the death toll at 80. The rains in this area have stopped for the time being, and the floodwaters are slowly subsiding. Meanwhile, there is a high risk of further flooding along southern Africa's east coast, particularly in northern Mozambique and Madagascar, it warned. A low pressure system in the Mozambique Channel is bringing heavy rains that have damaged houses and affected around 500 people in north Mozambique.

Unconfirmed report of attack comes as Israel monitors region for possible chemical weapons convoys leaving Syria for Lebanon. - Israeli warplanes have attacked a target on the Syrian-Lebanese border, according to unconfirmed reports, after several days of heightened warnings from government officials over Syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons. The Reuters news agency cited a western diplomat and a security source as saying there had been "a hit" in the border area. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had no comment on the report. The report followed claims in the Lebanese media that IDF fighter planes had flown sorties over Lebanon's airspace from Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday morning.

Naharnet: Israel Strikes Convoy near Lebanese-Syrian Border
The Daily Star (Lebanon): Israel hits target in Lebanon-Syria border area
Stephen Lendman: Israel Attacks Lebanon

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to run for a seat in the Australian Senate in 2013, it has been confirmed on Wednesday. It is not yet clear how he will escape from London’s Ecuadorean embassy. - WikiLeaks representative Kristinn Hrafnsson confirmed to RT that Julian Assange will run for a seat in the Australian Senate. A native of Australia’s Queensland state, Assange said in March last year that he wanted to “bring liberty back to the center of Australian politics.” His Senate candidacy will help him defend free speech and the “right of citizens… to live their lives free from state interference,” he explained.

Naharnet: WikiLeaks' Assange to Run for Australian Senate

A media source underlined that terrorist groups of Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo carried out a mass execution against tens of abducted persons, throwing their bodies in Queiq river at Bustan al-Qasr area in Aleppo.

"The families have identified a number of the killed, stressing that Jabhat al-Nusra abducted them because of their rejection to cooperate with this terrorist group," the source said in a statement on Tuesday. It added that the competent authorities along with the families are following evidence on this new massacre which adds to a series of brutal massacres perpetrated by the terrorist groups against unarmed civilians. SANA reporter in Aleppo said that clashes between the Syrian armed forces and terrorists in Bustan al-Qasr are taking place in the surroundings of the region, adding "there are no presence for the army on the banks of Queiq river." SANA reporter added that the competent authorities earlier put barbed wires along the stream of the river to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into the safe areas. "The bodies, which terrorists and TV misleading channels have claimed that the army killed their owners, were found in the side where terrorists present.. if they were killed in the safe areas, their bodies would stick to the barbed wires before reaching the region where they were discovered," the reporter said. She clarified that the height of water in the river is very little and it is stagnant, so it can't carry the bodies along the river. [Video]

Le Monde: Des dizaines de personnes exécutées d'une balle dans la tête à Alep
Jason Ditz: At Least 81 Bodies Found in Wake of Massacre in Syria’s Aleppo

If ‘Assault Weapons’ Are Bad…Why Does DHS Want to Buy 7,000 of Them for ‘Personal Defense’? - The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to acquire 7,000 5.56x45mm NATO “personal defense weapons” (PDW) — also known as “assault weapons” when owned by civilians. The solicitation, originally posted on June 7, 2012, comes to light as the Obama administration is calling for a ban on semi-automatic rifles and high capacity magazines. Citing a General Service Administration (GSA) request for proposal (RFP), Steve McGough of RadioViceOnline.com reports that DHS is asking for the 7,000 “select-fire” firearms because they are “suitable for personal defense use in close quarters.” The term select-fire means the weapon can be both semi-automatic and automatic. Civilians are prohibited from obtaining these kinds of weapons.

Eric Peters: Will You Submit & Obey? + If Guns Are Bad...

The most interesting this about this creepy camera brought to you by the kind folks at the Defense Advance d Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is the fact that just like in George Orwell’s classic dystopic novel 1984, the government wants you to know they have this technology. From ExtremeTech:

DARPA and the US Army have taken the wraps off ARGUS-IS, a 1.8-gigapixel video surveillance platform that can resolve details as small as six inches from an altitude of 20,000 feet (6km). ARGUS is by far the highest-resolution surveillance platform in the world, and probably the highest-resolution camera in the world, period. ARGUS, which would be attached to some kind of unmanned UAV (such as the Predator) and flown at an altitude of around 20,000 feet, can observe an area of 25 square kilometers (10sqmi) at any one time. If ARGUS was hovering over New York City, it could observe half of Manhattan. Two ARGUS-equipped drones, and the US could keep an eye on the entirety of Manhattan, 24/7.

“Since the early 1980s, there has been a historically unprecedented increase in the federal prison population,” a new report from the Congressional Research Service observes. “The number of inmates under the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) jurisdiction has increased from approximately 25,000 in FY1980 to nearly 219,000 in FY2012. Since FY1980, the federal prison population has increased, on average, by approximately 6,100 inmates each year. Data show that a growing proportion of inmates are being incarcerated for immigration- and weapons-related offenses, but the largest portion of newly admitted inmates are being incarcerated for drug offenses.”

Israel has boycotted the UN human rights forum over fears of scrutiny of its treatment of residents of the occupied territories. Israel is now the first state in history to win a deferment of the periodical review of its human rights record. - Tel Aviv has refused to send a delegation on Tuesday to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for the Universal Periodic Review procedure where UN member states have their human rights record evaluated every four years. Israel’s cooperation with the council stopped last March after the UN set up a committee to inspect the effects of the Israeli settlements on Palestinians. Israel which earlier accused the United Nations of anti-Israel bias reiterated its stance, recalling that the council has passed more resolutions against Israel than all other countries combined. [...] Following the Israeli decision, the council has decided to postpone its review until no later than November. The Council president has also called on the body to adopt a draft response to an unprecedented move by Israel. [...] The United Nations regards all Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal. Tel Aviv last attended the human rights review in 2008. Israel is not a member of the Council, which is comprised of 47 UN member states.

Jason Ditz: First Ever: Israel Boycotts Routine UN Rights Council Review - All 193 members of the United Nations are required to undergo periodic reviews of their internal human rights situation. Attendance by an official from the country is mandatory, and the Israeli meeting today was expected to be routine. Today’s meeting of the UN Rights Council therefore is a totally unprecedented situation, as Israel’s outgoing government announced a full boycott of the meeting and refused to attend, the first time that’s ever happened. Even the US was said to be surprised at the move, and urged Israel to attend.

Torture brings forth unreliable information and false confessions, apart from the fact that it is a serious violation of all manner of international agreements, former CIA officer Ray McGovern told RT.

“You can’t get reliable information from torture. But torture works beautifully if you want unreliable information” says McGovern. His comments come amid the trial of John Kiriakou, a CIA veteran sentenced to two years in prison, after leaking sensitive information about Washington’s torture program. Kiriakou, the man who oversaw the capture of Al-Qaeda's third-in-command, blew the lid on America’s torture program, revealing the name of an alleged torturer at Guantanamo Bay. Kiriakou came out against Washington’s torture program supporting the notion that torture is illegal, says McGovern adding that the accusations against Kiriakou are political andhe is being punished out due to rank-hypocrisy.

New video footage has surfaced online showing the foreign-sponsored militants in Syria in possession of chemical weapons. - The video, which was posted on the internet recently, apparently shows armed militants holding canisters containing chemical substances. The militants had earlier released footage in which rabbits were killed by inhaling poisonous gas. In December 2012, Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari said in letters to the UN Security Council and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the foreign-backed militants could use chemical weapons against Syrians and try to shift the blame to the government. Damascus is "genuinely worried" that Syria’s enemies could provide chemical weapons to armed groups "and then claim they had been used by the Syrian government," Ja’afari stated.

Tony Cartalucci: Is UK Defense Contractor Planning Syrian WMD False Flag?

Les corps d'au moins 65 jeunes tués d'une balle dans la tête ont été découverts mardi dans la cité syrienne d'Alep, dernier carnage en date dans le pays en guerre, à quelques heures d'une intervention du médiateur international, Lakhdar Brahimi à l'ONU. - Selon l'Observatoire syrien des droits de l'homme (OSDH), qui s'appuie sur des militants et des médecins, "au moins 65 cadavres non identifiés ont été retrouvés à Boustane Al-Kasr", quartier tenu par les rebelles à Alep, la métropole du Nord en proie aux combats entre soldats et insurgés. "Agés d'une vingtaine d'années, ils ont été exécutés d'une balle dans la tête. Vêtus en civil, la majorité ont les mains liées derrière le dos", a-t-elle ajouté. [...] Un responsable au sein des services de sécurité du régime a affirmé à l'AFP qu'il s'agit de "citoyens de Boustane Al-Kasr, qui ont été enlevés par des groupes terroristes après avoir été accusés d'être en faveur du régime". "Ils ont été exécutés dans la nuit de lundi à mardi et leurs corps ont été jetés dans la rivière", a-t-il affirmé. Le régime accuse les rebelles d'être des "terroristes". Rebelles et régime s'accusent d'habitude mutuellement des tueries, mais il n'est pas possible de confirmer les informations de source indépendante.

The Daily Star (Lebanon): Dozens found with hands bound in Syria's Aleppo

The Fourth Amendment was intended to protect the citizenry—both our property and our bodies—from "unreasonable searches and seizures" by government agents. Unfortunately, as John Whitehead reveals in this week's vodcast, the rights supposedly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been steadily eroded over the past few decades, leaving Americans literally stranded on the side of the road, grasping for dignity.

Obama has fundamentally signed on to the belief that individuals can be held forever without due process. - The Obama administration has decided to close the office and eliminate the special envoy devoted to closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The State Department on Monday reassigned Daniel Fried, the special envoy and will not replace him, according to an internal personnel announcement.

“The announcement that no senior official in President Obama’s second term will succeed Mr. Fried in working primarily on diplomatic issues aimed at repatriating or resettling detainees,” reported the New York Times, “appeared to signal that the administration does not currently see the closing of the Guantánamo Bay prison as a realistic priority, despite repeated statements that it still intends to do so.” In truth, Obama abandoned the effort to close Guantanamo very early in his administration. In May 2009, Obama “scuppered a plan,” writes Andy Worthington, “to bring a handful of innocent and wrongly detained prisoners to the United States who could not be safely repatriated.” “In January 2010,” Worthington adds, “he imposed a ban on releasing any cleared Yemeni prisoners, after it was revealed that the failed underwear bomb plot of Christmas 2009 was hatched in Yemen, even though the deeply insulting rationale for the ban is that Yemenis, although cleared for release, can instead be imprisoned for life on the basis of ‘guilt by nationality.’”

Russia Today: Guantanamo relocation plan halted after key diplomat shuffled - Video
PressTV: 'Invisible hand' in US cuts off media feed of Gitmo trials, baffling judge

The US is planning to consolidate its position in Africa with a new drone outpost in Niger, with the stated purpose of providing unarmed surveillance support to French efforts in Mali and keeping tabs on al-Qaeda elements on the continent. - The robotic unmanned aircraft would likely be based in Niger, on the eastern border of Mali, where French forces are currently waging a campaign against Al-Qaeda, AFP reported, quoting an anonymous official. If the plan is approved, up to 300 US military servicemembers and contractors could be sent to the base to operate the drone aircraft, the New York Times reported. US Africa Command is also considering another location as an alternative to the base in Burkina Faso, the official said. However, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland reiterated that there are no plans to commit US troops to any fighting on the ground.

USA Today: Wickham: U.S. military role in Mali not far off
PressTV: UK mulling deploying some 200 troops to Mali
The Telegraph: British troops to join Mali conflict
John Glaser: US Plans Base for Drones Near Mali
Alex Lantier: Britain, US escalate war aid as France advances into northern Mali
Laurent Louis: Belgian MP Laurent Louis's speech/video in the Belgian Parliament - MUST READ