This week it was revealed for the first time that the CIA has a secret airbase in Saudi Arabia from which it has been launching drone strikes for targeted killings in Yemen for at least the past two years. The news media is reporting, and reiterating for emphasis, that they knew about this secret drone base in Saudi Arabia, but did not disclose it because of an “informal arrangement among several news organizations” not to publish it at the request of senior US officials. In other words, the Obama administration didn’t want them to report it, so the news media meekly obeyed their masters, and didn’t report it.

Most of US President Barack Obama’s hallmark health care reform law will go into place next year, but a new bipartisan review suggests it will be a slow start for the program. - In an analysis released this week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) writes that last-minute tax changes enacted to avoid the looming fiscal cliff dilemma will largely impact who is covered and how they will be insured under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the president’s highly touted bill that has been renamed ‘Obamacare’ by its critics. According to the CBO, maneuvers made last month to avoid a financial meltdown are likely to have made significant changes to how the president’s health care bill will work. Perhaps most significant, tax cut revisions made last month could move as many as 7 million Americans out of their job-based insurance coverage and leave them to either remain uninsured or attempt to navigate a system still ripe with kinks. Tax cuts that were went into effect just this year alter the incentives for employers who offer health insurance, the Washington Times reports, creating a “less attractive” model that is likely to lead to fewer companies extending health care to employees. “Instead, they'll choose to pay a penalty to the government, totaling $13 billion in higher fees over the next decade,” Stephen Dinan writes for the Times. Previous estimates had suggested that only around 4 million Americans would be displaced of their insurance through Obamacare.

Washington Times: Seven million will lose insurance under Obama health law
Anonymous & Paul Craig Roberts: Obamacare: A Deception (Must Read)

Report finds at least 54 countries co-operated with global kidnap, detention and torture operation mounted after 9/11 attacks 05 Feb 2013 The full extent of the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme has been laid bare with the publication of a report showing there is evidence that more than a quarter of the world's governments covertly offered support. A 213-page report compiled by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), a New York-based human rights organisation, says that at least 54 countries co-operated with the global kidnap, detention and torture operation that was mounted after 9/11, many of them in Europe. So widespread and extensive was the participation of governments across the world that it is now clear the CIA could not have operated its programme without their support, according to the OSJI.

New York Times: Report Says 54 Countries Helped C.I.A. After 9/11

The US has tried to silence a national hero’s eyewitness account of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, Press TV reports. - “Actually, there was an initial explosion in the basement seconds before the plane hit. I spoke about it - they didn’t want me to talk about it,” said William Rodriguez, a janitor working for 20 years in the North Tower of the World Trade Center buildings. Rodriguez was responsible for single-handedly saving at least 15 people, rescuing thousands of survivors while assisting firefighters during the attacks, and subsequently raising 122 million dollars for the victims of 9/11. “My story, which I was recognized as a national hero, doesn’t show up anywhere on the report because my story basically destroys the official one because of the explosion,” said Rodriguez. The American hero believes the so-called 9/11 report is incorrect while the truth is yet to be revealed, as questions remain unanswered including the fact that the government trained Osama bin Laden who “was given support for the Afghan rebels to fight with the Russians.”

US diplomat warns of "trade war" if "right to be forgotten" proposals in Europe are followed through. - The introduction of planned changes to EU data protection laws could herald a trans-Atlantic "trade war", a US diplomat has warned. John Rodgers, economic Officer in the US Foreign Service, said that "things could really explode" if proposals that would provide individuals with a qualified 'right to be forgotten' are backed within the EU. In January last year the European Commission unveiled proposals to reform EU data protection laws by introducing a draft General Data Protection Regulation. If enforced, it would introduce a single data protection law across all 27 EU member states, whilst companies that process personal data of EU citizens from outside the borders of the trading bloc, including in the US, would also be subject to the rules. Under the draft Regulation individuals would enjoy a qualified 'right to be forgotten'. That right would enable them to force organisations to delete personal data stored about them "without delay". Organisations that have made the data public would be liable for the data published by third parties and would be required to "take all reasonable steps, including technical measures" to inform those groups to delete the information.

In Yemen, drone strikes are causing a spike in support for al Qaeda, "because such a move is seen as the only way to retaliate against the United States." - Late last August, a 40-year-old cleric named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber stood up to deliver a speech denouncing Al Qaeda in a village mosque in far eastern Yemen. It was a brave gesture by a father of seven who commanded great respect in the community, and it did not go unnoticed. Two days later, three members of Al Qaeda came to the mosque in the tiny village of Khashamir after 9 p.m., saying they merely wanted to talk. Mr. Jaber agreed to meet them, bringing his cousin Waleed Abdullah, a police officer, for protection. As the five men stood arguing by a cluster of palm trees, a volley of remotely operated American missiles shot down from the night sky and incinerated them all, along with a camel that was tied up nearby.

‘You must carry a gun at all times’ – US survivalists plan medieval-style walled fortress. - Ever wished you could travel back in time? Idaho might soon provide a glimpse into the past: a group of survivalists are planning to build a giant medieval-style fortress in which residents would carry their own weapons and defend against invaders. The walled city would be built in the woods of the Idaho Panhandle, 70 miles southeast of Spokane, Wash. Few people live in Benewah County, and the population 9,000 would be more than doubled if the survivalists most into the region. Coined the “Citadel”, the fortress would house 7,000 people and include houses, a school, and a gun factory. The people of Idaho are well-known for their love of guns and panic about proposed federal gun rules has only spurred a rush to purchase more of them out of fear of having their Second Amendment rights being taken away. But those who are proposing the establishment of the Citadel say that all of the city’s residents would have to own an AR-15 rifle, 1,000 rounds of ammunition and enough supplies to withstand a collapse of society. And since AR-15s have become difficult to obtain and would be outlawed if Congress reinstates the 1994 ban on assault weapons, the fortress would have its own factory to produce them. Residents would also be required by law to carry a side arm – a small weapon worn in a holster – whenever visiting the town center.

US survivalists plan medieval-style walled fortress (Metro.uk)

THE CITADEL: Welcome to the official Citadel website. - The Citadel is evolving as a planned community where residents are bound together by: Patriotism, Pride in American Exceptionalism, Our proud history of Liberty as defined by our Founding Fathers, and Physical preparedness to survive and prevail in the face of natural catastrophes — such as Hurricanes Sandy or Katrina — or man-made catastrophes such as a power grid failure or economic collapse. The Citadel is not your typical planned community where the developer's objective is selling cookie-cutter homes at the highest possible profit-margin. The Citadel is not profit-driven. The Citadel is Liberty-driven: specifically Thomas Jefferson's Rightful Liberty. Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles.

A father has been ordered to pay child support to his ex-wife despite results of DNA testing that found three of the four children he helped raise are not biologically his, a Quebec Superior Court ruled. - The man learned the shocking news after he demanded DNA testing when he and his wife of 16 years separated in April 2010. “Since I learned that I am a broken man,” the father told QMI Agency. His daughters are aged 12, 14, and 16, and his son is nine. DNA testing revealed the son is his only biological child. To make matters worse, his ex-wife told him his three daughters were all fathered by different men, he said. The man said he was aware his wife cheated on him several times, but was floored when he discovered the results.

While legislation giving the US government more online control sits in limbo between the House and the Senate, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has once again invoked his "cyber Pearl Harbor" scare-mantra, this time in a speech at an elite university. - “I believe that it is very possible the next Pearl Harbor could be a cyber attack," Panetta told an audience at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC, after a speech. Panetta outlined Pentagon officials' growing fears of online attacks in a question-and-answer session following a lecture on leadership and government. Panetta has previously branded China, Russia and Iran, along with extremist militant groups, as the greatest cyber-threats to the US and probable perpetrators of such an attack while using the Pearl Harbor analogy in other public comments.

Graduate student borrowers are defaulting on almost US$1 billion in federal loans that were given out to the poor. - US colleges such as Yale, Penn State and George Washington are coming after them in the courts, suing for nonpayment. All three colleges have pursued lawsuits against students who defaulted on their Perkins loans. The exact number of lawsuits is not known, but just last year alone the University of Pennsylvania filed at least a dozen lawsuits over the Federal Perkins Loan, Bloomberg reported.

The oldest known living wild bird in the world has given birth to a healthy hatchling. The 62-year-old bird, “Wisdom,” last made headlines in 2011, when the albatross survived the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami. - Wisdom has defied the odds in many aspects: She’s already lived nearly twice as long as the average Laysan albatross. She was given her name after being tagged by a U.S. Geological Survey researcher in 1956. The USGS said in a statement that since being tagged, Wisdom has flown an estimated 2 million to 3 million miles, or “four to six trips from the Earth to the Moon and back again with plenty of miles to spare.” “To know that she can still successfully raise young at age 60-plus, that is beyond words,” USGS bird banding program chief Bruce Peterjohn said. “While the process of banding a bird has not changed greatly during the past century, the information provided by birds marked with a simple numbered metal band has transformed our knowledge of birds.” And while there have been other albatross birds spotted in the wild who are estimated to be around 50 years old, Wisdom is the only one on record to have given birth at such an advanced age. Though, some scientists may have seen the feat coming, when Wisdom gave birth two years ago to another chick, and has given birth to a total of five chicks since 2006.