Following a series of similar widely ridiculed so-called “sting” operations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced last week that it had foiled yet another “terror plot” that, like virtually every supposed “terrorist” case in recent years, was created and managed from start to finish by the FBI itself. This time, the dupe was a 28-year-old California man, Matthew Aaron Llaneza, with a documented history of mental illness, who apparently believed his government handlers were helping him wage “jihad.” Critics, however, say the whole scheme smacks of entrapment and a waste of taxpayer money.

Though it is only a fraction of the overall drone war against the nation, the Peshawar High Court today heard details on the impact of the US drone strikes against the North Waziristan Agency, from the tiny area’s agent. In the past five years, 147 distinct US attacks have killed 894 people, including 35 women and 24 children. The vast majority of the other victims were local tribesmen, with only 46 foreigners among the slain, and not all of them confirmed to be militants. Well over 200 people, again overwhelmingly civilians, were wounded in the attacks.

PressTV: US drone operators, cyber troops to get distinguished medal: Pentagon

Both the Democratic and Republican leadership said they expect to confirm Hagel at the next vote - Senate Republicans on Thursday temporarily blocked the nomination to secretary of defense of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, with Democrats coming just one vote shy from blocking a filibuster. Congress is in recess all of next week, so another vote for Hagel’s nomination will take place a week from Tuesday, buying Republicans more time to question him and his Washington allies. The leadership of both the Democratic and Republican parties say they expect Hagel to be confirmed when the next vote takes place on Feb. 26. That would make Thursday’s obstructionism merely a political move to show the President and conservative constituents they stood against Obama’s Hagel nomination.

Russia’s Urals region has been rocked by a meteorite explosion in the stratosphere. The impact wave damaged several buildings, and blew out thousands of windows amid frigid winter weather. Hundreds are seeking medical attention for minor injuries. [Video][Gregor Grimm/YouTube][RT-Video]

Associated Press: 500 injured by blasts as meteor falls in Russia

Military missions into West Africa are to secure the free flow of natural resources out of Africa to the global markets. As soon as sovereign nations are in governmental/legislative staging plans of nationalizing sectors of their economy (resource nationalism)—– the potential of internal protests/riots increase ( influence by western clandestine operations), military interventions/airstrikes, coup d’états, economic warfare, …..etc. Global Energy and Resource Wars can’t be denied. Related Article: Russian Military Chief Predicts Resource Wars Soon

F. William Engdahl: The War in Mali and AFRICOM’s Agenda: Target China - The Mali operation is but the tip of a huge African iceberg. AFRICOM, the Pentagon’s US Africa Command was signed into existence by President George W. Bush in late 2007. Its prime purpose was to counter the dramatically growing Chinese economic and political influence across Africa. Alarm bells went off in Washington in October 2006 when the Chinese President hosted an historic Beijing summit, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which brought nearly fifty African heads of state and ministers to the Chinese capital.

The Life of Palestinian Prisoner in Israeli Jail, Samer Al Essawi, is in Immenant Danger on Day 205 of Hunger Strike. - The General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific (GDOP) would like to convey its grave concern regarding the plight of Palestinian prisoners and detainees being held captive by Israel, the occupying power, particularly the plight of several prisoners on long-term hunger strike in protest of their unlawful detention. GDOP appeals to the Government of New Zealand to use the necessary efforts and to exert pressure to compel the occupying power to act humanely and incompliance with the fourth Geneva Convention towards the hunger striking prisoners and to release them and all other Palestinians being unlawfully and arbitrarily detained.

While Britain claims to be an advocate of human rights in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and many other countries around the world, British history itself is corroborating evidence that Britain, the greatest human rights preacher, has also been the most flagrant human rights breacher. - More than 500,000 German civilians and refugees, mostly women and children, were slaughtered by Britain’s saturation bombing in 1945, one of the worst massacres of all time. Over 700,000 phosphorus bombs were dropped on 1.2 million defenseless inhabitants of German city Dresden under Britain’s then Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s order, which not only reduced one of the greatest centers of northern Europe to flaming ruins, but also led to one of the worst war crimes of the Second World War. Dresden’s bombing in February, 13, 1945 was so relentless that some historians believe it was the height of Winston Churchill’s madness. Toward the end of the war, Churchill’s desired firestorm was finally created. More than 260,000 bodies and residues of bodies were counted after British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) assaulted Dresden. However, those who perished in the centre of the city could not be traced, as the temperature in the area reached 1600 degree Centigrade.

A US general nominated to lead American military’s Africa Command has called for a 15-fold surge in US spying missions in Africa amid reports of Pentagon’s plans to further expand its growing military presence in the continent. - Army General David Rodriguez estimated in a written statement submitted to the US Senate Arms Services Committee during his confirmation hearing on Thursday that the American military needs to boost its “intelligence-gathering and spying missions in Africa by nearly 15-fold,” The Washington Post reports Friday.

Security officials suspect that Ben Zygier, the alleged spy who died in a secret Israeli prison in 2010, may have been about to disclose information about Israeli intelligence operations, including the use of fraudulent Australian passports, either to the Australian government or to the media before he was arrested. - Mr Zygier ''may well have been about to blow the whistle, but he never got the chance,'' an Australian security official told Fairfax Media. Sources in Canberra are insistent that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was not informed by its Israeli counterparts of the precise nature of the espionage allegations against Mr Zygier. However, it is understood that the Melbourne law graduate had been in contact with Australian intelligence officers. Israeli intelligence informed ASIO of the arrest and detention of Mr Zygier just eight days after authorities in Dubai had revealed that suspected Israeli agents had used fraudulent Australian passports in the assassination of a Palestinian militant.

PressTV: Mossad agent known as prisoner X linked to killing of Hamas leader: Report