Moshe Ya’alon, an ex-Israeli Chief of Staff and now Member of the Knesset, has been appointed Israel’s Minister of Defence in Netanyahu’s latest government coalition. Ya’alon replaces Ehud Barak. This man, who is pro-settlement, stridently anti-Iran, and fervently against the existence of any kind of Palestinian state, will be Israel’s next Defence Minister. This war criminal will probably be shaking President Obama’s hand when the President visits Israel next week. No doubt more crimes will be planned when they meet.

Stephen Lendman: Israel's Fascist Government

CIA Director John Brennan is the latest member of the Obama administration to have heir personal financial records leaked on the Web. - A credit report alleged to belong to Brennan, one of the newest additions to US President Barack Obama’s official cabinet, was published Friday afternoon on the website Exposed.Su. The site made headlines earlier in the week after it published Social Security Numbers, home addresses and credit reports for a number of influential Americans from both Washington and Hollywood.

Findings of a new study showed that the US war in Iraq has cost $2 trillion and total expenses in the unavailing conflict may rise to $6 trillion over the next 40 years. - According to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, the US war on Iraq has cost more than $two trillion, including $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans. The report stated that the amount owed to veterans may rise to $6 trillion over the next four decades if interest is included. The report, drawn up by about 30 academics, also said at least 189,000 people have been killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It said the war left 134,000 Iraqi civilians dead and may have contributed to the deaths of as many as four times that number. The Costs of War Project concluded that Washington has gained but little from the years of conflict and occupation in Iraq. [Costs of War (website)]

Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater - now known as Academi - claims his firm “became a virtual extension of the CIA,” taking orders from the agency. - In an interview published Thursday by the Daily Beast, Prince revealed how deeply connected Blackwater was to the Central Intelligence Agency, especially in the early 2000s. Last month, federal prosecutors dropped felony charges against Blackwater personnel after it was revealed that the employees had been acting under the orders of the US government. After a three-year-long prosecution, most of the company’s executives walked free and two men received nothing more than probation, house arrest and $5,000 fines. But the tens of thousands of pages of court documents from the case shed light on an argument the company made throughout those three years – that Blackwater itself was an extension of the CIA.

Raw Story: Former CEO reveals Blackwater worked as ‘virtual extension of the CIA’
John Glaser: CIA Boosts Support for Iraqi Militias

The US House of Representatives is expected to weigh in on the Agricultural Appropriations Bill for Fiscal year 2013 this week, and included within the act lies the “Farmer Assurance Provision,” a small subsection that has so far earned opposition from hundreds of thousands family farmers, environmental interest groups and other advocates. Those hoping to defeat the bill have gone so far as to dub the provision the “Monsanto Protection Act.” Small time agriculturists have increasingly spoken out against biotech companies in recent years, as giants like Monsanto have made millions off of genetically engineering crops that traditional plants simply can’t match up with. Additionally, Monsanto has taken a slew of farmers to court over questionable patent infringement suits, almost always winning the help of high-powered attorneys. Now if the Farmer Assurance Provision is approved by Congress, GMO companies will once again be allowed an advantage from their friends in Washington. If the provision is approved this week, biotech companies won’t have to wait for federal approval to test and plant laboratory-made crops, instead being allowed to carry on with even selling such crops until the government elects to tell them otherwise.

Israeli forces have sprayed Palestinian homes in the village of Nabi Saleh with raw sewage as a punishment for organising weekly protests against the Apartheid Wall built on occupied West Bank land.

Human rights watchdog B'Tselem published a video showing Israel's armoured tanker trucks fitted with "water cannons" which spray the foul fluid at Palestinian protesters. B'Tselem said in a statement that the Israeli forces also targeted all the houses of the village with the sewage. The powerful jet broke windows and caused a great deal of damage in the houses, said the Israeli organisation. "It also causes environmental damage," it pointed out. The non-lethal weapon has been added to the Israelis' armoury for crowd control, said B'Tselem, even though the video shows clearly that it is also used against Palestinian-owned property. The Israeli military has been looking for an alternative to tear gas canisters for crowd control, claiming that the Palestinians now know how to cope with the gas and its effects.

A massive 3,000 ton weapons airlift from Croatia to Syrian rebels, reported two weeks ago by the New York Times then further detailed by a Croat newspaper and the London Telegraph on Friday, appears to breach the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), theoretically subjecting high level U.S. officials and allies to arrest. The weapons, destined for groups attempting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, have a high possibility of ending up in the hands of al-Qaeda affiliates. On February 25, the New York Times revealed that “Saudi Arabia has financed a large purchase of infantry weapons from Croatia and quietly funneled them to antigovernment fighters in Syria,” adding that U.S., European, Jordanian and CIA officials all declined comment. On March 8, The London Telegraph, citing a newspaper article published in Croatia, said the operation required 75 cargo flights to deliver the weapons, beginning in November. Most of the cargo flights landed in Jordan before the arms were moved over the border into Syria, according to reports. “The first cargo planes involved with the shipment were from Turkey, but most have been from Jordanian International Air Cargo, whose Russian-made Ilyushin jets have been seen regularly at Zaghreb airport in recent months” reported the Telegraph, citing the Croat newspaper.

SANA: EU Parliament President Slams France, Britain for Raising Debate Over Ending Syria Arms Ban
Russia Today: France, UK may arm Syrian rebels 'without EU support,' despite embargo
Tony Cartalucci: US-British Al Qaeda Airlift: 3,000 Tons of Weapons Fuel Syria's Destruction

From soldiers who surrendered in battle to civilians perceived to be sympathetic to the Assad government, Syria’s various rebel factions take a lot of prisoners. Many of them don’t live very long, however. That’s because, as a new human rights report from Amnesty International is reporting, Syrian rebels regularly end up summarily executing their detainees, with some groups releasing videos of the executions after the fact to brag about them. It is just one of many examples in the new report (pdf) detailing the growing number of human rights violations by the Western-backed Syrian rebels, including torture and arbitrary detentions.

It accused the channel’s CEO and Newsroom Director of being behind the “production and broadcast” of televised confessions made by terrorism suspects. The following text contains charges leveled against Press TV’s CEO Mohammad Sarafraz published in the official Journal of the European Union and his response to these charges.

Amid US threats to impose sanctions on his country, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari joined Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a ceremony breaking ground on construction of the Pakistani portion of a planned Iran-Pakistan pipeline on Monday. With national elections due in May, Zardari and his ruling Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) will seek to gain electoral advantage by using the pipeline to posture as being independent from Washington. Iran sees the project as a way to counter the crippling economic sanctions the US has imposed on it, based on unsubstantiated allegations that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Pakistan faces a shortfall of 2 billion cubic of natural gas feet per day and a serious energy crisis, which has seen mass electricity riots in Lahore and other cities. Pakistan is in the dark for up to six hours a day—resulting in the loss of export revenue, the closure of tens of thousands of factories, and the loss of millions of jobs.

PressTV: Pakistan’s FM downplays US threats over gas project with Iran - Addressing a press conference on Thursday, the Pakistani minister expressed confidence that the United States would never impose sanctions on Pakistan because of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project. Khar pointed to the importance of Pakistan’s relations with Iran and added that the completion of the gas pipeline project would be a harbinger of good news for peace and cooperation. The remarks came after the US Department of State on March 11 threatened Pakistan with sanctions if Islamabad went through with its multi-billion-dollar project with Iran.

Zimbabwean police are interrogating young children (aged 4-6) at school about whether their parents have radios. The police are confiscating wind up radios in night time raids. - Villagers in Lupane revealed that the police have been visiting schools and asking little children in Grade 0 and Grade 1(aged between 4 and 6 years) whether their parents own or listen to any radios. This follows reports that suspected state security agents on Tuesday raided several homesteads at Mpofu village in the Gwampa area and confiscated the wind-up radios. Speaking to SW Radio Africa one villager who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said the police have been going to schools, writing down names, and then visiting those suspected of owning the radios by night. She said although the agents will be wearing civilian clothes, the villagers know it is the police since they have been announcing their ban on radios. Our source said she suspects the police are aware of the popularity of shortwave radios in the area, hence they are now confiscating them. “The police have been announcing that villagers should not be in possession of these radios. Their reason is that we listen to news broadcasts from outside the country which criticise ZANU PF.