The War on Democracy is a 2007 documentary film directed by Christopher Martin and John Pilger. Focusing on the political state of Latin America, the film is intended as a rebuke of both the United States' intervention in foreign countries' domestic politics, and its "War on Terrorism". [The film] explores the current and past relationship of Washington with Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.

Using archive footage sourced by Michael Moore's archivist Carl Deal, the film shows how serial US intervention, overt and covert, has toppled a series of legitimate governments in the Latin American region since the 1950s. The democratically elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende, for example, was ousted by a US backed coup in 1973 and replaced by the military dictatorship of General Pinochet. Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador have all been invaded by the United States. John Pilger interviews several ex-CIA agents who took part in secret campaigns against democratic countries in the region. He investigates the School of the Americas in the US state of Georgia, where Pinochet's torture squads were trained along with tyrants and death squad leaders in Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina. The film unearths the real story behind the attempted overthrow of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez in 2002 and how the people of the barrios of Caracas rose up to force his return to power.

Obama Is Worse than Bush In Favoring the Super-Elite, Bailing Out the Big Banks, Protecting Financial Criminals, Targeting Whistleblowers, Keeping Government Secrets, Trampling Our Liberties and Starting Military Conflicts In New Countries. Indeed, more and more Democrats are waking up the fact that Obama is doing a lot of the same stuff Bush did. Bush was a horrible president. His warmongering, disrespect for civil liberties, redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the super-elite, and obsession for secrecy were all abysmal. But how does Obama stack up by objective measurements?

A hunger strike by prisoners at the US’s notorious Guantanamo Bay detention facility enters its 41st consecutive day, as medical experts and lawyers warn of the deteriorating health of more than 100 hunger strikers. - Lawyers and medical officials are concerned about the critical health condition of the prisoners, who began the hunger strike on February 6, after the Gitmo staff reportedly seized the personal belongings of the inmates, including letters, photographs and copies of the Holy Qur’an in a sacrilegious manner during searches of their cells. Dr. Mark Mason, an anthropologist, said, “They are indeed threatening their own lives, putting their lives on the line in this heroic effort to express a sense of autonomy, outrage at being imprisoned in what can be characterized as nothing less than the American sort of medieval torture chamber.” “That context where we have individuals incarcerated, isolated from each other, and they don’t know if they are going to get out tomorrow or never. That sets off a circumstance for extreme psychological stress,” Mason stated.

Russia Today: Gitmo Hunger Strike: ‘Prisoners put their lives on the line in a medieval torture chamber’
Russia Today: ‘Guantanamo hunger strike is prisoners’ only way to reclaim dignity’
Examiner: Media ignores military forcing tubes into Gitmo hunger strikers Day 39

President Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel is expected to include the usual hectoring on attacking Iran and some pro-forma US threats to actually do so, but likely no real policy change. Rather, Israeli officials insist, the real focus will be on talking Obama into attacking Syria. Israel already attacked Syria once in late January, and almost immediately thereafter it was revealed that President Obama “green-lit” the attack, as well as any other attacks Israel might want to launch on Syria.

Units of the armed forces on Monday carried out several operations against terrorists' hideouts in Adra and Qara in Damascus Countryside, killing and injuring a number of [them]. - The operations resulted in destroying [their] vehicles which they had been using in their criminal acts. A military source told SANA reporter that a number of terrorists' hideouts were destroyed in Adra and the surrounding areas. A number of [them] were also killed and their weapons and ammunition were seized, the source added. Meanwhile, units of the armed forces and the borders guards foiled armed terrorist groups' infiltration attempts from Lebanon in several sites in Talkalakh countryside in Homs, killing a number of [them].

Al-Manar News: France Increases its Support to Terrorists in Syria

It took until Saturday morning for the European summit to agree to a much reduced €10 billion ($13 billion) loan to bail out the banks in Cyprus, the fifth euro zone country after Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain to apply for aid. Within hours, the decision to levy a tax on Cyprus bank deposits to pay for the rescue package resulted in a stampede to withdraw cash from the country’s banks via ATMs. The EU’s aim is to raise €6 billion by levying a one-off 10 percent tax on savings over €100,000 and a 6.75 percent tax on small depositors. Senior bank bondholders and investors in Cyprus’ sovereign debt will be left untouched. The response of the financial magazine Forbes was scathing, denouncing the “German-led group of EU officials” for “probably the single most inexplicably irresponsible decision in banking supervision in the advanced world since the 1930s.”

Forbes: The Botching of the Cyprus Bailout: Worse Than Lehman Brothers
Associated Press: Cypriot savings grab shocks savers across Europe
The Guardian: Savers across Europe will look on in horror at the Troika's raid on Cyprus
RIA Novosti: Putin Blasts Cyprus Levy on Bank Deposits as ‘Unfair’
Russia Today: Crisis Bailout Backfires: Depositors fear loss of savings in Cyprus debt payoff
Zero Hedge: All The Conditions For A Total Disaster Are In Place
Information Clearing House: The Great Cyprus Bank Robbery by Financial Terrorists
Michael Snyder: After The Banksters Steal Money From Bank Accounts In Cyprus They Will Start Doing It EVERYWHERE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed on Sunday a hard-line former military chief as new defense minister. - Yaalon, widely known by his nickname “Bogie,” was Israel's military chief from 2002 to 2005. He oversaw Israel's army operations during the bloody years of the second Palestinian [intifada]. Yaalon also prepared Israel's military for the country's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. He did not support the decision to remove Israel's military installations and settlements from the Palestinian territory, and retired shortly before the withdrawal took place. After retiring, Yaalon briefly served as an expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For the past four years, Yaalon served as both vice premier and strategic affairs minister in Israel's outgoing government. In those positions, Yaalon was a member of Netanyahu's Security Cabinet, which dealt with sensitive matters and played a leading role in monitoring Iran's nuclear program[sic!].

WANTED: Moshe Bogie Yaalon: For War Crimes And Crimes Against Humanity
The Guardian: Israeli minister Moshe Ya'alon turned down UK visit over arrest fears
Al-Akhbar: Israel names new anti-Palestinian defense minister

A German lawmaker has described Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano as a “US puppet” in his handling of Iran’s nuclear energy dossier. “I think even the German government is aware that Amano is a US puppet when it comes to Iran,” Jan van Aken, deputy head of the German Left Party said. Aken, who was addressing an international conference in the German capital, Berlin, reiterated that Amano has no will of his own and is only a vehicle for the implementation of US scenarios. Aken added that biased and wide-ranging interpretations of the IAEA's reports on Tehran’s nuclear energy program are the main obstacle to resolving the Western standoff over the issue.

Stephen Lendman: UN Human Rights Council: America's Imperial Tool