President Barack Obama is considering using military force in Syria, and the Pentagon has prepared various scenarios for possible United States intervention. - Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Obama administration is deliberating whether or not it should use the brute of the US military in Syria during a Thursday morning Senate hearing. Gen. Dempsey said the administration was considering using “kinetic strikes” in Syria and said "issue is under deliberation inside of our agencies of government,” the Associated Press reported from Washington. Dempsey, 61, is the highest ranking officer in the US military and has been nominated by Pres. Obama to serve a second term in that role. The Senate Armed Services Committee questioned him Thursday morning as part of the nominating process when Dempsey briefly discussed the situation in Syria.

PressTV: US army chief keeps Syria intervention option secret
Sky News: 'Britain Must Be Prepared For War' Against Syria

Defence witness 'extraordinarily disappointed' after Col Denise Lind declines to throw out charges against WikiLeaks Source. - The judge presiding over the court martial of the WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning has declined to throw out the main charge against him - that he knowingly "aided the enemy" by leaking state secrets that were posted on the internet. The decision by Colonel Denise Lind, who is sitting as judge and jury over the army private in a courtroom at Fort Meade, Maryland, means that Manning continues to face the possibility of life in military custody with no chance of parole. The "aiding the enemy" charge is one of the most severe offences available to military prosecutors, and has led to the accusation that the Obama administration is attempting to put a chill on whistleblowers that could have far-reaching consequences for investigative journalism.

Robert Seldon Lady, former CIA Milan chief

Robert Seldon Lady was detained after Costa Rica sent him back to Panama. ■ A former CIA base chief in Italy who was convicted in the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a street in Milan has been detained in Panama, the Italian justice ministry said. ■ An Italian official familiar with Italy's investigation and prosecution of Robert Seldon Lady said the former CIA official entered Panama, traveled to Costa Rica, and that officials there then sent him back to Panama where he was detained. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because only Italy's justice ministry was publicly discussing the case. ■ In Panama City, Panamanian Security Minister Jose Raul Molino told The Associated Press that he was unaware of Lady's detention, and the press office of the National Police — which works with Interpol, the international police agency — said it had no information about the case. The CIA said it had no immediate comment about its former employee. ■ Lady was sentenced by an Italian appeals court in Milan earlier this year in the extraordinary rendition case to nine years in prison after being tried in absentia in Italy for the kidnapping of the Muslim cleric. The trials of Lady, 59, now retired from the CIA, and two other Americans in the case brought the first convictions anywhere in the world against agents involved in the agency's extraordinary rendition program, a practice alleged to have led to torture.

BBC: Ex-CIA Milan chief held in Panama over cleric abduction
John Goetz and Matthias Gebauer: CIA Rendition Case: US Pressured Italy to Influence Judiciary
AWIP: Italian court convicts 3 in absentia for 2003 CIA kidnapping of Egyptian terror suspect in Milan

Gary Sick ■ Israel itself managed to develop a nuclear weapons capability in absolute secrecy in only a few years. It was not alone. South Africa, India, even poor Pakistan with virtually no heavy industrial base, managed to develop nuclear weapons in secret within a decade or so of the decision to launch a determined program. By most accounts, Iran decided to restart its nuclear program -- started under the shah and interrupted by the Iranian revolution -- in the mid-1980s, nearly 30 years ago. ■ This anomaly is almost never mentioned. Iran, endowed with a robust industrial base, exceptional engineering universities, a well-educated population, and a core of Western-trained nuclear scientists, has spent nearly three times as long on its nuclear program as other countries that were far less endowed. It still has no nuclear weapon. Why? One answer may be the consensus of all U.S. intelligence services that the leaders of Iran have not taken a decision to build a bomb. They have openly constructed the nuclear infrastructure that would permit them to do so, but they have not taken a decision. Mr. Netanyahu did not mention that in his TV appearance.

[February 24, 2012]: Even as the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said in a new report Friday that Iran had accelerated its uranium enrichment program, American intelligence analysts continue to believe that there is no hard evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb. Recent assessments by American spy agencies are broadly consistent with a 2007 intelligence finding that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program years earlier, according to current and former American officials. The officials said that assessment was largely reaffirmed in a 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, and that it remains the consensus view of America’s 16 intelligence agencies.

British Liberal Democrat MP David Ward has been suspended by the party after he posted a tweet, calling Israel an “apartheid state”. - According to reports, Bradford East MP, who had previously been reprimanded by Lib-Dems for questioning Zionist regime’s treatment of Palestinians, is suspended until September 13 by the party. Ward was told he would no longer be considered as a parliamentary party member after he posted a tweet on July 13 stating, "Am I wrong or are am I right? At long last the Zionists are losing the battle - how long can the apartheid State of Israel last?" The Liberal Democrat chief whip Alistair Carmichael announced yesterday he had suspended the MP over the language he used when referring to the Zionist regime of Israel. Ward, however, condemned the ruling as "disproportionate", saying he will not apologize for his comments.

Students at the University of California were arrested as they protested the appointment of outgoing US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as the next UC president. - The Board of Regents at the University of California at San Francisco voted on Thursday to approve Napolitano as head of the UC system at a base salary of $570,000 a year. Dozens of students tried to halt the confirmation meeting by chanting slogans against Napolitano's appointment as president of UC, a prestigious 10-campus system regarded as one of the top US public university systems. They were yelling "Shame! Shame! Shame!" and some tried to rush toward the tables where board members were sitting before being stopped by police. Several demonstrators were forcibly removed from the meeting room and six were arrested. Other protesters gathered outside to protest Napolitano's immigration policies and lack of experience in education. Hispanic immigrants have slammed Napolitano for immigration sweeps that have led to large-scale detention and deportations of undocumented immigrants.

[Google Übersetzer/Editor:] Romas Dabrukas works as a cameraman for the news agency Ruptly TV in Berlin. He prepares international news for online media and for the group Russia Today (RT Television). On Monday night, he wanted to film an political event where artists performed in front of the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt. He was prevented by police at gunpoint. What had happened? - [In his own words: ] Around two clock that night I was covering the news for Ruptly TV, working as a cameraman. I had been dispatched to the American consulate. I had just returned from the Northern Irish Capital, Belfast, to film the Frankfurt art project at the consulate in Berlin. Some guards were in uniform. The artists had just driven up. They had equipment with which to project images on the wall of the building. As I had understood it, they were about to carry out a demo projecting slides against the walls of the consulate as a protest against NSA's surveillance in Germany. Then suddenly everything happened quickly. A squad of about 20 police officers came out of nowhere. Several police cars. An officer with a gun in his hand told me to turn off my camera. He said: »Camera off or I'll shoot." I was shocked. There are laws that supposedly protect press freedom in Germany. At first I thought maybe all this were because I only had a Lithuanian press card with me, but my German colleagues got the same treatment. The police officers confiscated our cameras. They said it was because this was it was a security zone, but my German colleagues and I were across the street from the consulate. I was amazed, because this is not American territory. They also demanded to see the pictures I had taken. They also seized my SD memory card for the camera. I did not accept this because as independent members of the press we basically do not want to cooperate with the police.

AWIP: RT's Ruptly team detained filming Anonymous 'United Stasi of America' action - VIDEO

The Greek government has used the visit on Thursday by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble to impose a blanket ban on demonstrations in central Athens. - In order to enforce the ban, 4,000 police officers were mobilized to turn central Athens into a closed-off fortress. Roads and subway stations were blocked all the way from the airport to the city center. The ban on demonstrations was extended to include Syntagma Square, the central square in front of the Greek parliament building which has been the scene of regular protests and demonstrations during the past five years. Despite these measures, there were numerous protests. After Schäuble had entered the Treasury, some young women gathered in front of the building and shouted “get out” and “Hitler out of here.”

Talia Joy Castellano, the charming teen that inspired thousands with her YouTube make-up tutorials, died at 13 of cancer. - With wise beauty tips and an inspirational story, Talia became an Internet sensation and captivated many with her extensive cosmetic knowledge as well as her experience fighting two forms of aggressive cancer: neuroblastoma and preleukemia. On Tuesday, a message appeared on the teen’s Facebook page announcing her death.

Last summer, doctors told Talia her condition had left her with four months to 1 year to live. On Monday, a Facebook post updated fans saying the teen had been in the hospital for almost 6 months. On her YouTube channel, taliajoy18, Talia demonstrated great skill with matte bronzer, eyeliner, false eyelashes and more. Despite losing her hair to chemotherapy, the teen’s profile shows a photo of Talia with “Make Up Is My Wig” colorfully written on her head. The teen's YouTube channel, which included make-up tutorials and personal video blogs about her cancer treatments, has over 750,000 subscribers. "YouTube, and all the support that I get from everyone telling me that I'm inspiring and not to give up, it really makes you stop and think about how many people there are that love you... You're not there alone," Talia told Shira Lazar, co-founder of WhatsTrending, in August 2012.

Britain must be prepared to go to war if it wants to end the conflict in Syria and keep chemical weapons out of the hands of al Qaeda, the outgoing head of the armed forces has warned. General Sir David Richards, who steps down today as Chief of the Defence Staff, said that if the West wanted to see an end to President Bashar al Assad's regime it would have to step in as in it did to end the Gaddafi regime in Libya. He also warned that if the regime suddenly collapsed then Britain "would have to act" to prevent chemical weapons falling into the hands of terror groups. His comment were backed by the Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, who said that no option was being taken off the table when it came to Syria.

Israeli media say the Tel Aviv regime was behind the recent explosions in the Syrian port city of Latakia. - US officials have reportedly confirmed that Israeli fighter jets on July 5 bombarded a Syrian arsenal containing advanced Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, citing the CNN. “Israel launched the July 5 strike in order to hit the Russian-made missiles, which Israel believed pose a threat to its forces,” a report from another Israeli media outlet read. Last week, Syrian opposition sources had reported the presence of fighter jets in the skies of the city of Al-Haffah, east of Latakia. The Syrian government has not yet provided information on who has been behind the Latakia blasts. The Israeli regime has not commented on the media reports, either.

A long-awaited study on congenital birth defects by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Iraq is expected to be very extensive in nature. According to WHO, 10,800 households were selected as a sample size for the study, which was scheduled to be released early this year but has not yet been made public. Many scientists and experts have started questioning the time delay in publishing the study, but there is another aspect that is a cause for concern among some health experts. The report will not examine the link between the prevalence of birth defects and use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions used during the war and occupation in Iraq, according to WHO. A by-product of the uranium enrichment process, DU is prized by the military for its use in ammunition that can punch through walls and armoured tanks. The main problem, experts say, is that DU munitions vaporise on contact, generating dust that is easily inhaled into the lungs. The WHO study will also not consider pollutants such as lead and mercury as factors or variables, Syed Jaffar Hussain, representative and head of mission for the WHO in Iraq, told IPS.

Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'
Gerry Georgatos: Victims of war - Iraqi children and families - Depleted uranium and trauma