Jim Naureckas: Pretending a Name Is Still Secret – in the Name of the Cult of Secrecy ■ In retaliation for a US drone strike in Pakistan that allegedly targeted a religious school, killing six people, the Pakistani political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf accused both CIA Director John Brennan and the chief of the CIA's Islamabad station, whom it identified as Craig Osth, of "committing murder and waging war against Pakistan." The naming of the station chief was a significant development. As the New York Times (11/28/13) reported, the move is expected to infuriate American officials, who had to recall a previous CIA station chief in 2010 after he was identified in the local news media, also in relation to a legal suit brought by anti-drone campaigners. [...] So Osth's name is out, and it's been out for a long time; concealing it from US readers doesn't make anyone any safer. But it does help bolster the cult of secrecy, which holds that information is to be kept from the citizenry on general principle. And it serves to shield from accountability an official who heads "one of the spy agency’s largest outposts in the world," in the Times' words, and whose influence in Pakistan "has sometimes eclipsed even that of the American ambassador."

Newser.com: Pakistani Party Blows CIA Station Chief's Cover

Israel’s Channel 10 news has quoted an unnamed “senior White House official” as warning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s shrill opposition to the P5+1 deal with Iran is coming off as “weak and desperate,” and that the administration is viewing his position as of “no great concern.” The official also acknowledged Netanyahu’s attempts to court the US Congress in an attempt to kill the deal, but insisted they were likewise not particularly concerned he could pull that off, warning Netanyahu is losing support and relevance by his constant complaining.

Jason Ditz: Netanyahu Orders Mossad to Find ‘Violations’ to Discredit Iran Deal

The lifeless bodies of Afghan children lay on the ground
before their funeral ceremony, Kunar, eastern Afghanistan.

Last week’s civilian deaths in a drone strike in southern Afghanistan have added new immediacy to the public opposition to allowing the US to continue to use drones in the country, but civilian deaths have been a problem for a long time. Miya Jan, an Afghan farmer, detailed his own drone calamity, when a September attack on his village hit multiple targets, including the pickup trick carrying his brother, his sister-in-law, and their 18-month-old son. “There were pieces of my family all over the road,” noted Jan, saying the strikes killed 14 across the village, all civilians and in similar situations. NATO would admit to only three civilian casualties in the incident, saying that they counted 11 dead overall, and that eight are “suspected insurgents.” Maj. Gen. Ken Wilsbach blamed the Taliban for the civilian deaths, accusing them of living “intermixed with the civilian population.”

VoR: Obama depicted as messiah in book for young schoolchildren ● A book for young schoolchildren, titled "Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope" is now widely discussed on the Web, although the book was written as early as before the November 2008 election that brought Obama to power for the first time.

A book for young schoolchildren, titled "Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope" is now widely discussed on the Web, although the book was written as early as before the November 2008 election that brought Obama to power for the first time.

Poll of France, Germany, Poland and the UK shows British hostile to EU, and other nations hostile to Britain. ● The landmark survey of more than 5,000 voters in the UK, Germany, France and Poland finds British people far more hostile to the EU and its policies than those in the other EU states, and strikingly low support for British membership among people on the continent. At the same time, the total numbers of people in Germany and France who support giving Britain a special deal on membership to satisfy British opinion are heavily outnumbered by those who oppose doing so, which suggests that David Cameron may struggle to achieve his hoped-for tailor-made arrangement for the UK. Testing cultural opinions, the poll finds very few British people choose to describe themselves as European. In other EU nations, enthusiasm for the concept of Europeanism is far higher.

The US CNN TV channel has dropped from its interview with the Russian Ambassador to the United Nations his appeal for the need to take into account the will of the Syrian people, who mostly support the incumbent President Bashar al-Assad, and also Churkin's statement that the Syrian opposition is stonewalling humanitarian activities, the ITAR-TASS news agency reports.

For over a century, the Jewish World Almanac has been widely regarded as the most authentic source for the world's Jewish population numbers. Academics all over the world, including the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica, used to rely on the accuracy of those numbers. Here is what the World Alamanacs of 1933 and 1948 had to say about the world population of Jews. [A]ccording to the World Almanac the world population of Jews increased (!) between 1933 and 1948 from 15,315,000 to 15,753,000. If the German government under Adolf Hitler had - as alleged - murdered six million Jews those losses should have been reflected in the Jewish population numbers quoted in the World Almanac.

Karen Hudes is a graduate of Yale Law School and she worked in the legal department of the World Bank for more than 20 years. In fact, when she was fired for blowing the whistle on corruption inside the World Bank, she held the position of Senior Counsel. She was in a unique position to see exactly how the global elite rule the world, and the information that she is now revealing to the public is absolutely stunning. According to Hudes, the elite use a very tight core of financial institutions and mega-corporations to dominate the planet. Karen HudesThe goal is control. They want all of us enslaved to debt, they want all of our governments enslaved to debt, and they want all of our politicians addicted to the huge financial contributions that they funnel into their campaigns. Since the elite also own all of the big media companies, the mainstream media never lets us in on the secret that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that our system works. Remember, this is not some “conspiracy theorist” that is saying these things. This is a Yale-educated attorney that worked inside the World Bank for more than two decades.

Essex social services have obtained a court order against a woman that allowed her to be forcibly sedated and for her child to be taken from her womb by caesarean section. ● A pregnant woman has had her baby forcibly removed by caesarean section by social workers. Essex social services obtained a High Court order against the woman that allowed her to be forcibly sedated and her child to be taken from her womb. The council said it was acting in the best interests of the woman, an Italian who was in Britain on a work trip, because she had suffered a mental breakdown. The baby girl, now 15 months old, is still in the care of social services, who are refusing to give her back to the mother, even though she claims to have made a full recovery. The case has developed into an international legal row, with lawyers for the woman describing it as “unprecedented”.

Immigration legislation can’t even voted on because of the Republicans, yet a disabled tourist from that hotbed of terrorism, Canada, can’t come in (worse, just passing through) because of a past bout of depression. Just giving thanks for what a great country we live in that we should be protected so well!

Ellen Richardson went to Pearson airport on Monday full of joy about flying to New York City and from there going on a 10-day Caribbean cruise for which she’d paid about $6,000. But a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent with the Department of Homeland Security killed that dream when he denied her entry. “I was turned away, I was told, because I had a hospitalization in the summer of 2012 for clinical depression,” said Richardson, who is a paraplegic and set up her cruise in collaboration with a March of Dimes group of about 12 others. The Weston woman was told by the U.S. agent she would have to get “medical clearance” and be examined by one of only three doctors in Toronto whose assessments are accepted by Homeland Security. She was given their names and told a call to her psychiatrist “would not suffice.” At the time, Richardson said, she was so shocked and devastated by what was going on, she wasn’t thinking about how U.S. authorities could access her supposedly private medical information.

Roughly Translated: Israel military in East Gouta to Damascus? Battles, which began last Friday, a surprise attack on the outposts of the Syrian army in the far East Gouta, may turn out to be the first occasion involving Israelis effectively in the Syrian war along one of the parties. According to sources cross, the Israelis have made a reconnaissance maps and pictures of the Syrian army positions to the nucleus of the attacking force, which was launched from Jordan, under the leadership of co-ordinated intelligence Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Israel. But Israeli contribute in the battle of the big East Gouta was a pillar whole attack. According to information security, the Israelis succeeded before the start of the first wave of the attack to disrupt communications system for the Fourth Division and the Republican Guard and units of the elite forces for «Hezbollah» The factions «Abu al Fadl al Abbas» Iraq in the region. During the first hours of the attack, the Israelis used electronic means of encryption, and managed to disrupt radio communications between Syrian groups and their allies on the first line of defense, which was breached quickly, and led to the fall of the seven villages and farms in the area of ​​turf.