Gilad Atzmon: The Jewish hate-site algemeiner.com latest target is veteran rocker Roger Waters. His crime? He has told the truth about Jewish power and has compared Israel with Nazi Germany. Specifically, in a recent interview Waters dared to refer to the mighty Jewish Lobby and its impact silencing opposition to the Jewish State. It goes without saying that the Israelis and their tribal operators are not happy with Waters exercising his freedom to think and to speak but I have a feeling that BDS movement, now totally dominated by liberal Zionists and funded by George Soros’ Open Society, is also slightly embarrassed by Waters’ frankness. [...] How is it possible that a rocker and a jazz artist are exploring those truths that prominent Palestinian activists are not even brave enough to contemplate? I guess that as long as activism is in a state of utter paralysis, the search for beauty is the only true liberation.

WHO expresses concern over the Gaza humanitarian health crisis, December 2013 ● The accumulation of shortages in basic supplies in Gaza is leading to rapid deterioration in the social determinants of health for the population of 1.7 million Palestinians. It is also straining the health system’s ability to continue to provide a good standard of health care. The chronically ill, newborns, transplant recipients, the elderly, persons with disability, emergency patients, and the poor are most vulnerable, but the mental health and public health of the whole population is also at risk from increasing stress and declining services. And with 60 000 births a year, Gaza’s health care needs are growing.

PCHR: Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
AMCHR: Persons Killed and Property Damaged by [Israel] during “Operation Pillar of Cloud”
Occupied Palestine|فلسطين: Israel Charged with War Crimes and Genocide [Read Complete Judgment (pdf)]

In a recent report by The Washington Post, it was revealed that the FBI has been able to secretly activate a target’s laptop camera “without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording” for several years. While this may be surprising to some, it really shouldn’t be. Previous reports revealed that the FBI employs hackers to create software to remotely activate the microphones on laptops and cell phones as well as cameras. The U.S. government has also become the world’s largest buyer of malware. The NSA also recommended physically removing the webcam from Apple laptops for security reasons. In August, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI has developed hacking tools like this for over a decade, though they rarely are discussed publicly.

Gizmodo: FBI can secretly turn on laptop cameras without the indicator light

[Antiwar.com] - The suspicion that the sarin gas attack supposedly launched by Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad’s forces against rebel positions in the town of Ghouta on August 21 was a false flag was always in the air. Now we have strong evidence pointing in that direction.

For months prior to the events in Ghouta the Syrian rebel propaganda machine had been revving up its motors, churning out murky YouTube videos supposedly documenting poison gas attacks by Syrian government forces. None of which were very convincing. It wasn’t until late summer that the rebel narrative took hold in the mainstream media with an account of a Syrian government attack on Ghouta that reportedly killed anywhere from 1400 to approximately 250 people.

The Obama administration latched on to these allegations and then some, assuring us that there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the Assad forces were responsible. Administration officials made it seem as if we had tracked in real time the various steps Syrian government troops took in preparing the atrocity, and the War Party shouted hosannas to the NSA. There was just one problem: it was all a lie.

[Firstly] as Seymour Hersh reports in the London Review of Books, there was no way the administration could have monitored communications between Assad and his commanders, since the Syrians had discovered – and plugged up – holes in their security months prior to the incident. (We know this thanks to Edward Snowden.) So they were lying about that. Secondly, the sensors the Americans (or someone) had planted near Syrian chemical arms caches detected nothing in the days prior to the attack: if Assad had launched the sarin-packed missiles, alarm bells would’ve gone off in Washington. They didn’t. Yes, but there was an attack utilizing poison gas that took place in Ghouta on August 21 – so who did it?

Seymour M. Hersh: Whose sarin?
Int'l Business Times: Chemical Attack in Ghouta "an Accident [sic] Caused by Free Syrian Army"
Huffington Post: New Yorker, Washington Post Passed On Seymour Hersh Syria Report

WikiLeaks founder and journalist, Julian Assange, has marked the third year spent in detention in UK under constant threat of extradition to Sweden. | On December 7, 2010 Assange was taken into custody after voluntarily attending a British police station. He spent 10 days behind bars, before being released on bail with a residence requirement at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, England. The journalist is wanted for questioning in Sweden in relation to a sexual misconduct investigation, which he labeled as politically motivated. Swedish authorities’ repeatedly refused to question Assange via video conference or personally in London, pressing for an extradition to Sweden. After the British Supreme Court upheld the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition warrant in June 2012, he found asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he remains in a five square-meter room. The move sparked a standoff between Ecuador and the UK authorities, who even mulled raiding the embassy to arrest Assange, but the threat was never fulfilled.

Sweden's intelligence agency has not only spied on Russian leadership, sharing intelligence with the NSA, but also apparently engaged in industrial espionage against business targets such as Russia’s energy companies, Sveriges Television reports. | According to a wire, obtained by Swedish TV program ‘Mission: Investigate’, Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment (FRA) shared intelligence on Russia with Washington. “Thank Sweden for its continued work on the Russian target, and underscore the primary role that FRA plays as a leading partner to work the Russian Target, including Russian leadership, ENERGY, … and … counterintelligence,” NSA wire said, as cited by SVT. The earlier omitted part of the quote reveals that Sweden was tapping on civilian targets as well. One source told the documentary there was “a very obvious interest in looking at the Russian companies” confirming it was “a part of the mission.” Commenting for the documentary on the intelligence gathering cooperation between the US and Sweden, Greenwald said they “work together when they perceive that their interests are mutually aligned and share information readily about a whole variety of topics, again having nothing to do with national security, including the energy sector in Russia.” The latest leak has nothing to do with national security and is “very conclusive about the fact that part of what they are doing is spying on energy companies, obviously for economic advantage,” Greenwald added.

Sveriges Radio: Sweden helps the US spy on the Baltics: report
Wayne Madsen: NSA Partnerships Invalidate Nordic Nation's Neutrality

Stephen Lendman: John Pilger's work exposed South African apartheid harshness. Doing so got him banned. Thirty years later he returned. He wanted to see firsthand what changed. He interviewed Mandela in retirement. His "Apartheid Did Not Die" documentary followed. "Behind the modern face of democracy, the scourges of inequality, unemployment and homelessness persist," he said. White supremacy remained unchanged. It's no different today. A few blacks share wealth, power and privilege. The vast majority of black society is worse off than under apartheid. Mandela embraced the worst of neoliberal harshness. His successors follow the same model. Pilger posed tough questions. He asked Mandela how ANC freedom fighting ended up embracing Thatcherism. Mandela responded saying: "You can put any label on it you like. You can call it Thatcherite but, for this country, privatization is the fundamental policy." Pilger discovered that 80% of South African children suffered poor health. One-fourth under age six were ill nourished. During Mandela's tenure, more South Africans died from malnutrition and preventable diseases than under apartheid. Concentrated wealth is more extreme than ever. White farmers control over 80% of agricultural land. They dominate choicest areas. Pilger said about one-fourth of South Africa's budget goes for interest on odious debt. He explained how five major corporations control over three-fourths of business interests. They dominate South African life. Concentrated wealth and power are extreme. Whites control about 90% of national wealth. A select few black businessmen, politicians and trade union leaders benefit with them. The dominant Anglo-American Corporation is hugely exploitive. Gold mining exacts an enormous human cost. Pilger said one death and 12 serious injuries accompany each ton of gold mined. One-third of workers contract deadly lung disease. They're left on their own to suffer and die. Post-apartheid democracy reflects the worst of free market capitalism. It's bereft of freedom. Reform denies it. Mandela's "unbreakable promise" was forgotten.

State secrecy law carrying threat of 10-year jail term criticised as attack on democracy but PM denies trying to gag press | In April 2011, while Fukushima’s fires still smouldered, journalists scrambled to find sources who could shed any light on the nuclear crisis. In a car park 25 miles south of the plant, a nervous maintenance worker on a rare break told The Independent that conditions onsite were chaotic and dangerous. Workers were exhausted; nobody at the top seemed to know what they were doing. Nearly three years later, Japan’s parliament is set to pass a new state secrecy bill that critics warn might make revealing such conversations impossible, even illegal. They say the law dramatically expands state power, giving every government agency and ministry the discretion to label restricted information “state secrets”. Breaching those secrets will be punishable by up to 10 years in prison.