American guided missile cruiser sailing in international waters forced to take evasive action amid heightened tensions | A U.S. guided missile cruiser operating in international waters in the South China Sea was forced to take evasive action last week to avoid a collision with a Chinese warship maneuvering nearby, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement Friday. The incident came as the USS Cowpens was operating in the vicinity of China's only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, at a time of heightened tensions in the region following Beijing's declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone farther north in the East China Sea, a U.S. defense official said. Another Chinese warship maneuvered near the Cowpens in the incident on Dec. 5, and the Cowpens was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision, the Pacific Fleet said in its statement.

Nearly 20 people have been killed in several US airstrikes, including drone attacks, across Afghanistan in the past 48 hours, Press TV reports. ● On Saturday seven people were killed in a US assassination drone attack in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province while four lost their lives in a similar assault in southeastern province of Logar. On Friday, an air raid in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar Province claimed one life, while another airstrike in Kandahar's Shah Wali Kot district left seven people dead, according to local officials. Afghan authorities said the victims of the airstrikes were all members of the Taliban militant group. The Taliban have not yet commented on the reports.

MyFDL: Attack on Wedding Convoy One of the Worst in History of Drone War in Yemen

In yet another case of defying the limits of physiology, 17-year-old Jesus Huerta died in Durham police custody. | A strange phenomenon has been occurring in police custody around the U.S., which seems to defy both the laws of physics and the limits of human physiology. Young people of color, handcuffed with their hands bound behind their backs, are able to shoot themselves in the head. For the critical observer, belief is beggared. As I noted last year, twice in six months, young men have managed to shoot themselves in the head while in handcuffs in the back of police cars. And now again, a North Carolina teen has died of a gunshot wound that police say was self-inflicted while the young man was in handcuffs. (Via local station WNCT9)

Christof Lehmann ■ Another Western Mainstream Media Establishment “Hero Journalist” the Pulitzer Prize Winning Seymor Hersh, is revealing information from another “anonymous CIA Deep Throat”, who disclosed that US President Barak Obama was “aware of the fact that the Jabhat al-Nusrah had used chemical weapons in Syria but kept the fact secret, so as to hold the Syrian government accountable”. Nothing New except for the Omission of Direct Political and Command Responsibility. In fact, neither the CIA Deep Throat nor Seymour Hersh reveal anything that was not publicly known already. What Hersh’s anonymous CIA Deep Throat and Hersh omit, however, is that the direct political and command responsibility for the chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta, on 21 August 2013 has already been placed in October.

Brian Denny ■ So who are these “pro-democracy” campaigners that can’t unseat the government made up of president Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions and supported by the Communist Party of Ukraine? — Bluntly it is an unholy alliance of conservatives, fascists and revanchist groups promoting a cult around former nazi collaborators. [...] To complete this anti-Russian alliance is Vitaly Klitschko’s UDAR party, an acronym which charmingly translates as “punch.” Klitschko is a world heavyweight boxing champion and national hero who has put his name forward to stand in the 2015 presidential elections. However he may not be eligible to stand as he lives mostly in Germany. The German Christian Democrat Union party openly admits that its Konrad Adenauer Foundation “assigned” Klitschko the task of establishing a right-wing party in the Ukraine in order to create a permanent pro-EU majority in Kiev. During a foundation event with Klitschko in Brussels, German CDU MEP Elmar Brok spoke frankly about why Berlin has such strong interest in Ukraine. After all, it is “a country with great economic possibilities,” with “a well-educated population” and with “good agricultural prerequisites.” It is no wonder that Germany wants to push for the militarisation of Europe at the EU summit planned for later this month.

Lasha Darkmoon: Concentration Camp America: Who are the FEMA camps for and what is their purpose? Will they one day be turned into concentration camps for Jews? ■ Today I learned from a number of different correspondents that the first American concentration camps will soon be going into operation in America. I found this hard to believe at first. I’m still hoping it isn’t true. However, I will begin with an extended quote from a trustworthy source, political commentator RE Sutherland. This is what Sutherland has to say in an email forwarded to multiple correspondents:

Local people are reporting today that in South Carolina the FEMA camps have opened for business. This information is not hearsay. There are names with faces reporting these events. FACT: People who lose their homes for a variety of reasons, and thereby become homeless, are being told they have a choice: (1) Get a job or (2) Move into the closest FEMA camp. They are not allowed to survive on the streets. Once they are inside these facilities, the rules dictate that they cannot leave. They can make an appointment, but they are escorted to that appointment and then returned to the facility. They are prisoners by every definition of the word.

The public needs to know the following: The new Obama “healthcare” program is designed to increase the number of homeless people. The IRS has the power to seize people’s homes when they do not pay the fine for failure to sign up for the new federal healthcare program — a program which they cannot access, in any case, because it simply isn’t functioning. This type of government behavior has a name: COMMUNISM. The fact is, Congress has voted to make this happen. Our elected officials — local, state, and federal — are totally responsible for this horrendous new development.

The FEMA camps have been a long time in the planning and construction. Under Homeland Security, which is completely under Jewish control, these mysterious camps have mushroomed all over America, in the same way as the concentration camps sprung up in Nazi Germany and Poland.

On November 24 the P5+1 and the Islamic Republic of Iran agreed on a temporary deal about the Iranian nuclear program and the sanctions against it. The agreed upon Joint Plan Of Action (pdf) includes this clause in the Elements of a first step which both sides are supposed to have by now implemented:

In return, the E3/EU+3 would undertake the following voluntary measures:
•Pause efforts to further reduce Iran's crude oil sales, enabling Iran's current customers to purchase their current average amounts of crude oil. Enable the repatriation of an agreed amount of revenue held abroad. For such oil sales, suspend the EU and U.S. sanctions on associated insurance and transportation services.
•Suspend U.S. and EU sanctions on:
•Iran's petrochemical exports, as well as sanctions on associated services
•The U.S. Administration, acting consistent with the respective roles of the President and the Congress, will refrain from imposing new nuclear-related sanctions.

Today the United States broke the deal by imposing additional sanctions on Iran. There are now new sanctions against 4 persons, 12 companies and 36 reflagged ships linked to Iran.

Kate Randall: US mayors’ report: Hunger and homelessness rise as aid programs are cut ■ A new report on hunger and homelessness paints a devastating picture of the conditions facing millions of workers and poor people in America. The new US Conference of Mayors’ Task Force annual survey highlights the extent and causes of hunger and homelessness in 25 cities for the year between September 1, 2012 and August 31, 2013. The report finds that 83 percent of the cities surveyed reported an increase in requests for emergency food assistance over the past year, and 52 percent saw an increase in the total number of people experiencing homelessness. Despite this growing need, mayors in the surveyed cities expect assistance for the hungry and homeless to decrease in the coming year. This social catastrophe is unfolding as the federal government prepares deeper cuts to the food stamp program, now known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and Congress allows federal extended jobless benefits for 1.3 million long-term unemployed to expire after Christmas.