Abby Martin calls out the Daily Show's Jon Stewart for his soft ball interview with former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, showing how the exchange between the two men only serves to whitewash the company's history of war crimes and legal impunity.

US President Barack Obama has signed into law a USD 633-billion military bill for 2013 despite his earlier threat to veto the measure due a number of reasons. ● The president on Wednesday night signed the bill using an autopen while on vacation with his family in Hawaii. Obama said that although he is still against certain sections of the bill, "the need to renew critical defense authorities and funding was too great to ignore." The bill had been approved by the House of Representatives and Senate in December. It includes cuts in defense spending agreed upon by the president and congressional Republicans in August 2011. It also authorizes nearly USD 480 million for the Israeli regime’s missile system and allocates USD 88.5 billion for the US-led war in Afghanistan, despite the Obama administration’s declared plans to draw down its forces in the Asian country.

Bill Van Auken ■ Just hours after receiving a report from his hand-picked advisory panel on National Security Agency surveillance operations, President Barack Obama used his end of the year press conference Friday to deliver an Orwellian defense of unrestrained US spying both at home and abroad. “I have confidence that the NSA is not engaging in domestic surveillance and snooping around,” Obama said, despite the cascade of revelations proving just the opposite. These revelations, including the latest from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, have established that the agency is collecting and storing billions of files recording the phone calls, text messages, emails, Internet searches and even the daily movements of virtually ever US citizen, not to mention those of hundreds of millions of people abroad. “The United States is a country that abides by rule of law, that cares deeply about privacy, that cares deeply about civil liberties,” he added. Who, at this late juncture, does the American president think he’s fooling?

On one question, Obama remained silent. The decision handed down by Judge Richard Leon in Washington on Monday referred to “the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented through the dragnet surveillance being carried out by the NSA.” Similarly, the report issued by Obama’s own advisory panel three days later concluded that “the information contributed to terrorist investigations by the use of...telephony metadata was not essential to preventing attacks.” In other words, the pretext provided repeatedly by Obama and US intelligence officials—that the massive spying was required to keep the American people “safe”—was a lie.

27 Edward Snowden Quotes About U.S. Government Spying That Should Send A Chill Up Your Spine

South China Morning Post: Spy agencies targeted charities, Israeli leader, EU chief
AllGov.com: NSA Phone Data Collection Made No Difference to National Security

Initial reports from the Red Cross said the two days of fighting in the Central African Republic capital of Bangui earlier this month left 461 confirmed dead, and likely “over 500.” Today, Amnesty International’s own report suggested the Bangui toll was “nearly 1,000.” ● During the two day period, Muslim Seleka militias moved against Christians in Bangui, while Christian militias moved against Muslims in the nation’s north. The “nearly 1,000” is merely the two-day toll for Seleka attacks in Bangui, with at least 150 others killed in the north, and 60 Muslims killed in Bangui is retaliation for the Seleka strikes. The Seleka militias ousted President Bozize from power in March and were in the process of setting up a new government at the time. Tensions boiled over, however, and the militias quickly turned on one another, and mostly on civilian supporters of their rivals. France and the African Union have both deployed troops to the country to “restore order,” but mass displacement remains the real order of the day, with some 15% of the nation’s 4.4 million population “displaced” form their homes, and unlikely to be able to return any time soon.

Police shoot innocent bystanders, and just say oops, it was the mentally ill persons fault. | An UNARMED$ MENTALLY ILL man has been charged in a shooting incident that took place in New York’s Times Square in September. Glenn Broadnax was acting erratically and New York Police Department officers could not detain him, when the 35-year-old reached into his pocket. Police say they thought Broadnax was reaching for a gun and opened fire, hitting two bystanders and missing their target. The incident with the NYPD has sparked concern over how authorities deal with mentally ill people. Police in several states have been under fire recently due to such conflict where altercations have turned dangerous and many of these mentally ill people sustained life-threatening injuries. RT’s Ameera David talks to civil rights attorney Mayo Bartlett about the importance of training and the methods used to teach police officers how to handle these unfamiliar situations.

ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, DynCorp, G4S, Walmart and McDonald’s are just a few of the companies that the mega ‘charity’ supports. | With an endowment larger than all but four of the world’s largest hedge funds, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is easily one of the most powerful ‘charities’ in the world. According to its website, the organization ”works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.” So how do the investments of the foundation’s $36 billion investing arm, the Gates Foundation Trust, match up to its mission? We dug into the group’s recently released 2012 tax returns to find out.

China has rejected 545,000 tons of imported US corn found to contain an unapproved genetically modified strain. An unapproved strain called MIR162 was found in 12 batches of corn, China's product safety agency said. | China backs genetically modified crops to increase food production, but has faced opposition from critics who question their safety. The agency called on US authorities to tighten controls to ensure unapproved strains are not sent to China. China allowed its first imports of a genetically modified crop, soybeans, in 1997. Authorities are trying to develop others that produce bigger yields or can resist insects without use of pesticides. China has already approved 15 varieties of genetically-modified corn for imports and MIR162 is awaiting approval.