An appeals court in the United States has approved the indefinite detention without trial of prisoners held by the US military in Afghanistan. ● The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in a 44-page decision on Christmas Eve that habeas corpus petitions filed by five prisoners who are held by the US military at the Bagram prison in Afghanistan are “beyond the reach” of the US Constitution. The petitions invoked the prisoners’ right to challenge unlawful detention. While the right is not fully implemented in practice, it is recognized by the US Supreme Court for prisoners held at the notorious US-run Guantanamo prison in Cuba. However, the US appeals court rejected on Tuesday Bagram prisoners’ petition citing administration claims that there are differences between Guantanamo and Bagram, which is also known as “Afghanistan’s Guantanamo.”

On December 25th 2013 Edward Snowden delivered an alternative Christmas message on the UK's channel 4 TV station. Before the broadcast, a short version of the speech was leaked and immediatly uploaded to youtube. That upload was immediatly blocked but many re-uploads made the clip available everywhere. This is one of those places. If you want to thank Edward Snowden for giving up his relationship, familiy, job and any chance of a normal life to inform us all go here (freesnowden.is/donate/index.html) and donate. Or spread his message. And do something with it. Because if something is done all of Edward's sacrifices have meaning. (Channel 4)

Bloomberg: Snowden Says Surveillance Worse Than Orwell’s ‘1984’ Envisioned
Russia Today: ‘Tracked everywhere you go’: Snowden delivers Xmas message on govt spying

A co-founder of the Crescent and Cross Solidarity Movement says the war on Syria is aimed at destabilizing the whole Middle East in favor of the Israeli regime. In an interview with Press TV on Wednesday, Mark Glenn pointed out that large numbers of people displaced by the foreign-backed militancy in Syria are headed for neighboring countries, which cannot cope with the massive inflow of refugees.

[Dealing with Syrian refugees] “was exactly what was factored into the entire equation when the United States, her Western allies and Israel went about this process of destroying Syria. This is not just a war against Syria, it is a war against all the neighboring countries of Syria. So this is a war that has been waged against all of these countries… and so this just fits in with both Israel and United States’ plan of destabilizing all of the countries in the Middle East so as to make Israel the lone superpower in the region. The United States and these countries create the problem, then they will come in and they will offer solutions to this problem. But attached to these solutions will be concessions that are not in the interests of these [neighboring] countries in the long-term or in the short-term”

The remarks followed a report by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) saying Syrian refugees make up some 20 percent of the population in Lebanon. According to Glenn, the situation in Lebanon and other neighbors of Syria is analogous to the aftermath of the US-led war in Iraq, which sent millions flooding into Jordan and to other nearby countries.

The most obvious and easily provable discrepancy in the official version with regard to the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2013 lies in the way the buildings "collapsed". Not only, for the first time in the history of the world, did three steel-framed skyscrapers collapse into their own footprints from fires, but they did so through the path of maximum resistance; something unheard of. Even more alarming is the fact that WTC 7 collapsed due to small fires even though no "aircraft hit" had occurred or any other major damage. Worse still is the fact that the owner of the WTC, Larry Silverstein, admitted on-camera that he "gave the order to pull", a fact corroborated by none other than now US Secretary of State John Kerry. David Connor spoke to the Voice of Russia about these matters and the structural aspects of the WTC buildings.

Albert Einstein: “A Foolish Faith In Authority Is The Worst Enemy Of The Truth” - Washington's Blog

That’s the message that was conveyed to a group of soldiers at Camp Shelby by an equal opportunity officer from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, according to a soldier who attended a recent briefing. ● “It’s unbelievable that the Army would ban ‘Christmas’ like it’s a bad word,” said Michael Berry, an attorney with the Liberty Institute, a legal firm representing the unidentified soldier. Two weeks ago, a routine meeting was held at the Mississippi base with various leaders of the 158th Infantry Brigade. During the meeting, they discussed an upcoming Christmas football tournament. The equal opportunity officer immediately objected to the usage of the word “Christmas.” “Our equal opportunity representative stopped the briefing and told us that we can’t say Christmas,” the soldier told me. “Almost the entire room blew up. Everybody was frustrated.

Kahlil Gibran ■ Jesus the Son of Man | His words and His deeds as told and recorded by those who knew Him

A road police patrol found the badly beaten opposition journalist, Tetyana Chornovil, in a ditch outside Kiev. Ukrainian authorities, leaders of the opposition and foreign officials are demanding an immediate and thorough investigation into the crime. ● On Wednesday night, law enforcement officers found a Chevrolet Aveo ‘parked’ in a ditch on the highway connecting the Ukrainian capital and Borispol international airport. Inside the car, they found journalist Tetyana Chornovil, who had been badly beaten up. They immediately took her to a hospital for treatment. A video later showed an unconscious woman with bruising over half her face, swollen lips and cuts across her cheeks. Medics applied several stitches to the journalist’s face and said she had suffered concussion and multiple broken bones. The 34-year-old journalist might require at least three operations. By evening, Chornovil was still said to be in a serious condition, the ‘Ukrainian News’ news agency reported. Still she managed to make several comments about the incident, and a criminal investigation was immediately launched.