On Tuesday the Legislative Council of Victoria passed the Summary Offence Act 2013, which outlaws the right to protest in Victoria, by a vote of 20-18. ● From September onwards the police in Victoria will have the power to ‘move on’ groups of people at their will, including those involved in peaceful protests and pickets. Those who refuse to comply with these orders can be issued with fines of $750, exclusion orders, and jail gaol terms of up to 2 years. Though clearly aimed at disrupting the Tunnel Picket campaign against the East West Link, in future this law has the potential to be used against anyone – including trade unions and community groups.

The Guardian: Victoria's anti-protest laws pass lower house by one vote

White House press secretary Jay Carney says US military exercises with Romanian and Bulgarian warships in the Black Sea "speak in a clear voice" to Russia. ● "We obviously have provided stepped-up assistance to those countries in this case," Carney said on Tuesday. "And this is part of our effort to work with our international partners and allies and to speak in a clear voice together that the actions taken by Russia to intervene militarily in contravention of international law and in violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity is something that we all oppose," he added. The US, Romania and Bulgaria began joint military training exercises near Russia's borders on Tuesday. The USS Truxtun, a US Navy guided-missile destroyer, will also take part in maneuvers in the Black Sea. The Obama administration has sent 12 F-16 fighter jets and 300 American troops in Poland this week. Six F-15C Eagles and more than 60 American had also arrived at Siauliai air base, Lithuania. American fighter jets are set to take part in joint exercises in Poland. The White House stressed that both war games were planned before the crisis in Ukraine.

The United States [was forced by] Israel/the Lobby [to] sign an "agreement" under which $429 million of American taxpayers’ money will be transferred immediately to Israel [stolen by Israel] to fund its Iron Dome missile system. ● The pentagon says the agreement was signed last week in a bid to “continue support of the production of the Iron Dome weapon system” and provide opportunities for US industry to “receive meaningful co-production opportunities for Iron Dome components.” On March 4, the US House of Representatives also passed a bill which named Israel a “major strategic partner” of the US and called for the expansion of Washington’s military ties with Tel Aviv. The legislation, which was passed by [an incredible] 410 to 1 vote, calls for expanding the delivery of US arms and military technologies to Israel and commits US Congress to increase funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile system.

Barry Grey ■ In an extraordinary speech delivered Tuesday on the floor of the US Senate, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, accused the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of spying on committee staff members conducting an investigation into the agency’s program of detention, interrogation and torture under President George W. Bush. || Feinstein’s speech was all the more remarkable since she is one of the most slavish defenders of the intelligence agencies and is herself, along with the congressional leadership of both parties and the Obama White House, complicit in the criminal and anti-democratic practices she claimed to be opposing. Feinstein has unreservedly defended mass spying by the National Security Agency and joined in the official witch-hunt against whistle-blowers such as Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning. The fact that she felt obliged to go to the floor of the Senate and charge CIA leaders with impeachable offenses testifies to the increasingly naked manner in which the US security agencies are dispensing with even the trappings of democracy and asserting dictatorial control. [...] What Feinstein did not mention was the Obama administration’s exoneration in 2012 of CIA officials responsible for destroying the tapes. Nor did she note the suppression in 2004 of Abu Ghraib photos by the Pentagon, with the support of both parties in Congress; Obama’s reneging in 2009 on his pledge to release the suppressed photos; or her own refusal to pursue charges against Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for lying to her committee last March when he was asked if the NSA was collecting private data on millions of Americans.

Independent.ie: CIA hacked into Senate computers to conceal 'brutal details of torture'
The Guardian: Feinstein accuses CIA of 'intimidating' Senate staff over torture report

Paul Craig Roberts ■ Someone is lying to us. Is it the New York Times and the Guardian, or is it Julie Hyland? Julie Hyland describes the neo-nazi forces that Washington’s Ukrainian coup either by intention or incompetence has installed in the violent seizure of power. Washington describes this unelected government, whose words and deeds have caused Crimea to declare its independence from the coup government in Kiev and have caused widespread protests against the coup government in Russian speaking eastern Ukraine, as a “democracy.” If so, it is the first unelected democracy. The New York Times and the UK Guardian, indeed, practically the entire Western media, have taken the position that there is no fascist or neo-nazi element in the coup government. However, I have seen the videos available on the Internet (and some are linked in my previous columns) of the thugs threatening government ministers in one location and assaulting a public prosecutor in another. There are also videos of the ultra-right decked out in nazi symbols and armed with weapons. My opinion is that it is the Western media that is lying, and that Julie Hyland is telling it like it is. You can read her account here.

Washington’s decision to provide financial aid to the coup-appointed government of Ukraine goes against the US laws, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, urging American politicians to think about the consequences of supporting the radicals in Kiev. Ukraine’s ousted president, Viktor Yanukovich, said on Tuesday that the US plans to loan $1 billion to the country’s new authorities are illegal. “Indeed, in accordance with the amendments introduced to the 1961 law (Foreign Assistance Act) a few years ago the provision of foreign assistance is prohibited to ‘the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.’ The relevant provision is contained in 22 US Code § 8422,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Thus, by all criteria the provision of funds to the illegitimate [Kiev] regime, which seized power by force, is unlawful and goes beyond the boundaries of the US legal system,” the statement added.

PressTV: US financial aid to Ukraine illegal: Russia
RT.com: US has ‘no right to fund gangsters’: Yanukovich to challenge $1bn Ukraine aid in courts

Scandal in Europe over NATO Officers Wearing Nazi Symbols in Afghanistan (November 2009)