In yet another move that violates NATO’s historic pledge not to extend the military bloc “one inch further to the east,” NATO’s new secretary-general apparently sees no limitations for the 28-member organization. In an apparent attempt to take advantage of the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, where a civil war in the east threatens to tear the country apart, new NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg paid a visit to NATO member Poland, where he reiterated calls for a rapid reaction “spearhead” force that could launch a military offensive within days.

"Next year, at the ministerial meeting, we will take decisions regarding the so-called spearhead but, even before it is established, NATO has a strong army after all,” Stoltenberg told state-owned Polish broadcaster TVP Info. "These capabilities already exist. We have them, and we can deploy them in individual regions. And this is only an add-on to what the alliance already has." [...] “We can deploy it wherever we want to."

Jason Ditz ■ New NATO Chief: We Can Put Troops Wherever We Want

A notable American Rabbi says all Muslims are criminals, and calls for a global genocide against them. ● In a recent sermon, Rabbi Shalom Lewis of Congregation Etz Chaim in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia, said Muslims were guilty and should be “exterminated.” The Rabbi fashioned his speech as a sequel to astonishingly racist remarks he made three years ago in which he compared Muslims to Nazis. “They are coming,” he warned at the time. “Three years later on this bima, on this very same day, standing at this podium, I cry out not ‘Ehr Kumpt' – they are coming, I cry out, ‘Ehr daw' – they are here,” Lewis said. “The fury of ultimate evil is upon us and we must act – not to contain it. Not to degrade it. Not to manage it. Not to tolerate it, but to exterminate it utterly and absolutely,” he added.

Nahida Izzat ■ The Expression of Hatred for Gentiles

Speech of the US Vice President Joe Biden can backfire on Washington, as it embarrasses the European Union members and demonstrates the US has intimidated them, Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, believes.

"One of the possible consequences is that his speech embarrasses European governments by showing that Europe is Washington's vassal," Roberts told RIA Novosti on Friday. "The other is that by pressing Europeans to act against their own interests, Washington might have been too much of a bully and hurt its future influence in Europe."

US Vice President said Thursday that the United States and US President Barack Obama, in particular, had forced the European Union members to "take economic hits to impose cost" on Russia.

PressTV: Biden’s remarks on Syria about allies are ‘disingenuous’: Scott Rickard || “With Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States, claiming that the US is some sort of victim to their allies with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Turkey, Jordan, Israel and others that are directly involved in this international crime against Syria over the past four years, is really disingenuous. It is unbelievable how terribly wrong and [this is] completely – I would say completely -- criminal of Joe Biden to try to exonerate the United States,” Rickard said. “But in fact he is very much aware that the United States has been directly involved both financially and clandestine through operations with the CIA, and French and British intelligence, as well as Turkish and Jordanian intelligence and Saudi intelligence,” he added.

Patrick Martin ■ Biden’s admission: US allies armed ISIS
RT.com: "Humbled Biden" apologizes to UAE after accusing it of terrorism funding

There's supposed to be a truce in place in Eastern Ukraine, but it has been repeatedly breached. At least a dozen civilians were killed when a bus stop and a school were hit during some of the latest shelling. And as Maria Finoshina reports, local residents have learned to expect the worst.

PressTV: East Ukraine clashes go on amid truce
RIA Novosti: UN Should Join Investigation of War Crimes in Ukraine, Kiev’s Probe Ineffective - Lavrov
Joaquin Flores ■ Ukraine Is A Ruse To Draw The Big Powers Into A Conflict - Video

The German secret service provided Internet data about German citizens to the American National Secutiry Agency, a top-secret report reveals. ● German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under increasing fire in a data sharing scandal that broke on Saturday. A report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper revealed that Germany's secret service shared Internet data about German citizens with the American National Security Agency (NSA). The report showed that, for years, Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst had monitored a key international Internet exchange point in Frankfurt, and shared the raw data about Internet users with the NSA. While the secret service intended initially to filter and to delete sensitive raw data belonging to German citizens, the German agency confirmed in its recent report that an “absolute and error-free” practice was not maintained between the years 2004 and 2008. At least 5 percent of the data belonging to German citizens had been shared with the NSA, according to the report, which was presented to the NSA inquiry committee at the Federal Parliament.

The wealthiest 400 people in the United States had their combined net worth grow thirteen percent to $2.29 trillion this year, amidst a surging stock market and record corporate profits. The figures come from the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, compiled every year since 1982 by the American business magazine of the same name. As Forbes noted last week, the net worth of these 400 individuals is “about the same as the gross domestic product of Brazil, a country of 200 million people.” The average net worth of the Forbes 400 hit $5.7 billion, up by $700 million over the past year. The new figures of wealth in America were generally buried in the media.

The number of mentally ill people who have been killed through euthanasia in the Netherlands has trebled in a single year, according to new figures. ● The Daily Mail reports that in 2012, 14 people with "severe psychiatric problems" were killed by lethal injection, a figure that rose to 42 in 2013. There had also been a 15 percent overall rise in assisted dying over the past year, with the number of cases increasing from 4,188 to 4,829. Deaths from euthanasia have risen by a total of 151 percent in a period of just seven years, with most cases involving cancer sufferers. However, there were also 97 people who were killed by their doctors because they had dementia. The figures do not include "terminal sedation", where the patient is sedated and then has food and fluids withdrawn. If they did, however, euthanasia would account for one in eight of all deaths in the Netherlands.

Mike Masnick ■ For many years, we've written about questionable activities by the Olympics, usually focusing on the organization's insanely aggressive approach to intellectual property, which could be summed up as "we own and control everything." Yes, the Olympics requires countries to pass special laws that protect its trademarks and copyrights beyond what standard laws allow. Of course, this is really much more about control and money. It's simply shining a light on just how corrupt the whole Olympic setup is. For decades, the Olympics has tried to hide this basic truth, and it has always been able to get various cities and countries to actively compete to suffer through the Olympics requirements, often with promises of big money in tourism and local business as a result. But it looks like jig may be up. As Dan Wetzel notes, it appears that almost no one has any interest in hosting the 2022 Olympics. The only active attempts are Beijing (which is 120 miles from a mountain suitable for skiing) and Almaty Kazakhstan. All the other credible players have bailed out.