“The content of this shocking report shows violence, extremism, and secrecy as institutionalized in the US security system,” Afkham said in a statement on Wednesday. She voiced concerns that the “illegal processes and inhumane measures” presented in the report “still continue and there has been no guarantee from the US government to prevent the repetition of such disasters.” The report has drawn harsh criticism from the United Nation and prominent rights groups, which have called for prosecution of those responsible for the use of torture during the George W. Bush administration.

PressTV: Russia slams CIA torture revelations as ‘shocking’
HuffPo: More Than A Quarter Of The World's Countries Helped The CIA Run Its Torture Program
CNN: World reacts to U.S. torture report
PressTV: CIA operates outside law, without oversight: Barry Grossman
ABC.net.au: Poland hosted CIA 'black sites'; China joins countries condemning US actions
■ "U.S. Tortured and Killed Innocent People for the Specific Purpose of Producing False Propaganda"
Chris Floyd ■ Obama and the Senate Report: Torture is Good?

Five years on from President Barack Obama scooping a Nobel Peace Prize, and the White House has taken anything but a Zen approach to foreign policy under his watch. Here are the top 5 not-so-peaceful moves the laureate has made in the past half-decade.

1. Afghan Surge
2. Military strikes in Libya
3. Drone Wars in Yemen, Pakistan
4. Obama has a secret kill list
5. Redrawing red lines
6. TORTURE

US prosecutions unlikely as Obama juggles CIA torture fallout

● In an extraordinary appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry outlined the Obama administration’s demand for a congressional resolution to authorize military action in Iraq and Syria that would be unlimited in scope, time frame and methods. ● Kerry argued for an open-ended resolution that would set no binding time limit on the war, nor any limit on the geographical area in which US operations could be conducted. He stressed as well that the resolution should not bar President Obama from ordering the use of US combat troops. ● The three-and-a-half-hour hearing saw Senate Republicans, who will control the panel starting in January, criticizing the White House for not seeking broader authority and presenting a full-scale war plan, while the outgoing chairman, Democrat Robert Menendez, favored a more narrowly focused resolution. None of the Democratic senators expressed opposition to the current war in Iraq and Syria or to its escalation.

Investigation finds USAid recruited musicians ‘to break information blockade’ as part of covert social Project. ● Hip-hop has emerged as the latest covert weapon in the US government’s hapless attempts to unseat Cuba’s communist government. ● Like its previous efforts, including exploding cigars, Cuban Twitter and the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, the attempt to co-opt rappers ended in ignominious failure, new documents have shown. ● For more than two years, the American development aid organisation USAid has been secretly trying to infiltrate Cuba’s underground hip-hop movement, according to records obtained by the Associated Press. ● The idea was to use Cuba’s rappers “to break the information blockade” and build a network of young people seeking “social change” to spark a youth movement against the government of President Raul Castro.

Member of Fatah revolutionary council Ziyad Abu Ein was killed at the hands of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) during a march in a Ramallah village afternoon Wednesday. ● Medical sources said that Abu Ein, who is also the head of the PA Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, died of excessive inhaling of teargas fired by the IOF soldiers. They added that he was also beaten by those soldiers in Tarmasa’iya village, north of Ramallah. ● The sources said that Abu Zein fainted after the soldiers beat him and after inhaling teargas and was rushed to Ramallah hospital where he was declared dead few minutes after his arrival.● Abu Ein served as undersecretary at the ministry of prisoners and ex-prisoners before he was promoted to minister when he was appointed as head of the Commission.

Al Jazeera: Palestinian minister dies during protest || In addition to inhaling tear gas, Abu Ein, 55, was hit in the chest by Isreali soldiers, according to a Palestine TV reporter who was at the scene. Witnesses, including an Israeli journalist and a Reuters news agency photographer, also said he was assaulted by the soldiers during the protest. Others said he was headbutted and then collapsed.

PressTV: Palestinians, Israeli forces clash in al-Khalil - Video
Gilad Atzmon ■ The Israeli Scientific Mind

[The] thing which those who stick to a simplistic assessment of the sanctions are missing are the following:

1) Whom are these sanctions hurting more, Russia or the West?
2) What is the Russian staying power to put up with these sanctions?
3) Will time make these sanctions harder or easier for Russia to put up with?

I would argue that these sanctions are much more damaging to the the US European colonies (known as the "EU") than for Russia. I would argue that the Russian people have a formidable resistance to hardship and that western societies are, in comparison, soft, hedonistic, lazy, spoiled and generally weak. Russians have a staying power which is simply unimaginable for a west European person (the horrible siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days!!!). Lastly, I believe that time will allow Russia to take adaptive measures to basically render these sanctions irrelevant. Furthermore, the Russian staying power under AngloZionist sanctions needs to be compared with the staying power of the Ukrainian Nazi junta to keep control of the situation. It is one thing to put up with hardship and quite another to sit on a sinking ship.