Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a Security Council resolution backing an Arab League peace plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down amid escalating violence. - The other 13 members of the council, including the United States, Britain and France, voted in an unusual weekend session favor of the resolution aimed at stopping the ongoing violence in Syria. The rare double-veto was issued following days of negotiations aimed at overcoming Russian opposition to the draft resolution. Several European envoys said before the session that they felt compelled to call for the vote despite Russia's attempts to seek a delay because of the escalating violent crackdown by Assad's regime. The urgency was heightened by an assault by Syrian forces firing mortars and artillerey on the city of Homs. Activists said more than 200 people were killed in what they called one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising against Assad. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a government crackdown on civilian protests.

NYT: Deadly Attack on Syrian City Adds to Push for U.N. to Act

A non-UN-sanctioned US assassination drone has crashed into a refugee camp in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Press TVreports. - Refugees and soldiers in Mogadishu's Badbado camp say they watched the unmanned aircraft crash into a hut on Friday. Shortly after the incident, forces from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) closed down the refugee camp, which is in the Dharkenley district of southern Mogadishu, the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu reported. Somali government officials and African Union forces found the drone after the crash and took it away. The US is using a new kind of drone, called a kamikaze drone, in Somalia. It functions both as a missile and an intelligence-gathering reconnaissance aircraft.

Anonymous is on a rampage today. Just hours after leaking a confidential phone call between the FBI and Scotland yard, members have released a huge archive of emails and documents related to the 2005 Haditha Massacre, which left 24 Iraqi civilians dead.

Just a few minutes ago, Anonymous announced they had stolen 2.6 gigabytes of email belonging to the law firm Puckett Faraj. Neal Puckett represents Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who was accused of leading the group of Marines who killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in November, 2005—what later became known as the Haditha Massacre. Last month, Wuterich struck a plea deal where he'll be demoted from Staff Sergeant to Private, but will serve no prison time.

Anonymous promises the emails contain "detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records" about the Haditha case, and other cases Puckett Faraj handles.

Russia Today: Anonymous reveals Haditha massacre emails
Naomi Spencer: No prison time for Marine charged in Haditha massacre
Russia Today: Department of Homeland Security website hacked by Anonymous

The U.S. Army has dismissed all charges against the last of five soldiers to face a court-martial in the slaying of unarmed Afghan civilians, officials from their home base near Tacoma, Washington, said on Friday. - Army Specialist Michael Wagnon had been charged with premediated murder in the death of a villager in Afghanistan during a tour of duty in February 2010. "As of right now, he's pretty much a free man," said Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord. "He is still in the Army but a free man." Wagnon, 31, was released from military detention and placed under home confinement in April.

In a barrage of shelling, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds early Saturday in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said. - The offensive was reported in Homs, which has been one of the main flashpoints of opposition to the regime during the uprising against President Bashar Assad. Two main opposition groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, said the death toll was more than 200 people. More than half of the killings — about 140 — were reported in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood. "This is the worst attack of the uprising, since the uprising began in March until now," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory, which tracks violence through contacts on the ground. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Syria opposition leaders raised the death toll to 260 in a military assault Saturday on the ravaged central city of Homs, an attack that opposition leaders described as the government’s deadliest in the nearly 11-month-old uprising. - Reports were contradictory, given the difficulty of communications with Homs, and the Syrian government flatly denied the toll, calling it an attempt at propaganda ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting Saturday on Syria. But videos smuggled out of the city and reports by opposition activists showed a harrowing barrage of mortar shells and gunfire that left hundreds more wounded in the city. “It’s an unprecedented attack,” said Mohammed Saleh, an opposition activist from Homs who recently fled to a nearby town to escape the mounting strife there. As word spread of the barrage, opposition protests broke out Saturday at Syrian embassies around the world, including Egypt, Germany and Kuwait. Accounts by activists, independently basing their information on what they described as contacts in Homs, said the barrage was apparently unleashed after defectors attacked two military checkpoints and kidnapped soldiers. One activist put the number of abducted soldiers at 13, another 19. They suggested that enraged commanders then ordered the assault, which lasted from about 9 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday, focusing on the neighborhood of Khaldiya. Five other neighborhoods were also assaulted. The precise number of dead was almost impossible to obtain.

USA Today: Syrian activists: 200 dead in government assault

A photojournalist wounded when Israeli troops used
force to disperse a peaceful demonstration in Bil’ein
village, west of Ramallah.

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period.

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 3 Palestinian civilians, including 2 cameramen, in the West Bank. In the West Bank, during the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, Muhib Mohammed Asaad al-Barghouthi, 46, photographer of al-Hayat al-Jadida Newspaper, sustained wounds by two bullets to the feet. Al- Barghouthi was transferred to Palestine Medical Compound in Ramallah for treatment. Also Mohammed Ateya al-Tamimi, cameraman of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlement in Nabi Saleh village, sustained wounds by a tear gas canister to the right foot. A third Palestinian demonstrator also sustained wounds by a bullet to the right leg. PCHR fieldworker was unable to get the personal information of the third wounded person as he came from another village and he was not transferred to any hospital or medical center for treatment. On 31 January, Imad Ahed Khalil Abu Hashem, 21, sustained shrapnel wounds by a sound bomb when IOF used excessive force against a peaceful demonstration in Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. Additionally, dozens of Palestinian civilians and human rights defenders participating in peaceful demonstrations suffered from tear gas inhalation. [...] Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 56 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 12 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children and a university professor. In the Gaza Strip, on 29 January 2012, IOF, backed by military vehicles and apaches, moved into Gaza International Airport, in the far southeast of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip amid indiscriminate firing. IOF arrested Hajjaj Yousif Ehmeid al-Soufi, 21, who is a university student and Ahmed Hussein Awad Abu Athra, 20, who is a member of the Palestinian National Security Service. Al-Soufi and Abu Athra are from al-Shouka village in the east of Rafah. Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

US Senate's latest package of sanctions against Iran seeks to eject the Iranian financial sector form a global banking system used to transfer money between banks across the world. - On Thursday, Senate's Banking Committee passed a bipartisan bill that targets Tehran's energy and telecommunications sectors. If passed into law, the bill will require the White House to press the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to shut out the Iranian Central Bank and financial institutions from the system. The motion would authorize the US Treasury to impose sanction against SWIFT and its affiliated financial institutions, unless the Belgium-based body excludes Iranian banks. In response, SWIFT has announced that it will comply with any future sanction laws. The new bill would also give the US legal authority to sanction foreign companies that buy oil from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), have oil shipped by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), or supply Iran with telecommunications equipment.

AWIP: Petrodollar pumping US policy on Iran, backfire looms

The UK is sending a nuclear submarine to the Malvinas Islands amid growing tensions between Britain and Argentina over the disputed territories. - According to media reports on Saturday, British Prime Minister David Cameron has personally approved the deployment of the Trafalgar-class vessel, believed to be either HMS Tireless or HMS Turbulent, in the South Atlantic. However, a British Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on submarine deployments." The heavily-armed submarine is set to be in the Malvinas waters in April for the 30th anniversary of the 1982 war which the two countries fought over the islands also known as the Falklands. The Royal Navy has already revealed it is sending HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, to the Falklands. Britain's Prince William arrived in the Malvinas on Thursday for a six-week training mission as a search and rescue pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

Israel's top sociopaths are busy little warmongering bees: Barak: If sanctions fail, Iran must be hit --Ya'alon says Tehran is developing missiles capable of reaching the United States. 03 Feb 2012 Claiming that all of Iran's nuclear facilities are vulnerable and that a military option is real and ready to be used if sanctions fail, Israel's top political and military leadership issued a series of warnings to the Islamic Republic on Thursday in some of the most candid comments on the [alleged] nuclear threat in years. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said there was a consensus among many nations today that if diplomacy and sanctions failed to stop Iran, a military strike should be launched. "If sanctions don't achieve the desired goal of stopping [Iran's] military nuclear program, there will be a need to consider taking action," he declared.

Haaretz: 'Certain countries' could take Iran nuclear matter into their own hands, U.K. official says
Haaretz: Panetta lets stand report that Israel may attack Iran by June
Russia Today: ‘Israel to strike Iran in April, May or June’ – US Defense Sec
John Glaser: Israel Ramps Up Push for Attack on Iran
ANSWER: “No War on Iran” protests Feb. 4 set for at least 56 cities - 12 noon at the White House

Eastern and central Europe continue to shiver under a blanket of heavy snow Friday, with more deaths reported after bitter cold overnight temperatures.

Ukraine is probably the worst affected, with Poland, Romania, Serbia and Belarus also suffering much more severe winter conditions than usual. Thirty-eight people have died of hypothermia in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, according to the state-run news agency Ukrinform, citing government ministries. The latest deaths take the total number killed in Ukraine in the cold spell that started January 27 to 101, the news agency reported. Twenty-nine people had died in Poland as of Thursday, according to the publicly funded Polish Radio's news website. Other cold-related deaths have been reported in Serbia, Romania and elsewhere.

Joe Lowry, spokesman for the International Red Cross Europe Zone, said many people across the region are in urgent need of help. "If 163 people have frozen to death on the European streets, it is a disaster," he told CNN. The homeless and elderly are among the most vulnerable, Lowry said, as well as those who often find themselves on the margins of society, such as alcoholics or people with mental health issues. He said the Red Cross is helping people by providing warm clothing, boots, hot drinks and food, as well as shelter in heated tents and moral support. Local authorities must also react effectively to the crisis to save lives, he said. The sudden start to the bitter cold weather after what had been a mild winter for some parts of Eastern Europe caught many people unaware, Lowry said.

EuroNews: Europe’s homeless dying in arctic conditions
The Telegraph: Europe's cold spell: Death toll rises to 220 and no end in sight

Following Twitter’s decision last month to begin censoring the messages of users based on restrictions of their respective countries, Google has followed suit and announced that it will begin a similar practice with its own blogging service. - Blogger, the web-log service run by Internet giant Google, will begin censoring the personal posts of its users in order to comply with local laws rather than encouraging an internationally open Internet. While the company has previously allowed users of the World Wide Web to post wide-open opinions on its Blogger site, it will now allow individual jurisdictions to govern what can and can’t be posted on the Web. Under Google’s new policies, personal pages hosted on Blogger will be redirected to country-specific URLs, such as “.in” for India and “.au” for Australia. The company writes that “Migrating to localized domains will allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law.” By implementing this, adds Google, “content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers." Specifically, they acknowledge that "Content [will be] removed due to a specific country's law.”

Listen along, and laugh out loud at the law enforcement agents bumbling away.
Pastebin :http://pastebin.com/8G4jLha8
Download mp3 - http://mir.cr/1SL3XXIR
Related #FFF Defacemenst:
http://zone-h.org/mirror/id/16859089
http://zone-h.org/mirror/id/16859533
The Atlanticwire
http://goo.gl/wieuI
The Hackers News
http://goo.gl/DazYy
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/03/anonymous-hack-met-fbi-call
Washington Post
http://goo.gl/UEcbB
Russia Today
http://rt.com/usa/news/anonymous-time-wuterich-attorneys-463/
Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/03/hackers-claim-to-have-intercepted-c...
FoxNews
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/03/raw-data-rough-transcript-fbi-call-...
TheInqirer
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2143768/anonymous-releases-fbi-uk-co...
TechEYE.net
http://news.techeye.net/security/anonymous-leaves-fbi-scotland-yard-utterly-r...
Naked Security
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/02/03/anonymous-fbi-pceu-hacking-confere...
itproportal
http://www.itproportal.com/2012/02/03/anonymous-hacks-fbi-conference-call/
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16875921#TWEET72094
Mashable
http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/anonymous-attack/

The United States, European governments and Arab states have begun discussing the possibility of exile for Bashar al-Assad despite skepticism the defiant Syrian president is ready to consider such an offer, Western officials said on Wednesday. - While talks have not progressed far and there is no real sense that Assad's fall is imminent, one official said as many as three countries were willing to take him as a way to bring an end to Syria's bloody 10-month-old crisis. Two sources said no European states were prepared to give Assad sanctuary, but one official said the United Arab Emirates might be among those open to the idea. With the White House insisting for weeks that Assad's days in power are numbered, it was unclear whether this marks an attempt to persuade the Syrian leader and his family to grasp the chance of a safe exit instead of risking the fate of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who was hunted and killed by [the CIA's] rebels last year. But with Assad showing he remains in charge of a powerful security apparatus and the Syrian opposition fragmented militarily, it could also be an effort to step up psychological pressure and open new cracks in his inner circle.

Anti-Semitism must be condemned, exposed, and persecuted – but to keep warning that the next holocaust is around the corner is intellectually dishonest, morally problematic, and politically unwise. - The Holocaust is one of humanity’s most terrible historical episodes and the greatest horror that has befallen the Jewish people. It must be remembered and it must be studied. The Holocaust must, by no means, be used for political purposes. Never, and by no one.
It is time for Benjamin Netanyahu to stop misusing the Holocaust. I want to make it very clear: I do not compare Netanyahu’s use of the Holocaust to either the obscene abuse of Holocaust paraphernalia by Haredi demonstrators, nor to Glenn Beck’s smearing of George Soros. But in order to protect the memory of the holocaust, Netanyahu must stop using it as a trump card to score political points. Doing so cheapens the Holocaust; it clouds the mind, and it distorts historical and political judgment.

“Fargo” meets “Sopranos” meets…well, Norway. Netflix unveiled its first crack at original programming tonight in New York City.

The new series is called “Lilyhammer” and it stars former “Sopranos” star and current E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt. He plays a mobster from New York who chooses, of all places, a very snowy Norway for witness protection because he liked watching the Olympics on TV there and because he wants to avoid Florida because melanoma is for the old mob guys.

His new name is Giovanni Hendriksen and he’s 100 percent wise guy. But instead of burying Adriana, he’s on snowshoes with a pistol chasing a killer wolf. He’s wearing reindeer sweaters too, and he’s endearing himself to his new countrymen. In fact, one refers to him as “the classiest immigrant I’ve ever met.”

The premiere party tonight featured “Sopranos” cast members, plus Tony Bennett, Harvey Weinstein, Lorraine Bracco and many other stars. Van Zandt joked that the show had a budget equal to that of the catering budget for “Boardwalk Empire.”Oh, and did we mention The Boss, Bruce Springsteen was there? Speakeasy caught up with him after the screening and asked him what he thought. “I loved it, it was fun. It was fun to see my buddy,” Springsteen said. At the after party Van Zandt told us Netflix came to him with the idea for the show. "Lilyhammer” premiered in Norway in late January and will be available here on Netflix on February 6, 2012.

As tensions between the US and Iran heat up, author Michael T. Winter believes the main reason behind America’s harsh stance is Tehran’s move to seek an alternative to the dollar as an oil currency. - Economic sanctions, spearheaded by the US and, less willingly, the EU could have a disastrous effect on both of their respective economies. If Iran cannot sell their oil to Europe, there are plenty of customers waiting in the wings, and if they come bearing not petrodollars, but gold and sovereign currencies, then all the better for Iran. These sanctions, if enforced, will in effect place a serious dent in the power of the petrodollar. Any rhetoric regarding Iran’s nuclear program and the insistence on crippling it is nothing more than a US attempt to force regime change for one more receptive to maintaining the hegemony of the petrodollar.

Romney told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien during a morning interview after his Florida primary win that his focus is on the middle class — and not on the “very poor.”

“I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor — we have a safety net there,” he said. “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich — they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

O’Brien jumped in, asking him to clarify his statement that he’s not concerned with the very poor. “I think there are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say, ‘That sounds odd,’” she said.

“Well, you had to finish the sentence, Soledad,” Romney replied. “I said, I’m not concerned about the very poor that have a safety net, but if it has holes in it, then I will repair it.”

AWIP: Devastating anti-Romney film surfaces (Video)
Boston.com: People with Bain Capital ties give $3m to Super Pac that supports Mitt Romney
Russia Today: When ignorance not bliss: US politicians without borders - VIDEO

I think what people in the Occupy movement mean when they burn the US flag is that they are saying that flag no longer and probably never did represent them.

It represents the US government which is a tool of the corporations and of the bankers and that they are rejecting it and they are saying; we are burning this flag because it no longer represents what we stand for. And they are saying rather we need to create our own institutions and our own society and we reject the society this flag stands for, which talks about freedom and then when we pour out in the streets and try to use that freedom, clubs us, maces us, and attacks us. You know, there is so much talk in the media right now that they are saying that the occupiers did not have the right to be in Zuccotti Park. But I disagree, because if you look at Zuccotti Park, every stone in Zuccotti Park was laid by mason workers, all of the iron handles were cast by iron workers, sanitation workers clean that park but Brookfield Properties a corporation that owns Zuccotti Park had nothing to do with it but the fact that they owned it and that is a real example of how every thing works in the United States. The 99 percent, the working class creates everything, but a small group does nothing but owns it. And we are trying to overcome that and as a movement where we are trying to get beyond the capitalist system, where 1 percent owns and the rest creates and gets nothing but a small bit of wages in exchange.

President Obama said that drones are used against “al-Qaeda operatives” engaged in “active plots against the United States.” We know from reporting by Pakistani journalists that the vast majority of suspected militants targeted are not members of al-Qaeda, nor are they involved in plots against the U.S. homeland. Many of the targets are actually anonymous, low-level militants who provide operational support to the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan.

The Obama administration’s claim boils down to “if they die from our drones, they were al Qaeda.” There is no gray area, no question of whether they were insurgents, suppliers of insurgents, the son of an insurgent, at the same party as an insurgent, an actual al Qaeda operative, or an al-Qaeda sympathizer, plotting to attack the homeland, or just documenting the aftermath of drone strikes, etc. If we kill them, clearly they were bin Laden reincarnated. The catchall claim, which so far no public official has been properly scrutinized for, is analogous to Richard Nixon’s claim that “if the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”

Bill Van Auken: Obama publicly embraces drone killings

The administration appears not to have responded to the requests, even to claim that the data was classified. The ACLU is preemptively arguing that the “secrecy” claim is not reasonable given the many relevant public comments made by President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit today in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, complaining that the Obama Administration failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests relating to the assassinations of three US citizens in Yemen. The ACLU condemned “the government’s self-serving attitude toward transparency,” arguing that the administration publicly and loudly releases bits of information related to the assassinations but declines to provide the full story, claiming the killings were “secret.” The requests centered around the September 30 assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, a New Mexico-born Muslim cleric that the administration regularly claimed was a “terrorist,” as well as his teenage son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and US citizen Samir Khan. The ACLU sought information on the process through which the Obama Administration decides who lives and who dies, as well as on the legal rationale for “kill lists.”

PressTV: Rights group sues US for 'targeted killing' memos

Even as the Obama administration says it’s close to defeating al-Qaida, the size of the government’s secret list of suspected terrorists who are banned from flying to or within the United States has more than doubled in the past year, The Associated Press has learned. - The no-fly list jumped from about 10,000 known or suspected terrorists one year ago to about 21,000, according to government figures provided to the AP. Most people on the list are from other countries; about 500 are Americans. The flood of new names began after the failed Christmas 2009 bombing of a Detroit-bound jetliner. The government lowered the standard for putting people on the list, and then scoured its files for anyone who qualified. The government will not disclose who is on its list or why someone might have been placed on it. The surge in the size of the no-fly list comes even as the U.S. has killed many senior members of al-Qaida. That’s because the government [says it ] believes the current terror threat extends well beyond the group responsible for the September 2001 attacks.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared before the UK Supreme Court Wednesday for the start of a two-day hearing to challenge his extradition to Sweden on trumped-up sexual assault charges.

The appeal to Britain’s highest court is the last legal avenue open to Assange in the UK to prevent his removal, after he was arrested under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by Sweden on December 7, 2010. He has been held under house arrest ever since. However, the two-day hearing is restricted to the technical matter as to whether the fact that the EAW was issued by a prosecutor rather than a judge, or in Sweden’s case the National Police Board, makes the extradition request invalid. Any examination of the dirty tricks operation mounted against Assange, with the aim of silencing him and WikiLeaks, is out of bounds. Assange has never been charged with any offence, yet his name was released to the press as a potential rapist by Ny, triggering a campaign of vilification against him. Extradition to Sweden is widely considered to be only a prelude to Assange’s extradition onto the US, with whom Sweden has a “temporary surrender” agreement in place.

Justice for Assange - Website
WL Central: The Assange Extradition Hearing: Day 1
John Pilger: The Assange case means we are all suspects now
The Guardian: Julian Assange extradition appeal at supreme court - day two live blog

Iran could launch terror attacks on America if threatened, but has yet to develop a nuclear bomb, US spy agencies have announced. However, experts believe the report’s allegations are baseless and jeopardize the 5+1 talks on Iran’s nuclear program. - Tensions have escalated between the two nations as the US applies pressure on Iran over its alleged atomic weapons program. Assessing external threats facing the United States of America, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reported on Tuesday that some Iranian officials might be willing to launch terror attacks on America. The official linked US suspicions with the thwarted assassination of the Saudi Ambassador in the United States in December, which America alleges was plotted by Iran, but which Tehran denies.

Alex Lantier: American intelligence agencies, media stoke war drive against Iran

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up 320 Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and occupied Jerusalem in the first month of 2012, a researcher specialized in prisoners’ affairs said on Wednesday. - Riyadh Al-Ashqar said that 53 children were detained in this sweep the youngest being six-year-old Ali Al-Dirbasi in occupied Jerusalem. He added that the detainees also included four lawmakers, including parliament speaker Dr. Aziz Dweik, eight women, and an ex-prisoner who was liberated in the exchange deal between Hamas and Israel. Ashqar said that the Israeli courts passed and renewed administrative detention verdicts against 50 Palestinians.

There was a moment in a report from Tunisia by the BBC’s Wyre Davies when I could not stop myself laughing. I was listening to it on the Corporation’s generally excellent World Service radio. (In my view this particular BBC service is generally excellent because unlike all other BBC news and current affairs outlets, radio and tv, it often reflects some of the truth about what is happening in and over Palestine that became Israel)....

The United States military has said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, Britain's The Times newspaper said Wednesday. - "Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban," the newspaper said, quoting the report. "Once ISAF (NATO-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable," it quoted the report. The Times said the "highly classified" report was put together by the U.S. military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document. Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign combat troops due to leave by the end of 2014.

NYT: Panetta Says U.S. to End Afghan Combat Role as Soon as 2013
John Glaser: Panetta: US to End Combat Role in Afghanistan Next Year
The People's Voice/ICOS/The Senlis Council: STRUGGLE FOR KABUL: THE TALIBAN ADVANCE [December 10th, 2008]

A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.” ~ Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that one. ~ Black Elk, in Black Elk Speaks

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the Florida Republican presidential primary Tuesday, defeating his closest rival, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, by 47 percent to 32 percent. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum received 13 percent while Texas Congressman Ron Paul trailed with 7 percent. - Voter turnout in the state was likely to fall below the predicted level of two million. With 96 percent of the precincts reporting, just over 1.6 million votes had been counted, suggesting the final total would be around 1.7 million. That would be a drop of about 15 percent from the approximately two million who voted in 2008, when Romney lost the state to the eventual Republican nominee, John McCain.

NYT: Romney Wins Big in Florida Primary, Regaining Momentum
LA Times: Mitt Romney's savage attack machine wins Florida primary

A review by Tasmania Police has exonerated the actions of officers who twice strip-searched a 12-year-old girl during a drug raid. - Deputy Commissioner Scott Tilyard has finished a review of police actions during the raid on Wednesday at Rokeby on Hobart's eastern shore. The girl was searched in a bedroom of her house with her mother present. No drugs were found on her. Mr Tilyard says a review was conducted rather than an internal investigation because the facts did not suggest any of the officers involved had acted unlawfully. The review found both searches were justified based on the behaviour of the girl and others in the house at the time. Mr Tilyard says the officers involved have his full support.

One 'Wanted Militant' Slain, Rest Termed 'Al-Qaeda'. - At least 12 people, and by some accounts as many as 15, were killed today in Yemen after being attacked by US drones. The attack targeted vehicles in the nation’s contested Abyan Province. Preliminary reports indicate that one of the slain was a “wanted militant” named Abdel-Munem al-Fatahani, while local tribesmen said four of them were “al-Qaeda leaders” in the area. The targets were apparently affiliated with either the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) or the Ansar al-Sharia. Reports termed everyone suspects.

Pakistan dismissed claims made in a classified NATO report that it is aiding Taliban guerrillas in neighboring Afghanistan, a study that also said the militants may again take power in Kabul once foreign troops leave in 2014. - “For me this is old wine in an even older bottle,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said at a press conference in Kabul today. “I don’t think these claims are new. I can just disregard this as potentially strategic leak.” A report by senior NATO officers in Afghanistan says the Taliban are unbeaten and “its strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remain intact,” the London-based Times said today. The report, entitled “State of the Taliban,” was based on 27,000 interviews with detainees and has been reviewed by the newspaper, according to the Times.

During a broadcasted meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, CIA Director, panel Chairperson indicate they met Tamir Pardo in Washington this week; U.S. official: [allegedly] Iran willing to attack U.S. targets if threatened. - The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel. During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors.

The Independent: Israel sets up elite command unit to strike behind 'enemy' lines

The ANSWER Coalition is calling on everyone to join a demonstration or to organize one on the National Day of Action on Saturday, February 4, to demand: “No War on Iran, No Sanctions, No Intervention, No Assassinations.” The call is sponsored by scores of progressive organizations. - In Washington, D.C., we will gather at the White House on Feb. 4 at 12 noon. A list of events taking place on or around Feb. 4 in cities across the country can be found here. If you or someone in your area is organizing an event on or around Feb. 4, please provide us with the event details so we may publicize it on our website and future emails. Below is an instructive fact sheet developed by the ANSWER Coalition that breaks down the propaganda campaign against Iran carried out by Washington and the corporate media. Please share this with friends, family and co-workers via email and social networking sites.

UK, London: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange attends a debate on the subject of whistle-blowing with prominent public figures on secrecy and transparency issues at Kensington Town hall in central London on April 9, 2011.

Russia Today: Sweden unbiased? Assange appeals extradition [01 February, 2012]

The Western-backed overthrow of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi likely provided huge stocks of heavy weapons to terrorist groups and criminal organizations operating in the Sahel region of North Africa, the United Nations confirmed January 26 in a report. Among the groups benefiting from the arms are al-Qaeda and the deadly Islamic terror organization Boko Haram, which is currently on a killing spree in Nigeria. The UN report explained that “due to the Libyan upheaval ... governments in the region are faced with the return of millions of economic migrants, the smuggling of weapons from Libyan stockpiles, terrorist activities, youth unemployment, trafficking in drugs and human beings, and a surge in criminality,” the international body summarized in a press release on its findings.

The Israeli prison service (IPS) carried detained Islamic Jihad leader Sheikh Khader Adnan to hospital after deterioration of his health condition, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement on Tuesday night. - It recalled that an IPS committee told the prisoner that in the event he continued to refuse liquids it would force feed him, after which Adnan opted to drink water and a potassium pill. Adnan is expected to appear in court on Wednesday to look into his lawyer’s demand for his release or to endorse an administrative detention ruling. Lawyer of the association said that the prison administration told her that Adnan decided to refrain from having liquids in protest against depriving him of meeting his lawyer. She added that the administration decided to force-feed the detainee if his condition worsened.

PIC: Israel to break Adnan’s hunger strike by force
Stephen Lendman: Khader Adnan Mohammad Musa: Israeli Prisoner of Conscience

Electronic Intifada: Protesters attacked, injured during commemoration for Palestinian teen murdered by Israeli settlers

In an effort to appeal to right-wing sentiments ahead of an election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has reinstated subsidies for Jewish settlers in the West Bank and appointed a panel in an attempt to legalize illegal settlements. [...] These latest moves are helping to break down recent low-level peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials. ”They are adding obstacles at a time when everyone is intensifying efforts to try to resume peace talks,” said Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib. “I think with every additional settlement activity, the feasibility of having two states is diminished.”

More news on the progress of 'the Machine', this time about the British visitors to the United States who were arrested and deported for some previous joking tweets:

"If the story is true (and, given that it comes from the Daily Mail, which never lets the facts get in the way of marshalling popular outrage, that is a considerable 'if'), it implies two things:

a. The US border control agency (not the CIA or NSA or some other super-elite agency that hunts threats through the shadows, but the guys who scan passports) has a feed of intelligence gathered from the public Twitter feeds of anyone seeking to enter the US (and possibly other social media connected to their identities). This has a number of implications: where does the data come from? Is it just what is publicly linked to the poster's profile online, or does it come from clandestine sources (i.e., a list of user-generated content sites posted to from the visitor's home internet connection, as hoovered up by ECHELON)? Is there some NSA supercomputer quietly building up profiles on several billion internet users, with parts of these being sent to border security if some other part of the surveillance apparatus detects a keyphrase (say, the words "destroy America") in a feed linked to a particular individual?
b. Given the nature of the tweet (which any reasonable person, had they overheard it in a pub, would conclude was a joke), it implies that, as far as the US Department of Homeland Security is concerned, the entire internet is an airport security zone, where joking about, say, carrying bombs or even an absurdity such as destroying America (how exactly would one go about accomplishing this?) is a punishable offence. There is a reason why joking about bombs at airport security screening lines is prohibited; namely that constraining the allowed range of behaviours whilst passing through a security checkpoint allows the checkpoint to operate. This rationale doesn't extend to applying the same rules to any idle banter uttered by a traveller within earshot of electronic intelligence gathering apparatus, and immediately punishing wisecracks."

They've developed a cover story to protect 'the Machine', as we're not supposed to know about it until the enslavement is complete.

Russia Today: British tourists imprisoned and deported from US… for Twitter jokes

British monarchy and government insist on their colonial stand, after planning to dispatch an advanced warship and an heir to throne to the “occupied” Malvinas Islands, fuelling speculations that it is considering a war against Argentina over the archipelago.

British government has announced that it was deploying its most sophisticated warship, destroyer HMS Dauntless, and the Duke of Cambridge to the South Atlantic to secure its last colony in Latin America.

Analysts condemned UK's decision, believing the move will also send a powerful message to the Argentina government that who acts as the “colonialist.” Argentina government expressed dismay over the war policy of the British government, condemning the deployment of the warship and the planned tour of duty of Prince William in the occupied Falklands islands while wearing “the uniform of the conqueror.”

PressTV: Argentina raps UK militarizing Malvinas

Pfizer Inc. is recalling 1 million packets of birth control pills because of a packaging error that could leave women with an inadequate dose of the hormone-based drugs and raise the risk that they will get pregnant accidentally. - The problem affects 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets. Both products are manufactured by Pfizer and marketed in the U.S. by Akrimax Rx Products under the Akrimax Pharmaceuticals brand. Pfizer found that some packets of the drugs had too many active tablets, while others had too few. Oral birth control products use a series of 21 drug tablets and 7 inactive sugar tablets to regulate the menstrual period while providing contraception. A company spokeswoman said the problem was caused by both mechanical and visual inspection failures on the packaging line. She said the problem has been corrected.

In 1994, in Trondheim, five-year-old Silje Redergard was beaten to death by two little boys. Today, the girl's family still suffers and one of the boys is in trouble again – the echoes of the Bulger case are clear. So why has the public reaction in Norway been so startlingly different? - On the afternoon of 15 October 1994, three young children, a girl aged five, and two six-year-old boys, were playing on a football field covered in freshly fallen snow. Their parents were neighbours who did not know each other, but the children had played together before. The three had been making "snow castles", until the fun stopped. Nobody knows why. A childish disagreement? A tantrum, perhaps? Whatever it was it triggered a reaction in the boys that devastated a family and the community. At some point while playing, the boys turned on the little girl, punching and kicking her and beating her with stones before stripping off her clothes. Then they ran away, leaving her to die in the snow.

The United States has perpetually contaminated the world, particularly the Middle East, by using massive amounts of depleted uranium (DU) in its wars, an analyst tells Press TV. - Vietnamese-American writer and journalist Linh Dinh described the US use of depleted uranium as a “tremendous crime against humanity,” reiterating that it will affect innocent people and new-born infants “for generations to come and literally, for billions of years to come.” "Once depleted uranium gets into the environment, into the water, into the soil, into the air, it remains there for billions of years and it doesn't just stay in these (Middle Eastern) countries, although these populations are the ones who are most affected immediately, because once airborne it will spread all over across the globe," he said. The Philadelphia-based writer noted that the use of DU, the destructiveness of which the US denies, is 'frankly genocidal.'

PressTV: 'DU destroying Afghans' gene pool'
Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'

A recent report has revealed that the Israeli regime has increased the number of its overseas covert operations in countries such as Sudan, Lebanon and Iran over the past year. - "Most of the details about the operations are classified, including the exact number, but according to foreign reports, the IDF has operated in places such as Sudan, Lebanon and Iran," the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday. The daily said that the Israeli military has “a number of units that specialize in covert operations.” Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz “decided in December to establish the 'Depth Corps' -- a new unit that will oversee operations deep in enemy territory,” the report added. The report comes as Iranian officials have many times pointed to the fact that Israel is behind terrorist attacks against Iranian scientists.

The Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress that the agency was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable risks to patients, government documents show. - The surveillance — detailed in e-mails and memos unearthed by six of the scientists and doctors, who filed a lawsuit against the FDA in U.S. District Court in Washington last week — took place over two years as the plaintiffs accessed their personal Gmail accounts from government computers. Information garnered this way eventually contributed to the harassment or dismissal of all six of the FDA employees, the suit alleges. All had worked in an office responsible for reviewing devices for cancer screening and other purposes.

President Barack Obama readily confirmed the drone war in northwest Pakistan in an interview Monday, breaking with the protocol which normally demands U.S. officials not speak publicly about the classified program.

“I want to make sure people understand actually drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties,” President Obama said in an hour long interview hosted by Google. “For the most part, they’ve been very precise, precision strikes against against al-Qaeda and their affiliates.” The claim mirrors previous attempts to downplay the civilian casualties of the drone war. John Brennan, President Obama’s counter-terrorism advisor, told the public back in June that zero civilian casualties have occurred as a result of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. This was an obvious lie, but the Bureau of Investigative Journalism helped prove it so in August by cataloguing their lengthy findings on civilian casualties in the drone war, counting hundreds of civilians by name who were killed in drone strikes, including at least 168 children. Investigative reporter Noor Behram, who had been on the ground in Pakistan tallying the dead, estimated that “for every 10 to 15 people killed, maybe they get one militant.” A Washington Post report [has] said that the drone war in Pakistan has resulted “in an estimated 1,350 to 2,250 deaths.” But the public simply doesn’t have a good idea of how many have been killed, because “the identities…remain classified, as does the existence of the drone program itself.” [Image: Associated Press]

BIJ: Drone War Exposed – the complete picture of CIA strikes in Pakistan

Two ships of the US Navy, the nuclear submarine USS Annapolis and the destroyer USS Momsen have passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. Although their destination is confidential, they are now getting dangerously close to the Persian Gulf. - The ships’ passage was a major operation for the Suez administration as due to safety reasons they had to close off the canal to all other traffic and even shut down the bridge, disrupting the link between the banks for some four hours. The traffic on the roadways alongside the canal was also restricted, Interfax news agency reports. There are no reports regarding the destination of the vessels, but the news come amid the ongoing crisis in the relationship between the US and Iran. There is mounting speculation that the Annapolis and the Momsen are heading to the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US naval forces already present in the region. Currently the US has two aircraft carrier groups in the region headed by USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Carl Vinson. It is expected that another aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, will join the strike force in March.

On January 13th the Atlanta Jewish Times featured a column by its owner-publisher suggesting that Israel might someday need to “order a hit” on the president of the United States. - In the column, publisher Andrew Adler describes a scenario in which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would need to “give the go-ahead for U.S. based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel.” The purpose? So that the vice president could then take office and dictate U.S. policies that would help the Jewish state “obliterate its enemies.” On January 13th the Atlanta Jewish Times featured a column by its owner-publisher suggesting that Israel might someday need to “order a hit” on the president of the United States.

There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. - The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.