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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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

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.

Libyan judicial police have started taking control of makeshift prisons in the country after human rights organizations complained of rampant torture of inmates, the country's deputy justice minister said on Sunday. - The deputy minister, Khalifa Ashour, said uniformed police have been dispatched to some prisons where former rebels have been holding people accused of being loyalists of deposed ruler Moammar Gadhafi. During last year's civil war, former rebels trying to protect their neighborhoods held anyone deemed suspicious of being a Gadhafi loyalist or mercenary, locking them up in makeshift prisons in schools, homes and empty government buildings. According to the U.N., various former rebel groups are holding as many as 8,000 prisoners in 60 detention centers around the country.

Stephen Lendman: Torture and Abuse in Libya
Stephen Lendman: Violence Rages in Libya

A prominent British journalist says the West is selling the possibility of confrontation with Iran by exaggerating the threat of Tehran's nuclear program through media manipulation. - “Manipulation of the media and public opinion through systematic threat exaggeration through which the growing confrontation with Iran is being sold by the US, Israel and West European leaders is deeply dishonest,” wrote Patrick Cockburn in an article published in The Independent on Sunday. Cockburn added that “the supposed aim of imposing sanctions on Iran's oil exports and central bank is to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program before it reaches the point where it could theoretically build a nuclear bomb.” The United States and the European Union have recently slapped unilateral sanctions against Iran's oil and banking sectors based on the allegation that Tehran's nuclear program may consist of a covert military aspect. Iran has repeatedly refuted the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tehran has a right to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.

Patrick Cockburn: Sanctions can only deepen the Iran crisis
Stephen Lendman: Selling War

State Dept. Drones Cover All of Iraq to 'Protect Embassy'. - Another irksome aspect of the lingering American presence beyond its military withdrawal, the US State Department has fielded a whole fleet of surveillance drones to fly over Iraq. They say the flights are meant to protect the city-sized US Embassy on the outskirts of Baghdad. For the Iraqi government, however, the unwelcome overflights amount to a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and they have a point. It is hard to imagine the US would give unfettered access to the whole of its airspace to any other nation’s surveillance drones, no matter how big its embassy was. The State Department’s Diplomatic Security branch hasn’t exactly been keeping the drones a secret, but it hasn’t broadcast them very loudly either. Their mention is a single paragraph buried near the back of its recent annual report.

The Israeli military says a drone that can fly as far as Iran has crashed in central Israel on a routine experimental flight.

The military says there were no injuries in Sunday’s crash, and it was investigating the incident. The Heron TP drone is also known locally as the Eitan. It has a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making it the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet. It is the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel’s military arsenal.

The drone figures to be featured prominently in any potential Israeli operation against Iran and its expanding nuclear program. Heron TP could provide surveillance, jam enemy communications and connect ground control and manned air force planes. It’s unclear if is could carry a deployable payload in a potential strike.

PressTV: Israeli drone crashes during test flight

Such public displays have been incredibly common in recent years, but US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey’s emergency visit to Israel last week may well have had a sense of genuine urgency not often seen. - That’s because increasingly, the long-standing Israeli threats to attack Iran are being taken as a distinct and imminent possibility. Sanctions and announcements related to impending embargoes by the international community seem aimed more at placating Israel and convincing them to hold off on the attack.

Pepe Escobar: Iran Not Isolated - Audio
Jim Lobe: Growing Elite Opposition to Military Option Against Iran

'No One Can Go Out' Insists Steinitz. - In an interview today with Bloomberg Businessweek, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz rejected the European Union’s ban on importation of Iranian crude oil, insisting it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Instead, Steinitz called for the international community to impose a full naval and aerial blockade across all of Iran so that “no one can even go out [sic].” This is the only option with any chance of success, he said. Steinitz said a good model for his plan was the Cuban blockade by the United States in 1962, an effort which nearly ended with the annihilation of all life on earth in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Peter Symonds: Israel prepares for war against Iran - Washington’s allies in Europe are getting ready for war as well. French and British warships accompanied the aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, into the Gulf last Sunday. British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond declared on Monday: “The UK has a contingent capability to reinforce its presence in the region should at any time it be considered necessary to do so.” [...] Claims that Iran is on the point of constructing a nuclear weapon are not supported by facts. The latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report—a political document designed to justify the latest US and European sanctions against Iran’s oil exports—provided limited evidence of Iranian research related to aspects of building a nuclear bomb. Much of the “evidence” came from US, European and Israeli intelligence sources. Most of the research projects were discontinued after 2003. Iran continues to deny any plans to build nuclear weapons.

The United States has been brought to the humble state of acting as an attack dog for the Zionist entity, an American political analyst tells Press TV.

The United States is no longer a super power that 'can make decisions that are in her own best interest,' but the country is like an 'unleashed dog' that is simply kowtowing to the Israelis, said Mark Glenn, of the Crescent and Cross solidarity movement in a Wednesday interview. The Idaho-based analyst referred to US President Barack Obama's Tuesday night State of the Union address as 'just one more proof in that direction [US obedience to Israel]'. Obama highlighted the US loyalty to Israel in his speech which was delivered to a joint session of Congress, saying "Our ironclad commitment -- and I mean ironclad -- to Israel's security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history." The US president's speech is actually a speech "that was written by Israel's foreign policy planners and that means the United States is fighting Israel's wars for her, wherever they may be, if it's Iraq, if it's Afghanistan, if it is Libya, if it is Iran," Glenn said.

Canada and the U.S. have finalized one agreement and renewed another to better co-ordinate civilian and military forces against "threats". - Defence Minister Peter MacKay, speaking Tuesday night to a group of defence officials, diplomats and civil servants, said the two countries were expected Wednesday to renew the Civil Assistance Plan and sign off on the Combined Defence Plan. His office confirmed Wednesday they had been signed. The civil assistance agreement lets military personnel and equipment deploy rapidly to humanitarian events, MacKay said in notes prepared for his speech to the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. The defence agreement sets out the authority and means for the two countries to approve homeland military operations against "threats", as well as the process for sharing information.

The Pentagon detailed the Defense Department cuts on Thursday that US President Barack Obama hinted at earlier in the month. - While the agenda for the DoD isn’t full of surprises, it exemplifies a trend that the military has seen more and more as of late: droves of drones replacing real-life soldiers. Under the Pentagon’s new budget plan, America’s war-time arsenal will see a drastic decrease in the number of servicemen, with the DoD instead spending money on robotic unmanned vehicles. Drone aircraft, drone submarines and drone helicopters will be added by the dozens while the US military eliminates around 100,000 positions. The Defense Department asks Congress for $525 billion, a smaller number than the $553 billion it wanted in 2011. Cuts will come in all divisions of the Armed Forces, with the Army losing 80,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps around 20,000. The Air Force will miss nearly 100 cargo planes and the Navy will retire an arsenal of cruisers earlier than it had planned. But as the Pentagon brings down its numbers and will save a few thousand men and women from the eventual onslaught of PTSD, it will focus its development not on bettering things for the human beings fighting America’s wars, but on a futuristic fleet of space-age weaponry. Come 2015, military pay raises will begin to stagger and, barring any unforeseen foreign involvements, the tally of troops will continue to shrink.

This is fascinating, a nuclear explosion from the Tumbler-Snapper tests performed in Nevada during 1952. It looks different from all nuclear explosions you've seen because it's what it looks like one millisecond after detonation. It looks like a skull by Tim Burton.

The face of atomic death just one second away from unleashing its absolute destruction. Only one millisecond after the bomb explodes, this 65.6-foot (20 meters) ball of fire appears in midair, with spikes that look like rotten teeth or stalactites of fire (called the rope trick effect). The explosion was captured by a Rapid Action Electronic camera—a high speed device designed to photograph nuclear explosions just milliseconds after ignition.

What's a Rapid Action Electronic camera? - The rapatronic camera, as it is called, was created by Harold Edgerton in the 1940s using two polarizing filters and Kerr cell instead of a shutter, which is too slow for this job. A Kerr cell is a panel that changes its polarization depending on the voltage applied. This acts as a very high speed shutter, which allows the perfect exposition to capture this moment.

A prominent member of the Saudi royal family has called for a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, warning of the potential for a nuclear arms race in the region. - An Iranian nuclear weapons program would certainly be a concern to Saudi Arabia, who competes with Iran for regional influence, but the opinion of the U.S. intelligence community, the Obama administration, and the latest IAEA report is that Iran’s enrichment is so far civilian in nature. In May 2010, all 189 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – including Iran – tacitly agreed to a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East and called for a conference in 2012. Finland will be hosting that event this year. But Israel has refused to support a nuclear weapons-free zone for the region, reluctant to give up its own. Israel also is not a signatory to the NPT. These facts have arguably destabilized the region, leaving open the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the region, as Turki warned.

After agreeing to a plea bargain on Monday, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich expected a sentence of 90 days in jail for slaughtering civilians during a 2005 massacre in Iraq. On Tuesday that term was nixed, and now the confessed killer will only be demoted. - A spokesman for the US Marine Corps base near San Diego, California told the media on Monday that "By pleading guilty to this charge, Staff Sergeant Wuterich has accepted responsibility for his actions.” Those actions — a starring role in a brutal massacre that left 24 people dead in Haditha, Iraq back in 2005 — led to eight Marines being faced with a multitude of charges over the last six-plus years. Wuterich was the last of the eight men to be brought to trial, but on Monday he accepted a plea bargain in lieu of continuing with his trial that involved, among other charges, nine counts of manslaughter against him. The terms of the plea bargain, as reported Monday, were believed to include three months of containment in a military prison, the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a rank demotion. On Tuesday, however, the harshest penalty for the staff sergeant was revoked and now Wuterich will see no jail time for his role in the murders.

Elders in Bani Walid abolish government-appointed military council and appoint own representatives following gun battle. Negotiations were going on in Bani Walid on Tuesday, a day after fighters seized control of the Libyan town from the militias loyal to the country's provisional government. Elders in Bani Walid said they were appointing their own local government and rejected any interference from the authorities in the capital, Tripoli. On Monday, the fighters drove out militias loyal to Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in a bloody gun battle, with at least four people reported dead. The elders denied claims they were loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed in October after weeks on the run.

Jason Ditz: Clashes, Torture on the Rise in ‘Disillusioned’ Libya

Staff Sergeant Faces Pay Cut Over Butchering of Civilians. - In the mother of all plea bargains, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who was charged with leading the US Marines’ massacre of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha, plead guilty to a single count of “dereliction of duty.” His “sentence,” such as it is, will amount to a demotion to the rank of private and a pay cut related to his loss of rank. He will serve no jail time. The announcement has angered a number of Iraqis, particularly the relatives of the slain, who say the verdict is an insult. Khalid Salman, a lawyer for the relatives of the victims, and a cousin of one of the slain, condemned the decision. “This is not a traffic felony,” he said. Even skeptical Iraqis weren’t prepared for this total dismissal. Saleem al-Jubouri, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s human rights committee, had already issued a condemnation on the assumption that Wuterich would face a three-month jail sentence, the maximum for the soldier’s plea bargain.

AWIP: Marine gets three months in jail for massacring two dozen civilians

[PUKE READ:] Following is the transcript of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 24, 2012, as released by the White House: THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought — and several thousand gave their lives. We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. (Applause.) For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. (Applause.) For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. (Applause.) Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home. These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

PressTV: Obama renews anti-Iran war rhetoric
Russia Today: Obama’s new fairytale: Peace and prosperity for war-bent US
Patrick Martin: Obama’s State of the Union address: War and wage-cutting

The top United Nations human rights official criticized Iraq on Tuesday for carrying out a large number of executions, including 34 on a single day last week, and voiced concern about due process and the fairness of trials. - "Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, in a statement referring to executions carried out on January 19. "Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure," she added. At least 63 people are believed to have been executed since mid-November in Iraq, where the death penalty can be imposed for some 48 crimes including a number related to non-fatal crimes such as damage to public property, Pillay said. "Most disturbingly, we do not have a single report of anyone on death row being pardoned, despite the fact there are well documented cases of confessions being extracted under duress," she said.

AWIP: US rights group says Iraq becoming 'police state'

William Hague claims blockading Iran is aimed at avoiding conflict, instead of stoking it. Columbia University Professor Gary Sick, who has a special expertise on Iran, viewed the EU oil embargo much differently. He called the efforts “the equivalent of a blockade. It’s an act of war.” - The European Union embargo on Iranian oil imports that was pushed for aggressively by the U.S. is aimed at reducing the risk of conflict and stressing the need for peace talks, according to British Foreign Secretary William Hague. “This is not a set of actions designed to lead to any conflict but to lead us away from any conflict by increasing the pressure for peaceful settlement of these disputes,” he said on Tuesday. Despite years of evidence to the contrary, Hague’s comments passed without an outburst of laughter on the world stage. Washington, and most of the EU, has approached Iran in largely the same way since the Iranian revolution in 1979. That is, with threats, sanctions, and isolation. Instead of bringing diplomacy, it has brought only more bitterness and mistrust.

PressTV: 'EU in for severe crisis due to Iran ban'
PressTV: Norway's Statoil says Iran can still repay its debt to the company despite the EU ban on the country
Peter Symonds: European Union imposes oil embargo on Iran
Chris Floyd: Pups on Parade: EU Obediently Pushes Toward War with Iran

The assumption that the US has the technological know-how to cripple a competing nation has always been just that: as assumption. In a recent sit-down interview, however, a former spy chief confirmed that America has already waged cyber attacks. - Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence at the National Security Agency under George W Bush, tells Reuters this week that cyber war is more than a distant possibility. According to the current vice chairman at Booz Allen Hamilton, the US has already launched attacks on the computer networks of other nations. McConnell did not add any input as to what countries have been hit with American cyber warfare in the past, but he did confirm that the US has already used the ability. When asked by Reuters if the United States had the capability to destroy the computer system of an adversary, McConnell responded “Yes.” When asked if it worked, he confirmed “yes” as well. "Do we have the ability to attack, degrade or destroy? Sure. If you do that, what are the consequences? That is the question,” added McConnell.

Russia Today: An ACTA of war: Secret censor tool to shake up world wide web

More than six years after Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich led a squad of Marines into two Haditha, Iraq homes and massacred two dozen civilians, the American serviceman in charge has reached a plea deal. For nine counts of manslaughter, Wuterich will get three months of confinement.

Wuterich is the last of eight men tied to the November 2005 killing that left 24 Iraqis dead, including women, children and the elderly. It was announced on Monday this week that he had reached a plea with prosecutors during his military tribunal and is now expected to be sentenced as early as Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, Wuterich will face a maximum of three months of confinement, the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a rank demotion. Of the other seven Marines charged with the now-notorious massacre, one was acquitted and six had their charges dismissed. Wuterich’s attorneys have been confident throughout the ordeal that he would see a similar outcome. "He's going to be glad to have it over because he knows that he'll be exonerated," lawyer Neal Puckett told National Public Radio earlier this month. On November 19, 2005, Wuterich led a squad of men into two separate homes in the town of Haditha and opened fire on everyone in sight. Prosecutors say that a roadside bomb exploded moments before the Marines stormed the home, and were brought into hysterics by seeing a fellow soldier die in the attack. In response, they went on a rampage and for 45 minutes raided the two homes and were never faced with gunfire. Wuterich later said he instructed his team to “shoot first and ask questions later.”

The WE!: Haditha massacre
The WE!: An Illegal War Degenerates - "So I grabbed her little sister and pulled her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. Then I hid behind the TV, and I locked and loaded my M-16, and I blew those little fuckers to eternity."

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman says unilateral sanctions adopted by the European Union against Iran are "unfair" and "doomed to fail." - "The method of threat, pressure and unfair sanctions against a nation that has a strong reason for its approach is doomed to fail," Ramin Mehmanparast said Monday. He added that such measures will not "prevent Iran from achieving its inalienable right" to peacefully use nuclear energy. The spokesman further stated that the EU had adopted the decision under the political pressure of the United States, and advised the bloc to value its interests instead of bowing to Washington. "It seems the American authorities want to disrupt the energy sources of their rivals and weaken their economic rivals under the pretext of piling up political pressure on Iran," he said. Mehmanparast said the oil embargo cannot become real given the European Union's "economic crisis." He emphasized that any country that wants to deprive itself of Iran's vast energy reserves will be "immediately replaced by other countries."

PressTV: Chinese supertankers hired for Iran oil
PressTV: 'Europeans to suffer from Iran oil ban'
Jason Ditz: EU Agrees on ‘Gradual’ Iran Oil Embargo
Peter Symonds: European Union imposes oil embargo on Iran

Moammar Gadhafi loyalists have seized control of a Libyan town and raised the ousted regime's green flag, an official and commander said Tuesday. - The retaking of Bani Walid comes as Libya's new leaders have struggled to unify the oil-rich North African nation three months after Gadhafi was captured and killed. Hundreds of well-equipped and highly trained remnants of Gadhafi's forces raised the green flag over buildings in the western city late Monday after hours of clashes, said Mubarak al-Fatamni, the head of Bani Walid local council. The bold attacks, which have led authorities to declare states of emergency in several areas, are the latest breakdown in security, three months after Gadhafi's capture and killing. Protests have surged in recent weeks, with people demanding that the interim leaders deliver on promises of transparency and compensation for those injured in the fighting.

Jason Ditz: Gadhafi Loyalists ‘Retake’ Town of Bani Walid

A report released last week by Middle East human rights groups presents extensive evidence of war crimes carried out in Libya by the United States, NATO and their proxy “rebel” forces during last year’s war, which brought down the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The “Report of the Independent Civil Society Fact-Finding Mission to Libya” presents findings of an investigation carried out last November by the Arab Organization for Human Rights, together with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the International Legal Assistance Consortium. Based on interviews with victims of war crimes as well as with witnesses and Libyan officials in Tripoli, Zawiya, Sibrata, Khoms, Zliten, Misrata, Tawergha and Sirte, the report calls for the investigation of evidence that NATO targeted civilian sites, causing many deaths and injuries. Civilian facilities targeted by NATO bombs and missiles included schools, government buildings, at least one food warehouse, and private homes.

Bill Van Auken: Human rights groups charge NATO with war crimes in Libya

In an apparent show of strength, Washington is deploying a second carrier strike group in the Gulf. US officials also confirmed their commitment to maintaining a global fleet of 11 aircraft carriers despite budget pressure to cut the fleet's size. - “That’s the reason we maintain a presence in the Middle East,” AP cited US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, as saying in a speech to about 1,700 sailors aboard the USS Enterprise. “We want them to know that we are fully prepared to deal with any contingency and it’s better for them to try to deal with us through diplomacy.” Panetta added that the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise is on course for the Persian Gulf – and will steam through the Strait of Hormuz in a direct message to Iran, AP reports. The USS Enterprise, along with the other six ships in the carrier strike group, will deploy to the Middle East in March. It means the US will maintain two carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf region. The warships are expected to support the country’s battle operations in Afghanistan, its anti-piracy efforts and other missions.

At least five people have been killed in two strikes carried out by a US assassination drone in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, Press TV, reports. - Security officials said on Monday that the American drone targeted a vehicle and a house with two missiles, killing five people at Degan village near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan on the Afghan border. The death toll is expected to rise, and the rescue operation is underway in the area, local residents say. The US resumed its assassination drone operations in recent days after it halted the CIA-operated strikes in November 2011, when 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in NATO attacks on two Pakistani military border checkpoints in Mohmand agency.

The Zionist Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (Bicom) has collaborated with the state-controlled British Office of Communications (Ofcom) to ban the alternative English-language channel Press TV in the UK, a political analyst says.

“With anti-Iran sabotage activities high on its agenda, Bicom has worked closely with Ofcom towards eliminating a critical voice: Press TV,” Ismail Salami, Iranian author and Middle East expert, wrote in an article published on Press TV on Sunday. Ofcom revoked Press TV's license and removed the channel from the Sky platform on January 20 for what it claimed to be the news network's breach of the Communications Act. The British media regulator also served Press TV's London office with an order to pay a 100,000-pound fine. “An office with intimate ties to the [British] Royal Family, Ofcom has issued the verdict under the sway of some influential parties in the government and the Bicom firm to boot,” Salami added. He went on to explain the activities and objectives of the Israeli-sponsored company, pointing out that as a “London-based” organization “tasked with inseminating the Zionist political ideology, Bicom also funds those who are in one way or another involved with anti-Iran activities.” “Apart from garnering support for the Zionist regime among Britons, the office also serves as a bridge between the Mossad and MI6,” with its current head, Lorna Fitzsimons, a member of the parliamentary lobby group Labor Friends of Israel (LFI), Salami elucidated.

The Iranian author also pointed to the October 2011 scandal over Adam Werritty -- an “influential member” of Bicom and “an unofficial chief of staff” to the former British Defense Minister Liam Fox -- and his efforts to subvert the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Werritty was financially backed by murky sources such as Bicom. And he was considered an influential member of the organization and a highly regarded agent for Mossad,” he noted.

Gilad Atzmon: Liam Fox Is Not a ‘Useful Idiot’
Gilad Atzmon: This Is How Israel Runs The British Press
Ismail Salami: Unfolding a plot: Mossad at work
Craig Murray: Matthew Gould and the Plot to Attack Iran
Jonathon Blakeley: Atlantic Bridge, Liam Fox, Adam Werritty & Israel

Stephen Lendman: UK Government Suppresses Truth
AWIP: Britain bans Iran-based TV channel

The planned American missile defense shield is “a copper basin” that will cover NATO states and pose a threat to neutral European countries, believes Russian Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin. - “The Americans call the deployment of the missile defense system in Europe 'an umbrella'. It's not an umbrella, it's a copper basin that will cover both NATO member countries and neutral states,” Rogozin said in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station. The Russian idiom “to get covered by a copper basin” is similar to the English expression, “to go out of the window”. In this context, what is going out of the window is national security. Rogozin, Moscow’s outgoing NATO envoy, also underlined that a defense shield should be limited to the territory for which the initiator of this shield is responsible. “But if it crawls into someone else’s territory, it’s no longer a defense, but an offense,” noted the Russian deputy PM who is in charge of the country’s defense complex. “What kind of defense system is it that spreads to the territory of states that do not want to be controlled by anyone and don’t want the range of any missiles to lie within their soil?” Rogozin asked. The planned deployment of the American-NATO defense system in Europe has long been a bone of contention in relations between Moscow and Washington. The Russian side is worried that the system, located close to Russia’s borders, may pose a threat to its national security as long as the US fails to provide any legally binding guarantees to the contrary.

TV2 Nyhetene: Denne norske spionradaren får Putin og Medvedev til å se rødt

The United States has sent some 12,000 soldiers to Libya, in the first phase of deployments to the oil-rich North African nation. - According to Asharq Alawsat, the troops landed in the eastern oil port city of Brega. Although the deployment is said to be aimed at generating stability and security in the region, the troops are expected to take control of the country's key oil fields and strategic ports. Brega, the site of an important oil refinery, serves as a major export hub for Libyan oil. The town is also one of the five oil terminals in the eastern half of the country. Following the popular uprising of the Libyan people, NATO launched a major air campaign against the forces of the former regime on March 19, 2011 under a UN mandate to “protect the Libyan population.”

After an Afghan soldier turned on French troops, killing four, Sarkozy has doubt about efficacy of NATO mission. - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that he was suspending training operations in Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier killed four French soldiers and wounded a dozen more in a shoot out. Sarkozy also said the shooting raises serious doubts about the efficacy of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan and could possibly lead France to withdraw its 3,600 troops from the mission sooner rather than later. The attack that killed the French troops is just one in a long line of similar attacks that have been occurring in recent weeks. U.S. Marines and other coalition troops are being killed and attacked by Afghan army soldiers that are receiving training from NATO. The government has been mum about the rising number of such incidents because it flies in the face of, for example, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s comment last month that the U.S. is “winning” in Afghanistan. A central goal of the mission is to train an Afghan army, but so far the army is made up of illiterate criminals and drug addicts who sometimes attack NATO soldiers and quit in droves.

AWIP: Four French troops shot by Afghan soldier
PressTV: Another US-led soldier killed in S Afghanistan
PressTV: US army base attacked in Afghanistan

At least three civilians have been killed after US military forces attacked a residential area in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nagarhar, Press TV reports.

Local residents told Press TV that the victims, among them a teacher, died in the Achin district of the province, located some 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the country's capital Kabul, on Friday morning when American forces launched a raid in the area. Local officials argued the deceased had no connection with the Taliban or any other militant group. However, the US military figures in the provincial capital city of Jalalabad claimed that the trio had initially offered refuge and assistance to a bomber, who was responsible for an assault on a US airbase in eastern Afghanistan a few days earlier. The US-led invasion of Afghanistan took place in 2001. The move removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence there of some 130,000 US-led troops.

Four French soldiers have been killed in northern Afghanistan after a serviceman from the Afghan National Army opened fire, officials say. - Another 16 French soldiers were injured, some seriously, in the incident in Kapisa province. An official told the BBC that an Afghan non-commissioned officer got into a "verbal clash" and opened fire. President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was suspending its training programmes in Afghanistan following the attack. He was sending his defence minister, Gerard Longuet, to the country immediately, he said. A Taliban spokesman said it was not clear if the attacker was a member of their group but described him as a "conscientious Afghan soldier".

PressTV: France mulls early Afghanistan pullout
International Business Times: France Hints at Early Afghan Exit after Gunman Kills Four Soldiers
Global Post: France suspends training ops after Afghan soldier shoots dead 4 French troops

Russia has accused Nato countries of trying to start a war with Syria and foment unrest in Iran - claims backed up by some Western security analysts. - Its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov at a press briefing in Moscow on Wednesday (18 January) said: "Our partners in the West are in fact discussing a no-fly zone ... There are other ideas being realised, including humanitarian convoys, in the hope they could provoke a response from [Syrian] government forces." He added - without naming names - that foreign powers are supplying arms to Syrian "extremists."

The tale of the DC Five – the five Beltway bloggers at two prominent Democratic Washington thinktanks who have been smacked down (and one fired) for being insufficiently pro-Israel – is hardly a shock to those who know their history. But before we get into that, a few details on what is only the latest chapter in the story of how the War Party operates in this country. [...] The Isra-bots will “argue” that since Iran represents an “existential threat” to Israel’s very existence, anyone who opposes a war with Tehran is calling for a replay of the Holocaust. If you’re for peace, and see no vital US interest in going to war with Iran, well then you’re a “Holocaust-denier.” [...] The case of the DC Five is meant to sow fear among the policy analysts and thinktankers who inhabit the Washington Beltway: “do not cross the line,” they are telling them – and the closer we get to war with Iran, the faster the boundaries of the impermissible are growing. There is a method to this madness: it is a preemptive strike aimed at opponents of US intervention, and on the left as well as the right it is turning out to be quite effective.

Israeli drones have been detected spying on Turkish military units in southern Turkey for the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party), according to Today’s Zaman, Turkey's English version of the mass-circulation Turkish daily Zaman. The PKK is considered by the US and EU to be a terrorist organization. The Jerusalem Post is also on the story. First, TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL

Turkish intelligence agencies prepared a report after the detection of two Israeli Herons in Hatay and Adana roughly two months ago, claiming that the Herons are collecting intelligence on Turkish military units in order to aid PKK operations in those regions. The report asserts that the PKK's training camps in northern Syria, near Turkey's Hatay border “where Turkish military border posts are relatively weak,” were established in those locations based on intelligence collected by the UAVs. The report also claims that Kenan Yıldızbakan, a PKK member who commanded an assault against a Turkish naval base in İskenderun in 2010, has made repeated trips into Israeli territory, reinforcing suspicions of a possible link between Israel and the PKK.

An Iranian commander has warned that Tehran is on full alert in case of enemy threats, and has the best submarines in the world ready to “ambush and hit enemy vessels, especially US Aircraft carriers, from the seabed throughout the Persian Gulf.” - Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army's Self-Sufficiency Jihad Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri hailed the Iranian submarines as “the best electronic diesel vessels in the world, noiseless and able to easily evade detection as they are equipped with sonar-evading technology," the country’s semi-state Fars news agency reported. The Iranian military official said the vessels can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously, underlining that the submarines’ superiority was not just due to their arms and equipment, but also “the tactical issues are very important", given the geographical specifications of the waters surrounding the country. A submarine of this type sitting on the seabed can easily target and hit an aircraft carrier traversing nearby regions, hinting at the US aircraft carriers deployed in the Persian Gulf.

Leslie H. Gelb: Think Before Acting on Iran
Khaleej Times: Iran warns region against stance on Hormuz

Norway's head of intelligence Janne Kristiansen has handed in her resignation because she said too much during a parliamentary hearing. - Justice Minister Grete Faremo told reporters that a "potential breach of confidentiality is a very serious matter". According to a transcript, Ms Kristiansen told the hearing that Norway had agents working in Pakistan. Reports say Pakistan has asked Norway to explain her remarks. Ms Kristiansen resigned late on Wednesday night after meeting the justice minister. A ministry spokesman told the BBC News website that the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) chief had "drawn her own conclusions".

The Washington Post: Head of Norway’s intelligence service resigns after disclosure gaffe
Montreal Gazette: Norway security chief quits in Pakistan agents row
The Foreigner: Norway PST director resigns

AMSTERDAM, (PIC)-- Palestinians in Holland have declared their intention to seek a court order for the arrest of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit to the Netherlands scheduled to start on Thursday. - The Palestinian home, a society formed by Palestinians living in the Netherlands, said in a statement on Wednesday that it would seek the court order in view of the Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity during the latest war on Gaza. It said that Netanyahu’s visit to Amsterdam, the headquarters of the International Criminal Court, posed as a blatant challenge to this court and to what it represents. The statement recalled that the Israeli war machine killed 1400 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and innocent civilians, in the course of three weeks of “genocide” against Gaza in 2008-2009 that also devastated the Strip’s infrastructure, places of worship, and hospitals. It pointed to the Goldstone report that condemned Israel for committing war crimes in that war, calling for reactivating the report and prosecuting the Israeli leaders for involvement in crimes against humanity. The society drew the attention to the new Israeli threats of waging a fresh and more brutal aggression Gaza within the few coming months, adding that the lack of concrete legal steps against Israel encouraged it to commit more crimes.