(IsraelNN.com) Head of Army Intelligence Brig.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Knesset Defense Committee Tuesday that he shares the assessment that Iran presents an existential threat to Israel.

In what was his first appearance before the committee, Yadlin stressed that Israel must regard with complete seriousness the declarations of Iran’s president regarding his intention to destroy Israel.

According to the IDF’s assessments, the matter is beyond mere statements, but consists of a decisive and serious plan being carried out by Iran.
israelnn.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into claims that a police death squad has been operating in the country, a top official said Thursday. Meanwhile, attacks around the country killed 10 people, including six Iraqis who died in a car bomb in Bagdad.

Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari also condemned the latest images of detainees abused in the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in 2003, but noted that those responsible had already been punished.

The investigation into the death squads was announced as police found the bodies of 10 more men who had been shot execution-style and dumped in three different areas of Baghdad’s predominantly Shiite suburb of Shula.
news.yahoo.com

Torture pics

A U.S. spokesman said publication of these violates the privacy of…of…the detainees. Unreal city.

KABUL, Feb 15 (Reuters) – A blast killed an Afghan policeman and wounded two colleagues on Wednesday and two intelligence officers kidnapped this week have been found dead, officials said.

The violence came as the first 150 British combat troops of a deployment of about 3,300 British troops to the Afghan south arrived in the country.

Taliban or members of an allied faction were responsible for the blast that hit the second of two police vehicles travelling on a road in Ghazni province, south of the Kabul, said district government official Habibullah Jan.

“Militants who don’t want peace and stability were behind this,” he said.
alertnet.org

Oh…so the U.S. is behind it…

02/15/06 “Reuters” — — A landmark new U.S.-India nuclear agreement would enable New Delhi to expand atomic weapons production and encourage Pakistan and China to do likewise, according to critics of the controversial deal.

In analyses to be made public on Wednesday, non-proliferation experts expressed grave concerns about a proposed “separation” plan that would open India’s civil nuclear facilities to U.N. inspections, while permitting military facilities to remain off-limits.
informationclearinghouse.info

KATHMANDU, NEPAL remains tense as the 7-Party agitation against the Monarchy gains strength and the Maoist continue to have success on the battle-field.Sources within the Palace report the King and his family are preparing for exile.

The recent Municipal elections proved to be a rebuff to the Nepalese King and have been denounced by the 7-Party Alliance, the Maoist, the UN and the International Community as un-democratic.

US Ambassador James Moriarty in a “Town Hall Meeting” for the American Community stressed, “the need for maps to everyone’s homes”, and promised GPS readings for all homes of US Citizens by February 20th.
“Things are going to get worse in the coming months so please have your “go-bag” ready so that you can evacuate in a minutes notice”, the Ambassador warned and described the situation in Nepal as , “a mess and getting worse”.

“The Maoist may take advantage of there being no government, and come in and take it over”, cautioned the US Ambassador.

The Ambassador said the Maoist are threatening Nepalese employees of the US Gov., as well as Nepalese in US funded projects.

On February-1, 2005, King Gyanendra suspended all civil and democratic rights in Nepal and has ruled with an Iron-Fist from the throne.

Journalist, peace and trade union activist, representatives of civil-society, and members and supporters of the 7-Party Alliance have been beaten, arrested, brutalized on a daily basis.
informationclearinghouse.info

The real story is already emerging, if you’re willing to do a little digging. Cheney and Whittington went hunting with two women (not their wives), there was some drinking, and Whittington wound up shot. Armstrong didn’t see the incident but claimed she had, Cheney refused to be questioned by the Sheriff until the next morning, and a born-again evangelical physician has been downplaying Whittington’s injuries since they occurrred. Neither the press nor law enforcement seems inclined to investigate.

Before the right-wing commenters howl – there’s documentation for all of these statements. Let’s take them one by one: In addition to Cheney and Whittington, the hunting party included Katherine Armstrong (who was in the car at the time of the shooting: more on that later). After lots of evasive comments that only referred to a “third hunter,” we now know her identity: Pamela Willeford, the US Ambassador to Switzerland.
yahoo.com/huffpost

Creating a new offence of ‘glorifying terrorism’ is hypocritical and a threat to legitimate debate.

In the original draft of the terrorism bill, glorification of terrorism was a new stand-alone criminal offence. After widespread condemnation and ridicule that it would be unworkable the government did not abandon it, but tacked it on as part of another new offence of indirect encouragement of terrorism. It is part and parcel of the over-the-top government approach to legislation in this area that vague new transgressions which are not viable on their own are being stuck on to other offences to shore them up.
guardian.co.uk

Dramatic figures have been released revealing that at least 1,333 servicemen and women – almost 1.5 per cent of those who served in the Iraq war – have returned from the Middle East with serious psychiatric problems.

The official statistics, which have been passed to The Independent, identify those who were diagnosed with mental health problems while on duty. Many Iraq veterans are now receiving little or no treatment for a variety of mental health problems.

Questions have also been raised about the level of care being given to regular soldiers, reservists and members of the TA, some of whose symptoms emerged after ending active service. Many are not included in the figure of 1,333. Many claim they have been abandoned by the military establishment.
independent.co.uk

WINNIPEG – An extensive international study on the effects of climate change in the Arctic has reached some startling conclusions on issues ranging from how fast polar ice is melting to the impact on Inuit communities.

About 120 scientists from 11 countries involved in the Canadian-led research project, which started in 2002, are meeting in Winnipeg this week to present and discuss their findings.

One of the most surprising for David Barber, a sea ice specialist at the University of Manitoba, was the fact polar ice is melting at a rate of about 74,000 square kilometres each year – an area about the size of Lake Superior – and has been for the last 30 years.

“This is a very significant result, and it’s not some sort of trend that’s going to shift back the other way,” Barber said Tuesday.

Barber added there is increasing concern in the scientific community that there are factors actually speeding up the melt, but he cautions it’s too late to reverse the trend.

“The time to act actually was a few decades ago,” he said.

“We’re not going to be able to shift the economies of the planet to get off this fossil fuel addiction in a week, a year or a decade. But we have to start the process now to have some stability for future generations.”
commondreams.org

…For those who’ve forgotten, hydrogen fuel cells were, three State of the Unions ago, the thing that was going to save Americans from their oil addiction and stop the auto emissions that help cause global warming. Nowadays switch grass and biomass are the hot alternative fuels, but back in 2003, the president won applause for proposing “$1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles.” On Capitol Hill, there were demonstrations of one such “Freedom Car,” and the president called on scientists to be “bold and innovative” in their hydrogen research.

Unfortunately for the authors of “Potential Environmental Impact of a Hydrogen Economy on the Stratosphere,” their research, while bold and innovative, didn’t exactly mesh with the hype. According to their model, tiny leaks from hydrogen cells, if such cells are ever mass-produced, could cause serious environmental damage. But they made no suggestion of inevitability: One of the study’s authors, John Eiler of Caltech, pointed out that foreknowledge of potential environmental problems could “help guide investments in technologies to favor designs that minimize leakage.” Presumably thinking along the same lines, NASA, which had helped pay for the research, prepared a news release and news conference on the paper.

Abruptly, both were canceled. Although “we often hear that releases are held up for political reasons,” one NASA employee told me, “that one was a surprise: It went all the way to the top and then got killed.” In fact, the release and the conference were “killed” by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. An official there told me this was because the office wanted to give Energy Department scientists a chance to respond to the study before it was publicized: “Our role is to facilitate interagency cooperation.” Coincidentally or not, it also happens that Spencer Abraham, then the energy secretary, was that same week preparing to depart for Brussels, where he was to tell Europeans that U.S. hydrogen research proved the Bush administration cared about the environment.
washingtonpost.com