Medvedev objects to "endless" NATO expansion
Russia's new military doctrine does not identify NATO as its major threat but Moscow is disturbed by the alliance's "endless enlargement", President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published on Thursday.

Nigel Farage summoned for tirade against Van Rompuy
The head of the European parliament has summoned British Eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farage over his tirade against European Council President Herman van Rompuy.

Identification of agents by Dubai police embarrasses Mossad
To have a dozen of your agents identified in police tapes after an extrajudicial killing is embarrassing. To have almost 30 operatives left with their covers blown — as appears to have happened after Dubai police released fresh details of the Hamas assassination last month — might be considered reckless.

Israeli government videos portray Europeans as gullible
The Israeli government has produced a series of spoof videos portraying how it believes the country is perceived by ignorant and gullible Europeans.

Russia threatens to react to NATO expansion
Russia will have to respond as it is concerned by NATO's active eastward expansion and the U.S. plans to deploy elements of a missile defense system in Europe, Russia's top military officer said on Wednesday.

EU court strikes blow against Israeli settlers
The EU court in Luxembourg has ruled that Israel cannot pass off products made by settlers on occupied Palestinian land as its own in order to get customs perks.

Rachel Maddow: Blackwater crime spree in Afghanistan - With Jeremy Scahill (Video)
Rachel & author Jeremy Scahill discuss the ongoing crimes & scandals by Blackwater / Xe, & front company contractors in Afghanistan & elsewhere.

US refuses to endorse British sovereignty in Falklands oil dispute
Washington refused to endorse British claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands yesterday as the diplomatic row over oil drilling in the South Atlantic intensified in London, Buenos Aires and at the UN.

Hamas Leader's Son 'Was Israeli Secret Agent'
The son of one of the founders and leaders of Hamas acted as an Israeli undercover agent for more than a decade, an Israeli newspaper website has claimed.

Turkish prosecutors free top military officers
Turkish prosecutors on Thursday released former chiefs of the country's air force and navy after questioning them in connection with an alleged plot to topple the Islamist-rooted government, broadcasters reported.

Nato admits that deaths of 8 boys were a mistake
A night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan in which eight schoolboys from one family were killed was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence and should never have been authorised, a Times investigation has found.

Growing fury at Dubai killing reaches Australia
Mounting diplomatic fury over the killing of a top Hamas commander in a Dubai hotel reached Australia on Thursday, with Israel's envoy summoned over the use of Australian passports by a suspected assassination squad.

E.U. Body Sees Strategic Reasons to Encourage Iceland
Eyeing a new, strategically important gateway to the Arctic, the European Union’s executive body on Wednesday encouraged Iceland’s application to become a member despite disputes over liabilities from a failed Icelandic bank.

Australia already warned Israel against faking its passports
Australian authorities had already warned Israeli intelligence against using doctored passports in its clandestine activities around the world, the Australian newspaper The Australian reported on Thursday.

Academic attempts to take the hot air out of climate science debate
Professor Judith Curry, who currently chairs the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has embarked on what she’s describing as a “blogospheric experiment”.

HRW slams Obama's rights records
Human Rights Watch has blasted US President Barack Obama's change in "rhetoric" rather than "policies" as US transfers more Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Europe.

HOMELAND SECURITY LOSES OVER 1,000 COMPUTERS IN ONE FISCAL YEAR
New documents reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to lose hundreds of computers per year. At least one DHS component agency maintains that the losses fall within accepted accounting standards.

Bizarre? Now this is bizarre!
In a 13 month period from May 2003 to June 2004, the Federal Reserve sent nearly $12 billion in cash, mainly in $100 bills from the United States to Iraq. To do that, the Federal Reserve Bank in New York had to pack 281 million individual bills ... onto wooden pallets to be shipped to Iraq. The cash weighed more than 363 tons and was loaded onto C-130 cargo planes to be flown into Baghdad.

Obama Missile Defense Agency logo apes Iranian space agency logo
Weaselzippers.net caught this bizarre governmental coincidence. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Defense, went from using the first logo below to using a logo looking strangely similar to the Obama 2008 campaign along with the original agency logo.

Supreme Court puts expiration date on 'right to remain silent'
The justices rule that a suspect who invokes that protection can be questioned again after 14 days.

Widow of Austin plane crash victim sues pilot's widow
The widow of an Internal Revenue Service employee killed when a disgruntled taxpayer flew his plane into a seven-story building in Austin, Texas, last week is suing the pilot's wife, according to court documents.

Economist With Financial Services Committee For Eleven Years, Assisting With Oversight of the Fed, Lends Support to Ron Paul’s Questions
Today, Ron Paul accused the Federal Reserve of having a hand in nefarious plots such as Watergate and arming Saddam Hussein. House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank said that the Committee should look into it.

Ex-Madoff Operations Director Arrested by FBI
A former executive for imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff's firm was arrested Thursday and charged with concealing the scope of its multibillion dollar fraud and using at least $750 million of investor money to support the company's trading arm.

71% Give Congress Poor Rating
Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job.

Bernie Sanders compares climate skeptics to Nazi deniers
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is comparing climate change skeptics to those who disregarded the Nazi threat to America in the 1930s, adding a strident rhetorical shot to the already volatile debate over climate change.

You Could Not Make It Up: Climate Panel Vows New Review by Jeffrey Ball, Wall Street Journal
The world's leading organization on climate change says it is working on a strategy to better police the experts who produce its high-profile reports, to try to ensure they adhere to rigorous scientific standards.

Calls to to Ban Gore's Film from UK Schools
Al Gore's global warming film would be banned in schools under plans by the UK Independence Party (UKIP) to court the climate sceptic vote.

Canada On The Verge Of Approving Enviropigs - Millions Of Canadians Will Soon Be Eating Mouse/Pig Hybrids
The Canadian government is on the verge of approving the introduction of extremely bizarre genetically modified pigs into the Canadian food supply. These new mouse/pig hybrids have been dubbed "enviropigs" and are being touted as being much better for the environment.

Do Toxins Cause Autism?
Autism was first identified in 1943 in an obscure medical journal. Since then it has become a frighteningly common affliction, with the Centers for Disease Control reporting recently that autism disorders now affect almost 1 percent of children.

Bayer pesticide banned over threat to honeybees
A U.S. District Judge from Manhattan has banned the sale of spirotetramat, a pesticide produced by Bayer CropScience. Citing allegations by environmental groups and commercial beekeepers that the pesticide is toxic and is killing off the nation's honeybee population, Judge Denise Cote has declared that sales of spirotetramat must cease after January 15.

Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels
Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

New Climate Agency Head Tried to Suppress Data, Critics Charge
The scientist who has been put in charge of the Commerce Department’s new climate change office is coming under attack from both sides of the global warming debate over his handling of what they say is contradictory scientific data related to the subject.

US Air Force builds supercomputer using PlayStation 3s
A US Air Force research team has built a supercomputer using just over 2,000 PlayStation 3 game consoles, according to military news site Stars and Stripes. Dubbed the 500 TeraFLOPS Heterogeneous Cluster it is almost 100,000 times faster than existing high-end processors.

Smoked Marijuana Can Be Effective in Treating Pain, Calif. Report Says
There is "reasonable evidence" that smoked marijuana can provide relief for certain pain-related ailments, according to a new report prepared for the California legislature by researchers at the University of California at San Diego.

India to Buy IMF Gold
Well thats according to an article carried by the Emirates Business today, the rational being that unlike China who can boost gold reserves internally, India needs to import gold in order to boost supplies.

More Evidence that the Fed Sent Money to Iraq
I don't know anything about money laundering, drug trafficking or terrorist networks. But I might be able to guess who could keep track of that kind of information: the Fed.

Secret AIG Document Shows Goldman Sachs Minted Most Toxic CDOs
That lack of disclosure shows how the government has obstructed a proper accounting of what went wrong in the financial crisis, author and former investment banker William Cohan says. “This secrecy is one more example of how the whole bailout has been done in such a slithering manner.”

EMU could collapse if one member defaults -Germany
A debt default by one euro zone member could end the single currency union but this is unlikely, the head of the German debt management agency said on Thursday.

Jobless claims up 12% in past 2 weeks
The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance surged to just below the 500,000 level last week, and have climbed more than 12% over the past two weeks, the government said Thursday.

Sterling sinks as King talks of releasing more money
Sterling fell sharply on foreign exchanges yesterday after Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned again that it may be necessary to extend the Bank’s asset purchase programme.

Banks Bet Greece Defaults on Debt They Helped Hide
Bets by some of the same banks that helped Greece shroud its mounting debts may actually now be pushing the nation closer to the brink of financial ruin.

Something Very Strange Is Happening With Treasuries
Yesterday the Treasury issued $37 billion worth of four-week notes (meaning debt that comes due in four weeks). The lowest yield accepted was 0.0000% (literally NO yield) and the highest yield accepted was 0.055% (virtually nothing).

Commercial Mortgage Default Rate in U.S. More Than Doubles
The default rate for commercial property mortgages held by U.S. banks more than doubled in the fourth quarter and may reach a peak of 5.4 percent at the end of next year, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc.

Fed to look into insurance contracts on Greek debt
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Thursday that the central bank is looking into the use by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms of high-risk financial instruments to make bets that Greece would default on its debt.

EU inspectors, rating agencies press Greece for action
EU inspectors and ratings agencies piled pressure on Greece on Thursday to deliver promised cuts to its huge budget deficit, as Athens prepares to borrow on jittery markets in the middle of a debt crisis.

China To Purchase Half of IMF's Gold
China has confirmed the intention to purchase 191.3 tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund at an open auction, Finmarket news agency said.

Goldman: Treasury Yields Will Crash Because Inflation Is Dead And Bernanke's A Dove
The firm believes inflation and interest-rate hike expectations have been overdone for U.S. government bonds. They also appear further emboldened in their call for no major interest rate hike through 2011 after Bernanke's words with Congress.

U.S. Stocks Drop on Economic Concern
U.S. stocks fell, erasing most of yesterday’s rally in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Moody’s Investors Service said it may downgrade Greek debt and reports on jobs and manufacturing orders trailed forecasts.

FDIC Hits Record "Default" Level As Deposit Insurance Fund Plunges By $12.7 Billion To NEGATIVE 20.9 Billion
The U.S. banking industry continued to struggle in the fourth quarter, as the number of banks on the brink of failure continued
to rise and the government's fund to protect deposits fell sharply into the red.

Greece Gives Germany Another Reason Not To Bail It Out After Mentioning Nazi Gold Theft
Greece is giving Germany even fewer reasons to bail them out from their debt crisis as the Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos mentioned Nazi gold theft in a BBC interview last night reported on FT Alphaville.

Ron Paul - John F. Kennedy - Martin Luther King Versus Tyranny (Video)
Who are you voting for in 2008? Does your candidate believe in the constitution. Do they believe in protecting your rights? Are they for a free market and free republic? Or are they for socialism?

The rise of Ron Paul
By Adam Daifallah
Conservative activists may despise President Obama and his radical agenda, but they are almost as peeved with Republicans, who have shown over their time in power an inability to cut spending and reduce the size of government. Paul has become the standard-bearer of discontent with the Bush era's "big-government conservatism."

Listen to the heroes of Israel
By John Pilger
John Pilger reminds us of the struggle by an extraordinary few in Israel against the repression and lawlessness of the occupation of Palestine.

Government Stimulus, One Year Later
By Ron Paul
Rather than learning the lessons of the past year, the administration is moving full-speed ahead to do even more economic damage.

Jefferson vs. Lincoln: America Must Choose
By Josh Eboch
Over the course of American history, there has been no greater conflict of visions than that between Thomas Jefferson's voluntary republic, founded on the natural right of peaceful secession, and Abraham Lincoln's permanent empire, founded on the violent denial of that same right.

Ron Paul Grills Bernanke On Watergate, Saddam Hussein and the Federal Reserve
Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas), the chief critic of the Federal Reserve on Capitol Hill, used his five minutes at a House Financial Services Committee hearing this morning to explore the central bank’s role in Saddam Hussein’s reign and Watergate.

Unplug the Signal: The Truth Will Not Be Televised
By Nathan Janes
We have been trained like dogs to be obedient to our television; our master has had our minds on a tight leash.

Keiser Report: Wall Street and the Looting of America
This week Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert report on the scandals of George Soros and the IMF shaking out the gold market; US bank lending falling at the fastest rate in recorded history; and the trickle up unemployment pyramid.

The $100 Trillion Problem: Can America Learn From Chile Before It’s Too Late?
Jose Pinera provides an Entitlement State 101 lecture, in which Chile’s former Labor and Social Security Minister demystifies the U.S.’s $100 trillion unfunded benefits problem.

“Why Real Conservatives Oppose the War on Terror” (Videos)
Is America’s current “War on Terror” essential to keeping our nation safe? Or is it yet another vehicle for the federal government to increase its power over our lives and take away our liberties? Is the “War on Terror” actually weakening our national defense and increasing opposition overseas?

Ron Paul! That's all I have to say…
By Justin Raimondo
Paul’s CPAC victory is a stunning repudiation of the War Party’s long-standing dominance of the GOP, and is bound to ramp up the already quite active campaign to smear and destroy him.

UK politics and the Israel lobby
n this episode of “The Big Story”, she revisits the issue of the Israel lobby’s influence on British politics and the media.

Debt Dynamite Dominoes: The Coming Financial Catastrophe
By Andrew Gavin Marshall
When the crisis is over, the middle classes of the western world will have been liquidated of their economic, political and social status.

U.N Still Pushing for Global Environmental Control
Despite the debacle of the failed Copenhagen climate change conference last December, the United Nations is pressing full speed ahead with a plan for a greatly expanded system of global environmental governance and for a multitrillion-dollar economic transfer scheme to ignite the creation of a "global green economy."

Cell phones show human movement predictable 93% of the time
We’d like to think of ourselves as dynamic, unpredictable individuals, but according to new research, that’s not the case at all. Researchers looked at customer location data culled from cellular service providers.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants a bill ASAP
Kerry indicated to reporters Tuesday that an energy package is still atop Reid’s agenda for the year.

USA Patriot Act Continued
Barely noticed this one and I think that was by design. I heard a very brief mention of this on CNN this morning and by brief I mean seconds.

School officials continue dodging questions about webcam surveillance
After the lawsuit over Harriton High School’s alleged webcam surveillance triggered an FBI investigation, you would hope school officials would come clean about what they characterize as completely legitimate security activities. Yet Lower Merion School District’s response to parents seems to raise more questions than it answers.

Microsoft Takes Down Whistleblower Site, Read the Secret Doc Here
Microsoft has managed to do what a roomful of secretive, three-letter government agencies have wanted to do for years: get the whistleblowing, government-document sharing site Cryptome shut down.

Judge Alex Kozinski: The Fourth Amendment is Gone. "Welcome to the fish bowl."
Last week the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied an en banc rehearing of the case United States v. Lemus, which dealt with a warrantless police search of a suspect’s home after he was arrested outside of it. As a result of the 9th Circuit’s denial, the search will stand, which has left Chief Judge Alex Kozinski none too happy. In dissent, Kozinksi basically accused his colleagues of abandoning the Fourth Amendment