Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86336&sectionid=351020202

Renowned US intellectual Noam Chomsky says Barack Obama did not comment on Israel's war on Gaza, as it was part of the "premeditated" plan. We have been informed by an Israeli source that the recent invasion of the Gaza Strip was completely premeditated, Chomsky said in an interview with the French Al-Ahram weekly. The plan was to deliver the maximum blow to Gaza before the new US president took office, so that he could put these matters behind him, added the famous intellectual, referring to Obama's pledge to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/4786781/Guantanamo-Bay-detainee-Binyam-Mohamed-claims-torturers-linked-to-British-agents.html

"For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence." Mr Mohamed went on: "I hope you will understand that after everything I have been through I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain. "I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Empire Burlesque: Updates: Child Sacrifice and Gitmo Torture, Progressive Style.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/paki-f23.shtml

In 2001, Washington used the 9/11 attacks as a pretext to put into action long-developed plans to conquer Afghanistan and use it as a base to establish US hegemony in Central Asia, home to some of the richest deposits of oil and natural gas in the world. The inevitable result was a military disaster and the destabilization of the entire region. Now, in pursuit of the same imperialist aims, the Obama administration is launching a major escalation that will only further destabilize the region, intensify tensions with rival power such as China and Russia, and cause untold death and destruction. There is a growing danger of a military conflagration throughout Central Asia and beyond. Online Journal: A new Afghanistan nightmare commences. Global Research / The People's Voice: Surging towards a US-NATO Military Disaster: Obama's Escalating War in Central and South Asia.

Link: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KB20Ag01.html

Obama, Osama and Medvedev. For those who harbored any doubts, the Barack Obama administration's adoption of the George W Bush framework of the "war on terror" - it does feel like a back-to-the-future "continuity" - here are two key facts on the ground. Basically, the Obama administration's strategy - for now - boils down to turbo-charging a war against Pashtun farmers and peasants. Poppy cultivation has been part of Afghan culture for centuries. A high-tech aerial war on destitute peasants will have only one certified result: more of them increasing their support for, or outright migration to, the multi-faceted fight against foreign occupation which the Pentagon insists on defining as an "insurgency". This is what it's all about in Eurasia - the inexorable march of Asian integration, via the Asian Energy Security Grid and, in security terms, via the SCO. Both China and Russia are deeply connected with Iran. China has signed mega-multibillion dollar deals to be supplied by Iranian oil and gas while selling weapons and myriad goods; and Russia is bound to sell more weapons and is already selling nuclear energy technology. All this while Washington is focused on bombing Pashtun peasants and chasing the ghost of Osama bin Laden. Plus this: The price for the US and NATO to have their Afghan supplies arrive via Russia is clear: no more encirclement, no more NATO extension, no more anti-missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland for protection against non-existent Iranian missiles.

Link: http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7%2ftNJWIIbxRtDEiPKyB45c9qDY358qCksPjfxdJpfOQMd%2bmkGmgCVdmJp9UcpcORp89h63Net45anV6Kh206lhCuv5309FK9tS5xMt%2f3wBhc%3d

Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud party who was assigned by Israeli president Shimon Peres to form the new government, plans to offer his rival Kadima party two important portfolios in order to convince them join his coalition government. Hebrew daily 'Ha'aretz' on Sunday said that Netanyahu was prepared to offer Tzipi Livni, the Kadima leader, two of the three portfolios of war, finance and foreign affairs in addition to the post of deputy premier in the event she agreed to join his coalition. This is not simply out of expediency or necessity. The next Israeli government will be a war cabinet (just like Obama's). -And it means business.

Link: http://kennysideshow.blogspot.com/2009/02/tennessee-introduces-sovereignty.html

The sovereignty of our state as described in the 10th amendment is important for ourselves, our children and all future generations. Protection against abuses by the federal government is a concern whose time has come. Please help to affirm our rights and sovereignty by contacting the representatives who can pass this resolution. We should demand that they do so.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-slumdog24-2009feb24,0,1791466.story

Monday dawned with celebration in India as word spread that "Slumdog Millionaire" had snagged eight Academy Awards, including best picture and best director. "Slumdog is Top Dog!" read a television headline. Many woke up before dawn to watch the results live given the time difference. And for most, it was more than worth it. This was India's day, a time to revel, to emote and beam with pride as the world's largest democracy swept Oscar gold, and how. PULSE: Arundhati Roy on Slumdog Millionaire.

Link: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2009/02/us-army-sergeant-convicted-in-murder-of.php

The prisoners were allegedly shot in the head while bound and blindfolded before being dumped in a canal. Fellow unit members Spc. Belmor Ramon and Spc. Steven Ribordy pleaded guilty to conspiracy and accessory to murder, respectively, in connection with the incident.

Link: http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/02/jimmy-carters-punishment-.html

In CNN's presidential rankings, lately released, Ford, Reagan, Clinton and Bush I all jumped up in rankings since the last time the panel of scholars reviewed presidential legacy, nine years ago, but Jimmy Carter plummeted.

Link: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4397.shtml

One day after he was sworn in as president of the United States and in the same week signing executive orders ushering in a new era of government transparency, Barack Obama’s Justice Department quietly filed a motion in federal court to dismiss a long-running lawsuit that sought to force the Bush administration to recover as many as 15 million missing White House emails.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/obama-denies-terror-suspects-right-to-trial-1628958.html

Human rights groups shocked by refusal to reverse Bush policy in Afghanistan. Less than a month after signing an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, President Barack Obama has quietly agreed to keep denying the right to trial to hundreds more terror suspects held at a makeshift camp in Afghanistan that human rights lawyers have dubbed “Obama’s Guantanamo”. “Guantanamo Bay was a diversionary tactic in the ‘War on Terror’,” said the lawyer. “Totting up the prisoners around the world – held by the US in Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti, the prison ships and Diego Garcia, or held by US proxies in Jordan, Egypt and Morocco – the numbers dwarf Guantanamo.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/23/military-aid-israel-amnesty

Detailed evidence has emerged of Israel's extensive use of US-made weaponry during its war in Gaza last month, including white phosphorus artillery shells, 500lb bombs and Hellfire missiles. In a report released today, Amnesty International detailed the weapons used and called for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian armed groups. It called on the Obama administration to suspend military aid to Israel. URUKNET: More prisons, more war crimes, more ethnic cleansing (and more weapons Made in USA).

Link: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1065845.html

Draft resolutions for the United Nations Durban II summit on racism brand Israel as an occupying state that carries out racist policies, Haaretz has learned. They refer to "the plight of Palestinian refugees and other inhabitants of the Arab occupied territories," apparently meaning Israel itself.