Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=113687&sectionid=351020206

Yemen's Houthi fighters say the US fighter jets have launched 28 attacks on the northwestern province of Sa'ada. The US has used modern fighter jets and bombers in its offensive against the Yemen fighters, Houthis said in a statement. According to the statement, the US fighter jets have launched overnight attacks on the Yemeni fighters, Arabic Almenpar website reported. PressTV: US 'sends special forces to Yemen amid "crisis".

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=113676&sectionid=351020401

After confirmation that the CIA has been operating drone strikes in Pakistani territory, a new report says the US is seeking to expand the attacks into the country's cities. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that top US officials were pushing to expand the air strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region and into the major city of Quetta to allegedly target the Taliban. AntiWar: US Wants to Expand Drone Strikes Into Major Pakistani City so that they get to kill more civilians. The People's Voice / Rense: Obama Declares War On Pakistan.

Link: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/12/drug-kingpins-rather-than-summers.html

Costa is the head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime. He says that what saved many banks during the height of the financial crisis was drug money: "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said. Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said. "Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities ... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way."

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235395/SPECIAL-INVESTIGATION-Climate-change-emails-row-deepens--Russians-admit-DID-send-them.html

Pielke’s verdict on the scandal is damning. ‘These emails open up the possibility that big scientific questions we’ve regarded as settled may need another look. 'They reveal that some of these scientists saw themselves not as neutral investigators but as warriors engaged in battle with the so-called sceptics. ‘They have lost a lot of credibility and as far as their being leading spokespeople on this issue of huge public importance, there is no going back.’ Canada Free Press: The criminals at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in England brazenly defend the indefensible: The New Big Lie: Climategate Emails Are Not Significant.

Link: http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/

Donors have paid for over 160,000 copies so far in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and soon in Germany. Volunteers have translated it into German, French, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Turkish, Portuguese Danish and Japanese. (Versions in Dutch, Spanish, and possibly Italian are on the way). Updates are placed here, along with translations, as well as places to read comments and links to the web-pages where each part of the handbook will be discussed. Download A large copy (16Mb) (for better quality printing).

Her commentary includes:

● The short synopsis of how we paid to find a crisis.
● The one flaw that wipes out the catastrophe. (They can be right about carbon but wrong about water… and that eliminates two-thirds of their predicted warming.)
● Nine behaviours of the real deniers — there are lots of ways to deny the evidence.
● How carbon dioxide greens the world, why clouds dominate the climate, and if carbon didn’t cause the recent warming, what else might have?
● The short summary of the baseless hockey stick graph, with a devastating map of the vast array of peer reviewed information that demonstrates just how brazen the Hockey Stick “re-interpretation” of history was.
● How you can create a compelling crisis in a graph in six simple steps.
● The Checklist: How do you tell a scientist from a non-scientist? (A Skeptic from an Unskeptic?)

“Bullying is their root strength. Take it away from them and they will crumble.”

The People's Voice: ETS Forum - Science bullies JoNova: DeSmog accidentally vindicates The Skeptics Handbook: DeSmogBlog could’ve flattened The Skeptics Handbook in just one sentence. All they had to do was point to empirical evidence that more CO2 forces temperatures up. They can’t and everything else is bluster and bluff.

Link: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/13/lots-of-new-cold-and-snow-records-in-the-usa-this-week/

From the “weather is not climate” department. 815 new snowfall records, 304 low temperature, and 403 lowest max temperature records were set this week.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/13/copenhagen-climate-summit-poor-nations

The Copenhagen climate talks hit trouble tonight as a number of African countries indicated their leaders would refuse to take part in the final summit unless significant progress was made in the next three days. The showdown between rich and poor countries came as ministers began arriving in Copenhagen to take over negotiations. However, negotiators failed to reach agreement in key areas such as emission cuts, long-term finance and when poor countries should start to reduce emissions. More than 110 heads of state, mainly from developing countries, are due to begin arriving on Thursday for an intense 24 hours of final negotiations.

Link: http://www.utterzebu.com/blog/2009/12/06/massive-carbon-trading-fraud-centred-on-denmark/

With the world’s attention on Copenhagen, why have we not heard more about several scandalous frauds involving carbon trading, frauds that rather inconveniently centre on Denmark’s own quotas? The Copenhagen Post ran the story under the headline:”Denmark rife with CO2 fraud.”

Link: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/091213/world/britain_iraq_politics_inquiry_military_blair

The former British prime minister, who backed the US-led invasion in 2003, told the BBC he would "still have thought it right to remove" Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein because of the threat he posed to the region. Lawyers representing the deposed Iraqi leadership said they would seek to prosecute Blair following his remarks, while one newspaper commentator said it was a "game-changing admission" for the ongoing official inquiry into the war. Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix added: "The war was sold on the WMD, and now you feel, or hear that it was only a question of deployment of arguments, as he said, it sounds a bit like a fig leaf that was held up." The Independent: Untouchable: Blair to give Iraq War evidence in secret: His conversations with President George Bush when he was prime minister, and crucial details of the decision-making process that led Britain into war, will fall under the scope of national security and the protection of Britain's relations with the US. But there are also suggestions by well-placed sources that anything "interesting" will also be shrouded in secrecy, leaving his public appearance containing little more than is already known. Daily Mail: Britain misled into Iraq war by Blair's 'sycophancy to U.S. and alarming subterfuge with Bush', says former DPP.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=113679&sectionid=351020101

After US secretary of state expressed concern over consequences of Iran's close ties with Latin American countries, Venezuela condemns Hillary Clinton's remarks as an "imperial offensive." "Mrs Clinton's statements (are) like a threat above all against Venezuela and Bolivia... They are the clear signs of an imperial offensive seeking to stop the advancement of progressive forces, and regain its back yard," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the most outspoken US critic in Latin America, told reporters in Havana. "It's an overt threat. Her declarations are like a threat, especially at Venezuela and Bolivia," he added.

Link: http://www.rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/redeye/2009/08/how-us-helping-coup-makers-honduras

Conn Hallinan details the organizations, companies and individuals lending their support to the military regime in Honduras. He also talks more broadly about the U.S. administration's plans to re-militarize their relationship with Latin America under President Obama. Conn Hallinan is an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus and former director of the journalism school at the University of California in Santa Cruz.

Link: http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/12/04/haaretz_says_us_officials_face_pro_israel_background_check

There is an amazing story in Ha'aretz today on the "pro-Israel" litmus test that determines who is permitted to serve in the United States government. Here's the sort of lede you're not likely to read in the New York Times or Washington Post: Every appointee to the American government must endure a thorough background check by the American Jewish community. In the case of Obama's government in particular, every criticism against Israel made by a potential government appointee has become a catalyst for debate about whether appointing "another leftist" offers proof that Obama does not truly support Israel."

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/13/lieberman-tells-reid-to-h_n_390416.html

Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a face-to-face meeting on Sunday that he will vote against a health care bill that includes a public option or a provision that would expand Medicare, a Democratic Senate aide tells the Huffington Post. NYT: Lieberman Rules Out Voting for Health Care Bill.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49646

With a military health care system over-stretched by two ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, more soldiers are deciding to go absent without leave (AWOL) in order to find treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/13/israel-academic-antisemitism-documentary-dispatches

British businessman sends threatening emails to Israeli university lecturer who contributed to programme accused of antisemitism. At the centre of the dispute is Michael Gross, a prominent member of Britain's Jewish community, a long-time donor to Ben-Gurion University (BGU) and a member of its international board of governors. After seeing the Dispatches programme last month, Gross emailed Professor David Newman – a British-born lecturer who has emigrated to Israel – and wrote: "I saw your disgusting contribution to the Dispatches programme. I will use whatever influence I have at BGU to have you thrown out… I hope you perish." In a second message, he said: "The sooner you are removed from BGU and the face of the earth, the better."

Link: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/metropolitan/12-two%2Bmore%2Bus%2Bconsulate%2Bvehicles%2Bintercepted%2Bin%2Blahore--bi-03

Unmarked vehicles operated by foreigners using falsified registration numbers keep getting stopped in Pakistan, and the US consulate keeps bailing them out. In the first incident, a land cruiser was intercepted by the police at a picket near Shimla Hill for bearing suspicious registration number. The occupants of the vehicle reportedly offered resistance when the police sought their identification as well as registration book of the vehicle. The other vehicle, also a land cruiser, was stopped by security personnel and military police at Sherpao Bridge, Cantonment, also carrying foreign ‘diplomats’. AWIP: Blackwater behind Pakistan bombings: Ex-intel chief.