Friday's sentencing of Larry Franklin, the former Pentagon analyst who was convicted of communicating classified information to staffers at the America Israel Public Affairs Association [AIPAC] and to an Israeli diplomat, is only the first of the trials in the case, but it can serve as an indicator to what can be expected when the second begins in late April.

Judge T.S. Ellis of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, set forth two important principles when sentencing Franklin to 12 1/2 years in prison: The first was accepting Franklin's claim that he had no intention other than helping what he believed to be American interests, and the second was that no matter what the intentions might have been, the law is the law and whoever breaks it faces harsh punishment.

For former AIPAC staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, this means good news and bad news. The good news is that the court does not seem to see the matter as an espionage case or as an act directed at harming the U.S. or assisting a foreign nation. The bad news is that this perception doesn't really make any difference on the legal level [the question of jail time].

Europe is in an awkward position. The reason is simple. Swiss Senator Dick Marty, who was is charge of investigating the transport of CIA prisoners, asserts that several members of the European Union (E.U.) and the Council of Europe, together with E.U. candidate countries, cannot feign ignorance. Even if it is possible that the leaders of certain countries may have been unaware of what the CIA was up to, the same cannot be said about the intelligence services. Without the collaboration of the latter, indeed the top-ranking officials of some ministries, the American agency would never have been able to act the way it did.

In his preliminary report, Senator Marty asserts that the number of flights is in the hundreds and not the dozens. He also asserts that about 100 of these prisoners, after stopping in Europe, were handed over to a third party, mainly Egypt, where they were tortured for the benefit of the United States. The Europeans who collaborated with American officials on this program knew they were doing so.

What makes matters worse for Europeans is that the Swiss Senator highlighted in his analysis their blatant lack of cooperation [with his investigation]. Indeed, only the day before he published his report did he finally receive copies of documents he had sought from Eurocontrol [Europe's air traffic watchdog [RealVideo] and the E.U. Satellite Center [Agency for space imagery [RealVideo]. Consequently, Marty is asking for an extension of his mandate so that he can check whether or not prisons like Guantanamo Bay, in other words places where human and civil rights aren't respected, existed in Romania and Poland.

Until the next addition, what this report puts forward is the lie of some European leaders who quickly denied the existence of such places, after the revelations in the Washington Post last November. We can say it again: according to the Swiss Senator, they were in on it.

As far as Great Britain is concerned, the Minister of European Affairs had the nerve to belittle Marty's work when one of the most important witnesses in this case is the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray. Before being fired by his bosses from the Foreign Office, this diplomat had the proof that the CIA and his British equivalent, MI6, had collaborated in many occasions.

On the subject, the Swiss politician justly reminded E.U. members of their duties, like to respect the European Conventions on Human Rights, which they must abide by in order to be part of the club. By acting the way they have, some countries have disowned the signatures they had put into these conventions.

Consequently, "it seems important to analyze, and even to improve, national administrative procedures for surveillance and parliamentary control of spy agencies to make sure that abuses can no longer be perpetrated under the cover of confidentiality and standard procedure."

Moreover, Marty denounced the abusive use of the famous excuses "State secrets" and the "superiority of the national interest," to such an extent that he encouraged members of Parliament to engage in a far-ranging and in-depth debate on these issues.

What is beyond doubt is that they ought to give Senator Marty the extension of that he wants, so that the principles so dear to Europeans won't be scorned again.

The fighting near the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank raised tensions just a week after the parliamentary vote, in which Hamas trounced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's long-dominant Fatah movement.

Islamic Jihad, a group that like Hamas is committed to
Israel's destruction and has carried out suicide bombings, urged Hamas and other armed factions to step up attacks on the Jewish state in response.

Israel has called for a boycott of any Palestinian government that includes Hamas, and said on Tuesday it expected to suspend monthly tax payments to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, a severe financial blow.

Israel collects customs revenue on behalf of the Palestinians and hands it over to the governing Palestinian Authority each month.

The next payment is due on Wednesday, February 1, and was expected to total about $55 million. The salaries of about 140,000 Palestinian employees depend to a large extent on the customs revenue, though Hamas may be able to find alternative sources of funding in the Arab world.

In a bid to keep aid flowing, Hamas leaders have suggested they might not have representatives in the government but rather put unaffiliated technocrats in the cabinet.

CALL TO ARMS

The two Islamic Jihad militants were killed in a raid in the West Bank village of Arrabe, near Jenin, the army said. There was at least one Israeli casualty, Palestinian witnesses said.

After the incident, Nafez Azzam, an Islamic Jihad leader, called for other factions "to resume resistance against the occupation," a reference to attacks scaled back under a truce last year.

The Quartet of major powers trying to broker Middle East peace -- Russia, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations -- said earlier this week that Hamas must reject violence and recognize Israel or risk losing international aid.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the world should not cut off funding to the Palestinians after Hamas's victory.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri called on other Quartet members to follow Russia's lead and "not to punish the Palestinian people for practising their democratic choice."

Jordan's ambassador to the Palestinian Authority also said on Tuesday that Amman "will continue to support the Palestinian people regardless of who is in government."

The Palestinian Authority faces a financial crunch if Israel withholds the tax money.

Unemployment in the Palestinian territories runs high, at 22 percent, and half the Palestinian population lives in poverty. In Gaza, many Palestinians live on an average of $2 a day.

Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said the automatic tax payments to the authority would probably stop until the completion of a policy review ordered by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Palestinian Economy Minister Mazen Sonnoqrot decried what he called "an irresponsible and grave decision" and said it would have "negative economic and social consequences for the Palestinians."

Masri accused Israel of "trying to steal Palestinian money."

Fatah leaders have so far rejected joining any coalition with Hamas, whose anti-corruption platform, charity network and strong resistance to Israel since the Palestinian uprising began in 2000 propelled it to victory.

Saeed Seyam, a senior Hamas leader, said the group still hoped Fatah would agree to join a government with Hamas.

"But if they do not, then that is their own business," he said. "The Palestinian area is crowded with experts and qualified people."

Abbas plans to meet Hamas leaders in Gaza within the next two weeks, his chief of staff said, denying an Israeli television report the president would hold talks with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal in Cairo in the next two days.

Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the couple flew in overnight after Britain approved their extradition. Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court ordered them placed in custody for 10 days so that they could be interrogated by police.

Computer hacking carries a maximum 5-year jail term in
Israel, which can be increased if data theft is involved.

Israeli media said the Haephratis had offered to testify against their alleged clients in exchange for a reduced sentence. Their lawyer, Eli Zohar, confirmed only that contacts were under way with prosecutors at the State Attorney's Office.

"As of now, they (Haephratis) are facing a whole package of charges," Zohar told Israel's Army Radio. "Our goal is to narrow down the proceedings as much as possible."

At least 18 other Israelis have been questioned in the Trojan horse case, including corporate executives. Several private investigators have been indicted on related charges.

Among companies probed by police in connection with the case were Israel's top mobile phone operator, Cellcom, and two subsidiaries of phone company Bezeq Israel Telecom -- cellular operator Pelephone and the satellite television provider YES. All of the firms denied any wrongdoing.

Police said the Trojan horse infiltrated the HOT cable television group that competes with YES, as well as foodmaker Strauss-Elite and the Rani Rahav public relations agency, whose clients include Partner Communications, Israel's second biggest mobile phone operator.

"Trojans" refer to malicious software often presented as an innocuous weblink or email attachment that can infect a computer when opened.

Israel's Channel Two television, which interviewed the Haephratis by telephone last week from the British prisons where they were being held, said Michael originally developed the Trojan horse as a prank targeting his ex-wife's family.

According to the report, the Haephratis tried to market the virus to Israel's defense agencies before Ruth decided alone to sell it to private investigators representing corporations.

"I take full responsibility for my mistakes," she told Channel Two. "Michael always told me, 'Don't do it. Don't get in touch with the investigators. I have a feeling they are misusing the system."'

Speaking at his annual press conference in the Kremlin, Putin said Hamas "must put an end to its radical rhetoric, recognize Israel and establish contact with the international community. We urge Hamas to opt for such systematic work."

But he also warned that the refusal to provide assistance to the Palestinian people would be a mistake.

In a surprising election victory for Hamas, Hamas won 74 seats in the 132-member Palestinian legislative council while the mainstream Fatah movement secured only 45 seats, according to official results of the Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Putin described Hamas's victory in the vote as "a strong blow" to American diplomacy in the Middle East.

Russia is a member of the quartet mediating for peace in the Middle East which also includes the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.

In a statement issued last Thursday, the quartet called on Hamas to renounce terror, disarm and recognize the existence of Israel.

“Time is short. If we do not change the world now, there may be no 22nd century for humanity. Capitalism has destroyed the ecological equilibrium of the earth. It is now or never!”, Chavez declared. “We should go toward setting up a worldwide anti-imperialist movement. We have already taken steps in this direction”, Chavez told the cheering crowd. He commented that at the previous WSF in Porto Alegre in 2005, “many talks were occurring without conclusions. We are not here to waste our time. We must urgently build a new socialist movement.”

Chavez blasted the US empire. “It is the most perverse empire in history: It talks about freedom while invading and destroying other nations ... The empire is very powerful, but not infallible. This century we will bury the US empire. The empire has to face the people of Venezuela and Latin America. It has failed in Iraq already.”

He urged the audience to “imagine a world in which the US administration declares peace to the world, withdraws its forces, and uses its resources to produce medicines and food for the poor people of the world”.

Chavez contrasted the US’s record to the achievements of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, with the help of Cuba, which taught 1.5 million people to read through Mission Robinson in just two years.

“Injustice and inequality are losing: it is now up to us to define the formula of unity for victory. We need unity of all our currents. While respecting the right to autonomy of the movements, including the green movement and the various political and national movements, all of us should get together in a victorious offensive against imperialism.”

Many prominent figures in the international progressive movement were featured on a podium, including Aleida Guevara (Che’s daughter) and Cindy Sheehan (US anti-war leader whose son was killed in Iraq). Huge applause greeted Chavez’s speech, and the rally included a rousing rendition of the workers’ anthem, “The Internationale”.

Chavez’s stress on the need for urgent international political action against global capitalism and oppression was a major theme of the forum. The whole conference was filled with the overwhelming influence of the Venezuelan revolution. The “Bolivarian spirit” was pervasive from the very first day, when around 20,000 activists marched to launch the WSF. The lively and colourful march featured the banners, clothing and chants of the many national contingents, especially from Latin America.

One contingent was a group of around 15 Australians, marching with the banner of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network and chanting: “Chavez, friend! Australians are with you!”

A panel with speakers from the National Union of Workers, the worker-managed Alcasa aluminum factory, organisers from participatory budgets in Brazil, and well-known radical intellectuals, discussed how co-management and participatory budgeting were weapons in the struggle against capitalism and in building a democratic socialism of the 21st century. It also featured debate on the strengths and weakness of these various experiments so far.

Another panel of radical Latin American economists discussed how the Latin American integration project known as the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) was the antithesis of the US-inspired Free Trade Area of the Americas. The panellists discussed how ALBA gave activists a strategic and concrete alternative to struggle for and that it must be a social integration of peoples at every level rather than only of governments and elites.

Another well-attended forum discussed the Marxism of Che Guevara and its relevance. The panel concluded that while Che’s thought didn’t contain all the elements of 21st century socialism, he articulated its essence by arguing that socialism must be centered on developing new human beings liberated from alienation, and that this can only be achieved through their active participation in building a society free from capitalism and all forms of bureaucracy and hierarchy.

Another forum discussed the massive achievements of Venezuela’s social missions in improving the lives of the poor communities, and their role in transforming the communities into organised, conscious and creative social actors in constructing a new socialist Venezuela, thus giving them a revolutionary character in a capitalist society.

Meetings also discussed solidarity work in various countries and plans for coordination of international solidarity activities with the Venezuelan revolution in 2006.

The variety and breadth of topics covered the whole spectrum of debate in the world anti-capitalist globalisation movement. As the WSF draws toward a close, discussion is occurring on the future of the social forum movement and the urgent tasks facing us in the coming year.

"The military officials of the U.S. Embassy are involved in espionage and we have them infiltrated," said Chavez, urging the U.S. embassy to stop spying as "we are watching you."

The Venezuelan authorities accused a group of military officials at the U.S. embassy in Venezuela of involvement in a spying case during which several Venezuelan officers allegedly passed sensitive information to Washington.

The espionage allegations by Venezuela have increased tension between Caracas and Washington. Chavez threatened last week to arrest any American officials caught spying on the Venezuelan military.

In regard to the anti-imperialist struggle that lays behind the Sixth Annual World Social Forum in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez warned the U.S. government that he will imprison any U.S. public official, "but above all, [those in the] military" that attempt to obtain information regarding the Venezuelan National Armed Forces.

"The next time we detect military or public officials trying to obtain information regarding our armed forces, they will be imprisoned," Chavez said just after condemning George W. Bush as the biggest violator of human rights and promoter of terrorism in the world.

Chavez accused Washington of "wanting to include" Venezuela on the list of countries that "sponsor terrorism" when that fellow President George W. Bush's government is the "most vicious, murderous, genocidal, immoral, and brazen" of all "empires."

Chavez also demanded that Washington "cease attacks and genocide in Iraq" and that they withdraw U.S. troops from this Arab country.

"They [Washington] want to include Venezuela on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The United States has five of our Cuban patriots imprisoned, and [Washington is] guilty of violating every law, from the torture of [detainees] in Guantanamo to the disappearance of individuals in secret CIA prisons around the world!" Chavez said.

Washington "is protecting two notorious terrorists, (Luis) Posada Carriles - and also for a long time Orlando Bosch … both were Venezuelan policemen found guilty of murder and torture [in Venezuela] and Washington is protecting them on U.S. territory," added the leftist head of state.

Caracas has asked Washington to extradite Posada Carriles, who has been detained in the United States since last May. [Posada Carriles] is the prime suspect behind the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Air passenger jet that was traveling from Caracas to Barbados and which caused 73 deaths.

The 77-year-old anti-Castro terrorist, originally from Cuba but naturalized in Venezuela in the 1960's, fled a prison in central Venezuela in 1985 while being tried for "homicide and treason."

With regard to the bombing of the Cuban passenger jet, the Venezuelan judicial system acquitted anti-Castro terrorist Orlando Bosch in August 1987, who was imprisoned in [Venezuela] for 11 years under suspicion of intellectual involvement in the crime.

Chavez insisted that the Bush Government intends to put an end to [Chavez'] "Bolivarian Revolution," and that it associates this objective with a case of "espionage" involving a military attache from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas and at least 24 Venezuelan Marines.

"We have just discovered one more case of espionage here … we would like to say [to the United States] that despite the many tools of power and technology they may bring into play, they will never succeed [in controlling] us," claimed the Venezuelan Chief-of-State.

Venezuelan Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel, claimed today that the [Venezuelan] Government "has duly verified confidential information that officials under assignment with the North American military are indeed involved" into alleged espionage.

On Thursday, the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, said that Caracas had not informed him of the alleged "espionage" that would involve John Correa, according to local sources, the Embassy's naval attache.

Chavez emphasized that "the fundamental reason" behind Bush's attempts to end the "Bolivarian Revolution" is his desire to take control of Venezuela's natural gas and petroleum, which Washington controlled for 100 years.

Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest exporter of crude oil and home to the eighth-largest natural gas reserves on the planet, is the fourth most important supplier to the United States, where it owns a network of nearly 14,000 service stations.

Caracas and Washington have maintained bitter diplomatic relations, characterized by an unrelenting exchange of accusations against one another, referring to the "imperialist and interventionist" tendencies of Bush's government and the "totalitarian intentions" of Chavez.

"The journalist called on her family, her colleagues and Americans throughout the world to ask the US military authorities and the Iraqi interior ministry to free all Iraqi prisoners, saying this could contribute to her release," Al Jazeera's presenter said.

In the tape broadcast on January 17, a tired Carroll had spoken calmly, dressed in a grey sweatshirt, her hair loose.

The trouble-plagued trial of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants is set to resume Wednesday but without its key defendants or their lawyers.

Defense lawyers have said they have no intention in the near future of returning to the court, which is now run by a much stricter judge who ejected Saddam and three other defendants for their courtroom behavior on Sunday.

One of the defence team, Jordanian lawyer Saleh al-Armuti, told AFP on Tuesday that the boycott would continue until the judge was replaced.

Carroll, who started working in Iraq soon after the fall of Saddam, was freelancing for the US-based Christian Science Monitor and had just visited the headquarters of Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi when she was kidnapped.

"For a third time, I appeal to the kidnappers hoping they will release her as soon as possible," Dulaimi told AFP. "We demand the release of the Iraqi female prisoners in US prisons to defuse the crisis and avoid harming the journalist."

"Her capitivity is bad for the Sunnis," he added, appealing to her captors, "especially those in the western areas like Fallujah and Ramadi, and will only cause them more trouble."

The latest video was widely reported in the United States, but television stations refused to broadcast more than a few seconds of it, calling it too disturbing.

In the past, other young foreign female hostages such as the French and Italian women taken in the past two years appeared weeping and distressed in kidnapper videos. All three were eventually freed.

While US and Iraqi authorities refused to free any prisoners to placate Carroll's kidnappers, more than 400 Iraqi detainees, including five women, were released last week after what the authorities said were normal reviews.

Four Iraqi women are still held in US-administered prisons.

The new tape comes amid a spike in hostage-taking in Iraq, with insurgents releasing tapes of several foreign captives.

A group holding four Western peace activists, captive in Iraq since November, last week issued a new video of their captives, saying it was giving a "last chance" for its demands to be met.

Two German engineers seized in northern Iraq appealed on Friday to Germany to save their lives.

Earlier this month, two Kenyan telecommunications engineers were kidnapped in Baghdad, but no information has been released on their status or whereabouts.

Meanwhile, in northern Iraq, officials in the Kurdish autonomous region were moving to stave off a feared spread of bird flu after a young girl was confirmed Monday to have died of the virus on January 17.

A buffer zone along the Iranian and Turkish borders has been declared and already some half a million birds in these regions have been culled, said Tahseen Nameq, head of the joint Kurdish committee to confront the disease.

"We are suffering from a lack of medicine to combat the virus," Nameq told AFP, revealing that health officials only had enough medecine to treat five patients.

In the battle against insurgents, security officials in the northern town of Samarra reported the launch of a major joint US-Iraqi operation.

Entry to the city has been restricted and a curfew has reportedly been imposed and at least six people have been arrested. The operation follows an attack on a US observation post on Sunday that produced no casualties.

The US military also reported a joint operation with Iraqi forces in Baquba on Sunday that resulted in the arrests of 18 suspected insurgents.

On Monday, US marines in Ramadi resorted to airpower to kill two insurgents who had fired five rocket-propelled grenades at them. The air strike also injured at least one civilian.

A Japanese newspaper reported that Tokyo's first foreign military deployment will end in May when it pulls out of Iraq. Japan has 600 troops in the southern town of Samawa on a humanitarian mission focused on reconstruction.

Putin said the new missiles were capable of carrying nuclear warheads. He wouldn't say whether the Russian military already had commissioned any such missiles.

He said he had shown the working principles of the missile systems to French President Jacques Chirac during a visit to a Russian military facility.

"He knows what I'm talking about," news agencies quoted Putin as telling reporters after state-run news channels had cut their live broadcast of the news conference.

In April 2004, Chirac became the first Western leader to visit Russia's top-secret Titov space control center, which is also involved in launches of its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Putin said that the new missiles were capable of changing both the altitude and the direction of their flight, making it impossible for an enemy to intercept them.

"A missile defense system is designed to counter missiles moving along a ballistic trajectory," Putin was quoted as saying.

Putin and other Russian officials have boasted of the new missiles in similar comments in recent years, but they haven't identified them or given any further details other than about their ability to change their flight path on approach to a target.

Most analysts viewed the earlier announcements about "hypersonic" missile systems as Moscow's response to U.S. missile defense plans.

Military analysts have said that the military had experimented with a maneuvering warhead during a missile launch several years ago, but voiced doubt about Russia's ability to deploy such weapons anytime soon.

Analysts said the new warheads, designed to zigzag on their approach to targets, could be fitted to new land-based Topol-M missiles and the prospective Bulava missiles, now under development.

On other topics at the news conference, Putin:

- Urged the militant Palestinian group Hamas to engage in peaceful dialogue, and said Russia's position on the Middle East differed from that of the United States and Europe.

Hamas should "refrain from extremist declarations, acknowledge Israel's right to exist and put its contacts with the international community in order," Putin said. He said "Russia has never declared Hamas a terrorist organization, but it doesn't mean we support and accept everything Hamas has done and all the statements it has made."

- Lashed out at the government of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili for its criticism of Moscow over last week's gas pipeline explosion, which resulted in a weeklong cutoff of Russian gas from the Caucasus Mountains nation.

While repair teams were working to fix the pipeline in freezing temperatures, "we only saw them spitting at us," Putin said. "Georgian citizens must know that such a policy toward Russia won't help to improve conditions of ordinary people."

- Praised his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, for taking Russia on the democratic path amid the turmoil that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"During the time when Yeltsin led Russia, Russian citizens got the most important thing: freedom," Putin said during a wide-ranging annual news conference. "This is a great historic accomplishment of Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin."

Many Russians hold Yeltsin, who turns 75 on Wednesday, responsible for the post-Soviet economic meltdown that led to a dramatic plunge in living standards. Putin owes his rise to power to Yeltsin, who picked him as his prime minister and then named him acting president.

Through a royal proclamation in the morning of Feb. 1, 2005, King Gyanendra dismissed a coalition government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba, jailed hundreds of activists across the country, declared state of emergency and imposed harsh press censorship, cut telephone and mobile services across the country.

The state of emergency was lifted three months later.

The country's municipal polls are scheduled for Feb. 8.

"As far as the extradition issue is concerned, they may stay here. It is good to feel they are under our control," Putin said at his annual press conference in the Kremlin.

"The problem we have encountered will not lower the level of our cooperation with the United Kingdom," he said.

Meanwhile, Putin used the spy row to defend a new Russian law on NGOs, saying NGOs in the country should not be run by "puppeteers" from outside Russia.

NGOs are needed as a means to check on bodies of power and the state will support them but require their financing to be transparent.

Earlier this month, Putin signed into law a bill on NGOs, which required all domestic NGOs in Russia that receive overseas funds to declare their origins and purpose and regulated the registration procedure for the establishment of branch offices in Russia by foreign NGOs and social groups.