"The intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Everyone remembers the Downing Street Memo, which unveiled the Bush/Blair "policy" in the run-up to the 2003 bombing/invasion/occupation of Iraq. The "policy" was to get rid of Saddam Hussein via a lightning war. The justification was "terrorism" and (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which had "disappeared", mounted in trucks, deep into Syria. Forget about intelligence and facts.

The tragedy of MH17 - turned, incidentally, into a WMD - might be seen as a warped rerun of imperial policy in Iraq. No need for a memo this time. The "policy" of the Empire of Chaos is clear, and multi-pronged; diversify the "pivot to Asia" by establishing a beachhead in Ukraine to sabotage trade between Europe and Russia; expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to Ukraine; break the Russia-China strategic partnership; prevent by all means the trade/economic integration of Eurasia, from the Russia-Germany partnership to the New Silk Roads converging from China to the Ruhr; keep Europe under US hegemony.

The key reason why Russian President Vladimir Putin did not "invade" Eastern Ukraine - as much as he's been enticed to by Washington/NATO - to stop a US military adviser-facilitated running slaughter of civilians is that he does not want to antagonize the European Union, Russia's top trading partner.

Dead women, dead children, dead babies. Limbs missing, brains missing, guts spilled out on the floor. It's impossible to put a positive spin on those kinds of images, unless you're Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Two days ago, Bibi sought to explain why, in the space of a few hours, Israeli soldiers, under his orders, massacred 63 people, including 17 children, in the Shuja'iya neighborhood to the east of Gaza City. He said:

"We have to protect ourselves. We try to target the rocketeers, we do. And all civilian casualties are not intended by us but actually intended by Hamas who want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can because somebody said they use telegenically dead Palestinians for the cause. They want the more dead the better."

The Nobel Peace Prize should be given to Israeli forces for their "unimaginable restraint" in their offensive against the blockaded Gaza Strip, says the Israeli envoy to the United States.

Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer made the appalling remarks at a pro-Israeli event in Washington on Tuesday.

The Israeli forces "should be given the Nobel Peace Prize... a Nobel Peace Prize for fighting with unimaginable restraint," Dermer said, claiming the Israeli soldiers do not "target a single Palestinian civilian."

"Our soldiers are dying so that innocent Palestinians can live," he said, censuring Human Rights Watch for its criticism of the Israeli aggression.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed condolences to the Israeli regime for its losses.

The UN chief made the shocking remarks at joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon his arrival in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

"I extend my deep condolences to the prime minister and to the people of Israel on the fatalities from the recent escalation," Ban said.

He also called on Tel Aviv to exercise "maximum restraint" in its attacks against the besieged enclave.

The Israeli premier, for his part, claimed the regime did not want civilian casualties in Gaza.

So far, more than 630 people have been killed and over 3,700 others injured by the Israeli regime despite pressure from international community.

Kissinger deserves vigorous prosecution for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture.

A good liar must have a good memory: Kissinger is a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory.

- Christopher Hitchens in The Trial of Henry Kissinger

I first heard of Theranos, Inc. in the fall of 2013, when the Wall Street Journal published a piece titled, Elizabeth Holmes: The Breakthrough of Instant Diagnosis. However, it wasn't just me.

It was the first time pretty much anyone on earth had heard of the company, because despite having been founded a decade earlier in 2003, it maintained a level of secrecy more characteristic of classified military operations.

Here are some excerpts from that original article:

Evidence from social media and "common sense" indicate Ukrainian militia shot down the Malaysian Airlines plane, the State Department says. The US also cites its own intelligence which it has refrained from revealing to the public.

In a State Department briefing on Monday, Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said there was a "preponderance of evidence" pointing to the fact that militia in eastern Ukraine downed flight MH17. Harf said the US government's suspicions were based on information gathered from social media sites.

"We saw in social media afterwards, we saw videos, we saw photos of the pro-Russian separatists bragging about shooting down an aircraft," she told assembled press.

When asked whether she could back up the claims with any other evidence, Harf said there is "a host of information" the US had gathered about who did this. However, Harf said the American government is limited to the information that it is allowed to share.

"Sometimes you can't get into all the specifics," she said. "Based on open information which is basically common sense, right - we know where it was fired from, we know who has this weapon."

According to Harf, the Obama administration is attempting to put out as much information as possible that underlies their assessment of the information. The deputy speaker also discouraged people from believing the Russian government's version of events because it has a history of "misinformation and propaganda" in the Ukrainian conflict.

In his speech to the nation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged yesterday that the war on Gaza is a battle for the existence of the Jewish State. Netanyahu is correct. And Israel cannot win this battle; it cannot even define what a victory might entail. Surely the battle is not about the tunnels or the militants' underground operation, the tunnels are just weapons of resistance rather than the resistance itself. The Hamas and Gaza militants lured Israel into a battle zone in which it could never succeed and Hamas set the conditions, chose the ground and has written the terms required to conclude this cycle of violence.

For ten days Netanyahu did all he could to prevent an IDF ground operation. He was facing the reality that Israel lacks a military answer to Palestinian resistance. Netanyahu knew that a defeat on the ground would eradicate the little that remains of IDF's power of deterrence.

Five days ago, Israel, at least in the eyes of its supporters, held the upper ground. It saw it citizens subject to an endless barrage of rockets, yet it showed relative restraint, killing Palestinian civilians only from afar, which served to convey an imaginary image of strength. But that has changed rapidly since Israel launched its ground operation. Israel is now, once again, involved in colossal war crimes against a civilian population and worse, at least strategically, its elite infantry commandos are being eradicated in a face-to-face street battle in Gaza. In spite of clear Israeli technological superiority and firepower, the Palestinian militants are winning the battle on the ground and they have even managed to move the battle to Israeli territory. In addition, the barrage of rockets on Tel Aviv doesn't seem to stop.

IDF's defeat in Gaza leaves the Jewish State with no hope. The moral is simple. If you insist on living on someone else's land, military might is an essential ingredient to discourage the dispossessed from acting to reclaim their rights. The level of IDF casualties and the number of bodies of Israeli elite soldiers returning home in coffins send a clear message to both Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli military superiority belongs to the past. There is no future for the Jews-only-State in Palestine; they may have to try somewhere else.

The UN Security Council has condemned the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine and called for an international probe into the incident in a unanimously adopted resolution.

All 15-member states voted to pass the Australia-proposed resolution, condemning "in the strongest terms" the crash of Malaysian plane on July 17 in Donetsk region of Ukraine, which resulted in 298 people dead.

The UN also urged a "full, thorough and independent international investigation" into the incident. The resolution also asked local self-defense forces for their cooperation, such as avoiding "from any actions that may compromise the integrity of the crash site."

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said he was pleased that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will have an important role during the investigation and welcomed that fact that the Netherlands will take on the leading role as well.

"We could not simply allow the Security Council to endorse a Ukrainian-led investigation because we have no trust in their intention to conduct a truly objective investigation," Churkin told reporters following the resolution.

Ukraine will have to answer a lot of questions during the international investigation, Churkin said during his speech at the UN Security Council, adding that Kiev spread fake information allegedly connecting the self-defense forces to the downing of the plane.

The Ukrainian militia have handed over to Malaysian experts the black boxes from the Malaysian Boeing-777 airliner that crashed in east Ukraine on July 17.

The Donetsk People's Republic's (DPR) Prime Minister Aleksandr Boroday handed over the black boxes from the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 early on Tuesday.

"Here they are, the black boxes," Boroday told reporters. "According to the memorandum the Malaysian side must pass on the boxes to the experts from the ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization]."

Both sides signed a document, finalizing the procedure.

Malaysia delegation rep and Dutch rep now signing to receive #MH17 black boxes from rebels in #Donetsk. pic.twitter.com/RR4oHkcrVf

- Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) July 21, 2014

Colonel Mohamed Sakri of Malaysian National Security Council said that the two black boxes were "in good condition."

Earlier, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak said an agreement had been reached with militiamen at the scene of the crash that the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 black boxes will be handed over to Malaysian authorities in Donetsk at 9pm Ukrainian time.

On 26 November 1947, when it became apparent to Zionists and their supporters that the UN vote on the Partition of Palestine would be short of the required two thirds majority in the General Assembly, they filibustered for a postponement until after Thanksgiving thereby gaining time to threaten the loss of aid to nations such as Greece - which planned on voting against - into changing their votes.

U.S. President Truman - also threatened with loss of Jewish support in the upcoming Presidential election - later noted that:

The facts were that not only were there pressure movements around the United Nations unlike anything that had been seen there before, but that the White House, too, was subjected to a constant barrage. I do not think I ever had as much pressure and propaganda aimed at the White House as I had in this instance. The persistence of a few of the extreme Zionist leaders - actuated by political motives and engaging in political threats - disturbed and annoyed me.