Pondering Riyadh's decision to execute prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, which resulted in a political and diplomatic firestorm threatening to burn out of control, Syrian journalist Abbas Juma wonders whether the Saudis could have been duped into such a reckless move, whose consequences could include the collapse of the kingdom.

On January 2, Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shiite cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr, sparking outrage among Shiites around the world, including in Iran, where Shia Islam predominates. The execution resulted in protesters in Tehran storming the Saudi Embassy, Riyadh and its allies breaking off diplomatic relations with Iran, and Saudi warplanes bombing the Iranian Embassy in Yemen.

Commenting on Riyadh's possible rationale in an op-ed for independent Russian newspaper Svobodnaya Pressa, Syrian journalist Abbas Juma suggested that, first things first, analysts from all sides knew that Nimr's death would result in a crisis. "Therefore, few could believe that Riyadh would take such a step."

The fall of the Berlin Wall and USSR did not unite Europe, but only moved the division line eastwards. The West still declares Russia an enemy each time that Moscow takes an independent stance and asserts its national interests, President Putin told Bild. "We did everything wrong from the outset," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with German newspaper Bild. "We did not overcome Europe's division: Twenty-five years ago the Berlin Wall fell, but Europe's division was not overcome, invisible walls simply moved to the East. This created the foundation for mutual reproaches, misunderstanding, and crises in the future."

Russia's most crucial mistake during these years was a failure to clearly declare and actively protect national interests from day one, Putin said. "We have failed to assert our national interests, while we should have done that from the outset. Then the whole world could have been more balanced," Putin said. German politicians had foreseen that antagonism between Cold War opponents would only grow unless the format of international relations and balance of power in Europe changed radically, the Russian President said, citing archived records of talks which took place between German and Soviet diplomats at the time.

The "patriarch of European politics" at the time, German diplomat Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr said on June 26, 1990: "If while uniting Germany we do not take decisive steps to overcome the division of Europe into hostile blocs, the developments can take such an unfavorable turn that the USSR will be doomed to international isolation." The whole of central Europe, either with East Germany or without it, according to Bahr's concrete proposals, should have formed a separate alliance with the participation of both the Soviet Union and the US, Putin said.

Things are getting nailed down in the case of thousands of war crimes committed by neo-Nazi reprisal battalions -- or by the Ukrainian army that is plaguing the Donbass and also the territory itself of Kievan Ukraine.

So far the first series of 800 war crimes dossiers have been filed to the European Court of Human Rights, and 1500 others are awaiting deposit. Lawyers of Lugansk and Donetsk are still at it, hard at work gathering testimony, because the crimes continue and survivors of the Ukrainian prisons or escapees flood month after month to the Donbass or appear in other parts of the world sometimes after long and very dangerous journeys, journeys to escape the clutches of the political police of Kiev.

But the noose tightens tirelessly. In addition to the issues that come together and will be filed in the competent courts, about 12 000 cases of elderly people who, in the depth of winter, had been deprived of their pensions by Kiev and left in danger of death are already collected and will be joined by several thousands more. This decision, putting lives of the vulnerable citizens at risk, contravenes international law. Taken by Kiev, it should cost them dearly and it will not be forgotten in the future courts that will rule on Ukrainian war criminals at all levels of the state apparatus where they are found.

Passenger records handed over to the Guardian by Kurdish forces at Tel Abyad have Daesh stamp marks.

In what appears to be additional confirmation of Turkey's leadership knowledge of Daesh (also known as the Islamic State terrorist group), crossing Syria-Turkey borders without challenge, Kurdish forces managed to seize a list of passengers crossing through Tel Abyad, a town in northern Syria located around 2 kilometers from the Turkish border.

Numerous Daesh-sponsored buses used to pass through the town Tel Abyad bordering with Turkey until June 2015 when Kurdish forces took control of the town.

For four months in a row since December 2014, passengers with registered ID numbers, names, and other personal data stamped by Daesh "department of immigration" and "department of transport" came to Tel Abyad from within Daesh-held territory.

US and international media have been abuzz in recent days with the ongoing armed occupation at the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. The social media space has been - quite predictably - polarized, with many on the far-right lionizing the armed occupiers as "patriots" and "heroes" defending a just cause in the name of "liberty." Naturally, many liberals and assorted leftists have condemned the occupation, pointing out both the relevant legal and historical issues at play here, including the vicious tradition of white militias in the US, the blatant disregard of environmental regulations, and much more that is well beyond the scope of this article.

But what has been missed by seemingly every pundit, left and right, who has chimed in on the Oregon occupation is the unmistakable stench of provocation. Simply put, something is off about this whole story, and it struck me from the first moment I read about what was happening, who was involved, and who wasn't involved. Specifically, there are indications that this entire fiasco has been manufactured by either government agencies themselves or some other private forces for any number of reasons.

This week on Behind the Headlines, we're interviewing - for the second time - freelance journalist and human rights activist Eva Bartlett, who was on this show two months ago. Bartlett was aboard the Dignity, one of five Free Gaza relief operations to successfully sail to the Gaza Strip in 2008. She ended up staying in Gaza for some time, reporting from there during Israeli Operations 'Cast Lead' in 08/09, and 'Pillar of Defense' in 2012.

In the last couple of years, Bartlett has been one of the few Western journalists to report truthfully on the situation in Syria, a country she has visited several times, including independently on a journalist visa. Bartlett recently returned from spending 8 days over Christmas in the war-torn country, where she attended conferences, visited recently liberated districts, and met Syrian officials, religious and community leaders.

Listeners can find Eva's writings on Syria and Palestine at her blog, InGaza.wordpress.com, and support her continuing work as a voice for the voiceless through SyriaSolidarityMovement.org.

We hope you'll join us from 2-4pm EST / 8-10pm CET, this Sunday 10th January 2016, for an account of life in Syria you won't hear anywhere else.

Running Time: 01:32:00

Download: MP3

The second top deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and chief of staff of Islamic State's Military Council was killed in an airstrike, the Iraqi Air Force has claimed.

The airstrike allegedly took place in western Anbar province, east of the town of Haditha.

The deceased commander is reported to have been Assi Ali Mohammed Nasser al-Obeidi. He was formerly a colonel in the Iraqi Republican Guards during the reign of Saddam Hussein. He spent some years in American prisons before joining Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

Al-Obeidi became acquainted with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current IS leader, in Camp Bucca prison. The Americans released al-Baghdadi from Camp Bucca in 2009, while al-Obeidi was transferred to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, from which he escaped in 2013. He became a top IS commander and went under the name of "Abu Omar al-Obeidi."

Al-Obeidi hailed from the small town of Hawija to the west from Kirkuk. His last post was chief of staff of Islamic State's Military Council. Al-Obeidi adds to the long list of top rank IS commanders reported to have been eliminated by the Iraqi Army in recent months. They include al-Baghdadi's top deputy Abu Ali al-Anbari and the head of IS' intelligence committee Abu Hassan al-Sahabi.

As recently as Friday, January 8, the Iraqi Defense Ministry announced: "ISIL Spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani was killed during the terrorist group's offensive at the town of Barwani in Iraq's Western territories," although the terrorist group is yet to make any official statement on al-Adnani's death.

In October 2015, a convoy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was targeted by an Iraqi Air Force airstrike, also in western Anbar province bordering Syria. It was heading to Al-Karable to attend a meeting with other IS commanders. The airstrike reportedly killed dozens of jihadists who were accompanying the IS leader. Al-Baghdadi was wounded himself and evacuated to safety to undergo medical treatment.

Unique among the countries on earth, the US government insists that its laws and dictates take precedence over the sovereignty of nations. Washington asserts the power of US courts over foreign nationals and claims extra-territorial jurisdiction of US courts over foreign activities of which Washington or American interest groups disapprove. Perhaps the worst results of Washington's disregard for the sovereignty of countries is the power Washington has exercised over foreign nationals solely on the basis of terrorism charges devoid of any evidence.

Consider a few examples. Washington first forced the Swiss government to violate its own banking laws. Then Washington forced Switzerland to repeal its bank secrecy laws. Allegedly, Switzerland is a democracy, but the country's laws are determined in Washington by people not elected by the Swiss to represent them.

Consider the "soccer scandal" that Washington concocted, apparently for the purpose of embarrassing Russia. The soccer organization's home is Switzerland, but this did not stop Washington from sending FBI agents into Switzerland to arrest Swiss citizens. Try to imagine Switzerland sending Swiss federal agents into the US to arrest Americans.

Consider the $9 billion fine that Washington imposed on a French bank for failure to fully comply with Washington's sanctions against Iran. This assertion of Washington's control over a foreign financial institution is even more audaciously illegal in view of the fact that the sanctions Washington imposed on Iran and requires other sovereign countries to obey are themselves strictly illegal. Indeed, in this case we have a case of triple illegality as the sanctions were imposed on the basis of concocted and fabricated charges that were lies.

1 October 2015 - 8 January 2016

Executive Summary

It has been 100 days since grassroots, mostly youth-led protests broke out in Jerusalem, in reaction to increasing Israeli incursions into and restrictions on Islam's Al-Aqsa Mosque. Since then, mass protests and individual attacks have spread across the West Bank and into Gaza and communities of Palestinian Israelis.

The story told primarily by the international media is one of Palestinian stabbers and Israeli retaliation in self-defense. However, as the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documents in this 100-day report, proven Palestinian attacks are relatively small in number and often committed by lone youth, while the number of arrests, harassment and executions committed by Israeli forces are increasingly excessive and disproportionate.

As such, the behavior of the Israeli military constitutes violations of international law, and thus Euro-Med demands that the United Nations and other international bodies, as well as governments doing business with Israel, act now to pressure Israeli authorities to stop the abuse of human rights and end the root cause of the unrest: its decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories.

A headline, from today, on the British Guardian newspaper's web site:

Murder in Istanbul: Kremlin's hand suspected in shooting of Chechen

'Oh, those terrible Russians and that ruthless Putin are up to their old extrajudicial murder tricks again! Will they never learn about real democracy! At least we, the great Western public (and therefore representatives of the 'global community'), are holding them to account as best we can by imposing 'sanctions' and hysterically demonizing them every time they fly a plane near Scotland.'

The above reflects, more or less, the thoughts that would have rattled around the, largely empty, vessel that is the cranium of the average Western citizen, as he or she read the above Guardian headline. And what else can we expect when such pernicious propaganda is catapulted at them on a daily basis?

Look at that headline again: "Murder". Well, right there you have the judgement... MURDER! And who did? The KREMLIN! Who else! And the victim? A CHECHEN! Oh dear Lord! Those poor chech-y people who have, for decades, if I vaguely remember, been trying to tear themselves away from the greedy grasp of the new Russian/Soviet Empire! There's no need to read any further, we have all the information we need!