Thanks to a subservient mainstream media, we are now fed a constant diet of preposterous double-think from American political leaders and their Israeli minions with regard to Iran and its alleged threat to world security. In this inadvertently valuable service, the pliant uncritical mainstream media is giving full vent to the most outrageous drivel dressed up as serious discourse.

By acting as mouthpieces rather than critical interlocutors, the media are allowing such political figures to indict themselves with their own baseless, contradictory and hypocritical words. A few recent examples: Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper Jr in congressional testimony this week asserted that Iranian leaders are "now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime".

The Washington Post reported the "intelligence" briefing with the headline: 'Iran, perceiving threat from West, willing to attack on US soil, US intelligence report finds. Yet Clapper, the US nation's supposed intelligence supremo, presents no evidence to support his reckless claim that Iranian forces are preparing such attacks. Indeed, the Washington Post notes in the same paragraph quoting the Director of National Intelligence: "US officials said they have seen no intelligence to indicate that Iran is actively plotting attacks on US soil."

Then the paper goes on to amplify the unfounded accusations and assertions, by writing: "The warning about Iran's more aggressive stance was included in written testimony that Clapper submitted to Congress". Note how the paper in the space of few words moves effortlessly from acknowledging that there is no evidence to support Clapper's claptrap premise to peddling the claptrap conclusion that Iran has taken a "more aggressive stance".

Rather than taking Clapper to task to justify his hyperbole about Iranian "threats on American soil" and possibly misleading Congress and the American people, the Washington Post passively goes along with the flow of what appears to be out-and-out propaganda. This meekness and complicity of the media in conditioning public opinion for a baseless war on Iran has echoes of the elusive, non-existent weapons of mass destruction that US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister were allowed to lie about by the same media for their criminal war on Iraq. But, as noted, this abject "churnalism" may eventually be a good thing. For it allows political leaders and their advisors to hang themselves with their own words.

A House-Senate conference report this week called on the Administration to accelerate the use of civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or "drones," in U.S. airspace.

The pending authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration directs the Secretary of Transporation to develop within nine months "a comprehensive plan to safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system."

"The plan... shall provide for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015."

The battle over the Stop Online Piracy Act in the United States may have concluded with millions of Internet users successfully protesting against the bill, but many Canadians are buzzing about the possibility that some of its provisions could make their way into a copyright bill currently before the House of Commons.

For months, the public focus on the bill has centered on its restrictive digital lock provisions, which provide legal protection for technical protections found on DVDs, electronic books, and other digital content. Dozens of organizations - including businesses, the Retail Council of Canada, creator groups, consumer groups, education and library associations, as well as representatives of the visually impaired - have argued the government's approach is overly restrictive and will upset the traditional copyright balance. They note the restrictive rules do not penalize pirates, but rather Canadian consumers and businesses.

Yet behind-the-scenes, the same lobby groups that promoted SOPA in the U.S. have been pushing for drastic changes to the Canadian bill would make it even more restrictive by limiting new consumer rights, expanding potential liability, and importing provisions similar to those found in SOPA.

For example, the music industry has asked the government to insert language similar to that found in SOPA on blocking access to websites, demanding new provisions that would "permit a court to make an order blocking a pirate site such as The Pirate Bay to protect the Canadian marketplace from foreign pirate sites." Section 102 of SOPA also envisioned the blocking of websites.

The CIA's drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.

The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a 'targeted, focused effort' that 'has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.'

Speaking publicly for the first time on the controversial CIA drone strikes, Obama claimed last week they are used strictly to target terrorists, rejecting what he called 'this perception we're just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly'.

'Drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties', he told a questioner at an on-line forum. 'This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists trying to go in and harm Americans'.

Protesters attacked seven Syrian embassies around the world following reports of the bloodiest episode yet in Damascus' nearly yearlong crackdown on dissent. Mobs trashed diplomats' offices from London to Australia and set the embassy in Cairo on fire.

Activists say Syrian forces killed more than 200 people in the city of Homs before dawn Saturday, pounding restive neighborhoods with mortars and artillery. The government denies the reports.

Australian police said the mob smashed into the embassy in a diplomatic precinct of Canberra, the capital, on Saturday night, causing extensive damage to the ground floor of the two-story building.

Syrian Charge d'Affaires Jawdat Ali told the Associated Press that 50 men smashed through the front door, destroyed furniture and stole computers. He said the damage bill had yet to be calculated.

Ali blamed media reports of the conflict in Syria for inciting what he described as a "barbarian action" and "terrorism."

Thirteen other council members vote in favour
UK and US react with fury to decision
Homs death toll more than 200, say activists

Russia and China have vetoed a UN security council resolution calling for the Syrian president to step down, provoking a furious reaction.

All 13 other members of the council, including the US, France and Britain, voted in favour of the resolution, which backed an Arab peace plan aimed at stopping the violence in Syria. Russia and China blocked the resolution because of what they perceived to be a potential violation of Syria's sovereignty, which could allow for military intervention or regime change.

William Hague, the foreign secretary, condemned the decision. "More than 2,000 people have died since Russia and China vetoed the last draft resolution in October 2011," he said after the vote. "How many more need to die before Russia and China allow the UN security council to act?

"Those opposing UN security council action will have to account to the Syrian people for their actions, which do nothing to help bring an end to the violence that is ravaging the country. The United Kingdom will continue to support the people of Syria and the Arab League to find an end to the violence and allow a Syrian-led political transition."

Late last year, the Central Intelligence Agency explained to Judge Kessler of the US District Court in Washington DC that releasing the final volume of its three-decade-old history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle would "confuse the public," and should be withheld because it is a "predecisional" document. Wow. And I thought that I had heard them all.

On the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the National Security Archive filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the release of a five-volume CIA history of the Bay of Pigs affair. In response to the lawsuit, the CIA negotiated to release three volumes of the history - the JFK Assassination Records Review Board had already released Volume III - with limited redaction, currently available on the National Security Archive's website. At the time, the Director of the National Security Archive's Cuba Documentation project, Peter Kornbluh, quipped that getting historic documents released from the CIA was "the bureaucratic equivalent of passing a kidney stone." He was right. The Agency refused to release the final volume of this history, and the National Security Archive is not giving up on the fight.

A close look at the roots of Romney's -- and the Mormon church's -- political ambitions

When Mitt Romney received his patriarchal blessing as a Michigan teenager, he was told that the Lord expected great things from him. All young Mormon men - the "worthy males" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is officially known - receive such a blessing as they embark on their requisite journeys as religious missionaries. But at 19 years of age, the youngest son of the most prominent Mormon in American politics - a seventh-generation direct descendant of one of the faith's founding 12 apostles - Mitt Romney had been singled out as a destined leader.

When Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush on June 9, 2008, the 35 had been selected from drafts of nearly twice that many articles.

President Obama has accumulated his own massive list of high crimes and misdemeanors that were unavailable for Bush's list (thing's like openly murdering U.S. citizens, launching massive drone wars, selectively and abusively prosecuting numerous whistleblowers as spies, holding Bradley Manning naked in isolation, attacking Libya without so much as bothering to lie to Congress, etc.).

The Israeli occupation authorities have issued notice of their intention to demolish a renewable energy project which generates electricity and represents the only source of lighting for the houses in a Palestinian village near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. The people of Al-Mnazel received the demolition notice advising of Israel's plans to destroy the solar panels which provide them with electricity. The project was established a couple of years ago with funds from the Spanish government.

The coordinator of the People's Committees in the district, Rateb Al-Jabour, told the media that the project provides more than 40 Palestinian families with electricity. He warned that the project's destruction by the Israeli "Civil Administration", "will take the village back to the stone age".

Mr. Al-Jabour added that the Israeli occupation authorities have also given Khalil Al-Nwaja', who lives in Al-Mnazel, notice that his home will be demolished. The tents and caravans, claim the Israelis, do not have a licence.