Inside the 'Islamic State' - part one: Patrick Cockburn today begins a groundbreaking week-long series of dispatches which will explore the creation of this so-called Islamic State, what it's like to live under the jihadis' rule, and what if anything the West can do about it. Today, he talks to people living in the 'caliphate' to find out how they regard Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's merciless but powerful new state and how it treats them.

It is one of the strangest states ever created. The Islamic State wants to force all humanity to believe in its vision of a religious and social utopia existing in the first days of Islam. Women are to be treated as chattels, forbidden to leave the house unless they are accompanied by a male relative. People deemed to be pagans, like the Yazidis, can be bought and sold as slaves. Punishments such as beheadings, amputations and flogging become the norm. All those not pledging allegiance to the caliphate declared by its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on 29 June last year are considered enemies.

As Russia begins to build a pipeline through Macedonia that could form the basis of a revised South Stream route, the Hungarian President is in talks with Erdogan over financing this enormous project.

While many in the Balkans were lamenting the cancellation of the South Stream project last December, Russia was hard at work laying the foundation for its replacement, hereafter referred to as 'Balkan Stream'. The concept is to connect 'Turkish Stream', the Russian pipeline to Turkey's Eastern Thrace region, to South Stream's previously intended Serbian, Hungarian, and Austrian partners, but detouring through Greece and Macedonia to compensate for the exclusion of Bulgaria. While such a strategy was previously only talk, concrete action was taken this week to transform it into a reality, which wouldn't have been possible had Macedonia not beaten back the Color Revolution attempt that aimed to sabotage the entire thing.

Step By Step

The whole reason that Balkan Stream was conceived in the first place was because its predecessor, South Stream, was cancelled last December. Russia took this decision after Bulgaria (influenced by the EU acting on behalf of the US) made it impossible to construct the pipeline through its territory due to a slew of political and legal games that it was playing. At the time, this author was the first person to write that a replacement route could realistically go through Greece and Macedonia, thereby resurrecting the project and fulfilling the pressing energy demands in Europe that necessitated its creation in the first place. Russia was quick to move, and in the same breath that it cancelled South Stream, it announced 'Turkish Stream' to partially replace it. This pipeline will travel under the Black Sea just as South Stream was intended to, but would instead reach land at Turkey, not Bulgaria. From there, the Russian government said, European nations could buy gas from a terminal at the Greco-Turkish border, in what was interpreted as a vague hint that such purchases could either be LNG or possibly even the start of a brand new pipeline.

Cyril Smith avoided prosecution because other establishment paedophiles feared he would spill their secrets in court, a former senior police officer said today.

Lancashire detective Jack Tasker spent years compiling evidence on the 29-stone Liberal MP's child abuse only to have his investigation shut down and threatened with the sack himself.

Mr Tasker believes there was a network of spies and obstructive forces at a local and national level to protect Smith from facing justice.

It came as it emerged today that Smith was arrested at a sex party with teenage boys but police were told to cover it up and the evidence was destroyed, according to an investigation.

Mr Tasker told Sky News: 'Other people were rather worried that if Cyril Smith went before a court, he would open his mouth.'

EDITOR CLAIMS POLICE SNATCHED SMITH EVIDENCE IN OFFICE RAID

A former newspaper editor has described how police raided his office in the 1980s and took documents relating to alleged child abuse by senior political figures including the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith.

Don Hale told BBC Radio 5 live Breakfast he was working for the Bury Messenger when the former cabinet minister Barbara Castle passed the documents to him.

He said he is 'certain' that the police raid happened a day after Cyril Smith came and threatened him about the investigation.

Don Hale told BBC Radio 5 live's Nicky Campbell: 'In 1984, I started making enquiries to get a response from various MPs I'd spoken to a number of Liberal MPs named in the document. Cyril Smith came into to see me.

'He came storming in, said it was all rubbish, demanded that I hand everything over to him straight away and he was really aggressive. I mean he was quite a big guy anyway. He was about six foot tall and quite heavy and he was really poking his fingers at me, threatening, spitting at me, all sorts of things. He was a real horror.

'In the end I refused to give it. He walked out of the office, stormed out the office. And the very next day Special Branch arrived with three plain clothes officers and about a dozen police, you know, raided the place, pushed me against the wall, were very, very aggressive again, threatened to arrest me on the spot for perverting the course of justice if I didn't hand over the documents to them. I agreed obviously to do that, showed them what the documents were and they took them and then disappeared.'

He described how his investigation into the child abuser was closed abruptly despite having evidence from at least eight of the MP's young victims.

Mr Tasker said other police officers told him: 'We're taking over the inquiry. We want every scrap of paper, every statement, every recording, every lead.'.

Tasker said he knew he had no choice but to comply. 'After they'd bagged it up, they asked: 'Is that everything? If it isn't, and we find out you've held something back, there will be trouble.' Then they left.'

Last night Newsnight revealed that the 29-stone Liberal MP was snared by an undercover police operation gathering evidence of child abuse only to be released without charge.

Sources say officers had targeted several properties in south London suspected of hosting sex parties and the paedophile was secretly filmed and photographed abusing boys.

Putin is back. Or was he ever gone? Western media created the gossip about Putin's absence, fueled it with numerous conspiracy theories, ranging from his poor health, a coup and even alien abduction, all the while the world goes on with ISIL, Ebola, the conflict in Ukraine and other more important issues than the "disappearance" of Putin.

Over the last 11 days Western media excessively focused on "mysterious disappearance" of Vladimir Putin, all the while forgetting about other, more important things happening in the world.

ISIL keeps destroying ancient monuments and taking hostages, Ebola keeps infecting people in West Africa, Ukrainians keep fighting each other, Nazis are marching in Latvia and world leaders are trying to resolve Iran's nuclear issue. Despite this, during the last 11 days, Western media mostly kept talking about "disappearance" of Vladimir Putin.

Putin's mystery was on top of everyone's mind. Western media came up with the most ridiculous theories about the whereabouts of the Russian leader. One theory said he was dead, another suggested that Putin was seriously ill and could no longer appear in public, third said that Putin was overthrown in a secret coup, and others even suggested that aliens abducted him.

Tehran has barely tolerated for the past few years the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's theatrics and tantrums on the nuclear issue, but the gloves are off, finally, as the US-Iran talks decidedly enter a phase where the American media is wondering whether to call the deal an 'agreement', 'a 'memorandum of understanding', a 'treaty' and so on. The diplomats of the permanent members of the UN Security Council have just begun consultations in New York about a resolution formally lifting the UN sanctions on Iran if a deal is struck.

Israel repeatedly resorted to subversive activities such as murdering Iranian scientists and Netanyahu never lost an opportunity to caricature Iran as responsible for all that is going wrong in this troubled world of ours, often in vituperative language. Iran held back from retaliating even in the face of the most outrageous provocation. But, no more — and, when it comes to plain speaking, Netanyahu will be no match for Tehran.

The finance ministries of France and Germany have confirmed they'll join China's new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and Italy is expected to soon. Joining the rival to the US-led World Bank is seen as a setback for the Obama administration.

"The Ministry of Finance confirmed that France would join the AIIB bank," French daily Le Figaro reported Tuesday.

Germany's finance ministry said it was joining the bank, the BBC says, although Italy has yet to confirm the earlier report by the Financial Times (FT).

France has blocked five websites suspected of condoning terrorism and spreading hate speech, marking the first usage of new anti-terrorism powers approved by parliament last year that allow such bans without court orders.

"I do not want to see sites that could lead people to take up arms on the Internet," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said at a public meeting Monday.

"I make a distinction between freedom of expression and the spread of messages that serve to glorify terrorism. These hate messages are a crime," he added. Internet service providers were given 24 hours to comply.

An international tribunal will try cases of human rights violations perpetrated by Philippines President Ninoy Aquino, as well as United States (US) President Barack Obama, in Washington D.C. next July.
The International People's Tribunal, initiated by non-government organizations, human rights groups and solidarity groups in the Philippines and the United States, was launched today in Quezon City, Philippines. It is being seen as part of efforts by the international community to make the Philippine and US governments accountable for the various abuses and "anti-people" policies inflicted on the Filipino people.

"Beneath the liberal-democratic facade of the Aquino regime, brutal repression of people's civil and political rights abound, with hundreds of cases of extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances and massive displacement of families (happening today)," said Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of Karapatan which is among the complainants in the IPT.

IPT will also try the many violations of economic, political and cultural rights of the Filipino people, including the congressional and presidential pork barrel scandals, the many onerous deals entered into by the Philippine government, including Public-Private Partnerships, the massive demolition and displacement of urban poor settlers, among others.

The tribunal will also probe into the role of the increasing US political, economic and military intervention in the Philippines that is at the root of the intensifying poverty and repression in the country.

The annual report delivered to the US Senate by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper removed Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah as terrorist threats.

The report on Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities was recently made public, with Iran and Hezbollah scrapped from the terrorism list. The change is particularly significant as both Iran and Hezbollah have been featured in the section in previous years. In 2014, both were listed as terrorist threats within the context of the Syrian civil war in addition to direct threats they pose to the US and its allies.

The terrorism section in the most recent report focuses primarily on the rising threat of Sunni extremist groups, such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State, noting the potential access these groups have to the US due to the number of foreigners fighting in Syria and Iraq.

"Although most homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) will probably continue to aspire to travel overseas, particularly to Syria and Iraq, they will probably remain the most likely Sunni violent extremist threat to the US homeland because of their immediate and direct access."

The report additionally notes Iran's role in combating these threats.

Back in 2006, the newly elected Prime Minister of Canada, right-wing Conservative Stephen Harper warned that "You won't recognize Canada when I'm through with it." After nine grueling years, that's already true in many ways. But now, Harper is going even further in his re-make of the country. Under new and pending legislation, Canada is moving rapidly towards the creation of a police state, with major curtailments of civil liberties. In recent weeks, the Harper Conservatives have introduced and/or passed several pieces of legislation that run roughshod over Canadians' Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Constitutional rights, giving draconian powers to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

There's Bill C-13, the highly unpopular online spying legislation, which received Royal Assent on Dec. 9, 2014. The Bill allows warrantless internet surveillance through the collection by CSIS of Canadians' everyday internet use. The Bill contains broad new police powers, including several new warrants for surveillance, tracking and gathering of bank information. Bill C-13 has been vehemently opposed by more than 60 Canadian organizations. OpenMedia's David Christopher says that "important parts of this legislation have already been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court." [1]

There's Bill C-44, which expands the surveillance powers of CSIS globally, while granting anonymity protection to CSIS informants and allowing for new conditions under which Canadian citizenship can be revoked. This bill passed third reading on February 2 and is now with the Senate. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has called this bill "highly problematic." [2]