Using Latin American covert operations as a template for its Iraqi paramilitary proxies, the US once again lost the moral war

In one of the fiery oratories for which he was well-known, the late Hugo Chávez once stated his belief that "the American empire is the greatest menace to our planet." While his detractors have often sought to paint his rhetorical flourishes as a manifestation of unprovoked and unpopular extremism, to his death Chávez remained extremely popular with the majority of the Venezuelan people.

Indeed, far from being an outlier, Chávez fit well within the spectrum of both Central and Latin American popular opinion. While his style may have been his own, his beliefs and worldview regarding US interventionism were reflected in other leaders throughout the region. Looking at the history of US engagement in Latin America, it becomes evident why such a situation exists. From overthrowing democratically elected leaders, operating death squads, and torturing civilians, the history of US involvement in the region has understandably helped create a widespread popular backlash that persists to this day.

The primary theatre of war has since switched from Latin America to the Middle East, but many of the same tactics of that period - which caused so much devastation and engendered so much visceral anger - seem to have been redeployed on the other side of the world. As reported this week by the Guardian, recent investigations have suggested that Pentagon officials at the highest levels oversaw torture facilities during the war in Iraq. The allegations are decidedly gruesome: rooms used for interrogating detainees stained with blood; children tied into extreme stress positions with their bodies beaten to discoloration.

According to the Obama administration, the president has the right to assassinate American citizens within the United States, without charges or any legal process. This claim, contained in a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder, constitutes the most far-reaching abrogation of constitutional rights and is aimed at establishing the pseudo-legal framework for military rule.

Holder's letter, the first explicit assertion of a power to extrajudicially kill Americans in their homes, was in response to a question delivered to the Obama administration from Republican Senator Rand Paul. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Holder reiterated and expanded on this position, declaring that the authorization to use military force in the "war on terror" extends to the United States.

In the letter to Paul, Holder responds to a question as to whether "the President has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a US citizen on US soil, and without trial."

Mattis: Diplomatic and economic efforts failing to bring Islamic Republic to its knees

Sanctions are not preventing Iran's nuclear progress, the US Army commander in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday, adding that he had prepared a military option.

A simple "No, sir" was General James Mattis's response when asked whether "the current diplomatic and economic efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capability" were working.

"I think we have to continue sanctions, but have other options ready," said Mattis, of the Central Command, to the Armed Services Committee during an official hearing.

Mattis said Iran could be convinced to alter its course by "a purely cost-benefit ratio," but at the moment, he noted, the "nuclear industry continues" apace, despite sanctions.

"Between economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and encouragement of behavior that does not cost them such a degree of political support that they end up losing power, there may yet be a way to bring them to their senses," the general stated.

Such means to bring Iran "to its knees," Mattis commented in response to another question, did not necessarily entail "open conflict," but a military operation is "one of the options that I have to have prepared for the president."

Senator Rand Paul discusses the United States' relationship with Israel.

Ben Shapiro, Breitbart: There's been a lot of talk about, let's say you become President Paul at some point in the future--

Sen. Rand Paul: I like the sound of that!

Shapiro: Let's say Israel comes under attack from its enemies. Does the United States stand with Israel, in terms of giving military foreign aid.

Paul: Well absolutely, we stand with Israel, but what I think we should do is announce to the world, and i think it is well-known, that any attack on Israel will be treated as an attack on the United States.

Chicago police terrorized six children in the wrong apartment, demanding at gunpoint that an 11-month-old show his hands, and telling one child, "This is what happens when your grandma sells crack," the family claims in court

Lead plaintiffs Charlene and Samuel Holly sued Chicago, police Officer Patrick Kinney and eight John Does in Federal Court, on their own behalves and for their children and children.

The six children were 11 months to 13 years old at the time. Plaintiffs Connie and Michelle Robinson are Charlene Holly's daughters.

The complaint states: "On November 29, 2012 in the early evening hours Charlene Holly was in the first floor apartment at 10640 S. Prairie in the front room helping minor Child #1, Child #2, Child #4, and Child #5 rehearse songs for their church choir. Charlene was also caring for Child #3, who was 11 months old. Child #6 was in the upstairs apartment alone.

"Charlene and the children heard a loud boom outside and a voice cry out 'Across the street!'

Chavez proved that radical policies work and win support and that defiance of US imperialism is possible and popular - Chris Nineham writes on why he will be missed in every corner of the globe

One of the great figures of the 21st Century has died. At a time of universal mediocrity and ubiquitous buy-in to neoliberal orthodoxy, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stood out amongst politicians as a massive personality of independence, principle and courage. He didn't just speak about socialism and social justice, he ensured his successive governments delivered measures that genuinely improved the lives of millions of people in his country, particularly the poorest. His charisma and radicalism was such that it is no exaggeration to say his example helped produce progressive governments and movements across the region.

His galvanising presence and his left wing politics were themselves the product of a widespread grass-roots radicalisation. The neoliberal policies that Pinochet brutally pioneered in Chile in the 1970s were rolled out accross the continent from the early 1980s onwards. Venezuelan President Carlos Andrez Perez broke with his corporatist past to introduce the IMF backed 'Great Turn' at the end of the 1980s. Between 1981 and 1997 the richest 10% of Venezuelans saw their share of national income grow from 22 to 33%. The Venezuelan poor responded to the turn too with occupations, mass protests and riots popularly known as the Caracazo.

Inspired by this movement, the young Hugo Chavez, then a junior officer in the Venezuelan army, launched a long-prepared coup attempt in 1992. The coup had popular support, but was headed off by the Perez government. On his arrest Chavez made a characteristically courageous statement, "unfortunately" he said, "for the moment the objectives that we set ourselves have not been achieved...New possibilities will arise and the country will be able to move definitely towards a better future." Instantly the red beret of Chavez's parachute regiment and the phrase 'for the moment' became symbols of resistance amongst the country's poor.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said President Hugo Chavez's enemies had poisoned him with cancer before announcing that two US Air Force officials would be expelled from the country for spying on the military and plotting to destabilize the country.

Maduro identified one American as the Air Force attaché and said he had 24 hours to leave the country.

"We are aware of the allegations made by Venezuelan Vice President Maduro over state-run television in Caracas, and can confirm that our Air Attache, Col. David Delmonico, is en route back to the United States," spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua later announced that two Air Force officials in total had been named "persona non grata" and were being kicked out of Venezuela, AFP reports.

Maduro also accused President Hugo Chavez's enemies of poisoning him with the cancer he has been battling for nearly two years.

"Behind all of [the plots] are the enemies of the fatherland," he said on state television.

Russian nuclear forces hold large exercise involving movement of strategic and tactical warheads

Russian nuclear forces conducted a major exercise last month that tested the transport of both strategic and tactical nuclear weapons near Europe, according to United States officials.

The exercise raised concerns inside the Pentagon and with the U.S. European Command because it was the largest exercise of its kind in 20 years and involved heightened alert status of Russian nuclear forces.

The nuclear drills were part of other military maneuvers in Russia carried out between Feb. 17 and Feb. 21.

The exercises followed a recent surge in Russian strategic bomber flights that include a recent circling of the U.S. Pacific island of Guam by two Tu-95 Bear bomber and simulated bombing runs by Tu-95s against Alaska and California in June and July.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Wesley P. Miller sought to play down the nuclear exercise but declined to comment on the movement of nuclear weapons and whether nuclear forces went on a heightened state of alert. "We don't comment on intelligence matters," he said.

On Wednesday night's episode of "The Ed Show," host Ed Schultz listed off numerous actual instances of Republican-spun voter fraud schemes, mocking the seemingly perpetual paranoia many conservatives have about the community group ACORN, which doesn't even exist anymore.

He instead recalled the executive director of the New Hampshire GOP pleading guilty to conspiring to jam phones during an election in 2002; the 2011 conviction of a Republican campaign manager in Maryland for authorizing misleading robocalls in minority districts on Election Day; and the 2012 conviction of Indiana's Republican secretary of state for voter fraud, among other crimes.

The heart of the matter

It was a case destined for the X-Files and conspiracy theorists alike, when Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez speculated that the US might have developed a way to weaponise cancer, after several Latin American leaders were diagnosed with the disease. The list includes former Argentine president, Nestor Kirchner (colon cancer) Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff (lymphoma cancer), her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (throat cancer), Chavez (undisclosed), former Cuban president Fidel Castro (stomach cancer) Bolivian president, Evo Morales (nasal cancer) and Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo (lymphoma cancer). What do they have in common besides cancer? All of them are left-wing leaders. Coincidence? In his December 28, 2011 end-of-year address to the Venezuelan military, Chavez hinted that the US might have found a way to give Latin American leaders cancer. "Would it be so strange that they've invented the technology to spread cancer and we won't know about it for 50 years?" Chavez asked. "It is very hard to explain, even with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some leaders in Latin America.

It's at the very least strange," he said. Chavez said he received warning from Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro, who has survived hundreds of unsuccessful assassination attempts. "Fidel always told me, 'Chavez take care. These people have developed technology. You are very careless. Take care what you eat, what they give you to eat ... a little needle and they inject you with I don't know what'," he said.