Another layer has been added to Israel's 'Prisoner X' spy story, as new details shed light on Ben Zygier's dealings with Mossad. An Israeli lawyer says the man - who took his own life in a jail cell - did not seem like he was at risk of suicide.

Zygier's associations with Mossad are still cloudy, as media agencies report different accounts of his previous work with the organization.

According to Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida, Zygier reportedly took part in the 2010 killing of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mahbouh in Dubai and offered the government information about the operation in return for the United Arab Emirates' protection.

Australia's Fairfax Media reports that Australian security officials suspected Zygier may have been about to disclose Israeli intelligence operations - including the use of fraudulent Australian passports - to the Australian government or the media.

The Federal Aviation Administration official who heads the agency's drone division says the FAA has no interest in letting weaponized unmanned vehicles into US airspace anytime soon. But don't expect them to weigh in on privacy issues, either.
Jim Williams, the chief of the FAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Office, spoke at a drone convention outside of Washington, DC this week and reassured his audience that the missile-equipped Predator and Reaper drones that have become a hallmark of America's foreign wars won't be allowed stateside anytime soon.

According to the Washington Times, Williams said existing rules already prohibit aircraft from using weapons, and speaking on behalf of the agency said, "[W]e don't have any plans of changing [those rules] for unmanned aircraft."

America's foreign drone program has accelerated drastically in recent years under the administration of President Barack Obama, with over 50 people, many unidentified, reportedly executed abroad by the aircraft in only the first two months of 2013. But while the use of those aircraft overseas to launch bloody strikes is out of the FAA's jurisdiction, Mr. Williams reassured some this week that Americans have no need to fear lethal US drones in domestic airspace.

"We currently have rules in the books that deal with releasing anything from an aircraft, period. Those rules are in place and that would prohibit weapons from being installed on a civil aircraft," Mr. Williams told the crowd in Tysons Corner, Virginia, where people from across the world have gathered this week to attend an event sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

As the nation spent the week debating the CIA assassination program, Obama lawyers exploit secrecy to shield it from all review

It is not news that the US government systematically abuses its secrecy powers to shield its actions from public scrutiny, democratic accountability, and judicial review. But sometimes that abuse is so extreme, so glaring, that it is worth taking note of, as it reveals its purported concern over national security to be a complete sham.

Such is the case with the Obama DOJ's behavior in the lawsuit brought by the ACLU against the CIA to compel a response to the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about Obama's CIA assassination program. That FOIA request seeks nothing sensitive, but rather only the most basic and benign information about the "targeted killing" program: such as "the putative legal basis for carrying out targeted killings; any restrictions on those who may be targeted; any civilian casualties; any geographic limits on the program; the number of targeted killings that the agency has carried out."

Everyone in the world knows that the CIA has a targeted killing program whereby it uses drones to bomb and shoot missiles at those it wants dead, including US citizens. This is all openly discussed in every media outlet.

Key Obama officials, including the president himself, not only make selective disclosures about this program but openly boast about its alleged successes. Leon Panetta, then the CIA Director, publicly said all the way back in 2009 when asked about the CIA drone program: "I think it does suffice to say that these operations have been very effective because they have been very precise." In 2010, Panetta, speaking to the Washington Post, hailed the CIA drone program in Pakistan as "the most aggressive operation that CIA has been involved in in our history". This is just a partial sample of Obama official boasts about this very program (for more, see pages 15 to 28 here).

A Canadian member of Parliament on Wednesday gave a animated speech to Parliament about the dangers of a zombie invasion from the United States turning into a "zombie apocalypse."

"I rise today to salute the Center for Disease Control and the Providence of Quebec for putting in place emergency measures to deal with the possibility of an invasion of zombies," Winnipeg MP Pat Martin announced. "I don't need to tell you, Mr. Speaker, that zombies don't recognize orders, and a zombie invasion in the United States could easily turn a continent-wide pandemic if it's not contained."

"So on behalf of concerned Canadians everywhere, Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the minister of foreign affairs, is he working with his American counterparts to develop an international zombie strategy so that a zombie invasion does not turn into a zombie apocalypse?" Martin asked as other members applauded.

Advocates are praising a newly revised version of New York's "Rape is Rape" bill that classifies any vaginal contact as "rape," bringing the legal definition of that form of sexual assault in line with the standards for forced anal and oral contact.

The change came shortly after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) endorsed the bill on Tuesday, when Republican state Sen. Catharine Young (pictured) introduced a second version that removes the legal requirement of "penetration" for forced vaginal penetration to be considered "rape," and expands the conduct covered by the term to include forced oral and anal sex.

A New York Daily News story noted that the confusion about the last-minute changes surprised even rape survivor Lydia Cuomo, whose brutal sexual assault by an NYPD officer didn't result in his conviction of first degree rape charges because the prior definitions required prosecutors to prove a specific kind of penetration. Cuomo, who is not related to the governor, wants the definition of rape changed to include vaginal, oral or anal contact - which the bill now does.

The federal Institute of Medicine to much fanfare recently reported that "preliminary data" suggest that veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from the same disease - commonly called Gulf War Syndrome or Illness - that has plagued veterans of Desert Storm for over two decades. Meanwhile, an alarming but widely-ignored report by a federal panel of high-level scientists charged with advising the government on the disease accused the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of covering up the true nature and cause of a profound systemic illness that medical scientists have traced to wartime exposures - including neurotoxins, depleted uranium, and microbes, among others.

The culprits, the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses claims, are bureaucrats in the Veterans' Administration Office of Public Health, whose coordination of a robust strategic plan for Gulf War Illness (on which RAC had consulted) has "gutted" science, "focus," "energy," and budgetary resources (reduced from from $15 to $4.9 million for 20013). The Office has promulgated "fictions," the RAC asserts, that are "contrary to well-established science," resurrecting a discredited theory of the syndrome belied by decades of scientific research validated by the Institute of Medicine. That scientific research shows that Gulf War Syndrome or Illness is a real and profound multi-system illness appearing with an array of conditions.

San Bernardino Sheriff John McMahon on Wednesday denied that California police had intentionally set a cabin on fire with fugitive ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner inside.

"I can tell you that it was not on purpose, we did not intentionally burn down that cabin to get Mr. Dorner out," he said at a press conference. "The tear gas canisters that we used - first off we used a presence when we showed up, a cold tear gas, then the next tear gas was pyrotechnic, which does generate a lot of heat. We introduced those canisters into the residence and a fire arose."

Police scanners captured officers saying "fucking burn this motherfucker" and "we're gonna go forward with the plan, with - with the burn" on Tuesday as they engaged the quadruple murder suspect.

A US judge approved Thursday a $400 million settlement in criminal penalties against the rig operator involved in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the worst environmental disaster in American history.

The punishment was part of a plea bargain agreement reached last month by rig owner Transocean and the US Justice Department.

The penalty was approved Thursday by Judge Jane Triche Milazzo of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, in New Orleans.

Suspected Jewish extremists scrawled anti-Arab graffiti on the headstones in an ancient Muslim cemetery in west Jerusalem, police and witnesses told AFP on Thursday.

"The words 'price tag' and Stars of David were scrawled on around a dozen tombs in the Muslim cemetery in Mamilla in central Jerusalem," a police spokeswoman told AFP, saying an inquiry had been opened.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said the vandals had also written "Mohammed is dead" and "Maale Rehavam" on the tombs some of which date back to the 12th century.

The Pentagon unveiled a new medal on Wednesday to honor "extraordinary" troops who launch cyber attacks or drone strikes from their consoles, even if they do not risk their lives in combat.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, announcing the new "Distinguished Warfare Medal," said it was time to recognize those who play a crucial role in modern warfare with hi-tech weapons far from the frontline.

"Our military reserves its highest decorations obviously for those who display gallantry and valor in actions where their lives are on the line, and we will continue to do so," Panetta told a Pentagon news conference.

"But we should also have the ability to honor the extraordinary actions that make a true difference in combat operations."

He said operators of unmanned, robotic aircraft and cyber weapons "contribute to the success of combat operations, particularly when they remove the enemy from the field of battle, even if those actions are physically removed from the fight."

The medal reflects a new age of warfare that emerged over the past decade featuring robotic weapons and digital combat.