Prosecutors like Eric Schneiderman need cops on the beat to put financial crooks behind bars. But thanks to Bush, these cops are missing in action.

American Public Media's "Marketplace" had a recent segment focused on why it has taken so long to bring criminal prosecutions related to the financial crisis. Reporters observed that at the beginning of the crisis, the Obama administration wanted to calm the financial industry rather than impose accountability. They speculated, along with Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street participants, many of whom have been calling for prosecutions, that Obama's creation of a new group to prosecute mortgage fraud led by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman was likely to be politically motivated. And they indicated that financial crimes are complex and prosecutors need time to develop their cases.

But here's what they didn't say: A major reason the prosecutions don't exist is that President George W. Bush took the cops off the beat.

Think about street crime. Imagine, for example, a protection racket in which gangs extort payment from fearful shopkeepers. Prosecutors rarely initiate criminal prosecutions; indeed, they may not even know that the crime is occurring. The police pound the beats that keep them aware of the increase in crime, respond to complaints, investigate, determine that a crime may have occurred that warrants attention, create a file and send it to the prosecutor's office. In routine cases, the prosecution proceeds on the basis of the police report alone. In more complex cases, the prosecutor may supplement the police investigation. But prosecutors rarely initiate cases. Even when a task force is appointed to target crime in a particular sector, it typically involves prosecutors working with the police. The prosecutors simply don't have the skills or the manpower to detect crime, conduct investigations and make the record necessary to prosecute.

UN report says 3,021 civilians killed in 2011
8% increase on 2010 and fifth consecutive rise
Number of suicide bombings static but toll rises 80%

The civilian death toll for the war in Afghanistan reached a record high last year with 3,021 deaths, according to the United Nations.

The number killed rose by 8% last year - the fifth consecutive rise - with a further 4,507 civilians wounded, the UN report said. Many were killed by roadside bombs or in suicide attacks, with Taliban-affiliated militants responsible for three-quarters of the deaths.

The number of deaths caused by suicide bombings jumped to 450, an 80% increase over the previous year, even though the number of suicide attacks remained about the same.

"A decade after the war began, the human cost of it is still rising," said Georgette Gagnon, director for human rights for the UN mission in Afghanistan.

Fears of an internet meltdown during the London Games may lead to web access being rationed for British businesses

British businesses are being warned that they could lose their internet connections during the Olympics due to a surge in the number of people going online at key times. The demand could be such that internet companies might be forced to ration access, according to official advice.

The warning, in the Cabinet Office's official advice, Preparing your Business for the Games, says that the country's telecoms system may be unable to cope with demand to access the internet in certain areas. Businesses are being encouraged to offer staff flexible working arrangements to try to ease the pressure.

The document, shared with government departments, states: "It is possible that internet services may be slower during the Games or, in very severe cases, there may be dropouts due to an increased number of people accessing the internet."

The document says that internet service providers "may introduce data caps during peak times to try to spread the loading and give a more equal service to their entire customer base", leading to concerns that major corporations or those in areas of high usage could experience problems.

Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of stage-managing a visit to a construction site by bussing in fake "workers" to make him look more popular.

The accusations against the French president come ahead of elections he is polled to lose.

Mr Sarkozy, 57, received a warm response from workers when he visited the social housing construction site in Mennecy, Essonne, near Paris on Thursday.

However, yesterday it was claimed that half the crowd of "workers" who braved the cold to meet the President had been specially drafted in for the occasion and had nothing to do with the building work.

"I only recognised two or three but I didn't know the others," Ambroise, one bona fide bricklayer told Europe 1 radio.

"They wanted more people around Nicolas Sarkozy," he said, adding that there were twice as many workers than usual.

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."