If there should happen to be an al-Qaeda attack in Calhoun County Alabama, Sheriff Larry Amerson will presumably know what to do. That is because he and a number of colleagues in law enforcement have received paid trips to Israel to learn how to deal with the terrorist threat.

The Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) sponsors a Law Enforcement Exchange Program "in order to learn how to better protect the U.S. communities from terrorist attacks." The program takes law enforcement officials from the United States and sends them to Israel for training in the "strategies and techniques perfected by Israeli law enforcement." Amerson, past president of the National Sheriff's Association, made his trip in 2012. Along the way, he reportedly benefited from a "greater understanding of the situation in Israel as it relates to terrorist threats." JINSA also hosts conferences in the U.S. where Israeli officers are brought over to brief American law enforcement officials.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is also involved in the effort to indoctrinate the U.S. law enforcement community. Its website's Homeland Security Monitor chronicles numerous meetings between Israeli intelligence and police officials and their U.S. counterparts, to include numerous trips to Israel to learn from the masters of the craft about various aspects of security, including controlling borders and airports. Even firemen have made the journey, presumably to learn how a fire in Israel differs from a fire in the United States.

Ironically, American law enforcement and emergency services are every bit as capable as those in Israel and really have nothing to learn. The difference in practice is that Israel uses extensive profiling to identify threats, which means Arabs are regularly stopped and questioned. Exposure to that dubious technique is often paid for by the U.S. taxpayer as much of the travel to Israel is funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which provides billions of dollars in training grants to cover the expenses. Marc Kahlberg of International Security Consulting offers a package that is called "Eye of the Storm." He promises "an exclusive learning tour into the heart of Hebron. You will have the opportunity to see first-hand how the police there are dealing with a daily volatile situation. You will feel the adrenalin, but be completely safe and will be the guests of the Israeli Police Commander." As Hebron is the largest Arab city on the West Bank with a population of 250,000 that against its will hosts an illegal Israeli settlement of 1,000 protected by the police and army, it promises to be an interesting experience.

It has been reported that when the United States was attacked on 9/11 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pleased because he understood that Washington and Tel Aviv would now be joined at the hip in their mutual response to what Israel has been defining as terrorism. When Netanyahu spoke before congress shortly afterwards he said "We are all targets" before engaging in a number of meetings instructing Washington regarding what must be done. Netanyahu's Israel succeeded beyond its wildest dreams, exploiting the incident to such an extent that the United States has adopted wholesale Israeli perceptions of Middle Eastern politics. As Scott McConnell has observed, there exists "a transmission belt, conveying Israeli ideas on how the United States should conduct itself in a contested and volatile part of the world. To a great extent, a receptive American political class now views the Middle East and their country's role in it through Israel's eyes."

Materials implicating the forces of Syrian president Bashar Assad in chemical weapons use near Damascus were prepared prior to the alleged incident on August 21, the Russian foreign ministry said.

Moscow continues to monitor closely the event surrounding the "alleged" chemical attack near Damascus, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement.

"We're getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature," he stressed. "In particular, there are reports circulating on the Internet, in particular that the materials of the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it was a pre-planned action."

Below are the three videos posted on Youtube said to be showing the child victims affected by chemical weapons near Damascus. Despite the date of the alleged attack - August 21 - being mentioned in their titles, they were posted on YouTube the previous day, August 20.

Despite the 7-hour time difference between Syria and the US, where the YouTube server is located, the mismatch of the dates in the videos raised concerns among some experts about the exact time of the upload.

Despite President Obama cautioning against intervention in Syria, the Pentagon is making "initial preparations" for a cruise missile attack on Syrian government forces, according to a new report.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey is expected to present options for such a strike at a White House meeting on Saturday, CBS News reported on Friday.

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel suggested Friday naval forces are moving in position closer to Syria in case Obama chooses action.

"The Defense Department has a responsibility to provide the president with options for contingencies, and that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options - whatever options the president might choose," Hagel said, adding a decision must be made quickly given "there may be another (chemical) attack."

Meanwhile, a defense official, cited by Reuters, said on Friday the US Navy was expanding its Mediterranean presence with a fourth cruise-missile ship, the USS Mahan. Though the source stressed to Reuters the Navy did not have orders to prepare for military operations against Syria.

The ship was due to head back to the United States, but the commander of the US Sixth Fleet decided to maintain the ship in the region.

All four ships are capable of launching long-range, subsonic cruise missiles to reach land targets.

If the death, 16 years ago this month, of Diana in Paris is not a huge establishment cover-up, the failure of the 'People's Princess' to lie down certainly makes it appear like one.

Despite no paparazzi being at the scene of the crash that was allegedly caused by 4 to 6 high powered motorbikes which sped off, photographers are still blamed by much of the London media. The coroner's court verdict of 'Unlawful Killing' should have scotched forever the idea that the car crash was an 'accident' but such a 'coincidence theory' still circulates as fact.

Royal skullduggery was entirely normal in Medieval England. Even in the up-tight 1880s the trail to London's Jack the Ripper and his murders of prostitutes led back, through prominent freemasons, to the royal household. Stephen Knight's 1976 book 'Jack the Ripper, The Final Solution', showed young Edward VII had a taste for sexual adventure and three prostitutes had been attempting to blackmail the royal family.

This weekend came the extraordinary revelation that a former British special forces 'Soldier N' knew, 'it was the SAS who arranged Princess Diana's death and that has been covered up'. His parents spelt it out in a letter to a senior military officer, which appeared in evidence in the case of another former SAS soldier, Danny Nightingale.

The Israeli regime says its warplanes have bombed a target in southern Lebanon in retaliation for Thursday's rocket attack.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner announced that the regime's warplanes launched an airstrike on an area near Na'ameh, between Beirut and Sidon, south of Lebanon, during the early hours of Friday.

The Israeli official did not provide further details about the airstrike.

Meanwhile, the Lebanon-based Popular Front of Palestine said the Israeli attack targeted its base. The Palestinian group said the airstrike left no casualties.

U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize after spending his first year in office overseeing the expansion of the CIA's drone assassinations program in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere. Earlier this year, French President François Hollande was awarded UNESCO's Peace Prize for bringing 'peace and stability' to Africa, following two months of French bombing campaigns and ground troop invasions of several West African countries, notably Mali.

This was necessary, Hollande told French citizens, to protect their homeland from attack by "terrorists". The week we discussed this on SOTT Talk Radio, another three UK Muslims were accused of planning a "mass suicide bomb plot" that would have been "worse than 7/7″, according to hysterical British police and mainstream media. In the U.S., the FBI has been supplying "terror suspects" with materials to act out "terror plots" as part of sting operations the government then uses to justify all manner of criminal behaviour, at home and abroad.

When is all of this going to end? Never, if the advocates for "endless war" have their way. We're told "they hate us for our freedoms", so given that our freedoms are disappearing fast, we need to ask the question: Are the "terrorists" winning? Is there really a "Muslim terror threat"? Why do certain countries play leading roles in this stratagem? What are the real goals behind "humanitarian intervention" and "regime change" in country after country?

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New documentary argues success of country's weapons industry relies on exploiting Palestinians.

Israel's secretive arms trade is booming as never before, according to the latest export figures. But it is also coming under mounting scrutiny as some analysts argue that Israel has grown dependent on exploiting the suffering of Palestinians for military and economic gain.

A new documentary, called The Lab, has led the way in turning the spotlight on Israel's arms industry. It claims that four million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have become little more than guinea pigs in military experiments designed to enrich a new elite of arms dealers and former generals.

The film's release this month in the United States follows news that Israeli sales of weapons and military systems hit a record high last year of $7.5bn, up from $5.8bn the previous year. A decade ago, Israeli exports were worth less than $2bn.

Bomber drives vehicle packed with explosives into army headquarters near Ramadi, killing at least 14 people.

A suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives to a military headquarters in western Iraq and blew himself up outside it, killing 14, police said.

The attack on Thursday took place near the city of Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad.

Another six people were injured, and most of the victims were soldiers and police officers.

Also on Thursday, gunmen killed four people in the northern province of Nineveh, including two soldiers, and wounded another in two separate attacks, one of them targeting a checkpoint.

The announcement by Pfc. Bradley Manning comes one day after a military judge sentenced him to 35 years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 classified files. The sex change he would like to undergo can take a long time.

Pfc. Bradley Manning intends to live as a woman named Chelsea Manning, he announced in a letter provided to NBC's Today show on Thursday morning.

Manning's statement comes one day after a military judge sentenced him to 35 years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 classified government files to WikiLeaks.

"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am female," Manning told Today.

Manning's avowed transgender status is no surprise given that testimony during his trial indicated a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, meaning he wants to live as the opposite sex. Prior to his arrest, he created an alternative identity known as "Breanna" and sent his military therapist a photo of himself wearing lipstick and a blond wig.

Stephen Harper is rejecting accusations from political rivals that he is shuttering Parliament for an extra month this fall merely to avoid more questions on the Senate expenses scandal.

However, those questions continue to follow the Prime Minister during his northern tour, and he said on Tuesday that there is "significant evidence" that some senators did not follow rules about what they could charge taxpayers for.

Mr. Harper confirmed this week that he will be seeking to prorogue Parliament until October. MPs had been set to return on Sept. 16, but are now expected back some time after Thanksgiving, when a Speech from the Throne will lay out the priorities of a government halfway through its mandate.