NATO has been bombing Libya for months now, but it has not been able to break Muammar Gaddafi's grip on the oil-rich North African country.

Press TV talks with Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley, an author and historian in Washington, who argues that it is NATO's "imperialist coalition" that is nearing its breaking point.

What follows is the text of the interview:

Press TV: This looks like just another war waged by the West that civilians are bearing the brunt of it, doesn't it?

Tarpley: Well, the difference here is of course that the NATO and the CIA have an infantry and in that case it is made of people with heavy representation from al-Qaeda, the Libyan­­­­ Islamic fighting group and various Islamist rebels and that is pretty much what the Benghazi rebel council is made up of. Their infantry is obviously a kind of rabble in arms as long as they are up in these mountains of the west and as long as they are getting plenty of arm shipments from the French which they have been getting and of course NATO airstrikes, they are able to make a certain amount of progress but what you see now as soon as they get down into that plain where Tripoli is 60 or 70 miles away they are subjected to counter attacks and I think they are going basically nowhere.

A Japanese nuclear power plant has come under fire for trying to sway the outcome of a public forum on atomic safety, dealing a fresh blow to the industry's credibility four months after the world's biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

An employee with Kyushu Electric Power Co instructed workers at the utility and its affiliates to pose as ordinary citizens and send e-mails backing the restart of nuclear reactors in southern Japan to a televised public hearing.

A massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the coastal Fukushima-Daiichi power plant in northeast Japan on March 13, sparking a fuel-rod meltdown and the biggest nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.

The plant is still leaking radiation in a protracted disaster which prompted the government to go back to "scratch" on its nuclear energy policy. Only 19 of Japan's 54 reactors are still running.

Every household in Britain faces having to pay £42,000 to cover the cost of public sector pensions, official figures show.

The Treasury will today reveal that the liabilities from the pensions of public sector workers have jumped from £770 billion to £1,100 billion in two years. The figures are contained in full accounts for all Whitehall departments, which are being published together for the first time to show what public finances would look like if they were subjected to the same scrutiny as a private company.

The accounts will also disclose the future costs of schools and hospitals built using the Private Finance Initiative for the first time.

They will show that the costs of PFI deals have increased seven-fold, from £5.1 billion to more than £40 billion, including future liabilities, and that the total "hidden" debt of 1,500 public bodies has reached an estimated £2,000 billion.

Where did all the jobs go? Small and medium-sized businesses are the major source of new job creation, and they are not hiring. Startup businesses, which contribute a fifth of the nation's new jobs, often can't even get off the ground. Why?

In a June 30 article in The Wall Street Journal titled "Smaller Businesses Seeking Loans Still Come Up Empty," Emily Maltby reported that business owners rank access to capital as the most important issue facing them today; and only 17 percent of smaller businesses said they were able to land needed bank financing. Businesses have to pay for workers and materials before they can get paid for the products they produce and for that they need bank credit; but they are reporting that their credit lines are being cut. They are being pushed instead into credit card accounts that average 16 percent interest, more than double the rate of the average business loan. It is one of many changes in banking trends that have been very lucrative for Wall Street banks, but are killing local businesses.

The Travesty of the $1.6 Trillion in "Excess Reserves"

The bank bailout and the Federal Reserve's two "quantitative easing" programs were supposedly intended to keep credit flowing to the local economy; but despite trillions of dollars thrown at Wall Street banks, these programs have succeeded only in producing mountains of "excess reserves" that are now sitting idle in Federal Reserve bank accounts. A stunning $1.6 trillion in excess reserves has accumulated in bank reserve accounts since the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008.

'Court is not to conduct detailed inquiry to decide whether it agrees with agency'

A federal judge has ordered that whether Google is spying for National Security Agency or not, you have no right to know.

"The NSA need not disclose 'the organization or any function of the National Security Agency, [or] any information with respect to the activities thereof,'" U.S. District Judged Richard Leon has ordered.

"Once the agency, through affidavits, has created 'as complete a public record as is possible' and explained 'in as much detail as is possible the basis for its claim,' ... 'the court is not to conduct a detailed inquiry to decide whether it agrees with the agency's opinions,'" he said.

A foreign intelligence service swiped 24,000 computer files from a US defense contractor in March in one of the largest ever cyberattacks on a Pentagon supplier, a top Defense Department official revealed on Thursday.

"It is a significant concern that over the past decade, terabytes of data have been extracted by foreign intruders from corporate networks of defense companies," Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said.

"In a single intrusion this March, 24,000 files were taken," Lynn said in a speech at National Defense University here outlining the Pentagon's strategy in cyberspace.

Speaking to reporters after his speech, Lynn described the theft of data from the unidentified defense contractor as "significant" and one of the largest ever.

On the eve of his visit to Israel, Greek President Karolos Papoulias spoke of the "strong relationship in all aspects" between his country and the Zionist state. The fact that Israel continues to occupy Palestine, expand Jewish-only colonies on occupied territory and persecute millions of Palestinians, including many who practice Greek Orthodox Christianity in the West Bank, seems to have little or no bearing on the evolving relations between the Greek and Israeli governments.

"We are now involved in an intensive process of cooperation. Our ministers and officials systematically consult and work together on all levels and in key areas, including energy, defence and security, as well as agriculture and tourism," said the Greek president.

He added that "we are also working together on international issues and matters of regional concern to both countries. We are pursuing a strong relationship on trade, investment, political and security cooperation."

Greece is a sovereign state and should be free to pursue its various interests as its sees fit. However, it must also be aware of the negative ramifications that come with having close ties with what is essentially a rogue state whose modus operandi is based on ethnic cleansing, land theft and organised state terror against the Palestinians native to the Holy Land.

In recent months and weeks, the Greek air force has held joint exercises with its Israeli counterparts in the eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, the Greek authorities are widely believed to have connived with Israeli intelligence agents to thwart the Freedom Flotilla II planning to take much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, still in the grip of Israel's siege. The flotilla was set to highlight the illegitimacy, illegality and utter criminality of the 5-year-blockade on the coastal enclave.

Israel hopes that Ukraine won't recognize Palestine as a state at the session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in September.

Israel's Ambassador to Ukraine Zina Kalay-Kleitman said this in an interview with the Den newspaper.

"We do hope, taking into consideration our good bilateral relations, that Ukraine which has had a very balanced stance on the matter lately will further continue to keep to this balanced approach and won't support the one-sided action of the United Nations," she said.

She noted that the initiative concerning possible recognition of the State of Palestine would have a destructive influence on the peace process in the Palestine - Israel relations.

Even Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gets the pat-down from TSA. So do babies and grannies and that is part of the reason that the government agency is ready to try a new approach.

Gossip website TMZ published photos of the former Defense Secretary smiling as TSA agents at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago patted him down during normal security precaution on Wednesday.

The frisking of someone as recognizable as Rumsfeld prove that the system does not discriminate, even in favor of the very famous.

Rumsfeld tweeted about it - "It takes those of us with two titanium hips and a titanium shoulder a bit longer to get through TSA," he wrote.

But the agency that has come under criticism for patting down the elderly and infants, and now says it is ready to try a new approach for some passengers.

Today the Transportation Security Administration announced a pilot program which it says will move towards "risk-based, intelligence driven" security screening. TSA Spokesman Greg Soule told ABC News, that this pilot is an effort to "focus more on passengers we know less about, and not focus our resources as much on passengers who are less of a risk. However, there will continue to be an element of randomness and unpredictability."

This is the exclusive first picture of the West Chiltington woman arrested and detained by Israeli forces for trying to visit Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Audrey Gray, 77 a retired nurse and current Methodist preacher, was one of 12 people detained after travelling to Israel aiming to stay at the Palestinian Aida refugee camp just north of the city.

She was travelling in a group of 25 people to Bethlehem via Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport.

Once detained the plucky pensioner reportedly went on hunger strike.

In a recent Methodist church newsletter she commented on her trip saying that 'there will be others from around the world visiting at the same time going to other locations around Bethlehem.'