"You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."— George Orwell, 1984

None of us are perfect. All of us bend the rules occasionally. Even before the age of overcriminalization, when the most upstanding citizen could be counted on to break at least three laws a day without knowing it, most of us have knowingly flouted the law from time to time.

Indeed, there was a time when most Americans thought nothing of driving a few miles over the speed limit, pausing (rather than coming to a full stop) at a red light when making a right-hand turn if no one was around, jaywalking across the street, and letting their kid play hookie from school once in a while. Of course, that was before the era of speed cameras that ticket you for going even a mile over the posted limit, red light cameras that fine you for making safe "rolling stop" right-hand turns on red, surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition software mounted on street corners, and school truancy laws that fine parents for "unexcused" absences.

My, how times have changed.

Today, there's little room for indiscretions, imperfections, or acts of independence—especially not when the government can listen in on your phone calls, monitor your driving habits, track your movements, scrutinize your purchases and peer through the walls of your home. That's because technology—specifically the technology employed by the government against the American citizenry—has upped the stakes dramatically so that there's little we do that is not known by the government.

In such an environment, you're either a paragon of virtue, or you're a criminal.

If you haven't figured it out yet, we're all criminals. This is the creepy, calculating yet diabolical genius of the American police state: the very technology we hailed as revolutionary and liberating has become our prison, jailer, probation officer, Big Brother and Father Knows Best all rolled into one.

Consider that on any given day, the average American going about his daily business will be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and corporate eyes and ears. A byproduct of this new age in which we live, whether you're walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, is listening in and tracking your behavior. As I point out in my book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, this doesn't even begin to touch on the corporate trackers that monitor your purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday said that he hopes that all of the world's Jews will eventually make aliya to Israel.

Speaking to Army Radio from Paris, where on Sunday he participated alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders in an anti-terror march following a violent week in France, Liberman said that "Israel's message is that we are here with them. We won't forget our brothers, no matter where they are."

"I hope that aliya will bring all the world's Jews to Israel, it doesn't matter from where," he said.

Liberman said that his call for aliya doesn't necessarily have to do with the recent anti-Semitic attack in Paris at a kosher supermarket. "Israel's policy has always been to have an aliya of Jews to Israel."

If it seems like it never stops raining, blame the Russians. Or even the North Koreans. CIA chiefs fear hostile nations are trying to manipulate the world's weather, a conference heard.


A leading academic has told how he got a mysterious phone call asking whether foreign countries could be triggering droughts or flooding. Professor Alan Robock, from Rutgers University in New Jersey, said: 'Consultants working for the CIA rang and said we'd like to know if someone is controlling the world's climate would we know about it?

'Of course they were also asking - if we control someone else's climate would they then know about it.'

The professor is one of many scientists from around the world are actively looking at manipulating the weather as a way of combating climate change.

Geoengineering techniques range from cloud seeding, in which chemicals are sprayed by planes trigger rainfall, to shooting mirrors into space to reflect sunlight and cool the Earth.

Professor Robock told the callers that any attempts to meddle with the weather on a large scale would be detectable.

Venezuelan investigators on Sunday said seven police agents and four civilians were arrested in connection with an attack on a synagogue that sparked international condemnation.

The Venezuelan public prosecutor's office said the civilians included at least one security official from the synagogue and that all had been captured in raids over the weekend.

"These people were apprehended during raids carried out between Saturday and the early hours of Sunday in different parts of Caracas. They will all be charged by the Public Prosecutor's office," the office said in a statement.

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) says it could suspend production at all its oilfields if the government fails to curb the rising number of attacks by militants.

The company is worried about the safety of its employees and the possibility staff might leave the extraction sites after repeated armed attacks. NOC wants the country's Defense Ministry to protect the oil pumping facilities.

"If these incidents continue, National Oil Corp will regrettably be forced to stop all operations at all fields in order to preserve the lives of employees," the company warned on its website.

In a move that could have ramifications for domestic anti-terrorism efforts, US House Speaker John Boehner said he would let funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapse on Feb. 27 in order to reverse Obama's immigration reform actions.

House Republicans have passed a Homeland Security appropriations bill, but it is contingent upon defunding Obama's 2012 and 2014 executive orders that negated the threat of deportation for an estimated five million undocumented immigrants seeking refuge in the United States.

In the Senate, Democrats have blocked the House funding bill three times, calling for "clean" DHS-funding legislation that would maintain Obama's immigration orders. Obama, meanwhile, has threatened to veto the House measure.

"Senate Democrats are the ones standing in the way," Speaker Boehner told Fox News on Sunday. "They're the ones jeopardizing funding."

Would he let the department's funding expire? "Certainly," Boehner answered. "The House has acted. We've done our job."

.@SpeakerBoehner on #DHS Funding: 'It's Up to Senate Democrats to Get Their Act Together' http://t.co/TlVWJU37WC pic.twitter.com/qSwsxsU7xe

— FoxNewsInsider (@FoxNewsInsider) February 15, 2015

In the Senate, however, Republicans do not seem as headstrong about playing with DHS funding to defeat the immigration orders.

"The American people did not give us majority to have a fight between House and Senate Republicans," Arizona Sen. John McCain said on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' in reference to last November's midterm election. "They want things done. You cannot cut funding from the Department of Homeland Security. We need to sit down and work this thing out."

The guns in Ukraine have not cooled down yet but the Minsk 2 peace accord is already being predictably assailed in Washington by liberal and conservative hawks alike.

Headlines like "Vlad Putin Wins Again," "The new Ukrainian peace deal may be worse than no deal at all," or "Why Is Putin Smiling About Ukraine?" and the likes are all over the US media.

Never mind that the Minsk Agreement offers at least a brief, fragile window of opportunity for the world to step back from the brink of a nuclear confrontation that would destroy the entire northern hemisphere of the earth. If nothing else, at least it could save some Ukrainian lives. But who cares?

Such negative reactions from US policymakers and media are understandable since the whole Ukrainian mess was concocted to fulfill the ultimate goal of Russia's geopolitical weakening and Putin's regime change under the noble banner of spreading freedom and democracy. So far this goal is far from an achievement so why give peace a chance?

The saddest part of this story is that such a policy totally contradicts US long-term strategic security interests by turning a potential important ally into adversary.

It did not have to be that way. After the collapse of Communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, both Russian elites and the overwhelming majority of the Russian people were ready to join the family of the Western alliance. It was President George Herbert Walker Bush who talked in 1990 about a "Europe whole and free," and the new "security arch from Vancouver to Vladivostok."

British intelligence agency MI5 faces allegations it covered up child sex abuse at a care home in east Belfast for decades to protect its intelligence operations, Northern Ireland's high court will hear on Tuesday.

Victims of child sex abuse which took place in Kincora Boys' Home throughout the 1970s are pursuing a full independent inquiry into the matter.

If successful, the victims' legal challenge will result in a robust inquiry that compels key witnesses to testify. MI5 would also be forced to supply investigators with vital documents.

The Belfast-based court case is the first to address the British state's alleged links to the notorious care home in the 1970s. It begins on Tuesday, and is expected to continue throughout the week.

"One of the biggest scandals of our time" says Amnesty; MI5 & claims of complicity in sexual abuse of children http://t.co/59EPHQiUUp

— vikram dodd (@VikramDodd) February 15, 2015

Former Kincora residents are calling for a full, independent inquiry into the British state's collusion in the abuse, similar to the inquiry set up to investigate Westminster child abuse, chaired by judge Lowell Goddard.

Goddard was recently appointed by Home Secretary Theresa May as the new head of Britain's Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. May has conceded allegations of state involvement in the pedophile ring that infiltrated Kincora Boys' Home should be investigated.

She agreed in January that Britain's Official Secrets Act should be waived to allow ex-military intelligence officers to come forward with evidence.

Ukraine is ready to do away with supplies of Russian gas by increasing domestic oil and gas exploration and getting more from Europe, said Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk.

"We have proved that we are able to get rid of Russian gas dependence," Yatsenyuk said in an interview to the Ukrainian 1+1 channel on Sunday. He said that in 2013 Ukraine bought 95 percent of its gas from Russia. In 2014 that was reduced to just 33 percent, with the rest supplied from Europe.

"We almost passed the winter. Few had hoped that we would pass it. I said it wouldn't be warm, but we wouldn't freeze," he said. "After all, it was warm and we didn't freeze," Yatsenyuk said.

The prime minister called for increased domestic production of oil and gas and the implementation of reforms in the energy sector that will help Ukraine reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

According to the state-run gas supply and transit company Ukrtransgaz, the country imported 5.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from Europe in 2014, which is 59 percent more than in 2013.

The increase was due to the new Voyany-Uzhgorod pipeline opening in September 2014, which allowed Slovakia to supply 3.6 bcm, Poland 0.9 bcm, and Hungary 0.6 billion cubic meters. In 2014 Ukraine saved about $1.5 billion by buying cheaper European hydrocarbons. Imports from Russia decreased 80 percent in 2014 falling to 14.5 billion cubic meters.

President Obama is still considering arming Ukraine in case the latest ceasefire is breached and the conflict escalates; but political analyst Stephen Lendman told Sputnik in an exclusive interview that the US leader is lying, and that the US has been supplying arms to Kiev from the very start of the military operation.

The ceasefire between Kiev forces and independence supporters of Donetsk and Luhansk is generally holding, shelling in Donbas has stopped as the truce came in force on midnight, a spokesperson at the Kiev special operations headquarters said Sunday.

But a day earlier Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and US President Barack Obama, during a meeting by phone, agreed on the further coordination of efforts in the case that the ceasefire fails and the Ukrainian conflict escalates.