I remember first reading Sebastian Haffner's Defying Hitler back in 2009. It shook me to the core to read about one man's experience with Nazi Germany, and the persecution he experienced simply trying to maintain his common sense during days of utter darkness. So many lies were taken at face value by his peers, until they finally changed and it became dangerous to speak to them. A tipping point was reached. It became impossible to speak out, despite the fact that social life continued on "as normal". History has recorded what followed. Speech could prove lethal, just as lethal as having the wrong religion, ethnicity, or skin color.

Sebastian's memoirs gave us an insight into what experiencing life under 'the totalitarian beast' looks and smells like. As an American I'd felt the strange change myself, from 9/11 to the expansion of the War on Terror, Homeland Security, and Total Information Awareness. Now 'The Scum' is not the Jew and the Communist, but the "Islamo-fascist".

We knew that a modern "Defying Hitler" would not have a Hitler to defy. It would not have a Bush, or an Obama, or an Osama, to defy. We were always treated to some new terrorist, evil dictator, or conspiracy. There were no symbols, like the Swastika, soaked with the blood and dread of a generation.

The House of Saud now finds itself in times of extreme trouble. Their risky oil price war may eventually backfire. The succession of King Abdullah may turn into a bloodbath. And the American protector may be musing a change of heart.

Let's start with oil - and some background. As much as US supply has increased by a couple of million barrels a day, enough oil from Iran, Kirkuk in Iraq, Libya and Syria has gone out of production; and that offsets extra US oil on the market. Essentially, the global economy - at least for the moment - is not searching for more oil because of European stagnation/recession and the relative China slowdown.

Since 2011, Saudi Arabia has been flooding the market to offset the decrease in Iran exports caused by the US economic war, a.k.a. sanctions. Riyadh, moreover, prevented OPEC from reducing country production quotas. The House of Saud believes it can play the waiting game - as fracked oil, mostly American, is inexorably driven out of the market because it is too expensive. After that, the Saudis believe they will regain market share.

In parallel, the House of Saud is obviously enjoying "punishing" Iran and Russia for their support of Bashar Assad in Damascus. Moreover, the House of Saud is absolutely terrified of a nuclear deal essentially between the US and Iran (although that's still a major "if") - leading to a long-term détente.

Tehran, though, remains defiant. Russia brushed off the attack because the lower ruble meant state revenues remained unchanged - so there will be no budget deficit. As for oil-thirsty East Asia - including top Saudi customer China - it's enjoying the bonanza while it lasts.

Oil prices will remain very low for the time being. This week Goldman Sachs lowered their 2015 WTI and Brent Crude forecasts; Brent was slashed from $83.75 a barrel to $50.40, WTI was cut from $73.75 to $47.15 a barrel. Prices per barrel could soon drop as low as $42 and $40.50. But then, there will be an inevitable "U-shaped recovery."

Nomura bets that oil will be back to $80 a barrel by the end of 2015.

Tacoma - A state bureaucracy is threatening a mother with removal of an infant unless her entire family subjects themselves to flu shots.

This is the dilemma that foster parent Jamie Smith is currently facing. The Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) is giving the Tacoma family until February to comply with the mandated regimen of influenza vaccines - imposed on every member of the family - or else they will lose their youngest child, a 2-week-old foster infant that was born on Christmas.

Mrs. Smith is a dedicated foster mom, and has fostered seven babies. She currently raises five children, including an adopted 4-year-old daughter.

Have you heard? The Reichstag has been burned down. Reporting on this breaking news is psychopathic propagandist and anti-Semite, Julius Streicher, writing for Der Stürmer:

A few days ago, Germany was astonished by the news of arson in the Reichstag. Fires were set in more than twenty places in the building. It was almost completely destroyed. The ringleader is the head of the Communist faction in the Reichstag, Representative Torgler.

At the same time the press brought another unsettling report. In the basement of the "Karl Liebknecht Building" [the Communist Party Headquarters]:

secret passages

and hidden tunnels were discovered. Material that encouraged civil war was found. Detailed plans to murder both individuals and groups of Germans citizens were found. The bloody uprising was supposed to begin throughout Germany in the immediate future. There was to be murder and arson in cities and villages.

These news items had a strong effect throughout Germany. The indifferent citizen who had not wanted to see the enormous danger of Bolshevism looked in horror toward Berlin. He too realized now that Germany faced a terrible threat. The burning Reichstag building was the signal that brought every German to his senses.

Russia may lift its ban on food imports from Greece in the event it quits the European Union, Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fyodorov told a news conference in Berlin on Friday.

Fyodorov is leading an official Russian delegation to the International Green Week public exhibition for the food, agriculture, and gardening industry.

"If Greece has to leave the European Union, we will build our own relations with it, the food ban will not be applicable to it," he said.

He said that European Union countries, which felt discomfort from the slump in proceeds from exports of foods to Russia, were asking Russia to cushion the impacts of the Russian food import ban by expanding other types of imports. "We are looking at such possibility," he said, adding that these countries offer new formats of cooperation in those areas that are not covered by the Russian food sanctions.

The tragedy of MH17 in which 298 people lost their lives, made the conflict in Ukraine real for many other countries. While the international community awaits the outcome of the crash investigation, speculation in the media continues to fuel the blame game. RTD travels far and wide to interview international experts on what has hindered the investigation, what procedures were needed to collect vital evidence and what might have brought down the ill-fated Boeing 777.

What do you think of when you hear the name Colonel Gaddafi? Tyrant? Dictator? Terrorist? Well, a national citizen of Libya may disagree but we want you to decide.

Ruling the country for 41 years until his demise in October 2011, Muammar Gaddafi did some truly amazing things for his country and repeatedly tried to unite and empower the whole of Africa. So despite what you've heard on the radio, seen in the media or on the TV Gaddafi did some powerful things that were not very reminiscent of a vicious dictator. Here are ten things Gaddafi did for Libya that you may not know about...

1. In Libya a home is considered a natural human right.

In Gaddafi's green book it states: " The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others". Gaddafi's Green Book is the formal leader's political philosophy, it was first published in 1975 and was intended reading for all Libyans even being included in the national curriculum.

The Justice Department secretly kept a database of Americans' calls to foreign countries for more than a decade, according to a new court filing and officials familiar with the program.

The revelation of another secret government database storing records of Americans' calls came in a filing Thursday in the case of a man accused of conspiring to unlawfully export electronic goods to Iran.

A Drug Enforcement Administration official said in the filing that the agency, which is an arm of the Justice Department, has long used administrative subpoenas - not federal court orders - to collect the metadata of U.S. calls to foreign countries "that were determined to have a demonstrated nexus to international drug trafficking and related criminal activities."

The court document only refers to collecting outgoing U.S. calls, though people familiar with the program said it also collected data on incoming calls.

The program didn't monitor the content of the calls.


The document doesn't identify the countries or say how many countries were involved, though it acknowledges Iran was one of the countries. The program began in the 1990s, say people familiar with its operation, and was ended in August 2013 amid reports about the DEA gathering phone records in other ways.

A Justice Department official said the database was deleted and hasn't been searched since 2013, and said the DEA is no longer collecting bulk phone records from U.S. phone companies.

Komsomolskaya Pravda special correspondent Daria Aslamova spoke with Jean-Marie Le Pen, a prominent European politician and founder of the National Front party in France

The founder of the National Front party and MEP, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is an 86-year-old politician is a the legend of France. As a teenager, participated in the resistance movement. He fought with France's airborne troops in Indochina and Algeria. This old man with difficulty rising from a chair politely declined my hand. He damaged his left eye in a street brawl, but he sees women perfectly with his right eye. This Frenchman is very much a Frenchman. "Who is this beauty, who came to us from the Russian frost?" he asks me when I greet him. It's flattery, of course, but what woman does not melt at such a compliment?

Daria Aslamova: Monsieur Le Pen, you first made the statement "I am not Charlie". How come?

Jean-Marie Le Pen: I am not Charlie Hebdo. This anarchist rag is a direct enemy of our National Front party, and a few years ago its journalists were collecting signatures on a petition demanding our closure. And all these politicians who came to the demonstration - they too are not Charlie but 'charlots'! (so-called French clowns, comedians - DA) They can organize a big spectacle with strong media support and the slogan 'I am Charlie', temporarily mobilizing the nation, but they are not able to protect the country from the influx of immigrants from the south. I would like to be 'Charlie Martella'. (as French naval battleships were named, after the French military leader Charles Martel - DA) Martell, this brilliant French soldier, in 732 stopped the Arab invasion in Poitiers.

Neoconservatives arrayed in their Washington offices are congratulating themselves on their success in using the Charlie Hebdo affair to reunite Europe with Washington's foreign policy. No more French votes with the Palestinians against the Washington-Israeli position. No more growing European sympathy with the Palestinians. No more growing European opposition to launching new wars in the Middle East. No more calls from the French president to end the sanctions against Russia.

Do the neoconservatives also understand that they have united Europeans with the right-wing, anti-immigration political parties? The wave of support for the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists is the wave of Marine Le Pen's National Front, Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party, and Germany's PEGIDA sweeping over Europe. These parties are empowered by the anti-immigration fervor that was orchestrated in order to reunite Europeans with Washington and Israel.

Once again the arrogant and insolent neoconservatives have blundered. Charlie Hebdo's empowerment of the anti-immigration parties has the potential to revolutionize European politics and destroy Washington's empire. See my weekend interview with King World News for my thoughts on this potential game-changer.

The reports from the UK Daily Mail and from Zero Hedge that Russia has cut off natural gas deliveries to six European countries must be incorrect. These sources are credible and well-informed, but such a cut-off would have instantly produced political and financial turmoil, of which there is no sign. Therefore, unless there is a news blackout, Russia's action has been misunderstood.