Two years ago Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was controversially released on the grounds he was about to die. But this shadowy figure has survived to become a pawn in the Libyan conflict. John Ashton, who has long believed in his innocence, describes the man behind the myth.

It's an anniversary that the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, will have long dreaded. Two years ago tomorrow MacAskill granted Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, AKA "the Lockerbie bomber", compassionate release from the life sentence he was serving for the murder of the 270 victims of the 1988 bombing. MacAskill had been advised that terminal cancer was likely to end the Libyan's life within the following three months: he had, in short, been "sent home to die". As Megrahi's recent appearance at a pro-Gaddafi rally reminded us, he has not stuck to the script.

The anniversary presents sections of the media with another opportunity to splutter its outrage at MacAskill's decision, and to resurrect the theory that it was driven by backroom deals rather than medical evidence. More seriously, for many of the relatives of the Lockerbie dead it adds an appalling insult to their already grievous injury.

But Megrahi's survival, and the Lockerbie case in general, now has far wider significance. For western governments struggling to justify why Libya should be singled out for enforced regime change, the issue has become a godsend. In recent weeks both Barack Obama and William Hague have tried to boost wilting public support for the war by highlighting Gaddafi's responsibility for the 1988 attack.

• Banks admit secret checks on 'high-risk' customers
• About 30,000 home owners to be contacted
• Other lenders expected to follow suit

Cash-strapped homeowners are being telephoned by their banks and told to cut spending on 'luxuries' - or risk losing their homes.

Every week, around 2,000 customers of Northern Rock Asset Management and Bradford & Bingley are being warned to slash their outlay on mobile phones, gym memberships and even socialising, to 'prioritise' their mortgages.

In an extraordinary admission, the taxpayer-owned banks said that for the first time they were doing secret credit checks to identify high-risk customers.

Israeli settlers living in violation of international law in the West Bank have been issued stun grenades and tear gas by the Israeli military, in preparation for anticipated protests by Palestinians following the UN statehood declaration later this month.

The Israeli military has codenamed the planned attack on Palestinians "Operation Summer Seeds", which sounds much like the 2006 "Operation Summer Rains" in which 40,000 sound grenades and live missiles were dropped on the Gaza Strip over the course of the summer.

According to an internal Israeli government document leaked to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Israeli troops distributed maps with red lines drawn on them around Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with instructions to soldiers that if Palestinian protesters get too close to the settlements, they should be shot in the legs.

A former aide to one-time U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says former Vice President Dick Cheney fears he will be tried as a war criminal.

Cheney's memoir, In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir, hit the bookshelves Tuesday, and piles criticisms and attacks on many colleagues during George W. Bush's administration, especially Powell, whom Cheney accused of undermining Bush.

However, Powell's chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, told ABC News Cheney "was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration" and "fears being tried as a war criminal."

On Sunday, Powell called Cheney's criticism "cheap shots" on CBS News' "Face the Nation."

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern discusses former Vice President Dick Cheney's memoir and the larger question of how information is twisted in modern America.

The United States has so far stopped short of commenting on a Taliban claim that they killed scores of American forces in Afghanistan on Saturday

The Taliban claimed on Saturday that 64 US-led troops were killed in two separate attacks they launched in the southern city of Kandahar, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said on Saturday that the militants killed 36 American forces in a car bomb attack in front of the US base in Kandahar province and also 28 others were killed in another bombing near the military base.

The explosions were so powerful that rocked most of the areas in the province. Local officials confirmed that an Afghan civilian was killed and 23 others wounded in the assaults. Witnesses told the Press TV correspondent that US helicopters took the victims away right after the bombings.

With the latest deaths, Saturday has become the deadliest single day for US-led foreign forces since the war began in Afghanistan nearly a decade ago.

"Every [illegal] settlement is basically a military base, and that's what you see by the fact that the [Israeli] army is now arming the settlers and training them to fight the Palestinians."

The Israeli Defence Force is reportedly preparing settlers for the mass uprising of Palestinians, expected after the UN votes on a Palestinian statehood in September. The preparations include handing out tear gas and stun grenades to civilians.

Military resistance to Palestinians will only bring international sanctions on Israel after Palestine is recognised in September's vote. That's the view of Jeff Halper, a political activist and co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

In recent years, a new form of activism has cropped up on the Internet. With their numerous 'leaks' and 'ops', groups like WikiLeaks and its 'hacktivism' off-shoot known as 'Anonymous', have achieved major mainstream media exposure. With V for Vendetta's character 'V' as inspiration, youths the world over are rallying behind the idea that "something is terribly wrong with this country" and are letting everyone know via anonymous protests, online hacktivism against groups and organizations they see as part of the problem, or the support of the revolutions taking place in Egypt, Tunisia, and elsewhere.

The rise of Internet hacktivism comes with a price however. From 'home-grown terrorists', we now have the potential for 'home-grown terrorist hackers' and major Western governments and media corporations have wasted no time in touting this new angle in the 'war on terror'. The Economist, for example, described cyberwarfare as now "the fifth domain of warfare," and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, William J. Lynn, stated in 2010 that "as a doctrinal matter, the Pentagon has formally recognized cyberspace as a new domain in warfare . . . [which] has become just as critical to military operations as land, sea, air, and space."

The real potential problem with the rise of 'hacktivism' however is the potential for such groups to be infiltrated by government operatives and their righteous agendas diverted to serve the agendas of the US government and military. While nominally directed against hostile foreign powers, cyberwarfare is very much COINTELPRO's baby brother. Just as the so-called 'terrorist' threat has crept closer and closer to home, with the propagandistic association between social dissidence and the threat of 'homegrown terrorism' being increasingly stressed, cyberwarfare has increasingly targeted those citizens who take a critical stance against the crimes of current corporate, economic, military and political powers. After all, the only way to stifle dissent against crimes and corruption that are so systemic and obvious is through information warfare: propaganda. Cyberwarfare and 'hacktivism' are therefore likely to play a central role in 21st century COINTELPRO.

It is not surprising therefore that cyberwarfare has spawned an entire industry of private and military-based firms and organizations specializing in this new form of 'counter intelligence.'

A former employee of a company that helps websites deliver content to users pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of foreign economic espionage for providing trade secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

Elliot Doxer, 43, admitted at a plea hearing in federal court in Boston to providing trade secrets from Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies Inc. over an 18-month period to the agent, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts said in a statement.

The prosecutor's office said Dozer believed the agent was an Israeli spy.

Doxer's attorney, Thomas J. Butters, said his client "has accepted the responsibility for what he did and he looks forward to his sentencing so that he could put this matter behind him."

I was going to write about the NATO bombing of Sirte, where in order "protect civilians" from the now non-existent regime of Moamar Gadafy, the humanitarian lords of the West are now killing civilians at the behest of the new, non-elected regime of the murky and murderous "Transitional National Council."

But as I sat down to the keyboard, I saw that Craig Murray was already on the case. Murray, you'll recall, was the courageous UK ambassador to Uzbekistan who dared expose the horrific tortures being practiced by the "friendly" regime there, which was acting as one of the many foreign proxies for the Anglo-American "war on terror." For his pains, he was dismissed, demonized, marginalized. (And accused at one point of being "psychologically disturbed;" why else would anyone oppose the benevolent policies of our humanitarian honchos?)

Here is his quick take on the attack on Sirte: