The Central Intelligence Agency is clandestinely gathering troves of information from social media sites, according to a huge report released Friday by The Associated Press' Kimberly Dozier.

Based out of an unassuming building in Virginia, a team known within the organization as the "vengeful librarians" are tracking chat rooms, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter around the world. On Twitter alone, the CIA screens roughly 5 million messages per day.

They then compare that information to other agency intel, allowing them to produce more detailed projections of possible terror threats or events bubbling beneath the surface. In a recent example, the center's director, Doug Naquin, told the AP that the agency predicted the Egyptian uprising and the role social media would play in bringing about regime change there.

President Obama's attorney sent a letter to Congressional investigators on Friday, saying the White House would not cooperate with a subpoena requesting documents related to its doling out a $535 million loan guarantee to now bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.

"I can only conclude that your decision to issue a subpoena, authorized by a party-line vote, was driven more by partisan politics than a legitimate effort to conduct a responsible investigation," Obama's counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, wrote in a letter to the top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce committee. (Read Ruemmler's full letter here).

Kalle Lasn here with a story about how the New York Times refused to give Adbusters [which Lasn edits] the right of reply. Here is the chronology of what happened:

1. October 3 letter from Adbusters Kalle Lasn to the editor of the New York Times:

In the wake of the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET movement, the New York Times has twice taken a swipe at Adbusters magazine, originators of the event. David Brooks led the charge in his October 10 column, The Milquetoast Radicals, falsely accusing us of being anti-Jewish.

In an earlier column, Mr. Brooks said: "Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up about 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates ... 37 percent of Academy Award-winning directors ... 51 percent of Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction" and so on. And yet, in his October 10 column he found something insidious about an article Adbusters ran seven years ago pointing out that 50 percent of the prominent neocons surrounding the Bush administration were Jewish. Why the double standard, Mr. Brooks? How is this different?

Then on October 17, Joseph Berger's Cries of Anti-Semitism, but Not at Zuccotti Park, quoted an article in a conservative magazine founded by the American Jewish Committee which alleged that "the main organizer behind the movement - Adbusters editor Kalle Lasn - has a history of anti-Jewish writing." Mr. Berger, why are you uncritically passing on other people's allegations? Why didn't you do your own research and come up with your own conclusions?

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou survived a vote of confidence in parliament on Saturday, avoiding snap elections that would have torpedoed Greece's debt bailout deal and inflamed the euro zone's economic crisis.

But the nation remained mired in political, economic and social turmoil and Papandreou signaled he would stand down, calling for a new coalition to ram the 130-billion-euro ($179 billion) bailout deal through parliament and avoid the nation going bankrupt.

Papandreou's socialist government won with 153 votes in the 300 member parliament, and a rebellion by some dissidents in his PASOK party failed to materialize after he indicated that his term as prime minister was close to an end.

"The last thing I care about is my post. I don't care even if I am not re-elected. The time has come to make a new effort ... I never thought of politics as a profession," he told parliament before the vote.

Papandreou said a coalition government should secure the approval of the EU/IMF bailout deal, the nation's last financial lifeline, which is also the euro zone's central plank to prevent economic crisis devastating the bloc's bigger economies.

The sudden dismissal of the Greek military's high command Tuesday night, amid international uproar over a proposal for a referendum on an EU debt plan, has all the hallmarks of an action taken to preempt the threat of a military coup.

A measure of this political magnitude would not have been taken lightly. At the very least, one must assume that Prime Minister George Papandreou had strong reason to believe that his government, and possibly his own person, was facing an imminent threat from the country's military.

The Greek minister of defense, Panos Beglitis, a close political ally of Papandreou, summoned the four highest-ranking Greek military officers - the chiefs of the general staff, the army, navy and air force - to a hastily convened meeting to announce that they were being removed from their posts and replaced by other members of the Greek military brass.

Last month, Defense Minister Beglitis was quoted by the EU Observer web site as describing the Greek military hierarchy as "a state within a state."

"An inch ahead lies darkness"
Japanese proverb

Many people are making facile comparisons between today's OWS movement and the anti-war movement of the Vietnam era. A major difference between what happened then and what is happening today is that the 60's anti-war movement occurred in the context of great prosperity and full employment, was led by middle class students anxious to avoid the draft, was not seconded by labor and in the context of a foreign war was often opposed by the "silent majority" on patriotic grounds.

None of this applies today. Now we are seeing students, organized labor and even war veterans arm in arm lined up against the "one percent" and it is also significant that they are ignoring Washington and concentrating their actions directly on the economic powers themselves, occupying Wall Street and now paralyzing America's most important sea port, Oakland California.

In other places and other eras, both these actions would have been considered pre-revolutionary.

Israeli government yesterday took punitive measures against the UN cultural agency Unesco for admitting Palestine as a member-state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a halt to the country's participation in Unesco, including its annual payment of $2 million, following Unesco's decision, which he said "doesn't advance peace, but makes it more distant," according to a text message from his office yesterday.

Two vessels being towed to Israeli port; activists to be questioned, released

Jerusalem - Israel's navy boarded two protest boats trying to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip on Friday and towed them to an Israeli port just north of the Palestinian territory, officials said.

The military said forces boarded the boats after repeated calls for them to turn around were ignored. The boarding was done peacefully and nobody was hurt, the military said.

It was the latest attempt by pro-Palestinian activists heading for Gaza by boat to draw attention to a 5-year-old blockade of the impoverished coastal strip that critics say amounts to collective punishment of its residents. Israel says its naval blockade is vital in preventing weapons from reaching violent groups like Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group that rules the Gaza Strip.

Once the vessels reach the port of Ashdod, the activists will be questioned by police and immigration officials and then sent back to their home countries as soon as possible, said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Ames, Iowa - Casting the Wall Street protestors as misguided, Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann on Thursday said their frustrations should instead be directed at Washington politicians who protect their allies and put unfriendly companies out of business.

Bachmann said politicians have far too much power and unfairly pick winners and losers. The Minnesota congresswoman, trying to recapture her once surging poll numbers, said she has watched lawmakers enact laws that intentionally shut businesses down.

"For your sake and for your future, America - and Occupy Wall Street in particular - needs to wake up and stop blaming the free market, stop blaming capitalism, stop blaming job creators for the failures created by selfish politicians," Bachmann told students at Iowa State University. "The problem is politicians who wink at their political donors and through the force of law put their competitors out of business."

Bachmann used her appearance in Ames to outline an economic proposal that would require all Americans to pay taxes. The Tax Policy Center estimates that some 46 percent of households this year will not pay federal income taxes.

"They need to be invested in the country," she said. "Even if they can only afford $10, they need to pay something."

Her position was a direct challenge to rivals Rick Perry and Herman Cain, who are advocating separate flat tax plans. Cain is also promoting for a national sales tax as part of his 9-9-9 plan.

Bachmann said she would not propose an absolute flat tax, but told reporters after that she would have at most three tax brackets, which she declined define.

Polls show Bachmann trailing behind other contenders in Iowa, which holds the first presidential caucuses in January. She won an early test vote in Ames in August. But her standing slipped as the GOP electorate rallied first around Perry, who had several weak debate performances, and then Cain, who has spent the last four days trying to redirect media attention away from allegations of sexual harassment filed by at least two women during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association.

With jobs and the economy as the top issues on voters' minds, Bachmann hopes her tough talk will help her regain her footing in a state that her advisers see as a linchpin in their strategy.

The UK and U.S. are drawing up plans to attack Iran amid growing tensions in the Middle East, it was claimed last night.

Barack Obama and David Cameron are preparing for war after reports that Iran now has enough enriched uranium for four nuclear weapons.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hardline regime in Tehran has been linked to three assassination plots on foreign soil, according to senior officials in Whitehall.

Iran has come sharply back into focus following the end of the Libya conflict.

President Obama said Iran's nuclear programme continues to pose a threat and that he and French president Nicolas Sarkozy want the international community to maintain pressure on the country to admit its intentions.
And the unrest has been inflamed by sabre-rattling from top politicians in Israel.