“Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, writing in the U.K. Guardian, had some interesting observations. Noting that “throughout the 80s [bin Laden] was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan,” Cook called bin Laden “a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies.” And while not everybody agrees that it was an accidental miscalculation, the fact that he worked with the U.S. government and other Western powers is beyond dispute.”

“But how and why did bin Laden and the loose confederation of Muslim extremists known as the Mujahideen — supported by the U.S. government and its allies at various other times in recent decades, too — ultimately become so rabidly anti-American?”

Alex Newman has an interesting look at how a leader of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan turned on his sponsors @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/history/world/7377-bin-laden-a-al-qaeda-us-govt-creations

“You’ve probably heard that what President Obama trumpeted as “the biggest annual spending cut in history” was nothing of the sort. The purported cuts — $38 billion from a federal budget $1.4 trillion in the red — were pathetic enough at face value.”

“But according to the Congressional Budget Office, the real total for this year is only $352 million — with an “m.” That, it turns out, wasn’t even enough to cover the first six days of bombing Libya, which cost roughly $400 million.”

“Two fruitless and expensive wars weren’t enough, apparently, so we’ve now added a third.”

“We got dragged into Libya by our NATO allies, who aren’t competent to run a proper airwar against a crumbling Third-World autocracy, and are now complaining that we’re not doing more to bail them out.”

Full commentary by Gene Healy of The Cato Institute @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13054

“Among the heavyweights promoting changes in national drug laws are the former heads of the U.K. internal security agency MI5, the Crown Prosecution Service, the government news service BBC, the British Medical Association and even the General Medical Council. Top British legislators from various parties in Parliament and the House of Lords are involved too.”

“The newly created “All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform” is calling for policies “based on scientific evidence.” Members said that despite governments pouring enormous sums of money into prohibition, availability and abuse of drugs have only increased. On top of that, the war has served to enrich terrorists and crime bosses while destabilizing entire countries like Mexico.”

“The chairwoman of the group, Baroness Meacher, has already come out with strong statements against the current prohibition model. “Criminalizing drug users has been an expensive catastrophe for individuals and communities,” Meacher told The Daily Telegraph in an interview. “In the U.K. the time has come for a review of our 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, [the law that criminalized drugs to comply with the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs treaty].” ”

Full Report by Alex Newman @ The New American http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/6827-top-uk-officials-un-inspired-war-on-drugs-failed

Tracing a connection that goes back to Hosni Mubarak’s time as Commander of Egypt’s Air Force in 1970, Mr Kirk shows that Egypt and North Korea have developed a close relationship during the time Egypt has received billions in aid from the United States, which has seen Mubarak as a key ally. Full story in The Asia Times Online @ http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/MB09Dg01.html

Additional details of the ties that bind Egypt to North Korea are revealed the February 7 issue of The Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0207/Why-Kim-Jong-il-wished-Egypt-s-Mubarak-a-Happy-New-Year

“Nemtsov was formerly the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998, and is one of the founders of Russia’s only true right-wing party, the Union of Right Forces. He is also considered “Enemy Number One” of Vladimir Putin and his regime of heinous and deceptive political maneuverings and machinations, as he has been an ardent critic of Putin’s government.”

“His plight is not only an indication of the fundamental lack of individual freedoms in Russia, but also demonstrates that Soviet tactics of resorting to any means of denouncing one’s political opponents are still a vital aspect of Russian political life. Nemtsov lingered in the dark chasms of his modern day gulag, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Prison, for over two weeks, all for the “crime” of criticizing Putin’s government and expressing political and economic beliefs vastly different than that of Putin.”

Full story by Daniel Sayani from The New American @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/6223-political-repression-on-the-rise-in-russia

“However, one critical aspect of the debate that has been neglected from public discourse on the topic — and that Sen. Paul may be unaware of — is the opposition of numerous Jewish and Israeli economists and religious Zionist groups to Israeli foreign aid. Like Sen. Paul, these figures believe that foreign aid is an affront against Israeli liberty and sovereignty, as well as a drain on the development of numerous sectors of the Israeli economy, such as the weapons and biotechnology industries.”

“Individuals including Israeli economists Ran Dagoni, Yoel Bainerman, and Alvin Rabushka, the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, as well as groups including the Jewish Task Force, the Zionist Freedom Alliance, and the Manhigut Yehudit faction of the Likud Party have long advocated for an end to U.S. foreign aid to Israel. These groups insist that Israel must develop her own economic strength and move towards more free-market economic reforms as a means of boosting national prosperity and strength.”

“Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that foreign aid may do more harm than good, and proposed efforts to wean Israel off of American military aid payments.”

Full column by Daniel Sayani from The New American @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/6201-israeli-economists-agree-with-rand-paul-end-foreign-aid

“A Polish research institute has developed a board game to teach young people about life under Communism. In the game, which is inspired by Monopoly, players must wait in endless lines at stores for scarce goods. For added realism, they have to put up with people cutting in line and products running out — unless they have a “colleague in the government” card.”

“There are no glamorous avenues for sale, nor can players erect hotels, charge rent or make pots of money. In fact, a new Polish board game inspired by the classic Monopoly is all about communism rather than capitalism.”

“The goal of the game, which will officially be launched on Feb. 5, is to show how hard and frustrating it was for an average person to simply do their shopping under the Communist regime in Poland. The game has been developed by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a Warsaw-based research institute that commemorates the suffering of the Polish people during the Nazi and Communist eras.”

Full story by Jill Petzinger from Der Spiegel weekly @ http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,740587,00.html

“As head of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu has paid lip service to “putting the people first,” but there has been little progress in liberalizing the political regime. The reality is that President Hu’s idea of a “harmonious society” is one directed by the ruling elite, in which order emerges from the top-down, not spontaneously under a constitution of liberty.”

“China can be proud of the rapid economic progress it has made since 1978, when it was still a centrally planned economy with little foreign trade. Today, as the world’s second largest economy, the People’s Republic has gained wealth but not freedom. The Chinese people have a vastly wider range of economic and social opportunities than under the dictatorship of Mao Zedong, but their basic human rights continue to be denied by a Communist Party determined to maintain its monopoly on power.”

Full commentary by James Dorn of The Cato Institute @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12709

Full interview in English translation @ Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,722392,00.html