The $7 billion federal class action lawsuit against top Bush Administration officials for, among other things, their roles in engineering and orchestrating the 911 attacks has been dismissed by Judge Illston. Attorney for the plaintiffs, Stanley Hilton is preparing an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and hopes to reverse the judge's ruling.

Officials said the Bush administration has agreed to an effort to undermine the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. But they said President George Bush has not approved any military attack on Syria. "I don't think anybody's talking about counter-attacks or talking military attacks on Syrian targets," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said.

Israeli warplanes twice bombed suspected Hezbollah targets along the border in southern Lebanon on Monday, wounding two women, after an Israeli bulldozer was blown up in a disputed area near the frontier, Lebanese officials said.

The new American militarism has abandoned the Founding Fathers, deserted the Constitution, and unrestrained the executive. War is a first resort. Militarism is inconsistent with globalism and with American ideals. It will end in abject failure, warns Paul Craig Roberts.

56 percent of Americans believe country is misunderstood across pond.

Israel is concerned that the systems, if sold to Syria, could potentially be transferred to the Islamic Resistance, the armed militia of the Lebanese Hizbullah, or to Palestinian insurgent groups and is exerting massive diplomatic pressure on Russia to halt missiles.

Iran's ambassador to Cuba said his country will increase ties to the Communist dictatorship 90 miles from Florida by extending some 20 million in euro credit. United by anti-Americanism, the two countries have grown closer in recent years – a concern to some in Washington because of Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and desire to develop weapons of mass destruction.--WorldNetDaily

America has hobbled an effort by Britain and other European countries to persuade Iran to freeze its nuclear program. Senior officials said privately that the US would not offer economic or political concessions to woo Tehran. President George W. Bush is trying to improve relations with Europe and will visit London and Brussels next month. But in private, American officials are furious at the European Union's "engagement" with Tehran. They say they will not co-operate with what they see as the dangerous policy of giving the regime "rewards for bad behavior."

"It's all about the oil" was the chant issued by a vast army of protesters around the world. Yes, it may have been "all about the oil" – but it didn't involve Americans, who did not own any of the oil in Iraq, but rather a horde of rich global fat cats who wanted to make millions in a so-called U.N. humanitarian program. One of those who made out like a bandit is a rich Canadian whose bank made millions and whose Paris-based holding companies include the originally French-Belgian oil company TotalFina Elf, which cut lucrative deals with Saddam's Iraq and is currently operating in war-torn Sudan, reports Charles Smith.

The Bush administration imposed penalties this month against some of China's largest companies for aiding Iran's efforts to improve its ballistic missiles. The move is part of an effort by the White House and American intelligence agencies to identify and slow important elements of Iran's weapons programs.

In a White House that is still sensitive to any suggestion that the vice president is the puppet master, colleagues and supporters dismiss any suggestion that Mr. Cheney is calling the shots or that he is the de facto Treasury secretary.

Thus do we hear two messages at such a time. In the first, we hear about how bad the current tax code is. It is this message that compels us. There is more bad to say about the current tax code than could be said by all the politicians in the world. It is the second part of the message where the trouble comes: the proposal to replace what we have now with something new -Lew Rockwell

A court summons ordering Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi to appear before a national security court was a mistake expected to be repealed, a senior justice official said Monday."A mistake has been made," chief justice in Tehran province, Abbas Ali Alizadeh, told the official IRNA News Agency -IranMania

Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Joe Biden of Delaware, leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are expected to take different approaches when they question Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice(Today's hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a two-hour break for lunch) -Indianapolis Star

Dear Mr Hersh, I read with great interest your article The Coming Wars: What the Pentagon can now do in secret, in the New Yorker in its issue dated January 24.The article is about US preparations for a possible covert operation against Iran's suspected military nuclear installations set up with Pakistani complicity.Asia Times correspondent B.Raman writes an open letter citing numerous reasons why Musharraf may be playing both sides against each other -Rediff

Zhao Ziyang, the former Chinese Communist Party leader who helped launch China's economic boom but was ousted after sympathizing with the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters, died yesterday in a Beijing hospital. He was 85.The Chinese authorities have virtually silenced local media outlets, as a former aide called for Zhao to be given due respect in death -Taipei Times

Pakistan would strongly press for the sale F-16 fighter planes, capable of delivering nuclear weapons, during the US-Pakistan Defence Consultative Group (DCG) meeting to be held here in the first week of next month.This is the first DCG meet after the US granted Major Non-NATO ally status to Pakistan, which officials here claim helps in faster clearance of weapons for the country -India Daily

“Don’t take on the Bushes” is becoming an unwritten rule in American journalism. Reporters can make mistakes in covering other politicians and suffer little or no consequence, but a false step when doing a critical piece on the Bushes is a career killer -Robert Parry/Consortium News

The serious confrontation between branches of government involving Chertoff began during Bush's first year in office.Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, sought documents exposing the FBI's shocking misuse of mob information in Boston decades earlier.An innocent man went to prison on murder charges because of lies told by an FBI informant.Two of the FBI's undercover men, including the notorious Whitey Bulger, committed murder without being charged.Burton was stunned when informed by Ashcroft and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales that the president was invoking executive privilege and such documents never would be released.Chertoff was out front denying material to the committee, but his real role was unclear.Today, supporters say he was merely taking orders from Ashcroft.But three years ago, congressional staffers told me Chertoff was calling the shots -Robert Novak/Chicago Sun Times

But that was just one of the two thorny issues between Bush and Martin. The other is the tariff on imported Canadian pine, spruce and other softwood lumber that is, and always has been, subsidized by the Canadian government.I think to get the tariff removed from Canadian lumber, Martin is going to have to send real troops—with loaded guns—to Iraq. And that would be a major coup for the Bush Administration since Canada has stood, shoulder to shoulder with France and Germany on the Iraqi issue -Jon Christian Ryter/NewsWithViews

Mr. Abbas's push for a return to the international peace blueprint known as the road map, which calls for a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, is at loggerheads with Sharon's focus on unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip -Christian Science Monitor

Is Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas serious about his talk and decisions about ending all the military activity, meaning terror attacks? As opposed to the conventional wisdom in Israel that says his success depends on him demonstrating determination, most Palestinians think that his success does not depend on him, but on his environment: the Israeli policies, and the economic support that reaches the Palestinians -Haaretz

More than 500 million people can be lifted out of abject poverty, 250 million people will no longer go to bed hungry and 30 million children can be saved if rich countries double development aid over the next 10 years, a new U.N.-sponsored report said Monday.In a 3,000-word report, some 265 experts came up with long-term projects and quick fixes, such as supplying mosquito bed nets against malaria to creating free school lunch programs -- to meet global goals of alleviating poverty and preventing disease that nations promised at a U.N. summit in 2000

President Bush's second inauguration on Thursday will provide the signal for an intense and urgent debate in Washington over whether or when to extend the "global war on terror" to Iran, according to officials and foreign policy analysts in Washington(and from one of the Brit's 'globalism' reporters) -Julian Borger/Guardian UK

The assertion by a leading American journalist that US Special Forces have been operating inside Iran is startling and, if true, utterly reprehensible.On the other hand, if this is disinformation, Iran is not going to react to such bullying in the way that the White House might wish(reaction from the Arab view) -Arab Daily News

US President George W. Bush said on Monday he would not rule out military action against Iran if that country was not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons program."I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table," Bush said in an interview with NBC News when asked if he would rule out the potential for military action against Iran "if it continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program." Bush's comments followed Pentagon criticism on Monday of a published report that it was mounting reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets -ABS CBN News

President Bush said Monday he has "a big agenda in mind" for his second term that begins this week and that four years is going to be a short time to meet all his goals. "We got to get moving and get some things done before - before people kind of write me off," Bush told CBS News in an interview.