Guardian report.

The idea that we "do have the chance to prepare" looks rather optimistic to me.

"The next five years will see us face another crunch -- the oil crunch. This time, we do have the chance to prepare. The challenge is to use that time well," Branson will say.

Juan Cole comments.

It is a trick of the Washington Establishment to scare apparently easily frightened Americans into a conviction that some small, poor, third world country is a dire threat to the most massively funded and armed military in the world. Repeating falsehoods is one way the Big Lie is implanted, that then allows US belligerence to be unquestioned at home.

The Leveretts comment.

It is hard to avoid concluding that the Obama Administration is deliberately overstating its alleged "progress" in persuading Moscow to support tougher sanctions against Iran.

Guardian report.

Geological surveys suggest there could be up to 60bn barrels beneath the seabed around the British territory, a bonanza that would transform islands famed for sheep, fish and remoteness.

Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic.

In a phrase: AIPAC's foreign policy, with Cheney's torture regime in place, to back it up. She has already stated that she wants more Israeli settlements and more Israelis in the West Bank, and is now hinting that she would also like a full-scale war with Iran.

Andrew Sullivan in the Sunday Times.

The Harper's report by Scott Horton is here.

Sullivan's comments at the Atlantic are here.

If there is any chance that these prisoners were accidentally tortured to death and their deaths then covered up as suicide, this is the biggest story in the grim annals of the Bush-Cheney era since Abu Ghraib. And yet, other than to carry a brief synopsis from Associated Press, no main US newspaper has delved into the Harper’s cover-story.

And indeed, a year ago Hickman and his fellows went to Obama’s justice department to explain what they believed needed to be investigated further. The FBI interviewed other witnesses who backed Hickman up. Last November, after months of waiting for a response, Hickman’s lawyer got a call from the justice department. The case was closed. The NCIS report stood. When Hickman’s lawyer asked why, he was told that Hickman’s conclusions “appeared� to be unsupported.

This is the change we were asked to believe in.

Reuters report.

"Forever" is a long time.

NATO forces and their Afghan allies will hold territory seized from the Taliban in an imminent major operation "forever", the commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province said.

Jim Lobe comments on Daniel Pipes' piece advocating the bombing of Iran.

Islamophobe Daniel Pipes makes what has to be considered the strongest case ever (and in a manner entirely consistent with his and other hard-line neo-cons notoriously cavalier attitude toward violence and war) for bombing nuclear facilities in Iran in his op-ed on National Review Online Tuesday. Obama should do it for political expediency.

BBC report.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told a conference of the world's top defence officials in Germany that he is considering introducing conscription. The Afghan president said at the summit in Munich he wants to build an army and police force of 300,000 by 2012.

Telegraph report.

A Russian-speaker with close ties to Moscow's ruling United Russia party, Mr Yanukovych is expected to prioritise a raft of policies that will mend Ukraine's fractious relations with its giant neighbour. He is also likely to give the Kremlin more say in the management of the country's strategically vital gas pipeline network that carries gas to Europe and heats millions of European homes.

His victory would mean that Ukraine, itself a giant country on the EU's eastern flank with almost 50 million people and a huge standing army, would drop its ambitions to join Nato and put its EU membership bid on the backburner.

Interview with Shirin Ebadi in the Telegraph.

There is also a report.

Shirin Ebadi, 62, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her long career as a human rights lawyer in Iran. She spoke to The Sunday Telegraph during a stay in London.

Press TV report.

Iran said Saturday it arrested seven people, including two Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives, who planned to stoke unrest and violence on a march scheduled for February 11.

Independent report.

Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered his country's atomic agency to begin the production of higher enriched uranium.

He said in comments broadcast on state television today: "God willing, 20% enrichment will start" to meet Iran's needs.

Guardian article by Kenneth Rogoff.

Even as the European Union and the International Monetary Fund lay the groundwork for a giant first-round bailout, debate is swirling about whether Greece can avoid sovereign default.

...

There is an old joke about two men who are trapped by a lion in the jungle after a plane crash. When the first of them starts putting on his sneakers, the other asks why. The first answers: "I am getting ready to make a run for it." But you cannot outrun a lion, says the other man, to which the first replies: "I don't have to outrun the lion. I just have to outrun you."

Greece has yet to put on its sneakers, while other troubled countries, such as Ireland, race ahead with massive fiscal adjustments. Greece's new socialist government is hampered by campaign promises that suggested the money was there to solve the problems, when in fact things turned out to be far worse than anyone imagined.

Guardian report.

A staggering €8bn-€10bn (£7bn-£8.7bn) may have been taken out of Greece by private investors since it became engulfed by economic turmoil in November.

...

The growing flight of funds from Greece has whipped up much resentment among the public. "It's revolting," said one popular radio chat-show host last week. "After pillaging the country, they flee with their ill-gotten gains at the very mention of the word tax."

Nafeez Ahmed responds to Christopher Hitchens' attack on Gore Vidal (and by extension on himself).

See also: Hitchens attacks Gore Vidal for being a 'crackpot' in today's Independent.

Nafeez Ahmed's blog post on the matter.

... while denigrating Gore, Hitchens displays a chronic contempt for simple matters of fact and evidence.