Robert Fisk in the Independent.

The events in Washington prove a few things. The Armenian American community have a more powerful and wealthier lobby than ever before. More seriously -- for the Turks -- is that this year Turkey did not have the Israeli lobby behind it. In the past, Israel, which disgracefully claims that the Armenian Holocaust was not a genocide, has supported its close ally Turkey. But this year, Israel and Turkey have fallen out and the Israelis are still miffed at Turkey's condemnation of the bloodbath in Gaza.

Deutsche Welle report.

In Africa, Iran has engaged in economic and development projects in a number of countries: in Senegal where Khodro, Iran's largest car manufacturer, opened an assembly line in 2007; Nigeria with which it has agreed to share nuclear technology for the production of electricity; and it enjoys good relations with South Africa (a regional leader) where its support of the ANC during the apartheid era has meant that South Africa has remained a true friend.

However, nowhere is the success of Iran's investment quite as clear as in Sudan. "Iran has been successful in strengthening ties with Sudan because the two countries have an ideological link. They are standing up against the West and imperialism," Sanam Vakil, an expert on Iran at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC, told Deutsche Welle.

Joseph Trento in DC Bureau.

While the Obama administration prepares for a military conflict with Iran, it is important for us to understand some of the secret history between Iran and the United States that complicates the planning and unnecessarily puts our soldiers and sailors in harm's way. What follows is one story about how that happened.

Roger Cohen comments in the New York Times.

There's nothing new in U.S. hawks reducing Iran to a nuclear abstraction, its 70 million citizens subsumed into a putative warhead, its civilization ignored and its historical grievances against the United States glossed over -- all in the name of making Persia a U.S. electoral pawn and a threat that demands bombs.

But the war option remains unthinkable, a potential disaster for the United States and Israel. It's therefore worth outlining, before the drumbeat intensifies in the run-up to the mid-term U.S. elections, 10 truths about Iran.

From CASMII.

[...] Iran's ongoing internal political crisis has apparently led some Western anti-war organizations and activists to be ambivalent about the need to stand against Western aggression against Iran. Regardless of how activists view Iran's internal situation, we all must agree that outside pressure and interference must be opposed. Recognizing this, Iran's political opposition has urged Western countries to stay out of Iran's internal affairs.

Guardian article.

He pleaded guilty to going absent without leave in January after the more serious charge of desertion -- which carries a maximum jail term of 10 years, rather than two years for awol -- was dropped at the last minute.

Glenton, 27, had intended to deny desertion, and his legal team believe the charge was reduced to avoid a potentially embarrassing full trial at which he planned to defend himself on the grounds that the entire Afghan war was illegal under international law.

BBC report. The Telegraph article is here.

The UK is planning to stop attempts to secure "politically-motivated" private arrest warrants for visiting foreign officials, the prime minister has said.

Times report.

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Washington tonight after a congressional panel voted to label the massacre of Armenians in the First World War as "genocide", in developments that threatened to poison relations between the US and its closest Muslim ally.

Clive Stafford Smith in the Guardian.

After rubbing the government's nose in its torture cover-up in the case of Binyam Mohamed, we gave the government a chance to come clean this week in the case of Mohammed Saad Iqbal Madni, a man I met last week in Lahore, Pakistan. Madni was rendered through Diego Garcia to 92 days of particularly gruesome torture in Egypt, followed by time in Bagram and Guantánamo, before being belatedly cleared of any crime and sent home.

The British, sad to say, were again mixed up in all this. We suggested last August that they simply admit it.

[...]

A hearing was set for the case on 4 March 2010. At 5:21pm on 3 March, after the close of business, the government changed its tune. The government now admitted to the court that it was in "possession of documents which have a bearing … on whether any British or American authorities were mixed up in wrongdoing …"

Wall Street Jornal article.

The Obama administration, still struggling to win China's pivotal backing for a new round of United Nations sanctions against Iran, is increasingly worried about gaining the support of some other members of the U.N. Security Council, particularly Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon, according to U.S. and European officials.

Dave Lindorff on Counterpunch. The Scotsman story that he refers to.

Today's war in Afghanistan also has its My Lai massacres. It has them almost weekly, as US warplanes bomb wedding parties, or homes "suspected" of housing terrorists that turn out to house nothing but civilians. But these My Lais are all conveniently labeled accidents. They get filed away and forgotten as the inevitable "collateral damage" of war. There was, however, a massacre recently that was not a mistake--a massacre which, while it only involved fewer than a dozen people, bears the same stench as My Lai. It was the execution-style slaying of eight handcuffed students, aged 11-18, and a 12-year-old neighboring shepherd boy who had been visiting the others, in Kunar Province, on Dec. 26.

BBC: John Simpson's full report.

The specialist, like other medical staff at the hospital, seemed nervous about talking too openly about the problem.

They were well aware that what they said went against the government version, and we were told privately that the Iraqi authorities are anxious not to embarrass the Americans over the issue.

There are no official figures for the incidence of birth defects in Falluja. The US military authorities are absolutely correct when they say they are not aware of any official reports indicating an increase in birth defects in Falluja - no official reports exist.

BBC report.

Doctors in the Iraqi city of Falluja are reporting a high level of birth defects, with some blaming weapons used by the US after the Iraq invasion.

Independent report.

He was supposed to return to Britain in 2007 -- but Shaker Aamer is still being held inside Camp Delta. Who is this charismatic prisoner? And what happened to him at the hands of MI5? Robert Verkaik reports

Larisa Alexandrovna on at-Largely.

The reason Liz Cheney is so interested in demonizing lawyers who represented or advocated for detainees at Gitmo is because her father has admitted to committing war crimes, over and over and over. Using the same old handbook, Liz Cheney is defending daddy by demonizing anyone in a position to shed light on the war crimes committed on her father's orders.

Jeff Huber on at-Largely.

Among the worst Orwellian deceptions being exposed by the Pentagon's Marjah offensive is the ludicrous notion that we're fighting a war in Afghanistan in order to protect Afghan civilians. The recent U.S. Special Forces air strike in the Marjah area that killed 27 or more civilians, including four women and a child, is a prime example of a cognitive disconnect that has been endemic in U.S. military operations throughout our misnamed war on terrorism.