The biblically-obsessed are already calling it a prophecy of the End Times. (Examiner.com, Jan. 4) (Actually, contrary to the breathless and spelling-challenged spewings of the paranoid, there is no reference to birds falling from the sky in Revelations. It is in the far less sexy pseudepigraphic Apocalypse of Elijah.) But does anyone else out there find the official explanations singularly implausible? From the PBS News Hour, Jan. 4:

Among the documents released by WikiLeaks—none of which, their supporters insist, is indiscriminate—is an August 2006 classified US diplomatic cable on the lavish wedding party thrown by Gadzhi Makhachev, political boss of the Avar ethnic group in Russia's Caucasus republic of Dagestan, for his 19-year-old son. Makhachev is a Duma member, chief of the Dagestan Oil Company, and warlord who gained fame for leading the defense of Dagestan against the incursions of Chechen guerilla fighter Shamil Basayev ten years ago. The leaked cable contains much juicy gossip on Caucasus politics, and unflattering depictions of local political figures. Despite WikiLeaks' stated policy of only releasing documents that reveal newsworthy official malfeasance, we see nothing in this lengthy cable that meets that standard. However, the text is certain to be deeply embarrassing for the US diplomatic corps in Russia and the Caucasus. Ultimately, it may say more about hidden agendas behind WikiLeaks than about US designs...

For the first time, Coptic Christians took to the streets in Egypt in a series of angry protests after a bomb blast during New Year's Eve midnight mass at Alexandria's al-Qiddisin (Saints) Church left 32 dead and some 100 injured. Chanting "With our souls and blood we save the cross," Copts marched through Cairo and tried to storm the Radio and TV headquarters in Maspero.

Following a wave of angry protests across the country, Bolivia's President Evo Morales revoked a decree that lifted fuel subsidies and caused price hikes of up to 82%. In a message late Jan. 31, Morales said he had decided to rescind the decree after meeting with labor and indigenous leaders who convinced him that the price hike for gasoline, diesel and other fuels was "inopportune."

Our last issue featured the story "9-11 at Nine: The Conspiracy Industry and the Lure of Fascism" by World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg, calling out the growing embrace of right-wing and virulently anti-Semitic conspiracy theory by the left-wing blogosphere and alternative media. Weinberg also had to issue a statement dissenting from the right-wing conspiranoid drift at New York's non-commercial WBAI Radio, where his program, the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, has been exiled to 2 AM and stripped by 30 minutes as a punitive measure in response to his protests. Our September Exit Poll was: "Is World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg an agent of the Illuminati, pawn of the Bilderbergs, Mossad operative and/or shape-shifting reptilian?" We finally received the following responses:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree Dec. 26 allowing the country's Supreme Court to go forward with its plan to set up a tribunal to hear complaints of fraud during the September parliamentary elections. The tribunal brings doubt over the legitimacy of the elections, already tainted by irregularities that forced authorities to invalidate a significant number of votes and disqualify candidates. The decision comes less than a month before the 249-seat parliament is set to convene on Jan. 20, but officials say Karzai is committed to inaugurating the parliament by then.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights announced Dec. 28 that the US government has refused to provide legal cooperation to Polish prosecutors investigating whether Saudi terror suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was tortured in a secret CIA prison in Poland. According to the letter sent by Polish prosecutors to the Helsinki Foundation, the US government denied the March 2009 request on the basis of a bilateral agreement on the protection of state interests.

From War Resisters League, Dec. 17:

Whose stories are we telling about the war in Afghanistan?
On the day following the White House report on the war in Afghanistan that names the war as a qualified success and calls for the US to "stay the course," we must lift up the alternative stories and reports of this near-decade of occupation, including yesterday's Veterans for Peace action at the White House.