The Obama administration has now publicly announced that it deployed U.S. troops near the Syrian border in neighboring Jordan without ever seeking congressional permission, supposedly in an effort to help the Jordanian government deal with refugees from Syria while ensuring that the civil war does not spill over into the broader region. Concerns about chemical and biological weapons falling into the “wrong hands” were also cited to justify the latest deployment, but some lawmakers are upset, warning that the United States is now even closer to overt military intervention in Syria.

After having recently left thousands dead from overthrowing the governments ruling Libya and the Ivory Coast, the United Nations, urged on by the new Socialist French government and assorted African regimes, is already plotting its next invasion to deal with the fallout. This time Northern Mali is in the UN’s crosshairs after the country was taken over by Islamists and nomadic rebels amid a military coup d’état that ousted the government in the South.

A congressional investigation highlighting national security threats posed by two Communist China-based telecommunications equipment companies, Huawei and ZTE, is being seized upon by lawmakers and at least one of the firms to push for more government control at the national and international level. The final report found that the companies pose multiple risks to the United States and should be avoided.

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle claimed the danger could be lessened. However, to do that, lawmakers alleged, Congress must approve the controversial so-called “cybersecurity” bill forcing private companies to help the federal government spy on Americans under the guise of protecting “the Homeland.”   

Separately, one of the two Communist Chinese companies blasted in the congressional investigation as a national security risk responded to the allegations by essentially calling for a planetary regulatory regime.

Amid an imploding economy, runaway inflation, shortages of basic goods, electricity blackouts, surging violence, and widespread accusations of voter fraud in Venezuela, socialist strongman Hugo Chávez allegedly won a narrow victory in Sunday’s presidential election, according to the nation’s National Electoral Council (CNE). Though the Venezuelan regime has a ban on publishing the results of exit polls, a widely cited survey conducted by the consulting firm Varianza showed opposition candidate Henrique Capriles ahead by a slim margin as the vote was coming to an end.   

News reports and accounts from witnesses in Venezuela indicated that Chávez had ordered tanks and over 100,000 AK-47-wielding troops into the streets as fears about potential violence grew – the despotic self-styled socialist revolutionary had previously warned of civil war if he lost the election. On Twitter, meanwhile, angry Venezuelans accused Chávez of blatant voter fraud and threatened to leave the country.

U.S. federal authorities have been quietly supporting certain Mexican criminal empires, especially the Sinaloa drug cartel, in a bid to solidify the syndicates’ reign as dominant powerbrokers in particular territories, according to leaked e-mails from a U.S.-based Mexican diplomat to the private intelligence firm Stratfor. If cartel chiefs cooperate with authorities, “governments will allow controlled drug trades,” the source wrote.

Other information unearthed so far in the leak, much coming from a variety of sources, was equally explosive. One 2011 e-mail from someone described by Stratfor as “a US law enforcement officer with direct oversight of border investigations,” for example, indicated that American troops were already operating in Mexico under the guise of the drug war.

A new wave of pressure is mounting on disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder to resign after an in-depth investigation by Univision, a Spanish-language media broadcaster, uncovered evidence that guns handed to drug cartels by the Obama administration under operation Fast and Furious were used to massacre Mexican youths in addition to U.S. federal agents. Despite already having been held in contempt of Congress for the ongoing cover-up, however, Holder has steadfastly refused to step down.

Following an explosive French study suggesting a link between Monsanto’s controversial genetically engineered corn and cancer, Russian authorities have temporarily suspended all imports and use of the biotech GMO product until further safety testing can be performed. Officials worldwide are reportedly investigating the matter as well. 

After Google’s unit in Brazil refused to take down a YouTube video attacking a candidate in local elections, federal police took the search-engine giant’s Brazilian chief into custody for questioning. Apparently Google had been ordered by a court to remove the clip in question based on a decades-old law purporting to prohibit attacks that "offend the dignity or decorum" of political candidates.

The Department of Justice is under fire after a leaked terror training presentation aimed at state and local law enforcement revealed that police were being trained to be suspicious of popular bumper stickers including some opposing U.S. government participation in the scandal-plagued United Nations and one urging people to know their rights. Even Americans who hold what the document describes as beliefs that “represent a fairly popular point of view” — pro-life activists, for example — were included in the controversial terror manual.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon called for an end to arms shipments to both sides in Syria’s brutal war between Western-backed rebels and the Bashir al-Assad dictatorship before the conflict spirals out of control. In a speech at the UN General Assembly, however, President Obama promised to continue supporting the jihadist rebellion with U.S. taxpayer funds until the Syrian regime surrenders. Other governments were divided on whether diplomacy or military intervention would be most appropriate.