Daily Headlines:

First up: Soros Watch

I always suspected this one.

Glenn Beck: Fox News Told Me To Shut Up

But why? Read below:

Did Fox News try to censor Glenn Beck before the media giant left the cable network last year?

The answer is yes, according to Beck, who made the disclosure this week on his new television program on GBTV.com.

Beck explained that his own former network tried to get him to clam up about his constant reporting on what he felt was Soros’ fiendish agenda to harm the American way of life.

“Here’s the real reason why George Soros is worried about little old me and the assassins, because I know the truth about him,” said Beck.

“Everyone – including the assassins [at Fox News] – told me, ‘You wanna shut up about George Soros?’

This last sentence is actually pretty interesting on a number of levels:

“No. No I don’t. Nope. Doesn’t make my life easier. Doesn’t make me more popular. Doesn’t do anything, except I am allowed to end my days saying I told the truth. I did what somebody should have done and tell the truth. The truth has no agenda. The truth will set you free. The truth needs to be held like a sword and a shield. He should be worried. He should be worried because I’m going to continue to expose him when he finds out the role he plays in our next little book coming out this spring.

WND reported one organization that led a crusade demanding Fox News fire Beck is, in fact, backed by Soros and is tied to many of the liberal activists Beck routinely excoriated on his show.

Jewish Funds for Justice, or JFSJ, a charity that campaigns for social change, delivered a petition with 10,000 signatures to Fox News in protest of a program in which Beck specifically targeted Soros, calling the businessman the “puppet master.” JFSJ deemed the show anti-Semitic.

George Soros To Form Super PAC?

In a classic case of burying the lede, Politico reports today that George Soros is mulling whether to return to big-time financing of Democratic candidates in the 2012 election.

The article in question is a very lengthy piece about the Democrats’ ambivalence towards so-called Super PACs, outside groups that can raise funds and run election ads, and how that has stymied Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama Super PAC. Obama had repeatedly criticized the Supreme Court decision that allowed the groups.

In the 22nd paragraph(!) of the Politico story there is this fascinating nugget of information.

(I)conoclastic Democratic mega-donor George Soros … has foresworn major political giving since his $20 million foray into the field in 2004 failed to power Democrat John Kerry past (President George W.) Bush.

Soros has hinted he may be getting closer to jumping back into the game, sending a video message to the November donor conference that said he planned to be at their next conference in May “because there is a lot of work to do.”

The story states that Soros has lately been focusing on the European debt crisis, but the fact that he took the time to record a video message for other Democratic donors is an indication that he is not that distracted.

So don’t be surprised if some new major pro-Democrat Super PAC pops up between now and the election with millions in funds to bash Republicans as the party of the super rich. Politics is nothing is not ironic.

Fox News Hires Soros-Funded Activist

Sally Kohn, a former senior strategist at the Soros-funded Center for Community Change, has been hired as a Fox News Contributor. Soros is the controversial hedge fund billionaire, convicted of insider trading in France, who finances the “progressive” movement in the U.S.

It is significant that Kohn is now a regular paid commentator on Fox News, while Glenn Beck, the one-time archenemy of George Soros, was ousted from the channel last year and now hosts an Internet TV show.

An open lesbian who shuns feminine attire and frequently wears a suit jacket, she is joining Fox News after being a regular on such programs as “The Ed Show” on liberal rival MSNBC. She is now officially part of the “Fox News Family,” as she puts it, and has been making appearances on the channel for several days.

The selection of Kohn raises disturbing questions about the direction of Fox News in a critical election year. Kohn worked at the Center for Community Change, one of the leading Soros-funded groups, for six years, from 2004 – 2010. During this period, the group received $5.8 million from Soros’s main vehicle, the Open Society Institute (OSI).

Meanwhile, back in the Middle East and the world:

Worries Grow Over Syria Chemical Weapons Arsenal

As the days of Syrian President Bashar Assad increasingly look numbered, concerns are mounting that the regime’s vast stockpile of chemical weapons might fall into the hands of terrorists by accident or by plan.

No one knows the size and quality of the arsenal of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that the Assad regime has accumulated over the years. Its nuclear aspirations probably ended with a mysterious 2007 attack on a suspected nuclear facility, and experts are divided on whether Syria has biological weapons.

But they are nearly certain that Damascus operates a comprehensive chemical weapons program that encompasses production and delivery capabilities.
Major-General Amir Eshel, the head of the Israeli military's planning division, was the latest official to express concern about what will happen to Syria’s WMD. He told reporters in Jerusalem this week it was only a matter of time before some of the arsenal makes it was out of government-secured facilities.

“We are talking about huge stockpiles,” he said. “That's a major concern because I don't know who is going to own those the day after. Up till now, what has been transferred to Hezbollah? What will be transferred to Hezbollah? What will be divided between those factions inside Syria?”

Iran Subs Poised To Torpedo U.S. Warships

An Iranian commander has warned that Tehran is on full alert in case of enemy threats, and has the best submarines in the world ready to “ambush and hit enemy vessels, especially US Aircraft carriers, from the seabed throughout the Persian Gulf.”

Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army's Self-Sufficiency Jihad Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri hailed the Iranian submarines as “the best electronic diesel vessels in the world, noiseless and able to easily evade detection as they are equipped with sonar-evading technology," the country’s semi-state Fars news agency reported.

The Iranian military official said the vessels can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously, underlining that the submarines’ superiority was not just due to their arms and equipment, but also “the tactical issues are very important", given the geographical specifications of the waters surrounding the country.

U.S. Seeks Russia's Explanation On Syria-Bound Weapons Ship

The U.S. Department of State said it was seeking explanations from Moscow over a ship that probably headed from Russia with a cargo of weapons to Syria.

The spokeswoman said the U.S. is unable to confirm at the moment that the ship carried weapons and breached the existing sanctions on Syria, imposed after months of deadly unrest against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Cypriot media said the ship was carrying from 35 to 60 tons of ammunition and explosives meant for the Syrian Defense Ministry. The Greek Cypriot Foreign Ministry said in a statement customs officers boarded the ship for a document check and tried to examine the cargo, but could not open four containers it was stored in because of “confined space.”

WEF Seeks To Rewire Global Leadership

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) flagship meeting in Davos will this year attempt to close widening gaps between world leaders and different sections of society.

WEF founder and chairman Klaus Schwab told the media on Wednesday that established systems of governance and business are in urgent need of a radical overhaul.

“Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us,” Schwab said. “We have failed to learn the lessons from the financial crisis of 2009. A global transformation is urgently needed and it must start with reinstating a global sense of social responsibility.”

“We are looking desperately around the world for people who can offer solutions,” he added. “We are in danger of losing the confidence of future generations.”

Leading actors from the worlds of business, politics, civil society, religion, academia and science will take to the stage in Davos from January 25 to 29 under the banner: The Great Transformation – Shaping New Models.

But although the problems are well known, Schwab believes the established leadership models are not up to the job of guiding the world out of its current mess.

“Many people have lost trust in leadership and increasingly perceive life primarily in terms of hardship. The question is: what can we do and what should we do,” said Schwab at the media conference held in WEF’s headquarters near to Geneva on Wednesday.