SPB News for Wednesday.

Sen. Hagel won't be endorsing a presidential candidate — Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who is one of John McCain's closest friends — but who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Democrat Barack Obama — is sitting out the presidential contest, according to his spokesman, Jordan Stark.

Most US cos. 'pay no income tax'

GAO also reports most foreign firms in US aren't paying corporate taxes.

Barr dissects 'John the Maverick'

BP shuts down Georgia pipelines Energy giant BP says it has shut two of three pipelines that run through Georgia as a 'precautionary measure.' A spokeswoman for the firm said the oil and gas pipelines, which run from the Caspian Sea into Georgia, had not been damaged by the recent fighting. Another key oil pipeline, which runs from Azerbaijan through southern Georgia into Turkey, is already shut.

U.S. Imposes Sanctions on 5 Iranian Companies The Bush regime has imposed economic sanctions on five Iranian companies that it has accused of helping the country pursue its ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon. The Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it was freezing any assets the five companies might have in the United States and prohibiting American individuals and companies from having dealings with the firms.

What were the Mossad with fraudulent New Zealand Passports doing in Iraq? By Jerry Mazza According to a reliable source, these Mossad agents fraudulently obtained New Zealand Passports then showed up in Iraq. That source’s source is inside the G2 Intelligence section of one of the commanding armies in Baghdad. Some of the solders caught these Mossad agents with the New Zealand Passports on them. The Mossad agents were subsequently ordered to be let go... These Mossad agents were caught with IEDs (improvised explosive devices), according to our source, and very sophisticated detonation devices to kill American soldiers and otherwise launch "terrorist attacks" wherever they wanted those bombs to go off. Some of these "terrorist bombers" did not even know they had a bomb in their cars.

Russian Cameraman: CNN Aired Misleading Footage --Broadcaster showed Georgian forces attacking South Ossetia, claimed it was Russians attacking Gori By Paul Joseph Watson CNN is airing misleading footage of the war between Georgia and Russia, skewing public opinion in favor of the Georgians, according to a Russia Today cameraman interviewed this morning. The Russia Today satellite TV company aired the interview on its English language news channel... The Russian cameraman charged that CNN had used his footage of Georgian forces attacking Russian civilians in Tskhinvali, the provincial capital of South Ossetia, but then claimed it showed Russians attacking Georgians in the Georgian town of Gori.

Top Georgian intelligence officer arrested in Russia Russian security forces have arrested a top Georgian intelligence officer on charges of collecting data on Russian troops in the North Caucasus and breakaway South Ossetia's president, the FSB said on Tuesday. The Federal Security Service gave the intelligence officer's surname as Kherksladze, and said the suspect had described himself as the deputy head of Georgia's Foreign Intelligence Service. The FSB said Kherksladze has been running a network of agents in Russia collecting information, "including on military and strategic facilities in the Southern Federal District."

Bush: Why don't you shut up? (Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey) Taking the words of the illustrious King of Spain, in his imbecillic retort to President Hugo Chavez, we use them not as a response to a diatribe but rather, a just retort to an imbecile. President [sic] George W. Bush, why don’t you shut up? President Bush, Why don’t you shut up? In your statement on Monday regarding the legitimate actions of the Russian Federation in Georgia, you failed to mention once the war crimes perpetrated by Georgian military forces, which American advisors support, against Russian and Ossetian civilians. Kinda embarrassing, eh? President Bush, Why don’t you shut up? Your faithful ally, Mikhail Saakashvili, was announcing a ceasefire deal while his troops, with your advisors, were massing on Ossetia’s border, which they crossed under cover of night and destroyed Tskhinvali, targeting civilian structures just like your forces did in Iraq. Kinda humanitarian, eh?