Once, twice, three times a lady! - President Obama’s speech Thursday on national security wasn’t just a one-sided affair. The president paused multiple times when Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin shouted out, literally stopping Obama in his place and forcing him to respond. Benjamin was demanding answers for the drone strikes that killed four American citizens as well as the end to holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Benjamin is a well-known anti-war protester recognized around the world, and she joined us to talk about why she couldn’t remain silent during the president’s speech.

Russia will dispatch a permanent group of five to six combat ships to the Mediterranean Sea, Russian Navy chief Admiral Viktor Chirkov said. Frigates and cruisers will make up the core of the fleet. - Putin upbraided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his country’s air attacks on Damascus. Moscow is sending sophisticated anti-aircraft batteries, anti-submarine missiles and other munitions to beleaguered Assad, and has just announced that 12 Russian warships will patrol the Mediterranean. President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation has drawn a line in the sand over Syria, the government of which he is determined to protect from overthrow. Not since the end of the Cold War in 1991 has the Russian Bear asserted itself so forcefully beyond its borders in support of claims on great power status. In essence, Russia is attempting to play the role in Syria that France did in Algeria in the 1990s, of supporting the military government against rebels, many of them linked to political Islam. France and its allies prevailed, at the cost of some 150,000 dead. Can Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pull off the same sort of victory?

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency says the Syrian army is capable of conducting successful operations against the foreign-backed militants ‘at will.’ - Gerhard Schindler, the head of Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), told security officials that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is now more stable than it has been in a long time, German news website Spiegel Online reported on Wednesday. The new assessment is a fundamental reversal from last summer, when the BND predicted that the Syrian government would collapse by early 2013.

PressTV: Syria resolute to fight terrorists, find political solution: Assad

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya: Israel is fighting a regional war in Syria - The changing internal situation in Syria is putting a new set of plans into motion, which involve Israeli aggression against Syria. Not only have the US and its allies been trying to militarily buttress the retreating anti-government militias, but now they aim to create a new phase in the conflict where states start asserting leverage against Syria in place of the weakening anti-government forces. In other words, external pressure is being applied to replace the declining internal pressure.

Pepe Escobar: Forget it; the Global War on Terror (GWOT) is not becoming more “democratic” – or even transparent. US President Barack Obama now pledges to transfer the responsibility of the shadow 'Drone Wars' from the CIA to the Pentagon – so the US Congress is able to monitor it. Until virtually yesterday the Obama administration did not even recognize in public the existence of the shadow 'Drone Wars'. The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at the Pentagon – which would then be in charge of the 'Drone Wars' - is bound to remain secret. And the Pentagon is not exactly yearning to retouch its definition of a “militant”, a prime candidate to be 'target-assassinated'; “any military-aged male in a strike zone”. “Muslim” male, it goes without saying. Obama’s rhetoric is one thing. His administration’s 'Drone Wars' are another thing entirely. The President now insists GWOT is no longer a “boundless global war”. That’s rhetoric. For the Pentagon, the “entire globe is a battlefield”. That is the operative concept since the beginning of GWOT, and inbuilt in the Pentagon’s Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine. And if the entire globe is a battlefield, all its causes and consequences are interconnected.

Daniel McAdams: Senate Votes Unanimously Toward War Against Iran - Today the US Senate voted unanimously in favor of a Lindsey Graham resolution, S.Res.65, which "[s]trongly support(s) the full implementation of United States and international sanctions on Iran and urg[es] the President to continue to strengthen enforcement of sanctions legislation." The legislation, as expected from a Lindsey Graham product, is full of misstatements, historical revisionism, and war-drum-beating hyperbole. Particularly revolting is the distortion and lies about Iran's not being in compliance with IAEA nuclear safeguards requirements and the irony of Graham's using Iran's refusal to implement UN resolutions as evidence of its rogue status. Also deceptive is the sleight of hand claiming that Iran pursuing a "nuclear weapons capability" is the real violation, rather than an Iranian failure to uphold its agreed upon obligation to not actually divert fissile material to build a nuclear weapon. It is a unilateral lowering of the bar, which is in fact itself a US violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Through support for Israeli occupations and participation in American invasions of Muslim countries, Britain has ended up spawning tens or even hundreds of millions of “radicalized Muslims” across the world, British MP George Galloway told RT.

RT: You compared the Woolwich attackers to UK-sponsored Syrian rebels - what do you mean?
George Galloway: This was a grotesque and sickening act of murder involving either an attempt of successful beheading of someone by fanatic extremists. This is the sort of thing that happens in Syria every day, except sometimes they even cut out the heart and the liver of the deceased and eat it on video for the entertainment of their brothers in the barracks afterwards. And Britain is helping to pay for that sickening barbarism in Syria. But when it comes close to home, happens on our own streets by the same kind of people, these people influenced by the al-Qaeda mindset are exactly the same kind of people that we are paying for, arming, giving all kinds of war material and agitating to give them more in Syria. So I simply ask David Cameron as I asked him before in Parliament if he would adumbrate the key differences between the hand-chopping throat-cutting fanatics that we saw in Woolwich yesterday and the hand-chopping throat-cutting fanatics we are giving money and weapons to in Syria.

In a show of force, the United States Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution urging an uncompromising US stance against Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, calling for Washington’s support should Israel strike the program. - “If the Government of Israel is compelled to take military action in legitimate self-defense against Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the United States Government should stand with Israel and provide, in accordance with United States law and the constitutional responsibility of Congress to authorize the use of military force, diplomatic, military, and economic support to the Government of Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence,” the resolution reads. It also calls for the US to take “such action as may be necessary” to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability. While senators are careful in their calls for US military intervention, the resolution, which passed 99-0 [sic], is seen as the most direct expression yet heard from Washington reflecting support for a potential Israeli strike.

A bill was brokered Wednesday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy [regarding the crime scene] photos from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. But civil libertarians oppose the legislation and Connecticut's newspaper and radio executives warned Wednesday that suppression of information could set a bad precedent and create unintended consequences. The bill, a draft of which was released by the governor's office late Wednesday afternoon, is crafted specifically to cover the crime-scene photos and 911 audio recordings of the December 14 shootings at the Newtown school. But it would also allow Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia to continue to withhold the death certificates for the 20 first graders and six adults murdered there...

An Israeli military commander says Tel Aviv is prepared to carry out an attack on Syria if the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad collapses. - On Wednesday, Israeli Major General Amir Eshel said the Tel Aviv regime might launch a sudden war on Syria should Damascus fall. “We have to be ready for any scenario, at a few hours’ notice,” Eshel stated. He also said that the Israeli regime would even prepare for a “protracted” war with a “post-Assad Syria.” The recent Israeli threat is seen as part of the Western-backed efforts to set up the scene for a military intervention in Syria. The Tel Aviv regime has already carried out three air strikes on Syria.

Bill Van Auken: Behind Syria peace talks proposal, US prepares regional war

United States Attorney General Eric Holder has informed Congress that four American citizens have been killed in Yemen and Pakistan by US drones since 2009. - It has been widely reported but rarely acknowledged in Washington that three US citizens — Samir Khan, Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki — were executed in Yemen by missile-equipped drones in 2011. With Holder’s latest admission, however, a fourth American — Jude Kenan Mohammed — has also been officially named as another casualty in America’s continuing drone war.

John Glaser: Obama Admits US Killed 4 Americans in Drone War

Twenty-seven-year-old Ibragim Todashev was shot and killed early Wednesday morning while being interrogated by police and intelligence officials in an Orlando, Florida, apartment. Todashev, a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and, like Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen, was reportedly being questioned by a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent from the FBI’s Boston field office, along with Massachusetts state troopers and counterterrorism officials. The FBI claims that Todashev had implicated both himself and Tsarnaev in the grisly murder of three men in Waltham, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb, on September 11, 2011. They said he then suddenly pulled a knife and tried to attack the FBI agent questioning him. The attack, according to the FBI, prompted the lethal shooting.

Xymphora: 'Solving' crimes, post 9/11 - [Gawker: ironic_username:] So the FBI shows up to perform a prolonged interrogation of this guy, ends up shooting and killing him, and then lets everyone know that it's okay because he was part of a triple homicide in 2011. It's pretty convenient that they don't even need to have any sort of trial or anything at this point, because both of the suspects are dead. If all law enforcement has to do to convict people of crimes is anonymously leak incriminating details to a compliant media without fear of rebuttal or reprisal, then do we really need to keep offering suspects trials by jury? - After the FBI killed the guy they were interrogating, they immediately had to work backwards to solve the previously unsolvable crime, with the bonus that everybody will now forget that they eliminated a witness under very suspicious circumstances. Presumably we are to believe that the dead guy confessed, implicated the two brothers, and then for some bizarre reason decided to take on the FBI armed with a knife he somehow procured. Added: they are backing off on the knife story. Even Josh Marshall is finding this story hard to digest.

Julian Assange and a coalition of activists and journalists filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the military judge overseeing Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s trial in a bid to open access to the secretive proceedings. - During the trial both access to transcripts and prosecution and defense motions have been virtually inaccessible. Bradley, who faces a life sentence over the leaking of more than 700,000 sensitive military documents published by Wikileaks, is currently being tried by a military tribunal. The trial is expected to begin on June 3, 2013. The judge overseeing Manning’s court-martial announced this week that she will close portions of the trial to the public in order to protect classified material. Prosecutors are expected to call 150 witnesses to testify against Manning, while two dozen witnesses may be able to provide their testimony in closed sessions.

Free speech is now being considered a threat to national security, says Antiwar.com founder Eric Garris. - The website’s founder and managing editor Eric Garris, along with longtime editorial director Justin Raimondo, filed a lawsuit in federal court today, demanding the release of records they believe the FBI is keeping on them and the 17-year-old online magazine. Antiwar.com says this is one more example of post-9/11 government overreach, and a stark reminder that the First Amendment has been treated as little more than a speed bump on the road to a government surveillance state. The lawsuit is particularly timely, considering recent scandals in which the Department of Justice secretly seized months of journalists’ phone records at the Associated Press, and did the same and more to a FOX News reporter, while the IRS is acknowledging it singled out conservative groups that criticize the government for extra scrutiny.

A US Senate committee had passed a bill that would allow, if signed for the Obama administration to supply arms to Syrian opposition — a move that could threaten the entire region if these weapons end up in terrorist cells operating on the ground. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 15-3 vote showed bipartisan support among US politicians for arming the rebels.

Pepe Escobar: Assad talks, Russia walks

Assim Qansou, a representative of the socialist party in Lebanon’s parliament, told the Lebanese al-Nashrah newspaper that during the battle in al-Qusseir city, the Syrian army has arrested tens of French, British, Belgian, Dutch and Qatari officers. The EU’s anti-terror chief said in April that hundreds of Europeans are now fighting with rebel forces in Syria against Bashar al-Assad’s government. Gilles de Kerchove estimated the number in Syria at about 500.Intelligence agencies are concerned some could join groups linked to al-Qaeda and later return to Europe to launch terrorist attacks.The UK, Ireland and France are among the EU countries estimated to have the highest numbers of fighters in Syria.

Lee Rogers: The Internal Revenue Service is a domestic terrorist organization. They have terrorized millions of Americans as part of an effort to scare them into paying an unlawful and unethical tax on their labor called the Federal Income Tax. The recent scandal involving the IRS specifically targeting various patriot and tea party groups who applied for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status is outrageous but really only represents a small portion of their criminal activity. For anyone not familiar with the nature of the scandal, the IRS has admitted that it made it difficult if not impossible for specific organizations related to tea party and patriot causes to achieve 501(c)(4) status. The IRS was actually requiring these groups to provide them with all sorts of ridiculous information including social media postings, donor lists and even reading lists as part of the application process. Some of these groups have reported that the IRS took years to process their applications. Other groups gave up seeking tax exempt status when faced with the absurd requirements and lengthy application times.

One of the methods used to extract information from Muslim inmates in Guantanamo was to apply sexual interrogation techniques, Terry Holdbrooks, former guard at the camp has told RT. Such a degradation methods, the former US soldier said, were used on innocent men. Holdbrooks, who wrote a book about GITMO prisoners, claims that it is the inmates’ religious perseverance in the face of pain and humiliation made him convinced that US was not fighting for the right cause.

RT: Were you given any orders as how to treat the inmates?
TH: Our interaction with the detainees was such that we were told not to talk to them, not to treat them as humans, to not engage in conversation with them whatsoever. And the army sort of made a mistake by allowing somebody who is inclined to sociology and to studying people by leaving me with individuals from all over the world unsupervised for eight hours. I was very low in rank so I was delegated all the work, while those who were higher in rank were sitting in the air-conditioned shacks, nurturing their hangovers. So the instructions I was given were simple – don’t interact, don’t talk, they are not humans.

A new report shows that US assassination drones in Pakistan have killed “scores of innocent civilians” instead of targeting terrorists. - On Tuesday, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) published a report entitled “Drones: Myths and Reality in Pakistan” that says the United States’ refuses to acknowledge that the CIA-led drone campaign “undermines efforts to assess the program’s legality.” The ICG called on Washington to “demonstrate respect for the international humanitarian law principles of humanity, distinction, proportionality and military necessity.” The report said the US must “establish clearer lines of authority and accountability, including greater congressional and judicial oversight.”

“The Obama administration should terminate any practice, such as the reported signature strikes, that does not comply with principles of international humanitarian and human rights law. It must also introduce transparency to the drone program, including its governing rules, how targets are selected and how civilian damage is weighed.”

Signature strikes target groups of men by using behavior patterns associated with terrorist activity rather than targeting terrorists with known identities. Pakistan’s tribal regions are often attacked by US assassination drones.

After a massive series of sectarian bombings killed 133 people on Monday, more bombings hit Tuesday, killing scores of additional people. They cap a solid week of fighting that has seen more than 400 people killed and many hundreds more wounded. - The month of April had sparked major concerns about the rise of sectarian violence in Iraq, with a death toll the highest it had been since Summer 2008. The overall toll was 460, for the entire month, meaning May is set to blow past it dramatically. Summer of 2008 was the period when the last sectarian civil war was winding down, and the Maliki government has been downplaying the significance of the recent attacks and insisting it has things in control. Still, the sheer number of deaths suggests that the next sectarian war may no longer be “coming,” it may have already arrived.

Income inequality increased by more in the first three years of the crisis to the end of 2010 than it had in the previous twelve years, before factoring in the effect of taxes and transfers on income, according to new OECD report and data. - The analysis says that the welfare state has cushioned the blow for many but warns that further social spending cuts in OECD countries risk causing greater inequality and poverty in the years ahead. After taxes and transfers, the richest 10 per cent of the population in OECD countries earned 9.5 times the income of the poorest 10 per cent in 2010, up from 9 times in 2007. The gap is largest in Chile, Mexico, Turkey, the United States and Israel, and lowest in Iceland, Slovenia, Norway and Denmark.

David Swanson: Our elected and unelected officials tell us that drone strikes target top level enemies of the United States who are imminent threats to us, and that killing innocent people is avoided altogether or minimized. Congressional hearings, with a couple of excellent exceptions, question outside academics about the legality of this purported strategy. The Obama administration declines to send any witnesses. But drone pilots have begun talking to the media. And they describe policies that bear a lot closer resemblance to reporting from the areas where the missiles strike. These pilots should be brought before Congress. Here is a stunning new interview with one of them.