The Senate today voted overwhelmingly to adopt an amendment, authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), forcing a comprehensive review of the Federal Reserve's emergency lending activities. The amendment passed by a 96-0 vote. Though the measure was always popular, it faced extraordinary opposition from the White House, Wall Street and the Fed itself. Late last week, in a move that defused the opposition, and may have saved Wall Street reform legislation, Sanders agreed to limit the scope of the audit to emergency lending only, exempting other Fed activities. AWIP: Watch Senator Sanders Eviscerate the Fed: Audit the Fed (Video).

The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed reports about the existence of a secret detention facility at a US airbase in Bagram in Afghanistan. The Red Cross said it had been informed of names of several detainees held in the hidden prison in Afghanistan, the BBC reported on Tuesday. The facility is said to be separate from the main prison at Bagram airbase. Several former prisoners had earlier in April claimed that they were held in the prison, where they suffered abuse.

A large and growing number of Iraqi children are suffering from severe birth defects, as shown in the heartbreaking CNN segment embedded below, and their parents blame alleged U.S. chemical-weapons attacks. Lawyers representing the families have sued the British government for complicity in the alleged war crimes. But Iraq's deputy minister of health tells CNN there isn't enough evidence to prove causality, and in any case, the U.S. boycott of the International Criminal Court makes direct prosecution of the case unlikely, as do the nation's federal immunity laws. AWIP: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'. + Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime.

Israel is primed for a war on Iran, a deputy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, in a rare break with his government's reticence as world powers try to talk Tehran into curbing its nuclear plans. By spearheading assaults on guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon and Palestinian territories, the Israeli air force had gained the techniques necessary for any future strikes on Iranian sites, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said. "There is no doubt that the technological capabilities, which improved in recent years, have improved range and aerial refueling capabilities, and have brought about a massive improvement in the accuracy of ordnance and intelligence," he told a conference of military officers and experts. "This capability can be used for a war on terror in Gaza, for a war in the face of rockets from Lebanon, for war on the conventional Syrian army, and also for war on a peripheral state like Iran," said Yaalon, a former armed forces chief. Israel, which is assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981 and launched a similar sortie in Syria in 2007. PressTV: Medvedev in unprecedented Syria visit.

IAEA to Maintain Iran-Israel Double Standard. In an attempt to salve over concerns that the IAEA’s discussion of the Israeli nuclear arsenal would bring any actual policy change, officials are saying that the IAEA will not, under any circumstances, attempt to draw a parallel between Israel and Iran. While this was meant to reassure Israel, it seems that the stark differences between Israel and Iran on the nuclear front are very apparent, and from a proliferation standpoint the Iranians are better served by not being in the same company. While Israel is a non-signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and possesses one of the world’s largest undeclared nuclear arsenals, Iran has only a modest civilian enrichment program which is under intense IAEA scrutiny at all times. The IAEA is continually able to verify the non-diversion of Iranian nuclear material to weapons purposes, the same has never been true of Israel. Officials insist the IAEA position on Israel has not changed, though what exactly that position is remains unclear. They also say, contrary to reports, that Israel was discussed in IAEA meetings before, but was removed from the agenda of those meetings for some reason. AntiWar Newswire: Israeli scientist calls for nuclear disclosure. PressTV: 'Israel must stop nuclear tomfoolery'. Rense: Israeli Professor - 'We Could Destroy All European Capitals'. PressTV: 'US in favor of Israel nuclear ambiguity'.

A US drone attack in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan region has killed 14 people at what the Pakistani security officials describe as a militant compound. The drone reportedly fired a barrage of 18 missiles on Tuesday at a vehicle and the compound in a village in the Lawara Mandi area, near the Afghan border. The bombing took place in Dattakhel village, about 30 km west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. "The militants have cordoned off the area; so far they've retrieved 11 bodies from the debris," an unidentified security official in the region said. "The death toll may rise because the militants are still searching for bodies." Pakistani government has publicly condemned the drone attacks, saying they violate the country's sovereignty, although there is a wide belief that US uses its Pakistani air bases to launch drone attacks against alleged militant strongholds. MSNBC: U.S. missiles kill at least 14 in Pakistan. AWIP/Chris Floyd: The Poetry of Death: Patterns of State Terror.

AWIP: US drone kills seven PEOPLE in NW Pakistan. STATE TERROR: US drone attack kills 5 PEOPLE in Pakistan: At least five people have been killed in a US drone attack in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan on the Afghan border. Several more people were injured when two missiles hit a nearby compound in Boya village, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Miranshah. Since last year, the US has carried out many such attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas. Washington claims its airstrikes target militants. Most of the attacks, however, have killed civilians. AWIP: 11th Drone Strike of 2010: Latest US Attack Kills Six in North Waziristan: AFP: 11 killed in US missile strikes in NW Pakistan: officials. AntiWar: US Drone Fired Missile Into a Crowd of "Suspects," Killing 13 Afghans. TANSW: Pakistan Taliban deny US drone strike killed top leader. [This comes on top of this] Nobel Peace Prize winner Kills at Least 15 in North Waziristan [and this] Civilians Slain as Latest US Drone Strike on North Waziristan, Kills Five [and this] US Drones Kill 12 in North Waziristan: Third TERROR Strike in 24 Hours in Tribal Area [and this] U.S. Drones Kill 15 People Near Border in Pakistan [and summing up all of 2009, this:] 44 US drone hits in Pakistan killed 700 civilians in 2009. + AWIP: No assent given to US drone attacks: Pakistan. The Guardian: The 'Obama doctrine': kill, don't detain -George Bush left a big problem in the shape of Guantánamo. The solution? Don't capture bad guys, assassinate by drone. PressTV: Suspected US drone strikes kill eight in north-west Pakistan. PressTV: In Pakistan, death toll from US drone attack hits 8 Yahoo: US drone kills seven PEOPLE in NW Pakistan: security officials.

After all these years, not much has changed for the denialist jurisdictions that still insult their voters by using 100% unverifiable electronic voting machines. Pittsburgh's WTAE filed a report last week with a ring of exhausting familiarity --- at least to long time readers of The BRAD BLOG. This one stars, as usual, both an open, unsecured door to the warehouse, and an election official --- in this case, Allegheny County Pennsylvania's Election Division manager, Mark Wolosik --- claiming he's "seen" no problems before, so everything is just dandy, nothing to worry about when it comes to his support of the use of 100% unverifiable electronic voting systems by his county's voters...

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — Black Hawk helicopters peppered Louisiana's barrier islands with 1-ton sacks of sand Monday to bolster the state's crucial wetlands against the epic Gulf of Mexico oil spill — 4 million gallons and growing. At the site of the ruptured well a mile underwater, a remote-controlled submarine shot chemicals into the maw of the massive leak to dilute the flow, further evidence that BP expects the gusher to keep erupting into the Gulf for weeks or more. Crews using the deep-sea robot attempted to thin the oil — which is rushing up from the seabed at a pace of about 210,000 gallons per day — after getting approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, BP PLC officials said. Two previous tests were done to determine the potential impact on the environment, and the third round of spraying was to last into early Tuesday. The EPA said the effects of the chemicals were still widely unknown. HLM: Oil leak is 5 times greater than reported by officials. Gloabal Research: The Cover-up: BP's Crude Politics and the Looming Environmental Mega-Disaster. You Tube: Amateur Video Of Gulf Oil Slick - Worse Than BP Admits.

BradBlog: Stunning Statistic of the Week:
● $75 million: The liability cap for BP for the Gulf oil spill, for damages such as lost wages and economic suffering
● $5.6 billion: BP's first-quarter profits, a 135 percent increase over the first quarter of 2009

After more than a week of relatively subdued activity in late April, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull Volcano began a fresh round of explosive ash eruptions in the first week of May. On the morning of May 6, 2010, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of a thick plume of ash blowing east and then south from the volcano. Clouds bracket the edges of the scene, but the dark blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean show in the middle, and above them, a rippling, brownish-yellow river of ash. Ash clouds like this are impressive to see, and they can have a dramatic influence on air quality and vegetation, including crops. In Iceland, the ash from Eyjafjallajokull has settled thickly on the ground, posing a threat to livestock and wildlife. The risk of engine damage due to ash has grounded European air traffic repeatedly.

Despite their dramatic appearance, however, these ash plumes are insignificant when it comes to long-term affects on global climate. What matters most to the climate isn’t even visible in images like this. For an eruption to have an influence on global climate, the event must be explosive enough to push sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, which is above the altitude where rain and snow occur. BBC: Ash travel disruption continues.

Years of national denial about looming bankruptcy have turned to resentment as Greece is told how it must tackle its debt crisis. Deep inside the august halls of Athens University, the renowned political commentator Paschos Mandravelis will deliver a message this week that until very recently was lost on most Greeks. His speech will focus on a single fact: that the country in the centre of the storm of Europe's worst crisis since the creation of the common market, missed the biggest story ever – its own looming bankruptcy. "Everyone," he says, "starting with the Greek media, was in an incredible state of denial."

Gordon Brown has announced he will step down as Labour leader by September - as his party opens formal talks with the Lib Dems about forming a government. The PM's continued presence in Downing Street was seen as harming Labour's chances of reaching a deal. Labour and the Tories are both trying to woo the Lib Dems with promises on electoral reform as the battle to run the country reaches its critical phase. No party won a Commons overall majority at Thursday's general election. The Tories, who won the most seats and votes, reacted to Mr Brown's announcement that he was standing down as Labour leader by making a "final offer" to the Lib Dems of a referendum on changing the voting method to the Alternative Vote (AV) system. Labour are offering to put the AV system into law and then hold a referendum asking voters to approve it. NYT: Brown Says He'll Resign to Help Labour. The Guardian: David Miliband and Ed Balls set to launch Labour leadership bids. Belfast Telegraph: Queen appoints Cameron prime minister. The Guardian: Gordon Brown has resigned -David Cameron is the new prime minister.

A man armed with a knife and axe has killed two people and wounded seven, including two 18-month-old boys, in the seventh attack against young children in China in the past month. The alleged attacker, 35-year-old Song Lirong, went on the killing spree in Songjiapo village in the north west province of Shaanxi after an argument with his wife, according to Xinhua, the government news agency. Believing his neighbours had helped fuel the quarrel, Song visited six nearby homes with a kitchen knife and axe early on Monday morning.

Kagan was raised in a liberal Democratic family in Manhattan. Her father was a housing and tenants’ rights lawyer, her mother a public schoolteacher, as are her two brothers. She was steeped in the social-democratic politics of the New York Jewish trade union milieu, not only through her family connections, but as a student, writing a 153-page senior thesis at Princeton on the politics of the Socialist Party in New York City, 1900-1933. She later won a fellowship to study at Oxford, where her chosen field of study was “the history of British and European trade unionism.” Her thesis advisor, history professor Sean Wilentz, interviewed by the Daily Princetonian after Kagan’s nomination was announced, defended his former student against suggestions that the topic of her thesis revealed well-hidden left-wing views. “Elena Kagan is about the furthest thing from a socialist. Period. And always had been. Period,” Wilentz declared. MediaMatters: Myths and falsehoods about Elena Kagan's Supreme Court nomination. PrisonPlanet: Kagan supported detaining terror suspects indefinitely without trial.