The Obama administration has started using special law enforcement and intelligence teams to interrogate "suspected militants" in the United States and abroad, including the Pakistani-American arrested in the Times Square bombing plot, a top official said on Tuesday. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the formation of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) in August and gave the reins to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, replacing the Central Intelligence Agency that did have the lead role in intelligence interrogations & torture.

Kandahar Death Squads - Afghanistan. In a bold new offensive, US and NATO forces are turning to Afghan militias for help. More feared than the Taliban, and wearing the weapons and impunity of the US army - have they created a monster? AWIP: Bill for Afghan War Could Run into the Trillions.

Turkish PM Questions Security Council Credibility. After declaring the Turko-Brazilian diplomatic push with Iran the “last chance” to settle the Western dispute with Iran without sanctions, the US did an end-around of the diplomatic process today, announcing that they had made a deal to sanction Iran even though a deal had been successfully reached in the talks. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan: [said that] the move seriously damaged the credibility of the UN Security Council, particularly as its permanent members are all armed with nuclear weapons while seeking to punish Iran for its purely civilian program. PressTV: Brazil wants Iran sanctions dropped. RTT News: Russia Warns US, EU Against Unilateral Sanctions On Iran.

followed by gunfire... cant see whats going on right now, but there must be something on fire, big smoke clouds again! NYT: Thai Army Moves to Confront Protesters. MSNBC: Thai government: Army retakes Bangkok. Thai protest leaders surrender after army attack. PNJ.com: An Associated Press photographer has seen three foreign journalists shot during the army operation in Bangkok, and one of them appears dead. The Guardian: Thailand protests: crackdown against redshirts - live updates. AWIP/PEJN: Massacre In Thailand: Obama’s Bloody Hands.

The Obama administration is actively trying to dismiss media reports that vast plumes of oil lurk beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, unmeasured and uncharted. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose job it is to assess and track the damage being caused by the BP oil spill that began four weeks ago, is only monitoring what's visible -- the slick on the Gulf's surface -- and currently does not have a single research vessel taking measurements below. The one ship associated with NOAA that had been doing such research is back in Pascagoula, Miss., having completed a week-long cruise during which scientists taking underwater samples found signs of just the kind of plume that environmentalists fear could have devastating effects on sea life of all shapes and sizes. AWIP/Mike Adams: Massive underwater oil cloud may destroy life in Gulf of Mexico. NYT: Study: BP Refineries Account for Most Violations.

Militants in Afghanistan have launched an assault against the US-run Bagram air north of Kabul using rockets, small arms and grenades.

According to a US statement, five service members were wounded during the pre-dawn assault on Wednesday against the US airbase, 50 kilometers north of Kabul. The statement did not mention the nationalities of the injured soldiers, but said that seven insurgents have been killed so far during the "ongoing attack" on Bagram. AP news agency quoted Capt. Chris Sukach, a US spokeswoman at Bagram, as saying that a "noncritical building" had been hit in the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying 20 militants were involved. Bagram is one of the largest military bases in Afghanistan, home to mainly US troops. Reuters: Afghan Taliban launch brazen attack on NATO base. AntiWar: Deadliest day this year for US in Afghanistan. + US Death Toll in Afghanistan Tops 1,000.

Pakistani Patriot has analyzed the number of Drone attacks on Pakistan versus the Suicide bombings in Pakistan. There seems to be a direct correlation between the attacks in FATA and the Suicide attacks in Pakistan. Read one American analysis, and you’ll be told that U.S. drones haven’t killed a single civilian in Pakistan this year. A look through one pair of local eyes yields a very different result, however. According to the website Pakistan Body Count, America’s drones have only hit a single terrorist in 2010, while slaying dozens and dozens of innocents.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the dispute over Iran's nuclear program has been resolved and the international community should focus on Israel now. "In fact, there is no nuclear weapon in Iran now but Israel, which is also located in our region, possesses nuclear arms. Turkey is the same distance from both of them," Turkey's Star newspaper quoted Erdogan as saying on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO), with the approval of the majority, has issued a resolution urging Israel to end the siege of Gaza. Earning the approval of 63 member states, the resolution demanded "that Israel... immediately put an end to the closure of the occupied Palestinian territory,” AFP reported on Tuesday. At the annual WHO meeting, the World Health Assembly, which passed the resolution, said the restrictions particularly had to be lifted off “the crossing points of the occupied Gaza Strip that are causing the serious shortage of medicines and medical supplies therein."

On 18 May 2010, DCI-Palestine submitted 14 cases to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for investigation. The submission relates to the sexual assault, or threat of sexual assault, of Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli soldiers, interogators and police between January 2009 and April 2010. The ages of the children range from 13 to 16 years. DCI-Palestine is becoming increasingly alarmed at reports contained in sworn affidavits received from children that they are being subjected to sexual assault, or threat of sexual assault, in order to obtain confessions.

A few months ago, for example, I responded to his opposition to the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement on Khalil Bendib's radio program Voices from the Middle East and North Africa. After Chomsky was outrageously barred by Israel from traveling to the occupied West Bank over the weekend, I could not help but be struck by yet another glaring contradiction. In his 17 May interview on Democracy Now he told Amy Goodman that his planned itinerary included a meeting with Salam Fayyad, the unelected US- and Israeli-backed "prime minister" of the Ramallah Palestinian Authority imposed after the US helped overthrow the Hamas-led "national unity government" that came after the 2006 election. AWIP: I’m surprised Israel did not give Chomsky the ‘red carpet’ welcome.

M.I.T. professor says 'skepticism' implies anthropogenic global warming theory a 'plausible proposition.' If you listened to Barack Obama back during the 2008 presidential campaign, you may recall him explaining that words matter. According to leading climate scientist and M.I.T. professor Richard Lindzen, there is a good bit of wisdom in that, as it pertains to the debate about global warming. Lindzen, speaking at the Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change on May 17 in Chicago, explained that by assuming the “skeptic” label, the anti-global warming alarmist movement implies the theory is plausible. And according to the M.I.T. professor, it isn’t. “One suggestion I’d make is we stop accepting the term ‘skeptic,’” Lindzen said. “As far as I can tell, skepticism involves doubts about a plausible proposition. I think current global warming alarm does not represent a plausible proposition.” Lindzen told the audience the alarmists have simply failed to prove their case. Daily Telegraph: Only morons, cheats and liars still believe in Man-Made Global Warming. AWIP: Richard S. Lindzen

Political novice Rand Paul rode support from tea party activists to a rout in Kentucky's Republican Senate primary Tuesday night, jolting the GOP establishment. Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter lost his struggle for political survival in Pennsylvania, a five-term incumbent offering experience to voters clamoring for change. Another Democratic incumbent, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, led narrowly in early returns in her race for nomination to a third term in Arkansas, but she risked being thrown into a costly run-off. NYT: Specter Loses Pennsylvania Senate Seat.

China used the so-called charge of "hooliganism," a catchall term that criminalized everything from premarital sex to dancing with members of the other sex and listening to Western music. During the early 1980s, a woman was sentenced to death for participating in secret dance parties, according to the China Daily.

Months after a warship belonging to South Korea sank near a disputed sea border, South Korean investigators say there is evidence that a North Korean torpedo caused the incident. Military experts told Seoul-based Yonhap news agency on Tuesday that chemical traces found on the ship's wreckage were similar to substances used in North Korean torpedoes.