The United States is planning to expand its secret "military operations" [state terrorism] across the Middle East, central Asia and east Africa, a newly-released report says. The secret activities are apparently designed to "penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy" terror cells such as al-Qaeda [= state terrorism fomenting retail terrorism], the New York Times said on Monday, citing a military document. The directive was approved in September by US General David Petraeus. The targeted countries are said to be Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. NYT: U.S. Is Said to Expand Secret "Military Acts" [state terrorism] in Mideast Region. Juan Cole: Petraeus Memo Widens scope of US Military Covert Operations in ME.

The U.S. corporate media have provided little coverage on some important happenings in the Middle East during the past 18 months. You might ask what's the big deal -- bad stuff happens there all the time and it doesn't concern me. In this case, recent events have the potential to create an international crisis in the coming days. Before getting to the possible explosive situation, we first need some background information. One key event is that Gaza has become a flash point in the relations between Turkey and Israel. In a dramatic reversal, Turkey has moved from close relations with Israel to being quite critical of Israeli policies, particularly of those against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. For example, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan labeled Israeli actions in Gaza during its December 2008 attack a "crime against humanity". Taking a longer-term view, Erdogan also said: "Civilians and children are dying in Gaza. Those who keep their silence over these attacks out of whatever concern or for whatever diplomatic reason, will pay the price before history." His statements offered quite a contrast to the tepid and shameful position taken by U.S. officials.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has told his military it may have to go to war but only if the South attacks first, according to a South Korea-based group that monitors the hermit state. An earlier report by the South's Yonhap news agency that Kim had told his troops to get ready for combat hit already nervous Seoul financial markets, with the main share index dropping more than three percent. The won also fell sharply. AWIP/WRH: U.S. Implicates North Korean Leader in Attack.

Asia Times: South Korea in the line of friendly fire: The South Korea-led multinational investigation team of the March 26 night sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan held a news conference in Seoul on May 20 to unveil its finalized forensic report with false findings pointing a finger at North Korea. The report has all the hallmarks of rushing to invoke an all-too-familiar North Korean bogeyman in a bid to cover up the US role in a friendly fire incident. The May 20 report is the only visible part of the iceberg-like "proof" that the South Korean people and the world public have all been lied to.

Asia Times: Pyongyang sees US role in Cheonan sinking: Apparently, North Korea is being set up as the fall guy in an incident that is so mysterious that a Los Angeles Times April 26 story datelined Seoul was headlined, "James Bond Theories Arise in Korean Ship Sinking". So far, no hard evidence has been produced linking North Korea to the disaster. However, this has not stopped media and experts from holding the North responsible. The South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo wrote on April 29, "It is difficult to imagine a country other than North Korea launching a torpedo attack against a South Korean warship."

[WhatReallyHappened (Comment)] RE: Report: SKorea Warned of NKorean Submarine Attack: So the official bullshit, 'scuse me, the official story is now that South Korea KNEW North Korea was planning an attack, and still the noisy North Korean submarine managed to penetrate deep into South Korean waters, right into the middle of a naval exercise that included three US warships fully equipped for anti-submarine warfare, approached undetected, attacked, and escaped undetected? That weak-ass lame story the best our "intelligence" people can come up with?!?

Deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop says Australia's security agencies engage in passport forgery - the very practice that prompted the Rudd Government to expel an Israeli diplomat. Ms Bishop became embroiled in the fake passports scandal after calling yesterday's expulsion “an over-reaction”. She told Fairfax Media: “It would be naive to think that Israel is the only country in the world that has used forged passports, including Australian passports, for security operations.” When asked directly if Australian intelligence agencies forge passports, Ms Bishop – a former cabinet minister in the Howard government – replied “yes”. PressTV: Australia intelligence chief in Israel.

A survey in February by the BBC found that only 26 percent of Britons believed that “climate change is happening and is now established as largely manmade,” down from 41 percent in November 2009. A poll conducted for the German magazine Der Spiegel found that 42 percent of Germans feared global warming, down from 62 percent four years earlier. NewsBusters: Hit Job: ABC News Attempts to Align Climate Change Skeptics with White Supremacists.

Kenya's Islamic courts are illegal and discriminatory, a panel of judges has ruled. The three judges said the Islamic "Kadhi" courts favoured Islam over other faiths, and that this was unconstitutional as Kenya was a secular country. The issue of Islamic courts has been a contentious point in the country's new proposed constitution. It is due to go to a referendum in August. Indian Express: Grant death for blasphemy: Islamists to UN.

Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb. AWIP: Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons. Juan Cole: Israel offered Nukes to Racist South Africa for Use on Black Neighbors.

● Declassified memo from General RF Armstrong
● Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975
● Minutes from further ISSA meeting
● Israel-South Africa agreement
● Letter from Shimon Peres, 11/11/1974

The next time you struggle to comprehend how someone could spend their time trolling the Internet in order to defend and downplay whatever government cover-up or abuse is in the news this week, consider the fact that they may be on a government payroll. The Canadian government has been caught paying a media group to monitor online political discussion and respond to "misinformation," in order words to spread state-sanctioned propaganda, in the latest scandal to hit the Harper administration. "Under the pilot program the Harper government paid a media company $75,000 to monitor and respond to online postings about the east coast seal hunt," reports News1130.

Last year, the Israeli government announced that it would be setting up a network of bloggers to combat websites deemed “problematic” by the Zionist state following a massive online backlash to Israel's brutal bombing of Gaza. Like Israel, the U.S. military industrial complex hires armies of trolls to spew propaganda in defense of the war on terror and in support of bombing whatever broken-backed third world country is being targeted next.

Amid growing popular anger over BP’s disastrous response to the gulf coast oil spill, the Obama administration came to the company’s defense on Monday, while again rejecting any federal takeover of the response. Despite the claims by the administration that it has put a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, the New York Times reported Monday that seven new permits for gulf drilling, as well as five environmental assessment waivers, have been issued since the moratorium supposedly went into effect. Minerals Management Service personnel told the Times that they had, in the newspaper’s words, “no intention of stopping all new oil and gas production in the gulf.” LATEST SATELLITE IMAGE OF OIL SPILL TimesOnline: Oil spill brings ‘death in the ocean from top to bottom’.

AWIP/Stephen Lendman: BP and Administration Lies, Deceit, and Coverup in the Gulf + Washington - Industry Complicity Behind the Gulf Disaster + Lessons from the Gulf + Obama's Gulf Commission: Distortion, Obstruction and Whitewash Assured

The US is in the grip of Stieg Larsson fever as the third instalment of the Swedish author's Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, prepares to go on wide release in book stores across the nation on Tuesday. "It's an authentic phenomenon," the LA Times wrote on Monday going on to describe the Millennium novels at the heart of "a great age of the Nordic noir".

US audiences have had to wait longer than most for their version of the final instalment of the Millennium trilogy and in the meantime a veritable hysteria has been built up around the books, which have sold a whopping 40 million worldwide to date. The New York Times has devoted a wealth of column inches on Monday to a thorough analysis of the Stieg Larsson story complete with real-life intrigue that has followed his death and the bitter fight over the rights to his legacy. Wikipedia: Stieg Larsson

Airline passengers who get frustrated and kick a wall, throw a suitcase or make a pithy comment to a screener could find themselves in a little-known Homeland Security database. The Transportation Security Administration says it is keeping records of people who make its screeners feel "threatened" as part of an effort to prevent workplace violence. Privacy advocates fear the database could feed government watch lists and subject innocent people to extra airport screening. "Is this going to be the baby watch list? There's a potential for the misuse of information or the mischaracterization of harmless events as potential threats," American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Michael German said.

James Bain was released from prison this morning in Florida after serving 35 years in prison for a crime DNA now proves he didn’t commit. He is a free man today for the first time since 1974 and becomes the 248th person exonerated through DNA evidence in the United States.

Besides being a very unhealthy beverage, Coca-Cola has another dirty secret; the Coca-Cola Company has been involved in some kidnappings involving union leaders and organizers at its Colombia bottling facilities. Many of those kidnapped have been severely tortured and even murdered by company thugs.