The US government ordered BP to provide a plan for reopening its capped well in the Gulf of Mexico after engineers found seepage and possible methane gas near the leak site. Earlier yesterday, BP officials expressed hope that extended tests on the cap which began on Thursday could continue until relief wells are in place to permanently shut off the flow of oil.

NEW ORLEANS — A federal official says scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane near BP's busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. Both could be signs there are leaks in the well that's been capped off for three days. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet. The official is familiar with the spill oversight but would not clarify what is seeping near the well. The official says BP is not complying with the government's demand for more monitoring. Reuters: Engineers detect seepage near BP oil well. Daily Mail: BP shares plunge after engineers detect seepage at capped Deepwater Horizon well. PressTV: BP oil leak threatens to bust bedrock.

BAGHDAD (Dow Jones)--U.K. oil major BP PLC (BP), along with its partner China National Petroleum Corp., plans to increase production from Iraq's Rumaila oil field by more than 100,000 barrels a day at the beginning of next year, a BP executive said Sunday. "Initial production of the field ...[subscription] AP: Iraq's collaborator government wants oil companies to develop exploit 11 fields.

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine. The investigation's other findings include:

■ Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

■ An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

■ In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space.

■ Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.

■ Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.

Raw Story: Post documents growth of intelligence since 9/11: U.S. intelligence community inefficient, unmanageable.

Two bombs were detonated in quick succession in front of the Zahedan Grand Mosque in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan last Thursday. At least 27 people lost their lives and more than 100 others were injured in the terrorist act. Iran's president says US and NATO forces offer financial and material support to terrorists, yet US President Barack Obama, ironically enough, sends a condolence message on the recent deadly terrorist attacks in southeast Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that US troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan sponsor such acts of terror, reported IRNA. "No grouping other than US-backed terrorist groups which are devoid of human feelings can commit such acts," added President Ahmadinejad. The president further called on the Iranian Foreign Ministry to follow up the terror attack through the Pakistani government. "We are friends with the Pakistani nation, … but the Pakistani government should be held accountable", he said. Mahmoud Ahmadi also instructed his office to lodge a complaint with international circles base on the 'existing documents', and follow up on NATO and Israel's cooperation with the terrorists. "The puppeteers pulling the strings in this show will get nothing", President Ahmadinejad said.

Andrew Shapiro, Hillary's Clinton's assistant secretary for political-military affairs at the Department of State, speaks to Haaretz about Mideast policy.

Tonight, Bil'in was subjected to yet another Israeli Occupation Forces terror raid at 1.30 am when an unusually heavy number of IOF soldiers entered the outskirts of the village to arrest a local youth; 17 year old Ahmad Abed Al-Fatah Burnat - which unfortunately was effected. At least twelve jeeps were spotted most of which hovered as backup at the nearby Apartheid-Annexation Wall which coupled with a heavy IOF presence at last Friday's peaceful demonstration - peaceful that is, until the protesters were viciously deluged with salvoes of tear gas as soon as they reached the Wall which the shabab, commendably, fiercely resisted with stones - has given rise to well founded speculation that the IOF are currently blooding new recruits to occupation methods; heavy on violence, light on human rights.

Gulf fishermen have reacted in anger to a decision made Friday by Obama’s appointee to oversee the “independent” claims escrow account funded by BP. Millionaire lawyer Kenneth Feinberg announced that he would subtract from any damage award they ultimately receive from BP money they have been paid for participating in the Vessels of Opportunity (VoO) cleanup program. Feinberg has already all but ruled out approving claims for those he says are “indirectly” affected by the “perception” of the oil spill, including Gulf businessmen and homeowners who have seen their businesses close and home values decline but who cannot demonstrate direct contact with oil. Fishermen who operated on a cash-only basis will have to pay back taxes to be considered, Feinberg told National Public Radio. The timing of Feinberg’s decision is revealing. It came the day after BP claimed initial success in capping its runaway Macondo well and in the midst of an Obama administration campaign to drive the disaster “off the front page,” as one Republican critic complained on Sunday.

The June 23-24 coup tore open the facade of parliamentary democracy to reveal, at least partially, the corporate and financial forces that operate behind it. Labor Party leaders are now seeking to close it again as soon as possible. But the election itself will be no more “democratic” than the removal of Rudd. Regardless of which party—Labor or the Liberal-National Party coalition—forms the next government its program has already been determined: support for the indefinite US-led war in Afghanistan, deep cuts in social spending, and a new wave of pro-market “restructuring” carried out at the direct expense of the jobs, wages and living standards of workers and young people.

NEW YORK CITY--Federal agents appeared at a hacker conference Friday morning looking for Julian Assange, the controversial figure who has become the public face of Wikileaks, an organizer said. Eric Corley, publisher of 2600 Magazine and organizer of The Next HOPE conference in midtown Manhattan, said five Homeland Security agents appeared at the conference a day before Wikileaks Editor in Chief Assange was scheduled to speak. The conference program lists Assange--who has been at the center of a maelstrom of positive and negative publicity relating to the arrest of a U.S. serviceman and videos the serviceman may have provided to the document-sharing site--as speaking at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday. "If he shows up, he will be questioned at length," Corley told CNET. Assange did not immediately respond to questions late Friday. AWIP: Wanted by the CIA: The man who keeps no secrets.

The EPA has threatened to impose penalties and fines on the Amish if they don't change their ways, which the EPA considers to be polluting the environment. Saying runoff from dairy farms owned by Pennsylvania’s storied Amish is polluting the Chesapeake Bay, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is demanding that the Amish change their centuries-old ways of farming.

The Obama administration is cracking down on farms in states where agricultural runoff contributes to the buildup of nitrogen and phosphorus in the bay. States in EPA’s bull’s eye include Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.. According to EPA data, Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, home to the nation’s largest Amish community, generates more pounds of manure than any other county on the agency’s list of bay polluters.

The Amish pose a special problem. Heavily concentrated in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania, about 30 miles west of Philadelphia, the Amish, it can fairly be said, do things their own way. Descendents of deeply religious German-speaking people who settled in Pennsylvania beginning in the early 18th century, the Amish shun the outside world. Modern conveniences such as high-voltage electricity, labor-saving appliances and devices, and other amenities are largely absent from their lives. Instead of cars and pickup trucks, Amish farmers and artisans prefer the horse and buggy for their transportation. Amish keep contact with outsiders to a bare minimum.

New Israeli citizens may soon be required to swear an oath of loyalty to a "Jewish and democratic " state, a step that has drawn harsh criticism from human rights groups. Israel's Cabinet, which meets tomorrow, is expected to approve this and extend a raft of existing measures that make it harder for Palestinians to achieve citizenship. The wording of the oath, which would apply to new applicants for citizenship, was slammed by Arab advocacy groups, who accused Israel of "racist" policies that attempt to link citizenship to ideology. "It's another step in the direction of getting the Arabs out of Israel," said Uri Avnery, a former MP and founder of the Israeli Gush Shalom peace movement. "Parliament has become a lynching mob."