So after one year of beating around the bush, it is finally made clear that, as many were expecting all along, the ultimate goal of the Greek "bailouts" is nothing short of the state's (partial for now) annexation by Europe. According to an FT breaking news article, "European leaders are negotiating a deal that would lead to unprecedented outside intervention in the Greek economy, including international involvement in tax collection and privatisation of state assets, in exchange for new bail-out loans for Athens.

Special police forces raided the house of 7 year-old Ali Siyam this afternoon and illegaly arrested him, causing injury requiring hospitalization to both his aunt and father.

At 3 PM this afternoon, Israeli police forces raided the Alabasya neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem to arrest 7 years-old Ali Siyam from inside his parents’ house. Despite his young age, which is significantly younger than the age of legal responsibity, the boy was taken for questioning at the Russian Compound police station.

When Siyam’s father and aunt tried to protect the boy from the cops, they were violantly assaulted to a degree that required their evacuation to the Hospital. Siyam’s father, Hammouda, was beaten and maced with pepper-spray inside the house and his aunt, Amal, was struck with a rubber-coated bullet in her thigh. The two are currently at the Hadassa Har Hatzofim hospital.

On arrival to the police station, Siyam was taken in for questioning. The boy’s lawyer, Adv. Lea Tzemel, who was already present at the place was denied entry to the station and access to her client. When she proceeded to try and walk through the gate regardless, she was herself detained.

President Obama’s visit to Joplin, Missouri Sunday was his third tour in a month at the site of a monumental natural disaster. He visited Tuscaloosa, Alabama April 29 after a spate of tornadoes struck across the South, then spoke with victims of the Mississippi River flooding in Memphis, Tennessee May 16.

The appearances follow what is now an established ritual. The president arrives and is shown scenes of devastation by local dignitaries. He shakes hands with disaster relief workers and hugs survivors. He then speaks before a local audience assembled for the purpose, usually invoking religious consolation and promising federal aid. And a few hours afterwards, he is gone, the survivors soldier on, the television cameras turn away, and the federal response remains pathetically inadequate to the scale of the human suffering and material damage inflicted in the catastrophe.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) appeared on Fox News Sunday to talk about the controversial Transportation Security Administration security pat-downs at airports. He claimed to see an elderly woman and a baby receive pat-downs, then a man in “Arabian attire,” he said, passed through without incident. He is now demanding that the TSA focus on catching “real” terrorists “using human intelligence.” “We have to stop this inane political correctness that’s going on,” Broun said. “Political correctness won’t save any lives, but focusing on those that will harm us will.”

INDIANAPOLIS—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today joined Indianapolis Mayor Gregory Ballard, Indiana State Homeland Security Advisor and Emergency Manager Joe Wainscott, and Indianapolis Director of Public Safety Frank Straub to announce a new partnership to bring the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “If You See Something, Say Something” public awareness campaign to the Indianapolis 500—an effort that will help ensure the safety and security of fans, employees, and race crews by identifying and reporting "suspicious" activity.

The Guardian reported today that British PM David Cameron has stepped down as a patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in a “move pro-Palestinian campaigners claim is a result of pressure.”

The JNF was originally a Zionist fund set up to buy land in Palestine to establish Jewish settlements before the creation of the state of Israel. Since 1948 it has been operating as a global charity specialising in planting trees over Palestinian stolen land and eradicated villages.

"კირიე ელეისონ"- სრულიად საქართველოს კათალიკოს-პატრიარქი ილია II (არანჟირება:ზვიად ბოლქვაძე) / საერთაშორისო ფესტივალი "აღდგომიდან ამაღლებამდე" /გიორგი ცაგარელი / საქართველოს ეროვნული სიმფონიური ორკესტრი / დირიჟორი: ზვიად ბოლქვაძე / სამების საკათედრო ტაძრის ვაჯთა გუნდი

"Kyrie eleison" [Lord, have mercy] - Katolikos - Patriarch Ilia II (Viola: Zviad Bolkvadze) / International Festival "From Easter to Ascension" / George Tsagareli / National Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Zviad Bolkvadze / Holy Trinity Cathedral Choir [Google translate from Georgian]

You Tube: კირიე ელეისონ - გიორგი ცაგარელი

Larry Wilkerson, a former chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, appeared on The Real News to discuss Congress’s reaction.

“Even the obsequiousness of the United States Congress from time to time during States of the Union or other type speeches doesn’t come anywhere near this” Wilkerson marveled. “This was a refutation, really, of the standing policy position of the sitting president of the United States by the separate and equal branch of government, the Congress, with a foreign leader being the center pole around which they coalesced this opposition. It’s really quite remarkable.” When asked what he thought might explain the reaction, Wilkerson replied, “It’s a mystery to me, except money. That’s the only answer I can come up with. … Congressmen and women … understand what a powerful entity in America is the lobby group AIPAC for Israel, and that generates a lot of coin, a lot of money.”

Desert Peace: WHAT EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AIPAC (Article + Video)

The scene of a US-led strike in Afghanistan. [PressTV]

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials said Sunday that a NATO airstrike targeting Taliban fighters killed 14 civilians, all of them women and children, in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday night.

Witnesses said an unknown number of bombs fell around 11 p.m., landing on two family compounds in the Salam Bazaar area of Nawzad district, a small farming community about 50 miles north of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. Five girls, seven boys and two women were killed as they slept, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement. Another six people were wounded. Grieving friends and relatives drove through the night transporting eight bodies to the provincial hospital in Lashkar Gah, a resident of the village, Haji Janan, said. The other bodies remained buried under the rubble as villagers tried to dig them out, he said. The governor’s office released photographs of men carrying the dusty, bruised bodies of dead children swaddled in sheets into the hospital.

“The office of the provincial governor strongly condemns this deep sorrow incident,” the office said in an English version of its statement. The statement also requested NATO to stop “air strikes that result in civilian casualties.”

Sydney Morning Herald: Karzai gives US 'last warning' over civilian deaths

An Egyptian court has fined ousted President Hosni Mubarak and two former officials 540 million Egyptian pounds (£55 million) for cutting off mobile and internet services during January protests.

The administrative court fined Mr Mubarak £20 million; former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif £4 million, and former interior minister Habib al-Adly £30 million for their damage to the national economy, a court source said. This was the first court ruling to be made against Mr Mubarak since he was ousted on February 11. Mr Mubarak faces more serious charges, including ordering the killing of protesters, a charge which could carry the death penalty. His two sons Alaa and Gamal, who many had believed was being groomed by his father to replace him, were also referred to the criminal court on a range of charges. The crimes listed by the prosecutor included "intentional murder, attempted killing of some demonstrators ... misuse of influence and deliberately wasting public funds and unlawfully making private financial gains and profits," the statement said.

Judges, prosecutors and journalists all know that collusion happens every day. As I noted last year:

Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme was a conspiracy. The heads of Enron were found guilty of conspiracy, as was the head of Adelphia. Numerous lower-level government officials have been found guilty of conspiracy. See this, this, this, this and this. Time Magazine's financial columnist Justin Fox writes:

Some financial market conspiracies are real ...

Most good investigative reporters are conspiracy theorists, by the way.

Indeed, conspiracies are so common that judges are trained to look at conspiracy allegations as just another legal claim to be disproven or proven by the evidence.

CNN reporter Nima Elbagir has purportedly spoken to Safia Gaddafi, wife of Muammar Gaddafi in what CNN claims is the first time she has spoken to foreign or domestic media. The interview was arranged by CNN, through Safia’s office manager.

Safia decided to come forward due to the NATO murder of her son Saif Al-Arab, along with 3 of Gaddafi’s grandchildren, all of whom were under the age of 12. This heinous war crime has been brushed under the carpet by the contrived bin Laden fairy tale, prompting Safia to speak out. In the emotional interview Safia speaks of NATO’s targeting of civilians, the murder of her son and his children, and how life ‘has no value anymore’. Video and transcript below.

Five US-led soldiers have been killed in different incidents in southern Afghanistan amid increasing attacks by militants in the spring offensive.

Two foreign soldiers were killed in separate explosions while two others were killed in direct attacks by militants, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday. The fifth soldier was killed in another incident, the report added. NATO announced that the incidents took place on Friday but did not provide any information about the nationalities of the victims and the places where the incidents occurred.

Tom Judd: As Afghanistan Rises in Revolt, America Sinks Further into Grave of Empires - The United States is not winning the battle for “hearts and minds,” that much is clear. In addition, the hearts and minds of the military occupying Afghanistan are being lost as well. The psychological and physical damages of the occupation and Obama’s troop surge are deep: soldiers facing mental health problems are at an all-time high - around twenty percent, and around eighty percent have seen a friend die in combat. The toll on soldiers is grim, and those who survive carry physical and mental wounds through multiple tours and back home.

"The United Nations warned on Wednesday [25 May 2011] of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a 'collapse' of, the U.S. dollar if its value against other currencies continued to decline . . . the U.N. economic division said such a development . . . would imperil the global financial system."

The report, an update of the U.N. "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2011" report first issued in December, noted that the dollar exchange rate against a basket of other key currencies had reached its lowest level since the 1970s. This trend, it said, had recently been driven in part by interest rate differentials between the United States and other major economies and growing concern about the sustainability of the U.S. public debt, half of which is held by foreigners. "As a result, further (expected) losses of the book value of the vast foreign reserve holdings could trigger a crisis of confidence in the reserve currency, which would put the entire global financial system at risk," it said.

Spanish police yesterday fired rubber bullets and beat protesters with truncheons in a vicious attempt to clear anti-austerity demonstrators from the Plaza de Cataluna square in Barcelona.

The Catalan riot police attacked at around 6.45 am, after protesters staged a sit-in to stop a convoy of cleaning trucks leaving the square after dismantling their encampment, under police supervision. Demonstrators chanted, “They shall not pass!” Without warning, police moved in after firing tear gas canisters. Protesters were dragged away by police, and there are numerous reports of rubber bullets being fired. An official denied this, stating that police fired compressed-air guns that shoot blanks. Demonstrators reported that police officers were not wearing their identification numbers.

Around 100 protesters regrouped in the square, while hundreds more were prevented from doing so by police cordons. “We will return,” they chanted. In the face of determined resistance, the police eventually retreated and thousands flooded the square, though numbers later dwindled. A report in the Financial Times gave a glimpse of the police brutality. “Protesters described a crowd of several hundred slowly walking towards a group of police hitting a woman with a baton. The crowd clapped and chanted ironically: 'This is your democracy!’”

20MinutosTV: Brutalidad en la Plaza de Cataluña - VIDEO
Real News: Anti-riot police clear Cataluña square - VIDEO

Pakistan has rebuffed an appeal by visiting US officials not to shut down military intelligence liaison centres in the country, US and Pakistani officials have said.

Pakistan had recently told the United States to reduce its military presence in the country, and also moved to close three military intelligence liaison centres, setting back American efforts to eliminate insurgent sanctuaries in largely lawless areas bordering Afghanistan. The liaison centres- also known as intelligence fusion cells- are the main conduits for the US to share satellite imagery, target data and other intelligence with Pakistani ground forces conducting operations against militants, including Taliban fighters who slip into Afghanistan to attack US and allied forces.

AWIP: Pakistan shuts down U.S. 'intelligence fusion' cells

Egypt has reopened its Rafah border with the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, allowing people to cross freely for the first time in four years following the downfall of ex-President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt opened the border crossing where many Palestinians gathered on Saturday in eager anticipation of the move to head southward. Cairo says the Rafah crossing will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. local time every day except Fridays and holidays. Jubilant Palestinians also expect Cairo to allow the importation of services and goods including construction materials into the impoverished coastal sliver, a Press TV correspondent reported. Women, children as well as men aged over 40 will be allowed to enter Egypt freely, but men aged between 18 and 40 will still require a permit.

Gulf News: Gaza gets gateway to the world
Yahoo: Opening Its Gaza Border, Egypt Pulls the Plug on Israel's Failed Strategy
Al Jazeera: Egypt opens Rafah border with Gaza - Video

Two weeks ago it was Admiral Mullen. Last week it was Sen. Kerry (D – MA). This weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried her hands at “improving” the increasingly strained relationship with Pakistan. Once again, it has ended the same.

Instead of reconciliation, Secretary Clinton’s visit was full of warnings and demands, She noted that US and Pakistani relations are at a “critical point,” then proceded to demand “decisive steps” from the Zardari government. Which, as with all steps the Obama Administration is keen on, means killing people. According to US and Pakistani officials, Secretary Clinton delivered a “list” of people that the Obama Administration wants the Zardari government to immediately attack.

AWIP: Clinton lands in Pakistan

Libyan officials have directed phone calls to a number of NATO member nations urging a ceasefire in a ongoing NATO war. The call was immediately spurned by the US, who said the offer was “not credible” and vowed the war would continue.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the US was absolutely opposed to the ceasefire because the Gadhafi-led government is “not complying with UN demands.” It is so far unclear if other NATO member nations may be more open to the idea. Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Ali Mahmoudi insisted that the offer was sincere and that Libya is “serious about a ceasefire.” He said the offer was to be based on an African Union road map for peace in the nation, which Libyan officials endorsed previously.

PressTV: NATO bombs rain on Tripoli for 5th night
Freeman: Lawless Government - Obama flouts the War Powers Resolution

Leftwing-Christian.net: 30 standing ovations...as Joplin digs itself out of the rubble - Do members of the U.S. Congress know any shame? Is it possible for them to even feel such? On Friday, authorities in Joplin raised the death toll to 132. It is clear that our "leaders" in Washington have misplaced their priorities. Their love for a foreign head of state and their attachment to a nation which violates international law and practices apartheid seems genuinely to outweigh their concern for Americans coping with a major disaster. [Video source]

Uprooted Palestinians: A refutation of some of Netanyahu's assertions courtesy of Aadel M Al-Mahdy
AWIP: Protester who heckled Netanyahu in Congress beaten, arrested at hospital [She yelled, "stop Israeli war crimes."]

In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also deleting search terms by government mandate. The latest example is You Tube’s compliance with a request from the British government to censor footage of the British Constitution Group’s Lawful Rebellion protest, during which they attempted to civilly arrest Judge Michael Peake at Birkenhead county court.

“Between July 1 and Dec. 31 (2009), Google received 3,580 requests for user data from U.S. government agencies, slightly less than the 3,663 originating from Brazil,” reports PC World. “The United Kingdom and India sent more than 1,000 requests each, and smaller numbers originated from various other countries.” With regard to search terms, one struggles to understand how a specific combination of words in a Google search can be considered a violation of any law. This is about government and Google working hand in hand to manipulate search results in order to censor inconvenient information, something which Google now freely admits to doing.

In their efforts to keep a lid on the growing populist fury that has arrived in response to rampant and growing financial and political tyranny in every sector of society, governments in the west are now mimicking Communist Chinese-style Internet censorship policies in a bid to neutralize protest movements, while hypocritically lecturing the rest of the world on maintaining web freedom.

Alternet: Turning the Camera: Why Are Cops Allowed to Film Citizens, But Citizens Not Allowed to Film Police Brutality?

27 de maig de 2011 - Els Mossos d'Esquadra i Guàrdia Urbana han desallotjat aquest matí el campament d'indignats de Plaça Catalunya.

Focus-Fen: Police fire rubber bullets at protesters in Barcelona
Irish Times: Police break up Barcelona protest
20MinutosTV: Brutalidad en la Plaza de Cataluña - VIDEO

Thailand's king thinks he's too important to be insulted - American faces 15 years in prison for linking to a webpage.

Thai authorities said Friday they arrested an American citizen on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog four years ago to a banned book about the Southeast Asian nation's ailing king. The man is also suspected of translating, from English into Thai, portions of "The King Never Smiles" — an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej — and posting them online along with articles he wrote that allegedly defame the royal family, said Tharit Pengdith, who heads the Department of Special Investigation, Thailand's equivalent of the FBI.

The American has denied the charges, according to the Thai-language prachatai.com news website, which tracks cases of lèse majesté, as the crime of insulting the monarchy is known. The 54-year-old Thai-born man lived in the U.S. state of Colorado for around 30 years before returning recently to Thailand for treatment for high blood pressure and gout, the website said. If the allegations are true, the infractions would have been committed while he lived in America — where they are legal — raising concern about the reach of Thai law and how it is applied to Thai nationals and foreign visitors.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad yesterday to reinforce a message that the US wants to see greater co-operation in tackling militants following the killing of Osama bin Laden near the Pakistan capital.

Mrs Clinton, the most senior American official to visit Pakistan since US commandos killed the al-Qaeda leader, and Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the head of Pakistan's military. Tensions between the US and Pakistan have risen, with American lawmakers questioning Pakistan's commitment to fighting militants and the wisdom of giving $US7.5 billion ($A7 billion) in aid over five years. Pakistan has responded by limiting military contacts with the US and suggesting the closure of a supply route for troops in Afghanistan that runs through its territory.

ABC News: U.S. Presses Pakistan to Go After Specific Militant Leaders [or else...]
BBC: Clinton "exonerates" Pakistan over Osama Bin Laden
The Nation: Pak-US relations at turning point: Clinton