Pro-Palestinian activists from Turkey, wearing life jackets,
hold a news conference on board the Turkish ship Mavi
Marmara [MaanImages, File]

For flotilla activists, the struggle is as much about forcing a local debate on alternatives to Mideast policy as confronting Israel’s continued oppression of Palestinians. - In many ways it’s the same idea of the Canadian’s calling their boat to Gaza "The Tahrir" after the Arabic name of Cairo’s liberation square. Or as Quaker nonviolence activist and code pink member Lyn Adamson says to me before the plane lands “We have an Arab Spring, but we need a global spring.”

EndTheSiege: Sailing to Gaza - Our peaceful Flotilla will sail on despite lies, pressure and blackmail from the Israeli government to the international community and to other governments in order to prevent by any means, administrative or repressive, the ships from sailing. Thus the Israeli government is trying to shift the political responsibility and the political cost of its own inhumane policy of occupation of Palestine, to the governments of other countries. Our governments bear great responsibility, since they are avoiding making Israel accountable to observe international law, as well as they are avoiding necessary actions in order to protect their own citizens, which are unarmed and who are participating in this peaceful, humanitarian action.

Ma'an News: Savvy flotilla prep in full swing at Athens port
Bego Astigarraga: Second Humanitarian Flotilla Prepares to Sail for Gaza
Desert Peace: IN OUR OWN WORDS ~~ WHY WE ARE SAILING TO GAZA - VIDEOS

PressTV: Clinton opposes aid flotilla to Gaza - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed her strong opposition to the second Freedom Flotilla, caliming that it is both a 'provoking act' and 'unnecessary.' The chief US diplomat made the remarks on Thursday as activist from more than 30 countries plan to sail aboard several ships to the Gaza Strip later this month in a bid to end the Israeli-imposed blockade on Gaza by taking humanitarian aid to the impoverished enclave, AFP reported.

A cellphone [allegedly] used by Osama bin Laden's courier [allegedly] contained contacts for commanders in a Pakistani militant group that has long been mentored by Pakistan's spy agency. - A new "report" heightens suspicion that Osama bin Laden may have been protected on behalf of, or at least with the knowledge of, Pakistan's intelligence agency. The cellphone of bin Laden's courier, seized in the US raid on his Abbottabad compound last month, [allegedly] contained contacts for commanders in a militant group with close ties to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), The New York Times "reported" today.

Military sources that have contacted Infowars have information suggesting that a full-scale US ground invasion is in the works for Libya, reportedly slated for October. This comes as no surprise. After three months of war, NATO has spectacularly failed to achieve its objective of regime change using its bumbling CIA-led, al-Qaeda linked ‘rebels’, supported by special forces on the ground since before a single bomb was dropped.

The would-be CIA director tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that the U.S. should consider a policy for using special interrogation techniques torture when information is needed right away "to save lives." John McCain, a fellow opponent of recent 'enhanced' methods, agrees.

In the vast majority of cases, Petraeus said, the "humane" questioning standards mandated by the U.S. Army Field Manual are sufficient to "persuade" detainees to talk. But though he did not use the word torture, Petraeus said "there should be discussion … by policymakers and by Congress" about something "more than the normal techniques."

Scott Horton: Defending Enhanced Interrogation Techniques - Before there were “enhanced interrogation techniques,” there was verschärfte Vernehmung, (which means “enhanced interrogation techniques”) developed by the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst in 1937 and subject to a series of stringent rules. Now, as we have seen previously, there were extremely important differences between the Gestapo’s interrogation rules and those approved by the Bush Administration. That’s right—the Bush Administration rules are generally more severe, and include a number of practices that the Gestapo expressly forbade.

Scott Horton: Because It Is Wrong – Six Questions for Charles and Gregory Fried

In Denmark, police have recommended to Parliament that it create laws that make it impossible for citizens to surf anonymously. According to Danish-language blog Computerworld Denmark, the proposal is intended to help investigate "terrorism."

Such a move would have serious privacy implications. But another problematic facet of the proposal is in the nature of online identity itself. 4Chan founder Christopher Poole recently defended web anonymity against those, including Facebook, who believe real-world identity and web identity should be one. "Anonymity is authenticity," said Poole. "It allows you to share in an unvarnished, unfiltered, raw and real way. We believe in content over creator."

Reports that the Winklevoss twins had decided to drop their legal dispute against Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, were premature. - Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and partner Divya Narendra, who have accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea to create the social-networking giant, Narenda filed a motion today in U.S. District Court of Massachusetts to ask the court to determine whether Facebook and Zuckerberg "intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence." The Winklevosses and Narenda claim in their filing that their efforts to file a motion for discovery and relief have been thwarted by Facebook and ConnectU, which have objected to the trio's new lawyer's attempts to obtain pleadings and discovery files. Their previous legal representatives have also declined to turn over the information to their new lawyers, the filing states. The filing states that once discovery is complete, it will request appropriate relief.

A former Rwandan women's minister has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in the genocide and the rape of Tutsi women and girls. - Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 65, is the first woman convicted by the UN-backed tribunal for the Rwanda genocide. She was found guilty, along with her son and four other former officials, after a 10-year trial. Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the 1994 massacres. Nyiramasuhuko, who was family affairs and women's development minister, was accused of ordering and assisting in the massacres in her home district of Butare in southern Rwanda. The prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused her of taking part in the government decision to create militias throughout the country. Their mission was to wipe out the Tutsi population as fast as possible.

While at Netroots Nation 2011, I had the privilege of speaking to Lieutenant Dan Choi, who served in the US Army infantry, went to war in Iraq and graduated from West Point with a degree in Arabic. Choi was kicked out of the military under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) about one year ago.

At Netroots Nation, Choi celebrated his one year "anniversary or birthday" as a civilian. He also noted that despite DADT being repealed there are still soldiers getting kicked out of the military for being gay.

The US government is putting Lt. Dan Choi on trial August 29 for "demonstrating in front of the White House in November of last year." Choi refuses to plead guilty or accept any kind of deal. “I believe this Administration is making a grave mistake in limiting the areas, times and manners that free speech should be allowed," declares Choi. And adds nobody should be intimidated into not protesting.

A rarity in the world today, the South American nation of Peru has yet to be contaminated by the import, cultivation, or breeding of any genetically-modified (GM) crops -- at least not openly -- unlike some of its nearby neighbors like Brazil that have openly and willingly accepted them. And the recent decision by Peru's Plenary Session of the Congress to enact a ten-year moratorium on GMOs, in direct defiance to previous governmental pushes for legalization, represents a huge victory for Peruvians.

Even though a recent test conducted by the Peruvian Association of Consumers and Users (ASPEC), a non-profit organization that promotes and defends the rights of Peruvian consumers, revealed the presence of GM contaminants in about 77 percent of supermarket products it tested (http://www.livinginperu.com/news/14842), at least the country itself will not be contributing to the spread of GM pollution around the world.

In a policy change announcement, the TSA now claims it will soon stop molesting little children by reaching into their pants and feeling their genitals. That we live in such a police state today where the opening line to a news story even mentions government agents molesting little children should be downright astonishing, but it's the truth. Of course, the TSA never claimed it was "molesting" children, and it describes its policy change as a way to "screen children without using invasive measures." That kind of doublespeak deserves a place in the Hall of Fame of Cowardly Language, alongside President Bush's claims of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and President Obama's description of war in Libya as "kinetic action." The TSA, of course, has mastered the art of Orwellian doublespeak. This is the agency that insists it does not "confiscate" anything from air travelers. Instead, those travelers all "willfully surrender" their pocket knives, decorative souvenir globes and other items that the TSA steals from them and then sells for a profit.

The TSA's announcement that it will stop molesting little children is, of course, an outright lie. The agency already announced the same policy change late last year but kept on molesting children anyway (http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-lie...). The simple truth of the matter is that if we are relying on the TSA to police itself, then we're all fools -- we should be arresting TSA agents right now for the crimes they are committing against innocent children (and adults).

The cops noticed her recording and started hassling her with absurd notions. “I don’t feel safe with you standing behind me, so I’m going to ask you to go into your house,” the cop said. “You seem very anti-police … due to what you said to me before you started taping me.” It is not clear what she said before she started recording, but if she said anything threatening, they would have arrested her at that moment. She ended up getting handcuffed and taken away after she refused to walk into her house, even though she was clearly on her own property. A friend or relative ended up taking the camera and we see her being led away. Neighbors who witnessed the interaction confirmed she had done nothing wrong. Meanwhile, the man they had originally handcuffed was released.

Raw Story: Woman arrested for videotaping traffic stop from her front yard - A 28-year-old woman has been charged with obstructing governmental administration after refusing a police officer’s order to leave her front yard while she was videotaping a traffic stop. WHEC-TV reported that Emily Good of Rochester, New York filmed the police officers while they were conducting a traffic stop in front of her home. Good's videotape shows the officers telling her that they feel threatened by her standing behind them because she seemed "very anti-police." An officer then asked her to go into her house, an order which she refused. After briefly arguing about Good's right to be in her lawn, the officers warned her that if she continued to refuse they would arrest her. She continued to argue, and was then handcuffed and arrested. Good, who was previously arrested with others in March for trying to block a local home foreclosure, said she was filming the traffic stop because she was concerned about what's happening in her neighborhood. Good's attorney, Stephanie Stare, has filed a motion to have the misdemeanor charge of obstructing governmental administration thrown out. “Basically the grounds for the motion to dismiss are that her actions did not rise to the level of a crime," she said. "It doesn't fit the statutory elements of obstructing governmental administration."

The day that Elaine Riddick had her first and only child at the age of 14, the state of North Carolina had her sterilized on the orders of a court. Riddick had been raped but the state said she was promiscuous. - “They said that I was feeble-minded, they said that I was promiscuous,” Riddick, now 57, told CBS News. “I’ve always been able to take care of myself – I’ve never been promiscuous.” “So how can people use these things to describe a child that had been abandoned? Or that had been raped by the neighbor and then again, raped by the state of North Carolina?”