Pakistan told the United States to leave a remote desert airbase used as a hub for covert CIA drone attacks, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said Wednesday. - His remarks are the latest indication of Pakistan attempting to limit US activities since a clandestine American military raid killed Osama bin Laden on May 2 and plunged ties between the anti-terror allies into chaos.

“We have told them (US officials) to leave the airbase,” Mukhtar told a group of journalists in his office. “This trust deficit with US could be reduced by sitting together and taking joint actions,” he added.

Jason Ditz: Pakistan Tells US to Leave Drone Base
Ryan McCarl: Use of Predators Sets Dangerous Precedent
EuroNews: Pakistan ends U.S. use of base for drone attacks

MY DEAR GREEK BROTHERS AND SISTERS! Organize your resistance efficiently, like the Egyptians did. Fight in 2 or 3 shifts and keep the pressure up onto these Police-THUGS 24 hours 7 days a week. You are many, they have very limited man-power, and after 3 or 4 days of hard pressing they are completely burnt out and exhausted. God bless you, solidarity with Greece! PEOPLE OF THE WORLD UNITE AND SUPPORT YOUR GREEK BROTHERS AND SISTERS NOW! [Η Χούντα της 21ης Απριλίου 1967 = The Junta of April 21]

You Tube: ΔΕΝ ΦΕΥΓΟΥΜΕ ΑΠ' ΤΗΝ ΠΛΑΤΕΙΑ [We'll (never) leave the (Constitution) square]
Peter Schwarz: Greek austerity package: Social counterrevolution in Europe
[ICH: Iceland Declares Independence from International Banks]
The American Dream: Austerity Riots - A Glimpse Of America's Future?

Crackdown Continues, But So Do Massive Protests - At least 11 villagers have been killed today in the Jabal al-Zawya region of Syria, just south of the border with Turkey. The deaths came when Syrian troops attacked the region, with a number of tanks backing them up. The troops reportedly were carrying out searches in the region following anti-regime sit-ins staged by lawyers. The attacks spurred calls for major protests on Thursday, in addition to the massive protests held regularly held on Friday. The latest deaths add an additional layer of intrigue over the prospect of a “national dialogue” early in July, and has convinced more and more protesters that the offer is not sincere. The Syrian government’s offers for reform and dialogue have not slowed their crackdowns.

Saudi Arabia's religious police have begun arresting women who are protesting against their country's ban on female driving by getting behind the wheel. But advocates of women's right to drive say the arrests won't stop them. - According to the Times, police arrested five women on Tuesday. Four were riding in a car together — they were forced to sign an agreement never to drive again. A fifth was driving with her brother in a different neighborhood — they were both arrested, and remain in custody. All were apparently participating in a protest movement launched last month to advocate for a women's driving rights and the safety and freedom that might come with them.

Bill Hicks talks about the real leaders of the United States (circa 1993) ‘The Elite’ from "Rant in E Minor"

You Tube: Bill Hicks - "The Elite"
AWIP: Bill Hicks - Pick up the Gun

Remember Rochester police arresting a woman for videotaping a police traffic stop on her front lawn? Now, the police come back A DAY later to ticket parked cars owned by her supporters because they were a few inches more than 12 inches from the curb. - A group of Rochester citizens meeting to show support for a woman arrested while video taping a police traffic stop claim police harassment. Members of the group IndyMedia say several police officers converged on Clarissa Street late Thursday afternoon and began ticketing their parked cars for being more than 12 inches from the curb. A member of the group video taped the incident and posted the video on line. The pictures show police using a pink ruler to measure the distance from the curb to the wheels, and then issuing parking tickets. Spokeswoman Dawn Zuppelli says this was obvious retaliation. "This was a clear intimidation tactic. And I'm outraged about it. It was an appalling use of city (police) resources. They told us it was citizen complaints about how the cars were parked, and I don't believe it for a second. I absolutely think we're being targeted. They're leaving us a message that they are angry about this. It's gotten international coverage at this point, the misconduct of the RPD and they want to let us know that they're not happy about it," Zuppelli said. Zuppleii says their meeting was well publicized on all the social media networks. Four police cars showed up within 20 minutes of the meeting starting.

AWIP: Police Officer Arrest Woman in Her Front Yard for Filming the Cops

Arab Israelis and Palestinians have accused the British government of collaborating with Israel in detaining Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel. - Ibrahim Sarsur, a United Arab List member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, described the arrest of Salah as "strange". He said: "Sheikh Salah is one of the leading figures in the Arab Israeli community. He travelled to the UK legitimately, and he had no knowledge of any ban on his entering the UK, so we are surprised and disappointed by this illegitimate procedure."

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: This is a pretty extensive and devastating presentation of the Israeli crime in Gaza. I met Arthur Billy last month in San Francisco. Billy, born in pre 1948 Palestine is a nuclear scientist and an incredibly kind human being. The combination of the music and the images is very powerful, yet, bear in mind that Billy is not a film maker. As far as I am aware he assembled this presentation using Power Point. He had a very limited editing capacity. Yet, the spirit is there, the aesthetic is there and the impact of Israeli barbarism is there all the way through. Thanks Arthur for your time, effort and care.

Arthur Billy & William A.Cook: This presentation is a Memorial and a Requiem for the Dead of Gaza, Honouring the Valiant Palestinian People and a Monument to the People of Gaza. May this requiem force the Israelis and all who view this testament to share the suffering and the pain of the Palestinian people with all the compassion the souls of humans everywhere should feel for one another. Should the United States of America House of Representatives, and the Senate care to spend two hours in rapt meditation witnessing the reality of the slaughter they supported in Israel's invasion of Gaza, even their gold plated hearts would melt at the brutality, the ruthlessness, the absolute mercilessness of the state they support with such sanctimonious sentiments when they slither up the AIPAC carpet to seek their favor and forget the consequences to their immortal souls. http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/06/tel-aviv-on-the-potomac

Irish Ship to Gaza SABOTAGED by israeli agents in Turkish waters.

Freedom Flotilla News: SABOTAGE OF M.V. SAOIRSE IN TURKEY
[Freedom Flotilla News: Gaza-bound ship “Juliano” found sabotaged in Greek port]

The top story in two of Israel’s leading daily papers yesterday was a bombshell: The IDF unveiled plans by flotilla passengers to kill soldiers trying to stop the ships from getting to Gaza... The reports of the murderous intentions of the flotilla activists traveled around the country and across the world. Not for the first time, a group of unarmed European and American activists traveling on old yachts was presented as a threat to the security of the region’s superpower. The only question is: for how long will the world continue to buy these kind of stories?

Stephen Lendman: Israeli Anti-Freedom Flotilla II Propaganda

Robert Stevens: Israel threatens violence against Gaza aid convoy On Monday Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet ordered the Israeli Defence Force to “act resolutely” to stop the flotilla. - A concerted campaign of disinformation and lies has been mounted to portray the aid flotilla as an armed invading force. Haaretz said senior Israeli defence officials told a press briefing Monday that two activists linked to Hamas are on-board the convoy. Hamas, an Islamist group, has been classified as a terrorist organisation by Israel.

In an expected but nonetheless unbelievable move, the US Senate passed resolution 185 late Tuesday, which states that if the Palestinian Authority goes ahead with its plan to seek unilateral recognition as a state, the US would suspend its financial aid. - The resolution, backed by 87 senators, reasons that US policy is committed to a two-state solution through negotiations and thus any unilateral action by the Palestinians is counterproductive. As the resolution states:

Reaffirming the commitment of the United States to a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, reaffirming opposition to the inclusion of Hamas in a unity government unless it is willing to accept peace with Israel and renounce violence, and declaring that Palestinian efforts to gain recognition of a state outside direct negotiations demonstrates absence of a good faith commitment to peace negotiations, and will have implications for continued United States aid.

This is a ridiculously insulting double standard. Israel has been taking unilateral actions for decades with impunity, actions which have drastically changed facts on the ground and continue to undermine the very notion of negotiations. Can you imagine the US making aid to Israel contingent on anything it does?

Osama bin Laden's son is reportedly in doubt that his father was killed after U.S. President Barack Obama decided not to publish photographs taken during the raid.

According to Reuters Canada, Omar bin Laden reportedly says that he is not convinced his father was killed in the U.S. military operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May. He is also unsure whether his father had lived for five uninterrupted years at the compound where the raid took place.

"Why hasn't the U.S. shown the photos? "If we haven't seen the body, we can't be completely sure," he said.

NYT [May 10, 2011]: Statement From the Family of Osama bin Laden - I Omar Ossama Binladin and my brothers the lawful children and heirs of the Ossama Binladin (OBL) have noted wide coverage of the news of the death of our father, but we are not convinced on the available evidence in the absence of dead body, photographs, and video evidence that our natural father is dead. Therefore, with this press statement, we seek such conclusive evidence to believe the stories published in relation to 2 May 2011 operation Geronimo as declared by the President of United States Barrack Hussein Obama in his speech that he authorized the said operation and killing of OBL and later confirmed his death.

[Editor's Comment:] There is no independent or conclusive evidence that Osama bin Laden was executed in Abbottabad. The one extant image of marines dumping a white-clad body in the sea does not in itself prove that this must have been bin Laden's body. The world at large simply do not at this point in time know for certain that bin Laden has been killed. Neither do we know for certain whether he is dead or not.

Paul Craig Roberts: Creating the bin Laden Reality
Paul Craig Roberts: Americans Are Living In 1984

The mystery surrounding the medical condition of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez deepened with the postponement of a major regional summit. - Chavez perhaps seemed to have lost some weight but was acting his usual animated self, raising the obvious question of why a summit still a week away had to be scrapped. The president "is in the midst of a strict process of recovery and medical treatment," the Venezuelan foreign ministry said in a statement on the postponement, without providing further details.