One of the architects of US foreign policy under George W. Bush, General Michael Hayden, suggested that the US Government should consider creating a "Digital Blackwater" during an open conversation with Bloomberg's Allan Holmes and several other cybersecurity specialists on stage, during an event called the Aspen Security Forum. - Blackwater refers to the US private military group founded in 1997 and which has been renamed as Xe Services LLC, a move possibly linked with a number of high controversies that arose after the company expanded its security-related operations into Iraq and Afghanistan. Recruiting mercenaries, Hayden suggested “might be one of those big new ideas in terms of how we have to conduct ourselves in this new cyber domain,” referring to cyber warfare.

The House of Representatives on Monday approved an 11th-hour deal to raise the U.S. borrowing limit, clearing the biggest hurdle to averting a potentially catastrophic U.S. debt default.

And like that the Congressional circus is over 269 to 161. Market reaction? ES sells off 5, then rallies 3, and now is selling off again. Next up - the Senate but that is a given. So now that we know that America is not going to file for bankruptcy tomorrow on we go to the economic collapse.

Putin: U.S. a ‘parasite’ on the world economy
Giffords in House for first time since shooting
U.S. debt battle set to draw to close, for now
The Tent City of New Jersey: Desperate victims of the economic slump forced to live in makeshift homes in forest - PHOTOS

Patrick Martin: US House approves record budget cuts
Stephen Lendman: Heading Toward Economic Ruin
Paul Craig Roberts: Disastrous Outcomes From An Orchestrated Crisis
Saman Mohammadi: The Debt Crisis Is A Trojan Horse To Cause The Fall of America

Speaking today in an interview with the BBC, Admiral Michael Mullen today demanded that the Pakistani government launch a military offensive against the Haqqani Network in the North Waziristan Agency, the latest in years of demands from the US for such an offensive. - Mullen, who was in Kabul during the interview, warning that US-Pakistani relations could be seriously harmed if the Zardari government did not address the “safe havens” in North Waziristan. The demands will likely not sit well with the Pakistani government, particularly at a time when US-Pakistani relations are already at a comparative low. The Zardari government has confirmed plans to eventually go into North Waziristan, but demands related to timing don’t appear to sit well with the military, which is already upset by US unilateralism.

Spotted an anarchist? Call the cops. That appears to be the instruction from a section of Britain’s anti-terrorist police, which has asked shopkeepers and members of the public to report information about anarchists. The advice appears in a newsletter produced last week by the “counter terrorist focus desk” in the central London district of Westminster. The newsletter defines anarchism, accurately, as

“a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy.”

It adds: “Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to your local police.”

The Syrian army launched new attacks on the cities of Hama, Dair Alzour and Bukamal in southern Dara province on Monday, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. - Government troops and tanks opened fire on civilians, killing at least 6 people in Hama: one of them was killed while sleeping by a tank shell that targeted his house. In Bukamal, Ibrahim Yusuf Khalaf, 13 year old, has been killed by a bullet aimed to his head. Another civilian was shot in head by Syrian security forces in Dair Alzour.

AWIP: Syria: crackdown on protesters leaves 145 dead

A group of fundamentalist Israeli settlers set ablaze, on Sunday evening, 150 Dunams of farmlands that belong to residents of Ein Jaloud village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Ghassan Douglas, in charge of the settlements file in the northern part of the West Bank, stated that the armed settlers torched the lands while the army did not even attempt to stop them.

He added that this is not the first attack against Palestinian lands and orchards in the same area, in addition to similar attacks in other parts of the occupied West Bank.

Last week, a group of extremist Israeli settlers torched Palestinian farmlands that belong to the residents of Sorra village, west of West Bank city Nablus.

The attack took place after Israeli soldiers fired gas bombs and concussion grenades at Israeli peace activists who arrived at the scene in an attempt to prevent a group of extremist settlers from uprooting Palestinian farmlands.

On Friday July 15, settlers torched Palestinian olive orchards in Jabal Suleiman area, close to Burin village, south of Nablus. The attack was carried out by a group of twenty heavily armed settlers who set ablaze at least 80 Dunams of farmlands, including dozens of olive trees. Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene but failed to stop the settlers, but instead, obstructed the work of local firefighters.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a 2 to 1 decision Friday that human genes can be patented because the DNA extracted from cells is not [?] a product of nature. - The court held (PDF) that Myriad Genetics can patent two human genes used to predict the risk of breast and ovarian cancer in women, overturning a previous decision by a federal district court in March 2010. But the court ruled that the method used to determine a patient's risk of cancer was not patentable. The lawsuit was filed by the Public Patent Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, who claimed patents on human genes violate the First Amendment and patent law because genes are "products of nature." The court disagreed.

A month ago the Obama administration was suggesting Iran was behind an increase in attacks against U.S. troops. Giving very little evidence other than the assurance that Iran was backing militiamen in Iraq, U.S. officials seemed otherwise unable to explain why Iraq was suddenly becoming unstable again. A sudden upswing of U.S. fatalities did seem to point to something. Or did it?

Only a month later U.S. officials have now declared a dizzyingly quick success in a campaign to bring those figures back down. While an increase of 750 percent in one month seems like a lot — it comes out to 13 more deaths than May — several of the June attacks involved multiple deaths. Early in the month, five soldiers were killed in a single mortar attack. Was this better weaponry coupled with more attacks, or just plain luck on the part of insurgents? May had only two fatalities for the whole month, but April had clocked in at 11 deaths, while March registered only two. So was June even a significant statistical anomaly, let alone the result of intensified Iranian meddling? It’s hard to know for sure — the "evidence" of Tehran’s involvement was pretty flimsy to begin with, but just as quickly as the perennial Iranian problem resurfaced, it was mysteriously re-corked.

HCL reveals News International's various requests for deletion but tells MPs it knew of nothing untoward. - The technology firm HCL has told the home affairs select committee it was aware of the deletion of hundreds of thousands of emails at the request of News International between April 2010 and July 2011, but said it did not know of anything untoward behind the requests to delete them. HCL has sent the letter to the home affairs select committee chairman, Keith Vaz , revealing it had been involved in nine separate episodes of email deletion. HCL says it is not the company responsible for emails on the News International system that are older than a couple of weeks. It says another unnamed vendor is responsible, but confirms it has co-operated with this vendor in deleting material.