An airstrike carried out by US assassination drones has killed five people and injured several others in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, which borders Afghanistan. - Early on Wednesday, five US drones were flying over Miranshah, the capital of the North Waziristan, before firing two missiles at a house in the city, Xinhua reported. Wednesday’s airstrike was the first US drone attack since the 25th NATO summit, during which US President Barack Obama reportedly noted that the US and Pakistan were making “diligent progress” on reopening the border crossings used to transfer NATO supplies to landlocked Afghanistan.

Following in the rich history of fake endings to wars during the Obama Administration’s first term, the US and other NATO member nations are loudly hyping their endorsement of a transition pact, which is being presented as an “irreversible pullout” of occupation forces. - “We are now unified to responsibly wind down the war in Afghanistan,” insisted President Obama. The pact pledges to see a transition to Afghanistan taking a “leading role” by summer of 2013. This is a great way to brand the war, since polls show massive majorities of voters in virtually every NATO notion overwhelmingly opposed to the conflict. But despite the hype, the pact is materially no different from the one that came out of the Lisbon summit, which seeks to declare the war “over” at the end of 2014 but keep large but unspecified numbers of NATO troops occupying the nation in the nation long beyond that “end.”

Pursuant to the deal reached by Kabul and Washington for drawing down the war in Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers are now statutorily required to obtain a warrant before entering Afghan homes. - The Obama administration, desperate to come to an agreement and extricate itself from the failed war, reluctantly agreed to Karzai’s demand to have greater Afghan control and a judge’s permission over night raids, a central military policy throughout the war. But earlier indications suggested this development in policy was not was it sounded like. Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby told reporters in April that ““It’s not about the U.S. ceding responsibilities to the Afghans.” Kirby said, contrary to reports, that Afghan President Hamid Karzai will not hold “a veto” over future night raids and although U.S. forces will need a warrant going forward, “In practical terms, not much has changed.”

We don't usually start articles with warnings, but some of the pictures in the gallery are incredibly distressing. We omitted some on the grounds that they were just too upsetting, but the ones that we do run, we do so with full permission, and because we feel that this is an important story. - You might remember Karlos Zurutuza from his photos of Baloch insurgents, his guide to warzone hotels or maybe, if you like reading news and knowing what’s going on in the world, you will have seen his work elsewhere. During recent trips to Iraq, Karlos waded into a story that even in the quagmire of depressing awfulness that is Iraqi news, stands out as brutally distressing. We had a chat with him about the medical fallout of the Iraq War and specifically its effects on children in Fallujah. [Article]

Why this is important: Building 7 of the World Trade Center, a 47 story building, contained offices of the CIA, the Secret Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) several financial institutions and then-Mayor Giuliani's Office of Emergency Management. Despite never being hit by an airplane, Building 7 was reduced to a pile of rubble in about 7 seconds at 5:20 p.m. on September 11, 2001. After 9/11 this fact has been widely covered up by the U.S. mass media and was even omitted from the 9/11 Commission Report. NIST, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (a U.S. government agency) was authorized by Congress to determine “why and how WTC 7 collapsed.” NIST produced a preliminary draft of their final report in August, 2008 omitting the fact that Building 7 fell at free fall acceleration for part of its descent. After a physicist challenged NIST on this point the final report, in November 2008 admitted free fall acceleration for 105' or 2.5 seconds. However NIST claimed that this was consistent with their own fire based collapse theory which alleged that the entire collapse began because column 79 became laterally unsupported and buckled due to heat. NIST has refused to disclose their entire computer model and this column 79 theory was not based on any hard evidence. [...] NIST has already admitted the scientific fact of free fall acceleration in Building 7. This is remarkable! Now we ask that NIST tell what this means: that the entire building structure below for at least eight floors was removed just as Building 7 began to fall. Does this not imply use of explosives? We petition for a response.

Stephen Lendman: Consensus 9/11: Seeking Truth, Dispelling Lies

In November, 2008, media reports strongly suggested that President Obama intended to name John Brennan as CIA Director. But controversy over Brennan’s recent history — he was a Bush-era CIA official who expressly advocated “enhanced interrogation techniques” and rendition — forced him to “withdraw” from consideration, as he publicly issued a letter citing “strong criticism in some quarters” of his CIA advocacy. Undeterred by any of that unpleasantness, President Obama instead named Brennan to be his chief counter-Terrorism adviser, a position with arguably more influence that he would have had as CIA chief. Since then, Brennan has been caught peddling serious falsehoods in highly consequential cases, including falsely telling the world that Osama bin Laden “engaged in a firefight” with U.S. forces entering his house and “used his wife as a human shield,” and then outright lying when he claimed about the prior year of drone attacks in Pakistan: “there hasn’t been a single collateral death.”

On 25th visit [???] to Israel, former secretary of state recalls the first panicked moments of 9/11. - The world changed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told an audience in Israel Sunday, and so did the relationship between the United States and Israel. While Jerusalem and Washington were always good friends, after the attacks they became allies “with a common cause in the fight against people who would seek political gain by attacking civilians, parents and children,” she said. Rice also described the first panicked minutes for the US administration on 9/11, including the moment she raised her voice to president George W. Bush.

“Please be kind enough to let us know the number of plainclothes officers who will infiltrate our event so we can order the appropriate catering.” – Gatineau Chamber of Commerce on Bill 78. - The letter is a notice to the Gatineau police force, pursuant to the Special Law that the Quebec Government has quickly passed to block student protests. The law, in part, requires that all gatherings of ten or more people that will take place in a public venue must provide written notice at least eight hours in advance to the police of the location, route, date, time, number of attendees, and must comply with any changes ordered by the police. This law is likely unconstitutional in its broad application. - The letter is a notice to the Gatineau police force, pursuant to the Special Law that the Quebec Government has quickly passed to block student protests. The law, in part, requires that all gatherings of ten or more people that will take place in a public venue must provide written notice at least eight hours in advance to the police of the location, route, date, time, number of attendees, and must comply with any changes ordered by the police. This law is likely unconstitutional in its broad application. [H/T]

CJAD 800am: National Assembly passes Bill 78
The Star: Giant protest in Montreal puts emergency law to test
Keith Jones: Quebec: Huge protest supports striking students, denounces Bill 78

Canada's proposed Internet surveillance was back in the news last week after speculation grew that government intends to keep the bill in legislative limbo until it dies on the order paper. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews denied the reports, maintaining that Bill C-30 will still be sent to committee for further study. - Canada's telecom companies worked actively with government officials to identify key issues and to develop a secret Industry - Government Collaborative Forum on Lawful Access. The secret working group includes virtually all the major telecom and cable companies, whose representatives have been granted Government of Canada Secret level security clearance and signed non-disclosure agreements. The group is led by Bell Canada on the industry side and Public Safety for the government. The secret working group is designed to create an open channel for discussion between telecom providers and government. As the uproar over Bill C-30 was generating front-page news across the country, Bell reached out to government to indicate that "it was working its way through C-30 with great interest" and expressed desire for a meeting to discuss disclosure of subscriber information. A few weeks later, it sent another request seeking details on equipment obligations to assist in its costing exercises.

A Swedish documentary about the economic crisis in Greece. The documentary was made from Alexandra Pascalidou on behalf of SVT Swedish television.

Across Italy police are cracking down on Ferrari and Lamborghini drivers, but not because they are driving too fast. Italy, like so much of southern Europe, is drowning in debt, so police are pursuing drivers to make sure they are declaring – and therefore paying taxes on – earnings that would allow them to afford cars worth as much as half a million dollars. The targeting is part of an ongoing war on tax cheats, an attempt to shore up $2.5 trillion of the country's public debt and change a culture that has often prided itself on avoiding taxes. Tax authorities have long carried out much-publicized checks on owners of luxury cars, yachts, even nightclubs that don't issue proper receipts. But since the unelected, technocratic government took power in November, it has made enforcing tax collections a priority.

Chilean courts have decided to reexamine the death of the poet, whom some suspect was killed by the Pinochet regime. - Neruda, a member of Chile's Communist Party who won the Nobel Prize in 1971, is among the most widely read Spanish-language poets. Millions of people the world over have been wooed by "Twenty Love Songs and a Song of Despair". When he died just two weeks after the September 11, 1973, coup that overthrew Chilean President Salvador Allende, most people assumed it was from a broken heart that had accelerated the prostate cancer with which he had been diagnosed the previous year. Neruda was a close friend of Allende, and the military had raided his famous seaside home in Isla Negra, in those days about a two-hour drive from the capital Santiago. It was at Isla Negra that he completed his memoirs, which end with a bitter damnation of the coup and of General Augusto Pinochet.