Germany's equivalent of MI5 has found itself at the centre of a deepening intelligence service scandal after it was confirmed yesterday that its agents had destroyed files containing vital information about a neo-Nazi terrorist gang hours before the material was due to be handed to federal prosecutors. The case concerns the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi group responsible for Germany's worst acts of far-right violence since the Second World War. Its members murdered a policewoman, shot dead nine immigrants, mounted two bomb attacks and robbed 14 banks to finance their operations.

On Wednesday, US Republican Senator Scott Brown had called on Holder to resign, accusing him of misleading Congress, saying “he can’t effectively serve the president.” - “For the best interest of the country, I think he should step down and resign. He’s lost the confidence of the American people. Certainly, he’s lost the confidence of Congress. He misled Congress. They have a right to know,” Brown added. Democrats accused Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and other Republican lawmakers of taking political advantage out of targeting Holder.

It wasn't easy, finding Jim Traficant. Without the help of the American Free Press, (AFP), we never would have found him. Traficant of Youngstown Ohio was running for his old Congressional seat. What sort of campaign could he be running? After all, we'd seen the Greta von Susteren Fox News interview (Sept. 9, 2009, just a few days after Traficant was released from prison). Here's some of what Traficant had said, "I believe that Israel has a powerful strangle hold on the American government. They control...the House and Senate. They have us involved in wars of which we have little or no interest. Our children are coming back in body bags. Our nation is bankrupt over these wars, and if you open your mouth, you get targeted. And if they don't beat you at the polls, they'll put you in prison... It's an objective assessment that no one will have the courage to speak about. They're controlling much of our foreign policy. They're influencing much of our domestic policy. Wolfowitz as Under Secretary of Defense manipulated President Bush #2 back into Iraq. They pushed definitely, definitely to try and get Bush, before he left, to move into Iran. We're conducting expansionist policy of Israel and everybody's afraid to say it. They control much of the media..."

After successive high-profile attacks by the Syrian rebel militias this week, some are claiming they are increasing in effectiveness. But the opposition is still an unorganized mess, its just that now the arms they’re receiving are facilitating more carnage. - The rebels on Thursday bombed the Palace of Justice as well as a police station in downtown Damascus. The day before, militias attacked a pro-Assad television station, killing a number of civilians. And late on Monday, the so-called Free Syrian Army bombed the barracks of the Republican Guard close to the palace of President Bashar al-Assad. The opposition is still a disparate, rag tag group of localized militias with conflicting agendas and many of whom are Sunni extremists or have ties to al-Qaeda. They are increasingly to blame for massacres of civilians as well. Nothing has changed, except that the weapons being funneled to them by the US, European Union, Turkey, and the Gulf Arab states are being put to use.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan called Syria a threat to Turkey and unveiled new rules of engagement for the military this week. If Syrian troops approach the border, they will now be targeted, writes Cengiz Candar. But the size and scope of this vaguely-defined area leaves the final decision to Turkey. - NATO stands with Turkey. It strongly denounced the Syrian regime and stated that the shooting down of the Turkish plane was unacceptable. This is the only thing that came out of the NATO meeting, which was called after Turkey invoked Article 4 [of NATO’s founding document]. Nothing else was expected. But, since NATO long ago declared that an intervention — like the one that took place in Libya — would be impossible in Syria, the only option left for NATO was to condemn Syria verbally and express solidarity with Turkey. However, as an added benefit, NATO’s involvement in the situation shows that Turkey is firmly anchored within the NATO system, despite earlier suspicions that Turkey might be acting autonomously, or even reorienting its political axis. At the outset of the Libya crisis, Prime Minister Erdogan’s first reaction was: “What is NATO doing there?” Today, however, when Turkey rang NATO’s doorbell when it conflicted with Syria, Turkey seems to be openly happy with NATO’s solidarity. These two reactions come from the same government.

A Palestinian civilian holds a demolition order of his home
issued by the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, which also
ordered the demolition of another 4 houses in the area

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (21 – 27 June 2012):

● During the reporting period, IOF killed 8 Palestinians, including one civilian, and wounded 32 others, including two women and a child, in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, two Palestinian civilians were wounded by IOF.
● In the Gaza Strip, on 22 June 2012, a member of the Palestinian resistance was killed when an Israeli drone fired a missile at a number of members of the Palestinian resistance in al-Boreij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
● On the same day, another member of the Palestinian resistance was killed and two others were wounded when an Israeli drone fired a missile at them in the northern Gaza Strip.
● On 23 June 2012, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a training site of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, 8 Palestinian civilians living nearby houses, including a woman and a child, sustained bruises. Additionally, 5 houses were damaged.
● On the same day, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at the maintenance center in al-Saraya security compound in the center of Gaza City. As a result, 10 Palestinians, including 4 civilians, were wounded, and a number of buildings and shops were damaged.
● On the same day, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a training site of the Palestinian resistance in Deir al-Balah town in the central Gaza Strip. As a result, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a woman, were injured, and 6 houses and two cars were damaged. [...]

Noam Sheizaf: The profitable occupation, and why it is never discussed

WikiLeaks founder claims he will ignore note as 'asylum law takes precedence over extradition law' - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said he will 'almost certainly' ignore a surrender notice issued to him by Scotland Yard. Assange has been inside the Embassy of Ecuador in London for nine days since seeking political asylum as part of his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about alleged sex offences. Assange told the BBC's Newsnight programme that he will not be heeding the note delivered by officers from the Metropolitan Police yesterday morning, telling him to attend Belgravia police station at 11.30am today.

Jason Ditz: Assange ‘Almost Certainly’ Won’t Go to London Police Station for Extradition

A spokesman for U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has provided statements to publications in New Hampshire and Oregon indicating that information regarding domestic drone activities provided by Public Intelligence is inaccurate, despite confirmations from the offices of two U.S. Senators. Following our publication last week of a map of current and proposed Department of Defense drone activities within the U.S., several journalists with local publications around the country wrote articles regarding drone activities that were listed in their area. David Brooks of the Nashua Telegraph wrote about the listing of New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington as the site of a USSOCOM drone activity involving small unmanned aerial vehicles including the Raven and Wasp. Corey Pein of the Willamette Week wrote about a planned USSOCOM drone activity in Portland that was listed as utilizing the same types of drones.

House officials have some words of wisdom for the TSA: Don't pat down Beyonce. Seriously. After all, "she's not going to blow a plane up," says Rep. Mike Rogers, who heads the House Homeland Security Transportation Subcommittee. "There are certain people that are just so well-known that you've just got to use your common sense," he added during a meeting yesterday. Others cited as deserving of a free pass: Donald Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger, the Los Angeles Times reports.

In the era of remote-controlled drones, invisible planes and microwave guns, no military innovation should come as a surprise. But among the array of new weapons none are more satisfying than a cannon that allows you to unleash bolts of lightning. - The Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) cannon is currently being tested at Picatinny Arsenal, a key US Army research complex in New Jersey. "We never got tired of the lightning bolts zapping our simulated targets," says George Fischer, who heads the research team. The charge is created by emitting a laser pulse that charges the air, and forms a hugely destructive bolt of lighting. Engineers are now working on turning the prototype into a mobile cannon that can be mounted on aircraft and trucks, but the US Army has not yet ordered any devices. It is possible that despite the intimidation factor and its design elegance, the man-made lightning bolt will remain a prototype – at least for now.

As diplomats prepared for a weekend meeting to revive stalled Syria peace efforts, regional tensions swirling around the 16-month-old crisis ticked higher on Thursday as Turkey said it was stationing antiaircraft batteries on the common border following the downing of one of its warplanes. - Word of the border fortification coincided with further suggestions within Syria that insurgents seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad were operating with increasing audacity in an and around the capital, Damascus. The state news agency, SANA, said an explosion rocked the parking lot of the Palace of Justice, a government court building, on Thursday, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky and injuring three people, just a day after a disputed attack on a pro-government satellite television station 14 miles south of the city.

Eric Draitser: War At Any Cost: Another Manufactured Pretext for War with Syria

The world's first geneticallymodified humans have been created, it was revealed last night. - The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics. So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three 'parents'. Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a result of one experimental programme at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey. The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to conceive. Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults --two women and one man. The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their 'germline' means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring. Altering the human germline - in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species - is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world's scientists.

Does this look like an embassy? Why, we've seen fortresses less
impressive than this one. Using the "duck test", it probably is one
too. - Question is, why would the US want to have a fortress here?

The State Department is planning to spend up to $115 million to upgrade the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, already its biggest and most expensive in the world, according to pre-solicitation notices published this month.

Remember, it has been 3 1 / 2 years since American diplomats moved into the 104-acre, $700 million facility and only four months after State officials in February talked about trying to cut back the U.S. presence there. State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) put out a statement Wednesday saying new planning began after it was determined there needed to be “a larger population on the Baghdad Embassy compound, due to the consolidation of satellite diplomatic facilities and property around Baghdad.” The statement added, “The consolidation takes the overall diplomatic property in Baghdad down by one-third, but increases the personnel working and living on the Embassy compound.” The compound sits in the heart of Baghdad’s International Zone and houses 1,350 U.S. government employees who work under the ambassador’s authority.

New Zealand's High Court has ruled that the police raid on Kim Dotcom’s house was unlawful along with seizure of the hard drives that were later cloned and illegally taken from New Zealand to the US by the FBI. - The warrants issued to search Dotcom’s mansion were general and did not clearly describe the offences they stipulated, ruled Justice Helen Winkelmann. “They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid,” she explained. The New Zealand police force is currently holding talks with the Crown Law on the next course of action and has refrained from commenting on the judgment. The ruling released on Thursday by Justice Helen Winkelmann insists the warrants were too vague concerning the scope of the search and the items authorized to be seized by police. In addition, the information copied from the internet tycoon’s hard drives by the FBI was taken unlawfully as Kim Dotcom never gave his consent said Judge Winkelmann.

3 News: Judge: Search and seizure at Dotcom mansion illegal
New Zealand Herald: Dotcom lawyer: 'The search warrants were unlawful and the FBI sending the clones to the USA was also unlawful.'

About half of young Germans are unsure whether the Nazi state was a dictatorship – and even more are not sure whether the socialist East German regime was one, a new study shows. - The widespread ignorance is described in a study called, “Late Victory of the Dictatorships?” conducted by researchers at Berlin’s Free University. “This is shocking,” said study author Klaus Schroeder. More than 7,500 school pupils aged around 15 were asked how they viewed the various governments that have ruled Germany. Only around half were definite that the Nazi government was a dictatorship. Just over a third were certain that the former East German government was also a dictatorship. And about half said the former West German government was a democracy, while around 60 percent were sure that the current united German government was democratic. “The low estimation of historical knowledge is clearly having an effect.” The students most able to tell the difference between dictatorship and democracy were in the former eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony Anhalt, while those with the least idea were from the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Here is the truth behind the middle east conflict. Ask yourself: Why aren't Americans shown these honest facts on any of the over 1,700 major media outlets? And WHAT OTHER INFO IS BEING WITHELD?

Three-in-four Pakistanis consider the United States an enemy country, a new survey conducted by the Washington-based Pew Global Attitudes Project indicates. - The Pew survey, which was published on its website on Wednesday, said that last year 69 percent used to hate the US but in 2012 the figure jumped to 74 percent. The survey also showed an exceptionally low regard for US President Barack Obama among Pakistanis. They believe Obama is as bad a leader as former US President George W. Bush had been during his final year in office. US-Pakistan relations have been strained over the civilian casualties caused by the non-UN-sanctioned US drone attacks, and over a number of other issues.

Unconfirmed reports say that Britain’s special operations forces have crossed from Turkey into Syria advancing up to ten kilometers inside the country. - DEBKAfile, an Israeli military intelligence website, has reported that unconfirmed first reports from British, French, and Turkish sources say British forces have entered Syria from Turkey, taking the lead of a western military incursion. Moreover, on Sunday 24 June, The Daily Star reported that Britain’s fighter planes were on stand-by to invade Syria in case Britain’s NATO ally, Turkey, decided to launch a strike on Syria. DEBKAfile said the British incursion was aimed at securing the start of western intervention in Syria to topple President Bashar Al Assad. Earlier this year, the Israeli website also revealed that British troops and intelligence agents were operating in the Syrian city of Homs, assisting Syria’s armed rebels in their bloody battle against civilians and the Syrian army.

BBC: Gunmen 'kill seven' at Syrian pro-Assad Ikhbariya TV
Reuters: CIA, Mossad Backed Rebels Attack Syrian Television Station, Kill 7
Tony Cartalucci: NATO Loses Plane Violating Syrian Airspace

The city of Stockton in the US state of California is set to become the largest American city ever to declare bankruptcy as the financial troubles of the US deepen. - A formal bankruptcy filing may come as early as Wednesday following the failure of negotiations between Stockton's officials and creditors. The northern Californian city, which has more than USD 700 million in debt, was ranked as America's most miserable town in 2010. The river port city of 300,000 has suffered a plunge in revenues with the collapse of its housing market. The city has over USD 300 million in outstanding debt, plus USD 450 million in health insurance and pension liabilities for city pensioners. Stockton's financial woes have been blamed on the 2009 US housing market crash. In October 2011, a court rejected the filing of bankruptcy by Harrisburg, a city of nearly 50,000, due to the fact that a state law prohibited municipalities of a certain size from seeking legal protection from creditors.

Reuters: Stockton, California to file for bankruptcy

The Queen and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness performed an astonishing act of [mutual] forgiveness in the name of peace when they shook hands today.

Belfast was the scene for an extraordinary encounter between the British monarch and the former IRA commander - now Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister - which would have been unthinkable as little as ten years ago. Her Majesty somehow even found it within her to smile as she met the man who once headed the terror network responsible for killing Lord Mountbatten - the treasured cousin she knew as 'Uncle Dickie'. He was murdered by the IRA in 1979 along with his young grandson in a bomb blast during a boating trip off Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo. It was an atrocity that sent shockwaves through the Royal Family. Yet today, in a Jubilee year full of surprises, the Queen met Mr McGuinness behind closed doors in a room within the city's Lyric Theatre, and then the pair shook hands again publicly outside in full view of the world's cameras.

The seven-page document, obtained by the Guardian, has been drafted by the “gang of four” — a quartet of European presidents: Herman Van Rompuy of the European Council, Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank, José Manuel Barroso of the European commission, and Jean-Claude Juncker of the 17-country Eurogroup. The incendiary proposals for a banking, fiscal, and economic unions resulting in a “political union” are to be debated at an EU summit on Thursday and Friday. Following two bad-tempered meetings of European leaders in Mexico and Rome over the past week, the Brussels summit looks likely to see major clashes over the future of Europe as well as the immediate crisis surrounding sovereign debt, bad banks, and the euro’s survival. The crisis has shifted from the periphery of the EU to its very heart, with Berlin and Paris seriously at odds for the first time since the Greek drama started 30 months ago. The logic of the draft proposals will also pose major dilemmas for David Cameron, perhaps putting Britain at a crossroads in its relationship with the continent.

The new Paraguayan director of Itaipu, the hydroelectric dam straddling the Brazil-Paraguay border, said the country wants to stop selling to Brazil the energy Paraguay doesn't use from the dam, Jornal da Energia reported Tuesday. Franklin Rafael Boccia Romanach, who was chosen as the Paraguayan director of the dam operated by the two countries.

The U.S. is carefully expanding efforts to provide intelligence, training and at times small numbers of forces to African nations to help counter terrorist activities in the region, the top American military commander for Africa said Monday. Speaking to a conference that included representatives from African nations, Gen. Carter Ham, head of U.S. Africa Command, said coordinated moves by several Africa-based terrorist groups to share their training, funding and bomb-making materials are worrisome and pose a threat to the U.S. and the region. [The US is the threat to the region!]

Image: This is a very brief declassified 1973 CIA memo from the chief of the CIA's Science and Technology Division. It recommends that the CIA Director deny any knowledge of LSD experiments carried out by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb as part of the larger CIA program to develop mind-altering drugs for use in interrogation.

This is a declassified 1973 memo from an official in the CIA Science and Technology Directorate to CIA Director William Colby. It was written in response to increasing questions in Congress and the media regarding the research of Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA chemist who was responsible for the notorious LSD experiments of the 1960s as well as a number of other controversial CIA projects. The memo recommends that Colby deny all knowledge of Gottlieb’s MKULTRA program, a wide-ranging and top secret study of interrogation and “mind control” methodology that was directly responsible for some of the most unethical experiments ever conducted in the field of psychology.

This document is proof of the lengths to which US government officials will go to conceal their involvement in illegal and embarrassing activities. It also sheds light on the nature of the US national security mindset in the middle decades of the Cold War. This memo suggests that five decades of intensive espionage and covert operations on the battlefields of the Cold War had fostered a strain of paranoid elitism that felt scant obligation to account for its activities or submit to any form of oversight. Officials in the US intelligence community and foreign policy apparatus seem to have adopted the position that it was their role to do the dirty work of the nation and only they could judge whether they had gone too far in that pursuit.

A German court has ruled that parents can’t have their sons circumcised on religious grounds in a move which has angered Muslim and Jewish groups in the country. - The court in Cologne decided that a legal guardian’s authority over a child does not allow them to subject them to the procedure, which the court called minor bodily harm, reports The Financial Times Deutschland. Neither does religious freedom, which is protected by law in Germany, give grounds for such decisions to be taken for the children, the ruling says. The court was considering a case against a Muslim doctor, who performed circumcision on a four-year-old boy at his parents’ request. Two days after the procedure bleeding started, after which the boy had to be taken to hospital. German authorities learned about the incident and launched a criminal investigation against the doctor. The initial court trial ruled that there was no violation of the law, but the prosecutor’s office took the case to the Cologne district court. The decision sets a precedent, which may affect medical practice across the country.