With apologies to Don McLean: A new video from LiveLeaks shows an AH64 Apache attack helicopter targeting farmers in the Wardak Province, Afghanistan while they were planting poppy seeds. The pilot cheerfully sings a little tune after firing a Hellfire missile at them. It’s unclear where the new video came from, but it will draw inevitable comparisons to another video leaked in 2010, which showed Apache helicopters massacring civilians in metro Baghdad.

All candidates are neo-imperial candidates - Wall Street proxy Jibril of "National Forces Alliance" presumed winner. - Ideally the West would like to install "liberal" pro-globalist candidates into power in each of the nations it has destabilized and destroyed during its premeditated, engineered "Arab Spring." In the case of Egypt where Mohammed ElBaradei was sufficiently exposed and his presidential aspirations effectively derailed, the West's Muslim Brotherhood proxies made for a viable second option. In Libya, a similar scenario has unfolded with two tiers of Western proxies poised to take power - pro-globalist technocrats like US-educated Mahmoud Jibril (Gibril) Elwarfally's National Forces Alliance, and of course NATO's terrorist proxies within the Muslim Brotherhood along with Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) warlords like Abdul Hakim Belhaj.

Stephen Lendman: Sham Libyan Elections
Jason Ditz: Pro-NATO Bloc Claims Early Lead in Libya Vote Count

Normally, we think of the US as the champion of patenting "anything under the sun that is made by man," while the UK is generally more reticent. So it's rather surprising to find the roles reversed in the following story about a new standard for the GPS navigation system:

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is weeks away from approving a controversial British patent that could force American consumers to pay more for GPS navigation devices and even affect the operations of the American military. The patent is one of dozens filed around the world by the British defense establishment asserting ownership of technology developed jointly by the United States and the European Union (EU). The patents lay claim to a signal structure crafted by American and European experts to make Europe’s still-emerging Galileo satellite navigation system interoperable with GPS and improve service for users of both systems.

This is no ordinary patent spat -- it could have global consequences: according to the article quoted above, US officials are so incensed about this unsporting move that they might drop the interoperability plans altogether. What's ironic here is that the US was assuming that the new standard's technology formed a kind of commons -- available to all, but owned by no one -- and it was the UK that decided to enclose part of that commons using patents, a move which now risks destroying it for everyone.

Police may be arresting marginal terror suspects to clear decks for Olympics says watchdog. - David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terror legislation, said this summer’s Games are a “major target” and police may be intervening in cases earlier than they would normally. His comments follow a series of arrests by counter-terrorism officers in recent weeks. Last month two Muslim converts were arrested on suspicion of plotting an attack against the Olympic canoeing venue. They were later released without charge. And last week 14 people were arrested in two separate counter-terrorism operations against suspected Islamist plots. Whitehall and security sources have previously suggested the threshold for assessing the potential risk of suspects is likely to be lower in the run up to the Olympics.

Daily Mail: 'I am banned from staying in London during the Games - I pose too much of a threat.'

Between Clinton's 'prices to be paid' and Obama's new trade-war, is it any wonder the Chinese have decided to escalate their 'more-than-rhetoric' from bartering away from the USD. After ignoring the sanctions and then receiving their exemption, PressTV reports tonight that China is to invest in developing north and south Iranian oil fields (which will produce 700,000 barrels per day of crude). One of the oil fields, Azadegan, has one of the world’s largest oil deposits, with in-place oil reserves estimated at 42 billion barrels - enough to tide China over a for a while - as Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi adds after 10-15 years of negotiations the decision has finally (and coincidentally very timely) been reached as "the Chinese side has started its activities by investing USD 20 billion in the oil fields".

A new book has identified the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, as the culprit in the assassination of at least four Iranian nuclear scientists as part of a campaign to sabotage Iran's nuclear energy program.

In their book, entitled Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars [Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community], CBS national correspondent Dan Raviv and Israeli journalist Yossi Melman said that Israeli spies have killed at least four Iranian nuclear scientists. The Mossad agents are well-trained in shooting and placing “exquisitely shaped sticky bombs" and consider it their hallmark, the Associated Press quoted Raviv as saying on Friday. The book also says the assassinations were part of a campaign aimed at preventing Iran from developing its nuclear energy program. "They don't farm out a mission that is that sensitive," so sensitive that Israel's prime minister has to sign off on it personally, Raviv said. "They might use dissidents for assistance or logistics but not the hit itself. The methodology and training and use of motorcycles is all out of the Mossad playbook. They wouldn't trust anybody else to do it." Iran had already announced that Iranian scientists Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, Daryoush Rezaeinejad, Professor Majid Shahriari, and Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi were all assassinated by Israeli agents. Ahmadi Roshan and his driver (Reza Qashqaei) were assassinated in January 2012 after a motorcyclist attached a magnetic bomb to their car in Tehran.

Israel’s outposts on the West Bank which have been condemned as illegal by the UN should be authorized, said an Israeli committee. The settlements are a constant source of conflict and have been repeatedly ruled as a violation of international law by the [international community]. The so-called “outpost committee” appointed by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in January said that it recommends the legalization of the outposts on the basis that the territory was not occupied.

The UN has repeatedly decried the building of Jewish settlement in the West Bank as a breach of international law. Moreover, it "undermines the peace process and poses a threat to the two-state solution and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.”

However, the Israeli committee argues that due to the “unique and sui generis historic and legal circumstances of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria” through history, “classical laws of occupation are not applicable.”

Xymphora: Maximum circular squatting - I love the argument: the territories can't be 'occupied' under international law as Israel has illegally held them for decades and has no intention of ever giving them back. Since they are therefore not 'occupied' under international law, Israel has no obligation to give them back! Circularity to justify theft. Even the concentration camp guard finds the consequences alarming.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the West for clinging to its influence in the Arab world under the guise of “humanitarian operations.” He dubbed western involvement in Arab affairs as the export of “rocket and bomb democracy.” - At a meeting with top Russian diplomats Putin said that certain countries will do anything to retain the influence they have become accustomed to in the Arab world. He stressed that western nations often adopt a one-sided policy in Arab affairs that violates international law.

“We must do everything in our power to coerce the opposing forces in the Syrian conflict into coming to a peaceful solution,” underlined the Russian President. [Citing the importance of an active dialogue in Syria, he said] “this is, of course, a more complicated and delicate task than just barreling in with military intervention.”