A second 'Prisoner X' was being held in top-secret conditions in the same jail where an Israeli-Australian spy [Ben Zygier] [allegedly] took his his own life in 2010, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Court documents cited by Haaretz newspaper said the prisoner was being held in another wing of Ayalon prison at the same time as Ben Zygier, an alleged confirmed Mossad spy whose mysterious arrest and subsequent [alleged] suicide shocked Israel and Australia when it hit the headlines in February. The documents show the second prisoner had already been convicted without saying what his crime was.

Top Terrorism Experts Say that Mass Spying Doesn’t Work to Prevent Terrorism. - The fact that mass spying on Americans isn’t necessary to keep us safe is finally going mainstream. The top counter-terrorism czar under Presidents Clinton and Bush – Richard Clarke – says:

The argument that this sweeping search must be kept secret from the terrorists is laughable. Terrorists already assume this sort of thing is being done. Only law-abiding American citizens were blissfully ignorant of what their government was doing.

William Binney – the head of NSA’s digital communications program – says that he set up the NSA’s system so that all of the information would automatically be encrypted, so that the government had to obtain a search warrant based upon probably cause before a particular suspect’s communications could be decrypted. But the NSA now collects all data in an unencrypted form, so that no probable cause is needed to view any citizen’s information. He says that it is actually cheaper and easier to store the data in an encrypted format: so the government’s current system is being done for political – not practical – purposes. Binney’s statements have been confirmed by other high-level NSA whistleblowers.

A deadly shooting at the site of a sit-in by Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo, demanding the reinstatement of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, has left dozens of people dead. The Egyptian health ministry said at least 42 people had been killed and more than 300 injured in the incident early on Monday morning.

Mohamed Mohamed Ibrahim El-Beltagy, a Brotherhood MP, described the incident during dawn prayers after police had stormed the site, as a "massacre". About 500 people were also reportedly injured. A doctor told Al Jazeera that "the majority of injured had gunshot wounds to the head". The Brotherhood said the dead and the injured have been taken to a makeshift hospital in the the Nasr City neighbourhood. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Gehad Haddad, a spokesman for Muslim Brotherhood, said that at around 3.30 in the morning, army and police forces started firing at sit-in protesters in front of the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo. “We have people hit in the head, we have bullets that exploded as they entered the body, cluttering organs and body parts,” said Haddad. “Every police force in the world understands how to disperse a sit-in. This is just a criminal activity targeting protesters.”

Jason Ditz: US Training at the Core of Egypt’s Coup
Jason Ditz: 53 Killed as Soldiers Fire on Praying Morsi Backers
Michel Chossudovsky: Was Washington Behind Egypt’s Coup d’Etat?

In a video that many may find difficult to watch, actor and rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) attempts to undergo a force-feeding procedure that has been used on hunger strike participants at the Guantanamo Bay prison. The demonstration, which Bey abruptly stops due to apparent discomfort, is part of a campaign protesting the force-feedings. Bey, 39, agreed to the procedure as part of the Stand for Justice campaign, timed to coincide with the beginning of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which begins Monday. The footage was released to The Guardian by British human rights group Reprieve.

The Supreme Court handed down a decision on June 17 that has been ignored by most media outlets, despite its devastating effect on one of the most fundamental rights protected by the Constitution. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices ruled that a person no longer has the right to remain silent as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. In relevant part, the Fifth Amendment mandates that no one “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” Thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Salinas v. Texas, that part of the Bill of Rights has been excised — and has joined the list of so many other fundamental liberties that now lie on the scrap heap of history.

Deals brokered between federal agents and foreign corporations have allowed the United States government to easily intercept and interpret a vast swath of communication data sent around the world, new documents reveal.

In a National Security Agency slideshow obtained by The Washington Post and attributed to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, the US government encouraged analysts to tap into an array of underwater, fiber-optic cables that serve as conduits for around 99 percent of the world’s Internet and phone traffic. ■ The report, published by the Post’s Craig Timberg and Ellen Nakashima, explains how NSA slides leaked by Snowden reveal yet another surveillance program undertaken as an alleged counterterrorism measure but at the cost of putting the privacy of millions, if not billions, of people at risk. ■ According to that report, the US government sent a team of attorneys from a number of alphabet soup agencies — including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security — to oversee post-9/11 efforts that would ensure most intelligence sent throughout the world could be collected by American agents. ■ “Among their jobs, documents show, was ensuring that surveillance requests got fulfilled quickly and confidentially,” the journalists wrote. ■ That much, the Post alleges, was accomplished by maintaining “an internal corporate cell of American citizens with government clearances” within the ranks of the foreign companies that control the fiber-optic cables carrying most telecommunications data around the world. One of those entities was Asia’s Global Crossing, and the US moved quickly to infiltrate its roster of employees shortly after 9/11. ■ The Post writes that the “Network Security Agreement” signed between Global Crossing and the US in 2003 was one of the first major contractors giving the US the power to tap into these major telecom pipes, and in the decade since countless others have been authorized. In that instance and others, federal attorneys cooperating under the name “Team Telecom” compelled foreign owners of these cables to comply with American requests for information.

Glenn Greenwald: Edward Snowden predicted more than a month ago while still in hiding in Hong Kong that the US government would seek to demonise him, telling the Guardian that he would be accused of aiding America's enemies. In the second instalment of an interview carried out before he revealed himself as the NSA whistleblower, Snowden insisted that he was a patriot and that he regards the US as a fundamentally good country. But he said he had chosen to release the highly classified information because freedoms were being undermined by intelligence agency "excesses". The interview was conducted on June 6 in a hotel room in Hong Kong. The first part of the interview was released on Sunday June 9, starting a media frenzy and intensifying US efforts to track him down. Snowden has since fled Hong Kong for Moscow, where he is reportedly marooned while resisting US attempts to extradite him to face charges under the Espionage Act. In the newly released interview excerpts, he predicted he would be portrayed not as a whistleblower but a spy.

The Guardian: Edward Snowden: 'The US government will say I aided our enemies' – video interview

The Brazilian government began an investigation Monday into whether telecommunications firms operating in the country cooperated with the U.S. as part of a spying program that has collected data on billions of telephone and email conversations. - Anatel, the government agency that regulates the telecom sector in Brazil, said it's working with federal police and other government agencies on the investigation. The O Globo newspaper reported this weekend that information released by the National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden showed Brazil is the top target in Latin America for the NSA's massive intelligence-gathering effort aimed at monitoring communications around the world. Brazil isn't alone in its concern; London-based advocacy group Privacy International filed lawsuit on Monday over alleged spying of internet and phone users in Britain. Earlier, official in Germany, France, Hong Kong and other nations lodged complaints.

The High Court has refused an application by the United States for an arrest warrant for the former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. In a judgment issued this afternoon, Judge Colm Mac Eochaidh said he was "compelled" to reject the application for a provisional arrest warrant, which was made by the US embassy to the Department of Foreign Affairs last Friday, because it did not state where the alleged offences were committed. The application, under the Extradition Act 1965, was brought to the High Court by the attorney general last Saturday. According to the judgment, the US authorities made contact with their Irish counterparts on an informal basis on July 4th.

ArsTechnica: Ireland denies US arrest warrant for Edward Snowden, citing incomplete request

Michel Chossudovsky: A new wave of camouflage is underway at the Pentagon and the CIA. The bin Laden “death files” contained in the Pentagon’s data bank have become the object of controversy. Navy Vice Admiral William McRaven has been entrusted in removing these secret military files concerning the May 2011 Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s alleged hideout in Abbotabad, Pakistan from the Pentagon’s data banks. The files of the bin Laden SEAL operation had to be removed to sustain the Big Lie. Osama was allegedly killed on the orders of the US government, despite ample evidence that he was already dead at the time of the attack. Several members of the SEAL raid are now dead, allegedly “due to combat and training accidents”. [...] The Pentagon spokesperson denied the fact that the removal of these files was to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

In a peer-reviewed paper by the American Institute of Biological Sciences titled “Social Norms and Global Environmental Challenges” (available ahead of print), to be published in the march 2013 edition of the Institute’s yearly journal BioScience, a group of well-known scientists calls on government and scientists to start with the planned social engineering of “norms” and “values” in regards to environmental policies. In addition, they propose putting into effect all sorts of environmental fines and regulations in the spirit of Agenda 21 to hasten the social acceptance of increased governmental control. Also, they propose that the scientific community as a whole should align itself with government “through a concerted effort to change personal and social norms”.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has confirmed that his country received an official request for asylum from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday. This comes after Nicaragua received his asylum application at its Moscow embassy. - “We received a letter requesting asylum” from Snowden, revealed Maduro, during a press conference prior to a meeting with Panama’s president, Ricardo Martinelli. The fugitive "will need to decide when he will fly here," added the Venezuelan head of state. Maduro last week said that his country would provide Snowden with a safe haven from "persecution from the empire." Snowden, who last month leaked confidential information revealing NSA’s massive electronic surveillance program, known as PRISM, is currently facing charges of theft of government property, and two counts of espionage – one for leaking classified to data to those without a security clearance. The 30-year-old has not been seen in public since late June in Hong Kong, but is widely believed to be in the transit zone at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan killed 10 times as many civilians as manned jet fighters, a study by an adviser to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said. - The reason is a lack of training, the researchers said. The higher death toll contradicts claims by President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials that unmanned aerial vehicles controlled by on-board computers or by remote pilots on the ground or in other vehicles were more precise than their manned counterparts. The study used classified military information to examine airstrikes in Afghanistan from mid-2010 to mid-2011 and the civilian casualties they caused. Combat drone strikes were "an order of magnitude more likely to result in civilian casualties per engagement" than strikes with human pilots on board, an unclassified summary of the study said. An order of magnitude refers to powers of 10, so an order of magnitude more likely means 10 times as likely.

Jessica Desvarieux: So, Shir, what is actually new about this report?
Shir Hever: In many ways this is not new at all. The Israeli forces have been abusing Palestinian children ever since the occupation began, and especially starting from 1987 with the first intifada. Israel has arrested thousands of minors, and as young as seven years old, and have kept them in solitary confinement at times. Some of them were kept in administrative detention, which means that no charges were pressed against them and they were nevertheless kept in prison. And that sort of treatment certainly is not something new, but periodically the international organizations look a little bit more into that. ■ Now, what's starting to be a bit new now is the fact that an Israeli organization, actually, called B'Tselem published a report called No Minor Matter. And this report was published in 2011. It takes the UN a little bit of time to process this data, and they found that based on this information, there is a real concern that the human rights of Palestinian children are regularly violated by the Israeli army and by the Israeli police. And now they published their report two years later, by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

"One intriguing aspect of the London Bombing report is the fact that the MI5 codename for the event is Stepford. The four bombers are referred to as the Stepford four. Why is this the case? The MI5 codename is very revealing in that it suggests the operation was a carefully coordinated and controlled one with four compliant and malleable patsies following direct orders. Now if MI5 has no idea who was behind the operation or whether there were any orders coming from a mastermind, why would they give the event the codename Stepford?"