At least 65 have been killed in overnight airstrikes carried out by US forces in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Paktia, Press TV reports. ■ The casualties came after a series of airstrikes happened in an area of Paktia Province on Sunday night. The US military has confirmed separate air raids in three villages, saying those killed were militants. While Washington claims that its airstrikes target militants, local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks. The Taliban have not yet commented on the deadly incident. ■ Just two days ago, at least 60 people were killed and several others severely injured in similar airstrikes. American forces have increased their air attacks in Afghanistan in recent weeks. ■ The raids are a source of friction between Kabul and Washington as they often result in civilian deaths. The Afghan government has on numerous occasions warned Washington to stop attacks on innocent civilians. ■ Many civilians have lost their lives in US-led strikes and operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past decade, with Afghans becoming increasingly outraged at the seemingly endless number of the deadly assaults.

Amitai Etzioni : Who Authorized Preparations for War with China? - The Pentagon has concluded that the time has come to prepare for war with China, and in a manner well beyond crafting the sort of contingency plans that are expected for wide a range of possible confrontations. It is a momentous conclusion that will shape the United States’ defense systems, force posture, and overall strategy for dealing with the economically and militarily resurgent China. Thus far, however, the military’s assessment of and preparations for the threat posed by China have not received the high level of review from elected civilian officials that such developments require. The start of a second Obama administration provides an opportunity for civilian authorities to live up to their obligations in this matter and to conduct a proper review of the United States’ China strategy and the military’s role in it.

Paul Craig Roberts: The Two Faux Democracies Threaten Life On Earth - For the past 68 years, most military aggression can be sourced to the US and Israel. Yet, these two originators of wars pretend to be the victims of aggression. Amitai Etzioni has raised an important question: “Who authorized preparations for war with China?” Etzioni says that the war plan is not the sort of contingency plan that might be on hand for an improbable event. Etzioni also reports that the Pentagon’s war plan was not ordered by, and has not been reviewed by, US civilian authorities. We are confronted with a neoconized US military out of control endangering Americans and the rest of the world.

● John Ashcroft, the former Attorney General who prosecuted the war on terror under the administration of George W. Bush, appeared at Aspen as a board member of Academi. Responding to a question about U.S. over-reliance on the “kinetic” approach of drone strikes and special forces, Ashcroft reminded the audience that the U.S. also likes to torture terror suspects, not just “exterminate” them.
● “It's not true that we have relied solely on the kinetic option,” Ashcroft insisted. “We wouldn't have so many detainees if we'd relied on the ability to exterminate people…We've had a blended and nuanced approach and for the guy who's on the other end of a Hellfire missile he doesn't see that as a nuance.”
● Hearty laughs erupted from the crowd and fellow panelists. With a broad smile on her face, moderator Catherine Herridge of Fox News joked to Ashcroft, “You have a way with words.”
● But Ashcroft was not done. He proceeded to boast about the pain inflicted on detainees during long CIA torture sessions: “And maybe there are people who wish they were on the end of one of those missiles.”
● Competing with Ashcroft for the High Authoritarian prize was former NSA chief Michael Hayden, who emphasized the importance of Obama’s drone assassinations, at least in countries the U.S. has deemed to be Al Qaeda havens. “Here's the strategic question,” Hayden said. “People in Pakistan? I think that's very clear. Kill 'em. People in Yemen? The same. Kill 'em.”

■ Despite consumer confidence at a six-year high, the latest AP survey of the real America shows a stunning four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, are near poverty, or rely on welfare for at least parts of their lives amid signs of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among whites about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987.
■ "Poverty is no longer an issue of 'them', it's an issue of 'us'," as 'the invisible poor' - lower income whites - are generally dispersed in suburbs (Appalachia, the industrial Midwest, and across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains) where more than 60% of the poor are white.
■ More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four - accounting for more than 41% of the nation's destitute - nearly double the number of poor blacks and as one survey respondent noted "I think it's going to get worse."

Andre Damon: Four in five Americans economically insecure - The figures are based on statistics compiled by Washington University professor Mark Rank, to be published next year by Oxford University Press. The report notes that, based on the current growth rate of poverty, 85 percent of all working-age adults will experience economic insecurity at some point in their lives by 2030. The survey defines the “economically insecure” as those who have had an income below 150 percent of the poverty line, were unemployed, or relied on antipoverty programs such as food stamps for up to a year or more. By that definition, 79 percent of the US population qualifies as “economically insecure,” including 90 percent of nonwhites. The report notes, however, a significant rise in poverty among the white population, with 76 percent classified as economically insecure.

New Zealand’s defense minister said Monday that an investigation is underway into a report that U.S. intelligence agencies helped his nation’s military track the mobile telephone calls of a freelance journalist while he worked for McClatchy Newspapers in Afghanistan. - New Zealand Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman said he’d seen “no evidence to support these claims at this point. However, the Defense Force is carrying out extensive record checks to see if there is any evidence that his occurred.” Coleman issued the statement in response to a report published in the Sunday Star Times of Auckland that said that the New Zealand military asked “U.S. spy agencies” to help them collect the “metadata” of cellular calls made by Jon Stephenson, a New Zealand freelance journalist who was based in Afghanistan. The data collection occurred in the latter half of last year while Stephenson was under contract in Kabul for McClatchy and was aimed at identifying Stephenson’s contacts, the report said, citing unidentified sources.

Google has prevented Press TV from accessing its Youtube page since Thursday, causing a large number of viewers and subscribers to contact the channel to find out what has happened. - "We have not been able to upload any new videos since early Thursday," said Press TV newsroom director, Hamid Reza Emadi, adding that Google has disabled the channel's account without giving any explanation. "Viewers keep emailing Press TV asking why the page is not being updated," he said. Emadi said Press TV "has yet to find out whether its Youtube account was blocked on political grounds or there were technical issues that could be resolved and the channel could get back on Youtube very soon."

Jason Ditz: House Set to Approve Yet More Iran Sanctions

Almost two years after Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed, his son is to stand trial for alleged crimes against humanity. Saif al-Islam is set for a hearing in Libya; his lawyer says he faces an “entirely unfair” show trial. - If the proceedings continue in Libya, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will most likely be executed. Once seen as the most likely successor to his father, he has been indicted by the ICC on war crimes charges relating to the 2011 uprising. He faces charges of harming state security and insulting Libya's new flag. On top of this, Saif al-Islam is wanted by the ICC for the murder and persecution of protestors during the 2011 uprising. He was captured by local militia in the town of Ubari in November 2011, allegedly trying to flee the country.

“He’s facing a show trial, clearly, an entirely unfair trial; trial in which he’s not able to get any defense witnesses to testify on his behalf because they’ll be too terrified to testify. And at the end of that he’s going to be executed,” his lawyer John Jones told RT, adding that Gaddafi has been held in “appalling conditions, regarding his mental state.”

NSA spying programs give access to US citizens’ private data to low-level analysts with little court approval or supervision, says Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story on Washington’s PRISM surveillance system. “[PRISM] is an incredibly powerful and invasive tool,” Greenwald told ABC’s ‘This Week.’ The NSA programs are “exactly the type that Mr. Snowden described. NSA officials are going to be testifying before the Senate on Wednesday, and I defy them to deny that these programs work exactly as I’ve said.” The NSA keeps trillions of telephone calls and emails in their databases which they can access anytime with simple screen programs, he said.

Thomas Gaist: Father of Edward Snowden issues open letter to Obama denouncing “Orwellian surveillance programs” - [All] an analyst has to do is enter an email address or an IP address, and it does two things. It searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you’ve entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future. Tt’s all done with no need to go to a court, with no need to even get supervisor approval on the part of the analyst.”

Two Christians, one of them a priest, have been beheaded by militants because they were suspected of cooperating with the Syrian military. ■ A video uploaded to the internet yesterday shows two men with their hands bound, surrounded by dozens of people, many of them armed and cheering in celebration. The two are brutally executed – beheaded with a small combat knife. Echoing previous beheading recorded by insurgents, the head is held up to the cheers of onlookers and then placed on the body. This month has seen an escalation in sectarian atrocities committed by insurgents, who have been publicly armed and supported by America, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and other actors. Indeed, the atrocities are coinciding with further arms transfers – with new advanced weaponry witnessed in the hands of militants in the past number of weeks.■ The most recent beheading recorded on video and uploaded to the internet, reportedly took place in Idlib countryside. Recently, a Catholic priest was executed by foreign militants. The monastery in which he resided was burnt and looted, echoing the events of a massacre in Homs last month which resulted in the entire population of a Christian village being wiped out and their houses and possessions burnt. Two Christian bishops who were kidnapped by Chechen gunmen in Aleppo earlier this year, are still missing. As well as Christians, Shia villages are receiving the brunt of a boldly-confident insurgency. This newly-found confidence has resulted in having just recently received confirmation of America’s intent to supply them with more weapons. Last week, militants massacred dozens of villagers in the province’s town of Hatla. Since then, summary executions and sectarian house-to-house raids have taken place. ■ The following video is extremely graphic and viewer discretion is advised. Many thanks to Arabi Souri, a Syrian activist for the translated version of the video.

Explosive Paul Craig Roberts Interview by Stephen Lendman. + Paul Craig Roberts: Coup d’Etat, The Osama bin Laden Myth, Osama bin Laden’s Second Death, Creating the bin Laden Reality

Bradley Manning is a patriot responsible for 'the most influential leak in history,' WikiLeaks' Assange argues. Ellsberg warns the trial has grave consequences for democracy and journalism. ■ The outcome of the Pfc. Bradley Manning trial has broad and grave consequences for America as a democracy, warns Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the classified Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers some 40 years ago, exposing widespread governmental misconduct. Mr. Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who released some 700,000 classified documents online, is charged with violating the Espionage Act and aiding the enemy and could face life in prison. ■ In a conference call with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Friday afternoon, Mr. Ellsberg pointed out that President Obama has charged twice as many people under the Espionage Act as all previous presidents. Yet Manning, rather than someone interested in aiding America’s enemies, is a patriot responsible for “without a doubt the most influential leak in history,” Mr. Assange argues.

Russia Today: Protesters in 40 cities take part in Bradley Manning ‘International Day of Action’
Jason Ditz: Closing Arguments: Judge Begins Final Deliberation on Manning

At least six people have been killed in an attack by a US assassination drone in northwestern Pakistan. - The casualties come after two missiles hit a convoy of people in the Shawal area of North Waziristan Sunday evening. Local security officials say several people were also severely injured in the fatal attack, which sent shock waves across the troubled region. The latest attack come as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has recently blasted US assassination drone strikes in his country, describing them as a violation of international law and the UN charter. Islamabad has repeatedly condemned the attacks, saying they violate Pakistan's sovereignty.

PressTV: 6 die in US killer drone strike in Yemen

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued certificates for two types of unmanned aircraft for civilian use. The move is expected to lead to the first approved commercial drone operation later this summer. ● The two unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are the Scan Eagle X200 and Aero Vironment’s PUMA. They both measure around 4 ½ feet long, weighing less than 55 pounds, and have a wing span of ten and nine feet respectively. ● Both the Scan Eagle and the PUMA received “restricted category type certificates”which permit aerial surveillance. Prior to the FAA’s decision, the only way the private sector could operate UAS in US airspace was by obtaining an experimental airworthiness certificate which specifically restricts commercial operations. ● The PUMA is expected to support emergency response crews for wildlife surveillance and oil spill monitoring over the Beaufort Sea to the north of Canada and Alaska. The Scan Eagle will be used by a major energy company off the Alaskan Coast to survey ice floes and migrating whales in Arctic oil exploration areas. ● The issuing of the certificates is seen as an important step to integrating UAS into US airspace. Both drone operations will meet the requirements of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which includes a mandate to increase Arctic UAS commercial operations. ● Most non-military use of drones in the US has so far been limited to the police and other government agencies. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in March that drones will soon be used by the NYPD and will become as ubiquitous as security cameras.

Russia Today: FBI admits to flying drones over US without warrants

At least 120 people have been killed and several thousand others wounded today as Egyptian police attacked another sit-in protest in northeast Cairo. The protesters, who were near a mosque, were opposing this month’s military coup and calling for a return of the civilian government. The junta Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim confirmed the shootings but dramatically under-reported the death toll, claiming only 21 had been killed, local health officials confirmed the number was much, much higher. Exact figures are difficult to come by on casualties with the junta overtly lying, but the death toll reports consistently hover around 120 and the wounded has been estimated at 4,500 by the Muslim Brotherhood, which organized the rallies.