A series of US airstrikes have claimed the lives of more than 80 people and severely injured several others in different regions of war-ravaged Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, local security sources say. - According to Afghan security officials, one of the airstrikes took place on Tuesday in the central-eastern Logar Province where ten people were killed. The other rocked the northeastern province of Kunar, killing six people, all Pakistani nationals. Local and US military officials have confirmed both attacks, saying all victims were Taliban militants. Also on Monday, at least 65 people lost their lives in a series of US airstrikes in Paktia Province. US military confirmed separate air raids in three villages, saying those killed were militants. The Taliban militants have not yet commented on the attacks. [...] The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity remains high in the country.

Six activists from the anti-surveillance group Restore the Fourth paid an unexpected visit to the office of a New York Congressman in protest of the vote which allowed the National Security Agency to continue collecting Americans' phone records without a warrant. - The action is intended to call out Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and the more than 200 other members of Congress that voted down an amendment last week aimed at curtailing the NSA's collection of domestic calling records. The group said they wouldn't leave until Meeks apologizes for his "no" vote and commits to fighting against surveillance programs which collect data on Americans without a warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing.

Brokered by US Secretary of State, Israeli and Palestinian officials hold “productive” talks over “peace” on Monday. - War criminal Tzipi Livni and traitor Saib Erakat sat down side-by-side opposite US Crook John Kerry to share a meal just after sunset. "It was a constructive and productive meeting between the parties. They engaged in good faith [sic] and with seriousness of purpose [sic]," a senior State Department official said in a statement, after the dinner lasting about 90 minutes. "We are looking forward to continuing the talks tomorrow morning." In Thomas Jefferson room at the State Department, Kerry had welcomed the two teams to the flower-bedecked table for a dinner of grilled Atlantic grouper and apricot upside down cake, hailing the moment as "very, very special."

Stuart Littlewood: Letter to John Kerry – dishonest “peace” broker - Remember what Miko Peled, the Israeli general’s son, said: “The name of the game [is] erasing Palestine, getting rid of the people and de-Arabizing the country…” - Nice game, huh?

Jean Shaoul: Israeli-Palestinian talks a cover for US aggression in Middle East
Stephen Lendman: The Illusion of Israeli/Palestinian Peace for Our Time

A Russian immigration official has hinted that US spy agency whistleblower Edward Snowden may be assassinated if decides to travel freely once admitted to the country as a political refugee. - "I don't think it is good for Snowden to travel freely in Russia, as he is a wanted man,” said Vladimir Volokh, press secretary of Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS), quoted in a Monday report by Moscow-based RT. Volokh is further cited in the report as cautioning Snowden against leaving the Moscow airport at all, calling it a “bad idea,” and emphasizing that Russia cannot guarantee the personal security of the leaker of NSA’s global electronic spying programs beyond the airport’s gates. The stark warnings come nearly a week after Snowden, who is actively sought by the US government as a fugitive leaker of national secrets, submitted an asylum application to Russia as Washington has annulled his passport and has reportedly put out a global warrant for his arrest.

James Comey, the former Deputy US Attorney General under President [sic] George W. Bush, has sailed through a confirmation vote in the US Senate to become the next head of the FBI. Comey, 52, will replace Robert Mueller, who has been the head of the bureau since just before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Though a Republican, Comey was able to garner bipartisan support during his brief period as acting attorney general, for refusing to sanction a Bush-era government surveillance initiative in 2004, which may partly account for Monday’s 93-1 Senate vote.

A military judge is to issue a verdict in the case of US army whistleblower Bradley Manning at 17:00 GMT on Tuesday. Manning faces life in prison with no chance of parole if convicted of aiding the enemy after he leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks.

Jason Ditz: Bradley Manning Verdict Expected Tuesday at 1 PM - Manning is facing 21 charges related to leaking information about war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and could face life in prison for the single charge of “aiding the enemy.” Judge Lind has been overwhelmingly compliant with the prosecution, even allowing them to change the charges late last week, after all the testimony had already been given, to better fit the case that had been made. She has also spurned defense complaints about inappropriate actions by the prosecution and allegations of bias. That’s bad news for Manning, who has admitted to the lesser charges of releasing the information but insists it was because of a belief that the American public ought to know.

Common Dreams: Manning 'Guilty' on Most Counts, Faces 100 Years in Prison - Video

Russian Foreign Ministry has demanded an end to the bloodshed unleashed in Syria by what it [correctly] describes as 'international terrorists' backed by the US and its regional Arab allies and Turkey. - Pointing to “atrocious killing” of nearly 150 people in an attack over the weekend on the northern town of Khan Assal by radical militants from Jabhat al-Nusra and Ansar al-Khilafah groups, Moscow urged “all responsible sides” to end the carnage, RIA Novosti reported late Tuesday citing a Foreign ministry statement posted on its website on Monday. “The barbarous nature of the crime has come as a shock to all Syrians: It has been condemned not only by the country’s authorities but also by leading opposition groups,” said the statement in part. The two al-Qaeda-linked, foreign-backed militant groups have claimed responsibility for taking control over the town, near the city of Aleppo, earlier in July in a joint attack that has reportedly killed 100 soldiers, the report says.

AWIP: Militants execute 51 civilians in Syria
ProPublica: Syria’s Jihadi Migration Emerges as Top Terror Threat in Europe, Beyond
Al-Manar TV: Syrian Army Regains Full Control of Khaldiyeh in Homs

Ken O'Keefe, a former US Marine, told Press TV on Saturday that Russia would not remain indifferent to a potential military attack against Syria.

The totalitarian tip-toe is tap dancing to tyranny with the proposed Internet censorship bill in the United Kingdom. In the name of keeping children safe from porn, the UK law will impose Internet filters on far more than just porn. Anything outside the acceptable mainstream narrative will be filtered. In short, the free flow of information is under assault with this law.

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced a consultation paper on proposals for a new testing regime for five- and eleven-year-olds in England. ● The new consultation detailed by the Liberal Democrat leader follows the announcement this June of the new curriculum to be implemented from September 2014. The tests are designed to ensure that the rote learning, memorisation of spelling lists and times tables by heart and emphasis on “facts and rules” approach to teaching is enshrined from the moment a child starts primary school. ● Early years and preschool teachers are told that their sole role is to make young children “school ready”, while primary teachers have the task of ensuring that 11-year-olds are “secondary school ready”. ● Behind these empty, meaningless and deeply uninspiring phrases lay plans to rip the heart out of childhood teaching. All positive and progressive approaches to teaching based on producing well-rounded children who are able to respond critically to the world around them, develop problem-solving skills, independence and emotional well-being—already severely undermined over the past two decades—are to be ruled out.

John Pilger: How we are impoverished, gentrified and silenced - and what to do about it

John Robles: ■ [Are] we supposed to forget the last several decades of world history? Are we supposed to forget Manning who has been tortured, are we to forget Abu-Ghraib, Guantanamo and even ex Vice President Richard Cheney signing off on such torture techniques as “puncturing an eye” and “slicing a testicle”? Are we to forget case after case after case and report after report of other instances of torture, extra-judicial executions and even innocent men and women being executed when there was evidence that exonerated them? ■ Please don’t insult the intelligence of the world and the Russian Government by engaging in such ridiculous letter writing Mr. Holder. We all know that once Mr. Snowden is in your hands, and I pray for him that never happens, he will be interrogated using your “enhanced interrogation techniques” until he goes insane or kills himself and if he does survive he will be locked in solitary confinement under special observation until the day he dies, that is of course if he is not executed, as nothing will stop you from executing him once he is in your hands. ■ The United States has become a rogue illegal nation and the continued persecution of Mr. Edward Snowden, a young man who exposed that rogue nation’s illegality against the world and its own citizens and more importantly Mr. Holder, against the very Constitution you are sworn to uphold, prove beyond all doubt that Mr. Snowden is in very grave and imminent danger. [H/T: xymphora]

United States of Hypocrisy ■ I expected Obama to be a terrible president, but I thought he’d be less outrageous on civil liberties than he is, and I thought his administration might turn down the hypocrisy a notch. Not only has the US charged Edward Snowden, like Bradley Manning, with offences not resembling what they actually did, in both cases to cover up embarrassing and illegal activities by government personnel high to low. But in the case of Robert Seldon Lady we have an American convicted in an Italian court of kidnapping. Unlike the situation with Russia, we have an extradition treaty with Italy, and we generally take their legal system to be legitimate. Yet when Italy demands the extradition of Lady, and he is temporarily detained by Panama, the US government exerts tremendous pressure to get him released before he can face the legal version of the extraordinary renditions he was involved in. So Lady has been convicted of an actual and obvious crime by a legitimate court in a country we have an extradition treaty with, but we refuse to extradite him. In the very same week we demand that Russia hand over Snowden who hasn’t been convicted, hasn’t obviously damaged anything but reputations, and we don’t have an extradition treaty with Russia. Everyone else in the world sees this and understands the meaning. Only Americans who watch American television miss it. [H/T: xymphora]

AG Holder promises Russia not to torture Snowden - A Shameful Day to Be a US Citizen ■ So it has come to this: That the United States has to promise (to Russia!) that it will not torture a prisoner in its control -- a US citizen at that -- and so therefore that person, Edward Snowden, has no basis for claiming that he should be “treated as a refugee or granted asylum.” Why does Holder have to make these pathetic representations to his counterpart in Russia? Because Snowden has applied for asylum saying that he is at risk of torture or execution if returned to the US to face charges for leaking documents showing that the US government is massively violating the civil liberties and privacy of every American by monitoring every American’s electronic communications. [...] This country’s “justice” system has become so perverted and politically tainted that the rest of the world, including Russia, knows that Snowden is telling the truth when he says he cannot hope to receive a fair trial here. Indeed, Congress has passed laws, and the President has signed laws, giving this government the power to lock someone like Snowden up indefinitely without trial, to torture him, and even to kill him, not through a jury decision on capital punishment, but simply on the basis of a secret “finding” by the President that he has aided or abetted terrorism.

Snowden Case Reveals Obama's Personal Arrogance ■ What does it say about a country when it has to assure another country that it will not torture a fugitive should he be returned? [Who] will believe anything Holder promises? Wasn't it the U.S. which redefined torture into "enhanced interrogation"? Is that the plan for Snowden? Wasn't it the Obama administration and Holden who refused to prosecute anyone but the victims over torture? Isn't the Obama administration accused by the UN special rapporteur on torture of cruel, inhuman and degrading treating of a prisoner in a case similar to Snowden's? By writing that Holden letter the U.S. has publicly humiliated itself. It is a total embarrassment. Putin has made it clear from the very beginning that any extradition of Snowden is not going to happen. Fullstop. [...] It seems that this an Obama personality issue. He personally asked Putin to extradite Snowden even after Putin had publicly (thereby leaving zero chance to later change that decision) said he would not. Now Obama is miffed. How can HE get rebuked by country like Russia?