■ A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.
■ The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.
■ The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10. "I, sitting at my desk [could] wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email".
■ US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do." But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

Open Letter from Members of the European Parliament to President Barack Obama and US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ■ As Members of the European Parliament, who were elected to represent our constituents throughout Europe, we are writing to express our concerns about the ongoing persecution of Bradley Manning, the young U.S. soldier who released classified information revealing evidence of human rights abuses and apparent war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. ■ The U.S. Army has charged Private First Class Manning with 21 different crimes, including ‘Aiding the Enemy’; a capital charge. To convict a person who leaked information to the media of “Aiding the Enemy” would set a terrible precedent. Although we understand the US government is not seeking the death penalty for Bradley Manning, there would be nothing to stop this from happening in future cases. As it is, PFC Manning faces the possibility of life in prison without parole, recently rejected as “inhuman and degrading treatment” by the European Court of Human Rights.

Russia Today: 130+ yrs behind bars? Manning sentencing starts
Reuters: WikiLeaks' Assange condemns Manning verdict, Obama
Scott Horton's: Daniel Ellsberg on the Manning Verdict
Stephen Lendman: Bradley Manning: Guilty of Doing the Right Thing
Barry Grey: The conviction of Bradley Manning: A travesty of justice
Salon.com: Manning verdict: What you need to know
The Guardian: Bradley Manning trial: what we know from the leaked WikiLeaks documents
XRepublic: Glenn Greenwald Schools Government Prestitutes AGAIN! - Video
Russia Today: Manning not guilty of aiding enemy, faces 100+ yrs in jail on other charges - Video

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden would be better off staying in Russia, because he won’t get a fair trial in the US, believes his father Lon Snowden. He may soon travel to Moscow to meet his son. ● Lon Snowden backs Edward’s decision to seek political asylum in Russia, he told Rossiya 24 news channel on Wednesday. The live interview taken in the US was most likely viewed by the NSA whistleblower from his temporary refuge at a Moscow airport transit zone, as he was warned beforehand by his legal representative in Russia Anatoly Kucherena. If Edward returned to the US for prosecution, he would not be granted the constitutional right of due process, the elder Snowden fears. “The fact is no assurances have been made that he will be given a fair trial, that he deserves, or any citizen of this nation is given by our Constitution,” he said. Edward Snowden’s case has taken on all the characteristics of a witch hunt, argues Lon Snowden’s attorney, Bruce Fein, who was interviewed by the channel along with his client. A number of Obama administration officials and lawmakers openly branded the former NSA contractor a traitor although he has yet to be tried on espionage charges.

Voice of Russia: Snowden’s dad plans Russia trip to meet with son

Nos garçons (braves soldats de l’armée arabe syrienne) ont eu le cannibale! - Ainsi va la vie d’un chien. Ils finissent tous de la même manière ces "résistants" de Fabius. Abou Sakkar a enfin été tué. C’est l’Elysée qui pleure. Souvenez-vous, ce clown avait éviscéré un soldat syrien, avant de manger son coeur et ses poumons devant les caméras de ses complices et le monde entier via Youtube. Il accusait ce soldat d’avoir violé une femme et qu’il avait horreur de ça. Pire, il avait donné une interview en direct sur la BBC, après son acte "héroïque". Un vrai honneur perdu de la chaîne britannique…La Syrie est entrain d’être nettoyée et, le monde entier doit remercier le président Bachar al-Assad et la vaillante armée arabe syrienne. L’armée arabe syrienne avait juré de venger son soldat. C’est fait.

As Syria’s Assad Advances, Zionist Supremacists Seek to Prolong War and Bloodshed ● The capture of most of the “rebel” stronghold city of Homs yesterday by Syrian government forces has brought president Bashar al-Assad one step closer to victory in the conflict—but the Zionist Supremacists who run the US government have already started supplying his enemies with weapons in a deliberate attempt to prolong the bloodshed and kill even more people. Even though the “rebels” are now largely driven by mysterious extremists drawn from all over the world, the Zionist-controlled US government has started shipping arms to them, a report in the Guardian newspaper has revealed. (DavidDuke.com)

PressTV: West's war crimes in Syria exposed
Christof Lehmann: Khan al-Assal Massacre to Cover-up Chemical Weapons Use by Jabhat al-Nusrah

The Bank of England refuses to explain what appears to be a huge discrepancy in its accounting of the gold it holds in custody, a difference of as much as 1,200 tonnes between the total reported in the bank's annual report in February and the total reported in a "virtual tour" of the bank posted this month at the bank's Internet site. The discrepancy was noted by GoldMoney research director Alasdair Macleod last week during an interview with Max Keiser on the "Keiser Report" program on the Russia Today television network.

■ Scientists from the MARUM Institute at the University of Bremen, the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, and the ETH Zurich have published a study that find earthquakes are releasing massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere to significantly alter the temperature of the planet and change the dynamics of eco-systems across the globe.
■ David Fischer, professor at MARUM, stated: “We started going through the literature and found that a major earthquake had occurred close by, in 1945.
■ Based on several indicators, we postulated that the earthquake led to a fracturing of the sediments, releasing the gas that had been trapped below the hydrates into the ocean.” Earthquakes cause measurable tears in the ocean floor, allowing methane to seep out. By analyzing an 8.1 magnitude earthquake from 1945, researchers concluded that the Nascent Ridge, a shallow reservoir of methane, was opened after the quake.
■ Based on several indicators, we postulated that the earthquake led to a fracturing of the sediments, releasing the gas that had been trapped below the hydrates into the ocean.” Earthquakes cause measurable tears in the ocean floor, allowing methane to seep out. Fischer explained: “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculates the planet’s carbon budget by estimating all possible natural sources of carbon to the atmosphere, and we now provide a new mechanism of carbon export that had not been considered before.”

Patrick Slattery: [The] Jewish lock on what is probably the most powerful economic post in the world is not to be questioned. ● Walking past a newsstand the other day, I noticed the an article on the front page of the New York Times entitled “In Tug of War Over New Fed Leader, Some Gender Undertones.” Below the headline were photos of current Fed Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen and former Treasury Secretary Laurence Summers. It struck me as interesting that the New York Times would ignore the fact that the two candidates for Fed Chairman are both Jews and instead frame this story around gender. Just as Elena Kagan was criticized for extending “white privilege” to the mainly Jewish professors she hired while Dean of Harvard Law School, the next Fed Chairman is likely to be described as having received “patriarchal privilege” or having benefited from a “gender driven” process. Either way, the issue of the Jewish lock on job is camouflaged. Of course, this is exactly what one would expect from the Jewish-owned New York Times and its Jewish [owners].

Dan Hind ● Prism is worrying because of its degree of interference in civil society. As Chris Bertram points out, the state and its partners could all too easily use the records of internet use to embarrass troublesome individuals. The state could thereby raise the costs of dissent, and widen its definition, until the "ordinary, decent, hard-working, law-abiding" citizens so beloved of politicians will know to keep their mouth shut about the linked phenomena of steepening inequality, intensifying conflict, environmental crisis and grand corruption. It is this "potential disabling of insubordination" rather than "concerns about "privacy" in and of itself" that should worry us, argues Bertram. ● The News of the World was able to run rampant through British civil society using only very primitive technology. Imagine what the corporate media might do in partnership with an all-knowing state. We already know that the UK military worries about the middle class becoming a revolutionary threat to the established order. At what point does political activism become subversion? At the moment the national security state is more or less free to decide for itself. The "law-abiding" majority that Hague insists have nothing to fear always have something to fear.

It’s no secret that the U.S. government has been domestically stockpiling unimaginable amounts of ammunition and weapons. So much ammunition, in fact, that it surpasses even what the military uses on a yearly basis in the mid east theaters of war. ● All of these arms and ammunition are being transported within the borders of the United States by third-party truck drivers contracted by the Department of Homeland Security, and some of these drivers are reportedly foreign born originating from countries like Russia and Poland. ● In a recent radio interview on World News with Dave Vose, a caller relays a shocking story from a FEMA insider that is apparently well known within the FEMA/DHS transportation community, and it has some U.S. drivers spooked. ● According to the report, truckers have been hauling large volumes of weapons-related supplies, some of which have been carried by Russian and Polish drivers, to destinations like military bases and DHS supply depots all over the country. But about 30% of the loads operated by Russian and Polish drivers have vanished en route to their destinations, and the drivers are never heard from again. ● It’s a story that has appeared nowhere in the mainstream media, and will likely never be validated by the Department of Homeland Security. ● But given reports of foreign troops on the ground in the United States, treaties signed by President Obama authorizing the deployment of Russian security experts on American soil, and recent revelations that the U.S. Army is stockpiling foreign made ammunition and supplies, one can’t help but consider there may be a connection.