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.

14 police officers with helmets and facemasks and assault rifles stormed in, family says.

■ Pittsburgh SWAT officers must face claims that they raided a family's home, violently dragged a child from the bathtub, and "terrorized" them at gunpoint, a federal judge ruled. Georgeia Moreno and her family sued Pittsburgh, its police chief and 14 police officers in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
■ The events unfolded as Georgeia, her husband, William; and her stepfather, Mark Staymates were watching television in their living room as Georgia's sick mother, Darlene, slept upstairs at 7 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2010. They suddenly heard a loud explosion and saw bright lights, "as if grenades were going off," the complaint states. Pittsburgh Police SWAT officers wearing helmets and facemasks then broke and "stormed through" the front and back doors of the home, according to the complaint. Those officers allegedly never identified themselves, pointed assault rifles at the family, shouted obscenities and destroyed their property.
■ Although the team purportedly sought to arrest William for quarreling with a drunk, off-duty police officer at a local veterans club early that morning, the family says that their "terrorization" continued for another 45 minutes after William was apprehended. The officers threw to the floor, kicked and handcuffed Georgeia, her stepfather and her adult son Billy. They also injured Mark's shoulder and forced Billy to lie face down in broken glass, according to the complaint. When Georgeia pleaded repeatedly that she had young children in the house, at least one officer allegedly stated, "You think you can get one of ours, and we won't get one of yours?"
■ The family says the police proceeded to drag Georgeia's 10-year-old son Trentino violently from the bathtub, injuring his ankles. They allegedly then made the boy stand naked at gunpoint next to his 4-year-old sister Briseis.

The FBI doesn't suspect any crime but monitors the site anyway—and this fits a pattern of targeting journalists who probe state secrets. ■ Irreverent and unyielding in its opposition to U.S. foreign policy, Antiwar.com has been called many things. But that Washington might consider the 17-year-old news and opinion website a threat to national security should be cause for alarm—especially today. ■ The Obama administration has come under scrutiny this summer following revelations that it’s been snooping on journalists in connection with the unprecedented number of federal leak prosecutions in recent years. Meanwhile, thanks to revelations by Edward Snowden, the American public now knows the government has more access than ever to our Internet browsing habits, e-mails, Facebook accounts, and phone and Skype records. ■ The all-seeing eye may be putting the chill not only on privacy and free speech but also on investigative national-security journalism and the public’s right to know. And this is not limited to the high-profile cases affecting big mainstream players like Fox News, the Associated Press or the New York Times, which have received most of the attention.

Foreign-sponsored militants in Syria have executed 51 civilians in Khan al-Assal, a strategic town close to the northern city of Aleppo. - Reports said on Friday that the civilians were killed on Monday after the town fell to the militants. The victims were all shot in the head. A number of military personnel were also summarily executed in addition to the civilians, according to the reports. Most of the town is currently under the control of the militants. Khan al-Assal was the location of a chemical attack earlier this year that left 30 people dead.

SANA: Ansar al-Khilafa brigade gang commits atrocious massacre in Khan al-Assal
Jason Ditz: "Rebels" Execute Over 50 Syrian Troops, 150 Killed Overall
PressTV: S Arabia signs deal with Israeli army to buy weapons for militants fighting Syria govt.
SANA: Archbishop Hanna: Those who bear arms against Syria serve Israel

Stephen Lendman: Israel: Talking Peace, Waging War ■ No peace/peace talks convene next week in Washington. They're fake. They're subterfuge. They're meaningless. They never worked before. They're rigged to fail now. Israeli and US orchestrators assure it. So do longtime Palestinian collaborators. They're Israeli enforcers. They're assigned that role. They're well compensated for doing so. Palestine's legitimate government won't participate. Previous articles asked how can legitimate peace talks proceed with one side excluded. Only in America. Only in Israel. Only under a scenario preordained to fail. ■ At the same time, militarized occupation continues. Palestinians face ongoing state terror. Multiple community incursions occur daily. Gaza remains besieged. Most West Banks areas are off-limits to non-Jews. Palestinians are excluded from their own land. They have no rights. They never did. They don't now. They'll get none in current talks. They're a charade. They run cover for daily persecution. They distract. They change the subject. They hide what demands headlines.

PressTV: US not a neutral party in Mideast talks: Noam Chomsky - Preliminary talks are scheduled to begin in Washington on July 30. “It’s hard to be optimistic, but Europe could play a role,” said Chomsky. “By and large, Europe has not developed an independent Middle East policy.” Europe “consistently follows the US stand,” which punishes Palestinians whose land is settled by Israelis, and “there’s no reason why Europe should support illegal settlements,” he noted. The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts made to establish peace in the Middle East.

Russia will not extradite former contractor to US National Security Agency turned whistleblower Edward Snowden to the White House, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin says. Russia “did not hand over, does not hand over and will not hand over anybody," said Dmitry Peskov on Friday. Peskov made the remarks in an answer to a reporter who asked whether Moscow’s stance had changed towards 30-year-old Snowden. He added that President Putin is not involved in the discussions over the future of the former CIA and NSA contractor. Peskov told reporters that Russia's Federal Security Service FSB is in talks with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI over the issue.

Russia Today: Russia won’t extradite Snowden to US – Kremlin
Thomas Gaist: US pressures Russia to extradite Snowden, [cynically] vowing “he will not be tortured”

Jack Kenny: Chris Christie Finds Liberty a "Dangerous Idea" On the eve of a House vote Wednesday on his amendment to curb the National Security Agency's daily dragnet collection of Americans' phone records, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) tweeted, "Washington's elites fear liberty. They fear you." On Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (shown) demonstrated just how eager he is to join the Washington elite. Speaking at the Republican Governors Conference in Aspen, Colorado, Christie delivered what Aaron Blake at the Washington Post described as a "clear broadside" against Republicans of a libertarian bent, including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, expected to be competing with Christie for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. "As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001, I just want us to be really cautious, because this strain of libertarianism that's going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought," Christie said.

■ The Labor government’s commitment to the Obama administration’s “pivot” to Asia and preparations for a military confrontation with China has been on display since July 15 in the form of a major exercise named “Talisman Saber.” As many as 22,000 American personnel and 16 ships, alongside up to 10,000 Australian personnel and 11 ships, are currently rehearsing in northern Australia and the Coral Sea for the outbreak of a war.
■ Talisman Saber exercises have been staged every two years since 2005. They are viewed in the Pentagon and its Pacific Command (PACOM) as one of the most important exercises held in the Asian region. PACOM refers to them as the “primary training venue for Commander Seventh Fleet as a Combined Task Force (CTF) in a short warning, power projection, forcible entry scenario” and “a key opportunity to train Australian and US combined forces in mid to high-intensity combat operations.”
■ This year’s exercise involves the majority of the US Seventh Fleet, including its command and control vessel, the Blue Ridge, the massive amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, which can deploy close to 2,000 marines, and the aircraft carrier George Washington. The Australian Navy frigate Sydney, which was “embedded” with the Seventh Fleet earlier in the year, is operating as part of the George Washington’s escort, as well as another frigate, the Perth. Australian submarines and support ships are also rehearsing how to integrate rapidly into the far larger US fleet.

Russia Today: ‘Imaginary threats’ justify New Zealand spy bill – Dotcom

Concerns about personal privacy are on the rise, with a big majority of Americans saying the National Security Agency’s collection of telephone and Internet data intrudes on citizens’ rights without clear improvements in U.S. security, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Nearly three-quarters of Americans say the NSA programs are infringing on some Americans’ privacy rights, and about half see those programs as encroaching on their own privacy. Most of those who see the programs as compromising privacy say the intrusions are unjustified.

kenny's SideShow: Ubiquitous Spying and Cell Towers - The vote is in. The House rejects the Amash amendment to an upcoming Pentagon appropriations bill which would have barred the NSA from using a PATRIOT Act provision to collect the phone records of all Americans. The White House lobbied heavily against the amendment with Jay Carney, or Jay Carnage as he is also called, saying: "We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counterterrorism tools. This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process. We urge the House to reject the Amash Amendment, and instead move forward with an approach that appropriately takes into account the need for a reasoned review of what tools can best secure the nation." So much for Barry's 'debate' on the spying issue. Did anyone really think it would go otherwise? The shills against the amendment of course had to invoke 9/11.

The Swash: Cops to Congress: We Need Logs of Americans’ Text Messages [December 4, 2012]

[Part 2-10] [Full Documentary] - Controversial to its core, this hard-hitting anti-Western propaganda film, which looks at the influence of American visual and consumption culture on the rest of the world from a North Korean perspective, has also been described as ‘either a damning indictment of 21st Century culture or the best piece of propaganda in a generation.’

Slavko Martinov has spent nine years working on one of the most original documentaries to have ever been produced about the media and manufactured consent. "Propaganda" took centre stage in an international debate before it was even released. [It] was presented as a film that North Korean opponents purloined and made public to let the West see how North Korea portrays and describes the consumerist society of the Capitalist world. The documentary is presented by an anonymous professor from North Korea who takes the viewers on an eye opening journey, showing the contradictions, the lies and the truth about the world we live in.

"I do not associate the military with wars and bloodshed in a narrow sense. I actually associate the military with doing good, with bringing down tyrants, with releasing people's ambitions for their children." - General Sir David Richards

Lindsey German: ■ Despite his own role in Afghanistan and Iraq, General Sir David Richards does not allow catastrophic failure to get in the way of calling for yet more war, this time against Syria. It's that time of year again. ■ Another British army general retires, and marks the event with an interview in a right wing newspaper arguing the need for greater and more intense military interventions somewhere in the world. ■ This time it's General Sir David Richards, and his target is Syria. He tells the Daily Telegraph that a no fly zone in Syria won't be adequate 'to restrain the Syrian army'. ■ Given Richards' own role in an army which has presided over catastrophic wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and whose government's no fly zone in Libya led to a further 30,000 deaths there, you might think he would be thinking first and foremost about restraining his own institution. But no one could accuse the British army of hesitating in further conflicts just because of failure elsewhere. ■ Far from it. In his interview with Telegraph defence correspondent Con Coughlin, the retiring army chief of staff raises the possibility of a full war in Syria.

Patrick O’Connor: Australian opposition leader demands military response to refugee “emergency” ● The opposition Liberal-National coalition yesterday proposed to place the Australian military in charge of targeting asylum seekers trying to flee to the country by sea. The policy would involve the domestic mobilisation of the armed forces for what was previously regarded as a civil law enforcement issue. ● The military has played a prominent role in successive Labor and Liberal governments’ anti-refugee programs. Under the former Howard government, so-called “border protection” to intercept refugee boats provided a cover for the expansion of Australian imperialism’s military and intelligence presence off the country’s northwest, adjacent to key strategic naval chokepoints in South East Asia. ● This continued after 2007 under Labor. Last year, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard appointed former Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston to head an “expert panel” on refugees. Houston’s panel proposed a series of reactionary measures, including a “no advantage” test under which refugees are detained, potentially for several years, as a punitive “deterrent” to others considering travelling to Australia. ● Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has since assigned the military a central role in his “Papua New Guinea solution,” involving the permanent deportation of asylum seekers to the impoverished Pacific state.

Stefan Steinberg: German report on horrendous treatment of refugees on Europe’s borders

Mr Mandelson's admission that New Labour sought out foreign workers is a stunning confirmation that governments led by Tony Blair, left, and Gordon Brown, right, deliberately engineered mass immigration. - In a stunning confirmation that the Blair and Brown governments deliberately engineered mass immigration, the former Cabinet Minister and spin doctor said New Labour sought out foreign workers. He also conceded that the influx of arrivals meant the party’s traditional supporters are now unable to find work. By contrast, Labour leader Ed Miliband has said his party got it wrong on immigration but has refused to admit it was too high under Labour. Between 1997 and 2010, net migration to Britain totalled more than 2.2million, more than twice the population of Birmingham. The annual net figure quadrupled under Labour from 48,000 people in 1997 to 198,000 by 2009. Lord Mandelson’s remarks come three years after Labour officials denied claims by former adviser Andrew Neather that they deliberately encouraged immigration in order to change the make-up of Britain.

U.S. sanctions against any country offering asylum to Edward Snowden advanced in Congress Thursday as the 30-year-old National Security Agency leaker remained in a Moscow airport while Russia weighed a request for him to stay permanently. - The measure introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., demands the State Department coordinate with lawmakers on setting penalties against nations that seek to help Snowden avoid extradition to the United States, where authorities want him prosecuted for revealing details of the government’s massive surveillance system. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the proposal unanimously by voice vote as an amendment to next year’s $50.6 billion diplomacy and international aid bill.

■ If you're a Christian, then you're a follower of Jesus Christ who taught people to love one another; shelter the homeless; feed the hungry and tend to the sick, not to nuke them off the face of the planet. What God does Hagee really worship?

■ Deluded Americans of all shapes and tastes will gladly bow and scrape before their Zionist masters this week, hoping for and praying that the U.S. will bomb Iran on behalf of Israel.

■ They'll rant and rave at their Congress members and make threats about the next election if they don't sign off on blowing Iran off the map.

■ Christians United for Israel's Washington Summit is the premier pro-Israel event of the year: They'd like to brainwash you into thinking the enemies of Israel are the enemies of the USA and turn Americans into the same brand of violent psychos that live on hate, murder, theft and lies that are the foundation and lifeblood of Apartheid Israel.

■ But the real enemies of America are those who lie us into wars, steal our savings, rob us blind and exert an unhealthy influence on our political structures. They are the ones who are trying desperately trying to trick us into bombing Iran into the Stone Age, just like they tricked us into invading Iraq.

■ Those enemies are the ones who attacked the USS Liberty, the USS Cole an had a hand in the 9/11 attacks...... and that is Israel.