Israeli warplanes struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia on Thursday, an Obama administration official told CNN. ● An explosion at a missile storage site in the area was widely reported in the Israeli press, but an attack has not been confirmed by the Israeli government. The target, according to the Obama administration official, was missiles and related equipment the Israelis felt might be transferred to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. When asked for comment, an Israel "Defense" Forces spokeswoman [arrogantly] told CNN: "We don't refer to foreign reports."

EU diplomats who traveled to Washington over the NSA’s spy program have been left with their questions unanswered. The US insisted all the intelligence gathered in Europe was related to warzones in the Middle East and would continue. The European Union’s delegation of politicians trusted with getting answers from Washington over the National Security Agency’s (NSA) espionage programs in the EU left with more questions than they arrived with.

The Diplomat: Outrage Over NSA Spying Spreads to Asia
PressTV: EU lawmakers condemn US spying on citizens, leaders

Newly leaked documents show the US National Security Agency infiltrates the main communication links that connect Yahoo and Google’s data centers outside the US. ● On Wednesday, the Washington Post broke the story based on documents obtained from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials. According to the Post’s report, the US spy agency, along with its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), secretly breaks into the internal networks of Yahoo and Google and intercepts information flowing between data centers that these two largest Internet companies by overall data traffic maintain across the globe. By tapping into those networks, the NSA collects hundreds of millions of user accounts belonging to all people around the world.

Alex Lantier: Secret NSA program gains “bulk access” to Google, Yahoo data centers ■ The US military-intelligence complex has developed through criminal means the surveillance infrastructure of a global police state. The National Security Agency (NSA) is spying on hundreds of millions of users of Google and Yahoo services, according to a report yesterday in the Washington Post based on internal documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The NSA has broken into the main communication links connecting Yahoo and Google data servers worldwide. In a program codenamed “MUSCULAR,” operated jointly with Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the agencies collect and monitor all communications—involving US and non-US citizens alike—between these servers.

Washington Post: NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say
InvestmentWatch: NSA Gets Access To The Cloud Of US Tech Companies, Siphons Off Data

The National Security Agency advised its officials to cite the 9/11 attacks as justification for its mass surveillance activities, according to a master list of NSA talking points. ● Invoking the events of 9/11 to justify the controversial NSA programs, which have caused major diplomatic fallout around the world, was the top item on the talking points agency officials were encouraged to use. Under the sub-heading, “Sound Bites that Resonate,” the document suggests the statement: “I much prefer to be here today explaining these programs, than explaining another 9/11 event that we were not able to prevent.” NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander used a slightly different version of that statement when he testified before Congress June 18 in defense of the agency’s surveillance programs.

A record-equalling 188 countries on Tuesday condemned the five-decade-old US embargo against communist Cuba in an annual UN General Assembly vote that signalled hardening opposition to US sanctions. Only Israel joined the United States in opposing resolution, the smallest number ever. Last year two allies voted with the US government. Three Pacific island states normally close to the United States -- Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau -- abstained as the barrage of criticism of the embargo reached a new peak in the 22nd annual vote at the UN Assembly. China, Iran, which has launched a bid to thaw relations with the US administration, Latin American and African nations all publicly condemned the United States. "The US policy against Cuba is suffering from an absolute international isolation and discredit and lacks every ethical or legal ground," Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said.

Despite US President Barack Obama rejecting the idea that he was aware of Washington’s spying on world leaders, the nation’s top spymaster said Tuesday that the president had been informed about the surveillance activities. During a House Intelligence Committee hearing, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said that the National Security Agency and the CIA cannot tap into any leader’s private communications without permission from the White House. The New York Times said Clapper did not specifically say whether Obama was told of the spying efforts, “but he appeared to challenge assertions in recent days that the White House had been in the dark about some of the agency’s practices.” Clapper’s remark contradicts Obama’s claim that he didn’t know about the spying efforts.

US President Barack Obama has “recently ordered” the National Security Agency to stop tapping the UN headquarters in New York amid the review of electronic surveillance programs, Reuters reported, citing official sources. It is understood that the UN headquarters and diplomatic missions have for decades been the target of aggressive spying, including that of the NSA, but details of such surveillance at the present time are scarce.

Business Insider: NSA May Have Spied On The Vatican During The Papal Conclave
Washington Post: NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide
VoR: 'NSA is spying on everyone including Congressmen and Senators' - Anonymous

El Mundo says it has obtained document detailing collaboration between US intelligence agency and foreign countries. ● The widespread surveillance of Spanish citizens by the US National Security Agency, which caused outrage when it was reported this week, was the product of a collaboration with Spain's intelligence services, according to one Spanish newspaper. In the latest revelations to emerge from the documents leaked by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Spanish agents not only knew about the work of the NSA but also facilitated it, El Mundo reports. An NSA document entitled "Sharing computer network operations cryptologic information with foreign partners" reportedly shows how the US relies on the collaboration of many countries to give it access to intelligence information, including electronic metadata.

El Mundo: El CNI facilitó el espionaje masivo de EEUU a España

Barry Grey: US spy chiefs defend wiretapping of foreign leaders, mass surveillance programs ■ The fallout from the diplomatic crisis within the American state and political establishment is spreading. The Obama administration and Democratic Party leaders have launched an effort to limit the political damage and distract the public from the essential issue in the spy program revelations—the exposure of flagrantly unconstitutional policies and the development of the apparatus of a police state in America. As far as Obama and both big business parties are concerned—as well as the corporate-controlled media—the crisis does not arise from the destruction of democratic rights, but rather the exposure of the state conspiracy against those rights, and the growing anger of the population, which is deeply opposed to such police state measures.

WUWT: Telegraph’s Booker on the “climategate” scandal

A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters inadvertently demonstrates that climate models don't even have the so-called 'basic physics' of the greenhouse effect correct. According to the paper, climate models show that "With CO2 at or below 1/8 of the 1950 value [i.e. ~39 ppm], runaway sea ice does occur as the planet cascades to a snowball Earth climate with fully ice covered oceans and global mean surface temperatures near – 30 °C." However, -30°C is much colder than the -18°C calculated* for an Earth with no atmosphere or oceans or greenhouse effect at all! Further, -30°C is much, much colder [i.e. 35°C colder] than the +5°C global mean temperature calculated using the IPCC formula** for CO2 forcing using a CO2 level of 39 ppm. It is astonishing that the authors, who claim to be top experts on the physics of CO2 radiative transfer, did not realize that their computer model is outputting physically-impossible GIGO.

The "rebels" used chemical weapons in north-eastern Syria near the border with Turkey on Tuesday, a Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen reported. ● The toxic shell exploded near a Kurdish defense forces’ checkpoint close to the border with Turkey in the city of Ras al-Ayn al-Hasakah. The attack was reported by Kurdish defense forces who are conducting military operations against the rebels in the region. They are quoted as saying they saw toxic yellow smoke that followed the shell explosion, while some of them had symptoms of severe chemical intoxication accompanied by nausea. The reported chemical attack comes amid the second day of fierce fighting in the town. The Kurdish forces have successfully repelled several attacks by armed groups of extremists of the Nusra Front ( Jabhat al-Nusra), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, killing 28 militants.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday his government was likely to act to stop newspapers publishing what he called damaging leaks from former U.S. intelligence operative Edward Snowden unless they began to behave more responsibly. ● "If they (newspapers) don't demonstrate some social responsibility it will be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act," Cameron told parliament, saying Britain's Guardian newspaper had "gone on" to print damaging material after initially agreeing to destroy other sensitive data.

Pathologist gives evidence to trial of three marines accused of murdering wounded prisoner in Afghanistan's Helmand province ● An injured Afghan insurgent was still alive when he was allegedly shot by a Royal Marine, a pathologist has told the court martial of three marines accused of his murder. Dr Nicholas Hunt said that although the Afghan was seriously injured and covered in blood he was clearly alive when a British serviceman shot him in the chest at close range with a 9mm pistol. The pathologist was giving evidence in the court martial of three marines, known only as A, B and C, who are accused of murdering the unknown Afghan national on 15 September 15 2011 in Helmand province.

Michael Snyder: 29 Incredible Facts Which Prove That Poverty In America Is Absolutely Exploding ■ Did you know that the number of Americans on welfare is higher than the number of Americans that have full-time jobs? Did you know that 1.2 million public school students in the U.S. are currently homeless? Anyone that uses the term "economic recovery" to describe what is happening in the United States today is being deeply insulting to the nearly 150 million Americans that are considered to be either "poor" or "low income" at this point. Yes, things are great in New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, but almost everywhere else economic conditions continue to steadily get worse. The gap between the wealthy and the poor is at a level that America has never seen before, and this is beginning to create a "Robin Hood mentality" that could cause a tremendous amount of social chaos in the years ahead. Anger at the "haves" in America continues to rise at a very alarming pace, and the "have nots" are becoming increasingly desperate. At some point all of this anger is going to boil over, and you won't want to be anywhere around major population centers when that happens.

Activist Post: Local Departments Fortify Police State With Armored Personnel Carriers ● All across the country, preparations are being made for a massive assault on an enemy that has yet to be publicly defined. The preparations involve the procurement of Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) or Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs), military equipment, and tactical training. These preparations, however, are not being undertaken by the US military in response to a potential outside invasion but, instead, by local police departments towards what one must logically assume is a domestic threat. But who, exactly, is the enemy that American police must feel the need to become so battle-hardened against? American police are not being trained to defend the American public – they are being trained to oppress them. In other words, the enemy for which local police departments all across the country are preparing to engage in outright combat against is the American people themselves.

Chancellor Merkel has put on a good show of being outraged by American spying. But, at the same time, she has impeded efforts to strengthen data security. Does she really want more privacy, or is she more interested in being accepted into the exclusive group of info-sharing countries known as the 'Five Eyes' club? Merkel [...] stated: "Unlike David [Cameron], we are unfortunately not part of this group." According to the New York Times, Germany has sought membership in the "Five Eyes" alliance for years, but has been turned down due to opposition, including from the Obama administration. But this could now change, the paper speculates.

Der Spiegel: The Chancellor and the NSA: Merkel Has Abandoned the Germans [July 16, 2013]

Israel Shamir: The Cape of Good Hope ■ First, the good news. American hegemony is over. The bully has been subdued. We cleared the Cape of Good Hope, symbolically speaking, in September 2013. With the Syrian crisis, the world has passed a key forking of modern history. It was touch and go, just as risky as the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. The chances for total war were high, as the steely wills of America and Eurasia had crossed in the Eastern Mediterranean. It will take some time until the realisation of what we’ve gone through seeps in: it is normal for events of such magnitude. The turmoil in the US, from the mad car chase in the DC to the shutdown of federal government and possible debt default, are the direct consequences of this event. [...] As US hegemony declines, we look to an uncertain future. The behemoth might of the US military can still wreck havoc; a wounded beast is the most dangerous one. Americans may listen to Senator Ron Paul who called to give up overseas bases and cut military expenditure. Norms of international law and sovereignty of all states should be observed. People of the world will like America again when it will cease snooping and bullying. It isn’t easy, but we’ve already negotiated the Cape and gained Good Hope.

I noted the other day the reason the non-denial confirmation that NSA wiretapped Angela Merkel raised the stakes for what President Obama told the Chancellor in June about the spying. Did he give assurances she hadn’t been tapped? If he did, anonymous leakers from the NSA’s vicinity suggest, he knowingly lied.

PressTV: Spain opens inquiry into NSA spying operations - Video
AFP: France and Spain spied on their own citizens and handed data over to the NSA
Russia Today: Obama ‘knew and approved’ NSA spying on Chancellor Merkel – report

In Germany, Der Spiegel reported that the NSA’s Special Collection Service (SCS) had listed Merkel’s phone number since 2002. The number was still on the list – marked as “GE Chancellor Merkel” – weeks before Obama visited Berlin in June, raising the possibility that the German leader had been under surveillance for more than a decade. In an SCS document cited by the magazine, the agency said it had a “not legally registered spying branch” in the US embassy in Berlin, the exposure of which would lead to “grave damage for the relations of the United States to another government”. The White House refused to comment on that report – or others that emerged in Germany overnight, raising questions about how much Obama personally knew about the spy operation.

Stephen Lendman: Obama Encourages Spying on World Leaders ■ Obama encourages global spying. He wants world leaders monitored. He wants stepped up surveillance doing it. Despite official disclaimers, it continues. Obama lied claiming otherwise. He's a serial liar. He's a moral coward. He's a war criminal multiple times over. He did what supporters thought impossible. He exceeds the worst of George Bush. He plans lots more ways to prove it through 2016. Humanity may not survive the ordeal.

Paul Craig Roberts: Stasi In The White House ■ The tyrant’s speech of spectacular hypocrisy elicited from the invited audience applause on 36 occasions. Like so many others, Germans proved themselves willing to be used for Washington’s propaganda purposes. Here was Obama, who consistently lies, speaking of “eternal truth.” Here was Obama, who has constructed an international spy network and a domestic police state, speaking of “the yearnings for freedom.” Obama has turned America into a surveillance state that has far more in common with Stasi East Germany than with the America of the Kennedy and Reagan eras. Strange, isn’t it, that freedom was gained in East Germany and lost in America. At the Brandenburg Gate, Obama invoked the pledge of nations to “a Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” but Obama continues to violate human rights both at home and abroad. When the Berlin Wall came down, the Stasi Spy State that suffocates the soul moved to Washington. The Stasi is alive and well in the Obama regime. (Obama’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate)

New RT interview with me on the latest bombings in Iraq and why responsibility for the destruction of Iraq as a functioning country lies with the illegal invaders of 2003.

Threats by powerful rebel groups in Syria against Russia and other states favoring political settlement of Syrian conflict are outrageous, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday. ● In this case the threats are directed at those who "will dare to go to the Geneva conference proposed by Russia and the United States with the support of the entire world community," he said. Not so long ago threats were addressed to countries favoring a search for a political settlement and those that confront attempts "to use outside force for the settlement," he said. Lavrov has called on those who have influence on the Syrian opposition to intervene in the situation with regard to convening the Geneva II conference.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) has spied on 60 million telephone calls in Spain in only one month, a report says. ● The Spanish daily El Mundo reported on Sunday that the NSA had gathered the massive data in December 2012. The report was written by Brazil-based journalist Glenn Greenwald and was based on information provided by American surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden. The daily published the report a few days after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy summoned the US ambassador over earlier spying reports. Rajoy said at the time that he had not yet received any information that the United States spied on his country, but he would receive information in a meeting with the US envoy.

The Guardian: Spain summons US ambassador over claim NSA tracked 60m calls a month
Russia Today: US intercepts tens of millions of phone calls in Spain – report
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Spanien warnt Amerika vor „roter Linie“
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: NSA-Spionage in Spanien: Madrid bestellt amerikanischen Botschafter ein

Neil Clark: US Trojan horse: NSA scandal shows Europe would be better off without Britain ■ The muted British reaction to what is a truly outrageous scandal, is proof, if indeed any further proof were needed, of what Britain's main role in the EU is: to act as a Trojan horse to defend and further the interests of the government of the United States of America. - Like the curious incident of the dog that didn’t bark in the nighttime in the classic Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blaze, the most revealing thing about the latest NSA spying revelations which made world headlines last week was the non-barking of the UK. While leading politicians of other European countries and officers of the EU itself were keen to express their concern over the latest revelations of US spying on its allies – the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that US secret services were ‘out of control’ – British Prime Minister David Cameron has only said that he thought that the EU statement on the matter was ‘good and sensible’ and that he agreed with it. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Cameron ‘silently acquiesced” to the statement. At a press conference, Cameron refused to comment about the recent NSA revelations. The irony is that the UK political elite today is far more slavishly pro-US than our leaders were in the 1960s. Today [...] however, Britain’s leaders are totally subservient to Washington. In fact loyalty to the American Empire and an unquestioning commitment to Atlanticism has become a necessary condition for anyone wanting to climb to the top of the greasy pole in British politics or gain entry into the UK establishment. Stated support for the US’s closest Middle East ally, Israel, is a big help too. Any politicians who want Britain to be genuinely independent of the US and follow its own foreign policy path, like Tony Benn, who stood for deputy leadership of the Labour Party in the early 1980s, or George Galloway, the leader of Respect, have faced years of smears and attacks- and are routinely portrayed by the UK political elite and media gatekeepers as dangerous ‘extremists’. (Image: Bonhams)

Glenn Greenwald: As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media ■ With General Alexander calling for NSA reporting to be halted, US and UK credibility as guardians of press freedom is crushed - The most under-discussed aspect of the NSA story has long been its international scope. That all changed this week as both Germany and France exploded with anger over new revelations about pervasive NSA surveillance on their population and democratically elected leaders. [...] Speaking of an inability to maintain claims with a straight face, how are American and British officials, in light of their conduct in all of this, going to maintain the pretense that they are defenders of press freedoms and are in a position to lecture and condemn others for violations? In what might be the most explicit hostility to such freedoms yet – as well as the most unmistakable evidence of rampant panic – the NSA's director, General Keith Alexander, actually demanded Thursday that the reporting being done by newspapers around the world on this secret surveillance system be halted (Techdirt has the full video here).

► US-Präsident ist seit 3 Jahren informiert
► Er persönlich genehmigte Spionage gegen Merkel
► Schon Schröder wurde abgehört

Diesen Bericht von BILD am Sonntag muss das Weiße Haus dementieren: Der US-Präsident hat den Lauschangriff gegen die Kanzlerin ausdrücklich gebilligt! Bis vergangenen Mittwoch war es unvorstellbar, dass US-Geheimdienste gezielt die Bundeskanzlerin belauschen. Daran gibt es drei Tage später keinen Zweifel mehr. Gerätselt wird in Berlin um so heftiger, ob Präsident Barack Obama über den Lauschangriff der NSA auf Angela Merkels Handy informiert war. Laut einem Bericht der „Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung“ versicherte Obama der Kanzlerin am Mittwochnachmittag in einem persönlichen Telefongespräch, dass er davon nichts gewusst habe. Sollte der Bericht zutreffen, dann war das zumindest eine diplomatische Notlüge. Denn nach Informationen von BILD am SONNTAG aus US-Geheimdienstkreisen wurde der Präsident 2010 von NSA-Chef Keith Alexander persönlich über die Geheimoperation gegen Merkel informiert. „Obama hat die Aktion damals nicht gestoppt, sondern weiter laufen lassen“, erklärte ein mit der NSA-Operation gegen Merkel vertrauter Geheimdienstmitarbeiter BILD am SONNTAG.

El Mundo: Berlín: 'No aceptaremos que no haya consecuencias'
El Economista: EEUU espió a Merkel desde 1999 hasta julio 2013, según Die Welt

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Ausspäh-Affäre: Die Spionage-Botschaft ● Das Handy von Bundeskanzlerin Merkel steht einem Medienbericht zufolge seit dem Jahr 2002 auf einer Liste mit Aufklärungszielen des amerikanischen Geheimdienstes NSA. Die Abhörtechnik befinde sich im Gebäude der amerikanischen Botschaft am Pariser Platz.