The National Security Agency refuses to deny whether it is spying on members of Congress after it received a bluntly worded letter from a senator seeking clarification on the issue. ● Sen. Bernie Sanders sent a letter to the NSA on Friday, asking whether it has or is "spying" on US lawmakers and other elected officials. The Vermont independent said he was “deeply concerned” about the NSA’s bulk collection of information on Americans and called reports that the agency listens in on foreign leaders “disturbing.” On Saturday, the NSA released a statement to Sanders’ letter saying members of Congress "have the same privacy protections as all US persons."

Xyphora: Listening to monsters ■ "Peter King: NSA Should Monitor Congress in Case They’re ‘Talking to an Al Qaeda Leader’" Of course, the obvious question is whether King is being blackmailed by the NSA to say this based on the evidence they have illegally obtained of his long history of illegal contacts with the IRA.

Janet Yellen is currently the Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Previously, she was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, and Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Andre Damon: Senate confirms Janet Yellen as Fed Chair ■ The US Senate confirmed Janet Yellen, President Obama’s nominee to replace [Jewish] Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Monday evening. The move is a signal that the pro-Wall Street policies carried out by Yellen’s predecessor, Ben Bernanke, will continue. Yellen, who has served as the Fed’s vice-chair since October 2010, is, after Bernanke himself, the figure most associated with the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented money printing operations known as “quantitative easing.” Through these programs, the central bank has purchased hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage backed securities and US Treasury bonds, transferring cash into the hands of the banks and fueling a stock market bubble. The direct and intended consequence of quantitative easing has been to vastly increase the wealth of the super-rich and inflate corporate profits, even as the conditions for the vast majority of the population remain dire.

VoR: US Senate confirms Yellen as first woman to head Federal Reserve

Glenn Greenwald, the investigative journalist who first published Edward Snowden leaks, said that the NSA whistleblower still has "a huge number of very significant stories to reveal," including those relating to Israel. ● "There definitely are stories left that involve the Middle East, that involve Israel. The reporting is going to continue at roughly the same pace that has been happening," the former Guardian journalist said in an interview with Channel 10 television station that aired Monday night. "I don’t want to preview any stories that aren’t yet published, but it’s definitely the case that there are a huge number of very significant stories that are left to report," the Brazil-based Greenwald said, adding that the journalists will continue releasing stories "at roughly the same pace that has been happening." "We have only had these documents for seven months, which, given their volume and complexity, is not a very long time," he noted.

VoR: Snowden has more US-Israel secrets to expose - Glenn Greenwald: Greenwald mocks US, UK media as slaves of gov't, calls for Snowden asylum | The ex-Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who first published the leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, sharply criticized American and British media for acting like government spokespeople and urged hackers to resist authorities’ intimidation. Speaking via video link from Brazil to the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Greenwald denounced the US government for charging Edward Snowden with espionage and said the threat of life in jail was "an effective tactic" to ward off other potential leakers. He mocked the bravery of journalists and media figures willing to go over and beyond to bash Edward Snowden but not dare take on the government with the same ire. Greenwald argued that the media establishment at large is guilty of failing of keeping governments in check.

A federal judge ruled Monday that Chicago's ban on virtually all sales and transfers of firearms is unconstitutional. ● "The stark reality facing the City each year is thousands of shooting victims and hundreds of murders committed with a gun. But on the other side of this case is another feature of government: certain fundamental rights are protected by the Constitution, put outside government's reach, including the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense under the Second Amendment," wrote U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang. "Chicago's ordinance goes too far in outright banning legal buyers and legal dealers from engaging in lawful acquisitions and lawful sales of firearms," he continued. Chang explicitly did not rule out other types of regulation, short of a complete ban, in order to "minimize the access of criminals to firearms and to track the ownership of firearms. "But the flat ban on legitimate sales and transfers does not fit closely with those goals," Chang wrote. The judge stayed his ruling to give the city time to file an appeal.

The Plight of the Roma: Europe's Unwanted People - Over 10 million Roma live in Europe. Tens of thousands of them are fleeing westwards from poverty & discrimination. But EU member states aren't helping them.

The cupboard door sails out of an upper floor window and lands on a heap of rubbish on a lawn in the Duisburg suburb of Rheinhausen. Half a dozen men in thick jackets and woolen hats stand just two meters (six feet) away. The door could have injured someone but Marian, Nico and the others don't move a muscle. "They're renovating," says Marian. The men laugh. "There are no problems." Marian, who comes from the northeast of Romania, has lived in the eight-story brick building for the past three years. It has become known across Germany as a "problem house," "house of horror" or just as "Roma house." As if that said it all. Here's a brief history of the building:

A few years ago, Roma came from Romania and moved into it. More of them came, until the building almost exclusively housed Roma immigrants, more than the structure could accommodate. They held barbecue parties in the back yard, which led to complaints from neighbors. Rubbish piled up around the building and the garbage disposal service refused to remove it. That attracted rats. Window panes broke and no one replaced them. The stairwells began to smell of urine. Some inhabitants stole, tricked people or robbed them, which led to frequent visits from the police. In the first nine months of last year, a total of 277 crimes were attributed to people living in the building. Then far-right activists came. They demonstrated in front of the building and railed against it in Internet forums. On a Facebook page named after the address of the house, "In den Peschen 3-5," Stefan K. wrote: "Chuck a bomb in, that'll sort it." Marian D. demanded: "Burn those wankers down." The page had 1,690 likes until it was shut down last August. That month, the building's occupants armed themselves with clubs. Left-wing activists mounted a guard at night. When the police tried to enter the building one night in August, the people inside kept them out with iron bars and pepper spray.

Michaela Stanková: A wall to keep out Roma
Michaela Stanková: The cost of excluding the Roma minority
Saman: The Plight of the Romani People
Elisabeth Zimmermann: Roma woman dies following deportation to Kosovo
Pete Brook: The Roma People: Matt Lutton building upon a legacy of wandering photographers
AWIP: Stop this state persecution of Roma!
AWIP: Driving out the Unwanted - Sarkozy's War Against the Roma.

Residents living in fear of violent criminal gangs in south-west Mexico are taking matters into their own hands. Yesterday 600 vigilantes seized control of town of Paracuaro in Michoacan state in bloody battle that left one dead. Convoy of 'autodefensas', or self-defence groups, drove into the town controlled by drugs gang in blacked-out SUVs. They took back control from the Cabelleros Templarios (Knights Templar) gang which terrorised local residents. In neighbouring Guerrero state, vigilante group the Public Safety System marched in honour of first anniversary.

The “coming persecution of Christians” has already begun. It is already here. So why is the mainstream media in the United States almost totally silent about this phenomenon? When some politician somewhere around the globe inadvertently offends homosexuals or Muslims, it instantly makes headline news. But very few Americans are even aware that it has been estimated that 100 million Christians are currently facing persecution and that approximately 100,000 Christians die for their faith each year. As you are about to see, Christians all over the world are being burned alive, beheaded, crucified, tortured to death and imprisoned in metal shipping containers just because of what they believe. This persecution goes on year after year and it is steadily intensifying. But the governments of the western world and the mainstream media are almost entirely ignoring what is happening.

More than 50 hostages freed as rebel groups in Syria make sweeping advances against Islamic State of Iraq in Syria ● Syrian rebels have ousted a hardline al-Qaida group from the provincial capital of Raqqa, freeing more than 50 hostages in a fourth day of clashes across the north of the country. The fight against the group, the Islamic State of Iraq in Syria (Isis), comes as members of the same group remain in control of much of Ramadi and Falluja, despite similar attempts to oust them by the Iraqi military. Rebel groups in Syria have made sweeping advances against Isis since first taking on the powerful militia on Friday. Since then, many of its members have withdrawn from most of the Turkish border areas it had held for at least six months.

PressTV: ISIL militants killed in northern Syria
SANA: Israeli hospitals receive more injured terrorists
SANA: Armed terrorist groups eliminated in several areas nationwide