Robert Fisk ■ Stillbirths, disabilities, deformities too distressing to describe - what lies behind the torments in Fallujah General Hospital? || The pictures flash up on a screen on an upper floor of the Fallujah General Hospital. And all at once, Nadhem Shokr al-Hadidi's administration office becomes a little chamber of horrors. A baby with a hugely deformed mouth. A child with a defect of the spinal cord, material from the spine outside the body. A baby with a terrible, vast Cyclopean eye. Another baby with only half a head, stillborn like the rest, date of birth 17 June, 2009. Yet another picture flicks onto the screen: date of birth 6 July 2009, it shows a tiny child with half a right arm, no left leg, no genitalia.

The secretary of state said that if Israel doesn’t make peace soon, it could become ‘an apartheid state,’ like the old South Africa. Jewish leaders are fuming over the comparison. ● If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday. Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry's use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.

If not for the federal government, contractor DynCorp International wouldn’t be in business. Virtually all of its revenue (96%) comes from government contracts. That includes the vast majority of the taxpayer dollars that the State Department has awarded to companies to help rebuild Afghanistan. ● The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says that of the $4 billion allotted by the State Department from 2002 to 2013, 69.3% went to DynCorp. In terms of actual dollars, DynCorp took in $2.8 billion. Giving so much to one company might not have been a good idea, given DynCorp’s record. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) notes the contractor’s “colorful history” includes “instances of labor smuggling, weak performance and overpayments on a base support services contract, botched construction work on an Afghan Army garrison, and lawsuits filed by disgruntled subcontractors.” Most of DynCorp’s contracts have been to train and equip the Afghan National Police and counternarcotics forces, SIGAR reports. It was during this work that the company was accused by a top Afghan official of hiring “dancing boys” in 2009 to entertain DynCorp trainers. A diplomatic cable revealed by Wikileaks quoted Interior Minister Hanif Atmar as having “deep concerns that lives could be in danger if news leaked that foreign police trainers working for U.S. commercial contractor DynCorp hired ‘dancing boys’ to perform for them.”

There's gunfire, explosions and brutal clashes in the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine as fighting erupted between pro- and anti-govt protesters, RT’s stringer reports from the scene. ● 14 people have asked for medical assistance, with several hospitalized, after clashes in Donetsk, the regional administration told Interfax-Ukraine news agency. Pro- and-anti-Kiev protest rallies took place simultaneously in the city. According to RT’s stringer Graham Phillips, there were plenty of masked young men on both sides, and they were clearly looking for a fight. The police failed to contain the crowd as protesters clashed with each other, using firecrackers, smoke grenades, baseball bats and sticks. A group of about 1,000 “neo-Nazi thugs” has come to Donetsk from Dnepropetrovsk on Monday to cause provocations, the press-service of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk told RT.

RIA Novosti obtained the satellite photos which clearly show heavy buildup of Ukraine's military weapons and equipment on the border with Russia, as well as in Ukraine’s Slaviansk suburbs, in the North of the Donetsk region, where clashes between pro-federalization protesters and Ukrainian interim government continue. ● A source in the Russian Defense Ministry said, commenting on these photos, that they clearly illustrate that the force military grouping is being formed in the Slaviansk suburbs «in order to wipe out the city and its residents». According to his data, the grouping is comprised of more than 15,000 Ukrainian military servicemen and the home reserve, there are around 160 tanks, 230 infantry combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers, as well as no less than 150 rifles, mine throwers and RMs (multiple-launch rocket systems of Grad and Smerch types). «Such concentration of troops in one district and the potential of the self-defense units' forces are disparate, the latter being armed only with small amount of pistols and shotguns," he added. Kiev authorities are conducting a special operation against pro-federalization protesters in eastern Ukraine. Casualties and wounded were reported. The city of Slaviansk faces the fiercest clashes. The blocking of the city was the goal of second stage of the special operation which began Friday.

Stephen Lendman ■ Claiming "signs that Russia seems poised to invade" is another Times Big Lie. A matching one calls US aggression humanitarian intervention. So-called responsibility to protect is pretext for ravaging, destroying and plundering one country after another. Times correspondents, contributors and editors leave inconvenient truths unexplained. Big Lies substitute. Longstanding policy features them. Rubbish substitutes for news fit print. Increasing numbers of readers vote with their feet and ignore it. Maybe some day everyone will.

Alex Lantier: The Ukraine crisis and the political lies of the media ■ As the Obama administration and its allies in Europe escalate their threats against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine, the American media plays its assigned role as propaganda mouthpiece. Not a single critical voice can be found within the so-called mainstream media. The newspapers and television news programs are filled with lies, anti-Russian propaganda, and—preparing for the possibility that the crisis escalates out of control—apologetics for war.

Banks Create Money Out of Thin Air … Conferring Enormous Windfall Profits At the Expense of the People ● We’ve pointed out for 4 1/2 years that banks create money out of thin air. Specifically, it has now been conclusively proven that loans come first … and then deposits FOLLOW. This is the most important secret about modern banking … because it debunks one of the biggest myths preventing a strong economy, challenges one of the main pork barrel profit centers for big banks … and opens up incredible opportunities for a prosperous economy. This odd and counter-intuitive – but crucially important – truth has now gone mainstream …

A US police deputy choked a student into unconsciousness in Fort Sanders, Knox County, Tennessee on Saturday night. ● Photos obtained by the Daily Mail show that Frank Phillips, 47, places his hands on the throat of a Jarod Dotson, 22, a University of Tennessee college student, until he is unconscious. Dotson was led to a policy van at the university, before the officer unnecessarily used the excessive force against him, while he had been already handcuffed. The photos show as two officers are twisting his arms behind his back, another deputy walks in front of the young man and puts his hands around his neck. As it can be seen from the sequence of shots, the student appears to lose consciousness, his knees start buckling as he sinks to the ground, while the officer continues to choke him or activate a pressure point that sends him unconscious.

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) provided foreign-backed militants in Syria with US-made anti-tank missiles, a local daily reports. ● The Turkish daily Aydinlik said in a report that the former commander of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), Salim Idris, acted as a middleman in the transfer of the TOW anti-tank missiles from Turkey to the militants in Syria. About a dozen militants have been trained in Turkey on how to use the weapons, the report said. The decision for the transfer of the missiles reportedly came after a meeting between Idris and US Republican Senator John McCain last year.

Three members of Ukraine’s special anti-terrorist unit Alpha have been detained during a covert mission in Donetsk region, amid the buildup of Kiev’s military near the cities controlled by pro-federalization forces. ● Commander of the 'Donetsk Republic' self-defense forces, Igor Strelkov, has confirmed reports that three members of the Alpha special tactical assault group of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) have been detained in the city of Gorlovka, in Donetsk region. Their task reportedly was to abduct one of the self-defense force leaders, Igor Bezler, whose group is controlling the local police department in Gorlovka, but instead they were captured themselves. The prisoners were searched and blindfolded and brought to nearby Slavyansk, where their guns, documents and IDs as well as other belongings were demonstrated to the media during a press conference. During questioning, the detained officers revealed that a special unit that has infiltrated the city comprised of seven men. The captives claimed they had no time for any wrongdoing as they “just arrived” in the city and were getting acquainted with it and investigating approaches for fulfilling their mission, which they admitted was “invariably impossible.”

Jason Ditz: Three Ukraine Troops Captured in East
Mark Hackard: US policy in Eurasia: Full-Spectrum Subversion

The Saker: Ukrainian special forces team caught near Donetsk ■ The Ukrainian SBU is a truly frightening secret service. Ever since it's foundation following the independence of the Ukraine the SBU did some work arresting gangsters and criminals, but it's most feared mission was to be the "enforcement" service of whoever was in power. The top of the top of the SBU forces were supposed to be the "A" or "Alpha" anti-terrorist forces. It is rather cute that the proudly independent Ukies felt the need to use the same designation as the hated Moskals whose famous anti-terrorist group is called "A" (the Alpha thing is a media invented misnomer and an attempt to sound like the US "Delta" Force; in reality the group is called "the A Directorate"). Anyway, they call have the same name, but in terms of skills or record the two groups are very different. For one thing, the Russian "A" never was the enforcement service of the regime and they had no political role or mission at all. Second, they really did deal with anti-terrorism and very serious organized crime. Still, by Ukrainian standards, these are the top of the top. These are also the folks who have been kidnapping anti-regime activists over the pasts months. I have to note that the previous commander of the Ukrainian Alpha was sacked for refusing to engage in operations against the Russian-speaking population - so there were some honorable officers in this group. But by now it is pretty clear who stayed. And they mission was typical too: to kidnap the head of the local police department. Instead, the three wannabe kidnappers got caught themselves.

xymphora: Ukraine turns into an embarrassing disaster ■ It is funny that the Americans and/or Ukrainians are guilty of absolutely every crime Kerry and the Americans accuse the Russians of doing. Barry [Obama] is soon going to have to remove the stench of the rotting corpse that is John Kerry. I know he only does what ZOG orders him to do, but everything he touches - Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian talks, and now Ukraine - turns into an embarrassing disaster.

US media coverage has been running hand in hand with the revolutionary ideology of Kiev's interim leaders. And brushing aside contradictions to its reasoning, the White House is relying on verified data. Or, as Anastasia Churkina finds out, their interpretation of that.