"Balancing the SIGINT exchange equally between US and Israeli needs has been a constant challenge in the last decade, it arguably tilted heavily in favor of Israeli security concerns. 9/11 came, and went, with NSA’s only true Third Party CT relationship being driven almost totally by the needs of the partner." ■ That is a stunning statement. It implies that the signals intelligence exchange between the American and Israeli governments has been driven almost entirely by the NSA giving information to the Israelis, instead of Israel giving information to the U.S. … even though we were the ones attacked on 9/11. Remember, the raw data in American citizens collected by the NSA is shared with Israel. [Also remember, Israel attacked us on 9/11.]

PressTV: Israel armed to teeth with US-paid weapons

Review by John Young ( "Cryptome") ■ Greenwald produces thrillers in news reports, talks and interviews, now with this book. Media and fans will be ecstatic. Only thing missing are the allegedly voluminous Edward Snowden documents -- between 59,000 according to supporters and 1.7 million asserted by detractors. Some 1400 pages released until this book, accompanied by well over 1,000 times that number in news reports, book, articles, essays, opinions and attacks. So few substantiating documents for such an outpouring of thrills. A true thrill would be for all the Snowden documents to be released now for those who want evidence to think for themselves about global spying by governments, not the teasing and propaganda spies and governments used to keep those spied upon in the dark. Greenwald has access to evidence of spying on us but chooses to keep it to himself and colleagues for the dramatic dribbling, taunting and frustrating of serial thrillers, he hides as the spies hide jointly leaving us in the dark. ■ Greenwald could do a big favor to the public to get out of the spying game, the bragging and postulating about what he knows about withheld secret information, and courageously challenge and disturb secretkeepers by giving up the Snowden secrets for public consumption unhindered and untampered by his lurid opinions so similar to those of spies. ■ He has lifetime economic security thanks to luring billionaire Pierre Omidyar into a $250 million honey pot, a spy's moonbeam operation to charm poisonous snakes into obedience. Greenwald's excitement upon first seeing samples of Snowden's material, his and Poitras' dancing in the aisle of the aircraft taking them to Hong Kong for the rendezvous all media practitioners dream of: a source with irresistable, magical information for transforming into non-fictional fictions of the big power spy game forever seducing national leaders into condoning the necessary wretchedness believed to be mandatory of the powerful of wealth and governance. [h/t: xymphora]

The youngest son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, has been appointed head of legal affairs at Ukraine's largest private gas producer — a move he said would benefit Ukrainians and the country's economy. In a statement published Monday on its website, Burisma Holdings announced Hunter Biden would join its board of directors and head the company's legal unit.

xymphora ■ A bit bold even for them || "As a new member of the board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine."

RT.com: White House: No ethical issues with Veep’s son joining Ukraine gas giant
VoR: Biden's son appointed to board of Ukraine's largest private gas producer
Paul Craig Roberts: Western Looting Of Ukraine Has Begun [03/31/14]
Pepe Escobar: Will NATO annex Ukraine? [02/26/14]
M. D. Nazemroaya: Nulandistan: A Look at What the US and EU Have Unleashed on Ukraine

A video of a UN-marked Mil Mi-24 strike helicopter was published on Tuesday by LifeNews television. It said its correspondents covering Kiev’s military operation in the Donetsk Region took the video near Kramatorsk. LifeNews said at least three combat Mi-24 and one transport Mi-8 helicopters carrying UN colors were spotted in the area. ● The UN has voiced concerns over the apparent use of UN-marked helicopters by Kiev troops in their military operation against Donetsk regional militia. A video of a white-painted Mil Mi-24 strike helicopter with UN logo has emerged. When inquired about the United Nations’ stance on the use of peacekeeper-marked military hardware in non-peacekeeper operations, the office for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson said such use would violate UN rules. [...] It added that UN-marked aircraft can be used for missions tasked by the UN and that UN’s Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support is in contact with the Ukrainian authorities to clarify the issue.

ANTARCTIC sea ice has expanded to record levels for April, increasing by more than 110,000sq km a day last month to nine million square kilometres. ● The National Snow and Ice Data Centre said the rapid expansion had continued into May and the seasonal cover was now bigger than the record “by a significant margin’’.

Steve Kates ■ A Chilling Appraisal Of Climate Change (Book review) || The book reminds me just how viciously stupid have been the left’s attempts to gag debate on global warming. Had the only evidence available supported the warmists’ cause, there might have been something worth continuing to discuss. Instead, with the abrupt end to the warming phase between fifteen and twenty years ago [...], we should actually be looking at the effects that may follow if a solar minimum is about to recur, as it did during the Little Ice Age which ended not all that long ago. Suppose the Thames were to begin freezing over again, as it last did in 1802, how will we get on in a world of such cold and reduced growing seasons? Try that out in conversation the next time some propaganda-programmed dimwit brings up climate change. ■ Global warming is climate change for idiots. A cooling climate may be the real thing and the possibility should be treated with the utmost seriousness. The subtitle, “Why Life in the 21st Century Will Be Nasty, Brutish and Short", is exactly what the book explains. It’s a book with a message we should all be thinking about, and not just here in Australia but across the world.

So what were the two American shooters doing in Yemen? Getting a haircut, of course. They went all the way to Yemen for a haircut. ● "Exactly what the two Americans were doing at the time of the shooting on April 24 is unclear. Some American officials said they were merely getting a haircut in a barbershop on Hadda Street in Sana....American officials refused to identify the Americans or their jobs in Yemen, where the Pentagon and the C.I.A. have been training Yemeni security forces in addition to carrying out the drone strikes. But a senior American official said one individual involved in the shooting was a lieutenant colonel with the elite Joint Special Operations Command and the other was a C.I.A. officer." [h/t: xymphora]

At least 166 miners are dead and 80 more hospitalized, including four in serious condition, after an explosion yesterday at a coal mine in the town of Soma in western Turkey. Desperate rescue attempts are still ongoing to save hundreds more miners trapped underground by the explosion, which was reportedly caused by an electrical fault in one of the mine's power distributors. Speaking early this morning, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 787 people were working inside the mine at the time of the explosion. It is feared that up to 400 miners could still be trapped underground.

NYT: Deadly Fire Roars Through Coal Mine in Turkey