War Gear Flows to Police Departments That Already Look and Act Like Military Units. ● During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft. The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units. Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs. Masked, heavily armed police officers in Louisiana raided a nightclub in 2006 as part of a liquor inspection. In Florida in 2010, officers in SWAT gear and with guns drawn carried out raids on barbershops that mostly led only to charges of “barbering without a license.”

James Bovard: Militarizing Law Enforcement: Collateral Damage from War on Terror
RT.com: Obama administration arms police to the teeth with battlefield weapons

A man who says all he wanted was some public information instead got a visit from a Middle Tennessee sheriff. And he says the sheriff is going through great lengths to cover up alleged misconduct at the Marshall County jail. ● Alex Friedmann, editor for the Prison Legal News, has been working on a piece about complaints coming out of the jail. He's now suing Sheriff Normal Dalton for refusing to release public records of alleged questionable practices in the prison system. "It included policies regarding medical care for inmates, the contract with the jail to provide phone calls to inmates, the grievance procedure process for inmates who complain," Friedmann said. Not only did the sheriff's office deny him those requests, but Dalton admitted on the witness stand to ordering background checks on Friedmann, calling the Department of Homeland Security and even going to Friedmann's house.

The Pakistani Taliban on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on Karachi airport that left at least 23 people dead, reportedly including 10 attackers. The group said the act was in revenge for their late leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in November. The airport was chosen for the attack "because it serves as the biggest air logistics centre supplying goods for the Crusaders' war in Afghanistan and Pakistan", Umar Media, the official media wing of the Pakistani Taliban, said on its Facebook page. Pakistani officials said a military operation against the militants, who attacked the country’s busiest airport late on Sunday, ended shortly before dawn on June 9. However, security forces later announced that the military operation had been relaunched after gunfire at the airport resumed. For more, see here and here for a report on Pakistan's Dawn news site.

On 2 June 2014 an air strike of the Ukrainian Air force on city of Lugansk resulted in 8 deaths and 28 wounded. Inna Vladimirovna Kukurudza (Кукурудза Инна Владимировна), an employee credit union was one the number of the innocent civilian victims murdered that day. She died in the ambulance after the horrific injuries that we see at the end of this video. This video was made as a tribute to her memory. Is that video tough to watch? Yes. Therefore - PLEASE CIRCULATE IT! - The Saker

RT.com: E. Ukraine warzone: Demolished houses, fires after heavy shelling - VIDEOS
Stefan Molyneux: Kiev Continues Shelling & Airstrikes in East but Rebels Dominant on the Ground
John Robles: Selling out Ukraine: Poroshenko speech; double talk, lies, NATO and the EU

The Baltic Sea and skies are getting crowded as Russia launches military training of its assault forces in the exclave of Kaliningrad in answer to the double war-games being conducted by joint NATO forces on the territory of the three Baltic States. ● NATO’s decision to conduct dual war games next to Russian borders in the Baltic has not been left unaddressed by Russia’s Defense Ministry, which prepared a surprise training of first strike forces – marines, paratroopers and long-range bombers - right in the backyard of the NATO military maneuvers. Defense Ministry noted that the military might engaged in training in the Kaliningrad Region is by all means comparable with the NATO’s forces concentrated on the nearby territory of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where Saber Strike-2014 is conducted on June 9-20 and sea-based BALTOPS-2014 training held in the Baltic on June 6-21. The Russian maneuvers involve the use of naval groups, marines, landing operations of airborne forces, air defense training and firing exercise of front-line aviation.

The Israeli prime minister is pushing for the approval of a bill that will allow doctors to force-feed up to 120 Palestinian prisoners. Inmates are hunger striking in protest of their indefinite detention and say they are ready to die for their cause. ● Although the bill is opposed by the Israeli Medical Association on the grounds it is a violation of medical ethics, the Knesset voted for the legislation to be sent to a committee. The measure would allow a judge to enact force-feeding if he or she thinks the detainee’s life might be in danger. Between 100 and 120 inmates are currently participating in the hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention without any charges.

Israeli doctors refuse to force-feed Palestinian prisoners, despite govt pressure