US drones killed 16 Islamist "militants" at their "hideouts" in north-western Pakistan, in the first strikes by the unmanned aircraft in almost six months, officials said Thursday. Drones fired around 20 missiles at two separate locations in North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, destroying compounds and vehicles allegedly used by "militants", security officials said. At least 10 suspected members of the Haqqani group of Afghan Taliban were killed in strikes early Thursday in the Dandy Darpa Khel area. Overnight, six militants, including Uzbek members of the Taliban, were killed in a separate drone attack in the Ghulam Khan area of North Waziristan, officials said.

The EU’s advisory panel on privacy and data protection has warned Google to comply with Europe‘s laws in an unusually strongly worded statement. The Article 29 Working Party vowed to investigate if Google refused to abide by theEuropean Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling – Google Spain v Gonzalez et al – that decreed Google was not exempt from data protection and privacy legislation on the Continent. That ECJ ruling means individuals can request the removal of old and out of date links that are not in the public interest from web search engine results pages. Google responded by appointing a committee of five “independent” advisors, two of whom have already called for the law to be changed.

Wikileaks: EU External Freedom of Expression Policy

On June 10th the Iraq's second largest city, Mosul was taken by an Islamic militant group called ISIS, whose fighters are pouring into the country from Syria. Today they followed up that attack with a push south towards Baghdad, occupying the strategic oil refining town of Baiji and seizing the city of Tikrit. The Iraqi army put up little resistance. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (aka ISIS) is a splinter group of Al-Qaeda. Their stated goal is to erase the border between Syria and Iraq and to establish an Islamic state in the unified country. They currently control large swaths of territory in both countries. The tactics employed by the ISIS are so brutal that in February the main branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria disavowed the group entirely. The U.S. government, which has been funding and arming rebels in Syria has attempted to distance itself from both the ISIS and mainline Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria, however the so called "moderate" rebels that Washington is publicly supporting, have admitted that they regularly carry out joint operations with Al-Qaeda, and do not consider the group their enemy.

Sydney Morning Herald: Iraq asks for US air strikes
ZeroHedge: Iraq Gives Obama Green Light To Commence "Kinetic Support" Against Al Qaeda
NYT: Where ISIS Is Gaining Control in Iraq and Syria - MAP
antiwar.com: 161 Killed, 119 Wounded as More Iraq Cities Seized
PressTV: Iraqi tribesmen recapture Mosul neighborhood
Al Jazeera: After insurgent gains, Iraqi government mulls dwindling options
Moon of Alabama: Iraq: The Civil War Restarted
xymphora: A new country

Oded Yinon ■ A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties || Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north. It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation will deepen this polarization. [Additional links here and here]

Bill Van Auken ■ The fall of Mosul and the crimes of imperialism || While official Washington publicly wrings its hands over the fall of Mosul, the effect of this development on the US proxy war in Syria may not be all that unwelcome within sections of the US military and intelligence apparatus. [...] No one has been held accountable for these actions, which indisputably constitute war crimes. Those responsible include not only George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others in the previous administration. Both major political parties, the media, the corporations and every American institution are responsible for the lies that have pervaded US policy—both foreign and domestic—for the past decade and a half. All of the criminal policies under Bush—aggressive war, torture—have been continued and deepened by the Obama administration. With its “pivot” to Asia and coup in Ukraine, it is preparing military confrontation with Russia and China and laying the groundwork for a nuclear Third World War.

Michael Snyder ■ The Russians are actually making a move against the petrodollar. It appears that they are quite serious about their de-dollarization strategy. The largest natural gas producer on the planet, Gazprom, has signed agreements with some of their biggest customers to switch payments for natural gas from U.S. dollars to euros. And Gazprom would have never done this without the full approval of the Russian government, because the Russian government holds a majority stake in Gazprom. There hasn't been a word about this from the big mainstream news networks in the United States, but this is huge. When you are talking about Gazprom, you are talking about a company that is absolutely massive. It is one of the largest companies in the entire world and it makes up 8 percent of Russian GDP all by itself. It holds 18 percent of the natural gas reserves of the entire planet, and it is also a very large oil producer. So for Gazprom to make a move like this is extremely significant. When Barack Obama decided to slap some meaningless economic sanctions on Russia a while back, he probably figured that the world would forget about them after a few news cycles. But the Russians do not forget, and they certainly do not forgive.

Two diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks Public Library on US Diplomacy reveal that Ukraine’s president-elect Petr Poroshenko served as an informant for United States’ State Department. A confidential message from the US Embassy in Kiev dating back to April 29, 2006 mentions the now widely-known confectionary tycoon twice. ● Back then Poroshenko reportedly handed to the US Embassy in Kiev inside information on the plotting a coalition government in 2006, Wikileaks say. The message was intended for Ambassador John Herbst to update him on how things stood in April 2006, Poroshenko describing himself as an insider from the party Nasha Ukrayina (Our Ukraine), a bloc associated with former President Viktor Yushchenko, passionately welcomed by the western leaders. The diplomat, however, questioned the authenticity of Poroshenko's message suspecting it to be part of backdoor games aimed at arresting once Yushchenko’s allies - Yuliya Tymoshenko and Aleksandr Turchynov until recently - acting Ukraine's President. Who is Poroshenko – the figure to use his might and power to wind down the deadly standoff in the country’s southeast or a mere businessman who skilfully pulls his strings – is still debated. Other Wikileaks documents that came recently to light show that Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko might have cooperated with mafia boss Seymon Mogilievich when she headed United Energy Systems.

Screenshot: Inna Kukurudza was in the center of Lugansk, talking on the phone with her daughter, when she was bombed by an aircraft of the Kyiv government, June 2, 2014. The airstrike hit a Public building, which came under the control of the anti-Kyiv population a month ago. It also hit a nearby park. (Revolution News)

"Juan" ■ Untermenschen. That is what we are in the eyes of The West. Untermenschen. Subhumans. I have watched the unfolding coup d'état in Ukraine from it's very beginning in late November 2013 in Kiev. I have watched a steady stream of western dignitaries and politicians parade through Maidan Square in Kiev, each and every one of them publicly and vocally expressing their open support of the coup. I find it appalling that the sitting ambassador of the United States of America to the Sovereign Country of Ukraine, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, actively and publicly supported a violent coup d'état against the sitting and legally elected government of Ukraine and to this day actively and publicly expresses open support for the illegal coup installed government in Kiev. [...] But one thing they should understand. We, the Untermenschen, will fight them. Ukraine died in Odessa on 02 May 2014. Any chance of negotiations about Donbas died on 09 May 2014 in Mariupol. After Lugansk yesterday it will be a fight to the death. We will win. We Untermenschen will defeat you. We have no choice. We will fight you to our last breath and die fighting before we kneel in subservience to a single one of you. For you politicians behind the coup d'état in Kiev and the war against the citizens of Ukraine, you disgust me. I have only this to say to Merkel, Torchinov, Poroshenko, Holland, Cameron. Swift Boat John, Nuland and Obama, whoever the 'president' of Poland is, each and every one of you, your minions and hangers on, the west politicians, ALL of you. Damn your eyes, damn your souls, damn you to Hell, back to where you came from. You are beneath contempt.

Paul Craig Roberts ■ Here is an eyewitness report of the violence that the Washington-backed government in Kiev is inflicting on those protesting against the anti-Russian regime that Washington has installed in Kiev. This is not information you will hear from the presstitute media or from “your” government. You can ask, “Who is this reporter? How do we know we can believe him,” or you can say, “We know that we cannot believe “our” government and its presstitute media, so let’s give the reporter the benefit of the doubt.” The reporter uses the German word Untermenschen, which means “under men” or lesser beings. The Nazis applied this term to most of humanity, while referring to Germans as Ubermenchen which means, in effect, overlords or superior men. The US neoconservative ideology parallels the Nazi ideology. Americans are the Exceptional People, the Indispensable People. Everyone else is unexceptional and dispensable. Apparently the American people are convinced of their worthiness over others. Perhaps this is why there is no remorse over the millions of Untermenschen that Washington has murdered, maimed, and displaced in seven countries so far in the 21st century.