Unmarked Gulfstream tracked as it passed above UK ● As the whistleblowing NSA sysadmin Edward Snowden made his dramatic escape to Russia a year ago, a secret US government jet - previously employed in CIA "rendition" flights on which terror suspects disappeared into invisible "black" imprisonment - flew into Europe in a bid to spirit him back to America, the Register can reveal. On the evening of 24 June 2013, as Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong intending to fly on to Cuba, an unmarked Gulfstream V business jet - tail number N977GA - took off from a quiet commercial airport [Manassas Regional Airport] 30 miles from Washington DC...Early next morning, N977GA was detected heading east over Scotland at the unusually high altitude of 45,000 feet. It had not filed a flight plan, and was flying above the level at which air traffic control reporting is mandatory.

Social science is being militarised to develop 'operational tools' to target peaceful activists and protest movements. ● A US Department of Defense (DoD) research programme is funding universities to model the dynamics, risks and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world, under the supervision of various US military agencies. The multi-million dollar programme is designed to develop immediate and long-term "warfighter-relevant insights" for senior officials and decision makers in "the defense policy community," and to inform policy implemented by "combatant commands." Launched in 2008 – the year of the global banking crisis – the DoD 'Minerva Research Initiative' partners with universities "to improve DoD's basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the US."

The US is further complicating the turmoil in Iraq by ramping up support for terrorists and militants in Syria, two political authors say. ● In a recent article published on Huffington Post, Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett said the tensions in Iraq and Syria are interwoven, arguing that Washington’s empowering of “brutal and unrepresentative militias” in Syria has fed the violence in neighboring Iraq. The authors said the US, for over three years, provided militants in Syria with different types of aid, creating a chaos that plagued the Arab country and spilled over into Iraq. The US President Barack Obama administration's transformation of Syria into a “training ground” for transnational Takfiri militants has “directly" led to the resurgence of extremism in Iraq, they said.

PressTV: Pro-Israel lobby blackmails US Senate: Analyst
Gilad Atzmon: The Jewish Plan For The Middle East and Beyond

The Saker ■ Juan just emailed me to let me know that the Russian Embassy in Kiev is under attack by neo-Nazi rioters. The attack is streamed live here and here. Also, there is a 90% probability the gaz attack in Novorossiya will be tonight during the seizing and burning of the Russian Embassy in Kiev as "The World's" attention is focused on Kiev. I would add that my "beloved" BBC only reports Poroshenko's threats following the downing of the Ukie Il-76 by the NDF.

While I do not have the energy to follow the events in both locations, what is taking place in Iraq is nothing short of amazing. Think of it - when Uncle Sam attack Iran, al-Qaeda basically did not exist there (except in Saddam's jails). Now, after a decade of "US-style nation building" the local franchise of al-Qaeda is in full control of Mosul, Falludjah, Tikrit, Ramadi and many other. And now, years after Dubya's "mission accomplished" we have Barak "no we can't" Obama having to decide whether to bring back the "official" US military in (the "private" or "unofficial" never left) or whether to provide air cover for the Iranian Pasdaran. Or maybe attack them too? Who knows what kind of idiotic plan Obombya and his advisers can come up with? What is certain is that this is a total disgrace for a country which fancies itself as a superpower.

Moon of Alabama ■ The Ukrainian coup government claims that Russian tanks crossed the border and are in use by federalists in east Ukraine. First claims talked about three Russian T-72 tanks but later claims changed the type of the tank to T-64s. The tanks can be seen driving here (vid) and here (vid). The U.S. State Department is now endorsing [these] claims. There are several lies in this State Department claims. Ukrainian tank units are operating in the area against federalists. Here are several photos (scroll down) from Associated Press showing them - also pic 7 here. The tanks re T-64 BV, the upgraded subtype used in the Ukrainian army.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects, has signed an agreement that will allow Israeli propagandists to promote apartheid Israel and its racist, Zionist policies through the pages of Wikipedia, the world’s largest and most popular free encyclopedia. The agreement was signed by Rabbi Shai Piron, the Israeli education minister, Jan-Bart de Vreede, the chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, Itzik Edri, the chairman of the Wikimedia Israel Board, and Michal Lester, the executive director of Wikimedia Israel.

The Latin American countries are waking up to the fact that most of the world’s population does not want GMO food. Brazil recently increased their export of corn to China, for example, when China rejected U.S. genetically modified corn that was not approved in China. With an apparent eye to the potential export market for non-GMO corn, a court in Brazil banned approval of further GMO corn in the country. Likewise, judges in Mexico seem to also be waking up to the dangers of GMO corn and the market potential for non-GMO corn, and have recently banned GMO corn in some provinces. Unfortunately, the biotech industry responsible for producing GMO seeds in America has tremendous political power. We have documented in the past how the U.S. State Department has tried to force European countries to adopt made-in-the-USA GMO seeds. (See: U.S. State Department Wants to Pressure the EU to Accept our GMO Products) We have also documented how the United States has used their military might to force occupied countries to adopt our GMO seeds, at the expense of local sustainable agriculture. (See: US Foreign Policy Destroys Native Sustainable Agriculture) So it should come as no surprise that the United States is now trying to pressure Latin American countries to buy our GMO seeds.