As ISIS, a group thought to consist of only a few thousand people led by a shadowy figurehead, defeats forces many times its size to capture a large part of Iraq, RT looks into what is ISIS, and how has it achieved its terrifying triumphs. So, what is ISIS? And is it even ISIS, or is it ISIL? - The world’s most committed and fanatical radical organization has only recently gone by its current name, after the unrecognized Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) was proclaimed in April last year. Al-Sham has been most commonly translated from Arabic as the Levant, hence ISIL. It was previously known as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic State of Iraq. The frequent name changes are not cosmetic – but the direct result of the transforming circumstances which have allowed ISIS to rapidly flourish. Initially focused on achieving dominance in Iraq, it was kept under control in the relatively calm period between the initial sectarian strife that broke out following the US-led invasion in 2003, and the outbreak of hostilities following the American military withdrawal in 2011. Since then, it has become a major player, receiving another critical boost when the civil war in Syria turned into a sectarian conflict, bringing in millions of dollars in funding and thousands of fresh recruits from around the world.

PressTV: ISIL Saudi creation trained by Western agents
Yuram Abdullah Weiler: Reviling the victim: West still in denial over cause of Iraq violence

David Swanson ■ People forget the extent to which Democrats, who controlled the U.S. Senate at the time, pushed for and supported the 2003 attack on Iraq. Remember them or not, theeeeeeeeeey’re back! The Center for American Progress, the head of whose “action fund,” former Democratic Congressman from Virginia’s Fifth District Tom Perriello, slipped through the revolving door into a State Department job in February, is now pushing for “principled” bombings of Iraq. Principled or not, the Center for American Progress is funded by Lockheed Martin and other huge war profiteers. C.A.P. has just put out a report recommending that air strikes be considered. For that to happen, many other things need to not be considered.

Matt Carr ■ Iraq: A Brief History of Bombing || Faced with the prospect of the imminent disintegration of the Iraqi state, the installation of of a jihadist caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, an all-out sectarian civil war, and the final collapse of US policy in Iraq, the Obama administration is reaching once again into that trusty tool of US foreign policy: air strikes. Since World War II, bombing has been the weapon of choice for successive governments in all the wars America has fought. It’s a weapon that has been used against Iraq – and also in support of Iraq – on numerous occasions, and with very different political and military objectives. And with Iraq’s cities once again appearing in the Imperium’s bomb sights, its worth looking back at some of these precedents, and the policy twists and turns that made them possible.

US-led forces in Iraq used depleted uranium weapons in civilian-populated areas during the 2003 military campaign, according to a new Dutch NGO study that also exposes a lack of adequate cleanup efforts by the invading troops. ● For the first time the location of several sites where the invaders fired some 10,000 depleted uranium rounds were released by the Dutch Defense Ministry, and published in a study by Dutch peace group PAX. Most of the DU rounds fired by the US-led coalition were in heavily populated areas, the group says. Samawah, Nasiriyah and Basrah are just some urban areas where ammunition was deployed - with around 1,500 anti-armor rounds fired directly at Saddam Hussein's infantry forces. The GPS coordinates of DU rounds were initially handed over to the Dutch Defense Ministry because the Netherlands was worried about the potential contamination of its own troops in the country. The ministry later shared the information with PAX under a freedom of information law. Most of the firing locations remain unknown, as more than 300,000 DU rounds are believed to have been fired by US-led coalition. NGO says that the health risks of more than 440,000 kg of DU fired by Western forces remains unclear, as “neither coalition forces nor the Iraqi government have supported health research into civilian DU exposure.”

US fired depleted uranium at civilian areas in Iraq
Depleted uranium used by US forces blamed for birth defects and cancer in Iraq

[Translated From Russian by Gleb Bazov. Original] In the course of the night from 18th to 19th [of June], the enemy implemented a large-scale transfer of troops from the vicinity of Dolgenkoye village, where they have their stronghold and encampment, to the region of Krasniy Liman. Altogether, over 130 various items of military equipment were moved, including approximately 20 tanks and 40 APCs (“BMD,” “BMP” and “BTR”). The saboteur-intelligence group of the militia was able to take out one of the “BTR” APCs in the column by exploding a landmine. In addition, in the course of the night, the militia conducted strikes against the stronghold of the enemy in the Kombikormoviy neighbourhood. Early in the morning on June 19, 2014, the enemy, with tanks and motorized infantry, and supported by two ground attack fighters Su-25, a division of self-propelled howitzers, a GRAD MLRS battery and several mortar batteries, dealt a massive blow against the positions of the Krasniy Liman detachment of militia located in the vicinity of Yampol settlement. The first attack was repelled, and an enemy tank was hit. [File photo/AFP]

Itar-Tass: Russia’s Armed Forces ready for any scenario in Ukraine — defense minister

Today, WikiLeaks released the secret draft text for the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Financial Services Annex, which covers 50 countries and 68.2%1 of world trade in services. The US and the EU are the main proponents of the agreement, and the authors of most joint changes, which also covers cross-border data flow. In a significant anti-transparency manoeuvre by the parties, the draft has been classified to keep it secret not just during the negotiations but for five years after the TISA enters into force. Despite the failures in financial regulation evident during the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis and calls for improvement of relevant regulatory structures2, proponents of TISA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets. The draft Financial Services Annex sets rules which would assist the expansion of financial multi-nationals – mainly headquartered in New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt – into other nations by preventing regulatory barriers. The leaked draft also shows that the US is particularly keen on boosting cross-border data flow, which would allow uninhibited exchange of personal and financial data. Read the full press release here.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that he had been tortured in a British prison prior to getting asylum with Ecuador's embassy in London, the Ecuadorian news agency Andes reported. "I was detained without official charges. I spent five days without charges in a horrible prison in the UK. My health was very poor then, and they applied electricity to my shins," Assange was quoted as saying during the joint press conference with Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Patino on Thursday. Ecuador vowed asylum offer to Assange was for the long term. "We will protect Julian Assange as long as necessary and as long as he wants," Patino said. Britain's Supreme Court ruled in 2012 to extradite WikiLeaks founder to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, although WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said he clearly saw Washington's hand in the ruling.

Reuters: Ecuador says talks with Britain over Julian Assange at an impasse

● Huge volumes of private emails, phone calls, and internet chats are being intercepted by the National Security Agency with the secret cooperation of more foreign governments than previously known, according to newly disclosed documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden.
● Using the codename RAMPART-A, the NSA would work with these third-party countries to attempt to intercept as much of the world’s online communications as possible, says the Danish privacy news website Dagbladet Information.
● In total, there are reportedly 33 countries working with the US in facilitating this spying, with many of the links pointing towards co-operation with Germany and Denmark. Snowden has said that of the documents released recently, RAMPART-A is considered one of the ‘crown jewels’ in the NSA and was part of the NSA’s Special Source Operations (SSO) division.
● It is also understood that contributing countries to the programme have used the cover of their manipulation of the lines as being part of a Comsat project. The NSA documents state that under RAMPART-A, foreign partners "provide access to cables and host US equipment." This allows the agency to covertly tap into "congestion points around the world" where it says it can intercept the content of phone calls, faxes, e-mails, internet chats, data from virtual private networks, and calls made using Voice over IP software like Skype.

Ryan Gallagher: How Secret Partners Expand NSA’s Surveillance Dragnet