The United States Postal Service allowed "law enforcement agencies" to secretly monitor the mail of Americans about 50,000 times last year, a new report has revealed. ● According to the report published by The New York Times on Monday, “in many cases the Postal Service approved requests to monitor an individual’s mail without adequately describing the reason or having proper written authorization.” The newspaper says the number of requests indicates that the surveillance on Americans communications is more widespread than previously revealed. The documents for the report were obtained by the Times under the Freedom of Information Act.

New York Times: Report Reveals Wider Tracking of Mail in U.S.
ABA Journal: Snail-mail monitoring expands; lawyers complain of privilege violations, lack of oversight

There was no Russian distress call. That’s the opinion of a Swedish signal intelligence (SIGINT) source after a massive $2.8mn military and media sub-hunt consumed the country for a week. ● Reports of a Russian distress signal and a grainy-picture were enough to deploy the navy while the media widely concluded the vessel had to be a Russian submarine spooking Stockholm. The proof of this was an alleged comms intercept, at distress call frequency, between the supposed sub and Kaliningrad base. But the Dagens Nyheter daily cited a Swedish Intel source who confessed there was no distress call.

Dagens Nyheter: Försvaret: Inget ryskt nödsamtal bakom ubåtsjakt || Försvarsmaktens operation i Stockholms skärgård utlöstes inte av ett nödsamtal på ryska. Det uppger Marinens underrättelsetjänst (MTS-M2) för DN. Försvarsmaktens operation i Stockholms skärgård utlöstes inte av ett nödsamtal på ryska. Det uppger Marinens underrättelsetjänst (MTS-M2) för DN. Lördagen den 18 oktober avslöjade Svenska Dagbladet att ett nödsamtal på ryska föregått ubåtslarmet i Stockholms skärgård. Tidningen berättade också att det förekommit krypterad radiotrafik mellan en sändare i skärgården och en sändare i Kaliningrad där stora delar av den ryska Östersjöflottan finns. Uppgifterna återgavs av i stort sett alla svenska medier, däribland Dagens Nyheter. Avslöjandet fick även stor uppmärksamhet internationellt. Redan i fredagens papperstidning erfor DN att ingen radiokommunikation mellan området och Kaliningrad avlyssnats under den sex dagar långa operationen. DN har nu med stöd av offentlighetsprincipen begärt ut en kopia av ljudupptagningen från Försvarsmakten, samt en översatt utskrift av densamma. [...] Försvarsmakten har tidigare uppgett sig sakna kännedom om att en nödsignal skulle ha skickats från Stockholms skärgård. Men när det gäller ett nödsamtal har myndigheten fram tills nu varken velat bekräfta eller dementera uppgiften om ett sådant uppfattats av den svenska signalspaningen.

The chief Dutch prosecutor investigating the MH17 downing in eastern Ukraine does not exclude the possibility that the aircraft might have been shot down from air, Der Spiegel reported. Intelligence to support this was presented by Moscow in July. ● The chief investigator with the Dutch National Prosecutors' Office Fred Westerbeke said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published on Monday that his team is open to the theory that another plane shot down the Malaysian airliner. Following the downing of the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight in July that killed almost 300 people, Russia’s Defense Ministry released military monitoring data, which showed a Kiev military jet tracking the MH17 plane shortly before the crash. No explanation was given by Kiev as to why the military plane was flying so close to a passenger aircraft. Neither Ukraine, nor Western states have officially accepted such a possibility. MH17 Search on AWIP

Lower oil prices, reflected in falling petrol prices at the pump, have been a boon for Western consumers. Are they also a potent US weapon against Russia and Iran? ● That's the conclusion drawn by New York Times columnist Thomas L Friedman, who says the US and Saudi Arabia, whether by accident or design, could be pumping Russia and Iran to brink of economic collapse. Despite turmoil in many of the world's oil-producing countries - Libya, Iraq, Nigeria and Syria - prices are hitting lows not seen in years, Friedman writes. Analysts identify a number of possible reasons for the steep drop - increased US production, slowing economies in Europe and China and steady production from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). Rather than look at the causes, however, Friedman says to look at the result - budget shortfalls in Russia and Iran - and what it means. Who benefits? He asks. The US wants its Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia to have more bite. Both the Saudis and the US are fighting a proxy war against Iran in Syria. "This is business, but it also has the feel of war by other means: oil," he writes. Paul Richter of the Los Angeles Times agrees that both Russia and Iran are starting to feel the squeeze of lower prices, although he doesn't go as far as Friedman in speculating about a secret war.

Robert Parry ■ When reading the New York Times on many foreign policy issues, it doesn’t take a savant to figure out what the newspaper’s bias is. Anything, for instance, relating to Russian President Vladimir Putin drips of contempt and hostility. Rather than offer the Times’ readers an objective or even slightly fair-minded account of Putin’s remarks, we are fed a steady diet of highly prejudicial language, such as we find in Saturday’s article about Putin’s comments at a conference in which he noted U.S. contributions to chaos in countries, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine. That Putin is correct appears almost irrelevant to the Times, which simply writes that Putin “unleashed perhaps his strongest diatribe against the United States yet” with his goal “to sell Moscow’s view that American meddling has sparked most of the world’s recent crises.”

Paul Craig Roberts ■ Washington Is Defaming Putin

In a wide-ranging conversation, he discusses the surveillance state, the American political system and the price he’s paid for his understanding of patriotism. ● On October 6, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen (professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton) sat down in Moscow for a wide-ranging discussion with Edward Snowden. Throughout their nearly four-hour conversation, which lasted considerably longer than planned (see below for audio excerpts), the youthful-appearing Snowden was affable, forthcoming, thoughtful and occasionally humorous. Among other issues, he discussed the price he has paid for speaking truth to power, his definition of patriotism and accountability, and his frustration with America’s media and political system. The interview has been edited and abridged for publication, compressing lengthy conversations about technological issues that Snowden has discussed elsewhere.

RT.com: FBI reportedly raids home of 'Second Snowden'

Italy's #1 newspaper interviews infamous Swedish sniper Mike Skillt. ● Recently Corriere della Sera (the most widely read daily in Italy) published an interview with the infamous Swedish sniper "Mike," who is fighting for the neo-Nazi Azov battalion in East Ukraine. As Mike's comments clearly illustrate, Azov fighters are fueled by a sense of racial superiority and a visceral hatred for Russia and all Russians.

France will hand over the first Mistral helicopter carrier to Russia in the coming days or weeks, a high-ranking representative from the STX shipbuilding company told RIA Novosti on Monday. "The transfer of the first Mistral helicopter carrier is a matter of several days or weeks," the representative said. In June 2011, Russia and France signed a 1.2 billion euro ($1.5 billion) deal for two Mistral-class helicopter carrier ships. The first carrier, the Vladivostok, was previously expected in Russia by the end of 2014. The second ship, the Sevastopol, is supposed to arrive in 2015. In September, French President Francois Hollande threatened to suspend the deliveries of the ships over Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. Hollande later stated he would make a decision in late October, specifying that the delivery would depend on the observation of the ceasefire by warring sides in Ukraine's internal armed conflict and a political settlement of the crisis. Last week, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said Russia will sue France if it refuses to fulfill its contract obligations on the ships' delivery.

French Political Leader: "France Should Stop Being a US Lapdog" and Deliver Mistral to Russia

Gilad Atzmon ■ The President of CRIF, France's largest Jewish Lobby that specializes in harassing and terrorising the French political elite was indicted on Monday for defamation. Roger Cukierman was cited for remarks he made in an interview on Europe 1 in which he called Dieudonne Mbla Mbla, - France’s No 1 comedian, a “professional anti-Semite.” On Monday, the elder Zionist announced the indictment himself on CRIF's website. “So I am being indicted for having stated on Europe 1 that Dieudonne is a professional anti-Semite. Isn’t that funny? For once, Dieudonne is actually comical.” It seems as if the people who imposed ‘correctness’ on the rest of us, may have to start policing their own language. This may be a positive development.

Maidhc Ó Cathail ■ Using the Holocaust to Justify War || Since bursting onto the U.S. foreign policy stage in the 1980s, the neocons have been masters of “perception management,” devising emotional (and often false) messaging to justify aggressive war, as Maidhc Ó Cathail sees in recent Holocaust-themed propaganda against Syria’s government.