The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. The administration wants to add four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers say, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.

Here we see one of the most bizarre twists in the story: US government sources now using the leaked documents to buttress the current anti-Iran narrative and in the process acting as though the intelligence reports are providing information that hadn’t been accessible inside government until they were leaked!

At the very same time, the State Department’s leading expert on Iran, John Limbert — a genuine source of intelligence and “the most qualified person on the Iran team at State in the three decades I have lived in the United States,” according to Haleh Esfandiari, head of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars — is about to resign.

At Foreign Policy, Barbara Slavin writes:

[I]t’s hard not to view Limbert’s departure as a turning point and yet another missed opportunity in U.S.-Iran relations. A number of players with more skeptical views about the prospect of rapprochement with Tehran — such as White House aide Dennis Ross and nonproliferation experts like Robert Einhorn and Gary Samore — appear to be driving U.S. policy now, and the president himself blames the Iranian government for failing to respond to his outreach.

What could please the attack-Iran lobby more than to see the departure of the most skilled American proponent of engagement and at the same time to be served a prize piece of propaganda by an outfit aligned with the anti-war movement?!

Julian Assange’s recent comment in the Belfast Telegraph about 9/11, however, may be a more tangible source of concern for me. I know Assange isn’t an idiot, so I see three other possibilities:

1. He is profoundly ignorant of the vast body of material that demonstrates that the 9/11 spectacle was a false flag operation.
2. He’s “picking his battles” and not wanting to have to deal with the inevitable conspiracy theory stigma that could threaten his media access
3. He’s running a limited hangout/honeypot

Of these three options, I doubt that it’s number two.

911Blogger.com: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is 'annoyed' by 9/11 truth. AWIP: Wikileaks calls for more leakers to step into its spider's web. The First Post: Shame the leak didn’t come earlier, says Taliban -It ‘proves US brutality in Afghanistan’.

Buried among the 92,000 classified documents released Sunday by WikiLeaks is some intriguing evidence that the U.S. military in Afghanistan has adopted a PR strategy that got it into trouble in Iraq: paying local media outlets to run friendly stories. Several reports from Army psychological operations units and provincial reconstruction teams (also known as PRTs, civilian-military hybrids tasked with rebuilding Afghanistan) show that local Afghan radio stations were under contract to air content produced by the United States. Other reports show U.S. military personnel apparently referring to Afghan reporters as "our journalists" and directing them in how to do their jobs.

Just like Army PFC Bradley Manning, who leaked to Wikileaks and was turned in by one of the group's hacker associates, and now faces decades in jail. These old Chaos Computer Club hackers cut a deal long ago with intelligence and law enforcement rather than be thrown behind bars. Wikileaks is a clever intel community snare but Washington's top investigative journalists see through the trap. In May, PFC Bradley Manning, a former intelligence analyst in Iraq, was arrested on charges of leaking the video and other documents to Wikileaks, after confiding in former hacker Adrian Lamo, who turned him in. While publishing classified documents isn’t a crime in the U.S., press reports indicate the government is concerned that Wikileaks will publish tens of thousands of sensitive State Department cables that Manning purportedly also provided Wikileaks. In chats with Lamo, Manning claimed to have given Wikileaks a database of 260,000 cables; Manning has been formally charged with downloading over 150,000 cables, and leaking more than 50 classified cables. AWIP: Wikileaks obtained and multiple sources are now reporting on a huge cache of documents related to the US war in Afghanistan. The Guardian: Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation.

NYT: Wikileaks: Pakistan state spy services meet directly with the Taliban to organize networks of militant groups against American soldiers in Afghanistan and assassinate Afghan leaders, all to ensure their US war on terror funding. Antiwar: Assange: WikiLeaks Has 15,000 More Documents ‘Under Review’.

[Editor's Comment:] It is easy to see that all of this Pakistal/Taliban stuff dovetails neatly with the US war campaign in Pakistan. -Is Wikileaks a DoD/CIA black operation? If it is, this would effectively ruin the trust necessary for whistleblowers to come forward. As for the ones that do come forward, the DoD/CIA could take them down, one by one. -Intel is a murky business...

Doubts summed up:

1. Wikileaks is straight & the docs published genuine
2. Wikileaks is straight but some docs are not genuine
3. Wikileaks is not straight and is a spider's web/black op (created by/taken over by the DoD and the CIA)

We would probably have to read a fair number of the 92000 documents to try and find out what the truth of the matter is. Some of the documents clearly are very damaging to both Pakistan and the US.

AWIP/Chris Floyd: Leaky Vessels: Wikileaks "Revelations" Will Comfort Warmongers, Confirm Conventional Wisdom. [T]hese reports are being treated as if they are the "grim truth" behind the shining picture of official propaganda. But what do these stories in the NYT and Guardian actually "reveal"? Let's see:

● That the occupation forces kill lots of civilians at checkpoints and botched raids, then lie about it afterward.
● That these killings make Afghans angry and fuel the insurgency.
● That elements of Pakistani intelligence are involved with some elements of the many resistance groups known collectively (and incorrectly) in the West as the Taliban.
● That the Americans are using more and more robot drones to kill people.
● That the Americans are running death squads in Afghanistan aimed at Taliban leaders.
● That Afghan officials are corrupt, and that Afghan police and military forces are woefully inadequate.

Is there anything in these breathless new recitations that we did not already know?

Kev Boyle: WIKILEAKS/WIKIPEDIA: TRUTH serving LIES (with CIA/MOSSAD oversight)
Again, innocent people get murdered by coalition troops. Evil...embarrassing....but tell us something we didn't know. We know that the powers-that-be are determined to control both sides of every argument. They lead the opposition against themselves. That's why "Stop The War" will not even MENTION 9/11 Truth and exclude from the ranks of their leadership anyone who wants to raise reasonable questions about the events of 9/11. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is 'annoyed' by 9/11 truth. That there IN ITSELF makes him, to any sensible person, a placeman of the security services. This, like the StopTheWar position, is called a 'limited hangout'.

Elvis of Terror: Sightings of Osama bin Laden: Daily Telegraph + Daily Mail + The BBC + The Guardian

AWIP: From the grave: "Bin Laden" warns US of more attacks

Former Pakistani spy agency chief Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul denied that he has any links to al Qaeda or Taliban insurgents and said he is willing to go to America to face any charges.

“Report of my physical involvement with al Qaeda or Taliban in planning attacks on American forces is completely baseless,” the former Inter-Services Intelligence chief said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “I am not against America, but I am opposed to what the American forces are doing in Afghanistan.”

In the murky world of Pakistan army links with militants, it’s often difficult to ascertain whether former military officers like Mr. Gul are working with the tacit approval of current army personnel. Mr. Gul, however, does not work mainly in the shadows. He’s a regular presence on nightly TV talkshows, expounding his anti-American views. The ISI denied that Hamid Gul had continued to operate on behalf of the spy agency after officially leaving the organization two decades ago.

“He hasn’t worked for the ISI in any capacity since he left the organization,” said Zafar Iqbal, a spokesman for the ISI. “He doesn’t have any sanction from the ISI,” he added.

Gul, who served as director general of ISI from 1986 to 1989, had worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency in organizing a covert war against the former Soviet Union forces in Afghanistan. Gul likes to call himself a “Muslim visionary” and has remained actively involved with Pakistani radical Islamic movements and Afghan Mujahideen leaders such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar since his retirement from the army in 1991. He has been a strong critic of America since then.

Former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey, The Washington Post, today, arguing against civilian trials for Guantanamo detainees:

The civilized world has tried over several hundred years to establish rules of warfare so that those who wear uniforms, follow a recognized chain of command, carry their arms openly and do not target civilians are treated as prisoners of war when captured. Those who follow none of these rules are treated as war criminals, not as ordinary defendants accused of ordinary crimes and entitled to far more robust protection than war criminals.

Dana Priest and William Arkin, The Washington Post, today, on the sprawling network of private corporations performing core U.S. military and intelligence functions:

Private contractors working for the CIA have recruited spies in Iraq, paid bribes for information in Afghanistan and protected CIA directors visiting world capitals. Contractors have helped snatch a suspected extremist off the streets of Italy, interrogated detainees once held at secret prisons abroad and watched over defectors holed up in the Washington suburbs. . . . Contractors kill enemy fighters. They spy on foreign governments and eavesdrop on terrorist networks. They help craft war plans. They gather information on local factions in war zones. . . .

Florida –Organizers today announced the formation of the North American Truth and Accountability Commission for Human Experimentation (NATAC). The Commission, nearly 8 months in the making, was first proposed after a number of people had read the recently published book by H.P. Albarelli Jr., A TERRIBLE MISTAKE: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments. Albarelli’s book details a number of shocking human experiments conducted during the Cold War years. Following a number of meetings in Los Angeles and New York City to discuss both past and on-going human experiments sponsored by the government, it was proposed that a formal commission be formed to further research government-sponsored human experimentation in the United States and Canada and to advocate for the demise of all such programs.

New details have emerged regarding the 2004 death of Egyptian-born scientist Muhammad al-Azmirly at a prison at a U.S. air base in Baghdad. Al-Azmirly died after his arrest by U.S. forces during the 2003 invasion. He is believed to have been a close confidant of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. A specialist in the field of chemistry, al-Azmirly was considered one of world's leading experts on polymers at the time of his death, and when the war began, was listed among the 200 people closest to the regime of Saddam Hussein. He was a member of the science faculty at the University of Baghdad before being arrested and taken from his home on April 26, 2003. His private office was set alight by American occupation forces after all of his books, papers, computers and family photos were confiscated. Zionist Intelligence [Israeli intelligence, the Mossad] then analyzed the information. He was held at the Abu Ghraib prison for ten days during which U.S. forces tortured him. Then he was transferred to a secret prison under the control of Zionist intelligence for questioning about his scientific activities.

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian nuclear scientist who returned home last week from the United States provided valuable information about the CIA, a semiofficial news agency reported Wednesday, adding that his spy's tale would be made into a TV movie. American authorities have claimed Shahram Amiri willingly defected to the U.S. but changed his mind and decided to return home without the $5 million he had been paid for what a U.S. official described as "significant" information about his country's disputed nuclear program. The Fars news agency quoted an unidentified source as saying that Iran's intelligence agents were in touch with Amiri while he was in the U.S. and that they won an intelligence battle against the CIA. Iran has portrayed the return of Amiri as a blow to American intelligence services that it says were desperate for inside information on Iran's nuclear program. Iran has sought to make maximum propaganda gains from the affair, allowing journalists to cover Amiri's return, sending a senior Foreign Ministry official to greet him and preparing to make a movie about the story.

"This was an intelligence battle between the CIA and us that was designed and managed by Iran," the source was quoted as saying. "We had set various goals in this battle and, by the grace of God, we achieved all our objectives without our rival getting any real victory."

CBC News: Iranian nuclear scientist spied on CIA: report.

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine. The investigation's other findings include:

■ Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

■ An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

■ In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space.

■ Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.

■ Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.

Raw Story: Post documents growth of intelligence since 9/11: U.S. intelligence community inefficient, unmanageable.

Two bombs were detonated in quick succession in front of the Zahedan Grand Mosque in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan last Thursday. At least 27 people lost their lives and more than 100 others were injured in the terrorist act. Iran's president says US and NATO forces offer financial and material support to terrorists, yet US President Barack Obama, ironically enough, sends a condolence message on the recent deadly terrorist attacks in southeast Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that US troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan sponsor such acts of terror, reported IRNA. "No grouping other than US-backed terrorist groups which are devoid of human feelings can commit such acts," added President Ahmadinejad. The president further called on the Iranian Foreign Ministry to follow up the terror attack through the Pakistani government. "We are friends with the Pakistani nation, … but the Pakistani government should be held accountable", he said. Mahmoud Ahmadi also instructed his office to lodge a complaint with international circles base on the 'existing documents', and follow up on NATO and Israel's cooperation with the terrorists. "The puppeteers pulling the strings in this show will get nothing", President Ahmadinejad said.

NEW YORK CITY--Federal agents appeared at a hacker conference Friday morning looking for Julian Assange, the controversial figure who has become the public face of Wikileaks, an organizer said. Eric Corley, publisher of 2600 Magazine and organizer of The Next HOPE conference in midtown Manhattan, said five Homeland Security agents appeared at the conference a day before Wikileaks Editor in Chief Assange was scheduled to speak. The conference program lists Assange--who has been at the center of a maelstrom of positive and negative publicity relating to the arrest of a U.S. serviceman and videos the serviceman may have provided to the document-sharing site--as speaking at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday. "If he shows up, he will be questioned at length," Corley told CNET. Assange did not immediately respond to questions late Friday. AWIP: Wanted by the CIA: The man who keeps no secrets.

As the founder of Wikileaks – a website that publishes millions of documents, from military intelligence to internal company memos and has, in four years, exposed more secrets than many newspapers have in a century – Assange has become the pin-up of web-age investigative journalists. The US has wanted him for questioning since March, after he posed a video showing an American helicopter attack that left several Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists dead.

Understandably, he now avoids the US, and keeps his movements secret, though it's thought he operates out of Sweden and is spending time in Iceland, where a change in the law is creating a libel-free haven for journalists. But if the CIA spooks wanted him that badly, couldn't they have turned up, as a hundred adoring student journalists did, to hear him talk at the Centre for Investigative Journalism 10 days ago?

Perhaps it's just as well they didn't, as Assange is not a natural public speaker. He is more at home trawling data or decrypting the codes that mask it. His philosophy is that the more a government wants to keep something secret, the more reason to expose it. No journalist could argue with his essential belief in shining a light on malpractice, but shouldn't governments be entitled to keep some secrets? "Sure," he says when we speak after his talk, "That doesn't mean we and other press organisations should suffer under coercion." Twitter: Real change begins Monday in the WashPost. By the years end, a reformation. Lights on. Rats out. CNN: WikiLeaks founder: Site getting tons of 'high caliber' disclosures.

A federal judge today ruled that the government can withhold information from the public about intelligence sources and methods, even if those sources and methods were illegal. The ruling came in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation filed by the American Civil Liberties Union for Justice Department memos that authorized torture, and for records relating to the contents of destroyed videotapes depicting the brutal interrogation of detainees at CIA black sites. The government continues to withhold key information, such as the names of detainees who were subjected to the abusive interrogation methods as well as information about the application of the interrogation techniques. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York today ruled that the government can continue to suppress evidence of its illegal program.

Wall Street has been caught laundering massive amounts of drug money. So why isn't anybody being punished? Too-big-to-fail is a much bigger problem than you thought. We've all read damning accounts of the government saving banks from their risky subprime bets, but it turns out that the Wall Street privilege problem is far more deeply ingrained in the U.S. legal system than the simple bailouts witnessed in 2008. America's largest banks can engage in flagrantly criminal activity on a massive scale and emerge almost completely unscathed. The latest sickening example comes from Wachovia Bank: Accused of laundering $380 billion in Mexican drug cartel money, the financial behemoth is expected to emerge with nothing more than a slap on the wrist thanks to an official government policy which protects megabanks from criminal charges.

Bloomberg's Michael Smith has penned a devastating expose detailing Wachovia's drug-money operations and the government's twisted response. The bank was moving money behind literally tons of cocaine from violent drug cartels. It wasn't an accident. Internal whistleblowers at Wachovia warned that the bank was laundering drug money, higher-ups at the bank actively looked the other way in order to score bigger profits, and the U.S. government is about to let everyone involved get off scott free. The bank will not be indicted, because it is official government policy not to prosecute megabanks. [Photo: The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants]

More than 20 people have been killed and over 100 others have been wounded after two explosions hit the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan Province. "Two explosions in the front of Zahedan's Grand Mosque have left more than 20 martyrs and over 100 injured," Fariborz Rashedi, the head of Sistan-Baluchestan's emergency unit told IRNA. The first explosion occurred at 9:20 p.m. local time (1650 GMT) in front of the city's Grand Mosque, and was followed by a second blast within minutes, IRNA said. Jalal Sayyah, a police official, said emergency forces have arrived at the scene of the incident, adding that an investigation into the incident was underway. Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi described the incident as a "terrorist act," Fars news agency reported.

An apparent alleged suicide bombing near a bus terminal in Pakistan's Swat Valley killed five people and wounded at least 58 on Thursday, officials said, a sign that Islamist militants remain active in the northwest region despite a massive army operation. The explosion went off around noon in Mingora, the main town in the one-time tourist haven that was overrun by the Taliban in 2007. Pakistani TV footage showed vehicles bent and twisted due to the force of the blast. Some men were desperately trying to open the doors of a car to reach a woman and man sitting in the front who were bloodied and appeared unconscious. The area struck was crowded, so the death toll could rise significantly. [It certainly would not be beyond the CIA/Blackwater/Xe to do this. They've been known to do such things in the past.]

An Iranian nuclear scientist claimed today that he suffered extreme mental and physical torture at the hands of US interrogators after disappearing last year, adding to Tehran’s allegations he was abducted by American agents. The US said he was a willing defector who changed his mind and decided to board a plane home from Washington. Shahram Amiri was embraced by his family – including his tearful seven-year-old son – after arriving in Tehran in the latest spectacle of a puzzling series of events that left Iran and Washington with starkly different accounts.

Mr Amiri flashed a V-for-victory sign as he stepped into the terminal. Iran [correctly] portrayed the return of Mr Amiri as a blow to American intelligence services that were desperate for inside information on Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran sought maximum propaganda value – allowing journalists to cover Mr Amiri’s return and having a top envoy from Iran’s Foreign Ministry on hand to greet him. Washington described the 32-year-old Mr Amiri as someone who reached out to US officials, but offered few other details.

Speaking to journalists after a flight via Qatar, Mr Amiri repeated his earlier claims that he was snatched while on a pilgrimage last year in the Saudi holy city of Medina and carried off to the United States. He claimed he was under intense pressures during the first few months after his alleged kidnapping. “I was under the harshest mental and physical torture,” he said at Tehran’s international airport, with his young son sitting on his lap. AWIP: Major Embarrassment for US as Long-Missing Iranian Scientist Turns Up a DC Embassy. PressTV: Iranian scholar speaks about abduction. + Amiri 'rejected bribe offer of USD 50mn'. Wapo: U.S. paid Iranian nuclear scientist $5 million for aid to CIA, officials say.

Former Guantanamo detainees can proceed with lawsuits accusing Britain of complicity in torture overseas, a High Court judge ruled Wednesday, rejected a government request to suspend the action. Britain had asked a judge to direct the six men, and six others who plan to launch similar cases, to halt their lawsuits and focus on reaching out of court settlements, allowing an independent inquiry into the accusations to begin. But High Court judge Stephen Silber ruled that the men can press ahead with their cases, even if their lawyers decide to take part in mediation talks aimed at reaching a deal outside the courts. Some documents giving a taste of what might be released in the inquiry also were released, showing an often-confused government position under former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Officials claim the court cases could last five years and cost tens of millions of pounds (dollars), they also insist that intelligence agency staff have been taken off anti-terrorism duties to review up to 500,000 documents to be disclosed in the cases. The Guardian: Omar Deghayes: 'He was brought in manacled and hooded'. + The torture files: the interrogations.

ISLAMABAD – The announcement made by the owner of Blackwater to ‘sell’ the notorious enterprise has not moved hundreds of its mercenaries present in Islamabad. Blackwater’s owner Eric Prince announced last month that Blackwater was out for sale. Soon after the announcement, Islamabad-based security sources informed TheNation that the suspicious ‘aliens’ dispersed across the Federal Capital would be pulling out from Pakistan in the next two to three weeks. The security officials had then confided that Blackwater’s mercenaries present in the South Asian and Middle Eastern region, particularly Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, would be winding up “in a jiffy” in the wake of mega reshuffle in the top management of Blackwater initiated by Eric Prince earlier this year. However, the prevailing scenario speaks otherwise.

At least 64 people died in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in two bomb attacks suspected to have been carried out by Somali Islamist insurgents, Ugandan security officials said. The explosions occurred at bars in the south and east of the city where crowds of football fans were watching the soccer World Cup finals, Agence France-Presse reported, citing police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba. At least 67 people were injured. Al-Shabaab is accused by the U.S. of having links to al- Qaeda. The rebel group has been battling Somalia’s Western- backed government since 2007 for control of the Horn of Africa country. An American citizen was among those killed in yesterday’s blasts, Joann Lockard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, said in a phone interview. “There were Americans injured, but I don’t have any details,” she said. More information will be released later today, Lockard said.

ISLAMABAD: ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha said Thursday that the policy against terrorism should be co-related with the national interest. “The foreign powers are involved in terrorism and destabilization of the country,” said DG ISI. During a briefing in the National Security Committee session headed by Senator Raza Rabbani, DG ISI Ahmed Shuja Pasha said that the western powers are involved in the terror activities of the country. “The US policy against terrorism is under consideration and the changes will be brought with time in accordance with the national interest,” he said. PressTV: Pakistan explosion death toll hits 65.

A Spanish court on Tuesday was seeking the arrest of undercover CIA agents it says used false documents in Spain during the dirty war on terrorism ordered by the George W. Bush administration. That revelation, reported by the local press, was offered by judicial sources investigating U.S. civilian flights with stopovers in Spanish airports between 2003 and 2005. Prosecutor Ismael Moreno with the Audiencia Nacional (National Court)asked the United Kingdom for help in taking statements from Olivier Minkwitz, the author of a report by the British NGO Reprieve which demonstrates that members of those flight crews used fake IDs in their many stopovers in Spain. Reprieve is an organization of lawyers representing individuals locked up on terrorism charges without trial or evidence in the prison maintained by the United States on the its naval base in Guantanamo. According to members of the Reprieve team, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in at least seven kidnappings and illegal transfers of prisoners from Afghanistan and to secret jails in Europe and Africa. The Spanish prosecutor Moreno demanded the arrest of 14 alleged CIA agents who were part of the crew of one of the flights that stopped over in Palma de Mallorca in 2004. According to the court, those individuals were carrying false passports and did not report their presence to Spanish authorities in accordance with the law for undercover operations.

Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet. They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else. The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010 issue.

Human Rights Watch says France, Germany and Britain utilize foreign intelligence obtained through torture in the so-called fight against terrorism. In its report entitled "No Questions Asked: Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture," Human Rights Watch (HRW) has denounced the use of foreign torture intelligence as "illegal" and "wrong," raising concern about the way the countries of the European Union have dealt with intelligence obtained from individuals detained on charges of terrorism. The report condemns any application of information tainted by torture, saying such information has also been used in criminal and other proceedings in France and Germany. "Berlin, Paris and London should be working to eradicate torture, not relying on foreign torture intelligence," the AFP quoted Judith Sunderland, a western Europe researcher for HRW. "Taking information from torturers is illegal and just plain wrong," she emphasized. HRW: “No Questions Asked,” Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture [Report] Electronic Intifada: Israeli link possible in US torture techniques.

TOP TALIBAN MILITANTS RECEIVE MEDICAL CARE AT BAGRAM AIR FORCE BASE. The untold story is the massive complicity of Americans with their private airline, now suspected in yet another war, not Vietnam, not Central America/Iran Contra but Afghanistan, for a third time, of smuggling narcotics. The pattern is impossible to ignore. Read the list of accusations. Note that many of them have been corroborated from 5 or more sources already:

A previously top secret intelligence-sharing agreement between Britain and America is being released to the public for the first time. Until a few years ago, even the existence of the agreement was not acknowledged by the two governments. Signed in 1946, it remains the basis for the sharing of intercepted communications between the countries. Some of the material shared on the Soviet Union in the 1940s is also being released by the National Archives. During World War II, Britain and America had co-operated closely on so called "signals intelligence" - intercepted communications. When the war came to an end, the two sides decided to institutionalise that co-operation and establish it in the new context of the emerging Cold War with the Soviet Union.

[Editor's Comment:] The intelligence-sharing continues to this day and now includes Israel, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. It's called ECHELON. This means that ALL of our emails are being read by these criminal governements and ALL of our text messages & telephone calls are being monitored on a continuing, non-stop basis. It also means that every single one of the world's countries (their governments and their military, industrial & financial institutions) now have been penetrated by a few criminal governments and now are being subtly & not-so-subtly controlled by them.

The U.S government has commissioned via CIA the Xe Company, formerly known as Blackwater, "to guard facilities in Afghanistan". The details of this deal are classified. The official cover of the subversive and terrorist activities set for the Blackwater is a contract between the CIA and the Xe. A leakage to the media says that the price of the contract is allegedly equal to 100 million dollars, a certain source "close to the negotiations" told this to The Washington Post. According to it, Xe will "carry out protective and guard services in the region". The CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano "stopped short of confirming the contract", saying only that Xe personnel would not be involved in operations. Meanwhile, the command of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan warned last May that "CIA agents and mercenaries from Blackwater were infamous task in the long-term US strategy to destabilize the situation in the region. AWIP: CIA gives Blackwater firm new $100 million contract.

Kabul circles say the dismissal of US commander was over leaking information including NATO's connection with the executed leader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi. Head of Press TV's office in Kabul, Mohammad Ruhi, says US commander General Stanley McChrystal was sacked for acknowledging NATO's connection with the executed leader of the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi. He dismissed the official reasons for the firing of McChrystal, saying his growing friendship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and intelligence leaks may have triggered the replacement.

The Central Intelligence Agency has hired Xe Services, the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, to guard its facilities in Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to an industry source. The previously undisclosed CIA contract is worth about $100 million, said the industry source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deal, which is classified. “It’s for protective services … guard services, in multiple regions,” said the source. [They've murdered thousands. With total impunity. They're hired killers.] PressTV: CIA hires notorious Xe in Afghanistan.

In another example of the inanity of the U.S. State Department’s work in Afghanistan, it was revealed several days ago that the U.S. State Department has awarded a $120 million contract for security operations to the United States Training Center (USTC) at new U.S. Consulates in Mazar-i-Sharif and Heart. The USTC is a division of Xe, the new name Blackwater USA chose to hide behind after its indictment for murdering dozens of Iraqi civilians in broad daylight on a busy Baghdad square. The $120 million contract, split between the two small consulates means that $6.6 million per month will be spent on each consulate— on security alone! Blackwater security workers earn about $18,000/month. Afghan teachers earn about $50/month. For a fair comparison, figure that $50/month is below a living wage in Kabul. It takes three times that to pay rent, buy food and all the other costs required to raise a family, as a bare minimum— and that means no meat, no car, and making children work, and not go to school. Teachers are guaranteed a life of poverty, and are at much greater risk for attack by Talibs than U.S. diplomats. The huge cost of the U.S. diplomatic infrastructure in Afghanistan is a big thorn in the side of the U.S. and the Afghan people.

Writing to members of the Illinois delegation in Congress, Asst. Atty. Gen. Ronald Weich reaffirmed the administration’s “commitment to acquiring the facility this year,” and provided details about steps planned for the next few months.

The Justice Department’s Bureau of Prisons plans to hire and train employees while other administration officials “work with Congress to obtain authorization and funding for a portion of the Thomson facility,” Weich wrote in the letter, obtained by the Tribune Washington bureau.

US desperate to ask hacker Julian Assange what he knows of classified messages about Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The elusive founder of WikiLeaks, who is at the centre of a potential US national security sensation, has surfaced from almost a month in hiding to tell the Guardian he does not fear for his safety but is on permanent alert. Julian Assange, a renowned Australian hacker who founded the electronic whistleblowers' platform WikiLeaks, vanished when a young US intelligence analyst in Baghdad was arrested. The analyst, Bradley Manning, had bragged he had sent 260,000 incendiary US state department cables on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks. The prospect of the cache of classified intelligence on the US conduct of the two wars being put online is a nightmare for Washington. The sensitivity of the information has generated media reports that Assange is the target of a US manhunt.

"[US] public statements have all been reasonable. But some statements made in private are a bit more questionable," Assange told the Guardian in Brussels. "Politically it would be a great error for them to act. I feel perfectly safe … but I have been advised by my lawyers not to travel to the US during this period."

Daily Beast: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hired lawyers to represent the Army intel analyst accused of leaking State Dept. secrets. But the Pentagon sent them away.

In the only “terrorism”-related case this term, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld 6-3 a provision of law making it a federal crime to “knowingly provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization,” even if the “support” consists only of “expert advice or assistance” for “lawful, non-violent purposes”—in other words, political speech. The US Secretary of State can designate any “foreign organization” as “terrorist” based on “classified information” establishing that it “engages in terrorist activity” which “threatens the security of United States nationals or the national security of the United States.” Uruknet/Arthur Silber: The Death State Brutalizes, Tortures and Murders Because It Can.

New reports are surfacing of Al Qaeda’s American born spokesperson, Adam Gadahn, warning of attacks against Americans if the U.S. does not get out of Afghanistan and quit supporting Israel. Adam Gadahn was born and raised in the U.S. His real name is Adam Pearlman, and he was raised in a Jewish family. There is growing speculation that he is actually employed by the U.S. Government, designed to manufacture fear in the U.S. population. He is part of a manufactured front to convince the American people that Al Qaeda is here in the U.S. and that the Government has to crack down using high tech surveillance and other means to curb our freedoms (for our own security). In short, it creates a climate where the people of the U.S. will be more likely, because of fear, to go along with an encroaching police state.

The Pentagon's spy unit has quietly begun to rebuild a database for tracking potential terrorist threats that was shut down after it emerged that it had been collecting information on American anti-war activists. The Defense Intelligence Agency filed notice this week that it plans to create a new section called Foreign Intelligence and Counterintelligence Operation Records, whose purpose will be to "document intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and counternarcotic operations relating to the protection of national security." But while the unit's name refers to "foreign intelligence," civil liberties advocates and the Pentagon's own description of the program suggest that Americans will likely be included in the new database.

Video Reportedly Shows Farah Air Strike From May 2009. With WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange still in hiding there is growing speculation, fueled by comments from Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, that the release of Wikileaks’ next classified US military video is imminent. WikiLeaks has been reported to be in possession of the video in question for months, which shows the May 5 2009 US air strike against a village in Farah Province. Afghan investigators concluded that the attack killed upwards of 140 civilians, and that more than half of them were children. The US claimed the villagers deliberately exaggerated the toll to get more compensation from the military. While massive death tolls in air strikes have been pretty common over the course of the Afghan War, the repeated changes in official US stories on the incident (including an initial claim that the whole attack was a myth invented by the Taliban) and the secrecy surrounding the internal probe, the video could deal a massive blow to the claims about the attack.

The founder of whistle-blower website, WikiLeaks, says he will release a secret Pentagon video of a deadly airstrike on children in Afghanistan. Julian Assange, the Australian-born man behind WikiLeaks, said Friday that the video shows how dozens of Afghan children are killed. Assange is in hiding since reports revealed that the Pentagon is set on arresting him, after detaining a US military analyst alleged to have provided Wikileaks with a classified video of an American apache killing civilians in Iraq.

Bradley Manning, the US analyst, is also accused of having uploaded 260,000 pages of confidential diplomatic cables and intelligence assessments on the website. Civilian death has become a major problem in Afghanistan with hundreds having been killed in Afghanistan in 2010. A report by the UN says over 2,400 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2009, the largest number of civilian casualties since the 2001 US-led invasion. Ninety five children were reported to have been among the 150 civilians killed in a US-led strike in the western province of Farah in May 2009. Afghan officials have confirmed the massacre. The invasion of Afghanistan was launched with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country. Nine years on, however, Afghanistan remains unstable and civilians continue to pay the price.

Pentagon investigators are reportedly still searching for Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange, who helped release a classified US military video showing a US helicopter gunship indiscriminately firing on Iraqi civilians. The US military recently arrested Army Specialist Bradley Manning, who may have passed on the video to Wikileaks. Manning’s arrest and the hunt for Assange have put the spotlight on the Obama administration’s campaign against whistleblowers and leakers of classified information. We speak to Daniel Ellsberg, who’s leaking of the Pentagon Papers has made him perhaps the nation’s most famous whistleblower; Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic Parliament who has collaborated with Wikileaks and drafted a new Icelandic law protecting investigative journalists; and Glenn Greenwald, political and legal blogger for Salon.com. [includes rush transcript] AWIP: WikiLeaks Founder Has Massacre Video.

ABC News: Wikileaks founder fears for his life. The man behind whistleblower website Wikileaks says he is not in a position to record an interview amid claims his life is in danger. Julian Assange, the Australian-born founder of Wikileaks, is said to be under threat with reports that the site has hundreds of thousands of classified cables containing explosive revelations. There was an international uproar in April when the website released classified US military video which officials had been refusing to make public for three years.

A Guantanamo Bay detainee awaiting trial in a federal civilian court cannot evade strip searches that require him to expose his private areas because security would be compromised, a judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the written ruling Monday and it was released publicly Thursday in the terrorism case brought against Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be brought to a U.S. civilian court for trial. Ghailani had asked Kaplan to force the Bureau of Prisons to spare him from a 1997 policy that requires all inmates entering or leaving the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan to submit to a visual inspection of "all body surfaces and body cavities." A psychologist, Katherine Porterfield, had testified at a hearing several weeks ago that Ghailani did not object to the strip search so much as the requirement that he bend over or squat briefly to display his rectum to an officer conducting the search. She said the search triggered Ghailani's post-traumatic stress disorder, which resulted from treatment he received during interrogations at a secret CIA-run camp overseas after his 2004 arrest. Porterfield testified that "enhanced interrogation techniques" torture he experienced while in CIA custody caused him to have a severe reaction in anticipation of exposing his rectal area.

Was 9/11 the resurfacing of Operation Northwoods? The following appeared in an abridged form as the introduction to Ambushed by Toby Rogers. JFK rejected Northwoods. After being tricked by the CIA into the Bay of Pigs invasion, he vowed to tear the CIA apart. He ordered withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. Within a week of his death, his order to withdraw from Vietnam was rescinded and replaced with orders to build up troops.

The European Court of Human Rights will consider the case of a German citizen who was kidnapped and beaten in connection with the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, the Open Society Justice Initiative revealed today. This is the first time an extraordinary rendition case related to the "war on terror" has reached Europe's top court. Macedonian security forces seized Khaled El-Masri at the request of the United States in December 2003 and held him—incommunicado—for 23 days. El-Masri was then handed over to the CIA and flown to a detention center in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was confined in appalling conditions, interrogated, and abused. After several months, El-Masri was finally released and dumped on a roadside in Albania. Despite overwhelming evidence of its collaboration, Macedonia has denied that El-Masri was detained illegally on its territory or handed over to the CIA.

"European governments must be held accountable for participating in torture, abuse, and kidnappings in association with the CIA's rendition program," said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, which is litigating the case. "United States courts may have closed their doors on this matter, but we hope that El-Masri will find justice before the European Court."

A prominent Christian preacher that reportedly converted to Christianity from Islam has come under fire for making suspicious claims about his Muslim past. Ergun Caner, the dean of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia, claims that he was a radical Muslim teenager before immigrating to the US from Turkey and discovering Jesus Christ at a church in the US state of Ohio. Soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, DC, Caner and his brother, Emir, published a book labeled Unveiling Islam: An Insider's Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs. In the book, Caner portrays himself as a one-time extremist who received terrorist trainings in Turkey. The publication of the book quickly propelled this unknown Baptist minister to the heights of fame, and in 2005 granted him his current post as the dean of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia. Since then, Caner has established himself as a leading Christian critic of Islam using his stature as the dean of one of the most prominent Evangelical theology schools. However, Caner's contradictory stories and remarks have cast doubt on his past.

PHR’s new report, Experiments in Torture, has sent shock waves through the conscience of America this week. This report reveals evidence indicating that the Bush administration may have conducted illegal and unethical human experimentation and research on detainees in CIA custody. This research, if proven to have occurred, could violate the Geneva Conventions, The Common Rule, the Nuremberg Code and other international and domestic prohibitions against illegal human subject research and experimentation. Not only are these alleged acts gross violations of human rights law, they are a grave affront to America’s core values. Elected officials have failed in their duty to investigate potential CIA wrongdoing. It’s time to get the experts involved. PressTV: CIA experimented on terror suspects.

I thought since the content of this Farsi video is related to principles expressed in Race for Iran I better translate the important content and let you people know about it. Here is a quick translation:

Today is 17th of Farvardin 1389 (April 5, 2010)... right now I, Shahram Amiri, professional (expert) and researcher of the University of Malek Ashtar am in Tucson Arizona USA. I was kidnaped on 13th of Khorad 1388 (May 3, 2009) in a joint operation of Terror and Kidnaping teams of the Intelligent Services of CIA and Estekbarat? of Saudi Arabia. I was transferred to an unknowable (unknown) house in Saudi Arabia. Inside this house I was injected with drugs for making me unconscious. When I woke up I was next to a Big American person on my way to USA.

[From a comment to Scott Horton Interviews Jason Ditz]

Physicians for Human Rights yesterday released a report documenting (while relying on heavily redacted material) that "medical professionals who were involved in the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogations of terrorism suspects engaged in forms of human research and experimentation in violation of medical ethics and domestic and international law." To those paying close attention, the evidence suggesting that this occurred has long been clear.

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official in Algeria pleaded guilty Monday to charges of abusive sexual contact and unlawful use of cocaine while possessing a firearm, prosecutors said. Andrew Warren, 42, made the plea before US District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in Washington, said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Criminal Division, US Attorney Ronald Machen for the District of Columbia and Ambassador Eric Boswell, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security. Warren confessed that on February 17, 2008, he committed abusive sexual contact while on US embassy property in Algiers, "by engaging in sexual contact with a female victim after he rendered her unconscious," a statement from prosecutors said. "Additionally, Warren admitted that on April 26, 2010, he unlawfully used cocaine while possessing a Glock Model 19, 9 millimeter semi-automatic pistol in Norfolk, Virginia," they added.

[Editor's Comment:] This is what the CIA does all the time; there probably is no offense, outrage & atrocity in the long and sordid history of crime that this nefarious intelligence agency has not committed. In terms of the CIA's modus operandi, this guy's only mistake was getting caught. The 'ex' and 'former' stuff is the media's way of saying that this guy may be bad but the CIA itself is squeaky clean.

The dramatic expansion in the use of special forces [assassins], which in their global span go far beyond the covert missions authorised by George W. Bush, reflects how aggressively the President is pursuing "al-Qaeda" behind his public rhetoric of global engagement and diplomacy. When Mr Obama took office US special forces were operating in fewer than 60 countries. In the past 18 months he has ordered a big expansion in Yemen and the Horn of Africa — known areas of strong al-Qaeda activity — and elsewhere in the Middle East, central Asia and Africa. According to The Washington Post, Mr Obama has also approved pre-emptive special forces strikes to "disrupt terror plots" [to hatch themm & carry them out], and has given the units powers and "authority" [Obama has no authority whatsoever to give.] that was not granted by Mr Bush when he occupied the White House.

[EVIL EMPIRE] Amid concerns over US drone attacks in Pakistan, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says Capitol Hill lawmakers are fully aware of CIA operations abroad. Gates -- a one-time director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) himself -- said the US spy agency and the military were accountable to Congress for all of their operations, AFP reported on Saturday. "I have no doubt whatsoever that the intelligence committees in the United States Congress are fully informed of the activities the CIA is carrying out," he said at a security conference in Singapore on Friday. The Pentagon chief, however, refrained from answering a question on whether the continuing drone attacks and airstrikes in Pakistan were conducted by the CIA, saying that he could not "get into discussion of any kind of operations." Gates made the remarks days after a UN human rights report blamed the CIA for drone attacks that have killed "many hundreds of people" in Pakistan, adding that the practice amounted to a "license to kill without accountability."

Notwithstanding a report by a top UN official, which called for the discontinuation of unmanned Predator drone attacks in Pakistan's troubled tribal areas along the Afghan border, the United States has defended the missile strikes, which many believe have killed more civilians than extremists. Bruce Riedel, a former Central Investigation Agency (CIA) officials and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Saban Center described the CIA operated attacks as "essential", which were needed to pressurise terror groups like [the non-existent] Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. [Essential? -Take a look at this:]

PressTV: US drone strike leaves 6 dead US drones have shelled a house allegedly owned by militants in North Waziristan, killing six in the latest attack on Pakistan's tribal areas. The attack took place in Khel village, some 25 kilometers west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, AFP quoted Pakistani officials as saying. The officials said "suspected" Afghan warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is believed to have led up to 2,000 fighters in attacks against US-led forces over the border in Afghanistan, had allegedly rented the compound. "Two US drones fired four missiles, we have reports that six militants civilians have been killed," a senior security official collaborator in Peshawar said.

[April 24, 2010:] AWIP: US drone kills seven PEOPLE in NW Pakistan: security officials:

A US drone fired three missiles into a militant compound in Pakistan's tribal area near the Afghan border on Saturday, killing seven militants people, security officials said. The strike took place at 9:00 pm (1600 GMT) in Marsikhel area, 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, which is known as a hub for Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants [Justification post factum for state terrorism.] The nationalities of the seven dead were not immediately clear, a senior Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

STATE TERROR: US drone attack kills 5 PEOPLE in Pakistan: At least five people have been killed in a US drone attack in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan on the Afghan border. Several more people were injured when two missiles hit a nearby compound in Boya village, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Miranshah. Since last year, the US has carried out many such attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas. Washington claims its airstrikes target militants. Most of the attacks, however, have killed civilians. AWIP: 11th Drone Strike of 2010: Latest US Attack Kills Six in North Waziristan: AFP: 11 killed in US missile strikes in NW Pakistan: officials. AntiWar: US Drone Fired Missile Into a Crowd of "Suspects," Killing 13 Afghans. TANSW: Pakistan Taliban deny US drone strike killed top leader. [This comes on top of this] Nobel Peace Prize winner Kills at Least 15 in North Waziristan [and this] Civilians Slain as Latest US Drone Strike on North Waziristan, Kills Five [and this] US Drones Kill 12 in North Waziristan: Third TERROR Strike in 24 Hours in Tribal Area [and this] U.S. Drones Kill 15 People Near Border in Pakistan [and summing up all of 2009, this:] 44 US drone hits in Pakistan killed 700 civilians in 2009. + AWIP: No assent given to US drone attacks: Pakistan. The Guardian: The 'Obama doctrine': kill, don't detain -George Bush left a big problem in the shape of Guantánamo. The solution? Don't capture bad guys, assassinate by drone. PressTV: Suspected US drone strikes kill eight in north-west Pakistan. PressTV: In Pakistan, death toll from US drone attack hits 8 Yahoo: US drone kills seven PEOPLE in NW Pakistan: security officials.

[Taking time off for a fair number of killing sprees...] all around Afghanistan, from Kandahar Airfield to the Bagram jail, the U.S. military is on a building spree, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on wartime encampments. By one count, America and its allies now have 700 bases in Afghanistan. But most of the construction — and most of the extra troops “surging” into the country — are going to the violent south and the dangerous east. Until recently, northern Afghanistan was considered quiet. Regional hub Mazar-e-Sharif was the first major city in Afghanistan to be taken from the Taliban. But, especially in nearby Kunduz province, violence is bubbling up once again. Chris Floyd: War on the World: Obama's Surge in State Terror.

George Bush admitted yesterday that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was waterboarded by the US, and said he would do it again "to save lives". In his speech, Bush also defended the decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. He said ousting Saddam Hussein "was the right thing to do and the world is a better place without him". But he said he was not tempted to criticise Barack Obama. "You are not going to see me in the public square criticising the president."

A senior United Nations official is expected to call on the United States next week to stop Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes against people suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, complicating the Obama administration’s growing reliance on that tactic in Pakistan. Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Thursday that he would deliver a report on June 3 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva declaring that the “life and death power” of drones should be entrusted to regular armed forces, not intelligence agencies. He contrasted how the military and the C.I.A. responded to allegations that strikes had killed civilians by mistake.

Respected Middle East expert and former BBC presenter Alan Hart has broken his silence on 9/11, by revealing that the world's most prominent civil engineering company told him directly that the collapse of the twin towers was a controlled demolition. Speaking on the Kevin Barrett show yesterday, Hart said he thought the 9/11 attack probably started as a Muslim operation headed up by Osama Bin Laden but that the plot was subsequently hijacked and carried out by Mossad agents in collusion with elements of the CIA, adding that since its formation, Israel has penetrated every Arab government and terrorist organization.

"My guess is that at an early point they said to the bad guys in the CIA - hey this operation's running what do we do, and the zionists and the neo-cons said let's use it," said Hart, making reference to how top neo-cons like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and their fellow Project For a New American Century authors had called for a "catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor," the year before 9/11. "The twin towers were brought down by a controlled ground explosion, not the planes," said Hart, adding that this view was based on his close friendship with consultants who work with the world's leading civil engineering and construction firm.

The US has authorised a sweeping expansion of covert military operations in the Middle East and Africa, aimed at destroying terrorist networks in the region, and preparing the ground ahead of any presidential decision to attack Iran. According yesterday's The New York Times, a directive, called the Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force Execute Order, was signed on 30 September by General David Petraeus, head of Central Command and in charge of US military operations in the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. Under its provisions, units of the Navy Seals, the Army's Delta Force and other Special Forces will be able to operate both in friendly countries, and in hostile countries with which the US is not technically at war. AWIP: Secret order prepares new US wars in Middle East and Central Asia. + Criminal Empire: US to expand secret "operations" [state terrorism]

A front-page article in Tuesday’s New York Times reveals the existence of a secret directive signed by Gen. David Petraeus, chief of the US Central Command, ordering the expansion of covert military operations throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa. The seven-page document, entitled “Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force Execute Order,” essentially provides the US military with a blank check to carry out aggressive acts against virtually any country. Issued in September 2009, the order calls for the creation of a network of covert task forces and intelligence-gathering units which will “penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy” any target within any country designated by the US military. These forces will carry out clandestine operations which “cannot or will not be accomplished” through other military means. AWIP: Criminal Empire: US to expand secret "operations" [state terrorism]

The United States is planning to expand its secret "military operations" [state terrorism] across the Middle East, central Asia and east Africa, a newly-released report says. The secret activities are apparently designed to "penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy" terror cells such as al-Qaeda [= state terrorism fomenting retail terrorism], the New York Times said on Monday, citing a military document. The directive was approved in September by US General David Petraeus. The targeted countries are said to be Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. NYT: U.S. Is Said to Expand Secret "Military Acts" [state terrorism] in Mideast Region. Juan Cole: Petraeus Memo Widens scope of US Military Covert Operations in ME.

An international anti-war organization, the War and Peace Foundation, says continued fatalities of US troops in Iraq is a sign of their involvement in secret operations. Speaking to Press TV on Saturday, Director of the War and Peace Foundation Kevin Sanders said the fact that the US soldiers are killed off-base in Iraq shows that the US is violating certain restrictions.

The Obama administration has started using special law enforcement and intelligence teams to interrogate "suspected militants" in the United States and abroad, including the Pakistani-American arrested in the Times Square bombing plot, a top official said on Tuesday. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the formation of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) in August and gave the reins to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, replacing the Central Intelligence Agency that did have the lead role in intelligence interrogations & torture.

This document is a classified (SECRET/NOFORN) 32 page U.S. counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks. ``The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the U.S. government are providing sensitive or classified information to WikiLeaks.org cannot be ruled out''. It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses ``trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers'', the report recommends ``The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the WikiLeaks.org Web site''. [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective]. As an odd justification for the plan, the report claims that ``Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the WikiLeaks.org website''. The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks---U.S. equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable U.S. violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay. Wikileaks: U.S. Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks, 18 Mar 2008 [.pdf].

Top military officials have continued to rely on a secret network of private spies who have produced hundreds of reports from deep inside Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to American officials and businessmen, despite concerns among some in the military about the legality of the operation. Earlier this year, government officials admitted that the military had sent a group of former Central Intelligence Agency officers and retired Special Operations troops into the region to collect information — some of which was used to track and kill people suspected of being militants. Many portrayed it as a rogue operation that had been hastily shut down once an investigation began. Channel4: Nato turns to militias in Afghanistan battle.

Julian Assange, the Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks, says he had his passport taken away from him at Melbourne Airport and was later told by customs officials that it was about to be cancelled. Last year Wikileaks published a confidential Australian blacklist of websites to be banned under the government's proposed internet filter. Julian Assange, the Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks, says he had his passport taken away from him at Melbourne Airport and was later told by customs officials that it was about to be cancelled. Last year Wikileaks published a confidential Australian blacklist of websites to be banned under the government's proposed internet filter. Assange told The Age his passport was taken from him by customs officials at Melbourne Airport when he entered the country last week after he was told ''it was looking worn''. When the passport was returned to him after about 15 minutes, he says he was told by authorities that it was going to be or was cancelled. collateralmurder.com (VIDEO). 05/15/10: Wikileaks is hinting at something big.

Drone attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas have intensifiedin recent days. The raids come after it was revealed that the US government had granted approval to the CIA to expand drone attacksto lower-level members of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. But the attacks have caused growing anger in Pakistan, as civilians continue to be killed and homes and villages are destroyed. Jamshed Ayaz Khan, a Pakistan-based defence analyst, told Al Jazeera that a "hundred per cent [of Pakistanis] are against the drone attacks".

Prosecutors attached to the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid are reportedly requesting that Judge Ismael Moreno issue an order for the arrest of thirteen CIA agents involved in an extraordinary rendition operation from 2004, the newspaper El País reports this afternoon, citing sources within the court.

The case relates to Khaled El-Masri, a greengrocer from Neu-Ulm, Germany, seized by the United States as a result of mistaken identity while he was on vacation in the former Yugoslavia. El-Masri was placed on a CIA-chartered jet that arrived in Macedonia from Palma de Majorca in January 2004, en route ultimately to Afghanistan. It appears that Majorca was used regularly as a refueling and temporary sheltering point for the CIA, with the knowledge of the prior conservative government. While held in the notorious CIA prison known as the Salt Pit, El-Masri was apparently tortured during extensive interrogations before intelligence officers realized that they had seized the wrong man. The Washington Post reported that CIA agents, fearing the consequences of releasing him, argued for his continued detention and in fact held him for at least several weeks after his release had been ordered. Condoleezza Rice, then national security advisor to President Bush, intervened and directed his release. El-Masri’s CIA abductors entered Spanish territory using forged British passports, according to the prosecutors.

US citizen faces a lifetime of solitary confinement in a Colorado supermax prison for a conviction based on a confession tape OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE in Saudi Arabia. Evidence of torture was not allowed to be presented at trial.

GREAT HUMOR FROM IRAN: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President, has denied reports that Osama bin Laden is in Tehran and insisted that the al-Qaeda leader is, in fact, in the US capital of Washington. "Rest assured that he's in Washington. I think there's a high chance he's there," the Iranian leader told ABC television in an interview. Without backing up the claim, the Iranian leader said he had "heard" that bin Laden was in the US capital. "Yes, I did. He's there. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush," he said referring to former President George W. Bush. "They were colleagues, in fact, in the old days. You know that. They were in the oil business together. They worked together. Mr bin Laden never co-operated with Iran but he co-operated with Mr. Bush," Mr Ahmadinejad said. He added that, at any rate, US officials ought to know the extremist Islamic leaders whereabouts. AWIP: Ahmadinejad's take on ties with US (Video). + Usama Bin Laden Is Living Comfortably in Iran, "Documentary" Asserts.

[Right on the heels of the false flag Times Square incident involving a Pakistani "suspect", the CIA now gets the git-go to assassinate anyone, anywhere in Pakistan, no holds barred:] The CIA has received authorization to target a wider range of targets in Pakistan by its drone-guided missiles, despite national discontent on growing civilian death toll. The US will expand its drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal regions, including low-level fighters whose identities may not be known, US officials said Wednesday, quoted in a Reuters report. The report says the targets include what has been described as 'all militants'. The US drone strikes began to expand under former President George Bush and have further intensified under President Barack Obama. AntiWar: US [says it] Sees NY Attack as Pakistani Taliban Retaliation for Drone Strikes. CBS News: Pakistan Taliban: Faisal Shahzad Not One of Us.

[Editor's Comment:]"Washington claims the strikes are vital in protecting foreign troops in the region and that the targets are selected with "extreme care"." -Not so. The best protection for the troops is to pull out and go home. Simple as that. Moreover, these killings usually are indiscriminate and they are indiscriminate for a reason: they're meant to spread fear and to induce submission. This is state terrorism. -So they're not being selected with "extreme care", hardly any care at all in fact.

But that's not our main point. It is important to understand, like our readers already do, that the US has no right whatever to attack Pakistan in the first place. These assassinations also are totally illegitimate. They are crimes. -War crimes in an undeclared and unprovoked war against Pakistan. We do believe however that the US government shall have to answer for this someday. What goes around comes around. -It is good that it is so.

Interrogators had free hand to terrify detainees, Khadr hearing told --'We could do basically anything to scare the prisoners,' former interrogator - nicknamed 'Monster' - says 05 May 2010 Military interrogators at Bagram prison were under enormous pressure to extract information from detainees and had a free hand to terrify detainees into confessing, a Damien Corsetti, a former interrogator who knew Omar Khadr said Wednesday. "We could do basically anything to scare the prisoners," he said... Mr. Corsetti, a huge man nicknamed 'Monster' at Bagram was the first witness called by Mr. Khadr’s defence team at the pre-trial hearings. Mr. Khadr, now 23, was a 15-year-old when he was captured after a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002 in which a U.S. special forces solider was killed. AWIP/Chris Floyd: It's Not Dark Yet, But It's Gettin' There.

The Obama administration is seeking to compel a writer to testify about his confidential sources for a 2006 book about the Central Intelligence Agency, a rare step that was authorized by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The author, James Risen, who is a reporter for The New York Times, received a subpoena on Monday requiring him to provide documents and to testify May 4 before a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., about his sources for a chapter of his book, “State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration.” The chapter largely focuses on problems with a covert C.I.A. effort to disrupt alleged Iranian nuclear weapons research. Mr. Risen referred questions to his lawyer, Joel Kurtzberg, a partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel L.L.P., who said that Mr. Risen would not comply with the demand and would ask a judge to quash the subpoena.

The pilots waging America’s undeclared drone war in Pakistan could be liable to criminal prosecution for “war crimes,” a prominent law professor told a Congressional panel Wednesday. Harold Koh, the State Department’s top legal adviser, outlined the administration’s legal case for the robotic attacks last month. Now, some legal experts are taking turns to punch holes in Koh’s argument. It’s part of an ongoing legal debate about the CIA and U.S. military’s lethal drone operations, which have escalated in recent months — and which have received some technological upgrades. Critics of the program, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have argued that the campaign amounts to a program of targeted killing that may violate the laws of war.

Nigel Inkster, the former assistant head of the British spy service MI6, slammed the United States' handling of its fight on terror, including what he called the "frenzied, alarmist response" to the recently foiled Christmas Day bomber. Writing in an article published in the International Institute for Strategic Studies journal Survival, Inkster and coauthor Alexander Nicoll hammered what they believe is an out of proportion response to attempted terror attacks. They also attacked the United States' policy of imprisoning detainees without trial -- a practice that has continued under President Barack Obama.

Judge Kennedy’s opinion was released a month ago [.pdf] but was then abruptly withdrawn, and, perhaps with unnecessary delicacy, I held off from analyzing it, waiting for it to be reissued, as I was uncertain how much would be redacted. When the revised opinion was finally released on April 21 [.pdf], I realized that the name of a criminal investigator with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service had been removed, as had other named operatives, but that other key elements had not; specifically, the names of two other prisoners who alleged that Uthman "acted as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden." These two men are Sharqwi Abdu Ali al-Hajj and Sanad Yislam Ali al-Kazimi, and in the most important part of the opinion, Judge Kennedy stated, "The Court will not rely on the statements of Hajj or Kazimi because there is unrebutted evidence in the record that, at the time of the interrogations at which they made the statements, both men had recently been tortured." AntiWar: Scott Horton Interviews Andy Worthington.

Margaret Hassan was an Irish aid worker who had worked in Iraq for many years until she was abducted and murdered by unidentified kidnappers in Iraq in 2004, at the age of 59. A look at her murder case and the mystery behind solving her abduction and murder case.

A series of bombings mainly targeting Shiite worshippers killed at least 60 people on Friday, officials said, just days after U.S. and Iraqi collaborator forces killed the top two "al-Qaida" leaders in Iraq in what was described as devastating blow to the insurgency Resistance.

The case of the missing 92 CIA interrogation tapes would be a good subject for a modern day Agatha Christie mystery. Someone at the CIA decided the tapes had to be destroyed — even at the risk of an obstruction of justice charge — but no one's confessing. By now John Durham, the assistant U.S. attorney investigating the tapes' destruction, must be scratching his head wondering if everyone at the CIA was complicit.

[Editor's Comment:] Why the CIA Interrogation Tapes were destroyed? -Pretty obvious, isn't it? This dumb Time Magazine piece is typical of the MSM when they're in obfuscation/fire extinguishing mode. That's when they stoop to the level of talking about an "Agatha Christie mystery"...and about the CIA being "complicit".

People in the Media are rightly seen as being cowards -asking questions when facts and statements are called for ("Did the CIA want to destroy graphic evidence of sleep-deprivation or waterboarding?") But as far as we can tell, they mostly do this to take the mickey out of the explosive facts, to make them more innocuous, sort of. -Next thing you see is a cartoon they've made that shows a dead torture victim coming a live again doing a breakdance on Obama's desk in the Oval Office...or maybe Kentucky Fried will come up with a new product that the Media will promote...let's say The Abu Ghraib Fried____(fill in the blank yourself).

To set the matter straight: the CIA actually committed horrible crimes (still commits them), deliberately deleted the tapes and is guilty as hell and: covering them up (or "explaining" them and/or "analysing" them), the Media certainly are complicit in these crimes. And as for Agatha Christie? -There's no mystery here. None at all.

Gary Jackson, the former president of Blackwater (you know, the guy facing a slew of felony charges, including conspiring to falsify documents and federal weapons charges), appeared in court this week where prosecutors accused him of running Blackwater with a “scofflaw” attitude. Joe Neff of the Raleigh News and Observer reveals this nugget: Jackson’s salary at Blackwater was a whopping $1.5 million a year. His severance package: $425,000 a year for 5 years. Oh, and here’s some caramel for your tasty apple: 90% of Blackwater’s revenue has come from the US government. Yeah, US taxpayers are really lucky to have been paying 90% of this guy’s $1.5 million salary. That’s about what the average US general makes, right? Not even close.

Speaking to reporters in Peshawar, Qazi Hussain Ahmad said that the situation in the country would never improve if the government in Islamabad continued to be the frontline ally of Washington. On Wednesday, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hassan told Press TV that Pakistan's alliance with the US was the main reason behind a surge in bomb attacks across the country. "The notorious Blackwater agents are behind the bomb and suicide attacks in our country as the US wants to destabilize Pakistan… after invading neighboring Afghanistan," he said.

The former president of Blackwater Worldwide was charged Friday with using straw purchases to stockpile automatic weapons at the security firm and filing false documents to cover up gifts given to the King of Jordan. The federal indictment charges Gary Jackson, 52, who left the company last year in a management shakeup, along with four other former workers. The charges against Jackson include a conspiracy to violate firearms laws, false statements and possession of an unregistered firearm. Also indicted were former general counsel Andrew Howell, 44; former executive vice president Bill Mathews, 44; former procurement vice president Ana Bundy, 45; and, 65-year-old Ronald Slezak, a former weapons manager. NYT: U.S. Indicts 5 Blackwater Ex-Officials. AntiWar: Gen. McChrystal: US Wasting Money on ‘Too Many Contractors’.

Documents detail the rationalization for destroying the tapes—the supposed protection of the agents doing the torturing—and instruct that future torture sessions be recorded on a single tape which can be reviewed at the end of the day’s session and then reused the next day, erasing the prior recording “for the protection and safety of officers.” The emails reveal, however, that the real reason was concern that the recordings would someday become public and reveal the war crimes being perpetrated by CIA officials. AWIP: 'The heat from destroying is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes ever got into public domain.' 2005 destruction of interrogation tapes caused concern at CIA, e-mails show.

The 2005 destruction of 92 videotapes documenting the harsh interrogation torture of terrorism suspects at secret CIA prisons immediately prompted concern at agency headquarters that the decision was not adequately cleared and may have been improper, according to newly released documents. A day after the destruction, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, then the executive director of the CIA, was told that "we may have 'improperly' destroyed something," according to an e-mail. The message was written by Foggo's deputy, who remains undercover, according to a former intelligence official. Foggo's deputy wrote that Rodriguez thought "the heat from destroying is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes ever got into public domain -- he said that out of context they would make us look terrible; it would be 'devastating' to us." Associated Press: E-mail: Ex-CIA chief agreed with tape destruction.

Wikileaks, the whistle-blower website, is reportedly preparing to release secret video of a notorious US air strike said to have killed scores of Afghan civilians. 11 Apr 2010 The video apparently shows previously classified footage from US warplanes called in to bomb Taliban fighters during a fire fight in Farah province last year. The Afghan government said at the time that the strikes by F-18 and B1 planes near Granai killed 147 civilians. An independent Afghan inquiry later put the toll at 86. David Lindorff: Obama’s War: Death to Women and Children, Cover-Ups to Protect the US Killers.

George Bush left a big problem in the shape of Guantánamo. The solution? Don't capture bad guys, assassinate by drone. The ambitious desire to close Guantánamo hailed the coming of a new era, a feeling implicitly recognised by the Nobel peace prize that President Obama received. Unfortunately, what we witnessed was a false dawn. The lawyers for the Guantánamo detainees with whom I am in touch in the US speak of their dismay as they prepare for Obama to do the one thing they never expected – to send the detainees back to the military commissions – a decision that will lose Obama all support he once had within the human rights community. Worse still, a completely new trend has emerged that, in many ways, is more dangerous than the trends under Bush. Extrajudicial killings and targeted assassinations will soon become the main point of contention that Obama's administration will need to justify. Although Bush was known for his support for such policies, the extensive use of drones under Obama have taken the death count well beyond anything that has been seen before.

Activists behind a website dedicated to revealing secret documents have complained of harassment by police and intelligence services as they prepare to release a video showing an American attack in which 97 civilians were killed in Afghanistan. Julian Assange, one of the founders of Wikileaks, has claimed that a restaurant where the group met in Reykjavic, the capital of Iceland, came under surveillance in March and one of the group’s volunteers was detained for 21 hours by police. Assange, an Australian, says he was followed on a flight from Reykjavik to Copenhagen by two American agents.

IndictBushNow.org reports that on April 3, at a meeting of over 150 lawyers, legal scholars and human rights campaigners, Ramsey Clark, founder of Indict Bush Now, was chosen to be the chairperson of an international campaign to investigate war crimes committed by officials from the Bush administration. Representatives at the meeting held in Beirut, Lebanon, came from all over the world. The campaign will investigate the lies, deceit and manipulation leading up to the Iraq war; the conduct of the war itself against an essentially defenseless country; and the horrors of the continued occupation. Lawyers and judges in several countries are exploring prosecution.

As secretary of state, Henry Kissinger canceled a U.S. warning against carrying out international political assassinations that was to have gone to Chile and two neighboring nations just days before a former ambassador was killed by Chilean agents on Washington's Embassy Row in 1976, a newly released State Department cable shows. Discovered in recent weeks by the National Security Archive, a non-profit research organization, the Sept. 16, 1976 cable is among tens of thousands of declassified State Department documents recently made available to the public. Based on information from the CIA, the U.S. State Department became concerned that Condor included plans for political assassination around the world. The State Department drafted a plan to deliver a stern message to the three governments not to engage in such murders. Prison Planet: Kissinger Effectively Gave Go-Ahead for Terrorist Attack on US Soil in 1976.

Chris Floyd: Home Free: No Worries for Dr K as Complicity is Revealed:

Poor old Henry Kissinger. All that botheration, all those lies, all the years of gut-churning anxiety about scandal, even prosecution -- and for what? Mere complicity in state murder of foreigners carried out by a foreign government? Why, nowadays, we have U.S. presidents openly ordering the murder of American citizens, and nobody bats an eye. There is no scandal, no prosecution -- there is not even any debate. It's just a fact of life, ordinary, normal, unchangeable: the sun rises in the east, cows eat grass, rain is wet, American presidents murder people. What's the big deal? Anyway, thank God good old Hank is still with us, and that this honorable public servant has lived to see the day when honorable public servants (and so are they all, all honorable public servants) no longer have to worry about the petty snares of law as they go about their sacred duty of keeping us safe.

The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counter-terrorism officials said Tuesday.

[Editor's Comment:] What about due process in a court of law? And what about our Bill of Rights? -Does Mr. Obama consider the American Constitution to be nothing but a "goddamn piece of paper", like Bush did? Too, having issued his first fatwa he's no better than the Islamists that Israel has ordered him to go after.

Nick Berg, CIA infiltrator at the Univ. of Oklahoma, bought the 9/11 hijacker's airline ticket from an OU library computer terminal. On 5/14/04, CNN reported that Moussaoui had used Berg's email account, when he was in Oklahoma. CNN then fabricated the remainder of the story. Ever since his decapitation in Iraq last spring, I have suspected that Nick Berg was a CIA-sponsored infiltrator at the University of Oklahoma, and was the one who bought the 9/11 hijacker's airline ticket from an OU library computer terminal. I believe the CIA set him up to be killed in Iraq, so the secret would die with him. Another very important fact supporting this suspicion came to mind today. On May 14, 2004, CNN reported that Moussaoui had used Berg's email account and password, when he was in Norman, Oklahoma. Apparently the FBI discovered Berg's information on his computer hard drive when they searched it in the fall of 2001.

Brave New Foundation’s Rethink Afghanistan project has been following the story about a night raid in Gardez by U.S. and Afghan forces (see the video above), and today those forces made a major admission about their responsibility for civilian deaths. In a press release issued on Easter (gee, I wonder if they hoped people would be distracted today), the U.S. and allied forces under General McChrystal’s command, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), admitted they killed two innocent civilians and three women, two of them pregnant. PressTV: US-led forces admit killing Afghan civilians. AWIP/Chris Floyd: An Unaccustomed Truth: American Commander Admits Afghan Atrocities.

TimesOnline: US special forces 'tried to cover-up' botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan:

US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened.

TPM: Gen. McChrystal: We've Shot 'An Amazing Number Of People' Who Were Not Threats:

"[N]ot a single case where we have...hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it... We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."

[Editor's Comment:] Considering this extremely low level of respect for human life plus the fact that the US intends to occupy Afghanistan for an indefinite amount of time, it would seem that the US army & air force will kill an indefinite number of people. -Is there any deeper level of depravity to which the US will not stoop?

Wikileaks has a mission of bringing hidden information to light, when it’s in the public interest. Wikipedia outlines their greatest hits, including Gauntanamo Bay procedure documents, scientology secrets, and net censorship lists. They come under fire sometimes for hosting material that probably isn’t much in the public interest, but overall they have contributed some compelling information to some fractious global arguments.

Abu Zubaydah was the first "high-value" detainee who was tortured, as the U.S. claimed he was a top Al Qaeda terrorist who knew a lot about 9/11. He was waterboarded at least 83 times in August 2002 alone. In fact, Abu Zubaydah was one of the main sources of information for the 9/11 report. Never mind that he was literally crazy.

In this video, you’ll hear Chip discuss his involvement in Operation Red Rock, Task Force 160 and OSG2. Hear him reveal the names of high profile officials who were integrally involved in these CIA covert killing sprees and/or narco-trafficking, directly or indirectly: Oliver “Ollie” North, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

You’ll learn from an “insider” about outrageous U.S. government felony crime and corruption and the impending New World Order destruction of America. You’ll hear his amazing insight concerning the Nixon Administration and the dirty politics of the Vietnam War.

This is the last interview prior to his sudden disappearance in 1998. LATEST UPDATE: Chip’s tortured body was reported to have washed up on a beach in Panama in early 2007.

While torture and aggressive war may have been the most serious crimes which the Bush administration committed, its warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens was its clearest and most undeniable lawbreaking. Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker yesterday became the third federal judge -- out of three who have considered the question -- to find that Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program was illegal (the other two are District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor and 6th Circuit Appellate Judge Ronald Gilman who, on appeal from Judge Taylor's decision, in dissent reached the merits of that question [unlike the two judges in the majority who reversed the decision on technical "standing" grounds] and adopted Taylor's conclusion that the NSA program was illegal).

We really have to take our hats off to NATO. This clique of arms lobbyists and defender of jobs for the boys invaded Afghanistan in 2001 on the pretext that Osama bin Laden was using the country to attack western interests. Almost a decade after the Taleban declared war on drugs production, NATO’s Afghanistan is not only the world’s largest producer of opium but now, of hashish also. VOA: Afghanistan, already world's largest producer of opium, overtakes Mexico in production of hashish. AWIP: NATO won't destroy Afghan poppy fields. + U.S. & NATO Are Supporting Afghan Drug Industry.

[Background info:] Interview with Alfred McCoy. + The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade [Interview]. + Afghanistan: Drug Addiction Lucrative for Neolib Banksters, CIA. + Washington's Hidden Agenda: Restore the Drug Trade. + Halliburton Corporation's Brown and Root is one of the major components of THE BUSH-CHENEY DRUG EMPIRE.

After terrorist conspirator and “former” U.S. government agent David Coleman Headley received promises of leniency and extradition protection from American prosecutors for his role in the 2008 Mumbai massacre, speculation about his true masters was set ablaze as outrage erupted across India. Headley — a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and the son of a Pakistani diplomat — pled guilty to various criminal charges on March 18 in connection with his terrorist activities in India, Pakistan and Denmark. He is reportedly “cooperating” with investigators.

In exchange, the government vowed not to allow foreign authorities to question him or subject him to trial. Prosecutors also agreed not seek the death penalty, and he may not even serve a life sentence. Links to U.S. intelligence agencies will remain classified. And his guilty plea ensures that there will be no drawn-out trial that could publicly reveal any relationships with various intelligence agencies — most notably, the Central Intelligence Agency-linked Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence.

Headley admitted in the plea bargain that he helped plan the bloody massacre by conducting surveillance and selecting targets, gathering GPS coordinates for the terrorist team’s boat landing along the coast, and more. He was also helping to plan an attack on a Danish cartoonist. And while the Federal Bureau of Investigation was given almost 10 hours to question the only surviving attacker in India, a team of Indian investigators who traveled to the U.S. to interrogate Headley was turned away.

Former head of NSA calls for the internet to be "re-engineered" so as to eliminate anonymity and track down contributors to sites like WikiLeaks.

A leaked CIA report says: Public apathy enables leaders to ignore voters. The report is discussing apathy among the French and German people to their countries' involvement in the war in Afghanistan, but the same is true to the apathy of Americans towards the Iraq and other wars as well.

In the predawn hours of Friday, February 12, two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials were shot to death in their home in Afghanistan. The first person to die in the assault was Commander Dawood, 43, a long-serving, popular and highly-trained policeman who had recently been promoted to head of intelligence in one of Paktia’s most volatile districts. His brother, Saranwal Zahir, was a prosecutor in Ahmadabad district. He was killed while he stood in a doorway trying to protest their innocence. Three women crouching in a hallway behind him were hit by the same volley of fire. Bibi Shirin, 22, had four children under the age of 5. Bibi Saleha, 37, had 11 children. Both of them, according to their relatives, were pregnant. They were killed instantly.

Whistleblower Web site WikiLeaks is planning to release a video that reveals what it's calling a Pentagon "cover-up" of an incident in which numerous civilians and journalists were murdered in an airstrike, according to a recent media advisory. The video will be released on April 5 at the National Press Club, the group said. They also noted their members have recently been tailed by individuals under State Department diplomatic immunity, and that "one related person was detained for 22 hours" while authorities seized computer equipment.

The CIA has called for recruiting Afghan women in a public relations bid to persuade Europeans to support war in Afghanistan, a document leaked to the media has revealed. "Afghan women could serve as ideal messengers in humanizing" the mission for European audiences, particularly in France, according to the CIA analysis, posted on WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website, AFP reported. Afghan women's views would carry special weight as they could express "their aspirations for the future, and their fears of a Taliban victory," it said. The proposed PR strategies focus on pressure points that have been identified within these countries. For France, it is the sympathy of the public for Afghan refugees and women. For Germany it is the fear of the consequences of defeat (drugs, more refugees, terrorism) as well as for Germany's standing in the NATO. AWIP: CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe.