FBI files show bureau may have tried to get Zinn fired from Boston University for his political opinions. Those who knew of the dissident historian Howard Zinn would not be surprised that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI kept tabs on him for decades during the Cold War. But in a release of documents pertaining to Zinn, the bureau admitted that one of its investigations into the left-wing academic was prompted not by suspicion of criminal activity, but by Zinn's criticism of the FBI's record on civil rights investigations.

"In 1949, the FBI opened a domestic security investigation on Zinn," the bureau states. "The Bureau noted Zinn’s activities in what were called Communist Front Groups and received informant reports that Zinn was an active member of the CPUSA; Zinn denied ever being a member when he was questioned by agents in the 1950s. "In the 1960s, the Bureau took another look at Zinn on account of his criticism of the FBI’s civil rights investigations."

The Israeli parliament is considering several new laws that could seriously impact the ability of citizens to criticise the government, according to rights groups. Human Rights Watch is reporting a crackdown on political activists who criticise Israeli’s treatment of the Palestinians. In what rights groups consider part of an alarming pattern, Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, recently admitted to spying on a young Australian activist in the West Bank. Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros reports from Jerusalem.

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.

Man shows up in court to face G20 ‘five-metre’ charges, discovers they don’t exist: Toronto Police Chief said, “the five-metre zone around the fence is for the protection of the security barrier.” When the summit ended, Chief Blair said there never was a five-metre law!

Aldous Huxley was right, not George Orwell.

Israeli Interior ministry forces demolish unrecognized
Bedouin village in the Negev; dozens of families left
homeless. December 2008 (PIWP)

Netanyahu calls Bedouin citizens of Israel "real threat" – and next, an entire village in the Negev is demolished. Early this morning police raided the "unrecognized" Bedouin village of al-Arakib in the Negev, destroyed all 40 of its houses, and evicted more than 300 residents. The residents, mostly children, were left homeless. The unprecedented raid began at about 4:30 in the morning, residents were surprised to wake up surrounded by a huge force of 1,500 police with guns, stun grenades, helmets and shields, including hundreds of Special Riot Police (Yasam) as well as mounted police, helicopters and bulldozers. At the residents’ call, dozens of left-wing activists and volunteers arrived from all over the country, helping them to offer non-violent resistance. Several residents were bruised and beaten by police, thjough not needing medical attention. One woman demonstrator was detained by the police. The police removed the residents’ property into prepared containers, and bulldozers demolished the residential buildings and sheepfolds and destroyed the residents’ fruit orchards and olive tree groves. The villagers, mostly children and old people, were left stunned near the destroyed village, shelterless and waterless under the blazing sun PressTV: Hamas slams Israel's Negev demolitions. Al Jazeera: Israel demolishes Bedouin village. The Guardian: Ethnic cleansing in the Israeli Negev.

The United States and South Korea have kicked off a large-scale joint military exercise in the Sea of Japan, officials say. The US and South Korea on Sunday launched the major naval exercise that would involve about 20 ships, including the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, and some 200 fixed-wing aircraft. Some 8,000 service personnel from the two allies haven taken part in the show of force. "The USS George Washington left the southern port of Busan around 7:00am Sunday (2200 GMT Saturday). It's sailing towards the Sea of Japan (East Sea) for the exercise," AFP quoted a US military spokesman as saying. Officials at Seoul's defense ministry said other navy ships had also left from Busan and the nearby port of Jinhae for the drill, with some from the US 7th Fleet set to join them off the peninsula's east coast. South Korea's Defense Ministry announced that the drill has been relocated from the sensitive Yellow Sea in response to China's protests. ABC News: Bronze Kim Jong-il sparks rumours of despot's end.

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Fathiya Suwais, 57, has been subjected to cruel interrogation rounds and severe torture at the hands of Israeli investigators in Jalama detention center ever since her incarceration five days ago, the Ahrar center for prisoners' studies and human rights reported. Fuad Al-Khafsh, the center's director, said in a press release on Saturday, that the Shabak investigators deprived the old woman from sleep and forced her to stand for long hours while blindfolded and handcuffed without any consideration for her age or health condition.

The federal government has censored approximately 90 per cent of a secret document outlining its controversial plans to snoop on Australians' web surfing, obtained under freedom of information (FoI) laws, out of fear the document could cause "premature unnecessary debate". The government has been consulting with the internet industry over the proposal, which would require ISPs to store certain internet activities of all Australians - regardless of whether they have been suspected of wrongdoing - for law-enforcement agencies to access. All parties to the consultations have been sworn to secrecy.

On any given day in Egypt, a U.S. ally with a much-criticized human rights record, citizens who cross the nation’s security forces may be subject to brutal violence, according to a leading human rights organization here. Complaints arrive daily: An 18-year-old man was beaten in a police station and thrown off a third floor balcony. Another man was punched and flogged. Earlier, a family was dragged to the police station, where the father was beaten and the women were threatened with rape. These and hundreds more allegations have been logged into Egypt’s “torture diary,” a chronicle of claimed transgressions compiled by the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, an independent victims advocacy group.

"Her 12-year-old daughter, whom she did not want to appear on camera, was at Tampa International Airport on vacation with a family friend when a TSA officer chose her. "It's an image of a nude child that they're seeing. This is child pornography whether people want to believe this or not. How is this any different," said Nemphos."

FLetter signed by Steny Hoyer to George Bush, June 29, 2007, demanding closing of Guantanamo:

Holding prisoners for an indefinite period of time, without charging them with a crime goes against our values, ideals and principles as a nation governed by the rule of law. Further, Guantanamo Bay has a become a liability in the broader global war on terror, as allegations of torture, the indefinite detention of innocent men, and international objections to the treatment of enemy combatants has hurt our credibility as the beacon for freedom and justice. Its continued operation also threatens the safety of U.S. citizens and military personnel detained abroad. . . . A liability of our own creation, the existence of the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay is defeating our effort to ensure that the principles of freedom, justice and human rights are spread throughout the world.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, today:

Gitmo shut-down not a priority, top Dem says House Majority Leader. Steny Hoyer acknowledged Tuesday that closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison is not a top priority for congressional Democrats. In response to a question from a reporter about where shutting down Gitmo stands, Hoyer said, “I think that’s not an item, as you point out, of real current discussion. There’s some very big issues confronting us – dealing with growing the economy and Iraq and Afghanistan.” Hoyer added, “I think you’re not going to see it discussed very broadly in the near term.”

AWIP/Stephen Lendman: Palestinian Children Under Occupation

Anthony Graber was arrested for posting a video of his traffic stop on YouTube. That Anthony Graber broke the law in early March is indisputable. He raced his Honda motorcycle down Interstate 95 in Maryland at 80 mph, popping a wheelie, roaring past cars and swerving across traffic lanes. But it wasn't his daredevil stunt that has the 25-year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard facing the possibility of 16 years in prison. For that, he was issued a speeding ticket. It was the video that Graber posted on YouTube one week later -- taken with his helmet camera -- of a plainclothes state trooper cutting him off and drawing a gun during the traffic stop near Baltimore. In early April, state police officers raided Graber's parents' home in Abingdon, Md. They confiscated his camera, computers and external hard drives. Graber was indicted for allegedly violating state wiretap laws by recording the trooper without his consent. Democracy Now: Maryland Man Could Face 16 Years in Jail for Videotaping Traffic Stop.

There's been lots of talk lately about body scanners — the new airport security tool that allows screeners to see through clothes. People are concerned about privacy, delayed flights, health effects. Now there's another concern. What about kids? Do they have to go through this, too? And what are parents' rights? A Baltimore family is raising the issue after their 12-year-old daughter was pulled out of line in Tampa and subjected to what they say was an embarrassing and unhealthy scan. The girl was traveling with an adult friend of the family, not her parents.

"Our daughter was scared and didn't understand what was happening," said Michelle Nemphos, the mother of the girl. She declined to give her daughter's name. "In essence they conducted a strip search on a 12-year-old girl without her parents present to advocate for her."

An Israeli female soldier admitted in a TV show entitled "soldiers behind the scenes" that she helped once her comrades to kill a Palestinian child in cold blood, but she did not disclose when and where the crime took place. "I was monitoring through the camera at the command center the movements of Palestinian children throwing stones at the army and directing soldiers to move towards the kids, and under my guidance through the walkie-talkie, they killed a Palestinian kid," the soldier said. She added that she, afterwards, received congratulations from the soldiers on the killing of the child and claimed she was shocked by this news and felt her directions were the direct cause of the death of this innocent child. She also confessed that the slain child did not constitute any threat to the heavily-armed soldiers.

Reliable sources from the horrifying Al Kadhimya prison in Baghdad ascertained today that the eye doctor Hiba al-Shamaree [1] who was abducted and imprisoned by the US occupiers' imposed Maliki puppet government, is in danger of death. The same reliable sources indicated that Hiba al-Shamaree , who was imprisoned in the horrifying Kadhimya prison has been transferred to an unknown hospital for food poisoning. It is well known that the US imposed Maliki government, forbids any visits to the detainees in the US' style democratic horrifying jails.

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.

New Israeli citizens may soon be required to swear an oath of loyalty to a "Jewish and democratic " state, a step that has drawn harsh criticism from human rights groups. Israel's Cabinet, which meets tomorrow, is expected to approve this and extend a raft of existing measures that make it harder for Palestinians to achieve citizenship. The wording of the oath, which would apply to new applicants for citizenship, was slammed by Arab advocacy groups, who accused Israel of "racist" policies that attempt to link citizenship to ideology. "It's another step in the direction of getting the Arabs out of Israel," said Uri Avnery, a former MP and founder of the Israeli Gush Shalom peace movement. "Parliament has become a lynching mob."

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.

GULISTAN, Uzbekistan -- Saodat Rakhimbayeva says she wishes she had died with her newborn baby. The 24-year-old housewife had a cesarean section in March and gave birth to Ibrohim, a premature boy who died three days later. Then came a further devastating blow: She learned that the surgeon had removed part of her uterus during the operation, making her sterile. The doctor told her the hysterectomy was necessary to remove a potentially cancerous cyst, while she believes he sterilized her as part of a state campaign to reduce birthrates.

"He never asked for my approval, never ran any checks, just mutilated me as if I were a mute animal," the pale and fragile Rakhimbayeva said through tears while sitting at a fly-infested cafe in this central Uzbek city. "I should have just died with Ibrohim."

Aggressive Toronto police officer threatens to arrest G20 activist for blowing bubbles during a mass detention in Toronto's Parkdale community. Woman is later arrested along with twenty others while dozens more are detained and searched. [This aggressive monster should never have been a police officer in the first place.] AWIP: Torontonians gather at police HQ to condemn abuses. AWIP/Denis Rancourt: They’re not just pigs.

Boeing unveils its PhantomEye spy plane today which is designed to fly at 65,00 feet and will be powered by hydrogen alone. With its short, squat body and massive wingspan this is an unmanned jet with a difference - it's powered by hydrogen. Boeing's Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system will be able to stay aloft at 65,000 feet for up to four days.

Phantom Eye is designed to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance missions while remaining at high altitude. It will produce only water as a by-product. Boeing also is developing a larger unmanned plane that will stay aloft for more than 10 days and 'Phantom Ray,' a fighter-sized UAV that will be a test bed for more advanced technologies. 'Phantom Eye is the first of its kind and could open up a whole new market in collecting data and communications,' Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, said today at the unveiling ceremony in St. Louis. 'It is a perfect example of turning an idea into a reality. It defines our rapid prototyping efforts and will demonstrate the art-of-the-possible when it comes to persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. 'The capabilities inherent in Phantom Eye's design will offer game-changing opportunities for our military, civil and commercial customers.'

British citizens face being subjected to chilling new EU 'Big Brother' surveillance and investigation powers: Bureaucrats want foreign officials to be able to travel to the UK and immediately assume the powers of our own police. They would be able to order undercover-spying missions, demand DNA and even pursue people for 'crimes' which are not recognised in UK law - such as criminal defamation. Other EU countries could demand the personal details of entire plane-loads of holidaymakers, and force hard-pressed British police to trail suspects on their behalf. The countries demanding the new powers on behalf of the European Union include ex-Eastern Bloc states Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia.

Police in the Ivory Coast have arrested three journalists on charges of stealing secret documents about a judicial inquiry into corruption in the country’s Coffee and Cocoa Bourse. Le Nouveau Courrier on Tuesday reportedly carried as its front page story an article detailing the contents and results of a report on the ongoing investigation into the graft allegations. Authorities on Tuesday arrested the editor, managing editor and director of publications at the newspaper and accused them of stealing judicial documents. According to local media, the police asked the journalists for the source of the documents, which they refused to divulge. The public prosecutor had said that the journalists would be held for the legal maximum of 48 hours for questioning and would be charged today.

JERUSALEM (RNS) An Israeli feminist was arrested Monday (July 12) when she carried a Torah scroll at the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. Jerusalem police detained Anat Hoffman, co-founder of the Women of the Wall, for five hours, fined her $1,300 and ordered her to stay away from the Western Wall for 30 days, according to the statement released by Hoffman's group. Hoffman was arrested during a procession from the Wall to Robinson's Arch--a secluded section of the Western Wall where the Israeli Supreme Court permits women to read the Torah. The court ruled that women are prohibited from reading from the Torah at the Wall itself because doing so goes against traditional norms of Jewish prayer and could incite ultra-Orthodox Jews to violence.

Terror laws, stop and search and council snooping to be curbed. A bonfire of draconian anti-terror laws was promised by Theresa May yesterday to reverse the 'substantial erosion of civil liberties' by Labour ministers. The Home Secretary said powers that could be scrapped or scaled back include 28- day detention without charge, control orders, stop and search and Big Brother snooping by town halls. She also pledged a sweeping review of laws that allow the arrest of people who take pictures of police officers or hold peaceful protests without permission outside Parliament.

ACTION ALERT: MK Haneen Zoubi (BALAD) faces death threats as the Israeli Knesset House Committee votes to revoke her Parliamentary privileges for participating in the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid Flotilla and protesting against the blockade.

The Knesset voted Tuesday to revoke diplomatic privileges from Palestinian-Israeli MK Hanin Zoabi over her participation in the May 31 flotilla, Haaretz reported. With a 34-16 vote in favor of the measure, Zoabi loses three main privileges afforded all members of the Knesset. Most importantly, Zoabi will be barred from leaving the country, which supporters of the measure say will prevent her from fleeing charges that might be brought against her over her actions. Zoabi denounced the vote, accusing her fellow lawmakers of acting purely out of vengeance. "It's not surprising that a country that strips the fundamental rights of its Arab citizens would revoke the privileges of a Knesset member who loyally represents her electorate." Zoabi represents the predominantly Palestinian Balad party and was the first woman representative for her party. Zoabi continued her condemnation, saying the vote represented a dangerous precedent for Israel’s Palestinian citizens. She also accused Israeli legislators of implementing racist laws against the country’s minority Palestinian population. "In a civilized country, the people who incite against and threaten [me] would be punished and have sanctions imposed against them,” Zoabi said in the report. "When you threaten the Arab MKs and the Arabs' protectors, you threaten democracy and co-existence between Jews and Arabs."

NAZARETH // It is called Spot and Shoot. Operators sit in front of a TV monitor from which they can control the action with a PlayStation-style joystick. The aim: to kill. Played by: young women serving in the Israeli army.

Spot and Shoot, as it is called by the Israeli military, may look like a video game but the figures on the screen are real people – Palestinians in Gaza – who can be killed with the press of a button on the joystick. The female soldiers, located far away in an operations room, are responsible for aiming and firing remote-controlled machine-guns mounted on watch-towers every few hundred metres along an electronic fence that surrounds Gaza. The system is one of the latest “remote killing” devices developed by Israel’s Rafael armaments company, the former weapons research division of the Israeli army and now a separate governmental firm. Antiwar: Israel’s ‘Spot and Shoot’ System Aims to Perfect Joystick Based Warfare Killing Gazans by Remote Just Got a Lot More Convenient.

Ireland objects to EU-Israel data deal Irish minister for justice Dermott Ahern has confirmed that Dublin is seeking to block a new European Commission initiative that would allow the free transfer of personal data on EU citizens to Israel. The minister's statement over the weekend, reported in Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday (12 July), follows recent media reports that Ireland is concerned the data could be misused after eight fake Irish passports were allegedly used by Israel's intelligence agency Mossad in the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh earlier this year. As a result, Irish officials last week called for the scrapping of commission plans to declare Israeli data protection standards as being sufficient to allow the transfer of personal data. Without the formal declaration, the broad transfer of the personal information such as bank and telephone details between the two sides is forbidden. "Personal data provided innocently to Israeli officials by Irish citizens was used in forging passports. Other EU countries, particularly the UK, had similar experiences and that is a matter of the gravest concern." Al-ManarTV: Ireland: Israel Shouldn’t Have Access to Data on European Citizens.

The leaders of the political coup that last month removed Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and installed his former deputy, Julia Gillard, were not just “faceless numbers men”, as sections of the media have insisted. Nor can the role of Rudd’s dispatchers—including Bill Shorten, Mark Arbib, David Feeney, Paul Howes and Gary Gray—be explained by the fact that, in the main, they are representatives of Labor’s so-called right-wing Centre Unity faction. Rather, the critical point is the direct connection of these Labor “heavies” to big business, especially the mining industry. Their personal histories reveal a seamless movement between the Labor machine, including the unions, and the boardrooms of Australia’s largest companies. In toppling Rudd so swiftly—the coup was executed within the space of just 15 hours—Labor’s faction bosses were simply taking action on behalf of the mining chiefs and other corporate executives, and their opposition to Rudd’s proposed 40 percent resource super-profits tax (RSPT). That the faction bosses felt no need to argue their case within the ranks of the party or the trade unions simply underscores the fact that the working class is not a factor in the machinations of the Labor bureaucracy.

Watch this video of an Alabama Police Officer harassing a petite videographer as she tries to video tape a oil spill clean up worker as she is being taken away in an ambulance.

Hezbollah has denounced CNN for sacking senior editor Octavia Nasr because of her Twitter message praising the late Shia cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi on Thursday denounced the "intellectual terrorism represented by the firing of journalist Octavia Nasr of CNN after she expressed sadness" at the death of Fadlallah, AFP reported. "This measure reveals the double standard in the West regarding matters in the region and unmasks the United States, which pretends to protect freedom of speech," Moussawi added in a statement. Octavia Nasr was told to leave the US television news network after praising the Lebanese cleric who died from internal bleeding in a Beirut hospital on Sunday. “Sad to hear of the passing of Seyyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot ”, Nasr wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter on Sunday. AWIP: A tweet costs CNN employee her job. AWIP/Khalid Amayreh: The Israeli stranglehold on CNN.

BBC: UK envoy's praise for Lebanon cleric draws Israel anger. When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person. -Frances Guy, British ambassador to Lebanon.

[The Irish government] has moved to block a European Commission initiative to allow the transfer to Israel and storage there of sensitive personal data on European citizens. The intervention by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern reflects “profound concern” over transfers being made following the use of eight fake Irish passports by the alleged Israeli assassins of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Dubai police have accused Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad of orchestrating the killing using fraudulent British, French, German and Australian passports along with the fake Irish passports. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The commission wanted European governments to approve a declaration that the EU recognises Israeli data protection standards as being sufficient to allow member states to transfer such personal data to Israel. Two days ago, however, Irish officials called for the termination of the procedure under which EU governments were to endorse the commission’s declaration. Without such a declaration, the transfer of personal data to Israel is prohibited.

FROM THE US of A, the "SHRINE OF DEMOCRACY": CNN has fired its senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs after she published a Twitter message praising the late Lebanese Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. Octavia Nasr has been told to leave the US television news network after praising the Lebanese cleric who died from internal bleeding in a Beirut hospital on Sunday.

“Sad to hear of the passing of Seyyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot,”

Nasr wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter on Sunday. CNN officials learned of Nasr's message on Monday and shortly after, a written statement on CNN's website said Nasr had made an "error of judgment."

Internal Raytheon email calls system 'Big Brother'. The National Security Agency has begun work on an "expansive" spy system that will monitor critical infrastructure inside the United States for cyber-attacks, in a move that detractors say could end up violating privacy rights and expanding the NSA's domestic spying abilities. The Wall Street Journal cites unnamed sources as saying that the NSA has issued a $100-million contract to defense contractor Raytheon to build a system dubbed "Perfect Citizen," which will involve placing "sensors" at critical points in the computer networks of private and public organizations that run infrastructure, organizations such as nuclear power plants and electric grid operators.

As Sarah began pleading with them to give her father a little time and space to get up because he is an amputee, they began kicking and hitting him. One of the police officers used his knee to press Pruyn’s head down so hard on the ground, said Pruyn in an interview this July 4 with Niagara At Large, that his head was still hurting a week later. CBC News: G20 reporters complain to police watchdog. AWIP: Male officers strip search and cavity search females. Toronto G20 Police RAPE and TORTURE journalist!

ACTA is the predictably deficient product of a deeply flawed process. What started as a relatively simple proposal to coordinate customs enforcement has transformed into a sweeping and complex new international intellectual property and internet regulation with grave consequences for the global economy and governments' ability to promote and protect the public interest. ACTA would:

■ Encourage internet service providers to police the activities of internet users by holding internet providers responsible for the actions of subscribers, conditioning safe harbors on adopting policing policies, and by requiring parties to encourage cooperation between service providers and rights holders;
■ Encourage this surveillance, and the potential for punitive disconnections by private actors, without adequate court oversight or due process;

Now that Canada is officially the most oppressive and backward dictatorship in the west, will authorities be allowed to cover-up the Abu-Ghraib style incarceration methods Toronto police engaged in during the G20 summit this past weekend, where women were arrested and subsequently raped by male cops?

In this video, journalist Amy Miller describes how women arrested by Toronto police were threatened with rape, that numerous women were strip-searched by male officers and that one severely traumatized woman was sexually molested by police who stuck their fingers up her vagina. Sexual penetration of an individual against their will is called rape.

If these reports are accurate, and there's no reason to think otherwise given everything else we've witnessed not only over the past few days but over the past several years in Canada, Toronto police officers are not only brutal thugs who like to lie about the law, unlawfully arrest people, snatch and grab protesters using unmarked cars, and beat up journalists from major newspapers, but they are also rapists who prey on innocent women.

We have now learned that Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair engaged in mass public deception by lying about the claim that Toronto's "Public Works Act" mandated G20 protesters to show their ID. The law doesn't exist, it was never passed. The police officers who cited this law when arresting Charlie Veitch were knowingly engaging in wrongful arrest and should be sued.

Likewise, the goons who brutally molested women Abu-Ghraib style need to be identified and prosecuted. Miller should seek out the victims and bring charges against those involved, and not allow these monsters to cover-up their shameful behavior.

UPDATE: We have now learned that four journalists, including Miller, have "filed complaints with Ontario's police watchdog, with allegations that police physically assaulted or threatened to sexually assault the females when they were arrested during the Toronto G20 summit."

In addition, Guardian journalist Jesse Rosenfeld has spoken publicly of his ordeal at the hands of G20 police.

"I was grabbed on each side and hit in the stomach and back and pounced on by officers. I kept asking them why they were beating me because I wasn't resisting arrest. But they lifted my leg and twisted my ankle," said Rosenfield.

AWIP/Denis Rancourt: They’re not just pigs. The targeting, intimidation, and terrorizing of protestors - treated like “the enemy” in a war – was, like with all recent anti-globalization protests, systematic. The patterns described by the thousands of victims (from psychological intimidation to broken skin and rape) are identical. These are no ordinary pigs. These thugs had to be trained to execute these manoeuvres against civil society. These cops are not just racist individuals because of their particular personal circumstances. Their language and actions show that they are trained into a military culture where protestors and activists are the enemy and are to be rooted out and intimidated away from societal participation. They aren’t just pigs. They are anti-democracy commandos.

A 12-MONTH trial of police Tasers, which was used to justify arming every frontline officer in the state with the controversial weapon, was characterised by a litany of misuses and abuses that were covered up by police and the government. The proof comes in internal police documents relating to the trial in 2008-09, which the Herald obtained after a year-long freedom-of-information battle. The documents reveal that police and the government used the trial as window dressing to affirm a decision they had already made - to give the weapon to all general duties police - and ignored worrying results. The many abuses the Herald uncovered include:

■ Stunning a handcuffed child at a juvenile detention centre. ■ Stunning two suicidal people covered in fuel, which can be ignited by a Taser blast.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency's computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News. The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon. It states that as of July 1, TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed "inappropriate for government access."

AWIP/Denis Rancourt: They’re not just pigs. BackOfTheBook: How I Got Arrested and Abused at the G20 in Toronto, Canada.

Under Barack Obama, the former professor of constitutional law, Americans’ civil liberties have shrunken drastically – to the point that his administration claims the right to execute its citizens without charge or due process of any recognizable kind. And citizens that leave the country cannot be sure they will be allowed back in. But where is the outrage among Democrats, when Obama out-Bushes Bush? “It seems that Democrats did not in fact feel any affront to Bush policies, only to his party affiliation.”

A 'Big Brother' stop and search power which has been used by police to harass hundreds of thousands of innocent people will remain in force despite being ruled illegal. The news that police may continue to search members of the public without having any reasonable grounds for suspicion provoked fury among civil liberties campaigners. The power - section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 - was ruled unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday. The Home Office now has no remaining grounds for appeal. But, despite the crushing Strasbourg defeat, officials say they will not stop the police from using the power for months or even a year or more.

FROM THE MADHOUSE: U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, isn't the only Texas congressman making headlines in Washington. Citing a "retired F.B.I. agent" as his source, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, said on the floor of Congress last week that terror cells are plotting to breed future terrorists inside the United States. "It appeared they would have young women who became pregnant [and] would get them into the United States to have a baby. They wouldn't even have to pay anything for the baby," Gohmert said. "And then they would return back where they could be raised and coddled as future terrorists. And then one day, 20, 30 years down the road, they can be sent in to help destroy our way of life."

As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials—working with BP—who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible.

Do you ever just sit back and wonder what in the world has happened to America? The truth is that the America that so many of us once loved so much has been shattered into a thousand pieces. The "land of the free and the home of the brave" has been transformed into a socialized Big Brother nanny state that is oozing with corruption and has accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. The greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen is falling apart before our very eyes, and even when our politicians actually try to do something right (which is quite rare) the end result is still a bunch of garbage. For those who still love this land (and there are a lot of us) it is heartbreaking to watch America slowly die. The following are 50 random facts that show just how dramatically America has changed....

WESTLAKE, Ohio - A 6-year-old girl has won her fight with U.S. Homeland Security. Late Tuesday, the Thomas family found out that their "no-fly nightmare" is over. "We have family all over the United States as well as all over the world and his cousins in the Middle East heard about it, our family that's in India heard about it," said Sapna Thomas, Alyssa's mother. "It just spread like wildfire!" Alyssa's parents were made aware during a recent trip from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport that she was flagged by the government. That meant possible delays or other problems, because she likely shares a name with someone on the Homeland Security terror watch list. The little girl was instead forced to file with the government to have her name cleared. In response, the DHS sent a two-page letter to Alyssa explaining why they couldn't make any changes or provide anymore information. "This is not a plot against us versus them, or one governmental agency against someone else," said Santhosh Thomas, Alyssa's dad. "I just think it's a misfortunate thing that happened to a young girl."

Reporters Without Borders: Journalists who were aboard the humanitarian flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli naval commandoes on 31 May have been recounting their experiences. At the same time, Turkish journalist Cevdet Kiliçlar, who was fatally shot at the start of the assault of the Mavi Marmara, one of vessels in the flotilla, was buried in Istanbul on 4 June. A news photographer who graduated from Marmara University’s Faculty of Communication, Kiliçlar had worked in the past for such Islamist newspapers as Selam (Salute), Vakit (Time) and Milli Gazete (National Newspaper) and had applied for an official press card while working for Milli Gazete.

Airport body scanners emit radiation up to 20 times more powerful than previously thought, a scientist has warned. Dr David Brenner, head of the centre for radiological research at Columbia University in New York, said Government scientists had not taken into account the concentration of the radiation on the skin. He said it raised concerns about a potentially greater risk of cancer than previously realised. Dr Brenner, who is from Liverpool, said children and passengers with genetic mutations - around one in 20 of the population - were most at risk because they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their cells.

We’ve been busy. Yesterday, Braden was rounded up at Queen and Spadina along with hundreds of other people, and I was detained and searched by police. My camera gear is damaged after the police left it sitting in the rain while they searched me. We have piles of photos, audio, and video to sort through, and we’ll be posting it all here in the next couple of days. I also have more information to go along with my photos, including notes and recorded interviews. Be sure to check back soon. In the meantime, here are some more shots from yesterday. You Tube: Police open fire on peaceful protesters at G20 (with rubber bullets)

WSWS: The mass repression at the G20 summit in Toronto. The violence and repression carried out this past weekend by the authorities in Toronto, where the G20 summit was taking place, was worthy of a police state. An army of security officers, both in uniform and undercover, took over the downtown portion of Toronto, a major world city, creating conditions of “martial law,” in the words of a columnist for the right-wing Toronto Sun. The police operation was used to violently repress an overwhelmingly peaceful protest by thousands of people opposed to the policies of the governments represented at the summit. Even prior to the demonstration, police preemptively arrested alleged leaders of the protest. The massive state operation was a brazen assault on basic free speech and assembly rights.

Police officers stopped a teenage photographer from taking pictures of an Armed Forces Day parade - and then claimed they did not need a law to detain him. Jules Mattsson, a 16-year-old freelancer from Hackney, east London, was photographing police cadets on Saturday when he was ordered to stop and give his personal details by an adult cadet officer who claimed he needed parental permission to capture images of the cadets. After arguing his rights in a series of protracted legal debates with officers, the sixth former says he was pushed down a set of stairs and detained for breaching the peace until the parade passed. He is now considering taking legal action against the Met which has often been criticised for its heavy handed approach towards photographers in the capital.

Police officers in Chechnya have been firing paintballs at Chechen women with uncovered hair; the policemen drive by in cars with tinted windows and shoot the women in the face and neck as they're walking down the street. Following the initial attacks last week, fliers from the shooters appeared in the Chechen city of Gudermes warning that if women didn't cover themselves the paintballers would resort to "tougher measures." The fliers also admonished, "Isn't it nasty for you, while dressed defiantly, with your head uncovered, to hear various obscene 'compliments' and proposals? Think again!" This infuriating and degrading development — shooting women with paint?! — is one result of Russia's cold bargain with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechen rebel-turned-Kremlin-loyalist. Trying to maintain control over Chechnya and quash any separatist uprisings, Russia has essentially allowed Kadryov to run the Chechen republic according to his version of Islamic law.

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — The photographs have spread online and in the press: a before-and-after montage showing a handsome young man smiling in a gray hoodie on one side and a battered and bloodied corpse on the other. His eyes are rolled back in his head, mouth agape and his lower lip ripped half off his face. His name was Khaled Said, age 28. His murder on June 6 — allegedly at the hands of undercover police — is causing a political uproar that has brought thousands into the streets here in recent weeks to demand justice for the man now known as “the emergency law martyr.” His death is Egypt’s latest — and largest — rallying cry for critics of 82-year-old President Hosni Mubarak, the country’s feared security services and the state of emergency that has granted both near limitless power since 1981.

7,300 Palestinians, including 17 legislators and two former ministers, are currently detained in about 20 Israeli prisons, a report says. Hundreds of them have never been charged [by the Zionists' cangaroo courts] or put on trial. Among the detained are 33 women, nearly 300 children, 296 administrative detainees, and dozens of political leaders, Palestinian researcher Abdul Nasser Farawna said in a report issued on Monday. Farawana, who specializes in detainee affairs, said that 1,500 of them are ill and need urgent medical attention and dozens need surgeries and hospitalization, but no action has been taken by the Israeli authorities. The detainees are held in about twenty prisons and detention and interrogation centers, mainly in Ramon, Shatta, Galboa, Asqalan, Hadarim, Al-Damoun, Be'er Sheva, Ofer, Majoddo, and the Negev detention camp, he added. He went on to say that 83 percent of the detainees are from the West Bank, 10.6 percent are from Gaza, while the rest are Arab residents of Israel and other Arab nationals. [Learn Peace: The fourth Geneva Convention ("Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War") covers all individuals "who do not belong to the armed forces, take no part in the hostilities and find themselves in the hands of the Enemy or an Occupying Power".]

While security for the event cost in the range of $1 billion, police were nowhere to be found when the ‘Black Bloc’ began smashing windows and burning police cars, according to several on scene reports. One blogger noted that “the police car may have been abandoned there by the Toronto Police as a distraction (or as an excuse for agent provocateurs to act violently).” Terry Burrows in a Global Research report asserts, “As events unfold, it is becoming increasingly clear that the 'Black Bloc' are undercover police operatives engaged in purposeful provocations to eclipse and invalidate legitimate G20 citizen protest by starting a riot.”

Over the course of the past 72 hours protestors have been bludgeoned, kicked, tear gassed, trampled by police horses and shot at with rubber and plastic bullets. Homes have been raided for “preventative arrests” without a warrant. Journalists covering these unprecedented events have been arrested and assaulted. Demonstrators have been hauled into detention cages, strip searched and denied legal counsel. There, detainees suffering from concussion and deep lacerations were denied medical attention. A diabetic entering into shock was denied treatment for four hours.

Global Research: The Toronto G20 Riot Fraud: Undercover Police engaged in Purposeful Provocation. Toronto is right now in the midst of a massive government / media propaganda fraud. As events unfold, it is becoming increasingly clear that the 'Black Bloc' are undercover police operatives engaged in purposeful provocations to eclipse and invalidate legitimate G20 citizen protest by starting a riot. Government agents have been caught doing this before in Canada.

An autopsy concluded that the 36-year-old inmate suffered from no fewer than three serious illnesses — cancer, hepatitis and HIV. The cancer ultimately killed him, causing his spleen to burst. Montoya bled to death internally. But the coroner and a pathologist were more stunned by another finding: The only medication in his system was a trace of over-the-counter pain reliever. That means Montoya, imprisoned for a passing counterfeit checks, had been given nothing to ease the excruciating pain that no doubt wracked his body for days or weeks before death.

Using snatch-teams, police attacked a crowd of peaceful protesters in Queens Park. The following clip shows police attacking and arresting protesters. At 1:02, video journalist Brandon Jourdan is thrown to the ground and beaten by police while shooting video.

An Ohio family recently learned their 6-year-old daughter was on the Department of Homeland Security’s 'no-fly' list, Fox8.com reported. Alyssa Thomas, 6, was traveling with her parents when a ticket agent notified the family she was on the list of restricted fliers. When the family tried to clear up the issue with Homeland Security, they received a letter notifying them that it could not be changed.

20. aug 2007: Peaceful protesters stop police provocateurs from starting a riot at the Stop the SPP protests in Montebello Quebec. The police admitted they were thier officers. CEP President Dave Coles confronts men with rocks and sticks. Find out more about what's wrong with the SPP at www.canadians.org Help us make our documentary about the SPP and TILMA find out more at http://www.manlymedia.com

More than seven thousand riot police, plain clothes officers and mounted patrols have been deployed in downtown Toronto in a naked violation of the democratic rights of not only the thousands of youth, trade unionists and social and environmental activists protesting the G20 summit, but of the entire Canadian population. Over the past 48 hours, as leaders of the G20 governments moved to coordinate a massive global austerity program directed at the international working class, police—for the first time in Toronto’s history—deployed snatch squads, tear gas and rubber and plastic bullets to disperse groups of peaceful protestors attempting to march to the fenced in perimeter of the G20 venue. By Sunday evening, over 600 people had been arrested, many in the so-called “free speech zone,” and detained in a make-shift holding pen on the grounds of a local film studio. Reports emerged of beatings and other violent actions against peaceful demonstrators. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has spent $1.2 billion to date for the security of the summit. The decision to hold the event in the heart of Canada’s largest city, not to mention the outrageous expenses incurred, has been roundly criticized by broad layers of the Canadian population faced with ever deeper cuts to their wages, pensions and social services. CBC News: G20: sound cannon use approved. Al Jazeera: G20 struggles for united front. AWIP/Stephen Lendman: Competing Ideologies: G20 v US Social Forum.

Heavily armed riot police are attempting to clear crowds out of downtown Toronto, several hours after black-clad vandals raged through the city in protest of the G20 summit. In the heart of the city, four police cars have been torched and officers have used tear gas. There are reports that police fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowds, which Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair could not confirm. Before midnight, about 200 protesters gathered at the Novotel hotel close to the lakeshore. Many sat on the ground, holding signs, as riot police moved in and made arrests. You Tube: Toronto Police randomly arresting people. CTV producer arrested.

Raw Story: Report: Toronto police rough up journalists, arrest peaceful protesters at G20. I saw two officers hold a journalist. The journalist identified himself as working for 'the Guardian.' He talked too much and pissed the police off. Two officers held him a third punched him in the stomach. The man collapsed. Then the third officer drove his elbow into the man's back.

POLICE STATE: An advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that every person be vaccinated for the seasonal flu yearly, except in a few cases where the vaccine is known to be unsafe. "Now no one should say 'Should I or shouldn't I?'" said CDC flu specialist Anthony Fiore. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 11-0 with one abstention to recommend yearly flu vaccination for everyone except for children under the age of six months, whose immune systems have not yet developed enough for vaccination to be safe, and people with egg allergies or other health conditions that are known to make flu vaccines hazardous. If accepted by the CDC, this recommendation will then be publicized to doctors and other health workers. The CDC nearly always accepts the advisory committee's recommendations.

A government changes a law to allow police to arrest people without probable cause. It does so without any legislative debate. Then it keeps the change a virtual secret, until someone is arrested under those new powers. The Soviet Union circa 1950? Nope. Try Canada, June 2010. Civil liberties advocates and political activists are up in arms after it emerged Friday that police in Toronto have been given special powers to arrest anyone near the site of the G20 summit if they fail to identify themselves. AWIP: Man arrested and left in wire cage under new G20 law.

The US senators pushing a controversial new bill that some fear would give President Barack Obama the powers to seize control of and even shut down the internet have rejected claims it would give Obama a net "kill switch". The bill, titled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, has been unanimously approved by the US Homeland Security committee and will be put to a vote on the Senate floor shortly.

Vasey was arrested Thursday afternoon while exploring the G20 perimeter with his friend, Cameron Fenton. He said they were just “walking around” when they were stopped by police at York St. and Bremner Blvd. “The officer told me, ‘I am going to have to place you under arrest if you don’t show your identification,’ and I replied ‘I’m not comfortable with that.’”

Vasey’s girlfriend, Taylor Flook, had been on the phone with lawyers all day. “I am someone who did say ‘The police are here to protect you. They’re here to look out and make sure nothing happens to you,’“ she said. “But after today I’m very much changed in that opinion. I’m starting to believe some of the things I hear about police intimidation. It makes me feel like we are living in a police state.”

On Jun 17, Colorado Indymedia was contacted by Special Agent Adam Kowalski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)/Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As part of an "ongoing investigation" by Federal Protective Services, they attempted to seize the Colorado Indymedia server, believing that we kept logs (such as IP address access logs) that could identity users on our site. Our servers are graciously hosted at Denver Open Media who was approached by Kowalski. Kowalski claimed he had a court order but refused to leave a copy at Denver Open Media. He was told to contact the system administrators in order to obtain the logs as Denver Open Media does not have the ability to consent to a seizure or search of our property. As of this date, we do not have a copy of the court order if it even exists. It's likely that this was just a bluff as it's well-established that cops, the FBI, and other law enforcement can lie in order to illicit consent and lying about court orders is no exception.

(CN) - Police Tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn't breathe, after her grandson called 911 seeking medical assistance, the woman and her grandson claim in Oklahoma City Federal Court. Though the grandson said, "Don't Taze my granny!" an El Reno police officer told another cop to "Taser her!" and wrote in his police report that he did so because the old woman "took a more aggressive posture in her bed," according to the complaint.

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.

Hollywood director Russo goes in-depth for first time on the astounding admissions of Nick Rockefeller, including his prediction of 9/11 and the war on terror hoax, the Rockefeller's creation of women's lib, and the elite's ultimate plan for world population reduction and a microchipped society Aaron Russo joins Alex Jones for a fascinating sit-down in depth video interview on a plethora of important subjects. Aaron begins by describing how the draconian and mafia tactics of Chicago police woke him up to the fact that America wasn't free after his nightclub was routinely raided and he was forced to pay protection money. Aaron and Alex then cover a broad range of topics including the private run for profit federal reserve, Aaron's experience in the late 80's with the IRS when they retroactively passed laws to punish silver and gold traders, the real meaning of the word "democracy," what really happened on 9/11 and Aaron's relationship with Nick Rockefeller, who personally tried to recruit him on behalf of the CFR. Aaron also relates how Rockefeller told him that the elite created women's liberation to destroy the family and how they want to ultimately microchip and control the entire population. Rockefeller also told before 9/11 Russo that an unexpected "event" would catalyze the U.S. to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

Journalists, artists and publicists in Europe are increasingly confronted with censorship and self-censorship. Freedom of expression, as well as journalistic freedom is not automatic anymore. While the internet makes borders increasingly irrelevant, freedom of expression, online and offline, become even more relevant. Laws are the safeguards, which are still determined by nation states. The seminar aims to look at freedom of expression from different viewpoints. Swedish artist Lars Vilks, Jyllands-Posten editor Flemming Rose and Dutch author Naema Tahir will share their personal experiences with freedom of expression in Europe, while Professor Alistair Mullis, UK Defamation Law expert, Julian Assange from WikiLeaks and Birgitta Jonsdottir will speak on the legal and political questions surrounding freedom of expression. Defamation law, source protection, safety, libel shopping and the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative will all feature prominently. This event is the initative of ALDE MEPs Marietje Schaake and Alexander Lambsdorff.

President Obama pledged to "take a back seat to no one" in his support for Net Neutrality. His appointee to the FCC, Chairman Julius Genachowski, promised to bring a new era of transparency to proceedings on this and other important issues. Yet now the FCC is huddling with industry lobbyists in closed-door meetings to cut a deal on the future of the Internet.

POLICE STATE: A homeowner says he was arrested for "illegal photography" when a police sergeant followed him into his own home, and he objected and took the cop's photo with his cell phone. "We did not know what he was talking about, and I don't think he does either," the homeowner says in his federal complaint. In his civil rights complaint, Francisco Olvera says Sealy Police Sgt. Justin Alderete's charge of "illegal photography" baffled him and several witnesses. You Tube: Police shoot chained dog because it "growled at them". (Warning: Hard to watch)

Yes folks, what we have been fearing for some time may finally come to pass. The internet has provided wonderful opportunities to citizens to diversify their sources of information, and to journalists and activists to level the playing field. No one can control the narrative anymore, not even the Israel lobby. Many people in power have been grumbling about this for some time. But few politicians were willing to take the risk to act against such a popular medium. It is unsurprising therefore that it took someone as shameless as Joe Lieberman, the man who has only ever saluted one flag–the Israeli flag–to propose a bill that gives the US president authority to ‘kill’ the internet. His model? Why, the great people’s republic of China course. Most readers probably don’t know that Clinton’s Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Law of 1996 — the legislation that introduced such things as secret evidence, and detention without charge, thereby paving the way for the Patriot Act — was also proposed and rammed trough Congress by the Israel lobby. Don’t take this lightly. AIPAC is testing the waters. If it sees no opposition to the internet bill, it will put it on paper and three quarter of the senate will feel obliged to sign on the dotted line (as they invariably do). AWIP/Justin Raimondo: Kill the ‘Kill Switch’.

A recent revelation about a mysterious prisoner held in total seclusion from the outside world in a top secret Israeli jail has put Tel Aviv at the center of a new round of controversy. The issue was initially raised after a report by Israeli news website Ynet disclosed the existence of the "Mr. X" in a maximum-security detention center where the man's identity is even being kept from his guards. Quoting unnamed prison officials, the report said Mr. X was held in Unit 15 of Ayalon prison, which is located in a wing that contains a single cell, The Telegraph reported on Monday. The cited prison wing is reported to be fully cut off from the rest of the prison by double iron doors, sealing the man in such isolation that other prisoners can neither see, nor hear him. AWIP: Israel gripped by identity of 'Prisoner X'.

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.

Israel's 'Prisoner X': "He is simply a person without a name and without an identity who has been placed in total and utter isolation from the outside world". The elusive "Mr X" is being held for unspecified crimes and confined in total seclusion within a private wing of the maximum-security Ayalon prison. No one knew of his existence until the shroud of secrecy was briefly lifted after a story appeared on the website of Israel's leading Hebrew-language newspaper Yediot Ahronot.

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.

Woman allows police to search her house so long as they don't kill her dog -- Police proceed to kill her dog. Marietta Robinson, 62, is still visibly traumatized after witnessing her 13 year old companion, Wrinkles, be shot and killed Tuesday night. "I've had her since she was the size of my wrist... I still can't believe this," said Robinson. According to the search warrant, six officers showed up at Robinson's door in the 1300 block 5th Street NW around 9 Tuesday night in search of drugs and paraphrenalia in relation to her 28-year-old grandson. Robinson says he hasn't lived in the home in years. "My grandson couldn't even come in here 'cause he hasn't lived here so long. My dog don't know my grandson," said Robinson. Robinson says she let them in under one condition. "I said 'can I put my dog in the bathroom?'...The officer said 'yes' and then he opened the door and shot her," Robinson told us.

Last week Palestine Monitor reported that Israeli police shot and killed Shu’fat resident 39-year-old Ziad Jilani in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi Joz. Now his widow, a U.S. citizen, reflects on her husband’s life and death, and the journey he’s taken her on. Reporting from Kara Newhouse. IMEMC: Israeli Media Report That Officers Shot Palestinian Lying On Ground.

I was completely gagged since November 20th 2009 and just you WAIT for what went on in that court room that day. Lets just say someone went on a holiday and it was'nt me. I cannot speak about the case. Before, I was TOTALLY banned from making ANY PUBLIC statement. Prepare for an ONSLAUGHT on the Israeli Intelligence question. Media has been onto the police all of a sudden. YEH, we know it's a police state but all of a sudden the media is picking up on it. I think our traditional enemy is going after the police here - after all, they were very interested in what I have to say. TOOT! TOOT! Christopher Bollyn: How Ehud Barak Pulled Off 9-11.

The Atlanta City Council is expected to agree pay $20,000 to settle a lawsuit by Minnie Carey, a 62-year-old woman who was jailed for asking a police officer “why” she and friends had to move from a sidewalk where they were talking about an upcoming funeral. Carey’s suit was filed Feb. 17, claiming Dolson violated her civil rights and falsely imprisoned her. The suit also said the city had not given Dolson training that might have led him to respond differently in his encounter with Carey and her friends on a sidewalk outside a convenience store. “People don’t usually complain unless there’s something really wrong,” Carey said. “If you have people complaining about the same person, it’s time the city take a look into their background.” Information Liberation: DEADLY SHOOTING: Police detective who shot, killed man ID'd. + Cops Kill Father-to-Be in Botched Marijuana Raid.

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.

It is Aung San Suu Kyi's 15th year spent under house arrest since 1989. However, as Burma heads for elections for the first time in two decades, freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi – and her fellow 2,200 political prisoners – remains a remote prospect. Indeed, the run-up to the polls slated for later this year may be a period of intensified repression of human rights, especially for the “three freedoms” of expression, peaceful assembly and association. International scrutiny of and robust response to these violations must increase as the Burmese authorities appear set to stamp out any dissent ahead of the vote. The new UK government can play a key role in helping to reverse that trend and continue to champion human rights in Burma.

The international community, including Burma’s influential neighbours such as China, India and Japan and the ASEAN countries, all agree that they want the forthcoming elections to be “free and fair”. However, this hope does not go nearly far enough to protect the rights that are most at risk in the upcoming period. Over the past several years at least, Amnesty’s research shows that ethnic minority political opponents and activists have been systematically repressed by the Burmese authorities, including through arbitrary arrests, unfair trials, imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial executions. The doubling of the number of political prisoners since the start of the so-called Saffron Revolution in 2007 is a huge indictment of the grim human rights situation in the country. The Guardian: Before duty called: pictures show Aung San Suu Kyi as a wife and mother.

Canadian police officers were not justified in using a taser gun on a Polish immigrant who later died, an inquiry has found. Robert Dziekanski, who did not speak English, died after being stunned five times with a Taser gun at Vancouver airport in 2007. The district attorney general has said that a special prosecutor would look into possible criminal charges against the four officers involved. The case sparked outrage across Canada. Mr Dziekanski, 40, was a first-time traveller who had been emigrating to Canada, where his mother lived.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), along with one Republican and Democratic senator, introduced a bill late last week that would allow the President to effectively disconnect the internet by "emergency" decree. The "Protecting" Cyberspace as a National Asset Act would allow the President to disconnect Internet networks and force private websites to comply with broad "cybersecurity" measures. Future US presidents would have their Internet kill switch powers renewed indefinitely. The bill was introduced by Lieberman, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). A parallel bill was drafted last year by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) which would allow the federal government to unilaterally "order the disconnection" of certain websites.

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.

Aung San Suu Kyi: the unseen photo album

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.

24-hour read-in on steps of Brooklyn library attracts 1,200 people to protest against cuts and expected closures. Library campaigners in New York failed to keep the noise down this weekend as they hosted a 24-hour "read-in" on the steps of Brooklyn public library in protest over cuts to the city's service. From Hemingway and Coleridge to Gossip Girl and Fahrenheit 451, volunteers in the We Will Not Be Shushed campaign took 15-minute slots to read aloud to passersby from 5pm on Saturday to 5pm on Sunday (readings of erotica were restricted to the hours of midnight to 7am). The event, attended by more than 1,200 people, was wrapped up on Sunday afternoon by council member and supporter Jimmy Van Bramer tackling Walt Whitman, choosing the apt Shut Not Your Doors to Me, Proud Libraries from Whitman's collection Leaves of Grass. The volunteers were protesting over proposed funding cuts that librarians say would lead to the closure of 40 libraries in the city, 30% staff lay-offs and limited hours for many branches. "I think we all made our point this weekend," said the event's organisers. "Library services are essential to the social, cultural and educational fabric in New York City. Closing libraries will do irreversible long-term harm to our communities."

A Seattle, Washington, police officer who was caught on video punching an alleged jaywalker allegedly did nothing wrong, the Seattle Police Officers Guild said. Seattle police are reviewing the incident, which was caught on a witness's cell phone camera, a department spokesman said. "The officer did nothing wrong. We always will review incidents like this, that's how police officers learn," Sgt. Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officer's Guild, told CNN. "I am confident that the review will show that the officer was totally justified. He was defending himself." [In other words, just like Israel.]

[Editor's Comment:] The police officer had no business talking to this woman in the first place. He should have left her alone.

Here's the underlying philosophy of the fascists: "We" (i.e. they) want a "perfect society". So they set up a finely grained network of rules & laws that the rest of us are supposed to obey. They take for granted that if everybody obeyed, "we" would (finally) have managed to make society "perfect".

Thing is, it would only be a thoroughly fascist society. These authoritarians think we're the problem and that they & their laws are the solution. They see us as lawbreakers and guilty until proven otherwise. -What they never seem to understand is that a so-called perfect society is impossible to create and that even if they managed to create one, it would be one impossible to live in. -But they keep trying, over & over again, totally oblivious to the fact that their own authoritarian mentality is the main problem. The solution would be for them to simply take a long, hard look at themselves.

Australia soon to become the first Western democracy to join Iran and China where Internet access is restricted by the state. The concept of government-backed web censorship is usually associated with nations where human rights and freedom of speech are routinely curtailed. But if Canberra's plans for a mandatory Internet filter go ahead, Australia may soon become the first Western democracy to join the ranks of Iran, China and a handful of other nations where access to the Internet is restricted by the state.

ItWire: Australian government to monitor all Internet usage. Faced with mounting opposition by voters over the Internet censorship legislation, the Federal government has upped the ante, proposing to mandate that all ISPs record our browsing history and store it. This move presupposes that everyone’s online actions need to retained “just in case” it’s needed in a criminal investigation. What this latest move highlights is that government really has no clue when it comes to the Internet. When ZDNet broke the story on Friday afternoon, a huge wave of discontent rose - Godwin’s Law got a huge workout! But the reality is that this new move by the government is just as misguided as the web filter and shows that the government really has no clue. Here’s why it won’t work.

■ EU begin emergency billion-pound bailout of Spain ■ Countries in debt may fall to dictators, EC chief warns ■ 'Apocalyptic' vision as some states run out of money Democracy could ‘collapse’ in Greece, Spain and Portugal unless urgent action is taken to tackle the debt crisis, the head of the European Commission has warned. In an extraordinary briefing to trade union chiefs last week, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso set out an ‘apocalyptic’ vision in which crisis-hit countries in southern Europe could fall victim to military coups or popular uprisings as interest rates soar and public services collapse because their governments run out of money. The stark warning came as it emerged that EU chiefs have begun work on an emergency bailout package for Spain which is likely to run into hundreds of billions of pounds.

Julian Assange, who the Feds fear may release State Dept. secrets, denies having them—but he’s readying video of a deadly U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan. After several days underground, the founder of the secretive website WikiLeaks has gone public to disclose that he is preparing to release a classified Pentagon video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan last year that left as many as 140 civilians dead, most of them children and teenagers. In an email obtained by The Daily Beast that was sent to WikiLeaks supporters in the United States Tuesday, Julian Assange, the website’s Australian-born founder, also defends a 22-year-old Army intelligence specialist who is now under arrest in Kuwait on charges that he leaked classified Pentagon combat videos, as well as 260,000 State Department cables, to WikiLeaks. AWIP/Julian Assange: WikiLeaks may be under attack.

“Mr. Manning allegedly also sent us 260,000 classified US Department cables, reporting on the actions of US Embassy’s [sic] engaging in abusive actions all over the world,” Assange said in an email. “We have denied the allegation, but the US government is acting as if the allegation is true.”

IntelHub: US military detains the Patriot who leaked the Wikileaks video. [Spc. Bradley Manning of Potomac, Md]

Unmanned aircraft have proved their usefulness and reliability in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the pressure's on to allow them in the skies over the United States. The Obama Administration has stepped up the use of drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing hundreds, but concern to date about their use in the United States has focused on their potential collision threat to civilian aircraft. The obvious risks have not deterred the civilian demand for pilotless planes. Tornado researchers want to send them into storms to gather data. Energy companies want to use them to monitor pipelines. State police hope to send them up to capture images of speeding cars' license plates. Local police envision using them to track fleeing suspects.

Anxious that Wikileaks may be on the verge of publishing a batch of secret State Department cables, investigators are desperately searching for founder Julian Assange. Philip Shenon reports. Plus, Daniel Ellsberg tells The Daily Beast: "Assange is in Some Danger." AntiWar: Pentagon ‘Hunting’ WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange's Voyage From Thorn in Pentagon's Side to 'Threat to National Security'. + Leak Your Secrets! -It's the patriotic thing to do, says Daniel Ellsberg. FireDogLake: Transcript: Daniel Ellsberg Says He Fears US Might Assassinate Wikileaks Founder.

A great number of people working in the Italian judiciary behave incorrectly. Convinced that they will never secure convictions of the rich and powerful, they habitually leak their entire investigations to newspapers, so at least to hang their subjects in the court of public opinion. It is a shameful way to ride over due process, no matter how much it may seem justified. So I have some sympathy with Silvio Berlusconi’s attempts significantly to tighten up the rules on judicial surveillance, wiretaps and leaks, even if it once again looks like the Italian prime minister is putting the machinery of state to use in the service of protecting his personal interests. But – and it’s a big but – Berlusconi’s attack on the journalists who print transcripts of telephone conversations or other such information from judicial sources is completely indefensible.