Guardian report.

The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks says it plans to release a secret military video of one of the deadliest US air strikes in Afghanistan in which scores of children are believed to have been killed.

[...]

The video could prove to be extremely embarrassing to the US military and risks weakening Afghan support. The US said it was targeting Taliban positions when it used weapons that create casualties over a wide area, including one-tonne bombs and others that burst in the air. But two US military officials told a newspaper last year that no one checked to see whether there were women and children in the buildings.

Daniel Tencer on Raw Story.

So why is this news now? To many, the story's timing suggests a Pentagon public relations campaign designed to extend public support for the war with the hope that, in time, Afghanistan may be able to raise itself out of abject poverty.

David Samel comments on Mondoweiss. See also this.

While the Times article offers a plethora of valuable information, its unbiased reporter, Isabel Kershner, fails to mention the best part. One of the international observers is none other than Lord David Trimble -- who won the Nobel Peace Prize bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

Some may fear that a Northern Irish peacemaker like Lord Trimble, despite his impeccable integrity, is too unfamiliar with the Middle East to bring any expertise to his observer position. Not so!

Just last month, Trimble and a group of his international colleagues launched the "Friends of Israel Initiative," self-described as a new project in defense of Israel's right to exist. Trimble and his fellow sponsors, including former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, an icon of rationality in the field of international relations, acted out of outrage and concern about the "unprecedented delegitimation campaign against Israel, driven by the enemies of the Jewish state and perversely assumed by numerous international authorities."

Daily Mail story.

The investigation into the death of weapons inspector David Kelly is likely to be reopened, it has emerged.

The case has 'concerned' Attorney General Dominic Grieve and - as the highest ranking law officer in England - he is considering an inquiry to review the suicide finding, Whitehall sources say.

At the same time, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is considering a request from campaigning doctors to release medical files relating to the death.

Independent report.

A study by a senior Army officer into the lessons of the invasion of Iraq has been suppressed because its comments were too critical even for a restricted Ministry of Defence readership, it was reported last night.

The paper by Lieutenant General Chris Brown looked at the circumstances surrounding the invasion of Iraq and the criticisms were said to be so embarrassing that defence chiefs want it kept secret. They are concerned that the members of the Chilcot Inquiry into the 2003 invasion, who are aware of the report's existence, will demand to see the report and that full secrecy will be lost.

Craig Murray writes.

We have the first fake terror scare since the election - and Theresa May has jumped in on the authoritarian side.

Guardian report.

The general in charge of British operations in Iraq has said he was "absolutely horrified" by the number of injuries sustained by Baha Mousa, the Basra hotel worker who died in the custody of British soldiers in September 2003.

Craig Murray writes. The Fisk article is here.

Robert Fisk's impeccable Arab sources strongly suspect, with good evidence, that Britain colluded in the murder in Dubai of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. I have been working my own British sources since seeing Fisk's article in February.

This morning I can say that information has reached me that confirms that Fisk is right and these were not forged British passports, but real British passports given to Mossad by MI6. But my source cautions that you cannot conclude from that, that they were given for the purposes of this particular operation, or of assassination in general. The provision or exchange of blank passports between "friendly" intelligence agancies is not an uncommon practice.

From Middle East Online.

Rice's record as National Security Advisor is devastatingly attacked by CIA Director George Tenet and Counter-Terrorism chief Richard Clarke. They reveal how she ignored scores of warnings in the spring and summer of 2001 that an Al Qaeda attack was imminent.

[...]

Richard Clarke, chief counter-terrorism adviser between 1992-2003 concurred: "Rice decided what torture to use on what person."

"American Faust" reveals that the techniques that Rice approved went far beyond the mock executions and water-boarding already made public. Our film has first-hand accounts of torture techniques that make stress positions look like a slap on the wrist.

From Mondoweiss. The original graphic is here.

The infographic accompanying yesterday's New York Times article on the U.S.'s attempt to head off a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race is -- as one might have expected -- missing a little bit of ink. Guess where?

ABC report.

The court heard that in the 15-month period leading up to the bombings, MI5 and police knew of meetings between two of the bombers and a terrorist suspect.

Mr Coltart said police knew the suspect was planning to bomb a public place but chose not to put the men under surveillance.

"In the 15-month period or so leading up to the bombings... M15 and police were, between them, in possession of a significant amount of information about the bombers," Mr Coltart told the court.

Guardian report.

MI5 warned todaythat disclosing information on why it had failed to investigate the ringleader of the terror attacks of July 2005 could give al-Qaida plotters an "invaluable weapon".

Bereaved families want to ask security officials, during the coming inquests into the deaths of those killed in the London bombings of 7 July five years ago, why Mohammad Sidique Khan was not followed up after being seen meeting known terror suspects.

MI5 told a hearing at the royal courts of justice, set up to decide the scope of the inquests, that disclosing such information would aid those planning another atrocity.

Guardian report.

The Taliban leader in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, survived an American drone strike in January and is alive and well, a senior official with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency told the Guardian today.

Mehsud was reported to have died in a CIA drone strike in South Waziristan in January but, although Pakistan's interior minister claimed he had been killed, the death was never confirmed by either US or Pakistani intelligence.

BBC report.

It would "impossible" to reveal secret MI5 files about the 7/7 London terror attacks, a court has been told.

The claim has been made at a hearing to decide the format of inquests into the deaths of those killed in 2005.

BBC report.

Mr O'Connor strongly criticised MI5's involvement in the 7/7 case, saying the agency demonstrated flaws in its assessment policy, record-keeping and co-operation with other agencies.

He said of the second ISC report: "We submit that by contrast with its simple conclusion exonerating MI5, the material detailed in it exposes a profound criticism of MI5 and raises many more questions than answers.

"Those criticisms may well arguably become very considerably more powerful upon a proper analysis of the primary material."

BBC report.

Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian-born British resident, was arrested in the UK shortly after the attacks amid claims that he was a key member of the plot.

He was held in custody for nearly five months before being released when a judge found there was no evidence to link him to any form of terrorism.