Laura Rozen on Politico quoting Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a planned trip to Washington Tuesday and will return home to Israel from Canada today to deal with the diplomatic crisis in the aftermath of Israeli commandos killing ten people on ships bringing aid to Gaza.

Al Jazeera report.

At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured when troops intercepted the convoy of ships dubbed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, Israeli radio reported.

The flotilla was attacked in international waters, 65km off the Gaza coast.

BBC report.

More than 10 people have been killed after Israeli commandos stormed a convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army says.

[...]

It happened about 40 miles (64 km) out to sea, in international waters.

Times report.

Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.

The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.

Times report.

The Greek government has been advised by British economists to leave the euro and default on its €300 billion (£255 billion) debt to save its economy.

AFP report.

Opposition sympathiser and powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has ratcheted up the pressure on the Iranian regime ahead of the first anniversary of the disputed presidential election.

The former president's website has again posted scathing pro-opposition remarks he made last year that criticised both the regime and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself.

IMEMC report.

Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, stated Friday afternoon that the solidarity ships, filled with medical and humanitarian supplies, and heading to Gaza, is a "violent propaganda against Israel", and vowed not to allow the ship to reach Gaza.

BBC report.

Israel says it will not take part in a conference aimed at achieving a nuclear-arms free Middle East, proposed at a UN meeting in New York.

Telegraph report.

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

PressTV report.

Iranian naval forces have detected a US nuclear submarine in the Persian Gulf waters, amid growing concerns over the safety of one of the most important energy routes in the world.

An Iranian patrol spotted the nuclear-armed and -powered submarine in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which allows the passage of 90 percent of the oil produced by Persian Gulf states to Asia, the US and Western Europe.

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.

Telegraph report.

A Pakistani Army major, who was until recently a serving officer, has been arrested in connection with the failed Times Square bomb plot.

Pakistani and US sources say there is evidence that mobile phone calls were exchanged between Major Adnan Ejaz and the suspected would-be bomber, Faisal Shahzad, who was arrested on May 3 as he attempted to fly out of New York.

Jerusalem Post report.

Although it is obvious that the Pentagon has contingency plans for all possible scenarios, one Israeli official said this was "the first time that the public is getting word of practical preparations of military activity."

Kuwait Times report.

Construction began yesterday on doubling the size of the US Navy base in Bahrain, with digging beginning on a 70-acre site leased from the Bahraini government. The four-phase, $580 million project will massively increase the military capabilities of the US 5th Fleet based there, according to US officials. "The 60-year long relationship the US Navy has had with Bahrain has benefited the US, Bahrain, and the entire region. Today's ceremony is a demonstration of America's commitment to a common shared future," US Ambassador to Bahrain, Adam Ereli, said during the ground breaking ceremony at Mina Salman port.

Robert Dreyfuss in the Nation.

If President Obama knew about this, authorized it and still supports it, then Obama has crossed a red line, and the president will stand revealed as an aggressive, militaristic liberal interventionist who bears a closer resemblance to the president he succeeded than to the ephemeral reformer that he pretended to be in 2008, when he ran for office. If he didn't know, if he didn't understand the order, and if he's unwilling to cancel it now that it's been publicized, then Obama is a feckless incompetent. Take your pick.

Spencer Dalziel on the Inquirer.

Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg has performed an about face on the Government's power to stop the US from extraditing accused UK hacker Gary McKinnon.

The Deputy Prime Minister has thrown the prospect of a Home Office tribunal for McKinnon into doubt after suggesting that neither he nor anyone else in the coalition can save the UFO hunter from a US show trial.

Independent report.

Iran today warned the US to back its nuclear fuel swap offer or lose an "historic" chance of improving relations between the countries.

Washington has denounced the Iranian offer - brokered last week by Brazil and Turkey - as a ploy to avoid a new round of UN sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme, which the West fears is geared toward nuclear weapons.

Guardian report.

In their time, America's secret agencies have tried some outlandish schemes to attack their country's enemies, including, most famously, an attempt to do away with Cuba's Fidel Castro by using an exploding cigar.

But in a scenario more the preserve of careless Hollywood starlets such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, the CIA appears to have plotted to undermine Saddam Hussein with a gay sex tape.

The Leveretts comment.

When, in an Op Ed published in The New York Times in May 2009, we first criticized President Obama's early decision to continue covert anti-Iranian programs he inherited from George W. Bush, some expressed disbelief that Obama would undermine his own rhetoric about engaging Tehran in a climate of mutual respect by conducting a dirty war against the Islamic Republic. But, in an important piece of reporting published today in The New York Times, Mark Mazzetti documents that Obama has not just failed to roll back covert anti-Iranian programs he inherited from his predecessor--he is instead presiding over a dramatic intensification of America's covert war against the Islamic Republic. And, in a manner powerfully reminiscent of Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the intensification of America's covert war against Iran is taking place through the efforts of General David Petraeus and CENTCOM--because military intelligence operations are not subject to the same congressional oversight and reporting requirements as the Central Intelligence Agency.

New York Times report.

The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents.

Associated Press report.

A semiofficial news agency says Iran has released an internationally renowned filmmaker after more than two months in custody.

Washington Times article.

[...] a U.S. air-war planner in the Persian Gulf War tells The Washington Times he does not think Israel's relatively small air force -- compared with the United States huge bomber and cruise-missile fleet -- has the firepower to properly hit all the necessary Iranian targets.

The only real way to stop Iran's atomic bomb, said retired Air Force Col. John Warden, is for the U.S. to shut down Iran's electric generation for the foreseeable future -- a strategy not currently on the Pentagon's table.

Andy Worthington writes.

President Obama's hopes of closing Guantánamo, which were already gravely wounded by his inability to meet his self-imposed deadline of a year for the prison's closure, now appear to have been killed off by lawmakers in Congress.

Independent report.

Mordechai Vanunu, the nuclear whistleblower who spent 18 years in prison, went back to jail yesterday for violating the terms of his parole.

Gary Younge in the Guardian.

That Israel would try to do so on the backs of black South Africans is a laughable indication of its desperation. For if Goldstone was complicit in apartheid's crimes, then Israel was far more so. Israel was South Africa's principle and most dependable arms dealer. As we learn elsewhere in the Guardian today, it even offered to sell the South African regime nuclear weapons.

Juan Cole writes.

Obama mysteriously has ceased leading on the Iran issue and is instead showing himself willing to be led. Thus have the pragmatic hawks (with the war hawks waiting in the wings) defeated the Realists and the liberal internationalists. Obama stabbed Turkey and Brazil in the back after asking them to risk their face for him. Obama is giving Iran the impression that he is indecisive. All of this backtracking for the sake of a sanctions regime that is highly unlikely actually to change Iran's behavior, contrary to the express hopes of Secretary Gates. Obama's current Iran policy cannot be explained in the terms of US-Iranian relations. It must be driven by something else. The Israel lobbies and dealings with the Netanyahu government are the likeliest candidates in explaining the abandonment of a Realist approach.

Guardian report.

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.

The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.

Telegraph report.

There is evidence that bets against the euro are being placed by important investors around the world, which last week took the euro to four-year lows on fears Greece, Spain and Portugal may be forced to leave the single currency.

From Israel national News.

Iran on Tuesday night said it had fired several Fajr 5 missiles during its war games in the Strait of Hormuz, capable of sinking American warships.

Scott Horton in Harper's.

It's clear that the Labour government was engaged in the same sort of dissembling about torture that marked the Bush Administration, using wiggle words with secret meanings. If the truth is now to emerge, it serves the public interest in Britain, just as it would serve the U.S. public interest, for it to emerge from a detached and depoliticized process--so the formal judicial inquiry is the appropriate tool, just as a commission of inquiry would be for the United States.

[...]

At this point, no issue is more fundamental to the civil liberties agenda. The Obama Administration should watch and learn a bit about how a modern democracy approaches the question of accountability for torture.

Wall Street Journal report.

China's biggest oil company is pressing ahead with oil-and-gas projects in Iran valued at billions of dollars, its top executive said, highlighting Beijing's strong economic ties to Tehran even as China has signed onto a U.S.-led sanctions effort against Iran.

Roger Cohen writeing in the New York Times.

Obama could instead have said: "Pressure works! Iran blinked on the eve of new U.N. sanctions. It's come back to our offer. We need to be prudent, given past Iranian duplicity, but this is progress. Isolation serves Iranian hard-liners."

No wonder Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, is angry. I believe him when he says Obama and U.S. officials encouraged Turkey earlier this year to revive the deal: "What they wanted us to do was give the confidence to Iran to do the swap. We have done our duty."

IMEMC report.

The United States Senate approved the American President's plan to grant Israel more than $200 Million meant for the development of Israel's Iron Dome that intercepts short-range missiles.

Independent report.

The acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and opposition supporter Jafar Panahi has gone on a hunger strike in protest against his imprisonment.

Seattle Times report.

Boeing said Monday that its first unmanned jet fighter-sized aircraft, called Phantom Ray for its likeness to an undersea manta ray, is on track to have its first flight this year.

[...]

The pilotless unmanned aircraft is designed to execute a full range of potential military missions, including surveillance and reconnaissance; long-range, pre-emptive strikes against enemy air defenses; bombing of ground targets; and autonomous aerial refueling.

The Leveretts comment.

Now that Tehran has accepted the main elements of the Baradei proposal--the transfer of 1,200 kilos of low-enriched uranium out of Iran in exchange for new fuel for the TRR--the United States has unilaterally changed the game.

Gary Sick comments.

According to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, he had been in "constant contact" with Clinton herself and with national security adviser James Jones, while his prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had face-to-face encouragement from President Obama in December and April.

[...]

The Turks and Brazilians, who felt they had "delivered" Iran on the terms demanded by the United States, were surprised and disappointed at the negative reactions from Washington. Little did they know that their success in Tehran, which had been given a 0-30 percent chance just days earlier, came just as the Americans were putting the final touches on a package of sanctions to be presented to the UN Security Council. The Tehran agreement was as welcome as a pothole in the fast lane, and the Americans were not reluctant to let their displeasure be known.

Craig Murray writes.

I am delighted today that Teresa May has called in the McKinnon case for consideration - something New Labour refused to do. It does appear that Conservatives and Lib Dems are going to keep their promises and stop the McKinnon extradition.

This is great news. Even better news is that page 14 of the full coalition agreement promises to change Blair's vassal state extradition treaty in the UK.

Craig Murray writes.

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

From Stratfor.

Rumors, hints, threats, suggestions and information "from well-placed sources" all seem to point to the hot topic in Europe at the moment, namely, the reconstitution of the eurozone whether by a German exit or a Greek expulsion. We turn to this topic with the question of whether such an option even exists.

[...]

The resulting conundrum is one in which reconstitution of the eurozone may make sense at some point down the line. But the interlinked web of economic, political, legal and institutional relationships makes this nearly impossible. The cost of exit is prohibitively high, regardless of whether it makes sense.

Dmitry Orlov writes.

The drawing of parallels between industrial accidents is a dubious armchair sport, but here the parallels are just piling up and are becoming too hard to ignore:

- An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 spewed radioactive waste across Europe

- A recent explosion and sinking of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform is spewing heavy oil into the Gulf of Mexico

BBC report.

Plans for a fourth set of UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme are being circulated among all 15 members of the Security Council.

[...]

Brazil's UN envoy said his country was not "engaging in any discussion on a draft at this point because we feel that there is a new situation".

[...]

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the world to support Monday's deal with Iran.

Craig Murray writes.

The failure to welcome this step by US and UK governments indicates that their actual agenda does not relate to Iran's nuclear programme at all. And I still wait for a British minister to say something about Israel's very real and very large stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Telegraph report.

Foreign holders of Greek and Portuguese debt have seized on emergency intervention by the European Central Bank to exit their positions, leaving eurozone taxpayers exposed to the credit risk.

Telegraph report.

Clotilde Reiss, 24, who was held for ten months in Iran on spying charges, had worked "very well" for France, according to Pierre Siramy, a former high-ranking member of France's external intelligence service, the DGSE.

The claims sparked instant consternation and denials from the French intelligence community, as the official foreign ministry line has always been that she was an innocent academic with no links to spying.

Gary Sick writes.

Although angst is high among the sanctions-at-all-costs crowd, this path to a nuclear swap deal was fully endorsed by the United States and was the centerpiece of the justification for sanctions. One way to respond at this point may just be to declare that our threat of sanctions worked: Iran has capitulated and we accept yes as an answer.

Hmmm... are we that smart?

David Rothkopf in Foreign Policy on the new nuclear agreement.

[...] the effort is significant on another level. It represents the return of Plan B both to Middle Eastern and global relations. During the Cold War, international actors typically had a binary choice. They could seek the favor and advocacy of the East or the West, the Soviets or the Americans. Then, almost twenty years ago that all ended. And for a while it appeared, the choice was America or an international community that couldn't get its act together terribly effectively.

But Turkey and Brazil working closely with Russia, India, and China, have effectively sent a message that Plan B has returned to the global equation. They have essentially said they didn't want to go along with the American approach to solving the problem (sanctions) and were vehemently against the Israeli approach (bombs away).

Telegraph report.

Britain, America and France said they would continue to press for new sanctions until Iran addressed wider concerns about its intentions.

The White House said the United States and its allies continued to have "serious concerns", while stopping short of categorically rejecting the agreement.

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.

Patrick Cockburn in the Independent.

The US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, who was boasting of military progress only three months ago, confessed last week that "nobody is winning". His only claim now is that the Taliban have lost momentum compared with last year.

[...]

The semi-official Pakistani view is that the US, Britain and Nato forces have become entangled in a civil war in Afghanistan between the Pashtun community, represented by the Taliban, and their Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara opponents who dominate the Kabul government. They expect the Pashtun to go on fighting until they get a real share in power. One Pashtun, a former colonel in the Pakistani army, said: "It will be difficult for the Americans and British to win the hearts and minds of the people in southern Afghanistan since at the centre of Pashtun culture is a hatred of all foreigners."

Robert Fisk in the Independent.

Within 48 hours of becoming Foreign Secretary, William Hague faces a political crisis over the Middle East. The emirate of Dubai has named a British citizen as a 19th suspect of the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas official murdered in the emirate four months ago, apparently by a group that included holders of forged British passports. According to a source in the United Arab Emirates, the suspect arrived in Dubai under his own name and carrying a genuine British passport.

Reuters report.

Russia has signed deals to sell Syria warplanes, anti-tank weapons and air defense systems, a senior Russian arms trader said on Friday, prompting an outcry from Syria's foe Israel.

IMEMC report.

Turkey has installed Anti-Aircraft Hawk Missiles at a village close to the Syrian border in an attempt to prevent Israeli war jets from violating Turkish Airspace in case of an attack against Iran or Syria.

Dan Roberts in the Guardian's CiF.

France threatens to leave the euro. German savers hoard gold. The Bundesbank works on a plan B to restore the Deutsche Mark. It's fair to say even a $1 trillion bailout hasn't been enough to stop the rumour mill dogging the European single currency this week.

Telegraph report.

President Nicolas Sarkozy slammed his fist on the table and threatened to pull France out of the euro at a meeting of European leaders deciding Greece's aid package last Friday, according to Spain's El Pais newspaper.

Craig Murray writes.

[...] no amount of googling brings up any British mainstream media mention of the fact that whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has just been jailed again in Israel. This is for breaching the terms of a military edict - not a court order - restricting his movements and contacts.

Josie Appleton on the Guardian's CiF.

A Manifesto Club survey found that people in their late 20s and 30s are being routinely checked not just for buying alcohol, but also for attempting to purchase items such as barbecue skewers, bleach, paracetamol, UHU glue, matches, cigarette papers, even a "gentleman's manicure set".

[...]

Challenging this culture of ID checking is as crucial as taking on the ID card scheme itself. As free citizens we should not have to produce our papers at the local supermarket. We must assert again our right to pass.

Edmund Conway on his Telegraph blog.

Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, fears that America shares many of the same fiscal problems currently haunting Europe. He also believes that European Union must become a federalised fiscal union (in other words with central power to tax and spend) if it is to survive. Just two of the nuggets from one of the most extraordinary press conferences I have been to at the Bank.

Al-Manar report.

High-ranking sources in the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed displeasure with Turkey over deploying anti-aircraft batteries along the Syrian border in the Iskenderun district.

The Turkish daily Hurriyet meanwhile, quoted a military source as saying that "this move aims at repelling a US or Israeli attack against Iran or Syria."

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.

Hillary Mann Leverett in Politico.

Sorting this out must start with sober recognition of an essential truth: America's war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan was not, is not and will never be Karzai's war.

Americans are not entitled to feel affronted when Karzai does not meet our expectations of him as a "wartime ally" -- whether in combating opium cultivation and trafficking, pursuing "good governance," advancing women's rights or building a genuinely national Afghan army and national security apparatus. None is a high priority for him.

John Lettice reports in Teh Register.

Second-generation biometric passports will be scrapped alongside ID cards and the National Identity Register by the new Tory-LibDem government, probably as part of a merger between the LibDem Freedom Bill, and the Great Repeal Bill advocated by some sections of the Tory party. It isn't as yet entirely clear what will be in this Bill, but there is sufficient common ground between the two parties for it to be one of the easier tasks for the new government.

Fox News report.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused members of the Pakistani government over the weekend of practically harboring Usama bin Laden, raising questions about whether the U.S. is pushing hard enough on its presumed ally to give up the world's most wanted terrorist.

Paul Chambers describes his ordeal on the Guardian's CiF.

The reason for the arrest was a tweet I had posted on the social network Twitter, which was deemed to constitute a bomb threat against Robin Hood airport in Doncaster: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!" You may say, and I certainly realise now, it was ill-advised. But it was clearly frustration, caused by heavy snowfall grounding flights and potentially scuppering my own flight a week later. Like having a bad day at work and stating that you could murder your boss, I didn't even think about whether it would be taken seriously.

Richard Godwin in the Evening Standard.

If I were to use this column to announce my intention to nail-bomb the London Aquarium, would you think I was serious?

Well, I am. I have had it up to here with the sharks who live in the main tank there. Stupid hammerhead bastards. They have been annoying me long enough, with their nasty little gills, their beady little eyes. I intend to teach them a lesson they will never forget, a lesson involving nails and bombs.

[...]

The case naturally raises troubling legal questions about social media sites. Also about how many exclamation marks signal a joke (two is not enough, clearly!!!).

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.

Olivia Hampton on the Guardian's CiF.

But don't be fooled by appearances. Tensions are still boiling just below the surface. For all the pomp and circumstance of the four-day visit by the Afghan president and his posse of cabinet ministers and senior advisors to the US capital, the Obama administration is working hard behind the scenes to weaken his authority by reinforcing local governance to boost elusive stability of a war-torn country.

Craig Murray comments.

Even worse news. Cameron's much vaunted National Security Council will be headed by the FCO's pro-torture Peter Ricketts, who is personally up to his ears in the policy of complicity in torture, and in its continued cover-up - including being personally involved in the censorship of this vital FOI release last week.

AlertNet story.

Beset by questions about the future of Jerusalem in talks with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin reached for the Bible on Wednesday to stake out the Jewish state's disputed claim on the city.

Netanyahu told a parliamentary session commemorating Israel's capture of East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war that "Jerusalem" and its alternative Hebrew name "Zion" appear 850 times in the Old Testament, Judaism's core canon.

IMEMC report.

Israeli sources reported that Nuclear whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, was sentenced, Tuesday, to three months imprisonment after he refused to perform community service in West Jerusalem, fearing harassment from fundamentalist Jews.

Jerusalem Post report.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of trying to "stir up" a war between Israel and Syria.

Speaking during a tour of the IDF's Northern Command on Tuesday afternoon, Netanyahu said Iran was "spreading lies in order to escalate tensions."

Associated Press report.

Israel's deputy premier said Monday that Israel's air force has improved its capabilities and is better prepared for a war with Iran, considered a dangerous enemy because of its nuclear program.

Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief, says the air force now has better refueling and range, and has made "a massive improvement in the accuracy of ordnance and intelligence."

Guardian report.

The shock decision to mobilise hundreds of billions of euros does nothing to fix the fundamental malaise plaguing Europe -- the vast macro-economic imbalances within the eurozone. But the package takes the pressure off, removes the short-term likelihood of sovereign debt default in southern Europe, buys time for struggling countries to get their acts together, and for Brussels, Berlin, and Paris to enact new policies.

BBC report.

The US airbase at Bagram in Afghanistan contains a facility for detainees that is distinct from its main prison, the Red Cross has confirmed to the BBC.

[...]

The US military says the main prison, now called the Detention Facility in Parwan, is the only detention facility on the base.

Reuters report.

A $1 trillion global emergency package to stabilize the euro unleashed a spectacular rally in world stocks on Monday but analysts said EU leaders had only bought time to tackle deep-seated fiscal problems.

AFP report.

Uzi Even, a Tel Aviv University chemistry professor and former worker at Israel's Dimona reactor, said US President Barack Obama's campaign for global nuclear arms reduction is a sign of changing times and Israel must get in step.

"We could open Dimona to international inspection," the former member of parliament with the left-wing Meretz party told Israeli army radio on Monday.

BBC report.

More than 100 people have died and 350 been wounded in a series of shootings and suicide bombings in Iraq - the worst day of violence there this year.

The central city of Hilla saw the deadliest attack, when staff at a textiles factory were hit by three bomb attacks, killing at least 45 people.

Guardian report.

In private, diplomats in Kabul compare him to the head of a mafia-style criminal syndicate. But very few people will criticise him publicly, particularly anyone who lives in Kandahar. Some foreign policy analysts have broken the silence however, most notably Steve Coll, a former journalist and respected observer of Afghanistan, who wrote last month that Ahmed Wali "is the most visible, most intractable symbol of the corruption and the corporate self-interest of the Karzai government in southern Afghanistan".

[...]

Forsberg argues that Karzai's commercial empire does not just anger ordinary Kandaharis. "Many of the local powerbrokers who are excluded from Wali Karzai's network see the Taliban insurgency as the only viable means of political opposition," he said.

AlertNet story.

The United States is convinced that a Pakistani Taliban group closely allied with al Qaeda was behind the attempted bombing in New York's Times Square, administration officials said on Sunday.

[...]

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Holder said it was unclear whether Shahzad will be tried in a civilian court or whether a trial will be necessary, raising the possibility that Shahzad might plead guilty.

"We have developed information that I think we can use in a civilian court," Holder said. "It's not even sure at this point whether or not there even has to be a trial."

Reuters story.

Rioting protestors and burning banks on the streets of Athens have clearly grabbed the limelight the over the past week. But from an investor standpoint, they have simply underlined the growing skepticism about whether the European Union can save the euro zone from a Greek default and spreading debt meltdown.

AlertNet story.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the U.S. military on Saturday it must rein in spending that he called out of sync with today's tough economic times, and said budget woes could be a factor in deciding whether to use force against Iran and others.

[...]

"I do think that as we look to the future, particularly for the next couple of years or so while we're in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think the Congress and the president would look long and hard at another military operation that would cost us $100 billion a year," Gates told reporters.

Interesting diagram from the New York Times.

Banks and governments in these five shaky economies owe each other many billions of euros -- converted here to dollars -- and have even larger debts to Britain, France and Germany.

Sydney Morning Herald report.

Investors are increasingly concerned that the €110 billion ($A157.5 billion) rescue package for Greece will not work, resulting in a full-blown sovereign debt crisis. Yields on two-year Greek government bonds were running at more than 18 per cent - equivalent to so-called junk bond levels. Yields on Spanish and Portuguese bonds climbed overnight.

Independent report.

The UK was warned yesterday that it is among the European Union states that faces the risk of contagion from the Greek crisis, with "very real, common threats" to its financial systems.

As a stunned Greece, still struggling to come to terms with the deaths of three people in protests on Wednesday, approved cuts to address its financial crisis, one of the leading credit ratings agencies said British banks were "vulnerable" to shocks of the kind now reverberating around the eurozone.

Economist article.

[...] By slashing pay in the public sector, raising taxes and (hesitantly) starting to reform the labour market, the plan aims to reduce the budget deficit from 13.6% of GDP in 2009 to less than 3% by 2014. But it will deepen the recession that is already hitting Greece, with a drop in GDP in 2010 of at least 4%, and a further fall expected in 2011.

Nafeez Ahmed writes.

We're not back in the 1930s, but structurally - systemically - we're in a far worse condition. The problem is that the three main parties on offer today lack a fully-formed understanding of the real structural issues behind the concurrent crisis of world capitalism. They fail to realise that they're in a catch-22. The symptom-led solution to the massive deficit is inevitably massive cuts in spending. The problem is that those cuts, structurally necessary within the given system to stabilise our credit rating and currency value so that the government can keep borrowing, will inevitably contract the real economy massively to such an extent that it will create a serious socio-political crisis in this country in the next 5-10 years. We've heard as much from the Bank of England.

From David Kenner's Foreign Policy blog.

In a move that is sure to set conspiracy theorists aflutter, former Vice President Dick Cheney popped up yesterday in Saudi Arabia, where he met with King Abdullah. Accompanying him was former State Department diplomat and its top interpreter, Gamal Helal, who recently left the government to form a consulting firm, Helal Associates.

BBC report.

The protest became violent, with petrol bombs thrown at police, who responded with pepper spray and tear gas.

Protesters are angered by spending cuts and tax rises planned in return for a 110bn euro (£95bn) bail-out for Greece.

Vancouver Sun interview with Niall Ferguson.

The situation of the United Kingdom in fiscal terms is in fact worse than the situation of Greece. That may come as a surprise to you, but if you look at the most recent paper on the subject published by the Bank for International Settlements, it is very clear. The trajectory of U.K. public debt over the next 30 years, absent a major change of policy, will take it to a mind-blowing 500% of GDP, which is about 100 percentage points worse than Greece. If Britain had done what many right-thinking people thought it should do and joined the euro, the situation of Britain would be worse than that of Greece today. The only reason that Britain isn't an honourary member of the PIIGS club, along with Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain, is that it stayed outside the eurozone and therefore reserves the right to debase the currency as an exit strategy. I don't know about you, but I don't find that very cheery as a prospect

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?

Guardian report.

Global stock markets have fallen sharply on fears that the proposed €110bn (£95bn) rescue package hammered out over the weekend for Greece will not be enough to solve its financial crisis, as well as concern that the problems could spread to other European countries.

Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was forced to deny market rumours his country would ask for €280bn from the European Union, something he described as "complete madness".

Craig Murray writes.

I have now obtained under the Freedom of Information Act a heavily censored copy of one of my telegrams from Tashkent protesting at the use by the UK government of intelligence obtained under torture.

Every British person should read this telegram and hang their head in the deepest of shame. This is the pitch blackness of New Labour's embrace of authoritarianism. Read it, and remember I was both smeared and sacked for this attempt to apply simply the most basic of humane standards.

BBC report.

A Pakistan-born US citizen has been charged with terrorism over the failed car-bomb attack in New York's Times Square on Saturday.

Faisal Shahzad, 30, was also charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, according to documents filed at Manhattan federal court.

BBC report.

The UKIP candidate for Norwich North has called for the blowing up of Iran before it acquires nuclear weapons and has described Afghans as "backward". Responding to a survey about troops on the website theyworkforyou.com, Glenn Tingle used swear words to describe tribes in Afghanistan.

He said: "We should blow them up first" when replying to a question about Iran's nuclear weapons programme.

Reuters report.

Greece reacted with a mix of resignation and outrage on Monday to a painful new austerity package from the government that newspaper editorials said would force a long-delayed "violent modernization" on the country.

Julian Knight in the Independent.

Well, let's get one thing straight: Greece's debt mountain may be huge but our total debts are actually worse. Why? Unlike us, the Greek population isn't loaded down with credit card debts, personal loans, mortgages, remortgages, consolidation loans and individual voluntary arrangements to the tune of £1.4 trillion. If you add personal debt to the national government debt then our debt-to-GDP ratio soars from about 60-70 per cent to about 200 per cent.

Times report.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is due to hold a cabinet meeting later this morning to announce the deal.

The EU has insisted on tough austerity measures in return for a bailout worth an estimated € 45 billion (£39 billion) this year alone, and up to €120 billion (£104 billion) over three years.

Telegraph report.

An apparent car bomb has been discovered in New York's Times Square after failing to explode on Saturday night during Broadway's peak period.

Guardian report.

Mohammad Rida Rahimi, the Iranian vice-president, made the statement today at the end of a visit to Syria that was billed as underlining the strategic relationship between the two countries.

"We will stand alongside Syria against any [Israeli] threat," Rahimi said at a news conference with the Syrian prime minister, Mohammad Naji Otri. "If those who have violated Palestinian land try anything, we will cut off their feet," he promised.

Guardian report.

Greek riot police have used tear gas to disperse angry protesters in Athens, during a march against government cuts to tackle the country's crippling debt. Clashes erupted at the finance ministry and a state TV truck was petrol bombed. A tense stand-off continues, with protesters hurling bottles and rocks.

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.