Who is the true patriot, Hillary Clinton or Edward Snowden? The question comes up because Clinton has gone all out in attacking Snowden as a means of burnishing her hawkish credentials, eliciting Glenn Greenwald's comment that she is "like a neocon, practically."

On Friday in England, Clinton boasted that two years ago she had favored a proposal by a top British general to train 100,000 "moderate" rebels to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria, but President Obama had turned her down. The American Thatcher? In that same interview with The Guardian she also managed to get in yet another shot against Snowden for taking refuge in Russia "apparently under Putin's protection," unless, she taunted, "he wishes to return knowing he would be held accountable."

Accountable for telling the truth that Clinton concealed during her tenure as secretary of state in the Obama administration? Did she approve of the systematic spying on the American people as well as on others around the world, including the leaders of Germany and Brazil, or did she first learn of all this from the Snowden revelations?

"Israel under renewed Hamas attack": this was last night's BBC headline on the escalating bloodshed in Gaza. It is as perverse as Mike Tyson punching a toddler, followed by a headline claiming that the child spat at him. As Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Tel Aviv-based Israeli human rights activist, tweeted: "We are targeted by mostly shitty rockets. Gazans are being shelled with heavy bombs. We have shelters, sirens, Iron Dome. They have 0."

There is no defence for Hamas firing rockets into civilian areas, and as sirens wail in Israel, the fear among ordinary Israelis should not be ignored or belittled. But the media coverage hardly reflects the reality: a military superpower armed with F-15 fighter jets, AH-64 Apache helicopters, Delilah missiles, IAI Heron-1 drones and Jericho II missiles (and nuclear bombs, for that matter), versus what David Cameron describes as a "prison camp" firing almost entirely ineffective missiles. Twenty-seven Palestinians are reported to have died in Gaza - and, mercifully, no Israelis have been killed by Hamas rockets - and yet the BBC opts for the Orwellian "Israel under renewed Hamas attack".

Ukraine will retrench financing of research programs "no one needs" in favor of expanding weapons production, Ukraine's President Petr Poroshenko said after a meeting with the military in the city of Slavyansk. "Billions of budgetary funds, taxpayer money will not any longer be spent on research program no one really needs, which were only used as a tool of embezzlement," the press service of the Ukrainian head of state quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

According to the Ukrainian president, the country's defense sector will focus on manufacturing "systems of high precision weapons, drones, everything the Ukrainian army needs - from bullet-proof vests to thermal cameras." "Today, my first deputy, along with the newly appointed CEO of Ukroboronprom, officers of the General Staff, defense minister deputies and representatives from the interior ministry held a conference.

They will draft amendments to the state defense order," Poroshenko said, adding that the state defense order "will take into account the experience the Ukrainian army and National Guard acquired during combat operations in eastern regions Itar-Tass reports.

[An excellent submission from a reader. The topic is Ukraine, but the principle applies wherever emperors parade about in naked shorts.]

What if Putin, being a strategic thinker that he is in addition to being a master in judo, has an intention to make not just eastern Ukraine but the whole Ukraine a failed-state-showcase of what happens when the US, Nato, EU, and the IMF causes havoc in eastern Europe. Maybe he is giving a lesson to Germany, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. and especially his fellow Russians what happens when the US supports the rabid fascists in their region. He realizes that the neo-cons and the Atlanticists, being the mindless psychopathic and sociopathic killers that they are, are incapable of grasping the lessons and consequences of their actions and will press ahead uninterruptedly and fail to see the trap that is being laid in front of them. Remember that psychopaths always think that they'll never get caught, that they're invincible and they, until the very last moment, will always deny their doom (just ask Napoleon and Hitler). So what if Putin's strategic advisors egged on the Kiev regime to bomb unimportant civilian locations making them think that there was concentrated partisan militia and now scattering the militia in various areas where they can take down invididual KJ troops. Could it be Putin's motive to get the KJ bogged down in eastern Ukraine and at the same time causing increasing revulsion of the people in Russia proper.

The leader of ISIS, who appeared in a Ramadan prayer video calling on Muslims to obey him, has prompted confusion and become the subject of mockery as he showed off a $6,500 'James Bond' watch.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made a public appearance following rumors of his death.

MPs will pay a heavy price for harbouring paedophiles in their midst.

As I was I was making my way from the House of Commons on Monday night after a late vote a Tory minister stepped out of the shadows to confront me. I'd never spoken to him before in my life but he blocked my way and ushered me to one side.

He warned me to think very carefully about what I was going to say the next day before the Home Affairs Select Committee when I'd be answering questions on child abuse.

'I hear you're about to challenge Lord Brittan about what he knew about child sex abuse,' he said. It wouldn't be a wise move, he advised me.

'It was all put to bed a long time ago.'

He warned me I could even be responsible for his death.

We looked at each other in silence for a second. I knew straight away he wasn't telling me this out of concern for the man's welfare.

There was no compassion in his voice.

As politicians made their way out of Westminster, I had no doubt that other conversations like this were taking place.

Indeed, this was confirmed when I spoke to other members of the Select Committee the next day.

They'd been paid similar visits. Phone calls had been made. Members who'd previously indicated they would ask me who I thought knew about the VIP child abuse ring at the notorious Elm Guest House in southwest London were suddenly silent.

Bahrain's Sunni government has expelled a top US diplomat citing interference in the country's internal affairs following his meeting with the main opposition Shia group.

Bahrain asked US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Tom Malinowski, to immediately leave the country as he is "unwelcome" because of interference in the country's internal affairs, the kingdom's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement as cited by Bahrain News Agency.

The Sunni-led government explained the move by saying that holding meetings with some political groups and excluding others is "contrary to diplomatic norms and relations between states."

"These activities have included holding meetings with one party, leaving out others who represent different parts of society, which is indicative of an approach which discriminates amongst the people of this one nation," the state media quoted the ministry as saying.

The ministry added that its decision was based on a recommendation by the bicameral parliament taken at an extraordinary session held in July 2013.

Malinowski has been ordered to leave following his meeting with the leading Shia opposition group Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society. He arrived in the Gulf kingdom on Sunday to strengthen bilateral ties and was scheduled to stay for three days.

Following the statement, Washington said that its diplomat has not left Bahrain.

"Our team is in close touch on the ground with the government to figure out what happened here," US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a press-briefing on Monday. "Our officials are in close touch with Bahrain government officials on the ground and we'll see what transpires over the next several hours."

Bahrain said that it hopes the diplomat's "unfortunate acts" will not impact the "strong and solid relations" with the US.

The island nation situated near the western shores of the Persian Gulf is home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet. It has been gripped by anti-government Shia-led protests since the start of Arab Spring revolutions across the region in 2011. The Shia population of Bahrain complains of discrimination and lack of democracy in the oil-rich kingdom, which has been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family for decades. The protests are often brutally dispersed by police forces who use large amounts of tear gas and excessive force. Hundreds of anti-government activists have been sentenced since the protests began sparking even more contempt among the Shiite-majority of the archipelago state.

The 100-year anniversary of the most important event in the 20^th century passed recently with predictably scant notice in the American media. The anniversary can't be that of the allied D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II, because that event happened only 70 years ago. And it's not the anniversaries of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the moon shot, or the 9/11 attacks.

On June 28, 1914, one hundred years ago, the Archduke Ferdinand - to be the future ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - was gunned down by a Serbian-government sponsored assassination team. What? A few Americans might vaguely remember this incident from their high school social studies or history classes, but is it the most important event in the 20^th century? Yes.

The event was the spark that triggered what is now called World War I but really should be called, "The World War: Part I." The more recent and popular World War II should be called, "The World War: Part II," because the results of World War I caused World War II. Thus, World War I was historically much more important than its more heralded successor.

Of course, World War II is more popular because we have its veterans still living, because the villains vanquished were more evil than those in the First World War, and because the United States sat unrivaled as a world power after its victory in the second war. Thus, the bipartisan foreign policy elite uses World War II to show that the United States must stop any aggression overseas before it snowballs into a threat to the U.S. homeland. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler at Munich in 1938, despite Hitler's aggressive behavior in Czechoslovakia, is usually dragged out to demonstrate what not to do in foreign affairs and to illustrate that that the United States must deal very harshly with any such encroachment (for example, Vladimir Putin's recent annexation of Russophilic Crimea). Even here, Chamberlain had no choice but to appease Hitler, because Britain was not yet ready for conflict and had to catch up with Hitler's war preparations (including obtaining the air defenses that saved the British in the critical Battle of Britain).

As for the United States, if you ask any American why the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, you will usually get a blank stare instead of an analysis of American actions prior to the attack - the U.S. attempt to strangle the Japanese economy and military by cutting off petroleum-based exports (America was then the largest producer) in reaction to Japanese attempts to join the imperial club in East Asia, of which America and its allies were already members. Americans also conveniently forget that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt refused Japanese overtures to negotiate an end to the embargo and avoid war. FDR already had learned the false lesson of Munich that all negotiation to avoid war is appeasement.

Israeli soldiers stand on Merkava tanks in an army deployment area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip on July 8, 2014 (AFP Photo / Jack Guez)

Israel's army is formulating options to eradicate rocket fire coming from Gaza, "including ground assault," an anonymous Israeli official stated on Tuesday. An unspecified number of troops are being called up after preliminary approval for 40,000.


Air raid sirens rang through Tel Aviv as Israel's 'Iron Dome' anti-missile system intercepted a rocket in images shown on live television, shortly after the troop mobilization.

The sirens rang out for a second time just under three hours later as the 'Iron Dome' intercepted another rocket. Sirens sounded in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the northern Israeli town of Binyamina.

The reserve soldiers were mobilized as backup for the regular forces in anticipation of a possible escalation in the conflict, spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner told Reuters.

Press TV has conducted an interview with political commentator Randy Short to get his views on what could be seen as a recent attempt to cover up sexual abuse in the United Kingdom.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview:

Press TV: It appears to be quite convenient though when these dossiers ending up missing. How likely is it because it is related to perhaps the rich and powerful British society?

Short: Well, I am going to say my say, just when you hear the name Leon Brittan, by the way that's one of my ancestral names, it's a Jewish name, very powerful Jewish community in the city of London. So that is, if he in any way, as he is being attacked, there are many powerful forces in the Fleet Street financial community that are going to defend one of their own. I mean, whether he is innocent or guilty. But the destruction of documents is an Anglo game. Whenever they get caught or could get caught, the documents are destroyed.

They recently, this happened with Kenya and other colonies where these kinds of atrocities happen. So, while we look for this investigation to proceed, we need to know that globally, whether you have got the Kincora Boys scandal in Belfast, or you have the system where ever Anglos have been, the mass rape of children, aboriginal children in Australia, Maori children in New Zealand, indigenous Americans in Canada, African-Americans and indigenous Americans in the United States.

There is a history of rich, powerful people, including those who happen to call themselves Jewish, who have a Talmudic understanding that is very different in terms of how a child can be treated.

We had a recent election in New York where the mayor Bill de Blasio got support from the Orthodox Jewish community, because he rescinded an order outlawing or forbidding rabbis from sucking the blood off newly circumcised boys, which had caused the death of quite a few from herpes. We have traditions and history that show powerful people don't play by the rules and they do disrespect the human rights of children.