The US sea services have released a new maritime strategy, a plan that describes how the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard will design, organize, and employ naval forces in support its global dominance. The new strategy titled, "A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower" highlighted "forward," "engaged," and "ready" as key words and kept the original theme of "ensuring our capability to intervene overseas." It calls for increasing the Navy's forward presence to 120 ships by 2020, up from about 97 ships today. This includes forward-basing four ballistic-missile-defense destroyers in Spain and stationing another attack submarine in Guam by the end of 2015. The Navy is scheduled to increase presence in Middle East from 30 ships today to 40 by 2020. The strategy reinforces the continued need to strengthen partnerships and alliances by stressing the importance of operating in NATO maritime groups and participating in international training exercises. The US strategy emphasizes operating forward and making proxies across the globe, especially in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

The Washington Post's descent into the depths of neoconservative propaganda - willfully misleading its readers on matters of grave importance - apparently knows no bounds as was demonstrated with two deceptive articles regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and why his government is cracking down on "foreign agents."

If you read the Post's editorial on Wednesday and a companion op-ed by National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman, you would have been led to believe that Putin is delusional, paranoid and "power mad" in his concern that outside money funneled into non-governmental organizations represents a threat to Russian sovereignty.

The Post and Gershman were especially outraged that the Russians have enacted laws requiring NGOs financed from abroad and seeking to influence Russian policies to register as "foreign agents" - and that one of the first funding operations to fall prey to these tightened rules was Gershman's NED.

Israeli officials throughout its history consistently showed contempt for Palestinian rights - from Ben-Gurion to Allon to Meir to Begin to Rabin to Peres to Sharon to Netanyahu and others, an array of rogue leaders, not a democrat in the bunch.

All believed in affording rights solely to Jews. None supported fundamental fairness. All committed high crimes against defenseless Palestinians - from Ben-Gurion's Nakba to Netanyahu's Protective Edge along with decades of racist persecution from 1948 through today - horrific barbarism against an entire population, flagrantly violating international law unaccountably.

Netanyahu's "shock" over 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha's immolation by settlers belies his reign of terror on Palestine, his genocidal Gaza war last summer, his daily persecution of millions of Palestinian victims, his contempt for the rule of law.

Another small step for authoritarian bureaucracy, another massive leap forward in the destruction of Americans rights to due process and full protection under the law.

Increasingly, designations on watchlists, both official and unofficial, are replacing due process of suspicion, investigation, arrest, charge and trial, and skipping ahead to simply blacklist individuals and deny them equal rights.

This time, the legislation centers around passports, which would now be revoked upon any suspicion, whatsoever and despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing, or links to foreign terrorists groups. But these links to 'terrorism' are not legally defined or limited, nor do they result as a penalty for criminal convictions, but from being added to a list. Gestapo, anyone?

The activities of American intelligence services have received a somewhat extensive coverage from both the written media and different movie makers, and not just from Hollywood alone, which is explainable if one is to consider the staggering amount of funds that are being allocated by the US Congress on the secret operations of such institutions.

Therefore, recent revelations about the activities of US intelligence services that have been published by WikiLeaks and other alternative sources of information can hardly surprise anyone. In fact, what is surprising is the casual approach of German, French, and British politicians towards the fact that on top of being financially and militarily dependent on Washington, they are being constantly spied on.

The electronic surveillance means that are being used by the CIA and the NSA, elaborate software like PRISM and Xkeyscore, which allows the United States to control more than 75% of the global Internet traffic, and the 24/7 wire tapping is just the tip of the iceberg. However, Washington's desire to establish total control over the world is not limited by electronic means alone.

Even man's best friends are being used as an effective and completely unremarkable source of information about almost any target. Pets enjoy a somewhat universal affection, therefore they are able to freely infiltrate the most guarded secret facilities and high-ranking meetings alike. Throughout the world pets are being treated with sympathy and respect, especially when they belong to the most influential people in the world.

A prominent leader of Ukrainian extremist volunteer militias is calling for a "crusade" against Russia. He first wants to expel the rebels in eastern Ukraine and then "burn Moscow down," DWN wrote.

The anti-Russian mobilization in Ukraine has developed a new and dangerous dynamic, with right-wing volunteer militia leader Dmytro Korchynsky enjoying much popularity among the country's citizens.

"I want to lead a crusade against Russia. Our goal is not only the expulsion of the occupiers, but also vengeance. Moscow must burn," Korchynsky said.

Talks between Russia and France concerning the future of the Mistral contract have ended. The contract will be terminated in the near future, a top Russian official has stated.

Paris and Moscow have agreed on and amount of the penalty France will have to pay Russia for not delivering the Mistral helicopter carriers, and the date on which it must be paid, thus bringing the negotiations to conclusion. The contract will be cancelled shortly, Vladimir Kozhin, the Assistant to the President for military and technical cooperation, told RIA Novosti.

"The talks have already ended. Everything is settled - both the date and the amount of penalty. I hope that the agreement concerning the cancellation of the contract will be signed in the nearest future. Then the sum that France will pay Russia will be officially announced," Kozhin said.

It was reported earlier that Russia and France would settle on the amount of penalty before July 10.

"The penalty amount is only predefined, as this decision has yet to be approved by the governments of the two countries," a Russian government source told RIA Novosti.

"My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Luca Brasi held a gun to his head and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature, would be on the contract." — The Godfather (1972)

In the modern global banking system, all banks need a credit line with the central bank in order to be part of the payments system. Choking off that credit line was a form of blackmail the Greek government couldn't refuse.

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is now being charged with treason for exploring the possibility of an alternative payment system in the event of a Greek exit from the euro. The irony of it all was underscored by Raúl Ilargi Meijer, who opined in a July 27th blog:

The fact that these things were taken into consideration doesn't mean Syriza was planning a coup . . . . If you want a coup, look instead at the Troika having wrestled control over Greek domestic finances. That's a coup if you ever saw one.

Let's have an independent commission look into how on earth it is possible that a cabal of unelected movers and shakers gets full control over the entire financial structure of a democratically elected eurozone member government. By all means, let's see the legal arguments for this.

So how was that coup pulled off? The answer seems to be through extortion. The European Central Bank threatened to turn off the liquidity that all banks - even solvent ones - need to maintain their day-to-day accounting balances. That threat was made good in the run-up to the Greek referendum, when the ECB did turn off the liquidity tap and Greek banks had to close their doors. Businesses were left without supplies and pensioners without food. How was that apparently criminal act justified? Here is the rather tortured reasoning of ECB President Mario Draghi at a press conference on July 16:

There is an article in the [Maastricht] Treaty that says that basically the ECB has the responsibility to promote the smooth functioning of the payment system. But this has to do with . . . the distribution of notes, coins. So not with the provision of liquidity, which actually is regulated by a different provision, in Article 18.1 in the ECB Statute: "In order to achieve the objectives of the ESCB [European System of Central Banks], the ECB and the national central banks may conduct credit operations with credit institutions and other market participants, with lending based on adequate collateral." This is the Treaty provision. But our operations were not monetary policy operations, but ELA [Emergency Liquidity Assistance] operations, and so they are regulated by a separate agreement, which makes explicit reference to the necessity to have sufficient collateral. So, all in all, liquidity provision has never been unconditional and unlimited. [Emphasis added.]

In a July 23rd post on Naked Capitalism, Nathan Tankus calls this "a truly shocking statement." Why? Because all banks rely on their central banks to settle payments with other banks. "If the smooth functioning of the payments system is defined as the ability of depository institutions to clear payments," says Tankus, "the central bank must ensure that settlement balances are available at some price."

Times are tough for America's "color revolution" industry. Perfected in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, and honed during the so-called "Arab Spring," the process of backing subversion in a targeted country and overthrowing a sitting government under the cover of staged mass protests appears to be finally at the end of running its course.

That is because the United States can no longer hide the fact that it is behind these protests and often, even hide their role in the armed elements that are brought in covertly to give targeted governments their final push out the door. Nations have learned to identify, expose, and resist this tactic, and like Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime's tactic of Blitzkrieg or "lighting war," once appropriate countermeasures are found, the effectiveness of lighting fast, overwhelming force be it military or political, is rendered impotent.

This was most recently observed in Armenia during the so-called "Electric Yerevan" protests - Yerevan being the capital of Armenia, and "electric" in reference to the alleged motivation of protesters - rising electric prices.

American-backed "color revolutions" always start out with a seemingly legitimate motivation, but soon quickly become political in nature, sidestepping many of the legitimate, practical demands first made, and focusing almost entirely on "regime change." For the Armenian agitators leading the "Electric Yerevan," they didn't even make it that far and spent most of their initial momentum attempting to convince the world they were not just another US-backed mob.

Russia bashing season is at its peak in Western press today after Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the shooting down of MH17 over Ukraine last year.

Russia's veto is being presented as a shameful confession of guilt. However, as usual the Western press uses half-truths, hypocrisy and double standards in its spinning of the facts.

First and foremost a tribunal and an investigation are two completely different things. No one in the Western press bothered to remember that immediately after the disaster, the UN Security Council passed Russian drafted Resolution 2166 that among other things:

"3. Supports efforts to establish a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines" and

"11. Demands that those responsible for this incident be held to account and that all States cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability".

However more than a year after the tragedy the investigation has been far from "thorough" and not in full "accordance with international aviation guidelines".