Musa al-Gharbi : Libya – two years, three states, two civil wars? ■ The NATO intervention in Libya was an unmitigated disaster. At the outset, Washington policymakers believed that the people would rise up en masse against Gaddhafi, and embrace the new “democratic” government which was installed in the aftermath of his execution. This didn’t happen. Instead, NATO was pulled ever deeper into the theater because there were few military or government defections, Gaddhafi didn't buckle in the fact of direct Western intervention, and the people did not rise up against him in substantial numbers; they would not even support the rebels with food, water, or supplies. Despite the no-fly zone, his forces continued to close in on Benghazi, forcing NATO to expand its military involvement, to include arming and training the rebels. Ultimately, the tide was turned by the participation of AQIM; an al-Qaeda detainee released from Guantanamo Bay became one of the most prolific leaders of the rebellion. The organization offered their support to the rebels early on in the protests—and why shouldn’t they have? The government was moving in on their territory. According to the CTC, Libya provided the highest number of foreign insurgents in Iraq, per capita; most of these hailed from east, a la Benghazi. But even the influx of al-Qaeda fighters was insufficient to “close the deal.”

F. William Engdahl: Libya in anarchy two years after NATO Humanitarian Liberation

The murder of Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi was an organized hit to cover up direct arm deals. ● A former CIA gun runner revealed that the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in order to cover up the U.S. State Department’s direct arm shipments to al-Qaeda. William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee started his career as a CIA contract pilot in the late 1950s, delivering guns and ammunition on behalf of the agency to Fidel Castro. Plumlee confirmed that such arm deals are still common today, with the State Dept. shipping arms to al-Qaeda via the CIA.

The U.S. military has been forced to relocate a large fleet of drones from a key counterterrorism base on the Horn of Africa after a string of crashes fanned local fears that the unmanned aircraft were at risk of colliding with passenger planes, according to documents and interviews. Air Force drones ceased flying this month from Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. installation in Djibouti, after local officials expressed alarm about several drone accidents and mishaps in recent years. The Pentagon has temporarily moved the unmanned aircraft from the U.S. base in Djibouti’s capital to a makeshift airstrip in a more remote part of the country.

The Telegraph: Nairobi terror attack: Americans and Briton 'among the gunmen' ● At least two Americans and one Briton were among the gunmen that stormed the Westgate mall in Nairobi, killing at least 69 people, the Kenyan foreign minister has said. Amina Mohamed said in an interview with “PBS Newshour” that “two or three Americans” and “one British woman” were among the militants in the attack. She said the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived “in Minnesota and one other place” in the United States. The British jihadist was a woman who has “done this many times before,” Ms Mohamed said, adding to speculation that it was the "White Widow", Samantha Lethwaite.

VoR: Nairobi massacre over: '5 terrorists killed, 11 arrested' - Kenyan President

Kenny's Sideshow: World Wide Gladio ■ The strategy of tension keeps moving around so no predictable pattern can be established. Earlier this last week it was the DC Navy Yard and this time it's Kenya and the attack is in an upscale Israeli owned mall. The dead include Africans, Europeans, Asians and North Americans. So far no reports of any Israelis killed even though there's a Dead Sea mud kiosk there which you might think would be a top priority for any self respecting 'terrorist.' Israeli advisers are johnny-on-the-spot to help formulate a strategy though. The recent discovery of oil deposits in Kenya's Turkana County could increase insecurity in the region. No kidding?

Chris Floyd: Sword Play: Attacking Civilians to Justify "Greater Security" [2005] ■ 'You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security." This was the essence of Operation Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West -- against their own populations. Hundreds of innocent people were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks -- on train stations, supermarkets, cafes and offices -- which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political opponents. The purpose, as stated above in sworn testimony by Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra, was to demonize designated enemies and frighten the public into supporting ever-increasing powers for government leaders -- and their elitist cronies. First revealed by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti in 1991, Gladio (from the Latin for "sword") is still protected to this day by its founding patrons, the CIA and MI6. Yet parliamentary investigations in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have shaken out a few fragments of the truth over the years. These have been gathered in a new book, "NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe," by Daniele Ganser.

AWIP: Report: US military to hit targets in Kenya, other African states ■ So now we know who started this and why - Israel & its puppet state, the US. Their list of targets clearly was prepared a long time ago. Then a wee bit of proxy terror and the public's ready to accept it all without any resistance. All they have to do is soften up a target area with some terror first and then they're ready to go. (Much more efficient than using missionaries, like they did over a century ago, and simpler too. Terrorists instead of missionaries. - Neat, isn't it?) East Africa's wide open to them now, the oil & gas, titanium & gold, all theirs for the taking. They can do whatever they like. There's nothing we can do about it. And they know it.

The United States is reportedly preparing a list of targets for possible military strikes in Kenya and some other African countries.
● Former US general Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said the strikes are aimed at targeting militants involved in Sunday's deadly attack on a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.
● Somalia’s Al-Shabab fighters have reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it is in retaliation for Kenya’s military actions inside Somalia.
● This as Kenyan security sources in Nairobi revealed that Israel has sent its special forces to Kenya to fight with the militants at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, according to an AFP report. The report added that Israeli Commandoes were airlifted to the east African country just after the start of the attack.

So now we know who started this and why - Israel & its puppet state, the US. Their list of targets clearly was prepared a long time ago. Then a wee bit of proxy terror and the public's ready to accept it all without any resistance. All they have to do is soften up a target area with some terror first and then they're ready to go. (Much more efficient than using missionaries, like they did over a century ago, and simpler too. Terrorists instead of missionaries. Neat, isn't it?) East Africa's wide open to them now, the oil & gas, titanium & gold, all theirs for the taking. They can do whatever they like. There's nothing we can do about it. And they know it. - Editor

■ While the Assad regime in Damascus has denied responsibility for the sarin gas missiles that killed around 1,400 Syrians in the suburb of Ghouta on 21 August, information is now circulating in the city that Russia's new "evidence" about the attack includes the dates of export of the specific rockets used and – more importantly – the countries to which they were originally sold. They were apparently manufactured in the Soviet Union in 1967 and sold by Moscow to three Arab countries, Yemen, Egypt and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's Libya. These details cannot be verified in documents, and Vladimir Putin has not revealed the reasons why he told Barack Obama that he knows Assad's army did not fire the sarin missiles; but if the information is correct – and it is believed to have come from Moscow – Russia did not sell this particular batch of chemical munitions to Syria.
■ Since Gaddafi's fall in 2011, vast quantities of his abandoned Soviet-made arms have fallen into the hands of rebel groups and al-Qa'ida-affiliated insurgents. Many were later found in Mali, some in Algeria and a vast amount in Sinai. The Syrians have long claimed that a substantial amount of Soviet-made weaponry has made its way from Libya into the hands of rebels in the country's civil war with the help of Qatar – which supported the Libyan rebels against Gaddafi and now pays for arms shipments to Syrian insurgents.

JaxRevenge ■ On September 11, 1988, 40 years after the murder of Bernadotte, the Israeli daily newspaper "Yediot Ahronot" came out with an article written by the paper’s political reporter, Ronni Shaked. For the first time since the murder, the men who did the killing came forward and told in detail how the murder took place. Yehoshua Zetler, the commander of the Jerusalem unit of the Stern Gang in 1948 proudly told how he plotted and had Bernadotte killed. When he was asked, "If you could relive your life, would you still have murdered the UN diplomat?" He stated, "There would be no hesitation; the UN diplomat had to be killed in order to safeguard the nation of Israel." What is important for the reader in 2003 to know is that this murder was well thought out and that it was approved by two well known Jewish leaders, each of whom held the post of prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin (1983-1984) and Yizhak Shamir (1986-1990). At the time of the murder, Begin was the commander of the Irgun and Shamir the head of the Stern Gang.

The Guardian: Dag Hammarskjöld: evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down

A massive aquifer that holds enough water to meet all of Kenya's needs for 70 years has been discovered, ITV News can reveal. The pool, which was found more than 300 metres underground, is so large you could pour Loch Ness into it approximately 25 times. — What is an aquifer?

● It is an underground layer of water-bearing material, such as gravel, sand and silt.
● Water can be extracted from the materials by using a well.

The newly discovered Lotikipi Basin Aquifer could provide water to Kenya for 70 years. But just as importantly the aquifer is replenished from distant mountains. So it should never run dry, assuming it is managed properly.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been airlifted by helicopter out of Cairo’s Tora Prison and flown to the army's International Medical Center, where he will remain under guard. The 85-year-old still faces multiple criminal charges. The transfer came after a court ruled that prosecutors can no longer prolong Mubarak’s time in jail with appeals or new charges, a tactic that helped to keep him behind bars for the past 17 months. Prosecutors have decided not to challenge the decision.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan has claimed that Israel was behind the July 3 military coup in Egypt, adding that Ankara has evidence as to the country’s involvement in President Mohamed Morsi’s overthrow. ● “Now the West starts to say democracy is not the ballot box or not only the box but we know that the ballot box is the people’s will,” Erdoðan said Aug. 20 at an expanded meeting of the provincial chairs of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The prime minister criticized Western countries' stance vis-à-vis Egypt’s coup, saying, "The West should [understand] the description of democracy, they need to learn it.” “This is what has been implemented in Egypt. Who is behind this? Israel. We have evidence,” the prime minister said, citing a meeting between a French intellectual and the Israeli justice minister in France before the 2011 elections.

Roi Tov: Egyptian Dictator and Israel Declare Mutual Love ● Chilling pictures are being published on the ongoing violent events in Egypt. The scariest one is reproduced [on the right here]. It is a snapshot from the Egyptian television taken yesterday; it shows General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi. For the fist time in that media, it shows a message in English. It reads "Egypt Fighting Terrorism" in the colors of the Egyptian flag. It illustrates the infiltration-depth of Western-propaganda. After all, on 3 July 2013, the enlightened USA-educated general, true promoter of democracy and selfless protector of the people, had violently removed President Mohamed Morsi and suspended the Egyptian constitution. He removed a democratically elected president and declared the people attempting to protect democracy "terrorists." Yet, he forgot to blame al-Qaeda; probably the CIA will fine him for this embarrassing overlook. ● Lately, Egypt is closely cooperating with the IDF. Both armies are attempting to deal with the Bedouin insurrection in the area, to the extent that on August 8, an Israeli killer-drone was recently used on Egyptian ground (Israeli Drone Bombs Egypt). The AP news agency had quoted two senior Egyptian defense sources claiming that the Israeli airstrike had been coordinated with the Egyptian authorities. Dr. Ahmed Aref—Muslim Brotherhood Media Spokesman—published a statement saying there was ongoing attempts within the army to redefine "enemy" in a bid to turn the army's power inward. "We hear about the crimes of the Zionist enemy along our borders as well as an infiltration of our borders and the killing of Egyptians," he said.

Patrick Cockburn: Egypt on the Brink of a New Dark Age, as the Generals Close in for the Kill
Alex Lantier: Egyptian military junta moves to free Mubarak

Robert Fisk: Disgust, shame, outrage. ● All these words apply to the disgrace of Egypt these past six weeks. A military coup, millions of enraged supporters of the democratically elected but deposed dictator – reports that indicate well over 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood sympathisers slaughtered by the security police – and what were we told by the authorities yesterday? That Egypt was subject to “a malicious terrorist plot”. ● The language speaks for itself. Not just a common or garden “terrorist” plot – but a “terrorist” plot so terrible that it is “malicious”. Naturally, the government acquired this use of the “terrorist” word from Bush and Blair, another Western contribution to Arab culture. But it goes further. The country, we are now informed, is at the mercy of “extremist forces who want to create war”. You would think, on hearing this, that most of the dead these past six weeks were soldiers and policemen, whereas in fact most were unarmed demonstrators. ● And who is to blame? Obama, of course, for “encouraging terrorism” by his wimpish complaints last week – so claim the Egyptian authorities. And our old friend, the “foreign media”. It is the infidel channels – including al-Jazeera – which has been feeding hatred into the land of the Pharaohs, according to the Egyptian press (which is now almost as wimpish as Obama in its fealty to its new rulers).

John Glaser: Think back a couple weeks and recall the political narratives accompanying Obama’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, the journalist and Harvard scholar at the forefront of the debate over humanitarian interventions for the past decade. Foreign Policy’s John Hudson described Power’s “staunch advocacy of U.S. intervention on moral grounds.” Max Boot said she is a “principled advocate of humanitarian intervention.” But now that the post-military coup U.S.-backed Egyptian autocracy has slaughtered more than 500 people in the streets, asks Jacob Heillbrunn at The National Interest, where is Samantha Power?

Egypt’s security forces have surrounded Muslim Brotherhood activists and their supporters in a mosque in Cairo, with the Brotherhood saying the siege raises fears of another massacre. ● On Friday night, the security forces besieged the Al-Fath Mosque in the Ramses area where a large number of supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi were holed up. The Brotherhood said gunfire has been going on around the mosque for some time, but security officials accused [lied and said] the protesters of shooting at police from inside the mosque.

● Army sharpshooters lined the rooftops in Ismailia, where protesters shouting “peaceful” filmed one man trying to hold off a tank shot by unidentified snipers. At least seven people were killed and 20 injured in the city. Eight protesters were killed in clashes in Damietta, and protests also took place in Tanta, Fayoum and Assiut. ● The junta is trying to justify the massacre of defenseless protesters, rallying support in the liberal bourgeoisie and sections of the middle class with false claims that the victims were armed terrorists. State TV put a banner in English titled “Egypt Fighting Terrorism” on its coverage of yesterday’s crackdowns. ● The MB has called on its supporters to mount nationwide protests against the junta every day for the next week. ● Popular anger is escalating in Egypt and internationally over the repeated mass killings of protesters by the Egyptian junta and the complicity of Washington. Protests in Egypt are mobilizing forces beyond the right-wing MB’s support base, including layers of urban youth who have clashed with police and army forces since the early days of the Egyptian revolution in 2011 and oppose the army’s re-imposition of emergency rule.

● Clashes erupted across Egypt yesterday in the wake of efforts by the Egyptian military junta to drown protests in blood. Following Wednesday’s massacre, supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi protested and attacked government buildings throughout the country.
● The army ousted Mursi in a July 3 coup aimed at pre-empting developing mass working class protests against Mursi’s reactionary policies and moving back to the type of military-backed dictatorship that existed before the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak. As casualties from Wednesday’s bloodbath mount into the thousands and fighting spreads, the coup is placing Egypt on a path towards civil war and mass upheavals.
● Thousands of relatives of the victims of Wednesday’s massacres flocked to morgues and mosques where the bodies of victims are being held, chanting: “The army and police are one dirty hand!”
● Health Ministry sources reported yesterday that the death toll from Wednesday’s crackdown had risen to 638, with at least 4,200 injured—more than double the initial official figures. These figures, which do not include the bodies of protesters at facilities controlled by Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB), are still substantial underestimates. Reuters reporters counted a further 228 bodies at northeast Cairo’s Al-Imam mosque alone, and the MB has issued estimates that over 2,000 were killed and 10,000 wounded in Wednesday’s crackdown.
● As the death toll rose, Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi issued a statement praising police for their “self-restraint” and justifying the massacre: “The state had to intervene to restore security and peace for Egyptians.”

Antiwar.com: Egypt Junta Defends Massacre as Toll Over 700
PressTV: Thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters hold demos in Egypt - VIDEO
Pepe Escobar: ‘Bloodbath that is not a bloodbath': Why Egypt is doomed
Jason Ditz: Obama Cancels Drill, But Signals Continued Support for Egypt Junta
Robert Fisk: Cairo massacre: The Muslim Brotherhood’s silent martyrs lie soaked in blood
Peter Schwarz: German politicians, media defend the Egyptian army

● A former U.S. Attorney who represents whistle-blowers with knowledge of what happened when armed militants attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last year says 400 surface-to-air missiles were 'taken from Libya' during the attack, and that the U.S. intelligence community is terrified they might be used to shoot down airliners.
● Joe diGenova, whose wife Victoria Toensing – a former deputy assistant attorney general – also represents Benghazi witnesses and others with knowledge of the terror attack, told WMAL radio that the loss of those missiles is also one the reason the U.S. State Department shut down 19 embassies across the Middle East last week.

Dozens of CIA operatives were reportedly near the scene where US Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed last September 11, and the agency has gone to great lengths to keep the operatives’ actions a secret. In an exclusive report, CNN said there were as many as 35 Americans on the ground in Benghazi at the time of the attack, 21 of which were working in a building that is believed to be operated by the Central Intelligence Agency. What the operatives were doing there that day remains a mystery, and it appears that the agency is making an extensive effort to try to stop any more information leaks. “You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation,” an unnamed source told CNN.

The Atlantic: The Attack in Benghazi: Worth Investigating After All

Almost two years after Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed, his son is to stand trial for alleged crimes against humanity. Saif al-Islam is set for a hearing in Libya; his lawyer says he faces an “entirely unfair” show trial. - If the proceedings continue in Libya, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will most likely be executed. Once seen as the most likely successor to his father, he has been indicted by the ICC on war crimes charges relating to the 2011 uprising. He faces charges of harming state security and insulting Libya's new flag. On top of this, Saif al-Islam is wanted by the ICC for the murder and persecution of protestors during the 2011 uprising. He was captured by local militia in the town of Ubari in November 2011, allegedly trying to flee the country.

“He’s facing a show trial, clearly, an entirely unfair trial; trial in which he’s not able to get any defense witnesses to testify on his behalf because they’ll be too terrified to testify. And at the end of that he’s going to be executed,” his lawyer John Jones told RT, adding that Gaddafi has been held in “appalling conditions, regarding his mental state.”

At least 120 people have been killed and several thousand others wounded today as Egyptian police attacked another sit-in protest in northeast Cairo. The protesters, who were near a mosque, were opposing this month’s military coup and calling for a return of the civilian government. The junta Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim confirmed the shootings but dramatically under-reported the death toll, claiming only 21 had been killed, local health officials confirmed the number was much, much higher. Exact figures are difficult to come by on casualties with the junta overtly lying, but the death toll reports consistently hover around 120 and the wounded has been estimated at 4,500 by the Muslim Brotherhood, which organized the rallies.

Natasha Roth: With arbitrary arrest and detention, forcible transfer, withholding of basic human rights, the imposition of birth control measures and now an arms-for-asylum-seekers deal which amounts to little more than human trafficking, Israel has become a theater of horrors for Africans. - A report in yesterday’s Yedioth Aharonoth (originally in Hebrew, and translated into English for their website) revealed that the Israeli government is on the verge of closing a deal with several African countries which would see them furnished with arms and military expertise, in exchange for accepting thousands of asylum seekers currently residing in Israel. Once again, the government has shrugged off any pretence of honoring its commitments under the UN Refugee Conventions. Once again, it is making a mockery of the concept that it needs to abide by international law. That this is a war on asylum seekers and human rights is self-evident. But it is also a war on dignity and an assault on human memory and conscience. (Source)

SCAF member General Hassan al-Roweiny is in hot water with Egyptian intellectuals after criticizing Palestinian poet Tamim al-Barghouthi.

Tamim Al-Barghouti

■ Roweiny said on a TV talk show last week that foreigners like Barghouthi should not talk about Egyptian politics and matters of national security, in reference to Barghouti's comments on another talk show about a document on national unity. Roweiny expressed surprise to find a young man with “a weird accent and non-Egyptian features” discussing issues of national security, adding that he contacted the TV station telling them that it would have been better to interview one of the revolutionary youth in Tahrir Square. "With its population of 86 million, Egypt isn't waiting for a Palestinian to develop state policies,” said Roweiny. “It’s Egypt that has been working on the reconciliation between Palestinian factions." Roweiny’s statement triggered a wave of criticism among the young poet’s fans and Egyptian intellectuals. Writers Bahaa Taher and Sonallah Ibrahim and colloquial poets Ahmed Fouad Negm and Abdel Rahman al-Abnoudy were among a group that issued a statement condemning the general on Tuesday. The statement said Roweiny's comments were discriminatory, “whereas all Arabs and humans are equal." A number of Facebook groups have also sprung up in response to the controversial comments. ■ Tamim is one of the notable revolutionary voices and his poems were repeatedly read and chanted in Tahrir Square during the revolution. Born in Cairo in 1977 to Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour and acclaimed Palestinian poet Murid al-Barghouti, he published his first poem at the age of 18. He studied politics at Cairo University and the American University in Cairo, before completing his PhD from Boston University in 2004, and he is currently a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer at Georgetown University. Over the years, he continuously wrote poetry. In 1999, he visited Palestine for the first time and wrote his first poetry collection, "Mijana", in the Palestinian spoken dialect of Arabic. His fame as a poet came with “Aluli-Bethebbe-Masr” (They Ask: Do You Love Egypt), written in the Egyptian spoken dialect, and “Maqam Iraq” (the Iraqi Ode) in classical Arabic. Those poems came in response to the US invasion of Iraq and Egypt’s declared position toward the war. Barghouti has also been dubbed “The Poet of Jerusalem.”

Arabic Literature (in English): In Praise of…the Poet with the Weird Accent
Another World Is Possible: In Al-Quds “In Jerusalem” -تميم البرغوثي ... في القدس - VIDEO

The United States will go through with the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt in the coming weeks, U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday as Washington deliberated whether to call the ouster of Egypt's elected leader a military coup. - A decision to call last week's overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy a coup would, by law, require the Obama administration to halt aid to the Egyptian army. Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid behind Israel, receiving $1.5 billion a year. The jets were part of that aid package, a U.S. defense official confirmed. One defense official said the delivery of the four F-16s was likely to take place in August. "There is no current change in the plan to deliver F-16s to the Egyptian military," a second U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

Ahmed Samir Assem's last video of army sniper that shot him dead

■ Digital Journal: Egyptian photojournalist captures the moment of his own death - An Egyptian photojournalist caught his own death on camera. The video shows grainy footage of an Egyptian soldier taking aim, and then shooting him dead.
■ The shocking footage was captured by Ahmed Samir Assem, a 26-year-old photojournalist, on Monday, as he took photos outside the Republican Guard building in Cairo. While grainy and unclear, it is still possible to watch the Egyptian soldier firing his gun, and then finally aiming and shooting at Assem, just as the footage ends.
■ Some believe that the Republican Guard building in Cairo is where ousted president Mohamed Morsi is being held, which is why Assem was on the scene. However, he ended up being one of at least 51 people killed when security forces opened fire on a large crowd grouped outside the building, apparently some of whom were knelt for prayers. Assem was a freelance photographer, working for Egypt's Al-Horia Wa Al-Adala newspaper.

Ali Ahmed, an opposition protestor in the streets of Egypt, explains [very eloquently] why over 20 million Egyptians have taken to the streets to protest Mohammed Morsi's government.

The New Yorker: After the Shooting In Cairo - Note the agents provocateurs who drew the fire and caused the massacre: Fifty-one dead at dawn. A doctor who said he preferred not to give his name lives in an apartment building that overlooks the Republican Guard barracks in Cairo. He told me he woke for the dawn prayer before 4 A.M. Shortly afterward, he heard gunfire and went onto his neighbor’s balcony for a better view. “I saw that the Army retreated about ten metres and began to fire tear-gas cannisters, about ten or fifteen of them,” he said. “I couldn’t see if the other side [the protesters] was shooting, but I heard people through megaphones encouraging jihad. Then I saw four to six motorcycles coming from the direction of the Rabaa intersection to the Republican Guard barracks. Some people were still praying, some were not, because the dawn prayer had finished by then. The men on the motorcycles were all masked, and it was hard to see them through the dark and the tear-gas smoke, but they seemed to be shooting, they were coming from behind the protesters, so they were shooting toward the protesters and the Army. Then the Army started firing. And the protestors were firing. I saw firing from both sides.” As for details, though—what they were firing, whether it was one or two protesters or something more organized—he said that it was dark and that he couldn’t exactly tell.

A deadly shooting at the site of a sit-in by Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo, demanding the reinstatement of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, has left dozens of people dead. The Egyptian health ministry said at least 42 people had been killed and more than 300 injured in the incident early on Monday morning.

Mohamed Mohamed Ibrahim El-Beltagy, a Brotherhood MP, described the incident during dawn prayers after police had stormed the site, as a "massacre". About 500 people were also reportedly injured. A doctor told Al Jazeera that "the majority of injured had gunshot wounds to the head". The Brotherhood said the dead and the injured have been taken to a makeshift hospital in the the Nasr City neighbourhood. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Gehad Haddad, a spokesman for Muslim Brotherhood, said that at around 3.30 in the morning, army and police forces started firing at sit-in protesters in front of the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo. “We have people hit in the head, we have bullets that exploded as they entered the body, cluttering organs and body parts,” said Haddad. “Every police force in the world understands how to disperse a sit-in. This is just a criminal activity targeting protesters.”

Jason Ditz: US Training at the Core of Egypt’s Coup
Jason Ditz: 53 Killed as Soldiers Fire on Praying Morsi Backers
Michel Chossudovsky: Was Washington Behind Egypt’s Coup d’Etat?

Michel Chossudovsky: A new wave of camouflage is underway at the Pentagon and the CIA. The bin Laden “death files” contained in the Pentagon’s data bank have become the object of controversy. Navy Vice Admiral William McRaven has been entrusted in removing these secret military files concerning the May 2011 Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s alleged hideout in Abbotabad, Pakistan from the Pentagon’s data banks. The files of the bin Laden SEAL operation had to be removed to sustain the Big Lie. Osama was allegedly killed on the orders of the US government, despite ample evidence that he was already dead at the time of the attack. Several members of the SEAL raid are now dead, allegedly “due to combat and training accidents”. [...] The Pentagon spokesperson denied the fact that the removal of these files was to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

The $1.5 billion in U.S. foreign aid slated for Egypt next year is in jeopardy after the Egyptian army deposed democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday. Section 508 of the decades-old Foreign Assistance Act stipulates that “none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by a military coup or decree.” A clause in the 2011 omnibus bill strengthens the provision, excluding from American aid any nation experiencing a “coup d’etat or decree in which the military plays a decisive role.” Although events in Egypt appear to conform perfectly to these criteria, it’s unclear whether the Obama administration will cut off revenue to the strategically important nation anytime soon.

PressTV: At least 53 pro-Morsi protesters killed in Cairo
Russia Today: Dozens dead as Egyptian Islamists rally to defend Morsi
Christof Lehmann: Putin warns against Civil War in Egypt after Ousting of Morsi

Russia called on the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) to probe reports that massive arms depots stockpiled by former Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi are making their way to foreign-sponsored militants in Syria. - "Russia applied to the UNSC Committee overseeing sanctions against Libya asking to initiate an investigation of the information (about the alleged arms supply to the Syrian opposition from Libya)…," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, press tv reported. "If this information is correct, it means a severe violation of international embargo imposed on Libya," the statement added. On June 21, the New York Times reported that the evidence collected in Syria together with flight-control data and interviews with militia members, smugglers, militants, analysts and officials in several countries attest to the fact that a great deal of effort, spearheaded and financed by Qatar, is underway to transport arms from Libya to Syrian anti-government gunmen. The report further noted that Qatari C-17 cargo planes have landed at least three times in Libya this year, including flights from Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli on January 15 and February 1 as well as another that departed Benghazi on April 16.

■ Egypt’s Health Ministry has confirmed at least 30 deaths and over 200 people wounded today, as supporters of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) government, deposed earlier this week in a military coup, rallied in Cairo and elsewhere to protest the junta. ■ Troops from the Egyptian Republican Guard shot several of the protesters, and mobs of junta supporters, many of whom participated in last Friday’s protest which precipitated the coup, attacked the pro-Morsi crowds, accusing them of trying to “divide” Egypt. ■ FJP protesters vowed to remain in the streets in spite of the violence, and said they will not accept the “interim” government imposed by the junta. President Morsi and materially all of the top FJP leadership are now missing, detained at locations unknown without charges. ■ The African Union has also become the first international body to take serious note of the coup, announcing that it will suspend Egypt’s membership until civilian rule is restored. This is standard practice in the AU, though with many Western nations refusing to call the coup a “coup” it was uncertain if the AU would simply gloss over it as well.

Russia Today: 36 dead, over 1,000 injured
Stephen Lendman: Business As Usual in Egypt
Robert Fisk: When is a military coup not a military coup? When it happens in Egypt, apparently
Zero Hedge: 15 Photos From the Tahrir Square Protests You’ll Never See In Legacy Media

At least six supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi have been killed today as a crowd of hundreds tried to march towards the military barracks in Cairo where he is being held by the military that overthrew him. Thousands of Morsi supporters demonstrated in cities across the country on what his Muslim Brotherhood called a 'Friday of rage' against what they describe as a military coup that toppled Egypt's first elected leader a year after he took office. In Cairo, a crowd of Islamists surged across a bridge over the Nile River after nightfall and clashed with Morsi opponents near Tahrir Square and outside the state TV building.