NEWS

Report: Israel Had Assassination List
Coast Guard Commander: "This Spill Is Holding Everybody Hostage"
Oil Tar Bars Spotted on Pensacola Beach in Florida
US Intel Analyst Arrested for Leaking Wikileaks Video
Report: Many Gulf Coast Judges Tied to Oil and Gas Industry
US Intel Analyst Arrested for Leaking Wikileaks Video
US Elite Special Forces Deployed Across World
CIA Personnel Engaged in Human Experimentation
Eight Convicted for Bhopal Disaster
The Pixies Cancel Concert in Israel

Report: Israel Had Assassination List

Passengers who were aboard the Mavi Marmara continue to provide new accounts of the Israeli assault. Some are now claiming they discovered a list of people the Israeli military intended to assassinate during their raid on the ship. The Independent of London reports passengers seized a booklet during their altercations with the Israeli forces who rappelled aboard. The passengers claim the booklet contained names and pictures of passengers the Israeli military intended to shoot dead. The Israeli military has denied the existence of an assassination list, and the claims could not be independently corroborated. A Turkish autopsy report shows the nine slain victims were shot a total of thirty times, many at close range. The Guardian newspaper reports five of those killed were shot either in the back of the head or in the back.

Coast Guard Commander: "This Spill Is Holding Everybody Hostage"

In news on the BP oil spill, Coast Guard Commander Thad Allen said it will take until at least the fall to deal with the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Allen appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.

Thad Allen: "This will only end when we intercept the well bore, pump mud down it to overcome the pressure of the oil coming up from the reservoir, and put a cement plug in. That’s what I would call bottom kill rather than top kill. The spill will not be contained until that happens. But even after that, there will be oil out there for months to come. This will be well into the fall. This is a siege across the entire Gulf. This spill is holding everybody hostage, not only economically, but physically. And it has to be attacked on all fronts."

Bob Schieffer: "So, well into the fall."

Thad Allen: "As far as oil remediation and long-term environmental impacts, yes."

Since the spill began nearly seven weeks ago, roughly 23 million to 49 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf.

Oil Tar Bars Spotted on Pensacola Beach in Florida

In Florida, oil tar balls have washed ashore on Pensacola Beach. The beach is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, which advertises "the world’s whitest beaches." Buck Lee, the executive director of Santa Rosa Island Authority, criticized BP’s efforts to prevent oil from reaching the shores of Florida.

Buck Lee: "What upsets me right now is BP says, 'well, we have skimmers. We have thirty or forty skimmers to protect the beach.' You can take your cameraman, look out there in the Gulf, try to find one. You’re not going to find it. BP lied again."

Report: Many Gulf Coast Judges Tied to Oil and Gas Industry

The Associated Press is reporting more than half of the federal judges in Gulf Coast districts with pending spill-related lawsuits have financial ties to the oil and gas industry. A survey of judicial financial disclosure reports shows thirty-seven of sixty-four active or senior judges in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida are linked to energy companies, including some with holdings in BP, Halliburton and Transocean.

US Intel Analyst Arrested for Leaking Wikileaks Video

The US military has arrested an intelligence analyst who may have been responsible for leaking classified video showing a US helicopter gunship indiscriminately firing on Iraqi civilians in 2007. The website Wired.com reports Specialist Bradley Manning has been held without charge since being detained at his military base in Iraq two weeks ago. A former computer hacker told Wired he turned Manning in after Manning claimed to have released the video footage along with hundreds of thousands of classified US government records to Wikileaks, a whistleblower website. The video shows a US military gunship indiscriminately killing twelve Iraqis and wounding several others, including two children. A friend of Manning’s says Manning was hopeful that the Wikileaks video would lead to accountability for the Iraqi deaths and help prevent future killings.

US Elite Special Forces Deployed Across World

More details have emerged on the Obama administration’s expansion of covert military operations abroad. Last month, the New York Times reported the US has authorized a major expansion of clandestine military operations abroad that includes intelligence gathering for a possible attack on Iran. Last week, the Washington Post reported Special Operations forces are now deployed in seventy-five countries, compared to sixty at the start of last year. Now independent journalist Jeremy Scahill reports for The Nation magazine that some of the countries where elite special forces have been deployed, aside from Iran, include Georgia, Ukraine, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Yemen, Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey, Belgium, France and Spain. Forces have also been deployed to support US Drug Enforcement Agency operations in Colombia and Mexico.

CIA Personnel Engaged in Human Experimentation

A new report from Physicians for Human Rights has accused the Bush administration of conducting illegal and unethical human experimentation and research on prisoners in CIA custody. The report details how doctors, psychologists and other professionals monitored sleep deprivation on more than a dozen prisoners, as well as the effects of large- volume waterboarding. Frank Donaghue of Physicians for Human Rights said, “The CIA appears to have broken all accepted legal and ethical standards put in place since the Second World War to protect prisoners from being the subjects of experimentation. Not only are these alleged acts gross violations of human rights law, they are a grave affront to America’s core values.”

Eight Convicted for Bhopal Disaster

In news from India, eight former senior employees of Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary have been convicted of "death by negligence" for their roles in the Bhopal gas disaster that left an estimated 15,000 people dead more than twenty-five years ago. The former employees face up to two years in prison. The convictions are the first since the disaster at the Union Carbide plant, the world’s worst industrial accident.

The Pixies Cancel Concert in Israel

The legendary alternative rock group the Pixies have become the latest artists to cancel a scheduled performance in Israel following boycott calls. Concert organizers say the cancellation was linked to the Israeli assault on the Free Gaza flotilla. The move came days after the British group Gorillaz also canceled an upcoming concert in Israel. Other artists to cancel Israel performances in recent months include Elvis Costello, Carlos Santana and Gil Scott-Heron.