This evening's music features early urban bluesman from St. Louis, Clifford Gibson.

Here are some stories from tonight's posting:

AT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale

The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T.

While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.”

AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003 to 2013. AT&T has given the N.S.A. access, through several methods covered under different legal rules, to billions of emails as they have flowed across its domestic networks. It provided technical assistance in carrying out a secret court order permitting the wiretapping of all Internet communications at the United Nations headquarters, a customer of AT&T. ...

The company installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs on American soil, far more than its similarly sized competitor, Verizon. And its engineers were the first to try out new surveillance technologies invented by the eavesdropping agency.

So, um, just who is the Commander-in-Chief? Is he really so craven that he can't abide standing up to his subordinates when they show contempt for his office and leadership? Or are they really doing his bidding as he lies to the public about the nature of his orders?

The military ignores Obama's order to release Shaker Aamer from Guantánamo

The contravention of the president’s orders indicates that there is a profound problem with the state of democracy in America

Recent history demonstrates that if President Barack Obama, arguably the most powerful person on planet Earth, wants to prioritize almost anything – from pardoning 46 convicted drug felons to bombing a foreign country without the consent of Congress – little can stand in his way. Why, then, is Shaker Aamer not home in London with his wife and four children? ...

On Thursday, we came a little closer to understanding the reason that Aamer’s youngest child, Faris – who was born on Valentine’s Day 2002, the day that Aamer was rendered to the detention center at Guantánamo Bay – has never even met his father. The Guardian revealed that “the Pentagon [is] blocking Guantánamo deals to return Shaker Aamer and other cleared detainees.” President Obama, it seems, has personally ordered Aamer’s release, and his subordinates have ignored and thwarted his order.

However, Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution provides that the “President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States”. Under Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to disobey an order in peacetime is punishable by life in prison. If we believe the Pentagon theory that we are involved in a “Global War on Terror”, then there is an ongoing war, and the punishment for disobeying orders is death. ...

President Obama should certainly call General Dempsey into the Oval Office and read him the riot act. And though Obama is right to try to close Guantánamo Bay in general, the broader issue at stake is whether he is willing to allow the Pentagon to undermine the very essence of the US constitution. The president has given an order to the military; they need to obey it.

In Secret Filing, DOJ Opposes Release of Hunger-Striking Gitmo Prisoner

Bid to stop Tariq Ba Odah's release shows that 'Obama administration’s interagency process for closing Guantánamo is an incoherent mess,' says CCR

In a maneuver blasted by constitutional rights experts as "rare and unusual," the Obama administration late on Friday submitted a long-awaited filing urging a federal judge not to order the release of a hunger-striking prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, whose condition has been described by his lawyers as deteriorating rapidly.

The filing was kept under seal, though the Justice Department said a public version will be released later.

According to the Guardian's Spencer Ackerman, "U.S. officials said the objection to freeing Tariq Ba Odah, who is undernourished to the point of starvation, and the decision to challenge his legal gambit outside of public view, are indications that the Obama administration will fight tenaciously to stop detainees from seeking freedom in federal courts, despite Barack Obama's oft-repeated pledge to close Guantánamo."

Thirty-six-year-old Ba Odah has been held at Guantánamo since he was 23, and has been on hunger strike for eight years in protest of his indefinite detention. He has never been charged with a crime and he was cleared for release by a multi-agency review board in 2009. He has been subjected to force-feeding and he reportedly weighs about 75 pounds. ...

Responding to the Justice Department's sealed filing on Friday, Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty International USA's Security and Human Rights Program, said the case was a "bellwether for what's to come and a blow to President Obama's legacy."

"Tariq Ba Odah may die at Guantanamo without ever having been charged with a crime," she said. "If that happens, it will be because the White House was unwilling to step up and make good on President Obama’s pledges to close Guantanamo."

Chelsea Manning denied access to legal library prior to prison hearing, she says

Chelsea Manning, the soldier and Guardian columnist, has been denied access to a prison legal library days before a crucial hearing at which she will represent herself against charges including possession of unapproved reading material, according to a message posted to her official Twitter account at the weekend.

The hearing is part of a legal process that could result in indefinite solitary confinement for Manning, for reported violations that also include storing a tube of expired toothpaste in her military prison cell. ...

“Prison staff are now denying me access to the law library @ scheduled times – w/only 2 days until my board,” read the tweet, which was posted by supporters in contact with the prisoner.

A call to the US disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth was not immediately returned. ...

A petition calling on the military the drop charges against Manning for the reported prison infractions has gained 64,000 signatures, said Evan Greer, campaign director of the activist nonprofit Fight for the Future, one of four groups circulating the petition.

Fear of ‘Nightmare Scenario’ Has US, Russia Leading Talks on Syria

There has been a recent proliferation of conferences and behind-the-scenes meetings among various regional and world powers on the situation in Syria in recent days, with Russia leading the charge for some sort of anti-ISIS unity among rebel and government factions, and the US no longer spurning the idea.

There are a lot of reasons behind this, and a lot of moving parts keeping such deals from happening readily, but the main driver is a fear of the “nightmare scenario” of the Assad government collapsing outright and ISIS sweeping in to take the rest of a country they already control over 50% of. ...

US officials have previously conceded that their goal in Syria was not necessarily a military-imposed regime change, but to keep the civil war stalemated so long that they could come in and negotiate a resolution that was more favorable to American interests. Clearly, that’s not ISIS taking over outright, and the effort to keep the combatants in stalemate isn’t working so well anymore.

This is an interesting article, rich in details - here's a taste:

Is Putin Planning to Sell-Out Assad?

Russia does not want a divided Syria. Aside from the fact that Moscow and Damascus are long-term allies (and Russia has a critical naval facility in Tartus, Syria), a balkanized Syria poses serious threats for Russia, the most significant of which is the probable emergence of a jihadi base of operations that will be used to deploy terrorists across Central Asia thus undermining Moscow’s grand plan to integrate the continents into a giant free trade zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok. Russian President Vladimir Putin takes the threat of terrorism very seriously, which is why he has been working around-the-clock to engage leaders from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the Kurds and Syrian opposition groups in negotiations to put an end to the fighting and reestablish security in Syria. It’s worth noting that there’s been an effective blackout of these crucial negotiations in the western media, mainly because they make Putin look like a peacemaker who is respected among other world leaders and who is making every effort to stop the spread of terrorism. Obviously, that doesn’t jibe with the media’s portrayal of Putin as the new Hitler, so they’ve simply omitted the meetings from their coverage.

The differences between the US and Russia are irreconcilable. Washington wants and end to the nation-state system and create a new world order, while Putin wants to maintain the current system in order to preserve national sovereignty, self determination, and multi-polarity. This is the basis of the clash between Russia and the US. Putin rejects unipolar global rule and is working as fast as he can to build a coalition capable of resisting persistent US intervention, manipulation and aggression. This is no small task, and it involves a great deal of discretion. Putin does not have the wherewithal to confront the US Goliath at every turn, so he must pick his fights carefully and operate largely in the shadows, which is what he is doing.

In the last few months, Putin has convened meetings with all the main players in the Syria drama, and has made remarkable headway in resolving the crisis. The main sticking point now, is whether Assad will remain as president or be removed as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US demand. Putin is resisting this outcome for many reasons. First, he doesn’t be seen as betraying an ally which would seriously hurt his reputation as a reliable partner. Second, he can’t allow himself to comply with a “regime change” doctrine that eschews international law and that could eventually be used against him in a future coup. Allowing foreign leaders to pick and choose who is a “legitimate” leader and who isn’t is a prescription for disaster, as is evident in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Yemen. Finally, Putin cannot simply hand Washington an easy victory on a matter of this magnitude although, in the end, Assad will probably be gone.

Acoustic Cannon Sales to Police Surge After Black Lives Matter Protests

During a company conference call with financial analysts last week, Tom Brown, the chief executive of LRAD, a military contractor, informed investors that sales were rolling in, not just from Chinese government agencies and the U.S. Navy, but also from American law enforcement. ...

Over the last year, following a wave of protests over officer-involved killings of black Americans, LRAD has seen an uptick in inquiries from police departments around the country.

Brown told financial analysts in a May conference call about the “renewed interest” from police departments. “A lot of grant money starts to flow to law enforcement, and we’re getting a lot of inquiries” following protests, he said. One inquiry he mentioned came from the Maryland Sheriff’s Department following the protests in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray. ...

The LRAD device can reach 152 decibels, a level that can cause permanent hearing damage. In December, Vice reported on the potential dangers of the LRAD cannon, noting, “Permanent hearing loss begins with a sustained sound that’s louder than 90 dB SPL — for example, a subway train 200 feet away — but you won’t start to feel immediate pain until 120 decibels, about the loudness of a shotgun blast. At 160 dB — a little less loud than a rocket launch — your eardrum will burst.”

Climate Change: Have We Reached the Point of No Return?

PERIES: ... The recent James Hansen report surpasses all previous predictions related to sea level rises. Why is that happening?

JAMAIL: It's because a phenomena is occurring called abrupt climate change, and it's actually something I started to really become acutely aware of back in 2013, and became aware of Dr. McPherson and his work and conducted a long interview with him, and wrote a long article for TomDispatch.com called Are we already off the climate precipice?. And you read the article and the answer is clear, yes.

And the fact is, when we look at, connect all the dots, which Dr. McPherson has done and has been doing for quite a number of years now, that it shows when we look at the pattern of for example the IPCC worst case predictions of, whether it be temperature increases or sea level rise, or CO2 in the atmosphere, the reality continues to dramatically outpace the worst case scenarios. And so the worst case scenarios in the modeling keep being amended with more new data coming in, and the reality is that the reality keeps outpacing it to the extent that even the modeling can't even keep up. And we're seeing things happening on such a fast pace now regarding extreme weather events, 1,000-year floods turning into 100-year floods turning into 10-year floods. Same with fires and temperature increase records, and all of this is happening so quickly and dramatically that there's no question that this has been going on for years now.

And I think, to cut to the chase, to kind of put this out there from the start, I think that any ideas of changing the situation are a pipe dream and don't really show an extent of the knowledge of how far along we already are. And we're in a position now where it's kind of brace for impact.

Also of interest:

Why Did the FBI Spy on James Baldwin?

Rising Up Against Police Violence, From the Black Panthers to #BlackLivesMatter

New Orleans: 10 years after hurricane Katrina – in pictures

'I dream about it every night': what happens to Americans who film police violence?

Four Ways Mexico’s Indigenous Farmers Are Practicing the Agriculture of the Future

Neocons to Americans: Trust Us Again

Katie Couric’s Hit Job on Social Security