This evening's music features Chicago bluesman J.B. Lenoir.

Here are some stories from tonight's post:

Yemenis Are Taking Germany to Court Over US Drone Strikes

Relatives of Yemenis killed in a US drone attack are launching a court case today against the German government, in a landmark suit which could impede the CIA air strike program and impact international governments participating in the war on terror.

Faisal bin Ali Jaber and other members of his family will ask the German government to prevent the country from facilitating further drone strikes in Yemen, following allegations that the US Ramstein Air Base in the southwest of the country played a crucial role in a missile attack that killed five people in August 2012.

"Ramstein is unlawfully participating in a secret drone war in our country," said Jaber, whose brother-in-law and nephew and nephew were among those killed while the family gathered in an eastern Yemeni village for a wedding.

"I would like the German government to ultimately participate in a better, more productive, and less hurtful way of dealing with the problem of extremism that exists in Yemen, and for the court itself to hear how Ramstein airbase's role has a huge impact on our everyday lives in the village but also throughout Yemen."

Central to the case is the allegation, reported in a joint investigation between the Intercept website and Der Speigel magazine last April, that Ramstein plays a crucial role as a satellite station relaying communications between US operators in Nevada and drones in the Middle East. The US has permission to operate its site on German territory, but only if nothing done there violates German law — and some claim the US drone strikes constitute war crimes. 

Israel Seeks Enormous Military Aid Hike Over Iran

Right now, the US gives Israel $3 billion in military aid annually, part of a package negotiated back in 2007. It was a 10-year package, and Israel is looking for a big bump for the next 10 years.

According to officials familiar with ongoing talks, the Netanyahu government wants $42-$45 billion over the 2018-2028 period, and that President Obama had already agreed to that level in principle.

That’s a 50% hike in aid, and that’s above and beyond the other military subsidies Congress is always slipping in bills. Israeli officials are also clear it doesn’t include the package they intend to demand on the Iran nuclear deal.

Julian Assange: Despite Congressional Standoff, NSA Has Secret Authority to Continue Spying Unabated

Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton's State Department

Even by the standards of arms deals between the United States and Saudi Arabia, this one was enormous. A consortium of American defense contractors led by Boeing would deliver $29 billion worth of advanced fighter jets to the United States' oil-rich ally in the Middle East. ... In late 2011, Hillary Clinton’s State Department was formally clearing the sale, asserting that it was in the national interest. At a press conference in Washington to announce the department’s approval, an assistant secretary of state, Andrew Shapiro, declared that the deal had been “a top priority” for Clinton personally. ...

In the years before Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, the philanthropic enterprise she has overseen with her husband, former president Bill Clinton. Just two months before the deal was finalized, Boeing -- the defense contractor that manufactures one of the fighter jets the Saudis were especially keen to acquire, the F-15 -- contributed $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to a company press release. ...

Under Clinton's leadership, the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments have given money to the Clinton Foundation, according to an IBTimes analysis of State Department and foundation data. ... The Clinton-led State Department also authorized $151 billion of separate Pentagon-brokered deals for 16 of the countries that donated to the Clinton Foundation, resulting in a 143 percent increase in completed sales to those nations over the same time frame during the Bush administration. ...

American defense contractors also donated to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state and in some cases made personal payments to Bill Clinton for speaking engagements. Such firms and their subsidiaries were listed as contractors in $163 billion worth of Pentagon-negotiated deals that were authorized by the Clinton State Department between 2009 and 2012. ...

In all, governments and corporations involved in the arms deals approved by Clinton’s State Department have delivered between $54 million and $141 million to the Clinton Foundation as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the Clinton family, according to foundation and State Department records. The Clinton Foundation publishes only a rough range of individual contributors’ donations, making a more precise accounting impossible.

Huge Pipeline Company Kinder Morgan Hired Off-Duty Cops to “Deter Protests” in Pennsylvania

Kinder Morgan, the self-proclaimed “largest energy infrastructure company in North America,” paid $50,000 for off-duty police officers from a Pennsylvania department to patrol a controversial gas pipeline construction site. The hiring came after a request from the corporation for uniformed officers that could “deter protests and prevent delays,” according to a report by Earth Island Journal’s Adam Federman.

What’s unique about the case is not that a corporation paid off-duty officers to protect oil and gas infrastructure — a common but rarely acknowledged practice — but that a document indicates that the explicit purpose of the police presence was to stymie dissent.

Federman published a May 2013 letter from Kinder Morgan’s manager of corporate security to the police chief of the Eastern Pike Regional Police Department, requesting use of its officers “to provide a visible presence in our construction areas to create a deterrent effect.” The corporation asked the department to monitor its Northeast Upgrade Project, an expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, which would cut through environmentally sensitive areas of Pennsylvania. The officers were paid $54.80 per hour for their work.

The document adds, “Due to the controversial nature of the project Kinder Morgan has experienced protests from local activists who oppose the pipeline, which has resulted in costly delays. … The objective is for a uniformed officer to be seen frequently making spot checks of our construction areas and be available to respond should protesters attempt to block those sites.”

Also of interest:

Kiev’s Repression of Anti-Fascism in Odessa