PBC News & Comment: Recapping a Very Weird Week

In compelling analysis, journalist Gareth Porter offers the real story behind the letter from 47 GOP senators to the Ayatollah...Read Porter's piece here
--Friday’s NY Times lead editorial echoes your humble host’s comment here yesterday
--Dennis Kucinich publishes 10 reasons to oppose authorization for Iraq-Syria war
--in Iraq, “friendly fire” bombing raid kills 22 in Anbar
--in struggle over Greek austerity, Tsipras demands WWII reparations from Germany
--in an in-depth interview with Prof. Peter Laufer, we talk about his new book Organic, and weak efforts to enforce organic standards and labeling
--Obama’s announcement of sanctions on Venezuela and bizarre claim of national security threat brings strong comments from Glenn Greenwald
--at alJazeera, an excellent 6-minute video report explains the use of Stingray
--UN torture inspector refused access to Gitmo, federal prisons
--unknown blogger Publius offers interesting take on Tsarnaev trial, says Dzhokar should testify; thanks to listener Dick Atlee in Maine for the news tip!
--Swedish prosecutor will interview Assange in London
--Secret Service incident last week disrupted bomb threat investigation at White House