The attacks were claimed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of the Islamist factions in Northern Mali. They said the attacks were revenge for the French invasion of Mali.

The bombings were more than 100 miles apart and in heavily guarded areas, but MUJAO somehow managed to carry them out within a few minutes of one another. In addition, their fighters captured an unknown number of soldiers at the army camp. The Niger government is attempting to negotiate their release.

The French government condemned the attack and vowed to provide as much military support as needed to Niger to “crush” the rebels. The exact same uranium mine was attacked in 2010 by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and four French workers are still held hostage from that time.

It’s a difficult matter for the SNC as it tries to find a position that allows them to resist ending the war without looking like they are doing so. Leaders in the SNC debate are openly condemning the talks, and warning it would amount to “surrender” to attend without setting their usual preconditions of unconditionally ousting the current government.

At the same time, other members say that keeping their current strategy of spurning peace talks of general principle is going to cost them huge amounts of credibility with the international community, particularly with the US now supporting the talks.

Yet the SNC has limited support among the actual rebel fighters to begin with, and they might lose what support they have if they agree to end the war at a time when Islamist rebels are determined to conquer not only Syria, but the entire region.

The promise comes in the context of Sharif running on a platform that included ending the strikes, which have proven hugely unpopular inside Pakistan and have sparked several major anti-US protests over the past few years.

Though the outgoing PPP government made the occasional speech criticizing the drones, they were seen to be in the Obama Administration’s pocket, and the US openly mocked those statements, saying they believed they had “tacit” permission from Pakistan to keep going.

With that obviously gone now, President Obama’s promise to “limit” his drone program in a speech today sounds less like a policy decision and more like a recognition of the reality of the situation. Even a “limited” drone policy may run afoul of the incoming Pakistani government, though ending the years of launching multiple attacks any given week may keep the issue out of the headlines in Pakistan, at least for a time.

The latest report notes Iran is continuing with its civilian program, something we already knew, and that since they keep using their low-enriched uranium for civilian purposes they are short of Israel’s arbitrary “red line,” which again is something we knew.

But instead of reading the report as “status quo,” Netanyahu went on a tirade about how it proves diplomacy and sanctions will never work against Iran, and then made a bizarre claim that Iran is attempting to “build a plutonium-based bomb.”

The allegation stems from Iran’s work on the IR-40 reactor in Arak, intended to eventually replace the aging US-built Tehran Research Reactor (TRR). The TRR provides materially all of Iran’s medical isotopes for nuclear medicine, but Western nations have prevented them from acquiring fuel for it, and Iran has struggled to create the fuel rods the nearly 50-year-old reactor requires.

The IR-40 uses heavy water (deuterium) and unenriched uranium instead of the 20% enriched uranium fuel rods the TRR uses, which would seem to be a concession on Iran’s past since Israel has been railing on about the 20% enrichment being “dangerous” (despite weapons-grade enrichment being 95%) and demanding Iran ditch enrichment outright.

Instead of taking it for what it is, Israeli officials are drawing a very dubious line around IR-40′s potential “threat.” The spent uranium fuel could theoretically be taken to a separate “reprocessing facility” where plutonium could be extracted. Iran doesn’t have such a facility, and isn’t even known to have the technology to build one even if it wanted to. In spite of this, the purely hypothetical plutonium derived from unenriched uranium is being presented as proof of a plot to build a “bomb.”

In late November of 2011, US warplanes attacked a Pakistani military base across the border, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers and leading Pakistan to close its borders to US supply traffic into occupied Afghanistan.

With the border closed, the Pentagon was forced to use an overland route through the former Soviet Union for almost everything, costing dramatically more and causing budget problems that are still causing them fits. A backlog of supplies inside Pakistan still hasn’t fully been worked through to this day, and that is also adding to costs.

The border remained closed far longer than the US expected, primarily because Pakistan conditioned reopening it on getting an apology for the attack. The Obama Administration refused to do so for many months, only finally agreeing to do so in July of 2012.

The bombing also caused considerable damage in the neighborhood of Quetta where the blast occurred, sparking panic among residents and wounding at least 23 people, many of them bystanders.

Police say that the bus was regularly used by a large number of provincial police and that it was almost certainly singled out because of this. A Pakistani Taliban faction has claimed credit, saying the attack was in retaliation for recent attacks on their faction.

The slain police were from a unit formed recently to specifically target the growing incidents of Taliban kidnappings across Balochistan. It is the second major attack on Quetta police this month, after a failed assassination attempt against the inspector general killed five police and wounded scores of others.

Fighters from the Sunni-dominated neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh continues to clash with fighters in the mostly Alawite Jabal Mohsen neighborhood, and the two sides have even started trading mortar fire. Lebanon’s army has deployed to the city but seems unable to stop the fighting.

At least eight more people were killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll since the latest round of fighting began to 18. 200 other people have been wounded in the clashes.

Officials from the city government say that they have severed ties with the Sunni fighters after failed attempts to stop the battles. The militia had reportedly demanded that a key Alawite leader leave the city, and is also demanding concessions from Hezbollah fighters inside Syria, something the local officials cannot possibly deliver.

“Strategy not budget should drive national security decisions and I won’t support a reduction in our infrastructure until I’m confident our nation’s readiness and our military won’t suffer,” Rep. Robert Wittman (R-VA) said.

“The Pentagon next year plans to spend a total of $606 billion,” reports Brendan McGarry at DoD Buzz. ”That figure includes a base budget of $526.6 billion and $79.4 billion for the war in Afghanistan, according to figures the department disclosed on May 20. It doesn’t include the next round of automatic federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, which may total as much as $51 billion.”

The discussion of base closures comes out of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, or BRAC, which has gone through several such efforts in the past.

The country maintains an enormous standing army. Only two of the 50 states – Rhode Island and New Hampshire – have no Army bases.

The House committee blocked the funding required to close the bases despite recommendations to do so from the Pentagon.

If Congress doesn’t authorize closing the bases, the Army “will be forced to retain installation infrastructure that will become excess to its requirements and thereby jeopardize spending on forces, training and modernization,” said Pentagon spokesman Dave Foster in April of 2012.

Obama lamented efforts by Congress to prevent the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, saying it “never should have been opened.” At this point, Benjamin, who had remained quiet for almost the whole hour, shouted at the President, reminding him that it is perfectly within his power to close the facility on his own.

“Let me finish ma’am,” the President said, as he stumbled over the interruption to continue his prepared remarks.

“I’m willing to cut that young lady who interrupted me some slack, because it’s worth being passionate about,” Obama said. “Is this who we are?” Obama asked in reference to his indefinite detention policies. “Is that something our Founders foresaw?”

Media spoke up again when Obama failed to more fully address the killing of Abdulrahman Awlaki, the 16-year old son of suspected terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen.

What about him? Benjamin asked, as Obama paused to wait for her to be escorted out by security.

“Can you tell the Muslims that their lives are as precious as our lives?” Benjamin asked rhetorically as she was dragged out. “Can you take the drones out of the hands of the CIA? Can you stop the signature strikes that are killing people on the basis of suspicious activity? Will you compensate the families of innocent victims you have killed?”

“I love my country,” she said. “I love the rule of law. The drones are making us less safe.”

Once she was fully escorted out, Obama said, “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to.”

After the speech, The Huffington Post’s Ryan Reilly interviewed Benjamin.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to do anything,” Benjamin told him. “I was prepared if I wanted to, but I thought there might be some real significant things that came out of this, and I thought, well, I’m not going to say anything if it’s a really good speech.”

Benjamin was not arrested at the scene, but said she was questioned by Army personnel, Secret Service, and FBI agents, before she was let go.

“I was very forthcoming, gave my name, Social Security number, address and everything. They asked me what my motives were and I explained it all,” she said.

“I must say, I do really appreciate that I live in a country where if you interrupt the president you don’t get beaten and tortured and thrown inside a prison for a year,” she added.

Yet another new poll has been released, however, this time from Fox News, showing overwhelming opposition among American voters to the idea of getting involved. The poll showed only 23 percent of voters approve involvement, compared to 68 percent who did not.

And unlike a lot of polls, this one shows solidarity across party lines, with 70 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of Democrats, and 65 percent of Independents opposing involvement.

The results reflect a growing opposition compared to similar polls from Reuters and CBS in late April, which both showed solid opposition of 61 and 63 percent, respectively. Though the Obama Administration has repeatedly insisted polls won’t drive their policy, such overwhelming American opposition to meddling in Syria seems like it will be difficult to ignore.