Infowars.com |The Obama administration is preparing to follow Britain in recognizing the rebel National Transitional Council as the official government of Libya by approving an embassy in Washington DC, which given the fact that the rebel army is spearheaded by Al-Qaeda militants who have killed U.S. troops would equate to Obama handing terrorists a diplomatic outpost on U.S. soil.

Forbes | The U.S. Navy has contracted with BAE Systems and, as a subcontractor, Boeing, to develop an integrated weapons system that combines both lasers and machine guns. A solid state laser will be combined with the Mk 38 Mod 2 Machine Gun to provide several levels of integration. Ideally, the system can be used as a laser weapon directly against targets that require high precision, or the laser can be used to aim the machine gun where more power is needed.

Business Insider | Through a $2.16 billion transportation contract intended to promote Afghanistan business, it has been proven the U.S. is indirectly funneling money to the Taliban. Regardless of the findings, all eight of the trucking firms involved in the effort remain on the U.S. payroll and had their contracts extended by the Pentagon in March for six months. One arm of the investigation followed a $7.4 million payment to a company that paid a subcontractor, that paid an Afghanistan police commander for safe passage. Officials then watched as $3.3 million was withdrawn in 27 transactions from the commander's account and doled out to insurgents in the form of weapons, explosives, and cash.

WT | China's military is developing electromagnetic pulse weapons that Beijing plans to use against U.S. aircraft carriers in any future conflict over Taiwan, according to an intelligence report made public on Thursday.Portions of a National Ground Intelligence Center study on the lethal effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons revealed that the arms are part of China’s so-called “assassin’s mace” arsenal - weapons that allow a technologically inferior China to defeat U.S. military forces.

PRESS TV | American doctors have diagnosed US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with an untreatable lung disease that is possibly caused by inhaling toxic material in the war zones.

Guardian | British soldiers attending the transfer of authority from coalition troops to Afghan forces this week in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province.  British special forces have captured two Britons in Afghanistan believed to have been planning an attack on UK soldiers. Though there have been unconfirmed reports in the past about British-born individuals joining the Taliban-led insurgency in the country, this is the first time any such suspects have been captured.

CNN | Iran has brought down a U.S. "spy drone" flying near its Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province, state-run media reported Wednesday. The date of the incident has not been disclosed, and three U.S. officials said there was no indication or information that a U.S. drone was downed.

LewRockwell.com | It is without question that Americans are in love with the military. Even worse, though, is that their love is unqualified, unconditional, unrelenting, and unending. I have seen signs praising the troops in front of all manner of businesses, including self-storage units, bike shops, and dog grooming.

Guardian | Relations between Washington and Islamabad deteriorated further when the US justice department charged two men alleged to have been in the pay of the Pakistani intelligence service. One was involved with the Kashmiri American Council, through which it is alleged Pakistan channelled millions of dollars to influence members of the US Congress. The US said there are also Kashmiri centres in London and Brussels that the FBI alleged are run by elements of the Pakistani government. FBI special agent Sarah Webb Linden, in an affidavit unsealed , named the one in London as the Justice Foundation/Kashmir Centre run by Nazir Ahmad Shawl.

Zero Hedge | One look at the most recent naval update maps shows that in addition to global insolvency (courtesy of the broke European dominoes and a potentially technically broke US), a UK on the verge of a parliamentary scandal courtesy of a media baron whose empire is crumbling, and not to mention yet another downward inflection point in the global economic slowdown courtesy of the end of QE2 and no replacement yet, market watchers may have to start factoring in geopolitical risk yet again. While the fact that Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, and now Turkey, are ever more increasingly on edge is apparently something Mr. Market has managed to internalize, when it comes to geopolitics everyone stops to listen when renewed Iran-Israel rumblings reappear.

Washington Times | Foreign spies broke into a U.S. defense contractor’s computer network and stole valuable weapons data, Pentagon officials disclosed for the first time on Thursday in releasing a cybersecurity strategy aimed at bolstering Internet defenses. Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III declined to name the contractor or to provide further details of the intrusion in March, except to say that 24,000 files “related to [weapons] systems being developed for the Department of Defense” had been stolen.

WND | Sources have confirmed that the U.S. Department of Defense over recent months purchased 59,000 microchips to use in Navy equipment that control everything from missiles to transponders, according to report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. But all of the chips turned out to be cheap knock-offs from China, and they ultimately were not installed, according to sources.

The Nation | Nestled in a back corner of Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport is a sprawling walled compound run by the Central Intelligence Agency. Set on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the facility looks like a small gated community, with more than a dozen buildings behind large protective walls and secured by guard towers at each of its four corners. Adjacent to the compound are eight large metal hangars, and the CIA has its own aircraft at the airport. The site, which airport officials and Somali intelligence sources say was completed four months ago, is guarded by Somali soldiers, but the Americans control access. At the facility, the CIA runs a counterterrorism training program for Somali intelligence agents and operatives aimed at building an indigenous strike force capable of snatch operations and targeted “combat” operations against members of Al Shabab, an Islamic militant group with close ties to Al Qaeda.

Wired.com | It began with an email in late February. The message, sent by air planners at the Germany headquarters of U.S. Africa Command to the 608th Air and Space Operations Center located at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, jump-started a “byzantine” process of communication, planning and paperwork involving no fewer than 10 U.S. military headquarters scattered across the globe.

AntiWar.com | Over the past 24 hours US drones have launched multiple drone strikes against tribal areas inside of Pakistan, killing at least 48 people across multiple sites and injuring dozens of others. The largest of the attacks hit North Waziristan Agency overnight, where one of the attacks on a home killed at least 25 “suspects.” If confirmed this would be the largest toll for a single strike since the June 2009 attack of a funeral procession.