AFP reports “Rockets Hit Baghdad Green Zone as Panetta Visits.” Aswat Al Iraq reports: “U.S. Defense Secretary’s visit aims to keep U.S. forces in Iraq, MP says.” RAED JARRAR, jarrar.raed at gmail.com An Iraqi-American blogger and political analyst based in Washington, D.C. and currently in Iraq, Jarrar said today: “According the U.S.-Iraqi Security Agreement, all the U.S. forces must leave Iraq in 174 days — by December 31st 2011. Today’s visit by the U.S. Secretary of Defense is seen by Iraqis as an attempt to prolong the U.S. military occupation. This has negative consequences for both countries: In Iraq, it…

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* The Washington Post reports: “Tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered Friday in Tahrir Square, the symbol of the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak this year, to protest what they perceive as an unwillingness to prosecute Mubarak-era officials and police responsible for the killing of nearly 900 protesters. “The demonstration, dubbed the ‘Friday of determination,’ was the largest since the revolt in January and February that changed Egypt and inspired other Arab countries to rise up against their autocratic leaders. Egyptians in the square said they had no plans to leave.”

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CNBC reports: “June’s miserable jobs report has put the fear of a double dip recession back into the markets. The U.S. economy added a paltry 18,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate climbed to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent as laid off government workers continued to join the ranks of the unemployed. There were also 44,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported for April and May. “‘Even the hours worked slipped. It’s just a horrific report. Unemployment going up is not good,’ said Marc Chandler, Brown Brothers Harriman chief currency strategist.”

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The New York Times reported yesterday: “President Obama stepped up pressure on Congressional Republicans on Tuesday to agree to a broad deficit-cutting deal, pledging to put popular entitlement programs like Medicare on the table in return for Republican acquiescence to some higher taxes.” TERRY O’NEIL, via Latoya Veal, press at now.org O’Neil is president of the National Organization for Women, which has released a series of statements regarding budget cuts’ disproportionate effects on women. O’Neil said: “Under the guise of reducing the deficit, conservatives in Congress have set their sights on cutting programs that disproportionately employ and serve women. Who…

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The Associated Press reports: “The Labor Department will report the latest figures on unemployment and payrolls on Friday, and analysts expect to hear more bad news. They forecast that the unemployment rate will remain unchanged from May at 9.1 percent. They also expect that employers added only 90,000 jobs last month, below the 100,000 threshold that economists say is needed to prevent the unemployment rate from increasing.” ANDY KROLL, andykroll at gmail.com Kroll just wrote the piece “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Jobs: How Racism, Global Economics, and the New Jim Crow Fuel Black America’s Crippling…

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The Jerusalem Post reports: “The Greek Coast Guard has now stopped the U.S. boat [The Audacity of Hope is attempting to go to Gaza in spite of an Israeli siege] and is demanding that they return to the Port of Athens.” Passengers on the boat are tweeting regular updates: “Captain explaining to Coast Guard it’s not safe for U.S. boat in Greek ports, as others were sabotaged & Netanyhau thanked Greek PM #flotilla2” @usboattogaza This morning on Democracy Now Ido Aharoni, consul general of Israel in New York, refused to deny Israel’s role in sabotage against the boats in the flotilla,…

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MIRIAM PEMBERTON, Miriam at ips-dc.org, via Lacy MacAuley, Lacy at ips-dc.org Pemberton is research fellow of Institute for Policy Studies and co-author of the just-released report “Unified Security Budget for the United States, FY 2012,” which finds that retiring Pentagon head Robert Gates’ “words were never matched by the facts of his own budget requests. Closely inspected, the past and future military ‘savings’ claimed by the administration, even if they materialize, will leave us with military budgets even higher than they are now.” The report also finds that “the ratio of offense to defense [spending is] at 11:1.”

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CNN is reporting: “Greek lawmakers Wednesday approved a package of austerity measures demanded by international lenders, despite protests outside Parliament as they were voting.” JOSEPH DANA, joseph.dana at gmail.com Dana is a reporter in Greece. He recently tweeted: “The main protests in Athens are taking place on the Athenian 5th Avenue. Imagine an HSBC bank set ablaze on 5th Avenue and you have Athens.” See his twitter feed. [Dana is in Greece to cover of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which is scheduled to leave Greece within days. He is typically based in the West Bank and is a contributing editor…

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The Washington Times editorialized Tuesday: &…

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Reuters reports: “When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring troops home from Afghanistan, he referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America’s wars. “Staggering as it is, that figure grossly underestimates the total cost of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the U.S. Treasury and ignores more imposing costs yet to come, according to a study released on Wednesday. “The final bill will run at least $3.7 trillion and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the research project ‘Costs of War’ by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.” See the…

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