Supporters of a longtime California activist, Carlos Montes, rallied outside a courthouse in Los Angeles Tuesday calling on authorities to drop his prosecution. Montes faces four charges, including one for firearms possession that dates back to the 1960s. A longtime leader in the Chicano, immigrant rights and antiwar movements, Montes’ arrest in a May 2011 raid followed similar FBI raids on activists in Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois targeting fellow members of a political group called the Anti-War Committee. "They’re attacking me for my activism against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also because of my solidarity work with oppressed people throughout the world, whether they be in Palestine or Colombia or Mexico," says Montes, who plans to march against NATO this weekend in Chicago. Montes helped organize the Brown Berets and took part in the famous 1968 walkout by high school Chicano students in East Los Angeles to protest academic prejudice and dire school conditions. [includes rush transcript]

Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will join thousands of protesters this Sunday at the NATO summit in Chicago. We speak to Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Aaron Hughes, who’s among a number of Afghanistan and Iraq war vets planning to return their medals of honor to visiting NATO generals. "[Veterans] have to live with [the] failed policy [of the global war on terror] on a daily basis," Hughes says. "A decade-long war, what have we been doing? ... There’s a real moral disconnect between the idea that our military can build a democracy and the idea that our military is trained and designed to control, dominate and kill people. ... Occupations don’t build democracies, don’t extend individuals’ freedoms. The movements—the Arab uprising, the Arab Spring—that was building democracy. The movements of Gandhi, the movements of the civil rights movements here in the United States, people’s movements, that extends democracy, not military force." [includes rush transcript]

Legendary Chicago activists Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers talk about this week’s protests in Chicago, where NATO will hold its largest summit to date. Thousands of protesters from a diverse coalition of organizations including unions, antiwar groups, immigrant rights organizations and Occupy are expected to march in the streets. Chicago is preparing a massive security operation, with the Department of Homeland Security declaring the summit a "National Special Security Event." Civil liberties advocates have warned it could provide the first public test of a new law that expands the ability of the Secret Service to suppress protests in or around certain restricted zones. "We think that NATO should be meeting in an underground bunker or on a remote island," Dohrn says. "[Chicago] is being treated as really a practice military zone ... [while] we don’t have money here for community mental health clinics, we don’t have money for public libraries or for schools, we don’t have money for public transportation... We want peace and not permanent wars abroad and military war games and [the] national security state at home." [includes rush transcript]

• DOJ Probes JPMorgan Chase for $2 Billion Loss
• Boehner Revives Debt Limit Threat
• DEA Accused of Role in Killing of 4 Civilians in Honduras
• Syrian Troops Kill 21 Civilians; Rebels Get Weapons Boost
• Israeli Troops Wound Palestinian "Nakba" Protesters
• France Inaugurates Hollande as New President
• Greece to Hold New Elections After Unity Talks Fail
• Charges Unveiled in Rebekah Brooks Phone-Hacking Case
• Virginia House Denies Judgeship to Openly Gay Prosecutor
• Investigation: Texas Executed Innocent Man in 1989
• Medical Report Claims Zimmerman Had Injuries After Martin Killing
• Mexican Novelist Carlos Fuentes Dies at 83

Critics of genetically modified foods have won a victory in California by securing enough signatures to place a referendum on the November ballot that could force food manufacturers to label food products containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Numerous items are already sold in grocery stores containing genetically modified corn and soy, but companies do not currently have to inform consumers. We speak to David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, about GMOs, fair trade, the U.S. war on hemp, and the company’s support of Palestinian olive oil producers. [includes rush transcript] Click here to watch Part 2 of the interview.

Human rights organizations are criticizing the Obama administration’s decision to resume military sales to Bahrain despite the ruling monarchy’s ongoing repression of pro-democracy protests. The State Department has said it will allow a multi-million-dollar weapons shipment to the Bahraini government, citing "national security interests." The announcement came just days after the Bahraini government vowed "tougher action" in its crackdown on protesters. We’re joined by Dr. Nabeel Hameed, who is one of Bahrain’s only neurosurgeons and among dozens of Bahraini physicians and nurses who have been arrested and tried for treating anti-government protesters. After a three-month prison stint that he says included abuse and torture, Dr. Hameed is expected to be tried by a Bahraini court soon after he returns home. "There is this silence, this deafening silence, from the world governments [about Bahrain]," he says. "There is a situation which is really getting worse and worse. And if you don’t really stop it here, it may get really, really bad in the future. ... You don’t have to wait until the violence propagates out of control." [includes rush transcript]

White-collar criminologist and former senior financial regulator William Black addresses the grassroots reaction to austerity measures in Europe — from the "Indignados" movement in Spain to the anti-bailout elections in France and Greece — as well as in the United States, where the Occupy movement is re-emerging as the presidential campaign gets into full gear. "Finance is supposed to simply be a middleman to help the real economy," Black says. "It in fact now completely dominates and is a parasite on the real economy. German austerity has pushed the entire eurozone into recession and the periphery into Great Depression-level unemployment. And the same arguments are being made in the United States and are used as a pretext to try to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It is economically illiterate, but politically attractive." [includes rush transcript]

JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, is under fire after losing at least $2 billion in derivatives trading it was warned carried high risk. The loss has renewed calls for tougher regulation of Wall Street, with critics saying JPMorgan could have avoided it under regulations the bank opposed. We’re joined by former financial regulator, white-collar criminologist, and University of Missouri-Kansas City Professor William Black, author of "The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One." Black says JPMorgan’s latest woes stem from the flaws endemic to "too big too fail." "Allowing [banks] to be this big, even conservative economists call this crony capitalism," Black says. "The only way this can work is to shrink the systemically dangerous institutions — this is the 20 largest banks in the United States — down to the point that they no longer pose a systemic risk, they are no longer too big to fail, and therefore, they will no longer have this implicit federal subsidy that completely distorts competition [and] ... destroys democracy, because these giant institutions have so much political power." [includes rush transcript]

• Palestinian Prisoners Approve Deal to End Hunger Strike
• Palestinians Mark "Nakba" with Day of Protest
• Colorado Lawmakers Nix Same-Sex Union Bill
• Obama Delivers Commencement Address to Women Graduates
• Report: NATO Failed to Fully Investigate Civilian Deaths in Libya Bombing
• Head of Anti-Whaling Group Sea Shepherd Arrested in Germany for 2002 Confrontation
• Malaysian Tribunal Finds Bush, Cheney Guilty of War Crimes
• California Governor Unveils Cuts, Tax Hikes to Overcome Budget Shortfall
• Democrats Accept Corporate Funds for Convention
• Activists Protest Resumption of Controversial Immigration Policy in New York
• Report: Attorney in Clarence Aaron Drug Pardon Case Withheld Vital Information
• Obama Hailed for Same-Sex Marriage Stance at Campaign Fundraiser
• Rebekah Brooks Charged in Murdoch Phone-Hacking Scandal
• Ron Paul to Suspend Campaigning, Focus on Delegates

As the United States carries out another deadly drone strike in Yemen, Noam Chomsky compares the counterterrorism policies of the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. "If the Bush administration didn’t like somebody, they’d kidnap them and send them to torture chambers," Chomsky says. "If the Obama administration decides they don’t like somebody, they murder them." Chomsky also praises the whistleblowing activities of WikiLeaks, as well as the ongoing Latin American shift away from Washington’s long-running political and economic dominance. [includes rush transcript]

Noam Chomsky says the Occupy movement has helped rebuild class solidarity and communities of mutual support on a level unseen since the time of the Great Depression. "The Occupy movement spontaneously created something that doesn’t really exist in the country: communities of mutual support, cooperation, open spaces for discussion ... just people doing things and helping each other," Chomsky says. "That’s very much missing. There is a massive propaganda—it’s been going on for a century, but picking up enormously—that you really shouldn’t care about anyone else, you should just care about yourself. ... To rebuild [class solidarity], even if it’s in small pieces of the society, can become very important, can change the conception of how a society ought to function." Chomsky also gives his assessment of President Obama, whom he says has attacked civil liberties in a way that has "gone beyond [George W.] Bush." [includes rush transcript]

We begin our hour-long interview with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky by discussing the Palestinian hunger strike. A tentative deal has reportedly been reached to end a landmark action that’s seen an estimated 2,000 jailed Palestinians go without food to pressure Israeli prison authorities to end the use of solitary confinement and ease a wide range of restrictions. "The hunger strikes are a protest against ... violations of the elementary human rights," Chomsky says. He is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of dozens of books, most recently, "Occupy." [includes rush transcript]

• 49 Mutilated Bodies Found in Mexico
• 11 Killed in Apparent U.S. Drone Strike in Yemen
• U.S. Renews Military Sales to Bahrain Amid Crackdown
• Report: Palestinians, Israel Reach Tentative Deal on Hunger Strike
• JPMorgan Chase Ousts 3 Execs over $2B Loss
• Spaniards Mark 1 Year of Anti-Austerity Protests
• Greece Election Likely as Leftists Reject Coalition
• German Voters Reject Pro-Austerity Governing Party
• Former News of the World Editor Confirms Close Contact with British Leaders
• Romney Woos Evangelicals with Liberty University Speech
• Gun Retailer Sells Trayvon Shooting Target
• Supporters Claim Self-Defense for Florida Mom Sentenced to 20 Years
• Colleagues Donate 8 Months Vacation to Trayvon Martin's Mother

We end the week with part two of our interview with renowned Mexican poet Javier Sicilia. Last year, Sicilia’s 24-year-old son, Juan Francisco, was murdered by drug traffickers in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In his son’s memory, Sicilia created the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity to urge an end to the drug war. Sicilia is now in the United States to launch a month-long peace caravan this August after leading a similar caravan across Mexico last year. "We are outraged, because this war has done nothing for us. It has not solved the problem," Sicilia says. "We need to create awareness, consciousness, that the people, the American people, know that behind every drug consumer and behind every use of guns, we pay with dead people." Click here to watch part 1 of this interview [includes rush transcript]

Hundreds of indigenous leaders and activists from all across the world are gathering in New York City this week for the 11th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. We speak with Dalee Sambo Dorough, an Inuit from Alaska who teaches political science at the University of Alaska-Anchorage and serves as vice chair of the Permanent Forum. Sambo Dorough discusses the range of hardships faced by indigenous peoples in Alaska today, from environmental devastation and threatened land ownership in the Arctic to rampant sexual violence. "In these various different political and economic agendas, indigenous peoples in the United States are at the bottom of the bottom. They always have been," Sambo Dorough says. "The issues facing Alaska Native communities, indigenous communities across the United States, never appear on the radar screen as a priority issue." [includes rush transcript]

James Anaya, the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, has conducted the United Nations’ first-ever investigation into the plight of Native Americans living in the United States. Anaya’s recommendations include advising the U.S. to return some land to Native American tribes, including South Dakota’s Black Hills, home to the famous Mt. Rushmore monument. Anaya says such a move would be a step toward addressing systemic discrimination against Native Americans that continues to this day. "The indigenous peoples of this country ... suffer from poverty, poor health conditions, lack of attainment of formal education [and] social ills at rates that far exceed those of other segments of the American population," Anaya says. "These conditions are related to a history of wrongs that they have suffered." [includes rush transcript]

The Justice Department has sued Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies in Maricopa County for racially profiling Latino residents in the Phoenix area. The DOJ contends that Arpaio and his deputies aggressively targeted Latinos, regardless of their immigration status, and retaliated against anyone who got in their way. We go to Phoenix to speak with Randy Parraz, president of Citizens for a Better Arizona. "We believe, finally, we’re going to have an airing of what’s taken place," Parraz says. "We applaud the federal government and the Department of Justice for coming in and holding Sheriff Arpaio accountable, because local law enforcement officials here ... are unwilling to do that work." [includes rush transcript]

• Obama Fundraises After Same-Sex Marriage Announcement
• Romney Bullied Gay High School Classmate
• 55 Killed in Syria Bombings
• Afghan Soldier Kills NATO Servicemember
• U.N. Relief Coordinator: Dire Conditions for Afghan Refugees
• Up to 400,000 Protest Austerity Measures in London
• JPMorgan Loses $2B on Complex Instrument
• Deutsche Bank Settles Mortgage Fraud Claims
• Florida Supreme Court Weighs Key Foreclosure Case
• Pentagon Course Taught "Total War" Against Islam
• Montana Judge Overturns Birth Control Funding Ban
• Relatives of Disappeared March in Mexico
• House GOP Cuts Protections for Immigrant, Native American, LGBT Victims in Domestic Violence Bill
• White House: Biden Apologizes to Obama for Speaking First on Same-Sex Marriage
• Journalist, Gay Rights Activist Slain in Honduras
• Attorneys for Jailed Environmental Activist Tim DeChristopher Seek to Overturn Sentence