Fox News | Iran reportedly is preparing to send 4,000 Revolutionary Guard soldiers to Syria to defend President Bashar Assad's regime, as the United States intends to supply rebels with small arms through a CIA-run program. Pro-Iranian sources deeply involved with Iran's security told The Independent that the decision to move soldiers into Syria was made before last week's presidential election. Iran also is looking to open up a new front of the Syrian conflict in the Golan Heights region near Israel, The Independent reports.

Reuters | Syrian artillery and warplanes pounded rebel areas in Damascus on Saturday as President Bashar al-Assad's foes pleaded for advanced weapons from the United States, which has promised them unspecified military aid. Western powers have been reluctant in the past to arm Syrian insurgents, let alone give them sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles that might fall into the hands of Sunni insurgents in rebel ranks who have pledged loyalty to Al-Qaeda.

Antiwar | May was Iraq’s deadliest month in nearly five years, with more than 1,000 dead — both civilians and security personnel — in a rash of bombings, shootings, and other violence. As we read each day of new horrors in Iraq, it becomes more obvious that the U.S. invasion delivered none of the promised peace or stability that proponents of the attack promised.

WND | President Obama has said the outrage over the federal government’s decision to monitor citizens’ phone activity is all “hype.”He might want to share his opinion with the U.S. Air Force, which is ordering members of the service not to look at news stories about it. WND has received an unclassified NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) that warns airmen not to look at news stories related to the data-mining scandal.

NBC News | An NBC News review of classified CIA documents for a 14 month period beginning in September 2010 lists 114 drone strikes that killed as many as 613 people. However, in some of those strikes, the CIA did not know the identity of the victims. NBC's Richard Engel reports. The CIA did not always know who it was targeting and killing in drone strikes in Pakistan over a 14-month period, an NBC News review of classified intelligence reports shows.

Reuters | Military prosecutors said arrogance drove the U.S. soldier who went on trial on Monday accused of the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history through the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website three years ago. But at the opening of the court-martial of Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, his defense lawyer portrayed him as a naive young soldier who had leaked the documents, combat videos and other data because he wanted to reveal the human cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

New American | “Third-rate men, of course, exist in all countries, but it is only here that they are in full control of the state,” wrote H.L. Mencken in his 1922 essay “On Being an American.” A current case of third-rate performance is the surprise visit by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., with the rebels in Syria opposing President Bashar al-Assad's regime and McCain's call for the United States to become more militarily immersed in that dysfunctional nation's increasingly bloody civil war.

Reuters |  President Barack Obama's administration has decided to give the Pentagon control of some drone operations against terrorism suspects overseas that are currently run by the CIA, several U.S. government sources said on Monday.

WND | The families of three fallen Navy SEAL Team Six members say President Obama and Vice President Biden are culpable for the deaths of their sons for publicly identifying the unit that killed Osama bin Laden and pursuing policies that coddle Muslims and put our own troops at a tactical disadvantage.

Wired.com | America’s ship-launched X-47B killer drone prototype took off for the first time from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush sailing near the Maryland coast on Tuesday morning — the first step in proving that a high-performance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is compatible with the Navy’s fleet of 10 gigantic nuclear-powered flattops.

Washington's Blog | Fire Dog Lake’s Kevin Gosztola notes: Linda J. Bilmes and Michael D. Intriligator, ask in a recent paper, “How many wars is the US fighting today?” Today US military operations are involved in scores of countries across all the five continents. The US military is the world’s largest landlord, with significant military facilities in nations around the world, and with a significant presence in Bahrain, Djibouti,Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to long-established bases in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.

NYT | Turkish officials said Sunday that they had arrested nine people accused of carrying out twin bombings in this town near the Syrian border the day before, as the investigation moved at a clip that underscored the intense pressure on the government to contain the fallout from the attacks. Officials said the detainees were all Turkish citizens and asserted that the group had been backed by the intelligence services of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

The Blaze | Pat Smith, the mother of one of the four Americans slain on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, took to Fox News over the weekend with a “Mother’s Day” message for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Speaking with Mike Huckabee, Smith said the congressional hearings last week gave her absolutely no closure, and that she is still “waiting for answers to just about everything.”

NYT | The problem of sexual assault in the military leapt to the forefront in Washington on Tuesday as the Pentagon released a survey estimating that 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 in 2010, and an angry President Obama and Congress demanded action.The study, based on a confidential survey sent to 108,000 active-duty service members, was released two days after the officer in charge of sexual assault prevention programs for the Air Force was arrested and charged with sexual battery for grabbing a woman’s breasts and buttocks in an Arlington, Va., parking lot.