WikiLeaks' “Syria Files,” 2.4 million emails purloined from anonymous Syrian government sources, seem destined to have a greater impact on the West than on Syria. The headlines thus far have left a black mark on the U.S.-based Vogue magazine as well as the New York City-based public relations firm Brown Lloyd James.

Michigan congressional candidate Kerry Bentivolio will get a leg up in his battle against the GOP establishment in next week's Republican primary election, courtesy of the Ron Paul movement-aligned Liberty For All Super-PAC. The SuperPAC — headed by 21-year-old Texas financial heir John Ramsey — has committed an estimated $300,000 (already spending some $130,000, according to OpenSecrets.org) to support Bentivolio in his primary race over establishment write-in candidate Nancy Cassis.

The Internet-based whistleblower website WikiLeaks appears to have won some battles to recover its financial infrastructure in the past few weeks, winning the first stage of a legal battle in Iceland with Visa Corporation and gaining a French source for accepting donations in the Fund for Defense of Net Neutrality (FDN²). But a WikiLeaks satire of former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller — admitted as a phony by WikiLeaks July 29 on its Twitter feed — threatens to undo much of the organization's credibility. FDN² claims that banks and credit card companies are legally bound to honor the French-based “Carte Bleue” transfer system. 

The Australian government folded a civil case against former Guantanamo Bay prison inmate David Hicks after former Guantanamo guard Brandon Neely pledged to testify under oath to conditions at that prison. The move prompted leftists in Australia to charge that the government was “suppressing evidence” of the Guantanamo cover-up, a claim that some former Guantanamo guards have affirmed. 

The month-long United Nations conference to draw up a global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) failed to achieve consensus after the United States, Russia, and China requested more time to consider a draft treaty, according to the United Nations. 

Stewart M. Patrick of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations says that gun owners' concerns about a United Nations small arms treaty, the so-called Arms Trade Treaty(ATT) being drafted in New York this month, “are not only inflammatory, they are completely unfounded.” The CFR pronounces that “Your Guns Are in Safe Hands” with the United Nations.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve Bank easily passed the House of Representatives July 25 by a vote of 327-98. Every House Republican voted for the bill except freshman Rep. Bob Turner of New York, while Democrats were about evenly split. 

President Obama's campaign tried to walk back his July 13 “You didn't build that” remarks about small businesses in America in a series of video statements July 25.

The Wall Street Journal reported July 22 that Mitt Romney has gathered a coterie of establishment neoconservatives interested in war with Iran. “Mitt Romney is relying on both moderate and hawkish neoconservative advisers as he embarks this week on his first overseas trip as the presumptive Republican presidential candidate,” the Journal reported.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade faced a barrage of tomatoes, shoes, and protesters in her visit to Cairo, Egypt July 16. Some Egyptian protesters charged that the U.S. government had supported the Muslim Brotherhood in the Islamic nation's recent presidential election, though it's unclear if the Obama administration did provide support for any party.