Voters still have more confidence in President Obama than they do in either party in Congress, but that's not saying much. According to a new Washington Post/ABC poll, confidence in Obama's decision-making has fallen to the lowest point of his presidency, with 58% of respondents saying they have "just some" or no confidence that the president will "make the right decisions for the country's future." Voters' view of Congressional Democrats? 68% say they have "just some" or no confidence in them. They have the least confidence in Congressional Republicans with 72% saying they have no or "just some" confidence in the party to make the decisions that will improve things in this country.

Washington observers may feel there is no obvious shortage of pro-Israel lobbyists in the city – but a group of leading American conservatives thinks otherwise and has set up a new campaign group to attack President Obama over his "anti-Israel" stance, U.S. website Politico reports. The Emergency Committee for Israel presents a potent combination of Republican Party neoconservatives and Evangelical Christians. The new group’s board includes Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol and Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate who leads the group American Values, as well as Rachel Abrams, a conservative writer and activist.

ISLAMABAD – The announcement made by the owner of Blackwater to ‘sell’ the notorious enterprise has not moved hundreds of its mercenaries present in Islamabad. Blackwater’s owner Eric Prince announced last month that Blackwater was out for sale. Soon after the announcement, Islamabad-based security sources informed TheNation that the suspicious ‘aliens’ dispersed across the Federal Capital would be pulling out from Pakistan in the next two to three weeks. The security officials had then confided that Blackwater’s mercenaries present in the South Asian and Middle Eastern region, particularly Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, would be winding up “in a jiffy” in the wake of mega reshuffle in the top management of Blackwater initiated by Eric Prince earlier this year. However, the prevailing scenario speaks otherwise.

[Iraq News Agency, Iraq, July 13, 2010] Even a short time ago, a number of misguided Arabs were fooled into believing that one of the goals of the American invasion was to establish a democratic regime in Iraq, and that after being invaded by the army of the invaders, it would in short order become a model of democracy that the other Arab states would find themselves compelled to follow. This informational deception found an echo in editorials and discussions, but the democratic mirage didn't last long. One event after another in distraught Iraq has exposed the illusion, making clear only this: that in every country they occupy, the invaders leave only death, destruction and blood, which is precisely what happened in the "new democratic Iraq!"

It has now been four months since Iraq’s "democratic" elections that took place under the occupation, and the "elected" National Assembly has been unable to form a new government. Long and heated negotiations have taken place, but to no avail. The disagreements between the sectarian blocs and factions formed out of these aforementioned elections have hardened. All of which goes to prove that a democracy that flows out of the tanks and aircraft of the invaders only results in foolish rumors and naive tales similar to those mothers often lull their children to sleep with. Worse and more amazing still, is that the "democratic" prime minister refuses to leave unless the same kind of bloody, deadly coup that defined Iraq in the decades before "American democracy" descends upon him! Maliki, who is clinging to power tooth and nail, isn't much different than his undemocratic predecessors. His insistence on remaining in power makes a mockery of the slogans of a peaceful transfer of power and democracy and confirms to all, both domestically and internationally, his irresistible lust for power.

Terror laws, stop and search and council snooping to be curbed. A bonfire of draconian anti-terror laws was promised by Theresa May yesterday to reverse the 'substantial erosion of civil liberties' by Labour ministers. The Home Secretary said powers that could be scrapped or scaled back include 28- day detention without charge, control orders, stop and search and Big Brother snooping by town halls. She also pledged a sweeping review of laws that allow the arrest of people who take pictures of police officers or hold peaceful protests without permission outside Parliament.

This is a 9-year-old Palestinian kid expressing his feelings just after the 2008-2009 Israel war on Gaza.
I am pretty sure you'll have some doubts on the accuracy of the subtitles, however this is exactly how he expressed himself! Me too I was surprised and couldn't see how can a 9-year-old be so mature and eloquent, but this is what Israel oppression is doing to Palestinians, especially children. Note: In case the subtitles aren't activated automatically, you'll have to do it by clicking "CC" on the lower-right corner of the player.

A Libyan aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip was stopped and surrounded by four Israeli vessels about 60 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, said Youssef Sawani, director of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, which organized the aid ship. Sawani spoke in a telephone interview from Libya. BBC: Libyan ship with Gaza aid 'heads to Egypt', Israel says.

PressTV: Israeli Navy surrounds aid vessel. The Israeli Navy reportedly blockades a Libyan-chartered aid vessel which has set sail for the blockaded Gaza Strip, issuing threats against the convoy. "Israeli warships are surrounding and threatening the cargo ship. There is a real threat," said Yussef Sawan, the executive director of the Tripoli-based Gaddafi International Charity and Development Association, AFP reported. The organization tasked the seaborne mission on board the Moldova-flagged cargo ship, Amalthea, to break Tel Aviv's years-long siege of Gaza. The vessel is carrying 12 crewmembers and 2,000 tons of relief supplies from Greece to the impoverished sliver. Communications with the ship are being jammed, Sawan added, pointing at possible electronic obstructions against the humanitarian effort.

ACTION ALERT: MK Haneen Zoubi (BALAD) faces death threats as the Israeli Knesset House Committee votes to revoke her Parliamentary privileges for participating in the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid Flotilla and protesting against the blockade.

The Knesset voted Tuesday to revoke diplomatic privileges from Palestinian-Israeli MK Hanin Zoabi over her participation in the May 31 flotilla, Haaretz reported. With a 34-16 vote in favor of the measure, Zoabi loses three main privileges afforded all members of the Knesset. Most importantly, Zoabi will be barred from leaving the country, which supporters of the measure say will prevent her from fleeing charges that might be brought against her over her actions. Zoabi denounced the vote, accusing her fellow lawmakers of acting purely out of vengeance. "It's not surprising that a country that strips the fundamental rights of its Arab citizens would revoke the privileges of a Knesset member who loyally represents her electorate." Zoabi represents the predominantly Palestinian Balad party and was the first woman representative for her party. Zoabi continued her condemnation, saying the vote represented a dangerous precedent for Israel’s Palestinian citizens. She also accused Israeli legislators of implementing racist laws against the country’s minority Palestinian population. "In a civilized country, the people who incite against and threaten [me] would be punished and have sanctions imposed against them,” Zoabi said in the report. "When you threaten the Arab MKs and the Arabs' protectors, you threaten democracy and co-existence between Jews and Arabs."

Lawyers from 60 countries, including Indonesia, will gather in Istanbul, Turkey, from July 15-16, to prepare a legal suit against Israel for its attack on the Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla on May 31, Antara news agency reported. There are a number of lawyers from 60 countries who will take legal steps to sue the attackers of Mavi Marmara," Mahendradatta, patron chief of the Indonesian Muslims' Lawyer Team (TPM) said here, Monday. Mahendradatta said he would represent six Indonesians who became victims of the Israeli soldiers' attack, where two Indonesians namely Surya Fachrizal and Oktavianto were injured. The lawyers, among others from Turkey, Britain and other European countries, will sue Israel in international legal forum as well as bilateral forums. TPM, he said would consistently fight the Israeli arrogance.

Five more US soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan's volatile south, bringing to 12 the number of US soldiers killed over the past 48 hours. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says the soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack on police headquarters on Wednesday. Five Afghan civilians and an Afghan officer were also killed in the attack. The latest casualties brought the total number of American soldiers killed in the war-torn country since Tuesday to 12. Over 350 foreign troops have been killed in the so far this year. Some 140,000 US led troops are currently stationed Afghanistan. A further 10,000 are expected to be deployed there in the coming weeks. NATO's mounting death toll has caused public support to plummet for the Afghan war across Europe and the US.

The six-month anniversary of the earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti was observed Monday, with media coverage admitting there has been virtually no progress in rebuilding the devastated country or rehousing the 1.5 million made homeless by the worst natural disaster of the new century.

The US government gave only the most perfunctory notice to the anniversary. Obama mentioned Haiti in passing in the course of a brief press appearance with the visiting president of the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola.

Obama has not visited Haiti since the earthquake, a decision that underscores his indifference to the staggering death toll and the continuing human suffering. The country can be reached in a brief plane flight on Air Force One, and is closer to Washington than any number of fundraising dinners addressed by the Democratic president.

The Obama administration mobilized some 12,000 soldiers and sailors to seize control of key points in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, in the immediate aftermath of the quake. This military incursion, which had the effect of disrupting rather than facilitating relief efforts, was brought to an end once Washington was confident there would be no popular uprising against its stooge president, René Préval, and the tiny elite of Haitian multimillionaires.

It is more than a symbolic coincidence that the last major US combat force withdrew from Haiti June 1, the date that marks the official beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season. The people of Haiti, both the 1.5 million still living in tents and millions more in rickety slum dwellings just as unlikely to survive a hurricane, are being left to fend for themselves. [Photo: In pictures: Haiti misery endures (BBC)]

Iranian national Shahram Amiri, who was kidnapped by Saudi and US intelligence agents last year, has left the United States for the Iranian capital, Tehran. The Iranian scholar took refuge in Iran's interest section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington on Tuesday, demanding an "immediate return" to Iran. The embassy preserves Iran's interests in the United States, since the two countries have no diplomatic relations. In collaboration with Saudi forces, US agents kidnapped Amiri while he was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and flied him to America. Since then, two videos featuring him and one audio message have emerged. In his first video, Amiri said that he was abducted "in a joint operation by terror and kidnap teams from the US intelligence service, CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and Saudi Arabia's Istikhbarat" from Medina. In the second footage, he contradicted his earlier statements, saying that he was in the US of his own free will to further his education, dismissing all rumors about his defection. AWIP: Major Embarrassment for US as Long-Missing Iranian Scientist Turns Up a DC Embassy.

Jason Ditz puts this week's horrific bombing in Uganda by Somali extremists in perspective: the perspective of the relentless killing of civilians perpetrated by Western-backed forces in Somalia for years.

The American-led meddling in the ravaged nation has led directly -- and inevitably -- to the rise of extremist militias like al-Shabab, and to the deaths of thousands of innocent people. As we noted here back in 2008:

The United States is not only backing the Ethiopians and the Somali transitional government (TGF) propped up by the occupation; Washington has also provided "robust financial and logistical support to armed paramilitaries resisting the command and control of the TGF," according to a major new study of the conflict by the human rights organization, Enough. In addition to these freebooters, it turns out that the wide-ranging Somali pirates ... are supported by "backers linked to the Western-backed government" in Mogadishu.

In other words, the United States is sponsoring a hydra-headed conflict that spews fire and destruction in every direction, and is trampling an already ravaged people deeper into the dirt. It is by any measure -- even the mass-murdering standards of our day -- a sickening abomination, a war crime of staggering proportions. Yet it goes on, day after day, without the slightest comment, much less criticism, from the entire bipartisan political establishment, and almost all of the media -- including most of the "dissident" blogosphere. The Somalis are simply non-people, a nation of ghosts, unseen and unseeable. [For more, see Background section below.]