As Pakistan authorities launch an investigation into the crash of the Airblue Airbus A321 near Islamabad, Jim Ferguson, an aviation expert based in Aberdeen, Scotland, discusses some of the possible scenarios.

■ Bad weather
■ Fuel shortage
■ Navigational error
■ Technical failure

Daily Telegraph: Pakistan's worst ever air crash kills 152. RTT News: No Survivors In Pakistan Plane Crash.

The release of 91,000 classified military documents relating to Afghanistan by the organization known as WikiLeaks offers the opportunity for a controlled experiment in an analysis of media bias. This was a suggestion by the Nieman Journalism Lab immediately following the documents release. Three mainstream media organizations (The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel) were given the same amount of time to analyze these documents prior to their public release on July 25th and all three published their accounts on the same day. Therefore, any emphasis or de-emphasis in how the material was presented can be used to test hypotheses about the mainstream media through a process known as content analysis. This involves both assessing the meaning of a given text as well as measuring how frequent a word or phrase shows up in a specific context.

The hypothesis I seek to test is that different levels of access to American officials influenced how media outlets framed their respective analyses. A first glance at the material presented in the two English-language sources, The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers, reveals dramatically different approaches that each took in reporting on these leaked documents. In The Times, for example, the first headline on their Afghanistan War Logs page reads, "Pakistan Spy Service Aids Insurgents" and three of their four featured reports on July 25th either emphasize the security and military implications of Pakistan's involvement or focus on US military strategy in executing the war. The New York Times provided no article focusing on civilian casualties in the war and mention them only as small points in their summary of individual documents. In contrast, The Guardian offered two prominent articles detailing the thousands of civilians whose deaths were documented in these files--not including those who died at the hands of Task Force 373, the shadowy special forces unit engaged in assassination raids.

AWIP/International Solidarity Movement: Two dead and four children injured in Israeli nail bomb attack in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.

Germany joins NATO forces in using Israeli spy drones 27 Jul 2010 Worried by insurgent ambushes on its soldiers in Afghanistan and return fire that sometimes kills civilians or local allies, Germany last year ordered a small fleet of Israeli Heron spy drones designed to provide real-time images above a battlefield. That has brought German jet pilots to coastal Ein Shemer air base for accelerated retraining on the unmanned propeller planes, already daubed with their flag and Iron Cross emblem.

Julian Assange’s recent comment in the Belfast Telegraph about 9/11, however, may be a more tangible source of concern for me. I know Assange isn’t an idiot, so I see three other possibilities:

1. He is profoundly ignorant of the vast body of material that demonstrates that the 9/11 spectacle was a false flag operation.
2. He’s “picking his battles” and not wanting to have to deal with the inevitable conspiracy theory stigma that could threaten his media access
3. He’s running a limited hangout/honeypot

Of these three options, I doubt that it’s number two.

911Blogger.com: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is 'annoyed' by 9/11 truth. AWIP: Wikileaks calls for more leakers to step into its spider's web. The First Post: Shame the leak didn’t come earlier, says Taliban -It ‘proves US brutality in Afghanistan’.

The US Congress has approved an extra multi-billion dollar fund to pay for President Barack Obama's increase in US troop numbers in Afghanistan. The House of Representatives voted 308 to 114 in favor of the $60bn war-funding bill. The Senate had already passed the bill, which will now go to Obama to be signed into law. The package provides roughly $33.5 billion for the additional 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan and nearly $4 billion for other programs in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. The bill also covers some expenses for military operations in the war-torn Iraq. The new money is in addition to about $130 billion the Congress already approved for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq this year. The US Congress has appropriated over $1 trillion for the two wars since 2001.

Antiwar: House Approves More Afghan War Funding: Congressmen Embrace Escalation as Evidence of War's Folly Grows. Though one would have expected that the massive release of some 92,000 classified documents Sunday underscoring just how poorly the war is going would have changed some minds, the Obama Administration has gotten its way once again, with the House of Representatives approving the $59 billion emergency funding bill to keep the war going by a 308-114 vote. House Roll Call Vote on War Funding

[Zionist-infiltrated Congress wants war. Ever more wars for Israel:] Resolution Green-Lighting Israeli Strikes on Iran Introduced by House Republicans (HuffPo)

n 2 August 2007, a US special forces team mounted what they hoped would be an assassination spectacular in the Baghni valley, in the mountains of northern Helmand. They called it Operation Jang Baz. Special operations troops, the war logs report, "tracked and fixed 2 senior Taliban commanders" to the remote spot. The files reveal their names were Mullah Ikhlas, and his deputy, known as Qalandari. Both were listed as "High Value Individuals tier 2", putting them near the top of the US "kill or capture" list. Ikhlas was believed to run the entire Taliban fighting machine in southern Afghanistan. The special forces command claimed that Ikhlas was "conducting a major Shura" – a conference of top Taliban. After dropping six 2,000lb GBU-31 guided bombs on the meeting from a B1 jet, the coalition reported "effectively destroying the primary target location" and killing 50 "Taliban senior commanders, security and fighters". Lt Gen John Mulholland, of the special operations command, later claimed "over 150 Taliban fighters" had been killed. It was later realised that despite "multiple forms of positive identification" Ikhlas had in fact probably never been there at all.

Buried among the 92,000 classified documents released Sunday by WikiLeaks is some intriguing evidence that the U.S. military in Afghanistan has adopted a PR strategy that got it into trouble in Iraq: paying local media outlets to run friendly stories. Several reports from Army psychological operations units and provincial reconstruction teams (also known as PRTs, civilian-military hybrids tasked with rebuilding Afghanistan) show that local Afghan radio stations were under contract to air content produced by the United States. Other reports show U.S. military personnel apparently referring to Afghan reporters as "our journalists" and directing them in how to do their jobs.

Britain’s political elite are attempting to play down the so-called Afghan War Diary—the 92,000 documents published by WikiLeaks, details of which are being serialised in the Guardian newspaper. For nine years Britain’s ruling circles have presented the intervention in Afghanistan as a fight for the “hearts and minds” of the Afghan people. In the face of widespread public opposition to the occupation, both the Labour government and now the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition have insisted that it is morally and politically justifiable. The documents published by WikiLeaks—consisting of battlefield reports written by US army personnel—expose such claims as lies. They lift the lid on just some of the terror and violence routinely meted out against the Afghan people.

Israeli Interior ministry forces demolish unrecognized
Bedouin village in the Negev; dozens of families left
homeless. December 2008 (PIWP)

Netanyahu calls Bedouin citizens of Israel "real threat" – and next, an entire village in the Negev is demolished. Early this morning police raided the "unrecognized" Bedouin village of al-Arakib in the Negev, destroyed all 40 of its houses, and evicted more than 300 residents. The residents, mostly children, were left homeless. The unprecedented raid began at about 4:30 in the morning, residents were surprised to wake up surrounded by a huge force of 1,500 police with guns, stun grenades, helmets and shields, including hundreds of Special Riot Police (Yasam) as well as mounted police, helicopters and bulldozers. At the residents’ call, dozens of left-wing activists and volunteers arrived from all over the country, helping them to offer non-violent resistance. Several residents were bruised and beaten by police, thjough not needing medical attention. One woman demonstrator was detained by the police. The police removed the residents’ property into prepared containers, and bulldozers demolished the residential buildings and sheepfolds and destroyed the residents’ fruit orchards and olive tree groves. The villagers, mostly children and old people, were left stunned near the destroyed village, shelterless and waterless under the blazing sun PressTV: Hamas slams Israel's Negev demolitions. Al Jazeera: Israel demolishes Bedouin village. The Guardian: Ethnic cleansing in the Israeli Negev.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is facing a massive backlash today following his criticism of the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip. Cameron insisted the blockade ‘has to change’ and that the strip “must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.” Israeli Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor expressed outrage at the statement, insisting that Cameron should have focused instead on Gilad Shalit, the captured Israeli soldier being held by the Hamas government. A number of Israel enthusiasts also complained that it was unfair of Cameron to mention the Israeli blockade of Gaza without insisting that it was entirely the fault of Hamas, and a number suggested that Cameron, a long standing pro-Israel hawk, had “turned” on Israel with the comments. Cameron also used his speech today in Ankara, Turkey to reiterate his opposition of the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish aid ship that was bound for Gaza. Israeli commandos boarded the ship and killed nine aid workers.

Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani warns over US constant plots against the Islamic Republic, saying the US lacks courage to make any anti-Iran move. “The United States still seeks to break the Iranian nation's will. The more sanctions they issue against us, the stronger the Iranian nation's will becomes,” Larijani said in western Iranian city of Kermanshah on Tuesday. He further added that the Iranian nation still opposes the United States and stressed the importance of maintaining readiness to encounter the US. The Iranian official deplored dual policies of the US government on Iran, saying, “US President Barack Obama cannot stretch his hands to the Iranian nation while the US Congress adopts moves against Iran.” Larijani also stressed that these efforts have no impact on the will of the Iranian nation. PressTV: Iran independent of world powers.

The parliament of Catalonia has voted to ban bullfighting - the first region of mainland Spain to do so. The vote took place as the result of a petition brought to parliament, signed by 180,000 people who say the practice is barbaric and outdated. Bullfight supporters insist that the corrida, as it is known, is an important tradition to preserve. They also fear the vote could be the first of many in the country. The ban takes effect in January 2012. In Wednesday's vote, 68 backed a ban, 55 voted against and nine abstained. Barcelona's main bullring is one of the oldest in Spain, but support for the bullfight has waned. The Barcelona bullring is the only functioning one in Catalonia. The vote was brought to the agenda by activists who argue it is cruel and unacceptable and say most spectators in Catalonia these days are tourists. The campaign was led by the animal rights lobby group Prou! (Enough!). Supporters says the corrida is an art form that it is vital to preserve.

TEL AVIV - Thousands of women are being smuggled into Israel, creating a booming sex trade industry that rakes more than USD one billion a year, a parliamentary committee said on Wednesday. The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, headed by Knesset member Zehava Galon of the left-wing Yahad. party, commissioned the report in an effort to combat the sex trade in Israel. Findings showed that some 3,000 and 5,000 women are smuggled to Israel annually and sold into the prostitution industry, where they are constantly subjected to violence and abuse. The report, issued annually, said some 10,000 such women currently reside in about 300 to 400 brothels throughout the country. They are traded for about USD 8,000 – USD 10,000, the committee said. The U.S. State Department ranks Israel in the second tier of human trafficking around the world, saying the Jewish State does not maintain minimal conditions regarding the issue but is working to improve them.

Christ, what an a**hole. Zachary Chesser, an unemployed 20-year-old man in Virginia who this year threatened South Park's creators over an episode featuring the Prophet Muhammad dressed in a bear suit, has been arrested on federal charges "after speaking openly to the FBI about his connection to a terror organization and his plans to travel overseas to fight with the group." The organization known as Al-Shabaab (the longer version of their name means "Movement of Warrior Youth") is identified by the US as a terror group affiliated with al-Qaeda. Mr. Chesser was Jewish, but converted to a wacked-out, militant crazystrain of Islam that involves uploading jihadi videos to YouTube and invoking assassination unto the creators of Cartman and Butters. AWIP/04/23/10: Islamists post warning on web to South Park creators after they depict Prophet Muhammad in anniversary episode. + AWIP/04/25/10: The Radical "Muslim" Group That Threatened South Park Creators Was Founded and Run by Joseph Cohen, a Former Israeli Radical Who Used to Live in a Settlement in the West Bank.

As the Australian federal election campaign enters its second week, the major political parties and corporate media, followed obediently by the Greens and “ex-left” groups, have already sharply narrowed the terms of permissible debate. As usual, the issues most critical to the working class—including chronic underemployment and the lack of basic services—are off the list for the August 21 poll. So is discussion of planned austerity measures. The campaign’s most notable feature is the pretence that beyond Australian shores nothing at all exists. Australian “exceptionalism”—the notion that Australia is separate from and unaffected by global processes, especially economic ones—is reaching dizzy heights.

Dr. Denis Rancourt speaks to Marc Morano on his views on the politics and science of global warming. "They look to comfortable lies" says Rancort with regard to global warming believers. AWIP: Global Warming Emerging Science and Understanding Part 1-6 (Video)