A man wades through flood waters towards a naval boat
while evacuating his children in Sakkur, located in Paki-
stan's Sindh province August 8, 2010. Reuters/A. Soomro

[The Independent] Angry flood survivors are turning to a banned Islamist charity, reports Andrew Buncombe from central Punjab. Surrounded by brown, fast-shifting water on all sides, the 40 or so families in the village-turned-island had received no food, no medicine and no news as to when they might be rescued.

"We're dying of hunger," shrieked the woman, Sughra Bibi, as volunteers on the boat handed over plastic bags of lentils and cartons of milk to the villagers who gathered around her. One of them shouted out: "We don't care if it's the chief minister or the prime minister, but no one is sending anything to us. We are only waiting for God's help."

Across a huge swathe of central Punjab, Pakistan's famously fertile agricultural belt, now besieged by unprecedented floods, such scenes are being played out a thousand times or more. While countless numbers have by now been rescued from the waters, hundreds remain cut off from dry land.

Both the rescued and the stranded are hot and angry, tired and bewildered, having seen their livelihoods destroyed and struggling now with just the barest of assistance from the authorities. Even if they had heard the news, few would have been moved by President's Asif Ali Zardari's belated return to the country and his appearance at a photo opportunity yesterday in the south, where he handed out supplies. PressTV: Diseases threaten Pakistani children.

David Lowry asks (Letters, 11 August) whether Israel has carried out a nuclear weapon test. Although there is no conclusive answer, he is not correct to say that there is no public information. Since 2004, the CIA report on the double flash detected by a US Vela satellite on 22 September 1979, originating in the south Atlantic, has been declassified, albeit heavily redacted. The purpose of the Vela satellites was to detect atmospheric nuclear tests, and the double flash is characteristic of nuclear explosions. A clandestine nuclear test by Israel would have been useful. According to the report:

"The Israelis might have conceivably foreseen needs for more advanced weapons, such as low-yield nuclear weapons that could be used on the battlefield. Or they might have considered desirable a small tactical nuclear warhead for Israel's short-range Lance surface-to-surface missiles. Israeli strategists might even have been interested in developing the fission trigger for a thermonuclear weapon. If they were to have developed reliable nuclear devices for any of these weapons without access to tested designs, moreover, Israeli nuclear weapons designers would probably have wanted to test prototypes."

Taken with your coverage of Israeli-South African military collaboration during the 1970s (24 May), the evidence for an Israeli test is strong, if not conclusive.

A senior Iranian official says burning the Holy Quran on 9/11 anniversary is an evident case of hostile 'Zionist stance' towards Islam.

“This call for the "International Burn a Quran Day" is a Zionist approach which pursues illegal rights of an illegitimate [Zionist] minority in the world,” Head of Iran's Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO) Mehdi Mostafavi told IRNA on Friday. "Such opinions and actions can only be explained within the framework of radicalism which seeks political motives for ensuring illegitimate interests," he further explained.

Late July, the Dove World Outreach Center's pastor, Terry Jones, called for the burning of the Holy Quran on the anniversary of 9/11. He also asked for other religious groups to join the event.

“While the world needs peace and global participation of nations, such radical, irrational, and Zionist moves only aim to trigger chaos and seek division among followers of different religions,” Mostafavi added.
“Burning holy and religious books is an inhumane act since human rights reject insulting followers of other religions,” the Iranian president advisor stressed. “Those who are incapable of bringing arguments and challenging the principles of the Holy Quran resort to burning this religious book.” “This is a war-seeking dialogue,” the top Iranian official concluded.

Lawrence Davidson: Ignorance, apathy, parochialism and the US national psyche.

A man suspected of being an Israeli spy involved in the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai last January was released on bail by a German judge on Friday. “He can return to Israel if he wants to,” said Rainer Wolf, the spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the western city of Cologne. The suspect, known as Uri Brodsky, was charged with acquiring a passport under false pretenses. The prosecutor’s office said that Mr. Brodsky applied for and received a German passport in Cologne in 2009. Mr. Brodsky identified himself as Michael Bodenheimer and said that his father was a victim of the Nazis. German law provides citizenship to descendants of families persecuted by the Nazi government.

A group of prominent legal and medical experts today called for a full inquest into the death of the government scientist David Kelly in 2003. An inquest was suspended by Lord Falconer, then lord chancellor, before the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances of the scientist's death. It was not resumed after Hutton's report in 2004 concluded that Kelly killed himself by cutting an artery in his wrist. Nine experts including Michael Powers, a QC and former coroner, and Julian Blon, a professor of intensive care medicine, said in a letter to the Times that the official cause of death – haemorrhage from the severed artery – was "extremely unlikely".

"Insufficient blood would have been lost to threaten life," they said. "Absent a quantitative assessment of the blood lost and of the blood remaining in the great vessels, the conclusion that death occurred as a consequence of haemorrhage is unsafe."

29,000 dead, human rights leaders murdered, the constitution violated – the price of President Calderón's popularity bid. The army now virtually occupies communities throughout the country, carrying out functions that, under the constitution, are not the responsibility of the armed forces: it has set up checkpoints, de facto curfews and inspections. In what appears to be the pilot of a plan for the entire country, in several northern states there is a situation that resembles a state of siege – one never decreed by congress. In the short term, the politicisation of public security has worked for the president.

Americans Generally Disapprove of Obama's Handling of the Afghan War. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal Survey (PDF) shows a public growing increasingly pessimistic about the Obama Administration’s handling of a number of issues, including a major rise in opposition to the Afghan War. Confidence is now plummeting, with 68% saying they feel “less confidence” about whether the war will reach a successful conclusion. Perhaps even more importantly, for the first time yet, the poll shows, the American public generally disapproves of the president’s handling of the Afghan War. The 44%-45% opposition was a stark drop in popularity of the war from five months ago, when they generally approved 53%-35%. This was even worse when the question was how President Obama had lived up to expectations on the war, with only 34% saying he had, and 57% saying that he had “fallen short” of what they were hoping for. Bill Van Auken: Opposition to Afghanistan war mounts as US intensifies offensive.

LONDON — WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange said Thursday his organization is preparing to release the balance of the secret Afghan war documents it has on file. WikiLeaks already has published 77,000 classified U.S. military reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010, an extraordinary disclosure which some say could expose human rights abuses across the NATO-led campaign. The disclosure also has angered the Pentagon, which has accused WikiLeaks of endangering the lives of soldiers and informants in the field, and demanded that WikiLeaks refrain from publishing any more secret data. Speaking via videolink to London's Frontline Club, Assange said he had no intention of holding back. He gave no specific timeframe, but he said that his organization was about halfway through those 15,000 or so secret files previously held back from publication. "We're about 7,000 reports in," he said, adding that he would definitely publish them. He said he had "no comment" about his current whereabouts.

WaPo: Pentagon: Undisclosed Wikileaks documents 'potentially more explosive'.
HuffPo: Intimidating Wikileaks Won't Work.

Daily Mail: Pentagon's warning to defiant WikiLeaks over new release of secret Afghan documents. The Pentagon demanded that WikiLeaks refrain from publishing any more secret data. But WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking via videolink to London's Frontline Club, said he had no intention of withholding the sensitive documents in his possession. He gave no specific time frame for their release, but said his organisation was about halfway through those 15,000 or so secret files previously held back from publication. 'We're about 7,000 reports in,' he said, adding that he would definitely publish them.

AWIP: Rights Groups Join Criticism of WikiLeaks. Antiwar/Justin Raimondo: What is clear to me is this: there is a coordinated campaign to defame both Assange and Manning, and I have no doubt the US government is directly involved in this effort. Just as they tried to destroy Dan Ellsberg, so they are unleashing their agents (paid and volunteer) on these two very brave people. They want to divert attention away from the content of what is being exposed, and direct it back on the whistleblowers: they don’t want people debating the wisdom of the Afghan occupation, they would much rather talk about Assange’s journalistic credentials and Manning’s sex life. It won’t work. The American people are waking up, and the online antiwar community is a major factor in this awakening – perhaps it is the major factor, at this point.

A US writer and radio host says that the country's killing of civilians in Afghanistan serves the purpose of public intimidation.

"There have been many, many thousands of Afghan civilians, men, women and children deliberately targeted, deliberately killed to intimidate the population," Stephen Lendman told Press TV on Thursday.

"Things go back, I believe, to World War II, to intimidate the opposition. We did it ruthlessly in Vietnam, and the most well-known Operation Phoenix, with the estimated number of civilians that we killed, numbered maybe 80,000. The number could have been doubled," he added. He said the United States military presences in Iraq and Afghanistan is tantamount to war crime.

"There is no question of war crimes being committed … our presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan is a war crime; both wars are illegal. We violated international law. We violated US law. We violated the US Constitution by being there. These are war crimes. Every day by being there, we have committed war crimes, because we have committed crimes against humanity. We deliberately target civilians. There is nothing about random civilian killings," he added.

Lendman is a prolific writer on domestic and international issues with damning pieces of criticism on the American military interventions and Israeli acts of violence. AWIP/Stephen Lendman

Prosecutors Feared Soldier Might 'Harm Their Case'. There is nothing so unusual with prosecutors and defense lawyers excluding jurors they believe might not be sympathetic with their cause, but in the military “trial” of Omar Khadr, the exclusion of one lieutenant commander has raised some eyebrows. The soldier, whose name has not been revealed, was excluded by prosecutors because during the screening he said he agreed with President Obama’s post-election declaration that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay should close. Khadr’s trial has been condemned internationally, with UN officials warning it sets a dangeorus precedent for the treatment of child soldiers. Khadr was 15 at the time of his detention, and the case against him is built almost exclusively around confessions he gave after being abused by interrogators. The Independent: A serving officer in the United States Army is removed from the Omar Khadr's jury after informing the court of his belief that the American-run prison camps in Guantánamo Bay ought to be shut down.

[Survival International] Hundreds of Brazilian Indians from across the country are gathering to highlight the killing of their leaders, the theft of their land for industrial projects, and other threats to their survival. Around 800 Indians representing many of Brazil’s 233 tribes are expected to attend the protest, from 16- 20 August. The rally is being held in Mato Grosso do Sul state, south of the Amazon, to draw attention to the critical situation faced by the indigenous peoples of that state, especially the Guarani Indians. The Guarani’s lands have been stolen to make way for cattle ranches and sugarcane plantations, and the Guarani have one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

The protest will also highlight growing anger amongst many tribes who oppose the government’s plans to build a series of huge dams and roads in the Amazon. It is being organized by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and the Forum in Defence of Indigenous Rights. The Indians have invited all the candidates in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election to the rally. Survival’s Director Stephen Corry, said today, ‘The current government has woefully neglected Brazilian Indians, and now they’re calling out to the presidential candidates to listen to their needs. They expect the new President to take action to safeguard their lands.’

[Survival International] The two Dongria Kondh tribesmen abducted by gunmen on Monday have both been released. Sena Sikaka was dumped at the side of the road on Tuesday evening, while Lodu Sikaka was released yesterday.

Lodu and Sena both claim their armed abductors were plain-clothed policemen. Lodu was interrogated and beaten during his detention, and only released after he was made to sign a written statement. It is not clear what the statement says.

Lodu and Sena have both been campaigning against the creation of a bauxite mine on their land in the Niyamgiri Hills, Odisha state. The proposed mine, a joint project between UK company Vedanta Resources and the Orissa state government, has become one of the most controversial projects in India.

An interview with Lodu Sikaka was broadcast on the UK’s Channel 4 News following Vedanta’s recent AGM, where the company’s appalling human rights record came under fire from high profile investors including Aviva. Several investors including the Church of England have already sold their shares in Vedanta over the project, and the British government declared that the Dongria’s rights have been violated.

Also by AWIP/Survival International:
Nomad tribe emerges from forest to prove its existence
Anti-Vedanta tribal leaders abducted.
Vedanta’s India mine slammed in devastating government report.

[MEMO] The content of the video, all two minutes and forty seconds of it, does not implicate Haneen Zoabi in the slightest. It actually supports her assertions about the events that unfolded. Claims by newspapers such as Jpost which state that the "video proves Zoabi knew activists [were] armed" are laughable. It does no such thing, so why release the footage? It’s simple; it serves as a diversion. Haneen Zoabi has made it clear that she believes the release of this footage at this particular time to be an effort to divert attention from the investigation into the flotilla assault that is now taking place; more specifically, that its release was timed to coincide with the IDF Chief of Staff giving his testimony. It is no more than that.

An influx of hair-raising stories keeps coming from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border terminal. Nearly all these stories underscore the degrading treatment meted out to Gazans, already thoroughly savaged by the manifestly criminal siege imposed by Israel on the coastal enclave in coordination with several regional and international players, including Egypt itself. In fact, according to testimonies collected from Gazans who have been in the "Egyptian hell," the Egyptian treatment of some Gazans is far worse than that which is accorded to them by the Israel. This is more than disgraceful. It is criminal.

While the Lebanese political scene seemed to be as usual divided over the evidence revealed, Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the son of the slain Prime Minister, broke his silence and was quoted as rejecting the attempts to undermine the importance and the value of Sayyed Nasrallah's revelations. According to Lebanese daily As-Safir, Hariri told his close aides that Sayyed Nasrallah's press conference was very important and sensitive. He expressed his support to give the appropriate time and effort to the new path in the investigation. Hariri said that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon should seriously look into the data and footage presented by Hezbollah Secretary General, noting that Sayyed Nasrallah's words reflected the opinions of a lot of Lebanese and therefore, shouldn't be overlooked.

"Personally, I back taking Sayyed Nasrallah's data into consideration because I want to reach the truth in my father's assassination," Hariri was quoted as saying. "In case Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation, then it would turn in my eyes from a suspect to a convict," he added.

PressTV: Hariri urges UN probe of Israel. AWIP: Hezbollah exposes Israeli hit men

The federal government's effort to stabilize the financial system in 2008 by flooding money into as many banks as possible resulted in a boon to many foreign firms and left the United States shouldering far more risk than governments that took a narrower approach, according to a new report by a panel overseeing the Treasury's $700 billion bailout fund. Members of the Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report due out Thursday, note that America's broad financial rescues had more impact internationally than the narrower bailout programs of other countries had on U.S. firms.

The U.S. Army said Tuesday a leaking sarin nerve agent-filled rocket had been discovered during inspections of chemical weapons storage structures at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky (see GSN, June 3).

"The low-level agent vapor was confined to the interior of the [shipping and firing] tube and no agent vapor was detected within the igloo atmosphere," according to a press release. "The rocket, enclosed in the shipping and firing tube, will be overpacked in a leakproof container. It will then be moved to another igloo containing overpacked [sarin] munitions as soon as possible."

The depot stores 523 tons of mustard blister agent and sarin and VX nerve agents. Chemical disarmament work at the site is projected to end in 2021.

A third of the experts advising the World Health Organisation about the swine flu pandemic had ties to drugs firms, it has emerged. Five of the 15 specialists who sat on the emergency committee had received funding from pharmaceutical giants, or were linked to them through their research. The revelation will prompt speculation that the 'pandemic' was wildly overestimated and largely fuelled by the drugs industry who stood to benefit from the panic. Last month it emerged that the Government had squandered more than £1.2 billion tackling swine flu - most of it going towards vaccines following experts' dire predictions that as many as 65,000 Britons would die. In fact the virus claimed just 457 lives - a third of those killed every year by ordinary seasonal flu.

People & Power investigates fraud and corruption running through the veins of the US pharmaceutical industry.

Some 30,000 people lined up in sweltering heat in a working class suburb of Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday seeking applications for a few hundred subsidized housing slots. The massive turnout in the town of East Point, whose entire population is only 40,000, surprised and overwhelmed local authorities, who called in police in riot gear to control the angry crowd. Sixty-two were injured and at least 20 were hospitalized, mostly from heat exhaustion, including a baby who went into a seizure. Two children were reportedly trampled. No arrests were reported, although witnesses say police used Taser electrical “stun guns” on the crowd. The events in East Point reveal the chasm between the scale of social distress in the US and the pittance of aid on offer from the government, as well as social tensions that are at the breaking point across the nation. [...] Everywhere similar social conditions predominate: massive joblessness, the foreclosure crisis, hunger, and the daily humiliations of want, on the one side, and, on the other, the amassing of staggering personal fortunes. These are the preconditions for a social explosion.

A 6.9-magnitude earthquake has struck about 170km (105 miles) south-east of Ecuador's capital, Quito. The quake happened at 0654 local time (1154 GMT), at a depth of about 190km, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. "Had it been less deep, it would have caused quite a lot of damage," said Sandra Vaco of Ecuador's geophysics institute. No tsunami warnings were issued and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The strength was initially measured by the USGS at 6.7 then raised to 7.2 before being set at 6.9. The earthquake was reportedly felt in Quito. The USGS also said the quake was 140km east of Ambato and 160km south-south-west of Nueva Loja. Maria Fernanda Fuentes, who works in a hotel in central Ambato, was driving at the time of the quake but told the BBC her co-workers at the hotel had said the tremor was "long and strong". All the lamps had moved and several of the guests came down to the lobby looking worried, she was told. No major damage has been reported in the city so far. The depth of the quake may have reduced its effects.

CFACT: Target: Monckton. Lord Monckton is under attack, a sure sign that he’s winning on warming. Monckton fights back and refutes Prof. Abraham. Have you noticed the kicking around that CFACT Advisor Lord Christopher Monckton's been getting lately? Add to the title “Viscount of Brenchley,” “whipping boy du jour.” Seldom a recent day goes by without some new name calling or conspiracy theory attacking Lord Monckton echoing through the left-wing blogosphere. Why is Chris Monckton the victim of a global warming attack campaign? Effectiveness. Few have been so brilliantly effective at debunking the global warming scare as this compellingly articulate British Lord. Lord Monckton does his homework. He scours the scientific literature. He devours every word and graph. He is in constant contact with a vast network of leading scientists throughout the world. He wades past the executive summaries and masters the details. He checks the math, checks the logic, and checks the consistency of what is claimed about our climate. He synthesizes global warming science and policy raising vital questions that provoke thought in the mind of any expert or layman with an open mind. Despite the nearly unimaginable sums available to the global warming folks – despite their command of the media, the politicians in their thrall and the carbon profiteers lining up at the taxpayer's trough, Lord Monckton and his allies are winning. Like the child who revealed that the Emperor had no clothes, Lord Monckton wakes the good sense of those who hear him. The public has caught on.

● Part 2: Sea Level Rise
● Part 3: Polar Bears
● Part 4: Sea Ice
● Part 5: What's killing polar bears?
● Part 6: The Medieval Warm Period

The Muslim Community Center at Ground Zero: a Manufactured Controversy. A substantial racist uproar is taking place in conservative America, particularly in right-wing radio and television. Reactionary pundits are drawing increased attention to plans to build an Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan, near Ground Zero. Republicans and conservatives have long been known to harbor racist views of Islam, although they’re hardly alone in this. Many on the right frame the entire religion as radical, fundamentalist, and a threat to national security. In light of this pattern, there’s little surprising about the right’s most recent attack on Muslim Americans as a secret, under the radar threat.

Activist Post: The 12 Top Reasons to Burn a Qur'an on 9/11. Top 12 Reasons to Burn a Qur'an on 9/11:

1. To prove that you're a reactionary, knee-jerk, braindead Christian fundamentalist who has been hoodwinked by criminally insane evangelists.
2. To show the world that America really is that racist, intolerant, inexplicable, sadistic, and boorish nation that it seems to be from overseas.
3. To demonstrate that you have no clue whatsoever about Islam other than what your hillbilly inbred white trash neighbors tell you from the trailer next door.
4. To clarify that your form of Christianity would be vehemently rejected by Christ himself who taught to turn the other cheek, not fan the flames of hatred (and holy books).
5. To provoke attacks on innocent tourist Americans in Muslim nations through no fault of their own, but as retaliation for your utter idiocy.
6. To ensure that whatever small chance you had of going to the real heaven where faithful, righteous souls from all religions reside, you'll be tossed in flames much hotter than the ones you're firing up now for the Qu'ran.
7. To establish that there is no effective rule of law in the United States and that justice exists only on paper, otherwise Florida State Troopers would place themselves in a phalanx between you and the pile of Qu'rans.
8. To bring a well-deserved and surely merited fatwa upon you and your families.
9. To continue to follow Terry Jones who is as mentally balanced and trustworthy as his predecessor Jim Jones.
10. To verify that you and your entire congregation couldn't find your butt with both hands and a flashlight.
11. To teach your children that the proper way to shape American society is through sadism, violence, hatred, intolerance, and the rest of your aberrant, savage delusions.
12. To embarrass your country, to shame your flag, to shoot down the American bald eagle, to spit in the face of the founding fathers, and to defecate on the graves of the soldiers who gave their lives to ensure your freedom.

Lawrence Davidson: Ignorance, apathy, parochialism and the US national psyche
Bob Altemeyer: Comment on the Tea Party Movement + The Authoritarians

A man suspected of killing five people in a rash of 20 stabbings in three US states over three months was arrested in Atlanta as he tried to board a flight to Israel, a US official said Thursday.

"He was apprehended by US Customs and Border Patrol officers and the Atlanta Police Department and arrested as he was attempting to depart on a flight to Tel Aviv," said customs spokeswoman Sandy Hasegawa.

Federal agents were alerted by Michigan police that the suspect might be at the Atlanta, Georgia airport where he was arrested late on Wednesday. The Flint Journal, a daily in Michigan, reported that a warrant was issued for Elias Abuelazam, 33, in connection with knife attacks in Flint. Police believe there is a link between attacks in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia, in which almost all of the victims were black. Law enforcement sources told The Washington Post that Abuelazam has family ties to both Flint, Michigan and Leesburg, Virginia, where several of the attacks occurred. Media in Atlanta reported that Abuelazam was arrested carrying an expired Israeli passport. WNEM.com: Man, 33, Charged In Multi-State Serial Stabbings. CNN: Israeli identified as man held in stabbings probe. [Various Google Links.]