Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/16/journalist_exposes_how_private_investigation_firm

An exposé in The Atlantic magazine reveals how one of the world’s largest private investigation firms, Kroll, hired by oil giant Chevron, tried to recruit an American journalist to undermine a massive $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron brought by the residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon. We speak with the journalist, Mary Cuddehe, and with Han Shan, the coordinator for Amazon Watch’s Clean Up Ecuador campaign. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/16/harvard-israeli-shares-sale-boycott

Harvard University has sold millions of dollars in shares in Israeli companies, a move that it insists is purely financial but which has already been claimed by a pro-Palestinian group as a victory in its boycott and divestment campaign against Israel.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/16-7

New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman, in his column today, is right to expose the attacks on Social Security as being the work of right-wing ideologues eager to destroy a government program that works, backed by cowardly Democrats who want to show their fiscal "responsibility" by getting tough with future pensioners.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/16-9

A former Israeli soldier has sparked controversy after posting pictures of herself on Facebook posing with bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners. The photographs show Eden Abergil positioned provocatively with the men, prompting lurid comments from other users of the popular social networking site.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/pers-a16.shtml

A lengthy article in the New York Times on Sunday entitled “A Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents” has provided a glimpse into the extent of the Obama administration’s covert wars. Obama has not only continued, he has expanded the murderous operations that were waged under the banner of the “war on terror” by the CIA and Pentagon during the Bush administration.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/16/homeless-and-hungry-at-college

A shocking new trend is developing at college campuses across the country (Jonathan Greenwald) AS THE mainstream press frets that the much-touted "economic-recovery" appears to have lost steam, the economic crisis continues to escalate for ordinary people.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/16/disaster-to-social-catastrophe

THE FLOODS which have devastated huge areas of Pakistan may be an act of nature, but the worsening humanitarian crisis that followed is a direct result of the failures of Pakistan's venal leaders--and the impact of the U.S. "war on terror."

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/uncovering-lies-that-are-sinking-oil62345

The rampant use of toxic dispersants, out-of-state private contractors being brought in to spray them and US Coast Guard complicity are common stories now in the four states most affected by BP's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/keith-olbermann-there-no-ground-zero-mosque62376

"They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/16/AR2010081604569.html?referrer=emailarticle

Georgia scientists say their analysis shows that most of that BP oil the government said was gone from the Gulf of Mexico is still there. The scientists say as much as 80 percent of the oil still lurks under the surface. The Georgia team said it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved is actually gone. The report from University of Georgia and other scientists came from an analysis of federal estimates.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=13247

President Barack Obama has warned the Turkish prime minister that Ankara's position on Israel and Iran could lessen its chances of obtaining US weapons, a report said Monday.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/world/147865/noam_chomsky%3A_the_real_reasons_the_u.s._enables_israeli_crimes_and_atrocities/

Noam Chomsky: Very pleased to be with you.
KW: Speak to me about the relation between the United States and Israel. Specifically, address, as you have previously stated, how every crime, violation of international law, that Israel commits is done through the direct participation and authorization of the United States.

Link: http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/the-man-with-the-israeli-accent-uss-liberty-survivor’s-life-threatened-by-mossad-on-american-soil-while-uncle-sam-yawns/

One would think that in this–the post 9/11 age–that a direct, face-to-face threat against the life of a decorated American war hero by someone claiming to be an agent working for a Middle Eastern country tied to previous acts of terrorism against the US would rouse some concern. That is of course, unless the country from which this foreign agent hails is Israel and the war hero being threatened is a survivor of the USS LIBERTY, attacked by the Jewish state in 1967, leading to the deaths of 34 American servicemen.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysm_UJNHlxs

You should be, but not with the Muslim people.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/nader08162010.html

By RALPH NADER The Obama Administration’s treatment of its current majority ownership of bailed out General Motors and its standoffishness toward the pioneering but troubled ShoreBank, a community bank based in Chicago, are lessons in how the Big/Bad fare in Washington, D.C., as compared with the Good/Small. Having shed its bad assets and abandoned its common shareholders, the new GM emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 with a clean balance sheet and lots of taxpayer cash. For the first two quarters of 2010, it has signaled a comeback by reporting over $2 billion in profits.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/halper08162010.html

On the day before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, at 2:30 in the morning, workers sent by the Israeli authorities, protected by dozens of police, destroyed the tombstones in the last portion of the Mamilla cemetery, an historic Muslim burial ground with graves going back to the 7th Century, hitherto left untouched.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/alex-jones-show-hamid-gul-god-help-america/

In a landmark interview, Alex talks with former director of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, Hamid Gul. Mr. Gul recently characterized the “leaked” Wikileaks documents implicating him in a string of attacks against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan as “malicious, fictitious, and preposterous.”

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts08162010.html

The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times column, “Welcome to the Recovery.”

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/video/americas/2010/08/2010816192013926291.html

The Argentinian government is trying to find hundreds of children stolen from their parents during the military dictatorship of the 1970s and early 1980s. A controversial law obliges young adults suspected of being the missing children to provide DNA sample, even if they do not want to be found.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010816104813959499.html

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has given private security firms working in Afghanistan four months to end their operations.