Veteran journalist Jim Lobe reports on his LobeLog blog that the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a neo-conservative group created two days after 9-11, is holding what it calls “a policy workshop” during Congress’ Memorial Day recess, at a… Read moreNeocon think-tank hosts Iran destabilization confab
Every president since FDR has drawn up such plans. The most notorious were Nixon’s “Operation Garden Plot” and Reagan’s “REX 84 Alpha”—a legacy we recalled when the Homeland Security Act passed in 2002. This latest incarnation has gone unnoticed by… Read moreNSPD-51: Bush prepares martial law
The 9-11 death toll in New York City has just been officially raised from 2,749 to 2,750. From CBS, May 24: A woman who died of lung disease five months after Sept. 11 was added on Wednesday to the medical… Read moreNYC adds WTC dust victim to 9-11 death toll
Fighting has resumed at Lebanon’s Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, where authorities are demanding that Fatah al-Islam lay down arms and turn over its leaders. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said the group has two choices: “Surrender or the army will… Read moreLebanon crisis escalates
At least 27 people were killed and dozens wounded after a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd of mourners at a funeral in Falluja, in the Iraqi province of Anbar, May 24. The funeral was for Allawi al-Isawi, a… Read moreIraq: funeral attack kills dozens
From Newsday, May 22: 18 Hours, Three Fatals It was a treacherous 18-hour span in which three people died in separate crashes on Long Island’s highways — and one family survived an ordeal on the LIE. Long Island averages less… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Declaring fires set at a police station, an SUV dealer and a tree farm were acts of “terrorism,” US District Judge Ann Aiken May 23 sentenced former Earth Liberation Front militant Stanislas Meyerhoff to 13 years in prison. Judge Aiken… Read moreELF militants convicted of (dubious) “terrorism”
Talk about non-news. The Democratic majority, after all their hot air, agrees to drop a timetable for troop withdrawal from the war funding bill. The only real news here is how thoroughly the Republicans have set the terms for the… Read moreDems blink, Bush lies, what else is new?
Farmers in southern Iraq are turning to opium cultivation for the first time, the Belfast Telegraph reports. Traditional rice farmers along the Euphrates, outside the southern city of Diwaniya, have now abandoned rice—for which the area is famous—in favor of… Read moreIraq: opium economy takes hold in south
Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were supposed to be disarming, according to a BBC report. These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst rights in during the… Read moreCongo: UN troops trade gold for guns
Egyptian authorities detained 39 members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Eleven were arrested May 20 in the southern province of Beni Sueif on charges of holding “a secret meeting.” Fourteen more were detained in dawn raids May 21 in the province… Read moreEgypt: sweeps of Muslim Brotherhood
Pakistani security forces clashed with militants at an al-Qaeda camp near the Afghan border May 22, leaving at least three dead. Maj.-Gen. Waheed Arshad, an army spokesman, said that after receiving reports about the training camp in North Waziristan, tribal… Read morePakistan: security forces raid al-Qaeda camp in Waziristan
