From the LA Times, Sept. 25: BAGHDAD – Iraq’s sectarian leaders stepped back from a simmering constitutional crisis yesterday, agreeing to wait at least 18 months before setting up autonomous regions that would shift power away from the central government…. Read moreIraq: autonomy on hold
Don’t you just love it when the government contradicts itself? The White House responds to the National Intelligence Estimate report finding the Iraq war is fueling global terrorism. From the LA Times, Sept. 25: White House: Terrorism not linked to… Read moreWhite House denies Iraq link to terror escalation
From Shared Responsibilites, a Colombia-led international initiative to find solutions to the global problem of narcotics trafficking, Sept. 25: A recently dismantled cocaine and heroine trafficking ring tricked indigenous people into transporting drugs within Colombia. Colombian Antinarcotics Police, in a… Read moreColombia: narco gang exploits indigenous people
Yeah, but they’ll probably have their own website. From BBC, Sept. 24, emphasis added: Internet’s future in 2020 debated The internet will be a thriving, low-cost network of billions of devices by 2020, says a major survey of leading technology… Read moreArmed Luddite resistance to Internet foreseen
C’mon Bernard, don’t you think they’re just waiting for Yom Kippur? Baruch Kimmerling writes for Haartez, Sept. 25: Thus spoke Bernard Lewis On September 22, 2006, Iran was supposed to attack Israel and perhaps the entire Western world. And why… Read moreRajab 27 passes without Iranian attack on Israel
From Pakistan’s Dawn, Sept. 24: RIYADH, Sept 24: The Saudi government has distanced itself from reports about Osama bin Laden’s death on or about August 23 somewhere in Pakistan. The news was carried by the French newspaper L’Est Republicain citing… Read moreSaudis: no evidence of Osama’s death
From AP, Sept. 24 (emphasis added): BAGHDAD – A crowd of Shias had gathered around a kerosene truck in Sadr City yesterday to stock up on fuel for Ramadan when a bomb went off, killing 38 people – mostly women… Read moreIraq: jihadis wish Shi’ites happy Ramadan
From AP, Sept. 24: WASHINGTON – Now the death toll is 9/11 times two. U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now surpass those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America’s history, the trigger for what came next. The… Read moreUS military deaths in GWOT surpass 9-11 toll
File this under “Duh.” The State Department just said the same thing, as we recently noted. From the New York Times, Sept. 24 (emphasis added): Terror threat higher since 9/11, report says WASHINGTON A stark assessment of terrorism trends by… Read moreNational Intelligence Estimate: Iraq war fuels terrorism
We generally agree with the thrust of leftist Israeli commentator Uri Avnery's argument here, but he makes a few glitches which are all the more embarrassing in a piece which attempts to set the historical record straight (and which actually… Read moreUri Avnery weighs in on papal controversy
From JTA, Sept. 24: A synagogue in the southern city of Astrakhan was vandalized twice within a few hours early Friday. In one attack, assailants threw a Molotov cocktail at the synagogue, setting its door ablaze. A guard at the… Read moreRussian synagogues attacked
Even as the administration of President Vicente Fox renewed its pledge to find a negotiated solution to the crisis in Oaxaca, some 4,000 protesters left the state capital Sept. 21 on a planned two-week cross-country march to Mexico City, where… Read moreOaxaqueños march to Mexico City
