Talk about addictive behavior. 4,000 more US troops are sent into Baghdad, where they are mixing it up with Moktada al-Sadr’s militia in a small urban counter-insurgency operation. (LAT, Aug. 8) So 4,000 more troops can become so stressed out… Read more4,000 more US troops to Baghdad as atrocity trial commences
Another grisly paramilitary attack in the Colombian oil zone of Putumayo, in the Amazon basin along the Ecuadoran border. From the local Asociación Minga, Aug. 9 via the Colombian human rights network Red de Defensores (translation by WW4 REPORT): On… Read moreColombia: para terror in Putumayo
Trees, it seems, can be ideological. But the ideology, as Grace Slick once sang, “doesn’t mean shit to a tree.” Or, as Gertrude Stein might have had it, a tree is a tree is a tree. In other words, even… Read moreHezbollah rockets ravage forests of Galilee
The carnage in Lebanon has pushed Gaza from the headlines. But lest we forget… From Reuters, Aug. 8: Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have seen a significant increase in war casualties with severe injuries over the past month and are… Read moreGaza: hospitals overwhelmed
How perversely ironic. Last Wednesday, Aug. 2, was Tisha b’Av, the Jewish holiday commemorating the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, as well as several other calamities in Jewish history. Yet this year, Tisha b’Av… Read moreJerusalem: fear at the Temple Mount
From El Universal Aug. 8 via Chiapas95: OAXACA- Police fired bullets into the air to clear more than 100 protesters outside Oaxaca state’s economy secretariat – the latest violence in a wave of confrontations that have scared many tourists out… Read moreOaxaca: police open fire at protest
Talk about your great moments in bad timing. Will we hit the much-feared $100 per barrel before the year is out? From Bloomberg, Aug. 8 (links and emphasis added): Oil traded near a three-week high in New York on concern… Read morePrudhoe Bay closure jacks up oil prices
It certainly is comforting to remember that global warming is just a myth. Not rational, mind you, but definitely comforting. From the Washington Post via Newsday, Aug. 7: WASHINGTON – Heat waves like those that have scorched Europe and the… Read moreSwiss study: global heat waves on the rise
A note of irony. From IMEC News, July 31: In an official report, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Israeli soldiers took 600 Palestinian residents prisoners since the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from a military… Read more600 Palestinians taken prisoner in July
A glimmer of hope. From The Observer, Aug. 6 (emphasis added): Israeli pilots ‘deliberately miss’ targets Fliers admit aborting raids on civilian targets as concern grows over the reliability of intelligence At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed… Read moreLebanon: passive resistance emerges in IDF
The parade of denial goes on. US Central Command chief Gen. Abizaid makes headlines by speaking the obvious—his dramatic understatement treated like a splash of cold water, so deep is the degree of self-delusion: “I believe that the sectarian violence… Read moreIraq: propaganda and the “civil war” question
This Aug. 7 clip from the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat was sent by our correspondent Gilbert Achcar, who writes: “There is little chance that you could find something like the news below reported in any language but Arabic. I couldn’t… Read moreIraqi parliament speaker condemns “blue djinn” of occupation
