IRAQ

Iraq May Request Extension For US - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post

The Iraqi government may request an extension of the United Nations security mandate authorizing a US military presence, due to expire in December, amid growing domestic criticism of new bilateral arrangements now being negotiated with the Bush administration, according to senior Iraqi officials. Iraqis across the political spectrum have objected to Bush administration proposals for unilateral authority over US military operations in Iraq and the detention of Iraqi citizens, immunity for civilian security contractors, and continuing control over Iraqi borders and airspace.

US 'Not Seeking' Permanent Bases - David Sands, Washington Times

US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker on Thursday rejected as "flatly untrue" reports that the Bush administration is demanding long-term bases in Iraq or control of the country's airspace in talks with the Iraqi government over the future status of American troops in the country. Mr. Crocker, in Washington this week for consultations at the State Department and the White House, told reporters that both the troop agreement and a separate accord defining the US-Iraq strategic alliance would be published in full and subject to approval by Iraq's parliament.

Commander Confident on Post-'Surge' Levels - Amit Paley, Washington Post

The No. 2 commander of U.S. military forces in Iraq said Thursday that the withdrawal of most of the American troops that made up the "surge" has not harmed the war effort, adding that it was "certainly possible" thousands more could be pulled out later this year. "We'd always like to have more force, but quite frankly I think we've demonstrated that we've been very effective with what we have," Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, who began his current job in February, said in an interview.

Turkey and Iran Unite to Attack Kurdish Rebels - Associated Press

Turkey and Iran have been carrying out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, a top Turkish general said Thursday. It was the first confirmation by a military official of Iranian-Turkish cooperation in the fight against the rebels. The general, Ilker Basbug, Turkey’s land forces commander, said the two countries had been sharing intelligence and planned more coordinated attacks on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq, and an Iranian Kurdish separatist movement known as Pejak.

United Arab Emirates to Open Embassy - Ashraf Khalil, Los Angeles Times

Iraqi officials are hoping for a new era in the country's relations with Arab neighbors following the United Arab Emirates' pledge Thursday to send the first Arab ambassador to Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Sheik Abdullah ibn Zayed al Nuhayyan, the UAE's foreign minister, said here that he hoped to establish a full embassy "in the next few days."

White House Exaggerated Iraqi Threat - Warrick and Pincus, Washington Post

President Bush and top administration officials repeatedly exaggerated what they knew about Iraq's weapons and its ties to terrorist groups as the White House pressed its case for war against Iraq, the Senate intelligence committee said yesterday in a long-awaited report. While most of the administration's prewar claims about Iraq reflected now-discredited US intelligence reports, the White House crossed a line by conveying certainty about the threat that Saddam Hussein posed to the United States, according to the report, approved over the objections of most of the committee's Republican members.

Panel Accuses Bush of Exaggerations - Mazzetti and Shane, New York Times

A long-delayed Senate report endorsed by Democrats and some Republicans has concluded that President Bush and his aides built the public case for war against Iraq by exaggerating available intelligence and by ignoring disagreements among spy agencies about Iraq’s weapons programs and Saddam Hussein’s links to Al Qaeda. That some Bush administration claims about the Iraqi threat turned out to be false is hardly new. But the report, based on a detailed review of public statements by Mr. Bush and other officials, is the most comprehensive effort to date to assess whether policymakers systematically painted a more dire picture about Iraq than was justified by available intelligence.

The Truth About the War - New York Times editorial

It took just a few months after the United States’ invasion of Iraq for the world to find out that Saddam Hussein had long abandoned his nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs. He was not training terrorists or colluding with Al Qaeda. The only real threat he posed was to his own countrymen. It has taken five years to finally come to a reckoning over how much the Bush administration knowingly twisted and hyped intelligence to justify that invasion. On Thursday - after years of Republican stonewalling - a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee gave us as good a set of answers as we’re likely to get.

Iraq and the Election - Wall Street Journal editorial

This spring, the Iraqi army routed insurgents in three of their most important urban strongholds. These gains follow the success of the surge in crushing al Qaeda in the Sunni triangle, meaning that we are at last on the verge of winning in Iraq and securing a strategic victory in the Middle East. Question: Is this emerging victory - achieved at a cost of more than 4,000 American lives - something we are prepared to abandon after November?

Sea Anchoring Iraq - Richard Fernandez, The Belmont Club

Almost without anyone noticing, the relationship between the US and the Government of Iraq is moving from an authorization under UN Chapter VII to a bilateral agreement between two fully sovereign countries. Chapter VII "sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security".

SOFA, Not So Good - Dr. iRack, Abu Muqawama

Are the ongoing negotiations between the United States and Iraq to establish a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and a Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA) about to break down? The Sadrists have started protesting the talks, framing the agreements as attempts to create a permanent U.S. “occupation” (some reports in the press have embraced this narrative too; the administration denies it). And even the Maliki government and its partners in the ruling coalition have started to complain that certain provisions (e.g., basing rights, control of Iraqi airspace, contractor immunities, etc.) violate Iraqi sovereignty and may be deal breakers.

Mahdi Army Uses “Flying IEDs” in Baghdad - Bill Roggio, The Long War Journal

The explosions in the Sha'ab neighborhood in the Baghdad district of Adhamiyah, which killed 16 civilians and wounded 29 more, have been "misreported," according to the US military. The explosions in the Mahdi Army stronghold were initially reported in the media as a car bomb attack that targeted a police commander. The attack was held up as the largest bombing in Baghdad since mid-March. But the US military has refuted the reports, saying the explosions were caused by the premature detonation of a Special Groups improvised rocket launching system. The system, which has been described as a flying improvised explosive device, or airborne IED, had received little attention until yesterday’s explosions in Sha’ab.

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS

Pakistan's Worrisome Pullback - Ahmed Rashid, Washington Post opinion

Relations between the US military and the Pakistani army, critical allies in the "war on terror," are at their worst point since Sept. 11, 2001, senior Western military officers and diplomats here say, as Pakistani troops withdraw from several tribal areas bordering Afghanistan that are home to Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders and thousands of their fighters. Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, chief of the Pakistani army, has told US military and NATO officials that he will not retrain or reequip troops to fight the counterinsurgency war the Americans are demanding on Pakistan's mountainous western border.

Under-Resourcing and Force Protection - Herschel Smith, The Captain's Journal

In spite of the success the U.S. Marines have had in the Helmand Province (and the example that this has provided to NATO), the balance of NATO forces in Afghanistan are focused primarily on force protection, and in order to procure that protection, some shady deals have been struck. Spiegel recently interviewed Hamid Karzai, and while the entire piece is worth studying, one exchange stands out as descriptive of the campaign thus far. NATO forces are buying protection from criminals and warlords.

IRAN

Sciences A Part of Its Revolution - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post

Iran's determination to develop what it says is a nuclear energy program is part of a broader effort to promote technological self-sufficiency and to see Iran recognized as one of the world's most advanced nations. The country's leaders, who three decades ago wrested the government away from a ruler they saw as overly dependent on the West, invest heavily in scientific and industrial achievement, but critics say government backing is sometimes erratic, leaving Iran's technological promise unfulfilled.

Talking Iran - Jonathan Schanzer, Weekly Standard opinion

The debate continues over the benefits of engaging with the Islamic Republic of Iran, a state that has been dedicated to Islamist terrorism since 1979. The notion of a productive meeting with Iranian leaders is fantasy. However, the debate is important because it reveals how the proponents of engagement fail to understand the realities in Iran. Among those who advocate engagement with Iran, the prevailing argument is that a meeting with Iran would not necessarily have to include Iran's current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

THE LONG WAR

9/11 Mastermind Seeks Death Penalty, Martyrdom - Josh White, Washington Post

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, calmly told a U.S. military court Thursday that he wishes for a death sentence so that he can become "a martyr." Sitting at the front of a line of white-clad detainees who allegedly carried out the most devastating terrorist attack in U.S. history, Mohammed stroked his long, bushy, gray beard and spoke in confident English of his contempt for the U.S. Constitution and the military commissions designed to try him.

9/11 'Architect' Vows to Seek Martyrdom - Jerry Seper, Washington Times

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people, told a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on Thursday that he wanted to be executed and become a martyr. "This is what I wish. I wanted to be a martyr for a long time," Mr. Mohammed told Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, chief military judge for the tribunal, during the death penalty trial for him and four others accused in the attacks using hijacked commercial jetliners that destroyed the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and crashed into the Pentagon.

9/11 Suspects Arraigned at Gitmo Hearing - William Glabberson, New York Times

Five detainees who the government says were high-level coordinators of the Sept. 11 terror attacks were arraigned in a military courtroom here on Thursday morning. The five included Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has long cast himself in the role of super terrorist and has said he planned the attacks, which killed 2,973 people and set America on a course for war. He has also claimed responsibility for some thirty other acts of terror, including the decapitation murder of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Charges Against Detainees (PDF) - Washington Post

FindLaw.com copy of charge sheet.

General Sings the Gitmo Blues - Phillip Carter, Intel Dump

Unfortunately, the military commissions at Guantanamo are not fair, just and transparent -- nor legitimate. Repeating this mantra will not make it true, any more than repeating platitudes about victory in Iraq made those statements true in the dark days of 2005 and 2006. Hartmann may believe in the military commissions system and procedures. But the rest of the world doesn't.

The Uighur Dilemma - James Traanto, Wall Street Journal opinion

"Lawmakers chastised the Bush administration on Wednesday for allowing the Chinese government to interrogate Chinese Muslim detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and demanded that they be freed in the United States," the Associated Press reports. We heard about the Uighurs when we visited Guantanamo in 2006. It is true that they do not belong at Guantanamo. But the AP's benign account of their having "settled" in Afghanistan and been "swept up" is at variance with what we learned at Guantanamo.

42-day Law Will Help Terrorists - Sean O’Neill, Times of London

Gordon Brown’s case for holding terrorism suspects without charge for 42 days is bogus and little more than scaremongering, according to Sir John Major. The former Conservative Prime Minister, writing in The Times today, said that Mr Brown’s security measures were more likely to encourage terrorist recruitment than defeat the extremist threat to Britain.

42-day Detention: Threat to our Liberty - John Major, Times of London opinion

The Government's legislation to permit 42 days pre-charge detention brings to the fore the wider question of civil liberties. In their response to the security threat ministers have dragged us ever closer to a society in which ancient rights are seriously damaged. I doubt this is the Government's intention, but it is the effect.

Cluster Behind the Cluster Ban - Austin Bay, Washington Times opinion

I have yet to encounter a "surgical" weapon. A weapon exists to kill or damage living beings and material objects. "Surgical" is a questionable word, anyway, when applied to a weapon. It yokes scalpel and dagger. Both cut, but one cuts while performing medical service and the other cuts to harm or slay. When you need a dagger, however, you really need a dagger. When you need a B-52, you really need a B-52. The "when" of course reflects either a threatened (defensive) or threatening (offensive) situation, though in our complex existence being threatened and being threatening are often simultaneous conditions.

Declare Independence - Mike Rogers, Washington Times opinion

Foreign oil is funding our enemies. Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is funding the Castro regime in Cuba and narcoterrorists in Columbia. Iran is funding Hezbollah militias. The Persian Gulf nations are funding al Qaida, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Taliban. Russia has doubled its military spending in the last five years. Why? Because they are charging American consumers more than $130 for a barrel of oil and we have no choice but to pay it. America needs to declare its energy independence from dictators, extremists, and those who want to destroy our freedom and our democracy.

Pirate Attacks Up 75% - Noah Shachtman, Danger Room

Somewhere on the world's waterways, a pirate will try to strike today. Another will tomorrow. And another the day after that. Piracy is on the rise, across the globe -- up nearly 75%, from last decade to this one, according to a new report from the RAND Corporation. There's now at least an attempt at a pirate attack nearly every day. Why? Mainly, the RAND report says, because there are now more targets to loot. "First and most fundamentally, there has been a massive increase in commercial maritime traffic. Combined with the large number of ports around the world, this growth has provided pirates with an almost limitless range of tempting, high-payoff targets."

IRREGULAR WARFARE

Polking the Advisor Mission in the Eye - Kip, Abu Muqawama

Six years into the Long War, efforts to train advisors remain mediocre. But they are improving. Fort Riley Training Mission commander Colonel Jeff Ingram deserves special plaudits for taking a thankless mission after having the combat forces gutted from his brigade and attempting to foster effective, survivable combat advisor teams. As an advisor-in-training in October 2006, the training we received was the worst I had received in the Army to date. The training schedule seemed to be an hour ahead of our current location, and often an hour behind. The idea that operating in Afghanistan might be different than Iraq had perhaps crossed the trainers' minds, but the solutions was simply to train as though we would go to Iraq and finish by saying, "Well, this should help for Afghanistan as well." If I had ten dollars for every time an instructor said, "So, where are you guys headed in Iraq? Oh, you're going to Afghanistan. Well, its about the same thing," I could have foregone combat pay.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Moseley and Wynne Forced Out - Air Force Times

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael W. Wynne were forced to resign Thursday during hastily arranged meetings with their Pentagon bosses. Moseley was summoned to an early morning meeting with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss a report on the Air Force’s problems handling nuclear weapons. The report, by Navy Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of naval nuclear propulsion, convinced Defense Secretary Robert Gates that senior officials should be held accountable. Moseley resigned in response. Later in the morning, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England was dispatched to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to ask for Wynne’s resignation, sources said. Wynne resigned during the meeting.

Top Two Air Force Officials Ousted - Tyson and White, Washington Post

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ousted the Air Force's civilian and military chiefs yesterday, an unprecedented move that came after a classified Pentagon investigation found "a chain of failures" in the Air Force's safeguarding of the US nuclear arsenal. Gates decided to remove Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and the chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, because "the focus of the Air Force leadership has drifted with respect to perhaps its most sensitive mission," he said yesterday, adding that he would recommend replacements for both positions to President Bush shortly.

2 Top Leaders of Air Force Pushed Out - Thom Shanker, New York Times

The Air Force’s senior civilian official and its highest-ranking general were ousted by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Thursday following an official inquiry into the mishandling of nuclear weapons and components, an episode that Mr. Gates called an indication of systemic problems in the Air Force. The Air Force secretary, Michael W. Wynne, and the service’s chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, were forced to resign after the inquiry found that the latest incident reflected “a pattern of poor performance” in securing sensitive military components, Mr. Gates said at a Pentagon briefing. So deep and serious are the problems, Mr. Gates said, that he has asked a former defense secretary, James R. Schlesinger, to head “a senior-level task force” to recommend improvements in the safekeeping of weapons, delivery vehicles and other sensitive items.

Air Force Leadership in Shake-up - Robert Burns, Associated Press

The military and civilian chiefs of the Air Force are resigning, U.S. officials said Thursday. Defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne to step down. Wynne is the second civilian chief of a military service to be forced out by Gates. In March 2007 the defense secretary pushed out Francis Harvey, the Army secretary, because Gates was dissatisfied with Harvey's handling of revelations of inadequate housing conditions and bureaucratic delays for troops recovering from war wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Air Force has endured a number of embarrassing setbacks over the past year. In August, for instance, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown across the country. The pilot and crew were unaware they had nuclear arms aboard.

Air Force Firings - Max Boot, Contentions

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talked a lot about the need for good management in this sprawling government bureaucracy. His successor, Bob Gates, seems to be practicing it. First he forced out the Army secretary, Francis Harvey, in March 2007, because of the scandal at Walter Read Army Medical Center over the handling of disabled veterans. Then this March he got rid of Admiral Fox Fallon, the head of Central Command, who had made his position untenable through what were perceived as public disagreements with administration foreign policy. Now he has canned Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne. Gates had developed a long line of grievances against them.

Finding Context For Ousted Air Force Leaders - Galrahn, Information Dissemination

You have to look back a fairly long distance to find generals and admirals being relieved of combat commands, either in combat or just prior to deployment. Only eight American generals or admirals have been publicly relieved of command from a combatant unit, or in a combat zone, since 1945. As noted, significantly, only one of them was relieved for failure. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was yanked from command by President Truman during the Korean War not because he had failed, but for outright insubordination. He disagreed with the president, was privately informed to toe the line and, instead, continued his de facto attempts to create his own foreign policy. (This included the threat to bring Taiwanese Nationalist Chinese into the conflict in Korea, as well as his better-known comments on the use of nuclear weapons.) More recently, Adm. William Fallon “voluntarily stepped down” after a media story appeared that highlighted his heretofore apparent private disagreements with members of the executive office of the vice president and the president. In both cases, the salient feature was not a failure to win at the operational or strategic level - the echelon occupied by both Fallon and MacArthur - but one of subordination of the military to the duly constituted civilian authority.

Gates Shoots Down Air Force Brass - Westhawk, Westhawk

In his statement to the Pentagon press corps, Secretary Gates stated that the reason for the firings of Secretary Wynne and General Moseley was their inattention to the Air Force's nuclear mission. Mr. Gates pointed to the mis-shipment of ICBM missile components to Taiwan, last year's 5th Bomb Wing Bent Spear incident, and, most fatally, the Air Force's nonchalant follow-up to these grievous custody errors. What most annoyed Mr. Gates, as he made clear in his speech, was that he had to personally inquire about what remedial actions the Air Force was taking to address these command failures. Evidently, Secretary Gates was neither happy that he had to do so, nor was he pleased by the responses he received.

Inside the Ring - Bill Gertz, Washington Times

Beginning today, Inside the Ring moves from Friday to Thursday and will appear each week in the National Security section of Plugged In.

Youngest Marine to get Medal of Honor Dies - Washington Times

Jack Lucas, who at 14 lied his way into military service during World War II and became the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, died Thursday in a Hattiesburg, Miss., hospital. He was 80. Jacklyln "Jack" Lucas was just six days past his 17th birthday in February 1945 when his heroism at Iwo Jima earned him the nation's highest military honor. He used his body to shield three fellow squad members from two grenades, and was nearly killed when one exploded.

UK MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Army Pay: The Wages of War - Times of London editorial

Should Britain not value the commitment and bravery of its troops by offering a private more than the £16,227 that an 18-year-old earns as a basic wage? The immediate response of the public, whose respect for the Armed Forces stands high whatever view is taken of their deployments overseas, would be an emphatic yes. Yet pay cannot be set by attempting to price courage or a willingness to make sacrifices. Such things are, literally, priceless: valour, heroism and human life are not measured in pounds and pence, nor pay rises of inflation plus 3 per cent.

AFRICA

Zimbabwe Tells All Aid Groups to Halt Efforts - Celia Dugger, New York Times

Zimbabwe’s government has ordered all humanitarian aid groups to suspend their operations in the deeply impoverished nation, a prohibition that relief agencies estimate will deprive two million people of food aid and other basic assistance. The government had already barred CARE, one of the world’s largest aid groups, from providing humanitarian aid in the country, accusing it of siding with the political opposition before a presidential runoff this month.

Zimbabwe: Aid Groups Banned - Times of London

All aid groups wishing to operate in Zimbabwe will have to promise not to interfere in domestic politics if they want to get round a blanket ban imposed by Robert Mugabe's government. The ban came in a letter sent yesterday to non-governmental organisations by Nicholas Goche, the Public Service Minister, who ordered voluntary groups to "suspend all field operations immediately". Mr Goche said in that letter that had come to his attention that "a number of NGOs involved in humanitarian operations are breaching the terms and conditions of their registration”.

US, British Diplomats Attacked in Zimbabwe - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post

A mob of loyalists to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe attacked vehicles carrying US and British diplomats yesterday as they were investigating political violence ahead of a presidential runoff election this month, the State Department said. The diplomats were quickly released, but one driver, a Zimbabwean, was beaten and car tires were slashed. US and British officials condemned the attack, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying the United States had raised at the UN Security Council the "outrageous behavior in the treatment of diplomats."

US, Britain Urge UN to Act on Attacks - Betsy Pisik, Washington Times

The United States and Britain on Thursday pressed the United Nations to take up the issue of political repression in Zimbabwe after police beat up a US Embassy staffer and briefly detained US and British diplomats. US officials in New York and Washington expressed outrage, saying the incident violates international conventions protecting foreign diplomats.

Robert Mugabe: Africa’s Pariah - Times of London editorial

As Robert Mugabe basked in his own infamy in Rome on Wednesday, his enforcers in Zimbabwe soaked five opposition members with petrol and set them alight. Two died. As the world food summit heard Mr Mugabe blame Britain for his people’s hunger, his Government suspended charity operations that have been keeping four million of them alive. As the UN counted the cost of Mr Mugabe’s diplomatic immunity yesterday, thugs attacked a convoy of British and US diplomats. Their crime: investigating the plague of state-sanctioned violence that grips Zimbabwe.

Getting Mugabe Out - Los Angeles Times editorial

It's a shame that the Iraq war has made it impossible to advocate regime change, because Zimbabwe's strongman, President Robert Mugabe, is such a deserving candidate. While the CIA has been dutifully keeping its powder dry, Mugabe, a despot who lacks oil or nuclear weapons, has become an increasingly lethal menace to his own people. Zimbabweans voted for peaceful regime change in March. Despite intimidation, they voted in such numbers that Mugabe was unable to steal the election outright and has been forced into a June 27 runoff with challenger Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe's response has been to unleash a reign of terror: death squads, mass beatings of political opponents, crackdowns on themedia and on aid groups that have been feeding the desperate populace.

Security Council Push to Condemn Sudan - Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court presented a grim portrait of conditions in the Darfur region of Sudan to the Security Council on Thursday, as a majority of Council members pushed for what would be the first statement in three years condemning the Sudanese government. The United States, long openly antagonistic toward the court, signaled a more supportive approach, with the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, endorsing it to prosecute war crimes in Darfur. In the past the United States has shown only passive support, abstaining on votes regarding the court’s involvement in Darfur,

Sudanese Leaders to Face War Crimes Charges - James Bone, Times of London

Top Sudanese officials will soon face war crimes charges after the international prosecutor declared the “whole state apparatus” responsible for a campaign of rape and pillage in Darfur. In a strongly worded speech, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in the Hague, told the UN Security Council yesterday he would publicly name the alleged perpetrators when he seeks arrest warrants next month.

Africa's Messiah of Horror - Michael Gerson, Washington Post opinion

A friend, the head of a major aid organization, tells how his workers in eastern Congo a few years ago chanced upon a group of shell-shocked women and children in the bush. A militia had kidnapped a number of families and forced the women to kill their husbands with machetes, under the threat that their sons and daughters would be murdered if they refused. Afterward the women were raped by more than 100 soldiers; the children were spectators at their own private genocide. This is ultimately the work and trademark of a single man: Joseph Kony, the most carnivorous killer since Idi Amin. As the military and spiritual leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Kony is a combination of serial murderer and cult leader.

AMERICAS

Leftist Thinking Left Off Syllabus - Marla Dickerson, Los Angeles Times

Leftist ideology may be gaining ground in Latin America. But it will never set foot on the manicured lawns of Francisco Marroquin University. For nearly 40 years, this private college has been a citadel of laissez-faire economics. Here, banners quoting "The Wealth of Nations" author Adam Smith - he of the powdered wig and invisible hand - flutter over the campus food court. Every undergraduate, regardless of major, must study market economics and the philosophy of individual rights embraced by the US founding fathers, including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Hugo Chavez, Rightly Paranoid? - Los Angeles Times editorial

After Venezuelans rejected Hugo Chavez's attempt to amend the constitution and install himself as president in perpetuity, he vowed nonetheless to concentrate power in his hands. And he has, in predictably socialist ways. On a nationalizing spree, the government is swallowing up telecommunications and electricity industries, energy and steel. Chavez's latest move, however, has nothing to do with the redistribution of wealth and everything to do with one man's paranoia. A new intelligence decree, enacted last week, requires the public to assist the secret police and other organizations with their investigations or face up to four years in prison. Also, wiretapping and other surveillance methods no longer require court orders, and judges and prosecutors must aid intelligence agency investigations. So begins a retro-Soviet system of informants, snitches and operatives -- or maybe Venezuela's community councils, all loyal to Chavez, will mimic Cuba's Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

ASIA PACIFIC

Aiding and Abetting - Washington Times editorial

The export of sensitive equipment and security expertise to Communist China's military and police in advance of the 2008 Olympics is the latest sign of a new and troubling acquiescence in recent Bush administration policy toward Beijing. As Bill Gertz of The Washington Times reported yesterday, the Commerce, Defense and State departments have approved approximately $5 million in equipment, including X-ray scanners, radiation detection gear and more - some of it restricted under the Export Administration Act from export to China - for shipment. The FBI, Secret Service and other agencies will be contributing personnel. Thus, the next time the US government exhorts its European allies to uphold the post-Tiananmen China arms embargo, it can be rightly accused of hypocrisy. The United States can also be accused of callousness toward human-rights concerns on this account, since, with near certainty, Chinese security services are likely to turn their newfound expertise on internal dissidents, or use it for aggrandizing purposes generally once the Olympic Games are complete.

Cruelty and Silence in Burma - Boston Globe editorial

More than a million victims of the May 2 cyclone in Burma are still without food, water, shelter, and medicine. Yet the ruling junta refused 15 requests to let the USS Essex and three support ships in the Bay of Bengal deliver aid to uprooted villagers. Finally, tragically, the four ships steamed away from Burma on Thursday, along with 22 helicopters and four amphibious landing craft that are ideally suited to bring relief supplies directly to stranded survivors. "Should the Burmese rulers have a change of heart and request our full assistance for their suffering people," Admiral Timothy Keating said, "we are prepared to help." Keating and his 5,000 sailors were eager to take on a mission of mercy, one that the American public would be sure to support and all of Asia would appreciate. What the admiral has learned - and what the rest of the world has witnessed in the past five weeks - is that the Burmese generals who deny life-saving succor to their people can have no change of heart. They are heartless.

EUROPE

Turkey’s High Court Overturns Headscarf Rule - Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times

Turkey’s highest court dealt a stinging slap to the governing party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, ruling that a legal change allowing women attending universities to wear head scarves was unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court said in a brief statement that the change, proposed by Mr. Erdogan’s party and passed by Parliament in February, violated principles of secularism set in Turkey’s Constitution.

Turkey's Putin Deserves to Go - Michael Rubin, Wall Street Journal opinion

Yesterday Turkey's constitutional court overturned a new law that would have allowed women in the secular republic - established in 1923 by the Westernizing Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - to wear Muslim headscarves in universities. It now appears all but certain that this summer the court will go even further when it decides a larger case against the country's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development (AK) Party. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AK stand accused of violating "the principles of a democratic and secular republic." Penalties could range from a suspension of the party's public financing to its disbandment and the suspension of its leadership from politics. Such a development should be welcome in the United States.

SOUTH ASIA

Explosives Seized Near Islamabad - Associated Press

Pakistan authorities seized two vehicles carrying about 2,200 pounds of explosives, foiling a possible terror plot near Pakistan's capital, officials said. Senior police officer Rao Mohammed Iqbal told The Associated Press that several suspects were arrested in the operation late Thursday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi - just days after a suicide car bombing against the Danish Embassy here killed six people.

Father of Pakistan's Bomb Stands Defiant - Candace Rondeaux, Washington Post

Pakistan has been under pressure for years to give the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency access to Khan. So far, the government has refused, saying Pakistan has already conducted its own investigation into Khan's nuclear dealings. Yet more recently, as Musharraf's power here has waned, so too, it seems, has American interest in Khan, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Bus Bombing Kills 21 in Sri Lanka - Rhys Blakley, Times of London

A bomb blast on a crowded bus near Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, has killed 21 and injured more than 50 people in what is thought to be the latest in a string of recent attacks by the separatist Tamil Tiger movement. "Twenty-one people have been killed, eight of them are women," a police spokesman said. The attack was the third targeting civilians in and around Colombo in less than two weeks.

Security Forces Arrest 16 Monks in Tibet - Edward Cody, Washington Post

Security forces in Tibet have arrested 16 Buddhist monks on charges of planning or carrying out separatist bombings that authorities said were inspired by propaganda from the Dalai Lama, the New China News Agency reported Thursday. The arrests, which the official agency said took place in May, refocused attention on Tibet after nearly a month during which the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province has dominated news from China and eclipsed a still-intense security crackdown in the restive mountain region.

16 Monks Arrested in Tibet Bombings - Keith Bradsher, New York Times

The police in Tibet have arrested 16 Buddhist monks and accused them of involvement in three bombings, a police spokesman in northeastern Tibet said Thursday. All three bombings involved homemade explosives and caused only property damage, the spokesman said in a telephone interview.

UNITED NATIONS

Meeting Ends With a Call for ‘Urgent’ Action - Andrew Martin, New York Times

A three-day United Nations conference on spiraling food costs concluded late on Thursday with the delegates calling on countries and financial institutions to provide more food for the world’s poor and increase agriculture production to ensure adequate supplies in the future. The final declaration, completed Thursday, sought “urgent and coordinated action” to address the problems associated with higher food prices, to raise food production, to lower trade barriers and to increase research in agriculture. The draft declaration largely sidestepped the issue of biofuels, which had emerged as the most contentious matter at the conference.

Summit Ends with Contentious Resolution - Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

A world summit on hunger veered near collapse late Thursday when Latin American countries objected bitterly to a final, watered-down resolution designed to boost agriculture and control soaring food prices. Ultimately, the declaration was adopted, with about 180 countries pledging to work to eliminate hunger and secure access to food "for all, today and tomorrow" through urgent actions, including the easing of trade barriers and the supply of seeds and fertilizer to poor farmers.

EVENTS OF INTEREST

17-19 June 208 - 3rd Annual North American Security Colloquium: Wars Without Borders (Public Event). Kingston, Ontario. Sponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, Queen's Centre for International Relations, and Defence Management Studies at Queen's University, and the Canadian 'Forces' Land Doctrine and Training System. The conflicts today in Iraq and in Afghanistan are examples of what some leading scholars and many commanders have termed “continuous wars among the people.” This type of conflict is developing or occurring in other regions of the world, in Africa and in Latin America for example. In many of these situations traditional and legal borders no longer define or contain the conflict, nor do obvious sovereign entities control belligerents. International commitments to control these conflicts necessarily demand complex, multi-dimensional diplomatic, military, police, and humanitarian responses. What has been learned about such conflicts from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan may to some degree be transferable to conflicts in other regions. Assuming that the international community may well face future operations characterized by regional, borderless “wars among the people”, the centres at Queen’s University and their partners propose convening a distinguished group of approximately 200 experts from academic, military, governmental, and international institutions to examine how best to prepare commanders, military units and governments to plan for and conduct complex, multi-dimensional stability campaigns in this new environment.

16-18 September 2008 - The U.S. Army and the Interagency Process: A Historical Perspective (Public Event - Conference / Call for Papers). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Sponsored by the U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute. The symposium will include a variety of guest speakers, panel sessions, and general discussions. This symposium will explore the partnership between the U.S. Army and government agencies in attaining national goals and objectives in peace and war within a historical context. Separate international topics may be presented. The symposium will also examine current issues, dilemmas, problems, trends, and practices associated with U.S. Army operations requiring close interagency cooperation.