IRAQ

Brittle Calm and War Scars - Alissa Rubin, New York Times

Less than an hour east and north of Baghdad sprawls Diyala Province, once the garden of Iraq, known for its date and orange orchards, its rice and its barley farms. More recently it has been known as one of Iraq’s worst killing fields. Military operations here over the past 12 months have curbed the worst of the province’s violence, but the situation defines the word “fragile” - a description often pressed into service by American generals and diplomats to describe all of Iraq.

Attacks Take 16 Lives - Zaid Sabah, Washington Post

A wave of attacks in Baghdad and areas north of the capital Sunday shattered a relative lull in violence, killing 16 people and injuring 15 a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared that Iraq's government had defeated terrorism. Also Sunday, the United Arab Emirates announced that it was canceling $4 billion in debt owed by Iraq and restoring full diplomatic relations with the Iraqi government, according to the UAE's official news agency. It was the latest sign that Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors are easing their diplomatic isolation of Iraq's Shiite-led government, after considerable pressure from the United States.

General Petraeus is Star Attraction in Iraq - James Hider, The Times

Hundreds of men and women, many of them armed, line up in a marble hall inside one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces, waiting patiently for more than half an hour for their hero to turn up. The object of so much adulation is General David Petraeus, the 55-year-old commander of US and allied forces in Iraq. General Petraeus, widely credited with the military strategy that has clawed Iraq back from civil war to a semblance of stability, is in such demand for photographs that his aides have had to organise special mass photo-ops every six weeks inside the Green Zone and at the other huge US base at Baghdad airport. “He's a real leader at a great time,” said Master Sergeant John Fife of the US Air Force, who had brought a group of comrades and local Iraqi staff across the vast fortified compound for the chance to have their picture taken with the general, who devised Iraq's counterinsurgency strategy.

US Helps Remove Uranium From Iraq - Rubin and Robertson, New York Times

American and Iraqi officials have completed nearly the last chapter in dismantling Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program with the removal of hundreds of tons of natural uranium from the country’s main nuclear site. The uranium, which was removed several weeks ago, arrived in Canada over the weekend, according to officials.

Where Do We Go From Here? - New York Times editorial

The alarming resurgence of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan makes it even more imperative for the United States to begin planning for a swift and orderly withdrawal from Iraq. For far too long President Bush’s disastrous war of choice in Iraq has leached resources and top-level attention from the war of necessity in Afghanistan. A grim new statistic underscores just how badly things are going there: 46 American and allied forces died in Afghanistan in June, more than during any other month since the war began in 2001. And for the second straight month, combat deaths in Afghanistan exceeded those for American-led forces in Iraq, where 31 troops died. The recent decline in violence in Iraq is very welcome, but it has yet to be matched with essential political reforms. Instead of planning for a serious drawdown of American troops, the White House is using its self-proclaimed success as one more excuse for staying on.

Salutes for the Surge - Terence Jeffrey, Washington Times opinoin

Page 12 of a Government Accountability Office report published June 23 features data about the war in Iraq - drawn from the Defense Intelligence Agency - that must be central to the debate about what the United States does next in that country. It indicates we have started to win a war we cannot afford to lose. The GAO report is titled, "Securing, Stabilizing and Rebuilding Iraq; Progress Report: Some Gains Made, Updated Strategy Needed." The key DIA data is presented as a chart, titled "Enemy Initiated Attacks by Month, May 2003 to May 2008."

Schism Enabled Surge to Work - Benjamin Schwartz, Philadelphia Inquirer opinion

The last of the five "surge" brigades are scheduled to redeploy from Iraq this month. The counterinsurgency strategy launched in 2007 has coincided with a dramatic decrease in violence, the strategic defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and most recently, the disbandment of the Mahdi Army. A year ago, the most compelling critique of the surge was that even with the additional brigades the American military didn't have enough troops to implement a strategy aimed at protecting Iraq's major population centers. While counterintuitive, the success of the surge doesn't invalidate this critique. The surge was only one of three major developments that created the conditions for the recent progress. Indeed, the chief lesson of the last year is not that the surge is a universal model for successful counterinsurgency, but rather that in war, timing is everything.

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS

7 Killed, 51 Wounded in Kabul Blast - Associated Press

A suicide car bomb exploded on a crowded street near the Indian Embassy in central Kabul during Monday morning rush hour, killing seven people and wounding 51, officials said. Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said five people were killed at the scene. Sayed Qabir, the chief of a Kabul hospital, said his staff treated eight people who were wounded in the blast, but two of them died. Officials at Jamuriyah hospital in Kabul posted a list of 51 people who were wounded in the blast. The list included three women and four children.

Afghans Say New Strike Killed Civilians - Abdul Waheed Wafa, New York Times

Local officials in eastern Afghanistan said Sunday that an American airstrike killed at least 27 civilians in a wedding party, most of them women and children and including the bride. Officials of the American-led coalition disputed the report, saying that the airstrike killed militants and that there was no evidence of women and children at the scene. The attack early Sunday in the Deh Bala district of Nangarhar Province was the second in the past three days in which many civilian deaths were reported. The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has ordered an investigation into a helicopter strike on Friday in Nuristan Province in which the provincial governor said 22 civilians had been killed and 7 wounded.

Afghan Inquiry into US Bombing of 'Wedding' - Tom Coghlan, The Times

Afghan officials are investigating reports from a remote area of eastern Afghanistan that US warplanes bombed a wedding party this morning, killing more than 20 civilians including women and children. The incident in Deh Bala, a mountainous district of Nangahar Province very close to the Pakistan border, is the second alleged episode of “collateral damage” involving American aircraft in three days.

IRAN

Iran has 'Resumed' A-bomb Project - Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph

Iran has resumed work on constructing highly sophisticated equipment that nuclear experts say is primarily used for building atomic weapons, according to the latest intelligence reports received by Western diplomats. The work is aimed at developing the blueprint provided by Dr AQ Khan, the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, who sold Iran details of how to build atom bombs in the early 1990s. Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which has overall responsibility for the country's nuclear programme, has set up several civilian companies to work on the programme whose activities are being deliberately concealed from the United Nations nuclear inspection teams.

Israel Is 'Canceled' in Berlin - Wall Street Journal editorial

Iranian calls for the destruction of Israel are almost routine these days. But for a former official of the Islamic Republic to call for the destruction of the Jewish state in the city where the Holocaust was planned adds a repugnant twist – especially as the German government sponsored the event that gave the man from Tehran a Western stage. At a conference on the Mideast in Berlin on Wednesday, Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani said the "Zionist project," which has "created only violence and atrocities," should be "canceled." Mr. Larijani, a former deputy foreign minister, is the brother of Iran's former nuclear negotiator and current parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani.

THE LONG WAR

Guantanamo Crumbles - Washington Post editorial

The case of Huzaifa Parhat provides the clearest, most compelling evidence yet that the process used by the Bush administration to justify holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay is deeply and irreversibly flawed and must be discarded. Mr. Parhat is an ethnic Uighur who fled China in 2001 because of the abuses against Uighurs in that country. He arrived in a camp in Afghanistan known as a refuge for Uighurs who opposed the Chinese government. The camp was destroyed by US airstrikes in late 2001, and Mr. Parhat and fellow Uighurs fled to Pakistan for a short while before being turned over to the United States by Pakistani officials. He was sent to the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002.

We are Not at War - Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post opinion

George W. Bush is fond of describing himself as a "war president." And he has made many decisions involving soldiers and battle. But does this make the description an appropriate one? For many people the answer is obvious. We're engaged in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, after all. But Bill Clinton initiated hostilities in the Balkans twice, George H.W. Bush invaded Panama and Iraq, and neither president ever described himself as a "war president." For a superpower, being involved in a military conflict somewhere is more the norm than the exception.

American Spirit on Flight 93 - C. Fraser Smith, Baltimore Sun opinion

I made my long-delayed Flight 93 pilgrimage a week before July 4 this year. This is where the United Airlines plane crashed on 9/11. It's the final resting place of 40 passengers and crew, some of whom apparently overwhelmed a group of terrorists - in all likelihood saving lives and national treasure in Washington, D.C., the terrorists' target destination. I've always marveled at the story: the image of ordinary people accepting what surely they feared would be a fatal challenge. On my brief visit, I learned there was even more to the story.

America is Clueless on OBL - Ben Wittes, New York Daily News opinion

News flash: Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are captured in Pakistani tribal areas and turned over to American custody. What would happen next? Celebratory news stories, cries of a major victory in the war on terrorism - and total confusion. This is the shameful truth: Six and a half years, four major Supreme Court cases - including the landmark ruling giving detainees habeas corpus rights - and endless lower court litigation after Sept. 11, 2001, we have no agreed-upon rules for handling this situation.

Tolerate Sharia, Never Respect It - Minette Marrin, The Times opinion

One of life’s many mysteries is the question of why the lord chief justice Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the most senior judge in England, was moved to speak out in public about sharia. Last week he gave a speech to a large audience at an east London mosque about the place of sharia in resolving disputes. He must have known, from the experiences of the Archbishop of Canterbury, that no matter what he said, his speech would be inflammatory; as Usama Hasan, an imam and an adviser to the Islamic Sharia Council here said at the time, it is very difficult to have a sensible discussion about sharia here because the subject is “like a red rag” to the public mind. So, if such an important Establishment figure as Phillips takes it upon himself to stir up this nest of hornets, he must surely have something extremely important to say or to recommend. Yet - and this is the mystery - he appeared to be saying nothing new at all.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

US Deserter's Claim - Globe and Mail editorial

Letting US army deserters make refugee claims in Canada because they object to counterinsurgency tactics in Iraq sets the bar too low. Nothing in the precedents cited by the Federal Court of Canada on Friday remotely resembles the case brought by Joshua Key of the United States. There is a reason for that: A soldier ordered to roust people from their homes is not one of the world's persecuted. Also, refugees are those with no recourse to a fair hearing inside their own country. Mr. Key lives in a democracy, and he appears to have run from the US without pleading his case first. To be clear, Mr. Justice Robert Barnes did not grant Mr. Key refugee status. But he did seem willing to bend over backward to give him a second chance to make his claim. It is hard to see how Joshua Key deserves refugee status.

AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE

Gen Y Set to Fight Next War - Patrick Walters, The Australian

When Peter Leahy joined the Australian Army 37 years ago, our soldiers were highly proficient in counterinsurgency warfare. Coming out of the New Guinea campaign in World War II, the army had been engaged continuously in unconventional conflict, including the Malayan emergency in the 1950s and confrontation with Indonesia in the early 1960s, followed by Vietnam. Nearly four decades on, the army is back in the counterinsurgency game in Afghanistan, acquiring new war-fighting skills. Army planners are now writing a new counterinsurgency doctrine that embraces a wholly different battlefield to that experienced in the jungles of South Vietnam. Lieutenant-General Leahy, 55, retired from the army on Thursday as the longest serving army chief since Harry Chauvel 80 years ago. But unlike Chauvel, who stepped down in 1930 at the onset of the Depression, leaving a budget-starved permanent land force of barely 1500 men, Leahy is leaving when the army is flourishing and in the middle of a 10-year, $10 billion rebuilding program.

CANADA DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE

Little Enthusiasm for Arctic Sovereignty Patrol - Steven Chase, Globe and Mail

The Canadian Forces have come under fire in an internal report highly critical of military leaders' lack of interest in an Arctic sovereignty protection exercise last August. Defending Arctic sovereignty is supposed to be a major priority under goals the Harper government set when it took office in February, 2006. The report on Operation Nanook, obtained by The Globe and Mail under the Access to Information law, was written by a Forces directorate that helped organize the August, 2007, Arctic exercise. It says Canadian military leaders didn't place a high enough priority on the operation, and it singles out for criticism Canada Command, the military organization given the task of defending this count.

US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

McCain Keeps Focus on Iraq - Ariel Sabar, Christian Science Monitor

John McCain has called Iraq the "central front" of the war on terror, a crucible of America's ability to defeat violent Islamic extremists the world over. But with record US casualties in Afghanistan in June, a resurgent Taliban, and new reports of Al Qaeda regrouping in northwest Pakistan, Senator McCain is likely to face new questions about his judgment on the one issue - national security - where voters consistently give him higher marks than they do his Democratic rival. McCain has resisted calls for more troops in Afghanistan and has rejected criticism that the Iraq war is detracting from efforts to secure Afghanistan. He labeled Barack Obama "naive" for saying he'd strike terrorist targets in Pakistan with or without the cooperation of President Pervez Musharraf.

The Stand That Obama Can't Fudge - E. J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post opinion

When a candidate calls a second news conference to say the same thing he thought he said at the first one, you know he knows he has a problem. Thus Barack Obama's twin news conferences last week in Fargo, N.D. At his first, Obama promised to do a "thorough assessment" of his Iraq policy in his coming visit there and "continue to gather information" to "make sure that our troops are safe and that Iraq is stable." You might ask: What's wrong with that? A commander in chief willing to adjust his view to facts and realities should be a refreshing idea. But when news reports suggested Obama was backing away from his commitment to withdrawing troops from Iraq in 16 months, Obama's lieutenants no doubt heard echoes of those cries of "flip-flop" that rocked the 2004 Republican National Convention and proved devastating to John Kerry.

Turns in Iraq and Barack - Donald Lambro, Washington Times opinion

Violence has drastically declined in Iraq, the chief Sunni Muslim political bloc is ready to rejoin the Shi'ite-led government, and Obama campaign advisers are talking about a more gradual troop pullout plan. These are among the remarkable developments in Iraq since President Bush implemented the surge strategy - a bold gambit that has proven all of the defeatists wrong, strengthened Iraq's fledgling democracy and given Iraqi citizens new hope for a better life. But perhaps the most stunning political development after the surge's success is a grudging movement within the Obama campaign to recognize that the situation in Iraq has improved. The candidate has given signs he is ready to scale back his defeatist-driven plans for a complete military pullout should he win the presidency in November.

The Democrats' Foreign-policy Game - Stuart Gottlieb, CSM opinion

The Democratic Party and its presumed presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, have made "restoring America's image" and "renewing American leadership" cornerstones of their foreign-policy promises for 2008.Nearly every Democratic foreign-policy speech, press release, or Web link says as much. This is a powerful message that certainly resonates with American voters and our friends around the world. However, if we look just below the surface of the rhetoric and analyze specific policies proposed by Democrats in Congress and on the campaign trail, we find plans that would only further damage America's international standing. On two critical issues in particular – trade and the war in Iraq – Democrats have been trying to have their cake and eat it too: They claim they will restore America's image and leadership and simultaneously promise unilateralist and irresponsible policies certain to have the opposite effect.

Attack Boomerangs - Jack Kelly, Washington Times opinion

No president since Dwight Eisenhower has had more military experience than Sen. John McCain, who served 22 years in the Navy, nearly six of them as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. So many people were puzzled by the line of attack chosen by retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a supporter of Barack Obama: "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" program June 29. That Mr. McCain once commanded the largest flying squadron in the Navy wasn't much of a qualification either, Gen. Clark said, because he didn't have that command in wartime. Gen. Clark's larger point - that being a war hero is an insufficient qualification to be president - is reasonable enough, but was lost in his boorish dismissal of Mr. McCain's military service.

Obama’s Message to Europe - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion

Senator Barack Obama is expected here on July 24 to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Democratic presidential candidate is scheduled to make a speech at the Brandenburg Gate that aides describe as the major address of a European tour also taking him to London and Paris. Here’s what he should say.

UNITED NATIONS

UN Troops in Congo Gold Warning - Martin Plaut, BBC News

Three Indian army officers have been let off with a warning over allegations of gold trafficking while they were UN peacekeepers in the DR Congo. The allegations, first revealed by the BBC, were part of a wider investigation carried out by the UN. A UN report said there was evidence that Indian troops in eastern Congo had traded gold and drugs with a militia involved in the Rwandan genocide.

AFRICA

Gunmen Kill UN Official in Somalia - Associated Press

Gunmen opened fire on people leaving a mosque in Mogadishu on Sunday night, killing one of the country’s senior United Nations officials and wounding his son and another man, a witness and a family member said. Attacks on officials, including those working for the United Nations and international aid agencies, are common in Somalia, where Islamic militants have vowed to fight an insurgency against the country’s weak government, which is supported by the United Nations.

Youth Militias Accused of Holding Women as Sex Slaves - Los Angeles Times

She has to call the young men her "comrades." She cooks food for the comrades and serves them. She sweeps the comrades' floor and cleans up after them. And whenever any of the comrades want sex, she is raped. Asiatu, 21, is a prisoner of the comrades at a command base of the ruling ZANU-PF party, one of 900 such camps set up by the party to terrorize Zimbabweans into voting for Robert Mugabe in the one-man presidential runoff late last month and extending his 28-year rule. The election is over, but the terror isn't.

Mugabe Betrays African Dreams - Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune opinion

If you've been following the sad news in Zimbabwe, you will hear the irony in the name of its capital city, Harare. In the language of the Shona people. It means "One who does not sleep." When I slipped into Zimbabwe a few years ago as a board member of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, I slept restlessly out of fear of being arrested. President Robert Mugabe had shut the door on visas to outside journalists. Since then attacks have increased against the press and anyone else who does not toe Mugabe's political party line. And Zimbabweans sleep more fitfully. Some of the reasons are spelled out in a list of the Zimbabwe's dead, compiled and distributed by Mugabe's political opposition to international media and reported by Paul Salopek, the Chicago Tribune's prize-winning Africa correspondent.

The Hitler of Africa - Nat Hentoff, Washington Times opinion

At the cost of at least 80 lives of members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change - and thousands of Zimbabweans beaten mercilessly to nail down their votes - Robert Mugabe, running savagely alone, remains in total, ruthless control of the country he first liberated and then continues to terrorize. A witness to his victory is an 11-year-old boy whose legs were shattered by his "Green Bombers" youth militia. Following Mr. Mugabe's Stalinesque triumph, the UN Security Council expressed "deep regrets" that the election was conducted "in these circumstances." That language would have been a tad more critical, but South Africa, not wanting to hurt Mr. Mugabe's feelings, objected to describing the elections as "illegitimate." On the very day before, hospitals in Harare, the capital, were overflowing, as there weren't enough doctors. Some hospitals, responding to threats by the military, refused to take any more victims of torture.

How Inflation May Topple Mugabe - Roger Bate, Wall Street Journal opinion

Amid Zimbabwe's political violence is an economic lesson for anyone who doesn't keep an eye on inflation. The country's dictator, Robert Mugabe, who was sworn in on June 29 to his sixth term as president, has killed a few hundred of his opponents in the past few months, but his country's inflation is killing far more than that. With food aid only trickling back into the country and hundreds of thousands without enough cash to buy food, it was clear during a trip there last month that the crisis is deepening. Consumer prices have more than doubled every month this year, in some cases doubling every week. A conservative estimate provided by Robertson Economic Information Services, a Southern African consultancy, says that prices are now three billion fold greater than seven years ago. That's right, billion. The exchange rate is currently an astronomical 90 billion Zimbabwe dollars to one US dollar.

AMERICAS

US Ties Caracas to Hezbollah Aid - Martin Arostegui, Washington Times

The Bush administration is accusing the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of providing cash and refuge to the militant Islamist group Hezbollah of southern Lebanon. An investigation by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) names Venezuelan diplomat Ghazi Nasr al Din and Venezuelan-Arab businessman Fawzi Kanan as key links between the two. The Treasury Department made the accusations in a June 18 statement, which summarized an investigation of Venezuelan-registered businesses that are thought to be laundering money for Hezbollah.

Quietly, Brazil Eclipses an Ally - Romero and Barrionuevo, New York Times

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil clasped hands here at a summit meeting late last month, as employees of Venezuela’s state oil company raised their fists and shouted Cuban-inspired socialist slogans before the cameras. It was an image of solidarity that might once have alarmed Washington, which has seen the United States’ standing steadily eroded by a shift toward left-leaning, populist leaders across the region in the last decade. But the carefully orchestrated event disguised a more recent turn in Latin America that presents new opportunities for the United States: Mr. da Silva has steadily peeled himself away from Venezuela’s leader and quietly supplanted him as he nurtures Brazil into a regional powerhouse.

Ransom Story 'Absolutely False' - McDonnell and Kraul, Los Angeles Times

Colombian authorities sought over the weekend to discredit a Swiss academic and former intermediary in talks with a left-wing rebel group who has been linked to a disputed report that officials paid $20 million for last week's release of 15 high-profile hostages. A Colombian government official who asked to remain unnamed said Sunday that authorities suspect Geneva-based Jean Pierre Gontard was the source for the Swiss radio report last week stating that officials paid a ransom for the release of the hostages. Officials have denied any ransom was paid and said the rescue was based on subterfuge and infiltration of the rebel high command. The notion of paying ransom is extremely sensitive here, since US and Colombian authorities have labeled the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a terrorist group and have ruled out payments to terrorists.

Uribe Soars After Freeing Hostages - Sibylla Brodzinsky, Christian Science Monitor

President Álvaro Uribe is still soaking up the glory of last week's spectacular rescue of 15 high-profile hostages held in the Colombian jungle for years by leftist rebels. Polls released Sunday show that Mr. Uribe's approval rating – which was already at 73 percent – soared to 91 percent after the rescue, which freed French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three American defense contractors, and 11 Colombian soldiers and police. Wednesday's bloodless intelligence operation tricked the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) into taking their most prized hostages on a helicopter they believed would transport them to the group's top leaders. Instead, the chopper was piloted by undercover military operatives who took the captives to freedom.

A Triumph Over Terror - Washington Times editorial

The stunning rescue last week of 15 hostages taken by the Colombian Marxist organization FARC struck a powerful blow against terrorism. It is a vindication of President Alvaro Uribe's bold leadership in standing up to the FARC and its allied narcotics traffickers and it is also a vindication of the Bush administration's steadfast support for an embattled ally - including billions of dollars in economic and military assistance. Since taking office six years ago at a time when the FARC, (whose cadres are armed and financed by by Cuba's Castro dictatorship and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez) virtually surrounded Bogota, Mr. Uribe has demonstrated that democracies with the right kind of leadership can triumph over terrorists. The hostage rescue, which took years to develop, came about because the government infiltrated FARC, and its spies worked their way up the terrorist organization's ranks. It tricked the FARC into turning the 15 hostages (among them former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans) over to “guerrillas” who were really members of the security forces.

The End of FARC - Los Angeles Times editorial

The Colombian military's spectacular rescue of 15 hostages Wednesday, including Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt and three American military contractors, will go down in history as a marvel of military cunning and brilliant execution. Most noteworthy is that the soldiers, disguised as rebels, duped the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia into turning the hostages over without bloodshed. Colombia rejoiced as did France, where freeing Betancourt -- a former Colombian legislator with dual citizenship -- had become a cause celebre. The faces of the American contractors -- Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes -- are less well known, but their freedom brings joy to all who prayed for their release during five years of captivity. The end appears to be near for the FARC, and not a moment too soon.

FARC's 'Human Rights' Friends - Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ opinion

As we learn more about the Colombian military's daring hostage rescue last week, one detail stands out: In tricking FARC rebels into putting the hostages aboard a helicopter, undercover special forces simply told the comandantes that the aircraft was being loaned to them by a fictitious nongovernmental organization sympathetic to their cause called the International Humanitarian Mission. It may have taken years for army intelligence to infiltrate the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and it may have been tough to convincingly impersonate rebels. But what seems to have been a walk in the park was getting the FARC to believe that an NGO was providing resources to help it in the dirty work of ferrying captives to a new location. I am reminded of President Álvaro Uribe's 2003 statement that some "human rights" organizations in his country were fronts for terrorists. Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd got his back up over Mr. Uribe's statement, and piously lectured the Colombian president about "the importance of democratic values." But as the helicopter story suggests, Mr. Uribe seems to have been right. How else to explain the fact that the FARC swallowed the line without batting an eye?

Chávez Big Loser in Liberation - Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald opinion

The biggest loser of last week's Hollywood-styled Colombian army rescue of 15 hostages in the hands of the FARC guerrillas, in addition to the rebels themselves, was Venezuela's narcissist-Leninist President Hugo Chávez. Judging from Chávez's own public statements and the contents of thousands of e-mails found in FARC laptop computers seized March 1 when Colombia's military raided a guerrilla camp inside Ecuador, Chávez was hoping to use the hostage crisis to become the ultimate power broker in the Colombian armed conflict and become South America's most powerful political leader.

Democrats Disdain Our Best Ally - Mona Charen, Washington Times opinion

The rescue of three Americans from the jungles of South America is a terrific Fourth of July present to the nation. (And John McCain gets high marks for timing in being present for the happy event.) American contractors Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves had been captured by the Colombian communist guerrilla group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) when their anti-narcotics surveillance plane crashed in rebel territory five years ago. At the time, considering the weakness of the Colombian government, the growing strength of the neighborhood bully Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and the terror that FARC inflicted upon the Colombian people, the future looked grim for them and for the hundreds of hostages held in various remote areas, including Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate who was likewise snatched and held by FARC until being freed with the Americans on July 2.

ASIA PACIFIC

Bush Defends Olympics Decision - Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times

President Bush arrived on the mountainous northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Sunday to talk to world leaders about climate change, soaring oil and gas prices and aid to Africa. But first he defended his decision to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing next month - and he got a little help from his host, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who announced he would go, too. “I view the Olympics as an opportunity for me to cheer on our athletes,” Mr. Bush said at a news conference in nearby Toyako after the two leaders met privately. He said not going to the ceremony “would be an affront to the Chinese people” that might make it “more difficult to be able to speak frankly with the Chinese leadership.”

China Jails Monks to Silence Protests - Jane Macartney, The Times

Chinese authorities tightened security around Tibet's main monasteries and banned visits to a sacred site on the edge of the capital, Lhasa, for fear of a fresh outburst of unrest on the Dalai Lama's birthday. Few monks remain, however, in the province's three most important monasteries. Many have disappeared, their whereabouts a mystery. Chinese officials have deployed troops and paramilitary police around the ancient religious institutions, suspecting these sprawling hillside communities are at the heart of the unrest that has swept the region since early March.

Bush Stands by Reversal on N. Korea - Associated Press

President Bush on Sunday defended removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and attending the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics as world leaders assembled to address soaring gas prices, climate change and African aid. They faced major differences, especially over how far to go in trying to set limits on pollutants that contribute to global warming.

E. Timor Police Move on Students - Lucy Williamson, BBC News

Police in East Timor's capital, Dili, have fired tear gas into the grounds of the national university and arrested several students, reports say. The students were demonstrating against plans by the parliament to spend $1m (£500,000) on new cars for MPs. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that local police had fired rounds of tear gas at lines of peacefully protesting students inside the grounds of the university. UN police were also part of the operation, beside the parliament.

EUROPE

Union of Mediterranean to Be Inaugurated - Steven Erlanger, New York Times

Perhaps the grandest new idea of France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, looking to give his presidency of the European Union a lasting stamp, is the Union of the Mediterranean. An effort to bind the 17 nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea with the European Union around regional projects, the new union will be inaugurated next week at a Paris summit meeting. But as with some of Mr. Sarkozy’s other ideas, the execution has been haphazard. The Union of the Mediterranean has created resistance among vital allies, like the Germans and the Spanish, and confusion within his own government. The result may be more show than substance.

Murder that Festers in Belfast - Boston Globe editorial

Justice was badly served in Belfast last month, an indication that the Irish Republican Army continues to hold a malevolent grip on segments of Northern Irish society. Judge John Gillen had no choice but to acquit the man accused of murdering Robert McCartney in January 2005 outside a pub near the predominately Catholic Short Strand neighborhood. More than 70 people were in the pub when IRA stalwarts stabbed McCartney in a brawl that had nothing to do with politics. The only bystander to come forward had viewed the crime from a passing car, and her testimony was equivocal. Leaders of Sinn Fein, the IRA-affiliated political party, have called for more reliable witnesses to speak out, but more than three years after the murder, none has.

MIDDLE EAST

Israel Tests Anti-rocket System - Carolynne Wheeler, Daily Telegraph

Israel has carried out a successful test of its "Iron Dome" anti-missile defence system intended to combat crude rockets of the kind launched from Gaza and south Lebanon. The test, which Voice of Israel radio reported was carried out secretly late last week, follows earlier delays and warnings that the $300 million (£150 million) system may not catch all Qassam rockets launched by Palestinian militants at southern Israeli communities.

An Unwelcome Hero - Washington Post editorial

Far be it from us to second-guess the Israeli government's decision to trade Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in the July 2006 incident that triggered a bloody 34-day war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite organization. Many in Israel felt that ending the agony of the soldiers' families outweighed the risk that a trade would simply encourage more terrorism and hostage-taking. Many disagreed -- though in the end the Israeli cabinet's vote in favor was a lopsided 22 to 3. The exchange is now expected to take place in the coming week. Perhaps Prime Minister Ehud Olmert thought it was time to empty his jails of their last Lebanese inmates, so as to deprive Hezbollah of that perennial complaint. Or perhaps the prisoner exchange fits into a wider diplomatic strategy that includes incipient talks with Syria, an offer of talks with Lebanon and a shaky truce with Hamas. This turn of events does, however, tell us a lot about Hezbollah and about those within Lebanon's political culture who either support it or can't quite bring themselves to oppose it.

SOUTH ASIA

Suicide Blast at Red Mosque - Bruce Loudon, The Australian

At least 11 policemen were killed in an apparent suicide bombing late last night targetting officers deployed at a rally by Islamist hardliners near Pakistan's Red Mosque. Thousands of protesters had called for the public hanging of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at the Islamabad rally to mark the first anniversary of the siege and storming of the mosque, in which over a hundred people were killed. "We have 11 policemen dead and it appears to be a suicide attack,'' a security official said. "The blast happened 15 minutes after the meeting dispersed. A heavy contingent of police was at a main crossing several hundred metres from the mosque and they were targeted in the attack.'' The blast came as Mr Musharraf was under intense new pressure to quit after rogue scientist AQ Khan accused him of direct involvement in nuclear proliferation by secretly transferring uranium enrichment centrifuges to North Korea.

Bomber Near Red Mosque Kills at Least 11 - Joel Elliott, New York Times

At least 11 people died Sunday when a suicide bomber set off an explosion next to a group of police officers guarding an area near the Red Mosque, where a restive crowd had gathered to commemorate a deadly clash between Islamic militants and government security forces in July 2007, the authorities said. More than 22 people were wounded, doctors at a nearby hospital said. Most of the dead and wounded appeared to be police officers. About 30 officers had been standing on a sidewalk near a police station, just a few hundred yards from the Red Mosque in the center of Islamabad, when the explosion occurred.

Bombing Leaves at Least 10 Dead - Hussain and Rondeaux, Washington Post

At least 10 people were killed in Pakistan's capital Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives near a crowd commemorating a deadly government-led raid on a radical mosque here last year, according to police. The attack occurred early in the evening after more than 10,000 conservative Islamist protesters and mourners had gathered at the historic Red Mosque to mark the first anniversary of the raid. Witnesses said the crowd was just beginning to disperse when the explosion tore through a cluster of policemen near a post office a few hundred feet from the mosque.

Pakistan Blast Kills at Least 15 - Zaidi and King, Los Angeles Times

A powerful suicide explosion killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others here Sunday evening, shortly after a large protest rally marking the one-year anniversary of government forces' raid on a radical mosque. Most of the dead were police officers. The blast, which appeared to have targeted the security forces, poses a sharp new challenge to Pakistan's coalition government, which has been struggling in its efforts to formulate a policy for dealing with Islamic militants. The explosion occurred just before 8 p.m. at a police post close to a popular market and only a few blocks from the Red Mosque and seminary complex, which last summer became a hotbed of militant activity in the heart of the capital. President Pervez Musharraf, who then was also Pakistan's military chief, sent in elite commandos to capture the mosque, a confrontation that left more than 100 people dead.

New Life for the India Nuclear Pact - Bill Emmott, Washington Post opinion

Less than a month ago, unnamed US officials hit the front page of the Financial Times by indicating that the US-India nuclear pact was "almost certainly dead." This past weekend the corpse suddenly twitched back to life, thanks to sharp political maneuvering by India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and his Congress Party. Now, the deal will almost certainly be signed by India's government -- putting the onus back on the United States to get it implemented. For that to happen, Congress must stop trying to use the deal as leverage to force India to back the US line on Iran. And the Bush administration, as well as Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, should produce plans for a US-led revamping of the world's anti-proliferation rules.

WORLD

G-8 Plans to Address Aid Accountability - Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post

Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations expect to sign off this week on a plan to provide detailed assessments of how well individual countries are fulfilling promises of development assistance to Africa, according to sources familiar with the initiative. The plan is likely to be viewed as a significant breakthrough by nonprofit groups pushing the G-8 to be more accountable about the billions of dollars in well-publicized aid its members have promised Africa for fighting malaria, AIDS and other diseases.

G-8 Faces Setbacks to UN Goals - David Sands, Washington Times

As the Group of Eight focuses on the slumping world economy at its summit that kicks off Monday in Hokkaido, Japan, reports say the prospects of achieving the ambitious UN Millennium Development Goals to eliminate global poverty by 2015 have dimmed. "The scale of the shock really threatens to derail macro-stability and [progress toward] the Millennium Development Goals," said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

G8 Plus 5 Equals Power Shift - Peter Alfrod, The Australian

The largest, most expensive gathering of world leaders under the G8 banner convenes today confronted by an awesome array of problems, from runaway oil prices and scarce food to flaring inflation and global warming, but with little prospect of real breakthroughs on any front. Failure this year could call seriously into question the viability of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, a 33-year-old gathering originally of the top Western powers, struggling now for relevance against huge shifts in the world's political and economic geography. That shift will be underlined when the "Plus 5" developing nations issue for the first time their own communique after meeting the G8 leaders on Wednesday at the Windsor Hotel, the luxurious and now heavily-secured summit site on Lake Toya, in Toyako, near here.

G8 Urged to Help Africa's Poor - Les Whittington, Toronto Star

The G8 is being urged to stop backsliding on its commitments to help Africa’s poor and take bold action to increase aid and tackle the current food crisis. As the Group of Eight leaders opened their three-day summit here, aid groups warned that the failure to fulfill earlier promises of support for Africa could lead to millions of deaths on that continent. And Canada is being singled out for tough criticism. Oliver Buston, head of the US-based anti-poverty group ONE, said Ottawa’s aid commitments are still far below the support for Africa that a rich nation like Canada should be providing.

Back to Basics - The Times editorial

It is increasingly the fate of the G8 to be overestimated. Both governments and campaigners have an unreasonably elevated view of its capacity to do good. The summit that begins today should see a return to basics. The leaders of the main industrial powers (first the G5, which then expanded to become the G7 and G8) have met annually since the French President, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, instituted a “fireside gathering” at Rambouillet in 1975. Until recently these summits were commonly caricatured as a forum for gaseous and inconsequential declarations by a club of rich nations. Things have changed, and not entirely for the better.

The World Needs Leaders - Daily Telegraph editorial

The Japanese, hosts of the G8 summit, are using the occasion to showcase various gadgets and robots. And why not? These summits have become largely decorative affairs, opportunities for world leaders to cant about poverty or Aids while elf-locked anti-globalisation protesters burn them in effigy outside. The robots are an apt, gnomic symbol of the G8's irrelevance. This is a pity, for the rest of the world needs leadership.

EVENTS OF INTEREST

22 July - Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare (Public Event). Washington, DC. The Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) is sponsoring a discussion on counterinsurgency on 22 July 2008, at the National Press Club (the Holeman Lounge), Washington, DC. Dr. John Nagl (Center for a New American Security), Dr. Daniel Marston (Australian National University), and Dr. Carter Malkasian (CNA) recently collaborated on Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare (Osprey, 2008), an edited book that examines 13 of the most important counterinsurgency campaigns of the past 100 years, including the current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Dr. David Kilcullen (U.S. State Department), the renowned counterinsurgency expert, will moderate the discussion and provide critical commentary. Lunch will be provided. Books will be available to purchase at a discounted rate. For more information, visit the first link above. RSVP at kattm@cna.org or 703.824.2436.

11-15 August - Counterinsurgency Leaders Workshop (Official Event - Workshop). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency (COIN) Center is hosting a five-day program for prospective counterinsurgency leaders, 11-15 August 2008, at the Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The program is focused on equipping leaders with an understanding of the insurgency and counterinsurgency environments, as well as close consideration of the kinds of persons and organizations that usually emerge from insurgencies in contrast to those of conventional conflicts. This event will be held at the Battle Command Training Center (BCTC) Training Facility on Fort Leavenworth. Seating is limited. However, registration is open to any person who serves in any official capacity with regard to dealing with insurgencies, with priority is given to those applying from invited organizations. Other applicants will be reviewed for eligibility on a space-available, case-by-case basis. The duty is uniform/business casual. Application must completed on-line at the link above. The deadline for application is 1 August 2008. For more information, contact the COIN Center at 913-684-5196.

11-12 September - DNI Open Source Conferece 2008 (Public Event - Conference). Washington, DC. Sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The Office of the DNI is pleased to announce the "DNI Open Source Conference 2008" to be held on Thursday, 11 September and Friday, 12 September, 2008 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC. The conference is free; however, all who wish to attend must register online in advance (deadline 31 July). The two-day conference will explore a wide range of open source issues and open source best practices for the Intelligence Community and its partners. We invite participants from the broader open source community of interest including academia, think tanks, private industry, federal, state, local and tribal entities, international partners, and the media to attend. The conference will include speakers from across the broader open source community participating in panel discussions and focus group sessions. Information about the agenda and break-out sessions is now available. The DNI Open Source Conference 2007 was held 16-17 July 2007 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. More than 900 registered participants and speakers attended. Presentations made at the conference break-out sessions are available on the DNI Open Source Conference 2007 website.

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.