British civil servant David Keogh has been sentenced to six months after being found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act for leaking a classified memo about a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush in which the US president reportedly called for the bombing of AlJazeera TV's headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The Daily Mirror newspaper reported that the memo showed Blair arguing against Bush's suggestion, adding that its sources disagreed on whether it was serious. Blair said he had no information about any proposed US action against AlJazeera, and the White House called the claims "outlandish and inconceivable." The document, marked "Secret-Personal," was intended to be restricted to senior officials. The memo's contents are considered so sensitive that much of the trial was heard behind closed doors. (AP, Daily Mail, May 11)

A terrorism warning issued by US military authorities in Germany last month could involve plans by an the Kurdish Islamist militant organization Ansar al-Islam, anonymous officials said in a report on the ABC News website. Howeve, other anonymous officials denied to Reuters that Ansar is suspected in the supposed plot. In the April 20 warning, the US embassy in Germany encouraged Americans in the country to increase their vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their personal security. ABC News quoted German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble as saying, "The danger level is high. We are part of the global threat by Islamist terrorism." But an official with US European Command told Reuters there was no new intelligence strong enough to warrant heightened security at military facilities in Germany. "We're unaware of anything new. We have not changed our force posture," the source said. (Reuters, May 11)

Members of the indigenous Achuar communities in the Amazon basin in the Peru-Ecuador border region have notified US Oil Company Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) that they will bring a lawsuit against the company in the US if it will not clean up toxic waste from drilling. [IPS, May 4]

From US Labor Against the War (USLAW), May 9:

Leading Iraqi Labor Leaders to Tour U.S.
First woman union leader, head of oil workers union to visit 12 cities
June 4-29, 2007
Atlanta, Berkeley, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two leaders of Iraq's labor movement, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President of the Electrical Utility Workers Union, and Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary of the Federation of Oil Unions, will tour a dozen U.S. cities between June 4 and June 29, 2007. During their visit, they will address members of Congress, labor audiences and the general public about the impact the U.S. occupation has had on the labor movement and daily lives of working people in Iraq. They will speak about reconstruction and will explain why the labor movement is opposed to the proposed hydrocarbon law favored by the Bush administration and oil corporations which would put foreign oil corporations in effective control of 2/3 of Iraq's undeveloped oil reserves. They will also describe the likely consequences if the occupation continues, what might occur if it abruptly ends and prospects for a stable, democratic, non-sectarian future for Iraq.

"Socialist villages"? Sounds to us more like keeping a restive population under control to faciliate a stable investment climate for tourism and other capitalist development—akin to the "model villages" the right-wing Guatemalan dictatorship imposed on the Maya peasantry in the '80s. Why does the Beijing regime maintain this propaganda charade? Are we the ony ones who grasp the cognitive dissonance? From McClatchy Newspapers, May 6:

The ugly regime in Uzbekistan is certainly giving Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty all the grist they need for their propaganda mill. May 9:

Umida Niyazova fought for democracy and human rights in her native Uzbekistan.

But from a cage in a Tashkent courtroom on May 8, Niyazova made a "confession" that amounted to an apparent repudiation of all she stands for. She even criticized Human Rights Watch, the U.S.-based rights organization for which she had worked as a translator.

Via the Alternative Information Center, May 6:

Joint report of B'Tselem with HaMoked—Center for the Defence of the Individual, Summary
Utterly Forbidden: The Torture And Ill-Treatment Of Palestinian Detainees
In recent years, Israel has openly admitted that ISA (formerly the General Security Service [Shin Bet]) interrogators employ "exceptional" interrogation methods and "physical pressure" against Palestinian detainees in situations labeled "ticking bombs". B'Tselem and HaMoked—Center for the Defence of the Individual have examined these interrogation methods and the frequency with which they are used, as well as other harmful practices. The report's findings are based on the testimonies of 73 Palestinian residents of the West Bank who were arrested between July 2005 and January 2006 and interrogated by the ISA. Although it is not a representative sample, it does provide a valid indication of the frequency of the reported phenomena.

In a surprise decision, US District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, TX, threw out all charges against right-wing Cuban militant and former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles May 8, allowing him to go free days before he was set to be tried for immigration fraud. He is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela, where is accused in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.