Via BBC Monitoring:

Ethiopian rebel group terms parliament's decision on Somalia "reckless"

Text of statement issued by Ethiopian armed opposition Oromo Liberation Front, OLF, on 30 December

The Ethiopian parliament, on its session of 30 November 2006, ratified a declaration of war on Somalia and Eritrea. Most surprisingly, it took the unprecedented step of declaring war on the Oromo Liberation Front [rebel group OLF] as well in the face of fierce resistance from the loyal opposition on the grounds that this would be an extraordinary act of criminalizing political demand.

From AP, Dec. 2:

CARACAS -- A Navy captain arrested this week was allegedly about to deliver to opponents of President Hugo Chavez a list of officers disposed to help topple the government, according to a high-ranking military official.

In a seven- or eight-month investigation ending Nov. 30, ICE agents joined with officers of the New York City Department of Probation in arresting 81 immigrants with prior criminal records in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. The raids were part of "Operation Retract," an ongoing effort by ICE's New York office to arrest immigrants on probation for prior misdemeanor or felony convictions and place them in removal proceedings.

An ACLU press release, Nov. 28, online at Common Dreams:

Khaled El-Masri, Victim of CIA Kidnapping and Abuse, Seeks Acknowledgement, Explanation and Apology
RICHMOND, Virginia - The American Civil Liberties Union today argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that its lawsuit on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, a victim of the CIA’s policy of “extraordinary rendition,” should proceed. Earlier this year a federal district court in Alexandria, VA dismissed El-Masri’s lawsuit based on the government's argument that allowing it to proceed would jeopardize state secrets.

Our November issue featured the story "The Israel Lobby and Global Hegemony: The Mearsheimer-Walt Thesis Deconstructed" by William X. It argued that the controversial essay "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt replicates the historical pattern of anti-Semitism by scapegoating Jews for the crimes of US imperialism. It especially took Mearsheimer and Walt to task for dismissing the notion of a war for oil in Iraq, instead portraying Bush's military adventure as primarilly a war to protect Israel. The November Exit Poll was: "Is the Iraq war fundamentally for Israel or for oil? (Note our use of the word 'fundamentally'— no fair cheating by saying 'both.')" We received the following responses:

On Oct. 24, Colombian army troops opened fire on community leader Lever Castrillon Sarmiento and his eight-year-old son as the two were fishing near the village of Norosi, Rio Viejo municipality, in Bolivar department. The group of 40 soldiers from the Nueva Granada Battalion of the army's Fifth Brigade were seeking to ambush a guerrilla column, and apparently mistook Castrillon and his son for rebels. Castrillon was killed by a bullet to the chest, while his son was treated in a local hospital for a bullet wound in the knee and was declared out of danger. The local attorney general's office in Rio Viejo has opened an investigation into the incident. (Vanguardia Liberal, Bucaramanga; El Tiempo, Bogota, Oct. 26)

On Nov. 21, US District Judge Thomas Hogan in Washington declared a mistrial in the terrorism and hostage-taking trial of Juvenal Ricardo Ovidio Palmera Pineda, a high-level leader and former negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), better known by his nom de guerre, Simon Trinidad. Palmera was arrested in Ecuador on Jan. 2, 2004, and extradited from Colombia to the US on Dec. 31, 2004.

From BBC, Nov. 23:

Drivers who get stopped by the police could have their fingerprints taken at the roadside, under a new plan to help officers check people's identities.