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.

From AP, Nov. 25:

MEXICO CITY: A violent Mexican drug gang took out a rare, half-page ad in newspapers in which they claimed to be anti-crime vigilantes who wanted to stop kidnapping, robbery and the sale of methamphetamine in the western Mexican state of Michoacan.

General Federation of Trade Unions-Iraq (GFTU-Iraq) Statement on the Merger with the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI):

GFTU-Iraq's first convention was centered on the following statement: "The unity of the working class is the path to salvage the Iraqi society from occupation and civil war."

Between Nov. 14 and Nov. 17, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "Fugitive Operations Units" arrested 70 immigrants in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Manhattan. Of the total, 27 had been ordered removed by an immigration judge and 43 were simply present in the US without immigration status. ICE described those arrested as including "criminal and non-criminal aliens," but declined to say how many of them had been accused or convicted of crimes. The arrested immigrants are from Albania, Algeria, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Panama, Pakistan, Poland, Sierra Leone, Trinidad, Uzbekistan and Yugoslavia. All were transported to detention facilities in New Jersey and placed in removal proceedings. ICE announced the arrests on Nov. 17 as part of a national initiative dubbed "Operation Return to Sender." (ICE news release, Nov. 17)