For years we have been noting specious terrorism cases in which FBI operatives entrap gullible hotheads by pretending to be from al-Qaeda. Well this time it's different. This time its DEA operatives pretending to be from the Taliban. But once again, if you just read the headline you'd never know that the real Taliban had nothing to do with the case whatsoever. A sinister federal practice is compounded by irresponsible journalism. From the New York Times, Feb. 14:

A prominent New York Times article of Feb. 13 will doubtless be seized upon as vindicating paranoia about neocon conspiracies behind the Egyptian revolution. It seems that one of the early protest groups, the April 6 Youth Movement—so named for their failed plan for an uprising on that date in 2008—drew inspiration (although not, by any indication, money or training) from the Serbian protest movement Otpor and international non-violence guru Gene Sharp.

Japan's ongoing dispute with Russia over the Kuril Islands has been heating up since November, when Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian president to visit the contested archipelago. Medvedev's high-profile trip to Kunashir, second-largest of the four disputed islands, has sparked both a regional military build-up and a diplomatic war of words. The dispute over the islands—called the Northern Territories in Japan but seized by the Soviets in August 1945—has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a treaty to officially end their World War II hostilities.

Don Samuel Ruíz García, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in the Chiapas highlands, died in Mexico City on Jan. 24 at the age of 86. Known to his flock as Don Samuel or Tatic—"father" in the Maya tongue—Bishop Ruíz was long an advocate for the poor in marginalized Chiapas state, and came to national prominence when he brokered peace talks with the Zapatista rebels in 1994. The day after his passing, thousands of indigenous campesinos from throughout Chiapas filed past the coffin at a memorial mass in the San Cristóbal cathedral that also commemorated the 51st anniversary of his ordination there. Bishop Raúl Vera López of Saltillo, who served as Bishop Ruíz's coadjutor in Chiapas from 1995 to 1999, presided over a memorial mass in Mexico City. The Vatican issued a message hailing him as the "bishop of the poor." Even President Felipe Calderón—on the opposite side of political battles with Bishop Ruíz in life—said his death "constitutes a great loss for Mexico." (Upside Down World, Feb. 9; NYT, El Universal, Jan. 26; Catholic News Service, Jan. 25)

These news clips, as usual, make us feel very lonely. We are constantly being told by "leftists" that anti-Semitism doesn't really exist or is (at best) grossly exaggerated as a Zionist propaganda ploy—a demoralizing abdication of the supposed leftist value of opposing ethnic scapegoating as a distraction from class analysis. Exposing and denouncing anti-Semitism falls more and more to the pro-Zionist right (which does indeed seek to exploit it for propaganda purposes) and to the centrists, who increasingly seek to censor and even imprison those who espouse it—a demoralizing abdication of the supposed centrist value of "free speech." Here, alas, is the latest litany...

The WikiLeaks revelations on Egypt's Hosni Mubarak regime provide an interesting political Rorschach test—viewed either as evidence that the US backs unsavory dictators or as vindicating paranoia about neocon conspiracies behind the current wave of unrest in the Arab world. In the words of The Telegraph's incredibly distorted lead Jan. 28: "Even as they were officially supporting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, American officials were secretly helping dissidents interested in using social media to overthrow his regime, a secret dispatch from the US embassy in Cairo has revealed." In fact, the Dec. 30, 2008 cable (on the Wikileaks website) only "reveals" that the US embassy helped a young activist attend an "Alliance of Youth Movements Summit" in New York, while keeping his identity secret from the Egyptian security services.

In his State of the Union address Jan. 25, Barack Obama said the US will support those struggling for freedom around the world, and made special note of the recent vote for independence in South Sudan:

Recent events have shown us that what sets us apart must not just be our power—it must also be the purpose behind it. In south Sudan—with our assistance—the people were finally able to vote for independence after years of war. (Applause.) Thousands lined up before dawn. People danced in the streets. One man who lost four of his brothers at war summed up the scene around him: "This was a battlefield for most of my life," he said. "Now we want to be free." (Applause.)

In his State of the Union address Jan. 25, Barack Obama said the US will support those struggling for freedom around the world, and made special note of the recent revolutionary upsurge in Tunisia:

We saw that same desire to be free in Tunisia, where the will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator. And tonight, let us be clear: the United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia and supports the democratic aspirations of all people.