In a little-noted move, the US House of Representatives Oct. 23 passed the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" (HR 1955), which is being widely assailed by civil libertarians. The bill, if it becomes law, would establish a "National Commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence" and a university-based "Center for Excellence" to "examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically based violence in the United States" and develop policy for "prevention, disruption and mitigation." The bill defines "violent radicalization" as "the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious or social change."

Just as the Kurdistan crisis seemed to be de-escalating, come reports in the Turkish press that Turkish warplanes bombed three villages frequented by PKK guerillas in Iraqi territory near the border town of Zakho in pre-dawn raids Nov. 13. Officials are full of denials. Said Turkey's air force chief, General Aydogan Babaoglu: "Turkish air force planes have not engaged in any action across the border. There was no such thing. These reports are completely baseless." Said Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan: "All the operations that have taken place have been within the borders of Turkey, there have been no cross-border operations." Said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell: "As far as we know, there were no cross border operations... no air strikes, as had been reported." But Jamal Abdallah, a spokesman for the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, was more equivocal: "Yesterday evening Turkish planes dropped flares on border areas near Zakho. We do not know the reason why they dropped flares. There was no air strike or bombing. But an abandoned police outpost was shelled."

David Adler on his Lerterland blog exposes the latest ugly manifestation of idiot leftism—which, unfortunately, seems to be rapidly eclipsing any legitimate critique of empire. Arundhati Roy's latest seems to be an advocacy of revolutionary suicide—a cheerful admission that the jihadists and Maoists she roots for would hang feminists, bohemians and dissident intellectuals such as herself if they ever acheived power. We don't know whether to laugh or cry over this one:

Spain's King Juan Carlos (now famously) told Hugo Chavez to "shut up" after the Venezuelan president repeatedly referred to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist" at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 10. (AP, Nov. 11) The following day, Chavez upped the ante by suggesting that Juan Carlos knew in advance of the abortive 2002 coup d'etat in Venezuela. Chavez asserted that Spain's ambassador had appeared at Venezuela's presidential palace during the two-day coup to support interim "president" Pedro Carmona—with the King's blessing. "Mr. King, did you know about the coup d'etat against Venezuela, against the democratic, legitimate government of Venezuela in 2002?" Chavez rhetorically asked at a news conference "It's very hard to imagine the Spanish ambassador would have been at the presidential palace supporting the coup-plotters without authorization from his majesty."

With the despoilation of San Francisco Bay still in the headlines, comes far worse news from the Sea of Azov. This should give pause just after Russia has announced a series of new oil hubs in the Arctic Passage—newly opened to ship traffic due to global warming. From Environment News Service, Nov. 11:

MOSCOW - Stormy seas and gale-force winds in the narrow Kerch Strait between Russia and Ukraine have smashed a Russian oil tanker in half, spilling at least 2,000 metric tonnes of fuel oil, the Russian Ministry for Emergencies said Sunday. Environmentalists and Russian officials are calling it the worst oil spill in the region for decades and "an ecological catastrophe."

This Nov. 9 BBC report on Sudan's expulsion of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Darfur, Wael al-Haj Ibrahim, answers the question of what happened to the residents of a refugee camp near Nyala, who were forcibly relocated by government troops—as reported earlier by the BBC (and practically nobody else). The strategy seems to be to disperse the refugees into the shanty settlements on the outskirts of Darfur's towns, thereby rendering them invisible (as the estimated three million displaced persons in Colombia are).

Um, didn't we just hear identical news about Iraq? If Cambodia was Nixon's "sideshow" to Vietnam, Afghanistan is Bush's to Iraq—largely eclipsed from the headlines, even as it goes from really bad to considerably worse... From AP, Nov. 10:

KABUL — Six U.S. troops were killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. The attack, the most lethal against American forces this year, made 2007 the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

From the Reporters Without Borders, Nov. 9:

Coca grower leader threatens to kill five journalists
Reporters Without Borders today condemned death threats made against five journalists in the northwestern province of Tocache by Sergio Gonzales Apaza, the leader of the "Saúl Guevara Díaz" group of cocaleros (coca growers). The cocaleros have been on strike since 2 November in protest against the eradication of their crops by the government, which accuses them of cooperating with drug traffickers.