The New York Times informs us Feb. 21 that this still hasn't been resolved. But here's an informative overview from the Press Trust of India, Feb. 6. There were five suicide bombings in Pakistan between Jan. 26 and Feb. 6? Amazing how this stuff doesn't even make headlines anymore... And this is in Washington's closest ally in the region... And note that this crisis is in the capital, not some tribal hinterland...

The arrogance of invoking Cuban "sovereignty" to justify this trangression when the Cubans oppose everything Washington is doing at Guantánamo Bay is staggering even by the standards of our deeply cynical age. Oh and by the way, freedom's on the march, eh? From the LAT, Feb. 21:

WASHINGTON -- In a victory for the White House, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday that the hundreds of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay do not have a right to plead their innocence in an American court.

Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo stepped down Feb. 19, four days after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of her brother Senator Alvaro Araujo and 12 other legislators for their ties to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the feared paramilitary network. The court also called for an investigation into the suspected paramilitary activities of Araujo’s father, Alvaro Araujo Noguera, including the kidnapping and extortion of a businessman.

Among the world's many escalating cycles of terror and militarization that fail to make headlines is that in Northeast India, the scene of multiple tribal and ethnic struggles which the government has long been attempting to crush or co-opt. We recently noted rising terror and repression in Assam state. Now the Assam violence is spilling across the border into Nagaland—where a tribal insurgency maintains a ceasefire in exchange for unofficial autonomy over their territory. In addition to the insurgencies, Delhi may soon be faced with an internal war between the two remote states. From Calcuta's The Telegraph, Feb. 20:

That certainly seems to be the implication of these statements from the Tehran regime. Oh and by the way, it sure didn't take long to get a conviction, did it? From UPI, Feb. 19:

Man hanged in public in Iran for bombing

TEHRAN -- A man was hanged in public in Iran Monday after the Islamic Revolutionary Court convicted him on charges of bombing a Revolutionary Guard bus last week.

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC by its French initials) has been very busy lately. With little note in the world media, Tunisia last month apparently squelched a plot to attack the US and British embassies. It ended in a series of gun battles that killed a dozen militants and left two Tunisian security officers dead. It was kept very quiet—until the New York Times splashed it all over the front page Feb. 20, in somewhat sensationalist terms ("North Africa Feared as Staging Ground for Terror" by Craig S. Smith). Here are the relevant passages, emphasis added:

Another ominous sub-plot in the struggle for Iraq's oil—and a step closer to the brink for a region that has thus far managed to avoid complete embroilment in Iraq's civil war. From AP via the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), Feb. 21:

ANKARA -- Turkey's prime minister on Tuesday urged one of Iraq's two vice presidents to delay a referendum on the future of Kirkuk, fearing Iraqi Kurdish groups could seize control of the northern, oil-rich city.

We strongly suspect that the front-page Feb. 19 story in the New York Times—based entirely on anonymous "studies" and quotes from anonymous "officials"—purporting huge hydrocarbon deposits in Iraq's Sunni center ("Iraqi Sunni Lands Show New Oil and Gas Promise" by James Glanz) is a ploy to convince Sunnis they have a secure future in a unified Iraq, and thereby chill out the "insurgents" (as the media flatteringly call them). True, your average "insurgent" probably doesn't read the New York Times, but Iraqi legislators do, and it is hoped that if they can strike a deal that gives the Sunni center a share of the oil wealth the grassroots wil be mollified. As the Times notes: "The question of where the oil reserves are concentrated is taking on still more importance as it appears that negotiators are close to agreement on a long-debated oil law that would regulate how Iraqi and international oil companies would be allowed to develop Iraq’s fields." (IHT Feb. 19)