From Newsday, June 23:

In a Brooklyn neighborhood known for its patriotic fervor, residents were shocked Thursday to discover that seven American flags displayed outside homes had been set ablaze overnight, including one on a block named for a firefighter who died on Sept. 11.

The standards for what constitutes a terrorist conspiracy continue to get radically dumbed down. Most Americans don't seem to care, as those targeted invariably belong to some fringe and seemingly extremist sect. In this case, it appears to be an offshoot of Moorish Science, an indigenous American tradition held to be utterly heretical by ultra-orthodox Sunnis of the al-Qaeda variety. However, this has not stopped the mainstream media from (inaccurately) portraying the suspects as linked to al-Qaeda. The June 22 arrest of seven men in Miami's Liberty City district came in a raid by some 20 FBI agents in full-on paramilitary gear. Yet authorities immediately admitted the so-called "conspiracy" seems to be little more than a bunch of bad-ass braggadocio. OK, maybe these guys wanted to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower. But, as we have asked before, is wanting to a crime? As in recent "terrorism" busts in the United Kingdom, federal authorities are rushing to embrace the Orwellian concept of thoughtcrime. Some relevant excerpts from the June 24 Miami Herald coverage (emphasis and interjected comments added):

A Somali cleric who is on the US list of terror suspects was elected as head of the Islamist militia that controls the capital, Mogadishu, and much of the country's south. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was elected in absentia June 24 as the head of the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), succeeding the more moderate Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Sheikh Aweys, regarded as the architect of the Islamic court system, led the al-Itihad al-Islami militia, currently listed by the State Department as a terrorist organisation with links to al-Qaeda.

Kidnapping workers is the latest tactic of the Iraqi insurgents that some on the supposed left persist in glorfying as the "resistance." On June 25, unidentified gunmen kidnapped 16 employees of a technology institute in Taji, north of Baghdad. Taji was also the site of a kidnapping on June 21 when 64 workers of the Nasr General Company for Heavy Mechanical Industries were abducted by gunmen. Later, 34 of the workers were released, while the corpses of seven others were found. The fate and whereabouts of the remaining 23 missing workers remained uncertain. (DPA, June 25) Days earlier in Baghdad, gunmen stormed a bakery and kidnapped 10 workers. Iraqi police found nine bodies dumped in various parts of the city, all shot in the head with six of them showing signs of torture. Dumped bodies are discovered in the capital almost every day, and they are linked to sectarian violence. (CNN, June 18)

Here is the proof that the United States is not totalitarian state. Under totalitarianism, the government spies and collects data on its own citizens, without the formalities of warrants or court orders. In the United States, in contrast, these functions are left to the private sector. From AP, June 20:

WASHINGTON - Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers.

More scapegoats are hung out to dry, this time in relation to the Hamdania case. We're reminded of the famous line from Apocalypse Now: "Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500." One can't help but feel sorry for the families of these kids who, whatever atrocities they committed, were in way over their heads. From AP, June 22:

No "state of emergency," eh? Just like there's no civil war. These distinctions appear to be rather semantic. From Al-Arab, June 23:

Iraq's government will impose a curfew in Baghdad on Friday, from 2 p.m. (10:00 GMT) until 6 a.m.(02:00GMT) on Saturday, banning the movement of people and vehicles, state television reported.

The Japanese constitution—ironically imposed at US behest after World War II—states that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." Now Japanese warships participate in US military maneuvers in the Pacific. From AFP, June 22, via Spacewar:

A US warship successfully shot down a target missile warhead over the Pacific Thursday in a test of a sea-based missile defense system, the US military said. A Japanese destroyer performed surveillance and tracking exercises during the test, marking the first time any US ally has taken part in a US missile defense intercept test, the US Missile Defense Agency said.