From the New York Times news service, May 23:

LONDON Amnesty International assailed the United States' use of military contractors in Iraq on Tuesday as "war outsourcing" that may be fueling human rights abuses.

"War outsourcing is creating the corporate equivalent of Guantánamo Bay - a virtual rules-free zone in which perpetrators are not likely to be held accountable for breaking the law," Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in Washington as the human rights group presented its annual report in London.

How interesting. In an implicit acknowledgement that their hardcore Islamophobe policies are backfiring in Chechya, the Russian authorities are embracing the indigenous peace-loving Sufi tradition as an alternative to the violently intransigent Wahhabism imported from the Arab world. But this could also backfire—as the Sufis themselves also seek independence from Russia, even if they aren't willing to blow up civilians to acheive it. The implications are "unclear" indeed. And while it is good to see the Kunta-Haji Sufis on page 4 of the New York Times, we're not sure they would appreciate the writer's depiction of their chanting as "grunts."

A heartwarming addendum to a horribly tragic story. Newsday's May 24 coverage of the funeral notes that the late Amber Sadiq was the product of mixed Pakistani-Dominican (and Muslim-Catholic) marriage. Repudiating New York's usual tabloid-enflamed culture of law-enforcement-as-personal-vengeance, Amber's father is calling for clemency for the little boy who (unintentionally, we presume) killed his daughter. From AP, May 24:

NEW YORK - The father of a second-grade girl killed when an empty school bus rolled forward and crushed her is asking for mercy for the eight-year-old boy accused of setting the vehicle in motion.

Top officials from Mexico's official National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) say that 23 cases of sexual abuse and rape have been documented following the violent clash between protesters and police in San Salvador Atenco. At a press conference, CNDH inspector Susana Thalia Pedroza said that experts had gathered medical opinions, videos and photographs so that "no one can say that these women are lying." Pedroza, along with CNDH head Jose Luis Soberanes, said there were 16 cases of women being molested by police, and seven cases of rape. Four of the women were foreigners who were deported shortly after being arrested. The women were among more than 200 people detained on May 3 and 4 in the protests outside Mexico City. The CNDH has received 211 complaints regarding the incident, including sexual abuse, cruel and degrading treatment, property damage, illegal seizures, robbery, and threats. (El Universal, May 23)

Boogie for your right to defy gringo imperialism, y'all. From Reuters, May 23:

CARACAS - Among the shabby high-rise tenements overlooking Venezuela's capital, hip-hop beats rather than the usual gunfire kept the Caracas neighborhood of Pinto Salinas awake one night recently.

A year after he was arrested on immigration charges, Posada Carriles is being investigated by a federal grand jury--but the media are no longer paying attention. From our sibling journal Upside Down World, May 24:

Convicted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is being investigated by an El Paso-based grand jury [Prensa Latina, May 22]. Carriles just celebrated a year of incarceration in El Paso’s Federal Immigration Detention Center. The investigation seems to be centered around how Carriles entered the US without a visa in March 2005.

Another restive ethnic group in Iran is making demands for culture and autonomy felt—and meeting with harsh repression. Following the Arabs of Khuzestan and the Kurds of Kordestan, now the Azeris—who, like the Kurds, had a short-lived independent state under Soviet protection in northern Iran during World War II. Note the irony that the riots were sparked by an offensive anti-Azeri cartoon that appeared in the Iranian press! From IranMania, May 24:

A statement from the New York-based Campaign for Peace and Democracy:

Just as it did before its invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration is manufacturing a climate of fear in order to prepare public opinion for another act of aggression -- this time against Iran. Three years ago it was the specter of Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction; today it's the threat of a possible Iranian nuclear bomb. Washington's immediate goal is to get the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran and, in all probability, to justify a military attack on Tehran's nuclear facilities -- a job that may be outsourced to Israel. The White House even insists on keeping the catastrophic "nuclear option" on the table -- that is, using tactical nuclear weapons to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, many of which are located in or near civilian population centers. Although a full-scale invasion of Iran is highly unlikely at the moment, there can be little doubt that the neoconservatives in the Bush administration have a grand strategy that includes, eventually, "regime change" in Tehran as a way of further enlarging U.S. imperial power.