One of the real signs of hope in Afghanistan is that the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), until recently active only in the refugee camps in Pakistan, has been able to establish an open presence in the country. Forced underground and into exile by the Taliban and Mujahedeen warlords decades ago, RAWA is now running a network of small shelters for Afghanistan's many war orphans where equality between the genders and progressive values are fostered. RAWA is seeking donations in a year-end fund drive for this initiative, and we urge our readers to participate.

Dear Supporter:

RAWA are helping to bring very poor and often homeless girls and boys off of the streets in Afghanistan and give them a chance for a brighter future. The shelters are run like a family home; a local husband and wife care for the children and make sure they have a warm bed, warm and clean clothing, regular meals, and a place to call home. Your help will enable RAWA to further help the neediest of Afghan children, by providing them with an environment of love, tolerance and respect for others. Not only will you providing these children with a brighter future, you will helping to provide them with the skills they need help build a modern and peaceful Afghanistan.

For the second time this year, Republicans resorted to the sneaky tactic of slipping a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling into a big appropriations package. Last time, it passed the Senate but the measure was removed from the House version following a revolt by moderate Republicans. (Outside, Nov. 11) This time it failed to get through the Senate—even though Republicans tried to play the patriotism card by slipping it into a military appropriations bill. Almost mind-bogglingly sleazy (even by contemporary Republican standards) was the blatant attempt to hold Katrina recovery funds hostage to the rape of Alaska's North Slope. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec. 22:

The outcome, which both sides said was too close to predict until the very end, was an especially sharp setback for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Stevens, who has pushed doggedly for 25 years to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, added the provision to a must-pass $453 billion defense spending bill, reasoning that even some ANWR opponents could not oppose a bill that supports troops in a time of war.

More ironically positive developments in the José Padilla case. First, his lawyers demanded that the Justice Department charge him with a crime, rather than hold him in military custody indefinitely as an "enemy combatant." Now that the Justice Department has done so, the 4th Circuit is refusing to approve his transfer to civilian custody—which could force the "enemy combatant" designation to go to the Supreme Court, something the Administration evidently sough to avoid. From the AP, Dec. 22:

A government request to transfer terrorism suspect Jose Padilla from military to civilian custody was rejected by an appeals court that said the administration's shifting tactics in the case threatens its credibility with the courts.

We've heard the allegations that the Darfur rebels are operating out of Chad where they receive covert support from the US. Has Sudan now entered this bloody game by grooming a Chadian rebel force on its own territory?

EL-GENEINA, Sudan, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Chadian rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby said on Wednesday they were poised for a fresh attack against a town on the border with Sudan which they attempted to storm at the weekend.

The rebel Rally for Democracy and Liberty (RDL) said in a statement telephoned to Reuters its forces had made a "tactical withdrawal" from the town of Adre on Chad's eastern border with Sudan after Sunday's fighting.

From AP, Dec. 19:

They called the two ladies "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax."

It was a breakthrough when U.S. forces arrested Rihab Taha, a British-educated biological weapons expert, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a former top Baath Party official, in May 2003, about two months after the American-led invasion.

But this past weekend, after more than 2½ years in detention, the scientists were quietly released without charges, a legal official in Baghdad said.

U.N. inspectors had given Taha the nickname "Dr. Germ" for her work in running the Iraqi biological weapons facility where scientists produced anthrax and botulinum toxin in the 1980s. Taha has said that Iraq never planned to use the biological agents it produced during that time.

From the BBC, Dec. 19:

Spanish police have arrested 14 people suspected of being members of an Islamist extremist group, with links to al-Qaeda.

The arrests were made in the southern towns of Malaga, Nerja and Seville.

Looks like it is back to the bad old days in Iran—the years of revolutionary fervor in the early '80s when music was banned from the public airwaves. Writes one of our readers: "Too bad the neo-cons are too stupid/sectarian/scared to realize you can't stop the rock. Give us 20 years and Metallica would take care of the Mullahs." From the BBC, Dec. 19:

US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Afghanistan today to attend the inauguration of the country's first Parliament in more than 30 years and visit US troops. Cheney joined President Hamid Karzai and other dignitaries at a ceremony to swear in parliamentarians elected in September in the first parliamentary elections in Afghanistan since 1969. (AFP, Dec. 19)

But Human Rights Watch issued the following press release warning of a dark side to this ostensible move towards democracy:

On Monday, Afghanistan’s first democratically elected parliament in more than three decades will convene in Kabul. But many of the new legislators, including up to 60% of deputies in the lower house, are directly or indirectly connected to current and past human rights abuses.