From Reuters, Sept. 8, via TruthOut:

Baghdad - The United Nations raised the alarm on Thursday about mounting violence in Iraq blamed on pro-government militias and urged the authorities to look into reports of systematic torture in police stations.

In a bi-monthly human rights report, released on a day when 14 more victims of "extrajudicial executions" were found near Baghdad, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq also said "mass arrests" by US and Iraqi forces, and long detentions without charge, could damage support for the new political system.

From the Boston Herald, Sept. 7, emphasis added:

Oil companies came under new fire yesterday when it emerged that ExxonMobil's profits are likely to soar above $10 billion this quarter on the back of the fuel crisis.

That's $110 million a day, and more net income than any company has ever made in a quarter. It's also a stunning 69 percent increase over the same period a year ago and a 34 percent jump from the $7.6 billion Exxon made just last quarter.

"Do you realize President Bush has just given a tax break to ExxonMobil?" thundered Rep. Ed Markey (D-Malden). "Of all the companies in the history of the world that needed a tax break, this month, ExxonMobil should be at the bottom of the list."

A Sept. 5 interview with Charmaine Neville, a member of the third generation of New Orleans' legendary Neville musical family, contains a first-hand account of how she helped many of her neighbors escape the stricken city—first with a flat boat, then with a commandeered bus, and with no help from the authorities. "Alligators were eating people. They had all kinds of stuff in the water. They had babies floating in the water. We had to walk over hundreds of bodies of dead people... [W]e couldn't understand why the National Guard and them couldn't help us, because we kept seeing them but they never would stop and help us." She sheds some light on the reports of residents firing on rescue helicopters:

Juan Gonzalez of the NY Daily News Sept. 6 calls out FEMA for promoting the newsworthy Rev. Pat Robertson's private charity for Katrina disaster-relief donations—and recalls the group's links to the sleazy African diamonds trade, unearthed by a law enforcement investigation a few years back...

Saudi special forces overran a seaside villa in Damman Sept. 6 where Islamic militants had been holed up, ending three days of heavy fighting that left at least nine dead. For two nights, special forces pounded the villa with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire before launching the major assault. One of the five militants killed in the fighting was identified as No. 3 on the country's most-wanted list, Zaid Saad Zaid al-Samari, a Saudi sought in connection with terror attacks launched in the kingdom. King Abdullah, who took over the throne last month after the death of his half brother, Fahd, has vowed to push ahead with the crackdown on Islamic militans, and some suggest he plans to intensify it. (AP, Sept. 7)

A front-page story in Army Times Sept. 2, "Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans," states:

Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back

The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so. KBR was assigned the work under a "construction capabilities" contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process. The company is not involved in the Army Corps of Engineers' effort to repair New Orleans' levees. (Houston Chronicle, Sept. 1)

If the uncorroborated quotes here are accurate, this reality is almost too horrific to comprehend. What is most alarming is that the refugees are effectively captives. This is turning into human warehousing of the same type practiced against the Japanese-Americans in World War II—and under much harsher conditions, if smaller scale. (Emphasis added.)

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - People left homeless by Hurricane Katrina told horrific stories of rape, murder and trigger-happy guards in two New Orleans centers that were set up as shelters but became places of violence and terror.