A fairly amazing escalation in the European rendition scandal. This from the June 24 NY Times:

Italian Judge Names 13 in Abduction Tied to C.I.A.

ROME (AP) -- An Italian judge on Friday ordered the arrests of 13 CIA officers for secretly transporting a Muslim preacher from Italy to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts -- a rare public objection to the practice by a close American ally.

The Egyptian was spirited away in 2003, purportedly as part of the CIA's ''extraordinary rendition'' program in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible torture.

A new communique from Subcomandante Marcos—this one more typically personable and verbose—sheds further light on the "red alert" recently declared by Mexico's Zapatista rebels. The screed notes the deadlock which has persisted in the Zapatistas' struggle for indigenous rights since 2001, and takes all of Mexico's political parties to task for betraying their commitments on this issue. Around halfway through he addresses the Zapatistas' current "consulta" in which the organization's base communities will decide if a new direction is called for:

This from the BBC, June 24. We know that the Indonesian regime (which the White House is seeking to reward with renewed military ties) is harshly intolerant of marijuana-smokers as well as ethnic separatists. We were hoping the separatists of Aceh were more progressive. This report appears to indicate that these hopes may be misplaced—yet it notes at the end that the armed Free Aceh Movement (GAM) opposes the sharia measure. Is Jakarta trying to play conservative Muslims against the GAM? Can any of our readers provide more information on the politics of sharia law in Aceh?

Just as the White House has rejected creation of an independent commission to investigate abuses at Gitmo and elsewhere (Reuters, June 21), comes this deeply disturbing news. It is (as we've recently noted) taboo to say this sort of thing, but how is the analogy to the Nazi doctors avoidable? No, it is not the same as Mengele. The point is, you stand up and point out the similarity before it gets to that level of evil. The fact that the analogy is taboo, ironically, just abets the Nazification of the USA. Thanks to TruthOut for passing this one along.

The US may soon be facing a counterinsurgency quagmire in Afghanistan as well as Iraq soon, even if the former still fails to grab headlines. Largely because the US has been more effective at grooming proxies to do the fighting, and dying--but US troops are dying too:

Forces surround rebel hide-out in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces surrounded a rebel hide-out in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, and the number of insurgents killed from three days of fighting rose to 102, the defense ministry said.

The continuing violence in Lebanon seems to be forcing the situation there to a head:

June 24, 2005
Lebanon's anti-Syrian coalition urges president to resign

Lebanon's anti-Syrian coalition on Thursday accused President Emile Lahoud of being responsible for a series of political assassinations and urged him to resign.

"The gathering affirms ... that the president is providing protection for the existing system and is responsible for all its practices," said a statement by the coalition, which makes up the majority in parliament. "The president's departure would be a main path to law and justice," it added.

With Congress considering new privacy-eroding measures in Patriot Act (and making the law permanent), and similar measures being weighed by the Homeland Security Department, comes this disturbing news. This did make the front page of the NY Times today, albeit below the fold. A good thing this came to light, even if years after the fact. But what's scary is that this is going on without even token approval of Congress. As lawmakers debate the Patriot Act, the bureaucracy bends the rules without even asking permission...

A very unfortunate turn of events at the protests against the biotech industry confab that just concluded in Philadelphia, organized under the banner Biodevastation to Biojustice. This June 21 account from Philly's KYW News Radio:

A Philadelphia police officer involved with a scuffle with protesters outside the Convention Center has died of an apparent heart attack. Officer Paris Williams, 52, a 19-year veteran of the force, was among many Civil Affairs officers monitoring the protest outside the "BIO 2005" conference at the Convention Center.