The New York Times on Jan. 6 ran a story, "US Sends Warning to People Named in Cable Leaks," finally giving some play to a critical issue in the WikiLeaks affair that neither supporters nor detractors of Julian Assange have been quick to examine: the impact of the leaks on dissidents under authoritarian regimes. But the story is more noteworthy for what it omits than what it reports:

Sholom Rubashkin, former CEO of the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa—which made national headlines when it was the target of a massive ICE raid of undocumented workers in 2008—this week filed an appeal of his conviction to the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Rubashkin was convicted in November 2009 of 86 counts of fraud stemming from a $26.8 million loss to lenders after the immigration raid found nearly 400 undocumented workers at his plant. Although the indictment included charges of harboring unauthorized immigrants for profit, federal prosecutors opted not to pursue the immigration charges after the fraud conviction. A state trial acquitted him of knowingly employing underage workers.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced Jan. 6 that Guantánamo Bay detainee Farhi Saeed Bin Mohammed was transfered to his native Algeria pursuant to a court order from November 2009. The DoD said it had successfully transferred Farhi after the inter-agency Guantánamo Review Task Force aapproved the transfer following a comprehensive review considering, especially, the security issues. The DoD worked closely with the government of Algeria to transfer Farhi safely and securely. Farhi's lawyers had fought the transfer back to Algeria out of fear that he would be tortured and mistreated. It is unclear whether Farhi is currently in jail in Algeria.

Rising food prices led to an outbreak of riots in Algeria Jan. 5, with unrest continuing today in several cities. Authorities have rushed police reinforcements to towns where hundreds of youths are taking to the streets and blocking highways. There has been a simultaneous outbreak of youth riots in neighboring Tunisia, which saw a wave of angry demonstrations over unemployment last month.

Moroccan security services broke up a 27-member terrorist network, authorities announced Jan. 5. According to the Interior Ministry, the cell's Moroccan ringleader aimed to set up an al-Qaeda base in the kingdom and send recruits to AQIM training camps in Algeria and Mali. Police found three arms caches near Amghala, "comprising 30 Kalashnikov machine guns, three sub-machine guns, one 82-mm bazooka, two RPG-7 type rocket grenade launchers, several pieces of live ammunition, plus 66 strong-boxes for storing weapons and other munitions", according to Interior Minister Moulay Taieb Cherkaoui. (Magharebia, Jan. 6)

The powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ended his self-imposed exile in Iran and returned to his stronghold hometown of Najaf in central Iraq this week. Al-Sadr fled Iraq in 2008 after the government issued an arrest warrant for him. His return was seen as evidence that his faction struck had struck a deal to have the warrant cancelled in exchange for al-Sadr's movement joining the new government led by Nouri al-Maliki.

More than 1,000 protesters took to the streets in Erbil, Iraq's Kurdish regional capital, to condemn a new law requiring all public demonstrations to have government permits. Protesters said the law is part of a broader crackdown on free speech in the autonomous Kurdistan region. In the past six months, the government has sued at least 60 writers or media organizations for publishing work critical of the government, according to the Kurdistan Journalists' Syndicate. Aso Karim, a legislator with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said the restrictions were necessary because "Iraq is not politically stable." (NYT, Jan. 4)

The Jan. 4 assassination of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who angered Islamists by calling for a revision of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, reveals escalating polarization between secular and fundamentalist forces. Shahbaz Bhatti, federal Minister for Minorities, said Taseer sacrificed his life for religious freedom and equality. "Those who issued [the] decree for killing should be investigated and blasphemy laws should be reviewed to control the increasing intolerance in society," Bhatti said. (Associated Press of Pakistan, Jan. 5)