Israel's departing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced measures Nov. 2 in response to a rise in violence by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank, including a halt to all government financing of "illegal" Jewish settlement outposts. The announcement amounted to an acknowledgment that public funds are still being spent on the outposts, contrary to government policy and a longstanding pledge to the US. However, the move applies only to some 100 outposts considered illegal under Israeli law—not to the more than 120 "official" settlements.

Voters in two US states Tuesday Nov. 4 defeated immigration-related ballot measures. In Arizona, Proposition 202 would have revoked the business licenses of employers that knowingly hire undocmented immigrants and would have strengthened penalties for identity theft. But in Florida, a referendum intended to protect immigrant rights went down to defeat. Amendment No. 1 would have changed the state constitution, deleting a provision allowing lawmakers to prohibit ownership of real property by undocumented immigrants. The Florida Legislature had never exercised its authority under the 1926 provision, enacted as a measure against Asian Americans.

The US Department of Defense Nov. 4 announced the transfer of one Guantánamo Bay detainee to Somaliland. DOD hailed the move as proof of the effectiveness of its review processes and of US desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary. The Department reports that approximately 60 detainees at Guantanamo are currently eligible for transfer or release.

A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Nov. 4 suspended its review the status of Guantánamo Bay detainee Yasin Muhammed of Yemen as an "enemy combatant," saying it may lack jurisdiction over the case. Basardh had petitioned the court to review a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) determination that he could be held as an "enemy combatant," but the court said that provisions of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 that gave it authority to review the decision were likely at odds with a 2007 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush giving federal district courts authority to review habeas corpus petitions by detainees.

The jury in the US military commission trial of alleged al-Qaeda media director Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul reached a verdict in the case Nov. 1, finding him guilty of material support for terrorism. The verdict was sealed until Nov. 3, with al-Bahlul present in the courtroom at the Guantanamo Bay prison. Al-Bahlul, a 39-year-old Yemeni citizen, vowed earlier this year to boycott proceedings against him, saying he would attend only when a verdict was handed down or he was sentenced. The military jury deliberated for only four hours before reaching a verdict. Al-Bahlul is only the second detainee to go on trial at Guantanamo since the prison there opened in 2002.

Gen. Mario Montoya, commander of Colombia’s armed forces, resigned Nov. 4 after an investigation tied dozens of military personnel under his command to a growing scandal over the killing of civilians by the military in an apparent attempt to inflate the number of insurgents killed in combat by security forces.

On the night of Nov. 4, a Learjet carrying Government Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño and José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a former deputy prosecutor general, crashed in the middle of rush-hour traffic in an upscale neighborhood of Mexico City, killing all eight on board, many on the ground, and injuring dozens of others driving along the busy roadway. Authorities insist the crash was an accident, but rumors persist it was part of the drug cartels' murderous campaign against Mexico's security forces.

Media in South Texas are citing a leaked FBI intelligence report that apparently warns that the Zetas, paramilitary arm of Mexico's Gulf Cartel, are planning attacks on US Border Patrol agents in retaliation against stepped-up interdiction efforts. Law enforcement agencies on the US side of the Rio Grande Valley have reportedly been placed on high alert in response to the threat. (KVEO, Brownsville, Oct. 30)