From Military Families Speak Out, Nov. 8:

Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), an organization of over 3,100 military families who are opposed to the war in Iraq, welcome the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, one of the key architects of the war in Iraq. "Donald Rumsfeld sent our loved ones off to a war based on lies, and, adding insult (and injury) to injury, he did it on the cheap...many troops lacked proper body armor, armored vehicles and so much more," said Nancy Lessin of Boston, Massachusetts, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out whose step-son served with the Marines in Iraq in spring, 2003.

In this Nov. 8 commentary for Truthout, Jason Leopold saves some salient facts about the incoming Defense Secretary from the Orwellian Memory Hole. It seems that like the outgoing Rumsfeld, he was instrumental in building US intelligence and military links with the Saddam Hussein dictatorship in the 1980s. Life's little ironices. However, we are not as optimistic as Leopold that these facts "are bound to come up again." We can only hope...:

From AP, Nov. 7:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal public defender who took on some of the nation's most high-profile terrorism cases after Nine-Eleven has died at age 64.

From Mexico's El Universal, Nov. 7 via Chiapas95:

GENEVA - The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), embroiled in a conflict with the Attorney General's Office (PGR), will present a report before the UN human rights officials on Wednesday saying that torture in Mexico has increased 300 percent during the current administration.

Amnesty International has officially called upon the Mexican government to release the names of those detained by federal police in Oaxaca, and the charges they face. The arrested now number above 80. Many are being held incommunicado and there are growing reports of human rights abuses. (El Universal, Nov. 7)

From the AP, Nov. 7:

Hundreds protest border fence in Mexico

CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico -- The mayor of a Mexican city on the Texas border led about 400 people on a 55-mile march Tuesday to protest U.S. plans for new border fence.

How ironic. We noted in August that ex-Israeli security chief Uza Dayan was warning the US against emulating Israeli strategies in securing the Mexican border. Now it appears that Elbit Systems, an Israeli firm which is building the "Aparthied Wall" in occupied Palestine, has been awarded a contract, along with Boeing, to build the wall on the Mexican border. From Israel21C, Oct. 15:

There have now been 84 "arbitrary detentions" by the Mexican federal police in Oaxaca, according to the Miguel Augustin Pro-Juarez Human Rights Center (PRODH), which has dispatched a team of investigators to the besieged city. The group also reports 59 "disappearances," in which the whereabouts of the detained is unknown, since the city was occupied by 4,000 Federal Preventative Police on Oct. 29. (La Jornada, Nov. 5)