More evidence that Pakistan, the USA's closest ally in the region, is ironically serving as a staging ground for the destabilization of US-occupied Afghanistan. First this, from The Guardian, Sept. 19:

A chain of suicide bombings killed 19 people, including four Canadian soldiers, across Afghanistan yesterday, in guerrilla violence bearing an increasing resemblance to the conflict in Iraq. The blasts came a day after Nato claimed it had scored a victory after killing more than 500 insurgents in two weeks of fighting in the Taliban's southern heartland.

We warned even before the US invasion that the northern city of Kirkuk—contested by Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen—was Iraq's most likely flashpoint for civil war. Up until now, it has (comparatively speaking) been spared embroilment in the sectarian warfare tearing the country apart. That changed Sept. 17, when seven coordinated suicide car bombs and explosions left over 25 dead and nearly 100 wounded around the city. The bombs mostly targeted police partols and headquarters, although one exploded outside the home of Sheik Wassfy al-Assy, described as a "tribal leader" who had vocally opposed the Saddam dictatorship. (WP, Sept. 18) Days before the attacks, Al-Jazeera had warned that tensions in Kirkuk were reaching an explosive point—especially given an approaching referendum to decide the city's future. Via KurdishMedia, Sept. 15:

As suicide bombings and other random carnage become a daily affair in Iraq, a Baghdad book-sellers' enclave which had been something of an intellectual autonomous zone even under the Saddam dictatorship is effectively shut down. Freedom's on the march. From MSNBC, Sept. 18:

Anybody have any idea who the "Lions of Monotheism" are? From Newsday, Sept. 19:

Palestine's Christians face retalliation from Muslims over Pope's words
NABLUS -- The charred churches of this West Bank town were shuttered yesterday and circled by armed guards, while members of its Christian congregations hid in their homes and braced for more violence following papal remarks that have inflamed the Muslim world.

This hero of the left has again revealed himself as fundamentally reactionary. Those with any familiarity with the struggle in Western Sahara know that talk about opposing the "partition of Morocco" is akin to opposing Israeli withdrawal from "Judea and Samaria." But even given Galloway's unseemly alliance with radical Islamism, this makes precious little political sense. His apparent genocide-denial* in the case of Darfur at least has some logic, as Sudan is a fundamentalist regime with anti-imperialist pretensions. Morocco is throughly in the Western camp, a domesticated partner in Washington's War on Terror. On the other hand, King Mohamed VI and the Islamist militants who occupy his torture chambers would probably agree where Western Sahara is concerned... From the Morocco Times Sept. 18:

A little over a year ago, Mauritania's long-ruling dictator Maoya Sidi Ahmed Ould Taya was overthrown in a coup d'etat led by Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, who promised to usher in democracy. This June, a popular referendum approved a new constitution instating a limit of two five-year presidential terms, preventing consolidation of a new Taya-style presidency-for-life. European Union observors have just arrived in the country to monitor the municipal and parliamentary election slated for November. Presidential elections are to be held in January. (AngolaPress, Sept. 7; VOA, June 11) The African Liberation Forces of Mauritania (FLAM), which has long boycotted the political process as illegitimate, will apparently be participating. From AngolaPress Sept. 5:

Did Israel "let it happen on purpose"? From a Sept. 18 Haaretz account of Israeli intelligence "failures" in the recent Lebanon war:

MI knew about Hezbollah kidnap plans
Military Intelligence had clear information about an impending kidnap attempt by Hezbollah shortly before the Lebanese group carried out its cross-border raid on July 12, according to an internal inquiry conducted by the Israel Defense Forces.

You knew that it would. But an interesting glimmer of hope is that in Egypt, where Muslim-Coptic tensions have exploded into violence all too recently, both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Coptic hierarchy are urging people to chill out. In vivid contrast, of course, to the ever-predictable "al-Qaeda in Iraq." From MSNBC, Sept. 17:

Islamic militants vow war after pope comments
'We are afraid,' Middle East Christians say in face of continued Muslim fury,
CAIRO - Al-Qaida militants in Iraq vowed war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy on Monday over Pope Benedict’s comments on Islam, while Western churchmen and statesmen tried to calm passions.