Scotland Yard's anti-terror chief is awarded "Commander of the British Empire"—in the wake of a controvesial shooting of a young Muslim man in a police raid that turned up nothing. From The Telegraph, June 17:

There has been a storm of protest after it emerged that a senior police officer involved in a controversial anti-terror raid in which a suspect was shot was to be awarded a CBE.

Zapatista leader Subcommander Marcos told the Spanish TV show "El Loco de la Colina" in a special broadcast Mexico City that it is "possible to build another Latin America" based in popular movements and new political actors emerging in the region, especially "those lead by indigenous peoples, as is the case in Bolivia and Ecuador."

The dust is being blown off one of the more bizarre schemes to emerge from Washington's so-called "War on Drugs"—which is really a war on plants, on biotic life. Jeremy Bigwood writes for In These Times, June 6:

On April 16, the New York Times ran a full-page ad from contact lens producer Bausch and Lomb, announcing the recall of its "ReNu with MoistureLoc" rewetting solution, and warning the 30 million American wearers of soft contact lenses about Fusarium keratitis. This infection, first detected in Asia, has rapidly spread across the United States. It is caused by a mold-like fungus that can penetrate the cornea of soft contact lens wearers, causing redness and pain that can lead to blindness—requiring a corneal replacement.

The Presbyterian church is currently meeting in Birmingham, AL, to decide the fate of its initiative to divest its holdings in companies directly involved in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. The following was received via e-mail:

Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church
Jews Against the Occupation, 14 June 2006

We are writing to you as deeply committed Jews to ask the Presbyterian Church of the United States to honor its commitment to doing justice and seeking peace, and, in so doing, to act as a true friend to our own people. We hope and pray that you will continue to disavow Christian Zionism, to condemn Israel's continuing effort to extend and consolidate its hold on Palestinian land and water in the Occupied West Bank, and to begin selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations enabling those efforts. These decisions represented an important step forward for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine.

While Human Rights Watch has revealed yet more evidence showing the Israeli army's culpability in shelling an innocent family of Palestinian bathers in Gaza, Israel still officially denies its responsibility. An Israeli parliamentarian is calling for an outside investigation.

The Iraqi "resistance" strikes another heroic blow...against Shi'ite civilians. From Australia's Special Broadcasting Service:

A suspected shoe bomber targeting a Shi'ite imam who criticised Abu Musab al Zarqawi has blown himself up inside one of Baghdad's most prominent Shi'ite mosques, killing at least 13 people and wounding nearly 30.

The New York Daily News (June 16) can make fun of the "pants-less pervert" all it wants. But the fact is that our heroic men and women in uniform are in the killing fields of Iraq to protect the American way of life that allows such behavior. A case can be made that we have a responsibility to act like morons on the streets and highways of America, so that 2,500 servicemen will not have died in vain.

The Brooklyn cab driver killed when a pants-less pervert rammed a van into his taxi had only worked the late shift once before Wednesday night's fatal wreck, his family said yesterday.

Reporters Without Borders is protesting the Pentagon's move to ban journalists from Guantanamo Bay, an ostensibly temporary measure. (Washington Post, June 15) The move comes on the heel of the suicide of three detainees at the prison camp, who the Administration says were "enemy combatants." Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the camp's commander, went so far as to call the suicides an "act of war" against America. Said of Harris: "They are smart, they are creative, they are committed... They have no regard to life, neither ours nor their own. And I believe this was not an act of desperation, rather an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us." (UK Telegraph, June 11) Conservative pundits are echoing the line that the detainees were not driven to suicide through desperation, but were using suicide as a "political weapon" against America—a neat reversal of victims and oppressors. (eg William Buckley, June 16) Now, al-Qaeda training manuals probably do call for using suicide and allegations of torture as a political weapon for captured militants. But it isn't like the Pentagon has not openly admitted to engaging in similar "back propaganda" stunts. (BBC, Feb. 20, 2002) So when the water is this muddy, who ya gonna believe? Meanwhile, one of the fathers of the victims is denying his son killed himself at all—raising the possibility of murder. From al-Jazeera, June 14: