The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the resurgent Kurdish guerilla movement in eastern Turkey and long-standing offical State Department-designated "foreign terrorist organization," is apparently building a visible presence in northern Iraq, and is even said to be establishing a foothold in Iran.

AP reported Aug. 2 that federal investigators used provisions of the USA Patriot Act to search and bug a 360-foot tunnel under the US-Canadian border, and eavesdrop as hundreds of pounds of British Columbia-grown marijuana was brought through it. Agents installed surveillance equipment after obtaining a so-called “sneak-and-peek

We Are All Rotten Apples
by Nirit Ben-Ari

On August 4, Eden Natan-Zada, an Israeli soldier wearing a military uniform and carrying a gun given to him by the army, opened fire on passengers on an Egged bus in the Palestinian town Shfar'am in the Galilee, killing four passengers. Immediately afterwards, an angry mob attacked and killed him while he was already handcuffed by the police. Natan-Zada declared upon his army enlistment that he would refuse orders to evict Jews in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as part of Sharon's disengagement plan. Shortly after his enlistment, he deserted and was locked up in military jail. When he was released, he moved to the Kfar-Tapuach settlement, populated with some of the most violent religious fundamentalist Jews in the West Bank.

At least three are dead in a land dispute between Tzeltal Maya ejidos (collective farming communities) in Mexico's conflicted southern state of Chiapas. More than 20 families have been displaced following the violence between the ejidos of El Chamizal and Laguna Semental in Ocosingo municipality. (Proceso's APRO news service, Aug. 5, online at Chiapas95)

In the capital, Tuxtla Guutierrez, the federal Agriculture Secretariat is demanding police evict some 1,000 striking sugar cane workers who began occupying their office Aug. 2. The cañeros, from the communities of Huixtla and Pujiltic, are demanding changes to federal agriculture policy to favor local producers. (APRO, Aug. 5, via Chiapas95) Chiapas sugar producers are threatened by cheap US corn imports, with corn syrup displacing cane sugar from the market. (CIEPAC, Sept. 5, 2001)

The National Council of Resistance of Iran reports that on Aug. 3 thousands took to the streets of Saqez, capital of Iran's Kurdistan province, against the clerical regime, and in solidarity with uprisings in other cities in the region, including Sanandaj, Mahabad, Sardasht, Piranshahr, Marivan, Oshnavieh, Baneh and Divan Darreh.

NYC activist Robert Lederman offers the following commentary on the below Aug. 5 AP story on plans to conduct simulated bio-chemical warfare attacks in the city:

Both houses of Congress have now voted to extend the most onerous measures of the PATRIOT Act, which is due to expire in December. (IHT, Aug. 1) But these measures still may not survive judicial review. From Immigration News Briefs, Aug. 6:

Patriot Act Statutes Deemed "Vague"
In a July 28 decision, US District Judge Audrey Collins in Los Angeles ruled that several Patriot Act provisions on material support for terrorist organizations remain unconstitutional. Collins said Congress had failed to remedy all the problems she defined in a Jan. 23, 2004 ruling striking down the statute. "Even as amended, the statute fails to identify the prohibited conduct in a manner that persons of ordinary intelligence can reasonably understand," Collins ruled.

Writing for Toward Freedom Aug. 2, Benjamin Dangl provides an overview of regional press coverage of the new US troop presence in Paraguay. Dangl finds that the troop contingent—ostensibly sent in support of humanitarian missions like road-building—is actually about policing neighboring Bolivia, where militant indigenous and popular movements are threatening government plans for corporate gas and oil exploitation. According to a July 7 article in the Bolivian newspaper El Deber, a US base is being developed in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia. The base will permit the landing of large aircraft and is capable of housing up to 16,000 troops. A statement released that same day from the US embassy in Paraguay said the US has "absolutely no intention of establishing a military base anywhere in Paraguay" and "has no intention to station soldiers for a lengthy period in Paraguay." (Translation at Information Clearing House)