On Jan. 26, US federal magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth in Columbus, Ga., sentenced five activists to two-month prison terms for trespassing on the US Army's Fort Benning base on Nov. 23 as part of an annual protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). Faircloth sentenced an additional protester, Louis Wolf, to six months of house arrest and imposed a $1,000 fine; Wolf, a co-founder of the magazine CovertAction Quarterly, requires special medical care, according to his lawyer, Bill Quigley. The other activists sentenced were Rev. Luis Barrios, an Episcopal priest in New York City; public interest advocate Theresa Cusimano; seminary student Kristin Holm; Sr. Diane Pinchot, a Catholic nun and art professor; and retired teacher Al Simmons.

We are now half way to our necessary winter fund-drive goal of $2,000.

After Obama took office, the Washington Post announced in a headline: "Bush's 'War' On Terror Comes to a Sudden End." This inevitably leads us to ask if we have outlived out mission...

Strikes have broken out across the UK in support of a mass walkout by energy workers in Lincolnshire angry at the use of foreign workers. Hundreds gathered for the third day of the original strike at Lindsey Oil Refinery after owner Total gave a £200 million contract to an Italian firm. They are joined by hundreds of other "sympathy" strikers in Scotland, Wales and other parts of England.

From the BBC News, Feb. 1:

Scores killed in Kenya oil fire
At least 111 people have died in Kenya after an overturned petrol tanker caught fire on a highway and exploded. Reports say the fire broke out after hundreds of people gathered to collect spilled fuel.

George Obama, half-brother of President Barack Obama, was arrested and jailed for possession of one joint in Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 31. "They took me from my home," he said, denying the charge against him. "I don't know why they are charging me." Obama was charged with possession of marijuana and resisting arrest. He is currently at Huruma police station awaiting a court hearing.

In the inevitable analogy to Abraham Lincoln that Barack Obama has deftly exploited, it is largely forgotten that Lincoln was only pushed to an emancipationist position by two years of civil war. Similarly, whether Obama will embrace a more sweeping agenda—re-negotiate NAFTA, nationalize the banks, instate a "Green New Deal"—may depend on how deeply the American system goes into crisis over the next years. Our January Exit Poll was: "Will Barack Obama be radicalized in office by historical circumstance as Lincoln was?" We received the following responses:

A group of 15 gunmen took over the oldest synagogue in Caracas the night of Jan. 30, ransacking the sanctuary, desecrating Torahs and spray-painting walls with anti-Semitic slogans in what Venezuelan Jewish leaders called the worst attack ever on their community. A security guard was overpowered and tied up at around 10 PM; the gunmen remained in the temple until 3 AM. Slogans left on the walls read "Damn the Jews," "Jews get out" and "Israel assassins." A crude representation of the devil was also scrawled on a wall.

Tokyo is preparing to dispatch Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers to protect Japanese commercial vessels from pirates off Somalia. The issue of use of force against the pirates is likely to hotly contested in legislation the government is readying to allow the mission. "Basically, MSDF anti-piracy measures should be dealt with under a new law," Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said, raising further fears of an erosion of Japan's pacifist constitution.