The Polish government signed a deal Aug. 14 to host a 10 interceptor missiles at a site along Poland's Baltic Sea coast as a part of the US "missile shield" plan. The site, staffed by US forces, would complement a US radar installation to be based in the Czech Republic. Washington says those facilities, to be operational by 2013, would complete an anti-missile system already in place in the US, Greenland, and Britain. In return, Poland will receive "enhanced security cooperation"—most significantly, a separate missile defense system for its own armed forces. A US Patriot missile battery is to be relocated to Poland from Germany for this purpose, to be initially operated jointly with the US. (NYT, RFE/RL, Aug. 15)

An Aug. 15 New York Times story, "Signs of Ethnic Attacks in Georgia Conflict," states: "The identities of the attackers vary, but a pattern of violence by ethnic Ossetians against ethnic Georgians is emerging and has been confirmed by some Russian authorities." It quotes Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Borisov, commander in charge of Russian-occupied Gori, as saying, "Now Ossetians are running around and killing poor Georgians in their enclaves." It also cites Human Rights Watch as saying it had "documented attacks by ethnic Ossetians in and around Tskhinvali." Yet the HRW press release on its report from Georgia also noted the "plight of ethnic Ossetian villagers who had fled Georgian soldiers"—a plight not mentioned by the Times. We hope HRW will write a letter to the Times calling the newspaper out on this critical omission.

Robert Scheer uncovers an interesting piece of the puzzle as to what transpired in Georgia over the past week. But he can't resist the temptation to portray it as the entire explanation for the war—in further evidence of the current hegemony of the Conspiracy Theory of History in dissident (and even not-so-dissident) discourse these days. From AlterNet, Aug. 13, emphasis added. Our commentary follows.

While mainstream media coverage in the West has generally painted a once-sided picture of arbitrary Russian aggression against an innocent Georgia, much of the "alternative media" is merely inverting the equation—and arriving at similarly skewed perceptions. We hate to have to call out Bruce Gagnon, because his Space4Peace.org website is a vital resource. But just because he's up to speed on weapons in space doesn't make him politically astute about other things. His Aug. 12 blog post—highlighting the similarly faulty analysis of one Patrick Schoenfelder—is a case study in mere kneejerk reaction to mainstream portrayals as a substitute for actual thought. We reproduce it below with untruths and distortions in bold. Our commentary follows.

Russia says it is gathering evidence for charges of genocide against Georgia, accusing it of driving 30,000 refugees out of South Ossetia. Georgia responded by filing a case against Russia at the International Court of Justice for ethnic cleansing between 1993 and 2008. (London Times, Aug. 13) Human Rights Watch reports that on Aug. 12, its researchers "saw ethnic Georgian villages still burning from fires set by South Ossetian militias, witnessed looting by the militias, and learned firsthand of the plight of ethnic Ossetian villagers who had fled Georgian soldiers during the Georgian-Russian conflict over the breakaway region of South Ossetia." (HRW, Aug. 13)

A suicide car bomb attack on security forces killed eight civilians and injured 19 at Zemmouri, Boumerdes province, 30 miles east of Algiers, Aug. 9. The checkpoint blast outside a barracks targeted troops of the Coast Guard and National Gendarmerie. Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said the attack appeared to have been in retaliation for an army ambush that killed 12 rebels late last week. The ambush was said to be part of the army's pursuit of rebels behind a car bombing in Tizi Ouzou on Aug. 3 that wounded 25 people. (Reuters, Algeria Watch, Aug. 11) Three Gendarmes were also injured when a remote-controlled bomb targeted a patrol near Tassalast beach in Tizi Ouzou province Aug. 9. Two other bombs were dismantled by security services on Aug. 10 in the area of Tigzirt in Tizi Ouzou. (Magharebia, Aug. 12)

Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a leader of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, was killed as some 100,000 Muslim Kashmiris made an unprecedented attempt to breach the Line of Control (LoC) Aug. 11. In Chehel, about 28 miles from the LoC, where Abdul Aziz was shot, marchers pushed aside barricades and clashed with security forces, who fired on the crowd. One other marcher was reportedly wounded. Two armored cars were burnt in the nearby town of Baramullah. (London Times, NYT, Aug. 12) Twelve protesters were shot to death in different parts of India-controlled Kashmir Aug. 12—at least four of them at the funeral for Abdul Aziz in Bandipora. (Dawn, Aug. 13) The Press Trust of India places the two-day death toll in Kashmir at 21—mostly protesters shot by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). (PTI, Aug. 13)

With the Olympics in Beijing in full course, three security officials were killed Aug. 12 at a road block 30 kilometers from Kashgar, Xinjiang. The official Chinese press agency “Xinhua said assailants jumped from a vehicle passing through the checkpoint and stabbed the agents. "These were just some terrorists," said a local police officer in Yamanya, Shule county, where the attack occurred. A fourth security official was wounded in an attack in Yamanya town, according to the New China News Agency. The assailants remain at large. (WP, Aug. 13; AGI, TVNZ, Aug. 12)