Wired reports June 19 reports from Marlborough, MA, where the US Air Force held a confab to promote its new Cyber Command, which is to go operational in 105 days. While the command's mission is still "very much in question," it will certainly provide further opportunity for corporate-Pentagon collaboration. Wired writes that on the symposium's exhibition floor, companies like IBM bragged about "partnering for dominance" with the military in cyberspace.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress, June 16:

On the US-Iraqi Treaty
The US administration plans to tie Iraq to a treaty that will guarantee a US military presence and political interference with absolute control of the wealth and resources of Iraq.

A car bombing that killed 63 June 17 at a bus-stop in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite Hurriya area may have been carried out by a militant trying to incite Shi'ite violence against Sunnis, the US military said. Lt. Col. Steve Stover said, "Our intelligence, corroborated through multiple sources, is this atrocity was committed" by Haydar Mehdi Khadum al-Fawadi, leader of an Iranian-backed militant cell. "We believe he ordered the attack to incite Shia violence against Sunnis," he said, adding that al-Fawadi is a "murderous thug." (CNN, June 18)

A little-known Iranian Sunni militant group claimed responsibility June 18 for a mosque bombing that killed 14 and wounded 200 in Shiraz April 12. "This is the very first operation and the signal to the criminal regime of Iran...to stop its oppression, cruelty and injustice towards...Sunnis," the Jihadi Movement of the Sunna People of Iran said in an Internet statement. The group said it carried out the attack to avenge what it said was the execution of two Sunni scholars in Iran's southeastern Baluchistan region. (Reuters, June 18)

Colombia's coca crop grew by 27% last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported June 18, calling the increase "a surprise and a shock" given ongoing US-funded eradication efforts. Coca cultivation was also up 4% in Peru and 5% in Bolivia, the annual survey found.

In a June 13 statement, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa announced that his government has decided not to join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the integration initiative led by Venezuela. The statement said Ecuador would continue to pursue regional integration through the OAS and Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

The US government is continuing its efforts to have Puerto Ricans testify before a federal grand jury on the independence movement. A summons was served on Tania Frontera, a graphic artist living in New York City, to appear before a New York grand jury on June 13, along with an unidentified man who lives in Puerto Rico. Frontera had been scheduled to appear before the grand jury on at least two times earlier this year, but the sessions were postponed. She has said she will refuse to testify.

On June 14 Argentine police in Entre Rios province removed a group of farmers and truckers who were blocking Route 14, an important link with Uruguay. Agents arrested 19 protesters, including Alfredo de Angeli, head of the provincial branch of the Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA); he was released after four hours. The blockade was part of a new round of strikes and actions in a national protest agricultural producers have carried out in phases since March to protest increased taxes on soy.