Daily Report

ICE raids Texas port company

On July 9, ICE agents joined Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in raiding two marine companies in Port Arthur in southeastern Texas, near the Louisiana border. The operations took place at the R & R Marine Fabrication and Drydock facility on Procter Street and at a Cal Dive International facility on Yacht Club Road. The agents arrested 37 immigrant workers at R & R and took them to the ICE holding facility at a private jail in nearby Beaumont; from there the workers were to be transferred to the Houston Detention and Removal Facility. It was not clear whether any workers were arrested at Cal Dive.

China executes Uighurs

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have executed two Uighurs and sentenced 15 others accused of terrorist ties. The Kashgar Intermediate Court sentenced to death two men, identified as Mukhtar Setiwaldi and Abduweli Imi, and immediately executed them July 9. Most of the rest received prison terms ranging from 10 years to life. All were charged with being members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). (Radio Free Asia, July 12)

Maghreb al-Qaeda's NYT debut sparks Algeria outrage

The New York Times scored a media coup July 1 with a front-page story on the revival Algeria's Islamist militant underground following its transformation into an al-Qaeda franchise, "Ragtag Insurgency Gains a Lifeline From Al Qaeda." The front-page story featured an interview (carried out by an intermediary using a tape recorder) with Abdelmalek Droukdal, who in 2004 "sent a secret message" to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia," resulting in "what one firsthand observer describes as a corporate merger." The fruit of this union was "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb," which has since been wracking up high-profile attacks in Algeria. But many in Algeria are furious at the Times now, deeming the account free advertising for the terror franchise.

Western oil cartel recolonizes Iraq

In a piece entitled "Bush & Cheney Always Saw Iraq as a Sweetheart Oil Deal," Noam Chomsky writes that "US war planners want an obedient client state that will house major US military bases, right at the heart of the world's major energy reserves." (AlterNet, July 12) Chomsky references reports by Andrew Kramer in the New York Times last month that "Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields." Since then, the soup has considerably thickened:

Karzai confirms US air-strike on wedding party

An investigation by Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has confirmed reports that a US air strike in the Deh Bala district of Nangarhar province July 6 killed 47 members of a wedding party, including the bride. The investigation found that 39 of the dead were women and children. NATO still maintains the victims were insurgents. (The Independent, July 13) Karzai has also ordered an investigation into a July 4 helicopter strike in Nuristan in which the provincial governor said 22 civilians were killed and seven wounded. (NYT, July 7)

Pakistan vetoes Pentagon force

At least 20 were killed July 12 in fighting between Pakistani security forces and Taliban insurgents following an attack on an army convoy near Zargari, North-West Frontier Province. The violence came during an unannounced, one-day visit to Pakistan by Adm. Michael Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman. Mullen met with President Pervez Musharraf and army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani. (WP, July 13) Foreign Minister Mahmoud Qureshi said he has ruled out allowing US military personnel to hunt for Osama bin Laden on Pakistan's territory. "People will not accept it," Qureshi said. "Questions of sovereignty come in." (AlJazeera, July 13)

Four years after World Court ruling, no retreat on "Apartheid Wall"

<em />West Bank wall still defies World CourtWest Bank wall still defies World CourtFour years after the ruling of the International Court of Justice at The Hague was handed down, Israel's West Bank "separation barrier"—derided by critics as the "apartheid wall"—has not been moved or dismantled in any of the sections that were held to be in breach international law, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said in a press release July 9. B'Tselem reiterated its call for the Israeli government to dismantle every section of the barrier that penetrates the West Bank, cancel the travel permits regime that is part of the barrier project, and compensate the Palestinians who were harmed as a result of the barrier's construction.

Georgian provocation behind Abkhazia terror?

A series of explosions in three towns in the Georgian separatist region of Abkhazia—Gagra, Sukhumi, and Gali—and a skirmish between Georgian and separatist forces in the Georgian-controlled Upper Kodori Gorge topped the agenda as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice July 9-10. The Abkhaz separatist government in Sukhumi blames Tbilisi for the violence; Tbilisi, of course, blames Moscow. Sukhumi alleges the attacks are aimed at scaring Russians away from Abkhazia's Black Sea resorts, just as the summer tourist season gets under way.

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