The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK)—also known as the Mujahedeen Khlaq Organization (MKO), the Peoples Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) and the National Council of Resistance (NCR)—was ordered removed from the UK's list of "terrorist organizations," potentially opening the way for the EU to follow suit. The London Court of Appeal denied the British government permission to challenge a November 2007 decision by a panel of judges that ordered the removal of MEK from the list, with Lord Chief Justice Phillips finding no evidence of involvement in terrorism.

Clashes continues for a second day in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley May 8, pitting Hezbollah against the Sunni and pro-government Future Movement. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah charged the government with crossing a "red line" by challenging the independence of the resistance movement.

On May 6, 480 Palestinian Authority police entered the city of Jenin to crack down on criminal gangs and Islamic Jihad cells, under the rubric of the Israeli-approved and fashionably euphemistic "Operation Smile and Hope." Clashes with presumed Islamic militants broke out in the outlying town of Qabatiyah. (LAT, May 7) The following day, Israeli forces occupied the city and refugee camp of Jenin. Major General Diab Al-Ali (AKA Abul Fatah), commander of the PA's National Security service in the northern governates of the West Bank, said the Israeli incursion is meant to obstruct the Palestinian security services' plan to impose law and order, and is a provocation against the Palestinian government and people. (Ma'an News Agency, May 7)

Did anyone catch this one? Can you imagine the media frenzy if it'd been a Palestinian? From Haaretz, May 2:

US envoy cuts short Hebron trip after clash with settlers
The American bodyguards of a Bush administration envoy who was dispatched to the region to monitor the implementation of the road map engaged in a violent confrontation with right-wing Israelis who sought to disturb a visit to Hebron on Friday, Israel Radio reported.

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day and a week before Israel marks its 60th Independence Day, a group of over 100 prominent British Jews issued a letter proclaiming, "We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary," citing the dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians. Among the signatories are Prof. Haim Bresheeth of the University of East London, who organized the call for an academic boycott of Israel; playwright Harold Pinter; attorney Daniel Machover, who filed a lawsuit against Maj. Gen. Doron Almog, and actor Stephen Fry.

A referendum to decide the fate of Kirkuk—the northern province contested by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, among others—was enshrined in Iraq's 2005 constitution, and was initially scheduled for December 2007. Delayed six months after rival groups were unable to agree on terms, it is now no closer to realization as the deadline looms. UN special envoy to Iraq Staffan de Mistura told AFP: "In December, the question of Kirkuk was a ticking time bomb. The United Nations has stopped the clock."

Even after the humbling of Judith Miller, the Times seems to be up to the same old tricks. The latest propaganda from Michael Gordon is deconstructed by Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher, May 5 (links added):

NYT vs McClatchy on Iran's Link to Iraqi Insurgents
NEW YORK — Michael Gordon, the military writer for The New York Times who contributed several false stories about Iraqi WMD in the runup to the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2002, has written several articles in the past year about Iran's alleged training of Iraqi insurgents—or supplying them with weapons to kill Americans. He produced another major report on this subject for today's Times—based solely on unnamed sources—which is at odds with an account from McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau.

Eight thousand pages of documents related to the Pentagon's illegal propaganda campaign, known as the Pentagon military analyst program, are now online for the world to see, although in a format that makes it impossible to easily search them and therefore difficult to read and dissect. This trove includes the documents pried out of the Pentagon by David Barstow and used as the basis for his stunning investigation that appeared in the New York Times on April 20, 2008.