Army helicopter gunships continue to pound neo-Taliban positions in the Swat and Shangla districts of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, in an operation which has taken some 100 lives this week. Officials said a Taliban commander known as Matiullah was killed in the air-strikes on Nov. 15. Maulana Fazlullah, the militant movement's fugitive frontman, is said to have led the dead commander's funeral prayers. But the militants succeeded in capturing the police headquarters in Matta and Alpuri, seats of Swat and Shangla, respectively. The New York Times showed a masked gunman, identified as a follower of Fazlullah's Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws, standing guard outside the Matta police station with an armed personnel carrier under his watchful eye. This represents a significant expansion of the militant movement deeper into Pakistan from the Tribal Areas along the Afghan border, its traditional base. With the local constabulary and paramilitary Frontier Corps overwhelmed, Islamabad has sent some 2,000 army troops into the region since July, but they have failed to stop the militants from spreading their area of control. (Daily Times, Pakistan, Nov. 17; NYT, Asian News International, Nov. 16)

A glimmer of hope—but it's pretty terrifying that this was under consideration, even by the supposedly enlightened Chief William Bratton. Some of us remember the mass detention of Southern California Muslims by immigration authorities in 2002. From AFP, Nov. 16:

LOS ANGELES — Police in Los Angeles have abandoned a controversial anti-terrorism plan that would have created a compute database of the city's Muslim population, media here reported Thursday.

The only good news here is that is that it has sparked an international outcry—which comes just in time to embarrass the barbaric Saudi regime at the Riyadh OPEC summit. (AFP, Nov. 16) From The Telegraph, Nov. 17:

A Saudi woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after she was the victim of a gang rape.

It seems scientists at Oregon Health & Science University have cloned monkey embryos to create embryonic stem cells. "Breakthrough or an ethical nightmare?" asks News-Medical.net Nov. 15. We say it is far worse than an "ethical nightmare," which implies some ambiguity. At risk of loaning legitimacy to the religious right (who we disagree with about almost everything, abortion first and foremost), we say it is a moral abombination—a further step towards elite technocratic colonization of of the very mechanisms of human evolution, and the ultimate abolition of humanity—a destiny that the sinister-wacky "trans-humanists" are hubristic (and warped) enough to welcome. So it is a comfort to find that right in the heart of New Delhi, troupes of monkeys not only remain intransigently outside human control—but are even actively resisting the human system. From Reuters, Nov. 14:

In a near-explicit threat, Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed Nov. 13 called on Mogadishu residents to help fight insurgents—or suffer in government crackdowns in the violence-torn capital. "My government is doing all it can to save the lives of the Somali people, but insurgents are responsible for the continued violence," Yusuf told a press conference in Nairobi. "People in neighborhoods must also fight the Shabab and chase them away. Otherwise they are the ones who suffer in crackdowns." The Shabab (Arabic for "Youth") insurgent movement continues to harass government and Ethiopian troops in Somalia's capital. "When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers," Yusuf warned.

In a little-noted move, the US House of Representatives Oct. 23 passed the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" (HR 1955), which is being widely assailed by civil libertarians. The bill, if it becomes law, would establish a "National Commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence" and a university-based "Center for Excellence" to "examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically based violence in the United States" and develop policy for "prevention, disruption and mitigation." The bill defines "violent radicalization" as "the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious or social change."

Just as the Kurdistan crisis seemed to be de-escalating, come reports in the Turkish press that Turkish warplanes bombed three villages frequented by PKK guerillas in Iraqi territory near the border town of Zakho in pre-dawn raids Nov. 13. Officials are full of denials. Said Turkey's air force chief, General Aydogan Babaoglu: "Turkish air force planes have not engaged in any action across the border. There was no such thing. These reports are completely baseless." Said Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan: "All the operations that have taken place have been within the borders of Turkey, there have been no cross-border operations." Said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell: "As far as we know, there were no cross border operations... no air strikes, as had been reported." But Jamal Abdallah, a spokesman for the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, was more equivocal: "Yesterday evening Turkish planes dropped flares on border areas near Zakho. We do not know the reason why they dropped flares. There was no air strike or bombing. But an abandoned police outpost was shelled."

A remotely detonated car bomb attack on the Batasan complex that houses the Philippines House of Representatives at Quezon City in Manila Nov. 13 killed four, including the suspected target—Rep. Wahab Akbar (Basilan), a former Muslim militant who backed operations against the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. Twelve other were injured in the blast, including two congressmen. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales revealed that authorities received an intelligence report three weeks ago about threats on Akbar's life, according to the Philippine ABS-CBN TV News. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has offered a $100,000 reward for information that can prevent such attacks in the future.