On Sept. 15, some 100 people rallied outside the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, a privately-run immigration prison, to protest the treatment of immigration detainees. The rally culminated a week-long 105-mile march through six counties, organized by the Prison & Jail Project, a 15-year-old civil rights and prisoner rights advocacy group based in Americus, Georgia. The group's annual "Freedom Walk"—now in its 12th year—highlights racial and social inequities in the criminal justice system in rural southwest Georgia.

From the New York Times, Sept. 19:

World's Languages Dying Off Rapidly
Of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists say, nearly half are in danger of extinction and are likely to disappear in this century. In fact, they are now falling out of use at a rate of about one every two weeks.

Some endangered languages vanish in an instant, at the death of the sole surviving speaker. Others are lost gradually in bilingual cultures, as indigenous tongues are overwhelmed by the dominant language at school, in the marketplace and on television.

From the New York Times, Sept. 19:

Settlements Do Not Deter 9/11 Plaintiffs Seeking Trials
Families of 14 of the people killed in the planes hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, have settled their lawsuits, but relatives of other victims said yesterday that they would continue fighting in court to address their questions about how Islamic terrorists bypassed airport security, commandeered four jets and killed thousands of people.

Like the similar claims being made about Iran arming its Sunni-extremist deadly enemies in Iraq, this strikes us as utterly improbable. Recall that before 9-11, Iran was on the brink of war with Afghanistan, over the Taliban's ethnic cleansing of Shi'ites. There is also an Orwellian aspect to these claims given the now-forgotten reports of US-Iran cooperation in the 2001 campaign against the Taliban. But I guess we're not supposed to talk about that. From wire services, via the Baltimore Sun, Sept. 22:

From the front page of the New York Times, Sept. 22:

At State Deptartment, Blog Team Joins Muslim Debate
WASHINGTON — Walid Jawad was tired of all the chatter on Middle Eastern blogs and Internet forums in praise of gory attacks carried out by the "noble resistance" in Iraq.

Female genital mutilation—or "circumcision," as its apologists call it—has been banned even in Eritrea, as it faces US accusations of harboring Islamist terrorists. We recently noted the irony that the US has launched criminal prosecutions over the practice, even as it deports immigrant women who have fled it back to their native countries. Prestigious Islamic clerics have condemned the practice as a barbaric cultural tradition that is not sanctioned by Islam. Yet its apparent tenacity even in Egypt, among the most modernized countries in the Islamic world, is astonishing and frightening. From the Malta Star, Sept. 21:

No comment. From Reuters, Sept. 17:

DUVANNY YAR, Russia — Sergei Zimov bends down, picks up a handful of treacly mud and holds it up to his nose. It smells like a cow pat, but he knows better. "It smells like mammoth dung," he says.

We have predicted again and again that Washington will goad Israel into throwing the first punch at Iran—thereby allowing US elites to shill the blame for the adventure off on the Jews as they jump in with massive air power to "protect our ally." Now, it seems, David Wurmser has stated this stratagem openly. Steven Clemons, writing for Salon Sept. 19, portrays a struggle within the administration between pragmatists who have got Bush's ear at the moment and hardline neocons around Cheney who are still gunning for Iran. He presents lots of inside dish (one wonders where he heard it all), including this extremely ominous gem: