International arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar was arrested by Spanish police June 7 after a federal indictment was issued against him in New York for conspiring to support terrorists and kill US soldiers. US officials said undercover agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had convinced al-Kassar that they represented the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a guerilla army classified by the US State Department as a terrorist group.

Arnaldo Otegi, the leader of banned Basque separatist party Batasuna, has been arrested in northern Spain, charged with glorifying terrorism; he is to serve a 15-month sentence. Batasuna is closely linked with Basque separatists ETA, who ended a 15-month cease-fire on June 6. [The Supreme Court had rejected Otegi's appeal of a conviction and 15-month sentence handed down last year.] [EITB24, June 8]

From Long Island Press, June 8:

Teen Drives Into Sunrise Mall
On June 7, an Amityville teen was arrested for reportedly driving a car into the main entrance of Sunrise Mall at around 7 p.m.

The headquarters of the Iraq Freedom Congress, a civil anti-occupation coalition, were raided by US troops June 7. The premises were damaged when the soldiers forced down the door, and five of the office's guards were arrested and their weapons confiscated. Documents were also seized in the raid.

Protesters dodged the massive police presence at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm again June 7, blockading a road leading to the summit site. Thousands of demonstrators had spent the night in the no-demonstration zone within a kilometer of the security fence. The words "Evil Empire!!!!" were taped to a road sign that pointed the way to Heiligendamm. Meanwhile, sea-borne Greenpeace activists leading officers on a boat chase in the Baltic. One boatload of protesters spilled into the Baltic after colliding with their pursuers. (AP, June 7) In nearby Rostock, a "clown bloc" marched, mocking police and official paranoia about anarchist "black blocs." (Infoshop, June 5) Polish activists staged an occupation of a train after being refused entry into Germany. After anti-terrorist squads were brought in, police gave the activists half an hour to leave, and the occupation ended. (A-Infos, June 6)

Via A-Infos, June 7:

In summer of 2006, during summit of the G8, Russian president Vladimir Putin promised that Russia will join to international program to spread nuclear energy. Russia's role in this project is to be a storage of nuclear waste. Electro-Chemical Industrial Complex of Angarsk (AEHK) was founded 1954, it is located in South-Eastern border of the city of Angarsk, 30 kilometers from Irkutsk and 90 kilometers from lake Baikal. It is a company involved in nuclear fuel cycle, processing concentrate including Uranium to Uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which in turn is enriched to Uranium-235 for the Nuclear Industry. Complex is under administration of Rosatom, Russian Federal Agency on Atom Energy. AEHK is far from uranium mines, nuclear plants and other parts of the nuclear fuel cycle, thus both raw materials and final products of the company will be transferred by the Trans-Siberian railway. Transport of the radioactive materials means additional risks for the people and environment.

Advocates for the families of 173 people murdered in the banana-growing regions of Colombia filed suit today against Chiquita Brands International, in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. The families allege that Chiquita paid millions of dollars, and tried to ship thousands of machine guns to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC. The AUC is a violent, right-wing paramilitary organization supported by the Colombian army. In 2001, the Bush Administration classified the AUC as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization." Its units are often described as "death squads."

Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution has a piece in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, "Al-Qaeda Strikes Back," which finds, "By rushing into Iraq instead of finishing off the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Washington has unwittingly helped its enemies: al Qaeda has more bases, more partners, and more followers today than it did on the eve of 9/11." While still supporting the Afghanistan mission, Riedel sees the Iraq war as counter-productive, and warns that attacking Iran would play into al-Qaeda's hands. He also has an interesting take on the notion of "false flag" operations, so beloved of the conspiracy industry: