An Algerian army captain was killed Feb. 28 and another officer seriously injured in an attack near the village of Ain Rich, outside the city of Djelfa. Officials said the Mohadjrine Falange, a wing of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) was responsible. The army is carrying out a sweep of the area. In simultaenous coordinated night raids Feb. 27, several police checkpoints in the Kabylia region and near the coastal city of Boumerdes were attacked by gunmen with AK-47s. No casualties were reported. (AP, Feb. 28; DPA, March 1)

Dear WW4 REPORT Readers:

We hate to extend our winter fund drive into the first month of spring, but we really do have to at least make our first thousand before we call it off. We are $200 short. The only reason we ask for this money is because we need it to stay alive.

Some recent gaffes or revelations (depending on your point of view) by Big Names in the media are providing more fodder for the always-eager conspiracy set. First is Seymour Hersh's latest in the March 5 New Yorker, "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" Like most of his recent journalism, it is based overwhelmingly on anonymous, unverfiable sources. It argues that the US is cooperating with (Sunni) Saudi Arabia in covert activities aimed at beating back the influence of (Shi'ite) Iran and Hezbollah in the Middle East, and that a "by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda." This is a rather vague statement ("by-product" implies this "bolstering" is not an intentional policy). But in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer after the piece came out, Hersh went one step further, asserting that the US is directly aiding al-Qaeda-linked groups:

1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, a defender of Guatemala's Maya people during the genocide of the late 1970s and '80s, will run in the nation's September presidential election with the Juntos por Guatemala (Together for Guatemala) party and Winaq, a new coalition of indigenous leaders. If elected, she will be Latin America's first indigenous woman head-of-state.

Jorge Huenchullan, a Mapuche leader detained Feb. 17 in a violent police operation in Temucuicui, Chile, was transfered to Algol prison after a court in Collipulli declared him a fugitive from justice. The court cited an outstanding arrest order against Huenchullan for an alleged attack on Jaime Andrade, former director of the National Indigenous Development Corporation. He was also accused theft of property from local landowner Rene Urban, whose lands are protected by police forces. Another two activists were detained with Huenchullan—Cristian Calhueque Millanao, 25, and Alex San Martin Huaiquillan, 19, both accused of illegal possession of firearms. They remain free, but are barred from leaving the region and must register with the police every 30 days. (Prensa Latina, Feb. 19. via GALDU)

Ecuador's Economy Minister Ricardo Patiño announced Feb. 28 that the previous day's congressional vote to reduce debt service assignments in the $9.8 billion national budget by $283.4 million has spurred the government's debt restructuring plans. Patiño said an auditing commission will be named to identify "illegitimate debt" that the government will not pay. "Congress has put at my disposal the option of a debt restructuring to reduce debt payments, and we will certainly consider it," Patiño told reporters in Quito. Said Lisa Schineller of Standard and Poor's in New York: "This is an example of the contentious nature in which external debt is viewed in Ecuador, where there is a weak credit culture." The foreign debt of Ecuador, South America's fifth-largest oil producer, totaled $10.21 billion in December. (Reuters, Feb. 28)

Our February issue featured the story "Presidents in the Dock: An End to Africa's Reign of Impunity?" by Michael Fleshman, a reprint from the UN publication Africa Journal. Our February Exit Poll was: "Why are Africa's ex-dictators Charles Taylor (Liberia) and Hissène Habré (Chad) facing the dock, while Guatemala's equally genocidal ex-tyrant José Efraín Rios Montt is free to run for that country's congress? Extra Credit: How is it possible that Taylor and Habré face the dock, while the Darfur genocide continues and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir remains in power, raking in petro-dollars and aspiring to lead the African Union? Extra Extra Credit: Would it merely be juvenile to even bring up George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George H.W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara, etc.? And, oh yeah, Vladimir Putin?" We received two responses:

As the Darfur genocide enters its fifth year, and nearly two years after UN Security Council Resolution 1593 of March 2005 referred violations of international law in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Feb. 27 ICC prosecutors formally identified two of those responsible for slaughter—Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman (nom de guerre Ali Kushayb) and Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Harun. Under Article 58 of the Rome Statute that created the ICC, evidence of crimes against humanity will now be submitted to the Pre-Trial Chamber, which will, in the words of the official summary of the Prosecutor's Application, “review the evidence submitted and decide how to proceed.”