Talk about a vicious cycle: the authorities raid madrassas to crack down on pissed-off Islamists, which inevitably results in—more pissed off Islamists. From Pakistan's Daily Times, Jan. 29:

ISLAMABAD -- Police raided several seminaries in Rawalpindi and Islamabad early on Sunday to arrest clerics "as a pre-emptive measure to maintain peace during Muharram," while a meeting of clerics was underway later in the day to evolve a strategy against the demolition of some mosques by the government authorities and raids on madrassas.

Canada caves in—the US remains intransigent. From This Week of Kamloops, BC, Jan. 28:

Maher Arar is Kamloops' newest millionaire, but in an impassioned speech Friday, his lawyer reminded potential detractors that no amount of money will help Arar and his family to ever lead a normal life again.

In the very first issue of WW4 REPORT, just two weeks after 9-11, we noted the terrifying plunder of post-Soviet nuclear materials by black-marketeers who could presumably sell them to the highest-bidding terrorist group. Just two weeks ago, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight in response to (among other things) "the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials." We'd like to believe Moscow's claim that this latest incident is a set-up, a "provocation" by Georgia (presumably with some degree of CIA support) in the ongoing shadow struggle for strategic control of the Caucasus and its coveted pipeline routes. Anyway you slice it, it's a very dangerous game. From AP, Jan. 27:

So who was behind this one? Takes place near Peshawar's main Sunni mosque, but also near the city's Shi'ite community center, and during the Shi'ite holy month of Moharram. Some people specualte these ongoing outrages are a CIA conspiracy. But if so, the Agency has been very busy indeed—as we have pointed out again and again and again. From the UAE's Gulf News, Jan. 28:

At least 15 people were killed, including two senior police officers, when a parcel bomb ripped through a market in northwestern Pakistan late yesterday, police and officials said.

And speaking of Dick Cheney... From McClatchy Newspapers, Jan. 25:

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney exerted "constant" pressure on the Republican former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush administration's use of flawed intelligence on Iraq, the panel's Democratic chairman charged Thursday.

Of course everyone wants us to think its really about the Jews. From The Raw Story, Jan. 26:

An analysis released by a Democratic senator found that Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock options have risen 3,281 percent in the last year, RAW STORY can reveal.

The Pentagon recently posed Colombia as a "good model" for the war on opium in Afghanistan. But Hamid Karzai, to his credit, is displaying greater concern for the health of his own land and people than top US Latin American ally Alvaro Uribe. From Reuters, Jan. 26:

KABUL, Afghanistan - Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided against a Colombia-style program to spray this country's heroin-producing poppies after the Cabinet worried herbicide would hurt legitimate crops, animals and humans, officials said Thursday.

This sad story is all the more telling given that the "Salvador option" reveals El Salvador as a test war for Iraq—with the sinister John Negroponte a key architect of both. The failure of the Times to even mention this obvious connection is more telling still. Marc Lacey writes for the New York Times, Jan. 26, emphasis added: