Earlier this month, a delegation from the Bush adminisation met with President Alvaro Uribe in Bogota to evaluate what Uribe is calling "Plan Colombia II." The delegation was led by assistant secretary of state for hemispheric affairs Tom Shannon and assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs Anne Patterson (former US ambassador to Colombia). Also on the delegation were assistant secretary of defense for western hemisphere policy Stephen Johnson, assistant attorney general Mary Lee Warren and US AID deputy director Mark Silverman. The Bogota daily El Tiempo called it part of Uribe's "diplomatic offensive" to assure continued Plan Colombia aid following the changes in Washington. He officially dubs his new program "Plan Colombia Consolidation Phase: Strategy for Strengthening Democracy and Social Development." It emphasizes alternative crop programs for peasants in drug-growing regions and job programs for the 32,000 ostensibly "demobilized" paramilitary fighters. (El Tiempo, Jan. 26)

Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo stepped down Feb. 19, four days after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of her brother Senator Alvaro Araujo and 12 other legislators for their ties to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the feared paramilitary network. The court also called for an investigation into the suspected paramilitary activities of Araujo’s father, Alvaro Araujo Noguera, including the kidnapping and extortion of a businessman.

Some long-belated progress in the struggle of another stateless ethnicity left off the map in the colonial and post-colonial carve-ups. From Reuters, Feb. 21:

ALGIERS - The Malian government and Tuareg rebels agreed on Tuesday to start implementing an Algerian-brokered peace deal for the northeast desert region of Kidal, the Algerian official news agency APS said.

Among the world's many escalating cycles of terror and militarization that fail to make headlines is that in Northeast India, the scene of multiple tribal and ethnic struggles which the government has long been attempting to crush or co-opt. We recently noted rising terror and repression in Assam state. Now the Assam violence is spilling across the border into Nagaland—where a tribal insurgency maintains a ceasefire in exchange for unofficial autonomy over their territory. In addition to the insurgencies, Delhi may soon be faced with an internal war between the two remote states. From Calcuta's The Telegraph, Feb. 20:

That certainly seems to be the implication of these statements from the Tehran regime. Oh and by the way, it sure didn't take long to get a conviction, did it? From UPI, Feb. 19:

Man hanged in public in Iran for bombing

TEHRAN -- A man was hanged in public in Iran Monday after the Islamic Revolutionary Court convicted him on charges of bombing a Revolutionary Guard bus last week.

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC by its French initials) has been very busy lately. With little note in the world media, Tunisia last month apparently squelched a plot to attack the US and British embassies. It ended in a series of gun battles that killed a dozen militants and left two Tunisian security officers dead. It was kept very quiet—until the New York Times splashed it all over the front page Feb. 20, in somewhat sensationalist terms ("North Africa Feared as Staging Ground for Terror" by Craig S. Smith). Here are the relevant passages, emphasis added:

Another ominous sub-plot in the struggle for Iraq's oil—and a step closer to the brink for a region that has thus far managed to avoid complete embroilment in Iraq's civil war. From AP via the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), Feb. 21:

ANKARA -- Turkey's prime minister on Tuesday urged one of Iraq's two vice presidents to delay a referendum on the future of Kirkuk, fearing Iraqi Kurdish groups could seize control of the northern, oil-rich city.

From IRIN via Electronic Iraq, Feb. 20:

BAGHDAD - Umm Muhammad Jalal, 39, starts every day walking to a river 7km away from her temporary home in a displacement camp on the outskirts of Fallujah, 70km west of the capital, Baghdad. Because of severe water shortages, she and many others make the daily trip to the river to collect water for all their needs.