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:

A glimmer of hope is that the outcry following the slaying of Hrant Dink is coming from Turks as well as Armenians. Perhaps his death will not have been in vain—or will there be an inevitable backlash? From the UK-based Turkish newspaper Londra Toplum Postasi, Jan. 25:

Hundreds of anti-water privatization activists gathered outside El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly this week to back legislation that would "increase [water] coverage, quality and sustainability and guarantee access… for low-income families." They presented a new proposal entitled "The Potable Water and Sewage Sub-sector Law" for legislative approval. The alternative proposal was developed by a number of civil society organizations in close consultation with communities struggling for access to clean water.

The Honduran government reversed its decision to take over oil storage terminals in attempt to lessen oil prices for the Central American country’s impoverished population. The reversal, announced last Friday, followed a threat by U.S. Ambassador Charles A. Ford, who said that "the consequences of this situation could be serious."

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a military convoy Jan. 22 near Mirali, in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan, killing four troops and a civilian woman, and injuring 23, including 20 soldiers. The convoy was a joint force of the federal army and local paramilitary troops. (Dawn, Pakistan, Jan. 23) That same day, a helicopter gunships from the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan bombed a border post in the remote Shawal area of North Waziristan, killing one paramilitary troop, injuring two more and prompting an official protest from Islamabad. (IRNA, Iran, Jan. 24) The following day, at least 10 mortar shells were fired from across the Afghan border into Pakistani territory in North Waziristan. Military sources said the shells were fired by Afghan government troops in retaliation for rocket-fire from a guerilla position near the border in Khost province. (Dawn, Jan. 25)