Media accounts have largely foused on Iran as the supplier of Hezbollah's missiles, with Syria merely serving as a transshipment point. But Israeli intelligence, mostly relying on forensic work at the impact sites, has reportedly determined that many of Hezbollah's rockets that hit Israel in the recent war were actually Syrian-made, or Russian missiles that had been supplied to Syria. (LAT, Aug. 31 via Assyrian International News Agency) The United Nations is also said to have reports that Syria continues to permit arms to cross its border into Lebanon, and Secretary General Kofi Annan plans to demand an end to the illegal traffic when he meets tomorrow with President Bashar al-Assad. (NYT, Aug. 31) Syria, which denies arming Hezbollah , has rejected the deployment of UN troops along its border with Lebanon. (AFP, Aug. 31)

From DPA, Aug. 31:

Damascus- Around 595 Druse clergymen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights crossed into Syria Thursday for an annual pilgrimage to the holy Habil shrine at Zabadanto, a Red Cross official in Damascus said. The clerics crossed the Israeli-Syrian border at the Quneitra checkpoint, around 65 kilometres south of Damascus, in two groups and walked for about 300 metres while elderly men were transported by by UN buses, which was broadcast live on local television.

From the AP, Aug. 30:

DAMASCUS, Syria — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received a hero's welcome in Syria, where he said Wednesday that the two countries will "build a new world" free of U.S. domination and vowed to one day "dig the grave of U.S. imperialism."

From the New York Times, Aug. 30:

Hit and Runs Leave 1 Dead and 13 Injured

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29 — A hit-and-run driver careered through San Francisco and nearby Fremont on Tuesday, mowing down pedestrians and bicyclists, leaving at least one person dead and injuring more than a dozen, some seriously.

The below Aug. 30 AP account notes the growing use of the term "Islamic fascism" by the Bush administration and its amen chorus in recent days. The response has been predictable in the extreme, with lefties (e.g. The Huffington Post) calling it a "false historical analogy", and righties (e.g. the neo-interventionist William Shawcross on the website of the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council) insisting "Yes, the Problem is 'Islamic Fascism'." Both, we fear, are missing the point. We've noted before the western left's unseemly illusions about Islamic extremism, and we don't think the term "Islamic fascism" is necessarily all that inaccurate. We just think it is hilariously ironic coming from Bush.

While highly dubious supposed terror plots in the US and UK continue to dominate the headlines, the Real McCoy in Afghanistan generates barely a flick of interest these days. This was buried in the inner pages of the New York Times, Aug. 29:

Can somebody explain to us why this is legal? US citizens, who have not been charged with any crime, are denied entry into the US. Why should submitting to an FBI interrogation abroad be a prerequisite for being allowed back into their own country? If the US has evidence they forfeited their citizenship by taking military training at a camp in Pakistan, then they can, conceivably, be legally barred. But lacking such evidence, this is just arbitrary abuse of power. Where is the outrcy over this? From the San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 26:

On Aug. 14, four Iranian immigrant brothers filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Los Angeles against former attorney general John Ashcroft, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller III, FBI Agent Christopher Castillo and other officials, charging that the government detained them illegally for nearly four years to punish them for refusing to work as informants.