The latest shoot-out between US forces and the Sadr militia has prompted an alliance between Sadr and his longtime rival in the Shiite movement, the Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which controls the equally formidable Badr militia. This will, of course, increase the pressure on Washington to effect "regime change" in Iran... From The Guardian, March 28:

We especially love the lip service to "freedom of religion" in the Afghan constitution. Of course, WW4 REPORT warned of this contradiction all the way back to the Bonn Accords, the consolidation of the interim Afghan government, the Loya Jirga, and the consolidation of the new Afghan state. But, hey, nobody ever listens to us! By the way, this is also a taste of what we can look forward to in Iraq under the best scenario Bush can offer. Pretty sad that these are the forces the US is supporting in the name of "secularism"—while the forces they oppose (Taliban, Iraqi insurgents) are merely more militantly anti-secular (meaning, mostly, that they are less hypocritical and do not bother to pay lip service, having no incentive in the form of US aid and protection to do so). From The Guardian, March 27:

From Israel's Haaretz, March 24:

WASHINGTON - Harvard University has decided to remove its logo from a study that denounces the pro-Israel lobby's impact on American foreign policy, in order to distance itself from the study's conclusions.

A militia led by fundamentalist clerics challenges the lawless rule of warlords who have been tearing the country apart for the past generation. The warlords, meanwhile, band together in an "anti-terrorist" alliance in an obvious bid for support from the West. Does this sound familiar? From Reuters, March 26:

From the London Times, March 27:

US TROOPS were accused of killing up to 22 Iraqis yesterday after becoming embroiled in a fierce battle with a powerful Shia militia at a Baghdad mosque, The reported clash, the circumstances of which were disputed by US Forces, raised fears in Washington that America was being drawn into the growing sectarian violence.

On March 21 Dominican vice president Rafael Albuquerque, US ambassador Hans Hertell and a number of Dominican and US officers officially launched the "New Horizons 2006" Dominican-US joint military operation in the southwestern Dominican city of Barahona. The operation's stated goal is to build four rural health clinics and three wells in the area. According to US military spokesperson Robert Appin, a total of about 3,500 US troops will be taking part in "New Horizons" but no more than 450 will be in the Dominican Republic at any one time. The soldiers began to arrive in February and will leave at the end of May, Appin said.

Some 15,000 people marched along Mexico City's Reforma avenue on March 16 to protest water privatization plans as the representatives of 140 countries met nearby for the opening of the 4th World Water Forum. "Water isn't for sale and won't be sold," the marchers chanted, denouncing all three major Mexican political parties for water policies that "degrade and profit from the suffering of the people." In 1993 the then-ruling centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) awarded a 30-year water concession in Cancun, Quintana Roo, to the French multinational now known as SUEZ, while the Federal District, governed by the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), recently signed a contract with the Mexican water bottler Bonafont, owned by the French multinational Groupe Danone. Mexican president Vicente Fox Quesada, of the center- right National Action Party (PAN), is the former head of Coca- Cola Mexico, which sells Agua Ciel brand bottled water. (Adital, March 17; Minga Informativa de Movimientos Sociales, March 22)

On March 17, the Heartland Alliance's Midwest Immigrant & Human Rights Center (MIHRC) filed a federal lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to obtain public information about detained immigrants and asylum seekers. MIHRC sued DHS after the government repeatedly failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information on compliance with detention standards, medical policies, and the names and locations of detention facilities contracted by DHS.