Well, more than 40 years after the damage is done, the government comes clean on the lies that got the US into the Vietnam War. We guess it must be official now that its in the New York Times. But even the Times (whose own recently-sacked Judith Miller similarly parroted White House malarky) notes the disturbing sense of deja vu here. Its good to see this in print, and its good that Miller got the sack—but is the world going to have to wait 40 years before the full story of Bush's WMD deception is revealed? And by then how many will have been killed in Iraq?

Another mass grave for the idiot left to deny the existence of or try to explain away—this time in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border. From Reuters:

ANJAR, Lebanon, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Lebanese forces excavated a suspected third mass grave on Sunday, a day after unearthing 25 decomposed corpses in an eastern town that was the headquarters of Syrian intelligence for three decades.

Security forces were digging for more bodies at the third site near two other mass graves close to an old onion farm in the eastern town of Anjar, long used by Syrian intelligence as a notorious interrogation centre.

[Translation presented as received]

Statement number (112) issued from the Iraqi Islamic Party Regarding the kidnap of the Four Captives

By the time that the Iraqi Islamic Party calls upon all Muslims to give the best image that represents our religion by applying its values. It should be alerted from, that there are people working hardly to defame its [Islam] bright white image and exploiting any accident to do that, including kidnapping captives and especially the four members of an organization that calls for peace. Also they are from the anti-Iraq-war movements‚ activists in their countries, and from those who demand the end of occupation of Iraq and the end of violations that the people of Iraq have been subject to.

Statement from Toronto security-certificate detainees on James Loney:

From Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub and Hassan -
Dec. 4,.2005

[original statement in Arabic and English in PDF]

Statement from the three Toronto security certificate detainees. James (Jim) Loney is from Toronto, and has worked on the campaign to abolish security certificates and to free these men.

To the people holding James Loney and the other Christian Peacemaker Team Members in Iraq,

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and Merciful,

Iraq's armed guerillas are usually portrayed in vague and shadowy terms, allowing political commentators to cast them in whatever image is deemed convenient. Even the correct word to designate them says more about the commentator than the militants themselves. Those who wish to demonize them call them "terrorists"; those who wish to cheer them on call them the "resistance"; while the majority of the mainstream media cut it down the middle by calling them "insurgents"—while still providing little detail about who they actually are.

Now a front-page Dec. 2 New York Times story (online at the International Herald Tribune) actually provides a breakdown of the insurgency's major constituent entities, and an analysis of its strategies and structure, drawing on the research of the SITE Institute (for Seach for International Terrorist Entities).

The SITE Institute identifies five major groupings, each made up of numerous small, largely autonomous cells that operate under its umbrella. From largest to smallest: al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Ansar al-Sunna, the Victorious Army Group, the 20th of July Revolution Brigade and al-Rashideen Army.

Recent reportage raises some disturbing questions about the abduction of the four activists from the Christian Peacemaker Teams now being held hostage in Iraq—Tom Fox, 54, of Virginia; Norman Kember, 74, of London; James Loney, 41, of Toronto; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, also of Canada. (See our last post on the case.)

ISM Press release:

December 3rd, 2005 | Posted in Press Releases
International Solidarity Movement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Since the first video of the four Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT)
members being held hostage in Iraq was released a few days ago,
Palestinians all over the West Bank and Gaza have been calling for
their release unharmed. The CPT is well known for its work against the
occupations in both Iraq and Palestine. It is probably most well known

The best-case scenario for the Bush administration in Iraq now is a modicum of stability under a Shi'ite-dominated regime more loyal to Tehran than Washington. In the January 2005 elections, voters trounced the US proxies, the secular Shi'ites of Iyad Allawi's CIA-groomed Iraqi National Accord, in favor of the Tehran-backed radical Shi'ites of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. So "regime change" in Iran is now necessary for the US to maintain effective control over Iraq as well. But how, given that Bush has already got his hands more than full with an increasingly unpopular quagmire? The answer is obvious: US imperialism's regional pit-bull, Israel. From the Jerusalem Post, Nov. 30: