This is too funny. Followers of this blog will be aware that we recently had to call out "World's Greatest Intellectual" Noam Chomsky for loaning legitimacy to vile historical revisionism on the Bosnia war. The problem with having to diss The Chom is that we thereby risk implicitly loaning legitimacy to other of his critics, who include some extremely unsavory types. Ironically, topping the list are both ultra-Zionists and conspiranoid anti-Zionists. So now we once again have the opportunity to diss a Chomsky detractor.

Speaking with journalists in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer emphasized the alliance's relationship with Pakistan—espeically in terms of the mission in Afghanistan under the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Scheffer said NATO contacts with Islamabad were growing "since even before the horrible earthquake in Pakistan and we are discussing what we call Alliance Communication Agreement that Pakistan being in the specific geographical position can facilitate the support for the ISAF mission. NATO has excellent relations with Pakistan; being a seasoned politician myself I know the sensitivities in the region so India is kept fully informed." (Pakistan Tribune, Nov. 28)

In a surprising shift of strategy, Nepal's Maoist guerillas have reached a 12-point common agenda with the top parliamentary parties, subsequently endorsed by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. The new pact between the armed rebels and political opposition does not seek abolition of the monarchy, but envisages a limited monarchy where the king's powers are well-defined and constitutional. It calls for elections for a constituent assembly, prior to which Maoists will desist from violence and place their arms under the supervision of the UN or other international agency.

Here's some good news that might appease the Sardinian separatists. But where will the base be relocating to, and will it similarly piss off the surly natives? From AFP via Turkish Press, Nov. 24 (emphasis added):

ROME - The United States is to close a military base on the Italian island of Sardinia now considered surplus to requirements for the defence of the Mediterranean, Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino announced.

Well, it certainly is comforting to know that global warming is just a myth.

Rise in Gases Unmatched
By Andrew C. Revkin

New York Times Service

Shafts of ancient ice pulled from Antarctica's frozen depths show that for at least 650,000 years three important heat-trapping greenhouse gases never reached recent atmospheric levels caused by human activities, scientists are reporting today. The measured gases were carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Concentrations have risen over the last several centuries at a pace far beyond that seen before humans began intensively clearing forests and burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels.

The class struggle for the future of New Orleans is made clear by this Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24) report in Newsday that the volunteers who have established soup kitchens and work brigades to help the poor survive and resist being made exiles from their own city have now been ordered to clear out—due to pressure from the city's old-money elite:

A highly critical report on Israeli actions in East Jerusalem by East Jerusalem and Ramallah-based British diplomats was leaked to the press by "someone who wanted to publicize it," according to the New York Times. The report was prepared for the EU foreign ministers, and was not supposed to be released, if at all, until December. The report -- it's not clear if this is the final version-- can be seen here.

The report warns that Israel's separation wall is being constructed "to seal off most of East Jerusalem, with its 230,000 Palestinian residents, from the West Bank" and is creating a "de facto annexation of Palestinian of East Jerusalem."

David Irving, the self-trained British "historian" currently cooling his heels in an Austrian jail cell, appears to have recanted his denial of the Nazi Judeocide. The Nov.5 UK Guardian reports that a "repented" Irving plans to plead guilty to charges he lied about the Holocaust during speeches in Austria 16 years ago, violating a 1947 Austrian law banning Nazi revivalism and criminalising belittling or justifying the crimes of the Third Reich. Irving claimed at the time there were no gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp, something he first said publicly at the 1988 trial of his friend Ernst Zundel, currently on trial as well in Germany for Holocaust denial. According to his lawyer Elmar Kresbach, Irving said, "I fully accept this, it's a fact. The discussion on Auschwitz, the gas chambers and the Holocaust is finished ... it's useless to dispute it." Kresbach added: