Another leader of the Peace Community of San José de Apartado was killed by the Colombian army on Nov. 17. Arlen Salas David was working in his cornfield with his comrades when a unit of the 17th Brigade opened fire on them. One soldier threw a grenade, which exploded near Salas, apparently killing him instantly. His comrades could not come to his aid when he fell, as the soldiers continued to fire. By the time they were able to reach him, he was dead. Salas was the Peace Community's local coordinator for the hamlet of Arenas Altas, where the incident occurred.

Later that day, a delegation from San Josesito, the refugee camp where the Peace Community leadership has lived since the village of San José was occupied by the army earlier this year, visited Arenas Altas to investigate. The delegation was detained in a house in Arenas Altas, where the army accused them of being guerillas and attempted to interrogate them. The troops also shot at other houses in Arenas Altas, and at the hamlet's schoolhouse, which had children in it at the time. Troops told residents they had been fired on from the schoolhouse; this was denied by the teacher, who said only he and the pupils were in the building, and that he instructed the students to lie on the floor as the troops fired. (San José de Apartado Peace Community statement, Nov. 18, via Red de Defensores)

A Saudi secondary school teacher has been ordered imprisoned for three years for blasphemy, and sentenced to 750 lashes, to be delivered—50 a week—in the public market of the town of al-Bikeriya. Chemistry teacher Muhammad al-Harbi of Qassim province was charged with mocking Islam, favoring Jews and Christians, promoting "dubious ideologies," and studying witchcraft. The judge in the case, Abdullah Dakhil, reportedly accused the teacher of "trying to sow doubt in a student's creed." The charges were filed against him by a group of students and teachers from his school.

Readers of WW4 REPORT will be aware that we hate David Irving's filthy crypto-Nazi guts. But we oppose his imprisonment, just as we did that of the vile Judith Miller. We wish the Europeans would realize that locking up these intellectual hoodlums just makes them look like martyrs and paradoxically vindicates them. And then, as in the case of Holocaust revisionist Robert Faurisson (who was just sacked from the University of Lyon, not even locked up), you get people like Noam Chomsky running to their defense in The Nation. And then the right (especially the Zionists and neocons) jump in, portraying the left as a hotbed of anti-Semitism. And then, worse still, the left itself gets all confused about the ethics of genocide and historical truth.

More arrests in Italy--but note that this time they are being held under a new post-9-11 law that considerably dumbs down the standards for detaining suspects. These standards were weakened still further following the London attacks this summer, as the BBC noted. From the AP, Nov. 17:

The first round of voting in Egypt's parliamentary elections--much hailed as evidence of a democratic opening--has brought a big surprise. Candidates of the officially outlawed Muslim Brotherhood won an unprecedented 34 of the 164 contested seats, totaling more than 20% of the vote. Nother nine seats went to an opposition front composed of the Nasserite al-Wafd and the Kefayah and al-Karamah parties. The remainder went to the long-ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Muhammad Habib said that "the result confirms that the Egyptian people stand behind the Muslim Brothers and sympathize with them and that they actually represent the strongest political and social group in Egypt." (Arabic News, Nov. 18)

This is the definition of chutzpah. Even after Memogate and Plamegate (or Nigergate or whatever they are calling it), Cheney thinks he will be believed in these outraged accusations against his accusers. This really is a textbook case of the Big Lie technique—and it is worth noting that the phrase, popularly attributed to the Nazis to describe their own propaganda, was actually first used by Hitler and Goebbels to discredit Allied and "Jewish" propaganda. So, at risk of violating Godwin's Law, we submit that this analogy is not spurious. From MSNB, Nov. 17:

Guatemala's anti-drug chief and two of his senior officials were arrested Nov. 16 on charges of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine in the United States. The Guatemalan government assisted in the investigation but the arrests were an embarrassment for President Oscar Berger, who has tried to clean up the country's image as corrupt.

Weeks after India and Pakistan agreed to open the Line of Control in Kashmir in the wake of the devastating earthquake, families divided by the de facto border remain frustrated that only relief workers have been allowed to cross—not local residents. Now, following weeks of pressure, Pakistani authorities have alloweds 83 residents from the Indian side of the line to cross over to meet with their kin in stricken villages. The case of some 100 residents seeking to cross from Pakistani to Indian controlled territory remains pending. (Reuters, Nov. 16)

Within hours of the announcement, four people were killed and 45 wounded when a car bomb exploded on a busy intersection in Srinagar, capital of Indian Kashmir. Al-Arifeen, claimed responsibility for the explosion in a telephone call to the Kashmir News Service. Police said that it was a front for the banned group Lashkar-e-Taiba. (Pakistan Daily Times, Nov. 17)