Gershon Baskin is co-CEO of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information (ICPRI), a joint Israeli -Palestinian think tank which was involved with the Oslo process. In the June 28 Jerusalem Post, he writes:

"Meeting with people in the halls of Congress to exchange views, the first questions I was asked were: What does AIPAC have to say about that? Have you spoken to AIPAC? There is little doubt that AIPAC has successfully instilled a strong sense on the Hill that anything that concerns the US-Israel relationship must be checked with them first.

OK, is it the Serbs or Albanians who are behind this one? From the AP, July 2:

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro — At least three blasts rocked the centre of Kosovo's capital late Saturday and one targeted the UN mission headquarters. At least three UN vehicles were set ablaze in the parking lot of the mission headquarters. There were no immediate reports of any injuries after at least two near-simultaneous blasts, said Hua Jiang, chief UN spokeswoman.

Is the Russian province of Dagestan going the way of neighboring Chechnya? This July 2 AFP account (online at Qatar's The Peninsula) makes a disturbingly good case:

The Kurdistan Bloggers Union notes the recent killing of Muhammad Mashouk al-Khaznawi, a Kurdish leader in Syria, providing this July 1 account of his death (refering to northern Syria as "West Kurdistan"):

A Kurdish Sunni Muslim cleric in Syria who was reported missing last month has died after being tortured, Kurdish party officials said Wednesday. Sheikh Mohammed Maashuq al-Khaznawi had not been heard from since May 10 and was believed to have been detained by Syrian police.

Surprise, surprise! None other than Karl Rove has been named as the source who leaked that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, a crime for which two journalists may yet do time, even though they didn't commit it. Time magazine has now gone over the head of its own reporter Matt Cooper—who took a principled stance in refusing to name his source despite a federal subpoena—and released his e-mails regarding the case to the Justice Department, so he may be off the hook in terms of prison time. (Not so Judith Miller of the New York Times, whose own shameless pom-pom waving for Bush's military escapades makes her an unlikely hero.) The e-mails apparently confirm that he at least discussed the story with Rove, and allegations are mounting that Rove was in fact the source. So this is a convenient little double-whammy for the Bush administration. First they got to discredit Plame's husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson when he was claiming (correctly, it turns out) that Saddam did not seek uranium from Africa. Then, it uses the case sparked by the leak to erode the principle of journalistic privilege. Pretty Machiavellian. One wishes their hubris would catch up with these guys already, as it did for Machiavelli in the end. From the July 2 Editor & Publisher:

US helicopters and hundreds of troops are searching for soldiers who went missing in Afghanistan just before a helicopter coming to their aid was shot down in Kunar province June 28, killing the 16 on board, all Navy Seals and Army Special Forces. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi boasted that insurgents killed seven US "spies" before the Chinook was downed, and that one survivor of the crash is being held. "He was trying to escape up the mountain when our mujahedeen caught him," he said.

Some 225,000 came out for the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh July 2, on the eve of the G8 summit about to open at the Gleneagles resort outside the city, as Live8 concerts echoing the demand for action against poverty in Africa and elsewhere were held in London's Hyde Park and other venues around the globe. Only one arrest was reported, but many activists complained of being photographed by police, both on the march and at road stops and train stations en route to Edinburgh. Police are also said to be concerned about an "Anarchist Carnival" scheduled for this evening in Edinbugh. (BBC, July 2) Anti-war themes were prominent in the Edinburgh march, but another action by the UK's Stop the War Coalition is scheduled for tomorrow, with a blockade of the nearby Faslane Naval base scheduled for Monday the 4th.

The third and apparently last installment of the Zapatistas' Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Selva was released yesterday. While the first was entitled "Who We Are" and outlined the history of the Zapatista struggle, and the second was dubbed "How We See the World," this one proclaims "What We Want to Do." It begins by declaring solidarity with indigneous and popular struggles throughout Latin America, singling out Bolivia and Ecuador, as well as with Venezuela and Cuba in their "path of resistance." It even offers to send a bus loaded with indigenous maize from Chiapas to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City as a symbolic donation to help ride out the embargo. It also announces the Zapatistas' new plan to send a delegation to travel throughout Mexico, building alliances with other popular organizations in a bid to unite the left and indigenous movements, with the ultimate aim of a new constitution that "defends the weak against the powerful." The statement says the delegation will only work with "non-electoral" movements, and those which embrace principles of popular democracy rather than seeking to "impose upon those below." (Online in English at Narco News)