It was wonderful to see photos in the newspapers today of Hindu pilgrims making their way up mountain trails in the disputed Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir for the annual yatra or pilgrimage to Amarnath Cave, where Shiva is honored in the form of a natural ice stalagmite that is regarded as a symbol of the god's phallus. The 2002 yatra had been marred by sectarian violence that left nine pilrgims dead (see WW4 REPORT #46). This year, the only problems have been logistical (heavy snowfall, overbooked flights for those who chose helicopter rather than the traditional 80-mile trek from Srinagar).

A victory for free speech in New York City. Congratulations to the courageous June Brashares. The only scary thing is that some of the jurors said they "weren't clear" on whether free speech is constitutionally protected. We fail to see the ambiguity here.

GOP demonstrator not guilty, jury finds

BY DARYL KHAN
Newsday

June 24, 2005

Technically, the trial of June Brashares was about the fate of one protester and whether she is guilty of a narrowly defined set of criminal charges. But the larger question hovering over the case goes to the heart of free speech: Is dissent at a partisan political convention a crime?

The latest sorry debacle over the slow and tempestuous redevelopment of New York's Ground Zero concerns plans for an International Freedom Center on the site. Survivors groups are protesting that the museum will not be exclusively dedicated to the 9-11 disaster, but will also feature material on Nazi and Soviet tyranny, American slavery and the Native American genocide. As one survivor at a "Take Back the Memorial" protest at Ground Zero told Bloomberg news June 20, "Instead of being immersed in 9-11, we'll be discussing world politics."

A fairly amazing escalation in the European rendition scandal. This from the June 24 NY Times:

Italian Judge Names 13 in Abduction Tied to C.I.A.

ROME (AP) -- An Italian judge on Friday ordered the arrests of 13 CIA officers for secretly transporting a Muslim preacher from Italy to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts -- a rare public objection to the practice by a close American ally.

The Egyptian was spirited away in 2003, purportedly as part of the CIA's ''extraordinary rendition'' program in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible torture.

A new communique from Subcomandante Marcos—this one more typically personable and verbose—sheds further light on the "red alert" recently declared by Mexico's Zapatista rebels. The screed notes the deadlock which has persisted in the Zapatistas' struggle for indigenous rights since 2001, and takes all of Mexico's political parties to task for betraying their commitments on this issue. Around halfway through he addresses the Zapatistas' current "consulta" in which the organization's base communities will decide if a new direction is called for:

This from the BBC, June 24. We know that the Indonesian regime (which the White House is seeking to reward with renewed military ties) is harshly intolerant of marijuana-smokers as well as ethnic separatists. We were hoping the separatists of Aceh were more progressive. This report appears to indicate that these hopes may be misplaced—yet it notes at the end that the armed Free Aceh Movement (GAM) opposes the sharia measure. Is Jakarta trying to play conservative Muslims against the GAM? Can any of our readers provide more information on the politics of sharia law in Aceh?

Just as the White House has rejected creation of an independent commission to investigate abuses at Gitmo and elsewhere (Reuters, June 21), comes this deeply disturbing news. It is (as we've recently noted) taboo to say this sort of thing, but how is the analogy to the Nazi doctors avoidable? No, it is not the same as Mengele. The point is, you stand up and point out the similarity before it gets to that level of evil. The fact that the analogy is taboo, ironically, just abets the Nazification of the USA. Thanks to TruthOut for passing this one along.

The US may soon be facing a counterinsurgency quagmire in Afghanistan as well as Iraq soon, even if the former still fails to grab headlines. Largely because the US has been more effective at grooming proxies to do the fighting, and dying--but US troops are dying too:

Forces surround rebel hide-out in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces surrounded a rebel hide-out in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, and the number of insurgents killed from three days of fighting rose to 102, the defense ministry said.