Is the current fighting along Iraq's Syrian border actually a prelude to a US invasion of Syria? Certain voices in the Arab world seem to think so. This from UPI, June 15:

AMMAN, Jordan -- The United Arab Emirates' al-Bayan reported Wednesday the United States was massing troops on the Syrian-Iraqi border and Damascus complained of repeated U.S. military penetration into Syrian territory. The pro-government daily quoted unidentified Arab officials as saying Egypt and Saudi Arabia "have reliable information from Damascus of U.S. military mobilization on the Syrian-Iraqi border." They said U.S. forces have repeatedly entered Syrian territory on the "pretext of chasing infiltrators and Iraqi insurgents." The sources told the paper the Syrian leadership told Cairo and Riyadh it was "exercising self-restraint in the face of these American provocations and will not be pulled into any attempt aimed at finding a pretext to attack Syria." They added Egypt and Saudi Arabia will express their "grave concern over the growing U.S. administration's threats against Syria" during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the Middle East that starts at the end of the week.

The Inuit of Alaska and Canada's far north, whose traditional way of life depends on hunting seals and polar bear—and therefore on cold—are not so sanguine about global warming. Thanks to TruthOut for passing on this interesting June 16 Reuters story:

Inuit to File Anti-US Climate Petition
Oslo - Inuit hunters threatened by a melting of the Arctic ice plan to file a petition accusing Washington of violating their human rights by fuelling global warming, an Inuit leader said on Wednesday.

Even as the US moves to restore military ties with Indonesia, harsh repression continues in areas of the archipelago where indigenous peoples are fighting for sovereignty. This from Survival International, June 15:

INDONESIA: Fifteen years in prison for flying a flag
Two Papuan activists, Filep Karma and Yusuk Pakage, have been sentenced to 15 and 10 years in prison respectively for raising the Papuan flag on 'Papuan independence day', December 1st, 2004. For this ‘crime' they were charged with 'treason against the state'.

This editorial, to appear in the International Herald Tribune June 20, was (in slightly longer form) in the New York Times June 18:

Guantánamo and who we are
The New York Times

MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2005
It was a relief to watch last week's hearing by Senator Arlen Specter's Judiciary Committee on the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and to hear Specter, a Republican, declare that it was time for Congress to do its job and finally bring the American chain of prison camps under the law.

At the hearing, four military and civilian officials overseeing the processing of prisoners could not, or would not, provide the most basic information - such as how many detainees there are and what countries they came from. Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift, a military lawyer, later courageously testified that he was assigned to represent one of the prisoners for the sole purpose of extracting a guilty plea. He provided a written order that contradicted the denials of the man who assigned him, Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway, who oversees the military tribunals George W. Bush created after 9/11 to screen selected prisoners away from public and judicial scrutiny.

After the UK froze a planned $36.1 million aid package, Ethiopia has freed 336 prisoners seized in a crackdown following clashes with police over elections which left 36 dead. But more remain behind bars. The main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, has said up to 120 of its staff have been jailed. Ethiopia's main human rights group has said three of its members were arrested.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling party claimed victory in the elections, based on provisional results. But parties have lodged complaints in 299 of the country's 527 constituencies. The unrest is the most serious dissent the Meles government has faced since it came to power in a 1991 revolution.

Thank goodness the New York Times put this on the front page, above the fold yesterday. We have excised out two information-free propaganda paragraphs about the "implicit gamble" that anti-terrorist aid to authoritarian states "can backfire"--as if keeping down the populace of Uzbekistan was not part of (or even primarilly) what the aid is intended for. Admittedly, the May repression in Andijan does seem to have been rather too indiscrete for Washington's sensibilities...

An action call from the International Solidarity Movement -- two of the main Palesinian non-violent organizers in the occupied West Bank village of Bil'in, which holds weekly protests against Israel's "separation barrier" being built illegally on its farmland, have been arrested and detained under false charges by the occupation authorities. For more on Bil'in, the collective punishment of the village, and its cooperation with Israel activists, see Meron Rapaport's Ha'aretz article, Ghandi Redux.

Action Alert – Non-violent organizers from Bil'in Still Imprisoned!

Abdullah and Rateb Abu Rahma, brothers, organizers and non-violent activists from the village of Bil'in near Ramallah, were arrested at a non-violent demonstration against the annexation barrier on Friday, June 17th. As of today, June 19th, they are still being held in Ofer camp and a date for their hearing has not been set. Abdullah is accused of `disturbing with an office in the course of duty' and Rateb of throwing stones at soldiers. Both proclaim their innocence. A video recording made by an Israeli activist corroborates their stories completely. However, the Israeli police refused to watch the part of this recording relating to them, while agreeing to release three Israeli activists based on the very same tape!

A former Taliban official now living on Long Island pleaded guilty in US District Court in Manhattan June 16 to tax fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Noorullah Zadran, 53, of Huntington Station, faces up to 8 months in prison after pleading guilty to filing a false 2000 tax return, failing to include in the statement the $1,541 in income he received from the Taliban. Zadran also admitted that he falsely claimed on a bank loan application that his wife was employed, in order to get a lower interest rate.

Zadran, described by Newsday as "a tall, elegantly dressed man with gold wire-rimmed glasses," was "First Secretary to the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan" from 1998 to 2001, when he frequently appeared on TV news programs as the spokesman for the Taliban regime.