Former US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke has an essay in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, "Defying Orders, Saving Lives: Heroic Diplomats of the Holocaust," which draws an unsettlingly valid analogy to contemporary Iraq. Holbrooke outlines the cases of Sweden's Raoul Wallenberg, Portugal's Aristedes de Sousa Mendes and the USA's Hiram Bingham IV, who all risked their careers and even their lives to help Jews escape Axis Europe in defiance of their own governments' policies. Holbrooke notes that asylum policies are similarly restrictive today, even as Iraq approaches a genocidal situation—and asks where such heroes as Wallenberg are in the face of Iraq's refugee crisis:

Two minarets at Shia Islam's revered Golden Mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra were blown up June 13. The government has imposed a total curfew on the city until further notice. Shi'ite officials blamed al-Qaeda for the attack, but Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, has called for restraint. "He condemns the attack and urges calm and not to do acts of reprisal against Sunnis," Sistani's spokesman, Hamed Khafaf, told Reuters.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerillas have declared a unilateral cease-fire, while still maintaining the right to "self-defense" against Turkish forces. "We are renewing our declaration to halt attacks against the Turkish army," said PKK official Abdul Rahman Chaderchi, speaking in northern Iraq, AP reported. "We want peace and we are ready for negotiations. But if Turkey decides to attack our bases inside Turkey or inside Iraqi Kurdistan, then this unilateral cease-fire will be meaningless. If we are attacked, we will fight back and we have the ability to confront any Turkish aggression." (IraqSlogger, June 12)

In the west and central regions of Iraq, heart of the supposed "Sunni insurgency", US forces are equipping and training former Sunni insurgents to fight al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in a bid to turn local and tribal groups against the presence of "foreign" Islamists. [First pioneered in Anbar province, the "Anbar model" is now being replicated in other Sunni areas, including the Amiriya district of Baghdad.] [NYT, June 11]

The headquarters of the Iraq Freedom Congress, a civil anti-occupation coalition, were raided by US troops June 7. The premises were damaged when the soldiers forced down the door, and five of the office's guards were arrested and their weapons confiscated. Documents were also seized in the raid.

The Associated Press reported June 6 that hundreds of Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK guerrillas. The reports were denied by Ankara. The following day, Reuters reported that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said parliament's approval would be needed for such an incursion. "A parliament decision is necessary to launch a cross-border operation and the steps would be taken accordingly," Erdogan was quoted by state-run Anatolian agency. AP reported that Turkey's top commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said: "The Turkish soldier is not a bully of the neighborhood. There is need for political directives." However, he did say several areas near the border have been declared "temporary security zones."

Iraqi legislators passed a resolution June 5 requiring the government to seek parliamentary approval before asking the UN to extend the mandate for US-led forces in Iraq. The Sadrist-drafted resolution passed by a vote of 85 to 59. The members of parliament voted along party lines, with Sunnis joining the bloc loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and other Shi'ite legislators at odds with the leadership. Supporters of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki opposed the resolution.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), June 3:

Cindy: Do not say good-bye
The U.S. needs you, not the criminals and thieves

Dear Sister Cindy Sheehan, Greetings...

I have read your article ("Good-bye America... you are not the country that I love anymore"), in which you declared resignation and your plan to stay away from the arena of struggle against war and the occupation of Iraq.