messiness

NW: profile of militants in Pakistan; gives a bit of the complicated web of Taliban leaders, tribal militants, and local warlord clerics.
AP: Pakistan troops move against cleric/warlord in Swat, not far from Peshawar, where car bomb killed about 20 2 days ago.

Econ: global political risk index (of order, conflict, violence): shocker, Pakistan is volatile.

Transparency Int'l released its Corruption Perceptions Index of countries, based on surveys of how much business leaders and others think they would have to grease the wheels in each place. more unsurprising findings: "deeply troubled states such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Somalia, and Sudan remain at the very bottom of the index."

LAT: speaking of corruption in Iraq, US says mafia-style rackets funding insurgency: "U.S. diplomats and senior Iraqi officials have repeatedly singled out corruption as one of the greatest obstacles to stability in Iraq. But until recently, commanders acknowledge, they knew little about the criminal dealings they say sustain militant groups across the country."

LAT: meanwhile, marines try to (literally) clean up Ramadi. contact Ryan to find out how garbage duty going in Kenya.

NPR: shiite groups in Iraq splintering with help of Iran, private interests

WP: revisiting 2002 Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, India videotaped confessions of perpetrators

Ind: observing the PKK in their mountain hideout

NYT: giving Mexico some money for sisyphean task of stopping cocaine, meth from entering the US
Economist covers it too
BBC: don't call it Plan Mexico
Houston Chronicle: don't hate the (drug war) soldiers: what it means to fight the cartels - thank god for the haven in Houston.
Ind: addiction, violence, and the drug trade: convicted 1988 "preppy killer" busted again for running drugs out of NYC apt

Econ: Kosovo not quite independent

Econ: stunner of the week: Putin won't let go of the reigns anytime soon. (reader discretion advised - photo mildly disturbing)

Wonkette: thank god someone's keeping track of all the Blackwater mayhem

Gawker: scandal over "baghdad diarist" at The New Republic. reporter's husband poses as deployed US soldier, fabricated unflattering reports of US Army.

smoldering southern California seems an appropriate setting for the Claremont Institution's evening of evil.

Slate: "territory" still available for war of annexation