facebook to resolve Israel-Palestine conflict, move on to world peace next

WP: Western spooks having hard time infiltrating Al-Qaeda; find that members not easily bought off, Cold War style:
"During the Cold War, for example, the CIA had enjoyed some success in recruiting KGB moles and persuading Soviet officials to defect. The agency was also able to buy off Afghan warlords with suitcases of cash, persuading them to fight Soviet forces in the 1980s and to turn on the Taliban in 2001. A similar approach has worked, to a limited extent, against insurgents in Iraq: An informant's tip led directly to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, in 2006.
But al-Qaeda's core organization in Pakistan and Afghanistan has so far proved impervious to damaging leaks."

LAT: division in the Pentagon over when to withdraw troops
Officers on the ground opposed, Joint Chiefs in favor

NYT: the state of the Iraqi army in Mosul

Ind: gearing up for a "final" fight in Basra

AP: Turkey bombed Kurdish target in Iraq

BBC: the plight of Uighur prisoners in Guantánamo

Gdn: Cheney still on the "here I am so you can thank me in person" tour of Mideast; says NATO needs to show its thanks by stepping up support in Afghanistan

BBC: Kenyans killed by cattle raiders in Rift Valley

BBC: UN report condemns Sudan for reigniting violence in Darfur

BBC: Eufor commander says troops will shoot if attacked in Chad, where guarding refugee camps

Gdn: China acknowledges shooting Tibetan protesters - in "self defense"

Slate: do "three strikes" laws lead perpetrators to be more violent?

Gdn: nationalist and territorial conflicts in the 21st century: the Israel-Palestine dispute on Facebook
"Jewish settlers living inside the occupied Palestinian West Bank complained when they found their addresses identified them as living in Palestine, rather than Israel. More than 400,000 people live in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, all of which are widely considered illegal under international law...After a campaign of several days Facebook relented and now allows settlers in three of the largest settlements, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit and Ariel, and in the tense and divided city of Hebron, home to around 600 settlers, to choose either Israel or Palestine as their home country."