freeloading [up to here]

Gdn: Israel and the US agree on monitoring scheme for Egypt-Gaza border...
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, signed the agreement for Washington to provide technical and intelligence co-operation, as well as logistical support, for monitors on the Egypt-Gaza border – a move designed to address one of the principal Israeli demands: that any truce with Hamas include measures to stop it from rearming by smuggling weapons.

Israel said the agreement would commit the US and Nato to track and intercept weapons shipments to Gaza from Iran or anywhere else... The deal could lead to the reopening of Gaza's border with Egypt, a key Hamas demand. The Islamist group also wants Gaza's crossings into Israel reopened after three years of economic blockade. This is crucial to reviving the territory's economy but Israel is reluctant to allow it.
NYT: ...but details still to be worked out, while competing meetings are held by Hamas in Qatar and the Palestinian Authority in Kuwait
The agreement will provide American technical assistance, as well as monitors, to crack down on the tunnels. The composition of the monitoring force was not yet clear, as Israeli and American diplomats were still working out, a senior American official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Ms. Rice said ending the smuggling of weapons from countries like Iran was one of the conditions for a cease-fire and that European allies including Britain, Germany and France were likely to join in the monitoring effort...

At a meeting organized by Qatar, a top exiled Hamas leader rejected Israeli terms for a cease-fire and called for increased resistance. “Israel will not be able to destroy our resistance, and the United States will not be able to dictate us their rules,” the leader, Khaled Meshal, said in defiant remarks broadcast worldwide. “Arab countries should help Hamas to fight against the death of civilian Palestinians.”...

The once dominant regional leadership of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even Jordan, tried to undermine this meeting, refused to attend, and pressed Arab states to stay away, too. They insist that the lines of communication remain open with Israel and they have each struggled to deny Hamas the kind of legitimacy the conference appeared to confer on Mr. Meshal.
Slate: how to really close the Gaza tunnels; options from buffer zones to drone-operated gradiometry
CSM: Israeli strikes on UN compound, hospitals may be part of last-minute frenzy, reveal points of tension within leadership pre-election
The Israeli strikes on what political officials said were unintended targets in the Gaza campaign underscore what some analysts see as a furious drive by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to achieve as many last-minute blows to Hamas as possible before a cease-fire is reached. And at this stage of the war, fissures are emerging within the Israeli civilian and military leadership.

"It's the final push to make Hamas understand, either they make a decision for a cease-fire, or it will be difficult to survive," says Shmuel Rosner, a leading opinion maker and journalist. "They need to show seriousness so Hamas doesn't interpret Israel's waiting of the last few days as reluctance to continue the operation."

While Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister, apologized to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon for Israel's strike on their Gaza headquarters, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took a different approach. He said the building had been used by Palestinian militants to strike Israeli forces... Those two points provide a window into the differences that have developed at the top of the Israel political structure, run by an unlikely troika of Olmert, Mr. Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni – none of whom are allied.

With an election set for Feb. 10, the political rivals have become even more assertive in claiming their share of the credit for the war.
Gdn: Israeli use of white phosphorus harder to deny in the YouTube era
CSM: A look at Gaza through Egyptian hospitals...
NYT: ...versus a (guided) tour of Gaza outskirts
Israelis face harsh censure abroad for their tactics, but a visit by 10 foreign reporters to this position arranged by the Israeli military showed an army that feels serenely confident that it is doing the right thing. The army, which has banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza on their own, has begun taking small groups to outer positions for briefings with commanders in the field...

The war has been successful, but not necessarily decisive, from Israel’s perspective, Colonel Herzi said, especially as talk of a cease-fire has grown.

“I know that in the end Hamas will say they won,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what will be the end of this war. We know they know today that they have a problem. Will they put down their weapons forever? For sure, no, but I think they have learned a lesson from this war.”

LAT: as security improves in Baghdad, "new cars are the latest must-have accessory for the well-to-do"

WP: CIA Director says Obama has no intentions to investigate waterboarding

NYT: military planners preparing troop shifts for Obama administration
The broad outlines of the military plan for Iraq presented to Mr. Obama in December envisioned withdrawing two brigades, or some 7,000 to 8,000 troops, over the next six months, officials said.

[American military officials] have made clear that the plan does not set forth as fast a withdrawal as Mr. Obama pledged during the presidential campaign, when he repeatedly promised to have all combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months of his taking office, or by May 2010...

The current military plan for Iraq was drawn up to meet the recent status-of-forces agreement between the United States and the Iraqi government that calls for both shorter and longer timetables than Mr. Obama’s campaign promise. Under that agreement, all United States combat troops are to be out of Iraqi cities by June and all American forces are to be out of Iraq entirely by the end of 2011. That agreement, however, can be renegotiated.

Even as Mr. Obama prepares for the drawdown in Iraq, some influential Democrats and national security experts have begun voicing concern about his willingness to send up to 30,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan, where the United States has been at war for more than seven years. They say that Mr. Obama has yet to make clear his overall goals beyond calling for more forces, money and diplomacy in an increasingly violent, ungovernable country that the military says presents even more problems than Iraq.
WP: concerns that troop surge in Afghanistan not enough, as obstacles are high
Officials are also worried about other issues: the upcoming Afghan presidential election and the revived hostility between Pakistan and India caused by a deadly terrorist rampage in Mumbai in November, could inject unpredictable tensions and competing priorities into the region just as a new administration in Washington tries to focus afresh on the anti-terrorist struggle here.
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Unlike the troop "surge" in Iraq, the doubling of the U.S. military presence on the ground in Afghanistan is not temporary, military officials said. Rather, troops will maintain a protracted presence focused on securing and holding villages currently dominated by the Taliban.

One conundrum, U.S. military officials say, is that the expanded forces will have to come in with heavy firepower and aggressive military tactics -- likely to create more civilian casualties and public animosity -- in order to secure rural districts so they can bring in services, aid and governance aimed at winning over the local populace.
LAT: another obstacle: the weather
A helicopter carrying one of Afghanistan's most senior army generals and 12 soldiers crashed in bad weather Thursday, killing all aboard, the Afghan military said.

Taliban insurgents claimed to have downed the Russian-made chopper in western Afghanistan, but the military said in a statement that poor visibility caused the craft to slam into a jagged mountainside. Much of Afghanistan is enveloped in rain and snow, which has been hampering military transport as well as civilian flights. The nation's military relies largely on a poorly maintained fleet of aging Russian aircraft.

It was one of the largest losses of life in a single incident that the Afghan army has suffered in recent years. The general who died, Fazl Ahmad Sayar, was one of four regional commanders. He was in charge of army operations in the west of the country.
WP: Britain's Secretary of Defense criticizes NATO members for "freeloading" on the US
The Obama team hopes to complete work on the new strategy [for Afghanistan] by the NATO summit in early April. European and Pentagon officials suggested yesterday that alliance members may be waiting to consider new commitments until they hear what he has to say.

The NATO force in Afghanistan has long been divided between those who conduct the bulk of combat operations -- including Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, in addition to the United States -- and those such as Germany whose operations are restricted and whose zones of operations are centered in more peaceful areas...

Even as Hutton was delivering his speech, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband wrote in a Guardian newspaper column yesterday that the notion of a "war on terror" was "misleading and mistaken." Defining it as "a simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists, or good and evil" played into the hands of extremists by unifying groups such as al-Qaeda and Hezbollah with little in common, Miliband said.

NYT: Pakistan arrests 124 people possibly linked to Mumbai attacks, forms high-level investigation committee to examine information provided by India
CSM: India demands extradition
Pakistan announced that it has arrested 71 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and detained 124 more in an effort to crack down on the Islamic militant group believed to be responsible for November's attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai.

India's foreign minister insisted that Pakistan must extradite the suspects for trial in India, backing down from his earlier statement that India might accept a trial in Pakistan.

NYT: US freezes assets for Burmese businessmen and their companies aiding the military junta

BBC: Massive, repeated displacement in rebel-controlled Sri Lanka, says Red Cross

NYT: three Red Cross workers kidnapped in southern Philippines
The Red Cross in Manila said its three workers were in Sulu to inspect a jailhouse as part of its efforts to improve prisons in the Philippines. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross and a member of the Senate, attributed the kidnappings to Abu Sayyaf, Reuters reported.

El Paso Times: Vigilante group threatens to confront lawlessness in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
AP: Mexico's liaisons to Interpol charged with selling confidential information
Time: Narcos attack TV station in Mexico

NYT: Zimbabwean opposition members and human rights activists allege torture
Chris Dhlamini, an aide to Zimbabwe’s opposition leader and prime minister in waiting, Morgan Tsvangirai, said in an affidavit that his head was pushed down into a sink full of water until he believed that he would drown.

They are among more than a dozen activists who say they were tortured to obtain false confessions after they were abducted and detained for weeks in secret locations by agents of President Robert Mugabe’s government. They are now imprisoned in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, accused of crimes related to acts of sabotage and terrorism against the government.
WP: nevertheless, Tsvangirai remains committed to power-sharing deal, as the "best means of preventing Zimbabwe from becoming a failed state"

BBC: LRA rebels in new attacks
[S]ince Christmas Day, suspected LRA rebels have been attacking villages across hundreds of kilometres in an area stretching from the Central African Republic (CAR) though Sudan and into DR Congo... The government of the CAR has sent troops to its border with DR Congo in an effort to push back the rebels, the country's defence minister said on Wednesday.

NYT: Sudanese opposition leader arrested, air strikes on Darfur admitted

AP (via Wronging Rights): Congolese rebel leader flips, wants to join government against Rwandan militias
Bosco Ntaganda [leader of a splinter rebel faction in eastern Congo] held landmark talks with Interior Minister Celestin Mboyo in the eastern town of Goma and said in a statement afterward that his forces are now "at the disposal of the Congolese armed forces high command."

It was unclear, however, what effect — if any — the move will have on the deeply entrenched and complex crisis in eastern Congo. Though Ntaganda's statement was signed by 10 other rebel officials who identified themselves as colonels and lieutenant colonels, nobody knows how powerful Ntaganda really is or how many forces he control.

BBC: in Somalia, Islamist militia targets its first politician, for "apostasy"
BBC: and UN agrees to Somalia peacekeeping force "in principle," as Ethiopia pulls out and power-sharing talks appear to be going well
Only about 3,600 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers, from an intended 8,000-strong AU force, are deployed in Mogadishu.

Last month UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said few countries were willing to send troops to Somalia, as there was no peace to keep.

Analysts had feared the withdrawal of the Ethiopians would lead to a power vacuum and fighting between rival Islamist factions.

But at the moment all factions - whether they back the peace process with the government or not - seem to be working together.

NYT: tensions in Chechnya after early release of Russian Army colonel for killing a Chechen woman
The former commander, Yuri D. Budanov, a decorated Russian Army colonel before he was stripped of his rank, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003, but a court in the Ulyanovsk region agreed last month to grant him early parole for good behavior. A last-minute appeal by the victim’s lawyer failed to keep him in custody...

He has admitted to abducting Elza Kungayeva, an 18-year-old Chechen woman, and strangling her in a fit of rage in his quarters in March 2000, thinking her to be an enemy sniper. In proceedings that highlighted the capriciousness of Russian justice, he was initially acquitted on grounds that he was temporarily insane at the time of the killing, and convicted in a second trial.

in a region where loyalties to clan can supersede national pride and murderous blood feuds can rage for decades, some say Mr. Budanov’s release — just under a year and a half before the end of his prison term — now threatens to disrupt Chechnya’s tenuous stability.

“This will only benefit the militants, because for them there is no clearer demonstration of the futility of appealing to the Russian authorities,” said Stanislav Y. Markelov, a lawyer for Ms. Kungayeva’s family.

NYT: Police using tear gas against Lithuanian rioters

SF Gate: Killing of unarmed man by public transit officer in Oakland brings back memories of Rodney King, riots... and a murder charge against the officer
The unarmed man killed by former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle on an Oakland train platform early New Year's Day put up a brief struggle with officers but had been restrained and had both arms behind him when he was shot in the back, police investigators said.

The conclusion by Oakland police, contained in a legal filing made public Wednesday, contributed to Alameda County prosecutors' decision to charge Mehserle, 27, with murdering 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Hayward.

It was an extraordinary decision. Several legal experts said they could recall no instance of a police officer in California being charged with murder for an on-duty incident, and Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff said he had never brought such a case in his 14 years on the job.