experiments in policing [secret's out]

Gdn: Sri Lanka rejects truce offer by LTTE
WP: behind recent military gains
[The two rice farmers] are among an estimated 45,000 largely Sinhalese villagers who have joined what is known here as the Civil Defense Forces, Sri Lanka's version of the National Guard, a paramilitary civilian group whose job is to defend villages, often in areas that have been attacked by ethnic Tamil separatist rebels in Asia's longest-running insurgency. After a few weeks of weapons training, the villagers are given uniforms, guns and a monthly salary of about $140.

"We know our roads. We know the jungle. And we are the most successful when it comes to saving our villages," said Kanthi, 36, wearing a uniform top over her skirt, a rifle slung across her chest. The mother of two is among 400 civilians in Periyaulukkulama, 15 miles west of Vavuniya, some of whom joined forces after their village was attacked on the Sinhalese New Year in April 2007, reportedly by rebels, who killed four female civilian officers...

The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who came to power in 2005 amid a wave of Sinhalese nationalism, has had a free hand to crush the separatists, diplomats here said. The majority of Sri Lankans were apparently fed up with the war that has killed at least 70,000 people and seemed willing to give the new president any powers necessary to bring about its end.

In just two years, the country enlarged its military by 40 percent, adding as many as 7,000 recruits a month. Officials sent text messages to youths and put patriotic pop hits on the radio. Sri Lanka's military now has about 300,000 troops, military officials said.

The country's defense minister, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a brother of the president who once lived in California, is seen as the main architect of the government's new strategy.

"We gave clear instructions: no cease-fires, no negotiations until we defeat the LTTE completely," he said in an interview. "The LTTE would use cease-fires and peace talks to reorganize and resupply weapons. There have been five presidents, eight governments, different political parties and different personalities, dozens of negotiations and more than 10 cease-fires. Everything failed. After every period of negotiation, they came back stronger. We decided enough was enough."...

Some say the Tamil Tigers, as the group is commonly known, has grown weaker and lost popularity among civilians for its practice of forcing every family to send at least one fighter, often a child, into battle.

...the Sri Lankan government forged new relationships with China and Pakistan after the United States cut off direct military aid last year, mainly because of alleged human rights abuses and the use of children by a breakaway rebel faction now under the control of the government in the east, according to a State Department human rights report.
LAT: recruitment another factor, despite high casualties
...it's the rice- and coconut-growing areas such as Kuliyapitiya district with its 150,000 population that have paid the highest toll. The government's all-volunteer army has found fertile ground for recruiting in rural areas where job prospects are limited and the army offers adventure, a uniform and a decent paycheck of about $200 a month. "Join the winning side," says a nationwide radio advertisement.

Recently, funerals in these parts have been running about two or three a week, said Chandana Bulathsinhala, an aide to the local opposition lawmaker, adding steadily, relentlessly, to the area's estimated 5,000 casualties since the war's inception -- a staggering one in 30 people.

Bulathsinhala estimates that 99% of the recruits sign up for economic reasons, with many schoolchildren now wanting to be soldiers rather than doctors or lawyers.

"War is always cruel, but the media has promoted good war news, so more people are encouraged to join," he said...

Nationwide, the missing number in the thousands, the result of desertions, front lines that have shifted repeatedly and dense jungle that can decompose a body in rapid order.

WP: Burma begins releasing thousands of prisoners, though few seem to be political
State media said that those who had been released were freed because of good conduct and so they could vote in elections due to be held next year.

New Yorker: secret talks between India and Pakistan over Kashmir failed; were ongoing over 3 years

NYT: US Special Forces more involved in Pakistan than previously acknowledged
More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country’s lawless tribal areas, American military officials said...

They make up a secret task force, overseen by the United States Central Command and Special Operations Command...

A new Pakistani commando unit within the Frontier Corps paramilitary force has used information from the Central Intelligence Agency and other sources to kill or capture as many as 60 militants in the past seven months, including at least five high-ranking commanders, a senior Pakistani military official said...

Officials from both Pakistan and the United States agreed to disclose some details about the American military advisers and the enhanced intelligence sharing to help dispel impressions that the missile strikes were thwarting broader efforts to combat a common enemy.
Slate: (but SV wonders if it wasn't the drone base spotting by Google Earth that forced their hand)

SWJ: US issues new COIN guide

NPR: Kilcullen urges new approach in Afghanistan
Kilcullen says the militants are elusive, and don't have to hold and defend territory. He says that instead of hunting the extremists, the U.S. would do better to focus its efforts on providing the local population with better security as a way to gain their cooperation and trust...

Kilcullen says the U.S. needs to isolate the militants from the rest of the population — in large part by creating links with the local people by learning their ways, their relations with other tribes and trying to provide justice. He says that often it is the Taliban that has filled that vacuum. The best way to build those links, Kilcullen says, is to deploy in the communities.

Locals will begin to feel safe, he says, if there is a unit that lives in their village that they see every day, that they know will protect them and ensure that assistance programs work.
NPR: civilian advisers trying to cobble together an approach
NYT: Russia's interests in the outcome not quite favorable for US

LAT: Sunni parliamentarian linked to bombing, string of violence
Ind: clashes seem to be on uptick between Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga in the north
Khasro Goran, the Kurdish deputy governor of Nineveh province, who operates from heavily-fortified headquarters in Mosul, said it was “not acceptable” for non-Kurdish military units to move into disputed areas. “If they try to do so we will stop them.” On the streets outside Mr Goran’s office, once a Baath party office and now the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, an array of competing military forces holds power.
WP: tracing a released Guantánamo detainee's path from Kuwait to suicide bombing in Mosul
...there is also a view in some quarters of the U.S. government that cases such as Ajmi's are the inevitable result of locking up 779 foreigners in an austere military prison, without access to courts or consular representation, and subjecting them to interrogation techniques that detainees say amount to torture. Some of them are bound to seek revenge, these officials believe. The challenge is figuring out which ones.
NYT: war widows need aid in Iraq
As the number of widows has swelled during six years of war, their presence on city streets begging for food or as potential recruits by insurgents has become a vexing symbol of the breakdown of Iraqi self-sufficiency.

Officials at social service agencies tell of widows coerced into “temporary marriages” — relationships sanctioned by Shiite tradition, often based on sex, which can last from an hour to years — to get financial help from government, religious or tribal leaders.

Other war widows have become prostitutes, and some have joined the insurgency in exchange for steady pay. The Iraqi military estimates that the number of widows who have become suicide bombers may be in the dozens.
BBC: National Museum reopens

BBC: investigating weapons use in Gaza

LAT: 11 peacekeepers killed in Mogadishu suicide bombing
Insurgents from the Shabab militia, which claims links to Al Qaeda, took responsibility and vowed to continue assaults against AU soldiers who have been helping shore up Somalia's shaky transitional government.

Newly appointed Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a former leader of the Islamist alliance that once included Shabab, has been calling upon his former partners to join the government, which was expanded in January to incorporate a major Islamist faction.

On Saturday, a clerics group in Somalia urged insurgents to halt their attacks against African Union soldiers and allow peace to return to the capital, Mogadishu.

AJE: Rwanda announces troop pullout from Congo

IHT: Belgium takes Senegal to court in the Hague, in attempt to extradite and try Habré, ex-leader of Chad on charges of war crimes, torture, and crimes against humanity
A Chadian truth commission said in 1992 that his government had killed up to 40,000 opponents and tortured many others. Survivors of the prisons run by the political police have described atrocities, including the torture and killing of fellow prisoners.

Habré's government received extensive support from Western countries, including the United States and France, which saw Chad, a former French colony, as a bastion against neighboring Libya. The Reagan administration provided covert support to help Habré take power in 1982 and continued to provide him with military aid.

BBC: lingering tensions in Kenya

BBC: Colombian secret police, the DAS, embroiled in wiretap scandal
What started as allegations that some rogue agents of the Das (Department of Administrative Security) could have intercepted the phone calls and e-mails of judges, politicians, government officials and journalists, appear now to be accepted as fact.

The information garnered from their wire taps could have been passed on to criminal elements, drug-traffickers, paramilitaries and even Marxist rebels.

WP: MIT Poverty Action Lab conducting police training in Rajasthan, India
Researchers conducted a survey in 2005-2006 in the western state of Rajasthan and found that more than 70 percent of crime victims never reported incidents because many felt that the police would either do nothing or ask for a bribe to file a complaint. More than 80 percent said no constable had ever visited their neighborhood. The survey also found that an average of 64 percent of police officers were transferred every year.

The MIT economic researchers launched a two-year pilot project to try to fix the widespread distrust and hostility that Indians nurse about the police and to rev up the morale of the police in 162 stations in Rajasthan.

Under the program, they gave police officers one day off each week, froze transfers, invited a community volunteer every day to the station to observe the police work, rotated work among officers and trained the police in etiquette, stress management and scientific investigation skills...

The trials created such a buzz that local police officers refer to these police stations as "MIT-thana," or "MIT-station."...

"We are not experts in policing, but we in the economics department wanted to provide Indian officials with rigorous evaluation of policy interventions," said Daniel Keniston, a PhD candidate at MIT who coordinated field research for the project. "The project is not about a feel-good, public relations exercise. It impacts issues like national security. Terror plots are foiled by the police very often because of the cooperation of the community and its network of informers. Local people should feel comfortable working with the police, and the police's familiarity with the area is critical."
Ind: police anticipating labor demonstrations in China
BBC: policing and peackeeping in the Solomon Islands
Fifteen Pacific countries responded to a neighbour in need, and an intervention force of only about 500 foreigners has led to major changes in this nation of 500,000 people.

In the late 1990s, rival militias tried to take advantage of ethnic tensions in order to secure greater political power.

Scores of people were killed. The violence was fuelled in part by the problems created by the resettlement of ethnic Malaitans on the main island of Guadalcanal.

In July 2003, the Solomons government got the intervention force it had asked for...

The warlords have been captured, and brought to justice. But ethnic mistrust remains.

Australia and its neighbouring island countries only want to leave the Solomons in the hands of a trusted, professional police service.

Solomon Islanders know that when the peacekeepers go, their own police will be their only protectors, once again.

Five years on, it's not clear whether the Solomon Islands police are ready.
BBC: policing pirates (or trying to) in the Gulf of Aden

Salon: the entrenchment of contractors in the US military
NYT: media blackout policy at coffin arrivals reviewed
NPR: back pay: Philippine veterans of WWII finally get their due from the US
NYT: contemplating democracy promotion post-Bush
CSM (op-ed): the US should learn from Latin America and create a truth commission
What Specter and the rest of the US can learn from Latin America is this: If we are to control our own destiny, we must reclaim our past. A truth commission, along the lines suggested by Leahy, would be a good means of beginning that process. The alternative – to turn the page without knowing what is on it – could doom us to a haphazard and unpredictable future in which individual consciences and other nations' courts control our destiny.

++
LAT: save the chinguiros!

day of rage [rocks and rockets]

AFP: Hamas calls for "day of rage" in response to death of leader Nizar Rayyan, killed in a targeted airstrike Thursday; so far, mostly sporadic rock-throwing

NYT: Israeli military claims Rayyan was one of Hamas' "most extreme" leaders; that his house stored weapons, had a secret tunnel and served as a communications center. But what's next?
"Israel’s stated goal for its operation is to halt the rocket fire from Gaza and to create a new security situation in southern Israel, where three civilians and a soldier have been killed in rocket attacks in the past six days... But in including symbols of the government among its targets, Israel seemed to be blurring the lines. On Thursday, Israeli warplanes and naval forces bombed the legislative building — a Gaza landmark — and the Ministry of Justice, the Israeli military said."

In Paris, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni rejected a French proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire: “There is no humanitarian crisis in the strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce.”
Gdn: the UN would disagree
"Much of Gaza's public infrastructure has been destroyed and the territory is in a "critical emergency" after seven days of devastating bombing with air strikes averaging one every 20 minutes, the UN said yesterday... "By any definition this is a humanitarian crisis and more," said Max Gaylard, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for the Palestinians. He said there had been on average one air strike every 20 minutes since the bombing began, intensifying at night and covering the whole Gaza Strip."
NYT: more on Gaza's tunnels
Gdn: interactive overview of Israeli air attacks during the conflict's first days and Israel's main political and military options
"Israel says Hamas has been weakened and is facing popular discontent but does not claim it is about to be overthrown. Barring such a drastic development the most likely scenario for the end of this crisis remains a more sustainable ceasefire than the one that ended on December 19. But as Ma'ariv's Shelah put it: "Each side wants the other to reach that point on their knees."
Gdn: poll shows that 52% of Israelis support airstrikes, 19% back a land invasion, and only 20% want a ceasefire
WP: Israeli ground invasion seems more likely as weather clears up, troops amass on border
"Analysts expect Israel to seek a truce with Hamas on terms more favorable to the Jewish state than the ones under the six-month deal brokered by Egypt that expired in mid-December.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Thursday floated the idea of using international monitors, or even armed forces, to ensure that any future cease-fire holds. Israel has indicated it would welcome unarmed international observers...

But there is pressure within Israel for the government to continue its campaign, and perhaps topple Hamas altogether. That would almost certainly require a ground operation, which would be likely to raise the death toll substantially on both sides.

"There is no way to take Hamas out without going into Gaza. The problem is the price," said Yaakov Amidror, a retired Israeli major general..."
CNN: to protect against retaliatory violence, Israel closes West Bank entries, men under 50 prevented from entering Jerusalem mosques
CSM: conflict with Gaza may be shifting Israeli opinion leftward, before February's parliamentary elections
IHT: foreign journalists still not allowed into Gaza

WP: Iraqis take control of Green Zone as part of security handover; al-Maliki declares sovereignty restored, but uncertainty abounds
NYT: some violence during handover, including 24 Iraqi tribal leaders killed at a meeting to discuss national reconciliation efforts
LAT: what the transition looks like on the ground: "Sometimes the Americans lead, other times the Iraqis."

"With this relationship you have one battalion commander, an Iraqi battalion commander in the lead. He has an American commander to advise him," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. John Richardson...

U.S. officials say they need their own combat formations out with the Iraqis in order to help mentor them in all aspects of soldiering. They think such "partner units" will be necessary even after June 30, when the security accord calls for all U.S. forces to leave Iraq's cities."
BBC: US soldiers will be playing by new rules
"Iraqis now have the right to prosecute US soldiers for any crimes committed while off-base and off-duty..."
Gdn: Iraqis take over camp of Iranian dissidents, tell them it's time to go
"US troops disarmed the opposition group known as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) after the 2003 invasion. They removed hundreds of armoured vehicles donated by Saddam Hussein but kept the camp intact because some Bush administration officials allegedly saw the MEK as a potential tool for regime change in Iran."
WP: reflecting on the next steps

AP: US preparing for 20,000-strong troop surge in southern Afghanistan...
NYT: ...and seeking new supply routes through Central Asia, as alternatives to the Khyber Pass in Pakistan.
"More than 80 percent of the supplies for American and allied forces in Afghanistan now flow through Pakistan... Khyber and the narrow highway that winds through it were once relatively safe, guarded by tribes paid by the Pakistani government that were subject to collective punishment for crimes against travelers, no matter who committed them. But this year militants, including forces led by an upstart lieutenant to the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, have largely taken over the area....

The officials said delicate negotiations were under way not only with the Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan but also with Russia, to work out the details of new supply routes... But the new supply arrangements could leave the United States more reliant on cooperation from authoritarian countries like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which have poor records on democracy and human rights."
NYT: the Taliban kills 20 Afghan police officers, targets high-profile defector in Musa Qala, Helmand Province.
"The attack on Mullah Salam was emblematic of the fight for Musa Qala, long a Taliban stronghold and a center for opium smuggling... [It] was precipitated by a last-minute switch of allegiance by one of the area’s police chiefs, Abdul Manan, who took 15 of his gunmen with him. Mr. Manan and his men joined the attack against his former boss."

Manan explained the reason for his shift in allegiance: "I saw the bad behavior of infidels, I saw the bad behavior of Afghan forces, so that’s why I joined the Taliban... It was a shame working with this government, which seeks the support of non-Muslims. I am a Muslim, and I should support Muslims. I will carry on jihad against them in the future."
NYT: corruption in Afghanistan worsening, "contributing to the collapse of public confidence in [the Karzai] government and to the resurgence of the Taliban"

NYT: Army-wide review possible of violence committed by soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan
"Focusing attention on soldiers charged with killings is a shift for the military, which since the start of the war in Iraq has largely deflected any suggestion that combat could be a factor in violent behavior among some returning service members..."

Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, responsible for a similar inquiry in Colorado, said the Army is "looking for a trend, something that happened through their life cycle that might have contributed to this, something we could have seen coming."

NYT: Sri Lankan military takes Kilinochchi, rebel capital; suicide attack killing 3 in Colombo is assumed retaliation
"Over the last several months, the military has advanced steadily into rebel-held territory, first sweeping the L.T.T.E. away from the northwestern coast and then pushing them further into the northeast.

As the fighting has spread, more and more civilians have been displaced from their homes, cornered deeper into rebel-held areas and forced to sleep in temples and schools and some only in makeshift lean-tos in paddy fields. The United Nations has been allowed to send food rations to what it estimates to be over 200,000 civilians displaced by the war...

The test now is whether the government, now that it seems to have cornered the rebels militarily, can deliver a political solution acceptable to its Tamil minority."
Reuters: possible effects for the future of the Tamil Tigers
"The diplomatic currency on which the Tigers had long traded -- that they are defending a minority -- suffered in December when Human Rights Watch accused them of mistreating and forcibly recruiting the Tamils they say they represent. Many analysts say Prabhakaran may order bombings or air raids in Colombo, but will not be able to reverse military gains as spectacularly as he did in the 1980s and 1990s. The military and analysts expect the Tigers to increasingly go underground as they lose turf, changing back into the guerrilla group they started as and away from the conventional force they have become. In a possible sign of things to come, a suspected rebel suicide bomber killed three airmen in Colombo hours after Kilinochchi fell."
Gdn: reminds us that the government captured Kilinochchi before and the Tigers took it back; suggests the military's next major target likely to be Mullaitivu port

CNN: terrorist attacks in India kill 5; United Liberation Front of Asom suspected author

NYT: after the resignation of Somalia's president, new opportunity or status quo?
"The scramble to succeed Mr. Yusuf could set off an ugly clan-based political melee. By contrast, the prime minister and other top Somali officials could give the post to a moderate Islamist leader, who might be the unifying figurehead that Somalia so desperately needs.

Or it may simply be too late because so much of the country has already fallen into the hands of powerful, hard-line Islamists who behead opponents and have, on at least one occasion, stoned to death a teenage girl who said she had been raped."
BBC: the International Maritime Bureau says anti-piracy efforts off Somalia are working...
LAT: ...as an Egyptian ship is seized and Malaysia comes to the rescue of an Indian tanker
CSM: China sees this as a chance to boost its naval power

NYT: the LRA massacres some 200 people in Congo
"[T]he rebels are known as excellent jungle fighters. They often carry solar panels on their backs to power their satellite phones and they can live on very little food and water. In the past several weeks, they seemed to have eluded the government troops and airstrikes.

In the process, they have raided several Congolese villages, possibly to signal that they are still a lethal force to be reckoned with. According to United Nations officials, the rebels struck a village called Faradje on Thursday, killing 40 people. Over the next two days, they attacked two more villages, Doruma and Gurba, killing 149 more people.

Ugandan military officials have said that most of the victims were women and children, who were cut into pieces. A rebel spokesman denied responsibility for the killings, telling Agence France-Presse that the rebels were not in the area."

LAT: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev eliminates jury trials for "crimes against the state"
"The law does away with jury trials for a range of offenses, leaving people accused of treason, revolt, sabotage, espionage or terrorism at the mercy of three judges rather than a panel of peers. Critics say the law is dangerous because judges in Russia are vulnerable to manipulation and intimidation by the government."

New Yorker: challenges facing aid workers in eastern Chad

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."

protests that would make st. pat proud

LAT: Tibetan protests, Chinese repression like whack-a-mole
"The Chinese have deployed thousands of troops from the paramilitary People's Armed Police and the People's Liberation Army. But just as soon as the troops stamp out one protest, another pops up...The violence was seeping outside Tibet proper into parts of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan provinces with large ethnic Tibetan minorities."
WP: Chinese actions appear to have popular support
"The Dalai Lama, now 72, led a violent uprising with help from the Central Intelligence Agency after Chinese troops reimposed rule from Beijing in 1950. The subversion campaign failed, and he was forced in 1959 to flee on horseback to India, where he has lived in exile for half a century. It was to mark the anniversary of his dramatic flight over the Himalayas that anti-China demonstrations in Lhasa got started last Monday...
Tibet, a 750,000-square-mile territory sitting between the Himalayan and Kun Lun mountain ranges, was more or less part of various Chinese empires over the centuries, paying fealty but often too remote to be totally controlled. With the Dalai Lama as its leader, however, Tibet governed itself as an independent nation while China was torn by the upheavals of the first half of the 20th century. So for Beijing officials and the public they have educated through propaganda, the Dalai Lama is less a devout Buddhist than a secessionist rebel."

Gdn: Serbs take court in Kosovo, clash with UN forces
"Mitrovica's 40,000 Serbs are militantly opposed to Kosovan independence and, backed by Belgrade, they are bent on partitioning the province and taking over the police and judicial institutions in the north."

NYT: decision to disband military taken by Bremer and Bush without consultation
NYT: (op-ed) Bremer doesn't think that's his biggest mistake
NYT: (op-ed) it wasn't Perle's fault either
WP: at Congressional hearing, representatives debate the obligations of the US gov't to Iraqi refugees and IDPs
WP: Dick "the Liberator" Cheney goes to collect long-overdue flowers in person
Gdn: soldiers speaking at Iraq Veterans against the War forum know better

IHT: Shariah and (Western) rule of law

BBC: new parliament opens in Pakistan

WP: violence in Kenya's Rift Valley organized by opposition, says HRW report
"'This was not done by ordinary citizens, it was arranged by people with money,' said one young man who took part in the attacks, according to the report. 'They brought the jobless like me. We need something to eat each day.'"

Ind: ivory funds warlords in the DRC, Sudan and Chad, Somalia
BBC: violence in usually (relatively) stable western DRC
Bundu Dia Kongo challenges central state authority; police are trying to disband its militia

Gdn: (book excerpt) marijuana trade in Canada
BBC: coca and cocaine labs discovered in Brazilian Amazon for first time

IHT: families sue Chiquita over 1993 deaths of loved ones in Urabá, Colombia
"The 63-page complaint asserts that Chiquita provided 'numerous and substantial hidden payments' to [the FARC] in addition to weapons and supplies. That financing, the plaintiffs say, contributed to the deaths of the five men because Chiquita had in fact supported 'acts of terrorism.'"

IHT: the changing patterns of sex work
Slate: Venkatesh outlines the new tiers

New Yorker: washboarding is not torture. it's just really really irritating

Slate: raise a glass today for St Patrick today, even if you're not sure why

do as i say, not as i do

WP: clash between Chinese security forces, civilians, and Tibetan protesters leaves at least 10 dead
Gdn: an eyewitness account
WP: oops, just when US removes China from list of worst human rights abusers

Vanity Fair: the US supported Fatah militia to destabilize Hamas
"Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza."
WP: seven weeks in, the official program is stumbling
Is this program a legal version of the previous one? I can't tell...

LAT: Rice expresses outrage at possibility that Chávez is supporting the FARC, presumably to destabilize Colombia
BBC: Colombia will pay millions in reward to FARC members who mutinied and killed Iván Ríos, member of the secretariat; still may be charged with homicide, mutilation of a corpse (for cutting off his hand to offer proof of death)

LAT: SV would like to thank the British general who points out that winning 'hearts and minds' is "ridiculous"
"He said the best an occupying army could hope for was the consent of local people, and this required delivering tangible benefits such as electricity, water and security."
Slate (but could've appeared in the Onion): Bush laments being too busy, old to fight in the romantic war that is Afghanistan. obviously he failed to read the summary of the NYT magazine article a few weeks back...

The Nation: who really is fighting, and how
"The government treats its soldiers the way most corporations treat their workforce--as an invisible, disrespected, disposable means to an end that is contrary to workers' interests."

WP: drug war on the Mexican border
"More than 20,000 Mexican troops and federal police are engaged in a multi-front war with the private armies of rival drug lords, a conflict that is being waged most fiercely along the 2,000-mile length of the U.S.-Mexico border...A total of more than 4,800 Mexicans were slain in 2006 and 2007, making the murder rate in each of those years twice that of 2005."
WP: mass grave uncovered at cartel safe house in Ciudad Juárez
Gdn: Peruvian lawmakers protest the UN's recommended ban on traditional uses of coca

Gdn: the fall of the USSR and the rise of the Russian mafia (book excerpt)

WP: glowing report on health of multi-party democracies in West Africa
WP: in Kenya, where glowing news stories on African states used to all be based, the Rift Valley still receiving displaced people, one week after peace deal reached
BBC: more than 150 members of the Sabaot Land Defence Forces (SDLF) have been arrested in West Kenya, for violence that appears to be opportunistic rather than motivated by election outcome
Gdn: further south, Mugabe receives "endorsement" from police and army
"Zimbabwe's police and army chiefs have said they will not allow Robert Mugabe to be defeated in this month's presidential election by opposition candidates they deride as "puppets" and "sell-outs" to Britain."
AP: Sudan and Chad agree to peace deal
Reuters: but Darfur armed groups balk at pact

WP: Croatians on trial for perpetrating war crimes against Serbs in 1995
Gdn: in another court, militia member testifies that Charles Taylor ordered combatants to eat enemies

Reason: sex work, slavery, and rhetoric at the turn of the 20th century still resonates, from New York to
Ind: Bangladesh

The Onion: war czar says war isn't imminent

be mine

BBC: Chad gov't conducting house-by-house raids in N'Djamena, searching for alleged rebels

BBC: hunt for rebels also underway in East Timor

NYT: Philippines on the lookout too, after intel about possible assassination attempt on Arroyo

BBC: LRA on the move through southern Sudan, maybe towards CAR, allegedly kidnapping Sudanese along the way; peace talks look touch-and-go

BBC: in Thailand, search successful: Karen National Union rebel leader killed

NYT: in Lebanon as well: background on Imad Mugniyah
"Long before Osama bin Laden founded Al Qaeda and initiated the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, [he] was perhaps the world’s most feared terrorist."
WP: has a profile too, on how he innovated terror tactics
AP: Nasrallah threatens Israel, urges revenge (Israel denies involvement)

BBC: Bangladesh military gov't accused of illegal detention, torture
"[Human Rights Watch] claims that many of the people arrested under the emergency rules by the army and its intelligence organisation, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, or DGFI, have been tortured to extract confessions."

IHT: Iraqi jails and courts can't handle detainees
NYT: one approach: parliament passes measures that may provide amnesty to thousands
"The three measures are the 2008 budget; a law outlining the scope of provincial powers, a crucial aspect of Iraq’s self-definition as a federal state; and an amnesty that would apply to thousands of the detainees held in Iraqi jails...The decision to vote on the three measures together broke the logjam that had held up the legislation for months, despite pressure from the Bush administration and some senior Iraqi officials. Every group was able to boast that it had won, to some degree."

IHT: Senate isn't buying administration's take on torture
Gdn: neither is Stephen Bradbury, acting head of DoJ's office of legal counsel (apparently consulting the laws changed his mind)

LAT: Spain arresting ETA, Basque dissidents

BBC: Malaysia to hold elections in March, about one year early, amid ethnic tensions

Daily Mail: a valentine for Vladimir, anyone?
"He accused the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe of trying to 'teach' Russia how to behave and mocked: 'Let them teach their wives to make cabbage soup.'" (to be fair, Leslie already called dibs)

building nations

middle east (and the US)
NYT: Rand study on post-invasion Iraq planning buried by the Army
"A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war."
IHT: new field manual stresses nation building
"The manual states: 'Army doctrine now equally weights tasks dealing with the population - stability or civil support - with those related to offensive and defensive operations. Winning battles and engagements is important but alone is not sufficient. Shaping the civil situation is just as important to success.'"

WP: several bombings kill across northern Iraq yesterday
WP: US finds the diary of an insurgent
"Over 16 pages, the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader detailed the organization's demise in his sector. He once had 600 men, but now his force was down to 20 or fewer, he wrote. They had lost weapons and allies. Abu Tariq focused his anger in particular on the Sunni fighters and tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and joined the U.S.-backed Sunni Sahwa, or "Awakening," forces."
IHT: diary with other 39-page memo basis for Army's claim that Al-Qaeda is losing strength
LAT: targeting of Iraqi volunteers on the rise; military suggests it's because Al-Qaeda on defensive

NYT: US seeks death penalty for 6 suspects linked to 9/11
"Even if the detainees are convicted on capital charges, any execution would be many months or, perhaps years, from being carried out, lawyers said, in part because a death sentence would have to be scrutinized by civilian appeals courts.
Federal officials have said in recent months that there is no death chamber at the detention camp at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and that they knew of no specific plans for how a death sentence would be carried out.
The military justice system, which does not govern the Guantánamo cases, provides for execution by lethal injection in death sentence convictions. But the United States military has rarely executed a prisoner in recent times." [the last was in 1961]

WP: 25 die in political party rally in northwest Pakistan
The explosion in the city of Charsadda ripped through a crowd of supporters of the secular Awami National Party moments before the party's provincial president arrived, witnesses said...'The ANP is a liberal party. It's a secular party,' [party official] Afridi said. 'We have condemned extremism and terrorism, so now we are under threat.'"
NYT: Bhutto's widower leads rally in Sindh, her home province
LAT: regional rivalries
WP: composition of militant groups changing, US intelligence suggests
"Compared with previous insurgent groups, the newcomers are well-armed, ideological and difficult to control, with fewer allegiances to local religious and tribal leaders and structures."

Econ: possibilities for reform in Iran look bleak; elections next month

africa
AP: new strikes in Darfur lead to 12,000 displaced to Chad, where an estimated 400,000 refugees are already living, not including those recently displaced by fighting within Chad
Econ: war in Chad. again.
Econ: Déby survives with the support of France
WP: UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan has squandered "tens of millions" in last 3 years

WP: inflation in Zimbabwe: 10 million dollars for an 18-mile bus ride
Econ: the opposition's chances

WP: gov't dissolved in Tanzania over corruption

europe
Reuters: meanwhile, the Greek PM hangs on so far in sex and corruption scandal

Islam, secularism, and integration
Econ: different laws for practicing Muslims in the UK? the Archbishop of Canterbury sets off a debate
NYT: Turkish parliament votes to lift headscarf ban for university students
Econ: Dutch brace for more backlash as legislator to release anti-Islamic film
WP: Sarkozy proposes plan to integrate immigrants, provide more public services in Parisian suburbs
"'We will no longer have young people who are foreigners in their own country,' he declared."

asia
WP: East Timor president wounded in shooting

americas
WP: Chávez threatens to cut off oil sales to the US, in retaliation for recent, successful Exxon-Mobile bids to freeze Venezuelan assets
"While a cut in Venezuelan oil exports would drive up oil prices sharply, oil analysts believe it is unlikely that Chavez would carry out his threat. Venezuela, beleaguered by food shortages, depends heavily on oil exports for about 90 percent of its export earnings and about half of government revenue. The United States is its main market."
Econ: el comandante also launches cabinet-level investigation into Bolivar's death -- apparently he's trying to claim that the Liberator was poisoned, while also alleging that he is the target of assassination attempts and conspiracies.

Wonkette: Georgia and Tennessee in border dispute

torture smorture

LAT: while everyone's giddy with the idea of him not being president next year, Bush says torture [waterboarding] is a-ok, reminds everyone he can keep shaming the country for 11 more months
"The surprise assertion from the Bush administration reopened a debate that many in Washington had considered closed. Two laws passed by Congress in recent years -- as well as a Supreme Court ruling on the treatment of detainees -- were widely interpreted to have banned the CIA's use of the extreme interrogation method."
Gdn: meanwhile, UN special rapporteur on torture censures the US
"Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said: 'I'm not willing any more to discuss these questions with the US government, when they still say that this is allowed. It's not allowed.'"
NYT: more evidence that CIA tapes were destroyed during an investigation (apparently unnecessary, since the administration doesn't mind torture)

middle east
USAT: in Mosul, Al-Qaeda changes tactics, eases off the harsh rules and warns civilians before bombings
WP: Samarra mosque under reconstruction

NYT: quick facts on Pakistan's tribal region

Gdn: attacks continue in Gaza between Hamas and Israel

europe
BBC: OSCE will boycott Russia's Mar 2 presidential election

asia
BBC: journalists in Sri Lanka live in danger; many threatened have been Tamils working in north

BBC: mass grave discovered in Nepal, thought to contain remains of 49 people disappeared by military during war with Maoists

the carrot
BBC: back on track: US rewards new government in Thailand with resumed military aid
and the stick
Gdn: US imposes travel ban on 10 politicians linked to post-election violence in Kenya

africa
Gdn: background on conflicts and recent violence in Kenya
BBC: Kenyan police officer charged with murder during post-election violence

BBC: opposition candidate in Zimbabwe threatened by Zanu-PF militants

BBC: UN concerned about potential war between Ethiopia and Eritrea
Econ: and things don't look good in Central Africa, either

BBC: MSF estimates that 100 people were killed in Chad; capital is still quiet, with French soldiers patrolling

americas
WP: President Calderon might reduce role of military in drug war

still scratching your head over super tuesday?
TNR blog: let's just broker this, like the good ol' days
(Wiki: when did we start voting in primaries, anyhow?)
Slate: who has more delegates? depends on who you ask
USAT: make your own spreadsheet with the formulas
Slate: will florida seriously screw everything up again?

judgments

middle east
BBC: new flag over Baghdad
LAT: Diyala valley claimed by militant group
"The invaders pinned notices on the walls of mosques informing residents that they now lived in the Islamic State of Iraq."
LAT: Iraqi army and police rivalries slow handover
"Separated by tribal and regional differences, and a personality clash between top officers, the two branches of the Iraqi security forces have largely refused to coordinate their activities."
LAT: focus on professionalizing the police, an enormous challenge
WP: US troops kill 3 more civilians in another raid

WP: Hamas claims responsibility for suicide bomb in Israel; Israel retaliates with missile attacks, killing 9
New Yorker: why did Israel bomb Syria in Sept?
BBC: HRW calls for release of activist in Syria, opposition members

Gdn: Iranian missile test makes Russia nervous

LAT: Christians in Pakistan
WP: Mormons in the world
WP: Islamists in Chechnya
LAT: (liberal) Shiites in Lebanon

SWJ: link to full Afghanistan Study Group report
"It is time to re-vitalize and re-double our efforts toward stabilizing Afghanistan and re-think our economic and military strategies to ensure that the level of our commitment is commensurate with the threat posed by possible failure in Afghanistan."
SWJ: summaries of, links to other assessments

BBC: Poland chastises NATO allies for not sending enough troops, support to Afghanistan
Gdn: UK will deploy paratroopers to Helmand in April
BBC: announcement comes during Sec Rice visit to London

BBC: alternative development needed to reduce Afghan farmers' incentives to grow poppy
"Britain plays the lead role in coordinating counter narcotics policy in Afghanistan and six years on the failure in this area makes for grim reading...There have been some successes - half as many provinces grow opium poppies this year as last - but the report says there are ominous signs that the drugs business is increasingly linked to insecurity."
BBC: UNODC releases report estimating higher poppy growth in south

americas
LAT: Hayden acknowledges that only (at least?) 3 Al-Qaeda suspects were waterboarded
NYT: (despite the torture) Al-Qaeda is a growing threat. and more on those tricky guidelines:
"[director of national intelligence] Mr. McConnell said that a future C.I.A. request to use waterboarding on a detainee would need to be approved both by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and by President Bush...

Both Robert S. Mueller III, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers that their agencies had successfully obtained valuable intelligence from terrorism suspects without using what Mr. Mueller called the “coercive” methods of the C.I.A.

But General Hayden bristled when asked about Congressional attempts to mandate that C.I.A. interrogators be required to use the more limited set of interrogation methods contained in the Army Field Manual, which is used by military interrogators.

'It would make no more sense to apply the Army’s field manual to C.I.A.,' General Hayden said, 'than it would to take the Army Field Manual on grooming and apply it to my agency, or the Army Field Manual on recruiting and apply it to my agency. Or, for that matter, the Army Field Manual on sexual orientation and apply it to my agency [???!!!].'"

(does this mean we can trust gays to gather important intelligence?! i'll keep watch for conservative reaction to such risky policy)

SWJ: preparing soldiers for deployment - using Habermas's 'communicative action'?

NYT: upcoming detainee hearings in the Supreme Court
"Cases that have been proceeding on completely separate judicial tracks may be about to converge."

WP: Bush tries to sap new ombudsman post of power to implement more transparency, faster response to FOIA requests
"By law, agencies must respond within 20 days to FOIA requests, but in practice the process can take months or years. Delays grew after the terrorist attacks in 2001 as agencies began to favor nondisclosure in the name of national security.
Under the new law, requests will be assigned public tracking numbers. Agencies that exceed the 20-day deadline for responses will be denied the right to charge requesters for research or copying costs." [But Bush wants to move the position from the non-partisan National Archives dept to the Justice Dept, notoriously evasive when it comes to FOIA requests.]

WP: DC gun ban challenged by those who argue against militia interpretation of 2nd amendment
"It has been 70 years since the [Supreme Court's] last substantive review of the Second Amendment, and supporters and opponents of gun control remain adamantly divided on whether it protects an individual's right to possess guns or only provides a "collective" right of citizens related to military service.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last spring became the first appeals court to use the individual-rights interpretation of the amendment to strike a gun-control law. Most of the courts that have examined the issue have ruled that it protects only the collective right."

IHT: millions march against the FARC in Colombia, across the world
LAT: the marches became politicized, but many participated despite misgivings
"We're not talking about politics, just a condemnation of what the FARC does. We're tired of it."
BBC: Colombian cocaine capo sentenced to 30 years in NY court

Slate: series on visiting Venezuela
"Another time, I caught Chávez at a new hospital pledging to build or modernize hundreds more. He earnestly whipped out pencil and paper to make a list of all the things a great hospital needs. "Let's see," he told the assembled group of medical workers, "You need an X-ray unit with all the latest equipment, and what else, let's see …" On and on he went. It makes for seductive television, a bit like watching your Uncle Fred run the country from a reality TV show."

africa
NYT: rebellion in Chad on pause; bodies collected in the capital and opposition politicians arrested
BBC: Deby received pledged support from France, actual support from Darfur rebel group
AP: rebels agree to Libya-brokered cease fire

BBC: explosions kill at least 20 in Ethiopian migrant housing on Somali coast

BBC: Annan wants truth and reconciliation commission in Kenya
BBC: opposition threatens more rallies if regional meeting goes ahead

asia
BBC: speaker de Venecia ousted in Phillipines, after launching accusations of corruption against president Arroyo

BBC: UN hands off power to Timorese police

BBC: US approves more sanctions on Burma

europe
BBC: EU approves Kosovo mission,
BBC: delays deal with Serbia
BBC: because the PM has denounced the plan

BBC: Spanish judge issues arrest warrants for 40 Rwandan soldiers; charged with mass killing, genocide, terrorism, and crimes against humanity

NYT: elections set for April in Italy

misc
The Onion: Bob Seger tries to get Cleveland to open up, share its feelings and fears
"Maybe you can all just start by telling me a little about yourself. What do you do for fun, for example? I know you enjoy that old-time rock and roll, but what else? What is it like living in Cleveland? I have heard that the subprime mortgage crisis has hit Cleveland especially hard. That sucks."

coups and capos

africa
BBC: people flee fighting in N'Djamena, Chad's capital; rebels leave city, apparently to wait for civilians to be evacuated so fighting can resume
BBC: many heading to Cameroon; gov't claims Sudan is assisting rebels
WP: Western diplomats evacuated; US and France support Deby and accuse Sudan of involvement
"The U.S. and French ambassadors to the United Nations issued statements supporting the government of President Idriss Déby, as international concern mounted over the prospect of a rebel takeover that analysts say would be a foreign policy victory for the Sudanese government."

WP: opposition splintered in Zimbabwe; can't agree on parliament selection mechanism

BBC: pirates off Somalia seize Russian ship

Gdn: British coup plotter extradited from Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea

WP: Nigerian oil and insurgency
"In Nigeria's case, restricted production is not a matter of choice. A group called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been blowing up pipelines and attacking or kidnapping foreign oil workers for several years, demanding that the companies and Nigerian government share more revenues with the deeply impoverished region. There is also a bitter history of environmental disputes in the region with Shell and other oil companies...Because Nigeria's government does not want outside mediators to help negotiate with insurgents, oil companies are among the only ones searching for solutions. Shell, for example, has hired several hundred "community liaison officers" to help solve grievances. The company has sent storage tanks and generators to 21 towns and villages."

BBC: peace talks resume in Kenya; Odinga calls for foreign peacekeepers
Gdn: today they discuss the 250,000 displaced; tomorrow elections
IHT: looting and roadblocks in rural Kenya
"Roadblocks have been a problem since the elections, with angry mobs demanding to see the identification cards of passers-by to determine their ethnic identities. Such clashes led to the deaths of several people a few weeks ago.
But now a different kind of roadblock seems to be taking root, one based more on opportunism than on politics. After one young man extracted a toll, of sorts, he quickly examined the bill and stuffed it into his pocket. In case there were any questions, another armed teenager stood nearby, wearing fatigues and a jaunty skipper's hat."
Econ: demographics of violence: Kenya, Gaza have large supply of violence suppliers: young men
"The population of both Gaza and Kenya has grown by about six times since 1950, much more than the 3.6 times of, say, North Africa or the 4.3 times of sub-Saharan Africa. In Gaza about 1.5m people now crowd into 360 square kilometres (140 square miles), making the strip's population density about two-thirds Hong Kong's. Kenya is far bigger, but the land can no longer support the rural population. So the young, exchanging urban for rural poverty, head for the slums, bringing their anger, and machetes, with them."

middle east
Ind: Egyptians try to keep the young Palestinians out
BBC: first suicide bombing in a year in Israel kills one

NYT: domestic energy issues in Iran

Econ: Libyan leader of Al-Qaeda killed in Pakistan
LAT: the composition of Al-Qaeda membership: Libyans rise in the ranks
"The network has an ethnic pecking order of sorts. In the late 1990s, Libyans were quiet but influential. They played the role of mentors for fellow North Africans, particularly Moroccans who were seen as "little foot soldiers," according to a Spanish law enforcement chief... As they work with a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Libyans have stepped up in the Iraqi theater. "
LAT: Al-Qaeda may be focusing on acquiring WMD
"For now, the intelligence officials believe, that effort is largely focused on developing and using cyanide, chlorine and other poisons that are unlikely to cause the kind of mass-casualty attack that is usually associated with weapons of mass destruction."

WP: US to support Pakistani paramilitary groups, the Frontier Corps
"Pentagon officials have publicly described the Frontier Corps as having more credibility with local tribesmen because the troops come from the region, while most Pakistani army regulars do not...Congress added two unusual clauses in the authorization. It said the assistance will be provided "in a manner that promotes observance of and respect for human rights" and "respect for legitimate civilian authority within Pakistan." In the past, that type of language has been associated with training by U.S. personnel that also could involve them taking part in counterterrorist or counterinsurgency missions. That is what happened to Special Forces in Vietnam in the 1960s and in Central America in the 1980s."
BBC: bus bombing kills at least 6 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

WP: 3 simultaneous wars in Iraq: against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni insurgents, Shiite extremists
BBC: US kills 9 Iraqi civilians in south Baghdad
BBC: 100 have died from suicide bombing in Baghdad market

Slate: fortuitous rain saves the day in Beirut
"Is it possible that a rainstorm saved Lebanon, at least temporarily? It certainly looks that way in the wake of a mysterious shooting that killed seven Hezbollah-aligned demonstrators [last] Sunday night and threatened to send the nation beyond the political tension, name-calling, and occasional rock-throwing of the last year and into a rerun of the 1975-90 civil war."
BBC: Lebanese man shot by Israeli forces, apparently over drug smuggling

IHT: Afghan police attack Dostum, Uzbek warlord's home
Gdn: raids in Helmand and Farah provinces as well
Gdn: Taliban attacks on international forces increased by 1/3 last year
"But although admitting the figures show a 'significant rise', Nato insists the geographic extent of the violence remains limited. 'Seventy per cent of the incidents took place in just 10 per cent of the country, where no more than 6 per cent of the population live, and many have been initiated by our forces as we engage with the enemy,' a Nato source said. 'That is the same area as in 2006 which shows the insurgency is not spreading.'"
Ind: Germany won't send more troops
Ind: British were going to train Taliban, encourage them to switch sides
"Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December...The British insist President Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr Karzai has expelled two top diplomats amid accusations they were part of a plot to buy-off the insurgents."

AP: Turkey bombs 70 targets in Kurdistan

asia
BBC: trial postponed for Pol Pot's second-in-command, "Brother Number Two," most senior living Khmer Rouge official

BBC: bus attack in north Sri Lanka kills at least 15; Colombo celebrates 60 years of independence with military parade
BBC: 11 people died yesterday at Colombo train station in suicide bombing; 18 people died in attack in north on Saturday

NYT: Chinese internet censorship might backfire, because even apolitical sites blocked

NYT: (non)democratization in Central Asia

americas
LAT: Colombian cartel head, Wilber Varela "Soap," found dead in Venezuela
Gdn: collusion between the FARC and Venezuela to traffic cocaine, arms
"Rafael is one of 2,400 guerrillas who deserted Farc last year. He is one of four I spoke to, all of whom had grown despondent about a purportedly left-wing revolutionary movement whose power and influence rests less on its political legitimacy and more on the benefits of having become the world's biggest kidnapping organisation and the world's leading traffickers in cocaine...The varied testimonies I have heard reveal that the co-operation between Venezuela and the guerrillas in transporting cocaine by land, air and sea is both extensive and systematic. Venezuela is also supplying arms to the guerrillas, offering them the protection of their armed forces in the field, and providing them with legal immunity de facto as they go about their giant illegal business."
BBC: Colombians around the world demonstrate against the FARC in protests organized through Facebook

Slate: excerpts from Kaplan's new book on the 2 mistaken assumptions that led the Bush administration and the US to disastrous foreign policy
first, that the post-9/11 world was different, and second, that the US was stronger after the Cold War

Slate: American Samoans' (limited) voting rights

WP: Mexico investigates human rights violations by army in its "dirty war" between 1960s and 1980s

WP: indigenous groups in Peru sue Occidental, with help of technology like Google Earth
"In addition to alleging that Occidental illegally dumped toxic wastewater, the Achuar suit accuses the company of generating acid rain with gas flares, failing to warn Indians of health dangers and improperly storing chemical wastes in unlined pits."

europe
BBC: Tadic elected in Serbia, EU makes overture

LAT: Poland approves US missile defense system in exchange for aid

AP: Denmark to investigate CIA rendition flights

Slate: studying discrimination with data on the English soccer league

rain rain go away

africa
BBC: another opposition MP in Kenya shot
But the killing seems unrelated to politics: "A local police chief says Mr Too was having an affair with the girlfriend of the policeman, who shot them both." The killing has prompted Kikuyus to flee town, Eldoret, nonetheless.
Econ: talks so far inching along, as violence continues

BBC: rebels capture town in Chad
"'We are moving towards N'Djamena,' rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah confirmed to AFP. Meanwhile, army units have stepped up patrols on the streets of the capital, Reuters news agency says."

BBC: UN peacekeepers in Western Sahara deface ancient rock paintings

middle east
BBC: former supreme court chief in Pakistan denounces Musharraf
"He described his treatment at the hands of President Musharraf as an 'incredible outrage' committed by an 'extremist general' who is supported by the West. "
WP: the US "urges" fair elections, after surprising allegations of intimidation
SWJ: analysis of possible US military operations in Waziristan, featuring some shaky generalizations related to "tribal" and "western" logics

BBC: Fatah militant killed near Gaza border gap; Mubarak meets with Abbas
WP: Israeli Supreme Court oks reduced energy supply to Gaza, enough to meet "basic humanitarian needs"
IHT: Israeli report faults leadership in 2006 Lebanon war, but Olmert likely to retain power
Ind: text of (unclassified) Winograd Report
"•We found serious failings and shortcomings in the decision-making processes and staff-work in the political and the military echelons and their interface.

•We found serious failings and flaws in the quality of preparedness, decision-making and performance in the IDF high command, especially in the Army.

•We found serious failings and flaws in the lack of strategic thinking and planning, in both the political and the military echelons.

•We found severe failings and flaws in the defence of the civilian population and in coping with its being attacked by rockets.

•These weaknesses resulted in part from inadequacies of preparedness and strategic and operative planning which go back long before the 2nd Lebanon war."

BBC: bomb in Helmand mosque kills deputy governor; suicide bomber in Kabul kills one.

IHT: developments in Mosul
AP: US commanders warn that the campaign there will be long
"Lieutenant Colonel Michael Simmering, of the 3rd Armored Cavalry, based near Mosul, described the insurgent force in the city as a patchwork of groups, including Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other factions, 'all vying for different things at this point.'

'The thing about the insurgency in Mosul is that there are many different facets,' he said.

'This is going to be a long, protracted push by coalition forces and more importantly by Iraqi security forces to re-establish security,' Simmering said. 'If you're looking for one big culminating event, you'll never quite see it. I call this the 'campaign for Mosul.' "
WP: speaking of long, US commanders in favor of freezing troop reductions at 15 brigades
SWJ: has round-up of Iraq updates

asia
BBC: four separatists killed in Indian Kashmir, from group Hizb-ul Mujahideen

BBC: extortion trial of former Bangladeshi prime minister, Sheik Hasina, begins

Gdn: China suffering in cold spell; food shortages severe
Ind: soldiers called in to clear roads
LAT: in bizarre timing, China announces that it's working to control the weather - for the Olympics (imagine! a regime so powerful it can control the weather. nevermind about those pesky citizens starving in the snow)
"Cloud-seeding is a relatively well-known practice that involves shooting various substances into clouds, such as silver iodide, salts and dry ice, that bring on the formation of larger raindrops, triggering a downpour. But Chinese scientists believe they have perfected a technique that reduces the size of the raindrops, delaying the rain until the clouds move on.
The weather modification would be used only on a small area, opening what would be in effect a meteorological umbrella over the 91,000-seat Olympic stadium."

Econ: North Korea's (violations of) human rights record

americas
BBC: 43 Rio policemen offer mass resignation days before Carnival, after chief sacked for allowing protest about low pay.
IHT: police kill at least 6 anti-drug trafficking operation in Rio slums

LAT: Mexican city a safe-haven for illegal immigrants
Ecatepec is the place where Hondurans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans and others begin the long, final stage of their journey across Mexico, northward to the U.S. border aboard a freight train known as 'the beast.'"

BBC: Canada says it will pull out of Afghanistan unless more NATO troops are sent

IHT: "election" outcome in Cuba: shocker, Castros retain power

Slate: Mukasey to Congress: torture, smorture
"Unless someone were to actually be water-boarded before Mukasey's eyes at the witness table in the Hart Senate Building, America's lawyer cannot hazard an opinion as to its legality."
WP: more on the volley
"At one point, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked: 'Would waterboarding be torture if it was done to you?'
'I would feel that it was,' Mukasey replied.
But Mukasey said that does not mean it would be illegal."
Also, he *might* investigate the conduct of CIA officers shown on the tapes, rather than just the destruction of them.
The Onion: the CIA has a plan to make this whole conversation irrelevant

NYT: concussions, stress linked to PTSD in soldiers

NYT: police shoot woman and baby in Lima, Ohio, sparking protests of racism and brutality

europe
BBC: Slovakia delays EU reform vote

WP: linguistic, ethnic conflict in Belgium

misc
Wonkette: here's another news round-up. of sorts.
"If Americans know one thing about the Foreigns (and sometimes that’s a near thing), it’s that they live in Foreign countries, which, obviously, are hellholes of awfulness and despair."