Did Israel "let it happen on purpose"? From a Sept. 18 Haaretz account of Israeli intelligence "failures" in the recent Lebanon war:

MI knew about Hezbollah kidnap plans
Military Intelligence had clear information about an impending kidnap attempt by Hezbollah shortly before the Lebanese group carried out its cross-border raid on July 12, according to an internal inquiry conducted by the Israel Defense Forces.

You knew that it would. But an interesting glimmer of hope is that in Egypt, where Muslim-Coptic tensions have exploded into violence all too recently, both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Coptic hierarchy are urging people to chill out. In vivid contrast, of course, to the ever-predictable "al-Qaeda in Iraq." From MSNBC, Sept. 17:

Islamic militants vow war after pope comments
'We are afraid,' Middle East Christians say in face of continued Muslim fury,
CAIRO - Al-Qaida militants in Iraq vowed war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy on Monday over Pope Benedict’s comments on Islam, while Western churchmen and statesmen tried to calm passions.

Like his pal Ahmadinejad in Iran, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez now loans credibility to 9-11 conspiracy theory, if this report is to be trusted. From England's right-wing Daily Mail Sept. 13:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the United States could have orchestrated the September 11 attacks five years ago to justify its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

From APRO, Sept. 14, via Chiapas95 (our translation, link added):

Tuxtla Gutierrez - Hundreds of campesinos from various social organizations, members of the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS), today held 13 intermittent blockades of roads in Chiapas, in support of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO).

On Sept. 11 US magistrate Norbert Garney in El Paso, Tex., ruled that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should release Cuban-born Venezuelan national Luis Posada Carriles under supervision. Garney's decision is a recommendation, and he sent it to district judge Philip Martinez, who can decide to accept or reject the ruling. Posada is a longtime "asset" of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who is wanted in Venezuela for allegedly planning the 1976 bombing of an Cubana de Aviacion airliner, in which 73 people died.

Now that's the way to prove the Pope is wrong and Islam is a religion of peace! Way to go, guys! From Reuters, Sept. 17:

Gunmen killed an Italian nun at a children's hospital in Mogadishu on Sunday in an attack that drew immediate speculation of links to Muslim anger over the Pope's recent remarks on Islam.

Yet more evidence that Central Asia, increasingly wary of US military designs in the region since 9-11, is radically tilting away from Washington. Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan all opened their territories to US forces after 9-11, and Tajikistan, with its 1,000-mile border with Afghanistan, was particularly critical as a staging ground for the October 2001 offensive against the Taliban. Today only Kyrgyzstan still hosts significant US forces—and Tajikistan is holding joint manoeuvres with China. But also note that despite all the supposed tension between the US and China, the preceived enemy and justification for flexing military muscle in the region is identical: radical Islam. From DPA, Sept. 15:

More grisly news from the amusingly eccentric despotism of Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov. It is good to see the outside world paying attention to what goes on in this hermetically-sealed dictatorship, but this case raises the usual dilemmas. Journalist Ogulsapar Muradova was affiliated with the US-funded Radio Liberty, and Turkmenbashi's defenders will doubtless portray this as being complicit with US designs to destabilize the regime, or at least pry it open for freer corporate access to its formbidable gas and oil resources. But should the penalty for this be death—and, more importantly, what option do independent journalists have in Turkmenistan? Have the Independent Media Centers attempted to give them any support? The IMCs don't appear to have a single outlet in all Central Asia. A search of the main IMC website turns up nothing on Muradova's case, although some affiliates, such Indymedia UK at least noted his arrest. From Al-Jazeera, Sept. 16: