The parade of denial goes on. US Central Command chief Gen. Abizaid makes headlines by speaking the obvious—his dramatic understatement treated like a splash of cold water, so deep is the degree of self-delusion:

"I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war," Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.

This Aug. 7 clip from the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat was sent by our correspondent Gilbert Achcar, who writes: "There is little chance that you could find something like the news below reported in any language but Arabic. I couldn't resist sharing it with you, and translated it therefore. It needs no comment!"

Shortly after 9:30pm on July 31, after more than two years of detention, Muslim community leader Abdel Jabbar Hamdan walked out of the Terminal Island federal detention center in San Pedro, California, and returned to his Buena Park home with his wife and six US-born children.

With all eyes elsewhere, it seems authorities in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, scene of the ongoing Zapatista rebellion, are taking the opportunity to repossess lands occupied the rebels. Recognition of the "agrarian reform" carried out by adherents of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) has been essential to keeping the peace (however precariously) in the 12 years since the rebellion began. This Aug. 3 communique from one of the Good Government Juntas or caracoles, the Zapatistas' regional coordinating bodies, comes to us via Chiapas95:

Some 300 primary and secondary school students and their mothers occupied the municipal auditorium in the conflicted Mexican village of San Salvador Atenco Aug. 5, holding the municipal president Pascual Pineda Sanchez captive for eight hours. The protesters accuse Pineda of failing to fund the municipal scholarship and school lunch program, even while ploughing funds into a generous retirement package for himself and the 10 town councilors. (La Jornada, Aug. 5 via Chiapas95)

On Aug. 5 the seven judges of Mexico's Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) unanimously rejected a motion by center-left presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for a full recount of the 41 million ballots cast in the July 2 presidential election. Instead, the TEPJF ordered inspection of ballots from 11,839 voting booths, about 9% of the total of 130,477 booths. The judges ruled that in these cases there were enough mathematical errors or other irregularities to cause concern.

From Canada Free Press, Aug. 7 (links, annotation and emphasis added by WW4 REPORT):

With world attention trained on Israel and Hezbollah, the situation is tense in Bogota, Colombia, today as President Alvaro Uribe prepares for his inauguration for a second four-year term.

Seems like both sides in the Cuban political divide are atempting to co-opt Santeria, which is definitely bad news for the doves and chickens of Miami and Havana. Apparently neither the Fidelistas or the anti-Fidelistas are playing to the animal-rights constituency. From an Aug. 4 Reuters account, dateline Miami:

After Cuba announced on Monday that Castro had stomach surgery and put brother Raul in charge, Rigoberto Zamora, a babalawo, or priest, of what he calls Yoruba, the African name for Santeria, performed a fact-finding ritual.

After sacrificing a couple of black hens and a rooster to satisfy the hunger of the gods, he got the word from them: Castro is already dead; he died on Monday.