All sides continue to exhibit the utmost cynicism in the increasingly confused Iraq war. The anti-terrorist SITE Institute notes that the self-declared al-Qaeda in Iraq has issued a communique on the Nov. 28 assassination of Sheikh Ayad al-Izzi, a prominent Sunni parliamentary candidate with the Iraqi Islamic Party. According to SITE:

Commenting on who killed al-Izzi, the message implicates the US, saying: “The Americans have an interest to kill Ayad al-Azzi and those like him so as to instigate civil wars between the followers of the Sunna and their protégés.

The December issue of The Broken Rifle, newsletter of the War Resisters International, which supports conscientious objectors from military service around the world, offers this report from a strategically-placed country not often in the news: Eritrea. We noted in our last post on Eritrea that military tensions with Ethiopia are once again growing. The secession of Eritrea in 1993 left Ethiopia landlocked. Ethiopia is much closer to the US, which has an interest in securing the Horn's access to the Red Sea (just north of the Strait of Djibouti chokepoint, already threatened by Somali pirates) against Islamic militants. Therefore Eritrea's strongman Isaias Afwerki is playing up supposed Islamist subversion of his regime—both as an excuse to suppress opposition and to win Washington's good graces. If war comes, it is Eritrean and Ethiopian conscripts who will be the first to pay with their lives in this power game. This report, which starts with a background primer on the country, notes thousands of Eritrean conscientious objectors who have been imprisoned or forced into exile. It seems that many have also been tortured and even executed.

Well, more than 40 years after the damage is done, the government comes clean on the lies that got the US into the Vietnam War. We guess it must be official now that its in the New York Times. But even the Times (whose own recently-sacked Judith Miller similarly parroted White House malarky) notes the disturbing sense of deja vu here. Its good to see this in print, and its good that Miller got the sack—but is the world going to have to wait 40 years before the full story of Bush's WMD deception is revealed? And by then how many will have been killed in Iraq?

Another mass grave for the idiot left to deny the existence of or try to explain away—this time in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border. From Reuters:

ANJAR, Lebanon, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Lebanese forces excavated a suspected third mass grave on Sunday, a day after unearthing 25 decomposed corpses in an eastern town that was the headquarters of Syrian intelligence for three decades.

Security forces were digging for more bodies at the third site near two other mass graves close to an old onion farm in the eastern town of Anjar, long used by Syrian intelligence as a notorious interrogation centre.

Recent reportage raises some disturbing questions about the abduction of the four activists from the Christian Peacemaker Teams now being held hostage in Iraq—Tom Fox, 54, of Virginia; Norman Kember, 74, of London; James Loney, 41, of Toronto; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, also of Canada. (See our last post on the case.)

The best-case scenario for the Bush administration in Iraq now is a modicum of stability under a Shi'ite-dominated regime more loyal to Tehran than Washington. In the January 2005 elections, voters trounced the US proxies, the secular Shi'ites of Iyad Allawi's CIA-groomed Iraqi National Accord, in favor of the Tehran-backed radical Shi'ites of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. So "regime change" in Iran is now necessary for the US to maintain effective control over Iraq as well. But how, given that Bush has already got his hands more than full with an increasingly unpopular quagmire? The answer is obvious: US imperialism's regional pit-bull, Israel. From the Jerusalem Post, Nov. 30:

Schools and offices were shut down in Bangladesh Dec. 1 in a strike called by lawyers after suicide bomb attacks at court buildings killed nine people. Lawyers and police said the attackers are singling out the judiciary to sow fear before it puts militants detained for other bombings on trial. Police have arrested 22 people for the bombings in the southern port city of Chittagong and Gazipur, a town outside the capital.

The attacks were the latest in a wave of attacks by Islamist militants since Aug. 17 when they exploded some 500 small bombs across the country. Two people were killed and nearly 100 wounded. The militants are said to belong to two outlawed Muslim groups, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh. These attacks are the first suicide bombings in Bangladesh.

Rather inconvenient news at a time when Bush is hailing a "clear strategy for victory" (Bloomberg, Dec. 1) and "real progress" (Guardian, Nov. 30) in Iraq.

RAMADI, Iraq, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Iraqi militants attacked a U.S. base and a local government building with mortar rounds and rockets in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Thursday, before holding ground on several central streets, residents said.