From the front page of the Washington Post, via TruthOut:

New Reports of Abuse of Detainees Surface
Mistreatment Was Routine, Group Is Told

By Josh White

Saturday 24 September 2005

"Some days we would just get bored so we would have everyone sit in a corner and then make them get in a pyramid," ... "This was before Abu Ghraib but just like it. We did that for amusement."

Two soldiers and an officer with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division have told a human rights organization of systemic detainee abuse and human rights violations at U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq, recounting beatings, forced physical exertion and psychological torture of prisoners, the group said.

This profile of Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in the Sept. 24 New York Times (online at Iran Focus) is a skillful piece of subtle obfuscation. It notes (largely in the past tense) the ties between the National Council of Resistance and the Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK) without stating explicitly that the latter is the armed wing of the former. It also states that Mujahedeen Khalq "has been labeled a terrorist organization" by "the West" without stating explicitly that it is on the US State Department's list of "foreign terrorist organizations." It notes that Mujahedeen Khalq received shelter in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, but says nothing about its current status in Iraq under the US occupation. The group has played into the US strategy of portraying the Iranian regime as bent on procuring nuclear weapons, but its past suggests it would serve as an unreliable client for Washington at best...

British MP George Galloway, current darling of the left for his testimony against the Iraq war before the US Senate earlier this year and for slaying such mediocre dragons as Christopher Hitchens, reveals a disturbing side in a Sept. 9 interview with the loopy conspiranoid site Prison Planet, in which he both blames the Jews for persecution of Jews (including bringing Hitler to power), as well as for unleashing the global terror wave upon the world.

From Direland, Doug Ireland's political blog, Sept. 22:

The internationally renowned correspodent for The Independent -- the great British journalist Robert Fisk -- has been banned from entering the United States. Fisk has been covering war zones for decades, but is above all known for his incisive reporting from the Middle East for more than 20 years. His critical coverage of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, and the continuing occupation that has followed it, has repeatedly exposed U.S. and British government disinformation campaigns. He also has exposed how the bulk of the press reports from Iraq have been "hotel journalism" -- a phrase Fisk coined.

From New York City's Pakistan Post, Sept. 15. Translated from the Urdu by Mohammad Jehangir Khan for the International Press Association.

A Pakistani man died of heart attack on September 9 while waiting for his deportation in a New Jersey prison, sources said.

Shehzad Tanveer, 42, who came to the United States about 13 years ago, was believed to be worried about his financial predicament awaiting him in Gujranwala, Pakistan before his death.

Days after receiving similar treatment in New York, Cindy Sheehan and entourage met with police harassment in DC. Writes Sarah Ferguson for the Village Voice Sept. 21:

On Sept. 22, a student protest at Cali's Universidad del Valle was brutally attacked by the Colombian National Police special anti-riot unit, the Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squad (ESMAD), which brought in an armored vehicle and fired live ammunition, hurled tear-gas cannisters and beat students with clubs. One chemistry student, Jhony Silva Aranjuren, 21, was mortally wounded and died later in the hospital; several others were also wounded. The students were protesting the cut-off of potable water to the Corregimiento de Villa Gorgona, a village in Candelaria municipality outside Cali, and aggressions against the civil population. (Red de Defensores No-Institucionalizados, Sept. 22)

Well, somebody, it seems, has found something more creative to do to protest the war in Iraq than march in orderly rows chanting monotonous slogans in unison. From New York Newsday, sept. 22:

NEW YORK -- A Manhattan judge Thursday dismissed the public nudity summons issued to an artist who was arrested after she protested the Iraq war by disrobing to display the words "STOP THE WAR" written on her naked body. [In Arabic too.—WW4 REPORT]