More unsettling news on the falling barriers between foreign intelligence and domestic policing. Thanks to TruthOut for catching this one.

Military Expands Homeland Efforts
Pentagon to share data with civilian agencies
By Bradley Graham
The Washington Post

Wednesday 06 July 2005

A new Pentagon strategy for securing the U.S. homeland calls for expanded U.S. military activity not only in the air and sea -- where the armed forces have historically guarded approaches to the country -- but also on the ground and in other less traditional, potentially more problematic areas such as intelligence sharing with civilian law enforcement.

News reports of the Deep Impact space probe's explosive Independence Day rendezvous with a comet could not have made clearer that the whole affair was barely-disguised patriotic propaganda, very convenient at a time when the Iraq war is turning into a deepening quagmire. Reads a July 5 AP account:

NASA's Deep Impact Web site registered nearly 1 billion hits when the space probe collided with comet Tempel 1 early Monday -- about twice as many hits as the twin Mars rovers got when they parachuted to the Red Planet last year.

The cosmic fireworks from the collision were not red, white and blue and were visible only through telescopes. But the sharp flash of light gave scientists "something to be proud of on America's birthday," said Rick Grammier, the mission's project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

It seems Baghdad's occupiers are emulating those of Palestine. The city now has a "security fence" cordoning off the Green Zone, mirroring Israel's "Apartheid Wall." An excerpt from a story carried by the July 5 New York Times:

Iraqis call it Assur, the Fence. In English everyone calls it the Wall, and in the past two years it has grown and grown until it has become an almost continuous rampart, at least 16km in circumference, around the seat of US power in Baghdad.

India Express reports that authorities on the Indian side of divided Jammu & Kashmir state are on "red alert" as Hindus prepare for protests following yesterday's attack by presumed Islamic militants on Ayodhya, the disputed holy site in Uttar Pradesh. A July 6 report in India Express also notes that Hindus displaced from the Pakistani side of the line, organized in the Panun Kashmir Movement (PKM), are demanding a seat at the dialogue table over the divided region's future. They call themselves the Kashmiri Pandits (pandit literally meaning a scholar of Sanskrit, underscoring their religious identity), and call their homeland (now occupied by Pakistan) Panun Kashmir.

Edinburgh's constabulary mixed it up with anarchists at the G8 summit protests in Edinburgh yesterday, resulting in about 100 arrests and 20 injured (including two police) in six hours of street clashes. Stay tuned for more fun, as environmentalist protesters plan to blockade the nearby BP oil refinery at Grangemouth today. Meanwhile, the Scottish countryside seems intensely militarized. Writes CNN:

Al-Qaeda's supposed top man in Saudi Arabia has been killed. Will it mean any de-escalation of violence in the desert kkingdom? Or is this a hydra-headed monster? This July 4 AFP account from Qatar's Gulf Times:

Qaeda chief killed in Riyadh shootout

By Lydia Georgi

RIYADH: Al Qaeda’s suspected frontman in Saudi Arabia was killed in a shootout with security forces in the capital yesterday only five days after authorities put him at the top of a new list of wanted militants.

Has anyone noticed the unsubtle political jockeying over which country gets to host the new fusion energy research facility offically known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)? It finally went to France, over the predictable objections of Washington. Writes The Economist, June 30:

More reports of unspeakable horror, courtesy of the leader of the free world, and its junior partner. Thanks to TruthOut for passing this along.

UK Aid Funds Iraqi Torture Units
By Peter Beaumont and Martin Bright
The Observer UK

Sunday 03 July 2005

British and American aid intended for Iraq's hard-pressed police service is being diverted to paramilitary commando units accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings, The Observer can reveal.