With Congress considering new privacy-eroding measures in Patriot Act (and making the law permanent), and similar measures being weighed by the Homeland Security Department, comes this disturbing news. This did make the front page of the NY Times today, albeit below the fold. A good thing this came to light, even if years after the fact. But what's scary is that this is going on without even token approval of Congress. As lawmakers debate the Patriot Act, the bureaucracy bends the rules without even asking permission...

A very unfortunate turn of events at the protests against the biotech industry confab that just concluded in Philadelphia, organized under the banner Biodevastation to Biojustice. This June 21 account from Philly's KYW News Radio:

A Philadelphia police officer involved with a scuffle with protesters outside the Convention Center has died of an apparent heart attack. Officer Paris Williams, 52, a 19-year veteran of the force, was among many Civil Affairs officers monitoring the protest outside the "BIO 2005" conference at the Convention Center.

The EZLN has issued a new communique clarifying somewhat the "red alert" announced two days ago. This English translation from the website of the Zapatista Front, civil counterpart of the armed organization, states that the alert is a "precautionary measure" taken as the Zapatista Army holds a "consulta", or consultation meeting with its base communities. The communique remains cryptic on what new strategies are being considered in the consulta.

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center in Chiapas (Centro FrayBa) offers this June 21 list of "antecedents" to the "red alert" declared by the Zapatista Army two days ago:

1.- Military movements:

For the past two months we have registered movements of the Mexican army, in what constitutes the greatest military movement since the retreat from the seven
positions demanded by the EZLN in 2001:

- El Calvario (early May), in Perla Canyon, influence zone of the paramilitary Revolutionary Anti-zapatista Movement, today identified with the new name Organization for the Defense of Campesino and Indigenous Rights (OPDDIC).

Here's an ominous one. We bet this won't be the last we hear of this news item. Where the hell is "Southwestern Asia" and why the secrecy about the location of the crash? Doesn't the secrecy combined with the unsubtle geographic hint pretty much make clear that it is Iran--where the US has admitted to using spy planes?

This one is truly pathetic. Last week Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) quoted from an FBI agent's memo describing detainees at Guantanamo Bay as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures. "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings," he said. (AP, June 22)

A surge in violence during the past three months has left hundreds dead across eastern and southern Afghanistan. Presumed Taliban militants have carried out suicide bombings and kidnapped or killed aid and election workers, and fighting has also increased between the Taliban and US-led forces. In addition to clashes in remote mountain areas, the latest incidents include the execution of eight kidnapped Afghan police officers and an alleged plot to kill the outgoing US ambassador. The bloodshed has sparked fears that the Afghan war is widening and that the violence could get worse ahead of September's parliamentary elections. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty offers this report today:

The circumstances are still sketchy, but the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas, Mexico, has announced it is going on "red alert". This account from VOA, June 21:

Mexico's Zapatista rebel group has declared a state of emergency, putting its troops on alert and sending its leadership into hiding. In a statement issued Monday, the Zapatistas said they are calling all troops back to their bases and are evacuating their leadership to ensure their safety. The group says its leadership will do its work clandestinely for an indefinite period of time. The group also shut down its radio station. Civil rights activists say the declaration was likely prompted by some action by the Mexican army...