In a seven- or eight-month investigation ending Nov. 30, ICE agents joined with officers of the New York City Department of Probation in arresting 81 immigrants with prior criminal records in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. The raids were part of "Operation Retract," an ongoing effort by ICE's New York office to arrest immigrants on probation for prior misdemeanor or felony convictions and place them in removal proceedings.

An ACLU press release, Nov. 28, online at Common Dreams:

Khaled El-Masri, Victim of CIA Kidnapping and Abuse, Seeks Acknowledgement, Explanation and Apology
RICHMOND, Virginia - The American Civil Liberties Union today argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that its lawsuit on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, a victim of the CIA’s policy of “extraordinary rendition,” should proceed. Earlier this year a federal district court in Alexandria, VA dismissed El-Masri’s lawsuit based on the government's argument that allowing it to proceed would jeopardize state secrets.

From Agencia Proceso (APRO), Nov. 25 via Chiapas95 (our translation):

OAXACA -- The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) has announced the "forced disappearance" of the movement's spokesperson, Cesar Mateos Benitez, and of Jorge Sosa, cousin of its principal leader Flavio Sosa.

This, as we have noted before, is how censorship works in the USA: by other names—which, of course, makes it more insidious. From AP, Nov. 27:

DENVER -- A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Around it goes. One Jamal Miftah, a Pakistani immigrant in Tulsa, OK, to his great credit, sent a letter to the Tulsa World Oct. 29 entitled "Message of Islam is not jihad, fatwahs," taking Ayman al-Zawahri and other al-Qaeda leaders to task for hijacking his religion. For this (as he related to Tulsa's News 9 in a video interview) he was expelled from his local mosque, the Tulsa Islamic Center, for publicly condemning Islam (which, of course, he didn't do). The affair was picked up, with predictable glee, by the right-wing Islamophobic blog Western Resistance (yuck!)—which, of course, will only fuel the ultra-defensiveness of folks like the Tulsa Islamic Center. So a plague on all their houses. Except Jamal Miftah.

Our November issue featured the story "The Israel Lobby and Global Hegemony: The Mearsheimer-Walt Thesis Deconstructed" by William X. It argued that the controversial essay "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt replicates the historical pattern of anti-Semitism by scapegoating Jews for the crimes of US imperialism. It especially took Mearsheimer and Walt to task for dismissing the notion of a war for oil in Iraq, instead portraying Bush's military adventure as primarilly a war to protect Israel. The November Exit Poll was: "Is the Iraq war fundamentally for Israel or for oil? (Note our use of the word 'fundamentally'— no fair cheating by saying 'both.')" We received the following responses:

With all eyes on the Iraq horrorshow, very little media attention these days for Afghanistan. But... From AP, Nov. 27:

KABUL - A Pakistani suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowded restaurant Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding 24, including an Afghan special forces commander and a district chief, the provincial governor said.

Slovenia has prided itself on being the "civilized" ex-Yugoslav republic, which avoided the explosions of hatred and "ethnic cleansing" which have plagued the rest. Critics have argued that it was easy for the Slovenes to affect moral superiority, being largely ethnically homogeneous. Now these Slovo-skeptics are, alas, being decisively vindicated. From the New York Times, Nov. 26:

In Slovenia, Villagers Block Gypsies’ Return to Their Homes

LJUBLJANA — A group of Gypsies who had been forced to flee their homes in central Slovenia a month ago by local villagers tried to return late Saturday afternoon but were forced to turn back.