More scapegoats are hung out to dry, this time in relation to the Hamdania case. We're reminded of the famous line from Apocalypse Now: "Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500." One can't help but feel sorry for the families of these kids who, whatever atrocities they committed, were in way over their heads. From AP, June 22:

No "state of emergency," eh? Just like there's no civil war. These distinctions appear to be rather semantic. From Al-Arab, June 23:

Iraq's government will impose a curfew in Baghdad on Friday, from 2 p.m. (10:00 GMT) until 6 a.m.(02:00GMT) on Saturday, banning the movement of people and vehicles, state television reported.

The Japanese constitution—ironically imposed at US behest after World War II—states that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." Now Japanese warships participate in US military maneuvers in the Pacific. From AFP, June 22, via Spacewar:

A US warship successfully shot down a target missile warhead over the Pacific Thursday in a test of a sea-based missile defense system, the US military said. A Japanese destroyer performed surveillance and tracking exercises during the test, marking the first time any US ally has taken part in a US missile defense intercept test, the US Missile Defense Agency said.

From AFP, June 7 via Spacewar:

A new world war involving nuclear weapons may have already begun, Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday, warning that an attack on Iran would be disastrous.

Having heretofore run only a photo with a caption, the New York Times today finally takes note of the labor strife and deadly repression in Oaxaca (albeit on page 6). Isn't it interesting, though, that rare accounts in the mainstream gringo press of the growing unrest in Mexico either mention the strike in Oaxaca or the Zapatista tour—but almost never both. Usually, the coverage of the Zapatitas implies (or baldly states) that they are forgotten and irrelevant. Also generally forgotten by the gringo press is the Atenco crisis, another focus of national attention which has radically eroded the state's credibility. In the run-up to next month's presidential race, the Zapatistas are arguably closer than ever to acheiving their long goal of a national civil revolutionary movement. But you'd never know it by reading norteamericano newspapers.

From Mexico's El Universal, June 21, via Chiapas95:

Arrest warrants issued for 23 officers

A top State of Mexico judge issued arrest warrants for 23 police officers who stand accused of abuse and use of excessive force during unrest in San Salvador Atenco last month.

This Reuters story that ran in the Washington Post June 19 (online at Chiapas95) is typical of the hegemonic mainstream media line (north of the border, at least) that the Zapatistas have shot their wad and are forgotten. (Amazing that we periodically have to be reminded like this that they are forgotten.) Cynically, the piece mentions nothing about the conflict over San Salvador Atenco or the labor unrest in Oaxaca—struggles which have assumed center stage in Mexico, and have been thoroughly integrated into the demands and mobilizations of the Zapatistas' national tour, the "Other Campaign." Contrary to this story's implication, the Zapatistas' "demands" were never just about indigenous autonomy. That was but the first of several "dialogue tables" planned in the long-stalled peace process. The government's intransigence in approving these first accords (on indigenous autonomy), meant that the subsequent "tables"—on agrarian reform, education, labor and general democratic rights—have languished for nearly ten years now. Nor were the accords on indigenous autonomy only about Chiapas state—they were meant to apply throughout Mexico. The piece does, however, raise the important point that, while the Zapatistas now occupy the public eye in Mexico City, their stronghold of southern, impoverished Chiapas has been paradoxically forgotten—even as violence escalates there.

This online debate between John Ross and Al Giordano, two veteran alterno-journalists who have long covered the Zapatista movement in Mexico, is a bit incestuous (and certainly long-winded), as well as self-important and catty. But it does shed some interesting light on the political questions surrounding the Zapatistas' "Other Campaign," the rebels' latest and most ambitious effort to launch a national civil revolutionary movement. It also raises some important questions about the role of alternative media in general. From Giordano's Narco News Bulletin, June 19: