The Jerusalem Post reports Aug. 15 that New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind is among the many infiltrators to have snuck into the Gaza Strip through the IDF roadblocks. "It was very easy to get in," Hikind told the Post as he stood outside the Neveh Dekalim synagogue, saying that he came to bear witness to the "human tragedy" of the removal of the Jewish settlements. Hikind, who represents a heavily Jewish district in Brooklyn, told Newsday columnist Dennis Dugan by telephone from the Strip Aug. 15, "We shouldn't even be calling these places settlements. They are like small villages of the kind you see in Brooklyn and Queens."

A report in Britain's Sunday Times details how one group of orthodox Jewish girls are preparing to possibly kill Israeli troops who by Aug. 17 will come to evacuate Gaza settlements. Dubbed the "Commando Girls," these young militants are led by Nadia Matar, of the anti-Oslo Accord group Women in Green. None of the Commando Girls are native to the Gush Katif settlement bloc, whose leaders have called for resistance to the evacuation to be non-violent in nature. The Commando Girls live in tents like many of the mostly young 4,000 evacuation resistors that have managed to infiltrate the Gaza Strip, often let in by sympathetic Israeli security forces. They are mostly settlers from the West Bank and "New York Jews from a wealthy Messianic sect." An informant said they have access to "inside information from government security forces," and that it was Matar who had earlier tipped off radicals who took up residence in a took up residence in a Gaza hotel that Israeli forces were about to raid the place. Some of the 40-odd girls say they will merely taunt the troops; others are more threatening:

President Bush refuses to rule out military action in response to Iran's renewed nuclear operations. "As I say, all options are on the table. The use of force is the last option for any president and you know, we've used force in the recent past to secure our country," he told Israel's Channel One TV from his ranch in Crawford, TX, Aug. 13. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder immediately responded at an election rally in Hanover that same day that the threat of force was not acceptable. "Let's take the military option off the table," Schroeder said. "We have seen it doesn't work." (Reuters, Aug. 13, via TruthOut)

World oil prices briefly fell in response to the 7-7 attacks in London, but now they are once again soaring to unprecedented heights. Reports Reuters Friday Aug 12:

Crude oil prices raced to record highs, touching $67 a barrel Friday as investors fretted over the world's strained capacity to refine and pump crude oil. The continued rise in oil prices was a major factor weighing on U.S. stocks. (Related: Stock market drops.)

Bush's recess appointment of John Bolton may put an end to controversy concerning a frightening revelation to emerge from his confirmation hearings—the extent of warrantless eavesdropping on US citizens by the government. Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping, warns in an Aug. 10 New York Times op-ed that the real scandal—that the National Security Administration routinely shares intercepted data with the State Department—is likely to be forgotten now that Bolton's appointment is a done deal. But even Keefe doesn't address certain key questions. Like, why is it legitimate for the NSA to be listening in on us in the first place? Why shouldn't foreigners have the same right to privacy that US citizens don't have either but are at least supposed to?

The apparent reality that a mock bombing drill on the London Underground was scheduled for the morning of 7-7 has got the conspiranoids seeing patterns. They also point to Pentagon terror drills on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 (see e.g., Prison Planet). We also recently noted a FEMA drill apparently slated for New York City the day after 9-11.

The UK is moving swiftly to implement its pledged expulsion of "preachers of hate," launching early-morning raids Aug. 11 to round up 10 Muslim militants. The 10 face deportation to their countries of origin under new anti-terrorism measures outlined by Prime Minister Tony Blair last week. Among those detained is Abu Qatada, a cleric often described as al-Qaeda's "spiritual ambassador" in Europe. Britain seeks to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan, where he has been tried in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with various alleged terrorist plots. Britain assures that it has secured an agreement from Jordan's government guaranteeing that deportees will not be tortured or executed. Blair said his government is seeking similar agreements with other Middle East nations.

It has gone largely unnoticed in all the coverage of Iran's resumed nuclear fuel enrichment operations, but an official statement issued by the Islamic republic at the emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna Aug. 9 noted that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.