M. Cherif Bassiouni, a professor of law at DePaul University in Chicago who was the UN Human Rights Commission’s independent expert for Afghanistan, released a 21-page report last week, accusing U.S. military forces and civilian contractors of "engaging in arbitrary arrests and detnetions and committing abusive practices, including torture." He had been expecting a routine two-year renewal of his mission; instead he was told April 29 his job is over. He suspects U.S. lobbying as the cause. (NYT, April 30, via Guerilla News Network)

The "peak oil" theory, which remains the domain of the wacko fringe in the U.S., appears to be taken rather more seriously in the U.K., where several members of parliament have signed on to a petition circulated by an alternative-energy advocacy group calling on the govenrment to release research findings on the phenomenon and take steps to prepare for an impending crisis. Here is the press release announcing the petition drive:

It is looking more and more like Egypt is heading towards a reprise of the "dirty war" between Islamist insurgents and security forces that shook the country in the '90s. From Haaretz:

Last update - 22:34 30/04/2005
Two Israelis hurt as wave of terror strikes Cairo
By Yoav Stern and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies

CAIRO - A bomber and two veiled women attacked tourists in separate incidents in Cairo on Saturday, targeting people near a popular museum and a bus in the south of the city and wounding seven, including two Israelis, official sources said. An Egyptian man, probably the bomber, and the two women were killed, they said.

From the New York Times, April 30 (condensed):

At Least 18 Arrests Made in Tense Night of a Monthly Cycling Protest
Under tense circumstances, the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride set out last night from multiple locations in Manhattan, in an attempt by the riders to thwart a police crackdown. The police did not supply arrest numbers last night, but a lawyer who works with the riders, Julia Cohen, said at least 18 were detained.

Here's a textbook case in how the reigning anti-Semitic propaganda system works, with the paradoxical complicity of certain powerful (and deluded) Jews. This propaganda system is all the more effective for being nearly universally unrecognized.

As we here at WW4 REPORT know, Israel is a client state of the American empire. In the following article in the well-known anti-Semitic conspirazoid publication The Forward, Ori Nir claims that the recent sacking of two AIPAC officials resulting from the Franklin affair threatens "Israeli efforts to secure swift American action against Iran's nuclear program." That kind of "wag-the-dog" theory is anti-Semitic. As WW4 REPORT editor Weinberg noted on this blog, it is obviously the US that is pushing Israel, its client state, to do its bidding:"Is Israel going to take the bait? Will the Israeli leadership ever realize that playing attack dog for US imperialism is utterly counter-productive to the longterm survival and security of their own state?"

The following release from Gush Shalom describes how Israeli forces attacked a joint Palestinian-Israeli non-violent demonstration against the separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bi'lin. The demonstration is notable for its size, and the fact that Palestinian Israeli MK's and some well-known Palestinians took part. For the second time, Israeli special forces dressed in mufti staged provocations from within the Palestinian side, throwing rocks at Israeli forces so that they could have a pretext to open fire. Previously Ha'aretz' Amira Hass noted a Border Police unit in mufti did the same thing at a demo in the village of Beit Surik.

Jeffrey Blankfort, relentless critic of the Israel lobby and what he sees as the failure of the left to properly engage the question, has written a long-awaited critique of Noam Chomsky's views. Blankfort writes:

The 2005 edition of Left Curve has been published and most of it is now available online including my latest article: "Damage Control: Noam Chomsky and the Israel-Palestine Conflict." I am aware that its contents will be controversial but I hope it will stimulate further critical analysis of Chomsky's writings and statements on that issue, an analysis that, given his status among progressive thinkers and activists, is long overdue.