Today's Wall Street Journal features a maddening front-page story on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch parliamentarian of Somali birth who has been facing death threats for her opposition to Islamism. She has just announced that she is finally leaving Holland following protests from...her neighbors at the luxury housing complex where she lives in opulent high security! They have launched a campaign to evict her, and actually had the chutzpah to argue in court that her peresence in the building was a violation of their "human rights" because the threat of terrorist attack is driving down property values and the security measures mean long waits for the elevator! The courts rejected these scurrilous arguments, but ruled Hirsi Ali must leave anyway because her presence poses a physical threat to her neighbors, and does therefore violate their "human rights." She was given four months to leave in April. Hirsi Ali responded by invoking bitter memories of World War II: "My neighbors seem to confirm the critical veiw that very few Dutch people were brave enough during the Nazi occupation."

We noted nearly a year ago that the US was seeking permanent military bases in Bulgaria, a former Warsaw Pact member strategically located on the Black Sea—just north of the Bosphorus-Dardanelles choke-point, perfect for either policing a US-controlled pipeline for Caspian oil, or (in a military pinch) for cutting off a Russian-controlled one. The restive Caucasus, through which any Caspian route to the West must pass, lies just across the sea to the east; the none-too-stable ex-Yugoslavia lies just to the west. Bulgaria's national elite likely view their country's colonization by the Pentagon as a symbolic entry to Europe and the West, whereas Washington views it is a part of the Great Game for Central Asia. The bases may also build on the secret torture archipelago the CIA is said to maintain in post-communist Europe. Bulgaria's parliament must still approve the deal. But sadly, as throughout the Balkans (and nearly all the post-communist world), any leftist analysis is tainted by association with the old oppressive regime—and therefore the only significant opposition to US military designs is coming from the neo-fascist right. From Reuters, April 28:

The Greek anarchists and globophobes have been pretty busy lately. From Reuters May 6:

ATHENS — Thousands of antiglobalization demonstrators marched Saturday through central Athens and to the United States Embassy to protest Washington's policies in Iraq and Iran.

From UPI, April 3:

HANIA, Greece — The director of the Mediterranean Architecture Center in Hania on the Greek island of Crete is incensed that all the center's security cameras have been stolen.

From AFP, April 6:

TWO British grandmothers are facing up to a year in prison after being arrested under new anti-terrorism legislation that outlaws protests at military bases, The Independent newspaper said today.

LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said on Wednesday.

The countdown continues: how long before the idiot left in the West starts rallying around Lukashenko? From AP, March 24:

MINSK, Belarus - Police stormed the opposition tent camp in the Belarusian capital early Friday and rounded up hundreds of demonstrators who spent a fourth night protesting President Alexander Lukashenko's victory in a disputed election. A Canadian freelance journalist was among those in custody.

From AP, March 22:

ROME — Italian police said Tuesday they have arrested five people suspected in the killing of a local politician who was shot last year at a polling station in southern Italy where he was voting in a nationwide primary.