Guest op-ed by Hans Lucht, New York Times, May 18/19, 2011
....The corrupt participation of the Libyan authorities in human smuggling to southern Europe is an open secret. Ebo told me his journey had been arranged by a group of young Libyan policemen. The Qaddafi regime itself has used migration, or the threat of it, for political leverage. Tellingly, when the protests broke out, Colonel Qaddafi warned Europe not of an oil embargo or new terrorist attacks but that “millions of blacks” could be on the way if he were overthrown.....
Thomas Drake is accused of releasing top-secret defense documents to a reporter. Is he a menace or a hero?
Besides going over Drake's history in detail, Mayer's article gets heavily into the Obama adminstration having tough stances on leaks of state secrets, with plenty of negative opinions offered about that.
However, I found this one example she gives of a possible reason to be quite interesting:
The Long Overdue Palestinian State, By Mahmoud Abbas, New York Times Op-Ed, May 16/17, 2011
....Many are questioning what value there is to such recognition while the Israeli occupation continues. Others have accused us of imperiling the peace process. We believe, however, that there is tremendous value for all Palestinians — those living in the homeland, in exile and under occupation....
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani ground troops opened fire on two NATO helicopters that crossed into Pakistan’s airspace from Afghanistan early Tuesday morning, the Pakistani Army said in a statement. A firefight then briefly erupted between NATO forces and the troops, the statement said, and two Pakistani soldiers were wounded.
By Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers, May 15, 2011
WASHINGTON — The military's premier crime lab has botched more of its evidence testing than has been previously known, raising broader questions about the quality of the forensic work relied on to convict soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
Drug gangs in remote Guatemala kill 27, beheading most Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/15/114227/drug-gangs-in-remote-guatemala.html#ixzz1MUND82yY
By Tim Johnson, McClatchy Newspapers, May 15, 2011
MEXICO CITY — In the worst drug-related violence in modern times in Guatemala, assailants stormed a remote jungle ranch and killed 27 people, beheading 25 of them, an army spokesman said Sunday.
As spotter planes flew overhead, Guatemalan soldiers raced along jungle tracks to cut off a nearby border crossing into Mexico to prevent the assailants from fleeing, army Col. Rony Urizar said.
Smiling, in his swimming trunks, the sea calm and sparkling, the heir-apparent to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi relaxes with his minders and a key business associate whose firm gave more than £125,000 to the Conservatives in the last 18 months.
By Giles Tremlett in Madrid and Karen McVeigh, Guardian.co.uk, May 13, 2011
A man has killed and beheaded a British woman in a supermarket on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The suspect, a 28-year-old unemployed Bulgarian man, attacked the unnamed 60-year-old woman with a knife and then fled into the street with the severed head in his hands, according to eyewitnesses....
North Korea and Iran appear to have been regularly exchanging ballistic missile technology in violation of U.N. sanctions, according to a confidential United Nations report obtained by Reuters on Saturday.
The report said that the illicit technology transfers had "trans-shipment through a neighboring third country." That country was China, several diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Six people, including two imams at mosques in Florida, have been indicted on charges that include providing support to Pakistani Taliban terror plots, federal prosecutors said Saturday....three are U.S. citizens and residents of south Florida....
The six are charged with conspiracy and providing material support to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas and conspiring to provide material support to the Pakistani Taliban, designated by the U.S. as a terror group....
By David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times, May 12/13, 2011
Rioting and Jailbreaks; 'The police are afraid'--once abusive, now dejected.
CAIRO —....Three months after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, a crime wave in Egypt has emerged as a threat to its promised transition to democracy. Businessmen, politicians and human rights activists say they fear that the mounting disorder — from sectarian strife to soccer riots — is hampering a desperately needed economic recovery or, worse, inviting a new authoritarian crackdown....
HONG KONG — At least 39 people were injured, six of them seriously, in a gasoline bomb explosion at a rural bank branch in a heavily Tibetan area of northwest China’s Gansu Province, a person at the local police station said by telephone, but there were no immediate signs that the attack was politically motivated. The bomb was detonated during a bank meeting on the fourth floor of the building in Wuwei City, according to the official Xinhua News Agency...
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — More than 70 paramilitary soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up Friday morning at a military training center in northwest Pakistan, a local police chief said.
The suicide bomber attacked members of the Frontier Constabulary at Shabqadar Fort in the town of Charsadda as they were preparing for their graduation ceremony, said Liaqat Khan, the police chief in nearby Peshawar.
European nations moved to reverse decades of unfettered travel across the continent when a majority of EU governments agreed the need to reinstate national passport controls amid fears of a flood of immigrants fleeing the upheaval in north Africa.
WASHINGTON — Americans are growing more optimistic about the U.S. economy, a sentiment that is benefiting President Barack Obama despite public disenchantment with his handling of rising gasoline prices and swollen government budget deficits.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Trump denied combing his hair over his head to hide his bald patch, but admitted to a series of complicated manoeuvres to maintain the appearance of having a full head of hair....
The Federal Reserve is set to soon publish proposed tighter rules for big financial firms that pose a risk to the economy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will tell a Senate panel on Thursday.
