be just

Hamas leader condemns Islamist charity blacklist - Yahoo! News : "GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday slammed a U.S. decision to blacklist a major Gaza charity as an attempt to weaken the Islamist group after it seized control of the coastal region. "

Number of internal refugees soars in Iraq - International Herald Tribune : "BAGHDAD: The number of Iraqis who have fled their homes and become refugees within their own country has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to new data collected in Iraq by two major humanitarian groups. The rapidly accelerating dislocation of Iraqi citizens has taken place despite the troop increase, and in some cases as a direct result of it, surveys with thousands of the Iraqis have shown."

Bin Laden wanted US to invade Iraq, author says - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) : "Abdul Bari Atwan is one of the only Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden, spending three days with him in the mountains of Afghanistan in 1996. He is the editor-in-chief of the London-based Arabic newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabia, and the author of The secret history of Al Qaeda. ABC TV's Lateline presenter Tony Jones interviewed Mr Bari Atwan on the program last night. TONY JONES: When you met bin Laden, he told you that his long-term plan was to 'bring the Americans into a fight on Muslim soil'. That must have sounded like madness at the time, but now we have Iraq. ABDUL BARI ATWAN: It seems Osama bin Laden had a long-term strategy. He told me personally that he can't go and fight the Americans and their country. But if he manages to provoke them and bring them to the Middle East and to their Muslim worlds, where he can find them or fight them on his

More Iraqis Said to Flee Since Troop Increase - New York Times : "BAGHDAD, Aug. 23 — The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to data from two humanitarian groups, accelerating the partition of the country into sectarian enclaves."

So, is real debate over Israel possible on the Hill? | Jerusalem Post : "After several events were called off where Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer were due to discuss their upcoming book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, their backers said this week the cancellations were proof of their contention that American policy toward Israel can't be discussed openly. They claim that the views expressed in the book - an expansion of the professors' 2006 paper accusing Jewish groups, neoconservatives and Evangelicals of hijacking American policy for the good of Israel and to the detriment of the US - are being stifled, as criticism of Israel routinely is in America."

An Inconvenient Truth : "Like Guernica or My Lai, Halabja (in Kurdish, 'the wrong place') suffered an experience of mass murder intense enough to transform the town's very name into a historical event. That event occurred on the afternoon of March 16, 1988--a cold but pleasant day, with occasional showers, notes Joost Hiltermann in A Poisonous Affair, his comprehensive and powerful delineation not only of what happened that day but of all those who helped bring it about. The day before, Kurdish fighters, with Iranian encouragement and support, had occupied the town after driving out Iraqi government troops. Now the Iraqi air force had returned to deliver Saddam's response. "

The Raw Story | Official Air Force document outlines military assistance to insurgencies : "According to a lengthy new Air Force document, which outlines US strategies for 'Irregular Warfare,' military resources will sometimes be needed to help insurgencies in foreign countries."