be just

GQ’s Article on Russia Will Be Hard to Find in Russia - NYTimes.com : "Vladimir V. Putin consolidated his power in Russia a decade ago, in part by taking a hard line against Chechen separatists, whom the government had blamed for a series of bombings. In a long investigative article in the current issue of GQ, the writer Scott Anderson explores the possibility that the bombers actually had been working for the Russian government."

Chalabi aide: I went from White House to secret U.S. prisoner | McClatchy : "In one early session, Lami said, interrogators who knew of his training as a mathematician wrote on a dry-erase board: 'Ali Feisal + Cooperation = Release.' 'They told me, 'You're good at math. When you solve this equation, you can go home,' ' Lami said. Lami said he asked what kind of cooperation they had in mind, and they responded that they wanted the links between Chalabi and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Infuriated by his refusal to 'solve the equation,' Lami said, his American captors turned up the pressure. Lami said they kept him in a frigid cell with lights on 24 hours a day. He said he had no mattress, blanket or pillow, and bathroom breaks were so infrequent that he soiled himself. He couldn't wash himself as necessary before Muslim prayer. Without a toothbrush for so long, Lami said, his lower gums gradually separated from his teeth and he often...

Ex-soldier gets 5 life sentences Iraqi deaths - Yahoo! News : "PADUCAH, Ky. – A former soldier received five consecutive life sentences Friday for his role in the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager and the slaying of three of her family members. 'What the defendant did was horrifying and inexcusable,' U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell said in sentencing to Steven Dale Green, 24, of Midland, Texas. 'The court believes any lesser sentence would be insufficient.' A civilian jury in western Kentucky convicted Green in May of raping Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, conspiracy and multiple counts of murder. Green shot and killed the teen's mother, father and sister, then became the third soldier to rape her before shooting her in the face. Her body was set on fire March 12, 2006, at their rural home outside Mahmoudiya, Iraq, about 20 miles south of Baghdad."

Jack Straw admits Lockerbie bomber's release was linked to oil - Telegraph : "In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Straw also suggested that Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice minister, released the terminally-ill bomber on compassionate grounds earlier than the British Government would have done. Mr Brown has been accused of putting Britain’s trade interests before justice for the Lockerbie victims. Earlier this week, the outcry forced him to say: “There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no private assurances.” Megrahi, who is suffering from prostate cancer, was freed last month by the Scottish Executive on compassionate grounds after it was said he was only months from death. Last night it emerged he has been moved out of intensive care. In his interview today, Mr Straw admits that when he was considering in 2007 whether the bomber should be included in a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) ...

Israelis Target Medical Teams by Mel Frykberg -- Antiwar.com : "JELAZON, West Bank — Fourteen-year-old Muhammad Nayif’s mother broke down as she spoke to IPS. Nayif died after being shot three times in the chest by Israeli soldiers Monday night. Palestinian medical personnel who tried to reach the critically injured boy near the Jelazon refugee camp north of Ramallah were threatened at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers and shot at. 'We were sure that the boy was seriously wounded and needed urgent medical attention,' said Sameh Barghouti a medic in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance which tried to evacuate the youngster."

Netanyahu Tests Obama, Approves Hundreds of New West Bank Units -- News from Antiwar.com : "With several recent comments suggesting Israel may be just weeks from formally announcing a 6-9 month “freeze” in new construction in the West Bank, Israeli officials are confirming tonight that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to authorize hundreds of new housing units across settlements in the West Bank, a serious test to the Obama Administration’s repeated demands to stop."

Massive US Air Strike Damages Claim of ‘New’ Strategy -- News from Antiwar.com : "Despite General Stanley McChrystal’s claims that the military would stop emphasizing attacks on the Taliban in favor of improving the lives of the nation’s civilians and protecting them from harm, the temptation to lob a missile into a village, even knowing it would cause a massive fireball when it hit the fuel tankers, was too great to resist."

US Kills at Least 95 in Afghan Air Strike -- News from Antiwar.com : "At least 95 people were killed this morning, a large number of them civilians, in a US air strike in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan. Though the US denied that any of the people killed were civilians, NATO acknowledged that there was “a possibility” that some civilians were killed."