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Aswat Aliraq Muthanna, Jan 13, (VOI) – U.S. forces shot down an Iraqi civilian north of Falluja city, a local police source said on Sunday. "At a late hour on Saturday night, U.S. army personnel opened fire on a civilian vehicle that approached their patrol in Ziraa Degla area, 20 km north of Falluja, and killed its driver, whom they suspected to be a gunman trying to attack them," the source, who preferred to remain unnamed, told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI). The vehicle was damaged in the shooting and the body was taken to the Falluja General Hospital, the source indicated. No comment was available from the U.S. side on the incident. Falluja, the largest city in the Sunni Anbar province, lies 45 km west of the Iraqi capital; while Ramadi, the capital city of the province, lies 110 km west of Baghdad.

George Monbiot: The Turks haven't learned the British way of denying past atrocities | News | Guardian Unlimited Books : "It is not illegal to discuss the millions who were killed under our empire. So why do so few people know about them?"

Reuters AlertNet - Israeli pianist Barenboim takes Palestinian passport : "RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Daniel Barenboim, the world renowned Israeli pianist and conductor, has taken Palestinian citizenship and said he believed his rare new status could serve a model for peace between the two peoples. 'It is a great honour to be offered a passport,' he said late on Saturday after a Beethoven piano recital in Ramallah, the West Bank city where he has been active for some years in promoting contact between young Arab and Israeli musicians. 'I have also accepted it because I believe that the destinies of ... the Israeli people and the Palestinian people are inextricably linked,' Barenboim said. 'We are blessed -- or cursed -- to live with each other. And I prefer the first.'"

Report: Israel planning to assassinate Haniyeh | Jerusalem Post : "Israel is planning to assassinate exiled Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal, deposed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and former PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, but is waiting to give the green light on the operation until after US President George W. Bush leaves the region, the London-based newspaper, Al-Hayat reported on Sunday."

Andrew Cockburn: How the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian Deaths : "Almost five years into the destruction of Iraq, the orthodox rule of thumb for assessing statistical tabulations of the civilian death toll is becoming clear: any figure will do so long as it is substantially lower than that computed by the Johns Hopkins researchers in their 2004 and 2006 studies. Their findings, based on the most orthodox sampling methodology and published in the Lancet after extensive peer review, estimated the post-invasion death toll by 2006 at about 655,000. Predictably, this shocking assessment drew howls of ignorant abuse from self-interested parties, including George Bush ('not credible') and Tony Blair."

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan : "Durrani, who participated in the joint Pakistan-Afghanistan peace efforts in the Pakistani city of Peshawar last year, continued, 'Nobody is in favor of operations, not even those who are actually doing the operations. Even people from [the port city of] Karachi, who are considered ultra-liberal [are against operations] and on the Lal Masjid [Red Mosque] operation, I found them calling it irrational.' Durrani was referring to security forces storming the radical mosque in Islamabad last year to root out militants. Should Pakistan scale down or halt its operations in the tribal areas, where it has thousands of troops, the US might be forced to act. Reports have been swirling for some time of US plans to undertake aggressive covert operations inside Pakistan."

New U.S. Tactic: Bomb Roads, Before the Iraqis Do | Danger Room from Wired.com : "ince the Iraq insurgency started, I must have heard a thousand idea for beating roadside bombs -- from lightning guns to radio-controlled toys to mine-mashers to microwave blasts to new roads to just plain walking. But this NPR report reveals a brand new tactic for dealing with deep-buried improvised explosives: fly a B-1 overhead, and bomb the living crap out of the road itself. Detonate all those weapons, in other words, before the insurgents do. It's all part of an absolutely ginormous U.S. assault on Sunni insurgent strongholds north and south of Baghdad -- seven battalions, in an region that was once patrolled by just 500 soldiers, Phil Carter points out. Phil spent a year where all those troops are now. He's confident that American forces can kick around any insurgents they find there. But he's still pessimistic about how far this war can move beyond wack-a-mole. Or bomb-a-ro...