Israeli PM Ehud Olmert is in Washington today to ask Bush's counsel on how to deal with Hamas (if at all) as the West Bank settlements are dismantled, while Israeli forces make a big arrest in Ramallah: Hamas' military commander. Jeremy Bowen of the BBC says Gaza is becoming a pressure cooker, with rival factions jockeying for control, space, and paychecks.
WaPo's Craig Whitlock delivers today's must-read on Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, the Syrian-born architect of decentralized global jihad. He was captured in Pakistan last year and handed over to US forces. It's a fascinating look at competing jihadist visions for war on the West, one of which Nasar helped promote:
In public statements and in interviews with Arab media, Nasar said he was happy to work with al-Qaeda but emphasized that he was an independent operator. His theories of decentralization had already taken shape: It would be a mistake, he said, for the global movement to pin its hopes on a single group or set of leaders. ...
Nasar's theories of war also called for the most deadly weapons possible. In Afghanistan, he worked with al-Qaeda leaders to train fighters in the use of "poisons and chemicals" at two camps near Jalalabad and Kabul, according to the State Department. After the Sept. 11 hijackings, Nasar praised the attacks. But he said a better plan would have been to load the hijacked airplanes with weapons of mass destruction.
In Iraq, Maliki pledges to take responsibility for security in most of the country by the end of the year. Richard Cohen declares the Saddam trial is a microcosm of the way the US handled the war: "chaotic, endless, and worse, meaningless." The new unity goverment: not so united.
It's a bad day to be a cop in Latin America, which isn't much different than most days. Colombian troops accidentally kill 10 undercover anti-drug cops and Brazil begins a formal probe into the more than 100 deaths caused by police during last week's chaotic gang riots.
Ukraine is urging US and EU officials to turn the heat up on Russia regarding gas supplies at this summer's G8 meeting - all in the hopes that Kiev doesn't get squeezed again or cut off.
The US denies it is backing certain militias in Somalia. An AIDS vaccine trial funded by the Gates Foundation is shut down in Cambodia by protestors who claim researchers are using people in the developing world as lab rats. That window seat to Cairo could get you embroiled in an international dispute. Why Paisley turned down the leadership role in Belfast (and it's not just because he hates Gerry Adams).
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