News and Analysis (6/4/10)

• U.S. ‘Secret War’ Expands Globally as Special Operations Forces Take Larger Role (Washington Post)

Israel’s level of media control, as in the case after the invasion of Gaza, may make it impossible to determine what actually happened without further leaked evidence …

• Israeli PR Machine Won Gaza Flotilla Media Battle (Guardian)

… and that is exactly the point, as demonstrated by Israel’s flat rejection of the call of 32 nations to investigate potential violations of international law …

• UNHRC Probe Supported by 32 Nations (Ma’an News)
• Israel Rejects International Investigation of Freedom Flotilla Raid (Christian Science Monitor)

… Yet, peace activists refuse to be intimidated as the MV Rachel Corrie attempts to break the Gaza blockade, even as Israelis arrest the Michigan woman who chairs the flotilla:

• Another Aid Ship on Way to Gaza (Al Jazeera)

“Gazans contradict Israeli claims that aid flotilla’s mission was redundant as there is no humanitarian crisis”:

• Gaza’s Markets of Unaffordable Goods Conceal Reality of People Under Siege (Guardian)

There is a consensus that peace without negotiations is impossible, but the “Taliban has dismissed the jirga as a ‘phony reconciliation process’” and insist “that there can be no negotiations until all foreign troops leave Afghanistan”:

• Karzai Counts on Jirga Backing (Al Jazeera)

Imran

Minaret of Freedom Institute Program Assistant