The American Monitor: News round up...

Warfare

Iran arrests 54 after ethnic Azeri riots --AFP (Covert ops?)
US covert operations underway in Somalia; resource conflict escalates over Horn of Africa --Online Journal, Larry Chin

American efforts in Somalia stir a debate --AP
U.S. influence may hamper Somalia's peace process --LA Times
Iraq: 2,500 killed, 85,000 displaced in two months --Mail & Guardian
Wave of sectarian vioence leaves 41 dead across Iraq --AP
Afghanistan gripped by worst fighting since 2001 --The Independent
Bloody day heralds birth of Iraq's new unity government --The Independent

"...

Underlining how far security has declined since the parliament was elected five months ago, a series of attacks killed 27 people and wounded dozens more yesterday. Police also found the bodies of 21 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured by death squads in and around Baghdad. ...

Baghdad and central Iraq, where Shia, Sunni and Kurd are mixed, is in the grip of a civil war fought by assassins and death squads. As in Bosnia in 1992, each community is pulling back into enclaves where it is the overwhelming majority and able to defend itself. ...

Former interior minister Bayan Jabr was openly accused by the US of running Shia death squads. He has lost his old job, but has been appointed Finance Minister."

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'Baghdad ER' shows medics on front lines --AP
Violence Invades Baghdad's Emergency Rooms --The Washington Post
Iraq faces clash with Kurds over oil deals --Financial Times
China military upgrades a potential threat to US: Pentagon --AFP

Constitutional Rights

The Snooping Goes Beyond Phone Calls --Business Week

"The Departments of Justice, State, and Homeland Security spend millions annually to buy commercial databases that track Americans' finances, phone numbers, and biographical information, according to a report last month by the the U.S. Government Accountability Office..."
Requests for Corporate Data Multiply --The Wall Street Journal

"Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement efforts to secure corporate information about clients and suppliers have reached such levels that some companies have had to create special units that do nothing but deal with these demands, a process often called "subpoena management."
Banks, Internet-service providers and other companies that possess large amounts of data on their customers say that police and intelligence agencies have been increasingly coming to them looking for tidbits of information that could help them stop everything from money launderers to pedophiles and terrorists. ..."
Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut --Wired

"In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities. ..."

Sustainability

Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point --Inter Press Service

"..."The food production system is designed to generate profits, not produce food or nutrition for people," [research director of Canada's National Farmers Union Darrin] Qualman told IPS. ...

"It's a system that's perfectly happy to leave hundreds of millions of people unfed," he said. ...

"North America's industrial-style agricultural system is a really bad idea and maybe the worst on the planet," Qualman concluded."

Corruption