You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they're reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.

UN slams Israel over Lebanon strikes as killing rages on Israel warns it will hit 10 buildings for every rocket fired Bombings Hit Children Hardest Human Rights Watch: Israel using cluster munitions in Lebanon Lebanon president: Israel uses phosphorous arms Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa: Five Injured UN executive Jan Egeland blames Hezbollah for deaths Egeland to Hezbollah: Stop 'cowardly blending' among civilians UN Human Rights Commissioner warns of war crimes in Lebanon International Commission of Jurists: Israel, Hizbullah committing war crimes

On his return, Bush held a press conference during which, it seemed, he could barely contain his enthusiasm. In response to a question about progress in providing electricity, producing oil, and controlling violence, he swerved into a discussion of his encounter with the speaker of Iraq's parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. The President didn't seem to recall his name but readily remembered his religion:

The Sunni--I was impressed, by the way, by the Speaker--Denny Hastert told me I'd like him; Denny met with him. And I was impressed by him. He's a fellow that had been put in prison by Saddam and, interestingly enough, put in prison by us. And he made a decision to participate in the government. And he was an articulate person. He talked about running the parliament. It was interesting to see a person that could have been really bitter talk about the skills he's going to need to bring people together to run the parliament. And I found him to be a hopeful person. They tell me that he wouldn't have taken my phone call a year ago--I think I might have shared this with you at one point in time--and there I was, sitting next to the guy. And I think he enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a refreshing moment.

The incurious White House press corps never asked the obvious question: Why had the United States jailed al-Mashhadani? According to Sunnis and Shiites at the top levels of government in Iraq, al-Mashhadani was a member of, or closely associated with, two al-Qaeda-linked terrorists groups, Ansar Islam and Ansar al-Sunna. The first operated until 2003 in a no man's land high in the mountains between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran while the second has been responsible for some of the worse terrorist attacks on Iraq's Shiites and Kurds. The Iraqis say they gave the Americans specific intelligence on al-Mashhadani's affiliations with those groups and his actions in support of terrorists. None of this seems to have mattered to a president who is as casual in his approach to national security as his defense secretary. At the same press conference Bush repeated that "the American people have got to understand that Iraq is a part of the war on terror."

Asked what might finally placate the family, Kauzlarich said, "You know what? I don't think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don't know. Maybe they want to see somebody's head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can't bring their son back."

... First, almost two weeks of air strikes have had little effect either on the Hizbollah leadership or on the militia's ability to continue to wage its campaign against Israel. The destruction of civilian neighbourhoods in southern Beirut, apparently part of an attempt to kill a number of Hizbollah leaders, failed in its immediate objective and has proved counter-productive in its effect on the civilian population. . . . Second, Hizbollah is proving capable of continuing with its missile attacks - around 300 were launched from 22-24 July alone, including another salvo fired against Haifa on Sunday. . . . Third, when Israeli ground troops do engage with Hizbollah militia close to the border they discover an adversary that is determined, well-trained and well-armed. Hizbollah may lack airpower and it has none of the IDF's heavy artillery, yet it is well-practised in guerrilla warfare and will almost certainly be impossible to dislodge with anything short of a full-scale Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. . . . Whatever else happens in the coming weeks - whether the war in Lebanon intensifies or ends in an early stalemate - one impact will be a considerable boost to support for the wider al-Qaida movement. In that sense, President Bush's view of the Israeli operations in Lebanon as being an essential part of his global war on terror might well prove correct, but in ways very far from those he intends.

There's practically a holy consensus right now that the war in the North is a just war and that morality is on our side. The bitter truth must be said: this holy consensus is based on short-range selective memory, an introverted worldview, and double standards. 

 This war is not a just war. Israel is using excessive force without distinguishing between civilian population and enemy, whose sole purpose is extortion. That is not to say that morality and justice are on Hezbollah's side. Most certainly not. But the fact that Hezbollah "started it" when it kidnapped soldiers from across an international border does not even begin to tilt the scales of justice toward our side. 
... There is a propaganda aspect to this war, and it involves a competition as to who is more miserable. Each side tries to persuade the world that it is more miserable. As in every propaganda campaign, the use of information is selective, distorted and self-righteous. If we want to base our information (or shall we call it propaganda?) policy on the assumption that the international environment is going to buy the dubious merchandise that we are selling, be it out of ignorance or hypocrisy, then fine. But in terms of our own national soul searching, we owe ourselves to confront the bitter truth - maybe we will win this conflict on the military field, maybe we will make some diplomatic gains, but on the moral plane, we have no advantage, and we have no special status.

Both the occupation and the insurgency reflected existing sociopolitical realities of Mexico. Indeed, the country's deep and often violent racial, ethnic, and social divisions further complicated the task of the occupying forces. Regional variations between northern and central Mexico, differences between the composition of Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott's armies and the threats they faced, and-not least the great difference in policies pursued by the two commanders meant that the U.S. Army conducted not one but two very different occupations in Mexico during 1846-48. "

"Taylor quickly achieved the purely military objectives that the Polk administration assigned him. Within four months, he won decisive battles ... forcing Mexico's Army of the North to withdraw some 400 miles south from the Rio Grande to San Luis Potosi. Taylor's occupation of northern Mexico, however, did not compel Mexico's government to sell any of the territories sought by the United States as President Polk had hoped. In fact, the situation in northern Mexico deteriorated rapidly in response to the local depredations of the volunteer troops.

"Until June 1846, Taylor's army consisted of Regular Army troops who enjoyed some popularity with the citizenry. ... The U.S. Army had immediately set up hospitals to minister to the sick and wounded and had provided for the basic needs of the townspeople. "The dynamic changed when volunteers moved into the area and immediately began raiding the local farms. As the boredom of garrison duty began to set in, plundering, personal assaults, rape, and other crimes against Mexicans quickly multiplied. During the first month after the volunteers arrived, some twenty murders occurred.

"Initially, Taylor seemed uninterested in devising diversions to occupy his men and failed to stop the attacks. As thefts, assaults, rapes, murders, and other crimes perpetrated by the volunteers mounted and Taylor failed to discipline his men, ordinary Mexican citizens began to have serious reservations about the American invasion. Taylor's lackadaisical approach to discipline produced an effect utterly unanticipated by the Polk administration, many of whose members, particularly pro-expansionists such as Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker, believed that Mexicans would welcome the Americans as liberators. Instead, public opinion turned against the Americans and began to create a climate for guerrilla bands to form in the area. Mexicans from all social backgrounds took up arms. Some of them were trained soldiers; others were average citizens bent upon retaliating against the Americans because of attacks against family members orfriends. Criminals joined in, and bandits and highwaymen began to flourish, looking for easy prey.

"As Taylor's force moved up the Rio Grande and its lines of communications extended, irregulars began to capture and kill stragglers, the sick, and the wounded who fell behind on long marches.

"The local populace increasingly appeared more than willing to support and shield the guerrillas. The volunteers' racism, anti-Catholcism and violence provided all the motive that locals needed to oppose the occupation. Guerrilla attacks grew more frequent after the battle for Monterrey, when Brig. Gen. William J. Worth, the new military governor of the city, discontinued military patrols in the town for a short time, allowing a bloodletting to occur.

"Taylor appointed officers to serve as military governors of all major towns that he occupied. Each military governor had authority to make whatever rules he wished. There was no official military governing policy at the time. Observers estimated that volunteer troops killed some 100 civilians, including many who had been killed by Col. John C. Hays' 1st Texas Mounted Volunteers. A few weeks later, apparently in retaliation, Mexicans killed a lone soldier from a Texas regiment just outside Monterrey. Rangers under Capt. Mabry B. "Mustang" Gray responded by killing some twenty-four unarmed Mexican men. The event galvanized much of the population against Taylor's Army of Occupation. "The boredom of occupation duty led to additional waves of violence. During November 1846, for example, a detachment from the 1st Kentucky regiment shot a young Mexican boy, apparently for sport, and Taylor again failed to bring any of the guilty soldiers to justice.

Every civilian death is a tragedy, but some are more tragic than others.

Sorry to have to tell you this...but over 500 have been found. Do you listen/read to anything other than TL? Who's really the ignorant one?

So what is your point in this matter?

Iraq is in civil war, afghanistan is being retaken by the taliban, poppy production is at record levels

Despite the government's efforts to eradicate opium cultivation, Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province is heading for a bumper crop of opium poppies this year. Many farmers who had stopped growing poppies in respect for the ban decreed by President Hamid Karzai -- have come back to it.

They have done so in many cases because their economic situation has worsened and they often receive help, understanding, and protection from the ever-stronger Taliban. These are the findings of the latest report from the Senlis Council, which is headed by Emmanuel Reinert.

Rumsfeld links drug trade with resurgence of Taliban

The religious extremism this officer puts on display is flat-out disturbing, and evidences a stunning lack of respect for the "freedom of religion" he's supposedly defending on our dime....This guy should be demoted and quickly.

BTW, many folks' heads should be on platters, starting with this officer. Not a demotion, a drumming out of the ranks, he isn't fit to serve in the US military.

This guy makes disparaging remarks about the fact that we're not Christians.

Is it OK to castigate the family members of a dead soldier because they aren't christian?

But defense officials said Thursday that the weapons were not considered likely to be dangerous because of their age, which they determined to be pre-1991. Pentagon officials told NBC News that the munitions are the same kind of ordnance the U.S. military has been gathering in Iraq for the past several years, and "not the WMD we were looking for when we went in this time."

Dadler and Sailor both seem to suggest that the officer in question allowed his religious conviction and/or the Tillman family's lack of religious conviction to influence the Army's investigation

Israeli troops 'ignored' UN plea Israeli strike in Khiam, south Lebanon Israel had hit Khiam a number of times earlier on Tuesday UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says.