Sidebar: Obama About-Face Goes to High Court

NY Times: "First the Justice Department decided it would not ask the Supreme Court to block the release of photographs showing the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then it changed its mind."

Prosecutors in Iraq Case See Pattern by Guards

NY Times: "Prosecutors charge Blackwater guards repeatedly shot into the streets of Baghdad without regard for civilians."

BBC Newsnight: The Rise of Israel's Military Rabbis (Part 1 of 2)

BBC Newsnight: The Rise of Israel's Military Rabbis (Part 1 of 2):


"September 7, 2009 on BBC Newsnight:

Israel's army is changing. Once proudly secular, its combat units are now filling with those who believe Israel's wars are "God's wars".

Military rabbis are becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new army regulations mean they are now part of a military elite.

They graduate from officer's school and operate closely with military commanders. One of their main duties is to boost soldiers' morale and drive, even on the front line.

Israeli general warns of dangers of turning war into 'jihad'

This has caused quite some controversy in Israel. Should military motivation come from men of God, or from a belief in the state of Israel and keeping it safe?"

Risk Aversion At Odds With Manned Space Exploration

Slashdot: "Several readers including tyghe!! sent in a Popular Mechanics piece analyzing the Augustine Commission's recommendations and NASA itself in terms of a persistent bias towards risk aversion, and arguing that such a bias is fundamentally incompatible with the mission of opening a new frontier. 'Rand Simberg, a former aerospace engineer finds the report a little too innocuous. In this analysis, Simberg asks, what happens when we take the risk out of space travel? ... Aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan said a few years ago that if we're not killing people, we're not pushing hard enough. That might sound harsh to people outside the aerospace community but, as Rutan knows, test pilots and astronauts are a breed of people that willingly accepts certain risk in order to be part of great endeavors. They're volunteers and they know what they're getting into.'"

'Weekend jihadis'

BBC: "In the villages of Afghanistan, many young men are working for the government during the week, but fighting for the Taliban at weekends."

Afghanistan: Doubt Grows Over Another Distant War

Huffington Post: "KENT, Ohio — The demonstrations, the troops, the fresh anger are all long gone. Where anti-war protests raged, today a granite plaza invites peaceful reflection. On the spots where four young people fell in a spray of National Guard bullets, lanterns stand in remembrance."

Welcome awaits Iraq shoe thrower

BBC: "Job offers and money await the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at George W Bush when he is freed on Monday, his family says."