Hands off Zimbabwe! April 12, 2008

A massive and sustained campaign of interference,
blackmail and propaganda by western imperialism has
done its work in undermining electoral support for
Zanu-PF, but there is still everything to play for.

On 29 March 2008, the people of Zimbabwe voted in
harmonised presidential, parliamentary and local
government polls.

At the time of going to press, we have learnt that
Zanu-PF has lost its majority in parliament, with
seats divided roughly equally between it and the
so-called Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) (the
main MDC faction, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, ended up
with 99 seats, Zanu-PF with 97, MDC (Mutabara faction)
with 10 and one independent).

The actual split of votes favoured Zanu, who received
45.94 percent of the votes, compared with
MDC-Tsvangirai’s 42,88 percent. No results have yet
been released from the presidential election, but it
looks likely that neither of the two main candidates –
Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai – will get over 50
percent, and therefore a run-off will be needed.

What’s at stake for Britain and the US?

It is certainly unusual for an election in Africa to
be getting the level of press attention that the
Zimbabwean election is getting. Elections take place
in Malawi, in Botswana, in Angola and in lots of other
countries, but they barely get a mention in the
western media. What’s so special about Zimbabwe?

There are a few reasons that Zimbabwe remains so
important for its erstwhile colonisers. For a start,
it has very fertile land, and is therefore potentially
a source of cheap crops. Also, it has vast amounts of
untapped mineral wealth, and is therefore potentially
a source of untold profit for British mining
companies.

Additionally, there are a few ways in which Zimbabwe
is setting a ‘bad example’ in the eyes of Britain and
various other imperialist states.

First, Zimbabwe’s government made the bold move of
solving the question of the unequal and racist
distribution of land in Zimbabwe. A fast-track land
resettlement programme, starting in 2000, transferred
a significant proportion of the country’s land from a
tiny white minority of colonial settlers to thousands
of landless black farmers.

Second, Zimbabwe’s government has, over the last
decade, refused to play the role of pliant neo-colony.
It has rejected the IMF’s diktat, and has increasingly
looked towards ‘non-aligned’ countries such as China,
Venezuela and Iran for trade and investment. In a bid
to break the economic domination of foreign
monopolies, the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Bill has been introduced, stipulating that
every company operating in the country must have at
least 51 percent of its shares owned by indigenous
Zimbabweans.

These things are, of course, not the sort of example
imperialists want to see set in Africa, and have
therefore earned Zimbabwe’s government the not
inconsiderable wrath of the various imperialist
states.

During every election held in Zimbabwe over the course
of the last eight years, the imperialist press has
gone into overdrive to denounce Zanu and to promote a
more ‘friendly’ opposition, in the form of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In this most
recent election, the list of imperialist-friendly
candidates has been augmented by the candidature of
Simba Makoni, a former Zanu-PF finance minister, who
left the party to form his own campaign.

What do the various parties stand for?

The policies of Mugabe and Zanu-PF are clear and
unambiguous: they stand for independence and freedom
for Zimbabwe. Zanu’s central campaigning slogan for
the election – “Defending our Land and National
Sovereignty: Building Prosperity through Empowerment”
– highlights their priorities: defend and build upon
the gains made through the land reform programme;
break the foreign monopolies’ stranglehold on the
economy; develop a sustainable economy built on small
and medium-sized businesses; focus on producing
subsistence crops rather than cash crops; reduce
dependence on western capital; and ‘Look East’ (ie, to
China) for trade and investment.

The policies of the MDC and of the group around Simba
Makoni are not so immediately transparent. However, a
glance beneath the surface of their official
utterances reveals both groups’ affection for
liberalisation, privatisation and IMF-led ‘rescue
packages’.

The Movement for Democratic Change was formed out of
the notoriously racist Commercial Farmers Union in
cooperation with the shady Zimbabwe Democracy Trust (a
powerful organisation of imperialists, including three
former British foreign secretaries and a former US
assistant secretary of state for Africa), towards the
end of 1999.

On every issue of importance, the MDC has taken a
reactionary stand. It opposed the land resettlement
programme; it opposed the heroic military support
rendered by Zimbabwe to its neighbour, the Democratic
Republic of Congo; it has advocated an economic
programme of privatisation and liberalisation; and it
opposes the new Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Bill.

Simba Makoni has yet to make any particularly clear or
meaningful statements in relation to his economic or
political policies; however, it is fair to make a few
assumptions based on the rapture with which his
candidature was greeted by the representatives of
imperialism, who could barely disguise their
excitement at having managed to entice a relatively
high-profile Zanu member to oppose Mugabe.

Makoni is known to be on good terms the Bretton Hills
institutions, and has hinted at his enthusiasm for the
private sector, reducing government spending, removing
subsidies and doing everything possible to attract
foreign investment.

South Africa’s Independent Online stated as far back
as May 2003 that “Makoni is seen, together with MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, as the only contender for
the leadership who would be able to raise loans for
Zimbabwe from the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank.”

We all know what the conditions for raising these
loans are: privatisation, liberalisation, reduction in
public spending, land reform freeze and a removal of
subsidies. In short, opening up the Zimbabwean economy
for unfettered plunder by imperialism.

There are no significant differences between Makoni
and the MDC. Makoni’s candidature represents nothing
more than a recognition by the various western powers
that the more black faces they can persuade to do
their dirty work for them, the better.

Attempts to destabilise and subvert

For the last several months, and particularly in the
few days leading up to the election, the MDC and its
imperialist backers attempted to prejudice the results
by loudly shouting that the election would not be
‘free and fair’, citing the fact that western
countries were banned from monitoring the elections.

In fact, the elections were conducted in exemplary
fashion, and were hailed as free and fair, democratic,
credible and transparent by all the organisations that
monitored them, including the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU),
the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
(Comesa), the Pan African Parliament and Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Justice. That Zanu didn’t rig the election
is amply evidenced by the fact that they didn’t
preserve their majority in parliament! History is not
exactly littered with examples of organisations
rigging elections in order to almost win.

However, we aren’t able to say that the recent
elections were completely free from interference. Far
from it. Britain and the US in particular have been
making every effort to bribe the people of Zimbabwe
into rejecting the leadership of Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

Suffocating sanctions have been introduced in order to
destabilise the country, and there has been a
relentless propaganda campaign, both in Zimbabwe and
internationally, designed to discredit the Zimbabwean
leadership and prepare the way for a neo-colonial
stooge like Tsvangirai.

Naturally, the MDC have received significant external
funding for their election campaigning, and the IMF
has made it very clear that any non-Zanu government in
Zimbabwe would be offered an ‘attractive’ package of
aid and loans. Peter Hain is on record as saying that
Britain stands ready to help Zimbabwe “if there is a
real commitment to sound economic policies of
modernisation and privatisation.” (Financial Times, 16
February 2000, our emphasis)

The few days immediately following the election were
characterised by a media onslaught against Mugabe and
Zanu, with various bourgeois hacks repeating the MDC’s
declaration that the several-day delay in announcing
the final results could only imply foul play on the
part of the government. They chose to ignore the very
reasonable explanation of the Zimbabwe Election
Commission, which pointed out that there was a
significant amount of work involved in collating the
results of parliamentary, presidential and local
elections and properly verifying these results (a
process in which MDC were, in fact, involved).

Long before the final results came out, the western
media were announcing that Zanu had been trounced and
that Mugabe was in talks about stepping down
gracefully, etc. The day after the election, the
ostensibly non-partisan (but actually heavily pro-MDC)
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) announced –
on the basis of random polls – that Tsvangirai had won
an outright majority. This prompted the likes of the
BBC and the Guardian to declare Tsvangirai the winner.

These games have a clear purpose: to mobilise public
opinion in favour of an MDC coup in the event of the
election results coming back in favour of Mugabe/Zanu.
This is what the governments of the US and Britain
mean when they talk about ‘free and fair’ elections.

Outcome

Although we don’t have the final results for the
presidential election at the time of going to press,
it’s clear that MDC have done relatively well and that
Zanu and Mugabe have lost some ground. Given the
crippling economic sanctions that have been applied
against Zimbabwe, it is in a way not surprising that
many Zimbabweans are looking for an easy way out.

The situation has deteriorated, and people have to
deal with the simple realities of food, shelter and
clothing. In the light of these considerations, the
IMF’s aid packages and loans probably sound like quite
a good idea to a lot of people.

Ahmed Sékou Touré, first president of Guinea, famously
said: “We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in
slavery.” Similarly, Ho Chi Minh said that “nothing is
more precious than independence and freedom”. These
statements also reflect the attitude of Comrade Mugabe
and Zanu-PF. “Poverty in liberty” means poverty but
with the means of building lasting wealth, while
“riches in slavery” means temporary riches for a few
lap-dogs of imperialism, combined with the most
terrible impoverishment of the masses and the
unbridled rapacity of foreign capital.

Clearly there are those in Zimbabwe who haven’t
understood that the carrots being put in front of them
by imperialism will only benefit a few and will be
accompanied by the complete pauperisation of the
masses of Zimbabweans. If Tsvangirai wins, public
spending will be massively reduced, agriculture will
be re-focussed on export crops, and the people of
Zimbabwe will be subjected to the iniquities of the
IMF’s ‘severe austerity’ programme.

It’s not possible to say at this point exactly what
the next government of Zimbabwe will look like;
however, it is our sincere hope that the Zimbabwean
people will not be tricked by the honeyed words of
imperialism, and that they will hold true to their
slogan: Zimbabwe will never be a colony again

Calif. lawmaker seeks anti-China resolution before torch relay April 8, 2008

The Associated Press

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SACRAMENTO—A Republican lawmaker in California says Democrats in the state Legislature are blocking a resolution that condemns China for the recent violence in Tibet.State Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee introduced the resolution last month. It calls on China to honor the spirit of the Olympics by promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

He wanted the resolution passed before the Olympic torch relay came to San Francisco on Wednesday for its only stop in North America.

Blakeslee, a Republican from San Luis Obispo, says the resolution has been stuck in committee. He accuses the Democrats who control both houses of the Legislature of ignoring his plea for a floor vote before Wednesday.

Muslim nations condemn Dutch Koran film March 28, 2008

AMSTERDAM, March 28 (Reuters) – Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia on Friday condemned a film by a Dutch lawmaker that accuses the Koran of inciting violence, as Dutch Muslim leaders urged restraint.

Islam critic Geert Wilders launched his short video on the Internet on Thursday evening. Titled “Fitna”, an Arabic term sometimes translated as “strife”, it intersperses images of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and Islamist bombings with quotations from the Koran, Islam’s holy book.

The film urges Muslims to tear out “hate-filled” verses from the Koran and starts and finishes with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb under his turban, accompanied by the sound of ticking.

The cartoon, first published in Danish newspapers, ignited violent protests around the world and a boycott of Danish products in 2006. Many Muslims regard any depiction of the Prophet as offensive.

Iran called the film heinous, blasphemous and anti-Islamic and called on European governments to block any further showing. Pakistan’s Foreign Office summoned the Dutch ambassador to lodge a protest.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation and a former Dutch colony, also condemned the film.

“We are of the view that the film has a racist flavour and is an insult to Islam, hidden under the cover of freedom of expression,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. “We call on Indonesian people not to be incited.”

Dutch Muslim leaders appealed for calm and called on Muslims worldwide not to target Dutch interests. The Netherlands is home to about 1 million Muslims out of a population of 16 million.

“Our call to Muslims abroad is follow our strategy and don’t frustrate it with any violent incidents,” Mohammed Rabbae, a Dutch Moroccan leader, told journalists in an Amsterdam mosque.

“Looking for conflict there is looking for conflict with us,” he said before an imam made a similar appeal in Arabic.

The Dutch Islamic Federation went to court on Friday to try to stop Wilders from comparing Islam to fascism, saying he incited hatred of Muslims.

Indictment: Hussein fed money to spy for U.S. officials’ trip March 27, 2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency footed the bill for a U.S. congressional delegation’s trip during a buildup to the Iraq war, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday in the case of an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen charged with spying for the Iraqi government.

Saddam Hussein’s spy agency allegedly paid for a 2002 trip to Iraq made by three U.S. lawmakers.

Muthanna al-Hanooti, a former official with an Islamic charity in Detroit, Michigan, was taken into custody Tuesday night. Hussein’s spy agency secretly paid al-Hanooti 2 million barrels of oil, during the time the U.N. Oil for Food program was in place, for services rendered, the indictment states.

Those services included providing the Iraqi government with the names of U.S. members of Congress believed to favor the lifting of sanctions against Iraq, arranging for delegations of those members to visit Iraq and traveling with those delegations.

U.S. officials familiar with the case stressed that no member of Congress had any knowledge al-Hanooti was spying for Iraq or was complicit with illegal activity.

According to the indictment, the Iraqi Intelligence Service paid $34,000 through an intermediary to Life for Relief and Development, the charity that employed al-Hanooti, to pay the delegation’s travel expenses.

In September 2002, al-Hanooti traveled to Iraq with three members of Congress whom he believed to be sympathetic to lifting the economic sanctions against Iraq.

The U.S. led an invasion into Iraq, starting the war, in March 2003.

The indictment did not name the lawmakers, but Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California made a trip to Iraq at that time. Watch report about Hussein believing the lawmakers would be sympathetic to lifting sanctions against Iraq »

McDermott spokesman Mike DeCesare said the congressman knew nothing about al-Hanooti. McDermott was asked to make the trip to discuss children’s health issues because he is a physician, DeCesare said.

The three came under strong criticism from the Bush administration for arguing the White House was “laying the pretext or the path for war” before U.N. weapons inspectors had begun their work.

Al-Hanooti appeared in court in Detroit Wednesday. He was charged with one count of being an unregistered agent for Hussein’s government, one count of violating economic sanctions on Iraq and three counts of lying to U.S. investigators.

He was released on $100,000 bond and his passport was confiscated

U.S. mistakenly ships missile parts to Taiwan March 25, 2008

Officials say the shipment of non-nuclear electrical fuses was a Department of Defense process error and that the components have since been returned.

By Ben DuBose, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:03 AM PDT, March 25, 2008

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials said today that non-nuclear parts for an intercontinental ballistic missile were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan in 2006 and that an investigation had been started.

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said at a Pentagon news conference that the items sent to Taiwan were four electrical fuses for nose cone assemblies for ICBMs. Wynne said the fuses have been returned and are at a U.S. base.

“It could not be construed as being nuclear material,” Wynne said. “It is a component for the fuse in the nose cone for a nuclear system. We are all taking this very seriously.”

The government of China views Taiwan as a part of China and strongly opposes U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, making the matter particularly sensitive.

According to Wynne, the fuses were shipped between Air Force bases in 2005 before they were mistakenly sent to Taiwan the following year.

Officials in Taiwan notified the U.S. government of the error.

“Preliminary information indicates that a shipment took place in response to a Foreign Military Sales Order from Taiwan for helicopter batteries,” Wynne said. “The Defense Logistics Agency mistakenly shipped these items instead of the requested batteries.”

Ryan Henry, the second-ranking policy official in the office of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, said both Gates and President Bush were told about the incident on Friday.

At the news conference, Wynne reiterated that the incident was merely a process error and was not indicative of a shift in policy.

“In an organization as large as the DOD, the largest and most complex in the world, there will be mistakes,” he said. “But they cannot be tolerated in the arena of strategic systems, whether they are nuclear or only associated equipment. Our policy on Taiwan arms sales has not changed.”

Female Suicide Bomber Kills 43 in Iraq March 18, 2008

By KIM GAMEL – 1 hour ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — A female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in the holy city of Karbala on Monday, an official and a witness said, killing at least 43 people and leaving pools of blood on the street leading to one of Iraq’s most revered mosques.

The blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left at least 72 Iraqis dead, including six youths killed when mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field in eastern Baghdad.

Two U.S. soldiers also were killed Monday in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, bringing the American death toll closer to 4,000 as the U.S.-led war enters its sixth year. At least 3,990 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The violence marred overlapping trips by Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain to Baghdad. Their visits were aimed at touting recent security gains and stressing Washington’s long-term commitment to fighting insurgents in Iraq.

The U.S. Embassy and military issued a joint statement blaming al-Qaida in Iraq for the Karbala attack.

The bomber struck after the worshippers had gathered at a sacred historical site about half a mile from the golden domed shrine of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in a seventh-century battle.

A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information, said the attacker was a woman — as did a witness.

The U.S. military described the attack as a suicide operation but put the casualty toll at 40 Iraqis killed and 65 wounded. The U.S. statement said the identity of the bomber remained unknown.

Brig. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, Karbala’s police chief, said 43 people were killed and 73 wounded. He denied it was a suicide attack, saying a bomb had been planted in the area. The discrepancies could not immediately be resolved.

Karim Khazim, the city’s chief health official, said seven of those killed were Iranian pilgrims who had traveled to the holy site.

AP Television News footage showed a man carefully picking up pieces of flesh and wires apparently from a fuse as evening prayer services were broadcast from loudspeakers nearby.

The witness, who did not identify himself, told AP Television News that a woman in the crowd had blown herself up.

If true, it would be among the deadliest attacks carried out by women during the Iraq conflict.

Female suicide bombers have been involved in at least 20 attacks or attempted attacks since the war began, including the grisly bombings of two pet markets in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people last month.

The U.S. military has warned that insurgents are using female attackers because they can more easily avoid checkpoint searches and can hide the explosives under traditional all-encompassing black Islamic robes.

Police closed the area around the twin golden dome mosques and blocked all roads leading to the sites, which include tombs of Imam Hussein and his half brother, also a Shiite saint.

Ali Hassan, 30, a clothing merchant who was wounded in the blast, said he was standing near his stall “when I heard a big explosion and I felt strong fire throwing me in the air.”

“The only thing I know is there was a big explosion and I saw bodies flying in the air,” said Hassan Khazim, 36, who was wounded in the face. “All the tight security measures designed to protect us were in vain.”

The predominantly Shiite city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, enjoys tight security. Monday’s attack was the deadliest in Karbala since a suicide car bomber killed at least 63 people on April 28, 2007.

Explosions also struck earlier Monday not far from the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone, shortly after Cheney arrived. Helicopter gunships circled central Baghdad.

Despite several high-profile bombings, violence levels have dropped sharply in recent months with a U.S. troop buildup, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a cease-fire by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia.

But noting the fragility of the security gains, Cheney warned against large drawdowns of American troops, saying it is very important that “we not quit before the job is done.”

McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who has linked his political future to military success in Iraq, also promised to uphold a long-term military commitment to the country so long as al-Qaida in Iraq is not defeated.

Both men met in back-to-back meetings with Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government has been accused of failing to make sufficient political progress.

Al-Maliki said he and the vice president discussed ongoing negotiations over a long-term security agreement between the two countries that would replace the U.N. mandate for foreign troops set to expire at the end of the year.

“This visit is very important. It is about the nature of the relations between the two countries, the future of those relations and the agreement in this respect,” the prime minister told reporters. “We also discussed the security in Iraq, the development of the economy and reconstruction and terrorism.”

McCain stressed it was important to maintain the U.S. commitment in Iraq, where a U.S.-Iraq operation is under way to clear al-Qaida in Iraq from what the military says is the terror group’s last urban stronghold of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

“We recognize that al-Qaida is on the run, but they are not defeated,” McCain said after meeting al-Maliki. “Al-Qaida continues to pose a great threat to the security and very existence of Iraq as a democracy. So we know there’s still a lot more of work to be done.”

McCain, who arrived in Iraq on Sunday, told reporters that he also discussed with the Shiite leader the need for progress on political reforms, including laws on holding provincial elections and the equitable distribution of Iraq’s oil riches.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., speaking to reporters from Kuwait after a visit to Iraq, said Iraq should begin picking up more of the bills.

“We’re paying for things that Iraqis clearly should be paying for,” Levin said. “They have the capability, the surplus funds to do their own reconstruction, and to do their own weapons purchases and other things which we’re paying for and they need to pay for.”

The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet March 17, 2008

Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison

320 pages, 24 photographs, 9 maps, 6-1/8 x 9-1/4
Modern War Studies
Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1159-1, $34.95

Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison reveal how America’s
Central Intelligence Agency encouraged Tibet’s revolt
against China–and eventually came to control its
fledgling resistance movement. They provide the first
comprehensive, as well as most compelling account of
this little known agency enterprise.

The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet takes readers from
training camps in the Colorado Rockies to the scene of
clandestine operations in the Himalayas, chronicling
the agency’s help in securing the Dalai Lama’s safe
passage to India and subsequent initiation of one of
the most remote covert campaigns of the Cold War.
Conboy and Morrison provide previously unreported
details about secret missions undertaken in
extraordinarily harsh conditions. Their book greatly
expands on previous memoirs by CIA officials by
putting virtually every major agency participant on
record with details of clandestine operations. It also
calls as witnesses the people who managed and fought
in the program–including Tibetan and Nepalese agents,
Indian intelligence officers, and even mission
aircrews.

Conboy and Morrison take pains to tell the story from
all perspectives, particularly that of the former
Tibetan guerrillas, many of whom have gone on record
here for the first time. The authors also tell how
Tibet led America and India to become secret partners
over the course
of several presidential administrations and cite
dozens of Indian and Tibetan intelligence documents
directly related to these covert operations.

As the movement for Tibetan liberation continues to
attract international support, Tibet’s status remains
a contentious issue in both Washington and Beijing.
This book takes readers inside a covert war fought
with Tibetan blood and U.S. sponsorship and allows us
to better understand the true nature of that
controversy.

“The inside story of one of the CIA’s most tragic
covert operations. Agency officers in the Wild East;
nationalist, religious, and ethnic conflict–this is
the stuff of a great yarn, which the authors tell in
engaging detail.”–John Prados, author of Presidents’
Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations from
World War II Through the Persian Gulf

“A masterful account of how the CIA sought to play the
‘new great game’ on the roof of the world.”–David F.
Rudgers, author of Creating the Secret State: Origins
of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1943–1947

“An excellent and impressive study of a major CIA
covert operation during the Cold War.”–William M.
Leary, author of Perilous Missions: Civil Air
Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia

KENNETH CONBOY is a former policy analyst and deputy
director at the Heritage Foundation whose other books
include Spies and Commandos: How America Lost the
Secret War in North Vietnam and Spies in the
Himalayas: Secret Missions and Perilous Climbs.

The late JAMES MORRISON was a thirty-year Army veteran
and the last training officer for the CIA-sponsored
Unity project. He coauthored numerous books with
Conboy, including Shadow War: The CIA’s Secret War in Laos

Four FBI agents were wounded in Pakistan bombing March 17, 2008

WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) – FBI agents were among those wounded in a bomb attack on an Italian restaurant in Islamabad during the weekend, the FBI said on Sunday.

“Four FBI personnel were slightly injured in the bombing attack in Pakistan. The FBI is providing the necessary assistance to our employees and their families,” FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.

Kolko provided no further details. The U.S. State Department had no addition comment.

A bomb planted in the garden dining area of the Luna Caprese restaurant on Saturday killed a Turkish woman and wounded 11 people, including five Americans.

The restaurant is a popular spot with foreigners in Islamabad.

ABC News, citing unnamed sources, reported that an investigation was under way to determine whether the attack was based on whether terrorists had learned in advance the agents would be at the restaurant.

U.S. to help Poland modernize military March 11, 2008

Monday, March 10, 2008  WASHINGTON: The United States will help Poland modernize its military as part of an agreement to deploy part of a new U.S. missile defense system in the country, President George W. Bush said here on Monday. “The United States recognizes the need for Polish forces to be modernized,” Bush told reporters after talks with visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the White House.