Summaries here and here and here and here.

Oh what a tangled web we weave…

Just seven days after Pat Tillman’s death, a top general warned there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and President George W. Bush might embarrass himself if he said the professional American football star-turned-soldier died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

It was not until a month afterward that the Pentagon told the public and grieving family members the truth – that Tillman was mistakenly killed in Afghanistan by his comrades.

The memo reinforces suspicions that the Pentagon was more concerned with sparing officials from embarrassment than revealing the real circumstances that led Tillman’s death to his family.

In a memo sent to a four-star general a week after Tillman’s April 22, 2004, death, then-Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that it was “highly possible” the Army Ranger was killed by friendly fire. Article

As this story was previously linked to, but there is now a corrected version, doing so again.

…David Edwards, a U.S. anthropologist regarded as an expert on the origins of the Taliban, said reconstruction has been overshadowed by rampant corruption, meager international donations and poverty in a country where the unemployment rate is about 40 percent.

“It’s important to understand that Americans have come to be seen as an occupying power,” Edwards, an author who has traveled widely in Afghanistan, said at a Monday forum sponsored by the Pakistani Embassy in Washington. Article

Chaos in the wilds (and a convenient distraction for the public from Musharraf’s other myriad woes znd is machinations concerning them).

Pakistan says renewed fighting between local tribesmen and foreign militants in the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan left at least 54 people dead Friday.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said 45 of the dead are foreign militants, mostly Uzbeks. He said the latest deaths bring to at least 177 the number of foreign militants killed since the clashes erupted last week.

A Taleban tribal elder has vowed the fighting will continue until the foreign militants are driven out of the region. A fragile ceasefire was broken earlier this week. Article

Some more here.

Keeping up with the ever-mounting fallout from Pervez’ self-coup:

The inquiry tribunal has finalized inquiry into the incident of manhandling of suspended chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry by the police and presented the sealed report to the Supreme Court (SC).

[snip]

The SC will announce its verdict on the matter within fifteen days in the light of the report. Article

Also:

The President Supreme Court Bar Association Munir A. Malik said on Friday that the proceeding of supreme judicial council could only be held on the principal seat of Supreme Court and the speculation and proposal that the third April proceeding of presidential reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry may be shifted to Karachi, which would be totally unlawful and against the rules and regulation.

He was speaking on telephone from Islamabad at Chakwal press club on Friday.

Munir A Malik was confident that the law was very much clear and the proceeding of third April must be held at the building of supreme Court Islamabad.

He further told that all the lawyers community would observe complete strike on third April to make solidarity with chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Article

Noted FYI:

Taliban militants seeking to impose Islamic law blew up two video shops and torched a cable television operator’s office in Kohat, officials said on Friday.… Article