The former FBI agent who is missing in Iran has been identified as Robert Levinson. He also worked for the D.E.A.

Retired from the FBI for over a decade, the agency says he was not working for the Government. A U.S. official says it was unlikely he was working on a political project.

This sounds not good; a more detailed story here:

Iranian naval vessels on Friday seized 15 British sailors and marines who had boarded a merchant ship in Iraqi waters of the Persian Gulf, British and U.S. officials said. Britain immediately protested the detentions, which come at a time of high tension between the West and Iran.

In London, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office and demanded "the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment." Iran had no immediate comment.

Britain's Defense Ministry said the British Navy personnel were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed a ship inspection when they were accosted by the Iranian vessels.

Routine boarding? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

This is how the Iraq Debacle happened:

. . . But precisely because these Democrats want to avoid war with Iran that they must offer the now familiar formulation: no nukes for Iran, no options off the table. Hillary Clinton stated this today, Barack Obama gave a version of it two years ago, and John Edwards said it last month. . . . Does this mean that we should not be skeptical of the Bush Administration’s attempt to “sell” an Iran adventure? No. Does this mean that Congress should not have oversight over any such potential action (as Senator Clinton said today)? No. What it means is that the keyboard commentariat needs to come to grips with the realities of diplomacy. . . .

Kenny Baer needs to come to grips with reality that George Bush is the worst President in the history of the nation and that in such circumstances, the normal rules do not apply. As Ezra writes:

Some folks seem to think you can continually threaten Iran while never meaning to attack, an outlook that reminds me of all the liberal hawks who spent the runup to the Iraq War advocating for their personal Iraq Wars, rather than the one George W. Bush wanted to fight. In the end, of course, everyone who voted for the resolution based on giving Bush strength at the UN, or sending 600,000 troops, simply enabled the war Bush wanted to fight.

Ken Baer should shut up for a while.

As TalkLeft reported last year, the Mexican Congress passed legislation to decriminalize the casual possession of recreational drugs for personal use. Vincente Fox vetoed the legislation to placate Washington. A new version permitting possession of smaller quantities is on its way to Fox's successor, Felipe Calderon. The question is whether Calderon has the will to stand up to the "War On Drugs" crowd in the Bush administration.

Ruling National Action Party Sen. Alejandro Gonzalez, who heads the Senate's justice commission and supports the bill, said on Monday that decriminalizing possession of small quantities of drugs and taking some pressure off addicts would free up resources needed to pursue dealers.

As TalkLeft wrote last year:

Smart move. The U.S. should take a look at doing the same.

Update: It looks even worse.

The end may be near for Fidel Castro. A Spanish newspaper is reporting he has had three failed surgeries.

The newspaper El Pais cited two unnamed sources from the Gregorio Maranon hospital in the Spanish capital of Madrid. The facility employs surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who flew to Cuba in December to treat the 80-year-old Castro.

Here's a graphic description:

A rocket hit the U.S. Embassy in Greece. Shorter version: There were no injuries. It landed in the toilet.

Sounds like a home grown operation to me.

This being the new year, it's time to check in on Schapelle Corby who is serving 20 years in a hellhole of a Bali prison following her conviction for smuggling four kilos of pot into Bali. (Full coverage here.)

The news isn't good. Despite the fact that conditions at Kerobokan prison are disgusting, she has made friends there, is able to visit with her sister who resides in Bali and receive visits from her parents.

That is about to end. She is expecting to be moved to a prison on the remote side of the island:

Indonesian authorities are set to transfer the 29-year-old Brisbane woman to a prison in the East Java city of Malang, hundreds of kilometres from Kerobokan.....Papers authorising the transfer were sent weeks ago from Jakarta authorities to the warden of Kerobokan, Ilham Djaya, who says the transfer must go ahead because the prison is overcrowded.

A federal indictment has been handed down in Miami against former Liberian Chief Charles Taylor's son, Chuckie Taylor, also known as Charles McArthur Emmanuel.

The son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor was indicted Wednesday on U.S. charges of committing torture as chief of a violent paramilitary unit during his father's regime, marking the first time a 12-year-old federal anti-torture law has ever been used, U.S. officials said.

It doesn't surprise me that Hugo Chavez won by a big margin in Venezuela.

With 78 percent of voting stations reporting, Chavez had 61 percent to 38 percent for challenger Rosales, said Tibisay Lucena, head of the country's elections council. Chavez had nearly 6 million votes versus 3.7 million for Rosales, according to the partial tally.

Turnout among the 15.9 million eligible voters was 62 percent, according to an official bulletin of results, making Chavez's lead insurmountable.

Here's more on Chavez and his promises for his next administration.

Is Sudan arming the militias and hindering the relief efforts in Darfur? An investigation into atrocities in Darfur is almost complete. International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno - O'Campo says that if the Sudan Government is not conducting its own legitimate inquiry, he will present evidence to the Judges of the International Criminal Court.

The International Criminal Court has found sufficient evidence to identify the perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, and the probe offers "reasonable grounds to believe" that crimes against humanity were committed, chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the annual meeting of the court's member states in The Hague.

"We selected incidents during the period in which the gravest crimes occurred," he said Thursday in a report on his activities over the past year. "Based on the evidence collected, we identified those most responsible for the crimes." Moreno-Ocampo did not name the targets of the investigation, which he said is nearly complete.

The intellectual forces that vociferously argued for the Iraq Debacle and outrageously smeared anyone who disagreed with them have the cheek to think that their voices still matter on Democratic foreign policy. For example, Will Marshall of the DLC, which has cheerleaded the war from pre-beginning to calamitous near end game now writes:

The realists' complaints, in fact, often echo the Democrats' indictment of Bush's unilateralism, disregard for the rule of law, and excessively militarized approach to national security. But progressives should be wary of realist claims that the way to make America safer is to limit its power and its international commitments.

Limit its power? No Marshall, recognize the limits of its UNILATERAL power. At this late date, Marsahll and the DLC still do not get it.

Upon arrival in Barcelona this summer, a Spanish official glanced at my passport and waved me on my way. Returning from Spain, I encountered a longer line at O’Hare, but I eventually answered a couple of perfunctory questions posed by a bored customs official who then waved me on my way. I was glad that I wasn’t visiting the U.S. from another country, because the “citizens” line made slow but steady progress while the lengthy queue of foreign visitors stood motionless.

It’s no surprise, then, that two-thirds of the business travelers polled by the Discover America Partnership considered the U.S. to be “the worst country in the world” in its treatment of foreign visitors at the border. More surprising, perhaps, is that a similar percentage of respondents fear being mistreated by DHS officials more than they fear terrorism. They viewed U.S. border officials as “arrogant, rude and unpredictable.”

“We deliberately sampled an elite group of business travelers who are more likely to feel positive towards the US than most people in their own countries,” said Geoff Freeman, the director of Discover America Partnership. “All they are asking is to be treated with respect, professionalism and courtesy: they are not asking for America to reduce its security measures.”

Treating guests with respect isn’t too much to ask from DHS employees. Long lines can be alleviated with more bodies at the gateways, but professionalism and courtesy need to be instilled from the top down.