…a few stories worth your time as you begin your holiday weekend:

• The Christian Science Monitor has a great article discussing the multiple motives and objectives behind Israel’s recent Gaza operations.
• Great Britain sought the services of the US nuclear deterrent to help protect Hong Kong during the Cold War, recently released documents suggest. What is of interest for me is the recognition that the colony was “strategically irrelevant”, but that the British government “decided that it did have a vital symbolic role as the country’s sole frontier with the Communist world”, coming to the conclusion that “”For political reasons we have no choice but to stay there at present”.
• In the Financial Times (subscription) Christopher Caldwell discusses why this week’s SCOTUS ruling on GITMO may actually be a saving grace for President Bush. Why? Because it will allow him to save face, if he plays his cards right.
• Richard Clarke and Roger Cressey dicuss just how much the disclosure of the SWIFT program may have disrupted the war on terror (hint: not very much).

• A step towards greater democracy and equal rights in Kuwait.

Filed as: Misc.