Cursor's Media Patrol - 07/24/06

With many Lebanese refugees trying to flee across its border, and "anger spilling over against the U.S. government -- and its citizens," Syria warns Israel that a major ground incursion would draw it into the conflict, and a U.S. plan to peel Syria away from Iran, is seen as facing a non-negotiable obstacle.

Commenting on a San Francisco Chronicle report that 'Israel set war plan more than a year ago,' Juan Cole finds it scary that "Cheney and Rumsfeld don't appear to have let W. in on the whole thing."

According to Jane's, "Hezbollah is proving a tough opponent for Israel because of their Viet Cong-style network of tunnels," the AP quotes an Israeli soldier as saying, "It's hard to beat them ...They're not afraid of anything," Earlier: 'Hezbollah rides wave of popularity across Mideast.'

Kurt Nimmo predicts that the "temporary detention center" Israel is building for "prisoners that will be captured during army operations in Southern Lebanon" will in fact be a torture center for abducted Lebanese, based on reports about the Khiam prison from the last Lebanese war.

Patrick Cockburn writes that "While the eyes of the world are elsewhere, Baghdad is still dying and the daily toll is hitting record levels," adding that "Iraqis are terrified in a way that I have never seen before, since I first visited Baghdad in 1978."

The federal government moves "to eliminate nearly half the lawyers at the IRS who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans," while President Bush is reportedly advised "to beef up his counsel's office for the tangle of investigations that a Democrat-controlled House might pursue."