A civilian jury Thursday acquitted former Marine Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario in the killings of four Iraqi prisoners during the battle in Fallouja in November 2004. As one of his lawyers told a reporter, the war in Iraq is finally over for Nazario.

Jurors said the U.S. attorney's office left too many unanswered questions and failed to provide any witnesses who saw Nazario shoot any of the Iraqis. Several jurors also said they were uneasy with the notion of civilians sitting in judgment of an action taken by a Marine during combat.

"Who are we to decide what men in war are doing?" juror Nicole Peters, a high school guidance counselor, told author and journalist Nathaniel R. Helms, who was covering the trial for www.defendourmarines.com.

For Nazario, the case is over. Not for Sgt. Ryan Weemer and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson. Both face courts martial at Camp Pendleton on murder charges, as well as a Sept. 29 hearing before District Judge Stephen Larson to decide if they should be sentenced to jail for refusing to testify at Nazario's trial.

During the trial, Larson promised Weemer and Nelson that their testimony could not be used against them in their courts martial. Still they wouldn't budge. He made one last attempt, noting that the Marine Corps prides itself on honor and that Weemer and Nelson could show honor by testifying.

“It’s my understanding that a Marine has something other than his life, and that’s his honor and integrity," Larson said to Weemer. "The court is calling on his honor and integrity, and the Constitution he has sworn to uphold and defend.”

Final note: In the audience for several days of the trial was Larson's father, a former Marine.

For more on the verdict, see the story in The Times.

-- Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Jose Nazario. Credit: Associated Press

A deadly shooting Thursday of a military helicopter in southern Lebanon by unidentified gunmen raised fears of tensions erupting between this country's army and Hezbollah.

The Lebanese Shiite militant group, which is believed to control the zone of the shooting, commented on the incident today, but didn't claim responsibility for it. A statement issued by the group said:

The shooting yesterday ... is a sad and painful incident that involves certain circumstances which will be revealed through investigation, God willing. ... Hezbollah will fully cooperate with the brothers in the Lebanese army as well as with concerned judicial authorities to bring out the truth and guarantee justice.

But a flurry of reports in Lebanese local newspapers and comments by politicians earlier indicated that Hezbollah’s fighters were responsible for the shooting, which resulted in the killing of one lieutenant, either “by mistake” or purposely to send a message to the military.

The shooting took place near the area where thousands of United Nations peacekeeping troops are deployed to help guarantee security along the border with Israel.

The army said in a statement that one of its helicopters came under fire without identifying the assailants:

While a Lebanese Armed Forces military helicopter was conducting a training mission over the area of Iklim El Toufah it came under fire shot by armed gunmen and the crew was forced to make an emergency landing over the hill of Soujoud and as a result of the incident the helicopter was damaged and 1st Lt. pilot Samer Hanna martyred.

According to a local newspaper, Assafir, the shooting took place ...

The area near Iraq's border with Iran is known to be less than stable, and now it seems Mother Nature has joined smugglers and suspected militiamen in stirring up the pot there. Early today, an earthquake hit southern Iraq, centered near the Iranian border and strongly felt in the city of Amarah about 40 miles to the west.

The Voice of Iraq news agency said it measured about 5.1, but the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 5.7, not huge but big enough to frighten people unaccustomed to such things.

"I was sleeping inside my room when I noticed that the lights of the room, fans and the furniture were moving in different directions," said one Amarah resident. "I tried to stand up. I discovered it was not only the ceiling but the floor moving as well!"

People, followed by cats, dogs and other animals, fled into the streets, shouting to each other and searching for friends and relatives in the dark. After a while, the messages were sent through loudspeakers in mosques to calm people down.

For hours, the city resembled a doomsday scene. People milled outside, advised to stay out of their homes by rescue workers in case another temblor struck. By daylight, they had gone home. No casualties were reported, but there were fears another quake could strike.

Iraq's last earthquake came in February, when a series of small but frightening quakes hit the city of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad.

-- Raheem Salman and Tina Susman in Baghdad

Graphic: U.S. Geological Survey

UPDATE: The jury acquitted defendant Thursday afternoon of all charges after less than six hours of deliberation. Jurors said prosecutors lacked evidence.

A civilian jury in Riverside, Calif., is deciding whether former Marine Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario committed crimes during the first day of the U.S. battle in November 2004 to rout insurgents from Fallouja.

It is the first time a former military personnel has been tried under a law passed in 2000 by Congress. Nazario has pleaded not guilty. He did not testify during the trial but during pre-trial media interviews he denied any role in the deaths of four Iraqis.

But a tape recording played to jurors appeared to show Nazario admitting to Marine Sgt. Jermaine Nelson that he ordered the four killed.

His lawyer told jurors that a conviction will undercut the morale and effectiveness of other troops in warzones. But the prosecutor said failure to convict will damage the moral authority of the U.S. in Iraq and elsewhere.

For more, read today's Los Angeles Times story "Ex-Marine's case goes to Riverside County jurors."

--Tony Perry, Riverside

Photo: Jose Luis Nazario. Credit: Associated Press.

797 days, two years and three birthdays ago, IDF corporal Gilad Shalit was kidnapped to Gaza in an attack that killed two other soldiers.

For two years, families, friends, activists and citizens campaigned tirelessly for the release of three Israeli soldiers. Two were returned in a swap with Hezbollah a month ago, but virtual memorial candles now burn beside their pictures on the website they shared with Shalit: they were dead.

But somewhere in the parallel existence that is Gaza, only two hours away from Tel-Aviv, Gilad Shalit is alive. And this week he is turning 22.

Friends and supporters are marking Shalit's third birthday since his capture this week in a number of events held near the site of the attack, in Tel Aviv and the northern community of Mitzpe Hila, Shalit's home.

Families of MIAs and hostages have learned from past experience of others. News breaks constantly in Israel, where the worst thing is to disappear from the public agenda. Staying on top of it is a constant, draining effort for families but falling from it is a luxury they cannot afford.

You will not hear the chimes of Olympic medals in Egypt’s trophy cases.

The country won only one in the Beijing Games. That embarrassment has riled President Hosni Mubarak, who has ordered an investigation into why his athletes fared so poorly.

The state press agency has reported that Mubarak has ordered a fact-finding committee to find out “who is responsible for the Egyptian mission’s bad performance and calling them into account.”

Yikes. Someone’s in trouble. But it most likely won't be Mounir Thabet, the head of the country's Olympic Committee and the president's brother-in-law. It also won't be Hesham Mesbah, the only one of Egypt’s 177 Olympic athletes to win a medal –- a bronze in judo.

Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: President Hosni Mubarak Credit: AFP

Sayid Fareed al-Fadhili, a bearded cleric in his 30s, heads the Shiite Mahdi Army militia’s new non-armed branch, Mumahidoon, an Arabic word "meaning those who pave the way." Sitting in Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr’s office in Sadr City, Fadhili described his men as the militia's educational wing.

In June, Sadr first announced plans to transform most of the Mahdi Army militia into a social organization, while preserving an elite group to fight the U.S. military, without harming Iraq’s civilians.

The overhaul was prompted after the spring offensive by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in the southern city of Basra. The fighting, which then spread to Sadr City in Baghdad, concluded with the Mahdi Army laying down its weapons.

Fadhili elaborated on the Mahdi Army’s new structure. “The first section is the armed one for resisting only the occupiers and to not carry weapons against any other side. This section is a clandestine one. Nobody knows who their members are,” Fadhili explained. “The second part is ours, which will undertake ethical and cultural issues to change the society from its tendencies toward a secular and Western orientation to a society based on Islamic and religious culture.”

Fadhili said that Mumahidoon members did not carry weapons.

“They never carry weapons and they do not care for the military side at all. Their main work is absolutely cultural and intellectual,” he said.

A story in Tuesday's paper detailed the federal racketeering charges levied against Israeli crime bosses Meir and Itzhak Abergil. The pending U.S. extradition request is just the latest twist for the duo believed to head one of Israel’s top five crime families.

The pair has been under investigation by Israeli and American authorities for years, and Itzhak Abergil dodged a drug trafficking charge in the Netherlands in 2004.

They and other prominent Israeli crime families have evaded local prosecution for years, partially because the vast majority of their criminal activities, such as ecstasy trafficking, took place outside Israel. Among those activities, according to the 77-page indictment, was an alliance with the Vineland Boys, a San Fernando Valley gang, to distribute ecstasy.

But on July 28, 31-year old Marguerita Lautinare was killed in front of her husband and two children in an Israeli beachside restaurant — a bystander to a failed hit allegedly ordered by Abergil. The incident horrified and mobilized Israeli public sentiment, and may also have provided authorities with crucial evidence against the Abergils.

Both of the hit men were apprehended and the brothers were arrested just over a week later and charged with ordering the hit as part of an internal family dispute.

"Someone apparently talked," said one criminologist. "This is what allowed Abergil to be arrested."

The facts are nothing short of tragic. More and more immigrant housemaids are dying every week in Lebanon. Some commit suicide or die trying to run away from their employers, an international human rights organization reported Tuesday.   

The findings of the New-York-based Human Rights Watch are appalling:

Since January 2007, at least 95 migrant domestic workers have died in Lebanon. Of these 95 deaths, 40 are classified by the embassies of the migrants as suicide, while 24 others were caused by workers falling from high buildings, often while trying to escape their employers. By contrast, only 14 domestic workers died because of diseases or health issues.

Apparently, strenuous work conditions are behind the high death toll of domestic employees, mainly women coming from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia, according to the HRW report:

Interviews with embassy officials and friends of domestic workers who committed suicide suggest that forced confinement, excessive work demands, employer abuse, and financial pressures are key factors pushing these women to kill themselves or risk their lives.

Liquor is flowing -- well, let's say trickling -- again at the Grand Hyatt on the Nile. After a dry summer, the Saudi owner of the hotel made concessions this week to the Hyatt international chain by partially lifting a ban he had imposed on alcohol.

A few months ago, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Ibrahim, a relative of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, stunned the tourism business when he gave orders to dump more than $1 million worth of alcoholic beverages into the Nile River. The decision, driven by Islamic religiosity, stirred anger in the circles of the country’s tourism leaders, who threatened to demote the five-star hotel to two stars. 

Yet, this is not to assume that the Saudi sheikh made major concessions. Liquor is back, but will not be served everywhere in the luxurious resort. Visitors can sip their beer and martinis only in a secluded 40th floor restaurant. The owner’s spokeswoman, Sally Khattab, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that her boss' decision allowed him "keep his hotel with the family atmosphere he would like to present to his guests.”

Khattab added that this isolated restaurant will be managed by a different company so to keep the sheikh aloof from any alcohol business.

Guests are left with another option; They can order alcohol through room service.

—Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photo: Grand Hyatt Cairo. Credit: Cris Bouroncle  AFP/Getty Images

Western observers, including the the Los Angeles Times, jumped on recent comments by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that appeared to be a ringing endorsement for firebrand president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he prepares to compete for a second term next year.

Under the headline "Supreme Leader sees Ahmadinejad for second term in office," the official Islamic Republic News Agency on Monday reported Khamenei's weekend remarks urging the current government to begin acting as if it were going to have another four years in office.

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of Ahmadinejad, suggested he would abide by Khamenei's remarks. But he spoke in a manner that could have been laced with a hint of the sarcastic dissimulation for which Iranians are famous.

"We thank our wise leader who has indicated the boundary for criticism and stressed legal monitoring and emphasized cooperation and understanding among officials to prevent turmoil," Rafsanjani told reporters Tuesday morning on the sidelines of a meeting.

The attempted assassination of a Shiite cleric in Basra recently has added to locals' fears that five months after a military crackdown on militias, the gangland-style violence that once plagued the southern oil city is returning. The clergyman, Haidar Ismael, was shot in central Basra on Saturday night and seriously wounded.

According to the Associated Press, Ismael is known as a critic of Shiite militias blamed for much of the past violence in Basra. They include the Mahdi Army of Muqtada Sadr and the Badr Organization, the militia tied to the country's biggest Shiite political group. Basra has long been a center of the Badr-versus-Sadr rivalry, which was blamed for turning the city into a lawless den of abductions, murder and corruption.

A major military offensive launched in March drove militias off the streets, and Iraqi security forces replaced them, but lately, locals say there are signs the army is losing its grip. "We fear the city could fall again into the hands of political violence," a senior Iraqi army officer told the Los Angeles Times' reporter in Basra recently.

Like many others in Basra, he cited upcoming provincial elections expected this year as a reason for growing unrest. Some groups might oppose the vote, fearing a loss at the polls. Others want to put themselves in a position of increased power before any balloting takes place, to bolster their chances at the polls. The end result is bloodshed as gunmen loyal to various groups return to action.

In one of the worst attacks recently, gunmen ambushed a minivan carrying election workers, killing two of them.

When a secret report incriminating the Bahraini government leaked out to the media, newspapers were too worried to publish it. They turned, instead, to a young blogger to make the information public. 

At 30, Ali Abdulemam, a computer engineer, runs Bahrainonline.org, which is considered the largest online town hall for Bahraini activists and bloggers.

“Blogging has allowed us as Bahrainis to breathe some fresh air. As a blogger, you feel that you are helping your country,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times during a gathering for Arab bloggers organized in Beirut last weekend by a German organization, the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Abdulemam comes from a Shiite Muslim family that opposes the Sunni-dominated monarchy in Bahrain. Some of his relatives have been jailed for political activism. He was also arrested in 2005 and held for 17 days on charges of insulting the king because of a posting criticizing the royal family that appeared on his website. 

The idea of creating a blog came to him when he was 20, at a time when Bahrain was, what he called, an “oppressive” state run by the security services.

“I wanted to create a website where people inside and outside Bahrain could communicate and exchange information,” he said. “There was too little information in the media.”

The ongoing saga of U.S. and Iraqi attempts to hammer out a deal on the future of American forces in Iraq has taken a new twist with Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's declaration Monday that he won't accept any plan that does not include a withdrawal date for U.S. soldiers.

Maliki made his comments to a gathering of tribal leaders, and while some of it may have been grandstanding aimed at bolstering support, it was the first time the prime minister had publicly demanded a withdrawal deadline. As for the deadline, Maliki said U.S. and Iraqi negotiators had agreed on the end of 2011.

His comments make clear that Maliki is throwing down the gauntlet as time runs out for some sort of deal to be struck. The United States has insisted it does not want a withdrawal deadline. Any dates for troop departures must be contingent upon security conditions in Iraq being suitable for a handover to Iraqi control, according to the United States.

They sneak away from war and famine and head across the southern desert toward Cairo.

Smugglers hustle them north to the Sinai, where they crawl through tunnels and along barbed wire in attempts to reach Israel.

It is a well-trod journey thousands of Sudanese refugees and African migrants endure for a better life. But they are often arrested and shot at and sometimes killed by Egyptian border guards.

Amnesty International has asked Cairo to investigate the deaths of 25 refugees and asylum seekers killed by security forces since mid-2007. The human rights agency said Egypt had a right to protect its borders but that the country's "shameful treatment of sub-Saharan African migrants and vulnerable asylum seekers blatantly disregards international law."

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual guide to millions of Iraq’s Shiite majority, called eight local journalists to visit him Sunday as he sought to dispel rumors published in a Jordanian newspaper that he was seriously ill. Sistani, a reclusive cleric, has been one of the most influential voices in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. He used his moral authority to push the United States to allow elections in Iraq in January 2005 when U.S. officials had originally envisioned a longer timeframe. Sistani helped bring an end to the uprising waged by young radical cleric Muqtada Sadr in Najaf in August 2004. The frail cleric, who seldom leaves his house in Najaf, is a force to be reckoned with, whether by Americans or by politicians in Baghdad, who curry his favor.

Saad Fakhrildeen, The Times' special correspondent in Najaf, writes below about meeting the cleric in Sistani's office, located in an anonymous alleyway in the pilgrimage city.

By Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf

All eight of us were called in the morning to visit the grand ayatollah’s bureau. We were met by his son, Mohammed Ridha, who serves as his father’s top advisor. He welcomed us and said the media needed to dispel the rumors that crop up from time to time about the grand ayatollah, in particular the latest one that he was ill. Mohammed Ridha entered his father’s office first while we waited in a guest area drinking tea. He then left and beckoned for us to go inside. We thought it would be the same as in the past, where we would grip his hand and kiss it and then leave.

Sistani sat on a mattress, dressed in his black robes and matching turban. He shook our hands and we wished him success. He beckoned us to sit with him. We sat on both his left and right. The room had about seven thin mattresses and one large rug. A small plastic bag held coins. The lights went out briefly and then a generator started up and emitted a steady roar. Sitting with him, I was so happy, I wanted to cry.

Despite its emphasis on sexuality, Aiten Amin’s first short movie, “Her Man,” has gained wide acclaim among movie fans and several critics in Egypt. The rising director surprised many Muslim viewers with an unflinching glimpse into the sexual and moral codes of Egypt’s urban poor.

Given her economic dependency on her husband, Zeina, the movie’s leading character, was forced to submit to the latter’s decision to take a younger bride for his second wife and move her into the same house. Yet Zeina’s submission was not complete. Here lies the most incendiary component of the story: To oust her adversary, she slept with her, leaving a mark on her breast to make their common husband, Sobhi, think that his new wife was cheating on him.

“I liked the story because it is so dramatic and it reflects human complexity,” said Amin.

It's the height of summer in Israel and hot everywhere, end of story. When the choice is between hot and humid, and really hot and arid, taking to the desert really isn't as stupid as it sounds. And in spite of Eilat turning from a beatnik haven to a sometimes-tacky resort, it is still worth crossing the desert to the Israel's southernmost town.

Some are attracted to the town at the tip of the Red Sea for what it is now; others, for what it used to be.

For older Israelis, Eilat used to be a stop on the way to Sinai. Since the very last bit of it -- the 700 square meters (about 2,300 square feet) of Taba -- was returned to Egypt 20 years ago following a two-year long international arbitration, Eilat is the end of the road.

And it's a long road. More than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Jerusalem. And you either love the drive, or you hate it. 

The Los Angeles Times reports today on the Iraqi government's desire to disband the U.S.-funded Sunni paramilitaries, made up of former insurgents, who helped halt the country's open sectarian war. The U.S. military has watched as the government has dissolved the Sons of Iraq movement in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib and severely restricted it in the city of Baquba. 

The Iraqi army has arrested fighters, credited with bringing calm to the country, while others are on the run or now living in exile, like Abu Abed, who was the first man in Baghdad to wage a successful revolt against Al Qaeda in Iraq. 

The Iraqi government is lobbying to end the Sons of Iraq as soon as possible.

The U.S. military says its goal is for the paramilitaries to be dissolved by June. The Iraqi government wants it done sooner. The Americans have just handed all personnel information on the 99,000 Sons of Iraq fighters to Maliki and are talking about transferring the contracts to the Iraqi government for Baghdad and Baquba within the next two months, said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kulmayer, who is responsible for the program.

Below are portraits of some of the men who have served in the Sons of Iraq, one of whom is now a fugitive and another who talks about his past in the insurgency.

Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr has remained out of Iraq's political fray since spring, but the debate over a deal that would determine the future of American troops in Iraq has revived his fiery rhetoric and that of some of his more militant followers. A pro-Sadr song making the rounds in Baghdad and sold at local markets includes the lyrics: "We'll be back after this break ... the revolt will return and the lions will go again. It's an advertising break, then we'll strike back again."

Some Iraqis have downloaded it onto their cellular phones. The lyrics, an apparent attempt to warn Iraqis that Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has not gone away, have also been scrawled on walls in some Sadr strongholds. Not everyone finds this amusing. "This is proof that these people who pretended for a long time that they were serving Islam and Shiites have no real faith. They were just thugs using the name of Mahdi," said 72-year-old Abu Zaher as he looked at one such scrawl.

Questions remain about what exactly the draft agreement says regarding the date for withdrawal of American forces. U.S. and Iraqi officials have made a point of playing down suggestions that it sets a pullout date of 2011 if security is such that Iraq's security forces can take over.

God may have delivered Moses many things. He sent 10 plagues upon Pharaoh's Egypt and delivered the Israelites from slavery, and parted the seas for Moses and his people. He sent him manna from heaven, water from rock and his own words onto tablets of stone.

But he never sent him a printer.

DHL in Israel handles more than 100,000 deliveries every month and say they've seen it all. Except for a package sent by 'Yahweh' to 'Moses' (OK, so the mail's slow). The information on the shipping bill had an Arizona address for Yahweh and Moses at Mt. Sinai — but in Jerusalem. One would think He would know where Mt. Sinai was, and that Moses didn't make it into the promised land.

The Israeli side couldn't decide which was more baffling, the sender or the recipient. Tracing the sender's address located divinity in a branch of Walgreens in Tucson, AZ, but with a Seattle phone number. By divine coincidence, Moses shares the same zip code (the world was much smaller in those days). But in Israel it belongs to the small Bedouin community of Al Sayyid, a previously unrecognized Bedouin settlement recently granted legal status.

Funny names is one thing, bogus addresses another. With all due respect to celebrity, you can't be too careful. "Israel is exposed to threats. We called the bomb squad for fear the package contained explosives", explained senior DHL Israel executive Dr.Yisrael Schor to Ilan Gattegno, who first reported the story in the Israel Hayom Hebrew daily. The sappers blew up the package, decimating the contents, which turned out to be a cheap printer.

Walgreens, by the way, have in-house DHL shipping spots.

The mystery hasn't been entirely solved, though. Someone paid $200 for expedited shipping for a $30 printer. "There is no logical explanation for this," said Schor.

— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem.

Photo: The shipping bill that came with the package, courtesy of Israel Hayom website.

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from all over the Middle East, as well as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can subscribe by logging in at the website here, clicking on the box for "LA Times updates," and then clicking on the "World: Mideast" box.

From a giant representation of the olive-green cap he wore in the battlefield, to his personal assault rifle, his comb and the mat he prayed on, an exhibition commemorating the second anniversary of Hezbollah's latest war with Israel centered on the group's slain military commander, Imad Mughniyah.

Displaying charred remains of captured Israeli gear and equipment along with some of Mughniyah's personal belongings, the exhibition seeks to glorify the man and what the Lebanese Shiite militant group regards as his greatest achievement, the "divine victory" of the summer 2006 war.

In the category of Now It Can Be Told.

When the Marines were preparing to return to Iraq in 2004 to begin their counterinsurgency strategy, a mock Iraqi village was built in an abandoned apartment complex in Riverside.

Role-players were hired to portray insurgents and innocents alike. Scenarios were developed to test the Marines' patience and resourcefulness.

One particular scenario seemed to flummox the Marines: anything involving children, particularly babies.

So said Maj. Daniel Schmitt, who developed and ran the mock-village training, during testimony Thursday in a criminal trial of a former Marine in Riverside federal court. (The baby comment does not bear directly on the case but was used by Schmitt to show how Marines tried to anticipate all potential inter-actions with Iraqi civilians.)

To get the troops used to dealing with women holding babies, Marines deployed to Kmart and bought a bunch of life-sized dolls. The dolls were then handed out to female role-players for use during the scenarios so Marines could begin to distinguish between a baby and a bomb.

"The toy babies increased the complexity," Schmitt testified.

— Tony Perry, in Riverside

Photo: (Real) Iraqi child with Marine helmet. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from all over the Middle East, as well as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can subscribe by logging in at the website here, clicking on the box for "LA Times updates," and then clicking on the "World: Mideast" box.

A showdown is brewing in the Mediterranean waters off the Gaza Strip.

Early Friday morning, a pair of boats carrying an international array of activists will set sail from Cyprus with the intention of landing in the Gaza Strip. Their cargo isn't much: a load of hearing aids and several thousand balloons to pass out to children.

But organizers say the symbolic importance could set a precedent that shakes up the current status quo in Gaza.

"The idea is to go and break the siege," said participant Jeff Halper, in a phone interview from Cyprus. "Israel claims there's no occupation anymore. If that's the case then there should be no problem with  us going to Gaza. And if they do prevent us, then it proves that there's still an occupation."

The long-suffering bill that would govern Iraq's oil industry and divvy up oil wealth has been stalled more than a year, bogged down in political squabbling and symbolic of problems rippling below the surface here despite success on the security front.

Just last year, U.S. and Iraqi officials repeatedly announced that passage of the oil bill was imminent. The bill was seen as crucial to laying the groundwork for long-term security and political reconciliation in Iraq, since it would guarantee equal distribution of the oil profits on which Iraq's economy depends.

Now, the topic rarely comes up, and when it does, it is in a far more sober context.

At a recent meeting with journalists in Baghdad, the U.S. Embassy's outgoing economic ambassador, Charles Ries, admitted that political differences blocking passage of the so-called hydrocarbon bill are too entrenched to predict when it might become law.

"I was quite optimistic when I got here," said Ries, who arrived in July 2007. "I was quite optimistic it was only a month or two" before the bill passed. "The more I understood what the real issues were … it was clear this was going to be a major political challenge," said Ries.