A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of residents in seven Muslim countries found a surprising degree of public sentiment in favor of the International Criminal Court's indictment of Sudanese President Ahmad al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions in Darfur.

While the African Union, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference rejected the indictment and refused to arrest the president if he ever visited one of their countries (part of the condition of the indictment was that Bashir be arrested if he left Sudan), the leaders of such organizations may not reflect the view at the grass roots, said Stephen Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org:

In the countries where a plurality of those surveyed approved of the indictment, the support wasn't necessarily overwhelming. Only in Kenya and Nigeria was the approval rate more than 70 percent. In Turkey the result was 51 percent in favor and 22 percent against, and in Pakistan it was 39 percent to 32 percent. Meanwhile, respondents in Egypt and Iraq disapproved by a narrow margin. Only in the Palestinian Territories did respondents overwhelmingly oppose the ICC's action

After the ICC announced the indictment of Bashir in March 2009, the African Union opened fire against the court, saying that it seeks punishment only against the African continent. African leaders also asked why their countries were so often in the ICC's cross-hairs. Bashir argued that the indictment was purely political, and pushed out foreign aid groups after the March announcement. In fact, at this month's African Union summit, the leaders again rejected ICC's call for Bashir's arrest and Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi said the ICC represented "new world terrorism."

Such harsh reaction makes this poll's results all the more surprising, as residents of the African nations were found to be the ones most in favor of the indictment. Surveys like this make me doubt the representativeness and multilateral nature of such organizations as the African Union and the Arab League, whose purpose is to accurately represent the needs and sentiments of their people.

Read the poll here.

Photo: Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir arrives at an African Union summit in Sirte, Libya on July 2. Credit: AP Photo / Abdel Magid al Fergany.

Here's a look at the blogosphere's reactions to the work of the Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division this week:

The Real Clear World blog responds to Andrew Bacevich's op-ed on the White House's overlooking of strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq in favor of tactics:

Musings, a blog discussing culture, politics, and education, took offense at the Opinion L.A piece about Amnesty International's recent report that accused Israel of "wanton destruction" and Hamas of "war crimes" in the December conflict in the Gaza Strip. The writer disagreed with the post's assertion that both sides were blamed, saying that the report's full text put much more blame on Israel for the war.

The Oy Vay blog, featuring the voice of a self-proclaimed Jewish conservative on various issues, liked Patt Morrison's post on her disgust with the cash-strapped city of Los Angeles' commitment to using taxpayer money to pay for the security detail for Michael Jackson's funeral.

And the Opinion L.A. poll urging fans to boo Manny's return to Dodger Stadium on July 16 made it onto the Major League Baseball's Fanhouse blog:

Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugged blog praised John Bolton's op-ed piece that stated the only way to fix Iran is to institute regime change in the country:

The War Victims Monitor blog re-posted, sans comment, Ahmed Rashid's op-ed on Pakistan's more serious commitment to getting rid of the Taliban and its influences, and the need for strong international support to complete a successful campaign against the militants.

Ron Radosh of Pajamas Media was not a fan of the L.A. Times' coverage of I.F. Stone, both in the op-ed section and the book reviews, implying that the paper overlooked the unsavory parts of the journalist and radical's past.

The Guardian UK's Haroon Siddique included Michael Carey's op-ed on the beginning of Sarah Palin's end in a wrap-up of skeptical articles regarding the Alaska governor's motives for resigning abruptly.

Finally, a few blogs picked up on Jonah Goldberg's column about the Washington Post salon, which charged $25,000 a ticket for dinner at publisher Katharine Weymouth's home and promised networking with top Obama administration officials and the Post reporters who cover them.

The Open Secrets blog linked to Goldberg's piece in their rehashing of the Post's response that claimed they would amend any business practices that weren't clear.

And Chicago Boyz, a blog composed of many different voices, said the following about WaPo after linking to the column:

Today's memorial service for Michael Jackson at the privately owned Staples Center reminds The Times editorial board of a sad fact of life in Los Angeles: It's a city without a public square. Though the backers of LA Live once promised that the downtown entertainment mall would become L.A.'s version of Times Square, the fact remains that it's a private space whose owners can bar the public anytime they choose.

We also weigh in on President Obama's trip to Russia, which isn't expected to accomplish much -- but even a small thaw in relations between the two countries, and the modest improvement represented by the nuclear weapons pact concluded Monday, is better than the chilly status quo.

And we ponder the lessons to be learned from the example of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who died Monday at 93. Though many see parallels between the mistakes made in Iraq and the mistakes made by McNamara in Vietnam, we think the larger lesson is that using yesterday's solutions to today's problems is often the pathway to failure.

Over on the opposite page, columnist Jonah Goldberg thinks all the sturm und drang over the canceled "salons" by the Washington Post, in which lobbyists were invited to pay heavily to attend get-togethers with the newspaper's journalists and top politicians, amounts to little more than posing. After all, many publications offer similar meet-and-greet opportunities, Goldberg says.

The hand-wringing over genetically modified foods, meanwhile, reminds author Tom Standage of another food-related hysteria from a few centuries ago -- over the potato. When the tubers were first discovered in the New World, Europeans feared they were a dangerous, unholy poison. They got over it, just as they'll probably eventually get over their irrational fears about improved crops.

And psychiatry professor Sander L. Gilman cautions against jumping to conclusions about Michael Jackson's cosmetic surgery. True, the King of Pop clearly was fond of surgical reshaping, but that doesn't necessarily indicate self-loathing.

* Illustration by Bob Daly / For the Times

Amnesty International, a London-based human rights group, released a report today accusing Israel of "wanton destruction" and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas of "war crimes," each committed during the 22 violent days last December in the Gaza Strip.

But both Israel and Hamas deny the claims and are shouting, yet again, about why the other side didn't receive more of a rebuke for the atrocities committed.

Said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, "Things presented as facts are untrue and have no connection to reality." He was most likely referring to the high death toll the report cited and the judgment that Israel's attacks could not "be justified on grounds of military necessity."

On the other side, Hamas rejected the report because it did not chastise the Israeli military enough for the actions it committed against Palestine.

The report, as with the United Nations' inquiry that is currently gathering evidence on the conflict, sought to dispel the myths and rumors that have added to already high tensions in the region, particularly the assertion that Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields (a claim the report said had no basis in fact). Instead, the report said Israeli soldiers effectively turned Palestinians into human shields by forcing them to stay in the homes that soldiers used as makeshift military bases.

As with any dispute between Palestinians and Israelis, there was no admission of shared fault, no statement that "we both committed war crimes, killed civilians and launched rockets across borders." That seems hard to contest, yet each side tried its best to do so -- as it always does. A microcosm of the larger conflict, the reactions to the report show why no progress is being made, and why this event will leave a scar on the relationship for years to come.

Photo: Palestinian children play in front of their ruined houses, hit during Israel's 22-day offensive over Gaza, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip today. Credit: Said Khatib / AFP/Getty Images

On the Op-Ed page today, John P. Hannah, security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney during President George W. Bush's second term, evaluates whether Iraq is ready for the looming withdrawal of U.S. troops from its cities. His conclusion is that President Obama is effectively giving up on Iraq before the job is done:

While Hannah argues that Obama's focus in the Middle East has shifted to Iran and he'd rather be done with Iraq, isn't the pulling out of troops and the handing of power to a government we helped build part of getting the job done? Even Bush was not planning on staying in Iraq forever, but that's the track we've been on since the 2003 invasion. Retreating our troops so the Iraqi police can take over the security of Iraqi cities may be the right step to the conclusion for which Hannah is calling.

Criminal Justice Professor Eric J. Williams writes to another aspect of the Bush administration's legacy: Guantanamo Bay. Williams specifically responds to the surprise expressed by many Republican politicians over a myriad of rural towns asking for the Gitmo detainees, as prisons have become an economic remedy for such towns that have lost staple industries.

The two other Op-Eds today offer more hopeful ruminations.

In just the last 13 days since the disputed June 12 election, Iran has become the world's leading jailer of journalists.

A report released Tuesday by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran listed the names of 23 Iranian journalists who have been arrested and detained by the government. Additionally, more than 100 political personalities and members of the reformers' presidential campaigns have also been arrested. The group confirmed 31 dead (though only four named), many of whom were students like Neda Aghasoltan, now the face of the opposition movement.

The report also revealed that many of those arrested were detained in their own homes by plain-clothed police officers -- and many were not participating in protests when arrested.

In a blatant disregard for freedom of speech, a right Iran vowed to protect when it signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, government officials raided the Kalameh Sabz on Monday, June 22 -- a reformist newspaper owned by opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Every person in the office at that time was arrested (CPJ estimates that number to be around 25 people), bringing the total number of Iranian journalists arrested up to about 40 -- most of whom are still in custody.

Currently, there are two foreign journalists also being detained, one Iranian-Canadian journalist and one Greek photo journalist working for the Washington Times. Iason Athanasiadis, whose work was on exhibit at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles in January, attempted to capture facets of Iranian life and culture -- especially of the youth -- since the 1979 revolution.

The climate in Iran is such that no journalist can safely report the events in Iran, said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, program coordinator of the Middle East and North Africa program for the Committee to Protect Journalists. The few foreign reporters who have not been either kicked out by an expiring visa or the government's fist are told that they are not allowed to leave their offices and can only rely on reporting done over the phone or use information fed to them by the state media conglomerate. How can those of us outside Iran trying to peer in get a decent glimpse of what's actually happening?

It seems that we cannot. And while Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, among other social networking sites, have been instrumental in showing the world at least part of what's happening, Dayem warns that it's often not the full -- or correct -- story.

There is a great amount of information that came out [through social networking sites]. Had those services not existed, that material would have not reached a worldwide audience as journalists have been sidelined. You do have to weed through a lot of inaccurate information and outright falsehoods and false truths and everything in between.

Abdel Dayem said that the Committee to Protect Journalists cross-checks every lead they get on Twitter or Facebook, but the verification process can be painstakingly lengthy, sometimes taking more than 10 days just to find out if one journalist has been arrested or not.

So Iran has effectively taken control of the mainstream media, taking extra care to filter what information is released and what gets reported. But the newly sworn-in government is doing so at a high cost. With its swift denial of the inherent freedom of speech and expression, Iran has lost credibility and trust with its citizens and the world over.

Photo: A picture shows the June 13, 2009 issue of Iranian newspaper Kalemeh Sabz (Green Word), owned by defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, in Tehran on June 24, 2009. Iran has arrested 25 journalists and other staff working for the newspaper, one of its editors told AFP on June 24. The arrests come after Kalemeh Sabz was shut down by the authorities in the wake of the June 12 disputed election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office. BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images.

The editorial board applauds Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's decision to stay in Los Angeles and forfeit a gubernatorial run (in 2010, at least), calling the decision a second chance for both the newly re-elected mayor and the city of Los Angeles to "prove they were right for each other":

Voters elected Villaraigosa in 2005 in the belief that he would do that. They reelected him -- a smattering of them did, anyway -- this year in part because their mayor was so skilled at getting the most viable challengers not to run. The city now wrestles with a palpable disappointment in Villaraigosa, not just because of budget woes or bad schools but because of his failure to live up to expectations that he helped to inflate. That's a hard way for a mayor to enter a second term. Still, we credit him for deciding to enter it with both feet, instead of one pointed toward Sacramento.

The editorial board also supports President Barack Obama's continued prudent response to the increasingly violent Iranian protests and his refusal to make any strong statements toward the government or the opposition:

A fraught U.S.-Iranian history argues against more direct intervention, starting with the U.S. role in overthrowing elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, and including U.S. support for the shah over the revolutionary forces that brought the Islamic government to power in 1979. Add in the subsequent hostage crisis, plus decades of mutual hostility over regional conflicts and nuclear weapons, and it becomes clear why more forceful action from Obama could backfire. He must continue to protest the bloodshed, but he cannot hand Iranian hard-liners a stick with which to beat the opposition.

And the board welcomes the U.S. Supreme Court's upholding of a key provision in the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the notion of pre-clearance, meaning that states and localities with a history of abridging the right to vote must get clearance by the federal government before changing their election laws.

On the Op-Ed side of the fold, one finds a different take on many of the same issues. Politico-turned-academic Dan Schnur, while not surprised by Villaraigosa's decision not to run in the governor's race, said he expects the mayor to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. Columnist Jonah Goldberg argues that Obama cannot win with his stance on Iran and must give up his "ideological" approach:

As an unnamed Iran expert in contact with White House officials told Foreign Policy's Laura Rozen, "Obama is dedicated to diplomacy in a manner that is almost ideological.... He wants to do some stuff in the Middle East over the next eight years. He may not be able to achieve half of them unless he gets this huge piece of the puzzle [Iran] right."

Finally, author Greg Critser warns of the dangeous effects of air pollution not just on heart and lungs but also on brain and fetal development. A solution? Researchers are working on it, Critser writes, but in the meantime, government should enforce the new regulations on truck exhaust as well as those that require improved filtering systems in schools, and map "emissions hot spots" in Los Angeles so people know which areas to avoid.

The Times editorial page today points out that General Motors' bankruptcy filing is a chance to make a formal, forceful break with a history of inferior workmanship and design that has tattered its reputation. The public is willing to forgive a car company for its financial failings, but only if it makes cars people want to buy.

We also weigh in on the murder of Dr. George Tiller, which is being used by pro-choice groups as an opportunity to bash abortion opponents -- suggesting that the responsibility for his death is shared by the entire pro-life movement. Some arguments from anti-abortion groups are thinly veiled incitements to violence, but "it's unfair to ask abortion activists to muffle their message because it might inspire an unbalanced individual to commit an atrocity."

Finally, we note that the election of Mauricio Funes as president of El Salvador, who represents a party that was once a Marxist guerrilla group that fought for 12 years against U.S.-backed governments, isn't quite the grim news for American interests that it may appear. Funes is an admirer of President Barack Obama who has stocked his cabinet with economic pragmatists.

On the Op-Ed page, columnist Jonah Goldberg says the hubbub over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's statements about her superior wisdom as a Latina gives liberals the chance to have that dialogue on race they're always saying they want to begin -- yet they're running away from the issue as fast as they can.

Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, gives President Obama some tips about what to say and do during his Middle Eastern trip. Such as: Don't fall for the illusion that there's such thing as the "Muslim world," and focus instead on practical country-by-country strategies.

Finally, Gina M. Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, bemoans the Schwarzenegger administration's proposal to shut down a small state agency -- the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment -- that costs next to nothing to run but that has made dramatic strides in protecting Californians from dangerous chemicals.

The Times received some 25 letters responding to comedian Bill Maher's Op-Ed about Republicans and the Tea Party protests.  We published a few in Wednesday's letters.

Wrote Rod Hallock, of Chino Hills:

Bill Maher makes the same mistakes as other pundits when he writes that he doesn't know what the "tea party" protests were all about and then goes on to imply that it is all about President Obama's race.

I went to the protest in Yorba Linda because I am concerned about the inevitable inflation that will result from spending trillions of dollars we do not have to spend. I am retired, after planning carefully to not need public assistance, and cannot afford a hidden tax increase disguised as inflation. The president and other advocates of irresponsible spending have picked up where the people who used their houses as ATM machines left off. Expect the same results.

Solana Beach's Paul Debban thought Maher could have done a better job arguing his case:

Come on, Bill. You know the "tea parties" were about too-high taxes and too-high government spending. So instead of defending these policies, you chose to write a name-calling rant.

This should be beneath someone who has his own political commentary show. We are laughing at you, not with you.

Linda Winders, of Culver City, loved the piece:

Bill Maher, you are so right. What is bothering Republicans is the plain fact that they lost the last two elections and haven't a clue what to do to clean up their sorry act.

Instead of acting like grown-ups and working together with the new guy, they can do nothing but pout and rant and call Obama silly names. The only "leaders" they have are a bunch of right-wing extremist radio and TV blowhards who don't care about the welfare of this nation and do nothing but incite hatred and prejudice.

Hey, GOP, I've got a flash for you: You were beaten fair and square by Obama, an intelligent, hardworking guy who will get this nation back on its feet, even if you won't lift a hand to help him do it. If you want to get back into power, the smart move would be to work with him so you get some of the credit.

If you want to become completely irrelevant, keep doing what you're doing. The only ones who will pay attention are your base, a group that is shrinking every day.

Letters about swine flu and healthcare for illegal immigrants, prisons and the mentally ill, the death of a pedestrian and the Wall Street bailout, too.

Photo: A protester in Atlanta, April 15.  Credit: John Bazemore/AP.

During the week ending April 11, The Times received a rather sparse 430 usable letters -- perhaps spring break is slowing writers down -- just 134 of which were in our Top Five Topics.

• Limbaugh challenge: 39 letters, reacting to four essays from prominent local liberals accepting Andrew Klavan's Limbaugh Challenge;
• Obama's trip: 31 letters, about President Obama's swing through Europe and the Near East;
• Binghamton shootings: 26 letters, reacting to a tragic shooting spree in an upstate New York immigrant center;
• Ana's story: 20 letters, responding to Times reporter Thomas Curwen's two-part series about neurofibromatosis sufferer Ana Rodarte; and
• North Korean rocket: 18 letters, focusing on North Korea's rocket launch and what it means for the world.

How the Top Five is tabulated: Each week, your letters maven receives thousands of e-mails, dozens of letters through the good old U.S. postal service, and even a few faxes here and there.

After she cuts out spam, obscene mail, letters addressed to more than one recipient, letters that seem to be the fruit of letter-writing campaigns and letters with attachments (which gum up our computer systems), she is usually left with several hundred eligible items, represented in the Letters Top Five tally. From these, she selects the somewhere around 100 that get published in the newspaper. Faxes and snail mail are not reflected in the chart.