Minstrel Boy

DoD Buzz | Report: Army cancels Humvee Recap, places bets on JLTV

2012-01-29T21:56:00.000-05:00

DoD Buzz | Report: Army cancels Humvee Recap, places bets on JLTV

Spending millions to rebuild the Army’s aging Humvee fleet apparently stopped making sense up on Capitol Hill.

Defense leaders, especially those in the Marine Corps, had said it was fool hardy to spend slightly less to rebuild the old fleet rather than invest in new trucks that will last longer. However, Congress pushed back pointing out how each service has recently struggled to deliver new vehicles.

AOL Defense reported last night that Congress has finally listened to those pleas from the Pentagon and agreed to cancel the Humvee Recapitalization program in the forthcoming defense budget with those funds transferred over to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program.

It took a last minute compromise between the Army and the Marine Corps to save JLTV from Congress’ ever sharpening budget axe. However, an agreement to ease off strict weight requirements sliced $80,000 off the per vehicle cost of the JLTV.

Defense officials intended to replace the entire Humvee fleet with the JLTV. Spiraling costs and missed deadlines caused Army and Marine Corps officials to amend those expectations. Army leaders now want to replace a third of its 150,000-Humvee fleet with the JLTV and Marine generals plan to buy 5,500.

Of course, the JLTV would never have had to compete with the Humvee recap if the program had run smoothly. But thus is life in the defense acquisition world where a program that meets a deadline is the outlier....

-bth: The humvee has been made permanently obsolete by the IED. It still is useful for noncombat situations so much of the US could be supported by the older vehicles. JLTV has been plagued by contract mismanagement and spiraling costs. Its astonishing how bad the Army and Marines are at managing these programs.

Religious parties to stand against restoration of Nato supply – The Express Tribune

2012-01-29T19:46:00.000-05:00

Religious parties to stand against restoration of Nato supply – The Express Tribune

MULTAN: Even if the government decides to restore Nato’s supply route, the country’s religious parties plan to stand against the end of nearly two-month long blockade.

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawar Hassan said on Sunday that any resolution submitted in parliament favouring restoration of US Nato supply routes would be a step against Pakistan....

Trade: Case of clean-tech theft simmers in Washington ahead of China talks -- 01/27/2012 -- www.eenews.net

2012-01-29T14:31:00.000-05:00

Trade: Case of clean-tech theft simmers in Washington ahead of China talks -- 01/27/2012 -- www.eenews.net

U.S government trade agencies and members of Congress are quietly weighing in on allegations of corporate espionage involving China's largest wind turbine manufacturer.

Devens, Mass.-based American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) is accusing China's Sinovel Wind Group, the world's second-largest wind turbine maker, of stealing valuable trade secrets, copying protected software used for controlling turbines and canceling purchase agreements with the U.S. technology company.

Tied up in Beijing courts, the episode has the makings of industrial sabotage if the allegations are true, including that Sinovel had agreed to pay $1.7 million to a 38-year-old former AMSC employee based in Austria to funnel detailed trade secrets to China. It also ties into a political narrative in the United States, where business groups have pressed Washington to address concerns about Chinese piracy that range from intellectual property theft to hacking computers at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce....

-bth: reading the full article you see there is a clear case of industrial espionage going on. Further this was not isolated to AMSC but included solar and wind systems from other companies. We are browbeating our American companies but politicians seem willing to allow this kind of conduct go unchecked because it is China and they are afraid. In the meantime promising technology companies are being decimated without effective legal recourse.

Will Israel Attack Iran? - NYTimes.com

2012-01-29T12:26:00.000-05:00

Will Israel Attack Iran? - NYTimes.com

... Asked if it was possible to stop a determined Iran from becoming a nuclear power, Eitan replied: “No. In the end they’ll get their bomb. The way to fight it is by changing the regime there. This is where we have really failed. We should encourage the opposition groups who turn to us over and over to ask for our help, and instead, we send them away empty-handed.”...

-bth: an article well worth reading in full.

My Faith: What people talk about before they die – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

2012-01-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

My Faith: What people talk about before they die – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

...

... What I did not understand when I was a student then, and what I would explain to that professor now, is that people talk to the chaplain about their families because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives. That is how we talk about the big spiritual questions of human existence.

We don't live our lives in our heads, in theology and theories. We live our lives in our families: the families we are born into, the families we create, the families we make through the people we choose as friends.

This is where we create our lives, this is where we find meaning, this is where our purpose becomes clear.

Family is where we first experience love and where we first give it. It's probably the first place we've been hurt by someone we love, and hopefully the place we learn that love can overcome even the most painful rejection.

This crucible of love is where we start to ask those big spiritual questions, and ultimately where they end....

We don’t have to use words of theology to talk about God; people who are close to death almost never do. We should learn from those who are dying that the best way to teach our children about God is by loving each other wholly and forgiving each other fully - just as each of us longs to be loved and forgiven by our mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Kerry Egan.

-bth: a beautiful and well written article on love and family.

Dance of the Spirits: Incredible Real Time Northern Lights from Jan 24 Solar Storm - YouTube

2012-01-29T05:19:00.000-05:00

Dance of the Spirits: Incredible Real Time Northern Lights from Jan 24 Solar Storm - YouTube

Dealing with Death

2012-01-28T23:12:00.000-05:00

Dealing with Death from Bedford TV on Vimeo.

bth: This is an excellent conversation among people I highly respect about a difficult and profound topic which inevitably embraces us all.

The limits of the Pakistan-China alliance | Expert Zone

2012-01-28T18:19:00.000-05:00

The limits of the Pakistan-China alliance | Expert Zone

... China’s concerns about the future development of Pakistan will likely limit the extent to which it will help Pakistan out of its economic difficulties. While China has an interest in maintaining strong security ties with Pakistan, the notion that Chinese ties could serve as a replacement for U.S. ties is far-fetched. Instead of wringing its hands over Chinese influence with Pakistan, the U.S. should seek Beijing’s cooperation in encouraging a more stable and prosperous Pakistan.

- bth: this article is well worth reading in full. I do find its timing interesting from the Heritage Foundation. It seems to be calling the bluff of Pakistan with regard to the China card.

On recent events in Pakistan and US - Pakistani negotiations by media interviews and news articles

2012-01-28T12:43:00.004-05:00

It would seem the US and Pakistanis are negotiating a deal via news interviews of late, many of them have been posted on this blog over the last few weeks with increasing frequency.

The Pakistani army and government are essentially saying they will open the border to NATO supply columns but it will cost cold hard cash. The US is replying that they don't have to have the southern supply lines opened as slack was being taken up by the air and northern routes, but if a deal were possible it must cost less than the extra cost it is paying from the north. Meanwhile the Taliban is stepping up its tempo and the allies are slowing down. Oh and Russia and its former republics are making a killing shaking us down and negotiating an anti-missile ballistic treaty at the same time.

Then the Panetta claims that the Pak Army must have known about OBL and by the way the US wants the safe release of the doctor arrested for 'treason' for tipping off the CIA. Now the obvious question is why is it treason to help capture the worst terrorist in modern times? Panetta makes clear though that we want him out of Pakistan in good condition.

Meanwhile Pakistan has suggested that the thousands of trucks stuck in transit in Pakistan could be attacked by terrorists and that the price of fuel in Afghanistan for civilians is being jacked by allies buying off the open market (likely). No doubt some will start to go up in flames, probably near army bases and in sight of insurance adjusters. The US responds by interviewing truck drivers in Pakistan that are being bankrupted by the embargo. Pak then says it would need millions if not billions to fix the damaged roads caused by the trucks.

The US and Pak are at loggerheads over the shooting of 24 border guards as if the Pakistani Army really cared. Then by the way its leaked that Mossad did a false flag operation into Iran via Baluchistan impersonating CIA operatives. Now Pak and Iran are busy shooting each other's smugglers, border guards and fishermen and oddly enough relatives aren't claiming the bodies which means they are likely not local and there for other reasons than the economic efficiencies of smuggling. Oh and by the way the Paks are shaking down Afghan truck drivers carrying civilian goods to get some extra spending money.

All the while the Islamist parties in Pak are stirring the pot of social unrest and the Pak government and army are suggesting that if they left, then look what the international community would have to deal with.

So we know the US has a price they are willing not to exceed per month for a truck tariff. We know that the US wants the doctor out of harms way, Pakistan to put tagants in its ammonium nitrate fertilizers and to get Pak to be serious about counter terrorism otherwise we'll start naming names as Panetta just said Pak Army helicopters had been identified flying over OBL's compound prior to the raid. Pak wants cash for trucks and probably more for the good doctor and no country - US, India, Afghanistan or Iran encroaching on its patch; and a free trade zone for cotton products might not be a bad idea either.

Curious how this is all going down. In the meantime the US DoD is raiding its budget to pay for skyrocketing supply costs, not to mention a way out of Afghanistan after 2014 and Pakistan has run out of cash for its army, its fuel subsidies and food. Pakistan is ready to blow and not even the Army wants to overthrow the civilian government and take charge of the wreckage.

I leave with this, has any country ever won a war where its enemies controlled its supply lines? I can't think of one. Why would Afghanistan be any different?

Map with Ethnic breakdown along Pak/Afghan/Iran/Indian border areas

2012-01-28T11:52:00.001-05:00

map

Iran Kills Six Pakistanis in Latest Border Incident; Iran Silent (Updated) | emptywheel

2012-01-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

Iran Kills Six Pakistanis in Latest Border Incident; Iran Silent (Updated) | emptywheel

Six more Pakistanis have been killed by Iranian border agents. The incident has been noted widely in the press in Pakistan, but I find no reports on the incident originating in Iran. This latest incident follows three fishermen killed by Iran around December 7 (although at least one report says there were four killed by Iran in the incident) and three Iranian border guards crossing into Pakistan on January 2 to kill a Pakistani national they were chasing. The guards were detained by Pakistan and released on January 15 after Iran paid blood money to the family of the victim.

The fishing incidents of course were in the coastal waters around the southernmost part of the Iran-Pakistan border and the latest incident was also near the southern end of the border. The January 2 incident was a bit farther north, about halfway to the southern edge of Afghanistan....

-bth: this article is worth reading in full. Note that families have not claimed the bodies. What is happening on the Pak/Iranian border?

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - ANALYSIS: Voices from FATA and the panic — III —Farhat Taj

2012-01-28T11:34:00.000-05:00

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - ANALYSIS: Voices from FATA and the panic — III —Farhat Taj

.... Families of the target killed leaders hold officers of the Pakistan Army and the ISI stationed in Waziristan at the time responsible for the killings. The government of Pakistan never had any impartial investigations to verify the claims of the families. But it is pertinent to note that the so-called ‘free’ media of Pakistan usually follows the military establishment’s line on matters related to the Afghan policy, including an uncritical dissemination and promotion of the distorted information about the events on both sides of the Durand Line. This context of the media-military alliance of Pakistan seems to explain why the perspective of the family members of the target killed tribal leaders has never been accommodated by the media. Large sections of the international media, which has no independent access to FATA, have also breached professional standards by uncritically projecting the information and narratives picked up from the Pakistani media.

The families of the target killed leaders do not view the militants based in Waziristan, including foreign militants, as anything more than an ‘irregular’ army of the state who were and still to this date are ordered by the regular army commanders based in Waziristan to carry out the killings in order to silence the tribal opposition to the state’s Afghan policy through terror. Moreover, the militants are also directed for cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan. Secondly, the establishment, the family members argue, needs this kind of irregular army for the ‘necessary’ acts of terrorism to plausibly deny any state involvement in them and thus continue their double-dealing in the war on terror.

In terms of state control, several people draw a parallel between the Taliban fighters and the soldiers of the FC, a paramilitary force of Pakistan. The FC soldiers are abused in all kinds of brutal ways by the military establishment and these poor men from the poorest Pashtun families continue to suffer in silence. The Taliban are, in the words of some of the affected family members, like the ‘irregular’ FC soldiers of the military establishment and they just execute the orders given by their handlers from the Pakistan Army. The Taliban fighters are also eliminated by the state’s agents when they are no more useful for the state in its double-dealing in the war on terror whereby the Pakistan Army ostensibly fights the Taliban but tacitly recruits, trains and arms them in order to beat the US in Afghanistan and to create a reign of terror in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan to assure the world that the Pakistani Pashtun are enraged by the US attack on Afghanistan. ...

-bth: this opinion piece from the Daily Times of Pakistan is worth reading in full.

JUI-F FATA leader gunned down in Peshawar – The Express Tribune

2012-01-28T11:28:00.000-05:00

JUI-F FATA leader gunned down in Peshawar – The Express Tribune

PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen shot dead the head of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl’s Landi Kotal chapter in Peshawar’s Shahi Bagh area, police said on Wednesday.

Gul Rehman Afridi was returning home from an evening walk as per his routine, when motorcyclists intercepted him and opened indiscriminate fire, DSP Tariq Habib told The Express Tribune.

Some children who were playing in a nearby park noted down the motorcycle’s registration number, the DSP said.

He said that Afridi received three bullets, two in his chest and one in his head. An FIR has been registered against unidentified men and investigations had begun, he said.

This is the second attack on a JUI-F leader this month. On January 2, a local leader was killed and his driver was seriously injured when attackers opened fire at their vehicle in Lakki Marwat.

‘We will make Pakistan an Islamic welfare state’:JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman – The Express Tribune

2012-01-28T11:26:00.000-05:00

‘We will make Pakistan an Islamic welfare state’:JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman – The Express Tribune

KARACHI: Chairman Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Friday that the JUI-F would sweep elections if only the establishment stops interfering.

Addressing the “Islam Zindabad” rally in Karachi Fazlur Rehman responded to a popular criticism that his party never won many votes in elections, said that if establishment stops influencing elections, they would win.

The JUI-F chief continued to target the establishment saying Pakistan was made as an Islamic and welfare state, however, the security establishment had transformed it into a security state.

He also answered criticism from some quarters that the JUI-F wanted sharia by force. “It is said that we want the enforcement of sharia at gun point,” he said adding this was false.

Yet, today, Rehman said, 60 per cent of the budget was dedicated to defence where on the other hand people were dying from starvation.

He said that the people in the west were protesting at the Wall Street are fed up of their capitalistic banking system and are demanding for “an Islamic banking system,” and that this was part of the overall downfall of the west.

Referring to the War on Terror said the US and its allied forces were losing in Afghanistan and their economic system was crashing, which has prompted their poor citizens to protest against their rulers and their policies....

-bth: original article is worth reading in full.

e-Ariana - Pakistani blockade squeezing availability of vehicle fuel

2012-01-28T07:19:00.000-05:00

e-Ariana - Todays Afghan News

As fuel becomes scarcer and pricier in the Afghan capital Kabul, many are pointing the finger at NATO for buying up oil products domestically to make up for blocked supplies from Pakistan.

NATO has been unable to bring in fuel across the Pakistan border since late November, when Islamabad imposed a blockade and choked off a major supply artery for the 130,000-strong American-led force.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington have been deteriorating fast, and Pakistan closed the route in protest at a NATO airstrike on its border that killed 24 of its soldiers on November 26.

Since then, the United States has had to pay six times as much to import supplies via alternative routes, according to an Associated Press report on January 20.

While most of NATO’s supplies are now coming in via Uzbekistan along a route known as the Northern Distribution Network, NDN. Even before Pakistan closed down the supply route, NATO was switching over to the NDN because of frequent attacks on convoys on the roads south. US officials say 85 per cent of the fuel for the military now come from the north.

Afghan businessmen say the international force is topping this up with purchases inside the country. This is affecting the market, forcing up prices and making petrol and public transport more expensive for the locals.

Farid Alokozay, head of the government agency responsible for petroleum products, said NATO was increasingly buying in fuel from domestic firms.

Mohammad Qorban Haqjo, chief executive of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, confirmed that 20 local firms had signed a lucrative fuel supply deal with NATO.

“The contract was signed recently and is worth one billion dollars,” he said, adding that some of the firms belonged to relatives of senior Afghan officials....

BBC News - Is Pakistan's economy facing potential collapse?

2012-01-28T06:50:00.000-05:00

BBC News - Is Pakistan's economy facing potential collapse?
... Critics of Mr Gilani say that in the face of his government's dismal economic performance, his upbeat statements show the government is either in denial or ignorant of realities.

"During the last four years, we have seen four governors change hands at the State Bank of Pakistan, four finance ministers, four finance secretaries, and five heads of the Central Board of Revenue," points out Dr Ashfaq Hasan Khan, a former adviser to Pakistan's Ministry of Finance.

Mr Gilani came to office in 2008 amid turmoil on the world's financial markets

"The level of turnover in the government's economic team only reflects the inconsistency and confusion with which they have handled the economy."

But Pakistani officials insist that after a difficult patch, the economy is showing signs of bouncing back. Figures from the first six months of the current fiscal year show significant improvement in remittances and exports - mostly led by cotton crop production, which was much better than expected.

With foreign exchange reserves at about $16bn (£10.2bn), the government says it is optimistic that the economy will grow at a little less than 4% this year....

-bth: Pakistan has A-bombs but no economy or cash. Saudi Arabia could pick up a bomb on the cheap if they wanted if they haven't already.

US Defense Chief Concerned by Pakistan’s Treatment of Doctor « VOA Breaking News

2012-01-28T06:40:00.000-05:00

US Defense Chief Concerned by Pakistan’s Treatment of Doctor « VOA Breaking News

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says he is concerned about a Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. find al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Panetta told the CBS-TV program 60 Minutes, Shikal Afridi provided key intelligence that was “very helpful” in the successful May 2 Navy SEALs raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad. Panetta's interview will be broadcast Sunday.

Pakistan has arrested Afridi, charging him with treason. The doctor, who was working for U.S. intelligence, ran a vaccination program to collect DNA to verify bin Laden's presence in the compound.

Panetta says Pakistan's arrest of “somebody who was helping to go after terrorism” is a “real mistake.”

The U.S. defense secretary says he believes someone in authority in Pakistan knew where bin Laden was hiding. Panetta said there were intelligence reports of Pakistani military helicopters passing over bin Laden's compound, which was the largest one in the area and was surrounded by five-and-a-half meter walls.

Panetta acknowledged he does not have any hard evidence Pakistan's government knew where bin Laden was, but his “personal view” is that “somebody, somewhere probably had that knowledge.”

Pakistan knew bin Laden hideout: Panetta | The Nation

2012-01-28T06:37:00.000-05:00

Pakistan knew bin Laden hideout: Panetta | The Nation

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has once again blamed that someone in authority in Pakistan knew Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts before US forces went in to find him. In an interview on Saturday, he said Intelligence reports found Pakistani military helicopters had passed over the compound in Abbottabad. “I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound. Don’t forget, this compound had 18-foot walls… It was the largest compound in the area,” he was quoted as saying by news agencies.

Iran arrests journalists, to execute bloggers | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner

2012-01-27T09:46:00.000-05:00

Iran arrests journalists, to execute bloggers | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner

Iranian courts have sentenced two bloggers to death for "spreading corruption," and government security forces have arrested four other journalists, in the lead-up to the nation's March elections.

"In the past two weeks, security forces have reportedly arrested four journalists," the U.S. State Department said in a statement, "including Shahram Manouchehri, Sahamedin Bourghani, Parastoo Dokouhaki, and Marzieh Rasouli, and Iranian courts confirmed death sentences for bloggers Saeed Malekpour and Vahid Asghari, both of whom were not accorded due process and now face imminent execution on charges of 'spreading corruption.'"

The State Department faulted Iran for trying "to extinguish all forms of free expression and limit its citizens’ access to information in the lead-up to March parliamentary elections."

The secret to making American workers competitive - Globalization - Salon.com

2012-01-27T09:06:00.000-05:00

The secret to making American workers competitive - Globalization - Salon.com

...Global corporations — wherever they’re based — will create good jobs for Americans only if Americans are productive enough to summon them. Problem is, a large and growing portion of our workforce isn’t equipped to be productive.

Put simply, American workers are hobbled by deteriorating schools, unaffordable college tuitions, decaying infrastructure and declining basic R&D. All of this is putting us on a glide path toward even lousier jobs and lower wages.

Get it? The strategic responsibility for making Americans more globally competitive can’t be centered in the private sector because the private sector is rapidly going global, and it’s designed to make profits rather than good jobs. The core responsibility has to be in government because government is supposed to be looking out for the public, and investing in public schools, colleges, infrastructure and basic R&D.

But here’s the political problem. American firms have huge clout in Washington. They maintain legions of lobbyists and are pouring boatloads of money into political campaigns. After the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, there’s no limit.

Who represents the American workforce? Organized labor represents fewer than 7 percent of private-sector workers and has all it can do to protect a dwindling number of unionized jobs.

Republicans like it this way, and for three decades have been trying to convince average working Americans government is their enemy. Yet corporate America isn’t their friend. Without bold government action on behalf of our workforce, good American jobs will continue to disappear.

Thousands of NATO trucks in Pakistan backlog - Yahoo! News

2012-01-26T18:36:00.000-05:00

Thousands of NATO trucks in Pakistan backlog - Yahoo! News

Two months into Pakistan's blockade on NATO supplies crossing into Afghanistan, thousands of trucks are crowding the port in Karachi where drivers, fed up with waiting, are starting to desert.

For a month, directors of transport companies, drivers and their helpers hung around patiently, buoyed by rumours of an imminent reopening of the border, shut after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26.

But the botched raids snowballed into the biggest disaster in Pakistani-US relations since the 2001 American invasion began after the 9/11 attacks.

Two months on, Pakistan is still reviewing the relationship and no one knows when the border will reopen, through which passes 25 percent of the supplies needed by the 130,000 foreign troops under US command in landlocked Afghanistan.

...He says more than a thousand trucks are stranded in Karachi. In addition, there are containers and military vehicles -- about 5,000 according to a count provided by the authorities in early January.

Since then, more have arrived by boat.

Hundreds of oil tankers are filling huge car parks by the sea.

"Most of the tankers are loaded with fuel, so helpers have to look after them to avoid looting," said Afridi....

EU Oil Embargo: Sanctions Benefit Iran's Revolutionary Guards - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

2012-01-26T11:15:00.000-05:00

EU Oil Embargo: Sanctions Benefit Iran's Revolutionary Guards - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The EU has banned oil imports from Iran to try and pressure the regime into making concessions over its controversial nuclear program. But even though the Iranian economy is suffering, Tehran is refusing to give ground. Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Guards are profiting from the sanctions...

Econbrowser: UK: Into Recession

2012-01-26T11:09:00.000-05:00

Econbrowser: UK: Into Recession

So much for expansionary fiscal contraction in the UK. Not that that’s a surprise.

The UK Office of National Statistics has just released preliminary estimates for real GDP growth in 2011Q4. The 0.8% contraction (q/q SAAR) was large than consensus [1], and in fact larger than the 0.6% decline forecasted by Deutsche Bank on 1/18. Figure 1 illustrates the fact that a year and a half after the election of a coalition government bent on a path of austerity, the UK economy is likely to be entering a new recession (not that growth was so great even before the dip).

Figure 1: Annualized q/q growth rate of real UK GDP (blue), preliminary figure for 2011Q4; and Deutsche Bank forecast (red). Source: UK ONS, and Deutsche Bank, Global Economic Perspectives, 18 Jan 2012.

In my view, this is pretty much the nail in the coffin that an expansionary fiscal contraction will occur, even in a relatively small, open economy with a flexible exchange rate (see JEC/Republicans for an exposition, and this post for a critique)...

-bth: worth reading in full.

DVIDS - Video - EOD Team 5 Trip Wire Memorial Service

2012-01-26T08:34:00.000-05:00

DVIDS - Video - EOD Team 5 Trip Wire Memorial Service

Arlington National Cemetery trying to account for missing $12 million - The Washington Post

2012-01-26T07:58:00.000-05:00

Arlington National Cemetery trying to account for missing $12 million - The Washington Post

...The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command and the FBI have for months been conducting a criminal investigation into possible contracting fraud and falsification of records.

In the wake of the scandal, the Army, which runs the cemetery, pushed out Arlington’s top two leaders, Superintendent John C. Metzler and his deputy, Thurman Higginbotham. At a hearing before McCaskill’s subcommittee in 2010, Higginbotham invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and did not answer any questions about the cemetery’s sloppy contracting procedures.

During Wednesday’s hearing, McCaskill praised the cemetery’s new leadership, saying that in almost every facet — from how it handles veterans’ remains to its new contracting procedures — the changes have amounted to a “sea change.”

“I am impressed that the amount of progress has been substantial and significant,” she said.

But she said she was concerned that the missing $12 million, which was discovered by Army auditors last year, has not been found. The Army’s inspector general, Lt. Gen. Peter Vangjel, testified that his office would continue to monitor the cemetery’s finances on an annual basis. He said the missing money was particularly troubling because cemetery’s previous management had asserted “they were short of funds when in fact they had funds they couldn’t account for.”

... The missing $12 million was part of $27 million in unspent funds found by the auditors. So far, $15 million of that has been recovered, cemetery officials said, although it is not clear how the money was found. The cemetery has begun to use that money to pay for updates to its computer systems, burial equipment and a new columbarium.

The cemetery is also making progress in accounting for every grave, which was required by legislation sponsored last year by McCaskill. The effort, still not complete, has revealed possible errors with thousands of graves, many as small as typographical errors in paperwork.

But the effort will mean that the cemetery will have to update its visitor brochures, which say that its “624 acres shelter the remains of over 320,000 servicemen and women.” That estimate, as Condon testified at the hearing, has been badly out of date for years.

In fact, she said, the grave-by-grave review shows that the number is more than 400,000.

-bth: going from 320K to 400K buried is quite an adjustment. Missing $12 million? You've got to be kidding. Missing? This is not Baghdad, this is Arlington National Cemetery.

A few years ago Gina Gray blew the whistle on this mess and on these two administrators. She got fired by these clowns and possible crooks and then had her email hacked and someone who could hire a contractor to hack her email impersonated her for awhile probably to find out who she was talking to and what they knew about the then alleged now confirmed improprieties. It later turned out that what she was telling me was true.

The Army buried it until Congress got involved over the incompetence and wrong doings with contractors that were supposed to be providing computer software to Arlington but turned out to be crooks and cronies. Unfortunately many in Congress, some of whom I personally approached, did not want to get involved and frankly ignored the problem because of the political implications at many levels.

Their excuse was that it was a Virginia issue and we should take it up with Sen. Webb. Webb unfortunately really didn't want to look very hard into this either, which for many of his strengths and interests, calling the administrators of Arlington incompetent crooks was not one of them - even if true. McCaskill and a few others finally stepped in and with some Congressional attention, the Army couldn't keep sweeping the problem under the rug and then the whole rotten mess came out.

My recommendation is that the Dept. of Veterans Affairs should take over Arlington from the Army. The VA competently manages over 100 national cemeteries, has administrators, procedures and computer systems with enough professionalism and economy of scale to do it right. The Army which manages just a couple of cemeteries really can't do this well and will never do so because of scale. Also Arlington is an afterthought and career dead end for the Army and those assigned to it. Our 400+K buried there deserve better than this mess quite frankly.

Do Drones Undermine Democracy? - NYTimes.com

2012-01-24T07:21:00.000-05:00

Do Drones Undermine Democracy? - NYTimes.com

...Today’s unmanned systems are only the beginning. The original Predator, which went into service in 1995, lacked even GPS and was initially unarmed; newer models can take off and land on their own, and carry smart sensors that can detect a disruption in the dirt a mile below the plane and trace footprints back to an enemy hide-out.

There is not a single new manned combat aircraft under research and development at any major Western aerospace company, and the Air Force is training more operators of unmanned aerial systems than fighter and bomber pilots combined. In 2011, unmanned systems carried out strikes from Afghanistan to Yemen. The most notable of these continuing operations is the not-so-covert war in Pakistan, where the United States has carried out more than 300 drone strikes since 2004.

Yet this operation has never been debated in Congress; more than seven years after it began, there has not even been a single vote for or against it. This campaign is not carried out by the Air Force; it is being conducted by the C.I.A. This shift affects everything from the strategy that guides it to the individuals who oversee it (civilian political appointees) and the lawyers who advise them (civilians rather than military officers).

It also affects how we and our politicians view such operations. President Obama’s decision to send a small, brave Navy Seal team into Pakistan for 40 minutes was described by one of his advisers as “the gutsiest call of any president in recent history.” Yet few even talk about the decision to carry out more than 300 drone strikes in the very same country....

-bth: worth reading in full.

'Blind mules' unknowingly ferry drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border - CNN.com

2012-01-24T07:05:00.000-05:00

'Blind mules' unknowingly ferry drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border - CNN.com

... According to the complaint, Chavez and Gomez allegedly paid lookouts to monitor SENTRI pass drivers -- noting the time of day, as well as the make, model and color of their cars -- as they drove over the bridge.

The lookouts targeted students and professionals who typically have consistent routines.

Once they identified a possible target, they followed the car as it returned to the Mexican side of the border. Then, they approached the car at night, copied the vehicle identification number (VIN) off the dashboard and gave the number to Chavez and Gomez.

They also planted GPS tracking devices on the car so they could monitor its movements between Juarez and El Paso.

The complaint alleges that Chavez and Gomez took the VIN to a Texas-based locksmith who had access to key code sources for the vehicles. With that information, the locksmith made two keys for each vehicle -- one for Chavez and Gomez, and the other for Juarez-based accomplices.

The co-conspirators allegedly used their copy of the key to unlock the trunk of the target vehicle at night and place two duffel bags inside. The bags contained about 60 pounds of marijuana each and were both secured with zip ties.

The unsuspecting driver transported the drugs across the border unknowingly, and according to the complaint, Chavez and Gomez retrieved the drugs using their key once the driver was in the United States....

Pakistan Military Harasses Afghan Truckers at Border

2012-01-24T06:49:00.000-05:00

Pakistan Military Harasses Afghan Truckers at Border

An exclusive TOLOnews report shows how Pakistani military officials are harassing traders and truck drivers trying to bring goods into Afghanistan.

TOLOnews footage gathered in Peshawar and at the Afghan border by reporter Tamim Hamid, shows Afghan traders complaining that Pakistani officials have extorted money from them and even in some cases beaten them with the butts of their Kalashnikovs.

Pakistan closed its border with Afghanistan to supplies after a Nato helicopter strike on a border outpost on November 26 killed 24 soldiers. The repercussions are badly hitting Afghan traders.

In Nangarhar province, the closed border has precipitated a 50 percent drop in customs revenue.

Revenue at the border in Nangarhar was 7 billion Afghanis ($140 million) in the first nine months of this year, down from 14 billion Afghanis ($280 million) in the same period a year ago, according to customs officials.

Afghan traders have asked the Afghan government to tackle the issue as soon as possible.

NightWatch 20120122 - KGS On Egypt

2012-01-23T08:51:00.001-05:00

NightWatch 20120122 - KGS
...

Egypt: Egyptian authorities confirmed Saturday that a political coalition dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood had won 228 seats --about 45.7 percent of the 498 seats in the Egyptian parliament. An alliance of ultraconservative Islamists, known as Salafists, won 123 seats of about 25% of the total, making it the second largest faction.

Comment: Islamist parties have gained more than 70 per cent of seats, which gives them the authority to draft a constitution that converts Egypt into an Islamist state. The Brotherhood and the Salafists disagree on the pace of the transformation, but not the end state.

Boeing Delivers Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) 37,000 LB Bombs To The USAF - GBU-57 - YouTube

2012-01-23T08:41:00.000-05:00

Boeing Delivers Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) 37,000 LB Bombs To The USAF - GBU-57 - YouTube

Documentary reveals how contaminated water at the nation’s largest Marine base damaged lives - The Washington Post

2012-01-22T07:18:00.000-05:00

Documentary reveals how contaminated water at the nation’s largest Marine base damaged lives - The Washington Post

...“Semper Fi” follows Partain and Jerome “Jerry” Ensminger, the men credited with uncovering records showing that the amount of leaked fuel that led to water contamination was many times greater than the Marine Corps acknowledged.

A congressional hearing in 2007 revealed that the camp ignored a directive from the Navy to inspect its water systems for possible contamination and to develop a protocol for the safe disposal of hazardous compounds.

The Marine Corps at Lejeune routinely dumped fluids containing harmful chemicals, which leached into groundwater and eventually contaminated a well. For decades, buried tanks also leaked fuel, allowing the chemical benzene, a known carcinogen, into the ground nearby.

But Camp Lejeune failed to study the health risks of its water after toxic compounds were discovered in the early 1980s, and did not notify Marines and their families. Up to a million people who rotated in and out of the base from the late 1950s to the late 1980s relied on the water to drink and bathe.

The Marine Corps has said it wasn’t aware of the contaminants until the mid-1980s and that contacting the 750,000 to 1 million military personnel and civilians who lived at Camp Lejeune during those decades is too large an undertaking.

The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry sent a survey last year to about 300,000 people who lived or worked at the Marine base before 1986. The agency expects to release the findings in early 2014....

-bth: birth defects were five times normal rates at Lejeune. These marines and their families were needlessly exposed to toxins in the water supply for decades and the problem was deliberately understated and covered up? How is this not a betrayal of the trust those marines and their families put in the Navy and the Corp for their basic well being?

Funds Shift For Electronic Warfare In Europe | AVIATION WEEK

2012-01-21T21:13:00.000-05:00

Funds Shift For Electronic Warfare In Europe | AVIATION WEEK

The age-old electronic warfare adage “friend in war, enemy in peace” is about to be tested again.

With the drawdown of military forces in Afghanistan clearly on the horizon, the era of relatively healthy levels of spending on improvised explosive device jammers and helicopter self-protection equipment may be drawing to a close. The potential turning point comes as many technologies are just starting to come into their own, such as two-color missile-warning equipment and detectors programmed to act as hostile fire indicators (HFI) that can alert pilots when they are being fired at by rocket-propelled grenades or small arms.

In Europe, where spending levels and, commensurately, the pace of technical development lags that of the U.S., some of these technologies are on the cusp of entering the market, which could mean that a sharp funding decline would cut those developments off at their knees. Research for HFI detection “will mature in the next few years,” says Steve Roberts, Selex Galileo vice president and chief technology officer for electronic warfare. “We are getting that sorted.”...

-bth: European advanced military R&D is in full retreat across all major areas. I doubt much will remain.

Militants raising funds from kidnappings: FC – The Express Tribune

2012-01-21T11:49:00.000-05:00

Militants raising funds from kidnappings: FC – The Express Tribune

QUETTA:

Inspector General Frontier Corps Major General Ubaidullah Khan Khattak has said that incidents of kidnappings have increased in Balochistan at an alarming level and have become a source of generating funds for militants.

Addressing the media at the FC headquarters on Thursday, Khattak said that while Balochistan has witnessed a decline in rocket attacks and bomb blasts – particularly targeting gas pipelines, power pylons and railway tracks – incidents of kidnappings for ransom have increased.

“Militants, whether Taliban or Baloch, are using kidnappings to generate funds. They target foreigners with the intention to get ransom money in dollars,” he said, adding that people from Waziristan entered Balochistan and kidnapped BRSP workers and others....

-bth: interesting that there seems to be a cash squeeze on all elements in Pakistan.

IED FLIPS MRAP IN AFGHANISTAN - FAILED ATTACK - YouTube

2012-01-20T22:35:00.000-05:00

IED FLIPS MRAP IN AFGHANISTAN - FAILED ATTACK - YouTube

bth: note the disturbed area to the right of the vehicle just before the blast

One Mexican State Bordering The US Was Deadlier Than All of Afghanistan Last Year | CNSnews.com

2012-01-20T18:16:00.000-05:00

One Mexican State Bordering The US Was Deadlier Than All of Afghanistan Last Year | CNSnews.com

... Per capita, a person was at least nine times more likely to be murdered in Chihuahua last year than in Afghanistan. (Chihuahua has 3,406,465 inhabitants, according to Mexico’s 2010 census; the CIA World Factbook reports that in July 2011 the estimated population of Afghanistan was 29,835,392.)...

MIT calculates UAV 'speed limit' | TG Daily

2012-01-20T17:23:00.000-05:00

MIT calculates UAV 'speed limit' | TG Daily

Many birds can zip at high speed through a forest without crashing into trees. But, say MIT researchers, there's a top speed at which this is possible, and it's an important factor in designing drones.

Currently, most UAVs fly pretty slowly, particularly if navigating around obstacles, mainly so that they can stop within the field of view of their sensors.

"If I can only see up to five meters, I can only go up to a speed that allows me to stop within five meters, which is not very fast," says Emilio Frazzoli, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

If the northern goshawk, for example, used this strategy, it would travel a lot more slowly, says Frazzoli. Instead, he suggests, the bird likely gauges the density of trees and speeds past obstacles, knowing intuitively that, given a certain forest density, it can always find an opening through the trees.

Frazzoli points out that a similar intuition exists in downhill skiing.

"When you go skiing off the path, you don't ski in a way that you can always stop before the first tree you see," he says. "You ski and you see an opening, and then you trust that once you go there, you'll be able to see another opening and keep going."

Frazzoli and his team developed mathematical models of various forest densities, calculating the maximum speed possible in each environment...

-bth: this seems like a very clever. The same problem applies to unmanned ground robots, sensor range, speed/mass and avoidance of obstacles.

APNewsBreak: Pakistan’s closure of supply routes costs US 6 times more for new route - The Washington Post

2012-01-20T03:37:00.000-05:00

APNewsBreak: Pakistan’s closure of supply routes costs US 6 times more for new route - The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is paying six times as much to send war supplies to troops in Afghanistan through alternate routes after Pakistan’s punitive decision in November to close border crossings to NATO convoys, the Associated Press has learned.

Islamabad shut down two key Pakistan border crossings after a U.S. airstrike killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers in late November, and it is unclear when the crossings might reopen.

Pentagon figures provided to the AP show it is now costing about $104 million per month to send the supplies through a longer northern route. That is $87 million more per month than when the cargo moved through Pakistan.

While U.S. officials have acknowledged that using alternate transportation routes for Afghan war supplies is more expensive and takes longer, the total costs had not been revealed until now. The Pentagon provided the cost figures to the AP on Thursday....

-bth: so I'm guessing the purpose of this release of information by the Pentagon is to set expectations with the Pakistani's regarding a shakedown over what will be 'tariffs' for trucks coming through Pakistan. This article essentially says we will pay something less than $87 million per month and we don't have to have you open the roads, though we would like you to at a price below $87 million per month.

Pakistan to re-open NATO route, Taliban talks falter - Yahoo! News

2012-01-19T21:08:00.000-05:00

Pakistan to re-open NATO route, Taliban talks falter - Yahoo! News

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan expects to re-open supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan, halted after a NATO cross-border air attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November, but will impose tariffs, a senior security official told Reuters Thursday.

The move suggests tensions with the United States and NATO have eased, but more progress is needed for the kind of cooperation necessary to fight militancy in the border region which U.S. President Barack Obama has called the world's most dangerous place.

The official said the fees were designed to both express continued anger over the November 26 attack and raise funds for the state to fight homegrown Taliban militants blamed for many of the suicide bombings across the country.

"The tariffs will cover everything from the port to security to roads, which after all belong to Pakistan," the security official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.

No date was given for reopening the supply routes. Pakistan's trade ministry was working out details of the tariffs, said the official...

-bth: as usual it comes down to a shakedown.

Pakistan's "Memogate" – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

2012-01-19T20:59:00.000-05:00

Pakistan's "Memogate" – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

... Despite a massive U.S. aid program, a poll by the Pew Research Center last June found that 68% of Pakistanis saw the U.S. more as an enemy, while only 6% saw it more as a friend. Ahmed Rashid, author of "Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia," says that anti-Americanism has been fanned by the Pakistani military, despite its close ties with the Pentagon.

Writing in the current edition of the CTC Sentinel, published by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Rashid argues: "As each crisis point with the United States played out, the military ensured that Pakistan's elected, civilian government was sitting under a cloud of uncertainty and paralysis."

U.S. diplomats appear resigned to a long and bumpy process, even as they explore the possibility of talks with the Afghan Taliban. "There is no other solution here other than to work through our differences," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

"We absolutely view Pakistan as an essential partner to this Afghan-led reconciliation process," he added.

Hassan Abbas, author of "Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror," says the U.S. needs to think afresh. "The U.S. – Pakistan relationship is in doldrums as both sides have undue expectations from each other," he says.

"Pakistan is in the process of a major overhaul of its policy towards the U.S. and U.S. policy-makers are advised to re-evaluate, rather than merely 'review', their long-term interests in the region," Abbas adds.

In the CTC Sentinel, Ahmed Rashid sums up the situation in these stark terms. " An already weak and paranoid civilian government....is cowed by the military one day, terrified by an angry public the next," he writes.

"Other days it is defiant and threatens the army, while at the same time it is in danger of being thrown out of office by the Supreme Court."

In the words of another commentator, "In Pakistan, this is the year of living dangerously."

-bth: This article is worth reading in full.

Locating countries on the Middle East Map

2012-01-19T20:19:00.000-05:00

This is just scary.

Colbert Super PAC Releases Ad Attacking Stephen Colbert (VIDEO)

2012-01-19T08:24:00.000-05:00

Colbert Super PAC Releases Ad Attacking Stephen Colbert (VIDEO)

Coalition limits details on troops killed by Afghans | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

2012-01-19T06:28:00.000-05:00

Coalition limits details on troops killed by Afghans | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Military commanders in Afghanistan have stopped making public the number of allied troops killed by Afghan soldiers and police, a measure of the trustworthiness of a force that is to take over security from U.S.-led forces.

The change in policy comes after at least three allied troops have been killed by the Afghan troops they trained in the past month and follows what appears to be the deadliest year of the war for NATO trainers at the hands of their Afghan counterparts.

The International Security Assistance Force in Kabul had responded to previous requests for details on cases where Afghan troops — screened and trained by ISAF and Afghan officials — have turned their weapons on NATO troops.

Navy Lt. Cdr. Brian Badura said ISAF has a new policy to release only limited information about casualties, leaving the responsibility for detail to the troops' home countries. The policy went into effect in the latter half of 2011, he said....

-bth: when our own government starts hiding the cause of death of our soldiers, then it is time to get the hell out. What an utterly disgusting policy, the implication of which is that our military should now lie to the public because the military knows better.

NightWatch 20120118 - KGS

2012-01-19T06:22:00.000-05:00

NightWatch 20120118 - KGS

...Special comment: It bears repetition that the overthrow of secular governments in Arab states in the past year has led to the ascendancy of Islamist political parties that are anti-US, anti-Israel and anti-non-Islamic religious groups. There are now fewer Christian communities in the Iraq that the US Army liberated.

The record is 100% consistent, although the full consequences have yet to play out. Only the Arab monarchies have held the line against the suppression of diverse cults and minority ethnic groups. In the Sunni Arab world, monarchies have survived, but secular civilian governments have not.

Democracy in the US political philosophy does not carry the same meaning in Arab political philosophy. Fundamentalist imams consider democracy to be un-Islamic. Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan said, famously, democracy is a station stop. Most Arabs do not consider democracy - holding elections - an absolute good in its own right. For many, it is a process that leads to an emirate or a caliphate....

Inside the Ring - Washington Times on Saudi-Chinese nuke deal

2012-01-18T23:16:00.000-05:00

Inside the Ring - Washington Times

...The agreement was signed by King Abdullah and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and followed earlier public remarks by a senior Saudi prince who said the country should develop nuclear weapons to counter rival Iran’s nuclear arms.

Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said Dec. 5 that “our efforts and those of the world have failed to convince Israel to abandon its weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iran. … Therefore it is our duty toward our nation and people to consider all possible options, including the possession of these weapons.”...

-bth: so if Saudi Arabia wanted, it could covertly purchase from cash strapped Pakistan a couple of nuclear warheads. So much of this nuclear news is being hyped to get the scare up. We need to be very cautious.

NightWatch 20120117 - KGS - China and Saudi Arabia and UAE

2012-01-18T08:49:00.000-05:00

NightWatch 20120117 - KGS

China-United Arab Emirates: The United Arab Emirates and China announced their intention to form a strategic partnership in various fields, including the military and energy sectors, Xinhua reported, citing a statement released on 17 January during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's official visit to the United Arab Emirates. The two announced a 12-point program to strengthen relations.

Comment: China has maintained a strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia since before the first Gulf War. The closer relationship with the UAE signifies that China intends to be consequential in both Sunni Arab states as well as Shiite Iran.

A recent analysis concluded that Arab states friendly to the US now perceive that the will to use US influence in the Middle East is waning and thus have begun looking for other partners to help ensure their long term security. China is the obvious candidate and is showing that it is prepared to fill any power vacuum the US choses to leave.

Roxette - Listen To Your Heart (video oficial) - YouTube

2012-01-17T22:39:00.000-05:00

Roxette - Listen To Your Heart (video oficial) - YouTube

Winston Churchill "finest hour" (best version) - YouTube

2012-01-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

Winston Churchill "finest hour" (best version) - YouTube

Thai police seek court order to hold Hezbollah suspect | World | Reuters

2012-01-17T09:13:00.000-05:00

Thai police seek court order to hold Hezbollah suspect | World | Reuters

...Hussein was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport late Thursday and led police to a Bangkok suburb where 4,380 kg (9,656 lb) of urea and 37 litres (8.1 gallons) of liquid ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound, were stored.

Urea and the chemical ammonium nitrate have been used in a number of deadly attacks, such as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, which killed 168 people, and a car bomb that exploded outside the Norwegian prime minister's office in Oslo in July last year, which killed eight.

But the amounts stored in Bangkok were exceptionally large, roughly seven times bigger than the urea-nitrate and hydrogen mixture used in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and twice the amount used in the Oklahoma bombing.

Ammonium nitrate and urea are also widely used for home-made bombs to target soldiers and government buildings in Thailand's three Muslim southernmost provinces, where an insurgency has killed nearly 5,000 people since 2004....

Thailand hunting Hezbollah operatives planning terror attacks against Jews, Israelis - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

2012-01-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

Thailand hunting Hezbollah operatives planning terror attacks against Jews, Israelis - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

... Thai sources said that during his questioning, the detained Hezbollah operative confessed that a terror squad was intending to launch an attack on Israeli targets, including places where Israelis stay.

"The Thai authorities have stationed heavy security at all potential targets," a securing source added.

According to the Thai media, Israel first informed the Thai authorities on December 22 that three Hezbollah operatives had entered the country in order to perpetrate terror attacks. On January 8, Israel received additional information pinpointing this weekend as the time of the attack.

The Americans had also informed the Thai authorities before Christmas that they had received information from Israel about a planned terror attack against Western and American targets in Bangkok.

Three members of the terror cell are Lebanese citizens who also hold Swedish passports, and who visited Thailand a few times in recent months.

The information led the Thai authorities Friday to an apartment near Khao San Road, a popular destination for Israeli backpackers and other visitors to the Thai capital.

Thai security officials raided the apartment but the Hezbollah men had already fled.

They arrested Idris Hussein, 48, a dual Lebanese-Swiss citizen, at Bangkok Airport a few minutes before he was due to board a flight out of the country.

Following Hussein's arrest, nine other countries besides Israel and the United States issued travel advisories against visiting Bangkok.

Winslow Homer’s “A Veteran in a New Field”

2012-01-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

My Way News - Iran warns Gulf Arabs on oil

2012-01-15T22:50:00.000-05:00

My Way News - Iran warns Gulf Arabs on oil

CAIRO (AP) - Iran warned Gulf Arab oil producers against boosting production to offset any potential drop in Tehran's crude exports in the event of an embargo affecting its oil sales, the latest salvo in the dispute between the West and the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.

The comments by Iran's OPEC governor, published Sunday, came as Saudi Arabia's oil minister was quoted the same day denying that his country's earlier pledges to boost output as needed to meet global demand was linked to a potential siphoning of Iranian crude from the market because of sanctions....

-bth: one might expect Iran to begin smuggling oil to Shea allies in Iraq for export from there.

U.S., Israel postpone military exercise amid tension with Iran - latimes.com

2012-01-15T22:47:00.000-05:00

U.S., Israel postpone military exercise amid tension with Iran - latimes.com

REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM -- The United States and Israel agreed to postpone a large joint military exercise from this spring to late in the year to avoid aggravating an already tense regional situation driven by conflicts with Iran, Israeli media reported Sunday.

The drill, slated for May and named "Austere Challenge," was announced in November by Andrew Shapiro, U.S. assistant secretary of State for politics-military affairs, at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The exercise as originally planned would include more than 5,000 U.S. and Israeli forces and, among other things, simulate Israel's ballistic missile defense. It would be the "largest and most significant joint exercise in the allies' history," Shapiro had said.

The drill was announced shortly after American military officials reportedly expressed concern that Israel was preparing an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and would not warn them in advance. Although American and U.S. officials are in close contact on defense matters, especially regarding Iran's disputed nuclear program, Jerusalem and Washington are at odds over how aggressively to approach with the issue....

-bth: postponing this maneuver seems to be a good move toward reducing the level of suspicion with Iran over US intentions.

US killer spy drone controls switch to Linux • The Register

2012-01-15T12:45:00.000-05:00

US killer spy drone controls switch to Linux • The Register

The control of US military spy drones appears to have shifted from Windows to Linux following an embarrassing malware infection.

Ground control systems at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, which commands the killer unmanned aircraft, became infected with a virus last September. In a statement at the time the Air Force dismissed the electronic nasty as a nuisance and said it posed no threat to the operation of Reaper drones, but the intrusion was nonetheless treated seriously.

"The ground system is separate from the flight control system Air Force pilots use to fly the aircraft remotely; the ability of the pilots to safely fly these aircraft remained secure throughout the incident," it said.

The discovery of the virus was nonetheless hugely embarrassing for the Air Force. The credential-stealing malware, first reported by Wired, made its way from a portable hard drive onto ground systems, which control the drones' weapons and surveillance functions. Portable disks are used to load map updates and transfer mission videos from one computer to another, Defense News added.

"The malware was detected on a standalone mission support network using a Windows-based operating system," a US Air Force statement at the time explained. "The malware in question is a credential stealer, not a keylogger, found routinely on computer networks and is considered more of a nuisance than an operational threat. It is not designed to transmit data or video, nor is it designed to corrupt data, files or programs on the infected computer. Our tools and processes detect this type of malware as soon as it appears on the system, preventing further reach."

Drone units were advised to stop using the removable drives to prevent another outbreak. ...

-bth: fascinating.

Missed targets prompt US Marine Corps to arm unmanned Shadows

2012-01-15T12:38:00.000-05:00

Missed targets prompt US Marine Corps to arm unmanned Shadows

The US Marine Corps will deploy AAI RQ-7 Shadows to Afghanistan armed with classified new gravity bombs in a demonstration that could pave the way for a dramatic expansion in the numbers of weaponised unmanned air vehicles (UAVs).

Although by far the most numerous UAV fleet, the RQ-7 has remained unarmed in the absence of precision, air-dropped weapons small enough for the aircraft to carry.

The lack of armed RQ-7s has frustrated the USMC. On a recent deployment by a single unit, the marines counted 94 "high-value targets" that escaped even though they were spotted by RQ-7s circling overhead, said Steven Reid, vice president of AAI's unmanned systems division....

-bth: this is long over due. Get on with it.

10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free - The Washington Post

2012-01-15T12:34:00.000-05:00

10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free - The Washington Post

...An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will.

The framers lived under autocratic rule and understood this danger better than we do. James Madison famously warned that we needed a system that did not depend on the good intentions or motivations of our rulers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Benjamin Franklin was more direct. In 1787, a Mrs. Powel confronted Franklin after the signing of the Constitution and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His response was a bit chilling: “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”

Since 9/11, we have created the very government the framers feared: a government with sweeping and largely unchecked powers resting on the hope that they will be used wisely.

The indefinite-detention provision in the defense authorization bill seemed to many civil libertarians like a betrayal by Obama. While the president had promised to veto the law over that provision, Levin, a sponsor of the bill, disclosed on the Senate floor that it was in fact the White House that approved the removal of any exception for citizens from indefinite detention.

Dishonesty from politicians is nothing new for Americans. The real question is whether we are lying to ourselves when we call this country the land of the free.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University.

-bth; this excellent article is worth reading in full.

Opium Revenue Rises 133% in 2011

2012-01-15T12:31:00.000-05:00

Opium Revenue Rises 133% in 2011

The United National Office on Drugs and Crime said on Friday that revenue from opium production in Afghanistan rose 133 per cent in 2011.

The total revenue retrieved last year from opium production was about $1.4 billion which is one tenth of the total Gross Domestic Product of the country, UN said.

Prices jumped dramatically because of the plant disease that wiped out much of the opium crop in 2010. Although yields returned to normal levels in 2011, prices remained high.

Afghanistan supplies 90 per cent of the world's opium despite the efforts of the government and its international allies to curb production.

The money earned from opium is reportedly used to provide weapons for insurgents.

-bth: how did things become so twisted that the US is on the side of those in Afghanistan that grow opium? A young friend of mine killed himself with heroin recently. Surely it corrupts all involved with it and has taken a terrible toll on Russia, Europe and the US East Coast.

Thai police chief says Bangkok bomb plot called off, though 1 alleged plotter still at large - The Washington Post

2012-01-15T12:27:00.000-05:00

Thai police chief says Bangkok bomb plot called off, though 1 alleged plotter still at large - The Washington Post

BANGKOK — An alleged terrorist plot aimed at Bangkok that sparked urgent warnings of danger from the United States and Israel has been thwarted, Thai police said Saturday.

National Police Chief Gen. Priewpan Damapong said the alleged bombing scheme was called off by the alleged plotters — two Lebanese men said to be linked to pro-Iranian Hezbollah militants. One man was in custody for questioning, and the other was at large.

The U.S. Embassy had circulated a warning Friday that there was a “real and credible” terrorist threat against Americans in Bangkok, and Israel issued a similar warning to its citizens. Thai authorities confirmed being informed of a plot, and said they were pursuing the missing suspect.

The warnings came during heightened tension over U.S. and Israeli responses to the prospect that Iran is going forward with developing nuclear weapons.

Priewpan’s remarks came less than 12 hours after police held a hastily arranged news conference late Friday night in which they circulated a sketch of the missing suspect, with a call for the public to help track him down. They said the man in custody told them the plot was supposed to be carried out between Jan. 13 and 15....

Thailand has rarely been a target for foreign terrorists, although a domestic Muslim insurgency in the country’s south has involved bombings of civilian targets.

In 1994, an attempt to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok was abandoned when the driver of a truck packed with a massive car bomb fled after a minor traffic accident. Several Iranians were arrested in connection with the attempt — which some terrorism experts blamed on Hezbollah — but all were eventually released.

There have been several reported plots against the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok in the past two decades, but no attacks.

-bth: it seems to me this type of response is more indicative of Iran than a straight on closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a direct clash with the US Navy.

Matthew 25

2012-01-14T22:16:00.003-05:00

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

MLK Last Speech

2012-01-14T21:57:00.002-05:00

5 Things You Should Know About the FBI's Massive New Biometric Database | Civil Liberties | AlterNet

2012-01-14T13:25:00.000-05:00

5 Things You Should Know About the FBI's Massive New Biometric Database | Civil Liberties | AlterNet

...An CJIS/FBI guide instructing officials how to pitch S-Comm to local law enforcement explains that, "Ultimately, LEA participation is inevitable because SC is simply the first of a number of biometric interoperatability systems being brought online by the FBI/CJIS 'Next Generation Identification' initiative."

The document lays out strategies for dealing with resistant police departments, including, "Deploy to as many places in the surrounding locale, creating a 'ring of interoperatability' around the resistant site."

"It's a way of operationalizing wide-sweeping intelligence gathering," Sunita Patel of CCR tells AlterNet.

What could possibly go wrong?

Advancements in the collection of biometric data are double-edged: there's the threat of a massive government surveillance infrastructure working too well -- e.g., surveillance state -- and there are concerns about its weaknesses, especially in keeping data secure.

A breach of a sophisticated, multi-modal biometric database makes for a nightmarish scenario because the whole point of biometric data is that it offers unique ways to ID people, so there's no easy fix -- like a password change -- for compromised biometric data. Pointing to the dangers of identify theft of biometric data, Patel observes that, "Unlike a password, the algorithm of an iris can't be changed."

- bth: an article worth reading in full. It will soon be the case that one cannot travel outside without being identified. Great to advertisers that link facial recognition with Facebook type databases. The article which is worth reading in full also notes that the theft or unauthorized access to this data would have permanent and irreconcilable breaches of personal security. Image the havoc that would be caused if this database were hacked by a foreign power or alternately abused by a totalitarian government.

FBI Facial Recognition Power Point Presentation

2012-01-14T13:20:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to an FBI presentation on their broad facial recognition and biometric initiative.

http://biometrics.org/bc2010/presentations/DOJ/vorder_bruegge-Facial-Recognition-and-Identification-Initiatives.pdf

'US prepping facilities for Isra... JPost - Iranian Threat - News

2012-01-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

'US prepping facilities for Isra... JPost - Iranian Threat - News

US defense officials concerned Israel will attack Iran over its nuclear program; Obama, US secretary of defense have warned Jerusalem of dangerous repercussions of strike, 'Wall Street Journal' reports.

The United States has begun taking measures to plan for a possible Israeli strike on Iran in order to protect US facilities in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The contingency planning comes as a result of concern within the US defense establishment that Israel is planning to attack Iran over the Islamic Republic's reported nuclear armament program, according to the newspaper....

This New Army Tourniquet Is Going to Save a Bunch of Lives

2012-01-14T13:06:00.000-05:00

This New Army Tourniquet Is Going to Save a Bunch of Lives

... To correct for this, two emergency-room physicians from the Georgia Health Sciences University and Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama developed the abdominal aortic tourniquet. It's a wedge-shaped device that sits even with the navel and is tightened, then inflated—using a hand pump—until blood flow to the lower body is halted. This extends the so-called Golden Hour during which an injured person has the highest chance of survival.

"By effectively cross-clamping the aorta with the abdominal aortic tourniquet, you are essentially turning the faucet off," Dr. John Croushorn, Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Trinity Medical Center said in a press release. "You are stopping the loss of blood from the broken and damaged blood vessels. You are buying the patient an additional hour of survival tim

-bth: fantastic step. Perhaps it will lead to more advances in the treatment of abdominal bleeding from trauma.

e based on blood loss."...

Unprecedented, Tepid Recovery Under Obama Begs Question: Where Did All The Workers Go? - Investors.com

2012-01-13T14:41:00.000-05:00

Unprecedented, Tepid Recovery Under Obama Begs Question: Where Did All The Workers Go? - Investors.com

... The weak job market has also helped depress wages. Real median annual household income has dropped 5.1% since the recession ended, more than the 3.2% decline during the recession itself — according to a new Sentier Research report.

The smaller labor force is just one of the problems with the current unemployment number. The other is that the jobs being created aren't keeping pace with population growth. Since June 2009, the economy has added 1.4 million jobs, which is below the more than 2 million needed to keep up with population growth and far below the gains experienced at the same point in the previous 10 recoveries — which saw job gains average more than 4 million.

- bth: this article is worth a full read. We need to be careful about talking about just unemployment rates as a percentage of the work force when the work force is actually shrinking as a result of people giving up looking for a job. Also the per household income declines, post recovery, are just unprecedented.

On Pakistan's Government Crisis

2012-01-13T14:25:00.000-05:00

Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Israel is pushing U.S. toward Iran war, Russian official says - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

2012-01-13T06:06:00.000-05:00

Israel is pushing U.S. toward Iran war, Russian official says - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Russia fears Israel will push the United States into a military conflict with Iran which could retaliate by blocking oil shipments from the Gulf, a confidant of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"There is a likelihood of military escalation of the conflict, towards which Israel is pushing the Americans," Nikolai Patrushev, who heads the Kremlin's Security Council, told Interfax news agency.

He also said he believes Western countries are getting close to launching a military intervention in Syria, in an attempt to undermine Iran's regional standing.

Patrushev, a former head of the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said Tehran could respond by blocking the Strait of Hormuz between Oman and Iran, through which 35 percent of the world's seaborne traded oil passes.

"It cannot be ruled out that the Iranians will be able to carry out their threat to shut exports of Saudi oil through the Strait of Hormuz if faced with military actions against them," Patrushev said in an interview published on Thursday.

Tension over Iranian uranium enrichment, which has moved to a mountain bunker better protected from possible air strikes, has raised fears for world oil supplies and even of war....

Rachel Maddow: Veterans reprise

2012-01-12T14:40:00.001-05:00

Rachel Maddow: A look ahead

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Erratic driving an increasing problem among returning combat veterans - Stripes Central - Stripes

2012-01-12T06:51:00.000-05:00

Erratic driving an increasing problem among returning combat veterans - Stripes Central - Stripes

...Erratic driving by combat veterans is increasingly a problem on American roadways, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a report by USAA, a leading insurer of active-duty troops. The study found that accidents in which the servicemembers were at fault went up by 13 percent after deployments. The riskiest period appeared to be the six months returning from a deployment....

-bth: dah. Anyone that has ridden with someone coming back knows they dodge trash bags and drive fast and in the middle of the road whenever possible. The astonishing thing is that the stats are only 13% higher.

Marine Corps manual offers a blunt, revealing portrait of Afghan war - The Washington Post

2012-01-12T06:49:00.000-05:00

Marine Corps manual offers a blunt, revealing portrait of Afghan war - The Washington Post

...

It was also during this period that the ISI gained power among the Taliban groups by being the channel for much of the weaponry the United States and Saudi Arabia provided.

“To control the Mujahideen, the ISI formed seven resistance groups, each with a national political party associated with it,” according to the manual. The ISI selected tribes that were rivals of those associated with Afghanistan’s former leaders, who had no love for Pakistan.

The ISI’s purpose was to create “puppets they could control when the war was over” and thus protect their northwestern border. That was needed to ease their fear of a two-front war should India invade from the southeast.

After the war concluded, former mujaheddin began to fight each other for control of the country. By 1994, a group of radical Islamic Taliban forces that had been armed by the ISI took over to end the anarchy. Unable to govern, they “became dependent on al Qaeda and their Pakistani masters for funds and military power,” according to the manual.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the United States and its coalition partners defeated the Taliban, and in 2002 a government headed by President Hamid Karzai was installed. Meanwhile, a new Taliban has emerged. “They still revere Mullah Omar as a spiritual leader, but no longer as the primary political leader of the movement,” according to the manual. This diffused Taliban leadership makes peace talks that much more difficult.

Another portion of the manual introduces the Marines to their Afghan allies, warts and all.

In combat, Afghans from all ethnic groups in the army “generally make excellent soldiers,” according to the manual. “Keep in mind that many ANA [Afghan National Army] soldiers have seen more firefights than you’ve had hot dinners.”

But the manual warns that corruption among officers was in the culture of the old army. “This included skimming pay, rations, and equipment for their own profits,” according to the manual. “Instilling a sense of duty to country and professionalism among the officers has been one of the most frequently-reported challenges,” it goes on to say.

A second problem: “Corruption in the police is endemic” with army units needing to challenge “local police graft, bribery and corruption schemes.”

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported from Jani Khel, Afghanistan that local police had “erected illegal checkpoints to extort money from the population.”

In offering advice to U.S. Marines in Afghanistan the manual quotes, with one adaptation, T.E. Lawrence, the famous Lawrence of Arabia: “Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the [Afghans] do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them.”

-bth: note the persistent leak or release of military documents that describe a very frustrating situation, external support to the Taliban and a stalemate. I think the objective of these releases is not to inform the public but layout a path for continued presence of US forces and to minimize expectations of a drawdown.

U.S. intelligence report on Afghanistan sees stalemate - latimes.com

2012-01-12T06:42:00.001-05:00

U.S. intelligence report on Afghanistan sees stalemate - latimes.com

Reporting from Washington—

The U.S. intelligence community says in a secret new assessment that the war in Afghanistan is mired in stalemate, and warns that security gains from an increase in American troops have been undercut by pervasive corruption, incompetent governance and Taliban fighters operating from neighboring Pakistan, according to U.S. officials.

The sobering judgments, laid out in a classified National Intelligence Estimate completed last month and delivered to the White House, appeared at odds with recent optimistic statements by Pentagon officials and have deepened divisions between U.S. intelligence agencies and American military commanders about progress in the decade-old war.

The detailed document, known as an NIE, runs more than 100 pages and represents the consensus view of the CIA and 15 other U.S. intelligence agencies. Similar in tone to an NIE prepared a year ago, it challenges the Pentagon's claim to have achieved lasting security gains in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials who have read or been briefed on its contents....

-bth: aren't these conclusions generic and obvious to anyone who tries to stay informed on the matter?

A Murder in Tehran | Informed Comment

2012-01-12T05:59:00.000-05:00

A Murder in Tehran | Informed Comment

... If you put this all together, you can come to a speculation. The circumstantial evidence would point to a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK or People’s Jihadis) terrorist organization. The MEK is known to have been involved in espionage on the Iranian nuclear program, and it wants to overthrow the current government in favor of a Marxist-Islamic regime, working with Israeli intelligence. Mossad does targeted assassinations, as in Dubai. The MEK has a history of pulling off bombings in Iran. One, in 1981, killed over 80 members of the revolution’s political elite, including the prime minister. The MEK is based in part in Iraq and so could acquire sticky bombs easily. It is known to have an operational alliance with Israeli and American intelligence. And that this bombing occurred on an anniversary of a previous one also suggests a terrorist group for which the date is symbolic.

I underline that this conclusion is circumstantial and purely the result of an intellectual exercise, i.e., of speculation. I’m not making an accusation and have no proof of this conclusion. But it is more likely the solution to the mystery than that Thai ninjas or Argentine gauchos did the deed. ...

- bth: Juan Cole's blog posting on this matter is worth reading in full.