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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Twin explosions rocked Mombasa Saturday
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
9 20:14 Glenmore [] 
13 20:40 Barbara [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
3 20:30 crosspatch [1]
3 16:03 Ebbang Uluque6305 []
1 01:27 GolfBravoUSMC []
3 06:58 Whiskey Mike []
2 19:43 Glenmore []
1 22:20 JosephMendiola []
3 13:50 Albert Grundy9503 []
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1 10:15 Ptah []
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2 00:26 phil_b []
2 09:09 AlanC []
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1 01:21 newc []
7 23:29 SteveS []
Page 2: WoT Background
2 20:17 JosephMendiola []
1 11:45 Procopius2k []
1 21:42 American Delight []
1 02:46 crosspatch []
1 02:24 Redneck Jim [1]
5 18:12 Redneck Jim [1]
5 17:39 Angaviger Speck8922 []
4 19:17 Bright Pebbles []
7 19:30 DepotGuy []
1 18:10 Redneck Jim []
1 19:57 Glenmore []
1 23:24 Mizzou Mafia []
2 21:44 American Delight []
1 02:37 Water Modem [1]
1 18:06 Redneck Jim [1]
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1 02:04 RandomJD [1]
4 19:13 Frank G [2]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
10 20:24 JosephMendiola []
3 20:22 mom []
6 12:44 CrazyFool [1]
5 19:41 Frank G []
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3 19:19 Bright Pebbles []
14 21:27 Charles []
3 13:47 Jumbo Ebboque2073 []
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Page 6: Politix
7 23:07 SteveS [1]
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3 22:31 canalzone []
Caribbean-Latin America
What doomed 'Fast & Furious'
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What doomed Fast & Furious

The light of day?
Posted by: gorb || 04/02/2012 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  IOW, the so-called "inter-Agency communication gap" is also very much an inter-Agency Coordination + Honesty + Trust Gap.

And prolly a few others they haven't found yet, or don't want to find???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/02/2012 0:24 Comments || Top||

#3  And the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) is supposed to provide what kind of inter-agency coordination?

Excerpt from the JTTF Site:

The benefits of JTTFs? They provide one-stop shopping for information regarding terrorist activities. They enable a shared intelligence base across many agencies. They create familiarity among investigators and managers before a crisis. And perhaps most importantly, they pool talents, skills, and knowledge from across the law enforcement and intelligence communities into a single team that responds together.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/02/2012 9:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Mexico is STILL a foreign country. If United States Intelligence is making contacts or recruiting sources in a foreign country certain, well established, long standing coordinating rules and directives apply. The unltimate coordinating and approving authority for these activities rests with the Director, CIA. The authority for these activities also holds responsibility and oversight for these contacts.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/02/2012 9:18 Comments || Top||

#5  So it was all just an unfortunate misunderstanding, huh? Hey, that's easy.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/02/2012 12:24 Comments || Top||

#6  And the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) is supposed to provide what kind of inter-agency coordination?

The kind aimed specifically at countering terrorist attacks within the US.
Posted by: lotp || 04/02/2012 12:48 Comments || Top||

#7  BLUF:

They can remain silent and deny all they want, but NO ONE in the US Gov't would ship that volume of small arms, clandestinely or otherwise, into a foreign country without the expressed knowledge and approval of the Country Team (US Ambassador, Chief of Station, Regional Security Officer, and LEGAT). It just ain't happening.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/02/2012 13:26 Comments || Top||

#8  So far it remains to be seen what comes of the Congressional F&F investigation.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/02/2012 18:18 Comments || Top||

#9  If something makes no sense, you don't know the whole story. F&F makes no sense (and I don't buy the conspiracy to gin up gun control emotions, though at least it makes some sense.) We are missing some critical data, I think.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/02/2012 20:14 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Are Democracy Quasi-NGOs Doomed?
Secretary Clinton got some unpleasant news as she was working to round up support for US regional diplomacy in the United Arab Emirates this week: the UAE announced that it was closing down the offices of a prominent American quango linked to the Democratic Party. Though the incident lacked the drama of the arrests of quango employees in Egypt earlier this year, it was a slap in the face and a sign of just how tired many world governments are growing of this new cross between government and the private philanthropic sector.

A quango is a quasi NGO and in the United States many of them are focused on promoting democracy overseas. Although organizations like the National Democratic Institute and its counterpart the International Republican Institute are largely funded by the federal government, they operate under more or less independent boards of directors. They are modeled in some ways on the German political party foundations, again funded largely by taxpayers but operated under the authority of political parties rather than the government itself. The democracy quangos are set up to interfere with the politics of other countries. They don’t necessarily take partisan positions in their elections, but they train democracy activists, provide them with support, and generally work to open up political space in target countries as a way of promoting the kind of political change Americans like to see.

The US and some other countries have enjoyed a free ride for a while. These organizations have been able to operate pretty freely in a large number of countries; we have in effect found a way of getting government-funded activities and organizations on foreign soil without having to observe all the tiresome, tedious formalities of diplomatic custom and usage.

When countries like the UAE start slamming the doors (and on the German foundations as well as the American ones) this is a sign that the free ride may be coming to an end. In the future, foreign countries may well demand that entities directly or indirectly funded by foreign governments operate only on the basis of a negotiated and mutually acceptable agreement. To many in the west, this will feel like a crackdown on free speech; to many in other countries it will feel like an anti-colonial assertion of national sovereignty.

Unfortunately, genuine NGOs are getting smeared with the quango label. It is easy for demagogic or anti-democratic politicians to attack authentic civil society movements and institutions by fuzzing the line between quangos and the rest. The west has colluded in fuzzing the difference as well, and that may have been a mistake. Quasi-NGOs have had a good run, but the combination of budgetary stringency at home and resistance abroad puts a question mark over their future.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Number of genuine NGOs?

A cardinal-value less than 1.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/02/2012 6:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Bright Pebbles, I think your comment would be more true if it was phrased something like, "number of genuine NGOs after their tenth birthday".

I think a number start off with noble purpose and get quickly corrupted. I'm not sure how many new NGOs we have though, so this might be the way it was, and not the way it is.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/02/2012 9:06 Comments || Top||

#3  rjs, I agree, sort of, but your number is way high. I'd bet it should be 2 - 5 yrs. max.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/02/2012 9:25 Comments || Top||

#4  To bad penicillin doesn't work on that kind of infection.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 04/02/2012 9:57 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm with rjschwartz.

At one time I was a paid up member of Amnesty International. Back in the day when they were apolitical and just suported 'prisoners of concious'.

Seems a long time ago.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/02/2012 10:33 Comments || Top||

#6  "quango"
so why am I thinking "Quangoroo?"
Posted by: Ptah || 04/02/2012 11:04 Comments || Top||

#7  > 'prisoners of concious'

LOL. I sometimes feel like that after too many drinkies.

At least auto-correct didn't put couscous in instead.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/02/2012 11:57 Comments || Top||

#8  I'd bet it should be 2 - 5 yrs. max.

A better metric might be the number of white Land Rovers.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/02/2012 12:39 Comments || Top||

#9  You mean they don't want democracy in the arab whatevers?
Posted by: Bigfoot Glinens9686 || 04/02/2012 13:31 Comments || Top||

#10  I was a believer in Amnesty until I saw one of their reports (back during the cold war) that had 80 something pages about the US being bad and five or six about the Soviets. Bias couldn't have been more obvious.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/02/2012 14:37 Comments || Top||

#11  Ditto

Now they're just another NGO sin las blancas camionetas...
Posted by: badanov || 04/02/2012 14:41 Comments || Top||

#12  So, ya say you wanna play SmartPower eh? No problemo...pay up bitch.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 04/02/2012 19:53 Comments || Top||

#13  Shocker, ain't it, Bigfoot?
Posted by: Barbara || 04/02/2012 20:40 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2012-04-02
  Twin explosions rocked Mombasa Saturday
Sun 2012-04-01
  Paris: Scientist accused of plotting to blow up 'city size of London'
Sat 2012-03-31
  Us Drone Strike Kills Four In Miranshah
Fri 2012-03-30
  France nabs at least 17 Islamists in raids across the country
Thu 2012-03-29
  Gunmen kidnap Saudi diplomat in Yemen
Wed 2012-03-28
  Syrian Troops Kill 57 amid Clashes near Lebanese Border
Tue 2012-03-27
  Terror plot uncovered when 11 suicide vests found at Afghan military HQ
Mon 2012-03-26
  Toulouse killings: Mohamed Merah brother charged
Sun 2012-03-25
  Syrian Rebel Chiefs Form Military Council to Unify Ranks
Sat 2012-03-24
  At Least 26 Dead as Tens of Thousands Rally in Syria
Fri 2012-03-23
  German court gives online terror recruiter five year sentence
Thu 2012-03-22
  Gunman dead as French siege ends
Wed 2012-03-21
  French police in standoff with Jewish school killing suspect
Tue 2012-03-20
  Turkish Diplomat Says Two More Syrian Generals Defect
Mon 2012-03-19
  Heavy Shelling Kills 16 'Qaida' Fighters in Yemen

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