From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription.
MOSCOW â Egypt is weighing the purchase of advanced Russian-origin aircraft after 25 years of maintaining a U.S.-origin air fleet. Egypt has more than 220 F-16 multi-role fighters and has been negotiating to procure at least another 50 such platforms.
Russian industry sources said Moscow has briefed the Egyptian Defense Ministry and air force on several combat aircraft. They said Russia's Rosoboronexport has offered to transfer technology and enable Egyptian coproduction of any aircraft selected by the air force of the Arab League state. "Egypt has been considered a key target in Rosoboronexportâs marketing strategy in the Middle East," an industry source said. "The size of the aircraft deal is not the issue. Any Egyptian decision to purchase Russian combat aircraft would mark a major achievement."
Egypt has long considered the procurement of an advanced non-U.S. aircraft in an effort to challenge the Israeli air force, which depends on U.S. platforms. Egypt might be also using its negotiations with Russia as a lever to procure advanced aircraft and subsystems from the United States.
Sources said Cairo has examined the MiG-29SMT, regarded as the most advanced model of the MiG-29. Algeria and Libya have considered the aircraft, while Yemen has purchased 16 such platforms. RSK-MiG, the manufacturer of the MiG-29SMT and two-seater UBT, has offered to transfer technology and enable coproduction of the aircraft in Egypt, the sources said. Russia would also help Egypt establish maintenance and logistics facilities for regional service of MiG fighters. In addition, the Russian manufacturer has agreed to acquire scores of obsolete MiG-21 aircraft from Egypt as part of any deal for the MiG-29SMT. The sources said RSK-MiG would allow Egypt to defray some of the cost of the MiG-29 with the surplus MiG-21s.
Egypt has also been considering a partnership with several Arab allies to purchase the MiG-29SMT. Under the proposal, Egypt would join Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in a major aircraft program. Another option is for Egypt to join Gulf Cooperation Council states in procuring the MiG-AT jet trainer, the sources said. Under the proposal, MiG-AT, developed by EADS and RSK-MiG, would be coproduced in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. So they want MiGs because they want to fight the Israelis eventually with the rest of the Arabs. It just goes to show that they have a death wish, and that they rather spend their treasure on weapons when they do not really have the economy to support it. Or a sugar daddy like SA will support them. You cannot buy friends by giving them $2 billion annually.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/20/2006 00:09 ||
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#1
Don't do it, Egypt! Half-kiloton groundburst Aswan Dam. Whoosh!
#2
Another of Carter's legacies. Cut Egypt loose and let the Arabs and Russians support them.
BTW, think the Egyptians found the remote off switch on their F-16s?
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2006 8:19 Comments ||
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#3
Mr. Wife told stories in the latter part of the 1980s about walking past soldiers on guard duty in Cairo, whose sandals and weapons both were held together by duct tape. His first factory start-up there took considerably longer than planned, because the local staff didn't realize that it isn't enough just to list the chemicals needed; someone has to actually place the order with the supplier and arrange for payment (!!!) And then the equipment kept breaking down because nobody did the maintenance necessary to keep desert rats from crawling into the lines and dieing there, and their little mummified bodies blocked the flow until something broke upstream, requiring the whole system be broken down and examined until the problem was found.
I wouldn't be terribly worried about the Egyptians acquiring expensive and temperamental equipment of the sort that needs ongoing maintenance by highly trained technicians. But of course I'm generalizing from unrelated data. ;-)
#4
My former employer built and still provides technical support for two facilities outside Cairo.
The secret is to a) establish and maintain a long-term relationship with the powers that be, b) select an Egyptian 'representative' who is on good terms with the government and the power structure, and c) ensure that he is compensated extremely well.
You might still get screwed, but it won't be any worse than any Egyptian would get in the course of doing business.
#8
MIG 21's - hhhhhhhmmmmmmmm, sounds like the Russians intend to either rebuild or resell. The planes they've been promo the last few years are the heavier types, not good for the Hi-Lo Mix.
#9
TW I wouldn't be terribly worried about the Egyptians acquiring expensive and temperamental equipment of the sort that needs ongoing maintenance by highly trained technicians. But of course I'm generalizing from unrelated data.
Actually TB, I've worked with both US and Soviet military equipment. The american has a much higher peak performance, but requires a lot more TLC. The soviet works---no matter what.
The Kuwaiti ruling family remained at odds Thursday over succession issues following the emir's death, leaving the oil-rich Gulf state in a political impasse. Top members of the Al-Sabah family held lengthy meetings Tuesday and Wednesday on issues such as the appointment of a new crown prince and a prime minister, but failed to reach decisions, sources close to the family told AFP.
They also discussed further arrangements to strike a balance between various wings of the family, especially the Al Salem and Al Jaber lines which have been alternating the position of head of state for the past 85 years. The family has not set a date for further meetings and were not expected to meet on Thursday or Friday, the Muslim weekend, the sources said. Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, 75, who is from the Al Salem branch, was named as the new emir on Sunday, but questions have been raised about his health and his ability to read out the constitutional oath before parliament.
The prime minister and strongman, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, 76, who has been running the day-to-day affairs of the emirate for several years, is the strong favourite to become crown prince. He is from the Al-Jaber line. According to the sources, there was almost total unanimity on Sheikh Sabah for the position of crown prince, but differences remained on whether he should also hold the premiership. The two posts were split in 2003.
UPDATE: KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaitâs ruling Al Sabah family has overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah to become emir to replace the emirateâs new ailing ruler, a top family source told AFP on Friday. âThe overwhelming majority of the family came this morning to the house of Shaikh Sabah and expressed complete trust in him to become new emir in light of the health condition of the current emir,â the source said on condition of anonymity. âShaikh Sabah accepted their requestâ during the meeting attended by nearly all senior members of the ruling family, said the source.
Shaikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, 75, who was named emir on Sunday following the death of Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah, has been experiencing poor health since undergoing colon surgery in 1997.
Maybe it's just me, but this looks a lot like jockeying for position in a posh old folks' home.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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US and North Korean envoys to talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear programmes met in Beijing, a Chinese official said on Thursday, raising regional hopes the stalled negotiations could resume.
Kimmie's been taking his lithium again, I see...
The meeting on Wednesday between US envoy Christopher Hill and North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan took place right after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's trip to China. Wu Dawei, China's top envoy to the talks also attended, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan.
The US and North Korea nuclear negotiators discussed Washington's clamp-down on companies it suspects helped North Korea with counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade, diplomatic sources said. Kong would not confirm whether the sanctions were discussed. "The three sides all had a positive assessment of this contact," Kong said at a regular briefing. "Each believed it was significant." The future of the six-party talks is uncertain because Pyongyang is angry with the United States about Washington's crackdown on its finances. The six countries - the two Koreas, host China, Japan, Russia and the United States - were meant to meet early this year to try to make progress on North Korea's agreement in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees. They last met in November.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Kimmie's been taking his lithium again, I see...
No, far more likely that China reamed him a new butthole and told him to knock off trying to start a nuke war. (Or else)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/20/2006 8:35 Comments ||
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#4
I never put much credence in the Punctuated Equilibrium theory, but lo and behold! It seems to work! Maybe in time the frogs would become vertebratae. ;-)
A Hollywood film company has struck an $8 million deal with the man who shot Pope John Paul II, according to the Italian news weekly Gente. Mehmet Ali Agca, who was released from an Istanbul jail last week, already has received a $500,000 advance from an unidentified company to make a film explaining how and why he carried out the 1981 attack, says his bodyguard, Haydar Mengi. Gente said the movie deal caused Agca to back out of a $600,000 agreement to give an exclusive television interview upon his release.
The pope nearly died after he was shot twice by Agca while greeting crowds at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square. The Turkish gunman immediately was arrested and later sentenced by an Italian court to life in prison. John Paul famously visited Agca in prison two years later and forgave him.
Mengi said Agca had gone into hiding to finalize the negotiations, which is why he didn't sign in at his local police station as required.
Circle shows Mehmet Ali Agca aiming at Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in 1981. "As part of the deal, Agca must give a full interview about what happened leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself and he will also play himself in the movie," Mengi said. "Other terms of the contract ban Agca from giving interviews and he must keep out of trouble."
Agca initially said he acted alone then confessed to being hired by the Bulgarian secret service. He later retracted that, but it was widely believed the Soviet Union's KGB initiated a plot to kill the Polish pope because of his threat to communist rule in Eastern Europe.
Mengi told the magazine Agca will fly to Mexico soon to begin production for the film. "But Agca's life is without doubt at risk â he knows too much," Mengi said. "Killing him is the only way of keeping him quiet. I'm certain he would be safe if he told his story to as many people as possible."
Agca was pardoned by Italy's president in 1999 and sent back to Turkey to serve an outstanding sentence for the murder of a Turkish newspaper editor. A judge decided last week to release him, but Turkey's justice minister has ordered a probe and could return him to jail.
#6
Looks like I'm not ready for my closeup, Mr. Demille...
ANKARA, Turkey - Police on Friday took the man who shot Pope John Paul II back into custody after an appeals court ordered him to return to prison to serve more time for killing a journalist and for other crimes in Turkey.
As Canadians get ready to go to the polls next January 23 to elect a new federal government, according to the French Islamic website oumma.com, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe campaigned this week in a Montreal "Salafi" mosque.
Filing from Montreal on January 17, Oumma.com correspondent Abdelaziz Djaout writes that the leader of Quebec's federal separatist party was received in the Assuna Annabawiyah Mosque at the initiative of the Canadian Muslim Forum and the Muslim Council of Montreal. The item was reproduced yesterday in the Quebec militant separatist site Vigile.net.
Speaking with Judeoscope, a spokesperson of the Bloc Quebecois first downplayed the significance of the Oumma.com report, saying "serious media" did not report the event, but finally confirmed the meeting took place in the mosque building.
Located in a poor Montreal neighbourhood known to locals as Park Extension, the Assuna Annabawiyah mosque became known to Canadian intelligence agencies as a hotbed for Islamic extremism in the 1990s. It was there that Algerian-born "Millenium bomber" Ahmed Ressam (convicted in July 2005) was recruited by al-Qaida operative Abderraouf Hannachi in a failed plot to bomb the Los Angeles Airport. Ressam admitted in American custody that he and his cell considered attacking Montreal's Outremont district aiming to murder Hassidic Jews.
Oumma.com, which describes the mosque as "Montreal's largest Salafi mosque", is a news portal considered as ideologically close to controversial preacher Tariq Ramadan, a grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Egyptian radical salafi Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood). Salafi is an adjective which describes Muslims whose creed it is that genuine Muslims are compelled to imitate scrupulously the ways of Mohammed's companions (Salaf) in order to restore the Umma (community of believers) to its former pre-eminence under the unchallenged sovereignty of Allah and the rule of his law (sharia) over all things human. While not all Salafi Muslims espouse violent struggle to achieve their aims, followers of the Muslim Brotherhood and its foremost Jihadi ideologue Sayyid Qutb, Saudia Arabia's Wahhabi sectarians, adherents of Pakistani Islamic revivalist Syed Abul Ala Maududi and all the splinter groups and strains in-between, including al-Qaida, consider themselves to be Salafi.
The Bloc Quebecois has actively been courting immigrant communities, hoping to strenghten its position in the upcoming elections at the expense of the scandal-ridden Liberals traditionally favoured by immigrants and minorities. Its candidate in Montreal's Papineau riding, Vivian Barbot, who is challenging current Foreign Affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew, was endorsed earlier this month by an Algerian community association as well as pro-Palestinian militants.
However, Oumma.com's reporter casts doubt over some of Montreal Muslims' newfound sympathy for the separation of Quebec from Canada, arguing that reflexion on the Bloc Quebecois' independence project for Quebec is limited among Montreal's predominantly French-speaking Muslims.
On the other hand, in its Election 2006 report, the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) notes that the Bloc Quebecois' party track record agrees with the "CIC's positions regarding Canada's involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine". Indeed, anger with the Liberal government's perceived pro-Islael policy shift and introduction of the Anti-Terrorism Act decried by some Islamic organizations as discriminatory against Muslims coupled with distrust for the Conservative Party, often reviled by Muslim and leftist critics as a radical right-wing "Zionist" party, may have made the left-leaning Bloc Quebecois an attractive alternative for many of Montreal's Muslims due to its vocal opposition to the war in Iraq, its calls on softening anti-terror laws and some of its members pro-Palestinian political activism.
It remains to be seen whether this apparent political shift among Montreal Muslims will prove more lasting than present electoral concerns. Outside Quebec, the New Democratic Party, whose positions on security issues and foreign policy are similar to the Bloc Quebecois, is expected to receive substantial support from Canadian Muslims.
In the meanwhile, Oumma.com reports that a few days from now it will be the Bloc Quebecois' turn to invite Muslim militants and dignitaries to dine with some of the party's star candidates, including party leader Gilles Duceppe.
#4
Aaaah, oumma.com... actually, nowaday it's mejliss, the forum has been "disassociated" from the main site (which has been promoted by the main french newsparer "Le monde", has hosted ads from its group, publishes interviews and articles by "islamo-friendly",...) because it is supposedly the posterboy of the Mythical Moderate (french) Muslims... and yet there are frequent "accidents" : antisemitism, making fun of western hostages in Iraq, antiwhite racism, french-bashing (ok, most of the conservative blogosphere is guilty of that too, ;-), but not due to the same reasons),... the mods are fond of suddenly deleting entire threads, going offline to purge the archives,... and there was all theses oumma forum members (most notably Khiari, cf http://www.france-echos.com/zone.php?cle=189 ) who were busted for financing terrorism, too, or have friendly ties with good ol' Hekmatyar himself (cf. http://www.france-echos.com/zone.php?cle=141),...
EFL
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday announced plans to bring the U.S. Agency for International Development under the direct control of the State Department to streamline the more than $19 billion worth of foreign aid programs. She named Randall L. Tobias, the administration's global AIDS coordinator and a former pharmaceutical company executive, to direct U.S. foreign aid, a new position that is equivalent to deputy secretary of state and entails reporting directly to Miss Rice. Mr. Tobias also will serve as USAID administrator and "will have authority over all State Department and USAID foreign assistance," Miss Rice said.
Mr. Tobias, who will have to be confirmed by the Senate, said after Miss Rice's announcement that the administration would promote its freedom and democracy agenda around the world "by better leveraging the strengths and the contributions of our foreign assistance institutions." Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R,Indiana), chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, endorsed the nomination of Mr. Tobias, who is a former chairman and CEO of AT&T International and former chairman, president and CEO of Eli Lilly & Co., a pharmaceutical firm.
Miss Rice said the status quo of how foreign aid is administered is not acceptable. "The current structure of America's foreign assistance risks incoherent policies and ineffective programs and perhaps even wasted resources," she said. Miss Rice said she would create advanced training courses on the subject at the Foreign Service Institute.
EFL: (CNSNews.com) - The anti-war group "Code Pink: Women for Peace" is thanking Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha on its website for his "courageous stand on Iraq." The group -- which sparked controversy last summer with anti-war protests at a military hospital in the nation's capital -- recently presented Murtha its "pink badge of courage" for his anti-war activism.
Code Pink's co-founder, Gael Murphy, and its coordinator for the Washington, D.C., area, Allison Yorra, met with Murtha earlier this month "to thank him for his courageous stand on Iraq. "We presented him with our pink badge of courage and pink flowers sent by CODEPINK members nationwide," a statement on the group's website indicates. "Rep Murtha was very appreciative of these gestures as he has been receiving many responses to his public denouncement of the war."
Photographs on the Code Pink website show Murtha holding the pink flowers and standing arm-in-arm with Murphy and Yorra. There is no mention of the meeting with Code Pink or the award presented to Murtha on his congressional website.
Gee, you'd think he was worried about how this looks to the voters back home or something
Though Murtha originally voted for the resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq, he called for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq in November 2005.
Code Pink was launched in 2002 by approximately 100 women opposed to a U.S. pre-emptive strike against Iraq. The group has conducted "vigils" in front of the White House and outside the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
As Cybercast News Service previously reported Code Pink was criticized for picketing the military hospital holding signs that read "Maimed for a Lie" and "Enlist Here to Die for Halliburton."
Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, told Cybercast News Service that Murtha embracing Code Pink, literally and figuratively, is "troubling to watch. "I don't like to see someone who, historically, has understood the military and been supportive of it, in his votes at least, suddenly being associated with people who are historically anti-military, as an institution, and, also, contrary to American foreign policy goals," Donnelly said.
In a June 27, 2005, press release related to her group's endorsement of the anti-war coalition, "World Tribunal on Iraq" (WTI), Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans explained her reason for participating. "I'm here to gather evidence to indict [President] Bush," she wrote. An entire section of the Code Pink website is dedicated to the group's efforts to have President Bush and his subordinates indicted for alleged "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity."
"We support the right of the people of Iraq and Palestine to resist the occupations."
"We demand an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine."
"We denounce the racist and colonial character of Zionism, Israel's State ideology."
Donnelly said, based on Code Pink's activities and associates, it is fair to question Murtha's relationship with the group. "He could have chosen not to accept the award. That's the decision that he made and I think it's, therefore, fair game to inquire, 'Does he support the agenda, the broader agenda of that organization and its endorsers?'" Donnelly said. "I think, in fairness, you have to ask him, 'Have you thought this through?'" Calls to Congressman Murtha's Washington, D.C. and Johnstown, Penn., offices seeking comment for this article Thursday were not returned.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D. Calif.) has called questions about Murtha's credibility as an authority on military matters "scurrilous" and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne accused the Cybercast News Service of being part of a "war on actual Vietnam veterans" who "take on the powers that be" for reporting the accusations. But Donnelly rejected the idea that Murtha or his anti-war views deserve deferential treatment because of his prior military service. "It's absurd to say that only people with certain qualifications can engage in the debate about the defense of this country," Donnelly said. "That's only a ploy to try to limit informed discussion."
Most Americans, Donnelly argued, would not want debate about an issue limited only to those with professional experience in the field in question. "If we limited public discussion about the military only to people with military experience that would certainly stifle a lot of intelligent discussion," Donnelly said. "It's such an absurd notion, I just don't buy it and I don't think the majority of people buy it either."
Posted by: Steve ||
01/20/2006 08:23 ||
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#2
Code Pink was launched in 2002 by approximately 100 women opposed to a U.S. pre-emptive strike against Iraq.
Not quite. Code Pink was founded by Media Benjamin, a Castro whore extraordinaire and Iraq terrorist funder, of Global Exchange in league with the Communist Workers World Party. Such nice people.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2006 10:07 Comments ||
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#3
In other fun Code Pink news.....check out Little Green Footballs for one of the worst ever photoshop jobs that *was* on their website. They apparently took it down after a bunch of complaints.
You think that at least one of them could use that stupid program correctly.....hell, the commies back in Stalin's day did better than that!
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/20/2006 13:43 Comments ||
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#5
Every morning for the past two weeks, as Iâve driven from Richmond to San Francisco at around 7:30 AM, Iâve passed underneath the Berkeley pedestrian walkway where Code Pink has been staging a kind of âcommuterâs vigilâ protest thing. Theyâve busted out with their usual stuff: baggy formless pink sweat suits, bullhorns, giant pink signs that read things like âWomen End War In 2006"
None of which impresses me. I mean, weâre talking about Berkeley here, right? Every second person owns a giant paper-mache puppet, a tinfoil hat, and an old Volvo that runs off of biodiesel. No, what interests me about Code Pink is that they are all old.... not to mention overweight and homely. Well, not so much old as middle aged: forty five plus. Now, what kind of activist organization - in Berkeley, California no less - positively cannot get young people to join?
#6
Walk like a fool, talk like a fool, wear a tin foil hat and the rest of the fools will come. At the rate he's going he will single handedly win the election for the Repubs!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/20/2006 16:15 Comments ||
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The Bush administration offered its fullest defense to date Thursday of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying that authorization from Congress to deter terrorist attacks "places the president at the zenith of his powers in authorizing the N.S.A. activities."
In a 42-page legal analysis, the Justice Department cited the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the writings of presidents both Republican and Democratic, and dozens of scholarly papers and court cases in justifying President Bush's power to order the N.S.A. surveillance program.
With the legality of the program under public attack since its disclosure last month, officials said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales ordered up the analysis partly in response to what administration lawyers felt were unfair conclusions in a Jan. 6 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The Congressional report challenged virtually all the main legal justifications the administration had cited for the program.
Vice President Dick Cheney, meanwhile, once again defended the N.S.A. eavesdropping operation in a speech Thursday as "critical to the national security of the United States," even as House Democrats prepared to hold an unofficial hearing on Friday into a program that they charge is illegal and unconstitutional. Mr. Cheney is also scheduled to meet with Congressional leaders on Friday at a separate, closed-door briefing on the program.
When the Senate Judiciary Committee conducts an open hearing on the eavesdropping on Feb. 6, Attorney General Gonzales is expected to testify. The session organized for Friday by Democrats is intended to spotlight critics of the program; administration officials will not use that forum to offer a defense. The White House has invited some members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to attend a briefing on Friday, according to Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
The analysis released Thursday by the Justice Department, with comments from lawyers throughout the department, expanded on the legal arguments made in two still-classified legal opinions as well as in a slimmer letter that the department sent to Congress last month.
The basic thrust of the legal justification was the same - that the president has inherent authority as commander in chief to order wiretaps without warrants and that the N.S.A. operation does not violate either a 1978 law governing intelligence wiretaps or the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.
This month's Congressional Research Service report was particularly critical of the administration's claim that the N.S.A. program was justified by a resolution passed by Congress three days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, authorizing the use of "all necessary and appropriate force" against those responsible for the terrorist acts.
The research service report found there was no indication that Congress intended to authorize warrantless wiretaps when it gave President Bush the authority to fight Al Qaeda and invade Afghanistan. But the Justice Department did not back away from its position in Thursday's report, saying the type of "signals intelligence" used in the N.S.A. operation clearly falls under the Congressional use-of-force authorization.
"The president has made clear that he will exercise all authority available to him, consistent with the Constitution, to protect the people of the United States," the report said.
The Congressional authorization on the use of force, it added, "places the president at the zenith of his powers in authorizing the N.S.A. activities."
But many critics of the program, which allows the agency to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mail messages to and from American citizens and others within the United States, said that they remained unconvinced.
"The administration's latest justification for circumventing the law to spy on Americans falls far short of answering the many questions Congress and the American people have about this activity," said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader. "That is why there have been bipartisan calls for administration officials to come to Congress to answer these questions and ensure that the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees can thoroughly investigate the administration's actions."
Attorney General Gonzales sent Thursday's document to Mr. Reid and to Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader. While the report did not go into many operational details of the program, it sought to bolster the case for the president to retain inherent power to order warrantless searches in the United States as part of the seeking of information on foreign agents.
That authority, the Justice Department analysis said, is consistent with a three-part test established by the Supreme Court in a 1952 case, Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. Sawyer, which struck down President Harry S. Truman's authority to seize the nation's steel mills in the name of national security.
Nor does the N.S.A. program conflict, the Justice Department said, with what many legal analysts had regarded as the exclusive authority for intelligence wiretaps under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, passed by Congress in 1978 in response to Watergate-era political abuses. Some presidential powers, particularly in the area of national security, are simply "beyond Congress' ability to regulate," it said.
Vice President Cheney, who was actively involved in the creation of the N.S.A. program and has been a vigorous advocate for expanded presidential power, echoed that in a speech on Thursday before the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York.
While some current and former officials have challenged the value of the N.S.A. program in deterring an attack on American soil, the vice president said: "The activities conducted under this authorization have helped us to detect and prevent possible terrorist attacks against the American people. As such, this program is critical to the national security of the United States."
President Bush and Mr. Cheney have been critical of the public disclosure of the program in The New York Times, and the Justice Department has opened an investigation into the disclosure. Mr. Cheney acknowledged in his speech that "a spirited debate is now under way, and our message to the American people is clear and straightforward: These actions are within the president's authority and responsibility under the Constitution and laws, and these actions are vital to our security."
But Robert Reinstein, dean of the law school at Temple University, said in an interview that he considered the eavesdropping program "a pretty straightforward case where the president is acting illegally," and he said there appeared to be a broad consensus among legal scholars and national security experts that the administration's legal arguments were weak.
The foreign intelligence law passed by Congress in 1978 represents the Bush administration's biggest legal hurdle, he said. "When Congress speaks on questions that are domestic in nature, I really can't think of a situation where the president has successfully asserted a constitutional power to supersede that," he said.
Two leading civil rights groups brought lawsuits this week aimed at ending the N.S.A. program, and several lawyers representing defendants in terrorism cases are also seeking to challenge the program on the grounds that it may have been improperly used in criminal prosecutions.
Mr. Reinstein predicted that the court would ultimately declare the program unconstitutional. "This is domestic surveillance over American citizens for whom there is no evidence or proof that they are involved in any illegal activity, and it is in contravention of a statute of Congress specifically designed to prevent this," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/20/2006 00:14 ||
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That is one painful looking zit on that fearsome jihadi...
After years of silence, the father of American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh said Thursday he has asked President Bush to grant his son clemency, adding that the then teenager never raised arms against the United States. "In simple terms, this is the story of a decent and honorable young man embarked on a spiritual quest," said Frank Lindh, swallowing back tears at times during a speech at the Commonwealth Club, a nonprofit organization.
The "decent and honorable young men" became a jihadi. He joined the Taliban, where as a dues-paying member he was authorized to beat women on the street with whips if they showed an ankle.
John Walker Lindh, now 24, was captured by American forces on Nov. 21, alongside the Taliban. Frank Lindh said his son thought he had been rescued by U.S. soldiers until he was taken into custody and tortured.
What made him think they would rescue him? The fact that he ran out of ammunition? What made him any more important that all the other dead jihadis around him?
Charged with conspiring to kill Americans and supporting terrorists, the younger Lindh avoided a potential life sentence in 2002 by pleading guilty to lesser charges of supplying services to the Taliban in violation of U.S. economic sanctions and of carrying weapons against U.S. forces.
He was rooted out at Qala-i-Jangi, where the hard boyz from the siege of Konduz had been shipped. They decided to unsurrender and Dostum's guys shot them to shreds. Johnny Jihad was one of very few survivors. By rights he should have been a corpse.
Last year John Walker Lindh asked President Bush for a reduction in his 20-year sentence, repeating a September 2004 request the government rejected. Until now, his parents have mostly maintained a public silence about the case, hoping to avoid a media barrage that could be detrimental to their son.
No doubt enough time's gone by that the usual suspects think they can garner some sympathy for him from the short attention span crowd...
But on Thursday Frank Lindh shared baby pictures and other photos of his son during the presentation and said he is proud of his child.
Frank would no doubt be prouder of him if he'd been caught breaking and entering or mugging little old ladies...
Lindh said he decided to break his silence because he hoped the story of his boy's journey from bucolic Marin County to harsh Afghanistan battlefields will help gain him a reprieve.
Let me think......umm, no.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/20/2006 08:19 ||
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#1
Ah, yes. The "mixed up kid" defense.
Sorry. Try harder, pops.
#4
Not a spiritual questor, but a young man who likes to play dress up and soldier, and lord it over the wimminfolk. Accepting consequences are critical to achieving enlightenment, Father dearest.
#6
Johnny Jihad wouldn't need to have sunshine piped in if daddy had shown little Johnny how to get laid (by females, that is) once in a while.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2006 9:30 Comments ||
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#7
Yes I am sure Jihad Johnny had a really rough life growing up in Marin county. It's to bad that JJ hasn't had any falls while in custudy. How about you send sonny boy back to Afghanistan and let them try the little bastard? How about for good measure we throw daddy in jail with his son?
#9
Asking for clemency on a plea agreement? Better luck trying for an appeal because of legal malpractice, as in "my poor innocent sonny boy believed the crap his attorney told him....he had NO IDEA that he was actually going to have to SERVE the whole sentence...." Throw in some bs accusations of mental cruelty ("they made me eat non-halal chicken pilaf!") and some Koran desecration, too, while you're at it.
Hey, don't laugh. Get an airhead judge in Cali to sign off on it, and it's a possibility.
#13
Lindh said he decided to break his silence because he hoped the story of his boy's journey from bucolic Marin County to harsh Afghanistan battlefields will help gain him a reprieve.
Everybody makes choices, and whether for good or bad we all typically have to live with what happens as a result. Seems to me that this isn't quite sinking into Daddy Jihadi's little head.
#14
I should also note that a patriotic, red-blooded, RED STATE American CIA hero named Johnny Michael Spannlost his life in part because of Johnny Taliban's refusal to provide answers during an interrogation session.
#18
The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen----Right on. Mike Spann lost his life to these worthless jihadis. At Konduz, the Northern Alliance had thousands surrounded, with US airpower overhead. Too bad that they did not take them all out there, but some deal with Pakistan was struck and some aircraft or helos came in and hauled out some Pak officers or some folks like that. I read it in blogged dispatches from a reporter on the scene at the time. Those jihadis were brought down to the castle at Mazar-i-Sharif. The Afghans didn't frisk them too well and they had weapons hidden in their robes. The rest is history.
John Walker Lindh deserves no clemency. He is a piece of rat-sh*t that is lucky to get the treatment he deserves now. Mike Spann's family will never get their husband and father back. Lindh's dad can stop the tears thing and admit that his lack of being a good father figure helped propel his son into the hole he is in now.
Posted by: Al Aska Paul ||
01/20/2006 22:12 Comments ||
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#19
We should have arranged for him to meet with God - how much more spiritual can you get.
Coast Guard is an important part of homeland defense these days
President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen to be Commandant of the United States Coast Guard. Vice Admiral Allen currently serves as Chief of Staff for the United States Coast Guard. He also served as the Principal Federal Official overseeing Hurricane Katrina response and recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region.
Vice Admiral Allen previously served as Commander of the United States Coast Guard Atlantic Area, Fifth United States Coast Guard District, and the United States Maritime Defense Zone, Atlantic Fleet. In addition, he led the Atlantic forces in the United States Coast Guard's response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Prior to that position, Vice Admiral Allen commanded the Seventh United States Coast Guard District and was the Director of Resources for the United States Coast Guard. Earlier in his career, he served as Group Commander and Captain of the Port for Long Island Sound in Long Island, New York.
Vice Admiral Allen received his bachelor's degree from the United States Coast Guard Academy, his first master's degree from The George Washington University, and his second master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
#1
Can I...ahhhhhmmmm...call him directly when I...ahhhhhmmmm...run my boat aground? Again.
Posted by: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy ||
01/20/2006 9:57 Comments ||
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#2
Sen. Kennedy, please trying calling 911 first the next time you drive off a bridge.
Posted by: Admiral Allen ||
01/20/2006 10:13 Comments ||
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#3
Doesn't the CG have responsibility for ensuring that no nukes are brought into the country in containers? That seems like the biggest WMD risk we have, and the one that concerns me the most.
January 20, 2006: The recent air strike at Damadola, Pakistan, that missed al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri, is still a great success. This is because the CIAâs strike managed to get a few important al Qaeda operatives anyway. At least four high ranking al Qaeda officials, including the organizationâs master bomb-maker, and a chemical weapons expert, Midhat Mursi. If anything, this outcome is arguably more devastating to al-Qaeda than if Zawahiri had been killed alone. Zawahiri was a strategist and mouthpiece, the guys killed were operators, who did specific things to kill people.
The reason this strike is devastating to al Qaeda is simple. Behind great generals are often great staffs. A good staff can take care of the small details and allow a general (or leader) to focus on the big picture. The four terrorists were apparently senior level aides to Zawahiri. This will force a major shake-up in the senior leadership. Also, this raid has taken al Qaedaâs top chemical weapons expert out of play. Two of the people trained by Mursi are familiar to most Americans: Zacarias Moussaoui, who was thought to be a potential hijacker, and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid. Also apparently killed in the attack were al-Qaedaâs Afghanistan-Pakistan
operations chief, Khalid Habib, and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, another operations commander.
There is still a chance that Ayman al-Zawahiri was caught in this attack (miracles can happen), but it is unlikely. But Zawahiri has not lost a large number of senior and trusted staffers. In essence, he will have to assemble a new staff â and they may not be at the same level as the previous group. They replacements will also know what happened to their predecessors. This is not going to be good for the morale of the organization.
Striking the infrastructure of an organization like al-Qaeda tends to eventually flush out the big fish. The best example of this was the 1993 operations against the Medellin drug cartel, run by Pablo Escobar. One of the real keys to the takedown of Escobar was the work of Perseguedo por Pablo Escobar (the People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar, or Los Pepes). Their operations against Escobarâs associates eventually led Escobar being located and killed in a firefight in December, 1993.
This is but the latest blow that al-Qaeda has suffered. From the start of last year, al-Qaeda has not only failed to stop three elections in Iraq, but they have suffered serious losses among their high-level leadership. The reorganization will be very dangerous for al-Qaeda. It will require a lot of communicating â and the more communicating al-Qaeda does, the easier it will be to locate the big fish. And it makes another strike like the one in Damadola much more likely.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/20/2006 08:55 ||
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#1
We really shouldn't forget some others who have long been a part of the al Qaeda support mechanism. For example, "black" operations should be conducted to sanction certain Saudi princes who have long been funding them, and Imams who have been supporting them.
This will not stop them from doing it now. Most of them have already been forced to stop by the Saudi government. This is purely payback. And not done with any great vengeance, just cold blooded murder that looks like an accident.
Car accidents, heart attacks, really bad food poisoning, a plane crash or two. It can really cut into their ranks over a few years time.
Nothing personal. No more than your giving money to charities that support al-Qaeda.
ISLAMABAD: Bar associations from across the country will protest today (Friday) against the US airstrike in Bajaur Agency as well as the pro-American policies of President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) extended the protest call. Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari, the vice chairman of Pakistan Bar Council, said that the presidents of all the high court bars, district bars and provincial bar councils have been sent letters to hold the protest and pass resolutions to condemn the recent aggression and killing of innocent people in Bajaur Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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The head of the United Nations' nuclear monitor, Mohamed ElBaradei, rejected an EU request to condemn Iran's nuclear program. He was urged to issue a condemnation of the Iranian situation before his agency meets in special session next month. But, though frustrated by Iran's resumption of nuclear research and a slowdown in Iranian cooperation with his inspectors, he has given Tehran until the end of next month to give his inspectors improved access to documents and sites. Only if Iran does not accede would he be ready to declare his investigation was no longer making progress and that his hands were tied, the Financial Times said.
ElBaradei's reports are said to usually set the tone for the international debate on the nuclear issue, meaning his decision could weaken U.S.-European efforts for a speedy referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council. Some are evil by commission, some by omission.
#2
Mohamed doesn't help the West much, in this race to armageddon.
I wonder why... Mohamed...
Let me think about this...
Be back as soon as I have a clue...
#4
At some point ElBaradei must be found to be complicit in Iran's nuclear program.
Long ago I protested ElBaradei's participation on the grounds that if he was unable to focus attention on his native Egypt's own nascent nuclear weapons program, he would likely be ineffective in combatting any other Islamic country's nuclear aspirations. I perceive this as a massive conflict of interest. As I mentioned, at some point this lack of effect becomes complicit.
#6
they cut your friggin IAEA seals, Mo. Where's your honor and shame? Coward and Pussy or Islamist? Or all of the above
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/20/2006 13:42 Comments ||
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The head of the United Nations' nuclear monitor, Mohamed ElBaradei, rejected an EU request to condemn Iran's nuclear program. He was urged to issue a condemnation of the Iranian situation before his agency meets in special session next month. But, though frustrated by Iran's resumption of nuclear research and a slowdown in Iranian cooperation with his inspectors, he has given Tehran until the end of next month to give his inspectors improved access to documents and sites.
This guy's turning out to be just about as worthless as Goo-fi.
Only if Iran does not accede would he be ready to declare his investigation was no longer making progress and that his hands were tied, the Financial Times said.
Ah, but the question is, will the condemnation come then? Or are his hands simply "tied" and that's it as far as declarations go?
#10
It would but unislamic of him to act against Iran. It's really that simple. The fellow is a class A tool. Don't expect him to act on this in any constructive way.
Hattip Instapundit. I don't even try to read the New York Times anymore. It's bad for my blood pressure, and the trailing daughters worry when I start speaking firmly to the computer.
IRAQI VOTE RESULTS: "The election commission said Friday that an alliance of Shiite religious parties won the biggest number of seats in Iraq's new parliament but too few to rule without coalition partners. Sunni Arabs gained seats over the previous balloting."
Experts who were asked to investigate allegations of fraud in Iraq's elections in December released a positive report on Thursday, concluding that the vote was flawed but declining to endorse calls for new elections.
The report came as Iraqis braced for the expected release of the election results on Friday, an event that is likely to be met with a surge of insurgent attacks, American military officials say.
The report, by the International Mission for Iraqi Elections, a monitoring group based in Jordan, noted that some vote-rigging had been documented, and added that "some additional fraud in all probability went undetected, although its exact extent is impossible to determine under current circumstances." But the panel generally praised the election as an impressive exercise of democracy under difficult conditions.
Sunni Arab and secular politicians, whose accusations prompted the investigation, expressed disappointment about the report, which was released via e-mail.
"It's a bit contradictory: they mention a number of violations, but they come up with a conclusion that this is an achievement," said Mehdi al-Hafedh, a candidate in the National List, a secular slate led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. "From our point of view, they didn't give enough attention to the negative aspects."
The report was released hours after a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt walked into a crowded Baghdad coffee shop that is popular with police officers and blew himself up, the first of two explosions on the same street on Thursday that left 15 people dead and 46 wounded.
Five minutes after the first blast, a car bomb exploded on the street outside, just as emergency vehicles were starting to arrive. The attackers appeared to have been aiming at a police patrol that was parked outside the shop, where some of the officers were eating. But only three of the dead and almost none of those injured were officers, Interior Ministry officials said.
The double bombing, in a crowded area full of open markets just off Sadoun Street, shattered windows and facades on most of a city block, leaving shrapnel and human remains scattered on the sidewalks. The blasts destroyed five cars that were parked on the street, including a police vehicle.
An hour after the attack, the blackened hulks of the cars remained on the street alongside the skeletal metal remains of the car that had contained the bomb. Nearby, police officers in blue camouflage uniforms sobbed openly, banging their fists on the hoods of their patrol cars, and they barred reporters from coming closer.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Insurgents have made it clear that Iraq's new police force is one of their chief targets, and they have often struck at cafes and restaurants where officers gather, including one especially gruesome attack in Baghdad two months ago that killed 29 people.
The attacks on Thursday came a day after the bodies of 36 Iraqis were discovered in two villages north of Baghdad; all of them had been shot. The pattern of violence has been uneven since the December elections, with a burst of deadly attacks in early January followed by a lull, and a rise in the past few days.
The release of the election results on Friday is likely to prompt a surge in insurgent attacks, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a spokesman for the American command, said at a news conference on Thursday.
Some Sunni Arab insurgent groups abstained from attacks during the December elections, apparently in the hope that an unhindered vote would allow more Sunni Arab representation in the new Parliament. But early returns have suggested that the main Shiite political alliance dominated the vote, as it did in last January's elections.
If the preliminary results confirm or deepen that trend, some Sunni insurgents are likely to respond violently. Other insurgents, notably the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, have made it clear that they aim to destabilize the new government no matter what its makeup.
"Zarqawi still has a significant capability to surge, and conduct acts of violence," General Lynch said. "We expect he'll do the same thing around the time election results are released."
Mr. Zarqawi's willingness to attack civilians has led to some skirmishes between his network and Iraqi resistance fighters. Over the past few days, two tribal sheiks and a cleric from the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, have been killed in what may have been an extension of that conflict.
At least two of the men had taken part in a meeting on Sunday with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari where, it was widely rumored, they discussed an agreement to help fight Mr. Zarqawi's group, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. American and Iraqi officials said they were not aware of any such discussions.
"The Jaafari visit is the reason behind the killings of those two sheiks," said Hamid Turki al-Showka, another sheik from a Ramadi tribe, who lives in Baghdad.
Sheik Turki identified the three murdered men as Nasir Abdul Karim al-Mukhlif of the Bufahad tribe, who was killed Monday; Abdul Ghafar al-Rawi, an imam who was killed Tuesday; and Muhammad Sadagh al-Shlebawi.
On Thursday, Mary Beth Carroll, the mother of a kidnapped American journalist, Jill Carroll, appealed for her daughter's release, appearing on the CNN program "American Morning" to say the kidnappers had "picked the wrong person." The journalist, 28, was abducted in western Baghdad on Jan. 7. She appeared in a videotape released Tuesday by Al Jazeera television that said the kidnappers had threatened to kill her if all women held in American custody in Iraq were not released by Friday.
Pentagon officials said they were not aware of any plans to release any women, The Associated Press reported. A detention review board of Iraqis and Americans recommended the release of six Iraqi women earlier this week, but Iraqi officials said that decision was not related to the kidnappers' demand.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/20/2006 00:22 ||
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I'm not sure about this. The anti-Americans and Communists did not do so well. That's not right.
Posted by: Jimmy Carter ||
01/20/2006 8:29 Comments ||
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The tribunal trying Saddam Hussein said yesterday its new chief judge would preside over the next session on Jan. 24, despite calls for him to be barred for suspected links to Saddam’s Baath party. An official of the independent Debaathification Commission told Reuters on Wednesday Sayeed Al-Hamashi was the subject of an inquiry and should be removed from his post.
The allegations threw the US-sponsored court into fresh confusion after the resignation last week of chief judge Rizgar Amin, a Kurd, who quit in protest at political interference. Hamashi, Amin’s deputy, was promoted to the top job. He has denied any links to the Baath party and his fellow judges appeared to rally around him yesterday to defend his record.
Tribunal spokesman Judge Raid Jouhi said the judges in the Saddam trial had been carefully selected for their professionalism and integrity. “The judges are well known and their history is also well known and they are professionals. So far it is Judge Hamashi who is going to head the next session,” he told Reuters.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Israel has accused Iran and Syria of complicity in a suicide attack that injured at least 30 people in Tel Aviv. It "was financed by Tehran, planned in Syria and carried out by Palestinians," Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted by security officials as saying. Mr Mofaz was also quoted as blaming the attack on "the axis of terror that operates between Iran and Syria".
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad earlier said it carried out the attack near Tel Aviv's old bus station. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the US have condemned the bombing. It was the first bomb attack in Tel Aviv since February last year.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Mr Mofaz as saying that Israel had "decisive proof" the Tel Aviv attack could be blamed on the "axis of terror". "Iran supplied the money, and [Islamic] Jihad's headquarters in Damascus directed the organisation's operatives in Nablus, giving operational orders and instructions," Mr Mofaz reportedly said. Israel's Army Radio said the minister had shared the evidence with officials in the US, Europe and Egypt. A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad's military wing - al-Quds Brigades - earlier named the bomber as 22-year-old Sami Abd al-Hafiz Antar, from the West Bank town of Nablus.
A top official in the Israeli foreign ministry, Gideon Meir, said on Thursday the attack highlighted the consequences of the Palestinian government's failure to disarm militant groups. Mr Abbas said the bombing was meant to derail the Palestinian legislative elections on Wednesday, which Islamic Jihad is boycotting. "This is sabotage and aimed at sabotaging the elections, not only the elections, but also the security of Palestinians. The culprits must be punished." the Palestinian leader said.
The attack took place at about 1530 (1330 GMT) on Solomon Street in Tel Aviv's commercial district. "The guy was standing at the corner of the street, looking like he was waiting for someone," Yehiel Ohana told the Associated Press news agency. "He swayed strangely. Then he went into the shwarma (food) stand, and two to three seconds later, we heard the explosion. Everything shuddered," he said. "We entered the shwarma stand, and we saw him lying on the floor, and then we understood he was a suicide bomber."
The bombing took place on the same day as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began two-day talks with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, in what Mr Mofaz described as a "terror summit". It was the first suicide attack in Israel since 5 December, when five Israelis were killed by a suicide bomber outside a shopping centre in Netanya.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/20/2006 07:50 ||
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#1
Condemnation is a good start. Now go destroy the offices of Islamic Jihad/Damascus and I.J. and Al Quds officesthroughout the territories. And when the perpetrators complain, explain that acts of war invite retaliation upon the actors. And don't forget to knowck down the hovel of the young man's family, proclaiming, "Thus shall be done to those who support the man terrorists choose to honour."*
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned yesterday’s bomb attack in Tel Aviv as an attempt to sabotage next week’s legislative elections. “This attack was aimed at sabotaging the elections and the efforts that have been made by the Palestinian Authority,” Abbas told reporters in Ramallah. “We must bring these renegades, who are breaking the national consensus, to justice,” he added in reference to the Islamic Jihad commanders who ordered the attack.
The Tel Aviv blast, which left around 30 people wounded as well as killing the bomber, was the first attack since the end of a truce at the start of the year which the main factions had agreed with Abbas.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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âWe must bring these renegades, who are breaking the national consensus, to justice,â he added in reference to the Islamic Jihad commanders who ordered the attack.
#3
Abbas has had his moment. His ideas have proven inane, his management incompetent, his leadership skills non existent. Even the Euros are sick of him.
Even if Fatah does well in the parlimentary election, he may well resign.
The US Army said Wednesday it has raised its maximum enlistment age from 35 to 40 years old and is doubling signing up bonuses to a high of 40,000 dollars. The measures are the latest in a series of steps the army has taken over the past year to offset a slump in recruiting as it faces ongoing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The army failed to hit its recruiting goal of 80,000 new recruits in fiscal 2005. Recruiting figures have since improved but the the war in Iraq has made it difficult to meet the demand for fresh soldiers.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey, however, denied charges that the army is a "broken force," telling reporters it has met its recruiting goals in the last seven months with the help of bonuses and other incentives. But he acknowledged that recruiting remains "a month-to-month thing". "As I said, the rest of the year looks promising. But we're certainly not going to sit on our laurels," he said.
Raising the maximum age for enlistments "expands the recruiting pool, provides motivated individuals an opportunity to serve, and strengthens the readiness of army units," the army said in a statement.
The army is raising the maximum cash enlistment bonuses to 40,000 dollars for the active duty army, and 20,000 dollars for the army reserve, doubling the current maximums. Older recruits are entitled to the same signing bonuses as younger ones, the army said. "Experience has shown that older recruits who can meet the physical demands of military service generally make excellent soldiers based on their maturity, motivation, loyalty, and patriotism," the army said. Of course, the ultra-classified list is those personnel in critical shortage they are raising the enlistment age to get.
#2
The army failed to hit its recruiting goal of 80,000 new recruits in fiscal 2005. Recruiting figures have since improved but the the war in Iraq has made it difficult to meet the demand for fresh soldiers.
Sorry guys, this is based upon a lie. The left won't let it die, but it is a LIE.
By law the Army could only have 482,000 personnel at the end of FY 2004 (sept 04). Congress in the FY 2005 budget authorized a manpower increase of 20,000. The Army ended FY 2005 with 492,000. 10,000 more than they had the year before. This is the manipulation of data by those with a political agenda to push. Just as the old 3% increase in benefits is shouted out as a 'cut' if 5% is not approved. Its still an increase. It is a significant increase done during war. Its the first increase since the draw downs in the early 90s.
Go ask the officers and undersecretaries who do the force structuring and manning if they'd want 20,000 new soldiers in one year if it meant taking NCOs and officers out of the line to man the training base to accommodate that increase. The answer would be no. They'd rather ramp up gradually so as not to distort the personnel assignment and stationing situation any further than it is now.
Notice the broken force commentary. Back in the post-Vietnam period of the 70s the Army suffered through years of high AWOL, Art. 15s, drug abuse, court martials, race riots and other symptoms of low morale. Low pay, minimum training, barely sustained maintenance. The whipping boy for the Democratic Party for the Vietnam fiasco [but notice who ran Congress during that war]. That was a broken Army.
#6
Damn those Republicans for cutting off the Vietnamese. If only they'd followed the steadfast support of the leftists.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2006 11:47 Comments ||
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#7
I have always believed and argued that in a war where the very survival, sovereignty, freedoms and identity of America as we know it is at stake, i.e. a KILL OR BE KILLED/RULE OR BE SLAVE, etc. situation, that iff America is not going to suppor a new national draft in the alternate the Fed Govt returns to Cold War levels, or higher, of spending as necessary for free America to win.
AMERICA'S ENEMIES, including anti-American Americans, prefer that the Fed take over everything and anything, i.e. SOCIALIZE LEGALIZE STATUTIZE BUREAUCRATIZE CENTRALIZE and MILITARIZE, while still maintaining a mostly volunteer Military in order to fight a Radical Terror/Islam in regions and scenarios where there is high risk of mil intervention by the already Socialized Centralized and Militarized, i.e. NATIONS-GOVTS ALREADY ON A WAR FOOTING, RUSSIA-CHINA and aligned. I have no doubts that many Rightists and GOP-Conservatives, and nay America's SILENT/CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY, will suppor a draft iff it means the survival and victory of theirs and the American cause - OUR PROB ARE POWER-WHORISH, DESPERATE RINOS, CINOS, LEFTIES and ANTI-AMERICAN AMERS WHOM WILL SAY ANYTHING TO FORCE AMERICA UNDER OWG AND SWO/CWO AND ALA THE MSM CLAIM THAT AMERICANS WANT=DESIRE IT SO, where Americans and only Americans must MUST M-U-S-T-T-T pay the bulk of future Interna and Global Taxes in the name of a OWG and Global Amer Empire that America and Americans are NOT N-O-T-T-T TO GOVERN OR DOMINATE, AND WHERE AMERICA MUST GIVE UP OUR SOVEREIGNTY AND SUBMIT TO PC/PDENIABLE CONTROL AND GOVERNANCE BY A COALITION OF INTERNATIONAL STATES. Its like telling the HELLENES, ROMANS or MONGOLS OR BRITS, ETC. = "Thank You for conquering the World, Thank You for your individual and national sacrifice and Milyuhns and Zilyuhns of casualties, BUT NOW YOU HAVE TO TURN OVER YOUR NATION AND EMPIRE TO BE GOVERNED BY OTHER LESSOR NATIONS, WHOM MAY OR MAY NOT, HAVE YOUR NATIONAL INTERESTS AT HEART".
Repeatedly referring to a need for "new vision and leadership" in U.S. policy toward the Middle East, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) called Wednesday for United Nations sanctions against Iran and further global advances in women's rights, and urged optimism for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
"We cannot and should not â must not â permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons," Clinton said in a speech before a capacity crowd in Richardson Auditorium. (See full text.) "In order to prevent that from occurring, we must have more support vigorously and publicly expressed by China and Russia, and we must move as quickly as feasible for sanctions in the United Nations."
Though never mentioning President Bush by name, Clinton strongly criticized the current administration's policy toward Iran. "I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and to outsource the negotiations," Clinton said.
Like Bush, a tough-talking Clinton left open the possibility of military action against Iran if it attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. "We cannot take any option off the table in sending a clear message to the current leadership of Iran that they will not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons," Clinton said.
Clinton also criticized recent remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that questioned Israel's right to exist and described the Holocaust as a "myth." Ahmadinejad "is moving to create his own nuclear reality in line with his despicable rewriting of history," she said.
Wilson School dean Anne-Marie Slaughter '80, however, expressed doubts about sanctions' effectiveness. "I agree that we cannot allow a nuclear Iran, but it is a real question as to whether sanctions are not more likely to consolidate support for the government ... than to pressure the government into stopping its behavior," she said in an email Thursday.
Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Clinton said the United States must guarantee both Israel's security and a "better future" for the Palestinians.
"No more excuses for the Palestinians," Clinton said. "They have to demonstrate clearly and unequivocally their commitment to a peaceful future and they have to also demonstrate their ability to deliver services to their people."
Historical grudges present an unnecessary impediment to lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, Clinton added. "What we have tried to do over the last 30 years, starting with President Carter, moving through other presidents including my husband, now this president, is to send a uniquely American message: it can get better, just get over it."
#1
Great. On Monday Senator Clinton can introduce a bill on the floor of the Senate authorizing President Bush to take military action against Iran. And I will hold my breath until she does so.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/20/2006 20:01 Comments ||
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"In order to prevent that from occurring, we must have more support vigorously and publicly expressed by China and Russia,.."
Barring some kind of Iranian backstabbing of China and Russia, or an out-and-out declaration by Iran that they're pursuing The Bomb, does she really, REALLY think that we'd get Russian and Chinese "support"?
#4
Of course she doesn't BAR. That's the beauty of it. When China and Russia don't support us she can blame Bush for failing to have a muscular enough diplomacy with was caused by the diversion that is Iraq. It's called triangulation, she practically invented it with Billy Blowjob.
Posted by: Scott R ||
01/20/2006 21:17 Comments ||
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#5
Ground War-Conventional War, and not merely airstrikes, i.e. MSM-verified "NEW QUAGMIRE" and "ANOTHER US-GOP MISTAKE [ala NO WMDS IN IRAN/NORTH KOREA, etc.]" is what the anti-US agendists desire. The USA must be "justified" in giving up its sovereignty, freedoms and endowments to the future OWG/UNO, O'REILLY's alleged "International Coalition of Nations/States", the latter of which will undoubtedly include and be dominated by America's primary Cold War Commie opponents,i.e Russia-China wid their nuclear arsenals and large armies.
The UN commission investigating the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri will be "exploring all serious attacks" committed since the assassination attempt of Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade, according to the team's new leader. "The commission will provide technical assistance, as appropriate, in the Lebanese investigations on the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Lebanon since October 1, 2004," said the new head of the UN investigation team, Serge Brammertz, upon his arrival in Beirut under unprecedented security measures.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Iran said it was open to compromise in the crisis over its disputed nuclear programme as the United States and European Union pushed for Tehran to be hauled before the UN Security Council. "We have not closed the path to compromise. In principle I believe some complicated international issues can be best solved through talks," Iran's top nuclear official Ali Larijani said in an interview with the BBC. "For obtaining nuclear fuel there are many methods and formulas, and we can continue negotiations and use the different opportunities that there are in the world. I don't think the path is closed."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
We'll do what we want. You'll let us.
See. Compromise is a great thing.
Posted by: Ali Larijani ||
01/20/2006 10:03 Comments ||
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Iran said it was open to compromise in the crisis over its disputed nuclear programme as..
These are nothing more than words to keep the anti-American left in play.
Iran again warned Western nations yesterday they risked sparking an oil crisis if economic sanctions were slapped on Tehran over its disputed nuclear activities. “In case of sanctions, other countries will suffer as well Iran, but the damage will be more for them, because one of the consequences will be the unleashing of a crisis in the oil sector and particularly a price hike,” Oil Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari said, according to the official news agency IRNA.
However the minister did not raise the possibility of any suspension or restriction of Iranian oil supplies in case of sanctions. Iran, the number two oil exporter in OPEC, risks being referred to the UN Security Council over what the West suspects is a covert nuclear weapons drive. The Islamic republic, OPEC’s number-two producer, insists it only want nuclear technology to generate electricity. “The conditions are not right for a Security Council referral because Iran has done nothing illegal,” Danesh-Jafari said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Iran again warned Western nations yesterday they risked sparking an oil crisis if economic sanctions were slapped on Tehran over its disputed nuclear activities.
#2
I'm confused. If we destroy the Iranian regime and take over the oil fields and lease them out to Haliburton, how does that increase the price of oil? Just wondering.
Syria yesterday backed ally Iran in its confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, saying critics have provided no convincing argument to deny Tehran the technology. The Syrian support came at a summit of the nation’s two presidents to coordinate policies and consolidate their alliance under the shadow of US pressure and the threat of international sanctions against both. “We support Iran regarding its right to peaceful nuclear technology,” Syrian President Bashar Assad told a news conference with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. “It is the right of Iran and any other state to own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Countries that object to that have not provided a convincing or logical reason,” Bashar said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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But.. but... how can this be? Syria is a Secular Baathist Dictatorship. Iran is a near-Islamic Theocracy. Secular. Religious Fundamentalist.
Aren't the two supposed to be at odds with each other?
#2
Lol, Pappy. You've just undercut a whole slew of arguments holding together the positions of those who cannot shed their Western thought processes. A full program of broad-spectrum fungicides & insecticides is called for. :)
Syria has condemned the US government's decision to freeze the assets of Assef Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief, as an arrogant attempt to impose its will on the world.
I'd call blowing up a bigwig in the country next door arrogant, myself...
Shawkat is a brother-in-law of Bashar al-Assad, the president, and one of the top Syrian officials linked to the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, by the UN investigation into the bombing. A Syrian official said in a statement: "This decision shows the extent of this administration's arrogant and unilateral practices in its attempts to impose its will on the international community,"
On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department ordered US banks to block any assets found in the US belonging to Shawkat. Americans also are barred from doing business with him. The department alleges that Shawkat has played a role in furthering Syria's "support for terrorism and interference in the sovereignty of Lebanon". The Syrian official, who was not named in keeping with government practice, said in the statement the US action "once again proves the US involvement in defending Israel's aggressive policies against the Arabs".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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I'd call blowing up a bigwig in the country next door arrogant, myself...
That's because you think of Lebanon as the country next door, instead of as the natural territory of Syria. Silly Fred!
#2
Syria has condemned the US government's decision to freeze the assets of Assef Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief, as an arrogant attempt to impose its will on the world.
Hot Damn, we hit a nerve. Do it some more, if it wasn't working they'd never complain about it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/20/2006 8:38 Comments ||
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"This decision shows the extent of this administration's arrogant and unilateral practices .... which are all very well supported by the vast majority of American citizens.
Syria protested on Thursday over comments by Brammertz's predecessor, German magistrate Detlev Mehlis, who was replaced last week at the end of his mandate. Mehlis said in an interview in December that the Syrian authorities were responsible for the killing. Damascus has sent an official letter of protest to the United Nations calling for Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, to take action. "It is unacceptable that Mr Mehlis used the media during his last days in office as a means of pressure and to express a deep hatred against Syria," it said in the letter.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Syrian officials have agreed to fully cooperate with the United Nations probe in to the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said. Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz arrived in Beirut on Thursday to take over as head of the probe, replacing German magistrate Detlev Mehlis, whose mandate ended last week.
Syrian Foreign Minister Faruk Shara "called me two days ago to assure me that his government is going to cooperate and cooperate fully with the new prosecutor and they look forward to meeting with him as soon as practicable," Mr Annan said. "I urged them to cooperate fully without reservation and they did give me the assurance that they will," he said.
Does that mean Pencilneck is going to meet with the investigators and answer a few questions?
Asked whether Mr Brammertz may question Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, as Mr Mehlis wanted, Mr Annan simply responded: "I would want to leave him (Mr Brammertz) to do his work."
I think we can probably take that as a "no."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2006 00:00 ||
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So why only on audio? Why no video tape? Is he sick? Yes, say the usual American "intelligence sources". It's the same old story: Osama bin Laden talks to us from the mouth of a cave, from within a cave, from a basement perhaps, from a tape almost certainly recorded down a telephone line from far away. Yesterday's message, broadcast as ever by al-Jazeera television, was a reminder that security - not sickness - decides his method of communication.
See balance at link and have a safe week end. Cheers!
#4
Amen Phil I was thinking the same thing. Give me a year and I'll produce a tape that has Bin Laden professing his love for Ariel Sharon and the glory of the Jewish state! If he was so in control of Al Queada worldwide it would be nothing to produce a video and drop it off with the Al Jazeera Imbed.
ISLAMABAD - A new audiotape from Osama bin Laden and a recent airstrike targeting his deputy have dramatically swung the spotlight back on the impossibly remote region where they are thought to be hiding. Since the early days of the âwar on terrorâ, officials have regarded the barren, ochre mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan as the most likely refuge for the Al Qaeda chief and his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri. With the worldâs attention focused on Iraq for much of the last three years, the wild region was somewhat forgotten along with the ongoing troubles in Afghanistan - until now.
Four Al Qaeda militants are said to have been killed in a raid by a CIA Predator drone on the remote Pakistani tribal agency of Bajur, reportedly including Zawahiriâs son-in-law and a bomber on the USâs most wanted list. Officials said Zawahiri stayed away but the likelihood that such a cabal was in the same area four years after the September 11 attacks suggests that Washington is still on the right track, analysts said.
The release of bin Ladenâs first recording in over a year may be an attempt by Al Qaeda to demonstrate that it has not been weakened by the attack, said Rahimullah Yousafzai, a Pakistan-based expert on Afghan affairs. âThe timing of the tape seems to be linked with the Bajur incident,â Yousafzai told AFP. âThey were waiting for a proper time. Bin Laden wanted to tell Americans that not only Zawahiri but he was also alive.â
Many officials believe bin Laden was trapped late in 2001 by the ferocious US bombing of the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan following the fall of his backers, Afghanistanâs extremist Islamic Taleban regime. But he is thought to have slipped out of the region, most likely across the porous border with Pakistan just a few miles away. Since then bin Laden and his acolytes have relied on support from the tribesmen in Pakistanâs semi-autonomous border regions -- who so far have not been tempted by the 25-million-dollar US reward on the Saudiâs head. Intelligence agencies scrutinised the handful of video and audio tapes he released during that time for clues to his whereabouts, until they dried up last year and were replaced by recordings by Zawahiri.
Pakistan deployed around 70,000 troops in the tribal areas on its side of the border, while the 20,000-strong US-led military in Afghanistan pursued the hunt across the border. In 2004 Pakistan launched an offensive in the border region of South Waziristan, killing hundreds of foreign militants and their local backers and losing around 250 troops. Last year it targeted North Waziristan.
President Pervez Musharraf said last September that that Pakistani authorities had in 2003 âhad some identification of a rough area where he (bin Laden) was, through technical means. But then we lost himâ.
The hunt has appeared to step up in recent months. US counter-terrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton said on Tuesday that bin Laden was believed to be alive somewhere in the boder region despite his silence. A US counter-terrorism official told AFP in September 2005 that elite US Delta Force and Navy SEAL units were returning back to Afghanistan after tours of duty in Iraq. US agents based in Afghanistan had also made reconnaissance raids into South and North Waziristan, and all the way into Bajur and the northern areas, the official said.
Four months later the US made its most spectacular cross-border incursion yet with its airstrike on Damadola village in Bajur. âIf they are present in this area of the airstrike they would be nervous,â Yousfzai said of bin Ladenâs men.
âThey would be concerned that action had started in Bajur after South and North Waziristan. They must have moved to some other area.â Pakistan lodged a formal protest to the US after 18 civilians were reportedly killed in the Bajur airstrike, highlighting the continual danger that Washingtonâs âwar on terrorâ might alienate its closest allies while bin Laden is still on the run.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/20/2006 08:14 ||
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While some analysts said bin Laden's reluctance to make himself more visible could be a sign of health problems -- his last videotape was aired in October 2004, days before the U.S. presidential election -- others surmised that he was more worried about his security.
"Every audio or video tape is potentially traceable by intelligence services," said Paul R. Pillar, former deputy chief of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center. "We hope they will make a mistake, but they are extra cautious."
A senior government counterterrorism official agreed that security was a factor behind the infrequent surfacings.
"This tape was in the pipeline for a while, because they took their time to get where it could be aired," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on the record. Whether for security or other reasons, the official said, bin Laden has largely delegated Zawahiri, his second-in-command, "to be the public face" of al Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/20/2006 00:30 ||
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A new audiotape of Osama bin Laden is designed to counter Western intelligence speculation that the Al Qaeda leader has been cornered or killed, terrorism experts say - and to raise jitters that America's most wanted is still planning terrorist attacks.
"It proves two things," says Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit. "He's not dead. And despite all the things we say about him being isolated and alone, he can clearly dominate the international media when he wants to."
As in the past, the Islamist radical is also believed to be sending a message as much to the Muslim world as to the United States.
In a brief audiotape aired Thursday on Arab television station Al Jazeera, the speaker scoffs at claims that US antiterrorism measures are the reason no more attacks have hit the US since Sept. 11, 2001. Instead, the speaker says, further attacks are in preparation and "you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing."
In a new twist, the speaker refers to rising US public opinion against the war in Iraq and says, "We have no objection to responding to this with a long-term truce." In an April 2004 tape, bin Laden offered Europe a truce - a move some analysts saw at the time as an effort to exploit a divide among Western allies over Iraq and antiterrorist measures.
In the same way, bin Laden might be trying to take advantage of what he sees as divisions in the US - although some analysts caution against reading more into the latest tape than a basic desire to reaffirm that the terrorist leader is alive and well.
"He's saying that whatever measures we've taken, they have not affected him," says Judith Yaphe, a former CIA Middle East analyst now at the National Defense University in Washington. "He's got to reassure people that he's alive and well."
Experts in South Asia, where bin Laden is assumed to remain in hiding, agree.
"There has been this long discussion in the media - is Osama bin Laden alive, is he dead, why hasn't he spoken, et cetera? So this is probably a reaction to that," says Ahmed Rashid, author of "The Taliban" and a longtime observer of jihadist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Of course, if the voice on the tape does turn out to be confirmed as bin Laden's, it does not necessarily prove that bin Laden is unaffected by US and other counterterrorism measures aimed at him and other Al Qaeda operatives.
"It's extremely easy for him to get a message out like this," says Mr. Scheuer, the former US intelligence analyst. "It can be delivered from anywhere in the world" but still appear as though he is doing just fine. On a tape, he adds, "a pup tent can be made to look like a palace."
Still, the tape holds particular messages - both to the US, in the form of an offered "truce," and to the Muslim world, Scheuer says.
The truce offer is not unlike the overture bin Laden made to Europeans in April 2004, he says.
"[The] Madrid [bombings] came first [in March 2004], then he offered the truce, and then there were the London bombings," Scheuer says. "So I think we have to take him at his word here."
But then there is his message to Muslims. One goal is probably to reconfirm bin Laden's standing among Muslims as a leader.
"This says, 'I am the equal of George Bush,' " Ms. Yaphe notes, in the sense of a global player able to make a decision with global impact.
Other experts agree, noting that whatever Al Qaeda leaders may be trying to communicate to the US, they - like all wartime leaders - first and foremost are speaking to the homefront.
"Their real message is meant for consumption by their followers and potential recruits," says Brian Jenkins, a terror expert at the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif. "It says, No. 1, Osama bin Laden is still in charge. By his communications, by him saying he has been busy preparing operations ... his offer of a truce - all of these are an assertion of leadership."
Beyond that, Mr. Jenkins adds, "It says he is in operational control," something that has been widely debated among analysts. "What [Bin Laden] is saying here is not only is he the leader, but that he also runs operations."
Scheuer says the truce offer "is perfectly consonant with Islamic history. Muslim leaders from the Prophet to Saladin were ready to make a temporary [truce] with the infidels if they thought it would benefit Muslims." The point, he adds, is that "this will resonate very loudly in the Islamic world."
In the tape, the speaker refers specifically to a truce to allow a rebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan. "What they would love, of course, is if we would just back out of Afghanistan and Iraq," Scheuer says, in part to allow the reestablishment of the Islamic caliphate to begin there.
"For the caliphate to be built, they have to have a political state from which to start," he says. "That's why Al Qaeda valued the Taliban so much. Now they view Iraq in the way they viewed Afghanistan."
With the new tape surfacing on the heels of this week's CIA-directed attack on suspected Al Qaeda strongholds in Pakistani tribal areas, some observers speculate the tape may be an effort to establish Al Qaeda's operability after the attack. But Mr. Rashid says that is unlikely.
"I don't see how he could have reacted so quickly to the recent Predator attack," he says, referring to the unmanned craft that was used to carry out the bombing.
In any case, Rashid says information about the effects of the raid is so confused that it is looking less like a counterterrorist triumph even without bin Laden's input.
"The problem is that the story in the media, as told by the Pakistani government, keeps changing so many times" he says. "The latest story is that they killed the son of [Ayman] Zawahiri [the Al Qaeda No. 2 leader], but in the villages they say it was all local people."
In the future, he adds, "this could damage America's ability to say in the end, 'We got him.' "
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/20/2006 00:25 ||
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[bin Laden] can clearly dominate the international media when he wants to
#2
"This says, 'I am the equal of George Bush,' "
No, being able to make a cassette recording in some mud hut in Western Pakistan just means your batteries haven't run out yet. It doesn't put you on par with the leader of the world's superpower.
#3
1. Actually they quote more than just Scheuer here and Scheuer isn't the fellow quoted in the 'on par with Bush' remark.
2. Actually, it should be obvious that Bin Laden is hoping to raise his status viz a viz Zarkawi or the PM of Iran. It's the terrorist version of the NH primary campaign.
Osama bin Laden's latest message is most notable for the long silence that preceded itâthe audiotape broadcast Thursday on al-Jazeera is the Qaeda leader's first direct communication with his public in a little over a year. The voice on the tape, which the CIA has confirmed is Bin Laden's, addresses himself to the United States, warning that new attacks on U.S. soil are "in the planning stages," but offers a truce predicated on U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is obvious now that Bush has been misleading the people," says the voice on the tape. "It is better for you not to fight the Muslims on their territory and we offer a long-term truce."
The messageârelatively "moderate" by jihadist standards, in that it appeared to stake out a hypothetical negotiating position and the prospect of coexistence with the U.S. at the same time as warning of new violenceâwas notable less for its content than for the fact that it was released at all. Despite directly addressing Americans, its primary purpose may nonetheless be to remind Arab and Muslim audiences of his existence, and to reiterate his claim to primacy among the jihadists. Bin Laden last message was released in December 2004, although the movement's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has continued to release occasional videotaped missives from his hideout in the wilds of western Pakistan. (Zawahiri's decision to pass up a dinner invitation last Friday appears to have spared him from a missile strike on a remote mountain village, where Pakistani intelligence officials say four other Qaeda operatives were killed.) But in the year of Bin Laden's silence, he has begun to be supplanted as the media face of global jihad by Musab al-Zarqawi, whose grisly exploits in Iraq grab headlines week after week. Not only that, Zarqawi may even be running operations abroadâhis Iraq-based Qaeda affiliate is suspected of mounting last November's terror attacks on hotels in Jordan, as well as sending operatives on recruiting and fundraising missions in Europeâand his theater of operations has, as Bin Laden acknowledged in his message, become the global magnet for jihadists seeking battlefield experience (in the way that Afghanistan was in the 1980s).
Although Zarqawi two years ago swore an oath of loyalty to Bin Laden, he is believed previously to have had something of a competitive relationship with the al-Qaeda leadership. And the public statements attributed to Zarqawi and those of Ayman al-Zawahiri have been noticeably at odds over questions of beheading kidnap victims and of wanton violence against Shiite Muslims. Zarqawi may have embraced the Qaeda brand with Bin Laden as its figurehead, but his essentially autonomous field operation in Iraq has become the movement's center of gravity.
The other radical Islamist competitor for the mantle of U.S. Public Enemy No. 1 has lately been Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has garnered attention for his bristling hostility to the U.S. and his threat to wipe out Israel, all in the context of his defiance of the West over Iran's nuclear program. The attention paid to Zarqawi and Ahmadinejad has moved Bin Laden to the margins of Western news coverage, but his strategy for building al-Qaeda, as the single umbrella organization of global jihad, with himself as its "Sheikh," has been premised on his being recognized among the radically inclined Muslim youth as America's most feared enemy. So, whether or not it is followed up by any of the actions it threatens, Thursday's taped message has at least succeeded in, however briefly, restoring Bin Laden to what he imagines is his rightful place in the headlines.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/20/2006 00:05 ||
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As a historian, Osama's message reminds me of Gen. Yamashita publicly asking for MacArthur's surrender in 1945.
His message is moderate because he's losing.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/20/2006 12:17 Comments ||
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Back when DID covered the costing of the new CVN-21 Class aircraft carriers, we noted that one of the key sources of proposed savings was a trend toward more automation and fewer personnel. Now the GAO helps shed light on the larger phenomenon behind those moves. A recent GAO report that pegged the average for active duty enlisted personnel and officer compensation at $112,000 a year, 51% of which takes the form of health care and other benefits (NAVSEA's figure was $90,000 FY 2004).
This amounts to about double the average for civilian payand also represents a much higher benefits ratio than civilian pay, . Ironically, the GAO report also found that the US military's efforts to educate its personnel about this important recruiting and retention lever did not get good marks, and that many military members were unaware of how competitive their compensation was.
GAO Comptroller David Walker's key point at a recent GovExec.com breakfast was that the budgeting process needed to reflect the full financial impact of funding decisions. For example, health care costs since are not only spiraling in the present thanks to a benefits expansion in 2000 - they also represent a major future stinger. Specifically...
more at the link. There are several elements here ranging from caring for woulded soldiers to the aging cohort of retirees to higher health care costs due to new treatments and equipment
#1
I'd like so see the the military keep personnel past the enforced retirement age to 60 years old, with the proviso that after 30 years, they will be kept as stateside cadre. Not only can they contribute to what they are trained to do, but the DOD also saves on retirement costs. It makes little sense to put people out to pasture as young as the late 30's.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2006 10:30 Comments ||
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#2
Ed. Retirees are not 'retired' as in the civilian sector. All are subject to recall upon the direction of the Secretary of their service. The Army has a three level recall program. Level one is those less than 5 years retired and in good health. Level two is more than five years and in good health. Level three is all others. The current law makes the reactivated retirees available for stateside duty. There was a recent proposal to modify the law to allow volunteers among that group to deploy oversea. Regardless, any activation will still be limited under law by the manpower ceiling.
This amounts to about double the average for civilian payand also represents a much higher benefits ratio than civilian pay
What this doesn't say, is that mil pay has up till the recent events not been comparable with the civilian world. That means for generations the recruiting and retention programs have sold 'retirement' benefits as a delayed reward for service. Now that the current crop of active members are getting some comparative compensation for a dangerous job during wartime [and the market forces of supply and demand apply] the bean counters are lumping in all those who served at much lower pay for the bennies. Now while Congress can find 'new' monies for an elderly drug program, they don't want to pay the bill they created by previous obligation.
#3
Yes, retirees can be called up during emergencies. But I am talking about giving them the option to stay in service about as long as civilians (and not collecting retirement bennies while still in service). Currently, enlistees are forced to retire after 20-30 years and immediately collect retirement pay, regardless of whether they go into the civilan work force or deep woods Montana. Even if the average lifer stays an extra 5 years, it will still have a major impact on the budget and provide an experienced force for stateside duty.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2006 11:31 Comments ||
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#4
Not just emergencies - the usual terms in the contract says something like 'at anytime'. Some people have been called back prior to 9/11 for their experience and expertise.
There are still ceiling number problems. Not only is the overall population limited so are ranks. Congress decrees how many senior officer and enlisted slots can be filled in the service. So as long as those 'older' rankers are on the books, then those below can not get promoted till slots above clear. That causes retention problems too. You'll have to create a new set of books [not that Congress doesn't do that already - running two sets of books in accounting], in order to move 'extended' personnel into a 'veterans', 'old guard', 'invalids', or 'auxillary' parallel personnel structure.
#5
Well put Cleremp, a big problem post Vietnam was officers and Senior Enlisted staying in forever (past 30 years). On another note they just doubled my Tri-Care payments but it is still a good deal for retirees. I don't like paying more but compared to my coworkers I am getting a great deal.
#6
When I enlisted we were sold on the health care, and retirement. The $240 per month paycheck did not go far but I knew I was investing in my family. We were promised 50% base pay and heath care when we reitred. Soldiers today are promised 40% and we all know the health care is going, going and almost gone!
I'm not complaining here but the military is not a "JOB" that one retires at when they turn 60 or 62. In a "job" you go home to your wife and kids most nights, live in one neighborhood and see your relatives regularly. In the Mil your gone from your family the better part of your career, visiting relative is a yearly two week event at best, and while your peers are sitting in corperate cafeteria, a soldier is sitting in some shit hole country eating cold chicken chow mein from a brown plastic pouch. These soldiers give the very best years of their lives gone from home defending the bean counters that want to "Cost Cut" for a corperate budget. Soldiers retire at 20 years with bad knees, compressed discs, and other service related problems. These injuries came from hard landings in aircraft, parachute jumps, road marches and combat, not from tennis elbow. This crap just pisses me off. We will spend $20 Million on a helicopter and thousands of dollars per hour to fly them but for our most valuable asset we bitch and complain about the cost and try to cut back AFTER they have given to us their all. Without that guy sitting in a hole in some crappy place away from the people he loves doing the great things he is doing we all would be ducking from another attack here in America.
Sorry ed but I think your dead wrong! After 20 to 30 years of dedicated service its about time a soldier can spend time in the country he has spent his productive years defending, without some string forcing him to hang on to a military post as a has been admin clerk.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/20/2006 14:54 Comments ||
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#8
If you 'retire' from the Navy with more than 20, but less than 30 years active duty, you are in what is called the 'Fleet Reserve.' You are subject to recall during this time until you reach the 30 year mark. Then you are retired and no longer eligile for recall.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Kuwaiti ruling family remained at odds Thursday over succession issues following the emir's death, leaving the oil-rich Gulf state in a political impasse. Top members of the Al-Sabah family held lengthy meetings Tuesday and Wednesday on issues such as the appointment of a new crown prince and a prime minister, but failed to reach decisions, sources close to the family told AFP. 
US and North Korean envoys to talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear programmes met in Beijing, a Chinese official said on Thursday, raising regional hopes the stalled negotiations could resume. 
ISLAMABAD: Bar associations from across the country will protest today (Friday) against the US airstrike in Bajaur Agency as well as the pro-American policies of President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) extended the protest call. Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari, the vice chairman of Pakistan Bar Council, said that the presidents of all the high court bars, district bars and provincial bar councils have been sent letters to hold the protest and pass resolutions to condemn the recent aggression and killing of innocent people in Bajaur Agency.
The tribunal trying Saddam Hussein said yesterday its new chief judge would preside over the next session on Jan. 24, despite calls for him to be barred for suspected links to Saddam’s Baath party. An official of the independent Debaathification Commission told Reuters on Wednesday 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned yesterday’s bomb attack in Tel Aviv as an attempt to sabotage next week’s legislative elections. “This attack was aimed at sabotaging the elections and the efforts that have been made by the Palestinian Authority,” Abbas told reporters in Ramallah. “We must bring these renegades, who are breaking the national consensus, to justice,” he added in reference to the Islamic Jihad commanders who ordered the attack.
The US Army said Wednesday it has raised its maximum enlistment age from 35 to 40 years old and is doubling signing up bonuses to a high of 40,000 dollars. The measures are the latest in a series of steps the army has taken over the past year to offset a slump in recruiting as it faces ongoing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The UN commission investigating the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri will be "exploring all serious attacks" committed since the assassination attempt of Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade, according to the team's new leader. "The commission will provide technical assistance, as appropriate, in the Lebanese investigations on the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Lebanon since October 1, 2004," said the new head of the UN investigation team, Serge Brammertz, upon his arrival in Beirut under unprecedented security measures.
Iran said it was open to compromise in the crisis over its disputed nuclear programme as the United States and European Union pushed for Tehran to be hauled before the UN Security Council. "We have not closed the path to compromise. In principle I believe some complicated international issues can be best solved through talks," Iran's top nuclear official Ali Larijani said in an interview with the BBC. "For obtaining nuclear fuel there are many methods and formulas, and we can continue negotiations and use the different opportunities that there are in the world. I don't think the path is closed."
Iran again warned Western nations yesterday they risked sparking an oil crisis if economic sanctions were slapped on Tehran over its disputed nuclear activities. “In case of sanctions, other countries will suffer as well Iran, but the damage will be more for them, because one of the consequences will be the unleashing of a crisis in the oil sector and particularly a price hike,” Oil Minister 
Syria yesterday backed ally Iran in its confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, saying critics have provided no convincing argument to deny Tehran the technology. The Syrian support came at a summit of the nation’s two presidents to coordinate policies and consolidate their alliance under the shadow of US pressure and the threat of international sanctions against both. “We support Iran regarding its right to peaceful nuclear technology,” Syrian President Bashar Assad told a news conference with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. “It is the right of Iran and any other state to own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Countries that object to that have not provided a convincing or logical reason,” Bashar said.
Syria protested on Thursday over comments by Brammertz's predecessor, German magistrate Detlev Mehlis, who was replaced last week at the end of his mandate. Mehlis said in an interview in December that the Syrian authorities were responsible for the killing. Damascus has sent an official letter of protest to the United Nations calling for Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, to take action. "It is unacceptable that Mr Mehlis used the media during his last days in office as a means of pressure and to express a deep hatred against Syria," it said in the letter.
Syrian officials have agreed to fully cooperate with the United Nations probe in to the murder of former Lebanese premier 
