Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110203525.html
Dick Cheney and the use of classified information
By WALTER PINCUS
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 [former bush white house] [the 2003 imbroglio that became the Plame case] [veep’s office and staff] [Veep Cheney, his role as veep, his habits, and the NSC process accommodated for him?] [*]
Then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney gave a surprisingly honest description of how top administration officials treat classified information when he was questioned more than five years ago by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel investigating the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, [*]who was then a covert CIA employee.
According to the FBI report on the May 8, 2004, session, released last week, the vice president was asked about testimony by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his chief of staff. Libby

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/nyregion/03ship.html
November 3, 2009
U.S.S. New York Reaches Manhattan
By A. G. SULZBERGER [federal govt] [new US Ship, U.S.S. with tradition of italics for name: USS New York City] [new transport ship capable of moving up to 700 Marines and Sailors almost anywhere] [its crew are many New York and NY burrows residents] [stationed on this ship would be incredibly emotional just by virtue of why it was named as such] [bureaucracy] [upcoming commission ceremony] [*]
The U.S.S. New York reached New York City Monday morning, sweeping under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, pausing at the World Trade Center site and pushing along the Upper West Side before circling around, like a contestant in a beauty pageant, to dock in Midtown Manhattan.
It was the end of an inaugural five-day voyage from Norfolk, Va., for the ship’s official commissioning into the Navy fleet on Saturday, as well as an emotional “homecoming” for a

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:17 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110203637.html
Nation Digest
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
COURTS
Deportation suit against U.S. rejected
[Obama white house] [residuals, …] [federal judiciary] [courts and Canadian who was grabbed as terrorist] [follwup] [*]
A Canadian engineer cannot sue the United States over being mistaken for a terrorist a year after the 2001 terrorist attacks, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit voted 7 to 4 to uphold a decision by a lower court judge dismissing a lawsuit by Syrian-born Maher Arar, who was detained as he tried to change planes in New York in 2002. [*]
Arar sued the U.S. government and top Justice Department officials, saying the United States sent him to Syria to be tortured days after he was picked up on a false tip from Canada

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110200945.html
Clinton tells Iran to adhere to plan
Tehran questions uranium swap, talks of buying fuel instead
By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [Iran’s WMD] [NSC principals and deputies; bureaucracy] [followup] [state department] [SecState Clinton and the Obama diplomatic team] [secState Clinton talking to Iran via media] [*]
TEHRAN -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday urged Iran to stick to an agreement to ship low-enriched uranium abroad for processing for use in a Tehran research reactor, after a senior official Iranian official said his country wants to instead purchase nuclear fuel.
Clinton said there should be no backing away from the deal with the United States and

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/asia/03afghan.html
November 3, 2009
Obama Warns Karzai to Focus on Tackling Corruption
By HELENE COOPER and JEFF ZELENY [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [former Marine, then foreign-service officer with state] [his thinking on the mess that is AfPak and why he’s now resigned?] [frankly, I don’t know what it may indicated—it’s just sort of interesting] [context: this is but one guy; I still have not heard McChrystul’s full justification] [nor have I heard the president articulate what he sees as American’s specific security interests] [President Obama sent direct signal to Karzai (one that I think was badly needed)] [use psci455, 355] [*]
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday admonished President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan that he must take on what American officials have said he avoided during his

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110202057.html
Karzai is wild card for U.S. strategy
Reelected leader could undermine Obama's efforts in Afghanistan
By Scott Wilson and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [former Marine, then foreign-service officer with state] [his thinking on the mess that is AfPak and why he’s now resigned?] [frankly, I don’t know what it may indicated—it’s just sort of interesting] [context: this is but one guy; I still have not heard McChrystul’s full justification] [nor have I heard the president articulate what he sees as American’s specific security interests] [this was few NSC staffers with JCS locus?] [use psci455, 355] [*]
As the dust settles from Afghanistan's election, President Hamid Karzai's emergence as the victor by default cements the central dilemma facing President Obama as he decides whether to escalate the U.S. involvement in the war there. [*] [nice tease]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110202900.html
Russia's search for an identity
By Masha Lipman
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
MOSCOW [oped] [c.f., today’s article on Russia’s culture of alcoholism] [Russian ethos] [use psci350] [use ir text] [*]
On Friday, as Russia recognized its annual commemoration of political prisoners, President Dmitry Medvedev published a videoblog in which he condemned Joseph Stalin's crimes and called on the nation not to forget about past political repression or its victims. Medvedev called Stalin's repression "one of the greatest tragedies in Russian history" and expressed concern that "even today it can be heard that these mass victims were justified by certain higher goals of the state." [*]He said that "no development of a country, none of its successes or ambitions can be reached at the price of human losses and grief." His

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:12 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opinion/03tue2.html
November 3, 2009
Editorial
Freedom of the Press
[editorial] [media shield] [Obama white house and …] [obviously the NYTs has vested interest in one] [followup] [*]
The Obama administration and Congress appear to be moving toward agreement on a federal shield law, which would protect reporters who refuse to reveal confidential sources. The bill that is emerging is not perfect, but it would help ensure that Americans get the information they need about the workings of government, business and other institutions that affect their lives.
Senate Democrats and the administration have tentatively agreed on a bill that would, in some cases, allow judges to quash subpoenas asking reporters for information on

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:11 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opinion/03tue1.html
November 3, 2009
Editorial
President Karzai’s Second Term
[editorial] [Mr. Karzai and Mr. Obama] [*]
We regret the decision by Afghanistan’s opposition leader, Abdullah Abdullah, to withdraw from this week’s runoff election for the presidency. After President Hamid Karzai’s supporters tried to steal the first-round vote, Mr. Abdullah had strong reason to mistrust the process. But Afghan voters deserved another chance. And Afghanistan’s government — under assault from the Taliban and its own corruption and incompetence — desperately needed the legitimacy of a cleaner vote. [*]
Now that Mr. Karzai has been re-elected by default, he is going to have to do everything in his power to persuade his people — and the rest of the world — that he is deserving of

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:10 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/africa/03melt.html
November 3, 2009
Mt. Kilimanjaro Ice Cap Continues Rapid Retreat
By SINDYA N. BHANOO [Africa] [near equatorial Africa] [Tanzania] [global climate change] global commons] [followup] [Kilimanjaro as barometer of climate change—it’s long been a special exemplar] [*]
The ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has continued to retreat rapidly, declining 26 percent since 2000, scientists say in a new report.
Yet the authors of the study, to be published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reached no consensus on whether the melting could be attributed mainly to humanity’s role in warming the global climate. [*]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:09 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/europe/04europe.html
November 4, 2009
European Union Treaty Clears Its Final Hurdle
By DAN BILEFSKY and STEPHEN CASTLE [Europe] [EU] [European governance] [Lisbon Treaty?] [use psci350] [create executive for foreign policy?] [followup] [*]
PRAGUE — The landmark treaty that would raise the profile of the European Union and streamline decision-making among its member states cleared its last major obstacle on Tuesday, all but ensuring that it will become law.
The Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, signed the document hours after the country’s

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/europe/04karadzic.html
November 4, 2009
Karadzic Makes Appearance in Court
By MARLISE SIMONS and JACK HEALY [Netherlands] [Hague] [various war tribunals] [the Bosnia war crimes tribunals] [Mr. Karadzic, captured in 2008?] [followup] [*]
PARIS —The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic made his first appearance at his trial on Tuesday to argue that he needed more time to prepare his defense against charges of genocide.
The videocast from the courtroom showed him taking his seat in the dock, dressed in a

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/europe/03alcohol.html
November 3, 2009
Russia Tries, Once Again, to Rein in Vodka Habit
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY [Russia] [former USSR] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [in new assertive Russia] [Russia ethos] [Russia’s rather serious problems with alcoholism] [I recall during Gorby’s regin a push to lower rate and increase productivity associated with same] [*]
MYTISHCHI, Russia — It was late on a Monday afternoon at the drunk tank in this Moscow suburb, but it could have been any day, at any hour, at any similar facility across this land. People would come. They always do. Such is Russia’s ruinous penchant for the bottle —

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/asia/03briefs-Chinabf.html
November 3, 2009
World Briefing | Asia
China: Foreign Ministry Criticizes U.S. for Sending Uighur Detainees to Palau
By REUTERS [China] [PRC] [Xinjiang unpleasantness] [Obama white house] [recent word that 6 or 8 (?) Uighurs transferred from gitmo to Palau] [China’s largely “obligatory” complaint] [*]
China criticized the United States on Monday for sending six Chinese Uighur detainees from the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to the Pacific island nation of Palau. China has demanded that the Uighurs be returned to China, but the United States has refused

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/middleeast/03diplo.html
November 3, 2009
Clinton Denies Easing Pressure on Israel
By MARK LANDLER [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Middle East proper] [Levant] [SecState Clinton on Middle East, Northern Africa trip] [followup] [where every sigh is assessed for its significance?] [Arab and Muclim worlds: has the Obama administration backed off on its perceived tough stance on settlements?] [as I have noted, perception that it’s a tough stance misperceives USFP process and continuity] [*]
MARRAKESH, Morocco — Struggling to stem protests from the Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday reiterated that the Obama administration still wanted Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, even if it regarded Israel’s compromise offer as “unprecedented.”

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:05 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/middleeast/03diplo.html
November 3, 2009
Clinton Denies Easing Pressure on Israel
By MARK LANDLER [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Middle East proper] [Levant] [SecState Clinton on Middle East, Northern Africa trip] [followup] [where every sigh is assessed for its significance?] [Arab and Muclim worlds: has the Obama administration backed off on its perceived tough stance on settlements?] [as I have noted, perception that it’s a tough stance misperceives USFP process and continuity] [*]
MARRAKESH, Morocco — Struggling to stem protests from the Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday reiterated that the Obama administration still wanted Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, even if it regarded Israel’s compromise offer as “unprecedented.”

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:05 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110203603.html
In North Korea, the military now issues economic orders
By Blaine Harden
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 [DPRK] [Dear Leader making nice with US still] [Dear Leader and fellow travelers appear to believe that any concession must be tempered with firmness?] [always worrisome when evidence emerges that indicates a hardline faction inside top echelon of military] [military can be seen as top interest group in DPRK whom all, including Dear Leader, must placate!] [followup] [*]
SEOUL -- North Korea's military, whose nuclear program vexes the Obama administration, has grabbed nearly complete command of the nation's state-run economy and staked out a lucrative new trade in mineral sales to China to make money for its supreme commander, Kim Jong Il. [it’s one thing if this was done for Dear Leader; it’s another if it was done to appear

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/middleeast/03briefs-Iranbf.html
November 3, 2009
World Briefing | Middle East
Iran: Reformist Newspaper Is Closed
By NAZILA FATHI [Iran] [Iran’s increasingly factured internal politics] [West tries to exploit, naturally enough] [Iran’s internal, domestic politics—facitonalism] [high-level rifts in Iran’s thugocracy and elsewhere over the nuclear deal] [followup] [*]
The authorities on Monday shut down a reformist daily newspaper, Sarmayeh, on charges

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/middleeast/03iran.html
November 3, 2009
News Analysis
Iran’s Politics Stand in the Way of a Nuclear Deal
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN [Iran] [WMD] [the intense internal dynamics of the various factions and Iran’s nuclear-enrichment processes-plants] [Iran has recently said “no” but others have recently said yes and maybe] [followup] [*]
CAIRO — Iran’s leadership has once again equivocated after agreeing to a deal that would ease its nuclear standoff with the West. But this time, that may be as much a product of the nation’s smoldering political crisis as it is a negotiating tactic, [not just this time; several recent times] [these reporters are slow on the uptake?] [*] political analysts and Iran experts said.
Tehran has yet to state publicly why it objects to the deal, in which it would ship its low-

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/asia/04afghan.html
November 4, 2009
Karzai Vows Corruption Fight, but Avoids Details
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and HELENE COOPER [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [the Obama administration trying to figure how to support this regime?] [with Abdullah out, Karzai is in and U.S. is stuck with him] [now what?] [followup] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai, in his first speech since he was declared the winner of the much disputed presidential election, said Tuesday that he wanted to tackle corruption but made no specific commitments to reorganize his administration. [nothing quite like vague generalities] [*]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/asia/03pstan.html
November 3, 2009
Bombers Hit Pakistani Cities as the Army Gains Ground
By SALMAN MASOOD [Pakistan] [al Qaeda] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [more on Pakistan’s planned offensive] [news from the frontlines of Pakistan military’s offensive in NWFP] [use psci469-1] [followup] [*]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Suicide bombers attacked two major Pakistani cities on Monday — one of the them the garrison city of Rawalpindi — as the army claimed control of two strongholds in the northwestern tribal region of South Waziristan, [*]officials said.
The Rawalpindi suicide bomber struck a few hundred yards from the headquarters of the Pakistani Army and outside a branch office of the National Bank of Pakistan, where soldiers

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/europe/03briefs-Spainbf.html
November 3, 2009
World Briefing | Europe
Spain: Judge Accuses 7 of Helping Suspects in 2004 Madrid Bombings
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Spain] [EU] [3/11 2004] [al Qaeda affiliations] [Europe’s 2nd and 3rd generation jihadis partly a result of Europe’s colonial histories] [immigration challenges] [recent evidence that local Muslims not particularly religious are nevertheless becoming radicalized] [followup] [this judge and another have long been active in Europe prosecurting jihadis—Spain’s judiciary different than US] [follwoup] [*]
A Spanish judge has indicted seven people accused of helping the suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 02:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/nyregion/02detain.html
November 2, 2009
Immigrant Jail Tests U.S. View of Legal Access
By NINA BERNSTEIN [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [immigration policy in the US and the clashing interests] [immigration reform and related issues in US presidential-domestic and foreign policy] [bureaucracy: DHS,…] [*]
A startling petition arrived at the New York City Bar Association in October 2008, signed by 100 men, all locked up without criminal charges in the middle of Manhattan. [*]
In vivid if flawed English, it described cramped, filthy quarters where dire medical needs were ignored and hungry prisoners were put to work for $1 a day.
The petitioners were among 250 detainees imprisoned in an immigration jail that few New Yorkers know exists. Above a post office, on the fourth floor of a federal office building in Greenwich Village, the Varick Street Detention Facility takes in 11,000 men a year, most of

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 04:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/europe/02europe.html
November 2, 2009
Diplomatic Memo
Europe Still Likes Obama, but Doubts Creep In
By STEVEN ERLANGER [Europe] [EU] [generalizable?] [on views of Obama and USFP since Obama] [use psci350, 355] [*]
MARRAKESH, Morocco — The election of Barack Obama as president seemed to most Europeans to be unadulterated good news, marking an end to the perceived unilateralism and indifference to allied views of former President George W. Bush. [*]
But nine months into Mr. Obama’s presidency, trans-Atlantic relations are again clouded by doubts. Europe and the United States remain at least partly out of sync on Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran and climate change. [*]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 04:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/europe/02russia.html
November 2, 2009
Major University in Russia Eases Fears on Rules
By ELLEN BARRY [Russia] [former USSR] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [in new assertive Russia] [Russia ethos] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [academic freedom in Russia today? During Soviet days there were some issues along these lines] [*]
MOSCOW — The authorities at St. Petersburg State University issued a statement last week announcing that researchers in the humanities and social sciences would not be required to submit to an export-control screening before publishing their work overseas, easing fears that new procedures would constrain academic freedom.
Professors at the prestigious Russian university raised objections in early October, when an internal university document was posted on a popular Internet forum. The document called

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 04:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/middleeast/02israel.html
November 2, 2009
Israelis Arrest West Bank Settler in Attacks
By ETHAN BRONNER [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Middle East proper] [Levant] [Israeli domestic politics and its intersection with foreign policy] [followup] [fuel for other radicals?] [*]
JERUSALEM — The Israeli police said Sunday that they had arrested a 37-year-old American immigrant, a West Bank settler, and charged him in an array of killings and terrorist attacks over the last 12 years, including the murders of two Palestinians, the bombing of a leftist Israeli professor’s home and the maiming of a 15-year-old boy who belongs to a community of Jews who believe in Jesus. [my god] [zealot who believes he can sniff out traitors?] [*]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 04:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html
November 2, 2009
Scattering of Attacks in Iraq
By JOHN LELAND [-ir] [hydra] [insurgency] [renewed sectarian tensions and fault lines] [“surge”] [clearly, positive indicators that surge worked-working] Shi’a parties in charge of parliament where they are majority] [followup] [despite renewed violence, and some movement by govt on insider connections to recent attack] [followup] [*]
BAGHDAD — A week after the deadliest attack in Iraq in more than two years, a scattering of smaller bomb attacks around the country on Sunday raised fears of a sustained escalation in violence as American forces withdraw.
The bombings, which killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 50, killed both police officers and civilians and struck Sunni as well as Shiite areas.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 04:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/asia/02korea.html
November 2, 2009
North Korea Calls for Talks With U.S.
By REUTERS [DPRK] [Dear Leader making nice with US still] [Dear Leader and fellow travelers appear to believe that any concession must be tempered with firmness?] [instead of resolve, it simply comes out as ameturish behavior] [follow] [*]
SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — North Korea called on Monday for direct talks with its longtime adversary, the United States, and said it was ready to return to stalled six-country nuclear disarmament negotiations.
“The conclusion we have reached is that the direct parties, which are the North and the United States, must first sit down and find a rational solution,” [*] [they have become strangely obsessive about bilateral talks with US] [will that give him advantage against his

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 04:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/middleeast/02iran.html
November 2, 2009
Opposition in Iran Urges Continuing Challenge
By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHI [Iran] [Iran’s WMD] [the West, generally] [Iran’s internal, domestic politics—facitonalism] [high-level rifts in Iran’s thugocracy and elsewhere over the nuclear deal] [followup] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As Iran prepares for a major commemorative rally on Wednesday, the leaders of the opposition movement called over the weekend for a renewed challenge to the government, [*] [presumably meaning to president Ahmadinejad?] setting the stage for a possible showdown between protesters and the police.
Although the opposition leaders, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mohammad Khatami, did not openly call for street protests, their remarks were widely seen as a call to arms on a day of considerable symbolic importance. [*]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/asia/02assess.html
November 2, 2009
News Analysis
With Karzai, U.S. Faces Weak Partner in Time of War
By DAVID E. SANGER [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [the Obama administration trying to figure how to support this regime?] [with Abdullah out, Karzai is in and U.S. is stuck with him] [now what?] [*]
WASHINGTON — With the White House’s reluctant embrace on Sunday of Hamid Karzai as the winner of Afghanistan’s suddenly moot presidential runoff, President Obama now faces a new complication: enabling a badly tarnished partner to regain enough legitimacy to help

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 03:59 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/asia/03afghan.html
November 3, 2009
Karzai Gets New Term as Afghan Runoff Is Scrapped
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ALAN COWELL [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [the Obama administration trying to figure how to support this regime?] [apparently Abdullah has stepped aside hoping to create another attempt in spring 2010?] [I can’t imagine why anyone would support giving Karzia only 4-6 month term?] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials on Monday canceled plans for a runoff presidential vote, declaring President Hamid Karzai the winner after the withdrawal on Sunday of his last remaining challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 03:58 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/asia/03pstan.html
November 3, 2009
Bomb Rips Market Near Pakistan Headquarters
By SALMAN MASOOD [Pakistan] [al Qaeda] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [more on Pakistan’s planned offensive] [news from the frontlines of Pakistan military’s offensive in NWFP] [use psci469-1] [followup] [*]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide bomber detonated explosives Monday morning in a busy commercial district in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens more, security and rescue officials said.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 03:58 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/50/36/I
[accessed 11/1/09 8:20 AM]
Find Law
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
[archival purposes for FISA] [white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [intelligence community (IC) and oversight] [*]
(1978 with subsequent amendments, including the Patriot Act amendments in October 2001). [my description; I came across while reading Sunday’s news. I’ve looked up parts of FISA for years but never found a single online, nicely formatted version. FindLaw does same with things such as 9/11 report.] [*]
FISA
• Section 1801 Definitions

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/us/01cyberwar.html
November 1, 2009
San Antonio Built Community Coalition to Land Cyberwarfare Headquarters
By THOM SHANKER [obama white house] [residual from bush white house] [bureaucray] [111th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [dod, Pentagon, department of Air Force, …] [*]
SAN ANTONIO — When Kelly Air Force Base was ordered shut down in 1995, more than 17,000 jobs left town. Now the military presence is growing again. This time, though, the new force will not comprise fighters, bombers or boots on the ground. Instead, the city is hosting the fastest-growing domain of government and military spending: cyberwarfare.
The Air Force’s new military command for computer-network offense and defense, activated in late summer, is expected to require 5,500 to 7,000 jobs, including Air Force personnel, [*] Defense Department civilians and private-sector contractors.
Lackland Air Force Base here was named home for the new Air Force cyberwarfare

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/asia/01uighurs.html
November 1, 2009
Uighurs Leave Guantánamo for Palau
By DAVID JOHNSTON [obama white house] [residual from bush white house] [NSC principals initially; clearly as the years stretched on] [111th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [justice, dod, pentagon, federal judiciary] [tortured logic behind tortured behavior on “illegal enemy combatants”] [gitmo detainees, including the boastful masterminds and planners of 9/11] [followup] [as 1-year deadline approaches, the Obama administration hustles to cull the herd?] [use psci355, 455] [*]
WASHINGTON — Six Chinese Muslims were flown from the United States military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Palau, the island nation in the Pacific Ocean, as part of the Obama administration’s effort to close the prison, an administration official said Saturday.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/31/AR2009103102141.html
1,600 are suggested daily for FBI's list
Number of names on terrorist watch list at 400,000, agency says
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 1, 2009 [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [inherited President W. Bush TSPs] [continued reformation of US national-security institutions] [bureaucratic] [IC, ODNI, DNI, NCTC, and other post-IRTPA changes] [the coordinated lists that weren’t properly shared before 9/11] [have they become huges messes???] [followup] [**]
Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and complexity of the nation's terrorist watch list, documenting a daily flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list.
During a 12-month period ended in March this year, for example, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list because they

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/us/01justice.html
November 1, 2009
Documents Detail Conditions Found at Secret C.I.A. Jails
By SCOTT SHANE and CHARLIE SAVAGE [Obama white house] [Bush white house residuals, considerably] [bureaucracy] [from bureaucracy to some NSC level, latter particularly in the first W. Bush term, proximate to 9/11] [IC] [ODNI, DNI, other pillars of intelligence-gathering and analysis bureaucracy] [more on the enhanced-interrogation techniques (aka, torture)] [report came out Monday and I read it that afternoon] [while I can understand how some might characterize as “sickening,” because it was so counter to what most of us think of as US values and principles, one really needs to read it to understand how such things happen] [it will almost certainly happen again—not precisely the same but similar human-institutional frailty] [use psci355] [followup, 090209] [*]
F.B.I. agents who arrived at a secret C.I.A. jail overseas in September 2002 found prisoners

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/us/01terror.html
November 1, 2009
Smaller-Scale Terrorism Plots Pose New and Worrisome Threats, Officials Say
By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC SCHMITT [Obama White House] [NSC to lowly bureaucracy] [from kinetic military force to diplomacy to economic suasion and everything along the continuum] [recruitment and attraction of American jihadis] [global-jihadis hydra in American and abroad] [bureaucracy: law enforcement and IC] [followup] [this is heavily bureaucratic with law enforcement and IC across America worried about small groups, lone wolves, and vulnerability of soft targets] [followup] [*]
WASHINGTON — After disrupting two recent terrorism plots, American intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that extremist groups in Pakistan linked to Al Qaeda are planning smaller operations in the United States that are harder to detect but more likely to succeed than the spectacular attacks they once emphasized, [this issue has kicked around for

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/opinion/01winfrey.html
November 1, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
A Final Verdict on the Presidential Salute
By CAREY WINFREY [oped] [I didn’t archive much on the flap] [Obama visited Dover last week] [it struck me as pretty dignified on balance] [bit overly political, relative to previous administration’s use fo solider as photo ops] [but following day Ms. Cheney said some pretty ridiculous things—made wildely ridiculous given her own fathers behavior relative to Dover or other ways to support the fallen and given his 5 Vietnam deferments] [I have no problem with deferments from Vietnam; just those who happily send others to war over anything but went out of their way to serve] [*]
FOR nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover” which, in civilian, meant without a hat.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:40 AM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/asia/01maoist.html
November 1, 2009
Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India
By JIM YARDLEY [India] [South Asia] [India’s ecletic society] [India’s Maoists, some of whom have been waging insurgency for years] [spillover into other South Asia nation-states] [followup, Oct 9] [*]
BARSUR, India — At the edge of the Indravati River, hundreds of miles from the nearest international border, India effectively ends. Indian paramilitary officers point machine guns across the water. The dense jungles and mountains on the other side belong to Maoist

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/middleeast/01yemen.html
November 1, 2009
Thirsty Plant Dries Out Yemen
By ROBERT F. WORTH WORTH [Yemen] [Middle East proper] [proximity to horn, Saudi peninsula] [jihadis and Islamists in Yemen] [general] [Saudi pensinsula and the region’s ethos?] [use psci350?] [*]
JAHILIYA, Yemen — More than half of this country’s scarce water is used to feed an addiction.
Even as drought kills off Yemen’s crops, farmers in villages like this one are turning increasingly to a thirsty plant called qat, the leaves of which are chewed every day by most Yemeni men (and some women) for their mild narcotic effect. The farmers have little choice: qat is the only way to make a profit. [in horn of Africa it’s a popular stimulant] [even some Muslims use it] [cash crop] [*]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/africa/01pirates.html
November 1, 2009
Somali Pirates Move Couple Onto Land
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and MOHAMMED IBRAHIM [Somalia] [the chaos in Somalia] [East Africa; south of Horn] [relatively stable state until 2007-2008 when wheels came off] [looked somewhat like a state toying with failed-state status] [recent piracy where British couple sailing were grabbed] [followup] [unclear why as they probably won’t fetch money] [but now they have been moved to land where anything can happen] [follwup] [*]
NAIROBI, Kenya — A Somali pirate boss named Red Teeth said Saturday that his gang of pirates had whisked the British couple kidnapped at sea last month to a lair on shore, and apparently the pirates have begun bickering among themselves about what to do next.
Residents in the area said some of the pirates wanted to ransom the couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, for cash, while others were insisting on some sort of exchange for

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/americas/01canada.html
November 1, 2009
2 Suspects Tied to Detroit Imam Arrested in Canada
By THE NEW YORK TIMES [Canada] [NAmerica] [unrest couple monsth ago in montreal] [before that, Canada’s participation in US renditions] [before that, Afghanistan] [followup] [amid all the hubbub, a reminder that jihadis exist in West] [use psci469b] [this recent things to do with recent killing of Detroit imam by FBI and spillover in neighboring Canada] [followup; though in govt?] [*]
OTTAWA — The police in Windsor, Ontario, arrested two men on Saturday who were linked to Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the imam of a Detroit mosque who was killed by F.B.I. agents during a raid in Dearborn, Mich., on Wednesday.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:37 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/middleeast/01clinton.html
November 1, 2009
Clinton Asks Abbas to Return to Talks
By MARK LANDLER and ETHAN BRONNER [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Middle East proper] [Levant] [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [secstate Clinton pressures Abu Masen to return to negotiating table] [state department] [latest round of obstacles began with the Goldstone report of crimes against humanity during last year’s brief but bloody December war] [I was in hospital when it began and watched in on television in agony] [followup] [cross in govt] [*]
JERUSALEM — Dealing a blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to restart Middle East peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton failed Saturday to persuade the Palestinian leader to accept an Israeli proposal that would slow but not stop the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. [*]
The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, insisted that Israel must halt all construction of

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/weekinreview/01RUBIN.html
November 1, 2009
From Iraq, Lessons for the Next War
By ALISSA J. RUBIN [-ir] [hydra] [insurgency] [renewed sectarian tensions and fault lines] [“surge”] [clearly, positive indicators that surge worked-working] Shi’a parties in charge of parliament where they are majority] [followup] [despite renewed violence, and some movement by govt on insider connections to recent attack] [*]
I came to Iraq three days after Saddam Hussein fled Baghdad. It was April 12, 2003. At the time, Iraqis bristled when asked if they were Sunni, Shiite or Kurd. It made no difference, they said, they were brothers. And, in the heady aftermath of the war, for a short while it almost seemed true. That mood seems to be upon the country again, and it is most welcome after the last six years of bloody murders between Shiites and Sunnis; between Arabs and Kurds; between Muslims and Christians. Will it last? Or are Americans, as they have been in

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:34 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/middleeast/01iraq.html
November 1, 2009
Iraqi Officer Delving Into Bombings Is Killed
By MARC SANTORA [-ir] [hydra] [insurgency] [renewed sectarian tensions and fault lines] [“surge”] [clearly, positive indicators that surge worked-working] Shi’a parties in charge of parliament where they are majority] [followup] [despite renewed violence, and some movement by govt on insider connections to recent attack] [now they’ve gone after one of the investigators—brush back?] [*]
BAGHDAD — A senior Iraqi police officer who was investigating last week’s deadly bombings that struck at the heart of the Iraqi government was killed Thursday night in his office, according to security officials, gunned down by a suspect who was taken to him for questioning.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/asia/01troops.html
November 1, 2009
South Korea Says It Plans Afghanistan Deployment
By CHOE SANG-HUN [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [ROK announces potential deployment (albeit superficial) to AfPak—presumably to show Obama what good ally?] [*]
SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean government announced plans on Friday to send troops and police officers to Afghanistan to help protect its aid workers.
The plans, if approved by Parliament, will reinstate a South Korean military presence in Afghanistan two years after the country withdrew its 200 troops from there. The 2007 pullout followed a hostage crisis in which the Taliban killed 2 of 23 kidnapped Christian aid

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/asia/02afghan.html
November 2, 2009
Transparent Election Is Not Possible, Says Rival to Karzai
By DEXTER FILKINS and ALISSA J. RUBIN [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [the Obama administration trying to figure how to support this regime?] [what’s Abdullah up to? To withdraw is to tell Karzai Abdullah’s price is quite steep, steeper than Karzai has imiagined to date?] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — Abdullah Abdullah, the chief rival to President Hamid Karzai, announced on Sunday that he would withdraw from the Nov. 7 Afghan runoff election, effectively handing a new term to Mr. Karzai but potentially damaging the government’s

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102702065.html
Doubts abound among people of S. Waziristan
FEW WILLING TO BACK ARMY
'There is constant fear in our minds'
By Haq Nawaz Khan and Karin Brulliard
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [the Obama administration trying to figure how to support this regime?] [recent attack on UN—now al Qaeda fingerprints?] [*]
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, PAKISTAN -- As Pakistan's army battles with guns and jets to wrest control of the restive South Waziristan region from the Taliban, it remains unclear whether the military will have another kind of ammunition it desperately needs: the support of people who have lived in the militants' grip for years. [*]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/asia/01kabul.html
November 1, 2009
Qaeda Had Role in Attack on U.N. Staff, Official Says
By DEXTER FILKINS [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [the Obama administration trying to figure how to support this regime?] [recent attack on UN—now al Qaeda fingerprints?] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — The deadly suicide attack at a United Nations guesthouse here last week was a joint operation directed by an Afghan warlord based in the tribal areas of Pakistan and by an operative of Al Qaeda, the Afghan intelligence director said Saturday. [why now?] [suddenly in short time we’ve read of al Qaeda operatives and their passports and now their planning in UN attack] [what, if anything, does this presage?] [is al Qaeda

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/education/edlife/01rotc-t.html
November 1, 2009
The R.O.T.C. Dilemma
By MICHAEL WINERIP
IN a speech last year, Drew Faust, the president of Harvard, congratulated seniors who had gone the extra mile to get their R.O.T.C. training. She meant it literally, and the extra miles they had gone were the least of it.
Harvard has not had a Reserve Officers Training Corps program on campus since antiwar protests in the 1960s shut it down. The handful of Harvard students determined enough to join R.O.T.C. must travel to Boston University and across Cambridge to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for their training, under a system developed by the military that allows host universities to serve nearby campuses. [*]
For the last four school years, several times a week, Daniel West, Joe Kristol and Dom Pellegrini, all training to become United States Marine Corps officers, had to get to M.I.T. or B.U. by 5:45 a.m. It was so early the subway wasn’t running yet.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/politics/31cheney.html
October 31, 2009
In ’04 Interview, Cheney Denied C.I.A. Leak Role
By DAVID JOHNSTON [former bush white house] [the 2003 imbroglio that became the Plame case] [veep’s office and staff] [Veep Cheney and his then chief of staff and NSC advisor, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby] [was convicted of lying to FBI and sentenced to jail] [Bush commuted sentence] [Cheney broke with Bush’s refusal to pardon Libby as new admin coming into office] [rather public flap for that administration] [lots of important history] [but here the issue is whether veep Cheney lied—the answer seems clearly yes but did so in way that cannot be prosecuted without principal confessing] [notes on depostions and interviews] [he forgot a lot of stuff?] [*]
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney denied in an interview with a special prosecutor investigating the C.I.A. leak case that he had played any role in the disclosure of

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:50 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/new-details-on-interrogations/
The Cacus: The Politics and Governmanet Blog of the New York Times
New York Times Blogs
October 30, 2009, 8:56 pm
[accessed 10/31/09 7:58 AM]
New Details on Interrogations
By Scott Shane and Charlie Savage [Obama white house] [residual from Bush white house] [bureaucracy] [from bureaucracy to NSC level] [IC] [ODNI, DNI, other pillars of intelligence-gathering and analysis bureaucracy] [IRPTA’s provisions after it became law in Dec 2004] [the substantial changes that have occurred in the FBI, in particular, since IRTPA] [FBI’s interrogation process verus other parts of IC] [use psci355] [*]
F.B.I. agents who arrived at a secret C.I.A. jail overseas in September 2002 found prisoners “manacled to the ceiling and subjected to blaring music around the clock,” and a C.I.A.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/politics/31alliance.html
October 31, 2009
Moderate in America’s Jewish Lobby Causes a Stir
By NEIL A. LEWIS and MARK LANDLER [J Street] [special interest group, SIG, so societal too] [but appears to be about bureaucracy inside the current administration] [U.S. foreign policy and in particular America’s various positions on Middle East, Levant] [for many years Washington has been a Likud-ish town with both Parties connected at the hip with AIPAC] [AIPAC really influential but unlike some, I don’t see the conspiracy aspects; I do see an influential SIG that has wisely covered its bases across the board] [new actor arrives in form of J Street] [and the fur has been flying since] [but here how it flies in terms of govt actors] [cross in societal] [use psci355] [*]
WASHINGTON — The tensions and sharp disagreements that have ripened among many American Jews over President Obama’s approach to Middle East issues were on public display

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:48 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/30/AR2009103003749.html
In Congress, a call to review internal cybersecurity policies
Inadvertent disclosure of ethics committee inquiries sparks furor
By Ellen Nakashima and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 31, 2009 [Obama white house] [at least since Richard Clarke the NSC has had a cybersecurity guru] [111th Congress, 1st session] [cybersecurity scares] [mostly bureaucracy] [followup] [almost exactly the same position as the Bush administration possited] [continuity is the rule, not the exception] [*]
House leaders on Friday called for an "immediate and comprehensive assessment" of congressional cybersecurity policies, a day after an embarrassing data breach that led to

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/30/AR2009103004081.html
Obama seeking options on forces
MEETING WITH JOINT CHIEFS
President looks to send fewer additional troops
By Anne E. Kornblut and Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 31, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [former Marine, then foreign-service officer with state] [his thinking on the mess that is AfPak and why he’s now resigned?] [frankly, I don’t know what it may indicated—it’s just sort of interesting] [context: this is but one guy; I still have not heard McChrystul’s full justification] [nor have I heard the president articulate what he sees as American’s specific security interests] [this was few NSC staffers with JCS locus?] [use psci455, 355] [ditto] [*]
President Obama has asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan, two U.S. officials said late Friday, with one adding that some

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/asia/31policy.html
October 31, 2009
Obama Meets Joint Chiefs to Review Afghanistan Strategy
By THOM SHANKER and HELENE COOPER [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [former Marine, then foreign-service officer with state] [his thinking on the mess that is AfPak and why he’s now resigned?] [frankly, I don’t know what it may indicated—it’s just sort of interesting] [context: this is but one guy; I still have not heard McChrystul’s full justification] [nor have I heard the president articulate what he sees as American’s specific security interests] [this was few NSC staffers with JCS locus?] [use psci455, 355] [*]
WASHINGTON — President Obama met Friday with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss the way ahead in Afghanistan — in particular how sending more forces might affect the health of the military, already strained by eight years of war. [note: reporters don’t think in terms

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:45 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/30/AR2009103003360.html
A win in Honduras
How the Obama administration outmaneuvered Hugo Chávez
Saturday, October 31, 2009 [editorial] [lates manevers vis-à-vis Honduras mess] [today’s papers had reports that I didn’t archive as reports not definitive yet] [this editorial tells essentially the info] [*]
THE STAKES in Honduras's political crisis have always been bigger than the country's tiny size would suggest -- and so it follows that the breakthrough engineered this week by the Obama administration is more than a minor diplomatic triumph. [we’ll see] [*]
At its root, the fight in Honduras has been over whether Latin American nations will remain

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:45 AM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/31briefs-Nations.html
October 31, 2009
World Briefing | United Nations
$50 Million Sought to Protect U.N. Facilities Worldwide
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR [UN] [Afghanistan] [hydra] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [as if needed, additional evidence that Karzai’s election fraudulent] [Kilcullen and others note that a big reason Afghanis turn to Taliban is latter is seen as clean-incorruptile] [*]
Given that 27 civilian staff members have been killed this year, including five in Kabul this week, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:44 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/africa/31briefs-Guinea.html
October 31, 2009
World Briefing | United Nations
Inquiry Opened Into Deadly Guinea Crackdown
By REUTERS [Guinea] [Africa] [equatorial Africa—just north] [western Africa] [recent political instability around Africa] [causes are many including extreme poverty exacerbated by global economic meltdown] [jihadis in Islamic Maghreb and Somalia-Kenya] [remnants of colonialism] [coup last December and horrible crackdowns since] [followup Oct 9] [*]
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has opened an international inquiry led by an Algerian

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:43 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html
October 31, 2009
Netanyahu Backs Nuclear Deal That Iran Rejected
By ETHAN BRONNER [Israel] [domestic politics intersects foreign policy] [in truly clear example of pluralism and Israel foreign-policy interests] [Israel’s understandable concerns with Iran’s WMD programs] [followup] [PM Netanyahu well placed to make a bold move due to his bona fides vis-à-vis Iran] [followup yesterday] [did Bibi know their decision a priori?] [*]
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Friday cautiously endorsed the American-backed efforts to limit Iran’s nuclear program through shipments abroad of its enriched uranium. He made his remarks as an intensive Middle East diplomatic effort got under way, [*]with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton due here on Saturday.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/10/31/world/international-us-afghanistan.html
October 31, 2009
Abdullah Set to Decide on Afghan Runoff
By REUTERS
Filed at 9:16 a.m. ET [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [the Obama administration trying to figure how to support this regime?] [*]
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's election rival Abdullah Abdullah will announce on Sunday whether he will take part in next week's disputed run-off vote, his campaign said after speculation mounted he will pull out.

Continue reading "Abdullah Set to Decide on Afghan Runoff" »

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/asia/31afghan.html
October 31, 2009
Insurgent Attacks Kill 12 in Afghanistan
By THE NEW YORK TIMES [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [see UN’s response today in external elsewhere] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — Attacks by insurgents killed 12 people on Friday in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
Nine travelers in a station wagon, including a woman and a child, were killed in Nangahar Province, according to Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesman for the provincial governor. Mr.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/asia/31plotter.html
October 31, 2009
After 2 Years, a Sign of a 9/11 Suspect
By SOUAD MEKHENNET and SABRINA TAVERNISE [Pakistan] [al Qaeda] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [more on Pakistan’s planned offensive] [infrequent word from Paksitan about al Qaeda’s doings] [global-jihadis hydra] [use psci469-1] [followup] [*]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suspect in the 9/11 plot whose German passport was found in a mud hut in western Pakistan this week has not been in touch with his family for two years, [that they discovered his passport reported yesterday] [*] his mother said in a telephone interview on Friday.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:40 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/31crash.html
October 31, 2009
Copter and Coast Guard Plane Collide
By JACK HEALY [Obama white house] [bureaucracy] [San Diego] [a mliltary town where sometimes tragedy results] [another collision off the coast] [*]
Military helicopters and ships scoured the waters off San Diego on Friday morning for any trace of nine people involved in a mid-air collision between a Coast Guard plane and a military helicopter hours earlier.
But after nearly 12 hours of searching, rescue teams had reported no signs of any survivors.
Seven people were aboard the Coast Guard’s C-130 plane and two were flying in the Marine Corps’ AH-1 Cobra helicopter when the two aircraft crashed at 7:10 p.m. Pacific time, officials said. They were flying 15 to 25 miles east of San Clemente Island, a narrow strip of

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/us/29shooting.html
October 29, 2009
F.B.I. Raid Kills Islamic Group Leader in Michigan
By NICK BUNKLEY [Obama white house] [111th congress, still 1st session a little longer] [bureaucracy, congress] [IC, and law enforcement] [the balance with civil liberties guaranteed by America’s constitution (Bill of Rights)] [America’s struggle to get it right when it goes after people in US for religious beliefs that compel believers to make political decicions based on religious ideology] [*]
Federal agents on Wednesday fatally shot a man they described as the leader of a violent Sunni Muslim separatist group in Detroit.
The 53-year-old man, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, was killed in one of three raids conducted in and around the city, in which six followers of his were taken into custody.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/us/29manual.html
October 29, 2009
Loosening of F.B.I. Rules Stirs Privacy Concerns
By CHARLIE SAVAGE [Obama white house] [111th congress, still 1st session] [bureaucracy, congress] [IC, and the oversight committees in congress] [since IRTPA (December 2004) a reorganized IC in the US] [among other things, it’s supposed to be attuned to transnational actors] [the balance with civil liberties guaranteed by America’s constitution (Bill of Rights)] [FBI’s frontrow seat as federal govt attempts to balance security and civil liberties] [one of the most important things the US does] [*]
WASHINGTON — After a Somali-American teenager from Minneapolis committed a suicide bombing in Africa in October 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating whether a Somali Islamist group had recruited him on United States soil.
Instead of collecting information only on people about whom they had a tip or links to the

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:10 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/us/30obama.html
October 30, 2009
Obama Visits Returning War Dead
By JEFF ZELENY [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [President Obama and his approach to service members killed on duty to the US] [psci355] [president and the white house; also, considerable politics (doubtless)] [*]
President Obama traveled to Dover Air Force Base early Thursday morning, where he met with family members and paid his respects as the bodies of 18 Americans killed this week in Afghanistan were returned to the United States.
It was the president’s first trip to the Delaware air base, the main point of entry for the nation’s war dead to return home. The trip was a symbolic one for Mr. Obama — intended to convey the gravity of his decision as he moves closer to announcing whether he will send more troops to Afghanistan.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:09 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102904746.html
In pre-dawn darkness, Obama salutes victims of war
By Michael Fletcher and Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 30, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [President Obama and his approach to service members killed on duty to the US] [psci355] [president and the white house; also, considerable politics (doubtless)] [*]
On Wednesday, President Obama started his day in the Oval Office as he always does, with intelligence and economic advisers alerting him to trouble spots and bits of improvement. He ended it 20 hours later, after a surprise trip to Dover Air Force Base, where he witnessed the return of 18 Americans killed this week in Afghanistan. [*]
His day already had been crowded. By nightfall, the president had appeared in public five times. He honored a Senate pioneer, named an opponent to a panel, signed the defense bill, planted a tree and held a reception for a crowd jubilant over a new law. He made jokes, offered embraces, posed for photos, spoke firmly. He had dinner with his two girls, on the

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102900457.html
Judge credits time served in sentencing al-Qaeda aide
Qatari spent 6 years on Navy brig, gets half of maximum penalty
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 30, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, still 1st session] [bureaucracy] [federal judiciary] [followup] [*]
In a decision that could carry implications for the masterminds of the Sept. 11 attacks, a judge on Thursday sentenced an al-Qaeda sleeper agent with ties to the group's senior leaders to eight years and four months in prison. [*]
The sentence sliced away nearly half of the 15-year maximum available penalty against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who entered the country as a graduate student on Sept. 10, 2001, under instructions from al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed. [*] [is the the

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/29military.html
October 29, 2009
Makeshift Bombs Spread Beyond Afghanistan, Iraq
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON — American military officers are expressing concern over the spreading use of makeshift bombs beyond the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan to other countries in the region, as well as in East Asia and South America.
Improvised explosive devices, as the military calls them, have been the largest killer of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing up with devastating effect in Pakistan and India, but also with less notice in Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Colombia, Somalia and parts of North Africa.
Even Russian security forces have faced the devices in the republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, although attacks in Chechnya have fallen.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/asia/29intel.html
October 29, 2009
Reported Ties From C.I.A. to a Karzai Spur Rebukes
By MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON — Senior lawmakers from both parties on Wednesday criticized what American officials said were financial ties between the Central Intelligence Agency and Ahmed Wali Karzai, a brother of the Afghan president, with one top Democrat suggesting that intelligence officials had misled him about Mr. Karzai’s role in Afghanistan’s opium trade.
The Democrat, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, demanded that members of Congress receive “untainted” information about

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/asia/29weapons.html
October 29, 2009
U.S. Speeds Aid to Pakistan to Fight Taliban
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON — Even as the Pakistani government plays down the American role in its military operations in Taliban-controlled areas along the border with Afghanistan, the United States has quietly rushed hundreds of millions of dollars in arms, equipment and sophisticated sensors to Pakistani forces in recent months, said senior American and Pakistani officials.
During preparations this spring for the Pakistani campaigns in Swat and South Waziristan, President Obama personally intervened at the request of Pakistan’s top army general to speed the delivery of 10 Mi-17 troop transport helicopters. Senior Pentagon officials have also hurried spare parts for Cobra helicopter gunships, night vision goggles, body armor

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/us/28potomac.html
October 28, 2009
Review by Coast Guard Says 9/11 Exercise Was Poor Idea
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — An internal Coast Guard review said a training exercise that led to false news reports of gunshots on the Potomac River on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks was ill-advised.
The Coast Guard review, obtained by The Associated Press, said the exercise had raised fears in the capital that Washington might again be under attack eight years to the day after hijacked passenger jets crashed into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/us/28terror.html
October 28, 2009
2 in Chicago Held in Plot to Attack in Denmark
By DAVID JOHNSTON
WASHINGTON — Two Chicago men have been charged in what officials said was a plot to attack employees of a Danish newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that offended many Muslims, according to criminal complaints unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Chicago.
The most serious charges, conspiracy to murder and maim in a foreign country, were filed against David Coleman Headley, who was born in the United States, lived in Pakistan and

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28policy.html
October 28, 2009
U.S. to Protect Populous Afghan Areas, Officials Say
By THOM SHANKER, PETER BAKER and HELENE COOPER
This article is by Thom Shanker, Peter Baker and Helene Cooper.
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s advisers are focusing on a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers, administration officials said Tuesday, describing an approach that would stop short of an all-out assault on the Taliban while still seeking to nurture long-term stability.
Mr. Obama has yet to make a decision and has other options available to him, but as officials described it, the debate is no longer over whether to send more troops, but how many more will be needed. The question of how much of the country should fall under the direct protection of American and NATO forces will be central to deciding how many troops

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102903917.html
What we can achieve in Afghanistan
By Robert B. Zoellick
Friday, October 30, 2009 [oped] [I respecet this guy a good deal] [he was tough negotiator with Sudan for Bush43] [as result, this oped in which he makes the case for continued slow-but-steady progress in Afghanistan] [use psci350, 355, 455] [*]
As governments reconsider strategies in Afghanistan, stories abound about why achieving progress in this "graveyard of empires" is so challenging: The country is racked by violence and opium production; confidence in the government is weak; its neighbors meddle; and fiercely independent tribes distrust any intruder -- whether from Britain, the Soviet Union, NATO or Kabul.
The World Bank Group's experience in Afghanistan reflects all these problems. This is one of the most difficult environments in which we work. Yet we have seen real, measurable progress: in the health sector, education, community development, microfinance and

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:01 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/30brooks.html
October 30, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
The Tenacity Question
By DAVID BROOKS [oped] [columnist] [on Obama as he shapes the NSC process on AfPak] [use psci355, 455] [*]
Today, President Obama will lead another meeting to debate strategy in Afghanistan. He will presumably discuss the questions that have divided his advisers: How many troops to commit? How to define plausible goals? Should troops be deployed broadly or just in the cities and towns? [I think it’s the 7th NSC (either principals, principals and deputies, or full NSC on Afghan since the McChrystul recommendation leaked in early-to-mid Oct] [*]

Continue reading "The Tenacity Question" »

Posted by Kent Bolton at 01:00 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/30fri3.html
October 30, 2009
Editorial
The Commander’s Duty Done
[editorial] [President Obama’s midnight visit to Dover Air Base] [entry point for America’s KIA] [*]
In his midnight mission to honor the returning war dead, President Obama did more than personally extend the nation’s condolences to grieving families gathered at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Without uttering a public word, Mr. Obama erased President George W. Bush’s shameful attempts to hide the pain of war from Americans and to shield himself from paying public tribute to the thousands who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. [*] [?]

Continue reading "The Commander’s Duty Done" »

Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:59 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/30fri2.html
October 30, 2009
Editorial
Mrs. Clinton in Pakistan
[editorial] [SecState Clinton’s 3-day visit in Pakistan] [USFP and NSC principals] [*]
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s first trip to Pakistan as secretary of state was never going to be easy. The day she arrived, extremists detonated a car bomb at a crowded market in Peshawar that killed at least 100 people. The Nation newspaper dismissed the visit as a mere “PR exercise, but who will buy what the US is selling is difficult to imagine, beyond the already compliant government.”
Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis dislike and mistrust the United States. They blame Washington for using and then abandoning them after the Soviets were driven

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:58 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/opinion/29abed.html
October 29, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
For Every Iraqi Party, an Army of Its Own
By NAJIM ABED AL-JABOURI
SUNDAY’S coordinated suicide bombings in Baghdad, which killed more than 150 people, were a brutal reminder of how far Iraq still has to go in terms of security. While things are far better than a few years ago, one huge task remains: getting the public to trust the Iraqi security forces.
From 2005 to 2008, I was the mayor of Tel Afar, a town in Nineveh Province in northern Iraq that become the model for the “clear, hold and build” strategy credited with turning

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:57 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/opinion/29sebestyen.html
October 29, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
Transcripts of Defeat
By VICTOR SEBESTYEN
London
THE highly decorated general sat opposite his commander in chief and explained the problems his army faced fighting in the hills around Kabul: “There is no piece of land in Afghanistan that has not been occupied by one of our soldiers at some time or another,” he said. “Nevertheless much of the territory stays in the hands of the terrorists. We control the provincial centers, but we cannot maintain political control over the territory we seize.
“Our soldiers are not to blame. They’ve fought incredibly bravely in adverse conditions. But to occupy towns and villages temporarily has little value in such a vast land where the insurgents can just disappear into the hills.” He went on to request extra troops and equipment. “Without them, without a lot more men, this war will continue for a very, very

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:56 PM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/europe/31chirac.html
October 31, 2009
Chirac Ordered to Face Trial in France
By ALAN COWELL [France] [EU3] [domestic issues in France] [former President Chirac’s legendary corruption] [followup] [*]
PARIS — An investigating magistrate on Friday ordered the former French president, Jacques Chirac, to stand trial on corruption charges dating to his time years ago as mayor of Paris, reinforcing the whiff of alleged malfeasance swirling around the political elite and inspiring debate about the pace of judicial processes.
If he comes to trial, Mr. Chirac will be the first former French head of state to be prosecuted for corruption, offering a humiliating book-end to a career as a towering presence in French politics for more than 30 years. A statement from his office described him as “serene” in face of the accusations.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/europe/30crimea.html
October 30, 2009
Simferopol Journal
Crimean Mosque Project Stirs Debate and Trauma
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY [Ukraine] [Russia] [fromer USSR] [Ukraine’s demonstrable tilt toward NATO, EU, West] [followup] [Russia’s displeasure with same] [Russia’s considerable “Near Abroad” problems] [particularly in Ukraine where many ethnic Russians live] [in new assertive Russia] [Russia ethos] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [*]
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Chunks of limestone, by the tens of thousands, are strewn in piles on a waterside lot here where one of Europe’s largest mosques is scheduled to rise. But the only soul around is a wizened caretaker in a tent, watching over what seems like another grandiose project gone bust with the financial crisis.
The trouble with the project, though, has nothing to do with money.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:54 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102904842.html
In Russia, an intensifying insurgency
Under crackdown, Chechen separatism turns into a regional Islamist revolt
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 30, 2009 [Russia] [former USSR] [Ingushetia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [in new assertive Russia] [Russia ethos] [use psci350, 469b] [use ir text] [northern Caucases] [followup] [nationalism and jihad in explosive mix?] [*]
SUNZHENSKY, RUSSIA -- Her face wet with tears and framed by a black shawl, Madina Albakova sat in her ransacked living room and described how she had become another teenage widow here in Ingushetia, the most volatile of Russia's Muslim republics. [*]
The details emerged between sobs: the arrival of the security forces earlier in the day, her husband's panicked attempt to flee, the gunfire that erupted without warning. He was a law

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:53 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/europe/31russia.html
October 31, 2009
Medvedev Warns Over Softer View of Stalinism
By ELLEN BARRY [Russia] [former USSR] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [in new assertive Russia] [Russia ethos] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [the recurring issue of Russians over doing their appreciation for Stalin] [and the extent to which Putin is substituted, so forth] [followup] [*]
MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Friday warned that Russians have lost their sense of horror over Stalin’s purges, and called for the construction of museums and memorial centers devoted to the atrocities, as well as further efforts to unearth and identify the dead. [*] [since Stalin is sometimes code for Putin, when Medvedev says such things some people think he’s talking about Putin] [complex, pregnant with interpetations, …] [*]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/middleeast/30flu.html
October 30, 2009
Saudis Try to Head Off Swine Flu Fears Before Hajj
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. [Saudi] [middle east proper] [proximity to horn, Saudi peninsula] [followup] [global pandemic, swine flu] [apparently some odd ideas about porcine husbandry?] [general, culture stuff?] [*]
Every year, the single largest gathering on the planet is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca: 2.5 million people from 160 countries packed into a small city in Saudi Arabia for five days.
This year, some will be bringing swine flu.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/africa/30pirates.html
October 30, 2009
British Couple Held Off Somali Coast
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and MOHAMMED IBRAHIM [Somalia] [the chaos in Somalia] [East Africa; south of Horn] [relatively stable state until 2007-2008 when wheels came off] [looked somewhat like a state toying with failed-state status] [recent piracy where British couple sailing were grabbed] [followup] [unclear why as they probably won’t fetch much (no big company behind them)] [*]
NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates said Thursday that they had moved a British couple seized from their sailboat last week to a container ship anchored off Somalia’s lawless shores, and that they would “protect” the captives until a ransom was delivered.
“We have the British couple, and they are safe,” said a spokesman for the pirates, who identified himself as Farah Abdi. He said he was a member of the gang that hijacked the

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:50 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html
October 31, 2009
Israel Backs Nuclear Deal With Iran
By ETHAN BRONNER [Israel] [domestic politics intersects foreign policy] [in truly clear example of pluralism and Israel foreign-policy interests] [Israel’s understandable concerns with Iran’s WMD programs] [followup] [PM Netanyahu well placed to make a bold move due to his bona fides vis-à-vis Iran] [*]
JERUSALEM —Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautiously endorsed on Friday American-backed efforts to limit Iran’s nuclear program through shipments abroad of its enriched uranium. He made his remarks as an intensive Middle East diplomatic effort got under way, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton due here on Saturday.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:49 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/middleeast/30iraq.html
October 30, 2009
Iraq Makes Sweeping Arrests Over Baghdad Blasts
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and MOHAMMED HUSSEIN [-ir] [hydra] [insurgency] [renewed sectarian tensions and fault lines] [“surge”] [clearly, positive indicators that surge worked-working] Shi’a parties in charge of parliament where they are majority] [followup] [despite renewed violence, and some movement by govt on insider connections to recent attack] [*]
BAGHDAD — Iraq announced Thursday that it had arrested dozens of police officers and soldiers responsible for security in the neighborhood where car bombs killed and wounded hundreds of people outside government buildings this week.
The attacks on Sunday, aimed at the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial council

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:48 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/middleeast/30nuke.html
October 30, 2009
Tehran Rejects Nuclear Accord, Officials Report
By DAVID E. SANGER, STEVEN ERLANGER and ROBERT F. WORTH
This article is by David E. Sanger, Steven Erlanger and Robert F. Worth. [Iran] [Iran’s WMD] [the West, generally] [Iran’s internal, domestic politics—facitonalism] [high-level rifts in Iran’s thugocracy and elsewhere over the nuclear deal] [followup] [*]
WASHINGTON — Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response. [*]
The apparent rejection of the deal could unwind President Obama’s effort to buy time to resolve the nuclear standoff.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:47 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/asia/30afghan.html
October 30, 2009
U.N. Reviews Security After Deadly Kabul Assault
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and CARLOTTA GALL [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul to which and American (indications are he’s former IC-military) performed heroics] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — Most United Nations workers here were confined to their living quarters on Thursday in the aftermath of a deadly assault on a United Nations guesthouse, and some were moved to more secure housing as foreigners working in Kabul reassessed their security.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:46 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/asia/31clinton.html
October 31, 2009
Clinton Ends Visit as the Focus of Pakistani Barbs
By MARK LANDLER and JACK HEALY [Pakistan] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [more on Pakistan’s planned offensive] [jihadis and insurgents in FATA-NWFPs] [after 3 days of visit, SecState Clinton departs] [cross in govt] [*]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wrapped up a three-day visit here, she faced yet another round of skepticism and sharpened questions as Pakistani audiences vented their anger over American policies in the region.
An interview with several women who are prominent Pakistani television anchors,

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/asia/30clinton.html
October 30, 2009
Clinton Challenges Pakistanis on Al Qaeda
By MARK LANDLER [Pakistan] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [more on Pakistan’s planned offensive] [jihadis and insurgents in FATA-NWFPs] [after 3 days of visit, SecState Clinton departs] [cross in govt] [*]
LAHORE, Pakistan — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a visit meant to improve relations with Pakistan, strongly suggested Thursday that some Pakistani officials bore responsibility for allowing terrorists from Al Qaeda to operate from safe havens along this country’s frontier. [good; I’m glads she has the brass … to do it] [*]

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:44 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/asia/30pstan.html
October 30, 2009
In Military Campaign, Pakistan Finds Hint of 9/11
By JANE PERLEZ and MARK MAZZETTI [Pakistan] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [more on Pakistan’s planned offensive] [jihadis and insurgents in FATA-NWFPs] [news from the frontlines] [*]
SHERWANGAI, Pakistan — Pakistani forces pushing toward a lair of hard-core Taliban fighters found documents this week linked to a member of the Hamburg cell of Al Qaeda [*] [now that’s one of the few times anyone has suggested direct evidence with 9/11 still at base of U.S. efforts in AfPak] [is it being leaked to highlight connections before Obmaa makes final decision?] [is it accurate?] [*] that is believed to have planned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/americas/29nations.html
October 29, 2009
U.S. Embargo on Cuba Again Finds Scant Support at U.N.
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
UNITED NATIONS — The General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn the American trade embargo against Cuba, with the speeches by the United States ambassador and Cuba’s foreign minister reflecting that little has changed despite an expected shift under the Obama administration.
The nonbinding resolution has been an annual ritual for 18 years. The vote this time of 187 in support, 3 opposed and 2 abstaining underlined the utter lack of support for the 50-year-old American attempt to isolate Cuba. (Israel and Palau joined the United States, while the Marshall Islands and Micronesia abstained.)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/health/policy/29russia.html
October 29, 2009
Russia Is Urged to Switch Its Approach to Curbing Spread of H.I.V.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW (AP) — AIDS experts urged Russian officials on Wednesday to scrap their abstinence-based strategy for curbing the spread of H.I.V., saying the country’s fast-growing epidemic could be entering a dangerous new phase.
Specialists meeting here at a regional AIDS conference said Russia must adopt successful strategies, citing needle exchange programs and heroin substitutes like methadone for drug addicts. The number of Russians infected with H.I.V. has doubled in the past eight years, and there is evidence that the virus is increasingly being spread by heterosexual sex.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/middleeast/30iraq.html
October 30, 2009
Iraq Makes Sweeping Arrests Over Baghdad Blasts
By JOHN LELAND
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi officials said on Thursday they had arrested 61 army and police officers in connection with the bombings in central Baghdad on Sunday that killed 155 people and wounded hundreds more.
The attacks, in which suicide bombers were seen on film passing through numerous security checkpoints before detonating their vehicles in front of three government buildings, prompted angry criticism and accusations of corruption among the officers manning the checkpoints.
Maj. General Qassim Atta, who announced the arrests, did not say whether the officers were accused of complicity in the attacks or negligence in preventing them.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/asia/29afghan.html
October 29, 2009
Attack in Afghan Capital Illustrates Taliban’s Reach
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and SANGAR RAHIMI
KABUL, Afghanistan — The guests were still sleeping when the gunmen, dressed in police uniforms, arrived early Wednesday. In the dark, they shot the guards, scaled the front gate of the guesthouse and began firing grenades, the beginning of a terrifying two-hour siege that showed just how little it takes for the Taliban to trap foreigners in central Kabul.
By the end of the siege, at least five United Nations employees, two Afghan security officials and the brother-in-law of a prominent Afghan politician were dead, as were their three attackers. But the story of how the rest of the people in the Bakhtar guesthouse had

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/asia/29pstan.html
October 29, 2009
Clinton Arrival in Pakistan Met by Fatal Attacks
By MARK LANDLER and ISMAIL KHAN
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan punctuated Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s arrival here with deadly attacks on Wednesday, underscoring their ability to cause chaos even in the face of offensives on both sides of the border.
In Pakistan, a devastating car bomb tore through a congested market in the northwest city of Peshawar, killing as many as 101 people, many of them women and children. Pakistani authorities said the attack was the country’s most serious in two years, and the deadliest ever in Peshawar, which has become a front line for Taliban efforts to destabilize the

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/europe/28briefs-Germany.html
October 28, 2009
World Briefing | Europe
Germany: British Bishop Fined for Denying the Holocaust
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Germany] [Berlin] [EU3] [more bizarre than anything] [followup] [*]
A British bishop was fined $16,822 for denying the Holocaust in an interview with Swedish television, his lawyer said Tuesday. A court in Regensburg issued the fine against the bishop, Richard Williamson, left, for incitement, his lawyer, Matthias Lossmann, said. The

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/europe/28karadzic.html
October 28, 2009
Karadzic Trial Resumes Without Defendant
By MARLISE SIMONS [Netherlands] [Hague] [various war tribunals] [the Bosnia war crimes tribunals] [Mr. Karadzic, captured in 2008?] [followup] [trial starts again] [*]
THE HAGUE — The judges had given Radovan Karadzic an extra 24 hours to come to court, but when he did not appear on Tuesday they ordered the start of proceedings against the former Bosnian Serb leader, who faced charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and two counts of genocide.
As his blue seat remained empty, the panel of international judges quickly ordered the

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/europe/28petersburg.html
October 28, 2009
Russian Professors Chafe at Scholarly Screening
By ELLEN BARRY [Russia] [former USSR] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [in new assertive Russia] [Russia ethos] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [academic freedom in Russia today? During Soviet days there were some issues along these lines] [*]
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Word spread this month among the faculty members of St. Petersburg State University: According to a document signed on Oct. 1, they have to submit their work to administrators for permission before publishing it abroad or presenting it at overseas conferences. [wow?] [*]
The order, which was circulated internally and made its way onto a popular Internet forum, says professors must provide their academic department with copies of texts to be made

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28stoning.html
October 28, 2009
Extremism Spreads Across Indonesian Penal Code
By NORIMITSU ONISHI [Indonesia] [SEA] [“extremism” competing with traditional SEA culture in archipelago] [democratization] [followup] [Indonesia (world most populous Islamic country), Pakistan (2nd most), India’s 151 million (3rd most) and Bangladesh (4th most)] [the top 4 most populous Muslims countries are Asia] [*]
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Under Islamic law, or Shariah, the religious police have administered public canings for such things as gambling, prostitution and illicit affairs. But under a new Islamic criminal code that goes into effect this month, the Shariah police will be wielding a new and more potent threat: death by stoning for adulterers. [in Indonesia? Hard to beleive] [*]
Most of Indonesia still lives up to its reputation for a moderate, easygoing brand of Islam,

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28uzbek.html
October 28, 2009
Europe Ends Its Attempt to Penalize Uzbekistan
By STEPHEN CASTLE Uzbekistan] [central asia] [former USSR] [from 2007-2008 period?] [democratization] [followup] [*]
BRUSSELS — Despite concerns over human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, the European Union lifted its last remaining sanctions against that country’s government on Tuesday, ending an arms embargo imposed in 2005. [*]
The embargo was one of several measures taken against the Uzbek government after its troops fired on unarmed protesters in the city of Andijon and then rejected calls for an international inquiry into those killings. [did that not result in US base conflict in Uzbek?] [*]
Though the number of deaths is disputed, hundreds are thought to have lost their lives. The

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/europe/28turkey.html
October 28, 2009
Tensions Between Turkey and the West Increase
By DAN BILEFSKY [Europe] [EU] [Turkey as applicant (but not supplicant)] [Turkey’s recent actions vis-à-vis big media conglomerate] [it appeared heavy handed way of shutting up media?] [but probably as much internal dynamic as anything] [use ir text] [followup (Oct 15)] [*]
ISTANBUL — With Turkey’s prospects for joining the European Union growing more elusive and the country reaching out to predominantly Muslim countries with a vigor not seen in years, a longstanding question is vexing the United States and Europe: Is this large, secular Muslim country turning East instead of West? [*] [and is EU pushing it East?]
When President Obama visited Turkey in April — a symbolic gesture that underlined

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:31 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/middleeast/28briefs-Lebanon.html
October 28, 2009
World Briefing | Middle East
Lebanon: Rocket Strikes Israel
By REUTERS [Israeli-Lebanon border issues] [southern Lebananon] [another rocket after a long period without any] [followup] [Israel cannot be expected to sit on it or allow more to come] [*]
A rocket fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Tuesday, causing no damage or injury, and Israel responded with artillery fire at Lebanon, [*]the Israeli military and a Lebanese security official said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel was treating the shooting “very seriously” and that it held the Lebanese government responsible. The rocket slammed into an open area near Qiryat Shmona, security officials said. There were

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:30 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/middleeast/28iran.html
October 28, 2009
Iran Hints at Uranium Plan Changes
By ROBERT F. WORTH [Iran] [Iran’s WMD] [the West, generally] [Iran’s internal, domestic politics—facitonalism] [high-level rifts in Iran’s thugocracy and elsewhere over the nuclear deal] [followup] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A high-ranking Iranian official said Tuesday that even if the country agreed to a United Nations-sponsored plan to ship its enriched uranium abroad for further processing, it would not ship it all at once, Iranian news media reported.
That position, if maintained, could undermine the entire plan. The French government, a party to the deal, has made it clear that the uranium must be shipped all at once before the end of the year.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/asia/29afghan.html
October 29, 2009
Gunmen Attack U.N. Workers in Kabul
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and SANGAR RAHIMI [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [America’s allies, the coalition in AfPak] [Germay and its struggles with its role?] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban gunmen stormed a guest house in central Kabul on Wednesday morning, killing six United Nations employees and two Afghan security officials, according to U.N. officials, the police and the Afghan Interior Ministry.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html
October 28, 2009
Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll
By DEXTER FILKINS, MARK MAZZETTI and JAMES RISEN [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [America’s allies, the coalition in AfPak] [Germay and its struggles with its role?] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/28nations.html
October 28, 2009
U.S. Use of Drones Queried by U.N.
By REUTERS [UN] [Pakistan] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [more on Pakistan’s planned offensive? Isn’t sort of stupid to warn the enemy it’s coming?] [jihadis and insurgents in FATA-NWFPs] [news from the frontlines] [*]
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — The United States must demonstrate that it is not randomly killing people in violation of international law through its use of drones on the Afghan border, a United Nations rights investigator [I’m not sure UN has any responsibility in this regard?] [arguably, the US has met the UN charter criteria (possibly both)] [*] said Tuesday.
The investigator, Philip Alston, also said the American refusal to respond to United Nations

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/asia/29pstan.html
October 29, 2009
Car Bomb Kills Scores in Pakistan
By ISMAIL KHAN [Pakistan] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [more on Pakistan’s planned offensive? Isn’t sort of stupid to warn the enemy it’s coming?] [jihadis and insurgents in FATA-NWFPs] [news from the frontlines] [*]
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A huge car bomb tore through a congested market of narrow alleys and crowded stalls in Peshawar’s old town on Wednesday, killing more than 80 people, many of them women, while 160 more were injured, [that’s what the US is up against in AfPak] [nihilists who misappropriate a religion] [*] many of them seriously, local authorities said.

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Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)