Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-perry-criticize-obamas-foreign-policy-as-weak/2011/08/30/gIQAhTthqJ_story.html
Romney, Perry criticize Obama’s foreign policy as weak
By David Nakamura and Philip Rucker, Published: August 30 [election-year politics] [societal] [Romney team trying to attack Obama on foreign policy] [something I find absolutely strange given it is so similar to Bush foreign policy?] [there’s hardly any difference between the two in substances] [use psci 355-455] [use fall 2011] [*]
MINNEAPOLIS — In a series of speeches, President Obama and his chief political rivals have presented dueling assessments of the administration’s record abroad, with Republicans offering an ominous view of a weak and uncertain America under Obama’s leadership. [?][*]
The clashing visions, which emerged in speeches Tuesday from Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney before gatherings of military veterans, highlighted what is sure to be a sharp point of contention during the 2012 campaign.
While both sides agree that the economy remains unhealthy, even as they debate what to do about it, there is disagreement over America’s standing in the world after

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-perry-criticize-obamas-foreign-policy-as-weak/2011/08/30/gIQAhTthqJ_story.html
Romney, Perry criticize Obama’s foreign policy as weak
By David Nakamura and Philip Rucker, Published: August 30 [election-year politics] [societal] [Romney team trying to attack Obama on foreign policy] [something I find absolutely strange given it is so similar to Bush foreign policy?] [there’s hardly any difference between the two in substances] [use psci 355-455] [use fall 2011] [*]
MINNEAPOLIS — In a series of speeches, President Obama and his chief political rivals have presented dueling assessments of the administration’s record abroad, with Republicans offering an ominous view of a weak and uncertain America under Obama’s leadership. [?][*]
The clashing visions, which emerged in speeches Tuesday from Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney before gatherings of military veterans, highlighted what is sure to be a sharp point of contention during the 2012 campaign.
While both sides agree that the economy remains unhealthy, even as they debate what to do about it, there is disagreement over America’s standing in the world after a decade of war.
The debate centers on approach as much as on policy, and in some ways it reverses the critique that Obama leveled against the previous administration. As a candidate in 2008, Obama pledged to repair America’s image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world and among allies in Europe. [yes, well rhetoric is just that?] [*]
Obama believes he has succeeded, in large part by adopting a style of leadership abroad that resembles the one he used as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side — someone who seeks consensus, works with allies and assembles coalitions to achieve shared goals.
His approach to the Libyan revolution, where he encouraged European allies to take the lead in diplomacy and in the months-long military campaign, typified the role he sees for the United States at a time of fiscal strife at home.
But Romney — and, a day earlier, Texas Gov. Rick Perry — has accused Obama of weak, overly cautious leadership. Their approach, although only generally outlined so far, more closely resembles the Bush administration’s suspicion of international alliances and belief that U.S. military and moral strength should be celebrated, even in parts of the world where the United States remains deeply unpopular. [?] [so foreign policy is imaging and rhetoric not what is done?] [*]
“Have we ever had a president who was so eager to address the world with an apology on his lips and doubt in his heart?” Romney told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in San Antonio. “He seems truly confused not only about America’s past but also about its future.”
In his 17-minute speech, Romney offered the clearest outline of his views on foreign affairs since launching his second presidential bid in June. He told nearly 1,000 veterans assembled at the cavernous Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center that “we are united not only by our faith in America, but also our concern for America.”
“Unfortunately, when we look around the world today, we see a muddled picture of America’s foreign policy and our power,” he said.
In his own remarks Tuesday at the American Legion convention in Minneapolis, Obama portrayed the 2 million American troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a “9/11 generation” whose “astonishing record of achievement” has helped reshape the globe as a freer, safer place. He compared them to America’s beloved “greatest generation” that served in World War II.
Obama told 6,000 Legion veterans, dressed in blue blazers and military-style caps with service pins, that the 30,000 additional troops he ordered to Afghanistan in 2009 drove the Taliban from its safe havens. And he mentioned a clear victory for his counterterrorism policy.
“A few months ago, our troops achieved our greatest victory yet in the fight against those who attacked us on 9/11 — delivering justice to Osama bin Laden in one of the greatest intelligence and military operations in American history,” the president declared, drawing hearty applause.
Campaign pledges
Obama campaigned against the Bush administration’s decision to go to war in Iraq, its detention and interrogation policies, and its unilateral approach to some global issues, including climate change and military intervention. His pledge to wind down America’s wars and reinvigorate international institutions to address such shared problems as global warming excited audiences abroad, particularly in Europe.
But Romney is criticizing Obama’s policies in Afghanistan, where the president recently adopted a more accelerated withdrawal timeline than his commanders recommended, and in Libya, where the U.S. military played a supporting role after leading the airstrikes that began the intervention.
He has also taken issue with Obama’s rationale for the intervention, which the president first said was meant to protect Libyan civilians in rebel-held areas from Moammar Gaddafi’s forces. While regime change was not his stated goal, Obama later said that those civilians would probably never be safe with Gaddafi in power.
“When a president sends our men and women into harm’s way, he must first explain their mission, define what it means to be successful, plan for their victorious exit, provide them with the best weapons and armor in the world, and properly care for them when they come home,” Romney said.
Libyan rebels stormed the capital, Tripoli, this month and overthrew Gaddafi, ending his 42-year dictatorship. Obama credited the rebel victory in part to “precision” assistance from U.S. forces.
“America’s military is the best it’s ever been,” he said. “We saw that again, most recently, in the skill and precision of our brave forces who helped the Libyan people finally break free.”
Obama spent the second half of his speech pledging to create jobs for the tens of thousands of U.S. troops returning from the wars. [as Obama said] [*]
He said he has directed the Departments of Defense and Veteran Affairs to create a “reverse boot camp” to provide returning troops training in career skills. And he said he has challenged the private sector to create 100,000 jobs for veterans through a proposed tax credit for companies that hire unemployed veterans and another for those that hire wounded veterans.
“When Congress returns from recess, this needs to be at the top of the agenda,” Obama said.
Perry’s views
On Monday, speaking at the same convention as Romney, Perry offered the first glimpses of his own foreign policy.
The United States “must renew our commitment of taking the fight to the enemy wherever they are before they strike at home,” Perry said, adding: “We cannot concede the moral authority of our nation to multilateral debating societies, and when our interests are threatened, American soldiers should be led by American commanders.”
He prefaced his comments by talking about his own military service as well as the combat service of his father. Perry was an Air Force pilot in the 1970s, when, he said, he flew aircraft around the globe but was “never called into battle.”
The same could not be said of his father, a tailgunner during World War II who Perry said flew 35 missions over Nazi Germany.
“He helped liberate millions from tyranny,” Perry said. “When he came home, he didn’t seek acclaim or credit. He just wanted to live in peace and freedom, just farm a little corner of land in Paint Creek, Texas.”
Rucker reported from San Antonio. Staff writer Scott Wilson contributed to this report form Washington.
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/africa/31nigeria.html
August 30, 2011
Western Officials Seek Softer Approach to Militants in Nigeria
By ADAM NOSSITER [Nigeria] [recent jihadis attack] [suicide bomber, almost certainly associated with jihadis] [followup] [also Boko Haram, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [“Western officials” struggling with how to respond—said to be seeking “softer” approach?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [now confirmed Boko Haram claimed attack] [*]
ABUJA, Nigeria — Amid increasing evidence that the Nigerian government’s heavy-handed strategy for containing a radical Islamist sect has failed, some Western officials are urging a new and less militarized approach. [*]
The suicide bombing of the United Nations headquarters here on Friday, which killed 23 people, has added urgency to their appeal, demonstrating that the sect, Boko Haram, has expanded its scope well beyond domestic targets. Far from being crushed by Nigerian firepower, Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for the attack, appears to be confirming the worst fears of Western analysts and diplomats

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/africa/31nigeria.html
August 30, 2011
Western Officials Seek Softer Approach to Militants in Nigeria
By ADAM NOSSITER [Nigeria] [recent jihadis attack] [suicide bomber, almost certainly associated with jihadis] [followup] [also Boko Haram, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [“Western officials” struggling with how to respond—said to be seeking “softer” approach?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [now confirmed Boko Haram claimed attack] [*]
ABUJA, Nigeria — Amid increasing evidence that the Nigerian government’s heavy-handed strategy for containing a radical Islamist sect has failed, some Western officials are urging a new and less militarized approach. [*]
The suicide bombing of the United Nations headquarters here on Friday, which killed 23 people, has added urgency to their appeal, demonstrating that the sect, Boko Haram, has expanded its scope well beyond domestic targets. Far from being crushed by Nigerian firepower, Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for the attack, appears to be confirming the worst fears of Western analysts and diplomats — that repression is hastening its transformation into a menacing transnational force, with possible links to Al Qaeda’s North African affiliates.
Repeated Nigerian military incursions against the group have yielded many civilian casualties but still not stopped Boko Haram. It merely went underground after a bloody operation against it in 2009, and now carries out regular attacks against the Nigerian government.
“I think we’d like to see Nigeria take a more holistic approach,” said the American ambassador here, Terence P. McCulley, in an interview at the well-guarded and fortresslike United States Embassy here in the Nigerian capital. [?] [*]
“Clearly, the 2009 tactics may have contributed to the current direction,” he said, adding that the Nigerian security forces should not jeopardize civilians in their operations. He suggested that the government “address the grievances” of the northern population on economic and social matters. [*]
Boko Haram continues to call for a strict application of Shariah law and the freeing of imprisoned members in northern Nigeria, where mass unemployment and poverty have fueled social discontent. Overall, some 50 million youths are underemployed, the World Bank says, in a country of 154 million. Despite abundant oil revenues, incomes have barely budged in 30 years, life expectancy is only 48 and the country remains one of the most economically unequal in the world, the United Nations says.
In the wake of Friday’s bombing, analysts and officials warn that those factors make repression a poor tactic for confronting Boko Haram.
“The chickens have come home to roost,” said another Western diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “Nigeria’s political elite has been ruling irresponsibly for decades, shamelessly plundering the nation’s wealth with little or no regard for the country’s masses,” the diplomat said in an e-mail. “The rise of Boko Haram and its millions of tacit, quiet supporters is a challenge to this corrupt political class.”
A Nigerian government spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Mr. McCulley, the American ambassador, called the United Nations bombing a “paradigm shift,” adding that “it suggests Boko Haram has upped its game, if you will. It seems to show it wishes to expand its scope beyond the domestic.”
The ambassador said that the attack on the United Nations was a “game changer,” and that American interests could also be in the group’s sights. “It would be foolish to consider that we are not a possible target as well,” he said.
Indeed, in a conference call after the attack, a man describing himself as a spokesman for Boko Haram said that the United States was culpable because it “has been collaborating with the Nigerian government to clamp down on our members nationwide.” Both he and another self-described spokesman warned of more attacks to come.
Mr. McCulley, while saying there was no “direct evidence” of links between Boko Haram and Al Qaeda, said the group’s attacks have “become more sophisticated, more Al Qaeda-like. They’ve adopted some of their tactics.”
Other Western and Nigerian officials and analysts say members of Boko Haram have met and trained with Qaeda affiliates outside the country. They also cite propaganda by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in which the group boasts of assisting Boko Haram and pledges to help it avenge attacks on Muslims in Nigeria, including the killing of Boko Haram’s leader during the 2009 military assault.
Mr. McCulley said that current American training programs with Nigerian security services could be expanded. “I believe that going forward we’re going to have a more robust engagement with the army,” he said. F.B.I. agents arrived here to assist with the investigation soon after the bombing.
Even after the deadly United Nations bombing, which killed 11 United Nations staff members, including 10 Nigerians and one Norwegian woman, political violence attributed to Boko Haram continued in northern Nigeria over the weekend. A bomb was thrown into the home of the former police minister — no one was injured — and a local official was shot in his home by gunmen in Borno State, the center of the insurgency.
These attacks have become so routine in northern Nigeria that they now rate only a few paragraphs in the country’s newspapers. On Tuesday, Nigerian media reported that the national police chief, Hafiz Ringim, announced arrests in the United Nations bombing, but previous such arrests have not led to any decline in Boko Haram’s activities. Mr. Ringim had vowed earlier that Boko Haram’s days were “numbered,” and after his headquarters in Abuja was bombed in June, the police chief announced a crackdown.
“I don’t think the federal government knows who they are; that’s problem No. 1,” a Western official said in an interview here last month. The official, not authorized to speak publicly, said of the 2009 crackdown, “They didn’t really know what to do, so, ‘Let’s just send in a bunch of military and police, and wipe ’em all out.’ ”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/europe/31russia.html
August 30, 2011
Bomb Blasts Rock Capital of Chechnya; 8 Are Killed
By REUTERS [Chechnya] [former USSR] [now Russia] [relations have been bad with major wars spanning most of the period since the breakup of former USSR] [additionally whether Vlad or Dmitri a presidential election is next year and it behooves the lucky candidate to appear tough (or anything but soft) on Chechnya] [followup] [Russia’s Near Abroad and Russia’s etho] [use psci 350] [*]
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Seven police officers and an emergency services worker were killed Tuesday in two suicide bomb attacks in Grozny, the capital of the restive province of Chechnya, during celebrations at the end of the Muslim festival of Ramadan, a police official told the Interfax news agency.
A man detonated an explosive device when a police patrol tried to detain him, and a second blast occurred soon after, the unidentified police official told the news agency.
The state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted a police source as saying that two suicide bombers were responsible for the explosions.
At least 16 people were wounded, Interfax reported.
The site of the explosions, in a densely populated district of Grozny near a local Parliament building, was cordoned off by the police. Residents said they heard

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/europe/31russia.html
August 30, 2011
Bomb Blasts Rock Capital of Chechnya; 8 Are Killed
By REUTERS [Chechnya] [former USSR] [now Russia] [relations have been bad with major wars spanning most of the period since the breakup of former USSR] [additionally whether Vlad or Dmitri a presidential election is next year and it behooves the lucky candidate to appear tough (or anything but soft) on Chechnya] [followup] [Russia’s Near Abroad and Russia’s etho] [use psci 350] [*]
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Seven police officers and an emergency services worker were killed Tuesday in two suicide bomb attacks in Grozny, the capital of the restive province of Chechnya, during celebrations at the end of the Muslim festival of Ramadan, a police official told the Interfax news agency.
A man detonated an explosive device when a police patrol tried to detain him, and a second blast occurred soon after, the unidentified police official told the news agency.
The state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted a police source as saying that two suicide bombers were responsible for the explosions.
At least 16 people were wounded, Interfax reported.
The site of the explosions, in a densely populated district of Grozny near a local Parliament building, was cordoned off by the police. Residents said they heard gunshots after the explosions.
A decade after Russian forces drove separatists from power in Chechnya, the Kremlin is still struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency in the north Caucasus. [*]
The violence has now spread from Chechnya to other predominantly Muslim regions.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the provincial leader who is backed by Moscow, told RIA Novosti: “Today is the most sacred day for all Muslims. On that day a trained and zombified bandit attempted to carry out a terrorist attack. The bandits have shown their real face, which only proves that this evil should be eradicated.” [*]
Mr. Kadyrov held an emergency government meeting, Interfax reported. The news agency said the situation in Grozny was under control.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:05 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31israel.html
August 30, 2011
Israel Intensifies Training of Settler Security Teams
By ISABEL KERSHNER [Israel] [domestic politics often intersects with foreign policy] [Israel’s all-important relationship with its neighbors in the Middle East proper] [Arab Awakenging] [upcoming September vote in UN] [followup] [I first read this in yesterday’s Ha’aretz] [followup] [govt is asking settlers to prepare for massive conflict, a provocation of sorts in itself?] [timed to UN vote] [*]
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has stepped up training for more than 100 settler security teams in the West Bank in anticipation of Palestinian popular protests and possible mass disturbances accompanying any Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition in September, [*] settler leaders said on Tuesday. [on the one hand it’s prudent to be prepared while on the other settlers have been notoriously reckless in such roles] [*]
The military is drawing up boundaries around each settlement that protesters will not be allowed to cross and is carrying out simulated “scenarios” with the security teams, according to Shlomo Vaknin, the security officer of the Yesha Council, the settlers’ umbrella organization.
It was not clear how the boundaries would be made clear to protesters. Mr. Vaknin refused to go into detail about possible rules of engagement or to describe under

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31israel.html
August 30, 2011
Israel Intensifies Training of Settler Security Teams
By ISABEL KERSHNER [Israel] [domestic politics often intersects with foreign policy] [Israel’s all-important relationship with its neighbors in the Middle East proper] [Arab Awakenging] [upcoming September vote in UN] [followup] [I first read this in yesterday’s Ha’aretz] [followup] [govt is asking settlers to prepare for massive conflict, a provocation of sorts in itself?] [timed to UN vote] [*]
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has stepped up training for more than 100 settler security teams in the West Bank in anticipation of Palestinian popular protests and possible mass disturbances accompanying any Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition in September, [*] settler leaders said on Tuesday. [on the one hand it’s prudent to be prepared while on the other settlers have been notoriously reckless in such roles] [*]
The military is drawing up boundaries around each settlement that protesters will not be allowed to cross and is carrying out simulated “scenarios” with the security teams, according to Shlomo Vaknin, the security officer of the Yesha Council, the settlers’ umbrella organization.
It was not clear how the boundaries would be made clear to protesters. Mr. Vaknin refused to go into detail about possible rules of engagement or to describe under what conditions settler response teams might open fire.
There are more than 100 settlements in the West Bank, only some of which are fenced. Each has its own rapid response team armed with military-issued M-16 automatic rifles. There are high levels of hostility — and past clashes — between some Palestinian villages and neighboring settlements and outposts dominated by Jews claiming territory they consider their biblical birthright.
Evoking a recent episode in Cairo in which an Egyptian scaled the building housing Israel’s embassy and supplanted Israel’s flag with Egypt’s, Mr. Vaknin said the teams would not allow “any marchers to enter a community, take down the Israeli flag from the roof of the secretariat and replace it with another one.”[*]
The teams were established in 2000, amid the violence at the outbreak of the second intifada, in recognition of the fact that the army could not be in every place at all times. They are required to step back when soldiers arrive. Settler leaders note that the teams, like much of the Israeli population, are made up mostly of army reservists who receive regular training, and they say the teams know how to restrict their operations to defense.
Palestinian leaders have called for popular protests to support their September bid for United Nations recognition. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has eschewed violent confrontation and wants the protests to stay within the confines of Palestinian cities, away from Israeli checkpoints and settlements. But there is fear on the Israeli side that the situation could spiral out of control. [sounds like classic security dilemma] [*]
In what some here saw as a rehearsal for September, thousands of Palestinians and their supporters, some wielding firebombs and stones, tried to breach Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and the frontier between Syria and the disputed Israeli-held Golan Heights in May, with a repeat on the Syrian frontier in June. Israeli forces opened fire in both cases, and as many as 33 protesters were killed. Israel maintains that 10 of the dead were killed by land mines on the Syrian side of the fence.
In the May case, some protesters crossed into the Golan Heights before the Israelis opened fire. In June, the military said it fired before protesters reached the fence, aiming at the legs of those who crossed a new ditch the Israelis considered a red line.
The Israeli military says it now provides its forces with more nonlethal equipment for use in such situations. Despite reports that such weapons, like tear gas and stun grenades, would be distributed to the settler teams, Mr. Vaknin said he believed the military had so far decided not to do so.
The increased training of the settlement security teams, first reported by the newspaper Haaretz on Tuesday, is “only natural in this period,” said Dani Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council.
In response to the Haaretz report, the Israeli military said in a statement that it “maintains an ongoing, professional dialogue with the community leadership and security personnel throughout Judea and Samaria while devoting great efforts to training local forces and preparing them to deal with any possible scenario.” It was referring to the areas of the West Bank by their biblical names.
The military added that it had completed training the majority of the settler teams and that the exercises were ongoing. It declined to go into further detail regarding what it called its “operational preparedness.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/africa/31tripoli.html
August 30, 2011
Tripoli Divided as Rebels Jostle to Fill Power Vacuum
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ROD NORDLAND [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [they’re having hard time finding Qaddafi] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [apparently Qaffafi’s wife and children turned up in Algeria?] [TNC now setting deadlines for the Col to rear his head from under his rock?] [4 days] [Id in Libya] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — Fighters from the western mountain city of Zintan control the airport. The fighters from Misurata guard the central bank, the port and the prime minister’s office, where their graffiti has relabeled the historic plaza “Misurata Square.” Berbers from the mountain town Yafran took charge of the city’s central square, where they spray-painted “Yafran Revolutionaries.”
A week after rebels broke into Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s former stronghold, much of its territory remains divided into fiefs, each controlled by quasi-independent brigades representing different geographic areas of the country. And the spray paint they use to mark their territory tells the story of a looming leadership crisis in the

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/africa/31tripoli.html
August 30, 2011
Tripoli Divided as Rebels Jostle to Fill Power Vacuum
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ROD NORDLAND [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [they’re having hard time finding Qaddafi] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [apparently Qaffafi’s wife and children turned up in Algeria?] [TNC now setting deadlines for the Col to rear his head from under his rock?] [4 days] [Id in Libya] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — Fighters from the western mountain city of Zintan control the airport. The fighters from Misurata guard the central bank, the port and the prime minister’s office, where their graffiti has relabeled the historic plaza “Misurata Square.” Berbers from the mountain town Yafran took charge of the city’s central square, where they spray-painted “Yafran Revolutionaries.”
A week after rebels broke into Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s former stronghold, much of its territory remains divided into fiefs, each controlled by quasi-independent brigades representing different geographic areas of the country. And the spray paint they use to mark their territory tells the story of a looming leadership crisis in the capital, Tripoli.
The top civilian officials of the Libyan rebels’ Transitional National Council — now styling itself as a provisional government to be based in the capital — are yet to arrive, citing personal safety concerns even as they pronounce the city fully secure.
There are growing hints of rivalry among the various brigades over who deserves credit for liberating the city and the influence it might bring. And attempts to name a military leader to unify the bands of fighters have instead exposed divisions within the rebel leadership, along regional lines but also between secularists and Islamists.
They were all signs, one influential member of the council said, that point to a continuing “power vacuum” in the civilian leadership of the Libyan capital. But the jockeying for power also illustrates the challenge a new provisional government will face in trying to unify Libya’s fractious political landscape.
The country was little more than a loose federation of regions and tribes before Colonel Qaddafi came to power. His reliance on favoritism and repression to maintain control did little to bridge Libya’s regional, ethnic and ideological divisions. Nor did the rebels who ousted Colonel Qaddafi ever organize themselves into a unified force. Rebels from the western mountains, the mid-coastal city of Misurata and the eastern city of Benghazi each fought independently, and often rolled their eyes in condescension at one another.
And although the transition so far has been surprisingly orderly — almost no looting and little violence — Tripoli has become an early test of the revolution’s ability to bridge those divisions because in contrast to other Libyan cities liberated by their own residents, Colonel Qaddafi was ousted from Tripoli by brigades from other regions, and most remain in the streets.
Early steps toward unifying the brigades under a common command have brought out latent divisions among rebel leaders. Some became apparent when a fighter named Abdel Hakim al-Hasadi, sometimes known as AbdelHakim Belhaj, was named commander of a newly formed Tripoli Military Council. [*]
Several liberals among the rebel leadership council complained privately that Mr. Hasadi had been a leader of the disbanded Libyan Islamist Fighting Group, which rebelled against Colonel Qaddafi in the 1990s. [*]Some said they feared it was the first step in an attempt at an Islamist takeover. They noted that Mr. Hasadi was named commander by the five battalions of the so-called Tripoli Brigade, rather than by any civilian authority. And they complained about the perceived influence of Qatar, which helped train and equip the Tripoli Brigade and also finances Al Jazeera.
“This guy is just a creation of the Qataris and their money, and they are sponsoring the element of Muslim extremism here,” another council member from the western region said. “The revolutionary fighters are extremely unhappy and surprised. He is the commander of nothing!”
Mixed with the ideological concerns, however, was an equal measure of provincial rivalry over who did more to liberate Tripoli. Not only was Mr. Hasadi an Islamist, the council member argued, but he had done less than the western rebels in the fight for the capital.
“People in the west were saying to each other, ‘What? This kid? This is rubbish! What about our top commanders?’ ” the council member said. [*]
Mr. Hasadi could not be reached for comment, in part because he was attending meetings in Doha, Qatar. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the Transitional National Council, said he made a point to take Mr. Hasadi along to a meeting with their NATO allies in Doha to show that despite his background, he poses “no danger to international peace and stability.”
Hints of another schism appeared this week after news reports that the council’s prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril — who, like Mr. Jalil, is not present in Tripoli — was naming a former Libyan Army general, Albarrani Shkal, as the chief of the capital’s security.
Fighters from Misurata, considered to the rebels’ most formidable force, refused to accept his appointment, arguing that he was complicit in Colonel Qaddafi’s vicious crackdown on their city. In Misurata, about 500 protesters took to its central square to chant that the appointment would betray “the blood of the martyrs,” a correspondent for The Guardian reported, noting that the city’s local council registered a formal complaint with the national leadership.
By Tuesday night, Mr. Jabril had taken back his decision, said Alamin Belhaj, a Tripoli member of the transitional council. [*]
Both conflicts over the selection of military leaders recall the uproar sparked by the murder of the rebels’ top military commander in Benghazi, General Abdul Fattah Younes. The murder, still unresolved, touched off allegations by some rebel leaders that he was killed by a brigade of Islamists, which they said sought revenge for his previous role as a top aide to Colonel Qaddafi. No one has been charged in the case.
Libyan Islamists say they just want a chance to compete in an open democracy, and they argue that they are more qualified than the liberals to disarm the fighters in the streets.
“They trust us more,” said Mr. Belhaj, the council member and a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood here, arguing that many Libyans fear that the revolution would be “stolen” by rich, Westernized and often expatriate liberals on the council.
All sides agreed, however, that the conquest of Tripoli has made it a crucible of regional rivalries. Although the early fighting was in the east, the final assault on Tripoli was led by rebel groups in the west and finished by seasoned fighters from Misurata.
Now members of nearly every brigade in Tripoli assert their group played the most heroic role in taking the city, or in breaking into the Qaddafi compound, or in taking the central square.
“We have it on video,” insisted Mahdi al-Harati, the deputy leader of the Tripoli Military Council, defending his claim that his brigade was first to the central square.
More than pride may be at stake, said Anwar Fekini, a French-Libyan lawyer with ancestral ties to the mountains who is a member of the national leadership council. “The people in the west say, ‘We paid a huge price, and we want to be in charge,’ and Misurata the same,” he said, adding that he argued Libyans should select their leaders on the basis of competence regardless of region.
Mr. Belhaj had another idea. He said he had asked the other local councils to withdraw their brigades from the city limits, to leave the capital to the Tripolitans.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html
August 30, 2011
Syrian Security Forces Fire on Worshipers as Ramadan Ends
By NADA BAKRI [Syria] [so-called Arab Awakening] [Middle East proper] [Arabia] [democratization] [Syria pretends to be a modern secular republic, but is far from it] [no monarchy but long run by a minority sect (al Assads) and the Baath Party] [the Ramadan massacre continues] [Id in Syria] [followup] [use fall 2011?] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thousands of Syrians took to the streets on Tuesday after prayers that signaled the end of the holy month of Ramadan, defying a broad deployment of security forces across Syria that has made August one of the bloodiest months of the uprising.
Activists said that at least seven people were killed in southern and central Syria when troops loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad opened fire on worshipers emerging from mosques.
The popular uprising in Syria, which started in mid-March, is the most serious challenge to Mr. Assad’s rule that he has faced, and his effort to violently suppress it has drawn international condemnation. Activists say that protests have grown more frequent lately, apparently encouraged by the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya.
In an escalation of the international pressure on Mr. Assad, the United States

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html
August 30, 2011
Syrian Security Forces Fire on Worshipers as Ramadan Ends
By NADA BAKRI [Syria] [so-called Arab Awakening] [Middle East proper] [Arabia] [democratization] [Syria pretends to be a modern secular republic, but is far from it] [no monarchy but long run by a minority sect (al Assads) and the Baath Party] [the Ramadan massacre continues] [Id in Syria] [followup] [use fall 2011?] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thousands of Syrians took to the streets on Tuesday after prayers that signaled the end of the holy month of Ramadan, defying a broad deployment of security forces across Syria that has made August one of the bloodiest months of the uprising.
Activists said that at least seven people were killed in southern and central Syria when troops loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad opened fire on worshipers emerging from mosques.
The popular uprising in Syria, which started in mid-March, is the most serious challenge to Mr. Assad’s rule that he has faced, and his effort to violently suppress it has drawn international condemnation. Activists say that protests have grown more frequent lately, apparently encouraged by the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya.
In an escalation of the international pressure on Mr. Assad, the United States Treasury Department added to its sanctions blacklist of top Syrians on Tuesday, freezing the assets of three prominent officials: Walid al-Moallem, the foreign minister; Ali Abdul Karim Ali, the ambassador to Lebanon; and Bouthaina Shaaban, a senior presidential adviser who has often served as the Assad regime’s liaison to the outside world. [*]
In an interview more than three months ago, when Mr. Assad’s regime was expressing confidence that its tactics against the protesters were working, Ms. Shaaban said: “I think now we’ve passed the most dangerous moment. I hope so, I think so.” [is he mental?][*]
The expansion of the United States sanctions was announced a day after European diplomats said sanctions might be imposed on Syrian banks as well as energy and telecommunications companies within a week, along with a planned embargo on Syria’s oil exports.
At least 2,200 people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the unrest, by the United Nations’ count. An activist group, the Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, said on Tuesday that 551 people were killed during Ramadan alone. The group said 130 others were killed on July 31, the eve of Ramadan, in an attack on the city of Hama, which was also the scene of a ferocious crackdown in 1982.
On Tuesday, four people were killed in Hara and two others in Inkil, two towns in Dara’a Province, according to the Local Coordination Committees, another group of activists who document demonstrations. Dara’a, a poor region in the southern steppe, became a flashpoint of protests after security forces arrested and tortured 15 teenagers there who were caught scrawling antigovernment graffiti on walls.
“They don’t want us to have any peaceful day,” Um Mohammad, a mother of two from Damascus, said of the security forces. “We are grieving this Id, and we were not going to celebrate, so they didn’t have to kill more people today,” she added, referring to the feast of Id al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.
“Everybody is sad,” said Nashwan, a father of three from Homs who asked that his surname not be published. “No one is celebrating, not even between family members. It is a sad city.”
The activists said that one person was killed in Homs, in central Syria, where large protests have been mounted against the leadership of Mr. Assad, who came to power in 2000, succeeding his father. The activists said that heavy gunfire was heard across the city, and phone lines were cut early Tuesday.
The Local Committees also reported a heavy presence of troops and secret police near mosques to deter people from praying on Tuesday. Since the beginning of the uprising in March, mosques have been used as places where protesters organize, and many mosques have been attacked and closed during the crackdown.
Activists said that after security forces shut the Imam al-Nawawi mosque in Nawa, another town in Dara’a, worshipers gathered outside to chant anti-Assad slogans, and the security forces opened fire to disperse them.
In Dael, which is also in Dara’a, children covered with shrouds marched in an antigovernment demonstration, activists said; ordinarily children in Syria wear festive new outfits on the holiday.
Residents also reported protests in several neighborhoods in and around Damascus, the capital, and in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city; Deir al-Zour, an eastern tribal region bordering Iraq; the northwestern province of Idlib; the port city of Latakia; and Qamishli in the north.
Mr. Assad’s government has repeatedly blamed foreign-sponsored armed groups for the unrest, and said they have killed at least 500 policemen and soldiers.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31yemen.html
August 30, 2011
Yemen, Amid Political Turmoil, Is Embracing a Holiday
By LAURA KASINOF [Yemen] [Middle East] [Arab Awakening spread to Egypt to Libya to Yemen and Syria as Arab Awakening] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [MENA] [democratization] [the opportunistic jihadi movements since Saleh left Yemen] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [Id al Fitr and the end of Ramadan in Yemen] [normally a time of renewal various sides are bracing for war!] [*]
SANA, Yemen — The dusty streets of this ancient capital were jammed with cars as Yemenis ran last-minute errands before the start of Id al-Fitr, the joyous holiday that began Tuesday with the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Men stood in lines outside tiny barber shops, waiting patiently for their holiday trim, and, for a moment at least, the city tried to focus on something other than a lingering political and economic crisis.
“As much as we are suffering, Ramadan comes to alleviate what we are feeling,” said Aladin al-Mahdi, an English teacher who was relaxing outside his brother’s electronics shop in the popular Bab al-Sabah market. “We are feeling that Allah will

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31yemen.html
August 30, 2011
Yemen, Amid Political Turmoil, Is Embracing a Holiday
By LAURA KASINOF [Yemen] [Middle East] [Arab Awakening spread to Egypt to Libya to Yemen and Syria as Arab Awakening] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [MENA] [democratization] [the opportunistic jihadi movements since Saleh left Yemen] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [Id al Fitr and the end of Ramadan in Yemen] [normally a time of renewal various sides are bracing for war!] [*]
SANA, Yemen — The dusty streets of this ancient capital were jammed with cars as Yemenis ran last-minute errands before the start of Id al-Fitr, the joyous holiday that began Tuesday with the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Men stood in lines outside tiny barber shops, waiting patiently for their holiday trim, and, for a moment at least, the city tried to focus on something other than a lingering political and economic crisis.
“As much as we are suffering, Ramadan comes to alleviate what we are feeling,” said Aladin al-Mahdi, an English teacher who was relaxing outside his brother’s electronics shop in the popular Bab al-Sabah market. “We are feeling that Allah will make it easier for us.” [I suppose it’s good to be positive?] [*]
Yet despite the Yemenis’ enduring commitment to faith and tradition, a looming uncertainty, even fear, hung over the city. There was no way to completely escape the dueling narratives of the days ahead, a nation celebrating, and also bracing for the worst.
“I expect there to be war,” said Abdullah Mohamedy, who works at a small grocery store in Sana’s walled old city. “This year, Id is very, very different.” [*]
Yemen has been trapped for months in a protracted stalemate between President Ali Abdullah Saleh and an opposition movement that wants him to leave office. After months of protests to force Mr. Saleh out, and after security forces killed dozens of demonstrators in the streets, Yemen has become unnerved, without any clear sense of who is running the country.
The political crisis has led to an economic crisis, further undermining a nation that was already the poorest among Arab states. Public services have nearly ground to a halt. Government control is all but gone in outlying provinces. [*]
Mr. Saleh, who is in Saudi Arabia recovering from wounds he suffered in a bomb attack, appeared on state television Monday to wish the nation a happy Id, and to criticize the opposition. Not to be outdone, Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, the second most powerful person in the country, who has sided with the opposition, gave his own broadcast suggesting that Mr. Saleh would soon face the same fate as Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. [*]
The tit-for-tat holiday greetings did not lift holiday spirits.
“This guy shows up, talks and says, ‘Blah blah blah,’ and then this guy says, ‘Blah blah blah,’ ” said Ameen, a waiter at a Western-style cafe here who said he did not want to be identified for fear both sides would seek revenge. “It’s all just talking. No one is actually going to fix our problems. People are suffering so much. There are huge lines for water in my neighborhood.”
And so it was like that in the final hours before the start of Id, street markets were crowded with shoppers buying last-minute gifts for their children, as Mr. Saleh’s family appeared to be gearing up for conflict against their powerful tribal rivals, the Ahmar clan. [*]
Essam Mohammed, a car salesman who now drives a taxi because no one is buying cars these days, said: “If Ali Abdullah Saleh doesn’t come back, we will have war. If he does come back, we will have war.” Mr. Mohammed said that he, his wife and six children will not take their yearly vacation to the western port city Hodeidah for Id because gasoline is too expensive now that prices have risen.
“If the situation stays where it is, we’ll have problems,” Mr. Mohammed said.
Even Ramadan, which is supposed to be a time for fasting, prayer, family and reflection, could not tamp down the rising tensions here in Sana between the president’s family and the rival Ahmar clan. Governing party officials, allies of the president, issued statements accusing Hamid al-Ahmar, the most outspoken member of the Ahmar clan, and the opposition military commander, General Ahmar, who is no relation, of being the masterminds behind the attack on the presidential palace in June that left Mr. Saleh severely burned on much of his body.
“Accusing Hamid and Ali Mohsin of this attack essentially was a declaration of war,” said Abdul-Ghani al-Iryani, a Yemeni political analyst.
On Monday armed tribesmen loyal to the Ahmars were seen strolling the streets of the northern district of Hasaba, the area where war broke out in late May. Pickup trucks with machine guns propped up in the back sat unattended on the street. In a television interview last week, Hamid al-Ahmar demanded that the president “be handed over to the legitimate authorities of the revolution” to be tried.
Not too far away, the president’s son, Ahmed Ali Saleh, who leads the elite Republican Guards military unit, has been stocking up on heavy weaponry, like tanks, which can be seen in the capital.
In those same streets, neighbors met outside their ancient stone houses to wish one another happiness in the year to come, the standard Id greeting, which seemed a bit of wishful thinking given the circumstances.
“Id is Id, Ramadan is Ramadan, the revolution is the revolution,” Abdul Kader al-Guneid said as he celebrated the holiday in the city of Taiz. “One minute you are in war, one minute you are not in war. It’s funny, it just works like that.” [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 12:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/afghan-police-casualties-soar/2011/08/22/gIQAHxN7qJ_story.html
Afghan police casualties soar
By Joshua Partlow, Published: August 30 | Updated: Wednesday, August 31, 3:15 AM [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [figures now cofirm what appeared evident recently: insurgency has targeted Afghan police whom the coalition and US count on keeping order after withdrawal] [*]
CHARIKAR, Afghanistan — They die in assaults on lonely mountain checkpoints and in group-beheadings captured on hand-held video cameras. They are engulfed by flaming car bombs and shot at point-blank range by men who often dress up in the same plain gray uniform as theirs.
Forever maligned as corrupt, incompetent and drug-addled, the Afghan national police nevertheless have sacrificed unlike any force in the country, foreign or domestic, taking casualties at a rate far higher than Afghan soldiers [*]or their partners in the U.S.-led coalition.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/afghan-police-casualties-soar/2011/08/22/gIQAHxN7qJ_story.html
Afghan police casualties soar
By Joshua Partlow, Published: August 30 | Updated: Wednesday, August 31, 3:15 AM [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [figures now cofirm what appeared evident recently: insurgency has targeted Afghan police whom the coalition and US count on keeping order after withdrawal] [*]
CHARIKAR, Afghanistan — They die in assaults on lonely mountain checkpoints and in group-beheadings captured on hand-held video cameras. They are engulfed by flaming car bombs and shot at point-blank range by men who often dress up in the same plain gray uniform as theirs.
Forever maligned as corrupt, incompetent and drug-addled, the Afghan national police nevertheless have sacrificed unlike any force in the country, foreign or domestic, taking casualties at a rate far higher than Afghan soldiers [*]or their partners in the U.S.-led coalition.
Over the past year, 1,555 Afghan policemen were killed, more than twice the number of Afghan soldiers who died in the same period, even though there are 35,000 fewer police than soldiers in the country, according to statistics provided by the U.S.-led coalition. In the same period, 474 U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan. The police death toll in June, 246 police — a rate of eight a day — was 50 percent higher than any other month in the past year.
The 135,000 Afghan police generally receive less training, more rudimentary equipment and lower pay than their colleagues in the army. Although soldiers drive around in armored Humvees, most police travel in pickup trucks, even though they are often called upon to operate in areas rife with insurgents. But U.S. military officials are hoping the police can become the primary long-term solution to Afghanistan’s woes, a force they envision as growing even as the more expensive army shrinks in the future.
For now, they remain the weakest, and most regularly hammered, link in the war against the Taliban.
“The army is looked after very well — they get good food and Pepsi,” said Lt. Mohammad Qahir, 41, a policeman based at the governor’s compound in Parwan province, north of Kabul. “The police stand in the sun all day and don’t get anything.”
Qahir was away from his post earlier this month on a day that has come to typify the grim existence of Afghanistan’s police. When he heard the commotion begin on the morning of Sunday, Aug. 14, he was unarmed, he said, because there were not enough guns to go around for the small team guarding the governor’s gate.
His colleague, Rahimullah, said that he was stationed at the door when a black Toyota corolla pulled up and men in police uniforms demanded entry. Rahimullah said he soon recognized the men were suicide bombers.
As the Taliban insurgents stormed the compound, Rahimullah was shot in the left leg, took grenade shrapnel in his back and broke his ankle, he said later from his hospital bed.
Another police officer, Aynuddin, woke from his nap, rolled off his cot and rushed to the doorway of the police shack. As he stepped outside a bullet pierced his left thigh, he recalled. He fell down and passed out.
Seeing this unfold, Mohammad Azim, a 31-year-old officer who had been lounging in the shade in a blue plastic chair when the Taliban attack began, said he fired some shots from his Kalashnikov, then ran to hide in an empty kitchen as the suicide bombers stalked the grounds. He was alone. The room was dark. He had three bullets left.
“I believed they would come and kill me at any second,” Azim recalled. “At that moment, you forget about everything. You only think about yourself.”
He was not thinking about the fact that of the 15 police positions allotted for the governor’s office, only four have been hired, not including the governor’s personal bodyguards. Or that the surveillance camera affixed to the building closest to the gate was broken and hadn’t been repaired. Or that they don’t have body armor or helmets. Or that he makes $150 a month and with this supports a family of 12.
“We have three Kalashnikovs for four people. How can we defend the compound?” Qahir said. “If we were fully equipped, I swear no suicide bomber would enter the compound.”
Efforts at improvement
In order to address the high rate of police casualties, the NATO training command in Afghanistan is giving the police 3,400 new armored Humvees over the next eight months — they currently have 1,000, and last year they had none. The training curriculum, now expanded from six weeks to eight weeks, has been revised to include more survival and first aid training, as well as driving instruction, as many casualties stem from traffic accidents, according to U.S. military officials. [throwing good money after bad??] [*]
The force is largely illiterate, so each student takes reading and writing classes intended to get them at least to a first grade level. [**]
The role of Afghan police as first line of defense often puts them in vulnerable spots. They guard government officials who are frequent targets of assassination. They man poorly fortified checkpoints along dangerous roads, presenting a wealth of soft targets for the Taliban to choose from. With a thriving insurgency, they are often thrust into a demanding paramilitary role. [attacking the weakest link] [*]
“Our job is to enforce law and order, but sometimes we’re sent to the front lines to fight, and that’s not the duty of the police,” Qahir said.
Despite these vulnerabilities, fewer policemen walk off their jobs than soldiers. In 17 of the 18 months between January 2010 and this June, the rate of “attrition,” or drop-outs, among the police was lower than that of the army. In June, for example, 5,027 soldiers left the Afghan army, while 2,043 left the police.
The police still have a bad reputation in many parts of the country. They’re often accused of extorting money and abusing their power or operating at the whim of a local power-broker or tribal leader. The behavior of the police in some areas has driven residents to turn to the Taliban for help.
The beleaguered officers at the Parwan governor’s office, however, say they are committed to their jobs and country, come what may. The team of insurgents killed at least 20 people last week, blew up offices, torched cars and sprayed a torrent of bullets — but the officers who survived were back at their jobs the next day.
“In a certain macabre way, the police did their job,” said Lt. Col. Jeremy T. Siegrist, the U.S. army battalion commander responsible for Parwan province, as he visited the remains of the governor’s office last week. “They didn’t save the compound, but it’s still usable, and the governor’s still alive. It’s not a victory by any means, but certainly it shows the police are perhaps improving.”
Special correspondent Sayed Salahuddin contributed to this report.
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:59 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/30/america-s-secret-libya-war-u-s-spent-1-billion-on-covert-ops-helping-nato.html
The Daily Beast
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:36:48 AM] [*]
America’s Secret Libya War
August 30, 2011 2:12am [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [defense dept, Pentagon, across the military] [while the U.S. pushed NATO (really UK and France) to take the lead in Libya, turns out the U.S. was also rather busy there] [I’m not especially surprised: the U.S. simply is not accoustomed to sitting patiently on the sidelines awaiting the outcome!] [since the initial rise of Pax Americana nothing could be more ananthama to it] [cross in societal] [is this a new model for U.S. multilaterialism?] [use fall 2011] [use psci 355-455] [*]
The U.S. military has spent about $1 billion on Libya’s revolution, and secretly helped NATO with everything from munitions to surveillance aircraft. John Barry provides an exclusive look at Obama’s emerging 'covert intervention' strategy.
by John Barry | August 30, 2011 2:12 AM EDT
The U.S. military has spent about $1 billion so far and played a far larger role in Libya than it has acknowledged, quietly implementing an emerging "covert intervention" strategy that the Obama administration hopes will let America fight small wars with a barely detectable footprint. [we have, of course, hear rumors of all this] [this is just the first time we’ve had a

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/30/america-s-secret-libya-war-u-s-spent-1-billion-on-covert-ops-helping-nato.html
The Daily Beast
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:36:48 AM] [*]
America’s Secret Libya War
August 30, 2011 2:12am [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [defense dept, Pentagon, across the military] [while the U.S. pushed NATO (really UK and France) to take the lead in Libya, turns out the U.S. was also rather busy there] [I’m not especially surprised: the U.S. simply is not accoustomed to sitting patiently on the sidelines awaiting the outcome!] [since the initial rise of Pax Americana nothing could be more ananthama to it] [cross in societal] [is this a new model for U.S. multilaterialism?] [use fall 2011] [use psci 355-455] [*]
The U.S. military has spent about $1 billion on Libya’s revolution, and secretly helped NATO with everything from munitions to surveillance aircraft. John Barry provides an exclusive look at Obama’s emerging 'covert intervention' strategy.
by John Barry | August 30, 2011 2:12 AM EDT
The U.S. military has spent about $1 billion so far and played a far larger role in Libya than it has acknowledged, quietly implementing an emerging "covert intervention" strategy that the Obama administration hopes will let America fight small wars with a barely detectable footprint. [we have, of course, hear rumors of all this] [this is just the first time we’ve had a chance to see the entire mosaic or puzzle] [*]
Officially, President Obama handed the lead role of ousting Muammar Gaddafi to the European members of NATO. For this he was criticized by Washington war hawks who suggested that Europeans working with a ragtag team of Libyan rebels was a recipe for stalemate, not victory. [*]
But behind the scenes, the U.S. military played an indispensable role in the Libya campaign, deploying far more forces than the administration chose to advertise. And at NATO headquarters outside Brussels, [*]the U.S. was intimately involved in all decisions about how the Libyan rebels should be supported as they rolled up control of cities and oil refineries and marched toward the capital, Tripoli.
The Libya campaign was a unique international effort: 15 European nations working with the U.S. and three Arab nations. The air offensive was launched from 29 airbases in six European countries. But only six European nations joined with the U.S. and Canada to fly strikes against Gaddafi’s forces. The scale of the unpublicized U.S. role affirms hawks’ arguments: a divided NATO simply couldn’t have waged the war it did without extensive American help. What the hawks underestimated was the U.S. ability to operate without publicity—in military lingo, beneath the radar. [interesting] [*]
According to two senior NATO officials, one American and the other European, these were the critical U.S. contributions during the six-month military campaign:
• An international naval force gathered off Libya. To lower the U.S. profile, the administration elected not to send a supercarrier. Even so, the dozen U.S. warships on station were the biggest contingent in this armada. [*]In the opening hours of the campaign, an American submarine, the USS Florida, launched 100 cruise missiles against Libyan air defenses, crucially opening an entry corridor for the airstrikes that followed. [again, we hear that U.S. drones were there but had no idea in such large numbers] [*]
• U.S. tanker aircraft refueled European aircraft on the great majority of missions against Gaddafi’s forces. The Europeans have tanker aircraft, but not enough to support a 24/7 air offensive averaging, by NATO count, around 100 missions a day, some 50 of them strike sorties. The U.S. flew 30 of the 40 tankers.
• When the Europeans ran low on precision-attack munitions, the U.S. quietly resupplied them. [*](That explains why European air forces flying F-16s—those of Norway, Denmark, Belgium—carried out a disproportionate share of the strikes in the early phase of the campaign. The U.S. had stocks of the munitions to resupply them. When Britain and France, which fly European-built strike aircraft, also ran short, they couldn’t use U.S.-made bombs until they had made hurried modifications to their aircraft.)
• To target Gaddafi’s military, NATO largely relied on U.S. JSTARS surveillance aircraft, which, flying offshore, could track the movements of rival forces. When more detailed targeting information was needed—as in the battles for Misrata and other towns defended by Gaddafi’s troops—the U.S. flew Predator drones to relay a block-by-block picture. [*]
• U.S. Air Force targeting specialists were in NATO’s Naples operational headquarters throughout the campaign. [*]They oversaw the preparing of “target folders” for the strikes in Tripoli against Gaddafi’s compound and the headquarters of his military and intelligence services. (Organizing precision strikes by high-speed jets is not a task for novices. The attack routes over Tripoli and the release times of bombs had to be precisely calibrated so munitions released even a second late by a strike aircraft would have the best chance of avoiding civilian homes.)
What seems to be evolving is a new American way of war.
• U.S. AWACS aircraft, high over the Mediterranean, handled much of the battle-management task, acting as air-traffic controllers on most of the strike missions. Again, the Europeans have AWACS, but not enough crews to handle an all-hours campaign lasting months.
• Eavesdropping by U.S. intelligence—some by aircraft, some by a listening post quietly established just outside Libya—gave NATO unparalleled knowledge of what Gaddafi’s military planned.
• All this was crucial in supporting the European effort. But U.S. involvement went way beyond that. In all, the U.S. had flown by late August more than 5,300 missions, by Pentagon count. More than 1,200 of these were strike sorties against Libyan targets.
• The administration largely stuck to Obama’s decision that the U.S. would not put boots on the ground in Libya (although the CIA did have agents inside Tripoli). British and French special forces were on the ground, training and organizing the insurgents—as were units from two Arab nations, Qatar and Jordan. But their communications relied on a satellite channel run by the U.S. And the U.S. also supplied other high-tech gear—NATO sources declined to describe it, but apparently it had never been given before, even to allied special forces.
• When a desperate Gaddafi began to launch Scud missiles into towns held by the opposition, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer offshore negated his offensive by shooting down the Scuds.
“President Obama may have taken the U.S. out of the direct combat role, but he certainly did not take American forces out of the front line,” Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, wrote in a recent analysis. “The European allies were hardly ‘going it alone’ in this operation.”
With the Pentagon facing deep budget cuts, the Libyan campaign will likely provoke a debate in Washington. There is zero appetite to repeat the massive interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the U.S. is still embroiled a decade later. The Libya campaign appears to offer an alternative. It hasn’t been cheap. The Pentagon estimates U.S. operations there cost $896 million through the end of July.
The good news is that the U.S. will be repaid for its assistance to the Europeans—everything from fuel for the aircraft to munitions and spare parts—which cost a further $222 million, the Pentagon estimates. And compared with Afghanistan, which is still costing the U.S. taxpayer roughly $10 billion a month, Gaddafi’s overthrow has been a bargain. [I must say my early conclusions have been vindicated] [*]
One senior NATO official pointed to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 2001 as a precursor of the Libya campaign. In Afghanistan, U.S. special forces riding with Northern Alliance troops downloaded on their laptops satellite pictures of Taliban deployments over the next hill, and used their satphones and hand-held GPS targeting devices to call in airstrikes. The Taliban was overthrown in 63 days.
“That was a classic example of the U.S. using its technological supremacy to support local forces,” the official said. “Now we have Libya as another example.”
The campaign in Yemen provides a third example. For more than two years, U.S. special forces have been training and working with Yemeni troops to combat, among other insurgent groups, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The U.S. campaign in Yemen has used conventional weaponry on occasion: sorties by Harriers and even some cruise-missile strikes. But the burden of much of the campaign has fallen to special-forces units, supported by Predators.
The ongoing struggle in Pakistan is arguably yet another case study in what seems to be evolving as a new American way of war.
Predator strikes against alleged Taliban and allied Afghan insurgent groups massing in Pakistan have preoccupied international attention. But senior NATO officers in Kabul whisper that again “beneath the radar,” CIA paramilitary operatives are inside Pakistan, leading groups of locally recruited frontier tribesmen. They apparently supply much of the targeting information for the Predators—especially against senior Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, who reportedly are the main targets of these CIA-led bands. Their mission may go beyond reconnaissance. According to one senior NATO officer in Kabul, some strikes credited to Predators actually result from raids by this covert force.
The killing 10 days ago of al Qaeda’s operations chief, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, in the Pakistani frontier province of Waziristan, was the greatest single success in the campaign. U.S. officials attributed al-Rahman’s death to a Predator strike. But on the question of how he was identified and tracked, the officials were tight-lipped.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:14 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/29/the_black_hole_of_911
Foreign Policy
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:33:27 AM] [*]
The Black Hole of 9/11
As we assess the legacy of the 10th anniversary of America's seminal terrorist attack, it's worth looking at 10 events from the past decade that have actually been more important.
BY DAVID J. ROTHKOPF | AUGUST 29, 2011 [commentary] [my old friend Rothkopf on a laundry list of things that have happened since 9/11] [it’s not necessarily the case that 9/11 made the U.S. not notice these things] [rather, he seems to suggest that the rapt attention on transnational jihadis has meant that the various parts of the policymaking bureaucracy (from NSC top to bureaucratic bottom) simply have been so focused on one thing, other things have been prioritized lower] [I’ve said the same many times in comments on this archive] [e.g., the machinery has been so focused on al Qaeda it didn’t notice all that China was doing] [the U.S. must learn to do multiple things at once in our pretty near future] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
Recently, I've started to get calls from reporters doing pieces on the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11. The thrust of the conversations is the same: How were we changed by that watershed moment?
But in responding to their questions and mulling the question in my head, I keep coming

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/29/the_black_hole_of_911
Foreign Policy
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:33:27 AM] [*]
The Black Hole of 9/11
As we assess the legacy of the 10th anniversary of America's seminal terrorist attack, it's worth looking at 10 events from the past decade that have actually been more important.
BY DAVID J. ROTHKOPF | AUGUST 29, 2011 [commentary] [my old friend Rothkopf on a laundry list of things that have happened since 9/11] [it’s not necessarily the case that 9/11 made the U.S. not notice these things] [rather, he seems to suggest that the rapt attention on transnational jihadis has meant that the various parts of the policymaking bureaucracy (from NSC top to bureaucratic bottom) simply have been so focused on one thing, other things have been prioritized lower] [I’ve said the same many times in comments on this archive] [e.g., the machinery has been so focused on al Qaeda it didn’t notice all that China was doing] [the U.S. must learn to do multiple things at once in our pretty near future] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
Recently, I've started to get calls from reporters doing pieces on the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11. The thrust of the conversations is the same: How were we changed by that watershed moment?
But in responding to their questions and mulling the question in my head, I keep coming back to the same conclusion: 9/11, for all its tragic and heroic drama, is an easy event to overestimate. Indeed, we have been overestimating its significance since almost the moment it happened. [*](According to President George W. Bush, his chief of staff, Andrew Card, leaned forward to whisper the news of the attack in his ear and said, "America is under attack." Although factually accurate, the statement was in the language of traditional wars with traditional enemies and implied that the United States as a nation was somehow at risk in ways much broader than was actually the case.) [I’ve had the same thoughts] [it’s weird because on the one hand I think the U.S. needed to focus its attention pretty devotedly on al Qaeda] [on the other, I’ve worried that in so doing the U.S. has neglected other things that are clear concerns] [how to strike the balance (particularly, knowing what I—and David Rothkopf—know about the NSC)?] [*]
In fact, the success of Osama bin Laden was in masterminding a low-cost, comparatively low-risk action by a handful of thugs that produced one of the most profound overreactions in military history. Trillions of dollars were expended and hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the emotion-fueled maelstrom unleashed by a shaken and clearly disoriented America. Bin Laden aimed for Wall Street and Washington, seeking to strike a blow against symbols of American power, but in so doing he also hit us where it would hurt the most -- right in our sense of perspective.
We spoke of 9/11 as though it were somehow equivalent to Pearl Harbor, the beginning of a global war against enemies bent on, and at least theoretically capable of, destroying the American way of life (unlike al Qaeda, a ragtag band of extremists with limited punch). We spoke of cultural wars and a divided world. We reorganized our entire security establishment to go after a few thousand bad guys. We went mad.
And now, as we are recovering our senses, withdrawing from Iraq, and soon starting to exit Afghanistan, having buried bin Laden and hosts of his henchmen, we are beginning to be able to see this. At least in theory we can. For the next couple of weeks, we will witness documentary after editorial mega-feature, interviews with victims and heroes, the American legend machine producing historical bumpf at full blast. That is not, by the way, to diminish the brutal blows struck 10 years ago or the deeply felt human experiences associated with it and its aftermath. Rather it is to say that once again we will seek to frame 9/11 as a great event, the definer of an era, when in fact, its greatest defining characteristic was that of a distraction -- The Great Distraction -- that drew America's focus and that of many in the world from the greater issues of our time. That distraction and the opportunity costs associated with it were bin Laden's triumph and our loss -- and our ultimate victory will come as we get a grip back on reality.
One way to demonstrate that restoration of historical sensibility comes if we ask ourselves, looking back over the past 10 years, what other developments took place that exceed 9/11 in lasting importance? What events of the past decade will historians write of that will have them looking past or beyond the attack, its masterminds, or its immediate response? [*]There are scores, I suspect. Here are just 10 that come to me off the top of my head. [rather clever hook, really] [*]
10. The American Response to 9/11
While some might consider America's overwrought response to 9/11 to be proof of its significance, so much of that response was irrational and more directly related to issues in America's past (the invasion of Iraq, for example) that it needs to be seen as a thing apart. Indeed, we had been directly and indirectly fighting wars in and around Iraq for years. Further, that war was a "war of choice," just as the violation of our national principles at Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo was purely self-destructive, auto-terrorism if you will. We did more damage to ourselves than did the two-bit criminals who baited us. In any event, our response -- which extends on the positive side to our coming to better understand how to combat terrorism (the "intelligence war" and drone attacks bin Laden ended up bitterly lamenting) -- was both vastly bigger in scope and in consequence than the events that triggered it.
9. The Arab Spring
We have no idea how the string of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa this year is going to turn out. But we do know that they are a sign of deep change that has toppled more governments in the region than either al Qaeda or the United States could. These revolutions are having a broader social impact than extremism and are linked more directly to the self-interest of the masses in the region -- which ought to have us handicapping it with better odds than we'd give fundamentalist murderers practicing their ancient, outmoded, and ineffective trade. The United States was right to focus on the rise of nonstate actors and asymmetric power -- it was just focusing on the wrong sources of that power.
8. The Rebalancing of Asia
This trend is related to the No. 1 story of the decade (keep reading), but it touches more lives and will be of far greater impact to global foreign policy than anything that happens in Afghanistan or Pakistan, or anywhere in the Middle East. In fact, the intensive efforts to forge new alliances and open new relationships among all the international players with interests in Asia will probably play a decisive role in AfPak as it encompasses developments like the U.S. embrace of India. That evolving partnership between the world's two largest democracies will have important regional consequences vis-à-vis the battle against terrorism and containing threats from within Pakistan while at the same time creating an important counterbalance to China. These strategic shifts across Asia touch far more countries than those, however, as they involve creating new alliances and deepened relationships to address, engage with, and at the same time, manage the consequences of China's rise -- as well as that of other emerging powers such as India and, someday soon, perhaps a reunified Korea. It's complicated, but it's the big leagues of foreign policy compared with the Middle East, which is attention-grabbing but over the long term strictly second division.
7. The Stagnation of the U.S. and Other Developed-World Economies
This trend started a few years before 9/11 with Japan's economic meltdown. But it really gained momentum in the 2000s, when the United States experienced its first-ever decade of zero net new job creation and declining median incomes. Europe also spluttered, especially in the south -- and this weakening of the pillars of the post-World War II world clearly fed a reordering of geopolitics. Entering an age of limitations is forcing big powers to work together differently and has put the kibosh on the momentary and misguided unilateralism of the Bush era in the United States.
6. The Invention of Social Media
What's more important? Knocking down the World Trade Center and killing several thousand innocents or linking half a billion people together as never before (as Facebook did)? Passing notes from cave to cave in Waziristan or fueling a Twitter revolution in Cairo's Tahrir Square? It's not even close.
5. The Proliferation of Cell Phones and Hand-Held Computing Devices
As big as the advent of social media is, the big technology story of the past decade is the unprecedented, mind-boggling, world-reordering spread of cell phones. In 1991, 10 years before 9/11, there were 16 million cell-phone subscribers worldwide. Today, we are rapidly approaching 6 billion cell-phone subscribers. Eight trillion text messages will be sent in 2011. Within three or four years, more people will access the Internet via phone than via computer. And growth is fastest in the emerging world. There are more cell phone cameras today than all other forms of camera added together. Everyone is connected. Everyone is a witness. Everyone is part of a global news network, an instant coalition, a mob, an electorate.
4. The Crash of 2008
The Dow Jones industrial average fell from a peak of 14,164 on Oct. 9, 2007, to 6,469 the following March, a decline of 54 percent. It took 17 months to "recover." (The jury is still out on what's next.) The U.S. housing market, which peaked in 2006, has plummeted virtually unabated ever since, and some experts expect that those past highs may be unattainable for years, if ever. The resulting tens of trillions of dollars in losses sent hundreds of millions of people deeper into poverty, crushed retirement accounts, impacted the well-being of billions of people, and called into question the viability of countries and companies in ways that cannot yet be calculated. It also had political and policy implications -- from reconsidering national priorities to changing global views toward "American capitalism" -- that will dwarf those associated with 9/11.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
3. The Eurozone Crisis and the Crash of 2011-2012
Don't believe point No. 4? Well, keep watching. The weakening caused by the decline of developed-world economies, the crash of 2008, reckless overborrowing by European governments, and lax management of the banking sector (as well as localized national problems such as the failure by the Spanish to learn the lessons of the U.S. housing crisis) has led to a crisis that could undo the European Union, blow up the euro, and -- even if neither of those things happen -- send the world's economy into another tailspin that could recall or exceed 2008's crash. If it does, it will have an even more devastating impact on already weakened economies worldwide; and if it undoes the European experiment, which has helped ensure decades of peace on a continent previously riven by conflict, well, then it will again on totally different grounds easily trump 9/11.
2. The Failure to Address Global Warming
While evidence piled up that man-made warming was accelerating in ways that outstripped all models and all precedent in human history, while the scientific community united in its agreement that the crisis would be existential for many forms of life and coastal communities where billions of people live, while the entire planet was threatened as never before, the leaders of the world were otherwise engaged. If global temperatures rise another degree or three this century, 9/11 will be seen as a comparative footnote to an event that could remake the nature of life on Earth and lead to a toll many, many times greater than either 9/11 or the wars it triggered.
1. The Rise of China and the Other BRICs
The only reason global warming is not No. 1 is that we haven't seen its full effects yet. But its contours -- and that of economic growth and political power on the planet -- will be shaped increasingly by the influence of the "new" powers of the 21st century, led by China, India, Brazil, and others. Of course, they're not new: China and India were the world's largest economies from the dawn of time until almost the mid-19th century. But still, on September 11, 2001, they were considered players to watch -- in the distant future. The past decade has seen them emerge to the point that they are now the engines of growth that will determine whether a market crash of 2011 occurs, whether the United States and Europe can borrow to fund their ailing economies, whether the world will reach an agreement to manage greenhouse gas emissions, whether we will truly contain the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and what the real future of international institutions and agreements will look like. The BRICs rose while the United States was distracted by bin Laden's sideshow; now, America's future will depend on how quickly Americans can refocus on what's really important.
So, does all this mean 9/11 was not important? Of course not. It was a significant day in the life of America, a turning point in our view of our vulnerabilities and of the nature of threats and real power in the world. It led us to question many of our assumptions about the nature of our country, our alliances, our military capabilities, and our worldview. It and its aftermath have had a horrific human cost -- on victims of the attack, on the families of our soldiers, and on the many victims and their families of the wars we subsequently conducted in the Middle East. It has changed America, taught us our limitations, and forced us to question ourselves. We have been diminished by it, raised up by the noble examples of individual Americans -- and in the end we have learned much from it. Foremost among those lessons, however, must be that we as a nation need to summon the discipline in times of great national challenges to frame events in the broader context of time and our larger interests. We cannot allow single isolated events to warp our view of all around them, like historical black holes twisting the fabric of adjacent time and events. It is important to our process of consigning 9/11 to history to understand both what it was and what it was not, why it was important and why it was just one of many even greater stories of the past decade.
David J. Rothkopf blogs for Foreign Policy and is the author of Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power. His next book, due out in early 2012, is Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government—and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:12 AM | Permalink

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-defense-official-it-would-take-more-than-one-strike-to-halt-iran-s-nuclear-program-1.381213
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:42:24 AM] [*]
Published 21:29 28.08.11
Israel defense official: It would take more than one strike to halt Iran's nuclear program
Both Israel and the United States have hinted they might consider taking military action as a last resort to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
By Reuters Tags: Iran Iran threat Iran nuclear [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran’s WMD programs and capacity] [yet, another Israeli official throwing a wet towel on the idea of Israel making a preventive (or potentially preemptive) strike on Iran’s known and suspected nuke sites] [followup] [several recent examples of this have been attributed to former officials; this one appears to be the anonymouys “defense official”?] [*]
Israel would not be able to halt Iran's reported quest for atomic weapons with a single strike, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday.
Israel and the West suspect Iran is trying to use its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons, a charge denied by Tehran which says it wants to generate electricity.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-defense-official-it-would-take-more-than-one-strike-to-halt-iran-s-nuclear-program-1.381213
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:42:24 AM] [*]
Published 21:29 28.08.11
Israel defense official: It would take more than one strike to halt Iran's nuclear program
Both Israel and the United States have hinted they might consider taking military action as a last resort to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
By Reuters Tags: Iran Iran threat Iran nuclear [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran’s WMD programs and capacity] [yet, another Israeli official throwing a wet towel on the idea of Israel making a preventive (or potentially preemptive) strike on Iran’s known and suspected nuke sites] [followup] [several recent examples of this have been attributed to former officials; this one appears to be the anonymouys “defense official”?] [*]
Israel would not be able to halt Iran's reported quest for atomic weapons with a single strike, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday.
Israel and the West suspect Iran is trying to use its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons, a charge denied by Tehran which says it wants to generate electricity.
Both Israel and the United States have hinted they might consider taking military action as a last resort to stop Iran getting the bomb.
The defense official, who in line with Israeli army guidelines declined to be identified, mentioned Iran during a review of the security situation in the Middle East in a briefing to foreign reporters.
"We're not talking about Iraq or Syria where one strike would derail a program," the official said, referring to Israel's 1981 air strike that destroyed Iraq's atomic reactor and the bombing in 2007 of a Syrian site which the U.N. atomic agency said was very likely a nuclear reactor.
"With Iran it's a different project. There is no one silver bullet you can hit and that's over," the official said. [*]
Israeli leaders have urged the United States and other Western countries to present Tehran with a credible military threat to back up economic sanctions already in place.
The official said the United States stood a better chance of forcing Iran to change its mind over its nuclear program than Israel.
"With all respect to Israel ... the greatest fear of the (Iranian) regime is the USA. There is no question about it."
Some analysts say the likelihood of an imminent Israeli war with Iran has ebbed, thanks to the perceived success of political pressure on Tehran. [we’ve read about a supposed imminent strike for each of the last 3 years at least?] [*]
Recent Israeli estimates do not show Iran developing nuclear weapons before 2015.
Israel is widely believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, and Iran has accused it of hypocrisy over the issue.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/barak-gaza-groups-planning-new-major-terror-attack-on-israel-1.381345
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:40:59 AM] [*]
Published 16:12 29.08.11
Barak: Gaza groups planning new major terror attack on Israel
Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Islamic Jihad and others behind plan to carry out attack similar to that of August 18, in which eight died in southern Israel; IDF increasing deployment of Iron Dome system to protect Israeli citizens.
By Anshel Pfeffer Tags: Ehud Barak Egypt IDF Gaza Hamas [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [I cannot tell whether this is generall warning (that would normally accompany the end of Ramadan) or a specific one?] [clearly, however, Israel has ratcheted up security and if today’s newspapers are any indication, they worry that attacks may be headed to Israel from Palestine and Sinai respectively] [followup] [*]
Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Monday that Palestinian organizations in Gaza are preparing to carry out an attack similar to the one in southern Israel on August 18, in which

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/barak-gaza-groups-planning-new-major-terror-attack-on-israel-1.381345
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:40:59 AM] [*]
Published 16:12 29.08.11
Barak: Gaza groups planning new major terror attack on Israel
Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Islamic Jihad and others behind plan to carry out attack similar to that of August 18, in which eight died in southern Israel; IDF increasing deployment of Iron Dome system to protect Israeli citizens.
By Anshel Pfeffer Tags: Ehud Barak Egypt IDF Gaza Hamas [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [I cannot tell whether this is generall warning (that would normally accompany the end of Ramadan) or a specific one?] [clearly, however, Israel has ratcheted up security and if today’s newspapers are any indication, they worry that attacks may be headed to Israel from Palestine and Sinai respectively] [followup] [*]
Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Monday that Palestinian organizations in Gaza are preparing to carry out an attack similar to the one in southern Israel on August 18, in which eight civilians were killed.
Barak, who visited the plant of Israel Aerospace Industries subsidiary Elta in Ashdod on Monday morning, said that “even this morning we are on high alert in the south in the face of the possible attack, which is similar in set-up to the one that happened ten days ago.”
The Israel Defense Forces will have an additional Iron Dome system to protect Ashdod set up within the next ten days to increase protection of the south in the face of the impending attack, Barak said.
“By the end of the year, we intend to have four sites as part of a national emergency program that will bring us nine sites in less than two years, with many thousands of interceptions,” Barak said.
“This will change the foundations of the defense of Israeli citizens, and the safety of citizens,” he said.
This video from the IDF spokesperson shows the Iron Dome system intercepting a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday night, IDF chief Benny Gantz ordered the deployment of reinforcements around both the southern Gaza Strip and the Egyptian border, due to intelligence reports suggesting an imminent attack by Islamic Jihad. The reinforcements were coordinated with the Egyptian army. [this sounds like the Egypt warning?] [*]
Although security sources estimate that Islamic Jihad is planning the possible attack, a security official made it clear that the IDF will hold Hamas responsible for any terrorist attack originating from the Gaza Strip. [?][*]
“We are steadfast in our intention to reduce the incidence of the attacks from the south and to act as far as possible to intercept the attack,” Barak said. “We reiterate that the responsibility is from Gaza and with Gaza. Not just Islamic Jihad, but also Hamas and all the other security forces.”
According to estimates, members of Islamic Jihad are currently in Sinai, and despite the recent ceasefire are interested in carrying out a new attack. Security officials say that the array of tunnels along the border allowed members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) to cross from Gaza to Sinai and carry out the attacks in Eilat a week and a half ago.
On Sunday, the independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm reported that Egypt is considering setting up a buffer zone on its border with the Gaza Strip following the recent bloodshed. The plan includes removing smuggling tunnels running across the 14-kilometer-long border with Gaza.
The U.K.-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported Monday that Egypt has deployed 1,500 troops in the Sinai peninsula, a move that was coordinated with Israeli security forces.

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

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/home-front-minister-sinai-based-cell-may-try-to-attack-israel-in-coming-days-1.381510
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:39:40 AM] [*]
Published 11:55 30.08.11
Home Front Minister: Sinai-based cell may try to attack Israel in coming days
Israel has been warned that Islamic Jihad-linked cell comprising at least 10 militants has been plotting for some time and could use Eid al-Fitr as 'right time' to carry out attack, says Vilnai.
By Anshel Pfeffer and Haaretz Tags: IDF Egypt Gaza Strip Hamas Islamic Jihad [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [Egypt and Israel’s concern that Mubarak’s overthrow has weakened Israel’s security] [this appears to be leaked from Israel’s intelligence community so they’ve likely picked up something that has them worried about another event from Sinai?] [followup] [*]
Israel has been warned that a terrorist cell linked to the Islamic Jihad and based in the Sinai Peninsula may try to carry out a series of attacks over the coming days, Home Front Minister Matan Vilnai [*]said on Tuesday. [why passive voice] [by whom?] [who warned Israel?] [*]
The cell, which Vilnai said comprises at least 10 militants, has been preparing for such

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/home-front-minister-sinai-based-cell-may-try-to-attack-israel-in-coming-days-1.381510
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/30/11 9:39:40 AM] [*]
Published 11:55 30.08.11
Home Front Minister: Sinai-based cell may try to attack Israel in coming days
Israel has been warned that Islamic Jihad-linked cell comprising at least 10 militants has been plotting for some time and could use Eid al-Fitr as 'right time' to carry out attack, says Vilnai.
By Anshel Pfeffer and Haaretz Tags: IDF Egypt Gaza Strip Hamas Islamic Jihad [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [Egypt and Israel’s concern that Mubarak’s overthrow has weakened Israel’s security] [this appears to be leaked from Israel’s intelligence community so they’ve likely picked up something that has them worried about another event from Sinai?] [followup] [*]
Israel has been warned that a terrorist cell linked to the Islamic Jihad and based in the Sinai Peninsula may try to carry out a series of attacks over the coming days, Home Front Minister Matan Vilnai [*]said on Tuesday. [why passive voice] [by whom?] [who warned Israel?] [*]
The cell, which Vilnai said comprises at least 10 militants, has been preparing for such attacks for some time and may exploit the Eid al-Fitr holiday as "the right time" to carry out their plot.
Israeli forces will continue to remain on high alert along the border, in an operation coordinated with their Egyptian counterparts, Vilnai said.
The defense establishment is on guard to thwart attacks in Eilat bay or near the security fence on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. In addition, security forces are on alert for any infiltration attempts. Highways 10 and 12 in southern Israel will remain closed off to civilian traffic due to the terror threats.
The independent Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported Tuesday that Egyptian security forces have launched a widespread operation to crack down on terrorist elements in the Sinai Peninsula. [that surely doesn’t constitute a warning so it must be somebody from Egyptian military??] [*]
More than 1,500 Egyptian soldiers have been deployed in the peninsula backed by armored vehicles and tanks to comb the areas around Rafah, Al-Arish and Sheikh Zwaid, according to various Arab media reports.
Cairo is concerned that terrorist organizations operating in Sinai are planning to carry out attacks over the course of the Eid al-Fitr holiday this week, said the report in Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The Israel Defense Forces is on high alert along the Egyptian border anticipating the terrorist group's activities, according to Israel Radio, and has spread out troops particularly in areas where terrorists may be able to cross through easily. [*]
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that Israel Police, the Shin Bet security service, and the IDF are working full force to prevent any sort of attack from occurring.
IDF chief Benny Gantz ordered the deployment of reinforcements around both the southern Gaza Strip and the Egyptian border on Sunday night, due to intelligence reports suggesting an imminent attack by the Islamic Jihad. The reinforcements were coordinated with the Egyptian army. [that could be due to Camp David Accords, which makes said coordination necessay or it could be confirmation that Egypt’s military is the source?] [*]
Although security sources estimate that the Islamic Jihad is planning the possible attack, a security official made clear that the IDF will hold Hamas responsible for any terrorist attack originating from the Gaza Strip.
According to estimates, members of the Islamic Jihad are currently in Sinai, and despite the recent ceasefire are interested in carrying out a new attack. Security officials say that the array of tunnels along the border allowed members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) to cross from Gaza to Sinai and carry out the attacks in Eilat a week and a half ago.
On Sunday, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that Egypt is considering setting up a buffer zone on its border with the Gaza Strip following the recent bloodshed. The plan includes removing smuggling tunnels running across the 14-kilometer-long border with Gaza.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/asia/30qaeda.html
August 29, 2011
Al Qaeda Affiliates Growing Independent
By MARK MAZZETTI [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [from lower NSC to bureaucracy] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [al Qaeda] [IC both civilian and military] [the continued horizontal growth of al Qaeda] [it’s very much like organized crime: the top family—the first to beging organized jihad against west—is al Qaeda central, based mostly in Pakistan] [the various offshoots—AQI (Iraq), AQAP (Yemen and Saudi), AQI (throughout northern Africa but linked most closely with Algeria), al Shabbab (Somalia and Kenya) and others more or less operate independently] [ultimately they show deference to the top family but they don’t need its blessing to plan and execute plans] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
WASHINGTON — At some point in coming days, a shadowy group of Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan who make up the network’s “General Command” is likely to announce a replacement for Atiyah abd al-Rahman, the Libyan chief of operations who was killed last week in a drone strike launched by the Central Intelligence Agency.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/asia/30qaeda.html
August 29, 2011
Al Qaeda Affiliates Growing Independent
By MARK MAZZETTI [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [from lower NSC to bureaucracy] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [al Qaeda] [IC both civilian and military] [the continued horizontal growth of al Qaeda] [it’s very much like organized crime: the top family—the first to beging organized jihad against west—is al Qaeda central, based mostly in Pakistan] [the various offshoots—AQI (Iraq), AQAP (Yemen and Saudi), AQI (throughout northern Africa but linked most closely with Algeria), al Shabbab (Somalia and Kenya) and others more or less operate independently] [ultimately they show deference to the top family but they don’t need its blessing to plan and execute plans] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
WASHINGTON — At some point in coming days, a shadowy group of Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan who make up the network’s “General Command” is likely to announce a replacement for Atiyah abd al-Rahman, the Libyan chief of operations who was killed last week in a drone strike launched by the Central Intelligence Agency.
But as the 10th anniversary of the group’s most successful strike approaches, the key question is: Does it matter?
In many ways, a successor to Mr. Rahman would have a familiar role in the terrorist group. He would be in charge of coordinating attacks against the United States and Europe, delivering messages from the new leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, to the rank and file, [*]and managing sometimes strained relations between Al Qaeda’s Pakistan-based leadership and the group’s far-flung affiliates throughout the Middle East and Africa. [he could hardly be less like or revered by rank and file than was al Zawahiri] [*]
But even as Al Qaeda’s leadership continues to project an image of control, many terrorism experts and American intelligence officials say that the members of this circle of maybe a dozen operatives — many of whom served for years as Osama bin Laden’s closest confidants — are at risk of being marginalized not only by the global jihad movement but by the Qaeda affiliates they helped spawn. [*]With their ranks thinned by a relentless barrage of drone strikes, some experts believe, Al Qaeda’s operatives in Pakistan resemble a driver holding a steering wheel that is no longer attached to the car. [I suspect that’s probably the case] [but I’m weary of jumping too quickly to that conclusion as the same was said about bin Laden from at least 2008-2011 and it turned out he was still intimately involved in planning with many of the affiliates-syndicates-other crime families I mentioned above!] [*]
“With the death of guys like Atiyah, it’s increasingly likely that the Al Qaeda affiliate groups are just going to start doing their own thing,” said Brian Fishman, a terrorism analyst at the New America Foundation. “At some point, the guys in Pakistan might be reduced to issuing a lot of public statements and hoping for the best.” [probably] [and if I had to say one way or the other I’d probably agree] [I just have this nagging suspicion we still don’t fully understand the relationship between central and nodes away from the mainframe] [*]
Even with the network’s operatives in Pakistan under siege, Al Qaeda’s wings in Yemen and North Africa have had little difficulty continuing a wave of violence. The chaos and power vacuum in Yemen have allowed operatives there to gain control over large swaths of the country’s southern territories, and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed 16 soldiers and two civilians on Friday at an Algerian military academy. The same day, a Nigerian terrorist group that has cultivated ties to Al Qaeda killed dozens of people when it blew up the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
“For the past two years, the affiliates have been gaining in stature while core Al Qaeda has been declining,” said a senior American counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because intelligence assessments of Al Qaeda are classified. “Bin Laden’s death accelerated this trend, and Atiyah’s death is the icing on the cake.”
The drone attack that killed Mr. Rahman came just weeks after President Obama’s top adviser on Pakistan said that the United States had just six months to deliver “a knockout blow” to Al Qaeda’s senior leadership in Pakistan [*]— while the group was still in turmoil after the killing of Bin Laden. Making veiled references to the C.I.A.’s drone campaign, the adviser, Douglas E. Lute, said at a security conference that the United States needed to escalate strikes in Pakistan to take advantage of the disarray within Al Qaeda’s senior ranks. [stunning how long Lute has managed to survive] [especially given the lack of print] [it means he doesn’t leak (or if he does, rarely and carefully), he doesn’t try to build up his own resume at the expense of WH waterbugs, and yet he manages to make himself useful!?] [I’m fascinated by Lute] [*]
Now, Al Qaeda will have to dig into its ranks to replace Mr. Rahman, which many experts said will not be easy. American officials said that one candidate is Abu Yahya al-Libi, another Libyan operative who became more prominent after he escaped from the American military prison at Bagram in Afghanistan in 2005.
While Mr. Rahman was hardly among Al Qaeda’s most well-known figures, American officials said that his importance to the network came from the close ties he had forged with militant leaders during the 1990s, a time when Al Qaeda was a more centralized organization based largely in Afghanistan. Even after the network dispersed after the Sept. 11 attacks and affiliate groups emerged in countries like Iraq and Yemen, he relied on these longstanding relationships to help Bin Laden maintain control over the affiliates.
The senior American official said that Mr. Rahman acted as Al Qaeda’s “human Rolodex,” an assessment bolstered by documents seized from Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. [*]
For instance, in late 2005, Mr. Rahman chastised Abu Musab al Zarqawi — the leader of Al Qaeda’s wing in Iraq — for carrying out attacks against Shiite Muslims, which he worried would fracture the insurgency against American troops in Iraq. [I remember that] [but I thought it was Zawahiri who wrote the letter???] [*] Mr. Rahman wrote a letter to Mr. Zarqawi, whom he had known for years, threatening to remove him from the top of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia if he did not change his ways. [I need to check back because I recall it being Zawahiri; Rahman might have delivered it or been involved in high-profile manner but Zawahiri wrote it???] [*]
More recently, according to the Abbottabad documents, Mr. Rahman weighed in about who should be in charge of Al Qaeda’s group in Yemen, and he even helped broker the partnership between Al Qaeda and a North African militant group that eventually agreed to rename itself Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. [I’m not disputing he’s been very much part of the inner circle] [I don’t know anyone who thinks that] [*]
But some American officials said that the group is now largely independent of Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, and that there is even evidence that various affiliated groups across Northern Africa might increasingly be acting in league with one another. [why no sources used here?] [*]
Gen. Carter F. Ham, the head of the military’s Africa Command, said in a telephone interview last week that the group that claimed responsibility for the recent attack in Nigeria, Boko Haram, has said publicly that it plans to tether itself more closely to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and to the Shabab, the militant group operating in Somalia.
Recent American intelligence assessments have found that Boko Haram has trained with Qaeda-linked militants in camps in the deserts of Mali, and may seek to expand its campaign of violence beyond Nigeria.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/us/politics/30terror.html
August 29, 2011
White House Issues Guides on Sept. 11 Observances
By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT [Obama White House] [112th Congress, 1st session] [NSC and down to bureaucracy] [America’s 10-year anniversary of 9/11 in just under two weeks] [guidelines?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [the Obama NSC people have decided to try to balance its emotional resonance with its capacity to retard the complacency that invariably grows as time continues after any huge natioinal crisis] [probably pretty smart?] [it’s what I’m trying to do in my class and I don’t feel like I’m exploiting the memory of the victims?] [it’s an important teachable moment for the nation and the WH is simply informing the bureaucracy of same] [*]
WASHINGTON — The White House has issued detailed guidelines to government officials on how to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, with instructions to honor the memory of those who died on American soil but also to recall that Al Qaeda and other extremist groups have since carried out attacks elsewhere in the world, from Mumbai to Manila. [*]
The White House in recent days has quietly disseminated two sets of documents. One is

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/us/politics/30terror.html
August 29, 2011
White House Issues Guides on Sept. 11 Observances
By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT [Obama White House] [112th Congress, 1st session] [NSC and down to bureaucracy] [America’s 10-year anniversary of 9/11 in just under two weeks] [guidelines?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [the Obama NSC people have decided to try to balance its emotional resonance with its capacity to retard the complacency that invariably grows as time continues after any huge natioinal crisis] [probably pretty smart?] [it’s what I’m trying to do in my class and I don’t feel like I’m exploiting the memory of the victims?] [it’s an important teachable moment for the nation and the WH is simply informing the bureaucracy of same] [*]
WASHINGTON — The White House has issued detailed guidelines to government officials on how to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, with instructions to honor the memory of those who died on American soil but also to recall that Al Qaeda and other extremist groups have since carried out attacks elsewhere in the world, from Mumbai to Manila. [*]
The White House in recent days has quietly disseminated two sets of documents. One is framed for overseas allies and their citizens and was sent to American embassies and consulates around the globe. [makes sense to instruct U.S. embassies worldwide] [*]The other includes themes for Americans here and underscores the importance of national service and what the government has done to prevent another major attack in the United States. [also tries to use the memory for societal good?] [*] That single-page document was issued to all federal agencies, officials said.
After weeks of internal debate, White House officials adopted the communications documents to shape public events and official statements, and they sought to strike a delicate balance between messages designed for these two very important but very different audiences on a day when the world’s attention will be focused on President Obama, his leadership team and his nation. [*]
The guidelines list what themes to underscore — and, just as important, what tone to set. Officials are instructed to memorialize those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and thank those in the military, law enforcement, intelligence or homeland security for their contributions since.
“A chief goal of our communications is to present a positive, forward-looking narrative,” the foreign guidelines state. [*]
Copies of the internal documents were provided to The New York Times by officials in several agencies involved in planning the anniversary commemorations. “The important theme is to show the world how much we realize that 9/11 — the attacks themselves and violent extremism writ large — is not ‘just about us,’ ” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal White House planning. [that certainly makes sense and is well supported by the weight of evidence: U.K. Germany, France, Denmark, Netherlands, India, Indonesia . . . are just the ones that come immediately to mind] [it’s notjust aimed at America but at Western modernity (the Western notion of liberalism)!] [*]
Some senior Obama administration leaders had advocated a lengthy program of speeches and events to mark the anniversary, but the final decision was for lower-key appearances by Mr. Obama and other senior leaders only on the days leading up to the anniversary and on Sept. 11 itself.
Mr. Obama in his weekly address on Saturday said that this year’s anniversary will be one of “service and remembrance.”
“We need to make sure we’re speaking to a very broad set of audiences who will be affected by the anniversary,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, said in a telephone interview on Friday.
That may be, but some American counterterrorism and intelligence officials are complaining that the White House missed out on tying together the 10th anniversary with recently announced strategies to combat terrorism and violent extremism into a more coherent, longer-term plan. [*]“They don’t do that kind of long-term planning,” said a senior counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid disciplinary measures from the White House. Mr. Rhodes rejected that criticism, saying these themes have threaded through many of Mr. Obama’s speeches in recent months. [it’s a fair criticism] [my experience is the NSC simply does not do long term] [for a variety of reasons—and presidents have struggle trying to change it from Ike to Obama—it simply does not plan] [part of it is America’s election cycle] [but lots of reasons] [*]
As the White House sharpens its messages for the commemorations, officials say they have also stepped up efforts to spot signs of foreign or domestic terrorist plots timed around the anniversary. So far, they said, they had not detected any specific plots or an increase in threats.
Officials interviewed at several federal departments said they would consult the White House guidelines, but had been given broad leeway to hold commemorative events at their agencies.
One significant new theme is in both sets of documents: Government officials are to warn that Americans must be prepared for another attack — and must, in response, be resilient in recovering from the loss.
“Resilience takes many forms, including the dedication and courage to move forward,” according to the guidelines for foreign audiences. “While we must never forget those who we lost, we must do more than simply remember them —we must sustain our resilience and remain united to prevent new attacks and new victims.” [I don’t have a problem with those] [Americans must try to remember and stay vigilant while getting on with life] [*]
At the same time, Obama administration officials caution that public commemorations here should not cast the United States as the sole victim of terrorism, an argument underscored by killings and maimings from extremist attacks overseas.
Some senior administration officials involved in the discussions noted that the tone set on this Sept. 11 should be shaped by a recognition that the outpouring of worldwide support for the United States in the weeks after the attacks turned to anger at some American policies adopted in the name of fighting terror — on detention, on interrogation, and the decision to invade Iraq.
So the guidelines aimed at foreign audiences also call on American officials to praise overseas partners and their citizens, who have joined the worldwide effort to combat violent extremism.
“As we commemorate the citizens of over 90 countries who perished in the 9/11 attacks, we honor all victims of terrorism, in every nation around the world,” the overseas guidelines state. “We honor and celebrate the resilience of individuals, families, and communities on every continent, whether in New York or Nairobi, Bali or Belfast, Mumbai or Manila, or Lahore or London.”
The death of Osama bin Laden was viewed as reason for officials to “minimize references to Al Qaeda.” While terrorists affiliated with Bin Laden’s network “still have the ability to inflict harm,” the guidelines say, officials are to make the point that “Al Qaeda and its adherents have become increasingly irrelevant.”
The guidelines say the absence of Al Qaeda playing any significant role in the “Arab Spring” uprisings against longtime autocrats in the Middle East and North Africa should be cited as evidence that Bin Laden’s organization “represents the past,” while peaceful street protesters in Egypt and Tunisia “represent the future.” [which may be wishful thinking but I would say about the same] [Arab Awakening minimally shows the poverty of jihadis’ ideas] [*] Left unsaid was that many of the deposed leaders were close American allies and partners in counterterrorism operations.
Resilience is a repeated theme of the communications. “We celebrate the resilience of communities across the globe,” the foreign guidelines state.
Or, as Mr. Rhodes put it in the interview: “It’s a statement of strength that the United States can outlast our adversaries. We’re stronger than the terrorists’ ability to frighten us.”
The domestic guidelines, entitled “9/11 Anniversary Planning,” are shorter and less prescriptive than the talking points created for overseas audiences. For example, they note that the ceremonies will honor Americans killed in the Sept. 11 attacks but also “all victims of terrorism, including those who had been targeted by Al Qaeda and other groups around the globe.”
But these guidelines also acknowledge that Americans will expect government leaders to explain what steps have been taken to prevent another 9/11-style attack and to encourage Americans to volunteer in their communities this Sept. 11.
The domestic guidelines also ask something of Americans that has been lacking in Washington: “We will also draw on the spirit of unity that prevailed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gps-tracking-should-require-a-court-order/2011/08/26/gIQA9DIKoJ_story.html
GPS tracking should require a court order
By Editorial, Published: August 29 [editorial] [Post, as I have often commented is fairly strongly neoconservative on its editorial board] [like neoconservatives everywhere, many are still socially liberal, comparatively] [this on right to privacy] [*]
FOR ABOUT FOUR weeks in 2005, Antoine Jones unsuspectingly drove around with a Global Positioning System tracking device attached to his Jeep. The device recorded the vehicle’s every movement, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. [*]
It tracked Mr. Jones to his Northeast Washington nightclub and to a residence in Prince George’s County known to law enforcement officers as a stash house. The tracking device, calibrated to capture the vehicle’s position every 10 seconds, produced 3,000 pages of records that proved instrumental in convicting Mr. Jones on drug charges. [*]
The conviction was overturned last year when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the government breached the Constitution — and Mr. Jones’s reasonable

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gps-tracking-should-require-a-court-order/2011/08/26/gIQA9DIKoJ_story.html
GPS tracking should require a court order
By Editorial, Published: August 29 [editorial] [Post, as I have often commented is fairly strongly neoconservative on its editorial board] [like neoconservatives everywhere, many are still socially liberal, comparatively] [this on right to privacy] [*]
FOR ABOUT FOUR weeks in 2005, Antoine Jones unsuspectingly drove around with a Global Positioning System tracking device attached to his Jeep. The device recorded the vehicle’s every movement, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. [*]
It tracked Mr. Jones to his Northeast Washington nightclub and to a residence in Prince George’s County known to law enforcement officers as a stash house. The tracking device, calibrated to capture the vehicle’s position every 10 seconds, produced 3,000 pages of records that proved instrumental in convicting Mr. Jones on drug charges. [*]
The conviction was overturned last year when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the government breached the Constitution — and Mr. Jones’s reasonable expectations of privacy — because law enforcement officers placed the device on the SUV and tracked his every movement without a valid court order. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case in its upcoming term. It’s not an easy case, but we think the appeals court got it right. [*]
The Justice Department [note: the Obama Justice Dept under AG Holder!] [*] argued in a recent brief that warrants aren’t needed for such GPS tracking. After all, officers have been tailing suspects pretty much for as long as detectives have roamed the Earth, and in this country police have never needed court permission to do so. [can you say continuity?] [*]
But tailing someone doesn’t require encroaching on private property, as does affixing a tracking device. The significant investment of personnel and time necessary to tail a suspect acts as a constraint. And human surveillance is highly unlikely to yield the comprehensive results that are available through GPS, which can track a suspect automatically, relentlessly and at little expense. GPS tracking of a targeted individual is also different from police or security cameras, which capture the fleeting movements of random individuals and vehicles that move through a particular space.
“A person who knows all of another’s travels can deduce whether he is a weekly churchgoer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups — and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts,” D.C. Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg aptly noted in invalidating Mr. Jones’s conviction. [yes, it captures way too much that should be private] [if there were some protocol whereby the extraneous could be stripped away, then perhaps it would be okay because it would save govt a lot of money in surveillance] [but saving govt money is not the first priority] [in our system, each of our civil liberties is] [*]
GPS is a valuable tool, and the vast majority of law enforcement officers would probably use it appropriately. But there should be a check against what Judge Alex Kozinski of the California federal appeals court called the possibility of “creepy and un-American” government acts. Requiring a court order before launching a lengthy and intrusive tracking project is not too much to ask. [just so] [if they could justify it before a judge, then that would afford oversight] [*]
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:24 AM | Permalink

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/muslim-americans-say-life-is-more-difficult-since-911/2011/08/29/gIQA7W8foJ_story.html
Muslim Americans say life is more difficult since 9/11
By Carol Morello, Published: August 29 [societal] [Pew Research poll on public opinion] [I cannot imagine anyone is surprised by this?] [America has gone through one of those traumas that happens on ocassion and to which it often overeacts] [that Muslims should feel besieged seems rather intuitive] [throw in some of the ridiculous stuff politicians have done] [and it’s no fault of either Bush or Obama] [Bush went out of his way to say al Qaeda was not Islam from day 1] [Obama has continued it] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
Half of all Muslim Americans say their leaders have not done enough to condemn Islamic extremism, according to a new poll showing widespread satisfaction with life in the United States, although many reported discrimination. [actually, pretty interesting] [I think I’d be surprised if they’d said they felt no discrimination] [that they reproach their own leaders and have widespread statisfaction with the U.S. is heartening] [*]
A decade after Sept. 11, 2001, the survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, shows that a majority of Muslims say the terrorist attacks made it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/muslim-americans-say-life-is-more-difficult-since-911/2011/08/29/gIQA7W8foJ_story.html
Muslim Americans say life is more difficult since 9/11
By Carol Morello, Published: August 29 [societal] [Pew Research poll on public opinion] [I cannot imagine anyone is surprised by this?] [America has gone through one of those traumas that happens on ocassion and to which it often overeacts] [that Muslims should feel besieged seems rather intuitive] [throw in some of the ridiculous stuff politicians have done] [and it’s no fault of either Bush or Obama] [Bush went out of his way to say al Qaeda was not Islam from day 1] [Obama has continued it] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
Half of all Muslim Americans say their leaders have not done enough to condemn Islamic extremism, according to a new poll showing widespread satisfaction with life in the United States, although many reported discrimination. [actually, pretty interesting] [I think I’d be surprised if they’d said they felt no discrimination] [that they reproach their own leaders and have widespread statisfaction with the U.S. is heartening] [*]
A decade after Sept. 11, 2001, the survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, shows that a majority of Muslims say the terrorist attacks made it more difficult to be a Muslim in the United States. Many said that they had been singled out by airport security officers and that people had acted suspicious of them or called them offensive names. [some of that is inevitable] [some of it is self inflicted by the govt trying to ensure another 9/11 does not happen] [*]
But half also said Americans had been friendly toward them, and three-quarters expressed faith that with hard work, they could get ahead. [potentially, very heartening] [*]
“This is not an underclass,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew center. “There’s a great deal of ‘We want to be Americans.’ They see opportunity here.” [it seems clear that America still assimilates better than its Euro couterparts] [it’s part of America’s fabric] [*]
The survey, to be released Tuesday, offers the most comprehensive look at Muslim American opinions since the last Pew poll, four years ago. The Muslim community is difficult to study. Two-thirds are immigrants from dozens of countries and cultures. And neither the Census Bureau nor immigration officials ask people for their religious affiliation.
Pew researchers conducted more than 1,000 telephone interviews in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu over three months this spring and summer, even as Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) was holding hearings about radical Islam http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/10/AR2011031002045.htmlin the United States and the Muslim community’s response. [they were somewhat heavy handed but not terrible] [there were legitimate worries] [but the two Parties tried to use the entire issue as wedge, unsurprisingly] [*]
The Pew study found that six in 10 U.S.-born Muslims faulted Islamic leaders for not speaking out against extremism, as did 43 percent of Muslim immigrants. [warms my heart] [*]
Officials with Muslim advocacy groups say that they have spoken out repeatedly against extremists but that the American public, including Muslims, often doesn’t hear about it.
“Our reach in terms of community awareness of our programs promoting moderation is not where we’d like it to be,” said Safaa Zarzour, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, the nation’s largest Muslim group.
Zarzour said that anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States is concentrated among a few individuals and groups. Most Muslims have warm relations with colleagues, neighbors and local public officials, he said.
“For a few years after 9/11, everybody got extremely scared,” he said. “Since then, religious and political leaders have acted more responsibly. Though the rhetoric has gone into high gear, the reality on the ground has been won, slowly but surely, by cooler heads and the better instincts of the American people.” [indeed] [*]
Pew researchers estimate there are 2.75 million Muslims in the country, up 400,000 from four years ago.
About 56 percent of those polled said they were satisfied with the direction in which the country is heading, compared with 23 percent of the general public. That may be a reflection of political views, the Pew study said. Most of those polled said they were Democrats who voted for President Obama.
A significant number of Americans remain wary of Muslims. Last year, in a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 31 percent of respondents said that mainstream Islam “encourages violence.” [it’s also understandable because they know so little about Islam] [and it’s quite difficult for someone who doesn’t know it to make distinctions] [use fall 2011, psci 463] [*]
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:23 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/opinion/natos-teachable-moment.html
August 29, 2011
NATO’s Teachable Moment
[editorial] [NATO, the US, and Libya] [I’m of the opinion that Libya is not especially generalizable?] [first, the issues associated with R2P; second, the broad support including key Arab support] [nevertheless, here’s the Times’ view] [*]
The hunt for Muammar el-Qaddafi goes on, but his tyrannical 42-year rule over Libya is finished. The Libyan people bore the brunt of the fighting and dying that brought him down. But NATO air power played an important role. Airstrikes in March stopped Colonel Qaddafi’s forces from storming Benghazi and slaughtering its inhabitants. Continued pounding degraded the regime’s firepower, giving the rebels time to organize and train. NATO’s refusal to back away — and its decision to bring the fight to the skies over Tripoli — helped push Qaddafi cronies to switch sides. [all true enough] [*]
The Western allies, especially the British and French forces backed up by the United States, can be justly proud. So can Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, President Nicolas

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/opinion/natos-teachable-moment.html
August 29, 2011
NATO’s Teachable Moment
[editorial] [NATO, the US, and Libya] [I’m of the opinion that Libya is not especially generalizable?] [first, the issues associated with R2P; second, the broad support including key Arab support] [nevertheless, here’s the Times’ view] [*]
The hunt for Muammar el-Qaddafi goes on, but his tyrannical 42-year rule over Libya is finished. The Libyan people bore the brunt of the fighting and dying that brought him down. But NATO air power played an important role. Airstrikes in March stopped Colonel Qaddafi’s forces from storming Benghazi and slaughtering its inhabitants. Continued pounding degraded the regime’s firepower, giving the rebels time to organize and train. NATO’s refusal to back away — and its decision to bring the fight to the skies over Tripoli — helped push Qaddafi cronies to switch sides. [all true enough] [*]
The Western allies, especially the British and French forces backed up by the United States, can be justly proud. So can Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and President Obama, who ignored the naysayers who claimed that Libya was a quagmire and the battle not worth fighting.
But it would be a mistake to deny the serious problems revealed by the six-month campaign. This was NATO’s first attempt at sustained combat operations with the United States playing a support role. Europe’s military capabilities fell far short of what was needed, even for such a limited fight. [*]
President Obama, who pressed hard for NATO involvement, rightly insisted that Europe, along with Canada, take the lead. It is reasonable to expect the wealthy nations of Europe to easily handle a limited mission in their own backyard that involved no commitment of ground troops. Reasonable, but, as it turned out, not realistic. [*]
Shortfalls of specialized aircraft, bombs and targeting specialists plagued NATO operations. The effects would have been even more damaging if Washington had not stepped in to help plug some of these critical gaps.
Apart from Britain and France, most European militaries have failed to keep up with technological advances in battlefield management and communications. They train their forces to defend largely unthreatened borders at home, leaving them unwilling and unprepared to defend common interests abroad, from Afghanistan to Libya.
Even Britain and France have skimped on munitions and targeters, making it hard for them to carry out multiple missions (both are also fighting in Afghanistan). Now, Britain and France are planning force and equipment cuts that threaten their capacity to take part in future extended foreign operations. [if the U.S. is needed as some indespensible nation for NATO or others to work, the U.S. must nevertheless have a clear foreign-policy objective beyond R2P, it seems to me] [perhaps there was one in Libya] [but I never heard it articulated other than democratization and I am against have democratization as an explicit foreign-policy objective] [we’ve learned (relearned?) valuable lessons on that] [*]
For decades, European nations have counted on a free-spending Pentagon to provide the needed capabilities they failed to provide themselves. The Pentagon is now under intense and legitimate pressure to meet America’s security needs more economically. It can no longer afford to provide affluent allies with a free ride.
In June, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pointedly told European NATO allies that they risked becoming militarily irrelevant unless they stepped up investment in their forces and equipment. His successor, Leon Panetta, needs to drive that message home. [*]
European leaders need to ask themselves a fundamental question: If it was this hard taking on a ragtag army like Qaddafi’s, what would it be like to have to fight a real enemy? [so the Times’ position is the U.S. needs to ensure the Europeans accept more responsibility?] [after 70 years of dependency on U.S. for military prowess, exactly how is the U.S. to ensure it?] [I have no problem with the notion the main members of NATO need to get it together; I just don’t see how to make them] [and that’s before we even get to my problems with NATO generally (what is its purpose?)!] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:22 AM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/americas/30brazil.html
August 29, 2011
As Prosperity Rises in Brazil’s Northeast, So Does Drug Violence
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO [Brazil] [the Americas] [Latin America] [societal violence in mega cities] [Brazil as one of handful of emerging Latin American nation-states with power and influence] [use psci 350] [drugs and crimes plaguing parts of Latin America] [followup, November 28, 2010] [*]
SALVADOR, Brazil — Jenilson Dos Santos Conceição, 20, lay face down on the rough concrete, his body twisted, sandals still on his feet, as the blood from his 14 bullet wounds stained the sloped alleyway.
A small crowd of residents watched dispassionately as a dozen police officers hovered around the young man’s lifeless body.
“He was followed until he was executed right here,” said Bruno Ferreira de Oliveira, a senior investigator. “They wanted to make sure he was dead.”
Mr. Conceição was the third person found murdered in the state of Bahia on that July day. By day’s end, 6 would die violently, and by month’s end 354 had been killed, the police said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/americas/30brazil.html
August 29, 2011
As Prosperity Rises in Brazil’s Northeast, So Does Drug Violence
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO [Brazil] [the Americas] [Latin America] [societal violence in mega cities] [Brazil as one of handful of emerging Latin American nation-states with power and influence] [use psci 350] [drugs and crimes plaguing parts of Latin America] [followup, November 28, 2010] [*]
SALVADOR, Brazil — Jenilson Dos Santos Conceição, 20, lay face down on the rough concrete, his body twisted, sandals still on his feet, as the blood from his 14 bullet wounds stained the sloped alleyway.
A small crowd of residents watched dispassionately as a dozen police officers hovered around the young man’s lifeless body.
“He was followed until he was executed right here,” said Bruno Ferreira de Oliveira, a senior investigator. “They wanted to make sure he was dead.”
Mr. Conceição was the third person found murdered in the state of Bahia on that July day. By day’s end, 6 would die violently, and by month’s end 354 had been killed, the police said.
The geography of violence in Brazil has been turned on its head the past few years. In the southeast, home to Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and many of the country’s most enduring stereotypes of shootouts and kidnappings, the murder rate actually dropped by 47 percent between 1999 and 2009, according to a study by José Maria Nóbrega, a political science professor at the Federal University of Campina Grande.
But here in the northeast, a poor region that benefited most from the wealth-transfer programs that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva championed during his eight years in office, the murder rate nearly doubled in the same 10-year period, turning this area into the nation’s most violent, Dr. Nóbrega found.
Salvador, the region’s largest city, is one of Brazil’s biggest tourist draws, the gateway to some of the country’s most spectacular beaches. And like Rio, it is preparing to co-host the 2014 World Cup. So the authorities here are taking a page from Rio’s playbook, trying to grapple with the surge in violent crime by establishing permanent police units in violent areas frequented by drug traffickers.
The community police forces being installed here are similar to the “police pacification units” the Rio government has been using — to both great fanfare and controversy — since 2008 to stem drug violence there.
The northeast has long been plagued by crime, but the increase illustrates how Brazil’s economic boom is causing drug-related violence — the main cause for the homicide scourge — to migrate to other parts of the country as traffickers seek new markets, straining local police forces, according to both Dr. Nóbrega and local officials.
The same economic wave that put more money in millions of poor Brazilians’ pockets, especially here in the north, has also stimulated more drug trafficking and the deadly crime associated with it, officials here contended. Drug traffickers, realizing the potential of a stronger market, have focused more heavily on the northeast, resulting in drug wars and addiction-fueled violence, they said.
“If the consumer market is booming, the drug trafficker will come here as well,” said Jaques Wagner, the governor of Bahia. “The social progress in Brazil is visible. But at the same time we still have trouble with drug trafficking and with a lack of respect for human life.”
In the states of Bahia and Alagoas, especially, there has been an explosion of violence in the past decade. The number of murders in Bahia grew by 430 percent, to 4,709, between 1999 and 2008, Dr. Nóbrega said, and last year the state’s murder rate of 34.2 per 100,000 residents was higher than Rio’s, which fell to 29.8. (Bahia officials said that after leveling off in 2010, homicides were down 13 percent through July 2011 compared with the first seven months of 2010.)
Travel agencies say they are concerned about the rise in violent crime in Bahia’s slums — as well as the drug-fueled petty assaults in Pelourinho, Salvador’s colorful historic center.
“Salvador, right now, is not ready for the World Cup by any stretch, and they are starting to realize that,” said Paul Irvine, the director of Dehouche, a travel agency in Rio de Janeiro that organizes trips to both cities.
Governor Wagner shrugged off such assertions, noting that Bahia holds a Carnaval celebration every year where more than one million people take to the streets, with 22,000 police officers providing security.
“We have gone four years without a homicide on the parade route,” he said. “For me, police readiness for the World Cup won’t be any problem at all.”
Rio’s violent slums have been characterized by battles between the police and heavily armed drug gangs that have controlled large areas. But in the northeast, security officials contend, people have historically settled disputes on their own — neighbor to neighbor, with deadly impunity.
“The northeast is used to seeking justice with its own hands,” said Mauricio Teles Barbosa, the secretary of security in Bahia. “They do not believe in the police because they were the police. They were the colonels, the outlaws that sought justice without the participation of the state.”
Mr. Wagner argued that these attitudes toward violence, along with an indifference shown by the state in providing police protection and social services, allowed murders to go largely unchecked. But more rampant drug trafficking, fueled in part by criminal gangs operating out of São Paulo, has greatly worsened the situation, Mr. Barbosa said.
The arrival of crack cocaine has been particularly devastating. In Nova Constituinte, a community on the outskirts of Salvador that sprouted on a former banana plantation, a series of drug-related killings has stalked the area for the past five years, including the massacre of six teenagers caught in the crossfire of rival gangs, said Arnaldo Anselmo, 42, a community leader.
Gildasio Oliveira Silva said that drug traffickers twice tried to kill his teenage son, who had fallen prey to crack and owed his dealers money. Last December, he said, they gunned down his wife, Ana Maria Passos ou Assis, 39, as she was cleaning the bathroom of Mr. Silva’s small convenience store along Nova Constituinte’s main avenue.
“The violence has gotten worse here,” said Mr. Silva, 68, a former police officer. “And it’s all related to drugs.”
After becoming governor in 2007, Mr. Wagner vowed to build up the police and try to stem the surging violence. He has added 7,000 new police officers in the past four years and authorized 3,500 more this year.
Bahia inaugurated its first community police unit in Calabar, a poor enclave surrounded by more expensive high-rises. Since opening in April with 120 officers, no homicides have been reported, said Capt. Maria de Oliveira Silva, who heads the unit.
“In the last three years, you didn’t go a month without someone getting killed here,” said Lindalva Reis, 58, who has lived in Calabar for 38 years.
Three more community police units are scheduled to open over the next year near Nova Constituinte.
Like the units in Rio, the officers being selected are mostly rookies, to try to cut down on corruption and the more aggressive habits of some older officers.
Unlike in Rio, the installation of the new units here has not required first clearing out entrenched drug gangs with bloody police and military operations that can last weeks.
To counter criticism that its police have struggled to solve crimes, the Bahia State government established a dedicated homicide department earlier this year, with 150 officers focused on murder investigations.
Among the challenges of the new unit is rooting out “extermination groups,” militias composed of police officers who have practiced vigilante justice and been suspected in dozens of murders, said Arthur Gallas, the homicide unit’s director.
Then there is the mountain of unresolved cases. In the new department’s offices, investigators recently pored over stacks of files containing 1,500 unsolved homicides dating from before 2007.
But the new push is still a work in progress.
At the crime scene of Mr. Conceição, the police did not set up security tape to prevent evidence contamination. “Preserving evidence is very difficult here,” said Helder Cunha, a crime scene investigator, noting that a proposal to require crime scene tape in Bahia had yet to be put into practice.
Myrna Domit contributed reporting from São Paulo.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:21 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/asia/30china.html
August 29, 2011
China Takes Aim at Rural Influx
By ANDREW JACOBS [China] [PRC] [China’s own domestic concerns about its population] [China’s CCP has been watching the Arab Awakening with serious trepidation] [use psci 350] [despite China’s miraculous growth and relative move upward in terms of world power, away from the eastern seaboard, China has emense challenges] [use psci 355-455] [ethnic tenstions, masses who still live in squalor one might associate with 19th century, and a realestate bubble as the U.S. experience by 2008] [use fall 2011?] [*]
BEIJING — Xie Zhenqing spent 12 years transforming a collection of ramshackle houses into Red Star, a privately run, low-cost school for 1,400 children of migrants from poor rural areas. It took just a few hours this month for a government-dispatched demolition crew to turn the place into a jagged pile of bricks.
“What the government did to us is unconscionable,” Ms. Xie, Red Star’s principal, said angrily as parents of her students scrambled to find other arrangements before the start of the new school year on Thursday. “I’ll never work for a migrant school again.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/asia/30china.html
August 29, 2011
China Takes Aim at Rural Influx
By ANDREW JACOBS [China] [PRC] [China’s own domestic concerns about its population] [China’s CCP has been watching the Arab Awakening with serious trepidation] [use psci 350] [despite China’s miraculous growth and relative move upward in terms of world power, away from the eastern seaboard, China has emense challenges] [use psci 355-455] [ethnic tenstions, masses who still live in squalor one might associate with 19th century, and a realestate bubble as the U.S. experience by 2008] [use fall 2011?] [*]
BEIJING — Xie Zhenqing spent 12 years transforming a collection of ramshackle houses into Red Star, a privately run, low-cost school for 1,400 children of migrants from poor rural areas. It took just a few hours this month for a government-dispatched demolition crew to turn the place into a jagged pile of bricks.
“What the government did to us is unconscionable,” Ms. Xie, Red Star’s principal, said angrily as parents of her students scrambled to find other arrangements before the start of the new school year on Thursday. “I’ll never work for a migrant school again.”
Red Star is one of 30 technically illegal private schools in Beijing that have been torn down or closed in recent weeks in an official campaign billed as a war against unsafe and unhygienic school buildings. In all, more than 30,000 students have lost their classrooms this summer. Advocates for the migrants warn that many of the capital’s 130 other unlicensed schools could be next.
Some observers see other motives behind the campaign, including the municipal government’s unceasing pursuit of land sales to fill its coffers. The site where Red Star once stood is already surrounded by a crop of expensive high-rise apartment towers and a new subway station.
But school administrators, parents and many Beijingers view the bulldozing as nothing more than a roughshod exercise in population control. According to the Beijing Bureau of Statistics, more than one-third of the capital’s 19.6 million residents are migrants from China’s rural hinterland, a figure that has grown by about 6 million just since 2000.
Numbers like these worry the governing Communist Party, which has a particular aversion to the specter of urban slums and their potential as cauldrons for social instability.
Though the quality of education they offer may be questionable, private schools like Red Star are often the only option for the children of low-skilled migrant laborers, who for the most part are ineligible for the free public education available to legal Beijing residents. Known derisively as “waidi ren,” or outsiders, the migrants are the cut-rate muscle that makes it eminently affordable for better-off Chinese to dine out, hire full-time nannies and ride new subway lines in places like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
“The middle class hates to see that kind of poverty, but they can’t live without their cheap labor,” said Kam Wing Chan, a professor at the University of Washington who studies China’s rural-migrant policies.
To manage the huge population flows — and its own fears — the government relies on an internal passport and registration system dating from the Mao years that ties access to education, health care and pensions to the birthplace of a person’s parent. The hukou system, as it is called, has created a two-tiered population in many Chinese cities: those with legal residency and those without. [*]
Though urbanization is a central tenet of the party’s latest five-year economic plan for the country, Mr. Chan says, the 250 million rural migrants who are expected to move to cities in the next 15 years could become a source of social unrest unless the hukou system is reformed. “Having that many second-class citizens in Chinese cities is dangerous,” [in perspective, the U.S. is now just over 300 million total] [*] he said.
Obtaining an urban residence permit, called a hukou, is possible only for those with deep pockets or top-notch connections, so struggling migrants live in a gray zone of pay-as-you-go medical care, dingy rented rooms and unregistered schools where the education is middling at best. Byzantine property ownership and bank-loan rules mean that most rural hukou holders are frozen out of the housing market even if they can afford a down payment on an apartment.
The challenges become even more heart-rending after middle school, when the children of migrants must either return to their parents’ hometown for high school — and thus live separated from their parents — or drop out. “It’s a cruel, unfair system that stops people from pursuing their dreams,” said Song Yingquan, a researcher at the Rural Education Action Project, an advocacy group.
Policy makers have been discussing hukou reform for two decades, but beyond limited experiments in Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu and a smattering of second-tier cities, the National People’s Congress, China’s lawmaking body, has declined to act.
Resistance comes from factory owners who want migrant laborers to remain insecure and cheap to exploit, and from urban elites who fear an even greater deluge of migrants from the countryside if it becomes easier to live in the city. But the most formidable opposition may be that of local governments, which worry about paying for the health care, education and other benefits that migrants and their children would qualify for as legal residents.
In a rare act of coordinated defiance, more than a dozen newspapers across the country jointly published an editorial last year calling on the government to take on the nettlesome process of reform. “We believe in people born to be free and people possessing the right to migrate freely,” the editorial declared. Within hours, however, the editorial was pulled from the papers’ Web sites and several editors were punished.
Since then, some Chinese scholars have been reluctant to speak out on the issue — indeed, a half-dozen experts on the subject each declined to comment for this article. Others, who were willing to discuss the matter, warned that the status quo was producing the very situation China’s leaders want to avoid.
As income gaps widen and inflation takes its toll on the paltry incomes of big-city migrants, many workers are becoming increasingly bitter. “The system as it stands now is only feeding instability,” said Jia Xijin, a public policy expert at Tsinghua University. “Rural and urban residents contribute to our nation, and they both pay taxes. But they don’t equally benefit. The injustice is glaring.”
Although education bureaucrats insist that the closings of the migrant schools in Beijing are a matter of safety, many parents raised questions about the timing and the lack of alternatives. Some parents, especially those whose children have been displaced more than once, admitted defeat and said they would either return to their hometowns or send their children back to be raised by relatives.
“If officials don’t want our kids to be educated in the capital, then we should all go back to the places where we truly belong,” said a recyclables collector who sent his two school-age children back to Henan Province this month. “I don’t see why we should live here without dignity.”
More of the families, however, vowed to stick it out in Beijing. Two weeks ago, as devastated parents and their children gathered at the rubble of their former schools, local newspapers eagerly captured their despair. Compounding popular ire were news media reports about a government-affiliated charity that is spending more than $300 million to construct 1,000 schools in Africa.
The public backlash was immediate, prompting education officials in several districts to relax restrictions that bar nonresident students from enrolling in Beijing’s public schools. Still, many parents complained that the remedies were inadequate or elusive, and said that similar promises after a spate of school demolitions in 2006 proved to be hollow.
Li Haixin, 32, a math teacher at Red Star who sent her 6-year-old son to the school, said the boy was still shaken from seeing the desks, chairs and student art projects buried under a mound of broken masonry. Although she is now unemployed, Ms. Li said she would try to send him to a more expensive but legally registered private school, borrowing the money to pay the fees, rather than enroll him in a slapdash building that the authorities said would open as a replacement school for some of the students.
“This is a ruse,” she said of the campaign against illegal schools. “Let’s face it, they just want to elbow us out of the city.”
Shi Da contributed research.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:20 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/asia/30spy.html
August 29, 2011
Video Leaked of Frank Talk About Spying Inside China
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [China] [PRC] [China’s own domestic concerns about its population] [China’s CCP has been watching the Arab Awakening with serious trepidation] [use psci 350] [over past couple of years, as China has stretched its foreign-policy legs, more occasions for tenstions to arise with US over myriad issues] [use psci 355-455] [a fair number of indicents between China and US over past couple years] [use fall 2011?] [if this is real it could prove potentially quite embarrassing as China’s seemingly caught bragging about how it spies on the US] [in fact, we both spy on each other a good deal but there always withing plausible deniability!] [*]
BEIJING (AP) — Video of a Chinese officer discussing sensitive spying cases has been leaked onto YouTube, in what appears to be an embarrassing failure of secrecy for the usually tight-lipped Chinese military. [*]
It was unclear when or where the officer, Maj. Gen. Jin Yinan, made the comments, and the Defense Ministry did not immediately respond Monday to questions about the video. Calls to the National Defense University, where General Jin is a lecturer, were not answered. [*]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/asia/30spy.html
August 29, 2011
Video Leaked of Frank Talk About Spying Inside China
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [China] [PRC] [China’s own domestic concerns about its population] [China’s CCP has been watching the Arab Awakening with serious trepidation] [use psci 350] [over past couple of years, as China has stretched its foreign-policy legs, more occasions for tenstions to arise with US over myriad issues] [use psci 355-455] [a fair number of indicents between China and US over past couple years] [use fall 2011?] [if this is real it could prove potentially quite embarrassing as China’s seemingly caught bragging about how it spies on the US] [in fact, we both spy on each other a good deal but there always withing plausible deniability!] [*]
BEIJING (AP) — Video of a Chinese officer discussing sensitive spying cases has been leaked onto YouTube, in what appears to be an embarrassing failure of secrecy for the usually tight-lipped Chinese military. [*]
It was unclear when or where the officer, Maj. Gen. Jin Yinan, made the comments, and the Defense Ministry did not immediately respond Monday to questions about the video. Calls to the National Defense University, where General Jin is a lecturer, were not answered. [*]
While some of the spy cases had been disclosed before, few details had been released, while others involving the military had been kept secret.
Among the cases General Jin discussed in the video was that of a former ambassador to South Korea, Li Bin, sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption. He said that Mr. Li had been discovered passing secrets to South Korea that compromised China’s position in nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea, but that the accusation was too embarrassing to make public, and so corruption charges had been brought instead. [*]
Similar circumstances apparently led to corruption charges against the former head of China’s nuclear power program, Kang Rixin, who was sentenced to life in prison in November. General Jin said that Mr. Kang had actually peddled secrets about China’s civilian nuclear program to a foreign nation that he did not identify, but that the spying was considered too sensitive to bring up in court.
Mr. Kang, a member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, was one of the highest-ranking officials ever involved in spying, General Jin said. His arrest was a shock to the party leadership, the general said. [*]
“The party center was extremely nervous,” he said. “They ordered top-to-bottom inspections and spared no individual.”
General Jin also talked on the video about Tong Daning, an official from China’s social security fund, who was executed in 2006 after being convicted of spying for Taiwan. He said that Mr. Tong had passed information to Taiwan’s leaders about China’s currency regimen, allowing them to avoid huge losses because of changes in exchange rates. [evidence of what the US and others have accused China of doing and which China has denied] [*]
Among other cases involving military personnel, General Jin spoke about Col. Xu Junping, who defected to the United States in 2000. He said that Colonel Xu had not disclosed technical secrets, but had relayed to the Americans his knowledge of the military leaders’ personalities, attitudes and habits gleaned from many years of accompanying senior military leaders on trips abroad.
The video was also posted on Chinese Web sites; it was removed from most locations, but screen shots, audio files and transcripts of General Jin’s comments could still be found on sites like Sina Weibo’s popular microblogging service.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/europe/30russia.html
August 29, 2011
Russia Parliamentary Elections to Be Held Dec. 4
By SETH MYDANS [Russia] [former USSR] [US-Russia relations] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [Vlad and Medvedev so far are both jockeying for next year’s presidential elections] [ues psci 350] [meanwhile, President Medvedev has set parliamentary elections for Dec 4!] [nobody cares because the big election is for presidency in 2012 and it’s still unclear whether Putin or Medvedev will run?] [followup] [*]
MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Monday set a Dec. 4 date for a parliamentary election that will almost certainly be dominated by the governing United Russia party and will set the stage for a presidential election early next year.
But Mr. Medvedev’s announcement was overshadowed by the continuing political intrigue between him and his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, over which of them will run for president. [*]
The three minority parties in Parliament — the Communists, the Liberal Democrats and A

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/europe/30russia.html
August 29, 2011
Russia Parliamentary Elections to Be Held Dec. 4
By SETH MYDANS [Russia] [former USSR] [US-Russia relations] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [Vlad and Medvedev so far are both jockeying for next year’s presidential elections] [ues psci 350] [meanwhile, President Medvedev has set parliamentary elections for Dec 4!] [nobody cares because the big election is for presidency in 2012 and it’s still unclear whether Putin or Medvedev will run?] [followup] [*]
MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Monday set a Dec. 4 date for a parliamentary election that will almost certainly be dominated by the governing United Russia party and will set the stage for a presidential election early next year.
But Mr. Medvedev’s announcement was overshadowed by the continuing political intrigue between him and his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, over which of them will run for president. [*]
The three minority parties in Parliament — the Communists, the Liberal Democrats and A Just Russia — have had little impact in the 450-seat Duma, the lower house of Parliament, where United Russia holds a two-thirds majority.
In past contests the party has taken nothing for granted, and it is expected to use all the levers of power to ensure that it maintains the margin that has allowed it to pass legislation at will.
“I would very much like our next Duma to reflect the political preferences of the largest possible number of citizens,” Mr. Medvedev told the leaders of registered parties gathered at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Mr. Medvedev was Mr. Putin’s choice to replace him as president when Mr. Putin reached the limit of two consecutive terms four years ago. The choice enabled Mr. Putin to effectively remain the country’s most powerful figure — as the prime minister chosen by President Medvedev. [*]
The two men, who have made elaborate gestures of comradeship, have appeared to enjoy offering tantalizing hints as the nation waits to hear from them who is likely to be its president for the next four years.
Still, a new element has emerged in the contest: Mikhail D. Prokhorov, one of Russia’s richest men and the owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, who has taken over leadership of a small Western-oriented party known as the Right Cause. [?][*]This month, Mr. Prokhorov, who has never held political office, said he would consider accepting the post of prime minister — but only if he liked the agenda of the incoming president.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/middleeast/30israel.html
August 29, 2011
Palestinian Man Injures 8 at Israeli Club, Police Say
By ETHAN BRONNER [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Tel Aviv, Israel] [Palestinian from West Bank] [as happens with some frequency, Palestinian losses it and drives car into a bunch of Israelis or some other violent act to act out his rage] [this time the Arab gentleman stole a taxi and drove it into a club] [followup] [effective if not exactly original] [*]
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man from the occupied West Bank wounded eight Israelis early Monday when he hijacked a taxi in Tel Aviv, drove it to a packed nightclub and ran over police officers at a security checkpoint before emerging to stab several bystanders.
A police spokeswoman said the man, who is 21 and from Nablus, shouted “God is great!” in Arabic before being subdued by police officers. One officer was seriously hurt and three others were wounded, as was the taxi driver. [*]
The police said they believed the attack was an act of political terror. The Palestinian Authority condemned it.
The attack came at a time when Israel was stepping up security against terror attacks. The military said Monday that it had increased its presence along Israel’s southern border with

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/middleeast/30israel.html
August 29, 2011
Palestinian Man Injures 8 at Israeli Club, Police Say
By ETHAN BRONNER [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Tel Aviv, Israel] [Palestinian from West Bank] [as happens with some frequency, Palestinian losses it and drives car into a bunch of Israelis or some other violent act to act out his rage] [this time the Arab gentleman stole a taxi and drove it into a club] [followup] [effective if not exactly original] [*]
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man from the occupied West Bank wounded eight Israelis early Monday when he hijacked a taxi in Tel Aviv, drove it to a packed nightclub and ran over police officers at a security checkpoint before emerging to stab several bystanders.
A police spokeswoman said the man, who is 21 and from Nablus, shouted “God is great!” in Arabic before being subdued by police officers. One officer was seriously hurt and three others were wounded, as was the taxi driver. [*]
The police said they believed the attack was an act of political terror. The Palestinian Authority condemned it.
The attack came at a time when Israel was stepping up security against terror attacks. The military said Monday that it had increased its presence along Israel’s southern border with Egypt because of an intelligence warning of a possible attack by Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian group based in Gaza and supported by Iran. The military said members of the group had slipped into the Sinai region of Egypt in preparation for an attack on Israel.
On Aug. 18, eight Israelis were killed in an attack mounted from Sinai. Israeli forces responded by killing leaders of a separate radical group in Gaza that it said was responsible for the attack. Three Egyptian policemen in Sinai were also killed by Israeli forces, who were pursuing the attackers. Tensions rose sharply with Egypt, leading Israel to apologize and to increase its cooperation with the Egyptian military. [chronology of recent Sinai travails] [*]
The revolution in Egypt that resulted in the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in February has led to an increase in lawlessness in Sinai, allowing more movement of Palestinian militants to and from Gaza through tunnels under the border.
“Even this morning, we are on high alert in the south in the face of a possible attack, which is similar in setup to the one that happened 10 days ago,” the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, said Monday.
Mr. Barak spoke at an Israeli military industrial plant in the southern city of Ashdod, telling his hosts that an additional battery of a new antirocket defense system would be set up soon to intercept rockets fired from Gaza.
“By the end of the year we intend to have four sites, as part of a national emergency program that will bring us nine sites in less than two years, with many thousands of interceptions,” he said. “This will change the foundations of the defense of Israeli citizens.”
The Tel Aviv attack occurred just before 2 a.m. at one of the city’s most popular nightclubs, which was holding a well-publicized end-of-summer celebration. The police checkpoint and additional security there had been set up for crowd control in anticipation of scuffling unrelated to politics.
The man accused of the attack was slightly hurt and, along with the victims, was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was under interrogation.
Terrorist attacks, which became relatively common in Israel during the Palestinian uprising in 2002 and 2003, have been rare in Tel Aviv in the last few years, for a combination of reasons, including the renunciation of violence by the West Bank leadership, the construction of a security barrier by Israel and intensive Israeli military activity against militant cells.
But the attack on southern Israel this month raised concerns about the renewal of such tactics, especially as peace talks have ground to a halt and mutual recrimination has increased.
The Palestinian leadership is planning to appeal in a few weeks for the United Nations to accept the state of Palestine as a member. Israeli officials — as well as some Palestinians — say they are worried that the move, by raising expectations but changing little on the ground, could increase the frequency of violence. [September vote in UNGA then?] [*]
In a statement about the Tel Aviv attack issued through its news agency, the Palestinian Authority said it “condemned this attack as well as the ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and reaffirmed its intention to seek membership and recognition of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital in the United Nations.” It added that “no attempts to divert attention will stop us from achieving our goal.”
Israel and the United States have urged the Palestinian Authority not to seek the United Nations vote, and to engage instead in direct negotiations with Israel. The Palestinians say negotiations are pointless because they believe Israel has no desire to see a Palestinian state come into being.
Palestinian newspapers on Monday included quotations from an interview that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, gave to Arab newspapers, in which he said that international recognition of a Palestinian state would change the legal status of Palestinians by turning their territory into a “country under occupation” in accordance with international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/africa/31libya.html
August 30, 2011
Rebels Set Deadline for Qaddafi Forces to Surrender
By KAREEM FAHIM, NEIL MacFARQUHAR and ALAN COWELL [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [they’re having hard time finding Qaddafi] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [apparently Qaffafi’s wife and children turned up in Algeria?] [TNC now setting deadlines for the Col to rear his head from under his rock?] [trying to impress on remaining loyalists that it’s futile to carry on fight] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — Increasingly self-confident rebels on Tuesday offered forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi a four-day deadline to surrender in their final redoubts after months of fighting that have swept the insurgents from their eastern strongholds to Tripoli.
The offer came a day after neighboring Algeria said it had allowed a two-vehicle caravan of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s relatives, including his second wife and three of his children, into the country. [*]The flight of his relatives provided powerful new evidence of surrender by the Qaddafi clan as rebels consolidated their hold the capital.
Speaking at a news conference in Benghazi on Tuesday, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the head of the

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/africa/31libya.html
August 30, 2011
Rebels Set Deadline for Qaddafi Forces to Surrender
By KAREEM FAHIM, NEIL MacFARQUHAR and ALAN COWELL [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [they’re having hard time finding Qaddafi] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [apparently Qaffafi’s wife and children turned up in Algeria?] [TNC now setting deadlines for the Col to rear his head from under his rock?] [trying to impress on remaining loyalists that it’s futile to carry on fight] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — Increasingly self-confident rebels on Tuesday offered forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi a four-day deadline to surrender in their final redoubts after months of fighting that have swept the insurgents from their eastern strongholds to Tripoli.
The offer came a day after neighboring Algeria said it had allowed a two-vehicle caravan of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s relatives, including his second wife and three of his children, into the country. [*]The flight of his relatives provided powerful new evidence of surrender by the Qaddafi clan as rebels consolidated their hold the capital.
Speaking at a news conference in Benghazi on Tuesday, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the head of the rebel council, gave forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi an ultimatum to negotiate surrender by Saturday. The offer related primarily to the coastal town of Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown and a focus of support for him, but also covered loyalist strongholds at Bani Walid and in the southern oasis town of Sabha. [*]
“By Saturday, if there are no peaceful indications for implementing this, we will decide this matter militarily. We do not wish to do so but we cannot wait longer,” Mr. Abdel-Jalil said.
NATO, which has been conducting an air campaign under a United Nations mandate since March, said it was aware of reports “from a few hours ago” that there had been discussions between loyalist and rebel supporters. “We see these discussions as encouraging signs and we will see how they evolve in coming days,” said Col. Roland Lavoie, a NATO spokesman, in Naples, Italy.
But he said NATO warplanes were focusing on “a corridor to the eastern edge of Surt.”
Anti-Qaddafi forces have advanced on Surt from the east and west, but have stopped short of an all-out assault. The rebel deadline coincided with the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month which concludes with a major holiday, Id al-Fitr, [*]lasting several days.
Rebel leaders, meanwhile, responded angrily to the Algerian move to give sanctuary to Qaddafi family members, according to news reports, saying the decision was “an aggressive act against the Libyan people’s wish.”
Mahmoud Shammam, the rebel information minister, said the insurgents wanted the family members sent back to Libya.
“We are determined to arrest and try the whole Qaddafi family, including Qaddafi himself," Mr. Shammam said late Monday night, The Associated Press reported. “We’d like to see those people coming back to Libya.” [*]
Mr. Qaddafi’s wife Safiya, daughter Aisha, and two of his sons, Mohammed and Hannibal, all crossed into Algeria, said Mourad Benmehidi, the Algerian permanent representative to the United Nations. The spouses of Colonel Qaddafi’s children and their children arrived as well, he said.
The announcement was the first official word on the whereabouts of any members of the Qaddafi family since the colonel was routed from his Tripoli fortress by rebel forces a week ago, a decisive turn in the Libyan conflict. [*]
Throughout Tripoli on Monday, there were signs of a transition under way. In streets freshly decorated with rebel flags, residents preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan ventured from their homes and visited shops as they reopened. Young men breezily waved cars through checkpoints, which the rebels said they were starting to dismantle because of improving security.
Radio stations that had recently featured songs lauding Colonel Qaddafi now played the revolution’s anthems, over and over. [they’ve wisely seized the media] [*]
The colonel’s family members entered Algeria through one of the more southerly crossings in the Sahara, arriving in a Mercedes and a bus at 8:45 a.m., Mr. Benmehidi said. The exact number of people in the party was unclear, Mr. Benmehidi said, but there were “many children.”
While they were fleeing, one of the women in the party gave birth near the border without any medical equipment, the ambassador said. He said Colonel Qaddafi was not with the group. “He was not there, and there is no indication of his intending to go to Algeria,” Mr. Benmehidi said.
The family was allowed in on “humanitarian grounds,” he said, and the Algerian government informed the head of the Transitional National Council, the rebel government in Libya, of its decision. There was no official request from the rebels for their return, Mr. Benmehidi said.
The whereabouts of Colonel Qaddafi remained unknown, along with those of his other sons, most notably Seif al-Islam, his second-in-command; Khamis, the head of an elite paramilitary brigade; and Muatassim, a militia commander and Colonel Qaddafi’s national security adviser. A rebel spokesman said Sunday that Khamis al-Qaddafi might have been killed on Saturday, but that no positive identification had been made.
On Monday, new hints emerged about the locations of the family and members of its inner circle. A former associate of the Qaddafi government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said that Mr. Ibrahim had sought refuge in Surt, his hometown. Colonel Qaddafi is also from Surt, which remains under the control of his loyalists.
The associate said that the Qaddafis had stashed large sums of cash around the country to support themselves and to continue paying loyal fighters. Another person who has spoken with family members in the last week said they had indicated they were still in Tripoli. Rebels have said they were exploring the possibility that the Qaddafis were hiding in farms on the city’s outskirts.
The rebels have said they would not consider their victory complete until they capture or kill the colonel, who ruled Libya for nearly 42 years.
Algeria is the only North African neighbor of Libya that has not recognized the Transitional National Council as the new government. During the six-month conflict, the rebels repeatedly accused the Algerians of arming the Qaddafi government, and said they had arrested Algerian nationals fighting for the government. [*]
An Algerian Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the uncertainty of Colonel Qaddafi’s situation, said the members of his family who entered Algeria were all in Algiers, the capital. The official noted that none of them had been named in warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes charges.
In Tripoli, rebel forces on Monday took visible new steps toward installing themselves as the official government, signing new energy deals with ENI, Italy’s biggest oil company, and permitting France and Britain, the leading members of the NATO alliance that has assisted the rebel movement, to send advance teams into Tripoli with the intent of re-establishing their embassies here.
With the signs of progress came harrowing reminders of the war’s cost.
Large numbers of sub-Saharan migrant workers who have been stranded in Tripoli since the early days of the conflict remained stuck in two squalid camps, afraid to try to leave for home. In one of the camps, in a port, hundreds took refuge among rusted and broken boats, and in the other, on farmland close to an airport, men, women and young children sought shelter under trees or in rough cinderblock sheds. [many have been killed] [hard to say whether they were resisting of just killed?] [*]
Many of the migrants said they feared attacks by rebel fighters, who have frequently mistaken them for mercenaries from countries like Chad and Sudan.
“They think that I’m a fighter for Qaddafi,” said Peace John, from Nigeria, who was one of about 200 people staying at the farm. “I don’t know even now whether he is here, or he is gone. There’s no news in this camp.”
Bride Eki, a Nigerian who said he had spent six months at the farm, said: “I don’t know the Qaddafi people. I don’t know the rebels. Everything is bad.”
The chairman of the African Union, Jean Ping, said Monday that the plight of the stranded migrants was an important reason the union has so far refused to recognize the Transitional National Council. Mr. Ping told reporters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that the African Union wanted clarification from the Libyan council because it “seems to confuse black people with mercenaries.”
Kareem Fahim reported from Tripoli, Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations, and Alan Cowell from London. David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Tripoli, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html
August 30, 2011
Security Forces in Syria Fire on Worshipers as Ramadan Ends
By NADA BAKRI [Syria] [so-called Arab Awakening] [Middle East proper] [Arabia] [democratization] [Syria pretends to be a modern secular republic, but is far from it] [no monarchy but long run by a minority sect (al Assads) and the Baath Party] [the Ramadan massacre continues] [as the month of Ramadan comes to an end, some final attacks by regime on Syrian opposition] [followup] [use fall 2011?] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Security forces killed at least seven people in southern and central Syria on Tuesday when they opened fire at worshipers emerging from mosques after early prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, [*]activists said.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists who document demonstrations, said that four people were killed in the city of Hara and two in the city of Inkil, both in the southern province of Dara’a. Dara’a, a poor region in the southern steppe of Houran, became a flashpoint for demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad more than five months ago when security forces arrested and tortured teenagers for scrawling anti-government graffiti.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html
August 30, 2011
Security Forces in Syria Fire on Worshipers as Ramadan Ends
By NADA BAKRI [Syria] [so-called Arab Awakening] [Middle East proper] [Arabia] [democratization] [Syria pretends to be a modern secular republic, but is far from it] [no monarchy but long run by a minority sect (al Assads) and the Baath Party] [the Ramadan massacre continues] [as the month of Ramadan comes to an end, some final attacks by regime on Syrian opposition] [followup] [use fall 2011?] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Security forces killed at least seven people in southern and central Syria on Tuesday when they opened fire at worshipers emerging from mosques after early prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, [*]activists said.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists who document demonstrations, said that four people were killed in the city of Hara and two in the city of Inkil, both in the southern province of Dara’a. Dara’a, a poor region in the southern steppe of Houran, became a flashpoint for demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad more than five months ago when security forces arrested and tortured teenagers for scrawling anti-government graffiti.
“They don’t want us to have any peaceful day,” said Um Mohammad, a mother of two from Damascus. “We are grieving this Id, and we were not going to celebrate, so they didn’t have to kill more people today,” she added, referring to the feast of Id al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. [*]
The activists also said that one person was killed in the city of Homs, in central Syria, another city where large protests have taken place against the leadership of Mr. Assad, who came to power in 2000.
Mr. Assad succeeded his father Hafez, who ruled Syria for 30 years and gave many privileges to the minority Alawite sect, creating bitterness among Sunni Muslims who make up the majority of the population. [*]
The Local Committees also reported a heavy presence of armed troops and members of the Mukhabarat , plain clothes secret police officers, near mosques to prevent people from praying. [*]They said heavy gunfire was also heard in Homs and that phone lines s were cut.
Mosques have been used since the beginning of the uprising in mid-March as places where protesters organized their movement and many have been attacked and closed since.
The latest violence followed raids by security forces in several towns and cities across Syria on Monday.
The operations in western, northern and central Syria, killed at least six people and wounded dozens, activists said.
At the same time, there were reports that dozens of soldiers, possibly encouraged by the rout in Libya of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, had deserted their positions in a village near Homs, the country’s third-largest city, and on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, to join the five-month-old popular uprising against Mr. Assad and his Baath Party.
Activists said that since the uprising started in mid-March, most such desertions have taken place in Deir al-Zour, bordering Iraq; in the northwestern province of Idlib; and in towns around Homs and Damascus.
Troops, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, surrounded Rastan, a town near Homs in central Syria that lies along the main highway leading to Turkey, early Monday morning and began firing heavy machine guns, according to the Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists who plan and document the uprising. The activists said at least one person was killed.
A woman in Rastan, reached by telephone, said, “Gunfire and explosion rang across the town early this morning, and we heard that tanks are surrounding the town.” The woman, who asked to be identified only as Um Ammar, added: “We are so scared, too scared to leave the house. We don’t know what they are preparing for us.”
Rastan is known to be a reservoir of recruits for the mostly Sunni rank-and-file army that is led by officers from the Alawite minority sect to which Mr. Assad belongs.
Desertions were first reported in the town three months ago after a military assault there to crush big demonstrations against Mr. Assad’s rule. Dozens were killed and hundreds were arrested in that operation, human rights activists said.
Troops also entered the town of Qara, near Rastan, and tens of protesters were arrested in house raids, residents said.
On Sunday evening, residents said that gun battles raged in Al Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, when dozens of soldiers deserted their positions after they refused to fire at protesters who were trying to march to the capital.
The Free Officers of Syria, a group of soldiers and officers who left the army last month in protest of the crackdown and say that they now represent defectors, published an online statement saying that “large” defections were reported in Harasta, another suburb of Damascus and that armed troops loyal to the government were chasing those defectors.
It was the first reported episode around the capital, which has yet to witness large demonstrations like those seen in Homs and Hama, two cities in central Syria. Activists have been trying for months to encourage residents of Damascus and Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, to join the demonstrations, without much success.
Also on Monday, armed forces raided Heet, a western town along a landscape of rounded hills bordering Lebanon, to crush opposition there, residents said.
“People were running in the fields toward Lebanon trying to escape the gunfire,” said Youssef, a resident in Wadi Khaled, a town on the Lebanese side of the border. “They stormed the village burning houses and crops, and we heard that several people were wounded.”
Activists also said that five people were killed in Sarmin, in the northwestern area of Idlib, when security forces opened fire at residents during search operations.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/suspected-north-korean-cyber-attack-on-a-bank-raises-fears-for-s-korea-allies/2011/08/07/gIQAvWwIoJ_story.html
Suspected North Korean cyberattack on a bank raises fears for S. Korea, allies
By Chico Harlan and Ellen Nakashima, Published: August 29 [ROK] [DPRK] [DPRK-ROK strained relations] [recently DPRK has been making noise that it wishes to return to the negotiating table of 6-way talks] [if this is true, all the while it has been continuing its reckless behavior including cyber attacks on ROK!] [long history of strained relations that heat up peridocially and turn into crisis or nearly so] [followup] [use psci 350, 355-455] [*]
SEOUL — After nearly half of the servers for a South Korean bank crashed one day in April, investigators here found evidence indicating that they were dealing with a new kind of attack from an old rival: North Korea.
South Korean officials said that 30 million customers of the Nonghyup agricultural bank were unable to use ATMs or online services for several days and that key data were destroyed, making it the most serious of a series of incidents in recent months. But even more troubling was the prospect that a belligerent neighbor had acquired the tools to disrupt one of the world’s most heavily wired nations — and that even more damaging attacks could be in store. [*]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/suspected-north-korean-cyber-attack-on-a-bank-raises-fears-for-s-korea-allies/2011/08/07/gIQAvWwIoJ_story.html
Suspected North Korean cyberattack on a bank raises fears for S. Korea, allies
By Chico Harlan and Ellen Nakashima, Published: August 29 [ROK] [DPRK] [DPRK-ROK strained relations] [recently DPRK has been making noise that it wishes to return to the negotiating table of 6-way talks] [if this is true, all the while it has been continuing its reckless behavior including cyber attacks on ROK!] [long history of strained relations that heat up peridocially and turn into crisis or nearly so] [followup] [use psci 350, 355-455] [*]
SEOUL — After nearly half of the servers for a South Korean bank crashed one day in April, investigators here found evidence indicating that they were dealing with a new kind of attack from an old rival: North Korea.
South Korean officials said that 30 million customers of the Nonghyup agricultural bank were unable to use ATMs or online services for several days and that key data were destroyed, making it the most serious of a series of incidents in recent months. But even more troubling was the prospect that a belligerent neighbor had acquired the tools to disrupt one of the world’s most heavily wired nations — and that even more damaging attacks could be in store. [*]
“This was an unprecedented act of cyberterror involving North Korea,” said Kim Young-dae, a senior South Korean prosecutor in charge of the investigation. [*]
Conclusively identifying who ordered a cyberattack is notoriously difficult. But Western analysts who studied the incident agreed that the aggressor was probably North Korea and described it as the first publicly reported case of computer sabotage by one nation against a financial institution in another country. [*]
Cyberwarfare offers high potential for asymmetric threats, providing poor nations with easy opportunities to inflict damage on a richer, more developed rival. Such an attack is relatively cheap to launch, but playing defense is costly: After the incident, the South Korean bank pledged to spend $476 million by 2015 on network security.
“They are doing massive damage with simple means,” said Georg Wicherski, a researcher with U.S.-based McAfee Labs, who analyzed the attack. “This is Cyber¬warfare 101.”
Ninety-five percent of South Koreans have high-speed Internet access — the highest rate on the planet. They bank, shop and store medical records online. And South Korea is spending billions of dollars to secure its extensive networks. [nation-states must be preparing for the inevitable] [*]
North Korea, by contrast, is an isolated, impoverished state in which only a select few have access to the Internet because leader Kim Jong Il, fearing its power to spread dissent, restricts its use. With little vulnerability to computer attacks, North Korea is free to focus on offense, which has relatively low costs and a potentially high impact. [which makes this all the more stunning] [*]
Although North Korea has only rudimentary cyberattack skills, its growing expertise means it could someday target the South’s military networks, potentially endangering the secrets of close allies, including the United States, U.S. officials and experts say. [*]
South Korean investigators said they determined that 10 servers used in the bank incident were the same ones used in previous cyberattack operations against South Korea, including one in 2009 and another in March, that they blamed on the North. [*]Investigators say they determined, for instance, that a “command and control” server used in the 2009 operation was registered to a North Korean government agency operating in China.
Investigators say the April bank attack occurred when a contractor inadvertently downloaded a malicious program onto a laptop computer, giving hackers the ability to control the computer remotely. Then, over a period of weeks or months, the hackers placed malicious code throughout the bank’s network, which allowed them — with the equivalent of a squeeze on a cyber-trigger — to make hundreds of servers crash at once. [*]
North Korea has denied any role in the attack, saying in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency that the South was “clinging to confrontation with its compatriots through crudely fabricated schemes.” [it denies everything as a practical matter] [*]
South Korean officials fear that North Korea has the intent — if not the capability, yet — to inflict more serious damage on critical networks. They point to the arrest last year of an alleged North Korean spy accused of trying to obtain confidential records of the Seoul railway system, which uses the same industrial software that was targeted by Stuxnet, a computer virus. Stuxnet damaged centri¬fuges in an Iranian nuclear plant in 2009 and 2010.
A North Korean cyberwarfare unit in 2009 penetrated a military network in Seoul, stole a computer password and used it to obtain sensitive data about the location of toxic-chemical manufacturers, said Lim Jong-in, dean of the Center for Information Security Technologies at Korea University, which trains the military in cyberdefense. He said the South has since hardened its military computer networks, but the North’s capabilities also are improving. [*]
Cyberwarfare is the latest example of North Korea’s growing asymmetric capabilities, said Gordon Flake, executive director of the Mansfield Foundation, a think tank. He said that North Korea, “by most counts a failed state, is able to demand the attention of its much more successful neighbor to the south as well as other regions in the world” by developing programs in nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
North Korea has trained at least 3,000 hackers in five years, said former North Korean computer science professor Kim Heung-kwang. Experts say the nation uses methods learned from the Chinese, who in their operations infiltrate as many systems as possible, in what is sometimes called the “thousand grains of sand” approach.
Kim, who taught hacking skills before defecting to South Korea, said North Korea identifies top math students in elementary school to allow for years of training, including classes on the finer points of code-breaking at one of four universities. Kim, whose account could not be independently verified, said that system produces about 50 recruits each year for the elite cyberwarfare Unit 121. They are then sent to China or Russia for additional training, he said.
Richard A. Clarke, a former White House cybersecurity and counterterrorism official who co-authored the 2010 book “Cyber War,” said North Korea, though much less sophisticated in its cyberwarfare ability than China and some other nations, could someday target the United States. [*]“While a cyberattack on the United States seems like an irrational act for any nation state, North Korea regularly does things that seem like irrational acts,” he said.
South Korea blamed agents from the North for a “denial of service” operation July 4, 2009, that blocked access to at least 35 South Korean and U.S. government Web sites. In the incident, an army of zombie computers repeatedly accessed the sites, overwhelming servers to the point that they crashed. Commercial Web sites, including The Washington Post’s, also were affected.
In March, 29 South Korean government and corporate Web sites — including ones for the president and the Defense Ministry — crashed in another denial-of-service assault. Again, South Korea blamed North Korea.
The incident lasted 10 days, and it involved more than 100,000 zombie computers whose users had unknowingly downloaded malicious software. The software in the zombie computers was programmed to self-destruct on the final day, crippling the operating systems of hundreds of computers.
Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research for McAfee Labs, which examined the incident, said North Korea may have been trying to probe South Korea’s ability to respond to such an assault. [*]
South Korean prosecutors said the April bank attack — which was more sophisticated than the denial-of-service operations because it required penetration of secure systems and deletion of data to disable servers — was staged from China, a common tactic because it allows North Korean hackers to avoid leaving a digital trail back to their nation. [there’s been speculation previously about China cooperating with DPRK] [*]
“The bank attack was like shelling an island to create terror without attacking a high-value military target,” said McAfee’s Wicherski, in a reference to North Korea’s artillery attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island in November.
Philip Kim, the chief executive and president of AhnLab, South Korea’s largest cybersecurity firm, said, “These days, the big pieces of South Korean society are all connected, and it’s very difficult to know which boundaries you have to protect. It’s an open war.”
Special correspondent Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report.
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/middleeast/30baghdad.html
August 29, 2011
From a Few Iraqis, a Word to Libyans on Liberation
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT [-ir] [maliki govt trying to arrange things so US may withdraw later this year] [the SOFA that President Bush signed in 2008 provided for U.S. to leave by December 31, 2011] [Iraqis watch Libya and have lessons for Libyans to learn] [a little odd but interesting] [followup] [*]
BAGHDAD — The men sat around a small plastic table at an outdoor cafe here on Friday evening, playing chess, smoking cigarettes and reminiscing about when Saddam Hussein’s regime fell and they felt free for the first time in their lives.
But the conversation quickly turned to darker memories of how freedom spilled into chaos, bloodletting and, ultimately, anarchy. The memories were stirred up last week by images on television of another people, the Libyans, heading down the same road and, perhaps, heading toward the same darkness Iraqis have lived under for nearly a decade.
“They have to learn from us,” said Abdul Khaliq, 42, a mechanic from Baghdad, after

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/middleeast/30baghdad.html
August 29, 2011
From a Few Iraqis, a Word to Libyans on Liberation
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT [-ir] [maliki govt trying to arrange things so US may withdraw later this year] [the SOFA that President Bush signed in 2008 provided for U.S. to leave by December 31, 2011] [Iraqis watch Libya and have lessons for Libyans to learn] [a little odd but interesting] [followup] [*]
BAGHDAD — The men sat around a small plastic table at an outdoor cafe here on Friday evening, playing chess, smoking cigarettes and reminiscing about when Saddam Hussein’s regime fell and they felt free for the first time in their lives.
But the conversation quickly turned to darker memories of how freedom spilled into chaos, bloodletting and, ultimately, anarchy. The memories were stirred up last week by images on television of another people, the Libyans, heading down the same road and, perhaps, heading toward the same darkness Iraqis have lived under for nearly a decade.
“They have to learn from us,” said Abdul Khaliq, 42, a mechanic from Baghdad, after winning several games of chess.
The men said they had learned the hard way what they never understood living under decades of repression: that democracy is not just the absence of oppression, but that it also involves challenging concepts of tolerance, compromise and civic responsibility yet to take root in Iraq, or in Libya. [yes, minority rights must be protected] [*]
What emerged in Iraq after the fall of Mr. Hussein’s government was a society of everyone for themselves, individually and in small groups, grabbing for what they could get — literally, through looting, and eventually through the political process. This has made many Iraqis weary of the chaos of Iraqi-style democracy. Increasingly, they want a strong hand — elected by the people — to wield power.
From the cafe here, where other men were playing dominoes and backgammon, smoking hookahs and drinking tea, these veterans of national turmoil provided armchair advice for the Libyans. Their insights, not exactly brimming with appreciation for democracy, were illustrative of the problems that still plague Iraq and, they suspect, will await Libya if its people do not act quickly.
Among their advice: Do not trust expatriates who rush back to stake a claim in the new government. Avoid a parliamentary system. And do not ostracize members of the former regime, as happened in Iraq under the so-called de-Baathification policy. [*]
“People came from the outside to run Iraq, and they didn’t understand the suffering we had lived through,” said Firas Abdul Hadi, 28, an engineer in the office of the mayor of Baghdad, referring to how Iraqis who fled the country under Mr. Hussein’s rule tried to claim power when they returned.
“They came back and claimed to be patriotic,” he said. “The Libyans should vote for people who suffered like them. People who were abroad didn’t feel what they did.”
The new Libyan government, the men said, should be run by a president, not a prime minister, and lawmakers should be far removed from the day-to-day running of the government.
“The parliamentary system in Iraq has failed,” said Thaar Abdul Kadhum, 34, a contractor. “They should have a president who can make all the decisions, and not have all these blocs like we have now.” [not sure how generalizable but?] [*]
The character of the politicians matters, too, they said. If the leaders do not have strong enough personalities, the men said, corruption will be rife, as it is in Iraq, where bribes are commonplace.
“People with weak personalities are seduced by the power, and they use the power to steal money from the people,” Ahmed Ali, 46, a shop owner, said shortly after losing a game of chess.
Perhaps most important, the men said, the Libyans must not repeat the mistake the Americans and Iraqis made of excluding from public life people who had ties to the previous system. [sadly, it was Bremer of former CPA who made said decision and they are probably right] [*]
In Iraq, many members of Mr. Hussein’s Baath Party were thrown out of the government, and the entire Iraqi military was disbanded. Ostracizing so many Iraqis helped to fuel the insurgency that pushed the country into a sectarian conflict, in which tens of thousands of Iraqis died. It also robbed the country of the service of a whole class of middle managers, including educators and engineers.
“You have to keep them in the government in order to avoid the struggle we had,” said Mr. Hadi, the engineer. “Because of this, sometimes the Sunnis didn’t participate.”
Mr. Ali, the shop owner, had a simple answer for creating a stable society: real estate. “All the people of a country want a piece of land,” he said. “They will only accept the government if you give them land. How could I love my government if they don’t give me a piece of its land?”
The men said that Libyans should be wary of freedom of speech. In Iraq, they said, they are now free to express themselves, which they could not do under Saddam Hussein. But this right is almost useless, they said, because the government is not responsive to the public.
“Nobody listens to the people,” Mr. Hadi said.
Eight years after the United States-led invasion, there are still bombings and assassinations in Iraq almost every day, and unemployment is high. It is far from the country that the Bush administration had hoped for after Saddam Hussein’s government fell.
“We believed Basra would just turn into Dubai,” said Mr. Kadhum, the contractor, referring to the port city in the south where Iraq’s oil exports are loaded onto tankers.
Basra is indeed one of the safer and more prosperous parts of the country, but it is far from becoming another Dubai, the modern emirate. On Thursday night, two explosions, including one detonated by a suicide bomber, killed four people and wounded 35 just outside the Iraqi city.
Omar al-Jawoshy contributed reporting.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:12 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/powell-disputes-cheney-book-passages/2011/08/28/gIQA9GQhlJ_story.html
Powell disputes Cheney book passages
By Caren Bohan, Published: August 28 [former Bush white house] [specifically, the NSC as precieved by Veep Cheney] [I’ve said it before: the level of arrogance of the man is stunning] [among other things he tells former President Bush “I told you so”] [the hubris has not shied with time] [indeed, he seems even more entroverted and angry] [interesting bit about GW Bush leaking on Iraq in 2007] [use psci 355-455] [*]
A new book by former vice president Dick Cheney levels “cheap shots” at colleagues and mischaracterizes events, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said Sunday.
Powell, whose disagreements with Cheney on issues such as Iraq have been well known for years, said that President George W. Bush’s national security team did not function smoothly and that he had advised Bush to try to resolve the problem.
“We had different views,” Powell told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” adding that the views could not be reconciled.
In the CBS interview, Powell was asked about passages in Cheney’s new book, “In My Time,” that are critical of Bush administration officials, including Powell and his successor, Condoleezza Rice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/powell-disputes-cheney-book-passages/2011/08/28/gIQA9GQhlJ_story.html
Powell disputes Cheney book passages
By Caren Bohan, Published: August 28 [former Bush white house] [specifically, the NSC as precieved by Veep Cheney] [I’ve said it before: the level of arrogance of the man is stunning] [among other things he tells former President Bush “I told you so”] [the hubris has not shied with time] [indeed, he seems even more entroverted and angry] [interesting bit about GW Bush leaking on Iraq in 2007] [use psci 355-455] [*]
A new book by former vice president Dick Cheney levels “cheap shots” at colleagues and mischaracterizes events, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said Sunday.
Powell, whose disagreements with Cheney on issues such as Iraq have been well known for years, said that President George W. Bush’s national security team did not function smoothly and that he had advised Bush to try to resolve the problem.
“We had different views,” Powell told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” adding that the views could not be reconciled.
In the CBS interview, Powell was asked about passages in Cheney’s new book, “In My Time,” that are critical of Bush administration officials, including Powell and his successor, Condoleezza Rice.
“They are cheap shots,” Powell said.
He also dismissed Cheney’s prediction that the book would cause heads to explode all over Washington.
“My head isn’t exploding. I haven’t noticed any other heads exploding in Washington, D.C.,” Powell said.
Powell challenges the account in which Cheney suggests that the secretary of state was pushed out at the end of Bush’s first term.
Cheney “takes great credit for my resignation in 2004. Well, President Bush and I had always agreed that I would leave at the end of 2004,” Powell said. “I always intended to just serve one term.”
He also disputed Cheney’s suggestion that Powell had a tendency to withhold his views from Bush and instead aired them outside the administration.
“The president knows that I told him what I thought about every issue of the day,” Powell said.
Cheney’s book is due out this week.
— Reuters
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/africa/29diplo.html
August 28, 2011
U.S. Tactics in Libya May Be a Model for Other Efforts
By HELENE COOPER and STEVEN LEE MYERS [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [Pentagon, defense dept broadly] [NATO] [use psci 355-455, 469] [continuity between administrations] [oddly, the Arab Awakening has caused the Pentagon to view France 180 degrees differently than say 2003!] [Sarkozy deserves a lot of credit but it would have happened irrespective of PM] [the old foil—indeed the surrender monkeys—have now become are good friends again] [it’s how bureaucracy works—lots of SOPs]
WASHINGTON — It would be premature to call the war in Libya a complete success for United States interests. But the arrival of victorious rebels on the shores of Tripoli last week gave President Obama’s senior advisers a chance to claim a key victory for an Obama doctrine for the Middle East that had been roundly criticized in recent months as leading from behind.
Administration officials say that even though the NATO intervention in Libya, emphasizing airstrikes to protect civilians, cannot be applied uniformly in other

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/africa/29diplo.html
August 28, 2011
U.S. Tactics in Libya May Be a Model for Other Efforts
By HELENE COOPER and STEVEN LEE MYERS [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [Pentagon, defense dept broadly] [NATO] [use psci 355-455, 469] [continuity between administrations] [oddly, the Arab Awakening has caused the Pentagon to view France 180 degrees differently than say 2003!] [Sarkozy deserves a lot of credit but it would have happened irrespective of PM] [the old foil—indeed the surrender monkeys—have now become are good friends again] [it’s how bureaucracy works—lots of SOPs]
WASHINGTON — It would be premature to call the war in Libya a complete success for United States interests. But the arrival of victorious rebels on the shores of Tripoli last week gave President Obama’s senior advisers a chance to claim a key victory for an Obama doctrine for the Middle East that had been roundly criticized in recent months as leading from behind.
Administration officials say that even though the NATO intervention in Libya, emphasizing airstrikes to protect civilians, cannot be applied uniformly in other hotspots like Syria, the conflict may, in some important ways, become a model for how the United States wields force in other countries where its interests are threatened.
“We’ve resisted the notion of a doctrine, because we don’t think you can impose one model on very different countries; that gets you into trouble and can lead you to intervene in places that you shouldn’t,” said Ben Rhodes, the director for strategic communications at the National Security Council.
Even so, he said, the Libya action helped to establish two principles for when the United States could apply military force to advance its diplomatic interests even though its national security is not threatened directly.
Mr. Obama laid out those principles on March 28, when he gave his only big address on the Libya conflict, in a speech at George Washington University that in many ways established the principles of the Obama doctrine.
During that speech, Mr. Obama said that America had the responsibility to stop what he characterized as a looming genocide in the Libyan city of Benghazi (Principle 1). But at the same time, he said, when the safety of Americans is not directly threatened but where action can be justified — in the case of genocide, say — the United States will act only on the condition that it is not acting alone (Principle 2).
And so, with Libya, the United States used its might — providing crucial cruise missiles, aircraft, bombs, intelligence and even military personnel — but it did so as part of the larger NATO coalition, led by the French and the British and including Arab nations.
And it did so only after a United Nations Security Council resolution authorized the kind of multilateral approach that had been viewed with disdain by Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush.
In fact, American officials argued, the Libya strategy worked in large part because it was perceived as an international effort against a brutal dictator and “not a U.S. go-it-alone approach,” as one senior administration official put it.
“ ‘Made only in the U.S.A.’ would have risked it becoming Qaddafi versus the U.S.A.,” the official said.
But any speculation that the Libya model could be transferrable to the next obvious place, Syria, where the United States and its European allies have called for President Bashar al-Assad to leave, might be a bit hasty.
For now at least, the administration and its allies in the Libya action have stopped far short of threatening military force in Syria. Still, the officials argue that creating the broadest possible diplomatic pressure — what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last week called an “international chorus of condemnation” — could ultimately have an effect and, if Mr. Assad continues his violent crackdown on dissenters, lay the foundation for more aggressive action.
“How much we translate to Syria remains to be seen,” the senior official said, citing differences among the many Arab nations experiencing upheaval. “The Syrian opposition doesn’t want foreign military forces but do want more countries to cut off trade with the regime and break with it politically.”
Robert Malley, head analyst for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, said a military intervention in Syria could present a host of challenges that the United States and its allies did not face against Libya.
“What distinguishes Syria from Libya is there is neither regional nor international consensus on Syria,” Mr. Malley said. “There’s no specific area of the country to come in and defend. The opposition in Syria doesn’t hold any territory. And Syria has many ways it could retaliate to make life difficult.”
Damascus has allies that Libya and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi did not. Iran and the militant Islamic groups Hamas and Hezbollah are allied with Syria and capable of inflicting damage on the United States and its satellite interests — Israel, in particular. In fact, Syria, located in the heart of the tumultuous Arab-Israeli conflict zone, can wreak havoc on Israeli interests.
Syria also shares a border with Iraq and could, if it chose, look for ways to retaliate against the remaining American troops and American interests there, some foreign policy experts say. Beyond that, there is a very real worry that a Syria without Mr. Assad, whose family has governed the country for more than 40 years, would come apart at the seams, degenerating into the kind of sectarian warfare that characterized Iraq after the American invasion there ousted Saddam Hussein.
So far, with the possible exception of Turkey, no other countries have shown any interest in a military intervention in Syria, despite repeated reports of Mr. Assad’s brutal crackdown on those advocating for democracy there. Even as the Obama administration, alongside France, Britain and Germany, was demanding a week ago that Mr. Assad step down, there has been no talk of trying to establish a no-fly or no-drive zone in Syria, as was done in Libya.
“People will be much more cautious about Syria,” said Nader Mousavizadeh, chief executive of the consulting firm Oxford Analytica. “There’s more ambivalence about what’s worse, a bloody Assad staying in place, or the bloody aftermath of Assad being toppled.”
But the very fact that the administration has joined with the same allies that it banded with on Libya to call for Mr. Assad to go and to impose penalties on his regime could take the United States one step closer to applying the Libya model toward Syria. While military intervention in Syria is highly unlikely, administration officials say that the coordinated approach to calling for Mr. Assad’s ouster and imposing financial penalties on the Syrian government show that they are already applying the Obama doctrine there.
And things could always escalate. “There’s no appetite to engage in military action in Syria,” Mr. Malley of the International Crisis Group said. But, he added, “If 30,000 people were killed there, that would be a different story.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:22 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/syrian-unrest-raises-fears-about-chemical-arsenal/2011/08/26/gIQAFmfVlJ_story.html
Syrian unrest raises fears about chemical arsenal
By Joby Warrick, Published: August 28 [Obama White House] [112th Congress, 1st session] [NSC and down to bureaucracy] [America’s rather interesting conundrum over the Arab Awakening] [a day after I read something along these lines in JPost, it appears in US (Post!)] [evident fear of his chemical weapons?] [followup, yesterday] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
In 2008, a secret State Department cable warned of a growing chemical weapons threat from a Middle Eastern country whose autocratic leader had a long history of stirring up trouble in the region. The leader, noted for his “support for terrorist organizations,” was attempting to buy technology from other countries to upgrade an already fearsome stockpile of deadly poisons, the department warned.
The Middle Eastern state with the dangerous chemicals was not Libya, whose modest stockpile was thrust into the spotlight last week because of fighting there. It was Syria, another violence-torn Arab state whose advanced weapons are drawing new concern as the country drifts toward an uncertain future.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/syrian-unrest-raises-fears-about-chemical-arsenal/2011/08/26/gIQAFmfVlJ_story.html
Syrian unrest raises fears about chemical arsenal
By Joby Warrick, Published: August 28 [Obama White House] [112th Congress, 1st session] [NSC and down to bureaucracy] [America’s rather interesting conundrum over the Arab Awakening] [a day after I read something along these lines in JPost, it appears in US (Post!)] [evident fear of his chemical weapons?] [followup, yesterday] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
In 2008, a secret State Department cable warned of a growing chemical weapons threat from a Middle Eastern country whose autocratic leader had a long history of stirring up trouble in the region. The leader, noted for his “support for terrorist organizations,” was attempting to buy technology from other countries to upgrade an already fearsome stockpile of deadly poisons, the department warned.
The Middle Eastern state with the dangerous chemicals was not Libya, whose modest stockpile was thrust into the spotlight last week because of fighting there. It was Syria, another violence-torn Arab state whose advanced weapons are drawing new concern as the country drifts toward an uncertain future.
A sudden collapse of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could mean a breakdown in controls over the country’s weapons, U.S. officials and weapons experts said in interviews. But while Libya’s chemical arsenal consists of unwieldy canisters filled mostly with mustard gas, the World War I-era blistering agent, Syria possesses some of the deadliest chemicals ever to be weaponized, dispersed in thousands of artillery shells and warheads that are easy to transport.
Syria’s preferred poison is not mustard gas but sarin, the nerve agent that killed 13 people and sickened about 1,000 during a terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995. Sarin, which is lethal if inhaled even in minute quantities, can also be used to contaminate water and food supplies.
Although many analysts doubt that Assad would deliberately share chemical bombs with terrorists, it is not inconceivable that weapons could vanish amid the chaos of an uprising that destroys Syria’s vaunted security services, which safeguard the munitions.
“This is a scenario that’s on the radar screen if things go downhill,” said a U.S. security official who monitors events in Syria. “A lot of people are watching this closely.”
Deadly, large cache
Syria first developed chemical weapons in the 1970s and slowly amassed a sophisticated arsenal under the close supervision of then-President Hafez al-Assad and, later, his son Bashar, the current president. Using technology obtained in part from Russian scientists, the Assads sought to create a strategic deterrent against Israel, its vastly more powerful southern neighbor, whose forces humiliated Syrian troops in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and captured the strategic Syrian plateau known as the Golan Heights.
Many countries, including the United States and Russia, gradually eliminated their chemical-weapons arsenals, but Syria refused to sign the U.N. Chemical Weapons convention and proceeded to develop an ever larger and deadlier stockpile. The CIA has concluded that Syria possesses a large stockpile of sarin-based warheads and was working on developing VX, a deadlier nerve agent that resists breaking down in the environment.
By early in the last decade, some weapons experts ranked Syria’s chemical stockpile as probably the largest in the world, consisting of tens of tons of highly lethal chemical agents and hundreds of Scud missiles as well as lesser rockets, artillery rockets and bomblets for delivering the poisons.
Jeffrey Feltman, the State Department’s chief diplomat for the Middle East, last year cited Syria’s chemical weapons program as a primary reason for continuing U.S. economic sanctions against the Assad regime.
“We will continue pressing the Syrian government on its problematic policies,” Feltman said in testimony before a House committee.
The 2008 State Department cable, obtained and made public by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, was prompted by a Syrian attempt to obtain glass-lined reactors and other high-tech equipment from a private Indian firm. U.S. diplomats pressed the Indian government to block the sale. “We are concerned that the equipment in question is intended for, or could be diverted to Syria’s chemical weapons program,” the cable stated.
It was unclear whether the sale, which at the time was in its final stages, was allowed to proceed.
Dangerous ripple effects
Syria tops the list of Middle East countries with potentially vulnerable weapons systems, but U.S. officials say the political turmoil in the region has prompted a reassessment of the risks posed by arsenals elsewhere as well.
Several Middle Eastern countries possess large numbers of conventional weapons as well as nuclear research reactors whose fuel rods could be used in a “dirty bomb.” There is no evidence that advanced munitions have been stolen. But U.S. officials acknowledge increasing uncertainty about the control of weapons depots in countries undergoing prolonged periods of unrest.
Libya risk assessment
Western officials have been less concerned about Libya’s chemical stockpile, which was all but dismantled after Moammar Gaddafi agreed about eight years ago to renounce weapons of mass destruction. In reality, it was never especially impressive, having barely advanced beyond early 20th-century technology, weapons experts say. At the time Libyan rebels overran Gaddafi’s headquarters in Tripoli last week, the stockpile consisted of 11 metric tons of mustard agent and 845 tons of chemical precursors, none of it directly usable in weapons and all of it stored in steel barrels inside a fortified bunker.
“We assess that the facility is secure,” the State Department said Friday in a statement on the Libyan program.
U.S. officials said they were more concerned about safeguarding Libyan conventional weapons, including shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. U.S.-backed teams of weapons experts have been working in liberated areas of Libya since May to find the missiles, which are coveted by terrorists because they can be used to shoot down low-flying planes and helicopters.
The teams have been given $3 million to find the missiles, hundreds of which are said to exist in depots scattered throughout Libya.
The number destroyed so far: five.
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:21 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/a-body-blow-against-al-qaeda/2011/08/28/gIQAfbw5kJ_blog.html
Posted at 01:07 PM ET, 08/28/2011
A body blow against al-Qaeda
By David Ignatius [oped] [columnist] [Ignatius on yesterday’s news that al Qaeda (central) number two Atiyah Abd al Rahman killed by drone and what it means] [title tells his argument] [use psci 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
The death of Atiyah Abd al-Rahman in an Aug. 22 drone attack in Pakistan may appear to be just another in the revolving-door fatalities among al-Qaeda’s operations chiefs. But it was a crucial blow to the core group that once surrounded Osama bin Laden.
Rahman was bin Laden’s channel to the world. Their correspondence was the most important prize taken from bin Laden’s compound when he was killed May 2. They talked about everything: strategy, personnel, operations, political setbacks. Whatever thread still held al-Qaeda together passed from bin Laden through to Rahman.
The Libyan-born Rahman’s death blunts al-Qaeda’s ability to stage a new mega-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/a-body-blow-against-al-qaeda/2011/08/28/gIQAfbw5kJ_blog.html
Posted at 01:07 PM ET, 08/28/2011
A body blow against al-Qaeda
By David Ignatius [oped] [columnist] [Ignatius on yesterday’s news that al Qaeda (central) number two Atiyah Abd al Rahman killed by drone and what it means] [title tells his argument] [use psci 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
The death of Atiyah Abd al-Rahman in an Aug. 22 drone attack in Pakistan may appear to be just another in the revolving-door fatalities among al-Qaeda’s operations chiefs. But it was a crucial blow to the core group that once surrounded Osama bin Laden.
Rahman was bin Laden’s channel to the world. Their correspondence was the most important prize taken from bin Laden’s compound when he was killed May 2. They talked about everything: strategy, personnel, operations, political setbacks. Whatever thread still held al-Qaeda together passed from bin Laden through to Rahman.
The Libyan-born Rahman’s death blunts al-Qaeda’s ability to stage a new mega-attack against America; it brings the top leadership of the group closer to extinction; and it increases the likelihood that the organization’s center of gravity will shift from Pakistan’s tribal areas to one of the affiliates, such as the robust al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen.
Asked recently to name the most important remaining leader in al-Qaeda, a senior U.S. official had said it was Rahman. He explained that the nominal successor to bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was actually a secondary figure — more a leader of the group’s Egyptian wing than of al-Qaeda as a whole. It would be in America’s interest if Zawahiri rather than Rahman were dominant, this official said, because Zawahiri was a divisive figure whose ad-hoc tactics were less threatening to America.
One of the subjects discussed frequently between Rahman and bin Laden was whether al-Qaeda’s ferociously violent tactics were alienating Muslims in the countries where it operated. That led to a fascinating 2005 missive from Rahman to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, chiding him for targeting Shiite Muslims in his scorched-earth campaign in Iraq against America and its allies. And in more recent years, the two discussed the danger of seeking an Islamic “caliphate” in areas where al-Qaeda appeared strong, since that extremist move would likely alienate other Muslims. Better, they reasoned, to keep assaulting America.
Rahman’s death is especially important as the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States approaches — and not just for symbolic reasons. Bin Laden had been working with Rahman to plan a spectacular strike against a U.S. target, pegged to the Sept. 11 anniversary. It’s not clear how far that planning had progressed, but whatever its level, it will be hampered, maybe even disrupted, by the death of the man whom bin Laden charged with organizing the details of the plot.
Also unclear is how the CIA was able to target Rahman in the Aug. 22 attack over North Waziristan or how he had been maintaining his sanctuary there. The cache of material taken from the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad in May didn’t include much that would help pinpoint the location of operatives in the field, according to the senior U.S. official, and Rahman would have understood that anything that disclosed his whereabouts had been compromised. But on targeting and other operational details, U.S. officials are tight-lipped.
Rahman fell to a Predator drone attack, the weapon that he and bin Laden had complained about so bitterly in their correspondence. Rahman had told his boss that this U.S. “intelligence war,” as bin Laden had called it, had made it nearly impossible for al-Qaeda to move, communicate, recruit or train in the tribal areas of Pakistan. They had discussed whether al-Qaeda should move its headquarters to someplace safer. That relocation seems more likely, now that the man who anchored the group’s presence in Pakistan is dead.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:19 AM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/asia/30japan.html
August 29, 2011
Finance Minister Is Chosen as Japan’s Next Leader
By MARTIN FACKLER [Japan] [NEAsia] [beyond the terrible quake and tsunami hit in March] [Japan has lumbered through nearly 2 decades of poor economic performance] [govt is heavily bureaucratized and sclerotic] [another PM bites the dust in a political machinery that is badly traumatized] [use psci 350] [I cannot remember names of PMs for years now—revolving door] [now comes Yoshihiko Noda?] [followup] [*]
TOKYO — Japan’s governing party elected Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda to become the next prime minister on Monday, choosing a relative political unknown to lead this shaken nation’s recovery from the tsunami and nuclear accident in March, and revive its moribund economy.
It was a surprise victory for Mr. Noda, who had been seen running a distant third before Monday’s internal vote by the Democratic Party. During the campaign, Mr. Noda ran largely on economic policies, presenting himself as a pro-business, fiscal conservative who could rein in Japan’s ballooning national debt while taming the soaring yen and battling crippling price declines known as deflation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/asia/30japan.html
August 29, 2011
Finance Minister Is Chosen as Japan’s Next Leader
By MARTIN FACKLER [Japan] [NEAsia] [beyond the terrible quake and tsunami hit in March] [Japan has lumbered through nearly 2 decades of poor economic performance] [govt is heavily bureaucratized and sclerotic] [another PM bites the dust in a political machinery that is badly traumatized] [use psci 350] [I cannot remember names of PMs for years now—revolving door] [now comes Yoshihiko Noda?] [followup] [*]
TOKYO — Japan’s governing party elected Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda to become the next prime minister on Monday, choosing a relative political unknown to lead this shaken nation’s recovery from the tsunami and nuclear accident in March, and revive its moribund economy.
It was a surprise victory for Mr. Noda, who had been seen running a distant third before Monday’s internal vote by the Democratic Party. During the campaign, Mr. Noda ran largely on economic policies, presenting himself as a pro-business, fiscal conservative who could rein in Japan’s ballooning national debt while taming the soaring yen and battling crippling price declines known as deflation.
However, political analysts said his victory was as much about seeking a fresh start for the Democratic Party, which has floundered since taking power in a historic election two years ago. The choice of Mr. Noda, who has no large power base within the party, and is not one of the Democrats’ original founding members, appeared to be an effort to find a new common ground for a party that has been undermined by deep divisions.
Mr. Noda must now take over the daunting tasks of leading Japan’s recovery from the deadly earthquake, and the clean-up of radiation from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, while also overcoming the longer-term challenges of two decades of economic stagnation, an aging population and the rise of neighboring China.
Mr. Noda will replace Naoto Kan, who failed to galvanize Japan after the devastating disaster in March, or point a new direction for this seemingly rudderless nation. It remained unclear whether Mr. Noda, who is much less well known here than Mr. Kan, will fare any better in ending Japan’s drift.
“Can we do what is best for Japan, protect the livelihood of the Japanese people, revive the Japanese economy?” Mr. Noda, 54, said in a speech. “This is what we are being called on to do.”
In Monday’s vote, Mr. Noda defeated the trade minister, Banri Kaieda, by 215 to 177 votes in a run-off election, after a first ballot failed to produce a clear victor from a field of five candidates. Mr. Noda will be formally elected prime minister as early as Tuesday by Parliament, where the Democrats control the more powerful lower house.
Political analysts are divided on whether Mr. Noda will actually be able to overcome the political paralysis in a nation that has already gone through six prime ministers in five years. They said that while the choice of the relatively youthful Mr. Noda represents a much-needed changing of the guard in the governing party, they warned that he will face the same fiscal constraints and resistance to change that stymied his predecessors.
“Mr. Noda’s biggest battle will be overcoming the vested interests that have made it so hard to bring change in Japan,” said Norihiko Narita, a political scientist and president of Surugadai University outside Tokyo. “It will be extremely difficult for him to fare any better than those who came before him, to say the least.”
One of his biggest challenges will be a divided Parliament, where the opposition parties like the Liberal Democrats have used control of the upper house to block the Democrats, in hopes of forcing an early general election. During the campaign, Mr. Noda signaled a greater willingness to compromise with the opposition than the other candidates, or his predecessor, Mr. Kan.
Mr. Noda also appears to mark a departure from Mr. Kan on the crucial issue of the future of nuclear energy. While Mr. Kan called for ending what he called Japan’s dependence on nuclear power, Mr. Noda has followed the business community in saying that Japan needs nuclear power to prevent electrical shortages that could further cripple its economy.
In foreign affairs, he has said he will maintain close ties with Washington, and support an existing deal to keep the Futenma air base on Okinawa. However, he is a social conservative who analysts warn might provoke neighbors like China with comments like one he recently made saying that Japan’s wartime leaders were not war criminals.
During the brief campaign before Monday’s vote, Mr. Noda tried to set himself apart in a political culture where many lawmakers hold seats that their families have occupied for generations. Mr. Noda stressed his humble beginnings, saying that he sat sometimes on a suitcase as a child because his family was too poor to afford chairs.
He also displayed a rare sense of humor in an otherwise drab race, comparing himself to a loach, a less attractive fish that scours the mud for food.
“I will stink of mud, and work until I sweat on behalf of the people,” he said.
Whether his self-depreciating style will charm voters remains to be seen. Analysts said his lack of recognition could work in his favor by not building up expectations in the beginning that he cannot fulfill.
“He won’t start with strong approval ratings, which will put less pressure on him to deliver right away,” said Hirotada Asakawa, an independent political analyst.
Analysts agree that Mr. Noda may represent the last chance for the unpopular Democrats, who seemed to lose their way under the indecisive leadership of Mr. Kan and his predecessor, Yukio Hatoyama.
The choice of Mr. Noda appeared to be an effort to overcome what has been the single most divisive issue within the party: the fate of the Democrats’ shadowy kingpin, Ichiro Ozawa, who faces trial in a political funding scandal. While Mr. Ozawa control’s the party’s biggest faction, the scandal has displeased voters.
During the campaign, Mr. Noda had appeared to be running in third place behind Mr. Kaieda, who was supported by Mr. Ozawa, and Seiji Maehara, a popular former foreign minister who has been one of Mr. Ozawa’s biggest critics. Mr. Noda maintained a neutral position.
“Let us end the politics of resentment,” Mr. Noda said. “Let’s make a more stable and reliable political leadership.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/africa/29qaddafi.html
August 28, 2011
Enigmatic in Power, Qaddafi Is Elusive at Large
By ANTHONY SHADID [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [they’re having hard time finding Qaddafi] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [I’ve heard some American “experts” say they expected him to fight to last person but I thought he’d flee] [he’s long distinguished himself a coward willing to allow others to fight for him] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — It was perhaps only fitting that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi would be as unpredictable on the lam as he was in power for 42 eccentric years.
In Green Square, now renamed Martyrs’ Square, youths cleaning the asphalt predicted he was under their feet. In Bab al-Aziziya, once Colonel Qaddafi’s bastion of power here, residents carting away his possessions suggested neighboring Algeria, his hometown of Surt or some faraway locale in the desert, an environment in which Colonel Qaddafi long claimed to feel most at home. Fighters firing volley

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/africa/29qaddafi.html
August 28, 2011
Enigmatic in Power, Qaddafi Is Elusive at Large
By ANTHONY SHADID [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [they’re having hard time finding Qaddafi] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [I’ve heard some American “experts” say they expected him to fight to last person but I thought he’d flee] [he’s long distinguished himself a coward willing to allow others to fight for him] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — It was perhaps only fitting that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi would be as unpredictable on the lam as he was in power for 42 eccentric years.
In Green Square, now renamed Martyrs’ Square, youths cleaning the asphalt predicted he was under their feet. In Bab al-Aziziya, once Colonel Qaddafi’s bastion of power here, residents carting away his possessions suggested neighboring Algeria, his hometown of Surt or some faraway locale in the desert, an environment in which Colonel Qaddafi long claimed to feel most at home. Fighters firing volley after celebratory volley just shrugged.
“It’s the biggest question — where is Qaddafi — and nobody knows,” said Suleiman Abu Milyana, a fighter from the Nafusah Mountains in the west. “He has a particular mind and many personalities. If he had one, you could guess, but he has three or four, so no one can know.”
As his capital fell last week, Colonel Qaddafi and his family evaporated (though two of his sons may, or may not, have been briefly held). Even the adopted daughter he claimed was killed in an American air strike in 1986 — wrongly, it now seems — disappeared from the city of two million, leaving behind her empty office at a Tripoli hospital. Since then, he has released a few brief audio messages, with vintage insults four decades in the making. In one, he called on countrymen to cleanse his capital of rats, traitors and infidels. “Let the masses crawl from every place toward Tripoli,” he declared in the other.
“Forward! Forward! Forward!” he cried.
On Sunday, Colonel Qaddafi’s loyalists even offered to negotiate, a proposal that Mahmoud Shammam, the information minister in the transitional government, dismissed as “a daydream.”
“We are going to arrest them very soon,” he said, though that has become the refrain of bad predictions the past week as the rebels consolidate their control here.
“We really don’t know where he is right now,” acknowledged one senior American counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in Washington.
British and French special operations troops, aided by American reconnaissance imagery and intercepts, as well as operatives from the Central Intelligence Agency, have helped rebels search for Colonel Qaddafi throughout the capital, American officials say.
“We have no reason to believe Qaddafi has left Tripoli,” one American military officer said, noting that the Libyan leader likely had a series of tunnels and safe houses, supported by a network of trusted aides, that he could use to evade his pursuers. But other American officials said he could have slipped out of the capital to towns in the east, and the speculation — in Tripoli and elsewhere — is that he somehow made his way to Algeria, the only neighboring country that has yet to recognize or support the rebel leadership.
In reality, the rebel leadership seems more overwhelmed with the task at hand, bringing back running water, electricity and medical supplies to the capital, as well as doing something about the hundreds of fighters roaming streets with the prestige that a brand-new assault rifle brings. While they acknowledge his capture might end resistance in places like Surt, on the coast, and Sabha, to the south, they say they have already accomplished the greatest challenge: ending the reign of the Arab world’s longest-ruling leader. “I don’t care about him, he’s gone,” said Mazigh Buzakhar, a 29-year-old activist. “He’s been gone since the 17th of February,” he said, citing the date the revolt began. “He lost his legitimacy and he has nothing left. He means nothing to Libya or Libyans.”
But in less guarded moments, some acknowledge the shadow Colonel Qaddafi can still cast in a country where two-thirds of Libyans have known no other leader.
“It’s the same effect as when you’re trying to get a comfortable night of sleep and there’s an annoying mosquito buzzing around the room,” said Aref Nayed, who heads the rebel leadership’s Stabilization Committee. “I’m absolutely convinced that he’s finished but it is a nuisance.”
The comparisons with Saddam Hussein are inescapable. Like Colonel Qaddafi, the Iraqi dictator fled with his sons as his capital fell in 2003. He evaded capture for seven months, moving around a series of safe houses and subterranean hide-outs. American troops carried out more than a dozen raids trying to capture him before a close associate finally gave him up.
“Qaddafi’s like a mouse scurrying along the ground,” said Mohammed Zarzah, a 25-year-old fighter celebrating at Bab al-Aziziya, where, every day since the compound was overrun Thursday, crowds of the curious and the jubilant have gathered at a shrine Colonel Qaddafi built over the target of the 1986 American airstrike. “He called us a rat, and now it turns out that he’s the rat.”
Through the morning on Sunday, people carted away souvenirs from the compound, including a Hello Kitty blanket and plates emblazoned with scenes of an older Tripoli. Strewn about were portraits of Colonel Qaddafi — with Fidel Castro; Yasir Arafat; Nelson Mandela; and Hosni Mubarak, the jailed former president of Egypt. One picture captured his son Seif al-Arab, after his circumcision. Another showed him playing soccer with a grandson. “You should burn each one of those!” one man shouted.
Some visitors peered through doors charred by airstrikes, as if breaching the forbidden.
“If you ask me, he’s staying right here, in our midst,” said Zuheir al-Arabi, a former employee at Libya’s state television. “He can’t live somewhere tight, he can’t live underground. He has to live somewhere big — and here’s the evidence for that right here.”
His hands black, he rummaged through Colonel Qaddafi’s belongings, landing on a jar of dried herbs that he insisted the Libyan leader has relied on to cast magic spells. “He still has a surprise for us,” Mr. Arabi said.
A spokesman for the rebel military said Sunday that one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, Khamis, the head of a feared brigade, may have been killed at a roadblock.
“One thing I know is they’re definitely not together,” said Ahmed Gharib, who joined friends sweeping Martyrs’ Square, as fighters and residents careened around it in cars, honking horns. “Everyone is trying to save himself on his own, just like before — in Tripoli, Surt and Sabha.” He tapped the ground with his broom. “And one underground.”
“Long live a free Libya,” graffiti read along a wall. A man stood on the curb. “Forward! Forward! Forward!” he cried, riffing on Colonel Qaddafi’s trademark chant. Mr. Gharib watched the scene unfold, the offered a line heard often these days. “Every tyrant has his end,” he said.
Rod Nordland contributed reporting from Benghazi, Libya, and Mark Mazzetti from Washington.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/middleeast/29syria.html
August 28, 2011
Turkish Leader Says He Has Lost Confidence in Assad
By ANNE BARNARD [Turkey] [Turkey’s leaders have taken some rather harsh shots at their old friend al Assad] [here the president (Gul) says Turkey has lost confidence in the regime!] [that’s pretty scathing and pretty high up] [followup] [while PM Erdogan has made some fairly bold statements he’s yet to go this far?] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — After trying for months to engage with Syria in an effort to ease the violence there, Turkey’s president declared Sunday that he had “lost confidence” in the government in Damascus, and he stopped just short of calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down. [**]
“Clearly we have reached a point where anything would be too little too late,” the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, told his country’s Anatolia news agency, expressing frustration that Mr. Assad’s violent crackdown on protesters has continued past the 15-day window in which Turkey had said it expected a change. [*]
“Today in the world there is no place for authoritarian administrations, one-party rule, closed regimes,” Mr. Gul said, adding that such governments could be “replaced

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/middleeast/29syria.html
August 28, 2011
Turkish Leader Says He Has Lost Confidence in Assad
By ANNE BARNARD [Turkey] [Turkey’s leaders have taken some rather harsh shots at their old friend al Assad] [here the president (Gul) says Turkey has lost confidence in the regime!] [that’s pretty scathing and pretty high up] [followup] [while PM Erdogan has made some fairly bold statements he’s yet to go this far?] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — After trying for months to engage with Syria in an effort to ease the violence there, Turkey’s president declared Sunday that he had “lost confidence” in the government in Damascus, and he stopped just short of calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down. [**]
“Clearly we have reached a point where anything would be too little too late,” the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, told his country’s Anatolia news agency, expressing frustration that Mr. Assad’s violent crackdown on protesters has continued past the 15-day window in which Turkey had said it expected a change. [*]
“Today in the world there is no place for authoritarian administrations, one-party rule, closed regimes,” Mr. Gul said, adding that such governments could be “replaced by force” if their leaders did not make changes.
“Everyone should know that we are with the Syrian people,” he said. [unequivocal] [*]
The statements were particularly harsh coming from Turkey, which has invested enormous diplomatic efforts in Syria in recent years and has struggled to mediate the current crisis. Mr. Gul’s remarks also sharply increased pressure on Mr. Assad on a day when his Interior Ministry urged the residents of Damascus to stay home “for their own safety” and not to respond to online calls for protests in the capital.
Hours earlier, the Arab League said it would send its secretary general, Nabil el-Araby, to Damascus to seek a resolution to the widespread protests and violent crackdown, which the United Nations has said has killed 2,200 people.
The Arab League called on Syria to “end the spilling of blood and follow the way of reason before it is too late.” The statement was issued after the Arab foreign ministers met through Sunday night into Monday morning in Cairo.
The league did not detail its proposals, but Al Jazeera reported that they would include holding presidential elections, pulling back the army from the cities, releasing political prisoners and those arrested during the protests, and forming a national unity government in which opposition leaders would play a role. [*]
The mounting tone of alarm from Turkey and the Arab world reflects their view that Syria’s stability is essential to the region, and it underlines their desire for a peaceful transfer of power there.
Regional and international interests are tangled in Syria, and the government’s sudden downfall could lead to unpredictable results, especially with the many Arab governments in flux after eight months of uprisings. Syria shares a long desert border with Iraq, where an insurgency is in its ninth year, and it remains officially at war with Israel. Damascus is also a crucial Iranian ally and a divisive force in neighboring Lebanon.
Syria’s neighbors also worry that sectarian and ethnic power struggles could have a ripple effect if Mr. Assad falls. Syria’s Sunni majority is ruled by the minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. And like Turkey, Syria has a discontented Kurdish minority. [*]
Even Iran, Syria’s staunchest ally, has softened its support in recent days, calling on the government to be more “patient” with its people and to respect their “legitimate” demands, although it did not back down from its remarks that blamed foreign interference for the unrest. [both Ahmadinejad and foreign minister but not Khomenei] [*]
Protesters in the southern city of Dara’a tried Sunday to capitalize on the growing international pressure on Damascus, challenging Turkey to stand up for them by raising banners that referred to the Turkish prime minister’s call on Aug. 10 for Syria to enact reforms within 15 days.
The banners, according to a witness, Anwar Farres, proclaimed, “The 15 days are over.”
Some Syrian activists expressed disappointment that the Arab League did not criticize Mr. Assad more harshly, like Turkey did, or call for his ouster, as the United States and some European countries have done.
“This league is speaking a different language from the street,” Ayad Sharbaji, the editor of Shabalak magazine, which is often banned by the authorities, said in an interview. In Dara’a, a funeral for a 14-year-old boy, who died from injuries in clashes on Friday, turned into a large protest on Sunday, and two people were killed as tanks stormed the city of Idlib, according to the Local Coordinating Committees, a protest group. Another person was killed by a sniper in the suburbs of Damascus, and a large protest was reported there, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday.
Mr. Farres in Dara’a said that an unusually large number of military personnel stormed fields and houses looking for protesters. The troops also barricaded the city to prevent people from traveling to Damascus, which has remained relatively quiet and where large protests would pose a serious challenge to the Assad government.
“The more the pressure increases on Bashar, the more it increases on people,” Mr. Farres said.
The emotional tenor of the statement from Mr. Gul, the Turkish president, appeared to indicate his government’s frustration. The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has visited Syria 60 times in the past eight years and has urged Mr. Assad to listen to the protesters. In May, Mr. Davutoglu called for drastic changes, on the order of “shock therapy,” in Syria. [*]
Mr. Assad has lifted emergency laws and endorsed new measures that would allow political parties to operate alongside his Baath Party. On Sunday, he approved a new law that would allow citizens to open news media outlets, ending the government monopoly, though not its censorship.
Mr. Sharbaji, the magazine editor, said the new media law was “not worth the paper it’s written on.” He said no law protecting the news media would be enforced while security forces dominated life in Syria.
Turkey, too, apparently considered those steps as inadequate.
“We are really very sad,” Mr. Gul said. “Incidents are said to be ‘finished,’ and then another 17 people are dead. How many will it be today? We have lost our confidence.”
Syrian officials reacted with defiance to the Arab League statement and declined to say if they would receive the Arab envoy, two Lebanese news channels reported. The Arab League did not say when the visit was planned. [*]
Khaled Aboud, a member of Syria’s Parliament, said in an interview that the Turks were simply serving the United States’ interests and that Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was afraid to stand up to his country’s American-backed military.
Mr. Aboud also played down the significance of Syria’s relationship with Turkish relationship. “Our relationship with Turkey is new,” he said, “not strategic like with Iran.”
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html
August 28, 2011
28 Are Killed in Bombing at a Mosque in Baghdad
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and DURAID ADNAN [-ir] [maliki govt trying to arrange things so US may withdraw later this year] [the SOFA that President Bush signed in 2008 provided for U.S. to leave by December 31, 2011] [Obama hopes to keep it on track] [and things are such that it will almost certainly be a big ceremonial withdrawal] [as America continues to redeploy, more that the occasional squabble turns deadly] [either a sectarian attack or a revenge attack for recent mess with al Sadr?] [followup] [*]
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber mounted a devastating attack in one of the largest Sunni mosques in Baghdad [*]on Sunday, killing at least 28 people, including a member of Parliament, and wounding dozens more, according to security officials. [at first blush a Shi’a militia would seem likely?] [was it part of al Sadr’s or other?] [*]
The attack and a recent spike in suicide bombings across the country heightened fears among Iraqis that the security situation is deteriorating as the United States prepares to withdraw all of its troops by the end of the year.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it was similar to recent strikes by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which often uses suicide bombers. The group said this month that it had begun a 100-attack campaign to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden. [AQI would be unlikely to attack a Sunni mosque?] [*]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html
August 28, 2011
28 Are Killed in Bombing at a Mosque in Baghdad
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and DURAID ADNAN [-ir] [maliki govt trying to arrange things so US may withdraw later this year] [the SOFA that President Bush signed in 2008 provided for U.S. to leave by December 31, 2011] [Obama hopes to keep it on track] [and things are such that it will almost certainly be a big ceremonial withdrawal] [as America continues to redeploy, more that the occasional squabble turns deadly] [either a sectarian attack or a revenge attack for recent mess with al Sadr?] [followup] [*]
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber mounted a devastating attack in one of the largest Sunni mosques in Baghdad [*]on Sunday, killing at least 28 people, including a member of Parliament, and wounding dozens more, according to security officials. [at first blush a Shi’a militia would seem likely?] [was it part of al Sadr’s or other?] [*]
The attack and a recent spike in suicide bombings across the country heightened fears among Iraqis that the security situation is deteriorating as the United States prepares to withdraw all of its troops by the end of the year.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it was similar to recent strikes by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which often uses suicide bombers. The group said this month that it had begun a 100-attack campaign to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden. [AQI would be unlikely to attack a Sunni mosque?] [*]
The bombing on Sunday took place around 9:30 p.m. at the Umm al-Qura mosque, shortly after a Ramadan prayer session concluded. The mosque, which was built by Saddam Hussein, houses the Sunni Endowment of Iraq, one of the largest Sunni organizations in the country.
The mosque’s imam said in a television interview afterward that the bomber was disguised as a beggar, and was initially let into the mosque because he appeared to be injured.
“We thought that this man really deserved to be helped,” said the imam, Ahmed al-Samarai.
Security guards quickly became suspicious of the man, though, and threw him out, but he managed to re-enter and detonate his belt among a group of people, the imam said.
“What hurts me is seeing a 3-year-old boy who came with his father to pray,” the imam said. “And then after the explosion, I saw his head separated from his body.”
The boy’s father was also killed in the attack, he said.
“The mosque was filled with blood and black smoke,” said Mr. Samarai, who is also the head of the Sunni endowment. “Don’t they fear God when they do this?”
The lawmaker killed in the attack, Khalid al-Fahdawi, had survived at least one assassination attempt by members of Al Qaeda, a local official in Anbar Province said. Mr. Fahdawi became a member of Parliament last year, representing the province, a mostly Sunni area once controlled by Al Qaeda, after a member of his party became the culture minister.
“The man is very well known in Anbar,” said the local official, Muaid Jubarr. “It’s his city. He was an Islamic moderate. He always criticized Al Qaeda and was against them. He always called for peace among the Muslims. Democracy doesn’t go against Islam.”
The mosque, which was completed in 2001, was originally named the Mother of All Battles Mosque, in reference to what Mr. Hussein believed was his victory over the United States in 1991 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Some Iraqis have said that the mosque’s architects modeled its minarets after the barrels of AK-47 assault rifles.
After the government fell in 2003, the mosque was given to Sunni clerics, and it became the center for the Sunni Endowment of Iraq.
The attack occurred two weeks after a coordinated group of attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen killed more than 90 people, the most violent day this year in Iraq. Several days later, Al Qaeda issued a statement saying that it had begun the 100-attack campaign.
“It doesn’t matter if the people are Sunni Arab or not,” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, the United States military’s chief spokesman in Iraq, said in an interview on Friday. “If they don’t believe in what Al Qaeda believes in, from an Al Qaeda perspective they are apostates and they should be killed.” [?] [I find that rather strain credibility?] [*]
General Buchanan said he did not think Al Qaeda could reconcile its differences with the Iraqi government.
“These are people who will murder their own kids to make a point,” he said. “They have no problem conducting suicide operations and murdering as many people as possible to make a show of it. I think they need to be brought to justice rather than reconciliation.”
At least three people were killed and 13 others wounded in other violence across Iraq on Sunday. A car bomb in east Baghdad killed one civilian and wounded eight. Three other explosions in Baghdad wounded five civilians. North of the city of Baquba, two security officers were killed by gunmen.
An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Anbar Province.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:14 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/asia/29musharraf.html
August 28, 2011
In Pakistan, Court Moves to Punish Ex-President
By SALMAN MASOOD [Pakistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Pakistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues in AfPak] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [this on former President Musharraf] [court has apparently ruled probable cause—or Pakistan’s equivalent—involved in murder of Ms. Bhuto couple years back?] [*]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani court has ordered that former President Pervez Musharraf’s property be seized and his bank accounts frozen in connection with the legal case concerning the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The court order was issued Saturday by Judge Shahid Raffique at a hearing in Rawalpindi, the garrison city next to Islamabad where Mrs. Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27, 2007.
Mr. Musharraf was charged in the case earlier this year, but he left the country in 2008 under threat of impeachment and has been living in exile in London and Dubai.
He has not appeared at any court hearing in the case. [he is still in Dubai] [*]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/asia/29musharraf.html
August 28, 2011
In Pakistan, Court Moves to Punish Ex-President
By SALMAN MASOOD [Pakistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Pakistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues in AfPak] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [this on former President Musharraf] [court has apparently ruled probable cause—or Pakistan’s equivalent—involved in murder of Ms. Bhuto couple years back?] [*]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani court has ordered that former President Pervez Musharraf’s property be seized and his bank accounts frozen in connection with the legal case concerning the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The court order was issued Saturday by Judge Shahid Raffique at a hearing in Rawalpindi, the garrison city next to Islamabad where Mrs. Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27, 2007.
Mr. Musharraf was charged in the case earlier this year, but he left the country in 2008 under threat of impeachment and has been living in exile in London and Dubai.
He has not appeared at any court hearing in the case. [he is still in Dubai] [*]
During the hearing on Saturday, the judge ordered the Federal Investigation Agency to confiscate all of Mr. Musharraf’s property for failing to respond to subpoenas.
At the time of the assassination, Mr. Musharraf’s government had accused the Taliban and Al Qaeda of being behind the plot to kill Mrs. Bhutto, his political rival.
A United Nations report released in April 2010 suggested that Pakistani authorities had deliberately failed to effectively investigate the killing, but it did not say who it believed to be responsible for her death.
Last October, Mr. Musharraf apologized to Pakistan for what he characterized as mistakes he made in office, and he said he would return to the country in time for elections due by 2013. [*]
A spokesman for Mr. Musharraf said that the court’s ruling was “politically motivated.”
“We expect no justice from the existing judiciary, which has a strong bias against our leader,” Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesman for Mr. Musharraf’s new political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League, was quoted as saying by the local news media.
“We will respond to such bias in the people’s court,” he said.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/africa/29nigeria.html
August 28, 2011
Islamic Group Says It Was Behind Fatal Nigeria Attack
By ADAM NOSSITER [Nigeria] [days ago initial reports appear to have been quite close to what happened] [suicide bomber, almost certainly associated with jihadis] [followup] [also Boko Haram?, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [while small stuff against westerners has been common over the years, this sort of thing bear hallmarks of jihadis?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [now confirmed Boko Haram claimed attack] [*]
ABUJA, Nigeria — Investigators searched the rubble of the shattered United Nations headquarters building here in the Nigerian capital on Sunday as the number of deaths climbed to at least 21 and questions lingered about who bore responsibility for Friday’s suicide car bombing, even as men who said they were representatives of a radical Islamist sect claimed it. [*]
Twisted metal rods hung down amid the debris in the darkened ground floor, piles of glass shards lay about the grounds and parking lot, and virtually every window in the front of the sprawling four-story building had been blasted out. Evidence of the suicide vehicle’s deadly full-speed surge — a twisted metal exit gate — lay on its side on the grass in front of the building. An unarmed United Nations guard was run over and killed while trying to stop it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/africa/29nigeria.html
August 28, 2011
Islamic Group Says It Was Behind Fatal Nigeria Attack
By ADAM NOSSITER [Nigeria] [days ago initial reports appear to have been quite close to what happened] [suicide bomber, almost certainly associated with jihadis] [followup] [also Boko Haram?, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [while small stuff against westerners has been common over the years, this sort of thing bear hallmarks of jihadis?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [now confirmed Boko Haram claimed attack] [*]
ABUJA, Nigeria — Investigators searched the rubble of the shattered United Nations headquarters building here in the Nigerian capital on Sunday as the number of deaths climbed to at least 21 and questions lingered about who bore responsibility for Friday’s suicide car bombing, even as men who said they were representatives of a radical Islamist sect claimed it. [*]
Twisted metal rods hung down amid the debris in the darkened ground floor, piles of glass shards lay about the grounds and parking lot, and virtually every window in the front of the sprawling four-story building had been blasted out. Evidence of the suicide vehicle’s deadly full-speed surge — a twisted metal exit gate — lay on its side on the grass in front of the building. An unarmed United Nations guard was run over and killed while trying to stop it.
The building lies at the end of a long driveway, so the bomb-carrying vehicle was able to accelerate fully before it crashed through two barriers.
The bomb was perhaps no bigger than 100 pounds, according to the United Nations’ security chief, but it was still big enough to have wounded and killed scores, most of them Nigerian employees of the agency. F.B.I. agents arrived Saturday to help with the investigation at the building, which some United Nations officials said had been damaged beyond repair. [*]
“I heard the bang, and I woke up in debris and a pool of blood,” Aniekan Etim Usanga murmured from his hospital bed here, his head swathed in bandages. Mr. Usanga, a World Health Organization employee, had been in a meeting on the second floor of the building, just above where the explosives-laden vehicle crashed into the reception area.
“Suddenly, there was a noise,” Ludovic Mabiala, another W.H.O. staff member, recalled from his hospital bed, his eyes half shut. “I saw some colleagues collapsing,” he said. “I walked toward them to assist them. That’s the last thing I remember.”
Many of the wounded — about 26 — were still being treated Sunday in the intensive care unit of the National Hospital here, where they were visited by Asha-Rose Migiro, the United Nations deputy secretary general. About 73 people were wounded in all.
“The men and women who work in this U.N. house are here only to help,” Ms. Migiro said in a statement. “Targeting such people is outrageous, and morally reprehensible.” She said she had spoken to a cleaning woman wounded in the blast, now hospitalized, who was anxious to return to work to support her family.
Victims spoke Sunday of routine tasks on a calm Friday morning that were interrupted suddenly in a shower of blood and debris. “I was bringing a proposal,” Alex Isahrohien said at the hospital. “I saw the vehicle run into the reception. I heard the blast. I was covered in blood.”
Around Abuja, a made-to-order, modernistic new capital at the fault-line center of Nigeria dividing the Christian south from the Muslim north, security appeared to have been sharply tightened, with immense traffic jams in front of checkpoints on the roads leading into the city. [*]
Nigerian news media and officials cautiously acknowledged this weekend that the bombing had opened a new and far more dangerous dimension in the country’s fitful struggle with terrorists, but much about it remained a mystery, just like the Islamic sect that the country is fighting in the north.[*] Motive, means — what type of explosive — and even the perpetrators remained unclear on Sunday.
Men who said they represented Boko Haram, an Islamic sect with possible links to Al Qaeda’s affiliates in the region that has carried out months of bombings and assassinations, have been telling Nigerian reporters by telephone since Friday that the sect was responsible for the blast. [*]They have made similar claims in the past.
“Through the wisdom of Allah, we have launched the attack with absolute precision,” a man who identified himself as Abu Darda told a reporter in Kano on Friday. “We have said it several times that the U.N. is one of our prime targets.” Another man claiming to be a spokesman for Boko Haram, Mallam Abu Kaka, in a telephone conference call on Saturday with reporters in Maiduguri, blamed the United States. “The U.S. government has been collaborating with the Nigerian government to clamp down on our members nationwide,” he said. Both men warned that more attacks were imminent. [*]
Still, a Web site that the group has used in the past had made no claims about the blast as of Sunday. But Boko Haram’s terror campaign in the north has seen a steady increase in sophistication — the use of remotely detonated bombs, in particular, has led analysts to suspect a Qaeda connection — and the suicide blast on Friday could be seen as one more step in the progression.
Aminu Abubakar contributed reporting from Kano, Nigeria, and Yahaya Ibrahim from Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:12 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62185.html
Politico
[Assessed 8/28/11 8:17:36 AM] [*]
Cheney: Bush authorized leak on Iraq
By: Mike Allen
August 27, 2011 02:59 PM EDT [former Bush white house] [specifically, the NSC as precieved by Veep Cheney] [I’ve said it before: the level of arrogance of the man is stunning] [among other things he tells former President Bush “I told you so”] [the hubris has not shied with time] [indeed, he seems even more entroverted and angry] [interesting bit about GW Bush leaking on Iraq in 2007] [use psci 355-455] [*]
Dick Cheney writes in his forthcoming book, "In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” that he was surprised to learn that President George W. Bush had personally authorized a leak about Iraq strategy to a Washington Post columnist — a disclosure that the former vice president believed could be "a real disservice" to U.S. troops. [*]
“On Tuesday morning, May 22 [2007]," Cheney writes, "a David Ignatius column appeared in the Washington Post titled ‘After the Surge: The Administration Floats Ideas for a New Approach in Iraq.’ It quoted administration officials on the need to revamp policy in order to attract bipartisan support and to take into account the fact that the surge might not have the stabilizing effect we had hoped. [to act as if he never leaked is what’s astonishing here] [he’s

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62185.html
Politico
[Assessed 8/28/11 8:17:36 AM] [*]
Cheney: Bush authorized leak on Iraq
By: Mike Allen
August 27, 2011 02:59 PM EDT [former Bush white house] [specifically, the NSC as precieved by Veep Cheney] [I’ve said it before: the level of arrogance of the man is stunning] [among other things he tells former President Bush “I told you so”] [the hubris has not shied with time] [indeed, he seems even more entroverted and angry] [interesting bit about GW Bush leaking on Iraq in 2007] [use psci 355-455] [*]
Dick Cheney writes in his forthcoming book, "In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” that he was surprised to learn that President George W. Bush had personally authorized a leak about Iraq strategy to a Washington Post columnist — a disclosure that the former vice president believed could be "a real disservice" to U.S. troops. [*]
“On Tuesday morning, May 22 [2007]," Cheney writes, "a David Ignatius column appeared in the Washington Post titled ‘After the Surge: The Administration Floats Ideas for a New Approach in Iraq.’ It quoted administration officials on the need to revamp policy in order to attract bipartisan support and to take into account the fact that the surge might not have the stabilizing effect we had hoped. [to act as if he never leaked is what’s astonishing here] [he’s not actually bothered by the leak but by Bush getting weak, in Cheney’s eyes!] [*]
"I was very concerned when I read the piece, and I raised it with the president in the Oval Office. ‘Whoever is leaking information like this to the press is doing a real disservice, Mr. President,’ I said, ‘both to you and to our forces on the ground in Baghdad.’ … ‘We have to correct this, particularly with our generals in the field.’ …
"A short time later [national security adviser] Steve Hadley came into my office and closed the door. He told me that he was the source for Ignatius and that he’d talked to him at the instruction of the president.” [*]
The book, written with his daughter Liz Cheney, will be out Tuesday from Threshold Editions, a publishing imprint founded by his former aide Mary Matalin. Other revelations of West Wing intrigue:
—In July 2003, after the Joe Wilson op-ed in The N.Y. Times, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said during an Air Force One gaggle, re the 16 words Iraq and uranium: “We've said now we wouldn't have put it in the speech if we had known what we know now.”
Cheney writes: “The result was the conflagration I had predicted. … Rice realized sometime later that she had made a major mistake by issuing a public apology. She came into my office, sad down in the chair next to my desk, and tearfully admitted I had been right. [this is pure Cheney] [if only they had all listened to me!] [*] Unfortunately, the damage was done. [CIA Director] George Tenet was furious at having had to apologize.”
--“In the wake of the New York Times terrorist surveillance story [in Dec. 2005], Andy Card hosted a meeting in his office that I attended along with some of the president’s communications team. Communications Director Dan Bartlett was urging that we be more forthcoming in revealing to the press and the public just what these programs entailed. He said that the president was ‘just carrying too much baggage’ from all the ‘secret’ activities we had under way. … ‘Dan,’ I said, ‘we aren’t doing these things for our entertainment. We’re doing them because we’re at war. These programs – and keeping them secret – are critical for the defense of the nation.’ The president and I and everyone else serving in the administration had one mission: to defend the nation, even if it resulted in negative press stories.”
--On Dec. 7, 2006, the day after release of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report, “We had our Oval Office intelligence brief earlier than normal because the president and Prime Minister Tony Blair were having breakfast at 8:00 a.m., followed by a joint press conference. As the intelligence brief wrapped up, a staffer came in with a copy of the president’s opening remarks for the press conference. I didn’t usually get involved with drafts of presidential speeches, but a quick glance at this one sent up a red flag. I’d seen an earlier version and it had the word ‘victory’ in it. Someone had taken it out of the remarks.[*]
“For some time, Dan Bartlett, the director of communications, and Josh Bolten, the chief of staff, had been arguing that the president shouldn’t say ‘victory.’ They viewed that as the equivalent of arguing to stay the course. They were concerned that the press would hear it and write that the president hadn’t understood the message of the midterms we’d just lost. They worried it would lead to stories that the president was ‘stubborn’ and ‘wasn’t listening.’ They urged repeatedly that for optics’ sake, we make clear we had a changed strategy … I disagreed. ... ‘Mr. President,’ I said, holding up the proposed remarks, ‘you can’t refuse to talk about winning’ … The president understood immediately, and a few hours later when he appeared with Prime Minister Blair, he said, ‘We agree that victory in Iraq is important.’” [I actually think he’s right on this one but it’s not the point] [the point is his way, the neocon way is the only way and anyone who sees it differently, no matter how marginally, isn’t just wrong but is misguided or worse] [*]
--“On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected … [Bush chief of staff] Josh Bolten decided to host a unique session for the incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, during our last weeks in office. Josh gathered all the living former chiefs of staff, about a dozen of us. Don Rumsfeld was there, Howard Baker, Jack Watson, John Sununu, and Leon Panetta, among others, and we met around the table in the office we had all once inhabited. Josh went around and asked each of us to give Rahm our most important piece of advice. By this time, of course, there’d been years of stories about how I was the evil genius controlling the Bush administration from behind a curtain, so when it came my turn I advised Rahm, ‘Whatever you do, make sure you’ve got the vice president under control.’ It was one of my better lines.” © 2011 POLITICO LLC

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:50 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2011/Aug-26/Iraq-goes-the-way-of-its-Gulf-neighbors.ashx#axzz1WKGGQY00
The Daily Star
[Accessed 8/28/11 8:15:12 AM] [*]
Iraq goes the way of its Gulf neighbors
By Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi
26/08/2011 [Lebanese media] [on Iraq’s changes since 2003] [specifically, Iraq’s economy is changing for the worse] [author says Iraq has become increasingly dependent on petroleum] [that it has neglected other sectors such as basic food stuffs] [and that like the Gulf emirates, it has become dependent on foreign labor] [these things together create vulnerabilites that the piece is about] [*]
Among those who supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a primary hope was that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime would give rise, in President George W. Bush’s words, to a “free … stable … and prosperous” liberal democracy. This Western-style Iraqi democracy, it was expected, would serve as a model of freedom for other countries in the Middle East.
However, actual events over the past eight years have given rise to a very different picture. It is somewhat ironic that, far from moving away from its Persian Gulf neighbors in terms of its economic and social conduct, Iraq now has a much closer affinity to them, and this on account of two major trends.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2011/Aug-26/Iraq-goes-the-way-of-its-Gulf-neighbors.ashx#axzz1WKGGQY00
The Daily Star
[Accessed 8/28/11 8:15:12 AM] [*]
Iraq goes the way of its Gulf neighbors
By Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi
26/08/2011 [Lebanese media] [on Iraq’s changes since 2003] [specifically, Iraq’s economy is changing for the worse] [author says Iraq has become increasingly dependent on petroleum] [that it has neglected other sectors such as basic food stuffs] [and that like the Gulf emirates, it has become dependent on foreign labor] [these things together create vulnerabilites that the piece is about] [*]
Among those who supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a primary hope was that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime would give rise, in President George W. Bush’s words, to a “free … stable … and prosperous” liberal democracy. This Western-style Iraqi democracy, it was expected, would serve as a model of freedom for other countries in the Middle East.
However, actual events over the past eight years have given rise to a very different picture. It is somewhat ironic that, far from moving away from its Persian Gulf neighbors in terms of its economic and social conduct, Iraq now has a much closer affinity to them, and this on account of two major trends.
First, consider the petroleum industry. Since the U.S. invasion, dependency on oil exports has increased dramatically, such that the industry now accounts for around 70 percent of GDP and 90 percent of government revenues. Similarly, in neighboring Kuwait, for instance, the petroleum sector provided 50 percent of GDP and 95 percent of government revenues.
Gone are the days before the Gulf war of 1991 when Iraq had a more diversified economy, so that the country was responsible for roughly 80 percent of the global trade in dates. At present, agriculture only comprises some 10 percent of GDP. Despite an $80 million plan by the Agriculture Ministry to revitalize date production, efforts have gone nowhere. Successive droughts, poor water quality, and the rising costs of fertilizers and pest control mean that output has decreased to 50 kilograms per date palm, compared with 150-200 kilograms in 1990.
Moreover, with global oil prices undoubtedly set to rise over the coming decade, the Iraqi government does not seem poised to branch out from the lucrative petroleum industry, which is still predominantly state-run. Young Iraqis consequently see no future in agriculture and are looking toward jobs in the energy sector and the state bureaucracy, where salaries are higher.
Second, there is a problem of Iraqi reliance on foreign labor in construction and in the performance of menial tasks. A U.S. State Department report on human trafficking around the world has highlighted the problem. As in Dubai and other countries in the Persian Gulf, Iraq has an endemic problem of employing illegal, forced labor. The migrant workers come from a wide variety of locations, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Nepal and Thailand.
A damaging feature of this development has been the deceptive practices of labor agencies that entice recruits with promises of good salaries and attractive working hours, often not telling them that their destination will be Iraq. Once these individuals find themselves in the country, their passports are confiscated and the laborers are compelled to endure long working hours and very poor working and living conditions, usually without pay.[*]
The State Department report faults the Iraqi government for doing nothing to punish human traffickers, failing to collect data on the problem, and not investigating officials who might be involved in the trafficking, which is prohibited by the Iraqi Constitution. At best, Baghdad has planned to enact a draft law whose clauses hark back to the days of Saddam. The legislation forbids the use of illegal workers and entails the deportation of forced laborers and the fining of companies exploiting them. [*]
However, the draft law cannot be approved while Iraq’s politicians continue to engage in personal power struggles, so that the government that emerged from the elections of March 2010 is still not fully formed. Hence, it is not surprising that the State Department has concluded that Iraq has a “negligible law enforcement effort” to combat human trafficking.
Curiously, however, the addiction to foreign labor has not featured among the declared grievances of protestors who continue to gather (admittedly in smaller numbers) in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square every Friday. In contrast, protests in Oman this year brought the problem of dependency on foreign workers to the forefront of issues that the sultanate must address. [**]
Dependency on the energy sector means that Iraq is still stuck with a state-run economy it inherited from the days of Saddam Hussein. Iraqi politicians have talked for years about advancing economic liberalization and cutting down on the state bureaucracy. However, the growing income from oil exports explains why the government is not implementing reform. [it falls more and more behind a competitive globalized marketplace because state industries are notorioiusly inefficient] [thus, it loses its capacity to compete and a spiral begins] [*]
If anything, Baghdad has only added to the public bureaucracy by creating more government jobs to compensate for the fact that the petroleum industry is not labor intensive.
This development, in turn, has impeded reconstruction efforts and increased corruption. Likewise, the great reliance on oil exports and the importation of foreign labor have only aggravated the problem of unemployment among the Iraqi people.
If Iraqi politicians, detached as they already are from the concerns of their people, wish to avoid sparking further civil and political unrest in the country, they will have to soon address over-reliance on oil revenues and the illegal use of foreign labor. Otherwise, they risk destroying the population’s trust in democracy, founded on a resentment of the decades of repression under the old Baathist regime.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Oxford University and an intern at the Middle East Copyrights 2011, The Daily Star - All Rights Reserved

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=235737&R=R1
Jerusalem Post
[Accessed 8/28/11 8:12:14 AM] [*]
Libya threatens to become terrorist arms depot
By DAVID ROSENBERG / THE MEDIA LINE
28/08/2011 [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [the fast-moving situation in Libya] [of course, Libya represents another horror-facsination thing for Israel?] [Qaddafi has long been a nemesis but Israel is also worried about the TNC and its members] [note: so far only JPost reporting this?] [*]
Post-Gaddafi chaos exposes arsenals of small arms and chemicals to raids by smugglers and militants.
The collapse of strongman Muamar Gaddafi’s government and the ensuing chaos in Libya could prove to be boon to the militant groups in Africa and the Middle East by opening up arsenals of weaponry ranging from small arms to chemicals, experts are warning. [yes, it

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=235737&R=R1
Jerusalem Post
[Accessed 8/28/11 8:12:14 AM] [*]
Libya threatens to become terrorist arms depot
By DAVID ROSENBERG / THE MEDIA LINE
28/08/2011 [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [the fast-moving situation in Libya] [of course, Libya represents another horror-facsination thing for Israel?] [Qaddafi has long been a nemesis but Israel is also worried about the TNC and its members] [note: so far only JPost reporting this?] [*]
Post-Gaddafi chaos exposes arsenals of small arms and chemicals to raids by smugglers and militants.
The collapse of strongman Muamar Gaddafi’s government and the ensuing chaos in Libya could prove to be boon to the militant groups in Africa and the Middle East by opening up arsenals of weaponry ranging from small arms to chemicals, experts are warning. [yes, it could in the same way that it could turn out wonderfully?] [everyone is aware already that Libya has some residual chemical warfare] [my understanding last week was NATO was keeping close watch] [I’ve heard nothing yet to make me think otherwise?] [*]
Rebels have seized much of the country including most of the capital Tripoli, but as of late Thursday they were still battling Gaddafi loyalists and struggling to establish law and order in a country wracked by six months of civil war. Unorganized opposition fighters and ordinary Libyans have pried open weapons stores in the search for arms for battle and tradable goods.
“It’s very hard to say what is actually out there. The large arsenals in the hands of Libyan armed forces have been plundered. This plundering has been very disorganized. People walk in and take whatever they need and load them onto trucks. No one knows where those trucks are going,” said Pieter Wezeman, [*]a research arms transfer program research, at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). [now, that is potentially alarming!] [*]
“There will be very many weapons from these arsenals spreading throughout Libya and maybe outside of Libya,” Wezeman, told The Media Line.
Gaddafi is the third Arab leader to fall in the Arab Spring turmoil but the first to go down in a war that has left such anarchy its wake. The weapons stockpile could find its way across the country’s desolate expanses and through its unguarded borders. Libya would turn into a weapons larder for groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip to fighters in Dafur and al-Qaida Islamists across North Africa and Iraq, experts said. [this is worst-case scenario but it’s plausible if people are trucking it away?] [this is first I’ve read of that] [??] [*]
Hours after rebel fighters seized the leader’s Bab Al-Aziziya headquarters in Tripoli, looters were seen carrying out trophies like gold-plated pistols and submachine guns, not to mention flat-screen television sets and household goods. But the prize for arms smugglers and their clients is Libya’s vast arsenal of small and portable weapons.
Yoram Schweitzer, a senior research fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, told The Media Line that there are already signs that some Libyan weaponry has reached the Islamic militant movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. [why only JPost reporting this?] [is this source not credible?] [*] Getting the arms to Gaza has been as much facilitated by chaos in Libya as by political turmoil in Egypt, which lies between Libya and Gaza, since President Hosni Muabrak was ousted last February.
No one knows exactly what there is, where it is stored or in what condition it is in, but SIPRI has reported that the Ukraine supplied 100,000 rifles to Libya in 2007-08 while Russia reportedly sold Gaddafi an unknown number of its Igla-S, a man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile popular with militant groups. Also known as the SA-24 in one of its variants, it could be the biggest prize of all in the arsenal, [this I’ve read before] [this is not new news] [*] Wezeman said.
Gen. Carter Ham, commander of US Africa Command, said last April in Congressional testimony that as many as 20,000 surface-to-air missiles were in the country when NATO operations began last March. "Many of those, we know, are now not accounted for," said Ham, who was once in charge of the military operation in Libya. [yes, I read that already] [about a week ago?] [*]
The US has budgeted $3 million to date for two international weapons-abatement teams to find and destroy anti-aircraft systems and other munitions and landmines. They have found shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile systems, including Russian SA-7 launchers. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Tuesday that Washington is taking steps to make certain that "the governing forces in Libya have full command and control of any WMD [weapons of mass destruction] or any security assets that the state might have had," the Associated Press reported.
But many officials are worried that because NATO has refused to put personnel on the ground in Libya it is severely hindering efforts to secure or destroy. [first, I’ve heard precisely the opposite: namely, that NATO and possibly US have put covert people on ground] [second, “refused” is particularly charged] [my impression was the entire debate in NATO was more symbolic than substantive] [in other words, NATO is trying to keep it quiet rather than “refusing”!] [I’m not saying the author is wrong but it seems alarming reporting and nobody else is reporting it?] [*]
“Libya has probably fewer of the most modern weapons terrorists would like to get their hands on because the country was subject to a United Nations arms embargo. Even after it was lifted,” Wezeman said, adding that Gaddafi had signed a few deals.
“They were looking at weapons but hadn’t ordered many yet, very little really modern material has reached Libya,” he said. “But small arms don’t have to be modern to be effective.”
Meanwhile, the threat of chemical and nuclear weapons getting into the hand of militants is less serious, experts said. [now, the same piece backs away from the potentially explosive assertion above?] [what’s up?] [*]
Libya dismantled its chemical weapons program eight years ago when it joined the Chemicals Weapons Convention. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has verified that two of the country’s three known chemical plants were destroyed and a third was converted by agreement into a pharmaceutical facility, said Michael Luhan, a spokesman OPCW, an Amsterdam-based group that monitors countries’ compliance with the convention.
When unrest broke out last February, Libya was in the process of destroying stockpiles of mustard gas and other chemicals, stored in corroding drums, at a site southeast of Tripoli.
Coincidentally, the equipment being used to destroy the stockpile broke down days before the fighting. Mustard gas can cause severe blistering and death, but Luhan said terrorists would likely have trouble making use of it. [I’ve heard the same: that it would be difficult to weaponize it] [but the real concern is transshipping it somewhere else] [*]
“It would be difficult to weaponize the existing stockpile of mustard gas – difficult but not impossible,” he told The Media Line. “Whether it would be worth it depends on what someone would plant to do it. It’s in very suboptimal conditions right now. For it to be weaponized, the technical factors involved would make weaponizing it difficult.”
Gaddafi surrendered the hardware for his nuclear program and let the US remove about 5.5 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium from a nuclear research reactor near Tripoli two years ago. While there are still some 500 to 900 metric tons of raw uranium yellowcake stored in drums at Libya's lone nuclear reactor, east of Tripoli, it would require considerable refining and enrichment to be used as an explosive.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:48 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egypt-reportedly-mulling-buffer-zone-on-israel-border-in-wake-of-recent-bloodshed-1.381183
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/28/11 8:10:54 AM] [*]
Published 16:57 28.08.11
Egypt reportedly mulling buffer zone on Israel border in wake of recent bloodshed
Egyptian daily says Egyptian security agencies poised to start demolishing tunnels used in smuggling arms and goods, due to heavy digging equipment spotted for removing the tunnels.
By Barak Ravid and DPA Tags: Gaza Strip Egypt IDF Benjamin Netanyahu Israel terrorism Sinai Ehud Barak [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [Egypt and Egypt’s central role in Israel’s sense of security] [author has source(s) telling him that Egypt is thinking of creating buffer zone with Gaza?] [followup] [*]
Egypt is considering setting up a buffer zone on its border with the Gaza Strip following recent bloodshed, [how exactly?] [*]the independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm reported Sunday.
The plan includes removing smuggling tunnels running across the 14-kilometer-long border with Gaza. [that’s how] [*]

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egypt-reportedly-mulling-buffer-zone-on-israel-border-in-wake-of-recent-bloodshed-1.381183
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/28/11 8:10:54 AM] [*]
Published 16:57 28.08.11
Egypt reportedly mulling buffer zone on Israel border in wake of recent bloodshed
Egyptian daily says Egyptian security agencies poised to start demolishing tunnels used in smuggling arms and goods, due to heavy digging equipment spotted for removing the tunnels.
By Barak Ravid and DPA Tags: Gaza Strip Egypt IDF Benjamin Netanyahu Israel terrorism Sinai Ehud Barak [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [Egypt and Egypt’s central role in Israel’s sense of security] [author has source(s) telling him that Egypt is thinking of creating buffer zone with Gaza?] [followup] [*]
Egypt is considering setting up a buffer zone on its border with the Gaza Strip following recent bloodshed, [how exactly?] [*]the independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm reported Sunday.
The plan includes removing smuggling tunnels running across the 14-kilometer-long border with Gaza. [that’s how] [*]
Security agencies are poised to start demolishing the tunnels used in smuggling arms and goods, said the report - citing heavy digging equipment spotted for removing the tunnels.
Five Egyptian policemen were killed by Israel on August 19 during a hunt for militants near the border with Egypt who committed a multi-staged attack in southern Israel, which left eight dead.
The deaths have triggered outrage in Egypt, causing the worst crisis between the two countries since they signed a peace treaty in 1979.
The Egyptian army and security troops have recently launched a campaign in the Sinai Peninsula to restore central government control and track down those behind attacks on police stations, as well as on pipeline transporting gas to Israel.[*]
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he does not believe Israel should rush to amend the peace treaty with Israel.
"If we are going to alter the peace treaty with Egypt – and I don't think that it is something we need to rush into – it must be approved by the cabinet," Netanyahu said Sunday during a meeting with Likud ministers.
Recently, senior Israel Defense Forces officials said that Israel should consider amending its peace treaty with Egypt so as to allow the Egyptian Army to increase its presence in Sinai in light of the deteriorating security situation there. [*]
Netanyahu, however, stressed that Israel must first take care of its security issues and also examine more closely the situation in Sinai. [this is unimaginably sensitive issue with Egyptians] [*]
"We must take care of security, terror problems in particular, and we need to invest more resources in tackling obstacles," Netanyahu pressed. "We are in continued contacts with the Egyptian government and we are trying to navigate these contacts intelligently."
On Saturday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel does not intend to approve additional Egyptian troops in the eastern Sinai Peninsula, despite reports in Haaretz and the British weekly The Economist on Friday in which the defense minister said it was in Israel's interest to allow Egypt to bring in larger forces to overcome the ongoing anarchy along the border with Israel.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/syrian-opposition-decides-to-take-up-arms-against-assad-regime-1.381184
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/28/11 8:09:42 AM] [*]
Published 16:58 28.08.11
Syrian opposition decides to take up arms against Assad regime
Leader of Revolutionary Council tell London-based As-Sharq al-Awsat that the only solution to regime's violence is armed uprising.
By DPA Tags: Syria Bashar Assad Arab Spring [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran and Syria and especially Iran’s alliance with Syria] [here, it’s clear they are watching Syria with rapt attention] [followup] [proverbial, focused like a laser beam on Syria] [opposition to take up arms which would mean more blood?] [surely, they’ve already taken ups arms?] [*]
The leader of the Revolutionary Council of the Syrian Coordination Committees, Mohammad Rahhal, said in remarks published Sunday that the council took the decision to arm the Syrian revolution.
Since mid-March pro-democracy protests have engulfed most of Syria calling for political

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/syrian-opposition-decides-to-take-up-arms-against-assad-regime-1.381184
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/28/11 8:09:42 AM] [*]
Published 16:58 28.08.11
Syrian opposition decides to take up arms against Assad regime
Leader of Revolutionary Council tell London-based As-Sharq al-Awsat that the only solution to regime's violence is armed uprising.
By DPA Tags: Syria Bashar Assad Arab Spring [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran and Syria and especially Iran’s alliance with Syria] [here, it’s clear they are watching Syria with rapt attention] [followup] [proverbial, focused like a laser beam on Syria] [opposition to take up arms which would mean more blood?] [surely, they’ve already taken ups arms?] [*]
The leader of the Revolutionary Council of the Syrian Coordination Committees, Mohammad Rahhal, said in remarks published Sunday that the council took the decision to arm the Syrian revolution.
Since mid-March pro-democracy protests have engulfed most of Syria calling for political and economic reforms as well as for the ousting of Syrian president Bashar Assad.
"We made our decision to arm the revolution which will turn violent very soon because what we are being subjected to today is a global conspiracy that can only be faced by an armed uprising," he told the London-based As-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper. Circumstances no longer allow dealing peacefully with the regime's "crimes," he added. "We will use whatever arms and rocks ... We will respond to the people's calls to arm the revolution," he said. [*]
"Confronting this monster (the Syrian regime) now requires arms, especially after it has become clear to everyone that the world only supports the Syrian uprising through speeches," he added. Rahal lashed out some Arab regimes and described them as "cowards." [*]
Assad's troops have harshly cracked down on protests against almost five decades of Baath Party rule, killing over 2,200 people and triggering a wide-scale international condemnation.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/asia/28qaeda.html
August 27, 2011
C.I.A. Drone Is Said to Kill Al Qaeda’s No. 2
By MARK MAZZETTI [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [from NSC to the bureaucracy] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [the upcoming, bound to be emotional, 10-year anniversary of 9/11] [another big get?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011 (probably both)] [Atiyah Abd al Rahman (sometimes al Libya?)] [*]
WASHINGTON — A drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency killed Al Qaeda’s second-ranking figure in the mountains of Pakistan on Monday, American and Pakistani officials said Saturday, further damaging a terrorism network that appears significantly weakened since the death of Osama bin Laden in May.
An American official said that the drone strike killed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a Libyan who in the last year had taken over as Al Qaeda’s top operational planner. Mr. Rahman was in frequent contact with Bin Laden in the months before the terrorist leader was killed on May 2 by a Navy Seals team, intelligence officials have said. [*]
American officials described Mr. Rahman’s death as particularly significant as compared with other high-ranking Qaeda operatives who have been killed, because he was one of a new generation of leaders that the network hoped would assume greater control after Bin Laden’s

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/asia/28qaeda.html
August 27, 2011
C.I.A. Drone Is Said to Kill Al Qaeda’s No. 2
By MARK MAZZETTI [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [from NSC to the bureaucracy] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [the upcoming, bound to be emotional, 10-year anniversary of 9/11] [another big get?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011 (probably both)] [Atiyah Abd al Rahman (sometimes al Libya?)] [*]
WASHINGTON — A drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency killed Al Qaeda’s second-ranking figure in the mountains of Pakistan on Monday, American and Pakistani officials said Saturday, further damaging a terrorism network that appears significantly weakened since the death of Osama bin Laden in May.
An American official said that the drone strike killed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a Libyan who in the last year had taken over as Al Qaeda’s top operational planner. Mr. Rahman was in frequent contact with Bin Laden in the months before the terrorist leader was killed on May 2 by a Navy Seals team, intelligence officials have said. [*]
American officials described Mr. Rahman’s death as particularly significant as compared with other high-ranking Qaeda operatives who have been killed, because he was one of a new generation of leaders that the network hoped would assume greater control after Bin Laden’s death. [*]
Thousands of electronic files recovered at Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, revealed that Bin Laden communicated frequently with Mr. Rahman. They also showed that Bin Laden relied on Mr. Rahman to get messages to other Qaeda leaders and to ensure that Bin Laden’s recorded communications were broadcast widely. [*]
After Bin Laden was killed, Mr. Rahman became Al Qaeda’s No. 2 leader under Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Bin Laden.
There were few details on Saturday about the strike that killed Mr. Rahman. In the months since Bin Laden’s death, the C.I.A. has maintained a barrage of drone missile strikes on mountainous redoubts in Pakistan, a bombing campaign that continues to strain America’s already turbulent relationship with Pakistan.
The C.I.A almost never consults Pakistani officials in advance of a drone strike, and a Pakistani government official said Saturday that the United States had told Pakistan’s government that Mr. Rahman had been the target of the strike only after the spy agency confirmed that he had been killed.
The drone strikes have been the Obama administration’s preferred means of hunting and killing operatives from Al Qaeda and its affiliate groups. Over the past year the United States has expanded the drone war to Yemen and Somalia. [Bush began them and Obama has increased them 4 fold] [*]
Some top American officials have said publicly that they believe Al Qaeda is in its death throes, though many intelligence analysts are less certain, saying that the network built by Bin Laden has repeatedly shown an ability to regenerate.
Yet even as Qaeda affiliates in places like Yemen and North Africa continue to plot attacks against the West, most intelligence analysts believe that the remnants of Al Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan have been weakened considerably. Mr. Rahman’s death is another significant blow to the group.
“Atiyah was at the top of Al Qaeda’s trusted core,” the American official said. “His combination of background, experience and abilities are unique in Al Qaeda — without question, they will not be easily replaced.” [they always say that yet they are always replaced?] [*]
The files captured in Abbottabad revealed, among other things, that Bin Laden and Mr. Rahman discussed brokering a deal with Pakistan: Al Qaeda would refrain from mounting attacks in the country in exchange for protection for Qaeda leaders hiding in Pakistan.
American officials said that they found no evidence that either of the men ever raised the idea directly with Pakistani officials, or that Pakistan’s government had any knowledge that Bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad.
Mr. Rahman also served as Bin Laden’s liaison to Qaeda affiliates. Last year, American officials said, Mr. Rahman notified Bin Laden of a request by the leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen to install Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric, as the leader of the group in Yemen.
That group, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, apparently thought Mr. Awlaki’s status as an Internet celebrity, for his popular video sermons, and his knowledge of the United States might help the group’s fund-raising efforts. But according to the electronic files in Abbottabad, Bin Laden told Mr. Rahman that the group’s leadership should remain unchanged.
After Bin Laden’s death, some intelligence officials saw a cadre of Libyan operatives as poised to assume greater control inside Al Qaeda, which at times has been fractured by cultural rivalries.
Libyan operatives like Mr. Rahman, they said, had long bristled at the leadership of an older generation, many of them Egyptian like Mr. Zawahri and Sheikh Saeed al-Masri. [so we did al Zawahiri a favor?] [*]
Mr. Masri was killed last year by a C.I.A. missile, as were several Qaeda operations chiefs before him. The job has proved to be particularly deadly, American officials said, because the operations chief has had to transmit the guidance of Bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri to Qaeda operatives elsewhere, providing a way for the Americans to track him through electronic intercepts.
Mr. Rahman assumed the role after Mr. Masri’s death. Now that Mr. Rahman has died, American officials said it was unclear who would take over the job.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/opinion/sunday/the-dangers-lurking-in-the-arab-spring.html
August 27, 2011
If the Arab Spring Turns Ugly
By VALI NASR [oped] [Iran and Arab world specialist from Tufts] [on Arab Awakening and it turning ugly?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
Vali Nasr is professor at Tufts University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future.”
THE Arab Spring is a hopeful chapter in Middle Eastern politics, but the region’s history points to darker outcomes. There are no recent examples of extended power-sharing or peaceful transitions to democracy in the Arab world. When dictatorships crack, budding democracies are more than likely to be greeted by violence and paralysis. Sectarian divisions — the bane of many Middle Eastern societies — will then emerge, as competing groups settle old scores and vie for power. [*]
Syria today stands at the edge of such an upheaval. The brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime is opening a dangerous fissure between the Alawite minority, which rules the country, and the majority Sunni population. After Mr. Assad’s butchery in the largely Sunni

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/opinion/sunday/the-dangers-lurking-in-the-arab-spring.html
August 27, 2011
If the Arab Spring Turns Ugly
By VALI NASR [oped] [Iran and Arab world specialist from Tufts] [on Arab Awakening and it turning ugly?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
Vali Nasr is professor at Tufts University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future.”
THE Arab Spring is a hopeful chapter in Middle Eastern politics, but the region’s history points to darker outcomes. There are no recent examples of extended power-sharing or peaceful transitions to democracy in the Arab world. When dictatorships crack, budding democracies are more than likely to be greeted by violence and paralysis. Sectarian divisions — the bane of many Middle Eastern societies — will then emerge, as competing groups settle old scores and vie for power. [*]
Syria today stands at the edge of such an upheaval. The brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime is opening a dangerous fissure between the Alawite minority, which rules the country, and the majority Sunni population. After Mr. Assad’s butchery in the largely Sunni city of Hama on July 31, on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni group, accused the regime of conducting “a war of sectarian cleansing.” It is now clear that Mr. Assad’s strategy is to divide the opposition by stoking sectarian conflict. [yes, but that has always been the strategy] [to buy off the Sunni wealthy class with favors and set Allawite against Sunni masses] [*]
Sunni extremists have reacted by attacking Alawite families and businesses, especially in towns near the Iraq border. The potential for a broader clash between Alawites and Sunnis is clear, and it would probably not be confined to Syria. Instead, it would carry a risk of setting off a regional dynamic that could overwhelm the hopeful narrative of the Arab Spring itself, replacing it with a much aggravated power struggle along sectarian lines.[*]
That is because throughout the Middle East there is a strong undercurrent of simmering sectarian tension between Sunnis and Shiites, of whom the Alawites are a subset. Shiites and Sunnis live cheek by jowl in the long arc that stretches from Lebanon to Pakistan, and the region’s two main power brokers, Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, are already jousting for power. [he has little hope for the revolutions] [*]
So far this year, Shiite-Sunni tensions have been evident in countries from Bahrain to Syria. But put together, they could force the United States to rethink its response to the Arab Spring itself.
Sectarianism is an old wound in the Middle East. But the recent popular urge for democracy, national unity and dignity has opened it and made it feel fresh. This is because many of the Arab governments that now face the wrath of protesters are guilty of both suppressing individual rights and concentrating power in the hands of minorities. [*]
The problem goes back to the colonial period, when European administrators manipulated religious and ethnic diversity to their advantage by giving minorities greater representation in colonial security forces and governments. [*]
Arab states that emerged from colonialism promised unity under the banner of Arab nationalism. [Pan Arabism promised alternative] [then failed] [*] But as they turned into cynical dictatorships, failing at war and governance, they, too, entrenched sectarian biases. This scarred Arab society so deeply that the impulse for unity was often no match for the deep divisions of tribe, sect and ethnicity.
The struggle that matters most is the one between Sunnis and Shiites. The war in Iraq first unleashed the destructive potential of their competition for power, but the issue was not settled there. [*]The Arab Spring has allowed it to resurface by weakening states that have long kept sectarian divisions in place, and brutally suppressed popular grievances. Today, Shiites clamor for greater rights in Lebanon, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, while Sunnis are restless in Iraq and Syria.
This time, each side will most likely be backed by a nervous regional power, eager to protect its interests. For the past three decades the Saudi monarchy, which sees itself as the guardian of Sunni Islam, has viewed Iran’s Shiite theocracy as its nemesis. Saudis have relied on the United States, Arab nationalism and Sunni identity to slow Iran’s rise, even to the point of supporting radical Sunni forces. [c.f., Bruce Riedel in yesterday’s societal] [*]
The Saudis suffered a major setback when control of Iraq passed from Sunnis to Shiites, but that made them more determined to reverse Shiite gains and rising Iranian influence. It was no surprise that Saudi Arabia was the first Arab state to withdraw its ambassador from Damascus earlier this month.
The imprint of this rivalry was evident in regional conflicts before the Arab Spring. Saudis saw Iran’s hand behind a rebellion among Yemen’s Houthi tribe — who are Zaydis, an offshoot of Shiism — that started in 2004. Iran blamed Arab financing for its own decade-long revolt by Sunni Baluchis along its southeastern border with Pakistan. And since 2005, when Shiite Hezbollah was implicated in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a popular Sunni prime minister who was close to the Saudis, a wide rift has divided Lebanon’s Sunni and Shiite communities, and prompted Saudi fury against Hezbollah. The sectarian divide in Lebanon shows no sign of narrowing, and now the turmoil in Syria next door has brought Lebanon to a knife’s edge. [his dark view is as likely as any other, I fear] [but my thing is I’m somewhat hopeful only in short term?] [*]
Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s audacious power grab has angered Saudi Arabia. Officials in Riyadh see the turn of events in Lebanon as yet another Iranian victory, and the realization of the dreaded “Shiite crescent” that King Abdullah of Jordan once warned against.
In March, fearing a snowball effect from the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia drew a clear red line in Bahrain, where a Shiite majority would have been empowered had pro-democracy protests succeeded in ousting the Sunni monarchy. The Saudis rallied the Persian Gulf monarchies to support the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain in brutally suppressing the protests — and put Iran on notice that they were “ready to enter war with Iran and even with Iraq in defense of Bahrain.”
The Saudis are right to be worried about the outcome of sectarian fights in Lebanon and Bahrain, but in Syria it is Iran that stands to lose. Both sides understand that the final outcome will decide the pecking order in the region. Every struggle in this rivalry therefore matters, and every clash is pregnant with risk for regional stability. [*]
The turn of events in Syria is particularly important, because Sunnis elsewhere see the Alawite government as the linchpin in the Shiite alliance of Iran and Hezbollah. [linchpin of the Shi’a crescent!] [*] The Alawite-Sunni clash there could quickly draw in both of the major players in the region and ignite a broader regional sectarian conflict among their local allies, from Lebanon to Iraq to the Persian Gulf and beyond.
The specter of protracted bloody clashes, assassinations and bombings, sectarian cleansing and refugee crises from Beirut to Manama, causing instability and feeding regional rivalry, could put an end to the hopeful Arab Spring. Radical voices on both sides would gain. In Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, it is already happening.
NONE of this will benefit democracy or American interests. But seeking to defuse sectarian tensions wherever they occur would help ensure regional stability. Even if Washington has little leverage and influence in Syria, we should nevertheless work closely with our allies who do. Turkey, which is a powerful neighbor, could still pressure the Assad government not to inflame sectarian tensions. And both Turkey and Saudi Arabia could use their influence to discourage the opposition from responding to President Assad’s provocations.
Beyond Syria, the two countries most at risk are Bahrain and Lebanon, and here we can have an impact. The United States should urge Bahrain’s monarchy to end its crackdown, start talking seriously with the opposition, and agree to meaningful power sharing. [*] Washington has strong military ties with Bahrain and should use this leverage to argue for a peaceful resolution there.
In Lebanon, we should not encourage a sectarian showdown; instead we should support a solution to that country’s impasse that would include redistribution of power among Shiites, Sunnis and Christians. Lebanon last had a census in 1932, [*]and its power structure has since favored Sunnis and Christians based on that count. Meaningful power-sharing in Beirut is as important to peace and stability in Lebanon as disarming Hezbollah.
The Middle East is in the midst of historic change. Washington can hope for a peaceful and democratic future, but we should guard against sectarian conflicts that, once in the open, would likely run their destructive course at great cost to the region and the world.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:03 AM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-all-together-now.html
August 27, 2011
All Together Now
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN [oped] [columnist] [TF says the rule-based and evolved institutions-based system we’ve all come to know is unraveling] [specifically, the Arab World, China market socialism, America’s globalized capitalist system, and the EU (but apparently he means just the currecncy union?)] [interesting] [*]
HOLD onto your hats and your wallets. Since the end of the cold war, the global system has been held together to a large degree by four critical ruling bargains. Today all four are coming unstuck at once and will need to be rebuilt. Whether and how that rebuilding happens — beginning in the U.S. — will determine a lot about what’s in your wallet and whether your hat flies off.
Now let me say that in English: the European Union is cracking up. The Arab world is cracking up. China’s growth model is under pressure and America’s credit-driven capitalist model has suffered a warning heart attack and needs a total rethink. Recasting any one of these alone would be huge. Doing all four at once — when the world has never been more interconnected — is mind-boggling. We are again “present at the creation” — but of what?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-all-together-now.html
August 27, 2011
All Together Now
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN [oped] [columnist] [TF says the rule-based and evolved institutions-based system we’ve all come to know is unraveling] [specifically, the Arab World, China market socialism, America’s globalized capitalist system, and the EU (but apparently he means just the currecncy union?)] [interesting] [*]
HOLD onto your hats and your wallets. Since the end of the cold war, the global system has been held together to a large degree by four critical ruling bargains. Today all four are coming unstuck at once and will need to be rebuilt. Whether and how that rebuilding happens — beginning in the U.S. — will determine a lot about what’s in your wallet and whether your hat flies off.
Now let me say that in English: the European Union is cracking up. The Arab world is cracking up. China’s growth model is under pressure and America’s credit-driven capitalist model has suffered a warning heart attack and needs a total rethink. Recasting any one of these alone would be huge. Doing all four at once — when the world has never been more interconnected — is mind-boggling. We are again “present at the creation” — but of what?
Let’s start with the Middle East, the world’s oil tap. [that’s what I said in my 2007 book] [he owes me a reference!!!] [*]Libyans just joined Tunisians, Egyptians and Yemenis in ousting their dictator, while Syrians and Iranians hope to soon follow suit. In time, virtually every Middle East autocrat will be deposed or forced to share power. The old model can’t hold. That model was based on kings and military dictators capturing the oil revenue, ensconcing themselves in power — protected by well-financed armies and security services — and buying off key segments of their populations. That lid has been blown off by an Arab youth bulge that today can see just how everyone else is living and is no longer ready to accept being behind, undereducated, unemployed, humiliated and powerless. But while this old Middle East system — based on an iron fist and a fistful of petro-dollars holding together multiethnic/multireligious societies — has broken down, it will take time for these societies to write their own social contracts for how to live together without an iron fist from above. Hope for the best, prepare for anything.
Farther north, it was a nice idea, this European Union and euro-zone: Let’s have a monetary union and a common currency but let everyone run their own fiscal policy, as long as they swear to work and save like Germans. Alas, it was too good to be true. Large government welfare programs in some European countries, without the revenue to finance them from local production, eventually led to a piling up of sovereign debt — mostly owed to European banks — and then a lender revolt. The producer-savers in northern Europe are now drawing up a new deal with the overspenders — the PIIGS: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. It is unlikely that the Germans would just break out of the European Union, since a good chunk of their exports go to those overspending, uncompetitive countries. Instead, the northern Europeans are trying to force stronger, rule-based discipline on the PIIGS. But how much more austerity can these countries absorb, especially if there are further social stresses from deeper recessions? More than Londoners will take to the streets. One way or another, the European Union is going to get smaller or tighter, but in the process it could go through a chaotic, world-shaking transition that is not priced into the market yet.
Going East, China has been relying on a model built on a deliberately undervalued currency and export-led growth, with low domestic consumption and high savings. This has allowed the Communist Party to sustain a unique bargain with its people: We give you jobs and rising standards of living, and you give us power. This bargain is now under threat. Persistent unemployment in China’s American and European markets is making Beijing’s undervalued-currency/low-consumption/high-export model less sustainable for the world. China also has to get rich before it gets old. It has to move from two parents saving for one kid, to one kid paying for the retirement of two parents. To do that, it has to move from an assembly-copying-manufacturing economy to a knowledge-services-innovation economy. This requires more freedom and rule of law, and you can already see mounting demands for it. Something has to give there.
As for America, we’ve thrived in recent decades with a credit-consumption-led economy, whereby we maintained a middle class by using more steroids (easy credit, subprime mortgages and construction work) and less muscle-building (education, skill-building and innovation). It’s put us in a deep hole, and the only way to dig out now is a new, hybrid politics that mixes spending cuts, tax increases, tax reform and investments in infrastructure, education, research and production. But that mix is not the agenda of either party. Either our two parties find a way to collaborate in the center around this new hybrid politics, or a third party is going to emerge — or we’re stuck and the pain will just get worse.
When the world is experiencing so many wrenching changes at once — with already high unemployment and weak economies — the need for America, the most important pillar of all, to be rock solid is greater than ever. If we don’t get our act together — which will require collective action normally reserved for wartime — we are not going to just be prolonging an American crisis, but feeding a global one.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:03 AM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/opinion/sunday/whats-secret-about-world-war-ii.html
August 27, 2011
What’s Secret About World War II?
[editorial] [on Freedom of Information Act, FOIA] [why it was necessary 45 years ago and how the bureaucracy continues to defy it by slow walking everything] [*]
Governments, even the most democratic, are reflexively determined to keep as many secrets as they can. The Freedom of Information Act, enacted 45 years ago, is an essential corrective. The process is still too daunting and bureaucratic and in many cases far too slow — with some requests languishing for more than a decade.
The Obama administration has prodded noticeable improvements. But 14 of the 35 busiest agencies fielding FOIA requests have backlogs older than two years and continue to lose ground, according to the latest watchdog accounting by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Eight bureaucracies had requests more than a decade old.
The oldest, about allied activities during World War II, was filed May 8, 1991. A cobwebbed runner-up is a 1993 query about the Sicilian mafia in the 1940s, according to the study,

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/opinion/sunday/whats-secret-about-world-war-ii.html
August 27, 2011
What’s Secret About World War II?
[editorial] [on Freedom of Information Act, FOIA] [why it was necessary 45 years ago and how the bureaucracy continues to defy it by slow walking everything] [*]
Governments, even the most democratic, are reflexively determined to keep as many secrets as they can. The Freedom of Information Act, enacted 45 years ago, is an essential corrective. The process is still too daunting and bureaucratic and in many cases far too slow — with some requests languishing for more than a decade.
The Obama administration has prodded noticeable improvements. But 14 of the 35 busiest agencies fielding FOIA requests have backlogs older than two years and continue to lose ground, according to the latest watchdog accounting by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Eight bureaucracies had requests more than a decade old.
The oldest, about allied activities during World War II, was filed May 8, 1991. A cobwebbed runner-up is a 1993 query about the Sicilian mafia in the 1940s, according to the study, which FOIA-ed pending FOIA requests to get a handle on the backlog.
Proper security safeguards were written into the law, which otherwise allotted agencies 20 to 30 business days to process a request. The main reason delays get out of hand appears to be the law’s referral process allowing separate agencies to claim partial jurisdiction, or “equity,” over a FOIA request.
The White House laid down steps for stricter response times in 2009, pruning an estimated backlog of more than 130,000 requests by tens of thousands. Still, only 49 out of 90 federal agencies had put improvements in place as of last March, according to the study.
Congress has amended the law six times over the years, in hopes of improving citizens’ access. It is back on the case with proposals for a commission to pinpoint problems and propose solutions. Surely taxpayers deserve an even stronger fix as the shadows linger and lengthen.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:01 AM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/europe/28abkhaz.html
August 27, 2011
In Russia’s Shadow, Abkhazia Elects President
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ [Russia] [Georgia] [Abkhazia] [former USSR] [Trans Caucasus, Georgian enclave Abkhazia] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [Russia’s long and expensive efforts to bring Georgia under Russia’s sway historically] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [the 2008 war] [Abkhazia now making its own way?] [*]
SUKHUMI, Georgia — Aleksandr Z. Ankvab has been elected president of Abkhazia, a rebel enclave of Georgia still struggling for legitimacy three years after Russia unilaterally declared it a sovereign nation.
Abkhazia’s Central Elections Commission announced on Saturday that Mr. Ankvab, the former vice president, won with nearly 55 percent of the vote, besting two opponents.
The election, which was held on Friday, was fairly unusual for regions of the former Soviet Union in that the outcome was not known beforehand, and it appeared to adhere to democratic principles. [*]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/europe/28abkhaz.html
August 27, 2011
In Russia’s Shadow, Abkhazia Elects President
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ [Russia] [Georgia] [Abkhazia] [former USSR] [Trans Caucasus, Georgian enclave Abkhazia] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [Russia’s long and expensive efforts to bring Georgia under Russia’s sway historically] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [the 2008 war] [Abkhazia now making its own way?] [*]
SUKHUMI, Georgia — Aleksandr Z. Ankvab has been elected president of Abkhazia, a rebel enclave of Georgia still struggling for legitimacy three years after Russia unilaterally declared it a sovereign nation.
Abkhazia’s Central Elections Commission announced on Saturday that Mr. Ankvab, the former vice president, won with nearly 55 percent of the vote, besting two opponents.
The election, which was held on Friday, was fairly unusual for regions of the former Soviet Union in that the outcome was not known beforehand, and it appeared to adhere to democratic principles. [*]
But observers said the results would do little to alter politics in Abkhazia, a slice of subtropical land on the Black Sea that is dependent on Russia for its survival. [*]
Russia unilaterally recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another breakaway Georgian enclave, in August 2008, shortly after winning a brief war with Georgia over the territories. So far, Russia is the only major country to have done so, and it remains both regions’ sole guarantor of security and economic viability. [*]
Georgia, which considers Abkhazia and South Ossetia its sovereign territory and accuses Russia of overseeing an occupation, refused to recognize the election. [*]
“I don’t think this is going to change anything fundamentally,” said Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for the Georgian government. “We don’t take any position except for deeming these elections illegal.”
Unlike in previous years, Russia took no visible role in promoting any candidate, suggesting that whoever won would continue to be beholden to Moscow. [*]
“Russia is mainly interested in the situation in Abkhazia remaining stable,” said Semyon V. Grigoriev, Russia’s ambassador to Abkhazia. “We do not think these elections will change our relations in the near future. We will remain close.” [*]
Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, sent his congratulations to Mr. Ankvab after the results were announced on Saturday. [*]
The snap election was called after the death in May of President Sergei V. Bagapsh, who is credited with securing the break with Georgia while preventing annexation by Russia.
There are some Abkhaz who have grown uneasy over Russia’s influence in Abkhazia. [no kidding!] [*] Moscow maintains 5,000 troops and border guards in the territory and has sought greater control over its assets, particularly its beachfront real estate.
But in interviews at polling places in Sukhumi, Abkhazia’s capital, many voters expressed satisfaction with the current arrangement, saying Russia had allowed them to feel secure for the first time in years. The Abkhaz had long feared a resumption of hostilities with the Georgians, whom they expelled after a brutal war in the early 1990s.
“The Abkhaz people are living now without a sense that cannons are being pointed at them,” said Georgi Sukhba, a 76-year-old pensioner. “Russia has given us this. No other country could.” [not exactly but at least not pointed directly at the moment] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/israel-mulls-ties-with-a-changed-egypt/2011/08/25/gIQA3Sc6iJ_story.html
Israel mulls ties with a changed Egypt
By Joel Greenberg, Published: August 27 [Israel] [domestic politics often intersects with foreign policy] [Israel’s all-important relationship with its neighbors in the Middle East proper] [Arab Awakenging] [upcoming September vote in UN] [followup] [at long last, perhaps Israelis are beginning to have a necessary debate about their future and how to proceed?] [followup, yesterday] [focus on Egypt in this one as opposed to broader yesterday] [*]
JERUSALEM — A deadly border incident this month that drew a threat by Egypt to recall its ambassador to Israel has starkly revealed the changed political terrain in the relationship between the two countries.
Israeli officials who relied on former president Hosni Mubarak as a partner in upholding the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty are now contending with the newly assertive voice of public opinion in Egypt and its influence on that country’s leadership.[*]
There is a growing realization in Israel that maintaining ties with post-revolutionary Egypt no longer depends solely on cultivating the relationship with its leaders. Adopting stances that are more acceptable to ordinary Egyptians and the various political forces emerging in that country after Mubarak’s ouster has become important as well.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/israel-mulls-ties-with-a-changed-egypt/2011/08/25/gIQA3Sc6iJ_story.html
Israel mulls ties with a changed Egypt
By Joel Greenberg, Published: August 27 [Israel] [domestic politics often intersects with foreign policy] [Israel’s all-important relationship with its neighbors in the Middle East proper] [Arab Awakenging] [upcoming September vote in UN] [followup] [at long last, perhaps Israelis are beginning to have a necessary debate about their future and how to proceed?] [followup, yesterday] [focus on Egypt in this one as opposed to broader yesterday] [*]
JERUSALEM — A deadly border incident this month that drew a threat by Egypt to recall its ambassador to Israel has starkly revealed the changed political terrain in the relationship between the two countries.
Israeli officials who relied on former president Hosni Mubarak as a partner in upholding the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty are now contending with the newly assertive voice of public opinion in Egypt and its influence on that country’s leadership.[*]
There is a growing realization in Israel that maintaining ties with post-revolutionary Egypt no longer depends solely on cultivating the relationship with its leaders. Adopting stances that are more acceptable to ordinary Egyptians and the various political forces emerging in that country after Mubarak’s ouster has become important as well.
“There’s a new factor now, the masses, who are setting the pace and dictating moves,” said Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a veteran politician and former defense minister long known for his relationships with Mubarak and senior Egyptian officials.
The border incident on Aug. 18 was a case in point. After gunmen who crossed into southern Israel from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killed seven Israelis near the border, Israeli troops who gave chase killed — according to Egyptian accounts — five Egyptian security officers in circumstances still under investigation by both sides.
In initial remarks after the cross-border attack, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared to blame the deadly infiltration on Egyptian authorities, saying that it showed “the weakening of the Egyptian hold on Sinai,” where lawlessness has surged since Mubarak’s ouster.
Barak’s comments and the killing of the Egyptian security personnel drew a furious response in Cairo, where protesters gathered outside the Israeli embassy, presidential candidates jockeying for public support issued fierce condemnations, and the government threatened to recall the Egyptian ambassador to Israel. [*]
To avert a crisis, Barak expressed regret for the deaths of the Egyptian officers and appreciation for Egypt’s role in the bilateral relationship with Israel. He also promised a joint investigation of the border incident, and an Israeli military delegation later flew to Cairo to share preliminary results of the Israeli army’s inquiry. [*]
Sensitivity to the Egyptian response was also evident in Israel’s handling of a subsequent flare-up along the border with the Gaza Strip, where several days of Israeli air strikes and rocket attacks by militants threatened to trigger wider military action. However Israel’s security cabinet decided against a broader military operation, largely out of consideration for the impact such a move would have in Egypt, where public sympathy with the Palestinians runs high.[good] [*]
The new calculations reflect the overriding interest in Israel in preserving the relationship with Egypt and the peace treaty, which Barak said had “great importance and great strategic value for stability in the Middle East.” Egypt, the most populous Arab state, shares a long border with Israel, and the peace accord has for decades been a key component of the strategic balance in the region. [**]
That balance could shift with the upheavals in the Arab world and a souring of Israel’s relations with Turkey following a deadly Israeli raid last year on a Turkish ship leading an aid flotilla to Gaza.
“If you do a balance sheet at the end of August 2011, obviously there is a worsening in Israel’s strategic balance,” said Oded Eran, a former ambassador to Jordan and director of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. “Turkey is not what it used to be in terms of relations with Israel, nor is Egypt.”
Nevertheless, Egypt’s military leadership has a history of contacts with Israel. It has committed itself to upholding the peace treaty and kept lines of communication open to the Israelis during the recent crisis.[*]
“The fact is that the two sides, on the level of leadership, on the professional side, continue the dialogue, and we continue to use Egypt as a go-between with Hamas, so the channels are still open,” Eran said, referring to the militant Islamist group that rules Gaza.
But with elections scheduled this fall in Egypt, popular sentiment could be a significant factor in the stance of a new civilian leadership toward Israel. And Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, which have angered many Egyptians, could well affect the public mood.
“Basically, the interests [of both countries] remain the same,” said Elie Podeh, an expert on Egypt and its relations with Israel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He noted that the peace treaty has strategic and economic value for both sides and is backed by generous aid to Egypt from Washington — a strong incentive for it to maintain the accord.
At the same time, Podeh argued, the changes in the region should prompt Israel to put forward a “substantive peace initiative” to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians, which has fueled popular anti-Israeli sentiment in Egypt and other Arab countries.
“If we want to somehow soften the criticism in the Arab world, and specifically in Egypt, we should adopt a different policy,” Podeh said. “Sometimes we don’t understand the depth of their commitment to the Palestinian issue.”
Anger at Israel stoked by the border shooting is still simmering in Egypt. Hundreds of people demonstrated Friday near the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, demanding the expulsion of the ambassador.
Ben-Eliezer, the former defense minister, said that given the new realities in Egypt, Israel should go out of its way to smooth over differences with its neighbor, despite genuine concern about security along their shared border.
“We have to make every effort to keep our relations with the Egyptians as normal as we possibly can,” Ben-Eliezer said. “This is an Arab superpower. Who knows what the next government there will look like? We should try, as much as possible, to keep it business as usual.”
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:59 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/africa/28benghazi.html
August 27, 2011
Libya’s Interim Leadership Releases Its Members’ Names
By ROD NORDLAND [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [since last week’s apparent collapse of Qaddafi regime, TNC attempting to effect a twofold immediate mission] [capture Qaddafis and restore basic services such as water, sewer, electricity] [followup] [names of the 57-member TNC] [*]
BENGHAZI, Libya — The Transitional National Council, recognized by 57 nations as the legitimate interim government of Libya, released the names of all of its members on Saturday for the first time and promised to increase its roster rapidly to provide representation to newly liberated parts of the country.
In interviews and a news conference, the council members said they were moving as quickly as possible to send representatives to Tripoli to dispel any doubts of tribal conflict or a split between the east, where the Libyan revolution began in this city, and the capital.
Eight members of the council and most of the executive board, which acts as a rebel governing body, have already arrived in Tripoli, and more will soon follow, according to the

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/africa/28benghazi.html
August 27, 2011
Libya’s Interim Leadership Releases Its Members’ Names
By ROD NORDLAND [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [since last week’s apparent collapse of Qaddafi regime, TNC attempting to effect a twofold immediate mission] [capture Qaddafis and restore basic services such as water, sewer, electricity] [followup] [names of the 57-member TNC] [*]
BENGHAZI, Libya — The Transitional National Council, recognized by 57 nations as the legitimate interim government of Libya, released the names of all of its members on Saturday for the first time and promised to increase its roster rapidly to provide representation to newly liberated parts of the country.
In interviews and a news conference, the council members said they were moving as quickly as possible to send representatives to Tripoli to dispel any doubts of tribal conflict or a split between the east, where the Libyan revolution began in this city, and the capital.
Eight members of the council and most of the executive board, which acts as a rebel governing body, have already arrived in Tripoli, and more will soon follow, according to the council’s vice chairman, Abdel Hafidh Ghoga. [*]Although the capital’s airport had been closed because of shelling from forces still loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, they flew in a rebel aircraft to Misurata, which was recently liberated, and then went by road to Tripoli, he said.
Sounding ebullient from recent victories, the council members struck a conciliatory note, telling their fighters not to indulge in extrajudicial killings or revenge attacks, and calling on loyalist holdouts in cities like Surt to surrender and avoid more bloodshed.
But they also warned that any officials who had not already defected from the Qaddafi regime would be barred from future participation in political life, and might be prosecuted criminally.
Throughout most of the rebellion, the 31-member council revealed the names of only 13 of its members, citing security reasons. That led some critics to express concern that some of the others might be Islamic extremists who had previously been in the forefront of the internal struggle against Colonel Qaddafi. [*]
The list released Saturday, of a council expanded to 40 members, did not appear to support that concern. Most of its members were relative unknowns. The only known Islamist on the list is Lamin Bel Haj, described by politicians in Benghazi as a member of the previously banned Muslim Brotherhood, which most Libyans regard as moderates. [*]Mr. Bel Haj was described as taking charge of Tripoli for the rebels, and was one of five Tripoli names on the new council.
No women were added. Salwa Fawzi el-Deghali, one of four council members from Benghazi, remained the only woman.
Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the chairman of the council, said it planned to increase its membership to 80.
With rebels tightening a ring around Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown, Surt, approaching it from both east and west, council members said they had called a halt to the advance to allow negotiations to proceed. “We don’t want to fight; it is better if we negotiate,” [*]said Othman Ben Sassi, a new council member representing the western city of Zuwarah.
Council members were in no mood to compromise on Colonel Qaddafi and his sons, however, insisting the war could not be considered over and a government appointed until they were caught. “This revolution will not be completed until Qaddafi and his sons are captured,” Mr. Abdel-Jalil said. “As long as he’s about, he will always be a threat to Libya, and to the international community.” The council chairman said the rebels would not turn Colonel Qaddafi or his sons over to the International Criminal Court, as the court has requested, but would see them tried under Libyan law first. [**]
Mr. Ghoga, the vice chairman, had some advice for another authoritarian ruler, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. “He should be extremely worried because he’s following in the same steps that Qaddafi did, and he is as doomed,” Mr. Ghoga said. “Without doubt, when the people of a nation have marched forward and demanded democracy and freedom, and, in particular, when there has been such a loss of blood, there is no turning back.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:58 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/africa/28libya.html
August 27, 2011
Rebel Government Struggles to Restore Water and Power in Tripoli
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [since last week’s apparent collapse of Qaddafi regime, TNC attempting to effect a twofold immediate mission] [capture Qaddafis and restore basic services such as water, sewer, electricity] [followup] [they won’t have much time for latter] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — More evidence of massacres by forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi during his final hours in power came to light on Saturday, pointing to the killing of scores of prisoners in at least five mass executions.
Meanwhile, the provisional government formed by rebels was struggling to restore running water, electrical power and adequate medical supplies to the two million residents of the Libyan capital, as shortages became critical. The leaders of the rebellion that ousted him have acknowledged that the legitimacy of their new government will depend on its ability

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/africa/28libya.html
August 27, 2011
Rebel Government Struggles to Restore Water and Power in Tripoli
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [since last week’s apparent collapse of Qaddafi regime, TNC attempting to effect a twofold immediate mission] [capture Qaddafis and restore basic services such as water, sewer, electricity] [followup] [they won’t have much time for latter] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — More evidence of massacres by forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi during his final hours in power came to light on Saturday, pointing to the killing of scores of prisoners in at least five mass executions.
Meanwhile, the provisional government formed by rebels was struggling to restore running water, electrical power and adequate medical supplies to the two million residents of the Libyan capital, as shortages became critical. The leaders of the rebellion that ousted him have acknowledged that the legitimacy of their new government will depend on its ability to provide basic services and security while holding in check the appetite for revenge among the victims of Colonel Qaddafi’s repression.
Taken together, the killings, dysfunction and shortages suggested how intensely Colonel Qaddafi’s chaotic and bloody legacy continues to challenge the fledgling transitional government even though he himself is out of sight and on the run. The latest sign of the ugly end of Colonel Qaddafi’s rule was a group of about 50 badly charred bodies heaped and strewn around a corrugated metal warehouse his soldiers had used as a prison. Five other bodies lay outside: one draped in military fatigues, one with his feet bound in green rope, and another in a small box marked “fragile.” Two survivors said that soldiers in the Khamis brigade — a private militia controlled by Colonel Qaddafi’s son Khamis — had carried out the executions Tuesday evening, the night rebels breached the walls of the colonel’s compound.
Abdul Hadi Abu Shahayna, a Tripoli judge who said he was held at the facility, said the other prisoners included lawyers, other judges and engineers — opposition figures, but also regular people caught up in a post-uprising sweep. Judge Abu Shahayna said he was arrested on May 25 and held until July 10 with a group that fluctuated in size between 70 and 100 people.
Two blocks away, the badly decomposed bodies of at least 15 other men were found rotting in a wooded gully. One of the men had his hands tied behind his back with plastic flex cuffs, and a rebel commando said seven other bodies had already been carted away. [*]
The advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it had documented three other mass executions as well. In the first case, at least 17 detainees’ bodies were found in a Libyan internal security building in the neighborhood of Gargur on Monday as the rebels prepared their assault on his compound nearby.
In the second case, another 18 bodies were found decaying in a dry riverbed between the internal security building and Colonel Qaddafi’s compound; witnesses and relatives told Human Rights Watch that the victims had died three to five days ago, before rebels took the area on Friday morning. Among the 18, two were found with hands bound behind them, and two others wore green medical scrubs. [*]
The third case was more ambiguous. Another 29 bodies were found in and around a makeshift field clinic outside Bab al-Aziziya, Colonel Qaddafi’s main residence compound. Researchers for Human Rights Watch said they found four on hospital beds, several others on cushions in military tents, one with an apparent execution-style gunshot to the head, and another with wrists tied behind his back. A volunteer removing the bodies said at least three others were bound as well. But others were in uniform and wore Qaddafi belt buckles, or green ribbons on their wrists. [?][*]
The rebels who unseated Colonel Qaddafi were still fighting his loyalists Saturday in areas around the airport road south of the city, and rebel leaders gave unconfirmed reports of still other massacres. [*]
The leadership of the transitional government, meanwhile, was increasingly focused on meeting the most basic needs of Tripoli’s residents. Government officials acknowledged that most of the city lacked running water or electrical power for a second day as temperatures hovered around 90 degrees. Hospitals, overcrowded with patients wounded in the fighting, were running short on crucial medicine. Gas shortages have driven the price of filling a tank as high as $150. And many residents said they were increasingly worried about how the provisional government might regain control of the weapons stockpile that was looted from Qaddafi armories.
To many, though, the lack of running water was an especially pressing concern. Libya is a desert country without a river, and Tripoli residents get their water from desert wells through a vast system of reservoirs and ducts known as the Great Man-Made River. Its operation requires electrical power, and the electrical power relies on fuel, so both problems may be related to the fuel shortages from the civil war and NATO blockade. [*]
Rebel leaders, however, sought to link the shortages to fears about sniper fire and sabotage from retreating Qaddafi loyalists. Farage Sayeh, minister for capacity building in the rebels’ Transitional National Council, said in an interview that the rebels had turned off the city’s water supply because of concerns that Qaddafi loyalists had poisoned it. [*]
“Water is the priority No. 1 for us,” Mr. Sayeh said. “The first meeting this morning was about providing a fresh water supply to the people.” He acknowledged that the concerns about poison amounted to “rumors.” [*]
The problem with the electrical power supply, he said, is that technicians approaching a central control room had come under gunfire. “We are hoping that within 48 hours it will be back,” he said.
In other ways, however, the rebel leadership appeared to be making progress.
Rebels said they had taken control of the main coastal border crossing into Tunisia, reopening the main supply lines into Tripoli.
But security remained tenuous on Saturday. At one of the two main hotels housing foreign journalists, a gunshot wounded a television correspondent broadcasting from the roof. It was unclear whether the shot had come from a gunman firing deliberately or a rebel cleaning his gun.
Rebel leaders also acknowledged that they had little intelligence on the whereabouts of Colonel Qaddafi. Mr. Sayeh said that apprehending him was an issue for the world, not just Libya. “This is a humanitarian issue,” he said. “For the sake of justice, not revenge.” [*]
Robert F. Worth contributed reporting.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/africa/28qaddafi.html
August 27, 2011
Gilded Traces of the Lives Qaddafis Led
By ANTHONY SHADID and KAREEM FAHIM [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [since last week’s apparent collapse of Qaddafi regime, TNC attempting to effect a twofold immediate mission] [capture Qaddafis and restore basic services such as water, sewer, electricity] [followup] [they won’t have much time for latter] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — His name of choice was the Brother Leader, though his nearly 42 years of rule were rarely brotherly, and his leadership left a country with plentiful oil in shambles.
Now, as the former subjects of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi comb through his family’s estates, farms and seaside villas, the properties are revealing the details of lives lived far removed from the people, and ones filled with the signs of their peccadilloes and rivalries.
At one farm, horses wandered by marble statues of lions, tigers and bears, and on a sun-baked day, reindeer grazed by the deck of an empty pool. At the home of one son, Saadi, there were signs of a life mundane in its seeming frustration. A man who drifted through

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/africa/28qaddafi.html
August 27, 2011
Gilded Traces of the Lives Qaddafis Led
By ANTHONY SHADID and KAREEM FAHIM [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [since last week’s apparent collapse of Qaddafi regime, TNC attempting to effect a twofold immediate mission] [capture Qaddafis and restore basic services such as water, sewer, electricity] [followup] [they won’t have much time for latter] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — His name of choice was the Brother Leader, though his nearly 42 years of rule were rarely brotherly, and his leadership left a country with plentiful oil in shambles.
Now, as the former subjects of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi comb through his family’s estates, farms and seaside villas, the properties are revealing the details of lives lived far removed from the people, and ones filled with the signs of their peccadilloes and rivalries.
At one farm, horses wandered by marble statues of lions, tigers and bears, and on a sun-baked day, reindeer grazed by the deck of an empty pool. At the home of one son, Saadi, there were signs of a life mundane in its seeming frustration. A man who drifted through stints as an athlete, soldier and Hollywood producer, Saadi kept the English-language self-help book “Success Intelligence” in his master bedroom.
Given Colonel Qaddafi’s noted flamboyance, the residences of the House of Qaddafi were not quite as grand as people might have supposed.
They lacked the faux grandeur of Saddam Hussein’s marbled palaces. There are no columns that bear the colonel’s initials, or fists cast to resemble his hands or river-fed moats with voracious carp.
But in Baghdad and Tripoli, the physical remains of the leader’s rule still projected the distance between power and powerlessness. As rebels and residents started to pick through the detritus of the Qaddafis’ lives in recent days, there was a sense of laying claim to a country commandeered by the Arab world’s longest-ruling leader — and speaking their minds without fear about the country they have inherited, and the leader they hope they have left behind. [*]
“For somebody who’s very rich, he was very cheap,” Fuad Gritli said as he drove through a sprawling parcel near the airport known as the Farm, where Colonel Qaddafi lived.
There was also a sense of something incomplete. Even as people pulled back the cloak on the Qaddafis’ lives, the colonel and his children remained at large.
In the sanctum of the Farm, there are rolling, irrigated fields. Camels wandered unattended. Still standing was a tent where Colonel Qaddafi met foreign dignitaries, its canvas decorated with pictures of camels and palm trees. NATO bombers seemed to have no idea where he was; their hunt destroyed an unfinished Moroccan-style house, other tents built with more expensive canvas and a knot of bunker-style concrete buildings for official use.
As Mr. Gritli and a friend drove along roads that seemed to lead nowhere, they shook their heads. Rebels rolled through a compound still not secure. So did looters.
“We weren’t allowed to get anywhere near, not even the gate,” Mr. Gritli said of the years before the revolt that shattered the colonel’s hold on power.
“Qaddafi was not living like a rich man, I admit that,” said Malik el-Bakouri, a 27-year-old doctor from Tripoli, as he drove past a guesthouse where water cascaded from a broken pipe in a city suffering from a shortage of it. “But his sons, all the people in his tribe, and all the families around him lived good, and they lived good for 40 years.” [*]
Colonel Qaddafi’s sons’ behavior would have made reality show producers proud — Hannibal repeatedly had brushes with the law in Europe. And Seif al-Islam, the heir apparent, began his ascent with promises of democracy, then ended his tenure with a pledge to turn Libya into a country “like Saudi Arabia, like Iran.” [*](“So what?” he added.)
The villas of some of the sons on a sand bluff overlooking the Mediterranean, though, failed to match the ostentation they displayed in other facets of their lives. They were not lavish; the brown paint on the patio decks was peeling, and they had a distinctly 1970s feel. But to the young fighters roaming through Hannibal’s quarters — furnished overwhelmingly in whites and blacks, and ringed with plastic grass — there was just enough luxury to inspire envy in a country whose wealth was squandered.
“We’ve got to take this over!” said Bahaeddin Zintani, a 23-year-old fighter who took turns with his brother lying in bed and posing for pictures before a home gym fitted with a mirror. “This is the first time I’ve even seen anything like this.”
On a black granite bar, there were cases for Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Dom Pérignon Rose, all empty. The patio opened to a spectacular view of turquoise waters.
“All I can ask is why?” said Mr. Zintani’s older brother, Serajeddin, carting an Israeli-made rifle. “Why can’t we live like this, the good life? Every day you walk out and see the sea.”
Muatassim, another of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons and the country’s national security adviser, surrounded himself with more luxury. He regularly arrived in a convoy of cars to a farmhouse in the Ain Zara neighborhood of Tripoli protected by high walls and gates on four sides that were made to look like cinder-block walls. A driveway with a fountain featuring four horse-drawn carriages led to an ostentatious pool bungalow, with Roman columns at the entrance and topped by gold domes that looked like Hershey Kisses.
On Saturday, fighters from Misurata toured the house, stunned. “It’s like some Aladdin castle,” one said. “He doesn’t care about the Libyan people. Just living in heaven.”
Another fighter walked out with a book of stamps depicting the Brother Leader.
In a diplomatic cable from 2009 released by WikiLeaks, Muatassim was described as “ambitious and competitive,” and as being groomed as another potential successor. “Considered little more than a playboy two year ago, Muatassim has surprised many observers by the seriousness with which he has taken his new responsibilities as the national security adviser,” wrote Gene A. Cretz, who was then the United States ambassador to Libya.
In the charred remains of his house, limes littered the floors of a barroom. A painting of samurai doing battle was the only one not ripped from its frame. Chinese lanterns hung on long deck by a massive pool, with a gazebo in the middle. Mohamed al-Hutmani, who lived nearby, walked around the grounds, through the lemon trees and olive groves that covered several acres.
“We were not allowed to stop our cars on the street,” Mr. Hutmani said. “It was impossible to think that I would enter this place.”
Rebel guards closed the former home of Colonel Qaddafi’s daughter Aisha because too many Libyans were wandering through, having their pictures taken and looking for souvenirs.
Through his long reign, Colonel Qaddafi posed as an ever-struggling revolutionary, his ideas encapsulated in the Green Book. (In one memorable passage, he defended freedom of expression, even if a person chooses “to express his or her insanity.”) But the avowed simplicity never matched his lifestyle, prone as he was to epaulets, billowing robes and shirts emblazoned with green maps of Africa. His all-female contingent of guards was said to be sworn to celibacy. Interspersed in his ravings were the words of a man with the healthiest of egos, even as health, education and housing in his country crumbled. “King of kings,” he once declared himself.
At his former residence in Bab al-Aziziya, his leadership’s fortresslike preserve in the heart of Tripoli, there was a white binder with hundreds of pages of clippings about him.
Graffiti on a wall nearby taunted the Brother Leader, now nicknamed for another distinguishing trait: unmanageable grooming. “Where’s the guy with the crazy hair?” [*]it said.
David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:57 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/middleeast/28syria.html
August 27, 2011
Iran Calls on Syria to Recognize Citizens’ Demands
By NADA BAKRI [Iran] [ongoing political spasms that have continued since 2009 elections and subsequent huge street protests (finally a crackdown on same)] [Arab Awakening in Syria, Iran’s only real Arab friend and close collaborator] [factionalism?] [I think this is twice now Iran has told Syria to reform due to the protests?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [this time it comes from Iran’s foreign minister?] [followup] [a certain amount of brass given Iran’s reponse to protestors in 2009?] [factions may be behind it?] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Iran, Syria’s closest ally, called on the government in Damascus to recognize its people’s “legitimate” demands on Saturday, in the first such remarks to come from the Persian country since the five-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad started.
Although the remarks, by Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, did not advocate any specific changes, they were the first public sign of growing unease with the crisis in Syria — even as Iran has maintained an unyielding crackdown on its own dissenters. [*]
Other governments in the region are increasingly worried that the crisis could spill beyond

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/middleeast/28syria.html
August 27, 2011
Iran Calls on Syria to Recognize Citizens’ Demands
By NADA BAKRI [Iran] [ongoing political spasms that have continued since 2009 elections and subsequent huge street protests (finally a crackdown on same)] [Arab Awakening in Syria, Iran’s only real Arab friend and close collaborator] [factionalism?] [I think this is twice now Iran has told Syria to reform due to the protests?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [this time it comes from Iran’s foreign minister?] [followup] [a certain amount of brass given Iran’s reponse to protestors in 2009?] [factions may be behind it?] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Iran, Syria’s closest ally, called on the government in Damascus to recognize its people’s “legitimate” demands on Saturday, in the first such remarks to come from the Persian country since the five-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad started.
Although the remarks, by Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, did not advocate any specific changes, they were the first public sign of growing unease with the crisis in Syria — even as Iran has maintained an unyielding crackdown on its own dissenters. [*]
Other governments in the region are increasingly worried that the crisis could spill beyond Syria’s borders, especially given Mr. Assad’s seeming determination to snuff out a resilient demonstration movement despite the cost in sectarian and social tensions. That violence continued on Saturday, as Syrian security forces opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators across the country, killing at least three people, according to activists. [*]
“The government should answer to the demands of its people, be it Syria, Yemen or other countries,” Mr. Salehi was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying. “The people of these nations have legitimate demands, and the governments should answer these demands as soon as possible.” [**]
But Mr. Salehi warned of dangerous regional implications if the crisis in Syria was not solved peacefully, in a reference to the international military intervention in Libya to help rebels there end the rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Mr. Salehi’s remarks echoed those on Friday by Hassan Nasrallah, [*]the leader of the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah, in which he called on Syria to introduce reforms but warned of regional fallout.
Mr. Salehi cautioned, “A vacuum in the Syrian regime would have an unpredictable impact on the region and its neighbors.” [wow] [*]
The United States and some European nations have called on Mr. Assad to step down and are trying to tighten sanctions against the Syrian government and individual people and groups seen to be aiding it. [*]That has affected Iran, as well; in the past week, the European Union announced that it was putting sanctions on the secretive Al Quds wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, saying it was providing technical and material support for Syria’s crackdown on demonstrators. [playing both sides?] [*]
One person was killed Saturday when security forces shot at demonstrators leaving the Rifai mosque in the Kfar Susseh neighborhood, in the western part of Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The imam of the mosque, Osama al-Rifai, was wounded in the attack along with nine others, according to the observatory.
Demonstrations were also held in Roukn Eddine, a neighborhood in northern Damascus, and in Zabadani, a suburb of the capital.
Another person was killed in house-to-house raids in the northern town of Kfar Nabel, near Idlib, according to the Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists who track the uprising; another one was shot in Deir el-Zour.
The United Nations says that more than 2,200 people have been killed across Syria since the protests began in mid-March. But the government disputes this account and says that it is facing a foreign conspiracy aimed at creating strife in the country, [*]and that it is fighting armed Muslim extremists.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:56 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/asia/28afghanistan.html
August 27, 2011
Suicide Bombers Escalate Assaults on Afghanistan
By RAY RIVERA [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [the fighting season will soon begin to recede into winter snow] [followup] [this crossborder case is unusual in that it’s Afghanis crossing into Pakistan to kill Pakistanis!] [first reported by Rueters yyesterday now a few more details] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — Suicide bombers stepped up attacks in southern Afghanistan on Saturday in advance of Id al-Fitr, the festival next week that celebrates the end of Ramadan. But though Afghan security forces were the intended targets, civilians took the biggest toll. [*]
Three separate blasts in Helmand and Kandahar Provinces left at least seven civilians dead, four of them children, and wounded dozens more, Afghan officials said. The attacks

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/asia/28afghanistan.html
August 27, 2011
Suicide Bombers Escalate Assaults on Afghanistan
By RAY RIVERA [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [the fighting season will soon begin to recede into winter snow] [followup] [this crossborder case is unusual in that it’s Afghanis crossing into Pakistan to kill Pakistanis!] [first reported by Rueters yyesterday now a few more details] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — Suicide bombers stepped up attacks in southern Afghanistan on Saturday in advance of Id al-Fitr, the festival next week that celebrates the end of Ramadan. But though Afghan security forces were the intended targets, civilians took the biggest toll. [*]
Three separate blasts in Helmand and Kandahar Provinces left at least seven civilians dead, four of them children, and wounded dozens more, Afghan officials said. The attacks continued a pattern of violence across the country that is taking a disproportionately larger toll on ordinary citizens than on government and coalition forces. At least 17 civilians have been killed in the past three days in scattered attacks across the country, including five in a NATO airstrike. [*]
Security forces nationwide have been on high alert anticipating increased violence with the onset of Id al-Fitr, in which Muslims celebrate the end of the month of fasting. [*] Here in the capital, more than 13,000 extra police officers have been put on duty through the three-day festival, which begins early next week, to thwart Taliban threats of intensified attacks, officials with the Interior Ministry said. [*]
In the deadliest of Saturday’s attacks, a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives outside a crowded bank in the southern city of Lashkar Gah, where Afghan soldiers and police officers were lined up at noontime to receive their monthly pay. [this one from Pakistan to Afghanistan] [*] Security forces stopped the car before it entered the bank, preventing a much higher death toll. Instead, the vehicle detonated in Mukhaberat Square, a busy intersection outside the bank near the provincial governor’s compound, police officials said.
Aizatullah, 25, a police officer who goes by one name, raced out of the bank when he heard the explosion.
“I saw bodies of police, soldiers and civilians bleeding and screaming everywhere,” he said. “I didn’t know if it was a suicide attack or a car bomb.”
Col. Ismail Khan, the director of the Helmand provincial police coordinating center, said intelligence officials had warned that a bombing was possible.
“We knew about a possible suicide attack in Lashkar Gah, and we had our security preparations ready for it,” Colonel Khan said. “That’s why we were able to stop the bomber from entering the bank.”
Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, carries symbolic importance to insurgents and government forces alike because it was among the first to be turned over to Afghan security control last month, though a strong coalition presence remains in the area. [*]
The bombing bore echoes of a February attack on a Kabul Bank branch in the eastern city of Jalalabad. In that attack, gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed the branch as soldiers and officers were collecting their pay, killing 18 people and wounding more than 70 before security forces gunned them down.
In two other attacks on Saturday in Kandahar City, suicide bombers in sport utility vehicles apparently headed for police substations detonated their charges moments apart and short of their targets, killing three civilians, including a child, and wounding more than 22 others, according to the Interior Ministry. Many of them were children playing nearby. In at least one of the attacks, police officers tried to stop the vehicle at a checkpoint and fired on it, causing it to swerve into a wall and explode, wounding 11 people, including two police officers.
Saturday’s attacks followed a pair of bomb blasts on Friday in the western provinces of Herat and Faryab, including one in a mosque courtyard, that left five people dead and 24 wounded.
And, on Thursday night, a NATO airstrike killed a mother and her four children in Logar Province just south of Kabul after three Taliban fighters took over their home and used it to fire on Afghan and coalition forces, killing three Afghan soldiers, [*]said Mohammad Rahim, the governor of Baraki Barak District, where the attack occurred.
Afghan and coalition forces called in the airstrike after they continued to take fire and the Taliban refused to surrender, Mr. Rahim said. The owner of the home, the headmaster of a local girls’ school, was wounded in the airstrike, Mr. Rahim said. NATO officials are investigating the episode.
A United Nations report in July painted a bleak picture for civilians caught up in the Afghanistan conflict, especially as insurgents shift their targets away from fortified military installations toward softer, civilian targets, and step up their use of roadside bombs.
In the first six months of the year, 1,462 civilians were killed, the report said, a 15 percent increase from the same period in 2010 and more than any comparable period since the war began. [*]Insurgents were responsible for 80 percent of the deaths, the United Nations said, while Afghan and coalition forces were responsible for 14 percent. [*]The remaining 6 percent were unattributed.
Sharifullah Sahak and Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul, and an employee of The New York Times from Kandahar.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62170.html
Politico
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:27:49 AM] [*]
Obama urges unity for 9/11 anniversary
By: MJ Lee
August 27, 2011 07:06 AM EDT [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [from NSC to the bureaucracy] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [the upcoming, bound to be emotional, 10-year anniversary of 9/11] [cross in role-ind] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011 (probably both)] [*]
Remembering the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, President Barack Obama called for national unity in his weekly address Saturday.
Just two weeks ahead of the tenth anniversary of the attacks in New York and Washington, the president said it’s not too soon to remember “how the worst terrorist attack in American history brought out the best in the American people.” [yes, it did for a short while] [*]
Obama urged Americans to take part in national service projects to mark the anniversary, pointing them to the website serve.gov as a way of getting engaged.
After Sept. 11, Obama said, “We were united, and the outpouring of generosity and

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62170.html
Politico
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:27:49 AM] [*]
Obama urges unity for 9/11 anniversary
By: MJ Lee
August 27, 2011 07:06 AM EDT [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [from NSC to the bureaucracy] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [the upcoming, bound to be emotional, 10-year anniversary of 9/11] [cross in role-ind] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011 (probably both)] [*]
Remembering the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, President Barack Obama called for national unity in his weekly address Saturday.
Just two weeks ahead of the tenth anniversary of the attacks in New York and Washington, the president said it’s not too soon to remember “how the worst terrorist attack in American history brought out the best in the American people.” [yes, it did for a short while] [*]
Obama urged Americans to take part in national service projects to mark the anniversary, pointing them to the website serve.gov as a way of getting engaged.
After Sept. 11, Obama said, “We were united, and the outpouring of generosity and compassion reminded us that in times of challenge, we Americans move forward together, as one people.
“In the days and weeks ahead, folks across the country — in all 50 states — will come together, in their communities and neighborhoods, to honor the victims of Sept. 11 and to reaffirm the strength of our nation with acts of service and charity,” he continued. “Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost; a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed Sept. 11.”
The president also said he and first lady Michelle Obama would participate in a “local service project as well,” but he didn’t specify what that project would be.
The anniversary also marks nearly a decade since U.S. forces began fighting in Afghanistan, [*]a conflict that Obama touched on briefly in his Saturday remarks.
“On this 10th anniversary, we still face great challenges as a nation. We’re emerging from the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes. We’re taking the fight to Al Qaeda, ending the war in Iraq and starting to bring our troops home from Afghanistan,” Obama said.
He added: “Let’s show that the sense of common purpose that we need in America doesn’t have to be a fleeting moment; It can be a lasting virtue — not just on one day, but everyday.” [commander in chief and chief politician] [*]
Obama cut short his family vacation in Martha’s Vineyard and returned to Washington late Friday as Hurricane Irene bore down on the East Coast. He did not mention Hurricane Irene in his weekly address, according to prepared remarks. © 2011 POLITICO LLC

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://nationalinterest.org/article/brezhnev-the-hejaz-5733
National Interest
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:46:00 AM] [*]
Brezhnev in the Hejaz
August 24, 2011
Bruce Riedel [2] [commentary] [he’s the former CIA guy who did the workup for NSC on the Afghanistan remedial surge that became the Dec 2010 surge decision] [his expertise: broader Middle East] [Muslim World] [I archive much of his stuff and find it usually pretty helpful] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011] [good piece though the Brezhnev reference is a bit abstruse] [*]
THE SAUDI royal family is afraid. Very, very afraid. A crisis of leadership is brewing. The king is ailing and his successor, Crown Prince Sultan, is in even worse health. Their hard-line brother, Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, is set to take the throne. One of the last absolute monarchies, the Saudi family seems to represent all that the Arab Spring is fighting against: [*] closed societies with unequal wealth distribution; repressed minorities living within manufactured boundaries; strong Islamist sympathies across its lands; a latent Sunni-Shia power struggle embedded in the country’s fabric—not to mention a string of surrounding states struggling to stave off revolutions that could easily have a contagion effect. [I suppose, yes] [also bulwark against Persia (Shi’a power center)] [and pretty virulent strain of Islamism that has spawned its share of jihadis, Wahhabism] [**]
We should be careful not to count the al-Sauds out. They are among the world’s most

http://nationalinterest.org/article/brezhnev-the-hejaz-5733
National Interest
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:46:00 AM] [*]
Brezhnev in the Hejaz
August 24, 2011
Bruce Riedel [2] [commentary] [he’s the former CIA guy who did the workup for NSC on the Afghanistan remedial surge that became the Dec 2010 surge decision] [his expertise: broader Middle East] [Muslim World] [I archive much of his stuff and find it usually pretty helpful] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011] [*]
THE SAUDI royal family is afraid. Very, very afraid. A crisis of leadership is brewing. The king is ailing and his successor, Crown Prince Sultan, is in even worse health. Their hard-line brother, Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, is set to take the throne. One of the last absolute monarchies, the Saudi family seems to represent all that the Arab Spring is fighting against: [*] closed societies with unequal wealth distribution; repressed minorities living within manufactured boundaries; strong Islamist sympathies across its lands; a latent Sunni-Shia power struggle embedded in the country’s fabric—not to mention a string of surrounding states struggling to stave off revolutions that could easily have a contagion effect. [I suppose, yes] [also bulwark against Persia (Shi’a power center)] [and pretty virulent strain of Islamism that has spawned its share of jihadis, Wahhabism] [**]
We should be careful not to count the al-Sauds out. They are among the world’s most proven survivors. Their first kingdom lasted from 1744—when they made their alliance with the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn-Abdul Wahhab—until 1818, when an Ottoman-Egyptian army crushed it. A second kingdom controlled the Nejd, located in the center of the Arabian Peninsula, from 1824 to 1891. The current kingdom began with Ibn Saud’s taking of Riyadh in 1902 and was consolidated in the 1930s after a war with Yemen.[*] The al-Sauds are comeback kids.
They also outlasted the Arab revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s. The monarchies in Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Yemen all collapsed, but the Kingdom fought back, ultimately bogging down Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt in a bloody insurgency in Yemen. They outlived Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi threat in the 1990s. The Saudi royals are skilled at playing inter-Arab civil wars.
As the end-of-an-era grim reaper approaches Saudi Arabia’s door, Riyadh is prepared for battle. Whether the U.S.-Saudi alliance can survive the clash of American values and sympathy for the Arab Spring with the monarchy’s ambitions is another question entirely. [they have been America’s gas station in effect] [and we have been the Saudi police patrol] [*]
RIYADH HAS become the de facto leader of the counterrevolution in the Middle East. It is shoring up its borders and tamping down neighboring unrest. And to prevent rebellion inside Saudi Arabia, Riyadh is creating an alliance whose sole purpose is to quell any revolutionary movement in the six Arabian Peninsula monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. [*]
Saudi Arabia’s mettle has already been tested; its commitment to stifling any protests in surrounding countries can no longer be in question. In early spring, Bahrain was facing a crisis. It looked as though the majority-Shia population on the tiny island was on the verge of forcing the Sunni Khalifa dynasty to accept a transition to a constitutional monarchy. For Saudi royals, who do not differentiate between Shia and Iran, that meant an Iranian-dominated challenge to absolutism just across the causeway from their own restive Shia.[*] Worse, the United States was actively encouraging a political process in Manama that the palace in Riyadh judged to be an existential threat. [and they thought Obama threw Mubarak under the buss!] [*]
To preempt a deal, over one thousand Saudi troops with a contingent of police from the UAE publicly and visibly crossed the causeway in armored vehicles to help the Khalifa hard-liners crush the rebellion on March 14. The Saudis have been practicing this maneuver for years (one of the key reasons the causeway was built was to provide an emergency invasion corridor), but never before had the Kingdom actually used its own forces to help crush a popular rebellion in a Gulf Cooperation Council state. The Saudi press dismissed American and European criticism of the operation, including President Obama’s May speech on the Arab Spring, as “drivel.” [*]And as a further bond between the two royal families, King Hamad of Bahrain’s son is now engaged to King Abdullah’s daughter. [*]
With the Saudis making it clear they also will stand behind the Hashemite king in Jordan as his regime resists reform, a club of royals under the al-Sauds’ protection is now a reality. [but I get the impression Abdullah is more willing for marginal reform that al Saud?] [*] Amman has even been invited to turn its informal alliance into formal membership in the GCC (along with Morocco) and probably will—it needs GCC money. The Saudis are also pushing the council to expand the size of its expeditionary force based at King Khalid Military City in northeast Saudi Arabia from its current forty-thousand-man outfit on paper to a larger presence—size to be determined. [Bahrain and others have hired mercenary forces from US-UK-elsewhere, too] [*]
In effect, Saudi Arabia has proclaimed a twenty-first-century equivalent of the old Soviet Brezhnev Doctrine for its own backyard. No uprising will be tolerated in a neighboring kingdom. The rest of the GCC monarchs have saluted the ambition—at least in principle. And like Russia in 1848, Saudi Arabia has become the guarantor of the counterrevolution.
Yet the al-Sauds’ external strategy is flawed. [flawed in a major way] [they are swimming against the tide of history!] [*] The new alliance is one of convenience. The seven monarchies have decades, even centuries, of rivalry. The Hashemites and the al-Sauds have been enemies since the eighteenth century; cooperation is tactical not emotional. The Qataris chafe at Saudi leadership, the Omanis look east to South Asia not west to the Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates is more disunited than united, more South Asian than Arab. [I think he’s perhaps under emphasized how factious they all are] [*]
Then there is the Achilles’ heel of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, which is beyond Saudi control. Riyadh was never fond of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who backed Iraq in 1990 and whom it tried to overthrow in the Yemeni civil war of 1994. Needless to say, the regime isn’t shedding any tears post–the bombing of the presidential palace, which severely wounded Saleh and forced him to flee. But more than half of the Arabian Peninsula’s population resides in its poverty-stricken southern tip; Riyadh is very worried about what may come next. For chaos and anarchy in Yemen would fuel the Saudis’ worst enemy—al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). [and yet they seem to be ensuring it has momentum] [another reason their strategy is flawed] [*]
THE SAUDIS are right to worry. Bin Laden or no, al-Qaeda continues to play a major role in the Kingdom’s internal politics. The group’s [jihadis] [*]extreme views resonate both with a constituency in the Wahhabi heartland and in poorer parts of the Kingdom, like the Asir region bordering Yemen. If the princes do not enforce unrelenting counterterrorism pressure, the risk of a renewed al-Qaeda challenge remains very real—especially as the AQAP base in Yemen has only grown stronger with central authority collapsing outside of Sanaa. [**]AQAP has exploited the Yemeni civil war to strengthen its safe havens and sanctuaries in the southern and eastern parts of the country, allegedly even taking temporary control of small cities outside Aden.
Al-Qaeda’s leading propagandist in Yemen, the New Mexico–born Anwar al-Awlaki, has called the Arab Spring a revolutionary “tsunami” that is destroying al-Qaeda’s enemies—like Mubarak—and will inevitably lead to revolution in all of the Arab monarchies. [meaning, the near enemy] [*]
The Kingdom fought a vicious and violent struggle against al-Qaeda inside its own borders between 2003 and 2006. It was the most sustained and serious internal threat to the monarchy since the formation of the modern Saudi state in the wake of World War I. Gunfights and bombings wracked every major Saudi city as al-Qaeda supporters tried to fulfill the call of Osama bin Laden to overthrow Abdullah and his brothers. It was a frightening and defining moment for this elderly generation of royal leaders and for the generation-in-waiting.
The leader of the repression of al-Qaeda in the Kingdom, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, [*]son of the interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, [he’s known as MBN and is the one set to take the thrown whom Riedel began piece with!] [*]was almost assassinated by AQAP in 2009. MBN, as he is known, is the epitome of the next generation of Saudi princes: smart, savvy, sophisticated and determined not to have the family lose control of its birthright. With his father now the spirit of the age if not yet king, old guard and new guard are aligned on strategy: repress at all costs—inside the country and out. [*]
THE MANY-TENTACLED threats emanating from around the Kingdom’s borders are clearly reaching inside the House of Saud, stoking deep-seated resentments. And the unrest is being met with the anticipated ruthlessness—with only partial success. [*]On Facebook, Saudi reformist activists called for a “day of rage” to copy the Tahrir Square model; the regime responded with a massive show of police and security forces across the country to preempt any demonstrations. [and they fly helicopters over the houses of Shi’a leaders in Bahrain and it’s much, much worse than Riedel is letting on] [now it’s likely true that most Sunni Saudis and Bahrains agree with it] [but it’s still explosive] [**] The Wahhabi clerical establishment then preached against reform and protests in the mosques to further intimidate the potential demonstrators. It worked. The day of rage passed with little in the way of anger.
But in the traditionally restive Shia communities of the Eastern Province (home to most of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves), demonstrations have erupted. This is no surprise—the Shia have often expressed their discontentment with their status as second-class citizens in a state founded on that mid-eighteenth-century alliance between the Saudi royal family and the extreme Sunni Wahhabi clerical establishment. Indeed, Saudi and Wahhabi animosity toward the Shia goes back to the early 1800s when Saudi warriors pillaged the holy cities in Iraq during the first great expansion out of their base in the Nejd. [*]
King Abdullah has tried to accommodate Shia demands for greater autonomy in the past, but the unrest this year shows tensions remain high. The Shia may be far too small in number to threaten the Kingdom’s stability, but they can engage in terror attacks, like the bombing of the U.S. air base in Khobar in 1996, which American and Saudi officials blamed on Saudi Hezbollah (a pro-Iranian terror group that has been largely dormant since the 1990s).
Even more serious is the unrest among Saudi women that could open up generational, gender and regional fault lines both in the Wahhabi Nejdi heartland and in the restive, more progressive western province, the Hejaz, [Jidda-Jeddah, the port city for foreigners, unclean infidels, is like wild west] [*]conquered by the Saudis in the 1920s. Saudi women cannot vote in the limited political process allowed by the monarchy, and they cannot drive. An online movement called Baladi (My Country) has pushed for the female right to vote in municipal elections. A few Saudi women challenged the law against driving this year in Riyadh and Jidda and were arrested. Efforts to organize social protests on the issue via Facebook and Twitter were immediately repressed by the authorities. Meanwhile, the ban inflicts a major economic cost on the Kingdom—some eight hundred thousand foreign taxi drivers, usually South Asians, are employed in transporting Saudi women. The average middle-class family spends $350 a month to get the girls around. But the power of the Sunni clerical establishment continues.
The biggest unknown is how the Kingdom’s youth will act. They have watched the drama in Tahrir Square, Benghazi, Sanaa and Dara’a on Al Jazeera just like everyone else. And the Kingdom has the same demographics as its Arab brothers: a large youth bulge that is chasing too few jobs. With 80 percent of Saudis under thirty years [*]of age and 47 percent under eighteen, unemployment is officially at 10 percent but could be as high as 25 percent (only men are counted since few women seek jobs outside the home). The underemployed young Saudi man may have more money in his pocket than his Egyptian counterpart, but he too is frustrated by a system that is completely opaque and closed to the nonelite.
While the Kingdom can and does appease many of their demands—Abdullah announced over $100 billion in new bonuses, mosque building and other payoffs—it offers them little or nothing in the way of political change. Absolute monarchies are not usually accommodating to transparency and devolution of authority; by definition absolutists do not compromise with nonroyals.
If the Egyptian experiment in governance looks to be a winner and Cairo produces a more transparent, accountable and democratic Arab government, it could be very attractive, especially in the Hejaz. [*]
In fact the Hejaz, with its young, urbane, religiously varied population, has never fully accommodated to Saudi and Wahhabi rule. It has always seen itself as more cosmopolitan than the Nejd, looking across the Red Sea to Egypt and north to Syria rather than to the harsh interior. For centuries it was part of the broader Islamic world, a part of the great empires of Islam from the Umayyads to the Ottomans. The Nejd, in contrast—remote and barren as it is—stayed outside of those empires. [*]Moreover, the Hejaz is home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the center for the hajj every year, visited by Muslims from all corners of the ummah, thus exposing Hejazis to views and peoples of all caste and creed. Many of them are critical of the ugly remodeling of the holy cities to allow for plush apartment blocks and designer stores, and a few even long for the return of the Hashemites. [yikes] [*]
The Arab Spring in other countries has flourished along old fault lines like the one between the Hejaz and the Nejd, most notably in Libya where the rebellion has revived the differences between Tripolitania in the northwest and Cyrenaica in the east. The Saudis must be concerned it could happen in the Kingdom too. Its current borders are less than a hundred years old.
CHANGE HAS come in Saudi Arabia very slowly. The United States began raising the issue of slavery in the Kingdom shortly after the historic meeting between King Ibn Saud and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that initiated the American-Saudi alliance—on a cruiser in the Suez Canal in 1945. [that folks, is called continuity!!!] [*] John F. Kennedy finally persuaded the family to abolish slavery in 1962. This historical pattern is unlikely to morph in America’s favor. Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz [MBN’s father] [*] has long held suspicions that America is more threat than friend. And aside from jawboning, the United States has no way to leverage the Kingdom. The Saudis are on track to purchase over $60 billion in new arms from America, critical to jobs in many states, and they are the swing producer in the global oil market, with the unique power to set oil prices. In short, Americans need Saudi Arabia not just for strategic reasons but also for the health of our economy at a time when we are broke. [*]
Despite President Obama’s efforts to build ties with the Saudis (his first visit to an Arab capital as president was to Riyadh), the family has soured on him. The al-Sauds believe he has promised but not delivered on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and done too little to counter Iran, especially in Bahrain. They were shocked that Obama did not stand by Mubarak until the bitter end. While the Saudis know they cannot ignore Washington, they are looking for alternatives to the east. [they always have] [don’t forget how they treated the US in 1990s] [they wanted President Bush (Bush 41) to keep America’s ships over the horizon!] [*]
Pakistan, whose own relations with Washington are deteriorating, is a long-standing ally. Islamabad has been the largest recipient of Saudi foreign aid for decades, and Saudi and Pakistani intelligence connections are extremely close. Riyadh provided sanctuary in exile to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif after the Musharraf coup in 1999 and heavily funds his political party (Sharif is favored to win the country’s next election). [*]During the tumultuous years after the Iranian Revolution, Islamabad provided thousands of troops to defend the Kingdom, with its twenty-thousand-strong military presence deployed in Saudi Arabia as the ultimate Praetorian Guard until Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait—when King Fahd found a bigger bodyguard in the U.S. Army. Now Abdullah has turned back to Islamabad for contingency support. [they both think America is dangerously naïve] [it’s they who are naïve!] [it’s the most bizarre thing] [*]
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former ambassador to the United States and now Saudi national-security adviser, traveled to Islamabad in late March to raise the prospect of a return engagement for the Pakistani army. Islamabad was quick to say yes. Long before the Bandar trip, a Pakistani battalion was already in Bahrain to back up the Khalifas if needed.[*] Other Pakistani advisers or retired officers man much of the armed forces of the UAE and Oman.
Bandar also traveled to China to offer lucrative contracts in return for political support. No friend of the Arab Spring, Beijing is eager for Saudi oil and investment. Bandar secretly negotiated the first big Saudi-Chinese arms deal (for intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the 1980s) and is the Kingdom’s premier China expert. Abdullah has long been a believer in the notion that China and India are the future markets for Arabian energy. He made his first trip as king to them. [again, they have always done such things] [they exploited Tiananmen in same way to ingratiate themselves with the Chinese] [*]
Saudi foreign policy is always pragmatic and adaptive. Despite their disappointment at Mubarak’s fall, the Saudis have reached out to the new power centers in Cairo as well. They have offered economic aid and debt relief to the transition government. The Kingdom has been a sanctuary for the Muslim Brotherhood for decades and doubtless will try to cash in on that connection in the new Egypt. Abdullah has long-standing ties to Brotherhood leaders across the Arab world. [yes, to be watched] [I hope IC is?] [*]
In his speeches on the Arab Spring and U.S. Middle East policy this year, Obama implicitly recognized Saudi importance and American impotence: he just didn’t mention Saudi Arabia outright. And he was correct to remain silent. This is the conundrum: There is little purpose served by American exhortations in public for reform in the Kingdom; they will alienate the royals and lead to unrealistic expectations among the masses. [the reason that Obama neglected to mention Saudi in his huge ME democratization speech] [*]The truth is the United States is still the Kingdom’s foremost supporter. We have provided tens of billions in arms over the decades and critical intelligence support to fight Nasserists, Baathists, Iranians and al-Qaeda. The continued American support in military and intelligence channels is vastly more important to the survival of the House of Saud than occasional mild rebukes from the secretary of state about women’s driving. We need to face the fact that America is the counterrevolution’s biggest backer as long as our military and intelligence establishment supports it. And there is no choice; al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula also threatens America. [there has always been an element of “what have you done for me, lately” in the relationship] [*]
In private, Washington needs to talk quietly to the family about the long-term direction of Arabia, how the Kingdom plans to adapt to those changes, and how America and Saudi Arabia can maintain their alliance in the twenty-first century. Our challenge is to be the friend of the new revolutions in the Middle East while retaining the alliance with the counterrevolutionaries. Prince Nayef may be the key to it all. Focusing on common interests like Yemen and Iran could rein in his nastier instincts. If we fail, and the Saudi counterrevolution gets bloody, the U.S.-Saudi alliance could well come to an end.
[2] http://nationalinterest.org/profile/bruce-riedel

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:24 AM | Permalink

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/68233/stewart-patrick/libya-and-the-future-of-humanitarian-intervention
Foreign Affairs
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:30:24 AM] [*]
August 26, 2011
SNAPSHOT
Libya and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention
How Qaddafi's Fall Vindicated Obama and RtoP
Stewart Patrick [commentary] [“Humanitarian Intervention”] [in fact, it is only a particular sort of intervention known as Resposibility to Protect, often abbreviated R2P] [it was the basis for the Obama administration’s decision to involve itself, albeit in secondary role to NATO’s intervention] [it’s also important to note that UNSC and even Arab League supported much of the response to the Qaddafi regime’s threat to go door to door and kill the dogs, in so many words] [note: I am unable to post the piece in its entirety] [CFR, publisher of Foreign Affairs, has instructed me that I cannot post subscrition-only items under the fair-use doctrine] [therefore, students who desire to read the full piece should go to Kellogg Library] [find electronic databases then search for article] [CSUSM is subscriber and their subscription permits enrolled students to access Foreign Affairs] [future of R2P, and differences between values and objectives] [use fall 2011] [*]
STEWART PATRICK is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Program on International Institutions and Global Governance at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security [1].
The fall of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi is a significant foreign policy triumph for U.S. President Barack Obama. [thesis] [*]By setting overall strategy while allowing others to shoulder the burden of implementing it, the Obama administration achieved its short-term objective of stopping Qaddafi's atrocities and its long-term one of removing him from power. This was all done at a modest financial cost, with no U.S. troops on the ground, and zero U.S. casualties. Meanwhile, as the first unambiguous military enforcement of the Responsibility to Protect norm, Qaddafi's utter defeat seemingly put new wind in the sails of humanitarian intervention. [cut off post here] [**]
. . . .

. . .
[see note in header above] [I cannot post the full piece as it is subscription only] [students who wish to read it should go to Kellogg Library] [CSUSM has subscription] [go to electronic databases or stacks]

States and its allies will apply it universally. As atrocities emerge in other contexts, the international community will need to cultivate and weigh other policy options against armed intervention, so it is not faced with stark choice of military action or inaction. The Obama administration's PSD-10 is a step in that direction.
Copyright © 2002-2010 by the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.
Links:
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Weak-Links-Fragile-International-Security/dp/019975151X
[2] http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators?cid=GPD_WDI
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/world/africa/31sudan.html
[4] http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67674/stewart-patrick/a-new-lease-on-life-for-humanitarianism
[5] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/21/AR2009042102970.html
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/world/africa/12congo.html
[7] http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=13174669
[8] http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/04/presidential-study-directive-suspension-entry-immigrants-and-nonimmigran
[9] http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/10/interventionism_run_amok
[10] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14547057
[11] http://2001-2009.state.gov/s/p/rem/31299.htm
http://nationalinterest.org/article/brezhnev-the-hejaz-5733

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:22 AM | Permalink

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/94250/obamas-public-opinion-dilemma
The New Republic
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:26:17 AM] [*]
Obama's Public Opinion Dilemma
Jonathan Chait
August 26, 2011 | 12:20 pm [public opinion] [it always matters some insofar as politicians are always seeking to know what it is so they can respond to it] [but in matters most around election years] [and we are just entering the 2012 election year (we are already in the 2012 election cycle)] [this is broad and not foreign policy or world politics per se] [but it’s worth thinking about especially with an election looming] [Obama suffers the infernal curse of moderates everywhere: they please neither the extremes (right or left) and manage, instead to offend both] [consequently, they by definition are without much support] [again, by definition they are denied their opposite’s support—if Dems, then Republicans, if Republicans then Dems] [and they offend what is traditionally thought to be their base] [in this case Obama is by definition denied Republican-conservative support and has offended his base, Democrat-liberal-progressives] [consider the piece archived today in govt on TransCanada pipeline as typical of said dilemma] [*]
Pew's monster public opinion survey really captures the complexity of the political

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/94250/obamas-public-opinion-dilemma
The New Republic
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:26:17 AM] [*]
Obama's Public Opinion Dilemma
Jonathan Chait
August 26, 2011 | 12:20 pm [public opinion] [it always matters some insofar as politicians are always seeking to know what it is so they can respond to it] [but in matters most around election years] [and we are just entering the 2012 election year (we are already in the 2012 election cycle)] [this is broad and not foreign policy or world politics per se] [but it’s worth thinking about especially with an election looming] [Obama suffers the infernal curse of moderates everywhere: they please neither the extremes (right or left) and manage, instead to offend both] [consequently, they by definition are without much support] [again, by definition they are denied their opposite’s support—if Dems, then Republicans, if Republicans then Dems] [and they offend what is traditionally thought to be their base] [in this case Obama is by definition denied Republican-conservative support and has offended his base, Democrat-liberal-progressives] [consider the piece archived today in govt on TransCanada pipeline as typical of said dilemma] [*]
Pew's monster public opinion survey really captures the complexity of the political dilemma facing President Obama. You have a public extremely unhappy with everything, blaming Republicans more than Democrats, but with President Obama finding his popularity sucked down along with everybody else. He remains relatively quite popular, both compared to others and adjusted for circumstances, but absolutely pretty unpopular.
In particular, the impression that has taken shape is of a reasonable, well-intentioned man with the country's best interests at heart but not necessarily able to enact change. Here's the positive side of that:
Majorities say he stands up for what he believes in (71%), cares about people like them (63%), and most view him as a good communicator (75%), well-informed (63%) and trustworthy (59%). [in short, he’s quite a likable sort] [*] Public assessments of these traits are relatively unchanged in recent months.
And here's the negative side:
But evaluations of Obama’s leadership have dropped off in recent months. Today, the public is divided over whether Obama is a strong leader (49% strong leader, 47% not a strong leader), and more now say he is not able to get things done than say he is (50% not able, 44% able). [in short, he’s no leader] [*]
It's not as easy as you might think to shore up the liability side of that ledger without losing the asset side. Obama is viewed as well-informed, trustworthy and caring in large part because he takes such care to be reasonable. He could gain more strength, but possibly at the risk of those other attributes. [*]
That said, he needs to make some version of this trade. The public has shifted toward the view that Obama must do more to confront Republicans. This is the most interesting finding:
People always want leaders to compromise. [people may well; movements, political parties, don’t] [e.g., Tea Party] [*] It's amazing that a plurality wants Obama to confront the GOP more strongly. Want to see something even more amazing? You're seeing non-trivial numbers of Republicans say that Obama should stand up to the Republicans:
The question hanging over Obama's political strategy has always been the endgame. His obsession with seeming reasonable makes sense if he uses it as an asset to spend down at the end. [I think the author mistakes his obsession for whom Obama actually is?] [he’s not obsessed with being reasonable; that’s who he is and it offends him to act unreasonably which is what leaders do!] [**] You do everything to show your willingness to compromise, and when the opposition refuses and refuses, finally you assail them for their fanaticism. It's harrowing to watch, because we don't know until the last minute whether we're witnessing a rope-a-dope strategy, or just a boxer being beaten to a pulp.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:20 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,781577,00.html
Der Spiegel
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:43:50 AM] [*]
Muslims as a Mirror
Germany's Unhealthy Obsession with Islam
A Commentary by Rolf Schieder [German media] [I’ve archived Der Spiegel’s stuff from time to time] [the immigration and particularly Muslim immigration in Europe (EU)] [Germany as reflective of the rest of Europe?] [Europe’s past colonization policies that greatly strain immigration challgenes in Europe] [use psci 350, 355-455, 463] [*]
Muslims in Germany have been accused of many things, from threatening the feminist cause to trying to destroy German society through "demographic jihad." It isn't the Muslims that are the problem, however, but rather our obsession with Islam. [*]
German Islamophobes hold that their more liberal opponents are do-gooder Islamophiles and cultural relativists. German critics of Islamophobia claim their more conservative opponents are scare-mongers and slanderers. What both groups have in common is an obsession with Islam that doesn't do Muslims, Christians or secularists any good. [*]
The way the politically motivated murders of 77 Norwegian children, adolescents and

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,781577,00.html
Der Spiegel
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:43:50 AM] [*]
Muslims as a Mirror
Germany's Unhealthy Obsession with Islam
A Commentary by Rolf Schieder [German media] [I’ve archived Der Spiegel’s stuff from time to time] [the immigration and particularly Muslim immigration in Europe (EU)] [Germany as reflective of the rest of Europe?] [Europe’s past colonization policies that greatly strain immigration challgenes in Europe] [use psci 350, 355-455, 463] [*]
Muslims in Germany have been accused of many things, from threatening the feminist cause to trying to destroy German society through "demographic jihad." It isn't the Muslims that are the problem, however, but rather our obsession with Islam. [*]
German Islamophobes hold that their more liberal opponents are do-gooder Islamophiles and cultural relativists. German critics of Islamophobia claim their more conservative opponents are scare-mongers and slanderers. What both groups have in common is an obsession with Islam that doesn't do Muslims, Christians or secularists any good. [*]
The way the politically motivated murders of 77 Norwegian children, adolescents and adults by a right-wing extremist were interpreted by the media as an attack on Islam was downright eerie. There were hardly any Muslims among the victims, nor was a mosque in Oslo blown up. It was not the beginning of a crusade against Islam. The victims were overwhelmingly young social democrats, who, if they could be assigned to a religious category at all, were mainly members of the Lutheran state church.
The killer, Anders Breivik, believes that the "Islamization" of Europe is a threat. But what he finds even more threatening is the "cultural Marxism" [*]practiced by his fellow Norwegians. For him, their liberalism is a sign of cowardice and weakness. The term "cultural Marxism" is a reference to "cultural Bolshevism," a concept from the 1920s, when lamentations about a general cultural decline were part of the standard repertoire of conservative political parties. Members of Germany's so-called Conservative Revolution (ed's note: mainly active in the period between World War I and World War II) saw the reasons for that decline in capitalism and consumerism, Westernization and individualization. In this sense, it is entirely correct to identify this mental climate as Breivik's inspiration, as the historian Volker Weiss did in a recent opinion piece for SPIEGEL ONLINE. [recall: it was what England’s King George V referred to as the Nazi peril on one side with Her Hitler and the proletarian abyss on the other] [the short-lived movement was rather broader than Germany only] [*]
But what does one gain from calling the killer a "right-wing brother of the jihadists," as Weiss does, and characterizing the events in Norway as "the Talibanization of the Christian right"? This reinforces the old prejudice of the European left, namely, that religion in itself is always and exclusively dangerous. Yet this overlooks the fact that it was political, non-religious worldviews that inflicted endless suffering on humanity in the 20th century. It also suggests that there is a worldwide ecumenical movement of religions that are prepared to use violence and that have become a threat to the non-religious. In Weiss's mind, the events in Norway represent a "fatal embrace" between "crusaders and jihadists." [*]
But if one is to establish a commonality between right-wing extremists like Breivik and jihadists, it lies not in a violent ecumenical movement, but in the shared psychosocial circumstances of the perpetrators. Terrorism is a problem among culturally uprooted, politically radical angry young men who are often educated but unsuccessful. They are men who rebel against a world in which they no longer feel at home. They have higher expectations of the world than it could ever fulfill. [I don’t know if author is right but I know that we only poorly understand recruitment of today’s jihadis and that’s a major weakness of America’s GSAVE] [*]
In his influential book "Männerphantasien" ("Male Fantasies"), the German sociologist Klaus Theweleit offers a plausible explanation for the relationship between fascism and delusions of masculinity. If we consider the narcissistic outpourings of the mass murderer behind the Oslo and Utøya attacks, it is not difficult to recognize that he too dreamed the dream of the masculine knight -- depicted as courageous, tough, white, potentially brutal but ultimately irresistible -- who acts as the savior of a society portrayed as corruptible, soft, permissive, comfortable, feminine and in urgent need of purification. For Breivik, the sympathy that society expresses for the victims is presumably additional proof of its decadence. His goal was not to combat the Muslims, but to rescue his own society from disintegration.
A Sign of What Is Lacking
What, then, is the source of this obsession with Islam? Fifteen years ago, there were about 2 million Turkish immigrants in Germany. Today, Germany's immigrants from Turkey are often lumped into a single category of "Muslims." Their critics say that it is not Turkish parents' own lack of education that prevents their children from doing well in school, but their religious affiliation. Muslim "headscarf girls" (ed's note: a phrase coined by the controversial German author Thilo Sarrazin) are characterized as both a threat to feminism and dangerous baby-making machines obsessed with "demographic jihad." Some cite the supposed threat of Muslim parallel societies, apparently ignoring the fact that for centuries Germans have lived in parallel societies consisting of Catholics and Protestants.
"Islam" has become a social phantasm. [*]According to the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the term "phantasm" refers to a negated and repressed lack. As well as individual phantasms, which point to a repressed deficiency and to unattainable objects of desire, there are also societal obsessions, which relate to socially repressed deficiencies and unattained desires. The phantasm does not describe a real object. Instead, it indicates what is lacking.
What are these deficiencies? What is lacking? It isn't the same for everyone. Thilo Sarrazin decries what he sees as a lack of German children. The German politician Klaus von Dohnanyi believes immigrants are more devout than Germans. Others admire their family values. Turks who celebrate loudly and raucously after their team has won a football match are praised for their national pride. We even grudgingly acknowledge the willingness of suicide bombers to sacrifice their lives. Our own population seems lazy, indecisive, fearful, spoiled and endlessly demanding in comparison.
The only possible conclusion seems to be that -- to quote the title of Sarrazin's best-selling book -- Germany is doing itself in. But despite the commercial success of Sarrazin's apocalyptic tome, it did not trigger any tangible change within German society. Thus, the faction of Islam's critics continues to suffer in the midst of a population that supposedly lacks the collective will to defend itself. [*]
We Are Actually Discussing Ourselves
Opposing this culturally pessimistic faction are the secularists who do not subscribe to the phantasm of Islam as the more aggressive and more powerful religion, but instead regard Islam as an anachronistic and -- given their own belief in a secular society -- ultimately illegitimate phenomenon. [*]To these German intellectuals, the fact that an ailing Christian Church tries to help Muslims gain public recognition -- for example, by advocating chairs in Islamic studies at universities -- in a bid to save itself from demise, is doubly vexing.
For German secularists, what is lacking is a secular society. But Germany is still a long way from that. Almost two-thirds of Germans are members of a church, a number that, when compared with the 2 percent of Germans who are members of a political party, speaks to the still robust state of organized religion. [that’s interesting but I wonder if it’s accurate or at least as stacked as it seems?] [how are members identified?] [on the one had through voter registration and on the other self-profeseed membership in churches???] [I suspect a pretty substantial validity issue?] [still interesting?] [*] Although we live in a secular state, it is not a secular society that the state seeks to protect, but a society that has a vibrant diversity of religious beliefs and worldviews and is therefore pluralistic.
There is a range of other deficiencies, wishes, fears and desires that motivate the phantasm of "Islam," from the yearning for a homogeneous German population to a highly individualized social model that deconstructs all things institutional. [*]The real problem is that we are not actually discussing Islam at all. Instead, we are -- in the sense that we are talking about what we are not -- actually discussing ourselves. For this reason, I would give the following piece of Kant-inspired advice: "Have the courage to use your own religio-political reason without referring to the Other of Islam." It is not the dispute over the phantasm of "Islam" that is productive, but the impartial analysis of the goals of the religio-political parties that are at odds in our country. [*]
This would remove an enormous burden from the everyday lives of Muslims. They could simply view themselves as a religious minority among others, like the Jews for example, a minority that seeks to practice its religion within the framework of what is legally permissible -- nothing more and nothing less. Problems relating to education, integration and equality could then be addressed as such in a nuanced and appropriate manner without being immediately framed within the context of a culture war. German Muslims would be relieved of the need to justify themselves every time an Islamist suicide bomber commits an attack somewhere in the world. They would be seen primarily as German citizens and only secondarily as members of a world religion. [I think author is onto something] [America is one of the few republics that historically kept a bright line between religion and political parties] [it’s blurred from time to time (present being one of those times)] [and it’s been remarkably different because of it!] [*]
This would make it easier to differentiate between the idea of "Islam" and the many ways to be a Muslim man or woman in Germany, a country that guarantees religious freedom. Finally, the various Muslim organizations could calmly coordinate among themselves, without having to confront external pressures, regarding how they want to jointly interact with mainstream society.
Civilizing Religion
Without a fantastical view of "Islam," the German debate over religious policy would then become both tougher and clearer. Secularists, who seek to make religion an entirely private affair, and so-called culturalists, who seek to give priority to Christianity, could no longer sustain their joint campaign against Islam. They would be forced to recognize that the respective social models they envision are completely contradictory. Constitutional liberals, on the one hand, would have to join forces with the secularists in demanding equal rights for all religions, thereby opposing the culturalists. On the other hand, they would have to support the culturalists in preventing what the secularists seek, namely, making religious matters private and eliminating religion from the public sphere.
Within such a framework, groups such as the "ex-Muslims" would also lose their unique credibility. When, for example, the German-Egyptian political scientist and Islam critic Hamed Abdel-Samad advocates limiting the influence of organized religion in Germany "to detoxify this society," one could argue that the established religions in Germany promote anti-totalitarian and individual freedom and that they can look back on a tradition of keeping civil society alive. Germany's religious policy is not based on the elimination of religions from the public sphere, but the civilization of religions through public religious education.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/26/nigerias_terrorism_problem
Foreign Policy
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:38:48 AM] [*]
Nigeria's Terrorism Problem
Why the suicide bombing of the U.N. compound in Abuja isn't just a lone incident -- and why it could spark an ugly religious war in Africa's most populous country.
BY ALEX THURSTON | AUGUST 26, 2011 [Nigeria] [yesterday’s initial reports appear to have been quite close to what happened] [suicide bomber, almost certainly associated with jihadis] [followup] [also Boko Haram?, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [while small stuff against westerners has been common over the years, this sort of thing bear hallmarks of jihadis?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [Foreign Policy details] [*]
At mid-morning on Friday, Aug. 26, a car packed with explosives rammed through two gates at the United Nations compound in the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, before smashing into the building's main reception area and detonating. The suicide terrorist attack, the largest ever on a Western target in Nigeria, has claimed at least 18 lives and injured dozens.
By the afternoon, the Muslim rebel sect Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the attack. [*]In recent months, Boko Haram's operations have been expanding outward from its base in Maiduguri, a city in the country's northeast. Boko Haram, which comprises hundreds

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/26/nigerias_terrorism_problem
Foreign Policy
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:38:48 AM] [*]
Nigeria's Terrorism Problem
Why the suicide bombing of the U.N. compound in Abuja isn't just a lone incident -- and why it could spark an ugly religious war in Africa's most populous country.
BY ALEX THURSTON | AUGUST 26, 2011 [Nigeria] [yesterday’s initial reports appear to have been quite close to what happened] [suicide bomber, almost certainly associated with jihadis] [followup] [also Boko Haram?, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [while small stuff against westerners has been common over the years, this sort of thing bear hallmarks of jihadis?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [Foreign Policy details] [*]
At mid-morning on Friday, Aug. 26, a car packed with explosives rammed through two gates at the United Nations compound in the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, before smashing into the building's main reception area and detonating. The suicide terrorist attack, the largest ever on a Western target in Nigeria, has claimed at least 18 lives and injured dozens.
By the afternoon, the Muslim rebel sect Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the attack. [*]In recent months, Boko Haram's operations have been expanding outward from its base in Maiduguri, a city in the country's northeast. Boko Haram, which comprises hundreds of members and appears to enjoy some measure of popular support in the northeast, aims to strengthen sharia law in Nigeria and overturn the rule of Western-educated elites. [*]In a country with a history of polarization between the majority-Muslim north and the majority-Christian south, Boko Haram's message is a polarizing one at the national level and within the Muslim community; the movement has killed Muslim leaders who reject its use of violence. [**] The movement draws recruits by capitalizing on the disappointment many northerners felt when the implementation of sharia in northern states from 1999 to 2001 failed to eliminate corruption, revitalize the northern economy, and address the north's feelings of political marginalization. Northern grievances were compounded by the reelection this April of President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian who came to power after the death of northern Muslim President Umaru Yar'Adua. Some northerners argued that Jonathan should have stepped aside in favor of a northerner, and thereby held to an unofficial power-sharing agreement that rotates the presidency, every two terms, between north and south.
Boko Haram's tactics have changed over time. In 2003 and 2009, the movement launched mass uprisings against police in the northeast, but suffered hundreds of casualties when security forces put down the rebellions; [*]during the 2009 uprising, their leader, Muhammad Yusuf, was killed in police custody, and the movement went underground for over a year. [2009 into 2010, it went undergound after death of Yusuf] [I don’t remember reading about his death?] [see “Nigeria: Islamist Sect Members Are Arrested in Killings” and “Nigeria: Mosque Attack Signals a New Round of Violence” both in Nov 2010] [*] Reputedly now under the guidance of Abubakar Shekau, a lieutenant of Yusuf's, [*]Boko Haram shifted to guerrilla and terrorist tactics in 2010. During the past year, it has conducted dozens of drive-by shootings, bombings, and small raids on police stations, banks, churches, and bars in the northeastern states of Bauchi, Adamawa, and Borno (of which Maiduguri is the capital). The United Nations reportedly received intelligence last month that it was a potential target for the sect, but the compound appears to have had only minimal security. The attack on the United Nations suggests that Boko Haram wanted to embarrass the Nigerian state in front of an international audience, [*]signal to foreigners that they are now targets, and prove that the military's crackdown in the northeast has not weakened the movement.
Boko Haram increasingly seems to favor the use of suicide bombings. This June, the group carried out an apparent suicide car bombing at the police headquarters in Abuja, though later analysis from Nigerian police suggested the bomber may have intended to park the car and detonate it remotely. [*]On Aug. 15, a suicide-bomb attempt failed at the police headquarters in Maiduguri. As journalist Geoffrey York writes, the bombing of the U.N. office fits into the broader pattern of Boko Haram's geographical expansion and increasing tactical sophistication. [*]
Speculation has been increasing that this tactical sophistication indicates growing links between Boko Haram and outside terrorist groups, especially al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), [situated pretty closely by each other?] [particularly, when one considers how far out AQIM has operated from Algeria] [*]one of whose largest attacks to date has been the double car bombing of the U.N. office in Algeria in December 2007. Some analysts see Boko Haram's use of large bombs as an indication that it is receiving training from AQIM, [*]as well as encouragement to attack more ambitious national and international targets. As the New America Foundation's Andrew Lebovich points out, the presence of even a few individuals from AQIM could boost Boko Haram's prowess. Others see an even broader threat. During a visit to Abuja this month, the head of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Carter Ham, stated that Boko Haram was increasingly coordinating activities with AQIM while pursuing a "loose" partnership with al-Shabab, [transnational links increasing between them?] [*]southern Somalia's Muslim rebel movement. Ham warned that a pan-African terrorist alliance would vastly increase security threats to Africa and the United States. Hard evidence of sustained operational ties between Boko Haram and AQIM, however, has yet to become publicly available; AQIM's centers of operations in northeastern Algeria and the remote desert areas of northern Mauritania and Mali are far from northern Nigeria. It is also quite possible that the expertise in bomb attacks comes from within Nigeria, for example from former soldiers. [*]
Regardless of whose expertise guided Friday's attack, the incident will increase pressure on Nigeria's federal government to stamp out the movement. The problem authorities in Abuja face, though, is that no single approach to confronting Boko Haram's expansion has yet gained broad political backing or attained major momentum. An ongoing military crackdown in Maiduguri, modeled after a military deployment in the Niger Delta that partly succeeded in reducing violence there, fulfills the desires of some elements in the security forces, as well as some southerners, for tough action. [*]Yet the brutality of the crackdown has angered locals, prompting protests against security forces and possibly driving an increase in Boko Haram's recruitment. Prominent northern politicians and Muslim leaders have urged dialogue with Boko Haram's leadership and amnesty for its fighters, but the terrorist group has yet to accept the offer and some southern politicians feel the suggestion is naive.
Caught between these competing pressures, the federal government has moved cautiously, setting up a fact-finding panel whose report, likely to be controversial, has already been delayed. With criticism of the federal government mounting at home and abroad, and with President Jonathan taking hits for shying away from the spotlight after the attacks, Boko Haram may already be achieving part of its goal of weakening the Nigerian state's legitimacy.
The attack confirms that Boko Haram has entered a new phase, one in which its activities are a truly national problem. The effects, in a country of 150 million with a roughly even split between Muslims and Christians, could spread well beyond the zone of Boko Haram's activities. [*]Since the bombing in June, fear of the movement has been increasing among southerners. Christian hard-liners have threatened retaliatory violence against northern Muslims who live in the south. Incidents of local Muslim-Christian violence, which occur cyclically in some parts of the country's Middle Belt (where the Muslim and Christian zones meet), could become a national interreligious conflict. Boko Haram's activities could also strain the state's capacity to respond to other problems, [*]particularly if violence and political unrest flare up in the Niger Delta once more.
Friday's tragedy in Abuja will also affect Nigeria's relationship with the international community. Foreign investors, many of whom have already been nervously watching Boko Haram's expansion, could begin to reduce their presence in Nigeria. International organizations will face heightened security challenges and could curtail operations in the north by UNICEF and the U.N. Development Program, both of whose offices were housed in the Abuja compound. Pressure from abroad will mount on Jonathan to "solve" the problem, and further militarization could prove the easiest path to follow. All these developments could mean a less secure, prosperous, and cohesive Nigeria -- an outcome that could, sadly, give even more momentum to Boko Haram.
Alex Thurston is a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies at Northwestern University. He writes Sahel Blog.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/will-egypt-be-too-busy-to-hate-1.380789
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:40:12 AM] [*]
Published 06:00 26.08.11
Will Egypt be too busy to hate?
It is naive to think that Egyptians - or, as polls indicate, the Arab world writ large - will ever accept the presence of a Jewish state in their midst.
By James Kirchick
CAIRO - "Give us weapons and we'll kill all the Jews." [Israeli media] [note: author write for TNR, US (cross societal)] [Egypt] [anti Israel and what has typically been called anti Semitism] [its spread in the Middle East] [Arab Awakening] [reconciling two different desires: security and democratization] [the somewhat odd state of Israeli-Egyptian relations these days?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
So chanted several hundred people outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo last Friday. The proximate cause of the protest was the conflagration in Sinai, following the terror raid near Eilat. But no specific incident is ever needed to stir the Egyptian masses to express hatred for their Jewish neighbors. The intense and academic debate in the West about where legitimate criticism of Israel ends and anti-Semitism begins doesn't resonate in Egypt, or anywhere in

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/will-egypt-be-too-busy-to-hate-1.380789
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:40:12 AM] [*]
Published 06:00 26.08.11
Will Egypt be too busy to hate?
It is naive to think that Egyptians - or, as polls indicate, the Arab world writ large - will ever accept the presence of a Jewish state in their midst.
By James Kirchick
CAIRO - "Give us weapons and we'll kill all the Jews." [Israeli media] [note: author write for TNR, US (cross societal)] [Egypt] [anti Israel and what has typically been called anti Semitism] [its spread in the Middle East] [Arab Awakening] [reconciling two different desires: security and democratization] [the somewhat odd state of Israeli-Egyptian relations these days?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
So chanted several hundred people outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo last Friday. The proximate cause of the protest was the conflagration in Sinai, following the terror raid near Eilat. But no specific incident is ever needed to stir the Egyptian masses to express hatred for their Jewish neighbors. The intense and academic debate in the West about where legitimate criticism of Israel ends and anti-Semitism begins doesn't resonate in Egypt, or anywhere in the Arab world. [*]A poll conducted last year by the Brookings Institution, for instance, found that just 3 percent of Arabs feel empathy for Jewish victims of the Holocaust. [*]Though various Egyptians I interviewed at last week's protest fitfully tried to distinguish between "Jews" and "Zionists" in their denunciations of Israeli perfidy, their subtlety got lost amid the Hamas T-shirts and open calls for genocide. [yes, that seems increasingly a distinction without a difference?] [*]
Egyptians had their choice of whom to shake their fist at last Friday. In addition to the scene of the mob chanting "All the Israeli blood isn't worth the boot of one Egyptian soldier," another demonstration coalesced outside the U.S. Embassy, calling for the release of Omar Abdel Rahman, the "blind sheikh" sitting in a federal prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Consisting of bearded men and niqab-clad women, these protesters were noticeably more peaceful, in both their composure and their demands ("He's just a blind man," a 31-year-old member of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, a once-banned Islamist organization, pleaded with me ), than the group outside the Israeli Embassy, which featured fashionably dressed youth and, of course, the odd Westerner (no anti-Israel protest in the Arab world is complete without the requisite French, Italian or Swede in a kaffiyeh ). Americans concerned about their country's low popularity on the proverbial "Arab street" can rest assured that it continues to hate Israel far, far more. [?][he’s certainly taking liberties with generalizations] [the most obvious is the issue of Tahrir square and the lack of anti Semitism seen there] [which example is the aberration?] [he’s not terribly interested in balancing things out—this is of course a commentary so he’s trying to make a particular point] [*]
It would be a mistake to think that the views expressed at last week's protest are separate from the Egyptian mainstream. Anti-Semitism is the common political language in Egypt. It is the one thing on which all the major political factions can agree - from secular "liberals" to Islamists. While they'll say the most awful things about each other behind closed doors, the one group these two will happily slander in public are Jews or Israelis. [*]For instance, two months ago, at a conference in Budapest sponsored by the Tom Lantos Institute and the Center for Democratic Transition, the vice chairman of Egypt's legendary (and ostensibly "liberal" ) Wafd party declared that "the Holocaust is a lie" and that Anne Frank's diary is a forgery. "Gas chambers and skinning them alive and all this?" he asked rhetorically. "Fanciful stories." [I wonder if it’s not more the conspiratorially arrayed media in Egypt that is at work here?] [there’s an awful lot of pure bunk that comes out of it] [constant spewing of the most ridiculous conspiracies involving Americans and, yes, Jews] [*]
A remark like this in a Western democracy would result in the end of one's political career, if not a jail sentence. But "anti-Semitism remains the glue holding Egypt's disparate political forces together," according to the young Egyptian writers Amr Bargisi and Samuel Tadros, whose prescient article two years ago, "Why are Egypt's 'Liberals' Anti-Semitic?," caused a stir back home. In his new book, "The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East," Reuel Marc Gerecht observes that "Dinner parties with the conspiracy-afflicted Egyptian, Saudi and Jordanian secularized elites, for example, can make Noam Chomsky look nice, introspective and analytically even-handed." Last week, after I stepped out of the office of a prominent liberal political figure, he asked my translator if I was a Jew.
"All the candidates are trying to outdo each other in anti-Israel rhetoric," a 23-year-old Egyptian Christian, who is extremely worried about the future of his country, told me.
Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood now running for president, called upon Egypt's military government to expel the Israeli ambassador last Friday, when Israel mistakenly killed five Egyptian soldiers after last week's firefight. "Gone forever are the days when Israel will kill our children while we do not respond," former Arab League head Amr Moussa, another presidential contender, declared on Twitter.
The hatred that the vast majority of Egyptians feel toward Israel aside, it is highly unlikely that the "new" Egypt will renounce the 1979 Camp David peace treaty or fundamentally alter its relationship toward Israel. [*]This might seem paradoxical, given that the Egyptian people, who have been excluded from the country's political life and whose loathing for Israel was therefore never allowed to manifest itself in Egyptian foreign policy, are slowly taking the helm of government. But the institutional architecture that exists around the preservation of the Camp David treaty - $2 billion a year to the Egyptian military, stability in the Sinai and the Suez Canal, tourism - precludes any dramatic change in Egyptian-Israeli relations, at least for the foreseeable future. [governments cynically manipulate symbols and in the Middle East (perhaps the Mulsim world) no symbol gets more manipulated than the Jewish-Zionist one] [to be clear, Israel does the same but on far smaller scale] [I’ve heard some pretty racist things from settlers in particular!] [surely, the author is aware!] [*]
"Cancel for what? Are we ready to go to war with Israel? The answer definitely is no," a prominent Egyptian political analyst told me last week in Cairo (of course, I could not introduce myself to any Egyptian as a contributor to an Israeli newspaper - even Haaretz - and thus, cannot quote any Egyptian in this article by name ).
Egyptian national security, this analyst says, is also adversely affected by the smuggling of weapons and militants out of Gaza, and by emboldened Islamist elements in the Sinai Peninsula. "We can differ from [Hosni] Mubarak concerning some stories like the gas agreement, relations with Saudi Arabia, and corruption in the previous regime," he told me. "But national security? We cannot differ from Mubarak."
Hatred of Israel, he notes, is predicated partly upon "the story of occupation, the story of aggression," but was also encouraged by the Mubarak-era state media and educational institutions. "If you are an Egyptian and read the textbooks under Mubarak's regime, you must hate Israel," he says, adding that a democratic Egypt - one in which secular elements win more influence than Islamist ones - may become less antagonistic to Israel, as they will be able to change the "many, many false stories in our history textbooks."
This was an admirable acknowledgment, all too rare, of one of the most serious problems to bedevil Arab society. But confronting it is a tall order, particularly in a country where people widely believe that they defeated Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
After talking to a cross section of people in Egypt, I have come to the conclusion that it is naive to think that Egyptians or, as polls indicate, the Arab world writ large will ever accept the presence of a Jewish state in their midst. Gestures like the much-heralded Arab Peace Initiative are offered by unelected dictatorships; in no way do they express the actual will of the people. It's unclear if even the majority of Palestinians support a two-state solution, despite the official negotiating position of the corrupt and sclerotic Palestinian Authority. Most of those Arabs who say they support a two-state solution do so only because that is the stance of the PA; were the Palestinians to one day renounce their recognition of Israel (a recognition that does not extend to the state's Jewish identity ), then those Arabs who follow the lead of the Palestinian leadership would respond in kind. Arabs are willing to tolerate Israel, but my fear is that's the most that can ever be expected. It is with this reality in mind that Benjamin Netanyahu has been so insistent on Palestinians recognizing not only Israel's right to exist, but its right to exist as a Jewish state.
All this means that attempts by American administrations and leftist Israelis to alter Arab attitudes by hastily arranging a two-state solution, thereby falling into the trap of "linking" the Palestinian issue to a variety of regional and global problems, are a waste of time. To be sure, the Palestinians deserve justice and a state for their own sake, but the impulse to do right by them should not be animated by a desire to achieve the chimera of Arab approval. Attempts to please the "Arab street" - which will work itself into a froth of rage over Israelis mistakenly killing five Egyptian soldiers, but seems complacent at Bashar Assad killing thousands of his own people - are as fruitless as they are dangerous. [I agree with his general point] [but he’s sure presented a one-sided case getting there] [*]
Egypt has massive domestic problems on its hands, and one would think that a wrecked economy, rising Islamism, and increasing lawlessness as the result of a gutted police force would convince most Egyptians to turn inward rather than rattle for confrontation with the Zionist entity. But massive social and political dysfunctions are nothing new in the Arab world. Indeed, they are endemic. And far from convincing elites of the need to focus on self-improvement, the backwardness of Arab societies has made the appeal of anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism - blame-shifting in general - all the more appealing. [too true] [*]The hope for Egypt, however, and what may make this moment an exception in its own history and in that of the Arab region as a whole, is that its newfound open political culture will make room for responsible voices to combat the cancer of anti-Semitism. In the 1960s, the municipality of Atlanta, Georgia, proclaimed that it was "the city too busy to hate." The most that Israelis can probably hope for is that the same will be true of Egypt.
James Kirchick is writer at large with .Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and- a contributing editor of The New Republic.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/ambassador-oren-israel-is-very-concerned-about-syrian-wmds-1.380979
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:23:29 AM] [*]
Published 12:34 27.08.11
Ambassador Oren: Israel is very concerned about Syrian WMDs
Wall Street Journal report claims Israel, United States monitoring Syrian chemical weapons; concern is that weapons may be transferred to Hezbollah and Hamas.
By Barak Ravid Tags: Israel US Israel terrorism Syria Arab Spring Bashar Assad Hamas Hezbollah [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran and Syria and especially Iran’s alliance with Syria] [recall, September 2007 when Israelis flew teams into Syria to destroy a nuclear reactor!] [clearly, growing concerns (or perhaps I should say animation that may or may not actually be indicative of concerns?) over Syria’s WMD connections] [use fall 2011] [use psci 355, 463?] [followup yesterday] [*]
Israel is worried about the possibility that the Syrian military may transfer chemical weapons to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah or Hamas due to instability within Syria, [*]said Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren. [surely, this is not a new concern?] [is the idea that Arab Awakening is exacerbating said concern?] [*]

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/ambassador-oren-israel-is-very-concerned-about-syrian-wmds-1.380979
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:23:29 AM] [*]
Published 12:34 27.08.11
Ambassador Oren: Israel is very concerned about Syrian WMDs
Wall Street Journal report claims Israel, United States monitoring Syrian chemical weapons; concern is that weapons may be transferred to Hezbollah and Hamas.
By Barak Ravid Tags: Israel US Israel terrorism Syria Arab Spring Bashar Assad Hamas Hezbollah [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran and Syria and especially Iran’s alliance with Syria] [recall, September 2007 when Israelis flew teams into Syria to destroy a nuclear reactor!] [clearly, growing concerns (or perhaps I should say animation that may or may not actually be indicative of concerns?) over Syria’s WMD connections] [use fall 2011] [use psci 355, 463?] [followup yesterday] [*]
Israel is worried about the possibility that the Syrian military may transfer chemical weapons to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah or Hamas due to instability within Syria, [*]said Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren. [surely, this is not a new concern?] [is the idea that Arab Awakening is exacerbating said concern?] [*]
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Oren stated that Israel is “very concerned about the status of Syria’s weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons,” and that both Israel and the United States are “watching this situation very carefully.” [nor can that be suprising given September 2007, when Israel destroyed a reactor inside Syria’s territory] and neither Bush nor now Obama has said anything about it] [*]
According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, American intelligence agencies believe that Syria has large caches of chemical weapons of various kinds. [WSJ claims IC sources?] [we know, for example, that King David and former Sec Gates used WSJ on occasion to cirulate warnings-info to colleagues] [King David is now at CIA!!!] [I think he officially starts next week (September 4?)] [**] Furthermore, the United States considers Syria one of the largest distributors of weapons of mass destruction, along with North Korea and Iran, and accuses Syria of smuggling weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas, including long-range missiles.
However, at this point, the U.S. government has no information that indicates that Syria has transferred any chemical weapons to terrorist organizations. [*]
Nonetheless, the Americans are worried that the ongoing uprising in Syria will deteriorate into a Libya-like scenario, in light of intelligence reports which stated that several units within the Syrian military have taken a decidedly anti-Assad stance, increasing the possibility of a civil war. [I suppose it’s prudent for them to worry about such scenarios] [that doesn’t make it likely] [we simply have too little info to assess properly] [that it’s being leaked and leaked by WSJ is not, I think, bereft of intrigue?] [*]
And despite sanctions imposed on Assad by the West, the uprising continues. On Saturday morning, thousands gathered in the suburbs of Damascus in an attempt to march toward the capital. The demonstrators were encouraged by the fall of Muammar Gadhafi in Libya, and will call on Bashar Assad to leave his post as President, before he meets the same fate as the Libyan leader.
Two Syrian protesters were killed on Friday after confrontations with security forces. The United Nations published a report last week which claims that over 2,000 Syrians have been killed since the uprising began in January.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-egypt-convinced-israel-not-to-assassinate-hamas-leader-in-gaza-1.380995
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:22:17 AM] [*]
Published 16:35 27.08.11
Report: Egypt convinced Israel not to assassinate Hamas leader in Gaza
Israel planned to target Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh after the terror attacks in south last week but cancelled the operation due to Egyptian pressure, Al-Ahram reports.
By Haaretz Tags: Egypt Gaza Hamas IDF Islamic Jihad [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [the somewhat odd state of Israeli-Egyptian relations these days?] [as we’ve recently read, defense minister Barak indicated Egypt could use its military in Sinai, contrary to Camp David Accords] [now this: another indication that rather odd (indirect?) connections that permit tacit understandings?] [in this case that Israel will not assassinate Mr. Haniyeh, of Hamas] [*]
Egypt convinced Israel to cancel a plan to assassinate Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh following the terrorist attacks near Eilat last week, the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Saturday, [*]citing Palestinian sources.
According to the report, Egyptian officials also applied pressure on Islamic Jihad to declare a

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-egypt-convinced-israel-not-to-assassinate-hamas-leader-in-gaza-1.380995
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/27/11 8:22:17 AM] [*]
Published 16:35 27.08.11
Report: Egypt convinced Israel not to assassinate Hamas leader in Gaza
Israel planned to target Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh after the terror attacks in south last week but cancelled the operation due to Egyptian pressure, Al-Ahram reports.
By Haaretz Tags: Egypt Gaza Hamas IDF Islamic Jihad [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [the somewhat odd state of Israeli-Egyptian relations these days?] [as we’ve recently read, defense minister Barak indicated Egypt could use its military in Sinai, contrary to Camp David Accords] [now this: another indication that rather odd (indirect?) connections that permit tacit understandings?] [in this case that Israel will not assassinate Mr. Haniyeh, of Hamas] [*]
Egypt convinced Israel to cancel a plan to assassinate Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh following the terrorist attacks near Eilat last week, the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Saturday, [*]citing Palestinian sources.
According to the report, Egyptian officials also applied pressure on Islamic Jihad to declare a ceasefire. At the same time, Hamas swayed other factions in the Gaza Strip, particularly the Popular Resistance Committees, to halt rocket attacks on Israel. [they’ve cut similar deals before in order ot establish ceasefires] [in that sense, this is not all that unusual] [it’s more the way things are communicated that seems odd?] [*]
The report also said that the Palestinian Authority was involved in convincing factions in Gaza to halt rocket fire.
Eight Israelis were killed in the terrorist attacks on the Israel-Egypt border north of Eilat on Thursday, August 18.
The Israel Air Force responded with airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, targeting Popular Resistance Committees operatives.
In the following days, dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel, killing one Israeli.
A ceasefire declared by Gaza militants on Sunday quickly broke down. A second ceasfire was declared on Friday.
Two rockets landed in Israel on Friday, despite the ceasefire.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 11:14 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27military.html
August 26, 2011
Libyan War Goes a Long Way to Improve the Pentagon’s View of France as an Ally
By ELISABETH BUMILLER [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [Pentagon, defense dept broadly] [NATO] [use psci 355-455, 469] [continuity between administrations] [oddly, the Arab Awakening has caused the Pentagon to view France 180 degrees differently than say 2003!] [Sarkozy deserves a lot of credit but it would have happened irrespective of PM] [the old foil—indeed the surrender monkeys—have now become are good friends again] [it’s how bureaucracy works—lots of SOPs] [cyclical as France began and excellent terms with the US in Revolutionary War and the war of 1812] [*]
WASHINGTON — Eight years ago the French were called the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” who opposed the Iraq war. They inspired “freedom fries” and jokes meant to boost American military morale. “Have you heard about the new French tank?” a United States Marine commander asked his men in Kuwait in March 2003, only days before his unit crossed the border into Iraq. “It’s got six gears — all in reverse.” [*]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27military.html
August 26, 2011
Libyan War Goes a Long Way to Improve the Pentagon’s View of France as an Ally
By ELISABETH BUMILLER [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [Pentagon, defense dept broadly] [NATO] [use psci 355-455, 469] [continuity between administrations] [oddly, the Arab Awakening has caused the Pentagon to view France 180 degrees differently than say 2003!] [Sarkozy deserves a lot of credit but it would have happened irrespective of PM] [the old foil—indeed the surrender monkeys—have now become are good friends again] [it’s how bureaucracy works—lots of SOPs] [cyclical as France began and excellent terms with the US in Revolutionary War and the war of 1812] [*]
WASHINGTON — Eight years ago the French were called the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” who opposed the Iraq war. They inspired “freedom fries” and jokes meant to boost American military morale. “Have you heard about the new French tank?” a United States Marine commander asked his men in Kuwait in March 2003, only days before his unit crossed the border into Iraq. “It’s got six gears — all in reverse.” [*]
But something has happened on the bombing runs over Libya. France played a major role in this war, winning grudging respect from a Pentagon that has long looked down on many European militaries. Although Americans led the way in knocking out Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s air defenses with volley after volley of Tomahawk missiles, French warplanes flew the first raid into Libya and, along with the British, have flown the bulk of the airstrike missions.
“It’s a very strong lead example to the rest of the alliance in taking charge of this mission,” a top American military official said Friday. Despite his words of admiration for Paris, the official asked for anonymity because of what he described as extreme sensitivity within the NATO alliance about the role of each country in the war.
Sensitivity is putting it mildly. The American military has been in the unusual position of at least publicly taking a back seat in Libya, and strains have been rampant. The Pentagon never wanted to get into the war in the first place and felt dragged in by the exuberance of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and a number of White House advisers. American military officials then grumbled that they had to unleash an initial shock-and-awe bombing campaign to destroy Colonel Qaddafi’s air defenses so that it was safe for the Europeans to fly their strike missions.
Since March, the United States has continued to fly critical refueling and surveillance flights, but has been obsessive about stepping out of the way and letting NATO, and to a large degree France, take the lead. So although France is admired in important quarters at the Pentagon, the building is still getting used to a strange new relationship.
“This is a different animal than we’ve been traditionally involved with,” said another top military official, referring to the Pentagon’s role within NATO in the last five months.
The Pentagon right now has “a love-hate feeling” about France, said Heather A. Conley, a European specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a military research institution. The “love” is appreciation for France’s contribution, she said, but the “hate,” or frustration, is the logistical confusion that occurred in the early days of the war, when the United States was trying to lead from behind and no one seemed to be in charge. “In this new model, everybody has to make important adjustments,” Ms. Conley said.
For now, the French are eager to highlight their contributions to the war, which over all are third behind the Americans and the British. According to the French military, France has flown about 4,500 flights, or sorties, in the five-month war, compared to more than 5,300 American sorties in roughly the same period. France has flown a third of all NATO strike sorties, or 2,700 flights in which ordnance was readied to be dropped. The French military did not provide their total number of actual strikes, which for the United States it is at least 262, but they said that their helicopters had destroyed 450 targets in Libya.
Between Thursday and Friday, French warplanes also destroyed 20 military vehicles near Misurata belonging to Colonel Qaddafi’s government. In the same period, the United States dropped two 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a surface-to-air missile loader and a surface-to-air launcher near Tripoli.
France also has the only aircraft carrier, the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, to be deployed during the war. In fact, it is Europe’s only aircraft carrier. The French have deployed up to 50 aircraft, including Rafale and Mirage fighter jets and combat helicopters.
“As the dust settles, if this thing turns out O.K., we will owe a fair amount of appreciation to the French,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution.
A French military spokesman said Friday that costs to France for the war were continuing and offered no total figure, although in June, France was estimated to be spending as much as $2 million a day on the war, which would be about $300 million to date. The Pentagon estimates the cost of the war to the United States through the end of July at $896 million, which includes military operations, munitions and humanitarian aid.
Despite the relative new esteem for France, few on either side of the Atlantic have forgotten the tongue-lashing delivered to NATO members in June by Robert M. Gates, then the United States defense secretary.
In a speech in Brussels, triggered by years of frustration over NATO’s shrinking role in Afghanistan and the logistical difficulties in Libya, Mr. Gates warned the alliance of “irrelevance” and a “dim if not dismal future” if it did not contribute more in weapons, money and people. Mr. Sarkozy fired back, saying that Mr. Gates, who was about to step down, was unhappy about his retirement and “this explains his rather bitter words.”
On Friday, a former Pentagon official said Mr. Gates had been addressing alliance problems larger than Libya. “I don’t think he had any beef with the French except perhaps that it was their exuberance, coupled with the British, that was barreling us down the road toward another U.S. ground war, and he was determined to prevent that,” the official said.
In the Pentagon, the French have also gained respect for their contributions in Afghanistan. France currently has about 4,000 troops in that country, largely in the east, and 74 of them were killed over the last eight years.
So it is a long way from “cheese-eating surrender monkeys,” the phrase coined by a writer for “The Simpsons” in 1995 and popularized during the period before the Iraq war. It is also a long way from another joke once heard in American military circles about the French Army knife — 49 corkscrews and a white flag.
Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington, and Steven Erlanger from Paris.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/business/energy-environment/us-state-department-to-allow-canadian-pipeline.html
August 26, 2011
U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline
By JOHN M. BRODER and CLIFFORD KRAUSS [obama white house] [112th Congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [state department] [U.S. energy policy?] [state involved due to relations with Canada] [nobody is surprised state signed off] [Secretary Clinton can read politics as well as anyone and can see that America is addicted to pretroleum] [as election looms, the only thing to do is kick the can down the road!?!] [use psci 355-455, 463] [if Obama were anything like the liberal his critics constantly say, he’d stop this pipeline but he is radical in his moderation] [turns out quite a cautious fellow—could as easily be a Republican of 10 years ago] [*]
WASHINGTON — The State Department gave a crucial green light on Friday to a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline that would carry heavy oil from oil sands in Canada across the Great Plains to terminals in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.
The project, which would be the longest oil pipeline outside of Russia and China, has become a potent symbol in a growing fight that pits energy security against environmental risk, a struggle highlighted by last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/business/energy-environment/us-state-department-to-allow-canadian-pipeline.html
August 26, 2011
U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline
By JOHN M. BRODER and CLIFFORD KRAUSS [obama white house] [112th Congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [state department] [U.S. energy policy?] [state involved due to relations with Canada] [nobody is surprised state signed off] [Secretary Clinton can read politics as well as anyone and can see that America is addicted to pretroleum] [as election looms, the only thing to do is kick the can down the road!?!] [use psci 355-455, 463] [if Obama were anything like the liberal his critics constantly say, he’d stop this pipeline but he is radical in his moderation] [turns out quite a cautious fellow—could as easily be a Republican of 10 years ago] [*]
WASHINGTON — The State Department gave a crucial green light on Friday to a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline that would carry heavy oil from oil sands in Canada across the Great Plains to terminals in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.
The project, which would be the longest oil pipeline outside of Russia and China, has become a potent symbol in a growing fight that pits energy security against environmental risk, a struggle highlighted by last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
By concluding that the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline would have minimal effect on the environment, President Obama would risk alienating environmental activists, who gave him important support in the 2008 election and were already upset by his recent decisions to expand domestic oil drilling and delay clean air rules. Pipeline opponents have protested in front of the White House for a week, resulting in nearly 400 arrests.
At the same time, rising concerns about the weak economy and high gas prices have made it difficult for the administration to oppose a project that would greatly expand the nation’s access to oil from a friendly neighbor and create tens of thousands of jobs.
The project still must clear several hurdles, including endorsement by other federal agencies, additional studies, public hearings and consultation with the states through which the pipeline will pass. But all signs point to the Obama administration approving the project by the end of the year, perhaps with modifications.
Environmental advocates say that the messy process of extracting and processing tarry oil from the Alberta wilderness would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and devastate bird habitats. And they warn that a leak in the 36-inch-diameter pipeline could wreak severe environmental damage. [they say the carbon emissions are much higher with oil sands?] [*]
The State Department said in its environmental impact statement Friday that the pipeline’s owner, TransCanada, had agreed to take steps required by the Transportation Department to reduce the risks of a spill.
The impact statement did not fully resolve concerns raised by other federal agencies, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, which harshly criticized earlier drafts. An E.P.A. spokeswoman, Betsaida Alcantara, said that the agency would carefully review the latest statement to determine whether it adequately dealt with questions about the pipeline’s impacts on air quality, drinking water, endangered species and minority and Native American communities.
The pipeline is expected to open in 2013 unless delayed by lawsuits or other challenges.
For many in the environmental movement, the administration’s apparent acceptance of the pipeline was yet another disappointment, after recent decisions to tentatively approve drilling in the Arctic Ocean, open 20 million more acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil leasing and delay several major air quality regulations. Environmentalists are still smarting from the administration’s failure to push climate change legislation through Congress. [*]
Analysts and environmental advocates said these decisions had opened a wide and perhaps unbridgeable breach between the Democratic president and environmentally minded voters. It is far from certain, however, that these activists will withhold their support from Mr. Obama in November 2012, particularly if he is running against a Republican who denies the existence of climate change and is more supportive of the oil industry than he is.
Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, urged President Obama to veto the project, despite the State Department’s willingness to see it proceed. [don’t hold your breath] [*]
“It will be increasingly difficult to mobilize the environmental base and to mobilize in particular young people to volunteer, to knock on thousands of doors, to put in 16-hour days, to donate money if they don’t think the president is showing the courage to stand up to big polluters,” he said.
Julian E. Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said that the 2012 election was shaping up to be close and the president could not afford to take these activists for granted. “I think a year ago President Obama felt he could do things that might alienate his base and organizations important to the Democratic Party and get away with it because in the end most Democrats wouldn’t go for a Republican,” Mr. Zelizer said. “Now he might pay a price for it.”
With the campaign heating up, the president appears reluctant to pursue environmental policies that could be characterized as suppressing job creation or keeping energy prices high.
The proposed Keystone XL pipeline extension would connect Canada’s oil sands to several vital refineries around Houston and the Gulf of Mexico that are designed to handle heavy crude. It would also link to a vast pipeline network that snakes out from the gulf to several large metropolitan areas in the East.
Kerri-Ann Jones, assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, said in a telephone briefing that the environmental impact statement was not the last word on the project. The secretary of state must make a final determination that it is in the nation’s economic, political, energy security and environmental interest, she noted.
But the report does conclude, she said, that “there would be no significant impacts to most resources along the pipeline’s corridor” if the project’s operator follows all relevant laws. Some American Indian cultural resources and plant and wildlife habitats could be adversely affected, the report states, although it says those concerns will be addressed.
TransCanada has refused to change its application despite critics who have contended that the half-inch-thick wall of the pipeline is not sturdy enough for maximum flow pressures, a claim the company denies. [*]
But the company agreed to 57 conditions set by the Department of Transportation last spring, including burying the pipeline four feet below the surface, committing to frequent aerial and ground monitoring and setting the maximum distance between shut-off valves at 20 miles.
“We believe we are building the safest pipeline in North America,” said Terry Cunha, a TransCanada spokesman.
The Canadian government has lobbied hard for the pipeline extension, joining forces with oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil that have large investments in oil sands production. Under current plans, oil sands production could overwhelm existing pipeline capacity in less than five years. [and no lobby has deeper pockets that big energy-oil] [the American political system has quite literally become the best that monoey can buy!!!] [*]
Gary Doer, the Canadian ambassador to the United States, said building the pipeline would produce 20,000 construction jobs and 100,000 additional indirect jobs in services and supplies. “It’s good for the U.S. economy, U.S. jobs and U.S. energy security,” he said. “If you ask Americans, would you choose Canada over the Middle East, they’d say yes.” [something the administration must weigh in such an economy] [I think it’s backward thinking, exactly the direction the U.S. must stop following, yet I can even see how as short-term expedient it makes sense!] [*]
Mr. Doer said the carbon emissions from oil sands production and refining had declined by roughly 40 percent a barrel since 1990, and further improvements were under way. “We have to continue working on the sustainability of development,” he said. “We believe in clean water and air, too.”
Canada, already the No. 1 source of imported oil to the United States, produced 1.5 million barrels a day of synthetic crude from oil sands in 2010 and hopes to expand that to 2.2 million barrels a day in 2015 and 3.7 million barrels a day by 2025. That level of expansion will require not only the Keystone project, but probably also pipelines to the west coast of Canada, where the crude could be exported to China and other Asian markets.
Keystone XL would increase Canada’s pipeline capacity by 700,000 barrels a day, roughly the amount of oil Malaysia produces. Oil sands alone already provide more imported oil to the United States than Saudi Arabia, Nigeria or Venezuela, countries that are potentially unstable or hostile.
Executives in the oil industry said they were satisfied that the administration recognized the importance of the pipeline project. “It’s more about jobs and energy self-sufficiency than anything else, but what’s wrong with that?” said Chip Johnson, chief executive of Carrizo Oil and Gas.
Clifford Krauss reported from Houston.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/asia/27japan.html
August 26, 2011
Prime Minister’s Departure Underscores Japan’s Search for Leadership
By MARTIN FACKLER [Japan] [NEAsia] [beyond the terrible quake and tsunami hit in March] [Japan has lumbered through nearly 2 decades of poor economic performance] [govt is heavily bureaucratized and sclerotic] [another PM bites the dust in a political machinery that is badly traumatized] [use psci 350] [*]
TOKYO — Three months ago, Japan’s unpopular prime minister, Naoto Kan, seemed to have a chance at a comeback, winning applause from Japan’s now nuclear-phobic public by facing down the powerful atomic energy establishment and ordering the shutdown of a nuclear plant in a risky earthquake fault zone.
But Mr. Kan proved incapable of seizing the moment. His approval ratings quickly resumed their slide, falling into the mid-teens, even as polls showed opposition to nuclear power growing after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March. On Friday, Mr. Kan bowed to the inevitable, confirming his cabinet’s previous announcement that he would resign early next week after just 15 months in office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/asia/27japan.html
August 26, 2011
Prime Minister’s Departure Underscores Japan’s Search for Leadership
By MARTIN FACKLER [Japan] [NEAsia] [beyond the terrible quake and tsunami hit in March] [Japan has lumbered through nearly 2 decades of poor economic performance] [govt is heavily bureaucratized and sclerotic] [another PM bites the dust in a political machinery that is badly traumatized] [use psci 350] [*]
TOKYO — Three months ago, Japan’s unpopular prime minister, Naoto Kan, seemed to have a chance at a comeback, winning applause from Japan’s now nuclear-phobic public by facing down the powerful atomic energy establishment and ordering the shutdown of a nuclear plant in a risky earthquake fault zone.
But Mr. Kan proved incapable of seizing the moment. His approval ratings quickly resumed their slide, falling into the mid-teens, even as polls showed opposition to nuclear power growing after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March. On Friday, Mr. Kan bowed to the inevitable, confirming his cabinet’s previous announcement that he would resign early next week after just 15 months in office.
In so doing, he will become the sixth Japanese prime minister to step down in the past five years, the latest in a long line of Japanese leaders who have failed to energize this nation as it tries to escape from two decades of economic and social malaise. This lack of stable leadership could prove crippling as Japan struggles to overcome the triple disaster in March of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, and also the threat of another global recession. Already deeply in debt, Japan can ill afford an expensive reconstruction program, especially at a time when a soaring yen has hurt its export-driven economy, which has been shrinking at an annual rate of 1.3 percent.
Indeed, one of the biggest complaints about Mr. Kan has been his inability to point a way toward recovery. In a sign of the indecision that seems to have paralyzed his administration, the government announced Friday that it would halve radiation levels in areas contaminated by the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant within two years. It failed to explain how it would do so, or how it would pay the considerable costs.
“Mr. Kan is the outsider-turned-prime minister who should have provided leadership,” said Takayoshi Igarashi, a professor of urban policy and a longtime friend of Mr. Kan who serves as an adviser to his cabinet. “The paralysis in Japan just keeps getting worse because leaders cannot answer the people’s expectations.”
Mr. Kan, 64, was supposed to be different. In a nation where so many national politicians are second-, third- and even fourth-generation lawmakers, he was the rare self-made man. He entered public affairs four decades ago as an aide to a prominent feminist leader and rose to national attention when as health minister in the 1990s, he exposed his ministry’s cover-up of a scandal involving H.I.V.-tainted blood products.
When he became prime minister in June 2010, T-shirts appeared with the slogan “Yes, We Kan” — anticipating that he would break the mold of the ineffectual Japanese political leader and shake up the sclerotic status quo.
Instead, Mr. Kan followed an all-too-familiar pattern, starting out with approval ratings above 60 percent but squandering it amid rising criticism that he was failing to show leadership.
“This is a nation groping in the dark for what its new goals should be,” said Koichiro Kokubun, a philosophy professor at Takasaki City University of Economics. “Prime Minister Kan’s biggest failure was not pointing a direction.”
Of course, Mr. Kan faced a host of deep and formidable problems in office that would have challenged any leader, even without the earthquake and the tsunami, which left 20,000 dead or missing, and the resulting nuclear accident. Those difficulties, a moribund economy, an aging population and paralyzing divisions within both the governing Democratic Party and Parliament, will also hinder his successor.
But political analysts and even Mr. Kan’s allies say that Mr. Kan’s failure has also been at least partly his own doing.
In recent months, Mr. Kan has faced constant criticism for what many here see as his impulsive handling of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima. At the same time, his lone-wolf style and refusal to engage in Japan’s requisite consensus-building have alienated almost every major player in the political establishment: bureaucracy, the news media, even members of his own party.
Even his supporters say his biggest liability was an inability to communicate with the public. Like many of his predecessors, he was often compared unfavorably with a previous iconoclastic leader, Junichiro Koizumi, who proved much more successful as prime minister in his five-year term, which ended in 2006.
While Mr. Koizumi had mastered the art of short news conferences, tossing out pithy sound bites that resonated with voters, Mr. Kan refused to give such impromptu briefings. Mr. Koizumi built a populist appeal that he used to defeat a powerful interest group, the post office, which had become a crucial cog in the old-style political machines that Mr. Koizumi was trying to dismantle.
By contrast, Mr. Kan’s crippling inability to connect with voters was most clearly seen in his failed effort to challenge another entrenched interest, the nuclear industry, despite the clear public sentiment against atomic power. Mr. Kan got off to a strong start in May by ordering the shutdown of the vulnerable Hamaoka nuclear power plant. He also won popular applause by criticizing the cozy ties between the nuclear industry and regulators, who are widely blamed for allowing the Fukushima plant to operate without adequate protection from tsunamis.
However, Mr. Kan failed to persuade the public that his new antinuclear stance represented a serious change of heart by a leader who before March supported building new nuclear plants. Worse, analysts say, he failed to lay out a detailed road map of how Japan might realistically rid itself of nuclear power without all the lights going out.
“He could have gotten out in front of this issue, but he didn’t communicate,” said Gerald Curtis, a professor of Japanese politics at Columbia University.
Mr. Kan’s adviser, Mr. Igarashi, said: “Prime Minister Kan never seemed to grasp the importance of communication. I told him and told him, but he had this belief that a man should be judged by actions, not words.”
On Friday, Mr. Kan made what might be his final action in office, confirming that he was finally stepping down. Indeed, this has been one of the most protracted resignations in recent memory; Mr. Kan first promised to resign in June, but then tried to prolong his time in office by vowing to pass disaster-related bills first.
In a sign of deep divisions within the party, no less than seven candidates have put their hands up to replace him in an internal party vote to be held Monday. Whoever replaces Mr. Kan will face a divided Parliament where the upper house is in the hands of the opposition Liberal Democrats, who seem intent to force an early election by blocking passage of whatever agenda he puts forward.
“I don’t see any of the problems changing,” said Professor Curtis of Columbia. “If anything, the next guy will be the shortest-lived prime minister yet.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/asia/27weibo.html
August 26, 2011
Chinese Protest Suspensions of Bloggers
By MICHAEL WINES and SHARON LaFRANIERE [China] [PRC] [China’s own domestic concerns about its population] [China’s CCP has been watching the Arab Awakening with serious trepidation] [use psci 350] [over past couple of years, as China has stretched its foreign-policy legs, more occasions for tenstions to arise with US over myriad issues] [use psci 355-455] [China again uses heavy-handed techniques to stop use of internet and social media China fears will disrupt tranquility?] [use fall 2011?] [*]
BEIJING — The operators of China’s most vibrant equivalent of Twitter notified each of its 200 million users Friday that several bloggers deemed to have spread unfounded rumors would have their accounts suspended for one month.
In messages, the operators of Sina.com’s Weibo microblog detailed the suspensions of the bloggers. The announcements provoked a torrent of online protest, some of which was directed at the government on the assumption that it was behind the punishments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/asia/27weibo.html
August 26, 2011
Chinese Protest Suspensions of Bloggers
By MICHAEL WINES and SHARON LaFRANIERE [China] [PRC] [China’s own domestic concerns about its population] [China’s CCP has been watching the Arab Awakening with serious trepidation] [use psci 350] [over past couple of years, as China has stretched its foreign-policy legs, more occasions for tenstions to arise with US over myriad issues] [use psci 355-455] [China again uses heavy-handed techniques to stop use of internet and social media China fears will disrupt tranquility?] [use fall 2011?] [*]
BEIJING — The operators of China’s most vibrant equivalent of Twitter notified each of its 200 million users Friday that several bloggers deemed to have spread unfounded rumors would have their accounts suspended for one month.
In messages, the operators of Sina.com’s Weibo microblog detailed the suspensions of the bloggers. The announcements provoked a torrent of online protest, some of which was directed at the government on the assumption that it was behind the punishments.
If so, it was the clearest expression yet of the government’s growing concern about its inability to curb free expression on the Internet — particularly searing criticism of official acts — despite a sweeping and extremely sophisticated censorship regime.
On Monday, a member of the Politburo, the Communist Party committee that acts as China’s collective leadership, visited Sina.com officials and said that they should “resolutely put an end to fake and misleading information.” The official, Beijing’s party secretary, Liu Qi, said they should use new technology to better manage the microbloggers, whose numbers have grown explosively in the last year. [so not so heavy handed but people are cognizant of CCP’s past obsessions with control] [*]
The company’s notices stated that two bloggers who had spread false rumors on Weibo would lose their right to post messages or to add followers for a month. One stated that a blogger had been suspended after posting a false report that the accused killer of a 19-year-old woman had been set free after his politically powerful father intervened.
Another disclosed the suspension of a blogger who accused the Red Cross Society of China, which is mired in a financial scandal, of selling blood at a profit.
Some Weibo users sardonically applauded the suspensions, writing that the notices of them spread the rumors more effectively than the original bloggers.
“I didn’t know about the story till now. How tragic!” one blogger wrote. Others expressed outrage. “How does Weibo know what’s true or not?” one user wrote. “Who gives Weibo the right to silence its users?”
Still, one official of a Chinese Internet-related service, speaking on the condition of anonymity about a matter of deep concern to the authorities, predicted that the notices would have a chilling effect.
The official said the announcements may also represent the start of further efforts to keep politically sensitive information out of the public domain. On Monday, People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, appeared to suggest that restrictions were in the works, publishing a full-page article on the “political mission” to control microblogs and other new forms of media.
Sina.com is not the only company feeling new pressure. The operator of China’s other major microblog, Tencent, received a July 19 visit from another Politburo member, Zhou Yongkang, who oversees public security. In a speech to Tencent employees, Mr. Zhou called for “greater self-discipline” to ensure that the Internet promoted social harmony.
The Chinese authorities have pursued two tracks with regard to the Internet, allowing freewheeling debate on topics unrelated to high-level politics and governance, but carefully monitoring — and sometimes banning — discussions on topics deemed too sensitive. Censors frequently notify users that a specific posting “was deleted according to relative laws and regulations.”
But official concern appears to have risen after two recent episodes demonstrated the potential power of the Chinese Web to mobilize social protest.
In the first, tens of million of online bloggers assailed government railway officials after a June 23 train crash near Wenzhou that killed 40 people, accusing the officials of incompetence, corruption and a cover-up. In mid-August, residents of Dalian in northeast China flooded microblogs with photographs of their protest against a local chemical factory, overwhelming censors’ attempts to delete the posts.
Since then, a welter of commentaries and articles in Communist Party newspapers have debated the need to rein in comments on the microblogs. The Chinese government abruptly blocked Twitter and Facebook in 2009. The services remain blocked today. But many analysts say that the government will not completely close the hugely popular microblogs for fear of a public backlash.
Mia Li and Shi Da contributed research from Beijing.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:12 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/europe/27briefs-Russia.html
August 26, 2011
Russia: Chechen Charged in Killing of Paroled Russian Ex-Colonel
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Russia] [former USSR] [Trans Caucasus, Chechnya] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [Russia’s long and expensive war with jihadis in northern Caucasus] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [use psci 463] [followup] [use fall 2011?] [*]
A Chechen man has been arrested and charged in the killing of Yuri Budanov, a former Russian Army colonel who had been convicted of kidnapping and strangling a teenage Chechen girl, officials said Friday. Mr. Budanov was arrested in 2000, convicted of killing 18-year-old Heda Kungayeva while commanding a tank regiment in the second Chechen war and released on parole in 2008. He was shot to death in Moscow in June. The suspect, Magomed Suleimanov, has been charged with murder, a court spokeswoman said on Russia’s NTV television. The Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies said investigators believed that Mr. Suleimanov and another person agreed in April to kill Mr. Budanov.

[full piece may be found above the jump] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/middleeast/27israel.html
August 26, 2011
With Mideast in Turmoil, Israel Debates Strategy
By ETHAN BRONNER [Israel] [domestic politics often intersects with foreign policy] [Israel’s all-important relationship with its neighbors in the Middle East proper] [Arab Awakenging] [upcoming September vote in UN] [followup] [at long last, perhaps Israelis are beginning to have a necessary debate about their future and how to proceed?] [followup] [for decades they’ve not been forced to and now the success of Egypt and Libya and Tunisia and the continuing turmoil in Syria and Yemen makes said debate imperative] [*]
JERUSALEM — Eight days after Israel suffered a terrorist attack from Egyptian Sinai and weeks before it faces a Palestinian statehood resolution at the United Nations, its officials say they are struggling with a painful set of strategic and diplomatic challenges produced by the region’s popular uprisings.
As angry rallies by Egyptians outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo this week have shown, Israel’s relationship with Egypt is fraying. A deadly exchange of rockets fired at southern Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza this week showed the risk of escalation

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/middleeast/27israel.html
August 26, 2011
With Mideast in Turmoil, Israel Debates Strategy
By ETHAN BRONNER [Israel] [domestic politics often intersects with foreign policy] [Israel’s all-important relationship with its neighbors in the Middle East proper] [Arab Awakenging] [upcoming September vote in UN] [followup] [at long last, perhaps Israelis are beginning to have a necessary debate about their future and how to proceed?] [followup] [for decades they’ve not been forced to and now the success of Egypt and Libya and Tunisia and the continuing turmoil in Syria and Yemen makes said debate imperative] [*]
JERUSALEM — Eight days after Israel suffered a terrorist attack from Egyptian Sinai and weeks before it faces a Palestinian statehood resolution at the United Nations, its officials say they are struggling with a painful set of strategic and diplomatic challenges produced by the region’s popular uprisings.
As angry rallies by Egyptians outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo this week have shown, Israel’s relationship with Egypt is fraying. A deadly exchange of rockets fired at southern Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza this week showed the risk of escalation there. Damaged ties with Turkey are not improving. Cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank seems headed for trouble. [*]
“We are witnessing a paradigm shift in front of our eyes,” said a top Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Egypt was a major stabilizer in the region, and that may be over. Coordination with the Palestinian security officials could be lost. We are concerned about Turkey.” [indeed] [*]
Israeli officials say they are certain from detailed intelligence that the Aug. 18 infiltration that killed eight Israelis was planned and carried out from Gaza by Palestinians associated with a small radical group. But in its pursuit of the killers into Sinai and its assassinations of the group’s leaders in Gaza, Israel found itself with less room to maneuver than in the past.
Last weekend, officials were contemplating a major military assault on Gaza. But that plan was shelved by the crisis that emerged with Egypt, by the realization that Hamas itself was uninvolved in the terrorist attack and by the worry about how such an assault would affect other countries’ views during the United Nations debate of a Palestinian resolution in September. [forced to consider such things] [thank god they are considering them—not that they are forced to but that they are doing so] [*]
Instead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his most senior ministers decided over the course of several late-night meetings this week to promote cooperation with Egypt and restrict military action in Gaza to more limited strikes. Scores of rockets have hit Israel; dozens of Gazans have been killed and injured. [at the very least that seems a sensible first set of steps] [to be followed by some thoughtful new ideas?] [*]
The Israelis say their challenge is that they needed to send different — indeed contradictory — messages to different audiences.
To groups they say have attacked Israel from Gaza and Sinai, their message was death. To the interim military rulers of Egypt, however, they offered expressions of regret at the loss of Egyptian life and an assurance of nonaggressive intent.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has told the Egyptians that they can skirt the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and send thousands more troops, accompanied by helicopters and armored vehicles, into Sinai to restore order in the increasingly lawless peninsula. [*]In the past, Israel opposed any alteration of the terms of the treaty. But the lawlessness — a mix of Bedouin tribalism, radical Muslim infiltration and a breakdown of Egypt’s security control after its revolution — affects not only Israel, but Egypt, which depends on tourism revenue and gas exports from there. [important as the Camp David Accord abridges Egypt’s rights to do so!] [*]
As a result, officials here say, the Egyptians are cooperating with Israel. The two governments agreed to jointly investigate the Israeli forces’ killings of three Egyptian policemen after last week’s terrorist attack, an approach Israel initially opposed. Israeli officials also say the Egyptian military is making sure that the attack on Israel, which received very limited coverage in Egypt at first, is now getting more public attention.
While all the shifts across the region, including the bloody battle for control of Syria, are being discussed at the highest levels, Egypt, the largest Arab country, remains the biggest concern. [sensible on both sides] [*]
“So much depends on the Egyptian story,” one official said. “If it ends in chaos, it will be a totally different Middle East. Our relations with the army are good and need to be maintained. But who rules Egypt, the army or Tahrir Square?”
All officials interviewed said that popular sentiment, as expressed through the uprising that started in Tahrir Square, plays a greater role in Egyptian policy than it did under President Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown in February. Mr. Mubarak showed no affection for Israel and came here only once, for a few hours, for the 1995 funeral of Yitzhak Rabin. But his rule is associated with cooperative relations.
In spite of the concerns, Israeli officials noted Egypt’s new leaders have not carried out changes they had promised publicly.
“When the new government came to power in Egypt it vowed to change its policies toward Iran, the United States, the peace treaty with Israel and Gaza,” said Shlomo Brom, a retired general now at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. “So far it hasn’t done any of it.” [*]
By contrast, there has been a steady shift away from Israel in Turkey, which until a few years ago was both a strategic ally and a society welcoming to Israeli visitors and business. [*]The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has angrily criticized Israel’s Gaza policy and demanded an apology after Israeli commandos killed eight Turks and an American of Turkish origin aboard a flotilla seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza last year. [I’m truly sorry to see that relationship in such disrepair] [*]
Mr. Netanyahu’s aides and advisers have been divided over how to respond to Turkey’s demands. So far, a majority opposes an apology, arguing that Israel has nothing to apologize for and that it would make no difference.
A minority disagrees, calling for some apology and compensation for the victims. As one put it: “Turkey is not a lost cause. We may not be able to divert the stream of where it is headed, but with care we can cross the river. We still have a lot of common interests with them.”
Some officials say the concerns over Israel’s diplomatic difficulties are overstated, that Israel is stable and reliable and still has plenty of friends, for example, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria.
And with Arab countries focused on inner turmoil and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria fighting for the survival of his government, Israel’s strategic position may be better than believed, since those countries cannot now expand their militaries or contemplate a war.
“Our biggest concern is Iran, and Iran’s biggest ally is Assad, so his fall would be good for Israel,” one official said. [with some very good reasons] [*]“Stepping back, diplomatically and culturally, things are worrying. But strategically we are not on the edge of a cliff.”
Others disagree. “They don’t understand how fragile the calm now is,” another Israeli official said of the optimists. “We are losing support and legitimacy. I am not panicked. But I am worried.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:10 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27brega.html
August 26, 2011
After Taking Libya Town, Rebels Hope End Is Near
By ROD NORDLAND [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [opposition commanders appears to be gaining ground in terms of organizing for systematic search for Qaddafis] [as has happened elsewhere, Libya’s success renewing commitments in Syria and elsewhere] [followup] [*]
BREGA, Libya — The last 50 miles of the coastal highway leading to this much-contested town in eastern Libya is littered with hundreds of burned-out tanks, trucks, military cars and assorted armored vehicles, sometimes as many as 25 in a single cluster, mangled by NATO bombings and lying at improbable angles, many already rusting despite the dry desert air, others black with char.
Rebel ground forces were not as successful, and over the past several months Col. Muammar

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27brega.html
August 26, 2011
After Taking Libya Town, Rebels Hope End Is Near
By ROD NORDLAND [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [opposition commanders appears to be gaining ground in terms of organizing for systematic search for Qaddafis] [as has happened elsewhere, Libya’s success renewing commitments in Syria and elsewhere] [followup] [*]
BREGA, Libya — The last 50 miles of the coastal highway leading to this much-contested town in eastern Libya is littered with hundreds of burned-out tanks, trucks, military cars and assorted armored vehicles, sometimes as many as 25 in a single cluster, mangled by NATO bombings and lying at improbable angles, many already rusting despite the dry desert air, others black with char.
Rebel ground forces were not as successful, and over the past several months Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s troops repulsed them repeatedly from Brega, stubbornly guarding its strategic refinery. [*]
In the end, though, Brega fell without much of a fight.
Offering a clue as to why the capital, Tripoli, may have fallen as quickly as it did, rebel fighters here said that as soon as word came that Colonel Qaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam had been captured in Tripoli (even though he apparently had not), the loyalist forces defending the town and its refinery simply gave up and fled. [perhaps that’s why they made announcments that they had two sons—they later said miscommunication but it may have been intentional?] [*]
“They don’t want to fight us anymore,” said Mohammed Abdul Aziz Saeed, a rebel from the elite Ali Hassan al-Jaber Brigade, in the forefront of the fighting. On Friday, Mr. Saeed was assigned with a half-dozen other rebels to guard the entrance to the refinery, where a liquefied petroleum gas tank has been ablaze for a week, sending thick plumes of smoke miles across the desert. It had been hit in the cross-fire as rebels advanced.
Now many of these rebels, most of them citizen soldiers with civilian jobs awaiting their return, expressed hope that it was all but over, and that they would not have to fight their way into Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown, Surt, an additional 210 miles west. “Both of us feel the same way, now,” said another rebel, Ali Sayeed, a university student. There was no sense of the stubborn fighting still going on in Tripoli.
“As soon as they get Qaddafi, it will be over,” said Maj. Hisham Mustafa, in charge of a checkpoint on the highway outside Brega. “Qaddafi and his sons,” he added. [*]
His unit has traded in its “Mad Max” pickup trucks for a captured loyalist tank and a pair of brand-new, armored personnel carriers that they said were donated by Qatar, an early ally of the rebels. Many of the men had new uniforms, and ammunition of many sorts appeared plentiful. The new armored vehicles were seen throughout eastern Libya recently. [*]
“After Seif was captured, it wasn’t hard anymore,” said Saber Mohammed, 24, a petroleum engineer on duty guarding the residential part of the town. “There was a little shooting and they just ran away.”
They fled farther west toward Surt, with the new front line outside the town of Ras Lanuf, and for several days fired rockets from multiple launchers toward the rebels; four rebels were killed this week, according to doctors at a clinic here. However, the shooting has stopped, and many of the rebels talked hopefully of negotiations going on with officials in Surt to bring the fighting to an end. [*]
“It’s ‘game over,’ ” said Hamid Mikial, a fifth-year medical student who has been working in a frontline clinic since the fighting began in the east on March 15.
So far the residents of Brega do not seem to share that optimism, and although they are allowed to return, virtually no one has done so. Brega remains a ghost town for the moment. Rebels at the gate search any cars leaving to control looting, but traffic is scant. They have pasted portraits of Colonel Qaddafi on the tarmac, so people have to walk or drive over them.
On a hillside farther down the highway, another rebel unit had requisitioned a pair of Russian-made Libyan tanks, and figured out how to operate them. For the moment, however, the tanks were rigged with awnings and bedding and were being used as a campsite. The rebels had found a stray horse, which they tethered to one of the tanks.
“I think it will all be finished quietly,” said Mustafa Shaad, one of the self-taught rebel tank operators.
The tanks, still painted in loyalist colors, were a clear sign that the rebels no longer worried about NATO airstrikes, which on at least two occasions had mistakenly killed rebels.[*] Though they remembered that, the men had nothing but praise for NATO. Many said they had seen NATO liaison officers come through, which they credited with preventing more mistakes. They either did not know or would not say what nationality they were.
“We’re not afraid anymore,” said Muhammad Ramadan, 30. “There are not that many really with Qaddafi, and they don’t have very good morale now. They don’t have any strategy.” [because all the Qaddafis are running for their lives and therefore not commanding loyalists] [couple nights ago the Col broadcast a call not to abandon Tripoli to the rats of the opposition but it was too little too late] [*]
For the moment, the rebels said their strategy was just to wait and to talk — negotiators were reportedly in touch with defenders in Surt, Major Mustafa said. “We don’t want to shed any more blood,” he said.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/middleeast/27syria.html
August 26, 2011
Defiant Syrians to Assad: Qaddafi’s Fate Is Warning
By NADA BAKRI [Syria] [so-called Arab Awakening] [Middle East proper] [Arabia] [democratization] [Syria pretends to be a modern secular republic, but is far from it] [no monarchy but long run by a minority sect (al Assads) and the Baath Party] [the Ramadan massacre continues] [Syrians actively trying to remind al Assad of Qaddafi’s fate after 42 years] [not a disguised notice that long tenure equal security] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Infused with new energy after watching the violent televised downfall of Libya’s longtime autocrat, thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of their own country after noon prayers on Friday and demanded the same fate for President Bashar al-Assad, [*] residents and activists reported. [in displays of courage in the face of bullets that is rather overwhelming at times] [*]
It was yet another show of defiance in Syria against the government of Mr. Assad, who has never hesitated to use deadly force to suppress the five-month-old uprising that has threatened his grip on power. The rebellion in Libya that sent Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi fleeing from his fortified enclave in Tripoli seemed to give the Syrian protesters fresh

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/middleeast/27syria.html
August 26, 2011
Defiant Syrians to Assad: Qaddafi’s Fate Is Warning
By NADA BAKRI [Syria] [so-called Arab Awakening] [Middle East proper] [Arabia] [democratization] [Syria pretends to be a modern secular republic, but is far from it] [no monarchy but long run by a minority sect (al Assads) and the Baath Party] [the Ramadan massacre continues] [Syrians actively trying to remind al Assad of Qaddafi’s fate after 42 years] [not a disguised notice that long tenure equal security] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Infused with new energy after watching the violent televised downfall of Libya’s longtime autocrat, thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of their own country after noon prayers on Friday and demanded the same fate for President Bashar al-Assad, [*] residents and activists reported. [in displays of courage in the face of bullets that is rather overwhelming at times] [*]
It was yet another show of defiance in Syria against the government of Mr. Assad, who has never hesitated to use deadly force to suppress the five-month-old uprising that has threatened his grip on power. The rebellion in Libya that sent Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi fleeing from his fortified enclave in Tripoli seemed to give the Syrian protesters fresh enthusiasm. [*]
“Qaddafi is gone; it is your turn, Bashar!” [*]demonstrators screamed, according to accounts relayed from Syria, which has banned most foreign news organizations from reporting inside the country. Others shouted, “Bye-bye, Qaddafi. Bashar is next!” and “Bashar, we don’t love you, even if you turn night into day!” [*]
The Friday demonstrations, the last in the holy month of Ramadan, came as Russia and China, Syria’s allies, tried to foil a proposal by the United States and European nations to impose Security Council sanctions on Mr. Assad’s government for its crackdown. [*]Russia introduced a rival resolution calling on Mr. Assad’s government to accelerate reforms, but making no mention of the tougher sanctions sought by the United States and its European Union allies.
Western diplomats criticized the Russian resolution as a tactical maneuver that was meaningless as a deterrent. Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for the United States Mission to the United Nations, said, “The regime’s violence has continued unabated, the international condemnation has grown louder and the Security Council’s response should reflect those realities.”
In a sign of Mr. Assad’s growing isolation, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the militant group Hezbollah, called on Syria to introduce reforms and said that the unrest there would have major implications on the region if not solved peacefully. The Iranian-backed Shiite group in Lebanon has been one of Mr. Assad’s strongest allies. [wow] [*]
In previous remarks Mr. Nasrallah has always offered support for the Syrian leadership, and his group adopted the government version of events there: that it is battling foreign armed groups.
The protests on Friday were held under the slogan “Patience and Determination,” and while the number of casualties paled in comparison with previous Fridays, security forces killed at least five demonstrators in eastern and central towns, where large protests were reported.
“The regime can kill thousands, wound thousands and arrest thousands, but they cannot kill our determination to change,” said Abdo, a protester from Damascus who wanted to give only his first name. “They can’t understand that the Syrians want freedom and democracy, not promises to introduce reforms.”
The Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists who plan and document the uprising, said that protesters demonstrated in small numbers across towns and cities at the same time, in attempts to confuse security forces and avoid casualties.
The United Nations has said that at least 2,200 people have been killed since the protests started five months ago.
In Deir al-Zour, a tribal region in eastern Syria and one of the most restive locales, two people died when security forces shot at their protest, according to Maamoun Saleh, an activist there.
Mr. Saleh said at least 5,000 armed men were deployed in the city, mainly around mosques and in major squares and intersections where protests are usually held. He said there were fewer protesters than in previous Fridays, which he attributed to tight security measures and random arrests in the previous week.
“But the fact that people still have the courage to go out and that the regime needs to send thousands of security men shows that the government is not in control of the city,” Mr. Saleh said.
Three people were also reported killed in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, when gunmen loyal to Mr. Assad shot at protesters coming out of a mosque. In al-Qadam, another suburb of Damascus, activists said men drove around shooting randomly at houses to scare people into staying indoors.
In Mr. Nasrallah’s speech on Friday to mark Al Quds Day, an annual Iranian-inspired event to show solidarity with Palestinians, he called on the Syrians and their friends to step up efforts to help them end the unrest peacefully to avoid regional fallout. [Hezbollah!] [*]
“We all support the need for big and important reforms, so Syria can be stronger,” Mr. Nasrallah said. “This means that all efforts should be combined to calm the situation in Syria and push it toward dialogue and peaceful solution. Anything else is dangerous for Syria, Palestine and the region.”
His remarks came days after the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a major ally of Syria and Hezbollah, urged the Syrian government and people to reach a peaceful resolution.
Also on Friday, the United Nations said its humanitarian mission to Syria had found an “urgent need” to protect civilians against excessive use of force and reported widespread intimidation by the government.
The mission was the first to visit Syria since the uprising against Mr. Assad began in March. It was allowed to visit a number of cities where protests were being held but government officials were always with the mission members, limiting their ability to assess the situation fully, said a United Nations deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq.
“The mission concluded that although there is no countrywide humanitarian crisis, there is an urgent need to protect civilians from the excessive use of force,” Mr. Haq said.
Dan Bilefsky contributed reporting from the United Nations.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/moqtada-al-sadr-calls-followers-to-protest/2011/08/27/gIQAkeCMiJ_story.html
Moqtada al-Sadr calls followers to protest
By Annie Gowen, Saturday, August 27, 5:25 AM [-ir] [maliki govt trying to arrange things so US may withdraw later this year] [the SOFA that President Bush signed in 2008 provided for U.S. to leave by December 31, 2011] [Obama hopes to keep it on track] [and things are such that it will almost certainly be a big ceremonial withdrawal] [as America continues to redeploy, more that the occasional squabble turns deadly] [al Sadr, which alas reporters don’t specify from whence he called—it sounds to me as if he’s still in Tehran ferrying messages to his minions in Iraq—calls on his followers and militia members to make huge demonstraton against al Maliki altering the SOFA!] [followup] [mostly the Shi’a parts of Baghdad and Southern Iraq] [*]
BAGHDAD — Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called on his followers to demonstrate “in millions” after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week,[*] according to a letter released Friday at a mosque in Kufa, near Najaf. [he’s trying to see if he can still command a huge crowd on his demand] [my guess is yes] [though if I were an Iraqi Shi’a I’d want to know why he continues to live in the safety of Iran?] [*]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/moqtada-al-sadr-calls-followers-to-protest/2011/08/27/gIQAkeCMiJ_story.html
Moqtada al-Sadr calls followers to protest
By Annie Gowen, Saturday, August 27, 5:25 AM [-ir] [maliki govt trying to arrange things so US may withdraw later this year] [the SOFA that President Bush signed in 2008 provided for U.S. to leave by December 31, 2011] [Obama hopes to keep it on track] [and things are such that it will almost certainly be a big ceremonial withdrawal] [as America continues to redeploy, more that the occasional squabble turns deadly] [al Sadr, which alas reporters don’t specify from whence he called—it sounds to me as if he’s still in Tehran ferrying messages to his minions in Iraq—calls on his followers and militia members to make huge demonstraton against al Maliki altering the SOFA!] [followup] [mostly the Shi’a parts of Baghdad and Southern Iraq] [*]
BAGHDAD — Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called on his followers to demonstrate “in millions” after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week,[*] according to a letter released Friday at a mosque in Kufa, near Najaf. [he’s trying to see if he can still command a huge crowd on his demand] [my guess is yes] [though if I were an Iraqi Shi’a I’d want to know why he continues to live in the safety of Iran?] [*]
According to a letter read by an imam at Friday prayer services, the cleric called for his followers to demonstrate against the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki because it has not done enough to improve services for the Iraqi people, many of whom still don’t have full electricity in their homes or sufficient running water.
“We remind the government about the fate of the Arab leaders who were swooped down by their own people and toppled them in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt,” the cleric wrote.
He also praised the Libyans who brought down the Moammar Gaddafi regime last week, and urged his followers to continue to oppose the American troop presence in Iraq.
“The Iraq people will stand by the Iraqi resistance until bringing down the last U.S. occupation’s flag from Iraq land,” the anti-American cleric wrote.
Sadr had thrown his support to the al-Maliki government in a major speech in January that had marked his re-emergence in Iraq after four years of self-imposed exile.
At that time he urged his followers to fiercely resist the United States, but also warned that they would begin targeting their own government if it did not restore services or security and hold to a timeline for a full U.S. military withdrawal by the end of 2011. He gave the government its own deadline of six months to improve matters; Friday, it appeared, they had failed his test.
Sadr, who has millions of followers in the poorer areas of Baghdad and in the country’s south, is believed to have spent at least part of the past four years under the tutelage of hard-line clerics in Tehran, studying to be an ayatollah. [*]His father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Sadr, was assassinated in 1999 by loyalists of Saddam Hussein.[frustrating but the reporters appear to lazy to bother to find out if he’s yet returned!] [it’s possible but my hunch is he’s waiting for the Americans to leave first?] [*]
In the spring, he paraded with members of his Mahdi Army through Baghdad’s Shiite slum, Sadr City, to demand that U.S forces leave Iraq, and last week he created a buzz on the web by appearing in military garb and draped in the Iraqi flag, attended by a soldier wearing a ski-mask. In recent weeks, members of the Mahdi Army’s armed militia, the Promised Day Brigade, have claimed responsibility for more than 16 attacks on American forces in the southern part of the country. [*]
Elsewhere, activists in Baghdad are using Facebook and other social media to plan a Sept. 9 rally in the capital, also to protest the lack of services and poor security in their country. Dozens were killed in February during protests that followed the “Arab spring” movement, and al-Maliki’s government has been criticized by its rough treatment of many who took to the streets during those days.
Special correspondent Aziz Alwan in Baghdad contributed to this report.
© The Washington Post Co

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27nigeria.html
August 26, 2011
Suicide Bomber Attacks U.N. Building in Nigeria
By SENAN MURRAY and ADAM NOSSITER [Nigeria] [yesterday’s initial reports appear to have been quite close to what happened] [suicide bomber, almost certainly associated with jihadis] [followup] [also Boko Haram?, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [while small stuff against westerners has been common over the years, this sort of thing bear hallmarks of jihadis?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
ABUJA, Nigeria — A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives outside the United Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Friday, destroying several floors in a thunderous blast that left at least 18 people dead, witnesses and officials said.
Boko Haram, a shadowy Nigerian Islamist insurgency group with possible links to Al Qaeda’s affiliates in the region, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the BBC’s Hausa language broadcast service in northern Nigeria. [*]If confirmed, it would signal a significant leap in the scope of Boko Haram’s focus, which until now had taken aim exclusively at domestic targets as part of an ill-defined aim to establish strict Islamic law in the country’s north. [*]
The Nigerian government has come under repeated attack by Boko Haram in the north and

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27nigeria.html
August 26, 2011
Suicide Bomber Attacks U.N. Building in Nigeria
By SENAN MURRAY and ADAM NOSSITER [Nigeria] [yesterday’s initial reports appear to have been quite close to what happened] [suicide bomber, almost certainly associated with jihadis] [followup] [also Boko Haram?, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [while small stuff against westerners has been common over the years, this sort of thing bear hallmarks of jihadis?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
ABUJA, Nigeria — A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives outside the United Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Friday, destroying several floors in a thunderous blast that left at least 18 people dead, witnesses and officials said.
Boko Haram, a shadowy Nigerian Islamist insurgency group with possible links to Al Qaeda’s affiliates in the region, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the BBC’s Hausa language broadcast service in northern Nigeria. [*]If confirmed, it would signal a significant leap in the scope of Boko Haram’s focus, which until now had taken aim exclusively at domestic targets as part of an ill-defined aim to establish strict Islamic law in the country’s north. [*]
The Nigerian government has come under repeated attack by Boko Haram in the north and by militants in the south. Foreign oil companies and their workers have also been a common target of southern insurgents, who demand a greater share in the nation’s oil profits. But the deadly strike on the United Nations, the first on its offices in Nigeria, was a surprising turn. Fifteen of the dead were United Nations personnel, an agency spokesman said Friday night from New York. [*]
“This act provides a new dimension to threats on the domestic front,” said Joy Ogwu, Nigeria’s ambassador to the United Nations, who called the attack a “transnational crime” and urged renewed efforts to fight terrorism in her country.
If indeed the work of Boko Haram, the attack lends substance to new concerns of officials and analysts that an inward-looking organization is increasingly adopting the methods and aims of global terrorists. The bombing, capping months of small-scale explosions and assassinations, mostly in the country’s north, is by far the most brazen attack yet.
“The logic of Boko Haram has been essentially inward looking,” said Chidi Anselm Odinkalu of the Open Society Justice Initiative, in Abuja. “To now seek to attack the U.N. entirely departs from the narrative they have so far constructed. That’s the most worrying thing about this. It makes Boko Haram an international threat.” [perhaps it’s not yet capped off?] [*]
In recent years, United Nations offices have been the targets of lethal attacks in Iraq, Algeria and Afghanistan, and though the bombing was unprecedented for Nigeria, it did not come as a total surprise. United Nations officials said that the organization had stepped up security at all its buildings in Nigeria in the past month after receiving information that it could be a target of Boko Haram. The officials said they were now evaluating new threats and would be further strengthening security at United Nations facilities in Nigeria.
Twenty-six United Nations agencies, including the United Nations Development Program, Unicef and the United Nations Population Fund, maintained offices in the building, which is close to the United States Embassy and the Nigerian national defense headquarters. As many as 400 people may have been inside at the time of the attack, and the death toll was likely to rise, officials said.
Farhan Haq, a United Nations deputy spokesman, said the suicide bomber’s car rammed through two gates surrounding the building around 11 a.m. local time. Witnesses said a huge explosion sent billows of smoke over the area and spread panic. [*]
Adebayo Jelil, a security guard at the building, said that he saw a big jeeplike vehicle drive through the exit gate of the building, head for the reception area and explode. He said at least three floors of the seven-story structure were heavily damaged, with walls blasted away and cables and rods protruding.
“The U.N. headquarters in Nigeria has been shattered,” said a Nigerian Red Cross official who was at the scene, Adeyemo Andronicus Adebayo. “You see littered bodies, blood,” he said, adding, “It was the worst devastation.” [*]
By midday, casualties were being ferried to the national hospital nearby, and the area had been cordoned off by security. The hospital put out an appeal for blood on local radio, while rescue workers clambered up ladders into an enormous hole in the mangled building.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, denounced the bombing, as did the Nigerian government, which called it an “an assault on global peace and security.” Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., an aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, said Boko Haram was now “the priority item,” while President Obama said the “attack on Nigerian and international public servants demonstrates the bankruptcy of the ideology that led to this heinous action.”
The precise nature of that ideology is in some doubt. Boko Haram rarely states its aims beyond calling for a stricter imposition of the already existing, loosely-applied Shariah law in Nigeria’s northern states, and suggesting a rollback in democratic institutions.
But the attack is in keeping with a marked increase in the group’s sophistication. Analysts point to its growing use of improvised explosive devices and overseas trips by its members, possibly for training, as evidence that Boko Haram is getting international help, possibly from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
“What’s really alarming is the level of planning and organization that has gone into it,” said Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim, director of the Center for Democracy and Development, an Abuja research organization.
“The whole issue about Boko Haram is that we know very little about them,” Dr. Ibrahim added, suggesting that Nigerian security services, with their harsh suppression of the organization two years ago in a bloody assault on its headquarters in the northern city of Maiduguri, had wiped out many sources of information.
Henry Wilkinson, the head analyst at the London office of Janussian Risk Advisory, a consulting group, said that if Boko Haram was in fact responsible, then the scale and method of the attack suggested that it had adopted the tactics of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group that took responsibility for a similar attack on United Nations offices in Algeria four years ago.
“It pretty much confirms that Boko Haram has moved into the Al Qaeda orbit,” he said. “This all points to a clear trend that Boko Haram is evolving and expanding its targets.” [*]
Senan Murray reported from Abuja, and Adam Nossiter from Dakar, Senegal. Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York, Dan Bilefsky from the United Nations, and Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27briefs-Algeria.html
August 26, 2011
Algeria: Attack on Military School Kills at Least 18 Trainee Officers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Algeria] [North Africa] [Islamic Maghreb] [surronding nation-states where AQIM operates] [also Arab Awakening] [al Qaeda of Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salfist Group for Combat and Preaching (in Algeria) exploits the opportunities presented them] [as B. Riedel recently warned, things heating up in Algeria?] [use psci 355-455, psci 463] [the m.o. is certainly AQIM—attacking military training facility] [use fall 2011? 463] [*]
A bomb explosion followed by a suicide attack outside a military academy killed at least 18 officers [*]in training on Friday, a hospital official said. The attack began when a bomb exploded just outside the academy in Cherchel, 112 miles west of the capital, Algiers. When soldiers dining at a nearby restaurant raced to the scene, a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body drove his motorcycle at them, [*]security officials said. The city was sealed off soon after the attack. At least 20 people were wounded, and the toll was expected to rise. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the regional arm of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, has been blamed for many similar attacks. [no credit claimed thus far] [*]

[full piece may be found above the jump] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/08/27/world/asia/international-us-pakistan-violence.html
August 27, 2011
Militants From Afghanistan Attack Pakistani Posts
By REUTERS [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [the fighting season will soon begin to recede into winter snow] [followup] [the recurring cross-borders aspects to both Afghanistan and Pakistan] [*]
CHITRAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of militants from Afghanistan launched a pre-dawn cross-border raid on Pakistani paramilitary posts Saturday, killing up to 36 people, government and security officials said.
Pakistan's support is crucial to U.S. efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, but cross-border raids have raised tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months.
Soldiers of the Chitral Scouts and police were among the dead in the string of attacks that began with an assault on paramilitary check posts in the border village of Arandu in the northwest just across from Afghanistan's Nuristan province.
"Reportedly, terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajur organised by Fazullah and Maulvi Faqir Mohammad with local Afghans have attacked the security forces posts," a military

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/08/27/world/asia/international-us-pakistan-violence.html
August 27, 2011
Militants From Afghanistan Attack Pakistani Posts
By REUTERS [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [the fighting season will soon begin to recede into winter snow] [followup] [the recurring cross-borders aspects to both Afghanistan and Pakistan] [*]
CHITRAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of militants from Afghanistan launched a pre-dawn cross-border raid on Pakistani paramilitary posts Saturday, killing up to 36 people, government and security officials said.
Pakistan's support is crucial to U.S. efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, but cross-border raids have raised tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months.
Soldiers of the Chitral Scouts and police were among the dead in the string of attacks that began with an assault on paramilitary check posts in the border village of Arandu in the northwest just across from Afghanistan's Nuristan province.
"Reportedly, terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajur organised by Fazullah and Maulvi Faqir Mohammad with local Afghans have attacked the security forces posts," a military statement said, referring to northwestern Pakistani regions and senior Pakistani Taliban commanders.
Many Pakistani Taliban fighters fled to Afghanistan in the face of army offensives and have joined allies there to regroup and threaten Pakistani border regions, analysts say.
The military operations in the country's northwest have inflicted heavy losses on them, but insurgents have proved resilience with intermittent attacks and suicide bombings.
A senior Chitral Scouts official, Haroon Rasheed, said 26 soldiers and 10 border police were killed.
Twenty militants were also reportedly killed when insurgents attacked seven military check posts, the military statement said. There was no independent verification of the militant death toll. [*]
The military statement put the security forces death toll to at least 25.
Troops blew up two bridges in the border region to stem the militants' incursion.
"Scanty presence" of NATO and Afghan forces along the border has enabled militants to use these areas as safe havens and launch repeated attacks inside Pakistan, the military said.
Twenty-seven Pakistani servicemen were killed and 45 militants died in clashes in July when some 600 militants from Afghanistan attacked two Pakistani villages in Dir.
Pakistani Taliban later claimed responsibility for the Dir attack, part of seemingly new militant strategy of carrying out large-scale attacks on government and army targets.
Militants have largely relied on a campaign of suicide and bomb attacks that have killed thousands of people across the country. [the TTP] [*]
Pakistan blames Afghanistan for giving refuge to militants on its side of the border after they were evicted from their strongholds in Pakistani tribal regions.
"The terrorists have organized themselves in Kunar and Nuristan (Afghan) provinces with the support of local Afghan authorities," the military statement said.
Kabul in turn has blamed Pakistan in recent months for killing dozens of civilians in cross-border shelling.
(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud and Augustine Anthony; Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Chris Allbritton)

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/08/27/world/asia/international-us-pakistan-violence.html
August 27, 2011
Militants From Afghanistan Attack Pakistani Posts
By REUTERS [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [the fighting season will soon begin to recede into winter snow] [followup] [the recurring cross-borders aspects to both Afghanistan and Pakistan] [*]
CHITRAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of militants from Afghanistan launched a pre-dawn cross-border raid on Pakistani paramilitary posts Saturday, killing up to 36 people, government and security officials said.
Pakistan's support is crucial to U.S. efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, but cross-border raids have raised tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months.
Soldiers of the Chitral Scouts and police were among the dead in the string of attacks that began with an assault on paramilitary check posts in the border village of Arandu in the northwest just across from Afghanistan's Nuristan province.
"Reportedly, terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajur organised by Fazullah and Maulvi Faqir Mohammad with local Afghans have attacked the security forces posts," a military

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/08/27/world/asia/international-us-pakistan-violence.html
August 27, 2011
Militants From Afghanistan Attack Pakistani Posts
By REUTERS [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [the fighting season will soon begin to recede into winter snow] [followup] [the recurring cross-borders aspects to both Afghanistan and Pakistan] [*]
CHITRAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of militants from Afghanistan launched a pre-dawn cross-border raid on Pakistani paramilitary posts Saturday, killing up to 36 people, government and security officials said.
Pakistan's support is crucial to U.S. efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, but cross-border raids have raised tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months.
Soldiers of the Chitral Scouts and police were among the dead in the string of attacks that began with an assault on paramilitary check posts in the border village of Arandu in the northwest just across from Afghanistan's Nuristan province.
"Reportedly, terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajur organised by Fazullah and Maulvi Faqir Mohammad with local Afghans have attacked the security forces posts," a military statement said, referring to northwestern Pakistani regions and senior Pakistani Taliban commanders.
Many Pakistani Taliban fighters fled to Afghanistan in the face of army offensives and have joined allies there to regroup and threaten Pakistani border regions, analysts say.
The military operations in the country's northwest have inflicted heavy losses on them, but insurgents have proved resilience with intermittent attacks and suicide bombings.
A senior Chitral Scouts official, Haroon Rasheed, said 26 soldiers and 10 border police were killed.
Twenty militants were also reportedly killed when insurgents attacked seven military check posts, the military statement said. There was no independent verification of the militant death toll. [*]
The military statement put the security forces death toll to at least 25.
Troops blew up two bridges in the border region to stem the militants' incursion.
"Scanty presence" of NATO and Afghan forces along the border has enabled militants to use these areas as safe havens and launch repeated attacks inside Pakistan, the military said.
Twenty-seven Pakistani servicemen were killed and 45 militants died in clashes in July when some 600 militants from Afghanistan attacked two Pakistani villages in Dir.
Pakistani Taliban later claimed responsibility for the Dir attack, part of seemingly new militant strategy of carrying out large-scale attacks on government and army targets.
Militants have largely relied on a campaign of suicide and bomb attacks that have killed thousands of people across the country. [the TTP] [*]
Pakistan blames Afghanistan for giving refuge to militants on its side of the border after they were evicted from their strongholds in Pakistani tribal regions.
"The terrorists have organized themselves in Kunar and Nuristan (Afghan) provinces with the support of local Afghan authorities," the military statement said.
Kabul in turn has blamed Pakistan in recent months for killing dozens of civilians in cross-border shelling.
(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud and Augustine Anthony; Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Chris Allbritton)

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/asia/27pakistan.html
August 26, 2011
Gunmen Seize Son of Slain Pakistani Official
By SALMAN MASOOD [Pakistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Pakistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues in AfPak] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [it’s beyond dispute now: the insurgency in Pakistan has moved to Lahore] [began to be seen two years ago now it’s fully realized] [followup] [*]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen abducted the son of a slain former governor from the eastern city of Lahore on Friday, relatives and police officials said.
Relatives confirmed the kidnapping of Shahbaz Ali Taseer, the son of Salman Taseer, the former governor of Punjab Province, who was assassinated in January in Islamabad by one of his security guards. The assassin, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, later said he had killed Mr. Taseer because of the governor’s opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction, and it was not clear whether it was related to the Taseer family’s stand on the blasphemy laws or some other issue. The Taseers have expressed apprehension about their safety in the past and have said that they continue to receive threats from the Taliban and Islamic militants. [*]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/asia/27pakistan.html
August 26, 2011
Gunmen Seize Son of Slain Pakistani Official
By SALMAN MASOOD [Pakistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Pakistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues in AfPak] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [it’s beyond dispute now: the insurgency in Pakistan has moved to Lahore] [began to be seen two years ago now it’s fully realized] [followup] [*]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen abducted the son of a slain former governor from the eastern city of Lahore on Friday, relatives and police officials said.
Relatives confirmed the kidnapping of Shahbaz Ali Taseer, the son of Salman Taseer, the former governor of Punjab Province, who was assassinated in January in Islamabad by one of his security guards. The assassin, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, later said he had killed Mr. Taseer because of the governor’s opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction, and it was not clear whether it was related to the Taseer family’s stand on the blasphemy laws or some other issue. The Taseers have expressed apprehension about their safety in the past and have said that they continue to receive threats from the Taliban and Islamic militants. [*]
“We cannot talk to the press right now, but whatever you have heard is true,” said Shehrbano Taseer, a sister of Shahbaz Ali Taseer, before abruptly hanging up the phone.
Governor Taseer had been one of Pakistan’s most vociferous opponents of the blasphemy laws. [*] Critics claim that the laws, which call for a mandatory death sentence for anyone convicted of insulting Islam, have been misused to persecute minority groups.
Angered by Governor Taseer’s position, hard-line Islamists in the country had issued death threats against him. [*]
The abduction of Mr. Taseer was the second high-profile kidnapping in Lahore this month. On Aug. 13, an American development expert, Warren Weinstein, was abducted from his residence. Mr. Weinstein is still missing, and there has been no demand for a ransom or a claim of responsibility, police officials say. [*]
Shahbaz Ali Taseer was serving as a director of the First Capital Securities Corporation, an investment advisory company. On Friday, he was traveling without a security escort when a group of armed gunmen commandeered his vehicle at a busy traffic intersection, the police said.
News of the abduction prompted immediate condemnation from government officials, friends and supporters of the Taseer family.
“Every effort has to be made to trace down the culprits,” said Sherry Rehman, a lawmaker with the governing Pakistan Peoples Party.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said he had asked police officials to ensure Shahbaz Ali Taseer’s safe return.
Rana Sanaullah Khan, the Punjab law minister, said Mr. Taseer had been provided a security detail but had chosen to leave it behind at his residence on Friday. [*]
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 26, 2011
An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of a sister of Shahbaz Ali Taseer. She is Shehrbano Taseer.

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

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/26/the_lwot_nypd_worked_with_cia_on_surveillance_report
Foreign Policy
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:38:45 AM] [*]
The LWOT: NYPD worked with CIA on surveillance - Report
Foreign Policy and the New America Foundation bring you a twice weekly brief on the legal war on terror. You can read it on foreignpolicy.com or get it delivered directly to your inbox -- just sign up here. [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [federal judiciary, DHS and TSA] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [homegrown jihadis] [LWOT] [followup] [other developments globally] [sundry, other assorted issues of GSAVE-LWOT] [by convention, govt] [cross in external] [*]
BY JENNIFER ROWLAND AND ANDREW LEBOVICH | AUGUST 26, 2011
NYPD intelligence division investigating Muslim communities - Report
The AP published a must-read on August 24 revealing the growth of the New York Police Department's intelligence division, and its use of covert officers to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods to detect suspicious behavior and potential terrorist plots (AP). These clandestine networks were reportedly built with the help of the CIA following 9/11, when it became clear that federal intelligence agencies alone could not protect all U.S. cities from attack. NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly confirmed on August 25 that a CIA officer is

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/26/the_lwot_nypd_worked_with_cia_on_surveillance_report
Foreign Policy
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:38:45 AM] [*]
The LWOT: NYPD worked with CIA on surveillance - Report
Foreign Policy and the New America Foundation bring you a twice weekly brief on the legal war on terror. You can read it on foreignpolicy.com or get it delivered directly to your inbox -- just sign up here. [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [federal judiciary, DHS and TSA] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [homegrown jihadis] [LWOT] [followup] [other developments globally] [sundry, other assorted issues of GSAVE-LWOT] [by convention, govt] [cross in external] [*]
BY JENNIFER ROWLAND AND ANDREW LEBOVICH | AUGUST 26, 2011
NYPD intelligence division investigating Muslim communities - Report
The AP published a must-read on August 24 revealing the growth of the New York Police Department's intelligence division, and its use of covert officers to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods to detect suspicious behavior and potential terrorist plots (AP). These clandestine networks were reportedly built with the help of the CIA following 9/11, when it became clear that federal intelligence agencies alone could not protect all U.S. cities from attack. NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly confirmed on August 25 that a CIA officer is working at his headquarters, but solely as an advisor (AP). Muslim advocacy groups have called for investigations into potential rights abuses committed as a result of these surveillance operations (CNN, AJE). [anyone with any familiarity with NYPD’s Cold War past cannot be surprised] [its Red Unit was infamous] [*]
The CIA has reportedly demanded extensive redactions in the soon-to-be-released memoir of former FBI investigator Ali Soufan, who played a key role in terrorism investigations before and after the 9/11 attacks (NYT). However, the requested cuts include many details about harsh interrogation practices and the 9/11 investigations that have been disclosed in public investigations and even by former CIA director George Tenet, prompting Soufan's lawyer to write that, "credible sources have told Mr. Soufan that the [CIA] has made a decision that this book should not be published because it will prove embarrassing to the agency."
The New York Times reported on August 23 that internal data from the FBI obtained by the paper shows that the Bureau is focusing more on unearthing terrorist plots that threaten U.S. national security than on ordinary criminal activity (NYT). According to the data, FBI agents found no substantial evidence of wrongdoing in approximately 96% of all "low-grade assessments" conducted, such as those based on suspicions or tips. [*]
Five convicted on terrorism charges appeal verdict
Lawyers for five Miami men convicted in 2009 of conspiring to aid al-Qaeda argued in a federal appeals court on August 23 that the presiding federal judge's decision during their trial to remove a juror led directly to the defendants' convictions (Miami Herald, Miami Herald). The men, who along with two others were known as the "Liberty City Seven," were arrested in 2006 in an elaborate FBI sting operation.
On August 19 a federal judge in Boston rejected a motion filed by Tarek Mehanna -- who is accused of providing support to al-Qaeda -- requesting the disclosure to the defense and suppression of classified evidence collected under the Foreign Intelligence Service Act (FISA) (AP). The motion also alleges that the procedures used to gather the evidence were unlawful.
A U.S. District Judge in Miami on August 25 set an April 23 trial date for Florida Imam Hafiz Khan and his two sons, Irfan and Izhar Khan, who are all facing terrorism charges for allegedly raising money for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (AP).
And a county judge in Detroit ruled on August 22 that Roger Stockham, who was accused of plotting to attack the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, MI, is not mentally fit to stand trial, and will instead continue to be treated at a mental health facility (AP).
Suicide bomber strikes U.N. in Nigeria
A suicide car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria today killed at least 16, after a possible attack warning last month prompted the U.N. to increase security (BBC, Reuters, AP). No claim of responsibility has been made for the attack, though authorities suspect that the militant group Boko Haram is responsible. And Nigerian terrorist suspect Henry Okah will go on trial in South Africa's High Court in January to face charges that he attempted to attack Nigeria's president last October by orchestrating car bombs that killed 12 people during the country's independence day celebrations in Abuja (AP).
Spain's National Court remanded Moroccan-born Abdellatif Aoulad Chiba into custody on August 20 for allegedly plotting to poison tourists' water supply to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden [loan wolf and AQI the only two I know of] [*](AFP). Chiba was arrested on August 17 after Spanish police discovered statements he posted on extremist Internet forums proclaiming his allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and asking for information needed to plan attacks.
A British court on August 22 charged Asim Kauser with four terrorism-related offences based on material found on a computer drive explaining bombmaking techniques and how to produce the highly toxic poison ricin (BBC). Also on August 22, a British couple was remanded into custody after they allegedly researched bombmaking instructions and purchased the material needed to build an explosive device (BBC). [*]
The Oslo District Court on August 19 extended the isolation detention time by four weeks for Anders Behring Breivik, the self-confessed perpetrator of the bombing in Oslo and shooting spree on the island of Utoya last month that killed 77 people (AP). The extension was due to ongoing investigations into whether or not Breivik acted alone.
Indonesian police said on August 22 that they have detained the Filipino wife of alleged Bali bomber Umar Patek on charges of using a fake Indonesian passport while she travelled with her husband, who will soon go on trial in Indonesia for his role in the 2002 bombings (Jakarta Post, Jakarta Post). And Reuters reported on August 25 that human rights organizations in Saudi Arabia allege the Saudi government has unjustly detained thousands of political activists and others on suspicion of threatening the country's national security (Reuters).
Trials and Tribulations
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) released a statement on August 20 claiming that it had launched a campaign of 100 attacks in order to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden (NYT, AP). [*]
NPR on August 21 discussed the surge in FBI informants due to terror probes initiated after 9/11, and the debate over whether the use of informants in these investigations constitutes prevention of attacks or entrapment (NPR).
Ukrainian security officials said on August 22 that they had detained three suspects in the capital city of Kiev allegedly involved in a foiled bomb attack planned for August 24, the country's independence day (Reuters).
Thai police said on August 23 that suspected Islamic extremists were behind a roadside bomb in the country's south that killed two soldiers and wounded eight others (AP).
Jennifer Rowland is a research associate in the National Security Studies Program at the New America Foundation, where Andrew Lebovich is a policy analyst.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/a-still-open-nuclear-file-1.380790
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:40:23 AM] [*]
Published 06:00 26.08.11
Latest update 06:00 26.08.11
A still-open nuclear file
Syria's violations would be grave enough if al-Kibar reflected a Syrian attempt to build nuclear weapons for itself. They would be graver if Syria did it to share plutonium with Iran.
By Emanuele Ottolenghi [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran and Syria and especially Iran’s alliance with Syria] [recall, September 2007 when Israelis flew teams into Syria to destroy a nuclear reactor!] [the Bush administration barely acknowledged it happened and never provided any details of what and why] [only relatively few leaks on same since] [here an Israeli with some interesting access fills in some of the blanks!] [use fall 2011] [use psci 355, 463?] [*]
On September 6, 2007, Israel bombed the al-Kibar site, a small industrial complex in north eastern Syria, near the town of Deir al-Zour. What precipitated Israel's daring operation was, apparently, the looming delivery of nuclear fuel to a clandestine reactor on the site, [*] designed to produce weapons-grade plutonium, and which by then was almost operational.
Details about the compound's real purpose became public knowledge in April 2008, when a

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/a-still-open-nuclear-file-1.380790
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:40:23 AM] [*]
Published 06:00 26.08.11
Latest update 06:00 26.08.11
A still-open nuclear file
Syria's violations would be grave enough if al-Kibar reflected a Syrian attempt to build nuclear weapons for itself. They would be graver if Syria did it to share plutonium with Iran.
By Emanuele Ottolenghi [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran and Syria and especially Iran’s alliance with Syria] [recall, September 2007 when Israelis flew teams into Syria to destroy a nuclear reactor!] [the Bush administration barely acknowledged it happened and never provided any details of what and why] [only relatively few leaks on same since] [here an Israeli with some interesting access fills in some of the blanks!] [use fall 2011] [use psci 355, 463?] [*]
On September 6, 2007, Israel bombed the al-Kibar site, a small industrial complex in north eastern Syria, near the town of Deir al-Zour. What precipitated Israel's daring operation was, apparently, the looming delivery of nuclear fuel to a clandestine reactor on the site, [*] designed to produce weapons-grade plutonium, and which by then was almost operational.
Details about the compound's real purpose became public knowledge in April 2008, when a U.S. intelligence briefing revealed that al-Kibar was a North Korean-built, gas-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor almost identical to the one North Korea built in its own Yongbyon facility to produce weapons-grade plutonium. The briefing offered conclusive evidence of collusion between North Korean and Syrian scientists, [see “A Deal With Pyongyang?” and many others that month] [*]confirmed that North Korea had built the Syrian reactor, for cash, and hinted at the trigger for Israel's raid - the reactor's readiness.
More than three years later, this past spring, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that al-Kibar was a nuclear reactor similar to that at Yongbyon and declared Syria to be in noncompliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. [*]It is now up to the UN Security Council to decide whether to punish Syria for its failure to declare the reactor's existence and for its cover-up both before and after the raid, which did "irreparable damage" to the facility. [*]
Israeli security sources speaking off-the-record say that the Syria nuclear file is not a closed case. There are good reasons to agree. [?!][*]
Syria's ability to quickly develop a nuclear program on its own soil was surprising. The late Hafez Assad never pursued nuclear weapons as a deterrent against Israel because he knew his country lacked the financial resources, the industrial infrastructure, [*]the intellectual prowess and the wherewithal to develop such a program. Instead, Assad relied for most of his career on other nonconventional weapons for deterrence. Hence, his change of course, which took place in 1997, and which was vigorously pursued by his son and heir Bashar after the father's death, raises questions. After all, the basic facts of Syria's scientific and industrial backwardness have not changed significantly of late. A Syrian nuclear program could come online only because it was a turnkey project: built, fueled and possibly operated by North Korea. [if true, it almost certainly leads back to AQ Khan of Pakistan!!!] [*]
But nuclear weapons need more than weapons-grade fissile material. And while in April 2008, U.S. intelligence was adamant that the reactor's purpose was "to create fuel for a nuclear weapons program," it had no conclusive evidence of the kind of additional components needed to weaponize plutonium - namely, a reprocessing facility and a weapons-design program. Nor does Syria have indigenous supplies of uranium.
This elicits several questions:
• Where was the reactor's fuel supposed to come from?
• If Syria was about to start producing weapons-grade plutonium, why is there no trace of the other pieces of a nuclear jigsaw puzzle?
• Why take the risk and incur the costs of such a project, if there is no way to dispose of the nuclear fuel? [*]
In short, if this reactor was built in Syria for Syria, where was the rest of the program? [*]
One possible answer to all these questions is that the program was built in Syria for Iran. [it’s the logical conclusion] [*] Ronen Bergman's 2008 book, "The Secret War with Iran," suggests that al-Kibar was clandestinely developed with Iran's financial support. A 2009 Spiegel piece, quoting diplomatic sources in Vienna, agreed, citing revelations by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' former general Ali Reza Asgari to Western intelligence agencies. Asgari, a former deputy defense minister, disappeared in Istanbul in February 2007 after a visit to Syria, possibly defected to the West, and may have revealed Iran's funding of al-Kibar. [I certainly hope so] [*]
According to the same article, in 2005, Mohsen Fakrizadeh, the shadowy IRGC official in charge of Iran's nuclear military program, visited Damascus, very likely in order to forge an agreement on the terms of Iranian funding for Syria's nuclear program. That may explain why there is no trace of Syrian reprocessing activities: Al-Kibar was built by North Korea and financed by Iran, in order to sustain Iran's plausible deniability about its nuclear program. [*]
Skeptics could rightly object that Iran does not have known reprocessing facilities either, but it has a reactor in Arak designed for plutonium production - so why the need for surrogate production lines elsewhere? The answer may be that, with its covert nuclear activities in Arak exposed in 2002, Iran may have sought an alternative that could ensure a supply of weapons-grade plutonium even under the increased scrutiny of the international community. Besides, Iran's program hit many technical hurdles. [plus, Iran was using the uranium enrichment method] [this is plutonium method] [we know DPRK ran both as redundant ways to ensure they made progress] [could this be similar—based on DPRK’s experience?] [**]According to the U.S. 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's program, "Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015."
With such a lengthy timetable, IAEA inspectors roaming Iran, and American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, Tehran may have chosen to outsource plutonium production to Syria - a safer option, because al-Kibar was still undetected, and a faster one, because by then North Korea was technologically ahead of the game.
Syria's violations would be grave enough if al-Kibar reflected a Syrian attempt to build nuclear weapons for its own arsenal. They would be even graver if Syria did it to share the plutonium with Iran. And they constitute a threat, given that Assad, earlier this week, threatened "surprises" if Syria was attacked by foreign forces, in reference to Syrian military capabilities. [*]
Though the Security Council is currently deadlocked on how to respond to Syria's ferocious domestic repression, come September, it must punish Syria's proliferating activities. [doesn’t the IAEA have to refer it for UNSC to act?] [*]
Whether Iran's involvement can be proven is immaterial: Syria's nuclear file is far from closed, and leaving it open is a risk the international community, mindful of the cruelty of the regime in Damascus, cannot afford to take. [lot of speculation but it’s plausible at least] [*]
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and author of the forthcoming "The Pasdaran: Inside Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps" (FDD Press, September 2011 ). [cross in societal] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/east-afghanistans-war-shifts-back-to-the-border/
Wired
The Danger Room Blog
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:36:53 AM] [*]
East Afghanistan’s War Shifts (Back) To The Border
By Spencer Ackerman
August 25, 2011, 11:53 am
Categories: Af/Pak [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive is back on?] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [locals begin to imagine life ahead minus NATO and US?] [followup] [mostly reporting but cross in societal, as blog] [*]
Once upon a time, the Afghanistan war centered around the country’s east, near the border with Pakistan. There, U.S. troops harassed Taliban insurgents and their smattering of al-Qaida allies who crossed from their Pakistani safe havens back into Afghanistan. But as security deteriorated, the war literally went south — refocusing, with new troops and spy gear, on the Taliban’s southern Afghanistan strongholds. Commanders in the east, no longer central to the war effort, talked about shutting down insurgent logistics routes and securing key roads and towns. [*]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/east-afghanistans-war-shifts-back-to-the-border/
Wired
The Danger Room Blog
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:36:53 AM] [*]
East Afghanistan’s War Shifts (Back) To The Border
By Spencer Ackerman
August 25, 2011, 11:53 am
Categories: Af/Pak [Afghanistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Afghanistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [spring offensive is back on?] [Obama’s redeployment of surge has begun with it accomplished by end of 2012] [locals begin to imagine life ahead minus NATO and US?] [followup] [mostly reporting but cross in societal, as blog] [*]
Once upon a time, the Afghanistan war centered around the country’s east, near the border with Pakistan. There, U.S. troops harassed Taliban insurgents and their smattering of al-Qaida allies who crossed from their Pakistani safe havens back into Afghanistan. But as security deteriorated, the war literally went south — refocusing, with new troops and spy gear, on the Taliban’s southern Afghanistan strongholds. Commanders in the east, no longer central to the war effort, talked about shutting down insurgent logistics routes and securing key roads and towns. [*]
Welcome back to the future.
Maj. Gen. Daniel Allyn [*]is only 100 days into his command in eastern Afghanistan. But he told Pentagon reporters on Thursday that his “current focus” is on expanding the security bubble around Kabul eastward to “interdict insurgent infiltration along the 450 kilometer Afghanistan-Pakistan border.” [*]
It’s a mission with delicate politics. The Obama administration doesn’t want to see big new counterinsurgency operations in the east, preferring commanders to use drones, air assaults and Afghan forces against Taliban and Haqqani network targets instead of an explosion of new U.S. ground troops. [*]
Allyn insisted he’s not waging what the military calls an “economy of force” mission, with insufficient troop levels — though he added a big caveat. “I have the forces that I need to accomplish the mission that I’ve been given,” Allyn said. “Obviously, if there’s a desire to accelerate progress, then that creates conditions that might cause me to adjust that estimate.”
What he doesn’t yet have is the full cooperation of the Pakistani military. Allyn called his relationship with his counterparts on the Pakistani side of the border a “work in progress.” [I imagine things are still quite strained from the bin Laden raid (May)?] [*] Liaison officers assigned to each other’s staffs help smooth over the rough patches — and there have been several, as the Pakistanis briefly went radio silent to the U.S. in an apparent protest with the unilateral raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
“We hope to regain some of the momentum that General Campbell was able to build up during the time frame prior to the Osama bin Laden raid,” Allyn said, referring to his predecessor.
Not many experts believe that eastern Afghanistan has enough U.S. troops to stanch its descent into instability. Insurgent attacks in the east rose 20 percent last year. As the administration’s troop drawdown proceeds, Allyn’s bosses will have to shortchange a different part of the country [*]if Allyn ultimately requests more U.S. troops to help hold the east. Allyn conceded that locals have expressed “some anxiety about the departure of coalition troops.”
But to make up the numbers, Allyn’s got Afghan forces, whom he credited with stopping a big cross-border shipment of ammonium nitrate, the signature component of Afghanistan’s homemade bombs. He’s got special operations missions on a “nightly basis,” holding a steady pace even after the horrific crash that killed a Chinook full of SEALs. [that sounds promising?] [*]
And he said he’s starting to see results, with insurgents crossing the Pakistan border in “much smaller groups, because of the efforts of Afghan security forces and coalition forces to deny infiltration.” It remains to be seen if that’s more than a tactical shift. But the test of Allyn’s efforts will be found back where the war used to center — the border.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/gadhafis-loose-weapons-could-be-1000-times-worse-than-saddams/
Wired
The Danger Room Blog
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:34:48 AM] [*]
Gadhafi’s Loose Weapons Could Number a ‘Thousand Times’ Saddam’s
By Adam Rawnsley
August 25, 2011, 5:00 pm
Categories: Rogue States [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [just when it appears the opposition has dissolved into chaos, they unite and pull off a major success?] [the chaos that is consuming Libya and the threat of lots of weapons including WMD (mustard gas and perhaps others?)] [he gave up nukes in 2003 under Bush’s PSI but?] [mostly reporting but cross in societal, as blog] [*]
Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi spent decade piling up a huge stash of weapons like a crazy old lady hoarding cats. Ironically, rebel forces looted his arms depots to turn Gadhafi’s missiles and guns on their old master. But the ease with which the rebels were able to arm themselves points to their next massive problem: securing those weapons before they fuel a lethal insurgency or flood the global arms bazaar. [the country is littered with them] [*]
It’s a concern familiar to those who watched Iraq’s insurgency evolve. Saddam Hussein, like

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/gadhafis-loose-weapons-could-be-1000-times-worse-than-saddams/
Wired
The Danger Room Blog
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:34:48 AM] [*]
Gadhafi’s Loose Weapons Could Number a ‘Thousand Times’ Saddam’s
By Adam Rawnsley
August 25, 2011, 5:00 pm
Categories: Rogue States [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [just when it appears the opposition has dissolved into chaos, they unite and pull off a major success?] [the chaos that is consuming Libya and the threat of lots of weapons including WMD (mustard gas and perhaps others?)] [he gave up nukes in 2003 under Bush’s PSI but?] [mostly reporting but cross in societal, as blog] [*]
Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi spent decade piling up a huge stash of weapons like a crazy old lady hoarding cats. Ironically, rebel forces looted his arms depots to turn Gadhafi’s missiles and guns on their old master. But the ease with which the rebels were able to arm themselves points to their next massive problem: securing those weapons before they fuel a lethal insurgency or flood the global arms bazaar. [the country is littered with them] [*]
It’s a concern familiar to those who watched Iraq’s insurgency evolve. Saddam Hussein, like Gadhafi, amassed a vast array of conventional weaponry for defense against enemies both foreign and domestic. In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion in 2003, looters made off with tons of explosives from unprotected military arsenals, making arms available to a brewing insurgency. With the end of Gadhafi’s rule seeming nigh, arms control and human rights experts are paying close attention to the security of the country’s weapons stockpiles, fearing they could end up in the hands of a pro-regime insurgency or other militants outside the country. [as happened in Iraq, 2003] [*]
Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, has spent time on the ground in Libya during the uprising. He tells Danger Room that “weapon proliferation out of Libya is potentially one of the largest we have ever documented — 2003 Iraq pales in comparison — and so the risks are equally much more significant.”
Many in the West worry about the remnants of Gadhafi’s chemical-weapons program and shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles. However, Bouckaert says it’s Libya’s vast arsenals of low-tech gear like artillery shells and Grad missiles that are most likely to be fashioned into insurgent weapons, such as improvised explosive devices. [*]The Libyan military certainly has plenty of them. Only a few months into the war, thousands of 122-mm Grad rockets were found stashed in abandoned bunkers in eastern Libya. “If Gadhafi loyalists decide to mount an Iraqi-style insurgency, they have access to a thousand times the explosives that the insurgents in Iraq had,” says Bouckaert. [apparently, some are anticipating an insurgency springing up as happened in Iraq] [however, the U.S. is not occupying Libya nor is NATO] [against whom would the insurgency rage?] [it’s possible if TNC doesn’t create a compact with the tribes but I’ve seen little thus far to make me think such is imminent??] [*]
Libya’s mines are also useful as weapons in a possible post-Gadhafi insurgency. Precise estimates of just how many mines Gadhafi’s forces have accumulated over the years are hard to come by. For their part, rebels estimate that pro-Gadhafi forces have already laid tens of thousands of the device to halt rebel movement.
Human Rights Watch has documented a number of different types of mines in Gadhafi’s stash. Libyan military forces have scattered Type 84 Model A anti-tank mines near Misurata. A particularly nasty weapon, the Type 84 can be loaded into 122-mm rockets,[*] which scatter them across a wide area. On the ground, its magnetic fuse detects vehicles overhead and when detonated, fires a shaped metal charge upward. Amnesty International has also found T-AB-1 (AP) mines used in the area. The anti-personnel mines are mostly made out of plastic — meaning they’ll be hard to find with metal detectors.
In April, the representatives of Libya’s rebel movement, the Transitional National Council, pledged not to use land mines and to destroy any that came into its possession. But enforcing that pledge in a post-Gadhafi Libya will require coherence and discipline across the coalition of rebels — something that has at times proven difficult for the fractious grouping. [they have much to do now just getting things under control and finding the Qaddafi brood] [*]
Then there’s Gadhafi’s higher-end weapons — including some that keep U.S. homeland-security experts awake at night. Libya is home to plenty of man-portable air-defense systems, or ManPads, [*]which terrorists tried to use in 2002 to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane. Some newer, higher-flying missiles like the SA-24/Igla-S have also been spotted in Libyan military hands. But as Danger Room pal Eli Lake reports, the bulk of Libya’s arsenal is comprised of older, first-generation systems like the SA-7. They may not be the most-frequently used system in the event of an insurgency, but they are particularly worrisome in the wrong hands. [now here, I sure hope the US and NATO are watching] [this is a tempting black-market waiting to happen?] [*]
Fortunately, possession of a ManPads missile, alone, isn’t necessarily enough to take down an airliner. ”While the basic operation of a ManPads is fairly simple, using them effectively is not. It requires some training and knowledge of the system’s capabilities,” says Matt Schroeder, director of the Arms Sales Monitoring Project at the Federation of American Scientists. That applies especially to older missiles like Libya’s SA-7s. Moreover, Schroeder adds, the missile systems have a shelf life, after which they begin to degrade. They could also malfunction if Libya’s military (or subsequent owners) haven’t stored or handled them properly.
Unfortunately, the scale of Libya’s man-portable missile arsenal could offer illicit users a number opportunities to successfully hit an aircraft if no one secures the weapons. Africa Command chief Gen. Carter Ham (.pdf) told the Senate in April that Libya held “perhaps as many as 20,000″ ManPads missiles at the outset of the war. [yikes] [*]
Libya is still home to the remnants of its weapons-of-mass-destruction programs, though Gadhafi officially abandoned his efforts along those lines in 2003. Western officials are now worried about the security of a remaining 11 metric tons [12 U.S. tons] of mustard agent and 500 to 900 metric tons [550 to 990 U.S. tons] of uranium yellowcake still located in the country near Tripoli, [*]according to the Associated Press’ Kimberly Dozier and Douglas Birch. [I don’t understand why the yellow cake was not removed?] [*]
For the moment, though, talk of post-Gadhafi violence is slightly premature, insofar as Moammar is still around, and rebel control of Tripoli remains contested. Moreover, Bouckaert says that some of Gadhafi’s larger conventional-weapons stockpiles are still in control of regime forces in Sirt and Sabha. [I’ve had the impression that NATO members’ ICs and America’s IC have inserted people for these very reasons?] [no evidence yet but the rumors started weeks ago] [**]
Nonetheless, experts advise that common sense steps like a weapons-buyback program that exchanges cash for loose arms could help mitigate the proliferation threat. Even in the event a pro-Gadhafi insurgency doesn’t develop, Libya’s arsenals could still cause trouble by making their way to terrorists and insurgents in the region. Some reports already claim Libyan rockets have already been smuggled to terrorist groups in Egypt and Gaza. [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/islamic-jihad-gaza-factions-agree-to-new-cease-fire-with-israel-1.380795
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:33:45 AM] [*]
Published 07:35 26.08.11
Islamic Jihad: Gaza factions agree to new cease-fire with Israel
Despite agreement, Grad rocket falls near Ashkelon in open fieldafter the cease-fire was to come into effect; no damage or injuries were reported.
By The Associated Press Tags: Gaza Palestinians Egypt [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [something happened on the way to re-unification of Palestinian political powers] [this morning’s NYTs nor Post had anything but more violence but now murmers of reestablishing the truce?] [*]
Gaza militants early Friday called their second truce in less than five days in an attempt to keep more than a week of hostilities with Israel from escalating.
A leader of the Islamic Jihad faction, Mahfez Azzam, said Egypt mediated the cease-fire, which is to go into effect at 1 P.M. local time Friday.
Despite the agreement, a Grad rocket fell near Ashkelon in an open field Friday afternoon, after the cease-fire was to come into effect. No damage or injuries were reported. [does

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/islamic-jihad-gaza-factions-agree-to-new-cease-fire-with-israel-1.380795
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:33:45 AM] [*]
Published 07:35 26.08.11
Islamic Jihad: Gaza factions agree to new cease-fire with Israel
Despite agreement, Grad rocket falls near Ashkelon in open fieldafter the cease-fire was to come into effect; no damage or injuries were reported.
By The Associated Press Tags: Gaza Palestinians Egypt [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [something happened on the way to re-unification of Palestinian political powers] [this morning’s NYTs nor Post had anything but more violence but now murmers of reestablishing the truce?] [*]
Gaza militants early Friday called their second truce in less than five days in an attempt to keep more than a week of hostilities with Israel from escalating.
A leader of the Islamic Jihad faction, Mahfez Azzam, said Egypt mediated the cease-fire, which is to go into effect at 1 P.M. local time Friday.
Despite the agreement, a Grad rocket fell near Ashkelon in an open field Friday afternoon, after the cease-fire was to come into effect. No damage or injuries were reported. [does anyone control Gaza?] [*]
The factions had called a cease-fire late Sunday, but it dissolved almost immediately in a volley of rocket fire from Gaza on southern Israel and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes in which some two dozen Palestinians and one Israeli were killed. The violence began with a militant attack that killed eight Israelis on the Egyptian border.
"The government has called on the Palestinian factions not to give an opportunity to the (Israeli) occupation government to escalate its aggression further," said Taher Nunu, a government spokesman in Hamas-ruled Gaza. [Hamas seems slowly to lose more and more control over Gaza?] [*]
Another Hamas official said all key factions agreed to the truce and that the Gaza government and Egypt were trying to get tiny factions on board, too.
Hours earlier, an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian militants in Gaza following a salvo of rocket attacks on Israel.
Palestinian officials said the two were members of Islamic Jihad.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the air attack, saying the two were targeted after they fired mortar shells toward an Israeli border crossing, damaging it.
More than 15 rockets and mortar shells were fired toward Israel on Thursday, the military said.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:28 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hundreds-rally-in-cairo-to-demand-israeli-ambassador-s-expulsion-1.380903
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:32:38 AM] [*]
Published 17:00 26.08.11
Hundreds rally in Cairo to demand Israeli ambassador's expulsion
Number of protesters is far fewer than the 'million' called for in preparations for the demonstration.
By DPA, Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [something happened on the way to re-unification of Palestinian political powers] [recent tumult in Sinai] [now a gathering in Cairo to demand for Israeli ambassador’s expulsion?] [hundreds?] [seems sort of underwhelming?] [*]
Hundreds of Egyptians gathered Friday outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo calling on the government to expel Israel's ambassador over the border incident last week when five Egyptian policemen were killed by the IDF.
The police deaths occurred on August 19 during a shootout with militants near the Egyptian border, following attacks on a bus and other vehicles killed eight Israelis.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hundreds-rally-in-cairo-to-demand-israeli-ambassador-s-expulsion-1.380903
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:32:38 AM] [*]
Published 17:00 26.08.11
Hundreds rally in Cairo to demand Israeli ambassador's expulsion
Number of protesters is far fewer than the 'million' called for in preparations for the demonstration.
By DPA, Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [something happened on the way to re-unification of Palestinian political powers] [recent tumult in Sinai] [now a gathering in Cairo to demand for Israeli ambassador’s expulsion?] [hundreds?] [seems sort of underwhelming?] [*]
Hundreds of Egyptians gathered Friday outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo calling on the government to expel Israel's ambassador over the border incident last week when five Egyptian policemen were killed by the IDF.
The police deaths occurred on August 19 during a shootout with militants near the Egyptian border, following attacks on a bus and other vehicles killed eight Israelis.
In preparation for the demonstration, it was called "Million-man demonstration to expel the Israeli ambassador," and most of the protest groups have announced that they would participate, but the protesters who actually arrived were far fewer in number. [oops] [*]
"The people want the right of our martyrs in Sinai be regained," protesters, holding the Egyptian flags, chanted outside the embassy amid tight security. Others shouted: "The people's first demand is to have the ambassador evicted."
One of the protesters shot in the air and managed to leave the scene before police could arrest him, according to witnesses.
A 23-year-old Egyptian, Ahmed Shahhat, climbed to the roof of the 13-story apartment building housing the embassy early Sunday morning and removed the Israeli flag from the roof, replacing it with an Egyptian flag he had carried with him.
Shahhat, who became an instant folk hero in Egypt, said his action had come in protest against the killing of the three Egyptian soldiers. A resident in the building opened his balcony door for Shahhat, who made the rest of the way down by elevator and was welcomed by thousands of protesters who have been demonstrating outside the building with calls to suspend the Israel-Egypt peace treaty.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/ahmadinejad-holocaust-big-lie-used-to-justify-establishment-of-israel-1.380905
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:31:21 AM] [*]
Published 17:26 26.08.11
Ahmadinejad: Holocaust 'big lie' used to justify establishment of Israel
Millions of people attend state-run anti-Israel rallies throughout Iran to voice support for Palestinians and its liberation from what they call Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
By DPA Tags: Iran Iran threat Holocaust [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [something happened on the way to re-unification of Palestinian political powers] [Iran] [Ahmadinejad desperately trying to ralley anyone behind him as he’s in trouble with Khomenei] [factionalism as always] [denying the holocaust is the last desperate act of a scoundrel on the ropes in a system made for scoundrels?] [followup] [*]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the Holocaust was a "big lie" used to justify establishment of the state of Israel.
"The Zionist regime's establishment was based on numerous deceptions and lies and one of the biggest lies was the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad said in a speech after an anti-Israeli rally in Tehran and other Iranian cities.
The late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan to be Qods, or Jerusalem, Day and called for annual mass rallies against Israel and in support of the

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/ahmadinejad-holocaust-big-lie-used-to-justify-establishment-of-israel-1.380905
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/26/11 8:31:21 AM] [*]
Published 17:26 26.08.11
Ahmadinejad: Holocaust 'big lie' used to justify establishment of Israel
Millions of people attend state-run anti-Israel rallies throughout Iran to voice support for Palestinians and its liberation from what they call Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
By DPA Tags: Iran Iran threat Holocaust [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [something happened on the way to re-unification of Palestinian political powers] [Iran] [Ahmadinejad desperately trying to ralley anyone behind him as he’s in trouble with Khomenei] [factionalism as always] [denying the holocaust is the last desperate act of a scoundrel on the ropes in a system made for scoundrels?] [followup] [*]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the Holocaust was a "big lie" used to justify establishment of the state of Israel.
"The Zionist regime's establishment was based on numerous deceptions and lies and one of the biggest lies was the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad said in a speech after an anti-Israeli rally in Tehran and other Iranian cities.
The late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan to be Qods, or Jerusalem, Day and called for annual mass rallies against Israel and in support of the Palestinians.
The president provoked international condemnation in 2005 when he said that Israel should be eliminated from the map of the Middle East and transferred to Europe or North America. [*]
The international isolation of the Islamic republic escalated after Ahmadinejad held a Holocaust conference in 2006 in which he questioned whether the killing of 6 million Jews in Europe during World War II actually happened.
"On the one hand we have the Zionist regime as the global axis of thieves and murderers and on the other hand we have the Qods Day which is the axis of those seeking freedom, justice and end of suppression," the president reiterated Friday at Tehran University. [his hatred consumes him] [*]
The crowd at the university greeted the president's remarks with cries of Allahu Akbar, meanting [sic.][*]God is great, and by chanting anti-Israel slogans.
According to state television, millions of people attended the state-run anti-Israel rallies throughout the country to voice their support for Palestinians and its liberation from what they called Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called for the eradication of Israel, saying that Iran would "never ever withdraw from this standpoint and policy."

Posted by Kent Bolton at 09:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/us/26agent.html
August 25, 2011
C.I.A. Demands Cuts in Book About 9/11 and Terror Fight
By SCOTT SHANE [obama white house] [112th Congress, 1st session] [NSC and down to bureaucracy] [IC, intelligence community] [GSAVE] [apparently a book coming out that goes into details on some of the stuff the IC has done] [we’ve had hints of things for years: EITs, TSPs, black sites, more] [NSA’s massive collection of Americans data] [so on] [this should be interesting] [use fall 2011 with WP special from 2010!] [use psci 355-455] [*]
WASHINGTON — In what amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, the Central Intelligence Agency is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent who spent years near the center of the battle against Al Qaeda. [FBI don’t sign the same non-disclosure deal CIA do???] [*]
The agent, Ali H. Soufan, argues in the book that the C.I.A. missed a chance to derail the 2001 plot by withholding from the F.B.I. information about two future 9/11 hijackers living in San Diego, according to several people who have read the manuscript. [that was looked into by 9/11 committee?] [*]And he gives a detailed, firsthand account of the C.I.A.’s move toward brutal treatment in its interrogations, saying the harsh methods used

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/us/26agent.html
August 25, 2011
C.I.A. Demands Cuts in Book About 9/11 and Terror Fight
By SCOTT SHANE [obama white house] [112th Congress, 1st session] [NSC and down to bureaucracy] [IC, intelligence community] [GSAVE] [apparently a book coming out that goes into details on some of the stuff the IC has done] [we’ve had hints of things for years: EITs, TSPs, black sites, more] [NSA’s massive collection of Americans data] [so on] [this should be interesting] [use fall 2011 with WP special from 2010!] [use psci 355-455] [*]
WASHINGTON — In what amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, the Central Intelligence Agency is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent who spent years near the center of the battle against Al Qaeda. [FBI don’t sign the same non-disclosure deal CIA do???] [*]
The agent, Ali H. Soufan, argues in the book that the C.I.A. missed a chance to derail the 2001 plot by withholding from the F.B.I. information about two future 9/11 hijackers living in San Diego, according to several people who have read the manuscript. [that was looked into by 9/11 committee?] [*]And he gives a detailed, firsthand account of the C.I.A.’s move toward brutal treatment in its interrogations, saying the harsh methods used on the agency’s first important captive, Abu Zubaydah, were unnecessary and counterproductive.
Neither critique of the C.I.A. is new. In fact, some of the information that the agency argues is classified, according to two people who have seen the correspondence between the F.B.I. and C.I.A., has previously been disclosed in open Congressional hearings, the report of the national commission on 9/11 and even the 2007 memoir of George J. Tenet, the former C.I.A. director. [*]
Mr. Soufan, an Arabic-speaking counterterrorism agent who played a central role in most major terrorism investigations between 1997 and 2005, has told colleagues he believes the cuts are intended not to protect national security but to prevent him from recounting episodes that in his view reflect badly on the C.I.A. [probably] [*]
Some of the scores of cuts demanded by the C.I.A. from Mr. Soufan’s book, “The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against Al Qaeda,” seem hard to explain on security grounds. [*]
Among them, according to the people who have seen the correspondence, is a phrase from Mr. Soufan’s 2009 testimony at a Senate hearing, freely available both as video and transcript on the Web. Also chopped are references to the word “station” to describe the C.I.A.’s overseas offices, common parlance for decades. [?][*]
The agency removed the pronouns “I” and “me” from a chapter in which Mr. Soufan describes his widely reported role in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, an important terrorist facilitator and training camp boss. And agency officials took out references to the fact that a passport photo of one of the 9/11 hijackers who later lived in San Diego, Khalid al-Midhar, had been sent to the C.I.A. in January 2000 — an episode described both in the 9/11 commission report and Mr. Tenet’s book. [?][definitely smells like CYA] [*]
In a letter sent Aug. 19 to the F.B.I.’s general counsel, Valerie E. Caproni, a lawyer for Mr. Soufan, David N. Kelley, wrote that “credible sources have told Mr. Soufan that the agency has made a decision that this book should not be published because it will prove embarrassing to the agency.”
In a statement, Mr. Soufan called the C.I.A’s redactions to his book “ridiculous” but said he thought he would prevail in getting them restored for a later edition.
He said he believed that counterterrorism officers have an obligation to face squarely “where we made mistakes and let the American people down.” He added: “It saddens me that some are refusing to address past mistakes.”
A spokeswoman for the C.I.A., Jennifer Youngblood, said, “The suggestion that the Central Intelligence Agency has requested redactions on this publication because it doesn’t like the content is ridiculous. The C.I.A.’s pre-publication review process looks solely at the issue of whether information is classified.” [*]
She noted that under the law, “Just because something is in the public domain doesn’t mean it’s been officially released or declassified by the U.S. government.”
A spokesman for the F.B.I., Michael P. Kortan, declined to comment.
The book, written with the assistance of Daniel Freedman, a colleague at Mr. Soufan’s New York security company, is scheduled to go on sale Sept. 12. Facing a deadline this week, the publisher, W. W. Norton and Company, decided to proceed with a first printing incorporating all the C.I.A.’s cuts. [cowards] [*]
If Mr. Soufan ultimately prevails in negotiations or a legal fight to get the excised material restored, Norton will print the unredacted version, said Drake McFeely, Norton’s president. “The C.I.A.’s redactions seem outrageous to me,” Mr. McFeely said. But he noted that they are concentrated in certain chapters and said “the book’s argument comes across clearly despite them.”
The regular appearance of memoirs by Bush administration officials has continued a debate over the facts surrounding the failure to prevent 9/11 and the tactics against terrorism that followed. In former Vice President Dick Cheney’s memoir, set for publication next week, he writes of the harsh interrogations that “the techniques worked.” [*]
A book scheduled for publication next May by José A. Rodriguez Jr., a former senior C.I.A. official, is expected to give a far more laudatory account of the agency’s harsh [stunning he gets to when he’s the fellow who was responsible for destroying video tapes (something like scores nearly 90?)] [*] interrogations than that of Mr. Soufan, as is evident from its tentative title: “Hard Measures: How Aggressive C.I.A. Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives.”
Government employees who hold security clearances are required to have their books vetted for classified information before publication. But because decisions on what should be classified can be highly subjective, the prepublication review process often becomes a battle. Several former spies have gone to court to fight redactions to their books, and the Defense Department spent nearly $50,000 last year to buy and destroy the entire first printing of an intelligence officer’s book, which it said contained secrets. [*]
The C.I.A. interrogation program sharply divided the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., whose director, Robert S. Mueller III, ordered agents to stop participating in the program after Mr. Soufan and other agents objected to the use of physical coercion. But some C.I.A. officers, too, opposed the brutal methods, including waterboarding, and it was their complaint to the C.I.A.’s inspector general that eventually led to the suspension of the program. [that much is true] [FBI believed the enhanced stuff was utter failure] [that only rapport-based program they used worked and that CIA’s stuff set IC back] [and they’ve settled scores with each other for decades] [*]
“The Black Banners” traces the origins and growth of Al Qaeda and describes the role of Mr. Soufan, 40, a Lebanese-American, in the investigations of the East African embassy bombings of 1998, the attack on the American destroyer Cole in 2000, 9/11 and the continuing campaign against terrorism.
Starting in May, F.B.I. officials reviewed Mr. Soufan’s 600-page manuscript, asking the author for evidence that dozens of names and facts were not classified. Mr. Soufan and Mr. Freedman agreed to change wording or substitute aliases for some names, and on July 12 the bureau told Mr. Soufan its review was complete. [*]
In the meantime, however, the bureau had given the book to the C.I.A. Its reviewers responded this month with 78-page and 103-page faxes listing their cuts. [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/americas/26drugs.html
August 25, 2011
U.S. Widens Role in Mexican Fight
By MARK MAZZETTI and GINGER THOMPSON [Obama white house] [president Obama and national-security team, all the way to bureaucracy] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [the utterly well-intentioned but dysfunctional war on illicit drugs] [president after president (both Parties equally guilty) approach supply only] [nothing is done about demand] [in last couple years Mexico has gone through horror with massive brutalization of drugs and other illicits] [U.S. has slowly but steadily increased its assistance] [if Washington is going to demand Mexico go through such tumult, it’s proper that Washington help] [followup] [this, interestingly, was the first transnational hydra, well before 9/11] [cross in external] [*]
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has expanded its role in Mexico’s fight against organized crime by allowing the Mexican police to stage cross-border drug raids from inside the United States, according to senior administration and military officials.
Mexican commandos have discreetly traveled to the United States, assembled at designated areas and dispatched helicopter missions back across the border aimed at suspected drug traffickers. The Drug Enforcement Administration provides logistical support on the American side of the border, officials said, arranging staging areas and sharing intelligence that helps

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/americas/26drugs.html
August 25, 2011
U.S. Widens Role in Mexican Fight
By MARK MAZZETTI and GINGER THOMPSON [Obama white house] [president Obama and national-security team, all the way to bureaucracy] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [the utterly well-intentioned but dysfunctional war on illicit drugs] [president after president (both Parties equally guilty) approach supply only] [nothing is done about demand] [in last couple years Mexico has gone through horror with massive brutalization of drugs and other illicits] [U.S. has slowly but steadily increased its assistance] [if Washington is going to demand Mexico go through such tumult, it’s proper that Washington help] [followup] [this, interestingly, was the first transnational hydra, well before 9/11] [cross in external] [*]
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has expanded its role in Mexico’s fight against organized crime by allowing the Mexican police to stage cross-border drug raids from inside the United States, according to senior administration and military officials.
Mexican commandos have discreetly traveled to the United States, assembled at designated areas and dispatched helicopter missions back across the border aimed at suspected drug traffickers. The Drug Enforcement Administration provides logistical support on the American side of the border, officials said, arranging staging areas and sharing intelligence that helps guide Mexico’s decisions about targets and tactics. [I used to travel there at least monthly] [haven’t been in last couple years] [*]
Officials said these so-called boomerang operations were intended to evade the surveillance — and corrupting influences — of the criminal organizations that closely monitor the movements of security forces inside Mexico. And they said the efforts were meant to provide settings with tight security for American and Mexican law enforcement officers to collaborate in their pursuit of criminals who operate on both sides of the border.
Although the operations remain rare, they are part of a broadening American campaign aimed at blunting the power of Mexican cartels that have built criminal networks spanning the world and have started a wave of violence in Mexico that has left more than 35,000 people dead.
Many aspects of the campaign remain secret, because of legal and political sensitivities. But in recent months, details have begun to emerge, revealing efforts that would have been unthinkable five years ago. Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, who was elected in 2006, has broken with his country’s historic suspicion of the United States and has enlisted Washington’s help in defeating the cartels, a central priority for his government. [he stuck his neck way out in behalf of American presidents: predating Bush but Bush and now Obama] [*]
American Predator and Global Hawk drones now fly deep over Mexico to capture video of drug production facilities and smuggling routes. Manned American aircraft fly over Mexican targets to eavesdrop on cellphone communications. And the D.E.A. has set up an intelligence outpost — staffed by Central Intelligence Agency operatives and retired American military personnel — on a Mexican military base. [that used to be too sensitive but Mexico has been reeling under the brutality of cartels] [*]
“There has always been a willingness and desire on the part of the United States to play more of a role in Mexico’s efforts,” said Eric L. Olson, an expert on Mexico at the Woodrow Wilson Center. “But there have been some groundbreaking developments on the Mexican side where we’re seeing officials who are willing to take some risks, even political risks, by working closely with the United States to carry out very sensitive missions.”
Still, the cooperation remains a source of political tensions, especially in Mexico where the political classes have been leery of the United States dating from the Mexican-American War of 1846. Recent disclosures about the expanding United States’ role in the country’s main national security efforts have set off a storm of angry assertions that Mr. Calderón has put his own political interests ahead of Mexican sovereignty. Mr. Calderón’s political party faces an election next year that is viewed in part as a referendum on his decision to roll out this campaign against drug traffickers.
Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns walked into that storm during a visit to Mexico this month and strongly defended the partnership the two governments had developed.
“I’ll simply repeat that there are clear limits to our role,” Mr. Burns said. “Our role is not to conduct operations. It is not to engage in law enforcement activities. That is the role of the Mexican authorities. And that’s the way it should be.”
Officials said Mexico and the United States began discussing the possibility of cross-border missions two years ago, when Mexico’s crime wave hit the important industrial corridor between Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo. To avoid being detected, the Mexican police traveled to the United States in plain clothes on commercial flights, two military officials said. Later the officers were transported back to Mexico on Mexican aircraft, which dropped the agents at or near their targets.
“The cartels don’t expect Mexican police coming from the U.S.,” said one senior military official. None of the officials interviewed about the boomerang operations would speak publicly about them, and refused to provide details about where they were conducted or what criminal organizations had been singled out. [it’s certain that our people will become targets and I presume appropriate caution is being taken for eventuality!?!?] [*]
They said that the operations had been carried out only a couple of times in the last 18 months, and that they had not resulted in any significant arrests.
The officials insisted that the Pentagon is not involved in the cross-border operations, and that no Americans take part in drug raids on Mexican territory.
“These are not joint operations,” said one senior administration official. “They are self-contained Mexican operations where staging areas were provided by the United States.”
Former American law enforcement officials who were once posted in Mexico described the boomerang operations as a new take on an old strategy that was briefly used in the late 1990s, when the D.E.A. helped Mexico crack down on the Tijuana Cartel.
To avoid the risks of the cartel being tipped off to police movements by lookouts or police officials themselves, the former officers said, the D.E.A. arranged for specially vetted Mexican police to stage operations out of Camp Pendleton in San Diego. The Mexican officers were not given the names of the targets of their operations until they were securely sequestered on the base. And they were not given the logistical details of the mission until shortly before it was under way.
“They were a kind of rapid-reaction force,” said one former senior D.E.A. official. “It was an effective strategy at the time.”
Another former D.E.A. official said that the older operations resulted in the arrests of a handful of midlevel cartel leaders. But, he said, it was ended in 2000 when cartel leaders struck back by kidnapping, torturing and killing a counternarcotics official in the Mexican attorney general’s office, along with two fellow drug agents.
In recent months, Mexico agreed to post a team of D.E.A. agents, C.I.A. operatives and retired American military officials on a Mexican military base to help conduct intelligence operations, bolstering the work of a similar “fusion cell” already in Mexico City.
Meanwhile the Pentagon is steadily overhauling the parts of the military responsible for the drug fight, paying particular attention to some lessons of nearly a decade of counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. At Northern Command — the military’s Colorado Springs headquarters responsible for North American operations — several top officers with years of experience in fighting Al Qaeda and affiliated groups are poring over intelligence about Mexican drug networks.
One officer said, “The military is trying to take what it did in Afghanistan and do the same in Mexico.”
That’s exactly what some Mexicans are afraid of, said a Mexican political scientist, Denise Dresser, who is an expert on that country’s relations with the United States.
“I’m not necessarily opposed to greater American involvement,” Ms. Dresser said. “But if that’s the way the Mexican government wants to go, it needs to come clean about it. Just look at what we learned from Iraq. Secrecy led to malfeasance. It led to corrupt contracting. It led to torture. It led to instability. And who knows when those problems will be resolved.” [I agree] [this on-the-sly crap invariably goes south] [*]
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting, and Barclay Walsh contributed research.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/asia/26briefs-Srilanka.html
August 25, 2011
Sri Lanka: Emergency Laws to End, 2 Years After War
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Sri Lanka] [SAsia] [in last few years the decades-long insurgency was brutally snuffed out] [though many innocent were killed, the end of the insurgency was worthwhile] [the people have been trying to get back to a normal state of affairs between the Tamil Tigers (as opposed to the Sinhalese majority?)] [emergency law finally ended] [use psci 350] [followup, Aug 1] [*]
President Mahinda Rajapaksa said Thursday that Sri Lanka’s wartime emergency laws, which have curbed civil and political liberties for most of the past 30 years, would be lifted next week. The country has been under intense international pressure to end the measures, which allow the government to detain suspects without trial, displace residents from their land and set up ubiquitous military checkpoints. More than two years after the end of the country’s civil war, Mr. Rajapaksa told the legislature that the laws were no longer needed.

[full piece may be found above the jump] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:22 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/europe/26abkhazia.html
August 25, 2011
A Not-Quite Nation Happy in Russia’s Embrace, but Wanting a Little Wiggle Room
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ [Russia] [Georgia] [former USSR] [Trans Caucasus, Georgia] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [Russia’s long and expensive efforts to bring Georgia under Russia’s sway historically] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [the 2008 war] [*]
SUKHUMI, Georgia — Three years after Russia defied international consensus and unilaterally declared a breakaway enclave of Georgia called Abkhazia to be a sovereign nation, the area’s leaders continue to struggle with the price of that recognition. [*]
With no other major countries willing to acknowledge its legitimacy, Abkhazia relies almost completely on Moscow for its survival. Russian troops and border guards provide security, Russian companies sell food and fuel to the Abkhaz people and the Russian government pays pensions to the elderly. The Russian ruble is the only currency. [so irredentism of sorts] [*]
With Russians eyeing Abkhazia’s verdant beachfront real estate and even the Russian Orthodox Church looking to expand its influence, some Abkhaz have begun to wonder how

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/europe/26abkhazia.html
August 25, 2011
A Not-Quite Nation Happy in Russia’s Embrace, but Wanting a Little Wiggle Room
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ [Russia] [Georgia] [former USSR] [Trans Caucasus, Georgia] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [Russia’s long and expensive efforts to bring Georgia under Russia’s sway historically] [use psci350] [use ir text] [followup] [the 2008 war] [*]
SUKHUMI, Georgia — Three years after Russia defied international consensus and unilaterally declared a breakaway enclave of Georgia called Abkhazia to be a sovereign nation, the area’s leaders continue to struggle with the price of that recognition. [*]
With no other major countries willing to acknowledge its legitimacy, Abkhazia relies almost completely on Moscow for its survival. Russian troops and border guards provide security, Russian companies sell food and fuel to the Abkhaz people and the Russian government pays pensions to the elderly. The Russian ruble is the only currency. [so irredentism of sorts] [*]
With Russians eyeing Abkhazia’s verdant beachfront real estate and even the Russian Orthodox Church looking to expand its influence, some Abkhaz have begun to wonder how much longer their autonomy will last.
“We are trying to hang on to our sovereignty, to that freedom and independence that we fought for, that we gave our lives for,” said Sergei M. Shamba, Abkhazia’s de facto prime minister. “Everything now depends on how successfully we walk the sharp edge of the dagger that we have been walking our whole history. Any wrong step could lead to tragedy, and we’ve had not a few of those in our history.”[sharp edge of the dagger?] [interesting metaphor] [*]
Mr. Shamba is one of three candidates running in a snap presidential election on Friday, set for the anniversary of the day in August 2008 that Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another rebel Georgian enclave, after Russian troops won a brief war with Georgia.
The campaign, for the most part, has run smoothly, and the outcome will hardly matter, according to experts here in Sukhumi, Abkhazia’s capital. The winner is most likely to face the same predicament as President Sergei V. Bagapsh, who died suddenly in May: maintaining good relations with Russia, which is crucial to Abkhazia’s survival, while also warding off annexation. [which is Russia’s model of diplomacy] [make Near Abroad indespsibly dependent on Russia] [create buffers] [*]
For some, the question is not whether any leader of this tiny territory can prevail, but whether Abkhazia has already lost.
“Everyone understands that the current setup is a dead end,” said Inal Khashig, the editor in chief of a local independent newspaper. “It is too similar to the Soviet patronage system. A little Soviet with some elements of democracy will not allow us to become more sovereign.”
Abkhazia, a finger of subtropical land wedged between Russia and Georgia along the Black Sea, has been caught between larger powers for most of its history. It was absorbed into the Russian Empire under the czars and became a premier vacation destination during the Soviet era, when it was an autonomous region within the Soviet Republic of Georgia. [it’s partly lawless with Russian Mafioso using it as hiding] [*]
After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Georgian officials declared that Abkhazia — which had an ethnically and linguistically distinct Abkhaz population as well as many Georgians and others — should remain part of the newly independent Republic of Georgia, setting off a war whose scars are still visible in the bullet-strafed buildings of Sukhumi and the vacant stares of camouflage-clad old men.
The war ended with a Georgian retreat and the exodus of about 200,000 ethnic Georgians, whose homes and property were confiscated. It also led to a tenuous independence for Abkhazia. Moscow has nominally supported Abkhazia for years, but the Russian presence has expanded since formal recognition three years ago. [which is exactly what Russia wanted to get out of the 2008 war] [*]
There are now about 3,500 Russian soldiers and 1,500 border guards deployed in Abkhazia. Government-connected Russian companies have begun restoring strategic assets like roads and railroads that could become important in preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, a Russian resort town just a few miles north of the Abkhaz border.
Many Russians would like to begin restoring the territory’s tourist infrastructure. But Abkhazia’s leaders have been unwilling to change a law that prevents foreigners, including Russians, from buying real estate. Many believe the measure provides a necessary bulwark against Russian incursion, even if it means hotels and restaurants remain bombed-out wrecks more than a decade and a half after the war with Georgia ended.
The latest flashpoint in the real estate dispute concerns three vacation homes once used by the Soviet leaders Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Nikita S. Khrushchev and Stalin. [*]Abkhazia nationalized the properties after the war with Georgia in the 1990s, but the Russian government now wants to assume ownership. Talks on the issue are at an impasse, officials said.
Some leaders said they would prefer that Russian money be directed to more practical, though perhaps less financially lucrative areas than tourism.
“There are many spheres that need funding, above all agriculture,” said Aleksandr Z. Ankvab, Abkhazia’s vice president, who is now running for the top job. “No resorts can exist without agriculture, or else we’ll have to feed our guests with the goods of strangers. We need to invest in local manufacturing, education, infrastructure, medicine, sport, culture, science. This must be done today.”
Russia has allocated about $362 million toward developing Abkhaz infrastructure, though there is little visible sign of improvement. Soviet-era apartments remain speckled with bullet holes from the war in the 1990s. Electricity and water supplies in some regions are shoddy, residents said. A few construction projects are under way, though locals say many are destined to become housing for Russian soldiers and their families.
“For all these years, unfortunately, we have been unable to complete one large-scale project,” Mr. Shamba said. “We have not been able to come up with a plan for developing the economy.”
Russian officials accuse Abkhaz leaders of misappropriating money from Russia. In January, Russia’s Audit Chamber announced that about $12 million allocated to infrastructure development had been misused.
More damaging to progress, according to Russian officials, has been the obstinacy of Abkhaz leaders.
“Abkhazia is going from a common law marriage to a legal one,” said Sergei A. Markov, a Russian parliamentarian and Kremlin-connected analyst. “For 15 years they got used to a certain kind of lifestyle and thought that as soon as Russia came in all that they possessed would remain theirs and get better.” [**]
For the relationship to work, he said, Abkhaz leaders must permit Russia more control, at least over the spheres in which Russians are already involved, like security and infrastructure development. [**]
Abkhazia’s leaders acknowledge that they will probably always need a larger power to provide protection. And few see much hope of improved relations with Georgia, which considers Russia’s presence in Abkhazia as an occupation of its sovereign territory and has demanded that Georgian refugees be allowed to return.
Whatever the tensions with Russia, many Abkhaz say they are grateful for its support, which has allowed them for the first time in years to think about something other than security.
“With the Russian Army we definitely feel much safer,” said Irma Logua, 40, an economist. “The problems we had three years ago have not been solved. But before, all attention was on the border, and now we can concentrate on internal reconstruction.”
At a campaign event here this week for Mr. Ankvab, not one person in a two-hour question-and-answer session asked about security. Most of the concerns were about jobs and pensions — and the widespread problem, apparently, of stray cows.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:22 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27nigeria.html
August 26, 2011
Blast Hits U.N. Building in Nigeria
By SENAN MURRAY [Nigeria] [recurring violence: tribal, religious sectarian, insurgency, others] [I can remember past brigands but this may be first report of piracy?] [there has been some stuff with oil wells and kidnapping foreign executives, some of which wells are off short?] [followup] [also Boko Haram?, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [while small stuff against westerners has been common over the years, this sort of thing bear hallmarks of jihadis?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
ABUJA, Nigeria — A huge explosion rocked the main United Nations building in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Friday, sending billows of smoke over the area and spreading panic among citizens.
News agency reports quoted witnesses as saying the blast had been the result of a suicide car-bomber’s attack, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility and the police declined to confirm those reports. [remember, initial reports often turn out wrong] [*]
Nigerian security forces cordoned off the area, which is close to the United State embassy

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27nigeria.html
August 26, 2011
Blast Hits U.N. Building in Nigeria
By SENAN MURRAY [Nigeria] [recurring violence: tribal, religious sectarian, insurgency, others] [I can remember past brigands but this may be first report of piracy?] [there has been some stuff with oil wells and kidnapping foreign executives, some of which wells are off short?] [followup] [also Boko Haram?, mysterious Islamist group could be involved?] [while small stuff against westerners has been common over the years, this sort of thing bear hallmarks of jihadis?] [use fall 2011?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [*]
ABUJA, Nigeria — A huge explosion rocked the main United Nations building in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Friday, sending billows of smoke over the area and spreading panic among citizens.
News agency reports quoted witnesses as saying the blast had been the result of a suicide car-bomber’s attack, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility and the police declined to confirm those reports. [remember, initial reports often turn out wrong] [*]
Nigerian security forces cordoned off the area, which is close to the United State embassy and the Nigerian national defense headquarters.
Casualties were being ferried to a nearby hospital and news reports said there were fears that many people had died.
The Associated Press quoted witnesses as saying a sedan drove through one of the United Nations’ compound’s gates and headed toward to the four-story building.
Charles Ofazuwa, head of the U.N. Information Office in Lagos, said the blast struck just before 11 a.m. local time, but he gave no details on casualties or the extent of the damage. He said the building, located in the diplomatic quarter of the city, housed at least 16 agencies with close to 400 staff members.
Michael Ofilaje, a United Nations worker at the building, told The A.P. he saw scattered bodies. “Many people are dead,” he said. The explosion “came from the basement and shook the building.”
Reuters quoted medical personnel at the scene as saying 10 people had died. [Nigeria is not so far from Niger, then northern African nation-states where AQIM have functioned in recent years?] [*]
Officials at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva confirmed that the explosion had occurred but gave no details. A spokesperson for the children’s agency UNICEF said it was still trying to account for all members of its staff there.
Nigeria, a major African oil-producer, faces terrorism challenges from several groups including militants from the Niger Delta and from a radical Muslim sect called Boko Haram, which advocates the introduction of Sharia law in the largely Muslim north of the country and took responsibility for bombing the national police headquarters in June. [*]
American officials have said recently they fear Boko Haram has sought to link up with regional affiliates of Al Qaeda. [it’s not a certainty but it smells a lot like jihadis] [*]
In recent years, United Nations offices have been the targets of lethal attacks in Iraq, Algeria and Afghanistan.
Nick Cumming-Bruce contributed reporting from Geneva.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:20 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/middleeast/26gaza.html
August 25, 2011
Israeli Strikes in Retaliation Kill 9 Gazans
By FARES AKRAM [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Gaza] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [as often happens there, the last week or two has seen a racheting up of tit-for-tat violence between rocket launchers in Gaza and retaliations from Israel back at Gaza] [Israel makes major foray into Gaza to try to stop the violence?] [followup] [*]
GAZA — Nine Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since Wednesday night, with Israel’s southern communities withstanding 20 rockets from Gaza over the same 24-hour period.
Warning sirens repeatedly sent Israelis across the south into bomb shelters, but most of the rockets landed in empty fields near the Israeli cities of Ofakim, Ashkelon and Beersheba. However, a 9-month-old baby was slightly hurt in Ashkelon when a car was hit with shrapnel. [*]
The recent round of violence started a week ago, with a terrorist attack on southern Israel

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/middleeast/26gaza.html
August 25, 2011
Israeli Strikes in Retaliation Kill 9 Gazans
By FARES AKRAM [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Gaza] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [as often happens there, the last week or two has seen a racheting up of tit-for-tat violence between rocket launchers in Gaza and retaliations from Israel back at Gaza] [Israel makes major foray into Gaza to try to stop the violence?] [followup] [*]
GAZA — Nine Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since Wednesday night, with Israel’s southern communities withstanding 20 rockets from Gaza over the same 24-hour period.
Warning sirens repeatedly sent Israelis across the south into bomb shelters, but most of the rockets landed in empty fields near the Israeli cities of Ofakim, Ashkelon and Beersheba. However, a 9-month-old baby was slightly hurt in Ashkelon when a car was hit with shrapnel. [*]
The recent round of violence started a week ago, with a terrorist attack on southern Israel in which eight Israelis were killed. Israeli forces pursuing suspects killed three Egyptian security officers in the Egyptian Sinai, creating a furor with Egypt. [*]
Israeli officials said the perpetrators and planners of the terrorist attack were originally from Gaza, and Israel has retaliated with strikes that have killed at least 23 Palestinians. Gazan officials say they know nothing about the source of the attack.
Israel’s first retaliatory strike in Gaza killed leaders of the Popular Resistance Committees, a pro-Hamas group that Israel said was behind the terrorist attack. On Wednesday, an airstrike killed an Islamic Jihad leader, Ismail al-Asmar, 34; the group said Thursday that it had fired several of the missiles at Israel in retaliation.
Early Thursday, Israelis struck a smuggling tunnel that crossed under Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, killing four.
A third airstrike — on a club that the Israeli military said held weapons — killed two people in northern Gaza: a member of Islamic Jihad and a Palestinian man who later died.
A Palestinian medical spokesman said 29 Palestinians were wounded in those three assaults. [*]
Thursday evening, as Gazans began to break their Ramadan fasts, an Israeli plane fired a missile at a motorbike in northern Gaza, killing two Palestinian militants, witnesses and medical sources said. The Israeli military said that the two had fired a mortar shell at the Erez crossing.
Ethan Bronner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/middleeast/26gaza.html
August 25, 2011
Israeli Strikes in Retaliation Kill 9 Gazans
By FARES AKRAM [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Gaza] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [as often happens there, the last week or two has seen a racheting up of tit-for-tat violence between rocket launchers in Gaza and retaliations from Israel back at Gaza] [Israel makes major foray into Gaza to try to stop the violence?] [followup] [*]
GAZA — Nine Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since Wednesday night, with Israel’s southern communities withstanding 20 rockets from Gaza over the same 24-hour period.
Warning sirens repeatedly sent Israelis across the south into bomb shelters, but most of the rockets landed in empty fields near the Israeli cities of Ofakim, Ashkelon and Beersheba. However, a 9-month-old baby was slightly hurt in Ashkelon when a car was hit with shrapnel. [*]
The recent round of violence started a week ago, with a terrorist attack on southern Israel

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/middleeast/26gaza.html
August 25, 2011
Israeli Strikes in Retaliation Kill 9 Gazans
By FARES AKRAM [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Gaza] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [as often happens there, the last week or two has seen a racheting up of tit-for-tat violence between rocket launchers in Gaza and retaliations from Israel back at Gaza] [Israel makes major foray into Gaza to try to stop the violence?] [followup] [*]
GAZA — Nine Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since Wednesday night, with Israel’s southern communities withstanding 20 rockets from Gaza over the same 24-hour period.
Warning sirens repeatedly sent Israelis across the south into bomb shelters, but most of the rockets landed in empty fields near the Israeli cities of Ofakim, Ashkelon and Beersheba. However, a 9-month-old baby was slightly hurt in Ashkelon when a car was hit with shrapnel. [*]
The recent round of violence started a week ago, with a terrorist attack on southern Israel in which eight Israelis were killed. Israeli forces pursuing suspects killed three Egyptian security officers in the Egyptian Sinai, creating a furor with Egypt. [*]
Israeli officials said the perpetrators and planners of the terrorist attack were originally from Gaza, and Israel has retaliated with strikes that have killed at least 23 Palestinians. Gazan officials say they know nothing about the source of the attack.
Israel’s first retaliatory strike in Gaza killed leaders of the Popular Resistance Committees, a pro-Hamas group that Israel said was behind the terrorist attack. On Wednesday, an airstrike killed an Islamic Jihad leader, Ismail al-Asmar, 34; the group said Thursday that it had fired several of the missiles at Israel in retaliation.
Early Thursday, Israelis struck a smuggling tunnel that crossed under Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, killing four.
A third airstrike — on a club that the Israeli military said held weapons — killed two people in northern Gaza: a member of Islamic Jihad and a Palestinian man who later died.
A Palestinian medical spokesman said 29 Palestinians were wounded in those three assaults. [*]
Thursday evening, as Gazans began to break their Ramadan fasts, an Israeli plane fired a missile at a motorbike in northern Gaza, killing two Palestinian militants, witnesses and medical sources said. The Israeli military said that the two had fired a mortar shell at the Erez crossing.
Ethan Bronner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/africa/26assets.html
August 25, 2011
U.N. Releases $1.5 Billion in Frozen Qaddafi Assets to Aid Rebuilding of Libya
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and DAN BILEFSKY [Libya] [UN] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [confusion continued days after Tripoli fell] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [looks like the UN has finally freed up some money that was frozen] [followup] [that should be helpful] [*]
WASHINGTON — Even with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi still on the run, the nations that aided Libya’s rebellion moved swiftly Thursday to release billions of dollars of cash needed for the difficult — and, for some foreign companies, potentially lucrative — task of rebuilding the country after six months of fighting.
The United Nations Security Council approved an immediate infusion of $1.5 billion that the United States seized last spring. Officials said the money was urgently needed to provide basic services, especially electricity, and, perhaps as important, to build political support for Libya’s rebel leaders, known as the Transitional National Council, as they try to consolidate control of

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/africa/26assets.html
August 25, 2011
U.N. Releases $1.5 Billion in Frozen Qaddafi Assets to Aid Rebuilding of Libya
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and DAN BILEFSKY [Libya] [UN] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [confusion continued days after Tripoli fell] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [looks like the UN has finally freed up some money that was frozen] [followup] [that should be helpful] [*]
WASHINGTON — Even with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi still on the run, the nations that aided Libya’s rebellion moved swiftly Thursday to release billions of dollars of cash needed for the difficult — and, for some foreign companies, potentially lucrative — task of rebuilding the country after six months of fighting.
The United Nations Security Council approved an immediate infusion of $1.5 billion that the United States seized last spring. Officials said the money was urgently needed to provide basic services, especially electricity, and, perhaps as important, to build political support for Libya’s rebel leaders, known as the Transitional National Council, as they try to consolidate control of the country after 41 years of Colonel Qaddafi’s government. [*]
“Qaddafi hasn’t paid salaries in months,” Jeffrey D. Feltman, an assistant secretary of state, [this is the same guy who was reported a week ago to be in Benghazi] [*] said in a telephone interview from Istanbul, where diplomats from 28 nations and 7 international organizations met on Thursday to discuss preparations for a post-Qaddafi Libya. “It would be a real boost for the T.N.C. to be able to do that.”
The Security Council’s action came after leading countries made new pledges of financial and diplomatic support, laying the foundation for new relations with a nation presumably more amenable to interaction and alliance with the West than it was under Colonel Qaddafi. With so much uncertainty over the governance of Libya, though, none of the money will be given directly to the rebels, but instead will be dispersed on their behalf by the United States or international agencies to ensure it goes directly to humanitarian needs. [*]
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, meeting with one of the Libyan rebel officials, joined other leaders in offering to aid the nascent government, promising to unfreeze roughly $500 million. The Security Council’s action on Thursday so far affects only the $1.5 billion in American jurisdiction. [*]
Eni S.p.A., Italy’s largest oil company and the biggest oil producer in Libya, also pledged to supply gasoline and diesel fuel on an emergency basis and on credit, to be paid later in crude oil when production resumes.
The head of the Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, explicitly promised to reward those nations that backed Libya’s revolt with contracts in the state’s postwar reconstruction. “We promise to favor the countries which helped us, especially in the development of Libya,” he said in the rebels’ eastern stronghold, Benghazi. “We will deal with them according to the support which they gave us.”
The Libyan council has asked the United Nations to release as much as $5 billion of an estimated $160 billion in Libyan assets frozen abroad after the Security Council imposed sanctions on Colonel Qaddafi’s government shortly after the popular uprising began in February.
Much of those assets are property, investments or other fixed assets that cannot easily be cashed in without the authority of a recognized Libyan government, which legally remains very much up in the air. Of the nearly $38 billion in assets frozen by the United States, for example, only about $3 billion is in cash, according to the State Department. [*]
The United States had asked the committee that oversees United Nations sanctions — made up of the same 15 members of the Security Council itself — for a special exception to return $1.5 billion. But it encountered strong opposition, particularly from South Africa, whose leaders long had close relations with Colonel Qaddafi. [*]The sanctions committee requires unanimous consent, which South Africa blocked, even as events in Libya rapidly unfolded.
American and British officials took the usual diplomatic step of publicly identifying South Africa’s opposition and vowed to force a vote on a new resolution on Thursday afternoon,[*] which South Africa alone would have been unable to block.
South Africa objected to releasing the frozen money in part “because it implied recognition” of the rebels, one American official said, but ultimately relented after the sanction committee’s decision deleted explicit reference to the rebel council. [*]
The $1.5 billion in assets is divided into three roughly equal parts of $500 million — none of which will go directly into the coffers of the rebels. One-third will pay international organizations like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for past and future humanitarian assistance, while another will go from American accounts directly to companies that have been providing fuel for electricity in civilian areas under rebel control.
The third $500 million will go to a special fund in Qatar, controlled by a committee of nations, that disperses money for basic services like health care, education and food. Many countries, including Turkey most recently, have pledged money through the fund.
The transitional council, already recognized by the United States and many other countries as the recognized authority in Libya, is scrambling on the diplomatic and political front to catch up to its surprisingly rapid military advances this week. And it appeared to be succeeding, with the Arab League inviting the council to represent Libya at its next meeting later this month.
The diplomats meeting in Istanbul — including representatives of the United Nations and the Arab League — promised in a statement to provide the council with “the legal, political and financial means necessary to form an interim government of Libya.” [*]
They also called on the Security Council to free all the assets “in an expedited manner” and said that the United Nations would oversee “international efforts” to rebuild Libya, a demand that Russia and China emphasized on Thursday.
The nations in Istanbul, meantime, pledged $2.5 billion in aid in all, according to Fathi Baja, a member of the rebel council. “We need more,” he said, “but this will be a very useful chunk to take care of the immediate needs.”
Mr. Abdel-Jalil said that “the biggest destabilizing element” would be a failure of the rebel administration to deliver services and pay the salaries of officials who had not been paid for months.
With fighting still under way, it is too early to estimate the scope of the reconstruction needed in Libya, though officials acknowledged that the effort would be immense. At the same time, officials said, much of it can be paid for by Libya itself from the Qaddafi-era assets and a resumption of the country’s oil industry, the infrastructure of which is not believed to have been badly damaged in the fighting.
“The overwhelming bulk of Libya’s needs,” Mr. Feltman said, “are going to be paid for by the Libyans themselves.”
Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Paris, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/libyan-rebels-fight-pockets-of-resistance-continue-hunt-for-gaddafi/2011/08/26/gIQAM2BpfJ_story.html
Libyan rebels fight pockets of resistance, continue hunt for Gaddafi
By Simon Denyer, Thomas Erdbrink and Leila Fadel, Updated: Friday, August 26, 6:08 AM [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [just when it appears the opposition has dissolved into chaos, they unite and pull off a major success?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [mass confusion and fog of war since the regime collapsed?] [confusion continues] [followup] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan rebels fought isolated pockets of resistance early Friday as special forces hunted for fugitive leader Moammar Gaddafi after clearing one of his loyalists’ last major strongholds in the capital.
The streets of Tripoli were largely deserted except for rebel fighters manning checkpoints Friday, the last day in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Rebels seemed to have control of most of the Abu Salim neighborhood they cleared of Gaddafi loyalists the

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/libyan-rebels-fight-pockets-of-resistance-continue-hunt-for-gaddafi/2011/08/26/gIQAM2BpfJ_story.html
Libyan rebels fight pockets of resistance, continue hunt for Gaddafi
By Simon Denyer, Thomas Erdbrink and Leila Fadel, Updated: Friday, August 26, 6:08 AM [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [just when it appears the opposition has dissolved into chaos, they unite and pull off a major success?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [mass confusion and fog of war since the regime collapsed?] [confusion continues] [followup] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan rebels fought isolated pockets of resistance early Friday as special forces hunted for fugitive leader Moammar Gaddafi after clearing one of his loyalists’ last major strongholds in the capital.
The streets of Tripoli were largely deserted except for rebel fighters manning checkpoints Friday, the last day in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Rebels seemed to have control of most of the Abu Salim neighborhood they cleared of Gaddafi loyalists the previous day, although they said the area was still not completely safe, and occasional gunshots still rang out.
Black smoke billowed from the main market, and broken branches, glass, trash and bullets were strewn over the streets between shot-up cars and rebel checkpoints.
At least 40 bodies of Gaddafi loyalists killed in the fighting were rotting in Abu Salim’s otherwise deserted and closed main hospital, where they had been dumped after the fighting. All of them were black-skinned, suggesting they were either from southern Libya or mercenaries from other African countries, as the rebels repeatedly claimed. Rebels said they had already buried their own dead. [*]
Before daybreak, bursts of gunfire were heard from an area near the neghborhood, and pro-Gaddafi holdouts appeared to be trying to fight rearguard actions against the rebels, who swept into the capital Sunday and laid siege to his fortified compound before overrunning it Tuesday.
After a prolonged and fierce gun battle Thursday that left houses in flames and bullet-riddled bodies in the streets of Abu Salim, the rebels continued to come up empty in their efforts to find Gaddafi.
Now, according to rebel Col. Hisham Buhagiar, the rebels are using special forces and intelligence units to hunt down the 69-year-old former ruler, Reuters news agency reported. [happy hunting] [*]
Even as rebels swept through and took control of the loyalist Abu Salim neighborhood, Gaddafi, ever defiant and delusional, taunted them in an audio message Thursday from his secret hideout, claiming that NATO was on the retreat and appealing to his supporters to march on Tripoli and “purify it” of the rebels, whom he called “rats, crusaders and unbelievers.” [while hiding under a rock, presumably] [thing is, without his threat very few wish to carry out his demands] [*]
In eastern Libya, rebel fighters remained stalled Friday just outside the coastal oil terminal of Ras Lanuf, which was coming under rocket fire from pro-Gaddafi forces based in his home town and tribal power base of Sirte, about 130 miles to the west.
Gaddafi’s forces were attacking from Bin Jawwad, a coastal town 34 miles west of Ras Lanuf, said Mohammed Sagazly, the rebels’ deputy interior minister. He said the rebel operations room for the campaign was moved into the oil refinery town to reinforce the front line as plans were made to finally move toward Sirte, where Gaddafi loyalists were expected to make one of their last and most important stands. [why?] [surely they see it’s over so it makes sense to cut as good a deal as they can] [*]
Since the uprising in Tripoli, rebels have taken the oil hubs of Brega and Ras Lanuf. Commanders have said they planned to move forward and attack on Friday if negotiations with Sirte leaders failed, but there was no sign during the day of any advance. Sirte sits on the coastal highway that runs between Tripoli and Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital, essentially cutting off eastern Libya from the western part of the country.
On Thursday, NATO said it struck one surface-to-air missile launcher, several military vehicles and a command post in and around Sirte. Scud missiles have been fired from Sirte, and rebel fighters say Gaddafi’s forces are stationed in camps on the outskirts of the city. [*]
“We haven’t made a deal yet,” Sagazly said. Sirte tribal leaders “are being told by Gaddafi’s media that the revolutionaries will torture and rape them,” he added. “We told them that we have not done that before, and we won’t do it now. We want this to be peaceful.” [*]
In Tripoli, loyalist snipers still occupy isolated buildings, but butchers, bakers and grocery stores in the city have started to reopen as supplies trickle in from Tunisia. A few people ventured out Thursday to buy food on streets still strewn with trash, even as explosions and gunfire echoed across the city.
But water remains cut off in many neighborhoods, and gunmen still dominate the streets. Some are just teenagers, manning improvised checkpoints every few yards with rifles slung over their shoulders. Graffiti have been scrawled on almost every available wall proclaiming that God is great, that Gaddafi is a dog and that the revolution that began on Feb. 17 has finally won the day.
If the rebels are finding Gaddafi elusive, their search for the funds they need to build a viable state made considerable progress, with the U.N. Security Council agreeing Thursday to release $1.5 billion [*]in frozen Libyan assets held by U.S. financial institutions to fund humanitarian operations and buy fuel, food and other basic goods.
In Tripoli, the resistance in Abu Salim was so fierce that rebels suspected Thursday that they might have stumbled on the last hiding place of Gaddafi or one of his sons. They hammered buildings with antiaircraft fire and left streams of blood running down the streets. Huge explosions and palls of smoke rent the air, mixing at one point with the Muslim call to prayer.
There were moments of bathos too. At one point, six trucks of rebels from the coastal city of Misurata arrived to take out snipers in an apartment complex, but instead got preoccupied with removing a gigantic poster of Gaddafi in a general’s uniform hanging on the side of a building nearby.
“We are here to deal with the snipers,” said their commander, Nouri Sherkisi. But instead, his men started filling gasoline bombs to throw at the poster. Just as they were getting ready to burn it, gunfire crackled from all directions, and the rebels fled in their vehicles.
Outside Gaddafi’s former Bab al-Aziziya stronghold, about a dozen bullet-riddled bodies lay face down in the grass, some with their hands tied behind their backs. It was not immediately clear who they were, but a number of Gaddafi sympathizers had camped out in a tent city on the grass for months. According to an earlier Reuters report, more than 30 men believed to be fighters loyal to Gaddafi were found shot to death Thursday at a military encampment in a central Tripoli traffic circle in an area that had been held by loyalists.
According to the Associated Press, five or six bodies were in a tent erected on the traffic roundabout. One of dead still had an IV tube in his arm, and another body was completely charred, its legs missing. The body of a doctor, in his green hospital gown, was found dumped in a canal.
As the fighters tried to purge the capital of the last remnants of Gaddafi forces, the city still had a chaotic air Thursday. [*]
Heavy firing erupted just outside the Corinthia Hotel, where many foreign reporters are staying. Rebels fired their guns indiscriminately at imaginary targets as reporters scattered for cover, and one man even turned his Kalashnikov on the hotel itself, sending masonry crashing to the ground as he aimed at one of his own fighters positioned on a rooftop.
As talk swirled of snipers, rebels concluded that the whole incident was just a case of confused “friendly fire.”
Although rebels have seized control of Tripoli’s main airport, pro-Gaddafi troops still control territory on the airport road and are using it to shell the airfield. One civilian plane was hit by a Grad rocket and destroyed this week.
Victims of snipers filled Tripoli hospitals. “There are around 60 here,” said Tahr Kateb as he searched for the body of a nephew in a makeshift morgue at Tripoli’s al-Zawiyah hospital.
At another hospital, Ali Modir said his mother was shot by a sniper when she left the safety of her house. “She wanted to go shopping,” Modir said, weeping.
Rebels also reported fighting around the city of Sabha, another Gaddafi stronghold south of Tripoli with a strong presence of loyalist troops — and another possible place of refuge for the Libyan leader himself.
The hunt for Gaddafi is one of the priorities for many Libyans, and NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance help, while continuing to bombard loyalist troops from the sky, British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said. [for many reasons, not least so they can show tribes loyal to him that it’s time they acclimated to a new regime] [*]
“They may take some time to completely eliminate, and it is likely there will be some frustrating days ahead before the Libyan people are completely free of the Gaddafi legacy,” Fox told Sky News.
Gaddafi’s spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, told the Associated Press that the fugitive leader was safely in hiding in Libya and remained in command. Gaddafi is capable of leading the resistance for “weeks, months and years,” [either delusional or still doing his job] [actually, probably both] [*]Moussa said.
Many people in Tripoli say they will not feel secure until the man who has ruled them through fear for 42 years is killed or captured.
In his audio message Thursday, Gaddafi himself continued to use fear as one of his main weapons, warning supporters that rebels would enter people’s homes and rape women. “Don’t leave Tripoli for the rats. Fight them, fight them, and kill them,” he said. “It is the time for martyrdom or victory.” It was not clear when the audio message was recorded.
The country’s former central bank chief said Gaddafi had been trying to sell the country’s gold reserves to pay for his protection as he fled, possibly in the direction of the Algerian border.
“Now he is looking to pay and corrupt some tribes and some militia to have protection and to create further chaos,” Farhat Bengdara, who has allied himself with the rebels, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Fadel reported from Benghazi. Staff writer Colum Lynch in New York and special correspondent Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.
© The Washington Post Co

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/middleeast/26syria.html
August 25, 2011
Political Cartoonist Whose Work Skewered Assad Is Brutally Beaten in Syria
By NADA BAKRI [Syria] [so-called Arab Awakening] [Middle East proper] [Arabia] [democratization] [Syria pretends to be a modern secular republic, but is far from it] [no monarchy but long run by a minority sect (al Assads) and the Baath Party] [the Ramadan massacre continues] [the regime mercilessly beats another of its critics—there are many but the regime is angry presently] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Masked gunmen severely beat Syria’s best-known political cartoonist on Thursday, breaking his hand and leaving him to bleed on the side of a road in Damascus, activists said. [the only masked gunman in Syria work for the regime] [it’s a police state—no one is allowed to go around with masks and guns] [*]
The attack came days after the artist, Ali Farzat, published a cartoon showing President Bashar al-Assad hitching a ride out of town with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, who was toppled from power this week.
Also Thursday, Syrian security forces carried out military operations against antigovernment activists in several areas across the country, killing nine people, activists and residents said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/middleeast/26syria.html
August 25, 2011
Political Cartoonist Whose Work Skewered Assad Is Brutally Beaten in Syria
By NADA BAKRI [Syria] [so-called Arab Awakening] [Middle East proper] [Arabia] [democratization] [Syria pretends to be a modern secular republic, but is far from it] [no monarchy but long run by a minority sect (al Assads) and the Baath Party] [the Ramadan massacre continues] [the regime mercilessly beats another of its critics—there are many but the regime is angry presently] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Masked gunmen severely beat Syria’s best-known political cartoonist on Thursday, breaking his hand and leaving him to bleed on the side of a road in Damascus, activists said. [the only masked gunman in Syria work for the regime] [it’s a police state—no one is allowed to go around with masks and guns] [*]
The attack came days after the artist, Ali Farzat, published a cartoon showing President Bashar al-Assad hitching a ride out of town with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, who was toppled from power this week.
Also Thursday, Syrian security forces carried out military operations against antigovernment activists in several areas across the country, killing nine people, activists and residents said. [*]
Since the start of the Syrian uprising in March, Mr. Farzat, whose cartoons are renowned through the Arab world, has aimed his pen at Mr. Assad and his crackdown on protesters.
Activists said that Mr. Farzat was seized at 4:30 a.m. in Umayyad Square in Old Damascus, as he was heading home from his studio. They said he was beaten severely and thrown out of a car along the airport road, where passers-by found him. [*]
A friend of Mr. Farzat’s said that two fingers of his left hand were broken, his right arm fractured and his left eye bruised.
Another friend, Ayad Sharbaji, visited him in the hospital and relayed his description of what happened. “They told him as they were burning his beard, ‘We’ll see what you will draw from now on,’ ” Mr. Sharbaji said. “ ‘How dare you disobey your masters?’ ” [*]
The attackers also stole drawings and other personal belongings, activists and friends said.
The American Embassy in Damascus called it “a government-sponsored, targeted, brutal attack.”
“What happened to Ali Farzat today scared us,” said an activist from Homs, who wished to be identified only by her first name, Sally. “But it’s only a proof of how desperate the regime is. It shows how frightened they are and proves that they are losing control.” [*]
In eastern Syria, tanks and armored vehicles entered the town of Shuhail, southeast of the provincial capital, Deir al-Zour, activists and residents said. Daily protests against the government have taken place in Shuhail, they said, since the start of Ramadan.
Security forces also attacked four towns in the province of Dara’a in southern Syria, and Rastan and Talbiseh, two villages near Homs, Syria’s third largest city, where there have been large demonstrations. Residents in both areas reported hearing heavy gunfire and loud explosions throughout the day.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group of Syrian activists involved in organizing and documenting the protests, said that four soldiers were also shot dead in Rastan after they refused to fire on protesters and residents. [*]Activists said that a Turkish driver was killed as he was driving through the same village, though the reason was not clear.
The committees said that among those dead was a 9-year-old boy from Baniyas, a city along the Mediterranean Coast that was the scene of a brutal crackdown in May.
The Syrian news agency, Sana, which focuses its reports on the deaths of soldiers it attributes to terrorists, said that armed groups had fired on a military bus in the town of Talbiseh, killing an officer and two soldiers, and that “a terrorist group” had killed five soldiers in Rastan.
The Syrian government has not given a total number of security forces killed in the crackdown on protests, but activists and human rights groups say that about 400 have died. [of Syria’s forces] [*] The United Nations says that more than 2,200 people have been killed over the past five months.
New American sanctions imposed over the crackdown have rendered Visa and MasterCard credit cards no longer valid in Syria, officials said Thursday. The Treasury Department added the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria and its Lebanon-based subsidiary to its sanctions list this month, citing links to human rights abuses and to illegal weapons trade with North Korea.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/08/26/world/asia/AP-AS-China-NKorea.html
August 26, 2011
Kim Pushing for New N. Korea Talks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [DPRK] [North Korea] [recently, movement toward restarting 6-way talks?] [in constant state of tensions] [invariably, when ROK warns its people of some nefarious plot, within short period DPRK will threaten will war] [similarly, ROK goes to general quarters for war] [use psci 350] [DPRk actually uses military confrontations such as this for political posturing as if war cannot easily get out of controls in esclation spiral!] [followup] [real trouble is DPRK has nukes—and since 2006] [*]
BEIJING (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il renewed a push to restart talks on swapping aid for his country's nuclear disarmament during a stop in northeastern China on Friday on his return journey from Russia. [why?] [*]
Kim said he was willing to impose a nuclear test and production moratorium and return to international talks on Pyongyang's atomic program without preconditions, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said, echoing a commitment made earlier in the week in a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a Siberian city. [*]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/08/26/world/asia/AP-AS-China-NKorea.html
August 26, 2011
Kim Pushing for New N. Korea Talks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [DPRK] [North Korea] [recently, movement toward restarting 6-way talks?] [in constant state of tensions] [invariably, when ROK warns its people of some nefarious plot, within short period DPRK will threaten will war] [similarly, ROK goes to general quarters for war] [use psci 350] [DPRk actually uses military confrontations such as this for political posturing as if war cannot easily get out of controls in esclation spiral!] [followup] [real trouble is DPRK has nukes—and since 2006] [*]
BEIJING (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il renewed a push to restart talks on swapping aid for his country's nuclear disarmament during a stop in northeastern China on Friday on his return journey from Russia. [why?] [*]
Kim said he was willing to impose a nuclear test and production moratorium and return to international talks on Pyongyang's atomic program without preconditions, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said, echoing a commitment made earlier in the week in a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a Siberian city. [*]
In talks with State Counselor Dai Bingguo, CCTV said Kim also praised relations with China, his isolated communist state's most important diplomatic ally and a major source of economic assistance.
Traveling aboard his armored train, Kim also toured a machine tool factory, a dairy, an urban planning exhibition and a residential district in the cities of Qiqihar and Daqing in Heilongjiang province, CCTV said.
CCTV did not say where Kim was headed next. Daqing lies about 450 miles (750 kilometers) from the North Korean border by rail.
Kim,69, is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but appeared relatively vigorous in the CCTV coverage, shaking hands with numerous officials and smiling broadly in his trademark sun glasses and beige leisure suit. The broadcast was unusual because China usually withholds confirmation of Kim's visits to the country until he has returned home.
Kim's last trip to China earlier this year focused on manufacturing and economic sites as China encourages its impoverished ally to reform its economy. [is he thinking legacy?] [*]
North Korea is eager to see a resumption of the six-nation nuclear talks, a move that could help relieve growing economic woes stemming from natural disasters and deepening international sanctions. [*]
However, Washington and Seoul have been wary of the North's appeals for renewed talks, calling first for an improvement in dismal ties between the Koreas and for a sincere sign from the North that it will abide by past commitments it has made in previous rounds of talks.
North Korea is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least six atomic bombs, and is believed to be working toward mounting a nuclear bomb on a long-range missile. [*]
Last year, it unveiled a uranium enrichment facility that could give it a second way to make nuclear weapons.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/asia/26briefs-Tricycle.html
August 25, 2011
Pakistan: Bomb in Tricycle Kills 11 in Bazaar
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Pakistan] [AfPak] [even as US commits much money and support to Pakistan’s govt] [Obama’s “surge” continues in AfPak] [after “surge” has success around Kandahar, insurgency strikes back?] [psci 355-455, 463] [perhaps another deadly sectarian attack?] [it’s not clear yet] [followup] [*]
A bomb planted in a child’s tricycle exploded outside a shop in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and damaging several stores and hotels, the police said. The attack occurred in the main bazaar in the town of Risalpur in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa [*] Province, the district police chief said. At least 23 people were wounded. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban have carried out many bombings throughout the northwest. [could be sect or ethnic?] [*]

[full piece may be found above the jump] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:14 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/chinas-new-weapons-of-doom/
Wired
The Danger Room Blog
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:50:38 AM] [*]
Pentagon Isn’t Sweating China’s New Weapons of Doom
By Spencer Ackerman
August 24, 2011. 4:59 pm
Categories: China [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [defense dept, Pentagon, across the military] [2011 has been a big year for exaggeration of China’s threat] [here we finally see a little proportion to the discussion, for a change] [followup] [cross in societal, external] [*]
You’d think the Pentagon would be chewing its nails down to the nub over China’s military buildup.
After all, in the past few months, China unveiled its first stealth jet, reached the early operating phase of a “carrier-killer” missile and took its first-ever aircraft carrier out for a stroll.
But the Defense Department’s Asia hands don’t seem more worried by the Chinese military than they were last year. In fact, the Pentagon’s annual report on its Chinese counterpart reads a lot like the previous edition. [*]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/chinas-new-weapons-of-doom/
Wired
The Danger Room Blog
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:50:38 AM] [*]
Pentagon Isn’t Sweating China’s New Weapons of Doom
By Spencer Ackerman
August 24, 2011. 4:59 pm
Categories: China [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [defense dept, Pentagon, across the military] [2011 has been a big year for exaggeration of China’s threat] [here we finally see a little proportion to the discussion, for a change] [followup] [cross in societal, external] [*]
You’d think the Pentagon would be chewing its nails down to the nub over China’s military buildup.
After all, in the past few months, China unveiled its first stealth jet, reached the early operating phase of a “carrier-killer” missile and took its first-ever aircraft carrier out for a stroll.
But the Defense Department’s Asia hands don’t seem more worried by the Chinese military than they were last year. In fact, the Pentagon’s annual report on its Chinese counterpart reads a lot like the previous edition. [*]
Yes, Beijing is rapidly modernizing its forces, as it has for years, upping its military spending by 12.7 percent last year while the Pentagon prepares for deep cuts. Yes, China’s pursuing an “expanded regional maritime strategy and presence.” And yes, in the eyes of the Pentagon’s top Asia wonk, that modernization is “potentially destabilizing.” [**]
But while China’s new mega-missile, aircraft carrier and stealth fighter have made for pants-pooping media panic, the Pentagon is affecting the blase posture of the Brooklyn hipster.
“There’s nothing particularly magical about any one particular item,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia Michael Schiffer told reporters in a Wednesday briefing. [sounds like a steady hand for a change] [*]
And key sections of the report verge on the passive aggressive. The ultimate Chinese goal is a “regionally focused” military, (.pdf) not one that challenges the United States everywhere around the planet. ”China has made less progress on capabilities that extend global reach or power projection,” the report, released Wednesday, reads. “Outside of peacetime counter-piracy missions, for example, China’s Navy has little operational experience beyond regional waters.”
Apparently, it takes more than new stealth jets, early-stage missiles and a souped-up Ukrainian carrier to get a rise out of the U.S. military.
Not that any of that sangfroid will reassure U.S. allies in the Pacific, let alone Taiwan — which is staring down the bulk of China’s “large numbers of highly accurate cruise missiles.” But the report says the Chinese made “significant progress in improving “cross-[Taiwan] Strait relations.” [why on earth would China take it by force when it merely needs to be patient?] [it can control Taiwan and does, I dare say, a good deal already] [*]
It assesses that the Chinese have learned their lesson after freaking out Pacific nations in 2010 with saber-rattling claims of expanded regional interests, citing a “desire to avoid generating opposition and countervailing responses from regional and major powers.”
In his briefing, Schiffer said that the Chinese shouldn’t take the report as a sign of U.S. hostility. Instead, it should essentially serve as a way for China to read the U.S. attitude. “I hope they do look at it as an encapsulation of the sorts of questions and the sorts of issues that we have questions about,” Schiffer said. As the top U.S. brass has said for over a year, the Pentagon wants consistent “dialog and discussion” in order to build “strategic trust.”[*]
So what questions does the United States have for China? Primarily, they concern what the Pentagon calls “anti-access/area denial” capabilities — China’s ability to push the U.S. back from its shores, whether through missiles, subs, surface fighters, cyberattacks or warplanes.
“Current and projected systems such as the J-20 stealth fighter and longer-range conventional ballistic missiles could improve the [Chinese military's] ability to strike regional air bases, logistical facilities, and other ground-based infrastructure,” the report judges. It’s not a significantly upgraded threat from last year’s report (.pdf) — besides the reference to the new J-20.
Other aspects of the report read like they’re cribbed from my Danger Room colleague David Axe. Not only is the report similarly unimpressed by China’s refurbished Ukranian aircraft carrier, it reminds us that China still has “several years” before it can master the complex operations of flying and landing planes and helicopters from it at “even a minimal level.” (It’ll take until 2015, the report guesses, for China to build its own carrier, still ahead of its ability to use it properly.)
Danger Room wants to know why China hasn’t developed its own killer drones. The report cites the occasional unmanned surveillance drone, like the Harpies China bought from Israel in the ’90s, but no mention of the new “secret drone.”
And the report highlights China’s record 15 space launches in 2010, but doesn’t express any real worry about them.
The report is less sanguine about Chinese advances in its cybercapabilities. It cites China’s apparent hacking into U.S. government computer systems, judging China was “exfiltrating” info from U.S. networks. [that surprises me a little] [perhaps the media have overstated?] [*]
“Although this alone is a serious concern,” the report says, “the accesses and skills required for these intrusions are similar to those necessary to conduct computer network attacks.” It carefully parses Chinese official writings to highlight a growing importance of cyber — far more than the 2010 version did.
“It’s no secret that cyber is a realm where deeper engagement between the United States and China — so that we can work on common rules of the road and a common way forward — is necessary,” Schiffer said.
Even with big defense cuts on the horizon, the U.S. has an overwhelming advantage, whether in the refueling tankers that make the U.S. Air Force dominant over planet Earth, its decades of experience as a global Navy and its deep memory of how its forces wage war as a unified team. Even with Beijing’s rapid defense increases, China’s military budget is $91.5 billion, not even a fifth of what the U.S. spends on defense outside of the costs of the wars.
But that neglects one of China’s biggest strategic assets: the massive amounts of U.S. debt China owns. And the report itself doesn’t mention the debt at all — something Schiffer said was beyond the document’s scope. Which is pretty surprising after Adm. Mike Mullen, the top U.S. officer, called the ballooning debt the number-one threat to U.S. national security.
To paraphrase one American general, it may be that China’s most important weapons aimed at the U.S. don’t shoot.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://theeuropean-magazine.com/306-elyan-tamim/333-the-future-of-egypts-revolution
The European
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:55:19 AM] [*]
An Islamist Turn?
by Tamim Elyan — 24.08.2011 [Arabia] [Middle East proper] [democratization] [revolutions affecting northern Africa (Islamic Maghreb), Horn of Africa, and Arabia] [democratization] [followup] [I know nothing of this source: I believe today is the first time I’ve archived anything from it—I discovered it rather circuitously] [this fellow discussing jihadis among the democracy advocates (liberals)] [use psci 463] [use fall 2011] [interesting discussion of whether the world should really fear islamists or prod liberals?] [*]
On July 29, after 20 days of ongoing sit-ins, liberal protestors and online activists had to make way for tens of thousands of Islamists chanting enthusiastically “Islamya Islamya” in downtown Cairo. They called their march the “Friday of Popular Will” and demanded an Islamic state where Islamic Sharia law is applied. [yes, I remember it well] [*]
The unprecedented numbers of Islamists in Tahrir Square sent shockwaves to liberal revolutionaries who felt alienated by the atmosphere and eventually abandoned the square. It also raised fears among many Egyptians that their revolution was being taken from them and turned into an “Islamic revolution”. [*]
Political polarization began a few months ago, following the constitutional amendments

http://theeuropean-magazine.com/306-elyan-tamim/333-the-future-of-egypts-revolution
The European
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:55:19 AM] [*]
An Islamist Turn?
by Tamim Elyan — 24.08.2011 [Arabia] [Middle East proper] [democratization] [revolutions affecting northern Africa (Islamic Maghreb), Horn of Africa, and Arabia] [democratization] [followup] [I know nothing of this source: I believe today is the first time I’ve archived anything from it—I discovered it rather circuitously] [this fellow discussing jihadis among the democracy advocates (liberals)] [use psci 463] [use fall 2011] [interesting discussion of whether the world should really fear islamists or prod liberals?] [*]
On July 29, after 20 days of ongoing sit-ins, liberal protestors and online activists had to make way for tens of thousands of Islamists chanting enthusiastically “Islamya Islamya” in downtown Cairo. They called their march the “Friday of Popular Will” and demanded an Islamic state where Islamic Sharia law is applied. [yes, I remember it well] [*]
The unprecedented numbers of Islamists in Tahrir Square sent shockwaves to liberal revolutionaries who felt alienated by the atmosphere and eventually abandoned the square. It also raised fears among many Egyptians that their revolution was being taken from them and turned into an “Islamic revolution”. [*]
Political polarization began a few months ago, following the constitutional amendments referendum in March which ended with a sweeping victory for the Islamists’ campaign of supporting the constitutional amendments until a parliament – in which they will probably form a majority – is elected and drafts a new constitution. Liberals – not ready to contest elections now – refused the amendments in favor of a new constitution.
Battered by the referendum result, liberals led protests in Tahrir and held conferences to pressure for the issuance of supra-constitutional principles guaranteeing a “civil state”. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) finally responded with a pledge to issue a bill governing the regulations of the constituent assembly. [*]
Yet the SCAF’s decision also angered Islamist groups, who called for mass protests refusing constitutional principles and for “respecting people’s will”.
True: The Islamists cannot all be put in one basket. There are Islamic politicians calling for a moderate Islamic “civil” state – like the Muslim Brotherhood. And there are preacher groups whose message is to “reform” society peacefully and who believe politics is a tool to achieve that – like the Salafists. [*]But finally, there are also groups who previously used violence to “reform” society with blood on their hands but are now weaseling out of their past – like the Islamic Group.
Islamists are in a state of exhilaration that is bordering on arrogance. Their cheers and their causes are widely popular, especially among the poor in rural areas. Yet Islamists lack any detailed political or economic program that responds to the daily sufferings of the masses; they are focused on issues of identity and regulations. [*]
Liberals, on the other hand, aren’t introducing themselves properly to the public. They have a program, but few devoted followers. [*]
Their poor communication opens to the door to speculation whether they are notorious seculars or advocates of democracy and citizenship. Unfortunately, liberals are often not taking these concerns seriously. They are arrogantly underestimating public opinion and are making choices for “ignorant, under-aware” Egyptians. [*]
Watching the scene are ordinary Egyptians – moderately religious and historically tolerant by nature – who know that Islam at its core is a liberal religion protecting equal rights for Muslims and non-Muslims alike and who are disgruntled by quagmire of post-revolutionary Egypt.
Islamists must know that a medieval religious state is impossible in Egypt. They will have to adopt a more strategic approach in using their masses not to give the impression of jumping over the revolution that awarded them freedom. Liberals, on the other hand, must know that complete separation between religion and state and extreme individual liberalism is impossible to impose on regular Egyptians. [*]
There is a need for politicians to mature and replace populist revolutionary politics with dialogue and reconciliation among political factions and focus on Egyptians’ demands of democracy and social justice – the original cause of the revolution

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:28 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/18cb7f14-ce3c-11e0-99ec-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1W2QAduir
Financial Times
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:53:58 AM] [*]
Why Libya sceptics were proved badly wrong
By Anne-Marie Slaughter [English media] [ commentary by American—cross in societal] [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [democratization] [Slaughter was still at state when this thing started so she has more than passing interest] [use psci 355-455, 463] [why the decision was right?] [use fall 2011] [*]
Let us do a thought experiment. Imagine the UN did not vote to authorise the use of force in Libya in March. Nato did nothing; Colonel Muammer Gaddafi over-ran Benghazi; the US stood by; the Libyan opposition was reduced to sporadic uprisings, quickly crushed. The regimes in Yemen and Syria took note, and put down their own uprisings with greater vigour. The west let brutality and oppression triumph again in the Middle East. [not clear they could have done that in Benghazi but we didn’t know how weak the regime was then] [*]
This is the scenario many wise heads were effectively arguing for with their strong

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/18cb7f14-ce3c-11e0-99ec-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1W2QAduir
Financial Times
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:53:58 AM] [*]
Why Libya sceptics were proved badly wrong
By Anne-Marie Slaughter [English media] [ commentary by American—cross in societal] [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [democratization] [Slaughter was still at state when this thing started so she has more than passing interest] [use psci 355-455, 463] [why the decision was right?] [use fall 2011] [*]
Let us do a thought experiment. Imagine the UN did not vote to authorise the use of force in Libya in March. Nato did nothing; Colonel Muammer Gaddafi over-ran Benghazi; the US stood by; the Libyan opposition was reduced to sporadic uprisings, quickly crushed. The regimes in Yemen and Syria took note, and put down their own uprisings with greater vigour. The west let brutality and oppression triumph again in the Middle East. [not clear they could have done that in Benghazi but we didn’t know how weak the regime was then] [*]
This is the scenario many wise heads were effectively arguing for with their strong stands against intervention to stop Col Gaddafi. Over the months those analysts have reminded us of their views, calling Libya a quagmire. This week one of the leading proponents of that position, my friend and colleague Richard Haass, shifted gears – but only to remind us just how hard the road ahead in Libya is likely to be. [*]
I do not know anyone, regardless of the side they took in the initial debate, who thinks this task will be easy; indeed, the battle against Col Gaddafi is not yet won. But not so fast. Before we focus on what must happen next, let us pause for a minute and reflect on that initial debate and the lessons to be learnt. [*]
The first is that, against the sceptics, it clearly can be in the US and the west’s strategic interest to help social revolutions fighting for the values we espouse and proclaim. The strategic interest in helping the Libyan opposition came from supporting democracy and human rights, [my own view is that little good comes from thinking of democracy and human rights as strategic objectives] [they are things Americans value and that U.S. foreign policy, therefore, values] [but each time we make them objectives—as strategic interests perforce are—we regret not leaving them as implicit objectives only where we can maneuver a bit] [the truth is that at certain times it’s not in America’s interest to go to war over democratization or human rights alone] [when we raise them to objectives and interest then we create expectations that those alone are worth fighting for when the prudent course might be the opposite] [*]but also being seen to live up to those values by the 60 per cent majority of Middle Eastern populations who are under 30 and increasingly determined to hold their governments to account. This value-based argument was inextricable from the interest-based argument. So enough with the accusations of bleeding heart liberals seeking to intervene for strictly moral reasons.
We also now know how different intervention looks when we help forces who want to be helped. East Timor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Libya – all cases where force evened out odds between a brutal government and a widespread and legitimate social or national movement. It is difficult to know when a state has failed in its responsibility to protect its people, particularly when secession is involved. This is why international authorisation is both required and difficult to obtain. But the contrast with Iraq and Afghanistan, where external invasion saw the US often labelled as an enemy, is enormous.
Another clear lesson: the depiction of America as “leading from behind” makes no sense. In a multi-power world with problems that are too great for any state to take on alone, effective leadership must come from the centre. Central players mobilise others and create the conditions and coalitions for action – just as President Barack Obama described America’s role in this conflict. In truth, US diplomacy has been adroit in enabling action from other powers in the region, and then knowing when to step out of the way. [on this I quite agree] [it was the administration of which she was apart that made the unfortunate comment that it was leading from behind!] []*]
That said, we must not focus just on states, because Libya also shows that social forces are increasingly powerful drivers of foreign policy. Those forces have now pushed both the west and Arab governments into taking a much harder line than simply geostrategic logic would dictate against Bashar al-Assad’s brutality in Syria, and even (albeit timidly) against torture and killings by the Bahraini government. Social movements are also beginning to reshape politics in Israel and India.
Looking forward, it is really not up to the west, much less the US, to plan Libya’s transition. It is a relief to see so many articles and statements reflecting lessons learnt from Iraq. But the Libyans are far ahead of where the US was when the initial fighting ended in Iraq. The National Transitional Council has a draft constitutional charter that is impressive in scope, aspirations and detail – including 37 articles on rights, freedoms and governance arrangements.
The sceptics’ response to all this, of course, is that it is too early to tell. In a year, or a decade, Libya could disintegrate into tribal conflict or Islamist insurgency, or split apart or lurch from one strongman to another. But the question for those who opposed the intervention is whether any of those things is worse than Col Gaddafi staying on by increasingly brutal means for many more years. Instability and worse would follow when he died, even had he orchestrated a transition.
The sceptics must now admit that the real choice in Libya was between temporary stability and the illusion of control, or fluidity and the ability to influence events driven by much larger forces. [*]Welcome to the tough choices of foreign policy in the 21st century. Libya proves the west can make those choices wisely after all. [indeed] [*]
The writer is a former director of policy planning for the US state department
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/25/139935926/international-effort-underway-to-find-gadhafi
NPR
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:45:37 AM][*]
'International Effort' Underway To Find Gadhafi
Categories: War, Foreign News
August 25, 2011
Mark Memmott [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [the recent (apparently) collapse of Qaddafi regime and what the NATO alliance and others are doing about helping to locate the brigands] [use psci 355-455, 463] [cross in govt] [*]
Surveillance aircraft provided by the U.S. [*]and, according to British media reports, special forces from the U.K., are helping in the hunt for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, who is in Tripoli, reported for Morning Edition earlier today.
"It's an all-out effort" as opposition fighters, with help from their international allies, look for Gadhafi, she added.[*]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/25/139935926/international-effort-underway-to-find-gadhafi
NPR
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:45:37 AM][*]
'International Effort' Underway To Find Gadhafi
Categories: War, Foreign News
August 25, 2011
Mark Memmott [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [the recent (apparently) collapse of Qaddafi regime and what the NATO alliance and others are doing about helping to locate the brigands] [use psci 355-455, 463] [cross in govt] [*]
Surveillance aircraft provided by the U.S. [*]and, according to British media reports, special forces from the U.K., are helping in the hunt for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, who is in Tripoli, reported for Morning Edition earlier today.
"It's an all-out effort" as opposition fighters, with help from their international allies, look for Gadhafi, she added.[*]
The anti-Gadhafi forces have also put a $2 million bounty on his head. [*]
Meanwhile, "pockets of [Gadhafi] loyalists" continue to resist, Lourdes reports. But the Libyan capital is "relatively quiet" today.
NPR's Renee Montagne talks with Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
As the BBC adds, "rebel forces are pushing towards Col Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, having taken most of Tripoli. They have been exchanging heavy rocket fire with about 1,000 Gaddafi loyalists on the road to the city and are bringing up reinforcements. Gaddafi forces are still firmly in control of the eastern city as well as Sabha in the desert to the south"
Note: NPR follows Associated Press style on the spelling of Gadhafi's name. Other news organizations use different spellings.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/ahmadinejad-iran-is-determined-to-eradicate-israel-1.380629
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:49:21 AM] [*]
Published 14:00 25.08.11
Ahmadinejad: Iran is determined to eradicate Israel
Iranian president says those who are for humanity should also be for eradicating Israel, since the 'Zionist regime is a symbol of suppression and discrimination.'
By DPA Tags: Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran’s frequent bouts of bat-sh*t crazy] [Ahmadinejad has himself in a pickle and he reliably calls for Israel’s destruction at such times] [*]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran was determined to eradicate Israel, ISNA news agency reported Thursday.
"Iran believes that whoever is for humanity should also be for eradicating the Zionist regime (Israel) as symbol of suppression and discrimination," Ahmadinejad [*]said in an interview with a Lebanese television network, carried by ISNA.
"Iran follows this issue (the eradication of Israel) with determination and

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/ahmadinejad-iran-is-determined-to-eradicate-israel-1.380629
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:49:21 AM] [*]
Published 14:00 25.08.11
Ahmadinejad: Iran is determined to eradicate Israel
Iranian president says those who are for humanity should also be for eradicating Israel, since the 'Zionist regime is a symbol of suppression and discrimination.'
By DPA Tags: Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran’s frequent bouts of bat-sh*t crazy] [Ahmadinejad has himself in a pickle and he reliably calls for Israel’s destruction at such times] [*]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran was determined to eradicate Israel, ISNA news agency reported Thursday.
"Iran believes that whoever is for humanity should also be for eradicating the Zionist regime (Israel) as symbol of suppression and discrimination," Ahmadinejad [*]said in an interview with a Lebanese television network, carried by ISNA.
"Iran follows this issue (the eradication of Israel) with determination and decisiveness and will never ever withdraw from this standpoint and policy," the Iranian president added in the interview with the Al-Manar network.
The remarks by Ahmadinejad came one day before the annual anti-Israeli rallies named Qods (Jerusalem) Day, which are held nationwide in Iran on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan. [this may simply be his annual Ramadan hate announcement] [it always amazes me how popular the Palestinian cause is with fellow Muslim regmes (almost all, authoritarian) despite their consistent lack of actual deeds in behalf of Palestinians] [Palestinians are treated abominably by the Arab world generally and specifically by Persian Iran] [*]
Ahmadinejad on Monday said that Iranians and Muslim nations worldwide should hold Qods rallies and show their willingness to dispose of this "infectious tumor and this regime full of rascality."
The Iranian president provoked international condemnation in 2005 when he said that Israel should be eliminated from the map of the Middle East and transferred to Europe or North America.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/libya-rebels-claim-to-have-gadhafi-and-sons-surrounded-in-tripoli-apartment-1.380655
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:48:21 AM] [*]
Published 16:20 25.08.11
Libya rebels claim to have Gadhafi and sons surrounded in Tripoli apartment
Group of rebels believes former leader hiding near main compound in Tripoli; last-ditch battles continue to rage in pockets of capital.
By Reuters Tags: Libya Muammar Gadhafi Arab Spring [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [UN’s report on the flotilla debacle of May 2010] [Libya and the apparent collapse of the Qaddafi regime] [updates] [followup] [*]
A group of rebels besieging a cluster of apartment buildings near the compound of Muammar Gadhafi said they believed the man who led Libya for four decades was hiding in the buildings with some of his sons. [**]
Rebels were exchanging fire with Gaddafi loyalists inside the buildings. They did not say why they believed Gadhafi and his sons were inside.
"They are together. They are in a small hole," said one of the fighters involved in the battle, Muhammad Gomaa. "Today we finish. Today we will end that." [*]
Earlier on Thursday rebel forces began to purge Tripoli's streets of diehard gunmen still loyal to Gadhafi in the final phase of the battle for the Libyan capital.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/libya-rebels-claim-to-have-gadhafi-and-sons-surrounded-in-tripoli-apartment-1.380655
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:48:21 AM] [*]
Published 16:20 25.08.11
Libya rebels claim to have Gadhafi and sons surrounded in Tripoli apartment
Group of rebels believes former leader hiding near main compound in Tripoli; last-ditch battles continue to rage in pockets of capital.
By Reuters Tags: Libya Muammar Gadhafi Arab Spring [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [UN’s report on the flotilla debacle of May 2010] [Libya and the apparent collapse of the Qaddafi regime] [updates] [followup] [*]
A group of rebels besieging a cluster of apartment buildings near the compound of Muammar Gadhafi said they believed the man who led Libya for four decades was hiding in the buildings with some of his sons. [**]
Rebels were exchanging fire with Gaddafi loyalists inside the buildings. They did not say why they believed Gadhafi and his sons were inside.
"They are together. They are in a small hole," said one of the fighters involved in the battle, Muhammad Gomaa. "Today we finish. Today we will end that." [*]
Earlier on Thursday rebel forces began to purge Tripoli's streets of diehard gunmen still loyal to Gadhafi in the final phase of the battle for the Libyan capital.
After rebel forces overran Gadhafi's fortified Tripoli compound and trashed symbols of his 42-year rule, scattered loyalist fighters and snipers fought last-ditch battles in pockets across the city. Rebels also reported fighting deep in the desert and a standoff around Gadhafi's home town. [supposedly one of the sons has been emailing nick Robertson at CNN about negotiations!] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/iran-urges-syria-to-implement-political-reforms-1.380656
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:47:00 AM] [*]
Published 16:38 25.08.11
Iran urges Syria to implement political reforms
Ahmadinejad calls on 'states to acknowledge their people's will for freedom', cautions Syrian demonstrators that Western powers only want to protect Israel.
By DPA Tags: Iran Syria Arab Spring [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran and Syria and especially Iran’s alliance with Syria (Syria has left Arab fold to align with Persian Iran)] [here we reportedly have Iran finally suggesting caution to the Assad regime, after how many months of massacre?] [and amid reports, including today‘s, that al Quds is neck deep in helping the Iranian thugocracy oppress] [*]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the Syrian government to accept the reforms demanded by its people, [how touching] [*]ISNA news agency reported Thursday.
"We recommend to the regional states to acknowledge their people's will for freedom and justice," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with a Lebanese television

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/iran-urges-syria-to-implement-political-reforms-1.380656
Haaretz
[Accessed 8/25/11 7:47:00 AM] [*]
Published 16:38 25.08.11
Iran urges Syria to implement political reforms
Ahmadinejad calls on 'states to acknowledge their people's will for freedom', cautions Syrian demonstrators that Western powers only want to protect Israel.
By DPA Tags: Iran Syria Arab Spring [Israeli media] [Arab Awakening all around Israel] [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [on top of which is looming vote in UN for Palestinian statehood (September)] [few things worry Israelis more than Iran and Syria and especially Iran’s alliance with Syria (Syria has left Arab fold to align with Persian Iran)] [here we reportedly have Iran finally suggesting caution to the Assad regime, after how many months of massacre?] [and amid reports, including today‘s, that al Quds is neck deep in helping the Iranian thugocracy oppress] [*]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the Syrian government to accept the reforms demanded by its people, [how touching] [*]ISNA news agency reported Thursday.
"We recommend to the regional states to acknowledge their people's will for freedom and justice," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with a Lebanese television network, carried by ISNA news agency. [that’s sweet, that’s what that is] [*]
"Also the Syrian government and people should be careful and implement the necessary reforms by themselves," the Iranian president said in another interview with the Al-Manar television network, carried by ISNA.
Iran has backed several of the anti-government protests during the Arab Spring, saying the voice of the people "echoes the Islamic reawakening" and should be heard. [ironic given its own crackdown on similar protests in 2009!!!] [*]
But Ahmadinejad has stayed silent over the uprisings in its regional ally Syria until now.
Syria has historically supported isolated Tehran's anti-Israeli stance, and this support could be weakened by a political change in Damascus.
Ahmadinejad also has a word of caution for the Syrian demonstrators, saying the Western powers only wanted to protect Israel.
"The Westerners will not bring anyone prosperity and welfare but are just after their own interests and after saving the Zionist regime," Ahmadinejad said.
Damascus has also supported the Shiite Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, a firm ally of Tehran and an equally firm enemy of Israel.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 10:23 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/politics/25cheney.html
August 24, 2011
Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in ’07
By CHARLIE SAVAGE [Bush white house] [Cheney again shots mouth off this time undermining his president, Bush] [every chance this guy gets he slams the Obama administration and recently his own former president!?] [I told you so?] [what sort of loyalty is that?] [he cannot stand not to be in the news, it seems] [*]
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction” — expressed misgivings.
“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,” Mr. Cheney wrote about a meeting on the issue. “But I was a lone voice. After I finished, the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.”
Mr. Bush chose to try diplomatic pressure to force the Syrians to abandon the secret program, but the Israelis bombed the site in September 2007. Mr. Cheney’s account of the discussion appears in his autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” which is to be

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/politics/25cheney.html
August 24, 2011
Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in ’07
By CHARLIE SAVAGE [Bush white house] [Cheney again shots mouth off this time undermining his president, Bush] [every chance this guy gets he slams the Obama administration and recently his own former president!?] [I told you so?] [what sort of loyalty is that?] [he cannot stand not to be in the news, it seems] [*]
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction” — expressed misgivings.
“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,” Mr. Cheney wrote about a meeting on the issue. “But I was a lone voice. After I finished, the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.”
Mr. Bush chose to try diplomatic pressure to force the Syrians to abandon the secret program, but the Israelis bombed the site in September 2007. Mr. Cheney’s account of the discussion appears in his autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” which is to be published by Simon & Schuster next week. A copy was obtained by The New York Times. [at least it’s in connection with his memoirs] [*]
Mr. Cheney’s book — which is often pugnacious in tone and in which he expresses little regret about many of the most controversial decisions of the Bush administration — casts him as something of an outlier among top advisers who increasingly took what he saw as a misguided course on national security issues. While he praises Mr. Bush as “an outstanding leader,” Mr. Cheney, who made guarding the secrecy of internal deliberations a hallmark of his time in office, divulges a number of conflicts with others in the inner circle.
He wrote that George J. Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, resigned in 2004 just “when the going got tough,” a decision he calls “unfair to the president.” He wrote that he believes that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell tried to undermine President Bush by privately expressing doubts about the Iraq war, and he confirms that he pushed to have Mr. Powell removed from the cabinet after the 2004 election. “It was as though he thought the proper way to express his views was by criticizing administration policy to people outside the government,” Mr. Cheney writes. His resignation “was for the best.”
He faults former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for naïveté in the efforts to forge a nuclear weapons agreement with North Korea, and Mr. Cheney reports that he fought with White House advisers over softening the president’s speeches on Iraq.
Mr. Cheney acknowledged that the administration underestimated the challenges in Iraq, but he said the real blame for the violence was with the terrorists.
He also defends the Bush administration’s decision to inflict what he called “tough interrogations” — like the suffocation technique known as waterboarding — on captured terrorism suspects, saying it extracted information that saved lives. He rejects portrayals of such techniques as “torture.”
In discussing the much-disputed “16 words” about Iraq’s supposed hunt for uranium in Niger that were included in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address to help justify the eventual invasion, Mr. Cheney said that unlike other aides, he saw no need to apologize for making that claim. He writes that Ms. Rice eventually came around to his view.
“She came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk and tearfully admitted I had been right,” he wrote.
The book opens with an account of Mr. Cheney’s experiences during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he essentially commanded the government’s response from a bunker beneath the White House while Mr. Bush — who was away from Washington and hampered by communications breakdowns — played a peripheral role. But Mr. Cheney wrote that he did not want to make any formal statement to the nation that day.
“My past government experience,” he wrote, “had prepared me to manage the crisis during those first few hours on 9/11, but I knew that if I went out and spoke to the press, it would undermine the president, and that would be bad for him and for the country.
“We were at war. Our commander in chief needed to be seen as in charge, strong, and resolute — as George W. Bush was.”
Mr. Cheney appears to relish much of the criticism heaped on him by liberals, but reveals that he had offered to resign several times as President Bush prepared for his re-election in 2004 because he was afraid of becoming a burden on the Republican ticket. After a few days, however, Mr. Cheney said that Mr. Bush said he wanted him to stay.
But in the Bush administration’s second term, Mr. Cheney’s influence waned. When Mr. Bush decided to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of defense after the 2006 midterm elections, Mr. Cheney said he was not given a chance to object.
Mr. Cheney praised Barack Obama’s support, as a senator from Illinois, for passing a bank bailout bill at the height of the financial crisis, shortly before the 2008 election. But he criticizes Mr. Obama’s decision to withdraw the 33,000 additional troops he sent to Afghanistan in 2009 by September 2012, and writes that he has been “happy to note” that Mr. Obama has failed to close the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as he had pledged.
Mr. Cheney’s long struggle with heart disease is a recurring theme in the book. He discloses that he wrote a letter of resignation, dated March 28, 2001, and told an aide to give it to Mr. Bush if he ever had a heart attack or stroke that left him incapacitated.
And in the epilogue, Mr. Cheney writes that after undergoing heart surgery in 2010, he was unconscious for weeks. During that period, he wrote, he had a prolonged, vivid dream that he was living in an Italian villa, pacing the stone paths to get coffee and newspapers.
Reporting was contributed by Julie Bosman from New York, and Helene Cooper, Mark Landler, Mark Mazzetti and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/politics/25cheney.html
August 24, 2011
Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in ’07
By CHARLIE SAVAGE [Bush white house] [Cheney again shots mouth off this time undermining his president, Bush] [every chance this guy gets he slams the Obama administration and recently his own former president!?] [I told you so?] [what sort of loyalty is that?] [he cannot stand not to be in the news, it seems] [*]
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction” — expressed misgivings.
“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,” Mr. Cheney wrote about a meeting on the issue. “But I was a lone voice. After I finished, the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.”
Mr. Bush chose to try diplomatic pressure to force the Syrians to abandon the secret program, but the Israelis bombed the site in September 2007. Mr. Cheney’s account of the discussion appears in his autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” which is to be

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/politics/25cheney.html
August 24, 2011
Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in ’07
By CHARLIE SAVAGE [Bush white house] [Cheney again shots mouth off this time undermining his president, Bush] [every chance this guy gets he slams the Obama administration and recently his own former president!?] [I told you so?] [what sort of loyalty is that?] [he cannot stand not to be in the news, it seems] [*]
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction” — expressed misgivings.
“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,” Mr. Cheney wrote about a meeting on the issue. “But I was a lone voice. After I finished, the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.”
Mr. Bush chose to try diplomatic pressure to force the Syrians to abandon the secret program, but the Israelis bombed the site in September 2007. Mr. Cheney’s account of the discussion appears in his autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” which is to be published by Simon & Schuster next week. A copy was obtained by The New York Times. [at least it’s in connection with his memoirs] [*]
Mr. Cheney’s book — which is often pugnacious in tone and in which he expresses little regret about many of the most controversial decisions of the Bush administration — casts him as something of an outlier among top advisers who increasingly took what he saw as a misguided course on national security issues. While he praises Mr. Bush as “an outstanding leader,” Mr. Cheney, who made guarding the secrecy of internal deliberations a hallmark of his time in office, divulges a number of conflicts with others in the inner circle.
He wrote that George J. Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, resigned in 2004 just “when the going got tough,” a decision he calls “unfair to the president.” He wrote that he believes that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell tried to undermine President Bush by privately expressing doubts about the Iraq war, and he confirms that he pushed to have Mr. Powell removed from the cabinet after the 2004 election. “It was as though he thought the proper way to express his views was by criticizing administration policy to people outside the government,” Mr. Cheney writes. His resignation “was for the best.”
He faults former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for naïveté in the efforts to forge a nuclear weapons agreement with North Korea, and Mr. Cheney reports that he fought with White House advisers over softening the president’s speeches on Iraq.
Mr. Cheney acknowledged that the administration underestimated the challenges in Iraq, but he said the real blame for the violence was with the terrorists.
He also defends the Bush administration’s decision to inflict what he called “tough interrogations” — like the suffocation technique known as waterboarding — on captured terrorism suspects, saying it extracted information that saved lives. He rejects portrayals of such techniques as “torture.”
In discussing the much-disputed “16 words” about Iraq’s supposed hunt for uranium in Niger that were included in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address to help justify the eventual invasion, Mr. Cheney said that unlike other aides, he saw no need to apologize for making that claim. He writes that Ms. Rice eventually came around to his view.
“She came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk and tearfully admitted I had been right,” he wrote.
The book opens with an account of Mr. Cheney’s experiences during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he essentially commanded the government’s response from a bunker beneath the White House while Mr. Bush — who was away from Washington and hampered by communications breakdowns — played a peripheral role. But Mr. Cheney wrote that he did not want to make any formal statement to the nation that day.
“My past government experience,” he wrote, “had prepared me to manage the crisis during those first few hours on 9/11, but I knew that if I went out and spoke to the press, it would undermine the president, and that would be bad for him and for the country.
“We were at war. Our commander in chief needed to be seen as in charge, strong, and resolute — as George W. Bush was.”
Mr. Cheney appears to relish much of the criticism heaped on him by liberals, but reveals that he had offered to resign several times as President Bush prepared for his re-election in 2004 because he was afraid of becoming a burden on the Republican ticket. After a few days, however, Mr. Cheney said that Mr. Bush said he wanted him to stay.
But in the Bush administration’s second term, Mr. Cheney’s influence waned. When Mr. Bush decided to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of defense after the 2006 midterm elections, Mr. Cheney said he was not given a chance to object.
Mr. Cheney praised Barack Obama’s support, as a senator from Illinois, for passing a bank bailout bill at the height of the financial crisis, shortly before the 2008 election. But he criticizes Mr. Obama’s decision to withdraw the 33,000 additional troops he sent to Afghanistan in 2009 by September 2012, and writes that he has been “happy to note” that Mr. Obama has failed to close the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as he had pledged.
Mr. Cheney’s long struggle with heart disease is a recurring theme in the book. He discloses that he wrote a letter of resignation, dated March 28, 2001, and told an aide to give it to Mr. Bush if he ever had a heart attack or stroke that left him incapacitated.
And in the epilogue, Mr. Cheney writes that after undergoing heart surgery in 2010, he was unconscious for weeks. During that period, he wrote, he had a prolonged, vivid dream that he was living in an Italian villa, pacing the stone paths to get coffee and newspapers.
Reporting was contributed by Julie Bosman from New York, and Helene Cooper, Mark Landler, Mark Mazzetti and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/25military.html
August 24, 2011
U.S. Official Warns About China’s Military Buildup
By ELISABETH BUMILLER [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [WH, NSC, and state and Pentagon] [continuity in USFP] [plenty of bumpy roads ahead as there are plenty of smooth ones] [it’s becoming a truly important relationship for both] [another warning fro the bureaucracy—this time state dept—on China’s menace] [followup] [use psci 355-455] [use fall 2011] [I think it’s both real and often over stated] [*]
WASHINGTON — The pace and scope of China’s military buildup is “potentially destabilizing” in the Pacific, a top defense official warned Wednesday as the Pentagon released an annual report cataloging China’s cruise missiles, fighter jets and growing, modernizing army. [yes, it’s potentially destabilizing] [*]
The official, Michael Schiffer, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, [*] made the remark at a news briefing about the report, titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2011.”
Every year the report, which is submitted to Congress, creates grist for China watchers who look for rising tensions between the United States and China. This year was a particularly rocky one between the countries, so interest has intensified.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/25military.html
August 24, 2011
U.S. Official Warns About China’s Military Buildup
By ELISABETH BUMILLER [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [WH, NSC, and state and Pentagon] [continuity in USFP] [plenty of bumpy roads ahead as there are plenty of smooth ones] [it’s becoming a truly important relationship for both] [another warning fro the bureaucracy—this time state dept—on China’s menace] [followup] [use psci 355-455] [use fall 2011] [I think it’s both real and often over stated] [*]
WASHINGTON — The pace and scope of China’s military buildup is “potentially destabilizing” in the Pacific, a top defense official warned Wednesday as the Pentagon released an annual report cataloging China’s cruise missiles, fighter jets and growing, modernizing army. [yes, it’s potentially destabilizing] [*]
The official, Michael Schiffer, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, [*] made the remark at a news briefing about the report, titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2011.”
Every year the report, which is submitted to Congress, creates grist for China watchers who look for rising tensions between the United States and China. This year was a particularly rocky one between the countries, so interest has intensified.
Over all, the report described what is generally known:
China’s People’s Liberation Army — with some 1.25 million ground troops, the largest in the world — is on track to achieve its goal of building a modern, regionally focused force by 2020. The Chinese military remains focused on Taiwan, which it claims as part of its sovereign territory, and it has deployed as many as 1,200 short-range missiles aimed in its direction. Moreover, it is developing antiship ballistic missiles, potentially capable of attacking American aircraft carriers. [none of that is new] [*]
It is also developing its own aircraft carriers, and is already in sea trials with a refitted Soviet-era carrier from Ukraine — a development the report anticipated, but which occurred after it was printed. Finally, China is developing a new-generation stealth jet fighter, the J-20, which it boldly tested in Beijing in January during a visit by Robert M. Gates, then the defense secretary.
Mr. Schiffer said that no single development led him to describe China’s arms buildup as “potentially destabilizing,” although Pentagon officials had increasingly said they were concerned about China’s military intentions in the Pacific. Instead, he said, he used the phrase because of China’s lack of transparency and its trends in military prowess. [as well they should be] [it needs to be watched] [*]
“It’s a combination of the lack of understanding that’s been created by the opacity of their system, but it is also because there are very real questions given the overall trends and trajectory in the scope and the scale of China’s military modernization efforts,” Mr. Schiffer said. “I wouldn’t put it on any one particular platform or any one particular system. There’s nothing particularly magical about any one particular item.”
The report also said that numerous intrusions into computer systems around the world in 2010 appeared to have originated in China, and that developing capabilities for cyberwarfare “is consistent” with authoritative Chinese military writing. [*]The report said that two Chinese military doctrinal writings — “Science of Strategy” and “Science of Campaigns” — identified “information warfare as integral to achieving information superiority and an effective means for countering a stronger foe.”
The report estimates that China’s total military spending for 2010 was more than $160 billion. The Pentagon spends more than $500 billion a year, although the number is closer to $700 billion a year if the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are included. [more than $700 if wars are included] [*]
Three months ago a top Chinese general visited the Pentagon as part of what the report cited as positive developments in talks between the American and Chinese militaries. The general, Chen Bingde, said at the time that China had no interest in challenging the American military and that he did not understand why questions were raised about China’s military buildup when similar concerns were not raised about the United States.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:38 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/why-is-that-a-secret.html
August 24, 2011
Why Is That a Secret?
[editorial] [as Bush did, Obama trying to keep everything secret] [one reason is America’s enemies] [sadly, another is to hide how close to the legal line they often move] [TSPs and even some interrogation stuff] [recently, we’ve discovered that Americans were held in foreign prisons without due process] [it’s a mess and it’s been happening since 9/11] [as we approach the 10-year anniversary, it’s time to weed it out!] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011?] [inappropriate use of the espionage act from 1917!] [*]
A former top official in charge of ensuring that real secrets are kept secret has delivered a stunning repudiation of the Obama administration’s decision to use the Espionage Act against a whistle-blower attempting to expose government waste and abuse.
J. William Leonard, who directed the Information Security Oversight Office during the George W. Bush administration, filed a formal complaint about the prosecution with the Justice Department and the National Security Agency, and urged punishment of officials

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/why-is-that-a-secret.html
August 24, 2011
Why Is That a Secret?
[editorial] [as Bush did, Obama trying to keep everything secret] [one reason is America’s enemies] [sadly, another is to hide how close to the legal line they often move] [TSPs and even some interrogation stuff] [recently, we’ve discovered that Americans were held in foreign prisons without due process] [it’s a mess and it’s been happening since 9/11] [as we approach the 10-year anniversary, it’s time to weed it out!] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011?] [inappropriate use of the espionage act from 1917!] [*]
A former top official in charge of ensuring that real secrets are kept secret has delivered a stunning repudiation of the Obama administration’s decision to use the Espionage Act against a whistle-blower attempting to expose government waste and abuse.
J. William Leonard, who directed the Information Security Oversight Office during the George W. Bush administration, filed a formal complaint about the prosecution with the Justice Department and the National Security Agency, and urged punishment of officials who needlessly classify documents that contain no actual secrets.
In the case in question, Thomas Drake, an N.S.A. employee, faced 35 years in prison for espionage after he leaked information to a reporter about a potential billion-dollar computer boondoggle. The case collapsed last month with Mr. Drake walking away after a token misdemeanor plea to providing information to an unauthorized person. [I archived a lot on the case] [NSA whistleblower] [*] The government was deservedly berated by Judge Richard Bennett of Federal District Court in Maryland for an “unconscionable” pursuit of the accused across “four years of hell.”
Prosecutors dropped the felony charges at the 11th hour after Judge Bennett ordered them to show allegedly classified material to the jury. But Mr. Leonard said he was willing to testify for Mr. Drake that there were no secrets at issue and that he had never seen “a more deliberate and willful example of government officials improperly classifying a document.”
The Obama administration has misguidedly used the Espionage Act in five such cases of news media disclosures; previously there were no more than four in all of White House history. This comes as officials classified nearly 77 million documents last year — a one-year jump of 40 percent. The government claim that this was because of improved reporting is not reassuring.
Two years ago, President Obama ordered all agencies to review secret material by June 2012 with a goal of promoting more declassification. Unfortunately, the administration’s emphasis since then has all been in the opposite direction. Treating potentially embarrassing information as a state secret is the antithesis of healthy government. [it’s behaved exactly as the Bush admin did] [if there’s reason, let have it known] [otherwise, end it] [*]

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:37 AM | Permalink

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/asia/25china.html
August 24, 2011
China Faces Obstacles in Bid to Rebalance Its Economy
By EDWARD WONG [China] [PRC] [US-Sino relations] [USFP, and China’s foreign policy] [China’s CCP has been watching the Arab Awakening with serious trepidation] [use psci 350] [“strategic partnersship” with West and US?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011?] [I’ve noted it many times before: China make remarkable progress toward great power but it has obstacles that few Westerners consider when predicting hegemonic China] [followup] [*]
CHENGDU, China — A casual glance out the window is all it takes to witness the blistering growth that has become the signature feature of this provincial capital and of other cities in the vast Chinese interior. A phalanx of half-finished office and apartment towers flanked by yellow cranes rises above the brown waters of the Jinjiang River.
China has vowed repeatedly, most recently during the just-concluded visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who met in this city with Vice President Xi Jinping, to overhaul its state-directed growth model and empower its consumers to spend more on their own, something that would make its economy more sustainable and help the sluggish world

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/asia/25china.html
August 24, 2011
China Faces Obstacles in Bid to Rebalance Its Economy
By EDWARD WONG [China] [PRC] [US-Sino relations] [USFP, and China’s foreign policy] [China’s CCP has been watching the Arab Awakening with serious trepidation] [use psci 350] [“strategic partnersship” with West and US?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [use fall 2011?] [I’ve noted it many times before: China make remarkable progress toward great power but it has obstacles that few Westerners consider when predicting hegemonic China] [followup] [*]
CHENGDU, China — A casual glance out the window is all it takes to witness the blistering growth that has become the signature feature of this provincial capital and of other cities in the vast Chinese interior. A phalanx of half-finished office and apartment towers flanked by yellow cranes rises above the brown waters of the Jinjiang River.
China has vowed repeatedly, most recently during the just-concluded visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who met in this city with Vice President Xi Jinping, to overhaul its state-directed growth model and empower its consumers to spend more on their own, something that would make its economy more sustainable and help the sluggish world economy as well. But leaders in Beijing and places like Chengdu are finding it difficult to steer China away from growth that relies largely on infrastructure projects, construction and export manufacturing, economists and financial analysts say. [it’s got huge bureaucracy that lots of high and lower bureaucrats use to feather their own nests] [they don’t want to give that money machine up] [*]
“China’s leaders are committed to altering their country’s macroeconomic landscape,” Evan A. Feigenbaum, a China analyst at Eurasia Group, a global consulting firm, said in a statement attached to a report released Aug. 17. “But the country’s political economy will not change as fundamentally as many in China and abroad hope. And the next decade is likely to be more fraught than conventional wisdom suspects.” [but there are factions within CCP leadership, Politburo and Standing Committee] [princeleings versus modernizers, so forth] [*]
China has incentives to change its model: its economic policies contribute to wasted resources, vast social inequality and a soaring inflation, which leaders fear will fuel social instability. The consumer price index went up 6.4 percent year-on-year in June, the biggest jump in three years. The 12th Five-Year Plan, a blueprint for development from 2011-15, gives an outline for better distributing economic growth across the country, and thus giving households more spending power.
Yao Yang, an economist at Peking University, said Chinese leaders knew that the domestic economy put too much money in the hands of corporations and the government. They agree that they have to increase social welfare to encourage domestic consumption and dampen mass discontent.
But there are obstacles that limit the ability of leaders to shift direction. For one thing, China continues to empower its large state-owned enterprises at the expense of private entrepreneurs, which results in market inefficiencies on where and how capital should be allocated, analysts say. Those large enterprises have enormous influence on policy makers. State banks also tend to favor government-backed projects, which are often capital-intensive endeavors like infrastructure building.
At the provincial and lower levels, one reason officials support capital-intensive projects arises from the way such officials are measured by the central government in annual reports. The rate of local G.D.P. growth is a top criterion by which the officials are judged. Their careers depend on it, and capital-intensive projects give short-term lifts to growth numbers. Another reason officials promote such projects is corruption: it is relatively easy to take bribes or skim money from large state investment projects.
To cope with the global downturn in 2008, the central government pumped $586 billion of stimulus money into the economy and loosened lending by state banks. Companies set up by local governments borrowed heavily. Victor Shih, a Northwestern University professor, said that based on official figures released this summer, total local government debt across China is $2.4 trillion to $3.1 trillion. The upper estimate is equal to half of China’s G.D.P. in 2010. Interest payments on the debt amount to more than $150 billion per year.
“Right now, the banks are encouraged to ‘restructure’ all of this debt such that little of it will become nonperforming loans,” Mr. Shih said in an e-mail. “However, there might be a problem if inflation is high or if deposits continue to leave the banks’ balance sheets.”
In the first half of 2011, even Chengdu, whose 15 million residents have a reputation as laid-back, tea-drinking, spicy-food-loving sybarites, had an impressive 15.1 percent real growth rate that was significantly higher than the national average, according to an official report. Such rapid growth in an interior city can help with economic rebalancing. It redistributes wealth and shifts consumer spending away from the much wealthier coast. But it raises questions about the local economic model.
Critics point to Wuhan, whose growth rate matches that of Chengdu, and the piles of debt it has accumulated through investment in fixed assets like factories, roads and bridges. State banks have been lending liberally to companies created by local officials that make these investments. This kind of lending does not show up on Wuhan’s balance sheets. [*]
“Investment is growing too fast and too strong, and that leads to a deterioration in the quality and efficiency of the investments,” said Bai Chong-en, vice dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “It will be very difficult to improve both of them in the short term.”
On the issue of exports, Mr. Biden and other American officials have been pressing China to let its currency, the renminbi, appreciate so that Chinese goods do not have an unfair advantage in the global marketplace. The renminbi has risen 7 percent since June 2010, which American officials say is not enough, though there are conflicting reports by Western economists on whether greater appreciation would have any real benefit for American industries. The currency has been appreciating at a slightly faster rate recently, perhaps partly because raising the value of the renminbi makes imported goods less expensive in China, and that helps tamp down inflation.
Mr. Yao, of Peking University, also said the aging of China’s 1.3 billion people, and the dwindling of its pool of young, cheap labor, “naturally means more domestic consumption and less exports, therefore going towards a more balanced economy.”
The debate over rebalancing China’s economy comes at a particularly tense time in the nation’s political life, so there is little political will to push ahead with economic reforms, analysts say. A leadership transition is expected to take place in late 2012, and jockeying is under way for positions in the Politburo and its elite Standing Committee. So senior officials will gravitate toward maintaining the status quo and supporting conservative policies.
Even though Mr. Xi is almost certain to get the top leadership job, he may forfeit his chance if he makes a severe misstep.
Moreover, powerful and wealthy interest groups like state-owned enterprises will work to prevent redistribution of capital and assets, analysts say.
The authors of the Eurasia Group report wrote that although Beijing would meet some of its goals, “ultimately, the country’s leaders lack the political stomach and sense of the moment to implement a comprehensive and ambitious rebalancing agenda.”
Li Bibo contributed research from Beijing.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:35 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/science/space/25space.html
August 24, 2011
Russian Rocket Set for Space Falls in Woods
By ANDREW E. KRAMER and KENNETH CHANG [Russia] [former USSR] [US-Russia relations] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [meanwhile Russia tries to recreate its grand past with cargo rockets as alternative to America’s and EU’s] [these things happen but it’s bound to be a humiliation to the Russians] [*]
MOSCOW — A Russian cargo rocket ferrying three tons of food and fuel to the International Space Station broke down about five minutes after it blasted off on Wednesday, completing its flight by arcing into a Siberian forest rather than achieving orbit.
The crash of the unmanned craft, a Progress cargo ship on top of a Soyuz rocket, does not pose an immediate problem for the six crew members living at the space station, who are well stocked with supplies taken there in July by NASA’s last shuttle flight. But it raises questions about the reliability of this model of Russian rocket, a similar model of which is used for manned launchings.
Since the retirement of the shuttle program last month, Russian-made Soyuz rockets are the only means of transport to space for American astronauts. NASA has contracted with

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/science/space/25space.html
August 24, 2011
Russian Rocket Set for Space Falls in Woods
By ANDREW E. KRAMER and KENNETH CHANG [Russia] [former USSR] [US-Russia relations] [democratization and rule of law in Russia] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [meanwhile Russia tries to recreate its grand past with cargo rockets as alternative to America’s and EU’s] [these things happen but it’s bound to be a humiliation to the Russians] [*]
MOSCOW — A Russian cargo rocket ferrying three tons of food and fuel to the International Space Station broke down about five minutes after it blasted off on Wednesday, completing its flight by arcing into a Siberian forest rather than achieving orbit.
The crash of the unmanned craft, a Progress cargo ship on top of a Soyuz rocket, does not pose an immediate problem for the six crew members living at the space station, who are well stocked with supplies taken there in July by NASA’s last shuttle flight. But it raises questions about the reliability of this model of Russian rocket, a similar model of which is used for manned launchings.
Since the retirement of the shuttle program last month, Russian-made Soyuz rockets are the only means of transport to space for American astronauts. NASA has contracted with the Russian Space Agency to fly Americans on these rockets for several years. [*]
The crash on Wednesday will surely be closely scrutinized because of its implications for American manned space flight on the Russian rockets. If a quick diagnosis and fix elude Russian engineers, NASA and the other agencies collaborating on the space station could face difficult choices.
“We’ve always known this was a risk,” the manager of the space station for NASA, Michael T. Suffredini, said.
The next set of three crew members is scheduled to launch to the space station in September, and another three are to go up in December. [do you want to fly on Russian rocket?] [I flew on one of their old planes in Vietnam and it was harrowing] [*]
Further, the Soyuz capsules in which the crew members ride also serve as lifeboats in case of an emergency, and the capsules are allowed to stay at the station for up to 210 days.
It means that three crew members may have to return to Earth in one of the Soyuz capsules docked at the station by October at the latest. Without replacements, that would leave only three people to operate the station, greatly reducing the time they could devote to running experiments.
If the problem dragged on to the end of the year, the other three would also have to return to Earth, leaving the space station unoccupied.
Mr. Suffredini said the station could be operated from the ground and stay in orbit indefinitely as long as there were no major failures and other cargo ships continued to fly; a Japanese one and a European one are scheduled to be launched next spring.
The Progress and Soyuz have proven reliable until now. Forty-three of the supply ships have successfully flown to the space station. But the failure on Wednesday was the second in August from the Baikonur launching pad in Kazakhstan. The upper stage of a Proton rocket sent a telecommunications satellite into the wrong orbit on Aug. 18.
Russia is planning another Soyuz expedition on Thursday, from the Plesetsk launching pad in the far north of European Russia. That rocket is scheduled to carry a navigation satellite for the Glonass system, the Russian version of the American GPS.
But the Russian space agency said it might delay manned launchings on the Soyuz — the only means of reaching the station for astronauts and cosmonauts — if the reasons for Wednesday’s crash were not quickly determined.
The Progress is a cargo spaceship that the Russians call a space truck, routinely launched to the space station carrying spare parts, fuel, food, oxygen, water and other items.
The Soyuz design is a 1960s holdover that jettisons four bulky booster rockets soon after liftoff, then flies in three stages to space. It carries both manned and unmanned spaceships to the space station.
At the launching on Wednesday, the Progress lifted off as planned on top of a Soyuz rocket. A little more than five minutes later, however, the rocket’s third-stage engine shut down sooner than it should have, before the spacecraft had enough velocity to reach orbit.
The rocket and Progress ship crashed in the dense Siberian forest. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said rocket debris landed in three separate areas of the Altai region in southern Siberia, which borders Mongolia.
The regional governor, Yuri Antaradonov, said the police had cautioned people to stay clear of the wreckage, as it could be contaminated with toxic fuel. His only concern, he said, was that some people may have been camped in the forest at the time of the crash because “it is the season of collecting pine nuts” in that part of Siberia.
Andrew E. Kramer reported from Moscow, and Kenneth Chang from New York.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:34 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/africa/nato-joins-hunt-for-qaddafi-gadhafi-gaddafi.html
August 25, 2011
Libyan Rebels Battle Loyalists and Seek Financial Support
By KAREEM FAHIM, ALAN COWELL and RICK GLADSTONE [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [just when it appears the opposition has dissolved into chaos, they unite and pull off a major success?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [mass confusion and fog of war since the regime collapsed?] [now, a couple days in it seems just utter confusion?] [followup] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — With Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi still at large, Libya’s rebel leaders fought on two distinct fronts Thursday, seeking diplomatic and financial backing in Europe as their fighters traded fire with their adversaries in Tripoli and faced continued challenges from loyalists far beyond the capital.
There were reports, too, that the bullet-riddled bodies of more than 30 pro-Qaddafi fighters had been found at a military encampment in central Tripoli. At least two were bound with

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/africa/nato-joins-hunt-for-qaddafi-gadhafi-gaddafi.html
August 25, 2011
Libyan Rebels Battle Loyalists and Seek Financial Support
By KAREEM FAHIM, ALAN COWELL and RICK GLADSTONE [Libya] [Middle East proper, including the Gulf] [regimes continues slow, plodding, political-eco liberalization] [broader middle east] [northern Africa or Islamic Maghreb; and Horn of Africa] [democratization] [just when it appears the opposition has dissolved into chaos, they unite and pull off a major success?] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [mass confusion and fog of war since the regime collapsed?] [now, a couple days in it seems just utter confusion?] [followup] [*]
TRIPOLI, Libya — With Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi still at large, Libya’s rebel leaders fought on two distinct fronts Thursday, seeking diplomatic and financial backing in Europe as their fighters traded fire with their adversaries in Tripoli and faced continued challenges from loyalists far beyond the capital.
There were reports, too, that the bullet-riddled bodies of more than 30 pro-Qaddafi fighters had been found at a military encampment in central Tripoli. At least two were bound with plastic handcuffs, indicating they had been executed, Reuters reported. [*]
Five of the dead were found at a field hospital, one strapped to a gurney in an ambulance with an intravenous drip still in his arm, Reuters said.
With their forces closing in on one of Colonel Qaddafi’s last bastions of support in his birthplace in Surt on Wednesday, the rebels claimed breakthroughs on other fronts, saying their fighters had started battling for Sabha, another of the colonel’s strongholds in the south, and in Zuwarah in the west. [*]Cranking up the pressure, Libyan businessmen put together a $1.7 million bounty for Colonel Qaddafi’s capture — dead or alive.
But news reports on Thursday suggested fierce, continued resistance by pro-Qaddafi forces. In one episode, according to The Associated Press, loyalist militias ambushed opposition fighters advancing toward the town of Bin Jawad some 350 miles southeast of Tripoli, killing at least 20. There were also reports that pro-Qaddafi troops had launched barrages of missiles from Surt itself.
Later, The A.P. said, an intense gun battle erupted outside the Corinthia hotel housing many foreign journalists here, with rebels firing machine guns and an anti-aircraft gun mounted on a pickup truck towards foes holed up in nearby high-rise buildings. [*]
The rebels tried to enter the hotel so they could get on the roof for a better vantage point, The A.P. said, but hotel staff persuaded them to leave.
“This is not over yet,” said Foreign Secretary William Hague of Britain, which has played leading diplomatic and military roles in the effort to end Colonel Qaddafi’s four-decade dictatorship. “There are huge numbers of weapons out there and some thousands of forces are continuing to fight for a regime that is finished,” he said, speaking of loyalist resistance in the south of Tripoli and in Surt. [*]
With the defiant and elusive Colonel Qaddafi still at large, Britain’s defense secretary, Liam Fox, said publicly on Thursday that NATO was trying to help the rebels locate him, apparently breaking from the frequent Western assertion that the alliance’s role is limited under its United Nations mandate to protecting civilians.
“I can confirm that NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets” to the insurgents “to help them track down Colonel Qaddafi and other remnants of the regime,” Mr. Fox told Sky News.
But he withheld comment on a report in The Daily Telegraph that British special forces on the ground were involved in the hunt for Colonel Qaddafi. He also said there were “absolutely no plans” to commit British ground forces to Libya in the future.
In diplomatic and financial terms, the rebel cause seemed to be facing a setback after South Africa refused to endorse a United States effort at the United Nations Security Council to unblock frozen Libyan funds worth $1.5 billion for the rebels. The impasse provoked sharp exchanges with the rebels’ Western allies.
In London, Mr. Fox himself castigated South Africa on Thursday for failing to show the same solidarity as the world showed to opponents of apartheid.
“I think there will be huge moral pressure on South Africa,” Mr. Fox said on the BBC. “They wanted the world at one point to stand with them against apartheid. They now need to stand with the Libyan people.”
Later, Mr. Hague, the foreign secretary, said South Africa had agreed to endorse the release of $500 million to meet humanitarian needs after Prime Minister David Cameron telephoned President Jacob Zuma to discuss the issue.
Efforts to unblock Libyan government funds, frozen initially to bring pressure on Colonel Qaddafi, seemed to be gathering pace on Thursday. Mahmoud Jibril, the de facto rebel prime minister, continued a European tour to seek the release of billions of dollars of assets, meeting in Milan on Thursday with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, which has long had close economic ties with Libya, a former colony. Mr. Berlusconi said later that Italy would unfreeze some $505 million in Libyan assets. Mr. Jibril met on Wednesday in Paris with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr. Jibril told a news conference in Milan that “the biggest destabilizing element” would be the failure of the rebel administration to deliver services and pay salaries of government officials who had not been paid for months. “Our priorities cannot be carried out by the government without having the necessary money immediately,” he said, according to Reuters.
The quest for an injection of cash coincides with reports of ever-increasing shortages of essential supplies in Libya. [*]
South Africa’s United Nations ambassador, Baso Sangqu, told reporters that his government was very concerned about the humanitarian situation there but, before agreeing to a broader release of frozen assets, wanted to await the outcome of an African Union meeting Thursday to discuss recognition of the fledgling rebel administration, The A.P. reported.
Many African nations, long the recipients of Colonel Qaddafi’s largesse, have not so far recognized the rebels. South Africa’s President Zuma, has been at the forefront of African efforts to broker a ceasefire on terms favorable to Colonel Qaddafi, but those efforts have produced no visible results, beyond souring relations with the West.
In a sign of continued confusion on the ground, a ship sent by the International Organization for Migration to pluck migrant workers to safety finally docked on Thursday after days of waiting offshore, but it was not clear whether the port area was sufficiently secure for the migrants to reach the vessel, according to Jemini Pandya, a spokeswoman for the organization in Geneva.
If it takes place, she said, the rescue will be the first organized evacuation from Tripoli since many governments sent ships and planes to help foreigners leave Libya when the crisis erupted in February. It was not clear how many migrants could be rescued since the ship, which sailed from Benghazi earlier this week, was itself running low on supplies, Ms. Pandya said in a telephone interview.
Another vessel sent to evacuate 24 foreigners from Tripoli has returned to its home port in Malta with only the crew after fighting in the Libyan capital made the operation too risky, The A.P. reported.
Sporadic firefights continued in Tripoli on Wednesday, a sign that control of the city could not be claimed by either side. In a show of strength, the rebels flooded the city’s thoroughfares with the mud-splattered trucks of their fighting brigades. In another sign of the power shifts under way, Colonel Qaddafi’s loyalists abruptly released more than 30 foreign journalists they had held captive in the Rixos Hotel here. Over the weekend, they were taken captive at gunpoint as the rebels advanced on the capital and left in the Rixos. [*]
Later in the day, four Italian journalists were abducted and their driver killed outside of Tripoli, in territory nominally under rebel control. Italian consular officials said the journalists, abducted by unknown gunmen, were being held by Qaddafi loyalists in an apartment near Bab al-Aziziya, Colonel Qaddafi’s captured compound and residence.
On Thursday, the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on its Web site that the four journalists had been freed by two Libyans who released them from the Tripoli apartment where they were being held. Details of their escape remained unclear, the Milan-based newspaper said. Two of the journalists worked for Corriere della Sera, while the others were reporters for La Stampa and Avvenire newspapers.
“I am fine now,” said Domenico Quirico of La Stampa, according to the Web posting. “An hour ago, I thought I was dead.”
In the eastern city of Benghazi, the base of the rebel uprising, the head of the rebel Transitional National Council told a news conference on Wednesday that Libyan businessmen had contributed two million dinars, about $1.7 million, for the capture of Colonel Qaddafi dead or alive.
“We fear a catastrophe because of his behavior,” the rebel leader, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, told reporters there. [*]
It remained unclear when the leaders of the rebel council would transfer their operations from Benghazi to Tripoli, as they have said they plan to. One of their leaders, Ali el-Essawi, Mr. Jibril’s acting deputy, who was based in Benghazi, took a room in a guest house earlier in the week in Zawiyah, 50 miles from Tripoli. [*]
Kareem Fahim reported from Tripoli, Alan Cowell from Paris and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by David D. Kirkpatrick from Tripoli, Steven Erlanger from Paris, Seth Mydans from Moscow, Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome, and Dan Bilefsky from the United Nations.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/africa/25arab.html
August 24, 2011
After Arab Revolts, Reigns of Uncertainty
By ANTHONY SHADID [Tunisia was the original starting point for the Jasmine Revolution that became the Arab Awakening] [but this piece is generalizing across the Arab world where tumult reigns] [the Tunisians have decided to slow down elections in order for parties to be established] [each place is slightly different but the chaotic nature seems to be same in all?] [growing disillusionment with the revolution] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [use fall 2011] [*]
DJERBA, Tunisia — The idealism of the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, where the power of the street revealed the frailty of authority, revived an Arab world anticipating change. But Libya’s unfinished revolution, as inspiring as it is unsettling, illustrates how perilous that change has become as it unfolds in this phase of the Arab Spring. [*]
Though the rebels’ flag has gone up in Tripoli, their leadership is fractured and opaque; the intentions and influence of Islamists in their ranks are uncertain; Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi remains at large in a flight reminiscent of Saddam Hussein’s; and foreigners have been involved in the fight in the kind of intervention that has long been toxic to the Arab world. [*]
Not to mention, of course, that a lot of young men have a lot of guns. [*]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/africa/25arab.html
August 24, 2011
After Arab Revolts, Reigns of Uncertainty
By ANTHONY SHADID [Tunisia was the original starting point for the Jasmine Revolution that became the Arab Awakening] [but this piece is generalizing across the Arab world where tumult reigns] [the Tunisians have decided to slow down elections in order for parties to be established] [each place is slightly different but the chaotic nature seems to be same in all?] [growing disillusionment with the revolution] [use psci 355-455, 463] [followup] [use fall 2011] [*]
DJERBA, Tunisia — The idealism of the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, where the power of the street revealed the frailty of authority, revived an Arab world anticipating change. But Libya’s unfinished revolution, as inspiring as it is unsettling, illustrates how perilous that change has become as it unfolds in this phase of the Arab Spring. [*]
Though the rebels’ flag has gone up in Tripoli, their leadership is fractured and opaque; the intentions and influence of Islamists in their ranks are uncertain; Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi remains at large in a flight reminiscent of Saddam Hussein’s; and foreigners have been involved in the fight in the kind of intervention that has long been toxic to the Arab world. [*]
Not to mention, of course, that a lot of young men have a lot of guns. [*]
No uprising is alike, but Libya’s complexities echo in the revolts in Bahrain, Syria and, most of all, Yemen, suggesting that the prolonged transition of Arab countries to a new order may prove as tumultuous to the region as Egypt’s moment was stirring.
Unlike at the start of the year, when the revolutionary momentum seemed unstoppable, uncertainty is far more pronounced today, as several countries face the prospect of stalemate, sustained conflict or power vacuums that may render them ungovernable.[*]Already in Yemen, militant Islamists have found a haven. Across the region, the repercussions of the uprisings are colliding with the assumptions of the older, American-backed system: control of oil, the influence of a reactionary Saudi Arabia, an Arab-Israeli truce, and the maintenance of order at the expense of freedom in a region that for decades has been, at least superficially, one of the world’s most stable. [**]
In just the past week, Colonel Qaddafi lost his capital, Tripoli; the United States and European countries called on President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to step down; the president of Yemen, still recovering from burns suffered in an attack, has promised to return; and the relationship between Egypt and Israel descended into crisis, to the jubilation of many Egyptians who saw a more assertive government as a windfall of Mr. Mubarak’s fall.
“There is going to be a transfer of power in our societies, and a new order has begun to take shape in the region,” said Michel Kilo, an opposition figure in Damascus, Syria.
Already, Israel has begun to face what it feared the revolts might unleash: foreign policies in the Arab world that reflect deep popular resentment over the plight of Palestinians. The most puritanical Islamists, known by their shorthand as Salafists, have emerged as a force in Egypt, Libya, Syria and elsewhere, with suspicions that Saudi Arabia has encouraged and financed them. Alliances have begun to be redrawn: Turkey and Syria’s growing partnership ruptured over Mr. Assad’s ferocious crackdown, which has provoked international condemnation but shows no signs of ending. [*]
As with all the revolutions, the fall of the leaders will be seen as the easiest step in a long, rocky and wrenching struggle to build anew.
“The question of the successor government in Libya is going to prove far more difficult than ousting the old government,” said M. Cherif Bassiouni, an expert in international law who has led human rights commissions in Bahrain and Libya.
Nothing feels certain these days, not least in Egypt and Tunisia, and conversations about the uprisings often mention the French Revolution, which required long years to usher in a new order. No one talks in terms of months about these revolts, given the seismic forces at play, from the empowerment of Islamists to the economic trauma.
“We’re heading toward the unknown,” said Talal Atrissi, a political analyst in Lebanon. “The next era will witness battles and conflicts between actors inside countries bent on crushing each other and proving their existence on the political scene.”[*]
“It will be full of challenges, large and severe,” he added.
As unpredictable as Libya’s revolution may prove, it still unleashed jubilation across the region. Yemen’s beleaguered government flooded the capital with troops over the weekend to stanch more demonstrations inspired by Colonel Qaddafi’s fall. On Al Jazeera, images of the Libyan leader were interspersed with lines from a song played during Egypt and Tunisia’s revolts: “I am the people, the people of honor and struggle,” sang Um Kalthoum, an Egyptian diva of another era. In Damascus, an activist saw the intertwined fates of Mr. Assad and Colonel Qaddafi, who in a defiant message broadcast Wednesday called the people who overthrew him rats and traitors.
“We don’t want a merciful end for Qaddafi and his sons,” said Aziz al-Arabi, a 30-year-old Syrian. “Please keep him alive. We’d love to see them humiliated.” [*]
Across the region, young people who have driven the revolts have shared vocabulary as well as tactics. “Irhal,” or leave, has skipped from Egypt to Yemen and Bahrain, where in the streets of Sitra, strewn with rocks from nightly clashes with the police, protesters have made it plural — not only must the king go, but his family as well. Walls there read “silmiya,” or peaceful, recalling similar slogans in Syria. Residents there have imported the Egyptian term “baltagiya” to describe the state-sponsored thugs they face.
Iran’s revolution a generation ago was followed by a grinding war with Iraq, the birth of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the politicization of Shiite Muslims across the Persian Gulf. The Arab world is now embroiled in three revolutions (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya) and three full-fledged revolts (Syria, Yemen, Bahrain).
“Sometimes instability is a necessary evil, and you need it to have stability,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, a project of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and that is based in Qatar. “To dislodge a brutal dictator is going to require bloodshed.” [*]
So far, Libya’s revolution seems the most uncertain. Even now, parallels are being drawn to the fall of Mr. Hussein, who cast a long shadow before he was captured over a country whose divisions deepened, then erupted into civil war. The remnants of his regime were long underestimated, by Americans and others, until they contributed to an insurgency that remains a searing lesson in imperial folly.
“Some compare post-Qaddafi Libya to post-Saddam Iraq,” wrote Bashir al-Bakr in the leftist Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar. “The Libyans, according to that view, will not be in charge of their own decisions. They will find themselves shackled by heavy commitments, and they will lack the ability to escape them at the present.”
For many in the region, foreign intervention has deprived Libya’s revolt of the luster enjoyed by Egypt and Tunisia, inspiring suspicions, as in Iraq, that the West simply covets its oil. As Sateh Noureddine, a columnist, put it in another Lebanese newspaper, Al-Safir, NATO’s support “will not be for free, and Libya will pay for it.”
In that, he captured the ambiguity over what represents opposition these days in the Arab world, old labels defying their old assumptions. Syrian rebels denounce Hezbollah, which prides itself on its resistance to Israel. Bahrain withdrew its ambassador from Damascus as it carried out a crackdown on its Shiite majority that smacks of apartheid. And Colonel Qaddafi, in his message, praised his loyalists as revolutionary youths.
“Forward, forward,” he cried, his trademark refrain for never-ending struggle.
Nada Bakri contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/middleeast/25syria.html
August 24, 2011
Europe Accuses Iranian Force of Aiding Syrian Crackdown
By NADA BAKRI [Iran] [ongoing political spasms that have continued since 2009 elections and subsequent huge street protests (finally a crackdown on same)] [factionalism?] [yet another suggestion that Iran has been helping the Assad regime to effect its murderous masacre] [the EU has announced sanctions based on same] [followup] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The European Union announced on Wednesday that it was leveling sanctions against Iran’s Al Quds military force, saying it had given technical and material support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in his efforts to crush the five-month-old uprising against his rule.
The move adds the European Union’s imprimatur to charges that Iran has aided Mr. Assad in carrying out a brutal crackdown of pro-democracy activists that the United Nations says has killed 2,200 people since March. [as if the EU impramatur was needed?] [*]
There was no immediate reaction from the Syrian or the Iranian governments about the sanctions, which are the first to single out Iran in connection with the Syrian uprising. The

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/middleeast/25syria.html
August 24, 2011
Europe Accuses Iranian Force of Aiding Syrian Crackdown
By NADA BAKRI [Iran] [ongoing political spasms that have continued since 2009 elections and subsequent huge street protests (finally a crackdown on same)] [factionalism?] [yet another suggestion that Iran has been helping the Assad regime to effect its murderous masacre] [the EU has announced sanctions based on same] [followup] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The European Union announced on Wednesday that it was leveling sanctions against Iran’s Al Quds military force, saying it had given technical and material support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in his efforts to crush the five-month-old uprising against his rule.
The move adds the European Union’s imprimatur to charges that Iran has aided Mr. Assad in carrying out a brutal crackdown of pro-democracy activists that the United Nations says has killed 2,200 people since March. [as if the EU impramatur was needed?] [*]
There was no immediate reaction from the Syrian or the Iranian governments about the sanctions, which are the first to single out Iran in connection with the Syrian uprising. The decision was welcomed by activists in Damascus, Syria, who have refused to back down in the face of the crackdown.
“The sanctions are great and very needed,” said an opposition figure from Damascus who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisal. “But I don’t know how much they will help us on the ground to get rid of this regime. It is going to be a long battle.”
The European Union said in a statement published in its official journal that Al Quds, an elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, “provided technical assistance, equipment and support to the Syrian security services to repress civilian protest movements.”
The United States and other countries have also accused Tehran of aiding Mr. Assad’s crackdown. British newspapers have quoted unnamed Western diplomats in recent weeks as saying that Iran was providing riot-control gear and surveillance equipment to the Assad government. [*]
The secretive Al Quds force is an elite and ideologically grounded unit that was created to protect and promote the Iranian revolution. It carries out operations beyond Iran’s borders and was responsible for initially training and arming the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. [al Quds the culprit] [*]
The list of sanctions also names five Syrian generals, as well as Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister and special Assad envoy; Munir Adnuf, the deputy chief of the Syrian Army; and Samir Hassan, a businessman that it identifies as one of the government’s financiers.
In addition the list includes Mr. Assad’s younger brother, Maher, who commands the army’s Fourth Division and is believed to be responsible for much of the bloodshed.
The European Union has now issued sanctions against 50 people and 9 agencies or groups in relation to the Syrian crackdown. The new measures freeze the assets of those named and prevent them from obtaining visas for travel to European Union countries.
European diplomats said additional sanctions were likely to be imposed by the end of the week, including an embargo on imports of Syrian oil, which would be a blow to Syria’s faltering economy. As much as 95 percent of Syrian oil and gas goes to European countries. Britain has expressed reservations against such a move, and several diplomats said China might simply step in to fill the gap.
Syrian security forces, meanwhile, continued the crackdown on protesters, killing at least seven people — six in Homs, in central Syria, and one in Idlib, in the north, according to activists and residents.
Mr. Assad has dismissed the sanctions and other measures of international condemnation, including a call last week by the United States and many European nations for him to step down. He calls such gestures “meaningless” and says his government is facing a foreign conspiracy involving Muslim extremists who are terrorizing Syrians and have killed several hundred police officers and soldiers.
Sana, Syria’s official news agency, published pictures on Wednesday of the decomposing bodies of 14 people, saying “armed terrorist groups” had kidnapped, tortured and then discarded them in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, where some of the biggest protests against Mr. Assad’s rule have taken place. [?][*]
“There is chaos everywhere, chaos,” said a woman who lives in Homs and was reached by telephone but did not want to provide her name for fear of reprisal. “I don’t know who is doing what anymore; I don’t know anything anymore.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/middleeast/25syria.html
August 24, 2011
Europe Accuses Iranian Force of Aiding Syrian Crackdown
By NADA BAKRI [Iran] [ongoing political spasms that have continued since 2009 elections and subsequent huge street protests (finally a crackdown on same)] [factionalism?] [yet another suggestion that Iran has been helping the Assad regime to effect its murderous masacre] [the EU has announced sanctions based on same] [followup] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The European Union announced on Wednesday that it was leveling sanctions against Iran’s Al Quds military force, saying it had given technical and material support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in his efforts to crush the five-month-old uprising against his rule.
The move adds the European Union’s imprimatur to charges that Iran has aided Mr. Assad in carrying out a brutal crackdown of pro-democracy activists that the United Nations says has killed 2,200 people since March. [as if the EU impramatur was needed?] [*]
There was no immediate reaction from the Syrian or the Iranian governments about the sanctions, which are the first to single out Iran in connection with the Syrian uprising. The

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/middleeast/25syria.html
August 24, 2011
Europe Accuses Iranian Force of Aiding Syrian Crackdown
By NADA BAKRI [Iran] [ongoing political spasms that have continued since 2009 elections and subsequent huge street protests (finally a crackdown on same)] [factionalism?] [yet another suggestion that Iran has been helping the Assad regime to effect its murderous masacre] [the EU has announced sanctions based on same] [followup] [*]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The European Union announced on Wednesday that it was leveling sanctions against Iran’s Al Quds military force, saying it had given technical and material support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in his efforts to crush the five-month-old uprising against his rule.
The move adds the European Union’s imprimatur to charges that Iran has aided Mr. Assad in carrying out a brutal crackdown of pro-democracy activists that the United Nations says has killed 2,200 people since March. [as if the EU impramatur was needed?] [*]
There was no immediate reaction from the Syrian or the Iranian governments about the sanctions, which are the first to single out Iran in connection with the Syrian uprising. The decision was welcomed by activists in Damascus, Syria, who have refused to back down in the face of the crackdown.
“The sanctions are great and very needed,” said an opposition figure from Damascus who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisal. “But I don’t know how much they will help us on the ground to get rid of this regime. It is going to be a long battle.”
The European Union said in a statement published in its official journal that Al Quds, an elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, “provided technical assistance, equipment and support to the Syrian security services to repress civilian protest movements.”
The United States and other countries have also accused Tehran of aiding Mr. Assad’s crackdown. British newspapers have quoted unnamed Western diplomats in recent weeks as saying that Iran was providing riot-control gear and surveillance equipment to the Assad government. [*]
The secretive Al Quds force is an elite and ideologically grounded unit that was created to protect and promote the Iranian revolution. It carries out operations beyond Iran’s borders and was responsible for initially training and arming the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. [al Quds the culprit] [*]
The list of sanctions also names five Syrian generals, as well as Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister and special Assad envoy; Munir Adnuf, the deputy chief of the Syrian Army; and Samir Hassan, a businessman that it identifies as one of the government’s financiers.
In addition the list includes Mr. Assad’s younger brother, Maher, who commands the army’s Fourth Division and is believed to be responsible for much of the bloodshed.
The European Union has now issued sanctions against 50 people and 9 agencies or groups in relation to the Syrian crackdown. The new measures freeze the assets of those named and prevent them from obtaining visas for travel to European Union countries.
European diplomats said additional sanctions were likely to be imposed by the end of the week, including an embargo on imports of Syrian oil, which would be a blow to Syria’s faltering economy. As much as 95 percent of Syrian oil and gas goes to European countries. Britain has expressed reservations against such a move, and several diplomats said China might simply step in to fill the gap.
Syrian security forces, meanwhile, continued the crackdown on protesters, killing at least seven people — six in Homs, in central Syria, and one in Idlib, in the north, according to activists and residents.
Mr. Assad has dismissed the sanctions and other measures of international condemnation, including a call last week by the United States and many European nations for him to step down. He calls such gestures “meaningless” and says his government is facing a foreign conspiracy involving Muslim extremists who are terrorizing Syrians and have killed several hundred police officers and soldiers.
Sana, Syria’s official news agency, published pictures on Wednesday of the decomposing bodies of 14 people, saying “armed terrorist groups” had kidnapped, tortured and then discarded them in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, where some of the biggest protests against Mr. Assad’s rule have taken place. [?][*]
“There is chaos everywhere, chaos,” said a woman who lives in Homs and was reached by telephone but did not want to provide her name for fear of reprisal. “I don’t know who is doing what anymore; I don’t know anything anymore.”

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/middleeast/25ramadi.html
August 24, 2011
Car Bomb in Iraq Kills 7 at a Ramadi Checkpoint
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and OMAR AL-JAWOSHY [-ir] [maliki govt trying to arrange things so US may withdraw later this year] [recall the SOFA that President Bush signed in 2008 provided for U.S. to leave by December 31, 2011] [Obama hopes to keep it on track] [and things are such that it will almost certainly be a big ceremonial withdrawal] [as America continues to redeploy, more that the occasional squabble turns deadly] [increased tension as December gets closer each day] [another big attack by insurgency (possibly Mahdi militia)] [followup] [Sunni triangle] [*]
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives attacked a police checkpoint west of Ramadi on Wednesday night, killing seven people, including five police officers, and wounding four other officers and a civilian, according to local officials.
The attack, coming four days after Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia released a statement saying it was in the midst of a 100-attack campaign in Iraq to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden, underscored the country’s tenuous security situation as the United States prepares to withdraw its roughly 48,000 remaining troops by the end of the year. [*]
The head of the police in Anbar Province, Maj. Gen. Hadi Rizaich, said that security officials

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/middleeast/25ramadi.html
August 24, 2011
Car Bomb in Iraq Kills 7 at a Ramadi Checkpoint
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and OMAR AL-JAWOSHY [-ir] [maliki govt trying to arrange things so US may withdraw later this year] [recall the SOFA that President Bush signed in 2008 provided for U.S. to leave by December 31, 2011] [Obama hopes to keep it on track] [and things are such that it will almost certainly be a big ceremonial withdrawal] [as America continues to redeploy, more that the occasional squabble turns deadly] [increased tension as December gets closer each day] [another big attack by insurgency (possibly Mahdi militia)] [followup] [Sunni triangle] [*]
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives attacked a police checkpoint west of Ramadi on Wednesday night, killing seven people, including five police officers, and wounding four other officers and a civilian, according to local officials.
The attack, coming four days after Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia released a statement saying it was in the midst of a 100-attack campaign in Iraq to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden, underscored the country’s tenuous security situation as the United States prepares to withdraw its roughly 48,000 remaining troops by the end of the year. [*]
The head of the police in Anbar Province, Maj. Gen. Hadi Rizaich, said that security officials had some warning that there was going to be a car bomb attack in Ramadi on Wednesday night, but had been unable to find the car.
“There are sleeper cells of Al Qaeda in Anbar who exploit the weaknesses in our security to carry out attacks,” he said. “We have information that Al Qaeda is getting more support now from neighboring countries to destabilize the situation in our province.”[*]
Anbar borders Syria, and Iraqi officials are extremely concerned that the unrest in Syria will lead to more suicide bombers’ taking advantage of the situation there to stage attacks across the border. In Wednesday’s attack, a sedan exploded as it passed through the checkpoint in the village of Albu Bali, west of Ramadi, around 9:15 p.m.
Ahmed Abdul Karim, 35, a police officer, said he was standing about 30 feet from the checkpoint when the car exploded. “I was protected by blast walls,” he said, adding, “We rushed to the checkpoint to help our friends, but when we got there they were burned so badly.” The bomber’s body was hurled 300 feet from the car by the blast, he said.
In other violence in Iraq on Wednesday, a bomb in Anbar’s capital, Hit, killed a local official and his son. In Diyala Province, gunmen attacked a checkpoint north of Baquba, killing one person. Several minutes later, a bomb at the same checkpoint wounded four people.
Employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Anbar and Diyala Provinces.

Posted by Kent Bolton at 07:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61961.html
Politico
[Accessed 8/24/11 7:41:25 AM] [*]
Holder to meet with 9/11 families
By: Jennifer Epstein
August 24, 2011 06:16 AM EDT [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [NSC to bureaucracy] [federal judiciary of which FBI is a part] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [Department of Jusctice] [AG Holder apparently met with 9/11 families to bring them up to date on the UK-Murdoch scandal?] [followup] [use psci 355-455] [apparently nothing yet to brief?] [*]
Attorney General Eric Holder is set to meet Wednesday with the families of several victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to update them on his investigation into whether their relatives’ phones were hacked by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. [were they?] [*]
Holder said earlier this month he is taking the families’ concerns “seriously” as the FBI probes allegations that Murdoch’s employees tried to collect information from victims’ phone accounts, as they did from British royals, politicians, celebrities, and murder victims.
As the News of the World hacking scandal erupted last month — forcing Murdoch to close that paper and entangling the media titan and some of his top executives — a rival paper reported that the tabloid had asked a New York private investigator to collect information from phone

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61961.html
Politico
[Accessed 8/24/11 7:41:25 AM] [*]
Holder to meet with 9/11 families
By: Jennifer Epstein
August 24, 2011 06:16 AM EDT [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [NSC to bureaucracy] [federal judiciary of which FBI is a part] [continuity in USFP] [GSAVE] [Department of Jusctice] [AG Holder apparently met with 9/11 families to bring them up to date on the UK-Murdoch scandal?] [followup] [use psci 355-455] [apparently nothing yet to brief?] [*]
Attorney General Eric Holder is set to meet Wednesday with the families of several victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to update them on his investigation into whether their relatives’ phones were hacked by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. [were they?] [*]
Holder said earlier this month he is taking the families’ concerns “seriously” as the FBI probes allegations that Murdoch’s employees tried to collect information from victims’ phone accounts, as they did from British royals, politicians, celebrities, and murder victims.
As the News of the World hacking scandal erupted last month — forcing Murdoch to close that paper and entangling the media titan and some of his top executives — a rival paper reported that the tabloid had asked a New York private investigator to collect information from phone accounts belonging to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Though the investigator said he had refused the job, victims’ families are nonetheless concerned that another investigator or News Corp. employee didn’t.
Norman Siegel, a lawyer representing victims’ families, said in July that his “clients are troubled about the allegation of potential hacking and they are particularly upset that there now exists an allegation that a newspaper would seek to illegally obtain information about their loved ones.”
Holder accepted the meeting with Siegel’s clients because he “certainly want[s] to hear what they have to say with regard to their concerns and, to the extent that I can share information with them, I will,” he said. [*]
The FBI has said that its investigation is still ongoing.
Retired New York firefighter Jim Riches, whose firefighter son died at the World Trade Center, said in July that he planned to be at the meeting because “we want to find out if anyone’s phones were hacked, the progress of the investigation and what they intend to do if they find somebody accountable.” © 2011 POLITICO LLC

Posted by Kent Bolton at 08:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/23/president-obama-s-libya-triumph-a-great-foreign-policy-presidency.html
The Daily Beast
[Accessed 8/24/11 7:47:33 AM] [*]
Obama’s True Claim to Fame
Yes, the economic recovery is too slow. But events in Libya suggest that this may be a truly great foreign-policy president in the making. Michael Tomasky on what Obama’s doing right.
by Michael Tomasky | August 23, 2011 11:31 PM EDT [commentary] [but cross in govt] [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [NSC to bureaucracy] [what has been Obama’s track record on foreign policy?] [he got bin Laden—he’s been fairly steady, quite cautious (could easily fit the mold of Cold War consensus)] [a bit early to tell but interesting look] [use psci 355-455] [cross in govt] [use fall 2011] [*]
Barack Obama hasn’t been much of a domestic-policy president from nearly anyone’s point of view. And it’s a little hard to picture how he might ever be seen as such—that is to say, even if he’s reelected, he’ll probably have a Republican House or Senate (or both) that will thwart him at every turn, so the best he’ll be able to say is that he presided over a slow and very difficult economic recovery, which presumably will finally happen by January 2017.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/23/president-obama-s-libya-triumph-a-great-foreign-policy-presidency.html
The Daily Beast
[Accessed 8/24/11 7:47:33 AM] [*]
Obama’s True Claim to Fame
Yes, the economic recovery is too slow. But events in Libya suggest that this may be a truly great foreign-policy president in the making. Michael Tomasky on what Obama’s doing right.
by Michael Tomasky | August 23, 2011 11:31 PM EDT [commentary] [but cross in govt] [Obama white house] [112th congress, 1st session] [NSC to bureaucracy] [what has been Obama’s track record on foreign policy?] [he got bin Laden—he’s been fairly steady, quite cautious (could easily fit the mold of Cold War consensus)] [a bit early to tell but interesting look] [use psci 355-455] [cross in govt] [use fall 2011] [*]
Barack Obama hasn’t been much of a domestic-policy president from nearly anyone’s point of view. And it’s a little hard to picture how he might ever be seen as such—that is to say, even if he’s reelected, he’ll probably have a Republican House or Senate (or both) that will thwart him at every turn, so the best he’ll be able to say is that he presided over a slow and very difficult economic recovery, which presumably will finally happen by January 2017. But foreign policy could be a completely different story. Here one can see how he might become not just a good but a great foreign-policy president. [certainly true in a 2nd term as he’d have little accountability as lame duck?] [but I doubt he’d change much] [role] [*]
Yes, of course, let’s stipulate: the war isn’t actually, you know, over. And even after it is, Libya could descend into chaos or extremism or both (although it is heartening to read that the National Transitional Council, the recognized new governing body, apparently has detailed governance plans in place). So could Egypt, and Tunisia, and so on and so on. Lots of things could, can, and undoubtedly will go wrong. Let’s also stipulate that Obama did not drape himself only in glory on Libya. The administration’s statement in June that the conflict wasn’t under the purview of the War Powers Act because bombing didn’t constitute “hostilities” was ridiculous. And many critics reasonably felt back in March that Obama was a little slow to pull the trigger on the intervention (I didn’t share that view). [nor did I] [*]
All that said, the administration has already handled a lot of these changes well (and in the face of absolutely constant know-it-all criticism). One of the best things an American administration can do when big changes are afoot somewhere in the world is stay out of the way and not act as if we can will an outcome just because we’re America. We have a group in this country that likes to will outcomes, and their track record demonstrates that that doesn’t work so well (unless you think, apropos Iraq, that eight years and more than 100,000 lives later defines “well”). Obama has been more in the mold of George H.W. Bush and his secretary of state, Jim Baker, when the Eastern bloc was throwing off Moscow’s shackles. Offer encouragement and stability, give a few speeches about freedom, but otherwise let them do their own work. [they gave it the unfortunate name of leading from behind] [but other than the name, the idea was quite prudent I think] [let NATO members with the most direct interests in Libya take the lead there] [*]
Obama took a lot of stick for not being more forceful on Egypt in February, but he was right to be cautious—there were lots of stakeholders involved, and sorry, but the president of the United States just can’t say every sweet thing romantics would like him to say. He then, as noted, took heat for moving too slowly on Libya, but here again he was correct. The nature of the Libyan regime is not a direct national-security issue, so there absolutely had to be a specific trigger to justify acting. That trigger was Gaddafi’s threatened assault on Benghazi.
That was completely the right thing to do. It was as textbook a fulfillment of “R2P,” or “responsibility to protect,” as one could imagine. The subsequent bombing campaign took longer than advertised, but it has apparently done the job, quickly and with far smaller loss of life (including zero U.S. deaths) than if we’d followed John McCain and Lindsey Graham’s advice and gone in with ground troops. [they were flat footed a few times but I suspect most presidents would have been] [these were momentous changes not really predicted—though in fairness, Obama had a report put together that did say things were perfoce changing in MENA] [*]
One of the best things an American administration can do when big changes are afoot somewhere in the world is stay out of the way and not act as if we can will an outcome just because we’re America.
Next comes Syria. Conservatives are pushing Obama to take stronger steps. Maybe he should. I argued back in the spring, before Obama imposed sanctions on Assad, that he needed to be more fo