A News Aggregator That Covers The World's Major Wars And Conflicts. Military, Political, And Intelligence News Are Also Covered. Occasionally We Will Have Our Own Opinions Or Observations To Make.
Prominent anti-corruption blogger and opposition figure Alexei Navalny leaves the Investigative Committee in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday. Reuters
Russia Charges Anti-Putin Protester Alexei Navalny In Latest Crackdown On Dissent -- NBC
MOSCOW -- Russian investigators charged street protest leader Alexei Navalny with theft Tuesday and banned him from leaving the country, threatening a heavy jail term in what supporters say is a growing crackdown on dissent by President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny, an anti-corruption blogger who has organized demonstrations that have dented Putin's authority, dismissed the charge as absurd and other opposition leaders accused Putin of using KGB-style tactics to try to silence his critics.
Other moves which the opposition depict as a crackdown on dissent since Putin began a six-year term in May include a law increasing fines for protesters, closer controls of the Internet and tighter rules for foreign-funded campaign and lobby groups.
Eurozone Break-Up Would Trigger £1 Trillion Of QE, See Banks Nationalised And Deep Recession, Warns Fathom -- Philip Aldrick, The Telegraph
A Eurozone break-up would plunge the UK into an even deeper recession than the last one, force the Government to nationalise the banks, and trigger a £1 trillion bout of money printing, leading economic consultancy Fathom has warned.
According to Fathom Consulting, the economy would shrink by 5.2pc in 2013 if the euro collapsed – a projection that former Bank of England deputy governor Sir John Gieve, speaking at Fathom’s quarterly Monetary Policy Forum, described as “modest”. In 2009, the worst year of the recent recession, the economy shrank by just 4pc.
The warning came as Moody’s, the ratings agency, lowered its UK growth forecast to just 0.4pc this year and 1.8pc in 2013, in the wake of the shock 0.7pc contraction in GDP in the second three months of the year. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development separately said the economy would shrink this year as a whole.
Israel's Red Line Fate of Syrian Chemical Weapons May Trigger War -- Ronen Bergman, Juliane von Mittelstaedt, Matthias Schepp and Holger Stark/Spiegel Online
As the battle against Syrian rebels reaches a new stage, Israel is worried that President Assad might use his vast arsenal of chemical weapons against his own people or neighbors -- or perhaps even give some to Hezbollah. Though many experts view this as unlikely, Israel is still weighing whether to strike.
The small village of Buqata is located on the Israeli side of the border that extends across the Golan Heights. From here, it's possible to see deep into Syrian territory. Right at the foot of the hill lies Jubata al-Khashab, a town just 55 kilometers (34 miles) southwest of Damascus, Syria's capital.
Every day, hundreds of concerned Israelis have been gathering along the barbed wire at the border and using binoculars to gaze at their neighbors in Jubata al-Khashab, who have been subjected to artillery fire in recent days. Thick clouds of smoke have been billowing from concrete apartment complexes there.
Read more .... My Comment: Will these "red lines" be crossed? As the situation continues to deteriorate in Syria .... who knows what will be happening next. But I do know one thing .... when Gaddafi fell in Libya, his arms depots were opened wide for everyone to take what they wanted. If Assad should fall .... I am 100% sure that the same will happen, and Syria's WMDs will be there for the taking. The hope is that a new provisional government would send it's most loyal solders to guard these depots .... including using the Syrian soldiers who are guarding them now. But this will take days (if not weeks) to organize .... and I am not sure if they will be up to the job.
How Latin America Is Reinventing The War On Drugs -- Sara Miller Llana, Christian Science
Frustrated with US dictates, countries across the region are floating new ideas to curb drug trafficking, from 'soft' enforcement to legalization.
Like thousands of other Bolivians, Marcela Lopez Vasquez's parents migrated to the Chapare region, in the Andean tropics, desperate to make a living after waves of economic and environmental upheaval hit farming and mining communities in the 1970s and '80s.
The new migrants, who spread across the undulating green hills here, planted bananas. They planted yucca and orange trees. But it was in the coca leaf that thrives in this climate that they found the salvation of a steady cash crop – and themselves at the nexus of the American "war on drugs."
My Comment: What's my take .... in the end these drugs are going to be legalized and managed by government. It will be done to lessen the power of the drug cartels, and to put a handle on the violence that it brings. Unfortunately .... it is going to bring about other problems .... the number one problem being medical/social problems associated with drug addition. We see it in Afghanistan .... where a sizable portion of the population are already addicted to opium/heroin .... bringing enormous social and medical problems that are crippling what is already a crippled medical system. We may not like the war against drugs because of it's human toll .... but maybe it is the lesser of two evils.
India's Power Outage: Why Coal Hasn't Been A Savior -- Rebecca Byerly, Christian Science Monitor
Some 600 million people lost power across India this week. The country relies on coal, which is neither helpful with peak power shortages, nor is regulated enough.
Gulam’s youthful brown eyes gaze at the coal mines just a few yards from the tiny thatched hut she shares with her family.
The scene before her, in the Jaintia Hills of northeast India, looks like something out of an apocalyptic movie: mountains of tar-black coal, polluted orange rivers, and seemingly bottomless holes plunge more than a 100 feet beneath the earth’s surface.
2nd Day Of Power Failures Cripples Wide Swath Of India -- New York Times
NEW DELHI — The world’s largest blackout ever crippled roughly half of India for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, sending officials scrambling for an explanation.
The power failure spread across 22 of the country’s 28 states, an area whose population is nearly 700 million, almost 10 percent of the world’s population. Hundreds of trains stopped across the region and, in Delhi, the subway system stalled, and massive traffic jams collected as traffic lights stopped functioning.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime "World Drug Report 2011". The Washington Post. Published on April 10, 2012, 11:42 a.m.
US: Peru Overtakes Colombia As Top Cocaine Producer -- NBC
Peru has again become the top producer of pure cocaine in the world, outpacing Colombia, where output fell by an estimated 25 percent in a year, according to a White House report issued Monday.
Drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Monday that potential cocaine production in Colombia was down by 72 percent since 2001. Colombia now ranks third, behind Bolivia in addition to Peru.
"Potential production of pure cocaine in Colombia is down to 195 metric tons (in 2011) from 700 metric tons in 2001, the lowest production potential level since 1994 and the first time since 1995 that Colombia is producing less cocaine than either Peru or Bolivia," Kerlikowske said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Read more ....
More News On The Decline Of Cocaine Production In Colombia, And Increasing In Peru
Panetta, In Cairo, Voices Confidence That Morsi Is ‘President Of All’ Egyptians -- Washington Post
CAIRO — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta played down concerns Tuesday about a rift between Egypt’s newly elected president and its military chief following a brief stopover in Cairo aimed at giving senior U.S. officials a better sense of how the country’s first Islamist administration will govern.
The recent election of President Mohamed Morsi, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has provoked unease among secular Egyptians, the military and Egyptian Christians, who worry that the country’s Islamists will upend a long tradition of secular rule. Read more ....
More News On Pentagon Chief Panetta Meeting With Egypt's New President
Russian Navy To Evacuate Syrian Base In Emergency -- RT
If the lives of the personnel at the Russian naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus are put at serious risk, they may be evacuated, Russia’s Navy chief says. This comes as Russia holds a major naval drill not far from the Syrian coast.
“If an emergency happens, we will remove the base’s personnel,” Vice-Adm. Viktor Chirkov told Echo Moscow radio Saturday, when asked what the Russian military would do if the base at the Syrian port Tartus came under attack.
He added that it would be up to the Russian president to order such a move. Read more .... My Comment: There are only 50 Russian navy personnel at the Tartus naval port .... but there are also an unknown number of Russian military personnel throughout Syria .... as well as diplomats, dependents, and common Russian citizens. This will be a big evacuation .... if it comes to that. But by having the Russian Navy chief come out publicly to state that this may happen .... Russia is tipping its hand that it does not have confidence in the long term future of the Assad regime in Damascus.
Onslaught: Smoke rises between buildings after shelling by forces loyal to Assad in the busy Salaheddin district
Chilling Shots From A City Under Siege: Frontline Pictures Reveal Terror On The Streets Of Aleppo As Rebels Fight For Control -- Daily Mail
* Thousands have fled the violence and others are running low on supplies * Rebels say they will turn the city into the 'grave' of the Assad government * They are advancing on Aleppo's centre and have taken army tanks * But government have more weapons at their disposal * More than 100 people were killed in Syria yesterday
These are the heartrending images captured on the streets of Aleppo as rebels and the Syrian government battle for power.
Rebel fighters have claimed President Bashar al-Assad's army has been forced into retreat, but on the frontline of the clashes, a grim picture of the bitter fighting can be seen.
Rebels say they will turn Aleppo into the 'grave' of the Assad government, and thousands have now fled, with those left running short of food and fuel and afraid for their lives.
My Comment: In the battle of Aleppo .... this is becoming a fight to the finish. If the rebels lose .... they will leave and regroup to attack again. If the Assad regime and the military lose .... this is one step to their eventual defeat . With no hope for reconciliation or restraint .... I predict that a sizable section of Aleppo will probably be destroyed .... and the ancient quarter of the city .... which is also a UN World Heritage site .... will probably be severely damaged in the fighting.
Syrian Rebels Seize Rural Territory While Assad Forces Focus On Major Cities -- Washington Post
AL-BAB, Syria — War came late to this little farming town set amid rolling hills in the Syrian countryside east of Aleppo, where the absence of upheaval was long construed as an implicit signal of support for the government led by President Bashar al-Assad.
But once the battle started in May, it unfolded at lightning speed, at least by the standards of a revolt that is dragging into its 17th month. Residents are celebrating their near-complete victory over regime loyalists after the town’s last army garrison fled Sunday, its food supplies gone and its morale shredded. Read more ....
My Comment: The rebels are holding territory outside the cities .... but have yet to control a major entire city itself. This is why the battle for Aleppo is so important .... if Assad loses control of this city, it will only be a matter of time before Damascus is threatened .... and after that it will be a retreat to the Alawite communities in the northwest of the country for a last stand.
World's Biggest Blackout: 620 Million People Without Power In India -- Christian Science Monitor
World's biggest blackout: More than half of India's population was without electricity Tuesday. The blackout hit 20 of India's 28 states as the power failure cascaded across the grids.
India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity for several hours in, by far, the world's biggest-ever blackout.
India's Power Grid Collapses Again -- Wall Street Journal
NEW DELHI--Much of India's electricity supply network collapsed Tuesday in the country's second major outage in two days, affecting more than 680 million people—double the population of the U.S.—and causing business losses estimated to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Thousands of offices and factories had to switch to generators or shut shop, more than 200 trains were brought to a standstill while hospitals had to ask nurses to manually work critical equipment such as ventilators as 21 provinces experienced a near-total blackout that raised questions about the infrastructure in Asia's third-largest economy.
My Comment: When I was living in China in 1988 .... power failures were a nuisance that everyone knew had to be solved in order for China to become a major economic world player. The same can be said about India today ..... but this blackout should not surprise those who are familiar with India. India .... like China .... is heavily dependent on coal fired plants to provide electricity. But unlike China .... India has closed coal mines and is trying to divert to alternative energy sources. They obviously did not realize (or calculate) that shutting down these coal-fired generators may have some consequences .... which we are now seeing today. I do expect India to solve this problem .... and they will do it by opening more coal mines and coal powered plants. If CO2 release and global warming is your thing .... this should concern you.
Strait Of Hormuz Will Stay Open Unless Iran’s Interests Are Harmed: Military Commander -- National Post/Reuters
DUBAI — Iran will keep the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane open as long as the waterway served its interests, a military commander was on Monday quoted as saying.
Iranian politicians and officials have often said that Iran could block the strait — the neck of the Gulf through which 40% of the world’s seaborne oil exports passes — in response to sanctions or military action. Read more .... My Comment: The Iranians are sending a message to Panetta who is in the region.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta gives an in-flight press briefing while flying to Tunis, Tunisia, July 29, 2012. Panetta is on a five-day trip to the region, including stops in Tunisia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
Panetta Denies Iran 'Attack Plans' in Works With Israel -- Wall Street Journal
CAIRO—Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that the U.S. has been working on contingency plans for a possible conflict with Iran and is discussing them with Israel but brushed aside suggestions he would share "attack plans" during a visit that begins Tuesday.
"It is the wrong characterization to say we're going to be discussing potential attack plans," Mr. Panetta told reporters in Cairo before flying to Israel for talks on Iran. "What we are discussing are various contingencies and how we could respond." Mr. Panetta was responding to Israeli news reports this weekend that American officials have detailed plans for attacking Iran.
My Comment: So what are these "contingency plans" .... and is Israel sharing it's plans with the U.S.? I would love to be a fly in that room when that meeting happens.
Paramilitary soldiers escort a convoy of trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops before crossing into Afghanistan from the Pakistan border town of Chaman on July 16, 2012. Pakistan and the U.S. reached a deal to reopen land routes that NATO uses to supply troops in Afghanistan. Stringer/Pakistan/REUTERS
U.S., Pakistan Sign Deal To Allow Supply Routes Through 2015 -- Washington Post
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan will allow NATO supply convoys to cross its territory into Afghanistan until the end of 2015, one year beyond the deadline for withdrawal of U.S. combat forces there, under an agreement signed on Tuesday by U.S. and Pakistani officials.
The pact seems to close, for now, one of the most contentious chapters in the long-turbulent relationship between Washington and Islamabad, cementing cooperation by Pakistan in winding down the war in Afghanistan at least in terms of logistical assistance. Washington also has urged Islamabad to step up its participation in the peace process by bringing to the negotiating table militant groups that shelter in Pakistani’s tribal belt and regularly cross the border to attack NATO troops.
A linguist, left, shares a smartphone device with a Afghan Army command sergeant major during a security meeting at the Qara Bagh district's center in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, July 16, 2012. Smartphone devices are increasing in use on the battlefield in Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod
Afghanistan War: When 'Friends' Attack, Who Can You Trust? -- Tom Engelhardt, L.A. Times
In Afghanistan, our soldiers are being attacked by the men they're training to take over for them. That's a mission failure.
It has a name: green-on-blue violence. But the label doesn't begin to suggest the seriousness of the increasingly common phenomenon of Afghan soldiers, policemen and security guards attacking their NATO or U.S. mentors, the people who are funding, supporting and teaching them. Think of it as death-by-ally.
Such incidents have occurred at least 21 times so far this year, resulting in 30 American and European deaths. That's the same number of green-on-blue attacks reported in all of 2011. And, according to the Associated Press, the U.S. and NATO don't always release news of the assaults unless they result in deaths, so the number could be higher.
My Comment: Trusting your fellow soldier is crucial in any war zone .... break that trust and the mission will fail. In Afghanistan .... green on blue incidents are poisoning this trust .... and yes .... it makes you question the mission and it's chances of success.
U.S. Army paratroopers scan for the insurgent triggerman who initiated an improvised explosive device, striking a route-clearance vehicle along Highway 1 in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, July 23, 2012. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Thomas Cieslak
In Afghanistan, Targeted Attacks On Leaders An Ominous Trend -- L.A. Times
The attacks on Afghan leaders come as the NATO force hands over more security duties to the Afghan police and army and begins its troop drawdown in earnest.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Tamim Nuristani used to own a pizza chain in California. Now he's a marked man in Afghanistan.
This month, insurgents ambushed the provincial governor's convoy in northeastern Afghanistan, sparking a fierce battle that pinned down his entourage for the night. When the motorcade tried to move in the morning, the assailants struck again. Miraculously, all those in the convoy survived.
It was not the first attempt on Nuristani's life; he did not expect it to be the last. Not long ago, security forces discovered and defused a remote-controlled explosive device apparently meant for him, and a defecting Taliban fighter told officials that he had been personally tasked with assassinating the Nuristan governor.
Killer-Drone Showdown Set As Lockheed Unveils Jet-Powered ‘Bot -- Danger Room
Sometime in the next few years the world’s most sophisticated drone prototypes will likely face off in what could be a multi-billion-dollar competition to shape the future of air warfare. And now we finally know what all four contestants look like.
On Friday, number-one defense contractor Lockheed Martin released the first official teaser image of its Sea Ghost jet-powered killer drone. Along with previously disclosed unmanned aerial vehicle designs from rivals Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, the Sea Ghost will go head-to-head for a Navy contract to put fast, stealthy, missile- and bomb-armed drones on the decks of aircraft carriers by 2018.
The Strategic Consequences Of The Euro Crisis: Cracks In NATO, New Euro Map -- Aol Defense
The Euro crisis is not simply a financial dynamic. It is the end of a period of history, the confluence of several trend lines: the unification of Germany, the end of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the expansion of NATO, the expansion of the European Union, and the creation of the single currency together constitute a unique period in modern European history.
The trend line was also defined by moving the borders of Europe eastward with the expectation that an expanded Europe would manage its own internal dynamics well and provide stability in an historically unstable region of the world.
Read more .... My Comment: What good is a military alliance when many of it's members are too broke to sustain a viable military .... and that is the heart and essence of what Europe's debt/Euro crisis has spawn for NATO. As for everything else .... the EU as we know it will change .... with the southern nations suffering an economic depression and debt crisis that will prevent them from being serious players on the European diplomatic scene for years if not decades.
M1 Abrams tanks sit on the assembly line at a plant in Lima, Ohio, the only place where the tanks are manufactured. Plant and local officials fear the plant won't survive if the military temporarily halts new tank orders. General Dynamics Land Systems
M1 Abrams Tank Builder Pushes Congress To Keep Contract Going -- McClatchy News
WASHINGTON — The M1Abrams tank has survived the Cold War, two conflicts in Iraq and a decade of war in Afghanistan. No wonder: It weighs as much as nine elephants and it’s fitted with a cannon that’s capable of turning a building to rubble from two and a half miles away. But now the machine is a target in an unusual battle between the Defense Department and lawmakers who are the beneficiaries of large campaign donations by its manufacturer.
The Pentagon, facing smaller budgets and looking toward a new global strategy, wants to save as much as $3 billion by freezing refurbishing work on the M1 from 2014 to 2017, so it can redesign the vehicle from top to bottom. Its proposal would idle a large factory in Lima, Ohio, as well as halt work at dozens of subcontractors in Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states.
My Comment: Shutting down parts of America's defense-industrial complex with the promise of opening it up in the future with a 'new program' is raising concerns .... and with just cause. I heard the same thing when I was living in Russia and the Russian government made the decision after the collapse of the Soviet Union to mothball key parts of their military industrial complex for a few years .... they even retired my uncle who was a director in their military-satellite communications division. Guess what .... those plants were never opened again .... and in today's world the present Russian government is now faced with huge costs in starting this up all over again.
Free: Mr Allen offered the Octopus for the expedition at no cost to the government
The Hunt For HMS Hood's Bell: Billionaire Offers To Fund Recovery So That It Can Be A Memorial To 1,415 Crew Who Drowned When Warship Was Sunk By The Bismarck In 1941 -- Daily Mail
A US billionaire has offered to lead an operation to recover the bell of the sunken battle cruiser HMS Hood, which was sunk in 1941 and killed 1,415 men, for free.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said US philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul G Allen has offered his private yacht be used in the search to recover the bell at no cost to it.
HMS Hood, which was a state-of-the-art vessel for its time, is the largest Royal Navy vessel to have been sunk, causing the biggest loss of life suffered by any single British warship. Read more .... My Comment: Kudos to Paul Allen for doing this.
US Intelligence Predicts Poverty Plummet By 2030 -- CBS News
ASPEN, Colo. — Poverty across the planet will be virtually eliminated by 2030, with a rising middle class of some two billion people pushing for more rights and demanding more resources, the chief of the top U.S. intelligence analysis shop said Saturday.
If current trends continue, the 1 billion people who live on less than a dollar a day now will drop to half that number in roughly two decades, Christoper Kojm said.
"We see the rise of the global middle class going from one to two billion," Kojm said, in a preview of the National Intelligence Council's global forecast offered at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. Read more .... My Comment: I am skeptical .... but it is also true that wealth creation is spreading in many parts of the world. The National Intelligence Council's website is here.
Ryan C. Crocker, the departing ambassador to Afghanistan, says American policy makers had “better do some cold calculating.” Bryan Denton for The New York Times
Retiring Envoy to Afghanistan Exhorts U.S To Heed Its Past -- New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — The American diplomat most associated with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan says that American policy makers need to learn the lessons of the recent past as they weigh military options for the future, including for Syria and Iran:
¶ Remember the law of unintended consequences.
¶ Recognize the limits of the United States’ actual capabilities.
¶ Understand that getting out of a conflict once you are in can often be dangerous and as destructive for the country as the original conflict.
Parties Look To Make $1 Trillion In Sequestration Cuts A Campaign Issue -- The Hill
The $1 trillion in spending cuts under sequestration are emerging as a major issue in congressional races and the presidential campaign, as both parties think they have a winning hand heading into November.
The reductions in defense spending have been used in attack ads for races in military heavy states like Virginia, and President Obama and Mitt Romney traded barbs over the cuts in back-to-back foreign policy speeches this week.
The word “sequestration” certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue to voters, but campaigns in both parties are banking that the $500 billion reduction to defense spending will still hit home over national security concerns and — perhaps more importantly — the potential loss of jobs. Read more ....
My Comment: The public sentiment is clear .... they want defense cuts. The key for the Republicans is to outline what are the consequences if such cuts go through .... but so far .... from my point of view .... their have failed to make their case.
Update: But even though polls favor defense cuts .... the White House is clearly worried.
An EA-18G Growler launches from the USS George Washington during flight operations while under way in the Philippine Sea, July 19, 2012. The pilot is assigned to the Shadowhawks of Electronic Attack Squadron 141. The George Washington is based at Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Brian H. Abel
The USS George Washington conducts a replenishment-at-sea mission with the USNS Tippecanoe while under way in the Philippine Sea, July 23, 2012. U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Declan Barnes
The East Asia Pivot -- Washington Free Beacon
Pentagon-sponsored report to Congress calls for buildup of forces in Asia
A Pentagon-sponsored report to Congress outlines the U.S. military’s new pivot to Asia and calls for adding attack submarines and Marines based throughout the Pacific to head off a future war with China.
The report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies presents three options based on impending cuts in defense spending. They include keeping the current status quo forces, mainly in Japan and South Korea, or modestly increasing military forces by adding attack submarines, Marine Air-Ground Task Forces, more warships and bombers, another aircraft carrier strike group, and more intelligence aircraft. A third option looks at sharply cutting forces throughout Asia, which the report said risks undermining stability. Read more .... My Comment: What the Pentagon wants will cost billions of dollars .... a prospect that will not happen in view of the budget cuts that are going to happen just around the corner.
Skype Denies Police Surveillance Policy Change -- BBC
Microsoft's online message, phone and video chat service Skype has denied making changes to its system "in order to provide law officers greater access" to its members' conversations.
It follows reports suggesting infrastructure upgrades had made it easier to hand on users' chat data.
Skype has now posted a blog saying the changes were made solely to improve user experience and reliability.
But it added it would pass on messages to law enforcement when "appropriate".
Read more .... My Comment: But everyone now knows that the technology exists to make it possible .... a fact that Skype will never be able to discount. And while the focus is on police agencies .... no one is discussing what the intelligence agencies are doing.
Al Qaeda’s Arab Comeback: Capitalizing on Chaos in Syria, Mali -- Bruce Riedel, Daily Beast
Destroying Timbuktu in Mali, exploiting the turmoil in Syria, successfully attacking in the Sinai—at the operational level, al Qaeda is stronger than it’s ever been, says Bruce Riedel.
Al Qaeda has exploited the Arab Spring to create is largest safe havens and operational bases in more than a decade across the Arab world. In the 18 months since the Arab revolutions first began, al Qaeda has grown stronger, despite founder Osama bin Laden’s death and a lack of mass appeal.
Like the rest of the world, the terror organization was surprised by the revolutions that toppled dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Its ideology of violence and jihad initially was challenged by the largely nonviolent revolutionary movements that swept across North Africa and the Middle East. But al Qaeda is adaptive, and it has exploited the chaos and turmoil of revolutionary change to create bases and new strongholds from one end of the Arab world to the other. Read more ....
My Comment: I guess reports of Al Qaeda's demise were 'greatly exaggerated'.
Resistance ... members of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo. Photo: Reuters
Al-Qaida Turns Tide For Rebels In Battle For Eastern Syria -- The Guardian
In his latest exclusive dispatch from Deir el-Zour province, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets fighters who have left the Free Syrian Army for the discipline and ideology of global jihad
As they stood outside the commandeered government building in the town of Mohassen, it was hard to distinguish Abu Khuder's men from any other brigade in the Syrian civil war, in their combat fatigues, T-shirts and beards.
But these were not average members of the Free Syrian Army. Abu Khuder and his men fight for al-Qaida. They call themselves the ghuraba'a, or "strangers", after a famous jihadi poem celebrating Osama bin Laden's time with his followers in the Afghan mountains, and they are one of a number of jihadi organisations establishing a foothold in the east of the country now that the conflict in Syria has stretched well into its second bloody year.
McRaven On Bin Laden Raid: One Of History's "Great Intelligence Operations" -- CNN
While it was one of 11 missions carried out by U.S. special forces that night, the head of U.S. Special Operations command said the raid that killed Osama bin Laden will go down as one of the "great intelligence operations in history."
Admiral William McRaven spoke Wednesday before an audience at the Aspen Institute Security Conference on a panel discussion moderated by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. The talk was his first interview about the raid with a journalist.
McRaven also touched on some of the other pressing issues facing the U.S. military in the discussion that ranged from serious to light-hearted.
My Comment: Posted this story a few days ago, but it is the fist time that I am seeing the video that has Admiral William McRaven talking about the Bin Laden raid. On a side note .... on the night of the Bin laden raid there were 10 other raids by U.S. special forces. Would love to know what those other 10 were .... but I know that we will never know.
Romney: Nuclear Iran Is 'Number One National Security Threat' -- CNN
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney clarified his March remark that Russia is the nation's top foe, saying in an interview which aired Monday on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" that Iran potentially poses the greatest national security threat to the U.S.
"The number one national security threat, of course, to our nation is a nuclear Iran," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, speaking in Jerusalem about the nearby nation.
Asked about Israel's borders, the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the London Olympics, and campaign finance, Romney offered little new policy or criticism of President Barack Obama. Read more ....
My Comment: What's my take .... I still regard Al Qaeda and it's affiliated groups as our #1 national security threat. Iran's nuclear enrichment program is definitely up there .... but this has been the case for almost 20 years, and probably will continue to be the case for the next few years.
Drawing lessons from Afghanistan and Libya, German Chancellor Merkel has been making quiet changes to Berlin's arms exports policy. Instead of intervening in conflicts, she wants to help arm certain countries to provide stability in crisis regions. But if history is any guide, the plan could backfire.
When it comes to global issues, German Chancellor Angela Merkel often strikes a high-minded tone. In a keynote speech she delivered at the 2011 Munich Security Conference, she spoke of the "obligation to pursue value-based foreign policy." She also frequently says that no compromises can be made on human rights. And, in her view, the greatest thing to come out of the NATO summit held in Chicago this May was that Germany successfully pushed through passages related to nuclear disarmament in Europe.
My Comment: I wish her luck in trying to maneuver this 'fine line' of exporting weapons to only countries that will provide stability in crisis regions
President Bashar al-Assad with leaders of the army at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Damascus Photo: Reuters
President In Name Only, Assad Plays For Time -- The Telegraph
By ceding large parts of Syria, the tyrant has effectively admitted that he cannot win.
From street protests to insurgency to national insurrection. The remorseless escalation of Syria’s conflict since it first broke out 16 months ago is the most striking feature of the challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
Repression has bred resistance, and vice versa, to the point where the country’s biggest cities are becoming battlefields. Aleppo is dominated by the magnificent gatehouse of its Citadel, providing visual proof that possession of this ancient city has decided the fate of kings for centuries. So it is with Mr Assad today: his actions betray a grim awareness that the struggle for Aleppo is central to his regime’s survival. He has been willing to strip neighbouring provinces of troops and tanks in order to mobilise forces for this battle, even though this effectively means turning over large areas of his country to de facto rebel control. Read more ....
My Comment: With Syria's civil war escalating every month .... he must now know that this is a losing proposition for him. He may have the soldiers and weaponry behind him, but in a war of attrition where his armed opponents comprise approximately 80% of the population .... it will only be a matter of time before his military advantages will start to degrade and crumble.
I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.
