CDR Salamander

Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a suburb of Paris early Saturday in a second night of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers died fleeing police.

The two teenagers were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station as they fled from police investigating a break-in, media reported.

Firefighters intervened around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where many of the 28,000 residents are immigrants, mainly from Africa, police and fire officers said.

Unidentified youths fired a shot at police but no one was hurt, police said.

A police trade union called for help from the army to support police officers.

Puss. In the U.S. of A., we our malcontents shoot at authority figures, they usually hit their target, and a half dozen others. And if they shoot and miss, well, our police usually make sure they don't get a second chance. Really!

"There's a civil war underway in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," Michel Thooris, an official of police trade union Action Police CFTC, said .

"We can no longer withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting," he said.

Time to learn Michelle, Michel, Mitch - whatever. In 30 years or so, you will look back on this as a quaint skirmish.

...and it's still going on.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:15

CBSNEWS Chief White House correspondent John Roberts described the President’s selection of Judge Samuel Alito as “sloppy seconds” during today’s press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

John Roberts: “So, Scott, you said that -- or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean that Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?”

Scott McClellan: “Not at all, John.”

Sloppy seconds” is described in the United Kingdom’s A Dictionary of Slang as:

Noun: “A subsequent indulgence in an activity by a second person involving an exchange of bodily fluids. This may involve the sharing of drink, or more often it applies to a sexual nature. E.g. ‘I’m not having sloppy seconds, I want to shag her first.’”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:49

The Solomon Amendment conditions the receipt by universities of federal funds on their allowing military recruiters access to university students on campus. Elite law schools, deans, and professors have strenuously resisted the Solomon Amendment. They claim that forcing them to choose between losing federal money and countenancing appearances by representatives a bigoted (against gays) military violates their right to freedom of association. In 2003 they commenced litigation challenging the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment under the auspices of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR). The Third Circuit Court of Appeals sided with "FAIR" and held the Solomon Amendment unconstitutional. As I mentioned, the Supreme Court will review that decision this term and, in my opinion, probably reverse it. Scott has written extensively about the case, most recently here.
...
Here is the Polsby amicus (co-authored by professors Nelson Lund and Joseph Zengerle of George Mason and private attorneys Andrew McBride, William Consovey, and Seth Wood of the Wiley, Rein & Fielding law firm). The brief is something of a blog legend -- Todd Zywicki, another George Mason law professor, used his space at the Volokh Conspiracy to successfully "recruit" other law professors to sign the brief.

One of the many great points Dean Polsby made about the Solomon Amendment yesterday was that the law schools challenging the Amendment seem motivated more by anti-military sentiment than by sympathy for gay rights (the suit assumes the legality of the underlying "don't ask, don't tell" policy). Polsby, a professor for decades, notes that the liberal professoriate was defending its sensibilities against the military at a time when gay rights were a non-issue.

If, as I expect, the Supreme Court upholds the Solomon Amendment, both sets of lofty motives (anti-military animus and pro-gay rights sentiment) will likely be insufficient to induce liberal law schools to stand on principle and turn down federal money.

According to what I read, Yale has an endowment of something approaching $13 billion. Under the stewardship of its top-flight investment manager, David F. Swensen, it has compounded recently at the rate of very roughly 20 percent a year.
...
at this point, is it an investment bank or a school? I am really not sure, and this troubles me.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 04:03

Four men have been arrested in the Danish capital Copenhagen on suspicion of planning a suicide attack in Europe.

A court ordered the men - all Muslims aged 16 to 20 - to be remanded in custody until 16 November while investigations continue.

He did not specify where the Balkan investigation took place but Bosnian police said last week they arrested three people in Sarajevo on suspicion of undertaking terrorist activities.

An art exhibit that included photographs of nude Muslim women wearing only a head covering was taken down Thursday afternoon just hours after opening for public viewing at Harper College in Palatine.

Muslim students at the college protested to officials about the pieces on display in Building C. Several students say the pieces — some showing young Muslim men with machine guns — were downright offensive.

“The Muslim students are thinking about boycotting Harper because of this,” said Ali, 23, of Schaumburg.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:09

... in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can't be fixed, or won't be fixed any time soon. That our pollsters are preoccupied with "right track" and "wrong track" but missing the number of people who think the answer to "How are things going in America?" is "Off the tracks and hurtling forward, toward an unknown destination."
...
Everything. Cloning, nuts with nukes, epidemics; the growing knowledge that there's no such thing as homeland security; the fact that we're leaving our kids with a bill no one can pay. A sense of unreality in our courts so deep that they think they can seize grandma's house to build a strip mall; our media institutions imploding--the spectacle of a great American newspaper, the New York Times, hurtling off its own tracks, as did CBS. The fear of parents that their children will wind up disturbed, and their souls actually imperiled, by the popular culture in which we are raising them. Senators who seem owned by someone, actually owned, by an interest group or a financial entity. Great churches that have lost all sense of mission, and all authority. Do you have confidence in the CIA? The FBI? I didn't think so.
...
I have wondered if it hasn't all gotten too big, too complicated, too crucial, too many-fronted, too . . . impossible.
...
nuclear proliferation, wars and natural disasters, Iraq, stem cells, earthquakes, the background of the Supreme Court backup pick, how best to handle the security problems at the port of Newark, how to increase production of vaccines, tort reform, did Justice bungle the anthrax case, how is Cipro production going, did you see this morning's Raw Threat File? Our public schools don't work, and there's little refuge to be had in private schools, however pricey, in part because teachers there are embarrassed not to be working in the slums and make up for it by putting pictures of Frida Kalho where Abe Lincoln used to be. Where is Osama? What's up with trademark infringement and intellectual capital? We need an answer on an amendment on homosexual marriage! We face a revolt on immigration.
...
There are two groups. One has made a separate peace, and one is trying to keep the boat afloat. I suspect those in the latter group privately, in a place so private they don't even express it to themselves, wonder if they'll go down with the ship. Or into bad territory with the trolley.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:05

Last summer, Gordon England, acting deputy defense secretary, who was dissatisfied with the progress of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), asked Marshall for concise recommendations based on the growing needs to operate in the Pacific region, strike precisely at intercontinental ranges, quickly deploy aircraft to austere bases, protect satellites and space capabilities, and defend against ballistic missiles.

On Oct. 5, Marshall’s “Red Team” described its findings to England and senior military leaders. The team recommended several steps, including:

- Cut tactical air forces by 30 percent.
- Cancel the Navy’s DDX future destroyer.
- Delay the Army’s Future Combat Systems.
- Develop conventional theater ballistic missiles to rapidly strike “high-value targets.
- Build more fast sealift ships and nuclear submarines.
- Develop a new long-range bomber.

In the second week of November, OMB will give the Pentagon its top-line budget limits for the coming six years. Military officials will then have a scant few weeks to decide the fate of scores of programs.

The strategic planning council, which includes the Pentagon’s Senior Level Review Group plus the combatant commanders, has already convened to discuss the QDR in January, May and earlier this month.

“This is supposed to be the final ‘come-to-Jesus’ review of programmatic issues,” said a Pentagon official involved in the review.

The directors of PA&E’s naval forces and tactical air forces divisions are also expected to deliver findings suggesting cuts in their respective areas soon, Pentagon officials said.

Another briefing that is causing the Air Force and Army heartburn is a second PA&E alternative assessment that suggests force structure for both be cut, Marine Corps force structure increase, and the Navy be left unchanged. These recommendations, spelled out in a PA&E assessment, “Key Force Sizing Assumptions,” is on the agenda for discussion during a Friday meeting of Gordon England, the acting deputy defense secretary, and Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with the service vice chiefs.

A Ground Force Capability Study led by Mark Cancian, director of PA&E’s land forces division, wrapped up this week, with recommendations with significant implications for the Army and Marine Corps, according to two Pentagon officials familiar with the study’s findings.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:24

From Field Manual FM 27-10:

Bodies shall not be cremated except for imperative reasons of hygiene or for motives based on the religion of the deceased. In case of cremation, the circumstances and reasons for cremation shall be stated in detail in the death certificate or on the authenticated list of the dead.

The commander on the ground is a lieutenant. Nobody yet has come up with a better idea. What was he supposed to do?

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:30

In a country where one person is killed with a gun every 15 minutes, surely the public would vote in favour of an outright ban on gun sales?
Wrong. By a resounding 64% to 36%, Brazilians decided to keep the gun shops open. The result was more decisive than any poll had predicted.
….
For the foreseeable future, it is unlikely that any government will feel able to revisit the guns issue - such was the deafening volume of the "No" vote.
Brazil is proud of its recently-restored democracy. And rightly or wrongly, the Brazilian people have spoken.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:22

ghoul Audio pronunciation of "ghoul" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gl)
n.

1. One who delights in the revolting, morbid, or loathsome.
2. A grave robber.
3. An evil spirit or demon in Muslim folklore believed to plunder graves and feed on corpses.


[Arabic l, from la, to seize, snatch. See wl in Semitic Roots.]ghoulish adj.
ghoulish·ly adv.
ghoulish·ness n.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:33

At a quarter past noon on Jan. 21, a U.S. Navy F-18 Super Hornet jet fighter flown by a combat-tested pilot named Richard Webb appeared over the Edna Valley and streaked toward San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport.

On its first pass, the Super Hornet screamed along at more than 650 miles an hour, just 96 feet above the main runway. Soon it circled back, touched down on the tarmac for an instant, then went into a steep climb, afterburner roaring, and disappeared in the skies.

Ernie Sebby was in his house less than a mile from the airport. He ran to the front porch and caught a glimpse of the aircraft. It appeared to be painted in gray primer. He could make out no identifying numbers.

A former volunteer at airport community functions and an erstwhile recreational pilot, the 77-year-old retired corrections officer guessed that the plane was a surplus military jet fighter flown "by some guy that's got more money than brains."

The Federal Aviation Administration designation for the airspace above the airport is Class D, meaning that it has a speed limit of 230 mph below 2,500 feet. "Oh boy, we're in trouble," Pehl thought. "We've got a real PR issue…. "

In today's environment, Sherwood said, there is little tolerance "for misbehavior in any way, whether it's flying an aircraft outside the flight plan or having a few beers in the officers' club."

The Navy tradition, he said, is to give a ship's captain or aircraft pilot a great deal of responsibility and autonomy, but to countenance not even the smallest mistake. The Navy "has a reputation for eating its children…. If you mess up, there are no second chances."

After graduation from college, Webb became a U.S. Navy aviation officer. He flew F-14 Tomcat jet fighters in combat over Afghanistan and Iraq, taking off from the deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise.

In January, he was based temporarily at Lemoore Naval Air Station in the San Joaquin Valley, where he was learning to fly the Super Hornet, the Navy's successor to the Tomcat. Sometimes he drove to the San Luis Obispo airport to visit and fly with old friends.

”Heck, I can do that.”

Hey guys, watch this!!

Of his career as a Navy aviator, Webb told him: "Mike, I love this so much I can't believe they're paying me to do it. I'd do it for free."

On Jan. 21, Webb checked out an F-18 Super Hornet at the Lemoore base for a training flight, to add to the 14.8 hours he had logged in the aircraft's cockpit. His superiors assumed that he would fly to a designated military training area above Sequoia and Death Valley national parks, 100 miles to the east.
Webb had other ideas.

"When I made a quick decision to fly down to my old airport and do a flyby, you can imagine what I was thinking…. " Webb wrote. "I could now be the guy who seemed to explode out of nowhere doing a high-speed afterburner pass, leaving a lasting impression on a young kid. Talk about the circle being completed…."

Minutes after Webb's flight, telephone console lights in the airport administrative offices blazed. "Everybody heard it — the whole city heard it," said airport manager Klaasje Nairne. "The phone rang off the hook … it rocked our world."

About half an hour after the plane departed, Sebby e-mailed Nairne, asking her to find out the plane's identity. He expressed concern that "the tremendous noise generated will set airport and community relations back years."

After airport officials got in touch, the Navy convened an evaluation board to consider Webb's conduct. Webb admitted performing the flyby and knowing that it was against the rules. The board also reviewed two other incidents in Webb's past which, in the Navy's view, involved questionable judgment by the aviator.

Upon learning of the threat to Webb's career, San Luis Obispo airport officials expressed concern about the reaction they had sparked. On Feb. 15, Nairne wrote Webb's superiors that "it was never our intent to be a party to the end of this gentleman's naval aviation career." If that were the result, she wrote, "it would be most regrettable."

Although a superior officer acknowledged that Webb was "an energetic junior officer and talented aviator," the commander of the Naval Air Force Atlantic Fleet, Webb's home command, concluded that his flyby "merits termination of flying status."

Webb's wings were pulled. He was exiled to a desk job in Qatar in the Middle East, and left to ponder the four remaining years of his service commitment as a groundling.

On June 3, he sent an e-mail to Sebby, carbon-copying more than 30 friends and others in the aviation community. Webb told Sebby that his grounding was "a direct result of your indignant e-mail," which he characterized as "scathing."

In regard to his unauthorized flyby, Webb wrote, "No respected fighter pilot worth his salt can look me in the eye and tell me they've never done the exact same thing."

Webb concluded that he was "not apologetic for what I did, and if given the chance, I'd do the same thing again…. It's just incredibly hard to admit fault, and accept such disproportionate punishment, to an action that probably helped recruit many young kids in town that day…. I feel ashamed to have my close friends die to protect your freedom to complain about how we do our job."

Sebby is not as sympathetic. Webb's missive brought down on him an avalanche of angry e-mails, and some anonymous, harassing phone calls. Sebby contacted Navy officials to complain of what he came to see as Webb's orchestration of a vilification campaign against him.

"I wasn't trying to prosecute anyone or get him fired or grounded," Sebby said in an interview. "I had no idea it was even a military aircraft. This thing he orchestrated against me … I want the Navy to know I'm not going to let this drop because I'm offended, deeply offended, by this."

"I was very much floored when I read this report," said one former F-18 instructor who agreed to be interviewed but was under orders from a commander to not be quoted by name. "This was so far out of the realm of acceptability it's ludicrous…. What he did was practically unheard of, extremely unusual … 500 knots at 96 feet is way beyond his ability…. That's extreme poor judgment having only 14.8 hours" of flight time in an F-18. "This kid was an accident waiting to happen. It was a blessing they got to him before he killed somebody and that was something that was going to happen."

Webb's case illustrates the balance a modern fighter pilot must strike between aggressiveness and daring on the one hand, and tight adherence to discipline and procedure on the other.

"You want your young men and women to fly aggressively, fly tough, fly mean, so when you need them to do tough things, they can go into battle and win," Whitcomb said. "But that aggression has got to be properly tempered, so when it's not called for, it doesn't get them in trouble.

"Nowadays, you can't accept needless loss. This F-18, this is the top-of-the-line, multi-multimillion-dollar aircraft extremely capable of doing some really amazing things, and we want the young people we bring in to be able to do those extra things, but always under control and carefully directed because it's very easy to lose control of a jet like that."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 04:50

Anne Rice, the chronicler of vampires, witches and—under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure—of soft-core S&M encounters, will publish "Christ the Lord : Out of Egypt," a novel about the 7-year-old Jesus, narrated by Christ himself. "I promised," she says, "that from now on I would write only for the Lord."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:39

Labels: Humor, Turkey, Uniforms

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:44

Claim: The Peter, Paul & Mary tune "Puff, the Magic Dragon" is a coded song about marijuana.

Status: False.

Origins: No,
"Puff, the Magic Dragon" is not about marijuana, or any other type of drug. It is what its writers have always claimed it to be: a song about the innocence of childhood lost.

The poem that formed the basis of the song "Puff, the Magic Dragon" was written Puff this! in 1959 by Leonard Lipton, a nineteen-year-old Cornell student. Lipton was inspired by an Ogden Nash rhyme about a "Really-O Truly-O Dragon,"

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:10

...last week, the Army ordered work to be halted on the $879 million design contract because of problems finding an adequate aircraft.

The Army gave Lockheed 60 days to submit a new proposal. Edward Bair, program executive officer for electronic warfare, told reporters last week that all options were on the table.

Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote told Dow Jones that the service should terminate Lockheed Martin's (LMT) contract and go back to the drawing board. His comments mark the first time Northrop Grumman has called outright for a fresh look.

"The fundamental problems with the Aerial Common Sensor source selection, contract performance and the latest get-well proposal all demonstrate the need to reopen ACS to competition," Belote said.

"The Army's evaluation concluded that in their system design there was a high risk of exceeding the maximum zero fuel weight of the aircraft, which is a structural limit and would prevent the aircraft from being able to take off," Kearney said.

Analysts said Northrop Grumman's effort to join the program may not bear fruit. Both the Army and the Navy, an official program partner, are enthusiastic about Lockheed Martin's (LMT) electronics sensors, said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a Washington-area think tank.

"The one thing that all the participants agree on is that the Lockheed Martin (LMT)electronics system is the best solution. The argument has been over the aircraft that carries it," said Thompson, who provides consulting services to Lockheed Martin (LMT) and other defense industry firms.

The program’s current review was set off in June after Lockheed officials told the Army that the plane they selected for the ACS, the ERJ-145 regional jetliner built by Brazil’s Embraer, would be too small for the planned sensor package. Lockheed suggested replacing it with the larger Embraer 190 airplane.

Bair said the Army already had figured that the weight of the electronic components, cables and cooling gear would exceed Lockheed’s initial estimate by 28 percent. But nine months after the contract was awarded in August 2004, Lockheed and Army officials found the increase was well over 40 percent.

The ACS began as a joint program between the Army and the Navy, but the latter service decided last year to wait and watch instead of signing on.

The Navy, which preferred a larger plane than the Army’s initial choice, saw a possibility of adding ACS-like capability to their Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) program, launched in 2004 with a $3.9 billion contract to Boeing.

In view of the Navy’s reluctance, some Pentagon officials are said to favor terminating ACS and adding the Army’s requirements to the Air Force’s E-10A Multisensor Command and Control Aircraft, a program to replace surveillance planes such as Northrop’s E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System and Boeing’s E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System.

A team including Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Raytheon is currently working on the E-10A program.

Loren Thompson, analyst at the Lexington Institute, a Washington think tank, said Pentagon officials concerned about the lack of adequate funds for the Air Force’s E-10A were considering combining the Army’s mission with that of the Air Force, and allowing the Navy to put its ACS mission on the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft.

That option would allow Boeing, which has the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft contract, and Northrop Grumman, which leads the E-10A effort, to gain at the expense of Lockheed Martin.

Airbus (ABI.YY) also was asked about its A320 plane, which is similar to the other aircraft under consideration. Lockheed Martin (LMT) spokeswoman Judy Gan said Airbus was contacted early on but couldn't meet schedule requirements.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:27

Jackie Collins, the Hollywood novelist, had set the tone by talking about Liberty, a mixed-race character in her new book. She spoke of how Liberty's mother, who was black, put her in front of a mirror, saying: "Don't you ever forget you're black."

Howe went on to talk about his Channel 4 documentary Son of Mine, detailing his relationship with his 20 year-old son, Amiri, and whether it was racism or his faults as a father that were to blame for the difficulties his child had been through.

Rivers, 72, broke in, saying: "I'm so, so bored of race. I think people should inter-marry. Everybody should be part this, part that and part everything. Race doesn't mean a damn thing. Everybody should just relax, take the best of their cultures and move forward."

Purves suggested that was a "very American approach" but Howe disagreed, saying: "That's not an American approach. America is one of the most savagely racial places in the world."

And then he later suggested: "Since black offends Joan…"

This drove Rivers into a complete tizzy. "Wait!" she cried. "Just stop right now. Black does not offend me. How dare you? How dare you say that? 'Black offends me!' You know nothing about me. How dare you."

Their exchanges culminated with Rivers shrieking: "Don't you dare call me a racist. I'm sorry. How dare you."

As a somewhat harassed Purves tried to calm the situation, Rivers said to Howe: "Now please continue, but don't you dare call me that. Son of a bitch."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:47

Global security guru Thomas P.M. Barnett is in the unique position of being embraced by Pentagon officials and top U.S. military commanders as a visionary strategist -- even as he openly blames the defense establishment for botching post-invasion operations in Iraq.

"No one ever said, 'cut it out' or 'shut up,' or ever put a squeeze on me," Barnett said in an interview. (In a typical Web log, or blog, entry yesterday, he wrote: "Iraq is doing just fine given [a] poorly planned occupation (F to the neocons, C+ to the officers doing their best in a crappy situation on the ground.")

Barnett spoke fresh from a tete-a-tete last week with the U.S. four-star general who oversees the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, and Abizaid's personal think tank. Col. Mant Hawkins, director of the think tank, called Barnett's ideas "significantly visionary."

Barnett, an expert on Russia and the Warsaw Pact who holds a Harvard doctorate in political science, was a professor of strategy at the Naval War College and adviser to the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation when he devised a PowerPoint briefing that catapulted him to prominence after Sept. 11, 2001.

Barnett says his biggest detractors -- one called him "insane" -- tend to be Army officers averse to the peacekeeping role, as well as Navy, Air Force and Army officials who see his thesis as undermining their justifications for fighter jets, warships and expensive ground combat systems. His advocacy of a U.S. security partnership with China, in particular, galls some officers who see that nation as a major threat.

"You get people who want to sell $15 billion aircraft carriers, and his vision is not so compelling," said Shane Deichman, chief of the capabilities department for the U.S. military's Joint Forces Command, in Norfolk, Va., which has incorporated Barnett's ideas in future planning.

"It's kind of a joke," Barnett says. "How many Sea Wolf submarines did it take to recapture Fallujah? Not enough."

Perhaps most valued is Barnett's ability to stimulate debate in a military still defined by its war-fighting, Deichman said. "He's a catalyst."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:58

Seventy-three soldiers in a special reserve program have defied orders to appear for wartime duty, some for more than a year, yet the Army has quietly chosen not to act against them.

“We just continue to work with them, reminding them of their duty,” says Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman.

Only one officer is among the 73 soldiers who either ignored their orders or refused to serve. Brischke says Army staffers keep calling and reminding them of “duty, honor, country” and their need to fulfill their obligations.

“It's sensitive because we understand they're different soldiers.”

The decision to declare these soldiers AWOL or a deserter is up to their commanding officer, Brig. Gen. Rhett Hernandez, the Army's personnel management director. He could not be reached for comment.

The behavior may be reinforced by peace activist groups operating the GI Rights Hotline, which keeps reservists informed about the Army's failure to act. “What we tell them is that right now, the Army is not doing anything to pursue IRR call-ups,” hotline counselor Dawn Blanken says.

The Army's failure to act sends the wrong message, says Mike Belter, an IRR lieutenant colonel called up last year.

“I didn't think at 48 I was going to be in a war zone,” Belter says. “I could have said no. But it was what we signed up for, what we volunteered for in the first place, a sense of service to country.”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:07

A judge has issued an international arrest warrant for three U.S. soldiers whose tank fired on a Baghdad hotel during the Iraq war..
...
Judge Santiago Pedraz issued the warrant for Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, all from the U.S. 3rd Infantry.

Jose Couso, who worked for the Spanish television network Telecinco, died April 8, 2003, after a U.S. army tank crew fired a shell on Hotel Palestine in Baghdad where several journalists were staying to cover the war.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:03

Liberal radio talker Ed Schultz was eagerly anticipating his debut yesterday on Armed Forces Radio, which agreed last month to carry his program to nearly a million soldiers around the world.
But at 7 a.m., Schultz's producer got a call from Allison Barber, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for internal communications, who said without explanation that the deal was off.

Perhaps, Schultz said in an interview, it was just a coincidence that he spent the end of last week chastising Barber for coaching a group of U.S. soldiers in Iraq before a teleconference with President Bush.
"It kind of floored us," Schultz said from his studio in North Dakota. "The fact is, they don't want dissenting voices or any other kind of speech unless it's going to be promotional for them. Obviously, these people are making sure they're not going to have any opinion other than the Rush Limbaughs of the world."

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) won approval last year for a nonbinding resolution urging Armed Forces Radio to offer more political balance in programming. Limbaugh strongly objected, noting that the network carries National Public Radio and declaring, "I am the political balance."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said last night that Levy "got ahead of the process" and that no decision had been made in a review of which programming to add to the network. When asked about Schultz's insistence that his criticism of Barber played a role, Whitman called that "an unfortunate misperception on his part. That has nothing to do with this."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:13

The Netherlands today can still offer a picturesque tranquility, with its swarms of straight-backed bike riders and its canals reflected in the handsome windows of gabled homes. But cut a keyhole through Dutch decorum and violence appears: a filmmaker shot and stabbed by an Islamic fanatic, politicians in hiding from jihadist threats, a newspaper columnist menaced into silence, people living in fear.
…
What was once a subject (immigration of Muslims) of worthy debate is now more a matter of survival.

Geert Wilders is a rightist member of the Dutch Parliament living in a secret location under police protection because Islamic radicals say they will kill him. That, in what was until recently the placid Western democracy par excellence, is extraordinary. “All non-Western immigration must be stopped,” Wilders said. “Pure Islam is violent.

Other politicians, like Cohen (Jewish mayor of Amsterdam), see the solution more in building bridges than barriers.

That Europe needs immigrants, and that they will seek to come from adjacent North Africa and other poor Muslim areas, is evident. It needs them to do jobs, from asparagus picking to care of the elderly, that others do not want to do. It needs them to offset a rapid aging of its societies.

It was this failure (of Muslims to integrate themselves into society) that Fortuyn was first, or at least most forthright, in denouncing, railing against what he called the bigotry of Islam-in-the-Netherlands – its intolerance of homosexuals, its oppression of women – and declaring the country “full.” An animal-rights activist killed him for his frankness in debunking the “multi-culti” dream world of the politically correct.

That fact (conflicted identity of second generation immigrants who were the foot soldiers of the London suicide bombings), insisted Hamid (a second generation Dutch-Moroccan) should not prompt generalizations. “Somebody is crazy,” he said, “OK. But that does not mean the whole Islamic people is.”

Small humiliations now accumulate. The bus driver closes the door on him, he overhears talk of Moroccans being killers. “But it’s the government’s mistake not to have mixed us up more,” he said. “We’ve been here more than 20 years.”

The mistake was well intentioned. Let’s give them a home and welfare and let their culture flower: such was the Dutch approach to immigration. There was a history behind it. Of the 140,000 Jews in The Netherlands at the start of the Nazi occupation, 102,000, or 75 percent, were killed, a larger proportion than in any other West European democracy.
…
To criticize an immigrant became taboo because racism could lead to the gas chamber. Favoring immigrants, at some level, could be seen as a form of atonement, like elsewhere in Europe.

Certainly, at the Future Café, Dutch identity seemed murky. The air was thick with hash smoke. An immigrant from Suriname rolled a joint; he said he received 800 Euros, or $967, a month in various benefits and worked part time for 8 Euros an hour.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian-born member of Parliament from Verdonk’s VVD party, used to be a Muslim. After 9/11, however, she renounced a religion (I blame Bush…) from which she was already estranged, and now has become one of its most uncompromising critics., In return, Islamic fanatics want her dear.

”All of Europe is in a state of denial,” she argued. “It thinks these killings (of Pim, Van Gogh, Madrid, London, and others) will go away, but they will not. The Holy Book says infidels must be destroyed.”

She continued: “Osama bin Laden is a puritan Muslim. That is why he keeps insisting on the Koran. Islam is not a religion of peace, or only a peace with other Muslims.

We should acknowledge that it’s a very violent religion, say, yes, you are right, instead of pretending, like Bush, that this violence is not true Islam. And then we should encourage Muslims to say that they will remain Muslims, but reject those verses incompatible with human rights, with a decent coexistence between men and women. We should demand and Islamic Reformation.”

Aboutaleb, the city councilor who works for Cohen, the Amsterdam mayor, forming an unusual Muslim-Jewish team, thinks Hirsi Ali, Wilders, Verdonk and the country’s center-right government are wrong. A Social Democrat, he is alarmed by The Netherlands’ hardening. “Their direction is setting groups against each other, “ he said, . “But we need what I call ‘The Big We’ community, where our one million Muslims feel members of society.”

Islam, for Aboutaleb, is less the problem than European culture. On television, he spends 40 percent of his time explaining his religion, because Europe shuns Islam. “Why,” he asked,. “is Cohen never questioned on being a Jew?”

Europe should look to America and accept that a major presence of immigrants is now part of their makeup,” said Demetrios Papademetriou, the president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. “In the U.S., one in nine are foreign-born; in Europe, perhaps one in 10. But in Europe, a real change in mentality is needed to see immigrants more as opportunity, less as problem. And for that, Europe may have to adjust the full-plated set of benefits it has offered to all at the outset.”

In railway stations today, big orange and black posters are everywhere. Put up by the country’s main Jewish organization, one declares: “In 1940-45, most of the Jews had to get lost. Who’s next? Don’t let hate come back.” The second says: “From here the trains departed to Auschwitz. When will the world get wiser?”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:36

An official multinational body has decreed that the surname of Jesus Christ should be written without a capital as from August 2006. That is, if you are using the Dutch language. Though today Dutch-speakers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Surinam write "Christus", next year they will have to change their habits and write "christus".

Apart from "Christus", terms like "Renaissance" and "Middle Ages" will also lose their capitals. But other words will acquire capitals. An Aztec is now an 'azteek' in Dutch, but he will become an 'Azteek' next year, just as an 'eskimo' will become an 'Eskimo'.

Many people in the Netherlands and Belgium are fed up with this second modification to the spelling in less than 10 years. According to some the changes are only intended to increase the sale of school books (which will all have to be reprinted) and dictionaries in what is normally a limited market.

Another novelty is that the word for Jew will be written without a capital ("jood") when designating the member of a religion, …

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:14

Final act in the Iraqi tragedy

The vote on the Iraqi constitution will perhaps be the last grand act in a tragedy entitled democratization in the Arab world. In reality, other powers have already taken possession of Iraq, and it's time to admit defeat. The war may not yet be over by a long stretch, but America has lost it. For Al Qaeda, the U.S. invasion was a gift from the heavens. All of Iraq is a recruitment bureau for Al Qaeda's jihad. Elections and the constitutional process have only covered up with difficulty the fact that stability and thus the future of the country depend on the influence of Shiite clerics. It is unlikely that the referendum can change the dynamic in Iraq. What remains two-and-a-half years after the invasion is the realization that the United States was not able to fill the vacuum it created, and that it has created more instability and provided a breeding ground for terrorism. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 04:35

The year is 2010 and the European Union has rejected Turkey. Fascist governments have come to power in Germany, Austria and France and are inciting violence against resident Turks and Muslims. A vengeful Turkey joins forces with Russia and declares war against the EU. Turkish commandos besiege Berlin, obliterate Europe and take control of the Continent.

… the novel, which dominates bookstore display windows in Istanbul, has sold more than 130,000 copies in just two months and is rising on best-seller lists across the country. … the novel's popularity reflects the growing wariness of Turks about a Europe that is increasingly wary of them.

"Turks are getting fed up with the EU's constant demands - and 'The Third World War' has tapped into that," said Sinan Ulgen, a Turkish commentator. He noted that the book's pithy, cinematographic style has helped it resonate with taxi drivers, government officials and housewives alike.

Turna is no fringe figure. His first novel, "Metal Firtina" ("Metal Storm"), became the fastest-selling book in the history of Turkey when it was published in December, a time of deep Turkish ambivalence about the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The book is a fictional account of a U.S. invasion of Turkey that provokes a Turkish agent to detonate a nuclear bomb in a park in Washington,
…
He says he wrote "The Third World War" - "Üçüncü Dünya Savasi" in Turkish - to give Turks an outlet for their wounded pride about the EU's constant snubbing.

"Turks are waking up to two facts," Turna said at a café near Istanbul's bustling Taksim Square, where he was greeted like a rock star by young fans. "One is that everything told to the Turkish people by EU leaders is lies. Two, that a Muslim country will never get into an EU that doesn't want us."

He says he began researching "The Third World War" by brushing up on 1,000 years of European history and concluded that Europe will inevitably reject Turkey and that the Continent will descend into chaos and war.

"Europe is based on a racist nation-state structure that has created world wars for the last 900 years,"

"Even if there are no guns, the EU's decision to turn its back on Turkey will create a cultural war between Islam and the West."

At a recent book signing event in Izmir, an Aegean port facing Greece, he began by asking the crowd of mostly 15- to 25-year-olds how many supported Turkey's joining the EU. Not a single hand was raised.

He says this is a Turkish backlash against what he calls the "anti-Turkish mania" on the Continent.

Turna acknowledges that his propensity for satire and hyperbole often gets in the way of the facts.

Just as Europeans are ignorant about the real Turkey, Turna argues, Turks are ignorant about the real EU. He blames the Turkish media and the political establishment for portraying the EU as a panacea that will help make poor, agrarian Turkey flush with cash.

"There is not a proper debate on Europe in Turkey," Turna said. "It has become taboo to criticize the EU. The Istanbul elite sell the EU, while the rural part of the country has little understanding of what joining the bloc really means."

"What matters for Turkey is being part of a process that has accelerated political and economic change," he said. "But the process is more important than the endgame, and no one will shed a tear if the EU doesn't let us in 10 to 15 years' time."

Since "The Third World War" came out, Turna has been working on a soon-to-be-published philosophical treatise called "Sistema."

These days, he says, he spends a lot of time playing video games. His favorite? A game called the Rise of Nations in which countries compete for global domination. "I love to pretend that I'm China and to bomb Europe into the Stone Age," he says.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:07

It makes my stomach ache to think that we are helping to preserve free speech in the US, while the media uses that freedom to try to RIP DOWN the President and our morale, as US Soldiers. They seem to be enjoying the fact that they are tearing the country apart. Worthless!

The question I was most asked while I was home on leave in June was, "So...What's REALLY going on over there?" Does that not tell you something?! Who has confidence in the media to tell the WHOLE STORY? It's like they WANT this to turn into another Vietnam. I hate to break it to them, but it's not.

Tomorrow morning, the Iraqi people will vote on their constitution. The success of our mission or the mission of the Iraqi security forces is not defined by the outcome of that vote. If the people of Iraq vote this constitution down, that only means that the FREE, DEMOCRATIC PROCESS is at work in Iraq.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 19:22

THE Netherlands is likely to become the first country in Europe to ban the burka, under government proposals that would bring in some of the toughest curbs on Muslim clothing in the world.

Mrs Verdonk gave warning that the “time of cosy tea-drinking” with Muslim groups had passed and that natives and immigrants should have the courage to be critical of each other. She recently cancelled a meeting with Muslim leaders who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman.

Mrs Verdonk admitted that a complete ban on the garment would be legally tricky because of freedom of religion legislation. However, she said that she would prohibit the garments “in specific situations” on grounds of public safety. The ban is likely to be enforced in shops, public buildings, cinemas, train and bus stations and airports, as well as on trains and buses.

The Government cites as a precedent existing football legislation, which bans people from entering football grounds covering their faces in scarves.

Muslim groups insist that only a few dozen women in the Netherlands wear the burka, and that the ban is a distraction. The Muslims and Government Contact Body said: “Only a handful of Muslims actually wear burkas. Let us focus our energy on what we have in common. This is not a big problem.”

“Women have a very strong opinion about the burka. If you ban it they won’t leave the house. It is not a good way to integrate and emancipate Muslim women. Everything Muslims do is criticised by Verdonk. She is doing it to get votes. She doesn’t care about Muslims and their problems.”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:21

Militants have staged mass raids on government and police buildings in a provincial capital in Russia, leaving dozens dead and many more injured.
Authorities say that 61 rebels have been killed, but 12 police and 12 civilians also died in the assault on Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria province.
Officials say militants are holding hostages at a police station in the city, which has been sealed off.
…
"All hell broke loose, and the impression was that there was shooting everywhere," a resident told Reuters news agency.
A school was also caught up in the running gun-battles, as black smoke billowed across the city.
President Vladimir Putin responded with an order for the city to be sealed off and for forces to shoot any armed resisters.
…
"The city has been taken under firm control. Not one car, not one train, not one bus will go past without being closely checked," Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin said.
"Now our main task is to find the bandits in the city, including their wounded."

The pro-rebel Kavkaz Center website said that a detachment of the Chechen-linked Kabardino-Balkaria jamaat, called Yarmuk, had entered Nalchik.
The use of the word jamaat indicates that it is made up of radical Islamic fighters.

Political changes and a harsh crackdown on alleged Islamic militants appear to have pushed the region to the verge of instability, the BBC's regional analyst Steven Eke says.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:49

Two of Nato's most respected retired generals will issue today a stinging indictment of European military capabilities, arguing that unless the continent pools its defense resources it may be unable to meet mounting security risks, which include international terrorism.

Retired General Joseph Ralston, the American officer who headed Nato until 2003, and retired General Klaus Naumann, Germany's former chief of defence and head of Nato's military committee, argue that European leaders have "lacked the political will" to improve military capabilities.

(has created an) (in)ability of European countries to partner in any meaningful way with the US.

... without a more co-ordinated approach, flat or declining defence spending by most European countries will make it impossible for their militaries to execute their stated security strategies … "Some question whether further defence integration can occur among European nations which value their sovereignty and see the world from diverse perspectives," the report finds.

Specifically, the report calls on European powers to reallocate their defence spending so that 25 per cent of budgets is spent on research and acquiring new weapons, while no more than 40 per cent is spent on personnel. Despite past commitments by European leaders to modernise, following the end of the cold war, most of the continent's militaries are still large, troop-heavy forces that find it difficult to respond quickly to crises, be they conflicts or humanitarian disasters.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:53

A story in The Independent, an excellent British newspaper, estimates that the U.S. armed forces have fired 250,000 bullets per dead insurgent in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Granted, that's an estimate that would be hard to prove, though it is based in part on a General Accounting Office study that states that the U.S. armed forces have expended 6 billion bullets between 2002 and 2005. They sure haven't come close to killing even 100,000 insurgents.

In the movies, we are used to seeing soldiers pick off their foes like Daniel Boone, but in real wars - at least in the modern ones - soldiers often don't see the people they are shooting at.

When you are shooting 400 to 600 rounds a minute, they can add up fast, and the new Gatling guns shoot thousands of rounds per minute. Another point to keep in mind is that the 6 billion figure includes ammunition expended in training. Still, it seems like a heck of a lot of bullets.

U.S. bought 313 million rounds from Israel Military Industries and paid about $10 million more than it would have cost to buy them in the U.S. I suppose that is just another favor for Israel,

I guess in these inflationary times we should not be surprised that even the cost of killing people has gone up.

Of course, the American War Between the States proved you can kill a heck of a lot of people with black-powder weapons. Around 600,000 Americans died in that war, more than in World War II. Naturally, the high number is due to the fact that Americans were killing Americans, a tragedy that never should have happened.

I keep hoping that wars will become so expensive, nobody will be able to afford to fight them anymore.

We talk over here on both sides of the issue, while over there young men die or lose vital parts of their bodies. … I think that if I were a soldier fighting in a war, I would have more sympathy for those who wanted to end the war …

I don't know what 6 billion steel-clad bullets and brass cases weigh, but we have surely dumped tons of those metals on the landscapes of Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh well, better empty brass than live mines.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:16

Military officers must write about warfare and their profession. If they don’t, others will. This is one of the most straightforward choices officers will ever face: Either write about war’s complexity from experience, or let amateurs shape our military’s future in ignorance.

The most pernicious myth about publishing articles or books as a serving officer is that it will ruin your career. That’s utter nonsense. While any officer may come up against a jumpy commander, the truth is that our military is not only remarkably tolerant but broadly supportive of officers publishing.

The only institutional expectations are that the writer maintains a professional tone, knows what he is talking about and sticks to military subjects. A serving officer may constructively criticize how we organize, equip, train and fight, but must refrain from political commentary.

Time and again, I’ve found our best leaders frustrated by their subordinates’ unfounded conviction that an officer who wants to get promoted keeps his pen in his pocket (or his fingers off his keyboard).

I began publishing bluntly combative articles as a first lieutenant in an infantry battalion. Sure enough, my fellow company-grade officers warned me not to do it. But from my battalion commander on up, everyone was supportive.

But even if publishing professional articles did carry some risk, for an officer to refuse to share his knowledge or ideas out of fear would be cowardice.

Our recent wars have seen the rise of a marvelous phenomenon, the military blog. Some blogs are no more than whiners’ clubs, but many make a real contribution to sharing information between troops and informing the folks back home. The best blogs offer a taste of the reality of Iraq or Afghanistan that the news media rarely capture. And they’re often a grand, irreverent hoot.

We now have the most experienced military in the world. But that experience is perishable if it is not preserved on paper in a forum where the right people will see it. If those engaged in our wars today would write as well as they fight, we could go forward with a wealth of practical knowledge and innovative ideas that would stand us in good stead for years to come.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:29

This is Afghanistan today: Luxury Hummers among horse carts. Great hospitality amid the ruins of civil war. And dust. Everything is the color of dust -- the people, the houses, even the trees.

Four years after the United States launched the war to topple the Taliban regime that harbored Osama bin Laden, the country hangs between stability and chaos, progress and stagnation, intermittent war and sputtering peace.

Four years and $61.4 billion in US spending later, Afghanistan is a work in progress, where 18,000 US troops still engage in deadly battles with insurgents and where reconstruction efforts have crawled forward far more slowly than initially planned.
''There was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and interest in getting things done quickly," said Alonzo Fulgham, a Dorchester native who heads the USAID mission here. ''We have to be very careful that we manage expectations in this country."

Commercial buildings, some financed by drug barons and others by businessmen recently returned from exile, feature never-before-seen wonders: Afghanistan's first escalator and modern shopping mall, complete with a metal detector at the door; a coffee shop that would not look out of place in Paris; and showrooms full of flat-screen televisions, Beverly Hills Polo Club watches, and Turkish suits that almost no one here can afford.

But for most residents, Kabul is still a city of antique rugs, open sewers, and mud houses built into the hillsides. For those residents, the face of progress is far more subtle.

Often, it is just enjoying entertainment outlawed by the strict religious rule of the Taliban.

Boys fly battered kites from rooftops, a national pastime that had been banned. A chess club has opened, where bearded men in camouflage fatigues ponder military strategy on a black-and-white board rather than on a battlefield.

''Voice of Sharia," the only TV channel under the Taliban, has been replaced by a handful of stations that show Indian musicals and international news. The main Kabul cinema has reopened, advertising an action movie with a bikini-clad heroine, her bottom half covered with a piece of white construction paper.

Girls in white head scarves and black gowns fill the afternoon streets on their way to school, which they were barred from attending under the Taliban. But the streets are also filled with children begging and selling chewing gum, too poor to take advantage of the new schools. Warlords who once destroyed the city fighting one another in ethnic turf wars now duke it out at the ballot box. Larger-than-life billboards left over from the recent parliamentary election show female candidates, now free to participate in politics. They gaze down on burka-clad women begging for money and work below.

A short distance outside the capital, the signs of progress fade. The road east winds past a vast no man's land dotted by adobe villages that have seen little change in the past four years.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:45

NOVELTY pig calendars and toys have been banned from a council office — in case they offend Muslim staff.

Workers in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, were told to remove or cover up all pig-related items, including toys, porcelain figures, calendars and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:31

The Loyalist Army. Those supporting the Miers nomination, while definitely in the minority, are betting that their high opinion of George Bush and his talent for selecting judges is still justified. Chief among the Loyalists is radio talk-show host and blogger Hugh Hewitt. A former White House attorney and constitutional law professor, Hewitt has a broad following and a reputation for good-humored but devastating debating skills. Many bloggers on the right owe much of their success to his support -- including me.
...
The Rebel Alliance. The bloggers who join rightist icons such as Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol in opposing Miers's nomination refuse to trust Bush. Many already felt betrayed by this president on a number of issues, including his lack of initiative in securing the Southern border against illegal immigration and his signing of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill even after he noted its lack of constitutional merit. These rebels don't have a plan for taking over the galaxy, but they would like to stop what they see as another Bush foul-up before it winds up like the last few "trust me" Republican Supreme Court nominees, a string starting with John Paul Stevens and ending with Souter.
…
The Trench-Dwelling Dogfaces. Those of us who find ourselves torn between the unconvincing, unrelenting positivism of the Loyalists and the potentially destructive Rebel Alliance occupy a no-man's land of political tiptoeing. We spend our blogging time raising our heads out of the foxholes to note the inbound missiles coming from both sides, and wishing the war would stop -- really soon.

Will we see a Lord Protector from the Rebel Alliance? A Roundhead Republic by one of their leaders? Where will be find our House of Orange? Sigh. I hope for orders to the West Indies squadron soon, and just wait for this to blow over.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 04:27

A dozen midshipmen earned the grudging respect of the Air Force Academy by repainting a jet fighter on the Colorado academy's grounds blue and gold, and labeling it with "Navy" and "Blue Angels."

And they did it smart. 1. They didn't get caught. 2. The used water soluble paint, so clean up is easy - in other words, all the goodness of the score without really damaging anything or causing a hugely expensive clean up.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:41

The dwindling fleet may be imperiling the country….
Sen. James Talent

The Navy, according to senators, is beset by a shrinking fleet, encumbered by fast-rising shipbuilding costs and challenged by an expanding Chinese navy.

If tight budgets are looming for the Air Force, they have already washed over the Navy. The 2006 defense budget calls for building only four ships and would reduce the aircraft carrier fleet from 12 to 11.
“I’m deeply concerned about the direction we’re going in,” said Sen. James Talent, chairman of the seapower subcommittee. Four years ago, the Navy hoped to maintain a fleet of 310 ships. Today, it says the fleet may shrink to as low as 260 ships, he said.

While the United States builds one submarine a year, China is acquiring 11 this year alone, he said. By 2010, the Chinese Navy will have 50 or more submarines, and if current trends continue, the U.S. Navy will have fewer.

“Shipbuilding budgets are woefully inadequate, particularly in light of the Chinese buildup,” Collins agreed.

She denounced an earlier Navy decision to award DD(X) destroyer work to a single shipyard, a move the Navy argued would save money by eliminating duplicate overhead costs.

The plan threatened to drive Maine’s Bath Iron Works shipyard out of business. Collins said hurricane damage to Bath’s Mississippi rival should convince the Navy that it needs to keep both shipyards open.

Another reason for escalating costs is that the technology the Air Force wants is invariably on the cusp of development. “We need to get to the point where we are satisfied with existing technology,” he said.

Labels: Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:20

IAEA inspectors have had to deal with major crises in Iraq, North Korea and Iran in recent years.

Over the past couple of years, the 63-year-old IAEA director, who is a former Egyptian diplomat, has also overseen investigations into the nuclear black market led by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan.

But others, notes the BBC's Bethany Bell, say the IAEA does not deserve the prize, accusing it of failing, for example, to prove conclusively whether or not Iran's nuclear ambitions are peaceful.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:48

The Christian fleet formed up in 4 divisions in a North-South line. At the northern end, closest to the coast, was the Left Division of 53 galleys, mainly Venetian, led by Agustino Barbarigo, with Marco Querini and Antonio da Canale. The Centre Division consisted of 62 galleys under Don Juan himself, along with Sebastian Veniero and Marcantonio Colonna. The Right Division to the south consisted of another 53 galleys under Giovanni Andrea Doria. Two galleases were positioned in front of each main division. A further Reserve Division was stationed behind (that is, to the west of) the main fleet, to support wherever it might be needed. It consisted of 38 galleys - 30 behind the Centre Division commanded by Alvaro de Bazán and 4 behind each wing. A scouting group was formed from 2 Right and 6 Reserve galleys. As the Christian fleet was slowly turning around Point Scropha, Doria's Right Division at the off-shore side was delayed at the start of the battle, and the Right's galleases did not get into position.

The Turkish fleet consisted of 54 galleys and 2 galliots in its Right, or northern, division, under Chulouk Bey, 61 galleys and 32 galliots in the Centre under Ali Pasha and about 63 galleys and 30 galliots in the South off-shore, under Uluj Ali. A small reserve existed of 8 galleys and 22 galliots and 64 fustas behind the Center body.

The Left and Centre galleases had been towed half a mile ahead of the Christian line, and were able to sink 2 Turkish galleys and damage some more before the Turkish fleet left them behind. As the battle started, Doria found that Uluj Ali's galleys extended further to the south than his own, and so headed south to avoid being out-flanked. This meant he was even later coming into action. He ended up being outmanoeuvered by Ali, who turned back and attacked the southern end of the Centre Division taking advantage of the big gap that Doria had left.

In the North Chulouk Bey had managed to get between the shore and the Christian North Division with six galleys, and early on, the Christian fleet suffered. Barbarigo was killed by an arrow, but the Venetians held their lines. The Christian Center also held the line and caused great damage to the Muslim Center. In the South off-shore side, Doria was engaged in a melee with Uluj Ali's ships taking the worse part, meanwhile Uluj Ali commanded 16 galleys in a fast attack on the Centre, taking 6 Christian galleys, between them the Capitana of Malta, from the Knights Hospitallers, killing everybody on board. The arrival of Alvaro de Bazán with the reserve was able to turn the battle, both in the Centre and in Doria's South wing. Uluj Ali was forced to flee with 16 galleys and 24 galliots, abandoning his captures. During the course of the battle, the Ottoman commander's ship was boarded and the Spanish tercios from 3 galleys and the Turkish janissaries from 7 galleys fought on the deck of the Turkish Sultana. Twice the Spanish were repelled with great loss, but at the third attempt, with reinforcements from Alvaro de Bazán's galley, they prevailed. Müezzenzade Ali Pasha was killed and beheaded, against the wishes of Don Juan. However, when his head was displayed on a pike from the Spanish flagship, it contributed greatly to the destruction of Turkish morale. The battle concluded around 4 pm.

The Turkish fleet suffered the loss of about 180 galleys and 60 galliots. However, only 117 galleys and 13 galliots were in good enough condition for the Christians to keep. On the Christian side 15 galleys were destroyed and 30 damaged so much they had to be scuttled.

The Holy League had suffered around 9,000 casualties but freed twice as many Christian prisoners. Turkish casualties were around 30,000.

From 12,000 to 15,000 Christian rowers, slaves on the Turkish Gaileys, were delivered. Though this Victory did not accomplish all that was hoped for, since the Turks appeared the very next year with a fleet of 250 ships before Modon and Cape Matapan, and in vain offered battle to the Christians, it was of great importance as being the first great defeat of the infidels on the sea.

Held by the Venetians from 1687 to 1689, and thence by the Turks until 1827, it became in the latter year part of the new Greek realm. Today Nafpaktos (Naupactus,) chief town of the district in the province of Arcarnania Aetolia, has (12,000 inhabitants), all Orthodox Greeks.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:14

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Sunday his government is starting research into peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Chávez did not give details, but he has previously said he is interested in developing nuclear power like countries such as Iran and Brazil.

''Brazil has advanced in its nuclear research, nuclear power, and that's valid. Argentina too, and we also are starting to do research and projects in the area of nuclear energy, with peaceful aims of course,'' Chávez said during his weekly radio and TV program Hello President.

Chávez, whose country is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, has said he is interested in working with Iran to explore peaceful nuclear energy.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:29

Evidence is mounting that Joel Henry Hinrichs III, the University of Oklahoma student who blew himself up 100 yards outside the Oklahoma-Kansas State Football Game on Saturday night, had bigger plans. Joel tried to purchase ammonium nitrate at a feed store late last week.
…
Joel Hinrichs used the same explosive as the "shoe bomber", Richard Reid. The explosive, called "Mother of Satan", by Islamist extremists, has rarely been used in the US.

Technically, TATP is triacetone triperoxide. However, it's called the 'Mother of Satan' by Islamist extremists. Experts say it is made by mixing common household items such as drain cleaner and bleach to create a white powder with a strong smell.

It's so volatile that it can explode even if it's merely dropped. It can even explode spontaneously, experts say.

There have been very few reports of TATP being used in the United States; however, there have been more documented cases overseas -- including Richard Reid, who was arrested after he used TATP in his shoe and tried to light it on a flight.
…
The Pakistani roommate of a man authorities said died when he detonated an explosive device outside a crowded football stadium was led in handcuffs from a party shortly after Saturday's explosion, the head of an Islamic student group said.

Fazal M. Cheema, a finance major, shared a university-owned apartment with Joel Hinrichs III, 21, who died Saturday when a device attached to his body exploded as he sat on a bench outside George Lynn Cross Hall.

Cheema and three other Muslim students were led in handcuffs from a party by police after the blast, Ashraf Hussein, president of the Muslim Student Association, said Tuesday. They later were released.
…
NewsOK.com confirms that Hinrichs tried to buy a "large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer" at a Norman, Ok., feedstore four days before the bombing and reports that Hinrichs attended the same Norman mosque once attended by Zacarias Moussaoui.
…
Cheema is "a really, really nice guy," Hussein said.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:24

"This Iraq is the cradle of civilization that taught humanity reading and writing, and some Bedouin riding a camel wants to teach us. This talk is totally rejected," he said.

He also took a swipe at the Saudi monarchy.

"There are regimes that are dictatorships. They have one God. He is the king, he is God of heaven and earth, and he rules as he likes," Mr. Jabr said.

"A whole country is named after a family. If we open these topics without inhibitions, it is neither to our benefit, nor to theirs."

"If they want to push 17 million Shi'ite Arabs in Iraq and tell them 'You are Persian' -- you are pushing matters along a dangerous path," Mr. Jabr said. He said charges that many Iranians were infiltrating into Iraq were baseless.

The Saudi foreign minister also said in Washington that the new Iraqi constitution, being put to a referendum this month, could split the country apart and disenfranchise the Sunnis.

Mr. Jabr hit back at Saudi Arabia's treatment of its own Shi'ites. They are believed to make up 10 percent of its native population, and complain of being marginalized by a government allied to Wahhabi Sunni scholars who consider Shi'ism a heresy.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 04:15

Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Gary Roughead said he’s made anti-submarine warfare, or ASW, his biggest priority since assuming command this summer.

Improvements in underwater detection technology make the job easier but it still takes coordinated effort by the Navy’s ASW triad: helicopters and P-3 sub hunters in the air, ships on the surface and the Navy’s own submarine force.

.. he implemented “a cyclic approach” to training, using more frequent quarterly assessments. “We’re going to say, ‘OK, what all are we doing in ASW? What objectives did we have? Did we realize those and then what are we going to be doing in the next quarter?’”

The cycles include training exercises with other navies and integrating new technologies.

Among them is Composable Force Net, which integrates and displays multiple sources of information quickly for faster decision-making, Roughead said. It gives submarines an immediate view of something detected by a plane, for example.

ASW even is cropping up in other types of training. During this summer’s Singapore phase of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training — a general naval training exercise — Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 45 pilots had the rare opportunity to hunt a real Singaporean navy submarine.

Helicopter pilots usually hunt subs solely in simulators, said pilot Lt. j.g. Amy Sadeghzadeh.

Roughead said that type of training opportunity, with more or larger-scale ASW-specific training, will help the U.S. Navy remain dominant. “Make no mistake, we are very good at anti-submarine warfare,” Roughead said. “But as we look at how capability is growing in the world, we can’t simply sit here” and be satisfied with that.

Swedish sub tooling around, but where is our Submarine Squadron full of US SS? Key West will take them back. The old NB Charleston has room. Mayport is nice. You want to kill a SS, you had better practice, a lot, on the real thing.

And Admiral, tell them to shove it when they pull the “it takes forever to deploy a SS operationally” line of crap. We really need them for training; the OPS side is a nice benefit. They know you employ an SS/SSK like an SS/SSK – not an SSN. If we really didn’t need the capabilities of an SS, then why did we have to use a (now gone) Danish SS in OIF? .. and one of the last Brit O-boats in Gulf War 1 (with a cool paint job) doing things we can't talk about. Nuke subs are the crown jewel, but can't we afford a ruby or sapphire to go around it?

Keep the sub yards busy building a couple SS a year for us and a few select allies. Heck, save money and license build the German Type 212 or one of the Dutch subs. The Aussies worked out the kinks on the Collins – license build that. Japan is changing their laws all the time; use their latest design if they will sell it to us. We will have a pack of SS to play with, and use if we need to.

While we are at it, let's go secure and talk about hard kill……..

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UPDATE: Well, all sorts of churn on this critter. I should read Bubblehead every day, he was on this a bit before me here, and has a good follow-on post here. PigBoatSailor is using the same hymnal as I am - mostly, here, and links to a great you-won't-read-this-in-Groton article here. Make sure and check out the comments for more give and take.

Oh, in case anyone is too binary about China and NORK, I do not believe they are the Red Banner Fleet full of perfect subs. You don't need that. Look again at the '71 Indo-Paki and Falklands conflict. It doesn't take much: you have to plan for that one good skipper in the shitty boat that can make things happen. Don't underestimate your enemy - especially one in a submarine. All David had was as sling and a stone - Goliath had nice armor, a sword, a shield, probably a lance. Wargame that.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:00

Mr. Yee writes that when General Miller visited the prison, he would tell the guards sternly, "The war is on." That remark and similar comments, Mr. Yee writes, were designed to let soldiers know they were operating in a combat environment where it was understood that rules protecting detainees were relaxed and instances of mistreatment would be overlooked.

He said that General Miller told him that he remained deeply angry over the loss of military friends who were killed in the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Mr. Yee says the guards were constantly reminded of the Sept. 11 attacks by General Miller and others, and they "retaliated in whatever way they could" against the detainees.

In the book, Mr. Yee writes that as he got to know prisoners through his chaplain duties, he became increasingly certain that many were not the hardened terrorists that the authorities had depicted them to be.

He writes that he rarely witnessed physical abuse of the sort that has since become a point of contention between the military on one side and human rights groups and defense lawyers on the other. But he says that in his tenure at Guantánamo, he regularly heard about prisoners being beaten and humiliated in their interrogation sessions.
He says he was told of the abuse by detainees and by Arabic-speaking translators who were present at many of the interrogations.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 04:23

Labels: China

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:38

Suddenly my entries are all over AKO OPSEC websites. I would argue the ways they say it violates OPSEC except for the fact that OPSEC is very vague and can be defined in any which way by the entity enforcing it. Nobody has shut me down yet, but I figure it is just a matter of time. And I really don't want to do the Army any harm sooooo....

What I want to do is put this blog on hold without actually deleting it. The solution seems to be to put this on an FTP server. Anyone know how to do that? Or does anyone have any suggestions? email at neil.prakash@gmail.com Thanks. If I can't do that, then I will just delete every entry on Armor Geddon except for the ones like: Corn Syrup vs. Tabasco, soldiers getting awards, build-up to Election Day, and coming soon - "What Happens to 2 Sergeants when they make PV2 Hutto do an Atomic Sit-Up and SSG Terry decides to help Hutto seek Revenge"
Neil
p.s. At the end of my senior year at college, I fell for the Atomic Sit-up at a Brotherhood camping trip, so don't feel bad, SPC Hutto. I guess I'm that gullible too.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:27

"Rampaging Infidel model displayed. Wash basin for Wudu ablution prior to Mosque entry not included."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:46

Spain and Morocco will send troops to secure two Spanish enclaves on the north African coast, officials say.

The move was announced as Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero met his Moroccan counterpart after five men died in the enclave of Ceuta.

Bullets that killed two of the African migrants were "not Spanish", Spanish investigators said on Thursday.

Two migrants died on Spanish soil and two in Morocco, as hundreds aiming to enter Spain rioted on Wednesday night.

Earlier, officials said the men died when they were crushed against fences separating them from Ceuta.

The clashes were the latest in a series of attempts by hundreds of Africans from all over sub-Saharan Africa to storm through the border and into Spanish territory.

Morocco and Spain are geographically so close that Africans pour into Morocco from all over the continent in an attempt to enter the European Union.

EU justice and home affairs commissioner Franco Frattini said on Thursday: "This tragedy, once again, bears witness to the urgent need for a genuine and effective management of migration issues."

Spain has recently raised the height of fences in Ceuta and Melilla and posted more soldiers there, while Morocco is putting a tighter watch on its coastline.

Over the last few weeks would-be immigrants have been using ladders and what Spanish officials have described as "military tactics" in their increasingly desperate attempts to get over border barriers.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:25