J. M. Verville

A potentially decisive development in the war in Afghanistan:

BRITISH military commanders say they are close to securing a significant tribal uprising against the Taliban.

It could lead to the reintegration of hundreds of insurgents fighting around Sangin, the most dangerous place in Afghanistan.

British officials have spent more than a year in negotiations with tribal groups in and around the rebel town in Helmand province, where more than 100 British troops have been killed.

The number of violent attacks in Sangin has fallen by about 80 per cent in the past month. British commanders say this is partly the result of tribal leaders delivering on a promise to restrain tribal fighters aligned with the Taliban and to expel the insurgents.

“We have been pushing for this for 12 months,” said Colonel Paul James, commander of the 40 Commando battlegroup, stationed in Sangin.

“The tribes have responded positively. They are certainly not fighting us.”

The Australian

Good show. It is important for us to establish diplomatic victories; the only thing that will allow for longterm success is to have groups of people who do not want to ally with the Islamic extremists.

Hopefully, the tribal organization within this society will even collapse — this is a vital step to the modernization of the country.

Another moment in the ongoing North Korea saga — if the UNSC issues a resolution against North Korea there might be military action, they claim, and furthermore speak about the South Korean investigation as illegitimate:

UNITED NATIONS: Rejecting the findings of a South Korean ship sinking investigation, a top North Korean diplomat said that his country should be allowed to send a probe-team to South Korea and also warned of initiating military action if the Security Council passed a resolution against it.

Results of an investigation by South Korea made public in May, revealed that its Cheonan naval ship was torpedoed by its neighbour North Korea.

On Monday, a South Korean delegation of civilian investigators and military personnel met with Security Council for the first time to discuss their findings involving the torpedoing of its ship.

Speaking one day after the presentation, Sin Son Ho, North Korea’s envoy to the UN, described the findings of the “unilateral” investigation as “totally fabricated”.

“The South Korean side has so far refused to accept our proposal but brought the case to the Security Council with its unilateral fabricated investigations results,” Sin told reporters.

Times Of India

Of course, a threat from North Korea is about as good as a promise from North Korea. I think that there will likely be no military action but it is also important to recognize that North Korea is transitioning its government and is dealing with a more conservative, less weak South Korean leader.

This is all probably not going to come to any notable meltdown but this can serve to illustrate more and more the sort of country we are dealing with…

A nation who threatens violence when disputing a report that it was violent. Some real geniuses north of the 38th, they are.

I admire the Pope’s stance. Middle Eastern Christians are being largely overlooked — I am not sure as to why. Probably because the sporadic violence that occurs is what the media would term ‘Arab on Arab’ crime and thus not as consequential to Westerners because at the end of the day if there are no dead Westerners most people shrug.

The persecution of Christians within the Islamic world is something worth noting — it is also something that indicates the current political and cultural immaturity of the ME as a whole to still persecute blatantly based on these lines.

It is because of things like this that I become more skeptical of whether or not democracy can work in the ME. Sometimes, if the people really do get what they want, it means misery for the minority.

Someone once said: Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what is for dinner.

NICOSIA, Cyprus – The Vatican said Sunday that the international community is ignoring the plight of Christians in the Middle East, and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and political instability in Lebanon have forced thousands to flee the region.

A working paper released during Pope Benedict XVI’s pilgrimage to Cyprus to prepare for a crisis summit of Middle East bishops in Rome in October also cites the “extremist current” unleashed by the rise of “political Islam” as a threat to Christians.

The paper said that the line between religion and politics is blurred in Muslim countries, “relegating Christians to the precarious position of being considered non-citizens, despite the fact that they were citizens of their countries long before the rise of Islam.”

Yahoo

This is certainly an interesting situation that is hard for us to really think about the full ramifications of — let’s just look at the article quick:

VIENNA (AP) — The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog is asking for international input on how to persuade Israel to join the Nonproliferation Treaty, in a move that is sure to add to pressure on the Jewish state to disclose its unacknowledged nuclear arsenal.

In a letter made available Wednesday, Yukiya Amano asked foreign ministers of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 151 member states to share views on how to implement a resolution demanding that Israel ”accede to the” Nonproliferation Treaty and throw its nuclear facilities open to IAEA oversight.

The letter was shared with The Associated Press amid renewed Arab criticism of Israel during an international conference at U.N. headquarters in New York. Islamic nations used the second day of the nonproliferation meeting Tuesday to call for a nuclear-free Middle East, while criticizing Israel for not divulging its nuclear capabilities and refusing to sign the nonproliferation treaty.

New York Times

This is interesting because it would require Israel to acknowledge its nuclear arsenal, and then to do something it would really not want to do: sit in the ME surrounded by their enemies with no nuclear arsenal.

It makes sense from the view of integrity — they should theoretically be held to the same standard as their neighbors, and in a sense, they cannot rightfully expect their neighbors to not have nuclear weapons if they have nuclear weapons. They cannot just arbitrarily make a double standard as such – for if they seek to have these weapons to be protected from the Islamic nations, why shouldn’t the Islamic nations seek to have these women for their own protection?

Ideally, Israel will be secure enough with themselves to sign this but it is also a situation where everyone is trying to cover their bases.

I expect Israel to not be able to do this and this will become even more of a reason to demonize them, and more of a motivation for the Syrians and potentially the Iranians to continue the build up of a nuclear arsenal.  

I enjoy these sorts of stories because they represent the way that humanity has gone backwards while we perceive ourselves as going forward:

A key prosecution witness at the court martial of Capt. Robert Semrau testified Wednesday that Semrau claimed he shot and killed a wounded Taliban fighter in a “mercy killing.”

Semrau, 36, is facing a second-degree murder charge in connection with the shooting death of an unarmed Taliban prisoner in Afghanistan in October 2008.

The witness, Cpl. Steven Fournier, and Semrau were fire-team partners on the battlefield, meaning they were never more than a few metres apart.

Fournier testified Tuesday that he was only a short distance from Semrau when the captain stood over the broken body of the wounded Afghan man and fired two shots in quick succession.

Fournier testified he didn’t see the shots but heard them and quickly looked back to see Semrau closing the ejection port on his rifle — an action soldiers take after they fire their weapon.

On Wednesday, Fournier said that when he heard the shots he wheeled about quickly thinking he was under attack. He said he saw Semrau standing over the insurgent.

Fournier said he was confused and couldn’t figure out what had just happened.

He told the hearing that Semrau then said: “It’s OK. It was me.”

As the two men marched on to join the Afghan unit they were mentoring, Semrau spoke again, Fournier said.

Semrau said he thought the shooting was necessary because it was the humane thing to do, Fournier testified. Semrau said couldn’t live with himself if he just left a wounded man to die on the battlefield, the corporal said.

CBC
The big issue is that in a lot of circumstances, then, people would kill wounded insurgents and claim it was a ‘mercy killing.’ But nonetheless — one should be able to tell by autopsy whether or not the person was at actual risk of dying.

The ultimate irony:

The Taliban insurgent was probably happy and felt relieved, and that the soldier had paid him a great tribute by ending his wretched, slow death.

60 years ago on a battlefield it was a war crime to not mercy kill people.

But now we are so divorced from basic, common sense reality it is ridiculous.

When we went fishing, we used to cut off the fishes heads promptly after we brought them in, and began gutting them right away. That is because it is more human to end their lives then have them slowly suffocate on land. This basic principle can be extended out to anything.

And now we have the modern, Geneva Convention humanitarian bunch telling us that this is actually cruel.

The funny thing about the humanists who come up with these policies is that after they climb into their great, Ivory towers they become anything but human and slowly work to destroy the last vestiges of the human spirit.

Very predictable:

Militants have attacked the office of a Western aid agency in north-western Pakistan, killing six people, police and the agency have said.

The victims, including two women, were all Pakistani nationals working for World Vision in Mansehra district.

The Christian group said it would suspend all operations in the country.

No group has admitted carrying out the attack but Islamist militants and specifically the Taliban will be suspected, a BBC correspondent says.

BBC

I am not sure if World Vision engages in any missionary activity, but please, bring on the people who will tell me that it is somehow justified because of the fact that they are Christian.

No, it is never the fault of the people who blow up others of opposite religions; it is always the fault of the people who get blown up for being there and following their values to help the impoverished.

But I understand - the Taliban just wants to be left alone so it can continue to subjugate everyone to their strict line of theological interpretation and their treatment of women as cattle.

It is always interesting when one of the most powerful espionage organizations takes enough interest in your corporation to forge a partnership — there is a lot we will be able to conclude from this:

The world’s largest Internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google — and its users — from future attack.

Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google’s policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans’ online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users’ searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

 Washington Post

The NSA has deemed that somehow, some way the security of the American internet mogul Google will effect the security of Americans — otherwise, this would in no way fit into a part of the NSA overall view of what its mission and purpose are. The NSA addresses the security issues of Americans particularly on the front of communications intelligence — their entire court for national security is the internet.

What we can conclude is that somehow there are anti-US elements attempting to use Google for purposes that would effect Americans adversely on a large scale, and in all likelihood, we are looking at the Chinese government perpetrating some form of organized attack on Google.

It is still a little odd…

The questions I have: (more…)

At first I thought that this was potentially just a bunch of Republicans complaining in the same vein that they often freak out if Pres. Obama uses a teleprompter for a nationally televised speech that happens to be in a junior high school, but then I got a reading:

WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday rebuffed criticism that intelligence was lost by giving a lawyer and other legal rights to the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a U.S. airliner.

In a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Holder also said he made the decision to charge the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, with crimes in the regular U.S. court system.

Holder rejected widespread criticism by Republicans and some Democrats in Congress over how the suspect was interviewed by FBI agents for only about an hour before he stopped cooperating and then was read his Miranda rights, providing him a lawyer and full U.S. constitutional legal rights.

Reuters

That does not make that much sense.

We give Miranda rights to criminals because they are quite different from terrorists. Here is just a short list of the differences: (more…)

This is something that I do not know if I can fully support — however, it is consistent with a lot of the UK does to organizations that are known to be Nazis.

A radical Islamist group that planned a march through Wootton Bassett will be banned under counter-terrorism laws, Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said.

Islam4UK had planned the protest at the Wiltshire town to honour Muslims killed in the Afghanistan conflict.

The government had been considering outlawing the group under its original name, al-Muhajiroun.

A spokesman for Islam4UK told the BBC it was an “ideological and political organisation”, and not a violent one. (more…)

It seems that terrorism is much like punk rock: you just cannot afford to endorse every punk band that comes around.  Though they may have the best of intentions they have to be committed to the values of the scene, and apparently Palestine is a hotbed of poseur terrorism:

Al-Qaida “wannabes” is how two researchers at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy describe jihadi groups in the Gaza Strip that identify with Osama bin Laden’s organization. But according to the researchers, Al-Qaida is in no hurry to recognize these groups as its affiliates, despite its support for Palestinian jihad.

The paper, written by Matthew Levitt and former deputy head of the Shin Bet security service Yoram Cohen, is entitled “Deterred but Determined.” It argues that Al-Qaida is not convinced that the Palestinian groups are ideologically committed to global jihad. Moreover, it is unconvinced that they can survive in the long run, and fears that Israeli intelligence could penetrate their ranks.

Al-Qaida’s reputation has suffered from “killing more Muslims than non-Muslims every year,” but “they can still do very sophisticated things,” Levitt said. “They cannot dilute a branding and it’s a very clear priority of theirs. There is a little advantage to them to bring [in] unproven affiliates.”

Thus so far, he said, the most Al-Qaida has been willing to do is let these groups publish occasional statements on its affiliated Web sites. But should one of them “successfully target [Quartet envoy] Tony Blair” or get a booby-trapped truck inside Israel, “the situation will have changed.”

However, the Gazans do not like being poseurs — they are fans of al-Qaeda: (more…)