StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

Its about time that someone actually speak the truth about the “financial crisis” and why it happened. So like it or not, this is a violently politically incorrect, but, IMO, accurate take on the greed and stupidity that has led to a near meltdown in our economy and the wiping out of any profit I might have seen from the sale of my home in the immediate future. Yes dammit, pass the bailout so the rest of the economy doesn’t go down the tubes and have the next President be blamed for the implosion. And I want someone to step up and pay my damn mortgage too! I’ve worked hard for that right!

NOT PC RANT: Now, you see…the basic question lies in how some people who haven’t got good (or possibly any) credit were able to buy houses that they simply couldn’t afford. I don’t know about you, but I’ve worked hard to maintain my excellent credit rating, despite years of paltry income. But no! People have nothing, went out and moved into the “keeping up with the Jones’ neighborhoods, only to find themselves in situations where they either couldn’t afford the increased mortgage payments as their adjustable sub-prime mortages went up, or maybe even, with the real estate market imploding on itself, largely because of their own greed (and of couse, the greed of the mortgage industry that decided to loan money to anyone), found themselves “upside down” on their homes (simply, they owed more than the market value of their house).

Well excuse me! and “go fluck a duck!” I worked hard to buy my house, a house that I could afford to buy. And I live in a nice neighborhood, but as I’ve watched homes in my neighborhood go on the market and sell, it has been obvious that some of these people actually couldn’t afford to actually be my neighbor…they got themselves one of those nice sub-prime mortgage, and bought a nice house in a nice neighborhood, where they really couldn’t afford to live (the tell tale sign was when the “repo-man” came to tow their shiney new BMW out of their driveway and cart it away).

Ladies and gentlemen, and those few who read this blog - America is a land of opportunity. However, that opportunity is not an entitlement. You, if you don’t work hard and have the money in savings, are not entitled to live in my neighborhood, just like I an not entitled to live in a nearby neighborhood where the home prices are 50% higher than mine. The real problem is that one of those upside down homeowners just sold a house down the street from me for a price lower than what I paid for mine.

So screw me! for being able to afford the house I live in, because Mr. and Mrs. “Keeping up with the Jones” couldn’t afford their house, and had to sell in a distressed sale.

There’s a post worth linking my rant to at Right Truth. Good people of all walks of life work hard to establish themselves and accomplish whatever it is that they accomplish. Tiday, people who far overstepped their boundaries are putting all of us in a position to get them out of their jams. I object strenuously.

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As we approach the 7 year mark post Sept 11th, Americans need to be reminded about the prupose of the War on Terrorism. Actually, we shouldn’t need it. But as President Bush prepares to leave office, he is seeking to re-affirm that we are at war with al Qaeda.

Sound strange? Well, I’ve been concerned about American complacency from when the last of the public funerals of those who died in the attacks. And yet, partly because of the passage of time, and partly because the focus of attention has been on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran as pieces of geography instead of battlegrounds in the war versus al Qaeda. It was al Qaeda that attacked us on September 11, 2001. It was al Qaeda that attacked us at the USS Cole and at the African embassies.

Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Bush’s advisers assert that many Americans may have forgotten that. So they want Congress to say so and “acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.”

The language, part of a proposal for hearing legal appeals from detainees at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, goes beyond political symbolism. Echoing a measure that Congress passed just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, it carries significant legal and public policy implications for Mr. Bush, and potentially his successor, to claim the imprimatur of Congress to use the tools of war, including detention, interrogation and surveillance, against the enemy, legal and political analysts say.

Some lawmakers are concerned that the administration’s effort to declare anew a war footing is an 11th-hour maneuver to re-establish its broad interpretation of the president’s wartime powers, even in the face of challenges from the Supreme Court and Congress.

If not in any other way, this Global War on Terrorism has been miserably mismanaged. September 11th was not and should not be treated as a singular event in history. Aside from the fact that other al Qaeda attacks pre-date Sept. 11th, the question now is how the war will be waged following the election of the next President

Perhaps the attempt to tuck language into legislation is a bit “funky,” but the fact is that too many Americans have lost focus. Many of those Americans are on Capitol Hill. Sadly my dear reader, we have lost our way in my opinion. Paraphrasing: if we forget history, it will repeat itself. We are at a cross roads in our Nation’s history. If we choose wisely, we may actually remain vigilent and remain prepared for the coming of the next attack on our Homeland. “Choose wisely grasshopper” when voting this November. There is only one real choise, and his name is John McCain.

Global War on Terrorism

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If you don’t know what the NAU is, then you haven’t been sucked in by one of the other conspiracy theories that has spread around the blogosphere…the so-called North American Union. Its believers somehow think that President Bush and his other North American presidents are conspiring to create a United North America…all predicated on a theoretical paper written by the Council for Foreign Relations in 2005 and the existence of the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership). This goes hand in hand with the supposed NAFTA Superhighway. It has to be true, doesn’t it??? All of these important guys signed it!

Now, you see, to believe that there is a secret cabal working within our government to bring about the demise of the sovereign United States is beyond reason and belief (in my opinion of course). But there are some people who actually believe it…some of those are from the “truth seekers” group, and others on in the group of “pseudo-experts.”  BTW, its supposed to happen in 2010.

As I have written in the past, while a secure perimeter around North America makes sense in many ways, there will be no removal of border controls or immigration requirements…certainly not while the Mexican government cannot control its own outmigration.

While anyone can try to debate this, even Snopes debunks it.  One of the things lacking in today’s World of “read it on the Internet and scoop other bloggers mentality” is critical thinking (its one of those things like creativity…if you’ve got it, you’ve got it…if you “don’t got it”…you can’t learn it).

critical thinking, debunking, North American Union

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There is something inherently wrong with this. “We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at all ever mistreated,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said at a news conference hastily convened last night. What’s this all about? Cremation (of our Iraq and Afgahnistan war dead).

The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops’ remains, after an officer visited Dover this week and saw a sign that said a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations.

The Pentagon is now recommending that the remains of our war heroes be cremated in a facility dedicated to humans only.

According to the Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates found “the site and signage insensitive and entirely inappropriate for the dignified treatment of our fallen,” Morrell said. “The families of the fallen have the secretary’s deepest apology,” he said.

“The secretary believes that it is inappropriate, even if though permissible under the rules and regulations, to cremate our fallen, our heroes, in a facility that also cremates pets,” he added.

I suspect that this isn’t an easy one to explain.

All troops’ remains arrive from the battlefield to the Dover Air Force Base Port Mortuary, which does not have its own crematorium. The Associated Press said Dover contracts with Torbert and Pippens Funeral Home for cremations.

Pippens uses a crematorium at the funeral home that is used only for human remains, AP reported.

Undoubtably, there will those who simply blame this incident on the mainstream media. I blame it on an expedient bureacracy…I expect that Secretary Gates did not know about this and will correct it.

creamtorium, Dover Delaware, Geoff Morrell, Pentagon

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It is time that we wake up America!  The Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexican border is a war zone…and it is going to be a battlezone for freedom if we are not careful. If the battles between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels aren’t enough to scare the crap out of you (along with the viciousness of the Gulf Cartels’ henchmen, Los Zetas), then examine more closely the gunning down of Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez. As the public face of the Mexican government’s war on drugs, his being killed on the doorstep of his apartment in Mexico City, no less, holds in it the risk that the cartels will be emboldened (see Washington Post article). We are witnessing the first real protracted battles of the War on Terrorism in our Hemisphere.

“This could have a snowball effect, even leading to the risk of ungovernability,” Luís Astorga, a Mexico City-based sociologist and drug expert, said in an interview. “It indicates terrible things, a level of weakness in our institutions — they can’t even protect themselves.”

Already, there have been more than 6000 deaths in this Drug War within the country that lies to the south of our porous border. Millán Gómez’s murder is not the first high level (and visibility) murder.

Before Millán Gómez was slain, assassins also killed Robert Velasco Bravo, the head of the federal police agency’s organized crime tactical analysis office, as well as two other top police officials, all of them in Mexico City. One of the killings was in Coyoacan, an old-money haven popular with tourists.

The message seems clear. The Drug Lords and their cartels reign supreme in Mexico. I don’t care about the Merida Initiative! It won’t work (IMO of course). Merida is the appropriation of funds for the U.S. to help Calderon quell the violence and stop the drug trade. Who the hell are we kidding? The problem is that the problem is going to become more difficult to stop.

The worst part of all of this is the International connections to the Mexican Drug War…the first battles on the War on Terrorism in the Western Hemisphere are being fought today in Mexico. In his post on the Counterterrorism Blog, Doug Farah connects the dots for those who cannot or do not already see (anyone who has a familiarity with counter-narcotics issues already knew this).

It is worth remembering that the chaos the traffickers are wreaking in Mexico is not just aimed at the Mexican state, it is also aimed at undermining the already-battered viability of our southern border. The hundreds of dead across the border states of Mexico show where the battles are being fought.

The easier it is to cross dope, weapons, illegal aliens from around the world, the higher the profits for the traffickers.

And the FARC rebels in Colombia are now in a direct business relationship with Mexican trafficking organizations, according to the recently-captured FARC documents resulting from the raid that killed rebel leader Raul Reyes.

The FARC, in turn, is allied with Nicaragua (Ortega) and Venezuela (Chavez), who in turn are allied with Iran, which in turn runs Hezbollah, which in turn is actively working to expand its beach head in Latin America.

Remember Monkey Point? StormBlog is one of the only places, I dare say, that discussed the Iranian foothold in South America. Its been quiet down there recently. No news, but its there!

In his own blog, Farah connects the dots for those who do not already see them!

It is not a conspiracy to see all these developments as inter-connected. As I often tell military audiences and others, every piece of the mosaic, looked at individually, is serious but not alarming. But when the tiles of the mosaic are assembled into a picture, even if the picture is a bit blurry, it is astonishing and dangerous.

Wake up America! The battles along our border are alot more important than keeping all of those Mexicans from swimming across the Rio Grande! or walking through the desert. We need to worry about the so-called, “Other Than Mexicans.” Our Southern Border with Mexico is indeed and battlezone. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Battle of the Rio Grande will soon expand.

As my “regular readers know, I have been writing on the brewing invasion of the U.S. related to the war in Mexico for quite some time now. A different view can be found here. Also see a more recent view of this issue written by Snooper.

[I needs ta git me a "posse"]

counter narcotics, Edgar Eusebio Millan Gomez, FARC, Los Zetas, mexico drug cartels, Monkey Point, Washington Post

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I WAS WRONG. GAME, SET MATCH.

It is spreading like wild fire. Didn’t ya hear? The words “jihad” and “jihadist” have been banned from use by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Its not in any news blurb…its not announced on the State Department website. It has been posted by one blog and then repeated, and repeated and repeated etc. Even by some bloggers of “some repute.” I also note that while it may not be a subject that would normally be covered, websites like Counterterrorism Blog, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Doug Farah, Evan Kohlmann, Powerline, Bill Roggio (Long War), StrataSphere, Small Wars Journal, BlackFive, and others of that level mention nothing about this “ban.” Perhaps later on in the day??? It is also not shown on the State Department website. There is currently no substantiation of this claim.

A reliable source has informed me that Condoleeza Rice has approved a new lexicon for State Department usage, absolutely forbidding the use of the terms “jihad” and “jihadist” by any State Department official.

[:]

I will publish more information on this when possible.

The “I” is not me, Stormwarning (the “I” refers to the originator of the information). But publish more information indeed…when possible, of course. The reliable source isn’t named. The origin of the “information” isn’t verified.

Previous post on StormBlog: Double Speak and the Lunacy of Language and The War on Terror - Facing Reality.

I don’t know about you, but I’m involved in an early morning conference call in which the term GWOT was used yesterday and will be used today.  Its the “war of words” versus the reality of the War on Terrorism against the Global Jihad.

As always and as is my practice, when (if) corroboration of this “report” is shown, I will eat my words. In fact, I might actually give up blogging if my name isn’t StormWarning (really? - well, maybe).

jihad, jihadist, lexicon, U.S. State Department

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Despite what may now be said about faulty CIA intelligence or even fabricated reports/analyses, it is hard (for me) to not believe in the merits of pre-emption.  Clearly, some of the rationales for the War were found (actually not found) to not exist.  Further, many of the strategic flaws and unanticipated consequences (that in my opinion should have been anticipated) have come to pass.  Still, pre-emption is today, in my opinion, the only viable approach.  We cannot await an unannounced attack to prepare for, and in fact mount, a counterattack.  Some may argue that pre-emption is not a countermeasure at all, but a provocative move.  Yes, I suppose that it is.  But, if we do not act in anticipation, then the costs are far more dear than those incurred through pre-emption.  I realize that that position is both controversial and contradictory.

Tonight on CBS 60 Minutes, Doug Feith was interviewed…from 2001 to 2005, Feith was under secretary of defense for policy and the No. 3 man at the Pentagon.  He is, in my estimation, a weasel.  However, this weasel did reveal some thinking that actually validates many of the things I have written here in the past.  Those things, often contradictory because I supported the invasion of Iraq (based my reading of the Iraq report of the time) and because later, I believed that it was necessary to remove Hussein and his sons…and yet…I did question some of the strategies that led us to today in Iraq (and Afghanistan - one must link the two).

Thus, we have this interview (with an unavoidable lead-in):

Doug Feith, Hussein, Parade of Horribles

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Despite Democratic Congressional objections, DHS is planning to launch the National Applications Office to allow more government police and security agencies to tap into detailed satellite images.  Sec’y Chertoff said a “charter has been signed” to create a new office.  It will be a clearinghouse for requests from law enforcement, border security, and other domestic homeland security agencies to view feeds from spy satellites.

“I think the way is now clear to stand (the office) up and go warm on it.”

Currently these spy birds are used to monitor volcanic activity, hurricanes, floods, and various environmental and geological shifts.  Obviously the intention is to capture images for terrorism investigations and actions against illegal aliens.  Not so fast however!

Committee leaders say the charter for the National Applications Office is “wholly inadequate,” said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity since the letter is still being drafted. They plan to criticize the department for allegedly failing to outline the legal framework and other “standard operating procedures” governing the program.

Furthermore, the Government Accountability Office has not yet vetted the program’s privacy guidelines, which was made a condition for the National Applications Office to receive congressional funding, the aide said.

Further, in the area of cybersecurity, Chertoff it plans to expand use of an existing system known as Einstein, that will, among other things, monitor visits from Americans and foreigners visiting .gov Web sites.

Let the games begin!

Chertoff, DHS, National Applications Office, National Reconnaissance Office, spy satellites

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Again?  More like still!%@#*&!.  In Ciudad Juarez, just over the El Paso Texas border, 200 people have been murdered this year alone (22 on Easter Weekend).  Behind all of this violence in ”El Chapo,” the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.  In total, the murder count is over 700 in 2008.  All of this is happening in spite of the Calderon anti-drug initiative, proving, perhaps that nothing will stop the drug lords from continuing to kill each other and innocent bystanders along with law enforcement officers in their insane spree of violence.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is such a nice guy though.

Police say Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who leads a consortium of traffickers from the Pacific state of Sinaloa, has taken his fight for control of smuggling routes to Ciudad Juarez, targeting the dominant Juarez cartel amid a much lighter army presence there than in other cities.

Look at that face!

WANTED

(Aliases: El Chapo, Chapo Guzman, El Rapido)

DOB: December 25, 1954
POB: Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Citizenship: Mexico
Height: 5 feet 8 inches
Weight: 165 pounds
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown

Of course there is hope along with unsubstantiated speculation that El Chapo has been killed in Guatemala during a gunbattle outside a water park in Teculutan, a drug-trafficking stronghold in northeastern Guatemala.

Let is be so, but as with other terrorists, the likelihood of the terror ending even if the head of this snake is chopped off is limited.

Ciudad Juarez, El Chapo, El Paso, pipsqueak

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Undoubtably with the benefit of the passage of time, I can now look back on the T-Sq. bombing in hindsight.  I believe that those who blamed anti-war groups or worried about terrorists were wrong (the passage of time makes it easy to look back…frankly, its easy enough to edit or modify a post whenever the turn of events warrant).  CTs ”know” when something is or isn’t (terrorism).  So very simply, it appears that we’ve got a repeat bomber or copycat. 

We also have a posturing opportunity for politicians.

There is some (old) suspicion that this bombing is somehow related to an incident on the Canadian border last month.  What are the politicians saying?

John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president and a former Navy lieutenant commander, called the Times Square explosion “unacceptable.”

“We cannot allow this to happen to the men and women serving in our military whether they are at home or abroad,” McCain said.

New York Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said “federal, state, and city authorities should be given every resource and every tool to swiftly complete that investigation.”

Excuse me Mrs. Clinton! Get your cohorts in the House of Reps. to pass a renewal of the FISA to give our authorities “every resource and every tool to swiftly complete that investigation.”  Pass a new FISA now!  And give our federal and state and local law enforcement authorities the tools they need to pursue these bastards…and to find them before they harm anyone.  Its not just FISA…its all of the other efforts that need to be re-upped.  Most people, in fact most politicians, aren’t privy to the reasons why our guys need to be able to do things to extract information…to predict or pre-empt or pursue those who perpetrate these acts.

Yes, unacceptable. But is it terrorism, anarchy or neither?

There is also suspicion that this incident is related to similar bombings in New York City in 1997 and in 2000 (and maybe even in 2005).

One such bombing that is being re-examined is the 2000 explosion outside the Barclay’s Bank Building on Wall Street, law enforcement sources said. News reports from that time quote police officials as describing the small bomb as a “homemade device” in a “military ammunition box.” The Times Square bomb that exploded early Thursday was a military ammunition box filled with explosive powder, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly said.

[:]

One official stressed there is no known link between the Times Square explosion and the unsolved bombings dating back ten years . But there are enough similarities to take a look “as a precaution,” the official said.

Another source said it was “prudent” and a “routine step” to re-examine these past incidents for any past clues.

Investigators said they are also revisiting two 1997 bombings. One was outside a Swiss Bank building near City Hall. The other case involved a crude pipe bomb explosion along West 57th Street near a Planet Hollywood restaurant.

Police have already said they believe the suspect from Thursday’s blast could be the same man behind October’s explosion outside the Mexican Consulate and the 2005 blast at the British Consulate. In those cases, the suspect was seen on a bike was reported seen throwing crude devices and then speeding away.

[:]

Sources said Thursday’s bombing mirrors two early ones in Manhattan that also happened in the predawn hours with bicycle-riding bombers leaving behind broken glass at the Mexican Consulate on October 26th, 2007 and at the British Consulate on May 5, 2005.

I remember the British Consulate bombing personally…mostly because it made it hard for me to get to a meeting that day at a very nearby building.  My opinion?  If this was terrorism, there would have been alot more BOOM! and damage.  And it wouldn’t have been in the middle of the early morning.  Frankly, its pretty chicken poop…anti-war activist?  What was proven by the act?

Spree also waited to post on this event.  See her post here.

anarchy, anti war, British Consulate, New York City, terorrism, Times Square bombing

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Most people pidgeon hole Joe Biden as a liberal plagiarist.  What is the most important battleground in the War on Terrorism (alternately known as the War on Islamic Fundamentalism)?  Got the answer yet?  No?  Ok, here’s a clue…its not Iraq.  Another clue?  Its been probably my most prolific topic.  Focus your attention on the Durand Line.

Joe Biden, erstwhile former candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, knows well of what he speaks.  As the Ranking Member (now) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he is one of those really good candidates who is not running for President (in my not so humble of course).

“Senator Biden has a very strong commitment to a bipartisan foreign policy and serves as a good example for everyone in Congress. He has a very broad, comprehensive view of the world. He’s a good listener, but he’s also a strong and effective advocate of his position.”

To maintain the Swiftian tone of this post, I won’t reveal here who said that…its more fun that way.  But from Senator Biden’s Op-Ed piece in the dreaded New York Times this morning, Afghanistan. Pakistan. Forgotten.  If you deign to read it you will see:

Afghanistan is slipping toward failure. The Taliban is back, violence is up, drug production is booming and the Afghans are losing faith in their government. All the legs of our strategy — security, counternarcotics efforts, reconstruction and governance — have gone wobbly.

Well, now, anyone who has actually read my blog, will have already read my concerns about the “marble rolling down the hill” in Afghanistan. That my point of view agrees with that of Senator Biden is neither here nor there. Examine, perhaps more closely, the reasons why yours does not (assuming of course that it doesn’t).  Worry about the poppy crops, Senator Biden says.  Alas, that is true.  But who(else) from within the blogosphere alerts readers to that concern?

Afghanistan’s fate is directly tied to Pakistan’s future and America’s security. When President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan concluded that we were not serious about finishing the job in Afghanistan, he began to cut deals with extremists in his own country.

Heaven forfend that someone should criticize the Pakistani government or the Pakistani people (PS: I’ve stopped looking for that “boost” in readership from my apparently all too candid and politically incorrect interview with the Pakistani Spectator — the dribbling in of Pakistani readers has been slower than the flow of terrorists across the compromised border with Afghanistan — if that is what you choose to call that mysteriously chimeric delineation between two somewhat backward and non-democratic peoples separate by the British imposed Durand Line). Durand Line? Look it up if you don’t already know about it.

If Afghanistan fails or Pakistan falls to fundamentalism, America will suffer a terrible setback. The candidates should tell Americans how they will handle what may be the next president’s most difficult challenge.

The truth hurts, dear reader. Especially if the filters through which you see the World and its unfolding events is tinged, even if ever so slightly, by the extraordinary partisanship that leaves a large portion of this population in the dark about the World.

Most likely, you may have missed last night’s quick post: al Qaeda Directs Terror on Afghan Border - 3 Pakistani Groups Battle NATO.

Durand Line, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard Luger

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Short post.  Eric Hammond of the Sunshine Project is running around the country…well, now actually just the five finalist cities voicing objections to the NBAF.  Interesting observations made in the Athens Georgia newspaper, OnlineAthens.com.

Officials doubt lab a danger - Won’t oppose NBAF

Opponents of a proposed bioresearch lab in Athens are using scare tactics to fight it, and they’re not working, Athens-Clarke Mayor Heidi Davison said Wednesday.Davison supports the National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility, but has said she could be persuaded to change her mind. A speech Tuesday by Edward Hammond, a critic of biodefense programs, did nothing to sway her, she said.

“I’ve heard a lot of misinformation and hyperbole, but I haven’t heard any facts,” she said.

Elected officials in the towns of Creedmoor and Stem, N.C., and Granville County, N.C., another finalist for NBAF, have passed resolutions opposing the $450 million facility. Athens-Clarke commissioners will not follow suit, she said.

Many of NBAF’s opponents are critical of President Bush and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which would build and run the lab, but are using similar fear mongering to fight it by spreading rumors of armed guards and deadly strains of influenza, she said.

“The very thing they despise is the very tactic they’re using,” she said. “They’re not open to anything but their own cynicism.”

Watchdog director calls to cancel NBAF lab project - Head of Texas group speaks to hundreds about biodefense facility

A critic of a proposed $450 million federal bio-research lab that may come to Athens called on the federal government Tuesday to cancel the project.Edward Hammond, U.S. Director of the Sunshine Project, a Texas-based watchdog group, told about 250 people at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education that NBAF’s research will be far more dangerous than the Department of Homeland Security is letting on.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t study these diseases,” Hammond said. “What I’m saying is, it has to put into its perspective.”

Storm: Maybe he should get his facts straight instead of spreading misinformation.

Thompson: NBAF opponents must do their homework

The moment that Ed Hammond and FAQ lost me came relatively late in the public meeting they hosted Tuesday at the University of Georgia’s Center for Continuing Education, a meeting held for the express purpose of arguing against locating the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Athens-Clarke County and ginning up public opposition to the facility.

That moment came when someone in the audience asked a couple of basic questions about NBAF. The first was how much water the facility, for which Athens-Clarke County remains on the short list of potential sites, would use. The second question was how the process for determining where the facility would be located will play itself out.

Hammond, a bioweapons lab opponent who directs The Sunshine Project, a Texas-based watchdog group, couldn’t answer the water question, and Kathy Prescott of FAQ mumbled a singularly unhelpful response to the question about NBAF siting protocols.

Its not a question of if, its a question of where.

Athens Georgia, NBAF

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A new report now indicates that Pakistan, the largest recipient of post-Sept. 11 Coalition Support Funding, has been diverting funds to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India rather than fight al-Qaeda/Taliban.  Anyone who cares should raise an eyebrow (or two).  Check the archives and you will see a consistency.  Trust Pakistan?  Not me!  You?

After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped.

In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the officials said, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.

The problems go beyond accountability for the funds.  On the one hand, billions of dollars may have been misspent.  On the otherhand, this misspending may have gone toward further destabilization of the Pakistan/Indian border region and toward a further militarization of the Pakistani nuclear capability.

While lawmakers have placed restrictions on the $300 million in military aid, and Secretary Rice asserts that Musharraf has, in fact, reinstated democratic rights following the ceasation of the state of emergency, no such restrictions have been placed on the CSF, leaving questions about how the Pakistani “democratic” government is using the funds.

So while the Pakistanis cry about not getting some of the equipment it says that it needs to fight al Qaeda and the resurgent Taliban, one should be questioning what Pakistan is actually doing with all of the funds.  Afterall, the concessions made by Musharraf to the Taliban in the FATA led to some of the instability to which Musharraf pointed when he declared his state of emergency (but isn’t it that Musharraf feared losing his control of the country’s leadership that led to the emergency declaration?).

In its article, Collateral Damage, the Center for Public Integrity raises the serious questions of accountability for the funds provided to Pakistan since 2002.  Their lead statement is: Human rights activists, critics of the Pakistani government and members of Congress all want to know, but most of the money — totaling in the billions — came through a Defense Department program subject to virtually no congressional oversight.

Billions in Aid, With No Accountability
Pakistan receives the most post-9/11 U.S. military funding, yet has failed to ferret out al Qaeda, Taliban leaders

That is a major finding of more than a year of investigation by the Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). U.S. military aid to Pakistan since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks includes almost $5 billion in Coalition Support Funds, a program controlled by the Defense Department to reimburse key allies in the global war on terror. Pentagon reports that ICIJ obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests show that Pakistan is the No. 1 recipient of these funds…and that there is scant documentation of how the money was used…

…ICIJ’s data show that when all U.S. programs are combined, Pakistan’s increase in U.S. military aid in the three years after 9/11 is a stunning 50,000 percent, growing from just $9 million in the three years before the attacks to nearly $4.7 billion in the three years after. In the process, Pakistan has become the No. 3 recipient of U.S. military training and assistance, trailing only longtime leaders Israel and Egypt…

…The U.S. State Department rates Pakistan’s human rights record as poor and reports a long litany of abuses. That nourishes critics’ claims that U.S. largesse has been put to abusive purposes, including to buy weapons that have been turned against Pakistani civilians and to offer bounties on suspects the U.S. is seeking…

While recognizing that Pakistan has been of “some” help in the War on Terrorism, I, for one (at least), continue to question what appears to be a blind trust of the Pakistani government.

● Olga Oliker, an expert on U.S. defense policy and co-author of a recent RAND think tank report on the human rights performance of internal security forces in South Asia: “In implementing assistance,” she told ICIJ, “the U.S. has paid relatively little attention to human rights abuses and oversight. People weren’t paying attention.”

● Another “source”: “Right from the beginning it was very difficult to pin down what the costs were and how they were computed. Initially there were very round numbers reported. Now figures are coming out with more specificity. Whether or not they are inflated, it’s difficult to get a handle on that.”

● “The American-supplied military arsenal has been used against Baloch nationalists,” Sen. Baloch told ICIJ. “Sophisticated helicopters bought to control the drug trade have been misused against the Baloch people.” He said he and others have gone to the State Department, “and the State Department says [the U.S. has] given military hardware with no conditions.”

● Says T. Kumar, advocacy director for Asia and Pacific at Amnesty International USA: “Pakistan is a solid dictatorship. The U.S. is being taken for a big ride. Musharraf is not the right person for the war. Powerful sections of the ISI [remain] involved with the Taliban. They’re waiting for time, biding their time.”

Storm note: That last bullet point is critical.  Pakistan is a dictatorship.  Many (or most) people remain convinced that Pakistan is our ally in the War on Terror…perhaps so, perhaps not.  But as with many other situations, whether in this region of the World or not, there are other agendas (some of the hidden agendas are the most devastating when they become better known). If you all feel that you want to trust Musharraf and/or Pakistan, it is your right to do so…This writer continues to see Pakistan more as a destabilizing factor in the World.  In my opinion, we are failing miserably in recognizing that national and regional conflicts and discontents trump the Global War on Terrorism…Pakistan is a perfect example.  Miscalculating the tribal influences in Afghanistan is another…not recognizing the Bedouin influence in Iraq is still another (T.E. Lawrence learned it in 1916-1918…we seem to treat that lesson as just another movie).

For comments on another of our “allies,” Saudi Arabia, please see Right Truth, The Saudis Are Coming, from one of her guest authors.

You can vote for this article at Real Clear Politics or (maybe) here (if you wish, of course)

al Qaeda, balochistan, Center for Public Integrity, Coalition Support Funding, Condoleeza Rice, Pakistan India, T.E. Lawrence, Taliban, u.s. department of defense, U.S. State Department

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Everyone watches Ahmadinejad in Venezuela while almost surreptitiously, Iran is now talking about building a $350 mil. port in Nicaragua, and is moving to solidify relations with Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista of old.  Regardless of Ortega’s economic rationale for considering this Iranian investment, it brings Iranian sponsored terrorism a few porous borders away from the U.S.-Texas-Mexican border.

This goes far beyond Iran’s alliance with Hugo Chavez in Venezula.  And an Iranian built port on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua could well change the dymanics of U.S. policy in South America and the World.

What worries state department officials, former national security officials and counterterrorism researchers is that, if attacked, Iran could stage strikes on American or allied interests from Nicaragua, deploying the Iranian terrorist group Hezbollah and Revolutionary Guard operatives already in Latin America. Bellicose threats by Iran’s clerical leadership to hit American interests worldwide if attacked, by design or not, heighten the anxiety.

“The bottom line is if there is a confrontation with Iran, and Iran gets bombed, I have absolutely no doubt that Iran is going to lash out globally,” said John R. Schindler, a veteran former counterintelligence officer and analyst for the National Security Agency.

“The Iranians have that ability, particularly from South America. Hezbollah has fronts all over Latin America. That is not new. But it’s certainly something we’re starting to care about now.”

From bombings by Hezbollah in South America, most notably Argentina recently, to the Khobar Towers in 1996, Iran’s role in state sponsored terrorism is undeniable.  And make no mistake about the fact that Nicaraguans are among the illegals flowing across the porous U.S.-Mexican border.  Iran’s push into South America represents not only a direct response to the saber-rattling of the U.S. against Iran’s nuclear program, but also represents a clear and present threat to National Security.

In fact, some analysts question whether Iran will actually follow through on it plans to rebuild Monkey Point or pursue any real economic development initiatives in Nicaragua.  Still, its presence in South America clearly represents a launching pad for attacks against the U.S.

“They use their embassies to smuggle in weapons. They used them to develop and execute plans,” said Oliver “Buck” Revell, who served as associate deputy director over FBI intelligence and international affairs. “Diplomats have immunity coming and going. It is a protected center for both espionage and, on occasion, for specific operations. So an embassy in Managua is definitely an area that will be of concern to our national security apparatus.”

It was under the guise of this diplomatic cover that many believe that Iran was behind the attacks in Argentina.  At the same time, the Israeli government is concerned about the Iranian presence in Nicaragua because of the large Israeli business population in Costa Rica and concentrations of Jewish citizens throughout Latin America.

Foremost on the minds of those concerned about Iran’s new relationship with Nicaragua are two suicide bombings in Argentina, now widely ascribed to Iran, which denies responsibility.
March 17, 1992 – A car bomb explodes in front of Argentina’s Israeli Embassy, killing 29 and wounding 250. A subgroup of the Iranian terrorist organization Hezbollah claims responsibility but no formal investigation is launched.

July 18, 1994 – A truck bomb levels the AMIA Jewish Community Center, killing 87 and wounding 100. The bombing prompts a 10-year investigation beset by challenges and controversy.

November 2006 – An Argentine federal judge issues indictments for former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former minister of intelligence, former foreign minister, former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, three Iranian diplomats and the Hezbollah terrorist Imad Moughnieh. An 800-page government report accuses the men of staging the 1994 attack from Iran’s Buenos Aires embassy.

March 5, 2007 – The global police agency Interpol approves arrest warrants for five of the former Iranian officials, and Moughnieh. Iran appeals.

November 7, 2007 – Interpol’s annual general assemply rules against Iran’s appeal. In retaliation, Iran issues its own warrants against Argentinian officials accusing them of ‘actions against the security of the Islamic Republic.’ The 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy remains unsolved.

–Todd Bensman

Diverted attention toward Venezuela leads to the fact that the U.S. is openly opposing the election of Daniel Ortega.  Thus, his cozying up to Ahmadinejad is far from unexpected.  Even if some do not see “nefarious” motives in this budding anti-American alliance, is an absolute threat.  It is reported that Nicaragua permitted 21 Iranians to enter the country without visas.  Considering that Ortega has reason to oppose the United States which worked against him with the CIA backed Contras from 1980-88, why should we trust his motives?

Monkey Point, a hot bed of anti-Sandinistas, and a possible location of an Iranian funded port of entry…and a foothold for Ahmadinejad in our backyard.

Ahmadinejad, border security, Daniel Ortega, Iran, Iran Contra, Monkey Point, Nicaragua, Oliver North, State Department

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It is always important to know what you don’t know.  The NIE that was released last week, and caused all of the controversial banter was but the unclassified 4-page top-view of a classified 150 page analysis.  No one that I know, even former analysts, have read the classified version (or atleast won’t admit to it)…people with security clearances have not revealed its contents to me (correctly so).  Any allusions to being told the contents of the classified version is nothing but nothing…and if it happened, it was a violation of one’s security clearances.  You simply do not tell someone without security clearance the contents of classified information.

So what do we know, or what can we surmise?  Many believe that the unclassified 4-page NIE is a politically motivated hatchet job.  Others may believe that the NIE reflects an attempt by the intelligence community from making another blunder by “misunderestimating” the real threat.

Haft of the Spear offers the following in Gaming Intelligence:

●  ignore the part of any story that talks about NIE’s being a consensus documents of the 16 agencies in the intelligence community.

●  reports that the NIE was drafted by people with a known political agenda…make for entertaining political hay…But anyone who can prove that partisan hacks cherry picked the intelligence information they wanted and then strong-armed the rest of the community to go along with their conclusions would have a bombshell on their hands.

●  building an NIE is not unlike any other bureaucratic exercise that involves multiple agencies of the government. Competing opinions are argued, disputes are mediated, and dissent noted…the involved parties…ruminate on the work, and forward to the principle drafter their comments, edits, suggestions and recommendations. What follows are several rounds of review and edit sessions with increasingly more senior members of the agencies involved and the National Intelligence Council, until the final draft is ready for review, approval and dissemination.

●  the latest NIE says Iran is up to suggests that either we have multiple, unimpeachable sources of intelligence that have shown us the light; or the information we have is all over the map and drawing definitive conclusions is next to impossible.

The important part of this message is that knowing what you don’t know is the critical piece of knowledge (and intelligence).  I make no pretenses to know things that I do not know.  And yet, because of my daily endeavors, I either know more than most people, or am exposed to issues and discussions that step beyond the general knowledge of the hoards of people who opinionated on the recently released  NIE.  I happen to agree with the above assessment.  The confusion and change in direction of this NIE compared to previous leads to the conclusion of an IC either pitifully broken, or one that is acting to avoid making mistakes.  Either conclusion is a dangerous condition.  That, I know.

And for another view, please read Right Truth article on Proliferation and the Thermo-Mohammed Bomb (a fictional piece but an interesting read nonetheless).  Comment: I prefer to read stuff like Haft of the Spear, but “that’s just me.”  You might also wish to read an “alternative” view at American Power (clearly, we don’t all think alike).

intelligence community, Iran, NIE, nuclear capability

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