Nov 12 2007

“It Takes A Network To Defeat A Network”

Crossposted from To Us.  Permission to use noncommercially with attribution. For faster response to questions please email me at aek2013 at columbia dot edu.


Northeastern University hosted retired Central Command General John Abizaid to speak to its Middle East Center for Peace, Culture, and Development students about the U.S. and the Middle East this morning. The public was also invited, and I think I may have been the sole representative of that element of the audience.


General Abizaid, a Colorado Rockies fan, apologized for competing with the Red Sox homecoming parade.


However, the NU Middle East Center host, Professor Denis Sullivan, let him know that his presentation would end in plenty of time to take in the festivities.


Northeastern’s President Joseph Aoun, a professor of linguistics, introduced General Abizaid with this intriguing proposition: America is unique in being “hyphenated”.  People can be Arab-Americans, Latino-Americans, African-Americans, etc., and in America, this enrichment thrives and cultural and ethnic heritage celebrated and valued, instead of the enforced assimilation that occurs in other countries policies toward their immigrants.


Were that it was so.  President Ayoub has not perhaps lived in homogeneous communities in the South or Midwest, for example, where immigrants are not only not rewarded for cultural pride and immersion, but are discriminated for it.  However, I digress, and this optimism is not a bad thing.


General Abizaid had spent time introducing himself to the students beforehand, and he opened by acknowledging them, ROTC members, active military and Northeastern community audience members in attendance. He was comfortable in front of this audience, and he was at home and in command of his message at all times.

General Abizaid used a few maps of the Middle East to highlight the major points of his presentation.  The first was a plain geographical map of the countries and nation/states of the broader Middle East and adjoining regions.


He gave himself away when he produced this anecdote:

A few years ago The Secretary of Defense called me to ask a question. You can’t say that he didn’t consult the military. At that time I had 25 areas under my command in the Middle East. I didn’t have Lebanon and Syria. The Secretary asked me if I would take them on. I replied that I would rather not. After a period of reflection and consideration – about 5 or 6 seconds – he replied, “you’ve got them.”


(The audience dutifully laughed.)

I replied, “why don’t you give me North Korea, too?”


Har.  Har.


But in that little funny is contained Rumsfeld’s contempt, hubris and stupidity, and Abizaid’s acknowledgment of it.


Back to the presentation.  Gen. Abizaid proposed that the current conflicts are representative of what he views as the first battle of globalization, where there are elements of the population that are trying to remain local and separate from the world, while other elements are trying to engage in world trade, politics and the economy.


With that as his meta view of extant Middle East conflicts, he repeatedly asserted,

You can criticize how we got where we are, but we are where we are, and now we have to move forward.


He then produced the map but with US military perceived conflicts superimposed on the region.


The four major meta problems he perceives include:

  • A rise in extremist organizations which include religious indoctrinated extremist views
    • Al Qaida – stateless and centerless, a complex and dynamic network including infrastructure, economies and cyberstructure relationships – difficult to infiltrate, understand and contain/minimize
  • A rise in Shi’a extremism – nation states – Iran
    • seeks to dominate the region/Persian Gulf
  • Arab/Israeli conflict where he perceives a “sense of hopelessness in the region”
  • Oil – the Middle East fuels the global economy

Next up is the map with US military goals and objectives superimposed:

  • Containment of Iranian aggression
  • Control of the Afghan/Pakistani border with an emphasis on the Pakistani side with the aim of reducing the strategic leadership presence of Al Qaida
    • Notably, the Taliban was not mentioned throughout this presentation, and no questioner mentioned it, either
  • Stabilize Afghanistan
  • Work to stabilize Arab/Palestinian/Israeli relationships
  • Monitor extremist groups flowing into North Africa to ungoverned areas
  • Monitor Darfur

Interestingly, there are three operations locations generally superimposed in Iran, but Abizaid didn’t refer to them specifically.  Does that mean that military operations are officially underway there?  Or does it refer to covert intelligence operations? (Hello, Valerie Plame) Or does it refer to special ops units?  Something else?  Again, no questioner asked about it.


Then Abizaid, who answered one question with the preface,

I may be a retired general, but I still uphold my oath. I won’t criticize this president, the vice president or the secretary of defense,

flashed his model of Al Qaida which portrayed a complex network of relationships, information and material and human resources. This was titled simply, The Network of Al Qaeda. And after this was Abizaid’s policy recommendations and philosophy hidden in plain sight with the US response to that titled, It Takes A Network To Defeat A Network.


In this representation was diplomatic efforts, international aid, regional policy development and participation (sort of a neighborhood watch model), economic aid, nation building, global relationship building and the engagement of Iraq’s government in driving its national security and thus providing the means of egress for US military presence and involvement.


Abizaid repeated this nugget: 

The Iraqis don’t want us there, and the military doesn’t want to be there.

Ahem, Washington.


He also referenced every single remark about the presidential role relative to the Middle East as “what the next president will have to do….” Digby has so presciently remarked that the Repubs are disappearing George W. Bush, and this is evident as well with retired military who would like to criticize by speaking to everything which should be done (and should be happening now) by fast forwarding to January of 09. Essentially, if you want to know what Abizaid thinks about Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush, just pay attention to what he recommends for the “Next” administration, and fill in the gap between that and what this administration is doing.  The criticisms will reveal themselves quite clearly.


Abizaid also spoke to concerns about Bush’s remark about WW III.  His take?

I don’t think we’re heading for war in Iran. It would be terrible for Iran. I don’t think we’re headed for WW III.


He emphasized the need to actively discourage Iran from becoming a nuclear state.  But he also stated that the US could live with Iran as a nuclear state, saying,

We lived with Russia and Korea having nuclear states, didn’t we? Don’t underestimate our power. We tend to forget how powerful the US is.


The Northeastern students, many of whom are from areas in or near the Middle East, asked intelligent, thoughtful and informed questions which were answered, for the most part, in optimistic tones.


One NU professor of comparative religion asked about the US role and responsibility for creating the extant problems.  Abizaid skirted the issue and emphasized the need to understand that Iraqis are for the most part, not extremists, are trying to get along with the same concerns that citizens have around the world: work, live, and support their families in their communities.


[UPDATE: Craptastically, I forgot to include General Abizaid’s take on the Iraqi military mission.  Because it just may be relevant to the rest of the post, it’s this:  The US military presence in Iraq is buying the country time to progress in governmental development and to buy time to build its army.


Buying time.


Why is it that I have yet to hear Bush, Cheney, Gates, Rice or any member of Congress utter that phrase when referring to the express use of US military combat operations in Iraq?


Care for a little air sickness bag to go with that cognitive dissonance and spin?]


Overall, there was a lack of depth of substantive specific information in the General’s presentation, which was remarked upon after the presentation by a faculty member to the university president.


However, I think that if one understands that the message delivered was in the model of the “network to defeat a network” as Abizaid’s policy stance toward containing and addressing terrorism, then the lack of the US diplomatic, economic and infrastructure/humanitarian aid and development efforts and policies to do just that are ample criticism of Bush/Cheney  and the Departments of State and Defense.


Abizaid also spoke to the need to draw down the Army presence in Iraq.  He used a five year time table, and he didn’t address the 20% broken soldier rate, the 10% exodus of junior and mid-level officers, nor the 18% recruitment waiver rate as parts of the Army sustainability picture, but he did in passing, reference the Army’s overstretched situation.  He also expressed his opinion that presidential candidates should be asked about this.


Except for his overly optimistic stance about POTUS/Cheney and Iran, his presentation was helpful to understand the complexity of the situation, its timeframe, and the meta-military role of the US – extant and optimal.


With regard to Iran, all I will say is consider the Balad CSH which has been made enormous and permanent and which is fully staffed jointly by the USAF and the Army.  It’s ideally situated to receive Iran airstrike and ground forces casualties and to fly them out of theatre.  Where air evac, triage, and treatment facilities are robust and ready, the action isn’t too likely to be too far behind or too far away.


General Abizaid engaged with students immediately after the Q and A portion of his presentation.  He became very animated when one student identified himself as a sergeant in the Army Reserve who had served a tour in Najaf. Abizaid immediately thanked him for his service to his country (he had previously exhorted all of us to do the same when we encountered military personnel regardless of personal feelings about military action).  Then he encouraged this student to speak to his fellow students about what he experienced there.


Communicate, communicate, communicate.


Abizaid gets the message across.  Clearly.  Effectively.


Criticize Washington?


Just fill in the blanks.

Nov 12 2007

Racial Thoughtlessness

Speaking for me only

Brad DeLong is a great progressive commentator on matters economic. But, for a second time that I know of, DeLong has demonstrated a thoughtlessness about race issues. The first, in which he was joined by Matt Yglesias, involved a defense of Bill Bennett's offensive remarks regarding fighting crime through termination of African American pregnancies. (See also Nathan Newman's great piece on the subject.) Today, in pointing out factual errors in a Bob Herbert column (Herbert erroenously confused the Consumer Price Index with the core inflation rate and confusingly used the technical term recession when making an argument about our skewed economy), DeLong, in my view, innocently but insensitively, asked:

How has the New York Times managed to pick Bob Herbert out of the 75 million liberal adults in America? It is a mystery.

Now, everyone is entitled to their opinion about Bob Herbert. Mine is that he is a national treasure. Certainly NOT liking Herbert is a respectable, though wrongheaded opinion. But surely DeLong SHOULD have known what his comment would invite.

For example, “respectable” champion race baiter, Andrew “Bell Curve” Sullivan wrote:

A question only a left-liberal could ask:

“How has the New York Times managed to pick Bob Herbert out of the 75 million liberal adults in America? It is a mystery.”

Is he kidding me?

Get it? It's because Herbert is black. Ha! What a funny racist idiot Sullivan is. And make no mistake. Andrew Sullivan is a racist. More.    

Sullivan is not involved in my point here. My point is our progressive discourse has continued to be, in my estimation, incredibly insensitive to race questions. DeLong did not consider what a race baiter like Sullivan could do with what he wrote? Did he read his comment thread? Might a clarification from DeLong have helped? A word of rebuke about what Sullivan wrote in response would help.

And I have seen similar insensitivity in other good people. When I read Sullivan and saw from whence the thought came, it was like a punch in the stomach to me. I KNOW DeLong does not think like Sullivan. I know other good people do not think like that. But they seem oblivious to the existence of such feelings in others.

What can we do about this problem?

Nov 12 2007

U.S. General: Survive with God, or perish “in a Godless world”

In January 1951, General Matthew Ridgway was appointed the new commander for the Eighth Army in Korea. U.S. forces had suffered setback after setback after a Chinese and North Korean offensive drove U.S. and UN forces back from nearby the Yalu River and well south of the 38th parallel into South Korea. Only months before, General Douglas MacArthur had promised that the troops would be home by Christmas. But by December 4, 1950, things had gotten so bad the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had approved President Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons, if necessary, to avoid possible defeat.

General Ridgway, who ultimately would take over from MacArthur, was a World War II hero, and considered something of a character. When in public, “he always had a hand grenade attached to one shoulder strap on his battle jacket, and a first aid kit on the other.” The strange regalia earned him the nickname “Old Iron Tits.”

The Chinese/North Korean rout of U.S. forces was one of the greatest battlefield defeats in U.S. history. Thousands died, many thousands more were wounded and taken prisoner. Ridgway saw it as his duty to restore morale and discipline among troops. He issued the following memorandum, asking “why are we here… what are we fighting for?”, which I offer in full here as a historical document. The attentive reader will see some interesting parallels between Ridgway’s Christian apocalyptic tone and the rhetoric and policies of the current U.S. political-military leadership.

In his recent book, The Coldest Winter, the late David Halberstam describes how Ridgway, upon hearing that North Korean troops had crossed the thirty-eighth parallel,

he immediately wondered whether, in his words, it represented “the beginning of World War III… Armageddon, the last great battle between East and West.” (p. 488)

Some readers may think that the “war on terror” and the war against communist Korean and Chinese forces bear little similarity. I have neither the time nor inclination to answer such critics. I think it is clear that the military and political leadership of this country are using “Terror” as they did “Communism” in the middle of the 20th century, to justify the use of new weaponry, indiscriminate bombing and endless war, to slaughter hundreds of thousands, and destroy other countries in the specious cause of saving the “homeland”.

It is enough to note that this memorandum rarely bares a mention in current histories of the Korean War. Not surprisingly, it is not referenced in the Wikipedia article on Ridgway, which states:

When Ridgway took command, the army was still in a tactical retreat, after a strong foray into North Korea had been met with an unexpected and overwhelming Communist Chinese advance. Ridgway’s success in turning Eighth Army’s morale around, using little more than a magnetic personality and bold leadership, is still a model for the Army for how the power of leadership can dramatically change a situation.

Ridgway’s offensive extended the war for another two years, even as there were repeated pleas for an armistice from the numerically far more powerful Chinese and North Koreans. In the end, the war produced a stalemate militarily that persists to this day. The price?

The Korean War finally ended in July 1953. Left in its wake were four million military and civilian casualties, including 33,600 American, 16,000 UN allied, 415,000 South Korean, and 520,000 North Korean dead. There were also an estimated 900,000 Chinese casualties. Half of Korea’s industry was destroyed and a third of all homes. The disruption of civilian life was almost complete.

Quoted from Military History Network:


HEADQUARTERS

EIGHTH UNITED STATES ARMY KOREA (EUSAK)

Office of the Commanding General

21 January 1951

MEMORANDUM FOR: Corps, Division, Separate Brigade or RCT Commanders, and Commanding General, 2d Logistical Command

SUBJECT: Why We Are Here

1. In my brief period of command duty here I have heard from several sources, chiefly from the members of combat units, the questions, “Why are we here?” “What are we fighting for?”

2. What follows represents my answers to these questions.

3. The answer to the first question, “Why are we here?” is simple and conclusive. We are here because of the decisions of the properly constituted authorities of our respective governments. As the Commander-in-Chief, United Nations Command, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur said publicly yesterday: “This command intends to maintain a military position in Korea just as long as the Statesmen of the United Nations decide we should do so.” The answer is simple because further comment is unnecessary. It is conclusive because the loyalty we give, and expect, precludes any slightest questioning of these orders.

4. The second question is of much greater significance, and every member of this command is entitled to a full and reasoned answer. Mine follows.

5. To me the issues are clear. It is not a question of this or that Korean town or village. Real estate is, here, incidental. It is not restricted to the issue of freedom for our South Korean Allies, whose fidelity and valor under the severest stresses of battle we recognize; though that freedom is a symbol of the wider issues, and included among them.

6. The real issues are whether the power of Western civilization, as God has permitted it to flower in our beloved lands, shall defy and defeat Communism; whether the rule of men who shoot their prisoners, enslave their citizens, and deride the dignity of man, shall displace the rule of those to whom the individual and his individual rights are sacred; whether we are to survive with God’s hand to guide and lead us, or to perish in the dead existence of a Godless world.

7. If these be true, and to me they are, beyond any possibility of challenge, then this has long ceased to be a fight for our Korean Allies alone and for their national survival. It has become, and it continues to be, a fight for our own freedom, for our own survival, in an honorable, independent national existence.

8. The sacrifices we have made, and those which we shall yet support, are not offered vicariously for others, but in our own direct defense.

9. In the final analysis, the issue now joined right here in Korea is whether Communism or individual freedom shall prevail, and, make no mistake, whether the next flight of fear-driven people we have just witnessed across the HAN, and continue to witness in other areas, shall be checked and defeated overseas or permitted, step by step, to close in on our own homeland and at some future time, however distant, to engulf our own loved ones in all its misery and dispair[sic].

10. These are the things for which we fight. Never have members of any military command had a greater challenge than we, or a finer opportunity to show ourselves and our people at their best — and thus be an honor to the profession of arms, and a credit to those who bred us.

11. I would like each commander to whom this is addressed, in his own chosen ways of leadership, to convey the foregoing to every single member of his command at the earliest practicable moment.

M. B. Ridgway

Lieutenant General, United States Army

Commanding

Link to typescript

Time Magazine, 2/5/1951, excerpts

Also posted at Invictus, Daily Kos and Progressive Historians

Nov 12 2007

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Dylan II



Desolation Row



Like a Rolling Stone



Love Minus Zero/No Limit



All Along the Watchtower

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.

Nov 12 2007

We’ve Come a Long Way Since 1999

Ladies and gentlemen, the comedy stylings of Secretary of State Rice:

In an interview on the ABC News program “This Week,” Ms. Rice called on General Musharraf to end the state of emergency “as soon as possible,” saying that his vows to hold elections by early January and to shed his military uniform were “essential to getting Pakistan back on a democratic path.”

“The state of emergency has got to be lifted and lifted as soon as possible,” she said.

Ms. Rice conceded that even if General Musharraf gave up his role as head of the Pakistani Army and his re-election was certified by the nation’s Supreme Court, “this is not a perfect situation.” But she asserted that Pakistan had “come a long way from 1999 and the military coup,” and expressed hope that signs of political progress, seen before General Musharraf declared the state of emergency, would not be lost.

This, on the same day that General Musharraf asserted that martial law would continue through the January election.

Speaking at a news conference one day after President Bush called him the best president for Pakistan, General Musharraf said the emergency decree he issued on Nov. 3 was justified by the need to fight terrorism and would “ensure absolutely fair and transparent elections.”

That the Secretary of State is able to find air between the current state of affairs in Pakistan and the 1999 military coup is certainly intriguing.  But then, it’s not exactly inconsistent.  The Bush White House is known for thinking that elections held under conditions tantamount to military occuption (for example, actual military occupation) are, you know, possibly neat-o.

More troubling for the United States, or anyway its citizens, whoever they are, I forget, is that creeping it-could-have-been-worse-ism seems to be the rhetorical veneer of choice for a ruling class bent on destroying constitutional rule-of-law.  Casual and hell-bent at the same time, we are getting the “just folks” routine from a group of people who seem to be more and more arbitrarily divided up into “political parties” as they come to seem more and more in agreement about the superfluity of law when it’s in the way of the expedience and comfort of monied rule.

This is not to say that monied interests did not used to be in control.  It’s not to say, for example, that the Clinton years, the Bush I years, the Reagan years, and so on, didn’t, when it comes to measuring the extent to which the United States was really “of by and for the people”, suck.  Rather, it’s to say that they, the powerful, both used to feel the need to put up the appearance of adherance to the rule law and were demonstrably slowed down by that need.

This is an important lesson.  Requiring the appearance of law-abidingness may be 9/10ths of the value of having those laws in the first place.  It slows creeping authoritarianism down.  And that is the difference between then and now.  Now, we have members of the allegedly left-er wing political party (Schumer) both asserting that waterboarding is illegal and that they will pass a law against it — thus demonstrating that “law” is nothing.  It’s not as though any of this is to be taken seriously, even in passing.

Frank Rich pointed out the parallels between Pakistan and the United States in a column that made the blog-rounds today.  I want to add only that I note the utter gratuitousness of the Democratic cave-in.  It seems that the Democratic leadership is surrendering more, and more quickly, to the Republicans than would be necessary in order to meet the needs of any political calculation — even any grossly mistaken political calculation.  This leaves one wondering exactly what the agenda is.  

Look, I knew, you knew, we all knew that we were not going to get as much as we hoped for from Democratic wins in the House and Senate in 2006.  We knew that Republicans could still obstruct like gangbusters and we knew that the Dems in power were not as left-wing as we are.  Those in the blogosphere who, to this day, find it fun to remind us of these facts are missing the point.  We knew that, folks.  We’re not idiots.  It’s the superfluity of the alleged concessions that vexes.

Me, I’m where I was in 1999.  Not believing any of the shit, any of it, that I see coming from Washington.  Except now it’s worse.  And, too, now we have the blogosphere, where we register our discontent.  Our fury.  

As Secretary Rice said, we have indeed “come a long way from 1999”, but it’s nothing to be proud of.  Me, I’m wondering when the 21st century is going, finally, to start.  And more than that, I’m afraid that maybe it already has.

Nov 12 2007

The Disease of Money

I attended a dinner at a fine Italian restaurant with a group of older mostly retired people who made their money by long term stock market investments.  They seemed totally upbeat and enthusiastic about “the market”.  Little do they know, I think.

I was sort of an outsider,having zero money and only attending because of my parents. We took our assigned seats as I met “John”, a regional sales manager for an investment firm.  His mannerisms were, well, rehearsed but my first impression was so powerful I will remember it until I die.  The black emptyness of this man’s soul literally shook me.  (Mind you I have been on occasion getting these psychic like impressions from pictures of late.  Alberto Gonzales scared the crap our of me.)  God, this man needs more joy in his life.  Two young children he has, yet the mundane conventional conversation topics prevailed.  As dinner progressed I sensed he knew not what to make of me, an engineer eating pollo continental style but talking about horses.  I didn’t watch that “big football game”, I was with the horses.

Horses are prey animals so in learning about them one learns also the ways of the predator, that’s us, in their eyes.  After a solid year of untrained horse and untrained rider the joy of accomplished man horse communication far and away beats the black soul of a money manager.  

Since the dinner though the thoughts of money have even gone to my mother’s head.  You see in this country having money simply means you are married to it.  It is actually not yours.  It belongs to those you hire to manage it, the lawyers you pay to craft documents you have no chance of understanding to protect “assets” that will change next year due to new laws and tax implications.  It is literally an entire industry of bullshit.

The real deal though is that even with an entire lifetime of saving, not spending and even my father collecting cans for the deposit here in America, land of the free and home of the brave you get squat from government.  All of this lifetime of savings is for the possibility of nursing home care.  The land of the free and home of the brave is searching through seven years of detailed financial transactions of its’ senior citizens in order to enter the nursing home.

Now even if I croak, a penniless homeless person I intend petition the Lord himself one last return to earth to mount my Apocalyptic horse, snicker at all the soon to be smitten and say, “I told you so”.  

Nov 11 2007

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Intel official: Expect less privacy

By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 40 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.

Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people’s private communications and financial information.

Kerr’s comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

UNACCEPTABLE!

2 High oil prices fuel winter heat fears

By JERRY HARKAVY, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 3 minutes ago

PORTLAND, Maine – Nowhere in America, it seems, are people more apprehensive about the prospect of a $3-a-gallon winter than in Maine.

Motorists nationwide may grumble about gasoline prices now hovering around $3 for a gallon of regular, but home heating oil that soared this month to $3.09 a gallon – breaking the $3 barrier for the first time – is the focus of concern in Maine.

The reasons for Maine’s vulnerability are clear:

It tops the list of states most dependent on oil heat, with 80 percent of homes relying on No. 2 oil or kerosene. It’s one of the nation’s coldest states, with the northern city of Caribou often singled out by the National Weather Service as having the lowest temperature among the Lower 48. In terms of per capita incomes, Maine is generally ranked as the poorest state in the Northeast. And lots of older homes lack adequate insulation, making them harder to heat.

3 Musharraf plans for Pakistan election

By Robert Birsel, Reuters

Sun Nov 11, 11:39 AM ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday a general election would be held by January 9 but under a state of emergency he imposed eight days ago.

Musharraf, under pressure from rivals and Western allies to put nuclear-armed Pakistan back on a path to democracy, said the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would be dissolved in coming days, upon completion of their terms.

The army chief also told a news conference he would quit the military and be sworn in as a civilian president as soon as the Supreme Court struck down challenges to his October 6 re-election. He said he hoped that would happen as soon as possible.

4 Russian oil tanker sinks in Black Sea storm

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

40 minutes ago

MOSCOW (AFP) – Five-metre (16-feet) high waves smashed apart a Russian tanker on Sunday, spilling 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil into the Black Sea in what environmentalists called an “ecological catastrophe.”

Four other cargo ships including three carrying sulphur also sank as winds of up to 108 kilometres (67 miles) an hour battered the Kerch Strait separating the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov.

Rescue services plucked 36 crewmembers from stricken vessels but fears were growing for the fate of 23 missing sailors as weather conditions worsened, reports said.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Recommended

5 Hunted Myanmar monks flee monasteries

By AMBIKA AHUJA and RUNGRAWEE C. PINYORAT, Associated Press Writers

2 hours, 9 minutes ago

BANGKOK, Thailand – The monasteries of Myanmar used to teem with saffron-robed Buddhist monks, revered as spiritual guides and moral authorities in a country in the grip of a repressive military regime.

Then the junta turned its troops on the monks, beating them in the streets for leading pro-democracy protests. They also raided their monasteries, leaving bloodstains on the floors, chasing anyone who had participated in the rallies.

Now, nobody knows how many of Myanmar’s more than 500,000 monks are left in their monasteries.

6 Analysis: Musharraf’s rule may be brief

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer

Sun Nov 11, 5:15 AM ET

WASHINGTON – Pakistan’s military leader is betting that having flouted strong U.S. warnings not to declare a state of emergency he can now hold off his patron’s pleas for a quick return to constitutional rule and go on banking billions in American anti-terrorism aid.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is probably right for now. But the strongman’s triumph may be short-lived. Some of Musharraf’s backers in Washington quietly agree with his political opponents at home that he cannot hold power for long.

A week after imposing the equivalent of martial law, Musharraf remains in control of nuclear-armed Pakistan. His U.S. allies watched in distaste as protesters were bloodied and potential political rival Benazir Bhutto was confined to her home.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Viewed

7 Maliki demands U.S. hand over prisoners for execution

Reuters

Sun Nov 11, 9:58 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s prime minister accused the U.S. military on Sunday of thwarting attempts to execute former members of Saddam Hussein’s government and demanded they be handed over so their sentences could be carried out.

A court in September upheld the death sentences against Saddam’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, former Defence Minister Sultan Hashem, and a former army commander, Hussein Rashid Muhammad. Under Iraq’s constitution the sentence should have been carried out within 30 days.

The three were convicted of genocide for their roles in a campaign against Iraq’s Kurds in 1988.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Emailed

8 Temple built 4,000 years ago unearthed in Peru

By Marco Aquino, Reuters

Sat Nov 10, 8:38 PM ET

LIMA (Reuters) – A 4,000-year-old temple filled with murals has been unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the oldest finds in the Americas, a leading archaeologist said on Saturday.

The temple, inside a larger ruin, includes a staircase that leads up to an altar used for fire worship at a site scientists have called Ventarron, said Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who led the dig.

It sits in the Lambayeque valley, near the ancient Sipan complex that Alva unearthed in the 1980s. Ventarron was built long before Sipan, about 2,000 years before Christ, he said.

From Yahoo News World

9 Turkish military detains 8 freed soldiers: sources

Reuters

42 minutes ago

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Eight Turkish soldiers freed last week by Kurdish rebels have been charged by the military with disobeying orders in a way that could have led to “catastrophe,” a defense lawyer said on Sunday.

The capture of the soldiers in October intensified a stand-off between the Turkish military and the separatist rebels and nearly led to a Turkish cross-border operation into northern Iraq, which some 3,000 of the Kurdish rebels use as a base.

“The soldiers have been charged with disobeying orders in a manner facilitating catastrophe,” a lawyer for the soldier’s defense said.

10 Rice denies US on warpath with Iran

by Jitendra Joshi, AFP

44 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied Sunday that the United States was bent on war with Iran and renewed an offer of reconciliation talks if the Islamic republic renounces its nuclear drive.

Interviewed on ABC television, Rice was pressed on a Senate resolution passed in September that labeled Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist operation — a step that critics said had brought war nearer.

She said that President George W. Bush was clear “that he’s on a diplomatic path where Iran comes into focus.”

From Yahoo News U.S. News

11 Desegregation rulings cause confusion

By ALLEN G. BREED, AP National Writer

45 minutes ago

Officials in Shelby County, Tenn., complain they’ll have to spend millions to satisfy a federal judge’s “arbitrary” desegregation order. It’ll mean busing minority students up to an hour away and replacing hundreds of white teachers with black ones, they say.

In Huntsville, Ala., under a similar court order, students can transfer from a school where they’re in the racial majority, but not the other way around.

And in the Tucson, Ariz., Unified School District, students could move from one school to another only if the change improved “the ethnic balance of the receiving school and (did) not further imbalance the ethnic makeup of the home school.”

12 Teacher sex abuse cases reveal patterns

By OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press Writer

Sun Nov 11, 6:32 AM ET

LEXINGTON, Neb. – Back in August, the rumor around Lexington Middle School was that 25-year-old math teacher Kelsey Peterson had a boyfriend – a 13-year-old former student. People had complained to administrators three months earlier that Peterson spent too much time hanging out with the kids. When new complaints reached administrators linking her to the student in August, her principal gave her a verbal warning, but that was it.

“We did not put an investigator on her and watch her,” said district Superintendent Todd Chessmore, who has ordered all school and district employees to not speak with reporters. “We did not see this as something except for something we needed to deal with in a very informal manner.”

A couple of months later, after a confrontation with Chessmore, Peterson and the boy took off. Going missing for a week, they were eventually picked up by a Mexican police officer in Baja California. The boy said in an interview with The Associated Press later that he and the teacher had sex twice. She cried when they were parted.

13 Record number of recalls in US bring raft of safety tests

by Virginie Montet, AFP

Sun Nov 11, 3:29 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A wave of recalls in the United States, including the withdrawal from sale of several products aimed at children, has sparked a surge in the number of product safety tests which are uncovering yet more dangerous items.

Last month, the Consumers Union dubbed 2007 “the year of the recall,” saying a record number of dangerous foods and unsafe products had been pulled off the shelves in the United States.

“One million cribs with side rails that can separate and strangle infants, 175 million pieces of childrenÂ?s jewelry made with hazardous levels of lead, and 30 million pounds of ground beef contaminated with the deadly e-coli bacteria all appeared on the list of recalls for 2007,” the non-profit consumer group said in a statement.

14 Detroit’s carmakers seem to have turned the corner

by Mira Oberman, AFP

Sat Nov 10, 11:06 PM ET

CHICAGO (AFP) – Despite a worsening economy and a flood of red ink on their balance sheets, Detroit’s Big Three automakers seem to be turning the corner on a financial crisis so deep that bankruptcy once seemed inevitable, analysts say.

…

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC have laid off nearly 100,000 workers, shuttered dozens of plants and lost more than 75 billion dollars since 2005.

Ford mortgaged most of its assets and put the majority of its premium brands up for sale to pay for the latest restructuring plan.

Chrysler ended its troubled nine-year marriage with DaimlerBenz by being sold to a private equity group.

GM, facing the high costs of a junk bond rating, sold half its stake in its usually profitable financial arm.

From Yahoo News Politics

15 McCain praised at Veterans Day ceremony

By HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 8 minutes ago

BOSCAWEN, N.H. – Republican John McCain found himself on the giving and receiving ends of the tributes Sunday during a ceremony at the New Hampshire Veterans Cemetery.

The Arizona senator and presidential hopeful joined state officials and several hundred people on a cold, sunny morning for a Veterans Day ceremony, and was repeatedly thanked for his service during the years he spent as a Vietnam prisoner of war.

McCain in turn paid tribute to military members serving in Iraq and thanked those at home for supporting the troops regardless of how they may feel about the war.

16 Romney aides oppose speech on religion

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer

Sun Nov 11, 1:08 AM ET

HOLDERNESS, N.H. – Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said Saturday his political advisers have warned him against giving a speech explaining his Mormon faith.

During a house party overlooking Squam Lake, Romney was asked by voters if he would give a speech outlining his religious beliefs and how those beliefs might impact his administration, much like then-Sen. John F. Kennedy did as he sought to explain his Catholic faith during the 1960 election.

“I’m happy to answer any questions people have about my faith and do so pretty regularly,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “Is there going to be a special speech? Perhaps, at some point. I sort of like the idea myself. The political advisers tell me no, no, no – it’s not a good idea. It draws too much attention to that issue alone.”

17 Biden files to get public money for 2008 campaign

Reuters

Fri Nov 9, 5:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Long-shot Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Joseph Biden filed on Friday to obtain public financing to keep his campaign alive.

Biden, who has raised $8.2 million for his bid and has spent about $6.3 million, submitted paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to qualify for government matching funds to help him compete in what will likely be the most expensive U.S. presidential campaign in history.

“We are taking every step to ensure that we will have the necessary resources to compete in Iowa and the other early states,” said Luis Navarro, Biden’s campaign manager.

From Yahoo News Business

18 Investors brace for more bad bank news

By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer

1 hour, 35 minutes ago

NEW YORK – The stock market this week is hoping for signs that the economy is surviving the problems in the financial sector – and that the Federal Reserve will come to the rescue if it’s not.

Investors are slowly getting a clearer picture of how much in risky and deteriorating debt securities the world’s major financial institutions are holding, and they don’t like what they see.

Wall Street already expects banks’ portfolios to lose at least $20 billion in the fourth quarter, after announcements of anticipated writedowns of mortgage-backed securities and other debt instruments by such financial institutions as Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and Wachovia Corp.

19 World’s coal use carries deadly cost

By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 28 minutes ago

CHANG’GOU TOWN, China – Digging coal deep underground, Luo Xianglai learned to listen hard to the sounds the rocks made when struck with his pickax.

A dull thud usually meant solid rock and safety. A whistling noise signaled an impending cave-in.

“Usually you could tell it was coming,” said Luo, a squat 33-year-old with broad shoulders, a buzz cut and a worried look. “The rocks would start singing, letting off a whistling sound. We would get out in a rush.”

On a cold December day two years ago, the rocks did not sing, but disaster struck anyway. A cave-in buried Luo under fallen ceiling planks and more than 6 feet of rock, 300 feet down a mine shaft. His right leg was crushed, returning him to the life of an impoverished farmer – this time, with a steel rod in his leg.

Coal mining remains one of the world’s most dangerous trades. In China, more than 4,700 people died last year in coal mines.

This is a must read.

20 Home-based child care workers seek union

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 51 minutes ago

NEW YORK – Jennie Rivera works 10-hour days taking care of children in her lower Manhattan apartment and has never had a paid vacation or earned more than $13,000 a year.

Rivera hopes that will change now that she’s cast her lot, along with thousands of other child-care providers here, with the powerful New York City chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.

New York is one of 11 states where workers like Rivera – not day-care center employees or nannies but child-care providers working out of their own homes – are permitted to unionize. Organizers argue improving conditions for these poorly paid workers will translate into better child care options for working parents.

21 Ex-Abbey boss swoops on ailing Northern Rock: papers

Reuters

Sun Nov 11, 7:38 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) – Luqman Arnold, the former head of British banking group Abbey, has assembled a team and is emerging as a potential bidder for Britain’s troubled mortgage bank Northern Rock (NRK.L), British Sunday newspapers said.

Arnold is proposing a deal which does not involve a sale or break-up of the Newcastle-based bank and details of his proposal are expected to be finalized ahead of this Friday’s deadline for bids to be submitted, the Sunday Times said.

22 Top U.S. banks agree on backup fund for markets: report

Reuters

Sun Nov 11, 2:02 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The top three U.S. banks have agreed on the structure of a backup fund of at least $75 billion to stabilize credit markets, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Citing a person involved in the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Times said that Bank of America (BAC.N), Citigroup Inc. (C.N) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N) officials reached agreement late on Friday, approving a more simplified structure than had been proposed during the course of some two months of negotiations.

23 HSBC seen facing another hit from U.S. mortgages

Reuters

Sun Nov 11, 9:17 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) – Europe’s biggest bank HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) is this week expected to unveil a further big hit from its exposure to the U.S. mortgage crisis.

HSBC Finance, the unit formerly called Household, will unveil third-quarter results on Wednesday.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said HSBC will reveal a new $1 billion hit in the results. But the figure could be higher than that as losses from the run-off of the U.S. mortgage book was about $2 billion in the second quarter and the market has deteriorated since then, analysts have said.

24 OPEC to discuss output hike if needed: Saudi, Kuwait

AFP

Sun Nov 11, 10:36 AM ET

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – The Saudi and Kuwaiti oil ministers said on Sunday that OPEC will discuss the possibility of raising oil output if needed to cool soaring prices.

“It is premature (to speak of a hike). When OPEC meets, we will discuss this issue,” Ali al-Nuaimi, oil minister of OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, told reporters during a short visit to Kuwait.

He did not specify which meeting of the cartel he was referring to. OPEC is holding a summit in Riyadh on November 17-18 and ministers are also due to meet in Abu Dhabi on December 5.

From Yahoo News Science

25 DNA tests show Gipper didn’t sire child

By JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press Writer

Sun Nov 11, 12:17 AM ET

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – A paternity test shows college football hero George Gipp wasn’t the father of a girlfriend’s child born shortly after his death, a family member said Saturday, but bitterness persisted over the exhumation of the body.

The remains of Notre Dame’s first All-American, who inspired the rallying cry “win one for the Gipper” and was portrayed on screen by Ronald Reagan, were taken last month from a grave in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula – 87 years after he died from pneumonia and a strep infection.

His right femur was removed and DNA samples compared with skin tissue from Bette Bright Weeks of Crown Point, Ind., who died last January at age 86. Weeks had been told Gipp was her father, said Mike Bynum, a sports author planning a book on the football legend.

Have I mentioned I’m only half troll?

26 World faces choice on human cloning: U.N. study

Reuters

33 minutes ago

OSLO (Reuters) – The world faces a stark choice between banning cloning of humans or preparing ways to protect them from potential abuse or discrimination, a U.N. study said on Sunday.

Experts at the U.N. University’s Institute of Advanced Studies said it would only be a matter of time before scientists manage to clone a human if governments do not impose a ban.

“Whichever path the international community chooses it will have to act soon — either to prevent reproductive cloning or to defend the human rights of cloned individuals,” said A.H. Zakri, head of the Institute, which is based in Yokohama, Japan.

27 Australian plan to shoot wild horses provokes outrage

AFP

Sun Nov 11, 1:09 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian state government’s plans to shoot more than 10,000 wild horses to protect the environment were Sunday attacked by some animal rights activists as inhumane.

The Queensland government had attempted to keep the cull of the horses, or brumbies, a secret because of fears of a public outcry.

But government documents confirming the cull were obtained by the media while the Save the Brumbies charity reproduced photographs it said are of the cull on its website.

Nov 11 2007

Impeach

We have all heard the arguments on impeachment, pro and con.  We have all heard about whether or not we “have the votes.”  Whether or not this will ruin our chances in 2008 for a Democratic victory.  We have all discussed every possible permutation, and we have no consensus.  Ok.  I accept that.  My decision is to support anyone who is for impeachment, and that includes Kucinich, who I think is doing a great job getting this issue in the spotlight.

This diary isn’t just about impeachment.  It’s also about what can happen if we don’t impeach this crew, and asks the question of what we will do if any of these things come to pass.  As much as I’m pro-impeachment, if it doesn’t happen I’m not going to lay down and die — I want to know the consequences and take action.

One of the consequences has to do with the 2008 Presidential election.

None of this may come to pass, and I hope that is the case.  I am claiming no precognitive abilities here.

But I do think Naomi Wolf has some interesting things to say as far as these consequences, in her post over at Firedoglake, A “Presidential Coup,” The Continuity of Government, And Blackwater Watching Midtown Manhattan

I have argued that in the closing stages of a `fascist shift’, events cascade. I am hearing about them, even across the globe. Here in Australia I hear from the nation’s best-know feminist activist, and former adviser to Paul Keating, Anne Summers, who was also at the time this took place Chair of the Board of Greenpeace International. Summers was detained by armed agents for FIVE HOURS each way in LAX on her way to and from the annual meeting of the board of Greenpeace International in Mexico, and her green card was taken away from her. `I want to call a lawyer’, she told TSA agents. `Ma’am, you do not have a right to call an attorney,’ they replied. `You have not entered the United States.’

…

Increasingly, reputable figures are starting to talk about `a coup.’ Jim Hightower notes in an important essay, “Is a Presidential Coup Under Way?,” that a coup is defined in the dictionary as a sudden forced change in the form of government. (He also spells out the basis for a rigorously modeled impeachment and criminal prosecution.) Daniel Ellsberg’s much-emailed speech on recent events notes that, in his view, a `coup’ has already taken place. Ron Rosenbaum speculates in an essay on Slate about the reasons the Bush administration is withholding even from members of Congress its plans for Continuity of Government in an emergency – noting that those worrying about a coup are no longer so marginal. Frank Rich notes the parallels between ourselves and the Good Germans. And Congress belatedly realizes as if waking from a drugged sleep that it might not be okay for the Attorney General to say the President need not obey the law. Congress may realize why Mukasey CAN’T say that `waterboarding is torture’ – the minute he does so he has laid the grounds for Bush, Cheney and any number of CIA and Blackwater interrogators to be tried and convicted for war crimes. They are so keenly aware that what they have been doing is criminal that laws such as the Military Commissions Act of 2006 have been drafted specifically to protect them and the torturers and murderers they have directed from criminal prosecution. That is why insisting that Mukasey say that waterboarding is torture is, in spite of the alarming apparent defection of Feinstein and Schumer, an important tactic and even the perfect opening for the impeachment bid that Kucinich is bringing on November 6th to be followed by Congressional investigations into possible criminality.

Will we have elections, and will the results of those elections be honored?  Will we, in the next year, go to war with Iran?  How will that impact our elections?  Can we stop this criminal crew from going to war with Iran?  And given the lawless behavior of this misAdministration, are these outlandish questions?

Regardless of the answers to any of these questions, we have problems right now, as Ms. Wolf enumerates.  We are debating the notion of giving telephone companies immunity from spying on American citizens.  We have a lot of technological infrastructure, don’t we?  And one of the most precious things in that infrastructure is the internet.  We saw in Burma how the internet allowed the entire world to see a cruel junta violating the most basic human rights.  There was a big outcry.  And then the internet went silent.  I  felt such an ominous feeling of dread when that happened.

Let’s look at our present system.

From an article over at theAtlantic.com entitled The Web Police:

China has become notorious for the extent and sophistication of its Internet censorship. The government constantly adjusts its roster of banned Web sites. Search engines filter content, leaving only pro-government information on sensitive topics. Companies that provide space to bloggers censor hundreds of key words, such as “democracy,” “Falun Gong,” and “freedom.” Chat rooms are monitored by tens of thousands of government workers, who remove offending posts. E-mail is subject to censorship, although less likely to be blocked than public communications. Even text messages are now perused by the authorities.

But it’s not just China.  The article links to a rather remarkable map (warning, pdf) showing  where the internet is censored all over the world.  What I found most interesting was the part entitled “Collaborators”:

U.S. companies provide most of the technology for foreign censors.  Secure Computing’s SmartFilter has been used by Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Iran.  To comply with China’s laws, Google has created a censored search engine, Microsoft has taken down offending blogs, and Yahoo has shared information that landed a Chinese journalist in jail.

The important thing to realize, I think, is that we have the technology to shut down the internet, to very easily censor the nascent movement we are all a part of.  It’s something I think we ought to be aware of.  For we know that not only would the Bush misAdministration love to see us go down, much of the traditional media would like that as well.  Who would protest?  We’re still too young a movement for most people to even notice that we’d be gone.

This has happened many times, of course.  During the Stalin years in the then Soviet Union, writers, poets, resisters, employed samizdat:

…  the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature or other media in Soviet-bloc countries. Copies were made a few at a time, and those who received a copy would be expected to make more copies. This was often done by handwriting or typing.

This grassroots practice to evade officially imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials.

Vladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows: “I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and [may] get imprisoned for it.”

Ultimately, no matter what could happen, history has shown if folks want to get information out, they will get it out.  ‘Course under certain circumstances, doing so is a lot more dangerous than sitting around typing on the intertubes.  And in the meantime, countless human beings suffer, and die.

So what does this have to do with impeachment?  I’m not trying to predict anything here.  I am saying we ought to look ahead if we end up missing the opportunity to remove these criminals from office.  Whether we impeach or not, there will be consequences.  I’ve read a lot of what the consequences could be if we do impeach — the biggest being losing the 2008 election.  And that is a valid argument.  I think some of what I’ve shown above are also potential consequences, among many others I have not mentioned.

Either way, I think, as Bette Davis once said, we’re in for a “bumpy ride.”

Nov 11 2007

…

Nov 11 2007

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Harry Chapin



Taxi



Mr. Tanner



A Better Place to Be



Let Time Go Lightly

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.

Nov 11 2007

Encrusted User Status