Europe is coming! Europe is coming!
QUESTION: Why doesn’t this deter pirates (or pretty much anyone)?
An international armada was preparing to head towards the Somali coast yesterday as the stand-off with pirates holding a Ukrainian ship to ransom threatened to escalate.
Amid warnings that an effective blockade by the pirates could spark a famine in the Horn of Africa, European Union defence ministers meeting in Paris agreed to set up a naval taskforce to tackle the threat.
Two Royal Navy frigates, HMS Chatham and HMS Lancaster, are already in the region and could join the proposed fleet.
The pirates who seized the Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina were in defiant mood yesterday, vowing to fight if there was an attempt to rescue the crew of 20. They also said that they were only prepared to hand over the cargo of tanks and weapons in return for a ransom of £11 million.
“Anyone who tries to attack us or deceive us will face bad repercussions,” Sugule Ali, a spokesman for the pirates, told the Associated Press in a satellite telephone interview. The vessel is surrounded by half a dozen American warships but no moves have been made to board it.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia authorized foreign powers on Wednesday to use force against pirates holding a ship loaded with tanks for $20 million ransom, raising the stakes for bandits being watched by the U.S. Navy.
There was no indications, however, that the Americans or anyone else was preparing to take action.
Last week’s hijacking of the Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina — carrying 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, rifles and heavy weapons — was the highest profile act of piracy off this Horn of Africa nation this year. Several U.S. ships patrolled nearby and American helicopters buzzed overhead.
Moscow also has sent a warship to protect the few Russian hostages on board, but it was a week away from the coast of central Somalia where the Faina has been anchored since Sept. 25. Most of the 20 crew members are Ukrainian or Latvian, and one Russian has died, apparently of illness.
Interestingly enough, there’s no MSM coverage about the Iranian ship that pirates captured just days before they grabbed the one with all the Russian tanks on it. The Iranian ship
The U.S. naval officers leading the anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden has warned shipping companies to take additional precautions, because the fifteen warships in the Gulf cannot possibly protect all the merchant ships passing through the area.
The key problem is that no one wants to go ashore and take on the Somali warlords responsible for the surge in piracy. No wonder, as the natural state of Somalia, over the last few centuries, has been violent anarchy. This would be bloody, mainly for the Somalis, and no nation wants to get accused of war crimes and brutality by the media. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night and today I’ve been looking at the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan. It’s amazing, and there are three dominating themes to what is happening there: Read the rest of this entry »
Chief inspector: Iran may be hiding secret nukes Mon Sep 22, 6:47 AM ET
The chief U.N nuclear inspector says Iran may be hiding secret nuclear activities.
Mohamed ElBaradei says it is impossible to guarantee that Iran is not hiding such activities unless it allows his inspectors much broader access and answers allegations that it hid past attempts to make nuclear arms.
ElBaradei is head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He spoke Monday at the opening of the 35-nation IAEA board of governors.
Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment. While Tehran says it only wants to generate nuclear fuel, there is fear it could use the process to create the fissile core of nuclear warheads.
Nuclear experts responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear programme have discovered that enough enriched uranium, which if processed to weapons grade level could be used to make up to six atom bombs, has disappeared from the main production facility at Isfahan.
American spy satellites have identified a number of suspicious sites, which the Iranians have not declared to nuclear inspectors, that intelligence officials believe are being used for covert research.
“Let me say it plainly, a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable”
-failed Presidential candidate Sen John Kerry during the 2004 campaign
“It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon; it would be a game changer.”
….
“It’s sufficient to say I would not take military action off the table and that I will never hesitate to use our military force in order to protect the homeland and the United States’ interests,”
-Professional Presidential candidate, Freshman Senator Barack Obama
Some of my friends follow politics closely. Most do not. The Obama campaign has done an absolutely wonderful job of presenting and repeating the message of CHANGE with Senator Obama’s candidacy, but the problem comes when Americans (Democrat, Republican, Independent? No…AMERICANS) see that message of CHANGE, and they ask, “So, what’s he gonna change?” Read the rest of this entry »
This is not a joke. Within hours of a cease-fire having been declared in Georgia, Democrats raced to get on TV and claim that Senator Obama was the one person responsible for peace because he had asked for it (apparently similar calls from President Bush, Senator McCain, France, Germany, the EU and the UN were all sideshows-what mattered was what The One said).
THEN-when it came out that the Russians never really stopped their invasion, but merely paused to consolidate positions and logistics-Obama’s foreign policy advisor used her MSNBC propaganda outlet to claim that Senator McCain was responsible for fighting in Georgia.
Meanwhile, the DNC’s platform echoes the Bush Administration almost identically, and faux-anti-war groups are showing their true colors by blaming Georgia for the invasion of Georgia rather than the invader: Russia. Read the rest of this entry »
Former UN ambassador John Bolton has written a scathing article that is a cold shower for people who prefer to ignore politics, history, and the world’s current course. It’s informative and worth reading, but doesn’t leave a lot of room for debate. That’s not Bolton’s fault though. It’s the fault of Iran, the UN, and the people who have destroyed international deterrence.
This weekend, yet another “deadline” passed for Iran to indicate it was seriously ready to discuss ending its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Like so many other deadlines during these five years of European-led negotiations, this one died quietly, with Brussels diplomats saying that no one seriously expected any real work on a Saturday.
The fact that the Europeans are right — this latest deadline is not fundamentally big news — is precisely the problem with their negotiations, and the Bush administration’s acquiescence in that effort.
Over the last few weeks, Barack Obama and John McCain have seemed to get perilously close to agreeing on what to do in Iraq. Obama continues to talk about a 16-month withdrawal but would let military commanders determine the pace of the withdrawal. McCain is also now in favor of a 16-month timeline—as long as the commanders determine the pace of the withdrawal.
Meanwhile….the opposition to the war in Iraq (soon to be…perhaps…President Obama’s War) is as quiet as the wind
Is Barack Obama a neoconservative bent on controlling Iraqi oil, or could it be that Operation Iraqi Freedom continues not for oil primarily, but for….um…Iraqi Freedom?
UN RESOLUTION 1483. May 2003
Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
1. Appeals to Member States and concerned organizations to assist the people of Iraq in their efforts to reform their institutions and rebuild their country, and to contribute to conditio ns of stability and security in Iraq in accordance with this resolution;
2. Calls upon all Member States in a position to do so to respond immediately to the humanitarian appeals of the United Nations and other international organizations for Iraq and to help meet the humanitarian and other needs of the Iraqi people by providing food, medical supplies, and resources necessary for reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq’s economic infrastructure;
3. Appeals to Member States to deny safe haven to those me mbers of the previous Iraqi regime who are alleged to be responsible for crimes and atrocities and to support actions to bring them to justice;
4. Calls upon the Authority, consistent with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant international law, to promote the welfare of the Iraqi people through the effective administration of the territory, including in particular working towards the restoration of conditions of security and stability and the creation of conditions in which the Iraqi people can freely determine their own political future; [emphasis added-sm]
Early this year, the Navajo Nation and Sithe Global Power filed a lawsuit against the EPA for delays in issuing an air quality permit by the July 31st deadline for the proposed plant. New Mexico’s AG said it couldn’t be done because it would be in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Desert Rock spokesman Frank Maisano said the lawsuit was filed because the EPA broke the law by not deciding on the permit within the required time. By law, the EPA must make a decision within 12 months of receiving a completed application. Desert Rock’s application was deemed complete in May 2004.
“That’s easy math - it’s more than three years overdue at this point,” Maisano said.
The EPA agreed to the July 31 deadline to decide on the permit as part of a settlement of the lawsuit, but the state entities decided to intervene because they believe the permit cannot be acted upon until other environmental reviews are completed.
~~~
In a news release, Attorney General Gary King said, “This permitting process is truly putting the cart before the horse. We believe there are a number of regulatory issues that need to be addressed by the EPA before it can make a decision on this permit.”
The issues King’s office raised include the plant’s possible effects on fish and wildlife, carbon-dioxide pollution and compliance with federal standards for ozone pollution.
Any military strike by Israel against Iran’s suspected nuclear bomb factories will have to go from Israel, over Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, then Kuwait, and finally into Iranian airspace. OR the Israeli bombers could fly over Jordan, refuel inside Iraq, and then directly into Iran. The reports are sketchy, and dubious, but not at all impractical.
Bear in mind, it was years ago that Israel had special F-16i fighter/bombers designed and built specifically for this mission. It’s a risky endeavor that would lead to a worldwide terrorist war, and massive regional war with worldwide economic devastation, but it’s also a cold, hard reality that the world has failed to deter Iran’s nuclear bomb program. Diplomacy has failed. Now we only have to wonder when the strike will be, and whether it will be the Americans or the Israelis or both who wage it?
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean thug-o-crat and faux President was sworn in for a sixth term after a reign of terror launched against all who opposed his bid for re-election. Mugabe, who has taken an economically sound nation which had a strong manufacturing base, mining industry (it is rich in natural resouces) thriving agricultural as well as tourism industies, and turned it into one of the world’s biggest economic basket cases.
Over the last seven years, Professor Craig Richardson of Salem College estimates the economy has shrunk by 40 percent, wiping out almost 60 years of gradual economic improvements. The standard of living has dropped to levels last seen in 1948. The World Health Organization estimates that Zimbabwe has the world’s lowest life expectancy — 34 years for women and 37 years for men.
Unemployment is at 80 percent. The currency is nearly worthless and inflation currently exceeds 3,700 percent per year. Last week, the black-market exchange rate for one U.S. dollar reached 40,000 Zimbabwean dollars. Read the rest of this entry »
The United Nations, providing yet another reason why it is an utterly execrable institution that serves the interests of undemocratic, retrograde forces has banned criticism of Islam during debates in the UN Human Rights Council. Read the rest of this entry »
The U.N.’s chief nuclear watchdog, Mohamed El Baradei (not exactly a guy in the tank for Bush), in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV, said, quite explicitly, that Iran will be able to produce a nuclear weapon in six months to a year. Via lgf. Read the rest of this entry »
Leah Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there is anything major that McCain hasn’t answered to. There isn’t anything that McCain is trying to...
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Leah “Cliton”? “Mcain”? “resulting to smears”? Seriously, how old are you? Because if you’re older than me, this is truly sad. Okay,...
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Mike's America Craig: I like to let some of these loons parade their ignorance and insults to remind us what is at stake in this election. People wouldn’t believe me if I told...
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Mike's America Mata: You know the rule: if you feed it, you have to clean up after it…..
Craig Why do you tolerate an idiot like David here? You will regret it. The only right wing blog in Quebec tolerated idiots like him and now that blog is finished, ruined…...
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marbleblaster (mylifedrive) This is what we need. Obama needs to get out and answer these questions. His problem is, that the only true answers won’t get him elected. Maybe he...
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MataHarley Larry, you’re back! You know, you left us a comment that… altho I don’t agree with it… thought deserved some attention. So you inspired my post,...
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Mike's America Personally, I like a bigger photo. I wouldn’t want folks to have to put on their glasses to see this: These are the REAL Obamatons.
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Mike's America David: I’ve had enough of your childish stupidity. Any further comment from you on this thread with be deleted unread.
