US Isolated as Rift Grows with UK

US Isolated as Rift Grows with UK : "Britain's junior foreign minister Kim Howells, visiting Beirut, Saturday questioned Israel's military tactics and slammed its killing of 'so many children and so many people'.

'These are not surgical strikes,' he said of the air and artillery bombardments since July 12 that have killed more than 300 civilians in Lebanon."

(Via Informed Comment.)

Ted Koppel in the NYT: "The United States Is Already At War With Iran"

Ted Koppel in the NYT: "The United States Is Already At War With Iran": "But Washington's greatest gift to the Iranians lies next door in Iraq. By removing Saddam Hussein, the United States endowed the majority Shiites with real power, while simultaneously tearing down the wall that had kept Iran in check.

According to the Jordanian intelligence officer, Iran is reminding America's traditional allies in the region that the United States has a track record of leaving its friends in the lurch -- in Vietnam in the 70's, in Lebanon in the 80's, in Somalia in the 90's.

In his analysis, the implication that this decade may witness a precipitous American withdrawal from Iraq has begun to produce an inclination in the region toward appeasing Iran."

(Via AlterNet.)

Israeli Tanks, Troops Raid Lebanese Town

Israeli Tanks, Troops Raid Lebanese Town: "Israeli tanks and hundreds of troops moved in and out of Lebanon on Saturday, taking over a village, entering a U.N. observation post and engaging Hezbollah militants by land, sea and air as part of the country's limited ground campaign. Meanwhile, the Israeli military said that Hezbollah guerrillas attacked a military base near the border, wounding one soldier.

The Israeli soldiers -- backed by artillery and tank fire -- took control of the large Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, military officials said on condition of anonymity."

(Via Salon.)

Morning Eye-Opener

Morning Eye-Opener: "President Bush, who has had two African America Secretaries of State, made his first high-wire visit ever to the NAACP, and, working with a net, the Voting Rights Act was renewed scant hours later. That it wasn’t renewed the second it expired demonstrates how the man’s handlers are willing to turn absolutely anything—common sense, faith, courtesy—into a political circus."

(Via Martini Republic.)

Specter Hearts NSA Spying

Specter Hearts NSA Spying: "Patrick Radden Keefe originally wanted to call his examination of Sen. Arlen Specter's so-called 'compromise' bill on NSA spying, "Don't Shit in my Hand and Call it a Sundae."

...

"This provision, along with the accompanying suggestion that the president can find authorization to wiretap either through FISA or 'under the Constitution,' effectively codify the Bush administration's controversial argument that the president's authority as commander in chief under Article II of the Constitution gives him virtually unconstrained license to do whatever he sees fit, national-security-wise. According to this view, it's not the NSA surveillance program that's unconstitutional, but FISA itself. Critics have dubbed this the Article II on Steroids theory; and however much he puffs out his chest at the administration, it appears that Arlen Specter has become a subscriber. (emphasis mine)"

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Fake IDs Save Lives in Iraq

Fake IDs Save Lives in Iraq: "A fascinating AP report says that Iraqis are using fake IDs in light of the recent growth in sectarian killings.  The major groups in Iraq are not distinguishable by physical traits, but they are by name.  To avoid being killed, people are getting false identification cards:

Surnames refer to tribe and clan, while first names are often chosen to honor historical figures revered by one sect but sometimes despised by the other.

 

For about $35, someone with a common Sunni name like Omar could become Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite name that might provide safe passage through dangerous areas.

This illustrates very well how genuinely complex security can be.  At any time, the relevant authorities in Iraq could have decreed that all people get (as near as possible) forgery-proof biometric ID cards and carry them at all times - a great way to batten down a country, right?

 

Doing so would have fed directly into the strategy being used by the enemies of peace and security in Iraq today: setting up fake checkpoints and killing people who arrive there members of the wrong sect. Identity cards had a role in the Rwandan genocide just over 10 years ago, as well."

(Via Schneier on Security.)

Failure is an orphan. . .

Failure is an orphan. . .: "As John F. Kennedy once said, ‘Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan‘:

Faced with almost daily reports of sectarian carnage in Iraq, congressional Republicans are shifting their message on the war from speaking optimistically of progress to acknowledging the difficulty of the mission and pointing up mistakes in planning and execution."

...

"And the K word, the Bush signature for incompetence, even comes up:

‘It’s like after Katrina, when the secretary of homeland security was saying all those people weren’t really stranded when we were all watching it on TV,’ said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.). ‘I still hear about that. We can’t look like we won’t face reality.’

These are Republicans, mind you.

Even the neoconservative warmongers who conceptualized this fiasco are running down the ropes to the dock. Only they are complaining that we haven’t imbued sufficient frightfulness into our Middle East policy; attack a few more countries, put more troops in the region, and kill more Muslims and these pesky Islamists and other hostile regimes will finally see things our way."

(Via Martini Republic.)

Annan demands Lebanon ceasefire

Annan demands Lebanon ceasefire: "Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon must stop immediately, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said.

He condemned Hezbollah for sparking the latest violence in the country, but also attacked Israel for what he called its 'excessive use of force'.

In the absence of a ceasefire, it was 'imperative' to establish safe aid corridors in Lebanon, Mr Annan said."

(Via BBC News.)

Bolton: No moral equivalence between civilian casualties

Bolton: No moral equivalence between civilian casualties: "'It's simply not the same thing to say that it's the same act to deliberately target innocent civilians, to desire their deaths, to fire rockets and use explosive devices or kidnapping versus the sad and highly unfortunate consequences of self-defense,' Bolton noted."

(Via AlterNet.)

Ghana's ruthless corporate gold rush

Ghana's ruthless corporate gold rush: "Multinational gold mining firms in Ghana are prepared to use extreme violence to protect their property, a BBC investigation has discovered.

...

Until then, Sanso had been a typical subsistence farming community living off cocoa bean crops. But the new mining activities transformed their lives.

"There was gold under the farm so they want to mine the place though my father disagreed with them," says Awudu. "They went and brought police, all of them holding guns."

...

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people in Ghana have been evicted from farms to make way for multinational mining interests in the last 20 years.

They are offered very little in return.

Awudu says his father was offered 500,000 cedi ($50) in compensation.

'Yes, it's small money,' he says. 'It couldn't take care of us. But we went to the company. They refused to take us as workers.

He says he was left with only one option, to become a 'galamsay' - an illegal miner on company land."

(Via BBC News.)

IDF enters Lebanon, a new buffer zone?

IDF enters Lebanon, a new buffer zone?: "Six years later, Hezbollah is a state within a state, with the ability to start a war and conduct missile strikes deep into Israeli territory. Hezbollah possesses an arsenal of over 11,500 missiles, supplied by Iran. Asharq Al-Awsat gives additional information of Hezbollah's capabilities and Iran's involvement in funding, arming and training Hezbollah to use advanced weaponry:

The source said more than 3,000 Hezbollah members have undergone training in Iran, which included guerrilla warfare, firing missiles and artillery, operating unmanned drones, marine warfare and conventional war operations. He said they have also trained 50 pilots for the past two years. According to the source, Hezbollah currently possesses four types of surface-to-surface missiles, some of which extend to a distance of 150 kilometers."

(Via Counterterrorism Blog.)

All quiet on the Syrian front

All quiet on the Syrian front: "In a backstreet of the cavernous Hamadiyeh market, a young shopkeeper's son tells me how most of his teenage friends are excited about this latest chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

'They see the Lebanese resistance, and they hope for a chance to prove themselves against the Israeli enemy.'

I remind him of a similar phenomenon during the three weeks of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, when resistance there was seen as somehow restoring Arab dignity after so many humiliations - and what happened next.

He agrees: 'It is only the young people saying this. The old people know what war is like, and so they want peace.'

People here are used to military threats from Israel, a militarily superior power to Syria despite its vastly smaller physical size.

But the prevailing view is that Syria is too big a target for Israel to take on at this time, especially as its American ally is already heavily engaged in neighbouring Iraq."

(Via BBC News.)

Hezbollah rejects ceasefire proposals by foreign envoys

Hezbollah rejects ceasefire proposals by foreign envoys: "Hezbollah on Monday dismissed international ceasefire proposals as ‘Israeli conditions,’ accusing foreign envoys of allowing Israel time to continue its military offensive to force Lebanon into submission.

...

Haj Hassan, the Hezbollah legislator, outlined Hezbollah's terms for ending the fighting. ‘We want a ceasefire without conditions and then indirect negotiations that will lead to an exchange of prisoners. This is what we can accept. Anything else will be Israeli conditions that can never be accepted,’ he told al-Jazeera."

(Via Google News.)

Powerful Military Explosive Used in India

Powerful Military Explosive Used in India: "Investigators said Monday that RDX -- a military explosive favored by Islamic militants in India's part of Kashmir -- was used in the deadly attack on Bombay's rail system.

The announcement by a leading investigator was seen as further evidence of a link between Pakistan-based militants and the July 11 attack that killed 182 people and wounded more than 800.

'The explosive used was a mixture of ammonium nitrate, RDX and fuel oil,' said K.P. Raghuvanshi, leader of the anti-terrorist squad investigating the bombings.

Divided between India and Pakistan, predominantly Muslim Kashmir is at the heart of the two nations' rivalry, and the militants get at least a degree of support from Islamabad in their fight against New Delhi's rule over two-thirds of the Himalayan land.

No one has been arrested in the Bombay attacks, but investigators suspect Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Pakistan-based Muslim militant group blamed for a series of bombings in India. Lashkar is known for using RDX explosives."

(Via Salon.)

Israel vows no let-up on Lebanon

Israel vows no let-up on Lebanon: "Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the attacks on Lebanon will be kept up until two captured soldiers are freed.

He also insisted Hezbollah guerrillas had to be disarmed and the Lebanese army had to control southern Lebanon.

'We are not looking for war or direct conflict, but if necessary we will not be frightened by it,' he said.

Up to 200 Lebanese people have died in six days of Israeli bombardment. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, killing about 12 people."

(Via BBC News.)

Israel Takes a Stupid Pill

AlterNet: Israel Takes a Stupid Pill: "In the past, the United States had enough credibility on both sides and kept enough of a distance during these blood fueds so that we could intervene and prevent the fighting from escalating into a gigantic war. It appears that there is no one in the Bush Administration who can step up and intervene to calm the situation. Hell, with John Bolton and Elliot Abrams leading the charge, we are Israel's enablers.

Former Senator Fred Thompson played a U.S. Navy Admiral in The Hunt for Red October. While speaking about escalating tensions as the United States and the Soviet Union chased a renegade submarine, he said: 'This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.'

Those words are relevant today. Let's hope and pray they don't come to pass."

(Via AlterNet.)

Money Speaks Louder than Words

The Irrawaddy News Magazine Online Edition: "Investment speaks louder than people. While the Burmese are struggling to loosen the stranglehold the military dictatorship has on Burma, recent foreign investment in the country has been massive, and it is these funds that keep the regime in power.

Asean, the EU and a host of other countries have used diplomatic channels to ‘voice’ their ‘disapproval’ of the regime. Their collective tone has been soft. Meaningless statements like ‘distance ourselves,’ ‘meaningful engagement,’ ‘demonstrated progress’ and a ‘soft-approach’ hardening to ‘firmer’ have been nothing more than a smokescreen, while investment in Burma surged. Diplomatic posturing has achieved nothing in the 17 years since Aung San Suu Kyi was first arrested a year before winning the 1990 election. She is still under house arrest and tens of thousands of ethnic people are still being forced from their burning homes.

Most of the foreign investment is from corporations and countries eager to get their hands on Burma’s natural resources. China and India have signed deals and an energy alliance worth millions of dollars to siphon Burma’s oil and gas resources. "

(Via Irrepressible.info.)

Are [Indian] ISPs blocking blogs?

Are ISPs blocking blogs?: "Bloggers in India are getting together to protest against the sudden blocking of popular Google-owned blog-hosting site Blogger by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Spectranet, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Reliance Powersurfer, Airtel Broadband and Sify.

...

Under the Information Technology Act, 2000, a body called the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, was created along the lines of similar authorities the world over. Although its main task is in the domain of Internet security, it also oversees Internet censorship under a clause that seeks to ensure 'balanced flow of information.' Any government department seeking a block on any web site has to approach CERT-IN, which then instructs the DoT to block the site after confirming the authenticity of the complaint."

Notice the governing authority: it's a computer safety group. Not a 'morality' group or political group. There's always a new excuse.

(Via /.)

No easy options in Mid-East crisis

BBC NEWS | Middle East | No easy options in Mid-East crisis: "The risk of course is that the conflict will spread.

Israel is already laying down a barrage of blame on Syria and Iran, both backers of Hezbollah.

But will that become a barrage of fire as well, especially aimed at Syria? Iran is too far away.

Israel could undertake some kind of warning or punishment strike just to remind Syria which is the strongest power in the region - it has done that before - but it depends on how far it wants to take this.

In the meantime, diplomacy is bogged down.

The United States is reluctant to act and has lost influence in the Arab world over Iraq. It is giving Israel some time to accomplish some at least of its goals. There is no Henry Kissinger on the horizon."

(Via The Boston Globe.)

UN calls for Lebanon peace force

BBC NEWS | Middle East | UN calls for Lebanon peace force: "UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair have called for an international force to be sent to Lebanon to stop attacks on Israel.

Mr Blair said the force could 'stop the bombardment coming over into Israel and therefore gives Israel a reason to stop its attacks on Hezbollah'."

(Via BBC News.)

The Civil War in Iraq Has Begun

The Civil War in Iraq Has Begun: "My God, what have we done? What have we unleashed?

The answer, unfortunately, is all out civil war. There is no way we, or anybody else, is going to get this genie back in the bottle. Through our arrogance, carelessness and even malice, we started a sectarian battle between the different ethnicities of Iraq. And that battle has now blossomed into an absolute war.

If you're conservative or a Republican or just hopeful, you might think and wish I am wrong. But you can wish until your blue in the face and it isn't going to change facts on the ground. The bloodletting is in full effect and the results are horrific."

(Via AlterNet.)