HAVANA (AP) - President Fidel Castro called the U.S. airstrike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a "barbarity," saying he should have been put on trial. The United States acted as "judge and jury" against the leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq, Castro said late Friday. "They bragged, they were practically drunk with happiness."
I was pretty drunk with happiness myself.
"The accused cannot just be eliminated," he told a literacy conference. "This barbarity cannot be done."
"You have a show trial first and then shoot them, just like we did in '59."
Castro said if Cuba used the same logic, it could bomb the United States to kill its No. 1 enemy, Luis Posada Carriles, who is being held in El Paso, Texas on immigration charges.
Make .. our .. day.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2006 00:00 ||
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El Lider Maximo set up Che..he ought to know about barbarities...
#2
This Mr. Carriles, he too has made snuff films? And made the things to go boom? Maybe he no kill nobody and just want to come from free country? I dunno, but maybe it better you not blow him up.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
06/12/2006 1:38 Comments ||
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#8
Castro has with a 99.9% probability said: "barbaridad", which, at least in Spain does NOT translate as barbarity but as unusual, crazy (it has ome other meanings more admirative but because it is Castro I discard them).
It is not unheard of this being used for meaning barbarious but not usual. If Castro had meant "barbarious" he would not have used barbaridad, but salvajada or atrocidad.
A DULL boom shook the misty bamboo forests of Guangde county, 200km southwest of Shanghai, last Sunday week and a plume of smoke rose in the sky.
Within 24 hours, China admitted that a "military aircraft" had crashed, that President Hu Jintao had ordered an investigation and that state honours would be bestowed on the victims.
Security teams sealed off the area, carting away the charred remains of 40 people and collecting wreckage with painstaking care. It looked like a routine military accident.
In fact, the crash would reverberate through Washington and Tel Aviv, revealing details of a covert Chinese espionage effort to copy Israeli technology in an attempt to match the US in any future air and sea battle.
The first clues were given by two Chinese-controlled newspapers in Hong Kong, Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po. On Monday, they printed articles disclosing that the plane was a Chinese version of the formidable Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft flown by the US to manage air, sea and land battles.
They indicated it was a Russian Ilyushin cargo jet, rebuilt to house a conspicuous array of radars and codenamed KJ-2000. The doomed flight, they implied, had been a test mission.
The disaster robbed China of 35 of its best electronic warfare technicians, according to sources in Hong Kong. There were also five crew on board.
With memories fresh in Beijing that a Boeing 767 bought for the use of former president Jiang Zemin was found to be riddled with eavesdropping devices, there were suspicions of sabotage.
The Communist Party showed how seriously it took the crash by entrusting the inquiry to Guo Boxiong, vice-chairman of its central military commission, who handles sensitive security matters.
It was without question a calamity for the Chinese military. But for the Americans, who lost a spy plane forced down by a Chinese interceptor jet in 2000, it was not a cause for sincere mourning. The US Seventh Fleet is ranged off the Chinese coast, in constant contact with Chinese planes and submarines probing its readiness to defend the self-ruled democracy on Taiwan.
The US and Taiwan spend undisclosed billions trying to penetrate the secrecy surrounding China's military build-up.
Chinese spies in Taiwan are known to have scored remarkable successes. In one recent case reported by The Washington Post, they placed in their President's hands the proceedings of a secret standing committee meeting on Taiwan policy within days of its taking place.
American intelligence, by contrast, concentrates on a war fought with science and stealth to preserve its technological advantage. For as long as the Chinese have tried to buy, steal or copy high-grade military technology -- at least since the early 1990s -- the CIA and the White House have sought to frustrate them.
China relies on foreign know-how. British propellers from the Dowty company are fitted to its Y-8 early warning aircraft and radars made by Racal Electronics are installed on its naval surveillance planes. But the crown jewels of electronic warfare are made in the US, which means that China's hunger for secrets can be exploited by its foes.
Late in the Cold War, the CIA supplied faulty computer items to the Soviets, which resulted in death and destruction. So, suspicions of treachery in Beijing are bound to be reinforced by the tale of intrigue and deception that unfolded on examination of what led to the KJ-2000 crash.
Late last year, the local aviation authorities, which in China are controlled by the military, bought sophisticated Monopulse secondary surveillance radars from Telephonics Corp, a subsidiary of the Griffon Corporation, which supplies the US AWACS fleet.
The radars were due for delivery early this year. Their purpose was stated to be civil aviation, but critics in US Congress say the Chinese buy such items for "dual use" in military systems.
According to specifications published by the Federation of American Scientists, such radars can be closely integrated with an AWACS plane to enhance targets. There is now speculation among military attaches in the region that the KJ-2000 may have been testing an unproven capability of this nature when it crashed.
That should provide more than enough for Mr Guo and his bloodhounds from the military commission to get their teeth into.
Posted by: john ||
06/12/2006 19:45 ||
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The only survivor was reputed to be someone named 'Bauer'. This was quickly denied by the Chinese government.
#6
"ILYUSHIN" says it all. In any case, its one thing to copycat hi-tech in order to catch up wid a more advanced opponent/competitor, its quite another to be able to safely handle-operate said tech. Just ask the Soviets = Russians. * COLBERT REPORT > ITS CALLED A TV - WAVES OF SOUND AND IMAGE FLY MAGICLY AND MYSTERIOUSLY THROUGH THE AIR, AND CAUSE THE PEOPLE INSIDE THE TV TO TALK AND MOVE.
I attended our local city's annual Expo this weekend. Find a factory to make your goods, that sort of thing. I was wandering around the International section, when, to my surprise, there were North Korean booths, staffed by real live North Koreans. Kimmie pin over the left breast and everything. I tried to strike up a conversation, but the first guy didn't speak English. I then asked for a brochure in Japanese, and that got the desired effect. I scanned it in, and you can check it out here.
I tried my Japanese with a woman at a different booth. She immediately replied in excellent English. I got a book of importers/exporters from her, but it's merely a directory and not interesting like the other pamphlet was. She had this strange chiffony bouffant dress that make her look pregnant. I went for lunch, and told my friend about her, and he went back and started hitting on her. He got her card, and promised to email her. He sent a totally innocuous email, and got back a reponse from postmaster saying "Can not relay mail.Ask mail manager and try again." So, I suppose there's a whitelist of people that the North Koreans are allowed to communicate with. Anyway, just thought y'all might find this interesting.
#2
One of the companies at the show: ZHOUSHAN BAILEI HACKSAW KING(GROUP)CO.,LTD. LOL!
Great story Gromky. Was she worth hitting on? BTW, did the Norks look fed?
#3
That brochure looks like it is from 1959.
It also looks like they have their exhibitions in all the best places. Hope they get their hepatitis shots before they go.
#5
South Korea already has economic ties with the North although on a very quiet basis. I think it's Samsung that has factories up by NW border. Not sure if they make any money but if you want a REALLY cheap works force then North Korea is your place. I also hear rumors that OSHA and evironmental laws are of little concerns to the Norks. The big sales point would be the cheap labor force that will "work for food" but I am sure you will have to kick somthing up to Kimmie and the KWP.
#7
North Korea has these multi-lane roads while having very few cars (only officials of government and military). Very few normal people can afford a car.
One lane of all roads and highways was reserved for the sole use of the "great leader". Presumably his son, the "dear leader" uses them.
The buildings are huge, ugly stalinist monstrosities meant to show the power of the state.
Posted by: john ||
06/12/2006 19:22 Comments ||
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Check out the top illustration on page 5 of the pdf. Guy on the right with the straw hat. Looks like he is sleeping.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/12/2006 21:56 Comments ||
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Thanks for the post Gromky. Great story and fascinating brochure. I'll bet Lileks would get a kick out of it.
The BBC and AI gang up on someone other than us for a change.
The human rights organisation Amnesty International has accused China of being of the world's most secretive and irresponsible arms exporters. In a report, it says Chinese weapons have helped to fuel conflicts such as those in Sudan, Nepal and Burma. Amnesty is urging China to publish information on its arms exports.
The authorities in Beijing have long insisted that they have strict safeguards in place to prevent any unethical arms sales. Amnesty International challenges this idea in the report. "China describes its approach to arms export licensing as 'cautious and responsible', yet the reality couldn't be further from the truth," the author's report, Helen Hughes, said in a statement.
"China is the only major arms exporting power that has not signed up to any multilateral agreements with criteria to prevent arms exports likely to be used for serious human rights violations," she added.
The report alleges that Beijing shipped 200 Chinese military trucks to Sudan and supplying the ruling junta in Burma with weapons.
And Zimbabwe, don't forget Zimbabwe.
It also accuses China of selling rifles and grenades to the Nepalese security forces at a time when there was a mass uprising against the monarchy by civilians.
Selling guns to the army and to the Maoists, were they?
The report says China exports more than $1bn worth of weapons a year, often exchanging arms for raw materials needed to fuel its economy.
Amnesty urges China to change its current practices to be more transparent and to support the international initiative for an arms trade treaty. "We're calling for China to enact into law and uphold commitments ... banning all arms transfers where they are likely to be used for human rights violations," Ms Hughes said.
China has yet to respond to the report, but has long said it had a careful approach to weapons sales, only issuing licences after examining each application individually.
And then approving each one.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2006 00:16 ||
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Also remember that RUSSIA agreed to MILITARILY side wid China should any foreign nation - read, USA-NATO but espec USA - interferes in the internal or other affairs of China. T'is why the DemoLeft wanted Dubya to go after North Korea, becuz they knew it hopefully may spark a geopol, MilPol "incident" btwn USA-Commie Asia - you know, PEACE-LOVING PATRIOTISM.
#4
If China ever did stop selling arms to 'major human rights violators' they would be eliminating their main market sector. Hmmm, they would even have to stop producing arms for themselves ....
Monday's snow fall, described as the heaviest seen in low-lying areas, has left many rural communities still without power and water supplies.
With more than 60 centimetres of snow covering his farm, Fairlie Basin farmer, David Williams, was unable to reach his sheep and cattle on the hills.
Peter Chamberlain, who farms on the plain near Christchurch, says the snow fall there has been the biggest since 1945, but there are no immediate concerns for sheep and cattle.
#10
Yeah, and how long have white people been keeping records? Everyone seems to gloss over that weather records are about a hundred years old and European record keeping in that part of the world about the same length. How was it during the Little Ice Age, 1400-1800? We don't know.
Interesting article from Defense Industry Daily about a new class frigate the Norwegians have put into service. Norway has set itself the goal of becoming the 'best' Euro navy by 2010, and it's a good read to see how they plan to do it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2006 00:06 ||
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Go Norway. One of my friends here in China is a Norwegian boat builder, and his friend visited last year. The friend was a cadet almost ready to be a patrol boat captain...cool guy.
This crew will be composed of about 50 officers, 40 contracted personnel and 30 conscripted sailors.
Contractors as standard issue on a warship? Strange. And Norway still has conscription? That's a terrible way to get professional warriors.
#7
I'm sure it wouldn't take much to "upgrade" the AEGIS system to use the SM-3 anti-missile weapon system, adding missile defense to Norway's Nansen class vessels. The Norweigans have truly thought WAY ahead of their class in Eurabia.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/12/2006 13:59 Comments ||
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Hi OP; I thought the Nansen class could only carry eight SM2-MR missiles (much smaller than the SM-3 antimissile version) if you used the cells for that instead of carrying ESSM's.
Posted by: Phil ||
06/12/2006 16:19 Comments ||
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FEODOSIA, Ukraine - About 200 US reservists whose arrival in Crimea in southern Ukraine to prepare military manoeuvres aimed at strengthening ties between Kiev and NATO provoked anti-NATO protests will leave by Monday, Ukraines navy told AFP. Half of them are in the process of taking buses to Simferopol from where they will take a plane and return to their country, navy spokesman Volodymyr Bova said. The other half will follow tomorrow.
He said that the decision had been taken because the reservists contracts had expired and that it did not mean the cancellation of the upcoming military manoeuvres in Crimea. The holding of the exercises Sea Breeze 2006 will be decided by parliament, which will consider the matter on June 14, Bova said.
You don't want us there, fine, we don't need to be there. Just remember, as an old, celebrated political advertisement once noted, "there are bears in the woods."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Most medias say that the demonstrators were pro-Soviet/Russia activists and citizenry. One elderly woman argued that the Ukraine's econ is based on TOURISM ERGO US SOLDIERS, AND US DOLLARS, GO HOME!?
#2
Send in Manstein to retake Khar'kov! That will show them! OOPS! Wrong Army! Wrong War! Wrong Side!
_____Late nite borgboy punditry...as bad as it gets.
#5
Slavic nations are very susceptible to nationalist xenophobia. Were they angry with us, they would have said so, so I suspect that they realized this was a political maneuver by some faction, and it had traction.
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's former Orange Revolution allies have broken off talks to form a coalition government after becoming deadlocked over who would become parliamentary speaker, the president's party said. The negotiations dragged on for weeks after no party won enough seats to form a government in March parliamentary elections.
The party of opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, whose fraud-tainted election victory in 2004 crumbled in the Orange Revolution protests, has hailed the impasse as proof of its right to form part of the government. Tetyana Mokridi, a spokeswoman for President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, said Saturday that talks collapsed because of the Socialists' insistence on getting the parliamentary speaker's job. Talks had also stalled over Yushchenko's reluctant to cede the prime minister's post Yulia Tymoshenko, his former ally in the Orange Revolution that swept Yushchenko to the presidency.
Tymoshenko became prime minister after the revolution, but fell out with Yushchenko and was fired amid mutual accusations of corruption and incompetence. She bounced back in the March elections, winning more votes than her potential coalition partners combined.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2006 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale rocked Manshera district on early Sunday morning at 8:08 am, the Peshawar Meteorological Station said. The epicentre of the tremor was about 250 kilometres north east of Peshawar in the Hazara division. However, the earthquake was felt only in Manshera district, the meteorological office said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2006 00:20 ||
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KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Nepal's Parliament stripped King Gyanendra of his power to veto legislation, the latest step to curtail his authority and turn him into a figurehead.
The new law endorsed by legislators late Saturday scraps the king's right to reject bills and laws passed by Parliament, Speaker Subash Nemwang said Sunday. Lawmakers also will no longer need to seek the king's approval before signing a bill into law, he said. "This regulation has eliminated any and all authority the king had in Parliament. From now on the Parliament is independent to draft new laws and enforce them," Nemwang said.
It was the latest in a string of laws enacted by Parliament to dramatically cut Gyanendra's authority after weeks of protests against his dictatorial rule forced him to relinquish powers in April.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2006 00:00 ||
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BATH, Maine (AP) - Sailor, these are not your father's warships. The first of a new breed of Navy ship - faster and easier to maneuver - is expected to launch later this year to meet threats including modern-day pirates and terrorists who turn speedboats into suicide weapons.
The Littoral Combat Ship is powered by steerable waterjets, so it doesn't need propellers or rudders. It's designed to go more than 50 mph; traditional destroyers have had the same top speed - about 35 mph - since World War II. The LCS has a shallow draft and its waterjets let the ship zoom close to shore without getting stuck and to turn on a dime, allowing it to chase smaller boats. The name itself is taken from the coastal ``littoral'' waters in which the ship will operate.
The LCS will be more lightly armored than bigger ships, but its speed will give it a tactical advantage in combat, said Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton, program executive officer for ships, who's overseeing the project from Washington.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2006 00:00 ||
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I would like to see modular littoral craft that can be forward deployed and assembled in just a few hours, similar to Zumwalt's Pegasus class hydrofoils. They would be like Strykers, but for green water zones.
They were superb in their day for interdiction missions. Today, if assembled from composite materials as multi-purpose platform boats, they would be faster, with longer range, heavier mixed armaments, and the composite might even be better light armor.
One small boat could control a large air lane with SAMs, mount a small, high volume deck gun, have ribbon charges to clear coastal minefields, or run recce missions.
Teams of such craft could dominate a sea lane, blockade a port, raid coastal defenses, and police large numbers of civilian craft.
They would be a complement to other Navy ships, be very low cost, and most importantly be able to provide sheer numbers in a quantity, not quality, conflict.
#2
Anonymoose, take a look at
this: The U.S. Navy officially took possession of the first of a new class of ships; a Littoral Surface Craft (LSC) called Sea Fighter (FSF-1). This ship was originally intended as an experimental ship, to test out a number of new technologies. But the sea trials were so successful, that pressure is building to put this class into mass production. That wont be hard to do. Sea Fighter took only twenty months to build, and cost only $50 million. Ships like this are meant for a new force, the "brown water (coastal) navy." The brown water sailors, who are agitating for more emphasis on small ships, and operations in coastal waters, are no longer considered a fringe group. This is mainly because a larger brown water force would get the navy more involved with the war on terror. The navy has largely been left out of the war on terror, because of their emphasis on carriers and nuclear subs. Despite the usefulness of carrier aviation in Afghanistan, the navy hasnt had a lot to do since September 11, 2001. The army is getting most of the work, and a growing proportion of the defense budget. With the cost of traditional warships skyrocketing, the LCS (3,000 ton, $250 million Littoral Combat Ship) and the LSC look a lot more attractive. New destroyers will cost $2.5 billion each. That gets you ten LCSs, or fifty LSCs. New carriers cost over $8 billion each, which could built a fleet of brown water ships
More at
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/x-craft.htm
#4
Seems like the LCS is fairly modular with the different packages that are loaded. You wouldn't change packages from day to day, but you'd deploy a small flotilla of LCS with the right package(s) and let them work.
That plus the FSF-1 (thanks RWV, Rantburg U at its best) seem to be the way to handle the brown water issues, at least from this non-mil landlubber's PoV.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2006 12:44 Comments ||
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The U.S. Navy officially took possession of the first of a new class of ships; a Littoral Surface Craft (LSC) called Sea Fighter (FSF-1)
Here's the original class of Littoral Combat ships in the US inventory.
#6
Still too expensive. Optimally, I would hope the modular ships would be priced at about $20M a unit.
The Navy wants its ships to be all things to all people at all times. But just like the PT boats of WWII, there are times when you just need sheer numbers of boats in the water.
The fewer ships you have, total, the fewer places they can be. But if you need coverage, and badly, quality just gets in the way. Certainly you want them better than most of what the enemy has in their class, but you do not want irreplaceable ships.
The bottom line is that if you are planning for a conventional war, that you would really, truly prefer to not go nuclear, you need lots of conventional alternatives. You do not want to put all of your eggs in one bucket.
If necessary, you need to be able to engage in a war of naval attrition. Your sailors duking it out with their sailors, in a manner of speaking.
The other problem is that *if* something bad happens to our fantastically expensive, irreplaceable ships, it takes years to build another one. Years you do not have in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight.
I trust the US Navy to work wonders with quality; but they must also have quantity, or they might price themselves out of the market.
For $1B, to get 50 fast boats like the Pegasus class, it is well worth the deal.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
HAVANA (AP) - President Fidel Castro called the U.S. airstrike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a "barbarity," saying he should have been put on trial. The United States acted as "judge and jury" against the leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq, Castro said late Friday. "They bragged, they were practically drunk with happiness."
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Nepal's Parliament stripped King Gyanendra of his power to veto legislation, the latest step to curtail his authority and turn him into a figurehead.
