KABUL: Afghanistan's government on Monday angrily dismissed as baseless a media report that President Hamid Karzai had met face-to-face with an al Qaeda-linked Taliban leader in Kabul. Karzai's spokesman said the report on Al-Jazeera TV on Sunday was part of a conspiracy to undermine a government-initiated peace plan aimed at ending almost nine years of war.
Al-Jazeera said Karzai had met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, who heads the notorious al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, at his palace in the Afghan capital as a prelude to peace talks.
The report is totally baseless, it is a lie and there is no truth in it,' Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omar told reporters. He said the report was a source of some concern for us because we believe there is a connected chain of irresponsible rumours about the government of Afghanistan'.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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KABUL, Afghanistan The Afghan Parliament confirmed five nominees for cabinet posts Monday, leaving six slots vacant. This was the third effort by President Hamid Karzai to fill his 25-member cabinet.
Among those approved was a new interior minister, Gen. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, formerly the army chief of staff, who will take the job that had been held by Hanif Atmar. Mr. Atmar resigned in June along with the head of the intelligence service after Mr. Karzai criticized their failure to intercept militants who attacked a nationwide peace conference.
The choice of General Mohammadi to lead the powerful Interior Ministry puts an ethnic Tajik, a member of perhaps Afghanistan's most influential minority, in a critical post and provides the security ministries with some ethnic diversity. The defense minister is, like Mr. Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, as is the acting head of the intelligence service.
Among the nominees rejected by the Parliament were two Hazaras, members of another minority ethnic group. One had headed the secretariat of the Independent Electoral Commission, which was accused of participating in the fraud that tarnished last year's presidential elections.
Hazara members of Parliament angrily protested the rejections, rising from their seats and shouting at other lawmakers.
Mr. Karzai's spokesman, Waheed Omar, said that the president was concerned about the rejection of the two Hazara nominees and that he would do whatever he could to ensure they had a role in the government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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The leading candidate for governor of the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre Cantu, was gunned down Monday in one of the highest profile assassinations since a presidential candidate was murdered in 1994. Gunmen opened fire on Torre Cantu's campaign van days before the July 4 election in 14 states and one month after a mayoral candidate was killed in the same state.
The murders are the first time in recent memory that Mexico's drug cartels have allegedly targeted electoral candidates. (Presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio's death in 1994 was considered more politically motivated.)
"Today has proven that organized crime is a permanent threat and that we should close ranks to confront it and prevent it from repeating acts such as the cowardly assassination that shocked the country today," President Felipe Calderon said in a televised address.
Mr. Calderon added that the crime syndicates want "to interfere in the decisions of citizens and in electoral processes." He made the statements following a meeting with top Mexican security officials, adding that political parties should work together to bring the culprits to justice.
At least four others, including local Tamaulipas lawmaker Enrique Blackmore, were reportedly murdered along with Torre Cantu -- a 46-year-old doctor who had stepped down as federal Congressman of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to run for governor.
The timing of the assassination sends a message to candidates of all parties that they may be called upon to collaborate with the traffickers, or perish, as currently happens with law enforcement officials, say analysts.
"The cartels don't seek a failed state. Rather they want 'dual sovereignty' -- that is, to pay off public officials in return for their closing their eyes to criminality," says George W. Grayson, a Mexico counternarcotics expert and professor of government at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
Makes sense. That way the profits can be kept safely in bank accounts instead of under the bed, and wives and daughters can safely wear their jewelry while safely shopping for more, and the children needn't be heavily guarded against kidnapping on the way to and from school.
The murder comes as the Zeta and Gulf cartels battle for territory in Tamaulipas. While the PRI in Tamaulipas had enjoyed relative calm during the Gulf cartel reign, bloodshed has escalated with the rise of the Zetas, says Grayson, concluding that the Zetas likely killed Torre Cantu to prove they are the most "savage" crime organization in town.
The assassination will likely hurt voter turnout by generating fear in the July 4 race, during which 12 governorships and municipal posts in 14 states will be decided, says Aldo Muñoz, a political scientist at Mexico State's Autonomous University.
The May 13 murder of Jose Mario Guajardo, a candidate for mayor of Valle Hermoso in Tamaulipas, near the border with Brownsville, Texas, reportedly scared off other would-be candidates in the state.
Candidates will be affected more severely by this latest killing -- increasing security or refusing to run -- as they recognize that "whoever wants to be governor or mayor of an influential territory may have to negotiate with organized crime or risk losing their lives," Muñoz says.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The cartel is morphing into a power center to counter the despised and corrupt government. Same game Pancho Villa played a hundred years ago. From bandito to revolutionary against the then corrupt government of Mexico City. Its an easy step to targeting terrorists politicians in the American model from Afghanistan. They just use peons rather than drones.
#2
IIRC, Villa was an American-backed revolutionary who morphed into an anti-American bandit king after his bid for Mexico City collapsed.
Not that there's a hell of a lot of difference between bandit and revolutionary in your average failed state. Look at Mao before the Long March, or Savimbi in Angola.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/29/2010 13:54 Comments ||
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SEOUL, June 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Tuesday it would attack "the stronghold of invaders" if the United States provoked a war in the process of a joint naval drill with South Korea, as tension persists on the Korean Peninsula over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.
South Korea and the United States are planning joint naval exercises following Seoul's ongoing efforts to punish North Korea for the sinking through the U.N. Security Council.
The Minju Chosun, the North's Cabinet newspaper, said in an editorial released through the official Korean Central News Agency that a joint South Korean-U.S. drill runs the risk of war.
"It is a clear fact that even a small accidental event during the joint drill can lead to an armed conflict and a full-scale war," the paper said. "We will bring about a complete victory by uprooting the stronghold of invaders as well as dealing with them with merciless penalties" if the U.S. provokes another war on the peninsula, it said.
It did not say what the "stronghold" referred to, but the North has threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire" in the past.
Past massive South Korean-U.S. drills have almost always prompted the North's 1.2 million troops to be on alert and are believed to heavily drain the impoverished communist country of its resources.
We should hold drills every month then ...
Last week, China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Beijing was "very concerned" about the planned drills.
Even better, a two-fer ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
North Korea warned Tuesday it would attack "the stronghold of invaders"
Hmmm you mean the USA?
Go ahead and commit suicide, attacking the USA IS suicide, no looking the other way if one of OUR ships gets torpedod, YOU DIE, to the last soul.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2010 2:06 Comments ||
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#2
ION WMF > WHOMEVER SANK THE "CHEONAN" OR MADE FIRST VIOLATIONS IS NOT IMPORTANT TO CHINA VERSUS A LT US-NATO MILITARY PRESENCE IN NORTH KOREA IFF THE LATTER LOSES IN WAR. A US-WESTERN DOMINATED INTEGRATED OR UNIFIED KOREA IS ALSO A THREAT TO CHINA.
ME > IOW, the NOKOR's realistic "manifest destiny" as agz China is to be SLAVE-OR-DIE, i.e. iff THE US-ALLIED DOESN'T DESTROY NORTH KOREA IN WAR, CHINA PER SE WILL DESTROY NORTH KOREA FOR CHINA.
Both Kimmie + SEOUL are walking an UNENVIABLE, GEOPOL-DANGEROUS IDEO, NATIONAL, REGIONAL + GLOBAL, TIGHTROPE.
* SAME > "MY NEWS" INDIAN MEDIA: INDIA EXPERTS BELIEVE CHINA'S CHANGE IN ITS STRATEGIC DOCTRINE FROM "COASTAL/OFFSHORE DEFENSE" TO "FAR SEAS" OCEANS-GOING DEFENSE + FORCE PROJECTION WILL STILL NOT TRANSFORM CHINA INTO A TRUE GLOBAL MARITIME OR NAVAL MILITARY POWER.
* SAME > BOOK BY WORLD-RENOWNED JOURNALIST WILFRED FLEISHER CLAIMS THAT POTUS FDR AT THE "CAIRO CONFERENCE" OFFERED TO GIVE CHINA THE OKINAWA/RYUKYU ISLANDS, TAIWAN [Formosa], MANCHUKO + PESCADORES AFTER JAPAN + AXIS SURRENDER. PHILIPPINES + THAILAND TO BECOME INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES. REJECTION OF OFFER [twice] + RETURN OF HONG KONG BY THE "GREAT TRAITOR" CHIANG KAI-SHEK.
* SAME > Chiang Kai-shek also repor turned down the unilater US turnover of OKINAWA = RYUKYUS to China in favor of an INITIAL SINO-US JOINT MIL OCCUPATION OF JAPAN, later to be SAME but now under SINO-US LED INTERNATIONAL UMBRELLA ORG [read, UNO].
Pragmatically, IMO Kai-shek may have had no other choice as WW2 + JAPAN'S WAR ON CHINA all but destroyed his pre-War successful campaign agz MAO ZEDONG. The POST-WAR SOVIET THREAT AGZ EUROPE = RISE OF THE US-SOVIET COLD WAR caused the "Bring-the-Boyz-Home", demobilization-happy US Govt-DOD to prioritize the LT anti-Soviet security of war-damaged Europe at the expence of KMT China. IMO KAI-SHEK THOUGHT OR PLANNED FOR THE DISTANT FUTURE, FOR THE ASIA, WORLD AFTER THE SOVIET THREAT + COLD WAR HAD SUBSIDED.
The rise of the US vs. USSR cold war caused the US to be a less than present & reliable security partner in the eyes of south Asian countries. Now China is on the rise and, although it cannot yet project the full reach of power it desires via naval capability, China is increasingly a threat to those countries. (Consider its missile capabilities, for instance, and its habit of nuclear proliferation.)
North Korea's in an untenable position and knows it but is playing for as much time/space as it can get.
#7
DAILY TIMES.PK > NORTH KOREA WARNS ACCIDENT [mil clash] DURING EXERCISE [US-ROK] COULD START WAR.
versus
* WMF > DIRECTOR OF JAPAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE: USDOD PLANS TO CUT US$1.0TRILYUHN IN SPENDING BY 2015, LEAVING THE US WITH LITTLE TO NO CAPACITY TO RELIABLY ASSIST OR DEFEND ITS ALLIES AGZ ENEMIES. JAPAN + US ALLIES MUST RELY ON THEMSELVES FOR THEIR OWN NATIONAL, GEOPOL SECURITY.
* SAME > CHINA'S "HOMELAND DEFENSE" MIL STRATEGY IS WORLD'S NO. ONE OR BEST "DEFENSIVE" STRATEGY WHILE THE US IS THE WORLD'S BEST AT "OFFENSIVE" STRATEGY.
Thus once again I say - All together Boyz, wid feeling, SINK THE TIRPITZ, SINK THE TIRPITZ ["Bismarck" Theme = X-CRAFT].... + THE GORGE-BUSTERS!
NO? "333 SUBMARINE SPECIAL SQUADRON", brought to youse in Year 2010 = 1960's-70's GUAM TAOTAMONAS + SecDef Gates, the USDOD, + the USN's ALL-FEMALE SUB FLEET-COMMAND???
D *** NG IT, NOT starring SHARON STONE [heresy, heresy I say].
* SAME > "CENTRAL SUNDAY" SOUTH KOREAN MAGAZINE: US MILBASE ON GUAM ISLAND CAN DETECT THE LR UNDERWATER NOISE OF CHIN "TYPE 094" [JIN-class FBM] + OTHER PLAN SUBMARINE CLASSES OPERATING OFF CHINA'S COASTLINESS + LITTORAL/ADJACENT WATERS.
* SAME > CHINA'S RATES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH/ MODERNIZATIONS INDICATES IT CAN EASILY PRODUCE THREE OR MORE "VARYAG"-STYLE OR SLIGHTLY LARGER AIRCRAFT CARRIERS BY 2020.
North Korea's sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March was part of its process of establishing the succession of leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un, CIA Director Leon Panetta told ABC on Sunday. The attack was apparently intended to establish Kim Junior's credibility, he said.
Leon doesn't really know that, but no one else has a better idea of why the Norks sank the corvette other than that the Norks are bat-shit crazy ...
"Our intelligence shows that at the present time there is a process of succession going on. I think that could have been part of it, in order to establish credibility for his son," he said.
"That's what went on when [Kim Jong-il] took power. His son is very young. His son is very untested."
Even if it isn't true it could be an interesting card to start repeating this, just to see what certain generals in Nork-land do ...
Panetta said Jong-un "does not have the kind of credibility with the military, because nobody really knows what he's going to be like." "I think... part of the provocations that are going on, part of the skirmishes that are going on are in part related to trying to establish credibility for the son," he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Uh, no. It was in retaliation for SK winning previous naval battles. NK felt humiliated in the eyes of the world and had to restore face.
#3
i remember a couple incidents where SK sunk or badly damaged a nork ship about 6 months or so prior to cheonan was attacked. was here on the burg
Posted by: abu do you love ||
06/29/2010 1:47 Comments ||
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#4
I fail to see how the sinking gives Jong-Un "credibility", it's not like he sank it or ordered it. But given that the Norks are indeed bat-shit crazy, as Doc put it, who knows?
#5
Keep in mind that this is for internal use among the NorK power structure. The order was likely issued with Jong-un's signature. Doesn't mean he read it, or signed it personally.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir apparent Kim Jong-un was elected as a deputy to the 12th Supreme People's Assembly in March last year, a North Korean source in a Western country said on Monday. He has not so far been known to have been given any official post as the regime maneuvers him into position to succeed his father.
The source quoted a North Korean official as saying that Kim Jong-un was nominally elected from Constituency No. 216. At the time, his name was not on the list of new deputies because the North tried to conceal his election, the source added.
In March last year, defectors organizations said it seemed Jong-un was elected from this electoral district given that Kim Jong-il's birthday is Feb. 16 and that the published name of the deputy-elect from the district was "Kim Jong." This pointed to Jong-un since the name of Kim senior's eldest son Jong-nam was not on the list of deputies last year although it had been on similar lists in 1998 and 2003.
Since March last year, the regime has reshuffled personnel at the top policy-making body, the National Defense Commission, at three SPA sessions, and has also conducted a large-scale reshuffle of the Cabinet.
A South Korean security official said a massive restructuring of the North Korean Workers Party is expected to take place under Kim Jong-un's leadership if he is officially given a party post at an extraordinary party congress in September.
The 3 million party members are a key asset on his road to power. "No North Korean media stories hinted at the succession until November 2008," when Kim Jong-il partially recovered from a stroke. "But around summer last year, North Korean elementary schools were teaching children the official propaganda song for the heir apparent," the source said.
The source said the North is effectively under a collective leadership, and the "military-first" ideology shows that it no longer is a one-man dictatorship. "After Kim Jong-il's death, there will emerge a collective military leadership, which will probably put up Kim Jong-un as a figurehead," the source added.
The source said some kind of deal seems to have been done in late 2008 whereby hardliners accepted the heir Kim Jong-il in return for Kim's agreement to ratcheting up political tensions on the peninsula. "Kim Jong-il's status will continue to weaken until he dies," according to the source.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Wait a minute, I recognize that guy...
http://www.redbankorbit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tillie-493x306.jpg
The Obama administration said Monday that the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea was not terrorism, and not enough by itself to put Pyongyang back on a U.S. terror blacklist.
Quite true. Sinking a warship is an act of war, terrorism would be shooting up the passengers on a holiday ferry.
The State Department said the March sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonan by a reported torpedo from a North Korean submarine was a "provocative action" and a violation of the truce that ended the Korean war.
Truces don't end wars, they temporarily stop the fighting.
But it added that the sinking was the act of one state's military against another and not an act of terrorism. Thus, it is not grounds to put North Korea back on the U.S. "state sponsors of terrorism" list as some in South Korea had wanted, spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
How about the list of "states that war on their neighbors for no acceptable reason"?
The North had been on the terror list but was removed in 2008 amid progress in the now-stalled effort to get it to abandon nuclear weapons.
On the other hand, the presence of North Korean scientists and technicians doing start-up work at the Syrian nuclear site destroyed by the Israelis a few years ago is definitely reason to put North Korea back on the list, however belatedly.
The sinking "was a provocative action but one taken by the military of a state against the military of another state," Crowley told reporters. "That in our view does not constitute and act of international terrorism."
However, he stressed that the administration was continually reviewing North Korean behavior to determine if other factors would lead to its redesignation as a state sponsor of terrorism. "We will not hesitate to take action if we have information that North Korea has repeatedly provided support for acts of terrorism," Crowley said.
An international investigation concluded last month that North Korea torpedoed the vessel near the tense Korean sea border, killing 46 South Korean sailors. North Korea flatly denies the allegation and has warned any punishment would trigger war.
Earlier Monday, North Korea threatened to bolster its nuclear capability in a new -- though unspecified -- way to cope with what it says is a hostile U.S. policy and military threats amid tensions over the sinking.
#1
Uh, uh, D*** NG IT, CLEARLY ITS A DE FACTO OF WAR BY A SOVEREIGN STATE AGZ ANOTHER WHICH THE US UNFORTUNATELY CAN'T ACT UPON BECUZ ITS NOT DEFINED AS "TERROR" HENCE NOT THE US TERROR BLACKLIST???
#3
NO, It's an act of WAR, and the "Armistice" Just ended.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2010 2:09 Comments ||
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#4
"We will not hesitate to take action if we have information that North Korea has repeatedly provided support for acts of terrorism,(unless we can find a way to weasel out of doing so)"
Fixed it.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
06/29/2010 2:11 Comments ||
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#5
Ummm, Abu, A slight correction.
"Unless Obama finds a way to apologise for it."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/29/2010 2:15 Comments ||
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Development of SOUVIM 2, a mine path clearing system designed and manufactured by MBDA since 2008, has just been completed. Two units of this land vehicle set will be delivered very shortly to the DGA, the French armament procurement agency and will undergo final qualification testing before delivery to the French Army.
In line with the DGA's aim, the French Army will be ready to deploy this system on foreign theatres in 2010.
SOUVIM 2 was designed for use in mobility support missions, allowing quick clearing of mined paths over long distances behind the lines: over 100 km of track cleared daily, with extensive counter-mining capabilities. The SOUVIM 2's performance is currently unequalled.
The system relies on the combined action of two vehicles towing mine-activation trailers. The first vehicle is designed to roll over a pressure mine without activating it.
It tows a first "mine-triggering trailer" (RDM) whose weight will trigger pressure-sensitive mines and thereby secure the second vehicle's progress. This latter vehicle tows two further RDMs whose different wheel bases help cover the whole width of the track to be cleared.
Turkey has banned an Israeli military flight from its airspace in apparent retaliation for Israel's interception of the Free Gaza flotilla last month, in which nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed. Officials in Ankara confirmed today that Israeli military aircraft would be permitted to enter Turkish airspace only on a "case by case" basis. There was no suggestion that civilian flights would be affected.
Israeli media reported that Turkey had not allowed a plane transporting military personnel to a tour of Holocaust memorial sites in Poland to cross its airspace. The aircraft, with more than 100 people on board, was forced to make a detour. Israel has not commented on the issue.
The move represents a further escalation of the crisis between the countries. Secular but Muslim Turkey, a Nato member, was Israel's most significant Middle Eastern ally, but the relationship has been battered by Israel's recent wars against Hezbollah and Hamas and by an eastward shift in Turkish foreign policy.
Tensions worsened last month over the Gaza incident, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, demanding an apology from Israel. The foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, compared the incident to the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Turkey is also insisting on an international inquiry, compensation for the nine victims -- eight Turks and a dual US-Turkish citizen -- and a lifting of the blockade of Gaza.
Israel has resisted calls for an international inquiry and has set up its own investigative commission, which includes two foreign observers. It held its first session today.
Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Israel and scrapped several joint military exercises. Israel's Ynet news website reported that other military flights had also been quietly cancelled. "Turkey is continuing to downgrade its relations with Israel," an unnamed official told Ynet. "This is a long-term process and not something that began just after the flotilla incident. We are very concerned."
Despite strained relations, a Turkish security delegation has visited Israel in the past month to examine remote-piloted vehicles purchased from Israel Aerospace Industries.
Give 'em their money back. Israel can afford it, goodness knows, and how are they to trust the Hamas-loving Turkish government not to use them inappropriately?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Pentagon officials said Monday that they plan to try to cut as much as $100 billion over the next five years out of the billions of dollars spent annually in buying weapons systems and other services from outside contractors.
The Pentagon spends about $700 billion a year on defense -- $300 billion of which goes toward salaries and benefits for military and civilian employees. The rest is for weapons, including airplanes and ships, and for service contracts to keep computers running and facilities maintained.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he wants contracts scrutinized more closely for inefficiencies and unneeded overhead starting in fiscal 2012. He said the savings could be shifted to support U.S. troops around the globe. Pentagon officials said they're looking for annual savings in the $400 billion spent on goods and services.
Gates said the effort is part of his plans in "reforming the way the Pentagon does business." He said he has asked Pentagon officials over the past month to "take a hard, unsparing look at how the department is staffed, organized and operated. . . . As a matter of principle and political reality we must do everything possible to make every taxpayer dollar count," he said.
Every secretary of war defense has been saying that since the founding of the republic ...
Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, met with major defense contracting executives Monday to discuss the new proposals.
Over the past few decades, the number of government employees overseeing contracting has shrunk as defense budgets have rapidly grown. That led to little oversight on the costs of weapons systems, industry experts say. The Obama administration has pushed for hiring more contracting experts to help improve the acquisition process.
Gates dropped plans for a new long-range bomber and fired the head of the F-35 fighter jet program after the costs skyrocketed.
"The savings we are seeking will not be found overnight," Carter said. "It has taken years for excessive costs and unproductive overhead to creep into our business processes, and it will take years to work them out."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
they could quit giving/selling our fighter plane technoloby to our enemies.
#4
My beef is and always has been with the idiots at the top buying office furniture, desks, new bathrooms, carpet, paintings, and all that BS when we have no batteries for NVG, training ammo, or proper basic load.
I have been at issue for inappropriate funds since they sent my nice wooden desk away. Given it had a drawer full of cigarette butts nailed shut, I may have survived with the big heavy metal desk.
My men suffered from those cuts - ON THE LINE.
The A-holes spent in the chain as if they were living on campus with daddy's money.
I resorted to stealing toilet paper from the COL's bathroom that he spent $120,000 on refurbishing. If my troops can't have it, nobody can.
The money filters down folks, and the idiots on the top of the chain do have no idea how they ruin the line with their largess.
This is one reason why you have a bitter Sergeant out here unemployed. I used to run budgets, ufers, and projections.
Never again shall I give the "superiors" the ability to fraud troopies out of basics for pictures and carpets.
#7
The problem is the procurement and finance LAWS established by Congress that codes monies for expenditures and prohibits movement from one area to another. You can trash the officer corps and administrators all day long, but if they so much as try to transfer a farthing without all the proper papers signed and staffed through every mother-may-I bureaucrat, they go to jail or get cashiered [unlike Congresscritters who get their buddies on the Ethics Committee to waive their constant Hollyweird bookkeeping]. Those laws require processes that give the taxpayer those 100 dollar hammers because you can not go down to Sears or Walmart and pick one up. Those laws dictate you must buy from a local who only will carry the big fancy wooden desk rather than a direct order through Amazon. If you have a problem with those processes, make sure you have the right target - Congress. They're good on the show for evening TV playing these blame games, but somehow get the SCM [State Controlled Media formerly known as MSM] to cover their sorry rears about the real rules of engagement for procurement.
#8
Yup. Toilet paper = Operations & Maintenance money. Bathroom = capital / facilities money.
If the service is the Army, the latter falls under the Installation Management command, which was formed to keep installation commanders from diverting money for troop housing etc. into other uses.
As P2K says, the budget process up through Congressional approval is organized by 'colors of money'. That is Congress' only means to set defense spending priorities, which is their constitutional responsibility. But it does lead to an unwieldy process. And it can be misleading to observers, because different colors of money are allocated for different periods of time.
For instance, O&M money is allocated on a year by year basis. But facilities work is allocated on a 5 year basis IIRC and ship building money goes for decades.
newc, chances are that that bathroom upgrade was approved 5 years prior, took a year to get into the POM budget plan and another year for the budget to be approved. Then the RFPs for the work were put out, a contractor selected etc. And only then did you see it being executed. Meanwhile your troops' TP must be bought out of current O&M monies. So the colonel might not be responsible for that inequity.
#9
That bathroom was paid for through operational funds. I do not even think DPW was aware of the refurbishment.
He was a good COL, but the push for furniture when we had equipment rotting on the line was a total Charlie Foxtrot. I was running the 4 shop back then.
#10
One major problem is that Congress spends so much money the military doesn't ask for. We keep buying things nobody wants, keep bases open long after they've outlived their purpose (although BRAC is changing that, it hasn't been completely successful), and build buildings no one needs or will use. "Operational" money also has a major problem as changes in mission may require additional money, or that money be spent in a way not previously approved. That results in incredible delays and cost overruns. Been in that situation, and know from first-hand experience.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/29/2010 15:17 Comments ||
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#11
Yes, the appropriations process is a pork filled jamboree set up for the murthas in congress. I had to field their junk numerous times. It never came in right and was always missing parts but with optempo, we rarely had time to file all of the report of discrepancies to get those parts from the issuing company.
OP is correct. Soldiers can pick equipment they need far better than the lazy congressmen but no joy. Many times we would have a table of allowance change that would require the local Commanders to purchase out of operating budget some force fed junk we did not need. That also hurt us.
#13
Well lotp, at least I had the trust and confidence of my command then. I always worked two levels up and was given demanding jobs. Proud to say I got to take care of lots of Commanders, First Sergeants and troops while in that position.
I was a liberal - as far as charging people for equipment. I made them purchase some off post and sometimes contacted friends that had extras to cover some kid that had three kids and a tiny paycheck. I usually could find what was missing with a Commander and a pair of bolt cutters. Nothing really gets lost, just misplaced.
There is a difference between needless spending and keeping what you need to work with.
#14
$20B is just the first drop. Candidate Obama advocated a 30-40% reduction in military spending to divert to the dependent class. He and his Marxist gang can still do a lot of damage in the 2.5 years they have left.
Posted by: ed ||
06/29/2010 23:18 Comments ||
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#15
$20B/year
Posted by: ed ||
06/29/2010 23:18 Comments ||
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#16
newc, thank you for keeping things running as they ought. You and those like you are one of the treasures America produces.
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday urged the US for early transfer of drone technology to Pakistan for its effective use by security forces to curb militancy.
I'll just bet he wants the drones, so that the ISI can figure out how to stop them ...
Or how to use them against Indian troops across the Kashmiri border...
The president said that the strategic dialogue process and the frequent interactions between US and Pakistani leadership had replaced the trust deficit between the two countries with a "new sense of partnership" and set their bilateral relations in a positive direction. Matters relating to Pak-US bilateral relations, including defence cooperation, Pakistan's fight against extremism and security situation in the region, came under discussion during the meeting.
The president said that inclusion of defence dialogue in the ambit of the strategic dialogue framework was also a step in the right direction.
The president thanked the US government for the delivery of F-16 aircrafts, which have been used extensively in counter-terrorism operations. Zardari urged the US to upgrade the existing F-16s and said that defence collaboration between the two countries must remain strong.
"This technology will not only eliminate PAF's existing limitations of precision night operations, but also enable the PAF to meet its mission objectives more effectively," the president said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Why don't they invent their own?
This "we demand shit" has to stop.
#2
I suspect the Pakis are more interesting in the Indians than terrorism.
As for the Why don't they invent their own?, has there been *anything* invented in the Islamic world in the last century or two? And no, connecting a wireless doorbell to some dynamite doesn't count.
Los Angeles Times - After two years, Mahdi Army men are being seen again in Baghdad neighborhoods. Officials fear the group could take advantage of Iraq's festering political crisis and U.S. troop withdrawals.
Mohammad and his gang are back. There may not be a Glock semiautomatic strapped to his waist anymore, but the terrifying mystique of the Mahdi Army still shrouds the Shiite Muslim militiaman like the menacing black uniform he once wore.
Civil servant Haidar Naji remembers how Mohammad used to strut around his east Baghdad neighborhood like a mob boss, ordering him not to wear Bermuda shorts, too immodest and Western for his Islamic tastes. He felt satisfaction in 2008 when he heard Mohammad, whose last name he never knew, and his friends had been rounded up and imprisoned, a well-deserved comeuppance after the militia's years of kidnapping, torturing and killing Iraqis, and dread this year when he saw them back on the streets, a little more polite, but with the same righteous attitude.
Continued on Page 49
#2
hope he got a new grill. Those teefs must be festering stubs by now
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2010 18:44 Comments ||
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#3
The US withdrew milfors from Iraq for AFPAK, + once more will begin its phased milfor withdrawal from Afghanistan = AFPAK for CONUS, etc. starting in 2011.
#4
Just send the Kurdish division back into the area again : of course, they will need a LOT of body bags when the Peshmerga get done with the Tater Tots.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Meeting between the head of the Al-Iraqiya Alliance, Ayad Allawi, and the Head of the Dawlat al-Qanoon Alliance, Nouri al-Maliki, is a pressure card on the National Alliance (NA), said an NA's member.
Dawlat al-Qanoon should not have side meetings alone,' Qassim al-Aaraji told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Monday. He noted that the meeting is a pressure card of the Dawlat al-Qanoon Alliance on other NA's members, to accept the nomination of Nouri al-Maliki to hold the position of Iraq's prime minister.
The Sadr Movement, an important NA's component, does not want Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in office for a second term because he runs the state within a security mentality, and does not trust him because he did not fulfill his commitments to eliminate corruption, the movement's official spokesperson said yesterday.
Iraq needs a government that relies on mutual trust between all sides,' Sheikh Salah al-Obaidee told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
He noted that the Sadr Movement seeks consensus among political blocs to form Iraq's new government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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The Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Army soldiers of the 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, successfully conducted an intercept test for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense element of the nation's Ballistic Missile Defense System today. A target missile was launched at approximately 9:32 p.m. Hawaii time, June 28 (3:32 a.m. EDT, June 29), and about five minutes later a THAAD interceptor missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) off the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Preliminary indications are that planned flight test objectives were achieved.
The test involved the intercept of a short-range unitary target in the endoatmosphere (inside the earth's atmosphere). The target, representing a short-range ballistic missile threat, was launched from an at-sea mobile launch platform located in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii. Upon acquiring and tracking the target, the THAAD system developed a fire control solution and launched an interceptor missile, which acquired and successfully intercepted the target missile....
This was the seventh successful intercept in seven attempts for the operationally-configured THAAD system. Operational elements of the Ballistic Missile Defense System are currently deployed, protecting the nation, our allies and friends against limited ballistic missile attack. The system continues to undergo development and testing to provide a robust layered defense against ballistic missiles of all ranges in all phases of flight....
Posted by: Mike ||
06/29/2010 08:02 ||
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#3
ION HAAVII RENSE > HUGE HOMELESS TENT CITY IN HONOLULU [Hawaii]. Comprises roughly 50-acres + is loc next door to PHNB = Pearl Harbor Naval Base. SEEN ON TV ALA LOCAL EPISODES OF "DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER" TV Show.
FYI my older Brother met + knew "DOG" when Dog was a young Pup back in the 1970's.
An 11-million-dollar airship recently purchased by the Royal Thai Army has been grounded for the past month because of leaks, news reports said Tuesday.
The US-made Aeros 40D aircraft, which was delivered in May, has been sitting in a hangar because of several ruptures in the stitching on the aircraft's body that could not be repaired with glue, the Bangkok Post reported. "It's been left deflated in a hangar," an unnamed army source told the English-language daily.
The army purchased the helium-filled aircraft to conduct surveillance in Thailand's three troubled southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where a separatist struggle has claimed 4,000 lives over the past six years. The local press criticized the purchase because the aircraft, if it should ever fly, could be easily damaged by ground fire.
The military has gone on a buying spree since its last coup in 2006 when it ousted the populist but corrupt former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The military budget jumped 60 per cent in 2007 and 18 per cent each in 2008 and 2009. Several investments have been questionable.
The military faced a scandal this year when recently purchased British-made detectors were proven ineffective, having failed to detect explosives 16 times out of 20 in tests. The military has ordered about 1,000 of the GT-200 devices over the past four years for bomb detection, primarily in the three southern provinces. The military came under pressure to test the GT-200 after a similar bomb detector made by the same company was criticized for its ineffectiveness.
Iran's foreign ministry dismissed as "psychological warfare" an assessment by the CIA that the Islamic republic already has enough uranium to make two nuclear weapons. Ramin Mehmanparast, the ministry spokesman, called the comments by Leon Panetta, the CIA chief, "propaganda" intended to allow the US to avoid nuclear disarmament. "What Iran is pursuing is only in the framework of the rights that its membership of the International Atomic Energy Agency entitles it to," Mehmanparast said. "The real concern is disarmament and non-proliferation."
Panetta said on ABC TV's This Week on Sunday that Iran has amassed enough low-enriched uranium to produce two nuclear weapons within two years. Earlier this month there was a similar assessment from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Iran is to postpone nuclear talks with the west as a "punishment" for the imposition of new UN sanctions that are designed to it stop enriching uranium, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.
Negotiations would be put off until after Ramadan in late August, he said, though no talks have in fact been scheduled. "It's a punishment to teach them a lesson to know how to have a dialogue with nations," he told reporters in Tehran. Ahmadinejad also repeated that Iran would retaliate if attempts were made to inspect its ships, as sanctions permit.
Earlier, the Iranian leader had complained of a hidden agenda. "The western and US sanctions and threats are not only aimed at putting the brakes on Iran's progress in nuclear technology, but come to keep Iran from becoming an economic and industrial power," he told a crowd in Natanz in Isfahan province.
On 9 June the council approved a fourth set of sanctions on Iran, while the US Congress last week approved new bilateral measures, as did the EU.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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See also ISRAEL NN > IRAN IS SURROUNDED BY US TROOPS IN TEN COUNTRIES | THE US RING AROUND IRAN.
* SAME > [US GOP'er Sue Myrick] US CONGRESSWOMAN FEARS HIZBULLAH "ISRAEL-LIKE" BOMBINGS IN US. Hizbul cooper wid the Drug Cartels, + many US drug prisoners allegedly are now sporting personal tattoos in FARSI = PERSO-IRANIAN TEXTS/LANGUAGE, not Arab???
Tehran, June 28 - Pro-democracy activists in Tehran have written graffiti, urging people to stage protests to mark the anniversary of the 9 July 1999 student-led uprising.
In Javadieh and Tehran Pars districts, as well as in Naqdi, Jashnvareh, Abdollahi, Park-e Shahrak, Sajjadieh and Hashemi streets, there were political slogans on the walls, including "Death to Khamenei" (Iran's Supreme Leader) and "9 July is on the way".
9 July marks the 11th anniversary of the start of a student-led uprising across Iran which broke out after members of the hard-line Bassij militia and Ansar-e Hezbollah, a paramilitary force that acts as the clerical regime's storm troopers, raided a dormitory in Tehran University and attacked the students there. One student was killed when he was thrown out of the window in the raid on the university dorm. The ensuing nationwide protests that erupted came as a shock to Iran's clerical leaders and lasted for over a week.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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PARIS (AFP) French oil group Total has stopped selling petrol to Iran, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday. The company has stopped sales only days before US President Barack Obama signs a law for sanctions to hit Iran's dependence on imported petrol, the report noted.
In taking the decision, Total was following action by BP, Royal Dutch Shell and all the major global oil traders, it said.
The unilateral action by the United States, approved by US lawmakers last week, will penalise international groups which help Iran obtain refined products, and also targets banks which do business with black-listed Iranian entities.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Almost on time for Iran's new refineries to come on line and not need the imports anyway. We are such dolts. It is like boycotting the delivery of ice to eskimos. Iran will be a gasoline exporter this time next year if all 5 new refineries are on line by then.
#2
Maybe Iran will run its refineries more safely than BP - but probably not. Who wants in the pool for date of the first catastrophic refinery explosion (accidental or on purpose?)
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.
SEOUL, June 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Tuesday it would attack "the stronghold of invaders" if the United States provoked a war in the process of a joint naval drill with South Korea, as tension persists on the Korean Peninsula over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir apparent Kim Jong-un was elected as a deputy to the 12th Supreme People's Assembly in March last year, a North Korean source in a Western country said on Monday. He has not so far been known to have been given any official post as the regime maneuvers him into position to succeed his father. 
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Meeting between the head of the Al-Iraqiya Alliance, Ayad Allawi, and the Head of the Dawlat al-Qanoon Alliance, Nouri al-Maliki, is a pressure card on the National Alliance (NA), said an NA's member.
An 11-million-dollar airship recently purchased by the Royal Thai Army has been grounded for the past month because of leaks, news reports said Tuesday. 
Tehran, June 28 - Pro-democracy activists in Tehran have written graffiti, urging people to stage protests to mark the anniversary of the 9 July 1999 student-led uprising.
PARIS (AFP) French oil group Total has stopped selling petrol to Iran, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday. The company has stopped sales only days before US President Barack Obama signs a law for sanctions to hit Iran's dependence on imported petrol, the report noted.
