[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenyan military commanders and African Union peacekeepers in Somalia on Tuesday met to discuss new strategies in the fight against Al-Shabaab. ... successor to the Islamic Courts... African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) front man Lt Col Paddy Ankunda told Daily Monitor that the meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia discussed the modalities of a joint operation between the Kenya Defence Forces and Amisom to rout the myrmidons.
The meeting, Lt Col Ankunda said, was a follow-up on last week's agreement by the leaders of Kenya, Uganda and Somalia to launch a joint onslaught against the myrmidons.
Presidents Kibaki, Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed (Somalia) met in Nairobi last week and agreed to join forces in the war against the myrmidons. (READ: Joint Africa force to hunt myrmidons)
It was not clear whether Amisom troops would team up with the Kenyan forces and Transitional Federal Government fighters to uproot Al-Shabaab from their bases in Southern Somalia.
Currently, Amisom troops are fighting Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu while Kenyan troops and Somali federal government fighters are concentrating on Southern Somalia.
Lt Col Ankunda said an offer by Kenya to send soldiers to Amisom would be considered. He warned that the faceless myrmidons had intensified attacks on Amisom positions in Mogadishu but said they would be defeated.
This comes is after Ugandan and Burundian Amisom troops killed 25 Al-Shabaab faceless myrmidons in fresh battles in Mogadishu on Sunday.
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11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Egypt's ruling military on Tuesday discussed the possibility of appointing ex-UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee. to head a new government after the cabinet's resignation, a military source told AFP.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had invited the country's political forces to crisis talks in a bid to contain deadly festivities raging for the fourth day between police and protesters demanding democratic reforms.
The military source, who attended the talks, said discussions centred on the resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet which was tendered on Sunday but has yet to be accepted.
The meeting also discussed the idea of forming a new government headed by ElBaradei or Abdelmoneim Abul Futuh, a presidential hopeful and former member of the powerful Moslem Brüderbund, the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Tunisia entered a new era on Tuesday with the inaugural session of its first-ever democratically elected constituent assembly, 10 months after a popular uprising ended years of autocracy.
The 217-member assembly, the first elected body of the Arab Spring, was expected to confirm a deal whereby the Islamist Ennahda party and two other parties split the country's top three jobs between themselves.
The politicians, who will be tasked with drafting a new constitution and paving the way to fresh elections, sang the national anthem as the session got under way in the Bardo palace on the outskirts of Tunis.
"I give thanks to God, to all those martyred and maimed and those who fought so we could witness this historic day," Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi told Agence La Belle France Presse after the opening.
After longtime ruler Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's ouster in January and internationally acclaimed polls on October 23, the inauguration marked yet another landmark in the Arab Spring trailblazers' democratic revolution.
"This event is like a second independence for Tunisia," said Ahmed Mestiri, an iconic figure in the struggle for Tunisia's 1956 independence from La Belle France.
The Bardo palace was where the ousted regime's parliament would sit and also where the 1881 treaty that paved the way for the French protectorate.
"This place was all lies and pretense, now it becomes a real chamber representing the people. I am overcome with awe," Moncef Marzouki, Tunisia's president in waiting, told AFP.
Radiating with pride, the deputies embraced one another, chatted and laughed under the gilded cupola and glittering crystal chandelier of their new home.
Several hundred demonstrators, including relatives of some of the protesters killed in the uprising, nevertheless greeted the newly elected politicians at the Bardo palace with a warning.
"We're watching you," read some of the banners.
"We're here to remind the politicians of the demands of the Tunisian revolution -- dignity and freedom -- and to tell them the Tunisian people have not handed them a blank cheque," said Rafik Boudjaria of the Civic Front for Democracy and Tunisia.
Despite Ennahda's assurances, some Tunisians have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... that an Islamist-dominated Tunisia could roll back hard-earned rights such as the Code of Personal Status, seen notably as one of the Arab world's most progressive sets of laws on women.
"Tunisia wants to hold up a model to society in which Islam is not a synonym of terrorism, fanaticism, extremism or hostility to democracy," Ghannouchi said Sunday during a visit to Algiers.
On Monday, Tunisia's three main political parties formalized a power-sharing agreement hammered out in the aftermath of last month's polls.
Ennahda's Hamadi Jebali is to take the post of prime minister and the Congress for the Republic (CPR) party's Moncef Marzouki will become president.
The Ettakatol party's Mustapha Ben Jaafar had been offered the chair of the new assembly and deputies confirmed him in a vote on Tuesday.
A popular uprising that started in December 2010 over unemployment and the soaring cost of living ousted Ben Ali, who had been in power 23 years and was thought to be one of the world's most entrenched autocrats.
The revolt touched off a wave of pro-democracy protests across the region and Tunisians anchored their revolution last month with a historic election for a constituent assembly.
Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party inspired by the Moslem Brüderbund, holds 89 seats while the CPR and Ettakatol control 29 and 20 seats, respectively.
The chamber's freshly elected members are also expected to pick two deputy chairs and adopt a set of internal rules based on a document drafted by the now-dissolved body in charge of political reform after Ben Ali's ouster.
Challenging the bloc formed by the three main parties, the Progressive Democratic Party and the Democratic Modernist Pole, which have 16 and five seats, respectively, will be main opposition forces.
A question mark still hangs however over the Popular Petition, a previously unknown group lead by a London-based millionaire which came out of the woodwork to clinch 26 seats, making it the assembly's third largest party.
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11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Saif Al Islam Qadaffy was betrayed to his captors by a Libyan nomad who says he was hired to help Muammar Qadaffy's ... the like of whose wardrobe will never be seen again. At least that's what we hope... son escape to neighbouring Niger on the promise that he would be paid one million euros.
Saif Al Islam, wanted for prosecution by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... , was captured at the weekend in what one official in the country's new government said was "the final chapter in Libya's drama."
With a black scarf wrapped around his head, Yussef Saleh Al Hotmani said that he contacted revolutionary fighters in Libya's south to inform them when Saif's two-car convoy would be passing through the area on the night of November 18.
"I made Saif believe that I trusted him," he said on Tuesday in Zintan, where Saif al-Islam is being held at a secret location before the details of his prosecution are finalised.
On the night of Saif al-Islam's capture, Hotmani said he was travelling with the younger Qadaffy's personal guard in the first car of their convoy.
"I had agreed with the fighters (who captured Saif al-Islam) that the best place for the ambush would be in a part of desert that was surrounded by high ground," he said.
Ten fighters from Zintan, in the Western mountains, and five from Hotmani's own tribe, al-Hotman, were waiting.
"When we arrived at the dark, deep hollow the gunfire was very precise, it only took about half a minute to capture the first car," he said, adding that he had intentionally told Saif al-Islam's convoy to have the vehicles spaced 3 km (2 miles) apart to give the fighters time to regroup and for Hotmani to join them.
"When the second car arrived, we started to shoot very precisely, to damage the vehicle so he could not escape."
Saif al-Islam, dressed in a long robe and a brown head scarf wrapped around his face, jumped out of the car, tried to run, but was captured, says Hotmani. "We treated him as a prisoner of war."
MUTINY OR CONSPIRACY?
It is unclear if Hotmani had planned to ensnare Saif al-Islam from the moment he linked up with the runaway's group in the Sahara desert, or if he defected when he had doubts about his payment and feared that he might be killed.
The Saharan nomad, who calls himself the "son of the desert", refused to give details on when or how he contacted the 15 fighters of the interim government who caught Saif al-Islam.
"I'm sure (Saif al-Islam and his guards) were planning to execute me when we reached the border. They had two handguns, two grenades, a knife and handcuffs. They were ready to execute me if they had any doubt," said Hotmani. He spoke with the new Libyan flag draped over his shoulder as a show of solidarity with the country's new rulers.
The fighters allied to the National Transitional Council (NTC) who caught Saif al-Islam refer to Hotmani as a "hero."
There was less than five thousand dollars found in the two-car convoy and Hotmani said he was not paid a penny of the one million euros promised to him.
"I didn't ask for an advance payment or anything," he said. "There was no money in the car. This proves that he wanted to execute me at the border."
SAIF AL-ISLAM WAS "IN DENIAL"
Proclaiming to know several languages and having run a small tourism agency, Hotmani said he was hired as a desert guide for the group that included Saif al-Islam.
"Saif didn't think I knew it was him. Nobody told me it was him," said Hotmani.
Why Saif al-Islam trusted the man who would eventually betray him is not clear but Hotmani said the younger Qadaffy, who had lost his father and three brothers in a revolutionary war that ended his family's rule, was in denial.
"Saif was dreaming of leaving Libya and then to eventually return," said Hotmani.
Those who were with Saif al-Islam in the hours after he was captured paint a picture of a solitary man, calm and controlled.
The commander of the fighters that conducted the ambush, Al-Ajami Ali al-Ateri, said that on the plane which transferred their prisoner to Zintan where he is being held, Saif al-Islam had asked if it had been the Hotmani that had tipped them off.
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11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. This article was previously published at www.borderlandbeat.com To read Part I of the interview with Dr. Robert J. Bunker, click here
You mentioned in your SWJ Strategic Assessment #5 about the current violence visited on Mexican bloggers in Nuevo Lardo, which is completely under the control of Los Zetas' Z40, Michael Trevino. Why would this organization go to such lengths to kill free press in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, when the press in Juarez is actually vigorous and critical in that environment?
If we can agree that Nuevo Laredo is a Los Zetas controlled (criminal) city, it would make sense for them to ensure that the press is not free but instead becomes an attribute of cartel political authority. The press would print the stories they wanted printed and leave out the stories that should not be printed-- if an event or incident is not reported on as far as the outside world and then as far as most of the city itself is concerned it effectively never took place.
Similarly, events and incidents that never took place can be made to take place if reported on. Having the ability to manipulate the free press represents another attribute of power like having lots of money, gunmen, and corrupt officials in your back pocket.
Juarez is a contested city-- between warring cartel and gang factions and democratic governance-- the federal government is actively trying to turn it around. Thus the press in Juarez has not been turned or co-opted and coerced by the authority of any one cartel. The implications of course are horrid things could be taking place in a fully cartel controlled city-- like femicide for sport and pleasure-- and the rest of the world would have no idea such atrocities are taking place.
How likely in your estimation is it that the vigilante organization Matazetas is in fact supported and funded by the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels, as are a number of smaller subgroups currently operating in Jalisco and Zacatecas states?
I put it at a high certainty that the 'Zeta killers' paramilitary death squads are tied into the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels. They could be led by their operatives, composed of apolitical mercenary groups (contract killers), and/or also could include the involvement of big business and other elite interests. It reminds me, on one level, of the old death squads in Colombia targeting Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel-- they were called Los Pepes (an acronym in English for 'people persecuted by Pablo Escobar').
The question that keeps getting kicked around, without resolution, is does any Mexican government linkages to these groups exist. Currently, to my knowledge none have been shown conclusively to exist. Many have said the cartel wars in Mexico are coming down to two major blocs-- Los Zetas vs Sinaloa-- so the emergence of the Matazetas is probably not that surprising.
We should wonder at what point some sort of 'Matasinaloa' group might arise in Culiacan-- but then, when the Zetas stood up for the Gulf Cartel they were initially pretty much deployed as paramilitary death squads. So maybe, in this case, what goes around comes around in the conflicts taking place between the warring cartels.
I have read Mexican news reports that that Sinaloa cartel has moved the bulk of its growing and processing facilities to South America; that much of their drug growing and processing operations in the western half of Mexico, what is left, are being farmed out to smaller independent groups.
I have not seen these reports. Also without fully researching this question I'm not sure what to think of them. We are getting into specific drug commodities-- marijuana, heroin (black tar), and cocaine-- being grown, processed, transported, and distributed (whole sale and retail) by a specific cartel with this line of inquiry.
Shooting from the hip I can't see marijuana farming being relocated to South America for starter so maybe that is the smaller independent group involvement mentioned.
The cocaine is already coming from South America and is being processed down there, and in some instances, in Central America.
The heroin would also be problematic though I don't know the growing potential of heroin poppies in regions of South America.
We do know that the Mexican cartels are distributing high profit drugs-- like cocaine-- into Europe via West Africa. So, a Sinaloa cartel presence already exists down in that region to logistically support European market sales.
Methamphetamine, manufactured rather than grown, also has to be considered now that the Sinaloa cartel has moved into the market once dominated by La Familia. It's far better to manufacture in Sinaloan areas of control in Mexico, but since doses in bulk don't take up huge space, establishing manufacturing capabilities in safe havens in Central and South America is at least plausible.
In your interview with Proceso, you said that shifting strategic priorities will eventually lead the US to consider direct military action in Mexico against the cartels. Do you see the cartels as having an actual political end game such as control of Mexico as a narco state? Would a fractured state with weak control and lack of political authority provide preferable operating conditions for the cartels?
Nowhere in the Proceso interview did I state that "shifting strategic priorities will eventually lead the US to consider direct military action in Mexico against the cartels." Possibility this interpretation was due to problems in the English to Spanish translation of the interview printed at Proceso but the actual English response found at Small Wars Journal (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-cartel-strategic-note-no-7) was far more nuanced. We can make the Mexican cartels a 'strategic priority' without direct military action-- this is not an all or nothing deal regarding US boots on the ground and targeted killing of insurgents like in Afghanistan.
Rather, we should support the Mexican governmental effort indirectly and via operational support (intelligence, targeting, campaign planning, et al.) and other aid.
Quite frankly, given increasing US debt and declining military budgets, we need to do things on the cheap (relatively) and smarter than we have done so in the past. As far as a cartel political end game, a lot of what has happened has been de facto political control taking place-- the criminal insurgencies evolved over time down this path. The cartels would, and do flourish when governmental political control is weak and the locals are co-opted and coerced (that old silver and lead deal) into accepting cartel authority. For a cartel to basically control a city or town would provide them with total 'impunity' and allow them to do what they wanted.
In some areas in the northern Mexican sierras, cartels have virtual control and where they do have control they act like feudal lords. Would that be a template for cartel governance nationally? Would that not be a return to the days before the 1910 revolution?
Acting like a feudal lord, is, well vulgar and blatant. Now you can get away with such activities in smaller villages and towns-- everyone is cowered into submission and those who are left probably work for the cartel anyway or profit indirectly via a relative or family member. Also no press exists and the police force have either quit en masse or are really cartel enforcers just wearing local police uniforms.
Larger cities are trickier, although doable, but the cartel leadership (plaza boss) would be more of a shadowy figure. On the other hand, if they can wear the dual hats of governmental authority (like a local Army commander) and local cartel leader, it probably does not get better than that.
Seems like this was more of the old PRI model, prior to the rise of the PAN political victories, and back in the days when the Federal government and the cartels collaborated with each other to allow for mutual profiting and the suppression of drug related violence.
The old rules and alliances are long gone and thus quite a few different futures may now come about in Mexico. Cartel political authority looks differently-- like a patchwork quilt-- wherever it takes root. Conceivably, some of these 'areas of impunity' will be a return back to the pre-1910 era-- we could even see (and have seen to a limited extent already) instances of slavery, the disenfranchisement of women, and human sacrifice taking place.
You would agree that direct US military action against cartels would be a game changer. One of the possible reactions of cartel would be direct violent actions against minor officials in the US, do you agree? How about civil war or even revolution?
That would be a game changer and would not take place except in a situation where Mexico literally imploded. Mexico is nowhere near state-failure and actually does quite well on the various state indexes. Instead, what is happening is that it is losing control over parts of its sovereign territories--towns, cities, and regions-- which are de facto under criminal (cartel/gang) political authority.
The city might have Mexican flags everywhere, post offices and other elements of state power, but it is a fa�ade--the criminals are calling the shots in those areas. This is like cancerous tumors with their roots embedded into a healthy host-- at some point the two blend together. We are seeing this with the blurring of what is legitimate and what is illegitimate in the 'areas of impunity' in Mexico.
By definition, the usage of the term 'criminal insurgency' implies that civil war and revolution-- of a politicized criminal kind-- is taking place. If US military assets directly targeted cartel assets-- to destroy and kill them-- the inhibition of the cartels to strike back against the US (including minor officials) would likely be removed. Thus, the US does not want to engage in direct military action against the cartels-- nor do the cartels want such engagement or, for that matter, does the Mexican state.
In your opinion, what would be the one thing the US government could do that could bring the violence down in Mexico, especially in northern Mexico?
Legalize drugs-- but that is not going to happen for a whole host of reasons (nor did I say I advocated it!)-- and, in the case of Los Zetas and some of the other cartel and gang groups, that act still would not take care of the overall threat.
Many of the drug cartels have morphed into polyglot criminal organizations involved in human trafficking and slavery, kidnapping, extortion, street taxation, bulk commodities theft (including petroleum), counterfeiting, and pornography and prostitution.
The basic issue now goes way beyond 'the war on drugs' and gets us into a situation where Mexico is fighting armed organizations with multiple illicit revenue streams. These revenue streams are growing in proportion to the initial drug revenue streams, mind you.
Street taxation is a critical concern because, in many cases, the cartels not the state get this revenue source and taxation itself is a state function. In that case, one extra peso to the cartels is one less peso to the Mexican government-- that is a very bad (zero sum) situation. I'm not sure also if our sole objective is to get the violence down in Mexico.
Would we rather have a cartel controlled criminal (narco) city with a low death rate or a contested city (part Mexican government controlled and part narco controlled) with a high death rate? The common man or women in the street might go with the low death rate but the tradeoff is the loss of sovereign Mexican lands to these armed criminal groups.
Getting back to your question, I don't think the US government can do any one thing to bring the violence down in Mexico nor should it. A war is taking place in Mexico between the state and violent armed organizations, although very few people want to admit it, and, historically, lots of people die in wars. The US role should be to support the Mexican government, and its people, against these violent armed organizations who represent competitors that threaten the very integrity of the state.
For a map, click here. This article was previously published at www.borderlandbeat.com
By Chris Covert
Mexican security forces conducting Laguna Segura counternarcotics operations dismantled a sophisticated telecommunications network on Thursday in the Torreon, Coahuila metropolitan area, colloquially known as La Laguna.
The network used a long range radio, as well as networked laptop computers to communicate with aircraft and to control/monitor the movement of ground assets. Other equipment reportedly found included more than 120 separate telecommunications devices. The telecommunication center was operated by Los Zetas criminal drug gang, which used the data from the set up to monitor and evade security forces' movements.
The operation appeared to be similar to another one which took place earlier in September when Mexican Naval Infantry troops seized several telecommmunications nodes also operated by Los Zetas, this time in Veracruz, Veracruz on the east coast of Mexico. That network was reportedly sophisticated enough that the transmissions were virtually undetectable.
The Laguna Segura counternarcotics operation, which was reinforced late last October, is apparently a more general attempt to gain federal and state government control. This is hoped to be achieved through the increased presence of federal security personnel and by coordinating routine security activities with Coahuila and Durango state police agents, as well as with municipal police agents in the cities of Torreon, Coahuila; Ciudad Lerdo, Durango and Gomez Palacio, Durango. In areas such as these, there patrols with a centralized Mexican Army operations center.
These two operations dismantled a telecommunications network, which seems to be indicative of an increasing sophistication Mexican drug cartels are using in their drug processing and shipping operations.
The higher level at which cartels now operate places them firmly in the rubric of a narco-insurgency, at least if you ask California professor Dr. Robert J. Bunker.
Dr. Robert J. Bunker is a California national security academic whose recent writings place him as one of the top experts in the field as an applied theorist with regard to "non-state threat groups", "counter-threat strategies", "future war/conflict", and other advanced concepts concerning national security.
His most recent contribution to the growing national debate on border security and the threat Mexican drug cartels pose to the national security of the United States came last September 13 when he gave testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. His testimony was about the Merida Initiative, which is the US effort to provide support to Mexico's security apparatus in fighting the drug cartels in Mexico.
It is Professor Bunker's belief that the violence and much of the growing sophistication Mexican drug cartels have demonstrated in recent years show that the cartels are slowly evolving from organized crime to something more sinister and harder to deal with, than simple bands of thugs selling drugs to Americans.
His belief is bolstered by his contention that cartels are increasingly using warmaking means, such as telecommunications and the use of weapons heavier than small arms.
In an interview published in the Mexican leftist weekly Proceso, Dr. Bunker reiterated his contention that cartels are a growing insurgency problem within Mexico which directly threatens the US southern border.
This writer wanted to get Dr. Bunker's views on those very issues through an email correspondence.
What would you say to critics who say you are trying to conflate normal Mexican organized crime operations to an actual insurgency, that you are trying to make one set of circumstances fit another without any logical nexus?
To be candid, I think we have two levels of critics. One is comprised of those at the basic knowledge level-- internet trolls full of malice and readers with just enough knowledge to get themselves in trouble. I basically ignore that group-- I don't want to hear what a Maoist insurgency is and how the cartels do not fit its traditional patterns.
The second level of critics is composed of the informed public (with deeper knowledge of the topic), some military/law enforcement readers, and those from the policy and academic communities. The toughest critics come from the last group-- and in fact the debates have already started in the academic/policy circles. Dr. Paul Rexton Kan in the Summer 2011 issue of Parameters put Barry McCaffrey, Hal Brands, Hillary Clinton, Max Manwaring, and yours truly in his theoretical gun sights.
His basic argument is that 'high intensity crime' rather than narco-insurgency or narco-terrorism is taking place in Mexico.
I've already responded-- in a sense-- with another edited volume of Small Wars & Insurgencies/Routledge book coming out on 'Criminal Insurgencies in Mexico and the Americas'. John Sullivan and I have an important theoretical writeup on new forms of insurgency-- criminal and spiritual as they pertain to the gangs and cartels-- in that work.
However, I have recently decided, due to Kan's Parameters essay, that I'm going to have to do a comparative analysis of 'high intensity crime' vs 'criminal insurgencies' now as one response to the critics. To be fair to Dr. Kan, he is part of the El Centro program standing at Small Wars Journal in a few weeks-- we want his differing viewpoint included as we foster open scholarly debate on what is going on in Mexico.
This all might sound like splitting hairs but part of the solution-- or in this case mitigation of the threat-- is to accurately define it so that we can properly respond to it. We are back into that "is it crime or war" debate that has been going on for over a decade now.
The US Army underwent a similar debate with the emergence of OOTW (Operations Other Than War) back in the mid-1990s. Not to show my age, but I was actively involved in that debate too. Back then, the US Army thinkers just couldn't accept non-state groups were waging war-- only states were allowed to do that.
In one of your articles at Small Wars Journal, you write "The cartels then sought in the various towns and cities to suppress and co-opt information produced and distributed by journalists/reporters and their employers." That passage would lead the reader to think that that cartel information offensive was planned from the start. How do you convince a reader that is the case? And how significant is it that cartels have planned information operations from the start.
If the readers looked at background analytical documents, such as Lisa Campbell's operational assessment of Los Zetas-- specifically the operations and intelligence composition figures [See Narcos Over the Border, pp. 58-59] when they were allied to the Gulf Cartel-- they will see counterintelligence and deception (psychological warfare) organizational components identified.
The other cartels may have taken a more haphazard approach, though, as the La Familia and splinter Los Caballeros Templarios groups have proven adept at winning the 'hearts and minds' of indigenous populations in Michoacan via their own propaganda efforts.
The free press in Mexico has long been suppressed when reporting on the drug trade due to past PRI (and elite) complicity, profit taking, and collaboration with the initial cartels. Los Zetas, and later the Guatemalan Kaibiles, coming into this has made it even worse. They initially ushered in special operations planning into the decision making process for the Gulf Cartel-- info ops thus became a planning component. This required the other cartels to acquire their own capabilities just as we have seen with the 'arms race' that has been taking place with the deployment of cartel enforcers increasingly found to have military grade weaponry.
I think cartel info ops have evolved over time along with the Mexican cartels, which are about two-and-a-half decades old, they definitely did not have them day one with some sort of grand plan. Information operations is also a broad concept-- what is possibly even more significant is that different levels of these operations exist and the various Mexican cartels seem adept at different levels.
It could be argued that the Sinaloa cartel focuses on strategic level info ops issues while some of the other cartels do not. This was evident as early as the 1990s-- but very little has been written on it-- when car bombs were being directed against the Sinaloa cartel by the Arellano F"lix (Tijuana) cartel and the Sinaloa cartel did not retaliate in kind.
Blog del Narco has had technical problems with Google in the past that wound up being attributed to sloppiness by Google. If Blog del Narco's problems are not under that category, does their current travails suggest Los Zetas have some influence with unidentified individuals in Google?
I'm going to have to go with the sloppiness/too much network traffic explanation unless Google does not want Blog del Narco associated with it and therefore the technical service provided might not be considered a priority. Google is a business and the controversy generated by hosting Blog del Narco might represent a minor headache via the bad press it provides.
Blog del Narco also gets the service it pays for and has been doing things on the cheap. This is all only speculation however-- but Blog del Narco has since migrated to another web site now and mirrored sites are causing some confusion. I don't see Los Zetas having any influence on unidentified individuals or embedding 'agent provocateurs' at Google. Google has its own unique corporate culture that is pretty alien to outside groups-- especially Los Zetas.
Would it surprise you to learn that Blog del Narco has in the past been frequented by Mexican narcotraffickers? And that the identity of the bloggers are an open secret in one of the cities in Nuevo Leon?
Not your first statement. The site is open and anonymous media content (pictures/video links/text) is sent in all the time. No doubt the Mexican narcotraffickers are providing some of the content directly to the site to settle old scores, set up competitors and others who stand in their way, further their own agendas, and facilitate components of their info ops plans.
I'm sure many of the traffickers are also viewing the site to see how so and so was killed and to hear 'shop talk' about current incidents of interest.
The second statement did surprise me. If accurate, it would mean those bloggers are either protected or allied to one of the competing cartels. I have trouble with the cartels viewing the bloggers as benign and just leaving them alone in a city like that once they have been identified-- that would appear to be an anomaly. Part II to be continued tomorrow.
Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik on Tuesday urged China not to send North Korean defectors back to North Korea because of the treatment they face there when they are repatriated. Yu was meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Beijing.
Yu also asked for China's cooperation "so that defectors can reach South Korea as soon as possible at their own free will."
Yang merely replied China will handle the issue of North Korean defectors "in accordance with domestic law, international law, and humanitarian principles."
Diplo-speak for 'buzz off'...
China was recently reported to have cracked down on a growing influx of North Korean defectors, arresting about 20 defectors in Shenyang in September and allegedly being poised to repatriate 23 others, including three children, who were arrested in Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Dandong, and Kunming recently.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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Pakistan named a liberal legislator noted for her tough stance on human rights to replace its former ambassador to the US, who was forced to quit amid allegations that he had plotted to curb the influence of the military on politics.
Sherry Rehman, one of the few public figures who has dared oppose Pakistans draconian blasphemy law, faces the task of repairing ties with Washington, where her countrys record of backing Islamist militants has caused deep mistrust.
We all have to forge a progressive, dynamic Pakistan out of the ashes that are often left to us by the fire of terrorism, by the fire of extremism, Mrs Rehman said in a speech on Wednesday.
Her appointment was welcomed by human rights activists dismayed at the speed with which the military moved to oust her predecessor, Husain Haqqani, following a claim that he had sought US help to place generals under civilian control.
[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on Tuesday said dialogues have already been offered to the Pak Taliban but these cannot happen unless the beturbanned goons throw away their arms and give up terrorism.
"There is nothing formal regarding talks with the Taliban. The Taliban usually send messages to us and I also sometimes convey them a message so that peace could prevail. But it is clear that if the Taliban want to shake hands with us they would have to get rid of their arms," he said.
The minister was responding to questions raised after inaugurating a ceremony where 50 new Mobile Registration Vans (MRVs) were added in the fleet of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to facilitate the population settled in remote areas.
"Few days back we received a message from the Taliban for talks and yes we also offered them. We are happy they have realised that killing innocent people is wrong and the only way forward is the path of peace," he said.
The minister said he could not say much on the issue and added that all the stakeholders would sit together to find an amicable solution.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Strongly and categorically refuting media reports, a spokesperson of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Tuesday that the army was not undertaking any kind of negotiations with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) or its affiliated orc groups.
Such reports are concocted, baseless and unfounded, the spokesperson added.
Any contemplated negotiation or reconciliation process with orc groups has to be done by the government, the spokesperson concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi on Tuessday asserted that the decision taken by the ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani to resign from his post was the right one and urged government to investigate the 'memo issue' to bring it to its rational conclusion, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to media representatives after meeting with PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... Qureshi said that there was nothing left in assemblies anymore. "I have adviced 'Mian Sahib' to come out of assemblies," he added.
Sovereignty of the country and its survival lies in democracy, said the former minister.
He urged the masses to decide who should lead the country in theses chaotic times to bring it out of troubles. "It's about time to get rid of this ineligible and failed government," said the former minister.
The former PPP minister stressed on the importance of forming a free election commission and urged politicianship of the country to take a unified stance on the issue. "Supreme Court should also play its role to ensure the formation of a free election commission," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi Army force has discovered on Tuesday a plant for booby-trapping vehicles and manufacturing of explosive charges east of Mosul, the center of northern Iraq's Ninewa Province, an Iraqi Army source reported.
"Ninewa's 2nd Army Division's Operations Command has discovered early on Tuesday, a plant for booby-trapping vehicles in east Mosul's Kokijly district," the Army source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the same force had also discovered (another plant manufacturing explosives and sticking exposives," he told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, giving no further details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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No violence yet but protests against King Abdullah of Jordan are growing and getting more heated (although contained to a few towns at the present).
Jordan doesn't have the financial resources to buy off everyone; their SOP has been to buy off key tribal leaders, imans and so forth and keep a loyal security force in good working order. But the region is boiling with Islamism, arabism, palestinian nationalism and various other streams of anger.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/23/2011 08:14 ||
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...and various other streams of anger.
Angry folks in the Middle East?
Been a daily regimen for thousands of years?
Who knew?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/23/2011 10:25 Comments ||
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But this time they're not raging against Israel/USA, MR.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Former US president George W Bush and British ex-prime minister Tony Blair were Tuesday found guilty at a mock tribunal in Malaysia for committing "crimes against peace" during the Iraq war.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad -- a fierce critic of the Iraq war -- found the former leaders guilty after a four-day hearing.
"The Tribunal deliberated over the case and decided unanimously that the first accused George Bush and second accused Blair have been found guilty of crimes against peace," the tribunal said in a statement.
"Unlawful use of force threatens the world to return to a state of lawlessness. The acts of the accused were unlawful."
Mahathir, who stepped down in 2003 after 22 years in power, unveiled plans for the tribunal in 2007 just before he condemned Bush and Blair as "child killers" and "war criminals" at the launch of an annual anti-war conference.
A seven-member panel chaired by former Malaysian Federal Court judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman presided over the trial, which began last Saturday, and both Bush and Blair were tried in absentia.
"The evidence showed that the drums of wars were being beaten long before the invasion. The accused in their own memoirs have admitted their own intention to invade Iraq regardless of international law," it said.
The verdict is purely symbolic as the tribunal has no enforcement powers.
One can hope they had fun, then, since it was otherwise utterly pointless.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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Tell me again why US companies have factories in that POS country?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/23/2011 2:06 Comments ||
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From the article and from what I remember of Mahathir Mohamad's status as an ex-premier, this isn't exactly an official act, Water Modem. It's not even the equivalent of Rep. Conyers' basement "hearings". It's more of a high-profile gathering of out-of-government anti-American assholes than anything significant. We might as well blockade Berkeley for "Occupy Oakland"'s misbehavior as piss on Malaysia on the basis of "their ex-premier's a hysterical dick".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/23/2011 9:38 Comments ||
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Did the CEO of Pepsico attend? Sounds like something she could really support.
The U.S. Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens in Syria to depart "immediately," and Turkey's foreign ministry urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling through Syria.
"The U.S. Embassy continues to urge U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available," said a statement issued to the American community in Syria Wednesday and posted on the Embassy's website. "The number of airlines serving Syria has decreased significantly since the summer, while many of those airlines remaining have reduced their number of flights."
The warning followed an announcement in Washington this week that Ambassador Robert Ford would not return to Syria this month as planned, indicating concerns over his safety.
The Obama administration quietly pulled Ford out of Syria last month, citing credible personal threats against him.
The Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia and avoid traveling through Syria for security reasons.
The warning came two days after Syrian soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish citizens, witnesses and officials said, apparent retaliation for Turkey's criticism of Assad. The Turks were returning from Saudi Arabia after performing the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
France will discuss creating protected humanitarian corridors in Syria with its EU and Arab allies, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Thursday, after meeting the exiled Syrian opposition leader.
Juppe said France considers Burhan Ghaliun's Syrian National Council a "legitimate interlocutor" and said he would take to Brussels the idea of escape routes for Syrian civilians fleeing Bashar al-Assad's forces.
"We examined the question of humanitarian corridors and I will ask the next meeting of the European Council to put this point on its agenda," Juppe said.
"If there could be a humanitarian dimension to the zones, which could be secured, to protect the population, that's a question that must be studied with the European Union and the Arab League."
There have been reports that Turkey and NATO allies such as France are considering imposing a no-fly zone and a buffer zone on Syrian territory to give the opposition breathing space while it organises its revolt.
Hezbollah's leadership is considering the possibility of taking control of Beirut and effectively carrying out a military coup in Lebanon should the current Syrian regime fall, the al-Arabia network reported Tuesday.
According to the report, Hezbollah members have expressed concerns over the escalation of the civil uprising in Syria, which could lead to the fall of Bashar Assad's regime. The Syrian president is an ally of the Lebanese Shiite group.
Sources close to Hezbollah noted that it was due to those concerns that the Hezbollah leadership was examining various scenarios - including a "broad maneuver on the ground," similar to the takeover of Beirut in May 2008. However, the current plans apparently include a much more extensive maneuver which may expand to a military coup.
"As soon as Hezbollah will sense that the collapse of Assad's regime is imminent, armed cells will quickly begin operating to seize control of Beirut's eastern and western parts," one of the sources told al-Arabia. "This operation, which will be coordinated with Hezbollah's allies, including Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, will be carried out under the banner of 'protecting the resistance and its weapons inside Lebanon,'" he said.
Ever so much more important than actual Lebanese citizens.
According to the source, Hezbollah will explain that the takeover "as an act that is aimed at countering Lebanese forces plotting to suppress the resistance in cooperation with foreign elements - headed by Israel -- and take advantage of (Assad's downfall) to annihilate Hezbollah."
About a week and a half ago Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel and the US that a war against Iran and Syria would lead to an all-out regional conflict. "They should understand that a war on Iran and Syria will not remain in Iran and Syrian territory, but it will engulf the whole region and there is no escaping this reality," Nasrallah said during a televised speech honoring "Martyrs' Day."
A senior Iranian official says many countries are willing to buy Iran's oil and the Islamic Republic is not concerned about oil embargo imposed by some European countries, Press TV reported.
This is right after he blasted the sanctions as 'reprehensible'. If no one will honor the sanctions, then why complain?
Because the Chinese negotiate hard for price concessions?
Managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani further stated on Tuesday that if France or other European countries imposed sanctioned on buying Iran's oil, the country would sell its oil to other customers.
"Iran did not export oil to France and its overall oil export to EU member states was meager," Oil Ministry's official website Shana quoted Qalebani as saying.
After Britain and the US announced on Monday, November 21, that they have considered new unilateral sanctions against Iran's oil industry, the French government followed suit by declaring that it will not buy Iran's crude oil.
Paris called for new sanctions on an "unprecedented scale" against Iran in response to Tehran's nuclear program, urging world powers to halt purchases of Iranian oil and freeze its central bank assets.
On the same day, the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Washington had imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's oil and petrochemical industry and the Iranian companies supplying Tehran's nuclear program.
The British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne also noted that the White Hall was terminating all contact between the UK's financial system and the entire Iranian banking system.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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Iran is looking forward to Oil For Food Part 2. They get sympathy and the ability to blame all of their ills and crackdowns on sanctions, they get a cadre of corrupt westerners helping to keep things secret to keep the gravy train rolling, and what oil they ship goes up in price. What's not to love.
[Dawn] Russia dismissed new U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's financial and energy sectors as "unacceptable" on Tuesday and said they would hurt the chances of renewing talks with Tehran over its nuclear programme.
A sharply worded Russian statement underscored Moscow's longstanding opposition to sanctions beyond those endorsed by the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... Security Council, where Russia holds veto power as a permanent member.
"We again underline that the Russian Federation considers such extraterritorial measures unacceptable and contradictory to international law," Foreign Ministry front man Alexander Lukashevich said in the statement.
It indicated that despite agreement last week on a U.N. nuclear agency board resolution that expressed increasing concern about Iran's nuclear programme, Russia differs sharply with the West on how to win Tehran's cooperation.
"Such practices ... seriously complicate efforts for constructive dialogue with Tehran," Lukashevich said.
The United States, which fears Tehran's nuclear programme is aimed at developing atomic weapons, named Iran on Monday as an area of "primary money laundering concern" in a step designed to dissuade non-U.S. banks from dealing with it.
It also blacklisted 11 entities suspected of aiding Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran says is meant for peaceful purposes including power generation, and expanded sanctions to target companies that aid its oil and petrochemical industries.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Nyet, nyet, a thousand times nyet (unless you agree to our Polish proposal)!!!
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... on Tuesday announced that he would not "defend" Premier Najib Miqati's government if the rival Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement sought to topple it in the near future.
Asked about the views he shares with Miqati during an interview on his movement's mouthpiece OTV, Aoun said: "We agree with PM Miqati that Leb's security is interlinked with that of Syria. We will see if the Mustaqbal Movement will call for toppling the government, but we will not defend it."
"We will hold the thieves accountable, crimes have been committed. My conscience surpasses the political alliance. I was commissioned by the people and I'm defending people's money," he added.
Turning to the controversial issue of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb, Aoun said: "Why would we put the entire (2012 state) budget on hold for the sake of the tribunal's funds which are worth $30 million?"
"There is bad performance in cabinet and I don't know why everything is stalled. The taxation system is wrong and comprehensive plans for everything, such as health and other issues, have been all shelved. I'm not a beggar, these are the people's rights," Aoun went on to say.
"How can (U.N. chief) Mr. the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... convince me that world peace is threatened because of the crimes that happened in Leb?" he wondered.
Slamming the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... , Aoun said "throughout 63 years, we have not heard any outcry from the U.N. concerning the Paleostinian people and its plight,"
"Should human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... exist only in Syria?" he asked.
"The tribunal is 6-year-old, so why don't we wait for another six months to settle its constitutional status?"
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
This is interesting. Aoun being a Hezbollah proxy, I'd guess that the Hezbullies see Miqati's government collapsing. With Wally Jumblatt changing sides again I'd say actual popular sentiment's probably with Mustaqbal and its allies.
Which means the story about Hezbollah preparing a coup in the event of Assad falling can be taken without much salt at all.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 11:38 Comments ||
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With Wally Jumblatt changing sides again
Did you mean again today or again in the last hour?
[An Nahar] Iran on Tuesday blasted new sanctions against the Islamic republic announced by the United States, Britannia and Canada as "reprehensible and ineffective."
Foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast made the comments a day after Washington, London and Ottawa said they were leveling additional sanctions on Iran's financial sector because of a report by the U.N. atomic energy watchdog strongly suggesting Tehran was researching nuclear weapons.
"These actions show the hostility of these countries towards our people. They are reprehensible and ineffective," Mehmanparast said during his regular weekly media briefing.
He said U.S. and British sanctions previously imposed on Iran had likewise proved ineffective.
The new ones amounted to little more than "propaganda and psychological warfare," he said.
"Everybody knows our trade with Britannia and the United States is at its lowest point. These past years we have decided for various reasons to reduce exchanges with those two countries to a minimum, so as to increase them with other countries," Mehmanparast said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Are they complaining that they want effective sanctions?
[An Nahar] Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... stated on Tuesday that Leb is facing a struggle over asserting the role of the state in controlling the country and combating attempts to impose the role of the "statelet" over it.
He said before a delegation of NDU students: "It is a battle between two different points of view, one that calls for the rule of the state institutions and army and the other that does not believe in the state and that opposes the Arab and international communities."
The March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... -led opposition believes in democracy and freedom, whereas the March 8 forces ... the opposition to the Mar. 14th movement, consisting of Hizbullah and its allies, so-called in commemoration of their Mar. 8th, 2006 demonstration of strength in Beirut ... still adheres to obsolete regimes, he added.
The LF leader urged the students to make the choice between the ideology of the state and that of the "statelet".
They should also chose between the rule of force and that of the law and between the state that respects international agreements and one that wants to wage a confrontation with the international community, Geagea stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 00:00 ||
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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.
.
[Emirates 24/7] Egypt's ruling military on Tuesday discussed the possibility of appointing ex-UN nuclear watchdog chief 
International Criminal Court
Interior Minister 
Mehmood 
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi Army force has discovered on Tuesday a plant for booby-trapping vehicles and manufacturing of explosive charges east of Mosul, the center of northern Iraq's Ninewa Province, an Iraqi Army source reported.
Former US president George W Bush and British ex-prime minister Tony Blair were Tuesday found guilty at a mock tribunal in Malaysia for committing "crimes against peace" during the Iraq war.
Michel Aoun
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Samir Geagea
