10 Fascinating Details In 'Zero Dark Thirty' -- Business Insider
We checked out 'Zero Dark Thirty' yesterday hoping to learn more about the 11-year hunt for Osama bin Laden (OBL). (Read our review here.)
The filmmakers had considerable access to people with knowledge of the manhunt, and their goal was to "be as accurate as we possibly could" without having been there.
Unfortunately, it's hard to say what in the movie is fact and what is made up. Most of it seems accurate, and nothing is clearly false — but some parts presumably involve poetic license. Read more .... My Comment: I will be seeing the moviewhen it is released (January 11, 2013) .... will only give you my feedback then. Update:Blowback?
Marines watch the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of Onslow Beach in Camp Lejeune, N.C., as Marines and sailors conduct ship-to-shore operations, Dec. 18, 2012. About 2,300 Marines and sailors returned home after being deployed for nine months as an expeditionary crisis response force with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Michael Petersheim
Panetta Says His Dog, Unlike Petraeus, Proved Soul of Discretion -- Bloomberg
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today suggested his dog Bravo turned out to be a better keeper of secrets than David Petraeus, who resigned in disgrace as CIA director last month after acknowledging a sexual affair.
Panetta appeared surprised when asked at the National Press Club why Petraeus had to resign instead of accepting a lesser punishment.
“In this town, with that kind of e-mail, do you think he could have survived as director of the CIA? I don’t think so,” Panetta said during a luncheon appearance. The Petraeus affair was exposed after the FBI discovered e-mails he wrote to his biographer, Paula Broadwell, with whom he had an extramarital affair.
2013 Outlook: Budget Cuts Will Hammer Industry -- Natinoal Defense
The Defense Department and its contractors are still hopeful for an 11th hour deal that will shield the Pentagon from a 10 percent budget cut in 2013. But even if Defense is spared from the sequester, the business climate for Pentagon contractors will be bleaker in 2013, analysts predict.
Whereas the defense budget top line peaked in 2010 and has only dipped slightly, projected spending on new equipment already has declined by one-third since 2008 and is on a path to go down another 10 to 15 percent, says Erich Fischer, a partner at the consulting firm Booz & Company. Read more ....
My Comment: The good old days of increasing defense budgets are coming to an end.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta delivers remarks during a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C., Dec. 18, 2012. DOD photo by Glenn Fawcett
Panetta Reassures Defense Employees -- Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON—After months of warning that the looming across-the-board cuts would devastate the military, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta advised his three million employees on Thursday not to panic.
Mr. Panetta, in a memo on his plans to deal with fiscal-cliff cuts if they take effect in January, assured Defense Department employees that there were no imminent layoffs or dramatic changes in the works.
"These cuts, while significant and harmful to our collective mission as an agency, would not necessarily require immediate reductions in spending," he wrote in the memo. "I do not expect our day-to-day operations to change dramatically on or immediately after Jan. 2, 2013."
House Approves Part of Boehner’s ‘Plan B’ Legislation That Would Cancel Defense Sequester -- Defense News
The U.S. House on Dec. 20 approved part of House Speaker John Boehner’s so-called fiscal “Plan B” measure that would cancel pending deep defense cuts and protect the Pentagon budget from cuts this year.
The defense sequestration-canceling portion of the controversial bill passed 215-209 in a mostly party-line vote. The House was expected to vote later on Dec. 20 on the second part, which would raise tax rates on Americans who earn more than $1 million annually, but Boehner said in a statement he had pulled that measure due to insufficient GOP votes.
Letter From Mexican Ambassador Dampens Hope For Early Release Of Jon Hammar -- FOX News
Any hope that Jon Hammar, the Marine imprisoned in Mexico on a disputed gun charge, might be freed in time for Christmas has apparently been dashed by a terse letter a top Mexican diplomat sent to Hammar’s congresswoman.
The two-page missive from Mexican Ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhan to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), who has been aggressively advocating for Hammar's release, leaves little hope of a diplomatic solution. In it, Sarukhan takes a thinly veiled swipe at the U.S., blaming it for gun proliferation south of the border.
The members of the Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (1 Scots), flew back to Edinburgh three months earlier than initially planned
We're Coming Home! Joy Of Hero Troops Flying Back From Helmand Three Months Early To Be With Their Families For Christmas -- Daily Mail
* Soldiers from 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland head home after handing bases over to Afghan control * Prime Minister announces more than 3,800 troops fighting in Afghanistan will be home by Christmas next year
Sixty soldiers have returned from Afghanistan to spend Christmas with their families. The members of the Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (1 Scots), flew back to Edinburgh three months earlier than initially planned.
The Ministry of Defence said the move is part of the planned troop reduction in the country, which will see the number of service personnel in Afghanistan reduce from 9,500 to 9,000 before Christmas.
More than 3,800 British troops fighting in Afghanistan will be home by Christmas next year, David Cameron announced this week.
State Department Official Suggests Libya Warnings Went To The Top -- FOX News
Washington – A top State Department official acknowledged Thursday that cables warning of serious security concerns at the U.S. compound in Benghazi went to department headquarters – and possibly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s office – in the months leading up to the deadly Sept. 11 attack.
Deputy Secretary of State Williams Burns, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the cables “would have been reviewed up through the assistant secretary level, and it may be that some of my colleagues on the seventh floor saw them as well.” The seventh floor refers to Clinton’s office.
Further, Burns confirmed “there were certainly memos” that came to Clinton’s office describing some of the dozens of security incidents in the region before the attack that claimed four American lives.
My Comment: A U.S. State department official is conceding that warnings on Libya went straight to Hillary Clinton's office .... but .... it appears that the ones who are being "punished" are mid-level bureaucrats. Am I the only one who is seeing a disconnect?
Could An Alawite State In Syria Prevent Post-Assad Reprisals? -- Voice of America
WASHINGTON, DC — A new report by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights offers disturbing evidence that the civil war in Syria is turning into a sectarian battle between the country’s majority Sunni and minority Alawite Muslim communities. At the same time, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has expressed concern that Syria could plummet into a continued cycle of violence and retaliation.
These dire assessments come amid growing rumors in Syria that President Bashar Al- Assad may be fortifying an Alawite enclave in the mountains that could form the foundation for a breakaway Alawite State. But how credible are these reports and could such a state or enclave be a solution to Alawite fears of massive post-Assad reprisals?
My Comment: There is a precedent to this possibility and it happened next door in Lebanon. After years of conflict and tens of thousands of deaths the Lebanese civil war produced sectarian enclaves that exist today. Can this happen in Syria today? I have my doubts but it did happen in Lebanon .... and sectarian enclaves are also now becoming the norm in today's Iraq.
US Says Syria Once Again Launching Scuds At Rebels -- ABC News
Within the past day, the Assad regime in Syria once again launched Scud missiles at rebel-held areas in the northwest part of the country, U.S. officials said.
Last week, officials said the Syrian regime fired five missiles from the Damascus area into an area west of the northern city of Aleppo, near the border with Turkey. The move was seen as an escalation of the nearly two-year conflict in Syria.
The latest missile salvos once again targeted the area near Aleppo, according to a U.S. official. Military forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad launched between four and six of the medium-range missiles from the Damascus area towards targets outside of the northern city, the official said.
It has become a challenge to define who are the fighting forces in Syria. Syrian Armed Forces personnel who deserted, along with volunteers, call themselves the Free Syrian Army. But there are numerous other insurgent groups. It is also complex to identify those from other countries, and what they hope to achieve.
Islamic radical Salafist and Jihadist fighters have been active in Syrian territory since 2011, and steadily infiltrated the uprising against the Bashar al Assad regime.
They came from Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states and Arab countries in North Africa, vowing to fight their cause against those they call the Infidel. Read more ....
A Defector’s Account Of Syrian Chemical Weapons On The Move -- David Ignatius, Washington Post
Reports from inside two Syrian chemical weapons facilities offer chilling new evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime developed special vehicles last year for moving and mixing the weapons — and an unconfirmed allegation that Lebanese allies of the regime, presumably in Hezbollah, may have been trained 11 months ago in the weapons’ use.
A Syrian source provided a detailed account in a telephone conversation over the weekend, drawing on intelligence provided to him by a Syrian defector who worked inside the chemical weapons network. The source was speaking from an Arab country outside Syria where he has taken refuge. The conversation was arranged by the Syrian Support Group, an organization in Washington that speaks for moderate elements of the opposition Free Syrian Army.
Photo: Ramzan Kadrov with Vladimir Putin. Wikipedia
Chechen Newspaper Shut Down After Reporter Asks Putin A Question -- The Guardian
Leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, orders closure of paper after taking disliking to question asked by reporter in Moscow
When Chechen journalist Bilkhi Dudaeva stood up and asked Vladimir Putin a question during the president's annual press conference on Thursday, she probably thought she was doing her homeland proud.
Instead, Dudaeva's newspaper was shut down by the end of the marathon question-and-answer session, having caught the ire of Ramzan Kadyrov, the ruthless leader of Chechnya.
Dudaeva introduced herself to Putin as a journalist from the newspaper "Kadyrov's Path," eliciting laughter from a group of reporters well versed in the Chechen leader's powerful cult of personality.
> I have a 13" MacBook Pro that appears to have one of the 2 USB ports that is not working. The one that does work will connect easily and power items but the other does not seem to connect. I do get lights on with things like a USB mouse but it does not move the pointer. In most cases, a flashdrive or my USB Seagate back-up drive will not connect through this port.
>
> Thanks in advanced for your help.
>
> Dennis Rivenburgh
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>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Caught Between Al Qaida And Iran, U.S. Struggles Over Syria Conflict -- Hannah Allam, McClatchy News
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON The bloodshed in Syria has continued for so long that extremist forces have taken charge, with U.S. officials saying they now face two familiar enemies in the struggle to find a resolution: al Qaida in Iraq cells and Iranian-backed sectarian militias.
Those groups were responsible for thousands of American and Iraqi casualties during the eight years U.S. forces fought them next door in Iraq. Now, U.S. officials and some analysts say, the Sunni Muslim extremists of al Qaida have regrouped in Syria as the Nusra Front, the leading rebel faction fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime. The Syrian military, meanwhile, is relying increasingly on backup from the thuggish pro-Assad militias known as shabiha, elements of which receive Iranian training and funding, U.S. officials say.
Nusra Front Growing In Popularity As Syrian Fighting Worsens -- Daily Star
AMMAN: Having seen its star wane in Iraq, Al-Qaeda has staged a comeback in neighboring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to remove President Bashar Assad and making the West balk at military backing for the revolt.
The rise of Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist organization last week, could usher in a long and deadly confrontation with the West, and perhaps Israel.
Putin Defends Own Record, Criticizes US In Marathon Q&A -- RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected allegations Thursday that he had constructed an “authoritarian regime” during his years in power, touting the country’s stability and adding that he had not made any major mistakes he would want to fix.
“I cannot call this system authoritarian,” he told over 1,000 Russian and foreign journalists in a wide-ranging, four-and-a-half-hour news conference in Moscow, which included heated criticism of the United States and comments on topics ranging from the crisis in Syria to the end of the world. Read more ....
More News On Russian President Putin's Annual Press Conference
Syrian Violence Becoming 'Overly Sectarian', Report Finds -- Voice of America
The United Nations is highlighting the civilian toll in the nearly two-year conflict in Syria, saying thousands have died in a crisis that has become increasingly sectarian in nature.
U.N. human rights investigators say in a new report Thursday that the fighting "has brought immeasurable destruction and human suffering" to Syrian civilians, and that the humanitarian situation has rapidly deteriorated since late September.
The report says human rights abuses continue unabated.
It notes dramatic increases in violence in major cities, particularly Damascus and Aleppo, as well as a rise in attacks on cultural sites.
U.N. Announces $1.5 Billion Aid Effort For Syrian Refugees -- CNN
(CNN) -- The United Nations has launched humanitarian plans worth $1.5 billion to help ease the suffering of millions of Syrians both inside and outside the country.
More than 525,000 Syrians have already crossed into neighboring countries, the United Nations announced Wednesday, and it estimated that more than a million will flee in the next six months.
The body believes that a quarter of Syria's population needs food, shelter, medical attention, hygiene materials, clothes and other relief after enduring nearly two years of war.
Pakistani Rangers soldiers walk past a woman after the body of Nasima Bibi, a female worker of an anti-polio drive campaign who was shot by gunmen, arrived at a hospital morgue in Karachi December 18. Gunmen shot five health workers on the anti-polio drive in a string of attacks in Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, raising fears for the safety of workers immunizing children against the crippling disease. Athar Hussain/Reuters
Explainer: Why Polio Remains Endemic In Afghanistan, Pakistan, And Nigeria -- Radio Free Europe
A global multibillion dollar immunization campaign over the past few decades has made most of the world polio-free. But in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria the crippling disease remains endemic.
Despite a coordinated United Nations polio-prevention drive in all three countries, dozens of children become paralyzed and ultimately die from the highly infectious disease every year.
Political unrest, poor health infrastructure, and government negligence are among the reasons for the failure. But the cause analysts cite most often is opposition from religious militant groups. Read more ....
My Comment: When you hear that Taliban factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- as well as Nigerian militant groups like Boko Haram -- have claimed polio vaccinations are "un-Islamic" and an attempt to thwart the will of God .... that is when you know that you have a problem.
Polio Vaccinations Suspended In Pakistan Following Shootings -- NPR
The World Health Organization says the Pakistani polio vaccination campaign is temporarily suspended because of "multiple attacks" against health workers.
At least eight Pakistani health workers were shot to death this week all over Pakistan as they administered the vaccination to children. The Associated Press is reporting a ninth person has died: a 20-year-old man who'd been shot in the head in Peshawar.
As NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reported yesterday, six people were killed on Tuesday as they went house-to-house to treat children. At that time, Pakistan was determined to continue vaccinating children. Now the WHO says Pakistan and "affected" provinces are concerned over the safety of health workers, and they're shutting the program down for now. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the slayings "senseless and inexcusable".
Gangnam Style Video Lifts Troops' Spirits In Afghanistan -- The Guardian
Group of soldiers donned costumes at Camp Bastion for 'Afghan Style' parody video that became an internet hit.
A group of soldiers who became an internet hit after starring in their own version of the Gangnam Style video said they did it to lift their spirits while serving in Afghanistan.
Named Afghan Style, the parody shows troops from the 4th Mechanised Brigade, which is part of 21 Engineer Regiment and known as the "Black Rats", in costume at Camp Bastion, copying South Korean star Psy's distinctive dance to his catchy chart song.
The video was posted on the regiment's Facebook page, where it has received hundreds of likes and shares, as well as picking up over 86,000 views on YouTube.
Coalition force members maintain security from a light tactical, all-terrain vehicle during a patrol of Afghanistan's Farah province, Dec. 15, 2012 Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau
Afghan Officials Hold Rare Talks With Taliban Near Paris -- France 24
Afghan government officials met with representatives of the Taliban and another rebel group at an undisclosed venue near Paris on Thursday for two days of secretive talks aimed at ending the conflict in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials met with Taliban rebels and envoys from another Islamist militant group near Paris on Thursday to discuss ways to end the fighting in Afghanistan and prepare for a future without NATO troops.
French hosts say the secretive meeting among rival Afghans in Chantilly, a town famed for its castle and racecourse, is not expected to involve any horse-trading toward a possible peace and reconciliation deal.
UN Sees No Prospect Of Syria Violence End -- Al Jazeera
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the only way to stop the violence is a political settlement.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that there is no prospect of an end to the 21-month conflict in Syria.
Ban told a year-end news conference on Wednesday that the only way to stop the violence was a political settlement, urging the deeply divided UN Security Council to unite and "give a very strong political direction" to the opposing sides.
"Syria began the year in conflict, and ends the year in war," Ban said. "Day by day, the death toll has climbed. Month by month, the regional spillover has grown."
Few Back U.S. Military Role in Syria – But Support Jumps in Specific Cases -- ABC News
While Americans broadly prefer to stay out of direct involvement in the conflict in Syria, support for U.S. military action soars in the event of a loss of control of its chemical weapons, the use of such weapons on the Syrian people or an attack on neighboring U.S. allies.
Most in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll also say they’d support the imposition of a no-fly zone over Syria, provided U.S. ground forces are not involved.
The 15 Most Dangerous People In The World -- Danger Room
There used to be an established order to the world. A structure to things. You couldn't print a gun like a term paper. It was impossible to wreck a nuclear production plant with a few lines of code. Flying robots didn't descend on you in the dead of night and kill you in your home.
But that order has been upended. Cheap videos in California help spark riots in Cairo. Lynchpins of the Middle East now rant about 'Planet of the Apes' in public, and Iranian generals trash-talk David Petraeus over SMS. The world has gone a little haywire — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Here are our choices for the 15 people most responsible for making it that way.
Who did we miss? What did we get wrong? Sound off in the comments, or find us on Facebook or Twitter (we'll retweet the best suggestions). . Read more .... My Comment: Iran's Gen. Qassem Suleimani is on top of my list.
Photo: Frederick and Kimberly Kagan in Basra. Wikipedia
Civilian Analysts Gained Petraeus’s Ear While He Was Commander In Afghanistan -- Washington Post
Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, a husband-and-wife team of hawkish military analysts, put their jobs at influential Washington think tanks on hold for almost a year to work for Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Provided desks, e-mail accounts and top-level security clearances in Kabul, they pored through classified intelligence reports, participated in senior-level strategy sessions and probed the assessments of field officers in order to advise Petraeus about how to fight the war differently.
Their compensation from the U.S. government for their efforts, which often involved 18-hour workdays, seven days a week and dangerous battlefield visits?
My Comment: I have posted many of the Kagans commentaries in this blog over the years. And while I have disagreed on many of their observations and opinions, I have always valued point of view.
Senators: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ A ‘Dangerous’ Mix Of Fact, Fiction -- The Hill
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says the film “Zero Dark Thirty” is a combination of “fact, fiction and Hollywood” that dangerously links the use of torture with the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Feinstein and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) are sending a letter to Sony Pictures, the film studio distributing the Oscar contender, to make their complaints known.
“I thought it was terrible," said Feinstein, one of a handful of lawmakers to see the film ahead of its limited release this week. “It is a combination of fact, fiction and Hollywood in a very dangerous combination.”
My Comment: We are going down a very slippery slope if these Senators get there way. They may not agree with one of the film's premises(there is nothing wrong with that) .... but to send an official letter to the distributors of the film criticizing the decisions that they made in making the film opens doors of censorship and using political pressure on what can be filmed or not. I say let the public decide .... after-all .... we are the ultimate judges on what to watch (or not).
Africa Says It’s Ready To Conduct Own Missions – With West’s Money -- McClatchy News
NAIROBI, Kenya — When M23 rebels marched on the eastern Congolese city of Goma last month, the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping mission at first struck back like a force that costs $1.4 billion a year, pounding the advancing columns from the air. But as the Congolese army quickly dissolved, so did the U.N. resistance, and days later the rebels rolled into Goma with barely a fight.
Congo’s neighbors proposed a solution: If the United Nations was unwilling to put its 19,000 men more directly in the line of fire, African countries would send in 4,000 troops of their own to comb through the militia-ridden vacuum and eradicate the armed thugs. Read more .... My Comment: It is true that the West no longer has the political (or public) will to become directly involved in wars and conflicts a continent away. But if our allies are willing to do the dirty work .... as long as we pay the bill .... I say that this is an approach that we should (at least) investigate but with one very strict provision .... always be aware that Africa's wars are a mix of tribal and ethnic animosities that goes back generations and have nothing to do with us .... but if we become involved in supporting one side we may end creating millions of enemies and animosities that will then be directed at us.
Syrian refugees children warm themselves in a fireplace in the southern city of Sidon, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012. (The Daily Star/Mohammed Zaatari)
Tuberculosis Spreading Among Syrian Refugees -- Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanon appealed Monday to the international community to come forth with its promised aid to help it cope with an increasing influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the war in their country as several cases of tuberculosis have been discovered among the refugees.
In addition to the Syrian refugee crisis, fear of an increase in Palestinian refugees has arisen after hundreds Palestinian refugees living in Syria fled to Lebanon following clashes between Palestinian factions loyal to and opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad at a camp on the outskirts of Damascus.
Palestinians fleeing from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus are seen at a Lebanese border crossing with Syria on December 19, 2012. Press TV
Palestinians Flee Damascus Camp Battles In Droves -- AFP
BEIRUT — Talks were held on Wednesday aimed at removing both rebel and pro-government fighters from a Damascus Palestinian refugee camp after deadly clashes, a Palestinian relief official told AFP, as the UN spoke of residents fleeing in droves.
"Palestinian organisations that have remained neutral are overseeing talks between the (rebel) Free Syrian Army and Syrian troops, to keep the camp out of the conflict," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"So far, the talks have been unsuccessful."
A plan to put the Yarmuk refugee camp in the south of the Syrian capital under the control of "neutral" Palestinian officials is under discussion.
