Sunday, March 18, 2012
Iranian Advisors in Gaza
Sierra Leone Poised for Oil Production
Sierra Leone is slowly being transformed into an economic-hub in sub-saharan Africa with rapid developments in the areas of agriculture, mining and tourism. Foreign investors have been engaged in unprecedented ways to help change the economic fortune of this once war-torn state in West Africa. The recent investment by world-class companies like African Minerals has seen the country become one of the largest iron ore producers in the world. The country’s entire road network is facing a complete overhaul with new feeder roads being built to enhance trade locally and with neighbouring countries.
Afghanistan Should Have Been a 10-Day War
Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney says President Obama has failed in Afghanistan.N. Korea Vows to Launch Rocket
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Like Lips and Teeth? Maybe Not So Much
On Weather and Climate
Down by the Glenside
Russia Urges Syria to Support Annan
Chilling, Nazi-Like Remarks from Iran's FM
When Jews and Muslims Fought a Common Foe
Friday, March 16, 2012
Russia Condemns Nazi SS March in Latvia
Monday, 19 March 2012
Escalation of Proxy War
Iran is also again threatening to cut off the strategic Strait of Hormuz to oil shipping; and the West is bracing for Iranian acts of aggression, as reported here.
Notwithstanding its covert intervention in Gaza and Sinai and encroachment in Latin America, Iran's world on the whole is shrinking--economically and politically. Banking and trade ties are being cut or tightened; and the embattled Syrian regime, which Iran has steadfastly supported, may be on its last legs. At the very least, the Syrian strife, which every day seems more like a civil war, has permanently ended Iran's dream of establishing military/missile bases in Israel's northern neighbor. (Israel's other northern neighbor, Lebanon, is still dominated by Iranian proxy Hezbollah, which is bristling with missiles capable of striking all over Israel.)
All of which means Iran is increasingly likely to lash out at its adversaries--directly and indirectly. Foreign Confidential™ analysts believe Iran could be preparing to take action in Hormuz around the middle of April, in tandem with the planned long-range missile launch by Iran's proliferation partner, North Korea, which Iran is now believed to be heavily subsidizing.
Asymmetric threats and multiple crises, missiles and mines, and Mumbai-style swarming attacks … Iran intends to fight the coming war, which appeasement has made inevitable, on its terms.
Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma says his country is about to become an oil producing nation, as reported here.
Koroma is committed to striking a balance between natural resource development--Sierra Leone's potential in this regard is enormous--and environmental protection.
Sierra Leone's recovery from a long and particularly horrendous civil war is one of the planet's great peacemaking and peace-preserving success stories. The country is so stable, and the Sierra Leone Army has become so adept at peacekeeping, that it is now able to participate in peacekeeping missions in other countries. Click here to read about the forthcoming deployment of the Sierra Leone contingent of the African Union (AU) mission in Somalia, where Al Qaeda-affiliated, Islamist Al-Shabaab terrorists have been battling pro-government forces who have the support of AU-backed foreign forces.
Koroma is tomorrow's scheduled keynote speaker at the Times CEO Summit Africa conference. Ahmed M. Kamara reports:
Maybe so.
But his predecessor failed, too--miserably.
Fact is, the 10-years-old (and counting) war should have been a 10-day war. After 9/11, the United States should have formally declared war on Afghanistan and Al Qaeda--it would have been the first such declaration since World War II--and subjected the enemy to the most punishing aerial campaign since that conflict. The U.S. should have used all necessary means to utterly destroy the clerical fascist foe--and set an example for generations to come of the fate that befalls those who dare to attack the U.S. homeland.
But Bush blundered. He did too little too late, relying on elite forces and, incredibly, on notoriously unreliable Afghan warlords to dislodge, rather than destroy, the enemy, allowing Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden and their most senior commanders to flee into neighboring (nuclear-armed) Pakistan.
Bush then attacked Iraq instead of Iran.
But that's another story.
North Korea is defiantly vowing to launch a long-range ballistic missile, as reported here.
Foreign Confidential™ believes Pyongyang's proliferation partner, Iran, is encouraging--and financially supporting--the illegal launch in order to divert attention from Iran's nuclear program.
Moreover, in the event of an American or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites, there is a real possibility that North Korea will seize the opportunity to attack South Korea--and U.S. troops stationed there.
China put rare public pressure on ally North Korea regarding its planned ballistic missile launch. Click here for the story.
Warming Here, Cooling There ...
Paul Yeager writes:Reading any article based on statistics is a lesson in interpretation, and the latest global temperature statistics provide an opportunity for some differing opinions on the topic of the climate: While the United States had an exceptionally warm winter (fourth warmest) and global temperatures remained above average in February, global land areas were the coolest since 1994.
In other words, just as cold winter in the U.S. during the previous two years did not mean that it was cold globally, a warm U.S. winter this year didn't mean that it was warm globally. Determinations about global temperature trends need to be made based on global data, not the data in one part of the world.
The warmth in the U.S. in the winter (December through February) was exceptional, and it's a trend that has continued in earnest in March. However, the extreme cold affecting large portions of Europe from late January into February tempered the overall statistics, especially those for land surface temperatures.
Glory O, Glory O, to the Bold Fenian Men
Russia's foreign minister to Assad: Support Kofi Annan's UN-Arab League peacemeaking efforts "without delay." Read the news here.
Clerical Fascist Foreign Minister Says Israel
Can't Survive 'Week of Real War,' Describes
Israel as Arm of America, Iran's Real Enemy
Free Men: French Film Recalls Time When Some
Muslims and Jews Fought Together for Freedom
Click here to read George Robinson's review of Free Men; below, to view the trailer.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned the controversial commemoration of Latvian troops who fought on the side of Nazi Germany during World War II, which took place earlier on Friday in the Latvian capital Riga.
“Odious demonstrations by soldiers on whose conscience are numerous crimes were held against the backdrop of a mass propaganda campaign organized by the Latvian authorities to whitewash these so-called ‘fighters for Latvia’s freedom,’” the ministry said in a statement.
“A flagrant attempt to revise the truth about Nazi atrocities, to review the rulings of the Nuremberg Tribunal that condemned SS members cannot but cause indignation,” it said.
The ministry called on the international community to react to the attempts of the Latvian authorities to “rewrite history.”
Hundreds of Waffen SS veterans and their supporters held a march in the Latvian capital Riga on Friday to mark Legionnaires’ Day, which commemorates Latvians who fought for the Germans during World War II.
Latvian President Defends Event
Anti-fascist organizations all over the world decry the controversial event; but the annual holiday has its defenders, including Latvian President Andris Berzins, who has argued it is foolish to assume that Waffen SS veterans were criminals and that they deserve the public's respect.
A group of people, some dressed as Nazi concentration camp prisoners, gathered at Freedom Monument to protest the march.
Riga’s Duma had voted to ban the event, which honors veterans of the SS Latvian Legion but a court overturned the ban.
The Latvian Legion, formed by the Nazis in 1943, comprised two Waffen SS divisions.
UPDATE: Click here to read the … sympathetic … practically pro-Nazi … Reuters report on the perfidious parade. Where is the outrage? Why does Latvia honor Nazi murderers? Read more here.
From Bitburg to Riga
Fascism has been rearing its ugly head in Latvia for several years. In July 2010, for example, a Latvian court approved a Riga March celebrating Hitler’s 1941 Invasion. Police banned the event; but it went ahead with a wreath-laying at Riga’s Liberty Monument to celebrate the Nazi army’s arrival and warm welcome.
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