NYT: David Brooks searches the capital for "leadership" and "authority", comes up short
"I’ve spoken with several House Republicans over the past few days and most admirably believe in free-market principles. What’s sad is that they still think it’s 1984. They still think the biggest threat comes from socialism and Walter Mondale liberalism. They seem not to have noticed how global capital flows have transformed our political economy."
Wonkette: but Mr Brooks hasn't gotten the memo: it's all over [but hey, still outlasted the commies]
"Well, shit. Fun while it lasted, right? For us, anyways — the elites who had the MacBooks and iPhones and flat-screen teevees and cars and hot water and, uh, food. Pretty much sucked for the other 5 billion, but whatever, it’s all academic now. Ha, not really, because there will be no more academics."
NYT: pirates unaffected by economic crisis
Gdn: but facing their own crisis of leadership - arrgh (since when do pirates use guns instead of planks?)
"Three Somali pirates have been shot dead during an argument over what to do with a hijacked Ukrainian ship and its cargo of 33 tanks, a maritime group said today."
NYT: and, the Navy's on their tail
Slate: high-end prostitutes find niche in crumbling economy: comforting the losers
Slate: could be an omitted variable in the 'why aren't more bankers jumping out windows' analysis
BBC: oh, ohio. get it right this time.
30 September 2008
29 September 2008
deconstruction [shiva clocks overtime]
NYT: burning out insurgents in Chechnya
"In a campaign to punish families with sons suspected of supporting the insurgency, at least a dozen homes have been set ablaze since midsummer, residents and a local human rights organization said.
"[Pankisi Gorge, with its] fruit orchards and towering mountains has not been stable for long. During the Chechen war, it became a base for fighters making excursions into Chechnya and attracted a stream of money and fighters from Muslim nations. For years, it was a lawless pocket where men strode through villages with automatic weapons strapped to their bodies and where street shootings were common. At one point, Russia dropped bombs here to wipe out the fighters.
"Ms. Kakar, with the rank of captain, was head of Kandahar’s department of crimes against women. She joined the police in the city in 1982, following in the footsteps of her father and brothers, but was forced out after the Taliban captured Kandahar in the mid-1990s and barred all women from working.
Reuters: car bomb in Tripoli kills 5
LAT: code of honor survives in Albania
"Many still live at least in part by the Kanun, a code handed down through the centuries in which "besa" -- loosely translated as word of honor or sacred promise -- is paramount. The code was adhered to by Albania's Muslim majority and Catholic and Orthodox Christian minorities.
Econ: whites leaving South Africa's violent crime
NYT: hurricane recovery as opportunity in Cuba
WP: Ecuadorans approve new constitution
NYT: conflict lingers in Bolivia
"Increasingly, the question confronting Bolivia, a country of deep ethnic and geographical divisions, is how they will wield that power, and whether Mr. Morales can redress the historical grievances of Bolivia’s indigenous majority while keeping his country from descending into chaos...
LAT: decoding men's headbands in Iraq
"Like the people who wear the agal and for whom it is a crucial part of daily dress -- everyone from rural farmers to Arab kings -- the headband's history is intriguing for its mix of tragedy and toughness. Some say it evolved from the collapse of Islamic rule in Andalusia. One version says the caliph ordered men to wear black headbands in mourning. Another says that distraught women tore their hair out and hurled it at men to show their rage at the men's inability to protect Islam. The men then wrapped the locks of black hair around their heads in shame and sorrow.
NYT: maybe McCain should use his own height logic to support universal health care in the US
"In a campaign to punish families with sons suspected of supporting the insurgency, at least a dozen homes have been set ablaze since midsummer, residents and a local human rights organization said.
The burnings have been accompanied by a program, embraced by Ramzan A. Kadyrov, Chechnya’s president, that has forced visibly frightened parents of insurgents to appear on television and beg their sons to return home...
The burnings have occurred in several districts or towns — including Alleroi, Geldagan, Khidi-Khutor, Kurchaloi, Samashki, Shali, Shatoi, Nikikhita and Tsenteroi — suggesting that the arsonists have been operating with precise information and with a degree of impunity in a republic that is crowded with police and military units.
Residents and the human rights organization said that the impunity was unsurprising, because the arsonists appeared to be members of the police...
In a series of state-run news programs this summer in Chechnya, senior officials spoke openly of the collective responsibility of people whose relatives have joined the insurgency, and of collective punishment."
WP: Chechen refugees in Georgia fear Russians again"[Pankisi Gorge, with its] fruit orchards and towering mountains has not been stable for long. During the Chechen war, it became a base for fighters making excursions into Chechnya and attracted a stream of money and fighters from Muslim nations. For years, it was a lawless pocket where men strode through villages with automatic weapons strapped to their bodies and where street shootings were common. At one point, Russia dropped bombs here to wipe out the fighters.
Then, after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States began a $64 million program to train and equip Georgian forces to help root out suspected al-Qaeda agents -- a program that eventually expanded into a general training program for the Georgian army. The valley is now under the Georgian police's control, and locals say the "Arabians" who had settled here have melted away.
The war last month did not reach the valley, and Georgian officials say the helicopters spotted by the locals were most likely Georgian, conducting routine border patrols. But for Chechens living here, seeing Russian tanks cross into Georgia reawakened old fears. It also brought surprise. Some recalled watching TV reports of Russian tanks near the capital and finding it strange to see no resistance from the Georgians, not even a rock thrown.
Chechens would never have let that happen, said Lia Margoshvili, a Georgian Chechen who works with refugees here. "Chechen kids, when they're in fifth or sixth grade, they learn that they have to kill Russians -- but the Georgian kids, they learn, I don't know, books or something."
BBC: opposition in Belarus does not win one parliamentary seat in "election"
BBC: Lukashenko's days on the farm prepared him to be dictator
"His experience at the farm is what keeps him in power today," Mr Gulyaev says.
"Under that system, the director of the collective farm was equal to God, the tsar and the commander-in-chief. His word is the law, and no-one can argue with him."
NYT: policewoman killed by Taliban in Afghanistan"Ms. Kakar, with the rank of captain, was head of Kandahar’s department of crimes against women. She joined the police in the city in 1982, following in the footsteps of her father and brothers, but was forced out after the Taliban captured Kandahar in the mid-1990s and barred all women from working.
She was the first female police officer in the country to return to work after the Taliban were ousted. Her commitment was particularly notable for the fact that it took place in Kandahar, which became the headquarters for the Taliban soon after the movement was formed in the early 1990s."
BBC: forming self-defense militias in Pakistani villages
"Tribal elders gather in a mammoth meeting place, or jirga hall, to tell us why they support the military offensive.
They accuse the Pakistani Taleban of setting up a parallel state in Bajaur, undermining the traditional tribal leadership. They say they've exhausted all attempts at negotiating a peaceful solution to the problem."
WP: several attacks in Baghdad leave 27 dead
Reuters: car bomb in Tripoli kills 5
LAT: code of honor survives in Albania
"Many still live at least in part by the Kanun, a code handed down through the centuries in which "besa" -- loosely translated as word of honor or sacred promise -- is paramount. The code was adhered to by Albania's Muslim majority and Catholic and Orthodox Christian minorities.
The code covers everything from inheritances and the rights of the church to the treatment of livestock. Disobeying the Kanun could lead to harsh penalties that might include banishment or the transgressor's household being burned. A slight could lead to a blood feud that lasted for generations.
In Theth, nobody will sell land to an outsider, or even to another villager. Brides must come from outside the valley, a tradition that follows along the lines of the Kanun's rule that marriage within the same clan is forbidden.
"The Kanun is the law. Just like the state law," explains Gjovalin Lokthi, 39, a gruff "kryeplak," or elected chief of the village...
The Kanun has survived despite four decades of communist rule after World War II, with hardships such as mass imprisonment in labor camps and attempts to stamp out tribal practices."
WP: 52 Somalis die at sea trying to reach YemenEcon: whites leaving South Africa's violent crime
NYT: hurricane recovery as opportunity in Cuba
WP: Ecuadorans approve new constitution
NYT: conflict lingers in Bolivia
"Increasingly, the question confronting Bolivia, a country of deep ethnic and geographical divisions, is how they will wield that power, and whether Mr. Morales can redress the historical grievances of Bolivia’s indigenous majority while keeping his country from descending into chaos...
As violent as his opponents have sometimes been, they charge that Mr. Morales is achieving much of this by running roughshod over them. They say he has ignored court rulings that challenge his policies and used some of the same intimidation tactics he honed as a leader of the powerful coca growers unions before he was elected president.
As such tactics spread on both sides, fears are growing throughout the region that Bolivia’s crisis could produce, if not civil war, then pockets of fierce conflict across its rebellious tropical lowlands, which are an important source of natural gas and food for neighboring countries."
Slate: the history (and future?) of humanitarian interventionLAT: decoding men's headbands in Iraq
"Like the people who wear the agal and for whom it is a crucial part of daily dress -- everyone from rural farmers to Arab kings -- the headband's history is intriguing for its mix of tragedy and toughness. Some say it evolved from the collapse of Islamic rule in Andalusia. One version says the caliph ordered men to wear black headbands in mourning. Another says that distraught women tore their hair out and hurled it at men to show their rage at the men's inability to protect Islam. The men then wrapped the locks of black hair around their heads in shame and sorrow.
In the most practical version, Bedouins carried the black bands on their heads in case ropes were needed to secure their camels."
BBC: Maoists cancel Ms. Nepal pageant
NYT: maybe McCain should use his own height logic to support universal health care in the US
27 September 2008
of state-building and service-providing [unlikely saboteurs]
WP: NATO devising 'surge' of state-building in Afghanistan
"NATO alliance troops facing ever more aggressive Taliban insurgents are planning a winter "development surge" of civil works projects in eastern Afghanistan designed to win over tribes in regions near the Pakistan border and to prevent their sons from joining the Taliban's ranks, according to military officials here."
Slate: but the current programs have some perverse problems
"This is a country in which all the best people are being hired away from the national government by the alphabet soup of aid agencies on the ground; in which the same alphabet soup of aid agencies is driving up real-estate and food prices; in which millions of dollars are squandered on dubious contractors, both local and foreign; in which the minister for rural development says he doesn't know what all the NATO reconstruction teams in rural districts do; in which the top U.N. official, given a mandate to coordinate the donors, says the donors don't respond to his attempts to coordinate them...
Conflicting agendas, overlapping projects, money badly spent. We've been here before, many times, and the conclusions are always the same. Some of them have been recently restated by a former Afghan minister of finance, Ashraf Ghani, and his co-author, Clare Lockhart, in their book Fixing Failed States. Its central argument: Well-meaning foreigners should not fix roads; they should teach the Afghan government how to fix roads, thus helping it acquire legitimacy. Foreigners shouldn't feed Afghans, either; rather, they should develop Afghan agriculture so the Afghans can feed themselves, export their surplus, and thus develop a stake in the rule of law."
WP: census of Baghdad enclave raises fears among residents
"The document asked for a copy of the deed to his house, his children's names and, most disturbing, the name of his tribe, which identifies his religion and ethnicity. In Iraq, such a request has often been the first step toward death...The forms were part of an effort to enhance the rule of law and encourage reconciliation by identifying residents living in houses that had been emptied by sectarian cleansing and prodding them to return to their own neighborhoods.
NYT: Burma increases security ahead of year anniversary of protests
BBC: has anything changed?
"Meanwhile the military appears to be continuing with its political plans as if the protests had never happened.
Reuters: pirates demand $35 million ransom for Ukrainian ship
Gdn: bombs in Damascus and Delhi
BBC: Ecuadorans vote tomorrow on sweeping constitutional changes
"These are some of the more controversial proposals:
"The measure was passed unanimously by the People's Council, a group of 2,500 tribal elders and local lawmakers...However, exiles and observers said the measures were superficial, leaving President Berdymukhamedov free to rule by decree."
Gdn: judge opens inquiry into Republican repression during Spanish Civil War
"The names of those killed on the orders of Republican tribunals or by leftwing or anarchist death squads are readily available as they were gathered during Franco's 36-year dictatorship. Franco's courts dealt with many of the perpetrators of those atrocities - often by sending them to the firing squad...Many campaigners say it is too late for the perpetrators of the repression carried out by Franco's side to be put on trial as the people involved are mostly dead and the crimes are covered by a 1977 amnesty law."
BBC: memoir of museum-based resistance in WWII France purchased on ebay
"With her artist's eye, her self-deprecating humour, her talent for spotting the absurd and her palpable sense of outrage, Humbert was an irresistible companion, who offered a riveting day-by-day account of the genesis of the Resistance...That stifling summer, in a leap of blind faith and reckless courage, she and a handful of her distinguished colleagues at the Musée de l'Homme - eminent ethnographers and Egyptologists, linguists and librarians - formed what was almost certainly the very first organized Resistance group. It was as though the upper echelons of the British Museum had turned to new careers as urban guerrillas and saboteurs."
WP: Zulu virginity testing continues despite ban in South Africa
"The debate over virginity testing is an example of the clash common throughout Africa as governments try to regulate traditional practices that have long held sway, particularly in rural areas. Legal experts say the topic is particularly complex in post-apartheid South Africa, where patriarchal tribal cultures have dusted off long-stifled traditions under one of the world's most progressive constitutions, which lauds diversity but requires cultural customs to bend to individual rights."
NYT: test your specialty with squirt guns
"NATO alliance troops facing ever more aggressive Taliban insurgents are planning a winter "development surge" of civil works projects in eastern Afghanistan designed to win over tribes in regions near the Pakistan border and to prevent their sons from joining the Taliban's ranks, according to military officials here."
Slate: but the current programs have some perverse problems
"This is a country in which all the best people are being hired away from the national government by the alphabet soup of aid agencies on the ground; in which the same alphabet soup of aid agencies is driving up real-estate and food prices; in which millions of dollars are squandered on dubious contractors, both local and foreign; in which the minister for rural development says he doesn't know what all the NATO reconstruction teams in rural districts do; in which the top U.N. official, given a mandate to coordinate the donors, says the donors don't respond to his attempts to coordinate them...
Conflicting agendas, overlapping projects, money badly spent. We've been here before, many times, and the conclusions are always the same. Some of them have been recently restated by a former Afghan minister of finance, Ashraf Ghani, and his co-author, Clare Lockhart, in their book Fixing Failed States. Its central argument: Well-meaning foreigners should not fix roads; they should teach the Afghan government how to fix roads, thus helping it acquire legitimacy. Foreigners shouldn't feed Afghans, either; rather, they should develop Afghan agriculture so the Afghans can feed themselves, export their surplus, and thus develop a stake in the rule of law."
WP: census of Baghdad enclave raises fears among residents
"The document asked for a copy of the deed to his house, his children's names and, most disturbing, the name of his tribe, which identifies his religion and ethnicity. In Iraq, such a request has often been the first step toward death...The forms were part of an effort to enhance the rule of law and encourage reconciliation by identifying residents living in houses that had been emptied by sectarian cleansing and prodding them to return to their own neighborhoods.
NYT: Burma increases security ahead of year anniversary of protests
BBC: has anything changed?
"Meanwhile the military appears to be continuing with its political plans as if the protests had never happened.
It is pressing ahead with its new constitution and so-called "roadmap for democracy", which promises an eventual elected government but has already been labeled a sham by the international community."
BBC: ICC chief prosecutor ignores criticism, remains steadfast on indictment of al-BashirReuters: pirates demand $35 million ransom for Ukrainian ship
Gdn: bombs in Damascus and Delhi
BBC: Ecuadorans vote tomorrow on sweeping constitutional changes
"These are some of the more controversial proposals:
- The state to tighten control of vital industries such as oil, mining and telecommunications and reduce monopolies
- Some foreign loans to be declared illegitimate, which could allow the government to stop debt repayments
- The state allowed to expropriate and redistribute idle farm land and ban large land-holdings
- The president allowed to stand for a second four-year term in office
- Free health care for older citizens
- Civil marriage for gay partners"
"The measure was passed unanimously by the People's Council, a group of 2,500 tribal elders and local lawmakers...However, exiles and observers said the measures were superficial, leaving President Berdymukhamedov free to rule by decree."
Gdn: judge opens inquiry into Republican repression during Spanish Civil War
"The names of those killed on the orders of Republican tribunals or by leftwing or anarchist death squads are readily available as they were gathered during Franco's 36-year dictatorship. Franco's courts dealt with many of the perpetrators of those atrocities - often by sending them to the firing squad...Many campaigners say it is too late for the perpetrators of the repression carried out by Franco's side to be put on trial as the people involved are mostly dead and the crimes are covered by a 1977 amnesty law."
BBC: memoir of museum-based resistance in WWII France purchased on ebay
"With her artist's eye, her self-deprecating humour, her talent for spotting the absurd and her palpable sense of outrage, Humbert was an irresistible companion, who offered a riveting day-by-day account of the genesis of the Resistance...That stifling summer, in a leap of blind faith and reckless courage, she and a handful of her distinguished colleagues at the Musée de l'Homme - eminent ethnographers and Egyptologists, linguists and librarians - formed what was almost certainly the very first organized Resistance group. It was as though the upper echelons of the British Museum had turned to new careers as urban guerrillas and saboteurs."
WP: Zulu virginity testing continues despite ban in South Africa
"The debate over virginity testing is an example of the clash common throughout Africa as governments try to regulate traditional practices that have long held sway, particularly in rural areas. Legal experts say the topic is particularly complex in post-apartheid South Africa, where patriarchal tribal cultures have dusted off long-stifled traditions under one of the world's most progressive constitutions, which lauds diversity but requires cultural customs to bend to individual rights."
NYT: test your specialty with squirt guns
26 September 2008
collective (in)action [fire up the bat signal]
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24 September 2008
multilateral (ir)relevance [generally assembling]
LAT: Italy deploys troops after mafia violence near Naples
"This time authorities are responding to months of deadly violence attributed to the Casalesi, a Camorra clan whose wild, swaggering exploits contrast with the brutal but more disciplined and discreet style of the Sicilian Mafia. Recent killings in Castelvolturno, a hub of the drug trade in Caserta province, also reflects the new ethnic structure of a criminal underworld that is being reshaped by immigration.
On Thursday, four men killed the owner of an amusement arcade in Castelvolturno. The assailants then drove to a clothing store operated by West African immigrants and fired hundreds of rounds into the store, killing three Ghanians, two Liberians and a man from Togo. On Monday, police arrested a suspect linked to the Casalesi clan.
The slayings set off riots by African immigrants, tens of thousands of whom have settled in the region.
Prosecutors suspect that the shootings stemmed from a clash over drug turf. As cocaine smuggled into Europe increasingly arrives via West Africa, criminals from that region have carved out a role in the underworld in places such as Caserta. The Neapolitan mafia collects "taxes" from Africans, Albanians and other immigrant gangs engaged in drug dealing, prostitution and other crimes in its territory."
BBC: Pakistan police kill 6 in protests against military operations in the northwest
BBC: group claims responsibility for suicide bomb in Islamabad last week
WP: Afghanistan wants joint operations with US and Pakistan
CSM: Iraq insurgents underground, not gone
"Facing a local population that has grown intolerant of AQI's indiscriminate acts of violence, many operatives like Mr. Wasit have gone underground – some have even formed sleeper cells in the Iraqi security forces. Members now only emerge from hiding to conduct high-profile attacks. Though this strategic shift has created an apparently less active AQI, the group has not given up the fight in Iraq and will likely remain a threat here for years."
BBC: UN says LRA has 90 child hostages in Congo
BBC: Nigeria militants claim air attacks have been launched against them, 3 days after they enacted a unilateral cease-fire
"[The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta] declared a ceasefire after appeals from local leaders, but it warned it would end the truce if attacked by the army again.
BBC: Somalia, other war-torn countries, top new ranking of most corrupt states
NYT: Burma political prisoner freed after 19 years in solitary confinement
BBC: fighting escalates in northern Sri Lanka as troops move against the LTTE; UN aid worker recounts withdrawal
BBC: the distribution of East Timor's resource wealth
"Oil and gas revenues currently make up more than 95% of the government's income and there is a pressing need to create a more stable mainstream economy for when those resources run out.
"Our country cannot accept a donation from the government that blockades us," [Fidel Castro] wrote recently in Granma, the party's daily newspaper. "The damage of thousands of lives, suffering, and more than $200 billion that the blockade and the aggression of the Yankees has cost us -- they can't pay for that with anything."
But, the aid conversation on the US side might open opportunity to soften or end the embargo.
Gdn: Japan confirms Taro Aso new prime minister
BBC: Luo politicians undergo circumcision, against tradition, to support anti-HIV measures in Kenya
Gdn: landmark: it's the last time Bush will ever represent the US at the UN General Assembly
"The US president - who ultimately ignored the UN in pressing ahead with the 2003 invasion of Iraq - said the scale of the threat illustrated that the UN and other multilateral organisations 'are needed more urgently than ever.'"
"This time authorities are responding to months of deadly violence attributed to the Casalesi, a Camorra clan whose wild, swaggering exploits contrast with the brutal but more disciplined and discreet style of the Sicilian Mafia. Recent killings in Castelvolturno, a hub of the drug trade in Caserta province, also reflects the new ethnic structure of a criminal underworld that is being reshaped by immigration.
On Thursday, four men killed the owner of an amusement arcade in Castelvolturno. The assailants then drove to a clothing store operated by West African immigrants and fired hundreds of rounds into the store, killing three Ghanians, two Liberians and a man from Togo. On Monday, police arrested a suspect linked to the Casalesi clan.
The slayings set off riots by African immigrants, tens of thousands of whom have settled in the region.
Prosecutors suspect that the shootings stemmed from a clash over drug turf. As cocaine smuggled into Europe increasingly arrives via West Africa, criminals from that region have carved out a role in the underworld in places such as Caserta. The Neapolitan mafia collects "taxes" from Africans, Albanians and other immigrant gangs engaged in drug dealing, prostitution and other crimes in its territory."
BBC: Pakistan police kill 6 in protests against military operations in the northwest
BBC: group claims responsibility for suicide bomb in Islamabad last week
WP: Afghanistan wants joint operations with US and Pakistan
CSM: Iraq insurgents underground, not gone
"Facing a local population that has grown intolerant of AQI's indiscriminate acts of violence, many operatives like Mr. Wasit have gone underground – some have even formed sleeper cells in the Iraqi security forces. Members now only emerge from hiding to conduct high-profile attacks. Though this strategic shift has created an apparently less active AQI, the group has not given up the fight in Iraq and will likely remain a threat here for years."
BBC: UN says LRA has 90 child hostages in Congo
BBC: Nigeria militants claim air attacks have been launched against them, 3 days after they enacted a unilateral cease-fire
"[The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta] declared a ceasefire after appeals from local leaders, but it warned it would end the truce if attacked by the army again.
"Mend will not play into the hands of the military by retaliating and putting the peace process in jeopardy at this time," the group said in an e-mailed statement, Reuters news agency reports."
BBC: violence flares in Mogadishu, peacekeepers targetedBBC: Somalia, other war-torn countries, top new ranking of most corrupt states
NYT: Burma political prisoner freed after 19 years in solitary confinement
BBC: fighting escalates in northern Sri Lanka as troops move against the LTTE; UN aid worker recounts withdrawal
BBC: the distribution of East Timor's resource wealth
"Oil and gas revenues currently make up more than 95% of the government's income and there is a pressing need to create a more stable mainstream economy for when those resources run out.
But most of the extra money in this year's budget was to enable the government to subsidise rice and fuel prices - not exactly a contribution to Timor's long-term growth.
And the finance minister herself admits this was more about avoiding potential instability than building a future economy."
Gdn: anti-government blogger imprisoned in Malaysia
"Our country cannot accept a donation from the government that blockades us," [Fidel Castro] wrote recently in Granma, the party's daily newspaper. "The damage of thousands of lives, suffering, and more than $200 billion that the blockade and the aggression of the Yankees has cost us -- they can't pay for that with anything."
But, the aid conversation on the US side might open opportunity to soften or end the embargo.
Gdn: Japan confirms Taro Aso new prime minister
BBC: Luo politicians undergo circumcision, against tradition, to support anti-HIV measures in Kenya
Gdn: landmark: it's the last time Bush will ever represent the US at the UN General Assembly
"The US president - who ultimately ignored the UN in pressing ahead with the 2003 invasion of Iraq - said the scale of the threat illustrated that the UN and other multilateral organisations 'are needed more urgently than ever.'"
22 September 2008
sideshows [good for managing people]
WP: Taliban runs "parallel state" in Afghanistan
"The new Taliban movement has created a parallel government structure that includes defense and finance councils and appoints judges and officials in some areas. It offers cash to recruits and presents letters of introduction to local leaders. It operates Web sites and a 24-hour propaganda apparatus that spins every military incident faster than Afghan and Western officials can manage...Today's Taliban also has a much greater degree of formal organization. The old Taliban was disastrous at governing, and ministries were run by barefoot mullahs who scribbled orders on scraps of paper. The new Taliban structure has councils for each area of governance, appoints officials in controlled areas and confers swift justice for crimes and disputes."
Slate: but a 'surge' won't work there
"...any tactical advantage reaped from killing jihadists across the border is far outweighed by the strategic disaster unleashed as a result of intensifying anti-American sentiment, radicalizing the Pakistani population, and further alienating—possibly destabilizing—its new civilian government...Pakistan is not a sideshow to Afghanistan. It is the main show, dwarfing every other problem in the region. To deal with it, we can do one of two things. We can declare war on Pakistan—an option for which we lack the will, the allies, the resources, the troops, and (let's hope) the sheer suicidal idiocy. Or we can coordinate a region-wide campaign of pressures and incentives—political, economic, diplomatic, and military—with as many concerned powers as possible, including, yes, the Shiite leaders of Iran, who must have less interest than even we do in seeing radical Sunni jihadists take over huge chunks, if not all, of Pakistan...
The ultimate military goal [in Afghanistan]—one lesson from Petraeus' strategy in Iraq that is worth learning and might be applicable—is to protect the Afghan population, and that requires putting a lot of troops in the neighborhoods of towns and villages, to provide security and build trust. It might be possible to do this in Afghanistan, just as it was done in many Iraqi neighborhoods with one important difference—it has to be done by the Afghan National Army, not by us."
Econ: and expanding the front into Pakistan's FATA won't help
"Yet it is true that Afghanistan will never know peace while the tribal areas provide a haven for insurgents. Force will be part of the solution. But, as Mr Zardari knows, there also needs to be a comprehensive plan to develop the region—building roads and providing buses, schools and hospitals, but also dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and, eventually, integrating the FATA fully into Pakistan proper. America’s cross-border pressure may have been intended in part to impress upon Pakistan’s leaders the urgency of the military aspect."
NYT: fallout from deadly bombing in Islamabad
BBC: playing both sides: Pakistan says it will continue push into the FATA
BBC: and against US troops near border
WP: Karzai to meet Palin
"Palin, governor of Alaska for two years, has had limited experience abroad. She took one trip to Germany, Kuwait and Iraq in 2007, but barely crossed the Iraq border. She has also traveled to Canada. Democrats have mocked Palin for citing knowledge of Russia because she can see the nation from her home state."
NYT: delicate equilibrium in Iraq
"But if this is not peace, it is not war, either — at least not the war I knew. When I left Iraq in the summer of 2006, after living three and a half years here following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, I believed that evil had triumphed, and that it would be many years before it might be stopped. Iraq, filled with so many people living so close together, nurturing dark and unknowable grievances, seemed destined for a ghastly unraveling.
"Bolivia's polarization has reached the point where "defense" bands -- some call them militias -- are popping up here in the defiant lowlands and in the pro-government high plains to the west.
...Mob violence has been the inevitable outcome of the jump in the number of Bolivians aligned with one faction or another.
Both sides in the conflict insist that they are defending their regions, and their very identities, in a nation split by social, geographic and ethnic rifts.
In Santa Cruz, a semitropical city of 1.2 million that is the epicenter of the opposition to Morales, Ruiz has become the posthumous inspiration for the youthful militants of the right. His slaying is seen as a call to the barricades against the collas (pronounced COY-yas), as Indians from the mountainous west are disparagingly called by Santa Cruz natives, known as cambas."
WP: settling Tibetan nomads in China
"Settlement policies vary, and their effect on the social fabric of nomadic communities is complex. In many places, nomads have been encouraged to give up their animals, leading to reduced incomes, a rise in alcoholism and other social costs. A lack of planning has resulted in some settlements lacking water or power, officials admit. In many cases, nomads are ill-equipped to compete with Chinese migrant workers for jobs in nearby cities, and there has been insufficient retraining, experts said. The government has relocated hundreds of thousands of nomads in towns and cities in recent years, drawing them with government-subsidized housing and other incentives...[One settled nomad said,] 'It's also good for managing people. In the past, if government officials wanted to hold a meeting, it would take a long time to inform nomads who are scattered all over. And of course, if the government senses a bad thing is going to happen, it's quite easy to mobilize forces to surround a settlement. Then nothing will happen.'"
BBC: Sri Lanka begins census of displaced Tamils in Colombo
"The government says the rebel Tamil Tigers are using the influx of people to infiltrate the city and plant bombs."
Gdn: ETA bombing claims life of Spanish soldier
Gdn: Spain to open graves from the civil war
CSM: monks taking the long view: preparing children for dissent in Burma
WP: Mbeki resigns
"Mbeki, a top government leader since the end of apartheid in 1994, had faced increasing pressure to resign after a judge's ruling suggested his administration had schemed to charge his rival, Jacob Zuma, with corruption. Mbeki was due to step down after next year's national elections, and Zuma is expected to win his job."
LAT: Olmert resigns
WP: modern art in Tehran
"'Many people think I'm insane. Why would one man spend his money on students? Why is the entrance free of charge? But when they come here and see the museum, they tell me there should be much more of these places in Iran,' Motamedi said."
NYT: work, play, and religion in Dubai
Slate: attention witches: go underground until Wall St. sorts it all out
AP: Dick can't destroy the documents
"The new Taliban movement has created a parallel government structure that includes defense and finance councils and appoints judges and officials in some areas. It offers cash to recruits and presents letters of introduction to local leaders. It operates Web sites and a 24-hour propaganda apparatus that spins every military incident faster than Afghan and Western officials can manage...Today's Taliban also has a much greater degree of formal organization. The old Taliban was disastrous at governing, and ministries were run by barefoot mullahs who scribbled orders on scraps of paper. The new Taliban structure has councils for each area of governance, appoints officials in controlled areas and confers swift justice for crimes and disputes."
Slate: but a 'surge' won't work there
"...any tactical advantage reaped from killing jihadists across the border is far outweighed by the strategic disaster unleashed as a result of intensifying anti-American sentiment, radicalizing the Pakistani population, and further alienating—possibly destabilizing—its new civilian government...Pakistan is not a sideshow to Afghanistan. It is the main show, dwarfing every other problem in the region. To deal with it, we can do one of two things. We can declare war on Pakistan—an option for which we lack the will, the allies, the resources, the troops, and (let's hope) the sheer suicidal idiocy. Or we can coordinate a region-wide campaign of pressures and incentives—political, economic, diplomatic, and military—with as many concerned powers as possible, including, yes, the Shiite leaders of Iran, who must have less interest than even we do in seeing radical Sunni jihadists take over huge chunks, if not all, of Pakistan...
The ultimate military goal [in Afghanistan]—one lesson from Petraeus' strategy in Iraq that is worth learning and might be applicable—is to protect the Afghan population, and that requires putting a lot of troops in the neighborhoods of towns and villages, to provide security and build trust. It might be possible to do this in Afghanistan, just as it was done in many Iraqi neighborhoods with one important difference—it has to be done by the Afghan National Army, not by us."
Econ: and expanding the front into Pakistan's FATA won't help
"Yet it is true that Afghanistan will never know peace while the tribal areas provide a haven for insurgents. Force will be part of the solution. But, as Mr Zardari knows, there also needs to be a comprehensive plan to develop the region—building roads and providing buses, schools and hospitals, but also dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and, eventually, integrating the FATA fully into Pakistan proper. America’s cross-border pressure may have been intended in part to impress upon Pakistan’s leaders the urgency of the military aspect."
NYT: fallout from deadly bombing in Islamabad
BBC: playing both sides: Pakistan says it will continue push into the FATA
BBC: and against US troops near border
WP: Karzai to meet Palin
"Palin, governor of Alaska for two years, has had limited experience abroad. She took one trip to Germany, Kuwait and Iraq in 2007, but barely crossed the Iraq border. She has also traveled to Canada. Democrats have mocked Palin for citing knowledge of Russia because she can see the nation from her home state."
NYT: delicate equilibrium in Iraq
"But if this is not peace, it is not war, either — at least not the war I knew. When I left Iraq in the summer of 2006, after living three and a half years here following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, I believed that evil had triumphed, and that it would be many years before it might be stopped. Iraq, filled with so many people living so close together, nurturing dark and unknowable grievances, seemed destined for a ghastly unraveling.
And now, in the late summer of 2008, comes the calm. Violence has dropped by as much as 90 percent. A handful of the five million Iraqis who fled their homes — one-sixth of all Iraqis — are beginning to return. The mornings, once punctuated by the sounds of exploding bombs, are still. Is it possible that the rage, the thirst for revenge, the sectarian furies, have begun to fade? That Iraqis have been exhausted and frightened by what they have seen?"
LAT: regional paramilitary groups cropping up in Bolivia"Bolivia's polarization has reached the point where "defense" bands -- some call them militias -- are popping up here in the defiant lowlands and in the pro-government high plains to the west.
...Mob violence has been the inevitable outcome of the jump in the number of Bolivians aligned with one faction or another.
Both sides in the conflict insist that they are defending their regions, and their very identities, in a nation split by social, geographic and ethnic rifts.
In Santa Cruz, a semitropical city of 1.2 million that is the epicenter of the opposition to Morales, Ruiz has become the posthumous inspiration for the youthful militants of the right. His slaying is seen as a call to the barricades against the collas (pronounced COY-yas), as Indians from the mountainous west are disparagingly called by Santa Cruz natives, known as cambas."
WP: settling Tibetan nomads in China
"Settlement policies vary, and their effect on the social fabric of nomadic communities is complex. In many places, nomads have been encouraged to give up their animals, leading to reduced incomes, a rise in alcoholism and other social costs. A lack of planning has resulted in some settlements lacking water or power, officials admit. In many cases, nomads are ill-equipped to compete with Chinese migrant workers for jobs in nearby cities, and there has been insufficient retraining, experts said. The government has relocated hundreds of thousands of nomads in towns and cities in recent years, drawing them with government-subsidized housing and other incentives...[One settled nomad said,] 'It's also good for managing people. In the past, if government officials wanted to hold a meeting, it would take a long time to inform nomads who are scattered all over. And of course, if the government senses a bad thing is going to happen, it's quite easy to mobilize forces to surround a settlement. Then nothing will happen.'"
BBC: Sri Lanka begins census of displaced Tamils in Colombo
"The government says the rebel Tamil Tigers are using the influx of people to infiltrate the city and plant bombs."
Gdn: ETA bombing claims life of Spanish soldier
Gdn: Spain to open graves from the civil war
CSM: monks taking the long view: preparing children for dissent in Burma
WP: Mbeki resigns
"Mbeki, a top government leader since the end of apartheid in 1994, had faced increasing pressure to resign after a judge's ruling suggested his administration had schemed to charge his rival, Jacob Zuma, with corruption. Mbeki was due to step down after next year's national elections, and Zuma is expected to win his job."
LAT: Olmert resigns
WP: modern art in Tehran
"'Many people think I'm insane. Why would one man spend his money on students? Why is the entrance free of charge? But when they come here and see the museum, they tell me there should be much more of these places in Iran,' Motamedi said."
NYT: work, play, and religion in Dubai
Slate: attention witches: go underground until Wall St. sorts it all out
AP: Dick can't destroy the documents
15 September 2008
que viva [shouting for something]
LAT: marking independence with a bang: bomb kills 7 in Michoacan state, Mexico
LAT: 21 dead in Tijuana prison riots
"The prison has seen several uprisings in recent years as state officials have been unable to improve overcrowded conditions and control guard brutality and corruption."
LAT: breakdown of Mexico's police agencies
LAT: the police in charge of policing the police
LAT: massive arrest of 175 suspected Gulf Cartel members in the US
WP: Chavez's aides accused of collaborating with FARC
WP: HRW says Chavez undermining democracy in Venezuela too
"Since [2002], Chávez has used the putsch bid to harangue opponents, enact laws restricting the news media and justify discriminatory policies at the state oil company and other institutions, the report said."
LAT: violence in Bolivia
CSM: where rivals try to broker deal
Gdn: police raid homes in Muslim area of Delhi after bombs, kill 2 suspects
"In protest local shops closed and a number of residents came out onto the narrow streets shouting slogans. Many appeared perturbed that the police had used deadly force near a local mosque. More than 5,000 police were quickly drafted in to keep the peace...In the past few days it has become clear that police have blundered repeatedly in the past year in their attempts to track terror cells, particularly in the Muslim community who have been wary of cooperating with Indian intelligence."
WP: Hindu-Christian violence in India
AP (via WP): Thailand lifts emergency, because it wasn't good for tourism
oh, you hadn't heard?
"Emergency rule was imposed by the government Sept. 2 after a night of clashes between its supporters and opponents left one man dead and dozens injured. Images of the mayhem were broadcast around the world, prompting travel advisories from several countries.
BBC: his rival just resigned
BBC: battle at sea in Sri Lanka
WP: violence reignited in Philippines
"After years of calm, the oldest insurgency in Asia has flared into a brutish war, with burned villages, slain families, artillery bombardments, vigilante death squads and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
BBC: militants 'warn of war'
LAT: opposition supporters come to rally in Zimbabwe
LAT: rioting over witches and soccer in Congo
GDN: details of power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe
BBC: troops die in Mauritania clash
BBC: AU peacekeeper killed in Somalia
WP: France rescues two pirate hostages
BBC: Rwandans hold election for parliament
Econ: and elect first majority-women parliament in history
BBC: violence in Turkmenistan related to drug trafficking
LAT: war in Georgia sparks domestic conflict in Ukraine
WP: defense contracts in Afghanistan
Econ: civilian deaths reach new levels
AP (via WP): SecDef says US reviewing its strategy
but: "Gates did not say the current U.S. approach in Afghanistan is failing. Nor did he explicitly call for a change of direction. He alluded, instead, to the 2007 makeover of U.S. strategy in Iraq and suggested in an interview with a group of reporters that the administration is reconsidering fundamental aspects of its strategy."
WP: new flash point in Iraq
LAT: Iranian veteran's film on war with Iraq
"The movie questions the very myths about war upon which the Islamic Republic rests: namely, who from Iranian society fought in the war, out of which strata they hailed and why they fought. As the hero, Majid, risks his life to walk through a minefield to clear the way for an offensive, the images rushing through his head are not fantasies of 72 virgins in heaven, but a shot of the woman he loves, his memories from a stint in prison and a grandfatherly cleric back in Tehran."
Gdn: gang violence in Paris
"French police are struggling to contain a gang war in north-eastern Paris that has left one dead and several injured, as locals complain that they are being fenced into high-rise ghettoes to make way for the middle-class...north of the canal, a war between rival gangs on high-rise estates has escalated, with riot police moving in to control it. For 15 years, local rivalries between the Curial and Riquet estates have seen vicious knife-fights and score-settling, but now more youths are turning to 'le gun'."
WP: SV says this tricky Dick may be worse than the last
LAT: 21 dead in Tijuana prison riots
"The prison has seen several uprisings in recent years as state officials have been unable to improve overcrowded conditions and control guard brutality and corruption."
LAT: breakdown of Mexico's police agencies
LAT: the police in charge of policing the police
LAT: massive arrest of 175 suspected Gulf Cartel members in the US
WP: Chavez's aides accused of collaborating with FARC
WP: HRW says Chavez undermining democracy in Venezuela too
"Since [2002], Chávez has used the putsch bid to harangue opponents, enact laws restricting the news media and justify discriminatory policies at the state oil company and other institutions, the report said."
LAT: violence in Bolivia
CSM: where rivals try to broker deal
Gdn: police raid homes in Muslim area of Delhi after bombs, kill 2 suspects
"In protest local shops closed and a number of residents came out onto the narrow streets shouting slogans. Many appeared perturbed that the police had used deadly force near a local mosque. More than 5,000 police were quickly drafted in to keep the peace...In the past few days it has become clear that police have blundered repeatedly in the past year in their attempts to track terror cells, particularly in the Muslim community who have been wary of cooperating with Indian intelligence."
WP: Hindu-Christian violence in India
AP (via WP): Thailand lifts emergency, because it wasn't good for tourism
oh, you hadn't heard?
"Emergency rule was imposed by the government Sept. 2 after a night of clashes between its supporters and opponents left one man dead and dozens injured. Images of the mayhem were broadcast around the world, prompting travel advisories from several countries.
Calm was quickly restored in the capital, and business and daily life continued as usual. The army refused to exercise its authority under the decree to oust tens of thousands of protesters from the prime minister's compound, where they have been camped in tents since Aug. 26."
AP (via WP): Malaysia's new prime ministerBBC: his rival just resigned
BBC: battle at sea in Sri Lanka
WP: violence reignited in Philippines
"After years of calm, the oldest insurgency in Asia has flared into a brutish war, with burned villages, slain families, artillery bombardments, vigilante death squads and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
The match was lit last month when the Philippine government abruptly backed out of an all-but-done peace deal it had been quietly negotiating for years. That enraged Muslim rebels here on Mindanao, a lush and resource-rich island where Muslims and Christians have been elbowing each other for power and land for more than four centuries.
At 4:30 a.m. Aug. 18, aggrieved rebels attacked this mostly Christian village of 4,000 residents. The rebels looted rice and canned sardines. They doused 22 houses with gasoline and set them on fire, while killing 13 Christian villagers, according to a government tally. The youngest victim was 10; the oldest, 95.
Tipped off about the raid, Muslims in the village fled before the rebels arrived. But if the Muslims come home, they face the vengeance of a Christian vigilante group called the Ilaga, which last operated in the 1970s."
WP: violence in NigeriaBBC: militants 'warn of war'
LAT: opposition supporters come to rally in Zimbabwe
LAT: rioting over witches and soccer in Congo
GDN: details of power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe
BBC: troops die in Mauritania clash
BBC: AU peacekeeper killed in Somalia
WP: France rescues two pirate hostages
BBC: Rwandans hold election for parliament
Econ: and elect first majority-women parliament in history
BBC: violence in Turkmenistan related to drug trafficking
LAT: war in Georgia sparks domestic conflict in Ukraine
WP: defense contracts in Afghanistan
Econ: civilian deaths reach new levels
AP (via WP): SecDef says US reviewing its strategy
but: "Gates did not say the current U.S. approach in Afghanistan is failing. Nor did he explicitly call for a change of direction. He alluded, instead, to the 2007 makeover of U.S. strategy in Iraq and suggested in an interview with a group of reporters that the administration is reconsidering fundamental aspects of its strategy."
WP: new flash point in Iraq
LAT: Iranian veteran's film on war with Iraq
"The movie questions the very myths about war upon which the Islamic Republic rests: namely, who from Iranian society fought in the war, out of which strata they hailed and why they fought. As the hero, Majid, risks his life to walk through a minefield to clear the way for an offensive, the images rushing through his head are not fantasies of 72 virgins in heaven, but a shot of the woman he loves, his memories from a stint in prison and a grandfatherly cleric back in Tehran."
Gdn: gang violence in Paris
"French police are struggling to contain a gang war in north-eastern Paris that has left one dead and several injured, as locals complain that they are being fenced into high-rise ghettoes to make way for the middle-class...north of the canal, a war between rival gangs on high-rise estates has escalated, with riot police moving in to control it. For 15 years, local rivalries between the Curial and Riquet estates have seen vicious knife-fights and score-settling, but now more youths are turning to 'le gun'."
WP: SV says this tricky Dick may be worse than the last
12 September 2008
lessons in foreign policy [we hope she's reading]
WP: Somali pirates hold 100 people hostage in Gulf of Aden
"The attacks are being carried out by increasingly well-coordinated Somali gangs armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, maritime officials said. Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, and remains one of the world's most violent and lawless countries."
WP: Egyptian forces kill refugees and migrants on the Sinai border
"Since the first recorded border killing in the summer of 2007, when Egyptian authorities announced a live-fire policy on the Sinai border, Egyptian security forces have shot dead at least 28 migrants as they left Egypt for Israel, the rights group Amnesty International said Thursday. Of those, the group said, 23 have been killed since January."
Gdn: peace-keeping forces in Darfur lacking equipment, adequate troops
"Unamid formally took over peacekeeping responsibilities at the beginning of this year, but only 10,000 of the agreed 26,000 troops and police have so far arrived in Sudan.
10,000 have lived there since December displacements related to electoral violence
BBC: calls to prevent outbreak of new war in the Kivus, DRC
Gdn: power-sharing agreement reached in Zimbabwe: MDC will control police, Mugabe retains military
Gdn: profiles of Mugabe and Tsvangirai
Gdn: interactive maps are cool (here's one of Africa)
++
WP: Chavez boots the US Ambassador from Venezuela, recalls Ambassador from DC, accepts Russian bombers
"Go to hell, Yankees," he said as the crowd hollered in support."
NYT: South Ossetian leader calls for independence, not to join Russian Federation
LAT: alliance in Lebanon unstable
LAT: US-backed Sunni groups targeted by Iraqi government
++
Slate: the scandalous report on the corrupt Interior Dept. SV wonders why Dems (other than Bill Nelson) aren't jumping on this
++
Slate: SV has resisted joining the Facebook group 'I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin.' but we're only being polite.
"The attacks are being carried out by increasingly well-coordinated Somali gangs armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, maritime officials said. Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, and remains one of the world's most violent and lawless countries."
WP: Egyptian forces kill refugees and migrants on the Sinai border
"Since the first recorded border killing in the summer of 2007, when Egyptian authorities announced a live-fire policy on the Sinai border, Egyptian security forces have shot dead at least 28 migrants as they left Egypt for Israel, the rights group Amnesty International said Thursday. Of those, the group said, 23 have been killed since January."
Gdn: peace-keeping forces in Darfur lacking equipment, adequate troops
"Unamid formally took over peacekeeping responsibilities at the beginning of this year, but only 10,000 of the agreed 26,000 troops and police have so far arrived in Sudan.
"Most people expect us to carry out the primary role of our mandate - protection of civilians, helping the humanitarian agencies. But right now that is not our priority, because for us to be able to do that we need the troops, we need the equipment ... so we are struggling," the Nigerian general said. "Now we have even turned some of our own personnel into drivers to bring in the equipment."
BBC: tax-paying pride in Freetown ghetto
"The chains that dangle around the necks of the handful of local loiterers are not the customary gangsta dog tags, but plastic holders displaying nothing less than tax receipts.
For the first time in generations, people have been flocking to pay their local council tax of 5,000 leones (about $1.5, 90 UK pence) in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown."
BBC: Kenyan IDP camp closure delayed10,000 have lived there since December displacements related to electoral violence
BBC: calls to prevent outbreak of new war in the Kivus, DRC
Gdn: power-sharing agreement reached in Zimbabwe: MDC will control police, Mugabe retains military
Gdn: profiles of Mugabe and Tsvangirai
Gdn: interactive maps are cool (here's one of Africa)
++
WP: Chavez boots the US Ambassador from Venezuela, recalls Ambassador from DC, accepts Russian bombers
"Go to hell, Yankees," he said as the crowd hollered in support."
NYT: South Ossetian leader calls for independence, not to join Russian Federation
LAT: alliance in Lebanon unstable
LAT: US-backed Sunni groups targeted by Iraqi government
++
Slate: the scandalous report on the corrupt Interior Dept. SV wonders why Dems (other than Bill Nelson) aren't jumping on this
++
Slate: SV has resisted joining the Facebook group 'I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin.' but we're only being polite.
11 September 2008
dubya's decisions, 7 years later [fatal flaws]
NYT: Bush approved Special Forces missions in Pakistan, without permission
"It is unclear precisely what legal authorities the United States has invoked to conduct even limited ground raids in a friendly country."
BBC: Pakistan's dilemma
"There's no doubt Pakistan is facing a huge problem of Islamic militancy. But many are convinced it can't tackle this if it's seen to be acting at America's behest."
Slate: Woodward's take on the decider's decision-making (as expected, it's a faulty process when undertaken at all)
"[General George] Casey later summarized Bush's approach as: "If you're not out there hooking and jabbing with American forces every day, you're not fighting the right fight."...[Bush would] ask about kills and captures to "find out whether or not we're fighting back. Because the perception is that our guys are dying and [the insurgents are] not. Because we don't put out our numbers. We don't have a tally. … [I]f I'm sitting here watching the casualties come in, I'd at least like to know whether or not our soldiers are fighting."
WP: by that token, Admiral Mullen, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, might be at odds with the president given his testimony in Congress yesterday on Afghanistan
"Yet even if the Pentagon could achieve a better coordinated regional strategy, Mullen stressed that military forces can do only so much to pacify the area. "No amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek," he said, adding later: "We can't kill our way to victory."
LAT: as separatist tensions rise in Bolivia, Morales expels US Ambassador
"Violent protests have convulsed Bolivia in recent days. Demonstrators on Tuesday sacked and burned government offices in the city of Santa Cruz, the epicenter of opposition to Morales.
BBC: Cyprus leaders discuss unification
Gdn: Lebanese politician killed in car bomb blast
Econ: people trickle back to Gori
BBC: imprisoned LA gang leader reveals insights into incarceration, violence in US
"Enriquez's rise from low-level street hoodlum to major player in the Mexican Mafia came about as his reputation for violence grew. While doing time in infamous Californian prisons such as San Quentin and Folsom, the young Enriquez impressed mafia bosses.
"It is unclear precisely what legal authorities the United States has invoked to conduct even limited ground raids in a friendly country."
BBC: Pakistan's dilemma
"There's no doubt Pakistan is facing a huge problem of Islamic militancy. But many are convinced it can't tackle this if it's seen to be acting at America's behest."
Slate: Woodward's take on the decider's decision-making (as expected, it's a faulty process when undertaken at all)
"[General George] Casey later summarized Bush's approach as: "If you're not out there hooking and jabbing with American forces every day, you're not fighting the right fight."...[Bush would] ask about kills and captures to "find out whether or not we're fighting back. Because the perception is that our guys are dying and [the insurgents are] not. Because we don't put out our numbers. We don't have a tally. … [I]f I'm sitting here watching the casualties come in, I'd at least like to know whether or not our soldiers are fighting."
WP: by that token, Admiral Mullen, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, might be at odds with the president given his testimony in Congress yesterday on Afghanistan
"Yet even if the Pentagon could achieve a better coordinated regional strategy, Mullen stressed that military forces can do only so much to pacify the area. "No amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek," he said, adding later: "We can't kill our way to victory."
Greater efforts by U.S. civilian agencies and the international community are essential, he said. For example, he criticized the shortage of civilian personnel in Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan, saying that without more experts in agriculture, education, commerce and jurisprudence, the PRTs "will remain but empty shells."
BBC: this more balanced approach favored by allies like Indonesia
"[Indonesia's head of counter-terrorism] said each country faced a unique situation in its fight against terrorism, and that there was no one-size-fits-all.
But he said that there needed to be a balance between force and negotiation, and that war - as pursued by America in Iraq and Afghanistan - was not an effective strategy against terrorism."
BBC: Petraeus will 'never declare victory' in Iraq; (sv would like to note that Palin ridiculed Obama for the same)
LAT: as separatist tensions rise in Bolivia, Morales expels US Ambassador
"Violent protests have convulsed Bolivia in recent days. Demonstrators on Tuesday sacked and burned government offices in the city of Santa Cruz, the epicenter of opposition to Morales.
The governors of five of Bolivia's nine states are aligned against Morales and his agenda of nationalization and empowering the poor Indian masses.
Morales has accused the rebellious states of plotting against him with the U.S. ambassador. Goldberg has repeatedly denied any interference in Bolivian affairs."
BBC: Nigeria creates ministry for Niger Delta
LAT: elections in Angola may entrench MPLA
"The MPLA has ruled Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, whose wife and daughter won seats in parliament, is widely expected to run in presidential elections planned for next year, despite a previous statement that he would not enter the race.
Members of the president's family and top government officials have shares in the country's top oil, diamond, banking and telecommunications firms. No foreign company can do business in Angola unless it teams up with an influential local company."
BBC: Cyprus leaders discuss unification
Gdn: Lebanese politician killed in car bomb blast
Econ: people trickle back to Gori
BBC: imprisoned LA gang leader reveals insights into incarceration, violence in US
"Enriquez's rise from low-level street hoodlum to major player in the Mexican Mafia came about as his reputation for violence grew. While doing time in infamous Californian prisons such as San Quentin and Folsom, the young Enriquez impressed mafia bosses.
On their request, he carried out a series of brazen attacks on other inmates, and in 1984, he was secretly inducted into the Mexican Mafia...
In the early 1990s, the Mexican street gangs in Los Angeles were out of control, with daily drive-by shootings between rival gangs bringing unwanted attention from the city's police.
Heavy police surveillance meant it was nigh on impossible for the gangs to carry on with the lucrative drug trade on which they depended.
The Mexican Mafia infiltrated the street gangs, brought some discipline into the organisations and, crucially, began creaming "taxes" from every Mexican gang in LA.
This generated huge profits for the gang leaders pulling the strings from their prison cells. Cheques and money orders were sent regularly, and Enriquez even began investing in high interest accounts and government bonds.
But this lucrative scheme began to unravel, as greed and paranoia infected the Mexican Mafia leadership, who began to plot against each other. Thye even put hits on their rivals' wives and children - a huge violation of the gang's code.
This erosion of "honour" that had governed the gang had an effect on Enriquez, too, and he began to have doubts about his commitment.
"They call it 'mob fatigue'. Everybody goes through it," he says...
He turned informant and decided to confess to everything...
"I had this surreal experience that I was mourning my own death. That's how I felt. I had depression during the first few weeks, and felt like I was mourning my own death."
**
Slate: the Big Lebowski's Walter and the rise of the neocons
10 September 2008
dark matter [when things collide]
NYT magazine: the Taliban (and Al Qaeda) unchallenged in Pakistan
"Pulling into Namdar’s compound, I felt transported back in time to the Kabul of the 1990s, when the Taliban were at their zenith. A group of men and boys — jittery, clutching rifles and rocket-propelled grenades — sat in the bed of a Toyota Hi-Lux, the same model of truck the Taliban used to ride to victory in Afghanistan. A flag nearly identical to that of the Afghan movement — a pair of swords crossed against a white background — fluttered in the heavy air. Even the name of Namdar’s group, the Vice and Virtue brigade, came straight from the Taliban playbook: in the 1990s, bands of young men under the same name terrorized Afghanistan, flogging men for shaving their beards, caning women for walking alone and thrashing children for flying kites.
The young fighters were chattering excitedly about a missile that had recently destroyed one of their ammunition dumps. An American missile, the kids said. “It was a plane without a pilot,” one of the boys explained through an interpreter. His eyes darted back and forth among his fellows. “We saw a flash. And then the building exploded.”
WP: US to deploy predator drones along Afghan-Pakistani border more frequently
In interviews, the officials attributed their failure to find bin Laden to an overreliance on military force, disruptions posed by the war in Iraq and a pattern of underestimating the enemy. Above all, they said, the search has been handicapped by an inability to develop informants in Pakistan's isolated tribal regions, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding.
BBC: here's a handy map of the region, where the Taliban is taking the long view
BBC: the delicate issues surrounding justice and the LRA
"Accounting for war crimes in Africa is always going to involve tough choices...If everyone is pursued, peace may remain a mirage - but if no one is hunted down, the rule of law may never recover."
BBC: Joseph Kony, LRA leader, still at large in the DRC
BBC: LRA spokesman denounces Congolese military mobilization to protect civilians
BBC: but maybe they can broker a deal with the military: elsewhere in the DRC, the army is working with FDLR rebels to extract profits
"Our researchers visited areas where the FARDC [DR Congo army] and the FDLR were operating side by side, each controlling their own territories, trading in minerals from 'their' respective mines without interfering with each other's activities. They depend on this mutual support to continue their trade," [a Global Witness official] said.
BBC: meanwhile, 12 goats spared humiliation of standing trial in Kinshasa
BBC: Russia has pulled out of Georgia; here's a map of other potential 'flash points'
WP: Kim Jong, Ill?
(credit for the witticism goes to Slate.com)
Gdn: Sri Lanka attacks kill 20; gov't shoots down LTTE plane
WP: devastation in Haiti
Econ: Beirut in the balance
Econ: El Salvador gearing up for elections in 2009
BBC: former Angola rebels accept election outcome
LAT: Zimbabwe bloggers important source of information
BBC: Morocco's king just shut one down
LAT: Thai prime minister booted for gaining income on a cooking show. he didn't get the memo that stock dividends from oil companies would've been a-ok.
Gdn: win a trip to Iraq this winter!
Slate: what will happen if the Large Hadron Collider generates a big black hole? it's highly unlikely, but still. (ps, SV likes the modesty of the name for the massive device that will help physicists discover the foundations of the universe)
"Pulling into Namdar’s compound, I felt transported back in time to the Kabul of the 1990s, when the Taliban were at their zenith. A group of men and boys — jittery, clutching rifles and rocket-propelled grenades — sat in the bed of a Toyota Hi-Lux, the same model of truck the Taliban used to ride to victory in Afghanistan. A flag nearly identical to that of the Afghan movement — a pair of swords crossed against a white background — fluttered in the heavy air. Even the name of Namdar’s group, the Vice and Virtue brigade, came straight from the Taliban playbook: in the 1990s, bands of young men under the same name terrorized Afghanistan, flogging men for shaving their beards, caning women for walking alone and thrashing children for flying kites.
The young fighters were chattering excitedly about a missile that had recently destroyed one of their ammunition dumps. An American missile, the kids said. “It was a plane without a pilot,” one of the boys explained through an interpreter. His eyes darted back and forth among his fellows. “We saw a flash. And then the building exploded.”
WP: US to deploy predator drones along Afghan-Pakistani border more frequently
In interviews, the officials attributed their failure to find bin Laden to an overreliance on military force, disruptions posed by the war in Iraq and a pattern of underestimating the enemy. Above all, they said, the search has been handicapped by an inability to develop informants in Pakistan's isolated tribal regions, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding.
BBC: here's a handy map of the region, where the Taliban is taking the long view
BBC: the delicate issues surrounding justice and the LRA
"Accounting for war crimes in Africa is always going to involve tough choices...If everyone is pursued, peace may remain a mirage - but if no one is hunted down, the rule of law may never recover."
BBC: Joseph Kony, LRA leader, still at large in the DRC
BBC: LRA spokesman denounces Congolese military mobilization to protect civilians
BBC: but maybe they can broker a deal with the military: elsewhere in the DRC, the army is working with FDLR rebels to extract profits
"Our researchers visited areas where the FARDC [DR Congo army] and the FDLR were operating side by side, each controlling their own territories, trading in minerals from 'their' respective mines without interfering with each other's activities. They depend on this mutual support to continue their trade," [a Global Witness official] said.
BBC: meanwhile, 12 goats spared humiliation of standing trial in Kinshasa
BBC: Russia has pulled out of Georgia; here's a map of other potential 'flash points'
WP: Kim Jong, Ill?
(credit for the witticism goes to Slate.com)
Gdn: Sri Lanka attacks kill 20; gov't shoots down LTTE plane
WP: devastation in Haiti
Econ: Beirut in the balance
Econ: El Salvador gearing up for elections in 2009
BBC: former Angola rebels accept election outcome
LAT: Zimbabwe bloggers important source of information
BBC: Morocco's king just shut one down
LAT: Thai prime minister booted for gaining income on a cooking show. he didn't get the memo that stock dividends from oil companies would've been a-ok.
Gdn: win a trip to Iraq this winter!
Slate: what will happen if the Large Hadron Collider generates a big black hole? it's highly unlikely, but still. (ps, SV likes the modesty of the name for the massive device that will help physicists discover the foundations of the universe)
07 September 2008
chucky on trial [not enough hugging]
Rolling Stone: Chucky Taylor - son of Charles - on trial in Miami for torturing in Liberia
"In the midst of this reign of terror, Chucky was among the most feared men in the country. Only 25, he created and commanded the Anti-Terrorist Unit, the president's personal security force — a source of such pride that Chucky had the group's emblem, a crest of a hissing cobra and a scorpion, tattooed on his chest...Only a decade earlier, Chucky had been an American teenager growing up in a modest, two-story brick house with his mother and stepfather in a parched subdivision of Orlando, a short drive from Disney World. He had come of age in a strip-mall landscape of payday loan shops and an endless parade of fast-food joints...Today, as his father stands trial for war crimes at the U.N.'s court in The Hague, Chucky Taylor sits in the Federal Detention Center in Miami. On September 15th, he will face trial as the first civilian in American history to be charged with committing torture abroad."
Gdn: mutiny in the air: Mugabe's aids hold secret meeting with South African delegation to discuss defecting
"Some of President Robert Mugabe's senior aides have had secret negotiations with South African mediators in an effort to secure amnesties from any future prosecution in return for supporting regime change in Zimbabwe."
BBC: Angola's elections criticized; MPLA looks to win landslide
WP: Kenya's delicate stability
"Nearly eight months after a wave of post-election violence brought one of East Africa's most stable democracies to the brink of collapse, it is almost as if there had been no crisis. And that is what troubles some Kenyans the most."
NYT: Swaziland's king too ostentatious for some (but at least there aren't any messy elections)
"His countrymen wanted His Majesty to be happy, but some also thought so many spouses were an extravagance for a poor, tiny nation. After all, the king, Mswati III, often provided these wives a retinue, a palace and a new BMW."
New Yorker: maybe the king has a modern Machiavelli
WP: excerpts from Woodward's 'The War Within': debating the surge, and its effects
"At least three other factors were as important as, or even more important than, the surge. These factors either have not been reported publicly or have received less attention than the influx of troops. Beginning in the late spring of 2007, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies launched a series of top-secret operations that enabled them to locate, target and kill key individuals in groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgency and renegade Shia militias, or so-called special groups... A second important factor in the lessening of violence was the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which tens of thousands of Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and signed up with U.S. forces. Al-Qaeda in Iraq had made a strategic mistake in the province, overplaying its hand... A third significant break came Aug. 29, when militant Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his powerful Mahdi Army to suspend operations, including attacks against U.S. troops. Petraeus and others knew it was not an act of charity."
WP: inside an operation against an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader
"By the time he was captured last month, the man known among Iraqi insurgents as "the Tiger" had lost much of his bite. Abu Uthman, whose fierce attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians in Fallujah had earned him a top spot on Iraq's most-wanted list, had been reduced to shuttling between hideouts in a Baghdad slum, hiding by day for fear neighbors might recognize him."
NYT: reporter says evidence backs Afghan claims of enormous civilian death toll in US attack
IndiaExpress: Pakistan's new president...and the elusive balancing of institutions
"Last but not least, where would the centre of gravity lie? This is Pakistan’s g-spot. There’s much talk about it but it is difficult to locate. Here’s an attempt." (HT: ps)
BBC: peace process in the Philippines off the rails
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao launches attacks after Court blocks peace agreement:
"With perhaps half a million people displaced and some hundreds killed, observers now concur that two MILF commanders - Kato and Bravo - did launch attacks in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato.
The MILF leadership has blamed the attacks on what it calls these two "renegade" commanders, but refuses to hand them over."
LAT: (former) paramilitary groups in Colombia still control commerce in northern border with Venezuela
"The Black Eagles and other gangs now control much of the cross-border trade that was once the exclusive province of the Wayuu [indigenous group], including incoming Venezuelan gasoline, groceries and dry goods and outgoing Colombian sugar and dairy products."
NYT: Colombia's (wealthy sections of) cities become more cosmopolitan as rural development lags, violence lingers
LAT: brutal revenge in Mexico's war on drugs
LAT: rifts in Bolivia extend to former allies
"[indigenous activitist] Cuellar, an ardent advocate of the capital switch [from La Paz to Sucre], broke with the government. The opposition turned to her as an alternative to head Chuquisaca province, of which Sucre is the capital. She won the governor's seat handily against a Morales surrogate, getting overwhelming backing from the urban, educated middle class and elite, mostly of mixed-race and European origins."
Gdn: the real-life wire
"It seems that in Baltimore, one of the most violent cities in America, jurors are far more reluctant to convict criminal defendants than in the suburban enclaves that ring the city."
BBC: maybe we should just hug it out
"In the midst of this reign of terror, Chucky was among the most feared men in the country. Only 25, he created and commanded the Anti-Terrorist Unit, the president's personal security force — a source of such pride that Chucky had the group's emblem, a crest of a hissing cobra and a scorpion, tattooed on his chest...Only a decade earlier, Chucky had been an American teenager growing up in a modest, two-story brick house with his mother and stepfather in a parched subdivision of Orlando, a short drive from Disney World. He had come of age in a strip-mall landscape of payday loan shops and an endless parade of fast-food joints...Today, as his father stands trial for war crimes at the U.N.'s court in The Hague, Chucky Taylor sits in the Federal Detention Center in Miami. On September 15th, he will face trial as the first civilian in American history to be charged with committing torture abroad."
Gdn: mutiny in the air: Mugabe's aids hold secret meeting with South African delegation to discuss defecting
"Some of President Robert Mugabe's senior aides have had secret negotiations with South African mediators in an effort to secure amnesties from any future prosecution in return for supporting regime change in Zimbabwe."
BBC: Angola's elections criticized; MPLA looks to win landslide
WP: Kenya's delicate stability
"Nearly eight months after a wave of post-election violence brought one of East Africa's most stable democracies to the brink of collapse, it is almost as if there had been no crisis. And that is what troubles some Kenyans the most."
NYT: Swaziland's king too ostentatious for some (but at least there aren't any messy elections)
"His countrymen wanted His Majesty to be happy, but some also thought so many spouses were an extravagance for a poor, tiny nation. After all, the king, Mswati III, often provided these wives a retinue, a palace and a new BMW."
New Yorker: maybe the king has a modern Machiavelli
WP: excerpts from Woodward's 'The War Within': debating the surge, and its effects
"At least three other factors were as important as, or even more important than, the surge. These factors either have not been reported publicly or have received less attention than the influx of troops. Beginning in the late spring of 2007, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies launched a series of top-secret operations that enabled them to locate, target and kill key individuals in groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgency and renegade Shia militias, or so-called special groups... A second important factor in the lessening of violence was the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which tens of thousands of Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and signed up with U.S. forces. Al-Qaeda in Iraq had made a strategic mistake in the province, overplaying its hand... A third significant break came Aug. 29, when militant Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his powerful Mahdi Army to suspend operations, including attacks against U.S. troops. Petraeus and others knew it was not an act of charity."
WP: inside an operation against an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader
"By the time he was captured last month, the man known among Iraqi insurgents as "the Tiger" had lost much of his bite. Abu Uthman, whose fierce attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians in Fallujah had earned him a top spot on Iraq's most-wanted list, had been reduced to shuttling between hideouts in a Baghdad slum, hiding by day for fear neighbors might recognize him."
NYT: reporter says evidence backs Afghan claims of enormous civilian death toll in US attack
IndiaExpress: Pakistan's new president...and the elusive balancing of institutions
"Last but not least, where would the centre of gravity lie? This is Pakistan’s g-spot. There’s much talk about it but it is difficult to locate. Here’s an attempt." (HT: ps)
BBC: peace process in the Philippines off the rails
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao launches attacks after Court blocks peace agreement:
"With perhaps half a million people displaced and some hundreds killed, observers now concur that two MILF commanders - Kato and Bravo - did launch attacks in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato.
The MILF leadership has blamed the attacks on what it calls these two "renegade" commanders, but refuses to hand them over."
LAT: (former) paramilitary groups in Colombia still control commerce in northern border with Venezuela
"The Black Eagles and other gangs now control much of the cross-border trade that was once the exclusive province of the Wayuu [indigenous group], including incoming Venezuelan gasoline, groceries and dry goods and outgoing Colombian sugar and dairy products."
NYT: Colombia's (wealthy sections of) cities become more cosmopolitan as rural development lags, violence lingers
LAT: brutal revenge in Mexico's war on drugs
LAT: rifts in Bolivia extend to former allies
"[indigenous activitist] Cuellar, an ardent advocate of the capital switch [from La Paz to Sucre], broke with the government. The opposition turned to her as an alternative to head Chuquisaca province, of which Sucre is the capital. She won the governor's seat handily against a Morales surrogate, getting overwhelming backing from the urban, educated middle class and elite, mostly of mixed-race and European origins."
Gdn: the real-life wire
"It seems that in Baltimore, one of the most violent cities in America, jurors are far more reluctant to convict criminal defendants than in the suburban enclaves that ring the city."
BBC: maybe we should just hug it out
04 September 2008
the grand old party (i'll cry if i want to)
New Yorker: General Petraeus on exiting Iraq
“One of the keys with counter-insurgency is that every province is a unique case,” Petraeus told me. “What you’re trying to figure out is what works—right here, right now.” In defense of his approach in Iraq, the General and his staff argue, essentially, that they inherited a war of many fronts and managed to stop it, or at least pause it—an achievement that they regard as necessary and remarkable but also insufficient."
WP: how it's playing out in Anbar province
"The Shiite-led government has recently stepped up a campaign to arrest leaders of the Awakening and dismantle parts of the program, whose members receive $300 a month from the U.S. military. Many fighters have abandoned their posts and fled their homes to avoid detention, stoking fears that some will rejoin the insurgency."
NYT: Baghdad's enduring new neighborhoods
"Out of the more than 151,000 families who had fled their houses in Baghdad, just 7,112 had returned to them by mid-July, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Migration. Many of the displaced remain in Baghdad, just in different areas. In one neighborhood alone, Amiriya, in western Baghdad, there are 8,350 displaced families, more than the total number of families who have returned to their houses in all of Baghdad."
IHT: Angola set to vote
“One of the keys with counter-insurgency is that every province is a unique case,” Petraeus told me. “What you’re trying to figure out is what works—right here, right now.” In defense of his approach in Iraq, the General and his staff argue, essentially, that they inherited a war of many fronts and managed to stop it, or at least pause it—an achievement that they regard as necessary and remarkable but also insufficient."
WP: how it's playing out in Anbar province
"The Shiite-led government has recently stepped up a campaign to arrest leaders of the Awakening and dismantle parts of the program, whose members receive $300 a month from the U.S. military. Many fighters have abandoned their posts and fled their homes to avoid detention, stoking fears that some will rejoin the insurgency."
NYT: Baghdad's enduring new neighborhoods
"Out of the more than 151,000 families who had fled their houses in Baghdad, just 7,112 had returned to them by mid-July, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Migration. Many of the displaced remain in Baghdad, just in different areas. In one neighborhood alone, Amiriya, in western Baghdad, there are 8,350 displaced families, more than the total number of families who have returned to their houses in all of Baghdad."
IHT: Angola set to vote
"Democracy is a process, not a destination, and this is part of that process," [former rebel-turned opposition movement Unita leader] said.
"Known for his flamboyant dress-sense and gun-toting female body guards..." makes you want to read on, doesn't it?
AP: Thai PM offers to resign
Slate: dispatches from Somalia
"An ad hoc council of five educated young men tell me there are 13 Somali clans. They warn me not to listen to confused officials who claim otherwise. Hawiye, Darood, Rahanweyne, Issa, Gadabursi, Sheikhal, Isaaq, Biyomal, Gaadsan, Yibro, Midgan, Tumal, and Gaboye are the clans. They make up one tribe and speak one language, Somali. The young men tell me that the father's lineage decides their clan. This genealogy isn't written down. It's an oral society. The clans might as well be like tribes—in fact, the people here call them that—and you can go to town with your Rwanda and Kenya comparisons, because warfare between rival clans destroyed south Somalia after 1991...One day in the middle of this chaos, the elders of Dihoud's subclan invited him to a brainstorming conference. One of their boys had killed three men from another subclan, and the elders from that subclan demanded justice. How would these elders prevent such things in the future, and how could they convince their violent young men to give up their arms? "I am a psychiatrist," Dihoud remembers telling them. "And as I am a psychiatrist, I know we are all paranoid after the war. We are all traumatized. We had blood on our hands. We fought against a dictator, and we killed each other. So everybody is paranoid that somebody is following him. And we think that if we give up the arms, other tribes will attack us. Let us disarm ourselves and give the arms to the government."
IHT: Mugabe might scuttle power-sharing deal if Tsvangirai doesn't sign on
WP: meanwhile, Kenyan leaders working out resource-sharing with family members
WP: IRA no longer a threat
NYT: Brits causing mayhem in Greece
“It’s because of British culture — no one can relax, so they become inebriated to be the people they want to be,” he said...Local officials say the blame lies not just with the tourists themselves, but also with the operators of package tours promising drinking-and-partying vacations, and clubs offering industrial-strength alcohol at rock-bottom prices."
Slate: she stopped a Russian invasion! (or would have anyhow)
AP: Thai PM offers to resign
Slate: dispatches from Somalia
"An ad hoc council of five educated young men tell me there are 13 Somali clans. They warn me not to listen to confused officials who claim otherwise. Hawiye, Darood, Rahanweyne, Issa, Gadabursi, Sheikhal, Isaaq, Biyomal, Gaadsan, Yibro, Midgan, Tumal, and Gaboye are the clans. They make up one tribe and speak one language, Somali. The young men tell me that the father's lineage decides their clan. This genealogy isn't written down. It's an oral society. The clans might as well be like tribes—in fact, the people here call them that—and you can go to town with your Rwanda and Kenya comparisons, because warfare between rival clans destroyed south Somalia after 1991...One day in the middle of this chaos, the elders of Dihoud's subclan invited him to a brainstorming conference. One of their boys had killed three men from another subclan, and the elders from that subclan demanded justice. How would these elders prevent such things in the future, and how could they convince their violent young men to give up their arms? "I am a psychiatrist," Dihoud remembers telling them. "And as I am a psychiatrist, I know we are all paranoid after the war. We are all traumatized. We had blood on our hands. We fought against a dictator, and we killed each other. So everybody is paranoid that somebody is following him. And we think that if we give up the arms, other tribes will attack us. Let us disarm ourselves and give the arms to the government."
IHT: Mugabe might scuttle power-sharing deal if Tsvangirai doesn't sign on
WP: meanwhile, Kenyan leaders working out resource-sharing with family members
WP: IRA no longer a threat
NYT: Brits causing mayhem in Greece
“It’s because of British culture — no one can relax, so they become inebriated to be the people they want to be,” he said...Local officials say the blame lies not just with the tourists themselves, but also with the operators of package tours promising drinking-and-partying vacations, and clubs offering industrial-strength alcohol at rock-bottom prices."
Slate: she stopped a Russian invasion! (or would have anyhow)
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