marked

Zakaria Dughmush

don't call it a quagmire

Main Entry: quag·mire Pronunciation: 'kwag-"mI(-&)r, 'kwäg- Function: noun 1 : soft miry land that shakes or yields under the foot 2 : a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position: PREDICAMENT

call it a paradox

Iraq looting portends handover trouble By HAIDAR HANI Associated Press Writer AMARAH, Iraq — Iraqis looted a military base vacated by British troops and stripped it of virtually everything removable on Friday, an indication of possible future trouble for U.S.-led coalition forces hoping to hand over security gradually to the Iraqi government.

Men, some with their faces covered, ripped corrugated metal from roofs, carried off metal pipes and backed trucks into building entrances to load them with wooden planks. Many also took away doors and window frames from Camp Abu Naji.

"The British forces left Abu Naji and the locals started looting everything," 1st Lt. Rifaat Taha Yaseen of the Iraqi Army's 10th Division told Associated Press Television News. "They took everything from the buildings."

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Camp Abu Naji, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, had come under almost daily attack when the Britons were in control, an indication of the hostility for foreign troops.

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"British forces evacuated the military headquarters without coordination with the Iraqi forces," Jabbar said Thursday.

But the British military rejected the assertion, with Maj. Charlie Burbridge saying the hand-over was coordinated with Amarah authorities 24 hours in advance.

"It was understood that the governor was likely to use the camp as a police training camp," he said in an e-mail Thursday, adding that Iraqi forces had secured the base after the British soldiers left.

In the midst of the looting, one man who refused to give his name, said: "This is war loot and we are allowed to take it."

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Militants inside the Al Qadir Al Kilami mosque fired small arms, machine guns and rocket propelled grenades at U.S. forces, a statement by the U.S. command said. They also hurled hand grenades and a bomb, it said.

American soldiers returned fire at first, and finally unleashed several rounds from M1 tanks into the mosque, said the statement.

"The mosque suffered serious structural damage to the dome and minaret," it said.

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Elsewhere, two worshippers were killed at a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Basra during an exchange of fire between the mosque guards and gunmen. A police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Iraqi army soldiers reportedly shot and killed two recruits and injured 10 others outside a recruiting center in southern Kut after they threw hand grenades.

'bout time

Japanese Police Arrest Mitutoyo Chief TOKYO -- The president of precision instrument maker Mitutoyo Corp. was arrested in the alleged export to Malaysia of equipment that can be used in making nuclear weapons, officials said Friday. Tokyo police arrested Kazusaku Tezuka, along with four other Mitutoyo executives and employees, on suspicion of violating foreign trade control laws, trade ministry official Hiroyuki Murakami said. NTI: 14 January 2006 Japanese firm, Mitutoyo Corporation, is suspected of illegally exporting three dimensional measuring tools to Scomi Precision Engineering (SCOPE) in Malaysia, China, and Thailand. Associates of the A.Q. Khan network are suspected of conducting illicit nuclear trafficking activities from SCOPE factories in Malaysia. A Tale of Nuclear Proliferation: How Pakistani Built His Network

big whoop

MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russian strategic bombers launched a series of cruise missiles during command and staff exercises at a northern testing ground, a Russian Air Force spokesman said Thursday. During a 10-hour flight, two Tu-160 and two Tu-95MS from strategic long-range aviation units, designated by NATO as Blackjack and Bear-H, respectively, successfully hit targets and performed a number of tasks, including in-flight refueling. "All cruise missiles hit their targets," Alexander Drobyshevsky said. He added that six Tu-22M, or Backfire-C, long-range bombers simultaneously conducted successful missions with bombardment and missile launches at the Guryanovo testing ground in southern Russia, and at Emba, a testing ground that Russia leases from Kazakhstan.

cool plane though.

mike luckovich's latest

Bruce Schneier's column in today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Focus on terrorists, not tactics It's easy to defend against what they planned last time, but it's shortsighted. Hours-long waits in the security line. Ridiculous prohibitions on what you can carry onboard. Last week's foiling of a major terrorist plot and the subsequent airport security graphically illustrates the difference between effective security and security theater.

None of the airplane security measures implemented because of 9/11 -- no-fly lists, secondary screening, prohibitions against pocket knives and corkscrews -- had anything to do with last week's arrests. And they wouldn't have prevented the planned attacks, had the terrorists not been arrested. A national ID card wouldn't have made a difference, either.

Instead, the arrests are a victory for old-fashioned intelligence and investigation. Details are still secret, but police in at least two countries were watching the terrorists for a long time. They followed leads, figured out who was talking to whom, and slowly pieced together both the network and the plot.

The new airplane security measures focus on that plot, because authorities believe they have not captured everyone involved. It's reasonable to assume that a few lone plotters, knowing their compatriots are in jail and fearing their own arrest, would try to finish the job on their own. The authorities are not being public with the details -- much of the "explosive liquid" story doesn't hang together -- but the excessive security measures seem prudent.

But only temporarily. Banning box cutters since 9/11, or taking off our shoes since Richard Reid, has not made us any safer. And a long-term prohibition against liquid carry-ons won't make us safer, either. It's not just that there are ways around the rules, it's that focusing on tactics is a losing proposition.

It's easy to defend against what the terrorists planned last time, but it's shortsighted. If we spend billions fielding liquid-analysis machines in airports and the terrorists use solid explosives, we've wasted our money. If they target shopping malls, we've wasted our money. Focusing on tactics simply forces the terrorists to make a minor modification in their plans. There are too many targets -- stadiums, schools, theaters, churches, the long line of densely packed people before airport security -- and too many ways to kill people.

Security measures that require us to guess correctly don't work, because invariably we will guess wrong. It's not security, it's security theater: measures designed to make us feel safer but not actually safer.

Airport security is the last line of defense, and not a very good one at that. Sure, it'll catch the sloppy and the stupid -- and that's a good enough reason not to do away with it entirely -- but it won't catch a well-planned plot. We can't keep weapons out of prisons; we can't possibly keep them off airplanes.

The goal of a terrorist is to cause terror. Last week's arrests demonstrate how real security doesn't focus on possible terrorist tactics, but on the terrorists themselves. It's a victory for intelligence and investigation, and a dramatic demonstration of how investments in these areas pay off.

And if you want to know what you can do to help? Don't be terrorized. They terrorize more of us if they kill some of us, but the dead are beside the point. If we give in to fear, the terrorists achieve their goal even if they were arrested. If we refuse to be terrorized, then they lose -- even if their attacks succeed.

Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and author of "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World."

Putin promises to back Boeing business in Russia

(RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he would support U.S. aircraft giant Boeing in Russia. Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Russian titanium giant Vsmpo-Avisma (RTS: VSMO) announced Friday the establishment of a joint venture with an authorized capital of $60 million to assemble titanium products for Boeing passenger liners. "Today you have started forming a joint venture to produce titanium," Putin told Alan Mullaly, president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airlines, on his first visit to Moscow. "We are ready to support the development of your business in Russia." The president said that Boeing had been cooperating with Russia since 1992 and had concluded deals worth a total of $3.5 billion. "Your company has always been a reliable partner," the president said, adding that Russia was working with Boeing on various projects, including in space. Mullaly said he had joined the company 37 years ago and had worked to design all Boeing models, except the 707. He said Boeing had been his dream because it was cooperating with international companies, and he wanted to work with Russia's best aircraft building companies. Mullaly said his company invested heavily in Russia's high-tech sectors, including titanium production and aerospace industry, and 2,000 Russian engineers were helping to design Boeing airliners. He said Boeing would buy materials worth $18 billion in the long-term under the Vsmpo-Avisma deal. The U.S. aircraft giant said the joint venture would produce titanium aircraft parts for the medium-sized Dreamliner, which Boeing says will be able to fly distances once reserved for large jets, first in the Urals region of Sverdlovsk and then at a Boeing plant in Portland, Oregon. Vsmpo-Avisma director general Vladislav Tetyukhin who was also attending the meeting said, "The agreement signed by Vsmpo-Avisma and Boeing develops the relationship between the two countries that began in 1996. Boeing and Vsmpo-Avisma will continue joint work aimed to increase the productivity, quality and timely supplies, as well as to reduce the prime cost of products." Tetyukhin said Boeing had signed a contract to buy 65 types of forgings for Boeing-787s made of composite materials and titanium alloys. He said the contract could vary between $250 and $400 million depending on aircraft sales. Tetyukhin added that 30 carriers had already bought 403 Boeing-787s and that Boeing valuated the market for this type of planes to be worth $1 trillion and planned to produce 1,500 Boeing-787s. He also said that 10% of the plane consisted of Russian titanium parts. Vsmpo-Avisma was established in July 2005, when Avisma (Special Aviation Materials, a Soviet-era enterprise) merged with Vsmpo (Verkhnaya Salda Metallurgical Production Association). The corporation controls a third of the global titanium market.

too funny

Rude Pundit: Late post today. The Rude Pundit was busy slathering himself with all his lotions, cooking oil, and toothpaste while drinking everything in his fridge and liquor cabinet just in case he needs to fly in the next couple of days. Back in a bit with more rudeness.

the hacks in Annapolis

Not Illegal -- Just Arbitrary In Maryland, a probe exposes the governor's cavalier approach. Friday, August 11, 2006; A18 THE UNSAVORY tale of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s "Prince of Darkness" seems finally and mercifully to be on its final chapter. The dark "prince," you may recall, is Joseph Steffen, a Republican party hack who was for years the governor's factotum and self-proclaimed dirty trickster. It was Mr. Steffen who boasted online of having spread malicious rumors about the governor's chief Democratic rival, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. And it was Mr. Steffen who strutted through the halls of state government, a statuette of the grim reaper on his desk, bragging that he was authorized to pick career civil servants who should be fired to make room for Ehrlich loyalists. That last role has been the focus of an inquiry into whether Mr. Steffen -- and by extension Mr. Ehrlich -- was intent on dismissing state workers specifically because they were Democrats; to do so would be illegal. After dodging state lawmakers, and a subpoena, since May, Mr. Steffen finally appeared before a special legislative committee this week. He denied having axed public employees based on their party affiliation -- though he said he wasn't heedless of it either. Yet at the same time he exposed the Ehrlich administration's approach to firing state workers as cavalier, arbitrary and witless. Mr. Ehrlich, the first Republican governor of Maryland in a generation, was elected on a platform of reforming the political culture in Annapolis; he was entitled to hire and fire when he took office. In the event, he removed 340 workers from their jobs; not all that many but among those ousted were dozens of competent, experienced mid-level managers. Some of them were culled by Mr. Steffen, a high school graduate with no relevant managerial or personnel experience, based on who-knows-what criteria. Lacking access to performance evaluations, he targeted some employees for dismissal based on "what some in the department told me," he told lawmakers. Well, that's fair! After initially saying it welcomed the inquiry into its personnel policies, Mr. Ehrlich's administration turned mildly obstructionist, denouncing lawmakers as embarked on a witch hunt. Some documents sought by the committee seemed impossible to find. The governor's aides insisted Mr. Steffen was a mid-level nobody, despite evidence that he was well known and in contact with the governor's inner circle. Then Mr. Steffen went AWOL for three months. Now that he has finally testified, there is no evidence of illegality -- just of a slapdash approach to state government. Lawmakers, too, have dropped the ball. Legislation enacted in the past decade empowered the governor, at a whim, to fire any of some 6,000 state workers, more than the president can fire at will from the federal government. That is wildly excessive and an invitation to abuse, as the Steffen episode illustrates. Inexplicably, the General Assembly did nothing this year to rectify that situation. It should do so in the next session, by identifying a sensible list of positions -- senior managers, executive secretaries and the like -- who may be removed when a new administration takes office, and offering some protection against arbitrariness to the rest of the state's workforce.

if its not a quagmire

Then what is it?: A review of previously unreleased statistics on American and Iraqi patrols suggests that as Americans handed over responsibilities to the Iraqis, violence in Baghdad increased.

AJC: Crime will feed off lax U.S. gun laws

A congressional OK of weaker rules stands to appease lobbyists — and the public would pay a fatal price As gun lobbyists often point out, states with stringent gun-safety laws such as New York often have some of the highest firearm murder rates in the country. The implication is that stringent gun laws don't work. However, what the lobbyists never mention is that the firearms used to kill and maim people in states with stringent gun laws often flow from states with weaker laws. [more]

more like this please

pretty please: World War IV will cause a shift in classical centers of gravity from the will of governments and armies to the perceptions of populations. Victory will be defined more in terms of capturing the psycho-cultural rather than the geographical high ground. Understanding and empathy will be important weapons of war. Soldier conduct will be as important as skill at arms. Culture awareness and the ability to build ties of trust will offer protection to our troops more effectively than body armor. Leaders will seek wisdom and quick but reflective thought rather than operational and planning skills as essential intellectual tools for guaranteeing future victories.

concerned about terrorism?

you really should read this (.pdf)

what the f**k is wrong with people?

seriously The Conservative government is trying to push global climate change off the federal map, shutting down the main federal website on the topic and removing mention of it from speeches and postings, opposition MPs and environmentalists say. Like their U.S. Republican counterparts, who have been caught censoring top climate change researchers and have questioned the scientific merits of the theory, Conservatives are avoiding or casting doubt on the problem, critics charge.

Quote of the day

"Intelligent design can lead only to unintelligent students, or at least badly educated ones."