Sic Semper Tyrannis

Is NSA Screwing the Pooch? - TTG

The NSA used to target only foreign signals, and according to its own legal interpretations, that's what it still does. But communications are now global: the Internet is so interconnected that everything and everyone on the network becomes a potential target, even the network itself. That's not to say that the NSA has "broken" all cryptography: "the math works," says Schneier, and while anonymizing tools like Tor are targeted by NSA, they seem to remain secure. Instead, the NSA appears to have manipulated encryption tools and tapped into data center links and fiber backbones—in essence, silently removing the hinges from their doors.

"We do know they made a systematic effort to place back doors in the products we use to get our security, and that makes us all less safe," he said. Schneier, like others in the cryptography community, regularly trades hunches and suspicions about NSA encryption exploits, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology, the federal group that sets encryption standards, is reviewing its past work in light of the NSA scandal. But few know for sure just how widespread the NSA's targeting of encryption standards is. And, Schneier worries, those who do know might not necessarily be well-intentioned.

 

Afghan CT operations will be impossible after 2014.

" ... observers say Karzai’s growing demands concerning U.S. military behavior could soon force commanders to reconsider their post-2014 mission. As part of the security agreement, which allows for a total of 15,000 foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan, the U.S. military also plans to conduct a limited number of counter­terrorism missions in the country. “If he represents what the majority of Afghans want, it’s going to be hard to maintain those kind of missions,” said Robert G. Loftis, a professor at Boston University and a former diplomat who led the George W. Bush administration’s initial effort to reach a status-of-forces agreement with Iraq in 2008. “He’s playing a dangerous game here, and he may convince, if not the [Obama] administration, the American public, ‘Hey, why are we doing this?’ ”"  Washingtonpost

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 Isn't it obvious that the only Afghans who want the US to keep troops in their country after 2014 are those who are enemies of the Taliban in the ongoing civil war?  Isn't it obvious? 

 Loftis is correct.  it will be impossible to conduct CT operations in an environment in which there must be; no accidental Afghan civilian casualties, no entry of Afghan residences, no operations in built up areas.

If that is so, why would be staying?  the kleptocrats in Kabul want us to stay to protect them and their money.

 Start leaving now!  pl    

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/coalition-apologizes-for-killing-afghan-child-karzai-warns-security-deal-in-jeopardy/2013/11/29/f73d2b06-58ed-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html

The Intelligence of JFK by Richard Sale

 

I was not attempting to be cruel in talking of the seamy side of Camelot.  I was trying to address a certain nostalgic myopia, a mood of acquiescent credulity that could be heard and seen everywhere on the anniversary of President Kennedy’s  death.  To romantize things is to falsify them.  There is a certain willful conceit in some forms of admiration, and that was what I objected to.

My wife objected to what I had written, noting that President John Kennedy “inspired us. You have to remember that.”

She is right. That is a wife’s chief function, but she is correct.  I was an admirer of John Kennedy because I admired his wit, his directness, his ability to think on his feet, his intellectual self confidence and fearlessness, his gift for accurate perceptions without which all sound and stable thought is impossible. As I said before, he could seize the essence of an issue as if coring an apple. That is no small gift.  Toughness of mind was another ingredient needed for success, Kennedy felt,, and he was tough.

Kennedy was a superb listener. When he looked at a document it was with total absorption. He seized its essence with ease.  Someone said of him that when he was listening to someone, he was totally there with the speaker. He would lean forward, his chin protruding slightly, and listen, not bothering to want to convey his own thoughts, but to hear completely the other person’s.  Lenin, it was said, could exhaust people by listening to them.  Kennedy did the same. By holding back, he urged the speaker forward towards full disclosure, without revealing his own mind and its designs. The closed air compelled the more open to speak, said a poet.

 

"Hollywood Producer/Spy Arnon Milchan Played A Key Role In Israel's Nuke Program" Business Insider

"Israel's secretive LAKAM economic espionage unit, which was tasked with securing technology for Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program, recruited Milchan in the 1960s. At one point, the 69-year-old told Channel 2, he operated 30 companies in 17 different countries. (Milcharn reportedly became a key operative for LAKAM chief Benjamin Blumberg and top spy Rafi Eitan, who ran jailed spy Jonathan Pollard and infiltrated a U.S. company to obtain tons of highly-enriched uranium.) Milchen, who is good friends with current Israeli President Shimon Peres, also said that he helped Israel obtain key nuclear equipment and information while Peres established the Dimona nuclear reactor as Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. Milchan's company, Heli Trading Co., brokered the shipment of 800 krytons — sophisticated triggers for nuclear weapons — from the California company MILCO International Inc. to the Israeli Ministry of Defense between 1979 and 1983. In 1985, the U.S. indicted and extradited MILCO President Kelly Smyth on 30 counts of smuggling and making false statements. Here's what Smyth told FBI agents in Los Angeles (via IRMEP): Smyth details his recruitment by Arnon Milchan, meetings with Benjamin Netanyahu who then worked at smuggling front Heli Trading (Milchan Brothers Trading Company) in Israel, and how the "Project Pinto" smuggling operation was rolled up after his arrest for smuggling 800 nuclear triggers and subsequent flight from the U.S"  Business Insider

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"Milchan reportedly became a key operative for LAKAM chief Benjamin Blumberg and top spy Rafi Eitan, who ran jailed spy Jonathan Pollard and infiltrated a U.S. company to obtain tons of highly-enriched uranium.)"

Holder and Obama like to try people for espionage.  Well?  pl 

http://www.businessinsider.com/arnon-milchan-and-israels-nuke-program-2013-11

Arnon Milchan was an Israeli spy in the US.

"A big-shot Hollywood producer who for decades was working as an Israeli spy and arms dealer has defended his actions and said it was 'exciting' being his country's 'James Bond.' Arnon Milchan, 68, who's famous for smash hit movies including 'Fight Club' and 'Pretty Woman,' spoke openly for the first time about his espionage work in an Israeli TV special that aired Monday night. The program reveals Milchan, at the special request of his friend Shimon Peres, who is now the country's president' set up and operated some 30 companies in 17 countries that helped Israel obtain parts and plans for its nuclear project in the 1980s. He brokered deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the show. 'I did it for my country and I'm proud of it,' Milchan said of his work for Israel's now-defunct spy unit Bureau of Scientific Relations"  Daily Mail online

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According to this story, Shimon Peres recruited this man to spy on the US nuclear program and to illegally export nuclear materials using a corporation created specifically to obtain such materials from the US Government for the purpose of illegally exporting them to Israel to use in their nuclear weapons program.  These materials included "triggers" for nuclear devices as well as fissile material itself. 

This story has quickly disappeared from the US media scene.  There was nothing about it in the Washington Post today.  If he had spied for the French do you think that would have happened? 

This man has lived in the US for forty years and became a billionaire here.  He says that his country is Israel and that he is proud of what he did.  He should be prosecuted for espionage and illegal export of military materiel.  He would make a great cellmate for Pollard.  If memory serves they worked for the same Israeli technical espionage unit. 

Milchan knows that his influence in the administration or any administration is or would be so great that he will never be prosecuted.  That is why he boasts on Israeli television of various felonious crimes in the US.  I am sure the FBI would love to get their hands on this guy but know they never will.

De Niro says he knew about this?  The FBI should have a chat with him as well.  pl  

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2514219/Arnon-Milchan-espionage-Hollywood-producer-Israeli-spy-countrys-James-Bond.html

 

Iran, Israel, Afghanistan, the ACA, Natanyahu - Obama Agonistes

- Israel is sending a team over to "help" us with the Iran negotiations.  The servants of Israel in the Congress are trying to torpedo the second phase talks by moving the goal posts so far that they are out of reach for any place kicker.  Maybe the Israeli team is going to advise them.

-  Obamacare moves from weakness to weakness, relentlessly moving along a trajectory of ever increasing unpopularity while the administration hopes for a more or less miraculous shift in public sentiment if they can make the federal website work.

- The Congress is basically flummoxed in its effort to decide what might be national priorities in a budget.  The Republicans appear to be more interested in destroying Obama than in anything else.

- Karzai told the charming Susan Rice to hit the road after raising the ante.  You heard it first here.  Heard what?  We told you that there would not be US troops in Afghanistan after next year.

- The police report on the Lanza creature reveals to the amazement of the NE mommy crowd that he had no specific motive.  He was merely mad.  Look at all the mass shooter types.  They are all mad.

Sometimes you eat the bear.  Sometimes the bear eats you.  I hope they have a happy Thanksgiving in the White House.  pl

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/11/nuclear-agreement-iran-51-forum-negotiations-palestinians.html?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8631

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/26/us-afghanistan-usa-idUSBRE9AP03J20131126?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=*AfPak%20Daily%20Brief&utm_campaign=South%20Asia%20Daily%20Brief%2011-26-13

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2013/11/22/californias-bitter-pill-leaves-66-worse-off-in-aca-rollout/

 

 

New Athenaeum Post

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2013/11/to-my-sweet-sunny-south-take-me-home-happy-thanksgiving-from-spartanburg-sc.html

Reflections on JFK By Richard Sale

The day of national grief, marking the murder of President John Kennedy turned out to be a day of bathetic sentimentality, a day of homage to what really did not exist.

President Kennedy’s assassination was a horrible event.  To have his wife and the nation having to watch a young President have his brains blown out of his head in front of the eyes of the world, ending a great perhaps, was something ineradicable to those who witnessed it.

That kind of heartless murder is an event every decent human being has to mourn and reflect on.  “Each day is yours to live – just as it comes – the rest is luck,” says Euripides. So it was.

But the facts of John F. Kennedy’s career have to be kept in mind.  John Kennedy was a brilliant young man. He had a photographic memory, he could write well, and he could immediately understand the heart of a matter at issue as if coring an apple.  His handling of the Cuban missile crisis showed a tenacious nerve, a colossal focus, a mind fertile in gradations and expedients and quickness of wit.  His conduct has rightly been praised to the roof.

Enrichment, Centrifuges, and Proliferation - Oh My!

**

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

COL Lang asked for information pertaining to centrifuges, enrichment, and proliferation. At the following two links are two excellent articles - one article and one report - dealing with these issues. 

Alexander Glaser's "Characteristics of the Gas Centrifuge for Uranium Enrichment and Their Relevance for Nuclear Weapon Proliferation (corrected)" from Science and Global Security, 2008

and

 Krass et als "Uranium Enrichment and Nuclear Weapon Proliferation" from SIPRI, 1983.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Cultural Advisor at the US Army War College. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College and/or the US Army.

** Imageof Krakoa the Island that Walks Like a Man, found at Doctor Nerdlove and taken from the story in Giant Sized X-Men #1 

"A military strike"

One of the amusing and contemptibly ignorant things being said in the media today is the use of the phrase above.  Once again, this kind of expressed ignorance fosters the impression that a crippling attack on what may or may not be an Iranian nuclear weapons program would consist of a one time attack by a few dozen aircraft.  IMO that would not be the case.  In fact what would be involved would be an aviation and missile campaign that would necessairly include hundreds or thousands of air and missile sorties.

B-2 and B-1 bombers, B-52 bombers, missile strikes, naval air and tactical air flying from Saudi Arabia, search and rescue operations for downed aircrew, all this would be involved.  pl

P5+1 Breakthrough!

**

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

The AP has reported that the P5+1 group of countries has reached an initial agreement with Iran in regard to its nuclear energy program (h/t to Little Green Footballs). This is a preliminary/intial agreement for the next six months to create space for the negotiators to work out other issues. It leaves the overall sanctions regimes in place and allows for the relaxed sanctions to be reimposed if the Iranians violate the agreement. The NY Times has more of the specifics: 

"According to the agreement, Iran would agree to stop enriching uranium beyond 5 percent. To make good on that pledge, Iran would dismantle links between networks of centrifuges.

All of Iran’s stockpile of uranium that has been enriched to 20 percent, a short hop to weapons-grade fuel, would be diluted or converted into oxide so that it could not be readily used for military purposes.

No new centrifuges, neither old models nor newer more efficient ones, could be installed. Centrifuges that have been installed but which are not currently operating could not be started up.

The agreement, however, would not require Iran to stop enriching uranium to a level of 3.5 percent or dismantle any of its existing centrifuges."

Once the Israeli Prime Minister makes a formal response, I'll post an update...

* Adam L. Silverman is the Cultural Advisor at the US Army War College. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College and/or the US Army.

** Atom image found at Wisegeek.

Turkey's Growing Isolation

"Fadi Hakura from the London think-tank Chatham House told CNN that Saturday's events were "a vivid illustration of Turkey's growing isolation in the Middle East." "There's a perception gaining ground in the region that the Turkish government is allied to the Muslim Brotherhood and that its foreign policy is defined by sectarian priorities," Hakura said. "Turkey has tense relations with Israel, the neighboring countries -- Iran, Syria and Iraq -- the majority of the Gulf Arab states and Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Jordan," he said. Hakura said U.S. President Barack Obama also was deeply unhappy with Turkish foreign policy in the region. "Since early August there has been no telephone contact between the U.S. President and Turkish Prime Minister and that's a reflection in part with Turkey's deepening isolation in the Middle East and also frustration in Ankara at Obama's reluctance to get involved in the conflict in Syria," he said."  CNN

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Erdogan is upset because the cause of his Islamist brothers has been dealt a crippling blow in Egypt.  He is truly a "wolf in sheep's clothing," and the cloth is now threadbare enough to see the Middle Ages underneath his business suit.

His policy in Syria has been one of complete alignment with the Islamist rebels.  He has alienated the new government in Egypt.  He has weakened the Turkish Army for the purpose of strengthening his hold on power.  Turkey's long standing friendly relationship with Israel is at an end.

Turkey's cities look modern?  Yes, but there are many modern buildings in Saudi Arabia as well.  pl    

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/23/world/meast/egypt-turkey-diplomacy/

Munich Appeasement and Iran By Richard Sale

Once again and again and even again, the term “Munich appeasement” is being used by people who should know better, using the phrase as a vulgar tool to attack any American effort to achieve an agreement with Iran on its nuclear enrichment program.  Unfortunately, much of the popular understanding of Munich Agreement is entirely mistaken. “Munich appeasement” is a merely label plastered on a bottle that had in most cases never been opened much less tasted.

In the late 1930s, Germany had clearly rearmed, its intentions were clearly aggressive, and clearly, the British, like the French, had not.  Their countries had no heart for rearmament.  But before the meeting with Hitler, Prime Minister Chamberlin in fact had set in motion a secret policy to confront Hitler, the object of which was to “inject resisting power” into those states neighboring Germany that Hitler clearly wanted to turn into “vassals.” 

Chamberlin’s design was to increase financial and economic aid into possible “vassal states” that would make them less dependent on Germany aims.  Its goal was to “ensure that Germany’s style was “cramped in every way possible, with a minimum of any provocation” that might be a cause for war. This secret intent to increase anti-German resistance would be buttressed by the public declaration that the French and British were united in resisting Hitler’s designs.

This of course was false posturing.  The French generals were muddled ad confused and wanted to avoid war at all costs, and the British were basically unarmed.

The secret British policy was to secretly play for time.  It is to Chamberlin’s credit that he did this. Why then all this footwork? At his meeting with Hitler on Sept. 29, Chamberlin permitted the German reoccupation of the Sudetenland, and the agreement enabled Chamberlin to return to London and announce he had secured “peace in our time.”

But the reality was far different. Chamberlin had secured peace for 12 months, just in time for the British Air Ministry to introduce the fast, eight-gun Spitfire fighter into squadron service.  A biographer of British intelligence said, “That stay of war proved to be decisive in the defense of the United Kingdom –the Battle of Britain which took place in the summer of 1940 and which resulted not only in victory but ended Hitler’s plan for an invasion.

The lesson of course, was to stall in the face of military weakness until you had gained some position of strength. John Kennedy took that lesson to heart – that without military strength you could do little in foreign policy.

"Senate Democrats stop filibusters on nominations" Reuters

"The Democratic-led Senate, in a historic rule change, stripped Republicans on Thursday of their ability to block President Barack Obama's judicial and executive branch nominees. On a nearly party-line vote of 52-48, Democrats abruptly changed the Senate's balance of power by reducing from 60 to 51 the number of votes needed to end procedural roadblocks known as filibusters against all presidential nominees, except those for the U.S. Supreme Court."  Reuters

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After listening to Obama speak of this, I expect that he and Reid will attempt to move on to complete destruction of the 60 vote cloture rule.

They will rue the day.  pl 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/21/us-usa-senate-nominees-vote-idUSBRE9AK11420131121

And now, for something local...

The Old Dominion Boat Club is 130 years old.  That is its burgee.  The club resides at the foot of King Street in Alexandria, Virginia.  It has a nice if unpretentious clubhouse with a mediocre kitchen.  The members have a lot of boats floating outside.  The members are mostly small business people.  I am not a member.

The city of Alexandria is a prize much fought over by developers and citizen activists.  The city is 22% African-American but the mayor, the city manager, the city attorney and the chief of police are African American.  This percentage of population has been in decline for many years as real estate values rise steadily here and Black people sell and move away, mainly to Maryland.  Nevertheless, except for the mayor who grew up in public housing here, all of these officials are from elsewhere.  They were imported after "talent searches" conducted under the mayor's benevolent regime.  They are all firmly in favor of commercial re-development all over the city and appear to be sturdy allies of the developers.  There have been a number of public planning meetings at which they have declared themselve to be in favor of maximum re-development of the city so that it can be something like the Maryland suburbs of Washington ten miles away.  The city government is altogether Democratic Party in its orientation and is supported in office by a political coalition of Liberal people recently come from elsewhere, minorities, yellow dog Democrats and the developer/chamber of commerce crowd.

Few of the rest of us really care about the boat club but its resistance to the attempts of the city government to seize private property in pursuit of its "vision" of the city's future has made it a symbol of citizen efforts to force the city government to stop trying to take our property.

Litigation and negotiations between the boat club and the city have been ongoing for fifteen years.  The boat club recently won against the city before the Virginia Supreme Court over its property rights in a nearby alley.  Undeterred, Mayor Euille intends to press on towards a massive confrontation in the commonwealth's courts.

So be it.  I should have joined the ODBC decades ago.  pl     

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/alexandria-officials-using-eminent-domain-to-acquire-parking-lot-232601671.html

Posting Comments

Lately there has been a spate of attempted comments in which the venting of anti-american spite and expression of unsupported speculation about various "conspiracies" involving the Kennedy murder has occurred.  If I think you are just "running your mouth" your comment will be deleted.  pl

Senators seek a vote an Afghan Agreement - NBC News

 


"The amendment, if enacted, would force Obama to seek a vote in Congress to approve continued troop presence in Afghanistan by June of next year. Merkley is looking to attach the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which is currently under consideration by the Senate. An aide to the Oregon senator suggested the Democratic leadership wouldn't decide whether to allow a vote on the amendment, which would serve as a mild rebuke to the White House, until after next week's Thanksgiving recess."  NBC News

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It is not clear if there really is agreement between the US and Karzai's government regarding a long term military assistance relationship. So much logrolling is underway that a true picture is hard to discern.

Assuming for the sake of discussion that both the loya jirga and Afghan parliament approve the agreement, it is imperative that the Congress should demand a vote with regard to US acceptance of ths open ended commitment to Afghan security and a virtually blank check for "development projects" in Afghanistan.  pl   

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/20/21549727-senators-want-obama-to-seek-permission-for-continued-troops-in-afghanistan

A Note on Lincoln's Eloquence By Richard Sale

   

Thank you for Pat for your magnificent story.  Everything works: the drawing of the characters, the positioning, the crafted dialogue, the historical background, the underlying tensions.

But in thinking of the Gettysburg Address, one is reminded Lincoln is often portrayed as a man who, when a little boy, read the Bible a lot and he became a great writer because of it. Nothing could be further from the facts. His eloquence was not natural. His excellence with words is the result of a very conscious literary artistry. Everything he wrote betrays a great effort of mind and an intensely critical inner ear.

As a young boy, Lincoln tried to be a poet, wanted to be one, but knew he lacked that gift, but he had a tenacious to know things. One of my teachers, Jacques Barzun, once wrote of Lincoln’s work, “Pick up any volume of Lincoln’s works as if you were approaching a new author. Pretend you know nothing of the anecdotes; nothing of the way the story embedded in these pages comes out.  Your aim is to see a life unfold.”

 

"Muddled Thinking" on Afghanistan

"Many Afghans are angry over incidents including the February 2012 accidental burning of hundreds of copies of the Islamic holy book, the Quran, a March 2012 shooting spree by a U.S. soldier in southern Afghanistan that killed 16 people, and unintended civilian deaths from U.S. bombs. The night raids are particularly offensive because they are perceived as violating the sanctity of women in the house despite U.S. claims that they are a useful tool in killing insurgent leaders. The other sticking point is legal immunity — an issue that was a deal breaker during failed negotiations over a similar deal in Iraq before U.S. forces withdrew from that country in December 2011. Karzai's National Security Adviser Rangin Dafdar Spanta told lawmakers at a weekend briefing that the U.S. position was clear: If Washington doesn't get jurisdiction over its soldiers and civilian personnel, it won't sign the agreement, and it won't leave any U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan when international combat troops withdraw at the end of 2014. Hakimullah Mujahed, one of the Loya Jirga's organizers, said "the security agreement with the U.S. has to be in the framework of the Afghan constitution." "The trial of foreign soldiers accused of killing innocent Afghans or committing crimes against Afghanistan should be tried in an Afghan court. That's very important," he added."  Boston Herald

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Barry McCaffery told Chuck Todd of MSNBC this morning that the proposed Afghan security agreement reflects "muddled thinking" in terms of the foolishness of leaving a necessarily embattled remnant in a "vast and hostile country."  He also pointed out the fact that the remnant would be 800 miles from the sea and the US Navy.  I could not agree more.  The fate of the British mission at Kabul in 1879 comes to mind.  Major Sir Louis Cavagnari and his escort of soldiers from the Guides were wiped out to the last man after a pitched battle with a Kabul mob.  McCaffery insisted that there are no important US security interests in Afghananistan.  Once agsin,  I agree.  The civil war in Afghanistan is an intra-Pushtun war.  It is not a war against the shattered AQ who once were a powerful force in the country.

Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser to Obama, then made an appearance to deny that the agreement is a  political fig leaf to cover the embarassment of Afghan/American looting of our aid money and yet another defeat endured in the name of the failed COIN philosophy.  He made it clear that if the agreement is signed, the US will continue to "bleed" billions of dollars into Afghanistan.  At the same time he left open the possibility that the US will "pocket" the agreement and withdraw all but a small group of advisers. This scenario would ensure the continuation of the process of embezzlement that has persisted for so long.

Let us hope that the Afghans will save us from the folly of further particiapation in their civil war.  pl

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/international/asia/2013/11/us_afghans_work_toward_agreement_on_night_raids

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Louis_Napoleon_Cavagnari

"Gettysburg Trip" from "Death Piled Hard" by W. Patrick Lang

 

            "Edwin Stanton was not a generous man.  He hated anyone who might prove a rival for power and position, anyone.  He often worked late and alone brooding on the threats presented by wartime Washington.

            On this particular November morning, he sat in his 17^th St, office in the light of day, and reflected on the many slights offered to him.  He correctly believed that Washington was filled with his enemies.  The Confederate underground was not among his pre-occupations.  He reckoned that he and Lafayette Baker could deal with them straightforwardly.   No.  Edwin Stanton was more concerned with his rivals within the Lincoln Administration.  They are all jealous, he thought.  There are so many, so many from before the war.  They are waiting for a sign of vulnerability, a political weakness, a chance to make me look inept before the president.  Today he had something special to worry about.  He was not happy with Lincoln’s invitation to Devereux to accompany the official party to the cemetery dedication.  It was bad enough that so many officers of the regular army and navy had direct political access to the president without the hazard of this man who worked in Stanton’s own offices being given several days with Lincoln without benefit of Stanton’s supervision.  Who knew what sort of foolishness he might tell the president.  He looked out the grimy window of his office.  Leaves fell and rattled against the cold glass of late autumn.  A hopelessly lost cardinal landed on the sill and looked in.  It pecked the glass hoping for food, for anything.  He looked away.  The bird flew on.  It had been left behind as its kind flew south toward warmth and food.

            Stanton forced his attention back to the task at hand.  It was his way.  The need to survive and prosper was always foremost in his mind.  After all, he thought he is still a Virginian, even though a loyalist.   How much can you ever really trust these people? 
Innate caution made him thing of Devereux, the man, as opposed to Devereux the potential rival.   In civilian life he is a merchant banker.  What sort of schemes will he press the president to support either now or after the war?  After the war, I must think of “after the war.”

"Afghan Talks at Impasse Before Vote, Officials Say" NY Times

" ... the loya jirga would almost certainly reject the agreement with the American wording, which would make it all but impossible politically for Mr. Karzai to make a subsequent deal. The impasse was referred to obliquely in a statement posted Sunday night on the website of the Afghan presidency, which quoted the Afghan national security adviser as saying, “Both sides have not yet agreed on one of the clauses in the bilateral security agreement document.” The two sides have also not reached agreement on whether American troops will be immune from prosecution under Afghan law, but Mr. Karzai is willing to try to persuade the loya jirga to accept that, one of the Afghan officials said. The troops would be subject to prosecution under American law for crimes committed in the line of duty."  NY Times

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I have decided to ignore the Cheney family "amusement."  Thanksgiving dinner should be interesting if they gather.

On the other hand, it is fascinating to watch the Afghans play us like a fiddle.  I stand by my belief that the loya jirga will "flush" this agreement.  In fact I think that Karzai knows this is true and is calculating the moment of his departure for Dubai.

There is going to be a great deal of unhappiness in the US armed forces over ten years of misguided efforts to make Iraqis and Afghans into Canadians.  There have been so many fallen comrades, so much money thrown away, such a waste.  I know the feeling well.

And then there is the spectacle of Laura Bush publicly hoping that Afghan women will be treated well after NATO's departure.  Does she think that our pious hopes and dreams for Afghanistan have actually changed the nature of the various Afghan societies? 

Afgan women who can manage it should leave the country.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/world/asia/afghan-talks-at-impasse-before-vote-officials-say.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Where were you when...

Where were you when you heard JFK had been murdered?

I was sitting at the bar in the officer's club at Fort Greely, Alaska.  I was eating a reindeer burger (cheaper than beef up there).  I was a lieutenant and in Alaska for a course in arctic warfare.  The black and white TV set suddenly stopped playing an episode of Ozzie and Harriet and the news reader announced that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.  He did not say that the president had died.  Ozzie and Harriet resumed.  I had another draft beer and contemplated.  It was minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit outside and the wind was blowing as usual.  The thought of standing in the cold and wind to wait for a post bus to take me and a friend back to our billet was just too much, just too much.  The newsman came back on and told us all that Kennedy had died.  There was complete silence in the bar.  Not a word was said.

The next day there was a ceremony of remembrance held in front of the post headquarters.  The sun was shining brightly.  The storm flag was at half staff.  It was frozen as solid as a plank.  It beat itself against the staff so strongly that it seemed to share our grief.  All military personnel were mustered in arctic kit (white) and on cross country skis.  I remember how cold the ski poles were even through many layers of insulation.  The post commander, a colonel, read a statement from the new commander in chief and Taps sounded over the PA system.  At the last note, the first gun was fired in the beginning of a 21 gun cannon salute to the old commander in chief.

What had been a bright day was instantly transfomed into a dense fog.  This is called arctic fog.  It is caused by a sudden precipitation of ice crystals in the atmosphere.  The gun did that.

It seemed a fitting thing.  pl

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/17/jfk-assassination-dallas-remember-memories-50/3574847/

HARPER: RUSSIA'S CHURCH-STATE DIPLOMACY

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the process of reviving a tradition of Russian Church-State diplomacy in the Middle East that may hold the key to successfully solving the Syrian and Iranian crises.   In the course of these efforts, Russia is also in the process of greatly enhancing its power projection in the region and reopening large-scale arms sales to countries that been outside Russian reach since the fall of Nasser.  The Russian footprint in the Near East has greatly expanded.   After brokering the Syria chemical weapons deal and helping to enforce strict adherence by the Assad government, President Putin is pressing for the convening of a Geneva II conference to solve the real Syria crisis.  On Sunday, November 10, Putin initiated a telephone call with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.  While details of the phone conversation have been kept secret, it was notable that the very next day, the Saudi-linked head of the Syrian National Coalition, Ahmad al-Jarba announced that the group's leadership had agreed to participate in the Geneva II meeting without the precondition that Assad leave power.    

Simultaneous to the Putin-Abdullah talks, Russian foreign minister Lavrov and defense minister Shoigu made an historic visit to Cairo, where they reached a series of agreements, including a $2 billion arms sale which will be paid by Saudi Arabia.  In Cairo, Lavrov gave a defacto endorsement to the "non-coup" that took place in July with the ouster of President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power. 

As Lavrov and Shoigu were meeting with their Egyptian counterparts and Gen. al-Sissi, the foreign affairs director of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion, was in Beirut and Vatican City, promoting a joint Russian Orthodox-Catholic protection of the Christians living in the Levant. On November 25, President Putin will be in Rome to meet personally with Pope Francis I.  

All of these Russian diplomatic manuevers have a common objective:  to expand Russia's political, military and economic clout in the region, while helping to bring about an added degree of stability in the most volatile region in the world.  Russia has given Washington the lead role in pursuing the P5+1 agenda with Iran, given the apparent rapport that has developed between secretary of state Kerry and foreign minister Zarif.  Lavrov has recently praised Kerry's tireless work in pursuit of an interim agreement between Iran and the P5+1.  We could see the makings of a new arrangement among leading powers to bring a modicum of stability to the Persian Gulf and Near East.  

For President Obama, this would be a welcome relief from the collapse of his presidency into lame duck status or worse.  It burned him badly that Forbes magazine this week declared President Putin of Russia to be the most powerful leader in the world, with Obama coming in a very weak second.  But so what.

Nine Million for SST

Today we reached a total of nine million lifetime page visits on SST.  pl

Musings - 15 November 2013

Canadia - Rob Ford is a disgrace.  He apparently represents some sort of class struggle in Toronto.  This carnival of disgrace is eliminating the image of Canadia as "the shire." The temptation to revel in the discomfort of frequently priggish Canadians is strong, but to yield to such temptation would be base.  Surely there is some way to get rid of this bum.  There is no recall provision in Toronton, Ontarian or Canadian law? That is incredible.  I suppose that lacuna in the law reflects a misplaced confidence in the decorum of Canadian public life.  How about this thought?  Can the Governor General remove him in the Queen's name?   This would have the added benefit of providing some useful function for the GG.

The American Presidency - Running a large enterprise or perhaps almost any enterprise is an acquired and carefully cultivated skill.  Obama never ran anything but his senate office staff before he took over the job of running the Executive Branch of the federal government.  His detachment and self imposed isolation reflect that.  The same things can be said of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.  By all accounts neither of them have been secretaries of state who actually ran or run the Department of State.  They have preferred to roam the world as the negotiator-in-chief.  HC is clearly the front runner in the prospective succession follwing a failing Obama second term.  She doesn't have any real experience of running organizations either.  I suggest a former governor as the next president.  Christie?  I have doubts as to whether he will have appeal outside Sopranoland.

The ACA - I asked my doctor today if he understands the law.  He does not and says that his colleagues do not either.  A few points - How is the government going to know if you have health insurance or not?  We do not seem to be required to inform the government. Will the IRS demand this information?  If you have health insurance that suffices under the ACA and do not want to seek a subsidy foir health insurance, there is no reason for anyone to visit any health insurance exchange. So, how will they know what your status is?  And then there is the matter of Medicaid expansion.  In the states that accept expansion, a great many people are signing up for Medicaid after learning on the exchange websites that they are now Medicaid elegible by virtue of destitution of some kind.  Medicaid (unlike Medicare) is altogether a cost center.  There is no revenue in it at all from outside the federal and state governments.  Was it not predictable that people who learn they can have Medicaid for free, will not buy subsidized private insurance which will, of course, still cost them something?  Was the end game in the ACA a backdoor route to a single payer system for the people Obama dearly loves? A piedmont Virginian who does garden work for me expressed his view clearly.  "The Democrats are just buying votes."

WTF?  Over...  Can single payer come far behind the collapse of this "system?"  pl

"Syrian rebel 'beheaded in case of mistaken identity'" BBC

"An al-Qaeda affiliated rebel group in Syria is reported to have asked for forgiveness after beheading a fellow rebel in a case of mistaken identity. A video recently posted online showed members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) brandishing the severed, bearded head of a man. They said was an Iraqi Shia caught fighting on the government side. But other rebel fighters watching the video recognised the man and said he was one of their commanders. In a separate development, activists said a senior figure in another Islamist rebel group had been killed in an air strike near Aleppo."  BBC

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What a shame!  Cannibalism among the jihadis!  Surely that must be haram!  You should noticethat the ISIS thought this man was a Shia fighter from Iraq.  b tells us that there are no such fighters from Iraq.  If so, how did ISIS make such a mistake?  pl

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24957195

"Quitting Over Syria" Giraldi

"... the intelligence community found itself with numerous skeptics in the ranks, leading to sharp exchanges with the Director of Central Intelligence John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. A number of analysts threatened to resign as a group if their strong dissent was not noted in any report released to the public, forcing both Brennan and Clapper to back down. This led to the White House issuing its own assessment, completely divorcing the process from any direct connection to the intelligence community. The spectacle of CIA Director George Tenet sitting behind Secretary of State Colin Powell in the United Nations, providing him with credibility as Powell told a series of half-truths, would not be repeated."  Giraldi

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We must remember that the WH never revealed what its "evidence" was of Syrian government complicity in the chemical disaster of 20 August.  Now you know why.  There was none.  pl     

 

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/quitting-over-syria/

Thank You

My gratitude to all those who sent SST money.  pl

Government troops take more towns in Syria

"For more than a year, much of the belt of neighborhoods and towns just south of Damascus has been a rebel bastion and a key arms conduit for the opposition. But government forces — bolstered by fighters from Lebanon's Shiite militant Hezbollah group and Shiite militants from Iraq — have made significant headway in recent weeks in the area as President Bashar Assad pushes to shore up his hold on the capital and its doorstep. The recent government advances also could give Assad's government a stronger position in proposed peace talks that the United States and Russia have been trying to convene since May. The town of Hejeira on Wednesday became the latest rebel-held suburb to fall into government hands. The SANA state news agency said the army seized control of the town, but was still battling rebels on the outskirts."  abcnews

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"... government forces — bolstered by fighters from Lebanon's Shiite militant Hezbollah group and Shiite militants from Iraq..."

Clausewitz thought that no peacetime regime of training and military education could ever be as effective in creating a skilful, hard fighting army as sustained and ultimately successful war.That is certainly true if the army in question survives the process. 

The Syrian Army and Air Force have passed that test and are in the process of becoming something like their Hizbullah allies.  They are more heavily armed but similarly adapted to the peculiar circumstances of their task and the topography of Syria.

The presence on the battlefields of Lebanese Hizbullah allies and lately of Shia militia from Iraq increases the effect when combined with the efforts of the maturing Syrian Army.

The Saudis' decades long political and now paramilitary project intended to assert Wahhabi Sunni control of the Levant appears headed for defeat.  That is why Saudi Arabia is so upset with what it sees as insufficient American effort on behalf of the Syrian jihadi rebels. 

The US should read the writing on the wall, and begin to back away from a policy of regime change.  Why?  Simple - it ain't gonna happen.  pl   

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/syrian-troops-rebels-clash-south-damascus-20862696?singlePage=true

And Now a Word from the Israeli Security Professionals...

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

COL Lang has been covering the developments in the P5+1 negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, including the growing rift between the US and Israel in regard to the process and its potential outcomes. One of Israel's top former security and intelligence professionals has also weighed in. Carmi Gillon, who was head of Shin Bet when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated**, recently the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he stated: “The American policy is a policy of wisdom.” and “In my eyes, American policy is not coming out of weakness. It comes out of power" (h/t Ben Armbruster at ThinkProgress).

Gillon is just the latest in a long line of former Israeli security and intelligence leaders to publicly come out and contradict or try to contextualize Prime Minister Netanyahu's positions regarding Iran, as well as other Israeli security issues. We have previously covered former Mossad Director and Israeli National Security Advisor Ephraim Halevy's opposition to Netanyahu's stated positions and actions, but both he and several other former senior Israeli security and defense officials have made more recent statements about Israel (read Netanyahu) not giving the US ultimatums (h/t Armbruster - same link as above).

To get an even better idea of what Gillon and five of his former colleagues think about the reality, let alone the need, for speaking to Israel's adversaries, you should check out the documentary the Gatekeepers that I wrote about last Spring. So you don't have to watch the whole thing right this minute, check out this promotional video starting at the 6:01 mark. I especially like the remarks of Avraham Shalom, the oldest of the six former Shin Bet directors interviewed for the film starting at the 6:07 mark.

 

* Adam L. Silverman is the Cultural Advisor at the US Army War College. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College and/or the US Army.

** This is covered in the Gatekeepers documentary, including Gillon's attempts to get Rabin to take the potential threat to his life as a result of opposition to the peace process, as well as incendiary political and religious rhetoric related to the Israeli political campaigns that were taking place at the time.

Are Israel and the US edging closer to a divorce?

“He was trying to threaten us with a third intifada and I know that the intifada is already here – and it’s here because of him and the terrorists he set free,” she said. “It’s a shame that the secretary of state of the United States is on the side of the terrorists,” Struk added. Meanwhile, Jeff Daube, director of the Israel office of the Zionist Organization of America, condemned Kerry’s rhetoric on behalf of his agency. “As far as the ZOA is concerned we wonder why Kerry is not mentioning any of the acts of Palestinian terrorism in general, and this one in particular,” he said. “He will be responsible, as far as we’re concerned, for any uptick in violence.” Daube went on to caution Kerry of the powerful consequences of his words. “I’m hoping the secretary of state will give more thought to his comments in the future because this could have deadly consequences,” he added. The demonstration’s organizer, Elie Pieprz, director of external affairs of the YESHA Council, said Kerry is responsible for Friday’s firebombing, adding that he should be disqualified from his role as peace broker for his “reckless behavior.” “Thursday Kerry makes a statement how Judea and Samaria are illegitimate, that there will be a third intifada and the next day there was a firebombing there,” he said. “A plus B equals C.” Pieprz noted that because the peace talks are intended to address Judea and Samaria’s status, by deeming the territories “illegitimate” Kerry should be disqualified from his role. “We need to understand that what Kerry said on Thursday should disqualify him as a mediator for the peace process,” he said."  jpost

--------------------------------

Natanyahu seems frustrated to find that the Americans are harder to push than he famously once said.  His Saudi crypto-allies  appear to feel the same way. 

"... what Kerry said on Thursday should disqualify him as a mediator for the peace process,” he said."

Interesting.  These same Zionist types did not seem to mind at all when the openly Zionist Dennis Ross served their interest in his belief that the Israelis are "his people."

Natanyahu and his various allies in the US media (Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd, Ricard Engel, etc.) are busy encouraging congressional resistance to US foreign policy with regard to Iran, Syria and Palestine. 

The basic problem for the Israelis is the present unwillingness of most Ameicans to sacrifice their own interests for those of Israel.  This, of course does not apply to Israel's bought and paid for agents among the members of the Senate and House of Representatives.  Nothing could ever be too much for them. 

Israel's trip to the "hurt locker" is approaching.  pl

 

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Israeli-protesters-condemn-Kerrys-remarks-over-3rd-intifada-at-US-Consulate-331178

New Athenaeum Post

Veterans Day 2013- "When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion of immortality..."

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2013/11/veterans-day-2011.html

Open Thread - 10 November, 2013

pl

"Understanding Syria" by William R. Polk

 

"Whether in enclaves or in neighborhoods, each non-Muslim community dressed according to its custom, spoke its own languages and lived in its unique cultural pattern; it appointed or elected its own officials who divided the among its fellows the taxes it owed to the empire, ran its schools and provided such health facilities and social welfare as it thought proper or could afford. Since this system was spelled out in the Quran and the Traditions (Hadiths) of the Prophet, respecting it was legally obligatory on Muslims. Consequently, when the Syrian state took shape, it inherited a rich, diverse and tolerant social tradition." Polk

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There will be two more parts of this document.  I will publish them on SST.  pl

Download PART I UNDERSTANDING SYRIA

The Very Models of Modern Admirals? (or Generals)

 

Two U.S. admirals — including the director of naval intelligence — are under investigation as part of a major bribery scandal involving a foreign defense contractor, Navy officials announced Friday night. Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch, the service’s top intelligence officer, and Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the Navy’s director of intelligence operations, were placed on leave Friday, and their access to classified material was suspended, the Navy said in a statement. Washpost

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Say what?  Feel free to comment on this.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/two-admirals-face-probe-in-navy-bribery-scheme/2013/11/08/d2dc063a-48d8-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_story.html?hpid=z1

"Gravity" a review by Alan Farrell

Gravity: Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón (who also wrote the screenplay with someone suspiciously also named Cuaron, no relation since the acute accent on the ultima of Curarón reveals the one as obviously from Argentina while the want of an accent on the other name changes the whole picture and brands the guy—oddly enough named Jonás—as Ecuadoran. Sooooo…). Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney… and that’s it. And if you believe, as do I, that the two of them can sustain an hour and half of flick all by themselves and therefore cough up thirteen bucks for the ticket and three-D goggles, you may discover yourself halfway cheated somewhere around the middle of the flick but you didn’t hear it from me.

Israeli rejects peace with Iran

"Netanyahu said Friday that he "utterly rejects" the emerging nuclear deal between western powers and Iran, calling it a "bad deal" and promised that Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself. "I understand the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva as well they should because they got everything and paid nothing," Netanyahu told reporters before meeting with Kerry in Tel Aviv. "They wanted relief of sanctions after years of grueling sanctions, they got that. They paid nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability. So Iran got the deal of the century and the international community got a bad deal," Netanyahu said. "This is a very bad deal and Israel utterly rejects it. Israel is not obliged by this agreement and Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself and defend the security of its people," he said." foxnews

---------------------------------

Well, there you have it.  We Americans and Europeans are naughty, disobedient children.  We think that we can make a deal with Iran without fulfilling Israel's maximalist goals.  How dare we!  Ah!  I forgot.  Israel's flunkies in Congress are going to obey their masters to try to block the deal.  Perhaps this time they might find that an unpopular thing to do.

 "will do everything it needs to do to defend itself."  Hey! Go for it!  Israel is a sovereign state.  Let's see what they can do!    pl

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/11/08/kerry-to-join-high-stakes-iran-nuclear-talks-amid-signs-progress/

Unbannings

GCP and Tyler are unbanned.  pl

The Obama/Kerry "follies" in the ME roll on.

"Syrian troops have retaken a key rebel-held town south of Damascus, state media and activists say. State TV said the army had full control of Sbeineh and that "terrorists" had been driven out. UK-based activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sbeineh was one of the most important rebel positions near Damascus. Meanwhile, inspectors say they have verified one of Syria's two remaining chemical weapons production sites. Inspectors had already verified 21 out of 23 sites declared by Syria but two sites were too dangerous to reach. They said the latest site - near Aleppo - was verified using footage from sealed cameras and that it was dismantled and abandoned."  BBC

-----------------------------------------

As TTG wrote, the Syrian government is making steady progress in its campaign of pacification.  The Saudis face deep humiliation in this latest example of their drive for Sunni triumphalism in the Levant.  This project is decades long now and has had remarkably little success.

At the same time, the UN has gone competently forward in the work of eliminating CW production and weapons stockpiles.  There is a certain amount of "logrolling" going on in Washington for the notion that Syria is somehow not living up to its undertakings in this matter.  No evidence has been produced for public view so this is just more rumor.  pl

********************************

The last time Kerry spent so much time over so many days with Netanyahu and Abbas was in July, when the two leaders agreed to enter direct peace talks for the first time in three years. More than three months later, after a dozen meetings between their teams, there are visible cracks in the negotiations. Both Netanyahu and Abbas warned early this week of growing tensions in the private discussions, and public potshots between the two sides have escalated. Speaking before a three-hour session with Kerry on Wednesday morning, Netanyahu accused the Palestinians of “continuing to create artificial crises, continuing to . . . run away from the historic decisions that are needed to make a genuine peace.”  Washpost

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Kerry is trying to make something out of nothing.  The various parties to the Palestine dispute remain unwilling to create an actual and viable settlement of the matter.  For some reason he does not understand that.  pl

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24849809

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/kerry-says-sessions-with-netanyahu-abbas-bring-some-clarity-to-tense-peace-talks/2013/11/07/e525cd26-47a7-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html

Wednesday, 6 November, 2013

- It did not take long for someone in the US government to start logrolling for the idea that Syria is cheating on its agreement to give up chemical weapons.

- The Virginia political results satisfy me.  McCauliffe will be inaugurated as a lame duck, completely at the mercy of  the strongly Republican House of Delegates.  I wonder what he thinks he won.  He may be able to pass budgets but only if he "plays nice."  pl 

The Balance in the House of Delegates

"Through the House of Burgesses, the Virginia House of Delegates is considered the oldest continuous legislative body in the New World. Originally having 22 members, the House of Burgesses met from 1619 through 1632 in the choir of the church at Jamestown.  From 1632 to 1699 the legislative body met at four different state houses in Jamestown. The first state house convened at the home of Colonial Governor, Sir John Harvey from 1632 to 1656. The burgesses convened at the second state house from 1656 until it was destroyed in 1660. Historians have yet to precisely identify its location."  wiki

----------------------------------------------------

The punditry in the corporate media is luxuriating in contemplation of the two gubernatorial elections today.

In New Jersey, Christie, a politically moderate and very Northeastern Republican will easily win re-election to a second term.  He is busily preening his over sized self in contemplation of an attempt to win  the Republican nomination for president in 2016.  IMO "that dog won't hunt" outside his home neighborhood along the Jersey Shore and New York.  There is too much about him that smells of the culture represented by "The Sopranos."  There is also the embarassing detail that for a while he was a lobbyist for Bernie Madoff.  Iowa?  The Mid-West?  "fugeddiboutit."  I would like to see him at a Shad Bake in Virginia.

McCauliffe will probably be  elected governor.  He can then sit in Mister Jefferson's chair.  The current membership by party in the House of Delegates consists of 67 Republicans and 32 Democrats.  Unless there is a truly seismic shift today it is unlikely that The Democrats will control the House of Delegates after this election.  That means that McCaulliffe will have very little chance of passing any legislation through the General Assembly. He is an intelligent man.  He must know that.  Therefore I conclude that what he wants is a "pulpit" from which to strike rhetorical and theatrical poses that will endear him to the left of center base of the Democratic Party across the country.  That means that  he is going to continue his vicious campaign of exageration and barrages of 30 second TV ads in the way that he savaged Cuccinelli.

All Virginians not contained in his claque of "progressives" will be his targets.  pl      

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_House_of_Delegates

Kerry, a phony then and now.

"In his nine months in office, Kerry's State Department has one striking accomplishment to its name. It has achieved a new level of media savvy in promoting itself and plugging its highest official as a rock star, a world leader in his own right (complete with photo-ops and sophisticated image-making). In the meantime, the secretary of state has been stumbling and bloviating from one crisis to the next, one debacle to another, surrounded by the well-crafted imagery of diplomatic effectiveness. He and his errant statements have become global punch lines, but is he truly to blame for his performance?"  Asia Times

------------------------------

Kerry is a man obsessed with himself.  He has consistently focused on his personal profile at the expense of doing the country's business.  The Egyptians, Saudis, Syrians, Afghans, etc. are all laughing at him.  How long can this continue?  pl     

 

http://atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-02-041113.html

 

Rebels lose ground to Assad forces in Syria war - TTG

Forces loyal to the Syrian government are taking advantage of deepening rifts among Syria’s feuding rebels to advance into rebel-held territory in the northern part of the country, overturning some long-held assumptions about the war.

The resignation on Sunday of a top leader in the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army further underscored the extent to which rebel infighting is undermining the effort not only to topple President Bashar al-Assad but also to hold on to territories won by the opposition in the past two years of conflict.Col. Abdul Jabbar Akaidi, one of the chief recipients of what little American aid has been provided to the rebels, said he was standing down to protest the rebel bickering, which he blamed for the capture on Friday by Assad loyalists of the strategic town of Safira, southeast of the key city of Aleppo. 

The fall of Safira restored a vital supply link between Damascus and government forces holding out in the divided northern city and put regime loyalists on track to challenge other opposition strongholds in the province, almost all of which has been under rebel control for more than a year. Rebel commanders said the town fell after Islamist brigades failed to respond to a call for reinforcements by the Tawheed Brigade, Aleppo’s biggest battalion, which was forced to flee under a withering aerial bombardment inflicted by the Syrian air force. (Wash Post)

———————————————————

"Khamenei tells Iran's hardliners not to undermine nuclear talks" Reuters

"Iran's supreme leader gave strong backing on Sunday to his president's push for nuclear negotiations, warning hardliners not to accuse Hassan Rouhani of compromising with the old enemy America. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments will help shield Rouhani, who has sought to thaw relations with the West since his surprise election in June, from accusations of being soft on the United States, often characterized in the Islamic Republic as the "Great Satan". Iran will resume negotiations with six world powers, including the United States, in Geneva on Thursday, talks aimed at ending a standoff over its nuclear work that Tehran denies is weapons-related. Rouhani hopes a deal there will mean an end to sanctions that have cut the OPEC country's oil exports and hurt the wider economy, but any concession that looks like Iran is compromising on what it sees as its sovereign right to peaceful nuclear technology will be strongly resisted by conservatives. "No one should consider our negotiators as compromisers," Khamenei said in a speech, a day before the November 4 anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, a pivotal event in U.S.-Iranian relations, the ISNA news agency reported. "They have a difficult mission and no one must weaken an official who is busy with work," said Khamenei, who wields ultimate power in Iran's dual clerical-republic system, including over the nuclear program."  Reuters

------------------------------

This will make it more difficult for the Likud/Aipac/WINEP forces to maintain their propaganda theme concerning the false nature of iranian negotiating positions, but they will manage.  pl

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/03/us-iran-nuclear-khamenei-idUSBRE9A206I20131103

At the St. Michaels Oysterfest today

The News of the Middle East on the First of November

- Israel struck target in the Lattakia, Syria area yesterday.  The objective appears to have been the destruction of Russian materiel destined for the Syrian armed forces.  This has been a declared policy of the Israelis who say that they will prevent delivery of anything that can be used against them.  Until recently that seemd to be a plausible explanation for Israeli policy toward Syria but by his own statements it is clear now that Bibi is the main actor in creating the US led coalition of the marginally willing that seeks to destroy the Syrian government in the belief that this will severely wound Iran.  That projected wound to Iran seems to doubtful to me.  The probability that the destruction of the Baath government would result in the creation in Syria of a bastion of Islamist jihadism bordering Israel seems to mean nothing to him.

- In Egypt John Kerry's prattling of democracy and elections has not deterred the generals from destroying all those parts of the MB that they can reach.  They know that the MB are the enemies of their blood.  Mursi's political campaign aimed at destroying the semi-secular society of modern Egypt confirmed them in their belief that co-existence with the MB is not possible.  In the Middle East the lack of any real belief in the ideas of the "loyal opposition" and win-win outcomes makes such results likely in the face of alien tinkering in societies.

-Saudi Arabia is turning away from the United States.  This pseudo-alliance was always unstable.  There were always far too many conflicting values and interests involved.  The necessities of the Cold War held the two countries together for a long time and Saudi money in the right pockets kept the pairing together for far longer than it logically would have lasted.  Who will benefit from Saudi largesse in the future?  Name your candidates. 

- In a similar and similarly predictable situation the disastrous neocon adventure in Iraq is producing yet more death.  We overturned the previous order of society and sponsored a government run by Shia who have only one goal and that is to screw the Sunni Arabs.  The screwees are fighting back.  Now Maliki who also predictably rejected a pact with the US that would have granted us legal immunity for our soldiers is in Washington begging for assistance.  We should wash our hands of the country.  pl