Sic Semper Tyrannis

Good Breaking News: Sergeant Bergdahl has been Freed - Updated

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

A bit of good news out of Afghanistan on a Saturday afternoon. Sergeant Bowl Bergdahl, pictured above, has been released by the Taliban that have been holding him for several years. He's now back in US control. This was accomplished by agreeing to exchange him for five detainees being held at Guantanamo. They will be released to the Qataris who have agreed to supervise them.

UPDATED

In comments COL Lang asked who was SGT Bergdahl exchanged for. According to the news reports he was exchanged for five Taliban being held at Guantanamo. According to CNN, based on confirmation from (unnamed) Administration officials, the five Taliban are:

 

Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa

 

Former Afghan minister of interior during Taliban rule, governor of Herat and a military commander. Alleged to have been "directly associated" with Osama bin Laden. According to a detainee assessment, Khairkhwa was probably associated with al Qaeda's now-deceased leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He is also described as one of the "major opium drug lords in western Afghanistan" and a "friend of current Afghan President Hamid Karzai." He was arrested February 2002 in Pakistan and was transferred to Guantanamo in May 2002. During questioning, Khairkhwa denied all knowledge of extremist activities.

 

Mullah Mohammad Fazl

 

Deputy minister of defense under the Taliban, senior military commander who was chief of staff of the Afghan army and commander of the Taliban's 10th Division. Wanted by the U.N. in connection with the massacre of thousands of Afghan Shiites during the Taliban rule. "When asked about the murders, detainee did not express any regret," according to the detainee assessment. Alleged to have been associated with several militant Islamist groups, including al Qaeda. Surrendered in November 2001 to Northern Alliance (opponents of the Taliban). Transferred to U.S. custody in December 2001 and one of the first arrivals at Guantanamo. Assessed as having high intelligence value.

 

Mullah Norullah Nori

 

Senior Taliban commander during hostilities with U.S. and allies in Mazar-e Sharif in late 2001. Taliban governor of two provinces and also implicated, according to detainee assessment, in the murder of Afghan Shiites. Nori claimed during interrogation that "he never received any weapons or military training." Surrendered in November 2001 to Northern Alliance and transferred to U.S. custody a month later. According to 2008 detainee assessment, Nori "continues to deny his role, importance and level of access to Taliban officials." Same assessment characterized him as high risk and of high intelligence value.

 

Abdul Haq Wasiq

 

Formerly deputy director of Taliban intelligence. An administrative review in 2007 cited a source as saying that Wasiq was also "an al Qaeda intelligence member" and had links with members of another militant Islamist group, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin. Wasiq claimed, according to the review, that he was arrested while trying to help the United States locate senior Taliban figures. He denied any links to militant groups.

 

Mohammad Nabi Omari

 

According to the first administrative review of Omari in 2004, he was a member of the Taliban and associated with both al Qaeda and another militant group Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin. He was the Taliban's chief of communications and helped al Qaeda members to escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Omari acknowledged during hearings that he had worked for the Taliban but denied connections with militant groups. He also said that he had worked with a U.S. operative named Mark to try to track down Mullah Omar.

 

 

*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.

The Russian menace has receded from the Ukrainian border - Hagel

"Russia has withdrawn thousands of its troops massed on the border with Ukraine, even as violence escalated inside that country between government troops and pro-Russian separatists, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.

Hagel called the withdrawal “promising” but said that thousands of troops remained of the 40,000 Russia moved to the border in recent months. “They are not where they need to be and won’t be until all of their troops . . . are gone,” he said."  Washpost

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To quote a Mexican senora from some old Western, "Que Hombre muy macho!"

Hagel seem to have missed the fact that these Russian troops are on their own territory in Russia. Seven battalions remain near the border?  With their headquarters and support troops that would be about 5,000 men.  The Ukraineans are afraid of that?

The whole "Russian Army threatens invasion" meme seems to have gone "bust."  Too bad.  The psywar contractors in Washington will have to come with new baloney.  pl  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russia-has-withdrawn-most-troops-from-ukraine-border-hagel-says/2014/05/29/314b4962-e7a6-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html

Hello! The cops didn't check their data base at Isla Vista.

"Before a half-dozen sheriff’s deputies knocked on Elliot Rodger’s door last month in response to concerns raised by his mother about his well-being, they could have checked the database and discovered he had bought three 9mm semiautomatic handguns. Several law enforcement officials and legal experts on gun policy said this might have given deputies greater insight into Rodger’s intentions and his capability for doing harm."  Washpost

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It MIGHT have given them greater insight?

To review:   

- Rodger's three pistol purchases from three separate federally licensed firearms dealers were each separately subjected to an electronic federal firearms background sales check.  He passed all three because privacy concerns prevented the transmission of the record of his mental illness to state government and to federal government.

-  The three pistols had a clear chain of accountability from factory to wholesaler to dealer.  It has been suggested that they had been smuggled into California.  That was not the case.

- State law in California forbids private sales of handguns.  So much for the supposed "gunshow loophole" in California.

- California law requires a waiting period between sale and delivery.  That was accomplished in this case.

- California has created an electronic data base that records all firearms sales.  The federal fireams sales check is not a data base of ownership.  They say they destroy the record of the check after completion.  Do we believe this?  Maybe.  But this California data base retains the record of sale and so IS an effective register of ownership.

-  The Santa Barbara County sheriff's department had jurisdiction.  They were contacted by Rodger's parents who were concerned by signs of mental illness in him.  Six sheriff's deputies went to his Isla Vista apartment where he talked his way past their enquiry and they left.  They left him with his guns and ammunition.

- These deputies went on this "wellness call" without running Rodger's name and address through the state registry of sales.  Every one of these cops had an internet capable computer on his desk.  I would have thought that they would have made the instant check of the data base for self protection if nothing else.

- Rodger killed three people with a knife as well as the four (counting himself) that he killed with his pistols.   In the UK certain kinds of knives are prohibited.  Perhaps we should have knife control in the United States.

Some people think that AR-15s and semi-automatic handguns are military weapons that should not be availale to the general public.  1 - They are not military weapons.  They are just sexy looking black guns. There is nothing special about them and Rodger could have done just as much damage with a couple of .38 special revolvers.  (Look up what they are.)

"Gun Safety" advocates say they want universal background checks.  I would say that to make any such measures effective transparency to the data bases for mental illness treatment is necessary.

If that is a no go, then  some measure must be adopted that encourages cops to do their work properly.

Failing any of that, confiscation on the British, Canadian and Australian model will inevitably become the open goal of the anti-gun nuts.  pl  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/police-didnt-search-database-showing-calif-shooter-had-bought-guns/2014/05/30/59ad5186-e74f-11e3-a86b-362fd5443d19_story.html?hpid=z4

Romney for VA?

Mittens Romney is supposedly an ass kicker and name taker in business. The VA is a lot like a not for profit business.  Give him the power to hire and fire and wind him up!  pl 

Back to rationality in foreign policy

Policy and politics should be about one's interest.  This interest can be personal or pertaining to a larger group, but if policy/politics are not based on interest, then they will be based on some fantastical effort to create a friendly and profitable world that does not exist and is not likely to exist.

President Obama came to office without significant knowledge of or experience in foreign policy. In the early days of his presidency he seems to have believed that his university bull sessions and the idealistic dreams of the neo-liberal R2Pers represented a viable foreign policy.   He was quite gullible and susceptible to persuasion and flattery.  The decision to increase the numbers of the US armed forces troop strength for Afghanistan was a terribly poor decision.  It was clear at the time of the decision that Afghanistan as a place for nation building existed only in the minds of people like the Kagans and other neocons.  Generals are usually good at executing other peoples' plans but less good at "the vision thing' as Bush #41 called it. They usually have rigorous minds but not creative minds.  During the Iraq War the generals embraced a lot of nonsense about the evolution of forms of warfare and the fabled COIN doctrine supposedly "written" by the "genius" soldier/scholar Petraeus.  Having been convinced by the neocons that the COIN manual contained the secret to career vitality and democratization of the world, the COINista generals proceeded to "sell"   Obama on the wonderfulness of applying this operational concept in Afghanistan.  They also "sold" him the idea that they need another 30,000 troops to make their  scheme function properly.   They originally asked for 40,000, but he gave them the smaller number.  Perhaps this reflected some doubt as to whether COIN and a supporting troop "surge" had really succeeded in Iraq as well as the generals, AEI/WINEP and their cretin media allies had claimed.   In fact, it has become clearer and clearer that the "surge" in Iraq was too small to dominate the country as had been hoped and that it was the revolt of the Sunni Arab tribes against  AQ tyranny that temporarily saved the situation in Iraq.

 

Ukraine, Crimea and clarity (FB Ali)

Vladimir Putin (aka Vlad the Chess Player) has played a good game in Ukraine − so far. With the West playing on the other side he started off in an intrinsically weak position, which worsened considerably when the sudden neocon-engineered coup in Kiev swept his main piece off the board. However, he reacted and regrouped quickly, and prevented his opponents from achieving a surprise victory. By massing troops on Ukraine's border he made the other side pause, and this gave his supporters time to mobilise. In this confused situation he saw a valuable piece temporarily unguarded, and in a smooth and swift operation took over Crimea. The contest over Ukraine continues, but he has already won two significant prizes: Crimea and clarity − clarity on where Russia stands vis-a-vis the West

He is now manoeuvring to achieve his goal in Ukraine, and has again displayed his skill by adjusting his tactics as the situation has changed. Western propaganda has sought to depict his aim to be to seize Ukraine or, at least, annex the Russian-speaking East of the country. This is quite wrong. For the simple reason that Ukraine is a basket case economically and financially, and if he took over the country (or even a portion of it) Russia would be saddled with the burden of keeping it afloat, as well as having to deal with the many in the population who don't fancy being annexed, plus the likely backlash from the West.

His main goal has always been to stop the neocon-led War Party's move to bring Ukraine into the West's political camp and, ultimately, NATO. He wants Ukraine to remain a politically and militarily neutral buffer state between Russia and NATO, while letting the West pay for the privilege of establishing other ties with it (by supporting it financially).

 

HARPER: OBAMA'S SYRIA OBSESSION BOOSTS AL QAEDA

On Wednesday early evening, driving back from Washington, I heard a National Public Radio interview with Virginia State Senator (R-Loudoun) Richard Black. Senator Black had sent a letter last month to Syrian President Bashar Assad, congratulating him for his efforts to protect Christians and other religious minorities in his country, who were facing brutality--executions, rape, kidnapping--at the hands of Al Qaeda linked "rebels."   His letter was posted on President Assad's twitter page and it immediately generated news coverage in the United States.  Most of the coverage was, needless to say, critical.  I was struck by the fact that the Senator, a retired Marine Colonel, was not in the least defensive.  Asked why he wrote the letter, he explained that he is a combat veteran who visited the wounded at Bethesda every month and agonizes over the lives lost and damaged.  He warned that if Assad is ousted, he believes a Jihadist regime will be installed in Syria and it is foolish for the U.S. to align with such a regime.  He gave precise military details of the combat in the mountain region of Syria where a majority of the country's Christians either live or once lived.   He lamented that others were not speaking out in the face of the atrocities and that it fell on a State Senator from Virginia to speak.  He stated that he hoped that his letter and the controversy that it has stirred will lead to a healthy public debate in the United States.  His concluding words were:  "Americans have fought against Al Qaeda for 12 years in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I find it abhorrent that we train and equip those same men to fight against American interests in Syria."

I know that many Obama apologists will argue that the United States is not backing Al Qaeda, but is carefully picking the rebel forces that are being trained and armed against the Assad regime.  But only yesterday, I read combat reports from Syria, indicating that the American and Saudi backed forces are conducting joint operations with the hardcore Al Qaeda group Nusra Front.  Under the fog of war, it is impossible to draw clear lines of distinction between "Jihadists" and "freedom fighters."   We learned that lesson the hard way when the offsprings of the 1980s "freedom fighters" we backed in Afghanistan against the Red Army crashed those planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11.

I hope that Senator Black's comments do indeed spark the kind of debate that is so urgently needed.  He gave that NPR interview the same day that President Obama was delivering the commencement address to America's next generation of warriors at West Point.  In that speech, he announced an accelerated U.S. training program for "select" Syrian rebels who will be backed to overthrow the Assad regime. 

"Reading a painful guide to Iraqi decay" Rami Khouri

"... the agony of Iraq mirrors a wider Arab pattern of state mismanagement and mediocrity. Recent decades leave no doubt that the major modern Arab political problem is that entire countries are managed like private clubs by individual families. Such personalized states do not function efficiently or serve their people well, which ultimately leads to their fragmentation or total collapse.

This frightening, decadesold pattern continues to this day. Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Algeria, Palestine, Sudan, Egypt, Somalia and Bahrain have all suffered debilitating civil conflicts, often coupled with fragmentation or collapse. The oil-rich Gulf states have avoided major political violence mainly because they have avoided anything that looks like political rights and activity among their citizens.

The situation in Iraq is the most agonizing, because it captures the tragic and combined failures of successive regimes that transformed what should have been a showcase of modern Arab development into a poster child for dictatorship, corruption, sectarianism, violence, mismanagement and likely breakup, as the Kurdish northern region steadily spins off into de facto independence. Iraq particularly mishandled the opportunity after the Anglo-American invasion of 2003 to redefine itself on the basis of a homegrown national consensus, especially after 2008-09, when a semblance of stability reigned and the foreign invaders were on their way home."  Rami Khouri

Read more: http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2014/May-28/257925-reading-a-painful-guide-to-iraqi-decay.ashx#ixzz332WQCkiI
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

 

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What we Americans did to Iraq is a disgrace.  We destroyed the existing state, however cruel it was.  Iraq was a state in the process of becoming.  That state had been under development since the Ottoman  Tanzimat in the 19th Century.  Successive British, Hashemite and revolutionary regimes had made contributions to; education, state institutions. industrialization and women's rights.  Life in Iraq was a "contact sport" but the general trend of social and economic growth was favorable.

 

We smashed all that in the interest of dimly perceived Israeli interest and the wacky historical theories of the neocons and we left them the wreckage that is present day Iraq.  We should remember this when tempted in the future... pl

Tunde on the "Lost Girls"

Col, Nigerian Mischief or Operation 'shake body' in the local vernacular. I have refrained from commenting on the Chibok 'abduction' saga but will attempt to summarize what I know, some perception, some fact. Firstly though I'd like to congratulate Col for his perspicacity on the issue. Perhaps this is borne from years of experience, but sir, you are remarkable perceptive. CDS Babeh has a propensity for hyperbole. Some believe it is because he was a transport pilot and not a fighter pilot (the dichotomy may seem bizarre to non-military folks but in third world armed forces, there is a prestige attached to MOSs associated with each branch of the armed forces. For example, in Nigeria, there is a clear established seniority between Regular Combatant officer cadets and Emergency Commissioned combatant officers. The former picked their careers in the profession of arms. The latter joined to get jobs. Similarly, in the NAF, transport pilots are considered bus drivers compared to their fighter pilot trained brethren, but I digress.) Badeh had originally claimed BH would be extinguished by 'April 2013'. When his sanity was questioned he retreated to a lame explanation that the statement was meant as a way of motivating the military high command to redouble their efforts. He has not been alone in making such baseless claims.

 

The Boston Whiteskins

"“I don’t care about basketball,” Hodgman admitted, “but owning a sports team is one of the last remnants of capitalism’s golden age.” As an “oligarch American,” he said it’s time he acquired his own “herd of humans.”

When Stewart protested that his guest had the “wrong idea,” Hodgman quickly corrected him, showing just how much the current system of the NBA is like the 19th century slave trade. “So to recap, I take them from their homes, and compel them to perform physical feats for my pleasure and profit in a place on my choosing, and when I tire of them I can trade them with my wealthy friends without their consent,” Hodgman said.

If Sterling can make half a billion dollars by being a “secret racist,” Hodgman asked Stewart to imagine how much he could make by being an openly racist owner. Especially after he takes the Clippers all-white, “like Mitt Romney buying mayonnaise on his way to a Coldplay concert” and renames them the “Boston Whiteskins.”" mediaite.com

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Underneath the goofiness and the slavery imagery, there is a truth that Stewart et al may or may not have intended.

That is the simple fact that a sports franchise is a business in which there are owners of the equity of the company and then there are employees.  This is true without regard to covenants among the other owners of franchises in a larger group involved in the same trade. 

If the Sterlings were owners of a Burger King franchise, they would have employees; cooks, counter staff, janitors and the like.  In the same way, the owners of the Clippers have employees who are; coaches, players, trainers, PR people, etc.

Hodgman announces in this skit that he is uninterested in basketball but that he likes Sterling's "business model" in which the other owners will force him to sell a property that he paid $12 million for with a modest profit of at least half a billion.

To force a similar sale Hodgman states that he intends to be openly racist, fire all the Black player employees and move his franchise to Massachusetts, "the home of Caucasian basketbell," where he will populate the team with White people and call them "The Boston Whiteskins."

He says he reckons that the resulting hysteria will net him a profit without having to field a team at all.

Interesting.  Hey folks!  Business is about making money not playing basketball or cooking hamburgers.   pl

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/daily-shows-hodgman-wants-to-buy-the-clippers-for-all-the-wrong-reasons/

Nigerian Mischief

 

" A top Nigerian military official believes he knows the whereabouts of girls kidnapped last month, but he says the nation's military will not use force to try to rescue them, a state news report said Monday.

"We want our girls back. I can tell you that our military can and will do it, but where they are held, can we go there with force?" asked Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh.

"Nobody should say Nigerian military does not know what it is doing; we can't kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back."

His comments were reported by the News Agency of Nigeria, a state-run news service.

Badeh continued: "The good news for the parents of the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you.

"We cannot come and tell you the military secret, just leave us alone, we are working to get the girls back," he reportedly said."  CNN

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Homage to Evelyn Waugh.

What a crock!  We are supposed to believe that the Nigerian government and armed forces have now miraculously "found" the girls, that the girls are all in one area, and that soon all will be well.

Well, I believe that last part.   As I speculated earlier the "fix" has been in all along and what is going on is the de facto partition of NE Nigeria from the rest of the country in return for a hudna that will give Goodluck Jonathan a temporary cease fire in which Boko Haram can construct an Islamic Emirate in the NE.  Some subvention from oil production for Boko Haram is to be expected.

Hey folks!  This isn't my first rodeo and I have known a lot of phony bastards like Goodluck Jonathan.  It is not surprising that Jonathan's wife became angry when social media crazed people like Michelle Obama rallied the world's media and frenzied emotionalists to the cause of immediate action.  That was not the way "the program" was supposed to work, not at all.  

And then Michelle's legions of talking heads took charge to continue the process of driving the US towards intervention in Nigeria.  This began to lose "steam" a few days ago.  US intelligence must have learned something that began to restore sanity to the story.

So, now we have the truth approaching.  Let's all calm down and let the Nigerians work this out for themselves.  pl  

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/26/world/africa/nigeria-kidnapped-girls/

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2014/05/httpthehillcompolicydefense206192-sen-coons-nigeria-took-too-long-to-begin-search-for-kidnapped-girls.html

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

 

 

 

 

How did he pass 3 background checks?

In re the Isla Vista killings, how did this fellow pass three California and federal background checks to buy his pistols? he had been under therapy for a long time.  pl

"McAuliffe vetoes bill that would ban donations from companies seeking economic grants" Washpost

"Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on Friday vetoed a bill passed unanimously by the General Assembly that would have barred him from accepting donations from anyone seeking grants from an economic-development fund he controls.

The multimillion-dollar Governor’s Opportunity Fund provides cash grants and loans to companies that maintain or create jobs in the state. A ban would have blocked contributions or gifts worth more than $50 from applicants, but McAuliffe said more time was needed to avoid compromising applicants’ confidentiality."  Washpost

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The really amusing thing about this is that former governor Bob McDonnell and his wife are now indicted in federal court for accepting gifts from a businessman who seems to have skillfully exploited the wife's emotional frailty when she was faced with the coldly cordial face of Richmond society.  

McAuliffe has come on ill times.  The Republican super majority in the lower house of the General Assembly scorns his efforts to expand Medicaid and waits in evident eager anticipation for some extra-legal attempt on his part to do so.  He has attempted to use the techniques of what Lynn Sweet calls his perpetual traveling  political tailgate party to move the House of Delegates (or at least intimidate it).  Thus far, this has been a total failure.  IMO the pleasure derived in the legislature from screwing McAulliffe far outweighs whatever political threat his electoral efforts might pose.  

Richmond (the capital of Virginia as opposed to the heavily Black city) has always been an odd place.  The inbred gentry of the city are instinctively scornful of outsiders.  This is an old, old story.  Varina Davis, wife of you know who, was described by society ladies, as "that western woman."  That kind of attitude has not changed much in the last 150 years.  It takes a lot of effort on the part of people like Mark Warner to gain acceptance.  McAuliffe is a welcome target of opportunity.

Republican newcomers generally do not do much better.  Out of state Republicans have made attempts recently to "take over" the state GOP.  Their efforts have been uniformly unsuccessful.  Ed Gillespie is running for the senate here?  My. My.  pl 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-vetoes-bill-that-would-ban-donations-from-companies-seeking-economic-grants/2014/05/23/b4aaa3ac-e292-11e3-8dcc-d6b7fede081a_story.html

Aleppo prison relieved by Syrian forces.

"Television pictures from inside the prison complex showed dozens of bearded and weary soldiers, who had held out against 13 months of rebel siege, standing behind grey sandbags and celebrating the arrival of the relief troops.

They also showed prisoners, men and women, behind bars in long rows of cells.

Rebels, including fighters from Al Qaeda’s Jabhat Al Nusra, have tried repeatedly to storm the prison, breaching its outer walls with huge bombs but failing to take full control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said 3,000 inmates were held at the Aleppo jail, including Islamists and other political prisoners as well as common criminals.

It said the air force continued to bombard rebels near the prison with barrel bombs on Thursday, a third day of heavy fighting after they launched an offensive on Tuesday to push back the insurgents."  The National

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This prison is just outside Aleppo.  It had been besieged by jihadi fighters for two years.  This is yet another indication of the decline in rebel/jihadi forces.  Yes, I know, that is the badge of the military sports authority.  pl

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/assad-forces-break-aleppo-prison-siege-find-weary-soldiers-prisoners#ixzz32dli33rz 
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook

IDF marksman caught on tape in teenagers deaths

 

"New video evidence showing the fatal shooting of two Palestinian teenagers last week strongly indicates that neither of the boys posed a threat to Israeli forces at the time they were targeted, supporting claims they were "unlawfully killed".

The footage was caught by a CCTV camera installed above a nearby office and shows the deaths of Nadeem Nawara, 17, and Mohammad Salameh, 16, who were both shot through the chest in separate incidents just over an hour apart.

The two boys are seen walking near the building, apparently unarmed, with the second teenager killed while walking away from positions occupied by Israeli security forces outside Ofer prison in the West Bank"

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

 

“”We don’t need an American request to investigate the subject,” Liberman told reporters Wednesday while visiting Samaria’s Ariel University. “I reject any request and the hypocrisy we see worldwide.”

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki called for a “prompt and transparent” investigation in response to a reporter’s question during a briefing on Capitol Hill.

European Union missions in the Palestinian Authority capital of Ramallah and in Jerusalem made similar statements. “We reiterate the need for security forces, whether Israeli or Palestinian, to refrain from the use of lethal force, except in cases where there is a real and imminent threat to life,” they said.

In response, Liberman pointed out that the Israeli army is the “most moral” military force in the world."  The Jewish Press

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They do this kind of thing.  The IDF can usually simply deny the event because it is not recorded and they feel free to lie to the world.  After all, these are just Palestinians.

I witnessed a similar event in Bethlehem about 15 years ago.  Three Palestinian teenagers were killed that day when Israeli troops opened fire with ball ammunition from a sandbagged position at Rachel's tomb.  (It is now permanently fortified) Having tried to administer CPR to one of the boys I can certify that he was shot through the thorax with a rifle. I happened to be on the scene shopping.  The boys had been throwing rocks at the soldiers.  There were about 15 wounded.  They had been hit with super-caliber riot control munitions and had broken bones.

They got caught this time because CNN had a camera crew in this town for Naqba Day "festivities" outside Ofer Prison.  The CNN camera man caught an Israeli soldier on the wall of the prison firing what looks like an M-4 carbine at the demonstrators.  Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador in Washington claimed yesterday on "Wolf" that no ball (live fire) ammunition was used but the father of the boy hit from in front had a bullet that he said went through his son's chest, through his backpack and a book inside and was found in the pack.  It looked like 5.56 mm. to me.  It was not noticeably deformed.  That would be the case with steel jacketed military ammunition.

Oren suggested that the Palestinians staged all this to make Israel look bad.  pl    

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/20/video-indicates-killed-palestinian-youths-no-threat-israeli-forces

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/fm-liberman-reminds-us-europe-we-know-how-to-investigate/2014/05/22/

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2009/01/the-idf-ground.html

More Comments on the Rich By Richard Sale

America’s business community extols moral qualities such as its love of independence, frugality, self reliance, relentless determination, freedom from restraint, superiority of imagination, etc. Yet, in practice; it focuses on another and darker aspect of human life which aims at enriching itself at the expense of everybody else. No one ever professes this openly, except the dogma’s political opponents, and most of them are engaged in the same nefarious game.  Everyone professes to serve unselfish ends as a recipe for being thought well of. Of course, unthinking hypocrisy is common for all walks of life, but the bedrock fact is that we humankind are greedy creatures. War has bred greed into our natures and nothing is going to breed it out of us. Like pugnacity, larceny and the appetite for plunder sits at the root of our nature. “The powerful to what they can, and they weak grant what they must,” said the Athenians.

 

Most human beings confuse being busy with being alive. It then follows that most human beings do not examine what is under their noses. No, they are always searching for some far off glory, and, for the ordinary-minded, the gaining of wealth and showing it off, is the most popular and unimaginative ways of  achieving this. Taking what is not yours is a delight to many. Piracy, plunder, exploitation and pillage have been with us for a very long time.  The thirst for gold, slaves, excitement had has been the major motive for conquerors up to the present day, and for the businessman, outwitting others, defeating them, humiliating them, reducing them to poverty and desperation is merely a signal of their prowess. In other words, if your victims had proved smarter, more industrious and more ruthless, had more character, been more inventive, and more ruthless and heroic, they would not be victims. They think like the Greeks in Of course, this is completely heartless way to think.

 

But while the creatures of business may mouth axioms and precepts about self reliance and dedicated effort, no one betrays these precepts faster than a businessman. As part of their ideology, they forbid any remedy or dodge any penalties for criminal acts they may have done in pursuing their fortunes, and if curbs or punishments are put forward by the federal government or some other body, they resist them with the utmost strenuousness. They haughtily ignore rules put forward to prevent the carrying out of their unsound and reckless schemes. Businessmen have a highly mystical view of their drive to achievement which they see as uncontrolled by ordinary psychological checks and motives. When a businessman crook is confronted for breaking rules, he manifests the innocence of a freshly laid egg.

Sterling will sue - massively and ingeniously

"Now facing their greatest challenge — the NBA's attempt to force them to sell the Clippers — it is no surprise that the Sterlings are girding for a legal fight. Shelly Sterling has hired a lawyer who vowed to "go to war" to preserve her stake in the team while her estranged husband, a former trial attorney, has indicated that he will take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

The record of suits filed by the Sterlings and their various business entities, as well as interviews with those involved, suggest that the NBA should expect a protracted and contentious dispute. Opponents and a former lawyer for Donald Sterling said the real estate mogul regards lawsuits as a stalling tactic and has initiated them even when the facts and the law were against him."  LA Times

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

This guy was always going to sue.  It is in his blood to sue.  IMO he is just waiting for the NBA and the other owners to feed him enough rope to hang them with.

The suits will be multi-part, complex and driven home by an army of the best lawyers that money can buy.

There will be at least one concerning his first amendment rights and I would not be surprised to see his sweety (not the wife) testify tearfully on his behalf about the "lovers' tiff" that led her to reveal his private converstaion.

I understand that there are real tax advantages involved in having the equity in the franchise still be in the family trust when he dies.  pl   

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-sterlings-litigation-20140520-story.html#page=1

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/19/us/donald-sterling-nba/

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Fischer is an Israeli/US dual national

"Former Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer on Wednesday was confirmed by the Senate to sit on the board of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Fischer, a respected economist with a long resume as a central bank official, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed Janet Yellen as vice chair of the U.S. Fed.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved Fischer’s appointment to the Fed board, voting 68-27 in favor. The Senate will take up Fischer’s nomination as Fed vice chair at a later date."  Foxbusiness

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

An Israeli friend asked me why I object to Fischer, a dual national, holding these two very important jobs. 

I told him that I did not think a dual national should hold any US government job.  It does not matter to me if the other country is Canada, Australia, Israel  or any other.

The potential conflict of interest is clear to me.  pl

http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2014/05/21/fischer-approved-by-senate-to-fed-board/

Unhappy times for Mossad?

"Long-time readers of The American Conservative are certainly aware of persistent Israeli spying directed against the United States, but it is a subject seldom explored by the mainstream media. That taboo has apparently been lifted with the recent appearance of three feature pieces by Jeff Stein in Newsweek, “Israel Won’t Stop Spying on the U.S.”, “Israel’s Aggressive Spying in the U.S. Mostly Hushed Up” and “The Latest Document from the Snowden Trove Highlights Israeli Spying”, which together provide details relating to Tel Aviv’s persistent efforts to obtain American secrets. The espionage occurs both inside the United States and in Israel itself, directed against naive U.S. citizens, including government officials, who are subjected to aggressive recruitment attempts while attending meetings and conferences. It has even been reported that “CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East.”

Stein, a Vietnam-era military intelligence officer, formerly a regular columnist on espionage issues for the Washington Post, now writes “Spy Talk” for Newsweek. He is highly respected in the intelligence and law enforcement communities and has excellent contacts within the government."

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

Jeff Stein and I served in the 525th MI Group in SE Asia at the same time.  I have the highest regard for him and for Phil Geraldi.  pl      

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/mossad-meets-resistance/

So much for pressuring Russia with sanctions...

 

"The deal comes as a part of Russia’s larger-scale pivot to Asia and especially China as Western economies threaten sanctions over turmoil in Ukraine. Sanctions by the US and the EU have been mostly limited to visa bans and asset freezes on some of Russia’s top officials, while so far only threatening a so-called third round of real economic sanctions against Russian hydrocarbon businesses.

Just ahead of Putin's visit to Shanghai, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave reassurance that the agreed price would be fair.

“One side always wants to sell for a higher price, while the other wants to buy for a lower price,” Medvedev said. “I believe that in the long run, the price will be fair and totally comparable to the price of European supplies.”"  RT

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

The Chinese president spoke at the signing ceremony to suggest the creation of a Chinese/Russian security pact that would exclude the United States.

At the same time, the children around the table at Morning Joe express dismayed astonishment that such a thing could happen.

To paraphrase Mr. Jefferson I fear for my country when I meditate on the verdict that history will render on us.  pl  

http://rt.com/business/160068-china-russia-gas-deal/

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What's the real issue over Benghazi?

"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — after a heated debate over the issue within her caucus — officially tapped five Democrats to the special committee charged with investigating the Benghazi attacks. Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings (Md.), Adam Smith (Wash.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Linda Sanchez (Calif.) and Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) will serve on the panel, which is headed by South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy."  politico

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

When the Benghazi incident began, nobody; in Washington, at JSOC, at Africom, at the JCS or in the Sixth Fleet had any idea how long the problem in Benghazi would last.  They had no idea, none, and nobody did anything.  They did nothing.  The situation rooms at the WH, State, CIA and the JCS all knew the incident was underway and nobody did anything.  JSOC and the other military headquarters all indicated to the WH that they would act as soon as they received guidance from the WH.  None came.  The military cannot deploy into an overseas combat situation without presidential authorization and they never got it.  That is the primary question that should be investigated.  Why were the military not ordered to attempt to reach the area of action in time to do something.  Almost anything would have been prefereable to doing nothing.  There was a company size marine reaction force in Spain.  There were US Army SF troops in the Balkans.  The Ready Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division is always ready at Ft. Bragg with their gear, ammunition and supplies loaded on aircraft.  What's the flying time in jet transports from North Carolina to Benghazi?

In light of this lack of decision in the WH and the concomittant blame that attaches, it is not surprising that HC declined to appear on all those talks shows.   

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/nancy-pelosi-benghazi-john-boehner-panel-106937.html

The Time Of The Cockroaches – By Walrus

“In the gossipy world of New York journalism, the firing of Jill Abramson from her position as the executive editor of the Times provoked a veritable explosion of talk, posts, and Instagram pictures of the objects of interest. And a day after her dismissal, even more details are emerging about why Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., the paper’s publisher, felt compelled to dismiss yet another executive editor whom he himself had anointed.

…...Another episode that added to the characterization of Abramson as hard to deal with came after a decision was made to hire a second managing editor to oversee the Times’ digital endeavors. Abramson led that hiring effort. The Times, in its story on Abramson’s dismissal, said that Abramson had offered the job to Janine Gibson, the editor of Guardian U.S., “without consulting” Dean Baquet, then the managing editor and now Abramson’s successor. This implies that Abramson was operating more or less in a vacuum, without consistent consultations with her colleagues, particularly Baquet. Gibson met separately with Sulzberger and Thompson on May 5th, and had lunch with Baquet that same day. What Baquet did not know, until Gibson herself mentioned it to him at lunch, I’m told, is that she was offered a managing-editor job comparable to his own. He was, it is fair to say, unenthusiastic, and even angered. “

….................................................................................................................................................

 For once a standard narcissist operating procedure – the replacement of a competent subordinate with a beholden sycophant, went wrong. Gibson “revered” Abramson. Abramson was allegedly caught lying to Sulzberger that Baquet had been consulted. Had Baquet not acted, in my opinion, the next phase of Abramson's plan, had she succeeded in hiring Gibson, would have been social bullying, publicly favouring Gibson over Baquet at every opportunity with the intention of stressing him to the point of his resignation. No doubt Abramson would also have intimated to Gibson that she would succeed Baquet.

There is at least one test, for example The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) that is allegedly capable of identifying psychopathic tendencies at least in a clinical setting. The courts have however ruled that such testing cannot be performed as part of a hiring decision except in special circumstances. We are thus apparently left with no legal means of screening applicants for what used to be called “character”.

 Our tried and true defence against the accession to power of emotional misfits used to be observation of their behaviour over relatively long periods of time in a variety of social settings. We hired friends, schoolmates and colleagues who we knew to be capable of empathy, even if of the hard hearted variety, and discriminated against those who we perceived might offend our mores. This of course is now illegal.

 Mistreatment of wives, children or pets, drug use, philandering, cheating and intriguing against co workers, meanness and borderline criminal behaviour are no longer sufficient reason to deny a job or promotion. How can good government and public service survive, let alone the economy, when we cannot and do not protect ourselves from the thriving colonies of  managerial cockroaches that infest all our institutions?

 http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/05/jill-abramson-and-the-times-what-went-wrong.html

 http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/05/why-jill-abramson-was-fired-part-three.html

 

 

Webb for president?

"He said he was concerned that on foreign policy, the nation is now “bouncing from issue to issue without a clear articulation of what the national security interest of the United States actually is.” At the same time, he said, he is worried by the growing gap between the rich and poor, which he said could be addressed through better leadership in Washington. Webb’s comments took the political establishment in Virginia and beyond by surprise. Since declining to run for reelection to the Senate in 2012 after serving only a single term in office, Webb has largely disappeared from the political scene."

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

My.  My.  He would be quite a president.  He really was "born fighting."  Is there a chance of this happening?  I doubt it.  Last time I heard he was still a Democrat.  I suppose he could switch back to being a Republican  and fight Hillary.  That would be amusing.  The mighty midgets who are Republican possibilities now might not be able to stop him.  I don't include Jeb Bush in that crowd of non-entities but he is never going to get the nomination.  Would he run as a Democrat and try to take the nomination away from her ladyship?  He might do that and become the leading probability for VP, but he would not be a good VP.  This man is a leader, not a Bidenesque cipher.

Would I support him?  Yes, but that would be a handicap.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-va-senator-james-webb-says-hes-considering-presidential-bid/2014/05/19/9f3db7b8-df7f-11e3-8dcc-d6b7fede081a_story.html

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

Outage

Typepad was back down today under attack.  pl

The Holder/Obama Administrator is increasingly minority driven.

"The Obama administration has entered an unexpected, unpredictable debate over the nation’s racial progress, warning in several events last week that much work remains to be done. Nearly six years after the United States elected its first black president, the signposts of the latest discussion have appeared across the cultural landscape — from the professional sports arena, to the diminishing Western frontier, to a little New England town where an elected official is refusing to apologize for referring to the president by a famously derogatory racial epithet."  Washington post

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

In my opinion, this administration is risking a backlash of historic proportions by becoming what I feared in 2008, that is, a government hostile to white people.  I voted for Obama then and in 2012 but only because the GOP nominees were unacceptable to me.  It was very much, faute de mieux.

The Democrats and their media allies and flunkies love to talk about the coming irrelevance of white people in a grand future filled with beige people, well, at least that dark.  That kind of gloatng over WASP and other whites' future powerlessnes is just simply racist.  Black activists and their allies will tell you that they can't be racists because white people have all the power.  This is an interesting and somewhat nonsensical definition of "power," but, in fact, blacks and their allies have a lot of power today and are busy re-defining the political and constitutional rights of whites.  The case of the egregious basketball team owner is illuminating in this way.  The prevailing sentiment in the TV boobery (mostly blond) is something like "how dare he sue the NBA for punishing him!"  Say what?  Since when does an American not have the right to sue anyone or anything in defense of his property or personal rights.  The amazing thing about this attitude is that most people on TV are trying to appear to believe the TV boobs are correct.  There is now an endless list of such "adjustments" in attitude that are sought by the Al Sharptons, Eric Holders and Don Lemons of the world.  Not only is supposed justice sought by such people but an enforced erasure of private opinion and expression as well.

The Democrats wish to believe that demography is destiny and that demography will make this a country ruled by "people of color." That's amusing because it used to be said that biology was destiny.  Heavens!  That can't be right.  My view is somewhat different.  I think that cultural absorption will make this a country in which such special pleading as is heard from Eric Holder will be a distant and irrelevant memory. 

As for the 2014 and 2016 elections, the Democrats would be well advised to stop gloating over their victories in advance.  pl        

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/holder-confronting-issue-of-race-once-more-says-subtle-threats-to-equality-cut-deeper/2014/05/17/66e63482-dd57-11e3-b745-87d39690c5c0_story.html

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More than meets the eye in Nigeria...

"Unlike previous Boko Haram attacks, the international pressure on Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is growing because of the #bringbackourgirls Twitter campaign. Protests are increasing due to the government’s indifference to the plight of the schoolgirls and statements in support of the schoolgirls from foreign and domestic leaders. This pressure came at the same time that the World Economic Forum took place in Abuja on May 7, 2014, and the Nigerian presidential campaign for the February 2015 elections is picking up pace. If this pressure continues to mount, Jonathan and his political team or the military may seek to resolve the kidnapping issue – with at least some of the girls being released – and reduce its media presence to prevent the story from undermining Jonathan’s likely re-election bid or tarring Nigeria’s credibility. For example, on May 12 the government reportedly denied the minister of interior’s statement that the government would “not negotiate” with Boko Haram (The Eagle, May 12)."  Jamestown Foundation

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

Now we have McCain saying that the US should launch a rescue operation in Nigeria whether or not it has the agreement of the Nigerian government.   What a great idea!  Arizona likes what he does and says?  In that circumstance we might easily find ourselves fighting the Nigerian military as well as Boko Haram and Ansaru. Where would the sustaining base for such operations be located and how would the base itself be sustained.  To paraphase something George Marshall asked Patton in the midst of the campaign in France, where would the railhead be?  In this case where would the line of supply from a major port be located and secured?  

I will say again that IMO there is a lot of below the table style business going on in this situation between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram  The lack of reaction at first on the part of Goodluck Jonathan and then the hostile reaction of his wife to demands for action have been followed by statements that the Nigerian govenment is willing to negotiate with Boko Haram.

IMO the fix is in and if the US stays out of the way most of these girls will eventually be released in a sub rosa deal that effectively partitions Nigeria.  pl  

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Bswords%5D=8fd5893941d69d0be3f378576261ae3e&tx_ttnews%5Bany_of_the_words%5D=Boko%20Haram&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=42348&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=45540423ccf12186b2e522c0da5f281d#.U3YWiPldUXE

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/206192-sen-coons-nigeria-took-too-long-to-begin-search-for-kidnapped-girls

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/206212-menendez-questions-nigerias-ability-to-free-kidnapped-girls

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/world/africa/nigerian-military-schoolgirl-hunt.html?emc=edit_th_20140516&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=405151&_r=0

I have never been in a VA hospital - WP Lang

There is a lot of bad information about the Veteran's Administration being circulated in the sloppy reporting ever present these days in the US MSM.

The Veterans Administration exists to provide post-service benefits to former members of the armed forces.  The target population for these benefits are those who served for a period of time and then left the armed forces altogether.  The VA provides a variety of services; medical, home loans, life insurance, educational benefits and many others.  The focus these days is on the VA medical service which runs a very large system of hospitals and clinics where unlimited treatment is given gratis  to former servicemen who have disabilities that are judged by a VA board to be service connected.  Disabilities that are judged to be non-service connected are not eligible for treatment by the VA.  

People like me or TTG or any number of others who write on SST are not the target population for the VA medical service although we can use it if we choose to do so.  This is the case because we are RETIRED and not FORMER military people.  In other words we served long enough to be statutorily eligible to be retired for length of service or wounds.  Minimum length of service to be retired for length of service is usually 20 years but it can be well over 30 years as well..  

 If you are retired from the militry you are still a member of the armed forces.  You have been moved from the active to the retired list of your service, but you are still  a member.  You still hsve the use of various DoD facilities including the medical services of the armed forces.  You are eligible for Tricare, the DoD health insurance program.  For those retired people who are Medicare eligible Tricare is a second payer after Medicare.

In other words the VA medical service is intended for citizen soldiers who may have residual disabilities from their military service.  This is a very large group.  There are still over 7million Vietnam era veterans who may have service connected disabilities and thus be eligible. There are many millions potentially eligible from the post 9/11 period.  

The VA was created for the purpose of caring for WWI, non-Regular veterans.  The system has now existed for over 80 years and has become a thoroughly mature bureaucracy fixed in its ways and unwilling to adapt unless forced to do so.  Like many routinized Washington bureacracies it is inhabited by minimally qualified people who hide behind rules and regulations to avoid as much work as possible.  The same people are not keen on modern computer driven systems because they would have to learn to master the new system.  

The VA needs a massive housecleaning.  Retired professional soldiers generally avoid the VA medical service if there is an alternative.  The use of their facilities becomes necessary in matters like adjudication of disabilities.

The VA needs to adopt a voucher system for providing civilian health care as a supplement to what it does in its own facilities.  The demand for care will probably always exceed "in house" capacity.  This drives non-medical bureaucrats to try to game the system in order to avoid blame.   pl 

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

Hardly a Whimper of Resistance by Richard Sale

 

A new study proclaims that America is no longer a democracy, but an oligarchy whose needs are to be met at every turn at the expense of the general welfare.   There was hardly a whimper of protest as the mass media reported the contents of the study. I guess everybody was busy with their cell phones and Twitter and other milestones in our organized drive for national triviality to stop and think about what the study’s conclusions might mean to the bulk of our people.

Apparently wealth and power are the grim idols that the world adores. The rich feel that they are not a product of their environment, but their environment is a product of them. Today America is governed by the rich, the study says, and we add that the rich think themselves superior not only in money but also in spiritual value. It is their money that has built America’s prosperity, its military and its economic power, its standing in the world, and its ability to steer events in their favor. Monetary success clearly bestows greatness.

 

"Many in Homs, Syria, feel as if the civil war has ended" LA Times

"... a group of Christian women headed into the Old City to view the remains of their family home. The Christian minority is generally effusive about the “liberation” of an area central to their ancient identity.  “The Army has swept away all of the bad people from our city,” said Hannan Ragap, 45, a mother of two who sported spike heels and jeans as she walked toward the Old City. In the adjacent Zahra district, people were savoring a victory against what many view as an existential threat from a radical Islamist force. The neighborhood is home to many Alawites, the Muslim sect whose members include President Assad. “They wanted to force us out, but we refused to leave,” said Alabdallah, the engineer who is in charge of the neighborhood “martyr’s” cemetery, with more than 2,000 graves, and is helping take down the sniper barriers, some as high as 30 feet."

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

The LA Times seems to have noticed that there are people in Syria who support the government.  Alawites, Christians, Shia and a lot of Sunni adhere to the existing government as opposed to the Saudi financed jihadi extremists who have now been defeated in the Old City of Homs.  N.B that the piece of the larger city of Homs that is called the "Old City" is a fairly small part of the larger whole. In spite of this the jihadi cheerleaders whom we seem to think of as honest journalists have persistently photographed the destruction in the Old City as though it was all of Homs.  

Now we see peace in the city of Homs and the beginning of reconstruction.  If what happened in Beirut after their civil war is an indication, rebuilding will proceed quite rapidly.  There is a lot of Syrian money overseas in Europe as well as in Lebanese banks and it will return.   Palestine is an example of expatriated capital that quickly is repatriated whenever there is hope of renewal.  The Ramallah skyline speaks volumes in spite of Israel's best efforts to inhibit growth.

And then, there is the article cited below from "The National," a UAE publication.  In this piece the author insists that Assad will not only win the coming presidential election but theat he would win in any honest election.

It seems to be that the Saudis, and the Likudnik crowd in the US have badly misjudged the strengths if their extremist friends.  The Obama Administration?  Oh, well...   pl  

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-homs-bashar-assad-20140512-story.html

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/syrias-dirty-secret-is-that-assad-could-win-in-a-fair-election

The West and Ukraine − and the wars within (FB Ali)

Poor Professor Petro! A professor of politics at the University of Rhode Island, he was selected by the US State Department as a Fulbright Research Scholar in 2013 and went to Ukraine on a year's affiliation with a university in Odessa. Thus he happened to have a ringside seat when the troubles began in that country, and presumably watched in horror as the West appeared to misread and mishandle an internal power struggle into an international crisis. Doubtless he sent urgent missives to people he knew who might be able to influence US policy, but to no avail. Finally, he put his warnings into an article (Six Mistakes the West Has Made (and Continues to Make) in Ukraine) and published it on The National Interest.

But Dr Petro is wrong if he thinks the West is simply mistaken. Of course, there are intellectually challenged persons who do seriously misunderstand what is going on (John Kerry and Catherine Ashton, for example, and many media writers and columnists). Others fall into the same category because, though nominally bright, their ideological mindset causes them to seriously misjudge the situation (Susan Rice and Samantha Power, for instance). But the real reason behind the West's policies in Ukraine and Eastern Europe is that there is a strong faction among its policymakers that fully understands what is going on but has deliberately chosen this course of action. There is also a sane element in the West that seeks to impose a sensible policy, but is currently unable to prevail. The future of Ukraine, of relations between Russia and the West, and, indeed, of the world, depends on the struggle that is going on between these two groups, as well as the wider conflict over Ukraine between the West and Russia. To follow the course of these consequential contests it would help to identify who is in the various camps, and what they are trying to do.

The War Party

This is not too strong a title to give them since they believe the West won the Cold War and are angry that Russia has dared to challenge their consequent right to reorder Europe They would like to put Russia in its place (some of them would not even be too averse to starting a shooting war, if that became necessary). The leading elements of this faction are neocons and right-wingers. In the USA the most prominent are the neocons of the State Department (led by Victoria Nuland) and the CIA. Supporting them are the neocons in Congress, the 'think tanks' and the media, as well as the military industry. In Europe such elements are to be found in several governments, militaries and intelligence agencies.

 

 

I Prefer MY Early - From "Death Piled Hard"

-November 6th, 1863-

(Somewhere Near Culpeper, Virginia)

 

Jubal Early chewed reflectively. “If I understand correctly,” he said.  “You met everybody of importance in Richmond.  You must have been a busy man.”

He and Balthazar lounged in camp chairs built of tree branches.  The weight and bulk of the two of them made those watching wonder if the interview would end in a general collapse of the furniture.  They sat with their backs to the open end of a tent.  You could see General Early’s field desk and camp bed inside.  The chairs were angled toward each other so that discussion was easy but not too intimate.  A bottle and two glasses stood on a small table.

The weather was clear and warm in an Indian summer display of generosity to those who lived in the forest.  There were still birds singing in the trees.  Balthazar noticed a brown bird with a crest and an orange beak.  As he watched a second arrived to sit beside the brown creature.  This one was brilliant red in color.  Ah, the mate, he thought.  I must ask of these birds. 

"Where've you been since then?"

"With General Lee's headquarters."

"Arab spring a plot to divide countries: Egypt's Grand Imam" Ahram on Line

 

""Some Arab spring revolutions brought benefits but others were planned to destroy and divide countries," he said in an interview on Al-Hayat TV channel on Sunday. The West invented "corrupted" theories in order to steal the wealth of the East, El-Tayib added. "The East has not met the level of West, the gap is widening between them," he said, adding that there was a conspiracy to keep the East weak. "The West presented the clash of civilizations theory in order to provoke a clash with Islamic civilization." "There are non-Western nations with old civilizations that are capable of leading the world in a more reasonable way than the West," El-Tayib said. Western civilization is in a state of extreme moral, spiritual and religious poverty, he asserted."  Ahram on Line

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

I should be grateful for people like this in the Islamic World.  They have always made my job easier by being so predictable.  

This man is the Sheikh or Rector of the Al-Azhar mosque and university in Cairo.  He is arguably the most revered and followed Sunni alim or scholar among the Sunnis.  His only rival would be his opposite number at Tunis.  He argues that the West inspired the Arab Spring for the purpose of weakening and dividing the believers so that they would be weak and available to the West for exploitation.

This would be news to the masses that crowded Maidan al-Tahrir in Cairo and so many other squares across the region.  At the same time there is a modicum of truth in his argument since the NED/R2P types in both the Bush and Obama Administrations spread money and favor across these countries in a vainglorious quest for democratization and Europeanization.  That had a certain effect as it did in Syria and Ukraine.

What al-Tayyib does not want to contemplate is that the 'ulema (scholars) of the Sunnis have generally held Sunni Islam in an iron grip of thought control since the reign of al-mutawakkil,the Abbasid caliph who accepted the consensus of pietists among the 'ulema as the basis of the holy law (sharia).  In Sunni Islam sharia' is the basis of all life.  In some countries that experienced European colonialism there are also commercail law codes but these are in retreat before the rising tide of sharia' law.

The most depressing thing about this is that Al-Tayyib is firmly fixed in a society that is dominated by a variant of Sunni Islam that still accepts such things as female circumcision and Sisi's proud assertion that he will utterly destroy the MB, al-Tayyib's rivals (and Sisi's).

Perhaps the Egyptian monarchy was not such a bad thing.  There was a functioning parliament then.  Imams were kept "in line."  There were real political parties and such odd things as constitutional rights.

pl 

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/101044/Egypt/Politics-/Arab-spring-a-plot-to-divide-countries-Egypts-Gran.aspx

Nigeria abductions: Michelle Obama 'outraged' - BBC

"Mrs Obama, who was speaking ahead of Mother's Day in the US on Sunday, said the girls reminded her and her husband of their own daughters. "What happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident. It's a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions," she said. She cited the Pakistani schoolgirl and campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot and wounded by the Taliban for speaking out for girls' education. "The courage and hope embodied by Malala and girls like her around the world should serve as a call to action," Mrs Obama said."  BBC

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

OK.  What does Mrs. Obama want the US to do?  It is clear that the Nigerian government cannot deal with this situation.   It is likely that no combination of minor powers can deal with a mass kidnapping followed by slave trafficking across a lot of central Africa.  Unless some intelligence analysis of  extraordinary quality pinpoints locations and that breakthrough is followed by the availability of high quality troops, transportation, etc. then nothing will be done by European or African means.

No, to do the job properly would require something like the commitment of much of US Eighteenth Airborne Corps (the 82nd Airborne Division, additional air assets, logistical assets, etc.), a lot of SOF and the redirection of a lot of US satellite reconnaissance, UAVs and SIGINT assets.   All these intelligence means are exactly the activities so thoroughly reviled by the press.  

A major logistical base would have to be built, local contracts let and the whole cycle of corruption that has infested Iraq and Afghanistan would begin anew.  

A major campaign would be fought across NE Nigeria.  The expense, born solely by the US would be immense.

Is that what Michelle Obama wants?  pl  

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27354230

This and that in the ME.

"The newly discovered group in Saudi Arabia is the first group to be revealed to have ties with ISIS, which broke away from al-Qaeda in Syria and entered into a war against it. This war is ongoing despite the intervention of al-Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahri. So far, it is not clear whether ISIS established a new group in Saudi Arabia amid the conflict with the mother organization in Syria — Jabhat al-Nusra."  Al Monitor

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Well the Saudi idiots have asked for this.  pl 

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/isis-saudi-arabia-qaeda-terrorism-syria.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=d52ff6f394-January_9_20141_8_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-d52ff6f394-93066749

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"The former head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission Brigadier General (res.) Uzi Eilam just dropped a bombshell (no pun intended): "The Iranian nuclear program will only be operational in another 10 years," he told the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronoth. "Even so, I am not sure that Iran wants the bomb." And he added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is employing needless fearmongering about Iran's atomic aspirations in order to further his own political aims."  National Interest

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More lying on the part of the Israeli government.  Thank God that Eilem is man enough to tell the truth.  pl  

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/former-israeli-nuclear-head-no-iran-bomb-ten-years%E2%80%94if-they-10431

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"Russia is planning to send a total of 36 of these jets by 2016, the Kommersant newspaper reported. “We will fulfill obligations under a previously signed contract for the supply of 36 Yak-130 jets,” the Russian newspaper quoted a source close to the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport as saying. The daily reported in June that Syria made an advance payment of $100 million to Russia for the first six Yak-130 jets under a contract signed in December 2011. Meanwhile, Russia newspaper Pravada, which is associated with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, reported a source close to the country’s aviation business circles as saying that Moscow is planning to deliver nine aircraft to Syria before the end of this year and twelve aircrafts next year." Al Arabia

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This is not a game changer in Syria but my pal, Basilisk, who knows of such things tells me that this is a fitting successor to such aircraft as the A-10 Thunderbolt 2 and the SU-25 Frogfoot,  pl 

 http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2014/05/05/Report-Russia-to-send-first-batch-of-Yak-130-jets-to-Syria-.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yak_130

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SU-25

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Republic_A-10_Thunderbolt_II

"Israeli President says Netanyahu nixed peace deal with Abbas" Globe and Mai

"The agreement, Mr. Peres said, was arrived at in four secret meetings in Jordan. It called for mutual recognition of “a Palestinian state” and “a Jewish state,” a goal Mr. Netanyahu made a priority in his recently terminated peace talks with the Palestinians. It also included an understanding on how to resolve the vexing refugee issue. The matter was settled, Mr. Peres said, when Mr. Abbas “agreed to adopt the Arab League’s proposal that this issue would be resolved in a just and mutually agreed upon fashion.” This approach, which stems from the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, ruled out an unlimited return of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war. Instead, the parties would arrive at mutually agreed numbers, something very much to Israel’s liking. Only one final meeting was left, Mr. Peres said, when the Prime Minister halted everything. “Netanyahu stopped it,” said Mr. Peres, who indicated he was perplexed by the decision, since the agreement had been reached with the Prime Minister’s knowledge. “I didn’t conduct private negotiations,” Mr. Peres said. “The Prime Minister was an accomplice to the negotiations at every step of the way.”"  Globe and Mail

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IMO the truth is that Natanyahu never  has had any intention of signing a two state peace agreement.  He let Peres negotiate because in his hate filled mind he was sure that an agreeement could not be reached.  pl      

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/israeli-president-says-netanyahu-nixed-peace-deal-with-abbas/article18548826/

Israeli spying on U.S. at an ‘alarming and terrifying level’" AFP

"“No other country close to the United States continues to cross the line on espionage like the Israelis do,” said a former congressional staffer who attended another classified briefing in late 2013, according to Newsweek. It said that briefing was one of several in recent months given by the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence Directorate. The former congressional staffer said the intelligence agencies did not give specifics, but cited “industrial espionage — folks coming over here on trade missions or with Israeli companies working in collaboration with American companies, [or] intelligence operatives being run directly by the government, which I assume meant out of the [Israeli] Embassy.” Israel’s espionage activities in America are unrivaled and go far beyond activities by other close allies, such as Germany, France, Britain and Japan, counter-intelligence agents told members of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, Newsweek said."  AFP

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Newsweek printed this story that AFP then picked up?  What is going on?  This kind of article is supposed to be stopped before it is printed, stopped by the various blocking mechanisms now in place in AIPAC and the much larger network of Israel's unconditional supporters.   If this kind of thing happens often then it might become impossible to exclude critics from the public square. Well, at least, television news can be relied on not to mentions this.

It appears that frustration with Israeli intransigence and trickery over Palestine caused the BHO Administration to send a gaggle of CI types up to The Hill to bitch about various matters including Israel's unwillingness to meet US criteria for visa waiver status for their passport holders.  Israel is thought to believe that compliance is not needed since its agents in the US Congress will force acceptance of the Israeli position.  pl 

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/07/israeli-spying-on-u-s-at-an-alarming-and-terrifying-level/

http://www.newsweek.com/israel-wont-stop-spying-us-249757

"U.N. Probe Chief Doubtful on Syria Sarin Exposure Claims" Porter

"Sellstrom explained to Winfield that the investigating team had sought the help of the opposition in the area where the attack took place to identify as many as 80 survivors of the Sarin attack. “We thought that if they can gather 80 people who were affected but still surviving, that it [would be] clearly indicative that a major event had taken place,” he said. Sellstrom revealed in the interview that the team had chosen 40 people from the original 80 identified as survivors by the opposition. Those 36 people described themselves as having had very serious exposure to Sarin. Thirty of the 36 reported rocket strikes either on or near their homes. The remaining six said they had gone to a point of impact to help those suffering from the attack.

 

ISIS is crucifying Christians who won't convert. Ibrahim

"Consider the atrocities earlier committed in Ma‘loula, Syria, an ancient Christian village where the inhabitants still spoke Aramaic, the language of Christ.

According to recent Arabic news media, “a Syrian nun testified to the Vatican news agency that some Christians in Ma‘loula were crucified for refusing to convert to Islam or pay jizya” (tribute subjugated Christians are required to pay to their Islamic conquerors in order to exist as Christians, per Koran 9:29)."  Ibrahim

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"Jizya" is an ancient capitation tax levied on the unconverted since the time of the earlist Islamic conquests.  Muslims do not pay taxes in Islamic sharia states.  They are required to tithe (zakat) but not to pay taxes.  

It is sadly ironic that American and French propaganda continues to portray the Syrian Arab Government as barbaric while it actually seeks to protect the Christian and other minorities in the country from fanatics like ISIS.  pl 

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/christians-crucified-again-for-refusing-islam/

Truce in key Syrian city of Homs goes into effect

 
"... the Homs pact will call for:

1. The withdrawal of rebel and Islamist fighters from Homs neighborhoods under the supervision of regime forces and delegates from the United Nations;

2. The opening by rebel forces of a safe passage for the provision of food and medical aid to the Shiite enclaves of Nubul and Zahraa in the Aleppo countryside, considered to be regime strongholds the rebels have blocked for months;

3. The withdrawal of rebel forces from Homs via the Hama-Homs highway toward Al-Dara Al-Kabira in Homs province's north countryside;

4. The granting of amnesty to 50 fighters who defected from regime forces in Homs' al-Waer neighborhood;

5. The takeover by regime forces of the al-Waer neighborhood in Homs in addition to the entrance and exit into the neighborhoods of Jouret Shiah, Al-Qarabees, Hamidiyeh, Wadi Al-Sayeh and the Old City of Homs;

6. Retreating rebel and Islamist fighters to keep their personal weapons for protection in the event of any breach of the pact."  CNN

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Well, well.  I wonder what Jeff White and the boys at WINEP will have to say about this?  pl 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/07/world/meast/syria-homs-truce/

"Ukraine: Failure Of Imagination" by Walrus

On Saturday February 7, 2009, 173 people died in a series of Bushfires across my State. (Australia)

Black Saturday Bushfires.

The resulting Commission of Inquiry revealed  what I would label "Failure Of Imagination" 

The command and control systems at State level utterly failed to cope with the fast moving fire events, especially fires overlapping brigade boundaries. As far as I can tell no high level "war games" - command post exercises had been conducted, despite the fact that fires are an everyday feature of Australian summer, and their ability to attack the rural fringe of cities had been demonstrated many times - failure of imagination.

And the Leader whose responsibility this was - a former female police chief? She was having her hair done that Saturday and was out of the loop on a declared high fire danger day when prompt action might have saved lives. What can I say?

Failure Of Imagination.

While acknowledging that truth is the first casualty, I note that the "Vineyard Of The Saker" weblog has just posted a video that allegedly demonstrates that the recent deaths of Pro Russian protesters in Odessa was a put up job orchestrated from Kiev. Is this not likely to energise Russian sympathies a little more? How much more of this will Russia take before it intervenes?

video

One has to ask is Victoria Nuland guilty of a "Failure Of Imagination" over where current Ukraine foreign policy may lead? Where will she be when perhaps a Putin ultimatum expires; in the beauty salon? 

"Young Blood May Hold Key to Reversing Aging" NY Times

"Two teams of scientists published studies on Sunday showing that blood from young mice reverses aging in old mice, rejuvenating their muscles and brains. As ghoulish as the research may sound, experts said that it could lead to treatments for disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease.

“I am extremely excited,” said Rudolph Tanzi, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the research. “These findings could be a game changer.”"  NY Times

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I look forward to asking to be recalled to active duty.  Hah!  pl 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/science/young-blood-may-hold-key-to-reversing-aging.html?_r=0

"On Killing Killers" By Richard Sale

 

The key to hardcore criminals is greed.  They are greedy as a tiny tick burrowing in fur.  They have no elevated ends of life. They burrow ceaselessly to obtain such things as their food, sex, tobacco, drugs, comfort, additional privilege and the safety of sleep. Their desire is simply to perpetuate their life under any circumstance, however mean, so long at gives them shelter and sustenance and poses no threat to them. 

Many of the murderers I’ve known, so callous when it comes to taking the lives of others, whimper when the time comes for the State to take theirs. Killers are unsociable, aggressive, coarse, sometimes malignant creatures who have no spirituality in their souls or minds. They are far, far beyond any sense of shame. You would think that they would grasp that dying is as natural as being born, but no, not them. When their execution nears, some of them plead, beg, and cravenly bargain without any remorse. (They are exceptions. A middleweight boxing champion at the Arizona State Prison, who had shot his girl friend, donned his championship robe and threw punches all the way into the Gas Chamber Chair. Another inmate simply wanted a fine cigar and was happily puffing away at it when the gas hit him and he bridged and died.)  But for most killers, they exist for the sake of one more meal, one more day, one more cigarette, one more night of safe sleep. Mere existence no matter how paltry is fine for them. Concern for their victims doesn’t exist. Their remorse is simply a posture, a pose, a bargaining chip for more leniencies, a begging for more time before the end.

I will give you a case of a killer to consider.

 

Clapper's Edict

I see that Sensenbrunner asked Holder why Clapper has not been indicted for perjury.  Good!  As the congreesman said, "What more do you need than his admission that he lied under oath?"

At the same time Clapper has issued an edict against anyone in the IC speaking to the press without permission.  That was always the rule.

When he and his predecessors ruled the roost in DIA, reporters were often given the opportunity to talk to analysts, including me, with "minders" from the PAO office.   These talks were always at the request of the reporters and DIA's interest in them was really a courtesy to the press.  The talks were at the unclassified level.  Since I oversaw the work of the whole group of ME/South Asia in DIA I knew what went on in all these meetings.  There was no instance I know of in which a DIA official or anyone from the JCS or OSD tried to influence what the analyst said.  The OSD civilians occasionally disagreed with the analysts but never interfered or tried to silence. Other than that kind of thing people were forbidden to talk to the press and did so at their peril.

As has been observed here, open source information is the bedrock of the information base from which analysts work.  Contrary to the egotistical belief of many policy people who think themselves as capable of dealing with data, the intelligence analysts' minds are the true weapons in the intelligence business, not secret information.  As I have said before, secret infomation is often useful but it is not the base of the data pool.  

When Clapper and his predecessors were heads of DIA the agency periodically ran conferences at some off-site place where analysts, academics, journalists and other DoD people assembled for a couple of days to discuss world affairs and frankly to exchange information. I ran one of these conferences.  The benefit to the work of our analysts was considerable.  Once again, nobody tried to use the analysts at these meetings to spread propaganda to the press.

The level of WH pressure that brought Clapper to issue this redundant directive must have been impressive.  pl 

"Kremlin regrets approval of punitive operation in southeast of Ukraine - Putin spokesman"

“The Russian president is extremely concerned over the developments in Ukraine and the way it is interpreted in the international community, some countries of the international community,” Peskov said.

He also noted that the Russian president was receiving in a round-the-clock regime information about the developments in the southeast of Ukraine. “Intelligence and related agencies report to him,” Peskov added." itar-tass

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IMO Putin is minimally involved in the unrest in SE Ukraine.  It is asserted that Russian Spetznaz and the like are running the show.  I doubt it.  The Russians undoubtedly have some operatives in Ukraine but I do not think they are causative in the unrest.  Putin knows how much Russia will lose if sectoral sanctions are applied.  Russia can find other customers in the east for their oil and gas but the economic hardship while they are doing that will be impressive.  

The NY times article linked below is illustrative of the number of former Russian and Soviet soldiers who are to be found in the population of eastern Ukraine.  Many of them are combat men from Afghanistan. They have a lot of old equipment, but as many soldiers will tell you, the old stuff is often quite good enough.   The lack of new "kit" is, as the commander of 12 Company remarks, indicative of a lack of Russian government support.

The US propaganda mill continues to sell the WH line that Russia is altogether to blame for unrest in Ukraine.  What a joke!  Do people really believe this? pl 

http://en.itar-tass.com/world/730317

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/world/europe/behind-the-masks-in-ukraine-many-faces-of-rebellion.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=1

Crocker tells CFR that US policy in Syria is a mistake

"“We would be making a grave mistake if our policy were aimed at flipping the tables and bringing a Sunni ascendancy in Damascus,” said Crocker, who experienced the pitfalls of US military involvement in Lebanon in the 1980s and in Iraq in the past decade. The United States would have no assurance, he said, that a Sunni government would be an improvement on that of Bashar al-Assad and the probability would be that such a government would be “dominated by the worst of the worst” religious extremists."  Al-Monitor

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Ryan Crocker says that present US policy in regard to Syria is a mistake.

The SAG has negotiated a deal for rebel withdrawal from Homs.

A zoo inventory of rebel groups is attached below.

What the hell do the Washnigton/New York crowd think they are accomplishing in Syria?  pl  

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/syria-ryan-crocker-grave-mistake.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+[English]&utm_campaign=0813e812a6-January_9_20141_8_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-0813e812a6-93066749

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24403003

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27252396

CIA power play ousts DIA Chief

IMO the removal of LTG Michael T. Flynn and his civilian deputy is one of the shoddier pieces of Washington intrigue that has been seen around town for some time.

The three big agencies of the US IC are; NSA, CIA and DIA in that order of magnitude. The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research does fine work but it has no separate collection operations other than State Department embassy reporting and has no substantial separate existence outside the department.  The heads of the three big agencies are true "barons" in terms of resources and function.

The reasons given in the press for Flynn's retirement a year before his term was to end are just nonsenses and excuses constructed to cover a power play within the Obama Administration and the IC itself.

Flynn wanted to change the emphasis in DIA's analytic work against third world targets?  So what?  It his job to set priorities for the work of his agency.  When Clapper was director of DIA he brought a USAF tactical intelligence officer's viewpoint to the job and virtually destroyed DIA's highly developed analytic force by ignoring his statutory responsibility to participate in national level strategic analysis in favor of counting airplanes, tanks, anti-aircraft guns and the like.  Seasoned, highly skilled analysts left in droves rather than be made into clerks.  Clapper survived that disaster.  Flynn is said to have wanted to transfer a lot of DIA's "nuts and bolts" "bean counting" to theater level intelligence centers within DoD?  Clapper did the same thing as director and survived.  Flynn hurt his subordinates feelings?  Anyone who knew Clapper as director would find that amusing.  Flynn did not "get along" with Michael Vickers, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence?  That may be.  Flynn is a three star general.  He is not a West Pointer and made his rank the hard way, without benefit of the "Hudson High" alumni club.  Vickers was a sergeant in US Army Special Forces for 13 years, finally becoming a captain (his terminal Army rank) before he took an assignment at CIA in Special Operations.  Yes, there could be some friction there, but Flynn would not be fired over it.  Sy Hersh cited DIA sources in his LRB's article on the Syria controversy?  Yes, but how would one know if Hersh's attributions are accurate?  It is a common practise in investigative reporting to falsely identify sources in order to protect them.  IMO, neither Flynn nor Shedd would be fired for that either.

So, what happened? 

CIA lost most of its power to rule the IC for its own benefit a decade ago.  It has schemed incessantly ever after to regain that power and IMO to punish its rivals.  Now, we have John Brennan, a chrony of the president and a lifelong CIA man in the CIA director's chair.  He yearns to get rid of Jim Clapper, the present DNI.  Clapper is a retired USAF general and Brennan wants to replace him with someone of the CIA, perhaps himself.  Why is that?  Simple, it is to the office of the DNI that the CIA's lost powers migrated.  Such a change would reverse the outcome of the reforms that created the DNI.   Clapper, whatever his faults, knows that this prospect looms.  He does not want to see this reversal take place.

At the same time,  DIA under Flynn has been a mighty irritant to the policy wonks at the WH and in the NSC staff.  DIA has fed General Martin Dempsey the analysis and evidence with which Dempsey has argued to the president against rash behavior in the world as he argued against what "Walrus" called "kicking at the door of hell."  Much of that argument has been successful, so it should not be a surprise that the interventionists both in the administration and in the lunatic fringe in Congress want Flynn's scalp.

Is it not likely that faced with an issue of survival in office, Clapper threw Flynn "under the bus?"  Hagel has proven to be a "weak reed" in office.  Wihout his firm support there is no way that Dempsey could have reisted this outcome successfully.  Is it likely that Vickers supported Flynn?  What a laughable idea!

LTG Mary Legere is discussed as a possible successor.  If she is appointed one can be sure that she will not rock the boat.  pl   

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/head-of-pentagon-intelligence-agency-forced-out-officials-say/2014/04/30/ec15a366-d09d-11e3-9e25-188ebe1fa93b_story.html?wprss=rss_national-security

http://complex.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/04/30/defense_intelligence_agencys_flynn_leaving_after_rocky_tenure