Target Centermass

Author: Gunner

  • What I’m Reading Tonight

    Hey, as a proud member of the Coalition of Unpaid Bloggers, I have long reserved the right to remember this is just a hobby.

    I’ve looked for stories to blog about and, while some have been interesting enough to read, none have gripped me enough to comment on them tonight. That said, I’ll leave you with the stories that came close.

    Sadr Loyalists Plan Campaign to Oust US

    Iraqi President Foresees US Troop Withdrawal Within 2 Years

    The Chinese-Japanese Cold War

    States Scramble to Defend Military Bases from Closing (this topic I expect to blog on as the process continues)

  • Quote of the Week, 10 APR 05

    It simply is not true that war never settles anything.

    —Felix Frankfurter

  • Signs of Division in Iraq Insurgency

    In an amazing breakthrough, the Associated Press is reporting of sharp divisions and breakdowns among those who are fighting against a forward-moving Iraq.

    There are growing signs of hostility between secular Iraqi insurgents and Muslim extremists — some of them foreigners — fighting under the banner of al-Qaida.

    The factions have exchanged threats and are increasingly divided over the strategy of violence, much of it targeting civilians, that aims undermine the fragile new government.

    The increased tension, critically, arises as the mainstream component of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency — which remains active, deadly and vibrant nearly two years since it began — has opened a campaign designed to reap political gain out of its violent roots.

    Post-election realities appear to have forced the tactical change as majority Shiites and Kurds consolidate power and the population grows increasingly angry over the largely Sunni-driven insurgency that is killing vast numbers of ordinary people and the country’s fledgling army and police force.

    Well, the AP can’t give up the ghost just yet. I want to point out that I question the following choices of phrasing: “Muslim extremists — some of them foreigners”, “fragile new government”, and “killing vast numbers.” All three of the emphasized words imply an unidentified scale or opinionated wording that could have been either substantiated or phrased in a more neutral manner.

    “You see a withering of the insurgents that had a short-term agenda, like preventing the January election. But the insurgency is not unraveling yet,” said Peter Khalil, former director
    of national security policy for the now-defunct U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq.

    Now let me selectively quote and add my own punctuation: “You see a withering of the insurgents … but the insurgency is not unraveling … yet.”

    The divide among militants, however, is becoming more noticeable.

    In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province and a stronghold of the insurgency, homegrown Iraqi fighters have begun recently to air their differences in menacing fliers plastered on walls and distributed in mosques — making threats and denouncing the tactics of the extremists, according to witnesses who have seen the fliers.

    Some of the fliers threaten reprisals against the militants or threaten to inform police of their identity and whereabouts. The extremists have not publicly responded, but residents say the fighters have kept a low profile since the appearance of the fliers in the Euphrates-side city and that some of them may have moved to the outskirts to avoid clashes.

    Implicit in my bolded portion is an open admission of the growing authority of the Iraqi police forces.

    Ramadi’s insurgents argue that al-Qaida fighters are giving the resistance a bad name and demand they stop targeting civilians and kidnappings. Al-Qaida militants counter that Iraqis who join the army and police are “apostates” — Muslims who renounce their faith — and deserve to be killed.

    “They have tarnished our image and used the jihad to make personal gains,” said Ahmed Hussein, a 30-year-old mosque imam from Ramadi, speaking of al-Qaida fighters. “They have no legitimacy,” said Hussein, who claims insurgency links but says he’s not a fighter himself.

    Not that your image was all that great outside the Arab world anyway, Ahmed. Too long have y’all silently, seemingly condoned kidnappings, beheadings and butchery for your cause.

    In Baghdad’s mainly Sunni Azamiyah district, another insurgency hotbed, residents have repeatedly brought down from walls and street light poles the black banners of al-Qaida in Iraq.

    Repeatedly, but never reported until now.

    Iraq’s newly elected president, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, urged insurgents to sit down and talk with the new government, but he’s made it clear his offer is exclusively available to homegrown Iraqi insurgents and not to extremists or foreign fighters.

    “We must find political and peaceful solutions with those duped Iraqis who have been involved in terrorism and pardon them, and invite them to join the democratic process,” Talabani said Thursday as he was sworn in at parliament. “But we must firmly counter and isolate the criminal terrorism that’s imported from abroad and is allied with criminal Baathists.”

    Even the AP is now admitting a wedge exists among the opposition. This is an excellent way for the Iraqi government to slam a mallet against that wedge.

    Ideological or tactical shifts within the insurgency are difficult to gauge because of the secrecy surrounding it and the different, sometime conflicting, agendas of its disparate groups — with the majority of homegrown insurgents hardcore members of Saddam’s Baath party, former members of his army and security forces as well as religious nationalists.

    Associated Press reporters in the insurgency strongholds of Ramadi, Baqouba and Samarra say there have been fewer attacks in those towns in recent weeks. They also report rising hostility toward militants associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian al-Qaida leader in Iraq.

    U.S. defense officials say nationwide attacks were down to 40-45 a day in recent weeks, lower than the pre-election daily average of 50-60.

    The change was apparent after the Jan. 30 elections, with the number of U.S. soldiers killed dropping from 58 in February to 33 in March — the lowest monthly death toll since 20 American soldiers were killed in February 2004, according to an Associated Press count.

    Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed news reports in Arab media that factions of the insurgency may be indirectly negotiating with authorities to lay down their arms in return for amnesty, jobs and reconstruction money. The Iraqi government has not commented.

    I’ve blogged before about the declining casualties and the admission among the Sunnis of their strategic blunder to generally avoid the elections. It’s nice to see the AP slowly catching up to the obvious.

    It’s also good to see our Iraqi opponents, smelling blood in the water, beginning to turn on the foreign radicals and Saddamists holdouts.

    Okay, maybe they aren’t smelling blood in the water. Maybe they are finally seeing the writing on the wall.

  • Honoring the Blogroll: the Best Medicine

    Sometimes, the thing we need the most is a good laugh. I like to tip my hat to the top five sites currently on my blogroll that are likely to make me chuckle.

    5. The Fat Guy
    4. IMAO
    3. Beautiful Atrocities
    2. Llama Butchers

    and the top site most likely to bring on a laugh:

    1. Protein Wisdom

    DISCLAIMER: These sites are more than just humor sites and all do some great blogging. It wasn’t easy narrowing it down to five, much less ranking those five. Were I to do this tomorrow, the list would probably be different.

    I’m also planning a blogroll update very soon and have some additions already in mind. However, I’m always looking out for more, so please feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments.

  • Pakistani Accused of Exporting Devices

    Not much I want to comment on this; there’s just a link I’ve been aching to use.

    A Pakistani businessman illegally exported devices from the United States that could be used to test, develop and detonate nuclear weapons, the government alleged on Friday.

    A federal indictment against Humayun A. Khan was unsealed along with a guilty plea by his alleged partner, who admitted routing high-speed electrical switches through South Africa to avoid raising authorities’ suspicions. The switches – which can be used in medical and military devices – were then shipped to Pakistan.

    The United States prohibits the export of the switches, also known as “triggered spark gaps,” to Pakistan and a handful of other countries to prevent potential nuclear proliferation.

    Khan, of Islamabad, is not in custody. He is believed to be in Pakistan, Homeland Security officials said.

    The case raised “serious concerns,” said Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia, because of the nature of the devices, the fact they were going to Pakistan, and efforts by Kahn to disguise the ultimate destination.

    “The proliferation of nuclear components is not only a homeland security threat, but a global threat,” Garcia said Friday.

    Khan!

    Man, that link kills me. Don’t ask me why.

  • NATO Sees U.S. Military Changing Strategy

    This piece is particularly interesting for its inclusion of Africa into plans for restructuring overseas deployment of U.S. forces.

    U.S. forces stationed in Europe will increasingly shift their stance toward Africa and the former communist countries in eastern Europe as they move to counter terror threats in those areas, the top European commander said.

    […]

    “The difference between the EUCOM of the 20th century — which I regard as the Cold War century — and the EUCOM of the 21st century is the family of threats that it faces, ranging from terrorism to radical fundamentalism to narcoterrorism to illegal trafficking of all sorts,” [NATO supreme commander Marine Gen. James. L.] Jones said at EUCOM headquarters in Stuttgart.

    […]

    Many of the changes, like consolidating different Army headquarters under one roof in Wiesbaden, are simply a continuation of post-Cold War cutback that began in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    But deeper changes are on the way, as the U.S. looks less to large, fixed bases like those it has had for decades in Germany, to smaller, more bare-bones installations where troops could be moved quickly for training or to deal with a crisis.

    […]

    The large air bases at Ramstein and Spangdahlem, as well the nearby support community of Kaiserslautern, will remain hubs. The Army will concentrate on existing posts in Wiesbaden and Grafenwoehr. EUCOM headquarters will remain in Stuttgart, while both the Army and Air Force will remain in Aviano, Italy.

    But increasingly the focus is shifting toward Africa, seen as a potential haven for Islamic extremists who have been ousted from places like Afghanistan.

    Already five such agreements exist with countries in Africa, including the predominantly Muslim nations of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

    In Europe, the focus in increasingly turning to the new NATO members of the former Warsaw Pact. A special Eastern Europe Task Force would involve rotating troops on a regular basis for training exercises, including some with local militaries.

    Bases in Bulgaria and Romania, both of which hosted the U.S. military during the Iraq war, have been earmarked to host forces, but would differ from those in Germany in that they would offer only skeletal infrastructure and no families would accompany troops there on their tours of duty.

    Excellent. This shows that we are not just looking one or two steps down the road in the war against the Islamist terrorists. We are already game-planning and laying the groundworks to prepare for a possible theater shift many turns down the road. Just doing so may be sufficient to head off the threat before the proverbial pass.

    However, many dangers have always awaited in the Dark Continent.

  • When the Journalists Become the News

    Here’s a news flash — a good number of them aren’t on our side, or even just neutrally out to get a story.

    CBS Stringer Arrested in Iraq

    A CBS stringer has been arrested as a suspected insurgent, U.S. military officials said Friday.

    The video cameraman was wounded during a firefight in northeastern Mosul between U.S. troops and insurgents Tuesday.

    U.S. military officials said the man’s camera held footage of a number of roadside bomb attacks against American troops, and they believe he was tipped off to those attacks.

    A U.S. military statement said troops believe the man “poses an imperative threat to coalition forces” and that he “will be processed as any other security detainee.”

    Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has been on this story since it first broke this afternoon, including a number of updates from several sources showing the morphing media coverage of the incident.

    According to CBS when he was shot he was a “cameraman employed by CBS News” shot “while working” – when he was arrested he was “A cameraman carrying CBS press credentials.”

    Wow.

    Chad at In the Bullpen chimes in with his two cents.

    While journalists have every right to roam the country-side of Iraq looking for stories, doing so without an extensive bodyguard escort or through embedding with the enemy who are firing upon U.S. soldiers has proven time and time again to be rather foolish.

    Are the journalists actually embedding with the terrorists? Dr. Rusty Shackleford at the Jawa Report thinks a couple of the recently-named Pulitzer winners prove it.

    Everyone Is Looking At the Wrong Pulitzer Prize Photos

    The Washington Times does a half-ass job of questioning the Pulitzer Prize in this editorial. The article raises important questions, but like most of the blogosphere and those in conservative circles, they examine a single photo.

    But there were 20 photos in the series. As we have been arguing from the beginning, what is troubling is the totality of the story those photos show. The story those photos tell is of an empowered insurgency, demoralized U.S. troops, and American brutality.

    Several of the photos are disgusting, such as the one in question which shows the execution of Iraqi election officials and another which shows the residents of Fallujah celebrating the murder of American civilians as their charred bodies hang from a bridge, but it may be the case that these photos were taken by Iraqi photojournalists who were anonymously tipped off or who just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

    We have also noted in the past that the photo in question is not nearly as damning as two others which clearly indicate something like ’embedding’ with the isurgency is (or was) going on with AP stringers in Iraq.

    Go look — the photos make a pretty persuasive case that not only were the photogs with the insurgents but also were quite willing to try to capture those trying to kill Americans in a brave or noble light.

    Perhaps, with all this, today wasn’t the best day for journalists to push their luck with the U.S. military. But they did anyway.

    Journalists Seek Info on 2003 Iraq Deaths

    The International Federation of Journalists on Friday urged U.S. officials to provide credible evidence American troops did not intentionally kill two television cameramen at a Baghdad hotel in 2003.

    The two were killed April 8, 2003, when an American tank fired at the Palestine Hotel, where scores of journalists were based during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. U.S. officials insist the soldiers believed they were being shot at when they opened fire.

    Jose Couso, cameraman for Spanish television network Telecinco, and Taras Protsyuk, Ukrainian TV cameraman for Reuters, were killed by the U.S. tank.

    But critics say the journalists were targeted by U.S. troops moving in on Baghdad, and the IFJ said Friday a report on the killings was a “whitewash.”

    In a letter to President Bush, IFJ General Secretary Aidan White wrote, “the United States stands accused of failing to meet its obligations to deliver justice and fair treatment to the victims of violence by its own soldiers.”

    Following the Palestine incident, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said American troops opened fire after drawing hostile fire from the hotel. He said a U.S. review of the incident found the of force was justified.

    Here’s a little tip for y’all journalists in a warzone: weapon fire may be fairly easy to see through a tank’s thermal sights, but press credentials are not.

  • Consider Yourselves Warned

    It will happen here. The terror that Israel regularly has to deal with will happen here. I’ve blogged before that I’m surprised it hasn’t already.

    I will also take another bold stance: the opponents of President George W. “Dubya” “Chimp Bushitler” Bush are right — his aggresive war against Islamist terror and his efforts in its Iraqi and Afghani theaters have made the world more dangerous. The important thing here is that I am not taken out of context. The Bush Doctine is a decided choice to parlay short-term danger against a gambit to reshape the Islamic world.

    Israelis have seen terror — pizzarias, nightclubs and bus stops strewn with blood. I believe we will see it here at malls and McDonald’s. The question that Bush has chosen to present is this: will the American fortitide crack before we can present the Arab world a viable alternative to the suffering and oppression they’ve dealt with so long? Not an alternate place to lay blame to, although that would eventually be a given as a replacement to the “all things evil stem from Israel and America” mindset must be offered, but an alternate goal of hope, prosperity and self-rule.

    Yes, we could’ve continued to play the game meekly. We would be safer now. But would we have bought any safety in the future? I say no. What I predict now for our homeland, I say would have reached our homeland anyway. Maybe not as fast, as we would not have forced desperation upon the terrorist Islamists. The dangers I now predict soon for America would have eventually found their way here. Hell, 9/11, the spur that drove the Bush Doctrine charge, was concieved during the days of the timid reactions that preceded the current administration. Now, at least, we are actively working to undercut the strength of the threat.

    Will the terror happen here? Yes. It should be remembered that we fight not only for our way of life, but also for the civilization that our children and grandchildren will inherit. I present these two stories as just small possible pieces of evidence that the nightmares will fall upon us.

    NYC Teens Held in Suicide Bomb Plot

    The sources said the parents of one of the girls had gone to police to complain about her. One official said investigators were concerned the girls could be recruited for a suicide mission, so they were detained on immigration charges.

    “The girls were already part of an investigation. When the parents came forward with their complaints, it was more of two things coming together,” said one law enforcement official.

    Ten Memphis Women Arrested for ‘Sham-Marriages’ with Moroccans
    Normally, I’d hat tip Chad at In the Bullpen and point to the news story. However, in this case, his examination makes the story.

    It’s not just alarming that United States women would get married to import immigrants; it’s alarming where these immigrants were to come from and how much these women were to be paid. $15,400 is not chump change for Moroccans as it equals 133,076 Moroccan Dirham. Moroccans live in the lowest 10 percent in the world in terms of annual household income.

    Just how do 10 Moroccans get their hands on over $15,000? At this time there are no direct signs these were terrorists trying to enter the United States, however based upon the country of origin and and money they were willing to dish out, this does seem like a plausible scenario.

    Yes, the Bush Doctrine has made the world more dangerous … for now, and it still may fail. That said, the alternatives are the same danger later and, should the doctrine fail, the choice between radical Islamist dreams of subjugation to barbarity and the survival of western civilization. In other words, should the doctrine fail, the only choice for America may be mass destruction — theirs or ours.

  • Shia Named New Iraq PM

    A Kurd was sworn in as president. A Sunni and a Shiite took the oaths of the vice-president positions. Ibrahim Jaafari, another Shiite, was named to the key post of prime minister of Iraq, and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi stepped aside. Hail to the first Iraqi government selected as a result of the power of the ballot rather than the fear of the bullet.

    Shia Islamist Ibrahim Jaafari was named as Iraq’s next Prime Minister today, moving the country a step closer to its first democratically elected government in more than 50 years.

    Jaafari announced his own nomination shortly after Iraq’s new President, Kurdish former guerrilla leader Jalal Talabani, was sworn into office in parliament, along with two deputies.

    “Today represents a big step forward for Iraq and a big responsibility for me,” Jaafari, who spent more than two decades opposing Saddam Hussein from exile, said.

    His appointment to the most powerful post under the interim constitution had long been agreed in principle but was held up by weeks of bargaining over other posts among the Shia and Kurdish groups that dominate the parliament elected on January 30. Jaafari said interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had resigned from his post but would continue as caretaker while Jaafari worked on putting the finishing touches to his cabinet line up. “I hope within one or two weeks maximum I will name the cabinet,” a smiling Jaafari said after his formal appointment by Talabani and the Shia and Sunni vice-presidents.

    Talabani, 71, took the President’s oath of office a day after his election by parliament, as political and religious leaders looked on at a ceremony inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, seat of government and the vast US embassy. “I swear by God the great that I will work with devotion to preserve the independence and sovereignty of Iraq,” Talabani said.

    As I predicted, the pieces quickly fell into place after the initial logjam cleared Sunday with the compromise that led to naming Sunni Hajem al-Hassani as speaker of the National Assembly.

    Other interesting reading on the shape of the Iraqi government:

    Editorial: Toward a Multiethnic Future

    The convoluted constitutional process that has brought Iraqis thus far has been criticized for its unwieldiness. But most Iraqis are generally content with an arrangement that ensures that their country’s politicians work together on the basis of consensus. Extremists within the different communities have not found a way to exploit the delays caused by weeks of negotiations.

    Editorial: Iraq has Done Well

    As the parliament’s new speaker-elect, Hajem Al Hassani said after the vote: “This is the new Iraq — an Iraq that elects a Kurd to be president and an Arab former president as his deputy. What more could the world want from us?”

    Quite right. It is a great achievement amidst the noise and dust, sound and fury, of the insurgency in Iraq for the country to come up with a political arrangement that represents and accommodates the three ethnic and sectarian factions. But given Iraq’s situation, the new Iraq and its leaders will have to do more. Not because the world wants them to do more but because doing so is Iraq’s own necessity to survive as an honourable member of the world community.

    Doctor’s Mission: Heal Land Torn by War

    Dr al-Jaafari has been a favourite for the post since the religiously conservative block reversed generations of Sunni dominance in government in the landmark polls. The 58-year-old doctor was widely favoured by supporters for being a devout Shia Muslim, but one who eschewed the religious trappings of many of his colleagues.

    He has also said his government will not rule as a Shia leadership but as an Iraqi administration, and hopes to draw in Sunnis who have largely rejected involvement in the political process.

    President Talabani, himself a former guerrilla fighter who battled Saddam for years, held out an olive branch to the Sunni insurgents who make up the backbone of the 20-month uprising that has left thousands dead.

  • Court Won’t Stop Guardsman’s Deployment

    It’s called a contract for a reason: you signed it and it is binding.

    For the second time in two days, a federal appeals court declined to halt an Oregon National Guardsman from being deployed to Afghanistan on Friday.

    Emiliano Santiago, 27, an electronics technician and a helicopter refueler now living in Pasco, Wash., is fighting his deployment because his 8-year service agreement expired last year. His lawyers told the court Santiago is the victim of a “backdoor draft.”

    On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Seattle, declined to halt his looming departure. On Thursday, the court declined to rehear the case with 11 judges.

    No U.S. federal appeals court has sided with similarly situated military personnel fighting their deployments.

    The courts have generally upheld the so-called “stop loss” law that authorizes President Bush to suspend service agreements of many armed forces personnel for national security reasons. Thousands of soldiers have been redeployed under stop loss orders.

    The last paragraph there is rather misleading. The president is not suspending service agreements with the stop-loss program. Rather, he is exercising an option in the contract signed by Santiago, an option that his service commitment may be extended beyond terms specified.

    While I have sympathy for Santiago personally, I hold no sympathy for his cause. Put the uniform back on, Emiliano, and report — your country has legally called you.