A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders - Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005. (READ MORE)
Clinton, Giuliani Hold Financial Leads - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R), the front-runners for their parties' presidential nominations, entered the final months of the primary season with another crucial advantage: more money to spend than their rivals. (READ MORE)
Nuclear Deal With India May Be Near Collapse - A controversial nuclear deal between the United States and India appears close to collapse after the Indian prime minister told President Bush yesterday that "certain difficulties" will prevent India from moving forward on the pact for the foreseeable future. (READ MORE)
Turkey Requests Authority to Attack - ISTANBUL, Oct. 15 -- The Turkish government asked parliament Monday for a one-year authorization to conduct military operations in northern Iraq to attack Kurdish separatist guerrillas, but senior government officials attempted to play down the prospects of an immediate attack. "It is impossible to speak for certain on a possible cross-border operation if the parliament approves it," Gen. Ergin Saygun, deputy chief of the Turkish General Staff, told reporters… (READ MORE)
Bush Urged to Block Merger - House Republicans have introduced legislation calling for the Bush administration to block the merger of a U.S. computer-security equipment company and a Chinese firm with close ties to Beijing's military and a history of illicit exports and industrial espionage. (READ MORE)
O'Malley Calls Special Session - Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley ordered lawmakers yesterday to return to Annapolis on Oct. 29 to consider his plan to increase the sales tax and legalize slot machines to help close the state's $1.7 billion budget shortfall. (READ MORE)
Forces Spare Afghan Civilians - Coalition forces in Afghanistan are being trained to avoid civilian casualties even if that means sometimes refusing to respond to direct attacks, a senior officer said. (READ MORE)
Activist Tells About Torture and Captivity - It sounds like a tale from the darkest days of Soviet communism, but Larisa Arap says her forced detention in a Murmansk psychiatric ward ended just two months ago. (READ MORE)
Hillary: Some Troops Out in 60 Days - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will develop a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 60 days of becoming president, but "will order specialized units" to stay behind to fight terrorists. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
W. Thomas Smith Jr.: Terrorists Snatched South of Here - BEIRUT — The AP is reporting Suspected terrorists detained in Lebanon: “Lebanese military intelligence officials have detained members of a suspected ‘terrorist network’ for plotting attacks against U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, the army said Monday.” What the AP is not reporting is that the network involved includes members of: Fatah Al Islam (The Al Qaeda-affiliated bunch that was supposedly wiped out to a man during the recent Battle of Nahr Al Bared). Jund Al Sham (a terrorist group of Syrian and Palestinian origins). Osbat Al Ansar (a particularly nasty group — though all three are — training here in Lebanon for suicide-bombing operations in Iraq). (READ MORE)
On Point: Voices from the Front - Normally ON POINT discusses the strategy and tactics involved in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our articles are filled with concepts like job creation, “Surge” tactics, and electrical power per hour per city. Yes, all these topics are important, but it gets away from the Marines and Soldiers on the ground who are doing the fighting – and dying – that lets jobs get created, schools re-opened, and electrical power distributed. Today we’re honored to present “Voices from the Front” – a video reminder of your Marines in Anbar Province. (READ MORE)
Greyhawk: Against the Wind. - We threw our gear in. We climbed aboard. As the roar of engines increased and the rotors spun faster and blurred we sat down, strapped in, and arranged our gear at our feet. The gunners took their positions, checked their weapons. The pitch of the engines changed again and we lurched upwards and forward in a swirl of dust that was quickly blown away by the ever-gusting wind. The ground dropped away and with a final rooftop view of nowhere we were over the wire and on our way home. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
The Real Iraq We Knew - Today marks five years since the authorization of military force in Iraq, setting Operation Iraqi Freedom in motion. Five years on, the Iraq war is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start. And, five years on, Iraq is in shambles. As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we've seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out. (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: Iran's al Qaeda - On the morning of July 18, 1994, a suicide bomber drove a van into the seven-story Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, murdering 85 people and seriously injuring 151 others. Last November, Argentine Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral issued international arrest warrants for eight men--seven Iranians and one Lebanese--wanted in connection to the bombing. Among them are former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and three other men with one important point in common: All were, or are, senior officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. (READ MORE)
WSJ Review & Outlook: Secretary of State Pelosi - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, famous for donning a head scarf earlier this year to commune for peace with the Syrians, has now concluded that this is the perfect moment to pass a Congressional resolution condemning Turkey for the Armenian genocide of 1915. Problem is, Turkey in 2007 has it within its power to damage the growing success of the U.S. effort in Iraq. We would like to assume this is not Speaker Pelosi's goal. (READ MORE)
Dennis Prager: Ann Coulter Wants Jews to Become Christian -- So What? - Those who label Ann Coulter an anti-Semite do damage to the battle against anti-Semitism. I say this as a committed Jew, a religious Jew, a Jewish writer and lecturer, a past college instructor in Jewish history, co-author of a widely read book on anti-Semitism, recipient of the American Jewish Press Association's Prize for Excellence in Jewish Commentary, instructor in Torah at the American Jewish University, and a man who has fought anti-Semitism all his life. (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: An Egregiously Reckless Resolution - Why now, of all possible critical moments, are congressional Democrats insisting on passing a resolution guaranteed to offend Turkey, our vital ally in the Iraq War, by denouncing the Ottoman Empire's century-old massacre of Armenians as a "genocide"? Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts have been warned that Turkey will be deeply offended by the move and may even take punitive action against us by withdrawing their permission for us to use Incirlik Air Base, through which well more than half of our air cargo passes in route to supply our troops in Iraq. (READ MORE)
Bill Steigerwald: Fixing Up the Constitution - Larry Sabato, director of the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia and a familiar cable TV pundit, has taken it upon himself to reform the U.S. Constitution -- to make it more in tune with a 21st-century political system. Among the eminently debatable ideas he puts forward in “A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country” are a single six-year term limit for presidents, two years of required national service for every citizen, and making it possible for foreign-born American citizens like Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president. (READ MORE)
Dinesh D'Souza: My Debate with Atheist Christopher Hitchens - On Monday, October 22 I’ll be debating Christopher Hitchens on “Is Religion the Problem?” The debate is at 7 pm at the Ethical Culture Society auditorium in New York city. It’s open to the public. (Details can be found at tkc.edu.) Marvin Olasky, editor of World magazine, is the moderator. If you come you can pick up a signed copy of my new book What’s So Great About Christianity or bring your copy to get it autographed. It’s going to be a lively debate. (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: Global Warming: The Conservatives' Opportunity - This is a two-part column. Part one is what you might expect from a politically conservative person who believes “global warming” is a secular religion and that Al Gore deserved the Nobel Peace Prize as much as Yasser Arafat, Le Duc Tho and a myriad of other low-wattage lights, which is to say not at all. The second part may surprise my liberal friends. The Church of Global Warming (CGW) is a cult. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Sabotage in Wartime - With all the problems facing this country, both in Iraq and at home, why is Congress spending time trying to pass a resolution condemning the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago? Make no mistake about it, that massacre of hundreds of thousands -- perhaps a million or more -- Armenians was one of the worst atrocities in all of history. (READ MORE)
Phyllis Schlafly: Time to Bring an End to the DREAM Act - The American people rose up out of their usual apathy and soundly defeated the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 that would have given amnesty to illegal immigrants. Now, some senators are trying to get Congress to pass a backdoor amnesty by calling it the DREAM Act, and it's really a nightmare for Americans. The cutesy title DREAM, which is meant to be a double-entendre, is an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. (READ MORE)
John McCaslin: Mayor Fenty? - A small but lively group of Iraq war veterans took up positions Saturday afternoon outside the headquarters of "Code Pink," the feminist antiwar group huddled inside what is zoned as residential housing at 712 5th St. NE. The war vets charge that Code Pink should be "evicted" due to zoning violations, arguing the women operate a corporate lobbying practice in a single-family dwelling in what is zoned as a residential neighborhood of Capitol Hill. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Romney's Contributions: Don't Swett It - I make no secret that while I haven't decided on a presidential candidate, I have generally favorable impressions of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. I also have issues with both, but one of the things being used against Romney is a bit shallow -- and that's his 1992 contribution to the re-election campaign of former New Hampshire Democratic Congressman Dick Swett. But to explain why it's no big deal, I have to give a bit of context. (READ MORE)
Jim Addison: Google's selective censorship - Google removed ads condemning MoveOn.org's ad in The New York Times attacking General David H. Petraeus, claiming a trademark violation. This blatant act of political protection has exacted a collective yawn from Old Media, predictably enough. From The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper: "Here are the facts: Lance Dutson, a Maine blogger working for the re-election campaign of Sen. Susan Collins, recently placed two political ads on Google on behalf of the Maine Republican. The pro-Collins ads were critical of MoveOn.org's recent "General Betray Us" insertion in The New York Times and claimed MoveOn.org was targeting Collins for defeat. Shortly thereafter, the ads disappeared, and Dutson was told by a Google representative that they were removed because they violated MoveOn.org's trademark." (READ MORE)
McQ: SCHIP - The Numbers - I know a bunch of you guys are thinking "what's with all this SCHIP stuff, enough already". It's important. Why? Because this is one of many battles to come that showcase the Democratic strategy of incrementalism. If you can't pass major legislation such as government run health care, what should you do? Why incrementally pass legislation that implements it piece by piece, of course. And the SCHIP expansion (and get this clear, folks, this is about the expansion of the program) is the prefect case in point. (READ MORE)
Neptunus Lex: Whispers of victory? - Some times in a grudge match it’s hard to know when you’ve turned the corner. Whether the light at the end of the tunnel represents sunshine - or an oncoming freight train: "The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq." Are they really beaten, or just lying low and reconstituting? Fleeing the battlefield entirely, or is this a case of reculer pour mieux sauter? (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: 12 Captains - With an alarmingly poor grasp of political and military realities in Iraq and the United States weigh in with the following at the Washington Post: “There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq. To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition.” It would be far quicker, cheaper and less politically traumatic to simple expand the military, and offer financial incentives to boost enlistment. The one benefit in a draft is that the Democrats in Congress would be enthusiastically on board, because they know it would not accomplish our goals in Iraq, but theirs in the United States. (READ MORE)
Fjordman: The Fatherless Civilization - I sometimes wonder whether the modern West, and Western Europe in particular, should be dubbed the Fatherless Civilization. Fathers have been turned into a caricature and there is a striking demonization of traditional male values. Any person attempting to enforce rules and authority, a traditional male preserve, is seen as a Fascist and ridiculed, starting with God the Father. We end up with a society of vague fathers who can be replaced at the whim of the mothers at any given moment. Even the mothers have largely abdicated, leaving the upbringing of children to schools, kindergartens and television. In fashion and lifestyle, mothers imitate their daughters, not vice versa. (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Video) Job of U.S. soldiers is killing “mothers and sisters,” says David Crosby - So self-parodic is this all the way around the horn that I can’t muster the requisite outrage. Of course David Crosby thinks American soldiers are out to kill women. Of course Graham Nash thinks “dialogue” is the answer to suicidal jihadism. Of course Chris Matthews doesn’t think he’s a Marxist even as he’s mouthing rhetoric straight from the Daily Worker. Of course, of course. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Hillary: Surveillance For National Security? Bad. Surveillance For Election? Good - According to a book on Hillary Clinton, she personally reviewed transcripts of cell-phone conversations illegally tapped by members of her husband's first presidential campaign in 1992. The Hill notes that the calls took place between members of opposition campaigns, and would have been as illegal then as they are now. It places Hillary in the position of demanding limitations on surveillance of terrorists while having pursued wiretaps on political opponents: (READ MORE)
Winds of Change: Success Against a Networked Enemy - I want to take a moment and talk about what may be happening in Iraq - why it is that we're seeing such a precipitous drop in attacks, how we may have gotten there, and some things to think about in terms of what comes next. A lot of attention is (rightly) being paid to the specific tactics being employed by our military leadership, and that's obviously a key point to keep in mind. But I want to raise a slightly more subtle one, which is that there may be a structural reason for the collapse of the insurgency. (READ MORE)
Babbling Brooks: Thinking Manley - John Manley's article in the October 2007 issue of Policy Options muddles mostly even-handedly through a series of facts and impressions anyone who seriously follows the situation in Afghanistan already knows. It's useful in an 'another voice in the chorus' sort of way, but that's all. Right up until the end, that is, where he says something that got me thinking: “Roads, bridges and electrification must be enhanced, so that ordinary Afghans can see progress. We love to do what we call ‘capacity-building,’ which is doubtless very important, but invisible to the average villager in an Afghan province.” (READ MORE)
TigerHawk: Why is Congress condemning the Turks? - The other night Bill Maher mocked Democrats (Youtube video) for having condemned Turkey for the Armenian genocide of 1915, saying "that's exactly why the voters gave control to the Democrats, to send a stern message to the Ottoman Empire." Thomas Sowell and no doubt many others know the real reason why Congressional Democrats have chosen just this moment out of many in the last 92 years to denounce Turkey: “If Congress has gone nearly a century without passing a resolution accusing the Turks of genocide, why now, in the midst of the Iraq war?” (READ MORE)
Steve Schippert: RapidRecon: Iraq Symposium: If We Fail - Regarding the consequences of failure in Iraq, along with Ralph Peters, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Kimberly Kagan and Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, ThreatsWatch recently participated in a FrontPage Magazine Symposium: If We Fail. Much was discussed and the general conclusion that the consequences of failure in Iraq would be most severe, there was some disagreement among the group regarding particulars. As were others, Kimberly Kagan was particularly spot on. "If U.S. troops withdraw before the ISF is ready, terrorists and militias will slaughter those Iraqis who are now working so hard to defend their country. The Iraqi Security Forces, though improving dramatically, are unlikely to survive such a crisis – as their leadership is destroyed." (READ MORE)
Tel-Chai Nation: More leftists attack children - Bryan at Hot Air finds more examples of leftists who drag the children of politicians they don't like into the discussion for no apparent reason other than to say hateful and nasty things about them. On Wonkette, we find a little crowd saying vile things about Sen. Rick Santorum's children, saying things like: "Did Santorum’s kids get switched at the hospital, or did he adopt? I mean, he’s a dipstick and all, but he and his wife aren’t as homely, say, as Bob Barr and Lynne Cheney, just to name two Republican lens -busters - but those kids - Jesus, Mary, Joseph - they all look like they got smacked with the ugly stick." (READ MORE)
Some Soldier's Mom: Rest in Peace TommyM1080 - I was overcome tonight. I learned a friend of mine was killed in Iraq yesterday. I had never gotten to meet Tom Martin, but through blogging he and I struck up an email friendship. We have traded emails throughout his long deployment. See, Tommy had a blog:Green to Grey to Gold. He was enlisted and did a tour in the Sandbox (that's the green), got accepted to The Point (that's the grey). TommyM1080 thrived and did well and graduated an officer (that's the Gold). After graduation he learned to race drive tanks. Then he went to Ranger school. Got his unit. He was DAMNED proud of his men. One of my posts a few months back was from one of his emails to me. (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: MSM Bias and Pallywood: Incompetence or Malice? - I make it a point to never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence. I hold to this point even when the outcome of such incompetence is harmful to what I consider to be important interests. However, with new war threats looming, holding the MSM to a higher standard of competence is crucial. The upcoming Annapolis Summit, already being downplayed on all sides, is all too likely to be a disaster. The Palestinians and their allies have made clear that their presence at the summit depends on Israeli willingness to cede negotiating points that are non-starters for most Israelis (the right of return, sovereignty over the Temple Mount, etc). (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl: Defining Non-Violent: The Spread Of Extremism - The bulk of this story can be found via The New York Times and at Rusty's site, you'll want to read both. But below the headlines rests the real challenge for a freedom loving democracy fighting terrorism, especially in the Internet age. The degree to which North Carolina-based Samir Khan is directly involved in supporting terrorism can be debated and the outcome of a formal trial would be far from assured. And then there's the mostly un-addressed issue of how he got his start. From the assembled excerpts below, you can trace his increasingly extremist ideology from groups purported to be non-violent - groups that enjoy First Amendment protections. (READ MORE)
Paul Mirengoff: Resistance for the wrong reason - Guy Moquet was a 17 year-old French high school student who was arrested by the Nazis in 1940 for distributing Communist literature. The Nazis executed Moquet the following year in retaliation for the killing of German soldiers by members of the resistance. Before the execution, Moquet wrote a now-famous letter to his family urging them to be brave and expressing the hope that his death will "serve a purpose." The new French President Nicolas Sarkozy has decreed that Moquet's letter be read to all French junior high school students as a celebration of resistance and sacrifice for one's country. This decision has led to large-scale protests by teachers, many of whom have said they will not read the letter. (READ MORE)
MountainRunner: The real Diplomacy of Deeds - Actions speak louder than words. Not only do you learn that growing up, but it's reinforced in your daily life. You trust particular stores not because of their ads, but because of their product and their treatment of you (ok, maybe just one or the other). You trust friends, colleagues and bosses not because they say they have your back or your best interest in mind, but because they show it. Positive perceptions of America were based on words and deeds (real or imaginary). This good will was the same as hard currency and fostered the belief that "who we are is self-evident" statements at the end of World War II and the Cold War when propaganda / public diplomacy funding was slashed. (READ MORE)
Jeffrey Imm: The Dangerous Denial of Jihad's Threat - On October 12, Taliban leader Mullah Omar declared that it had reached a "success point" in its "jehad" (sic) against the Karzai government, and called upon other Jihadist organizations to finish the job in the Taliban's attacks on US and NATO forces, and to overtake the Afghan government. UK predictably responded today by standing behind Karzai's efforts to negotiate with the Taliban who seek to overtake the Karzai government, with the belief that it can "split" the Taliban, disregarding the Taliban's Islamist constitution and shared Islamist beliefs of the Taliban ideology, as the UK/UN/NATO/US State Department goal's remain focused on "stabilization" of Afghanistan. (READ MORE)
Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.
No comments:
Post a Comment