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)
Mexican Crisscrossed Border with TB - A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times. (READ MORE)
Bhutto Returns to Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan today, ending eight years of exile with hopes of campaigning for a record third premiership – perhaps in tandem with the country's U.S.-backed military president. (READ MORE)
Foreign Fighters Seen on the Rise in Afghanistan - Foreign fighters are entering Afghanistan from Pakistan in greater numbers than at any time since the Taliban was ousted in 2001, Afghanistan's defense minister said yesterday. (READ MORE)
Bush Lauds Security Firm - President Bush said yesterday that private security firms like Blackwater USA provide a "valuable service" to U.S. government personnel abroad, a day after Blackwater's top executive complained of a lack of support from top U.S. officials over the company's role in a deadly shooting incident on a Baghdad street. (READ MORE)
House GOP Halts Wiretapping Bill - House Democrats, confounded by a Republican procedural maneuver that would force an embarrassing vote on terrorism, yesterday called off a vote on an electronic-surveillance bill that the White House opposes. (READ MORE)
Senate and Bush Agree On Terms of Spying Bill - Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government's domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies... (READ MORE)
Mukasey Vows Not to Bow to Political Power - Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey said yesterday that he would chart an independent path for the Justice Department after the tumultuous tenure of Alberto R. Gonzales, testifying that he would not be afraid to disagree with the president and would resign rather than implement policies... (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Those Wacky Iraqis: The Valley of Tombs - Not really so much a Valley as it is a Wadi of Tombs. It is a few hundred yards from the Ziggurat and has been covered in many areas with concrete or pitch to keep people out. Every tomb has been raided so there is nothing there as far as artifacts except that it is covered with more pottery shards that I have ever seen in any one location. I was just amazed at how many I saw and just plain walked on. (READ MORE)
On Point: SitRep: South of Khandahar - No one conquers Afghanistan. It’s been occupied many times – by Alexander, the British, the Russians, the Taliban, us...but it’s on a temporary basis. This is an unusual country; one of the very few in Central Asia or the Middle East where national pride trumps religious fervor. As Al-Qaida did in Iraq, the Taliban overstepped its bounds with the Afghan people it claimed to liberate. Beheadings, hangings, and general terror tactics do little to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of a people who despise the Taliban for its Pakistani origins. (READ MORE)
Michael J. Totten: The Shia Awakening - After returning to the U.S. from my summer trip to Baghdad and Ramadi, I wrote a piece for the New York Daily News that warned against bingeing on optimism in the wake of the surge. I wrote this despite the dramatic turnaround in Iraq’s Anbar Province. The abject defeat of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq in and around Anbar’s capital of Ramadi is stunning, but local. The fight still rages on elsewhere, and in each place it is different. In early 2007, Ramadi was the most violent city in all of Iraq. It was also, counterintuitively, the easiest city to win. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Lost in Translation? - I was wondering whether the interpreters hanging with Vladimir Putin during his visit to Iran got mixed up. Why? Well, the Associated Press reports that the Russian leader says the United States was wasting its time in Iraq. "One can wipe off a political map some tyrannical regime ... but it's absolutely pointless to fight with a people," he said. Could it be that those words were directed at Iran instead of the U.S.? It would make so much more sense, and Putin is smart, isn't he? (READ MORE)
Eighty Deuce On The Loose In Iraq: Welcome Home!!! - WOW! Let me start off by saying how awesome it is being home. I can't believe how much I missed "normal" life and all that comes with it. I have to admit that it is still a little weird being back. I look at myself in civilian clothes and it feels like I'm dressing up for Halloween or something. Getting used to traffic, and just being in civilized world is definatly an experience. Arriving in the United States after hours upon hours of flying was a great feeling. (READ MORE)
Badger 6: Things to Hold Close - Soldiers have traditionally, for very practical reasons, carried very little in the way of personal items with them. By a historical context of course those of us in Iraq have traveled very heavy. Nonetheless we carry little compared to what we have in our homes and for me, I still find that I have many things that I can do with out. I anticipate much simplifying when I do finally return home. There are however six things I have that are now almost like a second skin to me that I feel truly naked without. (READ MORE)
B.A. Patty: To raise them up. Part 2: The role of the Philippines in the Long War - Zamboanga, Philippines: Colonel David Maxwell is the commanding officer of the US Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines. In a two-hour interview he spoke about counterinsurgency in the Philippines and the larger Long War. What must first be understood is that the situation in the Philippines is different from either Iraq or Afghanistan. In many ways, JSOTF-P is in an enviable position: It has a stable partner in the Filipino government and works with security forces that are both reliable and structurally similar to US forces. The general orders of Naval Forces, Western Mindanao Command are precisely the same as those of the US Navy. In the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Marines and Navy Special Operations Group, the units are readily understood by US Marines and Navy Special Warfare. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Victor Davis Hanson: Congress' New Role: Undermining U.S. Foreign Policy - The president establishes American foreign policy and is commander in chief. At least that’s what the Constitution states. Then Congress oversees the president’s policies by either granting or withholding money to carry them out — in addition to approving treaties and authorizing war. pparently, the founding fathers were worried about dozens of renegade congressional leaders and committees speaking on behalf of the United States and opportunistically freelancing with foreign leaders. (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: A Foreign-Policy Turkey - Just as it appears the United States may have turned an important corner in Iraq with the reported disabling of al-Qaida, Turkey is threatening to invade northern Iraq in an attempt to stop attacks by Kurdish rebels on Turkish territory. House Democrats added fuel to the combustible situation when the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 10 passed a resolution that recognizes as genocide the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. (READ MORE)
Marvin Olasky: Leaping Before We Looked: The Clinton Administration's Bosnian Failure - With Hillary Clinton surging in the polls and Democrats knifing Bush's foreign policy and praising Bill Clinton's, it's time for a reality check on a supposed triumph: Team Clinton oversimplified a complex situation in Bosnia and ended up aiding and abetting Muslim extremists. That's the conclusion of John Schindler, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College and a former National Security Agency analyst. In his new book, "Unholy Terror: Bosnia, al-Qa'ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad," Schindler reappraises the 1992-1995 Bosnian war and America's decision to come to the defense of Muslims in their conflict with Serbs. (READ MORE)
Larry Elder: Do "Gun-Free" Zones Encourage School Shootings? - This time, Cleveland. A 14-year-old suspended high school student entered Cleveland's Success Tech Academy, a gun in each hand, and opened fire, wounding four. Later, we learn that the shooter's past included violent confrontations, mental problems and at least one previous suspension. A month earlier he told a friend that he intended to shoot up the school. But no one, apparently, took his behavior seriously enough to notify authorities. (READ MORE)
David A. Ridenour: Things the Nobel Committee Doesn’t Want You to Know - Poor Al Gore. He’s been in a downward spiral all year long. First, he received an Oscar for his documentary (or was it a “mockumentary”?), An Inconvenient Truth, from the out-of-touch motion picture industry. Then he received an International Emmy from the out-of-touch television industry – the international branch, no less. Now he’s received the Nobel Peace Prize, which ranks right up there with the Daytime Emmy – or it should. (READ MORE)
Ann Coulter: Another Liberal Noose-Ance - Liberals are so invigorated by the story about a noose being found on an obscure Columbia University professor's door that now nooses are popping up all over New York City. Liberals love to make believe the Night Riders are constantly at their doors. I'll be shocked by a noose appearing on a college campus the day an actual racist does it. Could Columbia at least produce one student or professor who supports racism before holding another "rally against racism"? Every concrete example of the racism allegedly sweeping the nation's campuses keeps turning out to be a fraud. (READ MORE)
Jon Sanders: College Admins: If You Favor Second Amendment Rights, You Must Be Crazy - A Minnesota college student was suspended and ordered to undergo "mental health evaluation" for his response to campus wide e-mails from school officials concerning the Virginia Tech massacre. The college, Hamline University, a private, liberal-arts institution affiliated with the Methodist Church, has a policy on "Freedom of Expression and Inquiry" that guarantees that Hamline students will be "free to examine and discuss all questions of interest to them and to express opinions publicly or privately." (READ MORE)
Michael Medved: Corporate power blesses, not oppresses, the American people - Why should so many Americans resent and distrust the very institutions that make possible our productivity, pleasure and opportunities? Given the fact that major corporations provide virtually every one of the commodities and comforts we consume, it makes no sense to feel hostile and contemptuous of the corporate organization of the contemporary economy. As I write these words – and as you read them –we all rely on the products of major companies with increasingly far flung and international operations. Leave aside for a moment the obvious example of the complex combination of brilliantly designed computer hardware and software that allows me to transfer my thoughts to a word processor and broadcast them to the world. (READ MORE)
WSJ Review & Outlook: World Bank Runaround - The world's finance ministers descend on Washington this weekend for the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And true to type, bank officials and their media Boswells are doing their best to sweep the issue of corruption under the carpet. A letter from the bank published today illustrates the point. The letter from external affairs vice president Marwan Muasher responds to our October 11 editorial "Smiling Past Corruption," which reported the conclusions of seven internal investigations into bank projects in Cambodia. (READ MORE)
Daniel Henninger: Gen. Sanchez's Scream - Over the past weekend there were front-page accounts everywhere of Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez's description of the war in Iraq as a "nightmare." The New York Times led its story this way: "In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top commander of American forces there called the Bush administration's handling of the war 'incompetent' and said the result was 'a nightmare with no end in sight.' " Gen. Sanchez said this last Friday to a gathering of reporters and editors in Washington who cover military affairs. It was a dramatic denunciation from the man who led U.S. forces in Iraq from 2003 to 2004. (READ MORE)
ROFASix: Toy Story from Talibammy - When Alabama wrote in Section 35 of their State Constitution under the title, "Objective of government": "That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression." ... it is pretty clear that the author's clearly understood the role of government in citizen's lives. It makes you wonder how stories like, "Toy Story" could possibly ever happen in a state with that provision. But as is the case at the federal level, these state legislator's don't worry much about their constitution. It is after all, "just a piece of paper." (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Fragfree - Another reason Iraq is not like Vietnam. No one’s getting fragged. Someone may want to tell the 12 captains, draft-happy anti-war Dems, etc. Sending people to war who don’t want to go gets (the wrong) people killed. Better to leave war to the people who want to fight: Turns out for all its similarities with Vietnam … necessary war against a clear evil under trying political and military circumstances, with greater threat of defeat on homefront than battlefield … Iraq is in other ways not like Vietnam at all. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Pelosi’s politics of self-destruction - Now she’s blaming the Senate. Having wasted the last 10 months chasing geese, the Democratic Congress finds itself the most hated Congress. Ever. Poll after poll shows a job approval rating slightly above that of child pornographers. The Reuters poll today had only 11% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing under Pelosi and Reid. (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: Charlie Rangel’s “Monument to Me” and other tales from the Democrat Congress - Rep. Charlie Rangel is attempting to build a “presidential library, without the president” at City College of New York. Rangel’s monument to himself consists of three separate and expensive items, the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, the Rangel Conference Center, and the Charles Rangel Library. It’s the library that even attracted the attention of CBS News. (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Swedish artist facing death threat from Al Qaeda names new dog … Muhammed - Not the sanest man in the world, but possibly one of the bravest. An English translation of his latest blog post, courtesy of reader “Winston Churchill” and cleaned up a bit by yours truly: "The logic and composition is crystal clear. The foundation for the whole roundaboutdog project was the exhibition in Tallerud which had the name The Dog in the Art. Well, now is the time to introduce a new member of staff." (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Senate Hands Bush Victory On FISA - Hours after Democratic leadership in the House pulled their version of FISA reform off the floor in embarrassment, the Senate agreed to the White House-endorsed version. Intel committee chair Jay Rockefeller and DNI Mike McConnell agreed to full immunity for telecoms and compromised on the term of the new law, requiring renewal in six years: The collapse of the Democrats on FISA mirrors that of two months ago, when they wound up endorsing the terrorist-surveillance program which they had previously claimed was illegal. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: The Grenade Through the Door - Is this good news or bad news? The AP notices that "'Fragging' Is Rare in Iraq, Afghanistan" But I think Roland and Anderson focus on the wrong causes. World War was fought largely by conscripts. Nor were there many helicopters going over or newsmen coming along. Most World War 2 battlefields were vastly more isolated from the home front than Vietnam's. People moved by slow ship. Letters took weeks to reach their destination. (READ MORE)
Ace of Spades: Democrats Pull Bill To Gut FISA Reforms, For Now - Protecting the constitutional rights of Osama bin Ladin: "Republicans successfully maneuvered to derail a Democratic government eavesdropping bill Wednesday, delaying a House vote until next week at the earliest. The bill, which seeks to expand court oversight of government surveillance in the United States, fell victim to a gambit by the chamber's Republican minority. Democrats were forced to pull the bill from the House floor with no certainty about how it might be revived." (READ MORE)
Army Wife Toddler Mom: Pentagon promising to resolve, Minnesota National Guard educational benefits issue! - When the Minnesota Guardsman returned from a 22 month deployment, some of them noted that the orders were written for one day shorter than they needed, to qualify for some educational benefits. There was a lot of debate at that time, politicizing the orders. Many people pointing fingers, at whether or not this "padding of orders" was done intentionally to save money. The media turning it into some sort of us against them scenario. Which, to those in The National Guard, was silly. (READ MORE)
Dr. Sanity: The Apocalyptic Vision of islamic Fanatics: A Sobering Reality - David Ignatius of the Washington Post--certainly no right wing shill-- has a sobering column at RealClearPolitics about Al Qaeda's quest for a nuclear weapon: If we add the mad mullahs and their psychotic president to the list of Islamic fanatic groups obsessed with obtaining nuclear weapons, then any reasonable person should realize that "Islamophobia" is a manifestation of the survival instinct, and simply some irrational, non-sensical or purely emotional response to the realities of the 21st century. Let's revisit this MEMRI Report from ‘Al-Qaeda Undercover Soldier, U.S.A’ threatening massive destruction and death in the US and other western countries unless they convert or submit to Islam: (READ MORE)
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