Disclaimer: This video is posted to illustrate the argument that invading and occupying a sovereign state may well have negative security blowback. There is no political endorsement intended in sharing this video.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
$12M to Improve Security for Nukes in Europe
Atlantic CommTech Corp. in Virginia Beach, VA received a $12 million firm-fixed-price contract.
They’ll provide interior intrusion detection systems for protective aircraft shelters, and redundant cable, for the 498th Nuclear Systems Wing. Atlantic CommTech will be performing 100% of the work throughout 6 NATO installations in Europe. This is not surprising. Back in February 2008, “The Blue Ribbon Review of Nuclear Weapons Policies and Procedures”raised concerns about security practices at nuclear-capable facilities in Europe, and recommended a number of steps to improve the situation. Meanwhile, European countries’ waning desire to even host such weapons has become a subject of high-level debate among NATO members.
The 498th Nuclear Systems Wing is part of USAF Materiel Command, and handles nuclear maintenance projects, programs, & systems integration, advocacy, and oversight. The wing’s groups and divisions include the 498th Missile Sustainment Division based at Tinker AFB, OK, the 498th Nuclear Systems Division at Kirtland AFB, NM; the 498th Munitions Maintenance Group at Whiteman AFB, MO, and the 798th Munitions Maintenance Group at Minot AFB, ND. The USAF Nuclear Weapons Center/PKE at Kirtland AFB, NM, manages the contract (FA9422-12-F-0001). More
UN: Sharp Drop in Afghans Returning From Pakistan
The UNHCR said that 60,000 Afghans have returned so far this year under its voluntary repatriation effort -- 43,000 coming home from Pakistan and 17,000 from Iran.
While the number returning from Iran was double the level for the same period last year, 59 percent fewer returned from Pakistan, the agency said. In Pakistan, most of the Afghan refugees live in two trouble-prone northwest regions that border Afghanistan -- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan.
A NATO push over the past couple of years forced the Taliban to shift operations outside its traditional strongholds in the south. Afghanistan's eastern provinces have become particular hotspots in the war-ravaged nation where U.S.-led NATO forces, for the past decade, have been battling the insurgents. More
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Over 15,000 CIA Contractors Will Not Give Peace A Chance
ISLAMABAD: The “give peace a chance” counter-terrorism policy agreed upon at last weekend’s All Parties Conference dangerously fails to acknowledge the growing influence of Afghan warlords over the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), according to security experts, intelligence sources and veteran militants.
They said there is mounting evidence that the Afghan warlords are providing safe havens, logistical and monetary support to militant insurgents fleeing
counter-terrorist operations in the FATA.
The cross-border influence of the warlords has grown rapidly since their militias were hired to support US forces, notably during the 2010 troop surge in southern Afghanistan, they said.
The number of such “armed private security contractors” currently employed by the US depart of defence in Afghanistan is staggering: 15,305, including 13,330 Afghans, as of July, according to data released by the Central Command for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Officially, the contractors perform roles such as securing Nato convoys, military facilities and areas not yet policed by the Afghan government, enabling uniformed US personnel to focus exclusively on offensive combat operations.
However, the warlords’ empowered militias have frequently exceeded that brief, according to 2009 and 2010 reports by US think tanks, including the Congressional Research Service.
The empowerment of Afghan warlords, in turn, has added to the instability in the FATA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, intelligence and militant sources said.
Current TTP safe havens in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nuristan provinces are an ironic mirror image of North Waziristan, providing logistical support for armed incursions into Chitral and Dir, and strategic depth to the insurgents.
More >>>
They said there is mounting evidence that the Afghan warlords are providing safe havens, logistical and monetary support to militant insurgents fleeing
counter-terrorist operations in the FATA.
The cross-border influence of the warlords has grown rapidly since their militias were hired to support US forces, notably during the 2010 troop surge in southern Afghanistan, they said.
The number of such “armed private security contractors” currently employed by the US depart of defence in Afghanistan is staggering: 15,305, including 13,330 Afghans, as of July, according to data released by the Central Command for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Officially, the contractors perform roles such as securing Nato convoys, military facilities and areas not yet policed by the Afghan government, enabling uniformed US personnel to focus exclusively on offensive combat operations.
However, the warlords’ empowered militias have frequently exceeded that brief, according to 2009 and 2010 reports by US think tanks, including the Congressional Research Service.
The empowerment of Afghan warlords, in turn, has added to the instability in the FATA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, intelligence and militant sources said.
Current TTP safe havens in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nuristan provinces are an ironic mirror image of North Waziristan, providing logistical support for armed incursions into Chitral and Dir, and strategic depth to the insurgents.
More >>>
Location: Islamabad
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
IAEA Sets Up Team to Drive Nuclear Safety Action Plan
26 September 2011 | The International Atomic Energy Agency is setting up a Nuclear Safety Action Team to oversee prompt implementation of the
IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety and ensure proper coordination among all stakeholders.
The 12-point Action Plan, drawn up in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, was approved by the Agency's Board of Governors on 13 September and endorsed by all 151 Member States at its General Conference last week.
The team will work within the Agency's Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, headed by Deputy Director General Denis Flory, and will coordinate closely with the Director General's Office for Policy.
"The Action Plan requires immediate follow-up," Director General Yukiya Amano said. "This compact, dedicated team will assist Deputy Director General Flory in implementing the measures agreed in the Action Plan."
Gustavo Caruso, Head of the Regulatory Activities Section in the IAEA's Division of Installation Safety, has been designated as the team's Special Coordinator for the implementation of the Action Plan.
The IAEA has already started implementing its responsibilities under the Action Plan, including development of an IAEA methodology for stress tests for nuclear power plants. The methodology will be ready in October.
More >>>
IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety and ensure proper coordination among all stakeholders.
The 12-point Action Plan, drawn up in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, was approved by the Agency's Board of Governors on 13 September and endorsed by all 151 Member States at its General Conference last week.
The team will work within the Agency's Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, headed by Deputy Director General Denis Flory, and will coordinate closely with the Director General's Office for Policy.
"The Action Plan requires immediate follow-up," Director General Yukiya Amano said. "This compact, dedicated team will assist Deputy Director General Flory in implementing the measures agreed in the Action Plan."
Gustavo Caruso, Head of the Regulatory Activities Section in the IAEA's Division of Installation Safety, has been designated as the team's Special Coordinator for the implementation of the Action Plan.
The IAEA has already started implementing its responsibilities under the Action Plan, including development of an IAEA methodology for stress tests for nuclear power plants. The methodology will be ready in October.
More >>>
Location:Islamabad
World Food Day, 16 October 2011
Food prices - from crisis to stability
Price swings, upswings in particular, represent a major threat to food security in developing countries. Hardest-hit are the poor. According to the
World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people into extreme poverty.
“FOOD PRICES – FROM CRISIS TO STABILITY” has been chosen as this year’s World Food Day theme to shed some light on this trend and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable.
On World Food Day 2011, let us look seriously at what causes swings in food prices, and do what needs to be done to reduce their impact on the weakest members of global society. More >>>
Price swings, upswings in particular, represent a major threat to food security in developing countries. Hardest-hit are the poor. According to the
World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people into extreme poverty.
“FOOD PRICES – FROM CRISIS TO STABILITY” has been chosen as this year’s World Food Day theme to shed some light on this trend and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable.
On World Food Day 2011, let us look seriously at what causes swings in food prices, and do what needs to be done to reduce their impact on the weakest members of global society. More >>>
Location: Cayman Islands
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Chomsky On “Occupy Wall Street”, Israel's Imminent Collapse and Pakistan
Chomsky vividly shares his reflections on the wall street protests and warns of an impending serious poverty and real unemployment similar to the great depression, he talks about the 2012 American presidential campaign
spending and how positions in both the white house and the congress are being bought, not earned and he refers to the killing of Osama Bin Laden and how this marks a shift of American policy from Bush’s abducting and torturing whoever the CIA thought posed a threat to the U.S to Obama’s “just kill `em when you spot `em” approach regardless of the legalities overlooked in the process.
Click here for video
He concludes that the killing of Osama Bin Laden was done, in such a way, as to infuriate, and may be implicate the Pakistani military, something he seriously regards as extremely dangerous.
In regard to the Arab spring, Chomsky acknowledges that the U.S and its western allies did not support the Tunisian or the Egyptian revolutions; rather they opposed them, and backed the dictator till the last minute and then shifted policy when they were overthrown. More >>>
spending and how positions in both the white house and the congress are being bought, not earned and he refers to the killing of Osama Bin Laden and how this marks a shift of American policy from Bush’s abducting and torturing whoever the CIA thought posed a threat to the U.S to Obama’s “just kill `em when you spot `em” approach regardless of the legalities overlooked in the process.
Click here for video
He concludes that the killing of Osama Bin Laden was done, in such a way, as to infuriate, and may be implicate the Pakistani military, something he seriously regards as extremely dangerous.
In regard to the Arab spring, Chomsky acknowledges that the U.S and its western allies did not support the Tunisian or the Egyptian revolutions; rather they opposed them, and backed the dictator till the last minute and then shifted policy when they were overthrown. More >>>
Location: Islamabad
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Film on Climate Refugees Strikes a Chord
During the shooting of his 2010 documentary “Climate Refugees,” the Irish-American filmmaker Michael Nash visited nearly 50 countries in about
18 months, interviewing politicians, scientists, health workers and victims of floods, cyclones, hurricanes and droughts.
Click here for film trailer
His conclusion was that short- and longer-term changes in climate are causing vast numbers of people to abandon their jobs, homes and countries to seek better lives elsewhere, or to simply survive. (Jeffrey Gettleman’s recent coverage of the Somali refugee crisis in The Times has offered some vivid and disturbing examples, although Somalia’s troubles are also inextricably linked to political turmoil.)
Mr. Nash poses a basic question: what will become of the millions of people whose lack of access to food and clean water leads them to take increasingly desperate measures? What type of strains will huge migration put on resources in more developed countries?
Will this dislocation eventually, as the retired Navy vice admiral Lee Gunn told Mr. Nash, pose a threat to Americans’ national security, too?
By focusing on the consequences of climate change rather than its scientific causes, some experts suggest that Mr. Nash succeeded in circumventing a divisive political debate over global warming and the extent to which human activity contributes to it. More >>>
18 months, interviewing politicians, scientists, health workers and victims of floods, cyclones, hurricanes and droughts.
Click here for film trailer
His conclusion was that short- and longer-term changes in climate are causing vast numbers of people to abandon their jobs, homes and countries to seek better lives elsewhere, or to simply survive. (Jeffrey Gettleman’s recent coverage of the Somali refugee crisis in The Times has offered some vivid and disturbing examples, although Somalia’s troubles are also inextricably linked to political turmoil.)
Mr. Nash poses a basic question: what will become of the millions of people whose lack of access to food and clean water leads them to take increasingly desperate measures? What type of strains will huge migration put on resources in more developed countries?
Will this dislocation eventually, as the retired Navy vice admiral Lee Gunn told Mr. Nash, pose a threat to Americans’ national security, too?
By focusing on the consequences of climate change rather than its scientific causes, some experts suggest that Mr. Nash succeeded in circumventing a divisive political debate over global warming and the extent to which human activity contributes to it. More >>>
Location: Cayman Islands
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)