Posted on 08/07/2006 3:43:15 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
[russian mafia]
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-8-2000-397.asp
Columbia: Drug Smugglers Up the Ante
For those waging the war on drugs, the stakes have just been raised, and recent events in Colombia offer a frightening view of the future.
The smuggling of illicit drugs across international borders, as well as the detection and eradication of such smuggling operations, has long been fodder for reporters and politicians alike. But the startling developments outside Bogota, the capital of Colombia, indicate that smugglers have just upped the ante in the game. Found recently in a cow pasture high in the Andes was a submarine outfitted for the transport of cocaine and allegedly designed by a Russian engineer. The 100-foot sub is more than 11 feet in diameter and its design is reported to be beyond the current capabilities of even the Colombian navy.
Smugglers have long developed methods for secretly transporting illegal drugs, and have even used high-priced modified Boeing 727s that allow them to escape radar detection. Less sophisticated methods of smuggling illicit drugs include hollowing out the heels of shoes, using false-bottomed suitcases, and packing the drugs with other, legitimate exports. Although smugglers have created many ingenious methods for transporting drugs, none have come close to the development of the high-priced submarine.
The raid that led to the discovery of the sub also turned up documents that included names of Russian and American origin, and it is expected that individuals from both countries are involved. Colombia, the leading exporter of cocaine, produces nearly 520 tons of the illegal drug each year. A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official noted that the Russian mafia has become increasingly involved with drug trafficking to Europe.
By Buzzle Staff and Agencies
Published: 9/8/2000
Sri Lanka strike 'hits orphanage'
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have accused government forces of bombing an orphanage, killing 61 schoolgirls and injuring 150 other children.
The rebels said the air strike took place in the rebel-controlled northern district of Mullaitivu.
The government has denied the attack, saying the air force had targeted an LTTE training camp.
Hours later, a bomb explosion in the capital Colombo killed seven people and injured 17 others.
The Tamil Tigers' military spokesman, Irasaiah Ilanthirayan, told the BBC they were not responsible for the blast.
There has been fierce fighting between government forces and Tamil Tigers in the north and east in recent days.
'A lie'
Military officials said the rebels had infiltrated the Jaffna peninsula and hit residential areas in their attacks on the army, and that the air force was attacking to support ground troops fighting rebel advances in the area.
"It is a lie to say that schoolchildren were targeted," government spokesperson Chandrapala Liyanage told the AFP news agency.
"The air force had bombed a LTTE training centre. We don't know if they had moved child soldiers there."
The Tamil Tigers said the victims, who were aged between 15 and 18, were attending a first aid seminar.
Thorfinnur Omarsson, spokesman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, told AFP it had received a complaint from the rebels and a team was on its way to investigate.
Junko Mitano, of the United Nations children's agency Unicef, told the BBC it had confirmation children had been killed in Mullaitivu.
She declined to give further details, saying a statement would be issued on Tuesday.
The government has also denied rebel accusations that its forces killed at least 15 people in an attack on a church in the predominantly Tamil village of Allaipiddy on an island just west of Jaffna.
'Target'
HAVE YOUR SAY
Being a young Tamil, I don't know very much about the war, but it makes me very sad and angry
Niv, UK
In the Colombo blast, a powerful mine exploded near the official residence of President Mahinda Rajapakse as a convoy, including a Pakistani embassy vehicle, went past.
The Pakistani ambassador, Bashir Wali Mohamed, was returning from a flag-raising ceremony for Pakistan's Independence Day when the explosion happened. He was not injured.
Mr Mohamed told the BBC's Urdu Service he believed he was "surely the target".
He said he thought this was because of the Pakistani government's support of the Sri Lankan government in its war against terrorism.
The Tigers have ruled out peace talks with the government while heavy fighting continues between the two sides.
Aid agencies say a 100,000 people have been affected by the latest fighting - 60,000 people have fled their homes and 30,000 are trapped in the east.
Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula has seen more heavy shelling and artillery fire as government forces and the Tigers battle for control of key areas.
The recent flare-up in fighting has alarmed Sri Lanka's key foreign donors - the US, Japan, the European Union and Norway - who have called for an immediate end to the hostilities, which they said was "seriously unravelling" the 2002 ceasefire agreement.
The ceasefire aimed to halt more than two decades of war between the government and the rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland for the country's minority Tamil people in the north and east.
It remains officially in effect, despite months of violence.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4789739.stm
Published: 2006/08/14 14:37:12 GMT
© BBC MMVI
10 am ABC news, on radio.
Alaskan Airline, plane coming from Mexico, grounded at
LAX.
Suspicious package, may be a duffle bag.
Passengers have been removed and the bomb squad is now putting on their special suits.
Spanish police find 'drugs' sub
A submarine which police say may have been used for cocaine smuggling has been found floating off Spain's north-western coast.
It was spotted by a member of the public in an inlet along the rugged coastline on Sunday.
No drugs were found on board the vessel, but it is now being dismantled at a shipyard in Moana, near Vigo.
It is reported to be about 10m (33ft) long, made by amateurs from basic materials, not by professionals.
It is an example of how narco-traffickers are advancing in technology
Jaime Gonzalez, journalist
Jaime Gonzalez, a journalist in the north-western city of Santiago de Compostela, told the BBC World Service's Europe Today programme that the region was well-known as a gateway for drugs into Europe.
Technical problem
While submarines are not known to have been used for drug trafficking in Spain, they have been used for this purpose in Colombia.
"It could take drugs from a ship in the ocean and take them to the coast without being seen," Mr Gonzalez said.
"There has been nothing like this before in Spain. It is an example of how narco-traffickers are advancing in technology."
Mr Gonzalez said it was thought that the submarine could have been built in southern Spain, in Andalucia, and brought to the north-western region of Galicia by road.
He said one theory was that the vessel was undergoing tests when a technical problem arose.
The owners may have been planning to return to it, he added, if the police had not got there first.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4792075.stm
Published: 2006/08/14 16:44:31 GMT
© BBC MMVI
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/1384
China builds a mock Taiwanese air base
Home » blogs » Carolyn O'Hara
Fri, 08/11/2006 - 12:44pm.
ChinamockupChina has built a mock Taiwanese air base to practice bombing runs. The faux base located in China's northwestern Gansu Province is a mockup of Taiwan's Ching Chuan Kang air base. East-Asia-Intel.com (sorry, subscription only) reports that satellite photos of the base reveal bomb craters from aerial raids. It was about this time last year that Russia and China jointly staged a mock amphibious assault that many in Taiwan believed was designed with their island in mind. It could be harmless target practice, but then doesn't practice make perfect?
Carolyn O'Hara |
http://people.cas.sc.edu/rosati/article.globalization.naim.fp.03.htm
Five Wars of Globalization
The illegal trade in drugs, arms, intellectual property, people, and money is booming. Like the war on terrorism, the fight to control these illicit markets pits governments against agile, stateless, and resourceful networks empowered by globalization. Governments will continue to lose these wars until they adopt new strategies to deal with a larger, unprecedented struggle that now shapes the world as much as confrontations between nation-states once did.
By Moisés Naím
The persistence of al Qaeda underscores how hard it is for governments to stamp out stateless, decentralized networks that move freely, quickly, and stealthily across national borders to engage in terror. The intense media coverage devoted to the war on terrorism, however, obscures five other similar global wars that pit governments against agile, well-financed networks of highly dedicated individuals. These are the fights against the illegal international trade in drugs, arms, intellectual property, people, and money. Religious zeal or political goals drive terrorists, but the promise of enormous financial gain motivates those who battle governments in these five wars. Tragically, profit is no less a motivator for murder, mayhem, and global insecurity than religious fanaticism.
In one form or another, governments have been fighting these five wars for centuries. And losing them. Indeed, thanks to the changes spurred by globalization over the last decade, their losing streak has become even more pronounced. To be sure, nation-states have benefited from the information revolution, stronger political and economic linkages, and the shrinking importance of geographic distance. Unfortunately, criminal networks have benefited even more. Never fettered by the niceties of sovereignty, they are now increasingly free of geographic constraints. Moreover, globalization has not only expanded illegal markets and boosted the size and the resources of criminal networks, it has also imposed more burdens on governments: Tighter public budgets, decentralization, privatization, deregulation, and a more open environment for international trade and investment all make the task of fighting global criminals more difficult. Governments are made up of cumbersome bureaucracies that generally cooperate with difficulty, but drug traffickers, arms dealers, alien smugglers, counterfeiters, and money launderers have refined networking to a high science, entering into complex and improbable strategic alliances that span cultures and continents.
Defeating these foes may prove impossible. But the first steps to reversing their recent dramatic gains must be to recognize the fundamental similarities among the five wars and to treat these conflicts not as law enforcement problems but as a new global trend that shapes the world as much as confrontations between nation-states did in the past. Customs officials, police officers, lawyers, and judges alone will never win these wars. Governments must recruit and deploy more spies, soldiers, diplomats, and economists who understand how to use incentives and regulations to steer markets away from bad social outcomes. But changing the skill set of government combatants alone will not end these wars. Their doctrines and institutions also need a major overhaul.
THE FIVE WARS
Pick up any newspaper anywhere in the world, any day, and you will find news about illegal migrants, drug busts, smuggled weapons, laundered money, or counterfeit goods. The global nature of these five wars was unimaginable just a decade ago. The resources—financial, human, institutional, technological—deployed by the combatants have reached unfathomable orders of magnitude. So have the numbers of victims. The tactics and tricks of both sides boggle the mind. Yet if you cut through the fog of daily headlines and orchestrated photo ops, one inescapable truth emerges: The world’s governments are fighting a qualitatively new phenomenon with obsolete tools, inadequate laws, inefficient bureaucratic arrangements, and ineffective strategies. Not surprisingly, the evidence shows that governments are losing.
Drugs
The best known of the five wars is, of course, the war on drugs. In 1999, the United Nations’ “Human Development Report” calculated the annual trade in illicit drugs at $400 billion, roughly the size of the Spanish economy and about 8 percent of world trade. Many countries are reporting an increase in drug use. Feeding this habit is a global supply chain that uses everything from passenger jets that can carry shipments of cocaine worth $500 million in a single trip to custom-built submarines that ply the waters between Colombia and Puerto Rico. To foil eavesdroppers, drug smugglers use “cloned” cell phones and broadband radio receivers while also relying on complex financial structures that blend legitimate and illegitimate enterprises with elaborate fronts and structures of cross-ownership.
The United States spends between $35 billion and $40 billion each year on the war on drugs; most of this money is spent on interdiction and intelligence. But the creativity and boldness of drug cartels has routinely outstripped steady increases in government resources. Responding to tighter security at the U.S.-Mexican border, drug smugglers built a tunnel to move tons of drugs and billions of dollars in cash until authorities discovered it in March 2002. Over the last decade, the success of the Bolivian and Peruvian governments in eradicating coca plantations has shifted production to Colombia. Now, the U.S.-supported Plan Colombia is displacing coca production and processing labs back to other Andean countries. Despite the heroic efforts of these Andean countries and the massive financial and technical support of the United States, the total acreage of coca plantations in Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia has increased in the last decade from 206,200 hectares in 1991 to 210,939 in 2001. Between 1990 and 2000, according to economist Jeff DeSimone, the median price of a gram of cocaine in the United States fell from $152 to $112.
Even when top leaders of drug cartels are captured or killed, former rivals take their place. Authorities have acknowledged, for example, that the recent arrest of Benjamin Arellano Felix, accused of running Mexico’s most ruthless drug cartel, has done little to stop the flow of drugs to the United States. As Arellano said in a recent interview from jail, “They talk about a war against the Arellano brothers. They haven’t won. I’m here, and nothing has changed.”
Arms Trafficking
Drugs and arms often go together. In 1999, the Peruvian military parachuted 10,000 ak-47s to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla group closely allied to drug growers and traffickers. The group purchased the weapons in Jordan. Most of the roughly 80 million ak-47s in circulation today are in the wrong hands. According to the United Nations, only 18 million (or about 3 percent) of the 550 million small arms and light weapons in circulation today are used by government, military, or police forces. Illict trade accounts for almost 20 percent of the total small arms trade and generates more than $1 billion a year. Small arms helped fuel 46 of the 49 largest conflicts of the last decade and in 2001 were estimated to be responsible for 1,000 deaths a day; more than 80 percent of those victims were women and children.
Small arms are just a small part of the problem. The illegal market for munitions encompasses top-of-the-line tanks, radar systems that detect Stealth aircraft, and the makings of the deadliest weapons of mass destruction. The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed more than a dozen cases of smuggled nuclear-weapons-usable material, and hundreds more cases have been reported and investigated over the last decade. The actual supply of stolen nuclear-, biological-, or chemical-weapons materials and technology may still be small. But the potential demand is strong and growing from both would-be nuclear powers and terrorists. Constrained supply and increasing demand cause prices to rise and create enormous incentives for illegal activities. More than one fifth of the 120,000 workers in Russia’s former “nuclear cities”—where more than half of all employees earn less than $50 a month—say they would be willing to work in the military complex of another country.
Governments have been largely ineffective in curbing either supply or demand. In recent years, two countries, Pakistan and India, joined the declared nuclear power club. A U.N. arms embargo failed to prevent the reported sale to Iraq of jet fighter engine parts from Yugoslavia and the Kolchuga anti-Stealth radar system from Ukraine. Multilateral efforts to curb the manufacture and distribution of weapons are faltering, not least because some powers are unwilling to accept curbs on their own activities. In 2001, for example, the United States blocked a legally binding global treaty to control small arms in part because it worried about restrictions on its own citizens’ rights to own guns. In the absence of effective international legislation and enforcement, the laws of economics dictate the sale of more weapons at cheaper prices: In 1986, an ak-47 in Kolowa, Kenya, cost 15 cows. Today, it costs just four. FP_SIDEBAR1
Intellectual Property
In 2001, two days after recording the voice track of a movie in Hollywood, actor Dennis Hopper was in Shanghai where a street vendor sold him an excellent pirated copy of the movie with his voice already on it. “I don’t know how they got my voice into the country before I got here,” he wondered. Hopper’s experience is one tiny slice of an illicit trade that cost the United States an estimated $9.4 billion in 2001. The piracy rate of business software in Japan and France is 40 percent, in Greece and South Korea it is about 60 percent, and in Germany and Britain it hovers around 30 percent. Forty percent of Procter & Gamble shampoos and 60 percent of Honda motorbikes sold in China in 2001 were pirated. Up to 50 percent of medical drugs in Nigeria and Thailand are bootleg copies. This problem is not limited to consumer products: Italian makers of industrial valves worry that their $2 billion a year export market is eroded by counterfeit Chinese valves sold in world markets at prices that are 40 percent cheaper.
The drivers of this bootlegging boom are complex. Technology is obviously boosting both the demand and the supply of illegally copied products. Users of Napster, the now defunct Internet company that allowed anyone, anywhere to download and reproduce copyrighted music for free, grew from zero to 20 million in just one year. Some 500,000 film files are traded daily through file-sharing services such as Kazaa and Morpheus; and in late 2002, some 900 million music files could be downloaded for free on the Internet—that is, almost two and a half times more files than those available when Napster reached its peak in February 2001.
Global marketing and branding are also playing a part, as more people are attracted to products bearing a well-known brand like Prada or Cartier. And thanks to the rapid growth and integration into the global economy of countries, such as China, with weak central governments and ineffective laws, producing and exporting near perfect knockoffs are both less expensive and less risky. In the words of the ceo of one of the best known Swiss watchmakers: “We now compete with a product manufactured by Chinese prisoners. The business is run by the Chinese military, their families and friends, using roughly the same machines we have, which they purchased at the same industrial fairs we go to. The way we have rationalized this problem is by assuming that their customers and ours are different. The person that buys a pirated copy of one of our $5,000 watches for less than $100 is not a client we are losing. Perhaps it is a future client that some day will want to own the real thing instead of a fake. We may be wrong and we do spend money to fight the piracy of our products. But given that our efforts do not seem to protect us much, we close our eyes and hope for the better.” This posture stands in contrast to that of companies that sell cheaper products such as garments, music, or videos, whose revenues are directly affected by piracy.
Governments have attempted to protect intellectual property rights through various means, most notably the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Several other organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Customs Union, and Interpol are also involved. Yet the large and growing volume of this trade, or a simple stroll in the streets of Manhattan or Madrid, show that governments are far from winning this fight.
Alien Smuggling
The man or woman who sells a bogus Hermes scarf or a Rolex watch in the streets of Milan is likely to be an illegal alien. Just as likely, he or she was transported across several continents by a trafficking network allied with another network that specializes in the illegal copying, manufacturing, and distributing of high-end, brand-name products.
Alien smuggling is a $7 billion a year enterprise and according to the United Nations is the fastest growing business of organized crime. Roughly 500,000 people enter the United States illegally each year—about the same number as illegally enter the European Union, and part of the approximately 150 million who live outside their countries of origin. Many of these backdoor travelers are voluntary migrants who pay smugglers up to $35,000, the top-dollar fee for passage from China to New York. Others, instead, are trafficked—that is, bought and sold internationally—as commodities. The U.S. Congressional Research Service reckons that each year between 1 million and 2 million people are trafficked across borders, the majority of whom are women and children. A woman can be “bought” in Timisoara, Romania, for between $50 and $200 and “resold” in Western Europe for 10 times that price. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that cross-border smugglers in Central and Western Africa enslave 200,000 children a year. Traffickers initially tempt victims with job offers or, in the case of children, with offers of adoption in wealthier countries, and then keep the victims in subservience through physical violence, debt bondage, passport confiscation, and threats of arrest, deportation, or violence against their families back home.
Governments everywhere are enacting tougher immigration laws and devoting more time, money, and technology to fight the flow of illegal aliens. But the plight of the United Kingdom’s government illustrates how tough that fight is. The British government throws money at the problem, plans to use the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force to intercept illegal immigrants, and imposes large fines on truck drivers who (generally unwittingly) transport stowaways. Still, 42,000 of the 50,000 refugees who have passed through the Sangatte camp (a main entry point for illegal immigration to the United Kingdom) over the last three years have made it to Britain. At current rates, it will take 43 years for Britain to clear its asylum backlog. And that country is an island. Continental nations such as Spain, Italy, or the United States face an even greater challenge as immigration pressures overwhelm their ability to control the inflow of illegal aliens.
Money Laundering
The Cayman Islands has a population of 36,000. It also has more than 2,200 mutual funds, 500 insurance companies, 60,000 businesses, and 600 banks and trust companies with almost $800 billion in assets. Not surprisingly, it figures prominently in any discussion of money laundering. So does the United States, several of whose major banks have been caught up in investigations of money laundering, tax evasion, and fraud. Few, if any, countries can claim to be free of the practice of helping individuals and companies hide funds from governments, creditors, business partners, or even family members, including the proceeds of tax evasion, gambling, and other crimes. Estimates of the volume of global money laundering range between 2 and 5 percent of the world’s annual gross national product, or between $800 billion and $2 trillion.
Smuggling money, gold coins, and other valuables is an ancient trade. Yet in the last two decades, new political and economic trends coincided with technological changes to make this ancient trade easier, cheaper, and less risky. Political changes led to the deregulation of financial markets that now facilitate cross-border money transfers, and technological changes made distance less of a factor and money less “physical.” Suitcases full of banknotes are still a key tool for money launderers, but computers, the Internet, and complex financial schemes that combine legal and illegal practices and institutions are more common. The sophistication of technology, the complex web of financial institutions that crisscross the globe, and the ease with which “dirty” funds can be electronically morphed into legitimate assets make the regulation of international flows of money a daunting task. In Russia, for example, it is estimated that by the mid-1990s organized crime groups had set up 700 legal and financial institutions to launder their money.
Faced with this growing tide, governments have stepped up their efforts to clamp down on rogue international banking, tax havens, and money laundering. The imminent, large-scale introduction of e-money—cards with microchips that can store large amounts of money and thus can be easily transported outside regular channels or simply exchanged among individuals—will only magnify this challenge.
WHY GOVERNMENT CAN'T WIN
The fundamental changes that have given the five wars new intensity over the last decade are likely to persist. Technology will continue to spread widely; criminal networks will be able to exploit these technologies more quickly than governments that must cope with tight budgets, bureaucracies, media scrutiny, and electorates. International trade will continue to grow, providing more cover for the expansion of illicit trade. International migration will likewise grow, with much the same effect, offering ethnically based gangs an ever growing supply of recruits and victims. The spread of democracy may also help criminal cartels, which can manipulate weak public institutions by corrupting police officers or tempting politicians with offers of cash for their increasingly expensive election campaigns. And ironically, even the spread of international law—with its growing web of embargoes, sanctions, and conventions—will offer criminals new opportunities for providing forbidden goods to those on the wrong side of the international community.
These changes may affect each of the five wars in different ways, but these conflicts will continue to share four common characteristics:
They are not bound by geography.
Some forms of crime have always had an international component: The Mafia was born in Sicily and exported to the United States, and smuggling has always been by definition international. But the five wars are truly global. Where is the theater or front line of the war on drugs? Is it Colombia or Miami? Myanmar (Burma) or Milan? Where are the battles against money launderers being fought? In Nauru or in London? Is China the main theater in the war against the infringement of intellectual property, or are the trenches of that war on the Internet?
They defy traditional notions of sovereignty.
Al Qaeda’s members have passports and nationalities—and often more than one—but they are truly stateless. Their allegiance is to their cause, not to any nation. The same is also true of the criminal networks engaged in the five wars. The same, however, is patently not true of government employees—police officers, customs agents, and judges—who fight them. This asymmetry is a crippling disadvantage for governments waging these wars. Highly paid, hypermotivated, and resource-rich combatants on one side of the wars (the criminal gangs) can seek refuge in and take advantage of national borders, but combatants of the other side (the governments) have fewer resources and are hampered by traditional notions of sovereignty. A former senior cia official reported that international criminal gangs are able to move people, money, and weapons globally faster than he can move resources inside his own agency, let alone worldwide. Coordination and information sharing among government agencies in different countries has certainly improved, especially after September 11. Yet these tactics fall short of what is needed to combat agile organizations that can exploit every nook and cranny of an evolving but imperfect body of international law and multilateral treaties.
They pit governments against market forces.
In each of the five wars, one or more government bureaucracies fight to contain the disparate, uncoordinated actions of thousands of independent, stateless organizations. These groups are motivated by large profits obtained by exploiting international price differentials, an unsatisfied demand, or the cost advantages produced by theft. Hourly wages for a Chinese cook are far higher in Manhattan than in Fujian. A gram of cocaine in Kansas City is 17,000 percent more expensive than in Bogotá. Fake Italian valves are 40 percent cheaper because counterfeiters don’t have to cover the costs of developing the product. A well-funded guerrilla group will pay anything to get the weapons it needs. In each of these five wars, the incentives to successfully overcome government-imposed limits to trade are simply enormous.
They pit bureaucracies against networks.
The same network that smuggles East European women to Berlin may be involved in distributing opium there. The proceeds of the latter fund the purchase of counterfeit Bulgari watches made in China and often sold on the streets of Manhattan by illegal African immigrants. Colombian drug cartels make deals with Ukrainian arms traffickers, while Wall Street brokers controlled by the U.S.-based Mafia have been known to front for Russian money launderers. These highly decentralized groups and individuals are bound by strong ties of loyalty and common purpose and organized around semiautonomous clusters or “nodes” capable of operating swiftly and flexibly. John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, two of the best known experts on these types of organizations, observe that networks often lack central leadership, command, or headquarters, thus “no precise heart or head that can be targeted. The network as a whole (but not necessarily each node) has little to no hierarchy; there may be multiple leaders . . . . Thus the [organization’s] design may sometimes appear acephalous (headless), and at other times polycephalous (Hydra-headed).” Typically, governments respond to these challenges by forming interagency task forces or creating new bureaucracies. Consider the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security in the United States, which encompasses 22 former federal agencies and their 170,000 employees and is responsible for, among other things, fighting the war on drugs.
RETHINKING THE PROBLEM
Governments may never be able to completely eradicate the kind of international trade involved in the five wars. But they can and should do better. There are at least four areas where efforts can yield better ideas on how to tackle the problems posed by these wars:
Develop more flexible notions of sovereignty.
Governments need to recognize that restricting the scope of multilateral action for the sake of protecting their sovereignty is often a moot point. Their sovereignty is compromised daily, not by nation-states but by stateless networks that break laws and cross borders in pursuit of trade. In May 1999, for example, the Venezuelan government denied U.S. planes authorization to fly over Venezuelan territory to monitor air routes commonly used by narcotraffickers. Venezuelan authorities placed more importance on the symbolic value of asserting sovereignty over air space than on the fact that drug traffickers’ planes regularly violate Venezuelan territory. Without new forms of codifying and “managing” sovereignty, governments will continue to face a large disadvantage while fighting the five wars.
Strengthen existing multilateral institutions.
The global nature of these wars means no government, regardless of its economic, political, or military power, will make much progress acting alone. If this seems obvious, then why does Interpol, the multilateral agency in charge of fighting international crime, have a staff of 384, only 112 of whom are police officers, and an annual budget of $28 million, less than the price of some boats or planes used by drug traffickers? Similarly, Europol, Europe’s Interpol equivalent, has a staff of 240 and a budget of $51 million.
One reason Interpol is poorly funded and staffed is because its 181 member governments don’t trust each other. Many assume, and perhaps rightly so, that the criminal networks they are fighting have penetrated the police departments of other countries and that sharing information with such compromised officials would not be prudent. Others fear today’s allies will become tomorrow’s enemies. Still others face legal impediments to sharing intelligence with fellow nation-states or have intelligence services and law enforcement agencies with organizational cultures that make effective collaboration almost impossible. Progress will only be made if the world’s governments unite behind stronger, more effective multilateral organizations.
Devise new mechanisms and institutions.
These five wars stretch and even render obsolete many of the existing institutions, legal frameworks, military doctrines, weapons systems, and law enforcement techniques on which governments have relied for years. Analysts need to rethink the concept of war “fronts” defined by geography and the definition of “combatants” according to the Geneva Convention. The functions of intelligence agents, soldiers, police officers, customs agents, or immigration officers need rethinking and adaptation to the new realities. Policymakers also need to reconsider the notion that ownership is essentially a physical reality and not a “virtual” one or that only sovereign nations can issue money when thinking about ways to fight the five wars.
Move from repression to regulation.
Beating market forces is next to impossible. In some cases, this reality may force governments to move from repressing the market to regulating it. In others, creating market incentives may be better than using bureaucracies to curb the excesses of these markets. Technology can often accomplish more than government policies can. For example, powerful encryption techniques can better protect software or cds from being copied in Ukraine than would making the country enforce patents and copyrights and trademarks.
In all of the five wars, government agencies fight against networks motivated by the enormous profit opportunities created by other government agencies. In all cases, these profits can be traced to some form of government intervention that creates a major imbalance between demand and supply and makes prices and profit margins skyrocket. In some cases, these government interventions are often justified and it would be imprudent to eliminate them—governments can’t simply walk away from the fight against trafficking in heroin, human beings, or weapons of mass destruction. But society can better deal with other segments of these kinds of illegal trade through regulation, not prohibition. Policymakers must focus on opportunities where market regulation can ameliorate problems that have defied approaches based on prohibition and armed interdiction of international trade.
Ultimately, governments, politicians, and voters need to realize that the way in which the world is conducting these five wars is doomed to fail—not for lack of effort, resources, or political will but because the collective thinking that guides government strategies in the five wars is rooted in wrong ideas, false assumptions, and obsolete institutions. Recognizing that governments have no chance of winning unless they change the ways they wage these wars is an indispensable first step in the search for solutions.
Moisés Naím is editor of FOREIGN POLICY.
Found a link to go with the LAX threat
Flight Evacuated At LAX After Reports Of Suspicious Item
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=4460216
http://www.navlog.org/terror_subs.html
Small Submarines Increasingly Appeal to Terrorists, Criminals
(c) K.B. Sherman, 2003
The Manila Times is reporting that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front plans to buy a number of midget submarines to be used in fighting the government, according to a military spokesman. MILF is a communist terrorist group, according to the Philippine Government.
In a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, Armed Forces spokesman Col Essel Soriano was reported to have presented to the media documents which he said were found in the Buliok complex, an MILF stronghold in Central Mindanao that was overrun by the government troops in February of this year. Among the documents reportedly were receipts for weapons amounting to $2,196,250, as well as a report from the MILF political affairs chief, Ghadzali Jaafar, dated June, 1999, mentioning a mini-submarine as an available weapons system. MILF spokesman Ustadz Eid Kabalu subsequently reportedly denied the existence of the documents, accusing the military of fabricating them to justify past and present offensives against the MILF.
However, a brochure describing the midget submarine was found. It purports to describe a 45-foot long submarine with the capacity to carry, of six persons, including two divers. The submarine "…is designed for special operations and [has] a good tactical range and a low noise level," according to the brochure. Missions for such a sub were said to include mounting sabotage operations and landing personnel and arms along beaches.
The idea certainly isn't new. The first vessel to be sunk at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 was a Japanese midget submarine, which subsequently washed-up on the beach. In 1960 a second such sub was located and raised off Hawaii. In 1996, after two prowlers were found along a highway in Kangnung City, South Korea, a stranded North Korean midget submarine was discovered grounded on rocks at the nearby seashore. The 350-ton submarine was subsequently determined to have been built in North Korea in 1994 to carry 30 commandos and crew. South Korean troops subsequently captured a North Korean commando and collected a total cargo of 4,380 items, including a North Korean-made anti-tank rocket launcher, a number of M-16 and AK rifles, and reconnaissance maps. The same day, 11 of the North Korean infiltrators were found dead near Mt. Chonghak, shot by their own colleagues, and an additional 13 North Koreans died in gun battles with South Korean troops.
The Group Terrorist Watch, Inc., claims that in 1997, Al Qaeda used an ex-Soviet Kilo-class submarine in an attempt to smuggle nuclear weapons materials and people on the west coast of the US. However, this group also claims that one of its members secretly documented these operations from his observation post near his house trailer overlooking the coast, so the reader may wish to apply the requisite skepticism.
In June, 1998, the energetic North Koreans were at it again. A 70-ton, 60-foot Yugo-class North Korean submarine was spotted some 12 miles off Sokcho on the South's east coast after it had become entangled in a fishing net. Submerged submarines are detected almost exclusively acoustically, and unlike the Soviet nuclear subs of the cold war, modern diesel-electric submarines are extremely difficult to detect, localize, and track. The same advantage of nearly unlimited range attendant to nuclear subs comes with the heavy burden of noise omitted by all the gearwork, turbines, high-speed propellers, cooling pumps, and associated machinery carried by a nuclear-powered vessel. For shorter trips into and out of shallow water, a diesel-electric sub is just fine, and when running submerged on batteries, is essentially silent and virtually impossible to detect using passive acoustic measures. Countering them involves using difficult and resource-intensive measures such as active acoustics or throwing enough ships and nets at the water to snag one of these stealthy boats as it creeps by. In any case, countering such small subs over any length of time for any but the most critical situations is simply not feasible. This gives the bad guys a huge advantage. Modern maritime patrol aircraft can counter such subs, but again, it becomes a matter of resources and cost-effectiveness. Even the P-3 crews of the US Navy – certainly the world leader in ASW – now spend only a fraction of their time training for ASW; there are just too many new missions for which to train, such as over-the-horizon targeting and standoff reconnaissance of high interest targets. For nations without the resources of the US, the threat posed by such subs simply overwhelms their military and police.
Acquiring such small vessels should not be dismissed with a wave of the hand. Rosoboronexport, for one, will happily sell you a “Small Class” submarine. The 90-foot, P-130 model carries ten people, can dive to 200 feet, has a range of 2,000 miles, and for when the law comes calling, carries six 40mm torpedoes. For the upwardly-mobile terrorist they will sell you a 210-foot P-750, which not only is bigger, faster, and farther-ranging, but can also lay mines to really discourage those Coast Guard cutters. For the more cost-conscious terrorist or drug smuggler, there is a flood of old Soviet Union boats for sale. Only their high costs of operation and maintenance and the large crew required keep them rusting at the docks in Russia.
In 2002, Columbian police and the US DEA were stupefied to find a 100-foot submarine under construction at the hideout of drug dealers. It was being built with the assistance of ex-KGB officers and the Russian Mafia. The vessel would have been able to smuggle 10 tons of narcotics at a time, well away from the prying eyes of the US Coast Guard. In 1995, the Cali cartel unsuccessfully tried to buy a larger, used Russian submarine, it was subsequently discovered. It seems the Cali cartel had been supplying cocaine to Moscow and St. Petersburg through a Russian gang.
The use of such boats can only increase during the decade; it is very unlikely that only the Philippine and South Korean governments should be concerned. How the world’s governments react to the threat posed will make a fascinating story.
The “Small Class” Submarine from Rosoboronexport may meet all of your terrorist needs. See dealer for details!
1
When A Cowardly West Calls Terrorists "Freedom Fighters"
Where we're headed.
Return to The Nav Log 1
http://www.navlog.org/aztlan.html
Well written, set in 2007.....................granny
Interesting site, but I am tired.....
http://www.navlog.org/Syria_gas.html
North Korea Gives Syria Gas
(c) K.B. Sherman, 2002
The World Tribune recently reported that North Korea is helping Syria develop VX nerve gas warheads for its Scud-C ballistic missiles. US defense sources are quoted as saying that this project could be completed by the end of 2002. Syria reportedly already has the capability to deliver Sarin gas with its Scud-B. In tests first detected in 1998, Syria was working to develop the technology for proper dispersion of a gas agent once delivered by a ballistic missile. The latest tests involve the Scud-C, although a VX warhead has also been tested aboard the Scud-B. The Scud-C extends to 300 miles the 180-mile payload range of the Scud-B.
Sarin -- already successfully deployed with Syrian missiles -- is a colorless and odorless gas that is 26 times more deadly than cyanide gas. VX -- O-ethyl S-(2-diisopropylaminoethyl) methylphosphonothioate -- was first synthesized by the British in 1954 and is even worse news. VX is a persistent nerve agent that inactivates the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in humans and other mammals. VX acts on people like "bug spray" does on insects -- fast, nasty, essentially 100% lethal. Nerve agents are particularly useful in desert and other open, isolated locations, where they can be dropped on enemy troops without overly endangering nearby "friendlies" (not that that's a big problem for Syria).
While North Korea is believed to have supplied Syria with both technology and equipment for the VX program, Syria is believed to have subsequently closed its program to all foreigners. 1
Norwegian LTTE agent building submarine in Phuket
Christy Reginold Lawrence was arrested the 9th April 2000 by the Phuket Marine Police. He was driving his 17 meter long speedboat loaded with food and petrol heading for international waters. When the police accompanied him to his shipyard Seacraft Co. Ltd. they found a half built mini submarine. The hull was 3,6 meters and the tail, which has a rudder and designed to hold a propeller was 1,6 meter long Total length 5,2 meters, capable of accommodating 2-3 persons.
The Thai police also discovered sophisticated sonar and GPS systems, satellite phones, combat training videos in Tamil, LTTE calendars and uniforms. Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Thailand Karunatilaka Amunagama said the submarine was similar to one sized by Sri Lankan Government Forces from the LTTE in Jaffna in the early 1990’s.
Lawrence was released on bail put up by the Norwegian Government[7].
The LTTE agent Christy Reginold Lawrence was found guilty by the The Phuket Criminal Court. The Court imposed a fine of 6000 Bath on Christmas day 2000 and deported him to Norway.
http://www.svik.org/thai.htm
Flight evacuated at LAX after reports of suspicious item
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200608/INT20060814a.html
UK Muslims Link Terror Threat With Foreign Policy, Drawing Backlash
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
August 14, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - British Muslim representatives reacted to news of a
foiled
plot to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft with what has become a standard
response
-- blaming their government's foreign policies. But this time the
maneuver
sparked a backlash.
In an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair released Saturday,
Muslim
leaders said Britain's policies -- specifically relating to Iraq and
the
Mideast crisis -- were providing "ammunition to extremists who threaten
us
all."
The six Muslim lawmakers and representatives of 38 Muslim organizations
said
they believed "current British government policy risks putting
civilians at
increased risk both in the U.K. and abroad."
Although the broad range of signatories to the letter is unusual,
Muslim
organizations in Britain frequently have responded to terrorism or
threats
of terrorism in the West by drawing attention to the government's
involvement in the Iraq war or its support for U.S. Mideast policies.
A minister responsible for a new government department tasked with
promoting
"community cohesion and equality," Ruth Kelly, was due to meet with
senior
Islamic leaders and clerics Monday.
News reports said Kelly was expected to criticize community
representatives
for not doing enough to combat extremism among Muslims.
The Muslims' letter to Blair brought a strong response from government
ministers and other politicians. Home Secretary John Reid, whose
portfolio
covers law and order, called it "a dreadful misjudgment."
"No government worth its salt would be supported by the British people
if
our foreign policy or any other aspect of policy was being dictated by
terrorists," he told the BBC. "We decide things in this country by
democracy, not under the threat of terrorism."
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett called attempting to draw a link
between
government policy and the threat of terrorism was the "gravest possible
error."
"This is part of a distorted view of the world, a distorted view of
life.
Let's put the blame where it belongs: with people who wantonly want to
take
innocent lives."
Beckett's subordinate, Foreign Officer Minister Kim Howells, warned
against
trying to rationalize terrorism.
"I have no doubt that there are many issues which incite people to
loathe
government policies - but not to strap explosives to themselves and go
out
and murder innocent people," he said.
"There is no way of rationalizing that. I think it is very, very
dangerous
when people who call themselves community leaders make some assumption
that
somehow that there's a rational connection between these two things."
A spokesman for Blair said it should be remembered that terrorism
affecting
the West had been happening long before "our decision to support
democracy
in Afghanistan and Iraq."
Criticism also came from the senior Conservatives, with former party
leader
Michael Howard saying the letter had itself given "ammunition" to
extremists.
Howard said it was "completely misconceived to suggest that we should
change
our foreign policy because it might cause some people to take up arms
against us. That's a form of blackmail."
A former Scotland Yard police commissioner, John Stevens, weighed in
with a
hard-hitting column in a Sunday mass-readership tabloid, asking when
the
Muslim community in Britain would "accept an absolute, undeniable,
total
truth: that Islamic terrorism is their problem?"
"They own it. And it is their duty to face it and eradicate it."
Stevens, who retired last year, urged Muslims to "stop the denial,
endless
fudging and constant wailing that somehow it is everyone else's problem
and,
if Islamic terrorism exists at all, they are somehow the main victims."
Senior Muslim leaders among the signatories defended the letter over
the
weekend, saying it enjoyed widespread support in their community.
Separately, Britain's national Muslim News publication issued a
statement
expressing alarm at President Bush's remark last week, in response to
news
of the airline plot, about the U.S. being "at war with Islamic fascists
who
will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our
nation."
The comment "implies that America is at war against Islam and Muslims,"
said
editor Ahmed Versi. "Bush is evoking that aspects of Islam are fascist
and
provoking more hostilities towards Muslims."
He urged Blair to use his influence with the president "to temper
Bush's
language and prove that he is not a mere mouthpiece [of Washington] as
many
have claimed."
'Threat remains severe'
Meanwhile, the Home Office said early Monday that the threat level had
been
lowered from "critical" to "severe," meaning that security agencies
believed
the threat was still highly likely, but no longer imminent.
Reid said in a statement the decision was taken because police believed
that
the main suspects in the alleged plot to blow up airliners had been
arrested
last week. Twenty-three Muslims, described as British-born citizens of
Pakistani descent, remain in custody after one suspect was released
without
charge.
Reid stressed that the threat had not gone away.
"The public needs to know that there may be other people out there who
may
be planning an attack against the UK. That is why there are a number of
other Security Service operations underway."
The decision to downgrade the threat level also brought a slight easing
of
restrictions imposed last Thursday on airline passengers, although all
liquids remain banned from hand luggage, apart from prescription
medicines
and baby milk and food, which will be verified as authentic.
The restrictions have caused severe disruption at airports in Britain,
with
spin-off effects in many other parts of the world.
The alleged plot involved plans to smuggle liquid bomb ingredients onto
a
number of flights headed for the U.S., making up the explosive mixture
in
the air, and then causing explosions that would down the planes.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/2
00608/INT20060814b.html
UN Resolution Leaves Hizballah Intact
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
August 14, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - The U.N. resolution designed to end the fighting in the
Middle East does not mandate a stabilization force going into southern
Lebanon either to disarm Hizballah, or to help the Lebanese government
to
disarm it. The omission raises concerns that the deal may fail to
achieve a
long-term peace.
Friday's unanimous Security Council vote on resolution 1701 paved the
way
for a cease-fire, which officially came into effect early Monday.
It calls for the Israeli military to pull back over the international
border
as a beefed-up, 15,000-strong UNIFIL force deploys in the area south of
the
Litani River, together with 15,000 Lebanese Army troops.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the painstakingly negotiated
measure "a good first step," stressing there was a lot more to do.
The Israeli cabinet endorsed the resolution, which government ministers
characterized as a victory for Israel. The Lebanese cabinet --
including the
two Hizballah ministers -- also approved the move on Saturday, but on
Sunday
canceled a crucial meeting meant to discuss deployment of the army to
the
south.
The resolution authorizes the international force to help the Lebanese
Army
establish a specific area between the border and the Litani River free
of
any weapons or armed personnel other than those belonging to the army
or
UNIFIL.
But it does not mandate UNIFIL to help the army to disarm or dismantle
Hizballah.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, whose government was earlier
approached by the U.S. about contributing troops to an international
force,
made no attempt to hide his misgiving about the resolution.
"Unless there is a clear determination and a clear authority to disarm
Hizballah, this is not going to work," he told reporters in Sydney on
Sunday.
"I have real and serious reservations about the effectiveness and the
lasting character of this resolution.
"I hope I'm wrong, but if you actually look at the language of it, it's
quite loose in relation to the disarming of Hizballah and that is the
long-term problem."
Howard wanted the resolution to authorize the international
stabilization
force to disarm Hizballah, or to work with the Lebanese government and
army
to disarm Hizballah.
"Unless Hizballah is disarmed, there is not going to be a settlement, a
lasting settlement."
He confirmed that his concerns about the inadequacies in the resolution
would be one element in the government's decision as to whether to
contribute troops or not.
Dodging disarmament
A widely-acknowledged weakness in an earlier U.N. resolution - 1559 of
2004
- was the fact it did not expressly call for Hizballah to give up its
weapons, but rather for "all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias" to
disarm.
The loophole was exploited by Hizballah, which said it was a national
resistance movement, not a militia, and so was exempt. The Lebanese
Army and
some members of the Lebanese government, including the foreign
minister,
agreed.
Resolution 1701, again, does not call for Hizballah -- by name -- to be
disarmed.
It does, however, call for implementation of earlier resolutions "that
require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that ...
there
will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the
Lebanese
state" -- without saying exactly how and when this will happen.
In a point-by-point analysis of the resolution published on a
University of
Pittsburgh school of law website, Northwestern University law professor
Anthony D'Amato mulled the possibility that Hizballah and the Lebanese
government had done a secret deal in recent days.
"What group in its right mind would consent to a resolution that calls
for
its disarmament to be likely followed by arrests and prosecutions for
war
crimes?" he asked.
"The only reasonably conceivable reason Hizballah has agreed to this
resolution is that it has been assured, by secret agreement with the
government of Lebanon, that its members will not be disarmed, arrested,
or
prosecuted.
"My best guess is that the agreement calls for members of Hizballah to
be
smoothly integrated into the armed forces of the Lebanese government."
This would enable Hizballah to dodge disarmament and simply change
their
uniforms, D'Amato said.
Hizballah is already a junior partner in the Lebanese government. Its
integration into an army that already has a majority of Shi'ites and
whose
commanding officer is sympathetic to Hizballah could further blur the
distinction.
This could have ramifications in other aspects of the U.N. resolution,
particularly a provision that seeks to impose an embargo on weapons
entering
the country.
The embargo is subject to Lebanese government authorization, and
D'Amato
pointed out that if the government wanted to import missiles or other
weapons from Iran or Syria, UNIFIL was not empowered under the
resolution to
do anything about it.
The notion of amalgamating Hizballah and the national army has been
raised
before, not least by the U.N. itself.
"Our goal is to integrate Hizballah into the Lebanese Army," Terje-Roed
Larsen, Annan's special envoy for Lebanon, said in Beirut last March.
In a weekend editorial, the Beirut Daily Star hailed the opportunity
provided by the resolution for Lebanon to strengthen its army, adding
that
"the best strategy would be one where Hizballah's arms and expertise
were
institutionalized within the Lebanese Army."
Writing shortly before the resolution was passed, Henri Barkey, a
Mideast
specialist at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania argued, that if the
terrorist group was not disarmed as a result of this crisis, the
Hizballah
model -- "a well-supplied and trained militia" -- could well be
emulated
elsewhere.
"The Hizballah model can easily be exported to other failed or
semi-failed
states, ranging from Somalia to Sri Lanka, Iraq and Colombia and
perhaps
even to Pakistan one day," he said.
"All you need is an external patron willing to invest resources just as
Iran
has in this case, and a supportive population base."
Barkey said Hamas and the Medhi Army -- Moqtada al-Sadr's Shi'ite
militia in
Iraq -- had already modeled itself along Hizballah lines.
The U.S. could not afford to see a proliferation of Hizballah-like
organizations deciding the fate of nations, he said. Its disarmament
was
critical for the international community.
[unknown url]
Hezbollah declares 'historic victory'
Associated Press
Monday, August 14, 2006
By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer
Hours after a U.N.-imposed cease-fire halted the monthlong Mideast
conflict, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah declared that his
guerrillas had achieved a "strategic, historic victory" over Israel. Israel's
prime minister, however, maintained the offensive eliminated the "state
within a state" run by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese civilians jammed onto roads to stream back to war-ravaged
areas Monday after a the cease-fire halted the fighting that claimed more
than 900 lives.
For the first time in a month, no rockets were fired into northern
Israel, but few Israelis who fled the war were seen returning and Israel's
government advised them to stay away for now.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah "came out victorious in a war in which big
Arab armies were defeated (before)."
He also said now was not the time to debate the disarmament of his
guerrilla fighters.
Nasrallah, speaking on the day a cease-fire took effect - ending 34
days of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel - called Monday "a great
day."
"We are today before a strategic, historic victory, without
exaggeration," he said in a taped speech on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV.
Nasrallah said the massive destruction inflicted by Israel was an
expression of its "failure and impotency." And he promised Hezbollah would
help the Lebanese people rebuild.
"The enemy destroyed thousands of houses in the south, the Bekaa and
the southern suburbs," Nasrallah said.
Israeli soldiers reported killing six Hezbollah fighters in four
skirmishes in southern Lebanon after the guns fell silent, highlighting the
tensions that could unravel the peace plan.
Lebanese, Israeli and U.N. officers met on the border to discuss the
withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the deployment of
the Lebanese army in the region, U.N. spokesman Milos Strugar said.
The meeting, the first involving a Lebanese army officer and a
counterpart from Israel since Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2000,
marked the first step in the process of military disengagement as demanded
by a U.N. Security Council resolution.
The fighting persisted until the last minutes before the cease-fire
took effect Monday morning, with Israel destroying an antenna for
Hezbollah's TV station and Hezbollah guerrillas clashing with Israeli troops
near the southern city of Tyre and the border village of Kfar Kila.
Israeli warplanes struck a Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon and
a Palestinian refugee camp in the south, killing two people, and
Israeli artillery pounded targets across the border through the night.
After the cease-fire took effect, lines of cars - some loaded with
mattresses and luggage - snaked slowly around bomb craters and ruined
bridges as residents began heading south to find out what is left of their
homes and businesses.
Humanitarian groups also sent convoys of food, water and medical
supplies into the south, but the clogged roads slowed the effort. U.N.
officials said 24 U.N. trucks took more than five hours to reach the port of
Tyre from Sidon, a trip that normally takes 45 minutes.
Israel had not lifted its threat to destroy any vehicle on most
southern roads, a ban designed to keep arms from getting to Hezbollah
fighters, but there were no signs it was being enforced.
Capt. Jacob Dallal, a military spokesman, said the Israeli army was
urging Lebanese civilians to stay out of the south until Lebanese troops
and U.N. peacekeepers moved in to oversee the cease-fire.
"There are lots of Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. For their own
safety, we advise them (civilians) not to go," Dallal said.
But Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said at midafternoon that
aside from the isolated skirmishes with Hezbollah, the cease-fire was
holding and could have implications for future relations with Israel's
neighbors.
In some places in the south, the rubble was still smoldering from a
barrage of Israeli airstrikes just before the cease-fire took effect at 8
a.m. (1 a.m. EDT).
"I just want to find my home," said Ahmad Maana, who went back to
Kafra, about five miles from the Israeli border, where whole sections of the
town were flattened.
In Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, people wrapped
their faces with scarves as wind kicked up dust from the wreckage left by
Israeli bombardments. Ahmed al-Zein poked through the ruins of his
shop.
"This was the most beautiful street in the neighborhood," he said. "Now
it's like an earthquake zone."
There were no reports of Israeli strikes on cars - a sign Israel did
not want to risk rekindling the conflict. But at least one child was
killed and 15 people were wounded by ordnance that detonated as they
returned to their homes in the south, security officials said.
The rush to return came despite a standoff that threatened to keep the
cease-fire from taking root. Israeli forces remain in Lebanon, and
Nasrallah said the militia would consider them legitimate targets until
they leave.
In his speech, Nasrallah also promised to help the Lebanese rebuild.
Still, the truce ushered in a calm that the border region had not seen
for more than a month.
Stores that had been closed for weeks began to reopen in Haifa,
Israel's third largest city and a frequent target of Hezbollah rockets, and a
few people returned to the beaches.
In Kiryat Shemona, where more than half the population fled during the
war, streets were mostly empty but traffic lights winked on again. The
few grocery stores that braved more than 700 rockets on the town were
still the only places for food, with restaurants and cafes shut.
Residents stirred from their bomb shelters, but there was no influx of
returning refugees.
"People are still scared," Haim Biton, 42, said, predicting things
would not get back to normal soon. "You don't know what's going to happen."
"The city is still in a coma," said Shoshi Bar-Sheshet, the deputy
manager of a mortgage bank. Getting back to normal "doesn't happen
overnight," she said.
The next step in the peace effort - sending in a peacekeeping mission -
appeared days away.
A Lebanese Cabinet minister told Europe-1 radio in France that Lebanese
soldiers could move into the southern part of the country as early as
Wednesday. In Paris, the French foreign ministry said a U.N.
peacekeeping force should be mobilized "as quickly as possible."
The U.N. plan calls for a joint Lebanese-international force to move
south of the Litani River, about 18 miles from the Israeli border, and
stand as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah militiamen.
"The Lebanese army is readying itself along the Litani to cross the
river in 48 to 72 hours," said Lebanese Communications Minister Marwan
Hamade.
A United Nations force that now has 2,000 observers in south Lebanon is
due to be boosted to 15,000 soldiers, and Lebanon's army is to send in
a 15,000-man contingent.
France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia,
have signaled willingness to contribute troops to the peacekeeping
force, but consultations are needed on the force's makeup and mandate.
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Italy's troops could be ready
within two weeks.
The French commander of the current U.N. force, Maj. Gen. Alain
Pellegrini, said additional troops are needed quickly because the situation
remains fragile. The region is "not safe from a provocation, or a stray
act, that could undermine everything," he told The Associated Press.
Officials said Israeli troops would begin pulling out as soon as the
Lebanese and international troops start deploying to the area. But it
appeared Israeli forces were staying put for now. Some exhausted soldiers
left early Monday and were being replaced by fresh troops.
Israel also would maintain its air and sea blockade of Lebanon to
prevent arms from reaching Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli army officials
said.
The Israeli army reported scattered skirmishes with Hezbollah
militiamen.
Officials said four militia fighters were killed in two clashes near
the town of Hadatha when armed men approached Israeli troops three hours
after the cease-fire began. Later clashes occurred near the towns of
Farun and Shama, with one guerrilla killed in each, officials said.
"They were very close, they were armed, and they did pose a danger to
the troops," said Dallal, the military spokesman. "We're going to shoot
anybody who poses an imminent threat to the troops."
Both Hezbollah and Israel claimed they came out ahead in the conflict.
Hezbollah distributed leaflets congratulating Lebanon on its "big
victory" and thanking citizens for their patience during the fighting, which
began July 12 when guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and
captured two others in a cross-border raid.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israel's parliament that the offensive
eliminated the "state within a state" run by Hezbollah and restored
Lebanon's sovereignty in the south. Peretz, the defense minister, said the
war opened a window for negotiations with Lebanon and renewed talks
with Palestinians.
But many Israelis were upset by the high casualties during 34 days of
fighting, and Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the opposition Likud Party,
told lawmakers there were many failures in the war. Olmert acknowledged
there were "deficiencies" in the way the war was conducted.
"We will have to review ourselves in all the battles," Olmert said. "We
won't sweep things under the carpet."
Lebanon said nearly 791 people were killed in the fighting. Israel said
116 soldiers and 39 civilians died in combat or from Hezbollah rockets.
___
Associated Press writers Arthur Max in Jerusalem and Zeina Karam in
Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
[unknown url]
What a childish adolescent!
Nasrallah declares victory for Hezbollah
Associated Press
Monday, August 14, 2006
By LAUREN THAYER, Associated Press Writer
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah declared Monday that his
guerrillas achieved a "strategic, historic victory" against Israel.
Nasrallah, speaking on the day a cease-fire took effect - ending 34
days of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel - called Monday "a great
day."
"We are today before a strategic, historic victory, without
exaggeration," the leader of the Shiite militant group said in a taped speech on
Hezbollah's al-Manar TV.
Nasrallah also promised Hezbollah would help the Lebanese people
rebuild.
"The enemy destroyed thousands of houses in the south, the Bekaa and
the southern suburbs," he said.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Oh, ya'll are hiding over here :)
Olmert vows to hunt down Hizbullah leaders.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday vowed to relentlessly hunt down Hizbullah leaders despite the truce enforced earlier in the day in the Lebanon conflict and said the war had changed the face of the Middle East.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/201910
>>>>{I knew the proof would come someday, for all the googling that i have done, they have found an empty on in Spain, it did not have people or drugs.
Never doubted you on that! ;-)
August 14, 2006 Anti-Terrorism News
(Update) Iraq - Blasts kill 47 in Shiite area of Baghdad
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060814/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=Ah9eY3vZCIMbUWpKuwr6uPALewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--
11 Taliban killed in Afghan clash
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4789677.stm
Bomb blast at barber shop in Pakistan's southwest wounds 3 people
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/August/subcontinent_August540.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=
Pakistan: Terror ringleader admits al-Qaeda link
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=280706&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Hezbollah distributes its own leaflets - proclaiming victory over
Israel
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060814/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_hezbollah_leaflets;_ylt=As7m.Ap7zSDTrNUtWPlJtx4LewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--
Lebanon will not force Hizbullah to withdraw from Southern Lebanon
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525867035&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Michigan) Three face terror charges after 1,000 cell phones seized -
Arraigned on Saturday and Believed to Have Been Targeting a Michigan
Bridge
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/13/michigan.arrests/index.html
Britain and US downgrade threat levels - of UK to US flights to
"Orange"
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/August/theworld_August498.xml§ion=theworld
(British Terrorism Plot) USA-UK Split Over When To Act - UK Wanted
Terrorists To Go Through with "Dry Run"
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.330427684&par=0
(UK) Terror police target 70 'plots' - involving over 100 suspected
Islamic extremists right now
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=BP5JOFKFCNUGFQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2006/08/14/nterror14.xml
(British Terror Plot) Baby bottle 'used as bomb' - to be used for
liquid explosive on airline bome - British husband and wife planned to take
six-month-old baby on a mid-air suicide mission - Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25,
and his 23-year-old wife Cossor
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20115941-2,00.html
(British Terror Plot) 22 suspects questioned about terror plot - UK
warns risk of another attack still remains high
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060813/ap_on_re_eu/britain_terror_plot_121;_ylt=AqZMPuFOhd9ScrVAGhG.ZI0Tv5UB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
(British Terrorism Plot) Hunt for chemistry student in British
mass-terror plot - al-Qaida recruit with expertise in creating liquid
explosives
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51511
Britain warns citizens terrorism threats persist
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060814-124913-4039r.htm
(UK) 'Double link' from air terror plot to 7/7 bombers
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=400458&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=
(UK) Commentary - They are in denial over terrorism
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1071-2311743,00.html
Plot Shows Rise of Islamist Extremism in Europe
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/13/D8JFNBDG0.html
Flight Bound for New York Turned Around After Cell Phone Rings
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208228,00.html
TSA Eases Some Carry-On Baggage Rules
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TERROR_PLOT_SECURITY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
US to ease flight rules: Chertoff
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060813/pl_nm/security_usa_dc_1;_ylt=AvaYA8FTJn97O7Wkpe52HEETv5UB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
DHS scrapped flight-list plan as transatlantic threat grew -- Advanced
database necessary to target high-risk passengers still eludes Customs
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51510
Bomb blast, gun-attack kill 2, injures 14 in Thai South
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/14/eng20060814_292772.html
Bomb exploded in Colombo – seven suspected to be killed
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/1538
Imad Mughniyeh: Hezbollah's Phantom
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=5964
Commentary: (UK) Integration into British society will not stop Muslim
anger
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310599,00.html
Commentary: (UK) Just whose side is Pakistan really on? London Times
reports "Pakistan is still in denial"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310567,00.html
Commentary: The Problem with 9/11 Movies in USA
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/08/the_problem_with_911_movies_in.php
Thanks for the link.
Did you catch the mini submarine articles, they are in this area and end of last page.
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