Free Republic

Nairobi. SNIPPET: “An explosive found in a Nairobi matatu (taxi) was similar to the one used in a Kampala attack and two city bombings, a court heard on Tuesday. The object weighing 10kgs, was an improvised explosive device designed to be exploded at a target by either a suicide bomber or by remote control via a cellphone, a police officer, who presented bomb experts’ findings, said. “The device was complete with all the components of an improvised explosive device and was designed to function to maximum destruction of property and life,” the officer said. He told the court that the...

Logistics is not sexy - it is tedious and boring to most people. Logistics is also the essential component to any military operations. “Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.” Without the beans, boots, and bullets – combat operations are impossible. The Iraqi Army [IA] is organized on a modified US Army structure while the Ministry of Interior [MoI] paramilitary forces - the Federal Police [FP] and Department of Border Enforcement [DBE] are organized more on Italian Carabinarie structure. Both structures normally have support, transport, and maintenance components at each level: ----break---- The IA has built about 40 percent of its...

I love Ed Harris. Ed Harris is gorgeous. He's a brilliant actor who brings power and believability to every character he plays.So infinite is my love for the palomino-haired Harris and his swoon-inducing jaw of desire, that when he refused to stand in respect for Elia Kaza's acceptance of a Life Achievement Oscar a few years ago, I let it pass.Yes, I thought it was childish and petty for the otherwise perfect Harris to sit with his arms folded petulantly and his crystalline baby-blue eyes sternly staring daggers of condemnation at one of Hollywood's most gifted directors. And all because...

KARL ROVE'S MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION: MOIHEAR HILLARY, CHRIS MATTHEWS ET AL. by Mia T, 2.28.06 (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) BEHEARTED KARL adapted from ilovekarlrove.com graphic December 7, 1941+64 AN OPEN LETTER TO TIM ROBBINS, DAVID GEFFEN, CHRIS MATTHEWS, MAUREEN DOWD + JEANINE PIRRO RE: a not-so-modest proposal concerning hillary clinton Dear Concerned Americans, Hillary Clinton's revisionist tome notwithstanding, 'living history' begets a certain symmetry. It is in that light that I make this not-so-modest proposal on this day, exactly 64 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The context of our concern today--regardless of political affiliation--is...

The Kenyan government organised an assassination attempt in London against a senior Scotland Yard detective, according to evidence presented to a Kenyan parliamentary inquiry. John Troon handed over police documents describing how a Kenyan agent was despatched to kill him in 1991. The alleged plot was easily foiled: airport police found the would-be assassin's gun and ammunition and promptly arrested him. The detective was, in any case, out of the country at the time. According to Mr Troon, the would-be assassin was an aide of Nicholas Biwott, the most feared politician in the country at the time. The inquiry is...

Some of us went and fought and bled. Some died. Some stayed home and cried out against our fight. Some, with heads draped in hooded cloaks of shame and fear, went to Canada, most claiming disdain and loathing for that far-off war, not admitting actually succumbing to an inner fear of death or of wounding in a foreign land. We won every major battle, in the tradition of our forefathers at St Mere E’Glise, Normandy, San Juan Hill, and we left our virgin naiveté in those steaming emerald jungles of fear, or in the muddy larvae-laden waters of the lowland...

THE United States yesterday announced it was suspending its funding of Kenya’s anti- corruption measures, amid a mounting sleaze crisis in the country.The British government said it was also reviewing contributions, following the resignation of Kenya’s leading anti-corruption official. The announcement is the latest setback for the government of Mwai Kibaki as he attempts to roll back 24 years of rampant sleaze under the former regime of Daniel Arap Moi. His most senior corruption fighter, John Githongo, resigned on Monday amid mounting international criticism that Kenya was dragging its feet on reform. Yesterday, William Bellamy, the US ambassador to Kenya,...

I have been called old, jaded, a sourpuss. Far worse, I have been called French. A response is in order. A week later, do I stand by my views? Yes. If I wrote it today I wouldn't be softer, but harder.

A senior Kenyan academic who called for dramatic cuts in the powers of President Mwai Kibaki was shot dead at the weekend. Odhiambo Mbai, a political scientist and official of Kenya's constitutional convention, was murdered by gunmen who stormed into his home in Nairobi. President Mwai Kibaki Dr Mbai told colleagues three days before he died that he had received death threats and was being followed. A political scientist, he was a senior official of a conference drafting Kenya's new constitution, He had been due to unveil proposals tomorrow to transfer powers from Mr Kibaki to the new post of...

In the Liberian town of Redemption last week the bodies of the dead littered the main street. Aid workers with Médecins Sans Frontières described a smell of death hanging over the town. 'People have come from camps where the last food distribution was months ago,' said Alain Kassa. 'They have again been fleeing for six days with nothing to eat. Here in the city they won't even find the bits and pieces of food that they can gather in the bush.' Kassa was describing Liberia, but his words could just have easily been applied to the Democratic Republic of Congo,...

Baghdad hit; Powell warns Syria Coalition aircraft once again bombed Baghdad in an operation that Central Command called "historic," fighting in An Najaf and An Samana killed some 100 Iraqi troops, and the United States once again warned Syria to cease supporting Saddam Hussein or face the "consequences." The overnight bombing of Baghdad targeted the Ministry of Information with a Tomahawk Land Attack Munition, CENTCOM said. It said the hit would reduce Saddam's "command and control capabilities." "The strike enhances the security of coalition forces conducting operations across Iraq," it said. In a news release headlined "Historic Bomber Package Strikes...

International Association of Machinists Frustration boils over in slums left out of the vote James Astill Saturday December 28, 2002The GuardianPeople from the Nairobi slums who had found their names missing from the electoral roll were pleading for their right to vote yesterday when a private army entered the polling station. "We have come to stop the rigging," announced a ragged man at the head of 300 determined-looking youths in the pay of Raila Odinga, the candidate for the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (Narc) opposition in Kibera. "Do not resist." The returning officer hared off across Old Kibera primary school's...