Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

November 17, 2008 (12:43 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda A brief world news roundup for 17 November 2008.

United States & the Americas

America.gov – Leaders of 20 of the world’s largest economies vowed to reform the global financial system and take action against the economic slowdown. While they refrained from planning coordinated fiscal action, they vowed to cooperate closely as they individually pursue efforts to boost growth in their respective countries. By April 30, 2009, the date the leaders have chosen to meet again, finance ministers must compile a list of financial institutions whose collapse might imperil the global financial system.
Michael Ledeen – The real world is so frightening that I can’t imagine Hillary Clinton will be foolish enough to accept the job of secretary of state; anyone who takes that job is almost certain to fail. How can anyone believe that he or she has a good chance of dealing with:
Xinhua – The members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) began their annual forum in Lima, Peru, Sunday with the start of the two-day Concluding Senior Officials’ Meeting. Since its inception in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence among Asia-Pacific economies, APEC has become a major forum acting as the primary vehicle for promoting open trade and practical economic and technical cooperation in the region.
LA Times – The drug violence that has left about 4,000 people dead this year in Mexico is spreading deep into the United States, leaving a trail of slayings, kidnappings and other crimes in at least 195 cities as far afield as Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Honolulu, according to federal authorities.
LA Times - The turbulent wake of a large passenger plane probably caused the fatal crash of a government jet carrying Mexico’s second-highest official, Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez said Friday. A preliminary investigation found that the jet’s pilots were slow to follow tower instructions to reduce the plane’s speed and appeared to be nearly one nautical mile too close behind a Boeing 767-300 on the same flight path to Mexico City’s airport, Tellez said at a news conference.
Washington Times – Gunmen attacked a state police convoy on a main boulevard in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, seriously wounding three policemen, state prosecutors reported Saturday.
Prensa Latina - Bolivian President Evo Morales announced on Thursday that the state of siege in the department of Pando will be lifted on November 23 at the maximum. “The measure will not last forever, I understand the people’s request to extend it but we have to abide by the current regulations”, said Morales.
Prensa Latina – The National Assembly of Venezuela alerted of a campaign for incitation to assassination Friday, with calls for hatred and violence against President Hugo Chavez and high-level officials.
IRNA – Visiting Iranian Minister of Science, Research and Technology Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi, heading a delegation, held talks with Venezuelan high-ranking officials in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sunday. The visit aims to follow up implementation of the agreements which have been inked between the two countries in 2006.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Kremlin – Dmitry Medvedev will take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in Lima, Peru, on November 22-23. He will visit Brazil on November 24-26, Venezuela on November 26-27, and Cuba on November 27.
Moscow Times – The Energy Ministry said Friday that the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries will hold its Moscow summit on Dec. 23 and will agree on a draft charter on Nov. 26. The new charter will help the largely informal club morph into a more formal organization, which could resemble the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Samuel Lussac – This article aims at evaluating the geopolitical impact of the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railroad in the South Caucasus. Indeed, after the implementation of the East-West energy corridor, it will contribute to further regional cooperation between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
Voice of Russia – Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is content with the way Russian-Moldavian relations have been developing. He said during his meeting with Moldavia’s President Vladimir Voronin in Chisinau on Friday that recently the two countries have been settling all problems facing them quickly and effectively.
CRN – Annually, the Volgograd Region has 27 thousand newborns against 30 thousand abortions. In experts’ opinion, the problem is in low morals and general disregard of contraception.
RIA Novosti – A gunman fatally shot a policeman at a checkpoint in the south Russian republic of Ingushetia, and was arrested, investigators said.
Westhawk – One Soldier’s War is Arkady Babchenko’s account of his two tours of duty as a Russian soldier in Chechnya. Mr. Babchenko’s first tour came near the beginning of the First Chechen War in 1996. Mr. Babchenko was a conscript and he describes the life of daily severe beatings (the Russian army’s tradition called dedovshchina), drunken and incompetent officers, NCOs out in the villages selling military equipment to the enemy in order to pocket a few rubles, and, naturally, the mass slaughter of conscripts as Russian motorized columns blunder into one ambush after another.
Tehran Times – Iranian filmmaker Ayyub Daneshvar has been assigned by the Azerbaijan Republic to direct a documentary on the ancient cities submerged by the Caspian Sea over the years. “In ‘The Underwater City’ we rediscover the civilizations buried under the Caspian Sea. The sea has risen and fallen many times over the past thousands of years and many cities have been submerged in the process,” Daneshvar explained.

Middle East

CNN – The Iraqi Cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact that would set the terms for U.S. troops in Iraq. The agreement sets June 30, 2009, as the deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from all Iraqi cities and towns, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
Voices of Iraq – Iraq will ask the UN Security Council to cancel Chapter VII, which governs the presence of Multi-National Force (MNF) troops in Iraq, and Decree 17 of former U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer as soon as the security pact is signed, a spokesman for the Iraqi government said on Sunday.
AHN – A suicide car blast killed at least 15 people and injured 20 other people on Sunday in north of the capital Baghdad. On Saturday,acar bomb explosion killed at least 10 people and injured almost 20 others in a northern town of Iraq.
MNF Iraq – One of the Army’s largest company-sized elements made history Nov. 12 in Baghdad with a change of command and re-designation ceremony; thus taking the transformation of the XVIII Airborne Corps and its Special Troops Battalion one step closer to its final end state in 2009.
Dina Ezzat – With an unprecedented visit to Juba, south of Sudan, and an unusual press conference at the presidential headquarters with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, President Hosni Mubarak seemed to be sending a clear message this week that the political influence of Egypt is not to be underestimated.
Haaretz – An Israel Air Force strike killed four Palestinians launching mortars at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, just hours after another group of militants struck Israel in a separate rocket attack.
ynet – Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said Sunday that Israel must “stop talking and launch a personal targeted killing policy, against the Hamas government” following the renewed rocket attacks on Gaza vicinity communities and the city of Ashkelon. When Mofaz served as IDF chief of staff and defense minister, the Israeli army made a lot of use of the “targeted killing” method against senior terror activists during the second intifada, in the West Bank as well.
Xinhua – Palestinian security forces arrested 12 members of Hamas in West Bank in an ongoing crackdown against the Islamic movement, Hamas said on Sunday. The arrests, by the forces loyal to president Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, took place in the cities of Nablus, Salfeet and Hebron, a statement by Hamas said.
Daily Star – A Beirut newspaper has published documents which it says proves that the Fatah al-Islam militant group was set up and run by Syrian intelligence officers seeking to destabilize Lebanon’s anti-Syrian governing coalition. The Al-Mustaqbal daily, which is owned by the Hariri family, printed copies of statements taken by Lebanese authorities from captured Fatah al-Islam militants.
SANA – President Bashar al-Assad received on Sunday a letter from President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudanese on the bilateral relation between the two sisterly countries and the latest developments on the Sudanese arena in general and in Darfur in particular.
Elias Harfoush – Regardless of the identity of the IAEA diplomats who leaked the information about uranium traces found at the Syrian al-Kibar site, it is evident that those leaks were intended to cast doubts on the Syrian story which has from the very beginning denied the construction of a nuclear reactor in that location bombed by Israeli planes last September.
Saba – In Yemen, the penal court sentenced on Saturday an Iranian to death and other 11 Iranians and a Pakistani 25 years in jail in charge of drugs smuggling and entering Yemeni waters illegally.

Iran

Jerusalem Post – Iranian officers affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have in the past four months established intelligence cells in Lebanon, comprised of Syrian agents and Hizbullah members, whose aim is to track down and annihilate extreme Sunni armed cells, the Kuwaiti-based daily Al-Siyasa reported.
Fars – Iran and Turkey continue talks about transportation of Iranian natural gas to Europe through Turkey and of Turkmen gas to Turkey via Iran, Iran’s Oil Ministry said. Tehran announced Friday that Turkey wanted to increase the amount of natural gas purchased from Iran.
Al Arabiya – An aide to Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come under fire for attending a ceremony that involved actions deemed insulting to the Koran, a row that has given fuel to the Iranian president’s opponents before next year’s election. Esfandyar Rahim Mashaie, who survived criticism this summer for asserting that Iran is “a friend of the Israeli people”, came under renewed fire from conservatives and from religious leaders for “insulting the Koran.” At a ceremony in Tehran on Nov. 8 on foreign investment in Iran’s tourism industry, a dozen dancing girls clad in traditional clothes brought the Islamic holy book to the narrator on a tray.
IHT – Iranian newspapers are quoting Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, a top advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as saying the country has converted its financial reserves into gold. The papers did not specify how much of Iran’s estimated $120 billion in reserves would actually be converted into gold. The daily Jahan-e-Eghtesad, or Economy World, quoted Samareh on Saturday as saying the decision to buy gold was carried out on Ahmadinejad’s order.
Mehr – National Police Chief Brigadier General Esmaeil Ahmadi Moqaddam said on Sunday that every day three tons of drugs are discovered in Iran.
NCRI – Part time teachers gathered on Sunday outside mullahs’ Majlis (parliament) protesting to low pays from two provinces in the country. Teachers from the western province of Lorestan and central province of Yazd protested while carrying signs reading, “A country with treasures and teachers living below the property line.”
Payvand – Photos: ‘Security and Tranquility’ Drill in Tehran’s Azadi Square

Convoy heading out of Combat Outpost Malekashay which is located right beside the Pakistan border in eastern Afghanistan (photo by 1st Lt. Nathan Perry)

South Asia

AP – A strike by coalition troops against a bomb-making cell in eastern Afghanistan killed 10 militants, the U.S. military said Saturday. The troops were targeting several key figures in a network run by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a militant leader believed to operate out of Pakistan, the military said in a statement.
Air Force – In Afghanistan, an Air Force B-1B Lancer dropped guided bomb unit-38s onto anti-Afghan forces who were firing rocket propelled grenades at National Afghan Police near Gardez. The mission was confirmed a success by the Joint Terminal Attack Controller.
canada.com – Three Canadian soldiers narrowly escaped a booby-trap blast that seriously injured three Afghan army troops early Sunday morning. The IED went off about 10 or 12 feet from three of us Canadians,” said Master Bombardier Matt Beaupre of 2 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery of Petawawa, Ont.
UK MoD – It is with great regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that a soldier from 2nd Battalion the Royal Ghurkha Rifles was killed as a result of an explosion in the Musa Qala District of Helmand Province on 15 November.
Independent – It is thought to be the first time a soldier has died in one of the 25-ton tracked Warrior vehicles in Afghanistan. Together with the British Army’s Mastifs, they are often used as armoured buses to move soldiers to and from outposts which ring the hotspot town of Musa Qala, because they used to be considered “mine-proof”.
SWJ, Robert Downey, Lee Grubbs, Brian Malloy and Craig Wonson – How Should the U.S. Execute a Surge in Afghanistan?
Jason Burke, Prospect – The west is losing in Afghanistan in part because it misreads its Taliban opponents. Understanding who they are is the only basis for future negotiations.
McClatchy – Mullah Omar and his lieutenants crossed into Baluchistan, which abuts the southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, the heartland of the Taliban insurrection, U.S. officials said. From Baluchistan, Omar and his council are believed to direct the Taliban’s broad military and political strategies and to arrange arms and other supplies for their fighters in southern Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.
Al Jazeera – Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said he will go to “any length” to protect Mullah Omar, the fugitive leader of the anti-government Taliban, in exchange for peace.
Bakhtar – A person was killed and 12 others including of five children were injured in a suicide attack in the Central Baghlan District of Baghlan province. The incident was occurred in that district when a suicidal attacker blew him self close to caravan of German forces.
Daily Times – Political authorities suspended supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan via Torkham Border on Saturday due to security concerns on the Pak-Afghan Highway, a private TV channel reported. According to the channel, hundreds of trucks and containers had been stopped in Peshawar after the suspension of the supply on Saturday.
Daily Times – Men with long hair and flowing beards have once again made their way to Peshawar and can be seen singly or in groups of twos and threes in the city markets. The long-haired men, typical of the Taliban operating in the tribal agencies of Waziristan, Bajaur and Mohmand, had gone underground following the launching of the military operation against Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) of Mangal Bagh in late June this year.
Guardian – Khusar lies in Bajaur, a 500-square- mile jumble of valleys and hills high on Pakistan’s north-western border with Afghanistan. Few outside Pakistan had heard of Bajaur until recently. But now the fighting here – the biggest single clash of conventional forces and Islamic militants anywhere – is being watched closely around the globe. The battle of Bajaur has huge local and international implications.
Frontier Post – Twenty persons, including 17 militants, were killed in the operation by security forces against militants in twenty-five villages adjacent to provincial metropolis on Saturday. The operation is in progress in these villages, situated between Peshawar and Mohmand Agency, sources said. The compound of an important militant commander Raheel in Qilla Shah Baig area was destroyed during the operation.
Dawn – In Bajaur on Sunday, a government-backed tribal militia set fire to militant-linked homes, resulting in a clash that killed two tribal elders and four insurgents, said Jamil Khan, the No. 2 government representative in Bajaur. Security forces then shelled insurgent positions, killing six more militants, Khan added.
IMF – IMF staff and the Pakistani authorities have reached an agreement in principle on the key elements of an economic program to be supported by an SDR 5.17 billion (about US$7.6 billion) 23-month Stand-By Arrangement, subject to the approval of the IMF Executive Board.
Daily Star – Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) seized 70kg of explosives following the confessional statement of an ehsar (full time member) of the banned Islamist outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) whom they arrested Saturday at Mirpur in the city. They also seized 40kg of nitric acid, 150 cases of improvised grenades, a large quantity of bomb-making materials and equipment, and over 2,000 books on jihad raiding two houses in Mirpur and another house at Shanir Akhra in the capital.
India Defence – In a move to provide teeth to its Air Force fleet along the Indo-Pak border, India will deploy two of its air superiority Sukhoi fighter squadrons in Halwara air base in Punjab by 2011. The Indian Air Force’s (IAF) sword-arm Western Air Command (WAC) has drawn up a two-year plan and is preparing to host the Sukhoi squadrons at the Halwara fighter base near Ludhiana
Asian Tribune – Sri Lanka Army has captured Pooneryn, LTTE’s last bastion located in the Northwest coast, and has also advanced more than 7 kilometers on the Pooneryn – Paranthan B 69 road at the time of posting this news report. LTTE had been occupying Pooneryn after dislodging the main military base there in November 1993.
Colombo Page – A day after Army captured the key LTTE Tiger rebel stronghold of Pooneryn and took control of the entire northwestern coast of the country, Sri Lankan troops are now in fresh battles to capture the rebel’s administrative center of Kilinochchi.
TamilNet – The LTTE on Sunday said they thwarted another attempt to break LTTE FDL by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Ka’ndal in Mukamaalai in the Northern Front. 20 SLA soldiers were killed and at least 80 wounded in the fighting that broke out at 5:10 a.m. and lasted til 12:40 p.m., when the SLA was pushed back, according to the Northern Command of the LTTE.

Far East & Pacific

GMA News – Philippine Moro rebels shot down a US spy drone that reportedly flew inside the rebel territory, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said Friday. Mohagher Iqbal, a senior leader of the MILF, said the drone was captured by rebel forces in the hinterlands of Talayan town in the province of Maguindanao. He said the spy plane was shot down on the night of October 31 and recovered by the rebels the next day.
Philippine Daily Inquirer – A suspected leader of the Abu Sayyaf terror group was killed while another managed to escape during an encounter with government forces in Sulu Friday night, the military said. Reports reaching Armed Forces of the Philippines headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo said Faidar Hadjadi, also known as Abu Solomon, was killed while resisting arrest at a military checkpoint in Indanan town.
BBC – A senior Chinese official has welcomed the UK’s decision to recognise Beijing’s direct rule over Tibet. In a little publicised parliamentary statement on 29 October, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband gave his strong backing to the talks and also backed the Dalai Lama’s call for autonomy as a basis for agreement.
Xinhua – Chinese President Hu Jintao said Saturday that China and Russia should enhance communication and cooperation in efforts to eliminate the adverse effects of the financial crisis and maintain stability in their respective financial markets. Hu made the remarks at a bilateral meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the G-20 summit on Financial Markets and the Global Economy.
East Asia Forum – History must be a curious thing in the minds of Xiaogang villagers, Anhui province. 30 years ago, eighteen households in this village risked imprisonment by putting down their fingerprints on a secret agreement which distributed the communal land. As it turned out, this embryonic form of household responsibility system heralded the dawn of China’s economic reform.
China Observer - Through my own observations I have found that there is a fairly large number of Chinese who actively seek out a means to separate themselves from the intense pressure of their everyday lives. In some cases people actually choose to live in another world – the world of the Internet café.
Jurist – A closed court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced three top pro-democracy leaders to 65 years in prison, relatives of the leaders told AFP Saturday. Activists Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyu, and Ktay Kywe were all sentenced along with other members of the 88 Generation Students arrested for their participation in anti-junta protests last year.
Times Online – A decision by one of China’s most famous film stars to take Singaporean nationality has set off an online furore with many ardent nationalists branding her a traitor and a shame to her native country. Gong Li, the 43-year-old star of such Hollywood movies as Memoirs of a Geisha, Miami Vice and Farewell My Concubine took the oath of citizenship at the weekend along with 149 other new citizens. Her husband, the Singaporean tobacco tycoon Ooi Hoe Soeng, accompanied her. Beijing does not allow its people to hold double nationality and the star will be obliged to give up her Chinese citizenship.
The Nation – Newspapers in Thailand have been speculating where Thaksin may head after his British visa was revoked. Some Thai press reports claim Bermuda is one of the countries to have offered sanctuary to the former owner of Manchester City football club. However Bermuda’s Prime Minister Dr. Brown told The Royal Gazette newspaper yesterday that the reports were totally fabricated.

Europe

Epoch Times – MI5 have warned Britain’s cash-strapped National Health Services that dozens of ambulances–along with old police cars and fire engines past their sell-by date–are being snapped up by al-Qaeda operatives in the United Kingdom to mount suicide bomb attacks.
Mail Online – French President Nicolas Sarkozy risked getting off to a bad start with Barack Obama yesterday by siding with Russia over Washington’s missile defence system. Mr Sarkozy, who is also current EU president, added to tensions between the two powers over the plans.
FT – A device “heavier than a hand grenade” exploded in front of Kosovo’s European Union-led supervisory office. Police said the blast broke windows but caused no injuries.
Islam in Europe – German politics has its first party leader of ethnic origin. The Green Party has elected as one of its co-chairmen Cem Ozdemir, the German-born son of Turkish immigrants.
ABC – After dealing blows that left Sicily’s Cosa Nostra reeling and making inroads against Calabria’s potent ‘ndrangheta syndicate, Italy’s new war against organized crime is challenging the Camorra, the Naples regional mafia depicted in a film just released in the U.S., after the mob carried out a brutal, monthslong murder spree that included gunning down six Ghanaian immigrants in one swoop.
RFERL – The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child categorically prohibits involving children in war operations. But despite international conventions, minors continue to be used as soldiers in military conflicts around the world. Europe is no exception, thousands of child soldiers fought during the Balkan wars between 1991 and 1995.
Garowe – The heads of the two main Muslim news and networking Internet sites in France and Spain hosted a meeting Friday in Madrid to discuss the creation of a European-wide Islamic media network. “We hope to create a better understanding of the Muslim faith and provide information on Islam at a European level,” the director of French Muslim news and networking site SaphirNews, Mohammed Colin, told reporters.
Jason Vaughn, Diplomatic Courier – Such a re-start to discussions with Russia is in some ways inevitable. The issue of energy for European countries is a very important concern and it cannot be sidestepped indefinitely. Yet, this re-start highlights the question as to whether Russia has been suitably “punished” and what that means exactly as a further issue. Just a few months ago, many of the EU members led by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, were saying—at least publicly—that Russia’s use of force could not stand in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whatever the cause may be for initiating the conflict.

Africa

Hindustan Times – Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has admitted that Islamic insurgents, who have been making major gains, are now in control of most of Somalia. Insurgent group al-Shabaab this week advanced to the edge of the capital Mogadishu and has seized important towns such as the strategic port Kismayo in recent months.
VOA – The South Korean foreign ministry says pirates seized the Chemstar Venus and its crew of five South Koreans and 18 Filipinos off the coast of Somalia late Saturday. The ship is owned by a Japanese company. The hijacking came shortly after pirates freed another Japanese-owned chemical tanker, the Stolt Valor, on Saturday. Officials say a ransom was paid to the pirates, who seized the ship in September.
Press TV – In Somalia, Abdulahi Gafow Mohamoud, the head of the Aden Adde International airport, was attacked inside his own home as armed men used explosives and gunfire to force their way in, killing six guards an injuring another 14 people in the attack.
Baybak – Islamist insurgents whipped 32 people in Somalia on Saturday after arresting them for taking part in a traditional dance in rebel-held territory south of the capital Mogadishu. Islamist spokesman Shaikh Abdirahim Isse Adow said those arrested had been warned several times against dancing.
Javno – Chad and Sudan plan to deploy troops at observation points along their common border in a joint bid to prevent rebel incursions that have often damaged their relations, African officials said. More than 3,000 European Union troops are already deployed in the border area of eastern Chad. The EU force mission does not include engaging Sudanese or Chadian rebels unless these attack them or civilians directly.
David Milband – Following the Prime Minister’s meeting with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon on Thursday, Mark Malloch-Brown flies to the DRC today, arriving in the capital Kinshasa on Monday (then to Goma and Kigali). Britain remains fully engaged on the Congo crisis. Our humanitarian aid is in country. We support the UN Secretary General’s recommendation for extra UN troops.
Bloomberg – Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president trying to broker peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said rebel leader Laurent Nkunda asked for cease-fire talks with the government. Talks would be held in Nairobi, Obasanjo said at a press conference in the regional capital of Goma today, without giving a time frame.
NY Times – The exploitation of a Congo tin mine is emblematic of the failure to right this sprawling African nation after many years of tyranny and war, and of the deadly role the country’s immense natural wealth has played in its misery. Despite a costly effort to unite the nation’s many militias into a single national army, plus billions of dollars spent on international peacekeepers and an election in 2006 that brought democracy to Congo for the first time in four decades, the government is unable or unwilling to force these fighters — who wear government army uniforms and collect government paychecks — to leave the mountain.
This Day – Dare-devil militants in the early hours of yesterday invaded Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, but met stiff resistance in soldiers stationed in the nearby Bayelsa State Government House, who killed two of the militants after fierce fighting that forced the militants to beat a retreat.

battle-sight zeroing at Kandahar Air Field

Staff Sgt. Todd Erler, training chief for Headquarters Company, Combat Logistics Battalion-3, coaches shooters on the firing line during battle-sight zeroing at Kandahar Air Field, Nov. 14. CLB-3 is part of the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Afghanistan whose mission is to train and mentor the Afghan national police and conduct counterinsurgency operations against enemy insurgents. (photo by Lance Cpl. Ryan Smith)

The Global War

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad – This has been a year of significant achievement for which the Iraqi government, the Iraqi people, and the international community can take pride. Yet, a lot of work remains to be done. We remain concerned by the flow of foreign fighters and lethal aid into Iraq. Syria remains the primary gateway for foreign terrorists moving into Iraq. Al Qaeda in Iraq remains a significant threat, as do Iranian surrogate militants and JAM militia forces. Al Qaeda in Iraq’s use of person-borne improvised explosive devices and increasing shift toward female suicide bombers remain a particular challenge.
CDI – America’s Defense Meltdown; The vast majority, perhaps even all, of Congress, the general officer corps of the armed forces, top management of American defense manufacturers, prominent members of Washington’s think-tank community and nationally recognized “defense journalists” will hate this book. They will likely also urge that it be ignored by both parties in Congress and especially by the new president and his incoming national security team. It is not just that following the recommendations of this book will mean the cancellation of numerous failing, unaffordable and ineffective defense programs, as well as the jobs, and more importantly careers, those programs enable. (h/t D-N-I)
US Navy – The six ships of the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group concluded military operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR) Nov. 14. The more than 6,000 Sailors assigned to the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group departed its homeport of San Diego May 19. Now in the U.S. 3rd Fleet Area of Responsibility, the ships of CSG-7 are scheduled to return to their homeport of San Diego later this month.
Times Online – A spy at the heart of Nato may have passed secrets on the US missile shield and cyber-defence to Russian Intelligence, it has emerged. Several investigation teams from both the EU and Nato, under the supervision of a US officer, have flown to the Estonian capital Tallinn to assess the scope of what is being seen as the most serious case of espionage against Nato since the end of the Cold War.
Jakarta Post – The United States will withdraw about 20 Apache attack helicopters from South Korea for redeployment in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, the U.S. military said Sunday.
George Packer – I wrote about David Kilcullen two years ago, in a piece called “Knowing the Enemy.” Few experts understand counterinsurgency and counterterrorism better than this former Australian army officer and anthropology Ph.D, who has advised the American, British, and Australian governments. This week, Kilcullen agreed to do an e-mail Q. & A. on Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he’s spent a lot of time, and where the most pressing foreign crisis awaits the new Administration.
IMINT and Analysis – The image above depicts one of the rarities in satellite imagery: capturing combat aircraft in flight. In this case, two B-1Bs can be seen, in the lower left and upper right portions of the image. The B-1Bs are likely on approach to nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base

Sights & Sounds

ABC (AU) – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is on his way back to Australia after a weekend meeting with G20 leaders in Washington. After discussing the global financial crisis, there’s been general agreement on the need for fiscal stimulus to boost economic growth, the summit leaders haven’t been precise about how much they’ll spend.