I have been writing some quick posts about Christmas movies. Click here for most inappropriate Christmas Clip to show in church and unintentionally creepiest Christmas movie.

Guess I am not done because I saw American Carol on cable last night. Turns out David Zucker of Airplane! and Naked Gun fame directed a comedy lampooning Michael Moore based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

The movie is  a disaster. It failed at the box office–losing thirteen million dollars– and Rotten Tomatoes gives it a whoppin’ 13% rating.

 So bad.  So unfunny.  Yeah, I’m a big Michael Moore fan but i can laugh at anything.  This movie has no laughs, just mean spiritedness and a Bill O’Reilly cameo .

In the movie Michael Malone (read Michael Moore) is visited by three ghosts after Michael treats his Persian Gulf bound nephew poorly and starts a campaign to end July 4th celebrations.  Get it? Like AChristmas Carol but instead of Christmas we are talking July 4th and patriotism. 

One of those ghosts is George Patton.  In one scene, Michael Malone asks “Who are these people?”  The ghost of Patton responds “they’re not people, they’re the ACLU!”  Hardy Har Har.

What the hell was David Zucker thinking directing this movie?  Yeah, I’m sure money is tight but really?  This garbage?  And what the hell is Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper doing in this thing?  Yeah you are conversative but shouldn’t art come first?   And then you got to feel sorry for Kevin Farley–Chris’ brother.  He gets stuck playing the Michael Moore character.  It is a hard thing to watch.  And Unfunny.

I think we all have times when we wish we could get a do-over. We wish we hadn’t made that faux pas at work, we wish we’d chosen differently in romance, or maybe we just wish we’d thought of that witty comment a few minutes sooner.

It occurred to me the other day that every time we have one of those thoughts, it’s at a different moment in our lives. That means that every moment is one in which we could make a change. No, really: Every moment, even this one, is one in which we could change our lives.

Of course, we have to want to change, but if we do, isn’t it wonderful that it’s never too late? I wanted to share that in this holiday season, before we make our New Years resolutions. Why wait? Be the change you want to see in the world.

US Nobel Peace Prize Laureate President Barack Obama has signed the order for a recent military strike on Yemen in which scores of civilians, including children, have been killed, a report says.

Upon the orders of Obama, the military warplanes on Thursday blanketed two camps in the North of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, claiming there were “an imminent attack against a US asset was being planned,” ABC News quoted anonymous administration officials as saying on Friday.

The US air raids were then followed by a Yemeni ground forces incursion.

The attacks led to the death of around 120 people of whom many were civilians including children, the report quoted Yemeni opposition as saying.

Obama also contacted Yemen’s President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, after the blitz in order to “congratulate” him on his efforts against ‘al-Qaeda,’ the US news outlet quoted White House officials as telling reporters earlier.

The latest development comes in the wake of recently intensified attacks on the country’s Shia Houthi fighters which has brought about a dire humanitarian situation in northern Yemen.

So far, the US officials have categorically denied any direct involvement in the air strikes on Houthi fighters, alleging they have only targeted growing al-Qaeda training camps, mostly located in southern parts of the Persian Gulf state. Yemen’s Houthi fighters however insist US fighter jets have been bombing their region, claiming the lives of civilians in their air raids.

The reports of the US military intervention in Yemen come as Saudi Arabia has also been lending full support to the Yemeni government’s crackdown on Yemen’s Houthi minority.

Yemen’s Shia minority have recently slammed foreign military intervention in Yemen and the United Nations‘ apathy on the humanitarian situation and the “siege on civilians in northern Yemen.”

International aid agencies and some UN bodies including United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have voiced concern over the dire condition of the Yemeni civilians who have become the main victims of the conflict in the country.

The United Nations, which according to its charter is set up “to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace,” has failed to adopt any concrete measures to help end the bloody war.

If the conflict between Israel, US, and Iran heats up in 2010, the price of oil could skyrocket.  Currently oil is selling for $72.78 per barrel.  Oil peaked in the Summer of 2008 selling for more than $147 in July 2008.  I am not a financial planner, but oil could be the investment of the year in 2010. 

Prediction:  I prefer not to make predictions, but my bet is that oil will sell for close to $150 a barrel by December 2010.

Oil may be on the rise due to international conflict with Iran.

Tras un periodo de relativa calma Irán vuelve a tensar la cuerda con Occidente. La televisión estatal iraní ha anunciado hoy que el régimen de los ayatolás ha lanzado un nuevo misil capaz de impactar en Israel o las bases estadounidenses en el Golfo Pérsico. La prueba, según la misma fuente, ha sido un “éxito”. Se trata de un misil Sejil 2, de tecnología avanzada y con un alcance de 2.000 kilómetros, que puede recorrer una distancia mayor que el Shahab 3.

Irán anunciaba a principios de noviembre que no cederá su uranio para que sea procesado en el exterior como habían propuesto Estados Unidos, Francia y Rusia. Gran parte de la comunidad internacional, con EE UU e Israel a la cabeza, acusan al régimen de Mahmud Ahmanideyad de ocultar, bajo su programa civil, otro de naturaleza clandestina y aplicación militar cuyo objetivo sería adquirir armas atómicas.

…..

Click on the link to read the article

via Irán insiste en su desafío con la prueba de un nuevo misil de medio alcance · ELPAÍS.com.

“Iranian navy focuses on asymmetric tactics in Gulf, Hormuz area”
November 23, 2009
     A report by the US Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) stresses the importance of Iran’s ability to block the Strait of Hormuz and cut off almost 30% of the world’s oil supply. The report outlines the history, strategies and capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, which is mainly equipped with older and larger vessels, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, which is more politically powerful and focuses on smaller vessels to maneuver within the Persian Gulf area. The report concludes that Iran’s naval strategy is based on access denial and asymmetric warfare aimed at deterring attacks and damaging the political will of its stronger enemies (Office of Naval Intelligence).
     A previous analysis by Stratfor argued that Iran’s “real nuclear option” was its capacity to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz (Stratfor). The ONI report states that Iran, which likely has at least 2,000 mines, first implemented its asymmetric naval doctrine in the Iran-Iraq War, when it limited foreign shipping to a narrow lane in the Persian Gulf and mined sea-lanes away from its own coast.
Office of Naval Intelligence | Stratfor

Iraq: Suicide Bombers Can’t Find Work

December 5, 2009:  Terrorist violence is down, and the attacks that are being made are using smaller and less sophisticated bombs. The terrorist groups are not doing very well. In the north, where the bombings were the worst over the last year, efforts to dry up terrorist funding (from sources in Syria and Jordan, as well as local scams, like stealing oil from pipelines and trucking it out of the country) have succeeded. The gangs that provided the bomb makers and other technical help, are now out of work. Many of these guys have turned (or, in some cases, returned) to crime. Extortion, kidnapping and burglary are up sharply. Police are arresting men who had previously been terrorism suspects.  Increased security along the Syrian border has kept out most of the terrorist volunteers (commonly used as suicide bombers). Those that are already in Iraq, finding no one to set them up for a glorious suicide bombing attack, are going home, or trying to get to Afghanistan (where there is still a demand for their skill set.)

Things have become so quiet that the parks are packed and the rivers and lakes are full of pleasure boats again. For the first time in years, outdoor movie theaters are operating. There will still be more terrorist bombings, but there is a widespread believe that the Sunni Arab terror supporters outside the country have lost heart, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars spent to support a six year terror campaign that failed. Those terrorism supporters who are still willing to provide cash, are being urged to direct their charity towards Afghanistan or Somalia, where the odds of success are better. But donors, who are largely from the Persian Gulf area, don’t like the idea of admitting defeat in their own neighborhood. Meanwhile, back in Iraq, many Sunni Arabs believe that they will eventually regain control of the country, with the help of Iraqi exiles in Syria and Jordan, and fellow Sunni zealots in Arabia.

December 3, 2009: In the northern city of Tikrit, a suicide bomber killed a crack counter-terrorism commander (police Lt. Col. Ahmad al-Fahal), and four other people. Fahal had a formidable reputation, and was believed responsible for deaths of nearly 200 Sunni Arab terrorists, and the arrest of many more. Such targeted assassinations are typical of al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab groups. But Fahal, and his American allies, have been more successful in their own campaign against terrorist leadership.

December 1, 2009: November was the least violent month in Iraq since the 2003 overthrow of the Sunni Arab dictatorship. There were 122 terrorist deaths in November (88 civilians, 22 policeman and 12 soldiers). In addition, two American troops died in combat last month.  If you include victims of ordinary crime, the Iraqi deaths just about double. With terrorism on the skids, police are concentrating more on the dozens of major criminal gangs (many of whom switched between terrorism and more mundane thuggery, depending which paid the most.) In October, there were 410 terrorist deaths. This is a big drop from 2006-7, when most months saw at least 2,000 (and sometimes over 3,000) Iraqis dying.

November 30, 2009: After three days, the mysterious “Saddam TV” channel, available on an Arab language satellite broadcasting service, shut down. A shadowy group in Syria took credit for the channel, which showed news clips and old Saddam era propaganda videos round the clock. Broadcasting began on the third anniversary of Saddam’s execution. Saddam still has a lot of fans in Iraq, and the Middle East. The region is largely ruled by despots, and over-the-top rulers, especially those skilled at manipulating foreign media, are much admired.

November 25, 2009: For the second time in the last few weeks, men in army uniforms entered a Sunni neighborhood and killed numerous people. This time it was a village outside Baghdad and the victims were an entire family of six. The earlier attack, also near Baghdad, saw 13 men rounded up and murdered. The police are trying to downplay these attacks as a return of the Shia death squads, but Sunnis are nervous because these appear to be payback for recent Islamic terrorist bombings of Shia targets.

December 5, 2009:  Terrorist violence is down, and the attacks that are being made are using smaller and less sophisticated bombs. The terrorist groups are not doing very well. In the north, where the bombings were the worst over the last year, efforts to dry up terrorist funding (from sources in Syria and Jordan, as well as local scams, like stealing oil from pipelines and trucking it out of the country) have succeeded. The gangs that provided the bomb makers and other technical help, are now out of work. Many of these guys have turned (or, in some cases, returned) to crime. Extortion, kidnapping and burglary are up sharply. Police are arresting men who had previously been terrorism suspects.  Increased security along the Syrian border has kept out most of the terrorist volunteers (commonly used as suicide bombers). Those that are already in Iraq, finding no one to set them up for a glorious suicide bombing attack, are going home, or trying to get to Afghanistan (where there is still a demand for their skill set.)

Things have become so quiet that the parks are packed and the rivers and lakes are full of pleasure boats again. For the first time in years, outdoor movie theaters are operating. There will still be more terrorist bombings, but there is a widespread believe that the Sunni Arab terror supporters outside the country have lost heart, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars spent to support a six year terror campaign that failed. Those terrorism supporters who are still willing to provide cash, are being urged to direct their charity towards Afghanistan or Somalia, where the odds of success are better. But donors, who are largely from the Persian Gulf area, don’t like the idea of admitting defeat in their own neighborhood. Meanwhile, back in Iraq, many Sunni Arabs believe that they will eventually regain control of the country, with the help of Iraqi exiles in Syria and Jordan, and fellow Sunni zealots in Arabia.

December 3, 2009: In the northern city of Tikrit, a suicide bomber killed a crack counter-terrorism commander (police Lt. Col. Ahmad al-Fahal), and four other people. Fahal had a formidable reputation, and was believed responsible for deaths of nearly 200 Sunni Arab terrorists, and the arrest of many more. Such targeted assassinations are typical of al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab groups. But Fahal, and his American allies, have been more successful in their own campaign against terrorist leadership.

December 1, 2009: November was the least violent month in Iraq since the 2003 overthrow of the Sunni Arab dictatorship. There were 122 terrorist deaths in November (88 civilians, 22 policeman and 12 soldiers). In addition, two American troops died in combat last month.  If you include victims of ordinary crime, the Iraqi deaths just about double. With terrorism on the skids, police are concentrating more on the dozens of major criminal gangs (many of whom switched between terrorism and more mundane thuggery, depending which paid the most.) In October, there were 410 terrorist deaths. This is a big drop from 2006-7, when most months saw at least 2,000 (and sometimes over 3,000) Iraqis dying.

November 30, 2009: After three days, the mysterious “Saddam TV” channel, available on an Arab language satellite broadcasting service, shut down. A shadowy group in Syria took credit for the channel, which showed news clips and old Saddam era propaganda videos round the clock. Broadcasting began on the third anniversary of Saddam’s execution. Saddam still has a lot of fans in Iraq, and the Middle East. The region is largely ruled by despots, and over-the-top rulers, especially those skilled at manipulating foreign media, are much admired.

November 25, 2009: For the second time in the last few weeks, men in army uniforms entered a Sunni neighborhood and killed numerous people. This time it was a village outside Baghdad and the victims were an entire family of six. The earlier attack, also near Baghdad, saw 13 men rounded up and murdered. The police are trying to downplay these attacks as a return of the Shia death squads, but Sunnis are nervous because these appear to be payback for recent Islamic terrorist bombings of Shia targets.

Faced with increasing pressure over its nuclear program, Iran recently upped the ante by detaining five British sailors.

Iran detains 5 British sailors, saying the racing yacht strayed into its waters

Iranian authorities seized five British sailors after their racing yacht may have strayed into Iranian territorial waters, British authorities said Monday.

The group was sailing a 60-foot Volvo racing yacht from Bahrain to Dubai last Wednesday when they were “stopped by Iranian naval vessels,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement. “The yacht was on its way from Bahrain to Dubai and may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters. The five crew members are still in Iran.”

Last month, Iran accused three American hikers who were taken into custody in July while trekking on the Iran-Iraq border of espionage. Their families have denied the allegations.

The seizure of the sailors comes against a backdrop of difficult diplomatic relations between U.S. and European leaders and the Iranians, intensified by a long-standing dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. On Sunday, Iran announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants. The Iranians say their program is for energy and medical use, but the United States and the European nations are concerned that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.

David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, said in a statement that the British government contacted Iranian authorities on Wednesday night to “both to seek clarification and to try and resolve the matter swiftly” and “remain in close touch.” While the United States no longer maintains a mission in Iran, Britain has an embassy in Tehran.

See also:
British sailors detained by Iran en route to Gulf yacht race
Iran Detains Five British Sailors in Gulf, U.K. Says (Update1)
Analysis: British yacht crew detained by Iran
Iran Holds U.K. Crew and Yacht in the Gulf
5 Britons held in Iran after yacht seized in Gulf
British sailors in Iranian custody
Five British Sailors Detained In Iran
British Racing Yacht Crew Held By Iran
Five Britons held in Iran after yacht seized in Gulf

Let’s recap, Iran is the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, they kidnap American and British citizens with impunity, they’re directly responsible for the deaths of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, they thumb their noses at international censure and continue moving full speed ahead to develop nuclear weapons, and they threaten to wipe Israel off the map at least once a week, etc., etc.

/how much longer is the civilized world going to put up with this [expletive deleted] before they actually do something meaningful to bring the Iranian Mullahs, who are hell bent on creating global chaos, to heel?

Source: http://www.terroristplanet.com/IraqWar2.jpg

 

but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq!”

(George W. Bush)

SO…

Source: http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/8/Q/bush_probomb.jpg

-> Start: March 20, 2003 

-> Invasion of the Iraq by: Invasion forces of United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland and Denmark

-> Reason (official version): Weapons of mass destruction possessed by Iraq; reforming the human rights of the Iraqi; stopping financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers; democratising the country

-> Soldiers in action: 682 200 (255 000 American soldiers; 45 000 British soldiers; 2200 Australian soldiers; – 380 000 Iraqi soldiers)

-> Criticism: (I only deal with the six  most  important ones according to my personal opinion. In reality there could be easily found thousands of arguments for criticism!)

1.) Till this day there weren´t found weapons of mass destruction!

2.) Up to now around 14 000 soldiers killed in that war (4700 soldiers of coalition of invasion, 9300 Iraqui)

3.) Disturbance of the oil production of the Iraq (the price of oil has quadrupled since 2002)

4.) Health of the Iraqi population has dramatically worsen since the beginning of the war (i.e.: 5 million orphans today;  68% of Iraqis have no access to safe drinking water; etc.)

5.) Financial total costs of the war to U.S. taxpayers will be around $1.9 trillion. (a multiple of stopping the hunger wordwide!)

6.) Legality of the invasion stays questionable! (Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, still states “Iraq was illegal”)

-> Status: “CONFLICT ONGOING!” …

 …so what did Obama do with that conflict? – Once more: Change in the World´s Policy?

Source: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2003/11/04/1bell.jpg

Update as of 26 Nov 2009

Peter, like most young adults in his country had flown out of the nest. He went to University and stayed in an apartment that he shared with 2 fellow students. Study life was quite different from the one back home – he had to do his own laundry and dishes, the food at the college cafeteria was the tastiest meal that he ate, evenings were spent either at the gymnasium, swimming pool or the local mall. His flatmates lead a similar life except that one of them, Carl was also a guitarist and strummed his guitar at odd hours. Jules was the odd one out, as he spent lesser time at home and more at the university, flitting between the lab and library while attending classes in between. He was what the other 2 called a “nerd”. When they graduated and moved out, they kept in touch with each other – writing a letter once a month, or sending greeting cards on festive occasions. Jules went on to join the military and rightly so, he had at least one aspect of that life well practiced – discipline. Peter was waffling between a day job and a possible post graduation, while Carl followed his heart and joined a local club where he played his guitar and wrote songs, and sang some of them as well. Their lives were not exactly smooth-sailing, but not particularly patchy either, until…..! Until, a war was declared in the Persian Gulf. Jules, who was holidaying with his family was called back to report to duty on the war-front. Carl and Peter were horrified with the news of the war and although they could not stop it, they formed an association opposing it quite blatantly. They knew that Jules would also have supported them, but his duty always came first. And then Peter got a call from Jules’ home in the country. Jules had been killed the previous night in combat and his body would be flown in on the weekend. Jules’ father wanted both Peter and Carl to attend the funeral. Infuriated, yet emotional, Peter drove those 344 miles in silence while Carl sat beside him, silent, yet with his hands on the guitar. At the funeral service, Carl dedicated a song to Jules and Peter laid a wreath. The body was not buried, but cremated with full honours. Jules’s father was heart-broken, but remained stoic and when it was all over, he walked upto Peter and asked him for a favour that Peter would never refuse. He wanted Peter to scatter Jules’ ashes in India, in the famous river where Jules had once found peace, while on a University exchange program. Despite the squalor and chaos and the filth in the water and outside, Jules had confided in his father that this was the most mystical and peaceful place he had ever seen. Peter took the urn, wrapped in white cloth and departed.

The D Street Boyz were not in a particularly happy mood, but they were not sombre either. This Thursday was the monthly expiry of the F&O Nov series, so they did anticipate some downwards moves and some shakiness. They carried on their work at D Street moving between flat to about 100 points down. Then the shocking news from the Persian Gulf spelt gloom on D Street – at 2 pm the SENSEX plunged 150 points and stayed 350 points below previous close and no amount of cricket cheer could get the Boyz to perk up their SENSEX. Perhaps the Malayali Bowler who took 6 wickets in the cricket match against the Lankans, helped get the SENSEX a wee bit up – 6 points upwards to end the day at a sombre 16854 – 344 points down.

And then he saw the bearded mendicant wearing ochre robes and the brown bead necklace around his neck. His red vermilion mark on the forehead only accentuated his piercing eyes. He waved his right hand at Peter and beckoned him. Peter took quick paces towards him, and pulled out a container from his rucksack. Holding it with both hands, he followed the mendicant and walked down the wet and slippery steps to the river. No words were exchanged between them, as they stepped into the water and stood waist deep – the mendicant then mumbled a few prayers, and motioned Peter to empty the contents of the container into the flowing waters. Peter was emotional, but in control of himself and closed his eyes for a moment before submerging himself into the water and then stood up, turned back, pulled out a few notes from his pocket and dropped it into the mendicant’s wooden basket.

Farewell….

I have been trying to think of a good subject for this week – one that isn’t too dire and downbeat – while we in the United States are in the midst of our national feast called Thanksgiving.   We’re living in a country where I can get a free range turkey with all the bells and whistles – or soybeans from Texas, the best orange marmelade from Scotland or fresh raspberries from Chile.  This abundance comes at a cost -  it is estimated that if United States’ consumption rates were mimicked by the entire human population,  it would take the resources of 5.3 Earths.(1)  It is this abundance that allows us to ignore what is happening in the rest of the world.  Doesn’t have a direct bearing on textiles, but the long term implications are there.

An inescapable fact in most of the developing world – and largely unnoticed in the United States except in slightly higher food prices -  is that in the past couple of years, food prices have soared.  Between the mid-1970’s and 2005,  grain supplies rose and prices fell by about a half, leading “many experts to believe that there was no limit to humanity’s capacity to feed itself.” (2)  But then in 2006, the situation reversed:  food prices rose slightly that year, then increased by about a quarter in 2007, and finally skyrocketed in 2008.  Between 2006 and 2008, average world prices for rice rose by 217%, wheat by 136% and corn by 125% (3)  These rising prices meant that many people could not afford food – and  this led to riots  in 15 countries around the world in 2008.  Countries that could produce enough food for export worried about feeding their own populations, and placed restrictions on exports.  This became a serious problem for countries which were not fully self sufficient in food production.

Susan Payne, chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, said that by 2020 they think there could be genuine food shortages in the world.   During a talk on Africa’s agricultural potential, she showed a series of slides citing chilling statistics:

• grain stocks worldwide are at their lowest levels in 60 years
• global warming is turning arable land into desert
• freshwater is dwindling and China is draining its reserves
• and the really big problem:  the world’s population is growing by 80,000,000 hungry people each year.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that in order to feed the world’s projected population in 2050, we need to increase the amount of cereals in the world’s food supply to an amount equal to the total production of Australia in 2008.

Indeed, the food crisis of 2008 has put the spotlight on a new area of business potential, where the payoff could be immense: the area of agricultural investment and the newly lucrative world of food trade.  Financial firms like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in overseas agricultural projects.   Africa is the focus of their interest because in Africa land and labor come so cheaply that the risks are assumed to be worthwhile.  As a example, an Ethiopian farmer’s  yields for their wheat crops  are only about a third as much per acre as their counterparts in other parts of the world.  But with the addition of advanced implements, and improved seeds and fertilizer, these yields can be doubled.  Ethiopia, like all of Africa, is full of such opportunities.

Andrew Rice wrote an article in the November 22 New York Times Magazine in which he describes what some of the wealthy nations are doing to ensure a food supply for their people.

The nations of the Persian Gulf already import 60% of their food, and Saudi Arabia plans to phase out wheat production by 2016 in order to maintain its supply of underground freshwater.  Instead of relying on technology to increase their capacity for growing food  (along the lines of the Green Revolution of the 1960s),  these countries feel that they must control the means of production.  They want land.

The Saudi Arabian government and individual Saudi bankers and executives have said they intend to spend billions of dollars to establish plantations to produce rice and other staple crops in Africa, in nations like Mali, Senegal,  Sudan and Ethopia.  A newly formed company, Saudi Star Agricultural Development, announced it’s plans to “obtain the rights” to more than a million acres – that’s about the size of Delaware – in Ethiopia.  And in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia, farms are already growing fruits and vegetables for export to the Persian Gulf.(4)

This raises the question:  what about the people who live in Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Ethopia?  Do they benefit from these investments?  Am I the only one who thinks this spells trouble?

(1) New Economics Foundation, http://www.naturalnews.com/022890.html

(2) Rice, Andrew, “Agro-Imperialism”, New York Times Magazine, November 22, 2009

(3)  “Cyclone fuels rice price increase”, BBC News, May 7, 2008

(4) Rice, op.cit.

As Washington Talks Iraq Withdrawal, the Pentagon Builds Up Bases in the Region

By Nick Turse , ZNet, Nov 24, 2009
Source: TomDispatch

Despite recent large-scale insurgent suicide bombings that have killed scores of civilians and the fact that well over 100,000 U.S. troops are still deployed in that country, coverage of the U.S. war in Iraq has been largely replaced in the mainstream press by the (previously) “forgotten war” in Afghanistan. A major reason for this is the plan, developed at the end of the Bush years and confirmed by President Obama, to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq to 50,000 by August 2010 and withdraw most of the remaining forces by December 2011.

Getting out of Iraq, however, doesn’t mean getting out of the Middle East. For one thing, it’s likely that a sizeable contingent of U.S. forces will remain garrisoned on several large and remotely situated U.S. bases in Iraq well past December 2011. Still others will be stationed close by — on bases throughout the region where, with little media attention since the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, construction to harden, expand, and upgrade U.S. and allied facilities has gone on to this day.

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee early this year, General David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), stated: “The Arabian Peninsula commands significant U.S. attention and focus because of its importance to our interests and the potential for insecurity.” He continued:

“[T]he countries of the Arabian Peninsula are key partners… CENTCOM ground, air, maritime, and special operations forces participate in numerous operations and training events, bilateral and multilateral, with our partners from the Peninsula. We help develop indigenous capabilities for counter terrorism; border, maritime, and critical infrastructure security; and deterring Iranian aggression. As a part of all this, our FMS [Foreign Military Sales] and FMF [Foreign Military Financing] programs are helping to improve the capabilities and interoperability of our partners’ forces. We are also working toward an integrated air and missile defense network for the Gulf. All of these cooperative efforts are facilitated by the critical base and port facilities that Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE [United Arab Emirates], and others provide for US forces.”

In fact, since 2001 the Pentagon has been pouring significant sums of money into the “critical base and port facilities” mentioned by the general — both U.S. sites and those of its key regional partners. These are often ignored facts-on-the-ground, which signal just how enduring the U.S. military presence in the region is likely to be, no matter what happens in Iraq. Press coverage of this long-term infrastructural build-up has been remarkably minimal, given the implications for future conflicts in the oil heartlands of the planet. After all, Washington is sending tremendous amounts of military materiel into autocratic Middle Eastern nations and building-up bases in countries whose governments, due to domestic public opinion, often prefer that no publicity be given to the growing American military “footprint.”

Given that the current conflict with al-Qaeda stemmed, in no small part, from the U.S. military presence in the region, the issue is obviously of importance. Nonetheless, coverage has been so poor that much about U.S. military efforts there remains unknown. A review of U.S. government documents, financial data, and other open-source material by TomDispatch, however, reveals that an American military building boom yet to be seriously scrutinized, analyzed, or assessed is underway in the Middle East.

Consider, then, what we can at present know now about this Pentagon build-up, country by country from Qatar to Jordan, and while you’re reading, think about what we don’t know — and why Washington has chosen this path.

Qatar: The Pentagon’s Persian Gulf Pentagon

In 1996, although it had no air force of its own, the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar built Al Udeid Air Base at a cost of more than $1 billion. The goal: attracting the U.S. military. In September 2001, U.S. aircraft began to operate out of the facility. By 2002, tanks, armored vehicles, dozens of warehouses, communications and computing equipment, and thousands of troops were based at and around Al Udeid.  In 2005, the Qatari government spent almost $400 million to build a cutting-edge regional air operations center.

Today, Qatar is all but indispensable to the U.S. military. Just recently, for example, Central Command redeployed 750 personnel from its Tampa, Florida headquarters to its new forward headquarters at Al Udeid to test its “staff’s ability to seamlessly transition command and control of operations… in the event of a crisis in the CENTCOM area of responsibility or a natural disaster in Florida.”

Qatar has not, however, picked up the whole tab for the expanding U.S. military infrastructure in the country. The Pentagon has also been investing large amounts of money in upgrading facilities there for the last decade. From 2001-2009, the U.S. Army, for example, awarded $209 million in contracts for construction in the energy-rich emirate. In August, Rizzani de Eccher, an Italian engineering and construction giant, signed a $44 million deal with the Pentagon to replace an unspecified facility at Al Udeid. In September, the Department of Defense (DoD) awarded Florida-based IAP Worldwide Services a $6 million contract for “construction of a pre-engineered warehouse building… warehouse bay and related site work and utilities” at the base.

Later in the month, American International Contractors, a global construction firm that specializes in “US-funded Middle East and African infrastructure projects,” inked a deal for nearly $10 million to build a Special Operations Forces Training Range, complete with “a two-story shooting house, an indoor range, breach and storage facilities[,] a test fire bunker and bunker road” in Qatar. Just days after that, the Pentagon awarded a $52 million contract to Cosmopolitan-EMTA JV to upgrade the capacity of Al Udeid’s airfield by building additional aircraft parking ramps and fuel storage facilities.

Bahrain Base’s and Kuwait’s Subways

In nearby Bahrain — a tiny kingdom of 750,000 people — the U.S. stations up to 3,000 personnel, in addition to regular visits by the crews of Navy ships that spend time there. Between 2001-2009, the Navy awarded $203 million in construction contracts for military projects in the country. One big winner over that span has been the engineering and construction firm Contrack International. It received more than $50 million in U.S. government funds for such projects as building two “multi-story facilities for the U.S. Navy” complete with state-of-the-art communication interfaces and exterior landscaping.

In September 2009, the company was awarded a new $27 million deal “for the design/bid/build construction of the waterfront development program, US Naval Support Activity, Bahrain.” This facility will join the Navy’s undisputed crown jewel in Bahrain — a 188,000 square-foot mega-facility known as “the Freedom Souq” that houses a PX or Navy Exchange (NEX). The NEX, in turn, offers “an ice cream shop, bicycle shop, cell phone shop, tailor shop, barber and beauty shops, self-serve laundry, dry cleaning service, rug Souq, nutrition shop, video rental, and a 24/7 mini-mart,” while selling everything from cosmetics and cameras to beer and wine.

Work is also going on in nearby Oman where, in the 1930s, the British Royal Air Force utilized an airfield on Masirah Island for its ventures in the Middle East. Today, the U.S. Air Force and members of other service branches do much the same, operating out of the island’s Camp Justice. From 2001-2009, the Army and Air Force each spent about $13 million on construction projects in the sultanate. Contractor Cosmopolitan-EMTA JV is now set to begin work there, too, after recently signing a $5 million contract with the Pentagon for an “Expeditionary Tent Beddown” (presumably an area meant to accommodate a potential future influx of forces). Meanwhile, in the neighboring United Arab Emirates, the U.S. Army alone spent $46 million between 2001-2009 on construction projects.

In 1991, the U.S. military helped to push Saddam Hussein’s army out of Kuwait. After that, however, the country’s leader, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, refused to return home “until crystal chandeliers and gold-plated bathroom fixtures could be reinstalled in Kuwait City’s Bayan Palace.” Today, about 30 miles south of the plush palace sits another pricey complex. Camp Arifjan grew exponentially as the Iraq War ramped up, gaining notoriety along the way as the epicenter of a massive graft and corruption scandal. Today, the base houses about 15,000 U.S. troops and features such fast-food favorites as Pizza Hut, Hardees, Subway, and Burger King.

Another facility in Kuwait that has become a major stopover point on the road to and from Baghdad is Camp Buehring. Located north of Kuwait City, near the town of Udairi, the installation is chock-a-block full of amenities, including three PXs, telephone centers, two internet cafes, Morale, Welfare and Recreation centers, a movie theater, chapel, gym, volley-ball court, basketball court, concert stage, gift shop, barber shop, jewelry store, and a number of popular eateries including Burger King, Subway, Baskin Robbins, and Starbucks.

Writing about the base recently, Captain Charles Barrett of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team remarked, “There’s a USO with computers and a Café. You know the café is good because it has that little mark over the letter ‘e.’ Soldiers are gaming on XBOX, Play Station and Wii. There are phone banks and board games and a place where parents can read to their kids and have the DVD mailed home.”

The price tag for living the big-box-base lifestyle in Kuwait has, however, been steep. From 2003 to 2009, the U.S. Army spent in excess of $502 million on contracts for construction projects in the small, oil-rich nation, while the Air Force added almost $55 million and the Navy another $7 million. Total military spending there has been more massive still. Over the same span, according to U.S. government data, the Pentagon has spent nearly $20 billion in Kuwait, buying huge quantities of Kuwaiti oil and purchasing logistical support from various contractors for its facilities there (and elsewhere), among other expenditures.

In 2006, for example, the international construction firm Archirodon was awarded $10 million to upgrade airfield lighting at Al-Salem and Al-Jaber, two Kuwaiti air bases used by American forces. Recently, there has also been a major scaling up of work at Camp Arifjan. In September, for example, the Pentagon awarded CH2M Hill Contractors a nearly $26 million deal to build a new communications facility on the base. Just days later, defense contractor ITT received an almost $87 million contract for maintenance and support services there.

Saudi Base Building and Jordan’s U.S. Army Training Complex

According to a recent Congressional Research Service report, “From 1950 through 2006, Saudi Arabia purchased and received from the United States weapons, military equipment, and related services through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) worth over $62.7 billion and foreign military construction services (FMCS) worth over $17.1 billion.” Between 1946 and 2007, the Saudis also benefited from almost $295 million in foreign assistance funding from the U.S. military.

From the lead up to the First Gulf War in 1990 through the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military stationed thousands of troops in Saudi Arabia. The American presence in the kingdom — the location of some of the holiest sites in Islam — was a major factor in touching off al-Qaeda’s current war with the United States. In 2003, in response to fundamentalist pressure on the Saudi government, the U.S. military announced it was pulling all but a small number of trainers out of the country. Yet while many U.S. troops have left, Pentagon contracts haven’t — a significant portion of them for construction projects for the Saudi Arabian military, which the U.S. trains and advises from sites like Eskan Village, a compound 20 kilometers south of Riyadh, where 800 U.S. personnel (500 of them advisors) are based.

Between 2003-2009, the U.S. Army awarded $559 million in contracts for Saudi construction projects. In 2009, for example, it gave a $160 million deal to construction firm Saudi Oger Limited for the construction of facilities for a Saudi mechanized brigade based at Al Hasa, a $127 million contract to Saudi Lebanese Modern Construction Co. to erect structures for the Prince Turki Bin Abdul Aziz Battalion, and an $82 million agreement to top Saudi construction firm Al-Latifia Trading and Contracting Company to build ammunition storage bunkers, possibly at the Saudi Arabian National Guard’s Khashm Al An Training Area.

Additionally, military weaponry has continued to flow into Saudi Arabia by way of the Pentagon and so, too, have contracts to provide support services for that materiel. For example, earlier this year, under a U.S. Air Force contract extension, Cubic Corporation was awarded a $9.5 million deal “to continue to operate and maintain the air combat training system used to support F-15 fighter pilot training for the Royal Saudi Air Force.”

Like the Saudis, Jordan’s leader, King Abdullah II, has long had a complex relationship with the U.S. shaped by domestic concerns over U.S. military action in the region and support for Israel. As with Saudi Arabia, none of that has stopped the U.S. military from forging ever closer ties with the kingdom.

Recently, after testing and evaluating various training systems at multiple U.S. Army bases, the Jordanian Armed Forces selected Cubic’s combat training center system and under the auspices of the U.S. Army, the company was “awarded an $18 million contract to supply mobile combat training center instrumentation and training services to the Kingdom of Jordan.”

The Pentagon has also invested in Jordanian military infrastructure. Between 2001-2009, the Army awarded $86 million in contracts for Jordanian construction projects. One major beneficiary was again Archirodon which, between 2006-2008, worked on the construction of the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC) — a state-of-the-art military and counter-terrorism training facility owned and operated by the Jordanian government but built, in part, under a $70 million U.S. Army contract. In 2009, Archirodon was awarded two additional contracts for $729,000 and $400,000, by the Air Force, for unspecified work in Jordan.

When that 1,235-acre $200 million Jordanian training center was unveiled earlier this year, King Abdullah II himself gave the inaugural address, speaking “of his vision for KASOTC as a world-class special forces training center.” Not surprisingly, General Petraeus was also on hand to give a speech in which he lauded Jordan as “a key partner… [which] has placed itself at the forefront of police and military training for regional security forces.”

Garrisoning the Gulf

Even as it lurches toward a quasi-withdrawal from Iraq, the U.S. military has been hunkering down and hardening its presence elsewhere in the Middle East with little fanfare or press coverage. There has been almost no discussion in this country of a host of possible repercussions that might come from this, ranging from local opposition to the U.S. military’s presence to the arming of undemocratic and repressive regimes in the region. With the sole exception of Iran, the U.S. military has fully garrisoned the nations of the Persian Gulf with air bases, naval bases, desert posts, training centers, and a whole host of other facilities, while also building up the military capacity of nearby Jordan.

The CIA efforts to topple Iran’s government in the 1950s, Washington’s support for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1980s, the Pentagon’s troop presence in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s — all were considered canny geopolitical moves in their time; all had unforeseen and devastating consequences. The money the Pentagon has recently been pouring into the nations of the Persian Gulf to bulk up base infrastructure has only tied the U.S. ever more tightly to the region’s autocratic, often unpopular regimes, while further arming and militarizing an area traditionally considered unstable. The Pentagon’s Persian Gulf base build-up has already cost Americans billions in tax dollars. What the costs in “blowback” will be remains the unknown part of the equation.
Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com and the winner of a 2009 Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction as well as a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, In These Times, and regularly at TomDispatch. Turse is currently a fellow at New York University’s Center for the United States and the Cold War. A paperback edition of his book The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives (Metropolitan Books) was published earlier this year. His website is NickTurse.com.

[This article first appeared on Tomdispatch.com, a weblog of the Nation Institute, which offers a steady flow of alternate sources, news, and opinion from Tom Engelhardt, long time editor in publishing, co-founder of the American Empire Project, author of The End of Victory Culture, and editor of The World According to Tomdispatch: America in the New Age of Empire.]

Day 64 on the Maersk Arkansas

The weather was perfect, 83 deg with no humidity and a brisk breeze. The beers were ice cold, the grill and women were hot, just another fall day in the Persian gulf on the Maersk Arkansas. The girls just finished oiling down and the conga line was snaking its way around the fantail of the ship. OK… before someone reports us to the Coast Guard understand I am kidding about the beer and women but you must admit it sounded nice. And since there was no beer or oil drenched vixens you can assume the conga line is nonexistent as well.

So where was I…oh the grill was hot and the Steward Doug was tossing 2″ thick steaks on the grill to a sizzle I had not heard since arriving in September. Every sailor looks forward to grill day, maybe because its reminds us of being home gathered around a grill with friends and family. This grill had been dormant for my two months onboard and the last steward even had the audacity to put on the menu one day “Grilled BBQ Chicken on the Fantail” then proceeded to toss BBQ Sauce lathered chicken into the oven, who does that. The result was something that looked and tasted like a overbaked hamster. Well I have no idea what baked hamster taste like but it can’t be good and either was this. I was laughed at for stepping outside with my camera looking for grilled chicken, as the grill sat quiet and lonely. I was so naive to actually think he was going to put in such an effort. Out here at sea (much like in prison) meals are very important and help break of the monotony.

Unlike prison we normally don’t have to worry about getting shanked by a shipmate in the galley, although on my last ship two sailors were sent home for fighting. Believe me it wasn’t much of a fight and more like “Smackdown 2009 “. This sailor laid all 350lbs of himself into this man’s eye which resulted in a 3 minute nap on hard steel, no recollection of what happened and massive swelling. Ok I got a little off track, but seriously this man had hands that look like anvils. Anyway if the food is bad it makes a 120 day trip feel even longer.

The man that holds your culinary fate in his hands is the Chief Steward. He is head of the steward department and sets the menu and does the baking among other things. He has a chief cook that works under his direction who obviously has direct hand in how your food is going to taste as well. Have a ship with a bad cook and steward, you can guarantee the can opener is going to get heavy work opening tuna after you dump your slop into the trash. Before Doug arrived crewmembers were already telling me how much better the food was about to get when he got onboard. There was talk of fresh made breads, cinnamon buns, cookies and donuts….wait, fresh made donuts on a ship (more on this later)?

Doug at the office, don't talk to this man about a cubicle.

When Doug walked up the gangway he brought with him 20 years of restaurant experience and a Johnson and Wales Culinary School degree to back it up. Living in Thailand fulltime he only makes it back to the States about 14 days a year, tending to a harem is apparently very time consuming. Food quality has definitely improved and the steaks were on point (will let the pictures do the talking). Since his arrival I have had to double my workouts to offset the gluttony that has been taking place. A new chief cook has recently joined and these two definatly make a good team. I once again have something to write about and take pictures of since I am not allowed to lay my infidel feet on the precious soil of the “Kingdom”. We head to Umm Qasr, Iraq next and unless they have kabob delivery to the ship you can assume I will not be posting about any of the local cuisine.

- TORIANO FREDERICKS

Maersk Arkansas working cargo at Shuwaikh, Kuwait.

Jordanian Professor: Israel Will Go to War over Water

Hezbollah is rapidly rearming in preparation for a new conflict with Israel, fearing that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will attack Lebanon again prior to any assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Last week, Israeli commandos seized a ship in the Mediterranean loaded with almost 400 tonnes of rockets and small arms – which Israel claimed was being sent from Iran to its Hezbollah allies. In dramatic further evidence of growing tensions, the Observer has learned that Hezbollah fighters have been busy reinforcing fixed defence positions north of the Litani river.

Having lost many of its bunkers in the south, Hezbollah is preparing a new strategy to defend villages there.

Although the organisation denied last week that the weapons were intended for its use, senior commanders have done little to disguise the scale of rearmament. “Sure, we are rearming, we have even said that we have far more rockets and missiles than we did in 2006,” said a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel began after an ill-advised operation by to kidnap two Israeli soldiers, prompting a massive Israeli response that lasted 34 days and killed more than 1,000 people.

“We had to blow up or leave some of our bunkers and fighting positions, but we still have plenty of capabilities in the south. We expect the Israelis to come soon, if not this winter, then they will wait until spring, when the ground isn’t too soft for their tanks.”

It was expected that the ceasefire would neutralise Hezbollah military efforts along the Lebanon-Israel border, as a newly bolstered United Nations peacekeeping force and the Lebanese army took up positions. Instead, based on dozens of interviews and multiple trips into the country’s south, it is clear that Hezbollah believes it would face different challenges.

It has been forced to abandon the line of deeply entrenched static positions on the border with Israel and withdraw most of its men and weaponry to clusters of Shia villages.

“It’s clear that Hezbollah no longer controls the border, due to the presence of Unifil [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] troops,” said Andrew Exum, a military expert on Hezbollah at the Centre for New American Security. “They appear to be hardening the villages for this next round of fighting, while pushing their fixed positions north away from Unifil to protect the approaches to Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.”

Israel and the United States have long assumed that any military action against Iran’s nuclear programme would draw a muscular response from its close allies in Hezbollah. According to Israeli military and intelligence analysts, any move against Iran would require a move first against Hezbollah’s capability to disrupt life in northern Israel with its rockets.

Tel Aviv seems unlikely to commit the same mistakes it did in 2006, when the plan was for air strikes to disrupt and confuse Hezbollah’s military command, while minimising the use of ground troops. Israeli military sources have said that they are preparing for a potential new conflict.

Cruising through the serene green wadis that connect south Lebanon to the Litani river to the north, the commander explains what happened at the end of the last war. “We knocked out three of their tanks on the first day, as they tried to enter,” he explained at a turn-off by the village of al-Qantara. “But after they entered the wadi, we knew they were going for the river and had to be stopped. So we called out to all the special forces anti-tank teams in the area. And they all swarmed the wadi. Boys would set up and wait for the tanks, fire off their rounds and then pull back. Then they would pull back a kilometre or so down the wadi and wait for them again.”

According to Israeli military reports, after the first and last tanks were hit by rocket fire or mines, killing the company commander, the 24 tanks were essentially trapped inside a valley, surrounded on all sides and pinned down by mortars, rockets and mines. Eleven tanks were destroyed and the rest partially damaged and Israel lost at least 12 soldiers.

As unlikely as the Israelis might be to repeat these mistakes, they must figure out how to get their heavy armour past the Hezbollah teams that still lurk in the hills and valleys in the next round of fighting, if and when it comes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/08/hezbollah-rearms-against-israel

VIA

http://islamic-intelligence.blogspot.com/

Iranian FM: Iran Ready for Uranium Fuel Swap

Iran says it is ready to exchange some of its enriched uranium stockpile for nuclear fuel rods, a key demand of a United Nations-backed proposal aimed at easing global fears over Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday Iran will exchange 400 kilograms of low-grade uranium for nuclear fuel enriched to 20 percent of capacity in phases. He told a regional security conference in Bahrain that the exchange should take place on Iran’s Kish island in the Persian Gulf.

The United States dismissed Mottaki’s offer.

An unidentified senior U.S. official said Iran’s proposal on Satruday was inconsistent with the “fair and balanced” draft agreement proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in consultation with the U.S., Russia, and France.

See also:
Iran Says It ‘Explicitly’ Accepts Uranium Swap Deal
Iran’s Mottaki defiant on UN nuclear sanctions threat
Iran offers to swap 400 kilos of LEU on Kish for atomic fuel
Iran Avows Willingness to Swap Some Uranium
US says ‘nothing new’ in Iran nuclear offer
U.S. unsatisfied with Iranian nuclear proposal: report
US rejects Iran nuclear offer
Analysis / Tehran heard Obama’s Nobel speech loud and clear
Iran deplores India’s yes vote on IAEA resolution
The UN Security Council, Iran and its nuclear deception

/when is Charlie Brown going to finally give up on the futility of trying to kick Lucy’s football and just kick Lucy’s ass instead?