North Korea Agrees To Moratorium on Nuclear Weapons, Missile Development

This is being hailed as a significant breakthrough, and it should be. However, we need to be vigilant that North Korea isn't double dealing - saying one thing to the US all while engaging in clandestine operations or proliferation activities.

The United States said Wednesday North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear activities and accept a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, in a breakthrough in negotiations with the secretive communist nation.

The announcement comes little more than two months after the death of longtime ruler Kim Jong Il, and suggests North Korea has met the key U.S. preconditions for restarting multi-nation disarmament-for-aid talks that the North withdrew from in 2009.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the North has agreed to allow International Atomic Energy inspectors to verify and monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment and confirm disablement of its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

Her statement says the US will meet with North Korea to finalize details for a proposed package of 240,000 metric tons of food aid.

North Korea issued a similar, although differently worded statement released simultaneously in Pyongyang.

An unidentified spokesman from North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in its statement carried by the state-run news agency that the North agreed to the nuclear moratoriums and the allowance of U.N. inspectors "with a view to maintaining positive atmosphere" for the U.S.-North Korea talks.

The announcement follows talks in Beijing last week between U.S. and North Korean negotiators, the first since negotiations were suspended after Kim's death in December from a heart attack.

Before his death, the U.S. and North Korea were close to such an agreement, which appears to meets U.S. preconditions for restarting the six-nation talks suspended three years ago.

Allowing inspectors to review operations at known nuclear facilities is an improvement, and may mean that the regime under Kim Jong Un is moving away from the militaristic tone set by his father. It may also mean that the regime recognizes just how bad its socio-economic conditions are and that the need for food aid is finally driving the regime to curtail its military programs. The agricultural situation in the country may be even worse than the regime is letting on.

That may be wishful thinking - but if the regime has to begin focusing on improving its agricultural resources so that the nation doesn't starve while curtailing the nuclear and missile programs, then that's a significant accomplishment of the sanctions regime in place.

Severe Drought Conditions In Great Plains May Lead To Higher Food Prices

There has been an ongoing drought in the Great Plains states, including Oklahoma and Texas, and there are no indications that the situation will improve anytime soon.

Mike Spradling, the president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, said many wheat farmers have considered just plowing under their fields and switching to another crop.

Associate state climatologist Gary McManus said conditions have actually gotten worse since crops began emerging. The plants have rapidly sucked up the limited moisture in the soil.

"Some places have already lost their wheat crop farther south and in the Panhandle," he said. "In the driest parts of the state, the rainfall they have gotten, it's not enough to make them rest easy with their crops. It's just a bad situation."

Paul Fruendt said he's been farming for 25 years and he's never seen such bad growing conditions. His farm in Guthrie in central Oklahoma got a little rain, but he said his crops will still probably run out of water within a few weeks.

Higher wheat prices will translate into higher prices for grains, breads, and other foodstuffs. That, along with higher energy costs, are going to drive up inflation and the cost of living.

The drought conditions also mean that the threat of wildfires increases significantly, and unless the region sees a prolonged period of above-normal rainfall, the drought will persist.

UN Warns Chinese Drought Will Affect Food Prices Globally

China is facing one of the worst droughts in decades and that's going to have a huge effect on global food prices. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization issued an alert Tuesday that a severe drought was threatening the wheat crop in China, which will have a spillover effect on global food prices and will cause shortages of water in China.

World wheat prices are already surging and have been widely cited as one reason for protests in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world. China has been essentially self-sufficient in grain for decades for national security reasons, and any move by China to import large quantities of food in response to the drought could drive international prices even higher, creating serious problems for less affluent countries that rely on imported food.

“China’s grain situation is critical to the rest of the world — if they are forced to go out on the market to procure adequate supplies for their population, it could send huge shock waves through the world’s grain markets,” said Robert S. Zeigler, the director general of the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Philippines.

The Food and Agriculture Organization said that 5.16 million hectares, or 12.75 million acres, of China’s 14 million hectares of wheat fields had been affected by the drought, and that 2.57 million people and 2.79 million head of livestock faced shortages of drinking water.

Chinese state news media are describing the drought in increasingly dire terms. “Minimal rainfall or snow this winter has crippled China’s major agricultural regions, leaving many of them parched,” reported Xinhua, the state-run news agency. “Crop production has fallen sharply, as the worst drought in six decades shows no sign of letting up.”

Xinhua said that Shandong Province, in the heart of the Chinese wheat belt, had received only 1.2 centimeters, or 0.47 inch, of rain since September but did not provide a comparison for normal rainfall for the period.

While China's wheat crops are in dire shape, the situation in the US isn't all that much better. Parts of the Southern US are dealing with the effects of an ongoing rainfall deficit that have reduced water tables and reservoir levels throughout the region. That too has affected crop prices and quality.

Farm Bill Mayhem

Yesterday, I noted that President Bush issued a veto of the $300 billion pork-laden farm bill and was followed up with a House override of the veto by a significant margin as 100 GOPers crossed over to vote for the override.

While all this seems cut and dried, and indeed, I thought that this was all straight forward, someone screwed up in Congress and provided President Bush with a different version of the farm bill than the one that was actually adopted by the House and Senate. The version vetoed by President Bush was missing 34 pages of text.

In other words, he vetoed a bill that didn't reflect the language passed by Congress. I can't think of a situation like this happening before, but the proper resolution would be to resubmit the entire farm bill.

However, Congressional Democrats worry that they're not going to get the GOP to cross the aisle a second time, risking the ire of their constituents, so they're hoping to try a work-around that has never been done before - to simply pass the 30 pages as a separate bill and then watch President Bush vetoes that as well.

Democrats are essentially arguing that Congress can choose to send only portions of bills for a presidential signature or veto. In other words, they're proposing their own version of a line item veto, which the Supreme Court has found unconstitutional. The President has to vote for the entire measure on an up/down tally, and can't simply pick and choose which parts to approve and which parts to veto. Congress has no such ability either.

All this is moot unless the GOP shows some spine and does the right thing in making sure that the farm bill goes down hard to that veto.

Pork Does Farm Bill Little Good: UPDATE: House Overrides Veto

President Bush vetoed the latest iteration of the farm bill, HR 2419. Congress may attempt an override of the veto. That's just lovely, since the bill is pork ridden in the worst way. President Bush gets this right:

At a time when net farm income is projected to increase by more than $28 billion in 1 year, the American taxpayer should not be forced to subsidize that group of farmers who have adjusted gross incomes of up to $1.5 million. When commodity prices are at record highs, it is irresponsible to increase government subsidy rates for 15 crops, subsidize additional crops, and provide payments that further distort markets. Instead of better targeting farm programs, this bill eliminates the existing payment limit on marketing loan subsidies.

Now is also not the time to create a new uncapped revenue guarantee that could cost billions of dollars more than advertised. This is on top of a farm bill that is anticipated to cost more than $600 billion over 10 years. In addition, this bill would force many businesses to prepay their taxes in order to finance the additional spending.

This legislation is also filled with earmarks and other ill-considered provisions. Most notably, H.R. 2419 provides: $175 million to address water issues for desert lakes; $250 million for a 400,000-acre land purchase from a private owner; funding and authority for the noncompetitive sale of National Forest land to a ski resort; and $382 million earmarked for a specific watershed. These earmarks, and the expansion of Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage requirements, have no place in the farm bill. Rural and urban Americans alike are frustrated with excessive government spending and the funneling of taxpayer funds for pet projects. This bill will only add to that frustration.

The bill also contains a wide range of other objectionable provisions, including one that restricts our ability to redirect food aid dollars for emergency use at a time of great need globally. The bill does not include the requested authority to buy food in the developing world to save lives. Additionally, provisions in the bill raise serious constitutional concerns. For all the reasons outlined above, I must veto H.R. 2419, and I urge the Congress to extend current law for a year or more.

The reason that Congress has such low ratings in the polls (lower than even President Bush) is because they simply can't help themselves to the public trough. They're addicted to pork, and this bill is not only full of pork, but it's anti-trade and will increase the costs to consumers because of restrictive policies and subsidies.

And if the GOP doesn't start to wake up and realize this, they will suffer for it at the polls come November. Democrats clearly have no interest in limiting spending here, but the GOP does. It's time for them to start practicing what they preach about fiscal responsibility.

UPDATE:
As expected, the House voted to override the President's veto. Here's the roll call on that vote. 100 Republicans voted to override the President's veto, along with 216 Democrats. 94 Republicans voted against the override, as did 16 Democrats.

It now heads to the Senate, where they too are expected to override the President's veto.

UPDATE:
If the GOP needs yet another wakeup call, this is it. Voting for this piece of pork laden excess is only reinforcing the view that they cannot exercise the slightest bit of restraint. This will have an effect in November.

Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak Tied To British Lab

Foot and mouth disease, which can devastate cattle and sheep herds, appears to be linked to a strain of the disease that exists only at a research institution in the British countryside. It appears that there was a breach of security enabling the disease to escape into the countryside and infect nearby herds.

The strain of foot-and-mouth identified is not one normally found in animals but is used in vaccine production and in diagnostic laboratories.

In a statement, Defra said: "The present indications are that this strain is a 01 BFS67-like virus, isolated in the 1967 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain."

Merial voluntarily halted vaccine production as a precaution.

BBC science correspondent David Shukman said that if the virus did escape from the Pirbright laboratory, the question to ask was how.

He said: "Like the manufacture of any vaccine to defend against a virus, this one used samples of live virus in the production process.

"Experts speculate that either it escaped through the ventilation or possibly an employee carried it out accidentally on a boot or clothing."

The British government is trying to contain the damage and limit its impact economically. It's banned all meat exports. The British government is moving faster than they did in the last outbreak, which may reduce the spread of the disease among herds around the country and limit the need to cull herds.

The 2001 outbreak of the disease in the UK required culling herds of nearly 10 million animals and caused billions of dollars in damage. Hopefully, the British government can contain the damage, and the investigation into how the pathogen escaped the lab will be discovered so that it cannot happen again.

It is quite possible that someone did not take the proper precautions upon leaving the lab and allowed the pathogen to escape into the environment.

Palestinians, Power, and Responsibility

Gazans are hoping to elicit sympathy from Israelis. That's going to be tough, considering all the rockets fired at Israel from Gaza. Still more were fired into Israel today, but the US media always seems to report the situation only when Israel fired back. They always seem to miss the part where Palestinian terrorists fired first. Here's the Israeli reporting on the rocket attacks and Israeli counter battery fire.

All this comes as the Israelis are allowing sick Palestinians, including known terrorists on watch lists enter Israel for medical care. Erez Crossing is where Palestinians have been coming to escape the hellhole that is Gaza for the safer confines of Israel or the West Bank.

Conflict Blotter recounts stories of Hamas war crimes:

The 22-year-old presidential guardsman and 11 other soldiers had been sent on a mission from Abbas’ compound to the Preventative Security headquarters on the last day of the fighting to rescue some 30 officers who were holed up inside the besieged compound. Once inside the compound they called for the armoured car they had been promised but it never came and they wound up pinned down by Hamas militants.

They surrendered. A Hamas gunman shot one of the 12 soldiers in the leg and told the rest to run away. As they fled, they opened fire, Iki said, shooting them all in the legs as they tried to run away. A Hamas gunman came up and executed each wounded soldier, continued Iki. Iki was lucky, the execution bullet hit him in the side of the neck and he didn’t die. He lay semi-conscious on the street for an hour and a half bleeding. The bus driver who had driven the Hamas militants to the fight checked his pulse at one point and found he was alive. He started to help him.

“Leave him or we’ll shoot you,” a masked militant said. The driver obeyed and left Iki to bleed.

Foreign nationals in Gaza are also getting out of Dodge.

Much of the Arab world is based on a honor/shame culture, and the Palestinian civil war should highlight this to the extreme, but the diplomats seem to ignore the implications. Hamas won and its power is greatly enhanced as a result. Fatah's loss was not only stunning because it supposedly had the greater numbers, but it had the backing of the likes of the US, Israel, and the rest of the West. Palestinians on the fence are going to consider backing Hamas, despite its terrorist background, because they'll back the winning horse. Fatah is at a greater disadvantage now, even with more US and Western aid pumped in because Fatah is the losing horse.

Hamas claims that the US and Israel is blackmailing the Palestinian people. Throwing people off rooftops is far more effective at blackmailing than throwing money to a bunch of kleptocrats in Fatah. Hamas is whining that they aren't getting money from the US and Israel so that they can use that money to attack Israel.

Of course, Fatah isn't shying away from killing Israelis either. Meryl Yourish reports the following:

Two armed Palestinians were killed in a gunfight with an IDF force in a village near Jenin Tuesday night, eyewitnesses reported.

According to the report, local gunmen opened fire at the force that entered the village accompanied by a military bulldozer. An al-Quds Brigades commander and an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members were killed in the incident.

The AAMB is part of Fatah, Abbas's terrorist organization. All this goes on as the diplomats delude themselves into thinking that Fatah is the moderate among the Palestinian terrorist organizations and can be dealt with.

The US has finally issued a statement slamming the UN's Human Rights Council for once again singling out Israel for condemnation all while ignoring human rights violations elsewhere, including in Gaza and the West Bank by the Palestinians against other Palestinians.

Hamas is once again trying to assert that it is doing all it can to secure the release of journalist Alan Johnston. Right.

Hamas said that it was making intense, round-the-clock efforts to secure an imminent release of kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston, on the eve of the newsman’s 100th day in captivity.

"When it comes to Alan Johnston we are multiplying efforts to secure his release, and we hope they will succeed and that he will be released in the coming days," senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya told a news conference.

They can make the claims without having to actually supply any proof. And the media will take them at their word. Hamas is also calling on the media to return to Gaza, despite the fact that being a journalist in Gaza is perhaps the most dangerous job in the world. Journalists are purposefully targeted for kidnapping and killing precisely because of their high profile positions, and the likelyhood of ransoms to be paid.

This is just delusional: the Syrians think that some Israelis in the Golan might prefer to live under Syrian rule.

Iran is announcing that it has finished manufacturing a domestically produced fighter jet.

Iranian news agencies Maher and Fars have reported that Iranian army commander Ataollah Salehi announced that in the next few months the Iranian army is scheduled to hold maneuvers during which they will present, for the first time, Iranian-made fighter aircraft – Azarakhsh.

The Iranians claim that the fighter jet is on the same level as the American made F/A-18 but FAS suggests that the fighter is cobbled together from a variety of reverse engineered older aircraft in its inventory. Meanwhile, Russia is denying that it has deals to sell fighter jets of its own to Iran and Syria.

Meanwhile, another scoop too good to check - about the situation in Lebanon, fed to Sy Hersh by none other than Robert Fisk, turns out to be less than accurate. Go figure.

UPDATE:
The NYT opened up it's op-ed page for yet another shill for Hamas, which ignores basis details:

Sadly, it became apparent that not all officials from Fatah were negotiating in good faith. There were attempts on Mr. Haniya’s life last week, and eventually we were forced into trying to take control of a very dangerous situation in order to provide political stability and establish law and order.

The streets of Gaza are now calm for the first time in a very long time. We have begun disarming some of the drug dealers and the armed gangs and we hope to restore a sense of security and safety to the citizens of Gaza. We want to get children back to school, get basic services functioning again, and provide long-term economic gains for our people.

Let's just ignore all the assassination attempts by Hamas on Fatah's Abbas and other top leaders, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Let's ignore the Hamas thugs throwing Fatah thugs off rooftops or executing them in hospitals or firing on crowds of Fatah thugs seeking to flee Gaza to Israel.

Hamas isn't providing political stability. It's enforcing its brand of law and order according to Islamist precepts. If you're a member of Fatah, you're toast. Law and order consists of Hamas thugs doing what they do best - cowing those without the guns into doing their bidding. As for getting basic services going, perhaps the Palestinians should consider using piping for sewage rather than rockets. As for the economics, perhaps they should consider growing agriculture in greenhouses instead of looting them and then using the remnants as rocket launching facilities or terror training camps.

UPDATE:
Oh, as for the food situation - Hamas claims that the food will run out in 2-4 weeks.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip could start running out of flour, rice, edible oil and other commodities in 2-4 weeks unless Israel reopens the border crossings, the United Nations said Wednesday.

Gaza's crossings with border countries Israel and Egypt, including the Rafah Crossings in the south, the Karni commercial passage in the center and the Erez Crossing in the north, have been closed since late last week when Hamas assumed full control over the Strip after five days of fighting with the rival Fatah party.

Concerned Gazans have been stocking up on essentials, fearing the crossings with remain shut. The World Food Program estimates flour prices have risen 40 percent.

Here's a novel idea. Grow some in greenhouses as opposed to using 'em as rocket launching platforms. Oh wait. They looted the greenhouses and instead have to hold their hand out to the Israelis for food aid shipments. The irony is quite thick, especially as the UN repeatedly claims that Israel is violating Palestinian human rights. Yet, Israel is there providing humanitarian aid on a daily basis, ordered to in fact by Israeli courts, despite the fact that many of those receiving food and medical assistance are terrorists who would just as quickly shoot Israelis as each other.

UPDATE:
The Washington Post also engages in quite a bit of moral relativism in pushing for Hamas to be drawn back into a diplomatic process. Ahmed Yousef, who's a flack for Haniyeh wrote the piece. And the editors think nothing of letting terrorists and their shills write their demands on the editorial page of its newspaper.

UPDATE:
Abbas calls Hamas's actions a bloody coup. What a way to state the obvious, though Palestinian civil war is also fitting. Also, quite a bit of hand-wringing over the situation at Erez Crossing, where Palestinians are hoping for the opportunity to get out of Gaza and go to Israel or the West Bank.

Israel is also going after kassam rocket launchers and the Palestinian terrorists are finding time to get into gunfights with Israel:

Elsewhere Wednesday, Israeli aircraft pounded two rocket launchers in northern Gaza after two Qassam rockets were fired toward southern Israel, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said.

It is the first Israeli airstrike since Hamas took control of Gaza last week.

There were no reported casualties from either strike.

Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinian gunmen during firefights in Gaza and the West Bank early Wednesday, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

In Gaza, Israeli forces pushed several hundred yards into the Palestinian territory, near Kissufim Crossing, to battle militants, the sources said. During the exchange, two Palestinian gunmen were killed and three others were wounded. Two of the wounded later died. An Israeli army spokesman said one Israeli soldier was wounded.

Overnight, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants in the West Bank town of Kafr Dan, near Jenin, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

According to residents, the gunmen were members of Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

As I repeatedly note, the AAMB is Fatah and there is no reason to distinguish between the two. Fatah gives its marching orders to the AAMB, which acts as a 'military' wing of Fatah.

UPDATE:
Syria has closed its border with Lebanon, with no reason given. (Via Haaretz). Hamas doesn't consider itself to be a protector of Israel's border, as terrorists continue to fire rockets into Israel. Of course, the world will soon find its voice to condemn Israel's reprisal attacks on those firing those rockets.

Meanwhile, Olmert and Abbas are set to meet in the next week. What I wouldn't give to be in that room to give them both a piece of my mind. Abbas and Fatah keeps making demands on everyone without even bothering to pay lip service to any of its prior obligations that it never fulfilled, and yet makes ever more extravagent demands on Israel for concessions. Olmert and Israel's government continue to give Fatah lifelines, despite no reason to continue doing so.

UPDATE:
The New York Times considers Israel's attack against terrorists firing rockets into Israel an escalation of the violence. Excuse me?! Palestinian terrorists firing rockets against Israel is the escalation; Israel's response is completely appropriate and within its rights as a sovereign nation to defend itself against attacks.

UPDATE:
Jay Tea at Wizbang points out that Gazans have gotten exactly what they asked for. They're now hostages of Hamas. Be careful what you wish for? Indeed.

UPDATE:
So, five more kassams struck Sderot today. Those rockets hit a power pole, knocking out power for a bit, and injured two Israelis. The media takes a powder, and instead will focus on Israel's response (which might come sooner than the terrorists had thought). The NY Times thinks that Israel's response is an escalation when it goes after the terrorists firing rockets against Israel.

Wonder what they'll come up with next? I don't. They'll simply recycle the same articles. It's far easier to recycle (and is good for the environment) than trying to report the facts as they are - that Hamas and Fatah are two sides of he same coin of terrorism, the terrorists continue to try and kill Israelis, and Israel has no choice but to eliminate the terrorists trying to kill Israeli civilians at every opportunity.

UPDATE:
This is just rich with irony. Abbas is calling Hamas "murderous terrorists." Fatah is no different, mind you, but Fatah wouldn't have a problem with Hamas if Hamas was busy killing Israelis and not Fatah leaders and thugs.

UPDATE:
Abbas has also said that Hamas tried to assassinate him. I don't have any sympathy for him as he's had no problem letting terrorists run amok in Gaza and West Bank who sought to kill Israelis. Now the shoe is on the other foot and he doesn't like it one bit.

As for why I continue to hammer away at the NYT and other media outlets that are shilling for Hamas and the terrorists, someone has to do it. These newspapers are attempting to shape public opinion by pushing an agenda that only an anti-Western leftist could love.

Just the Beginning

Higher prices for beer? Say it isn't so.

Beer prices will rise as the demand for biofuel increases. For beer lovers in Germany, farmers are switching from barley to crops that are currently in favor for biofuel production. Beer lovers are getting hit every which way: not only is the cost for barley increasing because of less supply, but the costs for food are also increasing. Even the UN has realized that biofuels aren't the cure to the "problem":

However, in its first major report on bioenergy, the United Nations tried to temper enthusiasm over biofuels last week, warning that the diversion of land to grow crops for fuel will increase prices for basic food commodities.

That is what happened in Mexico, when increased demand for corn to make ethanol in the United States pushed up the price of tortillas.

The German government subsidizes biofuel crops at the rate of $24.60 per acre, according to the Agency for Renewable Energies, part of the Agriculture Ministry.

Barley production in Germany went down by 5.5 percent in 2007, according to the Bavarian Farmers Association. On the other hand, the production of corn for biofuel more than doubled last year and the production of rapeseed for biofuel grew by 3.4 percent.

Biofuels, which reduce the emission of greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming, have been seen by many as a cleaner and cheaper way to meet the world's soaring energy needs than with greenhouse-gas emitting fossil fuels. European leaders have decided that at least 10 percent of fuels will come from biofuels by 2020.

The problem with that is that there simply isn't enough corn to go around for the already existing demand - food and food products. Prices have spiked for many corn-based products in the US and Mexico. It's even caused a shortage in tequila production. As a result of the increased demand and limited supply, prices have jumped on everthing from beef to soda to bread and everything else that is derived from corn and corn products.

Sugar cane, which is behind the biofuel produced in places like Brazil offers a better alternative to ethanol based on corn, but the US tarriffs on the sugar cane limit its availability here in the US because it is an ongoing remnant of protectionism for the US sugar industry and US agrobusinesses that have obtained ethanol production credits.

That has got to come to an end.

Biofuels may be a partial solution, but they only delay the problem since you have ongoing costs associated with the biofuel. For every acre of a former food crop now dedicated to fuel production, you're not only increasing costs for foodstuffs, but increasing the likelyhood of food shortages, distribution problems, and price spikes.

Those most affected by the run on biofuel? The very people who can least afford it - the poor and those living in the Third World.

Open up the market to allow sugar cane based ethanol to enter the market and stop the ethanol subsidies for companies like ADM. The market distortion caused by the existence of the subsidies and tarriffs has increased the prices of foodstuffs and done next to nothing to actually reduce reliance on petroleum based gasoline.

Also, consider the fact that ethanol produces less energy per gallon than a gallon of gasoline, which translates into higher production, distribution, and use costs that are often ignored by the proponents.

With Blinders On

On the day when anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel is assassinated by the usual suspects (pro-Syrian forces, Hizbullah, or Syrian assassins), the UN issues a report attacking Israel's use of cluster munitions and overall use of force in its conflict with Hizbullah fought in South Lebanon.

The report issued today by the United Nations investigators did not examine issues surrounding the 4,000 rockets that Hezbollah fired into Israel during the fighting, which lasted from July 12 to Aug. 14. A report by Amnesty International in September reckoned that those rocket attacks had killed 43 Israeli civilians, including 7 children, as well as 12 soldiers. Israeli officials have charged that some of the rockets fired by Hezbollah carried cluster munitions.

The United Nations investigators did consider Hezbollah’s actions within Lebanon, and said that there was “some evidence” that the Shiite militia used towns and villages as “shields.” But it said that this happened when most of the civilian population had left the area, and that there was no evidence of the use of “human shields.”

They also said they found no justification for what they said were 30 attacks by Israeli forces against positions of the United Nations peacekeeping force, including one strike that killed four U.N. soldiers.

The report quoted figures from the Lebanese government saying that the conflict killed 1,191 people, wounded 4,409 and drove more than 900,000 — about a quarter of the country’s population from their homes. It said that the attacks on the country’s infrastructure, including attacks on agriculture and tourism, would years to rebuild, even with international help.

The report doesn't address Hizbullah's use of cluster munitions. The report claims that Israel's assertions that Hizbullah's use of human shields to protect its assets from Israeli attack at the expense of killing civilians or UN observers was exaggerated. The report is so one-sided that it does nothing more than restate and reframe the position taken by Hizbullah or the jihadis who have been fighting a war against Israel since it was created in 1947.

Once again, the UN sides with the terrorist organization that launched a war from within the sovereign territory of Lebanon. The ultimate responsibility for the death and devastation belongs with Hizbullah. But for their initial attack killing Israeli soldiers and taking Goldwasser and Regev (who are still being held by Hizbullah), Israel would not have engaged in the use of force against Lebanon.

It's also curious that the Times report makes no mention of the million Israelis who were displaced by the fighting, or the heavy economic toll imposed on the Israeli economy as a result of the fighting both in Lebanon and against Palestinian terrorists who continue launching rockets of their own against Israel to this day.

Meanwhile, Meryl Yourish lets one UN flack have it with both barrels. This particular hack was touring Sderot which is the scene of daily kassam rocket attacks. Turns out he was present when a couple of rockets landed in town, seriously injuring one Israeli. And this hack has the temerity to state the following:

Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice and chief prosecutor for UN war crimes tribunals, said Israel “has a responsibility to defend its citizens, but has to do so only by legal means.”

“It has to do so in line with international law, including international humanitarian law, but it has a primary responsibility to protect people who are under its authorities.”

I would posit that there is absolutely no country on the planet that would tolerate daily rocket attacks from a foreign entity without taking serious military action into their hands. No country would tolerate an invasion that includes the death of its soldiers, and the capture of its soldiers who are then transported into a foreign country. No country would respond by calling up owners of homes next to weapons bunkers so that everyone and their grandmother knows not only that an attack is coming but where, when, and how to get the locals to head over as human shields. It would not include limited force against the terrorists and leave the leaders alone.

But as Meryl loves to point out, the world operates on Israeli double standard time, so what any other country would do in similar circumstances is moot. Israel has a right to defend itself, but it cannot take action in furtherance of its defense.

UPDATE:
I wrote the aforementioned post relying upon the New York Times. A curious thing happens when you refer to stories in other media outlets and compare them to the Times.

For example, the BBC wrote the following:

As well as highlighting the issue of cluster bombs, Amnesty found that Hezbollah hid Katyusha rockets among civilians and often fired them into Israel from the cover of civilian villages.

But researchers found no evidence that Hezbollah actually used civilians as human shields during the fighting.

There's nothing in the Times article mentioning that Amnesty found Hizbullah storing their rockets in and among civilian populations. Curious. Very curious. Now, the BBC story is bizarre in its own right as it is downright schizophrenic in trying to claim that the UN researchers found no evidence Hizbullah used human shields, but there are numerous and repeated reports that they did just that.

The Times omitted information that might show that the UN report was biased, as opposed to the BBC article which simply ignored its own reporting. Both are despicable.

Technorati: terrorism, nasrallah, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Regev, Goldwasser, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.

Divining Motives and Outcomes

There are a couple of things that I've been mulling over the course of the day. The GOP isn't in as bad shape as some are making things out to be. Sure, things look bleak now, but what exactly were the margins in a dozen of those races they lost. They're a lot closer than one would think when looking at the overall loss:

At a luncheon on the Hill today sponsored by FreedomWorks, Republican pollster Ed Goeas said that the losses we saw last night are average for mid-term elections, particularly mid-term elections in a time of war. He also said, “One of the things that is different from 1994, is that in 1994 when Republicans won 56 House seats, all but a handful were won by a range of 10 or more percent. Last night if you look at the election, of those 28 House seats, 22 were won by 2 percent or less — 22 of the 28. And of those, 18 were won by less than 5,000 votes, and four of those by less than a thousand votes.” Later he went over the numbers again, and concluded, “In other words you can basically go back and say that we lost control of Congress by 11 seats. You’re talking about less than 50,000 votes.”

So many races in the country, and so many decided by a few thousand votes each. Each independent vote has an impact beyond the borders of the district.

That's 50,000 votes out of the millions cast last night. It's the kind of razor thin margin that drives people absolutely insane (2000 and 2004 and now 2006). But here's what the GOP needs to consider going forward. What are they going to do to woo folks like me?

I'm a registered Democrat and I've found their national candidates wanting, their foreign policy laughable, and some of their domestic policies insincere and unserious. I know there are those who read this blog and think that I'm the reddest of red staters, but those folks cannot be more hopelessly wrong.

What policies and stands resonated with voters that will get the GOP back in office. Being against a thing is not the same as a policy. The Democrats will quickly learn this.

Democrats too will learn that razor thin margins carry a burden as well. Governing is not the same as ankle biting.

Let the GOP loss sting for a bit. That's pride talking. Hastert is gone. That's a start [and should have been gone after his laughable excuses for William Jefferson's malfeasance]. Now let's see what the GOP has in store for the next two years. That's two years the Democrats will have to either show that they mean to fight the war on terror and keep the nation safe or they're simply paying lip service.

The GOP also appeared to be more concerned about staying in government than limiting government. I think that makes a lot of sense. Quite a few GOPers got knocked out because they strayed from their conservative roots. Yet, what to make of the New Jersey GOP hold? How were they able to ride out the storm that cast out GOPers elsewhere, including in GOP strongholds in the South and West.

Democrats did a better job of convincing people that a change was needed, even though it was short on specifics.

Is this a race to the center? I'm not entirely convinced. It may have worked for Joe Lieberman in Connecticut against the nutroots. Will the Democrat leadership take the prudent and adult course of action, or are they going to revert to type - the type that has been spewing calls for impeachment from they found that the situation in Iraq wasn't to their liking.

Here's what the Democrats think are going to be the issues to deal with in the first 100 hours.

_Military: Force an immediate drawdown of troops in Iraq and conduct oversight hearings on missteps on the war. The announcement Wednesday that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was resigning met Democratic demands that he step down to take responsibility for the situation in Iraq.

_Intelligence: Increase attention given to emerging terrorist threats in Africa and Southeast Asia and devote more resources to North Korea and Iran. More oversight of terrorism and government surveillance.

_Minimum wage. Pass legislation to raise the minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour to $7.25.

_Energy and environment: Increase incentives for biodiesel, ethanol and other alternative fuels as well as wind, solar, geothermal and other sources of alternative energy. Renegotiate oil and gas leases that waived royalty payments to the government. Impose a national cap on industrial carbon dioxide emissions. Resist Bush's efforts to open more public lands to oil exploration.

_Judiciary: Conduct oversight hearings on treatment of terrorism detainees, domestic surveillance programs and President Bush's use of "signing statements" affecting some requirements in the laws he signs.

_Agriculture: Increase conservation programs and require more corn- based ethanol in motor fuel blends.

After reading through them, my concerns only grow. This is a party that realizes that we're at war with an intractable foe that doesn't surrender. It simply waits out its enemies until such time that things favor them.

I actually found that their general position on intel sounds reasonable enough. We do need to pay more attention to emerging threats in Africa and Southeast Asia. The devil is in the details. Will the Democrats unleash the CIA so that they can gather evidence or are they going to implement so many rules and hoops that gathering intel from unsavory sources is not allowed. And what about those intel leads that show emerging threats from those locations. Will the Democrats have the intestinal fortitude to actually deal with them instead of kicking them forward for someone else to deal with them?

The call for investigations on the military is laughable and simply the first step to defeat in Iraq. Our allies in Iraq and around the world are watching and counting their options since the Democrats appear more than willing to let our Iraqi allies hang out to dry all in order to claim to be supporting the troops and bringing them home.

The Democrats' energy policy is schizophrenic. And that's being charitable. They want increased incentives for biodiesel and other renewable sources, but they want to limit oil and gas exploration. They want more corn-based ethanol blends, despite the fact that the energy costs are far higher than if no action were taken.

They want to close the gap between the taxes owed and what's paid. How they intend to do that is unstated. The Democrats will settle for increased taxes, especially if the Bush cuts are allowed to expire January 1, 2010.

Raising the minimum wage affects how many people to be a key issue? This is a national issue of such significance that it demands action above and beyond other issues like the ongoing problems with the Army Corps of Engineers and the rebuilding following Katrina or the fact that our borders are so porous that no one has a real good idea of how many people are getting into the country illegally, let alone who is coming across our borders? I don't think so.

States have already chosen to deal with the matter of minimum wages locally. If they want to raise their state minimum wages above the federal minimum, they'll get to reap the rewards of lower job growth. Saddling the entire nation with a higher minimum wage makes the entry level position all the more scarce as employers will simply higher fewer people for those jobs. Wage growth depends on the region, and imposing a national solution not only distorts the marketplace, but puts yet more pressure on people leaving high cost of living areas for lower cost of living regions. Watch for an increased migration from the rust belt and northeast to the Southwest and Southeast, where costs of living are lower.

Technorati: bush, kean, lieberman, menendez, gop, democrat, election, politics, exit poll, diebold, voters, vote, 2006 elections, republicans, democrats.

Diplomacy and the Hounds of Hell, Part VIII

CNN is being used by Hizbullah to spread its message, and no one in CNN thought that odd? Actually, that's standard operating procedure for CNN, which had no problem trading access for journalistic integrity in Iraq and who knows where else. Newsbusters has the details. It isn't pretty. And one shouldn't think that this is limited to CNN. Other news outlets operating in Lebanon are similarly uncritically touting the Hizbullah line without saying as much.

You can bet that the media bias from these stories has an effect on world opinion and the opinions of those diplomats and politicians who are following the issue closely and are trying to determine foreign policy. If they're utilizing these media reports, they'd be coming to the precisely wrong conclusions. Rob at Say Anything has more. A transcript showing just how in bed CNN was with Hizbullah is here.

No one wants to commit troops to an international peacekeeping force, including the US. The US doesn't want to do it, and other European nations are reluctant to send troops because they are stretched too thin with committments elsewhere. That, and they know that Hizbullah has no problem targeting peacekeepers as easily as Israelis. There's also concern that the peacekeepers would be seen as allies to Israel, which is understandable. Israel is a country defending its very existence against Islamic terrorists. Many of the European countries are similarly fighting Islamic terrorists abroad and at home.

So, who would that leave as potential peacekeepers? Middle Eastern countries that have no relations with Israel or would conspire to assist the terrorists destroy Israel? China? Russia? That international peacekeeping force seems far less international when you start excluding countries that have interests antithetical to Israel's existence, or whose interests are something less than honorable here.

Has Hamas thrown in the towel? While some reports suggest that it looks like Hamas is on the verge of accepting a plan proposed by the Egyptians that would save Hamas from the war that they craved so badly, other reports suggest Hamas will not agree to any deal unless they get prisoner exchanges up front. From Ha'aretz:

All groups in Gaza, including Hamas, would now accept a cease-fire deal with Israel which would include releasing Gilad Shalit, according to the Palestinian Agriculture Minister, who also heads the coordinating committee of Palestinian organizations there.

Ibrahim Al-Naja said the factions were ready to stop the Qassam rocket fire if Israel's ceased all military moves against the Palestinian factions in Gaza. They are also ready to release Shalit in exchange for guaranteeing the future release of Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas leaders did not confirm this report yesterday, but if it is true, then this is the first time that Hamas has indicated its acceptance of the Egyptian proposal to solve the crisis.

Egypt's proposal did not include an Israeli commitment to the immediate release of Palestinian prisoners, only guarantees for their future release.

Al-Naja said the Palestinian faction's conditions were that the cease-fire would be mutual and Israel would stop all its actions against the Palestinians.

He also said Israel must provide clear guarantees to free veteran prisoners, minors and female prisoners incarcerated in Israel.

I'm not sure Israel would agree to these terms, but that Hamas is even proposing terms that are at least worthy of a second look shows that the Israelis have taught at least some Hamas a lesson. The problem is that Meshaal isn't going to like this one bit, and they'll claim victory for outlasting the Israelis, despite all the damage done by the Palestinians to their own cause. Dan Riehl also notes that Hamas is talking the talk for the first time because they're getting their butts kicked in a huge way. If he had his way, he'd want to see the Israelis eliminate Hizbullah and Hamas in toto, and not wait for a ceasefire. You do not make deals with terrorist groups that seek to annihilate you.

Secretary of State Rice is meeting with Prime Minister Olmert today, and you can be sure that they'll be discussing a timeline for how long the Israelis think they'll need to eliminate the Hizbullah threat from Northern Israel and what they're looking for in the long term.

Bloggers to check in with for daily updates are Blue Crab Boulevard, Carl in Jerusalem, Israellycool, Dave Bender, Meryl Yourish, Euphoric Reality, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Jameel at the Muqata, Greetings from the French Hill, R'Lazer, and Live from an Israeli Bunker. Check back with them regularly for updates.

One Israeli was killed and 48 wounded in rocket attacks today. Some in the media are wondering whether the ongoing violence will somehow temper the Israeli reaction and break their will to survive against the existentialist threat, though they're not framing the question that way. They simply want to know if the politicians in Israel will cave to international calls for a ceasefire. And yet, it appears that the current crisis has united Israelis in a way that hasn't happened in more than 30 years.

Israel continues to grind away at Hizbullah, killing more than 40 Hizbullah in and around Bint Jbiel. They're also destroying the rocket launchers used by Hizbullah to hit targets inside Israel, including Haifa.

Several Israelis thus far have been hit by 'friendly fire,' and the IDF is examining whether the helicopter that crashed yesterday was hit by an artillery barrage. Another potential friendly fire incident was averted in Bint Jbiel when controllers realized a mistake in coordinates being used by a UAV to direct fire.

UPDATE:
Via Ha'aretz, the first US aid shipments to Lebanon are arriving today. Israel will let the UN airlift humanitarian aid into Lebanon as well. So why is Saudi Arabia pledging $500 million? To offset the Iranian influence. Sunni v. Shi'ite. This conflict is revealing not for its renewal of the Israeli-Arab conflict, but for how Sunni and Shi'a governments throughout the Middle East and beyond are influencing the events.

Don't bring a knife to a gunfight and expect the gunslinger to put down his gun to engage you with a knife. Yet, that's exactly what Eugene Robinson thinks Israel is doing. He thinks Israel is engaging in disproportionate force against Hizbullah. His proof? Lots of buildings and infrastructure damaged or destroyed, along with civilian casualties. Sorry, but that doesn't cut it. Hizbullah is part of the Lebanese government, controls Southern Lebanon with a tight grip, and purposefully hides in plain sight - putting its military resources squarely within residential areas so as to invite civilian casualties in an Israeli reprisal. Hizbullah came to a gunfight with a knife, and now hopes that the world will call on Israel to put down its gun to deal with it in a knifefight. Sorry, but Nasrallah doesn't know the Chicago rules. And he and his terrorist minions are going to pay dearly for that miscalculation. Even Richard Cohen (yes, that Richard Cohen) gets it.

Perhaps Robinson should get his news from sources other than media outlets enthralled with getting footage in Beirut chaparoned by Hizbullah who are pushing their agenda at the cost of the facts. Quite a few of those buildings, and many of those so called civilians were anything but civilian targets. They were Hizbullah buildings, Hizbullah minions, and their infrastructure was going up in smoke because the IDF pinpointed where they were operating.

Israel will continue fighting to eliminate Hizbullah as a threat. As it must. And the world continues to look at an international peacekeeping force, though how it will look and be composed are up in the air. Are Western Democratic countries too nice to win?

What if Israel's caution about casualties among its own soldiers and Lebanese civilians has demonstrated to Hezbollah and Hamas that as long as they can duck and cover when the missiles fly and the bombs fall, they can survive and possibly even thrive?

What if Israel has every capability of achieving its aim, but cannot unleash itself against a foe more dangerous, more unscrupulous, more unprincipled and more barbaric than even the monstrous leaders of the Intifada it managed to quell after years of suicide attacks?

And as for the United States, what if we have every tool at our disposal to win a war - every weapons system we could want manned by the most superbly trained military in history - except the ability to match or exceed our antagonists in ruthlessness?

Is this the horrifying paradox of 21st century warfare? If Israel and the United States cannot be defeated militarily in any conventional sense, have our foes discovered a new way to win? Are they seeking victory through demoralization alone - by daring us to match them in barbarity and knowing we will fail?

Are we becoming unwitting participants in their victory and our defeat? Can it be that the moral greatness of our civilization - its astonishing focus on the value of the individual above all - is endangering the future of our civilization as well?

So, if the dovish approach doesn't work, the hawkish approach doesn't work, what are the alternatives?
There are no good alternatives. Stoic acceptance of terror attacks wont cut it, not when the threat of unconventional terror attacks with WMD is increasingly likely especially as Iran and North Korea pursue and extend their WMD capabilities. It doesn't leave any good options, which means one must choose the least bad option. To me, that's taking the fight to the terrorists.

John Podhoretz asks the question that keeps lurking. Can Israel win in the face of inflicting high casualties?

UPDATE:
As I first noted yesterday, Israel has more than its fair share of refugees from the fighting. More than 1 million Israelis are living in bunkers and bomb shelters because of the Hizbullah attacks (Israeli Ambassador Ayalon on Whiffleball with Matthews) A video report from Martin Fletcher has the details on the Israeli refugee situation (can access from here - follow link to Israel handling refugees and the recitation of the 300,000 comes about a minute+ into the video).

Meanwhile, Israel is fully in control of Bint Jbeil, and claims that many residents of Northern Israel will no longer come under fire of low trajectory rocket attacks, and that the IDF will soon surpress high trajectory rocket attacks.

The IDF Northern Command reported relative quiet on Tuesday, with few exchanges of fire. They posit that the deployment of artillery, infantry and armored brigades, which created "a finger hold" in southern Lebanon, is having the desired effect. IDF sources say that forces are working in a ways that utilize their relative advantage – they operate primarily at night, for example. According to the sources, Hizbullah casualties are very high.

At least one senior Hizbullah member operating in the Maroun al-Ras/Bnit Jbeil area was killed Tuesday as a result of IDF activities in the area. An IDF source told ynet that the operative was staying in a house serving as an operations room. He further reported that, while searching the houses, forces found many weapons, including light arms, Katyushas, and various kinds of missiles.

This is good news. Also good news: Israel terminated a Hizbullah regional commander. More buildings were targeted in Beirut, and while you can be sure that Hizbullah and some in the media will claim that only civilians were targeted, the fact is that Hizbullah is operating in these residential areas and that their infrastructure is getting hammered. The IDF is also attacking Hizbullah's communications infrastructure.

For a change, I agree with Ahmadinejad - those that caused this conflict will pay.

Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressed the current crisis on the Israeli-Lebanese border, saying, "The middle eastern storm is approaching.

Ahmadinejad added that "those who created the winds of the storm will pay the consequences." (AFP)

Only I think that my definition of who caused the conflict and his differs. Iran will suffer for its terrorist funding and support, and its role in spreading jihadis throughout the Middle East, turning Lebanon into a warzone, and its ongoing calls for Israel's annihilation.

The Saudis, meanwhile, continue flapping their jaws. They're worried that the situation might turn into a wider war. Here's a suggestion - have the Saudis stop funding Islamic terrorists and we might just avoid that wider war. They're also concerned about Lebanese sovereignty. Perhaps the Lebanese should have paid more attention to that subject before they ceded South Lebanon to Hizbullah and made the terrorist group part of the government. While that might have kept the country from sliding into yet another civil war, letting the terrorists and their backers in Syria and Iran pull strings meant that Lebanon was not fully in control of its territory - a violation of UN SCR 1559.

Syria has raised the alert level of its military, quite possibly because Hizbullah has been getting pasted by Israel. The Syrians may be weighing how to intervene, but they've got to know that if they do so, they'll receive a harsher pounding than the Israelis are dishing out to Hizbullah. Maybe they're hoping that if Israel does attack Syrian forces, it will get Iran into the act - unleashing one of their surprises. Either way, Israel has to honor the threat and work along the Syrian/Lebanese border to make it next to impossible for Syria to intervene within Lebanon.

In a minor flying pig moment, Russia's Vladamir Putin says the conflict in Lebanon shows the ineffectiveness of the UN.

UPDATE:
Olmert says that Israel has the stamina for a long fight. That remains to be seen. I hope that's true, but one shouldn't lay your strategy and tactics on hope. You need something more substantial than hope. The US says that the Israeli window for their ongoing efforts in Lebanon is 10-14 days. I doubt that's sufficient to finish the job, but it might give Northern Israel a break for a while - although it will do nothing to ensure the release of the Israeli soldiers being held by Hizbullah.

The UN continues to show that it is a failure. They claim that Israel used disproportionate force in Gaza. I refer you to the aforementioned Chicago rule - never bring a knife to a gunfight, especially when you're the one starting the fight with a knife. Hamas, that means you lose. At least the UN isn't trying to claim that Israel has no right to defend itself; a tact that it has tried in the past.

Iran says that it will protect Syria. That's nice, but who's going to protect Iran? It's not like Israel's enemies have a successful track record of beating Israel in any conflict.

UPDATE:
In another NBC video from yesterday's news, there's a curious scene. At 1:07-1:08 into the video featuring Richard Engel, there's an appearance of uncut US currency at what Engel describes as a financial center in Sidon. Doesn't that seem strange to anyone else? It did to some other folks. Why would uncut US currency be present at a bombed out financial services site? It's not like those uncut bills would be there unless someone was, ummm, what's the word I'm looking for, counterfeiting US currency?

There's good reason to believe that Hizbullah is using counterfeit bills to fund their operations, and the US Secret Service has been keeping tabs on this development as well. One has to believe that the Israelis just did the US a big favor in breaking a counterfeiting ring in addition to eliminating a source of funding for Hizbullah.

The NYT had an expose on counterfeit supernotes and among those involved and suspected of producing them: North Korea and Iran. One theory has Iran producing notes via intaglio presses obtained by the Shah from the US, and now passes them on to Lebanon via Syria.

It's always good to follow the money...

UPDATE:
Hizbullah is threatening attacks beyond Haifa, even as they say they were surprised by the Israeli response to their brazen invasion of Israel, the killing of eight Israeli soldiers, and their taking of two others into Lebanon. They have the audacity to say that they wont accept humiliating terms of a ceasefire? Gee, getting none of your demands isn't humiliation, but reality. You started a war you couldn't hope to win, you and your terror backers miscalculated bigtime, and you can still get out with your lives if you simply hand over the two Israeli soldiers and disarm. Hizbullah can even call that a victory. They survived longer than Israel's enemies did in 1967.

Meanwhile, four UN soldiers were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a UN outpost. Israel is investigating the matter. Expect the usual suspects to use this incident as grounds to call Israel to heel and stop their operations against Hizbullah.

Some are also throwing accusations that Israelis are utilizing human shields in their operations. Never mind that we repeatedly see Hizbullah and Hamas operating in civilian areas, these human rights groups are complaining about Israel and aren't complaining about Hamas or Hizbullah.

Israeli troops entered Gaza City. The IDF also surrounded a building in Ramallah. Rockets are still being fired into Israel.

The counterfeiting story is being discussed at LGF.

Others blogging the conflict: Jeff Weintraub, Boker Tov, Boulder, Gates of Vienna, Wizbang (and here), Blackfive, Powerline, The Jawa Report (and here), and AJ Strata.

UPDATE:
Texas Rainmaker wonders whether he's been operating under the wrong defintion of peace all these years based on the kind of pablum coming from various circles these days. Dr. Sanity notes that Israel's actions have had a clarifying effect on separating the decent Left from the indecent Left.

Others blogging: Jihad Watch, Pajamas Media, Soccer Dad, and Crossing the Rubicon2.

Technorati: terrorism, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Rains, Summer, cavaliers, wrath, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, lebanon, syria.

Government Computer InSecurity

DHS gets an F. So does nearly every other major federal agency and department. Absolutely awful.

The House Government Reform Committee released its annual report card on federal computer security and DHS — which got an F in 2004 — received another F for 2005.

The Department of Health and Human Resources, which would manage the bird flu if it reaches our shores, also got an F, as did the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Interior and Veterans Affairs. Joining them at the bottom was the State Department, which earned a D+ in 2004 but dropped to an F last year, and the Defense Department which slid from a D to an F for 2005. The overall grade for federal agency computer security was a dismal D+.

It's inexcusable that this situation has been allowed to persist - and I blame both Congress and the Administration for not dealing with the problem and forcing better security practices. There are still a few bits of information that are necessary to have a better idea of what is going on - how the government has done in prior years, the metrics involved (and whether they have changed), and what the private sector has done (for comparative purposes).

This report raises serious issues that should be addressed. But if that doesn't get your attention, maybe this story should raise concerns:

No more than 200 yards from the main gate of the sprawling U.S. base here, stolen computer drives containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, naming corrupt Afghan officials and describing American defenses are on sale in the local bazaar.

Shop owners at the bazaar say Afghan cleaners, garbage collectors and other workers from the base arrive each day offering purloined goods, including knives, watches, refrigerators, packets of Viagra and flash-memory drives taken from military laptops. The drives, smaller than a pack of chewing gum, are sold as used equipment.

The thefts of computer drives have the potential to expose military secrets as well as Social Security numbers and other identifying information of military personnel.

A reporter recently obtained several drives at the bazaar that contained documents marked "Secret." The contents included documents that were potentially embarrassing to Pakistan, a U.S. ally; presentations that named suspected militants targeted for "kill or capture," and discussions of U.S. efforts to "remove" or "marginalize" Afghan government officials considered "problem makers" by the U.S. military.

Operational security could be jeopardized because of inadequate security at any point, including the possibility of it being stolen by someone taking the entire computer or hard drives that are inadequately wiped of sensitive information before being discarded.

UPDATE:
What to make of this story that supposedly sensitive details about Air Force One were posted to the Internet? The Officers Club and Wizbang have more. Let's just say that one should have a wee bit of skepticism over what was reported and whether it actually revealed anything useful or even remotely sensitive. Simultaneously, one has to wonder whether the media should have run this particular story in the first place.

However, it does feed into the larger problem of security breaches and data security by government entities. It is a problem that must be addressed sooner rather than later.

Rethinking the Ports Deal

While the Dubai Ports World has agreed to delay the deal so that lawmakers can take another look at the proposed takeover, we're finally seeing a debate on port security emerging. This is long overdue.

By a decade. Or more. Ad Ed notes:

In the end, the increased scrutiny of the deal may be the biggest boon of the debate; we're finally talking about port and border security, and Congress and the Administration is finally listening. I think Krauthammer has it correct that the deal will likely go through; however, we may wind up with better focus and security at our commercial ports as a result of the controversy.

This would be a good thing - improved security at the ports is a paramount concern, but let's hope the focus is expanded to border control in general, which both sides of the aisle are loath to address.

New Jersey is also looking to sue to block the deal. That's on the heels of the PANY/NJ lawsuit to intervene.

UPDATE:
This story about Vado Diomande and how he contracted inhalation anthrax from cattle skins he brought into the US from the Ivory Coast to make drums shows how much of our border control and baggage/cargo checks rely on the honor system to safeguard against threats.

Officials suspect that the skins he bought during his two-week trip to Africa ultimately made him sick with inhalation anthrax — an extremely rare affliction, and a development that for New Yorkers amounted to a jarring flashback to the scares of October 2001.

Interviews and records show that the authorities had at least two chances to prevent the spread of the disease and that both, in the end, depended on Mr. Diomande's telling them the details about what he was bringing back from Africa. As of yesterday, it appeared he had not, officials said.

The first time that Mr. Diomande, who lives in Greenwich Village, was obligated to inform authorities about his purchases was when he packed the shipments of goatskins to send them out of Ivory Coast as cargo. A law enforcement official said that Mr. Diomande shipped the skins in a plane's cargo hold, not as part of his carry-on bags or checked personal luggage. It is unclear on what date he did this.

But United States Customs and Border Protection officials in New York and Washington say that if Mr. Diomande had followed regulations precisely, an entry form filed with a Customs broker would have spelled out what was being imported.

The second opportunity for Mr. Diomande to reveal his cargo was when he flew to Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 20, on an American Airlines flight. He was subjected to standard questioning, but officials say it appears he did not tell anyone of his shipment. Had he said anything at any point, a long list of standard procedures would have kicked in. Customs agents say they would have debriefed him more thoroughly, and federal agriculture officials very likely would have become involved.

"Absolutely, there are questions on the Customs declarations asking if the person is importing any type of animals, plants or meats, or whether they have been on a farm," said Lucille Cirillo, a supervisory Customs and Border Protection officer in the New York field office. "All the indications that I have gotten are that Mr. Diomande did not declare anything on his Customs declaration on the 20th of December."

She added that in "everything I looked at from his travel, there is nothing to indicate he had skins. If he had them, he should have declared them."

Experts in the field say that Mr. Diomande's case makes clear a fundamental reality: it is all but impossible to systematically stop the entrance of all potentially lethal germs, whether anthrax or other organisms, in plants, insects or animals. The ports are porous, and systems are not in place to inspect everything, law enforcement officials said. So, little winds up being thoroughly reviewed, in part to keep the travel and commerce of the world moving. And, despite the presence of security agents, a great deal hinges on the honor system.

So, for all the talk about Dubai Ports World and the potential security threats that deal may pose, there are other more serious security loopholes that need to be addressed as well.

Technorati: port security, port authority, dubai, national security, foreign investment.

Able Danger: Debunking the Bunk

This is a thought provoking commentary about the Able Danger mess.

No one has said Able Danger is a figment of Weldon’s Lucky Charmed imagination. Far from it. Indeed, the Post article on Saturday revealed that there’s a second DIA analyst who has come forward to confirm that a Pentagon unit had detected the hijackers were in the US, but that the unit was ordered to move onto other things, and the FBI was wasn’t notified. The Commissioners still say that information wasn’t passed up to them by Phil Zelikow. That’s a gravely serious matter that needs to be investigated.

Most of the the Able Danger debunking effort seems to be an ad hominem attack on Curt Weldon and an attempt to deflect attention from the bigger picture. Weldon is almost beside the point. Let’s focus on what the DIA guys were saying to Zelikow. There are two DIA intelligence officers who have confirmed that Army Intelligence produced a matrix that showed the primary 9/11 hiajckers inside the U.S. months before the attacks. It was irresponsible in the extreme for the staff director to have thrown this information away and not tell the Commissioners about it, if indeed he didn’t.

The material questions about Weldon’s claim seem to devolve into three very slim, almost irrelevant, issues. Those issues are 1) whether the chart had Atta’s name on it — note, no one is contesting that there was a DoD chart produced that showed four al-Qaeda-linked terrorists detected inside the US — 2) whether it had Atta inside the US in late 1999 or in mid-2000 (note, that’s a discrepancy that needs to be checked out, not something that should have led to Zelikow throwing the information out); and 3) that the UBL cell on the chart was designated the “Brooklyn Cell”, and nothing places Atta in Brooklyn. Well, the chart isn’t about Atta — it’s about al-Qaeda, which I recall had substantial (in the $$$millions) financial ties to the al-Farooq mosque in Brooklyn. What this seems to actually reveal is that DoD was aware in 1999 of funding sources that flowed from the mosque to the UBL cells then preparing an attack inside the U.S. Serious stuff. Should have been thoroughly investigated by the Commission, but apparently wasn’t. Why?

Well, those are the questions I've been asking, haven't I.

You know you're going to be in for some rough treatment when Mark Steyn weighs in. The 9/11 Commission should be advised to batten down the hatches, stow all luggage, and return their seats to the locked and upright position. Turbulence ahead.

So, when the September 11 Commission starts saying there's "no way" something can happen when it happens every single day of the week, you start to wonder what exactly is the point of an official investigation so locked-in to pre-set conclusions.

For example, they seemed oddly determined to fix June 3, 2000, as the official date of Atta's first landing on American soil -- though there were several alleged sightings of him before, including a bizarre story he had trained at Maxwell/Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. Atta was a very mobile guy in the years before September 11, shuttling between Germany, Spain, Afghanistan, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the Philippines with effortless ease. I've no hard evidence of where he was in, say, April 2000. The period between late 1999 and May 2000 is, in many ways, a big blur. He might have been in Germany -- or in Florida, attempting to get a U.S. Farm Service Agency loan for the world's biggest crop duster, as reported by Agriculture Department official Johnell Bryant, local bank officials and others.

But I do know it's absurd to suggest he was never in the United States until June 3, 2000, simply because the INS says so.

September 11 was a total government fiasco: INS, CIA, FBI, Federal Aviation Administration, all the hotshot acronyms failed spectacularly. But appoint an official commission and let them issue an official report and suddenly everyone says, oh, well, this is the official version of September 11. If they say something didn't happen, it can't possibly have happened.

Readers may recall that I never cared for the commission. There were too many showboating partisan hacks -- Richard ben Veniste, Bob Kerrey -- who seemed more interested in playing to the rhythms of election season. There was at least one person with an outrageous conflict of interest: Clinton Justice Department honcho Jamie Gorelick, who shouldn't have been on the commission but instead a key witness. And there were far too many areas where members seemed interested only in facts that supported a predetermined outcome.

Maybe we need a September 11 Commission Commission to investigate the September 11 Commission. A body intended to reassure Americans that the lessons of that terrible day had been learned instead engaged in at best transparent politicking and collusion in posterior-covering and at worst something a much darker and more disturbing.

Curiously strong language. Good for Steyn.

UPDATE:
Jim Geraghty slams Rep. Weldon for getting just enough facts right to get people talking (about Weldon), but missing the key details - like just what Able Danger was able to determine before 9/11 (you know, the mention of Atta and three other 9/11 terrorists). Accountability works both ways, and Weldon is plum out if the DoD information release does not present any new information that would back up Weldon's assertions.

Again, we go back to square one, which is how did Weldon get this information - and that has been under question for some time although he appeared to get the information from members of the Able Danger team. Also, why did no one on the team step forward sooner with this information, even as an anonymous source to speak with the press - we know that happens all the time, so why not on a program that appeared to pull the names before the attacks.

We're still left wondering why the Commission did not include the Able Danger report(ing) in its Report, if only as a footnote to show that it had done its due diligence. There are still aspects of the Report that should get a closer examination, but sadly that closer examination may not happen because of Weldon's actions.

And Geraghty updates himself because one of the Able Danger team will be on television tonite, so we'll have to see what comes of that. (via levi from queens, posting at LGF.)