| November 19, 2007 Edition |
Victory in IraqThe Washington TimesTony Blankley It has become obligatory for both pro- and antiwar commentators to never mention the possibility of victory in Iraq. The most that antiwar people will admit is that the surge has gained a temporary military advantage in a war that cannot be won militarily. The most pro-war commentators will claim is that they see the possibility of "success" perhaps, maybe, someday, somehow. But as of Veterans Day 2007, I think one can claim a very real expectation that next year the world may see a genuine, old-fashioned victory in the Iraq War. In five years we will have overturned Saddam's government, killed, captured or driven out of country almost all al Qaeda terrorists, suppressed the violent Shi'ite militias and induced the Sunni tribal leaders and their people to shun resistance and send their sons into the army and police and seek peaceful resolution of disputes. Full Story |
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| QUOTE OF THE WEEK |
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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Mark Twain |
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| PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES, EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS |
Ahmadine-JetsWelcome to the Iranian Air Force.The Weekly StandardReuben F. Johnson In the old westerns, it was not uncommon to see a final showdown in which the white hats confront the black hats with an accusation of perfidy: "So it's you that's been sellin' rifles to those Injuns." Something like these recriminations is taking place on an international scale now, although there is more than one seller and the consequences are more ominous. In late October, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that China's Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group will sell 24 of its new-generation Jian-10 (J-10) fighter aircraft to Iran in a contract valued at $1 billion. The Moscow-based daily received the information from a source inside HESA--a division of the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing consortium. This would be the first purchase of a new-generation combat system by the Iranian air force since the early 1990s. Full Story Hugo Chavez's Most Dangerous Enemy? It's Chavez HimselfReal Clear PoliticsIan Bremmer In proven and unproven reserves, Venezuela is believed to control some 270 billion barrels of oil, the deepest supply in the world. As crude prices lurch toward $100 per barrel, President Hugo Chavez would appear to hold the only weapon he needs to further tighten his grip on domestic political power and extend his foreign-policy influence. But a close look at how his government milks the country's cash cow suggests he has serious cause for concern. Chavez remains popular at home, but if Venezuela's economy turns south and state spending on popular social programs is substantially cut, he may not be popular for long. His fortunes increasingly depend on the future of Venezuela's oil production, because the government's cash comes almost exclusively from the country's state-run energy giant, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Full Story Note on a bombWashington TimesAustin Bay A U.S. air base in southwest Asia. -- Today, I put a note on a bomb. To be specific, I took a jet black marking pen and inscribed a 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition - JDAM, in the jargon. Perhaps putting a note on a bomb strikes some as either romantic, foolish or vicious - or a combination of the three. The act certainly has shades, colors and dollops of all these characteristics, and a harsh dash of steeling sentimentalism. These are the predictable psycho-babble carps. But let's get to the tacks: In my case, the act is motivated by a megaton of deserved anger. Full Story 
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| BREAKING NEWS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Flunking IranIf the new IAEA assessment of Tehran's nuclear behavior were a report card, most of the grades would be F's.NewsweekChristopher Dickey Do Iran's leaders want to be punished? Do they want China and Russia to fall in with the United States, France, Britain and Germany to impose tougher sanctions? Do they want to see the leaders of the Arab world united against them? Do they want to mix it up with Israel and the United States? Of course Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his gang don't say that, but the juvenile games they're playing with the international community make them look more like dangerous delinquents every day. The report on Iran's nuclear program released by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday afternoon offers the most recent case in point. If it were a report card, it would give three grades, and two of them would be F's. Full Story Airport-Security BluesNew York PostLinda Chavez Just in time for the busiest travel week of the year, we have this news from the General Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm: It's relatively easy to get bomb-making materials through security checkpoints and onto airplanes. A group of undercover GAO workers apparently did so recently, managing to get past baggage screeners at 19 airports - despite new rules intended to prevent precisely this kind of thing from happening. Is this just holiday hype, or are we really vulnerable to another 9/11-style plot? According to the report, investigators found two types of devices that terrorists could use to cause an explosion in the air. Full Story Our Pakistan ChallengeSomething good can come out of the emergency.The Weekly StandardDaniel Twining Pakistan is the swing state in the worldwide struggle against Islamic terrorists. Its decisive position makes Pervez Musharraf's imposition of martial law on November 3 a hard test for American foreign policy. Musharraf moved to preempt a constitutional ruling that would have challenged his dual role as army chief and Pakistan's president. In suspending the constitution and declaring emergency rule, he usurped the powers of the judiciary, parliament, and the press and moved swiftly to round up thousands of political opponents. "Everything that is happening today is illegal," declared deposed supreme court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as he was placed under house arrest. Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto called it Pakistan's "darkest day." Full Story With Attack on Gaza Protestors, Hamas Loses Palestinian Hearts and MindsWorld Politics ReviewFrida Ghitis Palestinian men, women and children, poured into the streets of Gaza City on Monday, determined to make a statement on the third anniversary of the Yasser Arafat's death. Precisely what statement they wished to make remains a matter of some debate. Was it love for the late Arafat, founder of Hamas rival Fatah, or a yearning for a return to the pre-Hamas days? Whatever the marchers meant to say, Hamas leaders read the crowd, estimated at about 200,000, as a threat to their iron-fisted grip on Gaza. Hamas gunmen opened fire with live bullets on the sea of demonstrators, killing seven, including a 14-year-old boy. Then they set out to round up Fatah leaders who organized the ill-fated march. Full Story A Radical Cleric Gets ReligionNewsweekRod Nordland It wasn't so long ago that U.S. commanders considered Moqtada al-Sadr to be the greatest threat to stability in Iraq. Now the Shiite firebrand's stock among the Americans may be rising. Since declaring a ceasefire for his Mahdi Army militia last August, Sadr has effectively disappeared from public life, designating five trusted aides to speak on his behalf. NEWSWEEK has learned that some of those deputies have been secretly meeting with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, to discuss cooperation on improving security, according to two sources who declined to be identified because of the subject's sensitivity. The general's spokesman, Col. Steven Boylan, qualified that assertion, explaining that while Petraeus has not met with Sadr, "the command has indeed had direct engagements with some of his people within the [Sadr] organization ...to assist with reconciliation efforts." Full Story |
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| JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
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To view the latest contract opportunities at Blackwater, visit our Contract Web Page. TO FILL OUT AN APPLICATION AND SUBMIT YOUR RESUME CLICK HERE Questions regarding Security Consulting or Training at Blackwater (252) 435-2488 or email webmaster@blackwaterusa.com. |
| SECURITY FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Break-in at nuclear site baffles South AfricaInternational Herald TribuneMichael Wines This much is known: Just after midnight on Nov. 8, Anton Gerber was sitting with his fiancée in the control room of South Africa's most secretive nuclear facility, the site at which this nation's apartheid government conceived and delivered six atomic bombs, when four gunmen burst into the room. Gerber pushed his fiancée under a desk. The attackers shot him in the chest, grabbed a computer and fled, but abandoned their booty as they came under assault by guards. Now, one week after the assault, the most serious on a nuclear installation in recent memory, the government is largely mum about who was behind it, how they broke in or why. Full Story Khan's MiscalculationThe opposition leader thought Pakistani students would back him against Musharraf. The Islamists didn't.NewsweekRon Moreau Imran Khan, the former cricket star and now a strident opposition politician in Pakistan, knew he was running a serious risk by finally appearing in public. He had successfully eluded Pakistani security forces for 11 days after the police had burst into his Lahore house at 1:30 a.m. on the day after President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule. Rather than surrender, Khan had bolted out the back door, vaulted over two walls and escaped to a relative's house. Working underground and moving daily to a different house to avoid arrest, he was determined to unite the divided opposition and to motivate seemingly indifferent university students to join what he hoped would be a concerted street protest movement against the president and his unpopular emergency decree. Full Story Turkey Tries to Ban Pro-Kurd PartyTimeSelcan Hacaoglu Turkish authorities on Friday took steps to ban the country's leading pro-Kurdish political party and expel several of its lawmakers from parliament on charges of separatism. The Democratic Society Party, which won 20 seats in parliament in July, last week called for autonomy for Kurds living in the country's southeast. The call came amid tension over how to deal with separatist Kurdish rebels, with the military preparing for a possible cross-border offensive against their bases in northern Iraq. Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said in a statement "that speeches and actions by party leaders have proved that the party has become a focal point of activities against the sovereignty of the state and indivisible unity of the country and the nation." Full Story Colombia's City On A HillMedellín goes from murder capital to model city.NewsweekDaniel Kurtz-Phelan Five years ago the hillside slum of Comuna 13 was the most brutal urban battleground in Latin America, a bloody microcosm of Colombia's drug-fueled civil war. Left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and well-armed drug gangs, often indistinguishable despite their ostensibly conflicting aims, had been fighting over the territory for years. Government, for most purposes, did not exist. In 2002, the casualty count for Comuna 13-in chaotic street fights, targeted assassinations and neighborhood-wide "cleansings"-numbered in the hundreds. Full Story French StandoffTimeBruce Crumley Like falling leaves in the Luxembourg Gardens and chestnut hawkers on the Champs-Elysées, public sector strikes are an almost inevitable feature of autumn in France. But this season there is an extra crispness to the recurring collision of labor entitlement and government reform. Unlike any of his recent predecessors, President Nicolas Sarkozy is willing to bet his entire mandate on victory in this decisive show-down with unions. He may, in fact, have little choice. The current tussle, which halted train travel throughout France and paralyzed Paris in recent days, stems from government plans to raise the retirement age for public-sector employees such as rail and utility workers. That's something successive governments have attempted repeatedly since the '80s, only to be thwarted by union-led opposition. Full Story |
| TACTICAL TRAINING & INTELLIGENCE RESOURCES FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
The Defender Project
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Blackwater Alumni now accepting Friends of BlackwaterEric R. Poole, ManagerCorporate Communications The new Blackwater Alumni Association has created Friends of Blackwater, inviting anyone interested in supporting Blackwater Worldwide. In light of recent events, Blackwater has received an outstanding quell of support for the highly regarded services that it provides. No prerequisite is required to join and being a friend entitles you to many benefits and communications exclusive to those in support of the private contracting service industry. If you would like to join what will become one of the most important and far-reaching tools used to keep the Blackwater family connected and informed, please visit www.blackwateralumni.com. Benefit List |
| FRANKS REVIEW |
Tactical Equipment EvaluationTactical Businessman: A Different Threat ZoneWhen I sat down to start typing this, even after doing the testing and research, I had to wonder just how serious it would be taken. A "tactical businessman"? Let me be clear: I'm not talking about the stock broker or lawyer who simply enjoys the idea that he owns stuff designed for today's warriors. I'm talking about today's warriors who often find themselves in the business or corporate (or similar) environment and don't want to sacrifice readiness. The following is a list of items, and how they've performed (as I've been able to test them) that you might find yourself carrying, wearing or using, along with that shirt and tie.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/evals/other/business.htm
Recreational Equipment ReviewWarrior Wear Boots for all conditionsHaving been a police officer for more than two decades I've had my share of working in the hot summer, the cold winter, rain, snow, slush and dry conditions. When I started out, two decades ago, it was a challenge to find boots that would keep your feet warm in the winter but not sweating in the summer. What was really needed was a type of boot that matched certain standards in fit and comfort, but then had different design features depending on the intended environment. Enter BlackHawk's Warrior Wear boots designed for warriors, but ideal for the outdoorsman.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/recevals/apparel/wwboots.htm |
| CHAPLAINS CORNER |
COGITATINGBecause you are precious in My sight and honored, and because I love you, I will give men in return for you and peoples in exchange for your life. Isaiah 43:4 (Amplified Bible)Cogitate - Worldnet Definition - consider carefully and deeply; reflect upon; turn over in one's mind... As I sit here in my office looking at my surroundings. In front of me is a desk pad with a large calendar covered with post-it notes... a long list of frequently used phone numbers... my keyboard... a mouse pad illustrating the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (I am a train nut and that is my favorite railroad)... on the top of the desk are two computers, a calculator, a multi-function printer, several file holders, a multiple line telephone and very little clear space. There is a home-built hutch on top of the desk with a clear opening so that I may view my TV-DVD-VCR across the room. The hutch is filled with notebook binders that are each filled with assembled information pertinent to my duties and the instruction Lesson plans that I have compiled and taught... Plus several different translations of the Bible and other religion based books. My immediate work area is three sided, within arm's length, and I am surrounded by things that are of value to me... and books... stacked almost to the ceiling books. Across the room to my right are my ego walls covered with certificates, awards and other items pertinent to my life and career. Included there are my law enforcement diplomas and a photo of me by the ghost car occasionally assigned to me when I was a trooper, two U.S. Flags in quarter-circle bunting, two military knives awarded to me for service to the Peace Keepers of the military and law enforcement, a full scale model of my last service Glock 17 in a presentation case, my Scottish Family Coat of Arms and a reproduction Scottish Claymore (two handed broad sword for those not Scottish), a large scale model of a beautiful Harley flanked by a beautiful red-head in leathers (my deceased wife, Sue, was Red head and I gave up my first Harley for her) and surrounded by an eagle and other smaller scale Harleys (one of which is like my first one). On the left wall just beyond my desk is a bookcase filled with railroad scale models of steam locomotives and video recordings of steam locomotives which I use for background noise when I want to work without any distractions. http://www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2007/article/111907chaplain.htm |
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