Nuclear Beef

Many of my peers consider security contractors in Iraq to be something like bloodthirsty, greedy mercenaries.

I think that I have a different perspective on security contractors in Iraq because I know just how many people need security, and how few of them are directly related to anything sinister. I also don't assume and impugn the profit motive and severely as my peers.

From Rich Galen's Mullings, here is an example of why :

The bad guys, also wanting to mark the anniversary, blew up a hotel in downtown Baghdad. It was not immediately clear what the hotel had done to anger the bad guys, but they put about 1,000 lbs of explosives into a car, had some poor schmuck drive the car down the street and then blew it, him, and seven innocent people to smithereens.

There is a very small part of that story which I want to share with you:

Many organizations here have what are called PSDs - Personal Security Details. These are private companies who are hired to provide bodyguards to various and sundry civilian employees.

One of the guys who manages a PSD unit is named Russ Preston. Russ and his team do not live in the Green Zone, they live in Baghdad proper. As it happens they live near the hotel which was blown up the other night.

When the bomb went off, Russ ran into the building to help pull out victims. This is a photo of that activity captured by Amman Awad for Reuters:

Personal Security Detail guys get paid well. But I guarantee you, Russ ain't paid to do this.

Fern. Bob. Chad. Russ.

Civilian. Reserve. Active Duty. Retired. They each rushed into danger to help, in their own way, people they didn't even know.

The image in question is below the MT cut. Look at it and tell me that Russ is a mercenary and deserves to die for what he does in Iraq.

Posted by darwin at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Iraqi Group Threatens to Kill Italian Hostages

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) - A group holding three Italians hostage in Iraq has threatened to kill them in five days unless Italians take to the streets to publicly denounce their country's involvement in the U.S.-led occupation.
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Al Arabiya television aired a tape Monday showing the men, together with images of a statement dated April 25.
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"We tell you, we will show good faith and free them...if you sympathize with our cause, show solidarity with us and publicly reject the policy of your prime minister by staging a big demonstration in your capital to protest against the war and call on your government to withdraw from our country," Arabiya quoted the purported kidnappers as saying in a statement. "We grant you five days, after which we will kill them without any hesitation or any other warning," added the statement, signed by a group calling itself the Green Brigade.

These Italians were kidnapped with Fabrizio Quattrocchi.

That's right, the Green Brigade is calling on the activist community to protest. Or else.. they'll murder some more Italians.

I guess they still consider protest relevant.

Posted by darwin at 02:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

S-U-C-C-E-S-S! THAT'S THE WAY YOU SPELL SUCCESS!

Posted by darwin at 02:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an entry of Odds and Ends which I want to share with folks. Matters of No Importance which are unlikely to result in an argument. Sometimes, everyone has to take a break from being an Evil Genius.

First, we have GreasePig and their impressively obsessive SF Streets and Smoki projects. I found this site through their excellent Journey Through The Menu at Henry's Hunan, which is a must visit for anyone who loves Henry's as much as I do.

The rule is this: to finish a street, I have to travel the length of it either by foot or bike (possibly motorcycle, I haven't made up my mind yet). Then I take pictures and give a review of the street.

1. Open Transport Tycoon, a open-source clone of the classic Chris Sawyer (RollerCoaster Tycoon) game. This is particularly notable in light of the comprehensive TTDPatch and Sawyer's own plans for an updated TTD called 'Locomotion'.
2. Sid Meier's Pirates! is getting an update by the man himself. I can't even explain how excited I am about this.
3. The Bard's Tale from Faran Brygo 's new Inexile Entertainment. (Who have recently applied for the 'Wasteland' trademark..)

UPDATE : confluence.org is a similar (very neat) obsessive project.

Posted by darwin at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Perception of Bias Undermines Media

A recent survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press finds that the public believes the news media are politically biased. So what else is new? Several things, actually, all of which bode ill for both journalism and democracy.

When the Pew Center did the same survey in 1987, a solid majority believed that election coverage was free of bias. Today, only 38 percent do ? including the usually high number of conservative skeptics but now, notably, more liberals than ever. Fewer Americans of whatever political stripe trust the media to give them political news straight.

And fewer Americans rely on traditional news media for political news. Pew found that more of us, especially young adults, are turning to the Internet for political news and - heaven help us - to political comedy programs. Naturally, those who get campaign information from The Daily Show prove to be poorly informed. An increasing number of us seem interested in learning political news only from media that tell us what we want to hear.

This editorial from The Dallas Morning News (via O,TLM!) speaks clearly to blurring of the thin line between news and entertainment in the television news era.

It's also a newspaper Op-Ed which disses people who get their news from the Daily Show. As my friends can surely tell you, I get cranky when I meet people with strong political views who appear to have been educated solely by Jon Stewart's comedic patter.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Daily Show is hilarious. I just think many of my peers take it, like SNL before it, too seriously. It is, after all, just comedy, and Al Franken has convinced himself he's a political activist! Isn't he 'Pat'?

(Yes, I know he's not 'Pat' ... I don't like Al Franken.)

Posted by darwin at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Muslims Are The New Negroes

MANAMA, Bahrain (Reuters) - Pop star Michael Jackson's brother, Jermaine, in the Gulf to promote understanding between Muslims and his fellow Americans, said Tuesday that Muslims are "the new Negroes in America."

Jermaine, a convert to Islam and dressed in white Arab garb, has been speaking about Islam and U.S. "adventures" in Iraq to enthusiastic audiences at Koranic centers and universities in the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain.

"I think Muslims have become the new Negroes in America. They are being mistreated at airports, by the Immigration -- everywhere," he said.
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He disapproved of Muslim extremism, which has been on the rise in the wake of the U.S. occupation of Iraq last year.

"I understand their feelings but do not approve of their methods. Islam is a religion of peace. They are wrong," he said.

I wonder if anyone has pointed out to Jermaine that the Nation of Islam actually has not much to do with the Religion of Islam. I wondered about how Michael got suckered into joining the NOI, but it makes sense now. Jermaine apparently converted in 1989, and the NOI is very effective at exploiting black celebrities in crisis.

I just wish someone would point out to Mikey that the NOI was founded by a pretty kooky dude who claimed race war was imminent.

In the 1930s. Hum.. it's a little late arriving. I bet the other prophecy is credible too.

BABYLON fills herself up with people of that sort. The U.S.A. came into the Western Hemisphere and chasten and all but annihilated the Indians. But, America invited every one of the poor class, who wanted to come from Europe, to make themselves a home here in America, the Indian's country.

ALL of the poor and evil citizens of Europe, America welcomed them. She invited every race of the earth to come and join in with her in a free country where evil and filth are openly practiced without hindrance.

AMERICA has done just this. She has filled up her country with all evil people. America did not allow Islam nor a preacher of Islam, to come into her country, America did not want good religion taught. America made a religion that she could rule and control herself. She made it attractive to the eyes and ears of those who see and hear it, by teaching them basically that there was three Gods instead of teaching them the teachings of Moses and the prophets -- the Teaching of One God.
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ANOTHER prophecy warns us that 'Babylon is falling never to rise again.' In this warning it teaches you that the country and people of Modern Babylon will become like the people and city of Ancient Babylon that was destroyed and has not risen up a people or a city since its destruction.
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AS LONG as you are in the name of the white slave-master you belong to the white slave-master And regardless to what you believe and regardless to how mighty you think that you are, you will not be accepted by the Black People and the God of Our Black People, if you have the name of white people and if you are in the religion of Christianity.

Gosh, Elijah Muhammad sure was batshit crazy! The greatest thing about these nutjobs is that I can call them nutjobs without people considering me Islamophobic... because they're not actually Islamic.

Just in case, in the immortal words of Jermaine Jackson :

Islam is a religion of peace.

Posted by darwin at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

EPA Approved ICBMs

In order to comply with EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) regulations, and at a cost of about $5.2 million per ICBM, the rocket motors on 500 Minuteman III missiles will be replaced with new ones. These rockets will emit less toxic chemicals when used. But the new, environmentally correct rockets will be heavier than the old ones, and will thus have a shorter range than the original motors. The actual range of the Minuteman III has been classified, but is thought to be nearly 10,000 kilometers, based on where the missiles are stationed and where the original Russian targets were. Thus, if the Minuteman III ICBMs have to be used in some future nuclear war, their rocket motors will not pollute the atmosphere. EPA regulations do not apply in foreign countries, so no changes are being made to reduce the harmful environmental effects of the nuclear warheads.

I'm not going to profane the perfect beauty of this link by trying to crack wise.

S. on the hooks.

Posted by darwin at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Michael Moore is Not Human

First, can we stop the Orwellian language and start using the proper names for things? Those are not "contractors" in Iraq. They are not there to fix a roof or to pour concrete in a driveway. They are MERCENARIES and SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE. They are there for the money, and the money is very good if you live long enough to spend it.

Halliburton is not a "company" doing business in Iraq. It is a WAR PROFITEER, bilking millions from the pockets of average Americans. In past wars they would have been arrested -- or worse.

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush? You closed down a friggin' weekly newspaper, you great giver of freedom and democracy! Then all hell broke loose. The paper only had 10,000 readers! Why are you smirking?

Can you hear how badly Moore wants the (yes) terrorists and insurgents in Iraq to win? The contempt in his voice for the "mercenaries" who provide security for the reconstruction effort?

What are these brave, valiant revolutionaries up to in Iraq these days?

Now I'll Show You How an Italian Dies!

THE Italian hostage murdered in Iraq used his last words to spit defiance at his killers. As a pistol was pointed at his head, security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi shouted: 'Now I'll show you how an Italian dies!'

Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said yesterday: 'This boy, as the assassins were pointing the gun at him, tried to take off his hood.

'He shouted at them. He died as a hero.'

Quattrocchi, 35, was shot in the back of the neck as another kidnapper filmed the execution. He is the first western hostage known to have been killed in the current crisis.

Fabrizio Quattrocchi died a man.

Michael Moore can't even live as one.

Posted by darwin at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (38)

I've heard lots of snide commentary mocking the idea that the very foundation of our pluralistic, secular, democratic society is offensive to those who wage Jihad on us. Surely nobody could hate equal rights for women, or the idea of secular democracy. After all, it's 2004, not 1504!

Someone should tell these Jihadis that.

The Iraqi Rebels Show Me Their Latest Victim: A German In a Pool of Blood

Here in the lawless Sunni Triangle, the mujahideen had been on edge, waiting nervously for US marines to launch a powerful attack in the area in retaliation for the murder of four American security contractors in Fallujah, a hotbed of anti-American resistance west of the Iraqi capital. Even though I was British, and therefore deeply suspect, the mujahideen had agreed to let me live among them in a small town a few miles from Fallujah, giving me a rare insight into their way of life as they braced themselves for American reprisals.
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When the commander explained the mujahideen's motivation to me, he said that they would fight the coalition, the Iraqi Governing Council - whose members they denounce as collaborators and placemen - and any of Saddam Hussein's supporters.
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"We do not hate the Americans and British, we hate the ideas they have brought here. We will now fight every person who tries to bring those ideas, including the Iraqi Governing Council. "We do not want their capitalism, we do not want communism. We have our own ideas about how we want our country to be run in a Muslim way. We support the Shia leader Muqtada Sadr, not because of his ideas; they are not good or bad. We are supporting him with money, weapons and men because he is against the Americans."

Could it be any more clear that the warriors of Jihad are fundamentally opposed to what most of the West considers modern civilization?

They are will to reap its rewards (for example the AK-47s they are armed with) but are unwilling to pay the price of modernizing (liberalizing) their culture. For an idea of the "Muslim Way" they wish on Iraq, see Afghanistan under the Taliban.

So, yes. They hate freedom. Obviously this is not the sole motivation of every Iraqi upset about the occupation, but it is the motivation of the mujahideen and to deny this is silly.

UPDATE: Christopher Hitchens in this book review :

I was very struck recently by seeing Tom Cruise's appalling movie The Last Samurai, where an American adventurer takes the side of feudal and tribal chivalry in Japan, presumably because of its self-annihilating authenticity, but realizes during the course of several destructive massacres that the samurai ethos will not survive in the face of modernity. What is needed, he concludes, is a fusion or synthesis between new weapons and old ideas. It's bad enough that an American, even a Scientologist, could actually desire to see what Japan eventually got -- in the combination of an imperial god-king with a large air force and navy, an evil empire and an absolutely calamitous war. Even more alarming was the cultural myopia that prevented critics and audiences from seeing that precisely this combination of medieval and atavistic ideas with borrowed technology is what threatens Eastern societies no less than our own.

Posted by darwin at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Richard Clarke has received lots of adulation as a result of his apology to the victims of 9/11. This apology has been advanced as proof of his sincerity and willingness to frankly admit his failures, on the record.

"Your government failed you," he said, his voice close to breaking. "Those entrusted with protecting you failed you, and I failed you." "We tried hard," Mr. Clarke went on, "but that doesn't matter, because we failed. And for that failure, I would ask -- once all the facts are out -- for your understanding and your forgiveness."

It's difficult for me to accept this apology, because Clarke refuses to go on the record about another of his failures. Specifically, the genocide in Rwanda which occured while he was in a position to do something about it.

Frontline's Ghosts of Rwanda has interviews with many Clinton Administration officials, including Anthony Lake (National Security Advisor, 1993-1997) and Madeline Albright (who was US Ambassador to the UN at the time).

Curiously, Richard Clarke was not interviewed, although he was in charge of US peacekeeping policy at the time. Perhaps he was out of the loop?

Nope.

Madeline Albright

ALBRIGHT: The secretary-general basically came to the Security Council with three options: either to reinforce this UNAMIR group, which really was inadequate; to withdraw it completely; or to have a kind of medium option of some reinforcement of it. My instructions were to support full withdrawal. I listened to the discussion very carefully in the Security Council. I could see that our position was wrong, and especially in listening to the African delegate, Ambassador Gambari from Nigeria, [who] was very moving on this.
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I felt that I would get a better hearing if I called the National Security Council, which I did, and they said, "Well, no, we're worrying about this, and these are your instructions." I actually screamed into the phone. I said, "They're unacceptable. I want them changed." So they told me to chill out and calm down. But ultimately, they did send me instructions that allowed us to do a reinforcement of UNAMIR; not a massive changing of the mandate and enlarging it or withdrawing it, but the middle option allowed me to support that.

Q: I have been told you talked to Richard Clarke, that the conversation was with him.

A: That is correct.

Q Why Clarke?

A: Because he was in charge of peacekeeping. The way the National Security Council was set up was that this was coming through those people that had been studying what the appropriate role of peacekeeping was at the United Nations. Now, this was a truly interesting time at the U.N., in terms of trying to figure out what the role of peacekeeping was. There had been a number of peacekeeping operations throughout the history of the UN, but they were primarily operations that came in to monitor cease-fires, to make sure that there was separation between contending sides. They didn't often have authority to get involved in any fighting. They were definitely the neutral observers.

All of a sudden, in the early 1990s, there was the recognition that the United Nations could have a much larger role. So we were looking generally at the role of peacekeeping, and Dick Clarke and others were in charge of developing a new peacekeeping policy that had begun to be discussed under the Bush administration, that ended up being this Presidential Decision Directive 25. And that listed how, and under what circumstances peacekeeping operations would be supported by the United States.

To be clear about this. Albright called Clarke at the NSC because she disagreed with his policy supporting complete withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from Rwanda. She was so upset by this policy that she screamed at him, eventually getting his consent to support the (skeletal) remains of the UN peacekeeping mission.

So why is there no Clarke interview? For the answer we must turn to the transcript, which is not yet available. In the narration of the episode, we learn that Clarke refused to be interviewed by Frontline for this report.

I'll believe that Richard Clarke is sincere about his apology for 9/11 when I hear an apology for his role in the Clinton/UN ignoring of Rwanda. I'll believe he's sincere when I hear his public apology to the loved ones of 800,000 murdered Rwandans.

UPDATE: Apparently Mark Steyn drew the same connection in this article from April 8th, 1 day before my post.

Posted by darwin at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed the similarities between "Fight Test" and "Father and Son" :

Lips Nailed For Cat Stevens Song Similarity

"It was confirmed today that an agreement has been reached between Sony/ATV Music Publishing (Yusuf Islam) and EMI Music Publishing (Flaming Lips) over the single 'Fight Test' and its close resemblance to the Cat Stevens classic, 'Father and Son,'" reads a June 13 post on Islam's official Web site. Royalties from the sale of 'Fight Test' will now be divided between both parties according to the agreed settlement."

"Fight Test" is the opening cut on the Lips' 2002 Warner Bros. album, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," which debuted at No. 50 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 276,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. It is also the title track of an EP released in April.

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has acknowledged the two songs' melodic similarities in interviews. But he has insisted the resemblance is unintended and only became apparent to him after he first played "Fight Test" to "Yoshimi" producer Dave Fridmann.

Wow, I'm sure there's a gigantic river of money coming from the 276,000 copies of this album that were sold. Wowza.

I have mixed feelings about this. Obviously the songs sound similar, but I find it plausible that Coyne didn't realize the song he was writing was actually a Cat Stevens song. In my opinion it's different enough that royalties shouldn't be an issue. Of course, it's not like these royalties are worth that much to the artists, anyway.

Props to synec on the hook-up.

Posted by darwin at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, so this is seriously weird. I've been listening to The Flaming Lips' album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots and specifically track #1 - Fight Test. A lot. Earlier today I was listening to Johnny Cash and heard this version of Father And Son by Cat Stevens aka Yusef Islam.

I'm not going to point out for you what's interesting, so you can consider this an Audio Daily Double. It's pretty obvious once you've listened to all three.

'Father and Son' by Cat Stevens

'Father and Son' by Johnny Cash and Fiona Apple

'Fight Test' by The Flaming Lips

Posted by darwin at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Kuma\War breaks out

Kuma Reality Games has today announced the launch of Kuma\War. Described as a reality-based action game, Kuma\War will be updated weekly with missions and intelligence generated by real-world news. The five missions available to players at launch include Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan; Uday and Qusay Hussein's last stand in Mosul, Iraq; and a re-creation of a large-scale bank robbery that was thwarted by American troops in Samarra, Iraq, in November of last year. "Kuma\War enables consumers to experience actual missions of real soldiers in the war on terror," said Keith Halper, CEO of Kuma Reality Games. "Players have to devise the tactics and make the hard choices in some of the most important events of our time. For our subscribers, we make the headlines real."

I obviously can't vouch for how good the game is, but the concept is mind-bending. The line between entertainment and news becomes even more blurred..

Posted by darwin at 01:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)