Image via Wikipedia War is BusinessCongressional UAV Boosters collected nearly $1.8 million
The motivation for members to join the UAV Caucus (not to be confused with the A/V Club) may be national security or job creation, but the caucus is also where members of Congress directly show their allegiance to an industry that donated generously to their war chests.
How much? In the 2010 election cycle alone, UAV-related political-action committees donate more than $1.7 million to the Caucus’ 42 members.
Nine-Hour Stage Production of the Great Game causes confusion at the Pentagon
Some, though, see a request from the Pentagon to bring the performance to this audience as contradictory to military culture… “Isn’t this series of plays going to be anti-war? Isn’t this going to provide us with reasons not to be in Afghanistan? The questions were really posed to me as if the arts and the men and women who serve in uniform come from different planets,” [a top Pentagon spokesman] said. “And that is absolutely not the case, and this is the proof.”
Robert Fisk: Three weeks in Egypt show the power of brutality – and its limits
We have been informing the world that the infection of Tunisia's revolution spread to Egypt – and that near-identical democracy protests have broken out in Yemen, Bahrain and in Algeria – but we've all missed the most salient contamination of all: that the state security police who prop up the power of the Arab world's autocrats have used the same hopeless tactics of savagery to crush demonstrators in Sanaa, Bahrain and Algiers as the Tunisian and Egyptian dictators tried so vainly to employ against their own pro-democracy protestors.Just as the non-violent millions in Cairo learnt from Al-Jazeera and from their opposite numbers in Tunis – even down to the emails from Tunisia urging Egyptians to cut lemons in half and eat them to avoid the effects of tear-gas – so the state security thugs in Egypt, presumably watching the same programmes, have used precisely the same brutality against the crowds as their colleagues in Tunis. Incredible, when you come to think about it. The cops in Cairo saw the cops in Tunis bludgeoning government opponents to a bloody mess and – totally ignoring the fact that this led to Ben Ali's downfall – went into copy-cat mode.
Clashes rock Bahraini capital
Hospitals are full of injured people after last night's police raid on the pro-reform demonstrators.
"Some of them are severely injured with gunshots. Patients include doctors and emergency personnel who were overrun by the police while trying to attend to the wounded."
Another Al Jazeera online producer said that booms could be heard from different parts of the city, suggesting that "tear-gas is being used to disperse the protesters in several neighbourhoods".
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Salmaniya hospital, the main medical facility in Manama, Maryama Alkawaka of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said that she saw dozens of injured demonstrators being wheeled into emergency rooms early on Thursday morning.
Nazea Saeed, a journalist with Radio Monte Carlo, said hundreds of people had gathered at the hospital.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from the scene, she said the crowd is chanting: "Down with Al-Khalifa", in reference to the country's ruling family.
"People are also chanting that the blood of the victims will not be in vain," she added.
'Attacked without warning'
"People were attacked while they were sleeping. There was no warning," Saeed said. "And when they ran, the police attacked them from the direction they fled to."
Our correspondent said that even doctors, who had set up a medical tent near the protest site, were assaulted. One medical consultant was severely beaten and he was released because the police said "they didn't want him to die here".
"Whoever took the decision to attack the protest was aiming to kill," Abdul Jalil Khalil, a parliamentarian with the Wefaq bloc said. "This is real terrorism."
John Ivison: NORAD could be expanded to land and sea
Sources suggest the North American perimeter security talks announced last week will include an intriguing proposal: expanding NORAD to cover land and sea operations. In this scenario, Canadian and U.S. navies and land forces would integrate their command structures, headquarters and operations when it comes to continental security.
The 3Ds Blog : Diplomacy, Defence, Development
Mark Collins - So Much for Free Trade with the EU
Friday, February 18, 2011 11:56 AM
Paul Wells, at his Maclean’s blog, is not exactly oozing optimism:
Free trade with Europe? Never mind
How’s the big trade deal with Europe coming along? Don’t ask.
Study: Canada-EU Trade deal proposals could add $2.8 billion to drug costs
Environmentalists say Canada-EU Trade Pact bad for Climate Change
Ont., Que. concerns holding up EU trade talks, roundtable says
EU nations [...]
Mark Collins - But Everyone Says We Must Chase After China
Friday, February 18, 2011 11:41 AM
Loads of people here go spare at the mere mention of any possible Canadian link to torture in Afghanistan. So where are the howls of outrage when our government itself says the things below?
Man who could face execution in China loses deportation fight
…federal Crown counsel Kristina Dragaitis assured Judge Boivin on Tuesday that China can [...]
Mark Collins - F-35 Developments in the US
Friday, February 18, 2011 11:38 AM
Follow them at this Milnet.ca topic thread - and note this:
…The admiral [U.S. Navy Vice Admiral David Venlet, the program manager] acknowledged that postponing production of 124 jets as part of this restructuring on top of 100 jets already deferred earlier would drive up short-term unit costs since the program was still on a very [...]
J.L. Granatstein - Canada and Cairo: What Influence?
Thursday, February 17, 2011 8:55 AM
What’s all the cheering about? Yes, it was heartening to see the crowds of young and old Egyptians in Cairo demonstrating more or less peacefully in recent weeks, while the army stood by, its arms folded. Yes, it is always wonderful to see a despot — and he was no benevolent [...]
Mark Collins - Canadian Suez Policy was not About the Middle East
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 2:21 PM
A letter of mine sent to the Toronto Star that was not published:
Re: Travers: Once a Middle East player, Canada now a spectator, Feb. 12
Mr. Travers fails to understand what Canadian policy - as much Prime Minister St. Laurent’s as External Affairs Minister Pearson’s - on Suez in 1956 was really about. Their main concern [...]
Mark Collins - UAV Progress in the US and UK, Especially for Combat - and the CF?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 9:32 AM
Here’s a topic thread at Milnet.ca that provides a quick introduction to recent major American developments, especially with regard to the US Navy and its X-47B
(Boeing is privately developing the Phantom Ray).
The armed MQ-9 Reaper is already in very active US service in Afghanistan, and the Brits are flying it there too. The RAF is [...]
The Week Ahead in Foreign Affairs
Monday, February 14, 2011 11:51 AM
What we’re watching that matters to Canadians:
1. Pro and Anti Government protests continue in Egypt following Mubarak’s resignation and transfer of control to the military. But the Jasmine Revolution has been expanding to Iran and Algeria. The question is, will there be more dominos?
2. On Saturday, the International Defence Exhibition and Conference opens in Abu [...]
LGen (Ret’d) George Macdonald - Expand NORAD
Friday, February 11, 2011 9:02 AM
The recent focus between Canada and the United States on perimeter security should cause us to consider how we might enhance cooperative efforts between our two nations. Our experience with NORAD offers some useful food for thought.
NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command, has been a successful partnership between Canada and the United States for [...]
U.K., Canada Discuss Joint Frigate Development
Thursday, February 10, 2011 7:49 AM
From Tim Dunne and Maasmond Maritime This article was taken from today’s issue of Maasmond Maritime Shipping News:
Britain is in talks with Canada about a possible joint program to develop a frigate for their respective navies, according to U.K. Defence Minister Gerald Howarth. Responding to questions from parliamentarians Jan. 31, Howarth said the British government is in [...]
Mark Collins - The World Needs More Canada, Rumsfeld Section
Thursday, February 10, 2011 7:40 AM
Further to this post,
The World Needs More Canada?
One finds this at a Maclean’s blog:
One reference to Canada in new Rumsfeld memoir
If one digs in The Rumsfeld Papers (via Tom Ricks’ The Best Defense) one discovers that this country is virtually absent there too in any substantive way. A search for “Canada”, “Canadian” or “Canadians” (you [...]
Image via WikipediaFormer BBC Reporter Alan Hart Reveals 'Mossad' Involved in 9/11 on Alex Jones Tv 1/5
Information Underground - Anti Zionist Think Tank
Israel did 911
( With CIA assistance )
Inside the Killing Machine
The broad outlines of the CIA’s operations to kill suspected terrorists have been known to the public for some time—including how the United States kills Qaeda and Taliban militants by drone aircraft in Pakistan. But the formal process of determining who should be hunted down and “blown to bits,” as Rizzo puts it, has not been previously reported. A look at the bureaucracy behind the operations reveals that it is multilayered and methodical, run by a corps of civil servants who carry out their duties in a professional manner. Still, the fact that Rizzo was involved in “murder,” as he sometimes puts it, and that operations are planned in advance in a legalistic fashion, raises questions.
“I never saw a list,” says a State Department official who has been involved in discussions about lethal operations, speaking without attribution because of the nature of the subject. Officials at the CIA select targets for “neutralization,” he explains. “There were individuals we were searching for, and we thought, it’s better now to neutralize that threat,” he says.
Targeting Corporate Tax Dodgers - Day of Action, February 26th
Why Almost Everything You Hear About Medicine Is Wrong
If you follow the news about health research, you risk whiplash. First garlic lowers bad cholesterol, then—after more study—it doesn’t. Hormone replacement reduces the risk of heart disease in postmenopausal women, until a huge study finds that it doesn’t (and that it raises the risk of breast cancer to boot). Eating a big breakfast cuts your total daily calories, or not—as a study released last week finds. Yet even if biomedical research can be a fickle guide, we rely on it.
But what if wrong answers aren’t the exception but the rule? More and more scholars who scrutinize health research are now making that claim. It isn’t just an individual study here and there that’s flawed, they charge. Instead, the very framework of medical investigation may be off-kilter, leading time and again to findings that are at best unproved and at worst dangerously wrong. The result is a system that leads patients and physicians astray—spurring often costly regimens that won’t help and may even harm you.
( Sounds like politics. )
( Sounds like politics. )
The Problem With Holding Kids Back from Kindergarten
Competitive parents are trying to game the system with so called “red shirting”—delaying their kids start in school so they'll be more advanced then their classmates. Kristina Dell on why it's backfiring.
Posts
Although integration can assist in continental defence, threats facing North America are unlikely to threaten our sovereignty in the conventional sense. Threats of terrorism, smuggling and illicit networks is essentially an enforcement and intelligence problem. Again, the ongoing debate is what level of harmonization should Canada seek with the United States and what is the trade off we are willing to sacrifice economically (a la the “thickening border”).
Given the lack of a significant common threat, the perennial question is how Canadians will react to notions of greater continental integration.?
( Question : Do you trust the operators of Bagram, Gitmo, al Ghraib to 'find their ass with both hands' ? Torture is used to falsify testimony. Furthering it makes the legal system more of a mockery than it is already with no recognition of 'human rights' or securing a chain of evidence.
'Enforcement' is rather snowed under with useless 'electronic intel' which makes investigation impossible - false leads covering everything. The FBI complained of NSA doing this to them already !
What are the PC's running on ? A 'Law and Order' platform which imprisons people for using drugs which politicos have been partying with in Ottawa for years ! Imprisoning people for nothing....if we HAD the prisons.
There's Job Security for the Police...and complete fiscal stupidity which causes disrespect for bad law...unenforceable.
But it's the nefarious 'Left' who push Nanny State interference in peoples' lives ?
So sorry. I hadn't realized Slavery and warrantless state terrorism was an improvement.
It wasn't in 1215 when the British hereditary executive - the Lords - routed it as excessive.
Does the Senate still function ? )