posted by Chris @ 10/30/2005 07:52:00 PM  
Where's Osama?

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The recent devastating earthquake in Pakistan represents the best opportunity in some time for the United States to find bin Laden. It's not clear if bin Laden was even in the area of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake, but U.S. and coalition partners are likely leaving no stone unturned.

There's not much in the media about U.S. Military efforts to find Osama during earthquake relief efforts. There is this from the Daily Times, a site with news and information about Pakistan:

"PESHAWAR: An MI6/SAS team has joined US Special Forces in earthquake-devastated Balakot to search for Osama Bin Laden among thousands of victims still buried, British newspaper the Sunday Express reports. US President George W Bush approved a full-scale surveillance operation along the remote Afghan-Pakistan border where extremists have training camps. The team, flown in from a high-security base in Afghanistan, is equipped with imagery and eavesdropping technology, high-tech weapons systems and MI6 linguists to try to locate the most wanted "terrorist" in the world."

Whether the above is true information, or an assumptive fabrication, you can bet the U.S. is employing every available asset to locate Osama:

- Before the earthquake, Pakistan was publicly reluctanct to allow U.S. Military forces inside Pakistan to search for bin Laden. Now, during the chaos of the situation, the U.S. could be mounting clandestine operations inside Pakistan under the guise of earthquake relief efforts. These operations could target suspected areas that were off limits to the U.S. before the earthquake.
- Electronic eavesdropping: Most likely, the Department of Defense is working overtime to capture and translate electronic communications in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and perhaps elsewhere.
- Osama's kidney ailment could be his Achilles' Heel. Without electricity, his supposed dialysis machine won't operate.
- The earthquake devastation may force Osama to relocate. Likely, the U.S. has stepped up surveillance efforts along smugglers trails, etc.
- The CIA has likely stepped up efforts to track known associates of al Qaeda and bin Laden. One tantalizing tidbit: A doctor who treated bin Laden after 9/11 has resurfaced and has been helping with earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan.

But is bin Laden already dead? A Pakistani newspaper reports that bin Laden died four months ago:

"The Pakistani newspaper 'Ausaf' which is based in the city of Multan in the Punjab Province is reporting that Osama bin Laden died last June in a village near Kandahar in Afghanistan. According to the newspaper report, Bin Laden was campaigning at Bamiyan, fell very ill, returned to Kandahar where he died and was buried in the Shada graveyard in the shadow of a mountain."

Osama's last video message was over a year ago, right before the presidential elections. It will be interesting to see if there's another video!

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posted by Chris @ 10/22/2005 06:45:00 PM  
What we have here is a failure to grasp the situation!

Former FEMA director Michael Brown resigned from his post because he failed to grasp the enormity of the crisis in New Orleans as the situation unfolded. Brown said that he wasn't fully aware of the dire conditions until days after the storm hit. But FEMA official Marty Bahamonde, who was at the Superdome during the crisis, stated: "I couldn't have been any more clear to him (Brown) that food and water was a desperate situation at the Superdome."

Does this sound familiar to anyone? It does me!

For the past five years Mexicans have been pouring across the border and flooding our cities. I've said it before here, but I'll say it again: Entire areas of Dallas (where I live), for example, are now populated by peoples from ANOTHER country. These areas are hotbeds of crime and drugs. These areas are also IRS-free zones, as these illegals don't pay taxes in their underground economy.

For the past five years, President Bush has ignored this dire situation. He has "failed to grasp the enormity of the situation" despite the pleadings of many Americans. Let me say this as clearly as I can: The situation is turning desperate in many areas of the country because President Bush is not dealing with this unbelievable situation. What other country in the world allows 10,000 people a day to infiltrate its borders and take up residence, and then enjoy everything the country has to offer - schools, healthcare, and cash (tax free) jobs?

Assigning or hiring another one hundred or so border agents isn't going to cut it. What's another hundred going to do against 10,000 people a day? The United States needs to pursue other means, including military patrols or an adequate border fence/barrier, or both. Let's say the barrier cost $10 billion, or $20 billion. How many billions will we save when our schools and hospitals and other social services don't have to treat millions of people from another country?

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posted by Chris @ 10/18/2005 02:45:00 PM  
Burn Baby Burn

The United States has had more than its fair share of troubles in the Middle East, including the current Iraq situation, and it's all mainly due to one thing - oil. The Middle East has lots of oil, and the United States needs it!

But if the U.S. didn't need oil from the Middle East, we wouldn't have a strategic interest in the area, and we could let the various factions burn the entire region to the ground. Not another U.S. soldier would have to die for Mideast oil.

Now, I don't actually want to see the region burn to the ground. Hopefully, one day, the peoples of the Middle East can turn from their violent ways and end the bloodshed. But if it does burn, it burns - no skin off our back when we have our own oil secure in a highly-defensible area.

According to The Wall Street Journal (October 8-9, 2005 Issue), Alberta, Canada "theoretically could produce about 1.7 trillion to 2.5 trillion barrels of oil from its 54,000 square miles of oil-sands deposits - making it second to Saudi Arabia in oil reserves. If oil prices remain above $30 a barrel, oil-sands production would be profitable. There are also an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil contained in oil-shale deposits in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. That is more than triple the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Analysts say that crude-oil prices would have to rise to somewhere around $70 a barrel to make extraction financially viable."

What are we waiting for? In fact, we better hurry. Canada has warned the Bush administration that massive oil reserves in Alberta could be exported to China if the U.S. government refuses to climb down in a trade dispute over Canadian timber exports to the U.S.

There could be more, much more!? Eden Energy Corp. believes there could be Saudi Arabia-sized oil fields in Nevada and Utah.

Also see:
- What weighs 800 pounds and sits just north of Montana?

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posted by Chris @ 10/12/2005 10:38:00 AM  
Ladies: Pee Like a Man!

No, this is not a joke. The P-Mate is a disposable, cardboard device, that allows women to discreetly stand up and neatly pee like a man. Karen Diamond, of Go Your Way, believes the device could help women in the military:

"I truly believe that this product should be standard issue for women in the military who are deployed. In terms of the military, I believe that we are talking about a safety issue. Women, when working in areas without bathroom facilities, are faced with pulling their pants down and squatting, which leaves them very vulnerable to attack, not to mention the lack of dignity. Whether our troops are in a war zone on land, in a tank, a plane, or on a boat, you know the men are doing their business into a bottle or next to a tree. With their backs turned, they have privacy. Well now this can be true for women too!"

For more information go to: http://www.goyourway.net/

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posted by Chris @ 10/10/2005 08:29:00 PM  
Immigrants Flood New Orleans in Search of Work

From the LA Times:

"NEW ORLEANS -- Most of the signs are handwritten and simply worded, such as "Workers Wanted" or "Need 50 Laborers Now!" Word has gotten out and each morning day laborers -- who come from Central America and Mexico by way of California, Texas and Arizona -- gather on street corners in the Kenner and Metairie neighborhoods on the western edge of the city. Lured by jobs paying $15 to $17 an hour, the Spanish-speaking day laborers have flooded into New Orleans to haul out debris, clear downed trees, put in drywall and perform other tasks as rebuilding takes hold in the city. Specialized roofers can make $300 a day. "

Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson is accusing the Bush Administration of using Hurricane Katrina to reshape Louisiana politics.

Columnist Molly Ivins is calling New Orleans Baghdad on the Bayou. In a recent column Molly writes: "Already, Homeland Security is flooding what's left of New Orleans with mercenaries from the same private security contractors flourishing in Iraq. The Nation reports companies like DynCorp, Intercon Security, American Security Group, Blackwater, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International are all in New Orleans. "Some, like Blackwater, are under federal contract. Others have been hired by the wealthy elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who brought in private security to guard his $3 million private estate and his luxury hotels, which are under consideration for a lucrative federal contract to house FEMA workers."

Contrary to recent media recounts, there really WAS a sniper firing at helicopters, according to the Clarion-Ledger:

"A man who allegedly fired a weapon at a rescue helicopter the day after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans has been indicted by a federal grand jury. Wendell Bailey, 20, of New Orleans was charged with firearms possession by a felon and firing upon a military aircraft, prosecutors said.Authorities said they found two revolvers and a box of ammunition under a mattress in his apartment. The charges carry up to 30 years in prison and $500,000 in fines."

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posted by Chris @ 10/01/2005 03:35:00 PM  
Boeing/Bell Osprey Ad Ruffles Muslim Feathers

"Boeing and its joint-venture partner Bell Helicopter apologized yesterday for a magazine ad published a month ago - and again this week by mistake - depicting U.S. Special Forces troops rappelling from an Osprey aircraft onto the roof of a mosque. "It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell," reads the ad, which ran this week in the National Journal and earlier in the Armed Forces Journal. The ad also stated: "Consider it a gift from above."

More at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002532657_boeingad1m.html

Click here to see full ad (PDF)

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