Mike Brewer

I'd like to keep this thread at the top for a while. I've been thinking about a way to keep informed without having to read through the normal two or three hours of stuff (yes, that's every day for me). It occurred to me that one way to do that was to let people post quick blurbs of things that they either hear, read, or see on a daily basis. This can also be a place to ask questions for others to research. In other words, if you want to post a question about something that's going on in the world, we can try to answer it without making you dig up tons of articles on the subject.

A couple of quick rules:

1. Posts should be short, concise, and to the point. No copying and pasting mammoth articles. This goes double for yours truly.
2. Summaries can include opinions, but cite your sources in case people want to follow up.
3. Links are cool, too, but don't just link to great big long-winded articles. Summarize them, and link so people can read more if they like.

I want to build a thread that will allow us to learn more about what's going on (and this should not be limited to world affairs or politics - ask questions about the military, training, or whatever!!), and keep each other up to speed every day. Thanks for posting everybody!

Mike Brewer

Summary Courtesy of Strategic Forecasting:

This is just a summary of the hot spots. I "bolded" the headings so you can just focus on the areas you care about.
MB

1131 GMT -- GERMANY -- Germany's foreign intelligence service is working with Russian intelligence to secure the release of Israeli soldiers held by Hamas and Hezbollah, German newspaper Berliner Zeitung reported July 21.

1124 GMT -- IRAQ -- The Iraqi government's committee assigned with trying to end the violence in the country will hold its first meeting July 22, said Shiite member of parliament Hassan al-Suneid. The 30-member Supreme National Committee for Reconciliation and National Dialogue, which includes legislators and religious and tribal leaders, will lay out an organizational framework and assign committees the job of contacting insurgent groups and militias. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will head the committee, while Minister of National Dialogue Akram al-Hakim will direct it. The committee also is expected to organize a reconciliation conference.

1122 GMT -- FRANCE -- French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie accused the United States on July 21 of blocking U.N. efforts to establish a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Speaking to French radio station RMC Info, Alliot-Marie said Washington "doesn't want to arrive at this solution immediately." The Bush administration is deliberately allowing Israel to pursue its offensive, he said.

1117 GMT -- THAILAND -- Thailand's monarch issued a decree July 21 setting Oct. 15 as the date for new elections. The country's Cabinet secretary said King Bhumibol Adulyadej's move would not be affected by court proceedings stemming from the April 2 elections.

1100 GMT -- ISRAEL -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon will continue until it is no longer "worth the price," Israeli daily Maariv reported July 21 without saying when the interview took place.

1058 GMT -- PHILIPPINES -- The newly appointed chief of the Philippine military, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, pledged July 21 to defeat communist rebel forces in the country. Esperon, former head of security for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said in a speech after assuming command that the "communist terrorists" must be defeated soon. He said this is a task for the entire nation, and not just the country's troops.

1050 GMT -- GEORGIA -- Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on July 21 fired his state minister for conflict situations, Georgy Khaindrava, who had been trying to negotiate a peace agreement with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Saakashvili's spokesman said. Environment Minister Georgy Papuashvili also was fired. Khaindrava has been replaced by Deputy Foreign Minister Merab Antadze.

1045 GMT -- SOMALIA -- Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, leader of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union (ICU), called on Somalians on July 21 to defend their country against an attack from Ethiopia and warned that those who side with the Ethiopians would be considered traitors. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Addis Ababa's forces would not enter Somalia unless the ICU attacks Baidoa, where Somalia's interim government is based.

1040 GMT -- GEORGIA -- Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili canceled a trip to Moscow on July 21 after Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to meet him one-on-one to discuss the situation in South Ossetia, said the head of Saakashvili's administration. Tbilisi disapproves of the format of the informal summit of former Soviet Union leaders called by the Kremlin, he added.

1025 GMT -- ISRAEL -- The Israeli Defense Forces said July 21 it plans to call up thousands of reservists later in the day.

1021 GMT -- LEBANON -- The Lebanese military is prepared to defend the country against an Israeli land incursion, Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said July 21.

Mike Brewer

INDIA: Indian police in the state of Madhya Pradesh arrested three members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India. Police are still ascertaining whether the suspects were involved in the July 11 Mumbai attacks.

ISRAEL: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is drafting 5,000 reservists to increase activity against Hezbollah militants, The Jerusalem Post reported, citing unnamed IDF sources. A member of the Israeli military had said at least 3,000 reservists could be called up and sent to relieve troops in the occupied West Bank. Those troops would then be sent north to Lebanon, he said.

INDIA: Preliminary investigations suggest the involvement of Nepal- and Bangladesh-based militant groups in the July 11 attacks in Mumbai, India, Maharashtra state's Anti-Terrorist Squad chief KP Raghuvanshi said. Raghuvanshi said these findings point to an indirect Pakistani link to the Mumbai attacks. Maharashtra state's Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil said Pakistan-based terrorists were involved in the attacks and that police would soon reveal proof.

IRAQ: The Iraqi government committee charged with ending violence in the country will hold its first meeting July 22, Shiite parliament member Hassan al-Suneid said. The 30-member Supreme National Committee for Reconciliation and National Dialogue, which includes legislators and religious and tribal leaders, will lay out an organizational framework and assign committees the job of contacting insurgent groups and militias. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will head the committee while Minister of National Dialogue Akram al-Hakim directs it. The committee also is expected to organize a reconciliation conference.

THAILAND: Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej issued a decree setting Oct. 15 as the date for new elections. The country's Cabinet secretary said the king's move would not be affected by court proceedings stemming from the April 2 elections.

GEORGIA: Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili fired his state minister for conflict situations, Giorgi Khaindrava, who had been trying to negotiate a peace agreement with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Saakashvili's spokesman said. Environment Minister Giorgi Papuashvili also was fired. Khaindrava was replaced by Deputy Foreign Minister Merab Antadze. Saakashvili also canceled his trip to Moscow to attend the informal Commonwealth of Independent States summit.

Mike Brewer

SE Asian Muslims Say They Will Join Hizballah’s Fight
(CNSNews.com) – Muslims in Southeast Asia are protesting Israel’s offensive against Hizballah, and in Indonesia, Islamists reportedly were registering as “volunteers” to travel to the region to fight against the Jewish state...

Europe Won’t Call Hizballah Terrorists
(CNSNews.com) – Despite growing international awareness about the dangers posed to Mideast stability by Hizballah, the European Union has yet to outlaw the group or move to block its funding...

Israeli Troops Push Deeper Into Lebanon
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - A full-scale ground incursion into southern Lebanon, which seemed imminent on Friday, still has not happened. But Israeli troops massed along the northern border are making forays into southern Lebanon, and fierce fighting has erupted within view of TV cameras on the Israeli side. More than 90 missiles crashed into Haifa on Sunday, dispelling any illusion that Hizballah’s rocket launching capabilities had been curtailed...

Int’l Media Is Portraying Victim As Aggressor, Olmert Says
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other senior Israeli officials met with the foreign ministers of France and Germany on Sunday, asking his guests if their countries would tolerate rockets raining down on their cities...

War Forces Cancelation of WorldPride Parade
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – An international celebration of homosexuality will take place as scheduled in Jerusalem next month, but organizers of the WorldPride event now say they’ve postponed a planned LGBT parade through the streets of Jerusalem...

Park Service Repeatedly Warned of Too Few Police Officers
(CNSNews.com) - U.S. Park Police are "reallocating resources" and asking citizens to "be vigilant" after a series of armed robberies on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. But expert evaluations dating back as far as 1956 have repeatedly warned the National Park Service that its police force did not have enough officers to protect visitors to the nation's historic monuments...

Unions Brace for Rulings on Definition of ‘Supervisor’
(CNSNews.com) - Faced with declining union membership, labor leaders are preparing for the worst when the National Labor Relations Board issues rulings this summer that could expand the definition of a “supervisor” in the workplace -- and further diminish unions by as many as 8 million members...

Mike Brewer

Israel/Lebanon:
Israel is seriously stepping up Intelligence Efforts against Hezbollah. The general feeling seems to be that the military branch of intelligence (which relies mostly on electronic surveillance) is not producing much actionable intel because their methods are easily avoidable to a group like Hezbollah. Shin Bet is, as many of you are no doubt aware, an Internal Intelligence service, and its capacity is limited when it comes to penetrations into Lebanon. That leaves the Mossad. Mossad has been incredibly effective at locating and eliminating key guerrilla leaders, but as far as the sheer collection efforts needed to unravel Hezbollah's current locations and capabilities, Mossad is out of practice. In many ways, they're right where US Intelligence apparati were after the Clinton years. Reduced in capacity without the human eyes and ears they need. We'll see how this one develops.

Russia:
Orders for Russian weapons have created a huge backlog. Ivan Goncharenko, deputy head of Russia’s Rosobo-ronexport arms export agency, told journalists at a recent airshow that there have been so many orders for Russian made aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles, that the next person to place an order wouldn't see their products until 2011. Many of the countries ordering these massive quantities of planes and missiles are in the Arab world, but by no means all. This could signal a shift in how several countries are planning to fight future wars, as the emphasis on aircraft is unprecedented. The sheer volume of sales is also something to watch.

Mike Brewer

-- The Israeli military claims it has killed the senior Hezbollah commander in
charge of the central area of Lebanon's border with Israel. No word from
Hezbollah.

treelizard

A Samaria resident was kidnapped and murdered.

Two Border Guard policemen were killed at a checkpoint entrance to Jerusalem by an Arab terrorist and others were injured. One of the wounded officers killed the attacker.

Security officers recently caught suicide bombers on their way to
attacks in downtown Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv area.

Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri issued a call for Jihadists around the globe to attack Israel and make the entire region “from Spain to Iraq” into an Islamic kingdom.

Prime Minister Olmert and the security cabinet, following several hours of discussion, decided to turn down the army's recommendation for a larger-scale ground offensive.

Hizbullah refused to allow civilians to leave their village and used mosques in their ambush on IDF soldiers at Bint Jbeil Wednesday. Names of the nine fallen soldiers were released. Morale is high.

Hizbullah stored ammunition and weapons in mosques, knowing that the
IDF does not attack religious sites. Civilians were not allowed to leave so that Hizbullah could use them as cover. IDF officers said they ordered pilots not to strafe Bint Jbeil in order to spare civilian casualties.

A United Nations peace keeping officer from Canada told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that Hizbullah used the same tactic to draw fire on the UNIFIL post which resulted in the death of four U.N. observers. "This is their favorite trick," he said. "They use the U.N. as shields."

Well over 1,400 Katyusha rockets have been fired by Hizbullah at
Israeli towns in the two weeks of warfare; 46 people are hospitalized. 16 people were treated for shock after the latest barrage.

Thursday, some 75 Hizbullah-fired Katyusha rockets struck cities all over the north, including Tzfat (causing a forest fire there), Pekiin, Maalot, Hatzor, Shlomi, and many others. In Kiryat Shmonah, a rocket slammed into a laundry detergent plant, setting a warehouse on fire. No one was in the building at the time, but a fireman was lightly hurt battling the fire. In Carmiel, 16 people were treated for shock when a house suffered a direct hit. Eight rockets hit Tiberias. Air-raid sirens sounded in the north throughout the day.

A total of 151 Katyushas hit Israel Wednesday, wounding 58 people,
including one in serious condition and four listed in "moderate"
condition.

In Gaza, Hamas terrorists continue to fire Kassam rockets at Sderot
and other western Negev areas. Two were fired WED, resulting
in light injuries to one person, and another three were fired THURS.
The IDF anti-terror operation in Gaza continues as well; some 15
terrorists were killed yesterday, and another 15 were killed or
wounded today.

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Mike Brewer

Thanks for that, TL. It's a thankful wonder to me that Hezbollah can launch hundreds upon hundred of rockets at populated cities and not manage to hurt any more than they do.

treelizard

An Israeli undercover unit shot dead two Palestinian militants in the West Bank on Saturday, including a Islamic Jihad's most senior commander in Nablus and a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa have killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks since 2000.

__________________
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http://morewomeninmma.blogspot.com

Mike Brewer

Quick Bullets on Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Israel, the US, the UN, and what their involvement in the current Middle East conflict could mean:

The Players:
•Israel – they are fighting a two-front war right now. In the south, they’ve got Hamas as a legitimately elected government, kidnapping soldiers and committing acts of terrorism. In the North, there’s Hezbollah and Lebanon. So far, they’ve failed to accomplish any real strategic military objectives, and the pressure from the international community is cranking up. Their options are not really limited, so long as they don’t care what the rest of the world thinks, but they are certainly putting the US in a very, very tough spot.

•The US – We’re not going to abandon our ally, Israel. That much is assured. But the longer we support Israel in this action, on this scale, without a shift in the stated objective, the more we become a primary, rather than a secondary target. The world knows and understands that Washington is the only political body with any pull in Tel Aviv. It won’t be long before they realize that dropping bombs and firing rockets isn’t the way to effect policy change in Washington. If Russia, Saudi, and Iran all decided to slap hard-line production and export restrictions on oil, it could conceivably drive the US economy into a recession. This is a strategic failure on our part (the US) that is massive in scale and potential repercussions, and one we need to devote ourselves completely to overcoming.

•Hezbollah – A cease-fire now would be a victory for them. First, they’d have held Israel to a complete stalemate. Second, they’d solidify their standing among the Arabist Middle East. Next, they’d have cemented steps toward banding together with groups that traditionally have not shared common views, like Hamas and al-Qaeda. Sunnis and Shi’ites working together for the destruction of Israel and the US would have far-reaching consequences, and could change the scale and landscape of the War on Terror.

•The UN – Completely impotent. In 2004, the UN dealt with this very situation by passing UN Resolution 1559, demanding the disarmament of Hezbollah. Obviously, it didn’t work, and no one has even bothered to bring it up in this latest round of fighting because they realize how empty and weak the UN Resolution process – particularly the willingness to enforce them – has become. The UN in its current incarnation, with its current approach is an obstacle to peace, not a solution.

•Syria – Syria will sit back and wait, until Israel decides to invade Lebanon and take Beirut. Beirut is just 15 miles from Damascus, however, and an Israeli presence in Beirut would definitely (and credibly) be seen as a threat to Syria. Syria, at that point, would likely get involved militarily. That would undoubtedly bring the US into play, which in turn would almost assuredly bring Iran into the picture as Syria’s main ally. If those dominoes fall, this war would reach a whole new scale, and would become something the whole world would have to face.

•Iran – Positioned to be the saviors or the hangman in this situation, Tehran will make whatever play stands to benefit them the most politically and among the Muslim community. They have the ability to broker a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel (which they’d likely do if it looked like Hezbollah stood to lose). They would then look like saviors, even though they’d really only be buying time to renew resources and fortifications and do it all over again at some point down the road. They could also get involved as described above. If they did, Russia would be forced to take sides.

•Russia – Russia has supplied Iran with almost all of its military technology, and through Iran, has provided most of Syria’s and Hezbollah’s as well. Russia has supported Iran’s nuclear ambitions despite calls to wipe out Israel, and Russia was the first government to recognize Hamas as the official government of the Palestinian cause. They are also one of the three largest oil producers in the world. Putin’s administration strongly supports the regimes in Syria and Iran, and Russia is currently planning to build two naval stations in Syria as we speak. In other words, Russia is still a major threat to US interests. They have made a habit of supporting just about everyone in the Middle East that has beef with Israel, and some have speculated that in so doing, they’re trying to hobble the US. In any case, Russia will be on the radar in this conflict very, very soon.

This post has gotten longer than I intended for it to be, so I’ll cut it off there. More later.

treelizard

Hundreds of Katyushas were fired from Kana at Israel. A three-story building was hit directly by an IAF bomb, collapsing on top of a shelter where many were sleeping. Close to 1,800 Hizbullah rockets have been fired at Israel in the past 19 days, killing 19 Israeli citizens.

Targeted towns and cities included Hatzor, Nahariya, Kiryat Shmonah, and more. Seven rockets hit Acco, wounding ten people, and more rockets were
fired at Haifa, Kfar Blum and elsewhere.

Close to 100 Katyushas landed in Tzfat, Carmiel, Acco, Nahariya, Maalot, Tiberias, Kiryat Shmonah and elsewhere. Heavy damage was caused to medical facility in Acco.

On Friday, for the first time, Hizbullah fired a much higher-quality
Katyusha, known as a Fajr-5. The Fajr is a long-range missile that
can reach as far as Netanya, with a particularly heavy explosive
payload of 100 kilograms. Five of them landed as far south as the
Beit She'an-Afula area; no one was hurt. The IDF announced shortly
afterwards that Air Force planes succeeded in destroying the launcher
that fired the missiles.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to a US plan calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force along Israel’s border.

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http://morewomeninmma.blogspot.com