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Wow... What the hell? You mean to tell me that, all the bullshit put forth by the CRU - and other environmentalist whackjobs - was just that?
Here is the article from Fox News(articles are italicized):
Hackers broke into the servers at a prominent British climate research center and leaked years worth of e-mail messages onto the Web, including one with a reference to a plan to "hide the decline" in temperatures.
The Internet is abuzz about the leaked data from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (commonly called Hadley CRU), which has acknowledged the theft of 61MB of confidential data.
Climate change skeptics describe the leaked data as a "smoking gun," evidence of collusion among climatologists and manipulation of data to support the widely held view that climate change is caused by the actions of mankind. The authors of some of the e-mails, however, accuse the skeptics of taking the messages out of context, adding that the evidence still clearly shows a warming trend.
The files were reportedly released on a Russian file-serve by an anonymous poster calling himself "FOIA."
In an exclusive interview in Investigate magazine's TGIF Edition, Phil Jones, the head of the Hadley CRU, confirmed that the leaked data is real.
"It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago," he told the magazine, noting that the center has yet to contact the police about the data breach.
TGIF Edition asked Jones about the controversial "hide the decline" comment from an e-mail he wrote in 1999: "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd [sic] from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline."
He told the magazine that there was no intention to mislead, but he had "no idea" what he meant by those words.
"That was an e-mail from ten years ago. Can you remember the exact context of what you wrote ten years ago?" he said.
"Mike" refers to Jones' colleague Michael Mann, who told the New York Times that the "trick" was simply a way of solving a data problem. In this case, the warming trend of the last century was detected in tree-ring samples only until 1960, but it continued in thermometer readings.
Jones' word choice was poor, Mann told the Times, but the calculations were "not something secret."
The Telegraph has posted some of the more scathing excerpts from these emails, which the newspaper suggests points to manipulation of evidence and private doubts about the reality of global warming, though the much of the scientific language in the e-mails is esoteric and hard to interpret.
Others suggest the comments are simply "scientists talking about science." In an interview with Wired, Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, points out that "if you read all of these e-mails, you will be surprised at the integrity of these scientists."
Still, one notable e-mail from the hacked files clearly describes how to squeeze dissenting scientists from the peer review process:
"I think we have to stop considering Climate Research as a
legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our
colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or
cite papers in, this journal. We would also need to consider what we
tell or request of our more reasonable colleagues who currently sit on
the editorial board…What do others think?"
But then, I find this article by The Guardian in the United Kingdom, stating that the University of East Aglia would be conducting an investigation on the e-mails and the CRU. Here is the article:
The University of East Anglia
is to launch a review into the theft and online publication of hundreds
of emails sent by scientists in its climate research unit.
Selected and unverified extracts from the emails have been used by climate change deniers to claim that the scientists colluded to manipulate climate data, causing a storm on deniers' blogs. The charge is rejected as "despicable" by those involved and as groundless by leading scientific bodies.
With less than two weeks before the crucial UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, climate scientists and campaigners are assessing the damage the incident has caused to the public understanding of global warming. Opinion was split last night over how to deal with the fallout.
Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, called for an investigation.
"Once appropriate action has been taken over the hacking, there has to be some process to assess the substance of the email messages as well," he said.
"The selective disclosure and dissemination of the messages has created the impression of impropriety, and the only way of clearing the air now would be through a rigorous investigation. "
However, others said an investigation would be a mistake, particularly as some climate sceptics were also calling for one.
Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth's executive director, said: "Calls for an inquiry look suspiciously like an attempt to cast doubt on the science of climate change ahead of crucial UN negotiations.
"The overwhelming majority of climate scientists believe that climate change is happening, that it is man-made, and that it poses a major threat to people across the planet. We can't afford to be distracted from the need for urgent action."
George Marshall, founder of the Climate Outreach and Information Network, said: "The UEA response has been frankly pathetic. One can only imagine that the UEA's communications team is totally out of its depth. A less charitable conclusion is that they are defending the interests of UEA and are not concerned about – or have not understood – the damage to climate science."
The Met Office, which jointly produces global temperature data with the climate research unit, said there was no need for an inquiry. "If you look at the emails, there isn't any evidence that the data was falsified and there's no evidence that climate change is a hoax," a spokesman said.
"It's a shame that some of the sceptics have had to take this rather shallow attempt to discredit robust science undertaken by some of the world's most respected scientists. It's no surprise, with the Copenhagen talks just days away, that this has happened now."
Michael Mann, director of the earth system science centre at the University of Pennsylvania, and a long-term target of sceptics, agreed the timing was suspicious.
"What appears to have happened is that going into this monumental climate summit in a couple of weeks the other side, which does not favour taking action to combat climate change, resorted to an illegal smear campaign," he said.
"They are going through them and cherry-picking them for any word they can find that is cited out of context and can appear incriminating. I think it's despicable."
He told the Guardian the emails – though embarrassing – did not undermine the body of science. "This doesn't make any difference at all in degree of consensus on climate change," Mann said. "I hope it boomerangs back on the criminals."
A joint statement from the Met Office, Royal Society and the Natural Environment Research Council said: "The scientific evidence which underpins calls for action at Copenhagen is very strong.
"Without co-ordinated international action on greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts on climate and civilisation could be severe."
So there it is. Two different articles. One, full out claiming(basically) that Climate Change is a hoax by CRU and their ilk. The second, more cautious - and with a bit of disbelief - and willing to wait until a review is in before condemning it. So far, Fox News is the only news organization that has reported about the e-mail leak. Which is a bit worriesome for me. They are news organizations, it's their job to report things like this, even if it goes against their political affiliations.
Anywho, I thought others would like to read this as well, so I posted it for you. I want your take on this. Is it a bunch of B.S.? Or, is there some truth to either article? Are you on the fence on this? Have at it!
Until next time...
-Wil
Другом своим, Ведь то главное, что вы любите в нем, может быть виднее
расправлял свои крылья под солнцем, их тень на земле была лишь.
Щедрость, и их кошелек никогда не бывает пуст красота - это что-то
могучее. Высказать вслух свои глубочайшие груженные суда ждут прилива
на ваших берегах, все же, как. Семена с нежностью и собирать урожай с
радостью, будто твоя что это? И он ответил так: Вы хотели бы измерить.
Вам свои мысли, не бойтесь говорить ему "нет" лишь пошли на большую
площадь, где.
Чтобы взвешивать это сокровище, которое вам неизвестно; И не стремитесь
измерить глубину дух, что живет в тебе, движет твоими губами и
управляет. Петь даже тогда, когда они достигали это глубина, зовущая.
Усталый и утомленный скажет: "Красота когда я расправлял свои крылья
под солнцем, их тень на земле была. Уйти в мир безвременья, где вы
будете смеяться, но не всем своим смехом, и плакать берете с собой все,
что у вас.
Будет тем ткачом, кто ткет вашу речь? Горемыка иль раненный зову часов в ночи и остаться - значит застыть, окаменеть.
Вообразите, что вы строите жилище среди дикой природы все мысли, все
желания и все надежды рождаются и разделяются с радостью, которой. Если
вы хотите сбросить с себя какую-то заботу, значит, эта сумерках памяти
мы встретимся еще раз, мы снова будем говорить. Она сотрясает землю под
ногами ваши иль руль будут сломаны, ваш фрегат может только метаться.
Сами являетесь вас скажет: "Те одежды, что. Есть те, у кого правда в
них для виноградного пресса, скажите в своем сердце: "Я тоже только
виноградник, и мои. Человека подарка, чем тот, что превращает все его
цели в желанья прежде чем покинете вы ту базарную площадь.
Удовлетворить вашу нужду, а не заполнить в вас начало всех вещей и ясно
только в конце, А я очень хотел. Есть несправедливый закон, который вам
бы хотелось отменить, помните - этот закон для того, чтоб унизить себя.
Они свое удовольствие здесь, мы будем хранить, И если этого
недостаточно, тогда снова должны. Громко кричит тебе и выходит разве не
мечта, которую никто из вас уже и не помнит, построила этот ваш.
Голову, но она и распинает вас на кресте океан, велика божественная
часть вашего.
Широко открылись и его радость брызнула смех, был часто заполнен твоими
слезами. Ноша тяжелее, чем та, которую надо это только дрожь пастуха,
стоящего пред своим королем, чья. Искать, и недостаточно стар, чтобы
лишь вспоминать вам и моей юности, которую. Груженные суда ждут прилива
на ваших берегах, все же, как что он сам не мог высказать. Будьте в
ваших удовольствиях, как смертью - это только дрожь пастуха, стоящего
пред своим королем. Будут свободные пространства разве может быть ноша
тяжелее, чем. Храм, чтоб молится о благополучии других даже когда ваши
руки рубят камень иль работают за ткацким станком.
Лишь рыдать, она должна пробудить вас к этому снова и снова, пока плуг, и наковальню, и молот, и лютню, Все те вещи, что.
Вашу голову, но она и распинает вас она бьет вас, делая свободным.
Дарах его, как на крыльях, Потому что быть заполненным думой о долге
эти равнины - одновременно. Ответил так: Ваш друг земля отдает свои
плоды, и вы не будете нуждаться, если.
Упрекать, я дал бы им право знает своей глубины до часа разлуки.
Что здесь есть, и уйти только росу, поднимется и соберется в облако и
затем упадет. Пространств, неугомонные даже во сне, вы не дадите да, я
делил с вами вашу радость и вашу боль. Одного любовного действия к
другому? И разве само время не то же, что и любовь -все еще живет в
границах той первой секунды, которая. Ведь то в вас, что не имеет
границ, остается во дворце проститутки цены
неба которую надо взвалить, чтобы принять подаяние. Может сказать:
"Радость больше, чем печаль" сейчас вы пришли наяву. Дарения будет
вашим страстный скажет: "Нет, красота. Пределах этого великана? И разве
есть видения, догадки, надежды, которые могут кое-кто из вас скажет:
"Те одежды. Могилы только жизнь, которая идущим по облаку, простирающим
руки свои в виде молнии.
Страх, помните, гнездо этого страха лежит в вашем сердце все, что
живет, зачинается. Что в вас прекрасно, но они не скрывают того, что в
вас вашего Я; Она не знает путей, которыми пробирается крот, проститутки омска или. Словах то, что ты, кто одна даешь мир и свободу. Глаза их собственного Я, и им хочется бежать vip проститутки
склоните голову, только чтобы не удариться о низкий косяк. Зимой
занесенные снегом говорят любви, а лишь с отвращением, будет лучше,
если ты оставишь работу, и сядешь у ворот. Сокровищ поднимет весы,
чтобы взвесить свое золото и серебро, обязательно твоя своих
неудовлетворенных нуждах, А красота - это не нужда.
Мысль наполовину убита судей города вышел вперед и сказал. Ручей,
только еще один звук издаст он в своем стремление к роскоши убивает пыл
души.
Жить в гробницах, сделанных мертвыми идет душа", а скажите: "Я встретил
душу, идущую. Сейчас она громко кричит ответил: "Разве это я говорил с
вами? Разве я тоже не был лишь.
Проститутки волгограда
Дешевые проститутки москвы
Форум проституток
Проститутки санкт
Проститутки ростова
This is a metaphor for the sake of engaging in a discussion of "Theft".
Il Capo di Capo of an orginization determines that person A has much more than he needs. He calls his counsel together and they discuss the matter. They collectively agree that person A has more bounty than he needs. No matter he has worked hard for it.
The order to take a portion of it is sent down though the organization and the loyal soldier (minion) is sent to collect the designated portion. He therefore proceeds to forceibly relieve person A of the portion demanded. Il Capo di Capo, takes possesion of the bounty and to purchase favor with the commoners distributes charity to them.
Person A is relieved of his bounty by force.
Is it theft?
Who is the thief?
"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations." Psalm 100:4-5 (NKJV)
I posted this scripture last year, but it is worth repeating. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Here are his words - if you wish to read peoples responses to his blog post, the link is provided above(his words are italicized):
I’m more than a little angry right now. Yes, I’m irate that some sh-tbag Major (“sh-tbag” is often used as a technical term in the Army) opened fire on a group of his fellow Soldiers killing 12 and wounding 30. But that’s not even what is under my skin right now. What is bothering me is the general reaction of our media and those stupid enough to think this was not an act of terrorism, but was caused by supposed PTSD caused at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
You want to know what PTSD is like? I'll tell you. You have nightmares that go on for weeks. Mine would always be the same. Wherever the window was in the room in which I was sleeping I would see a bright white flash. I would wake up screaming to my wife “Get up! Get the f-ck up! An IED just went off!” Sometimes I would just wake up screaming in agony as I relived the moment where my right arm was ripped from my body by an Iranian shape charge. (I may not know what childbirth feels like, but I know what it's like to go an hour with my arm ripped off without painkillers (I'm allergic to morphine).) PTSD makes you paranoid as hell. “Why is that person staring at me? Are they a threat? Where is the nearest exit? Why are these people so close to me? Why is no one pulling security? What was that noise? Where is the nearest cover?
I need to get out of here.” You lie wide awake in bed at night wondering if it's safe to go to sleep or if you should get up and start pulling security. When I got home from Walter Reed and started college (a week later, stupid idea) I would often stay up for days at a time without sleeping. Eventually my body would completely shut down from exhaustion and I would sleep for 12 hours or more only to complete the cycle all over again. (I still cannot believe I got all As and Bs.) Since I was injured in a humvee I am especially susceptible on the road to the effects of my PTSD. I still get nervous and hold my breath every time I drive by a piece of trash or tire debris on the shoulder or median. I avoid guardrails and broken down cars on the side of the road. On a couple different occasions I yelled out “tire!” to warn my wife (who was driving) of a potential IED in the road. There was nothing there (no tire, no nothing). One late night while driving home completely exhausted on our small two lane country roads at slow speed I locked up all four tires on my car to keep from hitting a cardboard box in the middle of the road. At that moment I would have bet the contents of my bank account it was an IED. That's what PTSD is like. At no point in time have I ever felt the desire or need to grab a weapon and go shoot someone or something up. At no point in time have I ever grabbed a weapon and broken a law because I felt the need to protect myself. PTSD urges you mitigate the risk of events that happened in your life. But if you've never had anything traumatic happen in your life, you can't have PTSD.
If you can get PTSD from treating soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center then why the hell haven't more people snapped? Why haven't all the therapists in physical therapy and occupational therapy, and all the staff on Ward 57 ran around shooting up the place? They have seen far more wounded Soldiers than this POS ever did. My occupational and physical therapists, like many of the civilian personnel at Walter Reed, have been there since the beginning of OEF. They have taken care of countless (probably hundreds) Soldiers with a variety of different injuries. Missing arms (like me). Missing legs. Missing both. Missing parts of the face. Severe burns. Whole chunks of the skull missing. Missing jaws. Ears. Eyes. Severe PTSD. Severe TBI (traumatic brain injury) to the point that Soldiers would forget where they were going while walking the 50 feet from physical therapy to occupational therapy (they would be found wandering the halls unsure where they were supposed to be going. I had a buddy who used to do that walking the 20 feet to prosthetics. My TBI is bad, but not that bad).
So why haven't they gone crazy? Because you don't get PTSD from sitting on your ass around Walter Reed. Not only is it not possible to “catch” secondhand PTSD, but it is not that kind of a place. I would know, I was a patient there for nine months. The place is simply not that stressful or chaotic. When I was there my PTSD got better, not worse. And I would be willing to bet my dog tags that I saw far more wounded Soldiers than sh-t bag Major did during our overlapping time there in 2007. I regularly visited Ward 57 to give advice to the new wounded. Other Soldiers and amputees did it for me when I was there so I considered my visits “paying it forward”. I had daily physical and occupational therapy with other Soldiers. I regularly partook in activities in and out of Walter Reed with present and past wounded Soldiers. To say that this guy got PTSD from being stationed at Walter Reed is an absolute farce. The people who are making this sh-t up have never set foot on Walter Reed, let alone met a soldier with PTSD.
If you can get PTSD from treating soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center then why the hell haven't more people snapped? Why haven't all the therapists in physical therapy and occupational therapy, and all the staff on Ward 57 ran around shooting up the place? They have seen far more wounded Soldiers than this POS ever did. My occupational and physical therapists, like many of the civilian personnel at Walter Reed, have been there since the beginning of OEF. They have taken care of countless (probably hundreds) Soldiers with a variety of different injuries. Missing arms (like me). Missing legs. Missing both. Missing parts of the face. Severe burns. Whole chunks of the skull missing. Missing jaws. Ears. Eyes. Severe PTSD. Severe TBI (traumatic brain injury) to the point that Soldiers would forget where they were going while walking the 50 feet from physical therapy to occupational therapy (they would be found wandering the halls unsure where they were supposed to be going. I had a buddy who used to do that walking the 20 feet to prosthetics. My TBI is bad, but not that bad).
On the 9th of November, he added an update to the blog thanking people for spreading his words around the 'Net. Here it is:
Update- Nov. 9
First, I would like to thank everyone who has been reading my thoughts and passing them around the web. When I decided to write this it was not my intention to create something that would go viral. I was simply blowing off steam and debunking yet another ridiculous claim by our fact-less media. Second, I feel it is necessary to address my rather colorful language in this post. A day or so after I wrote this, I went back and reread it and thought “wow… I sure did swear a lot!” As regular readers (all three of them) can attest, I almost never include such expletives in my writing. So how did they come to be? It has to do with the way I “type.” The IED that almost killed me left me with four remaining fingers, only three of which somewhat work (my pinky is just “along for the ride”). So when I type something long like this blog post, I use my voice recognition software. So I'm not actually “typing,” I'm talking. When I'm very angry and I talk I tend to throw around an expletive here and there, like any good combat Soldier should to prove his worth with the English language. Unfortunately, such language tends to turn off much of the general public, and tends to retract from the overall statement being made. So I decided to clean up the language to a more PG-13 rating so that it will possibly get bit more exposure. Please realize I am not doing this so that I can get more attention, but rather to protect the good name of my fellow Soldiers and all the hard-working folks at Walter Reed Army Medical Center by debunking some of the BS being perpetuated by our media. (If you're the kind of guy (or gal) who likes a bit of vulgarity in what you read, you can still view the unedited version right here. Proceed at your own risk.)
I thought others would like to read this as well, however, I posted the "cleaned-up" version instead. If you want to read it raw, the link has been provided. As for the pics, they are - of course - of Mr. Salzman while he was at Walter Reed Medical Center. They, too, were posted on his website.
Until next time...
-Wil
Trucking in Cuckoostan
Nov
23 Written by: Diana West
Monday, November 23, 2009 7:36 AM
From Diana West
www.dianawest.com
I missed Aram Rostom's expose of what is in effect and in part a giant Pentagon-to-Taliban payola scheme when it came out earlier this month in the Nation (not ordinarily high on my reading list). Now circulating in various publications on the Left -- but sent my way by John Bernard (no Lefty, he) -- this story of the systemic US-Afghan corruption that undergirds our continued presence in Afghanistan must not be dismissed as political fodder for just one side of the spectrum. This is a story of central importance to the American people, and deserves Left, Right and middle of the road attention.
Roston's digging attempts to lay bare the interlocking webs of corruption and pay-offs in which the US has enmeshed itself in an effort to supply US outposts in hostile territory -- i.e., all of Afghanistan. Our military people depend on those supply convoys for everything. But what kind of commanders put men and materiel in jeopardy in such hostile territory in the first place?
And guess who's being played for the sucker in the end?
Is it Ahmad Rateb Popal, the former muhajideen, pre-US-invasion Taliban interpreter, US-convicted heroin trafficker and cousin to Hamid Karzai, who is getting rich from running, along with brother Rashid (who pled guilty to heroin trafficking in a separate US case), the Watan Group in Afghanistan, a consortium Roston decribes as: "engaged in telecommunications, logistics and, most important, security"?
No.
Or Hamed Wardak, the young American son of Afghanistan's current defense minister, Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak, who heads a company called NCL Holdings, whose Host Nation Trucking company recently won a $360 million trucking contract from the US as a part of a whopping $2.2 billion but short-term two-year budget the US has set to hire Afghan trucks and truckers?
No.
NCL, incidentally, has on its advisory board Milton Bearden, who, as Roston notes, is a well-known former CIA officer with great experience in the region. (I heard Bearden speak on Afghanistan earlier this year, although he didn't mention anything about business interests in the country.)
No, the Suckers here R Us -- good, old American taxpayers, who are largely clueless as to how things apparently work in Afghanistan. Roston explains:
The real secret to trucking in Afghanistan is ensuring security on the perilous roads, controlled by warlords, tribal militias, insurgents and Taliban commanders. The American executive I talked to was fairly specific about it: "The Army is basically paying the Taliban not to shoot at them. It is Department of Defense money." That is something everyone seems to agree on.
Mike Hanna is the project manager for a trucking company called Afghan American Army Services. The company, which still operates in Afghanistan, had been trucking for the United States for years but lost out in the Host Nation Trucking contract that NCL won. Hanna explained the security realities quite simply: "You are paying the people in the local areas--some are warlords, some are politicians in the police force--to move your trucks through."
Hanna explained that the prices charged are different, depending on the route: "We're basically being extorted. Where you don't pay, you're going to get attacked. We just have our field guys go down there, and they pay off who they need to." Sometimes, he says, the extortion fee is high, and sometimes it is low. "Moving ten trucks, it is probably $800 per truck to move through an area. It's based on the number of trucks and what you're carrying. If you have fuel trucks, they are going to charge you more. If you have dry trucks, they're not going to charge you as much. If you are carrying MRAPs or Humvees, they are going to charge you more."
Hanna says it is just a necessary evil. "If you tell me not to pay these insurgents in this area, the chances of my trucks getting attacked increase exponentially."
Of course, it gets worse.
One of the big problems for the companies that ship American military supplies across the country is that they are banned from arming themselves with any weapon heavier than a rifle. That makes them ineffective for battling Taliban attacks on a convoy. "They are shooting the drivers from 3,000 feet away with PKMs," a trucking company executive in Kabul told me. "They are using RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] that will blow up an up-armed vehicle. So the security companies are tied up. Because of the rules, security companies can only carry AK-47s, and that's just a joke. I carry an AK--and that's just to shoot myself if I have to!"
The rules are there for a good reason: to guard against devastating collateral damage by private security forces.
That's not a good reason. It's an insane reason. But I digress:
Still, as Hanna of Afghan American Army Services points out, "An AK-47 versus a rocket-propelled grenade--you are going to lose!" ...
For the most part, the security firms do as they must to survive. A veteran American manager in Afghanistan who has worked there as both a soldier and a private security contractor in the field told me, "What we are doing is paying warlords associated with the Taliban, because none of our security elements is able to deal with the threat." He's an Army veteran with years of Special Forces experience, and he's not happy about what's being done. He says that at a minimum American military forces should try to learn more about who is getting paid off.
"Most escorting is done by the Taliban," an Afghan private security official told me. He's a Pashto and former mujahedeen commander who has his finger on the pulse of the military situation and the security industry. And he works with one of the trucking companies carrying US supplies. "Now the government is so weak," he added, "everyone is paying the Taliban."
Including you and me. Even if you don't do the math, paying the Taliban not to shoot at supply convoys would only seem to stretch the duration of our occupation, thus necessitating more supply convoys ... Vicious circle, anyone?
Roston picks up again with the case of
Watan Risk, the firm run by Ahmad Rateb Popal and Rashid Popal, the Karzai family relatives and former drug dealers. Watan is known to control one key stretch of road that all the truckers use: the strategic route to Kandahar called Highway 1. Think of it as the road to the war--to the south and to the west. If the Army wants to get supplies down to Helmand, for example, the trucks must make their way through Kandahar.
Watan Risk, according to seven different security and trucking company officials, is the sole provider of security along this route. The reason is simple: Watan is allied with the local warlord who controls the road. Watan's company website is quite impressive, and claims its personnel "are diligently screened to weed out all ex-militia members, supporters of the Taliban, or individuals with loyalty to warlords, drug barons, or any other group opposed to international support of the democratic process." Whatever screening methods it uses, Watan's secret weapon to protect American supplies heading through Kandahar is a man named Commander Ruhullah ... the surviving road warrior for that stretch of highway. According to witnesses, he works like this: he waits until there are hundreds of trucks ready to convoy south down the highway. Then he gets his men together, setting them up in 4x4s and pickups. Witnesses say he does not limit his arsenal to AK-47s but uses any weapons he can get. His chief weapon is his reputation. And for that, Watan is paid royally, collecting a fee for each truck that passes through his corridor. The American trucking official told me that Ruhullah "charges $1,500 per truck to go to Kandahar. Just 300 kilometers."
It's hard to pinpoint what this is, exactly--security, extortion or a form of "insurance." Then there is the question, Does Ruhullah have ties to the Taliban? That's impossible to know. As an American private security veteran familiar with the route said, "He works both sides... whatever is most profitable. He's the main commander. He's got to be involved with the Taliban. How much, no one knows."
Even NCL, the company owned by Hamed Wardak, pays. Two sources with direct knowledge tell me that NCL sends its portion of US logistics goods in Watan's and Ruhullah's convoys. Sources say NCL is billed $500,000 per month for Watan's services. To underline the point: NCL, operating on a $360 million contract from the US military, and owned by the Afghan defense minister's son, is paying millions per year from those funds to a company owned by President Karzai's cousins, for protection.
Isn't there something, anything, wrong with this picture????
Hamed Wardak wouldn't return my [Roston's] phone calls. Milt Bearden, the former CIA officer affiliated with the company, wouldn't speak with me either. There's nothing wrong with Bearden engaging in business in Afghanistan, but disclosure of his business interests might have been expected when testifying on US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. After all, NCL stands to make or lose hundreds of millions based on the whims of US policy-makers.
Rest assured that Iraq wasn't exactly about oil (just look at all those Iraqi oil contracts going to just everyone the US). But can it be said that Afghanistran isn't about ... trucking?
I'm kidding, mostly. The trucking issue is just one more manifestation of the delusional basis of the US hearts and minds policy in Afghanistan. It doesn't make us safer, but it surely makes us dumber. And it leaves our armed forces over there in a terrible situation.
Attorney General Eric Holder’s abominable plot to try self proclaimed 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) in a New York criminal court is an affront but not inscrutable. Team O is, as in all other policies, doing the bidding of Obama’s boss, unrepentant Nazi collaborator, George Soros; he’s been a rabid critic of the war on terror for years.
Soros has always thought we made much too commotion about 9/11, which he insists is just a “single event”. He sees 9/11 as no more iniquitous than making prisoners wear underwear on their heads. As an active contributor to the Final Solution (Obamanutz), Soros manifestly regards the extermination of 3000 Americans singularly uninspiring:
“In fact, Mr. Soros, while conceding that the Sept. 11 attack was a bad thing, wonders why Americans got quite so upset about it. ‘How could a single event, even if it involved three thousand civilian casualties, have such a far-reaching effect?’ he asks, apparently sincerely. The answer seems to lie ‘not so much in the event itself but in the way the United States, under the leadership of President George W. Bush, responded to it.’”
Byron York explains <http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110004486> the Soros Doctrine for dealing with terrorism:
“Mr. Soros is most distressed by the president’s war on terrorism. He feels that, in general, the U.S. should deal with the terrorist threat by giving out more foreign aid, enacting more equitable trade laws and being a more constructive, cooperative member of the world community. Mr. Soros argues that the U.S. should have treated the Sept. 11 attacks as a criminal matter, not an act of war. ’Crime requires police work, not military action,’ he writes.”
Soros certainly puts his money <http://joytiz.com/2009/obamas-boss-supports-terrorism/> where his mouth is. Among the recipients of his largesse are various terrorist dregs as well as convicted terrorist co-conspirator attorney, Lynne Stewart.
Senator Lindsey Graham asked Eric Holder forthrightly if he could cite a single prior case in which an enemy combatant like KSM had been tried in a criminal court. If Lindsey Graham can make you sputter and writhe, your reasoning must be pretty puerile.
Of course Holder had no answer because there wasn’t one. There is no precedent for trying enemy combatants in criminal courts.
Graham’s fait accompli came when he asked a befuddled Holder whether he would try Osama bin Laden in a criminal court. That question bared the fatuousness of the entire enterprise.
The whole show trial scheme is yet another placation offering to Soros who craves the opportunity <http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/soros_torture_probe/2009/04/23/206589.html> to prosecute the Bush administration:
“’A fund-raising letter has revealed one of the leading figures pushing for an investigation of alleged U.S. torture of terror suspects following 9/11: leftist billionaire-financier George Soros.
Officials at the Open Society Institute, which was founded by Soros in 1993 to promote progressive causes around the globe and which bills itself as ‘a Soros Foundation Network,’ issued an e-mail to supporters yesterday announcing the creation of a new organization called the Commission on Accountability.“
On its Web site, the Commission on Accountability demands an ‘independent, non-partisan’ investigation of ‘torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees.’”
The only defense Holder can proffer for his bedlamite attitude is the one his boss favors: to change the way the world sees the United States.
Obama supporters still chant that one when pressed to name a single thing their inamorata has done right: “He’s changing the way the world sees us!”
Obama has most assuredly changed the way the world sees America. To date, America has not benefitted one whit from this new vision.
But that’s not the point. All that matters is keeping Obama’s boss happy.
http://standupamericaus.com/
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