News

pbtt wrote an interesting post today on
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 Last year, a B-52 bomber flew six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads across the US.  US Air Force officials had known nothing about that for 36 hours.
 
Then in March this year, it was discovered that nuclear warhead triggers had been shipped by mistake to Taiwan 17 months before, for what should have been helicopter batteries.
 
These successive Air Force blunders cost Chief of Staff Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne their jobs.
 
Commenting on the dismissals, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates pointed out that although problems in securing arsenal are not new – since decades ago, in fact – the current leadership should have identified and corrected them.
 
Actions, or lack thereof, that have established as age-old practices are not necessarily right.  Or safe. 
 
The notion itself of not fixing something if it is not broken ought to be re-examined in this light.

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lauianny wrote an interesting post today on
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K Godage says… Another bomb, and no doubt still more will follow. As is well known, fighting a war without good intelligence is like fighting blindfolded. Almost two years ago it was suggested to a very high official of the government that they introduce ’Community policing’ in Wellawatte, Kotehena and Wattala - three areas generally inhabited by our Tamil citizens.
I also informed the official that there was a report to government by an Irish Police expert Fleming, on the subject, and also that the Japanese had this system in their major cities where the Police befriended the people and made crime prevention easy. It was pointed out that if the Police reached out to the people they in turn would feel that to ensure their own security they should keep the Police informed of any suspicious activity in their residential areas.
The official’s reaction was "it’s a great idea, […]

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unknown wrote an interesting post today on
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At least two people have been killed and around 20 people injured in a second suspected bomb attack on a bus in Sri Lanka, according to police.
The explosion near the central Sri Lankan town of Kandy on Friday came just hours after a bomb killed at least 21 people on a bus outside the capital Colombo.
“The LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] carried out the attack exploding a bomb inside a passenger bus,” Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, Sri Lanka’s military spokesman, said.
He later told Al Jazeera the military has launched operations in the north of the country, where the LTTE has bases.
He blamed the attack in Moratuwa on the LTTE, which has fought the Sri Lankan government for two decades in an attempt to secure a homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in the north and east of the island.
Source

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pbtt wrote an interesting post today on
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CAEN, France (AFP) - A French history museum dedicated to the World War II D-Day landings is set to unveil the largest exhibit to date on another event that changed the world: the September 11, 2001 attacks.
September 11: A Global Moment” opens Friday at the Caen memorial museum on a day that for decades had been reserved for the solemn commemoration of the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944.
“We thought it would be the perfect place to tell the story of a different kind of war,” said Mark Schaming, the director of exhibitions and programmes at the New York State Museum, home to the exhibit’s artefacts.
A crushed police jeep, pieces of fuselage from the hijacked planes and twisted sheathing of the World Trade Center towers: over 100 artefacts from the New York State Museum collection of objects recovered from Ground Zero are on display until December 31.
But the exhibit also takes […]

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Helena wrote an interesting post today on
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Music Audio: Bob Dylan/The Times They are a-Changin’

[audio=http://sq.txdnl.com/mwt/d/i/s/e/disembedded/playlists/48421/1568085.mp3|lefticon=0xcf36ff|righticon=0xcf36ff]

In an exclusive interview with The Times (U.K.) yesterday, Bob Dylan gave a ringing endorsement to Barack Obama, the first-ever African-American presidential candidate, claiming that he is “redefining the nature of politics from the ground up.” Dylan’s 1964 song The Times They are a-Changin became the anthem for his generation, symbolizing the era-defining social struggle against the establishment. Now Bob Dylan, who could justifiably claim to be the architect of Barack Obama’s “change” catchphrase, has backed the Illinois senator to do for modern America what the generation before did in the 1960s. Dylan, 67, made his comments while being interviewed in Denmark, where he had stopped over in a hotel during a tour of Scandinavia.

Asked about his views on American politics, he said: “Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralising. You can’t expect people […]

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disembedded wrote an interesting post today on
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(*reprinted from Compassion International)
May 23, 2008 - A level three typhoon hit the northern area of the Philippines, damaging more than 200 homes associated with four child development centers in the Pangasinan province.
 
Bonuan First Baptist Student Center (PH-721)
Malued Student Center Program (PH-722)
Sta. Barbara Student Center (PH-747)
GFBC Student Center (PH-749)
Compassion Philippines staff are communicating with partnership facilitators to assess the needs of each child development center and the affected families. Typhoon Halong struck May 19, creating a long-standing blackout and shutting down communications throughout the area.
Please pray for God’s provision and mercy during the typhoon in the Philippines. Compassion Philippines will provide updates as information becomes available. Compassion International will contact you if your sponsored child has been affected.
How Can I Help?
Sponsoring a Compassion child goes a long way to ensuring children who are living in horrible poverty around the world will receive an education, healthcare, food, and other essential needs. […]

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compassiondave wrote an interesting post today on
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has reported a significant drop in violence in Iraq in a continuing downward trend.
Officials said May 2008 marked the fewest number of strikes in Iraq in four years. They said the decline included the use of improvised explosive devices and explosively-formed penetrators, the leading cause of U.S. troop casualties in Iraq.
“Both EFP and IED numbers continue to go down,” Brig. Gen. John Campbell, deputy director for regional operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. “The trend is looking very well.”
In a June 4 briefing, Campbell, a U.S. Army officer, said Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces have been discovering Sunni and Shi’ite weapons and bomb caches. He said the numerous finds have depleted insurgency resources.
Source

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unknown wrote an interesting post today on
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Sanaa, 6 June (AKI) - A well-known al-Qaeda leader, allegedly responsible for a south-east Asian terrorist cell, has been arrested in Yemen, according to a pro-government newspaper.
According to the local newspaper, ‘26 September’, the terrorist was part of a cell that included 11 members of an armed Islamic group disbanded last week during a police operation in the area around Aden and Mareb.
“He is a very dangerous terrorist that has made very important disclosures,” a source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the newspaper.
“They were planning new attacks against petrol plants and targeting the country’s other institutions.”
There has also been news about the government’s struggle against the Shia rebels of Imam Abdel Malik al-Houthi who has been waging war against government security forces in recent years.
Source

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pbtt wrote an interesting post today on
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At the time of his capture in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was one of the world’s most wanted men.
Accused by the US of being the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, he was said by US officials to be the third-in-command of Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.
Charged on February 11 with war crime, murder and conspiracy at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, he faces the death penalty if convicted.
However, his supposed confession, in which he was alleged to have admitted planning the 9/11 attacks to the 2002 Bali bombings and scores of other crimes, was obtained under the controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding, the CIA admitted earlier this year.
US education
Many details of Mohammed’s life are hard to verify.
Born in either 1964 or 1965, reportedly in Kuwait to Pakistani parents, Mohammed grew up in the Gulf state before returning to Pakistan.
After reportedly joining the […]

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pbtt wrote an interesting post today on
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An Israeli Cabinet member said the Jewish state “will attack” Iran if it doesn’t halt its efforts to develop nuclear weaponry, according to a newspaper report Friday.
Shaul Mofaz is Israel’s main liaison with the United States on strategic issues.
“If Iran continues its program to develop nuclear weapons, we will attack it,” Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s largest mass-circulation daily. “The window of opportunity has closed. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear program.”
Mofaz’s threat is one of the most explicit made against the Islamic Republic of Iran by a member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Cabinet.
It has significant political resonance in Israel amid talk that Mofaz has begun jockeying to replace Olmert, who is embroiled in a corruption probe, as the ruling Kadima Party’s leader and prime minister.
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