Obama Made a Rash Decision On Gitmo -- A Commentary

President Obama was joined by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and 16 retired generals and admirals in the Oval Office as he signed the executive orders. Doug Mills/The New York Times

From The Wall Street Journal:

The president will soon realize that governing involves hard choices.

During his first week as commander in chief, President Barack Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay and terminated the CIA's special authority to interrogate terrorists.

While these actions will certainly please his base -- gone are the cries of an "imperial presidency" -- they will also seriously handicap our intelligence agencies from preventing future terrorist attacks. In issuing these executive orders, Mr. Obama is returning America to the failed law enforcement approach to fighting terrorism that prevailed before Sept. 11, 2001. He's also drying up the most valuable sources of intelligence on al Qaeda, which, according to CIA Director Michael Hayden, has come largely out of the tough interrogation of high-level operatives during the early years of the war.

Read more ....

My Comment: In From the Cold's comments on this Wall Street Journal opinion piece are a must read.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Qaeda To Blow Up Holiest Christian Site

From Press TV:

Benjamin Netanyahu, the favorite to win the upcoming Israeli election, says al Qaeda terrorists will destroy Jesus Christ's burial site.

Netanyahu, who claims he had predicted an Islamic extremists attack on the World Trade Center six years before the actual attack, said terrorists will target Church of the Holy Sepulchre also known as the Church of the Resurrection - Christianity's holiest site.

The church located in Jerusalem (al-Quds) -- which Christians believe is the site of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus -- attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims every year and is considered a spiritual focal point.

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My Comment: Actually, their stated target is this.

Pentagon Keeps Mum On Who's At Bagram

Photo from The Atlantic.

From Huffington Post:

An untold portion of the 600 detainees at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan were captured outside the country while engaged in peaceful activities, lawyers and court documents say, and imprisoned alongside Afghan warriors. The U.S. government has argued that battlefield rules put the prisoners beyond the reach of civilian justice, even though they weren't captured in the Afghan war zone.
The total number of captives nabbed abroad and held at Bragram is redacted from this public court document.

A lawsuit by four Bagram detainees has revealed striking similarities between the prison in Afghanistan and the Guantanamo Bay facility. To determine the full measure of that resemblance, District Court Judge John D. Bates instructed government lawyers to turn over the total number of captives nabbed abroad. That crucial number was redacted from public court documents (PDF) filed in the case. Recently, Bates has turned to the Obama administration, which recently put the Gitmo military commissions on hold, for guidance.

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My Comment: The problem of Bagram and its housing of detainees stems from the Afghan Government itself. Canadian forces in the south of the country now scrutinize the well being of detainees after they have passed them onto the Afghan Government .... this happened when it was learned that pass detainees were tortured .... and in some cases had disappeared .... when they had been transferred to the Afghan prison system.

The jailbreak out of Kandahar Prison last summer in which hundreds of hardened Taliban escaped also revealed the inadequacies of the Afghan penal system, and the need for Nato to supervise the prison care for the most dangerous detainees.

With the closing of Guantanamo now in the works, expect combatants and/or Al Qaeda leaders who are captured to now be housed in Bagram. The alternative of leaving them with Afghan and/or other country jurisdiction will just open a Pandora's box of abuse, unlawful conduct, and/or the release of dangerous men.

The Confusion Over Renditions -- A Commentary

From The Boston Globe:

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S order to close the Guantanamo prison provoked comments from the right about the risks of bringing terrorist prisoners to the United States. His order banning torture, but not outlawing "extraordinary renditions," caused some on the left to complain. Both groups of critics, though, either overlook relevant parts of recent history or simply get that history wrong.

Before George W. Bush, there was no real question about what the United States should do with people who broke American anti-terror laws. It did not matter whether they were arrested in the United States or overseas. In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, for example, one suspect, Muhammad Salameh, was caught in New Jersey. Another, Ramzi Yousef, was caught in Pakistan. Upon arrest, both were given their Miranda rights, arraigned before a US magistrate, given a free lawyer appointed by the court, tried and convicted before a jury, and sentenced to the "Supermax" prison in Florence, Colo.

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My Comment: Richard Clarke's points are very misleading. Because witness names and evidence had to be produced in the criminal trials, situations arose in which witnesses simply disappeared, and/or the means to collect intelligence was disclosed. Bin Laden's use of a satellite phone is a case in point. The tribunals protect these witnesses and the means of how intelligence is collected.

If 9/11 taught us anything, we cannot go back to the legal structures of the past to combat these international organizations and groups.

Arctic's Thaw Brings Security Risks For NATO

From World Atlas.com

From Yahoo News/AP:

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – NATO will need a military presence in the Arctic as global warming melts frozen sea routes and major powers rush to lay claim to lucrative energy reserves, the military bloc's chief said Thursday.

NATO commanders and lawmakers meeting in Iceland's capital said the Arctic thaw is bringing the prospect of new standoffs between powerful nations.

"I would be the last one to expect military conflict — but there will be a military presence," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters. "It should be a military presence that is not overdone, and there is a need for political cooperation and economic cooperation."

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My Comment: I have been up north (northern Quebec) on numerous occasions. The beauty of the wilderness is breathtaking. The Arctic is truly one of the last untouched areas of the world, but I do expect everything to change in the next decade.

Iraq News Updates -- January 30, 2009

Image from AFP

A Momentous Vote In Iraq After Years Of War
-- Christian Science Monitor

Polls open throughout most of the country for a provincial election that could shift the balance of power.

Mosul, Iraq - In a country undergoing a grand reinvention, voters Saturday will choose not just who represents them in provincial governments but define the shape of Iraq in the tumultuous year ahead.

It's a national election full of firsts: The first held by a fully sovereign Iraq; the first in which Iraq's vital Sunni Arab minority is playing a large role; and the first in which Iraqis can vote for a flood of individual candidates – 14,467 of them vying for 440 seats – as well as parties.

"Those whom they elect – provincial council directors or governors – eventually are the ones who actually control the resources ... who can or cannot deliver water, electricity, sanitation, and provide employment," says United Nations special representative Stefan de Mistura in Baghdad.

Read more ....

More News On Iraq

Iraqi Elections Face Crucial Test in Violent Mosul -- New York Times
Iraqis Stake Hopes on Election -- Washington Post
Iraqis Prepare to Vote in Jan. 31 Provincial Elections -- AFPS
Iraq's Maliki makes inroads among last year's foes -- Reuters
'City of death' may be key to Iraq's future -- McClatchy Newspapers
Iraqi city of Mosul key electoral battlefield -- Yahoo News/AP
Poll battle for Iraqi city of Najaf -- BBC
Violence and intimidation mark run-up to Iraqi elections -- The Guardian
US Forces Step Back to Allow Iraqis to Oversee Election -- AFPS
Tight security before Iraq polls -- BBC
Violence returns to Iraqi election campaign -- Times Online
Three Sunni Candidates Slain Days Before Elections -- Washington Post
News Analysis: Provincial elections to reshape political landscape in Iraq -- China View
Iraqis Go to the Polls: What to Watch For -- Alertnet/Reuters
After Promising Quick Iraq Withdrawal, Obama Works Through Details -- VOA
Iraq encouraged by US reassurances, minister says -- AP
Transition Team Mentors Iraqi Soldiers to Success -- AFPS
US Looks for Blackwater Replacement in Iraq -- New York Times
Iraq's Next Test -- New York Post opinion

WNU Editor's Note: The above image from AFP is in error. The Sunni population percentage is 20% - 25%, and the Shiite population percentage is about 55%.

Zimbabwe News Updates -- January 30, 2009

Mr Tsvangirai is due to be sworn in as prime minister by Feb 11
Photo: REUTERS (Photo from The Telegraph)

Zimbabwe Opposition Decides To Join Government -- Yahoo News/Reuters

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe's opposition MDC has committed itself to forming a unity government with President Robert Mugabe, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Friday, ending a paralyzing deadlock that deepened an economic crisis.

Tsvangirai made the announcement after a meeting of the Movement for Democratic Change's decision-making National Council.

"We are going into this government. That is what the council has decided," Tsvangirai, who is set to become prime minister, told reporters.

Read more ....

More News On Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe opposition to form unity govt next month: Tsvangirai -- AFP
Zimbabwe rival agrees unity plan -- BBC News
Zimbabwe opposition to join government -- L.A. Times
Zimbabwe opposition will join unity government -- The Guardian
Will power really be shared? -- The Economist
Zimbabwe parties set up body to monitor power deal -- AFP
TIMELINE-Zimbabwe opposition agrees to join government -- Reuters
Zimbabwe: Efforts to Pressure Zimbabwe Continue Under Obama -- All Africa
Mugabe offered asylum in Senegal -- AFP
Kenya, Senegal leaders say Zimbabwe's Mugabe must go -- Reuters
Zimbabwe abandons its currency -- BBC
Mugabe Loses Battle to Prop Up Currency -- The Times
Zimbabwe Cholera Cases Top 60,000 -- BBC News
Deadly cholera epidemic "mushrooming" in Zimbabwe: WHO -- Reuters

My Comment: This deal is not going to last. There is a transition period .... and it will be during this transition period that Robert Mugabe and his allies will torpedo this agreement. The idea that the Government and their allies will relinquish power to the opposition .... an opposition that they have imprisoned and murdered .... is something that is very hard to see.