January 26th, 2012 - 2:49 pm
The BBC reports that several people have died after being tortured by militias in Libyan detention, citing Amnesty International. “It claimed to have seen patients in Tripoli, Misrata and Gheryan with open wounds to their head, limbs and back.”
Meanwhile, charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has suspended operations in Misrata after treating 115 patients with torture-related wounds. … “The torture is being carried out by officially recognised military and security entities as well as by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework,” a spokesman for London-based Amnesty said. …
Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was being “exploited” as some patients were being brought to them between interrogation sessions.
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January 26th, 2012 - 11:47 am
The March of Time
Hat tip: Tigerhawk. The above, someone pointed out to me, is a photoshopped image and not a real cover. I apologize for the oversight. The real cover does not have the reference to “Beyond Detente”. However, the Global Warming cover seems correct.
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January 25th, 2012 - 4:01 pm
Dr Madsen Pirie, President of the Adam Smith Institute, describes value. (Hat tip: Samizdata)
That is all very well. But Marxist economists object that a reliance on market valuation will eventually result in the inequality of wealth. In their view, only central planning can modify that situation and make things “fair”.
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January 25th, 2012 - 10:49 am
There’s trouble in the Middle East. Not that there wasn’t always. But maybe this time it is different.
Libyan protesters lash out at new ‘monster’ in power, writes the Washington Times. “Many Libyans also are worried that the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group that was banned by Gadhafi, is trying to hijack the country. The transitional government and local councils are packed with Islamists who wield immense power, they say.”
In Egypt, Signs of Accord Between Military Council and Islamists, according to the New York Times, which calls it good news. “Their accord seems to have reassured Western diplomats that Egypt is moving toward a more democratic government. But the growing realization that the deal may have already been struck without public debate is evoking a mix of resignation, resentment and relief from liberals and human rights advocates.”
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January 23rd, 2012 - 7:59 pm
Eliot Negin at the Huffington Post is alarmed at the apparent ignorance, not only of the Republican Presidential candidates, but of the press toward the greatest danger of our age. No not the economy, but Global Warming, AKA Climate Change.
Not to let the Republican presidential hopefuls off the hook, but one reason they have largely ignored global warming is because journalists haven’t pressed them on it, especially during the televised debates. I can’t say that I have watched all 23 of the debates that have occurred so far. But I have seen a number of them, and I have read the coverage. As far as I can tell, other than a brief mention about climate science during a debate in early September, moderators have abdicated their responsibility to address one of the most critical issues of our time.
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January 22nd, 2012 - 12:05 pm
Shortly after Newt Gingrich delivered his now famous reply to John King in response to a question about his past marital life, the Anchoress (Elizabeth Scalia) wrote that the crowd, which rose to its feet in applause, wasn’t cheering Gingrich’s personal life so much as taking the opportunity to express its dislike for the media.
The standing ovation for Newt’s remarks were not an endorsement of his behavior — many conservatives are troubled by Gingrich’s past and character does matter to them, while other conservatives are remembering their own sins and falling back on what they know of mercy, for the time being. No, that ovation was an endorsement of Gingrich’s disdain for the mainstream media, which they share, and a declaration to that same media that their playbook is played-out.
But Rush Limbaugh warned against hoping that “the media” might feel the slightest possibility of remorse, because he believes that they are irrevocably on the other side of an uncrossable divide. He declared that King’s partisan behavior was now the way media figures made their bones; how they showed the capo di tutti capo that they would floss their teeth with a razor blade if it would advance the purposes of the One.
Limbaugh may be taking things too far. But who is on each side of the divide that he refers to? The audience’s resentment was probably directed toward what Charles Murray (the author of the Bell Curve) called the “new upper class” and what Angelo de Codevilla called the “ruling class”.
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January 20th, 2012 - 2:36 pm
The Cable at Foreign Policy quotes a letter by Senators Kirk and Menendez, who drafted the Kirk-Menendez amendment, warning the Obama administration against watering down sanctions on Iran. The text of the letter is here.
“We understand that the administration is drafting rules to guide the implementation of the law and we hereby seek to convey the legislative intent underlying certain terms and phrases in the amendment and to ensure that the positive developments that have occurred as a result of the amendment are buttressed by the administrative rules,” wrote Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) in a letter today to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who traveled personally to Japan and China this month to discuss the issue …
The Menendez-Kirk letter list several concerns about the forthcoming rules, which could be unveiled as early as next week. Their two main worries are that the administration will allow countries to avoid being penalized by saying they have achieved “significant reductions” in their dealing with Iran, and that Obama will postpone implementation of the sanctions on national security grounds.
The problem with the proposed sanctions is that that it will tread on many toes. What the State Department is trying to figure out is how to make it appear that tough sanctions have been imposed on Iran without it actually hurting anyone. The problem is also preoccupying others as “European Union envoys failed to agree details of a planned embargo on Iranian crude on Thursday, but diplomats said governments still sought to finalize the ban at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday”, a report from Reuters said. “But they remain divided over several issues, primarily the length of a planned grace period that would allow states heavily dependent on Iranian oil to fulfill existing contracts for a period after the ban went into place.”
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January 20th, 2012 - 9:35 am
Russia has scheduled war games with Iran while the Pentagon is ‘pushing back’ on rumors that US-Israeli maneuvers were postponed at the behest of the administration to prevent ratcheting up tensions. The Christian Science Monitor says Russia “is signaling that it will use all its diplomatic influence to oppose war … will block any further sanctions against Iran in the UN Security Council” — and will hold war games in the Caucasus.
The independent Moscow daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported Monday that this year’s annual military exercises in Russia’s south, Kavkaz 2012, will be much larger than usual and organized around the premise of a war that begins with an attack on Iran but spreads to neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan, and draws Russia into a regional maelstrom. The newspaper said the war games, which are usually confined to Russian territory, might this year include maneuvers in the breakaway Georgian statelets of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and perhaps also in Russian-allied Armenia.
Meanwhile, Yahoo reports that “the Pentagon is pushing back on media reports suggesting that a major U.S.-Israel war game was postponed at the direction of the United States”. The Pentagon, in turn, said that it was Israel which requeted the delay.
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January 19th, 2012 - 4:05 pm
Here’s another item from the Strategy Page: “Hamas Feels The Wrath Of Iran”. The basic story goes like this, while Israel is being exhorted to “end the cycle of violence”, Hamas has been going after Shi’ites after Iran stopped paying them money. That money bought Shi’ites protection from Sunni Islamic radical groups, who were willing to leave their sectarian rivals alone “in return for cash and weapons”.
But now that the money has dried up, so has the affection between the two groups. The Telegraph explains how it works: no money, no lovey-dovey.
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January 19th, 2012 - 9:21 am
The New York Times touts the “changed way of war” by setting up this dramatic narrative. An American infantry unit is in an Afghan canyon in the probable presence of the enemy. The call goes out for air support, resulting in the launch of 3 F/A-18s. Here’s what happens next.
Now a ground controller wanted the three strike fighters circling overhead to send a sign — both to the grunts and to any Taliban fighters shadowing them as they walked.
Commander McDowell banked and aligned his jet’s nose with the canyon’s northeastern end. Then he followed his wingmen’s lead. He dived, pulled level at 5,000 feet and accelerated down the canyon’s axis at 620 miles per hour, broadcasting his proximity with an extended engine roar.
In the lexicon of close air support, his maneuver was a “show of presence” — a mid-altitude, nonlethal display intended to reassure ground troops and signal to the Taliban that the soldiers were not alone. It reflected a sharp shift in the application of American air power, de-emphasizing overpowering violence in favor of sorties that often end without munitions being dropped.
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