Rumors are abound as to who is responsible for carrying out a deadly attack in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Friday. In the past the regime has blamed attacks almost exclusively on the opposition; in this case they have blamed Al Qaeda. The opposition has vehemently denied that it has had any involvement in this. The leader of the Free Syrian Army has admitted to attacking an intelligence building in a suburb of Damascus, but denies carrying out this attack. The opposition, and many others, see the government blaming Al Qaeda as a tactic to legitimize their control of the country. They are hoping that this will endear them to the international community. If it is Al Qaeda, which has not claimed responsibility, it would mark one of their most sophisticated attacks to date. If true, they were able to get into a highly secure area of the capital just as observers from the Arab League arrived. The truth of this might be even more disturbing. Many in Syria believe that it was Assad and the regime that carried out this attack. Ben Ali was said to have been contemplating a bombing in the final days of his reign in order to show the world that he needed to be in power. It really is not beyond the pale to imagine that Assad could order a bombing like the one on Friday. Hafez al Assad, Bashar al Assad’s father, used fighter jets to carpet bomb 10,000 people in Homs in the 1980’s to suppress mass protests. The regime is still under the impression that brute force will stop the protesters. In spite of the bombing huge crowds filled the streets through out the country. In Damascus their were huge pro-regime crowds chanting “Death to America”. This illustrates how divided the nation is between pro and anti regime elements. It may be time to admit that the civil war everyone has been predicting will happen has already happened.
Boko Haram is fast becoming Nigeria’s biggest threat to security. The radical group wants to implement a strict interpretation of Sharia law through out Nigeria. They have generally carried out attacks in the North, the traditional heart land of Nigeria’s Muslim population. Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, has received the brunt of this violence. In the past few days clashes in Maiduguri have left dozens dead. Al Jazeera quotes police and local aid workers as saying that the death toll in the region could reach 100. Boko Haram have also begun to move out of the north. In August they carried out a spectacular attack on a UN building in the capital Abuja. There are also reports of bank robberies in the north by the group in order to finance their movement. Boko Haram now represents a major problem for Africa’s largest economy. As of right now, President Goodluck Jonathan has done very little in the way of combating them. Boko Haram does not look as if it is ready to lay down arms. They have no intention of negotiating with the government either. Along with a criminal insurgency in the oil rich Niger Delta in the south, Nigeria is facing a serious national security crisis.
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee has had his court case thrown out by a U.S. judge. Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko was held in Guantanamo from 2002 until 2009, after winning a court challenge that his ties to Al Qaeda were little or no longer existed. The administration maintained that Janko was still a threat and had ties to Al Qaeda. After he was allegedly urinated on, beaten, deprived of sleep, and subjected to harsh interrogations, we might assume that he may now want to strengthen his weak ties with Al Qaeda. Janko also tried to commit suicide a total of 17 times. Judge Richard Leon tried his best to show sympathy for Janko; telling him that unfortunately “war, by its very nature, victimizes many of those caught in its wake.” That comment was later followed by one of the more deplorable things to come out of the war on terror. Judge Leon were that “our legal system was never designed to provide a remedy in our courts for these inevitable tragedies, especially in a conflict like this where terrorists cunningly morph into their surroundings.”
Translation: sorry we tortured you, but there really isn’t anything we can do about it. Our legal system was never designed to protect you from something that we are supposed to be prohibited from doing.
Waiting until the last U.S. troops had crossed the border into Kuwait, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki issued an arrest warrant for the Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi. Hashimi is alleged to have links to various terror plots, including the recent assassination attempt on PM Maliki. In true Saddam style Maliki broadcasted taped confessions from men who work as security for the Vice President; they confess that they were ordered to carry out attacks on behalf of Hashimi.
This is just the latest in a series of authoritarian measures taken by Prime Minister Maliki in the past few years. The fact that Hashimi is a Sunni has only added fuel to the fire. His al-Iraqiya party has said that it will no longer work with the government. And as of now Mr. Hashimi is still hiding in the autonomous Kurdistan region. Maliki’s attempt to consolidate his reign on power has made the sectarian situation even more dangerous. In a spectacular series of bombings today scores of people were killed.
Unfortunately the situation in Iraq seems destined to follow down this road. The sectarian divide in the country has been on the rise for years now. U.S. troops in Iraq would not have made a difference; which will be the refrain that we will here from those on the right in the coming days. This sort of violence and political power grabbing was set in motion after Maliki and L. Paul Bremer instituted the de-Baathification of the country in the early stages of the war. Maliki has marginalized Sunnis for a while now. Conversely, elements such as Al Qaeda have manipulated the situation to inspire violence against Shia in Iraq. With out U.S. forces Maliki has only himself to blame for what happens in Iraq. If he continues on this trajectory, Iraq may enter into a real and bloody civil war. Thank god Maliki and the army is up to the task.
After returning from Dubai after suffering a minor heart attack, President Zardari is facing more pressure to leave government. A Reuters exclusive quotes several prominent sources within the military who want Zardari to leave. The military is quick to point out that they do not want to implement a coup to rid themselves of president Zardari. Pakistan has undergone three military coups since it was formed in 1947. The military in Pakistan is already under tremendous pressure after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May took place; many see this as a blatant breach of sovereignty. The “memogate” scandal has already claimed the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., who resigned after it was alleged that he was the individual who authored the memo asking for help to counter a military coup. Zardari seems as if he may be the next to go as a result of this scandal. Widely loathed through out the country, Zardari’s exit will not be viewed negatively by most people.
The U.S. has released a report today detailing what allegedly caused American forces to kill 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. The report notes that what took place is certainty a tragedy, while at the same time placing most of the blame on the Pakistanis. According to the report it was the Pakistanis that fired first, dragging the American forces into a fire fight. Miscommunication and bad coordinates are also to blame for the deadly friendly fire incident.
In classic American fashion, rather than issue a real apology, the blame is placed on the Pakistanis. And yet many in Washington will continue to wonder why the Pakistanis dislike us. Even if all of the report is true, Washington needed to bite the bullet on this one and issue a real apology. How long can Washington and the president keep this up? Politicians like Imran Khan are gaining more and more support with in Pakistan by running on an anti American platform. Sometimes in diplomacy you cant get everything that you want; the United States really needs to comprehend this. This arrogant stance will only further the gapping divide between Washington and Islamabad. Don’t be surprised when another attack on NATO forces is linked back to the ISI.
It seems that yet again another major institution, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has been infiltrated by Chinese hackers. Earlier in the year a string of major hacking incidents targeted everyone from the Taiwanese government to Google, and even the International Olympic Committee. All of these cyber attacks were alleged to have been perpetrated by some entity within China. It is believed that there was some degree of state sponsorship from the Chinese government in conjunction with the attacks. The Wall Street Journal reports that the hackers had access to the Chamber of Commerce for at least two full years. The Wall Street Journal quotes the chief operating officer David Chavern as saying the hacker was “…clearly somebody very sophisticated, who knew exactly who we are and who targeted specific people and used sophisticated tools to try to gather intelligence.”
The most dangerous aspect of this cyber attack is the total lack of protection against hacking here in America. We are constantly told of how cyber warfare is going to be the next frontier; well that frontier is here already. America is losing the cyber war so far. There is a definite hacking gap between us and the Chinese. We might be caught fighting the last war with our pants down, again.
These were scenes from Cairo of thousands of women protesting after graphic images emerged of security forces beating a woman. After a fifth day of clashes between the ruling SCAF and the Egyptian people at least 14 people have died and more than 900 injured. There is a growing sense that the SCAF is as corrupt and brutal as Mubarak. It is also becoming increasingly obvious that the military does not want to cede power back to the Egyptian people. A disconnect has also been growing between the military and what is going on in the streets. At a recent press conference military officials denied that anyone was injured or killed during the fights going on in Cairo. He even went so far as to say no live ammunition was used. While this press conference was going on soldiers were in fact shooting and killing civilians.
Here is the video of the woman being stripped and beaten for anyone who hasn’t already seen it.
Yeditoh Acharonoth has reported that a malfunction in the Isfahan refinery in Iran has caused a fire. In November an explosion took place at the same facility. This continues with the ongoing narrative of a clandestine war against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program on behalf of either Israel or the U.S. While accidents do happen, it seems unlikely that all of these are merely a coincidence. The most terrifying aspect to all of this is the thought that this could lead to some sort of nuclear melt down, leaving sections of Iran uninhabitable for decades. At the moment though the U.S. and Israel seem to be open to anything that would stop the Iranian nuclear program.
Is all of this mourning in North Korea real? Watching state television out of the secretive nation and it seems as if the population is overwhelmed with grief. This should be taken with a MASSIVE grain of salt. The mourners are all residents of Pyongyang, which is filled mostly with Kim loyalists. If state TV cameras were to go outside the capital the images would be much different. Also keep in mind that many of the people crying for Kim Jong-il have known nothing but the Kim family as rulers. Bradley K. Martin has a great piece in Global Post describing many of the scenes we are seeing out of the hermit kingdom.
Porkins Policy Review 