Northman's Fury

John Cole on the US soldiers who hate America, and the shameless politicians who exploit them.

and Ian Welsh on The View From There.

Say what you will about Chinese food and drug safety, but when the bad press starts being bad for business, they don't screw around.

China’s former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking bribes to approve untested medicines, as the country’s main quality control agency announced its first recall system targeting unsafe food products.

The developments are among the most dramatic steps Beijing has publicly taken to address domestic and international alarm over shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods — from pet-food ingredients and toothpaste mixed with industrial chemicals to tainted antibiotics.

Not that I'm big on the death penalty, but it beats the "Golden Parachute" guys get on this side of the ocean.

It's a pretty rare day when I can say that, but every now and again his administration actually does the right thing.

President Bush has decided to implement a plan to pressure Sudan's government into cooperating with international efforts to halt the violence in its troubled Darfur region, where his administration said almost three years ago that genocide was taking place.

. . .

The timing of today's announcement appears certain to anger U.N. diplomats, who have been reporting progress in negotiations with Bashir and have been aggressively lobbying U.S. officials to delay sanctions. Sudan's official news agency reported Saturday that Ban has agreed to travel to Khartoum to negotiate a deal on a United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur.

Normally, I'm all for negotiations rather than more coercive measures and ramping up of pressure. Darfur has already been declared a genocide by the US. Even Bush would be hard pressed to make the situation worse. The government in Khartoum has been using the negotiations to stall for time while its forces continue its slaughter and displacement of millions.

Bush's hands aren't totally clean in this. The US opposition to the International Criminal Court has kept the UN from bringing up the perpetrators of the violence up on crimes against humanity charges there, and collectively everyone has been sitting on their hands for far too long while this has went on and on.

So any action against the regime in Khartoum is good news. Unfortunately as the article notes, the US already has a harsh sanctions regime in place since Clinton imposed tough measures for their support of bin Laden. It will probably take action by China to make any difference. Hopefully a way can be found to make them take that action.

Man, is there any democratic movement that the US has supported in the last six years that isn't going to hell?

CIA authorized to conduct covert action against Iran

A story on a secret Iranian plan to oust the US from Iraq, apparently using al Qaeda and Sunni groups being directed by the Revolutionary Guard. Groups that are attacking Iraq’s Shia population like SCIRI and the Badr brigades who were created and trained by the Revolutionary Guard.

The US complaining about the IAEA being too soft on Iran.

And word comes down today that Iran is, shockingly, not ceasing its uranium enrichment program.

Odd how these stories seem to cluster, isn’t it?

From Sic Semper Tyrannis and Pat Lang, a question about how seriously we should take the 24/7 news organizations.

Anyone who still watches such news on a regular basis should be able to form an opinion quite easily by looking at the coverage of something like Anna Nicole Smith, but the Colonel is asking about a more serious issue.

That's an M-48 tank out on a firing range. The Lebanese Army has these. This is an old tank from before the Vietnam period, but, how new do tanks have to be when used for shelling refugee camps full of civilians? The fighting around the "Nahr al-bared" camp at Tripoli, Lebanon continues.

. . .

The 24/7 news networks were hard at work today trying to make Syria responsible for the Sunni zealots in the camps. The statement was being made today that these groups were connected to AQ. No evidence was offered, but the assertion was repeatedly made based on the "possibility" that had supposedly been voiced by some nameless person in the Lebanese government. . . .

Now, think about it, folks Al-Qa'ida is a virulently anti-Shia Sunni group. Everyone "knows" that Syria supports Hizbullah, a main target of AQ displeasure. So, which is it? Which side does the Syrian government support? Does the Syrian government support both at the same time? If you believe that, then you really are a sucker for propaganda.

The comments after the article also note that the leader of the Fatah-al-Islam group that the Lebanese Army is fighting was in prison in Syria for three years and that he and many of his followers are wanted by the Syrian police and intelligence services.

Not that Syria couldn’t support more than one side in the multi-sided Lebanese political scene, but this particular group is likely quite far off their radar.

The main issue I have with the "dreaded MSM", is that you won’t even hear this questioned or get the in-depth analysis needed to make an informed judgment on the issue.

Little wonder intelligent people have such a hard time taking them seriously.

UPDATE:

From Tim F at Balloon Juice, this little snippet:

Last March, Hersh reported that American policy in the Middle East had shifted to opposing Iran, Syria, and their Shia allies at any cost, even if it meant backing hardline Sunni jihadists.

A key element of this policy shift was an agreement among Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national security adviser, whereby the Saudis would covertly fund the Sunni Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon as a counterweight to the Shia Hezbollah.

Fucking brilliant.

The Washington Post has an article today that you might not want to read if you like not worrying about the food you buy. Basically, it's a run-down of just how bad the quality control of Chinese food products really is. The part I really love, however, is this bit:

Dead pets and melamine-tainted food notwithstanding, change will prove difficult, policy experts say, in large part because U.S. companies have become so dependent on the Chinese economy that tighter rules on imports stand to harm the U.S. economy, too.

After all, we shouldn't let the likelihood of people being poisoned interfere with corporate profit margins. That would be foolish.

How low can these guys sink?

Describing the events as “the most difficult of my professional career,” Mr. Comey appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of its inquiry into the dismissal of federal prosecutors and the role of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. Several lawmakers wanted to examine Mr. Gonzales’s actions in the N.S.A. matter, when he was White House counsel, and cited them to buttress their case that he should resign.

Mr. Comey, the former No. 2 official in the Justice Department, said the crisis began when he refused to sign a presidential order reauthorizing the program, which allowed monitoring of international telephone calls and e-mail of people inside the United States who were suspected of having terrorist ties. He said he made his decision after the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, based on an extensive review, concluded that the program did not comply with the law. At the time, Mr. Comey was acting attorney general because Mr. Ashcroft had been hospitalized for emergency gall bladder surgery.

Mr. Comey would not describe the rationale for his refusal to approve the eavesdropping program, citing its classified nature. The N.S.A. program, which began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks and did not require court approval to listen in on the communications of Americans and others, provoked an outcry in Congress when it was disclosed in December 2005.

Mr. Comey said that on the evening of March 10, 2004, Mr. Gonzales and Andrew H. Card Jr., then Mr. Bush’s chief of staff, tried to bypass him by secretly visiting Mr. Ashcroft. Mr. Ashcroft was extremely ill and disoriented, Mr. Comey said, and his wife had forbidden any visitors.

Mr. Comey said that when a top aide to Mr. Ashcroft alerted him about the pending visit, he ordered his driver to rush him to George Washington University Hospital with emergency lights flashing and a siren blaring, to intercept the pair. They were seeking his signature because authority for the program was to expire the next day.

Mr. Comey said he phoned Mr. Mueller, who agreed to meet him at the hospital. Once there, Mr. Comey said he “literally ran up the stairs.” At his request, Mr. Mueller ordered the F.B.I. agents on Mr. Ashcroft’s security detail not to evict Mr. Comey from the room if Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card objected to his presence.

Mr. Comey said he arrived first in the darkened room, in time to brief Mr. Ashcroft, who he said seemed barely conscious. Before Mr. Ashcroft became ill, Mr. Comey said the two men had talked and agreed that the program should not be renewed.

When the White House officials appeared minutes later, Mr. Gonzales began to explain to Mr. Ashcroft why they were there. Mr. Comey said Mr. Ashcroft rose weakly from his hospital bed, but in strong and unequivocal terms, refused to approve the eavesdropping program.

“I was angry,” Mr. Comey told the committee. “ I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me. I thought he had conducted himself in a way that demonstrated a strength I had never seen before, but still I thought it was improper.”

Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card quickly departed, but Mr. Comey said he soon got an angry phone call from Mr. Card, demanding that he come to the White House. Mr. Comey said he replied: “After what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness, and I intend that witness to be the solicitor general of the United States.”

I read John Robb’s new book, Brave New War, over the weekend. In it, he details how his Global Guerrillas can use systems disruption to take down large opponents. Most of his examples are from Iraq and other far away places.

Today, I was reading a story showing how the phenomena could soon be applied here in Canada.

An Internet how-to video on sabotaging railway lines in support of Native land claims has drawn the attention of the RCMP and triggered investigations by the country's two main rail companies.

. . .

The video opens by referring to "more than 800" unresolved land claims, recent rail blockades by members of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation and the Six Nations reclamation of a 40-hectare residential development in Caledonia.

"The Mohawks have shown the vulnerability of a major trade corridor for people and material. While few other communities could hold off a frontal assault by the OPP, there are other ways to close the rail lines," says the text heavy video as an eerie piano soundtrack plays in the background. "When justice fails, stop the rails."

. . .

Joe Bracken, president of the Canadian Heartland Training Railway in Alberta, said if the tactic is employed on a large scale, it could cause serious damage to the nation's rail industry.

"They go through hundreds of Native territories," he said.

And it appears as though the Canadian Government and military are showing their usual sensitivity to the subject.

Unbowed by federal government threats to cut funding, First Nations across the country continue to make plans for a one-day shut down of the railway system that could spread into weeks.

Relations with the federal government have soured since Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget ignored demands to make First Nations poverty a priority.

Things weren't helped this weekend after it surfaced that the Canadian military labelled the Mohawk Warrior Society and radical native groups as "insurgents" in a draft anti-guerrilla field manual obtained by Sun Media and another news organization.

Welcome to the future.

No real surprise anymore, of course.

In an emotional speech, Mr Blair said he had been prime minister for 10 years which was "long enough" for the country and himself.

I wonder how many Britons are wishing that "long enough" had come earlier, say, oh I don't know . . . pre-March 2003?

So one of the Tory Ministers has racked up about a $150,000 in plane rentals, which he failed to disclose as part of his travel costs, which, to me at least, falls under the, "Well, he's a politician, isn't he?" view of our elected officials.

What did catch my eye as important, was this piece:

An official from the Prime Minister's Office recently followed a journalist off Parliament Hill, then approached the reporter to challenge a story about the PMO's refusal to disclose how Harper's travelling hairdresser is being paid.

The official told the reporter three times that accountability measures are for crooks, not honest people.

It appears to be a theme in the Harper government.

That's simply untrue. Crooks will be crooks regardless what accountability measures are in place. That just forces them to be a little creative, like not claiming plane rentals the Department pays for as part of their own travel costs, maybe? As I said, these are politicians. The best we can hope for is that we keep the theivery to minimum.

But back to the accountability measures. They are there to keep honest people honest. Remove controls and oversight, and even most honest people will start to skim. Accountability controls keep the honest people from becoming dishonest, and makes it a bit easier to track down the ones who were dishonest to begin with.

Like politicians who don't think accountability measures should apply to them.

Could they have picked a more Orwellian term for this?

I suppose it sounds better than “Mission Accomplished Day”