NASA Discovers Life on Mars

NASA scientists today announced that Martian soil could support life; now, if we could only find intelligent life on planet earth we'd be in business.

A Thought for the Saudis Today

OPEC sells oil for $136.00 a barrel; the Saudis buy U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel.
Solution: sell grain for $136.00 a bushel.

Saudi Arabia is a huge import market for food and agricultural products. Imports from the United States reached a record $131 million in calendar 2005 but this trend is increasing even more. With a young and growing population, Saudi Arabia will continue to be a growth market for U.S. food products in the years to come.

In the following comments, the focus is on the imports during 2007 and specifically on imports made during January 2008.

According to a recent report by the Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI), Saudi imports increased in 2007 by 29% to reach SR338.1 billion. Moreover, another detailed report by CDSI showed additional details about imports during each month, the most recent one is for January 2008, which showed that imports has increased by 20% compared to January 2007.

Amongst the commodities that Saudi Arabia imports from abroad, the most important items included foodstuffs which increased significantly as well by 44% in the past year.

I note with interest that the value of imports such as foodstuffs has had a large increase, which might be explained by the global rise in food prices, leading to increase the share of foodstuff imports among total imports and its total value.

Amongst the countries that Saudi Arabia imported from during January 2008, the US continues to be the lead country, followed by China instead of Germany, which used to be ranked No.2, Japan has maintained the third rank.


The change in the value of imports from main partners when comparing January 2008 to January 2007 is as follows:
United States: 53%
Japan: 8%.

I wonder why our politicians don't tell us that the Saudis need us more than we need them.

Note on Ronnie and Nancy

This is a gossipy and somewhat researched volume by Vanity Fair correspondent Bob Colacello. It is written in the style of a Hollywood tell-all so although of limited historical value it does reveal some of the inner dynamic between Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Since this is as close as we will get to a Nancy-penned biography, this will have to do. The fearsome Nancy jealously guarded Ronnie, and his legacy, and once she allowed Colacello unlimited access to her vault, she must have trusted him to present her version of the truth. Thus, we gain greater access to points largely revealed previously but in greater detail: her somewhat humble and embarrassing acting career and early family life, Ronnie's limitations and indiscretions, her troubled relationship with her own and Ronnie's children. It is a breezy read which Reagan fans will enjoy to bolster their revered image of the "Great Communicator" legacy.

Obama's Cousin Declares Islam the Only True Religion

Graphic source: Evangelical Alliance of Kenya

Raila Odinga, cousin of Obama, recently signed a published "Declaration of Understanding" with Kenya's National Muslim Leadership Forum. Although a perusal of the entire 13 chapters might shock us who believe whole-heartedly in the separation of chuch and state, the opening paragraph is enough to sample the wares:

"WHEREAS The Candidate [a reference to Raila Odinga] - who recognizes Islam as the only true religion - is seeking to become the next President of the Republic of Kenya. . . ."

Odinga was hailed by Obama in his last trip to Kenya in 2006. He rallied in support of Odinga at public forums.

The Declaration makes for interesting reading; it is in stark contrast to the American.

Obama already has been linked to former terrorist and PLO member, Khalid Rashidi, who is currently a professor at Columbia.

AQ Emir Confirmed Dead

The U.S. military has confirmed that al Qaeda's leader of Mosul was killed during a targeted raid on June 24. Abu Khalaf was al Qaeda's emir, or leader, of Mosul who was killed Task Force 88, the hunter-killer teams assigned to disrupt terrorist command networks.

Senlis Comments on Iraq

Graphic source: The Senlis Council

The Senlis Council, an international think-tank, released a report entitled, "Iraq: Angry Hearts and Angry Minds," that concluded that a new generation of angry young men are ripe for recruitment by Iraq's extremist groups. Tell us something we don't already know.

The study describes the American experience in Iraq as a "quagmire" despite the fact that a recent Iraqi study concluded that 2,000 Mahdi militia were killed as the Iraqi Army cleared out Sadr City and related areas.

Also in the tell us something we don't already know department should be mentioned that the U.S. realizes that a military solution alone will not solve Iraq's problems. The import of the point though is to find the magic formula. In the meantime, the U.S. has borne the brunt of the effort while, I would remind the Senlis folks, that the U.N. abandoned Iraq once the going got tough. Now Senlis would like us to believe that the international community will be capable of coming up with a new architecture of security.

I would like to know exactly what was the cost to the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Chinese, or most of the world for that matter, who would now like to waltz in with their platitudes and rosy sentiments to solve Iraq's problems.

One problem mentioned is corruption in regards to oil profits. The insurgents are the ones who benefited from the corruption and who are cheating the Iraqi people from the profits that might help them. The root of the corruption problem is to be found in the insurgents. I would like to see the Senlis folks make them go away. If they can not, in the meantime, the Coalition will be bearing the brunt of the cost.

One lamentable problem is the enormous cost and losses of the Iraqi people due to war. The Coalition is regularly taken to task for this problem. The U.S. is criticized for the loss of civilian life and the degeneration of the Iraqi quality of life. In modern, urban warfare, there are going to be lives lost, oftimes, enormous numbers of losses. The differences for civilians is that there is nothing in U.S. policy that would benefit Americans if civilians are targeted. Yet, American actions are going to result in loss of life. At the same time, for insurgent groups, civilians are legitimate targets and they lose their lives as a result. Wherever insurgent groups have taken control, such as AQ or the Taliban, the people eventually revolt against them. The Senlis study barely alludes to this fact.

Yet, one of the barriers that the Senlis group mentions, the involvement of Iraqis, occurs all the time. Whenever a civilian population harbors or does not cooperate with tracking down and eliminating insurgents, the Iraqis are voting. People have choices, and if to a greater extent, they would turn on the insurgents, which many brave Iraqis have, the Iraqis can determine their destiny to a larget extent. The possibility which democracy offers is the ability to decide amongst several options which is best for Iraqis. The Coalition offers that possibility.

The Senlis study is noble-minded but the lack of commitment on the part of the international community must be mentioned. Because the international community played politics with Iraq as well, pre-war by benefitting with cushy oil contracts, and abandoning Iraq to the insurgents while the U.S. bore the brunt of the fighting, solutions should not be accepted uncritically from the international community.

It is easy to sit on the sidelines and offer platitudes, it is more difficult to remain engaged and supply the manpower and the material to point the way towards a solution. The U.S. deserves more consideration than the study states.

Mahdi Defeat More Extensive Than First Believed

The Mahdi Army has suffered a more significant blow during fighting against Iraqi and Coalition forces this year than earlier reported according to an Iraq intelligence report. "More than 2,000 cadres from the Mahdi Army leaders were killed recently," an Iraqi intelligence official told the Gulf News. More than 1,000 Mahdi Army fighters were killed in Sadr City alone, according to a Mahdi Army commander in Baghdad. Another 415 were killed in Basrah. More than 400 were killed during fighting in the southern cities of Najaf, Karbala, Hillah, Diwaniyah, Amarah, Samawah, and Nasiriyah in late March and early April, according to numbers compiled by The Long War Journal.

Sadr has been portrayed as a freedom-loving democrat by some but after his militia has been decimated he remains in hiding under the protection of Iran's Quds Force in exile.

Released Gitmo Suicide Bomber Update

One of the released Guantanamo detainees, Abdullah Salih al Ajmi, was behind a March suicide truck bombing at Combat Outpost Inman in Mosul, an Iraqi Army base that served as the headquarters for the 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Iraqi Army Division. Thirteen Iraqi soldiers were killed and 42 were wounded after Ajmi drove an armored truck packed an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of explosives through the gate of the outpost and detonated in a spot between the three main buildings of the compound.

Al Furqan used footage taken by Bill Roggio from the Long War Journal who was on scene in the aftermath of the suicide attack.

I noted before that the 23 June 38-minute-long video clip obtained from al Qaeda's media arm in Iraq, Al Furqan's "The Islamic State is Meant to Stay," which shows the attack on Combat Outpost Inman. Al Qaeda in Iraq, through its puppet organization the Islamic State of Iraq, released the propaganda video.

Nibras Kazimi, a Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute, noted on his website, Talisman Gate, that propaganda has slowed to a trickle. In fact, according to ThreatsWatch.org's Nick Grace, stated: "By this time last year," he said, "they had produced exactly 90 videos. . . . U.S. operations against their media cells inside Iraq late last year have had a profound impact." Al Qaeda has not even refuted reports on the death of senior leaders, including Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the purported leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, and Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda in Iraq's leader and the Islamic State's defense minister.

As early as March, an al Qaeda leader admitted that its position in Iraq is tenuous. Abu-Turab Al-Jaza'iri, a senior al Qaeda commander in northern Iraq, said al Qaeda "lost several cities and have been forced to withdraw from others," but was still fighting. "I do not want to paint a false picture: Our position is very difficult."

Obama’s Communist Mentor

Frank Marshall Davis Graphic source: Trevor Loudon

What is “coalition politics” and what is behind Obama’s rise to power?

As recent information has come to light, Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist and this may be the connection.

Because of Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an openly admitted relationship with a person who publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Obama lived in Hawaii from 1971-1979 where he considered Davis as a mentor. In his book, Dreams From My Father, Obama repeatedly refers to his mentor, "Frank."

Trevor Loudon, a New Zealand-based libertarian activist, posted evidence that "Frank" was Frank Marshall Davis in a posting in March of 2007.

Davis was an identified communist according to the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii, which identified him as a Communist Party in the USA member (CPUSA). Moreover, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.

Obama hides quite a bit of his past and his affiliations but he does reveal his relationship with "Frank" in his book, Dreams From My Father. He describes "a poet named Frank," who he visited in Hawaii, read poetry, and was full of "hard-earned knowledge" and advice. Only indirectly does Obama identify "Frank" when he states that this figure had "some modest notoriety once," and was "a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes during his years in Chicago..." but was now "pushing eighty." Wright (September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960) was an African-American author of many controversial writings, mostly about race; Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) of course was an American writer known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. Obama writes of "Frank and his old Black Power dashiki self."

John Edgar Tidwell, an expert on Davis and a professor at the University of Kansas, notes that in Davis's case, his political commitments led him to join the American Communist Party during the middle of World War II. In addition to Tidwell, another book, Black Moods: Collected Poems of Frank Marshall Davis, confirms Davis's Communist Party membership; and another book, The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946, by James Edward Smethurst, associate professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, names Davis as a CPUSA author.

Dr. Kathryn Takara, a professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa also confirms that Davis is the "Frank" in Obama's book. She wrote her dissertation on Davis and in an analysis posted online, she notes that Davis, who was a columnist for the Honolulu Record, brought "an acute sense of race relations and class struggle throughout America and the world" and that he openly discussed subjects such as American imperialism, colonialism and exploitation. She described him as a "socialist realist" who attacked the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee. According to Takara, Davis "espoused freedom, radicalism, solidarity, labor unions, due process, peace, affirmative action, civil rights, Negro History week, and true Democracy to fight imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy. He urged coalition politics."

The Communist connection between "Frank" and Obama is also identified by Professor Gerald Horne, a contributing editor of the Communist Party journal Political Affairs and a history professor at the University of Houston, whose remarks are available online as "Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party." Horne notes that Davis moved to Honolulu in 1948 "at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson," came into contact with Barack Obama, and became the young man's mentor. Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976), of course, was the Communist Party USA member, entertainer, and civil rights activist who was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. Horne describes how "Frank" and a young student from Kenya, Barack Obama, got acquainted and the young man followed Davis to Chicago. As Davis advised before Obama's educational career, college was "An advanced degree in compromise" and warned Obama not to forget his "people" and not to "start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that ####."

Once in Chicago, Obama became affiliated with two former members of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), William Ayers and Carl Davidson. The SDS was a leading anti-Vietnam War organization theat eventually produced the even more radical and terrorist Weather Underground. Ayers was a member of the terrorist group who turned himself in to authorities in 1981. Now a college professor he serves with Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago. Davidson belongs to the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, an offshoot of the Soviet American Communist Party (CPUSA), that helped organize the 2002 rally where Obama came out against the Iraq War.

Indeed, Communists have continued to support Obama. Frank Chapman, a CPUSA supporter, has written a letter to the party newspaper hailing the Illinois senator's victory in the Iowa caucuses.

As Chapman wrote, "Marx once compared revolutionary struggle with the work of the mole, who sometimes burrows so far beneath the ground that he leaves no trace of his movement on the surface. This is the old revolutionary ‘mole,' not only showing his traces on the surface but also breaking through."

Obama is that mole.

That Obama is advocating socialist politics is not really debatable. He campaigned for socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and since he was raised as an occasionally practising Muslim Obama

Obama with his schoolmates. Graphic source: Daniel Pipes

not surprisingly favors international concerns more than Americans and their issues. And, although he has accomplished little in Congress, he has sponsored a "Global Poverty Act" designed to send hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. foreign aid to the rest of the world, in order to meet U.N. demands.

The question that should be posed is that why would so many fall so gullibly for an avowed communist fellow-traveler? This should be a time when Americans advocate American interests and concerns.

Trouble in Jihadist Paradise

Is it any wonder that ex-Guantanamo prisoners and suicide bombers advocate jihadists to obey al-Baghdadi?

A recently released Al-Furqan 38 minute video, which was posted on the Al-Ekhlaas jihadist internet forum under the title ‘The State of Islam [Shall] Endure,’ jihadists promoted the head of state, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, identified as Hamid al-Zawi.

Most of the video is a rehash but the new material may reveal why jihadists have been so glum during the past six weeks as Iraqi government conducted Mosul's Operation ‘Umm Al-Rabi’ayn. Analysts have wondered why the jihadists had such a poor showing in Mosul.

The last part of the video showcases a Kuwaiti suicide bomber, `Abu Omar al-Kuwaiti’ (identified elsewhere as Badr Mishel Gama’an al-Harbi).

Al-Harbi rebukes other Iraqi jihadist groups, such as the Islamic Army of Iraq that had turned against the Islamic State of Iraq, for allowing their honor to be desecrated through cooperation with the Americans, adding “we are not from Iraq, but we are Muslims, and we couldn’t sleep” over what was being allegedly done by the Americans on Iraqi soil. Al-Harbi says that it is useless for young Muslims to sit behind the keyboard and that they must flock to the Islamic State of Iraq and fight under its banner since “in it is the nucleus of the Islamic Caliphate on this earth.” Cf. http://talismangate.blogspot.com/2008/06/ex-guantanamo-prisoner-encourages.html.

It sounds like there is trouble in paradise and that the recent Iraqi military operation has been successful.

Web Shattering Politics?

I've long been skeptical that the Web is making much difference in political campaigns but there may be evidence that the 2008 political campaign is shattering records in the U.S. A record-breaking 46% of Americans have used the Internet, e-mail or cell phone text messaging to get news about a campaign or to share their views, according to the "The Internet and the 2008 Election" report compiled by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. At this point during the 2004 election, only 31% of Americans had used the Internet to get political news and information. The report noted that the difference between the elections is more than the total number of Americans who used the Internet during the entire 2004 campaign for political information.

18 Year Old Faces 38 Years for High School Hack

Omar Khan, an 18 year old teen faces 38 years in jail for his grade-tampering hack as he was charged with 69 felony counts including 34 for altering a public record, 11 for stealing and secreting a public record, and 7 for illegal computer access and fraud. Khan and an accomplice are seniors at Tesoro High School, a Rancho Santa Margarita, California institution recently ranked among the Top 1,000 high schools in the U.S. by Newsweek. He was charged with stealing personal log-in credentials from teachers to break into school computers and change current grades from advanced placement (AP) tests as well as grades from past semesters.

Congress Chips Away at 4th Amendment

The U.S. House of Representatives has again approved legislation to continue the controversial surveillance program at the U.S. National Security Agency with limited court oversight. At the same time, this legislation will likely end lawsuits against telecommunications carriers that participated in the program. The House voted 293 to 129 to approve a bill that was a compromise between Democrats and Bush.

The bill extends NSA surveillance of phone calls and email messages going in and out of the U.S. The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court also will review Bush administration requests for wide-ranging surveillance powers. The bill, called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act, allows the NSA to receive blanket surveillance orders covering multiple suspects of terrorism and other crimes.

The Bush administration began the NSA surveillance program after 9/11 but the existed for about four years before news reports revealed its existence.

105 Democrats agreed with Bush, who voted with his position, while 128 voted against it.

The NSA program, in my view, violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

The surveillance of Americans is increased but no one has been able to demonstrate the connection between provisions of the bill and the ability to nab terrorists.

There are 47 outstanding lawsuits related to the surveillance program and 35 lawsuits with telecoms as defendants, including AT&T, Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel, stated Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Mars Ice, Ice, Ice Baby

One of the major developments in the Mars story is that dice-sized pieces of whitish matter dug up in a trench appears to be ice, according to Ray Arvidson, a co-investigator for Mars Lander's robotic arm team and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The material was dug up in a 7-to-8-cm-deep trench by the Lander's robotic arm and the matter disappeared after being exposed to sunlight which leads scientists to believe that it was ice that simply melted. If the scientists can confirm that there is water or ice present, it will reveal that there is a potential for life. Water is one of the main elements of life and this relates to one of the fundamental questions that people ask: 'Are we alone in the universe?' Or, is there a possibility that life existed on the Red planet? If even microscopic life exists elsewhere, other life could or did exist elsewhere. More to follow apparently as the scientists initiate a major series of tests.

In a dramatic situation U.S. Special Operations Forces killed al Qaeda's leader in Mosul. The house of al Qaeda's emir, or leader, was being raided in a supposed safe house when violence erupted. The emir was not identified but Special Operations Task Force 88, the hunter-killer teams assigned to take down terrorists in Iraq, stormed his house. The commandos opened fire when attacked and after one of the terrorists attempted to detonate his suicide vest was shot. A woman with the group also attempted to detonate the vest on the dead al Qaeda operative. Mosul is systematically being cleared of al Qaeda's emirs as on June 20, Coalition forces detained al Qaeda's security emir in Mosul, his predecessor was captured just two months prior, and the previous emir was captured in February.

Since AQ was cleared from Baghdad, the terrorists attempted to re-insert themselves in Mosul as noted by yours truly. However, fourteen of the thirty senior most al Qaeda operatives identified have been killed or captured by Multinational Forces Iraq between February and May in Mosul.

War on Terror Not Important Enough to Cover

Ever wonder why you don't hear about Americans engaging terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or, more precisely, why don't you hear about American success in the wars on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan? The answer is not easy to find: just ask American reporters. CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, states Lara Logan,

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the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News.

An article in today's New York Times notes:

according to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.)

Cable news channels like Fox News and CNN have considerably more time to fill with news than the networks thus both CNN and Fox each have two full time correspondents in Iraq.

The New York Times article noted though that:

coverage of the war in Afghanistan has increased slightly this year, with 46 minutes of total coverage year-to-date compared with 83 minutes for all of 2007. NBC has spent 25 minutes covering Afghanistan, partly because the anchor Brian Williams visited the country earlier in the month. Through Wednesday, when an ABC correspondent was in the middle of a prolonged visit to the country, ABC had spent 13 minutes covering Afghanistan. CBS has spent eight minutes covering Afghanistan so far this year.

Nonetheless, no American television network has a full-time correspondent in Afghanistan, although CNN recently said it would open a bureau in Kabul.

If you are looking for news on the war on terror don't expect to find it on American televisions.

Michael F. Scheuer On His Latest Book

As always, former CIA Chief analyst of Bin Laden,

Michael F. Scheuer, provides a gloomy account of our situation

in the Middle East while discussing his latest book.

White Europeans Poised to Attack the U.S. for al-Qaeda

In a move that has been widely anticipated, although not easily defended, dozens of white Europeans have trained in Pakistan's terrorist camps, according to U.S. intelligence sources. The adaptable tactics of al-Qaeda have shown that the organization is nimble, lethal, and resilient.

For example, "Eric B." is a German national plotting attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Europe.

Graphic source: IntelCenter

The alleged terrorists were recruited in Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Romania, and Estonia.

Sadr Out

The earlier conservative estimates of the losses that the Mahdi Army experienced has now been supplemented by documenting the heavy casualties the Sadrists suffered. In Basrah and Sadr City during March - May more than 1,000 Mahdi Army fighters were killed in Sadr City, another 415 were killed in Basrah. Several hundred were killed during fighting in the southern cities of Najaf, Karbala, Hillah, Diwaniyah, Amarah, Samawah, and Nasiriyah. The Mahdi ceases to exist as a fighting force and recent Iraqi security efforts have gone unopposed.

Iraqi Kurdistan Support for Coalition Troops

In the debate on the continuing presence of Coalition troops the Kurdish Parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masoud Barazani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of President Talabani, are the most loyal allies and they support permanent U.S. bases in Iraq. Bush has already stated that he does not favor permanent bases but in the Iraqi Parliament, these two parties would advocate strong allied bases. Kurdistan could host these bases. The same offer was recently reiterated by Parliament member Mahmoud Othman.