Stratfor and Zara Sheikh

This article discusses the history and current status of the Pakistani-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Although formerly abolished in 2001, remnants of the organization continue to operate and maintain a loose affiliation with other terror networks such as al Qaeda.

Its principal theater of operations is in South Asia -- Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir and India. LeT was the group behind the Mumbai massacre, their most spectacular attack to date.

They've also tried to branch out and operate in the West, but have had limited success. Stewart and Noonan suggest that this is because elements of the Pakistani government support LeT activities in their region of the world, and it is that logistical and intelligence support which makes the group more effective. Without such support the group is likely to continue to struggle in launching successful attacks in the West.

Because the article focused on Pakistan I narrowed my search for its Hot Stratfor Babe to Pakistani models and actresses. After an exhaustive and scientifically conducted search I selected Zara Sheikh for the honor.

Ms Sheikh started her career as a teenage model doing ads and fashion spreads in magazines. Her career really took off when she signed on as the JaZZ Girl, which was the spokes-model for a cellular phone company. This expanded her career into TV ads as well as her work in the print media.

It also led her to be cast in a Lollywood film (from its base in Lahore, Pakistan's answer to Bollywood). She apparently is a very talented actress, because that first role landed her to win Pakistan's equivalence of an Oscar for Best Actress. Prior to be selected as a Hot Stratfor babe, the probably was her highest honor.

She has also branched into singing having recently released her first album after a couple of music videos and singing parts in films.

I couldn't find a decent quality video of one of her songs, so as the after-article bonus I've included a video which features a number of scans from her magazine spreads, every transition effect available to whoever put it together, and some very odd-ball zooms that start at her torso and pull back. Not sure what that was all about -- I guess the video's creator had a waist fetish or something.


THE EVOLUTION OF A PAKISTANI MILITANT NETWORK
By Sean Noonan and Scott Stewart, September 15, 2011

For many years now, STRATFOR has been carefully following the evolution of "Lashkar-e-Taiba" (LeT), the name of a Pakistan-based jihadist group that was formed in 1990 and existed until about 2001, when it was officially abolished. In subsequent years, however, several major attacks were attributed to LeT, including the November 2008 coordinated assault in Mumbai, India. Two years before that attack we wrote that the group, or at least its remnant networks, were nebulous but still dangerous. This nebulous nature was highlighted in November 2008 when the "Deccan Mujahideen," a previously unknown group, claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks.

While the most famous leaders of the LeT networks, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, are under house arrest and in jail awaiting trial, respectively, LeT still poses a significant threat. It's a threat that comes not so much from LeT as a single jihadist force but LeT as a concept, a banner under which various groups and individuals can gather, coordinate and successfully conduct attacks.

Such is the ongoing evolution of the jihadist movement. And as this movement becomes more diffuse, it is important to look at brand-name jihadist groups like LeT, al Qaeda, the Haqqani network and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan as loosely affiliated networks more than monolithic entities. With a debate under way between and within these groups over who to target and with major disruptions of their operations by various military and security forces, the need for these groups to work together in order to carry out sensational attacks has become clear. The result is a new, ad hoc template for jihadist operations that is  not easily defined and even harder for government leaders to explain to their constituents and reporters to explain to their readers.

Thus, brand names like Lashkar-e-Taiba (which means Army of the Pure) will continue to be used in public discourse while the planning and execution of high-profile attacks grows ever more complex. While the threat posed by these networks to the West and to India may not be strategic, the possibility of disparate though well-trained militants working together and even with organized-crime elements does suggest a continuing tactical threat that is worth examining in more detail.

The Network Formerly Known as Lashkar-e-Taiba

The history of the group of militants and preachers who created LeT and their connections with other groups helps us understand how militant groups develop and work together. Markaz al-Dawa wal-Irshad (MDI) and its militant wing, LeT, was founded with the help of transnational militants based in Afghanistan and aided by the Pakistani government. This allowed it to become a financially-independent social-service organization that was able to divert a significant portion of its funding to its militant wing.

The first stirrings of militancy within this network began in 1982, when Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi traveled from Punjab, Pakistan, to Paktia, Afghanistan, to fight with Deobandi militant groups. Lakhvi, who is considered to have been the military commander of what was known as LeT and is awaiting trial for his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, adheres to an extreme version of the Ahl-e-Hadith (AeH) interpretation of Islam, which is the South Asian version of the Salafist-Wahhabist trend in the Arab world. In the simplest of terms, AeH is more conservative and traditional than the doctrines of most militant groups operating along the Durand Line. Militants there tend to follow an extreme brand of the Deobandi branch of South Asian Sunni Islam, similar to the extreme ideology of al Qaeda's Salafist jihadists.

Lakhvi created his own AeH-inspired militant group in 1984, and a year later two academics, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Zafar Iqbal, created Jamaat ul-Dawa, an Islamist AeH social organization. Before these groups were formed there was already a major AeH political organization called Jamaat AeH, led by the most well-known Pakistani AeH scholar, the late Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer, who was assassinated in Lahore in 1987. His death allowed Saeed and Lakhvi's movement to take off. It is important to note that AeH adherents comprise a very small percentage of Pakistanis and that those following the movement launched by Saeed and Lakhvi represent only a portion of those who ascribe to AeH's ideology.

In 1986, Saeed and Lakhvi joined forces, creating Markaz al-Dawa wal-Irshad (MDI) in Muridke, near Lahore, Pakistan. MDI had 17 founders, including Saeed and Lakhvi as well as transnational militants originally from places like Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian territories. While building facilities in Muridke for social services, MDI also established its first militant training camp in Paktia, then another in Kunar, Afghanistan, in 1987. Throughout the next three decades, these camps often were operated in cooperation with other militant groups, including al Qaeda. [continued after the jump]

Cigarette Abana

Enjoy an African PSA by Habib Koité and Bamada

as you get ready for a Nanny State approved weekend.

 

Tragedy in Wisconsin

Picture from Display Fake Food

The following report out of Wisconsin is truly shocking. Not the part about a protestor confronting Rep. Robin Vos (R-Burlington) in a bar and berating him. This is Wisconsin after all, such hijinx are to be expected.

No, the surprising part is what happened next -- the protestor got so wound up that he poured a beer over Vos's head. 

A beer? Look, trashing the Capital building while banging on drums and chanting "this is what democracy looks like" is bad enough, but a Wisconsonite wasting a perfectly good beer by pouring it over somebody's head?

From JSOnline AllPoltics Blog post Protester dumps beer on Rep. Robin Vos' head:

The incident happened at the Inn on the Park, 22 S. Carroll St. Witnesses said a man came into the tavern and swore at three lawmakers, calling them criminals. A bartender said the man used the words to the effect of "money" and "damn Republicans," according to the police report.

Another man was recording the incident with a video camera when the bartender asked him to stop. That's when the person who had been yelling dumped the beer on Vos' head, according to the report.

The police report says beer splashed onto two other lawmakers, Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) and Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette).

Vos told police that the man has been harassing him since February, though previous encounters had not involved physical contact. The representative did not know the suspect's name, but a female State Capitol employee, who was with the group, gave police a name and said Capitol Police would have his contact information, according to the report. Police believe he's a 26-year-old.

Yeesh, and I thought the zombie protest  and the boat protest were off-the-rails, but this is beyond the pale. The protests in Wisconsin are truly getting out of hand if the Cheeseheads are disrespecting their Official State Drink. 

Oh the horror, the horror!
  

Now, this is some manly painting

The Taiwanese artist Chen Chun-hao wields a nail gun rather than a paint brush when he creates his works. He'll shoot hundreds of thousands of mosquito nails into a canvas to create a painting. Above is a view of a complete work, below are two details that zoom in on a small section of another to show his nail work. 

Amazing stuff. From the Oddity Central article Taiwanese Artist Uses Nail Gun as His Brush which includes more commentary and pictures of his work.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Habibe Koité

I'm going to wrap up my long, slow and rambling series on the music of Mali with this post featuring videos of the immensely talented Habib Koité and his band Bamada.  Koité is deservedly the most popular of all the Malian musicians I've posted about. In fact, he's considered by many to be the finest African musician today -- an opinion I would not argue with. 

I've used the rich musical scene of Mali to discuss how West African music was taken to America in the diaspora of the slave trade. In the Age of Sail it evolved in isolation, but by the middle of the 20th Century American and Latin flavored black music returned to Africa via records and radio.

Around the same time Malian expats were playing on European tours. Eventually, largely left-leaning promoters brought their music to a wider audience when they created the notion of World Music as a means of binning their albums in record stores. This led to a situation where much of the world's music -- J-Pop and Bollywood music being the most glaring examples -- were excluded from the so-called World Music scene in favor of left-leaning musicians.

However, those days are over. The demise of record stores with their bins, and the rise of the internet with it searches, will change that dynamic just as surely as the first record brought to Mali impacted the local music. It will curious to see if that particular march through the cultural institutions has came to an end and if it will be reversed, or at least countered.

Below is a list of the earlier posts in the series for those interested:

Father & Son
14 years later
Torn from today's headlines
Ex-pats in Paris
Unscheduled comparison
An interlude in the record bins
Unnatural Selection

How could they possibly exhibit this junk?

The Buran's painted side

In an earlier post, Houston gets robbed, I mentioned the sorry state of disrepair the Russian shuttle fleet had fallen into. EnglishRussia, in their post The Greatest Failure of MAKS-2011 reports that the Buran had been put on display at some sort of air show.

It was not a success. The Buran was not restored, rather a coat of paint was slapped on it, with even missing tiles and scorch marks simply painted over. Worse, as the photo below shows, they only painted one side of the Buran, leaving the other in its dilapidated state. Oh, and the plywood rudder is a nice touch.

Spectators were not impressed, with one quoted as saying, "How could they possibly exhibit this junk?" At the EnglishRussia link above there is more commentary, as well as many more pictures -- including shots of the stripped cabin, the missing windows and nose assemblage, the decaying wings and many other details.

The other side of the Buran

The plywood rudder

Stratfor and Anouk Aimée

The latest Stratfor article reviews the European Union. Freidman discusses how the previous nationalism of the continent led to an ever shifting series of alliances and wars. 

After the disaster of the 20th Century, and under American and Russian occupation, European leaders tried to subsume the nationalism beneath the banner of a united Europe, in which being European trumped their citizens national identities.

The European leadership did this by promising both a peaceful and prosperous union. Needless to say, with the Eurozone experiencing so many economic problems the promise of prosperity is falling short. This is one of the causes leading to the resurgence of nationalism across the Continent. This nationalism, should it continue to grow stronger, will severely threaten the European unification experiment.

Since we're talking about Europe Fellini's La Dolce Vita naturally sprang to mind as a source for this article's Hot Stratfor Babe, particularly since it is knee-deep in ennui laden females. After carefully considering each, I selected Anouk Aimée for the honor.

Being a Fellini film, the characters in La Docle Vita are all vaguely bored as they wander through Rome pontificating, guzzling booze and horn-dogging after each other as they encounter numerous surreal and enigmatic situations. Ah, the wonders of foreign art films.

Ms Aimée plays the cabaret singer Lola who trollups her way through her scenes. As a bonus, after the article, I've included a clip of the scantily clad Lola singing one of her numbers. 


THE CRISIS OF EUROPE AND EUROPEAN NATIONALISM
By George Friedman, September 13, 2011

When I visited Europe in 2008 and before, the idea that Europe was not going to emerge as one united political entity was regarded as heresy by many leaders. The European enterprise was seen as a work in progress moving inevitably toward unification -- a group of nations committed to a common fate. What was a core vision in 2008 is now gone. What was inconceivable -- the primacy of the traditional nation-state -- is now commonly discussed, and steps to devolve Europe in part or in whole (such as ejecting Greece from the eurozone) are being contemplated. This is not a trivial event.

Before 1492, Europe was a backwater of small nationalities struggling over a relatively small piece of cold, rainy land. But one technological change made Europe the center of the international system: deep-water navigation.

The ability to engage in long-range shipping safely allowed businesses on the Continent's various navigable rivers to interact easily with each other, magnifying the rivers' capital-generation capacity. Deep-water navigation also allowed many of the European nations to conquer vast extra-European empires. And the close proximity of those nations combined with ever more wealth allowed for technological innovation and advancement at a pace theretofore unheard of anywhere on the planet. As a whole, Europe became very rich, became engaged in very far-flung empire-building that redefined the human condition and became very good at making war. In short order, Europe went from being a cultural and economic backwater to being the engine of the world.

At home, Europe's growing economic development was exceeded only by the growing ferocity of its conflicts. Abroad, Europe had achieved the ability to apply military force to achieve economic aims -- and vice versa. The brutal exploitation of wealth from some places (South America in particular) and the thorough subjugation and imposed trading systems in others (East and South Asia in particular) created the foundation of the modern order. Such alternations of traditional systems increased the wealth of Europe dramatically.

But "engine" does not mean "united," and Europe's wealth was not spread evenly. Whichever country was benefitting had a decided advantage in that it had greater resources to devote to military power and could incentivize other countries to ally with it. The result ought to have been that the leading global empire would unite Europe under its flag. It never happened, although it was attempted repeatedly. Europe remained divided and at war with itself at the same time it was dominating and reshaping the world.

The reasons for this paradox are complex. For me, the key has always been the English Channel. Domination of Europe requires a massive land force. Domination of the world requires a navy heavily oriented toward maritime trade. No European power was optimized to cross the channel, defeat England and force it into Europe. The Spanish Armada, the French navy at Trafalgar and the Luftwaffe over Britain all failed to create the conditions for invasion and subjugation. Whatever happened in continental Europe, the English remained an independent force with a powerful navy of its own, able to manipulate the balance of power in Europe to keep European powers focused on each other and not on England (most of the time). And after the defeat of Napoleon, the Royal Navy created the most powerful empire Europe had seen, but it could not, by itself, dominate the Continent. (Other European geographic features obviously make unification of Europe difficult, but all of them have, at one point or another, been overcome. Except for the channel.)

Underlying Tensions

The tensions underlying Europe were bought to a head by German unification in 1871 and the need to accommodate Germany in the European system, of which Germany was both an integral and indigestible part. The result was two catastrophic general wars in Europe that began in 1914 and ended in 1945 with the occupation of Europe by the United States and the Soviet Union and the collapse of the European imperial system. Its economy shattered and its public plunged into a crisis of morale and a lack of confidence in the elites, Europe had neither the interest in nor appetite for empire.

Europe was exhausted not only by war but also by the internal psychosis of two of its major components. Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union might well have externally behaved according to predictable laws of geopolitics. Internally, these two countries went mad, slaughtering both their own citizens and citizens of countries they occupied for reasons that were barely comprehensible, let alone rationally explicable. From my point of view, the pressure and slaughter inflicted by two world wars on both countries created a collective mental breakdown.

I realize this is a woefully inadequate answer. But consider Europe after World War II. First, it had gone through about 450 years of global adventure and increasingly murderous wars, in the end squandering everything it had won. Internally, Europe watched a country like Germany -- in some ways the highest expression of European civilization -- plunge to levels of unprecedented barbarism. Finally, Europe saw the United States move from the edges of history to assume the role of an occupying force. The United States became the envy of the Europeans: stable, wealthy, unified and able to impose its economic, political and military will on major powers on a different continent. (The Russians were part of Europe and could be explained within the European paradigm. So while the Europeans may have disdained the Russians, the Russians were still viewed as poor cousins, part of the family playing by more or less European rules.) New and unprecedented, the United States towered over Europe, which went from dominance to psychosis to military, political and cultural subjugation in a twinkling of history's eye. [continued after the jump]

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs = Tax, Tax, Tax

Well, this is the guy that was stymied by an umbrella...

Now that Obama has returned from vacation he's been ranting and raving for several days that Congress needs to pass his bill immediately. 'Course, he hadn't actually submitted a bill yet, but apparently he finally did Monday night.

It turns out the cuts he said that would be needed to pay for it are actually tax increases. The tax increases all being the same dead horses he's been flogging for some time: jacking up the taxes on rich folks making over $250,000 a year, ending tax loop holes for oil companies, and of course one of his his favorites -- holding corporate jet owners upside down and shaking them until buckets of money fall out of their pockets.

This to give more money to unionized teachers, shovel-ready jobs that are mired in red tape, high-speed choo-choo trains and possibly the next incarnation of Solydra. Whatever. We all knows this is just a stump speech, as the Wall Street Journal reports:

Republicans in Congress, who had been striking a more conciliatory tone about backing at least parts of the proposal the president unveiled last Thursday, disputed the White House contention that the plan would cause no additional job losses for the struggling economy.

"It would be fair to say this tax increase on job creators is the kind of proposal both parties have opposed in the past,'' said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). "We remain eager to work together on ways to support job growth, but this proposal doesn't appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit.''

Mr. Obama made a new pitch for his plan at the White House Monday and has said he intends to campaign against Congress and Republicans in 2012 if they don't pass the bill.

"We've got to decide what our priorities are," he said. "Do we keep tax loopholes for oil companies, or do we put teachers back to work? Should we keep tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or should we invest in education and technology and infrastructure?"

Despite Mr. Obama's demand that Congress act on the legislation quickly, neither the jobs nor tax proposals are likely to be approved or take affect any time soon. Senate Democratic leaders are expected to bring the bill to a vote in the coming weeks, but it is not expected to pass.

By the way, there's a link to the bill at the Wall Street Journal article.

 

The world's smallest model railroad

Above is the World's smallest model train. It has a simple layout with the train passing through a tunnel as it runs on an oval track. The little train model was built to be a model inside of another model. The train was displayed in the window of a Z gauge hobby shop.
 

Hoodoman Blues

Monday morning, start of the work week blues by Junior Wells.

Never Forget

Below is the account of Denise M. of her experiences in Manhattan on the day of the 9/11 terror attacks. I broke it into paragraphs, but her words are otherwise unedited. It is taken from September 11 Digital Archive. 

I worked directly across the street of the Trade Center in the World Financial Center for 5 years. I had been on the express bus, coming out of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel when the first plane hit. We heard the dispatcher tell the bus driver that a plane hit into the WTC and it seemed to be an accident. After hearing that, we all started to make our way off the bus and on to our jobs.

I was walking towards my building, standing directly across the street (on Liberty St) when I was stopped by a police officer. He told me not to go any further because there had been airplane parts all over the street and it was dangerous. So I stayed there just watching the 1st tower burn. I could see all the fireman & police officers getting people out of the building. The people were running, some were injured & burnt. It was so horrific to see this.

After 10 mins of watching, I heard a loud sound as if something were falling from the sky. When I looked up, all I could see was this huge plane right over head flying 100's of miles an hour directly into the 2nd tower. That's when I realized it was not an accident, we were being attached. I could hear the sound of that plane going into the building making a huge suction sound then exploding into peices all over the area.

From that point I ducked so I wouldn't be hit. I know at that point I was not thinking about saving myself or heading somewhere for safty, I was knumb and couldn't move. My whole body was in a state of shock. Here were these two huge buildings that I've associated all my life with home and they were on fire.

From where I was standing I could hear these banging sounds that sounded that little bombs exploding, days later I realized it was the sound of bodies falling from the windows hitting the ground.

Still standing in ora after mins that seemed to be as long as hours, a panic came over everyone around me and that's when I could hear the police officers screaming run the building is collapsing. Well I never ran so fast in my life. I ran towards the water thinking that if one building was falling the others where going to be right behind it sort of like a domino effect. If there was anywhere left to go it was going to be in the Hudson River.

At the time I was running, I turned around to see what was going on behind me and it looked like a scene right out of the movies. This huge gray cloud that looked solid like a marshmello was right behind me and it was coming quick. I got as far as I could go, covering my face with a ripped towel that I fellow next to me handed me. When I was finally able to squint my eyes open, I couldn't even see 10 feet in front. Everyone around me was covered in dust, as was I. It wasn't just dust, it was a pinchy fiberglass feeling that was over your skin. Immediately I got it in my eyes and had to remove my contacts because they were burning me.

The air was starting to clear when I was able to find my cell phone and call home. Not knowing that no ones phones were working, I tried to call out and nothing was happening. I remember thinking two things, this was the end of the world and I was going to die on this day, and my mom & fiance was probably watching this on CNN not knowing where I was because they hadn't heard from me.

Looking for anyway out of the city, I went towards the Staten Island Ferry and just as the ferry was docking in the pier, tower 2 was collapsing and the dust was getting thick again. As I boarded the ferry, the deckhands were handing out life jackets so I grab one and made my way on too the ferry. It took us about 5/10 mins. to get out into the water because the harbor was not clear enough to depart.

When we were finally out by the Statue of Liberty, there was a sign a relief in me but I still didn't feel safe until I was home. When I finally reached my house, I remember running in and my mom was standing at the top of the steps in tears. We both huged each other as tight as possible and cried. At that moment I thought to myself, how glad I was to be alive & able to come home to my family.

There was a lot of tears from that day forward, watching TV, going to funnerals, even the day I had to head back into the city for the first time after 9/11. Things will never be the same here in NYC but we've all gained the strenght to go on with our lives and I know that no one will ever forget that day or those people who lost their innocent lives just trying to make a days pay. And for the heros who were trying to save the people, they've gained more than just respect from me...

9-11 Television News archive

The news clips are arranged on a matrix by channel and hour

A Television News Archive of 911 has been created. Its has 3000 hours of archival footage of news broadcasts, covers 7 days starting with 9/11 and has news from 20 channels, both domestic and foreign.

It is not a trip down memory lane I care to take, although I did watch bits and pieces of it. Prepare for your blood to boil as you watch the confusion morph into horror and then anger.
 

Obama, Thalia and Michelle

No, I'm not turning this blog into the all Thalia all the time blog, although it would probably help with my traffic if I did. I found the above video when I was looking for the bonus video to Thalia's Hot Stratfor Babe appearance and decided it needed a post of its own.

It is from the 2009 Fiesta Latina event. It starts with Thalia asking Obama to dance with her. He gets up and sort of salas around a bit with her and then sits down. The fun starts at about 3:55, when we get a shot of him and Michelle. Oh my, she doesn't look happy at all over the little dance. She's got a smile on her face, but her body language says, "you're sleeping on the couch tonight bub."
  
It's a pretty funny little scene.
 

Stratfor and Thalia

This Stratfor article concerns one piece of legal maneuvering by Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, aka "El Vicentillo", who is, as the son of Ismail "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia, a high placed figure in the Mexican crime syndicate the Sinaloa Federation.

El Vicentillo is on trial in the United States for his criminal activities. His defense has claimed that the U.S. government, under Bush, had cut a deal with the Sinaloa Federation providing a degree of immunity to Sinola members in exchange for information about other drug cartels activities.

Nobody is really taking those claims all that seriously, but El Vicentillo's legal team is using them to request wide ranging discovery of DEA and other U.S. documents. In addition, his team is using their sensation charges to couple to the Gun Runner scandal as they try to muddy the PR waters in preparation for selecting a jury when his case goes to trial.

Whenever a Stratfor article concerns Mexico I naturally search for a Mexican Hot Stratfor Babe and after my usual exhaustive I've selected Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda, who goes by the single name Thalia, for the honor.

Thalia is a Mexican singer and actress. Although she may not be well known to Anglo audiences, she's extremely popular and successful in the Latin market. She's parlayed her singing and acting popularity into a line of clothes and eyeglasses sold in Walmart, a line of chocolate for Hersey Chocolate, various product endorsements and, since becoming a U.S. citizen, a 2 hour, weekly talk show on ABC radio.

Oddly enough, years ago I caught bits and pieces of one of her telenovelas -- Maria la del Barrio. Since I missed the beginning of it, then only saw parts of it and don't speak a word of Spanish my grasp of the plot may be a wee bit sketchy. As near as I could tell she had been clunked over the head, developed amnesia and, Lost-like, her little baby had been kidnapped by some Eeevil Lady.

At the point I started watching the show Maria was imprisoned by a creepy guy who limped around with a cane, dressed her in rags and made her beg for him. She eventually escaped and started a singing career. Many soap opera hijinx ensued, with grandmas in hospital beds, some young guy in jail for some reason, Maria blubbering a lot, weddings, romances, broken hearts and what-not.

What was funny was every few episodes Maria would go to pray in front of the local cathedral and every time she did the creepy guy with the limp would show up too. She would see him, fling into a panic and proceed to run down the exact same dead-end alley where he would always trap her, dress her in rags and put her back to work begging. About the 3rd or 4th time that happened one began to doubt that Maria's cranium contained a brain.

Another amusing thing was that virtually every time a character first met Maria there was a dramatic sting of music as the camera zoomed into their shocked expression as they recognized her. So basically everybody in the show knew who the amnesiac Maria was, but none of the chumps could be bothered to tell her who she was. Then again, as I said I don't speak Spanish so maybe I missed a nuance or two of the plot.

As a bonus, after the article, I've embedded the trailer to Maria la del Barrio so you can get a taste of just how ridiculous it was. I particularly like the goofy crown she wears when she dances around as the sweet, innocent, yet happy poor girl. 


SUSPECT ACCUSES U.S. OF AIDING MEXICAN CARTEL: UNLIKELY, BUT CLEVER DEFENSE
By Scott Stewart, September 8, 2011

Many people interested in security in Mexico and the Mexican cartels will turn their attention to Chicago in the next few days. Sept. 11 is the deadline for the U.S. government to respond to a defense discovery motion filed July 29 in the case of Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, aka "El Vicentillo." El Vicentillo is the son of Ismail "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia, a principal leader of the Sinaloa Federation. While not as well-known as his partner, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, El Mayo nevertheless is a very powerful figure in Mexico's cartel underworld, and one of the richest men in Mexico.

The Mexican military arrested El Vicentillo in March 2009 in an exclusive Mexico City neighborhood. Grand juries in Chicago and Washington had indicted El Vicentillo on drug smuggling charges, prompting the United States to seek his extradition from Mexico. Upon his February 2010 extradition, it was decided he would first face the charges pending against him in the Northern District of Illinois. According to the Justice Department, El Vicentillo is "one of the most significant Mexican drug defendants extradited from Mexico to the United States since Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the accused leader of the notorious Gulf Cartel, was extradited in 2007."

The Zambada legal team's July 29 motion caused quite a stir by claiming that the U.S. government had cut a deal with the Sinaloa Federation via the group's lawyer, Humberto Loya Castro, in which El Chapo and El Mayo would provide intelligence to the U.S. government regarding rival cartels. In exchange, the U.S. government would not interfere in Sinaloa's drug trafficking and would not seek to apprehend or prosecute Loya, El Chapo, El Mayo and the rest of the Sinaloa leadership -- a deal reportedly struck without the Mexican government's knowledge.

The allegations generated such a buzz in part because they came so soon after revelations that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Justice Department had permitted guns illegally purchased in the United States to "walk" into Mexico in an operation called "Fast and Furious." Marked differences separate the two cases, however, making the existence of any deal between Sinaloa and the U.S. government highly unlikely. Accordingly, the government will likely deny the allegations in its impending response. Even so, the July 29 allegations still could prove useful for El Vicentillo's defense strategy.

A History of Seizures and Arrests

The many seizures and arrests during the period El Vicentillo's attorneys allege the truce was in effect -- which the motion says began no later than January 2004 -- are the first factor undermining the allegations. For example, in February 2007 the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the culmination of "Operation Imperial Emperor," a 20-month investigation directed against the Sinaloa Federation that resulted in 400 arrests and netted 18 tons of drugs and $45 million in cash. In 2009, the DEA announced the conclusion of "Operation Xcellerator," a multiagency counternarcotics investigation that involved the arrests of more than 750 alleged Sinaloa Federation members and confederates across the United States over a 21-month period and the seizure of 23 tons of narcotics and $53 million in cash.

The Northern District of Illinois indictment of El Vicentillo and other Sinaloa leaders contains a long list showing that the U.S. government seized thousands of kilograms of cocaine and more than $19 million in cash in the district alone from 2005 to 2008.

And these are just a few examples of Sinaloa's losses during the time the DEA allegedly turned a blind eye to the cartel's smuggling activities. Based on the size and scope of these Sinaloa losses in manpower, narcotics and cash, it is hard to imagine that anyone affiliated with that organization honestly thinks the DEA gave Sinaloa a pass to traffic narcotics.

It's the Politics, Stupid

The second element militating against the allegation that the U.S. government entered into an agreement with the Sinaloa Federation is politics. Such an agreement would be political suicide for any attorney general or DEA administrator and the president they served were it ever disclosed. And as anyone who has worked inside the Beltway knows, secrets are very hard to keep -- especially because of the length of time alleged by the defense in this case and because the period spanned multiple U.S. administrations involving two political parties.

Not only are such secrets hard to keep at the top levels of an administration, they are tough to keep at the street level, too. Notably, the first information about Fast and Furious came from rank-and-file ATF special agents incensed that guns were being allowed to walk. These agents leaked information regarding the program to reporters. The same dynamic certainly would have emerged among street-level DEA, FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who had spent their careers attempting to stem the flow of narcotics. These agents would not have just sat by and watched narcotics shipments walk into the United States. Thus, if a long-standing relationship between the U.S. government and the Sinaloa Federation really existed, the story most likely would not have emerged first from a Mexican drug trafficker. [continued after the jump]

St. James Infirmary

Get ready for a cool, hepcat weekend with Bethany & Rufus.

 

The dog ate my homework

The post I had planned for tonight fell apart. I blame Bush. Since I intend on laying around and watching football I'm just tossing out a link to the site Dieselpunk instead of actually writing a post. 

It covers the design sensibilities of the 1920s through the 1940s, with a heavy emphasis on industrial design, vehicles and architecture. It's a site I've long intended to mine for a more substantial post.  I'll give a sneak peek for now -- a lot of good stuff there. 

 

$100 bill details

Click on any image to enlarge it

 The site I got these images from, НОВОСТИ В ФОТОГРАФИЯХ, is in a language I can't even identify much less read, so I have no idea what the post's commentary about them was. They are a series of closeup details of an American $100 bill and appear to be focusing on the engraving details that make them difficult to counterfeit. 

The details are striking. You can see more after the jump.

Shooting pistols underwater

Ahh... the wonders of YouTube. Some guy rigged two pistols so he could fire them while they were submerged in an aquarium. He then filmed the test firings with a high speed camera. You can clearly see the out-gassing that occurs and how the automatic is much more efficient than the revolver in concentrating the force in the barrel.

(via Shock Mansion) 

New LRO photos of Lunar landing sites

Click to enlarge

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)  has taken new photos of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. They are much clearer than the photos they released in 2009. Above is a sample for comparison, with the new photo on the left and the old photo on the right. In the new photos you can clearly see the lander, equipment they left on the moon, the lunar rover and tracks from them walking and riding about the surface. 

Their Apollo landing site news item has more pictures, including much larger high-resolution ones, as well as a video and links to other news and photos of the landing sites.
 

Stratfor, 9/11 and the War of Terror

In this Stratfor article George Friedman offers a retrospective of the War in Terror which was spawned by the 9/11 terror attacks. He discusses the success in preventing further large scale attacks to date, the difficulties failure of international law to rationally come to grips with this new type of warfare, and some of the policy failures of the war. 


9/11 AND THE SUCCESSFUL WAR
By George Friedman, September 6, 2011

It has been 10 years since 9/11, and all of us who write about such things for a living are writing about it. That causes me to be wary. I prefer being the lonely voice, but the fact is that 9/11 was a defining moment in American history. On Sept. 12, 2001, few would have anticipated the course the resulting war would take -- but then, few knew what to think. The nation was in shock. In retrospect, many speak with great wisdom about what should have been thought about 9/11 at the time and what should have been done in its aftermath. I am always interested in looking at what people actually said and did at the time.

The country was in shock, and shock was a reasonable response. The country was afraid, and fear was a reasonable response. Ten years later, we are all much wiser and sure that our wisdom was there from the beginning. But the truth is that, in retrospect, we know we would have done things superbly had we the authority. Few of us are being honest with ourselves. We were all shocked and frightened. Our wisdom came much later, when it had little impact. Yes, if we knew then what we know now we would have all bought Google stock. But we didn't know things then that we know now, so it is all rather pointless to lecture those who had decisions to make in the midst of chaos.

Some wars are carefully planned, but even those wars rarely take place as expected. Think of the Germans in World War I, having planned the invasion of France for decades and with meticulous care. Nothing went as planned for either side, and the war did not take a course that was anticipated by anyone. Wars occur at unpredictable times, take unpredictable courses and have unexpected consequences. Who expected the American Civil War to take the course it did? We have been second-guessing Lincoln and Davis, Grant and Lee and all the rest for more than a century.

This particular war -- the one that began on 9/11 and swept into Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries -- is hard to second-guess because there are those who do not think it is a war. Some people, including President George W. Bush, seem to regard it as a criminal conspiracy. When Bush started talking about bringing al Qaeda to justice, he was talking about bringing them before the bar of justice. Imagine trying to arrest British sailors for burning Washington. War is not about bringing people to justice. It is about destroying their ability to wage war. The contemporary confusion between warfare and criminality creates profound confusion about the rules under which you operate. There are the rules of war as set forth in the Geneva Conventions, and there are criminal actions. The former are designed to facilitate the defense of national interests and involve killing people because of the uniform they wear. The latter is about punishing people for prior action. I have never sorted through what it was that the Bush administration thought it was doing.

This entire matter is made more complex by the fact that al Qaeda doesn't wear a uniform. Under the Geneva Conventions, there is no protection for those who do not openly carry weapons or wear uniforms or at least armbands. They are regarded as violating the rules of war. If they are not protected by the rules of war then they must fall under criminal law by default. But criminal law is not really focused on preventing acts so much as it is on punishing them. And as satisfying as it is to capture someone who did something, the real point of the U.S. response to 9/11 was to prevent anyone else from doing something -- killing and capturing people who have not done anything yet but who might.

Coming to Grips

The problem is that international law has simply failed to address the question of how a nation-state deals with forces that wage war through terrorism but are not part of any nation-state. Neither criminal law nor the laws of war apply. One of the real travesties of 9/11 was the manner in which the international legal community -- the United Nations and its legal structures, the professors of international law who discuss such matters and the American legal community -- could not come to grips with the tensions underlying the resulting war. There was an unpleasant and fairly smug view that the United States had violated both the rules of war and domestic legal processes, but very little attempt was made to craft a rule of warfare designed to cope with a group like al Qaeda -- organized, covert, effective -- that attacked a nation-state.

As U.S. President Barack Obama has discovered, the failure of the international legal community to rapidly evolve new rules of war placed him at odds with his erstwhile supporters. The ease with which the international legal community found U.S. decision makers' attempts to craft a lawful and effective path "illegal and immoral" (an oft-repeated cliche of critics of post-9/11 policy) created an insoluble dilemma for the United States. The mission of the U.S. government was to prevent further attacks on the homeland. The Geneva Conventions, for the most part, didn't apply. Criminal law is not about prevention. The inability of the law to deal with reality generated an image of American lawlessness.

Of course, one of the most extraordinary facts of the war that begin on 9/11 was that there have been no more successful major attacks on the United States. Had I been asked on Sept. 11, 2001, about the likelihood of that (in fact, I was asked), my answer would have been that it was part of a series of attacks, and not just the first. This assumption came from a knowledge of al Qaeda's stated strategic intent, the fact that the 9/11 team had operated with highly effective covert techniques based on technical simplicity and organizational effectiveness, and that its command structure seemed to operate with effective command and control. Put simply, the 9/11 team was good and was prepared to go to its certain death to complete the mission. Anyone not frightened by this was out of touch with reality.

Yet there have been no further attacks. This is not, I think, because they did not intend to carry out such attacks. It is because the United States forced the al Qaeda leadership to flee Afghanistan during the early days of the U.S. war, disrupting command and control. It is also because U.S. covert operations on a global scale attacked and disrupted al Qaeda's strength on the ground and penetrated its communications. A significant number of attacks on the United States were planned and prosecuted. They were all disrupted before they could be launched, save for the attempted and failed bombing in Times Square, the famed shoe bomber and, my favorite, the crotch bomber. Al Qaeda has not been capable of mounting effective attacks against the United States (though it has conducted successful attacks in Spain and Britain) because the United States surged its substantial covert capabilities against it.

Obviously, as in all wars, what is now called "collateral damage" occurred (in a more civilized time it would have been called "innocent civilians killed, wounded and detained"). How could it have been otherwise? Just as aircraft dropping bombs don't easily discriminate against targets and artillery sometimes kills innocent people, covert operations can harm the unintended. That is the nature and horror of war. The choice for the United States was to accept the danger of another al Qaeda attack -- an event that I am certain was intended and would have happened without a forceful U.S. response -- or accept innocent casualties elsewhere. The foundation of a polity is that it protects its own at the cost of others. This doctrine might be troubling, but few of us in World War II felt that protecting Americans by bombing German and Japanese cities was a bad idea. If this troubles us, the history of warfare should trouble us. And if the history of warfare troubles us, we should bear in mind that we are all its heirs and beneficiaries, particularly in the United States.

The first mission of the war that followed 9/11 was to prevent any further attacks. That mission was accomplished. That is a fact often forgotten. [continued after the jump]