PDB: February 27, 2006
27 februarie 2006follows is my “PDB”, which is similar to what George Bush gets every
day, except mine is all from public sources and is a bit longer than
one double-spaced page.
I believe that the best electorate is an informed electorate, and that
must include a knowledge of what’s going on around the world.
I read approximately 50 newspapers every morning and report what I find
there, with an emphasis on foreign or international events. You will
however not find information about Iraq or the Israeli/Palestinian
situation, the first because it is amply reported elsewhere and the
latter because it is too contentious.
Events that I feel are well-covered elsewhere are not included for brevity.
It looks like American officials have tried and failed to bribe members of ex-Serbian Ratko Mladic ‘s family with millions of dollars to turn him in.
As the election season heats up in Italy,
PM Silvio “Jesus” Berlusconi has blasted prosecutors and judges for
“persecuting” him over the years for investigating multiple instances
of fraud in the creation and operation of his corporate empires.
Turkey is upset that the EU has agreed to give aid to northern, Turkish-controlled Cyprus.
As martial law continues in the Philippines,
the government has charged 16 people with plotting a coup, including
Gregorio Honasan, who is a former hero for participating in the 1986
revolt against the dictator Ferdinan Marcos.
Today in Saudi Arabia,
gov’t forces (probably the western-trained “National Guard”) fought
“militants” in the capital of Riyadh, three days after suicide bombers
attacked the Abqaiq oil-processing plant.
The prison riot at Pul-i-Charki in Kabul, Afghanistan
continues for a third day. This is the same prison where Super Patriot
Jack Idema and company are being housed, who apparently are doing just
fine as they have a satellite phone and internet connection.
Reading an obscure Afghan newspaper, I see that Pakistan
turned over some prisoners to Afghanistan, including 7 Afghan
government soldiers. Why they had been arrested in Pakistan is not
explained.
Meanwhile that Forgotten War in Balochistan
continues as rockets were fired by “militants” at a local minister’s
house, killing 1 person and injuring 8. Elsewhere, rockets were fired
at a gov’t checkpost in Kohlu but no one was injured. And a passenger train was derailed near Sibi after being fired on by “militants”. The Pak government has 123,000 troops in the province trying to suppress this war and is spending some 6 billion rupees (100 million US dollars) a month.
Apparently George Bush, who will be in Pakistan in the beginning of March, is going to watch a cricket match. That ought to be interesting.
The Forgotten War in Nepal
is in full swing as gov’t soldiers have allegedly killed 16 Maoists in
fighting in Rupandehi district yesterday in which was described as
“heavy fighting”.
Once again, tens of thousands of people marched in the streets of Bangkok, Thailand to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin “El Cid” Shinawatra.
Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the inception of the world’s last colony – Morocco‘s illegal seizure of Western Sahara. For a complete history on this issue, see my article here.
The jolly old government of Yemen
has announced that 3 prisoners who escaped from jail a couple of weeks
ago have surrendered to the authorities because they “wanted” to.
The fun-lovin’ president of Sudan,
Omar “Head” Bashir, has stated that Darfur will be a “graveyard” for
foreign troops. You know, the ones who are trying to stop
government-financed militias from raping and killing most of the
population.
As Zimbabwe descends into a living hell, starving villagers are fighting with feral dogs over garbage in Masvingo province.
The supremely mirthful government of Ethiopia
has begun sham trials against the main opposition party and outspoken
journalists on charges of “treason” and “genocide”. One of those
charged is only 13 years old.
That inter-religious fighting in Nigeria continues, with over 100 people killed.
You’ll be happy to know that the U.S. is going to train Kyrgyzstan‘s Air Force as well as helping the country buy Russian-made helicopters and aircraft.
Meanwhile after trying to do it for over a week, Omurbek Tekebayev, the speaker of Kyrgyzstan‘s parliament, has officially resigned after squabbling with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
The fun-lovin’ dictator of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat “Turkmenbashi” Niyazov is going to visit Ukraine at the end of April or beginning of May.
At least 8 people were killed by the unstoppable FARC in Colombia‘s Caqueta Province. Meanwhile Alvaro Leyva,
campaigning for president in the country, says he can end the war in 6
months if he’s elected based on talks he’s had with the FARC and AUC.
Voters go to the polls on May 8 of this year.
Portia Simpson Miller has been elected to head the People’s National
Party by its members, which will soon make her the Prime Minister of Jamaica in April.
Some moderately good news as leaders in Cote D’Ivoire,
including President Lauren Gbagbo “Baggins”, rebel chief Guillaume Soro
and opposition leader Alassane Ouattara all met in the capital of
Yamoussokro to hopefully negotiate a peace deal.
Now here’s a major scam – a trial in the International Court of Justice opens this week, wherein Bosnia has charged Serbia
with state-sponsored genocide for the 1992-1995 war. The reason this is
a crock is because Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro) earlier tried
to sue ten NATO countries for war crimes and the same court ruled that
Serbia & Montenegro (Yugoslavia) couldn’t do this because it wasn’t
under ICJ jurisdiction until 1999. See here for more information.
The U.S. based Intel Corporation has announced it will
spend 605 million dollars on a manufacturing plant in Ho Chi Minh City,
the capital of Viet Nam.
While the west continues to hammer Iran, countries like Japan continue lucrative commercial business with the country, especially in the energy sector.
Speaking of which, Japan is working on negotiating a free trade agreement with 6 Persian Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Meanwhile Iran is apparently going to tell the IAEA everything it wants to know about the “green salt” project about which I wrote here.
The United States has demanded that Israel modify its arms export policies after selling advanced UAVs to China. Buried in the article is this:
The
Americans demanded in the meeting that Venezuela be added to the list
of countries Washington considered “problematic” countries and to which
defense exports should be limited.
You’ll be happy to learn that the government of Australia has decided that bribes are not tax deductible.
Bulgaria will buy 5 military transport planes (C-27J) from Italy for 91 million Euros.
Ahead of Bush’s upcoming trip to India
tomorrow (official visit begins Thursday), the negotiators have failed
to reach an agreement on the controversial nuclear exchange pact after
India refused to allow IAEA monitoring of military nuclear sites.
Pirates off the coast of Somalia have allegedly captured another commercial vessel. Oddly the vessel was empty of cargo at the time but Kenyan authorities have notified the U.S. Navy.
Two bombs exploded today in Iran‘s
Khuzestan Province, where bombs exploded a month ago killing 8 people.
This is the fourth series of bombings stretching back to June 2005.
Police in jolly old Indonesia
fired tear gas to break up crowds in the capital of Jakarta who were
protesting to demand the closure of a gargantuan mining operaton in
Papua Province for abuses of human rights.
A new report says that German intelligence agents gave the U.S. a copy of Saddam Hussein’s plans to defend Iraq just two months before the March 2003 invasion.
The mirthful president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , is in Kuwait today for a 1-day state visit to sign a number of trade and judicial agreements.
About 1,500 people marched in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, to protest the murder of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbayev.
A man in Romania has been hospitalized by what may be a case of bird flu although this has not yet been verified.
There’s a scandal breaking in Georgia
as several people, including family members, are disputing the official
cause of death report for then-Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. The American FBI participated in the investigation of this case.
Admiral William Fallon, head of the Pacific Command of the U.S. Navy, says America will “help” Malaysia improve security at the vital Malacca Strait once a defense agreement has been signed with Singapore and Indonesia.
With all the coverage in the press of Dubai Ports World, here is a story you’ll probably miss – the president of Djibouti, Islmail Omar Guelleh, commemorated the opening of a new Dubai Ports World-run port in his country with a party aboard the American Naval vessel USS Vicksburg.
In the Forgotten War in Kashmir, one “militant” was killed by Indian security forces in Anantnag district.
And last but not least, there were riots in the streets of Dublin, Ireland
over the weekend and some reports are saying they were planned in
advance. 41 people were arrested and 14 hospitalized in the melee.
Peace/Paz/Pace/Paix
-Soj
How to post a Comment
- WAIT for the page to finish loading!
- Click on Comentarii
- Nume means your name
- Put what you want to say in the Mesaj area
- Click on Trimite Comentarii – you did it!
