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South Korea-US: US Defense Secretary Gates said that the coming large scale joint exercises should send a signal to North Korea. He said the United States wanted to make “a gesture of solidarity with our Korean allies and [show] recognition that the issues of missile and nuclear proliferation in the North continue to be serious challenges for us and for our allies and we intend to take them seriously.”

He and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plan to visit the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on Wednesday.”

Comment: The USS George Washington will participate in the portion of the exercise that is in the Sea of Japan. Some of the naval portions of the exercise apparently will take place in the Yellow Sea.

Nevertheless, the nature of the message North Korea is supposed to understand seems confusing and mixed. The message of overwhelming American military power will be understood. But effective reprisals are supposed to be swift, sure and tailored to match the infraction, according to the American Bar Association studies of criminal justice.

Phi Beta Iota: The balance of the NIGHTWATCH Extract is below the line.  We part ways with the author on this one.  There is nothing intelligent about US porturing or the waste of US taxpayer resources on the Koreas, which will inevitably unite as did the Germanys and the Viet-Nams.    We are still suffering from the delusions and agonies of a fifty-year drinking binge.  If Clinton and Gates were serious about anything other than furthering the ends of the military-industrial complex at the expense of the American taxpayer, they would have created the Whole of Government Strategy Center recommended by General Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret) and the Open Source Agency (under diplomatic auspices) recommended by Robert Steele and the RepublicanConnecticutt candidate for the US Senate, Rob Simmons.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extract: US “Message” to Korea(s)”

Pakistan-US: The US Secretary of State repeated her comments, first made during an earlier visit, that “some elements of the Pakistani government, particularly its intelligence establishment, know where Osama bin Laden is hiding,” The Times of India reported.

Note: The evidence supporting Secretary Clinton's comment is overwhelming. Both bin Laden and Mullah Omar should have been in Pakistani custody more than five years ago. Until both men are arrested, no American leader should trust anything said by a Pakistani leader about national security issues. After a decade of fine words, only results count. This is irreducible. Only Secretary Clinton has kept the end-game in focus.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home Page

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extract: Bin Laden, Pakistan, & US”

Syria: For the record. Female students wearing a full face veil will be barred from Syrian university campuses, the country's minister of higher education has said. A government official said the practice ran counter to the secular, academic values and traditions of Syrian universities. The ruling, published on the All4Syria website, was said to be in response to requests from students and parents.

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Phi Beta Iota: This is vastly more significant than the French initiatives.  It marks a recognition by Syria that Indonesia, Malaysia, and Turkey are on the right track toward a mix of secular government and religious piety, and is the first step toward an end of the lunacy and atrocities against women that begin with their being forced to cover themselves in a manner more characteristic of slaves under the total control of men who have no idea how to deal with an intelligent woman.

2010 Art Theme: Metropolis

Great cities are organic, spontaneous, heterogeneous, and untidy hubs of social interaction. At Burning Man 2010, we will inspect the daily course of city life and the future prospect of civilization. Prior to the event, we'll host an ongoing conversation about urban design and its impact on culture and community in the Metropol Blog Series.

What Is Burning Man?

Once a year, tens of thousands of participants gather in Nevada's Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. They depart one week later, having left no trace whatsoever. Then they return home to embody the principles they learned year-round. Learn more about this incredible experience through our First Timers' Guide, our mission and the Ten Principles.

Registration Deadlines

June 30 – Mutant Vehicles

July 1 – Art Installations

July 21 – Video/film project

July 31 – Disabled Persons Vehicles

Afghanistan-Pakistan: Afghanistan's Tolo TV cited Pakistani media stating that Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar was arrested in Pakistan, Xinhua reported 6 July. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi almost immediately rejected the report as “mere Western propaganda,” stating that the Taliban chief is free, enjoys sound health and is in full command of his fighters.

The Nation reported that Taliban spokesperson Zabeeh Ullah said the United States is employing propaganda tactics to save face. He stated that Mullah Omar is still in Afghanistan. Pakistani intelligence and police sources also denied the arrest of Mullah Omar.

Comment: This is one of the best psychological warfare anecdotes of the nine-year war. In its effort to refute the claim, Pakistani sources divulged that Pakistan arrested around 100 second rank leaders of Taliban in the past two years. Unnamed sources said the intelligence agencies arrested 64 Taliban leaders in 2009 and 35 in 2010, but not Omar.

Several Taliban leaders were arrested in various cities as the result of joint operations by Pakistani and US intelligence agencies, the sources said.

In the urgency to set the record straight about Omar without looking completely incompetent, Pakistani official sources divulged more details about the numbers arrested than previously. The numbers raise a question how many second rank leaders were killed by drones in the same periods.

Under similar pressure, the Taliban spokesman also provided information about Omar that is damning to Pakistani law enforcement. Omar is most likely in Karachi, not in Afghanistan.

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South Korea – North Korea: Special comment. On the sidelines of the G-20 meeting, President Obama agreed to a formal request by South Korean President Lee to delay the transfer of  wartime operational control of Allied forces in Korea. The transfer had been in preparation for since 2007 and was set to occur in 2012. The wisdom and merits of this important warfighting shift have been hotly debated. The transfer will now occur in 2015.

On balance, the North's sinking of the patrol Ship Cheonan in March proved decisive in persuading the government in Seoul to request a delay in any new wartime command and control arrangements for Allied forces. This delay means that in getting revenge for a North Korean boat sunk last November, the North has strengthened the Alliance in ways that never would have happened absent a violent provocation.

A tactical provocation mushroomed into a monumental backfire. The only thing missing is the slogan “remember the Cheonan.” From the perspective of North Korea's stated national goals, specifically removing US forces, the sinking of the Cheonan is the worst strategic blunder in Kim Chong-il's mistake-prone and misguided tenure as North Korea's leader.

The Kim dynasty has long outlived the time when it had any ideas of value for the long suffering North Korean population. It should and could have been tossed into the dustbin of history, joining the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, by the year 2000 had the Allies, China and Russia had the moral courage and wisdom to bring it down through economic pressure.  [PBI emphasis added.]

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Phi Beta Iota: Moral courage and wisdom, so very lacking in the US Government as now comprised, is precisely what we must bring to bear.  This is not rocket science, just Integrity 101.  Below are four of tens of thousands of examples of normal people who get it.

Ambassador Mark Palmer

Review: Breaking the Real Axis of Evil–How to Oust the World’s Last Dictators by 2025

General Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret)

Review: The Battle for Peace–A Frontline Vision of America’s Power and Purpose (Hardcover)

Jonathan Schell

Review: The Unconquerable World–Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People

Tom Atlee

Review: Evolutionary Activism by Tom Atlee

FINAL SCHEDULES POSTED

At The Next HOPE, we have three scheduled tracks and one unscheduled one which will result in well over 100 hour long presentations. There are several ways for you to browse the schedules and more on the way.

• * Complete list of talks / speakers
• * Schedules by Room/Day
  • * Friday
  • * Saturday
  • * Sunday
• * Interactive Matrix

Julian Assange To Give Keynote Address at The Next HOPE