CrisisWatch is a 12-page monthly bulletin designed to provide busy readers in the policy community, media, business and interested general public with a succinct regular update on the “state of play” in all the most significant situations of conflict or potential conflict around the world.
Click here to access the CrisisWatch database, which allows users to search our archive of the current and all past editions of CrisisWatch by conflict/country or by keyword.
Related:
OSS/Earth Intelligence Network archive graveyard (very partial recovery) of free Public Daily Briefs/Weekly updates entitled GLOBAL CHALLENGES: THE WEEK IN REVIEW–Destabilizing Threats, Stabilizing Policies, and Global Powers at a Glance.
Plagued by reports of sloppy work, falsifications and exaggerations, climate research is facing a crisis of confidence. How reliable are the predictions about global warming and its consequences? And would it really be the end of the world if temperatures rose by more than the much-quoted limit of two degrees Celsius?
… are they ready for the Rubber Room or Both? My guess is the answer is “both.” But read the attached article by Jonathan Cook and judge for yourself. One thing that is becoming clear, however: Global Warming can be used as a canonical fear to justify just about anything — from Obama's plan to resurrect the nuclear power industry (while at the same time, he punts on the nuc waste issue by caving into political pressure to close the Yucca Mountain waste depository, after spending $17 billion since the 1980s) to Israel's crackpot plan to win the so-called war on terror by impoverishing the petro-states via the weaning the industrial world off hydrocarbons (see below). If you want to get a realistic idea of the size of the energy numbers as well as the socio-economic implications of the policy transformations implied by displacing the West's reliance on hydrocarbons, I urge you read my good friend Robert Bryce's important new book, Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, Public Affairs Press, April 2010. You do not have to agree with his specific recommendations to accept the value of his important work.
Mexico: Several incidents in the past two days point to a significant increase in the threat to the southern US border. The first was the cartel takeover of al Porvenir, a town three miles from Fort Hancock, Texas. Cartel leaflets demand payment or children will be murdered. They also warn of a pending inter-cartel fight in the town, many of whose residents have fled to Forth Hancock and requested asylum.
The other incidents were attacks by cartel fighters on Mexican Army facilities in Reynosa, Matamoros and General Bravo. Mexican General Edgar Luis Villegas said gunmen staged seven separate attacks on the Army, including three blockades, according to The Associated Press 1 April.
Gunmen parked trucks and SUVs outside a military base in the border city of Reynosa trying to block troops from leaving and sparking a gunbattle with soldiers. Gunmen also blocked several streets leading to a garrison in the nearby border city of Matamoros. Another gang of armed men opened fire from several vehicles, shooting at soldiers guarding a federal highway in General Bravo, in Nuevo Leon State. Troops fought back, killing 18 gunmen, wounding two and detaining seven more suspects.
Many of the attackers in the past two days are Zetas, according to The Associated Press. The Zetas are Mexican Army deserters trained as assassins. They began as a mercenary force for the Gulf cartel, but evolved their own independent operations and are fighting the cartels, who reportedly want to eliminate them as bad for business.
Attacks against the Army create terror by establishing that the premier defense forces of the state cannot defend themselves, much less its citizens. They also establish that the attackers have the capabilities to deliver on the threat. If these attacks continue in the border region, that part of Mexico will begin to resemble the warlord enclaves of Somalia or Afghanistan.
One commentator worried that the cartels are attempting to establish a lawless buffer zone just inside the Mexican border patterned after the Taliban base areas in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Northwest Frontier Province. If that occurs, or perhaps when that occurs, the refugee flow will increase and violence will follow the refugees.
(From Secrecy News) WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE OF CHARITY RULED UNLAWFUL
Warrantless surveillance of an Islamic charity in Oregon in 2004 violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a court ruled (pdf) on March 31.
In the culmination of a four-year lawsuit, Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of Columbia foundthat the government had unlawfully intercepted international telephone conversations of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation without a warrant, as required by the FISA for intelligence and counterterrorism surveillance. The government had contended that the state secrets privilege barred a resolution of the case, but the court found that the defendants were able to make their case without the use of state secrets.
At least by implication, the ruling means that aspects of President Bush's Terrorist Surveillance Program were illegal. Significantly, that determination was made by a court, based on a private complaint years after the fact, and not through congressional intelligence oversight. While Congress did enact the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which was the foundation of the court's ruling, contemporary congressional oversight alone would have left the Al-Haramain violation (and untold others) undiscovered and unpunished. Continue reading “Court Decision (NOT Congress Oversight) Declared NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Illegal”
01 Your ISP Is a Copyright Cop . . . 02 Cell Phones Don't Crash Airplanes . . . 03 ‘Private' or ‘Incognito' Browsing…Isn't . . . 04 You're Spending Too Much on Printer Ink . . . 05 End User License Agreements May Not Be Enforceable . . . 06 The Cyberwar Is Heating Up (and Uncle Sam Is Losing) . . . 07 Google Could Rat You Out . . . 08 Pacemakers and Other Implants Can Be Hacked . . . 09 Your PC May Be Killing You . . . 10 Antivirus Software Won't Protect You . . . 11 Your Cell Phone Is a Homing Beacon . . . 12 A ‘Cheap' Smartphone Is a Rip-Off . . . 13 Your Webcam May Be Watching You . . . 14 Your Boss Can (and Probably Does) Monitor Your Computer . . . 15 You Can Fight the RIAA and Win . . . 16 Your Passport Could Make You a Target for Crime–Wirelessly . . . 17 The Social Web Never Forgets . . . 18 You Can Escape Almost Any Service Contract Without Penalties . . . 19 The NSA Is Tapping Your Data Stream . . . 20 Your Facebook Apps Are Spying on You . . . 21 Your Geolocation Data Is Not Private
