6/30/2009
Ehiztari
Last April, Robert Gates, American Defense Secretary, announced an unprecedented project cutting in several programs being developed by the US military. The cuts reached even the Future Combat System (FCS) and the Airborne Laser (ABL), the favorites of top Generals in the Pentagon. Although some of those changes have been partially reverted and, or, are under fire in the Congress and the Senate, the main ones stand.After America’s move, the current trend in Western defense spending goes too down the path through cuts. Adapt to new mobile, low tech, dirt and asymmetrical warfare. The UK is too (most of the time) on that way. Affected heavily by...
6/26/2009
Ehiztari
In the Big Picture have four galleries (1, 2, 3, 4) with images from the events going on in Iran. Here are some samples:All posts on the Iran Presidential Elections 2009 published in Worldwide, her...
6/26/2009
Ehiztari
While half the world was mourning Michael Jackson’s death, two of the most solid politicians at the moment sent a message to Ahmadinejad: Go f**k yourself.In a news conference in Washington, hosted by American president, Barack Obama, and his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, Mr. Obama rejected a call from Iranian president for an apology on his last statement about election’s aftermath in the Gulf country:"I don't take Mr Ahmadinejad's statements seriously about apologies, particularly given the fact that the United States has gone out of its way not to interfere with the election process in Iran". "I would suggest that Mr. Ahmadinejad think...
6/26/2009
Ehiztari
This week, the bloodiest drone attack took place in Pakistan. CNN reported at leas 55 casualties, while Al Jazeera upgraded it to 60 deaths. Reuters makes it up to 70, quotating Pakistan’s Intelligence services’ sources. The targets of the attack were attending a funeral. Those numbers include three Taliban commanders, but the theorical top target, Baitullah Mehsud, the head of Pakistan’s Taliban, was missed. Associated Press says Mehsud left the village way before the missiles were fired.However, as Nathan Hodge from Danger Room notes, the drone attack has attracted an unusual silence on Pakistani government. The drone wars have been in the...
6/26/2009
Ehiztari
A few months ago the USA was kicked off the Kyrgyz air base of Manas. The airdrome had become an important hub for American operations in Afghanistan and the expel order came under suspicion of behind the lines pressure from Russia.Yesterday, however, the Kyrgyz Parliament backed the letting of Manas Air Base again to the Americans. What has changed?First is the significative increasement in the rent. From the $17.4 million per year that the USA was paying until now it grows up to $60 million. But in the new deal are many more factors involved.Manas Air base won’t be used as a military hub anymore. Rumors about the use of the base as a nest of...
6/25/2009
Ehiztari
When Ayatollah Khamenei aligned himself with Ahmadinejad’s claims, he did much more than that. He put his own career in the line of fire. Now, after a week and a half of clashes with the police, riots, deaths and detentions, there is no comeback possible for him. He has to stick with the decision of not recounting the votes and not having another election process.This has led into deception and disappointment among many Iranians. Combined with the extreme violence lived in the demonstrations, including shocking Neda Soltan’s death, the link between Iranian elites and their citizens seems to be endangered if not broken. Cracks are all around,...
6/24/2009
Ehiztari
- The conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaei withdraws his allegations of fraud in Iranian elections. The beginning of the end...- or the end of the beginning?- Bani Sadr, first president of Iran, in an interview (in Spanish): “The loudest shout in Tehran is ‘Down with Khamenei!'”- Obama gets serious on his condemn of Tehran methods... - ...while Iran repression arrives to the sports.All posts on the Iran Presidential Elections 2009 in Worldwide, her...
6/23/2009
Ehiztari
While people is still talking about Netanyahu’s speech -which although a bit better than their precedents couldn’t match Obama’s speech and said nothing new- he is already adding more wood to the fire. This time by saying that the debate about the settlements is a waste of time:"I think that the more we spend time arguing about this, the more we waste time instead of moving towards peace".I wonder then, if the Palestinians need to give up an army, a return to their pre-Nakba homes, a capital in at least part of Jerusalem, half of their elected representatives (Hamas politicians) even if Hamas leaves the weapons, and now, also, don’t even think...
6/23/2009
Ehiztari
There are many ways to be unpopular among your citizens, but Iranian Government seems to be determined to accomplish it in all of those ways. Including the bad taste.According to information appeared today in Haaretz newspapers -who quotes the Wall Street Journal-, Ahmadinejad Government charged slain man's family $3,000 for the bullets that killed him. That is just another one of the many measures going on in Tehran to intimidate the opposition. As if with clubs and bullets it wasn’t enough.Different reports and tweets indicate that Iranian authorities are banning the families of the deaths from mourning their relatives. All mosques in Tehran...
6/22/2009
Ehiztari
Kim Jong-Il doesn’t want us to forget about him with all the info going on now and frontpages for his commarade in the axis of evil, Iran. That’s why he warned us -again- with an all-out nuclear war.I bet he regrets now the chocolates he sent to Ahmadinejad. That f**king bastard is stealing his protagonism... His hope rely on the fireworks he prepares for the 4th of July in Hawaii.Oh, by the way. It's a fake. Not even those fireworks will make it to the US. It has been all a great chain of mistakes by the med...
6/22/2009
Ehiztari
During last weekend demonstrations at least 10 people died in the clashes with the Government forces. The death toll is up to 19 in the week of protests. Plus 450 detained. But all those figures are unclear, as they are based only on the official Iranian press’ reports. Very little independent information is coming out of Iran, and although the official TV is opening themselves, they are still under the control of Ahmadinejad’s government.Very little independent information is coming out from Iran. Foreign reporters are banned from going to the streets. The CNN, Newsweek, Al Arabiya and the BBC correspondents have already even been either detained...
6/22/2009
Ehiztari
Stakes are getting higher in Tehran. Last weekend violence threatens to shake up the country into a real full scale revolution. The political discrepancies that had been going on underway the apparent unitary leadership for years had arisen. The opposition has already more heroes and echoes of the movement don’t only return with Moussavi’s name. Two people from a very different background are the new names in the mouths of Tehran reformists: Rafsanjani and Neda.Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is a former president of the Iranian Islamic Republic, father of the revolution of 1979 and the head of two important organs of the Republic, the Assembly...
6/18/2009
Ehiztari
- A video of the Iranian riot police forces and a who is who in Iranian security forces.- Is Ahmadinejad photoshopping the pics of his demonstrations to increase the number of supporters?- The same ones that have been begging for bombing Iran and hanging Ahmadinejad now praise for his victory. Both in Israel and the USA.- One of those things that simply don't add up in Iranian elections: "Turnouts exceeded 100% in 30 towns, website reports".- Ahmadinejad's worst fear, reveal...
6/15/2009
Ehiztari
Moussavi won’t back down. Ahmadinejad can throw into him the gates of hell, in the shape of a police charge, but Moussavi and his supporters are standing their ground. Today, protests were still going on in Tehran streets. But there was a new element in them. For the first time since the aftermath of the elections, the opposition leader, Moussavi, was inside one of those marches. He can end up in a prison, but it is that or losing the faith and the trust from all the young reformist voters that are backing him.They needed it. They needed to know that Moussavi was, at least, behind them too. A letter sent last weekend to the people wasn’t enough. He had to show up. When he has done so, he was protected by tens of thousands of supporters. After a week of clashes with the police forces, being...
6/15/2009
Ehiztari
It seems like if Kim Jong-il North Korea was determined to appear on the frontpage of worldwide newspapers everyday. In the last two weeks, we have had news from Korea in three different fronts.Probably the less worrying is the concerning to the leader succession. Continuous rumors about Jong-il’s health problems have leakened to the press for years, in a way similar to what happened to Castro. But still, very few is known about this issue.Many sources identify Jong-il’s youngest son as the most plausible successor of his father. Kim Jong-un was, apparently, finally desinged as that after last nuclear tests. But even that is unclear even after...
6/15/2009
Ehiztari
Half of the world was pending on the results from Iranian elections during the last weekend. From those results will overcome half of the answer to the region’s stability during the next few years. The other half came from Israel a few months ago.Three candidates, all of them moderated or reformists, faced the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It wasn’t difficult to be more moderated than Ahmadinejad, in the end, he is the closest thing to a neocon in Iran.The best positioned to challenge his position of power was Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mousavi is a moderated reformist. Painter, architect and former Prime Minister from 1981 to 1989, when...
6/10/2009
Ehiztari
Ido Aharoni, chief of Brand Israel, a PR project that aims to clean Israel’s public image abroad, has accused the Arabs of damaging Israel the same way Sacha Baron Cohen did with Kazakhstan."The Arabs, our adversaries, have succeeded in doing to us what 'Borat' did for Kazakhstan", Ido Aharoni told the Knesset Defense and Security Committee on Tuesday, referring to the 2006 Sacha Baron Cohen film in which Cohen portrayed a Kazakh filmmaker touring the United States.Letting aside the fact of Borat being in fact good for Kazakhstan -at least he made the world know about the country-, it seems a bit weird to see an Israeli accusing the Palestinians...
6/08/2009
Ehiztari
- Not only Europe goes to the polls. In Lebanon, a pro Western coalition wins the majority of the votes. Hezbollah however, still controls the streets.- Bongo, Gabon’s president, dies in a clinic in Spain. After Castro resignation, he became the head of a state (not counting monarchs) that had been longer on power. Or maybe he still is?- David Axe unveils why is not wise to guess about a war with China.- Maybe I have to eat my words and McChrystal indeed means a real change for air support in Afghanistan.- More than half of Kazakhstan uranium reserves (it’s the third biggest producer of uranium after Canada and Australia) have been stole...
6/08/2009
Ehiztari
Since last Thursday until tonight, all Europe –well, all the EU- has gone to the polls. They were electing the members of the European Parliament, and there has been a clear winner: abstention.In absolute terms, center-right parties won the elections -although they lost seats. The Greens also outcome winning a few more seats almost everywhere. On the other side, the biggest losers of the night have been the left parties. It’s funny how the Europeans have voted for those who brought us into the financial crisis in the first place to take out from it. Then some will say that Americans were dumb and didn’t know how to vote when they did so with...
6/04/2009
Ehiztari
With the tour today starts Obama in the Middle East, the US will try to improve its image among Muslims. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that there is a shift in the American policy on this matter, but it’s clear that for the first time in a long time, the Arabs and Palestinians are taken into consideration by Washington. Obama’s Administration is taking seriously the peace in the Middle East, and that peace walks through a two-state solution.Still, there is a lot to do, and yet Israel fills the top interests of Americans in the region. But that’s about to change. The shift was clear even before starting this tour. After Netanyahu’s meeting with...
6/02/2009
Ehiztari
OK, let’s face it. Some individuals are just idiots. Stupid people who can’t do anything to avoid it. They were born like that: idiots. Fanatism only emphasizes that quality, the stupidity. And if they have a pulpit to widespread their stupidity even more, they don’t hesitate using it, because they are stupids.Last example of this is Ralph Peters. Neocon, ex-soldier and journalist for the New York Post and Fox News. In one of his latest works in The Journal of International Security Affairs, Peters suggests that the American Army should consider targeting the war correspondents if they don’t bend to the official guidelines. The emphasis is mine:Although...
Are you afraid? Well, this works in that way. First you do what scares you and it's later when you get the courage
6/30/2009
Ehiztari
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