A second golden age for contractors

Three name changes, dozens of legal problems, two major disputes with the governments of Iraq and the United States and the resignation of its founder, would mean a disaster for any company. Not for Academi. The company previously known as Xe and Blackwater -now bearing the “boring name” of Academi- has a bright future ahead. Or at least that is what one would think reading the report from an independent commission on the attack to the US embassy staff in Benghazi. Both the independent commission and a Senate hearing have stated that the main problem was that the guards were foreign and unreliable. And both recommended either increase...

Read more »

The gun country

After the last mass shooting in Newtown the debate about gun control has jumped to the frontpages again. And again, the people who never want to talk about it are saying that it is insensitive to talk now. “Too soon” they say. The problem is that the shootings are pilling up. And just when the mourning period for the one in Portland was about to expire -and according to the NRA timeframes, it was ok to talk about it- Newtown came in. As many people have pointed out, it is not that it is too soon to talk about it. In fact, it is too late. That should have been discussed before. One would think that after a Congresswoman was attacked, politicians...

Read more »

This time yes

On Wednesday North Korea launched successfully -finally- a satellite into space becoming the 11th nation to achieve it. The date could not be easier to remember (12.12.12) and it is indeed a huge step forward for the Kim regime.  Several details of the launch tell how the North Koreans have advanced. They finally got the third stage to separate successfully, which had been the major problem for the previous rockets -at least for the ones that survived more than a minute on the air. They also managed to predict accurately where the boosters and debris of the rocket would fall -confirming the Philippines’ fears. This is more important...

Read more »

Calling wolf (again)

Last week we woke up to the unsettling news of Al Assad cooking sarin-filled ammunitions. It is not that we didn’t know that Syria has chemical weapons. We knew it. But some intelligence reports suggest now that the regime of Assad may be loading them on the delivery recipients. Immediately, the US stated that using chemical weapons would be a “red line” that if crossed would carry “consequences”. It is easy to imagine those consequences in the form of a Libya-style intervention. If the reports are true it would show significant weakness for the Assad regime. That shouldn’t come as a surprise. The rebels are closing the gap with Damascus'...

Read more »

"Gangnam style" rockets

The odds are against them. So far, the atmosphere has beaten North Korea rocket launch attempts by 4-0 since 1998. Yet, here they come again with another satellite launch -allowing snow clears up. Persistent they are. It will be conveniently timed to commemorate the passing away of late Kim Jong-il and to interrupt the southern neighbors’ election. This time, however, the Pentagon is saying that Kim Jong-un could at least improve where his father failed. That wouldn’t be that difficult. All of the previous attempts by North Korea of putting a satellite in orbit have failed miserably. That’s it, at least, according to the United States....

Read more »

Israel's open hand to the Palestinians

Photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters Netanyahu promised consequences if the UN voted in favor of the Palestinian statehood bid. That would have been an optimistic view. In a conflict fuelled by retaliations -who shot first?- there was to expect some sort of payback. However, Western democracies probably didn’t expect this degree of bitterness. It is a diplomatic Cast Lead operation against the Palestinian Authority and the West Bank. The Palestinians felt the hand that the Israelis tend in peace to them, as the Israeli ambassador to the UN said last week in New York. Only that it was more of a fist than an open hand. Immediately after the UN vote,...

Read more »