be just

January 2010: Adam Ciralsky on Blackwater | vanityfair.com : "Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he’s been playing in America’s war on terror."

Informed Comment

Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Bhopal survivors demand action : "Hundreds of residents of the Indian city of Bhopal have held a vigil to mark 25 years since a deadly chemical leak in the city caused the world's worst industrial disaster. Survivors and local residents joined activists late on Wednesday to remember the thousands of victims of the leak from a pesticide plant owned by US chemical company Union Carbide on December 3, 1984. According to research conducted by the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research, between 8,000 and 10,000 people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. About 25,000 others later died from the effects of exposure while government estimates say the fumes affected half a million."

Al Jazeera English - Focus - 'US repeating Soviet mistakes' : "For the first time since the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989, and the subsequent fall of the Najibullah government in 1996, Russia says it is ready to play a greater political and economic role in the country it formerly occupied. It has co-operated with Nato and other western deployments, opening up transit routes for international forces and initiating bilateral co-operation with Kabul. Andrey Avetisyan, the Russian ambassador to Afghanistan, says Moscow supports the continuing presence of international troops in Afghanistan. However he worries that the international community, especially the US, are committing the same mistakes made during the Soviet occupation. Al Jazeera interviewed the Russian envoy at his country's new embassy in Kabul. Al Jazeera: Russia has maintained a low-key presence in Afghanistan for the past few years. Is it preparing to change that approach and move towa...

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Palestinian man hit in car attack : "News Middle East Palestinian man hit in car attack Violence erupted in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday when a Palestinian man entered a petrol station at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank and stabbed two settlers. But that was not the end of the story. According to the Israeli army, the Palestinian was then shot by a soldier, after which a car, apparently driven by a settler, ran over the wounded Palestinian, twice, with Israeli soldiers all around. Jacky Rowland reports. *Viewers may find some of the images disturbing."

كونا : Saudi forces arrest 145 Somalis, Ethiopians on borders with Yemen - الدفاع والأمن - 29/11/2009 : "RIYADH, Nov 29 (KUNA) -- Around 145 Somali and Ethiopian nationals were arrested by the Saudi forces during operations on the Saudi-Yemeni borders, said an official on Sunday. Undersecretary for the Saudi Minister of Defense Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdelaziz told the press that the Saudi forces were on alert and would not allow anyone to infiltrate the Saudi borders. Meanwhile, the official denied that the Saudi forces had received five of its soldiers from the Yemeni Army but affirmed that there were nine soldiers still missing in action within Yemen. (end) od.gta KUNA 290933 Nov 09NNNN"

How dare you criticize wasteful defense spending! - Salon.com : "# The 2010 Pentagon budget means 'every man, woman and child in the United States will spend more than $2,700 on (defense) programs and agencies next year,' reports the Cato Institute. 'By way of comparison, the average Japanese spends less than $330; the average German about $520; China's per capita spending is less than $100.' # '(The Pentagon budget) dwarfs the combined defense budgets of U.S. allies and potential U.S. enemies alike,' reports Hearst Newspapers. # 'President (Obama) is on track to spend more on defense, in real dollars, than any other president has in one term of office since World War II,' reports National Journal's Government Executive magazine. # In 2000, the Pentagon admitted it has lost -- yes, lost -- $2.3 trillion. In 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a subsequent Department of Defense study said it was only $1 trillion. To put such numbe...