Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. In addition, we also have our in-depth Iraq Report today.
Today's Winds of War briefing is brought to you by evariste of Discarded Lies. Bill Roggio of the fourth rail is working on Easongate with several other fine bloggers like Chester and Blackfive, Brian Scott and Charles Goggin this week; he returns to the briefing next week.
Top Topics
- Iran continues to blatantly court Palestinian leaders, inviting Abbas himself to Iran for an official visit (he accepted). When is Israel going to stop letting Palestinian leaders visit Iran to conspire? Is Farouq Qaddumi's welcoming of Iranian infiltration not a bad enough sign? Fatah officials are especially bad about this.
- Taiwan says China's missile threat is gathering as China accelerates its buildup of ballistic missiles across the strait to 120 a year, bringing the total to 706.
- It's official: Russia and China have a strategic partnership, and it's aimed at foiling Uncle Sam. Great.
- Powered combat exoskeletons-on the cheap (like $15k)! That's what I call good, old-fashioned American ingenuity.
- Tony Blair is setting up "tough tests" for immigrants to the UK, turning away those who do not bring professional skills or economic benefits to the UK, to preempt the Tories on an issue that's very much in the public mind in the runup to the May 5th elections. Recently, Jane's reported that the UK was rapidly becoming a base for members of Al Takfir wal Hijra due to lax asylum policies.
Other Topics Today Include:
US and Israel may be conducting surveillance into Iran; Halliburton, BP and GE will not do any more business with Iran; Rumsfeld says Iran is "years away" from a nuclear weapon; Iran not happy with Rice's "threats"; Saudi Arabia trying to reform Islamists; Rice's plans for a Palestinian "viable" state; Colorado seeks 4 illegal truckers; South Americans think local government is good government; 3rd world gangs, 4th generation warfare; fugitive Venezuelan general caught; Jacksonville security; Khartoum's grip loosening further; More Beslans promised; Danger to India from Nepal developments; Singapore anti-maritime terrorism unit launched; Abu Sayyaf kidnapper caught; Madrid bombers sold drugs to pay for it; French jihadi cannon-fodder; Iranian terrorist infrastructure in the Balkans since the 90s; Communist informers and spies list leaked onto internet by Polish journalist; How the Euroblob will eat us all; NK gave Libya uranium; US troops get training in counterterrorism in India; lessons learned from eavesdropping on terrorists and more...
IRAN REPORTS
- The US and Israel are said by Iranian sources to have set up surveillance devices in Basra that can intercept cellular conversations for 50 km into Iran.
- BP, Halliburton and GE are leading the charge of companies refusing to do any more business with the Iranian regime. I wonder if we'll see any French companies following suit. No I don't.
- Condi Rice is setting a harder tone in her comments about Iran. Iranian officialdom is belligerent towards what it terms Condoleeza Rice's "threats". She did take pains to say that there is "no current plan" to attack Iran.
THE MIDDLE EAST
- Condi Rice's plans for Israel and the Palestinians include major retrenchment by the Israelis so the Palestinians can have what she terms "a viable state". Territorial contiguity means ethnic cleansing of Jewish settlements and even some large towns, in Condi's scheme.
AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS
- Colorado is seeking four truck drivers because they were issued licenses by clerks known to be selling CDLs to illegal immigrants.
- Illegal 3rd world immigrant gangs like MS-13 a form of 4th Generation Warfare? The LAPD is one of the most avid students of 4GW for this very reason.
- Venezuela captured a fugitive anti-Chavez general linked to embassy bombings in Caracas and the shortlived 2002 coup attempt against Chavez.
AFRICA
ASIA & AUSTRALIA
- Has King Gyanendra's bloodless coup reopened the door in Nepal for Pakistan's ISI to reactivate its cells there? Indian intelligence is concerned, having used the past few years of democratic rule to make contacts and control the damage that the ISI had done by using Nepal as a base to plot operations against India. Ominously, Nepal's King is moving closer to China (which helped Pakistan achieve nuclear status) and further from India.
EUROPE
- This story about various unprepared cannon-fodder losers being arrested by French authorities before they manage to go to Iraq to be jihadis is pretty interesting.
- Iran has deeply penetrated the entire Balkans and Italy and set up terrorist cells and infrastructure throughout, as early as the mid to late 90s.
- A 240,000 name list of Communist-era spies, informers and people who were questioned by the secret police was leaked onto the internet by a anti-communist activist journalist, causing uproar as Poles rush to check the list for family members.
- This analysis argues that the European method of insidiously absorbing nations and remolding them completely in the EU's image is a more durable and less vulnerable form of empire and transformation than American hard (military) and soft (cultural) power. Sprinkle liberal salt.
THE GLOBAL WAR
- The Phillippines and the USA have 28 separate joint military exercises scheduled this year-not that that makes the Phillippines any more interested in helping out in Iraq.
We try to close on a lighter note if possible.
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While the EU is undoutably transformative, the idea that it represents the future of governance is something to be feared, not lauded. Democratic unaccountability, courrption, and overtaxation and regulation in EU countries like France and Germany are creating economic headaches that won't go away. Declining birthrates create assimilation prblems for the massive numbers of immigrants Europe must take in, problems that make America's southern border look like a white picket fence between suburban neighbors. 10% unemployment in France and Germany. If such were the case in the US, the current party in COngress and the presidency would find their heads on pikes paraded through the street, metaphorically speaking. Given the inevitable reckoning Europe will face when demographics and economics collide, could it possibly be the core of a new Empire? I find that idea laughable now; though it would be a bit frightening if true.
"Illegal 3rd world immigrant gangs like MS-13 a form of 4th Generation Warfare? The LAPD is one of the most avid students of 4GW for this very reason."
For what good it will do them.They won't be allowed to deal with the situation till it reaches crisis proportions,at which point it will probably be beyond the resources of the LAPD to deal with it.
Apropos of which,Hutchinson is wise to bail out now,I too would not care to be border control chief when the next jihadi **** hits the props courtesy of our insane policies and people remember he it was who twice publicly reprimanded immigration officers for enforcing the law.
Just a heads up. In the ASIA & AUSTRALIA section it seems like Singapore is creating some sort of terrorist organization to wipe out boating.
"Territorial contiguity means ethnic cleansing of Jewish settlements and even some large towns, in Condi's scheme."
Exqueeze me? Ethnic cleansing? Is this not a little strong for what is basically getting the Israeli government to make several thousand of their own people move (and not very far at that)?