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POPSDossier From India Gives New Details of Mumbai Attacks Clearly it was logistic operation, intended to ignite armed conflict between India and Pakistan. The handlers, ALL their superiors: directors, producers and their clients are mortal enemies of whole world, Islam world including, destructive appendix of humankind. Zardari himself is the victim and target of the same forces and must take extraordinary measures for eradication this plague from his territory. Not shying away from the help of willing to participate neighbors, India first of all. It would be unforgivable to let them strick again. Anywhere.
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POPSPension farce goes on and on. It is a farce. Ever since a previous Government was allowed to get away with Scrooging veterans out of their entitlements under the 1973 Social Services and Pensions Act, pensions have been a laughing stock. When most former regulars lick the ass of former generals, they should remember it was these highly pensioned frauds who did nothing to secure the pensions of the man in the line. Now they have well paid employment with charities and other institutions whilst the soldier does his bit for nothing more than to know he is doing something for a comrade - without remuneration. When RBL spouts about the Charity it does, it does not tell you that the Area Officer is on over £30K per annum. Not bad on top of a pension?
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POPSWashington asks Israel To Clarify First Sale Of Spy Drones To Russia A drone transaction with Moscow would give the Russian army a technological-intelligence edge over Caucasian and Caspian nations, like Georgia and Azerbaijan, and therefore place in doubt their future arms purchases from Israel. Jerusalem consulted with Washington over the deal, as required under the US-Israel 2006 security pact covering Israeli weapons transfers to third countries. The advanced state of Israel-Russian negotiations indicates its approval by the outgoing Bush White House and incoming Obama administration in line with their efforts to improve relations with Moscow.
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POPSPlea by Blackwater Guard Helps Indict Others Echoing the findings of previous investigations by Iraqi and US authorities, prosecutors said that they found no evidence that any of the Iraqis killed posed a threat to the guards. Instead, prosecutors accused the guards of acting with blatant disregard for human life and the rule of law. “We honor the brave service of the many US contractors who are employed to support the mission of our armed forces in extremely difficult circumstances,” said Jeffrey A. Taylor, the US attorney for the District of Columbia. “Today, we honor that service by holding accountable the very few individuals who abused that employment by committing some very serious crimes against dozens of innocent civilians.” According to indictments, the Blackwater guards disobeyed orders by leaving their base to respond to reports of a car bomb. Upon arriving at Nisour Square, the guards moved into the circle against the flow of traffic and, without warning, began firing.
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POPS Attempted Guinea coup leaders name ruling council The African Union, European Union and United States led condemnation of the move. "This seizure of power constitutes a flagrant violation of the Guinean constitution," African Union commission chief Jean Ping said in a statement. Mr Ping called for an urgent meeting of the 53-member bloc.
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POPSIMF warns of economic riots Hopefully, this is nothing more than necessary contingency planning, but a separate recent article stated that the Department of Defense plans to deploy 20,000 troops nationwide to help state and local officials respond to ‘nuclear attacks’ and ‘emergencies’. I can’t help but think the emergencies referred to could be riots over our deflating economy. There have already been food riots in Haiti, Bangladesh, and Egypt (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/) and the way our government uses our money to bailout the banking system without any oversight, and the numbers of jobless and homeless keep increasing, civil unrest is not farfetched. I only have my faith that Americans will not go to this extreme but my faith in Americans have been shattered before.
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POPSReport: Bush, Rumsfeld Responsible for Detainee Abuse The article tells us: The Bush administration, which has not yet commented on the report, has repeatedly said detainees in U.S. custody are treated humanely, and that because they are enemy combatants, and not prisoners-of-war, they are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions. That never made any sense to me; the Bush argument was always "We can abuse detainess because Geneva doesn't apply, but we're not." Why make the argument that the Geneva Conventions don't apply if you're not planning to violate them? Why even bring it up? We now have proof of the freakin' obvious...
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POPSUS leads UN push to hunt, punish Somali pirates Never a mention of the waste left behind, the polluted land and related illness and death, all the machinery dumped just offshore to be uncovered by a tsunami. Clean the mess and the piracy stops. Hopefully. Maybe this will be the invasion to keep Bush in office. Declare war on the pirates.
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POPSMore Than 160 US, NATO Vehicles Burned In Pakistan 
Khan said armed men flattened the gate before dawn with a rocket-propelled grenade, fatally shot a guard and set fire to 106 vehicles, including about 70 Humvees. An Associated Press reporter who visited the depot saw six rows of destroyed Humvees and military trucks packed close together, some on flatbed trailers, all of them gutted and twisted by the flames. Khan said shipping documents showed they were destined for U.S. forces and the Western-trained Afghan National Army. The attackers fled after a brief exchange of fire with police, who arrived about 40 minutes later, he said. Nine other guards who stood helplessly aside during the attack put the number of assailants at 300, Khan said. Police official Kashif Alam said there were only 30. It also dents faith in Pakistani authorities already under pressure from India and the U.S. to act on suspicion that the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai were orchestrated by Islamic extremists based in Pakistan.
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POPSSovereignty? Parts Of Pakistan Have Become Ungovernable And A Menace But his solution—"seeing parts of their country placed in an international receivership"—must surely be a joke, or the harried keystrokes of a malformed column that was expelled in grotesque stillborn form. The simple, pragmatic fact of the matter is that no nation wants the responsibilities of another nation's struggles, but they do have every natural right to defend themselves from attack. Pakistan has failed to stop non-state actors from using their territory for international terrorism against their neighbors, and has morally forfeited any claims of sovereignty over the rogue regions of their nation. Indian military forces have every moral right to engage terror bases located in eastern Pakistan, as Afghani forces and coalition allies have even moral right to engage terrorist training camps and bases in the west.
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POPSYa'alon: Israel Must 'Consider Killing Ahmadinejad' "It is a misconception to think that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the most important in the Middle-East. The Shi'ite-Sunni schism is much bigger, the Persian-Arab divide is bigger, the struggle between national regimes and jihadism is much bigger," he was quoted as saying. "And I can't imagine the U.S. will want to share power in the Middle East with a nuclear-armed Iran." "I was chief of staff during Operation Iraqi Freedom and I was surprised the U.S. decided to go into Iraq instead of Iran," The Herald quoted him as saying. "Unfortunately, the American public didn't have the political stomach to go into Iran." A senior diplomatic official said it was "clear he didn't say this , because no one who aspires to a position of authority could say such a thing. People in positions of power do not threaten to kill others." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404812179&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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POPSFormer Child Soldiers Work to Save Those Left Behind
"When you have effective rehabilitation that is more holistic, then you have a place that you can make so that you continue with your life," he said. Saad Houry, deputy executive director of UNICEF, also stressed the importance of education and schools as promoters of peace. "If we could maintain education during conflict, there is no doubt that we would prevent many children from becoming soldiers," he said. The techniques recruiters use vary, but they mostly rely on fear and brainwashing. "We know what you think before you say it," the rebel leaders used to tell Grace Akallo and other children forced to fight in Uganda's insurgency. "I was convinced that he could read my thoughts," said Akallo, who was captured and joined the forces of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda when she was 14. That left very little room for any escape plans. "Killed or be killed" was the motto they lived by, she said. Akallo also stressed the terrible position of girl soldiers.
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POPSSadr Takes Aim at New U.S.-Iraq Agreement Overthrowing occupation is a religious and patriotic duty supported by logic and texts. Therefore it requires no agreement with those who respect neither faith nor promises.” In his message, Sadr stressed that he considers the agreement void even if ratified and asserted that the “faithful will not be bound by it.” He called on the parliament to reject it without the least hesitation so that “Iraq and its people do not get sold out the way other Muslim countries were.” Sadr also announced the formation of the Promised Day Brigade from Sadr movement elements and other sympathetic armed groups in order to fight American forces. Previously Sadr communicated through his spokesmen that there shall be no negotiations with the United States without a timetable for withdrawal on the table. This expected insistence on “resistance” exposes the way Sadr and other Arab “resisters” think and operate.
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POPSSix Blackwater Guards 'May' Be Charged in Iraq Massacre Immunity and impunity have gone hand in hand. Representative Jim McDermott. "The private contracting thing is the most erosive thing that this administration has done. You look at all the things that are being run by private contractors, you simply cannot be handing money to a private contractor who is not under the law of that country or the law of this country and can do anything they want. They're really -- they're rogue outfits." Blackwater and at least 300 other companies have been hired by the US government for privatized armed services in Iraq to the tune of about $6 billion in taxpayer money..
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POPSIran to U.S.: Back Off, Stay Out of Airspace After all, even the ally Pakistan has said the same now to the U.S. to defend its sovereignty. It is no secret the neocons in the Pentagon want to provoke war (even force Obama's hand). Watch to see if Obama removes the neocons from the Pentagon and all advisory positions. If he does not it would say alot.
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POPSThe CIA influence on Hollywood The model for this is the defence department's "open" but barely publicised relationship with Hollywood. The Pentagon, for decades, has offered film-makers advice, manpower and even hardware - including aircraft carriers and state-of-the-art helicopters. All it asks for in exchange is that the US armed forces are made to look good. So in a previous Scott film, Black Hawk Down, a character based on a real-life soldier who had also been a child rapist lost that part of his backstory when he came to the screen.
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POPSCommand Rape: Silenced in Barracks (death) "In 2003, a firestorm of media reports and investigations, prompted by an anonymous whistle-blower at the Air Force Academy, exposed the prevalence of sexual assault in the armed forces and its training centers. That same year, the results of a study conducted by Dr. Anne Sadler of the Iowa City VA Medical Center found 28 percent of female veterans having suffered MST while on active duty. In response, Congress called on the Department of Defense to overhaul its approach to sexual assault within its ranks. The 2005 defense authorization bill mandated the creation of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), which, according to its website, has since served as “the single point of accountability and oversight for sexual assault policy.” ...AlterNet
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POPSMashup on DR Congo This is a an interesting site that allows information to be published on a map, and people on the ground to submit updates by text. The site is called ushahidi.com
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POPSConflicts using child soldiers drops - report The 2008 Child Soldiers Global Report documents military recruitment and use of child soldiers in 197 countries including their release and reintegration into society. It covers the period from April 2004 to October 2007 and considers anyone below the age of 18 in a government or non-government armed group a child soldier, whether or not an armed conflict exists.
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POPS Day One Obama faces a Cold War threat and a warning from Israel Gordon Brown became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Obama in a ten-minute telephone call last night. Aides said they discussed Obama's plans for a phased withdrawal from Iraq and his commitment to boost forces in Afghanistan. Speaking from the South Lawn of the White House, President Bush said he would be meeting Mr Obama next week and is making 'unprecedented efforts' to make a smooth transition during his final 74 days in office. As if the instant foreign policy tests were not enough, Mr Obama was also facing more economic problems with the Dow Jones Index dropping for a second successive day. Wall Street greeted his election win by plunging nearly 500 points on Wednesday and it was down again by 274 points in afternoon trading.
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POPSBolivian President Says DEA Killed Farmers According to the US government, Bolivia has joined Myanmar and Venezuela as countries that "failed demonstrably" in anti-drugs cooperation. Morales in September expelled US Ambassador Philip Goldberg from Bolivia, charging him with conspiring to overthrow his government.
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POPSUN vehicle seized in Darfur The driver was robbed of his personal possessions, his UN identity card and a hand-held radio. UNAMID reported the incident to the Government of Sudan police and National Intelligence for Safety and Security. The peacekeeping mission in Darfur is working with Sudanese police forces to try to improve their respect for human rights and their ability to enforce the law. UNAMID police in West Darfur are currently preparing to conduct a training course designed for Sudanese Movement Police. The Sudanese forces will be trained in law enforcement, human rights, community policing, child protection and protection of women. The course will be held from November 9 to November 27 and is expected to be attended by 90 local police officers.
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POPS Is Wall Street Wise To Obama? He is far too smart to say what Barney Frank just said–that we should cut the military budget by 25%. But it tells you something that Morgan Stanley has just downgraded the entire aerospace and defense sector ahead of the presidential election Obama is heavily favored to win. Wonder why they figure that we won’t be spending so much on defense in the future? Maybe the financial analysts aren’t buying Obama’s centrist makeover?
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POPSColombia: Fascist Generals Sacked for Deaths Sources in the attorney general's office said hundreds of soldiers were under investigation in similar cases. The 11 men disappeared from the poor Bogota suburb of Soacha early this year. Their bodies were found in mass graves near the Venezuela border in August and September.
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