RWC Unfiltered 8-28-11

• Militant Muslim Brotherhood Surging Out of Egypt Against Israel
• China Denies Military Ambition Criticizes Pentagon’s Plan
• UAE says Israel Engineered Arab Spring: US Unreliable
• Outrunning A Hurricane
• Obama’s Approval In Toilet
• Arab Allies Worry About Obama’s Reliability
• Solid Diamond Bling Star Discovered 4,000 Light Years Away
• Israel Has “Ghost” UAV for Urban Warfare
• Qaddafi in Hiding Said To Be Organizing Guerilla Campaign.

Members of the Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group - LIFG, are in control of the former strongholds of Muammar Qaddafi captured by Libyan rebels. An al Qaeda veteran from Afghanistan, now calls himself “Commander of the Tripoli Military Council.”

 No Western or Libyan military force can conceive of dislodging the Islamists from the Libyan capital in the foreseeable future. Libya has thus created a new model which can only hearten the Islamist extremists eyeing further gains from the Arab Revolt.

Egypt’s new military regime has allowing an Islamic takeover of the Sinai Peninsula.

U.S. intelligence sources asserted that the military regime that succeeded in ousting President Hosni Mubarak concluded an understanding with the Islamic opposition. They said the arrangement would allow militias aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood to operate in Sinai while preventing attacks in the Egyptian mainland.

“The Brotherhood and its militias have been given a free hand in Sinai in return that they do not operate in the Nile Valley,” an intelligence source said. “So, now Sinai has become the weapons and logistics center of Hamas as well as a launching pad to attack Israel.”

The sources, reflecting U.S. intelligence relayed to Congress over the last two months, said Hamas was the prime beneficiary of the Brotherhood-military arrangement. They said Hamas has been using Sinai for weapons smuggling, manufacturing, force training as well as attacks on Israel or its interests. Weapons, including missiles and rockets, were said to move through Sinai from Iran, Libya and Sudan.

“The weapons move openly through Sinai, with some stored in caves or houses and others smuggled into Gaza,” the source said. “The traffic has intensified considerably over the last few months.”

Since Mubarak’s ouster in February, the Arab Gas Pipeline has been bombed at least five times, which halted supplies to Israel and Jordan. The sources said the U.S. intelligence community believed that Hamas worked with the Brotherhood to sabotage the Sinai pipeline in attacks conducted by Bedouins and Palestinians.

The role of Sinai is said to have changed significantly since Mubarak’s ouster. The sources said the former regime tolerated weapons and other smuggling to the Gaza Strip to avoid a confrontation with the Brotherhood.

But the new military regime, which received $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid in 2011, has allowed Sinai to become a haven for Hamas and Iranian proxies throughout the region, the sources said. They said the current military offensive in Sinai was launched by Cairo after Hamas and Al Qaida-aligned insurgents began attacking Egyptian security forces throughout eastern Sinai.

“As soon as the Egyptian Army began serious operations in Sinai, the Brotherhood and Hamas moved to attack Israel from Sinai,” another intelligence source said. “This was a warning by the Islamists that the military regime was going too far.”

The sources said the military regime, despite pressure from Israel and the United States, was not expected to terminate any understanding with the Muslim Brotherhood regarding its authority of Sinai. They said the Brotherhood remains the sole opposition movement capable of fomenting massive and violent unrest in Egypt.

“The military knows that the Brotherhood has a huge following and could do in Egypt what is now taking place in Syria,” the second intelligence source said. “But unlike Syria, there are many Brotherhood sympathizers in the Egyptian military and security forces who could quickly turn against their commanders.”

Iran is a key actor providing training and support for Muslim Brotherhood forces. The attack by Hamas in southern Israel on Aug. 18, demonstrated military training, probably by Iran, military officials said.

Up to 30 assailants were said to have participated, and the lion’s share of them escaped after killing eight Israelis and injuring 30.

Hamas is rapidly turning into Hizbullah, an arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and assigned to destabilize Israel and the rest of the Levant, officials said.

The result, they said, is that Hamas has become a strategic threat to Israel.

Israel’s military has been stunned by what sources acknowledged marked a dramatic increase in Hamas’ combat capability.

The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for the various groups of animals.

 We are all familiar with a Herd of cows, a Flock of chickens, a School of fish and a Gaggle of geese.

:Less widely known is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows (as well as their cousins the rooks and ravens), an Exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls.

 Now consider a group of Baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons?

Believe it or not ……. a Congress!

 I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington !

China’s military is stepping up public attacks on the Pentagon’s emerging new strategy for Asia, called the AirSea Battle Plan, that has been in development for the past several years and is aimed at bolster U.S. naval and air power for a future conflict with China. The report to be made public Tuesday despite a thicket of White Hourse directed weasel wording it paints a clear and alarming picture of China’s malicious intent.

The latest attack on the new U.S. concept appeared Aug. 18 in the non-PRC-owned Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao. The newspaper stated that the battle plan was designed to counter the “China Threat,” that Beijing absurdly denies exists as part of its global influence operations. China has the biggest standing military on earth

The report quoted Ni Lexiong, a military expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, as stating that the United States fears its Asian allies will “switch allegiance to China” based on China’s military buildup.

Ni stated that the United States would now have to constrain China’s military developments at a higher cost.

According to the Chinese analyst, despite “the move by the United States to adopt an ‘offensive strategy’ in the Asia-Pacific region,” the United States will “continue to not always regard China as its enemy.”

“Sino-U.S. relations must continue to be characterized by cooperation and defensive preparations because both countries do not want to fight a war,” Ni said.

U. S. VP Joe Biden’s visit to China last week is generally seen as a poor aven amateurish perfromance , and not just because of perception that he is a bumblling nincompoop but because of the wirdely held belie Obama is in full retreat on the foreign policy front.

Penurious (puh-NOOR-ee-uhs, -NYOOR-) adjective:1. Extremely poor.2. Extremely frugal or stingy. Etymology From Latin penuriosus (needy), from penuria (want, need). Earliest documented use: 1590

A leading United Arab Emirates commander has accused Israel of engineering the revolt in the Arab world.

Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim says Israel was behind the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and revolutions in other Arab states. Tamim, commander of the Dubai police and regarded as one of the top three security officers in the UAE, says Israel overthrew Mubarak because of his role in leading the Egyptian Air Force in the Arab-Israeli war in 1973.

“I believe that Mubarak’s trial in Ramadan is not coincidental, and if the verdict is issued on Oct. 6 [anniversary of 1973 war], the mothers of the Israeli soldiers who were killed in Bar-Lev Line would be very happy,” Tamim said.

Tamim has often blamed Israel for regional violence. In 2010, Tamim said Israel was behind the assassination of Hamas procurement chief Mahmoud Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel.

“From my knowledge and experience, I can say that any time there is a public movement or upheaval, and when you can’t find a leader for this movement, this means that there are invisible hands behind it,” Tamim told a news conference on Aug. 16.

The Dubai police chief said Israel maintained a presence in the Gulf and could target anybody in the region. Tamim, who suggested a GCC police agency, said his force was still searching for those involved in the Mabhouh killing.

“Israel is a superpower, and has dangerous influence,” Tamim said. “If Israel wants someone to escape the rule of justice, they can do it.”

The UAE has arrested several dissidents who called for reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council state. Tamim, however, denied that Dubai or the emirates were holding political prisoners, saying criticism was allowed.

“There is no single prisoner of conscience in the UAE,” Tamim said. “You can complain about any issue, provided you do not make it a personal attack.”

Tamim’s logic is flawed in that much of what he accuses Israel of doing is not in its best interests.

A compilation of poll results puts Perry the New Front Runner: Rick Perry is generally accepted as the new front runner for the Republican nomination. Our current tabulation of poll average: Perry 22%, Romney 17%, Bachmann 9%, Paul 9%. Iowa: The latest Iowa poll by Public Policy Polling had Perry ahead of the pack. Perry 21%, Romney 18%, Bachmann 15%.

In New Hampshire: Romney still maintains his huge New Hampshire lead. 36% to Perry’s 18%. Ron Paul is not far behind Perry with 14

General Election: Obama still maintains a 304 to 203 electoral vote advantage over Romney according to my calculations.

In Florida: According to Magellan Strategies, Obama loses to Romney by 10%, to Perry by 7%, and is in a dead heat with Bachmann.

As a young Naval Reservist I was aboard a destroyer ordered to sea to outrun a Hurricane and well remember the ship throbbing and straining to make headway. At one point I stuck my head out of the CIC (Combat Information Center) to the 01 level below the port bridge wing and could only see a wall of green water topping the bridge deciding retreat was a better part of valor and hunkered down to listen to sea stories and ride it out.

I recall being surprised and impressed with the almost instant safety lines that were rigged  everywhere; how little water shipped aboard, amid ribald humor. My Dad, himself a Senior Master Chief Petty Officer, once told me to “pay closest attention when sailors stop swearing and joking.”

Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum plan to appear on stage to debate at the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif. On September 7, 2011.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of voters finds that just 29% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the president is doing a good or an excellent job on the economy. That’s down from 30% in each of the last two weeks, down from 36% three weeks ago and the lowest ratings on the economy yet recorded for this president.  Fifty-one percent (51%) give Obama poor marks on the economy. That’s up a point from a week ago and the most pessimistic assessment of his economic performance to date.

On national security issues, 42% give the president good or excellent marks, while 34% rate his performance as poor. That’s similar to the ratings earned in April before Osama bin Laden was killed. Following that event, 53% gave the president positive marks in the national security area. That fell back to 46% a month ago. 

56% of Democrats give Obama high marks on the economy compared to 76% of Republicans who give him poor marks.

Joey Vento, the owner of a south Philadelphia cheesesteak shop who recently created international news by instructing customers to order only in English had a heart attack at home and died Tuesday on the way to the hospital. He was 71-years old.

Three unguided Scud missiles flying from Iraq to Kuwait early Friday, Aug. 26 were launched by the Iran-backed Ketaeb Hizballah of Iraq, the first such attacks since the US invaded Iraq in 2003. It was also the first time any Middle East terrorist group had used Scud missiles.

They exploded on open ground, but sources report that this round was meant as a warning for Kuwait to halt construction of the Grand Mubarak Port opposite the Iraqi shore - or else it would be followed by a massive volley.

In the second week of August, Kuwait massed troops on Boubiyan Island just across from Iraq to defend the huge $1.1 billion Grand Mubarak Port under construction there. The force was composed of Military Police of the Amoun Defense Organization, units of intelligence and air defense, the 35th Company, the 6th Brigade and naval forces.
This appeared to be rather a disproportionate reaction to Iraq’s demand that Kuwait freeze construction of the Persian Gulf port until guarantees were provided that the new facility would not hinder the operations of Iraq’s own planned harbor in the southern region of Basra. Iraq also fears it will block the main Persian Gulf gateway for its oil exports to reach the world’s shipping lanes from the Shatt al-Arb.

 A government spokesman in Baghdad demanded assurances that free and safe navigation would not be affected by the Kuwait port which is scheduled for completion in 2016.

This dispute did not account for Kuwait’s heavy military deployment on its largest island.
What did is another factor  A threat from the Iraqi Shiite radical Ketaeb Hizballah, an arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Al-Qods Brigades, trained by the Lebanese Hizballah, to strike the new port with Scud missiles, a threat they started carrying out this Friday.

 This followed Tehran’s discovery that Mubarak Port was also projected to house a large naval base to serve the fleets of Kuwait, the US and Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, a project Iran is determined to put a stop to it by any means.

 Until Friday, there was no confirmation of the group’s claim to have recovered most of the inventory of 250 Scuds held by Saddam Hussein before the US invasion of 2003. But now, is clear to Kuwaiti and Western intelligence officials in the Gulf that the Scud cache has indeed fallen into the hands of the Ketaeb Hizballah of Iraq and that there is a real danger of Tehran using Iraqi Shiite extremists to sabotage the Boubiyan Island project.

Last week, Iraqi Hizballah activities staged a demonstration against the port on the Iraqi-Kuwait border. Kuwait warned it would show zero tolerance for any border incursions.

In the 1950s 9 of 10 items purchased by Americans were Made in America. Today less than half are. How many American jobs could be gained just by buying American?  That’s hotly debated but clearly the answer is many.

Arab allies have become increasingly concerned over the unreliability of the United States, a report said.

The Gulf Research Center asserted that Arab regimes were worried that they would not be supported by an Obama-run America amid growing unrest in the Middle East. The center, based in the United Arab Emirates, said Arab regimes were stunned by Washington’s failure to support Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Bahrain’s King Hamad against strong intelligense  that the Muslim Brotherhood would takeover and install and anti-Jew and anti-America regime - which has now happened.

“Traditional allies have lost confidence in the U.S. readiness to stand by them following Washington’s lack of support for the Mubarak regime in Egypt,” the report, titled “Gulf Leadership and the U.S.: A Matter of Trust,” said.

Authored by the center’s chairman, Abdul Aziz Sager, the report said Saudi Arabia has been particularly concerned by Washington’s behavior. Sager, said to be close to the Saudi royal family, asserted that the administration of President Barack Obama was continuing a U.S. tradition of avoiding permanent friendships.

“It means that Washington will not involve itself in any of the internal domestic struggles in the region or try to exert undue influence through the close contact it maintains with the security institutions in the respective countries,” the report, dated May 30, said. “The popular uprising has induced a new calculation in U.S. policy circles which concludes that the U.S. is more or less secure by siding with the people given that ruling elites themselves are unlikely to survive in the long term.”

The report said Washington has also abandoned Yemen despite its close security cooperation against Al Qaida. Sager said Obama’s warning that the status quo in the Middle East cannot be sustained alarmed Gulf Cooperation Council states amid the growing threat from neighboring Iran.

“All of this has led to questions about the impact such a position has when it comes to regional security,” the report said. “With the U.S. ready to sacrifice their strong commitment to the Gulf rulers in exchange for siding with the populace, the result will be a more volatile and less certain Gulf security environment. There is no other place in the Arab world where U.S. influence and physical presence is as evident as in the Gulf region. Therefore any shift in U.S. policy is certain to transform the political landscape of the region.”

As a result, the report said, Washington could no longer count on unconditional support from the GCC. Sager said U.S. security and other arrangements would come under increasing scrutiny from Gulf Arab regimes fearful of a backlash.

“The ultimate outcome is a more volatile Gulf security environment subject to the interests of competing powers and a less influential United States,” the report said. “Based on long-term interests, however, the U.S. could emerge as the biggest loser coming out of the storm.”

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England, but only in a tropical fish store.

A solid diamond planet five times the size of Earth but with more mass than Jupiter has been discovered in our own Milky Way galaxy. That would be about 10 billion trillion trillion carats that compare to the biggest diamond yet discovered on earth are the 545-caret Golden Jubilee Diamond and the 530-carat Great Star of Africa.

An international team of astronomers led by Swinburne University of Technology in Australia spotted the exotic planet racing around a tiny star 4,000 light years away and published their findings Thursday in the journal Science.

The “cosmic bling,” as Wired called it, is far denser than any other known planet, consisting mostly of carbon. It is because of this density that the carbon must be crystalline, making a large part of the planet diamond.

In addition to carbon, the new planet is likely to also harbor oxygen but not hydrogen and helium.

Astronomers believe the diamond planet was once a huge star of its own before a companion pulsar ripped off its outer shell and stole most of its mass.

Pulsars are dead neutron stars that emit beams of high radiation that appear almost like blinking lights. The diamond planet orbits a fast-spinning pulsar that’s about 12 miles in diameter, around the same size as London.

Reuters reports that researchers from institutions in five countries used a variety of radio telescopes and 200,000 gigabytes of data to find the diamond planet and its companion pulsar.

Radio telescope data show that the glittery planet orbits its star at a distance of about 370,000 miles, planet diamond complets one orbit just two hours long meaning the 1.16 million million mile circumference divided by 48 hours we get a speed or 24,000 MPH. Contrast that with Earth moving around our Sun at 67,000 MPH.

Astronomers expect our Sun will become a white dwarf when it dies 5 billion years from now. Some two billion years after that, the Sun’s ember core will crystallize as well, leaving a giant diamond in the centre of what’s left of our solar system.

I wonder if the DeBeers diamond cartel has laid claim on either yet.

In 10 minutes, a major hurricane releases more energy than all of the world’s nuclear weapons combined. A nuclear warhead’s energy can be much more concentrated of course.

Israel intends to unveil its Ghost UAV for the U.S. military market this month. IAI said Ghost, meant for urban warfare operations, would be displayed at the U.S. Army AUVSI exhibition on Aug. 16.

“The innovative concepts used to develop Ghost highlight IAI’s goal to do its utmost to support the ground forces,” IAI president Itzhak Nissan said. “Ghost demonstrates IAI’s leading technology and know-how gathered through years of experience in unmanned aerial systems.”

Ghost, equipped with twin rotary electrical engines, was said to weigh four kilograms and meant to provide real-time intelligence during urban operations. The UAV, which can loiter for up to 30 minutes, was equipped with an automatic vertical takeoff and landing system.

“The unique man-machine interface and operational concept is based on the principles of computer games and makes the system extremely intuitive to operate and requires little training,” IAI said on Aug. 8.

“The entire system can be carried in backpacks by two soldiers and includes two platforms, batteries, and a command and control unit with communications.”

IAI has sought to market several UAVs and other systems to the U.S. military, including the medium-altitude, long-endurance Heron. The Israeli defense major has been operating through its North American subsidiary, Stark Aerospace.

Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

New data from an AP-Gfk poll shows that, while just 52 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were satisfied with the field two months ago, that number is now at 64 percent.

Data from the Pew Research Center suggests that voters have historically been similarly hesitant to embrace their options early in the presidential campaign, and that the 2012 GOP presidential field isn’t as full of unappealing misfits as some wagered.

The Pew data shows that, while 44 percent of respondents rated the 2012 GOP presidential field as either “excellent” or “fair” in May, that number has risen slightly to 49 percent.

But historically, both of those numbers are pretty normal for this point in the cycle. With relatively few exceptions, people have been similarly skeptical about their party’s primary candidates even later into the off-year.

The only time, in fact, that the field of candidates was rated more positively than it is right now was in the 2008 Democratic primary, which rated a 64 percent satisfaction rate in October of 2007. That, of course, was a pretty unusual year in which former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was running against inspriring up-and-comer Barack Obama.

Of the open presidential primaries during the last 20 years, the majority of them featured a primary electorate that was about as excited as this one, if not less so.

And considering how skeptical Americans are about their politicans - virtually everyone in the presidential race has a higher unfavorable than favorable rating at this moment - it’s actually pretty remarkable that this field is on par with past presidential primary fields that were running when politicians got higher marks from the public.

Perry and Bachmann seem to have filled their basic issues. Regardless of how formidable you think any individual candidate is, the GOP field is a pretty well-rounded one that includes something for almost everybody in the GOP fold: a tea party favorite, a tough-talking Southern conservative, a business-friendly establishment candidate, a social moderate, a businessman who has never held office, and a libertarian\

The daughters of an Alabama woman who died in 2010 sued the funeral home on Tuesday that handled her burial, saying it lost her body and couldn’t find it even after digging up several graves.

Political analyst and Democratic pollster Doug Schoen tells Newsmax that Obama is in “deep trouble,” and if the election were held today he “would be a one-term president.”

But Schoen also says it is too early to anoint current Republican front-runner Rick Perry as the GOP nominee for 2012 because “anything can happen in this election.”

Schoen is co-author, along with pollster Scott Rasmussen, of the book “Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System.”

Obama is in deep trouble,” Schoen declares.

“At this point he is being hurt and hurt seriously by the weak economy. He’s going to have a jobs speech in September. He’s going to talk about revitalizing the economy. It’s anyone’s guess if that will make an impact. But as we sit here today, bottom line, I think you’d have to say the economy is a dramatic drag on his presidency.

“I think he would be a one-term president if the election were held today.”

Angry that Democrats are ignoring union issues, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has announced that the nation’s largest labor federation is cutting its ties with the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama heading into 2012, and instead it will set up a super PAC to pick and support its own candidates.

Asked if this is a huge blow to Obama, Schoen responds: “Absolutely. Obama needs to get labor back and I think he’ll be courting them furiously in the weeks and months to come.”

90% of cabbies in New York City are immigrants and a majority illegally in the country.

Muammar Qaddafi, his sons and military and political elite are reported by military sources to have abandoned their Bab al Aziziya fortress early Tuesday, Aug. 23, using his son Saif al-Islam’s surreal appearance before foreign reporters earlier in the day to cover their escape. The whole scummy pile has gone underground reportedly to organize a guerilla campaign.

Success will depend on how much money Qaddafi has been able to steal and squirrel away in cooperating banks, and what he can buy with it from any number of pay-to-play mercenaries be they sovereign nations like Somalia or Sundan, state, or private mercenaries,  Qaddafi’s wild card is his reported stock pile of WMD’s incleuding chemical weapons, and refined uranium for use in dirty bombd and perhaps biological agents. His weapons stockpile is believed to include some 30,000 shoulder-fired rockets

The main stockpile of mustard gas and other chemicals, stored in corroding drums, is at a site southeast of Tripoli. Hundreds of tons of raw uranium is stored at a nuclear facility east of Tripoli.

Although primitive by modern standards taken in total these could be devastating in terrorist hands, The rebels have shown a willingness to sell or trade weapons such as the missile transfer via Egypt into Sudan where they were destroyed presumably by Israel agents as they were in transit to Sinai.