Hiding In Iran
Guardian –
“Over the last three weeks, they [Iran] have taken away from Baghdad the first and second-tier military leaders of the Mahdi army,” he said. The aim of the Iranians was to “prevent the dismantling of the infrastructure of the Shia militias” in the Iraqi capital – one of the chief aims of the US-backed security drive.
Or, the other way to look at it –
“They were neither ordered to go by Sayid Muqtada nor invited to enter by the Iranian authorities,” he said. “Simply they were seeking sanctuary as individuals from expected targeting by the US occupying forces during the security drive in Baghdad.”
Top Secret Polo Step
Original 2002 PPT slideshow created by Gen. Franks regarding the invasion of Iraq is available here. According to the timeline outlined, there should have been only 5000 troops in Iraq in December 2006.
Senlis On Afghanistan
Bloomberg – The core of the problem –
While the “core” Taliban insurgency is linked to global jihad and al-Qaeda terrorism, a parallel “grassroots” insurgency is being fueled primarily by poverty, said Senlis, an international policy research group with offices in Kabul, London, Paris and Brussels.
A soldier in the Afghan military earns $2 a day, while the Taliban can offer $12, she said.
The southern Helmand province is the center of the country’s opium production, which increased 60 percent last year and played a major role in funding the insurgency. Senlis favors a licensing system that would divert opium production to medicines such as morphine and codeine, rather than eradication.
FBI InfoSharing
GCN –
The FBI has awarded a contract to the Raytheon Co. of Waltham, Mass., to build out the National Data Exchange (N-Dex) law enforcement information-sharing system, sources said.
N-Dex uses advanced information sharing that harmonizes data entered into various types of law enforcement systems for common search, acquisition and analysis. N-Dex acts as a counterpart to R-Dex, a regional data exchange system that provides a “pointer” to the location of specific information held by other law enforcement agencies.
Muddled
Ugh. Been down with the flu for the last couple days. Got a chance to go see The Painted Veil though – heartily recommended – it’s beautifully made and both Norton and Watts do well.