From time to time, a foreign national will walk into a US embassy and start divulging sensitive information.  In some circles these people are known as walk-ins.  And today, the comments section of Winds of Change had, what can be considered an inadvertent walk-in of sorts.

Recently there has been a great deal of discussion about the validity of the notion of "activistism."  Activistists tend to define themselves by their apparent desire for protest for it's own sake, rather than as a tool to achieve specific political ends.  Much of this discussion has been carried on in posts by Marc Cooper, Michael Totten, myself, and most recently Joe Katzman at Winds of Change.  The current debate deals with, in part, about the role of activistism in today's left, and the ideological nature of those who seem to be calling the shots in the Democratic Party.  Closely related to this subject is the notion that the activist left is completely tone deaf on national security, due to the apparent allergy that the far left has to the field of strategic studies.

In the comments section of Joe Katzman's roundup of discussion about activistism, a certain T.J. Madison manages, in his comment, to provide a glaring illustration of this allergy to strategic thinking in just under 100 words.

In the context of discussion about prevailing trends in the Democratic Left, T.J. Madison has become an unintentional walk-in in the debate about the intellectual proclivities of the activistist left and the role of activistism in the Democratic weakness on security.

Posted by: Bravo Romeo Delta at 05:25 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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The Scotsman.com reports that Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has released a new Internet audio recording which denounces Iraqi Shiites for fighting alongside US troops and ridicules Iraq's prominent Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Zarqawi also asked his terrorist followers to be patient and "prepare for a long struggle against the Americans."

From another report comes the news that a top Zarqawi lieutenant, Omar Hadid, was killed during the Battle of Fallujah in November.

The authenticity of the tape has not yet been established, however, one has to wonder why the Internet message has no video of Zarqawi, only audio.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 05:40 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army took over 35,000 prisoners of war to Japan to perform backbreaking work as forced laborers in coal mines, factories, and other locations. Out of the total, a Japanese organization called the POW Research Network Japan has compiled a listing of 3,526 who died, many from malnutrition and pneumonia. According to the network's website,

How and where these casualties met their death has never been clarified. Prior to the surrender the Imperial Japanese Army issued instructions to destroy all documents relating to these camps. Japan’s Government has never told the full story of the treatment of POWs either in Japan or overseas.

Our group has endeavoured to unveil this hidden history, and this list is nearing completion. The roll of Commonwealth soldiers has already appeared on our web site. We are now adding the names of American and Dutch casualties to each individual camp site.

We wish to express our deep sympathy to those who lost their lives in this conflict. We trust that this list will prove helpful to families and friends, especially those who up to now did not know the fate of their loved ones.

Data from the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers, along with lists of names retrieved from cemeteries and war memorials, were used to compile the listing.

The effort to compile a listing of the dead Allied POWs should be heralded. No doubt, there are generations of families who are eager to know what happened to their loved ones.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 05:22 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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by Demosophist

Characteristic of both the interrogation/torture issue and the issue of massive offensive operations the left's primary strategy has been to voice their objections loudly and persistently, believing that by so doing they'll sew the conviction that any brazen repudiation of their preference will, at the very least, result in a public relations windfall for their side. It's not only a dangerous strategy to cultivate timid expectations during a war, but it's very likely to backfire. more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 08:13 PM | Comments (46) | Add Comment
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- Times Online

THE Pentagon is considering forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago.

Under the so-called “El Salvador option”, Iraqi and American forces would be sent to kill or kidnap insurgency leaders, even in Syria, where some are thought to shelter.

[snip]

Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, was said to be one of the most vigorous supporters of the plan.

The Pentagon declined to comment, but one insider told Newsweek: “What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are. We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defence. And we are losing.”

Hit squads would be controversial and would probably be kept secret.

One of the things that has frustrated me, and I'm sure many more, about Iraq is that we are playing defense instead of actively searching out terrorist strongholds. It may not be this way entirely, but that is the way it seems. Some of this can be attributed to diverse objectives in Iraq. Our primary goal is to bring Democracy to the region, but in order to do this many things must fall in line including helping to rebuild/build infrastructure. There are different groups inside the U.S. military assigned to building for instance, however from an outsider's perspective it appears that we are on the sidelines more than on the front lines aggressively seeking out those that harm and kill U.S. soldiers and Iraqis.

Thankfully this isn't always the case as we saw raids into Fallujah, raids accross the entire Sunni Triangle and raids following the Mosul Mess Hall bombing, however I often question how often the U.S. military is out looking for terrorists rather than responding to calls or terrorist attacks.

In theory alone, the 'Death Squads' would be charged with finding those who operate the attacks and I do hope the area of operations includes those outside of Iraq itself. This could be a drastic improvement in tactics and should allow for increased intelligence because the 'Death Squads' would be Iraqis, therefore have a better layout of the land and better connect with the people who have information to share.

The article makes a brief mention of anti-American hostility the death squads in Nicaragua caused that I am unaware of. Perhaps a reader can share some inside knowledge on this?

Update:
The Newsweek article on Death Squads can be found here, though there isn't really much more to it that I learned from the Newsweek article. I have however talked, via email, with a former member of the CIA who was directly involved in training the Death Squads in Nicaragua. Obviously the identity of this person will remain confidential.

From what I was told, the Death Squad consisted of only Nicaraguans to carry out the missions but were trained by the CIA and U.S. Special Forces. Members of this group were not necessarily Contras, and they lived primarily inside of Nicaragua carrying out their regular day jobs but participated in searching out and capturing or killing leaders of the opposing forces at night.

When I asked why this option was a good option in Nicaragua and why it would be a good one in Iraq, the former agent told me the following (punctuation and spelling corrected):

. . . in Nicaragua the United States military had only a small force and they were covert. We couldn't send in a large number of soldiers until war was declared and we could not enter other countries where some of the ringleaders operated out of. This same scenario is happening in Iraq where some leadership of the insurgency is directed out of neighboring countries of Iraq and the United States military cannot enter these nations without approval. The Death Squad is only loosely tied to the United States so they can do what they please.

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

Posted by: Chad at 01:17 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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by Demosophist

This practice, and it's justification, recounted by The Bullpen just disgusts me:

An Associated Press photographer sat by while terrorists threw grenades at a car carrying Iraqi election officials and then executed them. Sure, the AP photographer would not be able to stop the attack nor should they, however they should not be in bed with the terrorists operating to defeat Democracy in Iraq.

The Associated Press has helped pave the way in calling those that commit terrorist attacks militants, rebels or insurgents. While terrorists behead innocents, strap explosives to their waists and attack innocent Iraqis or target Coallition soldiers with IEDs, the AP only refers to them as a pest. The AP has tried to explain this by saying their reporters could be placed in harmÂ’s way while they interviewed terrorists if they called them terrorists.

So, apparently all the child molesters need to do to get more sympathetic coverage is to start making credible threats to kill a few journalists. What'll they be called I wonder, the "alternatively age preferenced?" Does anyone besides terrorists and sociopaths really need a press like this? (Hat tip: Chad )

(Cross-posted by Demosophist to Demosophia and Anticipatory Retaliation)

Posted by: Demosophist at 08:12 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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by Demosophist

The Belmont Club has the the second in a series of incisive and informative posts about the real dilemmas imposed by the superficial idealism of the torture debate. But he offers no real suggestions for how to exorcise these dilemmas, concluding: more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 11:16 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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- NewsMax

Large numbers of al-Qaida fighters are still crossing freely from Saudi Arabia into Southern Iraq, according to senior military officials in Basra, the Gulf Daily News reports.

The paper says terrorists and weapons continue to flow into the country as it gears up for elections, said Colonel Jouke Spolestra, in charge of security sector reform in the southern Iraqi provinces.

Col. Spolestra, of the Royal Netherlands Navy, said that despite regular military patrols and raids on suspected insurgent strongholds, British-led forces had failed to halt the trafficking in personnel and arms. "People are coming in from Saudi Arabia, that is one cause of concern for us. There is a flow of weapons, illegal immigrants and of course even al-Qaida. We do have patrols, but it is an open border," he told the Gulf Daily News.

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

Posted by: Chad at 10:48 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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- ABC News

WASHINGTON Jan 6, 2005 — Federal authorities are looking for a man using a Middle Eastern name and possibly bogus construction credentials to try to purchase large quantities of an explosive ingredient used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said there was no indication that terrorism was involved, but the agency was still checking information that came from a company in Canada that reported the attempted purchase as suspicious.

[snip]

The suspect also made several e-mail inquiries to vendors, seeking to buy between 500 to 1,000 metric tons of the explosive a quantity larger than McVeigh used to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building in April 1995 but smaller than amounts companies typically might buy in bulk for construction, explosives or farm work.

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

Posted by: Chad at 10:41 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Ok, in a bid to try to retackle the long-ago post on Murder and Warfare, let me, um... tackle it again.  Or something...

"There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.  We're trying to teach you to be dangerous - to the enemy.  Dangerous even without a knife.  Deadly as long as you still have one hand or one foot and are still alive." -- Starship Troopers

There are three classes of people, as far as warfare is concerned: non-combatants, combatants, and prisoners.

Non-combatants have tacitly agreed to follow the dictates of whoever has the guns and is in control.  Essentially, non-combatants have agreed not to be "dangerous", at least as far as combatants are concerned.

Combatants are the folks with the guns.  They have two roles.  The first role is to impose their will (or more accurately, the political will of their leadership) on the non-combatants in a war zone.  Or, to put it another way, they are they guys with the guns to whom the non-combatants listen.  The second role of a combatant is to resist the guys on the other side with guns and prevent them from imposing their will on the non-combatants.  The primary distinguishing feature of combatants is that they are "dangerous" men.

Prisoners are people who have made the transition from combatant to non-combatant.  The important thing to note about being a prisoner is that it is nothing other than a state of mind.  Prisoners are disarmed, but not all who are disarmed are necessarily prisoners.  To return to the terminology of Starship Troopers, prisoners are those who were formerly "dangerous" into non-dangerous people.

Posted by: Bravo Romeo Delta at 08:52 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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