WikiLeaks XXV: Security Firms in Iraq Making a Killing (Figuratively in this Case)

Congress May Cut Funds for U.S. Mission in Iraq
At the Atlantic, Elise Jordan writes about the prospect that Congress may cut funding for the U.S. diplomatic mission in Iraq: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Jim Jeffrey took office this August in the midst of two political crises. In the U.S., Republicans were poised to sweep the impending Elections and ultimately retake the House of Representatives over, among other things, public fury at the weak economy and Government Spending. Meanwhile, Iraq’s elections, held in March, were still unresolv...

Byron Williams: The Consequences of Speaking out
Is there a Paul Kattenburg within the Obama Administration? If there is (or was), the ship has mostly likely sailed on any potential influence he or she may have on shaping policy in Afghanistan. Kattenburg served 23 years in the United States' diplomatic corps. On Aug. 31, 1963, Kattenburg, then chairman of the Vietnam Working Group, attended a National Security Council meeting, which would dramatically alter his diplomatic career. Kattenburg was the lone dissenter at the meeting contemplatin...

Suspect package at US embassy to the Vatican was false alarm...
A suspect package found Wednesday at the US Embassy to the Vatican, was a False Alarm police officials said. The package reportedly contained office supplies and no harmful materials, according to Italian news agency ANSA. Bomb disposal teams rushed to the Embassy after a series of parcel bombs and false alarms last week left the city on heightened alarm. A parcel bomb was uncovered at the Greek Embassy in Rome on Monday. Two other parcel bombs were sent to the city's Swiss and Chilean embass...

Package Found at US Embassy to Vatican
(NewsCore) - A suspect package was found Wednesday at the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican, Italian news agency ANSA reported citing police officials. Bomb disposal teams were reportedly on their way to the scene. The discovery comes after a parcel bomb was uncovered at the Greek Embassy in Rome on Monday. Two other parcel bombs were sent to the city's Swiss and Chilean embassies last week. An Italian Anarchist group has claimed responsibility for the previous incidents, which sparked a number of fal...

Busted
Busted A US Navy Officer has committed Suicide over a no drug Drug Bust. A U.S. Navy officer jumped to his death at Manila's airport after he was arrested with what was thought to be Cocaine, Philippine officials said Tuesday, but tests later showed the White Powder wasn't an illegal drug. Lt. Cmdr. Scintar Buenviaje Mejia died of head injuries after jumping from a second-floor staircase Monday while a Security Guard escorted him to the Bathroom, aviation Police Chief Pedro Desuasido said. The...

Congress Leading Border Patrol Down Wrong Path
Less than a week after another Border Patrol agent was killed by Mexican bandits , Congress forwarded to the White House a bill that, within two years of its enactment, will result in Customs and Border Patrol heading down the same misguided path the Department of Defense took in 2007 when it comes to Interrogation technology. Forwarded five days after Bryan A. Terry’s death near Nogales, Ariz., Dec. 16, the Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010 (H. 6472/S. 3243) not only requires CBP to cond...

Iraq wants to lead oil world
BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Iraqi Oil Production is increasing to the point that it will dominate Oil policies on the global stage, a deputy Prime Minister for energy said. Iraq plans to boost production to as much as 12 million bpd by 2017, which would put the Iraqis near Saudi Arabia's current capacity. Hussain al-Shahristani, who left the post of Oil minister to become the deputy Prime Minister for energy in the new Iraqi Government, said his country would be at the forefront of world Oil produ...

Iraq civilian death toll lowest since invasion: study
Human Rights group Iraq Body Count (IBC) put the 2010 civilian death toll in Iraq at 3,976 up to December 23, compared to 4,680 in the 2009 year. IBC said that the annual decline in the number of violent Deaths had slowed to 15 percent, compared to declines of 50 percent and 63 percent in the previous two years. "Taken as a whole and seen in the context of immediately preceding years, the 2010 data suggest a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that will continue to kill civilians at a similar...

Right Wing Still Delusional on Iraq (Update)
*Bumped Up* Real Clear Politic’s “Best of the Blogs” features a piece posted at Powerline, A Good Year in Iraq. Paul at Powerline is commenting on a Washington Post Op-Ed by the same name. In case you are out of touch, the Post editorial page is a mouthpiece for Neo-Cons insistent on perpetuating the myth that Bush’s decision to start a war in Iraq was just the best damn decision ever made in history. Here are the salient points from the Powerline piece: The Washington ...

Judith Miller: From the Times to the nuts
Source: Salon Judith Miller used to be a superstar. She was a major reporter at the New York Times for decades -- at the DC bureau, in Cairo, in Paris, special correspondent to the Persian Gulf, embedded with a special unit in Iraq. She had the best sources. She had amazing scoops. Now she's writing -- on contract, not full-time -- for Newsmax, a goofy right-wing magazine where Conservatives you've never heard of (and John Stossel, apparently) report, constantly, that Barack Obama is bad and unp...

Iraq Forms its New Government
The New York Times reports: Nine long months after parliamentary Elections, Iraq has a new government. Its leaders can’t waste any more time on petty maneuvering. The March elections were only the second since Saddam Hussein’s ouster. Forming the government was a sordid and costly process. The political paralysis meant important economic decisions were not made, leading to even higher Unemployment. Basic services deteriorated even further. And Iraqi voters have grown even more cynical abou...

No More Mister Nice Blog
WORKING OVER VeteranS Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are finding that transitioning back to the civilian Workforce is pretty damned difficult when there's no jobs. While their nonmilitary contemporaries were launching careers during the nearly 10 years the nation has been at war, Troops were repeatedly deployed to desolate war zones. And on their return to civilian life, these veterans are forced to find their way in a bleak economy where the skills they learned at war have little value. Som...

Davis resigns Ivory Coast contract
Former Clinton aide Lanny Davis, who has faced criticism here for lobbying on behalf of the Incumbent president of the Ivory Coast after his apparent electoral defeat, resigned the contract in a letter to the country's ambassador tonight. Davis had presented himself as a mediator rather than a Lobbyist, and he cites President Gbagbo's refusal to take a call from President Obama, who is pressing him to step aside, in the decision:

Athens court blast causes damage but no injuries
File photo of Athens police. A bomb exploded outside an Athens court on Thu... A bomb exploded outside an Athens court on Thursday, causing widespread damage but no injuries nearly two weeks before the trial of Anarchists suspected of a parcel bomb campaign targeting embassies and foreign leaders. The blast smashed windows at the administrative court and neighbouring buildings, mangling vehicles parked outside and hurling debris over a wide area, news reports said. Police had evacuated the are...

Fewer reporters killed, more kidnapped in 2010
BERLIN | Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:13am EST BERLIN (Reuters) - A total of 57 Journalists were killed while working in 2010, down from 76 last year, but Kidnappings of reporters surged, media rights group Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday. Reporters Without Borders said the most dangerous country for Journalists in the past year was Pakistan, where 11 were killed. Over the last decade, Pakistan, Iraq and Mexico have been the most violent countries for reporters, the group said. "The passing ...

Group: American accused of kidnapping in Haiti released
An American relief worker who was jailed in Haiti this month after a father accused him of Kidnapping a 15-month-old boy has been released, the American's nonprofit organization said Wednesday. Paul Waggoner was being transported from the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to "a safe location where he will receive immediate medical attention," according to Materials Management Relief Corps, which Waggoner co-founded. Waggoner's supporters, who maintain that the b...

DODEA teachers step into war zone to teach English to Afghans
When Pamela Tucker last deployed to Iraq, she wore a uniform and carried a weapon. On her current Deployment to Afghanistan, she’s armed only with the language course Curriculum that she uses to teach Afghans English. Tucker — a Department of Defense Education Activity teacher from Misawa Air Base, Japan — leads a small team of Civilian Expeditionary Workforce employees who teach Afghan Military, police and government employees at oftentimes spartan locations across the count...

DODEA teachers step into war zone to teach English to Afghans
When Pamela Tucker last deployed to Iraq, she wore a uniform and carried a weapon. On her current Deployment to Afghanistan, she’s armed only with the language course Curriculum that she uses to teach Afghans English. Tucker — a Department of Defense Education Activity teacher from Misawa Air Base, Japan — leads a small team of Civilian Expeditionary Workforce employees who teach Afghan Military, police and government employees at oftentimes spartan locations across the count...

South Korea Is Just Not That into North Korea
Did you awake this morn to a feeling of excitement fluttering around in your chest like a coked-out butterfly? Of course you did, because today South Korea released its biennial defense white paper! Around the globe, fans of white papers and kimchee and looming war are squealing with delight as they page through this fascinating and not-at-all gloomy document. Let's find the diamonds among this pile of precious jewels! The North Korean Military, the world’s fourth-largest, has bolstered...

North Korea boosts tanks and special forces, says South Korea
South Korea says the buildup of Special Forces represents a shift in North Korea’s emphasis from all-out war to Military provocation....

The Moral Mush of Pacifism
Colman McCarthy has a really exacerbating op-ed in the Post today arguing that ROTC must remain banned from campuses, even after the DADT Repeal.  As I briefly mentioned in my column yesterday, the lifting of DADT is really inconvenient for peaceniks and other folks who hold anti-military views because it lends credibility to the Military (among liberals and leftists). If the point of the column was simply to honestly admit this, I’d find it admirable. But it gets worse. McCarthy adds...

Tracking My 2010 Predictions
Today is a good opportunity to engage in my annual exercise in humility, evaluating how well my predictions for 2010 fared. Things I Got Right Iran will not test a nuclear weapon. Nouri al Maliki’s government will be re-elected in Iraq. The Chinese will report at least 8% growth for 2010. They’re actually reporting over 9% growth. Pat Quinn will be elected Governor of Illinois. Rod Blagojevich will be convicted of at least one charge. Housing prices as measured by the national Case...

Karl Rove: Gitmo not a recruiting tool for terrorists
Last week in a Press Conference President Obama once again elevated the importance of the Guantanamo Bay Terrorist detention facility in the eyes of terrorists, calling it "probably the No. 1 recruitment tool" for them. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said something similar on Sunday, as I wrote earlier this week. Tom Joscelyn, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, reviewed 34 statements and interviews of top al Qaeda leadership since January 2009. Writing for the ...

Afghan Factory Owner: New Zealand Troops Killed Two of Our Guards
Last week’s killing of two private Security Guards in Kabul continues to be a source of tension today, with the revelation that the Troops who killed the guards were members of New Zealand’s Military, and a call from the owner of the factory they were guarding for the Troops to be punished. “I say Apology is not enough,” insisted Sakhizada, “you did not kill two cows. You killed two human beings.” New Zealand’s military insisted that the killings were ...

Ex-guard sues military contractor over bonus
A former Security Guard at Fort Campbell is suing one of the U.S. government's largest private security contractors, claiming the company induced him and others to stay on the job with the promise of a retention Bonus that's never been paid. Kenneth Callender of Clarksville, Tenn., is seeking class-action status for the Lawsuit, which accuses Coastal International Security, a Lorton, Va., of Breach of Contract for refusing to pay a promised $1,500 retention bonus. The company provides guards to ...