There is never a good time to start a senseless military conflict that results in thousands of people killed or injured, but as far as North Korea is concerned, it’s now or never. Let’s just hope that strategic and tactical realities will prevent this country’s isolated and brainwashed state apparatus from crossing a dangerous line. Already responsible for a successful nuclear weapons program as well as attempts to share it with other totalitarian regimes, this ideologically warped dictatorship recently sank a South Korean vessel and killed 46 sailors before throwing a diplomatic temper tantrum about being caught red handed. Pyongyang then successfully intimidated the United Nations into watering down its condemnation of the sinking by not naming North Korea as the perpetrator when all investigations consistently pointed north.

In reaction to the diluted UN condemnation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid blame for the sinking of the South Korean vessel squarely on North Korean naval forces. Also helping to stir the pot is a four day joint military exercise scheduled to begin today (July 25-28), which is ruffling Pyongyang’s feathers to no end. For some reason, this nation of starving missile makers above the 38th parallel has been particularly sensitive and belligerent towards any action that could be remotely perceived as hostile. Claiming that any condemnation of the sinking that named North Korea would be considered an act of war, they succeeded in making the UN blink, though it’s usually the Chinese and Russian diplomats doing the blinking. (Or are they winking…at Kim Jong Il?) Unfortunately, the pitiful drama at the UN matters little now as the democratically elected South Korean government prepares to defend its people from a horror they remember all too well. Yet the Northern government continues to scream foul, declaring the upcoming joint military training an unacceptable provocation that cannot be tolerated by the Korean People’s Army. This brings us back to the question that still lingers. Just what do these guys want? Are they simply crazy or is something else going on?

Well, yes. They are crazy, but there’s more to it then that. A power struggle is going on in Pyongyang because Kim Jong Il’s long term health is uncertain. We shouldn’t be surprised by what is possible in the name of this power struggle because the morality of North Korea’s culture has been festering in isolation for sixty years. The North Korean leaders rattling sabers today all grew up in a culture of blind obedience underlined by the constant threat of merciless execution. This means we have no conception of what these guys are capable of, especially the children of Kim Jong Il.

Besides internal power struggles and lost morality, this fiery belligerence is also being stoked by North Korea’s belief that this may be the best time to play brinkmanship with Uncle Sam.  North Koreans see a majority of the United States armed forces pinned down in Iraq and Afghanistan, the current US administration mired in a complex stand off with Iran, an American born recession that won’t end and the American people more divided than they‘ve been in 150 years. All these factors may convince enough people in Pyongyang to do something drastic, but their urgency belies the fact that North Korea is quickly becoming an anachronistic exception to the democratic rule that dominates our geopolitical world. A democratic ideal that has slowly and painfully spread across the globe to leave only a few more hold outs of tyranny and ideological rot. The same democratic ideals that just pulled our country through one of the most exceptional elections in history is at the core of how democracy continues to spread. This is one of those moments in history when who is in the oval office doesn‘t matter. All that matters right now is that the United States of America is the only country prepared to stand up to North Korea.

Taliban fighters wearing suicide belts and carrying assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades attacked government targets and civilian areas this last Monday, the 18th of January. Normally, you would’ve heard plenty about this because the desperation of the news cycle would’ve swallowed up this attack on Kabul and made a major issue out of it. Although what happened to Haiti is horrible, the attention this tragedy garnered from the world blunted the Taliban attack without firing a shot.

This should remind us all of an offensive carried out over forty years ago during the month of January. The country wide attack during the Tet new year celebrations ended up being a military disaster for the Vietcong, but the publicity they gained made it possible for North Vietnam to eventually win the whole war.

We should make note of the fact that this recent attack on the Afghan capital had much less of an impact simply because it didn’t reverberate around the world. If it was a slow news day on January 18th and the poor people of Haiti could have skipped the tragedy that befell them, we may have been engrossed with the below video of gun battles in downtown Kabul.

I have embedded amazing footage of the Iranian people taking on armored and helmeted police with truncheons and motorcycles. These unarmed civilians fearlessly proceed to surround the brutally sadistic police who quickly become frightened for their lives. Eventually, the Iranian police turn their backs to the crowds and get pelted with an endless barrage of rocks to their armored padding and riot helmets. After setting their motorcycles afire, the Iranian people somehow stop short of executing the police where they stand. Even though it took the lives of several protesters to subdue and surround the police in the first place, these Iranian heroes, these patriots of freedom don’t take the cold blooded revenge many think they deserve.

In fact, I dare say that if a crowd of American protesters including me were slaughtered in cold blood the way the Iranians have been in this footage, our reaction after surrounding the police would’ve been to start a large bonfire consisting of motorcycles and police bodies. The Iranian people, however, do not fall victim to the immorality their own government wallows in. They have transcended the evil of their own government to arrive at a higher plane of selfless bravery and unity.

To display this selflessness, I have also embedded footage of a group of Iranian protesters that rush in to stop the hanging of two of their compatriots. The beauty of this selfless act is awe inspiring and I urge you to witness it for yourself. I do believe a few protesters actually end up dying in the rescue of these two condemned men. I don’t know about you, but this kind of selfless courage chokes me up.

Once this mess is over, I really hope we can work things out between Iran and the western world because it seems to me that we have a lot in common with the people of Iran. Although a successful Iranian revolution would probably still pursue nuclear power, any new government in Iran would be better to work with than the current one. Our best current hope for the further development of an educated Muslim middle class in the Middle East lies in the success of the green revolution over the Islam Republic of Iran.

The United States of America was founded on the courage of people that laid down their lives for their freedom. The Iranian people are laying down their lives for freedom as you read this.

The first video was found on LiveLeak.com posted by agharazi

The second video was found on YouTube and I’m not sure what the following language means, but I believe this mind blowing event took place in Sirjan, Iran: “فیلم کامل درگیری های سیرجان و غیور مردانش sirjan”

Well, to be more specific, they believe Americans, Israelis and Indians are funding American mercenaries to carry out terror attacks in the name of Muslims against Muslims. Just ask any Pakistani civilian on the street and they’ll immediately tell you that Blackwater USA, now known as Xe (pronounced zi), is carrying out the attacks. Even the rich and westernized portions of this country’s population believe our government is perpetrating terror attacks and trying (keyword here is ‘trying’) to blame this on the Pakistani Taliban.

The Pakistani Taliban have taken credit for nearly all of the attacks within that country over this bloody fall season, but one Taliban commander in particular blamed a horrible attack that angered the locals on Xe. Either he believed this to be true (Blackwater does operate in Pakistan )or he reacted to the intense unpopularity of this market place attack by deciding this was the best way to deny involvement. Unfortunately, the Taliban commander’s claim of Xe’s involvement in the terror attacks saturating Pakistani cities takes advantage of that country’s obsession with conspiracy theories. If ever a nation was worthy of Hitler’s old adage about how people “more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie” it’s the Pakistani people.

Among the most popular titles gracing the pages of Pakistan Daily are “Blackwater involved in Bhutto and Hariri hits says former Pakistani army chief“, “A 21 gun salute to Hillary Clinton by the Blackwater Taliban”, “Pakistanis to Clinton: War on terror is not our war”, “Indian hidden war: The rise of the red sun”, “War on Islam – Pakistan: Lieberman pushes Obama to attack Pakistan”, “Proof of India’s involvement in militancy found”. Of course PakTribune has their own tripe to feed on with editorials like “India and USA: hand-in-glove, but articles like “Osama Bin Laden may be Jewish” and “Swat Taliban are Indian Intelligence Agents” have now been removed because they are perhaps too unbelievable even for the imaginative Pakistani public.

These articles are written by fear mongering ideologues that cast about for anything but the most simple explanation. Mustafa Qadri, a level headed Pakistani journalist, calls this “Pakistan’s conspiracy cottage industry” describing it as a reflection of a society trying to deal with a shocking level of violence and indulging in a unique kind of denial that links in with Pakistan’s history. Pakistan has witnessed the US and their own government set up, fund and operate terror/freedom fighter groups in other countries. Pakistanis considered Osama Bin Laden a showcase example of a paid agent of America during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and at the time he was just that.

Even Pakistan’s prime minister, Asif Ali Zardari, told David Gregory of MSNBC that his wife (Bhutto), while Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1989, called the first President Bush to complain about this Bin Laden fellow of his and asked why he was trying to destabilize Pakistan. The people of Pakistan also have no illusions about the ties between their Inter Services Intelligence and our CIA either. In addition, most Pakistanis know of Israel’s proxy fighters in 1980s Lebanon and they have witnessed Indian funds flowing to Balochi and Pashtun dissidents in their own country.

In this light, it’s not a stretch of the Pakistani imagination to believe that foreign powers are exporting terrorism to Pakistan just as they themselves have been doing in Afghanistan and India. They believe this is a game that all nations play at because Pakistan’s cultural, military and political history has combined with their intense fear and denial to create an atmosphere where the simple truth is never accepted. Only serpentine plots of international scale warrant acknowledgement.

Ahmed Rashid of the BBC believes Pakistan is undergoing “a multi-dimensional series of crises and a collapse of public confidence in the state.” However, this has been accompanied by a breakout media explosion, which has come at the worst time for this conspiracy minded nation. A media explosion that has seen dozens of new satellite TV channels broadcasting sensationalist talk shows that feed Pakistan’s insatiable hunger for conspiracy fodder.

Regardless of the Pakistani public’s sanity, the US government has become fed up with pressing the Pakistani government to step up their fight against the Islamic militants and recently delivered an ultimatum. This ultimatum has only garnered a strongly ambiguous response from Pakistan after which America responded equally ambiguously through Holbrooke calling for more Pakistan aid and the termination of the CIA contract with Zi in Pakistan on the one hand and a sharp increase in predator strikes on the other.

I don’t know what results we’ll get, but we seem to be stuffing a carrot down this country’s throat as we beat it on the ass with a stick. Something’s gotta give, I just hope it’s not the Pakistani people.

The announcement was made at the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World in Colombia. Hundreds of people have been killed and horrifically injured by landmines in Rwanda. Landmines were laid between 1990 and 1994 in Rwanda and over the past three years more than over 9,000 have been destroyed by Rwandan soldiers.

Ben Remfrey of the Mines Awareness Trust, which supervised the clearance, says although other countries have had far more mines laid, this is a significant step.

“Rwanda has made history by becoming the first country in the world to be officially declared free from landmines,” he told the BBC World Service.

“Rwanda had a problem, it wasn’t huge but it was still significant… and had a big social and economic impact.”

Land scarce

Landmines have been devastating for Rwanda since their existence prevented many people from being able to live from their land.

Nteziyaremya Alphose is looking forward to being able to farm without fear of mines

Since 80% of the population earn a living by through agriculture, and Rwanda is Africa’s most densely populated country, land is already scarce.

Nteziyaremya Alphose, a 40-year-old farmer living in a village north of Kigali, had mines on his farm.

Two adults lost legs and a child and a cow were killed on his farm.

Now his land has been cleared, he says his family are able to grow enough produce to feed themselves.

“I can now use every piece of my land without becoming a victim of landmines, my livestock can now graze on this land and not be taken away from me,” he says.

Destroying the mines

The landmines were cleared by Rwandan soldiers who were specially trained in Kenya at the International Mines Action Training Centre.

One hundred and eighty soldiers were involved in the clearance process in which 20 minefields were surveyed and de-mined over three years.

Read more at BBC

The bar is staffed by volunteers from a local non-government organisation that works to prevent AIDS. China’s health minister claimed earlier this month that homosexual sex among gay and bisexual men accounted for 32 per cent of HIV and AIDS transmission in the country. Tomorrow’s inauguration coincides with World AIDS Day.

Read more at Panos London

Key components in the USA Patriot Act are set to expire at the end of the year, but President Barack Obama is seeking to extend them, reversing his stark opposition in the past to the same provisions.

“The president’s reversal on Patriot Act reform is a major travesty,” said Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel for the leading civil rights group ACLU, in an interview with Raw Story. “There have been many, many abuses of power in the last four years.”

These three main aspects in question allow the government to acquire private information about civilians through warrantless wiretapping of phone calls and emails, as well as seizure of records from credit reporting companies, banks, internet service providers and libraries. Another component includes the loosening of conditions under which an individual can be accused of providing “material support” to terrorists.

In 2005, then-Senator Obama pledged to filibuster a Bush-sponsored bill that included several of these exact components, calling it “just plain wrong” in a Senate speech.

Read more at Raw Story

Documents long classified but scheduled to be released at the end of 2009 will not see the light of day just yet thanks to the Obama administration, according to a published report.

Under pressure to grant an extension to intelligence agencies that have reviewed only a fraction of the “millions of pages,” the administration is allowing an undetermined amount of time for additional consideration of the materials, a report in The Boston Globe notes.

“The documents in question – all more than 25 years old – were scheduled to be declassified on Dec. 31 under an order originally signed by President Bill Clinton and amended by President George W. Bush,” wrote reporter Bryan Bender. Both presidents Clinton and Bush also granted the agencies extensions, in 2000 and 2003.

However, Bender added, “because [the Obama] administration has been unable to prod spy agencies into conformance,” no such release is scheduled any time soon and it may be years before they are disclosed.

This, in spite of the president’s repeated assurances of increased transparency. The decision to extend declassification deadlines for the agencies “would run counter to the Obama administration’s push for more openness in the federal government, including the declassification process,” noted ProPublica. “In May, the Globe points out, Obama ‘ordered a 90-day review by the National Security Council” of the classification process.”

Read more at Raw Story

Mr Brown said the $10bn (£6bn) fund should also be used to help developing nations cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Both spoke at the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad, the last major world forum before the global summit on climate change in Copenhagen on 7 December.

Many Commonwealth members are island states threatened by rising sea levels.

Mr Sarkozy, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Danish Prime Minister Prime Lars Loekke Rasmussen, is there to give weight to any climate change statement.

The topic was the only issue on the Commonwealth summit’s agenda for the first day.

Opening the Trinidad meeting, Queen Elizabeth II said the Commonwealth had an opportunity to lead once more on climate change.

“The threat to our environment is not a new concern but it is now a global challenge which will continue to affect the security and stability of millions for years to come,” she said.

‘Absolutely serious’

Mr Brown said half of the $10bn fund should go towards helping developing nations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and the other half towards helping them adapt to climate change.

Read more at BBC

Eight South Waziristan Taliban commanders, pictured in a wanted poster: 1. Hakeemullah Mehsud, 2. Waliur Rehman Mehsud, 3. Qari Hussain Mehsud, 4. Azam Tariq, 5. Maulvi Azmatullah, 6. Mufti Noor Wali, 7. Asmatullah Bhittani, 8. Mohammad Anwar Gandapur.

Pakistani security forces recently detained a mid-level Taliban commander who was wanted by the government.

Abdullah Shah Mehsud, who was number 17 on the list of 20 most-wanted Taliban commanders from South Waziristan, was captured by Pakistani forces in the district of Tank. He is an “active member of Hakeemullah Mehsud Group from Shaktoi village near Razmak” in North Waziristan, the Pakistani military said in a press release. The military paid “head money,” a sum of about $120,000, to the informer who turned Abdullah Shah in.

Abdullah Shah Mehsud after his capture. Photo from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations website.

Abdullah Shah is the first senior Taliban leader in South Waziristan to be captured since the operation began on Oct. 17. Much of the Taliban leadership is believed to have slipped the military operation in South Waziristan and to be sheltering in North Waziristan, Arakzai, Kurram, Khyber, and in regions in South Waziristan not affected by the operation.

Read more: The Long War Journal