Category: Geopolitics

Satellite dishes help lift Cuba’s veil of secrecy

MiamiHerald.com | 08/05/2006 | Satellite dishes help lift Cuba’s veil of secrecy
2006_08_01t121905_450x332_us_cuba.jpg But in Cuba, TV satellite dishes are illegal without an almost impossible-to-obtain government permit. So people here build their own and often sell the signal to neighbors through homemade nets known as telarañas — spiders’ webs.

The small electronic components usually are smuggled in from the United States, and the dishes are built here. If the signals are encoded, relatives abroad can pay for the service as though it were for their own use, obtain the proper decoding procedures and pass them to Cuba. Continue reading “Satellite dishes help lift Cuba’s veil of secrecy”

Why the French Foreign Minister is in Tehran, not Damascus

Across the Bay
And there’s something else that people who think the solution lies in Damascus should bear in mind. The relationship between the son and Hezbollah is different to the relationship that existed between the father and Hezbollah. For Hafez al-Assad, Hezbollah was a tool in his hand to remind Israel that if they didn’t negotiate the return of the Golan Heights, he could hurt them in Lebanon. And he used that—it was like a tap that he could turn on and off.

The relationship between Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah is very different. He is dependent on Hezbollah to maintain Syrian influence in Lebanon because he no longer has the troop presence that gave him control of Lebanon. He is dependent on Hezbollah to defend against an Israeli ground attack through Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley into Syria. And therefore, his ability to curb Hezbollah is much more limited, if it’s there at all.

Translation by ThreatWatch from Le Figaro from the French Foriegn Minister after his trip to Tehran:

“..the French respond that it is preferable to address the issue with the true decision-maker, more so than its Syrian vassal.”

…the hostility of Tehran to the deployment of troops with the objective of neutralizing Hizballah along the border with Israel. This Iranian veto would be in any case negotiable, in exchange for Western concessions in regard to the nuclear issue. Tehran has made no secret in practice of its intention to relate the crisis in Lebanon to that arising from its nuclear ambitions…

Hostage to Hezbollah

Kamal Habib

Kamal Habib is a former leader of the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the network that Zawahiri joined as a young doctor. After serving a decade in prison for attempting to overthrow the Egyptian government, Habib has embraced nonviolence and is considered an authority on militant Islam. He says “The Arab world has witnessed change over the last year or two that is almost equivalent to the amount of change that occurred over the previous two decades,”

Peter Hitchens on Israel

Mail online – Peter Hitchens

In this post to his British newspaper blog Hitchens delineates a history of what he calls “Judophobia”; concluding with this point-counterpoint –

As for the conventional wisdom of the commentators, let me take it piece by piece: “Israel needs to make concessions to the Palestinians if it wants to live in peace. These concessions should take the form of land.” Continue reading “Peter Hitchens on Israel”

No Ordinary Counterfeit

No Ordinary Counterfeit – New York Times

We had an earlier post on this in March

In Oct. 2, 2004, the container ship Ever Unique, sailing under a Panamanian flag from Yantai, China, berthed in the Port of Newark. Beneath cardboard boxes containing plastic toys, they found counterfeit $100 bills worth more than $300,000, secreted in false-bottomed compartments.

The counterfeits were nearly flawless. They featured the same high-tech color-shifting ink as genuine American bills and were printed on paper with the same precise composition of fibers. The engraved images were, if anything, finer than those produced by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Only when subjected to sophisticated forensic analysis could the bills be confirmed as imitations. Continue reading “No Ordinary Counterfeit”

Jihadists split on Islam’s true enemy

Jihadists split on Islam’s true enemy – Africa & Middle East – International Herald Tribune
The discussions reflect the widening divide between Shiite and Sunni Arabs in parts of the Middle East, and Sunni fears of the ascendance of Shiite-dominated Iran. The Internet volleys, some of them full of fury and venom, also offer a window into the startling diversity of opinion among jihadist groups.

Suspicions among Sunnis over growing Shiite power – and a vindictive backlash by Shiites – have come to the fore during the Iraq war and the conflict in Lebanon. Animosity is especially virulent among those Sunni militants who adhere to a conservative strain of Islam that views Shiites as infidels.

Pakistan Expanding Nuclear Program

Pakistan Expanding Nuclear Program
India currently has an estimated 30 to 35 nuclear warheads based on a sophisticated plutonium design. Pakistan, which uses a simpler, uranium-based warhead design, has sought for years to modernize its arsenal, and a new heavy-water reactor could allow it to do so, weapons experts say.

“With plutonium bombs, Pakistan can fully join the nuclear club,” said a Europe-based diplomat and nuclear expert.

God’s army has plans to run the whole Middle East

God’s army has plans to run the whole Middle East – Sunday Times – Times Online

A few minutes’ drive south from central Beirut takes you into what appears to be a different country. Beirut itself has European-style architecture, shops, hotels and cafes with men and women mostly wearing western clothes.

Once you enter Hezbollah land, the scene changes. You feel as if you are in Qom, the Iranian holy city, with men sporting bushy beards and women covered by mandatory hijab, milling around in noisy narrow streets fronted by nondescript shops. Billboards that advertise global bands in Beirut are used in Hezbollah land for pasting giant portraits of Khomeini and the Iranian “supreme guide” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Not surprisingly Hezbollah describes its territory as “Dar al-Iman” (House of Faith). Continue reading “God’s army has plans to run the whole Middle East”

Sectarian break-up of Iraq is now inevitable, admit officials

Independent Online Edition > Middle East

Just as Yugoslavia disintegrated after strong-man Tito, Iraq without Saddam is imploding along ethnic and religious divisions; hemmed-in by the unrealistic straight-line political boundaries historically-drawn by the Colonial Powers. (See next Post)

“Iraq as a political project is finished,” a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: “The parties have moved to plan B.” He said that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there is a mixed population. “There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into [Shia] east and [Sunni] west,” he said.