The last few days have seen so many news stories of interest that I could not cover them all and now have to make them into a bouquet! 😎 Not the floral type one though.
In America, the talks are about Snowden, the guy that disclosed the NSA’s phone records spying.
Some people see him as a traitor and some as a useful whistleblower. The piece below from Time makes an excellent comparison to the Vietnam war and how Daniel Ellsberg revealed essential information on the government tricks about it. Worth the read :
What most people should know if they did not already is that there are an astounding 500 000 top security clearance personnel in the various services. Half a million? More of course have partial access.
By simple virtue of that number, the fact that, once in a while, one of them goes awry should not be surprising?
There are at least some that are worried on how much the civil liberties of Americans are eroding under the Patriot Act guise which is my stance too and can be found here :
Interestingly enough, that point of view is bi-partisan. 😎
[ Interesting also is the fact that Democrat Senator Mark Udall is using his free time from that debate to battle the sequester while most people have gotten over it. That is one American politician that works hard for his constituents, kudos!
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/06/udall-takes-up-lonely-fight-to-end-sequestration.html ]
Additional reading is found below on the government’s attitude towards Snowden :
and the crux of the matter, AKA Prism is here :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
So, do you feel protected or spied upon?
In Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan is supposedly ready to hold a referendum to end the protests but may not put all the delicate subjects on it? The very fact of consulting the Nation is laudable.
Erdogan is betting on his success in elections that shows over 50% of voters backing him.
To be followed as it comes on the heels of meeting protesters’ representatives today but also of the police clearing Taksim Square quite forcefully yesterday evening and during the night!
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/turkish-pm-meet-istanbul-park-protesters
In Syria, the situation is evolving in favor of Bacher El-Assad or so it seems. The talk but don’t act policy of the International Community has worked as expected : one side is gaining the upper hand … which was to be ( eventually ) expected?
Assad was helped of course by divisions in the opposition that even brought Al-Qaeda’s al-Zawahiri to rule against a unification of the rebels :
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/201368194537304613.html
Mali resurfaced today. As I reported recently, the government was getting ready to fight off the Tuaregs who had at first taken part in the conquest of the North and then seen their fight “stolen” by the Islamist groups before helping the French when they reached their turf. It now seems the confrontation will be avoided which paves the way to the elections planned for July.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/12/us-mali-rebels-idUSBRE95B0PZ20130612
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130612/mali-president-examine-compromise-peace-deal
Keep your fingers crossed until the ink on that deal is dry though.
The biggest news is about what the AQIM fighters left behind however.
According to the Associated Press piece below, a training manual was found to teach Islamists to use SA-7 missiles. Those are smallish weapons but as explained in the accompanying links, once mastered can down civilian airplanes. Military aircrafts have protective systems against them, not airliners. The portable armament was taken ( of course ) from the Libyan depots of Muammar Ghaddafi in 2011. French soldiers did find parts during their conquest and the document confirms that AQIM has some in hand otherwise, why bother teaching fighters how to use them. There are quite few chances that they’ll be used in Mali but at the same time, many more that they have been brought along during their retreat and now stashed for ulterior use. Attacks with these have been attempted before ( namely in Kenya in 2002 against a plane loaded with Israeli tourists ) and at some point, may very well succeed. Please find in order below : the AP main story, the document in PDF format and the excellent Federation of American Scientists page on the portable anti-aircraft system page :
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/mali-manual-suggests-al-qaida-has-feared-weapon
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_international/_pdfs/al-qaida-papers-dangerous-weapon.pdf
http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/asmp/MANPADS.html
From Israel’s Haaretz comes a piece exploring the Mandela example. As the Nobel Prize winner is sick and the World worried, Roy Isacowitz ponders if his wisdom could apply to the local situation and Apartheid-like stance of the Nation towards the Palestinians. His conclusion is as pessimistic in the short term as mine would have been but the article is excellent.
You will need to register though but that gives you access to 10 premium articles per month.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/what-israel-won-t-learn-from-mandela-s-legacy.premium-1.529353
In order not to let my readers go on a bad note, here is a funny take on New York’s Citibikes.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/venn-diagram-why-conservatives-hate-citi-bike.html
You most likely know the concept of bikes available to the public as low-cost or no cost rentals. Those are found from Paris ( Vélib ) to Montreal ( Bixi ) and many other cities. You rent a communal bike for low prices or a monthly fee and grab one at any of many stations with the only obligation to bring it back to any of them. The fun part here is that, in the US, they irked the conservatives. NY Mag’s Dan Amira’s short piece is quite funny. I’ll just add that if sharing is too socialist for America’s ultra-individualists, buses, the subway, public bathrooms and waiting rooms should also be on their no-no list. Heck, having to wait for your dentist or financial advisor on a chair previously used by someone else is unbearably communist in spirit too, is it not?
I wonder if they bring their own caddy to the supermarket?
Just sayin’? 😎 Tay.
P.S. If news doesn’t get in the way, we’ll cover science tomorrow, fingers crossed on that too!
Definitive Lapse of Reason 