DirkaDirka.RedGriffins.org

Does it seem appropriate that with so many unfilled seats in the Olympics, China’s venue managers would hire a cheering section for Venezuela’s volleyball team in their game against the US? You’ll have to go to the halfway point in this video to get to the story…

Not even mentioning the alleged age issues with their medal-winning women’s gymnastics team.

I’m sure that’s in no way whatsoever tied to why China has been providing construction consulting for small Caribbean islands who want to build freeways for cheap… According to independent intelligence sources I’ve developed these freeways have long stretches built to the same specifications as runways, presumably the dual use would allow air transport.

Here’s an example:

Chinese companies are increasingly winning many large construction bids in the Eastern Caribbean, for which they also provide the labour. They are soon to be awarded the contracts for construction of the two secondary schools being funded by the World Bank under the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Education Development Project, where the Chinese bid came in EC$3m (£265,000) below the next lowest tender…

…China has also promised support for the development of a major highway in St Lucia, and is active in Jamaica, Guyana and Surinam.

One blog, the Barbados Free Press claims that a letter written by a contractor’s organization states local Carib companies have been outmanuvered by the Chinese construction for a contract for the University of The West Indies. Some of these claims:

…Wages paid by the Chinese companies to their Chinese workers are 25% of the wages paid by the Barbadian contractors to their workers. The conditions, under which the Chinese workers work, violate Human rights treaty and the UN convention of the treatment of migrant Labour, to which Barbados is a signatory.

…Majority of materials are imported from China, which denies opportunities to Caricom indigenous business enterprises.

…The Chinese companies enjoy taxation advantages in Barbados that are not available to our members.

These claims are corroborated by another source which claims:

Dick Stoute, president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce, predicts that local contractors will soon begin complaining about the lack of a level playing field, as he was unsure whether the Chinese state and private sector construction companies are enjoying greater tax and other benefits than locals.

None Of This Is Good News

I’m examining the connections between Venezuela, China, Cuba, and Iran very closely because there is a potential balance of power shift that could happen quickly.

If any disaster removed the US from being a strong naval presence in the Pacific Rim, the balance of power would shift predictably towards China. Japan is concerned about this as well.

If the Caribbean nations are influenced properly by China, support elements (troops) for Hugo Chavez could quickly come in by air to suppress any dissent he may have.

Training for Iranian agents in Venezuela is more than just a potential, according to some sources I have this is a reality and they are attempting to assimilate into South American culture.

Related Articles:

Trade between Dominican Republic, China grows fast

China to build aluminium smelter in southern Trinidad

CARIBBEAN: Influx of Chinese Workers Irks Local Unions

This would be funny if it weren’t true… Ex-Army Chaplain Cleared in Gitmo Spy Case to be Obama Delegate - America’s Election HQ

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A former Army chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was cleared of spy accusations will be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Former Capt. James J. Yee, a Muslim, was among the delegates pledged to Sen. Barack Obama who were elected by precinct representatives Saturday. He’s representing the state’s 9th Congressional District at the party’s convention in Denver in August.

My question regarding the dismissed spying accusations would be whether they were dismissed for a good reason, or for political expediency, or even to protect confidential sources from having to be revealed.

What I recall about Yee is that he was maintaining lines of communication between Gitmo prisoners and the outside world, something that was against both standard counterterrorism rules and also the Gitmo prisoner policies. Even worse is that Yee was a commissioned officer in the army at the time and should have known better.

The only way Yee would have felt confident in doing this type of activity is if he felt it was his calling as a Muslim Imam / Army Chaplain to disregard the ‘laws of man’. If that were the case, it sounds like his flock converted him.

I don’t think anyone disputes the fact that Hussein wasn’t directly behind the 9/11 attacks. There are some strong indicators that he was still a threat, most of which I covered in a previous thesis / post.

Interesting information as always from Mark Eichenlaub’s Iraq Regime of Terror blog:

A closer reading of the study (see here, here, here, here, here and here) shows that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq cooperated with, financed and supported a number of Islamic terrorist groups, including al Qaeda proxies (at least five according to Thomas Joscelyn) and had a larger capacity for state apparatus terrorism (car bomb training, IED training, jihadist suicide bomber recruitment, etc.) than previously believed by many.

Of the many noteworthy findings in the report is the assertion made in the conclusion that Hussein had retained not only the capacity to launch anti-West terrorist attacks but the will to use those terrorist capabilities, including directly against the United States, which was also a matter of previous debate.

The report’s conclusion, while noting that a perfect grasp of Hussein’s mindset at the exact time of U.S. invasion remained elusive, states that "evidence that was uncovered and analyzed attests to the existence of a terrorist capability and a willingness to use it until the day Saddam was forced to flee Baghdad by Coalition forces."

Still, there are reasons that I have felt justified our actions.

My opinion on invading Iraq - three years later…

GWOT,Terrorism,airline,airport,recon element,terror cell,blogger,blogging,web 2.0

I’m not sure how to feel about this website, a blog with a singular list of ten airports:

Here’s a perfect example of how a target list for action could be taken. You’ve got a single blog entry with headlines from ten different airports. No amplifying text, it just appears as if someone researching airports through news stories decided to bookmark them through the Google BlogThis! button.

So, this close to the sixth anniversary and with all sorts of chatter, I’m uneasy. Sacramento airport is one that I travel through regularly, and I like it…

You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone who says they know what makes a suicide bomber. Equally split, the theories are that they hate being poor, or they hate Israel, or the United States under some Zionist conspiracy provoked them.

I learned as an investigator that for any crime theory to stick, you have to provide the MMO - Motive, Means, Opportunity. I apply the same basic deductive reasoning to most of my analysis of Current Events, particularly the Global War on Terror.

It broke down into three parts:

1. Trying to analyze what exactly makes people use Terrorism as a tactic.
2. Figuring out why the statistics point to terrorists being overwhelmingly Muslim.
3. Are any other countries going to help us with this, or do they stand against us simply by not participating?

Putin’s Russia - The Other White Meat

Let’s throw more fuel onto the fire with this analysis from RadioFreeEurope Russia: As Middle East Heats Up, Moscow Maintains Balancing Act:

Russia could, however, feasibly benefit from an escalation of hostilities in the Middle East. As a major energy exporter, Russia would benefit from the likely major rise in oil and gas prices. China and the EU, on the other hand, would likely face severe economic difficulties.

Not only would Russia profit financially, but could gain new geopolitical ground, with the EU more dependent on Russia for energy. That could also push China to rely more on Russian energy resources, causing Beijing to invest in building pipelines in Russia’s Far East.

I mean, are we going to win this thing? Clearly, it’s in Russia’s best interest to fan the flames. Oh yes, and they’re the ones with the loosely controlled Chem / Bio / Nuke technology.

I keep having that Bill Paxton / Hudson breakout role in Aliens moment:

We’re in some real pretty s**t right now. That’s it man, game over man, game over!

How Do You Win the GWOT Vs. Jihad When Nobody’s In Charge To Surrender?!?

By ‘win’ I mean that I want my kids to be able to go to a 7-Eleven without having someone strapping a bomb push a plunger. I don’t want to read about Chechen-style school takeovers. I definitely don’t want to have to take my Potassium Iodide because of a dirty bomb, RDD, low-yield nuke, or other nonsense. How do we make all of this go away?

Fighting Terrorism Is A Lot Like Fighting The Living Dead

I was playing my XBox 360 a few months ago. A game called Dead Rising. Self descriptive title but the point I’m trying to make is how do you win this kind of conflict when the enemy is all around and you don’t know who they are until they try to kill you?

What Makes A Suicide Bomber?

There are a plethora of books you could read to get the same information or corroborate this single-source analysis. This is straightforward analysis but as I was reading it, it seemed boilerplate for the typical “I hate Islam” stuff you would expect to see from any Pajamas Media crowd - except that I can’t refute this work.

Quoted from Jihad Watch: Islam 101:

Islam 101

by Gregory M. Davis
author, Religion of Peace? Islam’s War Against the World
producer/director, Islam: What the West Needs to Know — An Examination of Islam, Violence, and the Fate of the Non-Muslim World

Islam 101 is meant to help people become better educated about the fundamentals of Islam and to help the more knowledgeable better convey the facts to others.

Similarly, my book and documentary are meant to serve as concise explanations of the major moving parts of Islam and their implications for Western society. Islam 101 is a condensation of the book and documentary with the aim of lending clarity to the public understanding of Islam and of exposing the inadequacy of prevailing views. All should feel free to distribute and/or reproduce it.

Is the Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty? | With A Suicide Bomber, Are We Better Safe Than Sorry?

So to relieve my initial skepticism about Davis’ studies as a source I cross-referenced most of the data. I won’t bore you with links and bullets but unfortunately it comes down to who you want to believe.

• Muslim scholars say the Davis analysis is not true,
• …however actual linguistic analysis of the Koran similar to what Christian scholars do with the original Greek language of the New Testament reveals not only massive issues with the linguistic roots,
• … it also supports the theories of the intended speech of the Koran pointing towards violence.

Davis answers his critics:

It must be emphasized that all of the analysis provided here derives from the Islamic sources themselves and is not the product of critical Western scholarship. (Indeed, most modern Western scholarship of Islam is hardly “critical” in any meaningful sense.) It is Islam’s self-interpretation that necessitates and glorifies violence, not any foreign interpretation of it.

People are blowing themselves up, crashing planes into buildings, and killing little girls for not wearing headscarves and we’ve been calling them extremists. What if they’re the norm? What if the moderate Muslims are the ones who are not adhering to the Koran?

Whatever. This is grim and depressing news.

What’s it going to take? KGB-style retaliation?

Tell me what it’s going to take to win. After six years of research on the subject I’ve got my theories but I’m always open to new suggestions. You do the research. I’ll be playing my XBox 360. And stocking up on the Potassium Iodide.

islam,GWOT,jihad,wahabbism,suicide bomber,muslim,terrorism

Quoted from The NY Times…

New York City Police Report Explores Homegrown Terrorism - New York Times

The report identified four steps in the process of radicalization: pre-radicalization, self-identification, indoctrination and jihadization.

Pre-radicalization, it said, “describes an individual’s world — his or her pedigree, lifestyle, religion, social status, neighborhood and education — just prior to the start of their journey down the path of radicalization.”

Basically, how Johnny Jihadi was a good boy. So quiet and always went to prayers. Had an engineering degree and worked for a construction company.

Self-identification, it said, marks the point where people begin to explore militant Islam “while slowly migrating away from their former identity.”

The hardest part of combatting this is that when radicalized Muslims debate moderate Muslims, they always win their points. The Koran states key passages that support Jihad. And there’s always that First Amendment issue of free speech.

Personal crises — such as losing a job or suffering from racism — can serve as a catalyst for this “religious seeking,” the report said. While people can move gradually through the early phases, over two or three years, they can pivot quickly toward violence, the report said. The Internet, it said, can enable them.

This catalyst can be as easy as frustration in not being able to pursue their goals, and spinning adrift. As we’ve noted in recent posts, in Israel, there are Israelis who have personally known attempted Palestinian suicide bombers for years who then inexplicably strap on a bomb vest and try to go out in a blaze of glory.

Additionally, let’s remember that this is for the operational jihadi. The support jihadis are another picture all together.The recon jihadis are another picture all together. They contribute to the attack, but don’t carry it out. They may just do little errands or some such task that helps.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, chairman of the homeland security committee, said the report’s analyses, while similar to those of other studies, were a “breakthrough” in antiterrorism efforts.

Good God.  really wish that one of the GOP candidates would take him along as a VP now that he’s Independent. He has been the only voice of sanity from the Dems and they tried to annihilate him this last election.

Homeland Security,Terrorism,Domestic Terrorism,NYPD,jihad,GWOT,Homegrown Terrorism

Seraphic Secret: Killing a Terrorist:

“‘How did you know you weren’t shooting an innocent man?’
‘He sizzled.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘He tried to self-detonate. There was a malfunction. I saw smoke. I didn’t want to take a chance on there being a second trigger. We were in a supermarket. Women and children all around. I drew and and shot him in the chest.’
‘Shot him dead?’
Larry shrugs and half smiles: ‘Hey, us Bensonhurst kids had to grow up tough, right?’
‘I guess.’”

GWOT,Israeli Defense,Terrorism,Global War on Terrorism

Gateway Pundit: WANTED: Adnan Jumaa for Suspected Nuclear Attack on US:

“Osama bin Laden is planning to carry out new, more destructive attacks inside the United States, and there is someone working on this terror plot currently in the US, according to Hamid Mir, the famed Pakistani journalist who obtained the only post-9/11 interviews with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. In an interview quoted on the website of the al-Arabiya television network, Mir spoke about his last trip to Afghanistan and his meeting with al-Qaeda members and Taliban leaders.”

Gateway Pundit: Picture Proof: The Saddam-Al Qaeda Connections: “Picture Proof: The Saddam-Al Qaeda Connections

The following information did not make it into the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report released last Friday, that claimed Saddam’s government ‘did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward’ al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or his associates.”

Gateway Pundit: WANTED: Adnan Jumaa for Suspected Nuclear Attack on US: From Pakistan comes news that Adnan G. El Shukrijumah has successfully smuggled nuclear material across the US and is planning an attack on the United States during the holy month of Ramadan which begins on September 24th.

Blog: IRAQ THE MODEL:

“Me: who threatened them? Papers guy: the death notes were signed by the mujahideen; they said that they will kill anyone who continues to print, distribute or sell newspapers.”

“He then showed me one of those notes; the ban includes virtually every paper but basically ‘papers that promote Safawi [Persian] Shiasm, blasphemous secular ideas and democracy’.”

The Officers’ Club: A Brief Explanation of the Problems in the Middle East Part 1

I had to break the link to this fine article because the blog hosted on blogspot got taken over by another person.. and the content is no longer there. I will find it and repost! –Jetman