$7.7 Billion Of Anti-Terrorism Initiative

Terrorism 4 Comments

Exerpts from the audit of The 2001 Anti-Terrorism Initiative from the March 2004 Report, Office of The Auditor General.

The government as a whole failed to achieve improvements in the ability of security information systems to communicate with each other. Consequently, needed improvements will be delayed by several years. Moreover, even as the government was launching programs that would create new needs for fingerprint identification, projects that would have helped it to deal with the increased demand were not included in the initiative.
… gaps and inconsistencies in the watch lists used to screen visa applicants, refugee claimants, and travellers seeking to enter Canada. There is no overall quality control of this vital function, which is spread over several departments and agencies. No one monitors delays in the entry or the quality of the data on watch lists.
… criminal intelligence data are not used to screen applicants for clearance to restricted areas at airports, meaning that security clearances are issued without checking applicants for criminal association
We found no evidence that officials of the Privy Council Office, Finance Canada, and the Treasury Board Secretariat had based their review of departmental proposals on a national threat and risk assessment…
… Other projects appeared designed to maintain the government’s existing public safety and policing programs, not to respond directly to the increased need for security after September 11. [eg.] Public Security and Anti-Terrorism funds were allocated to the Solicitor General to combat organized crime and the illegal drug trade in First Nations communities, including the cultivation of marijuana…
We expected also to see a lessons-learned study that assessed how the Government of Canada had responded to the attacks in the United States. We found a wide variety of reports. In some cases, extensive analyses were carried out but never endorsed by senior management; lack of support by senior management undermines any effort to implement change. In other cases we were given basic reports that appeared to be summaries but that provided no detailed analysis.
…front-line officers at airports still do not receive passport information.
Terrorist Watch Lists … In our initial audit work we found significantly fewer terrorist lookouts in the Service’s tracking system than in Immigration’s database … Immigration’s records were in such disarray that we were unable to complete a full reconciliation during the course of our audit.
Interpol Red Notices… On average, 48 days elapsed from [Interpol] publication to entry in the [RCMP] police system. At the time of our testing, the RCMP had a backlog of 162 notices to be entered in its database that were two months old, on average.
Lost and stolen Canadian passports not on border control watch lists … the information system used on the primary inspection line cannot distinguish between active and deactivated passports … delays between the reporting of a lost or stolen passport and the entering of the information into the RCMP database … took 70 days, on average.
There is no system that transfers information on outstanding warrants to the border watch lists …

Reading the report (and between the lines), there are areas of modest progress, many areas in which beaurocracies are resisting change, citing “the Privacy Act” and even the Charter “Freedom of Association” as excuses not to act, while the government funds technologies that are dependant upon other technologies that remain undeveloped. Committees meet, report and do nothing. And there remains no top secret method of communication between agencies, in event of a true national emergency.
About what you’d expect from a government that at its core, really doesn’t believe Canada is a target for terrorism.

The Great Awakening

November 24, 2004

Roadkill 1 Comment

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, apart from living in that stinking hole, which, all things considered, sucked the big black camel dick.”

(Hat tip, Head Beeb via Charles Macdonald.)

CAIR vs Frum

Terrorism 3 Comments

David Frum has been served with a notice of libel by the Canadian branch of CAIR -Council on American Islamic Relations. In so doing, he joins a growing club.
Something about having the uncomfortable facts of their association’s links to extremists and terrorist organizations brought to light… or in their words, of being “an unscrupulous, Islamist, extremist sympathetic group in Canada supporting terrorism”.
Perhaps my wording is clumsy. Oh, well.

Cattlers

Not Quite News 3 Comments

Beef farmers launch protest
Oh, just stop.
They are not “beef farmers”.
(In fact, if one were to quibble with the details, those critters are Holsteins – dairy cows. Great lean lanky things with bone as heavy as a Budweiser Clydesdale. Holsteins are bred to convert feed to milk. When was the last time you wandered through your meat department and saw a t-bone labelled “Triple A Holstein beef”? There’s a clue. And let’s be honest – with the quota-controlled protectionist price supports of the dairy industry, dairymen can afford to shoot cull cows.)

Compare:

Angus steer.

Holstein cow.

But back to the original point. As I stated, they are not “beef farmers”, for the simple reason that one does not “farm” cattle. Not even guys with mixed grain/beef operations “farm” cattle. They “feed cows”, “raise calves”, “run a few head”. It is no more appropriate to call those who raise beef “cattle farmers” than it is to refer to reporter Ross Marowitz as a news “author” or “non-fiction writer”.
I know that a dilemma faces the media when stepping into the dangerous terrain of gender-neutral nomenclature. Unlike the “fishermen”, who awoke one day to discover they were now “fishers”, the cattle industry is a little tougher to neuter. Really, who can say “cattler” with a straight face?
So, ~~you insufferable fanaticist media twits~~ dear reporters, let’s stop pretending that uncomfortable three letter word doesn’t exist. It does. The word is “men”. M.E.N. Sound it out. “Mmmmmmmm… eeeeeeeeee…nnnnnnnn” . No really – try it. See what happens.
Did your face open up and swallow your tongue? Write it down on that reporter’s pad…. “men” …. hold your breath as you wait for the paper to begin to curl in disgust … Still nothing?
That psychological hurdle cleared, the rest is easy. Append “men” to the word “cattle”. Cattle – men. Cattlemen.

Cattlemen launch protest
See: Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. Holy Cow! It’s even the correct terminology, as in what they call themselves! Who knew? Don’t you feel free? Once you’ve become comfortable with “cattlemen”, the world is your prairie oyster. Push the envelope – try “stockmen”.
A newsman only lives once.

Rather Overdue

ADDRESSES CBS NEWSROOM AT APPROXIMATELY 1:39PM EST [Partial transcript]: No matter what you hear elsewhere, this was a mutual decision. The timing has to do with (wanting to separate) this decision to leave the anchor chair… from the (investigation) of the 60 MINUTES report. The decision got made the way I described. There is nothing more important (to me) than how honored I am to work with the greatest news organization in the world. Thank you for coming. We’re not going to spend much time (on questions) because we have news to cover. (Offered to answer questions, but staff simply gave his signature ‘hip hip’ three cheers.) Let’s get back to work. Thanks everyone.

Well, there’s half a shoe dropped, I guess. But why, pray tell, is Rather being allowed to stay on at the scene of the crime?
Maybe there’s a hope at CBS that his “retirement” will diffuse criticism over Rathergate. I wouldn’t bet on it.

Abu Congo

Roadkill 1 Comment

Brace yourself for the flood of disturbing photographs and film clips from this breaking scandal.

The United Nations is investigating about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. civilian staff and soldiers in the Congo, some of them recorded on videotape, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.
�
The accusations include pedophilia, rape and prostitution, said Jane Holl Lute, an assistant secretary-general in the peacekeeping department.

Oh. Did I say “breaking”?

Lute, an American, said there was photographic and video evidence for some of the allegations and most of the charges came to light since the spring.
[…]
In May the United Nations reported some 30 cases of abuse among peacekeepers in the northeastern town of Bunia, where half of the more than 10,000 soldiers are stationed.
Last month, one French soldier and two Tunisian soldiers were sent home, U.N. officials said. Three U.N. civilian staff were suspended.
The United Nations has jurisdiction over its civilian staff but troops are contributed by individual nations. Consequently, the world body has only the power to demand a specific country repatriate an accused soldier and punish him or her at home.

Listening to Rawlco radio as I type this. Something about Baghdad… Ozzy Osbourne’s house break in…
Perhaps someone should splice in some footage of US Marines or prison guards, in order to bring this story the coverage it deserves.

Listen To What The Man Says

Political Animal 1 Comment

New signposts on the roadmap. Rick Richman takes notes.

Now here is the first question and answer from the Bush/Blair news conference on Friday, the day after Bush met with Sharansky:

[Q].� With Yasser Arafat’s death, what specific steps can Israel take to revive peace negotiations? And do you believe that Israel should implement a freeze on West Bank settlement expansion?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I believe that the responsibility for peace is going to rest with the Palestinian people’s desire to build a democracy and Israel’s willingness to help them build a democracy. I know we have a responsibility as free nations to set forth a strategy that will help the Palestinian people head toward democracy. I don’t think there will ever be lasting peace until there is a free, truly democratic society in the Palestinian territories that becomes a state. And therefore, the responsibility rests with both the Palestinian people and the leadership which emerges, with the Israelis to help that democracy grow, and with the free world to put the strategy in place that will help the democracygrow.

Six references in four sentences to democracy — in response to a question about a settlement freeze.

Looks to me like he has a pretty good handle on where the responsibility for that lies, too.
Read it all. The ~~agenda of~~ questions from reporters could just as well be transcribed into Charlie Brown adult talk….“blah, blah,blah,blah”. And people wonder why W has a fan club?
Heh.

Bowling For 22 Minutes

Insufferable Twits 3 Comments

What does Carrolyn Parrish have in common with Michael Moore, aside from rabid, seething hatred for America?
Michael Donovan – The producer of This Hour Has 22 Minutes was also co-producer of the Canadian location rich Bowling For Columbine. Bowling was produced by the government subsidized and recently defunct Salter Street Films.
Mr. Donovan seems to be gifted with a special kind of cluelessness (which must serve as an advantage when working with Mr. Moore). NYT:

The full sketch, including the five-second stomping, was finally broadcast on Friday night, a day after Ms. Parrish was exiled from her political party. Before that, the show had received about 1,000 e-mail messages, mostly critical.
“There’s been an outpouring here I haven’t seen for years, although I’m not sure it’s good for the show,” Mr. Donovan said. “What’s caused a lot of this is that there’s a tremendous, deep-rooted anxiety now about Canada-U.S. relations. Canadians have lost their famous sense of humor.”

Well, actually no. In his cozy little government-funded Trudeaupian paradise, Donovan and his ilk have never understood that American bashing isn’t “comedy”, and never was. What he’s experiencing is the backlash of Canadians who are fed up having their tax dollars used to support Canadian content arts/media welfare cases.

Fallujah’s Hospitality

Military No Comments

An email to Rich Lowry at the Corner;

I am also a professor at a military-related institution, and my little brother is an enlisted Marine (a sniper with 1-3) in Fallujah. This weekend he called for the first time since the battle began. He informed us that a large number of the residents of Fallujah, before fleeing the battle, left blankets and bedding for the Marines and Soldiers along with notes thanking the Americans for liberating their city from the terrorists, as well as invitations to the Marines and Soldiers to sleep in their houses. I’ve yet to see a report in the media of this. Imagine that.
Additionally, he said their spirits are high, but they would certainly appreciate any “care packages” that folks in the States would care to send their way (preferably consisting of non-perishable food items, candy, deodorant, eye-drops, q-tips, toothpaste, toothbrushes, lip balm, hand/feet
warmers, black/dark undershirts, underwear & socks, and non-aerosol bug spray)
It would be great if you could pass this message along to anyone interested in helping out.”

(Info on how to participate here.)

Silent America

What He Said 1 Comment

This exerpt from the Bill Whittle essay entitled “WAR”;

There are two images I will never forget, and I expect I will think of them often in the days and weeks to come. For in the front row of this parade of horror and depravity, I have watched a fundamentalist Islamic crowd stone two women to death. They were covered head to toe in shockingly white linen – the better to see the bloodstains. Taken into a field and buried up to their waists, they looked like odd white sails on a sand horizon, until the stones began to fly, leaving red carnations where they landed. One of the women just crumpled, bent at the waist, and I still pray that this person was knocked unconscious within the first minute or so. The other did not go peacefully into that good night. She died fighting and struggling, enduring the most sickening lurches as the unseen stones fell on her, twisting under that now-scarlet hood, trying to protect her face as best she could, as hundreds of her friends and relatives vented their rage, calling out the name of their god as we would cheer on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Allahu Ackbar! Allahu Ackbar! Allahu Ackbar!
I will not forget that image.
And I will not forget another one, either. As long as I draw breath, I swear I will never forget the sight of two people holding hands, and leaping from 108 stories above the hard concrete sidewalks that I myself have walked, gawking skyward at one of the wonders of the world. I will not forget them. I will not forget their fall, the spin that finally tore their hands apart as they fell forever, forever down that quarter-mile. I will never stop wondering what they said to each other in that last moment, or their cries to each other as they launched themselves to their deaths, having watched their friends take the same leap a few moments before. I will never forget what an unimaginable hell that their cozy office, full of coffee mugs and pictures of grandchildren, had become in order for them to make that choice, with the ruins of their friends visible on the streets so far below them.

His book, Silent America, is now out.

Fact Checking Juan Cole

Little Known Facts No Comments

Via Jeremy Brown, who’s filling in for Michael Totten – Ali at Iraq The Model, discovers he doesn’t know as much about his country’s history as he thought.

[Juan Cole] also provide a link to another article by a professor of Arab studies in the university of Colombia and use it as a reference to back up his theory. What Dr. Cole was trying to tell us, as you can see in his article, is that Fallujah is celebrated in Iraq’s history as a symbol for the large rebellion/revolution against the British back in 1920.
[…]
After reading the two honored professors’ articles I scratched my head vigorously (I’m sure I looked stupid because I felt so!) trying to remember my country’s history as I read it in school. Well, my memory is not that strong to help me remember all those poets and decorated writings about our ancestor’s bravery that I read in the fifth grade, but I sure do remember the only Iraqi movie that was produced about that rebellion. The director of the movie used a huge budget (Iraqi standards) and hired some British actors including Oliver Reed. He (the director) was rewarded generously By Saddam for showing the truth about that historical event.
[…]
Anyway, I don’t know which is worse; that the two experts in Arab world didn’t know about Dr. Al Wardi and his writings or that they knew but chose Sadam’s version of Iraq’s history!?

I suspect there’s more of this than we know.

Kevin Sites’ Open Letter

Military 1 Comment

Via Wizbang – Kevin Sites, the cameraman who captured the now infamous footage of a Marine shooting a wounded jihadi, has an Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1 at his blog site.
Addendum:
Now, read this account of the nature of the urban warfare in Fallujah. (Thanks to reader “Reid-O” for the tip)

Farenheit 2008

Little Known Facts 1 Comment

Hey Mike – just a heads up, you know.

Quote Of The Day

What He Said 1 Comment

Imagine is “America’s alternative national anthem since 9/11�?
Words fail me.
And that’s something I have in common with John Lennon at the time he was writing that saccharine totalitarian dirge. – Andrew Stuttaford

Saudization Of The Workplace

According to stall manager Hassan Saleh Salman Arawiti the serious problems at Alkhobar’s produce market began exactly one year and two months back. At that time, as a part of the Kingdom’s Saudization efforts, the municipality forced out the Bangladeshis who had worked at the market for more than a decade. Repeated raids involving the police eventually ensured that all the expatriates were permanently driven away.

Apparently, no one stopped to ask why the Bangladeshis were there in the first place. They…. uh…. work.

“The leaseholders of the stalls tried to hire Saudis but it wasn’t very successful,” Arawiti said. “Those Saudis had no experience in the produce business and couldn’t work the long hours the business requires for profitability. Most Saudis stayed just a week or two and they were gone. The labor problems led to some stalls closing at that time.”
Customers became dissatisfied with the environment at Alkhobar’s halaga. They didn’t want to deal with the poor service and variable quality of the produce there. Arawiti explained that many supermarkets had begun offering produce by the carton. Customers, especially women, liked the convenience of buying their fruits and vegetables from the same place they purchased their other groceries. The stall managers found that even after the situation at Alkhobar’s halaga stabilized, the customers didn’t return. These days only five stalls are functioning.

It takes two Saudis to replace each expatriat worker. One wonders why they went to all the trouble of chasing out the expats, when they could have achieved the same result by simply unionizing them.

Hitler’s Jesusland

What He Said No Comments

A Belmont Club history review for the modern Nazi distortionist.

If Hitler was altogether more evil than we can conceive, he arose from a time and circumstance which few if any can still remember. Any comparisons between the 1945 and 2004 are likely to be inexact. Those who point to the shooting of Jihadi in Fallujah by a US Marine as evidence that America is drifting into Nazism would do well to remember that in 1945, American troops who arrived in Dachau were so disgusted by what they saw they executed hundreds of SS guards on the spot. This is a link to remarkable photographs of the incident.

“The killing of unarmed POWs did not trouble many of the men in I company that day for to them the SS guards did not deserve the same protected status as enemy soldiers who have been captured after a valiant fight.

To many of the men in I company, the SS were nothing more than wild, vicious animals whose role in this war was to starve, brutalize, torment, torture and murder helpless civilians.” Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, From Sicily to Dachau: A history of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division.

French Troops Fire On Unarmed Civilians

Radioactive 1 Comment

No word on this from the mainstream media, as far as I can tell, but it’s burning up the internet.
Via LGF and Flea at the Shotgun
Video downloads available here. Read the Shotgun post first, though, so you are duly warned about the graphic nature of the film.
Freewillblog has a new, downsized version. Still around 15 megs, so dialup users like me are out of luck. His site is getting hit pretty hard though, so be patient if you can’t get through.

“To hell they will go.”

What He Said No Comments

Iraq link roundup:
Greyhawk: It’s a good thing we’re communicating by written words now rather than spoken, because there’s a helicopter parked about 50 yards from me, still running, an ambulance next to it with a guy on a stretcher in between. It’s loud – but it’s also dark out right now so I can’t see if it’s an American on that stretcher or an Iraqi. Whoever it is they’re on their way out now. A must read.
Jeremy Brown on the current peril of Iraqi blogger Zayed. (Healing Iraq).
Rising concerns in Europe about the “growing ethnic tensions as EU nations struggle to absorb a steady stream of poor, mostly Muslim immigrants.”
James Joyner has the MSM versions, plus good news on debt forgiveness.
Donald Sensing on the Marine shooting, and how it might be viewed under the Geneva Convention.
Powerline sums coverage up succintly today –

Today, the Associated Press reports: “Violent Attacks Sweep Baghdad; GI Killed”: […] Baghdad is, I believe, a city approximately equal to Los Angeles in area and population. One can fairly question whether incidents occurring in six locations constitute “widespread clashes” “sweep[ing] Baghdad.” But, as always, the tone of the coverage of the Iraq war reflects the agenda of those who write the news.

Brainwashing 101

November 20, 2004