John Robb's Weblog

Plot to assault green zone...

..results in a lock-down of Baghdad. They don't make the linkage directly, but it makes sense given that they are buying time to try an unwind the plot. CNN.

A suspicious looking device

Very cool.

Hedge fund madness: this is hilarious

After Amaranth was forced to unwind, the scale of the loss escalated: The fund has lost $6.4 billion, according to the letter, which said assets were down 65 to 70 percent for the month and 55 to 60 percent for the year. Amaranth started the year with $7.5 billion and then soared to $9.2 billion before stumbling to less than $3 billion today.

Bush on the propaganda wars

"Some of them... make the case that by fighting terrorists, by fighting them in Iraq, we are making people less secure here at home. This argument buys into the enemy propaganda that the enemies attacked us because we are fighting them." UST

Walls!

NYTimes: The bill would require construction of two layers of reinforced fencing in stretches of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas that are considered among the most porous parts of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

Singapore Space Port?

Wow. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CCAS) is laying the groundwork here for the rules to govern flights out of Spaceport Singapore, a planned $115 million (SGD $191 million) project to offer suborbital spaceflights and a host of other experiences to adventure-seeking tourists.

Russian gas explosion

AP: An explosion hit a gas pipeline in the Volgograd region of southern Russia early Thursday, sparking a fire but causing no deaths or injuries, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

OSW: Fast, loose and out of control

ZN: UN Report on terrorism: "New explosive devices are now used in Afghanistan within a month of their first appearing in Iraq..."

Plan Colombia

Decentralized response to counter-pressure. Danna Harman, "Plan Colombia: Big gains, but cocaine still flows," CSM, Sept 28, 2006.

Despite the unprecedented eradication efforts, coca cultivation actually increased last year by 8 percent, according to a study released in June by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)... While coca was concentrated in three provinces at the start of Plan Colombia, today, it has spread to at least 23 of the country's 32 provinces. This geographical expansion also feeds a different problem, explains Pablo Casas, a security expert at the Security and Democracy Foundation in Bogotá. In the past, counternarcotics work was concentrated in a few areas, he says, but "everyone touches drugs now. Which means there are more police, military, and local authorities for the narcos to try to corrupt."

Taliban spill over in Pakistan

Pamela Constable, "In Tribal Pakistan, an Uneasy Quiet," Washington Post, Sept 28, 2006:

Foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the tribal region, but some of its prevailing atmosphere and attitude spill into neighboring areas of Pakistan. During a visit this week to Bannu, the closest city to the zone, a reporter found a curious mixture of rapid modernization and strong support for the Taliban.

Many people interviewed said admiringly that the Taliban had brought Islamic justice and moral order to Afghanistan, which it ruled from 1996 to 2001. They expressed little fear of the reported presence of Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters in the neighboring tribal areas, and some condoned the recent late-night bombings of two CD shops in Bannu, presumed to be a Taliban warning against music.

"If they became the government here, it would be good. We would have no cinemas, no vulgarity, nothing with a bad impact on our women and children."