Monday, 14 March 2011

My Embed with a Warlord

"You sons of Jews. You servants of infidels. You brought others here to occupy Afghanistan. You brought people to kill innocent Afghans. You are responsible. You motherfuckers. You sons of whores."
Half a dozen police officers were clustered around a radio in the headquarters at Pol-e-Khomri, capital of Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan. The Taliban insults came through loud and clear. The insurgents were only a few miles away. And they had good radios, Motorolas they had stolen from the police.
The radios had been taken last year in an incident the police didn't like to talk about but which was, nevertheless, revealing. Several policemen were captured by the Taliban. The insurgents seized their weapons and equipment. The policemen were beaten, and certainly humiliated, but they were not killed. That was only sensible on the part of the Taliban: War in Afghanistan has always been marked by changing alliances. Today's enemy may be tomorrow's friend. "This is not Iraq, where thousands of bodies were turning up in Baghdad with holes drilled in their kneecaps," one NATO officer with experience of both places told me.
The killing here may be restrained by pragmatism, but the exchange over the radio was bitter enough. "Murderers," the police officers shot back. "You servants of the Pakistanis. You brought Punjabis, ISI officers [Pakistani spies], Arabs, and Chechens here. You robbed millions of girls of an education. You destroyed this country to please your foreign masters."
The Taliban retorted: "You will pay. If you are men, why don't you fight us? Why do you hide like women? Why do you hide like foxes? Come out, sons of Jews."
The Taliban were about to get their wish. The police in Pol-e-Khomri were preparing an attack. An offensive was already under way across three other northern provinces. In Baghlan, the main thrust would be against one district, Borka, which was firmly in Taliban hands.
The man in charge of the offensive was a soft-spoken and charismatic general named Mohammed Daoud Daoud. He had once been secretary to martyred Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, whose picture is still displayed everywhere in this part of the country. Daoud now commanded all Interior Ministry forces in the north, including his own elite force of police commandos, Pamir 303. The government in Kabul was shortly to announce which parts of the country would begin transitioning to Afghan security control, and Daoud had invited my BBC crew -- me, my cameraman, a security guy, and an interpreter -- he said, so that we could see how Afghan forces were already conducting their own operations with very little help from NATO. He wanted to show us that Afghans were ready to lead the fight against the Taliban...

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Paul Wood @'FP'

The Longevity Project: Decades of Data Reveal Paths to Long Life

"Worrying is always bad for your health." Wrong. A study lasting for more than 80 years debunks conventional wisdom.
Philip was a bright, nervous child. He was younger than average in his grade, his mother having started him a year early. He was close to his parents, who divorced when he was 13, and then lived with his mother, who struggled to make ends meet. As he grew up, married, and became a father, he evolved into a worrier. He divorced, remarried shortly after. He joined the military and seemed to enjoy it, but later reported that his job was not fully satisfying, and he felt he hadn't lived up to his potential. He died early, before his 65th birthday, of a heart attack.
Philip was one of 1,500 bright children who were tracked for more than 80 years in a massive longitudinal study begun in 1921 by psychologist Lewis Terman. Terman and his successors—he died before many of the children—collected millions of details about these subjects, including whether they were breast-fed, how much they exercised, what their marriages were like, how satisfying their sex lives were, how satisfying their jobs were. Could this sea of information teach us how to avoid Philip's fate?...

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Veronique Greenwood @'the Atlantic'

Investigation: Interpol and Julian Assange's Red Notice

'Chemical reflections like cool aid with Owsley' Rest In Peace Bear...

Via

♪♫ Masters Apprentices - Our Friend Owsley Stanley III (Live 'Get To Know' 1971)

(Thanx Scurvy!)

Phil Lesh on Bear: 'There’s nothing wrong with Bear that several billion fewer brain cells wouldn't fix'

Fare thee well, Bear
A Beautiful Mind

I received a text in the middle of last night that Bear Stanley has
died in a car accident in Australia. Bear, for me, was a true kindred
spirit; when we first met, it was as if I had met a long-lost brother
from another lifetime. I am heartbroken and devastated at his passing.
He was a friend, a brother, an inspiration, and our patron at the very beginning of our creative lives. We owe him more than what can be counted or added up- his was a mind that refused to accept limits, and he reinforced in us that striving for the infinite, the refusal toaccept the status quo, that has informed so much of our work.
He never gave up his quest for pushing the limits of whatever he was working on. We had just been discussing his concept of point-source sound reinforcement in relation to a new project of mine, and his vision incorporated the latest developments in technology and perceptual research.
My heart goes out to his family, for whom he had such love and pride- his wife Sheilah, his children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren- who have lost their patriarch.
A mind like Bear’s appears very rarely, and it’s been my privilege and honor to have known and loved two such minds- Jerry and Bear. I always laugh when I think about what Jerry once said about Bear: There’s
nothing wrong with Bear that several billion fewer brain cells wouldn't fix.
I am eternally grateful for all of the gifts that Bear brought to the scene and to the music.
Fare you well; I love you more than words can tell.
- Phil

Bear & Garcia

Interview with an Alchemist: Bear Owsley Interview

Adrian Lamo interviewed by Al Jazeera

"I'm sorry that I could not be a friend to Manning": Adrian Lamo
@'Al Jazeera'

Wikileaks row: US spokesman Crowley quits over gaffe

US state department spokesman PJ Crowley has resigned after calling the treatment of the man accused of leaking secret cables to Wikileaks "stupid".

He said he was taking responsibility for the impact of his remarks about Bradley Manning.
Private Manning is being held in solitary confinement at a maximum security US military jail.
He has been on suicide watch at the Quantico marine base in Virginia and is shackled at all times.
He faces 34 charges relating to the leaking of 720,000 diplomatic and military documents.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she accepted Mr Crowley's resignation "with regret".
She said he had served his nation "with distinction", "motivated by a deep devotion to public policy and public diplomacy".
Mr Crowley was speaking to an audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about new media and foreign policy when he made the controversial remarks.
He was asked by a participant about the "the elephant in the room" - Wikileaks - and, in the questioner's words, "torturing a prisoner in a military brig".
"I spent 26 years in the air force," Mr Crowley reportedly replied.
"What is happening to Manning is ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid, and I don't know why the DoD [Department of Defense] is doing it. Nevertheless, Manning is in the right place."
He said his comments were on the record, though he later added that they were his own opinion.
In his resignation letter he said: "Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation."
His remarks were revealed in a blog by the BBC's Philippa Thomas, who attended the event.
President Barack Obama later insisted he had received assurances that the terms of Pte Manning's confinement were "appropriate".
Earlier this year, rights organisation Amnesty International expressed concern about the conditions in which Mr Manning was being held.
It said he had been held "for 23 hours a day in a sparsely furnished solitary cell and deprived of a pillow, sheets, and personal possessions since July 2010".
He was also reportedly forced to disrobe on a daily basis.
@'BBC'
Full statement

'Bear' interview 2007

For the unrepentant patriarch of LSD, long, strange trip winds back to Bay Area

Owsley 'Bear' Stanley R.I.P

Psychedelic icon Owsley Stanley dies in Australia

'Some Notes'
http://www.thebear.org/

Up to 100,000 protest Wisconsin law curbing unions

Up to 100,000 people protested at the Wisconsin state Capitol on Saturday against a new law curbing the union rights of public workers that is seen as one of the biggest challenges in decades facing U.S. organized labor.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain estimated the crowd at 85,000 to 100,000 people, which would top the size of protests in Madison during the Vietnam War.
The demonstration, capping three weeks of public protests, came a day after Republican Governor Scott Walker signed into law a bill to eliminate most bargaining rights for many state government workers.
The state Legislature passed the measure this week after Republicans in the state Senate bypassed a Democratic boycott of the chamber.
The battle in Wisconsin has ignited a national struggle over efforts by several budget-strapped state governments to rein in union power.
Republicans say the measures are needed to gain control of deficit-ridden budgets. Democrats and their union backers say Republicans are ramming through union-busting proposals.
The confrontation with unions could be the biggest showdown with labor since President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers nearly 30 years ago.
Protesters on Saturday cheered the Democratic state senators who returned to Wisconsin after fleeing to Illinois for three weeks to try to stall the Legislature's consideration of the measure.
"It's so good to be home in Wisconsin," Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller told demonstrators, who chanted, "Welcome Home" and "We're With You."
"Our fight to protect union rights has become a fight to protect all our rights -- a fight to protect democracy," said Miller. "You have inspired the nation with your passionate and peaceful protests."
In a statement, Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, instrumental in shepherding the union restrictions through the Legislature, criticized the Democrats.
"It's an absolute insult to the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who are struggling to find a job, much less one they can run away from and go down to Illinois -- with pay," Fitzgerald said.
Restrictions on public sector unions have been introduced in a number of other U.S. states with Republican governors, including Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Florida. Some Democrats see it as the opening salvo of the 2012 presidential election because unions are the biggest single contributors to the Democratic Party.
James B. Kelleher @'Reuters'