While you've all been jabbering about civics and internet mobocracy...

[Cain]

...the results on stress tests of European banks have been released today.  Even with their softball methods, seven major banks still failed, and plenty of others don't exactly come out of this smelling of roses either.  The fact that the majority of the banks that failed are Spanish should also send some warning signals  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10732597

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/killer-drones-get-stealthy/

They're giving drones stealth technology. 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LG24Dg04.html

Kim Jong-eun is looking increasingly likely to be annointed the new leader of North Korea at this September's Communist Party meeting.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LG24Ae01.html

The US is resuming bi-lateral military ties with Indonesia, whose military are...not nice people.

http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2010/04/most-favored-cartel-status-up-for-grabs.html

Is the Mexican government embracing the Sinaloa Cartel?  I've heard the rumour before, but I'm still not sure what to make of it.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/sug_russian-spy-network-moved-money-to-zimbabwe-column--1057031.html

Looks like the Russians are doing business with Robert Mugabe....

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39130.html#ixzz0sDlUO249

A former US colonel who was part of Iran-Contra is being accused of smuggling weapons into Somalia. 

"US federal authorities accuse Joseph O'Toole, now 79, of conspiring with Israeli citizen Chanoch Miller, formerly an aeronautics engineer with Israeli defense firm Radom Aviation, to transport nearly 2,000  AK-47s from Bosnia to Banderal, Somalia. The smuggling operation, which employed forged end-user certificates issued in Chad, violated US weapons export control regulations, which are in compliance with a United Nations weapons embargo to war-ravaged Somalia. This is the second time O'Toole has been indicted with conspiring to smuggle weapons. In 1989, he was charged of working with fellow-American Richard St. Francis and Israeli alleged ex-Mossad operative Ari Ben-Menashe, to sell several US C-130 cargo airplanes to the Iranian government. Remarkably, the US government dropped all charges against O'Toole in 1991."

[Doktor Howl]

Woot.

I can see most of those links from this comp! 

Thanks, Cain.  The board is slower than dogshit, and this will give me something to while away a slow Friday.

[Cain]

It has been a pretty slow news week, truth be told.  Afghanistan is rumbling on, the Mexican Drug War is rumbling on, the BP oil spill is rumbling on, the economic crisis has been rumbling on...not much new is actually happening.

[Doktor Howl]

It has been a pretty slow news week, truth be told.  Afghanistan is rumbling on, the Mexican Drug War is rumbling on, the BP oil spill is rumbling on, the economic crisis has been rumbling on...not much new is actually happening.

I like the stealthy drone thing.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

So apparently the UN is claiming that the drones are illegal as they don't meet human rights requirements... something about extrajudicial killings being a bad idea..... pffffft. Morals, who needs 'em? We have Drones!

[Cain]

Also, consider the news about North Korea in the light of the current threat about nuclear weapons aimed at joint US-South Korean operations today.   Kim's son is seen as somewhat unreliable by elements in the military, it is believed, and taking a hard posture against the USA may be his doing, to show the generals he cannot be intimidated and is capable of keeping up the brinkmanship diplomacy that his father has used so well.

[Adios]

Also, consider the news about North Korea in the light of the current threat about nuclear weapons aimed at joint US-South Korean operations today.   Kim's son is seen as somewhat unreliable by elements in the military, it is believed, and taking a hard posture against the USA may be his doing, to show the generals he cannot be intimidated and is capable of keeping up the brinkmanship diplomacy that his father has used so well.

Add in the planed US and S Korea joint 'training' exercise.

[Cain]

That's the one they're threatening to deter with nuclear weapons.

[Adios]

That's the one they're threatening to deter with nuclear weapons.

In your opinion is he crazy enough to do it?

[Cain]

Not really.  North Korea has a long history of threatening with nukes in order to achieve short term political goals.  In this case, the USA is not the target of the threat, the North Korean generals are.  There may be secondary benefits from the stalled negotiations for North Korea and that is probably also being taken into consideration.  I can only really see those nukes ever coming into play in the event of an invasion of North Korea itself.

[Adios]

Not really.  North Korea has a long history of threatening with nukes in order to achieve short term political goals.  In this case, the USA is not the target of the threat, the North Korean generals are.  There may be secondary benefits from the stalled negotiations for North Korea and that is probably also being taken into consideration.  I can only really see those nukes ever coming into play in the event of an invasion of North Korea itself.

I feel the same way, bur I have to admit his posturing does make me nervous.

[Cain]

I'm more worried about Pakistan's nukes - they're half a coup away from being in the hands of Islamist radicals who believe they're under attack from America - not just in a general sense, but right now with an army on the border and killer drones flying over the country.

[Adios]

I'm more worried about Pakistan's nukes - they're half a coup away from being in the hands of Islamist radicals who believe they're under attack from America - not just in a general sense, but right now with an army on the border and killer drones flying over the country.

Pakistans are also long range, aren't they? And, yes that situation could turn very ugly very fast.

Do you blame them for thinking they are under attack by America?

[Cain]

Not super long range, but enough to cause discomfort in any forward operating bases in Central Asia.

Not really.  They are under attack from America, just not for the reasons they think

[Adios]

"We are working to re-establish a trust with Pakistan which was virtually eliminated when we stopped our relationship with them in 1990," Mullen said in Friday's news briefing.

Saturday's visit comes two days after Pakistan's government extended the term of Mullen's counterpart, Pakistan Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

But this will not address Lashkar-e-Taiba except as a threat.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/24/pakistan.mullen.arrival/index.html?hpt=Sbin