Two teenage burglars turned themselves into police when they discovered the CDs they stole were filled with child pornography, reports Fox 40 of Sacramento. Police let them go and instead arrested the guy who owned the discs. What’s weird is that Kraig Stockard had even called police to report the…
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Security forces discover bodies in Atlantic port after President Felipe Calderon launches fresh crackdown on drug barons Mexican security forces have found 32 bodies at several locations around the eastern city of Veracruz, according to the authorities, only two weeks after 35 corpses were dumped on a busy street in the Atlantic port. Just two days after the Mexican government unveiled a plan to lay down the law in the state of the same name, police and marines found the bodies in three different areas of the city, the navy said in a statement on Thursday. The bodies were discovered in homes around the port as the military conducted operations under the ‘Safe Veracruz’ programme, the statement said. Twenty bodies were found in one house that was searched following a tip from naval intelligence. More than 44,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a military campaign to crush Mexico’s powerful drug cartels in late 2006. The killings have damaged support for Calderon’s ruling conservatives, who face a major struggle to hold on to power in presidential elections due next July. However, Calderon said there could be no turning back from the fight against the gangs. “Part of the problem is that we didn’t fight (gangs) before like we should have done,” he said in a speech. On September 20, 35 bodies were dumped in broad daylight in the Boca del Rio area of Veracruz. A vigilante-style group later claimed responsibility for the deaths. Calling themselves the Zeta Killers, the group said it was targeting one of the most notorious of Mexico’s drug gangs, which has stirred fears of the emergence of paramilitary violence. Founded by renegade special forces soldiers, the Zetas have made a name for themselves as one of the bloodiest gangs in the country with countless killings and kidnappings. Mexico Drugs trade guardian.co.uk
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Former US commander of allied occupation force says operation is only ‘a little better than’ 50% of the way to its goals The US began the war in Afghanistan with a “frighteningly simplistic” view of the country and even 10 years later lacks the knowledge that could help bring the conflict to a successful end, a former top commander has said. Retired US army general Stanley McChrystal said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that the US and its Nato allies were only “a little better than” 50% of the way to reaching their war goals. Of the remaining tasks to be accomplished, he said, the most difficult may be to create a legitimate government that ordinary Afghans could believe in and that could serve as a counterweight to the Taliban. McChrystal, who commanded coalition forces in 2009-10 and was forced to resign in a flap over a magazine article, said the US entered Afghanistan in October 2001 with too little knowledge of Afghan culture. “We didn’t know enough and we still don’t know enough,” he said. “Most of us, me included, had a very superficial understanding of the situation and history, and we had a frighteningly simplistic view of recent history, the last 50 years.” US forces did not know the country’s languages and did not make “an effective effort” to learn them, he said. McChrystal said the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq less than two years after entering Afghanistan made the Afghan effort more difficult. “I think they were made more difficult, clearly,” he said, because the Iraq invasion “changed the Muslim world’s view of America’s effort. When we went after the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 there was a certain understanding that we had the ability and the right to defend ourselves and the fact that al-Qaida had been harboured by the Taliban was legitimate. “I think when we made the decision to go into Iraq that was less legitimate” in the eyes of much of the Muslim world, he said. Iraq also diverted military resources that could have been put to good use in Afghanistan, he said. Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal United States Taliban US foreign policy US military guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Former US commander of allied occupation force says operation is only ‘a little better than’ 50% of the way to its goals The US began the war in Afghanistan with a “frighteningly simplistic” view of the country and even 10 years later lacks the knowledge that could help bring the conflict to a successful end, a former top commander has said. Retired US army general Stanley McChrystal said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that the US and its Nato allies were only “a little better than” 50% of the way to reaching their war goals. Of the remaining tasks to be accomplished, he said, the most difficult may be to create a legitimate government that ordinary Afghans could believe in and that could serve as a counterweight to the Taliban. McChrystal, who commanded coalition forces in 2009-10 and was forced to resign in a flap over a magazine article, said the US entered Afghanistan in October 2001 with too little knowledge of Afghan culture. “We didn’t know enough and we still don’t know enough,” he said. “Most of us, me included, had a very superficial understanding of the situation and history, and we had a frighteningly simplistic view of recent history, the last 50 years.” US forces did not know the country’s languages and did not make “an effective effort” to learn them, he said. McChrystal said the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq less than two years after entering Afghanistan made the Afghan effort more difficult. “I think they were made more difficult, clearly,” he said, because the Iraq invasion “changed the Muslim world’s view of America’s effort. When we went after the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 there was a certain understanding that we had the ability and the right to defend ourselves and the fact that al-Qaida had been harboured by the Taliban was legitimate. “I think when we made the decision to go into Iraq that was less legitimate” in the eyes of much of the Muslim world, he said. Iraq also diverted military resources that could have been put to good use in Afghanistan, he said. Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal United States Taliban US foreign policy US military guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A Queens woman has been acquitted of murder in a case the New York Times describes as a key test of the battered-woman defense. Barbara Sheehan admitted that she shot her husband to death in 2008. But she testified that she suffered such relentless abuse from the retired NYPD cop…
Continue reading …The head of the Energy Department’s embattled clean-energy loan program is leaving in what officials called a planned departure. Jonathan Silver, who has headed the loan program since November 2009, is leaving to join a nonpartisan think tank. The program has come under fire from Republicans after Solyndra , a California…
Continue reading …It’s like a space tease: The normally tame Draconid meteor shower is expected to be unusually intense on Saturday, but viewers in North America look to be largely out of luck. As of now, the shower is expected to peak in daylight hours from 3 to 5pm ET, though a…
Continue reading …South Korea’s got a new kind of secret agent: the private education spy. The government is cracking down on costly tutoring institutions, and it offers a reward to citizens who catch tutors breaking the rules. The institutions, known as hagwons, have sprung up nationwide, sparking concerns that wealthy kids will…
Continue reading …Detroit has once again been named America’s most dangerous city, this time by Forbes , which offers the top (or, perhaps, bottom) 10, based on the FBI’s uniform crime report for 2010: Detroit : A rate of 1,111 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. A dwindling population, low employment rates, and…
Continue reading …A convoluted plan hatched by a school dean to catch a student suspected of dealing drugs ended up costing the Los Angeles Unified School District $1 million, the L.A. Times reports. The dean, Laura Custodio, found out from a 12-year-old boy that another student had offered to sell him…
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