Rehman Malik to resign if Blackwater Presence Proved

My post title is a headline from 21 November 2009.

In his statement to the senate standing committee on interior, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Blackwater was not operating in Pakistan and if proven wrong he would tender his resignation.

See the Story here.

So what does US Defense Secretary Gates say when in Pakistan?

“Fake” Story by Pak Tribune says:

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has admitted that US security companies Black Water and DynCorp are operating in Pakistan in private capacities: but will comply with the Pakistani law if its parliament bars foreign security companies in the country.

Real Story says:

Mr. Gates himself may have inadvertently helped fuel a new rumor. In his Thursday television interview, Ms. Hosain asked the defense chief if rules had been put in place to govern the behavior of any U.S. contractors working inside Pakistan, specifically citing DynCorp and Blackwater (now known as Xe Services.) Mr. Gates told her that "very stringent rules" had been put into place.

Of course then this transpires:

Defense officials tried to clarify the comment Thursday night, telling reporters that Mr. Gates had been speaking about contractor oversight more generally and that the Pentagon didn't employ Xe in Pakistan.

Soooo? Does he resign or not?

Stay Safe!

Bloggers Unite for Haiti

Today I am a part of bloggers Unite for Haiti.



We are as bloggers trying to help with aid to Haiti in our own way. I am sure that you are well aware of the over-all situation in Haiti.

First, I would like to point out that though I am currently in the Eastern Hemisphere, there are people in Haiti that I know and have known for quite some time. When you work with the UN as much as I have, this is something that happens.

The "Little Miracle" story of Tarmo Joveer is an example of what I am talking about. I have known Tarmo since around 2000. He was a part of the Eastonian Police Contingent that was deployed to the UN Mission in Kososvo. I remember their first official day and I met all 5 contingent members. Later on I joined with them in Eastonian Contingent meetings and felt a close camaraderie to them.

I remember when Tarmo left Kosovo he said he was getting a security job in Haiti. That was really the last real contact with him.



When I saw him on TV I knew it was him immediately.

I am glad Tarmo is a part of the good things that are happening in Haiti.

The road is long and hard to any kind of “recovery” for the people of Haiti. They hardly had anything before, and now what was there is all but destroyed.

So please donate if you can to relief efforts. There are some good sites that have various lists of ways that you can donate. One is Its Just Light which has a mirror page on Facebook .

If you have doubts as to where to send donations – send to an organization that you already know and trust. This will take a long time for Haiti, but for now just getting essentials to people can be a real issue.

God Bless the people in Haiti – and be Safe!

Note: this is a mirror post of my other blog Be Your Own Detective.

Disaster Strikes Haiti

It is a devastating earthquake that hit Haiti yesterday. Many people still cannot find loved ones and communication within Haiti is very poor.










Early Images of the quake show the dust in the air from cumbling concrete. Many of the buildings that still "stand" are all but destroyed.

Workers Search through Rubble. ......... Streets became impassable.

No offense to some of these up and coming newscasters, but I heard the dumbest statement - the guy said, "Haiti may not recover for months - maybe even a year." You have go to be kidding me! 5 years or more is a more likely scenario. Nearly every building in Port-au-Prince is destroyed or unusable.

Bodies were just lying in the streets.

The Presedential Palace lays in ruins.

Roads were destroyed.

As of the writing of this blog - the UN Headquarters there has collapsed and at least 150 of UN workers are still missing. The Head of the UN Mission in Haiti is feared to be dead.

The Whitehouse has a blog post about ways that you can assist.

You can find Facebook Pages about it here and here.

Or you can go to Red Cross and donate there.

If you can - please help.

Be Safe!

Political Correctness - or Not

Why is it that we have become so politically correct – yet incorrect?

Before I go on - can I use the term black in reference to some people? I thought the politically correct term was African American (even though the person is not from Africa). My view is there is only one race - and that is the human race. Do people get treated differently because of how they look? Of course they do. "Pretty people" generally get more breaks in life than the rest of us. People are treated different because of skin color, weight, age (or appearance of age). Such is life - and life is not fair.

I saw an article today on Yahoo News that made me think of this.

“APNewsBreak: Smiley ends State of the Black Union”

OK, before I even start to look at the article, I ponder the headline. First of all, why is it OK for a guy to have a State of the African American Black Union conference? I mean, if you had a state of the pigmentationally challenged white union conference – you would only expect white supremacists or the KKK. This leads me to the only logical conclusion:

Tavis Smiley is a racist. That is the only logical conclusion that can be drawn from this. It is simple. If a non special sub-group of the human race that is light skinned and likely has European ancestors white guy hosted the state of the pigmentationally challenged white union conference, he or she would immediately be labeled a racist by all. Therefore – Smiley is a Racist.

Oh but it is ok, because he is a militant “an activist” and a PBS host. – It is OK to be such a racist because my tax dollars are paying his salary!

“Smiley, who hosts a nightly half-hour talk show on PBS, said he was inspired to start the conference because black issues were rarely addressed in the president's State of the Union speech or the national media.” – Excuse me? Why would any President be obligated to address “black issues” in a State of the Union address? It is about the nation – not some or any sub-group of the people.

…The 2005 conference generated the idea for the book "Covenant with Black America," about issues facing the black community. One of Smiley's fondest State of the Black Union memories is holding the book aloft at the 2006 event and watching thousands of people in the audience do the same — "just the fact that we did what we said we were going to do." Cha-ching! (I bet he loved seeing all those sold copies of his book) Yep the truth comes out. He sold his racism and apparently people have bought it. It is all about Smiley and him making money.

“That led to Smiley's critical stance toward Obama because of the presidential candidate's insistence that the best way to help blacks was improving the entire economy, rather than specific policies targeting black problems.” - Oh please! African American Blacks need special targeting? So I guess what he means is the world owes them special treatment?

So I am calling Smiley out - I believe he is a racist - and now he needs to dis-prove that "fact." I am not saying that there are not any black issues, as there are plenty. People like Smiley do not help anyone overcome any of these issues - he simply exploits the issues and the people with his whole book series. But hey - that is the American way - exploit the people because there is a crisis! (even if the crisis is made up).

Be safe!

Obama Demands Explanation About Airline Security

You have got to be kidding - right?

I mean - White House party crashers at his place - and he says/does nothing. Underwear bomber on plane at Christmas and he demands an explanation. Maybe it has to do with the fact that his admisnistration shows no leadership in security concerns - pretty much all around. Hey, but he is a great armchair quarterback! After the game is over he can complain.