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updated 10:55 p.m. ET, Mon., May 24, 2010
WASHINGTON - The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents.
The secret directive, signed in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, authorizes the sending of American Special Operations troops to both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to gather intelligence and build ties with local forces. Officials said the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate. While the Bush administration had approved some clandestine military activities far from designated war zones, the new order is intended to make such efforts more systematic and long term, officials said. Its goals are to build networks that could “penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy” Al Qaeda and other militant groups, as well as to “prepare the environment” for future attacks by American or local military forces, the document said. The order, however, does not appear to authorize offensive strikes in any specific countries.
In broadening its secret activities, the United States military has also sought in recent years to break its dependence on the Central Intelligence Agency and other spy agencies for information in countries without a significant American troop presence.
Intelligence gaps
General Petraeus’s order is meant for use of small teams of American troops to fill intelligence gaps about terror organizations and other threats in the Middle East and beyond, especially emerging groups plotting attacks against the United States.
But some Pentagon officials worry that the expanded role carries risks. The authorized activities could strain relationships with friendly governments like Saudi Arabia or Yemen, or incite the anger of hostile nations like Iran and Syria. Many in the military are also concerned that as American troops assume roles far from traditional combat, they would be at risk of being treated as spies if captured and denied the Geneva Convention protections afforded military detainees.
The precise operations that the directive authorizes are unclear, and what the military has done to follow through on the order is uncertain. The document, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, provides few details about continuing missions or intelligence-gathering operations. Several government officials who described the impetus for the order would speak only on condition of anonymity because the document is classified. Spokesmen for the White House and the Pentagon declined to comment for this article. The Times, responding to concerns about troop safety raised by an official at United States Central Command, the military headquarters run by General Petraeus, withheld some details about how troops could be deployed in certain countries. The seven-page directive appears to authorize specific operations in Iran, most likely to gather intelligence about the country’s nuclear program or identify dissident groups that might be useful for a future military offensive. The Obama administration insists that for the moment, it is committed to penalizing Iran for its nuclear activities only with diplomatic and economic sanctions. Nevertheless, the Pentagon has to draw up detailed war plans to be prepared in advance, in the event that President Obama ever authorizes a strike. “The Defense Department can’t be caught flat-footed,” said one Pentagon official with knowledge of General Petraeus’s order.
Military activity in Yemen
The directive, the Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force Execute Order, signed Sept. 30, may also have helped lay a foundation for the surge of American military activity in Yemen that began three months later.
Special Operations troops began working with Yemen’s military to try to dismantle Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an affiliate of Osama bin Laden’s terror network based in Yemen. The Pentagon has also carried out missile strikes from Navy ships into suspected militant hideouts and plans to spend more than $155 million equipping Yemeni troops with armored vehicles, helicopters and small arms. Officials said that many top commanders, General Petraeus among them, have advocated an expansive interpretation of the military’s role around the world, arguing that troops need to operate beyond Iraq and Afghanistan to better fight militant groups. The order, which an official said was drafted in close coordination with Adm. Eric T. Olson, the officer in charge of the United States Special Operations Command, calls for clandestine activities that “cannot or will not be accomplished” by conventional military operations or “interagency activities,” a reference to American spy agencies. While the C.I.A. and the Pentagon have often been at odds over expansion of clandestine military activity, most recently over intelligence gathering by Pentagon contractors in Pakistan and Afghanistan, there does not appear to have been a significant dispute over the September order. A spokesman for the C.I.A. declined to confirm the existence of General Petraeus’s order, but said that the spy agency and the Pentagon had a “close relationship” and generally coordinate operations in the field. “There’s more than enough work to go around,” said the spokesman, Paul Gimigliano. “The real key is coordination. That typically works well, and if problems arise, they get settled.”
No presidential approval needed
During the Bush administration, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld endorsed clandestine military operations, arguing that Special Operations troops could be as effective as traditional spies, if not more so.
Unlike covert actions undertaken by the C.I.A., such clandestine activity does not require the president’s approval or regular reports to Congress, although Pentagon officials have said that any significant ventures are cleared through the National Security Council. Special Operations troops have already been sent into a small number of countries to carry out limited surveillance and reconnaissance missions, including operations to gather intelligence about airstrips, bridges and beaches that might be needed for an offensive. Some of Mr. Rumsfeld’s initiatives were controversial, and met with resistance by some at the State Department and C.I.A. who saw the troops as a backdoor attempt by the Pentagon to assert influence outside of war zones. In 2004, one of the first groups sent overseas was pulled out of Paraguay after killing a pistol-waving robber who had attacked them as they stepped out of a taxi. A Pentagon order that year gave the military authority for offensive strikes in more than a dozen countries, and Special Operations troops carried them out in Syria, Pakistan and Somalia. In contrast, General Petraeus’s September order is focused on intelligence gathering — by American troops, foreign businesspeople, academics or others — to identify militants and provide “persistent situational awareness,” while forging ties to local indigenous groups. Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting. |
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What Women Eat May Affect Kids, Grandkids
While cancer victims usually blame themselves — I shouldn't have smoked, should have eaten better, should have exercised — or the cruelty of chance, they may now have a new scapegoat: Grandma. Eating poorly during pregnancy can increase your children's and your grandchildren's risk of cancer, even if they themselves eat healthily, a new study on rats suggests.
The risk associated with high-fat diets, especially those high in omega-6 fatty acids, "can be passed from one generation to another without any further exposure," said lead researcher Sonia de Assis of Georgetown University.
While done in rats, the diets used by the study mirrored some typical American eating habits, and so the researchers suspect the results could hold for humans as well.
The research was presented last week at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in Washington D.C. During the study, some pregnant rats were fed a diet high in omega-6 fat while others received standard fare. After the babies were delivered, all the mothers, their children and their eventual grandchildren ate healthy moderate-fat diets. Granddaughters of the rats that gobbled excess fat during pregnancy had a 30-percent greater chance of developing breast cancer than those with grandparents who ate healthfully. When only one grandmother, on either the mother's or father's side, had indulged, the granddaughter's disease risk was 19-percent higher. For the high-fat diet, the study used a chow that was 43-percent fat, predominantly from omega-6 rich vegetable oil. Most recommendations for a healthy diet include keeping fat intake at 25 to 30 percent, de Assis told LiveScience, "but with fast foods and everything, a lot of people eat more than that each day."
Fat gone rogue This should not imply that fat causes cancer — many fats are quite good for you, after all. But it is more bad news for omega-6 fatty acids, found in corn oil and most non-grass-fed meats. Omega 6s, while essential to a healthy diet, should be balanced with omega 3s. The optimum ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 is likely between 4:1 to 1:1, but in the typical American diet the ratio is more like between 20 and 16:1. This imbalance has previously been linked to a host of health problems, including depression, infertility, heart disease and, yes, cancer.
In the new study, the researchers theorize the increased cancer risk might be a result of the epigenetic effects of omega-6 fats. (Epigenetics refers to the idea that even if genes themselves aren't altered, how they function can change.) Omega 6s may indirectly turn off genes that slow cell apoptosis (normal cell death). Cells can then proliferate and lead to tumors, which are essentially a bundle of multiplying cells gone wild. Somehow, the fat must also be affecting the "germ line," the pathways that lead to viable sperm and eggs, for the effect to be crossing multiple generations.
DNA is not in the driver's seat Epigenome, which literally means "on top of the genome," refers to all the factors that control how a gene is expressed. The new study potentially adds to the growing body of research suggesting the epigenome may be at the root of many health problems. "People think there is nothing you can do (about your disease risk)," said researcher Rod Dashwood of Oregon State University, who gave a lecture on epigenetics at the Experimental Biology 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif. "But you are not just what your genes are." (Dashwood has conducted separate research from de Assis.) Rather, you are your genes under the influence of your epigenome, which, during critical periods, is shaped by your environment, your lifestyle, your life experience — and those of your immediate ancestors.
"Genes only account for 5 to 10 percent of the familial risk of breast cancer," said de Assis, by way of illustration. Something inherited in the epigenome could account for the rest. Take hold of the steering wheel For decades, studies have been associating diet with disease risk. Now, research on the epigenome may be revealing the mechanism at play.
For example, Dashwood's work indicates that many whole foods — including broccoli sprouts, onions, garlic, radishes, wasabi, daikon, horseradish and wheat bran — may help prevent epigenetic processes that lead to degenerative diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, stroke and even aging.
"The (epigenetic) effect may be contributing to the overall health benefits of these particular foods," Dashwood told LiveScience. While the multi-generational impact of veggies has not been studied, Dashwood said, "some epigenetic marks can go through six, seven generations."
More research is needed but the lunchroom choice between a bacon-cheeseburger or stir-fry may not only affect your own health, but that of your children and grandchildren.
© 2010 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
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(To view actual article go to:
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/entertainment/movies/15549)
Does Alien Movie 'Avatar' Have a Racist Theme? Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 5:22 am
By: Jesse Washington, AP National Writer
Near the end of the hit film "Avatar," the villain snarls at the hero, "How does it feel to betray your own race?" Both men are white — although the hero is inhabiting a blue-skinned, 9-foot-tall, long-tailed alien.
Strange as it may seem for a film that pits greedy, immoral humans against noble denizens of a faraway moon, "Avatar" is being criticized by a small but vocal group of people who allege it contains racist themes — the white hero once again saving the primitive natives.
Since the film opened to widespread critical acclaim three weeks ago, hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have said things such as the film is "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people" and that it reinforces "the white Messiah fable."
The film's writer and director, James Cameron, says the real theme is about respecting others' differences.
In the film (read no further if you don't want the plot spoiled for you) a white, paralyzed Marine, Jake Sully, is mentally linked to an alien's body and set loose on the planet Pandora. His mission: persuade the mystic, nature-loving Na'vi to make way for humans to mine their land for unobtanium, worth $20 million per kilo back home.
Like Kevin Costner in "Dances with Wolves" and Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai" or as far back as Jimmy Stewart in the 1950 Western "Broken Arrow," Sully soon switches sides. He falls in love with the Na'vi princess and leads the bird-riding, bow-and-arrow-shooting aliens to victory over the white men's spaceships and mega-robots.
Adding to the racial dynamic is that the main Na'vi characters are played by actors of color, led by a Dominican, Zoe Saldana, as the princess. The film also is an obvious metaphor for how European settlers in America wiped out the Indians.
Robinne Lee, an actress in such recent films as "Seven Pounds" and "Hotel for Dogs," said that "Avatar" was "beautiful" and that she understood the economic logic of casting a white lead if most of the audience is white.
But she said the film, which so far has the second-highest worldwide box-office gross ever, still reminded her of Hollywood's "Pocahontas" story — "the Indian woman leads the white man into the wilderness, and he learns the way of the people and becomes the savior."
"It's really upsetting in many ways," said Lee, who is black with Jamaican and Chinese ancestry. "It would be nice if we could save ourselves."
Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of the sci-fi Web site io9.com, likened "Avatar" to the recent film "District 9," in which a white man accidentally becomes an alien and then helps save them, and 1984's "Dune," in which a white man becomes an alien Messiah.
"Main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color ... (then) go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed," she wrote.
"When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?" wrote Newitz, who is white.
Black film professor and author Donald Bogle said he can understand why people would be troubled by "Avatar," although he praised it as a "stunning" work.
"A segment of the audience is carrying in the back of its head some sense of movie history," said Bogle, author of "Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films."
Bogle stopped short, however, of calling the movie racist.
"It's a film with still a certain kind of distortion," he said. "It's a movie that hasn't yet freed itself of old Hollywood traditions, old formulas."
Writer/director Cameron, who .....
Does Alien Movie 'Avatar' Have a Racist Theme? Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 5:22 am
By: Jesse Washington, AP National Writer ..... is white, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that his film "asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message."
There are many ways to interpret the art that is "Avatar."
What does it mean that in the final, sequel-begging scene, Sully abandons his human body and transforms into one of the Na'vi for good? Is Saldana's Na'vi character the real heroine because she, not Sully, kills the arch-villain? Does it matter that many conservatives are riled by what they call liberal environmental and anti-military messages?
Is Cameron actually exposing the historical evils of white colonizers? Does the existence of an alien species expose the reality that all humans are actually one race?
"Can't people just enjoy movies any more?" a person named Michelle posted on the Web site for Essence, the magazine for black women, which had 371 comments on a story debating the issue.
Although the "Avatar" debate springs from Hollywood's historical difficulties with race, Will Smith recently saved the planet in "I Am Legend," and Denzel Washington appears ready to do the same in the forthcoming "Book of Eli."
Bogle, the film historian, said that he was glad Cameron made the film and that it made people think about race.
"Maybe there is something he does want to say and put across" about race, Bogle said. "Maybe if he had a black hero in there, that point would have been even stronger."
___
Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. |
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| I have not had the opportunity to see Avatar, but I happened to come across this article this morning on blackamericaweb.com. I am not surprised that the theme is one that all of us are very familiar with; a white “savior” in a society that is not white. It was interesting to read all the different viewpoints on the movie, but I would like to share my thoughts on some of them.
One lady stated, “Can people not just enjoy movies anymore?” My answer to that is… of course one can enjoy a movie. But just because one enjoys a movie, he/she can not ignore what may be blatantly displayed in the movie. I am a firm believer in the concept of “input, output; what goes in must come out”. Whether society wants to admit it or not, African Americans and other races are affected by images of people who do not look like them. For evidence of this we can turn to Kenneth Bancroft Clark and Maime Phipps Clark; psychologists of the 1940’s who were witnesses in the Briggs v. Elliott case. Clark and Clark conducted experiments on African American children to see if racism, segregation, and integration had an effect on the children. When asked which doll they preferred, the children preferred white dolls over the African American dolls. Also when asked to color a picture of themselves, they often chose a shade that denoted a tone lighter than their actual skin tone. The children associated good and pretty attributes to white, and ugly and bad to black.
We live in a society where in most movies and television shows the main character does not look like us; we can not sit here and think that we are not affected by this. If children of seventy years ago were affected, so are our children and adults of today. So, yes we can just enjoy a movie, but if we are concerned about true advancement we will take more from a movie than the simple pleasures, but look to see what else the movie is saying.
In one of my counseling classes we are talking about cultural differences in counseling. A white lady was quoted in the text saying “there are special privileges to being white”. She later went on to say that when she opens a magazine or turns on the television that she will see individuals that look like her. As mentioned earlier I have not seen Avatar but if we want mainstream society to include us, we will be waiting for a long time, like we have already waited. Yes there have been some improvements, but if we want to see a face that mirrors ours on the television screen, the movie screen, the magazine pages etc, then we need to patronize, support, and create our own and stop waiting to be included. |
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Hey everyone, I guess I just wanted to get involved, so here goes.
I just wanted to write a blog asking if there are any poets out there (bc poetry is one of my loves), and if so just add me and let me know of any poetry events in the surrounding area; Anderson, Greenville, Clemson, etc. Thanks in advance.
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A complete stranger inspired this blog. I was out in the community and happened to see a man who is in a wheel chair approach his nice Chrysler, convertible top. I really didn't mean to be all in his business or be inconsiderate but I watched in awe as the man proceeded to get in his car. He positioned the wheel chair as close to the car as he could, got it to where it was just right, propped himself up (with his upper body strength), and moved his upper body into the car. Then he moved his legs in. It took him a while, but he was determined- HE HAD WILL- to get the wheels off his wheelchair. Then he had to put the remainder of his chair in the car. As I watched this man I was touched. I do not know his story; if he was born like that, if he was in a car wreck, I don't know. I just know that it is beautiful to live in a universe where you can see beauty and learn a lesson in everything if you simply take the time to be and to observe. It is often times sad and annoying when we surpass venting- to the point where we are constantly complaining- when we have so many more things to be thankful for. We ARE blessed and highly favored. I had already heard of the saying “where there’s a will, there’s a way” but this man put this phrase in a physical form, so that I could SEE it, manifested. I learned from this man that whenever or where ever we have a will to accomplish any task, regardless of how colossal or seeming impossible there is a way to accomplish that task; therefore, when we are weary or feel as if nothing is going right, we need to remember this and make it manifest in our lives; WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A WAY. The next time I even fix my lips to complain about something I perceive is unchangeable, unattainable, I'm going to remember this man, thank God for allowing me to experience a paragraph in his story, and continue to be inspired by him.
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I saw this article when I went to MSN this morning. They are trying to say that AIDS is stabilizing. Somehow I find that hard to believe. Not when AIDS is running rampant among the African American Community. In July Essence (I believe that was the issue) they mentioned that every 9.5 minutes someone contracts HIV/AIDS. That means while I am taking the time to write this that at least one person will contract HIV/AIDS. So you tell me if you think that seems like HIV/AIDS is stabilizing????
Then they mentioned all the countries in Africa that are plagued by this disease.Well I say that had they not made it in the effort to supposedly "cure" homosexuals then we wouldn't have this problem. But I'm not going to provide all of my opinons, ya'll do some reasearch and read this article and let me know what you think.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34125838/ns/health-aids/?GT1=43001
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