UPDATES

Maybe There Really Is No Such Thing As Intelligence

Not much going on, although the latest revelation that the CIA doesn’t know what every crack dealer in the world does about phone intercepts is annoying, embarrassing and makes me long for the days of Wild Bill and the OSS.

For those of you not up to snuff (pun intended) this has to do with the kidnapping of a terrorist from Italy three years ago, in which the Italian government just issued warrants for some two dozen CIA operatives. The case was “broken” because — among other stupidity — the Italians were able to put a time line together of everyone involved by tracing their cellphones. And “everyone involved” includes the Milan station chief. Nice going guys.


Sanctions on Nine

Nine companies — six Chinese, two Indian and Austrian assault weapons manufacturer Steyr-Mannlicher — have been put on the sanction list for selling advanced weaponry to the whackos in Iran. The Indian companies are all chemical producers. We can understand the Austrians — they’re out of work Nazis and we know why the Chinese are doing it. Tell the Indians no more people imports to the US unless they knock it off, though.

Quickie: Why are India and the US the same? We both have convenience stores run by Indians. How are we different? The guys running the stores in India speak English.

Ahhhh, I got satellite radio for Christmas. Comedy and talk 24 hours a day. Ya gotta love it.


Withdrawal

The Ukraine and Bulgaria are said to have pulled all their troops out of Iraq. Poland said it would stand by the US and the policy implementation, but will cut its troop strength by 600. No word on whether they’ll cut forces in Afghanistan … or if they have any troops in Afghanistan (shhhhhh).

Thanks to the Ukraine (who have some problems at home with the Russians to worry about) and to the Bulgarians who are always taking crap for helping us. The Poles have proven stand-up as they’ve been doing since the American Revolution. Thanks for all the help to all of you.

Mass Graves

A Saadam era mass grave was found in Karbala yesterday. Naturally, since it can’t be attributed to anything we did, no one knows how many bodies it contains.