Feb. 28th Round Up.

C.I.R. Press Editorial

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- I have mentioned on CIR Radio that my schedule is becoming bogged down. So my posting will slow and I am looking in to the very possible need to put CIR Radio on hiatus for a few weeks. We shall see.

But right now I wanted to give you a run down on a few stories that drew my attention.

Number one, right off the bat. Medvedev will most likely be "elected" as the new President of Russia. Putin will take a "step down" but be appointed PM. This actually scares me a bit, because he is not the KGB resume holder like Putin. So he will present the "softer-side of the USSR" while Putin has idle hands behind the scenes...no spot lights on him. I think the saying "idle hands are the devil's workshop" came from the idea of a previous Soviet era KGB gone president, now with idle hands.

Next, I have my issues with the press and especially their interaction with the military. From the AP:

The U.S. military said today a journalist working for Canada's CTV television network, who has been held for four months without being charged, has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant.

Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan who is also known as Jojo Yazemi, was allowed to make a statement before an enemy combatant review board, which determined there was credible information to detain him because he was dangerous to foreign troops and the Afghan government, said Maj. Chris Belcher,
a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

Next up, FISA and from the White House Press:

This brings us to immunity and the issue of immunity. The bills have prospective liability protections, so going forward with our activities. Then there's the issue of what to do about retroactive liability protection. And this involves the program that the President spoke about on December 17, 2005, in his radio address.

The Senate committee report is perhaps the best source of information about this. I would commend all of you to read it. They did an exhaustive analysis of this. The bill passed out of the Senate Intelligence Committee 13 to 2. Of course, you know it passed the Senate with 68 votes.

What do they say in that report? They say it's absolutely vital to our intelligence community mission that we have the cooperation of the private sector. It says that their help is indispensable to the safety of the nation. It also says -- it goes through what they call the unique historical circumstances after the attacks of September 11th, the fact that the private parties were given documentation showing that the President had authorized the program, and showing that the legality of the program was also certified by high-level administration officials. It said that they had a good-faith basis for cooperating with the government. It does not make a judgment about the ongoing discussions about the respective powers of the Congress and the President, and make an ultimate legal determination about that program.

Next, back to the USSR. Putin within the last month made a speech that accused the United States of sparking a new arms race. Yet, do not forget it was last August that PUTIN authorized for combat missions of bombers over the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific ocean. Numerous times had been intercepted by us as well as the British. In multiple cases either nearly or actually violating our airspace. Need I remind you of their "buzzing" of our carrier? They will be adding 11 new Topol-M advanced ICBMs (One more than the number of interceptors to be placed in Europe). Then the replacing of older missiles by the newer RS-24. In addition to the bragging of placing 3-6 new launch systems online every year. But our development of a system to be 100% defensive obviously is the major problem in the world!?! What the hell wacky-tabacky do they smoke over there?

I think I will stop there and allow you to ponder. Sweet Dreams.