Investigators now believe the bombing Sep. 21 that killed dozens and left massive damage at the Islamabad Marriott, including a gaping hole in the ground in front of the building, was a crude form of a device that intensifies and enhances an explosive – a thermobaric bomb, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The bomb was delivered in a truck that contained what investigators believe was aluminum powder in addition to grenades and artillery shells. The aluminum power is believed to have been responsible for the acceleration and expansion of the impact of the bomb.
While barriers around the hotel kept the truck bomb at some distance from the structure, the devastation indicated something raised the destruction level considerably.
The blast was thought to target Americans, since the hotel is a central location for U.S. personnel, including intelligence agents meeting outside the U.S. embassy. The hotel also is a temporary residence for U.S. personnel staying in the country.
Some five dozen people, including U.S. government employees, were killed by the truck bomb, which was said to include more than a ton of explosives.
If the analysis of the presence of aluminum powder is confirmed, it means terrorists with the capability can make such bombs without detection, since all ingredients are off-the-shelf.
Al-Qaida and related terrorist groups, such as the Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan, are thought to have made the attack on the Islamabad Marriott hotel. If that is accurate, then by extension al-Qaida has developed an ability to fashion thermobaric bombs of huge potential.
"Thermobaric bombs … may be emerging as a weapon of choice for terrorists," declared Tom Burky, an explosives expert at the Ohio-based Battelle defense research institute.
Burky pointed out that thermobaric bombs are meant to take out big buildings and cave complexes where metal fragmentations from traditional bombs don't work well. He added that thermobaric blasts can push around corners and down corridors or deep inside caves.
When an explosion occurs in a bomb using aluminum powder, as in the Islamabad Marriott hotel blast, metal powder creates a fireball as it contacts the air.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=76544
European governments scramble to protect banks
By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY
The Irish government Tuesday issued a blanket guarantee of its threatened banks, the latest sign that the U.S. financial crisis is wreaking havoc overseas. Irish officials moved swiftly to stem a looming loss of public confidence, deciding within hours to expose taxpayers to a potential 400 billion euro liability, not much less than the proposed $700 billion U.S. bailout that is drawing prolonged debate in Washington.
"It's a panic," says economist John Fitzgerald of Dublin's Economic and Social Research Institute.
Across Europe, governments are scrambling to safeguard banks, many saddled with now-toxic U.S. mortgage-related securities. Tuesday, the Belgian and French governments teamed in a $9.2 billion bailout of cross-border lender Dexia. The rescue came one day after the Belgian government joined with its Dutch counterparts to save Fortis, one of Europe's 20 biggest banks.
BELGIUM AND BEYOND: European bank gets $9.2 billion bailout
"It was essential to recapitalize Dexia to ensure the stability of the financial system," French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said, according to Reuters. Growing worries about European banks put pressure on the euro, which suffered its largest one-day fall against the dollar since its 1999 introduction, and drove interest rates on loans between banks to record highs. The euro ended trading at $1.41, down more than 2%.
In a reflection of growing credit market woes, the three-month European Interbank Offered Rate, a measure of what banks charge each other to borrow, hit 5.27%, up from 3.72% in early 2007.
After a flurry of bank rescues organized this week by shifting alliances of European governments, concern remains that a large continental institution may require saving. Several large banks are judged effectively too big to fail — and too big for any one government to save, says Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies.
Germany's Deutsche Bank, Barclays of the United Kingdom and the French bank BNP Paribas, for example, all have enormous lending and investment operations balanced atop relatively narrow capital bases, he said. By one measure, total assets divided by shareholder equity, the largest European banks are almost twice as highly leveraged as their U.S. counterparts, Gros said.
European banks with substantial operations in the U.S., such as Deutsche Bank, could benefit from the proposed U.S. financial rescue plan. But continued piecemeal rescues are doomed, he says, likening Europe's financial landscape to where the U.S. was about six months ago.
Ultimately, Gros says Europe's banks will need a sizable capital infusion. He puts the likely tab at more than $360 billion to restore the 10 largest institutions to fiscal health.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-30-ireland-insures-bank-deposits_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
What will the following article do? Everyone that has that much money in an account already has it in several accounts. This is a bunch of junk.
FDIC deposit insurance limit could bump up to $250,000
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-30-fdic-insurance_N.htm
West Nile season appears to be mildest in 7 years
September 26, 2008 - 8:35pm By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
Man shoots himself in arm after being denied sex October 2, 2008 - 5:20pmAP Medical Writer
ATLANTA (AP) - The West Nile virus season is on track to be the mildest in seven years, with less than a third the number of serious cases as last year's total, U.S. health officials said.
As of Tuesday, there were 368 severe cases, with 18 deaths, according to preliminary reports. Mississippi and California were hardest hit, together accounting for nearly half the cases.
Most West Nile infections are reported in August and September, so health officials believe the worst of the season is probably over.
It's not clear why this season has been so mild, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's the fewest cases since 2001, when the mosquito-borne virus was still emerging in the United States and was only reported in 10 states.
Mosquitoes often pick up the virus from birds they bite and then spread it to people. Perhaps the weather in some areas of the country was not as favorable for mosquito-breeding as in years past, some experts said.
West Nile virus was first reported in the United States in 1999 in New York, then gradually spread across the country.
About one in five infected people get sick. One in 150 will develop severe symptoms including neck stiffness, disorientation, coma and paralysis.
For all of 2007, more than 1,200 cases of severe West Nile illness were reported, and 124 deaths. The peaks occurred in 2002 and 2003, when severe illnesses numbered nearly 3,000 and deaths surpassed 260.
On the Net:
CDC West Nile information: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a Fort Myers man shot himself in the arm after his girlfriend refused to have sex with him. The Lee County Sheriff's Office reported that a 29-year-old man and his girlfriend returned home from a bar early Wednesday morning.
The girlfriend told deputies that her boyfriend wanted to get intimate, but she just wanted to go to sleep. When she refused, he became irate.
Authorities said the girlfriend went to a spare bedroom, and several minutes later she heard two gunshots. She told deputies her boyfriend came into her room and threatened her. He then stumbled into the kitchen before falling into the oven, knocking himself unconscious.
The man was treated for two gunshot wounds to the arm and was taken to jail.
The man was charged with threatening violence and firing a weapon in an occupied dwelling. He was being held on $100,000 bail.
___
Information from: The News-Press, http://www.news-press.com
China report urges missile shield Urges development of counter weapons
Bill Gertz (Contact)Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The United States needs new weapon systems, including missile defenses and other advanced military capabilities, to deter and counter China's steady buildup of nuclear and conventional arms, according to a draft internal report by a State Department advisory board.
U.S. defense policy has stressed missile defenses against Iran and North Korea. The report, by the Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), is the first to recommend such defenses against China, including technology in space.
The draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, said Chinese strategy goes beyond building forces capable of retaking the island of Taiwan. China seeks to "break out" by projecting power beyond its region including sea lanes that carry energy resources for its modernization, the document said.
"Using superior U.S. military technical capacities, the United States should undertake the development of new weapons, sensors, communications, and other programs and tactics to convince China that it will not be able to overcome the U.S. militarily," the report said.
The draft report presents a tough assessment of Chinese strategic modernization that goes beyond many current government and private-sector analyses that say that China's military modernization does not pose a major challenge to U.S. security interests.
For example, in an interview with The Washington Times in March, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden expressed professional "admiration" for China's rapid and sophisticated buildup and said it is "not inevitable that they will be an enemy." The report said that to reduce the chance of a miscalculation by China that could lead to a crisis or conflict, the United States "must take seriously China's challenge to U.S. military superiority in the Asia-Pacific region. ... China's military modernization is proceeding at a rate ... to be of concern even with the most benign interpretation of China's motivation."
Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong said in a statement that China is "naturally becoming stronger and more influential in world affairs" after 30 years of reform, but remains committed to peaceful development and a "foreign policy of peace."
"China will not harm anyone or pose a threat to anyone. China's development is opportunity, not threat. Any versions of China threat will continue to be proved fallacious," he said.
Mr. Wang also said his government is "committed to the peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question and the peaceful reunification" of the island with the mainland.
The draft by the 17-member advisory board has not been officially released. A State Department official familiar with the report said it is in the late stages and could be completed in the next several weeks.
The official said the report's stark assessment of China's strategy and forces was in line with the board's mandate to provide frank advice to the secretary of state from analysts outside government.
Brandon A. Buttrick, the ISAB executive director, said his office did not know when members would complete their review. "If the report is an unclassified report, it will be made available for public distribution as we have done with the previous ISAB reports when they are approved by the ISAB," he said.
Chinese police march in Tiananmen Square. Associated Press
The board is headed by former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The task force that produced the report was led by Robert Joseph, a former undersecretary of state and specialist on nonproliferation. The task force included former Sen. Charles S. Robb, Virginia Democrat; Allison B. Fortier, a vice president for missile defense at Lockheed Martin; and William Van Cleave, emeritus professor for defense and security studies at Missouri State University.
Mr. Robb said he initially took part but dropped out because of time constraints "notwithstanding my interest in the topic." He declined to comment further.
• Click here for China strategic plan PDF
Mr. Wolfowitz declined to be interviewed. Once the Bush administration's chief theorist on the war on terror and a major policymaker on the invasion of Iraq, Mr. Wolfowitz previously held numerous senior posts dealing with Asian affairs at both the State Department and Pentagon. He stepped down as World Bank president amid ethics inquiries in June.
The draft report said China's "major objective is to counter U.S. presence and U.S. military capabilities in East Asia through the acquisition of offensive capacities in critical functional areas that systematically exploit U.S. vulnerabilities." It said the buildup involves capabilities for "asymmetric warfare," such as space and computer weapons, that could help Chinese forces defeat a stronger U.S. military.
Among the areas of U.S. strategic vulnerability identified in the report are gaps in U.S. missile defenses; dependence on space for communications; the U.S. inability to use force against China except through aircraft carrier groups; and "fragile electronics and the Internet." The report recommends that the United States acquire new offensive space and cyber warfare capabilities and missile defenses as well as "more robust sea- and space-based capabilities" to deter any crisis over Taiwan.
China currently has about 20 missiles capable of reaching the United States but is projected to have more than 100 nuclear missiles, some likely with multiple warheads, by 2015, the report said.
Among the key findings:
• Continued rapid economic growth of 10 percent a year is "vital" for China to continue to compete with the United States and achieve its main goals of regime survival and regional dominance.
• China's industrial and defense espionage is aimed at obtaining advanced technology for economic and military modernization.
• The scale, scope and speed of China's rise fundamentally impacts U.S. national security, yet the U.S. "possesses only a limited understanding of Chinese intentions, and how Beijing's economic and military expansion affects these interests."
• China's military and civilian leaders are not always on the same page and that separation is a potential "focal point" for mitigating hostility. China's civilian leaders understand Americans but the Chinese military suffers from "clear paranoia and misperceptions" about U.S. intentions.
• To avoid an "emerging creep" by China toward strategic nuclear coercion, "the United States will need to pursue new missile defense capabilities, including taking full advantage of space," the report said.
On China's expansion after centuries as a regional power, the ISAB report stated that: "In China's view, Taiwan is the key to breakout: If China is to become a global power, the first step must include control of this island." Taking over the island would allow China to control the seas near its coasts and to project power eastward, the report said.
China views Taiwan, where nationalist forces fled from the mainland in 1949, as central to "the legitimacy of the regime and key to power projection," the report said. Taiwan also is seen by China as a way to deny the United States a key ally in "a highly strategic location" of the western Pacific, the report said.
Chinese authorities have said they desire peaceful reunification with Taiwan but will not allow it to declare formal independence and have not ruled out the use of force.
The advisory panel report also recommended that the U.S. increase sales of advanced conventional forces to allies in Asia and improve counterintelligence efforts.
Larry M. Wortzel, chairman of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said he has not seen the report but that blocking Taiwan independence and gaining control of the island "is one of the highest priorities set for the People's Liberation Army by the Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee and the Central Military Commission." "If China accomplishes this, its military can concentrate on missions to expand China's presence, influence, and even control, in wider areas of the Asia-Pacific region," he said.
Mr. Wang, the Chinese Embassy spokesman, said China's budget for 2007 was $45 billion, or 1.4 percent of gross domestic product. He said this year's defense budget is $57.2 billion, an increase of 17.6 percent.
The United States spends about 4 percent of GDP on defense, according to the CIA World Factbook.
However, the Pentagon's latest annual report on China's military stated that China's military spending figures do not include spending on China's space program, strategic forces, foreign acquisitions, military-related research and development and paramilitary forces.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/new-us-defenses-sought-to-counter-beijing-buildup/
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