From my archive of press clippings:
Jamaica Observer
Second indictment against Dudus?
Sunday, March 07, 2010
THE American Government has prepared a second indictment against Tivoli Gardens don Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, a highly placed source in Washington has told the Sunday Observer.
Read the whole article here.
Snippet(s):
"The US has accused Coke of drug- and gun-trafficking.
A diplomatic joust has developed between Kingston and Washington over the extradition request filed last August but which has not yet been processed for hearing in a Jamaican court."
&
"(L)ast Monday, the US State Department, in a scathing International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, questioned Jamaica's commitment to law enforcement co-operation and accused the Golding administration of unprecedented delays, unexplained disclosure of law enforcement information to the press, and unfounded allegations questioning the US' compliance with the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and Jamaican law."
Showing posts with label US government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US government. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Thursday, January 22, 2009
H.IE - Firms charge for free USA visa service
Herald.ie
Firms charge for free USA visa service
By Michael Lavery
Thursday January 08 2009
Some online travel companies are charging travellers to make a free application to the US government on their behalf, it was claimed today.
Read the whole article here.
Snippet(s):
"From next Monday, all travellers entering the US with passports from Visa Waiver Programme countries, such as Ireland, will have to obtain authorisation in advance of travel.
Passengers simply need to log onto the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) website before they embark on their journey and answer some questions online, a spokesperson for Holiday Homes Direct.ie said.
Until now, passengers who travelled to the US filled in the form during the flight or at immigration in Dublin or Shannon airports. The online ESTA system asks for the same information, but now it must be received in advance of the trip."
Firms charge for free USA visa service
By Michael Lavery
Thursday January 08 2009
Some online travel companies are charging travellers to make a free application to the US government on their behalf, it was claimed today.
Read the whole article here.
Snippet(s):
"From next Monday, all travellers entering the US with passports from Visa Waiver Programme countries, such as Ireland, will have to obtain authorisation in advance of travel.
Passengers simply need to log onto the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) website before they embark on their journey and answer some questions online, a spokesperson for Holiday Homes Direct.ie said.
Until now, passengers who travelled to the US filled in the form during the flight or at immigration in Dublin or Shannon airports. The online ESTA system asks for the same information, but now it must be received in advance of the trip."
&
""The US Dept of Homeland Security said that all international travellers seeking to travel to the US under the Visa Waiver Programme "are now subject to enhanced security arrangements"."Monday, January 19, 2009
re: "Embassy Security in Iran - The Lesson Not Learned"
Fred at Fred Fry International ("Citizen Journalist and Observer of Human Nature") just finished reading Guests of the Ayatollah. He draws some lessons-learned (or not).
Money quote(s):
"One thing that is clear by the end of the book is that the best way to deal with Iran is to keep ourselves isolated from them. Negotiations for the release of the hostages was an ongoing joke as the Iranians constantly changed their demands, always demanding more once the US Government demonstrated that it was willing to deal in order to win the freedom of the US Embassy staff being held hostage."
"(C)onfirmed recently was the Iranian people's ability to still act as agents of their Government while at the same time acting in a way that the Government can deny any involvement. This happened at the end of December when protesters stormed a UK Diplomatic compound in Tehran. This is exactly how the US hostage crisis started. The only reason this did not turn into a hostage situation was because it did not appear to be their goal, but it certainly could have been.
In short, the Iranians are the same thugs and are capable of the same acts as thirty years ago. Unfortunately, the US, UK and other Western Governments still have yet to adapt to deal with them. There was even recent talk of re-establishing diplomatic relations and re-opening the US Embassy in Iran."
&
"Iran is not the only place where US Embassies are at risk of a similar occupation. Another question is whether or not the US is prepared to use lethal force the next time five, ten, a hundred 'protesters' come jumping over an Embassy wall."
Two points.
First, there is what I sometimes cynically call the "full employment for ambassadors" program. There's what seems to me sometimes to be an unseemly haste to open or re-open embassies in places where perhaps we have no business being, or before it's reasonable and prudent or perhaps not really best in U.S. interests to do so. And there's always a reluctance to close (temporarily or otherwise) an embassy when things start to go to Hell. While Churchill was right ("jaw-jaw is better than war-war"), first questions should be asked first, to wit: Is it in the best interests of the United States to open/re-open its embassy in Country X at this time and why?
Second, with only very few exceptions, U.S. diplomatic facilities really aren't designed to function as fire bases, holding off human waves of attackers using cleared fields of fire, &tc. Neither are their security staffs; even where we have U.S. Marines ("No better friend, no worse enemy.") there simply aren't enough of them. Under the Vienna Conventions, the host nation is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of foreign diplomatic missions. Our own security arrangements, both physical and otherwise, are intended only to delay or obstruct an attack to allow the host nation time to respond and increase its protective measures.
What should be obvious (but is apparently not) is that when the host nation uses "spontaneous demonstrations" as a means of communicating its displeasure with the United States (countries like Iran, China, Syria, and Serbia come immediately to mind) then this system breaks down. Hell, it's not really broken in such cases, it's being used against us in a form of international lawfare. That's when you've got to constantly be re-visiting your first questions (see above).
Money quote(s):
"One thing that is clear by the end of the book is that the best way to deal with Iran is to keep ourselves isolated from them. Negotiations for the release of the hostages was an ongoing joke as the Iranians constantly changed their demands, always demanding more once the US Government demonstrated that it was willing to deal in order to win the freedom of the US Embassy staff being held hostage."
"(C)onfirmed recently was the Iranian people's ability to still act as agents of their Government while at the same time acting in a way that the Government can deny any involvement. This happened at the end of December when protesters stormed a UK Diplomatic compound in Tehran. This is exactly how the US hostage crisis started. The only reason this did not turn into a hostage situation was because it did not appear to be their goal, but it certainly could have been.
In short, the Iranians are the same thugs and are capable of the same acts as thirty years ago. Unfortunately, the US, UK and other Western Governments still have yet to adapt to deal with them. There was even recent talk of re-establishing diplomatic relations and re-opening the US Embassy in Iran."
&
"Iran is not the only place where US Embassies are at risk of a similar occupation. Another question is whether or not the US is prepared to use lethal force the next time five, ten, a hundred 'protesters' come jumping over an Embassy wall."
Two points.
First, there is what I sometimes cynically call the "full employment for ambassadors" program. There's what seems to me sometimes to be an unseemly haste to open or re-open embassies in places where perhaps we have no business being, or before it's reasonable and prudent or perhaps not really best in U.S. interests to do so. And there's always a reluctance to close (temporarily or otherwise) an embassy when things start to go to Hell. While Churchill was right ("jaw-jaw is better than war-war"), first questions should be asked first, to wit: Is it in the best interests of the United States to open/re-open its embassy in Country X at this time and why?
Second, with only very few exceptions, U.S. diplomatic facilities really aren't designed to function as fire bases, holding off human waves of attackers using cleared fields of fire, &tc. Neither are their security staffs; even where we have U.S. Marines ("No better friend, no worse enemy.") there simply aren't enough of them. Under the Vienna Conventions, the host nation is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of foreign diplomatic missions. Our own security arrangements, both physical and otherwise, are intended only to delay or obstruct an attack to allow the host nation time to respond and increase its protective measures.
What should be obvious (but is apparently not) is that when the host nation uses "spontaneous demonstrations" as a means of communicating its displeasure with the United States (countries like Iran, China, Syria, and Serbia come immediately to mind) then this system breaks down. Hell, it's not really broken in such cases, it's being used against us in a form of international lawfare. That's when you've got to constantly be re-visiting your first questions (see above).
Sunday, January 4, 2009
re: "Some interesting views on blogging while federal"
Thanks to Bureaucrat at Adventures in Bureaucracy ("Personal comments, opinions and observations from someone stuck inside the Capital Beltway.") for the mention and the link.
Money quote(s):
"(I)t's not bad advice, so I will add my own two cents here. This site is entirely personal, and nothing here represents the viewpoint of my employer. In fact, I usually stay away from making any sort of comments involving my current job and my current responsibilities. However, Washington is a company town, and I happen to work for that company, so it would be kind of difficult to refrain from commenting on government work entirely. It's just that here I speak for myself and not for my department. That said, it's always good to remember that old advice is still sound advice: don't bite the hand that feeds you."
&
"I don't really worry about public diplomacy issues, but I would say that the executive branch of the U.S. government in general -- not to say DHS specifically -- could do a better job in explaining itself and defending itself in public."
Money quote(s):
"(I)t's not bad advice, so I will add my own two cents here. This site is entirely personal, and nothing here represents the viewpoint of my employer. In fact, I usually stay away from making any sort of comments involving my current job and my current responsibilities. However, Washington is a company town, and I happen to work for that company, so it would be kind of difficult to refrain from commenting on government work entirely. It's just that here I speak for myself and not for my department. That said, it's always good to remember that old advice is still sound advice: don't bite the hand that feeds you."
&
"I don't really worry about public diplomacy issues, but I would say that the executive branch of the U.S. government in general -- not to say DHS specifically -- could do a better job in explaining itself and defending itself in public."
Friday, January 2, 2009
TR - Biz travelers howl over US gov RFIDs
From my archive of press clippings:
The Register
Biz travelers howl over US gov RFIDs
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco • Get more from this author Posted in Security, 1st December 2008 20:32 GMT VMware whitepaper - The business case for Virtualization
A travel industry group has called on the US government to halt its use of new machinery that remotely reads government issued identification cards at border crossings until the safety of the new system can be better understood.
Read the whole article here.
The Register
Biz travelers howl over US gov RFIDs
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco • Get more from this author Posted in Security, 1st December 2008 20:32 GMT VMware whitepaper - The business case for Virtualization
A travel industry group has called on the US government to halt its use of new machinery that remotely reads government issued identification cards at border crossings until the safety of the new system can be better understood.
Read the whole article here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
