Świat – World

Marathon FL – November 24, 2008 — During the early morning hours of 20 November 1943, Marines of the 2nd Marine Division mounted and amphibious attack against the Japanese stronghold of Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands. The battle which lasted 72 hours would become infamous for the high number of casualties the Americans suffered. The sorrow was further compounded because many of the American bodies buried on the island were never recovered after the war.

[caption id="attachment_27425" align="alignnone" width="600"] Landings at Tarawa Source: – National Park Service – (National Archives, FMC- 21094[/caption]

In November 2007, the History Flight organization of Marathon, Florida and the WFI Research Group of Fall River, Massachusetts agreed to a joint, privately funded venture to locate and return the bodies of our war dead to their families. With the financial support of the VFW, The American Legion, The Baddour Foundation, private individuals and History Flight board members the joint effort was able to bring a team of professional researchers, historians and ground penetrating radar specialists together to find 139 of the 541 missing Marines from The Battle of Tarawa.

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T’was 30 years ago that a wisp of white smoke wafted o’er the Vatican City and in a flash the Word circled ‘round the world.  “We have a non-Italian Pope, Karol Wojtyla of Poland!”  Almost immediately, Diana Kwiatkowski saw in Pope John Paul II “a poetic spirit with a powerful impact on the people of a troubled time as relayed by modern day poets.”

Inspired by the thought, she undertook to edit and publish an anthology, which took a year to gather.  In the introduction to the book, THE POET POPE (KAROL WOJTYLA) Pope John Paul II, (Gusto Press 1980), Ms. Kwiatkowski explained that “In this book, forty poets, from all walks of life, and many religions, and from many countries, including far-away India, write about the Pope, a fellow-poet Pope – who has touched not only the world, but themselves individually, and they show how the ordinary man and woman has been affected by this sensitive, humanistic, lovable, and at times, humorous man.”  She goes on to write, “Through the hearts and talents of 40 gifted contributors, we poetically present a portion of his life and work to you.”

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Home Secretary Jacqui Smith spoke at the Institute for Public Policy Research Commission on national security and the security challenges we face in today’s world.

She said: „Terrorism has changed, is changing, and will continue to change. We have no option other than to respond if we are to remain constant and true in our defense of British liberties and British security. We rely not only on our police and law enforcement but on all parts of Government, on our communities, on international partners and on industry. We rely on the law and we need to be sure that the law evolves as the threat changes in a way consistent with our rights and freedoms. We rely on technology to provide us with solutions.”

Read the full speech:

I welcome the work that IPPR’s Commission is doing to strengthen our understanding of the security challenges we face in today’s world – a world in which no-one can doubt that changes can be rapid, and in which the importance of our interdependence will not be lost on anyone.

The commission’s work is very timely for us in government, with the UK’s first national security strategy published in March, and our plans to revise our own counter-terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST, later this year. The revised CONTEST strategy will clearly build on the relevant parts of the National Security Strategy, and it will look very different from its 2006 predecessor.

Significantly – and it is a theme I want to explore in this speech – it will reflect my belief that we need to be more sophisticated in how we engage openly with the public on our work to counter the threat of terrorism.

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Dr Krzysztof Tokarz

W 2011 roku, a więc już za 3 lata, ma wystartować nowy port lotniczy Berlin Brandenburg International, bardziej znany pod nazwą BBI. Umiejscowiony we wschodnich Niemczech, będzie bramą na świat nie tylko dla Niemców, ale i dla całej zachodniej Polski. Budujące się u bram Berlina lotnisko jest oddalone zaledwie o ok. 70 km od polskiej granicy zachodniej. To bardzo blisko.

Berlin Brandenburg International będzie zlokalizowany na powierzchni blisko półtora tysiąca hektarów. Terminal będzie mieć sześć poziomów i 16 rękawów dla pasażerów. W ciągu godziny będzie w stanie obsłużyć ponad 6 tysięcy ludzi. Lotnisko będzie dysponowało dwoma pasami startowymi. Jak poinformował rzecznik Berlińskich Portów Lotniczych Eberhard Elie – Koszt budowy całego kompleksu szacuje się na 2,2 mld euro. Nierzadko słyszy się głosy krytyki, iż jest to zbyt kosztowne przedsięwzięcie. I chociaż lotnisko ma pochłonąć tyle pieniędzy, to wielkością nie pokona największych europejskich portów lotniczych. Jego powstanie przyczyni się natomiast do zlikwidowania istniejących w Berlinie lotnisk takich jak Tegel, Tempelhof czy nawet Shönefeld. Z drugiej strony wiadomo już też, iż nie będzie ono nawet zapowiadaną konkurencją dla innego wielkiego lotniska w Niemczech, znajdującego się we Frankfurcie nad Menem. Nie wspominając już o wielkich europejskich portach lotniczych.W budowie biorą udział firmy głównie z Niemiec. Stworzono specjalny program mający zachęcać do udziału w przetargach i późniejszym wykonawstwie firm z Brandenburgii. Oblicza się, iż budowa da pracę łącznie około 40 tysiącom ludzi. Taka inwestycja w znaczący sposób przyczyni się do polepszenia sytuacji firm w całym regionie. Nie tylko da nowe miejsca pracy, ale i będzie powodowała wzrost zamożności firm. Także i polskie przedsiębiorstwa mogą wziąć udział w przetargach i ubiegać się o prace budowlane.

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Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski

Pokojowa propozycja Arabii Saudyjskiej w celu zakończenia wojny w Afganistanie zawiera członkostwo Talibanów w rządzie w Kabulu. Waszyngton stara się nie dopuścić Rosji do udziału w układzie pokojowym mimo tego, że Moskwa ubiega się taki udział. Indie chciałyby skorzystać z nowych dostaw paliwa na wypadek konstrukcji przez USA rurociągu przez teren Afganistanu. Iran oponuje przeciwko budowie takiego rurociągu. Najmniej do powiedzenia w tej sprawie wydają się mieć w tej chwili mieszkańcy Afganistanu.

Robert Gates, minister obrony USA, powiedział, że ostateczne rozwiązanie konfliktu w Afganistanie musi polegać na zgodzie z Talibanami. Już w październiku wódz Talibanów, Mullah Omar proponował odseparowanie Talibanów od Al-Qaidy oraz wyprosić Osama bin Laden’a z Afganistanu, w zamian za uznanie rządu Omar’a w Kabule przez USA. Oferta ta była wówczas zignorowana przez Waszyngton i USA dokonało ataku w ramach „wojny przeciwko terrorowi.”

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By Paul Goble

Vienna, September 19 – The removal of the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret police, from in front of KGB headquarters in Moscow was an iconic moment in the collapse of communism there in 1991, a step that many saw as a guarantee that the kind of repression he sponsored would never return.

But yesterday, members of a Duma committee applauded a proposal by the country’s former deputy procurator general to restore the statue of the first Chekist to its former place of honor, yet another indication of the way in which the political pendulum is swinging in the Russian Federation at the present time.

And even the possibility that Dzerzhinsky will again stand in Moscow gives especial urgency to a proposal by the Czech government this week to set up a Europe-wide center for the study of totalitarianism and its victims so that nothing will be forgotten lest the kind of historical revisionism Russia is now engaging in open the way for new horrors.

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By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com

September 8, 2008

From Mexico

Item: „Outspoken general gets ousted after faulting cops.” This included a longer article inside. It seems that the well respected Mexican army general Sergio Aponte, who was placed in control of the north west México border area at the start of the Calderón administration’s war on drugs had been speaking publicly about the rampant corruption of the local police forces in that area (like in Tijuana). He even published notices for the public not to report corruption problems to the local police but directly to the army. Here we have a general who spoke the truth publicly, but for speaking the truth, he has been transferred to duty in the México City area.

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12 sierpnia 2008 r. Prezydent Lech Kaczyński udał się z wizyta roboczą do Gruzji. Towarzyszą mu Prezydent Republiki Estońskiej Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Prezydent Republiki Litewskiej Valdas Adamkus, Prezydent Ukrainy Wiktor Juszczenko, Premier Republiki Łotewskiej Ivars Godmanis oraz minister spraw zagranicznych Radosław Sikorski.  

Przed odlotem na lotnisku wojskowym Okęcie odbył się briefing Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej Lecha Kaczyńskiego. 

Prezydent RP powiedział:

„Razem z prezydentem Litwy Valdasem Adamkusem, prezydentem Estonii Toomasem Hendrikiem Ilvesem oraz z premierem Łotwy – prezydent Valdis Zatlers nie wrócił jeszcze z Pekinu – jedziemy do Gruzji. Dołączy do nas również prezydent Ukrainy Wiktor Juszczenko.

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by: Dmitry Shlapentokh

Ukraine’s desire to join NATO and redefine its relationship with Russia has led to a dramatic reshaping of the Ukrainian past. Whereas Russia has usually emphasized the importance of 1 Pereiaslavska Rada (1654), which marked the Ukraine union/or absorption into the empire of the tsar, the present Ukrainian elite puts forward the battle of Konotop (1659), in which Ukrainian forces decimated the Russian army. This event will be celebrated in 2009 with great pomp, rivaling the celebration of Pereiaslavskai Rada in 1954, and is designed to demonstrate that the Ukraine/Russia relationship is not as amiable as most Russian historians claim. The planned celebration has led to sharp public response from Russian authorities. On the surface, this displeasure can be easily understood: Russian authorities see in it the historical backdrop for Ukraine’s increasing hostility to Russia. But it is not just that: one of the reasons for the sharp response is the Muslim ingredient in the event. Ukrainian officials emphasize the important Tatar role in the battle, and the alliance between Ukrainians and Tatars.

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By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com

All we keep hearing about in the election run up is that everybody wants „change”. Maybe it’s time to ask WHAT CHANGES?

One of the biggest things that has infuriated other countries and especially Latin American countries is the unilateral demands that the US government places on trade and aid legislation. Such was the case a few years ago when „reforms” affecting legal matters concerning military affairs were attached to an aid package to train foreign military intelligence forces. What was demanded were deep changes that would affect the involved country’s legal structure (and their constitutions). México, along with most other Latin American countries simply said no thanks.

Note that this happened with a Republican administration (Bush), and a Republican controlled congress. And all it did south of the border was to reinforce a high level of hatred to the arrogance of the US government (and especially Bush) toward their neighbors to the South.

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