by Alex Gimarc                                Mon., February 18, 2008

Interesting Items 2/18 -

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -

In this issue:

1. FISA
2. BMD
3. Mughniyeh
4. Pebble
5. Ice Pack

1. FISA. Nancy Pelosi’s (D, SF) House leadership blew off a vote on an extension of FISA legislation Friday and let the extension lapse for the duration of their 12-day vacation. As a result, authority for the feds to conduct message intercepts and wiretaps for new terrorist threats no longer exists. At issue is a provision of the legislation that will grant immunity to the Telecom corporations for past assistance to the administration from lawsuits. The corporations acted in good faith as they responded to administration requests for assistance in surveiling suspected terrorist transmissions via phone lines switched in the US. Trial lawyers, who have donated significant money to elect democrats over the last several decades, believe they have the next big target for a series of high-dollar lawsuits, and given the number of Islamists here in the US, they will have no shortage of claiming to be victims. The legislation was passed out of the senate with the vote of 19 democrat senators. The rest of them either voted in opposition or abstained. The legislation would have had sufficient votes to pass out of the House, but Pelosi’s democrat leadership did not allow it to come to the floor of the House. The move was blasted by the Republican minority in the House, by President Bush, and in the online conservative community. Clearly, the democrat majority in the House value the campaign contributions of trial lawyers far more than they value the safety of successful interdiction against terrorist threats. This will continue to be a festering issue over the next several months. We will hope that we do not miss any plot that will result in dead Americans. This is the sort of nonsense that we get when we elect democrats. This is the sort of foolishness that we get when conservatives stay home and allow the other side to win. This is precisely the sort of thing that we will get should we conservatives and evangelicals sit this election out. Democrats are only serious about feathering their own nests; and not a bit serious about national security or the destruction of people and an ideology that would do us harm. One interesting postscript to this entire affair would be a possible exploration of FISA legislation. It was first passed in 1978 by the Church Committee as a response to surveillance abuses during the Nixon years. Note that the Church Committee only focused on the Nixon administration and were uninterested in the same actions by the previous Johnson and Kennedy Administrations. No administration has ever challenged it in court. There is an opening for the administration to toss out the entire FISA structure as an unconstitutional congressional intrusion into Executive authority to conduct a war. Now that Pelosi’s House leadership has given him this opening, perhaps it is time to take that step.

2. BMD. The Defense Dep artment announced a ballistic Missile Defense test to take place sometime in the next 2-3 weeks. There is a derelict spy satellite that has run out of fuel and is in the process of reentering the atmosphere. We will try to shoot it down before it hits the ground, all in the interest of safety, for there are fuel tanks onboard that contain hydrazine. The anti-BMD crowd went nuts after the announcement, of course. So did the ChiComs and the Russians. The shooter will be a navy Aegis cruiser. This response is a very nice counter to the ChiCom ASAT test several months ago that trashed a wide swath of orbital space with shrapnel. Think of it as an attention getting step by the military to the ChiComs, the Russians and the Iranians.

3. Mughniyeh. Yet another really Bad Guy went on his way to meet his 72 raisins or virgins or whatever last week. This guy was the one of the chief planners of the 1983 Marine Barracks bombing in Lebanon. He planned the 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking and two-week long torture and murder episode. He was involved in most of Hezbollah’s high profile bombings and attacks over the last 25 years and was truly a bad, bad dude. Well, he disappeared in a car bomb explosion in Damascus. It is unclear at this time whether he was removed from the gene pool by some hitherto unnamed intelligence service, or he simply buffooned preparation of a car bomb destined for Lebanon. For me, either one will work. And the notion that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are all considering the possibility of a second covert operation far inside Syria in less than a year makes me sleep well at night.

4. Pebble. The battle of Pebble Mine proceeds here in Alaska, with the pro-mining people st arting to return effective fire against the greens and nimbys. Pebble is a huge copper and molybdenum mine being planned north of Lake Iliamna in western Alaska. The mining companies have found one of the largest deposits in the world out there and are planning to build a huge open pit mine. Potential value of what will be dug out of the mining district rivals the value of all natural gas on the Alaska North Slope / Prudhoe Bay oil and gas fields. The proposed mine sits close to the headwaters of two of the nine salmon streams that feed into Bristol Bay, a region currently almost entirely dependent of commercial salmon fishing. Should this mine get dug, it will provide yet another major industry in one of the poorest p arts of the state. There are also a number of lodges in the area that cater to some very high class fishing and hunting clientele. One of the lodge owners has been funding a series of anti-mining ads, opposition groups, and now a couple ballot initiatives that will all but shut down mining statewide if passed in November. We have been hearing ads in support of and in opposition to the ballot initiatives for over a month so far this year. Predictably, the anti-mining greens and nimbys entitled their initiative the “Clean Water Initiative” because it bans all discharge of fluids, dusts, crushed rock, and anything else in any flowing water in the Bristol Bay region. Trouble is, should it pass, it will also set statewide precedent that will be used to shut down all other active and planned mines statewide. The opponents have correctly pointed this out and tied it to an attack on native-owned mining operations in Bush Alaska. In response the anti-miners denied the impact, but then went on to note that should the native-owned and operated Red Dog Mine, “… the largest polluter in the nation…” be plopped down in Bristol Bay, it would have to be shut down. So in making their case, they are incapable of hiding what they are really all about. Native Corporations and a number of other pro-development groups are suing to get the initiatives removed from the ballot. There is going to be a lot of money spent on this fight. Pebble Mine is a very, very big deal, and will have huge positive economic impact in western Alaska. If you extract over a hundred billion dollars of metals from a hole in the ground, some of that money will hang around locally and create a local and sustainable economy.

5. Ice Pack. The local fishwrapper (Anchorage Daily News) Tuesday ran yet another breathless story about the disappearance of the polar ice cap, noting that 2007 was the worst year on record and wondering what was next. What is really happening in the Arctic is that the prevailing winds have shifted a bit, blowing the majority of the ice east toward Greenland. Wind direction is tied to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a 50-70 year natural cycle of changes in water temperature, wind direction, and currents. Total covered area hasn’t changed a lot over the years. In the summer, ice melts. It comes back in the winter, just as it has done over millions of years. The breathless story claims that next year’s ice loss may be just as bad, if not worse than 2007. Note the use of models here. In a time when we can’t reliably predict local weather two days from today, the models are trying mightily to predict what the polar ice cap will do next winter, a decade and half a century from now. Remember that these are the same clowns that are predicting the disappearance of the polar ice cap by mid-century, along with all the polar bears. Somehow, I think they will be wrong. The article appears to be yet another little prod to the Fish & Wildlife Services to list the polar bear as a threatened species based on that half century out, future ice forecast.

More later –

           - AG

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.