Car bomb kills 70 in Mogadishu

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 10:41 AM - 0 Comments

A car bomb that detonated near the education ministry in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu has killed at least 70 people and wounded dozens more, officials told the Associated Press. “Dozens of dead bodies and human flesh were scattered all over the area. A dead body fell over me,” said Abdiqadir Muhyadin, a worker at the information ministry in Mogadhishu. Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda linked Islamist militant organization operating in the country, quickly claimed responsibility for the attack on its website. It was the deadliest attack in Mogadishu since the organization withdrew from the capital in the face of an African Union military offensive. The AU is protecting the weak UN-backed government in Mogadishu.

Washington Post

Good news, bad news: September 1-8, 2011

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 9, 2011 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Good news

Villagers in Bunawan, Philippines, catch a 600-kg saltwater crocodile

Taking a stand

After five months and more than 2,200 casualties, the Syrian regime continues its crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. But at least one official is taking sides against President Bashar al-Assad. Adnan Bakkour, a provincial attorney general, resigned in protest last week via YouTube. The state-run news agency said Bakkour was kidnapped and forced to announce his defection, but that seems about as likely as the latest news on Moammar Gadhafi. A spokesman for the besieged Libyan strongman says he is “still strong and capable of turning the tables on NATO.” Meanwhile, there are reports that a convoy of regime loyalists was fleeing the country for Niger.

Another graceful exit

Olivia Chow has ruled out running for the leadership of the NDP. The amazing public outpouring of grief following Jack Layton’s death suggests she could have won a fair amount of support, and Chow surely was under some pressure to pick up the mantle left by her husband. But sentimentality isn’t what the party needs. It requires a leader who can build, in their own way, on what Layton accomplished. Chow wisely decided to focus her considerable skills on other work.

Continue…

Turkish PM visits Mogadishu

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 19, 2011 at 12:17 PM - 0 Comments

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is touring Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, Friday. It is the first time a non-African leader has visited the Somali capital in nearly two decades. Erdogan is also scheduled to tour a camp for people displaced by violence and drought in the Horn of Africa country. More than 100,000 people have flocked to the capital as an estimated 12 million people in the region face starvation. Al Jazeera reports Erdogan hs said he’s there to help a fellow Muslim country. On Wednesday, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation met in Istanbul and pledged to donate $350 million in assistance to Somalia. Mogadishu has long been a hotbed of violence between the Western-backed government and al-Shabaab, a radical Islamic group with purported links to al Qaeda. Earlier this month, al-Shabaab militants withdrew from the capital in what they called a tactical move. The group has blocked humanitarian aid from being delivered to displaced people hit by the country’s famine. The U.N. World Food Program says it is still unable to deliver assistance to 2.2 million people in southern Somalia.

Al Jazeera English

Good news, bad news: August 4-11, 2011

By macleans.ca - Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 8:10 AM - 0 Comments

Good news

Thailand elected its first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra

Clearing the way

The apparent defeat of the Islamist group al-Shabaab in central Mogadishu offers a glimmer of hope to those trying to get food into famine-stricken Somalia. With the country’s wobbly central government in control of key districts of the capital, workers can now fan aid out to other parts of the country. With luck, they can prevent at least some of the hungry from attempting deadly treks into neighbouring Kenya or Ethiopia. The next challenge: keeping the aid out of the hands of insurgents, while persuading the rest of the world to give.

Grade ‘A’ idea

The U.S. grocer Whole Foods introduced a meat-labelling system in its Canadian stores that outlines how various producers treat livestock on a scale of one to five. It is an enlightened approach to animal welfare, both educating consumers and offering them a choice while forgoing preachy attacks on the meat industry or the livelihood of farmers. It also offers a nice rebuttal to a wave of bad press set off by a disgruntled former Toronto employee who claimed the organic-food-focused company didn’t put its money where its mouth was. Other retailers should be so transparent.

Continue…

Denying both famine and aid

By Alex Derry - Monday, August 15, 2011 at 9:38 AM - 0 Comments

Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

Even with evidence that 29,000 children have died in the last three months, al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group controlling much of Somalia, continues to deny there is any famine in the region at all. In fact, they had responded to the famine by banning international aid groups—whom they accuse of overblowing the scale of the disaster—from entering the worst-afflicted regions, and are actively preventing refugees from trying to reach relief centres. They are, however, using hunger to recruit desperate Somalis into their fold.

Continue…

U.S. hiring security firms to train AU troops in Somalia

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments

The United States government is indirectly financing private contractors to help train African troops to fight against Islamic radicals in Somalia, The New York Times reports. The newspaper reports that this is part of a growing number of private security firms operating in the drought-ravaged, war-torn country in the Horn of Africa. Among the firms being paid by the U.S. is Bancroft Global Development, which has been indirectly financed to train African Union troops to fight against al-Shabaab in the country’s capital, Mogadishu. Just this past weekend, troops pushed the radical militants out of the city for the first time in years. A Western consultant with the African Union told The New York Times that Bancroft is responsible for turning “a bush army into an urban fighting force.” The Pentagon also plans to send nearly US$45 million to Ugandan and Burundian troops operating in the country.

The New York Times

Food aid reaches more in rain-starved Somalia

By macleans.ca - Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 12:29 PM - 0 Comments

Millions of Somalis remain at risk of starvation, even as the UN’s food agency says it has been able to penetrate deeper into the famine-wracked country. About 3.6 million people in Somalia could starve this year. The worst hit are those in areas of the country controlled by al-Shabaab rebels, who oppose Western intervention and have at times banned food aid, even as the Horn of Africa suffers through its worst drought in decades. Officials with the World Food Program say the agency now has access to some pockets of the country previously considered off limits. The organization is now providing aid to 1.5 million Somalis in the famine zone. Meanwhile, in Mogadishu, fears of a security vacuum are spreading. The rebels recently pulled out of Somalia’s largest city but peacekeepers and government troops have yet to assert full control.

Reuters

U.S. estimates nearly 30,000 children have died in famine

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 5, 2011 at 11:03 AM - 0 Comments

Over 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died as a result of the famine in Somalia, according to a U.S. estimate. These deaths have also occurred during the last 90 days, said Nancy Lindborg, an official with the U.S. government’s international aid agency speaking to a panel of congressional representatives in Washington. The U.S. estimate comes after the UN declared three new regions in southern Somalia to be official famine zones. According to the UN, 3.2 million Somalis are in need of immediate assistance. The country in the Horn of Africa has a total population of around 7.5 million. The delivery of aid in the drought-ridden area has been made difficult by the activities of al-Shabab. The Islamic militant group is reportedly recruiting child soldiers and disrupting aid shipments to famine-stricken people in southern Somalia. They are also preventing many people from leaving the famine zones, threatening to kill their relatives, according to the Associated Press.

CBS News

Peacekeepers seize three locations in Mogadishu

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 12:11 PM - 0 Comments

The African Union Mission has taken over three “strategic” locations in Somalia’s capital, freeing 41 civilian hostages who were held by al-Shabaab militants. The peacekeepers seized Florenza, Sinai and Monopolio Junctions in northeast Mogadishu after a “highly targeted” offensive, the organization said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. The African Union targeted the areas to protect aid workers providing assistance in the country. A drought has caused famine in two regions of Somalia, causing as many as 100,000 people to arrive in Mogadishu in search of food, water and shelter, according to the United Nations. Medical officials say 50 people were wounded in the operation.

Business Week

The crisis in the Horn

By Patricia Treble - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Thomas Mukoya/Reuters

As drought and an ensuing humanitarian catastrophe tightens its grip on 10 million people in the Horn of Africa, regional authorities are making U-turns. Al-Shabab, the Islamist militant group that controls swaths of southern Somalia, is allowing back the international aid groups that it kicked out a few years ago after accusing them of being anti-Muslim and creating dependency. Now, with around 3,000 Somalis fleeing their ravaged nation each day, UNICEF has been given permission to drop five tonnes of food, medicine and water equipment into a parched town.

In Kenya, the Dadaab camp is overwhelmed by 375,000 refugees. Facing international criticism, the government opened the empty Ifo refugee camp, which was never settled because of fears it would lure more Somalis across the border. The crisis affecting Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia is due to widespread drought, combined with conflict and high food prices. Families have no choice but to make the perilous trek to Kenya’s camps. By then it is often too late for the most vulnerable. The death toll for children in Dadaab for the first four months of 2011 equalled that of the entire previous year.

Al-Shabaab calls Somalia famine reports “sheer propaganda”

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 25, 2011 at 11:32 AM - 0 Comments

A week after the United Nations declared famine in two regions of Somalia, the country’s al-Shabaab Islamists have denied lifting a ban it imposed on specific aid agencies in 2009, according to Uganda’s Daily Monitor. Reports indicated the militia had allowed foreign aid agencies limited access to some areas under its control, but the insurgents now say no such ban was lifted. More than 166,000 starving Somalis have fled to Kenya and Ethiopia for help. According to the UN, 10 million people across east Africa need urgent food aid. However, delivering aid to Somalia is difficult: the country has no central government to organize food aid, and al-Shabaab has reportedly prevented people from fleeing camps to receive aid.

The Daily Monitor

Somalian militias recruiting famine-struck children

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 11:30 AM - 0 Comments

Islamist militias are recruiting Somalian children to their ranks, according to Amnesty International. Tens of thousands of people have died from malnutrition in famine-stricken Somalia, while fighting has intensified in its capital, Mogadishu. Civil war has raged for two decades in the country, which hasn’t had a working central government since 1991. The “systematic recruitment of children” is increasing amidst dire living conditions, the human rights organization says. Many of the children are under the age of 15. The U.S. was once Somalia’s largest contributor of humanitarian aid, but has reduced funding by 88 percent, according to the UN. The drop in aid is attributed to fears of diversion of aid by Islamist militants.

Sydney Morning Herald

UN calls attention to devastating famine in war-torn Somalia

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 12:50 PM - 0 Comments

The United Nations is calling immediate attention to a famine that is devastating war-torn Somalia, CTV News reports. The UN’s humanitarian coordinator in the region, Mark Bowden, says “Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years”. Tens of thousands have died of hunger already, and the UN believes 6 people are dying every day. Severe draught and inflated food prices are responsible, sources say, as well as the region’s unstable political climate. Since the government collapsed 20 years ago, Islamist rebels have controlled the area, refusing to allow foreign aid into the country. The UN believes $300 million in aid is needed within the next two months to quell the crisis.

CTV News

Good news, bad news: July 8 – July 14, 2011

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 18, 2011 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments

Good news

Citizens wave the flag of the newly formed Republic of South Sudan. (Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles Times/Polaris)

Tough love

The U.S. finally took a firm stand on Pakistan by suspending $800 million of the more than $2 billion in aid it offers the country each year. Pakistan has been, at best, an unreliable ally in the war on terror. It recently arrested a number of CIA informants who helped locate Osama bin Laden within its borders and cut visas for U.S. personnel operating near the Afghan border. Pakistan may not always see eye to eye with the U.S., but the fact is that American aid is what keeps its military and, lately, economy afloat. This warning shot should provide a crucial dose of reality.

Happy days, here again

A new quarterly Bank of Canada survey suggests a record 57 per cent of businesses “across all regions and sectors” will hire new employees over the next year (the highest level reported since 2005), while only four per cent expect to reduce staff. This coincides with a Statistics Canada report showing solid job growth for the third straight month, with a net gain of 28,000 jobs in June. That’s in sharp contrast to the U.S., where only 18,000 jobs were gained last month.

Continue…

Newsmakers

By macleans.ca - Friday, April 16, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

The hair of the Mutt
Shania Twain is breaking her stoic and refreshingly dignified silence on her ex-husband’s infidelity. She’s signed on to star in a reality series on the new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which goes to air Jan. 1. The series, Why Not?, will explore the “life-altering heartbreak” of the end of her 14-year marriage to music producer Mutt Lange, and her recovery. Lange took up with Marie-Anne Thiébaud, a long-time secretary and house manager at Twain and Lange’s estate in Switzerland. Twain is recovering by dating Thiébaud’s ex-husband, Frédéric, which has a certain symmetry to it. “This is a very personal experience that I think is important to share,” she told Winfrey. One unlikely to agree is the highly reclusive Lange, which may be the point of the exercise.

That’ll teach them to follow the law
Wisconsin’s new sex education law, which requires any such courses to include lessons on birth control and sexually transmitted diseases, is “sick and shameful,” says Scott Southworth, district attorney for Juneau County. Southworth warns he’ll prosecute teachers who teach contraception, as mandated by law. The charge would be contributing to the delinquency of a minor, punishable by up to nine months (how appropriate!) in jail, and a $10,000 fine. “I didn’t pick the fight,” says Southworth, a Christian evangelical, “the legislature dumped it in my lap.” Coincidentally, it’s Teen Pregnancy Month, and Bristol Palin, 19, has filmed a public service message with her infant son Tripp. It’s a bit of a shift from her earlier strictly-abstinence line. “Pause before you play,” she warns.

Twin peaks
The NHL schedule being what it is, Vancouver Canuck forward Henrik Sedin has a limited profile in Eastern Canada. Expect that to change. Sedin won the league scoring title on the weekend, with 112 points, beating superstars Alex Ovechkin, in second, and Sidney Crosby, in third. Sedin scored four assists in his final regular-season game against Calgary on Saturday. In typical fashion, three of those passes fed his identical twin Daniel, who scored a hat trick. Daniel may have challenged for the points race if he hadn’t missed 19 games due to injury. He potted 85 points, or 1.35 points per game to Henrik’s 1.37. The brothers also finished the three previous seasons within one or two points of each other—an eerie accomplishment over 82 games. That and their no-look passes to each other cement the theory that some twins really are telepathic.

Continue…

It’s pirate season on the high seas

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 2:00 PM - 0 Comments

Last week, in a brazen attack, a gang of Somali pirates took on a U.S. Navy frigate. The caper predictably backfired, but it’s another episode in the long-running narrative of piracy in the anarchic waters off the African country’s shore—and it won’t be the last. U.S. officials warn that piracy attacks are expected to increase as the Indian Ocean enters a period of relatively calm weather.

The April 1 incident took place off the western coast of the Seychelles. The USS Nicholas, working in support of U.S. Africa Command, exchanged fire with a skiff before chasing it down. Finding ammunition and cans of fuel onboard, officials arrested three suspected pirates (along with two more on the mothership, which was also confiscated) before sinking the vessel. It was just one of a spate of attacks; according to the European Union’s naval force, the rate of pirate activity in March was double that of September to November. Earlier this week there was another major attack, as pirates hijacked a South Korean oil tanker.

Last week, the U.S. Maritime Administration warned of increased piracy off the Horn of Africa and in the Indian Ocean: “Mariners must be vigilant and prepare for potential attacks,” warned David T. Matsuda, acting maritime administrator, attributing this to the end of monsoon season and the increased range of recent incidents. What to do with captured pirates is another problem. Naval officials said those captured by the USS Nicholas would remain on board until officials determined how to deal with them. The EU is also in search of a solution. Kenya agreed to try those captured by the EU naval force, but the country now holds over 100 pirates and says it can’t take any more. The bulk of the problem will likely have to be handled on shore: until Somalia, whose government collapsed in 1991, achieves stability, stopping the marine criminals will be difficult.

Maclean's Interview: K’naan

By Charlie Gillis - Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 9:38 AM - 32 Comments

Photographs by Michel Setboun/Getty Images

He might have written it, but K’naan Warsame is the first to tell you that Wavin’ Flag long ago ceased to be his song. Selected as the official anthem of the 2010 World Cup of Soccer in South Africa, the catchy hip-hop tune has galvanized audiences around the world, transforming stadium crowds into massive choirs. A recent version recorded by 50 Canadian artists to raise money for Haiti instantly shot to No. 1 on iTunes in Canada. The song has drawn international attention to the 31-year-old Somali-Canadian, whose seductive melodies and politically charged lyrics (along with the wrenching story of his family’s flight from war-torn Mogadishu to Rexdale, Ont., via New York City) set him apart from the self-styled gangsters of rap. He spoke to Maclean’s from Paris, where he is headlining the World Cup trophy tour. Continue…

Jacob Zuma: not so rotten after all

By Nancy Macdonald - Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4:29 PM - 2 Comments

By now, Jacob Zuma’s South Africa should be careening toward the ranks of failed African states. Eight months ago, after an election anointed him president of the continent’s proudest democracy, editorialists everywhere drew thinly veiled comparisons to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, who turned Africa’s shining light into a country that rivals only Somalia for sheer dysfunction. Even the most generous assessments had Zuma—once described as an “embarrassment” by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu—shackled by “suspicion” and “doubt” about his shambolic past, and fitness to lead Africa’s biggest economy. Yet under Zuma, South Africa has made pragmatic, positive strides in many areas, including health and the economy.

Early indicators were not good. Zuma, a former goatherd with no formal schooling and a stable of wives, has also twice stood trial. In April, the fraud, corruption and racketeering charges he’d been fighting for almost a decade were dropped, and in 2006, he was acquitted of rape (despite the acquittal, the case revealed “shocking” judgment, according to noted South African journalist Mark Gevisser: “He had unprotected sex with an unstable HIV-positive woman who regarded him as a ‘father.’ ”) To the chattering classes, Zuma seemed to embody the “rottenness” that famed novelist André Brink described as having befallen the country in A Fork in the Road, a memoir published in the weeks running up to the election.

Continue…

'It would seem that some of the key lessons of the Somalia experience … have not been learned'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 20, 2009 at 12:20 PM - 5 Comments

Lost somewhat in all the discussion of Richard Colvin’s testimony, is the statement of Peter Tinsley, chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission, that immediately followed Colvin’s appearance.

Here is that statement. Continue…

Beating up on Somali pirates

By Patricia Treble - Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 5:20 PM - 1 Comment

Thirty-four members of two Egyptian fishing boats returned to a hero’s welcome in Suez on Sunday after being held captive by Somali pirates for four months. Their arrival came nine days after they overpowered their captives and regained control of the boats, captured while in the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden.

Precisely how the Egyptians accomplished the feat is something of a mystery. Almost all of the fishermen told reporters a different story. Adel Abdel-Atti said there was a 35-minute fistfight before the Egyptians overwhelmed their captors. Osama Watan said they attacked while the pirates were resting. “One of us who delivered their lunch signalled to us when they had laid down their weapons,” he told AP. “That’s when we knew it was time to either attack or be killed.” But perhaps the best explanation cames from one of the ship’s owners, Mohammad Nasr, who said that the other owner, Hassan Khalil, hired his own gang of Somali gunmen. Nasr went on to state that after paying a US$200,000 down payment, Khalil conned his way onto his own ship and got the fishermen to distract the pirates while his mercenaries boarded and retook the vessels. Continue…

A state of terror

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 2:10 PM - 5 Comments

When a Maclean’s reporter reached Somali journalist Abdi Ahmed Abdul on his cellphone as he walked back to his home through the streets of Mogadishu, he quickly ended the call, apologizing later that evening by explaining that it would not be safe for him to be heard speaking English by members of al-Shabab—the Islamist militia that controls much of the country and whose leadership has been linked to al-Qaeda. “I am scared,” Abdul said. “If they see me talking to somebody in English, I’d be in danger. If anybody is speaking in English, they think he is a spy. It means I am passing information to foreigners, what they call Christians or infidels, people they don’t like.”

Abdul lives near one of the main markets in Mogadishu, a place he calls a “stronghold of the Shabab.” He asked that his real name not be printed. “If they read this, they will come and look for me and blow my brain up.” His family has fled twice to other parts of the country. He’s considered leaving himself, but is now afraid to try. Continue…

Week in Pictures: June 4th – June 10th, 2009

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 12:54 AM - 0 Comments

Somalia Is A "Libertarian Paradise"

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, May 25, 2009 at 2:04 PM - 12 Comments

Via alicublog, this video explains that if you’re looking for a vacation getaway that hasn’t been spoiled by socialistic concepts like “public” beaches and “health” inspectors, there’s only one place to be this summer.

Security Watch: China, Iran, North Korea

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 5:53 PM - 2 Comments

The Intelligence Security Diary is a monthly compendium of open-source intelligence on global security matters distributed by Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP. Its findings rely on freely available information gleaned from public, unclassified sources. Each month, Macleans.ca summarizes these findings.

CHINA:

• A once-reclusive China played a surprisingly active role at the recent G20 meetings in London, pushing its trade and anti-protectionism agenda while working to minimize concerns about the environment. China also indicated it wouldn’t hesitate to throw its economic weight behind its effort to maintain sovereignty over Tibet. As its economic clout grows due to its holdings of U.S., China is expected to emerge as a major player in global affairs. Its successful strong-arming of France into abandoning a clampdown on tax havens that could have targeted Hong Kong and Macau, as well its derailing of U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s bid to include environmental concerns in the summit communiqué, may provide a hint of things to come.

IRAN:

• Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has been convicted of espionage in an Iranian court. Prosecutors alleged Saberi was transferring information gleaned from government documents and interviews to American intelligence sources. Should Iran’s Revolutionary Court find Saberi’s actions were part of an attempt to overthrow the government, she could face the death penalty. The case is expected to further dampen efforts at reviving diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S., though Saberi’s conviction could be an attempt at gaining leverage to secure the release of three Iranians accused of spying in Iraq. It may also be an attempt to deflect discussion away from its nuclear ambitions and delay a preemptive strike against it by Israel.

NORTH KOREA:

• Leader Kim Jong Il was re-appointed as the country’s defense chief, a post he has occupied since 1998, when North Korea began testing long-range missiles.
• Intelligence sources indicate North Korea may have as much as $5 billion stashed away in a secret slush fund known as “Division 39.” The fund was set up in 1970s to further Kim Jong Il’s political career and is also linked to North Korea’s weapons programs. Analysts believe that freezing it could be the key to regime change in North Korea. “Division 39″ is believed to be made up of two principal arms—one to fund legal activities undertaken by the Daesong Group, the Daesong bank and Golden Star Bank, the other to fund illegal activities, such as trafficking in heroin and amphetamines. The money is doled out primarily to key military officials and Workers’ Party leadership figures.

SOMALIA:

• Somali pirates have reportedly agreed to financial deals with a local Islamist terrorist group known as al Shabab (“the youths”). The group once worked as the military wing of the Islamist Courts Union, which controlled Somalia for six months in 2006, and is intent on implementing Taliban-style Islamic government in Somalia. Al Shabab’s leadership is partially made up of graduates of al Qaeda’s training camps and its membership is said to include several veteran al Qaeda figures.

U.S.:

• The Manhattan District Attorney’s office have indicted Limmt Economic & Trade Co. on 118 charges related to accusations it engaged in “illegal financial transactions to allow Iran to import a number fo proscribed materials used in weapons programs, including metal alloys and tungsten copper plates.” The charges date back to activities that allegedly took place between November 2006 and September 2008. Limmt is accused of using at least eight aliases or front companies to cloak their identity.
• Defense Secretary Robert Gates released a “strategic Pentagon blueprint” last month that calls for wholesale changes to the way the U.S. military establishment conducts its business affairs. The most noteworthy element in Gates’s blueprint is his call for the U.S. to abandon the production of the American-made F-22 Raptor fighter jet. Gates also wants purchasing decisions to reflect current needs in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than the hypothetical needs that might emerge from future wars. Congress, however, could be reluctant to implement Gates’s proposals—he’ll need significant bipartisan support and that may be hard to come by as politicians begin preparing for the 2010 mid-term election.
• The Pentagon announced it has spent over $100 million responding to cyber attacks in the past six months. Last year alone, there were 5,500 attacks against government computers, up from 3,800 the year before. Reports also surfaced the U.S. electrical grid could be vulnerable to attacks that could potentially cause major service disruptions. It has been sugggested that the majority of the cyber attacks against the U.S. originated in China.