Military officials in India are enlisting the “world’s hottest chili” to help fight terrorism. The notoriously spicy “bhut jolokia” will be used to create “tear gas-like hand grenades” that can incapacitate suspects and bring them to tears, literally. |Discovery|
Since we clearly haven’t depressed you enough today with stories about child abuse ads, a dog on death row, and Jon Stewart being forced to watch Fox, here’s some more news that should pretty much dampen your weekend. According to author Alfred McCoy we’re totally screwed! Read more »
As New York rabbi Gary Moscowitz puts it, a terrorist could stroll into a synagogue, “put a yarmulke on, say, ‘Happy holidays,’ and blow the place up.” Or else they could just run in “screaming ‘Allah akhbar,’ or whatever” and start shooting. In response to these hypothetical concerns and the FBI-facilitated Bronx synagogue bomb plot, Moscowitz started training fellow rabbis to fight off terrorists in their temple. The founder of the International Security Coalition of Clergy says his 100-hour combat class is crucial because “even if police were trained properly, by the time they show up we’d all be dead.” Watch the Post’s video of the holy men grappling with guns and tables after the jump. Read more »
Three U.S. soldiers, some more prepared than others, “took defensive positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province” earlier this week. |WSJ|
Photo by David Guttendfelder/AP
The detention torture facility at Abu Ghraib has been shuttered and President Obama plans to eventually close down Guantanamo too. But the treatment of detainees in addition to the country’s oil-guzzling, war-prone foreign policy, as suggested in this illustration by Rhyper of a prisoner getting gassed at the pump, remains culturally relevant as the administration filed an appeal to continue denying these long held captives the right to challenge their imprisonment and the historical inability for the U.S. to wean itself off the OPEC teat.
Last night, CNN’s sr. correspondent, Nic Robertson, reported on Anderson Cooper’s 360 special report from Afghanistan, that the Taliban NOW has access to the chemicals to manufacture heroin and no longer export it as a raw product. Now-that they are on the run-but not while they were in power.
Yet, since US troops have begin fighting the “War On Terror” (and now NATO) in Afghanistan, heroin production has increased 400%. But in February 2001, when the Taliban was in control, opium production had been reduced by 98%. In fact in 2001, U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan. This was also the same year that the Taliban declared drug production to be un-Islamic which resulted in a crippling of the Afghan economy.
So how can Robertson be alleging that the Taliban is responsible for the increase? That the Taliban is making money off the production? How do they get the opium out? Would be great to know, where Nic is getting this information, or is he just reading it off a producer’s screenplay. It’s hard to believe that they are no more organized and better equipped since the US led invasion. But then again, do Americans really care enough about Afghanistan for CNN to get the story right, just give us more baby Suri !
by Jessica Wilson, ANIMAL special correspondent
Editor-in-Chief:
