Micah Halpern’s Been Thinking. Read His Latest.
No one should be surprised that Khalid Sheik Mohamed and his cohorts are using their trial to advance their own agenda.
Of course that is what they are doing. The United States presented these ultimate thugs with a stage and with an open microphone.
Did the powers that be in the super power called the United States think that after nine years in prison KSM would be rehabilitated, that he would suddenly respect the institutions of Western liberal democracy and humbly submit to its august power. This is the same man who masterminded the 9-11 attacks and beheaded Daniel Pearl because of what the Wall Street Journal symbolically represented.
The delusional decision makers, those who determined that an open trial was an appropriate forum, should be ashamed. They should be reprimanded, charged with incompetence for putting 9-11 victims and families through an unnecessary and pre-ordained ordeal, for subjecting them to the language and actions of the men who have now twice desecrated them and their loved ones.
This was the moment the terrorists were yearning for, it was another dream come true.
In the eyes of the terrorists the only way it could have been better was if they were given a totally public trial in civilian court.
There were celebrations across terrorist networks as reports circulated of their comrades-in-arms spitting, not only on the graves of the deceased, but also in the face of the US judicial system.
These thugs have once again become terrorist role models.
But this time it is we who put them in the limelight.
Shame, shame, on us.
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Sunday May 6, 2012
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is spending Sunday and Monday in India. According to an aid travelling with her, at the top of the agenda is convincing India to reduce their import of oil from Iran.This is a very noble task. It is also herculean and an almost impossible feat to accomplish.
Of course, India will agree to curtail or limit or reduce or all of the above their import of oil from Iran - but they cannot.
India is an economic beast, they are the second largest nation in the world with well over a billion people - and they need oil.
Anytime extra oil pops up on the open market India gobbles it up.
This is a clear example of ideas coming into conflict with reality. India favors isolating Iran but they need the oil and cannot risk a lull. So India will continue to quietly import their oil from anywhere, including Iran.
Saturday May 5, 2012
Standard and Poor's is the most influential rating agency in the world. They rate countries and they rate their credit.
This week Turkey was dropped from "positive" to "stable." And if you had asked me, I would have said that I was surprised it was not dropped even lower. Turkey would have dropped even more had it not been for some very dynamic economic legislation.
This will certainly drop the credit rating of Turkey and that drop in credit rating will immediately impact on their interest which means that the cost of their loans will skyrocket.
The Turks are livid - on the same day the S&P dropped their rating, they improved the rating on Greece.
Turkey is claiming bias and the president of Turkey has announced that Turkey no longer relies on the S&P.
The reality is that Turkey only had minimal growth of 4% in 2011 and expect only 2% this year. Exports are only 24% of their economy and prices increased 11% in April. China holds most of their debt and the debt is in the form of a short term loan.
Turkey can be as angry as they want but they are in bad economic shape and it ony looks worse in the short term future.
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