Author Archives: Jon

"Iran is conveniently heightening tensions by ignoring State Department requests for information about … Robert Levinson"

Craig Crawford‘s post in Congressional Quarterly Politics places Bobby Levinson’s disappearance squarely in the middle of the Persian Gulf chessboard:

Now that George W. Bush seems to be around the corner on Capitol Hill to keep control of the Iraq War, he can move on to his other military target: Iran.

And while Congress dithers about Iraq, developments on the Iranian front are playing into the president’s hands. Europeans, especially the Germans, are stepping back from sanctions against Iran that might delay or prevent a U.S. bombing campaign. The British are once again playing ball by agreeing to a U.S. request to move troops to the Iraq-Iran border. And Iran is conveniently heightening tensions by ignoring State Department requests for information about an American, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in March.

[emphasis supplied]

All this comes at a time when Democratic leaders in Congress show no interest in legislation that would tie Bush’s hands if he wants to make a move on Iran — which he will probably do before the year is out.

“Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix: With Iraq Policy Intact, Bush Free to Target Iran.”

Also via Evil Poet Lost in Thought.

Mexican Oil Pipelines Attacked at six points, causing fires, evacuations

Kris Alexander at Danger Room has a short report and incisive analysis of these attacks, which PEMEX (Mexico’s oil exporting entity) claims will require hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs. PEMEX also claims – in my view, not plausibly – that it won’t cause disruptions in exports (and to United States imports).

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Photo by Pablo Spencer of the Associated Press.

Flames were visible at least six miles away. Thousands of people were evacuated; two women died of heart attacks.

Mexican authorities told the Associated Press that a note from a leftist group was found next to at least one unexploded device.

From Kris Alexander’s piece in Wired.com’s Danger Room

:

Mexico supplies much of US oil and gas imports. Are higher gas prices on the way? Pemex, Mexico’s state-run oil company, claims that the attacks haven’t disrupted export supplies, but will cost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. With the U.S. economy already on shaky ground because of the sub-prime loan crisis, another such attack that did actually disrupt export oil supplies could have a direct economic impact on the U.S.

Counter-terrorism expert John Robb sees both attacks as a particularily good systempunkt — a point where a series of attacks on key nodes will cause the collapse of the entire system, essentially effects-based operations on the cheap. A few hundred dollars spent on explosives causes millions in damage.

It’s not clear from the underlying Associated Press report, published on MSNBC, whether or not the pipelines are underground or aboveground. Our concern about that detail is that we’re still working up the learning curve in trying to understand the risk of petroleum pipelines. (The “editorial offices” of Popular Logistics are in a roughly .75 square mile area which contain four underground petroleum lines, about which we presently know far too little).

NYC Resistor opens

NYC resistor has opened – or is about to open. They’re part of what one might call the great Warranty-Voiding Conspiracy which includes:

There are more, of course. But these are places I check when I have time. Posting a question on Toolmonger will prevent suffering, embarassment and save money.

But NYC Resistor – well, it’s new. And it’s here

– so we’re looking forward to keeping up with them.

Agence-France Press: Iran says it's looking for Bobby Levinson

According to a report dated yesterday

(September 9th), “Iran says seeking clues over missing American,”

Iran said on Sunday it was seeking clues over the fate of a US former FBI agent who reportedly disappeared while visiting the Islamic republic six months ago.

The fate of Robert Levinson, who Washington says went missing in March while on a private visit to Iran’s southern island of Kish, has remained a mystery ever since with Iran insisting it has no information about him.

“The Iranian authorities are seeking to find traces of him and the officials’ efforts are ongoing,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.

Iran has always said it had no record of Levinson even entering the country. It was not clear if the spokesman’s comments represented any change in that position.

Hosseini said that “information” requested by the Americans had been sent to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents US interests in Iran in the absence of a US mission.

Levinson’s wife Christine said last month that she wanted to visit Iran to search for her husband, but Hosseini said that “no request” for a visa had been received by Iranian officials.

Hosseini also said Swiss embassy officials “requested to travel to Kish and Iranian officials wanted them to provide the reasons why such a trip is necessary,” without elaborating.

The Washington Post reported last week that Iran blocked the request for Swiss diplomats to visit Kish to look for traces of the missing Levinson, in particular his luggage.

Perhaps this represents an incremental move towards a face-saving position in which the Iranian government takes the position that it has just learned of Levinson’s whereabouts – possibly a “mistaken” incarceration, or the result of  “unauthorized” action by local officials.

Watching and waiting.

volunteer group efforts to eradicate rats in New Orleans

DisasterNewsNet reports that a volunteer organization, Operation Blessing International, has conducted a successful rodent reduction program in 1,158 blocks in New Orleans. The principal tool is a cube shaped toxic rat bait with a flavor/smell agent which, it’s reported, are unattractive to other animals.

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From Nancy Hogland’s August 30th piece:

“When residents were forced out of their homes by Hurricane Katrina, most of them grabbed their valuables and pictures. However, what they left behind quickly became what I call a ‘super-sized buffet’ for rats,” said Jody Harrington, director of U.S. disaster relief for OBI.

“The cabinets were stocked with crackers and such and the refrigerators were full of gross, rotten food – everything rats love to munch on. All those abandoned homes became the perfect atmosphere for them to live, eat and reproduce.”

She said because OBI volunteers had already been working with the New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control Board on a mosquito eradication project, city officials turned to them first for help.

“The city hadn’t been taken over by rats, as some have said, but there were areas where there were very large populations,” Harrington said. “In fact, when we were baiting sewers on Desire Street, a woman standing on the second story of her home saw us and asked what we were doing.

We suppose that in doing shelter-in-place planning, this is a strong argument for making sure that sanitation is planned for any situation which lasts for longer than one day.

I’ll add that our building – 36 units – started composting several years ago. Use has increased so much that we needed to add a second barrel. So the inference I draw is – that in a properly staffed system – either shelter-in-place or in large-scale shelters, if garbage pickup is not happening – it might well be possible to turn most of the rat food into compost.

Airline agent (male) put this woman off the plane because her attire was “offensive.” One suspects that he found her attractive and was resentful.

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There’s no question that this is unfair to this woman; it’s likely unlawful sex discrimination. But when airline personnel put people off the plane for wearing “offensive” clothing – they’re diverting resources from security. And they are, presumably, in the business of  providing safe air carriage.

Perhaps there’s a niche market for an airline on which passengers’ modest dress as a condition of passage.

From  Xeni Jardin piece Boing Boing

– and a derivative tip of the hat to the ever-vigilant Bruce Schneier.

San Diego Union Tribune piece.

"Their house is burning and they're spending their time picking out window curtains"

That’s Craig Fugate, then and now the director of emergency preparedness for the state of Florida. What’s he talking about? The post-Katrina reorganization of FEMA, DHS and the National Response Plan.

I found this line in Christopher Cooper and Robert Block’s book Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security, an excellent account of the top-level decision-making in Katrina. About which more shortly. Fugate is clearly first-rate.

The Rules, according to Fugate:

  1. Meet the needs of the disaster victim
  2. Take care of the responders
  3. See rule 1.

And he has a website – “DisastersRUs” – check out his Emergency Management 101.

"First Responders For Rudy" to manifest corporeally

From Greg Sargent’s August 29th piece on TPM’s Election Central:

ou may recall that some time ago Rudy Giuliani unveiled a group called “Firefighters for Rudy” in response to some heat he was taking from firefighters over the deficiencies they saw in his 9/11 performance. At the time, this blog noted that the group’s leader was merely a Rudy campaign aide and wouldn’t say how many firefighters were in this new “group.” Not much has been heard about the group since.

Now Rudy, who’s again under fire from recovery workers over his exaggerations about his Masterfully Churchillian Performance on 9/11, is pulling the same trick from his hat once again. Today his campaign plans to unveil “First Responders for Rudy” at a firehouse in South Carolina.

Giuliani To Unveil “First Responders For Rudy” at TPM  Election Central.

Via The Giuliani Papers.

Blogroll Addition: Ryan Lanham

We’ve run across the blog of one Ryan Lanham – another guy smart enough that you’re happy he’s a good guy. Which he manifestly seems to be. We’ll describe him here as a nouvelle social scientist – because we don’t know which flavor of social scientist he is for formal purposes.

Here’s Ryan Lanham’s wikipedia entry .

And his blog, Identity Unknown

We came across Mr. Lanham’s blog because we’re looking at open-source software solutions for emergency management – and he’s part of – or connected to – the group that’s been developing Sahana, an open-source NGO emergency-management application.

There are automobiles – more than one model – that have been tested in New York as taxis and police cars. We’re perversely proud that our streets are too barbaric for civilized cars. (Is it just me that feels this way?)

We’re hoping, of course, that  Sahana won’t crumble under the pressure of hypothetical Brooklyn emergencies. But we’re going to test it –

as well as SUMA   – a similar (in purpose) open-source application which is available via the Pan American Health Organization.

Finnish civil defense

Just beginning to learn about this – so here are a few interesting links

RockPlan – Finnish construction firm which, because they require it , builds shelters underneath buildings. Some images of some of their work

; they’d make James Bond’s film nemeses jealous.

And here ‘s the  Finnish government’s civil defense website.  Calm,  organized. Very clean lots-of-white-space design.  It’s not likely to be mistaken for  a U.S. government website.