Category Archives: History

Food, History, Security

Cristal Champagne Row in Moscow

Leave a comment

The company Soyuzplodoimport seems to have won the argument against Louis Roederer’s champagne. An article in Moscow News explains the trademark dispute between Kristal Vodka and the Cristal Champagne, but it gives an interesting security story as well.

Legend has it that Tsar Alexander II, fearing traditional green champagne bottles could be used to hide an assassin’s bomb, commissioned a brand in a crystal-clear carafe.

Thus Cristal Champagne, with its distinctive flat-bottomed design, was born – though it failed to save the monarch from an explosive end. He survived four assassination attempts but was killed when his carriage was attacked on the streets of St. Petersburg in 1881.

Another fascinating tidbit in the article is that the top rated champagne in a blind taste test by Knights of the Vine was a Novy Svet 2002 Pinot Noir Rose. It costs just $16, whereas Cristal is around $600.

History, Poetry, Security

Havel in a Nutshell

Leave a comment

A new song by Petr Putna, performed with Ondrej Havlik (three time national beatbox champion) at the Vaclav Havel Library opening.

The Prague Daily Monitor has more info:

“The song’s story corresponds to the content of the exhibition that divides Havel’s life into four periods – his capitalist extract, theatre, and his roles of a dissident and president. Of course, I didn’t want to create an ode or a monumental song, but to sum up with humour and in slight hyperbole the life of one of the most important personalities of the Czech history of the 20th century,” Putna says on www.vaclavhavel-knihovna.org.

History, Sailing, Security

Somalia Targeted for Nation Building

1 Comment

Defense experts in the US are coming forward to suggest the piracy problem with Somalia might require something like stabilizing the country, DefenseLink reported yesterday.

Whether it’s humanitarian aide to Somalia or possible military training to Somalis, [Pentagon spokesman Bryan] Whitman said, there’s no shortage in ways and means the United States and international partners could approach the piracy issue and Somalia’s lack of a legitimate government. The pure size of the region presents difficulties, he added.

“Clearly, it’s a big challenge when you’re talking about a coastline and body of water as large as it is, and you’re dealing with a country that is largely ungoverned — that certainly is a complicating situation,” Whitman said.

I have mentioned before that the US most likely wanted to destabilize the region for purposes of keeping open access to suspected terrorists. In short, sovereignty of a newly forming Islamic state with historic animosity towards the US would have made strategic anti-terror missions far more difficult in the Horn. Thus, as Somalia was on the verge of stabilizing, the US appeared to undermine the new rulers rather than support them.

Fearing the influence of militant factions within the Islamic Courts, the United States backed a loose coalition of warlords who had the savvy to dub themselves the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism. Somali women took to the streets to protest the U.S. policy.

“Many women supported the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu because they received security,” said Alia Adem Abdi, who chairs the Hiran Women Action on Advocacy for Peace and Human Rights Organization, based in Somalia’s restive central Hiran region. “They had an access to move freely in the capital city. Also the children had access to go to school. But not now.”

Last Christmas, a weak Transitional Federal Government stormed Mogadishu with backing from neighboring Ethiopia and tacit support from the United States, sending the coalition of jihadis and militias who backed the Islamic Courts underground.

Perhaps the US did not anticipate the growth of an uncontrolled piracy market as a result of their alliance with Ethiopia and military operations in this region. On the other hand, perhaps the prior administration felt the the risks and side-effects to shipping were an acceptable cost for their anti-terror doctrine. In either case I see a change in policy regarding risk management and Islamic state relations, rather than a new approach to piracy as a result of the Maersk incident.

History, Security

America and Pakistan’s ISI

Leave a comment

Der Spiegel interviewed terror expert and Obama advisor Bruce Riedel about the evolving focus on Pakistan.

SPIEGEL: Currently, there are many reports about how closely the Pakistani secret service ISI is intertwined with terror groups. Does the ISI actually supply the Taliban with ammunition, trucks and recruits?

Riedel: These are serious issues. We are raising them with the Pakistanis. The head of the ISI was here in February. We have put these issues on the table and we expect to see a serious response. In our engagement with Pakistan, I think our watchword must be an old one: trust but verify.

SPIEGEL: What does the ISI expect to gain from their influence on these groups?

Riedel: Over the course of the last three decades, the ISI used these relations to have leverage against India and influence in Afghanistan. More and more Pakistanis now recognize that they have created a Frankenstein that threatens the Pakistani state itself. We now need to help them bring this monster under control.

SPIEGEL: The United States also played a role in its creation, back in the eighties when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, then the number two at the CIA, was involved.

Riedel: Yes but we cannot go back and change history. We have to live with the reality we face today.

I like the Frankenstein reference. Nice sidestep to the historical connection, but the past is obviously still relevant and probably a real influence on Gates’ strategy for the Pentagon.