PBS has a brief but robust description of the history of The Syndicate in America. The story is mainly in regard to the establishment of Las Vegas casinos but it also touches on its role in influencing and working with law enforcement and intelligence agencies:

The Office of Strategic Services (later, the CIA) in fact employed the Syndicate in some covert operations. During World War II, the Syndicate helped with the invasion of Sicily and in protecting the Eastern waterfront against German sabotage. Some of the Syndicate’s major drug traffickers were used as informants and assassins in the Cold War. As one White House official described the government’s relationship with Lansky, “The government turned to him because hiring thugs was what government and business had been doing for a long time to control workers, and because it could conceive little other choice in the system at hand.”

Reuters reports that the island of Grand Comore is in danger of volcanic activity:

In the capital Moroni, thousands slept outside overnight and national radio broadcast appeals for calm and readings from the Koran across the mainly Muslim island.

“When I felt the tremor, I woke my wife and we stayed in the garden,” said resident Abderemane Koudre. “We thought the house was going to collapse. It was frightening.”

In 1903, 17 died from noxious fumes that seeped from cracks, and the last big eruption was in April 2005 when thousands fled in fear of poisonous gas and lava.

Poisonous cracks of noxious fumes? Strange not to hear discussion of masks or filters for every family, since that’s always the talk when WMDs are involved. The article mentions running away, but is that really an option for remote and small islands with few roads?

Photo by me…near Itsandra

Speaking of alerts, the AlertNet adds a much more urgent and realistic tone to news about Mount Karthala, one of the world’s largest active volcanoes:

“My neighbour woke me at two o’clock in the morning and we saw the red glimmer in the sky,” said resident Halima Ahamada.

“A strong smell of burning earth took us by the throats.”

Colonel Ismael Daho, head of the emergency management team for the archipelago, said Grande Comore had been put on red alert.

“We have put all military and interior security forces on alert, in case the population is evacuated,” he said.

In May, the volcano frightened thousands of residents when it bubbled lava and lit up the night sky, but later stabilised.

A rather stunning critique of the Bush plan for troop escalations has come from the Republican Kansas Senator Sam Brownback:

“I do not believe that sending more troops to Iraq is the answer,” Brownback said while traveling in Iraq. “Iraq requires a political rather than a military solution.”

Brownback had previously supported a short-term surge of troops if it could help achieve long-term political stability, which the Bush Administration has said it hopes a troop surge will help achieve.

But Brownback rejected that argument after meeting this week with several Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and U.S. military commanders.

“I came away from these meetings convinced that the United States should not increase its involvement until Sunnis and Shi’a are more willing to cooperate with each other instead of shooting at each other,” Brownback said.

“The best way to reach a democratic Iraq is to empower the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own nation building,” Brownback concluded, saying it is not in U.S. interest to get deeply involved in sectarian strife.

Not surprisingly, Brownback’s comments also reflected the reality on the ground that Iraq may be moving dangerously towards balkanization.

I think many people, especially conservatives who back the President, do not realize that the surge is in fact a “flip-flop” from the Rumsfeld doctrine, which failed miserably. If you know anything about the early successes in the war, you might know that the wisdom of the Generals who asked for troops on the ground was overruled by Rummie and thus Bush.

Moreover, Rummie disbanded and dismissed US Army leaders who wanted to use classic counterinsurgency tactics with boots on the ground, instead favoring highly mobile and mechanized “Stryker” brigades. So Brownback is really echoing an opinion that it is too late to flip-flop and now implement what was dismissed by Rummie. The military role has been altered so much by executive mismanagement that a political solution is the best counterinsurgency plan for the current situation.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has just seen a new bill introduced (HR 413) that tries to repeal the legislation that gave the President the authority to invade Iraq:

A BILL

To repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243) and to require the withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq .

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REPEAL OF PUBLIC LAW 107-243.

The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) is hereby repealed.

SEC. 2. WITHDRAWAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM IRAQ .

The President of the United States shall provide for the withdrawal of units and members of the United States Armed Forces deployed in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in a safe and orderly manner.

It will be interesting if this brings up the argument again that the “Mission Accomplished” speech by Bush ended the scope of his authorization and the time spent since then has been unauthorized.