Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

Sunday, July 12, 2015

For the Liberty of France

In late 1944, Charles Kaiser’s uncle, a U.S. Army lieutenant, stayed for a while at the Paris residence of two sisters, Christiane and Jacqueline Boulloche. So began a relationship that would eventually lead Kaiser to write his new book, The Cost of Courage. An American journalist, Mr. Kaiser has designed this book about the French resistance for an American audience. This account of the resistance provides unique insight into the history of one French family and a courageous struggle against Nazism.
The story begins with a Gestapo raid that targets the book’s protagonist, André Boulloche. André is found by the Germans after a resistance officer under his command breaks under interrogation. Failing in an attempt at suicide as the Nazis raid his apartment, André suffers a gunshot wound to the stomach and is captured.
Though his personal resistance was heroic, there was nothing glamorous about André’s plight. Kaiser explains:
If he hadn’t been wounded, André thinks, this part would have been easy: he would have swallowed the fatal pill right away. But now he is writhing on the floor, with blood spurting out of his stomach – and the cyanide never leaves his pocket.
Fortunately, André’s sister and fellow resistance officer, Christiane, had just left the apartment on ”the best timed shopping trip of her life.” She returns to see the Gestapo at work, and evades capture.
The Boulloches were an haut-bourgeoise, well-connected Catholic family, and unlikely revolutionaries. Yet, as Kaiser explains, they all shared “an innate sense of duty.”  Describing Christiane, Kaiser says, ”more than anything else, it is instinctive patriotism that pushes her into battle.” Still, the Boulloche notion of patriotism is inherently bound to honor and justice. Before she entered the resistance, Christiane organized a collection for a Jewish schoolteacher who was fired after the Nazis seized power.
The Cost of Courage’s most interesting sequences describe the tradecraft of the Resistance. We see how André learned his methods—”letters written with lemon juice, which only becomes legible when the pages are heated over a candle.” Kaiser describes how André records Nazi ”arms depot locations” and ”memorizes a book that interprets every [Wehrmacht] insignia”. We learn of Christiane’s crucial role as a network facilitator in repairing radios, and smuggling weapons to fighters. Kaiser also explains how Christiane used tradecraft to avoid detection, such as stepping off trains just as the doors closed and broadcasting radio transmissions from different locations. Survival, we’re reminded, is about meticulous attention to detail. It was also about spiritual strength. We learn that after André’s capture, he boosted the morale of a fellow prisoner by teaching him “the Schumann piano concerto, certain Beethoven sonatas, and the Brandenburg Concertos.”

Monday, June 29, 2015

After Tunisia, Kuwait and France we should not be afraid to call evil by its name

Today, 'a quieter moment, one all but lost in the calamity and grief of this bloody Friday. The Queen visited Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi concentration camp where unspeakable brutality reigned.'



In France, in Tunisia, in Kuwait – horror upon horror, in a single day. It played out like some kind of gruesome auction, each atrocity bidding against the others for our appalled attention. The opening offer came near Lyon, where a factory was attacked and, more shocking, a severed head was found on top of a gate, and a decapitated body nearby. The French president said the corpse had been inscribed with a message.
From the Tunisian resort of Sousse, holidaymakers tweeted terrified pictures from their barricaded hotel rooms, describing how they had fled from the beach after sounds they had assumed were a daytime fireworks display turned out to be the opening gunshots of a massacre. From Kuwait City, as if to top the rival bids, a suicide bomber walked into a mosque packed with 2,000 people and pressed the button that he hoped would send scores to their deaths.
Each of these acts pulled our gaze from the event its perpetrators had surely hoped would trump all others. On Tuesday an Isis video – “snuff movie” would be the more accurate term – showed five Muslim men, each wearing a Guantánamo-style red jumpsuit, packed into a cage and lowered into a swimming pool. State-of-the-art underwater cameras recorded the men’s dying minutes, the thrashing and flailing as they drowned. (I rely here on reports: my small stance against the so-called Islamic State’s propaganda war is to refuse to watch its propaganda.)
What are we to make of these events? What are we to do with what we have witnessed? Experts will look for connections, for common authorship. There will be claims of responsibility. Islamic State has already sought credit for the deaths in Kuwait. There will be analysis aplenty of IS’s position, of the global response, of the nature of contemporary terrorism.


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Back To Basics For The F-35

LE BOURGET, France — As Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon attempt over the next year or so to assemble a three-year block buy of 400-500 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, potential customers will be looking for firm definition behind the much-redefined Block 4 upgrade process, which will lay out all the capabilities that the F-35 will have between now and 2027.
This long-range planning is essential for the F-35, because the program is large and weapon and system integration issues are unique. From the very start of the project, it has been a given that all aircraft in the worldwide fleet will be upgraded concurrently, so as to avoid having a multiplicity of configurations.
This one-size-fits-all approach will in theory be the result of consensus among the customer community, but in practice will be dominated by the U.S., which will be signing the biggest single check. It presents a dilemma: how can you put as many upgrades and improvements on the schedule as possible to meet today’s national desires, while leaving capacity to change plans as new technologies and threats emerge?
Another delicate balance concerns the timing of improvements, such as electro-optical targeting, including hyperspectral systems that fuse midwave infrared (IR), shortwave IR and color video to give the pilot the best available picture. All of this has appeared since the F-35 was designed, so its current midwave-IR-only electro-optical targeting system (EOTS) looks a little dated, and will be even more so when the fighter is ready for export customers.
This issue has been recognized, and an Advanced EOTS is being designed with sharper, multi-spectral sensors and new processors. It should cut into production in Block 4, and according to Lockheed Martin is a top priority for many users. But this does not necessarily help to sell a lot of Block 3 aircraft: if Block 4 is going to include such a significant improvement, why not stretch out the lives of your existing fighters and delay F-35 deliveries?
Via: Aviation Week
Continue Reading....

Friday, June 19, 2015

Actually, President Obama, Mass Killings Aren’t Uncommon In Other Countries

President Barack Obama responded to the horrific shooting at a historic black church in Charleston that left nine dead with an earnest statement—well, other than that contention that was completely untrue.
Once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun. … We as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.
Let’s set aside the assertion that it’s too easy to obtain guns in America and deal with the implication that we are somehow uniquely violent or that “mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.” The president has made this claim in various ways and with various qualifiers.*
Parlez vous Hebdo? Because surely the president recalls that in January of this year two gunmen entered the office of a satirical magazine in France with an assortment of guns and murdered 11 people (and injured 11 more). After leaving, they killed a police officer. And in a marketplace catering to Jews another five were murdered and 11 wounded. France is, allegedly, an advanced country, is it not? Perhaps if Obama had attended the anti-terror rally in Paris like every other leader of advanced countries did, his recollection would be sharper.
It only takes some quick research to discover that rampage killers, acts of terror (as the Charleston shooting most certainly is), school attacks, spree killers are not unique to the United States.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

[VIDEO] NYT Report: Iran’s Nuclear Stockpile Has Grown 20% Over Last 18 Months Of Negotiations, State Department’s Harf “Totally Perplexed”…

International inspectors report that Iran's stockpile of nuclear fuel has increased about 20 percent over the past 18 months of negotiations, according to The New York Times.
The increase in Iran's stockpile was based on a report issued Friday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors nuclear programs for the United Nations.
The report also said Iran had stopped producing certain types of highly enriched uranium since January, 2014 and halted work on facilities capable of producing nuclear bombs.
The Times noted that should negotiators finalize a deal before a June 30 deadline, Tehran would have to reduce its stockpile by more than 9 tons within months.
The newspaper also reported that Western officials and experts were unsure how or why Iran's stockpile had increased. Some have speculated it was to give them leverage in talks.
The Obama administration has long maintained that Tehran's nuclear program has been "frozen" as international negotiators work to secure a deal with new limits.
A deal brokered between the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China with Iran would lift some sanctions on Iran in exchange for new limits on its nuclear program.
A framework outlined April 2 would force Iran to reduce its nuclear stockpile to 300 kilograms, or about 660 pounds.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who has led U.S. talks to secure a deal, met with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Saturday in Geneva.
Kerry cut short his trip and returned to Boston on Monday after a cycling accident in France over the weekend left him with a broken leg.
The State Department maintains the June 30 deadline remains set.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest described the report from international inspectors as just a "snapshot in time" amid ongoing talks.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

NSA Explodes At Obama: He Ordered Spying, Not Us; Now He’s Trying To Throw Us Under The Bus

179768851.jpg.CROP.promovar-mediumlargeWASHINGTON — The White House and State Department signed off on surveillance targeting phone conversations of friendly foreign leaders, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said Monday, pushing back against assertions that President Obama and his aides were unaware of the high-level eavesdropping.
Professional staff members at the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies are angry, these officials say, believing the president has cast them adrift as he tries to distance himself from the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that have strained ties with close allies.
The resistance emerged as the White House said it would curtail foreign intelligence collection in some cases and two senior U.S. senators called for investigations of the practice.
France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Sweden have all publicly complained about the NSA surveillance operations, which reportedly captured private cellphone conversations by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among other foreign leaders.
On Monday, as Spain joined the protest, the fallout also spread to Capitol Hill.
Until now, members of Congress have chiefly focused their attention on Snowden’s disclosures about the NSA’s collection of U.S. telephone and email records under secret court orders.
“With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies — including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany — let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Obama is a laughing stock: Column

AP_APTOPIX_RUSSIA_G20_SUMMIT_OBAMA_58204066Remember that dumb cowboy George W. Bush, who alienated all our allies and dragged us into wars of choice in the Mideast? And remember that goofball Mitt Romney, whom Joe Biden a year ago accusedof wanting to go to war in Syria?
Both of them must be having a big laugh over the way things are going for Obama now. When I wrote last week on our bumbling Syria diplomacy, it seemed that things couldn't possibly go further downhill. Boy, was I wrong.
Last week, it seemed our only ally was France. But now the French are having second thoughts. Obama's efforts to get support at the G20 conference came to nothing. Even the pope is undercutting him.
Meanwhile, at home, polls show Americans are against a strike, and Obama is facing double-digit defections among Democrats in the Senate. The outlook for passage in the House, meanwhile, looks so bad that a resolution to authorize war may not even make it to a vote. If it's sure to fail, why force members -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- to go on record? You can bet they don't appreciate Obama putting them in this position.The Pentagon isn't happy, and even The Atlantic'Ta-Nehisi Coates, a reliable Obama supporter, calls his policy "dumb."
Some critics are even comparing the collapse of American influence under Obama to the end of the Soviet Union. Well, that may be an exaggeration -- but Obama promised a "fundamental transformation," after all..

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Five Times Obama Has Apologized for America


In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney said:
“I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.”
The Obama campaign and notoriously liberal “fact-check” websites such asfactcheck.orgPolitifact, and the Washington Post‘s “Fact Checker” said President Obama never went on an “apology tour” and has never apologized for American actions.
However, in the first few months of the president’s term, Obama repeatedly did speak of America’s past mistakes in a series of appearances, several of which fell in foreign countries. It was also revealed in a top secret cable published in 2011 by Wikileaks that the Japanese government vetoed the idea of President Obama visiting Hiroshima in September 2009 and apologizing for the atomic bomb.
Here are five examples of Obama apologizing for America, first collected in 2009 by “Hannity,” which occurred in quick succession during Obama’s April 2009 tour of foreign countries and in two speeches in the United States shortly thereafter.

1. April 3, 2009: Strasbourg, France

“In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

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