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| From Herat in the west of Afghanistan to Sarobi in the east, Italian forces have been cocooned from the sort of bloody realities faced by British troops every day by secret bribes paid by Italian intelligence agents, which have jeopardised the lives of their allies. The controversial payments to armed groups in Afghanistan do not, however, show that the Italians are perfidious cowards; rather, that the whole Nato operation in Afghanistan is an almighty mess. The Italians should not have been acting in secret. They should have learnt from their experiences in Mogadishu — where they cut local deals and were caught red-handed (by the CIA) tipping off the warlord general Mohammed Farrah Aidid about American operations to arrest him — that breaking ranks with their allies is stupid and dangerous. More than 70 people, including four pearl jewelry foreign journalists, were killed and Aidid escaped after one alleged tip-off, according to American military sources. Related Links ut what they were doing in Sarobi and Herat is the sort of thing that the Nato commander, the American General Stanley McChrystal, has been saying for months should be an integral part of the whole counter-insurgency strategy. Back in June he told the Senate Armed Forces Committee in Washington that “our willingness to operate in ways that minimise casualties or damage — even when doing so makes our task more difficult — is essential to our credibility”. If that means that we can buy off elements of the enemy forces, rather than bomb them (at catastrophic risk to Afghan civilians), so much the better. Buying off enemies in Afghanistan is boxing clever. Last year British agents explored the possibility of buying safe passage for the massive convoy that was to carry a new turbine to the Kajaki dam in Helmand province through the bloodiest battlefields in Afghanistan. Local warlords refused the offer and the pearl necklace turbine was delivered without loss of life by a brilliant secret manoeuvre through the desert. But if they had agreed to the deal, would it have been so disgraceful? No — it could have saved lives, and shown that foreign forces in Afghanistan were prepared to deal in the attractive currency of hard cash, not just with violence, to achieve their objectives. The Italian revelations show that the command and control structure of the 42 countries providing tens of thousands of troops to Nato is what the Army calls a “bugger’s muddle”. Italy did not tell Nato what it was up to in Sarobi, but Rome is not the only capital interfering from afar. In Helmand, just over 9,000 British troops are technically under General McChrystal’s command via the southern regional headquarters in Kandahar. In reality, successive British brigadiers have simultaneously answered to Britain’s Joint Permanent Headquarters in Northwood while also, technically, falling under the political command of a Whitehall-appointed civilian running the Helmand provincial reconstruction team. The 10,000 US Marines answer to their headquarters in the US more than they do to their own general on the ground. Another 30,000 American troops operating in the east are not under Nato command at all. Other nations all have similar cross-cutting loyalties that are laid over dozens of caveats about how their troops can or cannot be used. The Germans, for example, are not allowed into combat zones on foot without a wheeled ambulance; other nations are not allowed to fight at all. General McChrystal is hoping to persuade President Obama to agree to a huge surge of as many as 40,000 more troops and Nato countries have been coming under pressure to provide more soldiers. But the mission in Afghanistan will be doomed until all freshwater pearl contributing nations put their troops unequivocably under the command of Nato’s leadership in Kabul. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to more Sarobi-style disasters — and General McChrystal’s hopes of fighting a “smarter” war will be dashed in their infancy. | ||
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| From Herat in the west of Afghanistan to Sarobi in the east, Italian forces have been cocooned from the sort of bloody realities faced by British troops every day by secret bribes paid by Italian intelligence agents, which have jeopardised the lives of their allies. The controversial payments to armed groups in pearl jewelry Afghanistan do not, however, show that the Italians are perfidious cowards; rather, that the whole Nato operation in Afghanistan is an almighty mess. The Italians should not have been acting in secret. They should have learnt from their experiences in Mogadishu — where they cut local deals and were caught red-handed (by the CIA) tipping off the warlord general Mohammed Farrah Aidid about American operations to arrest him — that breaking ranks with their allies is stupid and dangerous. More than 70 people, including four foreign journalists, were killed and Aidid escaped after one alleged tip-off, according to American military sources. Related Links But what they were doing in Sarobi and Herat is the sort of thing that the Nato commander, the American General Stanley McChrystal, has been saying for months should be an integral part of the whole counter-insurgency strategy. Back in June he told the Senate Armed Forces Committee in Washington that “our willingness to operate in ways that minimise casualties or damage — even when doing so makes our task more difficult — is essential to pearl earrings our credibility”. If that means that we can buy off elements of the enemy forces, rather than bomb them (at catastrophic risk to Afghan civilians), so much the better. Buying off enemies in Afghanistan is boxing clever. Last year British agents explored the possibility of buying safe passage for the massive convoy that was to carry a new turbine to the Kajaki dam in Helmand province through the bloodiest battlefields in Afghanistan. Local warlords refused the offer and the turbine was delivered without loss of life by a brilliant secret manoeuvre through the desert. But if they had agreed to the deal, would it have been so disgraceful? No — it could have saved lives, and shown that foreign forces in Afghanistan were prepared to deal in the attractive currency of hard cash, not just with violence, to achieve their objectives. The Italian revelations show that the command and control structure of the 42 countries providing tens of thousands of troops to Nato is what the Army calls a “bugger’s muddle”. Italy did not tell Nato what it was up to in Sarobi, but Rome is not the only capital interfering from afar. In Helmand, just over 9,000 British troops are technically under General McChrystal’s command via the southern regional headquarters in Kandahar. In reality, successive British brigadiers have simultaneously answered to Britain’s Joint Permanent Headquarters in Northwood while also, technically, falling under the political command of a Whitehall-appointed civilian running the Helmand provincial reconstruction team. The 10,000 US Marines answer to their headquarters in the US more than they do to their own general on the ground. Another 30,000 American troops operating in the east are not under Nato command at all. Other nations all have similar cross-cutting loyalties that are laid over dozens of caveats about how their troops can or cannot be used. The Germans, for example, are not allowed into combat zones on foot without a wheeled ambulance; other nations are not allowed to fight at all. General McChrystal is hoping to persuade President Obama to agree to a huge surge of as many as 40,000 more troops and Nato countries have been coming under pressure to provide more soldiers. But the mission in Afghanistan will be doomed until all contributing nations put their troops unequivocably under the command of Nato’s leadership in pearl necklace Kabul. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to more Sarobi-style disasters — and General McChrystal’s hopes of fighting a “smarter” war will be dashed in their infancy. • Sam Kiley is the author of Desperate Glory – at War in Helmand with Britain’s 16 Air Assault Brigade | ||
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| A shepherd leads his flock through a street in Zakopane, Poland, after heavy snow. The unseasonable weather killed at least four Poles and cut power and heating to hundreds of thousands of homes in Central Europe. Three people, including a shepherd, froze to pearl jewelry death in the mountains of southern Poland and a man died when his car was blown off the road in the north of the country. In northeastern parts of the Czech Republic roads and railway lines were blocked by fallen trees after strong winds and snow about 50cm (20in) deep in the mountains. Meteorologists said that snow flurries were not uncommon in Poland in October, but the conditions had been unexpectedly severe this week. Related Links In the Austrian Alps there has been up to 90cm of snow in the past two days. Several ski resorts in southern Styria have opened their slopes in the earliest start to the season on record. The CEZ power group declared a state of pearl earrings emergency in eight Czech districts because power lines had been damaged and sent hundreds of workers to repair them. A malfunction in a heating plant left many of the 40,000 residents in Jablonec and Nisou without heat and the mayor was considering closing schools, a Czech news website reported. Some Polish villagers suffered because they had not yet bought coal for the winter. There was snow in the mountain ranges of freshwater pearl eastern Germany and overnight frost in the west, with temperatures falling as low as minus 8.5C (16.5F) (Reuters) | ||
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| The family of six-year-old Falcon Heene thrived on chasing storms and investigating outlandish scientific theories, but could never have imagined the pearl jewelry horrifying drama that their home-made “flying saucer” produced on live television yesterday afternoon. As the drama unfolded yesterday, details began to emerge about the spectacularly bizarre lifestyle of the Heene family of Fort Collins, Colorado. Self-described “psyience detective” Richard Heene, 45, wife Mayumi, 43, and their three boys aged under 10 were known to friends and neighbours as adventurous storm-chasers who criss-crossed their state conducting science experiments on various weather phenomena. Richard Heene, a retired weather forecaster, describes himself as an experienced weather chaser and regularly takes his young sons out of school to cultured pearl chase storms and test his theories on magnetic fields and gravity. Last year the family appeared on the TV reality show Wife Swap where Ms Heene switched places with a mother from a safety-conscious family who ran a baby-proofing business. The show’s promotional materials described the Heenes as living “life on pearl earrings the edge”. A friend, writing on his blog about the family’s impending appearance on the programme wrote: “Richard is an amazingly creative human (now turned mad scientist) who insists on repeatedly proving that there is a very fine line between genius and insanity. Richard is convinced that he has found the secret of an anti-gravity device in the cyclonic action of tornadoes.” | ||
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| The student who found the Boyzone star Stephen Gately dead at a luxury holiday apartment revealed today that he plans to attend the funeral with the singer’s partner. Georgi Dochev discovered Gately slumped on the sofa of the house where the singer was staying with his partner, Andrew Cowles, on the island of Majorca. The singer’s bandmates are preparing to fly to pearl jewelry Majorca tomorrow to collect his body and to return it to Dublin for a private family Mass tomorrow night. Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch will also attend a funeral service that is expected to attract thousands of fans at noon on Saturday. Mr Dochev, who had returned to the apartment with the couple after they had been to a gay nightclub in Palma, admitted that his plans to attend the funeral could be controversial. Related Links “We’re flying to Ireland on Friday,” said Mr Dochev, 25. “I don’t know what the people will tell about me going to the burial, because I know there will be some talking — if I’ve been his lover or not.” Mr Dochev, who is in the third year of a psychology degree, said that he was still traumatised by the death. The student, from Sofia, Bulgaria, refused to discuss what happened during the hours before he discovered Gately’s body at the one-bedroom apartment. “I feel bad, I don’t feel good at all,” he said. “You don’t find a dead man in the house every day . . . Do you understand what I mean?,” he told Darik Radio in Bulgaria. “I’m a strong man, the time heals everything, my boyfriend is here and with time passing everything will be healed. Everything will be clear when I do the interview for the British press.” Gately, who joined Boyzone in 1993 after answering an advert in Dublin to audition for Ireland’s first boyband, sent ripples through the pop music world ten years ago when he announced that he was gay. He was introduced to Mr Cowles by Sir Elton pearl earrings John and his partner David Furnish and the pair celebrated a civil union in 2006. Gately’s body was released by Spanish authorities on Tuesday after a post-mortem examination found that he died from natural causes. The tests indicated that he had suffered an acute pulmonary oedema, an accumulation of fluid on the lungs that is often associated with a heart problem. Gately, 33, had been with Mr Cowles, 32, until after midnight on Friday at their apartment in Port Andratx. The couple travelled to Palma, about a 30 minutes drive away. It is understood that Gately spent several hours socialising, including a visit to the Black Cat nightclub. His body was discovered at about 1pm when Mr Dochev noticed the singer slumped forward “cold and white” on the sofa. Spanish police have said that there were no signs of suspicious circumstances, but an investigation into the singer’s death will continue as a formality. A Spanish police source has said that Mr Cowles had told them that Gately had smoked cannabis on the night he died. The singer’s family — who maintained that no drugs were involved in his death and they did not suspect suicide— are said to be satisifed that there was no foul play. Gerald Kean, the Gately family solicitor, said that the singer’s parents, Margaret and Martin, were still trying to come terms with their son’s sudden death. “The family’s only wish is to get their son and brother home as soon as possible,” he said. He said that Gately may have been suffering an freshwater pearl underlying heart problem and that other relatives on his father’s side also had heart trouble. “The minute Stephen’s mother heard the news she said, ‘I knew it’,” the lawyer said. “There was a problem on the father’s side. There were one or two on the father’s side of the family who died young.” | ||
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