This just in

Mexico plane flights to US cancelled for security reasons

Agent Sky Fallin of the FBI announced today that flights from Mexico to the US will be cancelled “until further notice”. This is due to an “alarming report of a possible terrorist” who made reference in an intercepted communication to “Montezuma’s Revenge”, which could signal a possible impending terrorist attack from Mexico.

In related news, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Chick N. Lyttle said flights from “all countries are now considered suspect because  terrorists are people and people fly on planes”.

You’re not sure this is satire, are you? Yes, someday we may have more attacks. However the current bizarre system, with the colored alert levels, the steady barrage of warnings of possible impeding attacks, the ludicrous beware-of-people-carrying-almanacs FBI warning - well, they are not inspiring me with confidence in their abilities. Seems more like The Keystone Cops meet Dumb and Dumber.

Also, I find that this is front page news to be baffling. If you want to catch someone, why broadcast it to the media of the world? That’ll just make them go to ground, to be more cautious. It also occurs to me this could be a disinformation campaign launched by the other side(s) to baffle and confuse. Or, yes, to provide a diversion for a real attack. Wheels within wheels… 

The US government is currently hunting an adversary that it knows little about.  We’re not even sure who they are or where they are. All our huge resources and might, thus, are of little help. This is called asymmetric warfare, and is a hot topic in military circles.

A few pilots armed with Stanley knives launch an assault on the world’s only superpower, with its arsenal of nuclear weapons, cruise missiles, aircraft carriers, bombers equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and self-defence technology.

There is nothing new in asymmetric warfare. In the battle of Agincourt in 1415, English infantry armed with longbows crushed shining French knights on horseback. Excluding the shared American and Soviet cold war concept of MAD - mutually assured destruction - all warfare has been asymmetric, says Phillip Wilkinson of King’s College, London.

“The smaller power applies its strengths against the weaknesses of the larger power,” he said.

And, in this case, we have only a dim idea of who the smaller power is.

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LA benefit for striking grocery workers

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Recovered history: Cuban Story. Errol Flynn and Castro

Actor Errol Flynn was in Cuba before and during the Cuban Revolution. He narrates this long-lost movie, now on DVD, about the rise of Castro.

You will no doubt be startled to learn that Errol Flynn enthusiastically supported the Cuban Revolution. Because of his support - and his name - he got some historically priceless footage. There’s film of a young unbearded Castro during the Moncada assault, which, though it failed, is considered the start of the revolution; of Che, who played a pivotal role in the taking of Sierra Maestra, which was a major turning point, and finally, the millions of people pouring onto the streets of Havana to greet Castro.

Perhaps the most amazing footage is of Castro in the mountains. After two years in solitary confinement in Cuba, he’d been exiled to Mexico only to return a few years later with eighty men to start a revolution. All but eleven were killed within days. The remaining eleven then hid in the mountains, launched campaigns, and gained support from the peasants. Film footage shows this rag-tag bunch hiking through the mountains, staying ahead of Batista’s army.

Eleven men. Against an army. And, within a few years, they gained so much support that they defeated that army and took control of the country. Talk about impossible odds…

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Sen. Fritz Hollings on Iraq

“Howard Dean is right,” declared the silver-haired Hollings, launching into a spirited defense of Dean’s assertion that Americans are no safer now that Saddam Hussein has been captured. “Saddam wasn’t causing anybody any problem.

You have some little smart-aleck announcer on television asking, ‘Do you think we’re better off with Saddam gone?’ What else is gone? We have 456 dead; 11,000 maimed for life, and I don’t think it was worth it. I had intended to vote against that resolution [giving Bush the authority to wage war against Iraq], but Rummy and Condi Rice and Cheney said you can’t wait until the smoking gun is a mushroom cloud. I thought they had some intelligence, that they knew something.”

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