EEUU (Continuación)

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, ,

In the days since the attempted Christmas Day airplane bombing, many officials, including the White House’s counterterrorism director, John Brennan, have insisted that the Detroit incident was “not like 9/11”. In many respects, we agree. But the government’s handling of the intelligence leading up to the attack was eerily reminiscent of one of the most shocking — and relatively underreported — revelations to come out of the 9/11 commission’s hearings.

The commission, having been informed that before 9/11 the State Department maintained a list of known or suspected terrorists whose travel should be restricted, asked Federal Aviation Administration officials how many of that list’s 61,000 names were on the F.A.A.’s…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , ,

Why are we reading Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights instead of taking him somewhere and forcibly finding out where he got the explosive underwear and whatever else he might know about Al Qaeda? Isn’t this, as well as the forthcoming federal court trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, proof that the Obama administration doesn’t really regard the war on terrorism as a war?

Even worse, isn’t President Obama, despite his statements on terrorism over the weekend, confused and amateurish on this deadly serious issue? At his direction, thousands of American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are doing their best to kill terrorists, would-be terrorists and terrorists in training with no thought whatsoever to the legal niceties.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo InternacionalReflexionesTestimonios,

Dec. 30, 2009, marked the greatest loss of life for the Central Intelligence Agency since the 1983 Beirut Embassy bombing. Seven officers on the front lines of the war against terrorism were killed in Afghanistan while doing critical, unheralded work. The CIA employees who died this week were providing vital support to coalition forces and our Afghan allies and protecting our country's national security.

These officers accepted a mission of great risk knowing full well that their efforts would not be publicly rewarded. There are no parades or public testimonials in this business. They knew that they would never wear medals identifying their service to their country and their willingness to stand in harm's way.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

No es que quisiera negarme la chuleta. Sencillamente, el camarero del bar de Chicago donde yo intentaba cenar no se enteró de lo que su cliente extranjero quería pedir. Estábamos hablando inglés. O lo que pensábamos ambos que era el inglés. Pero no existe un inglés único, sino muchas hablas más o menos inglesas. En el inglés de Inglaterra, que hablo por haber nacido y crecido en ese país, «chuleta» se dice «chop» con una «o» muy corta y redonda. En el inglés que predomina en los Estados Unidos, la vocal se escribe igual, pero que se parece más a una «a» española y se pronuncia como si fuera «cha-a-a-p», con un sonido largo y con la boca ancha.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

The Christmas Day attempt to destroy an airplane landing in Detroit underscores the sad reality that terrorism is a constant danger to the United States. Let us hope that policymakers will take this opportunity to make some overdue changes in their strategies for preventing attacks.

They can start by “rationalizing” various government databases. It is disturbing that someone who is thought to have connections to terrorism serious enough to warrant being placed on a government watch list is still not put on the smaller “no-fly” list of people who are banned from airplanes.

How did this come to pass? The no-fly list is reserved for those who are thought to pose a threat to airplanes.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

Homeland security, intelligence and legal experts share their reactions.

The president has ordered two reviews since the attack attempted against Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. While such reviews are necessary to understand why a multibillion-dollar aviation security system failed to prevent Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a U.S.-bound flight with explosives, the American people rightly expect more.

This plot appears to trace back to Yemen, a country that is not a new counterterrorism problem. Since the October 2000 attack against the USS Cole, in which 17 U.S. sailors were killed, two administrations have pushed Yemen to confront al-Qaeda without sufficient success.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

As we become increasingly dependent on the Internet, we need to be increasingly concerned about how it is regulated. The Federal Communications Commission has proposed “network neutrality” rules, which would prohibit Internet service providers from discriminating against or charging premiums for certain services or applications on the Web. The commission is correct that ensuring equal access to the infrastructure of the Internet is vital, but it errs in directing its regulations only at service providers like AT&T and Comcast.

Today, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s new Bing have become the Internet’s gatekeepers, and the crucial role they play in directing users to Web sites means they are now as essential a component of its infrastructure as the physical network itself.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropa, ,

As Washington and Moscow zero in on a new strategic arms control treaty, it is time to look at what lies ahead in U.S.-Russian relations. The greatest gap between Western and Russian thinking today may not be on Afghanistan or Iran. It may well be on Europe. The first signs of the unraveling of the European security system built after the Cold War are evident.

Almost unnoticed in the U.S. media, Moscow last month proposed a new draft treaty on European security -- thus making good on President Dmitry Medvedev's call after the Russo-Georgian war of August 2008 for changes to the current system.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

One might expect Democrats to be euphoric during this holiday season. After recapturing control of Congress in 2006, and last year taking back the White House by electing America's first African-American president, Democrats are now on the verge of passing a historic health care reform law. But instead of celebrating, they are bitterly divided. Former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean and liberal bloggers are urging the Senate to defeat the health care bill. Many are criticizing President Barack Obama for compromising too much, saying the proposal doesn't go far enough, while more moderate and conservative Democrats are petrified the bill and the President's agenda are too ambitious and will cost them re-election next year.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, ,

Since U.S. forces started taking alleged terrorists to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the task of crafting American detention policy has migrated decisively from the executive branch to federal judges. These judges, not experts in terrorism or national security and not politically accountable to the electorate, inherited this responsibility because of the Supreme Court's intervention in detention policy. Over time they maintained it because legislative and executive officials of both political parties refused to craft a comprehensive legislative approach to this novel set of problems that cries out for decisive lawmaking.

Many commentators have complained about this state of affairs and the contradictory and incoherent body of law it is producing and have urged the political branches to enact legislation to create a uniform and democratically legitimate detention policy.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalEconomía

The Senate finance committee overwhelmingly voted to approve Ben Bernanke for another four-year term as Federal Reserve board chairman. This is a remarkable event since it is hard to imagine how Bernanke could have performed any worse during his last four-year term. By Bernanke's own assessment, his policies brought the US economy to the brink of another Great Depression. This sort of performance in any other job would get you fired in a second. But for the most important economic policymaker in the country it gets you high praise and another term.

There is no room for ambiguity in this story.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

In Silicon Valley we have a saying: launch early, launch often. It’s an acknowledgment that successful, innovative companies are the ones that rapidly try new ideas, see what works, improve their products and repeat. Businesses that launch frequently are also able to take advantage of economies of scale to make launchings faster and easier. In many ways, the key to innovation is speed of execution.

NASA, an agency that depends on innovation, could benefit from the same mindset. To meet its new goals for human spaceflight, NASA must be able to be creative and take risks, or else it will be unable to adapt to new technology and changing political realities.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Hay una magnífica y cómica canción de Gustav Mahler, incluida en «La trompa mágica del niño» (Des Knaben Wunderhorn), basada en uno de los milagros atribuidos, según los hagiógrafos, a San Antonio de Padua. Éste, al advertir que la iglesia estaba vacía, se fue al río a predicar a los peces. «La carpa y sus huevas / han venido hasta aquí...». Escuchan atentamente. «Jamás otro sermón / gustó tanto a las carpas». Y lo mismo sucedió con los «lucios de boca afilada», con las anguilas, los esturiones, el abadejo y hasta con los cangrejos, y con las lentas y parsimoniosas tortugas: «Jamás otro sermón / gustó tanto a los cangrejos».…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

As President Obama and his advisers planned their new approach to the Afghan war, the quality of Afghanistan’s security forces received unprecedented scrutiny, and rightly so. Far less attention, however, has been paid to the quality of American troops there. Of course, American forces don’t demand bribes from civilians at gunpoint or go absent for days, as Afghans have often done. But they face serious issues of their own, demanding prompt action.

The American corporals and privates who traverse the Afghan countryside today are not at issue. They risk life and limb every day, with little self-pity. Despite the strains of successive combat deployments, they keep re-enlisting at high rates.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, ,

The decision by President Obama to move 100 detainees from Guantánamo Bay to the Thomson Correctional Centre in Illinois has drawn criticism from across the spectrum. But amid the controversy, the fact that one of the biggest barriers to closure of Guantánamo remains in place has been largely ignored.

Of the estimated 110 detainees who will be neither transferred to Thomson nor moved to New York to stand trial for the 9/11 attacks, many are stateless. These men remain in detention not because they are awaiting trial, but because the US authorities are unable to return them to their country of origin.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

As the great Tiger Woods steps down from the global stage, however temporarily, it is an interesting moment to consider the interplay of celebrity, sex, race and the corporatisation of sport. At first, I found all the hoopla difficult to understand. Tiger Woods always seemed so unremittingly phlegmatic that it's hard to imagine him as the "sexposed!" "horndog!" described in all the tabloids.

But my image of Woods comes entirely from advertisements for Accenture, Gillette and Nike. My image is of Tiger the corporate logo, Tiger the symbol of well-executed "swoosh," Tiger the carefully designed avatar of business acumen, family values and gentlemanly athleticism.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

The recent revelation that the families of service members who are suicides do not receive presidential condolence letters created a stir, evoking questions of fairness and raising concerns about a lack of compassion from our leaders.

Yet the issue is far more complicated than that. Indeed, there is nothing wrong with stigmatizing suicide while doing everything possible to de-stigmatize the help soldiers need in dealing with post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts.

The key question is to what extent any action we take after a suicide inadvertently glorifies it. Early Christians realized that they were losing too many believers to the attractions of martyrdom.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

By this time next year, U.S. troops will have been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviets were. The United States has been engaged in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq longer than in any previous war. Not factoring in the increase in soldiers going to Afghanistan that President Obama announced last week, some 220,000 American women have engaged in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In the past eight years, more than 2 million U.S. servicemen and servicewomen have served together in situations and for durations that have never existed in previous conflicts. Whatever issues remain to be resolved, the feared "disasters" did not materialize.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

Hay amores que duran poco. Apenas unos meses atrás, los presidentes latinoamericanos celebraban la llegada del nuevo Gobierno del presidente Barack Obama describiéndolo como el inicio de una nueva era en las relaciones hemisféricas. Pero ahora, la luna de miel ha terminado.

Brasil, tal vez alentado por su crecimiento económico, sus descubrimientos de petróleo y la reciente portada de la revista The Economist con el título El despegue de Brasil, está radicalizando su política exterior. Y varios vecinos de Brasil están siguiendo por lo menos algunos de sus pasos.

La disputa entre Estados Unidos y Brasil por las elecciones del 29 de noviembre en Honduras es la última de una serie de enfrentamientos.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

At the international climate talks in Copenhagen, President Obama is expected to announce that the United States wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. But at the heart of his plan is cap and trade, a market-based approach that has been widely praised but does little to slow global warming or reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It merely allows polluters and Wall Street traders to fleece the public out of billions of dollars.

Supporters of cap and trade point to the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments that capped sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-burning power plants — the main pollutants in acid rain — at levels below what they were in 1980.…  Seguir leyendo »