The John Batchelor Show

Monday 11 January 2016

Air Date: 
January 11, 2016

Map, left: Homo sapiens spreads from Africa worldwide. Humans may have reached Chile by 18,500 years ago  The famous archaeological site of Monte Verde in southern Chile is already the oldest in the Americas, showing that humans occupied South America by 14,500 years ago. Now, new excavations suggest that people built fires, cooked plants and meat, and used tools at Monte Verde 18,500 years ago, which would push back the peopling of the Americas by another 4,000 years. If the team is correct, the discovery will shake up both the archaeology and genomics of the peopling of the Americas. It narrows the window of time when humans swept into the Americas, starting at a maximum age of 23,000 years ago when, genetic studies say, the ancestors of Paleoindians first left Siberia. The find raises questions about the North American record, where no one had found widely accepted evidence of occupation before 14,500 years ago. 
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Spreading_homo...
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, LongWarJournal senior editor;
Bill Roggio, LongWarJournal & FDD, in re: An American,  Mr Jones, swore allegiance to Ja'ish Shebaab – an al Q filial.   Jones admitted to being in two of seven videos, on one listening to a lecture on how they're taking the pain to Kenya.  In another he embraces Shebaab brethren.  Abdul Malik Jones (someone else?) had just left Shebaab and turned himself into US authorities.   He was fleeing the al Q crackdown on anyone who may defect ISIS.   / Faiz al Kundari has been transferred to Kuwait from Gitmo.  His record has long identified him as seriously dangerous.  US milint: an al Qaeda propagandist - more dangerous that your average goon or suicide bomber.   US Federal court denied him leaving Gitmo; several review boards also decided he was too dangerous to release; has been evaluated a half-dozen times and held, then suddenly last fall he was accepted for release by a "periodic review board" – no explanation, quite odd.  US records show that 200 Gitmo prisoners released have become "recidivists" – are now actively working to obliterate the Ungted States. 
US questioned Kuwait’s ability to deal with Guantanamo detainee for good reason  A Guantanamo detainee who was transferred to Kuwait in 2006 had quickly returned to the battlefield. He killed 13 Iraqi soldiers in a suicide truck bomb at a combat outpost in Mosul, Iraq in 2008.
‘High risk’ Guantanamo detainee transferred to Kuwait  On at least three separate occasions in the past, US officials, including President Obama's own Guantanamo Review Task Force, recommended that Fayez al Kandari remain in US custody. Kandari also lost his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Joint Task Force - Guantanamo deemed him a "high risk" to the US, its interests and allies.
Islamic State releases photos from captured Libyan town of Bin Jawad  The Islamic State's Libyan "province" has released images from the captured town of Bin Jawad. The jihadists have likely operated in the town for months, but they only declared complete control of it earlier this week after launching a new offensive. The photos and a short video released by an Islamic State-affiliated "news" agency are intended to advertise the jihadists' control of Bin Jawad.
US charges American citizen with conspiring to kill soldiers in Afghanistan  Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh, a member of al Qaeda's paramilitary force in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was involved in a double suicide attack in Khost, Afghanistan in 2009.
Ghana falsely claims 2 former Guantanamo detainees were ‘cleared of any involvement’ in terrorism Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration said in a statement that it has accepted two Guantanamo detainees who "have been cleared of any involvement in terrorist activities, and are being released." But that is not true. Neither one of the detainees was "cleared" by President Obama's Guantanamo Review Task Force. One of the two was previously deemed a "high risk" by Joint Task Force - Guantanamo.
YPG claims to have killed nearly 6,000 enemy fighters in 2015  The Kurdish YPG (or People’s Defense Units) has released a summary of its operations for 2015. The YPG claims to have killed nearly 6,000 "enemy" fighters, most of whom likely belonged to the Islamic State, while losing just 680 of its own members in combat. The statistics provided by the YPG imply a kill ratio of nearly 9 to 1, which obviously seems high.
US soldier killed while fighting the Taliban in Helmand  The reintroduction of US and British forces in Helmand has not prevented the districts of Nowzad, Musa Qala, and Sangin from falling to the Taliban. (1 of 2)
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, LongWarJournal senior editor;
Bill Roggio, LongWarJournal & FDD (2  of 2) Libya – all heqq is breaking loose; no English or European reportage (too dangerous to send people in). Sirte, in Tripolitania: ISIS now controls much of the city and several of the surrounding towns, is using these as operational bass from which to attack oil tankers.  Yet another crisis for the Libyan officials.  ISIS does not reach a stage where it calms down and quit expanding, Has as many as 5,000 fires going, Managed to bring in __.  ISIS profiting from oil fields in Iraq and Syria, but in Libya, more blowing things up to cr4eate huge problems, for the long game.  Photo: tripod-mounted weapon; stores closed, cigarettes burned; taking over educational institutions, Lawless state where warfare units plant their flag and there's no challenge.  Rival govt, rival militias, tribal fights.  Chaos. ISIS says: we're here. in charge, we're the caliphate, and we're staying, A strong message. Elsewhere, have lost to some al Q groups.  Al Q discreetly keeps locally-branded organizations, hides its hand, whereas ISIS is loud.  
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Forbes. com; in re: China goes to war. The PLA – Peoples Liberation Army – owes fealty to the Communist Party, not the Chinese people.  Hsin hua: Pres Xi Jinping has ordered China's four military agencies to come up with new departments – to prepare for war. Not old-style boilerplate gibberish; rather, apparently a real attempt to prepare for war. The Hindu, Adm Scott Swift asks why China is deploying submarines on antipiracy missions??   A four-star US admiral now signals that we're aware. alert, and displeased.  Japan looking at extending its operation into the South China Sea – with the US (treaty allies) and with Australia a and India.  All three East Asian nations collaborating to protect the Law of the Sea. China is enraged.   The B-52 flies out of Guam in response to DPRK nuclear bomb test – which we do every time they test a nuclear weapon, to reassure the fearful South Korea; North Korea squeals.   China notices that the US could reach Beijing as well as Pyongyang, which annoys, but they also like the fact that whenever we fly a B-52 thereabouts Washington pays some sort of obeisance to Beijing.  Chinese technocrats used to be revered worldwide, but that ended with their very poor financial management.  Observers globally worried about China's ability to manage the nation, its economy, its functioning.  We need to be ashamed of what some American CEOs have said about China – from craven to impossible; but that's shifting. "This is like popcorn in a microwave: silence for a long time, then one or two kernels pop, then all hell  breaks loose."  In Aug 2011 a Chinese general blurted out that China is planning a surprise attack on the US. 
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U.S. Admiral Questions Logic of Chinese Submarines on Anti-Piracy Missions
Admitting that a raising power like China would secure its assets and resources, he noted with concern that the issue was the "lack of transparency and intent" on the part of the China.
A senior visiting U.S. Admiral on Friday questioned the motive behind China deploying submarines for anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean. The comments come in the backdrop of India’s growing concerns over rapid expansion of Chinese maritime capabilities and creation of facilities in the Indian Ocean region to support its forces.
“It’s hard for me as a maritime commander to understand how can a submarine support anti-piracy operations?” U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander, Admiral Scott Swift said referring to Chinese nuclear submarines on anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden.
China, which is a major importer of oil has been setting up a series of ports across the Indian Ocean rim, referred to experts as “string of pearls” as a means to safeguard its resources traversing the critical choke points. It has recently announced that it is establishing it first overseas military base in the African nation of Djibouti, sitting on the crucial Gulf of Aden, and also a major reorganisation of its military to make it a leaner and agile fighting force. Without terming it a military base, the Chinese Foreign ministry had stated that the new facility would be used as a supply to Chinese Navy ships undertaking antipiracy missions in the region.
Admitting that a raising power like China would secure its assets and resources, he noted with concern that the issue was the "lack of transparency and intent" on the part of the China.
On Chinese increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea, Admiral Swift said the challenge in the South China Sea is broader than the issue of freedom of navigation. “What is most important is the application of national law in international space. It is a sovereign issue,” he observed.
China which claims the part of South China Sea up to the nine dash line as its own has been reclaiming reefs in the region at an alarming rate. Recently it has landed civilian planes on a 3,000 metre air strip on the Fiery Cross reef raising further concerns that fighter jets could follow next.
The U.S. which has strongly condemned China’s land reclamation has stepped up efforts to enforce freedom of navigation in international waters. Last year the U.S. Pacific fleet conducted more than 700 days of operations in the South China Sea (if two ships operate in a day it is two days of operations).
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/us-admiral-questions-logic-of-chinese-submarines-on-antipiracy-missions/article8085411.ece
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U.S. May Deploy More Strategic Assets to Korean Peninsula: South Korea
United States and its ally South Korea were discussing on Monday sending more strategic U.S. weapons to the Korean peninsula, a day after a U.S. B-52 bomber flew over South Korea in response to North Korea's nuclear test last week. North Korea said it set off a hydrogen bomb last Wednesday, its fourth nuclear test since 2006, angering China, the North's main ally, and the United States, which said it doubted the device was a hydrogen bomb. In a show of force and support for allies in the region, the United States on Sunday sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber based in Guam on a flight over South Korea.
North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party, said the United States was bringing the situation to the brink of war. South Korean media said the United States may send to South Korea B-2 bombers, nuclear-powered submarines and F-22 stealth fighter jets. A South Koran defense ministry spokesman declined to give details. "The United States and South Korea are continuously and closely having discussions on additional deployment of strategic assets," the spokesman, Kim Min-seok, said.
China called for all sides to avoid raising tension. "Safeguarding the peace and stability of northeast Asia accords with all parties' interests," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in response to a question about the U.S. B-52 flight. "We hope all parties can maintain restraint, proceed cautiously, and avoid successively escalating tensions."
'Highest Level Readiness'
The chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff warned that North Korea was likely to carry out further "sudden provocations", a South Korean defense ministry official said. The commander of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea, General Curtis Scaparrotti, urged them to be vigilant. "I want you to maintain the highest level readiness from a long-term view as joint military exercises are coming up," Scaparrotti told U.S. and South Korean forces on a visit to a base, a U.S. military official said. He was apparently referring to joint annual military exercises that usually begin in February or March and invariably provoke an angry reaction from North Korea.
On the diplomatic front, South Korea said its chief nuclear negotiator planned to meet his U.S. and Japanese counterparts on Wednesday to discuss a response to North Korea, and the next day, he would meet China's nuclear envoy in Beijing. North Korea has been under UN Security Council sanctions since its first test of an atomic device. After its third test, in 2013, the Security Council took about three weeks to agree a resolution that tightened financial restrictions and cracked down on its attempts to ship and receive banned cargo.
South Korea and Japan used a military hotline for the first time after of North Korea's test, South Korea's defense ministry said, in a sign the North's behaviour is pushing the two old rivals closer together. South Korea has also resumed anti-North propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers along the border, a tactic that the North considers insulting. It responded with artillery fire the last time South Korea used the speakers in August. South Korea also said it would restrict access to the jointly run Kaesong industrial complex just north of the heavily militarized inter-Korean border to the "minimum necessary level" from Tuesday. The complex, where South Korean factories employ North Korean workers, is an important source of revenue for the impoverished North.   http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-idUSKCN0UP08O20160111
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Seb Gorka, Marine Corps University, in re: Fog of jihadism.  A crosswalk in Phila, a police officer alone in a car, approached by a shooter who keeps firing, then reached s inside the door to shoot again. Shooter is said to have travelled to Egypt and Saudi. In San Berdoo, the two attackers massacred people, then escaped in an SUV.  In Tale Aviv, attack on bar where an individual surveilled the establishment from next door, fires into the bar (killing two), then flees.  In Phila, brutality and barbarism – the amazing cop manages to drag out of the car and shoot the shooter.  We're in new territory where shooters are not martyrs and don't want to die, they want to continue mass executions.
Attack methodological shift – not ISIS or al Q at the center of a spider's web but of leaderless jihad, as instructed by the Al Q magazine Inspire or the "much more sophisticated" ISIS magazine, Dabiq.    ISIS is doing something right and is successfully recruiting. We're almost in double-digits of ISIS recruits inside the US who've been found by the FBI.    Police Seek Three Possibly Tied to Gunman Who Shot Philadelphia Cop  Police are searching for three men who may be tied to the gunman who shot a cop. ... the corner from where the officer was shot and across the street from where Archer lives.     Police Seek Three Possibly Tied to Gunman Who Shot Philadelphia Cop  Police are searching for three men who may be tied to the gunman who shot a cop. ... the corner from where the officer was shot and across the street from where Archer lives.
 
Hour Two
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in re: Mrs Clinton's email scandal, begun in 2015. Fox News today: FBI has 150 agents working full time on emails and also on Clinton Foundations.   Her critics have long thought that in reality she did not honor her confidentiality agreement with the Federal govt; that a lot of her emails in fact related to the Clinton Foundations and utilized confidential or perhaps secret information.   Intell agencies see systematic violations of protocol. She was, at least, reckless.  Joseph di Genova says that if Justice does not act on the FBI report, there will be a revolt, and a leak of all the pertinent information.  The last thing a campaign ants is a distraction from the candidate's message; this must be nerve-wracking to the Clinton campaign, At the same time, many Democrats are not too fond of Mrs C, but they think that the email scandal was merely cooked up by the GOP.  AN indictment would change the game; a nonindictment would cloud the matter but not be dispositive. The intell community is increasingly upset, the FBI is adding more and more agents. Link of email with Clinton Fnds. Rasmussen polling: If Mrs C is indicted, 53% of Democrats think she should soldier on and continue running.  Really? Indicted is major. I'm sceptical – I guess that ex-staff will take the fall for her. / Hey - Richard Nixon was indicted and that was an intrusion of he political process.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429526/hillarys-e-mail-scandal-gro... ;   http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obama-vetoes-bill-gutting-obamacare/ar...
The Republicans are noisy.
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: John Fund, NRO, and David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: How about – on 1 Feb in Iowa: Bernie Sanders wins wins wins!?  The little engine that could. Des Moines DMR poll coming out on Wednesday.  He has a lot of resources and excitement. Polls are a snapshot in time.  He's the Democratic Donald Trump – has a radical message, has forces Mrs Clinton way to the left. Yes, he'll win Iowa and NH, but then run into trouble: unions, minorities, et al.; and vs the Clinton machine.  . . . The electorate doesn't like the GOP [complaints], but they hate surprises – and Mrs Clinton constantly emits surprises.  Tomorrow's State of the Union: a legacy speech and a victory lap. Will frame things as really bad when I got here; they're much better now; don't blow it in 2016. He'll throw way his old laundry list for Congress; will tout his executive actions; will scare the electorate about changes. Foreign policy?  Only in passing.  He'll lecture Americans on how to be better citizens. 
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Iran and sanctions. 
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: . . . Turkey plays games; cannot be widely trusted; neither Syria nor Iraq will return to its pre-war condition.  . . .  Anyone looking for signs of stability will not find hthem now.
 
Hour Three
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:   Charles Ortel, charlesortel.com, in re: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/11/fbis-clinton-probe-expands-to...
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block B: Charles Ortel, charlesortel.com, in re: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Americas/article1654...
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: David Shedd, Heritage Fdn, & National Interest,  in re: In 2015, a cyberhack of US Ofc of Personnel Mgt of critical data about secure persons working for US govt – more than 20 million Americans had their most personal data taken by a non-American entity.   The person (fired who was once in charge said they remain committed to "mitigating" and "working with the victims."
Problem is: China having taken roughly 22 million secret dossiers is not a criminal activity - it's espionage.  This is not your credit card data; rather, it's an enemy power looking for persons to blackmail, or do technical ops vs those persons based on their (secret) background investigations. Imagine an open server used by a Secretary of State, and a foreign power gets access to it – the lives, joys, failures, of many persons: called "Acquiring a pattern of life" of an individual – his favorite places, foods his like; If I were going to approach someone for intell, where does he hang out, who are his friends. Does he have money problems? Is he disgruntled for one reason or another? 
This hack gives a wealth of information: whom the individual likes or doesn't; where there's a vulnerability which a foreign power might utilize and or take advantage of.  Working with the victims?  The vast majority of these stolen dossiers include Social Security numbers linked accurately to persons. Thus the thief can continue to steal data based on either the Soc Sec number or the name.  What to do? Start with issuing new numbers to those most vulnerable – esp those with a current security clearance.  One can always improve and correct any processes shown to be vulnerable   The OPM Inspector-Genl had repeatedly made recommendations for tightening security over years, and they were not followed.  Start by encrypting all data. All security perimeters and access need very high encryption. Where should it reside? Need to see who can protect it best – it is, in fact, one of our great State secrets.
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In mid-2015 someone—all indicators point to the Chinese government—stole the security clearance dossiers of more than 22 million Americans. It was the most catastrophic cyber data breach in U.S. history, with the potential to inflict incalculable damage to our national security. Yet the response from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—the agency that failed to protect the files in the first place—has been curiously and dangerously lackadaisical.
The laid-back tone was set early on. The administration released news of the theft in dribs and drabs. To date, the full story of what was compromised remains veiled.  What we do know is this: our adversaries now possess a massive amount of highly sensitive information—personal and professional—about past and current U.S. government personnel. Many of those workers have been entrusted to guard America’s most sensitive secrets.
Our enemies are always looking for leverage to advance their nefarious goals. Now they possess tens of millions of files packed with highly leverage-able information.
The OPM breach is stunning in many ways. For one thing, it was absolutely predictable. For years, the Inspector General had reported security shortfalls in OPM’s information technology infrastructure. Yet OPM ignored these problems. For example, it failed to patch its vulnerable software, failed to install antivirus software and failed to implement the required authentication certification. OPM has yet to address all the IG recommendations for a more secure IT system.
While OPM paid scant attention to the Inspector General’s reports, the Chinese appear to have read them closely and moved to exploit the uncorrected vulnerabilities.
Also stunning was the administration’s slow and anemic response to the breach, which continues to compound the problem. Few believe the OPM’s security alerts to affected personnel have been of much value. And while the agency has . . .   http://nationalinterest.org/feature/data-theft-national-security-threat-14843?page=show
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: John Bolton, AEI & Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re: Obama's continuing Iranian appeasement; The next president must reverse course 
 
Hour Four
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  Tyler Rogoway, FoxtrotAlpha, in re: Coalition Jets Seemingly Will Do Anything to Stay Away from Russia in Western Syria ; China Lands Plane on Growing Man-Made Island Airbase in South China Sea; Now What? (http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/china-lands-plane-on-growing-man-made-i...) ;  Things That Make You Go Boom: U.S. Spending on Military Aircraft Surges Most Since September 11
Now that the subprime-funded "growth dynamo" that kept the US economy chugging along over the past year has finally choked, as we saw yesterday when auto sales posted the weakest print in half a year, there is just one industry that is keeping US factory orders, which have already declined for 13 consecutive months, from an all-out implosion. War. (1 of 2)
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block B: Tyler Rogoway, FoxtrotAlpha (2 of 2)
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: Ann Gibbons, Archaeology: How farming changed the European genome (First DNA from ancient Anatolian farmers shows how Europeans evolved, suggests early spread of celiac disease)  ;  Archaeology:
Humans may have reached Chile by 18,500 years agoArchaeology:
Oldest stone tools in the Americas claimed in Chile
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block D: Ann Gibbons, Archaeology; in re; Icebergs are a small but measurable ally in the fight against global warming, according to a new study. The floating mountains of ice—some of which start out Connecticut-sized or larger—scraped up bits of rock when they were parts of glaciers on land. Once they reach the sea and begin melting, they release a bounty of dissolved iron and other nutrients into the nutrient-poor waters around Antarctica. This nourishes phytoplankton, chlorophyll-bearing microorganisms at the base of the ocean’s food chain, which suck up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) as they grow. Satellite data gathered from 2003 through 2013 reveal booming populations of phytoplankton as far as hundreds of kilometers from the bergs, researchers report online today in Nature Geoscience. Those blooms (one example from January 2013 shown, with chlorophyll levels depicted in shades of yellow and red; gray masses are clouds) can last up to a month after an iceberg passes, the team notes. What’s more, currents and winds can sweep nutrients ahead of the slow-moving berg to nourish life there (the yellow swath seen to the northeast of the berg shown at center). Using data from previous field studies, the team estimates that the minerals and other nutrients released by giant Antarctic icebergs (those longer than 18 kilometers) trigger as much as 20% of the CO2 absorption by life in the southern seas. According to previous studies, that amount—between 44 million and 146 million metric tons of CO2—offsets a tiny fraction of the estimated 35.3 billion metric tons of CO2 generated by the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activity in 2013
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