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Posted by lkwzw.quesnair.com in vpn下, Syria, UK.Tags: Bombing ISIS, Bombing Syria, Syria, UK, UK decision to bomb Syria
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The following article was published by King's College London's Defence in Depth blog back in early December 2015.
An outline of a modus vivendi with Russia is required if there is to be any progress in the fight against Da'esh. Otherwise, the vaunted 70,000 strong 'moderate' forces promised by the likes of UK Prime Minister David Cameron to help coalition forces combat Da'esh will continue to be attacked by Russia. Indeed, their bombing campaign to date has been almost exclusively focused on forces other than those of the Da'esh and the Assad regime.
Of equal importance is persuading this 70,000 – or as many of them as possible – that they must concentrate on Da'esh and not the Assad regime. Presently, reports emerging from representatives of these forces claim quite the opposite: that the Assad regime is their primary enemy. As long as this is the case, Russia will continue to attack them and they will be of little use to Cameron and others seeking to primarily attack Da'esh.
On paper, at least, it looks like there is a deal to be done here.
Russia does, in fact, at some stage, want to counter Da'esh. This motley group killed hundreds of its citizens in the Sinai plane attack, and it has released a propaganda video of the execution of a Russian citizen. But Russia wants to guarantee its role in a future Syrian scenario too. This is the primary reason that it is so eagerly fighting the array of extremists and moderates ranged against Assad: it is protecting the Syrian regime.
Similarly, these moderates want Assad to go above all else. They – rightly – see him as the ultimate cause of the Syrian civil war and the one who indirectly founded Da'esh through policies actively stoking extremism. But this will simply not happen as long as Russia supports the Syrian regime. This statement of basic geopolitical fact needs to be relayed to these groups and driven home.
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Doubtless, an approximation of this bargain is being discussed. But the fundamental problem is the fractured nature of the opposition groups. Persuading the dozens of militias and fronts that make up this 70,000 grouping of relatively moderate fighters to sign up to such a plan will be likely be near-impossibly difficult. In the end, Cameron and his allies will likely have to support and work with far fewer local forces.
The overarching 'solution' to this crisis is, then, political and involves a range of distasteful compromises. That British fighter-jets are now attacking targets a few hundred miles west from their current zone of operations in Iraq will not – cannot possibly – make any wider, strategic difference.
But it can, of course, make a tactical difference. Well targeted attacks can slowly degrade Da'esh capabilities. Especially in conjunction with allied support, it is plausible to suggest that the group's abilities to operate in parts of Syria could be hampered.
Ultimately, the success or failure of this vote and of the resulting campaign depends on what its goals are. Destroying Da'esh is an absurd, impossible aim. It is an insidious franchise that can demonstrate that it has 'won' (i.e. not been wiped out) by any individual anywhere on earth with a flag, a camera, and an internet connection, to say nothing of its resilience in the great lawless swathes Syria, Iraq, Libya, or Nigeria.
The hope, then, is that this move by the British government is more important for its symbolic value signalling a new era of concerned international political alignment and pressure, than for its kinetic impact on the ground in Syria.
Posted by lkwzw.quesnair.com in LNG, Qatar.Tags: Australian LNG supply, budget cuts, Budget cuts Qatar, LNG supply, Qatar, Qatar cuts, 免费Ⅴpn安卓, Qatar LNG industry, Qatar LNG industry challenges, US Shale Gas
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The following article was written for and published by the Arab Gulf States Institute Washington (AGSIW). The precis can be found below and the full article can be downloaded from AGSIW (for free) following this link.
Qatar has long dominated the market for liquefied natural gas (LNG), an increasingly popular energy source that can be transported great distances, is widely regarded as being cleaner than coal, and fills increasingly important parts of states' energy mixes. In recent decades, surging demand and relatively limited supply has created a climate for Qatar to exploit its huge gas resources and consequent economies of scale to bestride the market.
In fact, Qatar dominates the LNG market far more than Saudi Arabia dominates the oil market. But this period of dominance is coming to an end. Demand in China that underpinned the industry's growth is dipping and not being replaced. Across the world from Australia to the United States, to Israel, to Mozambique, large discoveries have been made and high prices encouraged hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in LNG infrastructure. Even with the fall of the oil and LNG prices, which challenges many new suppliers and their costly outlay to establish the necessary LNG infrastructure, Qatar's dominant position supplying a third of the world's LNG will be over by the end of the decade.
Though Qatar's budget revenue fell 40 percent from July 2014 to July 2015, the state began cutting back in 2013 when a new administration led by Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani took power. These cuts were partly driven by a savvy medium-term view of the bearishness of the energy markets. But the new leadership was also making political statements, cutting back on some of the more expensive pet projects of its predecessors such as the Qatar Foundation, which oversees foreign universities in Doha's "Education City." The new administration needs to ensure that it does not hamstring the Qatar Foundation – a central engine of the state's push to diversify away from its hydrocarbon-dominated economy – as Qatar's dependency on the oil and gas industry remains profound. Yet even with the reliance on oil and gas and the impending end of its dominance in the LNG field, Qatar's population remains small and its energy supply role prodigious. Qatar will easily be able to manage fiscally if its ambitions remain more limited than before, as the current administration suggests through its more limited policy ambitions.
Posted by lkwzw.quesnair.com in The Gulf, UK.Tags: UK Bahrain relations, UK engagement, UK Gulf relations, UK intelligence Saudi Arabia
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The article below was published recently by King's College London's Defence in Depth blog.
On 1 November 2015, the UK Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond inaugurated the beginning of works constructing the UK's first permanent military base in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf since 1971 when the UK withdrew from the region. Using language that almost seemed to deliberately hark back to Britain's colonial days in the Persian Gulf, Hammond announced that "The presence of the Royal Navy in Bahrain is guaranteed into the future, ensuring Britain's sustained presence east of Suez."
In reality, the Royal Navy has scarcely left the Persian Gulf region in the last century, and this 'new' base is better seen as the renovation and expansion of existing structures. Nevertheless, the fanfare surrounding the announcement of the new permanence of the UK presence is interesting and indicative of the current UK Government's perspective. Indeed, the timing of the turning of the soil on this 'new' base comes between the hosting of the Chinese President for a lavish, extended state visit in October and the hosting in early November of Egyptian President Sisi. David Cameron's government plainly believes in the importance of international engagement with states that many accuse of a range of human rights abuses.
The government marshals a variety of arguments to defend its engagement with such states, many of which have roots in the UK's National Security Strategy (NSS), the key document that seeks to outline the UK's national interest and how it can be defended.
The government argues that the UK's security is protected by maintaining and developing these kinds of links. In terms of the military, the UK provides a range of key training roles for counterparts in the Gulf region, while regional bases provide an important change of arena for UK troops. Moreover, given the salience of the region to the wider world economy and the number of conflicts that have plagued the region in recent decades, developing military to-military links in the Gulf area are deemed to be important. As the former Chief of the UK Defence Staff put it, 'if we are to influence, we must know what drives our friends and how to motivate. This is not something that can be done on the eve of an operation.' There are also direct intelligence links with, for example, Saudi Arabia that have proved to be crucial in thwarting at least one serious terrorist attack on UK soil.
The UK is highly dependent upon the Persian Gulf region for trade. Bilateral trade with the region is increasing quickly to around £30bn per annum, which is more than to India, Russia, and Mexico combined. Most governments would likely deem it inadvisable to shun such countries where trade is so important.
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Similarly, the UK government is open to the charge that however many links are established between governments or in industry, and no matter the theoretical opportunities created to allow the promotion of British values and culture, the reality remains that little seems to ultimately change.
Both charges are difficult to answer. Individual examples of international pressure forcing, for example, Saudi Arabia to reverse a particularly 免费Ⅴpn安卓 travesty of justice can be found, but the system remains the same. Which makes it all the more puzzling as to why the British government eventually chose to make a stand with Saudi Arabia over a contract to consult on Saudi Arabia's prison system. This £5.9m contract was cancelled in mid-October because of wider human rights concerns. Principled though this may be, it would seem to be logical that anyone in the UK government or otherwise interested in spreading British values would seek to exert influence in Saudi Arabia's prison system as a matter of priority. The narrative of building contacts and influence is effectively aimed at opening the door for just such opportunities to share expertise and best practice. This confusion is an inevitable by-product of the nature of modern British politics and the subjective, inconclusive arguments put forth by those supporting and opposing engagement.
The argument is inevitably more difficult for those against engagement. For they must move beyond rowdy, faux-principled rejectionism and actually make a case for how, for example, the Saudi prison system will reform better now that the UK role therein is finished. Perhaps another western liberal democracy will take up the contact, perhaps not. And those seeking greater engagement need to move beyond platitudes and seek concrete, direct, and ideally verifiable examples of UK influence leading to a change in policy.
For more on the evolving role of the UK in the Persian Gulf region and how this chimes with understandings of British national interest, see David Roberts 'British national interest in the Gulf: rediscovering a role?' International Affairs (v.90, i3, May 2014).
Saudi Arabia and its Challenges 30, May 2015
Posted by lkwzw.quesnair.com in Saudi Arabia.Tags: Oil supply and demand, Saudi Arabia, vp下载, Saudi foreign policy, Saudi succession
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The following article was published by King's College London's Defence in Depth blog on 25 March 2015.
In 2010 at a conference in Riyadh, an academic presented a cogent case as to why the fiscal picture for Saudi Arabia was, in the medium and long term, looking grim. His figures were correct, and his conclusions were not hyperbolic, but sensibly grounded in the facts. Nevertheless, the Saudi participants around the table, ranging from ministers to CEOs to academics to the state's leading journalists, greeted the presentation with a weary shrug. Their point was that they had seen just such cogent presentations every five years for decades and yet the sky never did quite manage to fall in.
It would be, therefore, really quite a significant call to suggest that on this occasion, as opposed to the countless previous assertions, Saudi Arabia is actually facing some kind of a crisis. Yet, it appears that the state may well be entering just such a concerning phase.
At the core of this thesis are three interlinked factors that are facing quite unprecedented change and these changes look set to – at the very least – vastly complicate the already Gordian difficulties facing the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia is, understandably, a state synonymous with oil. The substance has transformed the state entirely and continues to be the centre of gravity of the state's economy. Yet it could be argued that there are vast supply and demand-related changes afoot that may fundamentally undermine the state's central reliance on its black gold.
On the demand side, the central problem is that it is rising in places that Saudi Arabia does not really want it to rise, and falling in places where it would rather it didn't. Most importantly, demand is rising within the country. This is not a good thing. Given the subsidies that exist for oil and its derivative products, the government loses money refining and processing oil for its domestic market as well as having less oil to sell internationally. There are even studies noting that Saudi Arabia may be a net oil importer by the late-2030s, a notion that indicates just how much of a paradigm-shift the Kingdom may be about to undergo.
Otherwise on the demand side, as America becomes ever more self-sufficient, the importance of Saudi Arabia declines, if it doesn't disappear given the US's reliance on a stable Gulf region is critical to its economy. That this drop in US demand is being picked up by China is a boon, but even growth in China is slowing relatively speaking and nor is China in any position in the foreseeable future to provide Saudi Arabia with any kinds of security guarantees.
In terms of supply too, Saudi Arabia's dominating role in the oil industry may be under threat. Eventually, the likes of Iraq, Kurdistan, Libya, or Iran – all of which have huge oil reserves – are likely to add in a few more millions of barrels per day in oil to the market. Similarly, the unconventional hydrocarbon revolution has allowed states to tap reserves of oil and gas that were previously uneconomical. This means, first and foremost, that America may transition to an oil exporter – a large one – by the end of the decade; something that will upend the recent dynamics in the market.
These factors coalesce to present Saudi Arabia with a range of problems. At a time of burgeoning budgets inspired by a fear of the Arab Spring and growing youth unemployment, the state looks destined to spend even more on its subsidies. Meanwhile, the plunging oil price that looks set to stay nearer $50 per barrel than the $100 that markets and states had become used to, robs the state of further income. This all means that the state will run a budget deficit for the first time in years in 2015 and will continue with them for years to come. With low interest rates on the international market, huge foreign reserves, and being relatively debt-free to start with, this is not that problematic in the short-term at least. But the fiscal medium and long term look decidedly murky.
Historically, the Gulf states do not really use their militaries in an expeditionary fashion. They have preferred to rely on alliances, defence guarantees, and international coalitions where possible. But this is slowly changing, and the states are demonstrating a willingness to actually use their expensively assembled military kit around the Middle East. This is most clearly seen in the recent Saudi-led large-scale bombing campaign in Yemen. There are a variety of likely causes of this increased desire to utilise their forces.
The increasing Gulf disenchantment with America in recent years has now become palpable. After America dropped their long-term ally Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Gulf leaders were irate, fearing, ultimately, that America may too one day drop them. This fear of being left alone by America was exacerbated by the 'Pivot to Asia' rhetoric and utterly compounded by America's negotiations with Iran; something Gulf states fear will hasten America's departure from the region, leaving an emboldened Iran to dominate.
The sense is, therefore, that Saudi Arabia is pointedly noting that if America will not secure the region, then they will. And they are clearly willing to utilise their military capacity towards this end. None of this bodes well for the future.
While America and her allies may well have blundered – spectacularly at times – in the Middle East, the local knowledge of Saudi Arabia is hardly affecting a different outcome so far: the bombing campaign in Yemen has been a brutal, ineffectual one to date. Moreover, Gulf states, unencumbered by the restraint inherent in believing the America will ultimately back them up, may act on their Iranian paranoia, further adversely affecting security in the region.
Succession in Saudi Arabia has long been a source of concern. In particular, many have been focused on the jump of leadership to a new generation of al-Sauds. Since the state's modern inception in 1932, the Kings have all been sons of the founder, Abdul-Aziz al-Saud. This has meant that recent Kings and their successors have been exceedingly old and, on occasion, infirm. Two Crown Princes, for example, died in office waiting for now former King Abdullah al-Saud to pass.
But this gap has been breached. In a recent reshuffle, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz ejected his brother, Prince Muqrin, from second in-line to the throne, and replaced him with a grandson of Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, Mohammed Bin Nayef al-Saud. More interestingly, he also installed his own son, Mohammed bin Salman, as the third-in-line to the throne. These two Mohammeds now have portfolios spanning all of the most important sectors of the Kingdom.
The jump to the 55-year-old Mohammed bin Nayef is no surprise and no cause for alarm. He is widely recognised as the leading candidate of the younger generation, and has steadily but effectively built up a reputation, internally and externally, as a diligent and effective minister.
But the jump to the 29-year-old Mohammed bin Salman is deeply surprising, if not shocking. He has emerged from nowhere to, in but a few months, be made Deputy Crown Prince, Minister of Defence, head of the centrally important economic committee, and Chairman of Aramco, the Saudi national oil company.
Age and seniority are important aspects of Saudi social and political life. It is unclear how so completely trouncing established and widely regarded cultural rules will be received in the longer term. Similarly, both Mohammeds and the King himself come from the same Sudairi clique of the al-Saud. King Salman has, therefore, engineered that his section of the family hold practically all the most important portfolios and he has attempted to make sure that they will hold them for decades to come. Instead of the typical balance between Sudairis and non-Sudairis, this leaves most members of the latter camp completely disenfranchised.
Perhaps installing a young Deputy Crown Prince will prove to be a master-stroke, giving the aged Saudi leadership a voice for Saudi's youth who dominate the state overall. But, taken together, the mix of a deteriorating fiscal situation, a far more militarily assertive foreign and security policy, controlled by a new leadership overseeing a delicate power balance, does not give confidence as to the longer term stability of the state.
Breaking the Saudi Rules of Succession vpn下
Posted by lkwzw.quesnair.com in vp下载.Tags: vpn下, King Salman, Mohammed Bin Nayef, Mohammed Bin Salman, Rules of the game, Saudi Arabia, Saudi succession, Seniority and succession, Sudairi brothers
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The following article was published by the Washington Post in their longer-form blog on 27 May 2015.
On April 29, 2015, King Salman of Saudi Arabia vpn下 Mohammed bin Nayef, a grandson of the state's founder, second-in-line to the throne as crown prince and placed Mohammed bin Salman, a 29-year-old prince, third-in-line as deputy crown prince. The major change comes just months after Salman acceded to the throne on Jan. 23, following the death of his half-brother Abdullah. The relatively seamless transition is surprising after many years of fevered speculation about the complications surrounding what might happen when Saudi Arabia's leadership finally jumped down a generation instead of just passing the kingly baton from brother to brother. What does this mean for our understanding of power dynamics in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
The latter appointment in particular challenges the expectations of both scholars and analysts. For instance, Saudi-focused scholars, such as Gregory Gause, as well as analysts, such as Simon Henderson, have tended to cogently emphasize the importance of age as a factor in determining positions of authority. How then to explain the appointment of 29-year-old Mohammed bin Salman, to one of the most important positions in the land?
Other popularly cited explanations for royal succession also fall short in explaining the appointment. Henderson has suggested a range of other important factors, such as being a "good Muslim," having a suitable Saudi lineage, possessing experience and acumen, being popular and offering stability. But again, the most recent changes suggest that some of these attributes – seniority, possessing experience and acumen and perhaps being popular – could be jettisoned with ease when the need arose. The time is therefore ripe to reconsider some of the once self-evident truths that underpin understandings of Saudi Arabia's political workings
First, seniority within the ranks of the royal family has often been heralded as the vpn下 factor underpinning the rules of succession in Saudi Arabia. The current Saudi state was united by Abdul Aziz ibn Saud in 1932 when he was 56 years old. Until today, rule has been passed among Abdulaziz's sons. In order of their accession to the throne, Saud was born around 1902, Faisal 1906, Khalid 1913, Fahd 1921, Abdullah 1924 and Salman 1935. Saud and Faisal were in their 50s when they took power, Khalid and Fahd were in their 60s, and Abdullah and Salman were in their 70s. Unsurprisingly, age has been seen as a "preeminent qualification" in determining the order of ascending to the throne, according to Henderson's 1994 study and repeated in his 2009 "After Abdullah." The apparent importance of age fits with widespread understandings of the "enormous meaning" of seniority within the royal family and Saudi society.
But age is not enough. Given that Abdulaziz is reputed to have fathered around 100 children by dozens of wives, older sons have been passed overtime and again, particularly more recently. So age has been a shaping, if not a determining factor. Saudi social anthropologist Madawi al-Rasheed has gone as far as to suggest that there has long been "no serious commitment to seniority." Nevertheless, the meteoric rise of Mohammed bin Salman to deputy crown prince is an astonishing promotion for a man so young.
The rise of the new king's son suggests that intra-family machinations deserve more attention. Analysts Henderson, vp下载, Joseph A. Kechichian and Thomas W. Lippman have pointed to the importance of the Sudairi section of the Saud family. The name stems from Hassa bint Ahmed al-Sudairi, who is often referred to as Abdulaziz's most important wife and whose children have come to dominate Saudi politics in recent decades. There is much to support such a reading. Though King Abdullah ruled with three Sudairi crown princes (two of whom died), he represented for the Sudairis an interregnum between two Sudairi kings, Fahd and Salman. The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior, two of the most important and influential in Saudi Arabia's power structure, have been led by Sudairis for over 50 years. The current crown prince and deputy crown prince are both younger generation Sudairis and have centralized control of the key economic and security councils under their auspices.
What does this actually mean, though? The Sudairis are often implicitlydescribed as something approaching a unitary actor in direct, near-zero-sum competition with other groupings led by, say, former king Abdullah. Such suggestions make intuitive sense at the moment, with such a successful Sudairi full-court-press swamping key positions. But the cohesiveness of such groupings is questioned by Gause and Rasheed who frequently and persuasively frame these associations as being temporary and more "manifested in specific historical and political contexts." The hint behind such assertions is that Sudairi cohesion is far from automatic.
A more positive spin, marketed by commentators ranging from formervpn下 to Saudi Arabia, pliant local newspapers, Washington-based Saudi Arabian lobbying organizations and, most 免费Ⅴpn安卓, the former head of Britain's external intelligence agency, has to do with what is being called an "embryonic embrace of meritocracy" taking hold in Saudi Arabia. The removal of Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz – who served as crown prince from January to April 2015 – might be explained by his lineage. Muqrin's mother was a Yemeni slave, something that tended to rule him out as a potential successor as far as many Saudi-watchers were concerned before he was put in line to the throne – at which point the ever-flexible commentariat brushed off his heritage as hardly mattering at all. Nevertheless, few would disagree that his replacement with Mohammed bin Nayef is something of an upgrade in efficacy, judging by the new crown prince's impressive domestic and international reputation. Similarly, the world's longest serving foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, recently shuffled out of the portfolio he held for 40 years, has been plagued by illness and hospital visits for years.
Yet, any semblance of meritocracy falls apart with the colossal (over) promotion of Mohammed bin Salman to defense minister, to head of the Economic and Development Affairs Council, chairman of Saudi Aramco's Supreme Council and now to third-in-line to the throne. For a young man with negligible experience in these (or any other senior) roles, it is difficult to see how it could possibly be interpreted as meritocratic in nature – though his promotion may be an attempt to reflect Saudi Arabia's youth with60 percent of the population being under 21 years of age.
What about the rules? The key institutional innovation here was the 2006 creation of a 35-member Allegiance Council to agree upon and ratify succession decisions for future monarchs. In March 2014, King Abdullah used the council to rubber-stamp Muqrin as third-in-line to the throne and the statement from the Royal Court declared that this order "shall not be amended or replaced by any means or by whomsoever." Abdullah seemingly tried to lock in Muqrin as crown prince because Muqrin, lacking a suitable heir, would likely have nominated one of Abdullah's sons as his crown prince, thus avoiding the taboo of nominating one's own son.
But this potential move was checkmated and the "irreversible" decree was easily dismissed. With Salman reversing Abdullah's edict and undercutting the Allegiance Council's initial decision, unseating a crown prince suddenly looks curiously straightforward. The council, then, appears to function more as a public relations approval body, with the real politics being done behind the scenes. A scenario where there is genuine disagreement in the council is possible to foresee, but would most likely be overcome firstly by closed-door politics or secondly by being bypassed by royal decree.
Rules, decrees, taboos and notional Allegiance Council mandates are there, it turns out, to be broken. Similarly, issues of age and seniority can be easily brushed aside in the short term at least. A certain acknowledgement of the importance of meritocracy, mostly around the edges, is seen as desirable – perhaps a counterweight, even – to naked nepotism at the heart of the issue. The importance of the small Sudairi clique is at best a useful term to group together a subset of the Saud family who continue to play the game of family politics effectively thus far. But its unity should not necessarily be taken for granted.
While ousting Muqrin was a coup for the Sudairis, it was, perhaps first and foremost, a coup for Salman himself – but with unpredictable results. This proves a salient reminder for scholars as to the ultimately changeable nature of domestic politics in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf – and the seemingly unrestricted power that leaders can exert. The promotion of Mohammed bin Salman to deputy crown prince has removed seniority as a decisive factor in Saudi politics in the short-term at least, though Gause et al's emphasis on the importance of seniority may be an issue that returns in the future. But in the meantime, Salman has increased the players in the game. The zero-sum promotion of a prince inevitably leaves those not selected disgruntled and widens the field with a whole new age bracket of the royal family realizing that they too – all of a sudden – have a legitimate claim on a senior role. Salman's flouting of tradition provides such princes with extra ammunition in plotting their bids for power. The ultimate test will come when Salman, a 79-year old with significant health problems, shuffles off this mortal coil. Saudi history is not kind to sons of kings who pass away, and with Salman's precedent-setting unpicking his predecessor's decree and his bypassing of the Allegiance Council, Mohammed bin Salman in particular is eminently removable.
Palmyra and the logic of loss 25, May 2015
Posted by lkwzw.quesnair.com in Syria.Tags: BBC, Da'esh, IS, ISIS, Palmyra, Syria
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The following article was published by the BBC on 23 May 2015.
In Syria alone, the Great Mosque and the Citadel in Aleppo, the castle of every child's imagination at Crac des Chevaliers, and the ancient city of Bosra have been damaged or destroyed. Arguably Syria's most impressive and arresting site, the sprawling ruins at Palmyra (Tadmur to Syrians), is now under Islamic State control and many fear the worst.
Having visited Palmyra and these other sites while studying Arabic at Damascus University back in 2007, I am far from alone in feeling that something truly terrible is happening. That these symbols from a bygone era might be destroyed by modern-day barbarian forces when they have survived for hundreds or even thousands of years seems somehow deeply offensive and wrong.
Nevertheless, while I feel an acute sadness at the loss of these sites, I understand those who may feel a certain sense of unease at the outpouring of grief and anguish over their desecration. From this perspective, Palmyra is, after all, a collection of stone; albeit stone exquisitely carved and impressively presented, imbued with huge historical import. And compared to the staggering loss of life and widespread humanitarian disaster afflicting the Syrian people, bemoaning the loss of a historic tourist site seems crass.
But there are cogent arguments, of course, suggesting that sites like Palmyra are far more significant than that.
Important cultural sites are often pointed to as focal points that can be used to (re)unify a people. Sites can act as potent symbols of a united past that may cross ethnic, tribal, linguistic, or cultural lines. In essence, their importance can be seen and used as a low common denominator to promote reconciliation in a post-conflict environment.
Most famously, the reconstruction of the old bridge in Mostar in Bosnia-Hercegovina acted as a focal point of wider metaphorical bridge-building between Serbs, Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats after the civil war in the 1990s when the bridge was demolished. In Syria, too, there have already been tentative attempts towards this kind of a goal, with meetings between regime and opposition officials nominally in charge of antiquities.
Similarly, the sheer barbarism of IS, exemplified in its brutality against people and against shared cultural monuments, could be a foil to coax more unity among the dispersed opposition groups and factions.
Moreover, these kinds of sites are the heritage and birthright not just of this generation of Syrians so adversely affected by the conflict, but of all Syrians henceforth. As such, focusing on the protection of sites of great historical concern is just, it can be argued, given that the ultimate goal is to preserve and protect the essential character of a people for hundreds of years to come.
Some may find it distasteful that many seem to be increasingly inured to the human toll in Syria, while interest is piqued by attacks on historical sites. Doubtless, they might prefer that some of the yardage given over to glossy pictures of Palmyra in its glory days be given over to reporting of the day-to-day devastation faced and experienced by ordinary people. On the same theme, one can hope and advocate for better, longer, more in-depth pieces or more funding for foreign reporters.
A righteous lament this may be, but it is an ineffectual one. The numbing reality is that if these were the types of stories that were demanded, more news services would answer the call. It must also be remembered that there are rarely mutually exclusive choices here. The words written and arguments elucidated over the importance of saving cultural heritage sites are also a part of wider discussions and pressure to cobble together anything approaching a meaningful plan to intervene or otherwise halt the worst excesses of the violence in Syria.
The takeover of Palmyra has generated a unique media storm, flinging the Syrian conflict back to wider consciousness. If that can be harnessed in the uphill struggle to galvanise a plan going forward, then no-one will complain.
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As with all things, politics is but the art of the possible. So leveraging the fate of these magnificent and important monuments in the wider hope of incrementally building a pressure to bear on the powers that be is a just and vital thing.
What does the summit between Barack Obama and Gulf leaders mean? vp下载苹果
Posted by lkwzw.quesnair.com in Iran, vp下载苹果, Yemen.Tags: Gulf States, vpn下, Iran agreement, US-Gulf relationship
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The following article was published by The Daily Telegraph on 14th May and can be found here.
The US's refusal to stand by the ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the face of Arab Spring protests was taken badly in the Gulf. If America can break one multi-decade relationship, the Gulf states fear, perhaps America would, if protests erupted, break their own long relationship.
President Barack Obama's 'pivot to Asia' rhetoric amplified and drove home these concerns; here was proof of the US's focus shifting away. And theObama-led decision to engage with Iran has been greeted with a mixture of scorn and horror as the sum of all their fears – a so-called 'Grand Bargain' with Iran – begins, for some, to materialise.
Indeed for years the Gulf states, like a jealous partner fearful of being spurned for another, has fretted that America might seek to come to a widespread accommodation with Iran at their expense. The logic runs that in return for a complete halt to Iran's questionable nuclear programme, America would somehow defer to Iran's interests in the Gulf region at the expense of its Sunni Gulf allies. An extra advantage and motivating factor of this ruse would be that Israel's security would be bolstered without a theoretical Iranian nuclear threat, and thus the US could disengage from the region.
While such a series of events has a certain logic to it, the reality is somewhat different.
Explicitly implicit guarantees
The fact is that the US will be the prime security guarantor for the region for the foreseeable future – decades at least.
The US has constructed for itself or otherwise has the run of a litany of huge and important military bases around the Gulf region that will remain central to US power projection throughout the wider Middle East region.
Though the US may no longer be hooked on Gulf oil as it once was, its own supplies of unconventional hydrocarbons coming increasingly on-line in recent years, the Gulf region remains the linchpin of world hydrocarbon production and as such is of central and critical importance to the world's economy.
As the state with the largest open economy in the world, America's interest in securing a broad peace in this region is unshakable and America's self-image as the world's indispensable nation also behoves it to quite explicitly provide for the region's stability.
Indeed, this is another curious aspect of this whole issue. Several Gulf leaders have gone to America to lobby Mr Obama for a greater US role in the region. They would ideally like explicit, formalised US guarantees of protection for their states.
Such explicit guarantees are entirely off the table, but, whether through existing arrangements or the region's pivotal importance to the world's economy, America remains – no matter Mr Obama's preferences – deeply intertwined in the region. It is the same with the UK.
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But any domestic rhetoric exhorting the US to leave the region, a fiscally-led preference to drawdown resources, or even a presidential preference to disengage America where possible can all be trumped by the realities on the ground.
Careful what you wish for
The status quo has, therefore, not really changed. America under Mr Obama has shifted its focus away from the Gulf, but remains deeply entangled in the region.
There is an element of the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen and other Gulf-led unilateral military strikes in recent months that appear to be not-so-subtly aimed at America. "If you won't secure the region, we will," seems to be the Gulf retort.
While regional states stepping up and taking more control in their own security affairs may be greeted hopefully in the White House, Mr Obama should be careful what he wishes for.
The Saudi-led seven week bombing campaign in Yemen meandered along being far more effective at causing humanitarian suffering than halting the Houthi advances, with a barely-believable 15.9 million people – 61 per cent of Yemenis – needing humanitarian assistance, according to the World Health Organisation. Indeed, the realisation is dawning that beyond bombing whatever targets it can find, Saudi Arabia really does not seem to have any kind of strategic plan.
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How far is Saudi-Iranian rivalry fuelling Yemen war? 8, May 2015
Posted by lkwzw.quesnair.com in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen.Tags: Houthis, Iran support for Houthis, Saudi influence in Yemen, Yemen
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The following article was published by the BBC and can be found here.
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But this view belies the complexities of Yemeni domestic politics, overemphasises the role of Iran, and is unlikely to lead to anything approaching a successful conclusion, as is being seen with the Saudi-led bombing campaign, which is yet to achieve its stated aims.
The Houthi moniker, originally but a clan name, has been associated with the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam and, thus, by overly simplified if not erroneous extension, the "Twelver" Shiism predominant in Iran and Shiism in general.
Firstly, Houthis are not all Zaidis, and neither are all Zaidis Houthis. And secondly, Zaidism is considered to be the branch of Shiism least in dispute with Sunni doctrine.
Whatever the religious similarities between the Houthis and Iran, there is an implicit notion that any commonality matters. Whether nominally united or separated by faith, it is seldom as determining a factor in action as it is fatuously perceived.
None of this is to ignore commonalities between Iran and the Houthis.
Both display a vociferous anti-American and anti-Israeli streak, and there are obvious instances of the Houthis co-operating in some way with Iran in recent years.
A day after the Houthis took over the Yemeni capital Sanaa in February, an aviation agreement with Iran was signed and an Iranian Mahan Airlines plane landed in the city.
But simplistically labelling the Houthis as "Iranian-backed" obscures the domestic nature of the conflict which predates the Arab Spring.
Zaidis ruled parts of Yemen for almost 1,000 years until 1962 and were even supported by Saudi Arabia in the 1970s.
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The Houthis believed that such policies were designed to further marginalise their position, given their historic powerbase of Saada province being right on the Saudi border.
More importantly perhaps, many years of war have festooned Yemen with weapons.
There are plenty of accusations that Iran supplies the Houthis with weapons. Some reports lack credibility, like Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV's insistence that 185 tons of Iranian weapons miraculously made it through the international naval taskforce currently blockading Yemen.
Other stories, like the Iranian dhow that was stopped on route to Yemen in 2013 with a range of advanced equipment, are far more plausibly an example of Iranian weapons shipping.
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Nevertheless, a perennial problem with such instances is that the evidence of Iranian involvement often comes from sources that have a vested interest in plugging such a line: whether from the Saudi, Yemeni or American side.
External supplies notwithstanding, an obvious source of weaponry for the Houthis came thanks to a new-found agreement with their erstwhile adversary, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who seemed to support the Houthis in their takeover of Sanaa in autumn 2014.
This gave the Houthis the opportunity to help themselves to an unknown quantity of US weaponry from army bases captured curiously easily.
Overall, the perennial resort to the "Iranian-backed Houthi fighters" logic is problematic as it simplifies the conflict too much and mandates too much of an external focus.
If Iran is the major source of supplies, then an air campaign to destroy stores and interdict resupply might make sense. But this logic is being sorely tested by the complete lack of a collapse of the Houthis (quite the opposite, so far) in the face of the bombing onslaught.
Al-Qaeda ascendant
Similarly, the urgency to combat the Houthis lest some hypothetical Iranian proxy force develops on the Arabian Peninsula means that, as a direct corollary, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has received a free pass to expand its orbit of power.
Recently, the group reinforced its hold on Mukalla in the southern province of Hadramawt taking over an airport, a military base, and a prison, freeing dozens of prisoners including AQAP leaders.
Given that AQAP remains the core US interest in Yemen, such a turn of events will surely have given its leadership pause to reconsider its open support of the Saudi campaign.
It would not be surprising if US cautions about the knock-on effects of the campaign enabling AQAP played a role in Saudi's announcement on 21 April 2015 that it was ending the air campaign.
But the sense that the Gulf Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, are simply winging their policy in Yemen is inescapable.
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text:
How to purchase
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struggled to focus during instruction times. However the week before parent
teacher conferences I noticed a dramatic change in this individual. He was
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was a vast improvement from the previous six months! I was eager to find
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Truthfully I wish I could share this with more hyperactive children who have
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intelligent, capable and amazing he is instead of focusing our conversations
on his disruptions. - Jeddy's Second Grade Teacher 2013 Ms. Hough.
Thank you for all your support.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Harvard-Cincinnati Preview
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) When Tommy Amaker started at Harvard, his goal was to build a basketball program worthy of the school name.
''We're very hopeful that has happened,'' Amaker said.
Harvard, the No. 12 seed in the East, gets another chance at bringing attention to its improving program when it faces No. 5 seed Cincinnati in the second round of the NCAA tournament Thursday. Between Harvard's first tournament win in school history last year, when it upset New Mexico as a No. 14 seed, and a third straight Ivy League title this season, the Crimson (26-4) are getting plenty of time in the spotlight.
Cincinnati (27-6) appears forgotten with the attention being heaped on Harvard. Sean Kilpatrick was one of the top scorers in the country, leading Cincinnati to a share of the American Athletic Conference regular-season title. Yet, the Bearcats continue to hear how they are the popular choice for the seemingly annual upset pulled by a No. 12 seed.
Even President Barack Obama has thrown his support behind Harvard.
''It's nothing new. We're used to it. We're so used to being counted out throughout the regular season that now it's second nature,'' Kilpatrick said. ''We don't take it (any) type of way. That's their opinions. We just focus on what matters with us.''
Here are five other things to watch in Thursday's matchup:
AVOIDING RUMORS: A side effect of being a rising program is the rumors that follow. Moments after Boston College fired Steve Donahue on Tuesday, Amaker's name emerged as a possible replacement. It's an understandable correlation considering the proximity between Harvard and BC and the success Amaker has enjoyed with the Crimson.
Harvard players said they had not heard chatter about Amaker, who did not plan on talking to his team about the rumors.
''There's nothing to address. There's nothing for me to talk about, to comment on. I can't address speculation about so many things all the time,'' Amaker said. ''But I understand the question and I certainly appreciate obviously, again, for the Boston and greater Boston area to want some type of comment from me. But my comment is exactly what I mentioned before, that I don't like to comment on other situations or jobs.''
SUPER SEAN: Kilpatrick will leave Cincinnati trailing only one name on the all-time scorers list: Oscar Robertson. That's rare and dignified company Kilpatrick is sharing.
''He's a ball player. When it gets down to it he's going to it, he's going to do what it takes to win the game,'' Cincinnati teammate Justin Jackson said.
Kilpatrick enters the NCAAs as one of only 26 players in the country to average more than 20 points per game during the season. His 20.7 points per game were nearly double anyone else on the Bearcats roster. Compared to his junior season, Kilpatrick became markedly better as a free-throw and 3-pointer shooter, all while still playing close to 34 minutes per game.
''I think the most improved part of his game is his leadership,'' Cincinnati forward Titus Rubles said. ''Last year he got buckets, of course, but he was a little more silent. But this year he's more of a leader and he takes a leadership role. When we get down, he keeps people composed.''
ZERO TO 60: Getting to 60 points will be a benchmark with two of the best defenses in the country meeting. The physicality of the Bearcats is matched by the stubborn man-to-man the Crimson play. Cincinnati entered the tournament with the sixth-best scoring defense in the country, giving up 58.3 points. Harvard is right behind, No. 13 overall, allowing just 60.5 points.
And the number 60 is an important barometer for both schools. Harvard is 14-0 when holding its opponents to 60 points or less; Cincinnati is 18-3. Harvard is 2-2 when scoring less than 60, while the Bearcats are 2-6.
The more important defensive principle for Cincinnati is forcing deflections leading either to turnovers or at least disrupting the offenses. In the past two seasons, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said the Bearcats are undefeated when getting at least 40 deflections in a game.
BALANCE BEAM: Wesley Saunders was the Ivy League player of the year, but Harvard has rarely seen balance. All five starters averaged at least 10 points per game. Saunders was the overall scoring leader, but eight different players led Harvard in scoring during at least one game this season.
PRESIDENTAL ENDORSEMENT: Harvard was already getting a lot of support as the annual No. 12 seed favored to upset a No. 5 seed even before Obama revealed his bracket.
''That's pretty cool that he picked us,'' Harvard's Laurent Rivard said. ''He probably took notice last year. He probably didn't pick us last year.''
For the record, Obama picked New Mexico to beat the Crimson in last year's tournament.


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Nothing manmade at the Sept. 11 Memorial this week was remotely as stirring as the blooming of what has become known as the Survivor Tree.
The tree is always a compelling sight for being the last living thing pulled from the smoking ruins and for having grown back from a charred and splintered stump to a full 30 feet.
But as a Callery pear, it is also one of the earliest trees to bloom and it has now done so for the first time since the memorial opened. The 225 other trees there are swamp white oaks that still stand stark as winter. The contrast makes the Survivor Tree's flowering all the more startling; life renewed and continued in an already surprisingly early spring at a place of still unimaginable loss.
The delicate white blooms drew crowds of visitors around the tree on Thursday. They seemed to momentarily forget the rest of the memorial, many taking pictures and posing in turns. A woman turned to Port Authority Police Lt. John Ryan.
"Can you take a picture of us please?" she asked.
The woman handed Ryan her iPhone and stood with her family in front of the tree, smiling without seeming at all inappropriate in this place of still unimaginable loss. She then took the iPhone back and inspected the result.
"That's beautiful," she said.
A half dozen other people made the same request, and Ryan obliged them all. He recalled another recent visitor, a young marine who had arrived on two prosthetic legs to replace the ones he had lost along with an arm and part of his remaining hand to an IED in Afghanistan in October.
"He said, 'Don't worry if I fall, I'm good at falling,'" Ryan reported.
The marine was accompanied by a visibly pregnant wife and he had managed a kind of bloom of his own that marked him kin to the Survivor Tree.
"A grin from ear to ear," Ryan said. "He looked very happy to be alive."
The marine also appeared to be experiencing the buoying effect that the memorial seems to have on many wounded warriors who visit there. They are reminded that this is where it started and that it started with the murder of thousands of innocents and that this is not changed by all the subsequent blunders of those in charge. Those who answered the call can stand here and feel that the cause was indisputably just at its inception.
"It gives them a certain degree of peace," Ryan said. "Not that I could ever make up for their sacrifices."
Even this degree of peace was denied marines in our last protracted war. My friend Pat Brown was a marine in Vietnam and never forgot the pain of being called a murderer and a baby killer when he returned home. He found his measure of peace in becoming a rescuer and a baby saver with the FDNY. He was a captain and one of the most decorated members in the department's history when he led Ladder 3 up into the burning North Tower on 9/11. He contacted the dispatcher to say he was on the 35th floor and sending down numerous burned civilians. The tower was minutes from collapsing when he uttered the final words of somebody who was a rescuer to the very end.
"Three Truck and we're still headed up."
In eulogizing Brown in Saint Patrick Cathedral, Firefighter Mike Moran declared that the hijackers had not been rewarded with virgins in Paradise. They had instead arrived there to encounter Capt. Patrick J. Brown.
"And they discovered they messed with the wrong Marine," Moran said.
The whole country was behind the marines and soldiers who went into Afghanistan just as the whole country was behind those who went to war after Pearl Harbor. The Bush administration then used 9/11 as a pretext to go into Iraq, at the same time diverting our focus from the hunt in Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden and the others behind the worst mass murder on U.S. soil.
When we finally did get bin Laden, a big crowd gathered down at Ground Zero, chanting "USA! USA!" while the son of a firefighter who died on 9/11 played bagpipes. The war in Iraq had by then turned into a disaster. Afghanistan was headed toward defeat in everything but name, with the fighting turning ever more vicious, resulting in the highest number of lost limbs of any period in these past nine years of war.
On March 12, a day after he is said to have seen a fellow soldier lose a leg to a mine in Afghanistan, Army Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly went on a shooting rampage, killing 17 innocent civilians, nine of them children. He had enlisted after 9/11 and served three tours in Iraq fighting people who had nothing to do with 9/11. He is said to have "lost faith in the mission" before being sent to Afghanistan in December.
A war that had begun with the murder of Brown and so many other innocents had now led to an American in uniform becoming an actual baby killer, beyond all excuse or rationale. I remembered the hurt in Brown's voice when he told me of his homecoming after Vietnam and for reasons I cannot fully explain I had a growing urge to visit Ground Zero. I would have done so even if I had not heard that the impossibly fine weather had caused the Survivor Tree to bloom.
The construction of the new tower has passed the 90th floor and as I drew near I tried not to hate it. The glinting heights only make me think the people I watched jump from the burning towers that equally sunny morning more than a decade ago. I reminded myself that one of Brown's favorite fellow firefighters, Mickey Conboy, has a son who is now one of the ironworkers on the project.
"They knocked it down and I'm putting it back up," the son told Conboy the other day.
I passed through security with a line of visitors from at least six different countries and I hoped that their presence here meant they still saw us as the America of Patrick Brown, not of Robert Bales. We entered the memorial grounds there and it was, in a grove of barren oaks, the Survivor Tree in resplendent bloom,
The tree is ringed by a protective steel railing and steadied by guy wires, but there is no sign to identify it. Many of the visitors nonetheless seemed to know its story and appeared happy to tell it to anyone who asked. More than a few who took a photo or two then stepped forward to take close-ups of the flowers; impeccable new creations, each comprised of five delicate white petals.
Ryan stood nearby and spoke of the Marine who said he had become good at falling after he lost two legs and an arm. The Survivor Tree suddenly looked more perfect for missing limbs that kept it from completely recovering its original shape and left its blooming asymmetrical.
"It is important," a visitor said to Ryan of the tree.
I stepped over to the memorial pool marking the footprint where the South Tower once stood. On the edge facing the Survivor Tree, surrounded by the names of other fallen first responders, were the names of Brown the others from Ladder 3 who died with him. The captain's brother, Mike Brown, said at the memorial's official opening on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 that he was less moved by seeing the name "Patrick J. Brown" than he was by the names of the civilians Patrick J. Brown and his comrades died trying to save. Mike Brown had noted that the names of the women who were pregnant have an addendum, "and her unborn child."
The truck that Ladder 3 rode to the World Trade Center was recovered and will serve as a centerpiece at the museum, a battered and partly crushed artifact of bravery in the face of monstrous death. The thousands of names inscribed around the pools whose edges remain black in even the brightest sunshine might make you believe that death won. And for a brief, bleak moment on Thursday I felt it had.
Then, I turned back to the blossoming tree that stands as a scarred and resolute exhibit of the life force itself. A large school group gathered around it, the students in their early teens, not much more than children, but also not so far from military age. Their teacher asked Ryan about the tree and then relayed the class a story of survival that they would take with them.
"Which is a good thing," Ryan said.
At another point in the day, a woman stepped up to the tree holding a boy of about five. He reached up with his hand and she hoisted him higher until he was within reach of the blooms. He appeared certain to pluck one, but the power of this tree and of this place was such that he knew better. He only brushed a flower so lightly with his fingertips that he did not disturb as much as a petal.
And to think that a soldier from the war that began at this very place was facing charges of being a baby killer such as Patrick Brown never could have been.


text:
This article is more than 1 year old
Microsoft fluffs Feds with secure cloud
Google beater
Microsoft has beaten rival Google to deliver a version of its online applications tailored for US government users.
This week, the company announced delivery of its Business Productivity Online Suite Federal, which updates the existing online suite with security, privacy, and compliance features.
The suite includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online.
Among the features are secured and separate hosting facilities access, to which is restricted to a small number of US citizens who have cleared rigorous background checks under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
The federal service comes as Microsoft said it had also updated the existing suite to meet other regulatory and service-level conditions. These included the Statement on Auditing Standard (SAS) No. 70 Type II, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 compliance, and the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) 27001 standard, among others.
Microsoft also plans to add two-factor authentication and enhanced encryption and to achieve the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification in the next six months.
Business Productivity Online Suite Federal comes ahead of Google's plan to deliver versions of Google Apps for US government departments and agencies. The company last September said it was in talks with government agencies over a deal on its services and working to ensure they meet regulatory requirements. Google was also working on achieving FISMA certification this year.
Ron Markezich, corporate vice president of Microsoft Online, said in a statement that Microsoft was first because of its experience in providing other online services. "We were able to achieve this industry first thanks to our experience providing dedicated cloud services for the past five years," Markezich said.
Government is emerging as an early adopter of cloud computing. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra sees cloud as a way to speed delivery of new IT and services to government at reduced cost. He last year launched an online store for government users to browse and purchase cloud applications while NASA Ames Research Center is building the Nebula infrastructure cloud to help serve up government data. Nebula is being built on the open-source implementation of Amazon's EC2, Eucalyptus. ®


text:
By: John Roth
IAs noted in my previous three posts, FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) is an integral part of FDA's mission to protect the public's health. Our top-flight special agents – who have investigative authority similar to other federal law enforcement agencies – give the FDA unique fact-finding tools and provide for strong, industry-wide deterrence. Their work is different from, but enhances, the regulatory inspectors and investigators that make up the bulk of FDA's field operations.
Who are these special agents? They are federal law enforcement officers and they have experience: our average agent has been in federal law enforcement for over ten years, a necessary requirement given the sophistication required to work the wide range of OCI cases.
Each special agent undergoes specialized training to be effective in their job, including firearms and personal safety training, advanced Special Agent training, and training in FDA law. Throughout their career, OCI agents will keep up to date on the latest trends by participating in what is called "in-service training." Additionally, agents will take specialized training in other areas of federal law enforcement, including cybercrime investigations, computer forensics, financial tracing/asset forfeiture investigation, polygraphy, leadership and management, and advanced law enforcement techniques.
As you can see from this training regimen, we demand a lot from our agents – these skill areas are exceedingly complex. Moreover, agents must also learn such intangible skills as being able to work well with others, remain alert and focused, and hone that age-old requirement for any law enforcement officer: good instincts and a devotion to old fashioned shoe-leather doggedness.
Our agents are located in more than 37 offices nationwide, from Hawaii to Puerto Rico, and work with law enforcement counterparts in many countries, as well as international organizations like Interpol, Europol, and the Permanent Forum on International Pharmaceutical Crime.
No agent can go it alone, of course, and we rely on an outstanding supporting cast to help us: our "can-do" support staff, who make running a complex nationwide law enforcement program look effortless, the unmatched scientific and public health experts in the FDA centers and the civil-side inspectors and compliance officers in the field, who we rely on for help with complex, scientific cases, and finally prosecutors in the Department of Justice, who have embraced the FDA public health mission.
My three previous FDA Voice posts highlighted several of the more significant, colorful, and sometimes tragic cases with which OCI has been involved. The first post looked at how we use our top-flight federal agents to work undercover in investigating shadowy overseas drug counterfeiters. The second post looked at high-profile instances of non-compliance right here in the United States – with our work resulting in a $1.4 billion fine. The third post looked at the callous and utter disregard for life caused by corporate actors, which necessitated a criminal response. Yes, these cases involved detailed, complex organization and a range of professional skills.
But let me emphasize: OCI is doing this work every day. In fact, about every 30 hours, throughout the year, we are gaining a conviction, in crimes ranging from street level pharmaceutical diversion schemes to corporate fraud. In Fiscal Year 2012, OCI agents were responsible for cases that yielded over $4.9 billion in fines and restitution – monies that are paid directly to the U.S. Government or to specific victims of the criminal acts we investigate – an average of over $22 million per special agent.
FDA's Office of Criminal Investigation is the only federal law enforcement agency whose mission is exclusively directed at protecting the public's health. And, criminal enforcement is a critical part of FDA's enforcement and compliance strategy, a strategy designed to protect people from dangerous products, fraudulent schemes, and unscrupulous criminals.
Through these four FDA Voice posts, I hope that we have made our OCI team better known to our FDA colleagues and to the public. The vast majority of the FDA-regulated entities respond to FDA's ordinary regulatory tools. However, OCI stands ready and on watch to locate, investigate, and bring to justice those individuals and entities who disregard and break our public health laws.
John Roth is Director of FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations


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Mini Kiteboard World Cup – Mexico
Don't panic, the next PKRA event on the tour is in Italy! This is the first in the series of new slalom events that the PKRA is running, some of the worlds top riders are attending with the view of becoming the World Slalom Champion at the end of the year… Some of the worlds best freestylers are out there as well to showcase the sport to the masses in a competition alongside the Slalom event, but the points won't count towards the overall freestyle title on the PKRA. Confused? So were we a little!
Registration for the MINI kiteboard World Cup took place at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Rivera Nayarit on the Mexican Pacific Coast. The top riders in the world traveled to Mexico to compete in the first Slalom race of the 2013 season. Slalom is the new high-speed racing discipline that will be making many headlines in 2013. Riders also registered for the freestyle event that will be a combination of old school and wake style tricks. Kevin Langeree and current freestyle point's leader Alex Pastor are headlining the freestyle competition and Julien Kerneur the 2012 world slalom champion will be the man to beat in the slalom.
Rivera Nayarit is a great place to kitesurf; a thermal wind picks up every afternoon between 15 to 20 knots. The Hard Rock Cafe is hosting and sponsoring this event while providing a great atmosphere and perfect venue for the event. Riders had a chance to test the conditions and are excited about the upcoming races and freestyle competition.
Local rider Sean Farley took Bryan Lake, Kevin, Alex and Julien for a tour of the area in the MINI to check out the surf spots and the atmosphere around Nayarit. Everyone felt right at home with the relax surf vibe atmosphere and enjoyed the small waves of a dropping south swell.
The competition will begin early afternoon with the sea breeze filling in. The first slalom event of the year is going to set the tone for the rest of the season and give one rider an early points lead in the rankings for the World Champion title given away at the end of the season. The freestylers will not be battling for their rankings but will be here to display what the best kitesurfers in the world can do.
Make sure you follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news and results.


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Bringing happiness and quality to every corner of the world.
The idea behind Happy Socks was born under the cloud-ridden April sky of yet another belayed Swedish spring in 2008. The socks are today sold in more than 40 countries across all continents. The collection of socks features an almost endless variety of models and designs, crossing a wide spectrum of colour combinations, materials and textures. Simply put: a pair of high-quality socks for every occasion, mindset and style. Manufactured at a respected local factory in Turkey.
CHAPTER #THREE - More Happy Socks.
After establishing both notoriety and undisputed success with unisex playful socks, the brand takes a conscious step further with its third collection: Chapter Three.
A wider selection of new products include a men selection, a women selection, tubes, tights and prints and are presented in new fabrics: wool, merino, cashmere and a blend of hemp and recycled yarns.


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Flying low and slow above the pristine terrain of Alaska's North Slope research scientist Charles Miller of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory surveys the white expanse of tundra and permafrost below. On the horizon, a long, dark line appears. His plane draws nearer, and the mysterious object reveals itself to be a massive herd of migrating caribou, stretching for miles.
It's a sight Miller won't soon forget.
"Seeing those caribou marching single-file across the tundra puts what we're doing here in the Arctic into perspective," says Miller, who is on five-year mission named "CARVE" to study how climate change is affecting the Arctic's carbon cycle.
CARVE is short for the "Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment." Now in its third year, the airborne campaign is testing the hypothesis that Arctic carbon reservoirs are vulnerable to warming, while delivering the first source-maps of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. About two dozen scientists from 12 institutions are participating.
"The Arctic is critical to understanding global climate," says Miller. "Climate change is already happening in the Arctic, faster than its ecosystems can adapt. Looking at the Arctic is like looking at the canary in the coal mine for the entire Earth system."
Over hundreds of millennia, Arctic permafrost soils have accumulated vast stores of organic carbon - an estimated 1,400 to 1,850 billion metric tons of it. That's about half of all the estimated organic carbon stored in Earth's soils. In comparison, about 350 billion metric tons of carbon have been emitted from all fossil-fuel combustion and human activities since 1850. Most of the Arctic's sequestered carbon is located in thaw-vulnerable topsoils within 3 meters of the surface.
But, as scientists are learning, permafrost - and its stored carbon - may not be as permanent as its name implies. And that has them concerned.
"Permafrost soils are warming even faster than Arctic air temperatures - as much as 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius in just the past 30 years," says Miller. "As heat from Earth's surface penetrates into permafrost, it threatens to mobilize these organic carbon reservoirs and release them into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, upsetting the Arctic's carbon balance and greatly exacerbating global warming."
CARVE campaign flights are conducted aboard a specially instrumented NASA C-23 Sherpa aircraft from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia. The C-23 won't win any beauty contests - its pilots refer to it as "a UPS truck with a bad nose job." Inside, it's extremely noisy - the pilots and crew wear noise-cancelling headphones to communicate. "When you take the headphones off, it's like being at a NASCAR race," Miller quipped.
But what the C-23 lacks in beauty and quiet, it makes up for in reliability and its ability to fly "down in the mud." Most of the time, it flies about 150 meters above ground level, with periodic ascents to higher altitudes to collect background data. Onboard the plane, sophisticated instruments sniff the atmosphere for greenhouse gases. "[We] need to fly very close to the surface in the Arctic to capture the interesting exchanges of carbon taking place between Earth's surface and atmosphere," Miller says.
The CARVE team flew test flights in 2011 and science flights in 2012. So far in 2013 they have completed three monthly campaigns--in April, May and June--with four more to go.
From a base in Fairbanks, Alaska, the C-23 flies up to eight hours a day to sites on Alaska's North Slope, interior and Yukon River Valley over tundra, permafrost, boreal forests, peatlands and wetlands.
Soaring over the Arctic terrain, Miller has seen many things he won't forget. The permafrost data may prove unforgettable, too. . . .
Continue Reading . . .
See Also:
Scientists Agree (Again): Climate Change Is Happening
The Facts on Global Climate Change & Government Censorship | VIDEO
47 Scientists from 36 Laboratories Determine Staggering Ice-Melt Figures From Greenland and Antarctica | CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS | VIDEO


text: Survive long bike road trips 21 Sep 2015 by admin Post grid 0 3510 So, you like to ride your bike all the time, going maybe two to five miles a few times a week. Why not go for a longer ride? Here's how, with a bit of preparation, you can make sure you…Read more Facebook Twitter Google Plus Tumblr


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Read on for the latest installment in UFC.com's weekly series of articles on proper nutrition from the biggest names in mixed martial arts...this week, Mark Munoz
If the UFC ever hosts an eating contest, Mark Munoz could well emerge as a frontrunner. No joke. Especially if sushi or Filipino cuisine is on the menu. Born and raised by Filipino parents who both excel at cooking, it's no wonder that Munoz himself can throw down inside of the kitchen and make a mean Chicken Adobo, along with a wide array of other dishes. Though he fights at 185 pounds, Munoz said he can pack away massive amounts of food in a single session and could easily walk around at 230 pounds if he wasn't training for a fight. But much of the Oklahoma State University graduate's preferred grub will have to wait until after his July 11 main event (UFC on FUEL TV 4) against unbeaten Chris Weidman (8-0). In a recent interview, Munoz breaks down some of his favorite Filipino dishes and the diet that helps the former 205er make the tight cut to middleweight.
Curreri: You were born in Japan and both of your parents were from the Philippines.
Munoz: I was in Japan for two years and then moved to Vallejo, California and I've been eating Filipino food my entire life.
Curreri: What are some of the staples of Filipino food?
Munoz: Our main staple is white rice; that's what we have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then we have curries, stew, stir fried noodles, fried food and barbequed. You name it, man, we got it. It's so good and so rich. I love it, man, but during fight camp I can only eat the stews because they're healthy. All of the other food I eat after my fights.
Curreri: Growing up, were both of your parents good cooks?
Munoz: Both parents. My mom predominantly cooked inside of the house. My dad would cook us breakfast and prepare our lunches. My mom is the chef in the house. She would make unbelievable meals.
Curreri: Given that pedigree, are you a capable cook?
Munoz: Yes, I love cooking and I can cook a lot of stuff. I cook nilagang, chicken adobo, pork adobo, lumpia, which is kind of fried egg rolls. I cook rice all the time; we have a rice cooker at the house. I also cook a breakfast sausage.
My parents owned a restaurant and I cooked for the restaurant in Pittsburgh, California; it was named "Rudy's" after my dad's first name. I worked there mostly on weekends and during the summers. We owned it for a good six years, so part of my life I spent at the restaurant cooking breakfast foods and helping prepare Filipino food.
Curreri: The native tongue for Philippines is Tagalog. Do you speak it?
Munoz: Yes, I do now. My parents always spoke to me in Tagalog growing up so I always understood the language, but they always wanted me to respond back in English so that I wouldn't be confused in school. Now when I go to the Philippines I respond back in English and they go, 'You don't speak Tagalog?' I'd say I don't speak it but I understand it. But I've been practicing it and I can speak it now. But three years ago I had a hard time.
Curreri: I would be remiss if I interviewed you and did not ask you, a die-hard Manny Pacquaio fan, about your thoughts on that crazy, unjust decision a few weeks ago against Timothy Bradley.
Munoz: I did watch it and I was tweeting the results round by round. I scored that fight 117 to 111 (for Pacquiao). I couldn't believe it. That was just robbery, thievery.
Curreri: Diet is obviously instrumental for an elite fighter, especially one who was previously a 205er and now fights at 185.
Munoz: I've been dieting ever since cutting down to 185 in April 2009. I decided to make a healthy change and my diet has been great ever since. I still eat Filipino foods but only in moderation. That's the key.
Curreri: Is your wife of Filipino descent as well?
Munoz: She's German, Irish and Polish.
Curreri: So if you want to eat the good stuff you have to cook it yourself, huh?
Munoz: Yeah, or my mom will come over and cook the good stuff. Or my aunts and uncles. My uncle came over the other day and brought me some Filipino food.
Curreri: I was a humongous eater in my younger days and, I don't know why, but I almost have the sixth sense for detecting other humongous eaters and you strike me as someone who fits the bill, someone who can really put away astonishing amounts of food.
Munoz: (laughs). Yeah, you're right dude, I can put it down! People say that about me all the time. We go to all-you-can-eat Sushi restaurants and people are like, 'Dang, Munoz! I'd kick you out if I was the owner of this place!' I mean, I eat like three party trays of the stuff.
Curreri: So the restaurant loses when they invite you to all-you-can-eat?
Munoz: That's right. They invite me to all-you-can-eat – I will eat me plus five!
Curreri: Now, we hear so much about how brown rice, quinoa and whole grains are the ideal carbs for us, especially athletes. But white rice is so embedded in Filipino cuisine. What is your position on that?
Munoz: I eat white rice periodically, not all of the time now. I grew up on it and after researching different articles and journals I feel that brown rice and quinoa and brown rice noodles are more digestible and readily absorbed in the body than white rice. White rice is actually stored as glycogen or fat, whereas brown rice and the other grains enter the bloodstream and are used quickly. So I usually eat brown rice, brown noodles and quinoa.
But when I eat Filipino food, I go all the way, man! I eat white rice. But again, moderation is the key. You can't eat that every night.
Curreri: It does seem that white rice accentuates the taste of the rest of the meal better …
Munoz: Yeah, you're right. So I can't have Filipino any other way. I can't have brown rice with my adobo or other dishes. I can't have that.
Curreri: So take us through a typical day of eating for you, starting with your earliest meal.
Munoz: For my earliest meal of the day I'll have two whole eggs and four egg whites. Then a bowl of oatmeal with chia seeds and flaxseed. I'll also have Vitamin C, a multi-vitamin and some branch chain amino acids.
Then after my first workout I'll have a recovery protein shake with whey protein isolate, glutamine, branch chain amino acids and some electrolytes.
After that I'll have a six-ounce chicken breast with quinoa, spinach or asparagus, some different colored peppers, broccoli or green beans.
Another meal will be similar to that.
I'll have another protein shake after my later workout and another meal with carbohydrates at the end of the night.
Curreri: So 185 is a hard cut for you?
Munoz: I have to be very strategic for my cut to 185.
Curreri: How heavy would you be if you didn't have a fight coming up, if you were just training
Munoz: I'd be 225, 230.
Curreri: You consume BCAA's not only after your workouts, but before them. Why?
Munoz: Branch chain aminos are the building blocks of protein. I'm getting ready to workout with my meal and my muscles are going to need those BCAA's. So I go before and after. I also take them at night for recovery.
Curreri: You mentioned the Filipino stews that you consume even during training camp. What makes them so healthy?
Munoz: So … Manny Pacquaio eats this stew called … tinola … It has cabbage in it, chicken, leaves, spinach, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic ... so a lot of anti-oxidants are in the stew. You boil the vegetables and then you drink the sauce. It's a very good meal for you.
Curreri: How frequently are you able to eat those stews?
Munoz: I probably eat it once or twice a week.
Curreri: After you make weight what meals do you try to rehydrate with?
Munoz: After my fight I like to take in coconut water. I'm an island guy so coconuts go well with my diet. I wish I could have seen (the coconut water) craze because it's going crazy. I'll drink a lot of water as well and as many electrolytes as I can because making weight kind of dehydrates your body. Then I'll eat the same things I've been eating for the past six to eight weeks. I don't want to switch up my diet until after my fight. I will enjoy the occasional pizza or In & Out burger or Filipino food, and a lot of sushi. I eat that stuff after my fights. But I've been doing all the same things for this fight. I feel I have all the tools and resources to win this fight (against Chris Weidman).
UFC Performance Institute
Dana White On The Opening Of UFC PI Mexico


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The Student Achievement Awards is a writing and creative arts competition which is open to all public secondary school students in Ontario. The competition is meant to encourage the intellectual development of our students and an interest in society. The 1984 Provincial Assembly established the awards in honour of Marion Drysdale, a secretary at OSSTF/FEESO Provincial Office for twenty-two years, for her dedicated work over so many years.
Each year a new theme is determined by the Recognition and Promotion Sub-Committee of the Communications/Political Action Committee.
OSSTF/FEESO invites student writers and artists to submit creative work exploring this year's theme: Ahead by a Century. Judging will be held at the school, District, Regional and Provincial levels. Nine provincial winners will be awarded $1000 each in prizes and will be invited to our Annual General Meeting in March where a video showcasing their work will be screened.
See Ms. Law for more information!
Eden Mills Writers' Festival - Poetry Contest


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He Who Has the Son Has Life
This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth. There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has borne witness to his Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.
I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
I wanted to be with John Melin when he died. I went to see him about 5:00 PM on Friday. He couldn't live more than a few more hours, I thought. So I went back about 7:15.
Augustana Home was quiet on the fourth floor. John's roommate was evidently sleeping. I sat down beside John's bed and took his ninety-year-old hand. His glazed eyes were half open and his breaths seemed like mechanical responses to an electric respiratory pacemaker that someone forgot to turn off when everything else had shut down.
But you never know. Had he already been freed from the body to be at home with the Lord? Perhaps. But even if he had, I think the Lord let him in on what I said.
I wanted to be with him when he died. So I prayed. "Lord, take him now. Lift him right out of my hands. Let me hand him over to you—like a faithful private carrying one of his slain sergeants back to the commander." But he kept on breathing.
Being with Saints When They Die
I love to be with the saints when they die. It's as though I get to walk up to a door that for most people is very far away, and for some very frightening. I have two motives. I want to keep vigil against the devil who loves to terrorize the saints at the hour of death. I want to stand by the wounded and fight for them with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. I want to see them safely through the door.
But I have another motive for wanting to be with the saints as they die. I have the hope that someday I may get a glimpse through the door. I think that if I stand guard often enough, I might see something of what Paul saw when he said, "To depart and be with Christ is far better." I can't help but think that when a soul departs from the life of a saint, Christ himself draws very near.
You sit there waiting for each breath to be the last. And your mind turns to the sermon you must preach on Sunday. You recall that it ends with the verse, "I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life."
And you pray, "O Lord, what can I say to the people on Sunday that will make them feel the immensity of the value of eternal life?" If only I could bring every one of them with me to this moment. If only they could all stand here and listen and watch while I recite the glorious gospel into the wrinkled ear of John Melin:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3–10)
None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. (Romans 14:7–9)
And then to get close to his ear and sing—and pray that he might be singing along whether dying here or living in heaven:
When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.
John Melin died yesterday at 8:00 AM.
Nothing Is More Important Than Having Eternal Life
Dear people, I pray that God helps you feel this morning that nothing is more important than having eternal life. Summertime is filled with subtle deceptions. We begin to think more about our bodies, for example, because in the summertime people see more of them. So we think about whether we have a tan. We think about whether we look pudgy. We can actually begin to think these things matter!
When you look in the mirror today to see how your tan is doing and whether your skin is sleek, remember John Melin. It didn't make any difference to him yesterday morning that he had no tan. It didn't make any difference to him that his flesh hung on his bones like wet paper. One thing mattered: He had eternal life, because he had the Son. And he who has the Son has life!
How Can I Have Eternal Life?
The text for this morning has many puzzling things in it. Perhaps in the future we can come back to them. But it seemed to me that one message on this text should focus on the one utterly crucial thing that is very clear, namely, the question: How can I have eternal life? According to John, God himself has testified in answer to this question.
Verses 11–12 tell us the content of God's testimony. We don't often think of God witnessing to us. We think of ourselves as witnessing for him. But verses 11–12 describe the content of God's witness. If there ever was any testimony in the courtroom of life that we ought to listen to, it would be God's testimony. And according to John the testimony of God is this:
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.
So according to God's testimony, the way to have life is to have the Son. Verse 12: "He who has the Son has life." And the reason we know it is eternal life is that verse 11 says, "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." So the way to have eternal life is to have the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
What Does It Mean to Have the Son of God?
So what does it mean to HAVE the Son of God? The word "have" can communicate a lot of different nuances. For example, it doesn't mean quite the same thing each time when you say, "I have a dollar," or, "I have a cold," or, "I have a lawyer."
But there is something common to all those meanings: when you HAVE something, it does its thing for you. If you have a dollar, it buys a dollar's worth for you. If you have a cold, it makes your nose run. If you have a lawyer, he stands in for you. Having something means that it does its thing for you.
Having All That Jesus Came to Do
Now the testimony of God (in verse 12) says, "He who HAS the Son has life." And now we can say that having the Son means: if you have the Son, then the Son does his thing for you. If you want to spend one of the most encouraging hours of your life, take an hour and make a list under the heading: What is Jesus' thing? What can Jesus do? What did he come to do? What does he promise to do? It will be a very long list. And then just go down the list and beside every one write: He does his thing for ME! What he can do he does for me. What he promises to do he will do for me. That is what it means to HAVE the Son.
Having Eternal Life
And John sums it all up in the word LIFE. He who has the Son has life! Eternal life is not just the extension of all the frustrations and half-joys of this life. When Jesus finishes doing his thing, every frustration will be gone and every half-joy will be full. As he said in John 10:10, "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."
If you HAVE the Son, it means that anything that infinite love and infinite power and infinite wisdom can do for your good will in fact be done for you.
Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, who is at the right hand of God , who indeed intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors. (Romans 8:34ff.)
He who has the Son has One who can take all tribulation and distress and persecution and peril and turn it so that out of it comes not just a wounded soldier—no we are not just conquerors. Those who have the Son are "more than conquerors." Which means that the Son of God takes the tribulations of your life and actually turns them for your good. You don't just escape from your enemy. He serves you.
So if you want to be more than a survivor and, indeed, more than a conqueror in the battles of life, then you must HAVE the Son. For he who has the Son has life—all the life that an omnipotent God can give.
We Have the Son by Believing in His Name
But we still haven't answered the question, "How do we come to have the Son?" This is very important because the last part of verse 12 says that "he who has not the Son of God has not life." In other words not every one has the Son and so not every one has eternal life. It is infinitely important to know how to have the Son.
The answer is not complicated or hard to find. It is implied clearly in verse 13: "I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." Notice that verse 13 says that those who believe in the name of the Son of God have eternal life and that verse 12 says, "He who has the Son has life." The simple implication is that the way to HAVE the Son is to BELIEVE the Son.
Or another way to put it is that the Son of God does his thing for those who trust him. You can have the Son of God if you trust the Son of God.
Passage to India
In the film, Passage to India, there was a young Indian doctor who had been arrested for allegedly assaulting a young English woman in India. The case became an explosive point of tension between the Indian people who longed for independence and the colonial English government. The whole colonialist power structure seemed to make the doctor's case hopeless even though everybody knew his integrity was above question. He was too poor to afford a lawyer.
But the most famous and able lawyer in all India got word of the case. He had a reputation of liking to take on the British and standing up for the Indian underdogs. For me one of the most powerful scenes in the film was when two of the doctor's friends bring him word in the jail that the famous lawyer is willing to defend the doctor—and then, as if it were too good to be true, they say, "And he's not even going to charge a fee!"
Now the doctor has a lawyer. He HAS a lawyer. The lawyer is going to do his thing for the doctor. All his reputation, all his eloquence, all his skill are now going to be used to save the doctor.
How did the doctor come to HAVE this great lawyer? He never had met him before. He had no money to pay him. He was far away from him in a different city. And yet now he could say to all his enemies, "I HAVE a lawyer!" How did he come to have the best lawyer in India?
It starts with the motivation of the lawyer. He has two goals: the liberation of India from the British, and the glorification of his own legal skills. When the camera picks him up in a tumultuous courtroom scene, he is sitting at his table utterly calm, as though in sovereign control of the situation. And to show that what he really loves is the liberation of India and the display of his skills for the helpless patriot, his services are not for sale. He will not be paid. That would call into question what he really loves.
And so how does the doctor come to have this lawyer? The lawyer makes a free offer, and the doctor hears the offer and accepts it. He trusts that the lawyer means it, and he believes he can do it. He HAS the lawyer because he TRUSTS the lawyer.
Two Goals of the Son of God
And so it is with the Son of God. He has two goals: the liberation of his people from sin and death, and the glorification of his own powers. That is the origin of salvation. That is the source of eternal life. And to show that what he loves is the liberation of his people and the magnification of his power, his services are not for sale. He will not be paid.
So how do you come to HAVE the Son of God? He makes you a free offer, and you accept his offer, you trust him. He does his thing for those who trust in him. He who has the Son has life.
Three Ways You Can Reject the Son of God
Of course there are at least three ways that the doctor could have rejected the lawyer and that you can reject the Son of God. You can say, "I can handle this case by myself." Or you can say, "No point in answering the telegram. He'll never come. Why would he come all this way for me? I'm a nobody. And he is world famous." Or you can say, "Sure tell him to come. But he better not tell me to do anything stupid in the courtroom, because I'm not going to do it if he does."
Some of you here this morning need to have the Son of God. Don't reject his offer of life by any of these three responses.
None of us can handle our case by ourselves. We are far worse off than the doctor: we are guilty! If John Melin hadn't had the Son, he wouldn't have had anything yesterday. But he had the Son, and now he has life forever and ever. You can't handle that case by yourself!
And don't say that the Son of God won't come to work for a nobody like you. That's the only kind of people he will work for. The Son of God says, "I'm coming to help you not because you're somebody, but because I'm somebody; and I like to show I'm somebody by saving nobodies." God loves to glorify the fullness of his grace by saving the least likely candidates for eternal life.
And don't say, "Well, yes, I will accept his offer to be my lawyer, but he better not tell me to do anything foolish." That is not trust. You can't keep a lawyer that way. He will do his thing for you if you trust him.
David said it 1,000 years earlier like this: "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your vindication as the light and your right as the noonday."
Trust in him and he will act for you!
Trust in the Son of God and you will HAVE the Son of God.
And God himself is witness: he who has the Son has life!