New perspective on an old article

I was going back through my Instapaper account today and checking out old articles when I came back across this one. When I first read it, what struck me the most was the idea that Mexican drug cartels are expanding aggressively into other areas of the "black economy" - in this case selling illegally procured oil.

On my second read, however, I was more interested in the Zetas and their ability to hire away "highly skilled people who have the technical knowledge to extract oil from the pipelines."

At their formation, the Zetas themselves were "highly skilled people who have the technical knowledge" to conduct complex paramiltary operations.

The money generated from drug smuggling now offers drug cartels the opportunity to push into just about any business and quickly achieve a high level of proficency. Through the combination of intimidation and monetary reward, they can easily pull in skilled technicians from just about any field - and use those newly-acquired skills to push more of the Mexican economy into the black.

And, of course, as they pull in more sophisticated professionals, their ability to generate more revenue increases. This creates a virtuous cycle (for them) that spells trouble for both the Mexican government as well as businesses that attempt to operate within the law:

Widespread oil theft by drug traffickers deals major blow to Mexico's government
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/12/AR2009121202888_pf.html

The Zetas often work with former Pemex employees, according to Ramón Pequeño García, chief of anti-drug operations at Mexico’s Public Security Ministry. The former employees “are highly skilled people who have the technical knowledge to extract oil from the pipelines. They are now under the control of the Zetas,” Pequeño said.

(via Instapaper)

Posted via email from Team Frosick

Say it ain't so!

Vote-rigging by the criminal enterprise that is the Russian State apparatus? Who'da thunk?

So here's my question...

...As the nations of Europe fracture into ever-smaller entities, secure in the knowledge that the European Union is strong enough to prevent internal friction between the previous fractious factions of Western history, how will these small entities compete with rising waves of immigrants with a different perspective on how one "gets along" with one's neighbors? How will the European Union generate enough military power to protect its vital interests outside its borders?

As it stands, NATO is enough of a patchwork organization as to be virtually incapable of coordinated operations against a determined opponent. Now let's multiply the entities within that force by 10...Do the Scots contribute a brigade to an operation? How about the Walloons? These smaller entities will only be able to muster much smaller forces...and I doubt very much that the EU will ever engender enough loyalty within its citizens to create an EU-wide force that isn't a Frankenstein's mess of smaller nations.

Hard to dispute.

Global Guerrillas: WAR'S NEW EQUILIBRIUM:

"Unlike the previous models of guerrilla wars which sought to replace the state, these new wars have moved to a level of decentralization that makes them both unable to replace the state and extremely hard to eliminate."

Spero News | Gangs, terrorists, and trade

A "progressive" call to arms: strengthen States (even those with leaders we frown upon) or be prepared to contend with powerful nonstate entities - that are far more difficult to engage, influence, or coerce.

FIlling the void created by ineffective States

In Rio's Slums, Militias Fuel Violence They Seek to Quell - washingtonpost.com:

Imagine it: A police officer who works for the state never gets any respect, and suddenly he joins a militia and he's worshiped as the man who brings peace to the community,' said Turnowski, who described the militias as dangerous substitutes for the state resources chronically lacking in the city's poor communities.

A sneak peek at a world without States?

Global Guerrillas: THE VIRTUAL CALIPHATE

Well, okay. Maybe a bit of an exaggeration. Still...I found this little snippet particularly interesting:

While territory is claimed, it cannot always be held. As a result, the territory it does hold is very similar to a description of a temporary autonomous zone (TAZ) :

For him, a state’s perimeter extends only so far as men stand with guns to defend it. Tamimi’s vision of statehood suggests he conceives of the ISI as a governmental amoeba, constantly shifting its zone of control across Iraq’s western expanses as ISI forces redeploy. It never controls all of the territory it has claimed, but demands that all residents of that territory swear allegiance to the ISI’s Emir.

The political goods this organization delivers do not include the material. It is assumed that is taken care of by the global marketplace and by the people themselves. What it desires to provide is enforcement of a code of conduct (the PCC has its own rules for this, the ISI's is Sharia).

This one's interesting for a couple of reasons...

Firstly, it points to the instability we helped generate when we ran the Islamic Courts Union out of power in the hopes of nabbing a few individuals associated with Al Qaeda. Secondly, it points to the power of the web. How? Check out this little snippet:

An insurgent group known as the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations, which is linked to the ousted Council of Islamic Courts, claimed it was the target of the government offensive but said its fighters repulsed the attack.

"They were unable to bear the pain of bullets coming from all four directions," the group said in a statement posted on the Islamic militia's Web site.

A government official, who agreed to discuss the combat situation only if not quoted by name, said the offensive focused on parts of the city controlled by the Habr Gedir clan, which supported more radical elements of the Islamic militia and opposes the interim administration.

Yep. Middle of Somalia. Ragtag militia fighting in one of the most chaotic cities in the world...but they get information out over the web quickly - and I'd bet with a better spin than that managed by the Somali "government."

Interesting.

Change a few words and...

Italy's Mafia Mess - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com

...you'd think this was an article straight from Baghdad.

The deputy police chief of the Naples homicide unit, Pietro Morelli, acknowledges that authorities can occupy the city's toughest slums, but they can't hold them. They can't even prevent the Camorra from setting up its own checkpoints just down the street from those of the authorities. ''When police come to get them, they melt away," says Morelli. Only a few local people will speak against the organization, and out of bitterness, not expectation of change. If peace returns to the streets, it's as likely to be the result of truces reached within the organization, as of order imposed by Rome.

I stumbled across this one quite accidentally. First step? Coming across this site (lens culture) and looking at some pics from a photo book apparently called "Made in Italy: CGIL 100." Next step? Seeing a photo that made reference to the Comorra Wars of 2005 - a term that I was patently unfamiliar with.

We have some friends who use to live in Naples while assigned to NATO...their stories of mafia influence made for interesting dinner conversation but I guess the extent of their strength didn't really sink in...

WaPost takes a look at the growing divide between Gaza and West Bank

Under Pressure, Palestinian Territories Pull Apart - washingtonpost.com

"We blame the Israelis, and the Israelis blame our uprising," said Mahmoud,
who worked in Tel Aviv hotels before losing his work permit when Israel left
Gaza. Over the years, the brothers, who once shared a room and long afternoons
of soccer on the nearby beach, have missed each other's weddings and the births
of their children. When their father died in 2002, Ahmed was absent from the
funeral procession.

"The political situation exists now with no solution," Mahmoud said.
"They will never be one state."

A disturbing look into Russia's "victory" in Chechnya

USNews.com: Chechnya, a War That Is Gone but Not Forgotten

Chechnya slowly - kinda-sorta - rises from the ashes of conflict but does so in an all too familiar manner. Its new "government" is little more than a shell used by local warlords and "big men" to justify their own bases of power. I see signs of the same arising in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian Authority...the facade of government becomes little more than a hasty paint job slapped over criminals, tribal chiefs, militias, and warlords. In fact, Hezbollah's efforts to pull the mask of "legitimate government" over the face of their own actions is essentially the same.

This appears to me as a regression in the development of the State. The power of the State becomes a spoil of war to be captured like any other booty to be found on the battlefield. Institutions like the UN, designed to preserve the sanctity of nation-states, tend to reward such behavior, making it far more difficult to ensure, encourage, or compel good governance.

A snippet from the US News report on Chechnya:

Day-to-day security in swaths of Chechnya is left to locally recruited Kremlin-loyalist forces, who run things much as they please. This makes their de facto chief, Putin-appointed President Ramzan Kadyrov, perhaps the most important man in Chechnya. Kadyrov, 30, is the son of a prominent Islamic leader who in 1999 abandoned the rebels for the Russian side and served as Kremlin-installed local president before being assassinated in 2004.

[...]

What does cause jitters in Moscow is that the bulk of the estimated 7,000 armed men associated with Kadyrov are themselves former rebel fighters enticed or coerced into switching sides. "Everyone knows the so-called pro-Moscow militias in Chechnya are in fact tribal military formations loyal only to their chiefs," said Moscow-based military affairs specialist Pavel Felgenhauer. "Basically, the rebels in Chechnya have entered a rest period and are getting training under the Russian flag."

Hrmph.

Decline of the State...?

Danish Police Fear More Street Riots - washingtonpost.com

As individuals become more empowered, it would seem that the likely loser(s) will continue to be the State. This is merely another example. Police evict squatters. Dribs and drabs from leftist groups, anarchists, and bored kids present an international response. Communications, near-nonexistent borders in Europe, and the radical expansion of media sources (allowing small groups to focus on enough news and "facts" to create the echo chamber effect) lead to spontaneous "insurgencies."

And to expand further on the subject...

Officer Robert Musser, Montgomery's top gang investigator, said yesterday that the group's membership reflects a growing trend in area gangs: They are mixed-race, loosely organized collections of youths that coalesce because they attend the same school or live in the same neighborhood. The groups often change their monikers several times, he said.

A lot of folks have spent a lot of time since the World Wars worrying about extreme nationalism - loyalty to the State that, in effect, puts too much power in its hands. Is this new trend going to be viewed as better or worse in the long run?