Glare of Fires Pulls Migrants From Shadows

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and WILL CARLESS
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 26 — Out of the burning brush, from behind canyon rocks, several immigrants bolted toward a group of firefighters, chased not by the border police but by the onrush of flames from one of the biggest wildfires this week.

Their appearance startled the firefighters, who let them into their vehicles. But with the discovery of four charred bodies in an area of heavy illegal immigration, concern is growing that others may not have survived.

“Their hands were burned, and they were clearly tired and grateful,” Capt. Mike Parkes of the State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported on what his firefighting team saw.

Immigrants from south of the border, many illegal, provide the backbone of menial labor in San Diego, picking fruit, cleaning hotel rooms, sweeping walks and mowing lawns.

The wildfires, one of the biggest disasters to strike the county, exposed their often-invisible existence in ways that were sometimes deadly.

The four bodies were found in a burned area in southeastern San Diego County, a region known for intense illegal immigration. It is near Tecate, where a chain securing an evacuated border crossing was cut and people were seen flowing into the United States until the Border Patrol arrived, said Michael J. Fisher, the chief patrol agent in San Diego.

As firefighting continued on Friday, makeshift camps for immigrants in the northern part of the county stood largely abandoned. Some immigrants were said to be hiding in even more remote terrain. Others sought help from churches.

“I was pretty scared. We had to leave in the middle of the night, and we went to the church,” said Juan Santiago, a immigrant worker in the Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood, just south of the hard-hit Rancho Bernardo area.

Terri Trujillo, who helps the immigrants, checked on those in the canyons, urging them to leave, too, when she left her house in Rancho Peñasquitos ahead of the fires.

Ms. Trujillo and others who help the immigrants said they saw several out in the fields as the fires approached and ash fell on them. She said many were afraid to lose their jobs.

“There were Mercedeses and Jaguars pulling out, people evacuating, and the migrants were still working,” said Enrique Morones, who takes food and blankets to the immigrants’ camps. “It’s outrageous.”

Some of the illegal workers who sought help from the authorities were arrested and deported. Opponents of illegal immigration, including civilian border watch groups, seized on news that immigrants had been detained at the Qualcomm Stadium evacuation center as evidence of trouble that illegal immigrants cause.

The Border Patrol also arrested scores of illegal immigrants made visible by the fires. Agent Fisher of the Border Patrol said 100 had been arrested since the fires started Sunday.

He said that the agency never abandoned enforcing the border and that agents helped with removals and rescues. Fire blocked some access points to border areas, but Agent Fisher said, “We were very conscious in making sure our border security mission was met.”

Some people have speculated, including on the Web, that immigrants might have set some of the fires, as has occurred with campfires lighted in fields.

The authorities have not given any causes linked to immigration.

Two men, one in San Diego County and the other in Los Angeles, who were arrested on arson charges, accused of setting small fires this week, are believed to be deportable, a federal immigration official said.

The San Diego police detained people suspected of stealing at Qualcomm Stadium. Six were handed over to the immigration authorities when it became apparent that they might be in the United States illegally.

The Border Patrol said the six, and at the group’s request, an American juvenile with them, were returned to Mexico.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it had received reports that people had been denied help at shelters because they lacked proper identification. Officials have been checking identification to prevent people not affected by the fires from taking advantage of the free food, clothes and other services.

The concerns of the rights group drew a rebuke from Representative Brian P. Bilbray, a Republican who represents areas along the border.

“People are dying because we can’t control our border,” Mr. Bilbray said. “That’s what they should be screaming about. Anyone who knows the land and the illegal activity in that rugged terrain knows there was no way we would avoid deaths in this.”

Wayne A. Cornelius, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, who studies border questions, said that if the past was a guide there would be more friction over the fires and their effects on illegal immigrants.

“San Diego likes its illegal migrants as invisible as possible,” Mr. Cornelius said. “So whenever something happens that calls attention to their presence, it is fodder for the local anti-immigration forces.”

In one sign of cooperation, a Mexican firefighting team from Baja California helped American firefighters with a major blaze along the border early in the week.

For the immigrants, the fires may have dried up some work. But some speculate on strong work prospects like cleanups. By early afternoon near a heavily damaged neighborhood in the Rancho Bernardo area, four men stood on a corner, waiting for work offers.

“It is a shame what happened,” said a man who gave just his first name, Miguelito. “But we think there will be jobs to clean or build.”

Dan Frosch contributed reporting from Denver, and Carolyn Marshall from San Francisco.

October 26, 2007
"Balkan Ghosts" revisited

blockquote>
ADVERTIZEMENT: “Invest in Macedonia: New Business Heaven in Europe,” by Invest Macedonia, The Economist, 8 September 2007, inside back cover.

Doesn’t mean Kosovo still doesn’t have real tension, but consider this sort of ad:

Investment Incentives in the FEZs and Technology Parks --No corporate tax for 10 years, 10% thereafter --5% personal income tax for 5 years, 10% thereafter … --Benefit package for eligible investors will be approved within 10 business day …
Advantages For Investing Outside FEZs and Technology Parks
--Fast company registration--4 hours …
--Macroeconomic stability--average yearly inflation below 2% over the last 5 years
--Excellent infrastructure
--EU and NATO candidate country …

My favorite bit?

A map of region that shows 500km reach ring from Macedonia, then 1000km ring, then 1500km ring. Usually, that map gets displayed to show the reach of missiles. Here, it’s all about reach of market/infrastructure/transportation.

Of course, we never should have gone to the Balkans. These people are crazy, we were told. Their wars and hatreds are ancient and will never be quelled. The coming anarchy and so on.

So much for that … uh ... analysis.

Remember that when you get the next prediction of never-ending war.

From Publishers Weekly
Efforts to cleanse the world's air and water and to put a brake on calamitous climate change aren't exclusive to one political philosophy, Gingrich and Maple argue in this probusiness call for proenvironment action by politicians, corporations and individual Americans. Though the title echoes Gingrich's hard-right 1994 Contract with America, this more conciliatory contract reflects the former academic's penchant for bullet-point sloganeering, with its ten commitments call for politicians to abandon adversarial politics and for businessmen and conservationists to form compatible partnerships. The authors alternately brand their approach mainstream and entrepreneurial environmentalism—mainstream because it rejects alarmist projections based on what they perceive as activist science and hysterical journalism, and entrepreneurial because they reject the notion that free enterprise and a cleaner world are opposing forces. The authors' concern about the future of the Earth is certainly sincere, but their prescription for action breaks shallow ground. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"This serves as a useful reminder that the debate about environmental policy is far from over. Recommended for all libraries." -- Library Journal

"'Ten commitments' call for politicians to abandon adversarial politics and for businessmen and conservationists to form 'compatible partnerships.'" -- Publishers Weekly, September 17, 2007

Iranians Complaining About Economic Woes
By NASSER KARIMI – 4 hours ago

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Despite the government's insistence that U.S. and U.N. sanctions aren't causing any pain, some leading Iranians have begun to say publicly that the pressure does hurt. And on Tehran's streets, people are increasingly worried over the economic pinch.

The sanctions have heightened resentment of the United States among some in the public. But they are also fueling criticism among Iranian politicians that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is mismanaging the crisis with hard-line stances that worsen the standoff with the West.

Washington announced new sanctions Thursday, targeting Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, which the U.S. accuses of supporting terrorism by backing Shiite militants in Iraq. The sanctions ban U.S. dealings with the extensive network of businesses believed linked to the Guards — and put stepped-up pressure on international banks to cut any ties with those firms.

The sanctions come at a time when Iran's economy is struggling, with dramatic price rises this year. The cost of housing and basic foodstuffs like vegetables have doubled or even quadrupled. The government also has imposed unpopular fuel rationing in an attempt to reduce expensive subsidies for imported gasoline.

Word of the U.S. move angered people in Tehran.

"The sanctions will damage us, our children and our people and not the government. Prices of everything increased up to double after former sanctions by the U.N.," said Morteza Morovvati, a 45-year-old teacher. "Who in the world and the Iranian government is going to care about ordinary people?"

Hashem Nazari, a retired clerk for an electricity equipment company, said that even before the new U.S. sanctions on some Iranian banks, his son living in Germany could not send him money through the banks.

"For the past two months, he has sent me money through private money exchangers," Nazari said.

Still, much of the anger appeared focused at the West.

"This will be another step by (President) Bush toward igniting war in the region," Mansour Rasti, 28, a graduate student in political science, said of the new sanctions.

Marzieh Aghai, a 37-year-old government bureaucrat, said she would support her country no matter what. "They (the Americans) don't know the Guards. We are proud of them."

Ahmadinejad and his allies are likely counting on sanctions to rally Iranians against the United States.

"Hard-liners in Tehran were looking forward for the sanctions. It helps them hide their incompetence behind the embargo," said political commentator, Saeed Laylaz.

But the new sanctions could worsen Ahmadinejad's political woes. Many conservatives who once backed him have joined reformers in criticizing Ahmadinejad. They point to his failure to fulfill promises to repair the economy — despite increased oil revenues — and say his fiery rhetoric goads the West into punishing Iran.

Ahmadinejad's sudden replacement of Iran's top nuclear negotiator with a close loyalist over the weekend also angered many conservatives in parliament.

Worry over sanctions has been increasingly expressed by figures high up in Iran's clerical leadership. Earlier this month, Hasan Rowhani, who sits on two powerful cleric-run bodies, the Experts Assembly and the Expediency Council, said that "the economic impact is felt in the life of the people." He said Ahmadinejad has just been making more enemies for Iran.

On Sunday, Ahmadinejad's predecessor as president, Mohammad Khatami, a reformer who remains influential, complained that Ahmadinejad claims "problems have been resolved but we see that problems remain unresolved."

The Bush administration hopes its new sanctions will push companies around the world to cut their business ties with Iran. "It is increasingly likely that if you are doing business with Iran you are doing business with the IRGC," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said, referring to the Guards.

So far, the response of Ahmadinejad's government to sanctions, including past rounds by the United States and the U.N. Security Council, has been defiance.

Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called earlier U.N. sanctions, which similarly punish a list of Iranian companies believed linked to the nuclear program, "a pile of papers that have no value."

On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, called the new U.S. measures "worthless and ineffective" and said they were "doomed to fail as before."

But the sanctions could increase Iran's isolation from international financing.

Most notably, the new sanctions ban dealings with two major Iranian banks, Bank Melli and Bank Mellat, adding them to a list of already banned banks. That means the banks will have difficulty turning to European banks for dollars, said Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. Treasury Department terrorism expert now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Home | News| Army Modernization Scheme Struggling for Relevance

Army Modernization Scheme Struggling for Relevance
David Axe | Bio | 16 Oct 2007
World Politics Review Exclusive

WASHINGTON -- The Army's $200-billion Future Combat Systems -- the centerpiece of the service's "network-centric" modernization -- has been buffeted by cash shortages, insurmountable engineering obstacles and criticism that lighter, smarter, sensor-laden vehicles are not what the Army needs to fight tomorrow's wars.

The program aims to equip 15 of the Army's roughly 70 combat brigades with new robots and hybrid diesel-electric manned vehicles connected by a secure radio network and equipped with high-tech sensors.

After a difficult 2006 that saw four of FCS' robot designs axed due to budget constraints, this year the decade-old program achieved several milestones, wrapping the bulk of the basic research and development, and beginning the shift to production. Subcontractor BAE Systems has cut steel on the first Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), a tracked howitzer slated to replace the Army's 40-year-old M-109s. The two-man NLOS-C is the first of the planned eight manned ground vehicles, most weighing around 25 tons, that represent the most expensive facet of FCS. They might also prove to be the program's vulnerable flank.

Experience in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to have proved that heavier versions of old-fashioned, low-tech vehicles are the best defense against the roadside bombs that are now insurgents' weapon of choice. An August report from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Defense Information contended that there is "no evidence" that the FCS vehicles could survive in an Iraq-style environment.

Indeed, in late 2006, the Pentagon launched a crash program to mass-produce heavily armored diesel trucks based on 30-year-old African designs. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the $20-billion Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected truck program his "No. 1 priority," and accelerated the delivery of 15,000 of the vehicles to Iraq.

Despite this, the military has downplayed the importance of MRAP to its future plans. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Mike Brogan, the MRAP program manager, in August said that the 15-ton vehicles were "just trucks" -- and earlier this year there was speculation that the military might leave many MRAPs in Iraq when it eventually withdraws.

But industry insiders describe MRAPs as "counterinsurgency vehicles" that are only going to grow in importance as stability operations in failed states - à la Iraq, Afghanistan, Timor, Lebanon and throughout Africa -- become more common. "We're in a different age of warfare," says Craig Arndt of Ideal Innovations, a company that provides armor to MRAP manufacturer Ceradyne. "The military is going to have to re-examine its force structure and Future Combat Systems."

FCS program officials disagree. "If all we're doing is piling on armor, where does that stop?" asks Army Maj. Gen. Charles Cartwright, FCS chief. The military can't win the armor race against increasingly powerful bombs, Cartwright says, so it must find other ways to address threats.

That's not to say that the FCS office has completely resisted the current "up-armoring" trend. The systems' original vehicle designs from the 1990s weighed in at just 18 tons in order to fit into an Air Force C-130 transport aircraft. (They also sported electric "rail guns" and fully electric propulsion, but these proved technically unfeasible.)

After adding armor and reshaping the hulls for better blast deflection, most of the vehicles now top the scales at 24 tons or more -- too heavy for a C-130, but still light enough for the larger C-17 transport plane that can even haul the 65-ton M-1 Abrams tank. The resulting FCS vehicles are a compromise between the lightness and transportability originally envisioned and the current trend of heavier equipment such as MRAP.

Despite the extra armor, FCS fundamental design philosophy remains intact. The system's network of sensors is still its first line of defense, according to Army Brig. Gen. James Terry, the officer in charge of FCS tactics. "Fundamentally what you change is your ability to see first."

FCS control systems being demonstrated by Army engineers in Detroit (David Axe)

But it's unclear how superior sensors and information-sharing will help spot insurgents who blend in with the civilian population. For that reason, some observers have advocated abandoning the new manned vehicles and turning FCS into a "technology incubator" for systems that can be kluged onto the Army's existing, arguably more survivable, armored vehicle fleet. Indeed, the FCS program has already moved in that direction, "spinning out" a number of small robots, remote sensors and software-defined radios, some of which are already in use in Iraq.

At an Army trade convention in Washington in October, BAE Systems showed off a number of ways that FCS technologies might be used to revamp the current generation of Army vehicles. The company's "A4" version of the venerable, 30-ton M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle features most of the FCS electronics inside the battle-proven Bradley shell. BAE has also installed FCS gear in the Army's workhorse Humvee truck. MRAPs, too, are benefiting from FCS electronics. The heavy trucks might ultimately have many of the same radios and sensors slated for the FCS vehicles.

Some of FCS' benefits are more academic. Engineers at the Army's Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in suburban Detroit are developing the world's most rugged diesel-electric hybrid engines for installation in the FCS manned vehicles. But even if the vehicles were cancelled, the engine work could continue. The most important benefit of the engine development, according to researcher Gus Khalil, is the growing body of data related to hybrid engines' performance in different conditions -- data that no one else is even trying to gather, and that will ultimately benefit military and civilian vehicle designs all over the world.

David Axe is the military editor of Washington, D.C.-based Defense Technology International magazine and a frequent WPR contributor.

Top Image: The FCS Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (Army image)