Shuttle Inspection Reveals Crack In Insulation

Inspectors found a five inch long crack 1/8th of an inch deep i the insulation of the external fuel tank on the shuttle Discovery. Launch plans may be scrubbed.

The crack was spotted during an overnight inspection. NASA had scrubbed launch plans Saturday and Sunday because of poor weather and had removed fuel from the tank.

The inspectors found the crack, which was an eighth of an inch deep, in the foam on a bracket near the top of the external fuel tank.

"We don't know if it's a problem or not," NASA spokesman George Diller said Monday.

Officials were meeting to determine whether it could be fixed for a Tuesday liftoff.

If NASA decides to go ahead with the launch Tuesday, it would be the first manned launch by the United States on the nation's birthday, and only the second liftoff of a space shuttle since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Concerns about cracks in the fuel tank's foam insulation have dogged the program since Columbia exploded over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003. A chunk of flyaway foam had damaged Columbia's wing during liftoff, allowing superheated gas to penetrate the shuttle when it re-entered the atmosphere.

The non-CFC foam really started the problems with this.

Real Conspiracy Versus Phony Ones

CNN is carrying an AP story that shows the difference between real indications of a conspiracy versus allegations made up out of the whole cloth. According to an Iraqi spokesman, Abu Musab al Zarqawi had the phone numbers of some senior Iraqi officials stored on his cell phone.

Waiel Abdul-Latif, a member of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party, said Monday that authorities found the numbers after al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. air strike on June 7.

Abdul-Latif did not give names of the officials. But he said they included ministry employees and members of parliament.

That would indicate some suspicious activity and should be investigated. Then we come to two separate conspiracy theories:

Meanwhile, al-Zarqawi's wife told an Italian newspaper that al Qaeda leaders sold him out to the United States in exchange for a promise to let up in the search for Osama bin Laden.

The woman, identified by La Repubblica as al-Zarqawi's first wife, said al Qaeda's top leadership reached a deal with U.S. intelligence because al Zarqawi had become too powerful.

….

Al-Zarqawi's brother demanded that his body be transferred to Jordan, and accused the United States of lying.

"Bush took his body to the United States," al-Khalayleh told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home in the Jordanian city of Zarqa.

These are a couple of really whacked out theories.

Canada To Upgrade Military

As he promised during the election campaign, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set forth plans to upgrade Canada's military. Reversing years of Liberal neglect, the expenditures will give Canada back some ability to transport troops.

The spending plan, detailed in a series of four announcements this week, sets aside money for new helicopters, planes, vehicles and ships that will give the armed forces a level of independence not seen in years after budget cuts in the 1990's halted replacements and upgrades for much of the military's transportation equipment. Most soldiers today are using equipment that should have been replaced a decade ago, some military analysts said.

In recent years, the Canadian military has often been forced to rely on foreign and commercial equipment to transport its troops to global conflicts and emergencies. Critics often point to the December 2004 tsunami that struck Southeast Asia, when it took 12 days for the Canadian disaster relief team to secure transportation to the region. "With a strategic airlift capacity of our own, we will no longer have to borrow from our allies or contract commercial aircraft, two options that come with strings attached," Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor told reporters on Thursday.

The new equipment includes 2,300 trucks, 16 medium-lift helicopters, 17 planes to transport troops and 4 equipment cargo planes that are set to begin arriving in the next two years. Three new joint support ships will be ready beginning in 2012. The four equipment cargo planes will be able to transport troops and heavy equipment anywhere in the world, something Canada's military has not been capable of in recent years, Mr. O'Connor said.

I think this is a positive development for Canada. I was quite saddened by their inability to get relief teams into the areas hit by the tsunami. It showed just how far a once-strong ally had let it's military deteriorate.

Mexican Election News

Well, both candidates have declared themselves the winner. This is going to be messy.

Election officials said the race was too close to declare a winner and a recount was needed, but that didn't stop combative left-winger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and ruling party conservative Felipe Calderon from insisting they had won.

Rival celebrations erupted just a few miles apart in the early hours of Monday morning, including thousands of people in Mexico City's vast central square.

It could be days before a final vote count is in, and some feared Mexico could be lurching toward a nightmare scenario of political deadlock, street protests and volatility in financial markets.

Unrest would also worry the United States, which relies on Mexican help in securing its borders and tackling immigration and violent drug smuggling gangs.

Lopez Obrador supporters, remembering a 1988 presidential election widely believed to have been stolen from another left-wing candidate, claimed foul play.

"They are up to their tricks because everyone knows Andres Manuel won," said Gabriela Ramirez, a Mexico City student.

Critics of Lopez Obrador, a feisty and austere figure who pledged to put Mexico's poor first if elected, said the close race played into his hands and that he was looking for an excuse to mobilize supporters and cause trouble.

"Now if he loses, he can say the rich guys stole it from us. It could lead to chaos," real estate agent Victor Perera said at an upscale Mexico City neighborhood restaurant.

NARROW LEAD

Incomplete results from Sunday showed Calderon with a narrow lead. With about 86.8 percent of votes counted, the Harvard-educated politician had 36.90 percent support and Lopez Obrador trailed on 35.66 percent.

But the leftist, who won support for introducing welfare benefits to old people and single parents when he was Mexico City's mayor, earlier showed no signs of quitting.

"Smile. We've already won … They have to respect our triumph," the former Indian rights activist told cheering supporters.

Critics compare him to Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez and say he would lead Mexico into a growing camp of anti-U.S. leaders in Latin America.

Lopez Obrador counters he has no intention of fighting with business leaders or Washington. He says his infrastructure projects and government bureaucracy spending cuts would help the economy and so reduce the flow of poor Mexicans crossing the U.S. border illegally for work.

We are really going to need stepped up border security if things unravel down there.

UPDATE: More from the Washington Post including the duel of the victory announcements.

Distancing?

Here's n unusual editorial from the managing editor of Time magazine, Richard Stengel. In discussing the New York Times decision to publish details of the Swift money tracking program, Stengel does not give a knee-jerk blanket approval for what the Times did. There are the now familiar invocations of the Pentagon Papers and the really tired issue of Watergate, but Stengel does not hand the blank check to the NYT.

There's not an editor in America who didn't wonder what he or she would have done in the case of the National Security Agency spying story and the recent Treasury revelations. It's impossible to say unless you had all the information before you and could hear the case the government made against publishing. But I believe the moral calculus of whether or not to publish is a basic one: Does the potential harm to public security outweigh the likely benefit to the public interest? If it does, hold fire. Attempting to answer that question isn't easy, but that's our responsibility not only as journalists but also as citizens.

This sometimes bitter crossfire between the government and the press is not a bad thing. In fact, such a rough-and-tumble debate is at the heart of American democracy, a 218-year-old seesaw over competing values that will and should continue for as long as we are a nation.

 ….

But I would urge you to listen closely to that debate. The government's assertion that it must be unhindered in protecting our security can camouflage the desire to increase Executive power, while the press's cry of the public's right to know can mask a quest for competitive advantage or a hidden animus. Neither the need to protect our security nor the public's right to know is a blank check. So listen carefully because, after all, you are the judge. It is the people themselves who are the makers of their own government. "The best test of truth," as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously wrote, "is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market."

One wonders how long it will be before the media senses that the New York Times is in serious trouble and begins to pile on them. It already appears that some in the media are actively distancing themselves.

A Talk With An Iraqi General

TF Boggs, a sergeant serving his second tour in Iraq, has an posted the first of two parts of an interview he had recently with the Iraqi brigadier general commanding in the town of Qayyarah. It is a fascinating picture you will never see in the mainstream press. Qayyarah is about as safe, from all indications, as any town in the US.

How long have you been in the military?

General Ali: I first went to the army in 1976, I became a staff brigade general in 1997. In 2001 I left the army because there were many problems between my tribe and Saddam’s regime. He fired many of the officers and put some of them in jail. I am one of the officers who was put in jail for ten months and afterwards I was put out of the army. When the coalition forces came to Iraq in 2003 I worked with the 101st (Airborne American army unit) in Qayyarah (*the town I am in now and where he lives) as an advisor. In 2004 the terrorists destroyed all of the Iraqi police stations and in that time the terrorists controlled all of this area. They controlled Mosul, south Mosul, and 40 km from where we are now. In that time no one came to help. All of the people and soldiers were scared and went home. I came to help and the Americans invited me to come command this battalion. The name of this battalion was the 102nd ING before they changed the name to the 1st battalion 3 brigade Iraqi army. At that time I only had eight soldiers with my battalion. They could not go out in their uniforms because they were scared of the terrorists. If they went out on a mission with the coalition they wore facemasks because if the terrorists saw them they would kill them. First time I started training my soldiers I made 1000 soldiers in my unit. After one month I went out on a mission with them and captured all of the terrorists leaders.

At this point I asked kind of jokingly, kind of seriously “Really, on the first time out?” He replied in all seriousness:

Yes the first time.

Sergeant Boggs would like to spread the word about this interview so that as many people as possible can read it. Please do take the time to read this first installment and help spread the word as well.

UPDATE: Others: The Real Ugly American, Dr. Sanity,

Hamas Sets Deadline For Kidnapped Soldier

The Palestinian terrorist brain trust is busily setting itself up to be eliminated. Now they have set a deadline.

The three Palestinian terrorist groups that captured IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit gave Israel until 6 a.m. Tuesday to start releasing Palestinian prisoners or "pay the full future consequences."

The statement, which was faxed to news agencies on Monday, did not expressly say what those consequences would be.

"We give the Zionist enemy until 6:00 tomorrow morning, Tuesday, July 4," the fax said. "If the enemy does not respond to our humanitarian demands mentioned in previous leaflets on the conditions for dealing with the issue of the missing solder…we will consider the current file of the solider to be closed … and then the enemy must bear all the consequences of the future results."

"The enemy proves time after time that it is trapped by personal considerations and by military illusions tainted by Palestinian blood, and fails to take into account all the human factors - even their own soldiers'," the message continued. "The enemy has not learned lessons from its missing soldiers, and continues to pursue every sliver of information, while having lost dozens of opportunities in the past."

The fax was posted on the official Hamas military wing Web site, and featured the same letterhead and font as three earlier statements the factions released.

Meanwhile, Captain Ed cites another report stating that the Hamas leadership has promised to attack schools and hospitals in Israel. Yeah, an open declaration of intent to commit war crimes under the Geneva Conventions is always a good strategy that is sure to help your cause.