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Fighter Jets for the Home
The fighter plane models that Guillermo Rojas Bazan builds are good; perhaps too good. "I am very impressed with the models in the photographs you sent," a collector wrote. "I only hope the photographs are of your models and not the real thing."
The problem with photographs of Rojas Bazan's models is that, unless there is something in the picture to indicate scale, you can't tell that the models are models. Blame it on Rojas Bazan's painstaking attention to detail. If it was on the original, it is on the model. And that includes grease and exhaust stains, faded markings, worn upholstery and other signs of wear and tear that are found on the original.
These models are fine art, requiring the same level of skill necessary to create a museum-quality painting or sculpture. Some might scoff that they're "just model airplanes," but that's like saying Mozart's string quartets are "nice tunes." We're talking the Mozart of modeling here. And, when Rojas Bazan can find the time, he creates his masterpieces for private collectors.
Rojas Bazan lives with his wife, Clarisa, and their 10-year-old son, in a working-class apartment complex in Royal Oak, Michigan--thousands of miles and a world away from their native Argentina. They have come to this Detroit suburb by a circuitous route and due to complicated circumstances. Although the ending hasn't been written, this is a story Hollywood would love.
Rojas Bazan was born in Buenos Aires in 1949. His father was a skilled modeler who made models for his son and the neighborhood kids, and Guillermo quickly took up the hobby. As he grew, he explored various mediums for the airplanes he built, finally settling on aluminum, which, he explains today, is easy to work with and gives his models a realistic finish. "Not like shiny toys," he says in his heavily accented English.
Originally employed in banking, Rojas Bazan left the field in 1980, when the quality of his models led to a job with the Army Air Force Museum of Argentina as an aircraft illustrator, draftsman and exhibit designer. Museum officials asked him to make aluminum models of virtually every airplane in the Air Force's history, and to design the display for them. Interbranch competition being what it is, the Argentine Navy had him do the same for its ships.
One of Rojas Bazan's favorite stories from his museum days involves two generals and a jet. The general in charge of the museum told Rojas Bazan to make a model of the British Harrier jumpjet that had flown against the Argentines in the Falkland islands war, because it was a part of the Air Force's history. Rojas Bazan made a typically beautiful and detailed model. One day, a new commanding general came through the museum and spotted the Harrier. Saying, "That's an enemy plane," he took it out of the display case and stomped on it. "Such a small mind," Rojas Bazan says.
In 1988, Rojas Bazan moved to Spain to be closer to the European demand for large-scale, collector-quality models. Advertisements in European aviation magazines quickly brought in customers with commissions. It was through an advertisement in Fly Past magazine that Chuck Austin, an American involved in aviation art, discovered Rojas Bazan's work. But before that relationship could develop, another did. Rojas Bazan met and married Argentine-born Clarisa and moved with her to Israel, where she was a social worker. Officials at the Israeli Air Force museum hired him to do for their museum what he had done for its Argentine counterpart. The Rojas Bazans were living happily in Israel, but, except for the museum commission, Guillermo's career was stalled. He needed to do something to kick start it.
At that time, Austin began corresponding with Rojas Bazan, and over the next few months, Austin convinced the couple that moving to the United States was an important career move. The reasoning was that it was the best place to find people able to afford the $10,000 and up that his models cost.
The Rojas Bazans sold everything they owned and moved to New Jersey to be near their new mentor. Unfortunately, the relationship with Austin didn't work out, and the couple, with little command of English, were on their own. Worse, Rojas Bazan didn't have the immigration green card he needed to remain in the United States beyond the length of a tourist visa.
Although Rojas Bazan was not widely known, he had a small following of collectors in this country, and was known to people in the esoteric world of expensive, one-off models. One who knew of Rojas Bazan's work is Gary Kohs, who owns Fine Art Models in Birmingham, Michigan. He tracked Rojas Bazan down, learned of the couple's plight and made them an offer they couldn't refuse: Rojas Bazan would make the most detailed 1/15-scale airplanes ever executed, and Kohs would have them replicated by craftsmen in the Ukraine to be sold in limited quantities. The plan had precedent: Kohs had previously hired others to create model ships that were reproduced by craftsmen in Latvia and other parts of Eastern Europe.
This arrangement wasn't what Rojas Bazan envisioned when he made the decision to come to the States, but he was in no position to promote himself, so the family moved to Michigan.
Clarisa meets me at the door of their apartment building in Royal Oak. I follow her upstairs and am introduced to Rojas Bazan. He is a big man with longish hair and a thick mustache. His eyes are a deep brown, his grin wide and his handshake firm. I think I was expecting a small man with delicate fingers capable of the incredible detail work I had seen in photos. Rojas Bazan seems more suited to working with machinery than with modeler's tools.
We chat for a time, Clarisa filling in when her husband's newly learned English lets him down, and then I ask where his studio is. He smiles, and asks me to follow him.
"In here," he says. "Here" is their bedroom, where a large drafting table is jammed against the wall. There is just enough room to walk between the table and the bed. Resting on the table is a partially completed model of a Navy F-4U1D Corsair. Rojas Bazan says it is the most complicated and most detailed model he has ever attempted. He has been working on it for seven months and figures he has perhaps four more to go. Working, Clarisa adds, means eight to 10 hours a day, often more. The Corsair will be the first model offered in the limited-production deal with Kohs.
The drafting table is virtually empty. The Corsair sits on a stand; there are some pencils, a pair of scissors and a plastic turntable filled with paints, markers and brushes. But where are the tools?
"This is my most important tool," he says, picking up the scissors. "But I also use these," he adds, laying an Exacto knife, a carpenter's awl, a piece of sandpaper, a pair of tweezers, a kitchen ladle and a melon baller on the table. The ladle and melon baller are used for shaping aluminum. It takes a while to sink in--the man who is perhaps the greatest airplane modeler in history creates his artworks with the aid of a melon baller. He almost apologetically admits to one electric device, an air brush on the floor beside the table.
He hands me a small flashlight and asks me to look inside the cockpit. The instrument panel is filled with gauges, each with needles and pointers and each with a glass face. The joystick controller is there. So are the levers, knobs, throttle and pedals. Studying a Rojas Bazan model is the visual equivalent of peeling an onion. There is layer after layer after layer of things to discover. The flashlight reveals intricate detailing under the instrument panel. There are pressurized bottles of whatever they pressurized in a Corsair in snap-fit brackets, each with a label, a screw valve and a tube running somewhere. The wheels for trim control are there, the black paint worn off by the pilot's gloved hand. The stick actually operates the rudder and horizontal stabilizers and, when the wings are added, the ailerons.
Rojas Bazan turns the model over to point out the wiring and plumbing on the underside of the cockpit. Like the cockpit, every feature of the original (he claims, and who is to doubt?) is there. The truly remarkable thing about this particular area of intense detail is not what is there, but that it will all be covered by the plane's skin when the model is finished. The skin, by the way, gets the same detailing as the interior, down to the neatly spaced rows of rivets that Rojas Bazan simulates by tiny indentations, presumably with a carpenter's awl. Epoxy holds it all together.
Rojas Bazan doesn't simply study a picture of a plane, then sit down and make a 1/15th-scale model of it. In weeks of premodeling preparation, he studies all the material on the subject that he can find. In many cases that can include, as it did with the Corsair, the original engineering drawings. The drawings, penned in 1942, were stamped "Secret," lest they fall into the hands of the enemy.
He converted the scale used in the drawings to 1/15th to get the exact dimensions for the model, which the Ukrainian craftsmen then build in sections and in the same sequence as the original. What worked on the factory floor works in Rojas Bazan's bedroom. One-fifteenth scale was chosen, he explains, because at that scale, airplanes of different sizes look proportionally correct when viewed together. Plans call for the creation of a series of limited-production models, and, logically, collectors would buy more than one model and would display them together.
Since the Corsair will be copied for limited production, Rojas Bazan makes two of everything. The duplicates are sent to the Ukraine where they will be copied for the production run. The tail section has already been sent, with the cockpit and the fixed sections of the folding wings to follow shortly. It may take two and a half to three years to complete the production run of 139 copies. (Why 139? That was the number on the first train model Kohs' firm did.) According to Kohs, the limited-production models will cost around $6,500 each. That's more than $900,000 worth of model airplanes. Rojas Bazan says the original should sell for $50,000 to $75,000.
The Corsair is taking as long as it is because of the detail. Rojas Bazan would typically spend about two months on a model of lesser detail, which would sell for $10,000 to $15,000. Over the years, private commissions have come from ex-pilots, owners of restored war birds, war buffs and collectors.
Kohs arrives, and I ask him if it will be possible for his workers in the Ukraine to duplicate the level of detail--and quality--that Rojas Bazan is building into the Corsair. Kohs says yes; Rojas Bazan looks unconvinced. Later, at Kohs' office, I see some of the battleships the Latvian operation has turned out, and they look very good to my untrained eye. But they contain nowhere near the detail of the Corsair. Kohs expects the first dozen limited-production models to be here by Christmas. Then we'll know.
By that time, Rojas Bazan will complete the Corsair and then start on the second model in the series, a Ford Tri-Motor, which will be as intricate and time-consuming as the Corsair. If Kohs' plan works, which is to say, there are customers for the limited-production models, Rojas Bazan will turn out roughly a model a year for 10 years to complete the series. He and Clarisa are assured of a steady and comfortable income without relying on the vagaries of working for individual customers. After the upheaval of leaving Israel and the financial uncertainties of the past few months, there is a certain appeal to Kohs' plan. And then?
"You can't do this work all your life," Rojas Bazan says. "The eyes. In 10 years I want to write books on how to do this, and to teach it." While we are talking, Rojas Bazan has been absentmindedly playing with a small piece of aluminum sheet. As I get up to go, he places it on the coffee table. It has taken on a delicate curve.
There is magic in those big hands.
Mike Knepper is a writer who lives in Connecticut.


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Morenci rapper HiZe (Cody Long) is heading to New York City in April for the BET Blaze the Stage competition. First, he's looking for a little help from his friends.
A benefit performance is scheduled March 17 at Milestones in Morenci to help with travel expenses.
The Blaze the Stage contest pits performers in a competition to appear on BET's 106 & Park Wild Out Wednesday. Winners also perform on various Blaze the Stage shows scheduled throughout the nation.
"I need my city behind me," HiZe said, hoping to get financial support for the trip.
He's also looking for sponsorship to help at the benefit.
The doors will open at 5 p.m. March 17 at Milestones and will feature various performers presenting live music until 10 p.m. That will still leave plenty of time to celebrate St. Patty's Day, HiZe said.
The evening is described as an all-ages event.
Tickets cost $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Tickets are available by calling HiZe at 458-1108 or on-line at www.gethize.ticketleap.com/BET.

subset: commoncrawl


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I write today of two strong women. One recently deceased, one very much alive. On the surface, they've got nothing whatsoever in common — I'm sure they've never been mentioned in the same article, much less the same sentence — except for the lesson they have to teach us.
It has to do with being real. Despite being judged.
I once met the late Elizabeth Edwards at a fundraiser for George Mark House, a children's hospice founded by a good friend. Edwards, the keynote speaker, had left the stage and was heading off to her next engagement, when I jumped up to shake her hand. Her husband had just begun his campaign for president, she had just announced that her breast cancer had returned, and I babbled on about how I hoped to see her in the White House. (At that point, the primary campaign was pretty much a dead heat, with John Edwards espousing the most progressive positions. Funny, that.) Anyhow, we chatted for more time than I thought we would and here's what happened: I reached out for a handshake, she instead gave me a huge hug. A real one. Unrehearsed and warm.
And so, like many of us, I was shocked and disappointed when her husband crashed and burned and, at least at first, she supported him. Huh? Like Hillary, we castigated her for living in denial, for standing by her philandering man. As if, when a powerful man has a fling with a silly woman half his age, it is the wife who looks like a fool. She ultimately left him — but not after getting raked over the coals despite the fact that it was her husband's mistakes she was just trying to deal with. And yet. Most of us turned away.
I'll get to Cher in a minute, here, but first: One who didn't turn away from Elizabeth Edwards was Salon's Joan Walsh, a huge admirer of Edwards' ever since she conducted a long interview with her back in 2007. This week, Walsh wrote an elegant obituary, which she ended thus:
At the end of our 2007 interview, I asked [Edwards] whether she was bothered by critics who said she shouldn't have continued to campaign after her cancer recurred; she should have stayed home with her young children. Her answer can stand as her last word, again:
"After all I've been through, I realize: You don't know exactly what life lessons you taught your kids until much later. You don't. And maybe the most important life lesson for them is for me to say, When bad things happen, you don't let them take you down. If I hadn't continued to campaign, I'd be sending the opposite message: When bad things happen, go hide. Do I know with absolute certainty we're doing the right thing? I don't. Having been through what I've been through, I hope people trust I wouldn't risk my relationship with my children. I think this is the right choice."
And this is what brings me to Cher, the cover girl for this month's Vanity Fair. Like Edwards, she's been judged — for everything from her big hair to her tiny outfits, to her plastic surgeries and tabloid relationships to whether or not she's been properly supportive of her daughter's sex change. And like Edwards, she willingly admits that life is complicated and that she sometimes gets it wrong. That she has gotten it wrong. From VF writer Krista Smith:
At 64, she has been up and down too many times to count. "I feel like a bumper car. If I hit a wall, I'm backing up and going in another direction," [Cher] says, adding, "And I've hit plenty of fucking walls in my career. But I'm not stopping. I think maybe that's my best quality: I just don't stop."
Now do you see it? What the political wife and the Vegas diva have in common? What they can teach us, and why, deep down, we love them both? Let's check how salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams calls it:
Underneath all the many layers of wigs and sparkles, what makes Cher so enduringly special is her realness, her willingness to say to the world that she gets confused and she gets it wrong sometimes, but she keeps trying anyway, because that's the right thing to do. And that's what makes the spangly, big-haired queen of Vegas a role model for us all.
And this is what we learn, from both Elizabeth Edwards and Cher: Life is messy. Whether or not we actually clean it up doesn't much matter. What makes us real is that we're willing to try.


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PELLA, IA. — Occupy Wall Street activists have misguided aims, but they are tapping into Americans' accurate perception that many people are being denied a fair shot at a good life, Rick Santorum said Tuesday.
"The reason you see some sympathy among the American public for them is the grave concern — and it's a legitimate one — that blue-collar workers, lower-income workers, are having a harder and harder time rising," the former Pennsylvania senator said at a presidential campaign stop. "They talk about income inequality. I'm for income inequality. I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.
"President Obama is for income equality. That's socialism. It's worse yet, it's Marxism," Santorum said. "I'm not for income equality. I'm not for equality of result — I'm for equality of opportunity."
"The key in America is that people can rise, that there are opportunities to move up. In that area, America is falling short now. We are not as income-mobile as even some western European countries, according to a lot of the data. So that is something that as Republicans we should be talking about and be concerned about."
To increase opportunities, Santorum touted his idea to remove corporate taxes from manufacturing companies. He said that would encourage more of them to bring solid jobs back from overseas, where many companies have moved because of lower taxes and fewer regulations. He said many low-skilled manufacturing jobs would remain in poor countries, but higher-skilled jobs could be returned here if the government would ease up on employers.
Santorum noted that the Wall Street Journal has criticized his idea for favoring one sector of the economy over others. He defended the plan, saying manufacturing jobs are the easiest to move overseas. "Vermeer can move to China," he said, referring to a leading Pella machinery manufacturer. "This hotel can't. And therefore, we need to make sure we compete so Vermeer doesn't move to China."
OTHER THEMES: Santorum, who has campaigned relentlessly in Iowa for months, urged Iowans to reward candidates who take the time to talk to them and respond to their concerns. He said his campaign stops last an hour or two, and include long question-and-answer sessions. "They're not just drive-bys," he said. Later, asked if he was referring to last-minute, marathon tours by some of his Republican rivals, he smiled and said he would let his statement stand for itself.
CROWD: About 50 people gathered at a downtown hotel restaurant. Barbara Bellinger, 63, of Leighton has considered several other candidates. The retired school librarian left the meeting determined to caucus for Santorum. "He's unwavering. He has the same values I do," she said. "He's not going to waffle. When he says things, he means them."
PLACE IN THE RACE: Santorum has consistently trailed in the polls, despite running the kind of retail campaign that is supposed to be the trademark of the Iowa caucuses. He urged voters to ignore the media's predictions that other candidates are likely to win. "The man, the media, decides who you listen to, who you focus on. You have an opportunity to say, 'No, we'll tell you … who we believe is the best person."
CANDIDATE'S DAY: Santorum also scheduled stops Tuesday in Mount Pleasant, Davenport and Bettendorf.
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Find a grasscloth with some spunk in Sass-A-Grass. Pops of color weave through neutral grounds creating a mid-scale grid overlay. This twist on a classic pattern showcases 25 unexpected color such as Foxtrot, Wild Lavender and Poppy Field.MDC has distribution rights of this product in select states as detailed below. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.


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Compared to the ASUS P6X58D Premium that we reviewed before, the ASUS P6X58D-E is almost identical. The board layout for one is exactly the same, with the slightly 'inferior' P6X58D-E lacking some of the features that's on the Premium version. If one were to superimpose the Premium over this board, there are three major differences that's obvious to the naked eye.
However, before we get to the differences, let's recap what you'll find on this and the Premium version, at a glance. Both are using the Intel X58 chipset with ICH10R Southbridge. The newer USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps features are courtesy of third-party controllers from NEC and Marvell respectively. Given its enthusiast leanings, both boards have three PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, supporting up to 3-way SLI. Legacy interfaces are mostly removed while there's also no eSATA support. Besides the SATA 6Gbps ports from the Marvell controller, ASUS has not implemented any additional SATA 3Gbps connectors to supplement the standard six from the ICH10R Southbridge.
Moving on to the differences, the Premium comes with two Gigabit Ethernet controllers, while this board only has one. The difference can be seen in the empty PCB space just to the left of the first PCIe 2.0 x16 slot. Then, you will notice that the P6X58D-E has no Reset button, just a single Power button. Apparently, having an onboard Reset button is a 'premium' feature. Finally, we also noticed that the passive heatsinks on the Premium are connected by a heatpipe throughout; for the P6X58D-E, the heatpipe present only links between two heatsinks, not four like on the Premium. One will likely notice slightly higher temperatures on this board as a result.
But that's about all the differences that we spotted. Like the Premium, the ASUS P6X58D-E comes with the full complement of the manufacturer's proprietary technologies. Hence, features like MemOK!, Express Gate and TurboV (real-time Windows OC tool) are all present. Since these are pretty well-known by now, we'll not be going into what each feature does.
Just like the Premium, we are more than pleased with the layout. There was really nothing to criticize here and the slightly fewer features only meant more PCB real estate.
There is so much more to the vivo V19 than just beauty and brawn
Can Huawei P40 Pro+ meet a pro photographer's challenge? Watch now!
Finally, the new standard for the serious creator.
The ROG Zephyrus G14 floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
This ASUS ZenBook 14 is an ultraportable that punches above its weight


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If I was ever asked to give a success tip, I would definitely say 'Make a list!'. Everything I have going for me in the present, was a line item on a list I made sometime in the past. Of course some lucky things also followed of their own accord. But making a list and obsessively following it, is a way to ensure that your goals remain on your mind and within sight. At all times. Trust me, it works.
Dec 24, 2012
Ending the year with a list!
Posted by IceMaiden at 1:36 PM 8 comments
Dec 10, 2012
Turning 25
Best. Birthday. Ever. That is the only way to describe 5th December 2012.
Having suffered through a panic attack about one week before my birthday this year (panic about turning 25, and crossing over to the 'adult' list from the 'young adult' one), my birthday was by far the most awesome, wonderful birthday I have ever had. The strange part being I celebrated it with only 3 people (Nutties and two school-time best friends), zero internet connectivity, no phone in my hand, total disconnect from the world!
Posted by IceMaiden at 1:16 PM 10 comments
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Teams like Philly and Boston will run them over... I'm not sure there is one player out there that makes them significantly better, or better to the point they are in the upper echelon of the league.
I think though, your proposed deals make some sense. Neil would definitely help. I think you might be a little light on what it will take to get Penner, but you're on the right track.
This is going to sound stupid, but I think this team has to be completely re-shaped. Move out whatever vetran contracts you can,( Gomez is IMO almost unmoveable, with his contract, I like Cammi & Gionta) They have drafted terrible over the past 25 years, and haven't really had a marquee guy since back in the early 90's.(Roy)
A guy like Rick Nash comes to mind. A big guy who can score, and is still young is what this team needs. It would take alot to aquire him, and he is the type who needs a supporting cast, but he would be a guy I would be targeting if I were the Habs..................


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YOU ARE HERE: Home » Topics » The Parsha Discussion » The Parsha Discussion: Shemini — Death in the Sanctuary
Posted by Alex Israel on April 20, 2017
Topics: The Parsha Discussion, Shemini
The Pardes Parsha Discussion is a new weekly series by faculty member Rabbi Alex Israel, designed to stimulate discussion around the Shabbat table, especially with teenagers.
Click here to download and print this week's Parsha Discussion on Tzav: Fire of Renewal.
Alex teaches Bible at Pardes and is the Director of the Community Education Program and the Summer Program. Alex was born and raised in London. He holds degrees from London School of Economics, the Institute of Education London and Bar-Ilan University. Alex studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion under Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rav Yehudah Amital, and gained Rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Rabbinate. Click here to read more.


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text: Are you reading this because you wish to learn more about Uzès? Or have you stumbled upon us following a search on "Provence" "South of France" or "Pont du Gard"? Either way, this site (and Facebook page) [launched in March 2010] is meant to help you find out more about our preserved part of the South of France, the thinking man's Provence (find us on the map): discover the local villages, view videos, find B&Bs, learn about real estate - and more. If you have a question, don't hesitate to contact us or call Pierre on +33 (0)6 8434 8992.


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Bruins national anthem: Video from TD Garden
Rene Rancourt had some help on Wednesday night.
The Boston Bruins' longtime national anthem singer turned duties over to the fans at TD Garden, and they put a fitting exclamation point on a pregame ceremony honoring the victims of Monday's Boston Marathon bombings.
Sporting News' Jesse Spector recorded from the press box:
MORE FROM THE GARDEN: An amazing night
VIDEO: Yankees fans sing "Sweet Caroline" for Sox
PHOTOS: Images from the memorials and Marathon
VIDEO: Bruins fans use Orr statue to pay tribute to 8-year-old
Before the anthem, a montage set to "Home" by Phillip Phillips aired on the video screens. It was perfect: "The trouble it might drag you down/If you get lost, you can always be found/Just know you're not alone/Cause I'm going to make this place your home."
Three people were killed and about 150 injured by the explosions, which were caused by IEDs fashioned out of pressure cookers. No arrests have been made.
In the last 48 hours, Americans (and Canadians) have rallied around the city, and sports has played a major role. Wednesday's game was the first major event in the city since the tragedy.
The Bruins were able to clinch a playoff spot, but only came away with one point, in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres. Following the game both teams saluted the crowd before heading back to their locker rooms.


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Tagged: Dirk Nowitzki
The Filibuster
If you had to choose between watching the Heat and the Mavericks in the NBA Finals or the Cubs and the Pirates playing a mid-week series, what would you choose?
Mechanicsburg, PA
Hold on a second here, Henry. I know where you're going with this and believe me, the old me would high-five you, pat you on the back for representin' the greatest game on earth and laugh in the face of all those suckas entranced by David Stern's tamed down version of the WWE. The problem is, a funny thing happened to me during the baseball offseason, and now I too can be considered a cog in the NBA machine.
This is not a bad thing!
To me, baseball still sits atop the professional sports world. It simply can't be beat. If you are looking for an exact explanation as to why I feel this way, just check the over 1100+ posts in our RSBS back catalogue, consider my socially-backwards tendencies of staying home on Friday and Saturday nights so I can watch five straight hours of baseball undisturbed and you should be drunk with the RSBS brand of baseball championing.
But there's something subtly intoxicating about the NBA this year too, from the LeBron disaster to the fall of the Lakers to the bright futures of Westbrook, Rose and Durant… I mean, watching those guys drive to the hoop over 7 foot monsters is pretty close to watching a suicide squeeze late in a tight ballgame. And I can appreciate this electrifying comparison — finally, after a self-imposed decade long hiatus from basketball fandom — because this year I had my very own private NBA tutor walk me through what I have missed (the storylines, the heroics, the defeats — it's all very soap opera-ish), to explain what "pick and pop" means, to show me the entire floor for a full understanding of the sport.
So to answer your question, Henry… I will be watching Heat/Magic on Tuesday. You bet. I wouldn't miss Dirklicious schoolin' the most hated man in all of sports. Of course, I'll be watching it! But, like all the other games before it, I will be watching with one caveat: that my laptop is running four live baseball games and my finger is set to scroll my MLB Extra Innings package during all commercial breaks.
Who said a man can't have his cake and eat it too?
Don't hate me 'cuz I'm right.


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|Date Added: August 9, 2009
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Description: All celtic designs are known for two things: they run on infinitely using a single line and they are intricate. Most celtic designs look dreadfully intimidating to make. But, when you take it easily step-by-step, it really isn't all that hard to draw. This heart knot that I will be teaching you how to draw is fairly simple. Beginners will definitely be able to do it but, as for any artist, experienced or not, it will take a bit of determination and time. But nonetheless, this is a beautiful piece of celtic art for all to experience. Enjoy!


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Brief history
The current CMI critical illness investigation started in 1999 with the first data collected in 2000. The first data collected pertained to claims settled during 1998 and 1999. The investigation has continued to collect data since. The 1998 data was significantly lower in volume than subsequent years, so has not been analysed further.
In November 2013, the CMI changed the structure of the life office mortality and critical illness investigations into annuitant mortality and assurances investigations: the latter focuses on both mortality and critical illness.
For information on the CMI's more recent work on critical illness, please see the assurances investigation page.
Data are collected for both 'stand alone' and 'full accelerated' (where the cover includes death as well as critical illness) business
In the early years of the investigation, critical illness data was collected annually from insurance companies (also termed contributing offices) on both policies in force and claims settled during an investigation year. The original analysis methodology is described in detail in CMI Working Paper 14. The results compared actual settled claims against expected diagnosed claims, calculated using CIBT93 (a population-based table which was originally contained in A Critical Review, presented to SIAS in 2000). These results have subsequently been referred to as 'unadjusted results'.
In July 2008, a new methodology for analysing critical illness experience was presented in CMI Working Paper 33. This produces results that compare actual settled claims with expected settled claims, referred to as 'adjusted results'. These results properly match claims to exposure, but are difficult to interpret particularly in terms of duration.
A special initiative to capture 2007-2011 data was launched in 2012, allowing offices to submit data in a flexible format. The data, methodology and results are all described in CMI Working Paper 75.
Critical illness diagnosis rate tables
The first set of insured lives accelerated critical illness diagnosis rates, based on 1999-2004 data, were presented in CMI Working Paper 43.
CMI Working Paper 50 updated these to 2003-2006 experience and formally presented tables of rates known as AC04. It is anticipated that these will be introduced as a comparison basis in future results.
CMI Working Paper 52 presented cause-specific diagnosis rates, again based on 2003-2006 data, and
CMI Working Paper 58 describes supplementary analyses designed to aid understanding of the AC04 Series rates.
Contact Details
If you have any questions about the CMI please email
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Events calendar
Current Issues in Life Assurance (CILA) Webinar seriesWebinar Series15 July 2020 - 3 August 2020
CILA is one of the pre-eminent events in the annual 'Life' calendar. Due to COVID-19 we are running the programme as a series of webinars covering topics aimed at practicing life actuaries from life offices, consulting firms and other employers of actuaries and those who work in or advise on, the life assurance market in the UK and Europe.
CILA Webinar - 2020 Mortality Developments Across the ProfessionWebinar16 July 2020
Current Issues in Life Assurance – Mortality in 2020 is now dominated by one thing, although – in our future-focused world – the pandemic is just one of many mortality considerations. In this session, three well-regarded mortality/longevity specialists provide an overview of implications and impacts of COVID-19, recent and imminent CMI developments and more 'future focused' work in the MRSC
Webinar - Panel discussion: How banks are responding to the Covid-19 pandemicWebinar16 July 2020
Because of Covid-19, forecasters predict a severe recession in 2020, followed by a V or U-shaped recovery. This impacts both individuals and companies. However, compared to previous recessions, the impact on banks of higher credit losses should be mitigated to some extent by government actions.
PHC Conference webinar: Impactability Modelling for Population Health ManagementWebinar20 July 2020
Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series
This session will provide an overview of the Population Health Management Working Party's research including defining impactability and impactability modelling, discussing some examples of specific modelling approaches, considering the practical challenges across the NHS as well as wider public perception and ethical issues.
Finance and Investment Webinar: A Career in Finance and InvestmentWebinar21 July 2020
Many actuaries consider career opportunities in the Finance and Investment practice area after having started off in more traditional actuarial roles such as valuations, capital management or pricing. This session is aimed at helping actuaries to better understand roles in Finance and Investment and how they can fine tune their skills to pursue such careers.
Mortality and Longevity Webinar Series 2020Webinar Series22 July 2020 - 10 August 2020
Due to COVID-19, we are running this programme via a series of webinars commencing 22nd July.
This webinar series will provide topical and practical updates and discussion on the latest thinking and innovations in mortality and longevity, and is designed to be very accessible to a broad range of experience.
Mortality and Longevity Webinar: 'Researching research' - how to make use of medical research papersWebinar22 July 2020
Insurers are making increasing use of medical research to help with assumption, models and underwriting. Experienced mortality/ longevity specialists discuss the issues in the interpretation of medical research papers, using a range of case studies. The case studies will include COVID-19 points of current importance. Many of the concepts discussed (data bias, inference of causation) are also applicable to equivalent questions in 'big data' and advanced analytics.
Mortality and Longevity Webinar: What can we learn from mortality by cause of death?Webinar22 July 2020
Members of the Mortality Working Group of the IAA have analysed changes in mortality for about 30 causes of death and will discuss how causes of death are classified, and the problems of long-term data, appropriate metrics, including "years of life lost" (YLL), causes of death - a "measure of cohortness", the changes in dominant causes of death at older ages, and how can these types of studies enhance mortality forecasting.
Mortality and Longevity Webinar: Towards Precision Insurance: dynamic hazards modelling in Big DataWebinar23 July 2020
Predictive risk assessment and risk stratification models based on postcode-level consumer classification are widely used for life insurance underwriting. However, these are socio-economic models not directly related to health information. Similar to precision medicine, precision life insurance should aim to tailor policy pricing/reserving to the individual health characteristics of each client.
Twitter Sentiment Analysis: What does Social Media tell us about coronavirus concerns in the UK?Webinar24 July 2020
The aim of this webinar is to provide an overview of research undertaken within the Data Science Working Party on applying machine learning methods for sentiment analysis and opinion mining of UK Twitter data relating to COVID-19.
Modelling Dangers – What to look out for in Terms of Poor Model Selection and CalibrationWebinar27 July 2020
This discussion, the fourth in the Extreme Mortality Events webinar series, will look at what poor model selection and calibration could look like – using inappropriate historical data; using incorrect 2020 mortality data; and inappropriate stochastic model recalibration (or lack thereof). Presented by Chair of the Life Board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Colin Dutkiewicz.
Finance and Investment Webinar: ESG forays into fixed incomeWebinar28 July 2020
This webinar has been re-scheduled from its original date of the 1st July. Although ESG has many buyers across the asset allocation community, from pension funds to sovereign wealth funds, it still hasn't found its place within the core asset management strategy desks where the money is actually invested. The problem as well as the opportunity is Fixed Income. Plenty of strategies exist for incorporating ESG within Equities, from screening, integration to a combination. ESG has picked up relatively quickly within Equities with rating,indices created using ESG factors. This talk will discuss how we price a quantifiable ESG credit risk premium and make it alpha worthy in a strategy.
Mortality and Longevity Webinar: Clusters and correlations in international mortality trendsWebinar28 July 2020
Over the past decades, many countries have exhibited mortality rates approximately following a piecewise linear law. This is visible in the form of steady improvements over multiple years, followed by a rather abrupt trend change, and then again stable improvements according to the new trend.
PHC Conference webinar: Dementia and insurance: cognitive protectionWebinar28 July 2020
Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series
With the rising prevalence of dementia, how can we manage this risk effectively and can insurance do more? Matt Singleton, Ageing Lead at Swiss Re, will cover these topics and demonstrate how insurance could help people address their concerns.
CILA Webinar - Are we in the Era of Actuarial Data Science Modelling?Webinar29 July 2020
Current Issues in Life Assurance – Join us for an exploration session on the use of data science in insurance companies today including how insurers are making sense of and using new data sources and technologies, exploration of practical applications of data science within actuarial work, benefits of data-driven decisions to solve business problems using the power of data and technology, and the role that actuaries can play to harness the benefits of data science.
CILA Webinar - The Capital Management ToolkitWebinar29 July 2020
Current Issues in Life Assurance
This talk will look at a range of such techniques (e.g. mass lapse risk transfer, contract boundaries, risk margin relief, non-standard longevity risk transfer) that have been applied or considered by UK and EU insurers, and the pros and cons of each.
CILA Webinar - Global Capital Standards – What does the Adoption of ICS v2.0 Mean?Webinar3 August 2020
Current Issues in Life Assurance.
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors announced on 14 November 2019 the adoption of v2.0 of the global Insurance Capital Standard (ICS) which will undergo confidential reporting for 5 years starting from 2020. This session will include specific experiences from Legal and General (L&G) as well as global industry perspectives from EY.
CILA Webinar - Developing and Executing a Climate Risk StrategyWebinar3 August 2020 - 4 August 2020
Current Issues in Life Assurance
This session will cover the PRA supervisory statement on financial impacts related to climate change, industry insights into PRA climate risk business plans, examples climate risk strategy setting out key workstreams and activity steps for successful execution, an overview of a climate risk strategy execution timeline and the future.
Webinar: Revised IFRS 17 – Implications for Insurers and ActuariesWebinar4 August 2020
On 25 June the International Accounting Standards Board published Amendments to IFRS 17, the Insurance Contracts global accounting standard effective 1 January 2023.
PHC Conference webinar: Mental Health Underwriting - updating for current medical practiceWebinar4 August 2020
Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series
This session will cover how we have challenged conventional approaches to underwriting and risk selection in order to develop an approach that aligns current practices, customer and broader interests with robust risk assessment.
PHC Conference webinar: Engagement and innovation for the next generation consumerWebinar5 August 2020
Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series. Using new and unique research and data from the UK, US, Sweden and China, this presentation investigates how consumers use the internet through their insurance journey and analyzes the role culture and generation plays in their online behaviour. We use this research to show the online landscape for insurance sales in the UK and suggest ways to shape new products and effectively engage with the consumer who is buying them.
PHC Conference webinar: Gene ModificationWebinar6 August 2020
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Gen Re Life/Health Research and Development, Dr John O'Brien, will discuss the impacts of Gene Modification for life/health insurance.
Mortality and Longevity Webinar: A New Framework for Future MortalityWebinar6 August 2020
Our presentation will examine the challenges arising in setting mortality improvement assumptions, exposing known but under-explored vulnerabilities of current practices.
Mortality and Longevity Webinar: Beyond control - what could be our next big health threat?Webinar10 August 2020
As an industry, it has been important to be able to look to the future to identify the next quantifiable risk. In this session, I will explore some of the less tangible, but none-the-less concerning risks to future health, such as the health risks associated with exposure to pesticides, ingestion of plastic in the food chain, and the hazards of indoor air pollution through exposure to volatile organic compounds.
Mortality and Longevity Webinar: The IFoA diabetes working party - our journey so farWebinar10 August 2020
The working party will help the industry to update and enhance how potential risk from diabetes and excess mortality is considered, including the need to understand the underwriting implications as treatments improve, and potentially to develop new products that are tailored to those with diabetes.
Professional Skills Training Webinar - 12 August 2020Webinar12 August 2020
This event is now fully booked. To join the wait list, please register here.
A Trusted Profession
PHC Conference webinar: Cancer morbidity risk modelling – regional variation over timeWebinar12 August 2020
Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series. Modelling the structure and trends of cancer morbidity risk is important for pricing and reserving in related health insurance fields such as critical illness insurance and care provision. We model the dynamics of cancer incidence over time in different regions in England, using 1981-2016 ONS data. The modelling allows estimation of cancer rates at various age, year, gender and region levels, following a Bayesian setting to account for statistical uncertainty. Our analysis indicates significant regional variation in cancer incidence rates.
PHC Conference webinar: Learnings from our first climate-change related disclosures (TCFD)Webinar13 August 2020
Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series. In this talk we will outline the steps Aviva took in pulling together our first large-scale disclosures on the exposure of our business to climate change published in March 2019; in line with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. After touching on why insurers have such an important role in climate change, we'll cover a brief "how-to" guide for those who have not yet embarked on thinking about these topics before giving a case study of how the learnings from a TCFD disclosure exercise can be applied to investment portfolios.
PHC Conference webinar: Can we manage Diabetes risk for healthier outcomesWebinar17 August 2020
Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series.
The insurance industry currently underwrites customers with diabetes based on a range of factors, medical expertise and various medical studies. The work undertaken by the Diabetes Working Party would help the industry to approach this using current research findings to update and enhance how potential risk from diabetes is considered. This includes the need to understand the underwriting implications as treatments improve, and potentially to develop new products that are tailored to those with diabetes. This webinar will present our latest findings in the management of this important chronic condition which will include research in collaboration with the ARC.


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"I will kill them all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything? The international community? F*ck them!"Ever since US President Barack Obama issued his first warning to the Syrian government that the use of chemical weapons in the civil war was a "red-line" that might provoke a US military response, and even more so after reported use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime against the opposition in December, March and April, there have been many commentators that have heard echoes of US President George Bush's false charges that Saddam Hussein was harboring chemical weapons, the excuse what was used to justify an imperialist war against Iraq, in the current discussion of Syria and chemical weapons.
- Al Majid, Saddam Hussein's Kurdish genocide point man | 26 May 1987
This report from the NY Times reflects that perspective:
The White House cited the Iraq war to justify its wariness of taking action against another Arab country on the basis of incomplete or potentially inaccurate assessments of its weapons of mass destruction. The press secretary, Jay Carney, said the White House would "look at the past for guidance when it comes to the need to be very serious about gathering all the facts, establishing chain of custody, linking evidence of the use of chemical weapons to specific incidents and actions taken by the regime."
There are two very fundamental errors made by almost everyone making this comparison. 1) Saddam Hussein was charged with possession of chemical weapons, whereas Bashar al-Assad is being charge with using them to kill Syrians in the present moment. 2) In the past two years Bashar al-Assad has killed tens of thousands of Syrian civilians with many other weapons of mass destruction including cluster bombs, artillery bombardment, air strikes, helicopter gunships and ballistic missiles, there was no such human slaughter taking place when Bush and company were making their charges of simple possession.
To make this simplistic comparison. i.e. false charges of WMD in Iraq circa 2003 and questionable charges of WMD in Syria now, without considering these two factors, means comparing apples to oranges. It means talking utter nonsense while mass murder is taking place.
The fact that the charge here is use and not possession, that it is alleged that people have been murdered by the Assad regime with chemical weapons at a time when he is clearly on a mass murder spree, means that to raise Bush's false charges against Hussein as a warning against doing anything to stop the ongoing slaughter in Syria is, in fact, to support that slaughter.
Using this false comparison the international "community" has danced around Assad's use of chemical weapons and even after four attacks killing scores of people and a mountain of other evidence, Obama in now saying that he wants to be absolutely, positively, sure that Assad has used chemical weapons before he declares that his red-line has been crossed. Since there is no serious question as to whether Assad is committing mass murder with just about everything else, this preoccupation with chemical weapons turns into something of a macabre fetish. Consider what we know already.
On Saturday, another of Assad's ex-generals has said he was ordered to use chemical weapons against the Free Syrian Army. The general, who foiled this ordered chemical attack and defected 15 March 2013, was interviewed by al Arabia:
A former army general from the chemical weapons branch, Zahir al-Sakit, said he was instructed to use chemical weapons during a regime battle with the FSA in the southwestern area of Hauran.He is the second defecting general to claim that he had been ordered to use chemical weapons. On Christmas day last year, Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, at the time the highest ranking member of Assad's army to defect, did so and he brought with him a gift for the revolution, confirmation that the Syrian Army did use chemical weapons in Homs earlier in December 2012.
We are not talking about some shadowy "Curveball" here. These are officers with a history in the SAA, people the press can interview and their testimony is backed up by a lot of other evidence.
This type of testimony, which is generally neglected, is extremely important because unlike soil samples, videos of victims or even doctor's diagnoses, it establishes firmly who is using chemical weapons in Syria.
In early December 2012 the FSA started reporting the finding of disturbing amounts of chemical warfare suites and gas masks in the military depots they were seizing.
Also the first week of December, US intelligence reported that Assad had been moving his chemical weapons around and even loading sarin gas into bombs. The White House reissued Obama's "red-line" warning but dropped the prohibition against the "movement" of "a whole bunch of chemical weapons."
22 December 2012 | The first use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime against its own people took place in Homs. Seven people were killed when a poisonous gas was sprayed in the rebel-held al-Bayyada neighborhood. This use was confirmed by video tapes, witness and doctor testimony and the general who defected days later because he saw things were going where he couldn't. Obama pretended not to see this first crossing of his red-line even while, in secret, his own State department was saying there was a "compelling case" that Assad's military forces had used a deadly form of poison gas. In public the White House was saying it had concluded that Assad had not used chemical weapons in Homs.
19 March 2013 | Two attacks appear to have taken place on this day; in Khan al-Assal, a village west of Aleppo and in Ateibeh, a village outside of Damascus. There has been a lot of video testimony and evidence posted about the attack in Ateibeh. For example a man in a clinic bed reported:
"Missiles came and they exploded, and they discharged something like water, but it was dark. It emitted a very foul smell."Ateibeh is an area that had already been heavily bombed by the regime in the past two years, an unknown number were killed by chemicals in this attack.
The attack on Khan al-Assal, southwest of Aleppo was a chlorine smelling gas according to this report. Naturally the Assad regime blamed the rebels. Time reported:
The attack killed 31 people, including 10 soldiers, and wounded scores more. In the immediate aftermath, the Syrian government and the opposition traded accusations. The government claimed that "terrorists," its term for the rebels that have been fighting the regime for two years, had fired a "missile containing a chemical substance" at the village of Khan al-Asal in retaliation for their support of the government. Kasem Saad Eddine, spokesperson for the opposition military council of Aleppo, accused the government of attacking its own people in order to smear the opposition.13 April 2013 | Two women and two children died and 16 others affected after two gas bombs where dropped from an army helicopter in Sheik Maqsoud, Aleppo. While the death toll from this most recent use of chemicals was small, it represented a major escalations of the "In your face factor" because no one but the government is flying helicopters in Syria. It also represents the introduction of a new delivery system. This also produced a lot of video evidence including this, this and this.
Now there is also a bit of physical evident if Times of London reports that soil samples smuggled out of Syria tested positive for sarin are true. The tests were done by UK government scientists at Porton Down after they were retrieve through a MI6 convert mission.
Update 29 April 2013 | Reports of a new possible chemical attack are coming in no sooner than this blog is published. Activists have reported what appears to be a chemical attack in Saraqib, an opposition town in Idlib province. Some of the victims are being treated in Turkey. The cannisters dropped appear to be the same type dropped in Sheikh Maghsoud, Aleppo. EAWorldView has excellent running coverage on this.
Side effects of chemical weapons reported in Saraqeb, #Idlib RT @syriansmurf: ابن الحرام عبيضرب سراقب بالكيماوي... twitter.com/SyrianSmurf/st…— Maryam Saleh (@MaryamSaleh_) April 29, 2013
There are probably more facts in dispute in this conflict than there are combatants. So when looking at the various stories or accounts that come daily with every incident, it is important to consider the source and to understand that the Assad regime is not an honest source, the Assad regime is a gangster regime.
When it comes to owning up to what could most charitably be called "short-comings", the Assad regime deals with its many internal "My Lai massacres" with smiling denial. It is the gangster response. It is "I don't know nothing. I ain't done nothing. I was home with the flu." It is Al Capone, sitting in the barber's chair telling all the reporters how he abhors violence.
So it should surprise no one that Assad's information minister Omran Ahed al-Zouabi was quick to respond to these new charges of chemical weapons use. On 26 April 2013 he told RT:
"First of all, I want to confirm that statements by the US Secretary of State and British government are inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie, I want to stress one more time that Syria would never use it - not only because of its adherence to the international law and rules of leading war, but because of humanitarian and moral issues."So if you believe that the Assad regime has acted in a humanitarian and moral manner to this point, you are a fool, but at least your mind will be at ease as to the looming possibilities of a "Halabja" in Syria's future.
Those inclined to give this denial any credit should consider also:
Al Jazeera English did the Assad regime a real kindness when it truncated the regime's response with the angry "a bold-face lie" phrase because as soon as you include the "we would never do nothing like that" part, the gangster smile starts to show through.
What Standards should be Applied to the Evidence?
The evident required for action in Syria should be a lot less than was required in Iraq because people are being murdered right now. By looking for a lawyer's "beyond a reasonable doubt" level of proof, Obama is giving Assad the benefit of the doubt and setting conditions so strict that they aren't likely to be met before many more people are murdered. It is the wrong standard of proof. The standard of proof, the level of certainty we should demand with regards to Assad's use of chemical weapons must necessarily be much lower than that applied to Hussein's possession of chemical weapons.
An analogy may help clarify why. If the police suspect that someone has an illegal weapon, it is entirely right and proper to demand that they first present their case to a judge and get a search warrant before they are allowed to act on their suspicions. On the other hand, if there is an active shooter taking people down, it would be absurd, even criminal, to demand that the police visit a judge and get his approval before they intervene to save lives.
The popular comparison being made between NATO charges against Iraq in the run up to war and Syria now is a completely false one but if we go back a little further in history we can make an apple to apple comparison between Iraq then and Syria now.
We should be comparing the Western response to Assad's use of chemical weapons against his own people now to the Western response when Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against his own people in 1983-1989. In that case Hussein killed tens of thousands with chemical weapons while the West looked on and did nothing.
So far, that is the analogy that rings true today.
Iraq, under the fascist Baath Party dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, used chemical weapons on a number of occasions in the 1980's both in its long war against Iran and as part of a program of genocide against the Iraqi Kurdish minority.
Between 1983 and 1988 Iraq made at least 14 chemical attacks that took tens of thousands of Iranian and Kurdish lives. Mustard gas was used in almost every attack and it was sometimes supplemented with Tabun or a nerve agent.
One of the biggest attacks came on 15 March 1988, near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, against the Kurdish town of Halabja. First sarin was used and then mustard. 5,000 were slaughtered. We know that it was part of a program of genocide because of Iraqi records that were liberated during the 1991 Kurdish uprising:
On 3 June 1987 the Iraqi proconsul signed a personal directive, numbered 28/3650, declaring a zone that contained over a thousand Kurdish villages to be a prohibited area, from which all human and animal life was to be eradicated. "It is totally prohibited for any foodstuffs or persons or machinery to reach the villages that have been banned for security reasons," the directive stated.This gas attack was just one small part of Hussein's genocide against the Kurds which took 400,000 lives in 15 years. Kendal Nezan remembered what happened in Halabja in Le Monde diplomatique, 1998:
US DOMINATION PUT TO THE TESTNezan then goes on to tell us how the Iraqi dictator was:
When our "friend" Saddam was gassing the Kurds
Ten years ago, the systematic gassing of the Kurdish population of northern Iraq had far less impact on America. Only six months after the slaughter at Halabja, the White House lent Saddam Hussein another billion dollars. And in 1991, at the end of the Gulf war, US troops stood idly by while Saddam's presidential guard ruthlessly suppressed the popular uprising by the Kurds for which the American president had himself called.
The town of Halabja, with 60,000 inhabitants, lies on the southern fringe of Iraqi Kurdistan, a few miles from the border with Iran. On 15 March 1988 it fell to the Peshmerga resistance fighters of Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, supported by Iranian revolutionary guards.
The next morning Iraqi bombers appeared out of a clear blue sky. The people of Halabja were used to the successive attacks and counter-attacks of the Iraq-Iran war that had ravaged the region since September 1980. They thought they were in for the usual reprisal raid. Those who had time huddled in makeshift shelters. The rest were taken by surprise. Wave after wave of Iraqi Migs and Mirages dropped chemical bombs on the unsuspecting inhabitants. The town was engulfed in a sickly stench like rotten apples. The bombing stopped at nightfall and it began to rain hard. Iraqi troops had already destroyed the local power station, so the survivors began to search the mud with torches for the dead bodies of their loved ones.
The scene that greeted them in the morning defied description. The streets were strewn with corpses. People had been killed instantaneously by chemicals in the midst of the ordinary acts of everyday life. Babies still sucked their mothers' breasts. Children held their parents' hands, frozen to the spot like a still from a motion picture. In the space of a few hours 5,000 people had died. The 3,200 who no longer had families were buried in a mass grave. More...
Protected by the WestJust as is happening now, there was a lot of controversy, the UN was dispatched to the scene, but nothing was really done:
At that time the regime was not worried about international reaction. In the recording of the meeting of 26 May 1987, Proconsul Al Majid declares: "I will kill them all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them!" His language may be coarse, but the cynicism of the butcher of Kurdistan, later promoted governor of Kuwait and subsequently minister of defence, was fully justified.
Iraq was then seen as a secular bulwark against the Islamic regime in Teheran. It had the support of East and West and of the whole Arab world except Syria. All the Western countries were supplying it with arms and funds. France was particularly zealous in this respect. Not content with selling Mirages and helicopters to Iraq, it even lent the regime Super Etendard aircraft in the middle of its war with Iran. Germany supplied Baghdad with a large part of the technology required for the production of chemical weapons.
Despite the enormous public outrage at the gas attack on Halabja, France, which is a depositary of the Geneva Convention of 1925, confined itself to an enigmatic communiqué condemning the use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world. The UN dispatched Colonel Dominguez, a Spanish military expert, to the scene. In a report published on 26 April 1988, he confined himself to recording that chemical weapons had been used once again both in Iran and in Iraq and that the number of civilian victims was increasing. On the same day the UN Secretary-General stated that, with respect to both the weapons themselves and those who were using them, it was difficult to determine the nationalities involved.
Clearly, Iraq's powerful allies did not want Baghdad condemned. In August 1988 the United Nations Sub-Committee on Human Rights voted by 11 votes to 8 not to condemn Iraq for human rights violations. Only the Scandinavian countries, Australia and Canada, together with bodies like the European Parliament and the Socialist International, saved their honour by clearly condemning Iraq.
According to the Washington Post, the CIA began in 1984 secretly to give Iraq intelligence that Iraq uses to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In August, the CIA establishes a direct Washington-Baghdad intelligence link, and for 18 months, starting in early 1985, the CIA provided Iraq with "data from sensitive U.S. satellite reconnaissance photography...to assist Iraqi bombing raids." The Post's source said that this data was essential to Iraq's war effort.Four years later, the US response to the Halabja massacre was no better:
The United States re-established full diplomatic ties with Iraq on 26 November, just over a year after Iraq's first well-publicized CW use and only 8 months after the UN and U.S. reported that Iraq used CWs on Iranian troops.
In 1985 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to put Iraq back on the State terrorism sponsorship list. After the bill's passage, Shultz wrote to the bill's sponsor, Rep. Howard Berman, cited the U.S.' "diplomatic dialogue on this and other sensitive issues," claimed that "Iraq has effectively distanced itself from international terrorism," and stated that if the U.S. found that Iraq supports groups practicing terrorism "we would promptly return Iraq to the list." Rep. Berman dropped the bill and explicitly cited Shultz's assurances.
In May, two months after the Halabja assault, Peter Burleigh, Assistant Secretary of State in charge of northern Gulf affairs, encouraged US-Iraqi corporate cooperation at a symposium hosted by the U.S.-Iraq Business Forum. The U.S.-Iraq Business Forum had strong (albeit unofficial) ties to the Iraqi government.
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a team to Turkey to speak to Iraqi Kurdish refugees and assess reports that Iraq "was using chemical weapons on its Kurdish population." This report reaffirmed that between 1984 and 1988 "Iraq repeatedly and effectively used poison gas on Iran," the UN missions' findings, and the chemical attack on Halabja that left an estimated 4,000 people dead.
Following the Halabja attack and Iraq's August CW offensive against Iraqi Kurds, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed on 8 September the "Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988" the day after it is introduced. The act cuts off from Iraq U.S. loans, military and non-military assistance, credits, credit guarantees, items subject to export controls, and U.S. imports of Iraqi oil.
Immediately after the bill's passage the Reagan Administration announced its opposition to the bill, and SD spokesman Charles Redman called the bill "premature". The Administration works with House opponents to a House companion bill, and after numerous legislation compromises and end-of-session haggling, the Senate bill died "on the last day of the legislative session".
According to a 15 September news report, Reagan Administration officials stated that the U.S. intercepted Iraqi military communications marking Iraq's CW attacks on Kurds.
U.S. intelligence reported in 1991 that the U.S. helicopters sold to Iraq in 1983 were used in 1988 to spray Kurds with chemicals.
The United Nation's failure to do anything about Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons use is informative for the current crisis:
Although the UN's expert mission concluded in March 1986 that Iraq used chemical weapons on Iranian troops, SCR 582 (1986) symmetrically noted "that both the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq are parties to the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous and Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare signed at Geneva on 7 June 1925" and "deplores...in particular the use of chemical weapons contrary to obligations under the 1925 Protocol". Resolution 588 (1986) did not mention chemical weapons. In 20 July 1987, SCR 598 again deplored "in particular the use chemical weapons contrary to obligations of the 1925 Protocol", but does not elaborate.During the following years, the UNSC continued to be "dismayed" by chemical weapons' continued use and the "more intensive scale". They passed more resolutions that "condemns vigorously the continued use of chemical weapons" and "expects both sides to refrain from the future use of chemical weapons". By August of 1988 the UNSC was "deeply dismayed" by the "continued use of chemical weapons" and that "such use against Iranians has become more intense and frequent". Because of Western vetoes, the UNSC could never clearly say it was Hussein that was behind the chemical weapons use.
The Security Council could only condemn Iraq by name for using chemical weapons through non-binding Presidential statements, over which permanent members of the Security Council do not have an individual veto. On 21 March 1986, the Security Council President, making a "declaration" and "speaking on behalf of the Security Council," stated that the Council members are "profoundly concerned by the unanimous conclusion of the specialists that chemical weapons on many occasions have been used by Iraqi forces against Iranian troops...[and] the members of the Council strongly condemn this continued use of chemical weapons in clear violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 which prohibits the use in war of chemical weapons". The US voted against the issuance of this statement, and the UK, Australia, France and Denmark abstained. However, the concurring votes of the other ten members of the Security Council ensured that this statement constituted the first criticism of Iraq by the Security Council.At the time, the US and a number of other great powers were supporting Saddam Hussein so there was nothing done about his WMD until be became a problem much later. He didn't have any WMD by then but that didn't matter; he had an ugly reputation for using them.
Even if the current UN investigative mission can make it to Syria and make an investigation, which looks very iffy at this point, it is highly unlikely that the United Nations will actually do anything.
The difference will be that this time, with Syria, Russia will play the bad guy with the veto.
From The Independent, Robert Fisk has this report on Sunday:
Syria and sarin gas: US claims have a very familiar ringReports of the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons are part of a retold drama riddled with plot-holes
Is there any way of escaping the theatre of chemical weapons?...In any normal society the red lights would now be flashing, especially in the world's newsrooms. But no. We scribes remind the world that Obama said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a "game changer" – at least Americans admit it is a game – and our reports confirm what no one has actually confirmed. Chemical arms used. In two Canadian TV studios, I am approached by producers brandishing the same headline. I tell them that on air I shall trash the "evidence" – and suddenly the story is deleted from both programmes. Not because they don't want to use it – they will later – but because they don't want anyone suggesting it might be a load of old cobblers.
CNN has no such inhibitions. Their reporter in Amman is asked what is known about the use of chemical weapons by Syria and replies: "Not as much as the world would want to know … the psyche of the Assad regime …." But has anyone tried? Or simply asked an obvious question, posed to me by a Syrian intelligence man in Damascus last week: if Syria can cause infinitely worse damage with its MiG bombers (which it does) why would it want to use chemicals? More...
The Syrian intelligence man's question deserves an answer and that answer goes to the heart of Bashar al-Assad's repression strategy and the role chemical weapons are starting to play in it. Bashar learned well from his father, both in strengths and mistakes.
He learn to rule with an iron fist, but he also learn to finesse it a little better. Halef paid a heavy political price when he exterminated ~18,000 "terrorist" in Homs in a few weeks but Bashar knows better how to boil live frogs in an open pot. He has already killed 3 of 4 times as many by turning up the heat slowly.
He started with snipers targeting peaceful protesters and when that didn't clear the streets, he brought in the tanks.
His weak spot, militarily speaking, has been the ordinary foot soldier. Normally the infantry is the backbone of any army but Bashar's tended to be a little too defection prone whenever they were thrown into battle. Thus we have seen many times in this civil war, the rookie mistake of sending in armor without supporting infantry. In the narrow streets of Homs and Hama, his tanks proved vulnerable even to rebels armed only with Molotov cocktails.
He has always had certain "elite" forces organized along sectarian lines that he could count on even to kill children with knives, no true gangster would leave home without them, but fortunately for us all, such thugs are a tiny minority.
So standoff tools have been his weapons of choice. The goals have been generalized destruction and murder with the aim of punishing any communities that would dare to rise against his rule and making life intolerable in any areas that his regime has been forced out of.
But the strategy has always been to ramp up the slaughter in a slow 'n steady way that would gain greater world acceptance than his father enjoyed. So far he has succeeded admirably. Now ~200 Syrian's a day are being slaughtered and the world doesn't give a fuck.
At first he relied mainly on long range artillery and tank fire. He introduced his air force very slowly, much like he is doing now with chemical weapons.
First there were a few reports of him using helicopters and Migs. They were denied but the reports continued as did the sporadic use of aircraft. As the media lost interest, the air strikes became more regular and wide spread. As regular air strikes against his own cities gained worldwide acceptance, he started upping the ordinances dropped from his planes, as cluster bombs, incendiaries, and barrel bombs were introduced.
As the opposition has gotten better at shooting down his aircraft, they have just worn out, or his air bases have fallen, he has relied on bigger and bigger ballistic missiles. Now the world has signaled its quiet acceptance for a government that fires Scuds at its own cities.
In spite of all this, he is still losing.
Chemical weapons are simply the next logical step in this escalation. Obama saw that too in August and tried to draw a "red-line" in the Syrian sand but Obama forgot about the danger of trying to bullshit a bullshitter.
Assad is testing him on this, and it was Obama himself that told him how with his "whole bunch of" underpass in the "red-line." However much sarin or other chemicals Assad has spread around in the four incidents reported since December nobody can yet argue that he has used "a whole bunch of chemical weapons," not when massacres on the scale of Halabja are considered.
He is introducing chemical weapons slowly, so the world can get used to them again. He may have only used four shells to create four deniable incidents. He may be diluting the poison to give contradictory results. What exactly is a whole bunch? Who can say really?
So to get back to the Intel guys rhetorical question, he is pushed to use chemical weapons in spite of the destruction cause by his Migs because his Migs are wearing out, or getting shot down, or as reported in one case, bombing Assad positions before bailing out over opposition held territory.
He will use chemical weapons because they are the perfect weapon for his type of warfare. He can easily kill large numbers of people and make whole cities uninhabitable and they can be delivered by rockets and artillery so few killers are needed and even they don't have to look at their handiwork.
He just needs to introduce them slowly so the world learns to accept it. In the long run he may make what Saddam Hussein did to the Kurds look like a walk in the park.
In spite of the latest flurry of diplomacy around Assad's limited use of chemical weapons, after we have tolerated as many as a hundred thousand dead, two million driven from the country and more than six million driven from their homes, don't look for those that could put a stop to it, to do anything anytime soon. The NY Times reported on Saturday:
President Obama said Friday that he would respond "prudently" and "deliberately" to evidence that Syria had used chemical weapons, tamping down any expectations that he would take swift action after an American intelligence assessment that the Syrian government had used the chemical agent sarin on a small scale in the nation's civil war.British PM David Cameron is also counseling against doing anything rash, like rushing in to save lives:
"Knowing that potentially chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria doesn't tell us when they were used, how they were used," Mr. Obama told reporters in the Oval Office. "We have to act prudently. We have to make these assessments deliberately."
[Cameron] repeated that Britain had no appetite to intervene militarily.The French also sound like they aren't willing to do anything but talk:
"I don't want to see that, and I don't think that is likely to happen," he said. "But I think we can step up the pressure on the regime, work with our partners, work with the opposition in order to bring about the right outcome. But we need to go on gathering this evidence and also to send a very clear warning to the Syrian regime about these appalling actions."
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in an interview to the "Europe 1″ radio station that it is uncertain whether or not chemical weapons were used in Syria.And from the Washington Post:
Fabius noted that even if there was use of chemical weapons, it doesn't change a thing regarding the Western response policy and that the US and Russia are examining all options with France.
"This is going to be a long-term proposition. This is not going to be something that is solved easily overnight," Obama said.RT gives us a sense of the resistance any UN team is likely to receive from Damascus:
The definitive proof the White House is seeking is likely to be weeks or months in the offing, if it comes at all. A U.N. weapons team has been blocked from on-the-ground testing, and it is not clear what other scientific or intelligence information the White House would find persuasive.
Chemical inspection stalled: UN team can't be trusted 'politically' without Russian experts – Syrian information ministerRussia has been Assad's biggest supplier of Scuds, cluster bombs and all the other ordinances with which he is killing his own people. for that reason many believe the proposed Russian experts can't be trusted "politically."
Without hard evidence, American accusations of chemical weapons use in Syria fall short of UN proof standards, says a UN chemical inspector. And in the way proposed, a probe would only result in an Iraqi scenario, the Syrian information minister told RT.
Foreign Policy summed up the situation this way:
His careful, incremental introduction of chemical weapons into the Syrian conflict has turned President Barack Obama's clear red line into an impressionist watercolor, undermining the credible threat of U.S. military intervention. Despite Obama's statement on Friday that "we've crossed a line," Assad knows that the United States does not want to be dragged into a Middle Eastern civil war and is attempting to call Obama's bluff.At this point, there is no support for military intervention in Syria either from the US government or the people. It is much the same in the UK and the EU.
The Syrian regime's subtle approach deliberately offers the Obama administration the option to remain quiet about chemical attacks and thereby avoid the obligation to make good on its threats. But even more worrying, Assad's limited use of chemical weapons is intended to desensitize the United States and the international community in order to facilitate a more comprehensive deployment in the future -- without triggering intervention.
Back in August, when Barack Obama told Bashar al-Assad that the use of chemical weapons would be a "red-line" while he was already using Migs and cluster bombs and everything else, he gave Bashar a green light to continue his slaughter as he has.
Now Assad is calling Obama's bluff, he is testing the "red-line", but the self-proclaimed "cops of the world" are corrupt and work with the gangsters, so unless people around the world unite in demanding action, Assad is likely to get away with killing a lot more Syrians with poison gas and chemical weapons will have taken a giant step back towards acceptance as a tool of internal mass suppression.
Why did they think we would come to their aid?
This was the question raised on one of the Sunday morning talk shows when Clarissa Ward pointed out that the Syrian people are starting to become very bitter about the refusal of the world, particularly the United States, to come to their aid and do anything to stop their children from being slaughtered.
I think it is a fair question, so let me propose a few possible answers:
1) Because it is the right thing to do.
2) Because as long as most people can remember, we have been shouting "never again" to the hilltops.
3) Because Superman would never let so many people get slaughtered and not try to stop it, and we have spent billions peddling our culture and polishing our image around the world.
4) Because the United States has justified every war it has ever fought in the name of saving lives.
Syria may become the other side of the proof that it was naked self-interest and greed that have dictated when the United States went to war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, even WWII.
If simple humanitarian interests aren't enough to demand that the Assad regime be stopped from any further use of chemical weapons, there is this:
The worldwide ban on the uses of chemical weapons was one of the great progressive victories to come out of the first Great War, and even though they have been superseded by nuclear weapons, which have yet to be placed under any such ban, the importance of continuing to enforce this prohibition against the use of chemical weapons cannot be underestimated. Especially when Assad is demonstrating that they can be used in the suppression of mass resistance to the state in a way that nuclear weapons never can.
That represents a strong reason why the governments of the world might like to re-introduce them as tools and it is exactly why the people of the world must demand that the ban against the use of chemical weapons be strictly enforced, especially in the case of Syria now.
If this is not done, the Assad lesson to oppressive states everywhere will be: "If your people get to bugging you too much, you can just spray them."


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Officials: ISIS recruiting on the rise in Sunni areas of Iraq
By Mohammed Tawfeeq and Chelsea J. Carter, CNN (CNN) -- Abu Raad pleaded with his son not to volunteer. But there was nothing...
(CNN) -- Abu Raad pleaded with his son not to volunteer.
But there was nothing he says he could say to talk his 19-year-old son out of joining ISIS, which refers to itself as the Islamic State and is formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
"I don't know what they told him," Abu Raad told CNN by telephone from his home in Mosul. "Last week, my son came home and told me that he is leaving home and joining the Islamic State."
And then, the teenager packed a bag and left.
"We have heard nothing from him," said Abu Raad, who asked to be identified by his Arab nickname out of fear of retaliation by ISIS for speaking out.
His son is now believed to be one of hundreds of young Sunni men who, two Iraqi senior defense officials tell CNN, have joined ISIS in recent weeks in the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh, Salaheddin and Anbar.
Analysts and U.S. officials estimate ISIS has as many as 10,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, including those who were freed from prisons by ISIS and Sunni loyalists who have joined the fight as the group advanced.
But that number likely doesn't include these latest recruits, mostly young men between the ages of 16 and 25 who are primarily poor, unemployed and lack an education, the two Iraqi senior defense officials told CNN.
Add to that a disenfranchisement felt by Iraq's Sunni minority, who have bitterly complained of being marginalized and cut out of the political process by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government.
The height of that disenfranchisement coincided with ISIS routing Iraqi security forces in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in June.
Abu Raad blames al-Maliki's government for what happened with his son.
"He allowed those (ISIS) thugs" to take hold in the country, he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday to push Iraq's lawmakers to create a more inclusive government that "can give confidence to populations in the Sunni areas that (ISIS) is not the only game in town."
But for now, at least in Mosul, ISIS is recruiting young men at a rapid pace, officials and residents told CNN.
"Once they are in, (ISIS) gives them cars to drive, guns, cell phones and cash money," said one man, who lives in Mosul and has direct knowledge of ISIS recruit efforts.
In Mosul, for example, ISIS recruiting efforts appear to begin at information centers that have been set up around the city.
Pictures of the centers posted online purportedly by ISIS claim to show militants, many dressed head-to-toe in black, distributing leaflets, videos and CDs about their operations to men and boys.
While CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the pictures, they appear to coincide with descriptions provided by the man who described ISIS recruiting efforts.
The pictures also show men and young boys gathered in front of the centers, watching videos purporting to show ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on giant flat-screen televisions.
In some of the videos, al-Baghdadi is heavily armed. In others, he appears to be preaching at a pulpit.
Still other pictures appear to show videos about bomb-making and suicide bombs.
At the centers, ISIS encourages young men to join, according to a man who asked to be identified only as Abu Younis out of fear of retaliation by ISIS
The actual recruiting occurs elsewhere, according to Younis, who lives in Mosul and told CNN he has visited the centers.
Sometimes, he says, recruiting takes place at mosques.
Last week, the Iraqi air force targeted the al-Mufti mosque in western Mosul.
A senior security official in Baghdad and two residents told CNN that the mosque was being used by ISIS as a recruitment center. CNN cannot independently verify the claims.
Abu Raad can't pinpoint the moment that his son made the decision to leave his life behind for ISIS.
Before the militants swept into Mosul, his son listened to music and played video games.
"But then he became a different person. He stopped acting like a normal boy a few weeks ago," Abu Raad said.
"My wife and I begged him not do it. But he didn't listen. He packed and left."
There are stories, Abu Raad says, of young men who have been recruited by ISIS and within weeks are carrying out suicide bombings.
He wonders if one them will be his son.
"My son dreamed of becoming a computer engineer," Abu Raad said, his voice breaking. "Now he's just a terrorist."


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(NewsUSA) - As the weather heats up, more people imagine themselves in a new destination taking a much-needed break from their daily routines. But research shows that many Americans never take that all-important next step: actually planning a vacation.
According to a 2013 Expedia study, Americans collectively failed to take an estimated 577 million available days of vacation this past year. That vacation time amounts to billions of dollars in compensation Americans are giving back to their companies. Studies even suggest the valuable health benefits of vacationing and the enhanced productivity refreshed workers bring back to the office. But navigating schedules that are constantly changing often foils plans, leading many people to forget about planning altogether.
To avoid falling victim to these obstacles, here are some tips:
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