AOLNews.com offers a video of the damage caused by a rising Tsunami in Japan. 
Historynet.com reports that March 30, 2011 has been officially designated Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day by the U.S. Senate. 
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried lost his well-paid voice over advertising job with Affleck insurance due to his tasteless (but funny) jokes about the disasters in Japan, but the annoying (yet funny) comic has made a video that makes fun of the reaction to his jokes. 
I confess that I could not finish reading Swedish author Stieg Larsson's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. 
New members about to be initiated into Cosa Nostra must disrobe, The New York Post reported on Friday.
ABC TV offered a program about the greatest movies of our time, with online voters choosing the best film and a host of categories, including the most memorable movie character.
The national online business magazine AllBusiness.com published my On Crime & Security column today.
The entertainment web site Monsters and Critics reports that British actor Clive Owen showed off his Hemingway moustache on the Ellen DeGeneres TV program.
I heard New York Police Detective Ed Conlon speak at the Philadelphia Free Library a while back when he was promoting Blue Blood, his memoir of his first seven years on the NYPD, and I spoke to him briefly.
Joseph G. Goulden, author of The Death Merchant, reviewed a new book on the Russian security service called The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB (Public Affairs). The book was written by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan.Skepticism is proving well-founded. Indeed, the newly constituted security services are more shadowy and powerful than was the KGB at its prime. The Federal Security Service (Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, or FSB) has flourished under former KGB officer Vladimir Putin - first as president, now prime minister - and the government is top-heavy with his onetime intelligence colleagues.
The book sounds interesting.
The web site Booktrade reports that Adam Sisman will write "the definitive life of John le Carre."
By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 20, 2011 - While the attacks on Libya's integrated air and missile defense system have been successful, thousands of anti-aircraft artillery emplacements and portable missile launchers still pose threats to coalition air crews, the director of the Joint Staff said today.
On the second day of Operation Odyssey Dawn, Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney said the coalition cruise missile strikes against selected air defense systems and facilities were successful, and that coalition ships and submarines launched 124 Tomahawk missiles against these targets.
(In the above DoD photo by Air Force Master Sgt Jerry Morrison, Navy Vice Admiral William E. Gortney, director of the Joint Staff, updates reporters on Operation Odyssey Dawn at the Pentagon, march 20, 2011).
"We judge these strikes to have been very effective in degrading the regime's air defense capability, to include their ability to launch many of their SA-5s – their long range missiles – their SA-3s and SA-2s," Gortney said during a Pentagon news conference.
Moammar Gadhafi's regime has not launched aircraft, and the coalition has not detected any radar emissions from the air defense sites targeted, the admiral said.
"There has been a significant decrease in the use of all Libyan air surveillance radars," he added. "These seem to be limited to the areas around Tripoli and Sert."
Air Force B-2 bombers also attacked Libyan airfields, flattening the hardened shelters Libyan fighter-bombers use, Gortney said. Coalition tactical fighters also hit Gadhafi's ground forces on the outskirts of Benghazi, where 15 U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, French and British aircraft participated in the action about 10 miles south of the opposition stronghold. "We judge these also to have been highly successful at halting the regime ground movement in this region," Gortney said.
Libya's fixed surface-to-air missile threat and early warning radars are gone. The threat that remains comes from mobile surface-to-air missiles -- SA-6 and SA-8 systems – as well as thousands of shoulder-fired SA-7 missile launchers, the admiral told reporters.
The coalition has not directly targeted anti-aircraft artillery, Gortney said, because many are near homes and there are thousands of these guns.
The coalition has grown and will continue to increase, Gortney said, noting that it includes the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Italy, Qatar, Belgium, Norway and Denmark. More nations will directly participate in the coalition, he said, and other nations will provide overflight rights, basing and logistics. Gortney said those nations will make their announcements at their own times.
The United States leads the coalition effort now, but that will change, the admiral said.
"Our intent is to be a part of the coalition throughout, and transfer the command to a coalition command," he said. The United States would shift to more of a support function that would include aerial tankers; electronic warfare aircraft; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft; and logistics."
I wish Ronald Reagan was still with us and I wish he were still the president.
Frederick Forsyth, author of the The Day of the Jackal and other classic thrillers, explains how he writes fact-based, realistic thrillers in a piece in The Wall Street Journal.
Jake Adelstein, the author of Tokyo Vice, reports in The Daily Beast that the yakuza, Japan's organized crime group, is helping the disaster victims in Japan.
The Virginian-Pilot reports that Bryan Minkyu Martin, an enlisted sailor accused of attempted espionage and other charges, is scheduled to be court-martialed at Norfolk, Virginia on May 19th.
*
*
Frank Calabrese Jr, the Chicago hoodlum who testified against his Chicago "Outfit" mob father and other organized crime figures in the "Family Secrets" trial that devastated the Chicago mob, talked to John Kass at The Chicago Tribune about his new book, Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family.
Betsy Sharkey at The Los Angeles Times reviewed film critic Richard Schickel's new book, Conversations With Scorsese.I'm a big fan of Scorsese's classic crime films, Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino, so this is a book that I look forward to reading.
You can read my Crime Beat column on Scorsese's crime films via the below link:
http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2010/11/happy-birthday-to-martin-scorsese.html
The business web site Allbusiness.com posted my On Crime & Security column today.
In 1970 I was an 18-year-old sailor stationed in San Deigo, California, just prior to shipping out to Southeast Asia.
London, England (CNN) -- She is one of the best-known crime writers of all time but few know the extent of Agatha Christie's archaeological pedigree. Married in 1930 to eminent archaeologist Max Mallowan, Christie spent two decades living on excavation sites in the Middle East, writing her crime novels and helping out with her husband's work.
(The above British Museum photo shows Christie's husband Max Mallowan, Christie and Leonard Woolley at the Biblical ruins at Ur in 1931).
Travel by boat and on the Orient Express to far-flung places such as Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad inspired some of Christie's best-known works of detective fiction, including "Murder on the Orient Express," "Death on the Nile," and "Murder in Mesopotamia."
Now, 3,000-year-old ivory artifacts recovered by Mallowan between 1949 and 1963 from the ancient city of Nimrud, in what is now Iraq, and likely cleaned by his famous wife using cotton wool buds and face cream, go on display Monday at the British Museum in London.
You can read the rest of the CNN.com piece via the below link:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/03/12/uk.christie.writer.archaeology/#
The BBC reports that the classic British crime film Get Carter is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
FoxNews.com reports that retired U.S. Navy Admiral Bobby Ray Inman will lead the board of directors for Xe Services, the security company formerly known as Blackwater, USA.
U.S. Navy Petty Officer Bryan Minkyu Martin, the enlisted Naval intelligence specialist charged last Thursday with several counts of attempted espionage and mishandling classified information, will face those charges at Naval Station Norfolk, The Fay Observer reports.
I attended a press luncheon and preview of the Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America exhibit at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia last Thursday. I covered the preview for Counterterrorism magazine. 
My hope is that as a result of the debate over which True Grit film is better, the new Joel and Ethan Coen version starring Jeff Bridges, or the 1969 Henry Hathaway version starring John Wayne, film goers will go to the source material - the 1968 novel by Charles Portis.
Below is a Combined Maritime Forces News Release:
MANAMA, Bahrain, March 7, 2011 - A request for assistance from a Japanese-owned merchant vessel in the Somali Basin led to the crew of the Combined Maritime Forces warship USS Bulkeley securing the release of the vessel and its 24 crew members from four suspected pirates yesterday.
At about 3 p.m. local time March 5, the oil tanker Guanabara reported it was under attack 328 nautical miles southeast of Duqm, Oman.
USS Bulkeley, assigned to the Combined Task Force 151 counterpiracy mission, was directed to intercept Guanabara, supported by the Turkish warship TCG Giresun of NATO's counterpiracy Task Force 508.
(In the U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Anna Wade above, the crew of the USS Bulkeley freed a merchant vessel southeast of Oman, March 6, 2011).
Following confirmation from Guanabara's master that the suspected pirates were on board and his crew had taken refuge in the ship, Bulkeley's boarding team, supported overhead by its embarked SH-60 helicopter, secured the Bahamian-flagged vessel and detained four men.
There was no exchange of fire at any time during the operation, and the decision on what to do with the suspected pirates has yet to be made, officials said.
Commodore Abdul Aleem of the Pakistani navy, commander of Combined Task Force 151, praised the latest success in the international counterpiracy effort in a statement released yesterday.
"The ships and aircraft under my command have today scored a real and immediate victory through the disruption of a suspected act of piracy and the detention of individuals believed to be engaging in piracy," he said. "Through our mutual cooperation and shared coordination, CTF 151 and our partner organizations have prevented the kidnapping of legitimate mariners who sought only to go peacefully about their business. Today, there will be a merchant ship sailing freely that would not be doing so were it not for the efforts of CTF 151."
In accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions and in cooperation with nonmember forces, the Combined Maritime Forces mission is to disrupt piracy and armed robbery at sea and to engage with regional and other partners to build capacity and improve relevant capabilities to protect global maritime commerce and secure freedom of navigation, officials said.
(Below is a U.S Navy photo of the USS Bulkeley).
*
A U.S. Navy enlisted intelligence specialist has been charged with attempted espionage, The Virginian-Pilot reports.
From a U.S. Army Military District of Washington News Release FORT LESLEY J. MCNAIR, D.C., March 2, 2011 - After seven months of additional investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command and other investigative agencies, the Army has added 22 charges in the case of a military intelligence analyst accused of leaking classified material. The new charges against Pvt. 1st Class Bradley E. Manning allege that he introduced unauthorized software onto government computers to extract classified information, unlawfully downloaded it, improperly stored it, and transmitted the classified data for public release and use by the enemy. The investigation remains ongoing, officials said. "The new charges more accurately reflect the broad scope of the crimes that Private 1st Class Manning is accused of committing," said Capt. John Haberland, a legal spokesman for U.S. Army Military District of Washington. "The new charges will not affect Private 1st Class Manning's right to a speedy trial or his pretrial confinement." U.S. military officials in Baghdad preferred two charges consisting of 12 specifications against Manning on July 5. Officials said the commander of U.S. Army Headquarters Command Battalion preferred the new charges yesterday. In addition to a charge of aiding the enemy in violation of Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the new charges include 16 specifications under the UCMJ's Article 134: -- One specification of wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet knowing that it is accessible to the enemy; -- Five specifications of theft of public property or records, in violation of 18 U.S. Code 641; -- Eight specifications of transmitting defense information in violation of 18 U.S.C. 793(e); -- Two specifications of fraud and related activity in connection with computers in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1030(a)(1); and -- Five specifications in violation of Article 92 of the UCMJ for violating Army Regulations 25-2, "Information Assurance," and 380-5, "Department of the Army Information Security Program." The charge of aiding the enemy under Article 104 is a capital offense, officials said. However, they added, the prosecution team has notified the defense that the prosecution will not recommend the death penalty to the convening authority, Maj. Gen. Karl R. Horst, commanding general of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington. Under the UCMJ, the convening authority ultimately decides what charges to refer to court-martial, and whether to seek the death penalty if Article 104 is referred. Therefore, if convicted of all charges, Manning would face a maximum punishment of reduction to the lowest enlisted pay grade,; total forfeiture of all pay and allowances, confinement for life, and a dishonorable discharge. At the request of Manning's defense attorneys, the trial proceedings have been delayed since July 12, pending the results of a defense-requested inquiry into Manning's mental capacity and responsibility, pursuant to Rule for Courts-Martial 706. Depending on the results of the inquiry, an Article 32 hearing may follow, officials said. An Article 32 hearing is the civilian equivalent of a grand jury, with additional rights afforded to the accused, they explained. Manning remains confined in the Marine Corps Base Quantico brig in Quantico, Va. He was notified of the additional charges in person during a command visit today, officials said. Officials emphasized that Manning is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and added that the Army is committed to ensuring his continued safety and well-being while in pretrial confinement. |
In the 1960s James Bond was King at the box office and Sean Connery WAS James Bond, according to the movie advertisements.
You can read the newspaper story via the below link:
*
