If you missed my comments in the last post, I informed everyone that there will be no membership site. I ran the numbers, and I expect too little interest to go forward.
Here are my suggestions as news sources to take the place of 1913 Intel:
1. Sign up for my Pipes newsletter. This newsletter is automated [...]

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My website host, Dreamhost.Com, has started throttling (limiting resources) this site. Apparently, I’m using up too many resources.
I’m sorry to say that it looks like I’ll have to switch over to a subscription based model. I’ve been thinking about going to a subscription based model for some time now, because advertising doesn’t pay much. Donations [...]

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A New Cold war in the Caribbean?
The significance of the Izvestia bluster isn’t that the Russians could be coming again — Moscow’s Defense Minister later said any air force arrangement in Cuba would most likely involve stops for fuel rather than actual bases — but that they’ve returned to the idea of using the Caribbean [...]

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Drivers unlikely to see gas prices retreat to levels enjoyed for a generation
The two events, half a world apart, went largely unheralded.
Early this month, Valero Energy in Texas got the unwelcome news that Mexico would be cutting supplies to one of the company’s Gulf Coast refineries by up to 15 percent. Mexico’s state-owned oil enterprise [...]

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Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed nation, according to a report from several US charities.
The report found that the US ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on health care per person than any other country.
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The best global strategy for the US may be the one that won the Cold War
Yet, with the seventh anniversary of 9/11 approaching, it seems clear that policy makers have not responded particularly well. Islamic extremists are gaining strength, while America finds itself increasingly isolated in the world. The coalition of the willing, never overly [...]

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China, the drumbeat goes, is poised to become the 800-pound gorilla of the international system, ready to dominate the 21st century the way the United States dominated the 20th.
Except that it’s not.
Too many constraints are built into the country’s social, economic and political systems. For four big reasons — dire demographics, an overrated economy, [...]

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Iran’s president said Saturday his country now possesses 6,000 centrifuges, a significant increase in its nuclear program that is certain to further rankle the United States and others who fear Tehran is intent on developing weapons.
The new figure is double the 3,000 uranium-enriching machines Iran had previously said it was operating.
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‘Many people may die for lack of basic elements necessary’
A report from the federal Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack has painted a bleak picture for America under such attack: Electricity grids down, uncontrolled fires from exploding gas transport systems, no communication to summon firefighters and if [...]

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The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace [...]

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In Madden’s historically linked world, the defeat of Carthage in 204 B.C. is the mirror image of the D-Day invasion of World war II. The contempt the Greeks had for Romans even after Rome saved them from civil war is a historical analog to the Europeans’ anti-Americanism and arrogance even after the American military bailed [...]

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I like this article. Pat Buchanan is pointing out the obvious, but America can’t seem to see clearly.
Poland wants to charge us billions for permission to site a missile defense base on Polish soil. This is to defend Poland and other European countries, mind you. Are the Polish nuts?
Polls show that Europe is no [...]

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Blame it on a dull black substance called coltan, also known as columbite-tantalite, also occasionally dubbed “black gold.” Coltan has been a source material in the manufacture of cell phones, DVD players, computers, and you guessed it: game consoles. Earlier this month, Toward Freedom claimed the metallic ore had exacerbated a decade-old conflict in the [...]

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With the assistance of Israeli defense companies Israel Military Industries (IMI), Soltam and Elbit, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense is developing its indigenous defense industry to manufacture three modern artillery systems at its Petropavlovsk PZTM industrial complex to equip the Kazakh army (FGUP Rosoboroneksport, July 21). What is most striking about the three systems under development [...]

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In the area of advanced multirole fighters alone, the People’s Republic of China imported 100 Su-30MKK/MK2s over the past eight years, whereas Taiwan did not purchase any new combat aircraft. Nor did it procure any surface warships or submarines, except for one retired Keelung Class DDG from the United States. Taiwan virtually wasted the [...]

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Dutch author Leon de Winter talks with SPIEGEL about his new novel, which is set in 2024, the threats mounting against Israel and the assimilation of Muslims in Europe. more…

From the Archive: ‘We Are Making Fools of Ourselves in the Eyes of the World’
SPIEGEL 360: Our Full Middle East Coverage

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Despite Israel’s top-notch air force, launching a long-range strike against a multitude of hidden targets in Iran entails huge risks and uncertain rewards. At most, say Israeli intelligence sources, an attack — which Israel would only undertake with a nod and perhaps logistical support from the U.S. — is likely to stall Iran’s program by [...]

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Moscow officials hinted through the media on July 21 that Russian Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers, armed with nuclear-tipped long-range X-55 cruise missiles, may be deployed on Cuba, as an asymmetric response to the planned US deployments of missile defense systems in Europe. The bombers could refuel at one of Cuba’s airfields, where Russian [...]

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AFTER decades of dispute, China and Russia have at last reached agreement on where the entire length of their common border lies. On July 21st the two countries signed an accord on the last small stretch that had yet to be formally settled, putting an end to a quarrel that once came close to war. [...]

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Apparently, it never dawned on the writer of this article that perhaps China is positioning itself to survive a nuclear war because it may need to start one.
It’s expending a lot of resources to build bunkers under many of its major cities too. Why? This is pretty much a waste of money unless you plan [...]

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One source of angst is the sorry state of American capitalism (see article). The “Washington consensus” told the world that open markets and deregulation would solve its problems. Yet American house prices are falling faster than during the Depression, petrol is more expensive than in the 1970s, banks are collapsing, the euro is kicking sand [...]

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