Chinese president and commander-in-chief Hu Jintao urged the building of a powerful navy that is prepared "at any time" for military struggle, state media reported on Thursday.

At a meeting of delegates to a Communist Party meeting of the navy on Wednesday, Hu said China, whose military build-up has been a source of friction with the United States, was a major maritime country whose naval capability must be improved.

"We should strive to build a powerful navy that adapts to the needs of our military's historical mission in this new century and at this new stage," he said in comments splashed on the front pages of the party mouthpiece People's Daily and the People's Liberation Army Daily. "We should make sound preparations for military struggles and ensure that the forces can effectively carry out missions at any time," said Hu, pictured in green military garb for the occasion.

China's Hu calls for blue water navy - washingtonpost.com

It's about leadership.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Bush and his lieutenants now preoccupy themselves with operational matters that ought to fall within the purview of field commanders. That issues like these should now command presidential attention testifies to the administration's disarray.

The most pressing question is this: Does open-ended global war provide the proper framework for formulating an effective response to the threat posed by Islamic radicalism? Or has global war, based on various illusions about American competence and American power, led to a dead end?

America's failure in Iraq lends considerable urgency to this question. That no responsible member of this administration possesses the presence of mind, the imagination or the courage to address the issue head-on forms yet another part of the tragedy unfolding before our eyes.

I am reminded of Baghdad Bob. The scary thing is that Bob is starting to sound prescient in places.

"Baghdad? It will be a big oven for them."

"This invasion will end in failure."

"We are winning!"

"They are lying every day. They are lying always, and mainly they are lying to their public opinion."

"They are achieving nothing."

"Iraq will spread them even more and chop them up."

"They are becoming hysterical. This is the result of frustration."

"Please, please! The Americans are relying on what I called yesterday a desperate and stupid method."

"They do not even have control over themselves! Do not believe them!"

By reminding us of the obvious, noteworthy (among his other (past) nyms) is proving why he is currently MemeStreams's most recommended user.

Bush's illusions | Andrew Bacevich in IHT

Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, is pregnant.

Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting a baby, said Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for the vice president. The baby is due in late spring.

McBride declined to elaborate on the circumstances of Mary Cheney's pregnancy. Mary Cheney and Poe moved from Colorado to Virginia a year ago to be closer to the Cheney family.

Between this and the Iraq study group, uber right-wingers must be blowing their tops all over the place..

Vice president's lesbian daughter pregnant - CNN.com

Iran is ready to share its missile systems with friends and neighbors, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards said, after he showed off missiles including some he said had cluster warheads.

Guards commander-in-chief Yahya Rahim Safavi also told Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam TV late on Sunday the Guards had thousands of troops trained for suicide missions in case Iran was threatened although he said any U.S. attack was unlikely.

"We are able to give our missile systems to friendly and neighboring countries," Safavi told Al-Alam. A text of his comments in Farsi were obtained by Reuters on Monday.

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Sheibani, was quoted by Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency on Sunday as saying the Islamic Republic was ready to supply air defense systems -- without giving specifics -- to the Lebanese military.

"Tehran also considers this as its duty to help friendly countries which are exposed to invasion of the Zionist regime (Israel)," Sheibani was quoted saying, in response to what he said was a request by Lebanon's army commander, General Michel Suleiman, for help from friendly states.

Military experts said the exercises were to show off Iranian technology, although they say many systems are based on modified versions of equipment from other countries, such as North Korea.

Reuters | Iran ready to share missile systems with others

An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to enlist.

"Nobody is going over to Iraq anymore?" one student asks a recruiter.

"No, we're bringing people back," he replies.

"We're not at war. War ended a long time ago," another recruiter says.

One Colorado student taped a recruiting session posing as a drug-addicted dropout.

"You mean I'm not going to get in trouble?" the student asked.

The recruiters told him no, and helped him cheat to sign up.

Maybe this is what Kerry was joking about...

ABC News: Army Recruiters Accused of Misleading Students to Get Them to Enlist

The Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday sentenced a combative Saddam Hussein and two other defendants to death by hanging for a brutal crackdown in 1982 in the Shiite town of Dujail.

There will be automatic appeals for the four who were sentenced to death and life in prison.

CNN International is reporting that the appeals court judge is not held to any sort of time frame, but they are not being very clear about what that means. The vibe I'm getting from it, is that the appeals process will go fairly quickly. By Iraqi law, upon the verdict being upheld, the execution must occur within thirty days.

This begs a few questions.. Will the hanging be done in public? Will cameras be allowed?

Update: The article has been revised since I posted it.

Within 10 days, the court will forward the cases of Hussein and three other defendants to the appellate chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal. Appeals of death penalties and life sentences are automatic.

Within 20 days after the appeals are made, the prosecution and the defense must submit their documents to the appellate chamber.

A court official told The Associated Press the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted.

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging - CNN.com

Former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, who gained infamy as the man who orchestrated the largest corporate fraud in history, was sentenced to more than 24 years in jail Monday.

Judge Lake ordered Skilling to remain on house arrest until the Bureau of Prisons determined his date of incarceration. He denied the government's motion for Skilling to be taken into custody immediately.

In addition, Judge Lake denied defense attorney Daniel Petrocelli's request to lower the sentence by 10 months in order to allow Skilling to serve his sentence at a lower security- level penitentiary.

Instead, Lake recommended that Skilling served his sentence at a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Butner, N.C.

I guess that means he will either wind up here or here. I hope he enjoys all 24 years of the regular strip searches, the complete lack of privacy, and the lack of any luxuries.

Is this were we take bets on if he will commit suicide before his incarceration date?

Ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling gets 24 years in prison

The police team investigating allegations against President Moshe Katsav on Sunday recommended that the president be charged with rape, sexual assault, eavesdropping, fraud, breach of trust and improprieties in gift distribution.

The investigators presented their findings and recommendations for indictment to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and senior officials in the State Prosecutor's office, and said they had consolidated enough evidence to try the president.

The police also revealed Sunday that the president is suspected of purchasing dozens of gifts at hundreds of shekels apiece with money taken from the President's Residence budget. The police said there was evidence of intention to "carry out crimes of fraud and breach of trust."

The most serious charge Katsav could face is for the alleged rape of two women.

Haaretz | Israeli president may be charged with rape and fraud

This is another excellent post from the ArmsControlWonk about the (likely) failure of the DPRK nuke test. The entire post is suggested reading, but I must single out this snip as the most funny thing I've heard so far today:

I close this discourse about operational confidence by noting that the United States has built a missile defense that does not work, to defend against a North Korean missile that does not work, that would carry a nuclear warhead that does not work.

This is all very postmodern.

Hahahaha!!

ArmsControlWonk: So, like, why didn't it work?

This post about Iran/DPRK ties appears on the Counterterrorism Blog this morning:

Iran likely has at its disposal the same technology and blueprints that North Korea possesses. Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has admitted to supplying nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran, and Libya through a black market. His claim has been supported by international investigators, who found that Chinese nuclear designs that were probably supplied to Pakistan in the 1980s were later sold to Libya by Pakistani-led smugglers. Former UN arms inspector David Albright has been quoted as saying, "You have to almost conclude [that the Chinese design] went to Iran and . . . North Korea." Iran thus has blueprints for nuclear weapons technology that has been successful tested by two other countries, Pakistan and North Korea.

If the international community's reaction to the North Korean test is weak, that will further encourage Iran. As former Indian intelligence chief B. Raman stated on this week's installment of the always excellent Global Crisis Watch podcast:

Iran is watching how the international community is going to react to North Korea. . . . So the international community must be prepared for the possibility that North Korea is going to carry out a test and we must tailor our response and we must be ready with a basket of sanctions against North Korea. And the moment that it carries out that test those sanctions must be imposed so the message goes to North Korea as well as Iran. And once we take that first step what are the other options that are available for the international community we can discuss later. But if we defer and if we do not do anything immediately and if we go on discussing more and more with various groups and all, ultimately North Korea, Iran and Pakistan also -- the jihadi elements there -- they are going to get the wrong message, thinking the international community is weak, the international community will not act against them.

Moreover, close cooperation between North Korea and Iran in the past provides additional reason for concern. I previously blogged about a late 2005 Iranian purchase of eighteen disassembled BM-25 missiles from North Korea. Israel's intelligence chief reported that Iran received these missiles in late April of this year. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Intelligence reports uncovered in mid-2005 "accuse North Korea of secretly helping Iran develop its nuclear program." Reuters reported this August that both countries are cooperating on the development of long-range ballistic missiles. In fact, Iranian delegates were reportedly present when North Korea test-fired seven ballistic missiles in Japan's direction on July 5. North Korean experts are reportedly helping to bolster fortifications at Iranian nuclear facilities "in anticipation of possible preemptive strikes."

This is not a comprehensive account of the two countries' cooperation; even a surface-level examination reveals their ties. When a country successfully tests a nuclear weapon, that changes everything. Here, North Korea's test certainly changes the contours of the global war on terror.

Counterterrorism Blog: North Korea/Iran Cooperation Shows Implications of Nuclear Test