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The Taliban Surge in Pakistan: John Batchelor’s Hot Topic Tonight, with Larry Johnson

By SusanUnPC on April 26, 2009 at 12:05 AM in AfPak Border, John Batchelor, Larry Johnson, Open Thread, Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Southwest Asia, Taliban

LARRY JOHNSON’s SEGMENT CONCLUDED . TUNE IN NEXT SUNDAY, SAME TIME, SAME STATION, SAME LINK

O P E N T H R E A D T O O

John Batchelor’s show begins at 10 p.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show, via KFI 640 AM. [CLICK on this map to see it full-size. The map is from Bill Roggio's Long War Journal. Roggio is a guest with Larry Johnson tonight.]

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early. Here are the topics and fellow guests during Larry’s appearance:

735P: Professional Roundtable Larry Johnson, No Quarter, Bill Roggio, Long War Journal, Ann Marlowe, Tunku Varadarajan, re the Taliban surge south toward Rawalpindi.

750P: Continued re the Obama administration plan in Afghanistant, and with the Pakistan regime.

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

HERE is the full line-up of guests and topics tonight on KFI, from beginning to the program’s conclusion:

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KFI-AM 640

705P Pacific Time: Tim Starks, Congressional Quarterly, re the Obama adminsitration release of the Torture Memos and the Byzantine debate between the Hil and the White House and the GOP.

720P: Jeff Green, Bloomberg, re GM Said to Speed Plant, Model Cuts to Lower Break-Even Point: General Motors Corp., trying to avoid a U.S.-backed bankruptcy on June 1, may close plants and scrap models as much as four years sooner than planned to lower its break-even point.

735P: Professional Roundtable Larry Johnson, No Quarter, Bill Roggio, Long War Journal, Ann Marlowe, Tunku Varadarajan, re the Taliban surge south toward Rawalpindi.

750P: Continued re the Obama administration plan in Afghanistant, and with the Pakistan regime.

805P: Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, John Avlon, DailyBeast.com, Diana West, 100 Days of Obama, re the Torture Memos and the Watergate prosecution model.

820P: Continued re George Soros calls for torture investigation and how does the Obama administration stop it?

835P: Alec Russell, Financial Times, re the South African elections and the elevation of the contentious Jacob Zuma of the ANC to the new leadership. The failre and retreat of Mbeki.

850P: Bob Zimmerman, author, “Universe In A Mirror,” re NASA prep for Hubble rescue mission. Re Gliese 581 e and d (see below).

905P: Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, re the Durban II fiasco and the mass walkout of delegates, re the sudden alarm in the EU for the surging Taliban in Pakistan.

920P: Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, re Chinese official warns US on protectionism A top adviser to the Chinese government warned the US that a proposed border tax on carbon sensitive materials ‘smells of protectionism’ and could spark retaliation from developing countries

935P: Richard Beeman, author, “Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution,” continued re the drama and opera of the writing and rewriting of the Constitution by cranky, devious, sophisticated, ambitious young men, led by the bold and tireless James Madison in the spring and summer of 1787.

955P: Exeunt: Lou Ann Hammond, re the GM plant furloughs.

articlesortdate="0261694418.000000" articlesorttitle="orthodox easter sunday april 19, 2009 in ny, dc, sf, la." articlesortsource="" sourceindex="0" articlesortid="00000000000000000029" articlelocaldate="0262456484.377621" articleid="557304734dd991c2ea2a81a8464b24f61045432b">

Orthodox Easter Sunday April 19, 2009 in NY, DC, SF, LA.

John Batchelor

Is the Recession Over? (Smile.) 705P Eastern Time: Jon Hilsenrath, Wall Street Journal, re Ben Bernanke became Federal Reserve chairman intent on making the central bank less personality-driven than it was under Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. But as he confronts an economic crisis that has pushed the Fed to shatter precedent and lend trillions of dollars, Mr. Bernanke is waging a public-relations offensive that casts him in the starring role. Bernanke PR Push Rewrites Fed Script 720P: Joe Bel Bruno, Goldman CEO: New Pay Standards Needed Really wrote on Mon, 04/13/2009 – 1:43pm. So lets see: 1. Mark to maybe 2. Post bonus amounts later 3. Get an overnight…

Apr 17, 1:53 PM

Is the Recession Over? (Smile.)

705P Eastern Time: Jon Hilsenrath, Wall Street Journal, re Ben Bernanke became Federal Reserve chairman intent on making the central bank less personality-driven than it was under Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. But as he confronts an economic crisis that has pushed the Fed to shatter precedent and lend trillions of dollars, Mr. Bernanke is waging a public-relations offensive that casts him in the starring role. Bernanke PR Push Rewrites Fed Script

720P: Joe Bel Bruno, Goldman CEO: New Pay Standards Needed Reallywrote on Mon, 04/13/2009 – 1:43pm. So lets see: 1. Mark to maybe 2. Post bonus amounts later 3. Get an overnight deposit from the Fed to bloat the Balance Sheet 4. Postpone all accts payable (issue IOUs) 5. Send a big check to O 6. Pay HP his ghost retainer.

735P: Professional Roundtable with Jodi Schneider, Congressional Quarterly, John Fund, Diana West, DianaWest.net, re Tax Day and the Teabag parties, re Obama and MExico, re the new Border Czar.

750P: Continued re Homeland Security targets veterans? Re the Obama administration hesitates about waterboarding.

805P: John Bolton, AEI, Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, re North Korea breaks off with the IAEA and the Six Party Talks, re what is to be done? North Korea to Boycott Six-Party Talks

820P: Roundtable on North Korea continues, re the United NAtions Security Council, re Beijing refuses to agree to new sanctions, re the farility of the North Korea regime.

835P: Jim McTague, Barron’s, Financial Roundtable, John Tamny, Realclearmarkets.com, Tom Donlon, Barron’s, re the banks report profits, can we trust the banks? Re Goldman Sachs aims to pay back TARP, will the Obama administration accept the money?

850P: Continued re the bank stress tests are due May 4, does everyone pass? And what then?

905P: Malcolm Hoenlein, re Durban II conference opens in Geneva, re the United Nations and organized and hysterical anti-Israel propoganda.

920P: Aaron Klein, WND, re the Obama administration commits to the Saudie plan for parallel talks for a two-state solution, Israel and PA, Israel and Syria.

935P: Richard Beeman, author, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution, re the drama and opera of the writing and rewriting of the Constitution by cranky, devious, sophisticated, ambitious young men, led by the bold and tireless James Madison in the spring and summer of 1787.

955P: Exeunt with Joseph Menn, Financial Times, re Computer hackers stole more sensitive records last year than in the previous four combined, with ATM cards and PIN information growing in popularity as targets.

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KFI-AM 640

705P Pacific Time: Nicholas Casey, Wall Street Journal, re next month, shipping giant AP Moeller-Maersk will make a move that was unlikely ten years back. A line of 6000 container ships that now goes to Southern California will go instead dock at Seattle. Why?

720P: Dawn Kopecki, Bloomberg, re Fannie, Freddie Face Pressure to Revamp as Housing Collapse Wrecks Profits: Say good-bye to Fannie and Freddie as you know them. The bailed-out mortgage finance companies will emerge from their travails combined as one, broken up or with substantially reshaped missions.

735P: Professional Roundtable Larry Johnson, No Quarter, Bill Roggio, Long War Journal, Hussein Yusuf, Somali national, re the pirates of Somalia, re Somali Extremists Have al Qaeda Ties By Ali Soufan Another failed state has become a training ground for terrorists.

750P: Continued re the pirates of Somalia continued, re the prospect of a stable Somalia government.

805P: Barbara Kolm-Lamprechter, Hayek Institute, re the Austrian School of economics, re the prospect of recovery from the financial crisis.

820P: Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, re the California economy and the sharp rise in unemployment, re the housing market collapse, re the

835P: Mark Rudd, author, “Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen,” re the 40 year travail of the outspoken and precocious leader of the Columbia University protest 1968, his life in the Weathermen, his life as a fugitive. Nostalgiac, sparse, banal, fascinating.

850P: Bob Zimmerman, author, “Universe In A Mirror,” re NASA prep for Hubble rescue mission, re Kepler opens its eye and sends initial pics of its portion of the sky in Cygnus, re the aimless space policy of the Obama administration.

905P: Jim Rogers, Rogers Investment, from Singapore, re the prospect of a China led worldwide recovery, re the continuing commodity bull market, re the coming bull market in farm food.

920P: Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, re Vietnam and the Obama administration, re Vietnam and the worldwide downturn in trade.

935P: Dave Cullen, author, “Columbine,” re the April 20, 1999 massacre and ten years after, the continuing silence of the parents, the remains of the mystery, the measure of Harris as a psychopath and Klebold as a companions in the homicial dyad like Bonnie and Clyde, re the still damaged lives of the victims, the survivors, the loved ones of the lost.

955P: Exeunt: Lou Ann Hammond, re the GM shedding of Saturn, Hummer, GMAC, Saab, and?

http://noquarter foxyladi14

wow..Larry.this is going to be a good one..
Pakistan

The Taliban are not much a threat to Pakistan. The rise of the Pakistani Taliban in the Pushtun areas and in some districts of Punjab is worrisome, the cosmic level of concern being expressed makes no sense to me. Some 55 percent of Pakistanis are Punjabi, and with the exception of some northern hardscrabble areas, I can’t see any evidence that the vast majority of them has the slightest interest in Talibanism. Most are religious traditionalists, Sufis, Shiites, Sufi-Shiites, or urban modernists. At the federal level, they mainly voted in February 2008 for the Pakistan People’s Party or the Muslim League, neither of them fundamentalist. The issue that excercised them most powerfully recently was the need to reinstate the civilian Supreme Court justices dismissed by a military dictatorship, who preside over a largely secular legal system. It is not clear where the Taliban would get its base of support to rule a country as big and secular as Pakistan.

Opinion polling shows that even before the rounds of violence of the past two years, most Pakistanis rejected Muslim radicalism and violence. The stock of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda plummeted after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The Pakistani Taliban amount to a few thousand fighters who lack tanks, armored vehicles, and an air force.

The Pakistani military is the world’s sixth largest, with 550,000 active duty troops and is well equipped and well-trained. It in the past has acquitted itself well against India, a country ten times Pakistan’s size population-wise. It is the backbone of the country, and has excellent command and control, never having suffered an internal mutiny of any significance.
Docelder

O.K. but has Pakistan ever prepared in recent times for an enemy that was not India? The border dispute style of fighting by shooting mortars back and forth with India in largely uninhabited areas seems to be quite different from the guerrilla style of fighting with the Taliban which is quickly moving to more highly populated areas. Put this in “street” terms, how do you identify a gang member when everybody wears the same gang uniform? Especially when they have to wear the uniform including the full beard? If Pakistan was ready for this, we wouldn’t be talking about it.
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2009/04/30/pakistan-nukes-the-taliban/ Pakistan: Nukes & The Taliban : NO QUARTER

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