PrairiePundit

Washington Times: The U.K.’s government is seriously considering placing all convicted Islamist terrorist prisoners in the country in a single secure super jail, but the idea is raising red flags among counterterrorism experts. The “British Alcatraz” would overturn 50 years of dispersing dangerous prisoners in the system and is expected to be backed by a review set up by the justice secretary, Michael Grove, to examine how the 130 convicted jihadi terrorists are dealt with behind bars, The Guardian  reported . Earlier this week, Prime Minister David Cameron hinted at the idea during a speech on prison reform, saying he was ready to consider major changes in the location of convicted terrorist prisoners to prevent them from recruiting even more convicts within the prisons who are at a higher risk of radicalization. We will not stand by and watch people being radicalised like this while they are in the care of the state. … And I want to be clear — I am prepared to consider major ch...

BBC: Argentina judge orders asset seizure of Falklands oil firms This is why sane businesses should avoid investments in Argentina as long as the current government of thieves is in place.   The government of Argentina continues to push a bogus claim of ownership of the Falklands and is trying to seize the assets of companies lawfully doing business there.

Telegraph: Argentina president attacks 'ill-mannered' Cameron over Falklands Argentina has no basis for a claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.  That this woman persists in being a pest about it demonstrates her lack of judgment and concern for more valid issues that effect her misgoverned country.

Fuel Fix: Noble Energy announced Monday that it has scooped up additional acres offshore the Falkland Islands and plans to start drilling there this year despite opposition from Argentina’s government. The Houston-based oil company acquired a 75 percent interest in a license in the North Falkland Basin from Argos Resources Limited, an oil and gas exploration company based in the Falkland Islands. Noble will also be the operator. Italy-based Edison International acquired the remaining 25 percent. The license covers nearly 285,000 acres and includes the Rhea prospect, which could contain more than 250 million barrels of oil equivalent, the company said. Noble and Edison agreed to pay Argos a 5 percent royalty on any future production in the block. Despite slashing its budget by 40 percent this year and paring back spending in U.S. shale plays and the Gulf of Mexico, Noble retained funding to pay for drilling two exploratory wells off the coast of the Falkland Islands, which are located...

Bloomberg/Fuel Fix: The U.K. and Argentina summoned each others’ ambassadors as Britain stepped up its defenses of the Falkland Islands and the South American nation filed criminal charges against oil companies operating in the area. The Argentine Foreign Ministry said it called in the U.K. ambassador to explain the defense spending and revelations by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the U.K. had spied on the Argentine government since 2009. Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro was questioned by the U.K. after President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said the islands will be Argentine sooner or later, the Telegraph reported, citing a Foreign Office spokesman it didn’t identify. The Argentine government “expressed its discomfort” at recent comments by U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon in which he alleged “a supposed and improbable Argentine ‘threat,’” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday. The U.K. will spend 180 million pounds ($270 mi...

Express: The aircraft, which Moscow will swap for beef and wheat, would be able to mount air patrols over Port Stanley. Ministry of Defence officials fear Buenos Aires would take delivery of the planes well before the deployment in 2020 of the Navy’s 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and its F-35B fighters, leaving a “real window of vulnerability”. Defence cuts have left the Falklands with just four RAF Typhoon fighters, Rapier surface-to-air missiles and fewer than 1,200 troops, supported by a naval warship that visits throughout the year. President Putin’s visit to Argentina in July laid the groundwork for exchanging Russian military hardware for wheat, beef and other goods Moscow needs due to EU food embargoes. The deal involves a lease/lend of 12 Sukhoi Su-24 supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft. They are ageing but Nato still regards what it codenames “Fencers” as “super-fighters”, with their 2,000-mile range and laser-guided missiles. ... This is...

Express: The Argentine Embassy in London tonight issued a statement warning British companies and individuals they face prison sentences of up to 15 years. Fines equivalent to the value of 1.5 million barrels of oil–about £100million at current prices–would also be levied. The move by Buenos Aeries is a major ratcheting of the tension in the region and has triggered a furious response by the Foreign Office reminding Argentina that the Falklands are British sovereign territory. The new law means companies would also be banned from operating in Argentina and any oil found or exploration equipment would be confiscated. The statement said the Argentine Embassy in London has already sent more than 200 letters to companies directly or indirectly involved and “warning them they are liable to administrative, civil and criminal actions in accordance with the laws governing such activities, including environmental protection laws”. Argentina, which has previously made formal protests to London...

Ken Allard: The death of Margaret Thatcher provides a timely object lesson in the practicalities of deterring North Korea , Iran , the Assad regime in Syria and similarly bad actors. Following our return from Bosnian peacekeeping duties, NATO colleagues were hosting a group of us in a British officers’ mess outside London. One of the club’s few concessions to modernity was a heroic painting of Margaret Thatcher surrounded by her supreme war council. The artist had captured the colorful bevy of impressive uniforms and stern male visages as the group solemnly contemplated a map of the remote Falkland Islands . “You know, much of that campaign was actually planned right here,” our British host pointed out with an expansive gesture toward the painting. “Oh yeah?” replied a hard-bitten American paratrooper. “Well, then the caption should be: Which one of these people had [guts]? ’Cause that lady had more than most of her generals.” She did indeed — and more than most of her other male...

CNN: British Prime Minister David Cameron was very pleased with citizens of the Falkland Islands Tuesday. The day before, they said overwhelmingly that they want to remain a part of the family. Residents of the island off the coast of Argentina voted almost unanimously to remain a British Overseas Territory, an official said late Monday. "I am delighted with this result," Cameron said. "It's the clearest possible result there could be, and the fact is that the Falkland Islands maybe thousands of miles away, but they are British through and through and that is how they want to stay." He said that Argentina should respect the will of the islanders and that the UK "will always be there to defend them." The question put to voters was: "Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?" More than 99% of voters said yes, according to Darren Christie, public relations manager...

Washington Post: More than 30 years after Argentina’s unsuccessful invasion of the Falkland Islands, a fresh war of words has broken out over the sovereignty of the British territory, a rocky archipelago about 8,000 miles from London but harboring outsize importance to both countries. The latest bout of controversy erupted after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner issued a scathing letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron, which also ran as an open note to the British public Thursday in London’s Guardian newspaper. She demanded negotiations to hand over the islands, insisting that Britain was in violation of a 1960 U.N. resolution seeking to “end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.” The letter sparked immediate indignation in Britain’s halls of power, with the notoriously zealous British tabloids joining the fray Friday. Rupert Murdoch’s Sun tabloid took out an advertisement in the Buenos Aires Herald , warning Argentines to keep their “hands off” ...

IBD: Another Outrageous Slight To Britain Over The Falklands The Obama administration has pulled another fast one on our top ally, Britain, refusing to say if it will accept results of a Falklands referendum. This from the same crew that hailed elections in Russia and Venezuela. Two days before the 30th anniversary of Britain's liberation ... In fact why are they calling this "smart diplomacy?"  There is nothing legitimate about the Argentine claims to sovereignty over the Falklands.  It is just another example of the greed of the current regime.

Telegraph: The Argentine foreign ministry on Monday declared "illegal and clandestine" the activities of Desire Petroleum, Falkland Oil and Gas, Rockhopper Exploration, Borders and Southern Petroleum, and Argos Resources on the grounds that they are drilling in Argentine waters. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said the companies were operating "in a sovereign area of the Argentine nation and as such fall within its specified laws and rules". The companies "are not authorised by the Argentine government under law 17.319 on hydrocarbons", she added. According to the Argentine foreign ministry, her declaration opened the way for the "immediate launch" of criminal proceedings. However, the UK Government said the moves were the "latest attempts to damage the economic livelihoods" of the islands and said it would work with any company potentially affected to help them deal with the practical implications. "Hy...

Charles Moore: Thirty years ago this coming Monday, British troops began to land at San Carlos Bay in the Falkland Islands. Just over three weeks later, the Argentine forces surrendered to them. This weekend in Portsmouth, the Navy Museum is organising a commemorative conference, and a dinner on HMS Victory. The keynote speech will come from John Lehman, who was the US navy secretary at the time. Today Mr Lehman is the most senior foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger to Barack Obama in this year’s presidential election. Mr Lehman will explain how, contrary to current historical orthodoxy, the Americans helped Britain instinctively, secretly and right from the start of the Falklands war. He should know, because he did it. Mr Lehman’s key point is that this help came from the bottom up. So great were what were called “the customary patterns of cooperation” between Britain and the US that they could provide the cover for a huge operation. Weeks ...

Telegraph: In its latest escalation of rhetoric over the disputed islands, Argentina said it had written to Falkland Oil & Gas (FOGL), Borders & Southern, Rockhopper, Desire Petroleum and Argos Resources on April 17, to "notify them of their illicit actions and their consequences". "In case of failure to offer a response and once the deadline expires, administrative sanctions will be imposed to each company within the framework of an Energy Secretariat resolution which deems these activities illegal," it said. "The Argentine government will also press criminal and civil charges." It gave no details of the form in which it intended to pursue such action, however. None of the explorers has any assets in Argentina and the British Foreign Office has said it is "deeply sceptical" that Argentina could pursue penalties against such companies in foreign courts. Argentina said in March it planned to sue the explorers, but this is t...

Telegraph: Barack Obama makes Falklands gaffe by calling Malvinas the Maldives He also said the US would be neutral in the ridiculous claim by Argentina of ownership of the Falkland Islands. This is while British troops have been fighting in Afghanistan and elsewhere as our allies and Argentina has not.  The man does not seem to know who our friends are. The Maldives are near India, and Malvinas is the name Argentina uses for the Falklands.

Fausta: The Latin American media’s having a ball with this one. During a joint press conference with Colombian president Santos,  Obama said , “In terms of the Maldives, or the Falklands, whatever your preferred tern, our position is that… ah… that we’re going to remain neutral.” ...  Why?  The Argentina claims are absurd.  On top of that they are ruled by on incompetent socialist who is making the country poorer with her ridiculous farm policies.  The Brit's need to be careful when Obama is behind them.  He may be getting ready to knife them in the back.

Washington Post: Thirty years after Argentina’s failed invasion of the Falkland Islands, President Cristina Fernandez is ratcheting up pressure by trying to isolate the archipelago’s English-speaking inhabitants while heaping scorn on a British government that has refused to relinquish control.  Argentina’s efforts, calculated to force Prime Minister David Cameron’s government into sovereignty negotiations, come at a poignant moment for Argentina: the anniversary of the land-and-sea assault launched against the islands on April 2, 1982, by a waning dictatorship.  Though lasting just 74 days, the war had all the hallmarks of a fierce conventional conflict, complete with sunken warships, the firing of Exocet missiles, artillery bombardments, amphibious landings, aerial dogfights and more than 900 deaths.  Argentina, now ruled by a democratic government, condemns the military junta that made the decision to invade in a last-gasp effort to save its crumbling hold on p...

Telegraph on Sunday: The Rattenbach Report is so critical of  Argentina's  military leadership that the last dictator ordered it kept secret for 50 years. ... A version of the report was leaked decades ago, and its conclusions are not a surprise: the junta planned for an easy occupation, gambling the US would support them and Britain would simply let the islands fall into Argentine hands. Then Argentina's ill-equipped army had to scramble into a war footing after Margaret Thatcher sent a task force 8,000 milesinto the South Atlantic to take the islands back.   The report confirms Argentine soldiers were sent from the subtropics into winter conditions without proper clothing, food or weapons, and were treated as cannon fodder by their own officers - pushed into battle without having had basic training in weaponry and combat. "Troops weren't adapted or equipped to handle the weather or the living conditions," and yet they had to face "...

Guardian: The  Falkland Islands  newspaper the Penguin News has triggered uproar on Argentinian social networks by calling President  Cristina Fernández de Kirchner   a bitch . The newspaper's website uploaded a photo of Fernández briefly using the insult as a file name on Wednesday, a day after she  accused Britain of militarising  the south Atlantic islands. The word triggered an immediate avalanche of complaints and abuse from Argentinians, reflecting heightened sensitivity towards the archipelago in the runup to the 30th anniversary of the war with Britain. The Buenos Aires daily La Nacion said the word, "perra" in Spanish, was a strong "anglo-saxon term ... signifying disrespect". Within hours more than 2,000 readers responded  with comments, many vitriolic . The Penguin News, which is printed weekly and online updated daily, usually has a tiny readership – the islands have a population of 3,000 – but the escalating diplomatic row betwe...

Sunday Telegraph: Britain could not reclaim Falklands, warns General It is a point I have made in recent post.  It is especially true with Obama in the White House where they could expect no support. But the Guardian finds doubts growing in Argentina. 'The Falklanders eat fish and chips. How can they belong to Argentina?' 28 Jan 2012:  A growing number of young Argentinians are questioning their nation's claim to the disputed islands