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Turning off the lights in Afghanistan
By Lucky Gold, CNN
Just as President Obama considers accelerating the exit of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the prospects for peace and prosperity there may be dimming – literally.
The Kajaki Dam on the Helmand River symbolizes all that has gone right and wrong in Afghanistan.
It was built by American contractors in the 1950s, and survived both the Soviet invasion and Taliban rule after that.
Since the beginning of this latest Afghan war, the U.S. has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade hydro-electric generators in order to bring electricity to three hundred thousand people and bolster agriculture in the region.
At an even greater cost, the U.S. and NATO have committed the lives of coalition forces to protect the workers from insurgents bent on killing them and destroying the projects.
Afghans have vowed that the work will go on, but the price – both in blood and treasure – only keeps rising. With the United States’ imminent withdrawal, the dam could become vulnerable again.
Now, it seems that unless Afghans are willing to pay for it with money and manpower, the lights – and the hopes of a people – will be extinguished.
Former CIA official: 'War is hell. Get over it.'
By Mick Krever, CNN
Every so often, politics and moviemaking coincide in a way that aligns the attentions of both Hollywood and Washington.
The release of Zero Dark Thirty, the graphic film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, is such a moment.
Detractors say it overemphasizes the positive role of torture, and that the CIA may have over-shared operational details with its writer.
But on the day it was nominated for a best picture Academy Award, a former top CIA official, while admitting that there may not have been a “direct correlation” between torture and the bin Laden breakthrough, said torture’s importance in the broad fight against al Qaeda should not be minimized.
“I would categorize what we got from detainees as equally as important as things like human-source intelligence and technical intelligence,” Philip Mudd told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour said. “It was critical.”
FULL POST
How to jump-start a movement: changing U.S. gun culture
By Mick Krever, CNN
Want to change American gun culture? Ask Candace Lightner.
Thirty years ago, she did more than almost anyone else to change another seemingly entrenched aspect of American culture: drunk driving.
When her 13-year-old daughter was struck and killed by a drunk driver, there was a cavalier attitude towards driving under the influence.
“Unlike gun violence, which has always been abhorred, drunk driving was joked about, talked about, accepted,” Lightner told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “I called it the only socially acceptable form of homicide in this country.”
Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) – her first office was in her daughter’s bedroom – and became a fierce advocate for change.
“My first thought was to protect my children and anyone else from seeing this happen,” she said. “My second thought was to punish the man who was responsible for the crime. The third thought actually was to change the system that I felt allowed this man to continue to drink and drive.”
Lightner said she, from the very beginning, had a broad strategy for her campaign. She worked on every level of American society, from neighborhood groups to the president, Ronald Reagan, encouraging them to form task forces and change laws.
For the advocates of change in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Lightner distilled four critical elements from her fight: passion, practicality, public support, and an appeal to personal accountability.
Activists already have the passion and public support, she said, though they must seize the momentum of support before it inevitably fades. The practicality, she said, “is hard to understand in the beginning.”
As she successfully lobbied her governor at the time, Jerry Brown, and President Reagan to organize drunk driving task forces, she encouraged them to bring all stake holders to the table.
The alcohol industry was vehemently opposed to raising the drinking age to twenty one, she said, but “if you can get them to agree to most of it, you will get [the initiatives] passed, and you can move forward. But you need everybody involved.”
The NRA, Lightner admits, is a more formidable foe than the alcohol industry, which had no inherent stake in allowing people to drink and drive.
But allowing such easy access to guns is “like leaving your [car] keys around the house when you have an alcoholic in the home,” she said.
As for President Obama’s promise to “pull together real reforms right now,” Lightner was skeptical.
“I honestly believe that we need to do much more,” she said. “I’ve heard wonderful suggestions on this show and other shows over the past few days – they’re going to go into the [ether]. They’re not going to go anywhere, unless you get all of these people together and you actually make a plan to adopt these solutions.”
CNN's Ken Olshansky produced this story for television.
How moms can stop America’s gun violence
By Samuel Burke and Lucky Gold, CNN
Could a grass roots movement change America's permissive gun laws in the wake of the massacre of six- and seven-year-olds?
It happened thirty years ago, when a grieving mother named Candy Lightner turned her anguish into action and created Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or “MADD”.
She did that in 1980, just days after she buried her 13-year-old daughter Cari. MADD’s first office was Cari's bedroom.
From there she launched a movement that changed the way Americans and America’s laws treat drunk driving. And it soon spread to the rest of the world. MADD now has 600 chapters in all fifty states.
The result?
Since 1991, drunk driving deaths have been cut by almost 40%. And for the first time on record, the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths dipped below ten thousand.
The loss of one child helped change America’s drinking culture.
Will the loss of twenty young lives mark a sea change when it comes to tolerating military style weapons on America's streets?
Could the NRA become obsolete?
By Samuel Burke, CNN
The NRA might run the risk of being obsolete, according to Eliot Spitzer.
The former New York governor says America's most powerful gun lobby has two choices: Either it can "revert to their normal posture ... and refuse to compromise," Spitzer told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an interview Monday. Or, he believes, the NRA can pivot: remain strong gun advocates, but encourage their membership in to help limit certain gun rights.
If they do not, Spitzer believes the organization runs the risk of becoming politically irrelevant and their membership might drift away.
Analysis of President Morsy's address
Analysis of President Mohamed Morsy's address to Egypt and a discussion about the proposed Egyptian constitution with Harvard associate professor Tarek Masoud. He is the author of a forthcoming book on Islamic political parties.
Arab Spring knocking at Jordan’s door
By Samuel Burke, CNN
The Arab Spring has spared Jordan’s monarchy, but the foreign minister says it cannot be ignored.
“The Arab Spring has affected Jordan - a gentle breeze, as I keep saying, as opposed to the turbulent winds we saw in other countries,” Nasser Judeh told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Tuesday.
Small outbursts in Jordan have turned into increasingly large protests. Islamists have taken to the street, along side ordinary people who are protesting increasing utility costs, corruption and a lack of reforms.
Shouts that King Abdullah II must go have been heard, but Judeh dismissed them, saying “It's a few people who did that in an atmosphere of an angry reaction over lifting subsidies on fuel products. So it's unfair to say ‘the people are asking.’”
Judeh defended Jordan’s constitutional monarchy and went as far as to say that King Abdullah II is the consensus figure for the country.
“He's the guarantor of the reform process; he's the facilitator of dialogue. And at the end of the day, he's the one who's leading this reform process” Judeh told Amanpour. FULL POST
A Syrian ‘opposition prime minister' ?
By Mick Krever, CNN
A Syrian “opposition prime minister” could be named within a few days, according to France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
Last month, France became the first European power to recognize the Syrian opposition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people, and in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday, Fabius said he has faith in the leadership of the group.
“If we want to get rid of Bashar al-Assad, we have to show that the alternative is reasonable, and efficient,” Fabius said. “And we’ve met this coalition. The leaders of the coalition are nice people. They are not corrupt. They are dedicated to the country. And they are more and more united, which was and is an absolute necessity.” FULL POST
Egyptian PM: Morsy's edict could be moot in 12 days
A controversial edict issued by Egypt's president - which spurred vigorous, sometimes violent protests by those calling it a dictatorial power grab - "will fall immediately" if voters approve a new constitution later this month, the country's prime minister said.
Echoing President Mohamed Morsy and other government officials, Prime Minister Hesham Kandil said the November 21 decree that made Morsy's past and future decisions immune to judicial oversight was issued "to protect the process of building the democratic institutions."
Regardless, Kandil told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that it should be a moot point after December 15, when Egyptians will approve or reject a new constitution in a nationwide referendum.
"We're talking about one hour (and) 12 days until this declaration drops," the prime minister said late Monday night. "So I don't think people should worry about the declaration. We should now worry about what is coming, which is the constitution." FULL POST
NATO set to send missiles to Turkey’s border
By Samuel Burke, CNN
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen confirmed on Monday that the military alliance is expected to deploy Patriot missiles to Turkey's border as a preventive measure against spillover from Syria’s civil war.
Rasmussen told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he anticipates that foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday would make a decision the same day and expects them to “respond positively” to the Turkish requests.
Three locations along Turkey’s southeast border with Syria have already been identified as possible locations for the Patriot missiles, which would come from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, and would take just weeks to deploy according to Rasmussen.
U.S. officials tell CNN that they are increasingly concerned that Bashar al-Assad is preparing chemical weapons for use. FULL POST
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