And waving our red weapons o'er our heads
Let's all cry 'Peace, Freedom, Liberty!'
Shakespeare - Julius Caesar
Saturday 29 May 2010
Could Russia Broker Middle East Peace?
If America can't broker peace in the Middle East, is it time for the Russians to step in? They have a long history with the region – and aren't hobbled by an Israeli lobby. Link
Friday 28 May 2010
Bomb Disposal Deaths (2 in a year) 'Unacceptable' Says Coroner
Wednesday 26 May 2010
Obama At West Point
Speaking to graduating cadets at West Point last Saturday, President Obama noted the "ultimate sacrifice" of 78 of their predecessors who gave up their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he did not mention that just days before, five U.S. soldiers were killed in Kabul, bringing the toll of American dead in Afghanistan to over 1,000. The picture here could be captioned ' Yippee - let's go zap Charlie Towelhead'. How does Obama think this stuff (including the images) plays across the world and in the Middle East?
Tuesday 25 May 2010
Latest NATO Killings - Whitewash Unravels
Criminal Investigation of US Soldiers
At least 10 U.S. Army soldiers from a troubled unit of the 2nd Infantry Division in southern Afghanistan are now the focus of a criminal investigation into allegations they deliberately killed Afghan civilians, used illegal drugs and conducted other illicit activities,according to several sources in Afghanistan. The soldiers are part of the 5th Stryker Brigade of the 2ID, based out of Fort Lewis, Washington. The military issued a brief statement last week saying a criminal probe was under way into the allegations of killing, illegal drug use, assault and conspiracy. One military official familiar with the details of the case told reporters the matter was brought to the attention of commanders by at least one other soldier. The killings of the civilians did not take place in one single incident, the official said. Those under investigation are members of the same company, the official said. All 10 remain in Afghanistan. One soldier is being held in detention known as "pre-trial confinement." The others have been "put in a position where they can do no harm," the official said. He would offer no other details. Charges are expected to be filed in the coming days. The U.S. military is bracing for a further public outcry in Afghanistan when details emerge, several officials said. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has claimed to make the 'protection of Afghan civilians a top priority'. The officials stressed this case appears to be one of deliberate murder, not civilian casualties as a result of combat.
Sunday 23 May 2010
Villagers Fleeing Marja
All of Sayed Mohammad's family are piled into a tractor alongside some furniture and three chickens.
Mohammad’s dirty turban signals his poverty, and his four children, covered in dust, look frightened and try to hide in their mother’s arms.
“Marja will never be secure,” he said. “In the past, there was only Taliban oppression, but now the government and foreigners have also joined in. I don’t know who is more cruel. I had to leave Marja.”
Pale-faced and angry, Mohammad claimed that the Taliban warn they will soon triumph in Marja, and have called for residents to send their brothers and sons to fight in the cause of jihad.
“I don’t want my poor brother to be killed,” he said.
Some 15,000 Afghan and international troops forced 2,000 Taliban fighters to retreat from their stronghold of Marja in Helmand province earlier this year during Operation Moshtarak.
After the offensive, aimed at taking control of a major heroin-producing area, the Afghan defence minister, General Abdul Rahim Wardak, told reporters, “Our objectives are to strengthen government control in Marja, to reconstruct Marja and to make the Marja people secure.”
But the deteriorating security situation in the province is now causing increasing numbers of Marja residents to flee. Caught between fear of the foreign forces and counter-attacks by Taliban fighters, many say they have no choice but to seek refuge in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
According to the Red Cross office in Helmand, most of the displaced are poor families who left their homes for Lashkar Gah due to security concerns.
The head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society’s Helmand office, Ahmadullah Ahmadi, said 117 families left in early May alone and he warned that the situation was deteriorating.
“People are living in very bad conditions; there are no jobs, the fighting is starting again, and this situation has compelled the residents to leave Marja, he said. “We don’t have enough resources to help them.”
Crossing the bridge over the Helmand river in a small Mazda lorry filled with children and women wearing green burqas, Khan Zaman said he was moving to Lashkar Gah because his house had been repeatedly searched by American troops.
“It was terrifying. One day they might accuse me of being a Taliban or al-Qaeda member and send me to Guantanamo prison. So I have to leave,” he said.
A spokesman for US forces could not be reached for comment on the charge but the Marja district governor, Haji Mohammad Zaher, has denied the existence of any such problem.
At a news conference in early May, he told journalists that reports of internally displaced residents were false.
“These families are mainly those who have committed major crimes in the past. Now, when the area is under government control, they do not feel safe and flee the district,” he insisted.
Colonel Ghulam Sakhi, head of the public order department in Marja, also claimed the situation in Marja was satisfactory. He said that those who were leaving the province were not residents.
“I can show you the list of 16 families who had migrated from Uruzgan during Taliban rule and were active in the poppy trade. Now they have harvested their poppy and left Marja. This has nothing to do with the security situation in Marja,” he said.
However, a source close to the Marja district governor, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that security conditions were deteriorating and people were leaving the district.
“The Taliban are changing their tactics day by day; they keep planting mines and are also conducting small-arms attacks, but they mainly put pressure on those who have connections with the government,” he said.
Since the beginning of Operation Moshtarak, 13 tribal elders have been assassinated by the Taliban for assisting the government, according to security sources.
The head of the Helmand rural rehabilitation and development department, Mohammad Omer Qani, also said that people were leaving Marja because of the troubles they face.
“Those leaving Marja are not government officials or Taliban fighters who should be afraid of their criminal deeds. The truth is that they are faced with challenges and everybody is making trouble for them,” he said,
Published courtesy of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Friday 21 May 2010
US To Command British Troops - Final Humiliation?
8,000 British soldiers from the occupation force are to come under direct command of General Richard Mills of the US Marine Corps.Under the arrangements, expected to be implemented by the end of the summer, the existing Regional Command (South) will be split into two new headquarters based in Helmand and Kandahar. Build up to the Kandahar Offensive which is being incompetently lined up
There will be a new Regional Command (South West) based in Helmand and the first commander will be Maj Gen Mills. It has been agreed in principle that this rotational command will be shared between US and UK forces.The existing Regional Command (South), headquartered in Kandahar, is under the command of British Major General Nick Carter. Also under the changes, the command of the 1,100-strong British battle group based in Sangin, scene of some of the bloodiest fighting involving British troops, and Kajaki will transfer to a US-led force from June 1.
The changes were announced by Major General Gordon Messenger at a press briefing at MoD headquarters in central London. He said: "This command and control change makes complete sense and is welcome. The span and complexity of the command challenge in southern Afghanistan has increased enormously in recent months and these changes provide the best command support to the troops on the ground."
The new strategy follows negotiations between the US, Britain and the other main contributors to the Isaf force. It has proved sensitive in Britain and until now UK troops answered to Maj Gen Carter, who was in charge of the whole of southern Afghanistan. Maj Gen Messenger said that when Maj Gen Carter left his post in November as commander of Regional Command (South) the "likelihood" was that his replacement would be an American Army two-star commander. Asked if the announcement meant Britain was effectively giving up its responsibilities and handing them over to the Americans, Maj Gen Messenger said: "That is simply not the case, this is us doing exactly the same job as we have been doing up to now, under slightly different arrangements.The whole business of a greater American presence is a reflection of the scale of the challenges that the British have faced in Helmand.'' Standard NATO/ISAF bullshit, in other words. "I think we should take considerable pride of the families and the soldiers themselves should take enormous pride in the fact that for several years they were facing that challenge without this level of force." Oh,should we now?
Tuesday 18 May 2010
Not Only NATO Massacre Civilians In Afghanistan
But the difference is that NATO are supposed to be there to protect the civilians (cue hollow laughter).
Saturday 15 May 2010
Nato In Denial As Usual About Latest Bloodbath
From Reuters, Saturday:
A Nato spokesman confirmed foreign and Afghan forces had conducted some opErations in the area but said he was not aware of any civilian deaths and the alliance was 'checking' the incident.
Friday 14 May 2010
11 More Civilians Killed in 'Night Raids'
Protests erupted on Friday after a Nato-led raid overnight in a village in Surkhrod district angered residents who said the raid killed innocent civilians. So-called "night raids" on Afghan houses by foreign troops in the hours of darkness are a frequent source of friction between the Afghan government and the Nato-led force. The US and Nato commander, General Stanley McChrystal, has given instructions that night raids be carried out only as a last resort and with Afghan troops in the lead, to prevent incidents where Afghans defending their homes are mistaken for insurgents. McChrystal has however refused to ban night raids outright, as requested by President Hamid Karzai. McChrystal's instructions say they can still be an effective and necessary tactic. How does that make any sense and how do Karzai's now weekly condemnations of NATO atrocities (he ignores many of them) create anything but a picture of chaos? The picture shows local protests at the killings. Ali Khan, who lives next door to the homes which were raided, said he heard helicopters land at about 1am (2030 GMT). "And then the gunshots started. We were terrified and we couldn't come outside," he said. "Dozens of Afghan and foreign troops raided three homes and we found out in the morning that nine people were killed and two others are missing," Khan said.
Russia Speaking To Hamas
President Dmitry Medvedev's is meeting with the leader of Hamas.
"Hamas is not an artificial structure," Andrei Nesterenko, the Russian foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday. "It is a movement that draws on the trust and sympathy of a large number of Palestinians. We have regular contacts with this movement.
"It is known that all other participants of the Middle East quartet are also in some sort of contact with Hamas leadership, although for some unknown reason they are shy to publicly admit it," Nesterenko said. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, on Thursday briefed Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on the meeting in Damascus, the Syrian capital. The Russian president urged Hamas to work on a reconciliation deal with its rival Fatah, and insisted that "no one" should be excluded from the Middle East peace process, according to his spokeswoman. "Issues related to the re-establishment of Palestinian unity as an indispensable condition for the success of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were at the centre of the meeting," Nesterenko said.
The usual Tourettes-response from the robotic Israeli spin men was not far behind. Israel's foreign ministry said it was "deeply disappointed" that Medvedev had met Khaled Meshaal, the group's exiled leader, during a visit to Syria this week.
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Obama and The Joke That Bombed
Did you hear the joke about the predator drone? Obama might have picked a better week for his joke than one on which this story appeared. More Russian roulette with innocent villagers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. How crass can you get about this kind of thing?
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Warmongers of the World Unite.
Bathed in the light of a perfect sunrise, he made the Anzac connection to the illegal invasion of Afghanistan in which, on 12 February last year, Australian soldiers killed fivechildren. No mention was made of them. On cue, this was followed by an item that a war memorial in Sydney had been "defaced by men of Middle Eastern appearance". More war, please. Full article here
Sunday 2 May 2010
This is What We Are All Up Against
Robert Fisk called the Arms Fairs and promotions 'War Porn'. He was right and here it is in all its obscenity. Complete with price lists.