Saturday 30 April 2011
Afghanistan To Be Base For Drone Attacks Into Pakistan
The US is shifting its drones from Pakistan to Afghanistan after Islamabad asked it to shut down UAV bases on its territory, but America has vowed to continue attacking 'targets' in Pakistan's tribal areas. Pakistan has asked the CIA to remove its personnel from the Shamsi airbase, about 350 kms southwest of Baluchistan's capital Quetta, where some of the drones are based, say senior American officials quoted in numerous Asian news agencies.
"The withdrawal has not occurred but is expected soon," one official said adding that the drone attacks would then be flown out of Afghanistan where some of them are already based.
But even after shifting, the Predators and Reapers, top US military commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, in a private meeting in Islamabad last week told Pakistan's army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that the CIA would not reduce the drone strikes until Pakistan launched a 'military operation' against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. The systematic humiliation of Pakistan by the US militarists is accelerating. It is also disastrous and self-defeating. Nothing new there, then.
"The withdrawal has not occurred but is expected soon," one official said adding that the drone attacks would then be flown out of Afghanistan where some of them are already based.
But even after shifting, the Predators and Reapers, top US military commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, in a private meeting in Islamabad last week told Pakistan's army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that the CIA would not reduce the drone strikes until Pakistan launched a 'military operation' against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. The systematic humiliation of Pakistan by the US militarists is accelerating. It is also disastrous and self-defeating. Nothing new there, then.
Friday 29 April 2011
11 Years On - Going Swimmingly In Afghanistan
Latest 'Progress In Afghanistan' Bollocks from ISAF. Some MSM swallow it as follows:
At the same time, however, the report said the momentum of the insurgents has been “broadly arrested” and their morale has begun to erode. Hundreds of insurgent leaders have been killed or captured, it said, and since last July 700 former Taliban have been officially reintegrated into Afghan society and another 2,000 insurgents are in various stages of the process. Nato says three service members have been killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan, where insurgents are stepping up their targeted attacks on coalition troops and others aligned with the government.The coalition said on Friday that two died when a bomb exploded in the south and a third was killed by insurgents in the east.
The three deaths, which occurred on Thursday, raise to 48 the number of foreign troops killed so far this month, compared with 33 in April 2010.
Thursday 28 April 2011
David Milliband On Afghanistan - No, Really
This is from a New Labour Blogger who I will not even credit from fear of contaminating my own blog. It shows that David Milliband, who is up to his bony elbows in the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles, extraordinary rendition and who Hillary Clinton stored in her handbag, has not an iota of shame or self-assessment. Just a typical New Labour spiv in other words.
'However, he is still thinking hard about foreign policy – and in particular about Afghanistan. In a recent speech, he gave one of the most considered and explicit statements I have yet seen of what needs to be done to achieve a political settlement in Afghanistan. Miliband’s starting point is that the military effort is going badly and that the “deadline” of 2014 for withdrawal is unrealistic, without a huge effort to achieve a political settlement. He thinks that ultimately Afghanistan must be run on much federalised, decentralised lines.
And he is quite clear on the central issue of talking to the Taliban – we have to do it. That said, Miliband is not in favour of unconditional talks. And some of the lines he draws down strike me, on first reading, as potentially tricky. For example he wants the Taliban to make a formal statement of disassociation from al-Qaeda and to stop all roadside bombs as a precondition for negotiations. In return, Nato might offer to stop night-time raids and make some other concessions.'
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Petraeus To Be Head of CIA
This is a big promotion for Petraeus amid speculation that he will stand as Republican candidate for the presidency in 2016. He is seen by some as a national hero in the US but so is Justin Bieber. He devised the surge to nowhere in Iraq and has tried to follow it up in Afghanistan. I wonder how that's going.That military background plus the CIA job will provide him with a good platform should be opt to run for the White House.The shifts have been prompted by the long planned retirement of the defence secretary, Robert Gates, who served in the post under George W Bush and was asked by Obama to stay on. Petraeus was due to leave his post in Afghanistan at the end of the year. How about President Petraeus backed up by Vice President McChrystal and Secretary of State Palin in 2016?
Tuesday 26 April 2011
Monday 25 April 2011
US Citizens Unaware Drones Are Killing Innocent Pakistanis - Imran Khan
Imran Khan, Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician, indicated on Sunday that if Americans knew U.S. drone strikes were killing innocent women and children in Pakistan they would be marching on Washington D.C.If Imran substituted the phrase 'don't care' for 'don't know' on behalf of the US public, we would agree with him. Good luck to him in any event.
Khan, Paksitan’s Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman, made these comments after leading protests against the CIA drone program that blocked a key road in Pakistan for three days, holding up over 500 lorries which prevented supplies from reaching NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Khan said Pakistan was the only country that had been using its army to kill its own people and that international law guaranteed protection of the rights of all human beings irrespective of their race, territory and financial status. From Examiner.com
Wikileaks - The Guantanamo Files
The documents reveal:
- US authorities listed the main Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), as a terrorist organisation alongside groups such as al-qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence.
- A number of British nationals and residents were held for years even though US authorities knew they were not Taliban or al-Qaida members. One Briton, Jamal al-Harith, was rendered to Guantánamo simply because he had been held in a Taliban prison and was thought to have knowledge of their interrogation techniques. The US military tried to hang on to another Briton, Binyam Mohamed, even after charges had been dropped and evidence emerged he had been tortured.
- US authorities relied heavily on information obtained from a small number of detainees under torture. They continued to maintain this testimony was reliable even after admitting that the prisoners who provided it had been mistreated.
FULL DETAILS HERE
- US authorities listed the main Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), as a terrorist organisation alongside groups such as al-qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence.
-
Interrogators were told to regard links to any of these as an indication of terrorist or insurgent activity.
- Almost 100 of the inmates who passed through Guantánamo are listed by their captors as having had depressive or psychotic illnesses. Many went on hunger strike or attempted suicide.
Interrogators were told to regard links to any of these as an indication of terrorist or insurgent activity.- A number of British nationals and residents were held for years even though US authorities knew they were not Taliban or al-Qaida members. One Briton, Jamal al-Harith, was rendered to Guantánamo simply because he had been held in a Taliban prison and was thought to have knowledge of their interrogation techniques. The US military tried to hang on to another Briton, Binyam Mohamed, even after charges had been dropped and evidence emerged he had been tortured.
- US authorities relied heavily on information obtained from a small number of detainees under torture. They continued to maintain this testimony was reliable even after admitting that the prisoners who provided it had been mistreated.
FULL DETAILS HERE
Kandahar and Guantanamo - A Tale Of Two Prisons
The Kanadahar breakout involved not only hardened militants but a large number of Taliban commanders say AFP and the BBC and everybody. The fighters and their commanders go free while the completely innocent continue to rot in Guantanamo. US foreign policy really is just about as dysfuntional as it could be (and has been for a very long time).
Sunday 24 April 2011
Drone Protests - Pakistan Suspends Nato Supplies
"It is our start against American slavery. The people have risen up. They will neither let the corrupt leaders nor their American bosses stay in this country," he added. Imran also offered his services to act as a mediator for any possible peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban. "I am ready to broker," he said, arguing that if America were ready to do that in Afghanistan, why would Pakistan not do it here. Police officer Khurshid Khan said that NATO supplies had been stopped until Monday morning because of the protest.
From Here
Friday 22 April 2011
Misurata - US to Deploy Drones
How long before the drones start to kill 'rebels', villagers, journalists and allies just like in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Watch out for the same spin and excuses being retreaded. More here
Thursday 21 April 2011
Tim Hetherington's Last Twitter Message
Nato heading for another failure in Libya could have been the headline here. Tim Hetherington's last Tweet, just hours before he died was.. "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Gaddafi forces. No sign of Nato." They are quick enough when it comes to bombing the wrong targets in Afghanistan, though.
Tuesday 19 April 2011
MOD Under Pressure Over Rendition
'The tribunal's ruling came in response to a request, made three years ago by the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, chaired by the senior Conservative backbencher, Andrew Tyrie. It follows allegations by Ben Griffin, a former member of the SAS, that detainees captured by British special forces had been transferred to US forces under whose authority they had been tortured or unlawfully removed from Iraq.An internal MoD review concluded in 2008 that there was no evidence of unlawful rendition. A year later, it admitted that two detainees captured by British forces in Iraq had been rendered to a notorious jail in Bagram in Afghanistan.'
Full story here.
Monday 18 April 2011
President Saleh's Bag of Tricks
SANA'A, April 17 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh has affirmed his keenness to strengthen women's participation in political action and in institutions of the State.This came during his meeting on Sunday with a number of women's leaderships, who expressed their appreciation for encouragement, care and support provided by the president to women in the country.President Saleh said that Yemeni women have proven that they have sufficient awareness and care about the issues more than some people."We do not suspect our mothers, daughters or sisters. Women are the best and more honorable than to say anything about," he said.He wondered how those, who sit-in in front of Sana'a University, permitted to themselves to leave women in the streets, while they claim to not mix."When we talked and said why mixing, that is because of our worry about our daughters, sisters and mothers from mob and anarchists," the president explained.
$6M US Dollars Secretly Funded Syrian Opposition
Wikileaks are the source of this information for which thanks once again.
pp
pp
Sunday 17 April 2011
Yemen - Millions March In Protests
The GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) countries - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait - are extremely worried about instability in Yemen. The Saudi kingdom, in particular, has offered to host on its territory any negotiations between the Yemeni regime and the opposition. Saleh continues to live in denial and, like Moubarrak, promise change in the future.
Saturday 16 April 2011
Algerian soldiers killed in attack on outpost - Africa - Al Jazeera English
This is the most serious attack in Algeria, a pro-western state despite it's terrible sufferings at the hands of the west (France), to date. More will follow. This area of 'awakening' is under-reported by the US and European media. We will keep an eye on it here and pass it on. Vive Le FLN. Vive Boumedienne. Vive Krim. Vive L'Algerie Libre.
Canadian Conservatives Blocking Torture Investigations
By Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
The following are Excerpts from that story/ Link - Complete Story
OTTAWA — An all-party push to release documents about the alleged torture of prisoners in Afghan jails ran into a procedural wall late Friday.
The Conservatives joined other federal parties in calling for disclosure of the first batch of records from a special committee, saying they would do "whatever it takes" to make it happen.
But Alberta Tory candidate Laurie Hawn later backpedalled somewhat, saying "there is no specific process" to make the documents public during an election campaign.
The alleged abuse of detainees in Afghanistan — and what the federal government may have known about it — has dogged the Conservatives for years.
The government's initial refusal to disclose the thousands of pages of Foreign Affairs and Defence Department reports prompted a parliamentary crisis in December 2009.It was resolved with formation of the committee, which began sifting through tens of thousands of pages last July.
The Liberals and Bloc Quebecois — the other two parties represented on the committee — called Friday for disclosure of the records.
"The issue is, Canadians ought to know this stuff," said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. "This is how democracy works. There's no reason to conceal these documents."
In Quebec City, Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said he was tired of waiting for the documents, adding his party was pulling out of the committee. "I'm asking that it has to be public — period."
The New Democrats refused to take part in the committee due to lack of faith in the process.
In Prince Edward Island, NDP Leader Jack Layton was not surprised by the latest drama.
"This has been the plan from Day 1," he said. "And that is what we warned the other leaders about. We said: 'You are being drawn into a process where Stephen Harper is going to drag this thing out.'
Libya - Parliament To Be Recalled?
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Friday, 15, Apr 2011 05:15
By Ian Dunt
A letter calling for the removal of Colonel Gaddafi has prompted demands for a recall of parliament.
The article, signed off by David Cameron, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, said it would be "unthinkable" for the dictator to play a part in Libya's future.
A Conservative MP has written to the Speaker demanding parliament be recalled to discuss the now explicit aim to remove Col Gaddafi from power.
John Baron, Tory MP for Basildon and Billericay, told the BBC that the letter indicated a change in the allies' mission in Libya and argued parliament should be consulted.
"I believe parliament should be recalled," he said. "This statement is a clear alteration to the original mission and that would justify a recall.
"When we debated this the case was put this was a humanitarian mission. Clearly that is no longer the case and maybe never was."
He was backed by Labour MP David Winnick and Tory MPs Peter Bone and David Davis.
Mr Davis said although he agreed with the government's aim to remove Col Gaddafi, Mr Cameron needed to consult the Commons.
"The simple truth is that parliament did not authorise the next phase," he told the BBC's The World at One.
But Richard Ottaway, chair of the foreign affairs committee, said the letter was a "reiteration" of the original mission.
"I think basically, essentially this is a humanitarian mission and it is protection of the civilian population which is top of the order book. I don't think that has altered," he said.
"I don't see a change in policy, just a reiteration of where it was a month ago."
The article suggests that the US is willing to play a key role in the conflict once again, after it took a decidedly back-seat role following the first few weeks of fighting.
"It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government," the article, which appeared in the Times, the Washington Post and Le Figaro, read.
"The brave citizens of those towns that have held out against forces that have been mercilessly targeting them would face a fearful vengeance if the world accepted such an arrangement. It would be an unconscionable betrayal."
The explicit expansion of the mission's aims to include the end of the Gaddafi regime requires a particular definition of the UN resolution which authorised action. The resolution only allows for the protection of civilians, but the allies are likely to argue that their safety cannot be secured without the departure of Gaddafi.
"So long as Gaddafi is in power, Nato and its coalition partners must maintain their operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime build," the article reads.
"Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders. For that transition to succeed, Colonel Gaddafi must go, and go for good.
"At that point, the United Nations and its members should help the Libyan people as they rebuild where Gaddafi has destroyed - to repair homes and hospitals, to restore basic utilities, and to assist Libyans as they develop the institutions to underpin a prosperous and open society.
"Britain, France and the United States will not rest until the UN Security Council resolutions have been implemented and the Libyan people can choose their own future."
The Times reported that only Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy had been due to sign the article but that the US president offered his signature after he was sent a copy as a matter of course.
Mr Obama had faced domestic criticism for pulling back from his initially confrontational stance in recent days.
That criticism came at the same time as Nato admitted a loss of momentum following Italian, Spanish and Dutch reticence over the use of their combat plans to carry out ground attacks.
Some Afghan Army Statistics
Drodropout rates are very high. There is also a lack of leadership - especially at senior officer level.
Most Afghan soldiers are illiterate, some are drug users and others had earlier connections with the Taliban.
The ethnic balance is a problem. Pashtuns are under-represented and so are other people from the anti-government south. Dropout rates are still a major issue, as is a lack of leadership - especially at senior officer level.
Thursday 14 April 2011
Pakistan Condemns Latest Murderous Drone Strike
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan has issued a strongly-worded statement condemning a deadly, suspected U.S. drone strike in the country's tribal region."Drone attacks have become a core irritant in the counter-terror campaign," a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday. "We have repeatedly said that such attacks are counter productive and only contribute to strengthen the hands of the terrorists." Pakistan's Foreign Secretary has lodged a strong protest with the U.S. Ambassador, according to the statement, and the government has "taken up the matter with the U.S. at all levels."
Clinton Softens Up World For More Failure In Afghanistan
BERLIN — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned NATO allies on Thursday against bringing forces home from Afghanistan too soon, even as the United States prepares to begin drawing down its forces in July. Clinton said the Taliban will be watching what the alliance does in the coming months and that speedy reductions will hurt the fragile security gains the alliance claims. The United States is worried that pressure will grow within the alliance to match U.S. withdrawals and answer rising discontent with the war in Europe.Clinton told NATO foreign ministers that an exodus of other forces would make it appear to the Taliban that withdrawals were a sign of alliance weakness and defeat. The U.S. and its NATO partners cast the planned reductions as a mark of success and the beginning of a transition to Afghan control that would allow all foreign forces to leave eventually.NATO has invested too much to risk that perception, she said. "We need to ensure that these sacrifices are not overtaken by political expediency and short-term thinking," Clinton said. "We need to worry less about how fast we can leave and more about how we can help the Afghan people build on the gains of the past 15 months. Even as we move toward Afghan lead in areas where conditions warrant transition, we must retain forces where our commanders need them and reinvest personnel with ISAF's guidance. To do this once, we have to do it right."
Clinton's statement, in more detail here, is full of howlers. I have highlighted just one or two above.
l'Otan Reclame Plus D'Avions En Libye
L'OTAN, l'alliance la plus puissante au monde, n'a pas assez d'avions et de moyens pour venir à bout ce ce clown du désert et de ses moyens lourds pour la plupart anciens. Que l'OTAN s'occupe d'optimiser ses moyens au lieu de se meler de politique. l'OTAN se décrédibilise totalement. Il est vrai qu'avec cet échec continu en Afghanistan, plus personne n'y croit encore beaucoup. Dommage, avec un peu d'intelligence et de raison c'eut pu etre un outil merveilleux!
Tuesday 12 April 2011
Debacle In Afghanistan - Scorched Earth, Anyone?
Guess who’s been listening to smart soldiers using jargon and deploying PowerPoint charts to prove they are winning and are worth the millions being spent on the debacle in Afghanistan
Yes, step forward ‘Benghazi Bill’ Hague and David Cameron and Liam ‘The Desert Fox’. Julian Glover describes it well HERE with some nice anecdotes on Nick Clegg showing the Helmland Heroes his kids’ artwork a few years ago.
And the bungled night raids, the fantasy military analyses and sham defence of democracy keep rolling along.
Yes, step forward ‘Benghazi Bill’ Hague and David Cameron and Liam ‘The Desert Fox’. Julian Glover describes it well HERE with some nice anecdotes on Nick Clegg showing the Helmland Heroes his kids’ artwork a few years ago.
And the bungled night raids, the fantasy military analyses and sham defence of democracy keep rolling along.
Monday 11 April 2011
Droneheads And Boneheads Part 191
If you ever wondered how it is possible for the US to kill so many innocent and (sometimes) unintended victims in Afghanistan in episodes like this, here is a link of interest to you. It doesn't explain the almost daily carnage which the US and NATO perpetrate in Afghanistan and Pakistan but it explains one particularly harrowing piece of bloody incompetence. Among the dead this time were two boys, Daoud, 3, and Murtaza, 4.
The crass squalor of this incident was compounded by the lies and spin which NATO/ISAF injected into the coverage, such as it was, at the time and since. Full story here.
Saturday 9 April 2011
Karzai Office - Victims Were Civilians Once Again
La Repression Se Pursuit En Syrie, Libye, Bahrain, Le Soudan
Courage aux revolutionnaires, qui veulent vivre libres! LIBERTE ... ce mot tellement galvaude en L'Europe ou les gens sont tellement prompts a oublier notre chance ... Bravo les courageux revolutionnaires ! Merci les journalistes de lever le pan du voile : votre metier prend la toute sa belle signification; mettre en lumiere le combat et les exactions.
Friday 8 April 2011
Shadow War In Afghanistan - Strategy To Nowhere
The Pentagon has been generally quiet about their shift in strategy, as they insert elite commando units on the ground in anticipation of the withdrawal of conventional forces from Afghanistan set to begin mid-summer.
During his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in late March General David Petraeus did allude to upping the tempo of targeted raids, pointing out that, “In a typical 90-day period, precision operations by U.S. special-mission units and their Afghan partners alone kill or capture some 360 targeted insurgent leaders.”
Maj. Wesley Ticer, a spokesman for the military’s Special Operations Command, estimated that there are about 7,000 Special Forces operatives in Afghanistan at the moment, a 50 percent spike from a couple years ago.Petraeus wants to drive the Taliban to the negotiating table by killing enough militants, which many experts believe is a futile effort, considering the Afghan people absorbed over 1 million casualties during the jihad against the Russia in the 1980s.
Petraeus’s approach is based on the model he used in Iraq in conjunction with General Stanley McChrystal, who led Special Forces at the time— a paradigm they believe brought Iraq back from the brink of civil war by killing and capturing thousands of Shiite and Sunni extremists.
One military official reported that the ISAF has launched five times the number of targeted raids in recent months with Special Forces operatives mounting nearly more than six strikes per day against militants.
ISAF officials also indicated the ongoing strikes in the AfPak border region have made substantial progress against the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network by disrupting their ability to plan new attacks and resupply militants inside Afghanistan.Not to mention, the pressure brought on by these raids has created tension between different echelons within the insurgency, as Taliban foot soldiers grow weary of risking their lives in Afghanistan while their commanders live comfortably in Pakistan hideaways.
However, amidst claims of progress made against the insurgency in Afghanistan, the Obama administration reported on Tuesday that the Taliban movement has gained strength on the Pakistani side of the border.
The Pakistan army’s major clearing operations have repeatedly failed, according to the White House report, which concluded that “There remains no clear path toward defeating the insurgency in Pakistan.”
However, the assessment also highlighted alarming trends beyond deteriorating security conditions in Pakistan’s tribal agencies, noting how in recent weeks the Taliban successfully carried out more suicide bombing missions in Afghanistan against “soft targets”, such as army recruiting centers, government buildings and market places, which led to a spike in civilian casualties.
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