Wednesday 30 May 2012
Message To Readers
No posts in the next week as I am on holiday in Spain. Back Next Friday. Normal Service.
Obama And Signature Strikes
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Obama's Kill List
Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret “nominations” process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. He had vowed to align the fight against Al Qaeda with American values; the chart, introducing people whose deaths he might soon be asked to order, underscored just what a moral and legal conundrum this could be.
Mr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war and torture, and then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding “kill list,” poring over terrorist suspects’ biographies on what one official calls the macabre “baseball cards” of an unconventional war. When a rare opportunity for a dronestrike at a top terrorist arises — but his family is with him — it is the president who has reserved to himself the final moral calculation. MORE HERE
Links And Feeds For 29th May
Iran: Asia Times Online :: US hard line in Iran talks driven by Israel
Blair At Leveson: http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2012/05/29/blair-feels-the-heat-at-press-ethics-inquiry
Student Poisoning Doubts: http://paktribune.com/news/Taliban-not-involved-in-students-poisoning-250200.html
US Incompetence In Pakistan: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN_POWER_FIASCO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Panetta recycles 'Right Track' Speech: http://paktribune.com/news/Panetta-US-on-right-track-in-Afghanistan-250199.html
Hague-'we won't abandon Afghans', yeah,right: http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/HagueWeWontAbandonAfghanPeople.htm
Blair At Leveson: http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2012/05/29/blair-feels-the-heat-at-press-ethics-inquiry
Student Poisoning Doubts: http://paktribune.com/news/Taliban-not-involved-in-students-poisoning-250200.html
US Incompetence In Pakistan: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN_POWER_FIASCO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Panetta recycles 'Right Track' Speech: http://paktribune.com/news/Panetta-US-on-right-track-in-Afghanistan-250199.html
Hague-'we won't abandon Afghans', yeah,right: http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/HagueWeWontAbandonAfghanPeople.htm
Miliband, Murphy And Alexander In Afghanistan
The triumvirate of world foreign policy trying (and failing) to look tough in Afghanistan on Sunday. Nice surfer shirt, Jim.
Monday 28 May 2012
Afghanistan Today - Newsfeed
Chopper crash killls 2 - http://www.voanews.com/content/helicopter-crash-kills-nato-soldiers-afghanistan/1120399.html?
UK Bans Prisoner Transfer - http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/05/16/uk-bans-transfer-of-prisoners-to-afghan-forces-following-torture-fears/?
Australian SAS Execute Prisoner - http://www.watoday.com.au/national/shooting-of-captive-afghan-probed-20120528-1zffe.html?
Panetta Defends Strategy (again) - http://www.ksat.com/news/politics/Panetta-defends-Afghan-strategy/-/2567674/14236966/-/ba8g77z/-/index.html?
Taliban Campaign Spreads To Bamyan
Afghanistan's central Bamyan province, widely reputed to be the safest in the country, has seen a worrying rise in insurgent activity, according to the provincial police chief. A group of Pakistani insurgents who go by the name Abdullah Kaltak is causing security problems, primarily in Bamyan's Kohmard district, police chief Juma Guldi Yardem said.
Yardem told TOLOnews on Sunday that he is concerned about the small number of security forces in the province which has seen far less insurgent activity than most of the country's other 33 provinces.
Bamyan is located in the heart of Afghanistan and shares its provincial border with eight other provinces. However, Yardem believes the Kaltak group are mainly moving in from Baghlan province - north-east of Bamyan - which has had a more active insurgent network for some time.
"Various Pakistani insurgents are active in Baghlan province, but they are crossing the borders and starting to do more insurgent activity [here]," Yardem said, saying it seemed most of them came through the Tala wa Barfak district of Baghlan.
"A new group of insurgents named Abdullah Kaltak have begun anti-government activity in this province."
The two provinces are divided by a mountainous border which the insurgents are crossing to make it into Bamyan.
Yardem said new security checkpoints have already been created to address the problem, but he fears that the Afghan forces are not sufficiently equipped to deal with the problem if it worsens.
"If the situation changes, we will need more equipment to defend Bamyan'.
Bamyan was one of the first provinces to be transferred to Afghan security forces responsibility in the first phase of the five-tranche security transition.
The New Zealand armed forces based in Bamyan will withdraw from the province next year, a year earlier than the Nato deadline of 2014, the country's officials said earlier this month.
NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully confirmed during the Nato summit in Chicago last week that the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Bamyan would be withdrawn in 2013.
McCully said in a statement from his office that he had discussed the new timetable with Isaf leadership, senior Afghan ministers and other partners and they had all have agreed to the PRT winding up its role in late 2013.
"The New Zealand-led PRT has done an excellent job in Bamyan, reflected in the province being selected amongst the first tranche for transition. It is now likely that the Afghan government and Isaf will formally declare that transition to be completed later in 2012," he said.
"Over the coming weeks, a specialist team will visit Bamyan to draw up a detailed plan for the wind down in the province. We are intent on ensuring that the province is well prepared for the next steps and that major development projects are completed," the statement said.
Collateral Damage Gallery
Covert War In 120 Countries
In 120 countries across the globe, troops from Special Operations Command carry out their secret war of high-profile assassinations, low-level targeted killings, capture/kidnap operations, kick-down-the-door night raids, joint operations with foreign forces, and training missions with indigenous partners as part of a shadowy conflict unknown to most Americans. Once “special” for being small, lean, outsider outfits, today they are special for their power, access, influence, and aura.That aura now benefits from a well-honed public relations campaign which helps them project a superhuman image at home and abroad, even while many of their actual activities remain in the ever-widening shadows. Typical of the vision they are pushing was this statement from Admiral Olson: “I am convinced that the forces… are the most culturally attuned partners, the most lethal hunter-killers, and most responsive, agile, innovative, and efficiently effective advisors, trainers, problem-solvers, and warriors that any nation has to offer.” More here
Robert Fisk On Doctor Afridi Case
Sunday 27 May 2012
Air Force 'Concerns' In Afghanistan
"The planes were made in Italy, they are old and were out of the Italian fleet before they were given to Afghanistan," Azimi said.
Air transport is critical in Afghanistan, where the road network is underdeveloped and targeted by insurgent bombings, while strike aircraft are a vital part of the war against Taliban insurgents.
The US Air Force announced last month that it was reopening a contest for a contract to build 20 light attack aircraft for Afghanistan after the cancellation of an award to Brazil's Embraer two months earlier.
Italian and Brazilian aircraft? They're really taking that one seriously, eh? For 'concern' read it isn't going to happen. Just like the 'ordered transition'. MORE
Another Security Scandal In Kabul
MOREThis is simply the latest in a never-ending string of scandals caused or contributed to by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. They include:
1. The massive U.S. Embassy cost overruns in Baghdad;
2. The killing of Iraqi civilians by Blackwater in Nisour Square, Baghdad in 2007;
3. The ArmorGroup sex scandal in Kabul;
4. The repeated hit and run incidents by Embassy security vehicles in Peshawar;
5. The hit and run killing in Lahore in 2011 by an Embassy security vehicle;
6. The repeated security clearance suspension abuses within the State Department;
BBC News - Nato air strike 'kills Afghan family'
I wonder how many pictures of the victims of this massacre will appear in the UK press (Syria style). It's the same phenomenon. Militarists out of control and unaccountable to anybody.
BBC News - Nato air strike 'kills Afghan family':
BBC News - Nato air strike 'kills Afghan family':
Saturday 26 May 2012
Britain To Create Its Own Militia Before Retreating
Sami Sadaat, a security analyst and former policy analyst in the Ministry of the Interior, warned: “We must be careful of what we are creating.” In some southern parts of the country the local police, he claimed, “are taking the law into their own hands, beating people and taking money. Yes, they helped remove the Taliban. But in a way they replaced them by doing these kinds of things.” MORE
Friday 25 May 2012
Sacha Baron Cohen: a buffoonish ideologue, at Israel's service
This is a harsh appraisal of SBC in my opinion. But it gives another angle on one who has become a media dahling in the UK and beyond.
Sacha Baron Cohen: a buffoonish ideologue, at Israel's service | The Electronic Intifada:
Sacha Baron Cohen: a buffoonish ideologue, at Israel's service | The Electronic Intifada:
Francois Hollande 'Mission Accomplished' Moment
I'm disappointed in President Hollande's remarks. I suppose he has to make the best of of a very bad job for which he had no responsibility.
Francois Hollande defends early Afghan pullout - Europe - World - The Independent:
Francois Hollande defends early Afghan pullout - Europe - World - The Independent:
Plasticine Policy
US Cuts Aid To Pakistan Over Shakil Afridi
CIA Informant Jailed In Pakistan
MSM just catching up with this story. My own views to follow shortly.
Thursday 24 May 2012
US Press For Release of Pakistan Doctor
 |
| Pakistani Citizens Welcome Nato Convoy |
There are a couple of 'details' being missed by the western media as far as I can tell.
- the CIA probably did not tell the doctor that their target was OBL. Why would they?
- why did the doctor give (sell?) his services to the US in particular?
- the conduct of a sham innoculation programme is despicable under any circumstances, not just in terms of universally held medical ethics but by the yardstick of common decency and sense. Why should Pakistan not be outraged that one of their own would stoop to this? America, or any other country, would be.
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Panjwai Massacre Being Linked To Retaliatory Attack
The brother of one of those killed along with ten other relatives from a single house in the village of Najiban said in an interview with Truthout that the victim had been warned by a US soldier at a checkpoint near the Special Forces camp that the Americans knew his vineyard was very close to where the improvised explosive device (IED) exploded.
That warning suggests that the Green Beret unit at Camp Belambay had checked on the identity of those who owned and worked on land near the site of explosion.
Immediately after the IED exploded, a US military officer threatened to take revenge against civilians, including women and children in the vicinity, if the local population failed to inform troops about another IED explosion, Afghans present at the meeting told Truthout in separate interviews. MORE HERE
CIA's Fake Vaccination Programme In Pakistan
There's good reason for the outrage. People's faith in their doctors is critical to the ability to provide health care, and it's unconscionable that the United States would use the single most delicate health issue in the Muslim world as its cover. But we do need to be realistic. It's not the first time health services have been a cover for a security operation, and it won't be the last. The most recent high-profile example was in 2008, when the Colombian military used the Red Cross emblem to disguise an army team engaged in a hostage rescue operation of 15 people held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). More HERE
Failed In Afghanistan. Failed In Pakistan.
Fail, fail for Obama but you wouldn't think so to listen to his election spin. OBL, gotcha! As if this were all there was to his foreign policy. Obama offers endless, self-perpetuating war as he continues in the thrall of the military boneheads and securocrats. That weakness is his biggest failure of all. He thinks he looks strong with the generals by his side and drones keeping on a-flyin'. It is a sign of abject weakness and all the world outside the US can see it.
NATO And Human Rights
But simply handing an Afghan an AK-47 and a couple weeks of training is a recipe for disaster. Because villagers can so easily abuse their new power -- mistreating suspects, pursuing private vendettas, stirring ethnic conflict -- paramilitary forces of this sort are inherently dangerous. A Human Rights Watch report released in September 2011 documented many such abuses. Aninternal Pentagon study obtained last week by the Los Angeles Times found ALP units making little contribution to security while engaging in assault, rape, extortion, and drug trafficking.
The Pentagon's plan for avoiding such abuses is to vet would-be ALP members, train them, and hope the Afghan Interior Ministry will hold them accountable. But given the troublesome record of Afghanistan's traditional security forces -- torture by the intelligence services is rife, for example -- there is little reason to think these measures will suffice. READ MORE
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Mali Developments - Beware The Spin
Ever since a motley combination of Tuareg separatists and Islamic supremacists swept through northern Mali in a blaze of gunfire, an echo-chamber of rumor, gossip and misinformation has supplanted hard facts, and it's worth treating all information — however credible the source — with caution. But it isn't just Cissé claiming that foreign Islamic militants are flocking to this latest of troublespots. In the fabled waystation of Timbuktu, 300 miles upriver from Gao, a tour guide called Buba tells TIME that "Algerian nationals" are prevalent among the armed groups controlling the city. Taken with other reported sighting of foreign Islamist supremacists arriving in northern Mali, it's one of a number of signs that will have al-Qaeda watchers wondering whether northern Mali is becoming a new jihadist playground — even as the U.S. and its allies move against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and a relentless drone campaign batters the badlands of Pakistan's Northwest frontier. LINK
Pakistan Supply Routes Are Vital To Nato 'Redeployment' (Cough)
“The routes to the port of Karachi are the shortest routes to a harbour and therefore of course they are routes that make logistics and redeployment easier, easier and possibly cheaper, so therefore of course we have an interest in looking at these roads,” he said.
Pakistan’s demands include a public apology for the killings and a review of US strategy on drone strikes aimed at militants on its territory. By redeployment he means retreat of course. (read more)
US - Pak Relations Still Rock Bottom
Still, powerful forces in Pakistan want the border to remain shut. Jihadist groups have coalesced since last fall into a lobby called the Defense of Pakistan. Led byHafez Saeed, the leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror group that attacked Mumbai in 2008, the pro-closure forces have held huge demonstrations in Pakistani cities demanding no compromise with America and NATO, no border opening and an end to all drone attacks on terror targets. This spring the United States put a $10 million bounty on Saeed for his role in the Mumbai massacre that killed six Americans. He laughed in Washington’s face on Pakistani TV. He knows he has powerful backers in the Pakistani Army and the intelligence service, the ISI. He knows America is incredibly unpopular in Pakistan, thanks to decades of lousy relations, the drones, and the humiliation of last May’s SEAL raid that killed America’s No. 1 enemy. LINK
It's A Surrender Strategy – View From A Warmonger
The story on the link below is by Con Coughlin, a securocrat war peddler who was wrong about Iraq and has been wrong about Afghanistan for the last 11 years. Doesn't stop him rattling the drum though. Obama and Bush weren't aggressive enough for him.
This is not an exit strategy for Afghanistan, it's a surrender strategy – Telegraph Blogs:
This is not an exit strategy for Afghanistan, it's a surrender strategy – Telegraph Blogs:
Monday 21 May 2012
Time for NATO to face new realities
Although it's fair to say they have never faced the old ones :
Time for NATO to face new realities - Opinion - Al Jazeera English:
Time for NATO to face new realities - Opinion - Al Jazeera English:
Sunday 20 May 2012
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