Armed Forces Day

AfPak - Julian Assange And Imran Khan

Politics and Ethnicity In Afghanistan

The fragmented state of the more than 35 million Pashtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan is a key factor in this crisis. Perceiving them as a formidable ethnic group, the Pakistani establishment has savvily played a role in keeping them divided. Pashtuns in Pakistan can broadly be categorised as the integrated, the Islamists, and the nationalists.
Many Pashtuns hailing from the Khatak, Niazi, Yusufzai, and Tarin tribes are integrated in Pakistan. For them, the sense of belonging to a nation is far stronger than their ethnic affiliation. Based on merit and loyalty to the system, they have enjoyed prestigious positions in Pakistan - president, army chief of staff, and various ministerial positions. As of yet, however, no Pashtun has become prime minister. MORE

Morsi Addresses The Crowds

Amy By Paula Rogovin

Nineteen
Her name, the only one today
in the New York Times
box-of-the-dead.
Didn’t know her
but, she’s someone’s daughter.
Maybe Amy just wanted a job or
the promised college education.

Amy’s dead
dead
no noble cause
just dead in a war
based on lies and greed
Probably you didn’t know her
or the thousands of other sons
and daughters –
from Iraq and the USA -
dead.
If your heart aches for their
loved ones,
Let your pain move you to speak out.

Assad Rules Out Imposed Solution

Turkey Escalates Tensions With Syria

Nato And Syria

Australian Senate Vetoes Hicks Inquiry

Hicks went to Afghanistan to fight with islamist forces and following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US, he was captured by the pro-US Northern Alliance.
In April 2007, he returned to Australia to serve the remaining nine months of his sentence. He was released in late 2007 and has since married and lives in Sydney.He subsequently spent five years in the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay and eventually pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism. MORE

NATO Spin And Hypocrisy On Full Throttle

Canadian Watchdog clears troops, slams brass in Afghan torture case

Canadian Watchdog clears troops, slams brass in Afghan torture case | War Is A Crime .org:

CIA and MI5 Dirty Wars

Putin to Israel: Beware 'not that smart' Wars

Which means be careful what you wish for.
Putin to Israel: Beware 'not that smart' wars, like ones in Iraq, Afghanistan - CSMonitor.com:

Obama's Recent Achievements

Most people would agree that Obama is the least worst choice in the US Presidential election. But it's worth remembering what he really does and doesn't stand for, if he doesn't stand for anything other than election. 
He has waged war on Libya without congressional approval
He has started a covert, drone war in Yemen 
He has escalated the proxy war in  Somalia 
He has escalated the CIA drone war in Pakistan 
He will maintain a presence in Iraq even after "ending" war
He sharply escalated the war in Afghanistan 
He secretly deployed US special forces to 75 countries 
He   sold $30 billion of weapons to the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia 
He signed an agreement for 7 military bases in Colombia 
He opened a military base in Chile 
He touted nuclear power , even after the disaster in Japan

Operation Mockingbird - Media Manipulation

Increase In Taliban Attacks

Isaf Data Proves Karzai's Warning of Increase in Insurgent Attacks:

Four More US Ships Arrive in Gulf

Four More US Ships Arrive in Gulf as Iran Feels Pressure -- News from Antiwar.com:

Depleted Uranium - Legacy For Aghanistan Too?

The paper says about a third of 800,000 US and British Gulf War veterans now claim disability benefits for a mystery illness, and there has also been a sharp increase in certain cancers and child deformities in Iraq.
There is suspicion that the same is occurring in Afghanistan, but while depleted uranium was a suspected cause, nothing had been confirmed.
New Zealand does not have the weapons, but the parliamentary paper says Defence personnel returning from Afghanistan have had to provide urine samples for testing.

Morsi Election Brings Uncertainties

Is This War in Afghanistan or on the Moon?

Is This War in Afghanistan or on the Moon?:

When Biden Knows Best - You're In Trouble

In actual fact You're In Shit Street.

Although Biden’s doubts have become well known, the new book details how Biden used a months-long White House review of the war to question the basic premise that the same “counterinsurgency” strategy that had apparently worked in Iraq could be applied to Afghanistan. MORE

Re-branding The Mission

The US/NATO/ISAF have re-branded the mission so many times I thought they had run out of new ideas to try to spin 11 years of abject failure. First it was to eliminate AQ. I wonder how that's going. Then nation building - two words:Hamid Karzai. Then it was supposed to be about the drugs trade. Glad that's been cleaned up. Then the rights of women and girls. Bet they're grateful for all the progress on that. But here's a new one. All the best with it (whisper: Maybe time to declare 'mission accomplished' and move on - say to Syria).

Egypt - US Foreign Policy Pt. 927

“I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family” – Hillary Clinton, 2 March 2009.

Egypt - Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Morsi Wins

Mohamed Morsi has been declared the winner of Egypt’s presidential election, the first Islamist head of state to rise from the Arab Spring uprisings. Morsi was declared the victor over former prime minister and Mubarak ally Ahmed Shafiq by nearly 1 million votes. Morsi is the candidate from the political wing of the popular Muslim Brotherhood, and there had been widespread threat of violence if Morsi had not been declared the winner. Cairo’s Tahrir Square erupted in cheers upon the news of Morsi’s victory. CLIP HERE

How Obama And The Pentagon Botched The Surge

“Can someone tell me why the Marines were sent to Helmand?” the incredulous McChrystal asked his officers.
The answer — not fully known at the time to McChrystal and his officers — would reveal the dysfunction of the U.S. war effort: a reliance on understaffed NATO partners for crucial intelligence, a misjudgment of Helmand’s importance to Afghanistan’s security, and tribal politics within the Pentagon that led the Marines to insist on confining themselves to a far less important patch of desert.
The consequences were profound: By devoting so many troops to Helmand instead of Kandahar, the U.S. military squandered more than a year of the war. Had the initial contingent of Marines been sent to Kandahar, it could have obviated the need for a full 30,000-troop surge later that year, or it could have granted commanders the flexibility to combat insurgent havens in eastern Afghanistan much sooner, allowing them to meet Obama’s eventual withdrawal deadlines without objection.Read the Article

Turkish and Syrian Forces Search For Downed Jet

In 10 years security conditions have worsened for Afghan women

OpEdNews - Article: In 10 years security conditions have worsened for Afghan women:

It's Always Raining Propaganda In Washington

H'T to The Trench

US Considering Commando Raids Into Pakistan

But the US shouldn’t be in Afghanistan to begin with. And the Pakistani gripe is much heavier. The US drone strikes, the espionage and infiltration, and the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers have all contributed to the growing wrangle between Washington and Islamabad. 

MORE

Syria - Turkish Plane Shot Down

Saudi Arabia Targets $10Billion Tank deal with Germany

Reality Zone - A New Era ?: Twice as deadly: Saudi Arabia aims at 10 bln euro tank deal with Germany — RT:

Little America - Capital McChrystalville

What next in Afghanistan? | Anglia - ITV News

At Bastion there's also the sound of helicopters that are taking off almost around the clock on various operations. On this particular morning at Patrol Base Kalang we are woken up by another noise - the hammering of tent poles and scaffolding. The rather ramshackle shower unit where I had, just the day before, washed with bottled water in the company of several dozen astonished frogs was no more. The lads were slowly taking the entire base apart ahead of its closure later this month. The HESCO bombproof walls will probably stay and, as the Afghans are a very resourceful nation, I'm sure they'll find use for whatever is left behind. What next in Afghanistan? | Anglia - ITV News: 

Kabul - Spozhmai Hotel Attack

Predictable NATO spin blaming the Haqqanis wasn't long in emerging.

63 Drone Sites In US - Change You Can Believe In

Muslim populations have become predictably more critical of him, rooted in clear disillusionment with his policies. An unclenched hand of friendship with the Muslim world is now perceived as an unmanned drone that threatens to kill them. MORE HERE.

Egyptian Election Results Postponed

5 Things About Spozhmai Hotel Attack In Kabul

The NDS seem to be really good at catching the next attacks: for example, after the last attacks in Kabul in April, the NDS magically foiled a massive explosive plot against the city. 

But they seem to really stumble when it comes to the first one. LINK

The American Dream

Israel/US Cyber Attacks

The real reason Julian Assange Sought Asylum

New Statesman - The real reason Julian Assange sought asylum:

Afghanistan War Daily

LINK TO LATEST EDITION HERE

List of Moonbats Calling For Assassination of Julian Assange

A range of US politicians, Canadian right-wingers, Murdoch-style broadcasters and journos, securocrats, military groupies and general fruitcakes have called for Assange to be 'taken out' (to borrow one of their euphemisms). LIST

The Value Of A Life

Asia Times Online :: The value of American - and Afghan - lives:

Pakistan PM Gilani Disqualified

Obama's Guantanamo - Short Clip

This clip exposes a few facts but seems to imply at one stage that drones are 'humanitarian'. American Mediaspeak alert!

UN Report On Extrajudicial Killings - PDF

Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

Christof Heyns - LINK

AQAP Counterstrike - The Trench

Some of AQAP's posturing is easy to see through as the group retreats from its possessions. Yemeni and U.S. forces have landed numerous blows over the past months and an aura of strength must be projected as the group switches up its tactics. However the conflict's factors do not match the exuberance (however cautious) of Yemeni and U.S. officials who are eager to promote new military gains. For starters, AQAP assumed a large amount of risk by holding entire towns under its control; unless an insurgency has reached a widespread presence, undermining the government's authority is often easier than governing. Although AQAP's ambushes have inflicted a significant amount of damage on Yemeni forces, the group is also foolish to openly challenge a conventional army. The guerrilla warfare that Jalal Beledi promised offers a more logical course of action. MORE

CIA And Secret Assassinations

On another occasion, the CIA unsuccessfully attempted to kill the Republic of Congo’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, using a tube of doctored toothpaste which would have left him dead, apparently of Polio.
In 2004, Ukrainian opposition leader Victor Yushenko was poisoned with TCDD, the most toxic form of Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins, otherwise known as Dioxins, by what is largely suspected were pro-Russian individuals within the state’s security apparatus.
Although many of the shrewd techniques that have been secretly used in the murder of dissidents and enemies abroad have long been acknowledged in the post-cold war era, many practices may still be eluding us by virtue of remaining shrouded in anonymity, even to this day. MORE

Newest Victims Of The Drones

Drones Most Accident-Prone Air Force Craft - Businessweek

Drones Most Accident-Prone Air Force Craft - Businessweek:

The War On Terror - Some Results

The threat of Islamic terrorism in the Western world is very minimal. It has been grossly exaggerated in order to justify the multiple wars being waged in Muslim majority countries. 

The charge is led by anti-Muslim ideologues, but the overarching premise–that Islamic terrorism is a great threat to Western civilization (even an existential threat to it)–is accepted by virtually all segments of American society.

MORE

9 Reasons Why Military Intervention In Syria Is A Bad Idea

9 Reasons Why Military Intervention In Syria Is A Bad Idea - Business Insider:

ISAF Drone Down In Paktia - Pic

Crashed drone pictured on Saturday, 16 June. No details reported so far.

New Weaponry Fuels US Wars

This article is by a cheerleader for the drone-firing Peace Laureate(cough). But at least the piece acknolwedges hostility to US foreign policy outside the US. Such articles usually don't even do that much.

A Pew Research Center survey on the U.S. image abroad found that in 17 of 21 countries surveyed, more than half of the people disapproved of U.S. drone attacks targeting extremist leaders in such places as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. In the U.S., 62 percent approved of the drone campaign, making American public opinion the clear exception.The U.S. use of cyberweapons, like viruses that sabotage computer networks or other high-tech tools that can invade computers and steal data, is even more closely shielded by official secrecy and, arguably, less well understood. MORE

Insect Drones - Coming To A Location Near You

Is this a mosquito? No, this is an "INSECT SPY DRONE" already in production. 


It can be controlled from a great distance and is equipped with a camera, microphone and can land on you, and use it's needle to take a DNA sample with the pain of a mosquito bite. Or it can inject a micro RFID tracking device under your skin. It can land on you, and you take it in your home or it can fly through a window. Your window of privacy is getting very narrow these days. 


They are preparing are you?

US/NATO Mis-reported Losses In Attack

The principal question arising from this report of the attack suffered by ISAF/NATO at FOB Salerno in Khost is how many other instances (answer - hundreds) of spinning and under-spinning casulaties on both sides have NATO perpetrated over the years. Here's the original report.

FOB SALERNO

Internet Snoopers Charter

Surveillance Society

US Gets UK Help To Block Russian Helicopters' to Syria

US enlists Britain's help to stop ship 'carrying Russian attack helicopters' to Syria - Telegraph:

Dave and O Watching A Clip Of The Latest Drone Strike On Fox

Afghanistan War Daily

Latest edition HERE

Game Of Drones

Gareth Porter Wins Gelhorn Award For Afghanistan Exposures

Gareth Porter, the Washington-based journalist, has won the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism for 2012 for his investigation of US "killing strategy" in Afghanistan, including the targeting of people through their mobile phones.
The judges said: "In a series of extraordinary articles, Gareth Porter has torn away the facades of the Obama administration and disclosed a military strategy that amounts to a war against civilians."
The Martha Gellhorn Prize is given in honor of one of the 20th Century's greatest reporters and is awarded to a journalist "whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or 'official drivel,' as Martha Gellhorn called it."
Previous winners include Robert Fisk of the Independent, Nick Davies of the Guardian, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, and the late Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times (special award).
Those short-listed for this year's prize were Amelia Gentleman of the Guardian for her articles about Britain's "forgotten people," the elderly and young offenders, described by the judges as "unique and eloquent"; and Phil Hammond and Andrew Bousfield for their "stunning" special investigation in Private Eye, "Shoot the messenger: How NHS whistleblowers are silenced and sacked."

Petition Against Weaponised Drones

Sign petition HERE

How Drones Help Al Qaeda

How Drones Help Al Qaeda - NYTimes.com:

2,000th American Killed In Afghanistan

The independent Internet site icasualties.org, which compiles figures from Operation Enduring Freedom (sic) launched in October 2001, put the US toll at 2,008. Of the 2,000 deaths recorded by the Pentagon, 1,577 were killed in combat and 34 were women. Some 16,402 troops also have been wounded. MORE

Global Peace Index Map

Check out this Global Peace Index Map. LINK

Are U.S. military leaders lying about Afghanistan?

Are U.S. military leaders lying about Afghanistan? - Yahoo! News:

U.S. State Department On Bahrain

The Trench: U.S. State Department Validates Nabeel Rajab's Message:

Nato To Continue Air Attacks On Houses

Despite the perfunctory condemnations and speeches made by the Mayor of Kabul, NATO intend to continue with their bungling airstrikes they confirmed today. 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai cut short his trip to China to return back to Kabul after coalition forces called in airstrikes while pursuing insurgents in Logar province. Eighteen civilians, including women and children, were killed, according to villagers in the area. NATO is still conducting its own investigation into the incident, but has apologized for the loss of civilian life.
Karzai met with Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, but it appears both sides had different interpretations of that meeting.  MORE HERE

The Propaganda Battle

Terror is not just the state of mind, it is the mind of the state in Washington and Tel Aviv. LINK

Supply Routes - Pakistan Talks Stall

Drone Scandal - Europe Silent

When Thomas de Maizière, the German defense minister, told a gathering of army reservists last month that he considered the U.S. strategy of using drones for targeted killings a "strategic mistake," his remarks received almost no coverage.
Only the online news edition of the German television broadcaster ARD carried the story.
According to their reporter, Mr. de Maizière said he thought it was unwise to have U.S. commanders direct such attacks from their base in the United States.
Repeated requests to the reservists' association for a full transcript of the speech went unanswered. Nor did the Defense Ministry publish the remarks.
Mr. de Maizière is not the only politician in Europe to feel uneasy with the United States' frequent use of unmanned drones to target what it says are terrorism suspects in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. But many are reluctant to speak out about their doubts. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel; the E.U. foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton; and the new French president, François Hollande, are among the many officials unwilling to publicly criticize the practice of remote control, targeted killings. MORE HERE