Pakistan

By CHRIS BRUMMITT, The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD -- Sadaullah Wazir says he was relaxing in his front yard when the missile struck, hurling him against the wall and mangling his legs so badly that they had to be amputated. Three of his relatives died. Now the 17-year-old and his family want justice from America, which they say was behind the attack.

Detailed accounts by casualties such as Wazir rarely make it outside the tribal regions. He and other tribesmen recently traveled to Islamabad, the capital, to meet with lawyers who are planning to sue the CIA for damages, possibly adding a new layer of scrutiny to the agency's covert war inside Pakistan.

By Gareth Porter, IPS

WASHINGTON, Dec 22, 2010 (IPS) - This week's leak to the New York Times of a proposal for U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids against Afghan insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan may be intended to put more pressure on the Pakistani military to take action against those sanctuaries.

But the proposal for such cross-border raids also reflects a real demand from the U.S.-NATO command in Afghanistan to target insurgent leaders inside Pakistan if the Pakistani military does not respond to the threat, according to a U.S. source familiar with discussions at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters in Kabul.

And the position of the Barack Obama administration on the necessity of attacking insurgent safe havens in Pakistan appears to be in line with the proposal for cross-border raids.

By John Grant

Washington--Defense Secretary Robert Gates may be the consummate insider bureaucrat and a nice man, but his calling our war in the Pashtun homeland “the meat in the sandwich” begins to get at the real problem of the Afghanistan/Pakistan War.

Besides being a preposterously flippant and insensitive metaphor presumably uttered for clueless middle American consumption, his sandwich image is as misleading as all the war-selling PR coming out of the Pentagon and the Obama White House.

Here’s how he described his sandwich: “The Pakistanis come in behind the insurgents from the Pakistani side and, coordinating with us and the Afghans, we’re on the other side.” Of course, he's referring to what is informally dubbed Pashtunistan, down the middle of which Sir Mortimer Durand drew the Afghanistan/Pakistan border in 1893 to divide and conquer the Pashtun people. The border is a Western illusion. And, of course, the Taliban are largely Pashtun.

Taxpayers Paying Torture Contractors' Legal Bills

Dec. 17, 2010 - Taxpayers are currently paying the legal bills for Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, two CIA contractors who reportedly helped plan and execute the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation" program, the Associated Press' Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo reported Thursday night. The CIA agreed to pay up to $5 million to cover legal fees for the two men—far more than the standard amount that would be covered for employees of the agency (during the Bush administration, it was standard practice for CIA officers to pay half of the cost of insuring themselves against possible legal action).

By Ron Ridenour

Julian Assange, key initiator of Wikileaks, has been granted bail despite the British government’s appeal made in behalf of the Swedish government. A British district court judge had waited two days before approving bail in the amount of $ 316,000, on the condition that Assange wear an electronic tag, report to a police station daily, and comply with a 16-hour curfew allowing just eight hours of freedom from the “mansion arrest” in the house of a wealthy journalist/club owner.

At play here could well be documents Wikileaks released that show that US diplomats communicated with their State Department and White House bosses in Washington saying British troops in Afghanistan are not very good at the job. Brits are angry about this slur, especially given their long record of standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Bush’s in his terror wars.

Please, if you know of a veteran of these two conflicts that was Stop Lossed, or a beneficiary of a soldier killed while Stop Lossed, that have not heard about or for whatever reason Not Applied for this pay out Pass This Information On!

Red Cross says Afghan conditions worst in 30 years

Dec 15, 2010 - Spreading violence in Afghanistan is preventing aid organizations from providing help, with access to those in need at its worst level in three decades, the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

"The proliferation of armed groups threatens the ability of humanitarian organizations to access those in need. Access for the ICRC has over the last 30 years never been as poor," said Reto Stocker, Afghanistan head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which rarely makes public comments.

OUR VIEW: Detached from the war

December 15, 2010 - Fall River's fourth military death this year, that of Pfc. Ethan L. Goncalo, places the burden of war on the doorstep of his home city, but in many American homes, the burden is far too invisible.

Iraq, Afghanistan and related operations have taken the lives of five patriotic Fall River residents in total, all of them volunteers in this pair of wars without a draft. That's a greater loss per capita than any other Massachusetts community, according to a Boston Globe report.

Yet many Americans have never really seen the cost of the war against terrorism — no draft, no war tax, none of the war bonds or victory gardens of the past. The absence of widespread sacrifice has allowed the war in Afghanistan to stretch on year after year with relatively little public outcry.

What the F**K is wrong with this country? Wait, never mind I've been watching it collapse for the last thirty of my comin on 62 years of my life, Questions Answered!

I just got finished watching Meet The Press and the way over the top extremely highly paid 'experts?' mumbling about the tax cuts and who hates who and why.

I didn't hear One mention of these Wars our soldiers are still in nor the countries need to Finally not only 'Sacrifice, after ten years, but Pay Back What Is Owed For Waging Them, not a mention as to the Veterans Of nor their Families, the Only Ones That Have Done Any Sacrificing as these tax cuts came with the start of these Wars of Choice.

It came on just as I was putting together a post for my site on a just released report on Family Care Givers of Veterans, and boy there is so much more then just this!

Tony Blair To Appear Before Iraq War Inquiry Commission

12/8/2010 - The independent commission probing the reasons for Britain joining the Iraq war announced Wednesday that it has asked former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to appear before the panel for a second time to give additional evidence.

Blair, who was the Prime Minister when Britain joined the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, is one among several witnesses summoned to reappear before the Chilcot committee. Those recalled include former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and former chief of defense staff Admiral Michael Boyce.

Join Peace Vet-Led Protest at White House on December 16th

By Kevin Zeese

The White House is in the midst of a strategic review of Afghanistan. This review is coming at a time when the reality is hard to ignore: Afghanistan cannot be won, the cost is escalating at a time when the U.S. economy is in collapse and the war is undermining U.S. national security and the rule of law. It is time to end the war-based foreign policy of the United States.

It's too bad all this didn't start during the previous administration, there are so many questions and just think of the added proof as to the War Crimes and much more we would have!! Though in this country we don't do Accountability and allow our extremely wealthy walk around free with the blood wealth they gained, and we don't even tax them nor their corporations!!

And how is the now not secret use of by the U.S. and other countries, especially those during the past decade and the CIA rendition program, any different then the charges pointed at Iran or any country we and others condemn! And how are the so called leaders of Nations who ordered the policies and than walk around freely bragging about the use of any less guilty then those other so called leaders widely condemned for doing same though not bragging about!

By John Grant

“The problem here is to define ... a form of life that would not depend on an unsustainable relation of domination over the rest of the world.” 
Jean Bricmont

We live in a time of incredible change, and to have any say at all in the direction that change will take requires a respect for reality. Right now, the United States is losing this battle as it tries mightily – and wastefully -- to sustain its post-WWII legacy as the world’s undisputed Top Dog.

The key to this disaster here in the US is a greater and greater restriction of information in conjunction with what can only be called a top down enforced blindness among the population.
If you think this is only the view of a disgruntled leftist, read Thomas Friedman’s latest column in The New York Times, where he imagines WikiLeaks revealing a gleeful cable from the Chinese ambassador in Washington to his bosses in Beijing:

By Charles M. Young

Howard Zinn, probably the most influential American historian ever, had an amazing sense of humor when he lectured or met people in person. He could make fun of himself and the audience in a way that exploded the guilt and ambivalence that so often paralyzes liberals, progressives, greens, socialists, anarchists, communists and everyone else on the more-or-less left. Only occasionally, however, did Zinn use his sense of humor in print. His masterpiece, A People’s History of the United States, had no humor at all, as he himself pointed out, because he didn’t find anything funny about the Trail of Tears and all the other ghastly episodes he wove into a narrative that convinced millions of citizens the United States was something less than what they had believed.

Nov 25 2010 - DOXA Documentary Film Festival launches its 2010/2011 Film Series Motion Pictures by introducing Luc Côté and Patricio Henriquez’s documentary You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantánamo.

Based on seven hours of recently declassified security camera footage from the Guantanamo prison, the film captures a series of interrogations of Omar Khadr by CSIS agents. What is revealed is the personal story of a child caught up in the larger forces of political action and the global war on terrorism. {read rest}

 

* 3 million documents set to go online

* Bombshell leak thought to include U.S. assessments of Gordon Brown

* Secret talks on return of Lockerbie bomber to Libya may also be leaked

* Allegations 'include U.S. backing of Kurdish terrorists'

* U.S. diplomats face being kicked out of countries in backlash

* Corrupt politicians expected to be named and shamed

27th November 2010 - David Cameron was warned last night by America that damaging secrets of the ‘special relationship’ are about to be laid bare.

The TSA, the Right, and My Busted Watch

26 November 2010 - For the last several days, I have been trying to locate what would appear to be the appropriate and necessary level of angst and fury over the issue of heavy-handed TSA searches at American airports. I say "appropriate and necessary" because, well, all the noise surrounding the matter seems to suggest I have no alternative other than outrage, and if I fail to react that way, I am some sort of dupe, a fool who doesn't understand the Constitutional issues at hand or the dangers represented by what has been described as a glaring governmental over-reach.

AUSTRALIAN officials are bracing for a massive leak of classified US State Department cables.

November 26, 2010 - These cables could include embarrassing disclosures about Canberra's secret diplomacy on controversial issues, such as the war in Iraq.

The Gillard government was one of several foreign governments put on notice about the leaks, expected to be released within days by whistleblower group WikiLeaks.

So seriously is the issue being taken that several sources told The Australian it was raised during a phone call yesterday morning between Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

Scahill once again is reading the quagmire right on! Maybe a few do remember or sought out the lessons, the real ones, of our quagmire Vietnam!! If we had stayed, no Iraq total destruction, and helped start rebuilding while searching out al Qaeda, as we promised once again we would, just think!!

Nov. 23: Jeremy Scahill, writer for The Nation and author of Blackwater, talks with Chris Hayes about what it means that NATO was trying to negotiate peace with a Taliban imposter.

 

Especially for those in this Country, who don't visit nor mention except at pointing their own hate towards others, others they don't even know nor care to understand. Who've led in the failed policies while now they whine about their personal freedoms being infringed on with body pat downs, not torture, a direct result of the enhancing of the hatreds by the death and destruction wrought for a decade now and still no call for accountability!

Close Watch on Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq

21 November 2010 - “EVERY morning I wake up and go looking for dead people,” says Michael White, a computer programmer from Stone Mountain, Ga., who publishes the Web site iCasualties.org, which tracks deaths and injuries among coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gonzales once again implicates self in Bush torture program

November 22nd, 2010 - Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has implicated himself - yet again - in the Bush administration's torture program.

Gonzales told Talking Points Memo that he knew "enhanced interrogation techniques" were used against suspected terrorists.

And it's is too bad this came from a Brit, bush is so arrogant and lacking in intelligence he would have thought England was a safe bet, he still thinks he's a great leader of the free world, to visit and add to his wealth. But it was the thoughts of millions around this planet, especially the International Lawyers who have been building cases now for years. There's enough, even though not a criminal inquiry nor about the U.S., in the Chilcot Iraq War Inquiry alone and still ongoing to hang that whole administration and anyone around them! Not to mention the other inquiries, Dutch etc., as well as the tons of evidence that have come out these years! Perp walks alone would have started the cleansing of what they did to the World community and minimized the blowback!

Well what do ya know, Justice {Civilian Courts} still works in the U.S.! Another of the Gitmo detainee's, only this one went to trial, was found that the U.S. Government didn't have much evidence of his guilt. Same for the hundreds let go after years being held and most likely tortured after the bush admin picked them off the streets or wherever and whisked them away to other countries prisons, so the U.S. could denie the torture, and to Guantanamo and held incommunicado from the outside world, human rights, defense of charges and any evidence of what they were charged with!

See we don't do that, certainly not for terror waged with death and destruction as well as now the World knowing we torture and hold others with no trials and miles from their Countries and Families!! Our society is geared to who's buying those we hire as we fear that word 'accountability', would mean the death of political opportunity for those hired reps to work for the wealthy and corporations while we whine about getting hand searched at airports {while our soldiers are getting killed and maimed, we also don't do 'sacrifice' even for the veterans}, seems many now are still seeking retaliation!

Accountability for Torture (in Britain)

November 16, 2010 - The contrast could not be more distressing.

Guantánamo payout deal is climax of years of denials of UK role in rendition

Analysis: Settlement means no more damaging documents or information will be released by the courts

16 November 2010 - The disclosure that UK citizens and residents incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay are to receive millions of pounds in compensation is the climax of years of official denials of Britain's role in the secret transfer of terror suspects to prisons where they risked being tortured – the CIA practice of "extraordinary rendition".

''These abuses occurred on European soil. We simply can't allow Europe to join the US in becoming an accountability-free zone.''

EU complicit in torture: report

November 17, 2010 - A LEADING human rights group has sharply criticised the European Union for failing to call to account member states, including Britain, for their complicity in the CIA's rendition and secret detention program.

The charge is made by Amnesty International ahead of an EU-US summit in Portugal on Saturday in a 53-page report, Open Secret, which, it says, contains evidence of European complicity in the program.

All the rendition victims interviewed by Amnesty say they were tortured or ill-treated in custody.
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