Warfare continues to become more professional and dehumanized every day.

The purpose of Extraordinary Edition is being revisited for winter, headed into 2013. U.S. foreign policy, Central Asia and the Middle East remain key focal points. Economics and culture on your front doorstep are coming into focus here.

Friday, April 30, 2010

NYT: U.S. Begins Inquiry on Spy Network in Pakistan

Mark Mazetti reports April 27 for The New York Times on the peculiar case of
Michael D. Furlong. See also March 14 piece by Mazetti with Dexter Filkins,"Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants" (link provided in story below)

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has opened an inquiry into whether a top Defense Department official violated Pentagon rules by setting up a network of private contractors to gather intelligence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that Mr. Gates was also demanding greater oversight over the millions of dollars the Defense Department spent annually to carry out “information operations,” to ensure that such missions did not “stray off course” into secret intelligence collection.

At the center of the Pentagon inquiry is Michael D. Furlong, a civilian official working for the Air Force who last year used a web of private contractors to clandestinely gather intelligence in Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to current and former government officials, some of that information was turned over to Special Operations troops to help fight militants.

Some American officials think that Mr. Furlong may have financed the secret network by improperly diverting money from an overt program to gather information about the tribal structures and political dynamics in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon’s inspector general is already conducting a criminal investigation into the matter. One focus of that investigation is whether Mr. Furlong engaged in contract fraud by channeling contracts to International Media Ventures, a media technology firm that American officials say Mr. Furlong used in the intelligence-gathering effort.

But even if no laws were broken, officials said, the inquiry announced on Tuesday will more clearly define the Pentagon’s boundaries in intelligence operations, and determine whether Mr. Furlong’s outsourcing of intelligence collection violated Pentagon rules.

The inquiry will be led by Mr. Gates’s senior aide in charge of intelligence oversight.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said that a Pentagon team set up to do a quick study of Defense Department information operations — the area of warfare where information is used to achieve military ends — had found that the programs were well managed and had unearthed no evidence of operations similar to the one set up by Mr. Furlong.

“There do not seem to be any other alleged rogue information operations under way,” he said.

Since The New York Times last month revealed details about his contractor network, Mr. Furlong has given only one interview, telling a newspaper in San Antonio that all of his actions had been approved by senior military officials. He did not provide the names of these officials.

One of the contractors Mr. Furlong hired, officials said, was Duane Clarridge, a former C.I.A. officer whose history includes an indictment and subsequent presidential pardon for his role in the Iran-contra scandal.

Mr. Morrell said that despite the investigations into the Furlong case, Mr. Gates thought that information operations remained an essential tool for the military to carry out its strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Summer in what's left of Afghanistan: Operation Omid

Here's an article I missed April 19 (Possibly, "I Missed It." is a new section in the works at Extraordinary Edition) that RadioactiveGavin was keen to collect.

By Jean MacKenzie for GlobalPost

Published: April 19, 2010 07:16 ET
KABUL, Afghanistan — It is being called Operation Omid.

The word omid means "hope" in Afghanistan’s Dari language. But, judging by the reaction of local residents, the coming U.S.-led military offensive against the Taliban in Kandahar could not be more inappropriately named.

In Kandahar, residents like Abdul Salaam, a farmer, feel more a sense of dread than hope about a military operation that is being billed as one of the largest in the war to date.

“Operation Omid will bring more insecurity, instead of peace,” said Salaam, who lives in the Maiwand district of Kandahar Province. “We have just seen that the opposition has accelerated its attacks. There are more and more explosions in the province. You cannot bring peace through war.”

Operation Omid will not be fully underway until early summer, according to the U.S. military. The exact size of the force to be deployed is not yet clear, but it is expected to swallow a good portion of the 30,000 additional troops being sent to Afghanistan this year.

The operation will center on two districts — Arghandab and Zheray — rather than on the city itself. Fighting in a major population center, moreover one that is home to some of Islam’s most cherished relics, such as the cloak of the Prophet, would go against the hearts and minds strategy that has been a central tenet of the new U.S. strategy.

The Taliban seem eager to get things started.

Over the past week, a series of suicide explosions have rocked the city center. This, along with the much-publicized shooting of a civilian bus by U.S. troops, has given Kandaharis a taste of the approaching conflict. They do not seem to relish the prospect.

The U.S. military has been talking of Kandahar ever since they declared success in Marjah, a dusty patch of desert in neighboring Helmand Province. Once the Afghan flag was raised over the Marjah district center in early March, Kandahar became the focal point of the stepped-up battle against the Taliban.

The choice of target was not coincidental: Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, is the spiritual home of the Taliban, the birthplace of the movement that took over most of the country in the mid to late ‘90s.

The city is not under Taliban control — the government, in the person of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the president’s half-brother and head of Kandahar’s Provincial Council, dominates the center. This is one reason that the fighting will be spread out to the districts surrounding the center.

Observers say that this will prompt the Taliban to adopt their usual tactics — melting away until the foreign forces retreat, then flooding back into the area.

“The armed opposition is experienced in guerrilla warfare,” said Bismillah Afghanmal, a senator from Kandahar. “They know when and where to fight, and they know very well how to flee the area that is the focus of the operation. Omid will not bring good results.”

Some of the fighters are moving into more remote districts, but a good number are heading for the city, where they appear ready to carry out regular acts of “asymmetrical warfare” — suicide bombings, the planting of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and other measures designed to spread terror.

As a result, the situation in Kandahar city is deteriorating rapidly, according to author Alex Strick van Linschoten, who has been living in the southern capital for more than two years conducting research on the Taliban.

“We are running out of ways to say how bad things are,” he said. “There is a general feeling of paranoia and fear — fear of what’s going to happen tomorrow, of what the future will bring. No one wants to be in Kandahar. Everyone is trying to sell up and get out.”

The panic was heightened over the past week week, when a double suicide bombing on April 15 killed at least 10 people and injured dozens of others. The first explosion occurred outside Noor Jehan, a hotel popular with the international press, while a second, larger blast followed it hours later, when a vehicle crammed with explosives penetrated the outer defenses of a compound housing foreign contractors.

This is having the desired effect of intimidating the local population.

“The Taliban are signaling to the foreign forces that they have the power to answer any attack,” said Abdul Salaam. “They are trying to show that they have not been weakened by the Marjah operation.”

Nevertheless, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has assured the Afghan people that the U.S. forces would “absolutely secure Kandahar.”

In a press conference in March, McChrystal outlined the military’s plans in broad strokes. Rather than beginning the operation with a Marjah-style bang, the Kandahar “process” will be more subtle, he indicated.

“There won’t be a D-Day that is climactic,” said McChrystal. “It will be a rising tide of security as it comes.”

But so far the tide seems to be going out.

“The Taliban are prepared for this operation,” said Felix Kuehn, who along with van Linschoten co-edited an autobiography of Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, who spent nearly four years in Guantanamo and now lives under virtual house arrest in Kabul.

Kuehn has also spent the better part of two years in Kandahar.

“It will be close to impossible to stop their attacks," he said. The intelligence required is simply not available. The local population does not trust the foreign forces, and knows that they will not be safe if they cooperate.”

In Marjah, the Taliban has carried out brutal retribution against residents who are seen to assist the government or the foreign forces. Residents tell of people being dragged out of their houses at night, hanged or beheaded, their bodies left as a warning to others.

In addition to ordinary Kandaharis, added Kuehn, the business community is also being asked to provide goods and services to the insurgency.

“Businessmen are being pressured to team up with the Taliban,” he said. “They are told, 'It is for your own good. You know in the end we will be in control, so it is best to be on our side now.'”

Few are willing to bet their livelihoods — and their lives — on the success of the foreign forces, said both Kuehn and van Linschoten.

Gaining the trust and support of the local population is vital for McChrystal’s much-touted counterinsurgency strategy, or COIN. But it will be an uphill battle to win the hearts and minds of Kandaharis, given the current situation.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has promised local elders that the operation will not take place without their consent.

In a shura, or council, with tribal elders in Kandahar on April 4, Karzai asked those assembled whether they wanted the operation. They assured him they did not. According to a journalist who was present at the shura, the mood of the gathering was openly hostile, and Karzai’s neighbors on the podium — McChrystal and Mark Sedwill, the Senior NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, looked distinctly uncomfortable.

Relations between the local population and the United States worsened still further on April 12, when U.S. troops opened fire on a passenger bus near a Kandahar checkpoint, killing four and injuring 18. The incident sparked violent anti-American protests, as hundreds of demonstrators poured out onto the streets, blocking roads and shouting “Death to the infidels!”

A week later, the anger is still smoldering.

“All the people on that bus were innocent passengers,” said Haji Mohammad Daud, a resident of the Karez Bazaar area of Kandahar city. “What will the families of the victims think?”

Relatives of civilian victims often end up joining the insurgency, he added.

“The opposition uses cases like this as a propaganda tool against the government; they tell people that foreign forces are not here to help — they have come to kill you.”

The U.S. military apologized for the incident, calling it “a tragic loss of life,” but McChrystal appealed for understanding.

“We really ask a lot of our young service people out on checkpoints because there is danger, they’re asked to make very rapid decisions in often very unclear situations,” The New York Times quoted him as saying.

Several hours after the bus shooting, insurgents attacked the headquarters of Kandahar’s intelligence service. The attackers were the only ones to die, but four officials and five civilians were wounded, further raising anxieties in the city.

Against this backdrop of fear and turmoil, prospects for success are looking dim to those on the ground in Kandahar.

“The foreign forces will never have the knowledge and control they need to secure the city,” said van Linschoten. “The Taliban are already there, and can do whatever they want. Short of erecting barbed wire barriers and total ID check, like Baghdad in Year Zero, they cannot do anything. It is a recipe for disaster.”

Ahmad Nadeem, a freelance journalist from Kandahar, contributed to this report from Kandahar.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Robert Fisk piece from inside Pakistan 4/6

I missed this one until now, in the Irish press.

Robert Fisk is a British journalist who grew up in the Middle East, traveling with his father. His knowledge of cultures and customs in the region arcs from Cairo to Khyber Pass.

Writing for the Belfast Telegraph, Fisk writes in the usual exceptional prose partly resulting from keen observation and knowledge of the topic ...

I am sitting in a modest downstairs apartment in the old British cantonment. A young Peshawar journalist sits beside me, talking in a subdued but angry way, as if someone is listening to us, about the pilotless American aircraft which now slaughter by the score – or the four score – along the Afghanistan border. "I was in Damadola when the drones came. They killed more than 80 teenagers – all students – and, yes they were learning the Koran, and the madrasah, the Islamic school, was run by a Taliban commander. But 80! Many of them came from Bajaur, which would be attacked later. Their parents came afterwards, all their mothers were there, but the bodies were in pieces. There were so many children, some as young as 12. We didn't know how to fit them together."

The reporter – no name, of course, because he still has to work in Peshawar – was in part of the Bajaur tribal area, to cover negotiations between the government and the Taliban. "The drones stayed around for about half an hour, watching," he says. "Then two Pakistani helicopter gunships came over. Later, the government said the helicopters did the attack. But it was the drones."

Read more: Robert Fisk for Belfast Telegraph April 6

Glenn Greenwald on war propaganda, Afghanistan and the NY Times

Salon.com article posted to commondreams.org
by Glenn Greenwald April 28, 2010

Excerpt--The Independent declared on February 9, 2010, that General McChrystal wants the Marjah offensive to "be one of the most significant in the country since the fall of the Taliban in 2001" and, of Obama's war strategy, said that "Marjah looks like being its first major -- and possibly decisive -- test." The BBC quoted a NATO official who proclaimed that Marjah "was 'probably the definitive operation' of the counter-insurgency strategy" and "this operation could potentially define the tipping point, the crucial momentum aspect in the counter-insurgency." Time helpfully informed us that "U.S. officials believe it will mark a turning point in the war."

Now that that "make-or-break decisive test" has failed (or, at best, has produced very muddled outcomes), did the Government and media follow through and declare the war effort broken and the strategy a failure? No; they just pretend it never happened and declare the next, latest, glorious Battle the real "make-or-break decisive test" -- until that one fails and the next one is portrayed that way, in an endless tidal wave of war propaganda intended to justify our staying for as long as we want, no matter how pointless and counter-productive it is.

commondreams.org

Morale among troops in Afghanistan: a non-embed story

Joyce M. Davis, writing for the Pennsylvania Patriot-News in Mechanicsburg (pennlive.com), struck up an illuminating conversation with a soldier returning from the battlefields near Kandahar.

"As troop morale drops, Afghanistan war isn't encouraging" April 28, 2010

... “Morale stinks, ma’am,” she said. “We don’t know why we’re there.”

A modern soldier is a laborer. As you read, try to think of a job you had where you couldn't figure out what the bosses were trying to accomplish or why they insisted upon going about it the way they did ... then think of David Patreus and Stanley McChrystal in the way you would think of, say, Lloyd Blankfein and Richard Fuld.

Joyce M. Davis/Patriot-News

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

U.S. State Dept. hones in on trade with Pakistan

Under the U.S. State Department, the Office of the United States Trade Representative announced in Washington its course of action for Pakistan April 26

Comment: Does this sound like somebody in D.C. and in Islamabad has their priorities a long way from organized only to me? The sociopolitical situation in Pakistan, as it is with many other parts of the world to be fair, can quite fairly be described as a complete and utter mess. Neoliberal economics continues rigidly, relentlessly, unapologetically the enabling of business by those who can keep it together under sociopolitical duress to operate businesses ... in order to spur solutions to endemic problems including all things public health and lack of infrastructure. The opposite side of this coin continues--overtly or covertly--to be that simply providing assistance to victims of violence and strife is socialism, a methodology more deeply flawed than neoliberal capitalism. Ladies and gentlemen, the United States Trade Representative ...

Statement from U.S. Pakistan Trade and Investment Council Meeting

Washington, D.C. - Senior Representatives of the Governments of the United States and Pakistan met at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington today for the fourth meeting of the United States-Pakistan Trade and Investment Council, under the U.S.-Pakistan Trade and Investment Agreement (TIFA) that was signed in 2003. Today’s meeting builds on the commitments made during the recent U.S. and Pakistan Strategic Dialogue to develop an open, results-oriented partnership between our two countries. This meeting demonstrates the continuing close cooperation between Pakistan and the United States on economic, trade, and investment issues. It manifests the importance both governments place on strengthening a long-term relationship by focusing on issues of importance to the Pakistani people.

Participants fully recognized that Pakistan’s participation in the global community’s effort to defeat the forces of extremism had seriously impacted the country’s export competitiveness. We reaffirmed our commitment to support Pakistan through market access initiatives. Both sides agreed to work together and with the U.S. Congress to move ROZ legislation forward so that we realize the key priority of creating legitimate and productive jobs in areas vulnerable to the influence of violent extremism. We also agreed to work together to develop new ideas to enhance market access, foster investment, and create jobs in both of our countries. By providing trade-based sustainable development, we will assist in the reconstruction and development of areas affected by the insurgency.

We also discussed progress on labor rights monitoring and enforcement, including Pakistan’s efforts to improve and consolidate its labor laws. We discussed ways that the United States and Pakistan can work together to enforce labor rights for Pakistani workers, an important issue for international investors. We reviewed a wide range of trade capacity building programs that the United States and Pakistan are implementing.

The parties also discussed a full range of investment climate issues, including intellectual property rights concerns, and sector-specific investment challenges. We reviewed the status of negotiations for a United States-Pakistan Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and U.S. Export-Import Bank, provided an overview of their programs in Pakistan and discussed areas for possible future cooperation. Both sides recognized the need for increased private sector involvement in the TIFA, the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, and other bilateral initiatives to highlight the challenges that businesses and investors face and develop practical solutions that effectively address these issues.

The two sides agreed to continue this discussion on market access issues at a U.S.-Pakistan Joint Trade Study Group meeting in Islamabad. The TIFA process and Joint Trade Study Group together support our shared objective of building closer ties between the citizens of our two countries. Over the long term, solid economic, trade, and investment policies will create jobs, boost investment, and generate sustainable development.

Today’s meeting also occurred on the eve of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit. In that regard, we also exchanged views on the importance of improving South Asian regional trade cooperation. The United States agreed to support Pakistan’s efforts to expand market access with key developed nations in Europe and Asia, and Pakistan confirmed its intention to conclude a new transit trade agreement with Afghanistan. Pakistan provided an update on the implementation of the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA).

The TIFA process has been a key part of a sustained and multi-faceted high-level engagement between our governments, focused on tackling major economic, trade, and investment challenges. The process is designed to guide and complement the practical work that officials from a wide range of agencies in both our governments carry out daily. Our meeting provided an excellent review of key economic, trade, and investment issues, helped to focus our efforts to achieve priority goals, and allowed us to identify new areas for cooperation. With an overarching goal of providing a better quality of life for our peoples, the United States and Pakistan strengthened our commitment to work together to enhance market access, boost economic development, and increase private sector investment.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Monday drone strike not to be confused with Saturday's

Notable about this campaign in Pakistan:

1. In February and March this campaign was being conducted by U.S. military contractors under dispatch of the CIA using UAV's, unmanned drones. Scrutiny was the result both locally and in the U.S. because reports of civilian deaths in these drone strikes were very high. It did not help the U.S. effort that targets were not high profile enough to resonate with the public as Public Enemy #X being "taken out," albeit through extrajudicial (illegal) means. Names of the dead in these attacks have not been made available let alone information that might corroborate claims the target was actually an armed enemy of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and/or civilians in the U.S.

2. This month operations shifted to a significant campaign mounted by Pakistan's own military within its borders. This shift in campaigns followed a meeting between Pakistan's foreign minister and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A campaign of this type will naturally accent the rifts in Pakistani society between people who live and work in populated areas and the capital Islamabad whose lives could be described as modern or influenced by the West and those who live out their lives on the land in remote areas and have little contact with national Pakistan. This can be said of many conflicts, especially in previously colonized areas of Africa and Asia.

3. News reports from the Pakistani campaign were typically sourced to one local official who presides to some effect over the region where a battle occurred. Pakistani officials consistently reported number of militants killed with no reports of civilians present, let alone killed or injured in violent exchanges. This marks a measurable departure from the press situation in Afghanistan where journalists embedded with the U.S. military report from the front of battle with the unit they accompany. Information in Pakistan is limited to the honesty of the official source and is difficult to dispute with no witness from international or regional media present.

4. In the last two weeks efforts in Pakistan against militants including members and recruits of the Pakistani Taliban have again shifted to CIA-operated drones. We have to ask if this is a separate campaign (probably classified information), if this is a joint operation supporting Pakistan's military, if Islamabad knew about the resumption of CIA drone strikes or if there ever was a cessation to the drone program whatsoever. Also, it has been reported these operations, which can be operated as remotely as U.S. military bases in the western hemisphere, have previously been administered by private contractors including Xe, formerly Blackwater, Inc. Is this still the case, and is anyone in Pakistan aware of that?

5. While we're at it, since the financial world back home is collapsing around us, we might as well ask how much it costs to run a CIA drone program in Pakistan. If the U.S. is hunting terrorists associated with attacks on New York City or a perpetrated Christmas attack in Detroit, the U.S. public across the spectrum will likely support financing of such a program. If the CIA drone program is stimulating anger toward U.S. military presence in the Middle East and drafting new terrorists by hundreds or thousands a month into the camps of organizations bent on the destruction of the enemies of radical Islam, that situation will realistically not be reported by Western media or entirely classified by the U.S. government based upon what we've seen so far.

Newest report follows ...

U.S. drone strike kills five in Pakistan

Reuters story
Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:11am EDT

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Three missiles fired by U.S. drone aircraft struck a militant compound in Pakistan's North Waziristan region near the Afghan border on Monday, killing five militants, intelligence officials said.

World

The strike took place about 24 km (15 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, known as a hotbed of Taliban and al Qaeda militants, they said.

"We have got confirmed reports of five dead but the number could be higher," said a Pakistani intelligence official in the region, who declined to be identified.

Another official said militants had cordoned off the area.

It was the second attack by pilotless U.S. aircraft in the area in the past two days. Seven militants were killed in a similar strike on Saturday.

The United States, struggling to stabilize Afghanistan, stepped up its missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest after a Jordanian suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base across the border in the eastern Afghan province of Khost in December.

Most of the attacks this year have been in North Waziristan.

U.S. ally Pakistan officially objects to the drone strikes, saying they are a violation of its sovereignty and fuel anti-U.S. feeling, which complicates Pakistan's efforts against militancy.

(Reporting by Haji Mujtaba and Alamgir Bitani; Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Paul Tait)

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Drone strike Saturday kills seven in Pakistan

U.S. drone attack kills seven in Pakistan

By Haji Mujtaba and Augustine Anthony
Reuters story appearing on Washingtonpost.com
Saturday, April 24, 2010; 1:33 PM

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone aircraft fired three missiles into Pakistan's North Waziristan region on the Afghan border Saturday, killing seven militants, Pakistani intelligence officials and residents said.

The strike targeted a militant compound in the town of Mir Ali, some 24 km (15 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The region is known as a hotbed of Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

"The place where the missiles struck is still on fire and militants have surrounded the area and were not letting anyone close to the site of the attack," said an intelligence official who declined to be identified.

"We have reports of seven militants killed in the attack."

The United States has stepped up missile strikes in Pakistan's northwestern region since a Jordanian suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base across the border in Afghanistan's eastern province of Khost in late December.

Most of the attacks this year have been in North Waziristan.

U.S. ally Pakistan officially objects to the drone strikes, saying they are a violation of its sovereignty and fuel anti-U.S. feeling, which complicates Pakistan's efforts against militancy.

Pakistan's army kills 9 insurgents in border region

Officials: Army kills 9 insurgents in NW Pakistan
Associated Press story April 25, 2010

By HUSSAIN AFZAL (AP) – 5 hours ago

PARACHINAR, Pakistan — Officials say nine militants were killed and 10 others wounded in clashes with Pakistani troops near Afghanistan.

Local official Jahanzeb Khan says militants attacked a checkpoint near Goain village in Orakzai tribal region Sunday, but security forces fought back. Two intelligence officials said troops then used heavy artillery to target militants' positions, killing at least nine.

Both intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Many insurgents have fled to Orakzai to escape an army offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan tribal region.

The information could not be verified independently because access to the area is restricted.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Bill Maher calls out defense spending as overlooked in economic reporting

From Huffington Post April 24, 2010

Excerpt--"Everything that goes into defense costs us about a trillion dollars a year, most of which goes into fighting the Russians in 1978. Fighter planes for all those dog fights we get into with the Taliban, submarines to foil their evil plot to blow up our ships with car bombs, and space lasers to shoot down their exploding underpants...scream about handouts, this is what they should be protesting."

If you are interested in this question about how we as a society allocate resources, I recommend the film "Why We Fight" featuring extensive interviews with Chalmers Johnson and testimonial footage from President Dwight Eisenhower and his surviving family members.

Why We Fight on Google Video

Al Jazeera opens forum on Pakistan: is ISI stoking insurgency?

Pakistan's political landscape
From aljazeera.net April 24, 2010

As Pakistan's security forces battle Taliban fighters in the northwest and explosions tear through its cities, many are asking if the country is paying the price for the policies of its powerful spy agency - the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The ISI came into the limelight in the 1980s when it worked with the CIA to fund, train and arm Afghan and foreign fighters against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Since then, the Islamabad-based agency has helped create and support the Taliban which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Officially, Pakistan's backing for the Taliban ended after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the group was overthrown by US-led forces.

But today, many of those fighters have turned their fury on Pakistan's establishment for siding with the US in Afghanistan - and have targeted ISI offices in Lahore and Peshawar.

New Delhi also accuses the Pakistani agency of undermining peace efforts with Islamabad by waging a covert guerrilla war in Kashmir, but the ISI says it endorses what it calls a legitimate liberation struggle against India's occupation in the disputed region.



JOIN THE DEBATE

Send us your views and get your voice on the air

On Monday's Riz Khan we ask: Is the ISI safeguarding Pakistani interests in a volatile region, or destabilising the subcontinent by pushing its own agenda?

Joining the conversation will be Hamid Gul, the former head of the ISI, ex-CIA agent Michael Scheuer who spent his career working in South Asia, and journalist and author Shuja Nawaz, who has written extensively on Pakistan.

You can join the conversation. Call in with your questions and comments on Monday, April 26, 2010 at our new live time of 1630GMT, with repeats at 2130GMT, and the next day at 0230GMT and 1130GMT.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Previously posted here, today reiterated

The following excerpt, which has already been noted here in the pages of Extraordinary Edition is from Feb. 4, 2010, "The Expanding US War in Pakistan" by Jeremy Scahill. It appeared in The Nation.

What appears below are the last two paragraphs. My apologies for repetition if you've already read them. This simply addresses what I have been asking myself and anyone who's read pieces on this site since the beginning of this year. Pakistan has been phased in under our noses. Officials from Pakistan's government have appeared on the Daily Show. Things have transitioned rather than being announced: why has this administration not been straight with its citizens about military escalation across the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is no different than the border between Vietnam and Cambodia as an invisible political line where the political circumstances change according to what side of that line your hundreds of millions of dollars worth of troops and equipment are amassed.


From Scahill's Nation article of Feb. 3 ...


The United States does not publicly acknowledge US military operations in Pakistan. On CENTCOM's website, they are described in vague terms. "We will of course continue to target, disrupt, and pursue the leadership, bases,and support networks of Al Qaeda and other transnational extremist groups operating in the region," declares CENTCOM's Pakistan page. "We will do this aggressively and relentlessly."

Since President Obama's inauguration, the administration has downplayed the role of US military forces in Pakistan. In July, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said bluntly, "People think that the US has troops in Pakistan, well, we don't." On Wednesday, after the US soldiers' deaths, his tune changed dramatically: "There's nothing secret about their presence," he said. One thing is certain: as the situation in Pakistan becomes more volatile and the US military presence in the country expands, it will become increasingly difficult for the Obama administration to downplay or deny the reality that a US war in Pakistan is already underway.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

What are Fascism, Socialism and Kleptocracy?

This William Astore essay, 4:00pm, April 20, 2010 from tomgram.com posted to commondreams.org 4/21.

It covers a set of political topics I've been concerned about since Hillary and Obama were still duking it out for the nomination. Until now I haven't successfully seen it put to words.

Tomgram: William Astore, The Business of America Is Kleptocracy

Excerpt from Astore's article appears below ...

It’s hard to miss these days. The headlines tell the story -- repetitively. Everyone, it seems, is on the take. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Goldman Sachs with securities fraud for creating and selling “a mortgage investment that was secretly intended to fail” -- and then betting against its own customers. JPMorgan Chase which, in a pinch in 2008, happily took taxpayer dough, just reported $3.3 billion in profits for the first quarter of 2010, a jump of 55% over the previous quarter. The bank set aside $9.3 billion in what’s called “compensation and benefits” for its employees in 2009.

Even when they lose, they win. According to James Kwak of the Baseline Scenario website, on a deal in which JPMorgan swallowed $880 million in losses, its bankers still managed to walk away with up to $10 million in compensation. As he wrote, “JPMorgan’s bankers did just fine, despite having placed a ticking time bomb on their own bank’s balance sheet.” Meanwhile, Robert Rubin, who helped create the world that led to the 2008 financial meltdown as Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, then took a top position at Citibank and made more than $100 million before it tanked on his watch. As economist Dean Baker puts it, “In the fall of 2008, when Citigroup was saved from bankruptcy with a taxpayer bailout, Rubin quietly slipped out the back door (with his money), resigning from his position at Citigroup.” Only recently Rubin made the headlines for offering the least apologetic (non-)apology imaginable for taking the American people to the cleaners.

And when it comes to taking, according to Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times, “more than 125 former Congressional aides and lawmakers are now working for financial firms as part of a multibillion-dollar effort to shape, and often scale back, federal regulatory power.” In other words, the regulators and their aides legislate the rules and then simply step through that infamous revolving door and pick up a handsome check on the other side. There are, in fact, at least 11,000 well-employed registered lobbyists in Washington today. A $3.4 billion “industry” in 2009, lobbying is definitely a field to get into, even in bad times, and according to the Christian Science Monitor, “when the cost of grass-roots efforts and of strategic advisers are all counted, total spending on influencing policy in Washington approaches $9.6 billion a year.”

As for the money flowing into politics from corporate deep pockets, 2008 not only saw the first billion-dollar presidential campaign, but at $1.7 billion, more than doubled the 2004 campaign’s costs, and no one expects 2012 to be anything but more expensive. All this is, of course, known to anyone who glances at the front page of a daily newspaper, but what exactly do we make of it all? What does it add up to? William Astore, historian and TomDispatch regular, has a suggestion, but before you start his piece, you might want to close your purse or button that back pocket with your wallet in it. Otherwise, they could be picked bare by the time you’re done.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Islamist politician blames U.S.-Pakistan alliance for violence

Associated Press story on Google News ...

Pakistan: Islamist blames US for suicide bombing
By RIAZ KHAN (AP) – 8 hours ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — An Islamist politician whose party lost several members in a suicide attack blamed Pakistan's alliance with the U.S. for the violence and urged Islamabad on Tuesday to break ranks in the war on terror.

The comments showed the depth of anti-Americanism in Pakistan, whose support Washington considers key to stabilizing neighboring Afghanistan. In the past three days, attacks in Pakistan have killed some 74 people in a new wave of violence.

A remote controlled bomb Tuesday hit an army convoy as it traveled in the Hangu district close to the Afghan border, killing three soldiers and a civilian, said police official Farid Khan.

The Jamaat-e-Islami party was hit Monday when a suicide bomber apparently targeted police watching over a rally of the pro-Taliban group. Many of the 24 dead and 45 wounded were party loyalists, while two were officers, police official Khan Abbas said Tuesday.

Although authorities blamed the Taliban in the immediate aftermath of the attack in Peshawar, the Islamist party's leaders have declined to do so, instead alleging the CIA or Indian intelligence were behind it.

"It is because we have brought America's war to our own country," Sirajul Haq, a provincial party leader, said Tuesday in Peshawar after attending funerals for some of the victims. "Still, there is time to end this alliance with America" to avoid more bloodshed.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but that is not unusual in cases where many ordinary Pakistanis die.

Earlier Monday, a bomb exploded outside a school run by a police welfare foundation, killing a young boy and wounding 10 people. And over the weekend, multiple bombs in the Kohat region elsewhere in the northwest killed nearly 50 people.

Taliban and al-Qaida militants based in the Afghan border region — who are fighting Pakistani police and the army — have carried out hundreds of attacks over the last three years. They have frequently targeted security forces, government officials and their supporters or family members in mosques, schools and markets, showing no concern for civilian casualties.

Peshawar, the capital of the northwest region, has been one of the hardest-hit cities because it lies close to the border area.

Associated Press writer Hussain Afzal in Parachinar contributed to this report

Witnesses to NATO and Afghan military abuse of civilians released

From Democracy Now April 19

Italian Aid Workers Freed Following Arrests

In other news from Afghanistan, three Italian aid workers have been released one week after their arrest by Afghan forces. The three work with the charity Emergency, which runs a series of hospitals in Afghanistan. They were detained on suspicion of involvement in a plot to kill a provincial governor, but the Afghan government says an investigation has since proven their innocence. One of the three, Marco Garatti, spoke out shortly after his release.

Marco Garatti: “We are very happy to be released, and we are very happy that our name, our own personal name, and the reputation of Emergency is clear and clean. This is why we are tremendously happy.”

There has been some speculation the Emergency workers were targeted for speaking out against NATO and Afghan military actions that have harmed Afghan civilians. Earlier this year, another of the three aid workers, Matteo dell’Aira, appeared on Democracy Now! during the US assault on the town of Marjah.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Roots of Taliban conflict fester in Pakistan's Swat

A glimpse of life in Pakistan's Swat Valley following the return of some of the 2 million refugees who fled violence there last year. For those who stayed, the violence persists.

Agence France Presse story
By Jennie Matthew (AFP) April 19

MINGORA, Pakistan — A year after Pakistan launched a major operation to evict the Taliban from Swat Valley, markets are bustling and girls are back at school, but the root causes of the conflict still fester.

For two years the Taliban paralysed much of the valley by promoting a repressive brand of Islamic law, opposing secular girls' education and beheading opponents until the government ordered in thousands of troops.

At only 125 kilometres (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, its mountains were once a weekend getaway and ski resort.

As the offensive began, around two million people fled the district but a year later many are back, trying to rebuild their lives.

"Normalcy has returned... All segments of society are open and functioning," said Qazi Jamil, the new chief of 15,000 police serving three million people in the wider Malakand region, which includes Swat.

Girls in white headscarves walk to school, laden with books. Markets are cluttered with chickens, oranges and vegetables. Shutters are painted with the green and white Pakistani flag to signal opposition to the Taliban.

But threats and tensions remain. On February 22, the same day Jamil arrived to take up his new job, a suicide bomber killed nine people.

"The element of threat is still there unfortunately," said Jamil. "There are so many different small groups, alleys and streets it's extremely difficult to plug each and every loop. They are trying to sneak in."

Keen to address the causes of the insurgency, the civil administration wants international donors to accelerate reconstruction and rehabilitation, and for police to take over from the army as quickly as possible.

"There is a need for a new social contract between the haves and the have-nots. There is a new friction on the rise," said Naseem Akhtar, a senior official in the civil administration.

Without adequate services and reconstruction, the roots of what he calls the Taliban's "class war" -- a product of Pakistan's feudal system, the huge disparity in wealth between the landowners and peasants -- will continue to grow.

"We have a Herculean task of reconstruction and rehabilitation," said Akhtar.

Police need to be recruited and trained. Jobs need to be created. Conditions need to be made conducive to business. Out of 1,576 schools in Swat, the United Nations says 175 were destroyed and 226 damaged.

"Right now the donors' response is poor. The international community should concentrate on providing funds," Akhtar told AFP.

Under army supervision, schools are being repaired but none of those razed has been rebuilt, officials said.

Akhtar's former school, Government High School 1, is a lunar scape of rubble bulldozed by the army with 10 tent classrooms offering boys an education that would enable them to work as clerks and businessmen.

Caretaker Saif-ur-Rehman says he no longer sleeps on the premises at night, despite his faith in the army, because he is too frightened after the night the militants came, blowing up the building and pointing a gun at his head.

"There are still some rumours that the Taliban might come and again capture the entire area," he said.

Robert Wilson, USAID director in Pakistan, said the agency had set aside 36 million dollars for Swat, including 25 million to rebuild around 50 schools but conceded that not a single school had yet been fully rebuilt.

The perception that the displaced had already returned, plus earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, means less donor money is available, said Caitlin Brady, chairwoman of the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, a group of 35 leading international aid organisations.

"There are still 1.3 million people displaced (in the northwest) and people who have gone home still need assistance. We're concerned that Pakistan is becoming a forgotten crisis," said Brady.

The Central Hospital Saidu Sharif lacks equipment, specialised surgical staff, beds, updated X-ray and CT scanners, ventilators and a defibrillator.

"I was expecting so much, but so far it (the response) has not been very encouraging and there has not been much contribution as far as this hospital is concerned," said Dr Lal Noor Afridi.

A few victims of the February attack are still on the surgical ward, like rickshaw driver Obeidullah who unwittingly drove himself and three passengers into the path of the suicide bomber, and is now looking for a new life.

"It was a warning to leave the rickshaw thing. I want no more risk," said the 35-year-old, bandages layered over his chest.

Bomber Strikes Rally of Religious Party in Pakistan

New York Times article
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
Published: April 19, 2010

ISLAMABAD — A teenage suicide bomber waded into a political rally by an Islamic party and detonated his explosives Monday, a police officer said.

The bomb, which went off in Peshawar, a northwestern city that was tormented by bombings last year, killed more than 20 people, including a party leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, a hard-line political party that, until recently, had publicly supported the Taliban. A police officer was also among the dead.

Television footage showed a frenzied scene of Islamic-capped youths from the protest helping people onto stretchers. No one has claimed responsibility.

It was unclear if the target was the rally, or the police station nearby. A bomb disposal official said the young bomber was wearing as much as 15 pounds of explosives.

If the target was the rally, it would be highly unusual. Jamaat-e-Islami is Pakistan’s oldest Islamic political party, and its hard-line language sometimes echoes that of the Taliban: anti-West, anti-India and strongly against Pakistan’s tiny religious minorities — Christians, Shiites and an Islamic sect called Ahmedis. But the party is also part of Pakistan’s state establishment, and critical of any direct attack on Pakistan’s army or its people.

A senior police officer in Peshawar, Kareem Khan, said the police officer who was killed, Gulfat Hussain, was a Shiite. Members of the sect have been repeated targets since late last week in violent attacks around western Pakistan.

Mr. Hussain had been active in protecting Shiite processions, whose marches to holy sites often draw militant attacks, Officer Khan said. Al Qaeda is virulently anti-Shiite. Sectarian militancy is so prevalent that Shiite police officers sometimes ask not to be posted in the field, out of fear that they will be targets because of their sect.

It was the second bomb on Monday. The first exploded just seven hours before near a school, killing one student and wounding 10, the authorities said.

Pakistan: Blast Hits Oil Tankers on NATO Route

AP story on nytimes.com

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 19, 2010

Filed at 1:53 a.m. ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- An official says suspected Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan detonated two bombs that destroyed a pair of oil tankers along a vital supply route used by NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Local official Iqbal Khan says the twin explosions occurred in the Takhta Beg area of Khyber tribal region Monday.

No one was wounded, but the fire also engulfed a flatbed truck and nearby shops.

Alleged Taliban militants and ordinary criminals frequently attack vehicles along the supply route that runs through the famed Khyber Pass into Afghanistan.

The U.S. and NATO say their Afghan operations have felt limited impact, but they are establishing alternate routes.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Total subterfuge by U.S. Military within Pakistan

Huffington Post U.S. War in Aghanistan news roundup containing this gem about information control efforts by the U.S. military regarding civilian deaths and Pakistani Taliban responsibility claims in the incident of victims of U.S. Military within Pakistan. First Posted: 04-15-10 10:57 AM | Updated: 04-15-10 05:24 PM

The following excerpt is the Pakistan segment of that Huffington Post news roundup.

The myth of war reporting in Pakistan.

A journalist who reported on the Pakistani military campaign in the Swat Valley last year discusses (see journalist's blog) "the myth of war reporting in Pakistan." He recounts how his editors had removed any mention of civilian casualties as a result of military operations, citing that "the management has told us that we can only run pro-Army stories." The military's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) restricted journalists' access to the war zone, preventing any independent assessments of the situation. It also waged a media campaign by issuing countless press releases about the number of dead militants and soldiers "martyred," excluding any mention of civilian deaths. Jerome Starkey, an independent journalist, recently accused (see Starkey's account on Nieman Watchdog) NATO forces of the same, and chastised reporters for falling victim to the NATO military propaganda machine. Starkey found that NATO had covered up an attack by NATO and Afghan forces on an Afghan family, blaming the deaths on the Taliban, when in fact coalition forces were to blame. It goes to show that readers should be critical of officially reported statistics and stories.

Pakistan's army demonstratively puffing out its chest

[AP story on Google News ...]

Close to India, Pakistan shows military might

By CHRIS BRUMMITT (Associated Press) – April 18, 2010

CHOLISTAN DESERT, Pakistan — Fighter jets strafed mock enemy positions and tanks rumbled across this eastern desert Sunday in a display of military might signaling Pakistan's readiness to face traditional foe India even as it battles Taliban militants on its opposite flank.

While India and Pakistan regularly carry out army drills, the demonstration close to the Indian border was part of Pakistan's biggest military exercises since 1989, when the army was celebrating its role in ousting the Soviet Union from Afghanistan.

This time around, the exercises follow successful operations in the northwest against extremists that have improved the image of the army as a fighting force after its popularity plunged during the military-backed rule of former President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. For a domestic audience, the army was emphasizing this battlefield role, analysts said.

Suicide bomber kills 7 in Pakistan's northwest

Reuters story on Washington Post by Hasan Mehmood

Sunday, April 18, 2010; 6:59 AM

KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide car-bomber killed seven people and wounded 26 in an attack on a police station in Pakistan's northwest on Sunday, police said, the second attack in the volatile region in as many days.

On Saturday, two suicide bombers in the Kohat region attacked people displaced by fighting between the army and militants, killing 41 and wounding 65.

Security forces have made significant gains against militants in offensives over the past year, clearing the Islamist fighters from strongholds in the Swat valley and in the regions of South Waziristan and Bajaur on the Afghan border.

But the militants have demonstrated time and again they have the capacity to strike back with gun and bomb attacks in towns and cities.

On Sunday, the bomber drove a van into a roadblock outside a police station in Kohat town.

"Seven people including a child were killed and 26 people wounded, five of them policemen," a top police official, Abdullah Khan, told Reuters.

Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility in a telephone call to police in Kohat, police said later.

A militant spokesman had said the attack on the police station was in response to police arrests and the killing of militants, said a police spokesman in Kohat town.

A group affiliated with Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack on a center where displaced people were registering for aid, about 40 km (25 miles) away from the site of Sunday's attack.

After its offensives in Swat, South Waziristan and Bajaur, the military has been attacking militants in other areas, including the Orakzai region, where many of the Islamists who fled the earlier offensives are believed to have taken refuge.

The army says more than 300 militants had been killed in fighting in recent weeks in Orakzai and the Kurram region but there has been no independent confirmation of the deaths.

Pakistani Taliban often dismiss military estimates of militant casualties.

About 13 militants were killed in clashes in the Orakzai region on Sunday, security officials said.

The security forces' successes over the past year have eased fears nuclear-armed Pakistan, a vital ally for the United States as it struggles to stabilize Afghanistan, was sliding into chaos, although unabated bombings may still be a source of worry.

(Additional reporting by Sami Paracha and Alamgir Bitani; Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Robert Birsel and Paul Tait)

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Bombs kill 20 at centre for displaced in Pakistan

Reuters story from the Washington Post

By Zeeshan Haider
Saturday, April 17, 2010; 4:34 AM

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Twin bombings at a center for people displaced by a Pakistani military offensive against militants in the northwest killed at least 20 people on Saturday, said an official.

Local commissioner Khalid Khan Omarzai said a suicide bombing was followed by another explosion near the town of Kohat. "The second one was very devastating," he said.

About 300 people were lined up for registration at the center when the attacks began, officials said.

Pakistan's military has carried out a series of crackdowns against homegrown al Qaeda-backed Taliban fighters seeking to topple the U.S.-backed government.

The military says the latest operations, in the Orakzai and Khyber and Kurram regions, have killed hundreds of militants, casualty tolls that were not possible to confirm independently.

Militants have managed to bounce back despite several army offensives, staging bombings that have raised questions about stability in Pakistan, a crucial ally in Washington's bid to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Bill Tarrant)

Friday, April 16, 2010

US missiles kill four militants in NW Pakistan

Agence France-Presse April 16

By Hasbanullah Khan (AFP)

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — Missiles fired from US drones targeted a car and a compound in Pakistan's lawless tribal area on the Afghan border Friday, killing at least four militants, security officials said.

The attack struck Tolkhel village in the suburbs of Miranshah, the main town in the restive North Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan.

"At least four militants were killed after US drones fired missiles at a car and a nearby compound used by militants," a senior security official told AFP.

Another security official and a local administration official confirmed the drone attack and the death toll.

"Missiles hit a car carrying militants and as soon as other people rushed into help, more missiles were fired by drones," the official said. "The identity of the militants was not immediately clear."

US forces have been waging a covert drone war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders in the nuclear-armed country's northwestern tribal belt, where militants have carved out havens in mountainous areas outside direct government control.

Washington calls Pakistan's tribal belt the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous region in the world. Islamist militants in the area are believed to be fuelling the nearly nine-year insurgency in Afghanistan.

North Waziristan is a fortress of Al-Qaeda, Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, and the affiliated Haqqani network set up by Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani and now effectively run by his ambitious son Sirajuddin.

US officials say drone strikes are a vital weapon in the war to defeat Al-Qaeda and reverse the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, where Washington is leading a major troop surge this year in a bid to end the costly war.

More than 870 people have been killed in more than 90 US strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, with a surge in the past year as President Barack Obama has put Pakistan at the heart of his fight against Al-Qaeda.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked groups have also been blamed for a wave of suicide and bomb attacks that have killed more than 3,200 people across Pakistan since 2007.

Pakistan claims to have made big gains against homegrown Taliban over the past year, following campaigns in the northwestern district of Swat and South Waziristan, but have yet to launch a major campaign in North Waziristan.

White House and extrajudicial assassination policy

A Nation magazine article by the man who drove Blackwater, Inc. to change its business name, Jeremy Scahill. An excerpt appears below.

But first, let's take a look at America in the modern world, and ... in Pakistan. There are ridiculous, bloodthirsty war hawk arguments driven mostly by greed and conquest. And then there are actual concerns of the citizenry, questions people have and assumptions about the way the world works with which they've been raised. And then there's some overlap in between. The overlap is the part of consciousness with which I'm most concerned.

So let's say citizens believe by and large that we live in a modern world of professionals. Where there is a task at hand--whether it's repairing a road, connecting a phone line, advising a family on marriage problems or locating international criminals plotting mass murder in a hidden cell--there are experts who can be hired to attend to the work with the greatest level of skill who necessarily possess an impending desire for society to keep its shape under duress, adherent at all times to a high moral code.

Since the last example in the list is the one we're trying to address here at EE, let's just snap back to the U.S. situation in AfPak, and I'll ask you this: What if you trusted spies right now about as much as you trust bankers? Even if your whole heart belongs to the land of the free, it has to be clear to you the CIA UAV unmanned drone program is not hunting terrorists like a team of former high school football team captains on a network TV show. There is somebody here who doesn't want to do his job and is letting technology do it for him--and a remote controlled drone isn't a Cuisinart. Controlling a rocket-laden aircraft with a video camera and a satellite feed halfway around the world from Langley, Virginia is cowardice. This is not the search for OBL described to us over the last decade. It's been shooting rockets at pregnant women and kids just in case it happens the guy running toward the tool shed with an AK-47 over his back was a top-ten list superterrorist. This is canned tuna work on a caviar budget, and people's lives are being destroyed for it. Their survivors are making plans for which terrorist cells cannot in any sane way be blamed. Americans have jihad of the same order in the very scripts of their most popular westerns and detective stories. His wife and child were murdered in front of him--he would stop at nothing.

Yes, what I am saying here is I believe average folks maintain a sense of justice that exists outside the law. In the same breath I am saying that part of the human psyche where the desire for something as hard to define as justice resides, there exists no rational sense of the limitations and potential detriment caused by the decision to follow that voice of relentless justice.

Flouting international law for a relentless drive for Dirty Harry-style justice is going to cost the rest of law: national law. U.S. law. When individual actors and departments of government declare by their actions that they are above the law, the rest of law is called into question. Why are the rest of us beholden to law--dating back to scripture ("Thou shalt not kill")--and in a modern society where professionals know best (attorneys for example), why is "might makes right" still an argument any citizen should seriously consider? There are other arguments, "democracy comes at a cost," "freedom isn't free," but show us where, exactly to look for the democracy. Residents of "tribal regions" aren't part of this picture of democracy. At home, legislators like Dennis Kucinich who are trying to explain that the ideas in the constitution are important, too--possibly more important than just pushing back against law while the professionals do their spy work and carry out extrajudicial assassinations--aren't really invited to democracy. Their names are taken off the guest list.

Keep in mind those who miss the days of September 12, 2001--the sense of urgency, no measure too drastic or decision too carelessly finalized. If we have time to think, there may be time for democracy. If the citizens involve themselves we may not have to trust the professionals to search their hearts for the clear knell of that high moral code after the "launch" order has been delivered from superiors.

The following excerpt is Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich speaking to the Nation's Jeremy Scahill April 15.

"In the real world, things don't work out quite so neatly as they seem to in the heads of the CIA," says Kucinich. "There's always the possibility of blowback, which could endanger high-ranking US officials. There's the inevitable licensing of rogue groups that comes about from policies that are not strictly controlled and that get sloppy--so you have zero accountability. And that's not even to get into an over-arching issue of the morality of assassination policies, which are extra-constitutional, extra-judicial. It's very dangerous from every possible perspective."

He added: "The assassination policies vitiate the presumption of innocence and the government then becomes the investigator, policeman, prosecutor, judge, jury, executioner all in one. That raises the greatest questions with respect to our constitution and our democratic way of life."

Kucinich says the case of al-Awlaki is an attempt to make "a short-cut around the Constitution," saying, "Short-cuts often belie the deep and underlying questions around which nations rise and fall. We are really putting our nation in jeopardy by pursuing this kind of policy."

Thursday, April 15, 2010

For perspective in Pakistan; plus new drone strikes Wednesday night

For review, the situation in Pakistan as told with primary sources by Jeremy Scahill, and this is from February 4 of this year ...

"What we're seeing is the expansion of 'white' Special Operations Forces into Pakistan," says a former member of CENTCOM and US Special Forces with extensive experience in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater. "As Vietnam, Somalia and the Balkans taught us, that is almost always a precursor to expanded military operations." The former CENTCOM employee spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the Pakistan operations. He characterized the US military's role with the Pakistani Frontier Corps as "training in offensive operations," but rejected the idea that at this stage these US trainers would cross the line to engage in direct combat against Taliban forces. That does not mean, he says, that US military forces are not fighting in Pakistan. "Any firefights in Pakistan would be between JSOC forces versus whoever they were chasing," he said. "I would bet my life on that."



Scahill's piece is still up at thenation.com and is well worth reading.
The Expanding US War in Pakistan
By Jeremy Scahill
February 4, 2010

JSOC stands for Joint Special Operations Command. It's "joint" because it gathers the special forces across the branches of the military.

Meanwhile the conditions on the ground have changed so radically in Pakistan, and most of the public in the United States has little knowledge of military, special forces or spy agency operations there. And as of this morning, we're back to drone strikes ...

Drone strike kills four suspected militants in Pakistan

This report from CNN's Nasir Dawar is set apart from others by the plausibility all four dead might actually be militant combatants. This ought not distract us from the core issue in all things Pakistan-related, who precisely was it who determined the U.S. military would be operating there in any capacity in the first place?

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Global War on Tribes

This April 13 Counterpunch article addresses a set of issues that has concerned me greatly while following news and analysis of U.S. military and diplomatic involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Something Modernism never fails to do in all its conquests, whether its inoculating against pernicious illnesses, exploring the moon, achieving feats of engineering and architecture or finding a way to dispose of hazardous waste, is to crown itself over all ways of life that appear misaligned in any way with Modernism. Centuries later, the savages are still just that, not because citizens of empire fail to understand other cultures but rather because of the failure of the savage to understand and wholeheartedly embrace the culture of empire. Anywhere I have placed in quotation marks the term 'tribal areas,' Professor Zoltan Grossman explains in detail what my hesitation was in each instance.

The Global War on Tribes

Dr. Zoltan Grossman is a faculty member in Geography and Native American & World Indigenous Peoples Studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, currently co-teaching a course on “American Frontiers: Homelands and Empire.”

Once again, the tip for this article has come from Aletho News. The site that, to my thinking, has everything.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Pentagon Releases Names of US Soldiers Killed in Pakistan

Rebel Reports is a high-value information source operated by accomplished journalist and author Jeremy Scahill.

The following entry is dated Feb. 5, 2010

By Jeremy Scahill

Excerpt--The Department of Defense has confirmed what we reported Thursday in The Nation: the US soldiers killed Wednesday in northwest Pakistan were “white” Special Operations Forces (see here for an explanation). I spoke to a knowledgeable US military source today who told me that it is likely that the men were doing precisely what the DoD says they were: training Pakistani security forces from the Frontier Corps for offensive operations in a very dangerous area of the country. All of the men were based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina and one of them was with the 4th Psychological Operations Group.

Ignorance of Afghan Culture Leads to Botched Raids and Civilian Deaths

Counterpunch story dated April 13, 2010

Shooting in the Dark

By GARETH PORTER

Excerpt--A Special Operations Forces raid on Feb. 12 on what was supposed to be the compound of a Taliban leader but that killed three women and two Afghan government officials demonstrated a fatal weakness of the U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan: after eight years of operating there, the U.S. military still has no understanding of the personal, tribal and other local socio-political conflicts.

In targeting the suspected Taliban in such raids, therefore, the U.S. military command has been forced to rely on informants of unknown reliability - and motives.

As a provincial council member from Gardez, near the scene of the botched raid, declared bitterly last week, U.S. Special Forces "don't know who is the enemy and who isn't".

When the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, Adm. William McRaven, went to the site of the raid to apologise, the head of the extended family which lost five people to the SOF unit, Hajji Sharibuddin, demanded that the U.S. military turn over "the spy who gave the false information to the Americans".

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and his chief of intelligence, Gen. Michael Flynn, have admitted the profound ignorance of the U.S. military about Afghan society, while avoiding the implications of that ignorance for the issue of false intelligence on the Taliban.

Roadside bomb blasts kill 6 Afghan security forces

Associated Press story (on Yahoo News) provided by radioactivegavin

Tue Apr 13, 8:38 am ET

KABUL – Roadside bombs killed four policemen and two Afghan soldiers, and three women died when mortars fired by suspected insurgents hit their homes in an increasingly volatile area just north of the capital Kabul, officials said Tuesday.

"The attack dealt a fresh blow to U.S. and NATO efforts to win popular support for a coming offensive to drive the Taliban insurgents from what is their spiritual homeland."

Fourth suspect in NYC bomb plot arrested in Pakistan: Report

Tuesday, April 13 Times of India story

NEW YORK: A fourth suspect in a plot to blow up New York City subways has been caught by Pakistani authorities, according to local media reports.

"I would sacrifice myself to bring attention to what the US military was doing to civilians in Afghanistan by sacrificing my soul for the sake of saving other souls," [Zazi] added.

The Obama Doctrine: kill, don't detain

Similarities between the work of Obama's legal hawks and those of Bush analyzed by the UK Guardian's Asim Qureshi Sunday.

Article provided by Aletho News

Asim Qureshi guardian.co.uk 11 April 2010

Excerpt: Harold Koh, the legal adviser to the US state department, explained the justifications behind unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) when addressing the American Society of International Law’s annual meeting on 25 March 2010:

“[I]t is the considered view of this administration … that targeting practices, including lethal operations conducted with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), comply with all applicable law, including the laws of war … As recent events have shown, al-Qaida has not abandoned its intent to attack the United States, and indeed continues to attack us. Thus, in this ongoing armed conflict, the United States has the authority under international law, and the responsibility to its citizens, to use force, including lethal force, to defend itself, including by targeting persons such as high-level al Qaeda leaders who are planning attacks … [T]his administration has carefully reviewed the rules governing targeting operations to ensure that these operations are conducted consistently with law of war principles …
“[S]ome have argued that the use of lethal force against specific individuals fails to provide adequate process and thus constitutes unlawful extrajudicial killing. But a state that is engaged in armed conflict or in legitimate self-defense is not required to provide targets with legal process before the state may use lethal force. Our procedures and practices for identifying lawful targets are extremely robust, and advanced technologies have helped to make our targeting even more precise. In my experience, the principles of distinction and proportionality that the United States applies are not just recited at meeting. They are implemented rigorously throughout the planning and execution of lethal operations to ensure that such operations are conducted in accordance with all applicable law.”

The legal justifications put forward by Koh are reminiscent of the arguments that were used by John Yoo and others in their bid to lend legitimacy to unlawful practices such as rendition, arbitrary detention and torture. The main cause for concern from Koh’s statements is the implication that protective jurisdiction to which the US feels it is entitled in order to carry out operations anywhere in the world still continues under Obama. The laws of war do not allow for the targeting of individuals outside of the conflict zone, and yet we now find that extrajudicial killings are taking place in countries as far apart as Yemen, the Horn of Africa and Pakistan. From a legal and moral perspective, the rationale provided by the State Department is bankrupt and only reinforces the stereotype that the US has very little concern for its own principles.

BBC: Pakistan 'army air strike kills dozens of civilians'

Editor's comment (followed by BBC News story):

The Pakistani army offensive following a summit with the U.S. state department rages on. As the veil lifts, we are seeing a campaign that targets militants with heavy weaponry, killing a large number of civilians. To think Pakistan's military is operating on a directive from Islamabad not influenced by United States interests is beyond naive. For context, may I please suggest this is like people from Washington D.C. giving orders to carpet bomb the Ozarks because an armed band of abortion clinic bombers lives there.

Furthermore, this might turn out to be Obama and Clinton's answer to the controversy plaguing the CIA armed unmanned drone campaign across the Afghan border: if Pakistan's military murder non-combatant Pakistani citizens ("tribal" citizens, whatever that is intended to mean as we read it over and over), no hearings and probably no investigation. Problem solved! Meanwhile, a new story emerges of another case of an ordinary Pakistani villager joining the Taliban and training to bring explosives to New York. Now are we talking about a resident of the "tribal areas?" The rhetoric reads, no--this one is a militant. I repeat, U.S. efforts in the Middle East are NOT breeding hatred and providing fresh terror campaigns on U.S. soil. So nice that we're clear on this. God is Great ... or rather, ... Bless America!



Tuesday, 13 April 2010 14:37 UK
At least 73 civilians were killed when an army jet bombed a remote village in Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber, a local official has told the BBC.

He said the incident took place on Saturday but news was slow in being reported because of the inaccessibility of the region.

The jet was involved in operations against Taliban militants in the nearby Orakzai tribal region.

Many people have died in air strikes in the area over the past 18 months.

The military insists most of them are militants, but independent sources say many civilians have also been killed.

Villagers say another strike - by a US drone missile - killed 13 people on Monday.

Monday, April 12, 2010

NY Times takes Pakistani army's word for it: 38 Taliban fighters dead

38 Taliban Fighters Said Killed in Pakistan Battle

By SALMAN MASOOD
Published: April 12, 2010
excerpt of first 6 graphs appears below.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least 38 Taliban fighters and two Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed in a gun battle on Monday in northwest Pakistan, military and security officials said.

The firefight occurred when a checkpoint in the Orakzai tribal region came under attack from more than a hundred militants using rockets and mortars, the officials said.

“The clashes started at midnight and continued until early Monday morning,” said Lt. Col. Nadeem Anwar, a spokesperson for the Pakistani Army in Peshawar, the provincial capital. The checkpoint is located in the Shireen Darra area of Orakzai.

“Two F.C. soldiers died,” Colonel Anwar said, referring to the Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force. The militants eventually retreated, he said, adding, “The situation has calmed down and is under control.”

Also Monday, at least five people were killed in violent clashes in Abottabad District over the renaming of North-West Frontier Province.

The police fired tear gas to quell the unrest, which has paralyzed the district in recent days. Last week, a suicide bomber killed 42 people at a ceremony being held to celebrate the renaming.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The cover-ups that exploded: Alexander Cockburn on Truthout

Truthout.org posted Counterpunch editor Alex Cockburn's piece on the Afghanistan raid that killed pregnant women at a birth ceremony and attempted cover-up and also the helicopter attack on Iraqi civilians and two employees of Reuters News Service in Baghdad in 2007.

Truthout.org article by Counterpunch's Alexander Cockburn

See also the Steven Soldz Znet.org piece, an April 8 post on this site.

From April 7: Pakistan: A new wave of attacks?

Pakistan: A new wave of attacks?

This Al Jazeera story refers to events of last Monday April 5. The story is dated April 7 and is complete with video.

The fascinating part, and this is coming from a news source in Qatar where Middle East events are a little closer to home ...

"Observers have speculated that the attacks could be in revenge for US drone bombings targeting Taliban fighters in the Swat valley. The unmanned planes that drop bombs and have been criticized for killing civilians. Is Pakistan paying the price for battles waged by the US in the region?"

'Scores dead' in Pakistan air raids

Al Jazeera story on April 10 Pakistan military air strike in Orazkai and Khyber

Media analyst's note: Take a look at the difference in language between the CNN story, which is basically the same story, and the Al Jazeera story. Look for what you might call "certainties" in CNN's story and what you might call "uncertainties" in Al Jazeera. Sure, some Americans think Al Jazeera is the voice of political Islam, but as a news outlet which do you prefer? Journalists who accept there are things that can't be known for sure until investigated further or those who take the liberty to leave the facts at what the official source told them?

Saturday, April 10, 2010

67 militants killed in Pakistani airstrikes

From CNN ...

67 militants killed in Pakistani airstrikes

Sixty-seven militants were killed Saturday in separate airstrikes in two areas of Pakistan's tribal region, officials tell CNN.

Two Pakistan intelligence officials said about 50 militants were killed in the valley of Tirah of Khyber Agency, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Officials say a meeting of the militants was under way when shelling from helicopters started. Officials say they received intelligence and then destroyed six militant hideouts.

Officials further informed CNN that in a second wave of air strikes on the hideouts of the militants in Orakzai Agency, 17 militants were killed and three hideouts were destroyed. The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

This strikes came as the Pakistan military continues its push into tribal areas where both al Qaeda and Taliban operatives are believed to be hiding.
– From journalist Nasir Habib

Afghanistan, public consent and propaganda

Glenn Greenwald writes for Salon.com Monday April 5 how murderous operations in Afghanistan complete with Pentagon-cleared cover-up attempts are perpetuated by U.S. and NATO official efforts to intimidate journalists and prevent accurate reporting to the world's media.

How Americans Are Propagandized About Afghanistan
Published on Monday, April 5, 2010 by Salon.com
How Americans Are Propagandized About Afghanistan
by Glenn Greenwald

The original content of this article has been removed from Salon.com as of 3 pm EDT Saturday, April 10.

Excerpt--"Starkey describes the some of the understandable reasons so many reporters do nothing more than regurgitate officials claims: resource constraints, organizations limits, dangers of traveling around, and the 'embed culture.' But he also recounts how NATO tries to intimidate, censor and punish any reporters like him who report adversely on official claims. Illustratively, in response to Starkey's March 13 article detailing what really happened at Paktia and the cover-up that ensued, NATO issued a formal statement naming him and insisting that this article was 'categorically false.' As recently as mid-March, NATO was still claiming -- falsely -- that the women in Paktia were killed prior to the arrival of American troops.

There are some very courageous and intrepid reporters in Afghanistan, including some who work for American media outlets. It was, for instance, a superb and brave investigative report by the NYT's Carlotta Gall in Afghanistan that uncovered what really happened in that air attack Azizabad and documented the Pentagon's false claims. But far more often, Americans are completely misled about events in Afghanistan by the combination of false official claims and mindless stenographic American 'journalism.' And no matter how many times this process is exposed -- from Jessica Lynch's heroic firefight to Pat Tillman's death by Al Qeada -- this propaganda process never diminishes at all."

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Bush Sr.'s "No New Vietnam" apparently no promise

The killing of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan continues to come more vividly to light--as cold-blooded, routine and indifferent murder.

When are we going to stop asking why we went to the countries and start answering the right questions for the new decade: why on earth are we still there and when do we leave?

US Military Covering Up Civilian Killings in Iraq and Afghanistan

ZNet analysis
By Stephen Soldz

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Documented human rights abuses of Pakistan's populace by Pakistani military

Human rights report threatens aid to Pakistan

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan
Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A comment:

Yesterday in these pages, I mentioned the notion of civil war in Pakistan. The term basically describes the situation in Afghanistan of the last nine years with a conspicuous imperial presence armed to the teeth, claiming continuous and impending threat to its homeland and hauling the rest of the international military community (Nato, the UK and a few other national armies) along. Efforts in the pages of mainstream media continue to propagandize the affected area as "AfPak" as though no legal or diplomatic implications exist for U.S. military operations in Pakistan.

If the houses of government in Pakistan--the executive, parliament, the courts--issue military orders to suppress an element in the population that holds some influence over that population, the resulting combat would, or should be, called civil war. When this became an issue in Iraq prior to President Bush's now famous troop surge, the Iraq war lost a great deal of support from the U.S. population.

Previous to the Hillary Clinton meeting with Pakistan's foreign minister and the pledge for billions more in military aid, the U.S. was considering diplomatic talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan. See "A Deal with the Taliban?" New York Review of Books Feb. 25, 2010; piece by Ahmed Rashid, pages 36-9. This refers to an entity separate from but intricately influenced by the Taliban in Pakistan. Both can be dissuaded from affinity with Al Qaeda, a much smaller group that leverages against state governments in Kabul and Islamabad for religious political influence within the Taliban and the larger populations.

It is arguable that negotiations that were a looming possibility in February may be rendered impossible or pushed back many months by the backlash of recent moves by Departments of State and Defense with leadership in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.



See also:
Karzai Threatens to Join the Taliban, as U.S. Involvement in Afghanistan Hits a New Low


The most recent news from Afghanistan shows how deadly and dysfunctional the U.S. mission there is.
Alternet story by Liliana Segura
April 5, 2010

Monday, April 5, 2010

U.S. Consulate in Pakistan bombed

Voice of America reported a breaking story Monday after explosions rocked the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Point of concern: no by-line here, typical fashion of late-breaking news reporting, and what we see is information available about the group claiming responsibility for the attack: the Pakistani Taliban, not a very specific group but a sprawling cross section of Pakistan's population. Taken with recent reports of Pakistan's military mounting a successful campaign against Islamic militants within its borders, the situation is coming closer to what could be (and possibly ought to be) described as civil war. This would be a civil war in which the United States and its military and spy operatives are taking a clear side. Where is the civic deliberation in this matter? If somewhere in DC, then where (hopefully on Capitol Hill before Langley) What's the democratic aspect of fanning the flames of civil war in Pakistan in attempts to bring democracy to Afghanistan?

US Condemns Attack on Consulate in Pakistan

The United States has condemned an Islamic militant attack on the U.S. consulate in the Pakistani city of Peshawar Monday.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the White House is greatly concerned by attack that left at least three people dead and several others wounded.

Pakistani Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the attack. Security officials say militants detonated car bombs outside the consulate and fired grenades and other weapons as they tried to enter the building. Police quickly closed off the area.

A statement from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad says at least two Pakistani security officers were killed. There are no reports that any U.S. citizens were among those wounded or killed in the attack.

Earlier Monday, authorities say a suspected suicide bomber killed at least 41 people and wounded scores of others at a political rally in the Lower Dir district.

The Awami National Party (ANP), which heads the ruling coalition in North West Frontier Province, was meeting to discuss a name change for the province.

The ANP has supported military operations against the Taliban and Islamist militants in the country.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

The Case for the Impeachment of Barack Obama (and his CIA drones, too)

In 2006, Dave Lindorff wrote a book about the impeachable crimes of the previous administration. As it turns out on down the line, the new crew is in the same boat when it comes to obeying the law. Maybe Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary definition of impeachment would have been, "When members of your own political party and peer group decide, regarding one particular set of circumstances, that as head of state you ought to obey the law."

From Aletho News April 2 ...

Same Crimes, Same Misdemeanors

Oh, and guess which violation Lindorff starts off with? Guess, guess! You guessed it, the CIA armed unmanned drone attacks and all the civilians they've killed in a nation state where what's called "war" ... has yet to be "declared."

excerpt ... [Sadly, it is time to say, just 14 months into the current term of this new president, that yes, this president, and some of his subordinates, are also guilty of impeachable crimes–including many of the same ones committed by Bush and Cheney.

Let’s start with the war in Afghanistan, which Obama has taken full ownership of with an escalation that will bring the number of US troops in that country (not counting mercenaries hired by the Pentagon and CIA) to 100,000 by this August.

The president has authorized the use of Predator drone aircraft for a program of bombing conducted against Pakistan which has illegally expanded the Afghan War into another country without any authorization from Congress. These pilotless drones are known to kill far more innocent bystanders than enemy targets, making them fundamentally illegal on principle as weapons. Furthermore, this wave of attacks in Pakistan is a war of aggression against another nation if the word “war” is to have any meaning at all, and as such it is illegal under the UN Charter. Indeed initiating a war of aggression against a country which does not pose an immediate threat to the invader is described in the Charter and in the Nuremberg Tribunal Charter as the gravest of all war crimes.]

Friday, April 2, 2010

More from ACLU, State Department on legality of CIA drone attacks

Thanks, radioactivegavin, for pointing out this March 27 Raw Story article further detailing the U.S. State Department's current legal position on this classified, secretive program of killing civilians while out hunting "high profile targets."

Responding to lawsuit, US justifies Predator drone program as ’self defense’

Lawyers at ACLU would like to know more.

excerpt ... [We're encouraged that Koh has articulated the legal rationale for the program," said Jonathan Manes, a legal fellow at the ACLU. But he added that he hoped the administration would provide a more detailed account of its legal justification.

"The public has a right to know whether the targeted killings being carried out in its name are consistent with international law and with the country's interests and values," said Jonathan Manes, a legal fellow with the ACLU National Security Project, in a media advisory released after the group's lawsuit was filed. "The Obama administration should disclose basic information about the program, including its legal basis and limits, and the civilian casualty toll thus far."

The group added: "The CIA and the military have used unmanned drones to target and kill individuals not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but also in Pakistan and, in at least one case in 2002, Yemen. The technology allows U.S. personnel to observe targeted individuals in real time and launch missiles intended to kill them from control centers located thousands of miles away. Recent reports, including public statements from the director of national intelligence, indicate that U.S. citizens have been placed on the list of targets who can be hunted and killed with drones."]