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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Angry Israeli scientists protest at budget cuts

At least 200 Israeli scientists have held a demonstration in protest at the budget cuts, which are forcing them to retire as they turn 67 — an age limit that did not exist in the past.

The protesters staged a rally in front of the Immigrant Absorption Ministry building on Tuesday, chanting slogans like: "[Immigrant Absorption Minister] Sofa Landver, what happened to the fund?" "Immigrant Ministry don't obstruct our rights!" "[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, you premised and failed to deliver again!" "[Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman, live up to your pre-election promises!" and "lower pension results in brain drain."

They also demanded that the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes claim full responsibility and ensure that the full budget is transferred to the scientists' program.

If the budget is not allocated in full for the 2010 fiscal year, some 150 scientists — who mostly immigrated to Israel 20 years after the great immigration from the former Soviet Union — will be fired.

Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver on Sunday questioned whether Tel Aviv has a national strategic vision since the absorption of immigrant scientists is of high importance to Israel.

"On the one hand... [top Israeli officials] announce in public that they are willing to do everything to prevent a brain drain from Israel, while on the other hand, the Treasury is putting spokes in this project's wheels every single year," Landver said.

She added that this was even more serious, considering the fact that the Russian government was taking really efficient steps to attract the scientists, who have left the country.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Immigrant Scientists Association, Prof. Moshe Belinsky, said that "such an attitude towards scientists is simply discrimination. People who have invested many years in developing science in Israel are being thrown to the streets. All this is happening while the State is trying to return scientists who have left to Israel and prevent others from leaving."

Tehran University to honor Eugene Ionesco

Tehran University is planning to hold a seminar marking the 100th birth anniversary of the world-renowned dramatist Eugene Ionesco.

The seminar, to be held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, 2009, will host Iranian scholars and literary experts as well as theater directors.

Theater expert Farhad Nazerzadeh, stage director Farhad Ayeesh, filmmaker Benyamin Esbati, veteran theater director Qotbeddin Sadeqi and stage designer Khosrow Khorshidi will be among those attending the event.

Theater scholar Ahmad Kamyabi-Mask, who has interviewed Ionesco and wrote many books on his plays, will also attend the seminar delivering lectures on avant-garde theater.

Award-winning Iranian theater director Amir-Reza Kouhestani will give a speech on the new mise en scenes for Ionseco's Rhinoceros.

Romanian and French playwright and dramatist Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994), was one of the greatest figures of the Theater of the Absurd.

His works mostly depict the solitude and insignificance of human existence.

Swine flu death toll hits 140 in Iran

Iranian health authorities have announced that swine flu has already claimed the lives of 140 Iranians across the country.

"Some 3,672 individuals including 140 deaths have been tested positive for A/H1N1 virus in the country," IRNA quoted Mahmoud Soroush, the Director of the Health Ministry's Flu Program and Border Health Care as saying on Wednesday.

The Iranian health official advised Iranians to take simple precautionary measures such as hand washing to contain the virus.

Iran's Deputy Health Minister Hassan Emami-Razavi had earlier said that the government had allocated some $20 million to order two million doses of the A/H1N1 flu vaccine, enough to immunize one million individuals.

He had stressed that pregnant women, seniors and those suffering from chronic diseases including asthma, heart diseases, diabetes and cancer along with healthcare workers are among the first priorities to receive the vaccine.

Meanwhile, Iranian Health Minister Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi stressed on Wednesday that the first stock of the vaccine would be available in the country within the next 10 days.

She added that authorities had adopted all necessary precautionary measures to control the spread of the disease following the return of pilgrims from Hajj.

Vahid-Dastjerdi also announced that Iran had received a letter from the World Health Organization (WHO), congratulating the country as the only one adopting effective measures to contain the spread of the A/H1N1 virus.

Israel 'a lifeless corpse' without US, says Larijani

Tehran says it does not view Tel Aviv as a threat anymore because clearly Israel has lost its one-time influence in the Middle East.

Nearly a year after Israel butchered over 1,400 Palestinians during a devastating incursion, Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani said on Wednesday that Israel no longer intimidates regional countries.

"There was a time that Israel, because of its desire to dominate and kill, was seen as a mortal threat in the region," said Larijani on Wednesday

"But after the three-week war on Gaza it became more and more clear that Tel Aviv is nothing without the financial and political help it gets from Washington," he added. "Israel has become a lifeless political corpse with no ability to fend for itself."

Larijani was referring to Israel's military foray into Gaza last December which led to the death of more than 1,400 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians.

With regards to US calls for Iran to accept a western-backed nuclear proposal, Larijani said that over the past thirty years, Washington has not for a moment changed its tyrannical frame of mind.

"We should not fall for the smiles and kind words that US officials deliver to us," said Larijani. "Washington's political stance over the IAEA proposal shows that Washington aims to swindle us out of our enriched uranium."

The Iranian Parliament speaker was referring to a draft deal brokered by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei.

The proposal, in its current state, asks Iran to send most of its domestically produced low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for further refinement.

Iran needs 20 percent-enriched uranium to power the Tehran nuclear reactor, which produces medicine for cancer treatment and other scientific necessities.

In a counter-proposal, Tehran has suggested keeping the LEU in a room sealed by the IAEA inside the country until the higher-enriched uranium arrives. Under this proposal, the exchange would be completed in two stages — 400 kg of Iran's LEU would be exchanged with 58 kg of 20 percent-enriched uranium in each stage.

Medvedev sets deadline for arms inventory

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has given the defense ministry one month to maintain inclusive inventories of all the arms and munition depots across Russia.

The presidential order came Tuesday on the heels of several recent blasts on November 13 and 23 at the Arsenal 31 arms depot that left at least 10 people dead and dozens more injured.

Medvedev reiterated that his order was intended to prevent similar situations elsewhere in the country, Ria Novosti reported.

It is necessary to provide real security for those military men working at the depots and those ordinary people living in the vicinity of the arms depots, Medvedev said at a meeting in Ulyanovsk, noting that this should be done not only for the people in Ulyanovsk but also for all the people living under similar conditions across the country.

Medvedev further added that since a large number of arms and munition depots exist in Russia, a full investigation should be conducted regarding the method used to safeguard such facilities.

The Russian president reiterated that he had ordered comprehensive inventories of all munition depots across Russia.

US journalist reveals secrecy behind 9/11 attacks

The mystery behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks has prompted new questions on the quality of the destruction of the twin towers at the New York World Trade Center that caused a massive cloud of dust.

In an article published by the news website Rebel News, American investigative journalist Christopher Bollyn mentions that some 425,000 cubic meters of concrete from 220 floors of the twin towers completely disintegrated before hitting the ground, forming the most substantial part of the immense pyroclastic clouds of hot dust that rolled through the streets of the lower Manhattan on 9/11.

Noting that at the time the twin towers were entirely owned or leased by a powerful "Zionist Jewish investor," named Larry Silverstein, who had been indicted on drug smuggling charges during Bill Clinton's presidency, the article suggests that such fact may explain the mystery behind what really led to the fantastic decomposition and crumbling of the two skyscrapers.

Referring to the vast influence of the “Zionist” or the pro-Israeli lobby over the US government and media establishment, Bollyn suggests that despite efforts to claim that the towers came down in the form of non-explosive pancake-like collapses, no trace of the 220 concrete floors or the metal pans that held them together could be found in the pile of the rubble.

Bollyn then emphasizes the pulverization of the concrete floors in the twin towers and the subsequent formation of pyroclastic clouds, as well as the existence of large amounts of active super-thermite in the dust, adding that such total disintegration of the both building cannot possibly be the outcome of

Bollyn then explains how he decided in November 2001 to move to Germany with his family.

He says his decision to move coincided with the Israeli-planned "War on Terror" that was carried out by the then US President George W. Bush.

"My early research of the available evidence and news reports strongly indicated that Israeli military intelligence had carried out the 9/11 destruction as a false-flag terror operation that was blamed on Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda. The Zionist-controlled US government and media pushed for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan based on this unproven version of events," he notes.

Bollyn further explains that he was TASERed and tortured and had his right elbow broken in August 2006 after he was attacked by an undercover police force at his home.

"I realized that my instincts were right in 2001 and that the US was not a safe place to investigate the 9/11 attacks."

Late in November 2001, Bollyn writes, he had the chance to talk with Andreas von Bülow, a former parliamentarian and an expert on intelligence matters, at his home near Cologne, Germany.

We both agreed on the role the Israeli intelligence has played in the 9/11 false-flag terror attacks, he says.

In following his investigation, Bollyn says, he had also come across Markus "Mischa" Wolf, the German Jewish spymaster who ran the East German intelligence operations for 35 years.

According to Bollyn, Markus Wolf was born in 1923 in the southern Germany to an influential Jewish family. Wolf, who lived in the Soviet Union with his communist family during the World War II, was dispatched to Berlin after the war with Walter Ulbricht, the founder of the totalitarian East German state, the DDR.

"He worked as a journalist for a radio station in the Soviet-occupied German territories and also served as one of the witnesses during the Nuremberg Trials," Bollyn writes.

Wolf died on November 9, 2006, the 17th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, added Bollyn.

According to the article, Bollyn also came across another Jewish personality, Frau Marek, who, by her own admission, worked for several intelligence agencies, including the Israeli Mossad.

"She had a background in physics and told me that she had information about a directed-energy infrared beam weapon that had been developed by the Soviet Union," Bollyn writes.

This infrared beam weapon, she said, could have been used in the 9/11 incident, which explains the real weapon behind the demolition of the twin towers and capable of “the pulverization of all the concrete in the towers."

Yemen shuts Iranian medical centers in Sana'a

Yemeni government has made a decision to close down an Iranian hospital and a clinic in the capital, Sana'a, citing "lack of transparency" in their accounts as the reason.

"The interior ministry has decided to close the Iranian clinic and hospital because of lack of transparency of their accounts and... Iran's financial support to these two institutions," said a ministry statement on Wednesday.

This is while, Yemeni security forces had practically shut down he hospital on October 13, alleging that the personnel were aiding the Houthi fighters in the north.

The five-storey hospital is staffed by 120 employees, including eight Iranians, and has been operating in the Yemeni capital for four years. The clinic has been offering its services to the Yemeni nation for the past 15 years. Both facilities are run by the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in Sana'a on Wednesday.

The September 26 website, which is linked to Yemen's Defense Ministry, said that the demonstration was organized by the Vatan institute with the support of those who are against foreign aide in Yemen.

The conflict in northern Yemen first began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters, but relative peace had returned to region until August 11, when the Yemeni army launched a major offensive, dubbed Operation Scorched Earth, against the province of Sa'ada.

The Houthis accuse the central government of violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as of large-scale corruption.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that since 2004 up to 175,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sa'ada to take refuge at overcrowded camps set up by the United Nations.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=112168§ionid=351020206.

Militants target NATO fuel truck in Pakistan

Wed Nov 25, 2009

A group of militants in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) have ambushed a truck carrying fuel to neighboring Afghanistan for NATO forces stationed there.

The attack, which took place outside the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, left the truck driver and his assistant dead.

The incident comes a day after a convoy of oil tankers was ambushed in the southwestern parts of the country.

The Tuesday attack left one driver dead and four trucks completely destroyed.

Trucks carrying supplies for foreign forces in Afghanistan frequently come under attack in Pakistan.

Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border remains a safe haven for militants, who have fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/112162.html.

Iran begins 4th day of military drill

Iran's largest military maneuver has commenced for the fourth day with the country's defense forces combating supposed enemy attacks on nuclear installations within Iran.

Iran on Sunday launched a five-day drill that will cover some 600,000 square kilometers, spreading across the central, western and southern parts of the country.

During the third stage of the maneuver, that will continue for two days, Iranian servicemen will thwart hypothetical aerial threats against Iran's nuclear facilities.

"Throughout the maneuver the hypothetical enemy… sought to dispatch its stealth bombers and fighter jets to the country's sensitive areas," spokesman for the maneuver, Brigadier General Ali Moqiseh said on Wednesday.

"Our defense brigades managed to thwart the attack by using defense in depth strategies, thus preventing the aggressor through successive layers of defense from reaching the areas."

The exercise, covering more than a third of Iran's territory, is meant to mobilize rapid-reaction army and air defense units and test anti-aircraft and radar capabilities in various parts of the country.

Both the United States and its close ally Israel have refused to rule out the possibility of military action against Iran, if Tehran does not halt its enrichment activities.

Tel Aviv claims Tehran's nuclear program poses a threat to its security. This is while Iran's activities have come under close scrutiny by the UN nuclear watchdog, which has confirmed the non-diversion of Iran's nuclear program in its several reports.

Unlike Tehran, Tel Aviv is the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East and has so far refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has called for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction from across the globe.

Many believe that Tel Aviv's enmity is rooted in a military doctrine that says Israel must maintain absolute military superiority in the region.

"The maintenance of Israel's 'qualitative military edge' over any combination of its potential adversaries has been a cornerstone of US Middle East policy for more than a decade," says Shawn L. Twing, editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Journalist Adriel Hampton believes Israel's military advantage is "a cost-effective way of serving America's national-security interests in this critically important region."

Iran ends third day of military drill

Iran has ended the third day of large-scale defense drills, aimed at strengthening its aerial defense against potential attacks on its nuclear facilities.

"Currently and after completing three stages, the drill has been a success," spokesman for the maneuver, named the Sky of Velayat II, said on Tuesday.

"Advances in the defense capabilities of the air force and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps [IRGC] … has enabled the country to counter attacks by state of the art missiles," Brigadier General Ali Moqiseh told reporters hours after Iranian servicemen completed the third day of the drill.

Iran on Sunday launched a five-day drill that will cover some 600,000 square kilometers, spreading across the central, western and southern parts of the country.

Moqiseh said the country's biggest military drill to date would also “test advanced equipment and missiles”.

Tehran has been constantly under threat by a nuclear armed Israel that has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear sites should the Islamic Republic continue its enrichment activities.

As the sole possessor of nuclear arms in the Middle East with over 200 ready-to-launch warheads in its stockpile, Tel Aviv has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Israel has also maintained the policy of neither admitting nor denying its possession of nuclear warheads. The doctrine of nuclear ambiguity has enabled Israel to deter foes for decades in a region with only one alleged nuclear power.

The Israeli nuclear program is also part of a deterrence military doctrine that assumes Tel Aviv must maintain an absolute military superiority in the region.

In order to maintain its military advantage, Tel Aviv insists on preventing other Muslim countries, especially in the Middle East, from acquiring nuclear capabilities while remaining outside of the international nuclear non-proliferation system.

According to the same logic, it launched a “preemptive” air strike on the Iraqi breeder reactor in Osirak in June 1981, when the late dictator Saddam Hussein was in power.

During the operation, known as "Operation Opera", a squadron of Israeli Air Force F-16A fighter aircrafts, with an escort of F-15As, bombed and heavily damaged the Osirak reactor.

Israeli intelligence at the time believed that the summer of 1981 would be the last chance to destroy the reactor before it would be loaded with nuclear fuel.

In September 2007, Israel launched yet another attack against an alleged nuclear facility in Syria. The facility in the eastern Deir ez-Zor region was targeted by at least four fighters which crossed into Syrian airspace just after midnight.

Iran increases range of its missiles to 35,000 feet

A senior Iranian military commander has announced that Iran has increased the range of the TOR M1 air defense system it bought from Russia.

“Over the past two years, Iranian experts increased the range of the missile system from the standard it had at the time of purchase to 35,000 feet (over 10,000 meters),” the commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace told the Fars news agency on Tuesday.

“Considering the fact that most airplanes fly at an altitude of 25,000 to 35,000 feet, the new system will have proper coverage to deal with them,” Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh stated.

He noted that Iran has also developed a defense system that can target “bombs and missiles fired from enemy aircraft.”

“It has been about one year since we developed the capability to target not only the enemy's aircraft but also their missiles and bombs,” Hajizadeh added.

On Tuesday, Iran ended the third day of the Sky of Velayat II military maneuver, which is being conducted to strengthen its aerial defense against potential attacks on the country's nuclear facilities.

Two NATO commanders wore Nazi regalia in Afghanistan

Wed Nov 25, 2009

It has just been discovered that two commanders of the Czech military working under NATO command used Nazi symbols on their helmets during their deployment in Afghanistan.

The story was made public after Czech police serving in Afghanistan reported the case, the Russia Today website reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily Mlada fronta Dnes, the soldiers, identified as Hynek Matonoha and Jan Cermak, wore the symbols of the 9th SS panzer division Hohenstaufen and the SS Dirlewanger brigade respectively, which were probably the most infamous SS combat units of World War II.

Unaware of their sordid actions, Czech Defense Minister Martin Bartak decorated the soldiers for bravery on Friday after their return from Afghanistan.

Later, the minister said that at the time, he had not yet learned about the helmet controversy, which has caused quite a stir among the country's armed forces.

A specialist in extremism, Michal Mazel, has rejected the excuse given by one of the men, who said that he had unintentionally used the symbols.

“He is an elite troop who graduated from university, he is no teenager. The SS symbols on their helmets show a totally perverse view of the world of the NATO military's elite troop,” Russia Today quoted Mazel as saying.

Anti-violence activists say the case with the soldiers is nothing new for the Czech Republic.

“There were several attacks on Roma and other communities in recent years, and these problems in our army, of course, shocked all Czech people,” said Ivona Novomestska, spokesperson for an anti-violence movement.

Petr Prochazka, the commander of the Czech contingent in Afghanistan's Logar province, had ordered that any photographs showing the controversial helmet covers be burnt.

After the facts came out, the commanders were immediately suspended, and they will be facing disciplinary action for their conduct.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/112118.html.

NGO to sue US over illegal detention of Iranians

An Iranian NGO is in the process of logging a legal complaint against the US over its violation of the rights of Iranian detainees, who illegally being held in custody.

According to the rights group, some of these Iranian nationals have been incarcerated on false charges or have been abducted and subjected to 'extraordinary rendition', while the US is seeking extradite some others.

The measures have caused immense psychological trauma for the families of these individuals.

The members of the RahPouyan-e-DadGostar NGO, some of whom are family members of such detainees, have gone to the Consulates and Iranian Affairs division of the Foreign Ministry to demand stepped up efforts to secure the release of these individuals.

Among the detainees, whose immediate release is sought by the NGO are:

1- Shahram Amiri, a Malek Ashtar University researcher, who went missing in Saudi Arabia nearly five months ago while attending the Hajj. Saudi officials have failed to provide Iran with a convincing explanation about Amiri's disappearance.

2- Alireza Asgari, a former defense ministry deputy, who mysteriously disappeared in Turkey several months ago. He is believed to have been abducted and transferred to Israel.

3- Nasrollah Tajik, the former Iranian ambassador to Jordan, was arrested in the UK three years ago. He was accused of involvement in nuclear deals in violation of US sanctions on Iran. The US pressuring British officials for Tajik's extradition.

4- Majid Kakavand was arrested in France for selling Iran electronic equipment via the Internet, in violation of in-place US sanctions on Iran. The US has requested French officials to hand over Kakavand.

The remaining detainees include: Amir-Hossein Ardebili, arrested in Georgia and illegally transferred to the US; Mahmoud Yadegari, arrested in Canada and awaiting transfer to the US; Mohsen Afrasiabi, arrested in Germany and awaiting transfer to the US; Baktash Fatahi, Shahrzad Amir-Qolikhani, Ali Amir-Nazmi, and Hassan Saeed-Keshari, all four arrested in the US.

2.5 million Muslim pilgrims in Saudi for hajj

Authorities working to boost Grand Mosque's capacity to cope with rising number of pilgrims.

MECCA - An estimated 2.5 million Muslims have converged on Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage, as workers toil round the clock to complete construction projects designed to avoid deadly stampedes.

This year's hajj is also taking place amid fears of the spread of swine flu as pilgrims flooded into the kingdom from around the globe.

Four have already died from the A(H1N1) virus, the authorities said, but on Tuesday the health ministry played down the swine flu risk to the hajj.

"There is no risk of the illness spreading as we are well-prepared and have taken the necessary measures" to prevent an outbreak, ministry spokesman Dr Khaled Marghlani told a news conference.

The official SPA news agency quoted senior health ministry official Ziad Mimesh as saying: "The ministry is ready to take care of any case (of swine flu) among pilgrims during the hajj."

All of this year's pilgrims were due in the holy city by late Tuesday in time to begin the hajj rites on Wednesday, day one of the six-day season.

The rites begin with the "tawaf," the circling seven times of the cubic Kaaba building in the center of the Grand Mosque, in whose direction all Muslims around the world pray.

Pilgrims then proceed to Mina to spend the night before climbing Mount Arafat on Thursday.

The Grand Mosque can hold more than one million people, but the Saudi hajj authorities have been working to boost its capacity to cope with the steadily rising number of pilgrims.

Work is under way to double the mosque's capacity by adding another 300,000 square meters, according to a hajj official, after King Abdullah agreed two years ago that the northern mosque's esplanades can be expanded.

"We have worked round the clock to complete the expansion. Thanks to God, we have completed the main phase, which included demolishing houses and buildings at the northern end," said Abdulghani, a technician working on the site.

"Now the area is ready to install the sunshades," he added.

Hundreds of bulldozers, cranes and lorries were still operating up until Tuesday on the expansion work, but the new area will not be ready before next year's hajj.

Other expansion projects have been completed in time, including widening the neighboring footpath between the Safa and Marwah hills in Mecca that has been turned into a four-level path, allowing a faster flow of pilgrims.

The hajj has been the scene of several tragic accidents caused by surging crowds.

In an attempt to avoid such tragedies, the authorities built a five-level bridge, in addition to two tunnels in the Jamarat area.

More than 100,000 security personnel have been deployed to secure the pilgrims in Mecca and Medina, in addition to 20,000 medical staff.

The Jamarat bridge is also being monitoring by 600 CCTV cameras, while the Grand Mosque and its surroundings are watched by 1,852 cameras.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35884.

Flooding kills 10 in Jeddah

More deaths are feared in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port city after heavy downpour.

JEDDAH - Ten people were killed by flooding in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port city of Jeddah and more deaths were feared, a civil defense official said after a massive downpour on Wednesday.

"I confirm that it's ten bodies but I can't say anything more for now," the official said, requesting anonymity.

The storm struck the city in western Saudi Arabia in the morning, flooding streets. In one part of the city a bus could be seen submerged in several meters (feet) of water in an underpass.

One person said he had seen several bodies beside another bus that overturned in the storm.

Major roads elsewhere in the city remained gridlocked by traffic late on Wednesday after the rain stopped and floodwaters receded, witnesses said.

Rain also hit the Muslim holy city of Mecca, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Jeddah, where some 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims on Wednesday began the annual hajj season. The downpour did not cause disruption to the pilgrimage.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35909.

Pilgrims start hajj rites amid downpour in Saudi Arabia - Summary

Jeddah - The skies opened as millions of Muslims pilgrims started the hajj rites in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, leaving the desert kingdom drenched in rain. In Mina, the torrential downpour turned roads into rivers of mud and left dozens stranded in buses and cars. Weather forecasts said rain would continue though Friday.

This year, fewer have made the pilgrimage, which every Muslim who can must make at least once in his life, amid of fears of the spread of the A/H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu.

Saudi authorities say 2.5 million pilgrims are expected in Mecca and Medina this year, including 1.6 million coming from abroad. An average of 3 million pilgrims have made the journey in previous years.

US President Barack Obama's Kenyan step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, is among them, the Saudi daily Okaz reported. She was accompanied by her brother and 10 others from her village in Kenya. They among roughly 3,000 people making the pilgrimage at Saudi King Abdullah's invitation and expense, the newspaper said.

Although four pilgrims have died of swine flu, the Ministry of Health says concern seems unfounded and hospital visits and ambulance calls are down significantly compared to last year.

Many predominantly Muslim countries had asked pilgrims to be vaccinated against the virus before their departure, for fear they might return with the virus.

Saudi authorities are to provide 1 million sterilized stones in velvet pouches for Thursday's ritual in which pilgrims symbolically stone Satan.

The hajj reaches its climax Thursday when pilgrims walk to Mount Arafat.

On Friday, Muslims worldwide celebrate Eid al-Adha, or "feast of the sacrifice."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/296317,pilgrims-start-hajj-rites-amid-downpour-in-saudi-arabia--summary.html.

U.S. Starves Children in Somali War

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

November 24, 2009

Three years after creating the "worst humanitarian crisis" in Africa by encouraging Ethiopia to invade Somalia, the U.S. now unleashes the food weapon on starving people. "Forty million pounds of American-donated food is sitting in warehouses in Mombasa, Kenya, but U.S. officials won’t allow aid workers to deliver the food to the Somalis that need it."

"The Americans are blatantly using food as a political weapon."

The United States is waging a war of starvation against the people of Somalia. According to United Nations officials, Washington has interrupted the flow of desperately needed food to Somalia, on the grounds that some of it might find its way into the hands of the Shabab, the Islamists the U.S. calls "terrorists," but who are winning the war for control of southern and central Somalia.

Forty million pounds of American-donated food is sitting in warehouses in Mombasa, Kenya, but U.S. officials won’t allow aid workers to deliver the food to the Somalis that need it. The Americans are blatantly using food as a political weapon, holding starving people hostage to U.S. political objectives – much like ancient armies did when they laid siege to cities to starve the inhabitants into surrender.

It’s now going on three years since the Americans imposed a living hell on Somalia. In December 2006, the U.S. encouraged Ethiopia to invade Somalia to crush an Islamist government that had brought a modicum of peace to the country. The invasion created what the United Nations called the "worst humanitarian crisis in Africa" – worse than Darfur. This U.S.-made crisis was worsened by a devastating drought, leaving half the population totally dependent on outside food aid, the largest part of it from the United States. By locking the food up in Kenyan warehouses, "the U.S. government is holding the Somalia relief enterprise…hostage to its counterterrorism policy," according to a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine.

"The Americans cannot win in any conventional military sense, so they resort to a war of starvation."

The American puppet government in Somalia controls no more than a few neighborhoods of the capital city, Mogadishu, and its airport. Were it not for massive U.S. arms aid and the protection of Rwandan and Burundian soldiers, the U.S.-backed government would disintegrate. The Americans cannot win in any conventional military sense, so they resort to a war of starvation.

According to a New York Times article, Somali elders report that many children who had been kept alive by food relief are now dying because of the American aid cutoff. The situation is so dire, that only the U.S. food stores in Kenya can reach Somalia in time to stave off a disastrous famine. There are simply no other resources available.

The drought in East Africa has affected U.S. allies and enemies, alike. Ethiopia has made a plea on behalf of 23 million people threatened by drought in the region. And "the worst drought in ten years" has been exacerbated by a huge, artificial rise in food prices caused by speculators, most of them based in the United States and other rich countries.

Thus, Somalia's hungry are battered from three sides: by artificially high food prices, by drought, and by a deliberate U.S. war of starvation. The Obama Administration is determined to make the Somali people scream as punishment for resisting American domination. But starving babies cannot scream. They can't even cry.

Shuttle Atlantis leaves space station, headed home

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station early Wednesday, headed home with one astronaut eager to hold his newborn daughter for the first time and another who's been away from her young son since the summer.

The shuttle departed as the spacecraft soared nearly 220 miles above the Pacific, just northeast of New Guinea. Over the past week, the astronauts stockpiled the outpost and performed maintenance that should keep it running for another five to 10 years.

Atlantis is scheduled to land Friday morning at NASA's spaceport in Florida.

Astronaut Nicole Stott, on her way home after three months in orbit, said goodbye to the five colleagues she left behind on the space station.

"It was a real pleasure working with you guys," she radioed. "I was blessed with a wonderful crew, and I look forward to seeing you guys on the ground real soon."

"We'll miss you," said fellow American astronaut Jeffrey Williams, who's just two months into a six-month mission. A Belgian on board who will be leaving the space station next week in a Russian capsule told Stott to take care. "Have a safe trip home," Frank De Winne said.

Wednesday was the 89th day in space for Stott, a 47-year-old engineer. She flew to the space station at the end of August. She said she can't wait to see her husband and 7-year-old son, and to have a pizza.

Spaceman Randolph Bresnik is also eager to get back. His wife gave birth to their second child, Abigail Mae Bresnik, on Saturday in Houston — shortly after his first spacewalk.

The shuttle astronauts must take one final survey of the wings and nose of their ship Wednesday using a 100-foot, laser-tipped inspection boom. They need to make sure the vulnerable thermal shielding was not damaged by micrometeorites over the past week.

Atlantis' cargo bay — brimming with big spare parts when it arrived at the space station last Wednesday — was empty. The astronauts installed some of the equipment during three spacewalks and performed other work to keep the station operating long after the retirement of NASA's three shuttles next fall.

The next shuttle visit, by Endeavour, is in February.

Sexual abuse of Afghan children decried by UN

Sexual abuse of Afghan children decried by UN
More than one in five children born in Afghanistan dies before the age of five, according to UNICEF

RAWA, November 23, 2009

Children in Afghanistan are suffering from serious child abuse and high levels of mortality.

United Nations officials, speaking in Kabul, have said children are being deprived in the worst possible ways with their rights being neglected despite vast flow of Western aid into the country.

The Kabul news conference, marking the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, was told Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world; thirty per cent of children are involved in child labour; forty-three per cent of girls are married under age.

More than one in five children born in Afghanistan dies before the age of five, according to UNICEF estimates.

Members of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission spoke about reports of sexual exploitation of children by combatants from past military conflicts.

They said Afghanistan has had some of the highest figures of sexual abuse in recent years.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=60396&s2=24.

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan

by Jeremy Scahill

The Nation, November 23, 2009

Inside sources reveal that the firm works with the US military in Karachi to plan targeted assassinations and drone bombings, among other sensitive counterterrorism operations.

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking comment for this story. Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Nation, "We do not discuss current operations one way or the other, regardless of their nature." A defense official, on background, specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. "We don't have any contracts to do that work for us. We don't contract that kind of work out, period," the official said. "There has not been, and is not now, contracts between JSOC and that organization for these types of services." The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency's director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. "This is a parallel operation to the CIA," said the source. "They are two separate beasts." The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war--knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny it had given permission. Officially, the United States is not supposed to have any active military operations in the country. Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services and US Training Center, denies the company is operating in Pakistan. "Xe Services has only one employee in Pakistan performing construction oversight for the U.S. Government," Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo said in a statement to The Nation, adding that the company has "no other operations of any kind in Pakistan."

A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military intelligence source's claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said, allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.

His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater's covert work for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told The Nation, "From my information that I have, that is absolutely correct," adding, "There's no question that's occurring."

"It wouldn't surprise me because we've outsourced nearly everything," said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater's role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater's involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. "Part of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the Congress has placed on DoD. If you don't have sufficient soldiers to do it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it's that simple. It would not surprise me."

The Counterterrorism Tag Team in Karachi

The covert JSOC program with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to the military intelligence source. The current head of JSOC is Vice Adm. William McRaven, who took over the post from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC from 2003 to 2008 before being named the top US commander in Afghanistan. Blackwater's presence in Pakistan is "not really visible, and that's why nobody has cracked down on it," said the source. Blackwater's operations in Pakistan, he said, are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified Defense contracts. "It's Blackwater via JSOC, and it's a classified no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis." The main JSOC/Blackwater facility in Karachi, according to the source, is nondescript: three trailers with various generators, satellite phones and computer systems are used as a makeshift operations center. "It's a very rudimentary operation," says the source. "I would compare it to [CIA] outposts in Kurdistan or any of the Special Forces outposts. It's very bare bones, and that's the point."

Blackwater's work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the military intelligence source. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said, it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS), which is owned by Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince. The military source said that the name Blackwater SELECT may have been changed recently. Total Intelligence, which is run out of an office on the ninth floor of a building in the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia, is staffed by former analysts and operatives from the CIA, DIA, FBI and other agencies. It is modeled after the CIA's counterterrorism center. In Karachi, TIS runs a "media-scouring/open-source network," according to the source. Until recently, Total Intelligence was run by two former top CIA officials, Cofer Black and Robert Richer, both of whom have left the company. In Pakistan, Blackwater is not using either its original name or its new moniker, Xe Services, according to the former Blackwater executive. "They are running most of their work through TIS because the other two [names] have such a stain on them," he said. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesperson, denied that TIS or any other division or affiliate of Blackwater has any personnel in Pakistan.

The US military intelligence source said that Blackwater's classified contracts keep getting renewed at the request of JSOC. Blackwater, he said, is already so deeply entrenched that it has become a staple of the US military operations in Pakistan. According to the former Blackwater executive, "The politics that go with the brand of BW is somewhat set aside because what you're doing is really one military guy to another." Blackwater's first known contract with the CIA for operations in Afghanistan was awarded in 2002 and was for work along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

One of the concerns raised by the military intelligence source is that some Blackwater personnel are being given rolling security clearances above their approved clearances. Using Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), he said, the Blackwater personnel are granted clearance to a Special Access Program, the bureaucratic term used to describe highly classified "black" operations. "With an ACCM, the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and operate within compartmentalized programs far above 'secret'--even though you have no business doing so," said the source. It allows Blackwater personnel that "do not have the requisite security clearance or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in classified operations by virtue of trust," he added. "Think of it as an ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That's exactly what it is: a circle of love." Blackwater, therefore, has access to "all source" reports that are culled in part from JSOC units in the field. "That's how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with contractors," said the source. "We have contractors that regularly see things that top policy-makers don't unless they ask."

According to the source, Blackwater has effectively marketed itself as a company whose operatives have "conducted lethal direct action missions and now, for a price, you can have your own planning cell. JSOC just ate that up," he said, adding, "They have a sizable force in Pakistan--not for any nefarious purpose if you really want to look at it that way--but to support a legitimate contract that's classified for JSOC." Blackwater's Pakistan JSOC contracts are secret and are therefore shielded from public oversight, he said. The source is not sure when the arrangement with JSOC began, but he says that a spin-off of Blackwater SELECT "was issued a no-bid contract for support to shooters for a JSOC Task Force and they kept extending it." Some of the Blackwater personnel, he said, work undercover as aid workers. "Nobody even gives them a second thought."

The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater/JSOC Karachi operation is referred to as "Qatar cubed," in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. "This is supposed to be the brave new world," he says. "This is the Jamestown of the new millennium and it's meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the border, you can jump sideways, you can jump northwest. It's strategically located so that they can get their people wherever they have to without having to wrangle with the military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They don't have to deal with that because they're operating under a classified mandate."

In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces. "That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don't know if you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan," he said. "So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?"

Pakistan's Military Contracting Maze

Blackwater, according to the military intelligence source, is not doing the actual killing as part of its work in Pakistan. "The SELECT personnel are not going into places with private aircraft and going after targets," he said. "It's not like Blackwater SELECT people are running around assassinating people." Instead, US Special Forces teams carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater. The military intelligence source drew a distinction between the Blackwater operatives who work for the State Department, which he calls "Blackwater Vanilla," and the seasoned Special Forces veterans who work on the JSOC program. "Good or bad, there's a small number of people who know how to pull off an operation like that. That's probably a good thing," said the source. "It's the Blackwater SELECT people that have and continue to plan these types of operations because they're the only people that know how and they went where the money was. It's not trigger-happy fucks, like some of the PSD [Personal Security Detail] guys. These are not people that believe that Barack Obama is a socialist, these are not people that kill innocent civilians. They're very good at what they do."

The former Blackwater executive, when asked for confirmation that Blackwater forces were not actively killing people in Pakistan, said, "that's not entirely accurate." While he concurred with the military intelligence source's description of the JSOC and CIA programs, he pointed to another role Blackwater is allegedly playing in Pakistan, not for the US government but for Islamabad. According to the executive, Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support, private security and intelligence consulting. It is staffed with former high-ranking Pakistani army and government officials. While Kestral's main offices are in Pakistan, it also has branches in several other countries.

A spokesperson for the US State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), which is responsible for issuing licenses to US corporations to provide defense-related services to foreign governments or entities, would neither confirm nor deny for The Nation that Blackwater has a license to work in Pakistan or to work with Kestral. "We cannot help you," said department spokesperson David McKeeby after checking with the relevant DDTC officials. "You'll have to contact the companies directly." Blackwater's Corallo said the company has "no operations of any kind" in Pakistan other than the one employee working for the DoD. Kestral did not respond to inquiries from The Nation.

According to federal lobbying records, Kestral recently hired former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, who served in that post from 2003 to 2005, to lobby the US government, including the State Department, USAID and Congress, on foreign affairs issues "regarding [Kestral's] capabilities to carry out activities of interest to the United States." Noriega was hired through his firm, Vision Americas, which he runs with Christina Rocca, a former CIA operations official who served as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 2001 to 2006 and was deeply involved in shaping US policy toward Pakistan. In October 2009, Kestral paid Vision Americas $15,000 and paid a Vision Americas-affiliated firm, Firecreek Ltd., an equal amount to lobby on defense and foreign policy issues.

For years, Kestral has done a robust business in defense logistics with the Pakistani government and other nations, as well as top US defense companies. Blackwater owner Erik Prince is close with Kestral CEO Liaquat Ali Baig, according to the former Blackwater executive. "Ali and Erik have a pretty close relationship," he said. "They've met many times and struck a deal, and they [offer] mutual support for one another." Working with Kestral, he said, Blackwater has provided convoy security for Defense Department shipments destined for Afghanistan that would arrive in the port at Karachi. Blackwater, according to the former executive, would guard the supplies as they were transported overland from Karachi to Peshawar and then west through the Torkham border crossing, the most important supply route for the US military in Afghanistan.

According to the former executive, Blackwater operatives also integrate with Kestral's forces in sensitive counterterrorism operations in the North-West Frontier Province, where they work in conjunction with the Pakistani Interior Ministry's paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps (alternately referred to as "frontier scouts"). The Blackwater personnel are technically advisers, but the former executive said that the line often gets blurred in the field. Blackwater "is providing the actual guidance on how to do [counterterrorism operations] and Kestral's folks are carrying a lot of them out, but they're having the guidance and the overwatch from some BW guys that will actually go out with the teams when they're executing the job," he said. "You can see how that can lead to other things in the border areas." He said that when Blackwater personnel are out with the Pakistani teams, sometimes its men engage in operations against suspected terrorists. "You've got BW guys that are assisting... and they're all going to want to go on the jobs--so they're going to go with them," he said. "So, the things that you're seeing in the news about how this Pakistani military group came in and raided this house or did this or did that--in some of those cases, you're going to have Western folks that are right there at the house, if not in the house." Blackwater, he said, is paid by the Pakistani government through Kestral for consulting services. "That gives the Pakistani government the cover to say, 'Hey, no, we don't have any Westerners doing this. It's all local and our people are doing it.' But it gets them the expertise that Westerners provide for [counterterrorism]-related work."

The military intelligence source confirmed Blackwater works with the Frontier Corps, saying, "There's no real oversight. It's not really on people's radar screen."

In October, in response to Pakistani news reports that a Kestral warehouse in Islamabad was being used to store heavy weapons for Blackwater, the US Embassy in Pakistan released a statement denying the weapons were being used by "a private American security contractor." The statement said, "Kestral Logistics is a private logistics company that handles the importation of equipment and supplies provided by the United States to the Government of Pakistan. All of the equipment and supplies were imported at the request of the Government of Pakistan, which also certified the shipments."

Who is Behind the Drone Attacks?

Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the United States has expanded drone bombing raids in Pakistan. Obama first ordered a drone strike against targets in North and South Waziristan on January 23, and the strikes have been conducted consistently ever since. The Obama administration has now surpassed the number of Bush-era strikes in Pakistan and has faced fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US lawmakers over civilian deaths. A drone attack in June killed as many as sixty people attending a Taliban funeral.

In August, the New York Times reported that Blackwater works for the CIA at "hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company's contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft." In February, The Times of London obtained a satellite image of a secret CIA airbase in Shamsi, in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, showing three drone aircraft. The New York Times also reported that the agency uses a secret base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to strike in Pakistan.

The military intelligence source says that the drone strike that reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and his bodyguards in Waziristan in August was a CIA strike, but that many others attributed in media reports to the CIA are actually JSOC strikes. "Some of these strikes are attributed to OGA [Other Government Agency, intelligence parlance for the CIA], but in reality it's JSOC and their parallel program of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] because they also have access to UAVs. So when you see some of these hits, especially the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC strikes." The Pentagon has stated bluntly, "There are no US military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan."

The military intelligence source also confirmed that Blackwater continues to work for the CIA on its drone bombing program in Pakistan, as previously reported in the New York Times, but added that Blackwater is working on JSOC's drone bombings as well. "It's Blackwater running the program for both CIA and JSOC," said the source. When civilians are killed, "people go, 'Oh, it's the CIA doing crazy shit again unchecked.' Well, at least 50 percent of the time, that's JSOC [hitting] somebody they've identified through HUMINT [human intelligence] or they've culled the intelligence themselves or it's been shared with them and they take that person out and that's how it works."

The military intelligence source says that the CIA operations are subject to Congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC bombings. "Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now and the CIA knows that," he says. "Contractors and especially JSOC personnel working under a classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so they just don't care. If there's one person they're going after and there's thirty-four people in the building, thirty-five people are going to die. That's the mentality." He added, "They're not accountable to anybody and they know that. It's an open secret, but what are you going to do, shut down JSOC?"

In addition to working on covert action planning and drone strikes, Blackwater SELECT also provides private guards to perform the sensitive task of security for secret US drone bases, JSOC camps and Defense Intelligence Agency camps inside Pakistan, according to the military intelligence source.

Mosharraf Zaidi, a well-known Pakistani journalist who has served as a consultant for the UN and European Union in Pakistan and Afghanistan, says that the Blackwater/JSOC program raises serious questions about the norms of international relations. "The immediate question is, How do you define the active pursuit of military objectives in a country with which not only have you not declared war but that is supposedly a front-line non-NATO ally in the US struggle to contain extremist violence coming out of Afghanistan and the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan?" asks Zaidi, who is currently a columnist for The News, the biggest English-language daily in Pakistan. "Let's forget Blackwater for a second. What this is confirming is that there are US military operations in Pakistan that aren't about logistics or getting food to Bagram; that are actually about the exercise of physical violence, physical force inside of Pakistani territory."

JSOC: Rumsfeld and Cheney's Extra Special Force

Colonel Wilkerson said that he is concerned that with General McChrystal's elevation as the military commander of the Afghan war--which is increasingly seeping into Pakistan--there is a concomitant rise in JSOC's power and influence within the military structure. "I don't see how you can escape that; it's just a matter of the way the authority flows and the power flows, and it's inevitable, I think," Wilkerson told The Nation. He added, "I'm alarmed when I see execute orders and combat orders that go out saying that the supporting force is Central Command and the supported force is Special Operations Command," under which JSOC operates. "That's backward. But that's essentially what we have today."

From 2003 to 2008 McChrystal headed JSOC, which is headquartered at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Blackwater's 7,000-acre operating base is also situated. JSOC controls the Army's Delta Force, the Navy's SEAL Team 6, as well as the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron. JSOC performs strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas and special intelligence missions. Blackwater, which was founded by former Navy SEALs, employs scores of veteran Special Forces operators--which several former military officials pointed to as the basis for Blackwater's alleged contracts with JSOC.

Since 9/11, many top-level Special Forces veterans have taken up employment with private firms, where they can make more money doing the highly specialized work they did in uniform. "The Blackwater individuals have the experience. A lot of these individuals are retired military, and they've been around twenty to thirty years and have experience that the younger Green Beret guys don't," said retired Army Lieut. Col. Jeffrey Addicott, a well-connected military lawyer who served as senior legal counsel for US Army Special Forces. "They're known entities. Everybody knows who they are, what their capabilities are, and they've got the experience. They're very valuable."

"They make much more money being the smarts of these operations, planning hits in various countries and basing it off their experience in Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Ethiopia," said the military intelligence source. "They were there for all of these things, they know what the hell they're talking about. And JSOC has unfortunately lost the institutional capability to plan within, so they hire back people that used to work for them and had already planned and executed these [types of] operations. They hired back people that jumped over to Blackwater SELECT and then pay them exorbitant amounts of money to plan future operations. It's a ridiculous revolving door."

While JSOC has long played a central role in US counterterrorism and covert operations, military and civilian officials who worked at the Defense and State Departments during the Bush administration described in interviews with The Nation an extremely cozy relationship that developed between the executive branch (primarily through Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) and JSOC. During the Bush era, Special Forces turned into a virtual stand-alone operation that acted outside the military chain of command and in direct coordination with the White House. Throughout the Bush years, it was largely General McChrystal who ran JSOC. "What I was seeing was the development of what I would later see in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Special Operations forces would operate in both theaters without the conventional commander even knowing what they were doing," said Colonel Wilkerson. "That's dangerous, that's very dangerous. You have all kinds of mess when you don't tell the theater commander what you're doing."

Wilkerson said that almost immediately after assuming his role at the State Department under Colin Powell, he saw JSOC being politicized and developing a close relationship with the executive branch. He saw this begin, he said, after his first Delta Force briefing at Fort Bragg. "I think Cheney and Rumsfeld went directly into JSOC. I think they went into JSOC at times, perhaps most frequently, without the SOCOM [Special Operations] commander at the time even knowing it. The receptivity in JSOC was quite good," says Wilkerson. "I think Cheney was actually giving McChrystal instructions, and McChrystal was asking him for instructions." He said the relationship between JSOC and Cheney and Rumsfeld "built up initially because Rumsfeld didn't get the responsiveness. He didn't get the can-do kind of attitude out of the SOCOM commander, and so as Rumsfeld was wont to do, he cut him out and went straight to the horse's mouth. At that point you had JSOC operating as an extension of the [administration] doing things the executive branch--read: Cheney and Rumsfeld--wanted it to do. This would be more or less carte blanche. You need to do it, do it. It was very alarming for me as a conventional soldier."

Wilkerson said the JSOC teams caused diplomatic problems for the United States across the globe. "When these teams started hitting capital cities and other places all around the world, [Rumsfeld] didn't tell the State Department either. The only way we found out about it is our ambassadors started to call us and say, 'Who the hell are these six-foot-four white males with eighteen-inch biceps walking around our capital cities?' So we discovered this, we discovered one in South America, for example, because he actually murdered a taxi driver, and we had to get him out of there real quick. We rendered him--we rendered him home."

As part of their strategy, Rumsfeld and Cheney also created the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which pulled intelligence resources from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA for use in sensitive JSOC operations. The SSB was created using "reprogrammed" funds "without explicit congressional authority or appropriation," according to the Washington Post. The SSB operated outside the military chain of command and circumvented the CIA's authority on clandestine operations. Rumsfeld created it as part of his war to end "near total dependence on CIA." Under US law, the Defense Department is required to report all deployment orders to Congress. But guidelines issued in January 2005 by former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone stated that Special Operations forces may "conduct clandestine HUMINT operations...before publication" of a deployment order. This effectively gave Rumsfeld unilateral control over clandestine operations.

The military intelligence source said that when Rumsfeld was defense secretary, JSOC was deployed to commit some of the "darkest acts" in part to keep them concealed from Congress. "Everything can be justified as a military operation versus a clandestine intelligence performed by the CIA, which has to be informed to Congress," said the source. "They were aware of that and they knew that, and they would exploit it at every turn and they took full advantage of it. They knew they could act extra-legally and nothing would happen because A, it was sanctioned by DoD at the highest levels, and B, who was going to stop them? They were preparing the battlefield, which was on all of the PowerPoints: 'Preparing the Battlefield.'"

The significance of the flexibility of JSOC's operations inside Pakistan versus the CIA's is best summed up by Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "Every single intelligence operation and covert action must be briefed to the Congress," she said. "If they are not, that is a violation of the law."

Blackwater: Company Non Grata in Pakistan

For months, the Pakistani media has been flooded with stories about Blackwater's alleged growing presence in the country. For the most part, these stories have been ignored by the US press and denounced as lies or propaganda by US officials in Pakistan. But the reality is that, although many of the stories appear to be wildly exaggerated, Pakistanis have good reason to be concerned about Blackwater's operations in their country. It is no secret in Washington or Islamabad that Blackwater has been a central part of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that the company has been involved--almost from the beginning of the "war on terror"--with clandestine US operations. Indeed, Blackwater is accepting applications for contractors fluent in Urdu and Punjabi. The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, has denied Blackwater's presence in the country, stating bluntly in September, "Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan." In her trip to Pakistan in October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dodged questions from the Pakistani press about Blackwater's rumored Pakistani operations. Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, said on November 21 he will resign if Blackwater is found operating anywhere in Pakistan.

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that Blackwater "provides security for a US-backed aid project" in Peshawar, suggesting the company may be based out of the Pearl Continental, a luxury hotel the United States reportedly is considering purchasing to use as a consulate in the city. "We have no contracts in Pakistan," Blackwater spokesperson Stacey DeLuke said recently. "We've been blamed for all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we have absolutely no presence there."

Reports of Blackwater's alleged presence in Karachi and elsewhere in the country have been floating around the Pakistani press for months. Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist who rose to fame after his 1997 interview with Osama bin Laden, claimed in a recent interview that Blackwater is in Karachi. "The US [intelligence] agencies think that a number of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Karachi and Peshawar," he said. "That is why [Blackwater] agents are operating in these two cities." Ambassador Patterson has said that the claims of Mir and other Pakistani journalists are "wildly incorrect," saying they had compromised the security of US personnel in Pakistan. On November 20 the Washington Times, citing three current and former US intelligence officials, reported that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has "found refuge from potential U.S. attacks" in Karachi "with the assistance of Pakistan's intelligence service."

In September, the Pakistani press covered a report on Blackwater allegedly submitted by Pakistan's intelligence agencies to the federal interior ministry. In the report, the intelligence agencies reportedly allege that Blackwater was provided houses by a federal minister who is also helping them clear shipments of weapons and vehicles through Karachi's Port Qasim on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The military intelligence source did not confirm this but did say, "The port jives because they have a lot of [former] SEALs and they would revert to what they know: the ocean, instead of flying stuff in."

The Nation cannot independently confirm these allegations and has not seen the Pakistani intelligence report. But according to Pakistani press coverage, the intelligence report also said Blackwater has acquired "bungalows" in the Defense Housing Authority in the city. According to the DHA website, it is a large gated community established "for the welfare of the serving and retired officers of the Armed Forces of Pakistan." Its motto is: "Home for Defenders." The report alleges Blackwater is receiving help from local government officials in Karachi and is using vehicles with license plates traditionally assigned to members of the national and provincial assemblies, meaning local law enforcement will not stop them.

The use of private companies like Blackwater for sensitive operations such as drone strikes or other covert work undoubtedly comes with the benefit of plausible deniability that places an additional barrier in an already deeply flawed system of accountability. When things go wrong, it's the contractors' fault, not the government's. But the widespread use of contractors also raises serious legal questions, particularly when they are a part of lethal, covert actions. "We are using contractors for things that in the past might have been considered to be a violation of the Geneva Convention," said Lt. Col. Addicott, who now runs the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. "In my opinion, we have pressed the envelope to the breaking limit, and it's almost a fiction that these guys are not in offensive military operations." Addicott added, "If we were subjected to the International Criminal Court, some of these guys could easily be picked up, charged with war crimes and put on trial. That's one of the reasons we're not members of the International Criminal Court."

If there is one quality that has defined Blackwater over the past decade, it is the ability to survive against the odds while simultaneously reinventing and rebranding itself. That is most evident in Afghanistan, where the company continues to work for the US military, the CIA and the State Department despite intense criticism and almost weekly scandals. Blackwater's alleged Pakistan operations, said the military intelligence source, are indicative of its new frontier. "Having learned its lessons after the private security contracting fiasco in Iraq, Blackwater has shifted its operational focus to two venues: protecting things that are in danger and anticipating other places we're going to go as a nation that are dangerous," he said. "It's as simple as that."

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=60419&s2=24.

Hamas: Israel continues to manipulate swap talks

November 24, 2009

Bethlehem/Cairo – Ma’an – Israel has exaggerated the progress of recent prisoner swap talks and manipulated the hopes and expectations of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Hamas leaders proclaimed late Tuesday.

The proclamation followed days of reports from Palestinian and Israeli media heralding the immanent release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier captured in 2006. Talks have been proceeding with German mediation following the release of a video tape showing the Israeli soldier in good health.

"If a deal is not struck in the next 48 hours," Hamas sources said, it will be proof of Israeli reticence over the terms of the swap deal, and a refusal to show seriousness in the talks. One leader called recent media coverage "propaganda only."

Hamas negotiators are aiming for a deal that would see 450 high-profile Palestinian prisoners of Israel released, including Palestinian lawmakers, women, children, those in administrative detention, and long-term prisoners, as well as 550 other Palestinians.

"Palestinian resistance has been ready to close the [captured Israeli soldier Gilad] Shalit file always but Israel has always backed off with excuses over the names of the [450] prisoners. They know the resistance will not change these names no matter how long negotiations take."

According to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, however, a delegation of Hamas officials was in Damascus Tuesday discussing Israel's latest offer: the release of some high-profile prisoners into exile. The deal, according to the paper, would have some prisoners released and sent to other nations. Palestinian security sources noted earlier in the day that talks suggested to send Fatah leader and high-profile unity advocate Marwan Barghouthi to Gaza, rather than to his native West Bank.

A Fox News report last week said 70 new names were submitted to Israel for consideration after Israel refused dozens on the original list. Hamas leaders did not confirm the addition of names.

Somalia: Ugandan President to Visit Mogadishu

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is for the first time scheduled to visit Somalia's restive capital Mogadishu where he is expected to hold talks with his Somali counterpart and inspect the peacekeeping operation of African Union troops.

Confidential sources say Museveni's visit is meant to boost the morale of the Ugandan peacekeepers serving in the UN-backed AU mission in Mogadishu.

"The president will visit Mogadishu and talk to our troops," said top Ugandan defense official who declined to be named.

Uganda, one of two only Africa Union peacekeeping troops contributor to Somalia after Burundi, has some 2050 troops that make up the 5,100-strong African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM).

The troops are mandated to guard strategic sites in Mogadishu such as air port, seaport and Somali Presidential Palace Villa Somalia where the embattled Somali president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is housed.

Somali president is reportedly in preparation mode to welcome his buddy who has been offering his unconditioned support for his fragile but internationally recognized government and according to unconfirmed reports, Museveni's trip is scheduled on early December.

Ahmed has traveled to Uganda several times since his election early this year, and held talks with Museveni and other government representatives.

Jordan's king orders reform of controversial election law

AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday ordered his government to amend the country’s controversial election law and ensure a “transparent” vote, a day after he dissolved Parliament. “We instruct the government to immediately start planning for parliamentary elections, which should be transparent and fair, reflecting Jordan’s reform drive,” the king told Prime Minister Nader Dahabi in a letter, a palace statement said.

“We instruct you to take all necessary measures for that purpose, including amending the elections law and developing all aspects of the electoral process,” it said.

Abdullah was quoted as saying the lower house of parliament “plays a key role in achieving comprehensive development in the country.”

The king dissolved Parliament on Monday and ordered a general election two years early, after months of press criticism of the ineffectiveness and in some cases alleged corruption of MPs.

The outgoing Parliament elected two years ago, which was dominated by independent and tribal MPs who are loyal to the king, had become increasingly unpopular.

It was the second time the king has dissolved Parliament early since he acceded to the throne in 1999.

The 1993 controversial one-person-one-vote electoral law has since been under constant attack by opposition parties, trade unions, politicians and the media.

They say the law produced lawmakers with tribal affiliations, instead of MPs who truly represent the people.

“We hope the king’s decision is the start of comprehensive political reform to elect a lower house of parliament in line with a modern electoral law,” said the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The one-person-one-vote system has proved that it was a failure,” he said.

Only six of the 22 candidates fielded by the IAF were victorious in the last general election on November 20, 2007, a tally sharply down on the 17 seats it won in 2003.

After the 2007 vote, the IAF charged that there had been widespread vote-buying in some constituencies despite pledges of transparency from the government.

Emirates increases Amman, Doha services

by Elsa Baxter

UAE carrier Emirates Airline has announced it will introduce three additional flights per week to the Jordanian capital Amman from December 1.

The Dubai-based carrier is also starting an extra flight to the Qatari capital Doha from the same date. This will increase the airline’s total number of flights per week to Middle Eastern destinations from 197 to 201.

“Despite the global downturn the Middle East continues to see positive growth across the aviation sector and continues to be one of our most important markets.,” Ahmed Khoory, Emirates' senior vice president commercial operations, Gulf, Middle East and Iran, said.

“Since the beginning of the year we have increased services across the Middle East four times, with an additional 27 flights added since January, highlighting our commitment to the Middle East and to offering our passengers the best possible connectivity,” he said.

The additional flights will be serviced by an Airbus A330, the firm said in a statement.

Once operational, the extra flights will take the carrier’s total weekly flights to Amman to 17 and Doha to 35.

Source: Arabian Business.
Link: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/574539-emirates-increases-amman-doha-services.

Poland To Ban Communist Symbols

Reforming Poland's hate-crime legislation may mean criminalizing communism. An amendment to the criminal code awaiting the president's signature would ban a broad category of communist symbols. Left-wing politicians say the law does more to violate human rights than protect them.

Poland is on the verge of banning communist symbols in a change to the country's penal code that could make everything from the hammer and sickle and red star to Che Guevara t-shirts illegal.

The amendment would adjust the country's hate-crime legislation to criminalize the "production, distribution, sale or possession ... in print, recordings or other means of fascist, communist or other symbols of totalitarianism." The punishment could be a fine or up to two years in prison. Exceptions could be made for artistic, educational, collecting or research purposes.

Elzbieta Radziszewska, the Polish government's special representative for equal rights issues and a member of the country's ruling Civic Platform (PO) party, proposed the changes to the law in the spring. It has enjoyed broad support from other Civic Platform politicians as well as members of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which includes Polish President Lech Kaczynski. The two parties control 375 of the 460 seats in the Polish parliament.

The amendment would beef up an existing hate-crime law that banned "public propagation of fascist and other totalitarian systems." Similar bans on symbols of the Nazi era exist elsewhere in Europe, including Germany, but the breadth of Poland's law - and its application to symbols of communism - is unusual.

'Communism Comparable to Nazism'

When the changes to the law were passed by the Polish parliament in early November, Jaroslaw Kaczynski - the president's twin brother and head of the Law and Justice party - spoke strongly in support of it. "Communism was a genocidal system that led to the murder of tens of millions of people," said PiS head Jaroslaw Kaczynski. "No symbol of communism has a right to exist in Poland, because these are symbols of a genocidal system that should be compared to German Nazism."

The law's critics say the word "symbol" leaves the law broad to the point of absurdity, making everything produced during Poland's more than 50 years under communist rule potentially illegal, from popular communist-era movies and TV shows to the iconic Palace of Culture, a Stalinist behemoth built in 1955 that towers over central Warsaw.

"It's just a silly thing," Tadeusz Iwinski, a parliamentarian from the left-wing Polish Social Democratic party who opposes the change, told Spiegel Online. "What does it mean, 'symbol'? Does that mean when government officials go to China and make pictures under the banner of the Communist Party they are breaking the law?"

The amendment has already been approved by the Polish Senate, and still needs the signature of the Polish president. President Kaczynski has until Monday, Nov. 30 to sign off on the penal code amendments. Iwinski says if the law goes into effect - it's part of a larger bill including other changes to the nation's penal code - it will likely be struck down at the European level.

Handcuffed for a Red Star

There is, in fact, a clear precedent from Hungary, where symbols of communism like the hammer and sickle and red star - along with the swastika - have been banned as "symbols of tyranny" since 1994. In 2003, Hungarian politician Attila Vajnai was arrested, handcuffed and fined for wearing a red star on his lapel during a demonstration.

Vajnai appealed his sentence all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, which decided last year that the ban was a violation of the freedom of expression, calling the Hungarian ban "indiscriminate" and "too broad."

"Merely wearing the red star could lead to a criminal sanction and no proof was required that the display of such a symbol amounted to totalitarian propaganda," the court ruled. "Uneasiness alone, however understandable, could not set the limits of freedom of expression."

Right-wing Polish politicians are also pushing for a law that would force local authorities to re-name street signs and buildings bearing the names of communists.

US headache over Afghan deserters

By Gareth Porter
Nov 26, 2009

WASHINGTON - One in every four combat soldiers quit the Afghan National Army (ANA) during the year ending in September, published data by the US Defense Department and the Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan reveals.

That high rate of turnover in the ANA, driven by extremely high rates of desertion, spells trouble for the strategy that US President Barack Obama has reportedly decided on, which is said to include the dispatch of thousands of additional US military trainers to rapidly increase the size of the ANA.

US officials have for years touted the ANA as a success story. General Stanley A McChrystal, the top US soldier in Afghanistan, called in his August 2009 strategy paper for increasing the ANA to 134,000 troops by October 2010 and eventually to 240,000.

But an administration source, who insisted on speaking without attribution because of the sensitivity of the subject, confirmed to Inter Press Service (IPS) that 25% has been used as the turnover rate for the ANA in internal discussions, and that it is regarded by some officials as a serious problem.

The 35,000 troops recruited in the year ending September 1 is the highest by the ANA in any year thus far, but the net increase of 19,000 troops for the year is 33% less than the 26,000 net increases during both of the previous two years.

Those figures indicate that the rate of turnover in the ANA is accelerating rather than slowing down. That acceleration could increase further, as the number of troops whose three-year enlistment contracts end rises rapidly in the next couple of years.
Meanwhile, the Defense Department (DoD) sought to obscure the problem of the high ANA turnover rate in its reports to the US Congress on Afghanistan in January and June 2009, which avoided the issues of attrition and desertion entirely.

Instead, they referred to what the DoD calls the "AWOL" [absent without leave] rate in the ANA, which measures those unavailable for duty but still in the army. It claimed in June that the AWOL rate was 9% through May 2009, compared with 7% in 2008.

The reports also confused the question of turnover in the ANA by using questionable accounting methods in the DoD's reporting on monthly changes in personnel. It provided figures for total ANA personnel in 2009 showing an increase from 66,000 in September 2008 to 94,000 in September 2009.

Those figures made it appear that ANA manpower increased by 28,000 during the year. But nearly half the increase turns out to be accounted for by a decision on the part of the US command responsible for tracking ANA manpower to change what was being measured.

Previously, the total had included only those who had been trained and assigned to a military unit. But in late September 2008, the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) started counting 12,000 men who had not previously been considered as part of the ANA.

In response to a query from IPS, Sergeant Grady L Epperly, chief of media relations for CSTC-A, acknowledged that the US command had abruptly changed what it included in its overall strength figures for the Afghan army in late September 2008.

"The way numbers were reported was switched from reporting only operational forces to including all soldiers, officers and civilians, regardless of training status and command," Epperly wrote in an e-mail.

The graphs in the DoD reports of January and June 2009 are still identified as "Afghan National Army Trained and Assigned". But the text of the report reveals that the personnel totals shown on the graph were no longer for the ANA but for the Ministry of Defense.

That meant that the totals included for the first time those still in training, including even high school cadets, and others not assigned to any unit.

That deceptive accounting change obscured the fact that the total number of personnel assigned to ANA units in September 2009 was actually 82,000 rather than the 94,000 shown, and that the increase in ANA personnel over the year was only 16,000 rather than 28,000.

Using the corrected totals for changes in personnel during the year, the 25% turnover rate for ANA combat troops can be calculated from the available data on recruitment and the breakdown between combat and non-combat troops. [1]

ANA turnover as a proportion of ANA combat troops is a more significant indicator of instability than turnover as a proportion of all personnel, because there is little or no desertion and far higher reenlistment rates in non-combat jobs. ANA non-combat personnel totals also include thousands of civilians.

The impact of the 25% combat troop turnover rate on the ANA is actually more acute than it would appear, because of the high absenteeism rate in the ANA. A Government Accountability Office report revealed that, as of February 2008, out of 32,000 combat troops on the rolls, only 26,000 were available for duty - a 19% absenteeism rate.

Assuming that same rate of absenteeism remained during the past year, the number of ANA combat troops actually available for duty increased only by about 9,000 from 37,000 to 46,000.

As serious as the turnover rate was in 2009-2009, turnover in the first two or three years of the ANA was much worse. ANA recruitment and reenlistment figures show that 18,000 of the first 25,000 troops recruited from 2003 to 2005 deserted.

That desertion rate prompted analysts at the US Army Center for Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to conclude that the ANA would not be able to grow beyond 100,000, according to an article in the current issue of Military Review, published at the same army base.

The authors, Chris Mason and Thomas Johnson, both of whom have had extensive experience in Afghanistan, write that that the analysts at the Army Center concluded that by the time the ANA got to 100,000 troops, its annual losses from desertions and attrition would roughly equal its gains from recruitment.

The Center for Lessons Learned refused to confirm or deny those assertions. When asked about the assertion in the Military Review article, an official of the Center for Lessons Learned, operations officer Randy Cole, refused to comment except to refer IPS to the authors of the article.

Note
1. The turnover rate in any organization in a given time period is the total number of personnel who quit the organization divided by the total number who belonged to the organization during that period.

The ANA recruited 35,000 men from September 2008 through August 2009, according to quarterly reports issued by the Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan and semi-annual DoD reports. With 66,000 as the personnel base for the year beginning September 2008, the total number of personnel in the organization for the year was 101,000.

The difference of 19,000 between the 35,000 recruited and the 16,000 net increase in personnel during the period represents total turnover from a combination of attrition - soldiers who do not reenlist after their three-year contracts have expired - and desertion.

The 19,000 turnover is 19% of the total of 101,000 men who belonged to the ANA during the year ending September 2009.

However, the more meaningful measure of turnover is the percentage of combat troops who left the ANA.

The total number of combat troops increased only from 46,000 to 58,000 during the year ending in September for an increase of 12,000, according to the official published data.

Four thousand of the new 35,000 new recruits either went into non-combat units or were not assigned, leaving 31,000 recruits who were assigned to combat units.

The difference between the 31,000 recruits assigned to combat units and the 12,000 increase in combat troops, representing the turnover of ANA combat troops, is 19,000. That 19,000-man total turnover was 25% of the 77,000 total ANA troops assigned to combat units during the year (46,000 plus 31,000).

Source: Asia Times.
Link: http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KK26Df01.html.

India wants offensive against Taliban to continue

India Wednesday said it wants the US-led military offensive against the Taliban to continue in Afghanistan.

Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told the Lok Sabha that New Delhi wants the pressure on Taliban and other insurgent groups 'should not be eased'.

The minister was replying to a question on India's stand on the presence of US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Tharoor also said that Afghanistan supported India's role in re-building the war-torn nation. He said that opinion polls by various agencies has proved that 'our efforts are appreciated and acknowledged by the people of Afghanistan'.

Tharoor said India was waiting for the conclusion of the investigation by the Afghan agencies on the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed 13 people in October.

The minister said that for the government each Indian life was precious.

Iran's Ahmadinejad in Venezuela on official visit

CARACAS : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Caracas for a meeting with President Hugo Chavez, just hours after the Iranian leader stopped in La Paz for a meeting with the Bolivian leader.

Ahmadinejad and Chavez, two outspoken anti-American leaders from major oil producing countries, will meet Wednesday with the goal of increasing bilateral cooperation, officials said.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro welcomed Ahmadinejad at the airport, an AFP photographer reported.

An advance gathering of Iranian businessmen representing 70 companies prepared the ground in Venezuela's capital Caracas on Monday for trade discussions.

"We have a solid foundation, a solid base that we have created over this decade in our relationship, and it shows how false are the attacks of the world empire," Maduro said Monday, referring to the United States in comments broadcast by state television network VTV.

Venezuela's Jewish community expressed displeasure over Ahmadinejad's visit, issuing a statement calling the Iranian leader an "ominous" person who, if not stopped, "could cause serious harm to humanity."

His visit "gives legitimacy to a regime about which there are serious doubts over its transparency and legality," the group said.

Earlier Tuesday Ahmadinejad was in La Paz, where he met close Chavez ally President Evo Morales. The two issued a joint statement on the right of all nations to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful ends.

On the second leg of a Latin America tour of three leftist nations sympathetic to his administration, Morales welcomed Ahmadinejad at the La Paz international airport with full military honors.

A small group of feminists protested Iran's treatment of women in front of the presidential palace, as the two leaders held talks.

In a joint press conference after their meeting, Morales and Ahmadinejad expressed their alliance against "imperialism," meaning the United States.

Ahmadinejad told his host that despite the obstacles raised by imperialism "and our enemies, collaboration between our two countries grows day by day."

Morales said: "It's my experience that imperialism stifles development."

The two presidents signed a joint statement "recognizing the legitimate right of all countries to use and develop nuclear energy for peaceful ends, within the framework of international rights."

In this manner, Bolivia implicitly supported Iran's quest for nuclear energy, which many in the international community believe really masks a desire for nuclear weapons.

The leaders also signed a deal increasing Iran's involvement in mining research in Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, a vast salt desert near the Chilean border that holds half the world's known reserves of lithium -- a key mineral used in rechargeable batteries for cell phones, laptops and electric cars.

French, Japanese and South Korean companies are competing to invest in the area, estimated to contain up to 100 million tons of lithium.

Ahmadinejad began his itinerary on Monday in Brazil, where his host President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reiterated support for Iran's nuclear program. Lula however also urged his Iranian counterpart to pursue talks with Western countries.

Tehran should "continue contacts with interested countries for a just and balanced solution on the nuclear issue in Iran," said Lula, a moderate leftist in command of Latin America's biggest economy.