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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Larijani says human rights used as political tool

Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Saturday that the issue of human rights is being used as political leverage by world powers.

In a meeting with the Congolese Parliament speaker, Larijani said outrageous actions by the United States Army personnel in Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons have never been condemned by human rights organizations.

The remarks came after the powers, in a recent meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, accused Iran of human rights abuse in the country.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary general of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, told the council that the country is an open democracy where free speech and justice are guaranteed.

"Iran is becoming one of the prominent democratic states in the region," he said.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119087§ionid=351020101.

Hezbollah warns of terrorist tourists after Dubai hit

After the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai, Hezbollah issues an alert against disguised entry of terrorists into Lebanon.

The Lebanese resistance movement's Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem urged vigilance against the terrorists who would attempt to clear the Lebanese customs using forged European passports.

Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his room in a Dubai hotel on January 20, a day after arriving in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Dubai Police issued arrest warrants for 11 suspects, including 10 men and a woman, declaring that the passports used by the terror suspects to enter the UAE had been issued in European countries.

Most recently, Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said new evidence, including credit card payments and phone calls made by the suspects, confirmed the involvement of the Israeli Spy Agency, Mossad, in Mabhouh's terror operation.

Qassem also reiterated that with Mossad's role out in the open, the countries whose passports had been used to aid in the terror attack would now have to respond to some serious questions.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119086§ionid=351020203.

Egyptians urge ElBaradei's presidential bid

Sat Feb 20, 2010

The retired former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, has arrived in Egypt with a bid to seek constitutional changes that would allow him to run for the 2011 presidential election.

A host of supporters greeted the Nobel Peace laureate, who stepped down as the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in November, upon his arrival in Cairo on Friday.

On the eve of his return, the 67-year-old said he planned to dedicate himself to improving democracy in the country.

ElBaradie was the director general of the IAEA for 12 years and is officially barred from entering as a presidential candidate by the current Egyptian law, which permits only 'leading politicians' with one year experience in a party that has been in existence for fives years.

He has called for political reforms in Egypt that would limit the powers of the leader, a challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule.

International observers, however, believe that the 81-year-old Mubarak is preparing to set the stage for handing power over to his son, Gamal.

Just before his retirement, ElBaradei conditioned any interest in a presidential candidacy on guarantees of a free and fair election, which would depend on constitutional reforms in Egypt, something that is deemed highly unlikely given the autocratic nature of the US-backed regime.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/119085.html.

Iran for stability in Caucasus

Iran's Parliament speaker said Saturday Tehran would do its utmost to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan which is being claimed by Armenia.

Ali Larijani said establishing peace and security in the region is Iran's strategic policy and the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute can be resolved through more cooperation between regional countries.

Larijani made the comments during a meeting with his Azeri counterpart, Ogtay Asadov, in Tehran.

Asadov later met with the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, who called for more cooperation between regional countries and accused the West of fomenting discord in the region.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119080§ionid=351020101.

America and Britain at the London Conference Fight each other over their own interests to gain stronghold on the land of Yemen!

On the pretext of studying the situation in Yemen and to assist it in emerging out from its crisis, the British Prime Minister called on 1st January, 2010 for a conference in London…which was held today evening i.e. 27th January, 2010 attended by 21 countries and lasting two hours! Resolutions and communiqués were issued with regard to supporting Yemen in its war against al-Qaeda, including developmental assistance and the implementation of the Economic and political reforms program as well as talks with the International Monetary Fund and progress on the comprehensive interests…

An observer on the recent events and the current situation in Yemen fully appreciates that these resolutions are merely a superficial shine that camouflages the real resolutions and the actual effective resolutions, and he is aware of that these countries that exercise wide ranging and far reaching hegemony over Yemen and they have their interests and agenda for organizing the conference and expect certain results from it…

Ever since Britain consolidated its influence in Yemen and until today especially under the present regime, the United States has been making attempts to de-stabilise the situation and impose its old views in a new form since the US regards itself to be natural successor to the age-old ancient British Empire and thus considers itself as it as her right to exercise influence over the former colonies of the old and infirm British Empire. Thus it sees itself as the rightful master of Yemen instead of Britain. It is another matter that the present Yemeni regime is, or almost a political protégé and loyal to America: it kills whom America wants to be killed, detains whomever America wants arrested, exiles whomever the US wants it to exile and even make them disappear if the US so wishes…The United States has no such powerful politicians in Yemen whom it can support as its top leadership to hold grip of power in Yemen and clip the wings of British influence and consolidate its own stronghold over it. Due to this, the United States has focused on two tracts:

Threat-battalions meant to warn the Yemeni regime and secondly training the middle level political leadership or the “Minors” who are pro-US.

As far as the ‘Threat-battalions’ are concerned, Iran is assigned the task of supporting the Houthis, this has become like a timed bomb that can be exploded whenever required in the Northern Yemen in close proximity to the Saudi Arabia…We have referred to the Houthis as the ‘Threat-battalion’ because they are not mobilising to acquire power over Yemen, rather, the Houthis are working to secure a powerful position for themselves in their region.

As far as the ‘Training battalions’, or the middle level pro-US politicians are concerned, it is a continuous movement in the South of Yemen in order to separate it from the North as a first step of the US agenda and then spread its stronghold over the entire Yemen subsequently. We have referred to them as the ‘Training battalions’ because the middle level politicians who are agitating in the South are being developed and groomed for agitations…after their top level effective leadership was eliminated.

The United States succeeded on both of its tracts because it exploited on the regime’s oppression in the South and marginalised the regime politically, and then the Houthis were prevented from performing the Shara’ii commands in accordance with their understanding and adoption of the Islamic thoughts. It is for this reason that the ruling regime agreed and cooperated in not implementing the Shara’ii commands in a proper manner in Yemen. The Yemeni regime co-acted to create a soft and acceptable atmosphere that enabled the US to spread its ‘threat battalions’ to the northern Yemen and the ‘Training-battalions’ to the southern part and this so overwhelmed the regime that it was forced by Britain to take ‘emergency’ action on two fronts:

First: Instigating the United States through a security agreement with it in order to please them and earn their silent acceptance of the regime. Yemen reached a security and military agreement with the US after talks between their military and security leaderships, which were held in Sana’a on 10th and 11th of November 2009 C.E. This agreement calls for military and security cooperation and exchange of information and expertise in both the sectors. The announcement of this agreement was made after the discussions were held between the Chief of Staff of the Yemeni forces Brigadier General Ahmed Ali al-Ashowl and the Director, Planning in the US Joint Command Geoffrey Smith…

Secondly: Taking on al-Qaeda and fighting it! The al-Qaeda men were known to the regime for quit sometime, but it remained silent over their presence because it did not want to open another front to fight with and adding to its woes of fighting the Houthis and the Southerners. That was until Britain saw it otherwise, since it is aware that the US is sensitive with respect to al-Qaeda and if Yemen is seen to be fighting it, the US will be forced to support and assist Yemen and loosen the pressure in the North and the South. Thus the Yemeni regime started to attack the al Qaeda bases that it had known well. It was known that this attack on al-Qaeda was not by chance, but it was rather extra ordinary, the Yemeni state was engaged on two fronts: the North (Houthis) and the South, hence it was extra-ordinary that it opened a third front, which was a political move with military overtones and it was solely due to the British influence and agenda!

It was at this specific crucial point, the British Prime Minister called the London Conference in order to mobilise and provide global support to Yemen to attack and fight al-Qaeda and stand by it, and also thus force the US to support the Yemen regime and reduce pressure on it in the North and the South. America had no option but to support this conference. But at the same time, the US looking to establish its own consolidation and strengthen its political allies especially in the South, and also achieve such a solution for the Houthi movement that allows them to move away from thee Houthis without renouncing them so that it remains alive to be exploited and sparked when the need so demands.

Happenings at the Conference: The United States focused on the military and logistical support in order to fight al-Qaeda and pressurise the Yemeni regime to negotiate with the movements in the North and the South. While Britain was focused on the economic assistance and enlisting international support for Yemen in its struggle against the movements in the North and the South as well as monitoring the al-Qaeda issue in supporting Yemen against the Houthis and the Southerners! Therefore the conference was nothing more than its two hours of the representatives of various countries smiling broadly in front of the cameras and then both Britain and the US assembled with their own set of allies from among the participating countries in order to achieve their own agendas at the cost of blood of the Yemeni people!

Oh Muslims! Until when will the Muslims lands remain the fighting ground for the big warring nations and exploit & embroil the local sons of the soil in their own fight? Until when will the Muslim lands remain the playground for the West while they rob and pilfer their wealth and spill Muslim blood? Until when will the fires of West burn in the Muslim lands at their will and whim? Until when the rulers of Yemen and other Muslim lands be used as the pawns of the chessboard and stooges of the colonialist West without remorse, recourse and retaliation? Has the time not come for the people of Yemen to understand and realise that their regime and its oppressions enable the warring nations of the West to play their agenda in the Yemeni lands and kill its people and devastate its property and yet the rulers are not concerned with anything other than saving their own power and position even if such positions are highly compromised and weakened to such an extent that they have become vulnerable and fit to fall any time!

Tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands have been killed or maimed during the wars in Yemen over the last decades…, and the victims of all this devastations have been Muslims on both the sides who testified to the two oaths, Do you not realise that fighting Muslims is a very grave and major sin and the unjust killing of a Muslim is a very serious matter in the eyes of Allah (swt), it is even bigger than demolishing the Ka’bah?! Ibn Majah narrated on the authority of ‘Abdullah ibn Omar (r.a):

«مَا أَطْيَبَكِ وَأَطْيَبَ رِيحَكِ مَا أَعْظَمَكِ وَأَعْظَمَ حُرْمَتَكِ وَالَّذِي نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍ بِيَدِهِ لَحُرْمَةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ أَعْظَمُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ حُرْمَةً مِنْكِ مَالِهِ وَدَمِهِ وَأَنْ نَظُنَّ بِهِ إِلَّا خَيْرًا»

‘Abdullah ibn Omar (r.a) said: I saw the Prophet (saw) doing the Tawaf of the Ka’bah while saying:”How sweet/good you are, and how sweet is your scent (smell). How great you are and how great is your sanctity. By the One who has the soul of Muhammad (saw) in His hands, the sanctity of a believer is greater than your sanctity and his blood (life) and his wealth is greater than yours. And I perceive him not except good about him.

Indeed, Britain and the US are fighting each other and exploiting the local elements with full cooperation and logistical support of the Yemeni regime itself, while the separatists of the South and the Houthis are blindly towing the enemy line in the South and the North. Yet the perpetrators of such crimes think well of their actions!

O Muslims! Our problems are two-folds:

First: The rulers in the Muslim lands do not care not take care of their people, they have no fear of Allah (swt), neither for their acts of oppression against their people nor against their lands! If they were thinking, they would understand that a ruler who cheats on his people and does not look after them, will neither enter Jannah nor even smell it, Bukhari narrates that the Prophet (saw) said:

«مَا مِنْ وَالٍ يَلِي رَعِيَّةً مِنْ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَيَمُوتُ وَهُوَ غَاشٌّ لَهُمْ إِلَّا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ الْجَنَّةَ»

There is no governor/wali who takes charge of Muslims and dies cheating them, except that Allah prohibits him paradise.

And when such rulers happen to cheat and betray their own people, turn truth into falsehood and portray falsehood as the truth and betray the trust of the people?! He is like a shepherd who drives his own herd to the brink of death and destruction, Imam Ahmad narrates that the Prophet (saw) said:

«إِنَّهَا سَتَأْتِي عَلَى النَّاسِ سِنُونَ خَدَّاعَةٌ يُصَدَّقُ فِيهَا الْكَاذِبُ وَيُكَذَّبُ فِيهَا الصَّادِقُ وَيُؤْتَمَنُ فِيهَا الْخَائِنُ وَيُخَوَّنُ فِيهَا الْأَمِينُ وَيَنْطِقُ فِيهَا الرُّوَيْبِضَةُ قِيلَ وَمَا الرُّوَيْبِضَةُ قَالَ السَّفِيهُ يَتَكَلَّمُ فِي أَمْرِ الْعَامَّةِ»

There will come upon people years of deceit in which the liar will be believed, the truthful disbelieved, the treacherous will be trusted and the trustworthy held to be treacherous, and the despicable (Ruwaibidah) will speak out. It was said: Who are the despicable ones? He (saw) said: “The lowy, ignoble man.”

Second: Our second problem is the silence of the Ummah over the oppressive rulers and does not stand up to confront them or stop them. This is despite the humiliation that the rulers have brought to bear upon the Ummah…we have lost Palestine, Kashmir, Cyprus, East Timor and so on… then Sudan is on the brink of separation, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Yemen has been turned into an arena for the conflict of the West where the rulers are the tools and allies of the warring West…It is no surprise that punishment may follow and bring with it hardships, not merely for the rulers, but the people who have accepted the oppression with their silence, Allah (swt) says:

{وَاتَّقُوا فِتْنَةً لَا تُصِيبَنَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنْكُمْ خَاصَّةً وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ}

“And fear the Fitnah (affliction and trial) which affects not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong (but it may afflict all the good and the bad people), and know that Allâh is Severe in punishment.”

[TMQ 08:25]

Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawood have narrated that the Prophet (saw) said:

«إِنَّ النَّاسَ إِذَا رَأَوْا الْمُنْكَرَ بَيْنَهُمْ فَلَمْ يُنْكِرُوهُ يُوشِكُ أَنْ يَعُمَّهُمْ اللَّهُ بِعِقَابِهِ»

Indeed when people see evil taking place among them and yet do not confront it, then is the time Allah is most likely to send His punishment over all of them.

O Muslims! The dawn is nearing and can be seen by anyone with a good sight. The situation will only be rectified exactly on the same lines, as was the case with the first generation of Islam: The Khilafah on the model of the Prophet (saw) who would rule by what Allah (swt) has revealed, and would fight in His path, where the ruler is the Khaleefah behind whom the Muslims fight and protect themselves. It is the shield that protects its people and advises it soundly. Then America and Britain and others like them from among thekafir colonialists will not have the time and opportunity to fight us and our lands and establish their influence over it since they will be preoccupied with withdrawing and rushing back to their lands. But they will not be able to ‘escape’ from the light of Islam because Islam would spread and reach close to their lands!

{وَاللَّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَى أَمْرِهِ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ .}

“And Allâh has full power and control over His Affairs, but most of men know not.”

[TMQ: 12:21]



Hizb ut-Tahrir

12th Safar, 1431 A.H

27th January 2010 C.E

Berlin protest against NATO presence in Afghanistan - Summary

Berlin - Around 1,500 people from across Germany demonstrated in Berlin on Saturday against NATO's military presence in Afghanistan. The protesters, summoned by the Left Party and various peace groups, met to march on the Reichstag - the seat of parliament - and the Brandenburg gate in central Berlin.

Church critic Eugen Drewermann called for troops to leave Afghanistan immediately during an address to the demonstrators.

"We are not chasing the terrorists - we are the terrorists in Afghanistan," Drewermann said, calling upon German soldiers to follow some of their American counterparts and reject the order to kill. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle issued a warning to the demonstrators, telling them not to be "naive."

If international troops withdrew and left Afghanistan to its own resources, there would be no new wells and no girls would attend school, Westerwelle said in a statement, adding that withdrawal would be a "significant threat" to European security.

On Friday, the German parliament is to vote on government plans to increase the country's troop contingent in Afghanistan by up to 850 soldiers, to a total of 5,350.

Most Green Party members intended to abstain from the vote, the party's deputy parliamentary leader Frithjof Schmidt told German Press Agency dpa.

The Greens were still in favor of a "stabilization mission," Schmidt said, but added that there were a "series of unclear issues and inconsistencies," contained within the new mandate.

The parliamentary majority for Chancellor Angela Merkel's center- right government is expected to be sufficient for the bill to pass into law.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/310346,berlin-protest-against-nato-presence-in-afghanistan--summary.html.

African Union suspends Niger after coup

Nairobi/Niamey, Niger (Earth Times) - The African Union has suspended Niger and imposed sanctions on the West African nation in the wake of a coup that toppled power-hungry president Mamadou Tandja. Dissident soldiers stormed the presidential palace on Thursday afternoon and arrested Tandja, 71, whose attempts to cling to power beyond his second term have been blamed for the coup.

The AU announced the suspension following a Friday meeting of the body's peace and security council in Addis Ababa and said it would help the nation return to constitutional order...

Iran blames foreign powers for region's crises

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili slams the interference of foreign powers in the region intent on imposing their own interests.

"Their interference is not aimed at establishing security and resolving crises," said Jalili in a meeting with Azerbaijan's parliament speaker Ogtay Asadov in Tehran on Saturday.

"Developing cooperation and security bonds between regional countries will be the most appropriate solution to ongoing woes," he added.

Jalili, who is also the representative of the Leader in the council, questioned policies of global powers in Afghanistan and said, "Ten years after the country's occupation, security has not been established for the Afghan people, while the cultivation and smuggling of narcotics have climbed."

He expressed Iran's readiness to make use of its utmost capabilities to bolster security bonds with regional countries and tighten collective security.

Asadov said, in turn, that strengthening peace and cooperation between countries in the region would serve the interests of all regional states.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119079§ionid=351020101.

Dolphins can develop diabetes like humans

Dolphins are the only animals that can develop type 2 diabetes like humans with the exception that they can switch their condition off, a new study finds.

According to the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, bottlenose dolphins are resistant to insulin, similar to the condition reported in individuals suffering from diabetes.

"The overnight changes in their blood chemistry match the changes in diabetic humans," explained Stephanie Venn-Watson, director of veterinary medicine, adding that dolphins can switch off the condition into a non-fasting state when they have their breakfast in the morning.

Dolphins develop this insulin-resistance condition in order to cope with a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet of fish.

"Bottlenose dolphins have large brains that need sugar," said Venn-Watson, stressing that the switch helps provide the required sugar for the brain when their diet is very low in sugar.

Scientists believe feeding the animals with Twinkies would alter the whole cycle, leading to the development of diabetes.

They hope their findings will help control and switch off diabetes in humans in the near future.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119077§ionid=3510208.

Israel to build wall along Egyptian border

January 11, 2010

Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Israel approved on Sunday the construction of a barrier along its border with Egypt, Israeli media reported on Monday.

"I took the decision to close Israel's southern border to infiltrators and terrorists. This is a strategic decision to secure Israel's Jewish and democratic character," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement.

In recent weeks, the number of African migrants detained by Egypt whilst trying to enter Israel has increased. On Sunday, Egyptian security sources revealed that security forces thwarted two attempts by African migrants to enter Israel through Egypt's Sinai border. Many have been shot dead at the border by Egypt.

"We cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our country with illegal aliens," Netanyahu added.

Israel’s border with Egypt spans approximately 266 kilometers and the new wall is tipped to cost Israel more than 270 million US dollars, taking two years to complete. The new wall will be accompanied by advanced security and monitoring installations.

Egypt’s steel wall

Meanwhile, Egypt began constructing a steel wall along the border that will extend underground in an attempt to cut off a network of smuggling tunnels. The tunnels are a lifeline for Palestinians living under an Israeli-led blockade.

In December, Egyptian government workers constructing the massive metal barrier along the Egypt-Gaza border came under fire from Palestinian gunmen according to Egyptian security sources.

The presence of Gaza’s smuggling tunnels, which were constructed to attempt to ease the ongoing siege, is deemed a focal security concern for both Israel and Egypt.

In part, Israel’s Operation Cast Lead last winter aimed at collapsing and destroying the industry, which the Israeli army has termed "terror tunnels."

Egyptian authorities regularly report shutting down smuggling efforts which include the transfer of cigarettes, bottled water, and fuel into Gaza.

On Friday, following an airstrike, the Israeli army dropped leaflets across southern and northern Gaza, warning residents to "take responsibility for their future."

"Terrorists, tunnel owners, and the smugglers of military equipment know for certain that the continuation of terrorist attacks, the smuggling of military equipment, and the digging of tunnels will be targeted by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], but they continue to work in your residential areas and seek refuge among you," according to the flier, which was written in Arabic.

Israeli airstrikes on the rise in Gaza

Meanwhile, three Palestinians affiliated to the Islamic Jihad movement were killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight in central Gaza. Islamic Jihad leader Khalid Al-Bashta has warned that all signs point to a new Israeli operation in the besieged coastal strip. Israel is seeking international support for such an operation, he claimed.

Netanyahu said in his weekly cabinet meeting that "Last week 20 rockets and mortar rounds were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. I regard this very seriously."

"The IDF responded immediately; it attacked missile producing factories in the Gaza Strip and tunnels through which Iran smuggles missiles and rockets into the Strip. The Government's policy is clear: Any firing at our territory will be responded to strongly and immediately."

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=62048&s2=12.

IOF holding wounded child in shackles

January 11, 2010

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) are holding a Palestinian child in hospital while both his feet and hands are shackled despite the seriousness of his condition, the Palestinian prisoner's association in Al-Khalil reported on Sunday.

It added in a statement that the IOF shot Majed Jaradat, 15, at close range wounding him in the abdomen, hands and feet then took him to Hadassah hospital in a serious condition.

The statement said that Jaradat is held under strict security measures in hospital since his detention on 7/1/2010 and is deprived of family visits.

The association asked human rights groups and the Red Cross to immediately intervene to save the life of the child and to allow his family to visit him.

Meanwhile, the ministry of prisoners in Gaza said in a statement on Sunday that the Gazan prisoner Raed Darabiya, 36, was moved to Ramle prison hospital to undergo his fourth surgery after the deterioration of his health condition.

It said that Darabiya, who is suffering from cancer in his back, underwent four failed surgeries that did not treat his condition properly.

The ministry said that the prisoner is in need of a dangerous surgery that, if failed, could lead to his death or to paralysis.

The ministry said that the Israeli occupation authority is holding 16 Palestinian cancer patients in its jails, and asked the international concerned institutions to pressure the IOA into releasing those prisoners to receive adequate treatment and till then to offer them proper medication to alleviate their horrible pains.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=62049&s2=12.

The Shadow War

Making Sense of the New CIA Battlefield in Afghanistan
By Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse

January 11, 2010

It was a Christmas and New Year’s from hell for American intelligence, that $75 billion labyrinth of at least 16 major agencies and a handful of minor ones. As the old year was preparing to be rung out, so were our intelligence agencies, which managed not to connect every obvious clue to a (literally) seat-of-the-pants al-Qaeda operation. It hardly mattered that the underwear bomber’s case -- except for the placement of the bomb material -- almost exactly, even outrageously, replicated the infamous, and equally inept, "shoe bomber" plot of eight years ago.

That would have been bad enough, but the New Year brought worse. Army Major General Michael Flynn, U.S. and NATO forces deputy chief of staff for intelligence in Afghanistan, released a report in which he labeled military intelligence in the war zone -- but by implication U.S. intelligence operatives generally -- "clueless." They were, he wrote, "ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the powerbrokers are and how they might be influenced... and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers... Eight years into the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. intelligence community is only marginally relevant to the overall strategy."

As if to prove the general’s point, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor with a penchant for writing inspirational essays on jihadi websites and an "unproven asset" for the CIA, somehow entered a key Agency forward operating base in Afghanistan unsearched, supposedly with information on al-Qaeda’s leadership so crucial that a high-level CIA team was assembled to hear it and Washington was alerted. He proved to be either a double or a triple agent and killed seven CIA operatives, one of whom was the base chief, by detonating a suicide vest bomb, while wounding yet more, including the Agency’s number-two operative in the country. The first suicide bomber to penetrate a U.S. base in Afghanistan, he blew a hole in the CIA’s relatively small cadre of agents knowledgeable on al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

It was an intelligence disaster splayed all over the headlines: "Taliban bomber wrecks CIA’s shadowy war," "Killings Rock Afghan Strategy," "Suicide bomber who attacked CIA post was trusted informant from Jordan." It seemed to sum up the hapless nature of America’s intelligence operations as the CIA, with all the latest technology and every imaginable resource on hand, including the latest in Hellfire missile-armed drone aircraft, was out-thought and out-maneuvered by low-tech enemies.

No one could say that the deaths and the blow to the American war effort weren’t well covered. There were major TV reports night after night and scores of news stories, many given front-page treatment. And yet lurking behind those deaths and the man who caused them lay a bigger American war story that went largely untold. It was a tale of a new-style battlefield that the American public knows remarkably little about, and that bears little relationship to the Afghan War as we imagine it or as our leaders generally discuss it.

We don’t even have a language to describe it accurately. Think of it as a battlefield filled with muscled-up, militarized intelligence operatives, hired-gun contractors doing military duty, and privatized "native" guard forces. Add in robot assassins in the air 24/7 and kick-down-the-door-style night-time "intelligence" raids, "surges" you didn’t know were happening, strings of military bases you had no idea were out there, and secretive international collaborations you were unaware the U.S. was involved in. In Afghanistan, the American military is only part of the story. There’s also a polyglot "army" representing the U.S. that wears no uniforms and fights shape-shifting enemies to the death in a murderous war of multiple assassinations and civilian slaughter, all enveloped in a blanket of secrecy.

Black Ops and Black Sites

Secrecy is, of course, a part of war. The surprise attack is only a surprise if secrecy is maintained. In wartime, crucial information must be kept from an enemy capable of using it. But what if, as in our case, wartime never ends, while secrecy becomes endemic, as well as profitable and privitizable, and much of the information available to both sides on our shadowy new battlefield is mainly being kept from the American people? The coverage of the suicide attack on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Chapman offered a rare, very partial window into that strange war -- but only if you were willing to read piles of news reports looking for tiny bits of information that could be pieced together.

We did just that and here’s what we found:

Let's start with FOB Chapman, where the suicide bombing took place. An old Soviet base near the Pakistani border, it was renamed after a Green Beret who fought beside CIA agents and was the first American to die in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. It sits in isolation near the town of Khost, just miles from the larger Camp Salerno, a forward operating base used mainly by U.S. Special Operations troops. Occupied by the CIA since 2001, Chapman is regularly described as "small" or "tiny" and, in one report, as having "a forbidding network of barriers, barbed wire and watchtowers." Though a State Department provisional reconstruction team has been stationed there (as well as personnel from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture), and though it "was officially a camp for civilians involved in reconstruction," FOB Chapman is "well-known locally as a CIA base" -- an "open secret," as another report put it.

The base is guarded by Afghan irregulars, sometimes referred to in news reports as "Afghan contractors," about whom we know next to nothing. ("CIA officials on Thursday would not discuss what guard service they had at the base.") Despite the recent suicide bombing, according to Julian Barnes and Greg Miller of the Los Angeles Times, a "program to hire Afghans to guard U.S. forward operating bases would not be canceled. Under that program, which is beginning in eastern Afghanistan, Afghans will guard towers, patrol perimeter fences and man checkpoints." Also on FOB Chapman were employees of the private security contractor Xe (formerly Blackwater) which has had a close relationship with the CIA in Afghanistan. We know this because of reports that two of the dead "CIA" agents were Xe operatives.

Someone else of interest was at FOB Chapman and so at that fateful meeting with the Jordanian doctor al-Balawi -- Sharif Ali bin Zeid, a captain in the Jordanian intelligence service, the eighth person killed in the blast. It turns out that al-Balawi was an agent of Jordanian intelligence, which held (and abused) torture suspects kidnapped and disappeared by the CIA in the years of George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror. The service reportedly continues to work closely with the Agency and the captain was evidently running al-Balawi. That’s what we now know about the polyglot group at FOB Chapman on the front lines of the Agency’s black-ops war against al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the allied fighters of the Haqqani network in nearby Pakistan. If there were other participants, they weren’t among the bodies.

The Agency Surges

And here’s something that’s far clearer in the wake of the bombing: among our vast network of bases in Afghanistan, the CIA has its own designated bases -- as, by the way, do U.S. Special Operations forces, and according to Nation reporter Jeremy Scahill, even private contractor Xe. Without better reporting on the subject, it’s hard to get a picture of these bases, but Siobhan Gorman of the Wall Street Journal tells us that a typical CIA base houses no more than 15-20 Agency operatives (which means that al-Balawi’s explosion killed or wounded more than half of the team on FOB Chapman).

And don’t imagine that we’re only talking about a base or two. In the single most substantive post-blast report on the CIA, Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times wrote that the Agency has "an archipelago of firebases in southern and eastern Afghanistan," most built in the last year. An archipelago? Imagine that. And it’s also reported that even more of them are in the works.

With this goes another bit of information that the Wall Street Journal seems to have been the first to drop into its reports. While you’ve heard about President Obama's surge in American troops and possibly even State Department personnel in Afghanistan, you’ve undoubtedly heard little or nothing about a CIA surge in the region, and yet the Journal’s reporters tell us that Agency personnel will increase by 20-25% in the surge months. By the time the CIA is fully bulked up with all its agents, paramilitaries, and private contractors in place, Afghanistan will represent, according to Julian Barnes of the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest "stations" in Agency history.

This, in turn, implies other surges. There will be a surge in base-building to house those agents, and a surge in "native" guards -- at least until another suicide bomber hits a base thanks to Taliban supporters among them or one of them turns a weapon on the occupants of a base -- and undoubtedly a surge in Blackwater-style mercenaries as well. Keep in mind that the latest figure on private contractors suggests that 56,000 more of them will surge into Afghanistan in the next 18 months, far more than surging U.S. troops, State Department employees, and CIA operatives combined. And don’t forget the thousands of non-CIA "uniformed and civilian intelligence personnel serving with the Defense Department and joint interagency operations in the country," who will undoubtedly surge as well.

Making War

The efforts of the CIA operatives at Forward Operating Base Chapman were reportedly focused on "collecting information about militant networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and plotting missions to kill the networks’ top leaders," especially those in the Haqqani network in North Waziristan just across the Pakistani border. They were evidently running "informants" into Pakistan to find targets for the Agency’s ongoing drone assassination war. These drone attacks in Pakistan have themselves been on an unparalleled surge course ever since Barack Obama entered office; 44 to 50 (or more) have been launched in the last year, with civilian casualties running into the hundreds. Like local Pashtuns, the Agency essentially doesn’t recognize a border. For them, the Afghan and Pakistani tribal borderlands are a single world.

In this way, as Paul Woodward of the website War in Context has pointed out, "Two groups of combatants, neither of whom wear uniforms, are slugging it out on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Each group has identified what it regards as high-value targets and each is using its own available means to hit these targets. The Taliban/Qaeda are using suicide bombers while the CIA is using Hellfire missiles."

Since the devastating explosion at FOB Chapman, statements of vengeance have been coming out of CIA mouths -- of a kind that, when offered, by the Taliban or al-Qaeda, we consider typical of a backward, "tribal" society. In any case, the secret war is evidently becoming a private and personal one. Dr. al-Balawi’s suicide attack essentially took out a major part of the Agency’s targeting information system. As one unnamed NATO official told the New York Times, "These were not people who wrote things down in the computer or in notebooks. It was all in their heads... [The C.I.A. is] pulling in new people from all over the world, but how long will it take to rebuild the networks, to get up to speed? Lots of it is irrecoverable." And the Agency was already generally known to be "desperately short of personnel who speak the language or are knowledgeable about the region." Nonetheless, drone attacks have suddenly escalated -- at least five in the week since the suicide bombing, all evidently aimed at "an area believed to be a hideout for militants involved." These sound like vengeance attacks and are likely to be particularly counterproductive.

To sum up, U.S. intelligence agents, having lost out to enemy "intelligence agents," even after being transformed into full-time assassins, are now locked in a mortal struggle with an enemy for whom assassination is also a crucial tactic, but whose operatives seem to have better informants and better information.

In this war, drones are not the Agency’s only weapon. The CIA also seems to specialize in running highly controversial, kick-down-the-door "night raids" in conjunction with Afghan paramilitary forces. Such raids, when launched by U.S. Special Operations forces, have led to highly publicized and heavily protested civilian casualties. Sometimes, according to reports, the CIA actually conducts them in conjunction with Special Operations forces. In a recent American-led night raid in Kunar Province, eight young students were, according to Afghan sources, detained, handcuffed, and executed. The leadership of this raid has been attributed, euphemistically, to "other government agencies" (OGAs) or "non-military Americans." These raids, whether successful in the limited sense or not, don’t fit comfortably with the Obama administration’s "hearts and minds" counterinsurgency strategy.

The Militarization of the Agency

As the identities of some of the fallen CIA operatives at FOB Chapman became known, a pattern began to emerge. There was 37-year-old Harold Brown, Jr., who formerly served in the Army. There was Scott Roberson, a former Navy SEAL, who did several tours of duty in Iraq, where he provided protection to officials considered at high risk. There was Jeremy Wise, 35, an ex-Navy SEAL who left the military last year, signed up with Xe, and ended up working for the CIA. Similarly, 46-year-old Dane Paresi, a retired Special Forces master sergeant turned Xe hired gun, also died in the blast.

For years, Chalmers Johnson, himself a former CIA consultant, has referred to the Agency as "the president’s private army." Today, that moniker seems truer than ever. While the civilian CIA has always had a paramilitary component, known as the Special Activities Division, the unit was generally relatively small and dormant. Instead, military personnel like the Army’s Special Forces or indigenous troops carried out the majority of the CIA’s combat missions. After the 9/11 attacks, however, President Bush empowered the Agency to hunt down, kidnap, and assassinate suspected al-Qaeda operatives, and the CIA’s traditional specialties of spycraft and intelligence analysis took a distinct backseat to Special Activities Division operations, as its agents set up a global gulag of ghost prisons, conducted interrogations-by-torture, and then added those missile-armed drone and assassination programs.

The military backgrounds of the fallen CIA operatives cast a light on the way the world of "intelligence" is increasingly muscling up and becoming militarized. This past summer, when a former CIA official suggested the agency might be backing away from risky programs, a current official spit back from the shadows: "If anyone thinks the CIA has gotten risk-averse recently, go ask al-Qaeda and the Taliban... The agency's still doing cutting-edge stuff in all kinds of dangerous places." At around the same time, reports were emerging that Blackwater/Xe was providing security, arming drones, and "perform[ing] some of the agency’s most important assignments" at secret bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It also emerged that the CIA had paid contractors from Blackwater to take part in a covert assassination program in Afghanistan.

Add this all together and you have the grim face of "intelligence" at war in 2010 -- a new micro-brew when it comes to Washington’s conflicts. Today, in Afghanistan, a militarized mix of CIA operatives and ex-military mercenaries as well as native recruits and robot aircraft is fighting a war "in the shadows" (as they used to say in the Cold War era). This is no longer "intelligence" as anyone imagines it, nor is it "military" as military was once defined, not when U.S. operations have gone mercenary and native in such a big way. This is pure "lord of the flies" stuff -- beyond oversight, beyond any law, including the laws of war. And worse yet, from all available evidence, despite claims that the drone war is knocking off mid-level enemies, it seems remarkably ineffective. All it may be doing is spreading the war farther and digging it in deeper.

Talk about "counterinsurgency" as much as you want, but this is another kind of battlefield, and "protecting the people" plays no part in it. And of course, this is only what can be gleaned from afar about a semi-secret war that is being poorly reported. Who knows what it costs when you include the U.S. hired guns, the Afghan contractors, the bases, the drones, and the rest of the personnel and infrastructure? Nor do we know what else, or who else, is involved, and what else is being done. Clearly, however, all those billions of "intelligence" dollars are going into the blackest of black holes.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=62066&s2=12.

Gaza's horror show

By Tayyab Siddiqui

January 8, 2010

A human tragedy of enormous proportions has been continuing over the last year in Gaza, and yet it has not stirred the conscience of the international community and those responsible for global peace. The western media has also been a part of this conspiracy of silence. On Dec 27, some 1,200 international activists from 40 countries gathered in Cairo to enter Gaza to display solidarity with the suffering Palestinians. However, this show of sympathy and support by peace activists is significant only in symbolic terms. International NGOs and UN agencies occasionally raise this issue, but find no resonance because the victims are Palestinian and the oppressor is Israel.

Gaza is a tiny coastal strip of land between Egypt and Israel with 1.5 million inhabitants. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but has retained complete control of the territory by sea, air and land.

On Dec 27, 2008, Israel, in supposed retaliation for rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli territory, unleashed a savage attack that lasted 22 days. The world witnessed the horror show of death and devastation but remained a passive spectator. Nearly 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians including women and children and the elderly, died in the horrific Israeli assault and 5.300 were injured. The international media also reported that an estimated 20,000 houses were destroyed, which left some areas resembling an earthquake zone, and more than 50,000 people were forced to move to temporary shelters. In addition, 48 government offices, 20 mosques and 30 police stations were demolished. Two hundred and nineteen factories were damaged as a result of aerial bombardment, tanks' shelling and armored bulldozers destroying Gaza's productive capacity and completely ruining the territory's economy. The attack inflicted losses to infrastructure totaling half-a-billion dollars.

The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) used toxic ammunition and white phosphorus in violation of international laws on prohibited weapons. As a result, the Gaza Strip is now home to the highest number of disabled people in the world, in terms of population ratio. About four percent of the residents have some form of disability. According to reports, the use of chemical agents has resulted in a high levels of deformed births and miscarriages." The sufferings are compounded by Israel continuing the blockade and non-availability of medicines in the territory.

Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territory, released his report on the first anniversary of the Gaza carnage. He painted a gruesome picture of pain and suffering of civilians in Gaza and strongly urged the lifting of the blockade. There is a continuing breakdown in the electricity and sanitation systems due to absence of spare-parts. Falk asked for consideration of economic sanction against Israel, which continues to defy international will. In a report the UN Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) has also given accounts of the suffering and miseries of the territory's residents, concluding that Gaza has been bombed "back to the Stone Age."

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other UN agencies have documented Israeli violation of the laws of war. The conduct of war and use of phosphorus bombs and 155mm shells against helpless civilians and indiscriminate carpet bombing provides enough evidence for the indictment of former prime minister Ehud Olmert and other perpetrators of the Gaza massacre for war crimes.

In an article in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, Oren Yiftahel, a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, said of the Gaza operation that "it was expected Israel behavior and an extension of Zionist policy that believes in the annihilation of the Palestinian people and erasing their history and existence." Israeli historian Ofer Shelah has said the assault on Gaza was the birth of "a new defensive doctrine for Israel, namely to act as a rogue nation to respond to a source of gunfire with savage and massive military operation, irrespective of the number of causalities."

Israel's acts of genocide and crimes against humanity are reprehensible. Equally unacceptable is the silence and apathy of Muslim governments and the self-styled champions of human rights. Most Muslim countries failed to speak out forcefully against the aggressor, notable exceptions being Turkey, even though it has diplomatic and security relations with Tel Aviv, and Iran. Denouncing the Israeli barbarities in Gaza, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded that Israel be barred from the UN for showing its contempt for the organization. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Islamic countries to "break your silence on the catastrophic events and the massacre taking place in Gaza."

Pakistan foreign policy of late seems to have relegated the questions of Palestine to low priority. The initiative taken by Musharraf in building contacts with Israel has sullied the image of Pakistan, once considered one of the staunchest ally of the Palestinians. This may explain why Pakistan was not invited to summits of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League last year, in which Turkey and Iran participated on special invitation.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference must raise the issue of the Israeli genocide in Gaza in the International Criminal Court. If Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia can be tried on similar charges, why not Israel's leaders? By taking such a symbolic initiative, the OIC can have a semblance of relevance to the Muslim Ummah.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61981&s2=10.

US pushing Pakistan into the abyss of oblivion

By Zafar Bangash

January 7, 2010

We are supposed to hate suicide bombers, those grotesque creatures hell-bent on killing innocent people because of their "demented ideology". There is no shortage of experts delivering sermons from every pulpit pontificating on the evils of terrorism. Government officials and their media sycophants join in this chorus but few bother to ask whence these hateful creatures came? There were no suicide bombers in Pakistan or Afghanistan a mere five years ago. What happened during this period to give birth to the phenomenon of suicide bombings is a question that must be addressed in earnest.

No problem can be tackled or solved properly without understanding its genesis, the circumstances surrounding its emergence and factors that feed its growth. Equally important is the fact that if a particular approach fails to solve the problem, alternatives must be explored.

Pakistan is rapidly hurtling into the abyss of oblivion. Hardly a day passes by without a bomb explosion or suicide bombing in some part of the country. What possible excuse could there be for the murderous attack on a masjid as happened on December 4 that killed more than 40 people in Rawalpindi, we are asked. The coordinated attack by suicide bombers followed by armed men shooting worshippers during Friday prayers when the masjid was full was particularly gruesome. Among those killed were a major general, a brigadier, a colonel, two lieutenant colonels and two majors. Seventeen children were also killed.

Four days later (December 8), the Moon Market in Iqbal Town, Lahore was bombed when it was full of shoppers; 43 people died in that carnage. On December 9 the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) offices in Multan were attacked. Unable to enter the building, the attackers detonated their lethal wares in the nearby building where families of ISI officials live. The car bombing left 12 dead and scores injured. Many more such attacks will occur in the days to come if past experience is anything to go by. The brief hiatus during Eid al-Adha celebrations has been shattered with far greater bloodletting.

Theories abound about the identity of the perpetrators: Taliban, Indian agents, American agents, Afghan agents, Blackwater mercenaries and Mossad. The list is endless. All of them may be involved but how has this situation evolved? Why were there no suicide bombers a mere five years ago; what circumstances led to their emergence and who else is fishing in the troubled waters of Pakistan? Is the US a friend or foe? The people of Pakistan know the answer but Pakistani elites continue to harbor illusions about America's friendship and believe it wants to help Pakistan — presumably over a cliff.

Immediately after the Moon Market bombing in Lahore, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government had evidence that weapons were being smuggled from Afghanistan. Perhaps. Lahore Police chief, Pervez Rathore said India was involved. This may also be true. The Lahore daily, The Nation, reported on December 9 that two vehicles were stopped attempting to enter the restricted area of Lahore Cantonment late at night. The occupants were Americans who refused to show their identity papers or allow the police to search their vehicles. Officials from the US Consulate finally arrived at the scene to get the vehicles and their occupants freed. There is widespread belief that these were Blackwater mercenaries.

Thousands of Blackwater operatives (the organization has now renamed itself Xe Service to hide the criminal past associated with its former name) have descended on Pakistan. They carry prohibited weapons and on numerous occasions have been arrested by the police in suspicious circumstances only to be released on orders of Pakistani government officials. The US embassy in Islamabad has also hired a large number of retired army officers that act like warlords, trying to browbeat the police into submission. Poorly paid and lacking motivation, the police are easily intimidated by ex-army officers who throw their weight about driving in expensive, American-provided vehicles.

Last November, a plane load of Blackwater mercenaries arrived in Pakistan and were immediately whisked through Islamabad International Airport without going through immigration and customs formalities, according to officials at the airport quoted by The Nation newspaper (November 4, 2009). "We had instructions to allow the foreigners entry without custom procedure," officials on duty at Islamabad airport said. Blackwater mercenaries have operated in Pakistan for many years. On several occasions Pakistani police have arrested them at odd hours near Pakistan's nuclear sites or other sensitive installations. Every time ex-army officers working for the US embassy have intervened to secure their release. These former military officers and a long list of bureaucrats, journalists and politicians are on the US embassy payroll and are working directly against the interests of Pakistan.

Former Chief of Army Staff Mirza Aslam Baig has gone so far as to accuse the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf of being complicit in Blackwater crimes. General Baig has said it was Musharraf who gave these mercenaries the green light to carry out terrorist operations in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta. The current civilian rulers, led by Asif Ali Zardari, a venal character and a notorious crook, are in no position to say no to the Americans. Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times reported on August 29, 2009 that the CIA hired these mercenaries for targeted assassinations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as early as 2004. Following a particularly gruesome episode in Baghdad in 2007 in which 17 Iraqis were murdered in cold blood, the Iraqi regime refused to grant the company an "operating license." In a joint piece in the New York Times on December 11, Mazzetti and James Risen shed light on the tight relationship between the CIA and Blackwater. Hired for security duties, Blackwater operatives have indulged in wanton killings in Iraq. In Pakistan, the US hired them for illegal drone attacks as well as targeted killings.

Blackwater mercenaries are only one, even if the major problem facing Pakistan. There are other factors as well behind the escalating mayhem that is rapidly spinning out of control. The root of the problem is the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan that has now spilled over into Pakistan. As a consequence of the US-NATO war and brutality in Afghanistan and the incessant drone attacks, there is great resentment in Pakistan toward the US. With fighting concentrated primarily in the south and southeast of Afghanistan where the Pashtuns reside, mass killings there have aroused much anger among the Pashtuns on the Pakistan side of the border as well.

It was bad enough when the US-NATO forces launched their aerial assault with B-1 bombers in October 2001 killing thousands of people in Afghanistan; the bombing of wedding parties and defenseless villagers in their mud huts in subsequent years has intensified hatred of the US. This has been heightened by the Pakistan military launching operations against its own people in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan, Swat, Bajaur and now in Orakzai Agency. This ongoing painful chapter has contributed greatly to escalating tensions in Pakistan where none existed before, leading to the phenomenon of suicide bombings.

We need to consider the timeline of several events.

Military attacks in North and South Waziristan

Under pressure from the US, the former Pakistani dictator, General Pervez Musharraf ordered military operations against the people of South Waziristan in early 2004. The excuse advanced was that Pakistan had to "flush out" foreign fighters, mainly Uzbeks and Arabs. After several weeks of fighting that left hundreds of villagers dead and thousands as refugees, an agreement was reached with Naik Muhammad, the young charismatic tribal leader in the region. As a gesture of goodwill during a ceremony on April 24, 2004, the tribesmen surrendered their pistols and handed a copy of the Qur'an to the Pakistani general.

The agreement horrified Washington; it did not want peace in the area. On May 21, 2004, Musharraf presided over a high-powered meeting in Islamabad and ordered resumption of attacks. While the Corps Commander Peshawar, in charge of military operations in Waziristan, opposed such attacks and warned against breaking the agreement because it would have serious repercussions for the future, Musharraf was adamant. He insisted on attacking the tribesmen because Washington demanded it. The military relaunched its operations in early June. The US also joined with drone attacks and killed Naik Muhammad with whom the Pakistani military had, only a few weeks earlier, signed a widely publicized peace deal. The people of Waziristan were incensed by such betrayal. In order to protect the US, Musharraf claimed the Pakistan army had carried out the attack that killed Naik Muhammad. More than 15,000 people attended his funeral prayer in defiance of threats that the funeral procession would be bombed.

Between 2004 and 2006, Waziristan — both North and South — became a war zone. The US continued drone attacks killing civilians, mostly women and children. Several ceasefires were agreed upon only to be violated as a result of US pressure or drone attacks. As the attacks continued, there emerged a group calling itself Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Suicide bombings increased in Pakistani cities mainly in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Pakistan army continued attacking its own people while the Americans intensified their demands that Islamabad must "do more".

Lal Masjid attack: July 2007

As if the war in Waziristan that had already spread to other areas of the NWFP and the adjoining tribal areas was not bad enough, Musharraf perpetrated another outrage by attacking the Lal Masjid-madrassa compound in Islamabad in July 2007. Run by two imams, with long ties to the government and several ministers, they became embroiled in a dispute over growing immorality in the capital, especially prostitution. Girl students from the madrassa took it upon themselves to clean up the filth because the government had refused to do so. The girls' action was taken as a great affront by the regime as well as the secular elite. How could government-paid imams demand an end to prostitution when the ruling elites regularly patronize their dens? Several weeks of negotiations between the clerics and government emissaries fell apart because Musharraf did not want a peaceful resolution. He insisted on a military showdown to establish the "government' s writ" and to prove he was in charge. The Americans also demanded crushing the militants.

On July 11, 2007, Musharraf ordered his commandos to attack the Lal Masjid. In the weeklong attack, more than 1,400 students, most of them girls, were brutally murdered. Phosphorous bombs were used to burn people to death. The overwhelming majority of girls belonged to Swat; they were from poor families and had found the madrassa-masjid complex a useful place to educate their daughters and to provide them a roof, being too poor even to feed them (madrassas in Pakistan do not charged fees; Muslim philanthropists often contribute toward such expenses as part of their Islamic duty).

The Lal Masjid attack sent a shockwave throughout the country, particularly in Swat. While the secular elites, including Benazir Bhutto, then still "languishing" in her luxury apartment in London or commuting to her palaces in Dubai, applauded the commando raid and the killing of hundreds of innocent girls, ordinary Pakistanis were horrified. The Americans, too, applauded the killings. The result was catastrophic for Pakistan.

Bombings and suicide attacks immediately escalated. If one can establish a turning point in Pakistan's tortuous history, the Lal Masjid saga must stand out as the one that pushed the country over the brink. Battle lines became so clearly drawn that only the blind could fail to see. The ruling elites have never cared for ordinary people or their children but hitherto it was reflected in lack of services. Now the elites had embarked on a killing spree. The reaction was swift and strong. There has been no turning back since. Soon Musharraf was engulfed in a political crisis that forced him out of office following a British-American brokered deal that facilitated Bhutto's return to Pakistan. Corruption cases against Bhutto, her even more corrupt husband Asif Zardari, and thousands of other thieves and criminals, totaling 8041 people, were withdrawn under what came to be called the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). Critics dubbed it the National Robbers' Ordinance.

Before the January 8, 2008 national elections were held, Benazir Bhutto was shot dead in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. Her death has been engulfed in controversy; few believe the official version that she hit her head on a door handle in the vehicle when she fell down after being hit. There is widespread belief in Pakistan that her husband had a hand in her killing. The street urchin, not fit to be even a doorman, ended up as president of the country and its unfortunate people after Musharraf was forced to resign on August 18, 2008. Musharraf's departure, however, did little to contain the mayhem that was rapidly engulfing the country. More than 100,000 troops were deployed in the tribal area fighting its own people, merely to appease the US.

Attack on Swat

On April 26, 2009, the military attacked Swat. It immediately resulted in more than three million people becoming refugees. In the sweltering heat, people were forced to live in dusty camps in Peshawar, Mardan and Sawabi. There was little or no government help extended to them. Pakistani bureaucrats that had gained notoriety for past corruption were appointed to look after the new refugees referred to as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), stole donations earmarked for refugees. The Swat operation lasted several months. Massive damage was inflicted on major towns in Swat and the surrounding areas; hundreds of young people were executed in cold blood but leaders of the Taliban, against whom the operation was ostensibly launched, were neither captured nor killed. Some have been apprehended but it is widely believed that they are being sheltered by the regime.

On October 17, 2009, the military launched a fresh attack on South Waziristan, again under the rubric of extending "government writ". This strange animal is invoked each time the Americans exert pressure on Pakistan to "do more". While the military has continued to bomb villages in South Waziristan turning it into wasteland driving 500,000 people from their homes, car and suicide bombings have escalated in cities like Kohat, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore and Multan. October was a particularly bad month with attacks on a number of military targets including the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. A number of brigadiers were also killed in Islamabad.

On December 12, 2009, the Pakistan government announced that it was halting military operations in South Waziristan but attacks against Orakzai Agency had already commenced. Long-range artillery batteries placed in Hangu, the district headquarter bordering Orakzai Agency, are being used to fire at villages like Bagh and other places in the tribal area. An estimated 250,000 people, the overwhelming majority women and children, from Orakzai Agency have been forced to flee and are now living in appalling conditions in refugee camps in Hangu. With the onset of winter that is extremely harsh in that region coupled with lack of proper shelter and heating facilities as well as lack of food, people's suffering will escalate, as will their resentment to seek revenge for the military's barbarous attacks. Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gailani said this would be a 10-12 year war. He is beginning to sound like American officials.

As US President Barack Obama announced his surge for Afghanistan, he also called upon Pakistan to launch military operations in Baluchistan. Obama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, wants to turn the whole of Pakistan into a war zone. He has threatened to extend drone attacks into Baluchistan as well. The Los Angeles Times reported on December 12 that the US intends to launch drone attacks o the Afghan Taliban Shura's alleged home base in Quetta. Now that would be a real gesture of peace!

When the Pakistan army and American drones kill innocent civilians, it is unrealistic to expect that people will not react. Each killing escalates resentment and stokes the urge to exact revenge, a long-established tradition in that part of the world. Victims have long memories; they do not easily forget their dead no matter how many rhetorical phrases are hurled at them. If for 3,000 American deaths on 9/11, the US can attack two countries and murder more than 1.5 million people, why is it so difficult to understand that other people will feel equally hurt and seek revenge?

The ruling elites in Pakistan should understand that they have aligned themselves with the enemy — the US government — against their own people for a fistful of dollars. They are now enemy agents and therefore, legitimate targets for those who have lost loved ones in the ongoing escalating attacks on their villages where they witnessed their children, mothers or wives blown to pieces. It is not and never was Pakistan's war; it is America's war imposed on Pakistan. And it does not help to prattle about an "extremist ideology" driving people to do crazy things; this is the reaction of very normal, ordinary people. It would be highly abnormal if they did not react this way.

Hamid Mir, the Pakistani journalist recounts the story of a young boy lying in a run-down hospital in Waziristan. The boy who had lost his limbs in a US Drone attack, told Mir that his mother too had died in a similar strike. In her dying moments, she had instructed him to avenge in Islamabad — where the decisions to maim and kill are made — what was done to her in Bajaur. Years later, his older brother was caught in Islamabad attempting to blow himself up in a high-security area.

The Pakistani elites have embarked on a suicidal policy. Their actions can only invite suicide bombers. They have only themselves to blame. History will render a very harsh verdict because they are actively engaged in destroying Pakistan.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61934&s2=08.

Are US Forces Executing Kids in Afghanistan? Americans Don't Even Know to Ask

DAVE LINDORFF

January 4, 2010

The Taliban suicide attack that killed a group of CIA agents in Afghanistan on a base that was directing US drone aircraft used to attack Taliban leaders was big news in the US over the past week, with the airwaves and front pages filled with sympathetic stories referring to the fact that the female station chief, who was among those killed, was the "mother of three children."

But the apparent mass murder of Afghan school children, including one as young as 11 years old, by US-led forces (most likely either special forces or mercenary contractors working for the Pentagon or the CIA), was pretty much blacked out in the American media. Especially blacked out was word from UN investigators that the students had not just been killed but executed, many of them after having first been rousted from their bedroom and handcuffed.

Here is the excellent report on the incident that ran in the Times of London (like Fox News, a Rupert Murdoch-owned publication) on Dec. 31:


Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan civilians, including children

By Jerome Starkey in Kabul

American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.

Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were handcuffed before being killed.

Western military sources said that the dead were all part of an Afghan terrorist cell responsible for manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have claimed the lives of countless soldiers and civilians.

"This was a joint operation that was conducted against an IED cell that Afghan and US officials had been developing information against for some time," said a senior Nato insider. But he admitted that "the facts about what actually went down are in dispute".

The article goes on to say:

In a telephone interview last night, the headmaster [of the local school] said that the victims were asleep in three rooms when the troops arrived. "Seven students were in one room," said Rahman Jan Ehsas. "A student and one guest were in another room, a guest room, and a farmer was asleep with his wife in a third building.

"First the foreign troops entered the guest room and shot two of them. Then they entered another room and handcuffed the seven students. Then they killed them. Abdul Khaliq [the farmer] heard shooting and came outside. When they saw him they shot him as well. He was outside. That’s why his wife wasn’t killed."

A local elder, Jan Mohammed, said that three boys were killed in one room and five were handcuffed before they were shot. "I saw their school books covered in blood," he said.

The investigation found that eight of the victims were aged from 11 to 17. The guest was a shepherd boy, 12, called Samar Gul, the headmaster said. He said that six of the students were at high school and two were at primary school. He said that all the students were his nephews.

Compare this article to the one mention of the incident which appeared in the New York Times, one of the few American news outlets to even mention the incident. The Times, on Dec. 28, focusing entirely on the difficulty civilian killings cause for the US war effort, and not on the allegation of a serious war crime having been committed, wrote:

Attack Puts Afghan Leader and NATO at Odds

By Alissa J. Rubin and Abdul Waheed Wafa

KABUL, Afghanistan — The killing of at least nine men in a remote valley of eastern Afghanistan by a joint operation of Afghan and American forces put President Hamid Karzai and senior NATO officials at odds on Monday over whether those killed had been civilians or Taliban insurgents.

In a statement e-mailed to the news media, Mr. Karzai condemned the weekend attack and said the dead had been civilians, eight of them schoolboys. He called for an investigation.

Local officials, including the governor and members of Parliament from Kunar Province, where the deaths occurred, confirmed the reports. But the Kunar police chief, Khalilullah Ziayee, cautioned that his office was still investigating the killings and that outstanding questions remained, including why the eight young men had been in the same house at the time.

"There are still questions to be answered, like why these students were together and what they were doing on that night," Mr. Ziayee said.

A senior NATO official with knowledge of the operation said that the raid had been carried out by a joint Afghan-American force and that its target was a group of men who were known Taliban members and smugglers of homemade bombs, which the American and NATO forces call improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s.

According to the NATO official, nine men were killed. "These were people who had a well-established network, they were I.E.D. smugglers and also were responsible for direct attacks on Afghan security and coalition forces in those areas," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue.

"When the raid took place they were armed and had material for making I.E.D.’s," the official added.

While the article in the New York Times eventually mentions the allegation that the victims were children, not "men," it nonetheless begins with the unchallenged assertion in the lead that they were "men." There is no mention of the equally serious allegation that the victims had been handcuffed before being executed, and the story leaves the impression, made by NATO sources, that they were armed and had died fighting. There is no indication in the Times story that the reporters made any effort, as the more enterprising and skeptical London Times reporter did, to get local, non-official, sources of information. Moreover, the information claiming that the victims had been making bombs was attributed by Rubin and Wafa, with no objections from their editors in New York, to an anonymous NATO source, though there was no legitimate reason for the anonymity ("because of the delicacy of the situation" was the lame excuse offered)--indeed the use of an anonymous source here would appear to violate the Times’ own standards.

It’s not that in American newsrooms there was no knowledge that a major war crime may have been committed. Nearly all American news organizations receive the AP newswire. Here is the AP report on the killings, which ran under the headline "UN says killed Afghans were students":

The United Nations says a raid last weekend by foreign troops in a tense eastern Afghan province killed eight local students.

The Afghan government says that all 10 people killed in a village in Kunar province were civilians. NATO says there is no evidence to substantiate the claim and has requested a joint investigation.

UN special representative in Afghanistan Kai Eide said in a statement Thursday that preliminary investigation shows there were insurgents in the area at the time of the attack. But he adds that eight of those killed were students in local schools.

Once again, the American media are falling down shamefully in providing honest reporting on a war, making it difficult for the American people to make informed judgements about what is being done in their name.

Let’s be clear here. If the charges are correct, that American forces, or American-led forces, are handcuffing their victims and then executing them, then they are committing egregious war crimes. If they are killing children, they are committing equally egregious war crimes. If they are handcuffing and executing children, the atrocity is beyond horrific. This incident, if true, would actually be worse than the infamous war crime that occurred in My Lai during the Vietnam War. In that case, we had ordinary soldiers in the field, acting under the orders of several low-ranking officers in the heat of an operation, shooting and killing women, children and babies. But in this case we appear to have seasoned special forces troops actually directing the taking captives, cuffing them, herding them into a room, and spraying them with bullets, execution style.

Given the history of the commanding general in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, who is known to have run a massive death squad operation in Iraq before being named to his current post by President Obama, and who is known to have called for the same kind of tactics in Afghanistan, it should not be surprising that the US would now be committing atrocities in Afghanistan. If this is how this war is going to be conducted, though, the US media should be making a major effort to uncover and expose the crime.

On January 1, the London Times’ Starkey, in Afghanistan, followed up with a second story, reporting that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is calling for the US to hand over the people who killed the students. He also quoted a "NATO source" as saying that the "foreigners involved" in the incident were "non-military, suggesting that they were part of a secret paramilitary unit based in the capital" of Kabul. Starkey also quotes a "Western official" as saying: "There’s no doubt that there were insurgents there, and there may well have been an insurgent leader in the house, but that doesn’t justify executing eight children who were all enrolled in local schools."

Good enterprise reporting by the London Times and its Kabul-based correspondent. Silence on these developments in the US media.

Meanwhile, it has been a week now since the New York Times reporters Rubin and Wafa made their first flawed and embarrassingly one-sided report on the incident, and there has been not a word since then about it in the paper. Are Rubin and Wafa or other Times reporters on the story? Will there be a follow-up?

On the evidence of past coverage of these US wars and their ongoing atrocities by the Times and by other major US corporate media news organizations, don’t bet on it. You’ll do better looking to the foreign media for real information about a story like this.

By the way, given that we’re talking the allegation of a serious war crime here, it is important to note that, under the Geneva Conventions, it is a legal requirement that the US military chain of command immediately initiate an official investigation to determine whether such a crime has occurred, and if so, to establish who was responsible and bring them to justice. One would hope that the commander in chief, President Obama, would order such an inquiry.

Any effort to prevent such an inquiry, or to cover up a war crime, would be a war crime in itself. We just had one administration that did a lot of that. We don’t need another one.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61819&s2=06.

PFLP: Peace talks are an 'endless maze'

January 3, 2010

Gaza – Ma’an – The Leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on Sunday denounced what it said was international pressure on Palestinians to resume negotiations with Israel.

"Various pressures the Palestinians are trying to drag them again to the fruitless maze of negotiations and to go chasing the illusion of misleading American and Israeli solutions," the PFLP said in a statement issued from its offices in Gaza.

The secular PFLP has joined Islamists historically in opposing the peace process with Israel, which it sees as slanted toward coaxing Palestinians to make more concessions.

The group called on the international community, "if they are interested in justice and peace, to move responsibly and urgently to lift the siege of Gaza and rebuild tens of thousands of homes and establishments and release thousands of prisoners from Israeli jails."

The remarks come amid renewed speculation that the Palestinian Authority (PA) could resume negotiations with Israel. News reports late last week said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited President Mahmoud Abbas to a trilateral peace summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Abbas’ spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeina told Ma’an on Friday, however, that the PA had received no invitation to a summit.

The PFLP also warned that Israel’s intention is to impose a Palestinian state with temporary borders through a process of eviscerating Palestinians’ political, geographic and social cohesion.

"Returning to an endless, so-called peace process became an end in itself for US diplomacy," the Front said.

Negotiations, the PFLP said, "will bring more disappointment, loss of dignity and violations of rights."

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61775&s2=04.

Palestine, Forgive Us

Reham Alhelsi

December 31, 2009

Another year is closing and we have not yet liberated you from your usurper. Another year is closing and we have not alleviated your pain and suffering. Another year is closing and your blood, the blood of your children, is still being shed…. your tears, the tears of your children still run… your soul, the souls of your children still scream out for justice. Another year is closing and our land is still desecrated, our people still oppressed, our flag still trampled upon and our unit still broken.

-

Palestine, forgive us;

for forgetting that you are our mother and we your children. Forgive us for forgetting that our unity is what kept us strong, and that we abandoned you the day we chose your killer over our brothers and sisters for the sake of a throne, a red carpet and a fake "Authority". Forgive us for forgetting that we are one and we remain one only through you, that your love was the bond that kept us together. Forgive us for forgetting that there was a time when we stood as one, and had one name: Palestinians. We didn’t call ourselves Muslim nor Christian nor Jew nor Atheist: we were Palestinians. We didn’t call ourselves Fathawi nor Jabhawi nor Hamsawi: we were Palestinians. We didn’t call ourselves local or returnee: we were Palestinians. We didn’t call ourselves moderate or leftist or extremist: we were Palestinians. Forgive us for we stripped ourselves off of the names you gave us, and exchanged "freedom fighter" for "peace activist" and "Palestine" for "Palestinian Territory" and "submission" for "negotiation" and "oppression" for "peace". And for the sake of a throne and a Mercedes we allowed your killers to classify us: "peace activist", "terrorist", "moderate", "extremist". Forgive us Palestine, for their opinion was more important and yours didn’t matter anymore, for it is them who pay and you are the goods to be delivered.

Palestine, forgive us;

for forgetting that you are the first and you are the last, that you are the beginning and you the end, that from you we emerged and that to your bosom we return. You gave us a name, and we used your name to promote ourselves and to build firms and businesses. You gave us a home, and we desecrated it by shaking hands with your usurpers and allowing them into your heart in the name of "peace" and "being moderate". You loved us freely, and we asked for a price for that love so "we can continue our struggle for you". You forgave our falls and our mistakes, but we continue to use your suffering so we can increase our bank accounts, drive a Mercedes and live in a villa.

Palestine, forgive us;

for we exchanged a homeland for a throne. We exchanged your green valleys for the red carpet. We exchanged your flag wrapped around the sacred bodies of your martyred children for an imitation hoisted half mast opposite the gun of an Israeli sniper. We exchanged the fight for freedom for a fight for more "ministers", more "initiatives" and more "road maps", and swore to negotiate, negotiate and negotiate till the last breath of your children, till the last rain drop falls on your fields, till the last poppy blossoms on your hilltops.

Palestine, forgive us;

for we believed in figures and symbols more than we believed in you. We made them our "Gods" and allowed them to guide us from one "process" to another, from one "initiative" to another, from one concession to another and from one catastrophe to another. We made them more important than you. We allowed them to set the criteria for what is to be "Palestine" and what is not to be "Palestine", what is acceptable as form of "resistance" and what is not acceptable as form of "resistance", who is to be our "enemy" and who is to be our "friend", and that for the sake of a president and a cabinet who can’t move an inch without a permit from the Zionist occupation.

Palestine, forgive us;

for we forgot who we are, and what we are. We forgot who you are and what you are. We allow others to speak in our name, be our voice and we forget that you gave birth to Ibrahim Touqan, to Ghassan Kanafani, to Naji Al-Ali, to Mahmoud Darwish and so many others. We allow bias Zionist-run media to talk for us, to talk of us and to use us the way it chooses in return for the fame and publicity that is promised us. We allow them to paint our past, present and future as if we had no saying in it, as if we had no identity. We talk, write and sing of Mohammad Jamjoum, Fu’ad Hijazi and Ata Al-Zeer, of Lina Nabulsi and Dala Al Mughrabi and the thousands of your children whose body is mingled with your sacred earth, but we forget that they remained loyal to you till the last breath, that they chose death over betraying you.

Palestine, forgive us;

for we the children of Canaan allow the Zionists to erase our identity, our history, our roots in the land of Canaan. We allow them to turn your paradise into a desert, we allow them to uproot your ancient olive trees, we allow them to kill your poppies. We stand still while you are being disfigured by distorted structures that are alien to you, while your forests are being destroyed, while your natural wealth is being stolen, while your fields are being razed. The beauty of you that was the scene of our childhood fades away and your body is infected with colonial cancer, and we stand still as it eats your body and console ourselves with the few tiny bits here and there where we are still allowed to touch you.

Palestine, forgive us;

for forgetting your pain and thinking only about our pain, for justifying our acceptance of your desecration and for using your children as excuse for accepting any "peace" that is forced upon us. Forgive us for not wishing to know, for not wishing to acknowledge, that any peace other than a just peace won’t bring a decent life to our children. Forgive us for hiding behind our children, and claiming we want a future for them. Forgive us for choosing to ignore the fact that as long as there is an occupation, our children, your children, will have no peace and no future. Forgive us for accepting concessions with the excuse:" this is the best offer we will ever get", as if we were discussing a watermelon or a used car we are about to buy. Forgive us for forgetting that the land is OURS and that no fake history, no flown-in immigrants and no Apache, Merkava or Demona should make us ever forget that! Forgive us, for we demanded explanations from your children who were forced out of their homes under Zionist gun threat as you were raped in 1948 and blamed them for our current state, and today we are participating in this rape in the name of negotiations, a statehood and a president.

Palestine, forgive us;

for we forget what you are, where you begin and where you end. We draw you complete as you should be; from the river to the sea, but we define your borders according to the will of your usurper. We define Palestine as East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Gaza, Nilin and Bilin, and choose to forget your Jerusalem, Haifa, Yaffa and Acca and every single millimetre of your precious soil. We replace Palestine with Palestinian Territory, Jerusalem with Abu Dees and the Aqsa with the Muqata’a. Palestine, forgive us, for we are negotiating with your murderers and we are selling your body to the highest bidder.

Palestine, forgive us;

for we prefer to immigrate to Canada, to the US and to Europe, and leave you alone with your murderers. We prefer to enjoy the blue sky and the sun, while your skies are clouded with tear gas and bombs. We prefer to enjoy the stars at night, while your nights are lit up with phosphorous bombs. We prefer to enjoy the parks and the gardens and forget your hills and valleys usurped by American and European colonists. We choose to leave you and escape your pain and suffering, while so many of your children stay steadfast despite Zionist terror. We forget that many of your sons and daughters never saw you and cry blood for the wish of seeing you, and we, who have been blessed with Jerusalem, Hebron, Haifa and Gaza want to give them up and immigrate.

Palestine, forgive us;

for we place individual interests above our national interests. We fight each other instead of fighting our enemy. We have made brothers of your enemies, of our enemies, and we have made enemies of your children, of our brothers. We threaten your children with a bloody revenge after a squall, but shake the blood-soaked hands of the killers of your children. We swear that none of your children other than us would ever have a saying over 20% of your sacred soil, but agree to let your usurpers rape 80% of your body. We declare proudly that we never raised even a stone against your usurper and announce a century of resistance to be "terrorism" and "futile".

Palestine, forgive us;

for we stand by and watch as your children are murdered on the way to school, on the way home, on the way to the olive fields, as your children are thrown out of their homes, as your children are locked up in torture cells, as your children starve to death, as your children are burned by white phosphorous. Our towns, homes, shops are full with Zionist products, while your children search for food in garbage dump. We, your children, who helped build neighboring countries with our brains, our blood and our sweat, have become a people dependent on donor conferences. We have been reduced to Beggars! We congratulate ourselves for baking the largest Knakeh, for sewing the longest dress, but watch as Zionist colonist burn down our homes and our fields, while they kick us out of our homes. We watch as IOF soldiers humiliate us at every checkpoint, kidnap our brothers and sisters every single day, every single night. We watch as our brothers and sisters still live in tents, don’t have fresh water to drink, sit in the darkness at night.

Palestine, forgive us;

for we are partners in the crime, through our silence, our acceptance and the concessions of those who claim to represent us. Your soil is angry, your sky is mourning, your children are crying, shedding blood, for through our current silence, our current subsidence, we betrayed their souls and left the path they have paved for us with their lives.

But Palestine, you know us, for you are our mother. You know that we are steadfast and will remain steadfast to the last breath and to the last drop of blood. You know us, and you know that the road is full of obstacles, it might take us some time, we might be slow, every step might cause you and us so much suffering, so much loss, but it is our destined road and are taking it. We are taking every step, no matter how painful, no matter how many of us fall, because every step brings us closer to you, every step liberates your fields and hills, every step heals your wounds. Palestine, our memory is still intact, our hearts still throbbing with your love, we are still alive. You know, Palestine, we rose up one time after the other, we never gave up no matter. We will rise up again, and again and again till the world realizes that without our freedom, your freedom, there is no freedom.

So, rest assured, Palestine, your loyal children, our grandparents and parents planted your love in our hearts, their blood, your blood, runs in our veins and as they gave you their word never to forget and never to give up, we give you our word: we walk on the footsteps of your loyal sons and daughters, we will carry their massage and their memory in our hearts, we will continue their struggle, will continue to resist, will remain steadfast until total liberation.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61660&s2=01.

Obama administration prepares public opinion for attack on Yemen

By Patrick Martin

WSWS, December 31, 2009

Five days after the unsuccessful attempt by a Nigerian student to set off a bomb aboard a Detroit-bound passenger jet, US military and intelligence officials are said to be preparing expanded military action against targets in Yemen, the Arab country where the student allegedly received terrorist training and was equipped with an explosive device.

A series of US media reports suggest that new US-backed military attacks inside Yemen are imminent. Citing "two senior US officials," CNN reported: "The US and Yemen are now looking at fresh targets for a potential retaliation strike."
Yemen

The network said the officials "both stressed the effort is aimed at being ready with options for the White House if President Obama orders a retaliatory strike." CNN continued: "The effort is to see whether targets can be specifically linked to the airliner incident and its planning. US special operations forces and intelligence agencies, and their Yemeni counterparts, are working to identify potential Al Qaeda targets in Yemen, one of the officials said."

The network said the Obama administration and the long-time Yemeni dictator, Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh, had reached an agreement to allow the US to fly cruise missiles, fighter jets and armed drones, used for remote-control assassinations, in Yemeni airspace. Talks were still ongoing on whether Saleh will give permission for the entry of US helicopter-borne Special Forces.

The report comes after a series of statements by top administration officials, including Obama himself, pledging that "all elements of US power" will be used in response to the failed attack on Northwest Flight 253. The White House has been under heavy fire from its Republican opponents over the evident security failure, and a military action would serve to divert public attention from the ongoing revelations of how the CIA and other US agencies ignored warnings about the impending attack.

Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr al Qirbi, told the BBC that his country was seeking stepped up military aid, presumably as part of a package deal—in effect, a bribe for allowing the country’s territory to be turned into a battlefield for US commandos.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration was discussing nearly tripling its military and counterterrorism aid to Yemen in the coming year. US aid jumped from $4.6 million in 2006 to $67 million this year, and would rise to as much as $190 million in 2010, according to "a senior military official."

Reuters, citing unnamed "defense and counterterrorism officials," reported that "the Obama administration was exploring ways to accelerate and expand US assistance to Yemeni forces to root out the Al Qaeda leadership in the country, while keeping the role of the US military and intelligence agencies as behind the scenes as possible."

The news agency reported a clash between Yemeni security forces and Al Qaeda fighters in the western Hudaydah province, around the town of Deir Jaber.

The Los Angeles Times cited a Yemeni terrorism expert as the source of an estimate that Al Qaeda has "as many as 2,000 militants and sympathizers exploiting the country’s economic and political chaos to create a base for jihad at the edge of the Persian Gulf." This is ten times more than other media estimates of the number of such militants in Yemen, and 20 times the number of Al Qaeda forces said by US officials to be in Afghanistan now.

The Times report is part of an effort by the US media to portray Yemen as a lawless hotbed of terrorism and a major threat to the United States, in order to justify in advance an American attack, or even a full-scale invasion.

It was followed by an even more apocalyptic comment by "terrorism expert" Steven Emerson, interviewed Wednesday morning on CBS’ "Early Show." He said that while the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was still "number one" for terrorist activity, the area surrounding the Gulf of Aden, including Yemen and Somalia, was "fast coming up the ladder."

"Yemen possibly could surpass Pakistan in the next year, given the terrorist trajectory for providing a haven for Al Qaeda," he claimed. In light of the fact that the Obama administration is mobilizing 100,000 American troops as well as hundreds of warplanes and drones for combat along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, such a comparison is extremely ominous.

Emerson took particular note of "literally scores of American Muslim students studying and being trained in Yemen to this day…. There’s a pool of potential terrorists out there that have Western passports that can board planes without visas."

The clear goal of such far-fetched claims is to create a pogrom atmosphere directed against all young American Muslims, particularly those of Arab or East African origin.

These comments were made one day after press reports of an alleged abortive attempt by a Somali man equipped with explosive powder and a syringe to board a passenger jet in Mogadishu, the capital city. This is the same modus operandi as that of the Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, aboard Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day. The Somali was arrested by African peacekeeping troops on November 13 and never succeeded in getting on the plane.

The Washington Post, the leading newspaper in the US capital, published an editorial Wednesday noting that in the wake of the Christmas Day bombing attempt, allegedly originating in Yemen, "some are asking whether the United States should launch a military offensive in that impoverished Arabian nation." The editorial continued: "The answer, of course, is that it already has."

Citing a series of raids conducted by Yemeni and US forces, the Post praised the Obama administration for having "significantly stepped up US counterterrorism operations in Yemen," including the dispatch of CIA and Special Forces personnel. But it warned: "Still, Yemen’s steady slide toward failed-state status in recent years means that it, like nearby Somalia, will probably demand concerted and multifaceted US engagement for years to come. More than Special Forces and missile strikes are needed."

While declaring that "US ground troops are not needed, for now, in Yemen or Somalia," the newspaper suggested that such forces may well be required in the future. It declared, "in those countries, as in Afghanistan, a strategy limited to counterterrorism will not eliminate the threat."

Once again, as in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq, American imperialism is preparing a military bloodbath in an impoverished country, using a terrorist attack—in this case a failed attempt—as the pretext. According to reports by the UN and Yemeni government statistics, some 35 percent of the adult population of the country is unemployed. Yemen is the poorest of the Arab countries, has exhausted its very limited oil export capacity, and now faces severe water shortages.

But Yemen possesses, like Afghanistan and Iraq, a highly strategic geographic location, adjacent to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, and the Red Sea, controlling access to the Suez Canal. Yemen also borders on the Gulf of Aden, the shipping route for much of the oil leaving the Persian Gulf.

US military forces are already deployed across the strait of Bab el Mandeb in Djibouti, the former French Somaliland, which remains a virtual French colony. Djibouti hosts thousands of French and US troops who could quickly move into Yemen if so ordered by Paris and Washington. A large US and NATO war fleet patrols shipping lanes through the Gulf of Aden and south along the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61646&s2=01.