Iranian officials have been handing bundles of cash to Hamid Karzai's chief of staff as part of an effort to gain influence in Afghanistan and sideline Nato, according to Afghan and Western sources in Kabul.
The payments, which officials say total millions of dollars, go into a secret fund used by Umar Daudzai and Mr Karzai, the Afghan president, to pay Afghan politicians, tribal elders and even Taliban commanders to secure their loyalty, according to a report by the New York Times.
"It's basically a presidential slush fund," a Western official said. "Daudzai's mission is to advance Iranian interests."
The Iranian payments are intended to secure the allegiance of Mr Daudzai, a former ambassador to Tehran, who consistently advocates an anti-Western line to Mr Karzai, the officials said.
An aide to Mr Daudzai dismissed the allegations as "rubbish".
The latest allegations of Iranian interference come at a critical time for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's neighbours are jockeying for position amid frequent reports of meetings between Afghan officials and insurgents, with increasing evidence that a reconciliation process has begun.
Last week The Daily Telegraph disclosed that Mullah Baradar, a senior figure in the Afghan Taliban, had been spirited from custody in Pakistan to Afghanistan for talks.
Rahimullah Yusufzai, an analyst based in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, said Iran had been pouring money into Afghanistan supporting allies among Shia groups and even offering money to Sunni insurgents among the Taliban in order to bog down US troops in a never-ending war.
"They can't afford to have America so strong on two of their borders Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "They see it as a struggle for survival. They think the US is planning anti-Iranian actions so this is a pre-emptive move to protect their Afghan border."
Iran has long viewed the presence of the US in Afghanistan with suspicion.
Manslaughter charges are being drawn up in connection with the death of a Royal Military Police officer in Afghanistan in a "friendly fire" incident, the Observer has learned. Lance Corporal Michael Pritchard, 22, was shot dead by a British army sniper in Helmand last December while at an observation post.
A military investigation has revealed that "Pritch", as he was known to his colleagues, had been watched by members of an army patrol base for an hour before he was shot, apparently after being mistaken for a member of the Taliban.
Last week the Observer reported that Michael's mother, Helen Perry, had concerns about the way the investigation into her son's death was being conducted. Mrs Perry questioned the length of time it had taken and expressed dismay that she had learned her son had been killed by a sniper only five months after the incident, when an army padre had mentioned it at a reunion ceremony.
The Ministry of Defence has now confirmed to Mrs Perry that a soldier is to be referred to the Service Prosecuting Authority for manslaughter by gross negligence. The authority will then decide whether the soldier should be charged, opening the way to a court martial.
Mrs Perry said she felt shocked that a soldier might face charges in relation to her son's death, but added: "When you've been fighting for the truth a long time, there's a great release when you are told it might finally come."
Mrs Perry said said she hoped her campaign would help prevent similar incidents in the future and ensure that bereaved families are given greater access to information about how their loved ones died at an earlier stage.
"I am grateful that we are progressing in this investigation and want to thank the press and the media for their continued support," she said. "All I want is the truth and an honest account of what happened to my son. He was serving his Queen and country and deserves to be honoured with the truth."
John Cooper, QC, who is representing Michael's family, said he hoped any prosecution would not undermine a need to understand the wider failings that led up to the lance corporal's death.
"Whereas the family welcomes any inquiry into potential criminality they do not want such an inquiry to be used as a whitewash for wider systemic failure," Cooper said. "They are acutely aware of the potential that one person could used as a scapegoat for wider failings."
Court martial proceedings would delay an inquest into Michael's death, which is due next year. The coroner has promised to share all evidence submitted to the inquest with Michael's family.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Being killed by a friendly sniper while in an OP? Either that friendly sniper had it in for him, or there was a severe breakdown in the NCO chain of command. It is a very basic leadership function to insure that fields of fire do not include friendly positions, unless those positions have been overrun.
[Al Jazeera] The African Union (AU) has asked the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society Security Council to approve a no-fly zone and naval blockade of Somalia.
Ramtane Lamamra, the AU's commissioner for peace and security, said the move would deter pirates operating off the country's coast and prevent fighters and shipments from reaching the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab group, and other groups fighting to topple the largely powerless UN-backed government.
He also urged the Security Council to support the boosting of its African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom) to 20,000 troops from the current level of 7,200, mostly fom Uganda and Burundi.
"The international community can decide to pursue its current policy of limited engagement and halfhearted measures, in the false hope that the situation can be contained ... the international community can also decide it should step up its efforts," he said.
'Glimmers of hope' the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, signalled his backing for increasing the resources of Amisom, saying that recent advances against al-Shabaab and other such groups showed there were "glimmers of hope" in Somalia and called on the council to take "bold and courageous decisions".
Somali government troops launched an offensive last Sunday to take back areas held by al-Shabaab.
Ban said reports that the residents of a town near the Kenyan border, Belet Hawo, were taking down al-Shabaab flags and replacing them with Somali national flags "are signs of the Somali people's yearning for peace and security".
The interim goverment controls just a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu, and some small other areas, while bands of Islamic bandidos, such as al-Shabaab, control much of the rest of the country.
Yusuf Hassan Ibrahim, the Somali foreign minister, told the security council that the government fully supports the AU's strategy and that it needed assistance to build up the army and police.
"We all know that there's no better people who can defend their countries except their own people," Ibrahim said.
"Therefore give us the means, support us in forming our police and army to really be in a situation to really confront the extremism, both the terrorism and piracy in our own country."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Soddy Arabia's Assistant Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General for Military Affairs Prince Khalid Ibn Sultan Ibn Abdulaziz said Saturday the security situation along the border line with Yemen has been brought back to normal.
Speaking to news hounds here one day after his tour of the southern province of Jazan, Prince Khalid said the tour aimed to verify the efficacy of the security measures and the preparedness of the Saudi Armed Forces.
The tour coincided with the first anniversary of the major military campaign against orc infiltrators from the southern neighbor.
"The Saudi Army Corps of Engineers managed to open roads in the mountainous area within three years; this is an unrivalled achievement which can't be done even by specialized global firms," he affirmed.
"The Saudi Armed Forces will continue building the capacity of the personnel and acquiring the latest military equipment," Prince Khalid said, noting that the recent military training course in sisterly Egypt was part of this endeavor. The area had been the scene of fierce fighting between the Saudi forces and the orc infiltrators mainly belonging to Houthis - a separatist Shiitre militia based in northern Yemen. Dozens of casualties from both sides fell during the fighting before the enforcement of a ceasefire under which the Houthi rebels pulled back from Saudi areas and Yemeni government pledged to tighten its security grip on the northern borders.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#3
Not a surprise in view of recent events. Juan Williams got canned for remark about muslims on planes. Anne Coulter had trouble speaking in Canada. Whoopi and Baher had to display their self-rightous indignation in a display of dhimmitude when O'Reilly said something they did not deem PC. The current administration has had trouble trying to parse words to describe who is our enemy and who we are fighting. Free speech rights get trumped when it involves saying anything that appears anti-muslim.
Phil Shiner, human rights specialist at Public Interest Lawyers in the UK, warned that some of the deaths documented in the Iraq war logs could have involved British forces and would be pursued through the UK courts.
Brit troops have even less protection against leftist kooks than American troops.
He demanded a public inquiry into allegations that British troops were responsible for civilian deaths during the conflict.
And if the inquiry doesn't demonstrate responsibility, he'll demand another ...
Shiner told a press conference organised by WikiLeaks in London today that he plans to use material from the logs in court to try to force the UK to hold a public inquiry into the unlawful killing of Iraqi civilians.
Shiner warned that it would be wrong to assume the US military files "had nothing to do with the UK". He said: "Some have been killed by indiscriminate attacks on civilians or the unjustified use of lethal force. Others have been killed in custody by UK forces and no one knows how many Iraqis lost their lives while held in British detention facilities.
Perhaps none?
"If unjustified or unlawful force has been used, prosecutions for those responsible must follow, so we are bringing forward a new case seeking accountability for all unlawful deaths, and we argue that there must be a judicial inquiry to fully investigate UK responsibility for civilian deaths in Iraq."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, which has set up the Iraq Historic Allegations Team to investigate allegations of abuse, said: "It would be inappropriate to speculate on the specific detail of these documents without further investigation while the Iraq Inquiry is ongoing. There is no place for mistreatment of detainees and we investigate any allegation made against our troops."
Any credible allegation, that is ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"...a press conference organised by WikiLeaks in London..."
"Paging the United States Marshals Service. We have a pick up for you in London."
There should immediately be issued an international arrest warrant for anyone and everyone connected to Wikileaks, with half a dozen charges at least, for accessory, aiding and abetting a fugitive, and any number of other charges.
Put a dozen of them in the dock for six months, and see how enthusiastic the remainder are.
[Pak Daily Times] A North Korean envoy lashed out at the UN General Assembly's human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you...
But since North Koreans have neither human nor individual rights, it's a difference without a distinction.
committee on Friday, saying criticism of Pyongyang was a plot aimed at overthrowing the country's government. North Korea's Deputy UN Ambassador Pak Tok Hun was responding to UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea Marzuki Darusman's report to the committee.
In his latest report, Darusman said there was an urgent need for Pyongyang to take "immediate steps to ensure the enjoyment of the right to food, water, sanitation and health, and to allocate greater budgetary resources to that end."
Huh? Those aren't rights. They're responsibilities, something quite, quite different.
Pak said Darusman's report, like the General Assembly's annual resolutions condemning the human rights situation in North Korea, was "a political plot fabricated by hostile forces in the attempt to isolate and stifle our system." "The purpose is clear," he said. "The promotion and protection of human rights is only in words but in reality what they try to do is change the ideology and system of our country." Darusman, an Indonesian, said reports from inside impoverished North Korea "indicate continued suffering of the people ... from chronic food insecurity, high malnutrition rates and spiralling economic problems."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Before her awakening in Iran, she had been sympathetic to Islam and has spent considerable time working in Palestine. I was always impressed with the strength and comfort it gave, she said of the religion.
Miss Booth, who works for Press TV, the English-language Iranian news channel, has been a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq.
In August 2008 she travelled to Gaza by ship from Cyprus, along with 46 other activists, to highlight Israels blockade of the territory. She was subsequently refused entry into both Israel and Egypt.
just like Cherie, she's apparently had the Dhimmi urge for a while. Now she's all in for submission and subjugation. They can have the moonbat, beat her at will, she likes it
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2010 9:02 Comments ||
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#2
Every country, culture, and family has its nutjobs. A triumph of craziness over rationality.
The Koran is a text that encourages Islam to impose itself with force and permits the killing of Christians, said Lebanon's Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Archbishop Raboula Beylouni, addressing a Vatican meeting of Middle East bishops.
"The Koran gives Muslims the right to judge Christians and kill them with Jihad," he said. "It gives orders to impose religion with force, with the sword. For this reason, Muslims don't recognise the freedom of religion among themselves or others."
Pope Benedict XVI on 11 Oct. the opened the two-week-long meeting of 246 Middle East bishops and other religious leaders by lashing out against violence "in God's name".
The pontiff warned delegates to guard against the spread of "terrorist ideology" in the modern world.
Among clerics attending the meeting were Muhammad al-Sammak, political counsellor to the Grand Mufti of Lebanon, representing Sunni Islam; and Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Ahmadabadi, a law professor at the Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran and member of the Iranian Academy of Sciences, representing Shia Islam.
#3
This is a big deal. Up to now it's been warmongers and ministers of hole-in-the-wall tiny churches saying this, and they could be discounted as fringe elements who lacked proper understanding... if they weren't just speaking out of bigotry.
But this time it's the princes of the Catholic Church, and the pope, known for his vast knowledge and subtlety of understanding (not a thing true of all recent popes) led off with the danger of the observed phenomenon. Counsellor al-Sammak and Ayatollah Admadabadi must be thinking very interesting thoughts about the recent epiphany experienced by a number of former theologians of terror jihad.*
*Y'all remember, where they concluded the jihadis would end up with intestines roasted in Hell rather than eating grapes from the fingers of 72 virgins and a number of pearl-faced boys with bottoms like peaches. Because the current jihad has resulted in considerably more death and destruction to Dar al Islam than to the targets in Dar al Harb -- we were supposed to have surrendered by now instead of continuing to rain down death and destruction in what were supposed to be their safe places far behind the lines.
#7
Islam has been at war with the west almost from its inception. All that is new is the unwillingness of many contemporary westerners to accept that fact.
How refreshing to have an Archbishop state the truth.
#8
According to Ay Pee, in their final communique issued Saturday, the bishops also demanded
...Israel accept UN resolutions calling for an end to its "occupation" of Arab lands, and told Israel it should not use the Bible to justify "injustices" against the Palestinians.
While the bishops condemned terrorism and anti-Semitism, they laid much of the blame for the conflict squarely on Israel. They listed the "occupation" of Palestinian lands, West Bank security barrier, its military checkpoints, "political prisoners," demolition of homes and disturbance of Palestinians' socio-economic lives as factors that have made life increasingly difficult for Palestinians.
There has been a strain of antisemitism in the Church since the beginning. Even in these modern times there are those who cling to that. Pope Benedict still has some work to do to clean out his stable.
Following is the response to the WikiLeaks documents from Geoff Morrell, the Defense Department press secretary:
We deplore WikiLeaks for inducing individuals to break the law, leak classified documents and then cavalierly share that secret information with the world, including our enemies. We know terrorist organizations have been mining the leaked Afghan documents for information to use against us, and this Iraq leak is more than four times as large. By disclosing such sensitive information, WikiLeaks continues to put at risk the lives of our troops, their coalition partners and those Iraqis and Afghans working with us. The only responsible course of action for WikiLeaks at this point is to return the stolen material and expunge it from their Web sites as soon as possible.
We strongly condemn the unauthorized disclosure of classified information and will not comment on these leaked documents other than to note that significant activities reports are initial, raw observations by tactical units. They are essentially snapshots of events, both tragic and mundane, and do not tell the whole story. That said, the period covered by these reports has been well chronicled in news stories, books and films, and the release of these field reports does not bring new understanding to Iraqs past.
However, it does expose secret information that could make our troops even more vulnerable to attack in the future. Just as with the leaked Afghan documents, we know our enemies will mine this information, looking for insights into how we operate, cultivate sources and react in combat situations, even the capability of our equipment. This security breach could very well get our troops and those they are fighting with killed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The only responsible course of action for WikiLeaks at this point is to return the stolen material and expunge it from their Web sites as soon as possible.
Too late.
The only responsible course of action is one that the DoD would not be authorized to take. Unfortunately.
#2
freedom of speech and the freedom to report what is going on and to talk about it is the bedrock of our democracies
without it we are nothing
without it we are no better than Russia or any other oligarchy where the rich and powerful make all the decisions leaving us public peons in the dark.
we need wikileaks
I condemn the Department of Defense for trying to control the news with PR managers and spin doctors
i condemn the australian government for repeatedly hiding facts that are important to the australian public, and for hunting down those that leak information and hounding them through the courts and through their workplaces
I condemn those that force their employees to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of their contract for employment, which is every single public sector worker in Australia, ensuring they are gagged.
we need to return to the basic principles which made our societies great in the first place: respect for the truth and for the right to speak the truth
respect for an independent media and its right to report the facts so we can understand and fix problems instead of pretending they don't exist.
that is what made Rantburg great in the first place. Those who recall after the 9/11 attacks, the politically correct bureaucrats who control so much of our societies would not allow the media to even so much as mention the word "islam" in connection with "terrorism" though the truth was plainly obvious
at least here at Rantburg we could talk about it openly
so Wikileaks is now reviled but what an important job it does
how will we ever find out what is going on in a world where nobody is free to talk to the media
this is information the government cannot control
Bravo wikileaks, this is really important.
if there are problems in revealing this information, we can fix it.
if the lives of iraqis who helped us are imperilled, we can give them asylum, citizenship and shelter - instead of the thousands who come to our countries illegally for money alone.
but whatever - don't shoot the messenger. Don't shoot down wikileaks or we will live in darkness never knowing what is really going on.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2010 9:16 Comments ||
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#5
freedom of speech and the freedom to report what is going on and to talk about it is the bedrock of our democracies
I think the right for our ideals to survive is just as important. They won't if we lose the war of ideas. Publishing information about what our allies did and then conflate it to our values is not "1st amendment." It's lies.
without it we are nothing
Freedom of speech is not an absolute value, never has been. I can no more publish the date and time of at attack in which you are participating and call it "freedom of speech" than if I publish lewd photos of you in the act.
without it we are no better than Russia or any other oligarchy where the rich and powerful make all the decisions leaving us public peons in the dark.
Wrong. In Russia they protect their secrets.
we need wikileaks
I condemn the Department of Defense for trying to control the news with PR managers and spin doctors
Unlike the pristine wikileaks? Puleez!
i condemn the australian government for repeatedly hiding facts that are important to the australian public, and for hunting down those that leak information and hounding them through the courts and through their workplaces
Called of the Official Secrets Act which is a perfectly legitimate function of government.
I condemn those that force their employees to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of their contract for employment, which is every single public sector worker in Australia, ensuring they are gagged.
Confidentiality agreements protect rights and are an integral part of free speech.
we need to return to the basic principles which made our societies great in the first place: respect for the truth and for the right to speak the truth
Agree. But what wikileaks does is anarchy
respect for an independent media and its right to report the facts so we can understand and fix problems instead of pretending they don't exist.
You act as if the media is the aggrieved party. The aggrieved party is every operative your beloved wikileaks had placed in the crosshairs of some very unsavory and undemocratic enemies who don't care about our "basic rights"
that is what made Rantburg great in the first place. Those who recall after the 9/11 attacks, the politically correct bureaucrats who control so much of our societies would not allow the media to even so much as mention the word "islam" in connection with "terrorism" though the truth was plainly obvious
They still don't. Do try to pay attention.
at least here at Rantburg we could talk about it openly
so Wikileaks is now reviled but what an important job it does
how will we ever find out what is going on in a world where nobody is free to talk to the media
this is information the government cannot control
Bravo wikileaks, this is really important.
if there are problems in revealing this information, we can fix it.
By getting secret operatives killed, just what is fixed?
if the lives of iraqis who helped us are imperilled, we can give them asylum, citizenship and shelter - instead of the thousands who come to our countries illegally for money alone.
but whatever - don't shoot the messenger. Don't shoot down wikileaks or we will live in darkness never knowing what is really going on.
Package this up and shop it to field operatives dearie. You may be surprised their reaction.
#7
To be fair, anon1 has posted using that nym for years, as I have posted as trailing wife. We know her here, that interesting fortyish lady from Australia who properly appreciates American men. The really anonymous ones get nyms generated by Fred's clever random name generator, a different one each time.
So let's stick to the issues here. Rantburg has always only printed open source material, from news media and websites around the world. We have never revealed anything secret, nor have posters revealed things from their personal knowledge that was covered by a Classified designation or operational security. Not even those posting from Iraq or Afghanistan or weapons development, fascinating though it would be to all of us.
Fred Pruitt is a retired military intelligence analyst, for God's sake. None more than he knows that loose lips sink ships.
This really is a world war. If the jihadis win, it will be worse than if the Nazis did. More than just the lives of those fighting it are at stake when secrets are revealed.
Stop thinking we can invite all the muslims who helped us to come to our countries. I live in an area with lots of these immigrants and refugees and we don't want them. They are an aggressive and nasty lot that do not fit into our society.
My family has been threatened with death. I've been told to move behind a muslim in a check-out line either because I'm an infidel or a mere woman. When I didn't, the friendly muslim cashier made ridiculous faces at me for his fellow muslim. (Yes, a neighborhood Costco). I've been followed by a middle eastern student as I drove through a local university with him flipping me off the whole time apparently because I'm either a mere woman or I must look Jewish.
Really, don't invite them here. They don't fit. And western civilization is collapsing fast enough as it is.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
10/24/2010 12:20 Comments ||
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#10
Yeah, screw the people who help us when we go to rescue their country and we then bug out as soon as a Democrat takes over. Let whatever wacko dictatorship that takes over with Democrat assistance do whatever they want to those who help our soldiers. That's the way to get recruits when we have to go to the next country to fight.
We have no idea who the Mohammedans you're dealing with are. If they even are Mohammedans. They may well be "refugees" as opposed to those who helped us before we abandoned their country.
I know few native borns who are a thorough Americans as the Vietnamese I know. Especially the ones who got free housing from Hanoi before they managed to escape on small boats.
We need to get out of Afghanistan, especially, ASAP in my opinion. It's not worth the life of one more American. But we should not abandon our brothers and sisters in arms.
#11
I am calling Anon1's bluff. Beneath it all, I think she likes wikileaks. I also think her complex hatred of Australian men is exhibiting itself, but what lies beneath is she secretly feels tingly that Assange is Australian and he is such a power player. Ye olde love/hate dichotomy. Assange can sit and spin. I hope someone offs him pronto, it wouldn't be a moment too soon.
#12
"Not to mention that she has a very legitimate point that she is arguing very effectively."
Perhaps that is because it goes back to my last comment, wherein I stated Anon1 gets tingly about wikileaks, insofar as he is an Australian mover and shaker she halfheartedly identifies with. Wink wink.
#13
It's always nice for people who live in other areas of the country to tell us we should respect other cultures. We have probably one of the largest if not the largest Vietnamese population in the country, and I've never had an incident with any of them.
And in fact, the death threat was from an English speaking Afghani. Sorry, but I think our policies are wrong.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
10/24/2010 12:52 Comments ||
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#14
"None more than he knows that loose lips sink ships. "
#16
You know Karl,
My take on this is that the DoD has a strange way of classifying information and keeping it out of the public domain. A lot of the stuff I am seeing seems to reinforce a lot of what Bush, you and Rummy were saying about foreign interference and foreign money behind the violence. With all of these documents showing vast Iranian involvement, it is hard to call the violence in Iraq, especially after 2004, as an "insurgency".
They should have declassified and blasted tons of this stuff all over the place, it would have made it very hard to say we were not needed over there.
Jimmy,...er Jim, I apologize again, you are right, there is evidence of WMD, Iranian involvement, Czechnians, Syrians and Saudis running around committing most of the violence and it could have gone a long ways toward shutting up George's critics on the war.
I've never understood why DoD insists on classifying stuff that makes them look good and then blasting stuff all over every time one of the young warriors screws up.
#17
We classify because you never know where a source or source's family might end up in 30 years. Thus WINTEL "Warning Notice: Intellignece Methods or Sources"
If the DoD did, infact make this information available. Would the Mainstream Media have reported on it? Or would they have tried their best to suppress it and crucify anyone who does?
This is the same MSM which absolutely refused, and in fact went extreamly out of their way to provide cover to the Islamist of Beslan and what happened there by refusing to mention that they were muslim, were religiously committed, as well as some of the monstrosities committed there in the name of Allah.
This is the same MSM which spend 18 months of daily reporting on Abu-Graib which occurred during 1 [to 3?] nights total by a few mal-contents which the DoD was already investigating.
The same MSM which, along with MF-ker Congressman Murtha convicted the marines of Haditha in the press while the investigation was only beginning.
While at the same time refusing to mention some of the things Al-Quaeda in Iraq has been doing to people.
OTOH Ive always said we simply weren't fighting the media war. Everytime a 'freedom fighter' (MSM's label) hid behind a civilian or used a child as a human shield, a video camera should capture it and it broadcast and it should lead each and every press conference.
#19
If the DoD did, infact make this information available. Would the Mainstream Media have reported on it? Or would they have tried their best to suppress it and crucify anyone who does?
Not reported, or reported as "another Bush lie" (remember General Betray-us?), and tarred with the same brush anyone who spoke up for the truth. That's what started happening about 12.September, 2001. They were full-voiced baying for blood by the end of that week. Remember the complaints that President Bush continued reading that storybook to the schoolchildren before leaving to hide on Air Force One for a week or so?
John Burns of the NYT ran the rat down (so to speak) at a London restaurant. The first part is presented here but there's much more.
John Burns is one of the very few good reporters at the New York Times, not one of the creative writers.
LONDON -- Julian Assange moves like a hunted man. In a noisy Ethiopian restaurant in London's rundown Paddington district, he pitches his voice barely above a whisper to foil the Western intelligence agencies he fears.
He demands that his dwindling number of loyalists use expensive encrypted cellphones and swaps his own as other men change shirts. He checks into hotels under false names, dyes his hair, sleeps on sofas and floors, and uses cash instead of credit cards, often borrowed from friends.
"By being determined to be on this path, and not to compromise, I've wound up in an extraordinary situation," Mr. Assange said over lunch last Sunday, when he arrived sporting a woolen beanie and a wispy stubble and trailing a youthful entourage that included a filmmaker assigned to document any unpleasant surprises.
In his remarkable journey to notoriety, Mr. Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks whistle-blowers' Web site, sees the next few weeks as his most hazardous. Now he is making his most brazen disclosure yet: 391,832 secret documents on the Iraqi war. He held a news conference in London on Saturday, saying that the release "constituted the most comprehensive and detailed account of any war ever to have entered the public record."
Twelve weeks ago, he posted on his organization's Web site some 77,000 classified Pentagon documents on the Afghan conflict.
Much has changed since 2006, when Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, used years of computer hacking and what friends call a near genius I.Q. to establish WikiLeaks, redefining whistle-blowing by gathering secrets in bulk, storing them beyond the reach of governments and others determined to retrieve them, then releasing them instantly, and globally.
Now it is not just governments that denounce him: some of his own comrades are abandoning him for what they see as erratic and imperious behavior, and a nearly delusional grandeur unmatched by an awareness that the digital secrets he reveals can have a price in flesh and blood.
Several WikiLeaks colleagues say he alone decided to release the Afghan documents without removing the names of Afghan intelligence sources for NATO troops. "We were very, very upset with that, and with the way he spoke about it afterwards," said Birgitta Jonsdottir, a core WikiLeaks volunteer and a member of Iceland's Parliament. "If he could just focus on the important things he does, it would be better."
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
It helps if you know that Assange and his parents belonged to a cult known as The Great White Brotherhood
He still has the look of one of Hamilton-Byrne's "children" about him.
#3
Western governments have made an art form out of hiding the truth and spinning facts so they are misinterpreted.
It is very difficult for journalists in eg: Australia to get at any semblance of the truth
You can apply under freedom of information laws. A year later you may get some response that you will have to pay lots of money for and in which everything of interest is blanked out.
Any bureaucrat or government worker that leaks information to the public sphere is hunted down by police and then hounded through the courts by teams of highly-paid lawyers. Their lives are ruined.
The world needs Wikileaks.
If not for Wikileaks, how would we know there is a problem with human rights abuses in the Iraqi military now?
We could guess but we would never know, it would never be documented.
We should be thankful to Wikileaks for releasing those documents and increasing our knowledge of what is going on in Iraq since our own governments hide it from us.
I do not buy the government line about it being a security threat.
Of course they will try to spin it that way to justify the way they have systematically hidden information from we the voting public.
i think Julian Assange is a hero.
Look how they have attacked him - look how he is pursued with vexatious allegations and spied on and followed
How much do our Governments now respect free speech and the human rights of our own citizens?
not much and declining.
When the journalists are attacked for revealing the truth you know that something is wrong.
This is a warning, heed it well. I have loved Rantburg for many years: but look at what is really going on here behind the PR spin.
#5
anon1 - I strongly disagree with you and hope that Assange meets the same fate that numerous people he outed (for doing the right thing) will suffer. You have taken several steps down in my esteem levels for the reasons noted already. It's always a black and white situation for dreamers who don't suffer the consequences. Goodnight and I hope you somehow are allowed to dream the dreams of those soon to be slaughtered for your "truth".
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2010 1:23 Comments ||
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#6
I do not buy the government line about it being a security threat.
These documents were not at at all properly redacted by WikiLeaks. The names of many (hundreds?) of informants were revealed. Western press have stated that the Taliban are hunting down the named informers and killing when found. People who are informing have stopped doing so, and those who might have informed will not due to the loss of credibility of Coaliton security procedures. Coalition forces are now without a valuable source of information such as where bombs are buried, who the bad guys are and where they are hiding out. Coalition forces will be conducting operations without this valuable information.
Coalition forces may have already died due to this lack of information. Afghan citizens are dying because of the information revealed by WikiLeaks.
That's the downside.
What's the upside that counts on the ground in Afghanistan?
#12
righto Gorb, i will take your point and make a reply
who has died because we have been kept in the dark?
These documents stretch from 2004 to 2009
If it had been widely known in, say, 2005, that the Iraqi security forces that *we* set up were torturing and murdering civilians, the public pressure in the US and Australia would have forced our governments to clean up Iraq's act before power was handed back.
That means that some of those same people found to be murdered in the documents might still be alive had we all known.
Secondly wide and documented knowledge that Iran was behind a lot of the trouble could have enabled public support for a stronger political stance against Iran - potentially drying up that avenue. Maybe their nuclear program would not be so advanced now also.
Keeping the public in the dark is the worst possible thing that can happen
it is *not* for our own protection
as to your first point as to why should people be uprooted and moved to countries where they have no skills, I say: it's better than being murdered for having aided the US. It is an alternative to their "lives being at risk" and shows that their lives do *not* have to be at risk because of wikileaks.
This would not be a punishment but a reward: many Afghanis *want* new lives in Australia/USA simply because there is more future here anyway. It's not for nothing that many come here illegally in rickety boats.
#13
If I were feeling really vindictive I would wish Assange and those who favor the un-redacted release of those confidants names to have their own names and address information given to the families of those killed because of these releases. I believe those Muslims are into the "eye for an eye" thing.
Those if favor of the releases shouldn't have a problem giving out their own names as it's all for the "greater good". /s
#14
plus i would add: if wikileaks is allowed to flourish and be translated and become a worldwide phenomenon
the transformative power of truth will be amazing.
Just imagine the day when disgruntled party members of the CCP post Chinese documents detailing such horrors as the harvesting of organs from political prisoners
or same from Russia
or from Iran
Wikileaks, because it ensures anonymity for the source, is the MOST valuable thing that has been invented for the future of humane civil society since the internet
to allow our governments to turn on it and on Julian Assange because they are sensitive to public criticism would be to turn our backs on the enlightenment principles that make our countries great
#16
OK, I'll see your nameless lives saved and raise you by a factor of 10x.
You are assuming limitless resources by those trying to do good.
But, at the peak of our involvement, we only had on the order of 250,000 soldiers on the ground, surrounded by a sea of 20M Iraqis. There is now practical way in hades that at a ratio of 1:100 that we stood a chance of accomplishing such a noble goal without the involvement of the Iraqis. Along with Iraqis, or any other culture for that matter, comes the Iraqi culture, which I don't think even you could wipe out in your entire lifetime. Even if Obama made you the "Remake Iraqi Culture Czar", and even if you had an RB mod bat to knock some sense into their thick skulls.
We got rid of Saddam and showed a few to value their country over personal gain. That is the course that has resulted in a net gain of lives vs. his remaining in power. Yes, some have died as a result of our actions and of a process with necessarily inherent flaws. But many more are alive and/or living in dignity today as a result. With Assang's interference, it has weakened the hand of the few that are over there in a position to make a difference.
Now names, sources and methods and information that will lead to their revelation have been released into the wild.
I don't think I mind that Iranian and Pakistain involvement should be revealed, but some smart folks have decided that it would be better kept under wraps for whatever reason. And I don't think even my most liberal friends can say with a straight face anymore that Iran is the pluralistic, benificent and democratic society that they once thought it to be with a straight face.
I assume the NYT and other opposing forces for good have been looking for something worth everyone knowing. But I haven't heard anything that I consider worthy of leaking.
And think twice about granting someone residence in the US as being some kind of gift. Being the husband of an immigrant I can assure you that leaving their families behind is an offsetting punishment. On top of that, what are these folks going to do here while they are missing their families? About the best they could hope to do if they are from Afghanistan is to pick up trash since they don't know the language, can't read or write and don't know how to drive. Who will pay for their accomodations for the rest of their lives? Not all of them stand any kind of chance of fitting in here.
I don't want them here except as a measure of last resort, which we shouldn't have to resort to. And I certainly don't want their families here given how the Taliban there pits brother against brother and father against son. All some Taliban would have to do is claim to be an informant and there you are.
That said, I wouldn't mind all these documents being released 25 years after the fact when it is too late for the enemy to gain any value from them, but we can still ask the relevant parties for clarifications and go after them if necessary and punish them.
#18
You make it sound like a rather bad Hollywood movie - or a casualty report by the Lancet. While there were incidents (as happens in *every* war). The mere fact that there was a report to _leak_ means that they had been taken seriously.
Also - it's been public knowledge, at least for anyone paying attention, that Iran was behind a lot of the Iraqi 'insurgency' for several years. Don't look at the government for hiding that one. Look no further than the MSM.
Afghan's come here in rickety boats? You do know that Afghanistan is land-locked right?
And I would suggest anyone who thinks that there should be no secrets to kindly publish their drivers license number, SSN, all their credit card numbers, expiration dates and that ccw number (or whatever its called).
#21
crazyfool: the afghans come to australia in rickety boats after *first* flying to indonesia. They are our illegal immigrants.
Gorb: I understand the limits of logistics and hard reality. The dreamers think you can just invade a country and it will all be like Germany/Japan after WWII. Well I knew that would not be the case from the start and also that the home front can be the worst enemy.
BUT
We need the lights to be on and our eyes to be open.
our Governments are TOO GOOD now at hiding/spinning the truth. We are largely kept in the dark.
We need wikileaks to turn on the lights.
If logistical reality means it is too hard for us to win or to win at too great a cost in Afghanistan then we need to have an informed debate about what our real goals are there.
And what is the point of us being there.
What is the cost-benefit analysis now
It might be better for us to withdraw and simply leave them to fester.
It might not be possible to win Afghanistan
or to win it at such a huge cost in lives and in such a degradation of the way we conduct ourselves that the victory is pyrrhic.
I was all for invading that country and ridding it of the taliban, also for invading iraq
But it is becoming increasingly clear to me that we need a better quality of information to really know what is going on there. Wikileaks is just fine by me
And Wikileaks is not just about Iraq/Afghanistan, it is there for every nation to use and for people to post things up.
Wikileaks cannot make us lose, or weaken the systems we set up - if we lose, it would be our OWN fault.
If the people we set up in Iraq are doing a *good* job and wikileaks reveals just an aberration then the people who live there will know this and will support the system we encouraged.
If it is not working then there will be further turmoil and our enemies will defeat our structure.
Wikileaks reporting the truth will have nil effect on this other than to make us back at home more informed
Wikileaks means we won't have to struggle on senselessly for decades due to the egos and careers of a few elite men in power, losing blood and treasure in a pointless fruitless exercise, if that is what it is becoming.
If there is more freedom for the media to talk about what is really going on - and if we are not fed a constant diet of lies about how much the people love us there, and how we are 'winning'.
I will tell you a little story that is true.
Last year an Australian man named Nigel Brennan was kidnapped alongside Canadian Amanda Lindhout in Mogadishu, Somalia.
the Australian Government warned all media outlets to be quiet and not report anything about his kidnapping - for his own safety and security.
meanwhile the joint taskforce of Australia and Canada flew around southern africa spending millions of dollars doing all the wrong things.
they even paid a "negotiator" ransom money which he ran away with. He didn't even know the kidnappers.
For a year they sat captive while the media clammed up on the say-so of the australian and canadian governments "in the interests of the hostages"
let me tell you a little fact
it wasn't in their interests
it wasn't them that was protected
it was bungling bureaucrats who got their whole strategy wrong, and if a little light had been shed earlier on, those people would have come home months earlier than they did.
Instead the australian government repeatedly offered a lowball ransom figure which annoyed the kidnappers.
After a year, when Nigel was said to be passing blood and close to death, Australian Greens senator Bob Brown and entrepreneur Dick Smith stumped up the cash to free the pair.
Only thanks to them are they freed.
So really in whose interest was it for there to be a media blackout?
anybody who thinks Wikileaks is the enemy is kidding themselves.
Our troops NEED us to keep a vigilant watch on the bureaucrats who make the decisions to send them hither and thither
they are fat desk-jockeys with big egos who like playing power politics in the office. they don't care if our troops live or die.
so we NEED Wikileaks to tell us and the world when they are failing.
NOBODY ever hides the truth from you for your own protection or so we can win. They are hiding their own stuff-ups. They are covering their own tails.
Scooter McGruder: I respectfully disagree. I continue to think Assange is a hero. I just hope he set up his system to continue independently of whether he lives or dies because he is not likely to live long. Our governments have moved way too far from respecting the rights of our own citizens
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
10/24/2010 12:10 Comments ||
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#24
Tipper, that piece of information is the single most interesting thing I've seen this week.
I have often wondered about foreign intelligence (read: Soviet bloc) use and exploitation of cult organizations. Much food for thought here. Thank you.
#25
anon1, you have been reading Rantburg for years. What, exactly, is new to you in the material that Wikileaks revealed? Because I have to tell you, I haven't read anything that I found new or surprising, only confirmatory details.
I am a housewife who got partway to a university degree. I have absolutely no special skills or training. My computer skills are less than it takes to find the good p0rnography on the internet.
And yet I managed to know about everything that has been revealed from Wikileaks dump thus far, and I knew about it years ago -- when it was happening. It was all out there in open source material newspapers of the world and the blogs. The only ones who didn't know were the ones who chose not to look for themselves. And truth to tell, anyone who closed his eyes so tightly for so long is not entitled to damaging secrets.
I've defended you against others here, anon1, but right now I do not like you much at all. You are advocating for the right to hand my country to those who would kill me and mine as the Nazis once tried to do to my mother.
You must have spent Saturday sharpening your scalpel. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/24/2010 14:20 Comments ||
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#27
Mr. anon, are you in the "sedition and treason is so yesterday" camp? Would that also be the 'greater planetary good allows a few inconvenient deaths' smugness philosophy?
Too bad Mr. Assange was turned down in Sweden for his citizenship application but I'm sure his martydom will be celebrated soon in Berkeley.
#28
"I'm sure his martydom will be celebrated soon in Berkeley"
Fingers crossed, MG....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/24/2010 14:23 Comments ||
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#29
Anon1
Let me tell you a story, smart-ass.
Back when I still nursed delusions about being a writer I had a conversation with a nationalist Chinese student about his country in which he said all kinds of less than complimentary things about Nationalist China, the KMT, etc.
I write a story the next day, which was published, about the conversation without revealing the name of the source. Nationalist Chinese students were up in arms about it. They complained; they threatened; they whined; they did everything they could to tell who was the bastard who said them awful things.
I did not tell them anything because I knew what would happen to him if I did, the least of which was to be trundled back to Taiwan.
Now if you tell me that agreeing hide his identity is a noble gesture, how is protecting the identity of a field agent from actual mortal danger is any less noble and by contrast any less excreble if the name is released?
Democracy and freedom sits high, but securely on many pedestals, and like it or not, security is foremost of those pedestals. It is a deal between the individual and the society that in exchange for a wide range of personal liberties, security forces get to do everythung they can within a strict legal freamwork to protect those liberties. That's the deal. There is nothing else that works.
Revealing those names mean the deal's off. Someone else on our side might step up, but as for the other side of the humint equation, the deal is gone for at least a generation.
So, when a faux man of the people like your hero places my people in danger, he is not supporting democracy or freedom; he is supporting anarchy and he is enabling our enemies.
#31
When the journalists are attacked for revealing the truth you know that something is wrong.
Killing and victimising journalists is what the chinese, russians and fascists all around the world do.
anon1,
WikiLeaks is NOT journalism. It is a digital repository of raw data. And Julian Assange is NOT a journalist. He is a man with an agenda. Assange conveniently conflates those facts as a way to falsely portray himself as a truth seeker. If you notice he has a habit of changing his roles under scrutiny. When criticized for unethical journalism he claims to simply be the source. Then when questioned about the legality of dissemination of classified information he claims to be a clearinghouse citing freedom of the press statutes. His actions expose him to be more of a snake then a hero.
The problem with his long-term survival is that he has made many enemies other than the US government. Unfortunately, now that he is a hero and icon to the media-left, the CIA will automatically get the blame if he is liquidated. This is as certain as the sun rising in the morning. Can you imagine asshats like Cynthia McKinney or George Galloway blaming anyone other than the CIA if Assange is unceremoniously despatched some fine day?
His other enemies, the Chinese, the Russian mafia, even the Zimbabwean secret service, know this. With the certainty that the blame will be diverted to the Americans, at least enough to muddy the waters and mitigate the potential political and diplomatic fall-out, they will choose to act. The cultural left's reflexive, utterly predictable hatred of the CIA and the Pentagon has in fact endangered its newest hero.
#34
Bad - you can bet the Dubai Chief of Police would identify Teh Juice Mossad as behind it...
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2010 16:25 Comments ||
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#35
Things have a way of taking care of themselves. Who knows, maybe the family of one of the 1800 Afghans who names were publish by Wikileaks will seek revenge against Assange. Grudges are long held in that part of the world. Assange may end up one day like Theo van Gogh.
Political leaders and religious scholars made a unanimous declaration justifying the murder of former president Gen (r) Pervez Perv Musharraf in Dire Revenge™ for killing Akbar Bugti and other innocent people, including students of Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad during his government.
The Jamhoori Watan Party of Talal Akbar Bugti sponsored the conference on Saturday in which prominent religious scholars and politicians participated and signed a joint declaration against Musharraf justifying his killing. The Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen Pakistain, Shia Ulema Council Balochistan, Tanzeem-e-Islam Pakistain, JUI-S and religious scholars participated in the conference. The theme of the conference was 'If Salman Rushdi deserved to be killed, why not Musharraf, who was responsible for killing innocent people and also of desecration of the holy Koran at Jamia Hafsa'.
The speakers criticised Musharraf for his unpardonable crimes against humanity and held him solely responsible for killing thousands of Balochs in a military operation, students of Jamia Hafsa, violation of the constitution, making changes in the Hudood Ordinance, insulting Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, handing over Dr Aafia Siddiqui and Abdul Salam Asif to the US, violating the sanctity of mosques, and other unpardonable crimes against society and the state.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Ahhhh, the rule of law....
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
10/24/2010 18:23 Comments ||
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[Pak Daily Times] The backbone of faceless myrmidons has been broken and the country will soon be rid of the menace, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Khalid Shameem Wynne said,
So you can stop bugging us, America!
adding that the government is alive to internal and external threats to the country, and is doing its best within resources to provide modern weaponry and technology to the security forces, according to a blurb issued on Saturday.
He made these comments as chief guest addressing a passing out parade ceremony of 122nd PMA Long Course, 22nd Technical Graduate Course, 41st Integrated Course and 7th Lady Cadet Course held at Pakistain Military Academy, Kakul. Talking about the ongoing war against terrorism, the CJCSC said, "In the ongoing war against terrorism our officers and soldiers have rendered great sacrifices and have achieved tremendous successes."
He said we value our freedom and independence more than anything else and consider no sacrifice too great to preserve our freedom and honour.
The CJCSC congratulated all the graduating cadets on successful completion of their basic military training. Addressing the gentleman cadets, he said "The Pakistain Military Academy has equipped you with all those attributes which are required in carrying forward the glorious traditions of selfless service, devotion to duty and loyalty to the national cause, which are the hallmark of our armed forces."
"The men you will have the honour to command are ranked among the world's finest soldiers. I am sure you will prove more than worthy of leading them to the ultimate goal of defending the honour and dignity of our country," General Wynne reiterated.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
For sale:
Old bridge in New York.
Dingy and gray.
Needs cables to hold it up.
[Pak Daily Times] Superintendent of Police (SP) Ashfaq Anwar became approver in former premier Benazir Bhutto's murder case and held three officers, including City Police Officer (CPO) Saood Aziz responsible, a private TV channel reported on Saturday.
According to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) sources, SP Anwar had recorded statements of Clause 164 in the court of Magistrate Farrukh Nadim Malik in Islamabad, one month ago.
Anwar said he had been deployed for the security of Benazir, but CPO Saood had forcefully sent him to the Koraal Chowk, and had then directed him to go to the rally of Nawaz Sharif in Sadiqabad.
He added that Senior Superintendent of Police (Operation) Yasin Farooq deliberately avoided checking the security, while Superintendent of Police Khurram Ishtiaq, on the direction of CPO Saood had ordered the Rescue 1122 team to hose the site of Benazir's liquidation, and Station House Officer (SHO) Kashif Riaz of Rawalpindi cop shoppe refused a post mortem of the body, the channel reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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British troops came close to capturing al-Qaida's top commander and the occupation forces' most wanted target in Iraq but the operation collapsed after the only surveillance helicopter ordered to monitor him ran out of fuel and had to return to base, secret military intelligence logs suggest.
The astonishing blunder in March 2005 allowed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a Jordanian associate of Osama bin Laden with a $25m reward on his head an extra 15 months to expand al-Qaida's operations throughout Iraq, bringing the country close to civil war. His fundamentalist Sunni supporters were behind some of the worst atrocities aimed at Iraq's Shia majority population as well as countless attacks on US and Iraqi government forces.
Oh, I thought Wikileaks, Amnesia International and the Center for Constitutional Rights were all agreed that America was behind all the atrocities ...
He was eventually located by the Americans in a house north of Baghdad in June 2006 and killed with his family by a US air strike.
His narrow escape from British troops and a unit of British special forces emerges from the secret military intelligence logs examined by the Guardian. They report that on 17 March 2005 the G3 cell of army intelligence at British brigade headquarters in Basra heard that Zarqawi was travelling south on route 6 from Amarah to Basra. They informed Danish forces at 2.15pm. The Danes played a junior role in the coalition under overall British command in south-eastern Iraq.
Half an hour later, the report says, a Lynx helicopter spotted a suspicious car that had stopped 7.5 miles (12km) south of al-Qurna and about 60 miles north of Basra. Al-Qurna is a dusty flyblown Mesopotamian town that is claimed, inappropriately in view of its present condition, as the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.
US forces in Iraq invariably sent helicopters in pairs. The report says the helicopter maintained "top cover" for 15minutes but then had to return to the UK-run Shaiba logistics base to refuel.
"As a result the area of interest was unobserved for between 20 and 30 min," the report adds. By then British troops from Corunna company of 1st Battalion the Duke of Wellington's Regiment had rushed in and set up an inner and outer cordon around the area. British special forces and an American "arresting officer" were brought in.
Having lost their helicopter cover the forces were reduced to random searching. A Shia mosque was raided but Iraqi civilians were the only people in it. A second building was searched but also only contained civilians. The report ends with: "At 22.14 the search was concluded."
Unlike many other reports in the logs, this one makes no comment on the source of the intelligence and its reliability. The British may have doubted it since Amara is in an overwhelmingly Shia area and perhaps an unlikely place for Zarqawi to be. Perhaps they suspected the Americans were inflating his importance. Regardless, the British did take the report seriously enough to send dozens of troops to capture the suspect.
The article continues with an accounting of Zarqawi's many murderous acts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Blunder; harsh, maybe too harsh. RTB for fuel happens. Fuel consumption happens. Not everything works perfectly in war. (Duh.) This sounds like it was written by lawyers, armchair admirals, and REMFs.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/24/2010 0:52 Comments ||
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#2
Someone called Gordon Brown was responsible for cutting the budgets for helicopters whilst the British army was fighting in 2 wars.
The UN has called on Barack Obama to order a full investigation of US forces' involvement in human rights abuses in Iraq after a massive leak of military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
The Guardian has analysed the 400,000 documents, the biggest leak in US military history,
Yup, and they managed to read all 400K documents rather quickly, eh ...
and found 15,000 previously unreported civilian deaths.
None by our boys, which isn't a surprise.
The logs show how US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and generally unpunished.
That's because it's Iraq, in the Middle East, where this sort of thing has been going on for thousands of years. Though the human rights crowd is curiously forgetful of Saddam's chipping machine ...
Nowak said that if the files released through WikiLeaks pointed to clear violations of the UN Convention Against Torture the Obama administration had an obligation to investigate them.
No, the Iraqi government does, since it had its sovereignty returned to it in 2005. Direct your complaint to the Iraqi delegation at the UN.
The logs paint a disturbing picture of the relationship between US and Iraqi forces. Nowak said that UN human rights agreements obliged states to criminalise every form of torture, whether directly or indirectly, and to investigate any allegations of abuse.
Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Nowak, who has spent years investigating allegations of US participation in extraordinary rendition and the abuse of detainees held by coalition forces, said the Obama administration had a legal and moral obligation to fully investigate credible claims of US forces' complicity in torture. A failure to investigate, Nowak suggested, would be a failure of the Obama government to recognise its obligations under international law. He said the principle of "non-refoulement" prohibited states from transferring detainees to other countries that could pose a risk to their personal safety.
Nowak can suggest all he likes. It's very clear that he, others at the UN, the newspapers, and the Wikileaks crowd are involved in a coordinated effort to tear at the US again, and to force Bambi into an embarrassing position, all to weaken US interests further.
The documents, which cover the period in Iraq from 2004 onwards, have prompted claims that this principle has not been observed. The files contain evidence that US forces were ordered to turn a blind eye to abuses committed by the Iraqi authorities. Nowak said the US had an obligation "whenever they expel, extradite or hand over any detainees to the authorities of another state to assess whether or not these individuals are under specific risk of torture. If this assessment is not done, or authorities hand over detainees knowing there is a serious risk of them being subjected to torture, they violate article 3 of the UN convention that precludes torture."
Nowak said it would be up to the Obama administration to launch an "independent and objective" investigation with a view not only to "bring the perpetrators to justice but also to provide the victims with adequate remedy and reparation".
And if the 'investigation' doesn't find what Nowak expects them to find, he'll demand another investigation that's even more independent and objective ...
He noted that neither the US nor Iraq had ratified the international criminal convention that would see officials from either country brought before the international courts for war crimes.
And we're not likely to now ...
It would be up to the US courts to determine whether US officials or soldiers had breached human rights laws. "If it is established that a particular individual is responsible for torture directly or by complicity, this person should be brought to justice in the domestic courts," Nowak said.
A Pentagon spokesman told the New York Times this week that under its procedure, when reports of Iraqi abuse were received the US military "notifies the responsible government of Iraq agency or ministry for investigation and follow-up".
Which is about all we can do since it is, after all, their country, a point that the left and the UN reminds us of repeatedly.
In response to the revelations, the Iraqi government has vowed to probe the allegations made against its soldiers and police. "The government will show no leniency when it comes to the rights of its citizens," said a statement issued by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's office.
Unless the victims were Sunnis ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder how long it will take Obean to make the wrong decision this time.
#2
If Obummer quickly gets behind an "objective UN inquiry", I think that would be absolute confirmation of my suggestion yesterday that The One's administration was behind the documents dump.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
10/24/2010 1:35 Comments ||
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#5
The axiomatic flaw in this is the assumption that from the very first moment of the occupation, the US and its allies were in total control of the country, *and* that it had the available resources to "drop everything and investigate" allegations of abuse by one third party against another third party.
#6
What Anonymoose said. Our troops were fighting an active war until last year. Things are done differently during a war, which is why we don't have soldiers policing my neighborhood.
[Pak Daily Times] Iraq's prime minister is accusing WikiLeaks of releasing documents of prisoner abuse by Iraqi security forces to sabotage his re-election hopes. A statement released on Saturday by Nouri al-Maliki's office says the timing of the documents' release raises questions about whether it was motivated by politics. Earlier, on the same day main political rivals charged that documents serve as a warning against keeping Maliki in power. The trove of nearly 400,000 WikiLeaks documents detail reports by the US military of alleged abuse by Iraqi security forces after al-Maliki, a Shia, became prime minister in May 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
good - he's been cozying up to the Sadr factions (see: Iranian Tools) for a majority support
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2010 15:40 Comments ||
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#3
VERSUS
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > IRAN TELLS IRAQI PH:
[d *** ng it] GET RID OF AMERICA.
and
* ISRAEL NN > INDIAN ARMY CHIEF [GEN VK Singh] CONCERNED OVER PAKISTAN NUKES [safety from Militant takeover].
AGENT MAXWELL SMART > LOCAL, REGIONAL MILITANTS ARMED WID PAK NUKES-WMDS [Captured or via Govt-Pol Power-Share] IS JUST NOT RIGHT FOR NICENESS, + is a realistic strategic concern/issue for Indjuh = India.
[Geo TV] WikiLeaks said on Saturday its release of nearly 400,000 classified US files on the Iraq war showed 15,000 more Iraqi civilians died than previously thought.
Uploaded on the WikiLeaks' website, the files detailed gruesome cases of prisoner abuse by Iraqi forces that the US military knew about but did not seem to investigate.
In Storied Baghdad, Iraqi officials responded to WikiLeaks' move by pledging to probe any allegations that police or soldiers had committed crimes and saying any culprits would be prosecuted.
The whistle-blowing website's founder, Julian Assange, who was sharply criticised by the Pentagon for publishing the secret reports, said the release should throw light on what had happened in Iraq, thwarting an official "attack on the truth".
"We hope to correct some of that attack on the truth that occurred before the war, during the war and which has continued on since the war officially concluded," he told a news conference in London.
Working with Iraq Body Count, a group run by academics and peace muscle that estimates Iraq casualties, WikiLeaks had calculated that the documents revealed about 15,000 previously unknown civilian deaths, Assange said.
"Adding in the combatant deaths reported in these logs ... we are now able to say that more than 150,000 people have been killed in total since 2003, of which about 80 percent were civilians," Iraq Body Count co-founder John Sloboda said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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Gee, no kidding. In a part of the world where prisoners have never been treated well, it turns out that American treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib really was an aberration on the part of our soldiers. Whereas, that sort of abusive treatment was a daily occurrence at Iraqi facilities. The NYT reporters wring their hands a lot in this long piece (just the first few paragraphs presented here), point to some Wikileaks documents, and note that President Bambi is depending on these same Iraqi police units to run the place after we pull out. No doubt the IP will have changed their tactics by then: they'll quit filing written reports.
The public image of detainees in Iraq was defined by the photographs, now infamous, of American abuse at Abu Ghraib, like the hooded prisoner and the snarling attack dog. While the documents disclosed by WikiLeaks offer few glimpses of what was happening inside American detention facilities, they do contain indelible details of abuse carried out by Iraq's army and police.
The six years of reports include references to the deaths of at least six prisoners in Iraqi custody, most of them in recent years. Beatings, burnings and lashings surfaced in hundreds of reports, giving the impression that such treatment was not an exception. In one case, Americans suspected Iraqi Army officers of cutting off a detainee's fingers and burning him with acid. Two other cases produced accounts of the executions of bound detainees.
And while some abuse cases were investigated by the Americans, most noted in the archive seemed to have been ignored, with the equivalent of an institutional shrug: soldiers told their officers and asked the Iraqis to investigate.
A Pentagon spokesman said American policy on detainee abuse "is and has always been consistent with law and customary international practice." Current rules, he said, require forces to immediately report abuse; if it was perpetrated by Iraqis, then Iraqi authorities are responsible for investigating.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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The new trove of documents released by WikiLeaks portrays the long history of tensions between Kurds and Arabs in the north of Iraq and reveals the fears of some American units about what might happen after American troops leave the country by the end of 2011.
Without strong and fair influence, likely from a third party, these tensions may quickly turn to violence after the U.S. forces withdrawal, warned a Sept. 28, 2009, field report.
Experts have long watched the tensions in the region with worry. Their main fear is not that senior Kurdish officials will seek a confrontation with the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. The main interest of the political leadership, many experts say, is making sure the oil-rich region continues to grow economically.
Rather, it is that local Kurdish and Arab politicians and security officials may take matters into their own hands if crucial disputes remain unsettled, particularly after the departure of American forces, which have regularly worked behind the scenes to head off confrontations.
Kurds and Arabs are at odds over power-sharing arrangements in the Kirkuk region, the degree of federalism that should be allowed in the Iraqi state, the terms of a new oil law and territorial disputes. Those disputes have been complicated by the fact that American forces initially welcomed the presence of Kurdish troops, the pesh merga, in some parts of northern Iraq to help fend off insurgents.
Relations have been so fraught that Gen. Ray Odierno, who recently left his post as the senior American commander in Iraq, established a series of checkpoints, maintained by American, Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers, to head off confrontations, either accidental or planned.
Obama administration officials have voiced hopes that the Kurds participation in a new governing coalition will foster long-deferred compromises and lead to the gradual integration of pesh merga fighters into Iraqs army. But little headway has been made on Kurdish-Arab issues in recent years. The administration is also planning to open embassy branch offices in the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, which would enable American diplomats to focus on Arab and Kurdish issues even after American forces depart.
From this point on the article details lots of specific incidents; go there if you're interested in the gory details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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Amidst all the NYT handwringing in this piece there is an extra-ordinary admission: the surge worked.
The Surge. Better intel. Disciplining the Iraqi police. Getting the Sunni sheiks on our side. The Sons of Iraq. A better understanding that by mid 2006 Iraq was in a sectarian war. Mookie vamoosing to Iran. And, as it turns out, the efforts of a lot of Iraqi civilians who got tired of all the killing and decided to help make it stop.
General Petraeus, and 140,000 American troops, and many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, got it right. The NYT implicitly admits it.
Better late than never.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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The NYT decided to publish a 'selection' of papers from the big document dump by Wikileaks. This particular article documents how Iran aided and abetted Iraqi terrorists and insurgents from 2005 to near the present day.
The article is way too long to reprint in full here. The NYT does link to source documents, some of which I've posted separately.
Note all the civilians who died because of Iran's actions. Wonder if they'll be recorded as such in the next Lancet?
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#4
In 400,000 documents there are bound to be items that can be used to support pretty much anyone's position (sort of like the Crayon, or even the Bible.)
In only a few cases can specific harm (or good) be traced directly to a specific document. If there is evidence of a 'Mi Lai Massacre' then it would be better to release that alone rather than camoflaging it in all the rest.
Our (more competent) enemies and potential enemies will be sifting through all this seemingly innocuous stuff, gathering data on tactics, relationships, and maybe personnel; people will die because of it, though we'll never know exactly which ones.
I already said: i *do* think the names should have been redacted. However that is not the be-all and end-all of Wikileaks. In the NY Times story it said that many who worked at Wikileaks were angry with Assange for not redacting. So this is a thing likely to change in the future.
it doesn't mean Wikileaks is worthless.
also if you are good at finding out where people live, please post the home address of Mike Moore so we can go and have a noisy religious ceremony at his house at 5am on a Sunday morning to teach him the wisdom of tolerance in a multiculti society (since he wants a ground zero mosque so bad, he won't mind).
Glenmore: I agree with you. 400,000 documents is just too many, and they could have been culled to just the important ones. Maybe they don't have enough volunteers to do so
#6
Don't do that. Don't go there, even to make a rhetorical point. We're all friends here. AoS.
Sorry about that, both Steve and anon1. No I don't know where you live. I thought it was clear that I was trying to make a point rhetorically. I guess it worked.
It is not good to publish everything you know because the bad guys can use it as well. It just makes the game an order of magnitude more difficult for both sides. Whether that information is names and addresses or if it's methods and tactics some things don't need to be known the world around.
#8
I already said: i *do* think the names should have been redacted.
Because doing so is all it takes to keep forensic analysts from gathering the puzzle pieces and putting two and two together. /Sarc off. You do realize that redacting names is only the equivalent of using an eraser, when I can come along and get a rubbing of the letter impressions so to speak off of the page, or as it were using locations and deductive reasoning to get identities with or without your help. Dur, dur, dur.
(KUNA) -- Ismail Haniya, prime minister of the sacked Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-led Paleostinian government in Gazoo Strip, called Saturday on the international community to put more pressue of Israel in order to set free Paleostinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
At a conference here, the Hamas leader noted that every dignitary, visiting Gazoo, talked about the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit but ignored more than 8,000 Paleostinian political detainees.
Haniya said there were no detention centers in Gazoo for political prisoners and that there would never be.
He appealed for the Arab leaders, in particular Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, to work towards the release of Paleostinian political prisoners detained in Arab countries.
"It is shameful that political prisoners are held in Paleostine and in Arab countries while we demand that Israel releases our prisoners," Haniya said.
He called on his government Prisoners' Affairs Ministry to form a delegation of detainees' relatives to visit Arab and European countries as part of lobbying for prisoners' rights at an international level.
The delegation should include families of Paleostinian detainees whether in Israeli or Arab jails, he said, adding that his government would fund all expenses of the tour.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
an alive Shalit or none, dickhead
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2010 1:11 Comments ||
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#2
Out of a plane at 30000 feet without parachute I can live with.
(KUNA) -- The Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi announced Saturday that the ministry has succeeded in improving the range of its mid-range missile defense system "Mersad".
Minister Vahidi told Fars News Agency (FNA) that the "Mersad" missile system is a highly important system and the range of its new generation will be more than the range of its current generation possessed by the Iranian Armed Forces.
Elaborating to FNA on the features of the missile system, Vahidi said that "Mersad" is capable of destroying advanced airplanes in low and mid altitudes.
The new generation of Mersad system covers higher altitudes and hits more targets simultaneously, he added.
Noting that the Mersad defense system enjoys superior and more capabilities than its western rivals like the Hag mid-range defense system, Vahidi reiterated at the time that Mersad is resistant to electronic warfare and can be used as part of a network of radar and air defense systems, FNA said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
hopefully they get a chance to test it real soon
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2010 9:07 Comments ||
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#2
Likely, if the Iranians have done anything (besides bluster),is what the Iraqis did with the Scud: add a booster.
At least the debris will rain over Iranian territory this time.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Phil Shiner, 
(KUNA) -- Ismail Haniya, prime minister of the sacked 
