#2
Ah, Martha Raye. The old Hollywood. Not only did she support the troops in WWII she was there in Vietnam. Not at the big base camps, but the little SF outposts garnering her the title Colonel Maggie. She rests with her boys now at Fort Bragg.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A top US military officer in Afghanistan has ordered his commanders to pull troops out of areas where NATO fought bloody battles with the Taliban over the past months.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said the move was because of the realization that the areas were not going to be brought under government control anytime soon, CBS News reported on Tuesday.
The Taliban strongholds reportedly include regions bordering Pakistan where insurgency has skyrocketed over the past months.
The occupation forces have recently suffered heavy losses in southern and eastern Afghanistan where the Taliban has stepped up attacks against coalition troops with roadside bombs and ambushes.
Senior Afghan officials have expressed concern over the move, saying any withdrawal from Taliban-held territories would only make the Kabul government appear even more powerless in the eyes of insurgents.
The developments come after a London-based policy research group said this week that the Taliban had a significant presence in almost every corner of Afghanistan, eight years after their overthrow by US-led forces.
A security map by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) showed a deepening security crisis with substantial Taliban activity in at least 97 percent of the war-ravaged country.
The withdrawal comes after US-led forces in Afghanistan lost 77 troops in August, setting a new record. At least 334 foreign troops have been killed in the country in 2009, according to icasualties.org, which tracks coalition casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, every Afghan in the abandoned areas who ever helped the ISAF forces will now be toast - and no Afghan anywhere will ever again help ISAF - because to do so is to invite a death sentence, once ISAF forces run away.
Other than that, this is probably a good move......
Personally, I think we should pull out of Afghanistan completely - with a warning that we will obliterate any grid squares that we ever suspect are projecting any sort of mischief outside of Afghanistan. On the way out, hang a sign on the exterior door "Welcome to the 7th century - hell on earth."
#2
"Personally, I think we should pull out of Afghanistan completely - with a warning that we will obliterate any grid squares that we ever suspect are projecting any sort of mischief outside of Afghanistan."
Nobody will believe us. I wouldn't.
We'd have to prove it by doing it.
And we'd never do it.
More setting the stage for the Islamist HIDDEN IMAM-MAHDI to make His Appearance and wage [future]"DECISIVE/STRATEGIC BATTLE" agz the Amer Infidel elite units.
#5
ION SINODEFENSE FORUM > IS CHINA PLANNING A MILITARY STRIKE BEYOND ITS BORDERS/ WHY EUROPE SHOULD UNDERSTAND THE VIOLENCE IN URUMQI [ Uighurs = Xinjiang]. Instigators of the violence in Xinjiang are allegedly foreigners from outside of China and intentionally brought into Xinjiang???
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top military officer in Afghanistan, has told his commanders to pull forces out of sparsely populated areas where U.S. troops have fought bloody battles with the Taliban for several years and focus them on protecting major Afghan population centers.
But the changes, which amount to a retreat from some areas, have already begun to draw resistance from senior Afghan officials who worry that any pullback from Taliban-held territory will make the weak Afghan government appear even more powerless in the eyes of its people.
Senior U.S. officials said the moves were driven by the realization that some remote regions of Afghanistan, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountains that range through the northeast, were not going to be brought under government control anytime soon. "Personally, I think I am being realistic about this," said Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan. "I have more combat power than my predecessors did, but I won't be as spread out. . . . This is all about freeing up some forces so I can get them out more among the people."
The changes are in line with McChrystal's confidential assessment of the war, which urges U.S. and NATO forces to "initially focus on critical high-population areas that are contested or controlled by insurgents."
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/23/2009 11:00 Comments ||
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#9
The military is crystal clear on one thing: if they are not given the support from Washington, they are not going to stick their necks out.
The Democrats have made it clear that they think of the military as ignorant and expendable, that they know nothing of foreign or military policy, and that their indecisiveness and waffling will get military personnel killed.
I heartily agree with McChrystal on this. Pull back to the cities and go into defensive mode. The Taliban cannot break our defenses, nor even mount a substantial offense in which they don't get slaughtered. Let the Pak army drive most of them into Afghanistan, and they are basically neutered.
If the Pushtun love them so much, let them live with them.
#11
Mccrystal isnt even saying pull back into the cities. Its still a plan to aggressively go after SELECT rural areas. dead tree Wapo included a map, mirabili dictu. ISAF will concentrate on Jalalabad area, with high population density, rural areas accessible to the city, and, what the report does not say, key location on route from Kabul to Khyber. They will push up Konar River valley from there in to south Nurestan. They will NOT bother trying to protect N nurestan,
Will this leave some folks to the tender mercies of the taliban - yes BUT A. Not many folks in those villages anyways B. They werent really being protected anyways
When we did the surge, we focused on one area at a time, actually working based on geography.
#12
WAFF > WSJ:OBAMA AND THE POLITICS OF CONCESSION/IRAN AND RUSSIA PUT OBAMA TO THE TEST IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS, AND HE BLINKED TWICE.
ION SAME > AHMADINEJAD PERSONALLY RECRUITED SANCTIONS BUSTER DURING NEW YORK TRIP, COURT DOCUMENTS SHOW [Pro-Iran, anti-US/UNSC].
* HINDUSTAN TIMES > INDIA: US NEEDS TO CHANGE ITS LIFESTYLE ["quality of life"] TO SAVE THE PLANET. USA = OBAMA Admin has now begun to enter the INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTIST ARENA???
#14
I just got done reading GEN McChrystals' assessment, as posted on the Washington Post website.
It is well-written.
But - it has one big flaw. It assumes that there is some possibility of achieving that one out of his four key "pillars" of a successful outcome that refers to creating a competent and influential GIRoA (Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan), that exerts control over the full national territory.
This is pipe dream. There is zero possibility of extending any sort of national identity into the 17th mountain valley back from the nearest road, in some forsaken quarter of Afghanistan. I would be surprised if the inhabitants of that valley even had a vocabulary word for "country" or "nation". It is an alien concept. Every mountain valley is its own little island of humanity - largely oblivious to what is going on in Kabul - much less in other parts of the world.
Thus - this crucial "pillar" is unattainable - and we need to get out of that country - period. 'No more American blood and treasure thrown down that rat hole
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Canadian has pleaded guilty of a terrorist association with a group of alleged Islamic militants accused of plotting attacks in Toronto and Ottawa in 2006, Canadian media reported.
Ali Dirie, 26, who entered the plea Monday, was the second member of the "Toronto 18" group to plead guilty to terrorism charges, after Saad Khalid, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison earlier this month.
The reports in the National Post and the Toronto Star could not immediately be confirmed with the Canadian justice ministry.
Born in Somalia and raised in Syria and Toronto, Dirie was arrested on the Canadian-U.S. border August 13, 2005 while trying to reenter Canada with two loaded semi-automatic handgun, the National Post said on its website.
The driver of the vehicle, Yasin Mohamed, also was carrying a weapon, according to authorities.
Initially, the two men were prosecuted and imprisoned for illegal possession of firearms.
But on June 26 they were indicted on terrorism charges after authorities disrupted a plot that allegedly targeted Toronto's CN Tower, the city's stock exchange, a building housing the Canadian secret service, and the parliament in Ottawa. Charges were subsequently dropped against Mohamed but not Dirie.
To foil the plot, the police infiltrated the group, whose objective allegedly was to gain the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan.
Dirie is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a court in a Toronto suburb for sentencing hearings. A sentence is expected Oct. 2, according to the Toronto Star.
Seven of the 18 people arrested in mid-2006 were quickly released without charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2009 00:00 ||
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Anywhere in the world they have Muslims they have terrorism.
Posted by: Ana ||
09/23/2009 10:16 Comments ||
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Reporting from Washington and New York - Federal authorities have tied as many as a dozen people to a suspected Al Qaeda-linked bomb plot on U.S. soil as they continue to gather evidence to indict on terrorism charges the young Afghan immigrant at the center of the case, law enforcement officials said Monday.
Authorities said that they did not know the exact number of potential suspects or many of their identities, but that they had been connected through electronic intercepts, surveillance, seized evidence and interviews.
A federal law enforcement official and others, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the high level of secrecy surrounding the investigation, said the suspects appeared concentrated in the New York area, with possibly others in the suspect's home state of Colorado and elsewhere.
Of particular interest are several individuals that Najibullah Zazi, 24, had met or communicated with on a trip to New York two weeks ago.
In interviews and court filings, federal law enforcement officials said they feared that Zazi was meeting in New York with co-conspirators in a possible plot to bomb subway stations or other crowded civilian targets.
The disclosures came as Zazi, of Aurora, Colo., and two other men arrested Saturday night made their first court appearances Monday on charges of making false statements to federal authorities.
Zazi, his father Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, and Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, of Queens, N.Y., were held in custody on orders by judges in Colorado and New York.
Several of the officials said it was likely that Najibullah Zazi will be charged with providing material support to a known terrorist organization based on his admission that he trained in weapons and explosives at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan last year. That admission was cited in an FBI affidavit unsealed over the weekend.
The affidavit also alleges that authorities found images on Najibullah Zazi's laptop of nine pages of notes on making explosives and fuses, apparently in his own handwriting. In addition, the affidavit alleges that authorities have found other information linking Zazi to the suspected plot, including his fingerprints on a small electronic scale and double-A batteries, which are often used in making bombs.
One federal law enforcement official said more serious charges were being considered for Zazi as leverage to get him to cooperate in the investigation and provide information on others who may be involved.
Zazi, who had been monitored by authorities for some time after returning from a trip to Pakistan, was stopped on a New York bridge on Sept. 10 after driving from Colorado on what he said was a trip to settle a business deal that had gone sour.
New York police checked his car and allowed him to leave, according to court documents. Soon after, police showed pictures of Zazi and several others to Afzali, the imam of a Queens mosque who had worked as a police informant in the past.
Zazi and his father later talked by phone with Afzali, who told them of his contact with New York City police detectives.
Zazi flew back to Colorado and agreed to be questioned by FBI agents, who interviewed him for three days. Zazi abruptly stopped cooperating with authorities on Saturday, prompting his arrest.
The false statement charges against the three men result from their conversations with authorities about what they knew about the alleged plot or had told one another about the investigation.
In announcing the charges on Sunday, Assistant Atty. Gen. David Kris emphasized that authorities had "no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack."
The three Afghan-born men, all legal residents of the U.S., have maintained their innocence. They face up to eight years in prison if convicted on the false statement charges.
Zazi and his father, both shuttle drivers at Denver International Airport, were handcuffed for their court appearances Monday afternoon, wearing the same casual street clothes in which they were arrested.
Zazi told Judge Craig Shaffer he didn't wish to exercise his right to have diplomatic officials from his home country intervene but might do so in the future. It wasn't clear whether those officials would be from Afghanistan, where he was born, or Pakistan, where he lived as a child.
Zazi will remain in federal custody at least until Thursday, when a detention and preliminary hearing is scheduled.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2009 00:00 ||
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Four Indian soldiers and five militants have been killed in fresh clashes in the volatile region of Kashmir, police said Wednesday. Three separate clashes occurred in the northern districts of Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora, a police spokesman said, adding that two of the gunbattles that started overnight were still raging.
"Troop reinforcements have been sent to Bandipora as militants and soldiers are engaged in a fierce encounter," a police officer Muzaffer Ahmed said, adding that the fighting erupted after soldiers raided a rebel hideout. "Soldiers are evacuating villagers from the adjoining houses before going for a final assault," Ahmed said.
Police said an army major and a special commando were among the dead and four other soldiers had been wounded.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A mixed primary school on the outskirts of Peshawar has been blown up and pro-Taliban militants are the main suspects.
"The school building, which consisted of three rooms, was destroyed in the blast," local police official Hamzullah Khan said on Tuesday. Militants planted explosives to destroy the small school, he added .
There were no reports of causalities in the bombing attack as the school was closed for the Eid al-Fitr celebration, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Peshawar is the capital of the North West Frontier Province and very close to Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Pro-Taliban militants have destroyed hundreds of government schools, mostly girls' schools, in northwestern Pakistan over the past few years despite a government pledge to safeguard education.
The militants want to impose their harsh interpretation of Islamic law on the country and are strongly opposed to education for girls. They frequently target girls' schools since the hardliners believe that the education of girls is un-Islamic.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] At least 34 suspected militants were killed in South Waziristan clashes, while the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claims to have killed 45 security personnel.
Gunship helicopters pounded militant hideouts in South Waziristan, killing at least 26 suspected militants while injuring several others. According to official sources, security forces targeted hideouts in the Spina Tigha and Makeen areas of South Waziristan.
In North Waziristan, eight suspected militants were killed in clashes with security forces in the Razmak area. Sources say a security check post in Upper and Lower Kofar in North Waziristan came under attack by some 600 militants. In the ensuing clashes eight suspected militants were shot dead.
Meanwhile the Tehrik-i-Taliban spokesperson Azam Tariq said the Taliban killed at least 45 security personnel in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2009 00:00 ||
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One police informant was shot dead and another was seriously wounded in a ride-by shooting early Wednesday in the southern border province of Yala.
Sixteen-year-old Maruding Waeteh was killed by unidentified assailants. The victim was shot in his torso many times, according to Pol Col Sawat Dearvirat, superintendent of Yaha Police Station. The other victim, identified as 28-year-old Mahama Arsae, was shot in his right arm and was hospitalised at Yala Hospital.
Preliminary investigation found that the duo was ambushed by assailants hiding in roadside bushes as they drove a motorcycle to their home. Police said the attack was presumed to be related to the jihad insurgency as the victims were both police informants reporting the movement of terrorists insurgents active in the area.
(Reuters) - Al Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahri appeared on Tuesday in a new video apparently marking the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, according to a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service.
Zawahri was among leading figures from the group who spoke in the 106-minute Arabic-language video, entitled "The West ... and The Dark Tunnel," SITE Institute said.
The video mentioned events of the past year including the global financial crisis and the election of U.S. President Barack Obama. It was posted on websites often used by al Qaeda supporters.
Analysts suggested that the posting of the latest tape might have been delayed by nearly two weeks after the anniversary of the attacks because websites have been jammed or because al Qaeda is finding it harder to operate.
I've got two worthy causes that I've set aside because I wanted to answer them right. One is our friend Scott Ott, aka Scrappleface, who's made the probably soul-gobbling decision to run for local office in Pennsylvania. He's asking for donations and Gawd knows they need someone with a senzayuma in PA gummint. His campaign war chest appears to be a bit under target.
The other worthy cause is Bill Roggio, who's collecting for Long War Journal. It ain't cheap running an actual news making operation, and Bill's not rolling in dough. So kick in if you've got it. Donations to this one are tax deductible.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Thanks for the reminder, Fred. I donated to Scott earlier this summer and meant to send more, but time got away from me. Will rectify that tonight.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/22/2009 13:10 Comments ||
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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.
[Dawn] At least 34 suspected militants were killed in South Waziristan clashes, while the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claims to have killed 45 security personnel. 
