The call came into the behavior specialists here from a doctor in Afghanistan. His patient had just been through a firefight and now was cowering under a cot, refusing to come out.
Apparently even the chew toys hadn't worked.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, thought Dr. Walter F. Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine at the Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base. Specifically, canine PTSD.
If anyone needed evidence of the frontline role played by dogs in war these days, here is the latest: the four-legged, wet-nosed troops used to sniff out mines, track down enemy fighters and clear buildings are struggling with the mental strains of combat nearly as much as their human counterparts.
By some estimates, more than 5 percent of the approximately 650 military dogs deployed by American combat forces are developing canine PTSD. Of those, about half are likely to be retired from service, Dr. Burghardt said.
The ICC's chief prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant for Sudan's defense minister on war crimes charges. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein helped to mastermind attacks against villages in Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004. Hussein was Sudan's interior minister at the time.
A statement says the attacks followed a pattern in which the villages were surrounded, bombed by the Sudanese air force, then attacked by troops and the Janjaweed militia, who murdered and raped villagers. A panel of judges must now review the evidence and decide whether to issue a warrant for Hussein's arrest.
Chief Justice Willy Mutunga dug in on Thursday, warning the Executive to stop interfering with the Judiciary. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a judge who had issued warrants of arrest against Sudanese president Hassan Omar Al-Bashir, Justice Mutunga said his judges would not be intimidated into bending the law.
Kenya must choose between anarchy and the rule of the law, he said.
"The Judiciary and its officers shall not be intimidated to bend the law," he added.
"In accordance with Article 160 of the Constitution, each individual judicial officer is independent and is not subject to the control or direction of any person or authority in the dispensation of judicial duties," the CJ said.
High Court judge Nicholas Ombija on Monday ordered Internal Security minister George Saitoti, who is in charge of the police, to ensure the arrest and handing over of the Sudanese leader to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... if he sets foot in Kenya.
President Al-Bashir is wanted for crimes against humanity and genocide at the ICC.
While the ruling was in keeping with the law, especially the treaty setting up the ICC, it flew in the face of regional politics and diplomacy. The warrant triggered a diplomatic confrontation between Nairobi and Khartoum, with the latter kicking out Kenya's ambassador to Sudan, Mr Robert Mutua, and recalling its own.
The government, which has made commitment to the African Union not to arrest President Al-Bashir and is involved in various regional security and diplomatic initiatives with Khartoum, reacted to the warrants with horror. Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang'ula, who rushed to Khartoum to mollify Mr Bashir, on Tuesday described the warrant as "insensitive" and has promised to appeal.
"As much as we respect the ruling of the High Court, we are aware that the court does not operate in a vacuum. It is important that the country's national interests as well as the wider interests of the region that we live in are taken into account in matters of this nature. Since our judicial system provides for right of appeal, we shall carefully look at the judgment with a view to requesting the Attorney General to expeditiously prefer an appeal in the matter," Mr Wetang'ula said.
But in a terse statement, Justice Mutunga asked the Executive to respect the separation of powers and keep off the Judiciary's domain.
"I have stated before that the Judiciary does not intend to use its independence or interpret the doctrine of separation of powers in a manner that transgresses the domain of the Executive and the Legislature," he said.
It was "worrying", the Chief Justice said, for senior government officials to make disparaging public statements that undermine judicial officers and the Judiciary in general. He advised anybody aggrieved by a court ruling to appeal against it instead of threatening to disobey such ruling.
"Any dissatisfaction with a decision of the court should be followed with an appeal and not proclamations of non-observance of court orders," the CJ said, adding that failure to obey court orders amounted to overthrowing the Constitution.
In Parliament section of MPs supported the warrant of arrest issued against Al-Bashir. The MPs criticised the government's intention to contest the High Court decision and accused it of encouraging impunity. They accused the government of treating Mr Bashir with kid gloves despite the warrant of arrest by the ICC.
Defence assistant minister David Musila said Mr Bashir should keep off Kenya if he did not want to be placed in long-term storage. Nyakach MP Pollyns Ochieng' criticised the government for sending Mr Wetang'ula to settle the issue with Mr Bashir following the ruling.
"This government is promoting impunity yet it is known that Mr Bashir is on ICC's most wanted list over the Darfur killings," the MP said.
Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale said Kenya had no responsibility to protect Mr Bashir.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka, defended the government. He said the Sudan is a significant peace player in the Horn of Africa and Kenya must maintain friendly relations with it.
And Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... expressed support for the warrants against President Bashir.
"It is wonderful to see the Kenyan courts acting in line with Kenya's international commitments and the Constitution," Human Rights Watch front man Ben Rawlence told the Nation. "Now the government must uphold their decision and act on it."
In Malindi, the executive director of the International Commission of Jurists, Kenya chapter, Mr George Kegoro, said the government was bound by the Rome Statute and the ruling of the High Court.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2011 00:00 ||
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The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm on Thursday distanced itself from a more conservative Islamist party as early vote tallies indicated that the two factions would claim the two largest roles in the first Parliament elected since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Responding to reports that the two Islamist parties together could form a majority of the new Parliament, the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party denied that there was any "alleged alliance" with the ultraconservative party, Al Nour, to form "an Islamist government." Al Nour is not 'conservative'. Al Nour is Islamicist and fascist.
The statement appeared to be aimed at quieting the anxiety of Egyptian liberals and Western governments about the unexpectedly large share of the vote apparently won by Al Nour, which was formed by the ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis. It also reflected the fine line that the Muslim Brotherhood is walking as it tries to hold together its most ardent Islamist supporters in the streets without provoking a backlash at home or internationally.
#1
One thing I will say about the MB, is that they certainly know how to be diplomatic. This in its own right indicates that they are pragmatic and smart enough to "do business", without going the Salafist or Wahhabi route.
Hopefully they will form a government with the secular party, so that the emphasis is on improving the economy, public services and infrastructure, "and we'll worry about the other stuff later."
#2
I'm expecting them to start out moderate and slowly become Hamas.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2011 12:28 Comments ||
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#3
They have a long history of spawning - and funnelling people, money, other support to - more radical groups while keeping the main brand name 'moderate'.
#4
Erdogan's party started out claiming to be moderate Islamists, too... For that matter, electing Hamas was supposed to moderate them because they would have to compromise their principles in order to govern effectively. We've seen how well that worked.
The Obama administration has proposed selling 600 "bunker buster" bombs and other munitions to the United Arab Emirates, which lies across the Gulf from Iran, to deter what it called regional threats.
Iran is widely suspected of seeking to develop nuclear arms through a program that Tehran says is for peaceful power generation only.
The proposed $304 million sale would include 4,900 tail kits built by Boeing Co that turn unguided free-fall bombs into guided weapons and 4,300 "general purpose" bombs, the Defense Department said in a mandatory arms sale notice dated Wednesday.
The deal would boost UAE's ability "to meet current and future regional threats" and to help deter aggression, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in the note to lawmakers.
#1
So how many first line aircraft does the UAE have, along with first line pilots? Air refueling capability? Air defense in case the stuff comes in instead of going out?
Maybe this is a face-saving way of pre-positioning munitions on UAE airfields in case any of the big boys need a refill.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/02/2011 10:06 Comments ||
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#2
Aircraft include 54 F-16/Es and 25 F-16/Fs, plus a couple dozen Dassault multirole fighters.
Air refueling? UAE's right across the Straits of Hormuz from Iran. If they were based just north, in Qatar, I *think* they could make it to Qom and back. Don't know about Qom from UAE, but definitely Bushehr.
Air defense? UAE as well as Bahrain and Qatar has kindly hosted a US military presence for some time. It's fair to expect it would be a protected air space.
#4
These are the 2000# bunker busters, I think. They should be able to be delivered by an F-16, I would think. One with one of those cool new extra fuel tanks. But it seems to me that they would be much smaller than they would need against Iran, who is the only on they probably need to worry about.
#6
Maybe these bunker busters are smaller than they should be. But what would happen if the same exact spot were hit 5 times in a row by these lightweights? I expect the hole would get very deep very quickly.
#7
Good news, guys, about the equipment. I think I'd still be interested in the quality of the aircrew. Unless they were trained in the US/UK.
Read a cross-cultural manual many years ago, by the USAF since they had to do it and make it work as opposed to the nearest anthro dept, and they had many cautions about working with guys from the Arab culture. Not that they were necessarily substandard material but that they were difficult to train due to different world views. A marginal difference, though.
On the other hand, those little oil spots could afford to pay ex-military F16 pilots a pretty decent per diem.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/02/2011 14:42 Comments ||
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Police said they have made more than 20 arrests at a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in London Friday. Twenty people have been held on suspicion of being members of a banned group and another two were detained for obstruction and violent disorder. A police spokesman declined to confirm a report that the protesters were members of Muslims Against Crusades, a fringe Islamist group.
The group, which was banned by Home Secretary Theresa May last month, are notorious for a 2010 protest during which it burned poppies on Remembrance Day and chanted "British soldiers, burn in hell." It had previously held a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
South Korea will light up a giant Christmas tree overlooking the heavily armed border with North Korea for the second year running. A government official on Wednesday said the Defense Ministry received a request from Christian groups to illuminate the Christmas tree on Aegibong peak and asked for approval from Cheong Wa Dae.
The steel tree will be illuminated from about a week over Christmas since no government agency opposes the move, the official added.
A Unification Ministry official said Minister Yu Woo-ik maintains his more “flexible” approach to the North, but this has nothing to do with the Christmas tree.
The steel structure on Aegibong peak, only 3 km from North Korea, was illuminated from Dec. 21 to Jan. 8 last year. In high-level military talks between the two Koreas in 2004, the two countries agreed to end propaganda activities along the border, of which the Christmas tree forms a part, but after North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong island last year, it was lit up again.
North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun daily has already denounced the un-Socialist illumination and said, "The psychological warfare activities of the puppet regime have entered full swing."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Actually, it's a device for remotely siphoning off their precious bodily fluids.
So while tens of thousands of Americans continue to be harmed or killed every year by overdoses from drugs originating from this illicit opium trade, and while cultivation of innocuous crops like marijuana and hemp remains illegal in the US, the American military is actively guarding the very poppy fields in Afghanistan that fuel the global drug trade. Something is terribly wrong with this picture. You'll have to RTWT to see how the author comes to this "conclusion".
'Prison Planet' is barking mad. Just to be clear.
Let's not make a habit of posting stuff from them.
#1
Well, the author has a few problems with facts. On the other hand, poppy fields cannot exactly be hidden. So given US military presence in the land, it's hard to believe that opium growing can continue---unless it's allowed to continue.
#4
Let's not make a habit of posting stuff from them.
Know thy enemy ....
If you don't know what they're talking about, you won't know how they think or how to persuade them. This certainly comes out of left field and gives you a window into how they think.
#6
The War on Drugs has often resulted in uncomfortable paradoxical situations, because it is in conflict with powerful market forces that are far stronger than any anti-drug resolve or funding.
An excellent example was of the meeting between Vietnam war hero LTC (ret.) James Gordon "Bo" Gritz, and later, by Australian journalist Stephen Rice, with General Khun Sa, who ruled a large enclave in Burma.
Khun Sa was called the "opium king", because his enclave produced something like 1/3rd of the world's opium crop. But Khun Sa personally hated opium, and repeatedly offered both the governments of Australia and the US to change the economy of his enclave to conventional agriculture.
His argument was that the street value of the opium his enclave produced was about $600 billion a year, but if either nation would send farm equipment, pesticide, fertilizer, and most importantly agricultural advisers and consultants, to the tune of about $50 million, his enclave would convert to conventional agriculture and eliminate opium production entirely.
He was adamant that such advisers and consultants *had* to be part of the deal, for many years, to verify that all opium production had ceased beyond any doubt.
But the governments of both Australia and the US vehemently rejected his request, the former saying, “The Australian Government is simply not in the business of paying criminals to refrain from criminal activity.”
The Americans went a step further, threatening the government of Burma with a complete cut off of American aid, unless they invaded the enclave and killed Khun Sa.
Shortly thereafter, the newspapers in Burma's capital were filled with stories of the Burmese armies conquest of the enclave, a wonderful fabrication, because if anything, the Burmese government fully supported Khun Sa's activities. But the Burmese government correctly figured that the US diplomatic mission was so lazy that they would never actually bother to witness the "war" in person. So newspaper stories were enough.
LTC Gritz, however, apprehensive of the faux "war" in the papers, then gingerly returned to the enclave, to find it not just untouched, but considerably improved from its former state, with a new highway, so that Burmese army trucks could more efficiently haul their opium cargo for export.
As an epilogue, after considerable investigation, LTC Gritz concluded that, in an effort to prevent a worldwide drug war, civil wars in dozens of countries, the US had decided, since the very start of the WoD by Nixon, to essentially take over the world's drug trade, managing it to market forces, while to a great extent keeping the money and weapons involved out of the hands of revolutionary movements.
Since that time, tragically, LTC Gritz has somewhat "lost it", and become a radical right wing personality, though still loyal to the US.
#9
This problem of 'blowback' from the War on Drugs is so similar to the blowback from the decades long situation of the US protecting Lovers of Jihad Pumping Oil with our troops, that it makes my skin crawl.
#10
The area around Culiacan, Mexico remains the main source of heroin that is sold in the US. You hear about the cartels being based in Guadelajara, but that is only where the bosses live. Afghanistan produces 90% of the global market but much goes to Iran (2,000,000 addicts) and Pakistan (4,000,000 addicts). Euros get most of the rest.
American citizens are not immune from being treated like an enemy if they take up arms against the United States, the CIA general counsel said on Thursday.
CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston was responding to a question at an American Bar Association national security conference about the killing of Americans overseas without presenting evidence of wrongdoing.
A CIA drone strike killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, earlier this year.
He was linked to failed plots to blow up a U.S.-bound passenger plane in 2009 and cargo planes headed for the United States in 2010, U.S. officials say.
Preston said he would not discuss Awlaki or any specific operations.
"I will make this observation that citizenship does not confer immunity on one who takes up arms against his own country. It didn't in World War Two when there were American citizens who joined the Nazi army and it doesn't today," Preston said.
Jeh Johnson, Defense Department general counsel, said he echoed Preston's comments "in terms of those who are combatants, part of the congressionally declared enemy, who also happen to be U.S. citizens."
But he said the same view would not apply to someone who was not considered an enemy combatant.
"We go down a slippery slope if an individual who wants to do harm to Americans and who is inspired in his own basement by the writings he has read from al Qaeda and he hasn't interacted with a single other individual in that group, yet he has decided to do violence against America based on what he read, in my view is not part of the congressionally declared enemy and we have to be careful not to go down that landscape," Johnson said.
He said it was not feasible to take decisions made on enemy combatants to courts each time.
"Courts are not equipped to make those types of decisions which very often are based moment-by-moment on an intelligence picture that constantly evolves," Johnson said. Anwar Al-Awlaki was an evolving situation?
There is a very old word for his type: Traitor.
There is an even older way to deal with the situation: Kill them.
Sticking their head on a pike outside the city gates is optional.
Ancient wisdom.
Still good today.
#2
The trouble is, that now *most*, not just many, of the Patriot Act laws that neutralized the 4th Amendment, radically increased surveillance and search of innocent people with warrantless searches and wiretaps, and led to many federal agencies now having "SWAT-like" law enforcement powers for minor and administrative accusations of crime, are now used EXCLUSIVELY for NON-terrorism related crimes.
In other words, we sold our birthright for a mess of empty paranoia and authoritarianism.
And now, military "agencies", not necessarily who we think of as soldiers, will be able to secretly detain American citizens indefinitely, without arrest or trial.
Assuming that sane congressmen in the House-Senate conference committee do not kill this monster, or that, God help us all, Obama does not keep his promise, and fails to veto it.
Why should this authoritarian nightmare be any different than any of these other unconstitutional and horrific abuses?
This is as un-American as if we were a nation occupied by a hostile foreign power, imposing a martial law state on us.
Do not confuse "military" detention with our armed service branches. These "military" personnel would almost certainly be non-uniformed employees of other federal police and intelligence agencies, in a combined task force organization that does not answer to the Pentagon, yet receives DoD funding.
The very principle is obscene, to suggest that there is any need, ever, for Americans to be detained in America without arrest or trial, or that courts are unable to try such cases.
The police should detain if they must, but then citizens, at least, must be subject to arrest and its concomitant rights, indictment by a grand jury, and trial by a jury of their peers. Any excuse that this is "too burdensome", is utter nonsense.
#4
He went from encouraging to aiding to participating in planning attacks on the US and US citizens.
My thoughts: From the moment he stepped off the plane (if not before) whatever he did fell under "Aiding and Abetting". It's my understanding he was recruiting for Al Qaeda. That's basically the same as hiring hit men to murder Americans. And I would really hate to let a bunch of terrorists gain American citizenship just to shield them from getting what's coming to them. He needed to be killed just as surely as any other recruiter, bombmaker, bagman, or financier.
I'm sure the vast majority of Americans feel this way. The rest can move to Pakistan if it's so wrong.
#5
And thanks for the insight, lotp. It sounds like the government was waiting for him to step over some line before they went after him. In my mind, it happened as soon as he got off the plane.
#6
I would think the other part of "evolving situation" was finding the clever gentleman in the middle of his protective Yemeni tribal hosts, then following him with a Predator until he evolved himself into a place where it could reach out and touch him.
U.S. Senate on Thursday evening passed a 662-billion-dollar Defense spending bill, after a long fight with the administration over how terror suspects should be detained.
The bill, passed in a vote with overwhelming support of 93-7, would provide money for military personnel, weapons systems and defense programs, as well as the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
The bill came to the floor following a compromise late Thursday afternoon to add language on the detention of U.S. citizens and terror suspects on U.S. soil.
It requires military custody of a suspected member of al-Qaida or its affiliates and involved in plotting or committing attacks on the United States. U.S. citizens would be exempt.
The bill also allows the administration to waive the authority based on national security and hold a suspect in civilian custody.
The White House has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill over requirements for terrorism suspects to be detained in military installations, calling it a "legally controversial restriction of the president's authority."
The compromise was contained in an amendment offered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein. It states that the legislation did not alter existing law for the detention of U.S. citizens or anyone who was captured or arrested in the United States.
The administration and Congress have tussled over the detainee provision in the bill. The White House has opposed mandatory military custody for terror suspects. The administration also opposes an indefinite ban on transferring Guantanamo detainees.
With Senate greenlight, the bill now goes to conference committee with the House, which had its own ideas on terror suspects that must be reconciled with the Senate version. The House passed its version of the Defense bill in July.
#2
Vote for every tax cut out there and remind everyone that Obean will grind through his credit card all that much quicker and have to come begging hat in hand for more.
UPPER WEST SIDE, NY (PIX11)-- If you need to catch a cab, you may want to try the Upper West Side. Some residents who live next to the Islamic Cultural Center on Riverside Drive say their neighborhood is flooded with parked taxis every week.
"They are everywhere, hundreds of them. I joke with my doorman every Friday I can't find a cab," said John Hart, who lives across the street in a high-rise building.
"I have to pray," said a cabbie who did not want to give his name," I have no choice but to break the rules."
The Imam of the Islamic Cultural Center, Abdur Rahman, told PIX11 News, muslims must pray several times a day and that he urges his worshippers not to break any parking rules to pray. "A good muslim does not offend anybody. I wish the City, though, could give us 45 minutes on Fridays to pray, like Christians on Sunday," said Rahman.
"I don't know how they get away with it," said Hart, who hopes the N.Y.P.D. will crack down on parking violators. "It's a sea of yellow and its got to stop," continued Hart.
If any Rantburgers know a member of the NYPD, this would be wonderful income opportunity for the city -- and heaven knows New York could use additional income
#1
Have tow trucks start hovering around at prayer time and see what happens. Maybe a Sky Crane helicopter or two with electromagnets, just for dramatic effect. They can set the taxis down on the roof of the Islamic Cultural Center so they are out of the way.
#7
This is a high risk maneuver, because hack licenses (medallions) start at about $700,000 each, are heavily regulated and can be revoked easily, and there is a big backlog of those waiting in line to get them.
#8
So they aspire to become taxi drivers. What a class of immigrants! Maybe the next wave will want to deliver pizzas.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with honest work of this sort, which has been the entree to life in America for many immigrants whose educations and status back home were higher than those jobs suggest.
Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Friday gave his troops "full liberty" to respond to any further cross-border attacks by Nato forces in Afghanistan in the wake of an air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, official sources said.
The powerful army chief told commanders of units deployed along the western border with Afghanistan that they had "full liberty of action to respond (by) employing all capabilities" available at their disposal, the sources said.
Kayani was quoted by the sources as saying that there should be "no ambiguity in the rules of engagement for everyone down the chain of command" if they faced an attack by Nato forces.
Such an action would "require no clearance at any level" and the army would "provide resources as required on ground", he was quoted as saying.
Following Saturday's air strike on two military border posts in Mohmand Agency that killed 24 soldiers, Pakistan closed all Nato supply routes and asked the US to vacate Shamsi airbase, reportedly used by CIA-operated drones.
Pakistan also decided to boycott the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan to protest the attack.
#2
OK: you have a loser country dying under US sanctions on Sept. 11, 2001. And said losers have a policy of support for terror groups in a country that facilitated mass murder on US soil.
So the US lifts sanction against the losers, and enlists them in nation-building in the murdering-entity. The losers are handed tens of billions of dollars, with the unsupported assumption that existing "in depth" relations with the murderers would end.
Duh! Wouldn't the pathological losers be inclined seek conditions where they can at long last win, by undermining the nation-build idiocy, and supporting the murderers? Toss the pay-masters the occasional arab bone - for max photo op - while aiding and abetting continuing murder.
When stupidity prospers, none have the intelligence to call it stupidity.
#3
They cringe in face of Taliban push back in the Territories and now they engage in lower primate displays of aggression against something that could clean them out if there were no leashes holding them back?
#4
ION DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > US REJECTS DEMAND TO VACATE SHAMSI AIRBASE.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > {Guardian.UK = ISAF CHIef Gen. John Allen] AMERICA TO BEGIN TWO-YEAR OFFENSIVE AGZ "TERRORIST SANCTUARIES" FROM IN PAKISTAN [Eastern Afghanistan]: CROSS-BORDER ATTACKS [from Afghan into Pakistan] CANNOT BE RULED OUT | NATO PLANS TO QUELL PAK-BASED INSURGENTS [in Afghanistan]: GUARDIAN.
Focii to be agz MilTerr controlled by
> Haqqanis.
> Mullah Nazir.
> Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
ARTIC > WESTERN DIPLOMAT - PAKISTAN MAY NOT HAVE THE STRENGTH/POWER TO DEFEAT THE TALIBAN + HAQQANIS, ETC. EVEN IFF THEY WANTED TO.
* SAME > {Title paraph] PAKISTAN MAY BE CHINA'S FRIEND, BUT IT IS TOO OBSESSED WID AMERICA: PROFESSOR ZHOU RONG {Chief of South Asia Bureau, Ming Daily of China].
PROF. ZHOU RONG = PAK is too EMOTIONALLY OBSESSED wid China, but also PSYCHOLOGICALLY OBSESSED wid the US as many PAK elites still like to send their kiddies to the US for education, NOT China, despite the many probs or breakdown in diplomatic relations between the US + Pakistan.
US officials consulted with Pakistani officials before an airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and the Pakistanis gave the go-ahead for the attack, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The officials at a border coordination centre were unaware that their troops were in the area on Saturday near the Afghan border, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed US officials familiar with initial investigations into the helicopter strike.
An Afghan-US troop contingent searching for militants near the border came under fire from what they believed to be militants but the gunfire was actually from Pakistani troops camped nearby, the officials told the Journal.
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Permission for an airstrike was sought from a border coordination centre manned by Pakistani, Afghan and US officials, one official was quoted as saying.
The Pakistani officials did not know Pakistani soldiers were in the area and gave the green light to the NATO attack in the Mohmand Agency, one of Pakistan's seven tribal districts, the official told the Journal, citing information gathered from preliminary investigations.
#1
So has anyone figured out why they were shooting across the border at Coaliton forces yet?
I notice that Pakistani forces don't need to call the Coalition before they start shooting, yet we have to call them. Who do the Pakis think they are? Congress or somthing?
#2
If this was a premeditated provocation specifically designed to inflame the locals, it was successful. Pakistan sees that we're leaving anyway so why not kick us in the backside to appease their defense-in-depth wing.
Given that our supply line has been cut and our base in Pakistan is closing isn't time to say goodbye to Pakistan? I mean cut off aid, mine Karachi harbor est. In other words, a pakiland delenda est goodbye.
[Dawn] US President Barack I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money Obama is not considering offering formal condolences to Pakistain over the deaths of 24 soldiers in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... Arclight airstrike last week, a report in the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... stated.
The report, quoting administration officials, said that Cameron Munter, the United States Ambassador in Pakistain, had requested the White House to issue a formal video statement from Barack Obama so that rapid deterioration of relations between the two countries could be prevented.
The White House, however, refused the request and said that expressions of remorse offered by senior administration officials and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Philander C. Knox ... were enough.
The US president was unlikely to say anything further on the matter in the coming days, the officials told New York Times.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Hopefully they've bitten off more than they can chew this time.
#2
You're assuming a backbone somewhere in the administration?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2011 8:48 Comments ||
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#3
Somebody out to whisper in Obama's ear that he's sure to be reelected if he orders enough of Pakistan leveled to prevent interference with withdrawing the troops from Afghanistan.
Though knowing the people surrounding him, somebody whispers in his ear right now that he should grant Russia whatever they demand to allow troop supply through trashcanistans.
#4
"SORRY/I'M SORRY" [so sorry] 1960's CLASSIC HIT SONG ...
versus
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > "US THREAT [Any] TO PAKISTAN IS THREAT TO CHINA", as per un-named Chinese Govt. Official.
* NOT-NECESSSARILY-UNRELATED SAME > [Farsi New Agency] TO AMERICA, ISRAEL IS NOT WORTH THE DESTRUCTION OF THE US.
ARTIC = Iran itself may not have any Nuclear Weapons [yet?], BUT ITS ALLIES HAVE.
Pakistan, Pak BFF China, Pak = Iran? BFF? Russia.
Soon to be HUGO? NORTH KOREA???
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US WARNED PAKISTAN [times] OF TERROR ATTACKS ON INDIAN SOIL. "Serious Consequences" may be in store for Pakland.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > PROJECTION OF NAVAL POWER KEY TO INDIA'S EMERGENCE.
* SAME > INDIA NAVY TO PROTECT ONGC [Oil-Natural Gas Consortium] VIDESH ASSETS IN SOUTH CHINA: VIVE ADMIRAL DK JOOSHI, + widout any need for absolute reliance or dependency on new ally Unified Vietnam = Vietnamese Navy to successfully do so.
ARTIC = Actually, India to broadly protect anywhere in the Seven Seas = aka the World, but espec in the South China Sea.
In short, INDJUH CAN'T MILPOL SERVE + PROTECT NEW BFFS VIETNAM + PHILIPPINES, ETC. IFF IT CAN'T HELP ITSELF.
RISING CHINA has NE ASIA = OKINAWA-TAIWAN STRAITS as its MAIN/PRIMARY STRATEGIC FRONT, RISING INDIA has the SCS + SW, SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN AREAS.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... on Thursday said that there was no threat of either "judicial" or "military" coup as both the institutions were pro-democracy and did not want to derail the system. If you gotta reassure your audience then there's a danger...
The prime minister was responding to the queries of callers from across the country in a live PTV's programme "Prime Minister Online".
To a question about the submission of reply by the government, Army, and ISI to the Supreme Court in Memo Case, the prime minister said there will be one reply from the executive authority.
The PM said Pakistain's decision to boycott the Bonn Conference in protest against the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... /Isaf attack and violation of its illusory sovereignty, was final and taken collectively.
"How we can attend the conference when our illusory sovereignty came under attack," he remarked.
The soil of Afghanistan was used against illusory sovereignty and integrity of Pakistain, he added.
He said the decision of staying away from the Bonn Conference was taken after thoughtful consideration and after the meeting of the Federal Cabinet which also endorsed the decisions of halting NATO supplies and vacation of Shamsi Airbase, taken by the Defence Committee of the Cabinet.
The decision was unanimous and taken with collective wisdom and keeping in view sentiments and aspirations of the people, he said adding, "If we sit in the Bonn Conference and another attack takes place who will be responsible for that."
"When German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... asked me to attend the conference, I told her that the matter is referred to a high powered Parliamentary Committee on National Security," he added.
He said in his opinion, the decision to not to attend the conference was in line with national honour, self-respect and dignity.
He denied that it was being considered to send Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to Bonn.
Gilani said Pakistain can work with the United States, NATO and Isaf under a new agreement and by devising new rules of engagement.
"We have to formulate new rules of engagement and we can work under a new agreement."
The Prime Minister said it is upto the Parliamentary Committee on National Security to give recommendations for a decision on ties with US and NATO.
He said the military government of Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... first decided the rules of engagement with the US and NATO.
To a question, he said the international community condemned the NATO attack on Pak posts.
It is an attack on the integrity of Pakistain and it was decided in the resolutions of the joint sitting of the parliament and All Parties Conference that if US again takes a unilateral action, Pakistain will respond, he said adding and now the government responded by shutting off the supplies of NATO and getting vacated Shamsi Airbase.
He said he will attend the meeting of the National Security Committee of Parliament on Friday and the members will be briefed on the NATO attack and other issues.
The recommendations of the parliamentary committee will be put before joint session of the parliament.
The PM further said Husain Haqqani did not intend to go out of Pakistain and "we are as patriotic as anybody else."
About Russia's reaction on the NATO attack, he said Russia is a sovereign country, which has its own bilateral relations and international commitments.
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12/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Pakistain has said that it would no longer tolerate the spilling of the blood of its citizens at the hands of the US-led forces, who violate its illusory sovereignty.
"Enough is enough. The government will not tolerate any incident of spilling even a single drop of any civilian or soldier's blood," Pak daily The News reported on Thursday, quoting Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as telling politicians in Pakistain's capital Islamabad.
Pakistain would discontinue its support for the US-led war in Afghanistan if its illusory sovereignty was violated again, she added.
On November 26, US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... helicopters and fighter jets carried out Arclight airstrikes on two military checkpoints in the northwest of Pakistain, killing 24 Pak soldiers and wounding dozens of others.
The attack has fueled the anti-American sentiment among the Pak people and prompted a harshly-toned condemnation from the country's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
Khar said there would be no compromise on the country's national interests.
The minister added that Islamabad's recent retaliatory decision to order the US to vacate Pakistain's Shamsi airbase in the northwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... was final.
On Wednesday, a senior Pak Army official said the attack had been a deliberate act of blatant aggression.
"Detailed information of the posts was already with ISAF (the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force), including map references, and it was impossible that they did not know these to be our posts," said Major General Ashfaq Nadeem, Army's Director General of Military Operations.
Thousands have marched in all major Pak cities, including Islamabad, Bloody Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsada, Nowshera, and Rawalpindi to condemn the strikes.
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12/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAK ARMY CHIEF GIVES TROOPS "FULL LIBERTY" TO RESPOND TO NATO STRIKES, wid any + all weapons systems available.
versus
* SAME > [WSJ.com]PAKISTAN CLEARED FATAL HIT, US SAYS.
* SAME > PAKISTAN DEFENDS LACK OF ACTION [military counter-response/retaliation] DURING NATO ATTACK.
ARTIC = Communications was down, the PAK AIR FORCE, etc. was confused.
[Dawn] Pakistain's former ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani said on Thursday he had no intention of leaving the country, DawnNews reported.
He further said that he had no palaces waiting for him in Soddy Arabia.
Earlier, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... had moved the Supreme Court on the memogate scandal filing an application calling for restrictions on Haqqani from leaving Pakistain.
Haqqani on Thursday claimed that he himself had tendered his resignation so that an independent investigation could be conducted on the issue.
Haqqani had resigned from his position of ambassador days after Pak-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz accused him of being behind the alleged memo that said the military was plotting a coup and appealed to the Pentagon to help ward it off.
Haqqani has denied any connection with the memo.
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SYRIA is now in a state of civil war, with a death toll "much more" than 4,000 over eight months of protests, according to the UN.
Navi Pillay, the body's high commissioner for human rights, said at a media conference in Geneva today that increasing numbers of defecting soldiers were taking up arms against the government of President Bashar al Assad.
She reiterated her claim that Syrian forces were committing "crimes against humanity," Sky News reported.
Her assessment came as the EU - already imposing tough sanctions on Iran in a challenge over nuclear activities - agreed to broaden its economic sanctions against the Syrian regime.
Speaking as he entered a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, Foreign Minister William Hague said, "There is a link between what is happening in Iran and what is happening in Syria. I believe the Iranian government has given assistance to the Assad regime."
[Iran Press TV] The head of Turkey's main opposition group has accused the government of allowing the country's soil to be used for training Syrian gangs, Press TV reports.
"Is it appropriate for Turkey to use its soil for training armed forces with the aim of creating unrest in another country?" Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of Republican People's Party (CHP), told news hounds in Ankara on Thursday.
"While we have lots of problems ourselves, why do we meddle in the internal affairs of another country?" he added.
His remarks came after Turkey's Taraf daily reported that Ankara was establishing a 'buffer zone' in Syria to provide Syrian rebels with shelter.
"We say 'Great Turkey', 'Powerful Turkey'. Can a great and powerful Turkey use its soil to support an armed force with the aim of meddling in another country? Is such an understanding possible?" Kilicdaroglu questioned.
"What if tomorrow another country begins training armed forces in its soil against Turkey and begins interfering in our affairs? This is wrong. This not appropriate for the future of Turkey," he argued.
The official also accused the Turkish government of having turned into a contractor for the 'dominant powers.'
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
Hundreds of people, including many members of the security forces, have been killed in the unrest.
The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deadly violence, saying that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.
The opposition and Western countries accuse the Syrian security forces of being behind the killings. Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... strongly rejects the claim, asserting that the security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians.
In September, the Syria Steps news website said Syrian cyber specialists had uncovered an anti-Damascus agreement struck between Turkey and La Belle France.
In line with the deal, Turkey would facilitate implementation of La Belle France's strategic plans in the Middle East, especially in Syria, Israel, and Leb.
The report noted that, in line with the accord, Ankara would help deposing Syrian President Bashir al-Assad by reinforcing the Syrian opposition among other things. Gay Paree would instead ease Turkey's accession to the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... before the end of 2012.
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[Iran Press TV] The Chinese and Russian governments have called on Western countries to show restraint over Iran, warning them against escalating tensions with the country.
"We hope the countries involved will keep calm, rational and restrained to avoid emotional actions," that can aggravate the situation, Chinese Foreign Ministry front man Hong Lei was quoted by Xinhua as saying at a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday.
The remarks came after British Foreign Secretary William Hague ordered the closure of Iran's embassy in London following a Tuesday protest rally staged by Iranian students outside the British embassy in Tehran.
The student rally followed Iran's Majlis (parliament)'s approval of a bill aimed at downgrading ties with the UK and in protest at Britannia's hostile policies towards the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
On Thursday and in an apparent reaction to the rallies, foreign ministers of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... (EU) imposed sanctions against 180 more Iranian individuals and companies, but failed to bring into force an embargo against the country's oil sector. The ministers, however, claimed that they would keep working on developing additional restrictive means, which would directly affect Iran's oil industry.
Hong added that China had "taken note of" the aggressive responses to the student protests.
Russia has also cautioned Western countries against further souring their relations with Iran.
"We speak out categorically against cranking up a spiral of tension and confrontation on issues linked with Iran. We believe that this ... is fraught with severe consequences," Russian Foreign Ministry front man Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.
"The increasing tensions in relations with Tehran is essentially blocking the renewal of talks" between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia, and the US -- plus Germany (P5+1) over Tehran's nuclear program, Lukashevich added.
On November 21, the United States, Britannia, and Canada imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran's energy and financial sectors after a November 8 report by the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tehran's nuclear program, which had alleged diversion in the Islamic Theocratic Republic's nuclear activities.
The report has been dismissed by Tehran as "unbalanced, unprofessional, and prepared with political motivation and under political pressure by mostly the United States."
The US, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Iran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used this pretext to push for the imposition of sanctions on Tehran as well as to call for the launch of a military attack against the country.
Iran, however, refutes such allegations as 'baseless' and maintains that, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA, it has every right to acquire and develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The agency has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, but has never found any evidence of diversion in Tehran's civilian nuclear program.
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12/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Does this mean they don't want any more kabooms?
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.
International Criminal Court
Police said they have made more than 20 arrests at a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in London Friday. Twenty people have been held on suspicion of being members of a banned group and another two were detained for obstruction and violent disorder. A police spokesman declined to confirm a report that the protesters were members of Muslims Against Crusades, a fringe Islamist group.
So while tens of thousands of Americans continue to be harmed or killed every year by overdoses from drugs originating from this illicit opium trade, and while cultivation of innocuous crops like marijuana and hemp remains illegal in the US, the American military is actively guarding the very poppy fields in Afghanistan that fuel the global drug trade. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.
American citizens are not immune from being treated like an enemy if they take up arms against the United States, the CIA general counsel said on Thursday.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Prime Minister 
Pervez 
Nawaz Sharif
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
