Mohammad Ahmed, son of Aafia Siddiqui, takes part in a demonstration arranged by Human Rights Network. (AP / Fareed Khan)

Article published in Amauta with permission from the author

Source: Truthdig

by Chris Hedges
February 8, 2010

The conviction of the Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui in New York last week of trying to kill American military officers and FBI agents illustrates that the greatest danger to our security does not come from al-Qaida but the thousands of shadowy mercenaries, kidnappers, killers and torturers our government employs around the globe. Read the full story

Article published in Amauta with permission from TomDispatch

Source: TomDispatch

by Pratap Chatterjee
February 7, 2010

Sitting in air-conditioned comfort, cans of Coke and 7-Up within reach as they watched their screens, the ground controllers gave the order to strike under the cover of darkness. There had been no declaration of war.  No advance warning, nothing, in fact, that would have alerted the “enemy” to the sudden, unprecedented bombing raids. The secret computer-guided strikes were authorized by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just weeks after a new American president entered the Oval Office.  They represented an effort to wipe out the enemy’s central headquarters whose location intelligence experts claimed to have pinpointed just across the border from the war-torn land where tens of thousands of American troops were fighting daily. Read the full story

Source: The Nation

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Sarai♥WoaH Photography♥)

by Jeremy Scahill
February 4, 2010

Three US special forces soldiers were killed in northwest Pakistan this week, confirming that the US military is more deeply engaged on the ground in Pakistan than previously acknowledged by the White House and Pentagon (see ” The Secret US War in Pakistan,” November 23, 2009). The soldiers died Wednesday in Lower Dir when their convoy was hit by a car bomber in what appeared to be a targeted strike against the Americans. According to CENTCOM, the US soldiers were in the country on a mission to train the Pakistani Frontier Corps, a federal paramilitary force run by Pakistan’s Interior Ministry that patrols the country’s volatile border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani journalist who witnessed the attack said that some of the US soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes and had been identified by their Pakistani handlers as journalists. The New York Times estimates that there are sixty to a hundred such US special forces “trainers” in Pakistan. Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for the United States Central Command said there are about 200 US military personnel in Pakistan. Read the full story

Source: The Nation

by Jeremy Scahill
January 22, 2010

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that Blackwater is operating in Pakistan. In an interview on Express TV, Gates, who was visiting Islamabad, said, “They [Blackwater and another private security firm, DynCorp] are operating as individual companies here in Pakistan,” according to a DoD transcript of the interview. “There are rules concerning the contracting companies. If they’re contracting with us or with the State Department here in Pakistan, then there are very clear rules set forth by the State Department and by ourselves.” Read the full story

Fuente: World Socialist Web Site
Traducción: Felisa Sastre, La Haine

Los agentes de la CIA ejecutados eran los responsables de la elección de objetivos para los ataques con Predator

por Bill Van Auken
7 de enero, 2010

Desde el ataque suicida que acabó con la vida de 7 agentes de la CIA y un espía jordano, se ha producido una aparente campaña de represalias en Pakistán, y al menos 20 personas han muerto debido a ataques con misiles procedentes de aviones teledirigidos.

El más letal de los ataques de los aviones de la CIA tuvo lugar el miércoles en la región de Datta Khel en Waziristan del norte, cerca de la frontera con Afganistán. Read the full story

Published in Amauta with special permission from TomDispatch

Source: TomDispatch

by Tom Engelhardt & Nick Turse
January 10, 2010

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

Source: The Indypendent

by Arun Gupta
January 8, 2010

If one case encapsulates the disaster that is the Obama administration, it may be the dustup over the A.I.G. bonuses last March. Recall that extreme gambling by A.I.G. Financial Products nearly crashed the world in 2008, necessitating a taxpayer bailout of $182.3 billion (and counting). Following this, A.I.G., now 80 percent government owned, rained more than $400 million in bonuses on Financial Products employees for their performance in 2008. The Obama administration, which knew of the bonuses for months, played defense for A.I.G. by unspooling a bloated Larry Summers to argue, “The government cannot just abrogate contracts.”

The problem was the feds had just demanded that auto workers abrogate their hard-won contracts before Detroit got a bailout. United Auto Workers leaders complied, sacrificing “job security provisions and financing for retiree health care,” plus agreeing to cuts in base pay, overtime pay, break time, raises, skilled worker positions and chopping wages for many new hires in half to $14 an hour. Read the full story

Source: TomDispatch

(Image: truthout)

by Tom Engelhardt & Nick Turse
January 3, 2010

According to the Chinese calendar, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger.  We don’t name our years, but if we did, this one might prospectively be called the Year of the Assassin.

We, of course, think of ourselves as something like the peaceable kingdom.  After all, the shock of September 11, 2001 was that “war” came to “the homeland,” a mighty blow delivered against the very symbols of our economic, military, and — had Flight 93 not gone down in a field in Pennsylvania — political power.

Since that day, however, war has been a stranger in our land.  With the rarest of exceptions, like Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan’s massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, this country has remained a world without war or any kind of mobilization for war.  No other major terrorist attacks, not even victory gardens, scrap-metal collecting, or rationing.  And certainly no war tax to pay for our post-9/11 trillion-dollar “expeditionary forces” sent into battle abroad.  Had we the foresight to name them, the last few years domestically might have reflected a different kind of carnage — 2006, the Year of the Subprime Mortgage; 2007, the Year of the Bonus; 2008, the Year of the Meltdown; 2009, the Year of the Bailout.  And perhaps some would want to label 2010, prematurely or not, the Year of Recovery. Read the full story

Source: Hornberger’s Blog

US operations - including bomb attacks carried out using drones - have attracted bitter resentment in Pakistan Photo: AFP/GETTY

by Jacob G. Hornberger
December 28, 2009

To justify the federal government’s massive post-9/11 infringements on civil liberties, the proponents of Big Government have sometimes said, “There hasn’t been another major terrorist attack on the United States since 9/11. ”

I have responded with the following: “But if there had been another major terrorist attack, you Big Government advocates would be using that as a justification for even more severe infringements on civil liberties. So, either way you go, doesn’t Big Government win? ” Read the full story

Source: Brave New Foundation

Director: Robert Greenwald

Rethink Afghanistan is a ground-breaking, full-length documentary focusing on the key issues surrounding this war. President Obama has committed 35,000 more troops to Afghanistan. This decision raises serious questions about troops, costs, overall mission, and exit strategy. Historically, it has been Congress’ duty to ask questions in the form of oversight hearings that challenge policymakers, examine military spending, and educate the public. After witnessing the absence of oversight regarding the Iraq war, we must insist Congress hold hearings on Afghanistan.
Watch our full-length documentary that will serve as a driving force to help make oversight hearings a reality. Sign the petition urging oversight and tell us what questions you would ask. Part two to six below.

Sign the petition: http://rethinkafghanistan.com Read the full story