The Independent
"....In their response to these documents the authorities have demonstrated that they have learned little since the leaking of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Washington has once again attacked the messenger for compromising national security, rather than addressing the substance of the revelations. Instead of complaining about whistleblowers, the US and other Nato governments, including our own, need to explain how they will perform a thorough audit of civilian casualties in Afghanistan and prevent military spokesmen misinforming the public again. Until they make a serious commitment to enhance transparency, the only conclusion that many will draw is that the appalling picture these documents paint of the Afghan war remains the reality."
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The battle to justify this as a war worth fighting just got a lot harder
The people of Afghanistan keep losing their trust in government because of corruption
By Patrick Cockburn
"....Much of what is now documented from official sources had already been exposed by journalists. But the 91,000 leaked reports paint a more detailed picture than ever before of the realities of life in contemporary Afghanistan.
As with Abu Ghraib, the reality of the Afghan war as described by frontline US officers and officials is as bad or worse than anything reported by the media.
As was to be expected, the White House and the Pentagon have denounced the revelations as giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Yet few secrets have actually been revealed.....
Overall, the Wikileaks dossier gives the impression of the US military machine floundering into war and only gradually realising the crippling weakness of the Afghan government. There is intermittent understanding on the ground that the presence of foreign occupation forces is itself the main recruiting sergeant of the Taliban.
Above all, the documents convey a sense of bewilderment that the US military should be making such great efforts and achieving so little."
By Patrick Cockburn
"....Much of what is now documented from official sources had already been exposed by journalists. But the 91,000 leaked reports paint a more detailed picture than ever before of the realities of life in contemporary Afghanistan.
As with Abu Ghraib, the reality of the Afghan war as described by frontline US officers and officials is as bad or worse than anything reported by the media.
As was to be expected, the White House and the Pentagon have denounced the revelations as giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Yet few secrets have actually been revealed.....
Overall, the Wikileaks dossier gives the impression of the US military machine floundering into war and only gradually realising the crippling weakness of the Afghan government. There is intermittent understanding on the ground that the presence of foreign occupation forces is itself the main recruiting sergeant of the Taliban.
Above all, the documents convey a sense of bewilderment that the US military should be making such great efforts and achieving so little."
Six Israeli Soldiers Killed in Romania Helicopter Crash
Al-Manar
"27/07/2010 An Israeli military helicopter carrying six Israeli soldiers and one Romanian crashed on Monday in mountainous terrain near Brasov, in central Romania.
According to local sources, seven bodies had been recovered by rescue forces at the crash site by nighttime. The Israelis on board the chopper included four Israeli army pilots and two airborne mechanics.
The Israeli occupation army released on Monday night the names of the six Israeli crew members
According to Bucharest media reports, the Romanian Defense Ministry said the helicopter, a CH-53 Sikorsky, crashed during Blue Sky 2010 – an 11-day joint Romanian-Israeli aviation exercise. The exercise began on July 18 and is set to conclude on July 29....."
"27/07/2010 An Israeli military helicopter carrying six Israeli soldiers and one Romanian crashed on Monday in mountainous terrain near Brasov, in central Romania.
According to local sources, seven bodies had been recovered by rescue forces at the crash site by nighttime. The Israelis on board the chopper included four Israeli army pilots and two airborne mechanics.
The Israeli occupation army released on Monday night the names of the six Israeli crew members
According to Bucharest media reports, the Romanian Defense Ministry said the helicopter, a CH-53 Sikorsky, crashed during Blue Sky 2010 – an 11-day joint Romanian-Israeli aviation exercise. The exercise began on July 18 and is set to conclude on July 29....."
What’s Going On In Lebanon’s Parliament this Summer?
By Franklin Lamb
Al-Manar
"Shatila Palesitnian Refugee Camp, Beirut
“Some members of Parliament prefer that the camps explode and then they will insist that “Palestinian security problems must be resolved before Parliament can consider giving them civils rights”—meaning several more years of delay.That would be a disaster for all concerned.”
‘Ahmad’, Resident of Al-Buss refugee camp, Tyre, Lebanon
Following some initiial optimism after MP Walid Jumblatt’s June 15 introduction of draft legislation that would exempt Palestinians from the Kafkaesque work permit process, grant them the right to own a home outside their oxygen scarce ‘sardine can’ camps, and allow them to receive some worker paid earned social security benefits, progress has dramatically slowed .....
Parliament appears to be ‘playing’ the Palestinians this summer, as well as ‘playing’ the international community that expects more courage, compassion and respect for international human rights from a gifted people. Parliament risks degrading Lebanon in the process and its leaders should schedule a straight up vote without further dilatory tactics such a ‘more study’ and ‘building near unanimous consensus’ that appears designed to produce the lowest common denominator which means that without political will and courage it will likely produce not much at all. Regarding six decades of annual calls for ‘more study of this sensitive problem’ there are already more than 30 studies completed just since 2000. They unanimously conclude what nearly every ten years old in Lebanon understands needs to be done and that is to grant the internationally mandated right to work, to own, inherit and bequeath a home, and access to some social security protection without further dilatory tactics."
Al-Manar
"Shatila Palesitnian Refugee Camp, Beirut
“Some members of Parliament prefer that the camps explode and then they will insist that “Palestinian security problems must be resolved before Parliament can consider giving them civils rights”—meaning several more years of delay.That would be a disaster for all concerned.”
‘Ahmad’, Resident of Al-Buss refugee camp, Tyre, Lebanon
Following some initiial optimism after MP Walid Jumblatt’s June 15 introduction of draft legislation that would exempt Palestinians from the Kafkaesque work permit process, grant them the right to own a home outside their oxygen scarce ‘sardine can’ camps, and allow them to receive some worker paid earned social security benefits, progress has dramatically slowed .....
Parliament appears to be ‘playing’ the Palestinians this summer, as well as ‘playing’ the international community that expects more courage, compassion and respect for international human rights from a gifted people. Parliament risks degrading Lebanon in the process and its leaders should schedule a straight up vote without further dilatory tactics such a ‘more study’ and ‘building near unanimous consensus’ that appears designed to produce the lowest common denominator which means that without political will and courage it will likely produce not much at all. Regarding six decades of annual calls for ‘more study of this sensitive problem’ there are already more than 30 studies completed just since 2000. They unanimously conclude what nearly every ten years old in Lebanon understands needs to be done and that is to grant the internationally mandated right to work, to own, inherit and bequeath a home, and access to some social security protection without further dilatory tactics."
'US psywar plan includes 2 hot wars'
Press TV
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the United States and Israel plan to attack two countries in the Middle East as part of a conspiracy to apply pressure on Iran.
"We have precise information that the Americans have devised a plot, according to which they seek to launch a psychological war on Iran," Ahmadinejad stated in an exclusive interview with Press TV on Monday.
"They plan to attack at least two countries in the region within the next three months," he added.
He said the US seeks to achieve two main objectives with the scheme.
"First of all, they want to hamper Iran's progress and development since they are opposed to our growth, and secondly they want to save the Zionist regime because it has reached a dead-end and the Zionists believe they can be saved through a military confrontation," Ahmadinejad explained......"
Exclusive Press TV interview with Ahmadinejad
"....
Press TV: Turkey and Brazil said 'no' to the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. But perhaps surprisingly to many, Russia and China did not. I'd like to have your opinion about Russia's position and the follow-up when it comes to comments when President Medvedev talks about Iran reaching the capability of making a nuclear bomb, which is kind of close to the comments we hear from Washington. Would Iran reconsider its relations with Russia in the face of such growing comments from Moscow?
President Ahmadinejad: Russia had voted in favor of resolutions already passed against Iran. It's nothing new. There are different viewpoints in Russia today. What Mr. President says is in blatant contravention of Russia's interests. It's kind of echoing what the US says. They had participated in drafting resolutions against us before. They told us that they guaranteed that no serious problem would arise. But recently some remarks made by the Russian president are encouraging the US and giving it the green light to pressure Iran. These remarks are in fact sacrificing the interests of the Russian nation in favor of the US. And it is more to the detriment of Russia than to the detriment of us. "
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the United States and Israel plan to attack two countries in the Middle East as part of a conspiracy to apply pressure on Iran.
"We have precise information that the Americans have devised a plot, according to which they seek to launch a psychological war on Iran," Ahmadinejad stated in an exclusive interview with Press TV on Monday.
"They plan to attack at least two countries in the region within the next three months," he added.
He said the US seeks to achieve two main objectives with the scheme.
"First of all, they want to hamper Iran's progress and development since they are opposed to our growth, and secondly they want to save the Zionist regime because it has reached a dead-end and the Zionists believe they can be saved through a military confrontation," Ahmadinejad explained......"
Exclusive Press TV interview with Ahmadinejad
"....
Press TV: Turkey and Brazil said 'no' to the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. But perhaps surprisingly to many, Russia and China did not. I'd like to have your opinion about Russia's position and the follow-up when it comes to comments when President Medvedev talks about Iran reaching the capability of making a nuclear bomb, which is kind of close to the comments we hear from Washington. Would Iran reconsider its relations with Russia in the face of such growing comments from Moscow?
President Ahmadinejad: Russia had voted in favor of resolutions already passed against Iran. It's nothing new. There are different viewpoints in Russia today. What Mr. President says is in blatant contravention of Russia's interests. It's kind of echoing what the US says. They had participated in drafting resolutions against us before. They told us that they guaranteed that no serious problem would arise. But recently some remarks made by the Russian president are encouraging the US and giving it the green light to pressure Iran. These remarks are in fact sacrificing the interests of the Russian nation in favor of the US. And it is more to the detriment of Russia than to the detriment of us. "
Monday, July 26, 2010
The New Pentagon Papers: WikiLeaks Releases 90,000+ Secret Military Documents Painting Devastating Picture of Afghanistan War
DON'T MISS THIS SEGMENT
Demcracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
"It’s one of the biggest leaks in US military history. More than 90,000 internal records of US military actions in Afghanistan over the past six years have been published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The documents provide a devastating portrait of the war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, how a secret black ops special forces unit hunts down targets for assassination or detention without trial, how Taliban attacks have soared and how Pakistan is fueling the insurgency. We host a roundtable discussion with independent British journalist Stephen Grey, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, former State Department official in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, independent journalist Rick Rowley and investigative historian Gareth Porter....."
Demcracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
"It’s one of the biggest leaks in US military history. More than 90,000 internal records of US military actions in Afghanistan over the past six years have been published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The documents provide a devastating portrait of the war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, how a secret black ops special forces unit hunts down targets for assassination or detention without trial, how Taliban attacks have soared and how Pakistan is fueling the insurgency. We host a roundtable discussion with independent British journalist Stephen Grey, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, former State Department official in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, independent journalist Rick Rowley and investigative historian Gareth Porter....."
Israeli Police Impunity
Office Gets 30 Months for Killing Arab Driver
By JONATHAN COOK
CounterPunch
Nazareth.
"...The police have also refused to cooperate in imposing official sanctions on wayward officers, with critics saying that officers found to have acted negilgently or violently towards Palestinian citizens are often rewarded with promotion.
The state commission of inquiry into the killing by police of 13 Palestinian protesters in October 2000 recommended that several officers be dismissed from service or denied promotion. The recommendations were disregarded.
In one notorious case, the commission found that Benzi Sau, a northern Border Police commander, had acted with gross negligence in allowing snipers to shoot at stone-throwing demonstrators. Despite suggesting a ban on his promotion for four years, he rapidly rose through the ranks, becoming head of the Border Police in Jerusalem in 2001 and national head of the Border Police in 2004."
By JONATHAN COOK
CounterPunch
Nazareth.
"...The police have also refused to cooperate in imposing official sanctions on wayward officers, with critics saying that officers found to have acted negilgently or violently towards Palestinian citizens are often rewarded with promotion.
The state commission of inquiry into the killing by police of 13 Palestinian protesters in October 2000 recommended that several officers be dismissed from service or denied promotion. The recommendations were disregarded.
In one notorious case, the commission found that Benzi Sau, a northern Border Police commander, had acted with gross negligence in allowing snipers to shoot at stone-throwing demonstrators. Despite suggesting a ban on his promotion for four years, he rapidly rose through the ranks, becoming head of the Border Police in Jerusalem in 2001 and national head of the Border Police in 2004."
Al-Jazeera Video: Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
"The controversial website WikiLeaks collects and posts highly classified documents and videos. Founder Julian Assange, who is reportedly being sought for questioning by US authorities, talks to TED's Chris Anderson about how the site operates, what it has accomplished and what drives him."
Egypt Punishes Gaza More
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa Al-Omrani
"CAIRO, Jul 26, 2010 (IPS) - Almost two months since Egypt announced it would reopen its Rafah border terminal with the Gaza Strip, operation of the crossing remains sorely limited.
"Rafah has only been opened to passengers and some medical supplies," Hatem el-Buluk, journalist and resident of Al-Arish, located some 40 kilometres west of Rafah, told IPS. "Everything else, including food and construction materials, must enter the strip via Israeli-controlled border crossings."....."
"CAIRO, Jul 26, 2010 (IPS) - Almost two months since Egypt announced it would reopen its Rafah border terminal with the Gaza Strip, operation of the crossing remains sorely limited.
"Rafah has only been opened to passengers and some medical supplies," Hatem el-Buluk, journalist and resident of Al-Arish, located some 40 kilometres west of Rafah, told IPS. "Everything else, including food and construction materials, must enter the strip via Israeli-controlled border crossings."....."
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on the 'War Logs'
'I Enjoy Crushing Bastards'
AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW
Spiegel Online
"In a SPIEGEL interview, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 39, discusses his decision to publish the Afghanistan war logs, the difficult balance between the public interest and the need for state secrets and why he believes people who wage war are more dangerous than him.
SPIEGEL: You are about to publish a vast amount of classified data on the war in Afghanistan. What is your motivation?
Assange: These files are the most comprehensive description of a war to be published during the course of a war -- in other words, at a time when they still have a chance of doing some good. They cover more than 90,000 different incidents, together with precise geographical locations. They cover the small and the large. A single body of information, they eclipse all that has been previously said about Afghanistan. They will change our perspective on not only the war in Afghanistan, but on all modern wars.
SPIEGEL: Do you think that the publication of this data will influence political decision-makers?
Assange: Yes. This material shines light on the everyday brutality and squalor of war. The archive will change public opinion and it will change the opinion of people in positions of political and diplomatic influence......."
Bradley Manning’s Gift
Leaked documents spill the Afghan beans
by Justin Raimondo, July 26, 2010
"They said the huge cache of classified documents – including 250,000 diplomatic messages passed from US embassies around the world to Washington – was a fantasy, “boasting” by Pfc. Bradley Manning, the intelligence analyst who gave Wikileaks that video of US soldiers laughing and shouting “good shot!” as they mowed down Iraqi civilians. The “hi tech” media, especially Wired magazine, did everything they could do discredit and smear him, including spreading rumors about his alleged sexuality. Now, with the release of over 91,000 internal US government communications, intelligence analyses and incident reports via Wikileaks, the motive behind the determined effort to smear Manning and shut down Wikileaks is all too apparent.....
What we are getting from these logs – and we have just begun to mine this rich lode of information – is a truer picture of the war in Afghanistan than our government, and our “mainstream” media, have been willing to give us. Now that our eyes are being opened to the cover-up of countless civilian casualties, the truth about our “allies,” and the mystery behind the continued ability of bin Laden to “elude” us, let us decide if this is truly a just war, a war worth fighting – and going bankrupt over. And I mean moral bankruptcy as well as financial."
by Justin Raimondo, July 26, 2010
"They said the huge cache of classified documents – including 250,000 diplomatic messages passed from US embassies around the world to Washington – was a fantasy, “boasting” by Pfc. Bradley Manning, the intelligence analyst who gave Wikileaks that video of US soldiers laughing and shouting “good shot!” as they mowed down Iraqi civilians. The “hi tech” media, especially Wired magazine, did everything they could do discredit and smear him, including spreading rumors about his alleged sexuality. Now, with the release of over 91,000 internal US government communications, intelligence analyses and incident reports via Wikileaks, the motive behind the determined effort to smear Manning and shut down Wikileaks is all too apparent.....
What we are getting from these logs – and we have just begun to mine this rich lode of information – is a truer picture of the war in Afghanistan than our government, and our “mainstream” media, have been willing to give us. Now that our eyes are being opened to the cover-up of countless civilian casualties, the truth about our “allies,” and the mystery behind the continued ability of bin Laden to “elude” us, let us decide if this is truly a just war, a war worth fighting – and going bankrupt over. And I mean moral bankruptcy as well as financial."
Israel's harassment of citizens could ignite uprising, warns Arab politician
• State playing with fire, says member of Knesset
• Zoabi cites anti-democracy bills as 'undermining'
David Hearst
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010
"Israel could ignite a third intifada if it continues to push its 1.2 million Arab citizens into a corner, claims Haneen Zoabi, the Arab member of the Knesset vilified for joining the Gaza aid flotilla.
Zoabi, who was branded a traitor for her participation in the Gaza convoy, warned that Israel was playing with fire. "We accepted a democratic, liberal state, we voted for the Knesset. But we are not just an internal issue – we are the litmus test of the whole problem. If Israel does not recognise this, conditions will deteriorate towards a third intifada."
But she rejected any suggestion that Israel's Arab citizens supported violence.....
Zoabi cites polls that say 89% would vote for a state "for all", the formula used by Balad for a bi-national secular state. Her party still officially favours a two-state plan. But Zoabi has expressed doubt that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, could negotiate any state from Israel "bigger than a local authority". She said: "We did not immigrate to Israel. Israel immigrated to us. We are the indigenous people of a land from which we are being gradually expelled."....."
• Zoabi cites anti-democracy bills as 'undermining'
David Hearst
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010
"Israel could ignite a third intifada if it continues to push its 1.2 million Arab citizens into a corner, claims Haneen Zoabi, the Arab member of the Knesset vilified for joining the Gaza aid flotilla.
Zoabi, who was branded a traitor for her participation in the Gaza convoy, warned that Israel was playing with fire. "We accepted a democratic, liberal state, we voted for the Knesset. But we are not just an internal issue – we are the litmus test of the whole problem. If Israel does not recognise this, conditions will deteriorate towards a third intifada."
But she rejected any suggestion that Israel's Arab citizens supported violence.....
Zoabi cites polls that say 89% would vote for a state "for all", the formula used by Balad for a bi-national secular state. Her party still officially favours a two-state plan. But Zoabi has expressed doubt that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, could negotiate any state from Israel "bigger than a local authority". She said: "We did not immigrate to Israel. Israel immigrated to us. We are the indigenous people of a land from which we are being gradually expelled."....."
Afghanistan war logs: the unvarnished picture
A leaked trove of US military logs reveals a very different landscape from the one with which we have become familiar
Editorial
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010
"The fog of war is unusually dense in Afghanistan. When it lifts, as it does today with the Guardian's publication of selections from a leaked trove of secret US military logs, a very different landscape is revealed from the one with which we have become familiar. These war logs – written in the heat of engagement – show a conflict that is brutally messy, confused and immediate. It is in some contrast with the tidied-up and sanitised "public" war, as glimpsed through official communiques as well as the necessarily limited snapshots of embedded reporting.
The war logs consist of more than 92,000 records of actions of the US military in Afghanistan between January 2004 and December 2009. The logs were sent to Wikileaks, the website which publishes untraceable material from whistleblowers. In a collaboration with the New York Times and Der Spiegel, the Guardian has spent weeks sifting through this ocean of data, which has gradually yielded the hidden texture and human horror stories inflicted day to day during an often clumsily prosecuted war.....
However you cut it, this is not an Afghanistan that either the US or Britain is about to hand over gift-wrapped with pink ribbons to a sovereign national government in Kabul. Quite the contrary. After nine years of warfare, the chaos threatens to overwhelm......"
Editorial
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010
"The fog of war is unusually dense in Afghanistan. When it lifts, as it does today with the Guardian's publication of selections from a leaked trove of secret US military logs, a very different landscape is revealed from the one with which we have become familiar. These war logs – written in the heat of engagement – show a conflict that is brutally messy, confused and immediate. It is in some contrast with the tidied-up and sanitised "public" war, as glimpsed through official communiques as well as the necessarily limited snapshots of embedded reporting.
The war logs consist of more than 92,000 records of actions of the US military in Afghanistan between January 2004 and December 2009. The logs were sent to Wikileaks, the website which publishes untraceable material from whistleblowers. In a collaboration with the New York Times and Der Spiegel, the Guardian has spent weeks sifting through this ocean of data, which has gradually yielded the hidden texture and human horror stories inflicted day to day during an often clumsily prosecuted war.....
However you cut it, this is not an Afghanistan that either the US or Britain is about to hand over gift-wrapped with pink ribbons to a sovereign national government in Kabul. Quite the contrary. After nine years of warfare, the chaos threatens to overwhelm......"
Video: Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, explains why he decided to publish thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan
The Guadrian
The Guadrian
Afghanistan war logs: Story behind biggest leak in intelligence history
From US military computers to a cafe in Brussels, how thousands of classified papers found their way to online activists
Nick Davies
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010
"Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'Link to this video
US authorities have known for weeks that they have suffered a haemorrhage of secret information on a scale which makes even the leaking of the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam war look limited by comparison.
The Afghan war logs, from which the Guardian reports today, consist of 92,201 internal records of actions by the US military in Afghanistan between January 2004 and December 2009 – threat reports from intelligence agencies, plans and accounts of coalition operations, descriptions of enemy attacks and roadside bombs, records of meetings with local politicians, most of them classified secret.
The Guardian's source for these is Wikileaks, the website which specialises in publishing untraceable material from whistleblowers, which is simultaneously publishing raw material from the logs.
Washington fears it may have lost even more highly sensitive material including an archive of tens of thousands of cable messages sent by US embassies around the world, reflecting arms deals, trade talks, secret meetings and uncensored opinion of other governments.
Wikileaks' founder, Julian Assange, says that in the last two months they have received yet another huge batch of "high-quality material" from military sources and that officers from the Pentagon's criminal investigations department have asked him to meet them on neutral territory to help them plug the sequence of leaks. He has not agreed to do so....."
Nick Davies
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010
"Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'Link to this video
US authorities have known for weeks that they have suffered a haemorrhage of secret information on a scale which makes even the leaking of the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam war look limited by comparison.
The Afghan war logs, from which the Guardian reports today, consist of 92,201 internal records of actions by the US military in Afghanistan between January 2004 and December 2009 – threat reports from intelligence agencies, plans and accounts of coalition operations, descriptions of enemy attacks and roadside bombs, records of meetings with local politicians, most of them classified secret.
The Guardian's source for these is Wikileaks, the website which specialises in publishing untraceable material from whistleblowers, which is simultaneously publishing raw material from the logs.
Washington fears it may have lost even more highly sensitive material including an archive of tens of thousands of cable messages sent by US embassies around the world, reflecting arms deals, trade talks, secret meetings and uncensored opinion of other governments.
Wikileaks' founder, Julian Assange, says that in the last two months they have received yet another huge batch of "high-quality material" from military sources and that officers from the Pentagon's criminal investigations department have asked him to meet them on neutral territory to help them plug the sequence of leaks. He has not agreed to do so....."
Sayyed Nasrallah: We Won’t Allow Anyone to Hurt the Resistance Dignity
Al-Manar
"25/07/2010 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stressed on Sunday that its part would not allow anyone, whoever he was, to hurt the dignity of the resistance. This resistance, according to Sayyed Nasrallah, was able to crush the new Middle East plan in 2006.
Speaking in a ceremony honoring the martyr’s children at Shahed Institution in Beirut's southern suburb....
Hezbollah Secretary General continued, “All plots that threatened Lebanon, Palestine and the region were stopped by the Resistance. The Resistance prevented the plot in 1982 and the one in 2000 that aimed to accomplish the project of [building a] greater Israel [by invading Lebanon]. In 2006, the Resistance put an end to the new Middle East project, which was highly funded. This Resistance made Lebanon in the heart of the regional equation after it was inferior. It made Lebanon a player.”
His eminence stressed that the Resistance made Lebanon strong and that was why officials come to the country, adding that this Resistance was the reason that leaders meet Lebanese officials abroad....."
"25/07/2010 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stressed on Sunday that its part would not allow anyone, whoever he was, to hurt the dignity of the resistance. This resistance, according to Sayyed Nasrallah, was able to crush the new Middle East plan in 2006.
Speaking in a ceremony honoring the martyr’s children at Shahed Institution in Beirut's southern suburb....
Hezbollah Secretary General continued, “All plots that threatened Lebanon, Palestine and the region were stopped by the Resistance. The Resistance prevented the plot in 1982 and the one in 2000 that aimed to accomplish the project of [building a] greater Israel [by invading Lebanon]. In 2006, the Resistance put an end to the new Middle East project, which was highly funded. This Resistance made Lebanon in the heart of the regional equation after it was inferior. It made Lebanon a player.”
His eminence stressed that the Resistance made Lebanon strong and that was why officials come to the country, adding that this Resistance was the reason that leaders meet Lebanese officials abroad....."
Pak links to Taliban a "scapegoat" for US
An Interview with Conn Hallinan
columnist from the Foreign Policy in Focus
Press TV
"Around 90,000 US military documents have leaked, showing how US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan have killed or wounded hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents.
....
Press TV: The memos also reveal the operations of a secret special forces "black unit" that is charged with the "kill or capture" without trial of Taliban leaders. With the Taliban not being a standing, physical army, wouldn't this ultimately lead to more civilian causalities in a war that is already unpopular with the Afghans and much of the international community?
Conn Hallinan: Well, have written about this special unit for the last two years. The black unit originally started in Iraq and is now being used in Afghanistan. Stanley McChrystal, the former commander, one of the commanders in Iraq and then commander in Afghanistan was the person who put this thing together. These are essentially death squads. That is what they are, and what they do is they go around and they assassinate, and very rarely make arrests, they mainly assassinate people that they consider to be leading members of the Taliban.
First of all, it is a violation of the laws of war. You can't do this, you cannot have extrajudicial executions by any unit, the civilian or military. And the effect of these night time raids, which is what the Afghans have been so deeply concerned about. In the night time raids they kill innocent people all the time. And what is the definition of an insurgent? I mean, is it somebody who is carrying a gun? Is it somebody who meets and talks with the Taliban?
We do not know; we have no idea; we have no public criteria for which these death squads operate. We do not know how they define people; we do not know anything about it. It is really a scam."
columnist from the Foreign Policy in Focus
Press TV
"Around 90,000 US military documents have leaked, showing how US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan have killed or wounded hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents.
....
Press TV: The memos also reveal the operations of a secret special forces "black unit" that is charged with the "kill or capture" without trial of Taliban leaders. With the Taliban not being a standing, physical army, wouldn't this ultimately lead to more civilian causalities in a war that is already unpopular with the Afghans and much of the international community?
Conn Hallinan: Well, have written about this special unit for the last two years. The black unit originally started in Iraq and is now being used in Afghanistan. Stanley McChrystal, the former commander, one of the commanders in Iraq and then commander in Afghanistan was the person who put this thing together. These are essentially death squads. That is what they are, and what they do is they go around and they assassinate, and very rarely make arrests, they mainly assassinate people that they consider to be leading members of the Taliban.
First of all, it is a violation of the laws of war. You can't do this, you cannot have extrajudicial executions by any unit, the civilian or military. And the effect of these night time raids, which is what the Afghans have been so deeply concerned about. In the night time raids they kill innocent people all the time. And what is the definition of an insurgent? I mean, is it somebody who is carrying a gun? Is it somebody who meets and talks with the Taliban?
We do not know; we have no idea; we have no public criteria for which these death squads operate. We do not know how they define people; we do not know anything about it. It is really a scam."
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation
A VERY IMPORTANT FRESH STORY
Contributed by W
• Hundreds of civilians killed by coalition troops
• Covert unit hunts leaders for 'kill or capture'
• Steep rise in Taliban bomb attacks on Nato
The Guardian
"A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.
The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and over 1,000 US troops.
Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" strategy is failing and as coalition troops hunt for two US navy sailors captured by the Taliban south of Kabul on Friday....."
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