Society – Page 33 – Letter Never Sent

Military and defense — Comments Off
01
Dec 02

Guardian: US pulls out Karzai’s military bodyguards

Special forces who foiled assassination attempt [Actually, an Afghan youth foiled the attempt] on Afghan leader replaced by private security guards:

DynCorp has been involved in a series of recent high-profile scandals. A substantial financial backer of Bush’s election campaign, the company employs almost 25,000 staff, many of them former US military personnel, working in areas from security to aircraft maintenance.

While much of DynCorp’s work is of a non-controversial nature, it has become embroiled in a series of damaging allegations involving personnel in sensitive missions overseas.

DynCorp personnel contracted to the United Nations police service in Bosnia were implicated in buying and selling prostitutes, including a girl as young as 12. Several DynCorp employees were also accused of videotaping the rape of one of the women.

When a fellow DynCorp employee blew the whistle on the sex ring, she was dismissed by the company for drawing attention to their misbehaviour, according to the ruling of a British industrial tribunal earlier this year.

According to a recent article in New Republic magazine, DynCorp staff allegedly contracted to the CIA were involved in the accidental shooting down of a plane carrying US missionaries in Peru which had wrongly been identified as a drug smuggling aircraft. …

Defending the decision to remove Karzai’s special forces bodyguard, a spokesman for the Department of Defense said the decision to recall the US troops had been intended to take place around the time of the assassination attempt in September, but that the switchover had been put off because of the incident.

DynCorp refused to comment, telling The Observer it had been ‘gagged’ over talking about the Afghan deal.

It was left to the State Department to offer a rationale. ‘Responsibility for Mr Karzai’s security was handed over earlier this month to the Diplomatic Security Service,’ said an official, speaking anonymously. ‘DynCorp personnel are involved in the detail that is being managed by the Diplomatic Security Service officials who have long experience in providing this kind of protection.’

So, now American tax dollars are going to support the protection of a corrupt Afghan warlord, our friend Karzai, by a corrupt, Bush-election-supporting, murdering, child-raping corporation? I’m proud to be an American, how about you?

Military and defense — Comments Off
01
Dec 02

Why

Every time I read an article about the resistance to American occupation or ‘nation-building’ in Afghanistan I always notice some line like this:

Afghan forces tightened security in Khost and were stopping cars and searching them. American attack helicopters were circling above the city, the official said.

U.S. forces based in eastern Afghanistan are hunting al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives near the Pakistan border. Unknown attackers sometimes fire rockets and other weapons at the troops or their bases, but they rarely hit their target.

Is it really necessary whenever describing new attacks against American Special Forces goons that Afghan rocket attacks rarely hit their targets? It makes me think the US is afraid people will get the idea that anyone can successfully oppose the American military. I hope the Afghans are successful in driving the US military out of their country. Let’s hope no one else has to dies because of this stupidity.

Politics — Comments Off
24
Nov 02

Rare courage

Robert Byrd of West Virginia on last Tuesday: Byrd, at 85, Fills the Forum With Romans and Wrath:

ASHINGTON, Nov. 19 — As his colleagues hurriedly tried to give the president a domestic security bill, Senator Robert C. Byrd took the floor this morning to tell them of a “truly great” senator from the first century A.D. named Helvidius Priscus. One day this Roman was met outside the senate by the emperor Vespasian, who threatened to execute him if he spoke too freely.

“And so both did their parts,” Mr. Byrd said. “Helvidius Priscus spoke his mind; the emperor Vespasian killed him. In this effeminate age it is instructive to read of courage. There are members of the U.S. Senate and House who are terrified apparently if the president of the United States tells them, urges them, to vote a certain way that may be against their belief.”

Mr. Byrd, of course, is not one of those timid souls, and his recent speeches have been extraordinary even for the maestro of senatorial rhetoric, who turns 85 on Wednesday. While his colleagues have debated the fine points of the domestic security bill, he has been virtually alone in asking the larger question: Why is this new department suddenly so necessary? What will the largest and hastiest reorganization of the federal government in half a century do besides allow politicians to claim instant credit for fighting terrorism?

“This mon-stros-ity,” Mr. Byrd has been calling the bill, repeatedly lifting its 484 pages above his head with trembling hands and flinging them down on his desk with the fury of Moses smashing the tablets. Mr. Byrd used to be known less for his distaste of federal bureaucracy than for his love of federal aid — he once vowed to be West Virginia’s “billion-dollar industry,” while his critics crowned him the “prince of pork.” But now he is riffing against big government.

“Osama bin Laden is still alive and plotting more attacks while we play bureaucratic shuffleboard,” Mr. Byrd told the Senate. “With a battle plan like the Bush administration is proposing, instead of crossing the Delaware River to capture the Hessian soldiers on Christmas Day, George Washington would have stayed on his side of the river and built a bureaucracy.” Mr. Byrd imagined Nathan Hale declaring, “I have but one life to lose for my bureaucracy,” and Commodore Oliver Perry hoisting a flag on his ship with the rallying cry, “Don’t give up the bureaucracy!”

Politics — 1 Comment
18
Nov 02

Rumsfeld evasive during call in show with Americans

From DefenseLink:

Caller: Hello to Secretary Rumsfeld, and thank you to Infinity Radio for putting this together. My question, how does our national security have anything to do with Iraq, and has the United States illegally armed Iraq?

Rumsfeld: Has the United States illegally armed Iraq? I don’t know quite what you mean, but no, I don’t know of anything the United States has done that’s illegal at all. If you’re asking, has the United States ever provided arms to Iraqis, as opposed to the Iraqi government, the answer is yes, there are various Iraqis that are in opposition to the Saddam Hussein regime and it is correct that some time, in past years, they have provided some military capabilities to some Iraqi opposition forces. And then there’s the Kurdish forces in the north, and I believe that the United States, again, going back some years, provided some military equipment to the Kurdish forces in the north.

Kroft: I think he may be talking about when the United States was backing Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war.

Rumsfeld: Well, I am told that we did not, but I don’t know, I was not in the government during that period. I saw an article in Newsweek that reported on some — I think it was various types of biologicals. And I’m told that they went through a medical relationship that we had with many countries in the world, and they were for medical purposes. But, I don’t know of any weapons that went to Iraq. I do know that the United States government in the 1980s, I’m told, as I said, provided intelligence to Iraq.

Politics — Comments Off
13
Nov 02

Bin Laden speaks?

FROM ABCNEWS.com:

From the slave of God Osama bin Laden to the people of the countries in alliance with the unjust government of the United States:
Greetings to those that have followed the faith. The road to safety starts with lifting aggression and it’s fair to be treated equally.

What happened since the strikes of New York and Washington and until today, the killing of Germans in Tunis and of French in Karachi and the bombing of the huge carrier in Yemen and killing the marines in Failaka and killing the British and Australians in Bali and the recent Moscow operation, in addition to some other operations here and there, are only a reaction and an equal treatment that the sons of Islam have carried out, in fulfilling the orders of their God and their prophet.

What Bush, the pharaoh of today, does, in terms of killing our children … and what Israel, the ally of America, does in terms of destroying houses on their residents, in destroying the houses on their residents, including elderly people, women and children, using U.S. planes in Palestine, should be enough for the wise of your leaders to stay out of this criminal gang.

Our people in Palestine are being killed and tortured for around a century now, and when we defend our people in Palestine, the world is disturbed and it unites against Muslims under what they call the fight against terrorism, unjustly.

What do your governments have to do with the criminal gang in the White House that’s against Muslims? Don’t your governments know that the White House gang is the greatest killer of this era? Here’s Rumsfeld, the Vietnam butcher, he killed over 2 million people in addition to the injured, and Cheney and Powell are responsible for more killings and destruction in Baghdad than Holako of the Tatar.

So what do your governments have to do with an alliance with America to attack us in Afghanistan, and I specifically mention Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia. We had warned Australia before against its participation in Afghanistan, in addition to its unjust support of the separation of East Timor. It ignored the warnings until it woke up to the sounds of bombings in Bali. Its government then claimed, unrightfully, that they were not targeted.

Have a look at those killed from your side and those who were in alliance with you in Tunis and Karachi and Failaka and Bali and Amman to remember our children that are killed in Palestine and Baghdad daily and to remember our killed ones in the mosques of Khost and remember those who were killed intentionally in weddings and celebrations in Afghanistan.

Look at those killed from you in Moscow to remember those killed from us in Chechnya. Until when will destruction, killing and orphaning children be ours and security, stability and happiness be yours? This is an unjust division, it is time for an equal division of goods. As you kill, you will be killed. As you bomb you will be bombed and wait for the bad.

The Islamic society started, with God’s help, to fight you with its children, who have promised God to continue to fight hard to reach justice and stop injustice as long as they live. In the end, I ask God to give us strength for the victory of His religion and to continue to fight for Him, until we meet Him and He’s satisfied with us, and He is capable of that. Our last prayer is thank God the most graceful.

History — Comments Off
10
Nov 02

The Chechen-Russian History

The fight for independence never ends.Conflict Between Chechens and Russia Is Steeped in Czarist Past, Stalin-Era Exile:

MOSCOW (AP) – On his tough bricklayer’s fingers, Akhmad Arsamakov ticks off the members of his family who suffered under Moscow’s rule.
Father deported by Stalin; grandfather joined a hopeless mountain rebellion against the Soviets in the 1940s; great-great grandfather led resistance to Czarist troops in the 1860s, was captured and then disappeared.

“All of us suffered,” Arsamakov, 51, said. “But this is the story of every Chechen. Not ‘almost’ every Chechen. Every Chechen.” …

“Russia spreads lies about us,” he said, his steady gaze growing more intent. “They say we were backward people before they conquered us. But we know we lived well and had a better life before the Russians.

“And so we have self-confidence and have always had the desire to free ourselves from them.”

Sharply etched folk memories of conflict with Moscow are a big part of being from Chechnya, a Muslim chip in the mosaic of ethnic groups that make up the North Caucasus. …

The Chechens’ will to resist is often attributed to their “mountain democracy.” Councils of elders used to make most important decisions and settled disputes according to unwritten law. Courts, written laws and government were alien Russian imports.

They had no aristocracy, meaning top-down authority played little role. Ties between members of extended clans and religious brotherhoods have been far stronger than allegiance to any central government.

Chechens initially supported Soviet rule in 1918, thinking the Bolsheviks would be better than the Czars. When they learned otherwise, they staged uprisings in 1920, 1929 and 1940, with a few fighters holding out in the mountains into the early 1950s.

Military and defense — 3 Comments
10
Nov 02

Send those American mercenary dogs packing

Al Quaeda meow meow. Has Al Quaeda just become some umbrella term for non-cooperative Arabs? Afghan War Faltering, Military Leader Says: Myers Cites Al Qaeda’s Ability to Adapt:

The U.S. military is losing momentum in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan because the remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban have proven more successful in adapting to U.S. tactics than the U.S. military has to theirs, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said this week.

Gen. Richard B. Myers also said there is a debate taking place within the Pentagon about whether the United States needs to change its priorities in Afghanistan and de-emphasize military operations in favor of more support for reconstruction efforts.

“I think in a sense we’ve lost a little momentum there, to be frank,” Myers said in after-dinner comments Monday night at the Brookings Institution. “They’ve made lots of adaptations to our tactics, and we’ve got to continue to think and try to out-think them and to be faster at it.” …

In his remarks at Brookings, Myers said al Qaeda has proven to be an agile adversary, adapting its electronic communications to prevent intercepts and securing the way it passes money. His comments, released by Brookings on Wednesday, reflect a concern that many senior U.S. officials have expressed privately in recent months that the military establishment has been too slow to adapt in its response to the al Qaeda threat, both in its special operations tactics and its weapons procurement.

One official close to Rumsfeld said this week that, in his view, the military still is largely geared to changing at the glacial pace of the Cold War, during which shifts in military doctrine and weaponry in the Soviet Union occurred generationally. Al Qaeda and its allies have shown “an ability to change by the month,” the official said.

A detailed analysis just released by the U.S. Army War College reported that al Qaeda fighters have been quick to adapt to the high-tech weaponry the United States used in its attack on the network. When the United States first began bombing in Afghanistan last October, the report said, Taliban and al Qaeda fighters made easy targets, even standing on ridges where they were visible to Special Operations spotters miles away.

Stephen Biddle, the report’s author, wrote that by March, during the last major U.S.-led offensive against al Qaeda in southeastern Afghanistan, “Al Qaeda forces were practicing systematic communications security, dispersal, camouflage discipline, use of cover and concealment, and exploitation of dummy fighting positions to draw fire and attention from their real positions.”

Added one senior officer: “It’s the general consensus within the [special operations] community that al Qaeda is extremely adaptive and very cagey. These guys are not weekend terrorists.”

No, you guys are the well-fed, well-heeled weekend terrorists.

Military and defense — 3 Comments
08
Nov 02

The US Government Returns to Policy Assassination

Now when an American soldier or government official gets assassinated how will the US decry the act? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander apparently. Assassination is alive and well in the current administration. Who will they put a hit on next? Hugo Chavez, Vincente Fox, Saddam Hussein? Outrageous and contemptible.

Politics — Comments Off
06
Nov 02

Let the Fourth Reich begin

Hi, welcome to America where we have a corrupt one-party system maintained by brute force, mind-numbing propaganda, and political assassination. Right-wing militarists now control all branches of the government effectively destroying any remnants of the system of checks and balances that has managed to keep the government somewhat gridlocked. The fascist party has managed the triple-crown, the absolute control of the judicial, executive, and legislative branches. The opposition party, the Democrats, have secured their place in history as eunuchs. As Bush had eerily promised, America now ‘speaks with one voice’. Expect the Forever War to kick into high gear.

The suspicious and convenient deaths of Mel Carnahan and Paul Wellstone garnered two Senate seats for the Republicans which contributed heavily to their seizure of power.

fas-cism: n. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

dic·ta·tor: n. One invested with absolute authority; especially, a magistrate created in times of exigence and distress, and invested with unlimited power.

the old stuff