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(PINR) – Approximately one year after the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan for harboring and abetting those allegedly responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, it is difficult to say whether "terrorism" has been abated or Afghanistan is more stable.
Afghan leader risks revolt as US troops replace local guards By David Rennie in WashingtonJuly 24 2002 The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has dismissed his bodyguards and is being protected by 46 American soldiers, in an extraordinary - and politically explosive - demonstration of how little he trusts his own government.
The Americans, who are believed to include members of the special forces, took up their new duties at the weekend.
The decision is likely to cause anger among Mr Karzai's nominal Afghan allies, many of whom already regard him as a tool of the US and other "infidel" nations.
Fears for his safety have increased since the recent murder of the vice-president, Haji Abdul Qadir, a presidential spokesman Said Fazel Akbar, said in Kabul. He added that a core of senior ministers were also using US bodyguards.
October 26, 2002 KABUL, Afghanistan — Akhter Mohammed slipped his holstered pistol onto his shoulder and recalled a brutal battle against the Taliban, fighting side by side with U.S. Special Forces. Top Stories • Car's co-owner held as witness• Powell doubtful of U.N. support• Russia braces for added Chechen violence• A tight noose They were brave, heroic, he said. But now he wants America to leave the battlefield behind and begin rebuilding his
A junior officer saw a craft approaching the Limburg. He was of the opinion that we touched that craft and then there was an explosion Tanker company MD Peter Raes A junior officer on board the Limburg reported seeing a small craft "fast approaching" the tanker in the port of Ash Shihr, at Mukallah, 570 kilometres (353 miles) east of Aden, and believes the two vessels touched before an explosion occurred.
Yemeni officials say they do not consider the blast an act of sabotage. But Captain Peter Raes, managing director of France Ship, told BBC News Online it would be "near impossible" for an accidental explosion to have taken place, and that explosives were likely to have been on board the vessel which crashed.
The Saudi press has launched a vitriolic attack on what it describes as Christian fundamentalism in the United States.
One newspaper, al-Watan, said Christian fundamentalism was no less dangerous to international peace and security than other forms of religious extremism.
The newspapers were responding to reports of a Pentagon briefing during which Saudi Arabia was described as the kernel of evil in the Middle East.
Despite the official statements from Washington and Riyadh that relations between the two countries are as good as ever, the anger in the Saudi press reflects a growing unease in Saudi Arabia about the way the kingdom has been portrayed in the United States since the attacks in September last year.
SERVICES Daily E-mail News Ticker News for PDA Feedback Help Low Graphics Monday, 11 March, 2002, 08:04 GMT War 'playing into al-Qaeda's hands' The war could be "deeply counter-productive" By BBC News Online's Alex Kirby
Two British scholars say the US strategy for defeating al-Qaeda is in fact having the opposite effect.
They describe the military response to the terrorism of 11 September as "deeply counter-productive".
HAT A DIFFERENCE a month makes. On Feb. 5, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the Bush administration's case against Iraq with a show of authority that moved many officials and pundits out of ambivalence and into acceptance. The war came to seem inevitable, which then prompted millions of people to express their opposition in streets around the globe. Over subsequent weeks, the debate between hawks and doves took on the strident character of ideologues beating each other with fixed positions. The sputtering rage of war opponents and the grandiose abstractions of war advocates both seemed disconnected from the relentless marshaling of troops. War was coming. Further argument was fruitless. The time seemed to have arrived, finally, for a columnist to change the subject.
WASHINGTON -- In all the to-and-fro of debate over whether the United States should or will wage war against Iraq, almost no one was paying attention to Maj. Gen. Kenneth Privratsky. Outside the tight little world of the Military Traffic Management Command, almost no one had even heard of him. Yet Privratsky's former assignment may tell us more about the true intent and direction of the Bush administration than all the diplomatic pronouncements, political maneuvers and United Nations debates put together.
President George W. Bush discusses the Future of Iraq Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm proud to be with the scholars, and the friends, and the supporters of the American Enterprise Institute. I want to thank you for overlooking my dress code violation. (Laughter.) They were about to stop me at the door, but Irving Kristol said, "I know this guy, let him in." (Laughter.)
Chris, thank you for your very kind introduction, and thank you for your leadership. I see many distinguished guests here tonight -- members of my Cabinet, members of Congress, Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, and so many respected writers and policy experts. I'm always happy to see your Senior Fellow, Dr. Lynne Cheney. (Applause.) Lynne is a wise and thoughtful commentator on history and culture, and a dear friend to Laura and me. I'm also familiar with the good work of her husband -- (laughter.) You may remember him, the former director of my vice presidential search committee. (Laughter.) Thank God Dick Cheney said yes. (Applause.)
Bush's Unhappy Warriors By Robert D. Novak CNSNews.com Commentary April 25, 2002 The signal has spread through the Pentagon: on to Baghdad to get rid of Saddam Hussein, probably in September when the weather should be fine and the U.S. high-tech arsenal will be replenished. That's what Defense Department policymakers plan, but their cheers are balanced by apprehension among civilian and military career officials.One military thinker, considered one of the Pentagon's best brains, put it this way: "The risk of going through with this scares the (expletive) out of me. That's why a lot of us are rooting for Colin Powell to settle this somehow." The secretary of state's preference for negotiated settlements instead
Shortly after last year's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the CIA pulled about 160 analysts from their jobs watching global political, economic and military trends and turned them into counterterrorism specialists.
The transfer of the 15 units made certain things easier on the intelligence agency. The units already had offices and computers, and they knew how to work as a team. But there were costs. Analysts who scrutinized the Russian leadership, for example, began devoting 16 hours a day to tracking al Qaeda cells, and most were novices to the terrorism world.
WASHINGTON -- Disorganization, delays and faulty intelligence have hampered the Pentagon-led search for Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction, causing growing concern about one of the most sensitive and secretive operations in postwar Iraq, according to U.S. officials and outside experts familiar with the effort.
The slow start has created so many interagency squabbles that a National
Security Council military staffer at the White House has been assigned to
mediate among the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction
Agency, the CIA, the Energy Department and other government agencies involved
in the hunt.
.:: Dean's World: Lawrence's Folly (by Paul Fallon) ::. September 18, 2002 Lawrence's Folly (by Paul Fallon) I was moved to write this article by a minor disagreement between George Paine and Dean Esmay in a separate thread on this weblog, regarding the legitimacy of the house of Saud. For example, Mr. Paine said, "During World War I the Saudis received Allied backing to attack the Ottomans (see 'Lawrence of Arabia' -- and this is why they were anointed by the British." This is not wrong, exactly, but
First, while it is true enough that the Al Sauds have been "involved with the politics of Arabia for centuries," there is little indication they ruled anything larger than a few territories until the early twentieth century. Second, the Saudis did not institute the revolt against the Turks--they took advantage of it. Thirdly, they were not anointed by the British, they were accepted as the de facto rulers of a place the British had no interest in colonizing. Finally, the House of Saud does not figure in the highly fictionalized and romanticized film Lawrence of Arabia, nor for that matter its source material, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which I believe was written in part as a repudiation of Saudi rule.
There's one sure bet about the statement to be made to the UN Security Council today by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell – or by General Colin Powell as he has now been mysteriously reassigned by the American press: he won't be talking about Afghanistan.
For since the Afghan war is the "successful" role model for America's forthcoming imperial adventure across the Middle East, the near-collapse of peace in this savage land and the steady erosion of US forces in Afghanistan – the nightly attacks on American and other international troops, the anarchy in the cities outside Kabul, the warlordism and drug trafficking and steadily increasing toll of murders – are unmentionables, a narrative constantly erased from the consciousness of Americans who are now sending their young men and women by the tens of thousands to stage another "success" story.
For Each Audience, Another Secret Plan to Attack Iraq.htm
For Each Audience, Another Secret Plan to Attack Iraq By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
WASHINGTONFOR all its reputation as a taciturn crowd, the Bush administration is downright chatty when it comes to Iraq. Officials who were tight-lipped about energy strategy and homeland security have taken to analyzing in detail a battle that the president insists he has not decided on. They have begun tallying up its costs before a single shot has been fired.
Is this any way to prepare for war? We'll see. With their televised briefings and whispered confidences, administration officials are attempting to achieve several things at once. They are clearing the ground for battle by addressing three distinct audiences: the American public, the international community and the Iraqi regime.
The Eagle Has Crash Landed Pax Americana is over. Challenges from Vietnam and the Balkans to the Middle East and September 11 have revealed the limits of American supremacy. Will the United States learn to fade quietly, or will U.S. conservatives resist and thereby transform a gradual decline into a rapid and dangerous fall?
By Immanuel Wallerstein The United States in decline? Few people today would believe this assertion. The only ones who do are the U.S. hawks, who argue vociferously for policies to reverse the decline. This belief that the end of U.S. hegemony has already begun does not follow from the vulnerability that became apparent to all on September 11, 2001. In fact, the United States has been fading as a global power since the 1970s, and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks has merely accelerated this decline. To understand why the so-called Pax Americana is on the wane requires examining the geopolitics of the 20th century, particularly of the century's final three decades. This exercise uncovers a simple and inescapable conclusion: The economic,
The deaths have led to calls for an inquiry into what interrogation techniques are being used at the base where it is believed the al-Qaida leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is now also being held. Former prisoners at the base claim that detainees are chained to the ceiling, shackled so tightly that the blood flow stops, kept naked and hooded and kicked to keep them awake for days on end.
The two men, both Afghans, died last December at the US forces base in Bagram, north of Kabul, where prisoners have been held for questioning. The autopsies found they had suffered "blunt force injuries" and classified both deaths as homicides.
A spokesman for the Pentagon said yesterday it was not possible to discuss the details of the case because of the proceeding investigation. If the investigation finds that the prisoners had been unlawfully killed during interrogation, it could lead to both civil and military prosecutions. He added that it was not clear whether only US personnel had had access to the men.
The main US force in the country is the 82nd airborne division, which is based at Bagram near Kabul. There are secondary bases at and around Khost in eastern Afghanistan, some 20 miles from the Pakistan border. Since mid-September US forces based in this area have been increased to more than 2,000, from just a few hundred earlier in the year, with a full battalion of parachute infantry at the new base of Camp Salerno outside Khost.
Several US-led attacks, using hundreds and even thousands of troops, have been ineffective, suffered outright defeat, or resulted in disaster. These failures have led the US to keep its forces mostly inside their bases: at Khost and Kandahar they are under attack almost daily from missiles and machine guns.
KABUL, Afghanistan (November 12, 4:43 a.m. PST) - Hundreds of students enraged
over a lack of food and electricity in their dormitory clashed with police
in violent demonstrations that carried into the morning Tuesday. At least
four students were killed and dozens injured, witnesses and officials said.
Firefighters pushed back students Tuesday with water cannons, and police blasted
with barrages of automatic fire. Authorities said they were firing over students'
heads. Students threw rocks, bricks and sticks back at the security forces.
Author, Screenwriter, Novelist, Film Producer, Intelligence Expert Sept 2001 Intelligence Briefs January - August 2001 An Irish arms dealer - code-named "Mr Weinstein" by the FBI - is at the centre of the agency's cover-up into an "illicit weapons shipment" to China - only months after Washington and Beijing had been involved in the first confrontation of the Bush Administration over the downing of a U.S. spy plane by a Chinese fighter in the South China Sea.
April 12, 2002 Israel – A Suicide Bomber? Palestinian suicide attacks have been singled out, overemphasised and isolated from their context in Israel's 35-year occupation of the Palestinian territories, the proper infrastructure of Palestinian terrorism.
Professional demonisers like Thomas Friedman work hard to persuade us of suicidal lies like the one claiming suicide bombers are "a whole new form of warfare" unique to Palestinians. I truly doubt whether the term "Kamikaze" is of Palestinian origin. There were no Palestinian suicide bombers around back in 1991, when Rajib Ghandi was assassinated by a suicide bomber; in fact, the person accused of launching more suicide attacks than anyone else is not Yassir Arafat (his direct involvement in such attacks may be an outright Israeli fabrication) but Velupillai Prabhakaran, who heads the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Officials Find LaRouche's Group Useful. Leader Lives on Heavily, Guarded Estate Group, Makes Political Inroads LaRouche Says Some Are Out to Kill Him Critics of Group Hassled LaRouche Convicted of Mail Fraud Elderly Seek Refunds From LaRouche LaRouche Paroled After Five Years in Prison Go to The 1980s Go to Chronology Go to Main Menu Some Officials FindIntelligence Network 'Useful'By John Mintz Washington Post Staff Writer January 15, 1985
Norman Bailey recalls that soon after he joined the National Security Council, he received a call from NSC officials asking him to talk to a group of followers of right-wing presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. who were offering intelligence information to the agency.
More to Iraq war than just Saddam? US has wider strategic aims, says an international conference By Anthony Rowley In Tokyo THERE is no way that the US will not go to war with Iraq - with or without an enabling resolution from the UN - and the motives behind the coming attack go far beyond simply toppling President Saddam Hussein or stripping Iraq of any weapons of mass destruction that it may possess.
The impending war has much wider strategic aims such as the cementing of US global supremacy by removing any future threat to America's oil supplies, encircling China, and installing US-friendly 'democratic' regimes across the Middle East.
Witnesses to the slaying said that as al-Khoei was being stabbed, a number
of $100 and $50 bills in U.S. currency spilled out of his clerical robes.
"There was some American money flying around with lots of blood on it,"
said one of the witnesses, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.
"The money was hidden in his clothes, and that made the crowd even angrier
at him."
Source: Naval War College Review, Vol. XXVII (May-June, 1975), pp. 51-108. Also in U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States: 1950, Volume I.
NSC 68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security (April 14, 1950) A Report to the PresidentPursuant to the President's Directiveof January 31, 1950 TOP SECRET [Washington,] April 7, 1950 Contents Terms of Reference Analysis I. Background of the Present World Crisis II. The Fundamental Purpose of the United States III. The Fundamental Design of the Kremlin IV. The Underlying Conflict in the Realm of Ideas and Values Between the U.S. Purpose and the Kremlin Design Nature of the Conflict Objectives Means
V. Soviet Intentions and Capabilities--Actual and Potential
NEW YORK, Oct. 31 — In an unprecedented sign of the growing anti-terrorist alliance between the United States and Russia, MSNBC.com learned Thursday that Moscow gave its consent for American ammunition and other war supplies to pass through Russia by rail en route to the war in Afghanistan.
Nuclear rivals hushed up bloody offensive August 26 2002 New Delhi: India and Pakistan fought a secret and large-scale battle in Kashmir last month when Indian jets carried out precision bombing raids and killed dozens of Pakistani soldiers, Indian military sources said.
The fighting was the most serious since the two nuclear rivals went on to a war footing in January.
Indian and Pakistani troops yesterday continued to trade heavy fire, a day after the United States Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, finished his peace mission to the region, in which he held talks with leaders from both countries.
Mr Armitage credited Pakistan with reducing the cross-border infiltrations by Muslim guerillas.
Sociopolitical Stresses and the RMA FRANK J. STECH From Parameters, Summer 1995, pp. 47-54. Go to Cumulative Article Index. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby Three sociopolitical forces are smashing each other and shaking the foundations of military affairs. The fission of nation-states (and their armies) into complex multiples, often mired in multi-sided civil or tribal wars that erect political barriers, sear landscapes with hatreds, and "cleanse" whole populations; The surging quest for religious and community values that attack liberal political structures and supplant state power, often clouding the political atmosphere with eruptions of fundamentalist propaganda; The consolidation of the world's media organs into narrowly focused, increasingly powerful corporate conglomerates, flooding us with observations while restricting our perspectives on the issues that matter. Economic imperatives force the media to s
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected Jordan's request that Israel issue a public declaration opposing the "transfer" of Palestinians from the West Bank.
Recently, Jordanian officials have displayed concern about the possibility that Israel might exploit an American attack on Iraq by expelling masses of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan. Senior Jordanian officials have raised this concern in talks with Israeli and American counterparts. The Jordanians asked for assurances that Israel will refrain from implementing transfer policies.
The president's real goal in Iraq By JAY BOOKMAN The official story on Iraq has never made sense. The connection that the Bush administration has tried to draw between Iraq and al-Qaida has always seemed contrived and artificial. In fact, it was hard to believe that smart people in the Bush administration would start a major war based on such flimsy evidence.
The pieces just didn't fit. Something else had to be going on; something was missing.
In recent days, those missing pieces have finally begun to fall into place. As it turns out, this is not really about Iraq. It is not about weapons of mass destruction, or terrorism, or Saddam, or U.N. resolutions.
Pentagon Strategy Creates Rift Among Hawks By Jim Lobe, AlterNetMarch 21, 2003 An almost audible sigh of relief could be heard from a nondescript downtown building in Washington, D.C. on Thursday morning when President Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi television some hours after U.S. warplanes and cruise missiles bombarded a residence in Baghdad.
August 5, 2002 A new Pentagon counterterrorism plan calls for making arrangements with some foreign countries to allow U.S. commandos on their soil to attack terrorist cells. Top Stories • Congressmen invited to Iraq• Lawmakers likely to OK hitting Saddam• North Korea to lay base for reactor• Pakistani school attacked• 11 Marine officers likely to be dismissed for cheating• Fathers of faith give more time to their children• Studies doubt pfiesteria is tox
anti-war feature Pictures of massacre at Fallujah, Iraqby pictures Thursday May 01, 2003 at 12:01 AM
In these images from television, a bullet riddled car in a street in Fallujah, Iraq is seen Tuesday, April 29, 2003 , after a shooting incident Monday night in which U.S. soldiers opened fire on Iraqis at a demonstration after being shot at with automatic rifles by some in the crowd, Col. Arnold Bray of the 82nd Airborne Division said Tuesday. The director of the local hospital said 13 people were killed and 75 injured. The shooting took place about 10:30 p.m. Monday in the town of
Arriving in Europe last week, President Bush faced a very different reception from the warm and sympathetic greetings that he might have expected in the immediate aftermath of September 11. Although a barrage of anti-American protests is almost de rigueur for any President travelling abroad these days, Mr. Bush failed to appreciate that today’s concerns go beyond a simplistic anti-Americanism. Of particular concern was his apparent inability to recognise the dangers posed both to America and the global economy as a whole by the rise in protectionism, which has been ironically led by his own Republican administration.
President Bush’s embrace of protectionism has in effect created a reverse Marshall Plan. Instead of rallying support for open markets, he has instead slammed the door to prosperity shut on the very countries in the emerging world he needs to help nurture economically if they are not to become gangster states prone to criminal activity, terrorism, and desperate refugee migrations. An equally great danger for America arises – not so much in regard to the damage that Mr Bush’s protectionism poses directly to the US economy, as in the impact it could have on America’s financial and economic relations with Europe and Japan. This issue becomes all the more relevant when the dollar’s weakness is signalling a loss of financial confidence in US assets that the Americans can ill afford today, coming at a time when the country’s growing military commitments and diminishing productive balances are so conspicuously out of whack.
By Axion Qatar Coup Plot May Thwart U.S. War Plans24 October 2002 SummaryA foiled coup plot in Qatar raises questions about the ability of the government in Doha to survive, and with that, about U.S. access to the massive al-Udeid air base. If Qatar is forced to rethink and limit its cooperation with the U.S. military, it could remove a key component of Washington's war plan for Iraq.AnalysisStratfor sources, including Qatari diplomats and Russian military intelligence officials, confirm that authorities in Qatar foiled a coup plot this month after one of the conspirators betrayed the group for money.Arabicnews.com on Oct. 16 cited rumors out of Cairo and the Gulf States that the Qatari government had arrested "scores" of high-ranking army officers on the evening of Oct. 12, after the plot was exposed. The report also claimed that U.S. troops we
NATO' S FUTURE ROLE REMARKS BY SENATOR JOSEPH LIEBERMAN39TH MUNICH CONFERENCE ON SECURITY POLICYHOTEL BAYERISCHER HOF, MUNICH, GERMANYFEBRUARY 8, 2003
AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY Lord Robertson, Defense Minister Struck, Defense Minister Alliot-Marie, friends, honored guests.
We come together in trying times with an urgent responsibility: to fortify our transatlantic alliance, which has vanquished many foes, spawned many democracies, and promoted many freedoms - but is now struggling to find a common voice in the face of many dangers.
The growing reach of NATO and its principles belies a disheartening truth. In a world facing new and evolving threats - terrorists, rogue regimes, and Weapons of Mass Destruction - NATO is split, and risks not only becoming the shell some predicted it would be after the fall of the Berlin Wall but a dangerous stumbling block to a safer world.
The mystery of what happened to the Iraqi Republican Guard defending Baghdad appears to have been solved if a report in today's Le Monde is to be believed.
The French daily reports that Maher Sufyan, Commander of the Republican Guard reached an agreement with American forces in which he ordered his forces to surrender in exchange for his transfer via an American Apache helicopter to an undisclosed safe haven.
Quoting anonymous sources, Le Monde’s correspondent in Baghdad said
that Sufyan ordered all Republican Guard forces to lay down their arms and
go home. Shortly thereafter an Apache helicopter escorted Sufyan from the
Al Rashid camp, east of Baghdad, to an unknown location
The U.S. attacked Afghanistan to exact revenge for the Sept. 11 attacks. But it must have quickly occurred to former oilmen George Bush and Dick Cheney that retribution against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden offered a golden opportunity to expand American geopolitical influence into South and Central Asia, scene of the world's latest gold rush--the Caspian Basin.
The world has ample oil today. But, according to CIA estimates, when China and India reach South Korea's current level of per capita energy use--within 30 years--their combined oil demand will be 120-million barrels daily. Today, total global consumption is 60million to 70million barrels daily. In short, the major powers will be locked in fierce competition for scarce oil, with the Gulf and Central Asia the focus of this rivalry.
April 23, 2002 | Back in December of last year, television viewers watched CNN in disbelief as John Walker Lindh was seen squirming on a cot in Afghanistan claiming to be an American member of the Taliban. It was one of those moments when the madness -- not to mention the weirdness -- of war gets fully depicted on a single human face.
The person interviewing Walker Lindh was Robert Young Pelton, a sort of anti-travel writer who, over the course of several books and magazine articles, has demonstrated a strong affinity for war zones and rebel causes. For Pelton, this coup of an interview was another interesting case of being in the right place at the right time. In addition to talking with Walker Lindh in the aftermath of the Qala Jangi fortress uprising, Pelton had, "through intermediaries," arranged to spend time with legendary Northern Alliance general Abdul Rashid Dostum just as U.S. activities in Afghanistan were gaining momentum.
Since 1994 or earlier, the National Security Agency has been collecting electronic intercepts of conversations between members of the Saudi Arabian royal family, which is headed by King Fahd. The intercepts depict a regime increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country's religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channelling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it.
The intercepts have demonstrated to analysts that by 1996 Saudi money was supporting Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, and Central Asia, and throughout the Persian Gulf region. "Ninety-six is the key year," one American intelligence official told me. "Bin Laden hooked up to all the bad guys—it's like the Grand Alliance— and had a capability for conducting large-scale operations." The Saudi regime, he said, had "gone to the dark side."
John's Bio Video Clips Intelligence Files Lecture Bookings Contact John Home Press Release from John Loftus For twenty years I have served without compensation as a lawyer for federal whistleblowers within the US intelligence community.In the last year, I have received highly classified information from several of my confidential clients concerning a Saudi covert operation.The Saudi relationship is so sensitive that, for more than a decade, federal prosecutors and counter-terrorist agents have been ordered to shut down their investigations for reasons of foreign policy.
The British view is that the sight of local youths dismantling the offices and barracks of a regime they used to fear shows they have confidence that Saddam Hussain’s henchmen will not be returning to these towns in southern Iraq.
One senior British officer said: “We believe this sends a powerful message that the old guard is truly finished.”
Armoured units from the Desert Rats stood by and watched earlier this week as scores of excited Iraqis picked clean every floor and every room of the Baath Party headquarters building in Basra after it had been raided by British troops.
THE NEW MERCENARIES -- CORPORATE ARMIES FOR HIRE by Major Thomas J. Milton, USA Introduction: Recently, the world watched as a rebel alliance advanced across the country of Zaire (this alliance succeeded in overthrowing President Mobutu and subsequently renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo). With each rebel advance, speculation and sporadic reports indicated that the situation of thousands of refugees may be reaching a dire stage. Diplomatic and military planners considered the consequences of sending an international intervention force to assist with the plight of the refugees. During this time, there were reports of mercenaries working for the government of Zaire. The mercenaries fighting for the government were too small in number and not properly organized to have made a difference in the eventual outcome. But consider a different scenario
article | Posted September 5, 2002 Print this articleE-mail this articleWrite to the editors he imperial ambitions of the Bush Administration, post-9/11, are founded on quicksand and are eventually sure to founder, but for fundamental reasons not currently under discussion. Bush's open-ended claims for US power--including the unilateral right to invade and occupy "failed states" to execute "regime change"--offend international law and are prerogatives associated only with empire. But Bush's greater vulnerability is about money. You can't sustain an empi
4 US troops feared dead in Gardez attack Updated on 7/24/2002 12:59:01 PM Send this Article to your friend Printer-Friendly Version!!! Post your Comments
MIRANSHAH (NNI): Four American troops are feared dead and score of others believed injured when some unknowns fired four rockets on a mobile US-led coalition force at Lak Dewal in Gardez on Tuesday evening.“The US-led coalition troops were on patrol in the area of Lak Dewal in Gardez when they were attacked by some unknown with four rockets.
In the current issue Learn about paid content on MotherJones.com IN COMMENTARYThe Short, Unhappy Life of Campaign Finance Reform IN HUMORPolitical Fantasy Camp IN ARTS"Self" Indulgence Three decades ago, in the throes of the energy crisis, Washington's hawks conceived of a strategy for US control of the Persian Gulf's oil. Now, with the same strategists firmly in control of the White House, the Bush administration is playing out their script for global dominance. By Robert Dreyfuss March/April 2003 Issue P L U S : Oil and Arms: An In-Depth Look
If you were to spin the globe and look for real estate critical to building an American empire, your first stop would have to be the Persian Gulf. The desert sands of this region hold two of every three barrels of oil in the world -- Iraq's reserves alone are equal, by some estimates, to those of Russia, the United States, China, and Mexico combined. For the past 30 years, the Gulf has been in the crosshairs of an influential group of Washington foreign-policy strategists, who believe that in order to ensure its global dominance, the United States must seize control of the region and its oil. Born during the energy crisis of the 1970s and refined since then by a
The B-2 Bomber 110 Maryland Ave. NEWashington, DC 20002(202) 543-4100clw@clw.org On March 24, 1999, two bat-winged B-2 bombers from Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri flew around the globe to drop their munitions on Serb targets in Kosovo. The around-the-globe sortie marked the first combat experience of the $2.2 billion bomber. While the military effect of this particular mission was marginal, it could have serious repercussions back in Washington, re-opening a debate which many thought had ended in 1997.
History of the B-2 The saga of the B-2 began in the late 1970s when the United States commenced a top secret program to construct a fleet of radar-evading bombers dubbed "Stealth." These aircraft were originally intended to penetrate undetected deep into Soviet airspace to deliver nuclear payloads. Development of the B-2 program began in 1981. Initially, the Pentagon sought to acquire 132 planes at an estimated cost of $21.9 billion. Because of the highly clandestine nature of this weapon, each phase of initial research and development was restricted to top secret clearance. The Reagan administration funded the B-2 through the Pentagon's "special access" budget. Even details unrelated to technology such as the annual budget, program managem
Remarks by H.E. President Kim Dae-jung of the Republic of Korea
Lurking in the background behind Bush, his Vice-President, Dick Cheney, and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are the people propelling US policy. And behind them, the masterminds of the Bush presidency as it arrived at the White House from Texas, are Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz.
It is too simple to explain the upcoming war as 'blood for oil', as did millions of placards last weekend, for Rove and Wolfowitz are ideologists beyond the imperatives of profit. They represent an unlikely and formidable alliance forged between the gritty Texan Republicans who took over America, fuelled by fierce conservative Christianity, and a faction of the East Coast intelligentsia with roots in Ronald Reagan's time, devoted to achieving raw, unilateral power.
The Pentagon's Internal WarThe career military and their civilian bosses at the Pentagon are at odds over weaponry, Saudi Arabia – and Iraq.
By Joshua Micah Marshall Aug. 9, 2002 | WASHINGTON -- In the spring of 2001, shortly after the Bush administration had taken office, a delegation of Saudi diplomats attended a meeting at the Pentagon with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz. As the meeting was breaking up, one of the attendees, Harold Rhode -- a Pentagon employee and Wolfowitz protégé then serving as Wolfowitz's "Islamic affairs advisor" -- approached Adel Al-Jubeir, a soft-spoken Saudi diplomat who once served as an assistant to the Saudi ambassador and today is foreign policy advisor to Crown Prince Abdullah.
Rhode told Al-Jubeir that once the new administration got its affairs in order there'd be no more pussyfooting around as there was in the Clinton days, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The United States would take care of Saddam, start calling the shots in the region, and the Saudis would have to fall in line. Al-Jubeir demurred. These were issues the two allies would certainly discuss, Al-Jubeir told the American.
July 22, 2002 Arnaud de Borchgrave About 5,000 ships — from battleships to small landing craft loaded with 130,000 troops — and more than 1,000 air transports to drop three divisions of paratroopers was the Allied plan for the invasion of Normandy scheduled for early June 1944. Imagine Operation Overlord for D-Day splashed all over the front page of the New York Times. Unthinkable, you say. Then imagine the German high command's plans to repulse the Allied invasion announced by Adolf Hitler himself in a meeting with his closest advisers and then leaked to a London newspaper. Equally unthinkable. But
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U.S. Has a Plan to Occupy Iraq, Officials ReportBy DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT
ASHINGTON, Oct. 10 — The White House is developing a detailed plan, modeled on the postwar occupation of Japan, to install an American-led military government in Iraq if the United States topples Saddam Hussein, senior administration officials said today.
The plan also calls for war-crime trials of Iraqi leaders and a transition to an elected civilian government that could take months or years.
In the initial phase, Iraq would be governed by an American military commander — perhaps Gen. Tommy R. Franks, commander of United States forces in the Persian Gulf, or one of his subordinates — who would assume the role that Gen. Douglas MacArthur served in Japan after its surrender in 1945.
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U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan: Vietnam Redux by Marc W. HeroldDepartments of Economics and Women's StudiesWhittemore School of Business & EconomicsUniversity of New Hampshire
POSTED OCTOBER 31, 2002 -- -- Abdul Ahmed Safi, official of the provincial Konar government.(1) U.S. Special Forces and Afghan Militia Force [AMF] mercenaries confront villagers during a raid upon Narizah in late August [Wally Santana, AP photo]. More photos can be found here: http://www4.aixgaming.com/opend/album08
The Americans are no different from the Russians, one hears in Uruzgan and Kandahar. U.S. Army Special Forces were first deployed in Afghanistan on October 19 in northern Afghanistan to serve primarily as spotters for U.S. bombing missions. On that same day, in a very embarrassing start to their Afghan ground campaign, the elite Delta Force suffered 12 casualties when ambushed by Taliban troops using machine guns and RPGs.(3) The Delta team had landed by helicopter on Mullah Omar's summer retreat in the hills above Kandahar. According to The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, several of those who participated in the raid called it a "total goat fuck" - which, we are told, is "military slang meaning that everything that could go wrong did go wrong."(4) Special Forces units played a key role in directing deadly U.S. airstrikes [using lasers and GPS coordinates] upon Taliba