Afghanistan/Iraq Wars
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
Former colleagues have penned a glowing tribute from lofty perches in business, law, and academia. You'll be amazed at what they left out. Reuters On February 7, John Brennan, the senior White House counterterrorism adviser, is scheduled to appear before a Senate committee likely to recommend his confirmation as head of the CIA. As a 25-year agency veteran, onetime chief of staff to former Director George Tenet, and right-hand man to President Obama, he's been a powerful player in counterterrorism circles going back to the Bush years. For that reason, he'll presumably be questioned on all of the most controversial War on Terror policies, particularly detainee torture, warrantless wiretapping, and the kill list that he oversees.
Peek at the Ruling Elite's Letter of Recommendation for John Brennan - Conor Friedersdorf
KABUL – Throughout Afghanistan, people are struggling with how to deal with allegations against an American soldier accused of leaving his base and killing 16 people Sunday. The shooting spree, which has been widely condemned by American officials, comes as relations between Afghanistan and the West are tense after the burning of Qurans on a U.S. base last month. The Taliban has vowed revenge for this "inhumane crime."
Afghanistan shootings further complicate U.S. mission
U.S. Drone Strikes Are Said to Target Rescuers
The report, by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism , found that at least 50 civilians had been killed in follow-up strikes after they rushed to help those hit by a drone-fired missile. The bureau counted more than 20 other civilians killed in strikes on funerals. The findings were published on the bureau’s Web site and in The Sunday Times of London. The bureau’s findings are based on interviews with witnesses to strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, where reporting is often dangerous and difficult. American officials have questioned the accuracy of such claims, asserting that accounts might be concocted by militants or falsely confirmed by residents who fear retaliation. But most other studies of drone strikes have relied on sketchy and often contradictory news reports from Pakistan.
WASHINGTON — An appeals court on Friday resurrected the case against four Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in a 2007 shooting in a Baghdad public square that killed 17 Iraqi citizens. A federal trial judge in Washington, Ricardo Urbina, threw out the case on New Year's Eve 2009 after he found the Justice Department mishandled evidence and violated the guards' constitutional rights. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Urbina wrongly interpreted the law. It ordered that he reconsider whether there was any tainted evidence against four of the five defendants _former Marines Evan Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; Donald Ball of West Valley City, Utah; and Dustin Heard of Knoxville, Tenn.; and Army veteran Paul Slough from Keller, Texas.
Blackwater Prosecution Resurrected By Appeals Court
New Documents Released of 2007 Iraq Atrocity by Troops | Truthout
Every American should read this letter: December 18, 2007 To: Mr. Randy Waddle, Assistant Inspector General, Ft Carson, Colorado CC: LTC John Shawkins, Inspector General, Ft Carson, Colorado Major General Mark Graham, Commanding Officer, Ft Carson, Colorado Major Haytham Faraj, USMC, Camp Pendleton, California Lt General Stanley Greene, US Army Inspector General Subject: Formal Notification of War Atrocities and Crimes Committed by Personnel, B Company, 2-12, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq Dear Mr. Waddle, My name is John Needham. I am a member of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry division, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, (BCo,2-12INF,2BCT,2ID . I deployed with my unit to Iraq from October 2006 until October 2007 when I was medically evacuated for physical and mental injuries that I suffered during my deployment.
Obama's "Twisted Version of American Exceptionalism" Laid Bare | Truthout
President Barack Obama would like the world to know that the US can do whatever it damn well pleases, thank you very much. Obama also wants the whole, wide world to get this through its thick skull: only rogue governments that implement a policy of rendition, torture, indefinite detention and extrajudicial assassination are guilty of human rights abuses and should be held accountable. That's the clear-cut message Obama articulated late last Friday when he issued a proclamation commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "All people should live free from the threat of extrajudicial killing, torture, oppression and discrimination, regardless of gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability," Obama's proclamation states.Statement of the Islamic Emirate on the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11
Statement of the Islamic Emirate on the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Shawwāl 11, 1432 A.H , Saturday, September 10 , 2011 In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful Each year, the 9/11 reminds the Afghans of an event in which they had no role whatsoever, but, using this as a pretext and a clout, the American colonialism shed blood of tens of thousands of miserable and innocent Afghans.
Half Of World’s Refugees Are Running From U.S. Wars
Half Of World’s Refugees Are Running From U.S. Wars | America’s wars are forcing Afghans and Iraqis to flee their homes in greater numbers. According to a recent U.N. High Commission for Refugees study, nearly one half of the world’s refugees are from Afghanistan and Iraq, 3.05 million and 1.68 million, respectively. But neither the United States nor much of the developed world bears the burden of the 10.55 million refugees under the UNHCR’s purview globally. Instead, Pakistan, Iran, and Syria serve as the top host countries.
Is the war in Afghanistan worth Head Start for this child and 14.7 million others? President Obama is expected to announce within a week if and how many combat troops he plans to withdraw from the war in Afghanistan. Some of those who will be most impacted by the decision are U.S. soldiers and their families and Afghans who have been dealing with the ramifications of the war for nearly a decade. Yet the war is affecting more than just Western soldiers and their families and Afghan citizens.
The $113 Billion Hole: Ten Things America Gave Up This Year To Pay For The War In Afghanistan
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is warning NATO forces in his country that he will no longer allow them to target houses with airstrikes. The warning follows an airstrike Afghan officials say killed 14 people Saturday, including women and children, in Helmand Province. Karzai said his demand for NATO to stop airstrikes that kill Afghan civilians is his "last warning."
Afghanistan’s Karzai Demands End to Airstrikes on Houses | South Asia
US Soldier Sentenced to 24 Years in Prison in Afghan Murder Case | Asia
A U.S. soldier accused of being part of a squad that deliberately killed Afghan civilians pleaded guilty to murder and other charges Wednesday and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. During a court martial in the state of Washington, military judge Lieutenant Colonel Kwasi Hawks said he intended to sentence 22-year-old Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock to life in prison with possibility of parole but was bound by the plea deal. He said Morlock will get 352 days off of his sentence for time served.March 3, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list:
The Afghan War is Brutal, Expensive, Unpopular, and Ineffective – So Why Are We Spending Billions on It?
Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war | World news
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi: 'I would do whatever was possible' Link to video: Iraqi defector Curveball: 'I had to do something for my country' The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war. Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995.US military support for foreign governments encourages terrorist groups to attack Americans, demonstrates a new study from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Essex. Terrorist attacks on Americans are more likely to come from countries where the US provides military aid, stations troops and sells arms finds the study - the first to show a statistical correlation between American foreign policy and terrorism against its citizens. The paper, 'Foreign terror on Americans', is published in the new edition of the Journal of Peace Research and explores the systematic patterns which appear to govern terrorist action. The authors are professor Eric Neumayer, from LSE, and professor Thomas Plümper, from the University of Essex. They examined details of terrorist attacks by foreigners on Americans between 1978 and 2005 to establish not only their number but also the country from which the action originated.