Afghanistan - Proof of Friendly Fire Killings

---

NEWS UPDATE on Taliban activity, August 7, 2010:
The attack on a medical team in Northern Afghanistan and that left 10 foreign specialists dead (one German citizen among them) was carried out by the Taliban because of alleged "evangelization efforts" of those foreigners. The Taliban's proclamation was reported by the Arabian service of Al-Jazeera while Western TV stations are still uncertain about the origin of the attack. Uncertainties are based upon the unclear situation of tribal influence and criminal activities of local gangs in that remote area. The medical aid organization concerned is known as a Christian organization but without any ambition of missionary activity.

---

Wikileaks recently published a document that is said to prove that four Canadian servicemen in Afghanistan died from "Friendly Fire" by U.S. troops rather than during their combat with the Taliban. The incident took place in September 2006. Official U.S. military sources still deny any mistake committed by their troops, saying that a jet fighter bomb was dropped near the Canadians only after their deaths and didn't even go off.



Yet, the "Friendly Fire Affair" is not the only subject revealed by Wikileaks. According to Al-Jazeera TV (English Channel) and Al-Manar (Hezbollah TV), about 90.000 classified military files on Afghanistan have been published by Wikileaks. This material includes detailed military expenditure lists for all kinds of weaponry and other military equipment.

In fact, the overall number of documents available should be even higher than the reported 90.000. About 15.000 documents have been held back because they contain the names of Wikileaks' informants.

After Wikileaks' publication, Pentagon officials find themselves in a difficult situation. U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates appealed to the media to refrain from publishing the contents of certain military files obtained from Wikileaks in order not to endanger the lives of Afghan informants mentioned. According to Al-Manar, Afghanistan's President Karzai already condemned the latest publication by Wikileaks as "irresponsible and shocking".

Even though Wikileaks didn't name their informants, suspicion has fallen on serviceman Bradley Manning who is now on his way from Kuwait to a military prison in Virginia, U.S.A., where he will be charged with delivering defence information to an unauthorized source.

One of 90.000 U.S. Mysteries

To illustrate what Wikileaks revealed, here is one U.S. report for all.
"AFGHAN MALE FOUND DRAWING MAP OF KABUL MILITARY TRAINING
CENTER (KMTC):
AN AFGHAN MALE, JAWEED ALI, WAS SEEN DRAWING A MAP OF KMTC
(3432.645N06918.735E). JAWEED WAS APPREHENDED AT 1000HRS
ON 12 JAN 04 AND TAKEN BEFORE THE 15TH KANDAK (i.e. battalion)
COMMANDER WHO ASKED THAT THE INCIDENT BE INVESTIGATED. A
SEARCH OF JAWEEDS PERSONAL EFFECTS RESULTED IN THE DISCOVERY
OF AN ENGLISH GRAMMAR BOOK DEDICATED TO JAWEED BY ZAWAHIRI
IN ARABIC. AS THE NAME UBL (i.e. Usama Bin Laden) WAS ALSO FOUND
IN THE SAME DEDICATION, IT WAS ASSUMED THAT THE ZAWAHIRI
WAS THE SAME ONE KNOWN TO BE AN AQ (i.e. Al-Qaeda) MEMBER.

---

The Logic of War:
Private Lee's Letter to his Parents

The following underground video was originally published by the Islamic Army in Iraq, despite its name a rather nationalist organization operating in Baghdad and in the Al-Anbar region of Iraq. The video is primarily based on material found on the laptop of a U.S. soldier who died in the explosion of his armoured vehicle. Soldier Lee's letter to his parents is followed by a preset interview with another U.S. soldier named "John Smith" and who should be an anti-war activist in New York. Even though some kind of anti-U.S. propaganda, the video obviously reflects second thoughts, U.S. soldiers in Iraq are developing towards their mission in the Middle East. It should be noted that this video came into being in 2006 when the war in Iraq was still conducted by the late Bush administration and any repatriation of U.S. troops was far from being in sight. I found this video in the archives of Al-Arabiya TV and consider it worth being preserved as a historic document because it fits with the general opinion on U.S. war in Iraq as expressed by international media as well as a majority of citizens of all countries involved in that war.

U.S. Financial Reform Bill

Obama Now Taking On Wallstreet

Today, U.S. President Obama has launched a bill that is intended to regulate the financial market in the aftermath of the financial crisis. His four point initiative will include the following features:

- Power to the government of breaking up companies

- Rules implemented to reduce risk-taking

- Powerful watchdog for the government to identify threats

- Consumer protection agency planned

A comment by James Henry, U.S. economist and author, is showing his evaluation of Obama's giant bill that comprises more than 2.000 pages.

Iran / U.S. - The Amiri Affair

Latest UPDATE further down !

Abduction or Defection ?

After Shahram Amiri, leading scientist of the Iranian nuclear programme, disappeared during his pilgrimage to Mecca in 2009, the Iranian government openly accused U.S. intelligence of having abducted one of their most prominent experts. In the time following, different videos appeared on the internet about the abduction which should have been carried out by U.S. and Saudi intelligence. Those videos are partly related to Shahram Amiri himself.
Now, Amiri obviously reappeared in the Embassy of Pakistan, right in the middle of Washington DC, where he was "dropped at the backdoor". According to a foreign ministry spokesman in Islamabad, Amiri is expected to travel back to his country as soon as Iranian officials have arranged his safe return. In one of his messages to the world he pretended to having fled from his U.S. guards and was now making his way through the federal state of Virginia.

Report from
Islamabad

Al-Jazeera made Amiri's reappearance a subject of the day. You can read the English language article and look at the news video of Al-Jazeera's Arabic channel that was registered in order to provide material for an overall analysis of the incident.


The video is showing Amiri at the time of an interview that has been preserved in the archives of Al-Jazeera. Furthermore, an Iranian writer and political analyst is giving his comment on the Amiri affair directly from Teheran. It should be noted that even a journalist like him, considered to be independent, uses the appropriate religious formula to introduce his comment "in the name of Allah", just like any official Iranian broadcasting service does.

قالت الإذاعة الإيرانية اليوم الثلاثاء إن العالم النووي الإيراني المفقود شهرام أميري لجأ إلى سفارة باكستان في واشنطن حيث مكتب شعبة المصالح الإيرانية في الولايات المتحدة، وأنه طلب العودة فورا إلى بلاده

Comment

Having learnt much about CIA proceedings during the past decades, I tend to believe the story as just another proof of professional incompetence. Nevertheless, it makes sense to argue that Amiri was nothing else but a defector who had reason enough to leave his country early before a long expected military showdown might turn his working place into a premium target for all kinds of U.S. missiles. Considering the typical biography of people who once studied abroad, almost free from political and religious constraint, it becomes understandable that such people rather tend to choose their own destinity than wait for it. The Iranian regime, on the other hand, leaves little hope for less pressure on its subjects and for a more reasonable foreign policy. So, lets better leave it like that, and lets U.S. intelligence take the blame for all of the story. They deserved it anyway ... !


UPDATE July 18, 2010



Shahram Amiri returned to Teheran and informed the press about what he calls "his abduction in the frame of U.S. pressure to make him confess being a member of the Iranian state security". If he had confessed, he would have been used in a "spy swap that should have freed three U.S. agents".

According to a press briefing held by U.S. State Department official Crowley, those three American citizens should be regarded as "nothing else but hikers who passed an unmarked border by chance". Their "safe return was therefore expected to be only a matter of time after Amiri's return of his own free will".

By the way, it should be remembered that U.S. authorities earlier offered a sum of five million dollars for essential information on the Iranian nuclear programme. On this subject there was no further information available in the frame of the Amiri case. Though, Iranian state security might ask some unpleasant questions sooner or later.

At the same time, an interesting voice made itself heard from Cuba where old Fidel Castro appeared on TV and spoke about "the danger of nuclear warfare coming in sight when Western pressure on Iran will be further increased". Maybe, there sounds "his old master's voice" from Moscow that is, even today, far from accepting increased U.S. influence in its Central Asian backyard. The proof: Russia still provides modern weaponry to Iran (even including cruise-missiles) and has offered to ship enriched uranium to his Iranian partner in order to soften the political tensions between Teheran and the Western world.

Iraq - Preparation for the Big Exit

As planned by the Obama administration, the pulling back of U.S. troops from Iraq should begin by the end of August. Yet, preparations for the big exit have already begun. In what is called the "world's hugest garage sell" the U.S. army is trying to get rid of material it cannot and will not take back. Iraqi citizens are now searching what we would call the waste of a retiring army in order to find something useable.
"Lucky" Ibrahim for instance was able to buy a former army latrine at low cost which he turned into a new home for himself and his family after a double loss of home in 2003 and 2004 during the fightings that took place in Falluja. Facing a political situation in Iraq that is still unstable, Ibrahim's personal fate still remains shaky and might serve as an example for the cynicism of war.



In the Heat of Civil War:
The casualties from a series of bomb attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims during the past 24 hours in Baghdad rose to 54 killed and some 359 others injured, an Interior Ministry spokesman told New China Agency on Thursday, July 8, 2010.
On July 9, the medium temperature for the Baghdad area was reported to be about 51°C (Al-Jazeera weather report).
Remember: The very day the U.S. finally left Vietnam and flew out their personnel in a hurry, American Forces Radio in Saigon constantly announced high temperatures while playing all sorts of Christmas songs ...

Afghanistan - The War is Lost !

Whoever would have imagined that U.S. forces might pay their enemies to refrain from attack ? Its not just like that but reality is very near to it. At least, it has become known that U.S. taxpayer's money is flowing into the pockets of certain Afghan landlords who, in exchange, ensure safe transportation through difficult regions. Now, there are many more who consider the war in Afghanistan as being lost. Here's just another analysis of the current situation provided by RT News, a TV station in Moscow that is controlled by U.S. citizens based in Russia:

Hot Greetings from the Taliban

The day of his arrival in Kabul, the Taliban offered a "very hot welcome" to General David Petraeus, the new military commander in Afghanistan after the dismission of General Stanley McChrystal by U.S. President Obama. In an unprecedented attack on an U.S. aid center in Kunduz, up to now a rather quiet area, the Taliban made it clear that they would never tolerate any U.S. presence in their country.

The Afghan "Volkssturm" Now Engaging

In the region of Kandahar a new militia has been founded that sees its task in the restoration of civil order among much military and political disorder. Members of that militia are Pashtun residents armed with AK-47 and RPG. Each of them is wearing a coloured ribbon to make him look different from a Taliban fighter. The leader of that group is cooperating with local Afghan police. In an interview with Al-Jazeera's Arabic channel, a speaker of Afghanistan's human rights organization praises that institution (July 2010).

And what about Al-Qaeda ?

Originally, the war in Afghanistan was intended to fight Bin Laden's organization Al-Qaeda, held responsible for the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Since then, Al-Qaeda has found its way into many Muslimic countries like Pakistan and Morocco where it enjoys much support among young people. As it cannot be compared with any other military, political or religious organization whatsoever because of its open structure that enables a high flexibility in action, U.S. warfare still fails to subdue that kind of enemy and often hits out at innocent civilians who then tend to become new supporters of a radical Islamic movement that is nourishing Al-Qaeda.

Most recent news (July 4, 2010):
After increased activities of Al-Qaeda's North-African branch in Algeria and Mali, the government of Mali now allowed Algerian troops to hunt down Al-Qaeda insurgents on its own territory. To get a picture of Al-Qaeda's new power, you ought to look at the attached video. It is about eleven Algerian soldiers who lost their lives in an ambush. Another four soldiers were wounded in the same incident.