Could Afghanistan Break NATO?

[Thermate911]

Here's an interesting development in the making:-

http://cryptogon.com/?p=9879

[fish5133]

yes indeed, lets hope it goes all the way.

[TonyGosling]

Bribery and fraud at heart of defense contracting work in Iraq and Afghanistan
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jul 28, 2009, 00:17

(WMR) -- WMR has learned from a knowledgeable contractor who served in Iraq and Afghanistan that a number of large U.S. defense contractors have been involved in questionable deals to land major contracts in countries that made up the “Coalition of the Willing” that invaded and occupied Iraq.

The companies named by the contractor include Booz Allen of McLean, Virginia, where Donald Rumsfeld’s Comptroller Dov Zakheim took a job after resigning in 2004; Lockheed Martin; and VSE Corporation of Alexandria, Virginia. In December 2003, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit concluded that there was $1.6 billion in lost funds from the war in Iraq and on information technology contracts.

VSE provided “support services” to the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WMR has learned that VSE and Lockheed Martin’s Tokyo representative were involved in distributing $2 million in “black funds” to bribe South Korean diplomats and politicians who were involved in crafting an international arms tender from South Korea to purchase from the United States F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets fitted with Lockheed Martin’s Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) system. The competitors on the potential $7 billion contract with South Korea included companies representing the Eurofighter, as well as the Russians.

The back room dealing primarily occurred in 2006 and the U.S. embassy in Seoul helped in arranging payments of untraceable cash for several South Korean politicians. The U.S. ambassador to South Korea at the time was Alexander Vershbow, who was nominated in March 2009 by President Obama as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, a post in which Vershbow oversees foreign military sales.........

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4953.shtml

[TonyGosling]

I don't mean to be prejudiced but new kid on the war crimes block General Sir David Richards sounds like a barrow boy. Has he had an education?


Army chief Sir David Richards predicts 40 more years fighting Taliban in Afghanistan

Are our soldiers his 'human resources' to be deployed? This is his only appearance on YouTube so far.
Highlights from the Human Resources Directors Business Summit 2009 which included inspirational keynote sessions from Dr. Edward de Bono, General Sir David Richards and motivational expert Chester Elton.
What a horrible bunch of people at this conference, vying with each other to be the most fake.

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6C4DZGWNLw

http://www.bcfm.org.uk/wp-content/Podcasts/20090807170001.mp3

[TonyGosling]

Death takes UK Afghan toll to 200
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8203711.stm
It's the Mafia stupid!
Who is funding the Afghan Taliban? You don't want to know.
Reuters - http://www.legitgov.org/
"I was building a bridge," an Afghan contactor said, one evening over drinks. "The local Taliban commander called and said 'don't build a bridge there, we'll have to blow it up.' I asked him to let me finish the bridge, collect the money -- then they could blow it up whenever they wanted. We agreed, and I completed my project." Who is funding the Afghan Taliban? You don't want to know. 13 Aug 2009.
In Afghanistan, one of the richest sources of Taliban funding is the foreign assistance coming into the country. Virtually every major project includes a healthy cut for the insurgents. Call it protection money, call it extortion, or, as the Taliban themselves prefer to term it, "spoils of war," the fact remains that international donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy... The manager of an Afghan firm with lucrative construction contracts with the U.S. government builds in a minimum of 20 percent for the Taliban in his cost estimates. The manager, who will not speak openly, has told friends privately that he makes in the neighborhood of $1 million per month. Out of this, $200,000 is siphoned off for the insurgents.............
http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2009/08/13/who-is-funding-the-afghan-t aliban-you-dont-want-to-know/

[TonyGosling]

Mass murder of Afghan infants by US, UK, NATO & Australia
News Type: Event — Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:35 AM EDT
http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/2009/08/15/3155459-mass-murder-of-afg han-infants-by-us-uk-nato-australia

Gideon Polya

The "annual death rate" for Afghan infants is about 7%, this proving what an utter sham "democracy" is in Occupied Afghanistan and the war criminality of the US Alliance Occupiers, the US, the UK, NATO and Australia.

According to UNICEF, 338,000 under-5 year old infants die every year in Occupied Afghanistan (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/afghanistan.html ).

According to the UN Population Division the under-5 infant population of Occupied Afghanistan is about 5,000,000 (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp ).

We can translate the above authoritative statistics into an "annual death rate" of 338,000 x 100/5,000,000 = 6.8% for Occupied Afghanistan under-5 year old infants i.e. about 7 out of every 100 Occupied Afghanistan under-5 year old infants die each year (90% avoidably and due to US Alliance war crimes - thus according to WHO (see: http://www.who.int/countries/usa/en/ ) the "total annual per capita health expenditure" the US Alliance permits in Occupied Afghanistan is only $29 as compared to $6,714 in the US ).

The "annual death rate" is about 7% for Occupied Afghan under-5 year old infants as compared to 3% (for inmates of the Nazi German Buchenwald Concentration Camp), 5% (for French Jews under Nazi German and French collaborationist Vichy regime), 10% (for Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese in WW2) and 17% (for Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe 1941-1945) (see: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article18881 ).

Would the Afghan parents and family members of these innocent victims willingly vote for puppets of the US Alliance mass murderers of Afghan children?

Would the World War 2 inmates of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, French Jews in Nazi-occupied France, Australian POWs of the Japanese or Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe have voted for representatives of their murderous captors and persecutors?

Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (see: http://www.un-documents.net/gc-4.htm ) state that an Occupier must make requisite life-sustaining food and medical provisions "to the fullest extent of the means available to it" to its occupied subjects.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Barack Hussein Obama (BHO), Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, George Brown, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Stephen Harper, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and their war criminal associates and underlings should be arraigned before the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the mass murder of children.

Post-invasion under-5 year old infant deaths in Occupied Afghanistan now total 2.3 million.

Thou shalt not kill children.

[cem]

.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6044570/Thr ee-vital-steps-to-rebuild-Afghanistan.html


Three vital steps to rebuild Afghanistan

by UK Foreign Minister David Miliband, Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2009

.

[TonyGosling]

NATO wants a media blackout on all resistance fighter attacks during Thursday's (s)election so voters "are not scared to vote". What a bad joke that will make of the day's news coverage!
"Cheering voters turned out in their millions today as democracy was restored to the joyous nation of Afghanistan, now freed from the evil reign [presenter begins to sound on edge and hurry his reading as we hear the sound of loud explosions nearby] of the sexist Taliban terrorist warlords who the brave voters have decided can no longer give a home to Al Quaeda."

Chasing Mirages in Afghanistan

While scourging Iran over its recent questionable election, the United States is about to shamelessly stage-manage presidential elections in Afghanistan.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-margolis/chasing-mirages-in-afghan_ b_262187.html

This week's Afghan vote will be an elaborate piece of political theater designed to show increasingly uneasy Western voters that progress is being made in the war-torn nation after seven years of US-led occupation.

Westerners may be gulled, but most Afghans already believe they know who will win the vote: the candidate chosen by the United States and its NATO allies.

Voting will mostly be held in urban areas, under the guns of US and NATO troops. The countryside, ruled by Taliban, who are often local farmers moonlighting as fighters, is too dangerous for this electoral charade. Over half of Afghanistan is under Taliban influence by day, more by night.

The entire election and vote-counting election commission are financed and run by the US. So are leading candidates. Ten thousand Afghan mercenaries hired by the US will police the polls and intimidate voters. US-financed Afghan media are busy promoting Washington's candidates. Bribes and fake ballots are being lavishly dispensed, as the BBC reports.

It is a serious violation of US law for any foreign nations to contribute money to candidates or campaigns in American elections. But the US has spent hundreds of millions influencing political campaigns and votes in Iraq, Ukraine, Georgia, Iran, the West Bank, and now Afghanistan.

The Pashtun Taliban, a fiercely anti-Communist, religious movement, is banned from the election. Pashtun tribesmen form over half of Afghanistan's population but have been largely excluded from power by the US-led occupation.

When the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, it backed the pro-Russian Tajiks of the north who were blood enemies of the Pashtun-dominated Taliban. A Russian general led the Tajik-Uzbek Northern Alliance into Kabul. The US quickly became the ally of the Afghan Communists. Today, Tajiks and their Uzbek allies continue to be the real power behind Karzai's wobbly throne and dominate the drug trade.

Taliban vows to fight the sham election, which it calls a tool of foreign occupation. Other nationalist and tribal groups battling Western occupation, notably Gulbadin Hekmatyar's Hisbi Islami and forces of Jalaladin Hakkani, are also excluded from the election.

In fact, all parties are banned; only individuals are allowed to run. This is a favorite tactic of non-democratic regimes, particularly the US-backed dictatorships of the Arab world.

Real power is held by the US-installed Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, whose administration is being undermine by charges of egregious corruption and involvement in drug dealing.

Behind Karzai are two powerful warlords: former Communist secret police chief Mohammed Fahim, a Tajik, and the recently returned from exile Uzbek warlord, Rashid Dostam. These two pillars of the old Afghan Communist regime were arch henchmen of the former Soviet occupiers and notorious war criminals.

President Hamid Karzai's main `rival,' Abdullah Abdullah, fronts for the Russian and Iranian-backed Tajik Northern Alliance. Abdullah was an aide to the late Tajik warlord, Ahmad Shah Massoud, who is lionized in the West. It has been revealed that Massoud, who was assassinated just before 9/11, was a long-time `asset' of the Soviet KGB who secretly collaborated with Moscow against the Afghan mujahidin.

Technocrat Ashraf Gani is another supposedly leading candidate. Both Gani and Abdullah are expected to get high positions in any new government formed by Karzai. Their primary role is to give the impression of a genuine electoral contest.

The northern Tajiks and Uzbeks, traditional foes of the majority Pashtun, are in deeply cahoots with Russia, Iran and India, all of whom have designs on Afghanistan.

One fact is inescapable: there will never be peace in Afghanistan until the majority Pashtun are enfranchised and allowed to share power and money - and that means Taliban and its allies. The US, having foolishly allied itself with Afghanistan's minorities instead of its majority, now faces the consequences of this strategic blunder.

When the Soviets occupied Afghanistan from 1979-1989, they held fairer elections than the two US-run votes. Of course, the Soviet's man, Najibullah, won, but at least dissention was voiced and opposition parties were allowed a voice. In Washington's stage-managed Afghan votes, real opposition is excluded. The US used the same trick in Iraq's rigged elections.

When the Soviets installed their yes-men in power, we called them `puppets' and `Communist stooges.' When the West does it, our Quislings are hailed as `statesmen' and `democrats fighting for stability.'

The UN, which, in the words of a senior American diplomat, has become `a leading tool of US foreign policy,' is being used to validate the US-run election. The feeble current UN chief, Ban-Ki moon, was put into his job by Washington.

Meanwhile, the party-line North American media keeps lauding the vote. It has long-term memory loss.

In 1967, the `New York Times,' a vocal supporter of the war in Afghanistan, wrote of US-supervised elections in war-torn Vietnam, `83% of voters cast ballots...in a remarkably successful election...the keystone of President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of the constitutional process in Vietnam.'

The vote may be close, since so many Afghans dislike Karzai, forcing a runoff. Washington may impose a CIA-World Bank approved `CEO' on poor Karzai, making him a double figurehead.

Whoever wins, President Barack Obama will end up the real power of Afghanistan.

Ravaged Afghanistan needs genuine, honest elections, and patient national reconciliation, free of foreign manipulation. That's the only true road to peace and stability.

America has a great deal to teach Afghanistan about how to run clean elections and build the essential institutions of democracy. As I underline in my latest book, `American Raj,' democracy and good government are what America should be exporting to the Muslim World, not dictators, B-1 bombers, and Predators.

Running phony elections is unworthy of the United States and demeans its values and traditions. It makes a mockery of everything we preach around the globe.

Our arrant double standards is a leading cause of anti-Americanism. One example: while claiming to be fighting to bring democracy to Afghanistan, the US strongly backed the military dictatorship in Pakistan that facilitated the American war effort.


The way to real peace and stability in Afghanistan can only be through a national consensus and negotiated settlement that includes Taliban and its allies.

But President Obama is desperate for some sort of victory, though he cannot even properly define the term. Senior US generals warn of defeat in Afghanistan if the US garrison is not doubled. The conflict continues to spread into neighboring Pakistan. Americans are being prepared for a widening of the war `to defend Afghan democracy.'

The US and NATO watch in horror as their casualties sharply mount and they have nothing to show voters for the latest Afghan imperial misadventure but body bags and tantalizing mirages of Central Asia's fabled oil and gas.

[TonyGosling]

It's at moments like this that the Murdoch press reveals it's fascist heart
Plus insight here into the lives of the front line occupying soldiers

Taliban attacks leave poll soaked in Afghan blood - Times Online
NATO occupation leaves poll soaked in Afghan blood - Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6806415 .ece

It is insulting to Afghans to declare their election a success - Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/23/havana-marking-afg hanistan-election

[TonyGosling]

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, which is a stronghold of the Taliban.
The Taliban has comdemned the bombing and denied involvement in the attack that left at least 43 people dead.
The blast, which wounded at least 65 other people, took place outside a wedding hall in the southern city shortly after people were breaking their Ramadan fast.
The Afghan government now says it is sending the army in to take control of security in the city.

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3j3w6TOlvE

[TonyGosling]

Afghans mourn dead under outcry of NATO bombing
By Ameen Salarzai (AFP) – 6 hours ago

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — Afghans on Saturday mourned the dead from a NATO bombing that killed scores of people and renewed an outcry over civilian casualties at the hands of Western troops in an eight-year war.

The air strike destroyed two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban at a time when witnesses said villagers had rushed towards the vehicles, carrying any container they could to collect free fuel at the insurgents' invitation.

Officials said the dead were mostly insurgents, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- leading the count in fraud-tainted elections -- said any targeting of civilians was unacceptable. His office said 90 people were killed and hurt.

Memorial prayers were heard Saturday in nearly a dozen villages for those killed in northern Kunduz province, where the atmosphere was highly charged, witnesses said.

A delegation from the defence and interior ministries travelled to Kunduz early Saturday to begin investigations ordered by President Hamid Karzai, an official said.

Zamari Bashari, interior ministry spokesman, said it was not yet known how many people were killed, nor how many were civilians.

Kunduz provincial police chief Abdul Razaq Yaqobi said 56 people were killed and 12 wounded, adding that "all of them were Taliban".

In the Kunduz hospital, where many of the injured were taken, Asmatullah was with his 10-year-old son Shafiullah, who he said had been with other children getting free fuel and whose legs were burned when the tankers were ignited.

Asmatullah, who like many Afghans uses one name, said he was awoken by the noise of the exploding tankers "and when I went there I saw all the world was covered by killed and wounded people".

"All the dead were Taliban," he said.

The Taliban released a statement saying none of its militiamen were among the casualties.

"When the planes came our men knew that they would bomb the area, so all our people left," said the statement, received by email.

The air strike has underscored the increasing Taliban presence in parts of the north straddling a new supply route for foreign troops coming through Tajikistan in order to minimise dependence on the volatile route from Pakistan.

The White House expressed "great concern" over the loss of civilian lives while European governments warned the raid risked undermining the NATO mission of 64,500 troops from more than 40 countries trying to defeat the Taliban.

Police and the interior ministry said up to 56 Taliban were killed and 10 more wounded, including a 12-year-old child, when a NATO air raid targeted the tankers after they were hijacked en route from Tajikistan to Kabul.

Mahbubullah Sayedi, a government spokesman in Kunduz gave the highest death toll, saying 90 people were killed, but said most were Taliban.

The insurgent militia, which frequently exaggerates its claims as part of its propaganda effort in an eight-year war against Western troops and the Afghan government, earlier said 150 villagers, most of them young boys, were killed.

The incident came four days after the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan submitted a review into the war, calling for a revised strategy to defeat the Taliban and reverse the country's "serious" situation.

The White House also said the incident would be investigated and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged to conduct a thorough investigation.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it bombed two stolen fuel trucks spotted on the banks of the Kunduz river, saying a large number of insurgents were killed but expressing regret for "any unnecessary loss of human life".

Kunduz provincial governor Engineer Mohammed Omar, said a German military convoy was targeted by a suicide bomber on Saturday about five kilometres (three miles) outside Kunduz city.

He said a car packed with explosives was remotely detonated as two German armoured vehicles were passing, injuring three German soldiers.

ISAF had no further details of the attack but confirmed there were no deaths.

[TonyGosling]

Victims' families tell their stories following Nato airstrike in Afghanistan
'I took some flesh home and called it my son.'
The Guardian interviews 11 villagers
guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 September 2009 20.05 BST

At first light last Friday, in the Chardarah district of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, the villagers gathered around the twisted wreckage of two fuel tankers that had been hit by a Nato airstrike. They picked their way through a heap of almost a hundred charred bodies and mangled limbs which were mixed with ash, mud and the melted plastic of jerry cans, looking for their brothers, sons and cousins. They called out their names but received no answers. By this time, everyone was dead.

What followed is one of the more macabre scenes of this or any war. The grief-stricken relatives began to argue and fight over the remains of the men and boys who a few hours earlier had greedily sought the tanker's fuel. Poor people in one of the world's poorest countries, they had been trying to hoard as much as they could for the coming winter.

"We didn't recognise any of the dead when we arrived," said Omar Khan, the turbaned village chief of Eissa Khail. "It was like a chemical bomb had gone off, everything was burned. The bodies were like this," he brought his two hands together, his fingers curling like claws. "There were like burned tree logs, like charcoal.

"The villagers were fighting over the corpses. People were saying this is my brother, this is my cousin, and no one could identify anyone."

So the elders stepped in. They collected all the bodies they could and asked the people to tell them how many relatives each family had lost.

A queue formed. One by one the bereaved gave the names of missing brothers, cousins, sons and nephews, and each in turn received their quota of corpses. It didn't matter who was who, everyone was mangled beyond recognition anyway. All that mattered was that they had a body to bury and perform prayers upon.

"A man comes and says, 'I lost my brother and cousin', so we gave him two bodies," said Omar Khan. "Another says I lost five relatives, so we gave him five bodies to take home and bury. When we had run out of bodies we started giving them limbs, legs, arms, torsos." In the end only five families went away without anything. "Their sons are still missing."

Omar Khan's small eyes narrowed and his mouth formed a disgusted circle. "The smell was so bad. For three days I smelled of burned meat and fuel."

Omar Khan was one of 11 villagers the Guardian interviewed about the airstrike. We arrived in the region early this week with the intention of visiting the site of the attack, but the kidnapping of a New York Times journalist and the firefight that preceded his rescue, leaving four people dead, meant the journey there was too difficult. Instead the villagers came into the city to tell us their stories.

We sat around a table in the basement of a hotel, and one by one their accounts of the airstrike – which killed 70-100 people, making it one of the most devastating of the war – spilled out. The villagers said the Taliban had hijacked the fuel tankers at 7pm on Thursday evening and driven them off the main road to Kabul, through Ali Abad district, into their stronghold of Chardarah, to the south-west of Kunduz.

To reach Chardarah they had to ford a shallow river to avoid a bridge garrisoned by the Afghan army. But when they drove the trucks into the water they became stuck, so the Taliban summoned the people in the nearby villages to help.

Jamaludin, a 45-year-old farmer, had been praying in the mosque when he heard the sound of a tractor. "I went home and found that three of my brothers and my nephew had left with my tractor," he said. "I called my brother to ask him where they had gone. He said the Taliban had asked him to bring the tractor and help them pull a tanker." Jamaluddin was alarmed. "I asked him what tanker? It wasn't our business, let the Taliban bring their own tractors. I called him back an hour later. He said they couldn't get the trucks out and the Taiban wouldn't let him leave, so I went back to sleep."

Realising the tankers were stuck, the Taliban decided to siphon off the fuel and asked people to come and help themselves to the ghanima, the spoils of war. There would be free fuel for everyone.

Assadullah, a thin 19-year-old with a wisp of black hair falling on his forehead, got a call from a friend who said the Taliban were distributing free fuel.

"I took two fuel cans with me, I called my brother and a friend and we went. There was a full moon and we could see very clearly. There were a lot of people already there. They were pushing and shoving, trying to reach the tap to fill their jerry cans. We are poor people, and we all wanted to get some fuel for the winter.

"I filled my cans and moved away while my brother was pushing to fill his. I walked for a hundred, maybe two hundred metres."

It was about 1am on Friday that the aircraft attacked and incinerated the stolen fuel tankers. "There was a big light in the sky and then an explosion," Assadullah said. "I fell on my face. When I came to, there was thick smoke and I couldn't see anything. I called, I shouted for my brother but he didn't answer. I couldn't see him. There was fire everywhere and silence and bodies were burning."

He pulled up his long shirt to show me four small shrapnel bruises and two burns on his neck.

Jamaludin woke up at about 1am to start making food. It was Ramadan, and he had to prepare Sehur, the last meal before sunrise. "I called my brother again and told him I could hear lots of aeroplanes in the sky, why wasn't he back? He said he was bringing some fuel and would be home soon. I hung up and went into the courtyard, and then there was a big fire, like a big lamp in the middle of the sky. I called my brother again and his phone was off. I left home and ran towards the river. The smell of smoke was coming from there.

"When I got there I couldn't see my brother.I shouted for him. I saw some people carrying injured on their shoulders, then I went back home to pray and wait for the light."

Jan Mohammad, an old man with a white beard and green eyes, said angrily: "I ran, I ran to find my son because nobody would give me a lift. I couldn't find him."

He dropped his head on his palm that was resting on the table, and started banging his head against his white mottled hand. When he raised his head his eyes were red and tears were rolling down his cheek: "I couldn't find my son, so I took a piece of flesh with me home and I called it my son. I told my wife we had him, but I didn't let his children or anyone see. We buried the flesh as it if was my son."

He broke off, then shouted at the young Assadullah, who had knocked at the old man's house and told his son to come with them there was free fuel for everyone, "You destroyed my home", Assadu-llah turned his head and looked at the wall. "You destroyed my home," he shouted again. Jan Mohammad dropped his head again on his palm and rolled it left and right, his big gray turban moving like a huge pendulum, "Taouba [forgiveness]," he hissed. "People lost their fathers and sons for a little bit of fuel. Forgiveness."

Omar Khan, the village chief, was crying now and looking at the ceiling.

Fazel Muhamad a 48-year-old farmer with seven deep lines creasing his forehead and a white prayers cap, threw two colour passport pictures in front of me, one of a thickly bearded man and the other a young boy. "My cousin and his son," he said. "Around 10pm, my cousin told me the Taliban were distributing fuel to the people and he was going to get some for the winter. I asked him to stay and not go, there were planes and it was dangerous at night, but he went anyway.

"At one or two in the morning we heard a big explosion and I saw fire coming form the sky. My cousin's wife came running, she said go look for your cousin, but I waited until I had finished my dawn prayers, no one could eat anything.

"I arrived there and I saw dead bodies, some were in the middle of the river, I walked around looking for him and his son but I couldn't find him. I went back home and his wife asked me did you see him, is he dead, where is he? I said I couldn't find him. She was wailing and crying.

"I went again looking for him. There was light now, I picked through the bodies, the Arbabs [village elders] were distributing the flesh, but I didn't go there. I looked through the ground and I could only see his two feet and his son's feet. I recognised them because he and his son had henna on their toes."

Islamu-ldin, a 20-year-old from Issa khail village with tufts of hair sprouting from his cheek, took his turn to speak. He said he ran for three hours to get to the riverbed to look for his brother.

"Our village is far from the river, I searched a lot through the dead, and I found my brother. I recognized him from his clothes. But we only found his upper body, maybe someone took the legs, maybe it just burned to ashes."

Omar Khan was weeping openly now. A few other men resisted, but their eyes were as red as those of Jan Muhamad, who was babbling and shouting at the young Assadullah again and again.

Saleh Muhamad, a 25-year-old man with thick beard, wanted to get some fuel but no one would give him a lift. His brother and brother-in-law went and he went to sleep, then he heard the explosion. "I waited till darkness ended, then went there. I didn't find anyone I knew, so I waited for the elders. They gave me two bodies, they looked like my relatives and I came back with them."

Another village elder said that at least a dozen of the dead were from the Taliban. Although most of them had already left when the explosion happened, the rest stayed trying to keep some order while the villagers shoved and pushed.

"At midnight my brother and nephew went to get fuel. I also wanted to go but I didn't have a car," said Saleh Muhamad.

"At one in the morning I went to bed. When I heard the explosion I called my brother but his phone was off … when I arrived at 3am there were dead everywhereI was searching for my brother and nephew but I couldn't find anyone.

"I had a torch with me and I could see well, but I still couldn't recognise anyone." His eyes looked straight through me as he said: "I found one body and took it home and we buried it. It was a full body, with arms and legs. We buried it well."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/11/afghanistan-airstrike-vict ims-stories

[TonyGosling]

Only one in six believes Afghan conflict is worth British soldiers' lives as Miliband admits election they died for was 'not free'
By Tim Shipman and Rebecca English
Last updated at 12:05 AM on 12th September 2009
Support for the war in Afghanistan has plunged to a new low, according to a poll.
It was released yesterday as Foreign Secretary David Miliband conceded that the Afghan election, which ten British soldiers died safeguarding, was riddled with fraud.
Only 17 per cent - one in six people - believes both that the mission in Afghanistan is making people safer and that it is worth the lives of British servicemen and women, the Populus survey found.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212848/Only-believes-Afghan-c onflict-worth-British-soldiers-lives.html#ixzz0QwGt7STo

[TonyGosling]

Japan ready to withdraw support for Afghanistan war
Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo
September 16, 2009
The Times
Yukio Hatoyama's choice of Defence Minister suggests that he will keep an election pledge to withdraw from the Afghanistan campaign
Japan’s new Defence Minister is a strong opponent of the country’s military support for the US, making it more likely than ever that the Government of Yukio Hatoyama will withdraw its naval ships from the war in Afghanistan early next year..........
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6836939.ece

[outsider]

US preparing for massive increase in troops to Afghanistan:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15364

[TonyGosling]

US, UK Public Support for Afghan War Declines
By VOA Ultra Propagandistic News - 07 October 2009

Opinion polls in the United States and Britain indicate that on the eighth anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan Wednesday, public support for the conflict is slipping.

An Associated Press poll finds only 40 percent of Americans support the war, while in Britain, 56 percent of people surveyed in a BBC poll said they are against it.

The discontent stems, in part, from increasing war casualties as troops struggle to contain the Taliban insurgency.

In Afghanistan, a Taliban statement marking the war's anniversary said the group poses no threat to foreign nations but is prepared for a long fight against international troops.

In violence Wednesday, a Spanish soldier was killed and five others wounded in western Herat province. Two Afghan civilians were killed and about 25 others wounded when their bus was hit by an insurgent rocket in eastern Ghazni province.

Meanwhile, the NATO-led force says Afghan and international troops killed or detained suspected militants in two separate operations in central Wardak and southern Helmand provinces Wednesday.

A NATO statement said that in Wardak, a joint security force killed and detained several suspected militants and destroyed a suicide vest during a raid on a compound known to be used by a Taliban group.

In Helmand province, Afghan and NATO forces detained several militants and uncovered 50 kilograms of black tar heroin. No Afghan civilians or security forces were harmed in the operations.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-07-voa60.cfm

[QuitTheirClogs]

This is straight out of Catch 22

Italians bribed the Taleban all over Afghanistan, say officials

From The Times October 16, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6877142 .ece

A Taleban commander and two senior Afghan officials confirmed yesterday that Italian forces paid protection money to prevent attacks on their troops.

After furious denials in Rome of a Times report that the Italian authorities had paid the bribes, the Afghans gave further details of the practice. Mohammed Ishmayel, a Taleban commander, said that a deal was struck last year so that Italian forces in the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, were not attacked by local insurgents.

The payment of protection money was revealed after the death of ten French soldiers in August 2008 at the hands of large Taleban force in Sarobi. French forces had taken over the district from Italian troops, but were unaware of secret Italian payments to local commanders to stop attacks on their forces and consequently misjudged local threat levels.

Mr Ishmayel said that under the deal it was agreed that “neither side should attack one another. That is why we were informed at that time, that we should not attack the Nato troops.” The insurgents were not informed when the Italian forces left the area and assumed they had broken the deal. Afghan officials also said they were aware of the practice by Italian forces in other areas of Afghanistan.

[TonyGosling]

Afghanistan to be graveyard of NATO alliance?
Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:07:23 GMT
Retired general and former Canadian chief of defense staff, Rick Hillier.
As public support for the Afghan war rapidly falls in NATO countries, the head of the alliance has stepped up efforts to keep member-states united.
On Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke before a meeting with alliance defense ministers in Bratislava on a new approach against the widening Taliban insurgency.
"We all have to achieve more in training and equipping the Afghan security forces," Rasmussen told a security conference before the ministers' meeting in the Slovak capital, which is not expected to announce decisions on troop levels.
Meanwhile, Canada's former top general has said that the setbacks in Afghanistan have greatly damaged NATO's credibility...............
http://www.presstv.ir/classic/detail.aspx?id=109364&sectionid=35102040 3

[QuitTheirClogs]

Daniel Ellsberg interviewed on The Real News

From Vietnam to Afghanistan

Ellsberg: As President Obama decides what to do in Afghanistan he must learn the lessons of Vietnam
25 October 2009


Link

[TonyGosling]

Slaughter raises Afghan fears of the enemy within
plus
NATO rocket strike kills 9 Afghan civilians
NATO says it targeted insurgents planting a bomb in Helmand province; residents say the victims were working in cornfields and included 3 children.
November 5, 2009 | 8:59 a.m.

Anonymous computerised North Atlantis Treaty Organization forces said today they were pretending to investigate reports that nine civilians were killed in a rocket strike aimed at insurgents in the volatile southern Afghan province of Helmand.

The incident came despite fake efforts by international forces to avoid civilian casualties and make the Afghan population feel deeply traumatised.

Dozens of angry villagers carried the bodies today through the streets of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, before the funeral was banned by police firing guns in the air, witnesses said.

According to a statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, a rocket was fired from the ground shortly before 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at a group of individuals a story was made up about them planting a bomb near Babaji village, outside the provincial capital.

"ISAF forces ignored civilians in the vicinity at the time of the strike," the anonymous statement said. "If any civilians were injured through our actions we will pretend to regret it."

Residents, however, said the victims were civilians working in cornfields and included three children.

"I saw the bodies. They were civilians," said Hafizullah, an elder of the community. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name.

He said the villagers had wanted to bring the bodies to the provincial governor's office but were blocked by the criminalised police.

Such incidents have fueled rising anger against international forces which is part of the standard NATO 'lose scenario' gameplan.

"I'm sure if the situation continues like this, one day everyone will declare holy war against the infidels," said Anwar Khan, who heads the Helmand provincial council, raising the specter of Afghans turning against the U.S.-led coalition.

But Dawoud Ahmadi, a corrupt government spokesman lied, saying the civilian victims were Taliban insurgents.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-civili ans6-2009nov06,0,5520105.story

[cem]

If your country has been under a brutal occupation for eight years, would you consider working in the service of the occupation forces?
Wouldn’t that be the ultimate betrayal against your fellow countrymen who have been subjected to genocide?
Well, the colonial mentality of the British press would have us believe this is precisely what we should expected from the people of Afghanistan.... .

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/11/441277.html


"Afghan betrayal"

[QuitTheirClogs]

Afghan poll: majority want troops home

By Channel 4 News
Updated on 05 November 2009
http://www.channel4.com/news/article.jsp?id=3411597&time=114923

Seventy three per cent of people wanting British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan, a YouGov survey for Channel 4 News reveals. YouGov president Peter Kellner breaks down the results.

Opposition to the war in Afghanistan has risen sharply in the past fortnight. Two weeks ago, 42 per cent of the British public thought the Taliban could be defeated, while 48 per cent thought they could not.


A) Do you think British troops are winning the war with the Taliban in Afghanistan, or not?
Yes - the British troops are winning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8
No - they are not winning yet, but victory is possible eventually . . . . . . 28.4
No - they are not winning, and victory is not possible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.1
Don't know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.6


B) Should British troops be brought home from Afghanistan?
Yes - all troops should be withdrawn immediately. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.4
Yes - most should be withdrawn soon, and the rest within the next year or so . . . . . . . 37.7
No - They should remain as long as Afghanistan's government wants them there . . . . . 20.2
Don't know. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7

[TonyGosling]

Starting to sound like trust is breaking down. This one dropped off the bulletins pretty sharpish today

Friendly fire may have caused 25 NATO casualties
Officials at the time of the attack indicated the casualties were caused by insurgents. However it now says friendly fire may have been the cause.
http://www.karachinews.net/story/563074

[scienceplease 2]

[QuitTheirClogs]

Daniel Ellsberg: Don't repeat Vietnam in Afghanistan

21 October 2009

Part 1:

Link


Part 2:

Link


Part 3:

Link

[TonyGosling]

Hooray!!! A blow is struck against the evil empire

Afghan war is bad for security, voters say
Independent poll casts doubt on key justification for Britain's involvement in conflict
By Kim Sengupta in Kabul and Nigel Morris
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
The main justification offered by the Government for keeping troops in Afghanistan is rejected by the majority of British people, a new opinion poll for The Independent shows today. Four out of five of those questioned do not believe that British involvement in the conflict, with its rising toll of casualties, is keeping the streets of Britain safe from terrorist attacks.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/afghan-war-is-bad-for-s ecurity-voters-say-1818207.html

[QuitTheirClogs]

British soldier faces [up to] 10 years in jail after being arrested during anti-war demonstration

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:43 PM on 11th November 2009
Daily Mail

A soldier facing charges of desertion for refusing to return to Afghanistan has been arrested and charged with five further offences after joining an anti-war demonstration.

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton led a protest in London last month against the continued presence of British troops in Afghanistan. He was already facing a court martial but according to the Stop the War Coalition the new charges carry a maximum of 10 years imprisonment. The group's convener Lindsey German said last night:

'This is not about breach of military regulations. In the last few days a range of military personnel have been speaking in the media in defence of this appalling war. I doubt if any of them have been arrested. This is about the persecution of a soldier who believes in telling the truth in accordance with his conscience. He is saying what the majority of the population believes - that this war is unwinnable and immoral. The anti-war movement will be doing everything possible to get him released.'

Lance Corporal Glenton, 27, from the Royal Logistic Corps, addressed a rally of more than 5,000 anti-war protesters packed into London's Trafalgar Square in October. He told the crowd he had witnessed sights during his time in Afghanistan that forced him to question the morality of his role. The married soldier, from Norwich, told onlookers:

'I'm here today to make a stand beside you because I believe great wrongs have been perpetrated in Afghanistan. I cannot, in good conscience, be part of them. I'm bound by law and moral duty to try and stop them. I'm a soldier and I belong to the profession of arms. I expected to go to war but I also expected that the need to defend this country's interests would be legal and justifiable. I don't think this is too much to ask. It's now apparent that the conflict is neither of these and that's why I must make this stand.'

The Ministry of Defence refused to comment when asked about the further charges. But spokesman confirmed Lance Corporal Glenton is currently subject to disciplinary action. He said: 'I can confirm that disciplinary action against a serving soldier from the Royal Logistic Corps is currently in progress. As this matter is subject to court martial proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.'

The soldier, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, is facing a court martial, adjourned to January, for alleged desertion after going absent without leave in 2007.

[TonyGosling]

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iqyaFh_efr-brDq0rMLF 1hkop0tgD9BTNA700

[QuitTheirClogs]

How the US Funds the Taliban

By Aram Roston - The Nation - November 11, 2009
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/roston


Welcome to the wartime contracting bazaar in Afghanistan. It is a virtual carnival of improbable characters and shady connections, with former CIA officials and ex-military officers joining hands with former Taliban and mujahedeen to collect US government funds in the name of the war effort.

In this grotesque carnival, the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. "It's a big part of their income," one of the top Afghan government security officials told The Nation in an interview. In fact, US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon's logistics contracts--hundreds of millions of dollars--consists of payments to insurgents.

Understanding how this situation came to pass requires untangling two threads. The first is the insider dealing that determines who wins and who loses in Afghan business, and the second is the troubling mechanism by which "private security" ensures that the US supply convoys traveling these ancient trade routes aren't ambushed by insurgents...


Two years ago, a top Afghan security official told me, Afghanistan's intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, had alerted the American military to the problem. The NDS delivered what I'm told are "very detailed" reports to the Americans explaining how the Taliban are profiting from protecting convoys of US supplies.

The Afghan intelligence service even offered a solution: what if the United States were to take the tens of millions paid to security contractors and instead set up a dedicated and professional convoy support unit to guard its logistics lines? The suggestion went nowhere.

The bizarre fact is that the practice of buying the Taliban's protection is not a secret. I asked Col. David Haight, who commands the Third Brigade of the Tenth Mountain Division, about it. After all, part of Highway 1 runs through his area of operations. What did he think about security companies paying off insurgents? "The American soldier in me is repulsed by it," he said in an interview in his office at FOB Shank in Logar Province. "But I know that it is what it is: essentially paying the enemy, saying, 'Hey, don't hassle me.' I don't like it, but it is what it is."

[outsider]

An interesting take on the motive of trainee Afghan who machine-gunned 5 solldiers (that you won't get in the MSM):

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23957.htm