Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 6:55 pm Post subject:
@conspiracy analyst:
'But then again this was the same media that sold fake WMD's as a reason to go into Iraq and consider their financial system as having 'recovered' when the toxic debts are about to blow up around them, just like the NATO supply trucks... '
And, of course, the same media that parrots the absurd US Administration narrative of an evil genius in a cave, masterminding the 9/11 attacks.
On reflection, perhaps this was planned longer ago than most of us reckon - I remember comics in the '50's with a 'mad, evil professor' making a death-ray on some far-away island, holding the world to ransom (or perhaps the morons read the same comics, and thought, 'Hey, what a neat idea. Let's blame someone in a country we want to control (for pipeline routes), instead of some uninhabited island.
Ollie North butts in, 'Oi, 'neat idea' is my line...'. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 7:08 pm Post subject:
At last, an estimate for Afghan war-related deaths: 4.9 million!!!!!
The only estimate I had come across previously was around 1 million:
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya101010.htm _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
NATO loses 150 tankers in Pakistan as supply blockade enters 10th day
English.news.cn 2010-10-09 15:49:58
by Syed Moazzam Hashmi
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Almost 150 NATO oil tankers and supply trucks turned to ashes and at least 20 people were killed in Pakistan with 29 more containers burnt in a sixth terrorist attack on Saturday morning since the beginning of October.
Pakistan imposed a blockade on supply to the NATO trucks on Oct. 1, following an incursion by U.S.-led NATO gunship helicopters on Sept. 30 that killed three paramilitary troops at a checkpoint on Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the troubled Kurram tribal area in northwest Pakistan.
The Pentagon, NATO and the U.S. envoy in Islamabad have apologized on the incursion after an investigation this week that found NATO forces guilty. However, Pakistani foreign office stated that no decision on reopening the Torkham border in the northwest has yet been taken.
Earlier this week, Pakistani foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit told Xinhua in an interview that NATO supply blockade is put due to security concern and the borders will be reopened as soon as the situation is improved.
The fire that destroyed 29 NATO supply oil tankers at 1:30 a.m. local time Saturday morning at Mithri, in district Bolan of southwest Balochistan province of Pakistan, was still burning after nine hours, as only one fire tender was available in the remote area to fight the blaze, local sources told Xinhua.
A dozen of unidentified armed men riding four motorcycles fired a rocket and shot volley of fires at the NATO tankers, eyewitnesses and police said. No group has so far accepted the responsibility for the inferno, which also gutted four nearby shops as well, eyewitnesses said.
The convoy was on way to Afghanistan through Chaman at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which is now partially open to NATO supply. The gates of the other entry point into Afghanistan, Torkham in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, remained shut on the tenth day.
In the first incident in October over 35 NATO tankers were burnt in Shikarpur in the southern Sindh province while two more were destroyed in southwest Balochistan province the same day. Two days later, 20 tankers were set ablaze in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near capital Islamabad.
In the third incident some two dozens were destroyed near Quetta, Balochistan shortly before over 50 tankers were torched to ashes in Nowshehra in the northwest on Wednesday. In June, one major attack on NATO supplies set fire on 60 trucks near Islamabad.
Disbanded Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had accepted the responsibility of all the incidents as Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq vowed to continue attacks on NATO supplies.
However, some local analysts rule out Taliban's involvement in attacks on NATO convoys in Balochistan, as they believe TTP is not that influential in Balochistan as in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. However, analysts believe that different criminal groups including some Baloch insurgents might be involved in these attacks.
Although NATO claims that current block to its supply in Pakistan has not affected its over 140,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan fighting insurgency since ouster of Taliban government in 2001, its desperation exhibits that NATO has started feeling the heat of the blockade, local watchers believe.
Both NATO and Pakistan inked a controversial transit agreement in 2001 that allows "all kinds" of "customs inspection and tax free" supplies into Afghanistan. Local media reports suggest that the compromised agreement earns Islamabad some 1.5 billion dollars annually.
Over 70 percent of supplies and 40 percent of NATO's oil needs in Afghanistan are being supplied through Pakistan. Some 7,000 contracted truckers with NATO-paid private security responsible for convoys safety are involved in the project.
Taliban started attacking NATO supply convoys in 2008. They turned the heat on the next year with the intensified operation by Pakistani troops to wipe out a seven-year-old insurgency in the rugged northwest tribal areas. However, with recent violation of Pakistani airspace, Taliban have unleashed a fury on NATO interests which still seems to be galloping unbridled, as local analysts speculate more fireworks in the coming days.
by Julius Cavendish
Global Research, October 5, 2010
The Independent - 2010-09-23
The US Central Intelligence Agency is running and paying for a secret 3,000-strong army of Afghan paramilitaries whose main aim is assassinating Taliban and al-Qa'ida operatives not just in Afghanistan but across the border in neighbouring Pakistan's tribal areas, according to Bob Woodward's explosive book.
Although the CIA has long been known to run clandestine militias in Afghanistan, including one from a base it rents from the Afghan president Hamid Karzai's half-brother in the southern province of Kandahar, the sheer number of militiamen directly under its control have never been publicly revealed.
Woodward's book, Obama's Wars, describes these forces as elite, well-trained units that conduct highly sensitive covert operations into Pakistan as part of a stepped-up campaign against al-Qa'ida and Afghan Taliban havens there. Two US newspapers published the claims after receiving copies of the manuscript.
The secret army is split into "Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams", and is thought to be responsible for the deaths of many Pakistani Taliban fighters who have crossed the border into Afghanistan to fight Nato and Afghan government forces there.
There are ever-increasing numbers of "kill-or-capture" missions undertaken by US Special Forces against Afghan Taliban and foreign fighters, who hope to drive rank-and-file Taliban towards the Afghan government's peace process by eliminating their leaders. The suspicion is that the secret army is working in close tandem with them.
Although no comment has been forthcoming, it is understood that the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, approves of the mission, which bears similarities to the covert assassination campaign against al-Qa'ida in Iraq, which was partially credited with stemming the tide of violence after the country imploded between 2004 and 2007.
The details of the clandestine army have surprised no one in Kabul, the Afghan capital, although the fact that the information is now public is unprecedented. There have been multiple reports of the CIA running its own militias in southern Afghanistan.
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:14 pm Post subject:
@ Tony Gosling:
'The operation also has powerful echoes of clandestine operations of the 1990s, when the CIA recruited and ran a militia inside the Afghan border with the sole purpose of killing Osama bin Laden. The order then that a specially recruited Afghan militia was "to capture him alive" – the result of protracted legal wrangles about when, how and if Osama bin Laden could be killed – doomed efforts to assassinate him before 9/11.'
There is a problem with that story - why would the CIA want OBL dead, when they needed him alive to blame 9/11 on?
There is also a cloud over Woodward and Bernstein, intrepid exposers of 'Watergate'; there is suspicion that the 'Powers' wanted Nixon out of the way, to make way for G H W Bush, so the 'Powers' could have planned 'Watergate' as a way to remove Nixon.
It was, after all, a very inept 'break-in'; they don't normally allow anyone to interfere with their nefarious activities.
This from Wiki:
'The affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. The FBI connected the payments to the burglars to a slush fund used by the 1972 Committee to Re-elect the President.[1][2] As evidence mounted against the president's staff, which included former staff members testifying against them in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations.[3][4] Recordings from these tapes implicated the president, revealing that he had attempted to cover up the break-in.[2][5] After a series of court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes; he ultimately complied.'
Since when has the FBI messed with a Presidential operation?
Unless, of course, they were operating under higher orders.
Also, the Supreme Court ruled against Nixon, 8-0; Nixon had nominated two of these 8, and also a third, Rehnquist, who didn't vote.
Looks a bit more like a 'fix' to me, than fearless exposure of wrongdoing; and of course, the MSM ran with the story. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
It's no secret that NATO revolves around the United States, but latest Wikileaks revelations have shown that its domination of the alliance goes much further. Published cables reveal that Washington has been snooping on top NATO officials - and exerts heavy pressure on its allies to get its own way.
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
March 9, 2011 - 12:03am, by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Choihona Uzbekistan
The activist site WikiLeaks recently released a reported State Department cable declassified February 11, 2010 and dated February 11, 2000 that describes Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov as critical of what he characterized as Russia's meddling and even provocations in the Central Asian region, and portrayed the Uzbek leader as ready for closer cooperation with the U.S.
In a one-hour meeting with then-U.S. Ambassador John E. Herbst, who was then presenting his credentials, Karimov claimed Moscow was trying to bring Tashkent "back into the fold". He said the Russian media exaggerated the danger of a Taliban victory, claiming the Taliban were "supposedly massing forces on the other side of the border from Termez and acquiring boats to infiltrate across the Amu Darya". Karimov said this was done deliberately "to sow panic among Uzbekistan's people.
According to the cable, Karimov said he believed Russian threats of air strikes on terrorist bases in Afghanistan made in May 1999 were designed to set the Taliban against Uzbekistan -- and manipulate Tashkent into cooperating more with Russian-dominated security arrangements for the region. Yet he said Tashkent wanted to "avoid needlessly provoking conflict with the Taliban" and supported a settlement with "an inclusive government encompassing many different political forces.
In this 2000 meeting, Karimov said the U.S. and Uzbekistan had a lot in common, including on issues in the Middle East, and referenced a meeting with Israeli political leader Natan Sharansky. Karimov said he believed that Russia had "no resources to offer and therefore could not contribute to Middle East peace"
The cable came a decade before another alleged cable released last December which said that Karimov "flew into a rage" after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bestowed the State Department's "Women of Courage" award on Mutabar Tajibayeva, a human rights activist in Ferghana Valley who was beaten and hospitalized for demonstrating against a corrupt prosecutor.
The author of that dispatch said that on 18 March 2009, Ambassador Richard Norland, then envoy to Tashkent, "submitted to a personal tongue-lashing from Karimov" with an "implicit threat to suspend transit of cargo for US forces in Afghanistan via the Northern Distribution Network" (NDN). The U.S. appeared to mute its human rights criticism after this incident, and for some months did not invite human rights activists to the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent.
Another reported cable recently released by WikiLeaks datelined Moscow, February 17, 2010, describes Uzbekistan's increasingly "assertive" role in the region -- and its pushback against Russia:
Uzbek Embassy Political Counselor Farkhad Khamraev termed relations with Russia as "stable and positive," although he was quick to dispel any perception that Russia still dominated the relationship. He said the West should understand that "the old political dynamics in the region have changed," and that Uzbekistan pursued its own national interest. Offering an example of the "new dynamics," Khamraev (quite boldly) claimed that Russia scaled down its plans for a military base in southern Kyrgyzstan after the Uzbeks voiced concerns about its proximity to their border. He said the facility would now be used as a training center for the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Obviously, Karimov plays one power off against another, and blows hot and cold on the U.S. and its allies -- after the meeting with NATO in January 2011 apparently didn't go as well as planned, he raised the tariffs for U.S. companies shipping goods on the NDN.
And when Karimov wants to, he warms to Russia opportunistically, as he did last April during a visit to Moscow, when Kurmanbek Bakiyev was toppled in Bishkek, signalling a potential threat to Karimov's regime.
As Andrew Stroehlein of the International Crisis Group commented acerbically in January at the time of Karimov's trip to Brussels, "Karimov has played the international community off against itself with the talent that comes from boldness and the experience that comes from more time in the top office than almost any leader in the world".
Washington has to thread the needle carefully in this region. Yesterday, Tajibayeva announced that she was returning the award the State Department had given her last year (and which led to the U.S. ambassador's tongue-lashing) in protest against the award the State Department is giving this year to Kyrgyzstan's President Roza Otunbayeva. Tajibayeva said in an open letter that the Kyrgyz president did not respond adequately to the pogroms last June in Osh region that killed at least 400 people and injured thousands mores, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Announcing her rejection of the U.S. award, Tajibayeva wrote that President Otunbayeva
let my compatriots in Kyrgyzstan be violently killed...did not do anything to prevent the stealing of humanitarian aid sent to my people, [and] failed to stop the 'ethnic cleansing'...[and] who is unable to stop persecutions of Uzbeks, which continue even now...to be on one list with Roza Otunbayeva for me would mean a betrayal of my nation, my people. I cannot be on one list with a person whose hands are covered in blood...
Correction: An earlier version of this story said the first cable was dated February 11, 2010; in fact that was the date of its declassification and it was dated February 11, 2000.
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
NATO Troops Kill Karzai’s Cousin in Botched Night Raid
'Suspected Insurgents' Were Bodyguards Working for Provincial Council Chairman
by Jason Ditz, March 10, 2011
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The embarrassment and the apologies keep coming for NATO troops in Afghanistan today, after an overnight raid in the tiny village of Karz, in the Kandahar Province, attacked the home of a cousin of President Hamid Karzai.
The cousin, Yar Mohammed Karzai, was 60 years old and a lifelong resident of the village, the Karzai family’s ancestoral home. He was shot in the head and killed by NATO troops. His son was briefly arrested as a suspect but later released. Troops also captured three bodyguards and two neighbors who came over to see what the ruckus was, terming them “suspected insurgents.”
The bodyguards, according to President Karzai’s half brother, Kandahar Provincial Council Chair Wali Karzai, were assigned by him after an attack by militants killed Yar Mohammed’s other son. They remain in custody.
NATO reported in the wake of the killing that he was not the “prime target” and insisted that they had already apologized to the Afghan government for yet another botched killing of an innocent man.
Such apologies have been coming all too regularly lately, however, and given that President Karzai just got done spurning an apology over the weekend for killing nine children in Kunar, the news of his cousin’s death is unlikely to be shrugged off. _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Uploaded by worldfocusonline on 30 Dec 2009
China has spent 3.5 billion dollars to purchase a huge copper mine in Afghanistan-- the largest foreign investment project in that country. Roben Farzad, a senior writer for BusinessWeek, joins Martin Savidge to discuss China's increasingly assertive role on the world stage and the state of the global economy as the year 2009 draws to a close.
http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/12/30/china-extends-its-commercial-rea ch-into-afghanistan/9062/ _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
China has been deploying thousands of soldiers in the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan, a mountainous area in northern Pakistan, and a region historically contested by Pakistan, India and its inhabitants.
Although cooperation between Pakistan and China is not new -- it was China in the 1970s that supported Pakistan's attempts to acquire its nuclear capability -- the deployment of Chinese troops in Pakistan, however, indicates a worrying alliance for the US. The US would do well to monitor these developments before a catastrophic scenario, especially for its troops, takes place.
The presence of the Chinese People's Liberation Army [PLA] in the contested Gilgit-Baltistan region, where a nascent revolt against the Pakistani rule is taking place, constitutes the direct involvement of Beijing in the dispute over Kashmir, making any future understanding between Pakistan and India more difficult, and can only arouse a new and serious rift between New Delhi and Beijing.
According to Mumtaz Khan, director for the International Centre of Peace and Democracy in Toronto, many Western analysts who view China's stance merely as a bargaining chip against India will unfortunately soon realize that China is redefining its priorities and interests in South Asia and beyond. "The current involvement of China in Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir consists of more than just providing military and diplomatic support to Pakistan. Soon, Pakistan will swap its role to take the backseat as China exerts itself as a major player in the Kashmir issue" and maybe also in Afghani one.
The Gilgit-Baltistan region borders Afghanistan to the north; China to the northeast; the Pakistani administrated state of Azad, Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to the south, and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast. Recently, the New York Times reported that two major developments are taking place there: a rebellion against the Pakistani rule, and the influx of an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers of the PLA.
China's Grip on Pakistani Strategic Area
"China wants a grip on the strategic area to assure unfettered road and rail access to the Gulf through Pakistan," stated the NYT. Beijing intends to create a corridor from the Indian Ocean up to the Chinese province of Xinjiang. The first cornerstone of this grandiose project has been the construction of the Gwadar Port, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and outside the Strait of Hormuz. It is near the key shipping routes used by the mainline vessels that have connections to Africa, Asia and Europe, and it enjoys a high commercial and strategic significance.
The port was financed and built by China and inaugurated in 2007 by the former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. At present, it takes a Chinese tanker about 16 to 25 days to reach the Gulf. Once high-speed rail and road links through Gilgit-Baltistan are completed, however, China will be able to transport cargo to and from Xinjiang to Gwadar and to other Pakistani port facilities, within 48 hours.
PLA's soldiers in Gilgit-Baltistan are also expected to work on the infrastructure in the region. According to reports, China is planning the construction of roads and bridges; a high-speed rail system, and nearly two-dozen tunnels. As the whole area is closed to foreign observers, news can only be obtained through intelligence information, as well as satellite imagery that shows construction activities are underway throughout the region.
Many of the PLA soldiers are supposedly currently building the railroad. Others are extending the Karakoram Highway, which connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, and engaged in activities for constructing dams, expressways and other projects.
Their presence is also apparently meant to deter any possible disturbances from the local population, within which are simmering rebellious sentiments against the Pakistani rule.
China and Pakistan's Common Interest is India
The presence of Chinese soldiers on Pakistani soil is not an ordinary matter. If all Pakistani governments have always objected to the deployment of U.S. troops in the country, why is there such openness towards the Chinese army?
The alliance between the U.S. and Pakistan appears to be becoming less and less sound. The U.S.-led war against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan is quickly deteriorating into a growing open conflict with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)., which represents the core of Pakistani military power and can also act independently from Pakistan's government. The agency is responsible for the creation of the mujahiddin movement in Afghanistan during the war against the USSR; and later, for the movements for the "liberation" of Kashmir, as well as the first attack on World Trade Center, and the attacks on hotels and a Jewish Habad Cenmter in Mumbai. . The main ISI's concern, however, is India's rule in Kashmir. This is why the ISI, in order to confront New Delhi, is providing help and shelter to Islamist groups ready to fight for the "Muslim" Kashmir.
China and Pakistan share many common interests: both have territorial disputes with India. China and India, whose populations, combined, make up slightly less than 40% of the world population. They are also both striving for strategic regional supremacy. By linking its western province to the Indian Ocean, China will not gain just a strategic stronghold and access to the Persian Gulf, but also could significantly influence the geopolitics and trade in the Indian Ocean Region, as well as in Central Asia.
A Possible War Between Pakistan/China and the US
The possible scenarios coming out of the present situation are also dangerous. A deterioration of the relations between the U.S. and Pakistan over the war in Afghanistan could lead to a direct confrontation -- in which event, the involvement of the giant China, as Pakistan's ally, might be inevitable. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports that already a delegation of the Chinese Army visited the Pakistan-Afghan Border last October[5].
The same MEMRI's analysis also predicts that in a possible war between Pakistan/China on the one hand and the US on the other, Russia would be on the side of the West. Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister, Sergei Ivanov, has said that Russia does not want the international troops to leave Afghanistan. Moscow, concerned about development in this region, has begun strengthening the Afghan police forces by supplying weapons and ammunition.
In the meantime, the relationship between Pakistan and Russia are marred by the Cold War legacy, and will take a long time to get normalized. MEMRI reports that the Urdu-language Pakistani daily Roznama Nawa-i-Waqt has warned that "another enemy of Pakistan" –. Russia – has been added to the list of the countries influencing Afghanistan; and that the presence of Russian troops in Afghan will reinforce anti-Pakistan forces in Afghanistan.
Conclusion
Before apocalyptic scenarios become a reality, it would help if Washington exerted exert maximum efforts -- and firmness -- to convince Pakistan not to continue on such a dangerous path. Two new war fronts seem rapidly to be opening: Afghanistan on one side, and Kashmir on the other.. The explosion of a possible war could involve both fronts, the Afghani and the Kashmiri, where the US ally, India, might pay a heavy price, finding itself between two enemies: Pakistan and China.
The US will admittedly have a hard role, given the fact that relations between the Washington and China are already fragile, especially since the "Star Wars arms race" launched by China in 2007, but it is urgent that serious efforts be made. _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Globalists' Pakistan War Plan
Destabilization and invasion long planned.
by Tony Cartalucci
Quote:
Bangkok, Thailand May 11, 2011 - In a 2007 article from the London Guardian titled, "Bush handed blueprint to seize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal," it is stated that fears of destabilization inside Pakistan might prompt the United States to occupy Islamabad and the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, and Baluchistan in an attempt to secure Pakistan's nuclear warheads. Behind this report is Fredrick Kagan, brother of the equally sloven Robert Kagan of the Foreign Policy Initiative, yet another contrived, corporate fueled warmongering think-tank.
Fredrick Kagan sits within the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). AEI's board of trustees represents a wide variety of corporate-financier interests including those of the notorious Carlyle Group, State Farm, American Express, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (also of the CFR). War criminal Dick Cheney also acts as a trustee. Joining Kagan as members of AEI's "research staff" are warmongers Newt Gingrich, John Bolton, Richard Perle, John Yoo, and Paul Wolfowitz.
While the sense of self-importance these degenerates shower upon themselves may seem comical, with titles like "senior fellow" and "resident scholar," the fact that their "policy research" usually becomes corporate subsidized "policy reality" and subsequently the American people's unending nightmare, is enough reason to keep tabs on them. For instance Fredrick Kagan was supposedly the architect behind the US troop surge in Iraq. And while we may kid ourselves that with Obama taking office the agenda of these supposed Neo-Conservatives is sidelined, Paul Wolfowitz' plan to overthrow the nations of the Middle East, now being fully executed with US-funded revolutions, probably couldn't have been done without the veil of "left-cover."
Kagan's report regarding Pakistan's partial occupation and the seizure of its nuclear arsenal is founded on what may first appear to be a reasonable concern; the fear of Pakistan collapsing and its nuclear arsenal falling into the wrong hands. According to Kagan's narrative, Islamic extremists seizing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal pose as much a threat today as "Soviet tanks" once did.
It's not terrorists, it's China
What Kagan leaves out is the very source of this destabilization and America's overall grand strategy in the region. America's continued presence in Afghanistan as well as its increasingly aggressive "creep" over the Afghan-Pakistani border has been justified under the ambiguous and omnipresent threat of "terrorism." In reality, the true goal is to contain the rise of China and other emerging economies using the pretense of "terrorism." Destabilization via foreign-funded ethnic insurgencies, regime change via foreign-funded sedition, and a regional strategy of tension between power brokers in Beijing, New Delhi, and Islamabad have for years attempted to keep in check not just China and Pakistan's rise, but India's as well.
This is not merely speculative conjecture. China itself has recently accused the United States of directly attempting to destabilize their nation as well as using the pretense of "terrorism" as a means to hobble China's growing influence. In an April 2011 Reuters report, it was stated that "a senior domestic security official, Chen Jiping, warned that "hostile Western forces" -- alarmed by the country's rise -- were marshalling human rights issues to attack Party control." Compounding China's accusations are open admissions by the US State Department itself declaring that tens of millions will be spent to help activists circumvent China's security networks in an effort to undermine Beijing. This comes after it has been revealed that the entire "Arab Spring" was US-funded.
The issue of Pakistan in regards to China is not merely a figment of a paranoid Beijing's imagination, it is stated policy circulating throughout America's corporate-funded think-tanks. Selig Harrison of the Soros funded Center for International Policy has published two pieces specifically calling for carving off of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, not as part of a strategy to win the "War on Terror," but as a means to thwart growing relations between Islamabad and Beijing.
In "Free Baluchistan," he explicitly calls to "aid the 6 million Baluch insurgents fighting for independence from Pakistan in the face of growing ISI repression." He continues by explaining the various merits of such meddling by stating, "Pakistan has given China a base at Gwadar in the heart of Baluch territory. So an independent Baluchistan would serve U.S. strategic interests in addition to the immediate goal of countering Islamist forces."
In a follow up article titled, "The Chinese Cozy Up to the Pakistanis," Harrison begins by stating, "China’s expanding reach is a natural and acceptable accompaniment of its growing power—but only up to a point. " He then repeats his call for meddling in Pakistan by saying, "to counter what China is doing in Pakistan, the United States should play hardball by supporting the movement for an independent Baluchistan along the Arabian Sea and working with Baluch insurgents to oust the Chinese from their budding naval base at Gwadar. Beijing wants its inroads into Gilgit and Baltistan to be the first step on its way to an Arabian Sea outlet at Gwadar."
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K6FMr1R4KNY/TcsudADsF3I/AAAAAAAAAig/fHj_iT9W 6XU/s400/PakistanMap1.png Gwadar in the southwest serves as a Chinese port, the starting
point for a logistical corridor through Pakistan and into Chinese
territory. The plan is to plunge the entire nation into chaos and use
US forces to systematically "help" restore order. (click to enlarge)
The very suggestion of fomenting armed violence simply to derail sovereign relations between two foreign nations is scandalous and reveals the absolute depths of depravity from which the global elite operate from. It is quite clear that the "War on Terror" is but a pretense to pursue a policy of regional hegemony with the expressed goal of containing China. This in turn, is part of a greater strategy covered in the 2006 Strategic Studies Institute report "String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China's Rising Power across the Asian Littoral." Throughout the report China's growing influence and various means to co-opt and contain it are discussed. SSI makes special note to mention engaging with all of China's neighbors in an effort to play them off against Beijing in order to maintain American preeminence throughout Asia.
Destabilizing Pakistan
In addition to the Gwadar port in Pakistan's Baluchistan region, China has also built dams, roads, and even nuclear power plants in the country. China has also supplied Pakistan with a tremendous amount of military technology. The only cards America seems to have left in its hand to counter this growing relationship are threats of destabilization, the subsequent stripping of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, and Pakistan's Balkanization into smaller, ineffectual states.
In a 2009 article by Seymour Hersh titled, "Defending the Arsenal," much attention was given to the immense amount of suspicion and distrust Pakistan views America with. In particular, distrust is garnered over America's obsession with "defending" Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Under the pretense of "helping" Pakistan if ever it fell into chaos, America has been trying to ascertain the location of Pakistan's nuclear weapons as well as the trigger assembles kept separate as a security measure.
While America supposedly "fears" destabilization, concurrently, the effects of their war with the Taliban on the Afghan-Pakistan border has overtly stirred up instability inside Pakistan. At one point, Hersh describes Islamabad's request for predator drones to conduct the attacks themselves, which was denied. They then asked for America to at least pretend to have given the drones to Pakistan and give them Pakistani markings - this was also denied. In fact, it seems almost as if the war against the Taliban, especially the drone campaign, is being used specifically to stir up the Pashtun minority and aim them at Islamabad, just as Harrison had suggested the Baluchistan insurgents be used to carve off Pakistan's southwest coastal region.
This brings us back to Fredrick Kagan's "blueprint," which is summed up in a New York Times piece co-authored with Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon. Their article titled, "Pakistan's Collapse, Our Problem," describes the complete collapse of the Pakistani government, overrun by "extremists." It goes on to describe "Pro-American moderates" within the Pakistani army in need of US forces to help them secure Islamabad and their nuclear arsenal. Several options are given for where the nuclear weapons could be stored safely, all of them involve US oversight. This would give the US an ideal geopolitical scenario that would permanently Balkanize the country along Pashtun, Baluchi, and other ethnic minority lines, and result in a permanent Western presence inside the country.
The article then goes on to say larger military operations to take back Balkanized sections of the country could be undertaken, "If a holding operation in the nation’s center was successful, we would probably then seek to establish order in the parts of Pakistan where extremists operate. Beyond propping up the state, this would benefit American efforts in Afghanistan by depriving terrorists of the sanctuaries they have long enjoyed in Pakistan’s tribal and frontier regions."
It should be noted that co-author Michael O'Hanlon also contributed to the "Which Path to Persia?" report which described how using foreign-funded armed insurgency, foreign-funded popular revolutions, co-opting members of the military, and covert military operations could be used to topple Iran's government. In Iran's case, this plan has already gone operational. In Pakistan's case it seems all but a foregone conclusion that it is at least being attempted.
If Kagan's plan were executed after sufficient instability and justification had been created, China's holdings in Pakistan would be entirely eliminated, with Pakistan itself becoming a permanent extension of the unending US occupation of Afghanistan. This explains China's initial reaction to the "Bin Laden" hoax. Immediately recognizing the unfolding implications, China rushed to Islamabad's defense calling for support from the international community for Islamabad. China also criticized America's intrusion into Pakistan's sovereign territory.
The US raid incensed the Pakistani people, attempted to drive a wedge between the military and the government, as well as gave rhetorical leverage to the US over Islamabad and the Pakistani military. The suggestion by the US that "Bin Laden" had a support network inside Pakistan's military appears to be an initial attempt to usher in some form of Kagan's "nuke-napping" invasion plan. With Beijing openly accusing the US of interfering in its internal affairs and with the "Arab Spring" quickly turning into regional warfare, there is no turning back for the globalists.
The corporate-financier oligarchs and their many helping hands are a degenerate elite who have spent their entire lives sheltered from the consequences of their actions. It has always been the soldiers and the taxpayers who bore the brunt for their delusions of grandeur. To them, war is a cost-benefit analysis, and like their financial pyramid schemes that only get bigger and bigger, so too their gambles with our lives and treasure. It appears that they are quite willing to destabilize Pakistan, a nation with 170 million people, and risk war, a nuclear exchange, and a possible confrontation with China and Russia in the process.
Posted by Anthony at 8:12 AM
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
China Gives Pakistan New Fighter Jets | FrumForum
www.frumforum.com
The New York Times reports ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — China has agreed to immediately provide 50 JF-17 fighter jets to Pakistan, a major outcome of a visit by
Surprisingly similar to Libya's green revolution? _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 10:42 pm Post subject:
Killing children is perfect if you want to make things worse.
Just like Hitler's hated SS, 21st Century Evil Empire front NATO are now ordering reprisal attacks against civilians after an Afghan police comander was killed and senior German NATO commander injured - though denying it of course.
Members and sympathizers of 'Humanist Movement' hold banners as they participate in a protest at Wenceslaw's square in Prague on April 5, 2009 against the project to install a US anti-missile radar station on the second day of US President Barack Obama's official visit (AFP Photo /Joe Klamar)
Quote:
The Czech Republic will not host elements of the controversial antimissile shield. The country did not like the minor role which it was to play in the US defense plan.
Czech Defense Minister Alexandr Vondra said after meeting with US Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn that his country wanted to participate in the antimissile system, but “not in this way.”
He added that the Czech Republic is in talks with the US over another possible collaboration on the system.
Prague and Washington signed an agreement on hosting an advanced radar and tracking system in 2008 amid criticism from Russia. The plan was met with public resistance, as many Czechs believed they were taking risks for no reason.
An overhaul of the planned missile defense system was a major part of the so-called reset of the relationship between Russia and the US after Barack Obama became president in 2009. The new plan gave the Czech side a smaller role in the future shield, as an early missile-launch warning outpost.
The issue came back into focus recently after Moscow publicly pointed out that its differences with Washington over the missile shield have not yet been resolved. President Medvedev went as far as warning that, without an agreement, a new arms race may begin and the progress in nuclear arms reduction would be set back.
Russia wants more control over the antimissile shield, which would ensure that the shield will not harm its nuclear deterrence. It offers contribution into creating and maintaining it. The suggestion has been under consideration for several years, with little noticeable progress.
The stated goal for creating the system is to prevent states like Iran and North Korea from attacking European countries with their missiles.
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Bodyguard who killed Karzai’s brother was CIA agent
July 19, 2011 by Joseph Fitsanakis
The bodyguard who killed Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother was a trusted aide of British and American intelligence and had worked with US Special Forces in Afghanistan, before turning on his employer, according to American and British news media. Ahmed Wali Karzai, influential Afghan drug lord and CIA agent, was shot dead on July 12 by no other than his trusted bodyguard, Sardar Mohammad. The killing shocked Afghan and American officials, who believed Mohammad’s trustworthiness and loyalty to be beyond reproach. Initial reports blamed Karzai’s killing on internal feuds that often feature in bloody Afghan politics. But these early reports may need to be revised following the revelation in The Washington Post that Mohammad had been working closely for years with the CIA and US Special Forces in Afghanistan, prior to turning against his boss. According to the paper, not only was Mohammad working with the CIA, but two of his brother-in-laws served in the Kandahar Strike Force, a notorious paramilitary unit trained and armed by the CIA. Based on this new information, The Post explains Karzai’s killing as yet another spectacular triumph by Taliban intelligence, who must have managed to recruit Mohammad and turn him against the US-supported Afghan government.
China's aircraft carrier Varyag fills a gap in naval ranks
08-01-2011 10:29 BJT Special Report:China Refits Aircraft Carrier “Varyag” |
http://english.cntv.cn/20110801/104328.shtml
China's first aircraft carrier, the former Ukrainian Varyag, has finally been unveiled to an eager public.
The spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense announced this significant strategic achievement in a calm and low-key manner, saying it was rebuilt from an old and useless carrier, and will be used for experiment and training.
The Varyag was originally intended to serve in the Pacific Fleet of the Soviet Navy in 1993, but the disintegration of the Soviet Union scuttled those plans. The care of the Varyag soon fell on China.
In 1998, a Chinese company purchased the ship at auction at the cost of $20 million. Unexpectedly, the Turkish government denied the carrier passage through the Bosporus Strait. The Chinese government negotiated with them, and finally the Varyag came to China and started its new life.
The launch of the aircraft carrier has boosted morale and makes us believe that the Chinese people are capable of building a type of ship first constructed by the West and Japan in the 1920s.
Before the launch, China was the only member of both the UN Security Council and the BRIC nations to lack an aircraft carrier. Even some smaller countries, like Thailand, have aircraft carriers. It was a striking contrast with China's international status as a great power.
From the requirement of national security, some hegemonic powers repeatedly provoke China due to our lack of a blue-water battle platform. Therefore, we should have our own pillar of the naval defense system to warn assailants with concrete actions, instead of oral condemnations.
It is not surprising that the debut of the Chinese aircraft carrier stirred a new round of discussions on China's military threat.
However, an aircraft carrier, like a pistol, is just a tool. Whether it does good or evil depends on its owner.
The launch of the carrier is a great breakthrough and fills the gap of our navy power and boosts the ability in combined military operations. It promotes the Chinese army's integral defense system and our deterrent ability.
But China is still a long way from being a great naval power. Much still remains to be done. China's first aircraft carrier only solves our problem of having a carrier, but it is an outdated vessel that would be no match for the ships of other nations.
Our intentions are different from those of the US. China's aircraft carrier will not be used for hegemony, unlike US ships. Instead it will be used for self-defense. US carriers have seen wartime action, whereas ours will only be used for training and scientific research.
US aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered, whereas the former Varyag is oil-powered, a significant difference. US fighter planes can take off with catapult assistance, whereas ours need long runways.
US carriers also far outweigh our ship and have considerable more advanced weapons technology and other systems. Our aircraft carrier is merely averagely sized, and our technologies are still in an exploratory stage.
The five differences above have various causes. Some are due to the national characteristics and the defense policy, and some are caused by the different amounts of investment in technology development and military expenditure.
China has no intention to hold an arms race with the US and we won't strive for hegemony. We have rebuilt this aircraft carrier to protect ourselves.
There is no doubt that China will rise one day. But this task is still underway. Making China a powerful nation is the dream of generations of Chinese people, especially Chinese soldiers.
Although the way beyond will be thorny and bumpy, we will spare no efforts in achieving our dream.
The author is a Major General at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences.
Related stories
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Despite gaining aircraft carrier, China to stick to defensive military policy: Army newspaper 2011-07-29
Interview: Military experts say China deserves aircraft carrier for national security 2011-07-29
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Russia has marked Navy Day with parades and fireworks in major cities from Vladivostock in the Far East to the Western port of Baltyisk. More than 100 warships took part in Sunday's celebrations.
In St.Petersburg various ships and submarines paraded on the Neva river in the city center. In Vladivostock, battle ships saluted people with fireworks and staged a performance. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the westernmost Russian navy base, the port of Baltiysk, and reviewed the new vessels of the Russian Baltic fleet.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, "Russia's navy presence on the world's oceans has strengthened our country's authority as a great maritime power and confirmed the high military efficiency of its navy."
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
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