# Bethak - The Desi Lounge > Freedom Castle >  WAR On Terror?

## Shades

US Afghan air strike 'killed 40'
US airstrike in Afghanistan
US air strikes have been blamed for many civilian deaths

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said about 40 people were killed in a US air strike in southern Kandahar province.

Many more were wounded when a wedding party was hit. US officials confirmed civilian deaths and are investigating.

"We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes," Mr Karzai said in comments directed at US President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr Karzai has repeatedly criticised the high level of civilian casualties in such bombings.

The latest civilian deaths underline the challenges facing the US president-elect and future commander-in-chief.

Demand

The incident happened late on Monday evening in Shah Wali Kot district, a remote part of Kandahar province.

Map

International forces had been involved in an operation against the Taleban - an air strike was called in but the missile struck a wedding party by mistake, killing as many as 40 people, women and children among them.

"My wounded son was in my arms, right here, bleeding," the father of the bride, Roozbeen Khan, told AFP news agency. "He died last night.

"I lost two sons, two grandsons, a nephew, my mother and a cousin."

Villagers said a wedding lunch had just ended when someone, perhaps a Taleban fighter, fired at international troops on a nearby hill, AFP reported. The soldiers returned fire and called in air support.

A spokesman for US forces confirmed there had been civilian casualties and expressed sorrow for what had happened.

An investigation is under way into what went wrong.

In a statement, Mr Karzai demanded an end to civilian casualties.

"My first demand from the US president, when he takes office, would be to end civilian casualties in Afghanistan and take the war to places where there are terrorist nests and training centres," he told reporters.

The BBC's Ian Pannell in Kabul says there may be little sympathy for the Taleban in many parts of Afghanistan, but there is even less sympathy for coalition forces when incidents like this leave innocent Afghans dead.

It is likely to loom large in the new relationship between Presidents Karzai and Obama when the new US administration is sworn in, our correspondent says.

Deaths

Correspondents say that civilian casualties are hugely damaging to foreign forces trying to wage a "hearts and minds" campaign in Afghanistan.

Afghan civilian holds a picture of family members allegedly killed by the US
The issue of civilian casualties is hugely controversial

Last month the US military said that air strikes on 22 August killed 33 Afghan civilians, many more than previously acknowledged.

And in another notorious incident, an Afghan parliamentary investigation in July found that a US air strike in the same month killed 47 civilians in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

Regional officials said those casualties were also attending a wedding party and that the bride had been killed.

Figures released in September by the United Nations said there had been a sharp increase in the number of civilian casualties - some caused by the coalition but most by the Taleban - in Afghanistan in 2008.

It said that from January to August 2008, 1,445 civilians were killed - a rise of 39% on the same period last year.

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## Shades

US raid kills eight' in Pakistan

MAP

Foreign reporters shot in Peshawar
Taleban bring new fear to Peshawar

Missiles fired by a suspected US drone have killed at least eight militants in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border, local officials say.

The missiles destroyed a house in a remote village, they said.

The attack took place in North Waziristan which is known to be a hub of al-Qaeda and Taleban militants.

In recent weeks, more than 100 people - among them suspected militants and many civilians - have been killed in the tribal areas in attacks by US missiles.

The issue has become extremely sensitive in Pakistan where anti-American sentiment is rising.

Pakistan's government says such unilateral American operations undermine its own counter-insurgency strategy.

Meanwhile, an Afghan and a Japanese journalist have been shot and wounded in the city of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. Earlier this week, an American aid worker was shot dead in Peshawar and an Iranian diplomat was kidnapped.

'Hearts and minds'

The latest drone attack took place in the early hours of Friday morning in a village near the town of Razmak in North Waziristan not far from the Afghan border.

Archive image of a US "hunter-killer" drone, the MQ-9 Reaper, which has been deployed in Afghanistan
It is the second drone attack reported in the area in recent days

Two missiles fired from a drone struck a house in the village, destroying it completely, reports said.

Local officials say all those killed were militants.

They say they cannot confirm whether any foreigners were among the dead.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says this area is part of territory under the control of local Taleban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur. It was the target of a similar drone attack last Friday, in which 11 militants were reported killed.

The latest attack comes days after Pakistan's President Asif Zardari's appeal to US president-elect Barack Obama to review the strategy of attacking targets in Pakistan's tribal areas.

"It's undermining my sovereignty and it's not helping win the... hearts and minds of people," Mr Zardari told CBS News.

North Waziristan is known as a haven for Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters who enter Afghanistan and the US administration suspects that senior al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are hiding there.

The United States has stepped up missile attacks from drones in the region in recent weeks.

There have been nearly 20 strikes in the past three months and, while US officials say al-Qaeda leaders are being successfully targeted, local tribesmen say scores of civilians have been killed.

Most of the missile strikes have taken place in the Waziristan region, where no Pakistani military operation is in progress.

Last week, Pakistan told the visiting head of US Central Command General David Petraeus that the missile strikes were "counter-productive" and detrimental to the so-called "war on terror"

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## jackcollins

well dunno but tis truth innocent people also die in a war .
but well dunnno ..i hate this war n stuff .so Disappointing :|

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## Shades

US forces killed 16 civilians: Karzai: Times Of India
26 Jan 2009, 0048 hrs IST, AP

KABUL: President Hamid Karzai has condemned a US operation he says killed 16 Afghan civilians, while hundreds of villagers denounced the
American military during an angry demonstration.

Karzai said the killing of innocent Afghans is strengthening the terrorists. Two women and three children were among the 16 dead, Karzai said in a statement.

He also announced that his ministry of defense sent to Washington a draft technical agreement  also sent to Nato headquarters  that seeks to give Afghanistan more oversight over US military operations.
The presidents criticism follows a US raid early on Saturday that American officials said killed 15 armed militants. Afghan officials said those killed were civilians.

The US military said We are sorry for this incident and after this we are going to coordinate our operations with Afghan forces, governor Latifullah Mashal said.

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## Shades

ALI MARDAN, Afghanistan  It was 1982. Abdul Bashir's family were celebrating his sister's wedding. A moment later, bombs slammed into the crowded village square, killing 30 men, women and children.

"I was nine years-old. It was early in the morning during my sister's wedding when the (Soviet) jets bombed us," Abdul Bashir told Reuters on Saturday, February 14.

"You can see I lost one of my eyes, and my teeth. My brother was wounded. My sister, father and my aunt were martyred," he said.

"I can never forget."

Those who survived the attack took up arms against the invading Soviet troops, which invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Under the ferocity of the Afghan resistance attacks, Moscow withdrew troops from Afghanistan in on February 15, 1989.

Twenty years after the Soviet withdrawal, the West is repeating the same mistakes in Afghanistan.

"There have already been some mistakes during military operations, Burhanuddin Rabbani, ex-president and a former anti-Soviet guerrilla leader, said.

More 455 Afghan civilians were killed in a string of bungled US and NATO strikes last year, according to UN estimates.

"And the mistakes are continually being repeated," said Rabbani

Same Mistakes

The West's dependence on military force to solve the Afghan conflict is a repeat of the same Soviet mistakes.

"I tell you this for sure, that if NATO and America put all their attention on fighting, and invest only in the military, they will not win," Rabbani said.

The US is considering to send another 25,000 troops to add to the nearly 70,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan.

"Numbers don't solve anything," said Soviet Veteran Shamil Tyukteyev, 59, who led a regiment in Afghanistan from 1986-88.

"You can't put a soldier outside every house or a base on every mountain. We saw it ourselves, the more troops, the more resistance."

During the Soviet occupation, Moscow surged troops several times up to 120,000 soldiers.

However, the surges failed to crush the Afghan resistance.

"It's like fighting sand. No force in the world can get the better of the Afghans," said Oleg Kubanov, a stocky 47-year-old former officer with the Order of the Red Star.

"It's their holy land, it doesn't matter to them if you're Russian, American. We're all soldiers to them."

Yury Shaidurov, a 47-year-old former Soviet solider, said the best lesson the West could take from the Soviet experience was to simply accept defeat.

"They'll never win," he said.

"They have to run before it is too late."

Source: IslamOnline

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## Shades

US blasted for human rights violations
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:54:19 GMT
Inmates at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Anti-terror measures by the US and the UK have seriously damaged the standing of international human rights laws, a study reveals.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said in its recent report that human rights violations committed in anti-terror efforts worldwide have been shocking.

The report, based on a three-year global study, declares that many measures employed in the fight against terrorism after the 9/11 attacks on the US were illegal and counter-productive.

"In the course of this inquiry, we have been shocked by the extent of the damage done over the past seven years by excessive or abusive counter-terrorism measures in a wide range of countries around the world," said ICJ member Arthur Chaskalson.

The report says that since 9/11 many countries have sought detention without trial, illegal disappearance and torture to provoke public fear of anti-terror measures.

The ICJ also took a swipe at Britain and the US, affirming that the two countries have "actively undermined" international law with their anti-terror efforts.

The report which covers over 40 countries urges countries to seek 'change', affirming that the legal processes implemented after World War II were "well-equipped to handle current terror threats".

"It is now absolutely essential that all states restore their commitment to human rights and that the United Nations takes on a leadership role in this process. If we fail to act now, the damage to international law risks becoming permanent," reads the report.

According to the report, US President Barack Obama must move to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as soon as possible in a "human rights compliant manner", with inmates either charged or released.

The Geneva-based ICJ, which is a non-governmental organization promoting the observance of the rule of law and the legal protection of human rights, bases its report Assessing Damage, Urging Action on the experiences of people who have undergone torture in secret prisons and those held for extended periods without access to the external world, including lawyers and courts.

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## Shades

US troops kill 13 civilians, 3 militants
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:13:01 GMT
More than 2,000 civilians were killed in insurgency-linked violence last year.
US forces in Afghanistan confirm that 13 civilians and only 3 militants were killed in an operation originally meant to eradicate insurgents.

The US military at first had said that 15 militants were killed in air strikes in the western province of Herat late Monday.

However, local officials later objected, saying that six women and two children were among the dead. Following the claim, a team of Afghan and coalition troops visited the site and launched an investigation.

"Coalition forces confirmed three militants and 13 non-combatants were killed during a coalition forces' operation near Gozara district, Herat province, February 17," the coalition said in a statement, which did not identify the deceased.

"We expressed our deepest condolences to the survivors of the non-combatants who were killed during this operation," said US Brigadier General Michael Ryan.

Civilian casualties have been a major source of tension between Kabul and Washington, which leads the foreign force in Afghanistan.

The US-led forces, among other troops, are under scrutiny because of their 'disregard for civilian lives', which has resulted in public outrage and has flamed anti-US sentiments.

The United Nations said this week that more than 2,000 civilians were killed in insurgency-linked violence last year, the highest civilian death toll since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban.

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## Shades

CAIRO  American Muslims are angry over FBI's sending informants into mosques to spy on worshippers, warning that the move risks sewing mistrust between the sizable minority and security agencies.

"Infiltrating mainstream mosques the way FBI informants infiltrate white supremacist groups illustrates the FBI's perception of American Muslims as a community that must be constantly monitored, instead of being treated as an equal partner in fighting crime and terrorism," the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement cited by the MSNBC website on Friday, February 28.

Craig Monteilh, a California resident, admitted Wednesday that he had been recruited by the FBI from July 2006 to October 2007, to spy on worshippers at several Orange County in South California.

He approached mosques and Islamic centers as a convert enthusiastic to know more about jihad to defend Muslim causes.

Monteilh, who worked for the FBI in late 2003 as an informant on white supremacist and narcotics cases, used to provoke worshippers to speak about jihad and record their words.

"Law-abiding Muslims at mainstream mosques and Islamic centers are being incited and entrapped by former criminals with questionable characters," CAIR said.

Last year, media reports unveiled that FBI agents were monitoring mosques in California's cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.

Since 9/11, Muslims, estimated between six to seven million, have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights, with a prevailing belief that America was targeting their faith.

    *
      Counterproductive

The Muslim advocacy group warned that the mosque informants risk to undermine trust between American Muslims and security agencies.

"The use of an informant to infiltrate mosques in Southern California, has re-ignited feelings of anger, disillusionment and mistrust among American Muslims toward the FBI."

CAIR stressed that American Muslims have proved by actions not words that they are committed to keep their country safe.

"The American Muslim community has never waivered from its commitment to keeping America safe, nor has it hesitated from cooperating with various law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, in ensuring the security of all US citizens."

In June 2007, CAIR has reported Monteilh to the FBI as a possible terrorist.

It noted that Monteilh had been aggressively pushing mosque frequents to speak out against the US government and join jihad.

The umbrella Muslim group said that Muslims had worked hard to develop a partnership with the FBI in the past years.

"Unfortunately, the FBI's counter-productive actions damage the trust between Muslims and law enforcement and trample our Constitutionally-mandated civil liberties.
Source: IslamOnline

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## Shades

HERAT: Afghan villagers yesterday mourned relatives buried in mass graves after US-led airstrikes that the Red Cross said killed dozens and local officials said may have killed 100 civilians.

During the aerial bombardment and ground operations, more than 100 people have died, western Afghanistan police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told AFP yesterday, basing his information on reports from police, the Red Cross and locals.

Twenty-five to 30 of them are Taleban, including from Chechnya and Pakistan, and the rest are civilians including children, women and elderly people, he said.

Villagers who survived the bombing of houses packed with terrified civilians told Reuters by telephone dozens of members of one extended family alone had died. They wept as they spoke of orphaned children and burying loved ones fragmented remains.

My son and my daughter in-law have been killed and left me with a 13-month-old baby, said Gul Bibi from Geraani village.

Their remains were buried in a mass grave with others, and I didnt even have a chance to see my sons face for the last time because his body was blown apart, she sobbed.

Rohul Amin, governor of Farah province, where the bombing took place late on Monday and fighting raged into Tuesday, said he feared 100 civilians had been killed. Provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Watandar said the death toll could be even higher.

If confirmed, those even higher figures could make the incident the single deadliest for Afghan civilians since the campaign to topple the Taleban in 2001.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the civilian deaths unjustifiable and unacceptable. He sent a joint Afghan-US delegation to investigate.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration deeply, deeply regretted the loss of innocent lives as a result of the US bombing and would undertake a full review of the incident.

The bombings that lasted around an hour killed 50 members of Bibis neighbor Sayed Azams extended family, Azam said.

There were Taleban in the area and fierce fighting took place during the day but it ended when it was dark. People thought the fighting was over when suddenly bombings began, he told Reuters.

Jessica Barry, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the Geneva-based group had sent a team, which reached the scene of the airstrikes.

There were women and there were children who were killed. It seemed they were trying to shelter in houses when they were hit, she said. The team saw houses destroyed and dozens of bodies, providing the first international confirmation of the incident.

Among the dead was a first-aid volunteer for Afghanistans Red Crescent, killed along with 13 members of his family, Barry said. The Red Cross could not determine whether fighters were among the dead, she added.

US forces in Afghanistan acknowledge they were involved in fighting and airstrikes in the provinces Bala Boluk district, which began on Monday and continued into Tuesday after Taleban militants seized a village and clashed with Afghan troops. Survivors said they were frustrated that Afghan and foreign teams that visited the village had not offered any help.

They just photographed us and that was it, said 60-year-old Haji Mohammad Shah, who lost nine family members including his wife, daughter and grandchildren.

Watandar, the provincial police chief, said Taleban militants had herded villagers into houses in Geraani and Ganj Abad that were then struck by US-led coalition warplanes.

The fighting was going on in another village, but the Taleban escaped to these two villages, where they used people as human shields. The airstrikes destroyed 17 houses, he said, adding the toll was imprecise.

Villagers trucked about 30 dead bodies to the provincial capital Farah City, said Gov. Amin.

Taleban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi confirmed there had been fighting and said all casualties from airstrikes were civilians.

The government and foreign troops must compensate the affected people, we dont want apologies any more, he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

¬
Source: Arab News

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## Shades

CAIRO  Some American experts are accusing the FBI of "cooking" an alleged plot to attack Jewish synagogues and military planes in New York by implanting an informant in a mosque to induce people into terror intrigues. "This whole operation was a foolish waste of time and money," Terence Kindlon, a New York-based lawyer, told the Sunday Times on May 24.

"It is almost as if the FBI cooked up the plot and found four idiots to install as defendants."

Police arrested four people last week on charges of plotting to attack two Jewish synagogues and a military base in New York.

The FBI had sent an informant, Shahed Hussain, to the Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh to lure people to talk about jihad.

As Hussain, a former New York state motel owner who became an FBI informant in 2002 to avoid deportation to Pakistan after fraud charges, used to trigger discussions about jihad.

He was accused by some worshippers of being a government agent.

"Anyone with any smarts knew to stay away from Hussain," notes Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad, the imam of Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque.

Hussain later met James Cromitie, described by authorities as the ringleader of the plot, and together hatched up the attack plan.

He provided the group with bogus C4 explosive and a fake Stinger missile and launcher supplied by the FBI.

Many experts took issue with the FBIs reliance on undercover informants  known as confidential witnesses (CWs)  who lure people into far-fetched plots that are then foiled by the agents monitoring them.

"One question that has to be answered is: did the informant go in and enlist people who were otherwise not considering trouble?" asked Kevin Luibrand, a lawyer who represented a Muslim businessman caught up in an FBI sting three years ago.

"Did the government induce someone to commit a crime?"

Dimwits

Many believe the suspects, three petty criminals and a mentally ill Haitian immigrant, none of whom had any connection with any known terrorist group, were an easy catch for the authorities.

"They were all unsophisticated dimwits," contends Kindlon, the New York-based lawyer.

Cromitie is a 44-year-old ex-convict and so are David Williams, 28, and Onta Williams, 32.

The fourth suspect is Laguerre Payen, 27, a Haitian former Catholic and paranoid schizophrenic.

Kindlon also questioned the high-profile arrest which involved heavily armed SWAT teams who were watching as the suspect planted the dud bombs outside the two synagogues before hauling them away in handcuffs.

"Did they really need all those men in ninja suits with M16 rifles to arrest four idiots?"

Flanked by more than 100 homeland security and counter-terrorist specialists, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the police officers and federal agents who helped disrupt a plot "that would make the country gasp."

State Governor David Paterson described the alleged plot as "a heinous crime".

But Kindlon, a former marine sergeant, finds that laughable and fears that domestic US agencies focus on fantasists as opposed to real terrorists.

"Somewhere, someone in Al-Qaeda must be laughing."

Source: IslamOnline

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## Shades

Religious authorities have lashed out at the former US administration's recently-exposed manipulation of the Holy Scriptures to glorify their 'anti-terror' campaign.

The former officials have been revealed to have quoted biblical verses out of their context in the classified reports which would be submitted for high-level consideration, Los Angeles Times reported on Monday.

Last week, GQ reporter and credited chronicler of the former administration's adventures, Robert Draper exposed the 2003 reports which were directed to former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld before being sent to former president George W. Bush.

The documents were emblazoned with pictures of soldiers during their devotions and contained 'misused' passages of the Bible.

One such picture on the cover of one of the reports was captioned with "whom shall I send and who will go for us? Here I am, Lord. Send me" from the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament.

"As a Christian, I am deeply troubled thata verse about a great prophet's call to indict his own people for their infidelity . . . is being presented as a divine call for the U.S. to invade Iraq," the daily quoted Scott Alexander, director of the Catholic-Muslim Studies Program at Chicago's Catholic Theological Union as saying.

"What is at issue is the possibility that the highest levels of the executive branch took biblical texts out of their proper context to cast the mission of the US military in explicitly religious terms," he added.

A verse on the cover of another document read "put on the full armor of God" - the demand in the New Testament that the believers strengthen themselves with "the virtues of truth, justice and peace."

"It is a misuse of the Bible to take passages out of context and employ them to support one side against another," Rev. John Buchanan, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago claimed.

"Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter," was another Isaiah verse so applied.

HN/MMN

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## Shades

When US was about to start the so called war on terror the Dog of evil Bush stated time has come for crusade to start, and they call it war on terror?

US gave 65 years of imprisonment to leaders of charity organizations, stating that the money which they raised for charity was used in Palestine and MAY have been used by militants against israel. Gaza suffering from blockade there economy crumbled, people eating from dust bins and all aid halted when few muslims feeling sympathy towards gaza sent the aid, they are being prosecuted, this is the war on terror.

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## Shades

US 'admits Afghan raid mistakes'
Rubble of destroyed village in Farah province
Afghan and US officials differ over how many civilians died(But Nuetral Sources confirm atleast 150 people died)

A US military inquiry has uncovered serious mistakes made when US forces bombed suspected Taliban positions in Afghanistan in May, US officials say.

Dozens of civilians were killed in the air strikes in western Farah province.

Some of the raids would have been called off, had the rules of engagement been followed strictly, unnamed officials were quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the general named as the next US commander in Afghanistan has said civilian deaths must be reduced.

Gen Stanley McChrystal said civilian casualties caused by US and Nato-led forces could alienate the Afghan people.

Civilian casualties are causing growing public outrage in Afghanistan and friction between the US and Afghan governments.

The publication of the US military report is expected later this week.

But some of the details have been leaked and the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says this is the closest the Pentagon has come to admitting that mistakes were made when US military planes carried out attacks last month.

Compound struck

The Afghan government(which is pro American) says 140 people were killed in the strikes in early May, while the Americans say 20-30 people died(Which is a white lie according to the pro American and of course anti American party's in Afghanistan).


Had the rules been followed, at least some of the strikes by American warplanes... would have been aborted
New York Times

Afghan anger at deadly US strikes

"American personnel made significant errors in carrying out some of the air strikes in western Afghanistan on May 4 that killed dozens of Afghan civilians," a New York Times report said, citing an unnamed senior US military official.

"In several instances where there was a legitimate threat, the choice of how to deal with that threat did not comply with the standing rules of engagement," the official was quoted as saying.

"Errors were made," in the attack, the Associated Press also quoted an official as saying.

In one case, a compound of buildings where suspected militants were massing was struck, even though it was in a densely populated area and there was no imminent threat, the New York Times said.

"Had the rules been followed, at least some of the strikes by American warplanes against half a dozen targets over a seven-hour period would have been aborted," the article said. 

BBC/TOI


A recent US probe confirms that Americans had been faulty in carrying out certain airstrikes in western Afghanistan in early May that killed 150 civilians.

Citing an unnamed senior US military official, the report said that the US air force and ground troops had made serious mistakes when US war planes bombed suspected Taliban positions.

"American personnel made significant errors in carrying out some of the air strikes in western Afghanistan on May 4 that killed dozens of Afghan civilians," report quoted the official as saying.

Nearly 150 civilians, including 95 children, were killed last month when US warplanes dropped bombs on two villages in the Bala Baluk district of the western province of Farah.

This is while The New York Times has said the report represented "the clearest American acknowledgment of fault in connection with the attacks".

"In several instances where there was a legitimate threat, the choice of how to deal with that threat did not comply with the standing rules of engagement," the report added.

General Stanley McChrystal warned about the consequences of civilian deaths caused by US and NATO-led forces, saying "this may be the critical point."

The deadly strikes also sparked days of protests in Kabul and other major cities across the violence-wracked Afghanistan.

Medics told Press TV that some of those wounded in the attack have unusual burns which could have been caused by the flesh-eating chemical -- white phosphorus.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has demanded a halt to Washington's airstrikes in his country following the deadly incident.

Washington says it will not stop airstrikes in Afghanistan which have frequently led to civilian casualties across the war-ravaged country.

Despite the rising anti-American sentiment across the conflict-torn country, US President Barack Obama has assigned 21,000 more soldiers to the Afghanistan-based contingents.

The killing of civilians by US-led forces continues seven and half years after the US invaded the country to allegedly destroy Taliban and al-Qaeda and bring stability to the volatile region.

Pentagon Chief Robert Gates said in mid May that his forces would press ahead with their controversial airstrikes across the violence-hit country.

Gates has also said that an influx of more than 21,000 US troops would not reduce the demand for airstrikes across the conflict-torn nation.

"We need to protect our troops," Gates said while explaining his review of air operations which have frequently led to civilians' causalities across Afghanistan

MVZ/JG/JR/MMN

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## Shades

Confidential records of a meeting between the former US President George W. Bush and former British premier Tony Blair provides new clues about the Iraq war.

During the meeting the two leaders outlined their intention in a memo to go to war against Iraq without a second UN resolution against the country, the Guardian reported.

The former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix whose team was tasked to search for WMD in Iraq has declared that the Iraq war was illegal because no such weapons were found in Iraq and the US and Britain needed a second UN resolution against Iraq before taking any military action against the country.

*The unveiled memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion, confirms that the two leaders were aware that the UN inspectors will fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the oil-rich country.*

The five-page document reveals how Bush told Blair that he had decided on a start date for the war.

I*n 2006, Newscientist declared that around 655,000 people have died in Iraq as a result of the US-led coalition invasion. That is 2.5% of the country's entire population.*

*Today, the death toll in the country is believed to be far beyond that number, as the country is still plagued with unrest 6 years after the invasion.

The controversial war displaced more than 4 million Iraqis. While many have returned home, the UNHCR has said the country remains too fragile to absorb the 1.5 million refugees still living outside its borders.*

MGH/DT

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## Shades

MIRAMSHAH  Wrapped in white bandages and lying on a bed in the dust-bowed district hospital in Miramshah, the capital of North Waziristan, Fazl-e-Rabbi is one of who lucky enough to survive a US deadly missile strike at a funeral ceremony in neighboring South Waziristan a day earlier. "We had just finished the funeral prayers and I was wearing my shoes when I felt that the sun had exploded on my head," Fazl-e-Rabbi, who received injuries in his arms, legs and lower abdomen, told IslamOnline on Wednesday, June 24.

"What I remember is that I was hit by something in my lower abdomen and then in no time I fell on the ground. I tried to control my senses but I could not."

*Some 83 people, mostly civilians were reportedly killed and over 50 injured* in three consecutive drone attacks in Lataka, an area located 50 kilometers north of Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, within 12 hours.

The first strike killed several suspected Taliban militants in Shubi Khel, about 65 kilometers north of Wana.

Intelligence officials say senior Afghan Taliban commander Khoj Wali, who was heading a meeting of local Taliban, was killed in the attack along with five others.

As mourners gathered for their funeral prayers later in the day in a nearby area, another drone fired three missiles into the crowd.

"The last feeling I had at that time was that I am going to die as people soaked in their own blood were running from here to there to take shelter," recalled Fazl-e-Rabbi, a father of three, fighting back his tears.

Since August 2008, about 43 US drone strikes have killed at least 410 people.

The US does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its troops in neighboring Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.

Publicly, the Pakistani government opposes attacks by pilotless US aircraft as a violation of its territorial sovereignty.

Innocents

Fazl-e-Rabbi, a farmer by profession, insisted that most of the victims were innocent civilians.

"Most of the deceased were civilians. I know almost all of them. They were from my area," he insisted.

The victims included two of his cousins.

"One of my cousins was standing next to me during the funeral prayers. I heard his deafening scream before falling on the ground," he remembered.

"I dont remember what happened after that but his last scream has settled down in my mind."

Fazl-e-Rabbi was later informed that both his cousins breathed their last.

According to local sources, the deceased were buried in a mass grave.

"We have nothing to do with Taliban or Al-Qaeda," he fumed.

"It is a local tradition that whoever dies in your neighborhood, then it is a must for us to attend his funeral and burry him. We did the same."

His contention is backed by local journalists and a parliamentarian elected from the area.

"Around 50 civilians who had nothing to do with Taliban have been killed in the strikes," Irfan Khan, a local journalist, told IOL.

He refuted reports that Afghan or foreign Taliban were killed in the drone attacks.

"Most of them victims were civilians, while some local Taliban have also been killed."

Senator Saleh Shah, who belongs to South Waziristan, agrees.

"As far as my information is concerned, most of the deceased were ordinary tribesmen who gathered to offer funeral prayers of some suspected local Taliban," he told IOL.

"Taliban are not as doofus as gathering under open sky and become an easy target for US drones."

Radicalizing

Fazl-e-Rabbi, the wounded civilian, is furious at the treatment melted out to him and his fellow residents by the government and the media.

"We are stuck between Taliban and US attacks and when we are killed, not only no one cries for us, but also we are dubbed as militants," he fumed.

He laments that no official has visited them to check on their condition, or even verify whether they are Taliban or not.

"They wont come because they know we are innocent. It seems as if we are aliens in our own country."

Fazl-e-Rabbi is equally critical of both Taliban and the Americans.

"If Taliban are bombing the mosques, then America is bombing the funerals. What is difference between them?"

Senator Shah warns that such attacks would further fan anti-government, anti-American sentiments in the already restive tribal area.

"If this kind of practice continues, then mark my words, this so-called war on terror can never be won.

"Taliban dont need anything to coax the people. US drone attacks are enough to do that."

Fazl-e-Rabbi agrees.

*"We dont demand anything. We just want to be treated equally. Dont force us to become Taliban, which we dont want to."*

Source: IslamOnline

----------


## Shades

MIRAMSHAH ? Wrapped in white bandages and lying on a bed in the dust-bowed district hospital in Miramshah, the capital of North Waziristan, Fazl-e-Rabbi is one of who lucky enough to survive a US deadly missile strike at a funeral ceremony in neighboring South Waziristan a day earlier. "We had just finished the funeral prayers and I was wearing my shoes when I felt that the sun had exploded on my head," Fazl-e-Rabbi, who received injuries in his arms, legs and lower abdomen, told IslamOnline on Wednesday, June 24.

"What I remember is that I was hit by something in my lower abdomen and then in no time I fell on the ground. I tried to control my senses but I could not."

*Some 83 people, mostly civilians were reportedly killed and over 50 injured* in three consecutive drone attacks in Lataka, an area located 50 kilometers north of Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, within 12 hours.

The first strike killed several suspected Taliban militants in Shubi Khel, about 65 kilometers north of Wana.

Intelligence officials say senior Afghan Taliban commander Khoj Wali, who was heading a meeting of local Taliban, was killed in the attack along with five others.

As mourners gathered for their funeral prayers later in the day in a nearby area, another drone fired three missiles into the crowd.

"The last feeling I had at that time was that I am going to die as people soaked in their own blood were running from here to there to take shelter," recalled Fazl-e-Rabbi, a father of three, fighting back his tears.

Since August 2008, about 43 US drone strikes have killed at least 410 people.

The US does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its troops in neighboring Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.

Publicly, the Pakistani government opposes attacks by pilotless US aircraft as a violation of its territorial sovereignty.

Innocents

Fazl-e-Rabbi, a farmer by profession, insisted that most of the victims were innocent civilians.

"Most of the deceased were civilians. I know almost all of them. They were from my area," he insisted.

The victims included two of his cousins.

"One of my cousins was standing next to me during the funeral prayers. I heard his deafening scream before falling on the ground," he remembered.

"I don?t remember what happened after that but his last scream has settled down in my mind."

Fazl-e-Rabbi was later informed that both his cousins breathed their last.

According to local sources, the deceased were buried in a mass grave.

"We have nothing to do with Taliban or Al-Qaeda," he fumed.

"It is a local tradition that whoever dies in your neighborhood, then it is a must for us to attend his funeral and burry him. We did the same."

His contention is backed by local journalists and a parliamentarian elected from the area.

"Around 50 civilians who had nothing to do with Taliban have been killed in the strikes," Irfan Khan, a local journalist, told IOL.

He refuted reports that Afghan or foreign Taliban were killed in the drone attacks.

"Most of them victims were civilians, while some local Taliban have also been killed."

Senator Saleh Shah, who belongs to South Waziristan, agrees.

"As far as my information is concerned, most of the deceased were ordinary tribesmen who gathered to offer funeral prayers of some suspected local Taliban," he told IOL.

"Taliban are not as doofus as gathering under open sky and become an easy target for US drones."

Radicalizing

Fazl-e-Rabbi, the wounded civilian, is furious at the treatment melted out to him and his fellow residents by the government and the media.

"We are stuck between Taliban and US attacks and when we are killed, not only no one cries for us, but also we are dubbed as militants," he fumed.

He laments that no official has visited them to check on their condition, or even verify whether they are Taliban or not.

"They won?t come because they know we are innocent. It seems as if we are aliens in our own country."

Fazl-e-Rabbi is equally critical of both Taliban and the Americans.

"If Taliban are bombing the mosques, then America is bombing the funerals. What is difference between them?"

Senator Shah warns that such attacks would further fan anti-government, anti-American sentiments in the already restive tribal area.

"If this kind of practice continues, then mark my words, this so-called war on terror can never be won.

"Taliban don?t need anything to coax the people. US drone attacks are enough to do that."

Fazl-e-Rabbi agrees.

*"We don?t demand anything. We just want to be treated equally. Don?t force us to become Taliban, which we don?t want to."*

Source: IslamOnline

----------


## Shades

President Barack Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate reports that US-led troops suffocated 2,000 alleged Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan.

Obama told CNN in an interview on Sunday that if US forces have violated international norms, he wants to know about it.

"I think that, you know, there are responsibilities that all nations have even in war," Obama said.

The president's remarks seem to reverse previous officials' statements. US authorities had said on Friday that there were no grounds to investigate the 2001 deaths of Taliban prisoners of war.

The allegations date back to November 2001 when the men had surrendered to the US forces during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Human rights groups accuse US troops and their local allies of placing the prisoners in cargo containers for two days without any ventilation.

Forces belonging to General Abdul Rashid Dostum have also said that they had opened fire on the containers and then buried the bodies in mass graves in an Afghan region called Dasht-e-Leili.

Rights activists say Obama's direction does not guarantee action.

JR/SME/MMN

----------


## Shades

Nato promises Afghan raid inquiry

Kunduz was a relatively peaceful part of Afghanistan until recent months [AFP]
Nato has promised a full investigation into an air attack that killed and injured scores of civilians in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the organisation's secretary-general, pledged to conduct the inquiry, following a raid on Friday that destroyed two hijacked fuel tankers and killed civilians as well as suspected Taliban fighters.

''The people of Afghanistan must be aware that we clearly maintain the commitment of protecting them, and we will investigate thoroughly," Rasmussen said.

The UN mission in Afghanistan, headed by Peter Galbraith, has also dispatched its own investigation, emphasising that "the families of the victims must receive all the help they need''.

*Prayers for the dead were heard Saturday in nearly a dozen villages in a charged atmosphere, witnesses said.*

Civilian anger

The attack has raised serious questions over how Nato and US troops engage with their enemy, Aljazeera's correspondent James Bays said.

*Reporting from the bomb site just 7km southwest of the northern city of Kunduz, he said it was impossible to count the dead - some bodies had completely disappeared while others were burnt beyond recognition.*

He quoted a hospital source as putting the toll at 56 killed and 13 injured.
"But it is clear that many who died here were not fighters, some were children. The mood of many of the people here is sorrow and great anger," our correspondent said.

"People here say they are losing confidence in both the Afghan governmnent and the international forces, now the loss of so many lives will only increase that unease."

The Nato attack occurred at around 2am local time on Friday, 40 minutes after German and Afghan forces called in air support.

They reported the two tankers had been hijacked by fighters as they travelled from Tajikistan to supply Nato forces in Kabul.

The Taliban tried to transport the tankers across a river to villages in Angorbagh.

They managed to take one of the tankers over the river. The second got stuck, so the fighters apparently opened valves to lighten the load and called in villages to help themselves to fuel, according to witnesses.

At this point, the Nato bombs hit the tankers. Nato insists its commanders believed only fighters were present, but now accepts that this was not the case.

Brigadier-General Eric Tremblay, Isaf spokesman, told Aljazeera that the assistant force would "do whatever is needed to be done to investigate and provide as much support as is needed".

Source:	 Al Jazeera and agencies

----------


## Shades

*World leaders call for a NATO probe into an air strike in Afghanistan, which resulted in 90 civilian causalities*, as the incident could trigger a backlash against foreign troops. 

"I am very concerned by the reports we have seen this morning of casualties among civilians from an air strike against stolen trucks in Aliabad district of Kunduz Province," deputy UN envoy in Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith, remarked. 

The United Nation official went on to add, "As an immediate priority, everything possible must be done to ensure that people wounded by this attack are being properly cared for and that families of the deceased are getting all the help they need." 

This is while the Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday described the loss of civilian lives in any form as 'unacceptable'. He underscored that representatives from the Interior Ministry and National Directorate of Security are commissioned to investigate how the incident took place. 

Moreover, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also pledged to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the lethal attack. 

"The Afghan people should know that we are clearly committed to protecting them and that we will fully and immediately investigate this incident," Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels. ------{ A Serious Joke??? ( Blood thirsty massacrer's still say that they are the protectors ) }

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for an 'urgent investigation' into the NATO air strike that killed as many as 90 people in Kunduz. 

"It's important that we are very open and clear about what happened and make sure that it doesn't happen again," Miliband told reporters in Stockholm. (It happens so frequently that I am forced to believe that he wanted to say make sure it happens again )

If the civilian deaths are confirmed, the incident could reignite outrage against foreign troops in war-battered Afghanistan. Under new orders issued in July by the ISAF commander, US Army General Stanley McChrystal, aircraft can only open fire if they can confirm no civilians are in danger or that the lives of coalition forces are not at stake. 

MP/HGH

----------


## Shades

NATO commander tries to pacify Afghan anger
Mohammad Hamed | Reuters



WHATS MY CRIME? NATO officials visit a boy injured (lost his arm and leg) in Fridays airstrike at a Kunduz hospital on Saturday. (Reuters)	 

YAQOUBI, Afghanistan: The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan flew on Saturday to the scene of a deadly airstrike by his forces, trying to cool anger that threatens his strategy of winning hearts and minds.

Afghan officials say scores of people were killed, many of them civilians, when a US F-15 fighter jet called in by German troops struck two hijacked fuel trucks before dawn on Friday.

The incident was the first in which Western forces are accused of killing large numbers of civilians *since US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal took command in June*, announcing that protecting Afghans was the centerpiece of a new strategy.

In an unprecedented televised address to the Afghan people, the general said his forces had launched the airstrike against what they thought was a Taleban target. He promised to make the outcome of an investigation public.

As commander of the International Security Assistance Force, nothing is more important than the safety and protection of the Afghan people, he said in the taped address, released in versions dubbed into the two official languages, Dari and Pashto. I take this possible loss of life or injury to innocent Afghans very seriously. He later made a brief personal tour of the site in Kunduz, a once-safe northern province where fighters have stepped up attacks and seized control of remote areas, part of an insurgency that is now at its fiercest stage in the eight-year-old war.

A NATO team began an official investigation Saturday amid a clamor from European leaders for answers, with some calling the airstrike a tragedy and a big mistake that must be investigated.

From what I have seen today and going to the hospital, its clear to me that there were some civilians that were harmed at the site, McChrystal told reporters in Kunduz.

In the village of Yaqoubi, a scattering of mud-brick homes near the blast site, residents wept and prayed beside dozens of graves of victims on Saturday, while Taleban fighters with rifles looked on. The militants presence was proof of their increasing domination of an area recently under government control. *We will take revenge. A lot of innocent people were killed here, one of the Taleban fighters, only his eyes left uncovered by a thick scarf, said at the funeral.*

*Every family around here has victims, said Sahar Gul, a 54-year-old village elder from Yaqoubi. There are entire families that have been destroyed.*

*Village elders said 50 people were buried in Yaqoubi and 70 more in nearby villages, although Afghan officials and the Red Cross say the precise death toll may never be known* -------------- Arab News

----------


## myownstyle

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hairstraighteneronline

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## world

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

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## Shades

Thanks World n style...Keep visiting

----------


## Shades

By Hugh Sykes 
BBC News, Baghdad

*Nearly three decades of war, brutal totalitarianism, invasion, occupation and insurgency in Iraq have left behind at least a million widows - and several million children without fathers.*
That was the conservative estimate earlier in 2009 by Iraq's acting minister for women's affairs, Narmeen Othman. She believes *there may even be two million widows*.
*Under Saddam Hussein, despite the brutality of his regime towards so many of Iraq's people, war widows were looked after by the state. Now, they are mostly hidden and vulnerable*.
It's been called Iraq's cultural time bomb.
Close to the surface of the new normality here, there are painful memories, and a yearning for lost loved ones.
And - there's anxiety about looking after the children when the breadwinner has gone.
Success story
At the al-Ethar charity in west Baghdad, donations from well-wishers help support families without fathers. They also help to find husbands for women who want to remarry.
The director, Hana Badrani, told me she has more than 2,000 widows on her books, with a total of 7,000 children whose fathers have been killed. Most of the widows do not have any qualifications to help them get work. They're trapped.
She introduced me to one of their success stories - Iman and Hussein. Iman's husband was shot dead two years ago. She has now re-married - and she and Hussein have a little boy called Yussef, who kept on catching my eye and grinning.
Hussein told me: "Marrying a widow is good for the man and for the children."

Umm Fatima's husband was shot dead at a petrol station
Iman says her friends encouraged her to get married again.
Hussein's mother Latife encouraged her too: "All these widows," she said. "All these children. Who else is going to take care of them?"
I also met Umm Fatima - a young widow who started to sob when I asked her how her four children were coping. Their father Ahmad was shot dead nearly three years ago by men wearing military uniforms. He'd simply been refuelling his taxi cab when they killed him.
Umm Fatima has lost a husband and the family income.
She believes it's very important for her and for the children that she re-marries. "A father for them would make us all more secure," she told me - financially, and emotionally.
"They miss their dad," she went on. "And when they meet men sometimes, they want them to give them a hug."

One day, I sat with a widow, Umm Ahmed, and her three-year-old daughter Sara. Umm Ahmed told me, in a very matter-of-fact way, that her husband had been shot dead, simply walking down the street.
When her mother had finished speaking, Sara looked up at me and said: "Please stay with us."

----------


## Shades

*US mulling Chaosistan plan for Afghanistan*
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:01:41 GMT

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, has said that *he has received a recommendation advocating a plan called Chaosistan for the war-tron Central Asian nation*. 

He made the remarks in a speech in London earlier this month in which he commented on a paper on the Chaosistan plan. 

McChrystal said the plan stated that *Afghanistan should be allowed to become a "Somalia-like haven of chaos that we simply manage from outside."* 

But he did not reveal the paper's origins. 

Later, *two US intelligence officials told Newsweek that the reference almost certainly comes from a secret CIA analysis entitled "Chaosistan"*. 

*The document, prepared by a "red team" of CIA analysts, picks apart conventional analyses of the war inside Afghanistan*, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

----------


## Shades

85,000 people killed in post-war Iraq
Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:50:11 GMT


*Iraq's government says more than 85,000 people have died from 2004 to 2008 in violence-related incidents, following the US invasion of the country*. 

The late Thursday figure, which is the first estimate released by Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights, includes violence-related death ranging from catastrophic bombings to execution-style slayings. 

Based on death certificates issued by the Ministry of Health, *1,279 children, 2,334 women, 263 university professors, 21 judges, 95 lawyers and 269 journalists were among the deaths*. 

The official results answer one of the biggest questions of the conflict, *while it still does not say how many died in the months of chaos that followed the 2003 US invasion.* 

*The report added that nearly 150,000 Iraqis including civilians, military and police officers, were wounded in the same period*. 

It described the years that followed the invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, as extremely violent. 

RZS/SS/RE

----------


## Shades

*UN lashes out at US for drone strikes*
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:51:51 GMT

According to independent reports, *only 10 out of the 70 cross-border strikes in Pakistan were able to hit their actual targets*.

The *United Nations has warned Washington about indiscriminate use of drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying that it may be breaking humanitarian law*. 

The *UN rights investigator said the United States has done nothing to demonstrate that its not randomly killing civilians in violation of international law through the use of drones*. 

"My concern is that *these drones  these predators  are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law*," UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston told a press conference on Tuesday. 

"The onus is on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure arbitrary extrajudicial executions aren't in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons," the top official added. 

The *UN investigator also criticized Washington for refusing to respond to UN concerns regarding the use of drone aircrafts in the troubled South Asian region*. 

"*We need the United States to be more up front otherwise you have the really problematic bottom line that the CIA is running a program that is killing significant numbers of people and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws*," Alston stressed. 

According to independent reports, *since August 2008 alone, around 70 cross-border predator strikes carried out by American drones have resulted in the deaths of 687 Pakistani civilians.* 

Back in June, the US told the UN Rights Council that it has an extensive legal framework to respond to unlawful drone killings. 

Washington also said that the *UN investigator did not have the mandate to cover military and intelligence issues.* 

On Tuesday, US democratic Senator John Kerry said drone attacks will continue in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region, despite rising public outrage. 

This is while Pakistani officials have repeatedly warned the US about such attacks, saying that it infringes the country's sovereignty. 

FF/MVZ/AKM

----------


## hollybolly

now everybody wants to be a DADA or BHAI

----------


## Shades

*Guantanamo conditions 'deteriorate*'
*By Andrew Wander
*
*Some prisoners say conditions have deteriorated at Guantanamo Bay this year* 

On the night that Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, 21-year-old Mohammed el Gharani was sitting in a segregation cell in Guantanamo Bay's high security Echo Block.

He remembers the excitement among his fellow prisoners at the prospect of an Obama presidency. "*Everyone was very hopeful; people were saying he was going to change things, that he would close the prison*," Gharani, who was released in June, says.

"*Even the guards were telling us that if he won, things would improve for us.*" 

They were to be disappointed. A year after Obama's election win, Al Jazeera has learnt that despite the new president's pledge to close the prison and improve the conditions of detainees held by the US military, *prisoners believe that their treatment has deteriorated on his watch.     * 

Authorities at the prison deny mistreating the inmates, but *interviews with former detainees, letters from current prisoners and sworn testimony from independent medical experts who have visited the prison have painted a disturbing picture of psychological and physical abuse very much at odds with White House rhetoric on prisoner treatment*.    

While *no-one is alleging a return to the early days of the prison, when detainees were subjected to "enhanced interrogation"* techniques that are today widely regarded as torture, prisoners say day-to-day life at Guantanamo has become harder under the Obama administration. 

Within days of Obama's inauguration and subsequent announcement that he would close Guantanamo, prisoners say authorities introduced new regulations and revoked previous privileges at the prison.

"They took away group recreation for prisoners in segregation, which was the only time we saw anyone," Gharani remembers. "*They took away the books we had from the library. They even sprayed pepper spray into my cell while I was sleeping, so I'd wake up unable to breathe*." 

Gharani says *he was beaten so badly by guards that he is still suffering pain today*.

'Humiliating rules' 

Al Jazeera has obtained letters written by those currently being held in Guantanamo that tell a similar story. In one, written in March, a prisoner, who has asked that he remains anonymous for fear of repercussions, says he is writing to "depict to what degree our conditions inside Guantanamo detention have deteriorated" since Obama took office.    

"*I am in the very same cell, wearing the same uniform, eating the same food, yet treated much worse compared to mid-2008,*" the prisoner writes. "We are unable to understand the goals of the policy of more restrictions and inflexibility."

Letters describe 'fading hopes' [GALLO/GETTY]
According to the letter, *prison authorities inflict "humiliating punishments" on inmates and prisoners face "intentional mental and physical harm*".

"The situation is worsening with the advent of the new management," the prisoner writes, noting, like Gharani, that the new rules were imposed in January this year. Conditions, he says, "do not fit the lowest standard of human living".

Separately, two prisoners have complained to their lawyer that their belongings, including their bedding, were removed from their cells on several occasions for no reason. *Each time, they were told that the removal was a "mistake," and the belongings were returned, only to be confiscated again*.   

More disturbingly, the same two prisoners say that during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, their recreation time was moved to prevent them from taking part in traditional group prayer.

Using religion to punish prisoners is illegal under international law. Authorities at Guantanamo deny the prisoners are kept from practising their religion, although they concede that recreation times are sometimes moved "due to operational needs".

They say that personal belongings are not removed from cells "unless detainees misuse the items"; the prisoners categorically deny that they did so.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which monitors prisoner treatment at Guantanamo, declined to comment on specific allegations at the prison, but says that it recognises the cumulative effect low-level abuse can have on the well-being of prisoners in general.

"In some cases, a single act may amount to torture," ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno says. "In others, ill treatment may be the result of a number of methods used over time, which, taken individually and out of context, may seem harmless."

Hunger strikes

For the Guantanamo prisoners, avenues of protest against their treatment are limited and many have resorted to hunger strikes. *Now there is concern that the force-feeding regime to which hunger strikers are subjected is having a detrimental effect on their mental and physical health.*

Abdul Rahman Shalabi has been on hunger strike since August 2005. *He has been force-fed twice a day by Guantanamo personnel, who insert a feeding tube through his nose in order to administer a liquid diet aimed at keeping him alive.*

But* independent doctors who have evaluated him say that the insertion of the tube has done permanent damage to his nose and throat, making inserting new feeding tubes difficult and stopping him from receiving the calories he needs*.

His lawyers say that persisting with the current treatment could be doing more harm than good. Shalabi was hospitalised in March, and his weight has dropped to just 107 pounds, 30 per cent below his ideal body weight and at the threshold of major organ failure. 

Doctors say force feeding methods are causing permanent damage

Shalabi's lawyer, Jana Ramsey, is bringing a case aimed at forcing the government to allow medical specialists to work with Guantanamo personnel to prevent the further weight loss she says is inevitable if his current treatment persists. 

"*While participating in the strike, Abdul Rahman has, among other things, been overfed to the point of vomiting, had tubes inserted and removed repeatedly until his nose bled, choked until he passed out and been blasted by pepper spray more times than he can remember," she says.*

"He is now dangerously underweight. We are deeply concerned that the medical staff at Guantanamo have no plan to keep Abdul Rahman from starving to death."

*As part of the case, Ramsey arranged for independent medical experts to examine Shalabi at the prison over the summer. Dr Sondra Crosby, an ear, nose and throat specialist who examined him in August, said that without a change in treatment, the prisoner will die*.

"Mr Shalabi has been on a hunger strike for four years, and only recently has his condition severely deteriorated," her testimony notes.  

His current treatment is also having a negative impact on his mental health, experts have found. Dr Emily Keram, a psychiatrist who evaluated him in July, told the court he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression.

"*Mr. Shalabi exhibits symptoms and disorders consistent with his reports of coercive interrogations and other mistreatment," she said, adding that some of this trauma occurred this year*.

"The medical records do indicate that Mr. Shalabi was subjected to Forced Cell Extraction in connection with his feeding multiple times per day through the months of January and February. Mr Shalabi's psychological symptoms are consistent with the distress he reported experiencing as a result of these extractions."  

Shalabi himself attributes his weight loss to his treatment at the prison.

"*My weight has dropped from sadness and provocations, daily humiliations and harassments and the sickness," he says in a letter written in September. "I am a human who is being treated like an animal.*"

Mistreatment denied

Authorities at Guantanamo deny that hunger strikers are subject to different treatment to other prisoners and say that no-one is being mistreated.  

The Guantanamo File

"All allegations of abuse are fully investigated and if warranted, further action taken," says Lieutenant Commander Brook DeWalt, a military spokesman for the prison. "As with any facility of this nature, we receive many allegations and we investigate any claim, no matter what the source, and take appropriate action when warranted."    

But lawyers say that efforts to raise these issues with the relevant authorities have been met with inertia.

Ahmed Ghappour, who represents Guantanamo prisoners, has lodged several requests to initiate investigations since Obama took office.

"I have requested four investigations regarding prisoner abuse just this past year," he says. "The military responded to my first request indicating that they would investigate, but have been radio silent since then."

Released after a federal court found him to be entirely innocent, Mohammed el Gharani is now adjusting to life outside prison. He says that the allegations made by current inmates match his experience of Guantanamo during the months leading up to his release.   

"I recognise all of this," he says. "There are still more than 200 people in Guantanamo. Since Obama became president, less than 20 have been released.* I don't know why, but he has broken his promises."*
 Source: 	Al Jazeera

----------


## Cell.Phone

For two months I have liked this guy. We have known each other for two years, but have only really been talking for 5 months. I used to think he was cute, but I didn't really know him. We have alot of mutual friends and we just kind of clicked.
So for the last few months he waits for me after class and before some of my classes to talk to me. Theres a group of us usually and he just stands right behind me, or beside me, or just hug holds me the entire time (5 minutes...heaven  :Smile: 
And after school we play tag in the hall, I give him piggy back rides, we laugh, talk, share an mp3 while waiting for our rides after school, he CONSTANTLY tickles me! So yeah you get the idea.
Thing is he has a girlfriend. They have been together for 3 months, and they seem more like best friends then a couple. They never kiss unless she initiates it. She is the really jealous type, so obviously she hates me, but acts nice to me when he is around.


____________________

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----------


## Shades

*Who is counting the bodies in Iraq?

By Natalia Antelava 
BBC News, Baghdad*

*"We don't do body counts." These were the words of Gen Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the US-led invasion of Iraq*.
But more than six-and-a-half years after the invasion, the body count has become a measure of success and failure in Iraq.
*In November, officials announced that violent deaths were at their lowest since 2003. That was an important example of progress in Iraq, according to the Iraqi government*.

Most of the big explosions since August occurred near official buildings
Eight days after the announcement, five massive explosions went off almost simultaneously in different parts of Baghdad, killing and wounding hundreds.
These well-co-ordinated, sophisticated attacks targeted symbols of the state - not only government buildings but also universities and state-run institutions.
The explosions were similar in scale to devastating bomb attacks in August and in October.
The country's commander-in-chief and Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is now under increased pressure to provide better security for the capital.
After all, that's what he is credited with doing best.
Serious questions
Mr Maliki's political reputation was built largely on his apparent success in bringing violence levels down following the US troop surge in 2007.

HISTORY OF BIG ATTACKS
Mar 2004: 171 killed in bombings in Baghdad and Karbala
Nov 2006: 202 killed in multiple blasts in Baghdad
Mar 2007: 152 killed in lorry bombing in Talafar
Apr 2007: 191 killed in car bombings in Baghdad
Aug 2007: More than 500 killed in attacks on villages near Sinjar
Aug 2009: 95 killed in lorry bombs in Baghdad
Oct 2009: 155 killed in twin lorry bomb attacks in Baghdad
Dec 2009: 127 killed in a series of car bombs in Baghdad

Source: News agencies, BBC
Now, this image of a man who could keep Baghdad safe has been tarnished.
Across the city, as dust settled over the bomb sites and grief took the place of the initial shock and panic, some serious questions began to emerge.
One of them is how many died in the explosions?
The number, according to the international and independent Iraqi media is more than one hundred, but the official toll is 77.
There are plenty of examples of similar discrepancies in numbers.
Round-up
Two days before the big bombings, explosives went off in a school in Sadr City, a Shia suburb of Baghdad.


 We go to the bomb sites - we know how many people really die  
Hindt al-Bedeiri, Iraqi journalist
*Police sources told us that six children were killed, but Iraqi officials said one student had died.
*There was a real difference in coverage of the event as well.
It grabbed international headlines, but Iraqi state TV led on political progress and the achievements of the government.
The school explosion was mentioned in a 40-second round-up at the very end of the news bulletin.
"The government is manipulating the figures," says journalist Hindt al-Bedeiri who writes for the pro-opposition al-Mashraq newspaper.
"Politicians are lying to us because they are worried about the election. They are looking after their own interests. We go to the bomb sites - we know how many people really die," she says.
Official numbers
But the government insists that its numbers are correct.

 We are not lying... There is no justification to distorting this kind of information. It's disrespectful. Every death, every person matters  
Saad al-Mutalibi
Government adviser
"The media are interested in blowing the situation out of proportion, and certain networks and channels are trying to boost the numbers," says Saad al-Mutalibi, an adviser to the Iraqi government.
"I believe these official numbers because they come from the Ministry of Health".
For their part, health authorities receive their figures from hospitals.
*Shortly after Tuesday's bombings, the BBC visited one of Baghdad's hospitals.
The total number of injured given by administrative staff was significantly lower than the estimates provided by doctors who were receiving patients.
*One of the doctors, surgeon Tara Barki, said she believed the government was trying to downplay violence.
"*We have explosions every day, but most of them are small and scattered and so they either receive no media attention or are camouflaged by the government," Dr Barki said.
'*Deaths matter'
But the government denies manipulating figures.
"We are not lying, and I can guarantee you that the office of Prime Minister Maliki would never lie about the figures," said Mr Moutalibi, the government adviser.

COUNTING THE DEAD
*In October 2009, the Iraqi government reported that 85,000 Iraqis (civilians, military and police) died in violence between 2004 and 2008
*Iraq Body Count: *Campaign group counts from media reports and official figures. It says that 94,705 - 103,336 civilians have died since invasion
Lancet study in October 2006 estimated 655,000 people died in Iraq as a result of the invasion*
"There is no justification to distorting this kind of information. It's disrespectful. Every death, every person matters."
The government says these explosions should not undermine the progress it has made.
In December, and after months of political wrangling, Iraqi politicians finally agreed to have an election on 7 March.
The deal was hailed as a big political achievement, crucial to the future of Iraq.
But violence, it seems, could still be dictating the rules of the game.
The outcome of the election, the timing of the US withdrawal and Iraq's ability to attract much-needed investment, could all depend on how safe this country is - or is perceived to be.
Statistics are irrelevant for mothers who are still losing their children in Iraq.
But whatever Gen Tommy Franks said nearly seven years ago, today Iraq's politicians are indeed doing a body count.





*This is what US has achieved by waging war on terror according to USA ruled Iraqi government. If you want to know real figures multiply these figures by 8 or 10, or read the above article by BBC which itself is proof to the deception of USA led Iraqi Govt.*

----------


## Shades

*Ten Afghan civilians killed in NATO airstrikes*
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:09:42 GMT

US soldiers on patrol in Kunar
Ten civilians including eight school children have been killed the latest episode of NATO's imprecise airstrikes in Afghanistan.

"Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by international forces in Kunar province... 10 civilians, eight of them school students have been killed," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said Monday.

Karzai has strongly condemned the killings in the airstrikes and appointed a delegation to investigate the event.

NATO forces in Kabul said they were looking into the incident, but declined to give further details.

Kunar representative in the parliament walked out of an important session debating appointments to Karzai's new cabinet in protest at the civilian casualties.

The border regions of Kunar have long been volatile as Taliban militants are said to cross the porous border from Pakistan to fight Western troops and Afghan government forces.

The imprecise operations carried out by the 100,000-plus foreign forces in Afghanistan have been criticized for their potential in claiming civilian casualties.

In one of the worst such cases, more than 140 people, including at least 30 civilians, were killed or wounded in Kunduz Province on September 4.

RZS/MMN

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## Shades

*US missiles mow down 13 in Pakistan*
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:30:29 GMT

*US drone attacks continue to claim lives in the Pakistani border area of North Waziristan amid Washington's failure to push Islamabad into major offensives on the area*.

The surveillance aircraft on Saturday attacked the Saidgi village in the tribal area reportedly killing 13 people, AFP reported. The raid marked the third of such attacks over the past ten days.

Quoting a local intelligence official, CNN said the projectiles had hit a militant hideout and that the mortalities had all been militants.

Local Pakistani* news outlets, however, said the missiles struck the residential compound of a local tribesman, Asmatullah*.

Islamabad has launched major offensives in the neighboring South Waziristan as well as the other northwestern areas of Khyber and Swat under pressure from the US, whose large-scale military presence in Afghanistan is blamed to have sent the militants across the border into Pakistan.

The ongoing military hostilities in South Waziristan have prompted 80,000 people to flee the area. The United Nations has warned that 170,000 others could be rendered homeless during the battle that started in mid-October.

North Waziristan, which is yet to see such government action, has witnessed a rise in the US missile raids as the entire tribal belt is being allowed less and less of a respite from the drone attacks.

Since *August 2008, at least 69 such strikes have killed about 663 people. Pakistani media outlets say civilians comprise a large part of the mortalities*.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi on Tuesday condemned the attacks as "counterproductive and unhelpful in our joint efforts towards winning hearts and minds, which is essential to succeed against violent extremism."

Reports, however, allege that* US drones take off from airbases located inside Pakistan's territory*, pointing to suspected compromises on the part of Islamabad.

HN/MMN

----------


## Shades

*US takes war on Islam into Yemen.*

USA has again attacked a Muslim country under the pretext of Al Qaida, no wonder their were continuous news regarding Yemen and extremism coming out from US media outlets. Their is a growing suspicion of US helping hand towards the Hotuhi fighters waging a war on government of Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Reports have confirmed the presence of CIA since 2008 in Yemen. The activities of CIA might also include funding the Houthis and Al Qaida to start implementing its plan in Middle East.

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## Shades

*US troops kill civilians, says Afghanistan*
Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:23:06 GMT

Afghan men burn an effigy of US President Barack Obama in Jalalabad, south Afghanistan on December 30.
*The Afghan government says foreign troops have dragged 10 civilians from their homes and shot them dead in the open over the weekend*.

A Wednesday statement issued by the office of President Hamid Karzai said that international forces carried out the attack in the eastern province of Kunar on Saturday. *Eight of the victims were schoolchildren*.

Military offensives in Kunar, which borders Pakistan, are being led by US Special Forces.

The killings sparked a public outcry resulting in massive demonstrations.

In the eastern province of Nangarhar, hundreds of university students staged a protest, chanting "death to Obama" and "death to foreign forces." The demonstrators also torched a US flag and an effigy of US President Barack Obama.

Similar rallies took place in the capital, Kabul. The protesters called on the Afghan government to put an end to unilateral operations by western troops.

Figures released by the United Nations indicate a *10 percent rise in the civilian death toll from the US-led war* in Afghanistan with a good share of fatalities caused by foreign forces.

JR/MMN

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## Shades

*Dutch probe declares Iraq war 'illegal'*
Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:51:04 GMT

The chairman of the inquiry and former president of the Dutch Supreme Court, Willibrord Davids, presents the commission's findings before Dutch officials on January 12, 2010.

*An independent probe investigating the Netherlands' support for the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq says the US and Britain rushed to war without sufficient legal backing under international law.*

The commission's 551-page report says UN resolutions prior to the outbreak of the war did not provide the mandate for the attack.

"There was insufficient legitimacy" for the invasion, commission chairman Willibrord Davids told journalists in The Hague on Tuesday.

The report further concludes that *there was no legal basis for the Iraq war*, while accusing the Dutch government of spicing up allegation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction  the main mantra on which arguments for war were erected.

The development comes amid deepening public concerns in the countries that joined the US-led war, prompting independent probes in other parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom, to settle the question of the ongoing war's legality.

The report also confirms that the Netherlands gave political support to war, but notes that the country was never militarily involved in the conflict.

ZHD/MD

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## Shades

*US drone attack kill 10 in Pakistan*
Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:38:53 GMT

At least 10 people have been killed in the latest American drone attack in the volatile region of North Waziristan in Pakistan.

The attack targeted a compound in Pasalkot village on Thursday, according to Pakistan's security forces.

"At least 10 people were killed in the missile strike," a senior security official told AFP.

The United States has stepped up its drone strikes in Pakistan since seven CIA agents were killed in neighboring Afghanistan.

*Hundreds of people, many of them civilians, have been killed since 2006 in CIA-operated drone strikes in Pakistan.*

AGB/MB

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## Shades

*2009 deadliest year for Afghan civilians: UN*
Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:58:05 GMT

*A UN report says 2009 was the deadliest year for both Afghan civilians and foreign forces since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001*.

The UN Afghan mission said in its latest report that the *number of casualties is 14 percent higher compared to the previous year.*

The violence in the country left more than 2,400 Afghan civilians dead last year.

The report also says that the vast majority of the deaths were caused by militant-led violence.

The year 2009 was also the deadliest year for foreign forces in the country. Some 520 foreign troopers were killed in Afghanistan last year.

The figure is almost double that of 2008 in which 300 foreign soldiers were killed.

The US is deploying many thousands of additional troops to the country this year.

JR/HGH/MMN

*Note these are the figures  which are shown to UN by US reality is much more severe*

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## Shades

*Occupiers kill several Afghans at demo, locals say
Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:12:49 GMT*

Locals say troops of the *US-led alliance have killed at least eight Afghan civilians at a demonstration organized to protest against the alliance forces' desecration of the Holy Quran.*

The mortalities were caused by fire from the alliance forces during the demonstration, which about 2,000 people attended, in the southern province of Helmand, locals said on Tuesday, the German news agency DPA reported.

*Residents said the troops had stormed a house and destroyed copies of the Muslim holy book in a local mosque in the province's Garmsir district on Sunday*.

"*We have proof that they destroyed our Holy Quran. We can show it to [President Hamid] Karzai's government or the foreign forces,*" said resident Habibullah Jan.

"The people came out of their homes today [Tuesday] to protest this action of foreign forces in a peaceful way, but the Afghan and international forces opened fire on us and killed eight people," Haji Abdul Manan, one of the organizers of the demonstration, was quoted as saying by DPA.

And over 20 people were injured, he added.

"In this demonstration, 13 people died and 25 were wounded. The situation is very bad and the protest is still going on. People are very angry with foreigners because they have desecrated our Holy Quran. Also, they fired on demonstrators. I repeat that many people died and were wounded during the protest," Reuters quoted Haji Jan Gul, who brought some of the wounded to the hospital, as saying.

However, US spokesman for the military alliance Lt. Nico Melendez claimed that no shots had been fired and added that the alliance's troops had not committed any sacrilegious acts, Associated Press reported.

"We take such allegations very seriously and would support a combined investigation with local Afghan authorities," he stated.

In response to a similar act of desecration in Wardak province in October, angry rallies were held.

Afghanistan is currently grappling with the highest level of violence in the over eight years of US-led military operations.

Thousands of civilians have been killed during exchanges of fire between the alliance forces and the Taliban and also in miscalculated attacks by alliance troops targeting alleged militant hideouts.

HN/HGL

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## Shades

*Terror: The facts US media ignore*
Paul Craig Roberts | Creators Syndicate


THE Underwear Bomber case indicates that *whoever is behind these bomb scares is laughing at our gullibility.*

*How realistic is it that Al-Qaeda, an organization that allegedly pulled off the most fantastic terror attack in world history, would in these days of heightened security choose for an attack on an airliner a person who is the most conspicuous of all? Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had a one-way ticket, no luggage, no passport, and his father, reportedly a CIA and Mossad asset, had reported him to the CIA and Mossad. Does anyone really believe that Al-Qaeda would choose as an airliner bomber a person waving every red flag imaginable*?

This obvious question has escaped the US media, a collection of salespersons marketing full body scanning machines for airports.

*Would Al-Qaeda, with its extensive knowledge of explosives, have armed Umar with a bomb that experts say couldnt have blown up his own seat?*

*It is difficult to imagine a more gullible population than Americas,* but do even Americans believe this story?

*Since 9/11 the FBI has been busy enticing people, who lack organizational skills, into terrorist plots that consist of FBI-initiated hot air talk*. These ridiculous stings are then taken to trial, and the media fans the flames of fear of home-grown terrorist plots against Americans.

There is little doubt that those interested in leading the US deeper into a police state and deeper into a war on terror are active in adding orchestrated events to whatever real ones real terrorists manage to accomplish. The paucity of real terrorists has caused the US government and its Ministry of Truth to promote the Taleban to terrorist rnak. *The problem is that these terrorist acts are taking place thousands of miles away in lands that the average American cannot find on a map and, thus, lack scare value. To keep the peril alive for Americans, we have the Underwear Bomb Plot.*

What will be next? An elaborate head of hair laced with nano-thermite?

*The war on terror is a far greater threat to Americans than all the terrorists in the world combined. This is so because the war on terror has destroyed the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. American citizens are now helpless in the event someone in government decides that some constitutionally protected behavior, such as free speech, or a contribution to a childrens hospital in Gaza*, where Hamas, a US-declared terrorist organization, happens to be the elected government, constitutes aiding and abetting terrorism.

*On Jan. 5 a ruling by the Federal Appeals Court in the District of Columbia gave away the most essential protection of liberty by declaring that the US government is not bound by law during war. The ruling absolves Washington from complying with Americas own laws and from complying with international laws, such as the Geneva Conventions. It makes a mockery of all war crime trials everywhere.* By elevating the executive branch above the law, the court gave the government carte blanche.

The rationale offered by the court for refusing to uphold the law came from Judge Janice Rogers Brown, who said that America had been pushed by war past the leading edge of a new and frightening paradigm, one that demands new rules be written. *War is a challenge to law, and the law must adjust. By adjust she means be set aside or be thrown out.*

The US Supreme Court has refused to defend both the Constitution and the principle that government is not above the law. Last Dec.14 the Supreme Court refused to review a ruling by the Federal Appeals Court in theDistrict of Columbia , which dismissed a torture case with the argument that torture is a foreseeable consequence of the militarys detention of suspected enemy combatants. In other words, *neither US nor international laws against torture can be enforced in US courts. The opinion was written by Judge Karen Lecraft Henderson*.

The war on terror, which is enriching Halliburton, Blackwater (now operating under an alias), and the military/security complex, while denying Americans health care, is running up debt that is a threat to Americans purchasing power and living standards. The contrast between Americas sanctimonious rhetoric and the murder of civilians and torture of prisoners has destroyed Americas reputation and caused Europeans as well as Muslims to despise the United States.

*The sacrifice of the Constitution and rule of law to a hyped theorist threat has destroyed the heart and soul of America* herself.

As a poet wrote, our world in stupor lies.

 To find out more about Paul Craig Roberts, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page
________________________________________

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## Shades

*NATO admits opening fire on civilians*
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:15:32 GMT


*NATO acknowledged on Friday that the US-led forces had opened fire on civilians, injuring five people during anti-American protests in Afghanistan's Helmand province*.

Officials say the anti-American protests, that took place at the gates of a military base in the Garmsir district of Helmand province on Wednesday, was initially sparked by reports that US troops had desecrated the Holy Qur'an.

*The incident came a day after eight protesters were killed and more than a dozen were injured in a similar demonstration in the region.*

FTP/MMN

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## Shades

*Despite SOFA, US will deploy 21,000 troops in N Iraq*
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:28:34 GMT

*The United States is to deploy 21,000 US troops in and around the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq despite the security agreement between Baghdad and Washington*.

According to the commander of US forces in northern Iraq, Anthony Cucolo, 21,000 *US forces will be deployed in Kirkuk and Mosul early next month, the Fars News Agency reported on Saturday*.

Cucolo further claimed that the deployment is aimed at preventing what he called the possible Kurd-Arab tension.

Cucolo's remarks come as a surprise as there has been no Kurd-Arab tensions since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

The move is contrary to a security pact, known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which was signed on November 17, 2008 by the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and the then US ambassador Ryan Crocker.

*Based on the agreement, both sides agreed that US troops should pull out from Iraq's urban areas by the end of June 2009 and be withdrawn altogether from the country by the end of 2011.*

HRF/MTM/DT

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## Shades

*Are US Forces Executing Kids in Afghanistan? Americans Don't Even Know to Ask*
Submitted by dlindorff on Sun, 2010-01-03 17:58

By Dave Lindorff

*The Taliban suicide attack that killed a group of CIA agents in Afghanistan on a base that was directing US drone aircraft used to attack Taliban leaders was big news in the US over the past week, with the airwaves and front pages filled with sympathetic stories referring to the fact that the female station chief, who was among those killed, was the mother of three children.*

*But the apparent mass murder of Afghan school children, including one as young as 11 years old, by a US-led group of troops, was pretty much blacked out in the American media.* Especially *blacked out was word from UN investigators that the students had not just been killed but executed, many of them after having first been rousted from their bedroom and handcuffed.*

Here is the excellent report on the incident that ran in the *Times of London (like Fox News, a Rupert Murdoch-owned publication) on Dec. 31:?*

Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan civilians, including children

By Jerome Starkey in Kabul

*American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.*

*Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were handcuffed before being killed.*

Western military sources said that the dead were all part of an Afghan terrorist cell responsible for manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have claimed the lives of countless soldiers and civilians.

This was a joint operation that was conducted against an IED cell that Afghan and US officials had been developing information against for some time, said a senior Nato insider. *But he admitted that the facts about what actually went down are in dispute.*

The article goes on to say:

In a telephone interview last night, *the headmaster [of the local school] said that the victims were asleep in three rooms when the troops arrived. Seven students were in one room, said Rahman Jan Ehsas. A student and one guest were in another room, a guest room, and a farmer was asleep with his wife in a third building.*

*First the foreign troops entered the guest room and shot two of them. Then they entered another room and handcuffed the seven students. Then they killed them. Abdul Khaliq [the farmer] heard shooting and came outside. When they saw him they shot him as well. He was outside. Thats why his wife wasnt killed.*

A local elder, Jan Mohammed, said that three boys were killed in one room and five were handcuffed before they were shot.* I saw their school books covered in blood, he said.*

*The investigation found that eight of the victims were aged from 11 to 17. The guest was a shepherd boy, 12, called Samar Gul, the headmaster said.* He said that six of the students were at high school and two were at primary school. He said that all the students were his nephews.

Compare this article to the one mention of the incident which appeared in the New York Times, one of the few American news outlets to even mention the incident. The Times, on Dec. 28, focusing entirely on the difficulty civilian killings cause for the US war effort, and not on the allegation of a serious war crime having been committed, wrote:

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## Shades

*US activists blast CIA's overseas drone attacks*
Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:17:15 GMT

Protestors said Obama's use of drones during the first six months of his presidency has surpassed that of the Bush.

American anti-war peace activists have rallied against the increasing use of unmanned drones by CIA around the world  especially in Pakistan.

Peace activists and anti-war advocates staged a protest rally on Sunday in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.

*"We're absolutely opposed to that (the use of drones), innocent people are killed as a result of that,"* a demonstrator told Press TV.

*The use of predator drone attacks in the covert CIA war in Pakistan has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.*

*"And we know the fear that's created among the civilian population in Afghanistan, Pakistan, now they have been used in Yemen, Somalia and Syria. And where is this gonna stop? It really needs to stop now," said Debra Sweet, an activist from the World Can't Wait.*

Alexis Miller from the Washington Peace Center said that President Barack Obama and his administration have proliferated the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

*"People don't realize that drone attacks kill hundreds of civilians every time they are executed, and with this policy of Obama, he has done three hundred in the last six [months], or in the first six months of his presidency more than [what] George Bush did in three years, Miller said.*

*Peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose Facebook page has been shut down for promoting the event, maintained that former President George W. Bush and his vice president Dick Cheney should also be held responsible for the drone attacks.*

*"Dick Cheney and George Bush started many of these programs under their regime, not only did they start them, they greatly increased them after the excuse of 9/11. And we believe that Dick Cheney, George Bush and the whole administration need to be held accountable,"* said Sheehan.

The veteran activists say the ongoing use of drone attacks is the CIA and military's new form of interventionism and since it is conveniently covert, it will be easier to keep off the radar, despite the fact that the civilian death toll is drastically increasing.

RB/MMN

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## Lovely World

Now a days we are in war on terror.

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## Cell.Phone

For two months I have liked this guy. We have known each other for two years, but have only really been talking for 5 months. I used to think he was cute, but I didn't really know him. We have alot of mutual friends and we just kind of clicked.
So for the last few months he waits for me after class and before some of my classes to talk to me. Theres a group of us usually and he just stands right behind me, or beside me, or just hug holds me the entire time (5 minutes...heaven  :Smile: 
And after school we play tag in the hall, I give him piggy back rides, we laugh, talk, share an mp3 while waiting for our rides after school, he CONSTANTLY tickles me! So yeah you get the idea.
Thing is he has a girlfriend. They have been together for 3 months, and they seem more like best friends then a couple. They never kiss unless she initiates it. She is the really jealous type, so obviously she hates me, but acts nice to me when he is around.


____________________
Steam shower | Bathroom vanities | Faucets

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## Cell.Phone

I have liked this guy. We have known each other for two years, but have only really been talking for 5 months. I used to think he was cute, but I didn't really know him. We have alot of mutual friends and we just kind of clicked.
So for the last few months he waits for me after class and before some of my classes to talk to me. Theres a group of us usually and he just stands right behind me, or beside me, or just hug holds me the entire time (5 minutes...heaven  :Smile: 
And after school we play tag in the hall, I give him piggy back rides, we laugh, talk, share an mp3 while waiting for our rides after school, he CONSTANTLY tickles me! So yeah you get the idea.
Thing is he has a girlfriend. They have been together for 3 months, and they seem more like best friends then a couple. They never kiss unless she initiates it. She is the really jealous type, so obviously she hates me, but acts nice to me when he is around.


____________________
Steam shower | Bathroom vanities | Faucets

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## Cell.Phone

For two months I have liked this guy. We have known each other for two years, but have only really been talking for 5 months. I used to think he was cute, but I didn't really know him. We have alot of mutual friends and we just kind of clicked.
So for the last few months he waits for me after class and before some of my classes to talk to me. Theres a group of us usually and he just stands right behind me, or beside me, or just hug holds me the entire time (5 minutes...heaven  :Smile: 
And after school we play tag in the hall, I give him piggy back rides, we laugh, talk, share an mp3 while waiting for our rides after school, he CONSTANTLY tickles me! So yeah you get the idea.
Thing is he has a girlfriend. They have been together for 3 months, and they seem more like best friends then a couple. They never kiss unless she initiates it. She is the really jealous type, so obviously she hates me, but acts nice to me when he is around.


____________________
Steam shower | Bathroom vanities | Faucets

----------

