A lead-in to the above-titled article by Chris Hedges, posted at Information Clearing House as found at Truthdig, had me thinking this was going to be something good:

No one seems to be able to articulate why we are in Afghanistan. Is it to hunt down bin Laden and al-Qaida? Is it to consolidate progress? Have we declared war on the Taliban? Are we building democracy? Are we fighting terrorists there so we do not have to fight them here? Are we “liberating” the women of Afghanistan? The absurdity of the questions, used as thought-terminating clichés, exposes the absurdity of the war.

But after reading it, I have to say the best thing about it is not found in the article itself but in reader’s comments on the article. The article seems to be a garbage dump of basic facts planted with landmines of mis-information and mis-direction like: Read more »

History shows that state-directed murder is more often than not counterproductive and inevitably runs out of control, disgracing nations and organizations that practise it.

But U.S. assassins are still at work. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S. drones are killing tribesmen almost daily. Over 90% are civilians. Americans have a curious notion that killing people from the air is not murder or even a crime, but somehow clean.

U.S. Predator attacks are illegal and violate U.S. and international law. Pakistan’s government, against which no war has been declared, is not even asked permission or warned of the attacks. Read more »

Pakistani leadership afraid to confide in nation: US senator
Dawn report
WASHINGTON, July 11: A senior US lawmaker says that he has expressed his concerns to President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani over Pakistan’s refusal to “accept responsibility for its role in the drone attacks”.
….
“What I can’t understand and do not accept is the attacks on us, the criticism on us, because what that does is undermine the effort. Every time they attack us as being foreigners attacking their sovereign soil, they are creating another generation that is after us instead of after the terrorists,” he argued.

What is “creating another generation of terrorists”: Mere talk of sovereignty or falling bombs, flattened homes and butchered family and friends without any involvement in any kind of criminal activity but merely living in the target zone where everyone killed is a legitimate target - an extremist insurgent, Talib and al-Qaeda member or an acceptable collatoral damage?

Another Insurgency Gains in Pakistan
by Carlotta Gall, The New York Times July 12, 2009

TURBAT, Pakistan — Three local political leaders were seized from a small legal office here in April, handcuffed, blindfolded and hustled into a waiting pickup truck in front of their lawyer and neighboring shopkeepers. Their bodies, riddled with bullets and badly decomposed in the scorching heat, were found in a date palm grove five days later.

Local residents are convinced that the killings were the work of the Pakistani intelligence agencies, and the deaths have provided a new spark for revolt across Baluchistan, a vast and restless province in Pakistan’s southwest where the government faces yet another insurgency.

Baluch nationalists and some Pakistani politicians say the Baluch conflict holds the potential to break the country apart - Baluchistan makes up a third of Pakistan’s territory - unless the government urgently deals with years of pent up grievances and stays the hand of the military and security services.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Baluch were rounded up in a harsh regime of secret detentions and torture under President Pervez Musharraf, who left office last year. Human rights groups and Baluch activists say those abuses have continued under President Asif Ali Zardari, despite promises to heal tensions. . . . More….

Musharraf and now Zardari are doing in Baluchistan what they are doing not because they have some family feud or ideological obsession or personal grievance against Baluch people. Both Zardari and Musharraf are partners with the forces which are bent on undermining Pakistan.

Balochistan’s strategic energy reserves have a bearing on the separatist agenda. Following a familiar pattern, there are indications that the Baloch insurgency is being supported and abetted by Britain and the US.–Michel Chossudovsky, “The Destabilization of Pakistan,” Centre for Research on Globalisation, December 30, 2007]

[Question: From your comments it appears that Balach and Mengal are heading the resurrected BLA and the BLA has been revived by the Americans and Russians to create trouble in Balochistan but could you give us any coherent reasons for going to such great lengths for disturbing Pakistan that is supposed to be a frontline ally of the United States on its war against terrorism?

Misha and Sasha: Frontline ally? Are you kidding? Americans are using Pakistan and Pakistanis would soon find it out if they have not already. Americans don't need that kind of allies and they have made it abundantly clear for anyone who can read their policy goals correctly. Let them deal with Iran and you would see. If there can be any desirable American ally in that region, that is Iran - Iran under a different regime, and they are working to that end. Except for Balochistan, the rest of Pakistan is useless for them.--Tariq Saeedi et al, "Unveiling the Mystery of Balochistan Insurgency," pakalert, February 6, 2009]

[India needs energy, and the natural source is Iran. And, in fact, they're discussing an Iran-to-India pipeline. But if you could get natural gas flowing from Central Asia to India, avoiding Iran, that would support the US policy,--"Noam Chomsky on US Expansion of Afghan Occupation, the Uses of NATO," democracynow.org, April 3, 2009]

[An immense desert comprising almost 48% of Pakistan's area, rich in uranium and copper, potentially very rich in oil, and producing more than one-third of Pakistan's natural gas, it accounts for less than 4% of Pakistan's 173 million citizens. . . .

Strategically, Balochistan is mouth-watering: east of Iran, south of Afghanistan, and boasting three Arabian sea ports, including Gwadar, practically at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz.

Gwadar - a port built by China - is the absolute key. It is the essential node in the crucial, ongoing, and still virtual Pipelineistan war between IPI and TAPI. IPI is the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, also known as the "peace pipeline", which is planned to cross from Iranian to Pakistani Balochistan - an anathema to Washington. TAPI is the perennially troubled, US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which is planned to cross western Afghanistan via Herat and branch out to Kandahar and Gwadar.--Pepe Escobar, "Balochistan is the ultimate prize," Asia Times, May 9, 2009]

[So whoever "wins" Balochistan incorporates Pakistan as a key transit corridor to either Iranian gas from the monster South Pars field or a great deal of the Caspian wealth of "gas republic" Turkmenistan.--Robert D. Crane, "Baluchistan: Pivot of Asia, Revisited," theamericanmuslim.org, May 9, 2009]

[Now that's as classic as the New Great Game in Eurasia can get. There's NATO vs the SCO. With either IPI or TAPI, Turkmenistan wins. With either IPI or TAPI, Russia loses. With either IPI or TAPI, Pakistan wins. With TAPI, Iran loses. With IPI, Afghanistan loses. In the end, however, as in any game of high stakes Pipelineistan poker, it all comes down to the top two global players. Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets: will the winner be Washington or Beijing?--Pepe Escobar, "Pipelineistan goes Af-Pak," Asia Times, May 14, 2009]

By Sonali Kolhatkar and Mariam Rawi
July 8, 2009, AlterNet

Years ago, following the initial military success of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the temporary fall of the Taliban, the people of Afghanistan were promised that the occupying armies would rebuild the country and improve life for the Afghan people.

Today, eight years after the U.S. entered Kabul, there are still piles of garbage in the streets. There is no running water. There is only intermittent electricity in the cities, and none in the countryside. Afghans live under the constant threat of military violence.

The U.S. invasion has been a failure, and increasing the U.S. troop presence will not undo the destruction the war has brought to the daily lives of Afghans. Read more »

Other than the difference of scale, what did MPA Shumaila Rana do differently than Benazir and Zardari? Shumaila looted one person, whereas Benazir and Zardari looted the wealth of millions. She was immature and they were professional. Ali Baba Zardari and his 400 thives were blessed with NRO because a tyrant dictator had to save his skin, but she will be left to suffer because she was a tyro, petty thief of the same league.

Is this throwing baby with the bathwater or destroying a village in order to save it?

Whatever it may be, PAKISTAN has a set a new record with invading parts of its own country under pressure from outside; bombing its own people and displacing a record number of people from their home.

Above is just one example of the thousands of children with broken limbs and shrded clothes. Some 270,000 families have fled their homes since the mercenary army began an offensive in Swat when the half-lunatic “president” landed in US in late April, 2009.

Pakistan is currently the only country in the world which has declared a war on its own people under pressure from outside and displaced more than three million Pakistanis to eliminate the non-existent al-Qaeda - read al-CIAda and the “taliban” they create on mass scale in order to justify the war of terrorism.

Pakistan is the only nuclear power in the world that is being bombed on almost weekly basis, killing both innocent civilians and some times government officials and forces, and its Air Force is busy flattening villages in other parts of the country.

Welcome to Pakistan where the situation is no different than the early stages of direct colonial occupations in Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Another interesting part of the story is the way a nuclear power is being disintegrated piece by piece; the way it is set up to implode from within; to consume its strength fighting itself - where the killers, the occupiers, the mercenaries and the aggressers are the same people as their victims - a perfect demonstration of staging “a war within” Pakistan, something which Thomas Friedman proposed and promoted for so long.

Plotting and executing evil like this takes a huge amount of human and financial resources. Consequences of such waster of our potential and resources are going to be horrible for the humanity most of which already sleeps hungry and suffers eight 9/11s a day without anyone taking a serious note of it.

Very interesting. Daily Express (Urdu) in Pakistan quotes the General Operation Commander of Swat military operation, Major General Ijaz Awan, saying that the terrorists in Malakand came from Afghanistan and they had Indian ammunition. Interestingly, scan today’s headlines of the Pakistani press (archived for the record)and you won’t find a single reference to this statement of the military commander. If you notice, the English press is regurgitating the same propaganda mantra about a monolithic force of Taliban without explaining as to why Taliban would come from Afghanistan to die in Pakistan at the hands of Pakistani forces while their own land remains occupied.

If they are local Taliban, why is the Major General lying?

If it is a mix of local resistance to the invasion and occupation by a mercenary army and some CIA backed terrorists (modern version of the “Afghan mujahidden” fed and groomed by the CIA against the Soviet Union), why are the presstitutes not talking about it openly with evidence from the military commanders and people on the ground? Read more »

Was The CIA Hiding Cheney’s “Executive Assassination Ring”?

Anyone who is seriously interested in knowing how “terrorists” are made; how the “war on terrorism” is planned and prolonged; how Paksitani regime is trapped and Pakistani military is used as a fascist, mercenary outfit, needs to read the following Urdu article in daily Jang from Hamid Mir, whose own credibility is seriously doubtful due to reportingcritical lies at crucial moments. However, once in a while he comes out and provides chilling and undeniable facts, like the ones mentioned int he following story. This opens up eyes and debunks the lies and misconceptions that are being propagated day and night through the embeded, pro-war, corporate media. (Translate this Urdu article in English is you are genuinely interested in finding out the truth.) Read more »

Unnamed Eyewitness Account

SubhanAllah, Our sister Dr. Aafia is in pain!

Today, when Sister Aafia came and sat covered in her off-white veil and a olive green jilbaab that covered her whole body except for her eyes, she turned back to see a court room filled with non-muslims and only one muslim. She glanced once past me and returned for a second look. Perhaps I was the only face she felt was not in there to harm her. That is how she feels towards everyone else including her own defense attorneys.

As the proceedings went on, she broke her silence as well as the court rules and spoke in her own defense saying “she never shot anybody, nor is she against America. America has been framed in a war because of a misunderstanding. She has knowledge of those who caused it and this knowledge she has is the reason that all this has happened to her, because they don’t want anyone to believe what she has to say about them.” Read more »

DW tried to warn you…. time and again..

Distorting US Intel On Iran: Obama Follows Bush’s Lead, Again by Charles Davis
Obama Follows Bush Policy on Detainee Access to Courts By R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post
Following Bush lead, Obama moves to block challenge to wiretapping program by John Byrne
Obama Follows Bush Policies On Transparency NPR
Obama to follow Bush foreign policy
… Barack Obama follows the George W Bush line on terror By Alasdair Palmer
Obama to follow Bush’s lead on torture case By Nikolaj Nielsen
Obama Is Bush III by Kevin R. C. Gutzman
I hate being right sometimes….Obama follows Bush policies
Obama Follows Bush Line on Aid to Gazaby Glenn Kessler
Palestine - Bye Bye Bush, Onwards Obama
More complaints that Obama is following Bush’s footsteps
Obama Following Bush Playbook
Following in Bush’s footsteps. Obama administration preparing order for indefinite detentions.
President Barack Obama is morphing into George W. Bush
Obama: No Difference Between Me & Bush on Iraq
John Pilger and Obama - Obama’s Foriegn Policy no different than Bush’s admin
Obama: more dangerous than Bush (Reverend Wright was correct about Obama just being another politician)
Obama is no different than Bush
Obama: Worse than Bush? (Part 1)
Obama and Bush: spot the difference? BBC
“Little difference” between Obama, Bush in substance Noam Chomsky

The mercenary armed forces of Pakistan is acting like occupation forces in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan: Killing first and asking questions later. See the following Urdu report which describes how it butchered 16 innocnet women and children first before asking questions from Rehmani Bakhsh in Pir Baba, Bunir. Read more »

By Peter Chamberlin

Never once, do the generals complain, or offer resistance to American violations of sovereignty. Instead, they follow the orders of their American masters, while the President of Pakistan continues to represent the President of the United States, instead of his own people, who are being killed by the dozens and the hundreds by the good old USA!

Hard as they may try to set their own course, Pakistan’s generals have surrendered their souls to the devil when they plotted with American generals to deceive their countrymen into passively, even enthusiastically accepting the new war. The war in Waziristan (both North and South) will be fought on Obama’s terms.

According to Army spokesman, Maj-Gen Athar Abbas:

“It was thus obvious that the confrontation between the militants and the military in North Waziristan would escalate because the US is unlikely to give up its policy of using drones to target militants positions.”

In other words, for the first time, one of the silent generals dared to explain the Army’s position. ISI concerns about “shaping the battlefield” and confining the war in Wana to Mehsud didn’t amount to a hill of beans to Petraeus and Mullen, Obama insists that Pakistan go against the generals’ better judgment and incite a “tribal uprising.”

The attacks in N. Waziristan by Gul Bahadur and the artillery strikes upon Nazir’s headquarters, both a bi-product of the Predator prevarications, as well as the recent assassination of Pakistan’s other “ace in the hole, Qari Zainuddin, have destroyed Pakistan’s last chance to restore the writ of the state without resorting to all-out civil war. Either Gen. Kayani submits entirely to Obama’s will, including the planned submission to Indian domination afterwards, or he stands-up to the United States, meaning he stops the drone attacks and reveals the entire ugly scenario that the CIA cannot allow anyone to reveal. “Al Qaida” is fake. The war on terror is a fraud. The fraud is a plan for world war. And we all know that neither Gen. Kayani, nor any other Pakistani official will ever reveal the “great game” or the plot to destroy the Islamic Republic.

The United States corporacracy is a monstrous devouring beast and “Islamist terror” is her illegitimate offspring.  Read more>>>

Pakistanis Reject U.S. “Aid” Flights, As Lawsuit is Filed Against U.S. Drone Attacks
SC Moved Against Drone Attacks

By Sohail Khan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 2 July 2009 (The News) - A constitutional petition was filed on Wednesday in the [Pakistan] Supreme Court, challenging [U.S. illegal] drone attacks in the tribal belt of the country and praying for directing the federal government to submit a report before the Court as to who is responsible for causing the “murders” of [Pakistani] citizens. Read more »

Senseless slaughter and anti-western hysteria are all America and Britain’s billions have paid for in a counterproductive war
Simon Jenkins, GuardianJune 25, 2009

If good intentions ever paved a road to hell, they are doing so in Afghanistan. History rarely declares when folly turns to disaster, but it does so now. Barack Obama and his amanuensis, Gordon Brown, are uncannily repeating the route taken by American leaders in Vietnam from 1963 to 1975. Galbraith once said that the best thing about the Great Depression was that it warned against another. Does the same apply to Vietnam? Read more »

How would the US consider and treat agents from another country working and meddling in the US internal affairs for the interest of their respective country? Would they be welcomed or considered as enemy agents and unarmed combatants.

Also see: 8 Basijis shot dead during Tehran unrest: All the Basij members were killed by gunfire, indicating that there were gunmen fomenting unrest among protesters, the officials said.

Why should it not be the same vice versa? Or is it an imperial, colonial right to proudly have agents in other countries to destablize them as per the globalist designs?

The more al-CIAda is exposed, the more the mainstream media machine gears up with new propaganda of new bogeymonsters to keep the hype alive. From the headline to the bottomline, read the rich flavoured propagada below:

Al Qaeda threat rattles Pakistan
Extremists’ goal to infiltrate military adds to uncertainty over army offensive in tribal regionsComments on this story (8)
Rick Westhead
SOUTH ASIA BUREAUJun 24, 2009 04:30 AM

NEW DELHI – As Pakistan’s military continues its offensive against the Taliban in the northern part of the country, a senior Al Qaeda leader is threatening to ferret out and use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons against the United States.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, Al Qaeda’s commander of operations in Afghanistan, said both Al Qaeda and the Taliban are working to infiltrate Pakistan’s military in an effort to get access to the country’s nuclear weapons.

If they’re successful, “the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans.”

“The strategy of the (Al Qaeda) organization in the coming period is the same as in the previous period: to hit the head of the snake, the head of tyranny, the United States,” al-Yazid said in an interview on the al Jazeera TV network. Read more »

Qari Zainuddin (centre), surrounded by his armed guard in northwestern Pakistan

A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group’s ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead.

The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.

Zainuddin, a 26-year-old rising tribesman who had called Mehsud “an American agent” was killed by a gunman in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.

Zainuddin, who broke away from Mehsud, was also increasingly critical of Mehsud’s use of suicide bombings targeting civilians.

Read more »