AS THE WORLD SQUIRMSâ
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
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US death toll in Iraq passes 3500
Tuesday: 1 GI, 59 Iraqis Killed; 103 Iraqis Wounded
Wednesday: 25 Iraqis Killed, 42 Wounded
DC Notes: Disability claims from Iraq, Afghanistan vets top
176,000 |
NOAM CHOMSKY
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PAKISTAN: America's next big blunder By Eric Margolis The Toronto Sun – Canada 7.22.07 (Excerpt) In best British imperial tradition,
Washington pays Musharraf $100 million monthly to rent his sepoys (native
soldiers) to fight Pashtun tribesmen. As a result, Pakistan is fast edging
towards civil war. The anti-communist Taliban movement
is part of the Pashtun people. Taliban fighters move across the artificial Pakistan-Afghanistan
border, to borrow a Maoism, like fish through the sea. Osama bin Laden is a
hero in the region. The U.S. just increased its reward
for bin Laden to $50 million and plans to shower $750 million on the tribal
region to try to buy loyalty. Can't be bought Bush/Cheney & Co. do not
understand that while they can rent President Musharraf's government in
Islamabad, many Pashtun value personal honour far more than money, and cannot
be bought. Any U.S. attack on Pakistan would be a
catastrophic mistake. First, air and
ground assaults will succeed only in widening the anti-U.S. war and merging it
with Afghanistan's resistance to western occupation. Second,
Pakistan's army officers who refuse to be bought may resist a U.S. attack on
their homeland, and overthrow the man who allowed it, Gen. Musharraf. A U.S. attack
would sharply raise the threat of anti-U.S. extremists seizing control of
strategic Pakistan and marginalize those seeking return to democratic
government. Third, a U.S.
attack on the tribal areas could re-ignite the old movement to reunite
Pashtun parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan into independent
"Pashtunistan." That could begin unravelling fragile Pakistan,
leaving its nuclear arsenal up for grabs. The U.S. military has grown used to
attacking small, weak nations like Grenada and Iraq. Pakistan,
with 163 million people, and a poorly equipped, but very tough 550,000-man
army, will offer no easy victories. Those Bush administration and Harper
government officials who foolishly advocate attacking Pakistan are playing
with fire.  ·
Pakistan Warns US Not to Invade in
Qaeda Chase ·
50 Casualties in Pakistan Rocket
Attacks |
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Neocons Set Stage for Washington
Attack on Nuclear Armed Pakistan By
Kurt Nimmo Another
Day In The Empire Sunday
July 22nd 2007, 12:38 pm (Excerpt) Back
in the day, when the CIA and ISI [Pakistani Intelligence] collaborated to
create a large cadre of strident and murderous militants, this fundamentalism was fine and dandy.
But now that it threatens to escape the castle and prey on villagers, the “U.S. would consider military force if
necessary to stem Al Qaeda’s growing ability to use its hideout in Pakistan
to launch terrorist attacks,” in other words attack the militants, the
Frankenstein, ready to depose the U.S. supported dictator Musharraf, quite
naturally expendable. Such behavior was acceptable when General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq seized power in Pakistan in a 1977 coup and declared himself president. Soon after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, that is to say they were tricked into invading by Zbigniew Brzezinski (see Brzezinski’s interview with Le Nouvel Observateur), Zia forced through pro-Islamic legislation, introduced Islamic banking systems, created Islamic courts, and imposed a religious tax used to create tens of thousands of madrassas or religious schools, primarily out of Peshawar, and basically set-up to act as “jehadi” recruiting centers funded lavishly by the CIA. “One of his most fateful decisions was to turn many of the country’s madrasas, or religious colleges, into factories of jihad,” the BBC notes. In addition to creating both the Taliban and “al-Qaeda,” Zia’s “Islamization” effort spawned “a ‘culture of jihad’ within Pakistan itself—a culture the current military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, is struggling to uproot.” |
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White House preparing to stage new September 11, warns
Reagan official Novosti - Russia July 20, 2007 (Excerpt) WASHINGTON, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - A former
Reagan official has issued a public warning
that the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist
attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and
launch a war with Iran within a year. Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary
of the Treasury, blasted Thursday a new Executive Order,
released July 17, allowing the White House to seize the assets of anyone who
interferes with its Iraq policies and giving the government expanded police
powers to exercise control in the country. Roberts, who spoke on the Thom Hartmann radio
program, said: "When Bush exercises this authority [under the new
Executive Order], there's no check to it. So it really is a form of total,
absolute, one-man rule." |
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Cooking the Intelligence, Again by Sidney Blumenthal |
Bush tells the CIA to torture at will
Capitol Hill Blue Created 07/21/2007 – 2:53pm (Excerpt) Once again, President George W. Bush proves he believes
he is above the law and immune to the restriction of the Geneva Convention as
well as the laws of God and morality. Bush has set new guidelines that for
the Central Intelligence Agency to follow in torturing suspects. Perhaps a
better way to phrase it would be that the President has established new ways
for the agency to ignore now only the law but the rule of simple human
decency. Bush Approves New CIA Methods [1] - President
Bush set broad legal boundaries for the CIA's harsh interrogation of
terrorism suspects yesterday, allowing the intelligence agency to resume a
program that was suspended last year after criticism that it violated U.S.
and international law. [Washington Post Political News
[2]] |
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America, Where is Your Conscience?
Facing the Truth
By
Monica Benderman Counterpunch.org July
21/22, 2007 (Excerpt) It's about time Americans faced the truth. Today a Marine
not only convicted of conspiring to commit kidnapping, larceny, and making
false statements; but the murder--MURDER--of an innocent Iraqi man, was given
his sentence. He is to receive a reduction in rank and a bad conduct
discharge. THIS is what America has become. It is now considered "bad conduct" to murder an
unarmed man, knowingly return to the scene to fabricate the appearance of
self-defense and hide the facts after the fact. Murdering an innocent Iraqi is now
considered "Bad Conduct." In 2004 my husband, a ten-year US Army
veteran, made a conscious decision to no longer participate in war--he spoke
openly of the bad conduct of his commanders in giving orders to soldiers in
his unit which not only jeopardized the lives of innocent Iraqis, and
children, but also those of the soldiers he served with. For his decision to no longer be part
of the destruction, wanton killing, and unjust, immoral action this war has
shown itself to be, my husband was accused of being a deserter, faced trumped
up, fabricated charges of intentionally missing his unit's movement, and when
the first court-martial attempt failed, was handed additional trumped up
charges of larceny for combat pay his command erroneously placed in his
paycheck. During a second court-martial attempt he was found guilty of
missing movement or not getting on a plane and was sentenced to 15 months in
prison, loss of all pay, reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge. A veteran with ten years of honorable
service, who took a stand to no longer participate in an action in which
murdering innocents is acceptable is now considered "Dishonorable."
How low do you intend to go, America
? How far are you going to let your
values dip before you stop the slide? We don't need to see the documents
"executive privilege" is denying us the right to see. Their content
is evident in the actions of our military courts--Justice in America no
longer has a conscience, and the travesty continues as Americans sleep
through the reality of what it is they are about to lose. The United States Congress spent an
entire night--wasted an entire night--in a public display of ridiculous
bantering over a war which has now caused the deaths of almost 4000 US
military personnel and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians--CHILDREN
are dying every day in Iraq because of what this country has allowed to
happen, and our Congress has the foresight to remember to place cots in the
Senate chambers in case one of the illustrious elite might grow weary of
their repetitious "pillow talk" and need a rest. I am weary of the talk--the Iraqis
are weary of the talk--and I know for a fact that American soldiers are weary
of the talk. There are some who, while wearing our
nation's uniform, have committed horrendous crimes in this war, and in a
great many instances have received little more than a slap on the hand for
their actions. Hundreds of thousands more soldiers have served honorably
under the most horrendous conditions, fighting against their instincts for
survival to maintain morality in their actions in the most difficult
circumstances. They deserve better than to see those who cannot control
themselves face so little consequence for their lack of character. The administration that sent our military to war has become nothing more than a dictatorship in emperor's clothing and our congress is clearly displaying how little backbone they have when it comes to defending the truth in the hallowed halls within which our Constitution is supposed to still matter. |
