U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS PART I

U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS

DROPPED ON AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ
by
William Thomas

willthomasonline.net exclusive

“Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear. The word has been around for decades, and for the longest time, was at the center of American foreign policy and the deepest fears of the American people. Nuclear brinkmanship. Nuclear winter. Nuclear holocaust. Etc. It’s a great, big, fat, important, and serious word. Its very existence has changed the face of the planet.” -William Rivers Pitt [truthout.com May 5/06]

PART I

GOING NUCLEAR

Despite a just-released U.S. national intelligence consensus that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, apocalyptic fundamentalists George Bush and Dick Cheney remain intent on ordering an all-out attack against one of the world’s oldest (and best armed) civilizations. As governments and citizenry protest this folly, an overriding question torments many minds: Will the architects of more than one-million civilian corpses in Iraq choose to go “go nuclear” against Iran?

Many believe they will not dare. If the inhibition against killing is one of the strongest human impulses (just ask a returning veteran), the ethical revulsion and international prohibitions against using nuclear weapons seem strong enough to rule out their first aggressive use since America’s atomic attack on Nagasaki.

But what if the post-WWII nuclear Rubicon has already been crossed? According to a U.S. Army veteran with extensive boots-on-the-ground connections, the United States Government has dropped five nuclear weapons on Afghanistan and Iraq.

And gotten away with it.

BUNKER BUSTERS
Shortly after the terror attacks of 9/11, Lt. Colonel Eric Sepp of the USAF Air War College lamented that going after Osama bin Laden’s granite redoubts in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan presented “one of the more difficult operational challenges to confront U.S. military forces.”

While precision-guided weapons doom above-ground buildings (and any civilians inside or nearby), deeply buried bunkers can be used as “an effective sanctuary,” declared the USAF Air War College, “to manufacture and store weapons of mass destruction.” As the Air Force Times pointed out, Osama’s “difficult to locate” mountain bunkers “are often beyond the reach of most conventional weapons unable to survive passing through tens of meters of rock and concrete.” [Deeply Buried Facilities Implications for Military Operations USAF Center for Strategy and Technology Air War College May 2000; Air Force Times Apr 14/97]

But it wasn’t for lack of trying. In 1972, Melvin Cook, a professor of metallurgy at the University of Utah and an author of works on explosives and Creationism, had sought to undo God’s handiwork by developing the ultimate chemical bomb. Professor Cook borrowed aluminized slurries used in mining to fracture, heat and pulverize extremely hard rock. [workingforchange.com Nov 8/01; globalsecurity.org]

Extensively field tested during the Vietnam War, where they raised havoc with the peoples and ecology of Vietnam and Cambodia – and later deployed against terrified Iraqi conscripts and cast-off Soviet armor during the 1991 Gulf war – giant 15,000 pound BLU-82 bombs dubbed “Daisy-Cutters” were next dropped in pallets rolled out the back of C-130 transport planes to seal cave entrances in Tora Bora.

London Daily Mail reporter David Williams witnessed one of those “Daisy Cutter” attacks: “The sound split the air. It was like a thunder clap directly overhead at the height of a ferocious storm. I could see the massive oily black cloud of the explosion as it rolled across the hillside, a mixture of thick smoke, chunks of earth and debris.” [www.workingforchange.com Nov 8/01; http://www.commondreams.org

“The effect of the BLU-82 is astonishing, and rare film shows a detonation, shock wave and subsequent mushroom cloud very similar to a small nuclear weapon,” writes Paul Rogers in The Mother Of All Bombs. “Journalists who visited areas where the bomb had been dropped reported scenes of extraordinary devastation” from a firestorm that sucked all the oxygen from the air, crushed human organs and incinerated an area the size of five football fields in a single mighty blast. [openDemocracy.net Mar 7/03]

By December 13, 2001 the U.S. Air Force had dropped at least four 17-foot-long “Daisy Cutter” bombs on tunnel complexes and Taliban concentrations in Afghanistan. [globalsecurity.org; commondreams.org]

DIRTY BOMBS
They also began dropping two-and-a-half-ton GBU-28 “dense metal” penetrators from B-52s and B-1 Stealth bombers. Exploding deep underground, the bomb’s explosive energy “coupled” with bedrock under immense pressure from the weight bearing down on it. The resulting seismic shock wave could crush an underground bunker – or the internal organs of anyone caught in the “overpressure” from a blast wave 20-times stronger than the bomb blast itself. [ucsusa.org May/05]

In order to penetrate rock and concrete, each “Great Big Uranium” bomb is shaped like a spear tipped with tons of radioactive Uranium-238 nearly twice as dense as lead. Using nuclear waste left over from making atomic bombs and reactor fuel, the amount of radioactive Depleted Uranium (DU) particles spread by each GBU “dirty bomb” eclipsed any terrorist’s fantasy – one-and-a-half metric tons of aerosolized particles capable of causing genetic mutations and death for the next four billion years! [Le Monde March 2002]

The similarities of BLU and GBU detonations to nuclear blasts was not lost on U.S. war planners, who realized that the blast effects and resulting radioactive fallout from conventional bunker-busters could mask the detonation of so-called “low-yield” B61-11 tactical nuclear bombs.

The Bush administration’s first U.S. Nuclear Posture Review had already called for fast-track development of new tactical nuclear weapons, a resumption of nuclear tests, and more “flexible, adaptable strike plans” – including “options for variable and reduced yields.” Submitted to Congress on December 31, 2001, the neocon’s follow-up CONPLAN 8022 would reverse the decades-old U.S. policy against “first use” of nuclear weapons by authorizing their rapid deployment to destroy ‘time-urgent targets’ anywhere in the world. [ People's Weekly World Newspaper Mar 16/02]

As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists jumped the minute hand of their Doomsday Clock forward two minutes to seven minutes to midnight, White House fundamentalists eagerly sought ways to test their new “baby nukes” against real-world targets. Proponents insisted, “Many buried targets could be attacked using a weapon with a much lower yield than would be required with a surface burst.” [smh.com.au Sept 7/02]

Those buried nuclear targets were specifically located in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As Dr. Mohammed Daud Miraki of the Afghan DU & Recovery Fund observed, “The White House and US-DOD spoke frequently about the development and use of fission, low-yield and non-fission, seismic bunker- and cave-busters,” “The US Strategic Military Plan and US Nuclear Posture Review expresses intentions to use new classes of weapons in Afghanistan and other states. This program was known to be accelerating its weapons development and experiments in readiness for a possible Iraqi incursion.” [Afghan DU & Recovery Fund]

ILL WINDS
Soon after commencing aerial bombardment against Afghanistan, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld told the press “he did not rule out the eventual use of nuclear weapons.” [Houston Chronicle Oct 20/01]

Still reeling from the relentlessly televised images of September 11, the American public was told that only nuclear blasts could safely vaporize caches of chemical, nuclear or biological weapons not authorized by Washington, which retained its own banned stockpiles of biological weapons, along with more than five-thousand nuclear warheads. [AP June 11/07]

As I was told by an extremely well-connected Desert Storm veteran, whom I have to call “Hank” during our 15-year collaboration, pursuing al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters across Afghanistan’s “wide flat open spaces” is like target shooting. But the “hills that crop out of nowhere” in this desolate region “are craggy and rocky with holes in them that we can’t detect. We know they had access to the Russian biologicals. They could have it in the cave. The container could be open…”

For this reason, “in caves 75 to 89 percent of the time, our guys are wearing an NBC (Nuclear, Chemical, Biological) suit as a precaution,” he went on. “You never know what these guys might have in there – Taliban and Al Qaeda. We knew categorically that they had captured a lot of Soviet munitions, so we knew that whatever these guys fielded they captured: last ditch stuff.”

But blowing up chemical-biological munitions is a really bad idea – as Hank and other coalition forces posted downwind of Iraq’s detonated CBW stockpiles at Khamisiyah learned to their cost following the first Persian Gulf War. As Benjamin Phelan pointed out in Harper’s, “A well-designed granite bunker could with-stand four times the shock produced by [a conventional bunker buster]. If the bunker housed weapons of mass destruction, studies have shown that a canister of, say, mustard gas could be insulated from the heat of the blast by a few meters of earth, and thereby escape being vaporized… In the likely event that a canister is ruptured but not destroyed, the chemical agent… would be blasted up into the air, carried away in the fallout cloud.” [Harper's Dec 1/04]

Another risk, Hank cautioned, “If you nuke something that’s already [fissionable], you’ll get a cook off you didn’t expect.” Even doing “a flash bang” over stockpiled yellow cake, or Depleted Uranium debris “could cause those pieces to reciprocate” by absorbing and then reflecting incoming Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and X-rays from a supposedly low-yield detonation.

Risks are compounded when countries facing America’s willingness to use nuclear weapons against them respond by developing their own 4th generation, low-yield nuclear bombs. “The concern is that countries are starting to see these weapons as useable, whereas during the Cold War they were seen as a deterrent,” warns Ian Anthony, a nuclear expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. [AP June 11/07]

Recognizing that “low-yield nuclear weapons blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional war,” a 1994 law banned research and development on nuclear weapons of less than 5-kilotons in the United States.

But Bush’s 2001 Defense Authorization Bill passed by a Republican Congress overturned these earlier restrictions. Just as “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” were rushed to the Pacific Theater in time to be tested on the starving Japanese citizenry before the emperor’s surrender pleas leaked to the press, the nuclear version of the bunker-busting GBU-28 was rushed to Afghanistan to conduct remote field tests before the Taliban surrendered.

POINT TOWARD ENEMY
The nuclear version of the GBU-28 bunker buster is the B61-11. When American forces targeted Tora Bora in 2001, there were 150 B61-11s in the U.S. arsenal. Featuring nuclear warheads that could be dialed from 0.3 to 340 kilotons – equivalent of 300 to 340,000 tons of radioactive TNT – these new Earth Penetrating Weapons were, according to atomic scientists, capable of “destroying the deepest and most hardened of underground bunkers, which the conventional warheads are not capable of doing.” [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists May/June 1997; Wired Oct 8/01]

“When a bunker buster burrows in, the blast is directed downward,” Hank explained. “It’s a lens and it’s focused straight down instead of outward.”

Designed to penetrate deep into the earth before detonating, the shaped warhead directs a blast hotter than a thousand suns in a shock-coupled seismic shockwave that shakes several hundred meters of bedrock. “Even a short penetration distance accomplishes this goal of ‘coupling’ the energy of the explosion to the ground,” notes the Union of Concerned Scientists. ”Penetration of a few meters increases the underground destructive effects by more than a factor of twenty.” [Defense News Mar 2/97; [ucsusa.org May/05]

Stripping away the numbers, Hank summarized the effects of dropping an earth-penetrating nuclear bomb with typical GI directness: “Do an overpressure wave in a cave, everything in there is squished.”

With the resulting hard radiation supposedly sequestered underground, the 1,200-pound B61 was enthusiastically hailed by Bush and his backers as a “relatively safe” atomic bomb that would not kill too many innocent bystanders. [Philadelphia Inquirer Oct 16/00]

Or freak out the world.

POINT TOWARD ENEMY
The nuclear version of the GBU-28 bunker buster is the B61-11. When American forces targeted Tora Bora in 2001, there were 150 B61-11s in the U.S. arsenal. Featuring nuclear warheads that could be dialed from 0.3 to 340 kilotons – equivalent of 300 to 340,000 tons of radioactive TNT – these new Earth Penetrating Weapons were, according to atomic scientists, capable of “destroying the deepest and most hardened of underground bunkers, which the conventional warheads are not capable of doing.” [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists May/June 1997; Wired Oct 8/01]

“When a bunker buster burrows in, the blast is directed downward,” Hank explained. “It’s a lens and it’s focused straight down instead of outward.”

Designed to penetrate deep into the earth before detonating, the shaped warhead directs a blast hotter than a thousand suns in a shock-coupled seismic shockwave that shakes several hundred meters of bedrock. “Even a short penetration distance accomplishes this goal of ‘coupling’ the energy of the explosion to the ground,” notes the Union of Concerned Scientists. ”Penetration of a few meters increases the underground destructive effects by more than a factor of twenty.” [Defense News Mar 2/97; [ucsusa.org May/05]

Stripping away the numbers, Hank summarized the effects of dropping an earth-penetrating nuclear bomb with typical GI directness: “Do an overpressure wave in a cave, everything in there is squished.”

With the resulting hard radiation supposedly sequestered underground, the 1,200-pound B61 was enthusiastically hailed by Bush and his backers as a “relatively safe” atomic bomb that would not kill too many innocent bystanders. [Philadelphia Inquirer Oct 16/00]

Or freak out the world.


PINGING
Nuclear explosions are also handy for locating buried bunkers. Ground Penetrating Radar can “see” through only about 15 feet of sand. But in a process called “echo-ranging”, oil prospectors hoping to detect underground deposits at depths greater than 300-feet routinely bounce shockwaves from small explosions to reveal underground objects and cavities. Recorded by sensors fitted with precise Global Positioning Satellite locators, reverberating echoes can be computer-plotted to create precise, three-dimensional maps of deeply buried features, similar to a submarine “pinging” a target. [USAF Air War College May 2000]

Except in this case, each “ping” is a nuclear detonation.

“You get a 3-D map of the area,” Hank confirmed. After a nuclear blast “rings the mountains like a bell, you know where the holes are; where the people are.”

FALLOUT
But the air force was worried. In June 2001, its study on using even the smallest nuclear bombs concluded: “The political repercussions of employing nuclear weapon may be greater than the United States would want to contemplate, and the environmental consequences of potentially spreading a warehouse full of potentially deadly biological or chemical agents would be unacceptable.” [USAF Air War College May 2000]

The political fallout could be as bad as the “large area of lethal fallout” scientists warned would follow ” the large amount of radioactive dirt thrown out in the explosion” from a weapon as “small” as 5-kilotons. [Philadelphia Inquirer Oct 16/00]

This dust would be deadly. In Yugoslavia, where 30,000 radioactive uranium projectiles fired by NATO warplanes had released thousands of tons of easily inhaled or ingested microscopic particles, medical doctors were already reporting “multiple unrelated cancers” in families with no previous history of cancer, who lived in highly contaminated areas.

A previously unknown phenomenon, these “very rare and unusual cancers and birth defects have also been reported to be increasing, not only in war torn countries, but also in neighbouring countries from transboundary contamination,” the European Parliament found. [ Global Research July 8/04; American Free Press Aug 27/04; European Parliament Verbatim Report of Proceedings Apr 9/02; Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landwirtschaft Nov 8/05]

The tonnages of radioactive Uranium-238 and toxic heavy metals detonated in hundreds of cruise missiles fired into neighborhoods in Afghanistan and Iraq was never tabulated. But after conducting extensive research on DU weapons, former Naval officer Daniel Fahey declared, “You’re talking about something that should be stored as a radioactive waste, and [instead they're] spreading it around other countries. [Mother Jones June 23/99]

Just as veterans of Desert Storm came to call their mysterious maladies “Gulf War Syndrome,” soldiers posted to Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s began referring to the “Balkans Syndrome.” By January 2001, more than a quarter of the more than 1,400 Greek troops stationed in Kosovo were demanding to depart due to the increased risk of cancer.

United States law and U.S. Army Regulations AR 700-48 and TB 9-1300-278 require the army to “Clean and Treat” all persons affected and all areas contaminated by the radioactive uranium munitions. But Lt. Col. Mike Milord confirmed that the Pentagon had zero plans to clean up radioactive contamination in Kosovo – or anywhere else . [Vanity Fair Nov/04; Daily Telegraph Jan 15/01]

The ability of Depleted Uranium missiles and shells to burn through the densest concrete and armor made these weapons too useful to give up. DU attacks could also be used to mask the cancers and leukemia incurred downwind of a low-yield nuclear detonation.

If the “Depleted Uranium explanation” somehow failed in the Tora Bora region, Hank told me, “we could blame radiation on the terrorists.”

Why not? The United States of America had already dropped a nuclear bomb on Iraq.

Photo Captions/Credits

Part 1
1. B2 drops B61-11 nuclear bomb casing wired.com
2. Daisy Cutter nd.edu

U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS PART II

Part II: Sleight Of Nuke

willthomasonline.net exclusive

Founded by Caliph Omar in 636 AD, the ancient city of Basra stands astride the main road into Iran. In early 1991, the fabled home of Sinbad the Sailor was targeted by American commanders keen to stop a stream of WMD slipping over that border into Iran.

Armed with chemical agents delivered by Hussein Kemal Hassan, a dissident Shiite commander in Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led army, as well as the computer software and “yellow cake” needed to enhance its nuclear weapons program, Iran could ruin the Pentagon’s plans for a mechanized blitzkrieg if Teheran decided to intervene. [answers.com ; Bringing The War Home by William Thomas ]

As Saddam’s trusted military-industrial chief, Kamal had no trouble ordering a convoy of six military transport trucks loaded with “yellow cake” at the heavily guarded al-Jesira factory near Mosul. Mined nearby, yellow cake is used in the difficult technical task of turning low-grade uranium into highly enriched, weapons-grade material.

Also included in this first clandestine WMD transfer to Iran were an advanced Hewlett Packard computer and a Linatron X-ray machines used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

Traveling blacked out, the nighttime convoy comprising two red-and-white Scania transport vans, two orange-and-red Scanias, an orange 1975 MAC truck and a brown-and- white Volvo truck wended south to a second loading dock in Baghdad before proceeding to the Iranian border, where civilian Iranian drivers and trucks were waiting.

DRIVE TIME
According to a U.S. intelligence report declassified in May 1995, the Iranians drove their cargo to the town of Hamadan, where Revolutionary Guards took over the convoy. Following the road between the towns of Shariyar and Robate Karim, the Guards delivered their special freight to the Shahid Mostafa Khomeini Revolutionary Corps Barracks at Pasdaran, located roughly 30 kilometers southwest of Teheran. Used by the Guards as a military training facility, the barracks included storage rooms and warehouses.

The yellow cake was sent on to the Fasa/Rudan Research Center to manufacture enriched uranium fuel rods for civilian reactors.

Or nuclear bombs.

A follow-up convoy consisting of two Volvos, two Scanias and a Mac truck also transferred chemical-bioweapons materials into Iran. [SUBJ: “TRANSFER OF NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL, AND CHEMICAL (NBC) MATERIEL DURING DESERT STORM” U.S. Defense Department Report: IIR 2 201 0744 91/Filename:22010744.91rMessage SERIAL: (U) IIR 2 201 0744 91]

Alarmed by IIR 2 201 0744 91 and similar intelligence reports, U.S. military commanders placed high priority on interdicting this clandestine WMD supply route, while serving notice on the mullahs in Teheran not to interfere with the coming U.S. attacks on their Shiite brethren in Iraq.

Would fuel-air bombs achieve both mission objectives? As a bonus, the giant BLU-82s could be used to clear Iraqi minefields and intimidate terrified barefoot conscripts into surrendering. When General Schwarzkopf suggested using BLUs, Colonel George Gray, Commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing enthused, “Everybody within three miles of the drop will be bleeding from every orifice of his body.”

General Calvin Waller reportedly ad-libbed with a big grin, “Oh God, how many do we have?”

At least 11 BLU-82s would be dropped on Iraqi positions. [psywarrior.com]

KLICK 5
Hank was with the American invasion force heading into Kuwait. “Our guys got told left and right that if things got a little cranky and stupid, we could end up in a short shooting war – but we had a bigger bullet. We had stuff that could come off the navy ships or could be dropped,” he said.

That “stuff” he later learned, included a “Klick 5” – a 5-kiloton nuclear bomb.

Interdicting WMD shipments and intimidating Teheran with a nuclear attack on the main road passing from Basra into Iran seemed like a perfect field test for America’s new generation of nuclear weapons. The Electromagnetic Pulse resulting from an underground nuclear blast would also fry the local electrical grid, creating a “blind zone” in Iraq’s key southern defenses.

As Hank explained the Pentagon’s strategy: “You have to do it where you can get away with it. It has to be something out in the hinterlands, and still be worth being discovered [by Teheran]. Baghdad – nooo. Salman Pak producing and storing biological stuff – nooo. Basra, which was the direct [WMD] pipeline between Iran and Iraq – yeah!

“This was a really good spot to make a point to everybody, far enough from Saddam that he would not respond with NBC,” Hank continued, referring to known stocks of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons or materials the dictator had received from the United States.

The message to Teheran would be equally clear: “If we see a human-wave, or even a Ryder truck coming our way, this is what you’re going to get,” Hank noted. “Carry on cranky, and we’re going to give you a really bad day.”

Still, it was risky. If Saddam learned that a nuclear attack had taken place, he might respond by blowing up the key Darbandikhan dam located near the ill-fated town of Halabja. If he did, Israel would go thirsty. And U.S. forces would need rubber rafts if they chose to occupy Baghdad.

Who gave the order to go nuclear?

Under the Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1995, using nuclear weapons preemptively against weapons of mass destruction or “to demonstrate U.S. intent and capability to use nuclear weapons to deter adversary use of WMD” must first be authorized by the National Command Authority. The NCA is comprised of two individuals: the Secretary of Defense and the President.

Rumsfeld, Cheney and other war planners “were taking a heckuva chance,” Hank charged. If those truckloads of yellow cake were “excited” by a nearby nuclear detonation – or if a rumored “way station” laboratory really was in the Basra area – the resulting blast could be amplified beyond “low-yield”.

“Can you say cook-off?” Hank asked.

As a preliminary to the first nuclear attack since the incineration of Nagasaki, at least one 15,000 pound fuel-air bomb was dropped in the Basra district on February 7, 1991. The resulting fireball covered two square miles. Outside the blast zone, oxygen consumed by what was essentially a gigantic gas explosion collapsed the lungs of all living creatures.
One website warned: “Usage of the BLU-82 is the precursor to the next weapon that may be used… the bunker-busting nuclear weapons.” [casi.org.uk]

Around this time, a British Special Air Service (SAS) team on a secret reconnaissance mission sighted a signature mushroom cloud from 110 miles away. The commandos radioed back to headquarters, “Sir, the blokes have just nuked Kuwait.” [indymedia.nl; psywarrior.com]

unker-busting nuclear weapons.” [casi.org.uk]

Around this time, a British Special Air Service (SAS) team on a secret reconnaissance mission sighted a signature mushroom cloud from 110 miles away. The commandos radioed back to headquarters, “Sir, the blokes have just nuked Kuwait.” [indymedia.nl; psywarrior.com]

GOING NUCLEAR
In fact, the blokes had just nuked Iraq. According to U.S. military sources, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon against another country since 1945 took place approximately 11 miles east of Basra, sometime between February 2 and February 5, 1991.

By then, Iraq’s former capitol had been declared a “free fire zone” – open to carpet-bombing by high-flying formations of eight-engine B-52s. “Basra is a military town in the true sense,” military spokesman General Richard Neal told the press. “The infrastructure, military infrastructure, is closely interwoven within the city of Basra itself.”

Though the soon-to-be fired General Neal claimed there were no civilians left in Basra, the city was actually sheltering some 800,000 terrified residents. In direct violation of Article 51 of the Geneva Protocols, which prohibits area bombing, the B-52s commenced saturation grid-bombing of the city. Mixing fuel-air bombs with shrapnel-spraying cluster bombs, the bombers leveled entire city blocks, the Los Angeles Times reported, leaving “bomb craters the size of football fields, and an untold number of casualties.” [Washington Post Feb 2/91; Los Angeles Times Feb 5/91]

With the city of Basra resounding to gigantic explosions, and engulfed in “a hellish nighttime of fires and smoke so dense that witnesses say the sun hasn’t been clearly visible for several days at a time,” a 5-kiloton GB-400 nuclear bomb exploding 11 miles away under the desert attracted no notice. [deoxy.org; Los Angeles Times Feb 5/91]

According to Hank’s GI informants, about “400 to 500 meters” of terrain were “cleaned out” of any bystanders and vehicles. The seismic disturbance radiating out a half mile to a mile from ground zero was “pretty devastating,” Hank learned. Besides flipping vehicles over, causing alarms to go off, and knocking people off their feet at that distance, the earth-shaking blast detonated every mine in the area.

Regarding Washington’s intent to halt the WMD transfers and deter Iran – “It made their point,” he says.


FALLOUT
At the time of the subsurface detonation in hard-packed sand, Iraq’s sharkay daytime wind was blowing from northwest to southeast, away from Basra toward Iran. But the shamal shifts 180-degrees during the night, “so everybody gets a taste,” as Hank put it. “We had FOX [NBC 'sniffer'] vehicles sitting on the Kuwaiti side of the border to make sure the thing went the way it was supposed to.” [“Israeli Nuclear Strike On Iran Turned Back By USAF by William Thomas willthomas.net Jan 22/07]

The immediate “spike” in airborne radiation would drop quickly, Hank stated. A Desert Storm scheduled to assault Kuwait on February 25, should have left coalition forces on the other side of the border in the clear.

But the Union of Concerned Scientists is less certain subsurface low-yield detonations can be contained. The nuclear experts point to atomic detonations at the Nevada Test Site showing that “the minimum burial depth to ensure containment… is roughly 100-meters for a one-kiloton explosion.” [ucsusa.org May/05]

Even in sand, bunker busters cannot penetrate anywhere near this depth. As Harper’s Phelan discovered, “Even a 1-kiloton bunker buster – a relative firecracker detonated at 50-feet underground – could eject about 1,000,000 cubic meters of radioactive soil. [Harper's Dec 1/04]

The bomb detonated near Basra was five-times more powerful.

GETTING DEAD
Given time, the resulting sandy fallout will “spread out and cover everybody with a low dose – instead of a few somebodies with a high dose,” Hank said.

Just like DU.

There is nothing “depleted” about a speck of anything that can kill any organism that ingests or inhales it over the next 4.5 billion years. [Daily Star (Beirut) Sept 14/04; Tribune Media Services June 29/06]

“Basically, it’s like smoking crack,” says former Lawrence Livermore nuclear lab scientist, Leuren Moret regarding uranium dust. “Only you’re inhaling radioactive crack – and it won’t get you high. It will get you dead. It goes right in your nose. It crosses the olfactory bulb into your brain. It’s a systemic poison. It goes everywhere.”

Borne around the globe on high-level winds, radioactive nanoparticles 100-times smaller than a white blood cell go “straight into the blood stream,” Moret continues. “It’s carried all throughout the body into the bones, the bone marrow, the brain. It goes into the fetus. [It] gets picked up in the lipids and probably the cholesterol and go right through the cell membranes of the cell. They screw up the cell processes. They screw up the signaling between the cells because the cells all talk to each other and coordinate what they’re doing. It messes up brain function.” [Project Censored Feb 21/05;
iconoclast-texas.com May 9/05]

And because radioactive particles are not soluble, they cannot be excreted from the body.

Alpha particles tend to bind with phosphate in human bones and DNA. Just one gram of U-238 lodged in the body from a Depleted Uranium round – or a nuclear detonation – emits 12,000 alpha particles per second. [American Free Press Aug 27/04]

According to Eric Wright, Professor of Experimental Hematology at Dundee University, even a cell that seems unharmed by radiation can produce cells with diverse mutations several cell generations later to cause cancer and birth defects. Pentagon studies prior to Desert Storm found that aerosol uranium exposure could lead to cancers of the lung and bone, kidney damage, non-malignant lung disease, neurocognitive disorders, chromosomal damage and birth defects. [San Francisco Chronicle Oct 10/02]

Another Pentagon-funded study concluded: “Fetal exposure to uranium during critical prenatal development may adversely impact the future behavioral and neurological development of offspring.” [Vanity Fair Nov/04]

BAD
Another problem, Hank reiterated: “You can get secondary cook-off. You can get stuff on the ground to react in ways it never would.” Around Basra, this radioactive blow-back from the February 1991 nuclear detonation included Depleted Uranium dust from previous American attacks, as well as radon bubbling up from underground pools of petroleum back-pressured toward the surface by the shutdown of one of Iraq’s three biggest oilfields.

“If your immune system was brought down by DU, and shutting down the oil [production] made an oil pool under the city and started gassing them with radon – bad!” Hank exclaimed. “The radiation would make them more susceptible to DU, and the DU would make them more susceptible to the radon.”

Add the electromagnetic radiation from high-powered American radios, radars and jammers to all the radioactive sand later churned by military trucks and tracked vehicles, Hank continued. “The U.S. gave the Iraqi people a one-two-three punch… The word, ‘catastrophic’ does not even come close.”

But this was only the beginning of an undeclared nuclear disaster that will poison people and wildlife in southern Iraq until the Earth ends. As Hank went on to point out, a bunker buster that explodes anywhere from 20 feet to 160 feet underground “is more than enough to contaminate every water source in the region. The aquifer would be contaminated. And that wouldn’t go away in a week.”

In fact, U.S. Army training manuals require anyone coming within 25 yards of DU-contaminated homes, equipment or terrain to wear respiratory and skin protection. Otherwise, the manuals warn, “contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption.” [San Francisco Chronicle Oct 10/02]

“Any significant [radioactive] contamination is likely to migrate by air and water to wider and more populated areas,” confirmed a European Union report. [European Parliament Verbatim Report of Proceedings Apr 9/02]

DIRTY WAR
Or Geiger counters. In the heart of Baghdad, Christian Science Monitor reporter Scott Peterson waved a radiation-detecting wand over a small pile of jet-black dirt near a group of playing children – only to jump back in alarm when the instrument registered 1,900 times the normal background radiation. [Christian Science Monitor May 15/03; The Daily Star (Beirut) Sept 14/04; WSWS May 10/05]

More than 200 uranium-tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from U.S. ships and submarines during the first bombardment on Iraq. Hundreds more would follow. In addition, more than 3,000 bombs were dropped on metropolitan Baghdad – and the homes of six million people.

Nearly a quarter-million bombs were dropped by allied forces during Desert Storm. With DU dust blowing everywhere, and and U.S. airstrikes continuing at least weekly for another 16 years, the legacy of permanent low-level radioactivity spread throughout Iraq can only be called genocide. [deoxy.org]

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was put in charge of Nuclear Medicine Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. After finding unusually high radiation levels in American veterans, as well as birth defects in the offspring of their spouses, he had became convinced that not only that was DU slowly killing them, but also that it was causing changes in the human gene pool that would ravage future generations in the USA and Iraq. Asked to stop his research by the U.S. government, he refused.

In 2006, soil samples in Iraq showed radiation levels 17-times higher than any readings that might be remotely acceptable – threatening, in , Dr. Durakovic’s words, environmental “catastrophe.” This DU doctor believes that radioactive dust contamination from the 1991 war may have exposed the entire Gulf population. [Depleted Uranium Radioactive Contamination In Iraq Aug/06]

WHAT HAPPENED IN BASRA?
The estimated 300-800 tons of nuclear waste dumped on the people and ecologies of Iraq during Desert Storm were concentrated in the Baghdad region. Far to the south, Iraq’s former capitol “is some 200 kilometres away from sites where large numbers of DU shells were fired,” reported David Rose. Yet, nearly every family tested in Basra experienced extreme symptoms from low level radiation exposure. [Tribune Media Services June 29/06; byronchild.com; Vanity Fair Nov/04]

Six years after the 1991 Gulf War, a cancer study found Iraqi soldiers who fought in the Basra area to be stricken with “a statistically significant increase in the rate at which they were stricken with lymphomas, leukaemia, and lung, brain, gastrointestinal, bone and liver cancers, as compared to personnel who had not fought in the south.” [WSWS May 10/05]

“Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before,” testified Dr. Jawad Al-Ali before the 2003-2004 Citizen’s Tribunal in Japan. “The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with two cancers-one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney-he had three different cancer types.

“The second is the clustering of cancer in families,” the British-educated MD continued. “We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr. Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr. Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer.” [Tribune Media Services June 29/06; WSWS May 10/05]

While interviewing Dr. Jawad al-Ali, Director of the Talimi Oncology Center at Basra’s biggest hospital, concerning his research into the effects of radiation and cancer cases “in Iraq’s radioactive governorate of Basra,” Ewa Jasiewicz learned that hospital staff were also dying from radiation poisoning at rates rivaling emergency responders at Chernobyl. “Thirteen doctors and nurses at Talimi have contracted cancer since 1990 – breast, testicular and lymphoma,” this reporter wrote.

With cancer rates “skyrocketing” from a 300% increase in airborne radiation above background levels, Dr. Jawad added that water and food remain the primary contaminated sources. Another big problem is the “re-suspension” of radioactive particles through strong winds, digging, or vehicles driving over radioactive sands.

Iraq‘s second largest city is home to as many as three million people.

“The rate of cancer here has multiplied 15-times since the last Gulf war,” Dr. Jawad stated.

“For Dr. Jawad, the constant cancer cases (many of which go unreported, he stresses) are a spiraling emergency,” Ewa Jasiewicz noted. [“Uranium in Your Koolaid” Occupation Watch Jan 26/04]

Based on their experience in southern Iraq hospitals, MDs Ahmad, Abdul-Hafidh and al-Khazraji found that anyone exposed to nuclear contamination there can expect… “A considerable increase in infectious diseases caused by most severe immunodeficiencies in a great part of the population; frequent occurrence of massive herpes and zoster afflictions in adults and children; AIDS-like syndrome; a hitherto unknown syndrome caused by renal and hepatic dysfunctions; leukemia, elaptic anemia and malignant neoplasms; congenital deformities caused by genetic defects – also to be found in animals, Down’s syndrome, skeletal and chromosomal abnormalities, hair loss, rare skin diseases, severe vertigo accompanied by nausea and loss of balance, distorted vision and loss of sight, severe migraine, sterility among both sexes, and an increase in the incidence of miscarriages and of still, premature and difficult births.” [Further Evidence on Relation between Depleted Uranium, Incidence of Malignancies among Children in Basra, Southern Iraq Dr. Alim Yacoup; Dr. Imad al-Sa' doun; Dr. Genan G. Hassan College of Medicine, Basra University]

Does anyone in America understand the word, karma?

With more than half of all cancers in Iraq occurring among children under the age of five, Dr. Jawad al-Ali warned that children are especially susceptible to permanent radioactive fallout. “Children in particular are susceptible to Depleted Uranium poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most. However, cancer of the lymph system, which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common,” he said. [Lifeboatnews.com May 27/03; Tribune Media Services June 29/06; americanchronicle.com]

Doctors Ahmad Hardan, Abdul-Hafidh and al-Khazraji were also seeing “escalating numbers” of children wasting away from leukemia, lymphomas and Hodgkin’s disease. Child leukemia in southern Iraq has leaped 400% since 1990. [Junge Welt Oct 24/00; Further Evidence on Relation between Depleted Uranium, Incidence of Malignancies among Children in Basra]

When the Japanese began studying radiation effects in the southern Iraq during the summer of 2003, their Geiger counter went “off the scale on many occasions. During their vista local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day.”
[envirosagainstwar.org; americanchronicle.com Apr 17/06; WSWS May 10/05]

Six-hundred sick children every day?

Breast cancer in young women, age 30 and under is also “many times higher”, and ovarian cancer in women has increased by 1,600%. [Southern Iraq College of Medicine, Basra University]

“After the Gulf War, they had maybe one baby a week born with birth defects in the hospitals in Basra. Now they are having 10-12 a day,” laments Leuren Moret. “The levels of uranium are increasing in the population every year. Every day, people are eating and drinking while the whole environment is contaminated. There are more babies born with birth defects, and the birth defects are getting more and more severe.”

In Afghanistan and Iraq, women who should be overjoyed by their pregnancies call their condition “jelly belly”. So many babies are being born with stubby limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be-or with a single Cyclopean eye, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads-new mothers no longer ask, “Is it a girl or a boy?”

Instead, they anxiously inquire, “Is it normal, doctor?”

In March 2004 the Tokyo Citizen’s Tribunal found George Bush and his administration “guilty of war crimes” for using illegal weapons against the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. [Depleted Uranium Radioactive Contamination In Iraq: An Overview by Dr. Souad al-Azzawi Aug/06 Hiroshima]

SOMETHING ELSE
Basra’s beleaguered doctors were not alone in realizing they faced something extreme. Before her death from sudden-onset cancer, beloved Iraqi artist and Baghdad Diaries author, Nuha al-Radi wrote, “The carnage takes place in apocalyptic proportions… Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia… “ [envirosagainstwar.org]

Photo Captions/Credits

Part 2
1. B61-11 nuclear bomb telegraph.co.uk
2. Bush Sr. todaysgolfer.co.uk
3. MOAB mushroom cloud usatoday.com
4. Basra survivors flee American bombing ccmep.org
5. Baghdad hit by huge bombs abc.net.au
6. al-Rasheed military facility hit in southeast Baghdad AFP
7. B52D bomber defensetech.org
8. Basra before it was blown up fromthewilderness.com

U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS PART III

Part III Tora Bora

U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS DROPPED
ON AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ

PART III

NUKING TORA BORA

willthomasonline.net exclusive

On Tuesday evening, November 12, 2001, Babrak Khan, a Jalalabad resident and former guard at a nearby base for Islamic militants, saw the distinctly bearded and emaciated Osama bin Laden standing in front of a guesthouse. The next day, Osama and his al-Qaeda and Taliban followers headed into the nearby Tora Bora mastiffs.

American bombing of the region intensified. The 11th day of Ramadan – November 26, 2001 – saw Osama seated deep inside a cave complex with a glass of hot green tea in hand. Mohammed Akram, who occasionally cooked for bin Laden, was fixing dinner in another cave when a huge bomb exploded, blowing him 30-feet backwards. Two of his colleagues were killed, and Mohammed, along with another Saudi and a Kurdish fighter, decided not to hang around.

Osama bin Laden fled Tora Bora around December 1, heading for Pakistan’s Parachinar region. Eastern Afghanistan’s intelligence chief, Pir Baksh Bardiwal was astounded when the Pentagon failed to use convenient helicopter Landing Zones to insert U.S. forces to block the most obvious exit routes.

But the Americans did not know the ailing terror financier had left Tora Bora. When Osama bin Laden phoned back to the enclave on December 10, urging his followers to keep fighting, U.S. intelligence officers picked up his transmission and conclued that Osama bin Laden was still in his caves. [Christian Science Monitor Mar 4/02]

Which might also explain why a USAF C-130 had dropped the heaviest bomb in their conventional inventory – a 15,000 pound “Daisy-Cutter” – against Tora Bora the previous day. [London Times Dec 10/01]

THERMOBARBARIANS
Rushed into production after 9/11, at least eight BLU-118Bs were quickly deployed into the Afghan theater. The Global Security website confirms the first field-test of this new weapon: “On or about March 3, 2002 a single 2,000-pound thermobaric bomb was used for the first time in combat against cave complexes in which al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters had taken refuge in the Gardez region of Afghanistan.” [globalsecurity.org]

Guided by U.S. Special Forces “lasing” cave complexes with invisible laser pointers, the Navy’s new polymer-bonded “thermobaric” bomb would be more accurately termed a “thermobarbaric” terror weapon.

“It works as a combination of a shock wave and a fuel explosion,” explained CENTCOM Commander Matthew Klee. “The first explosion spreads flammable aerosols through the underground complex. Then, the second ignites the fuel” – crushing the internal organs of everyone caught in the blast zone.

“Instead of boom, this bomb goes BOOOOOOOM!” thundered Air Force spokesman Captain Joe Della Vedova. “This thing kills the earthworms.” [Las Vegas Review Jan 21/02]

Over the March 1, 2002 weekend, the Pentagon tested two more “experimental” BLU-118B MOABs during Operation Anaconda. Was this “Mother Of All Bombs” also the Mother Of All Deceptions?

“This sort of cover-story makes it easy for, say, reporters, to believe they have witnessed a fuel-air explosion, when in fact it was a very small, low-yield, nuclear weapon,” George Paxinos pointed out at the Information Clearing House. Why else would “the USA suddenly publicly announce in 2001 and 2002 its intention to use this sort of weapon against the Taliban hiding out in caves, when in war, you do not usually go out and broadcast your intentions… to your enemy?”

And why, Paxinos pondered, would this “intense propaganda effort” to alert Americans and the world to Washington’s new Massive Ordnance Air Burst Weapon emphasize that the resulting blast “produces a fireball and a mushroom-cloud almost indistinguishable from that of a small tactical nuclear weapon?”

And why did CNN, among other networks, parrot Washington’s nonsensical assertions that an air-burst bomb originally designed “to be used against large formations of troops and equipment” would now be deployed against “deeply buried targets”? The network helpfully hinted, “Officials suggest perhaps the Iraqis might even mistake a MOAB blast for a nuclear detonation.” [CNN Mar 11/03]

“This is a cover-story,” Paxinos asserted. We were “being prepared for the pre-emptive use of tactical nuclear weapons.”

DU expert Tedd Weyman points to George Bush’s revised Nuclear Posture Review. Issued in March 2002, the new NPR pledged to test Nuclear Penetrator Missiles. “That’s my hunch,” Weyman believes. “We tested the prototypes there.”

Paxinos and Weyman were right.

According to Hank, under the cover of massive DU-tipped bombs that raised dirty mushroom clouds in thunderous explosions that rained radioactive dust over Jalalabad and nearby villages, the first nuclear bombs dropped since Basra in 1991 were detonated by American forces in Afghanistan beginning in March 2002. Before their field tests were concluded, United States forces would explode four 5-kiloton GBU-400 nuclear bombs in Tora Bora and other mountainous regions of Afghanistan.

In order to obtain a seismographic “snapshot” of a mountain’s internal structure, at least one of these four nuclear detonations took place alongside a craggy karst in the open air.

Hank’s buddies, who were on the scene, told him what happened far from scrutinizing media eyes in the remote mountains of northern Afghanistan. As he paraphrased their reports: “Back our guys away from the general area – ‘Don’t look that way for two or three seconds’ – and oops! we blew that up.”

With shockwaves rippling through the mountains, and fallout spreading through mountain passes, Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters knew that something momentous had occurred. But killing a few of the enemy in collapsing rock and a nuclear fireball actually proved counterproductive, Hank related. “It drove others deeper into less accessible areas. It backfired.”

JUMPING NEEDLES
Wouldn’t seismographic needles jump on distant dials, I asked Hank?

They did, he replied. But pinning down the source of such blasts in nearly impossible.

“You may hear something, but you would not be able to designate it because there was too much else going on. There’s no way you could call it,” Hank explained. A major conventional explosion, such as a huge C-130 or C5 Galaxy transport plane auguring in, “would give you the same seismographical signature.”

Keith Nakanishi and other seismologists at the Lawrence Livermore nuclear bomb labs agree that detecting, locating, and identifying a clandestine nuclear explosion is particularly challenging in the Middle East, where unusual tremors picked up by a few, widely scattered seismic monitoring stations would be drowned out by a large number of earthquakes and mining and oil drilling explosions. Add to this cacophony, waves of cruise missile strikes and massive bombs dropped by American warplanes.

Nevertheless, the Livermore seismologists state that among “thousands of seismic signals annually, some [are] quite similar to the signals that would be generated by a small underground nuclear blast.”

If major megaton-size nuclear weapons tests cause earthquakes, could a “baby nuke” do the same. The U.S. Geological Survey admits that even “deep mining can cause small to moderate quakes, and nuclear testing has caused small earthquakes in the immediate area surrounding the test site.” [earthquake.usgs.gov]

The Livermore scientists also note that a conventional 1,000 pound explosion set off by Israel on the shores of the Dead Sea on November 8, 1999 resulted in a quake of magnitude of 2.6 on the Richter scale. A 2,000-kilogram explosive detonated two days later, caused a 3.5 quake. [llnl.gov]

Each of the four nuclear weapons dropped on Afghanistan set off a bedrock-amplified explosive force of 10,000 tons.

QUAKES
The blasts in Tora Bora were immediately followed by a severe earthquake that “struck northern Afghanistan and was felt as far away as India,” the People’s Weekly World reported. Even in this earthquake-prone region, the long-lasting and powerful tremors were unprecedented, killing 150 people killed and destroying 500 houses.

“It is not unlikely that the use of powerful bombs led to the quake,” one geophysicist said.

Moscow thought so, too. An ITAR-TASS report speculated that the 7.2 Richter-scale ‘quake that struck northern Afghanistan “may have been caused by the powerful fuel-air and bunker-penetrating bombs used in earlier U.S. air strikes in that same region.” [whatmatters.nu]

Reviewing the stresses “induced in the earth’s crust” by powerful explosions, Kamran Ahmed reported from Karachi, “The severe earthquakes that struck Afghanistan in March can be attributed to these bombings.”

But were the quake-triggering blasts nuclear?

Gary Whiteford, Professor of Geography at the University of New Brunswick in Canada is renowned for his exhaustive research correlating nuclear tests and earthquakes. Looking at “killer earthquakes” that kill at least 1,000 people, Dr. Whiteford found that 63% of those earthquakes occurred within one to three days after a nuclear blast test. [dawn.com]

In 50 years before atomic testing began, 68 earthquakes of more than Richter 5.8 occurred every year. When hundreds of atomic bombs started going off in what can only be described as a large-scale nuclear war against the Earth, the quake rate rose “suddenly and dramatically” – nearly doubling to an average 127 major quakes per year.

TheU.S. military attributes the telltale increase to “coincidence.” But Whiteford comments, “The geographical patterns in the data, with a clustering of earthquakes in specific regions matched to specific test dates and sites do not support the easy and comforting explanation of `pure coincidence.’ It is a dangerous coincidence.”

“Abnormal meteorological phenomena, earthquakes and fluctuations of the earth’s axis are related in a direct cause-and-effect to testing of nuclear devices,” concurs Shigeyoshi Matsumae, President of Tokai University, and Yoshio Kato, Head of the University’s Department of Aerospace Science.

As Matsumae and Kato point out: “On June 19, 1992, the United States conducted an underground nuclear bomb test in Nevada. Another test was conducted only four days afterwards. Three days later, a series of heavy earthquakes as high as 7.6 on the Richter scale rocked the Mojave desert 176 miles to the south. They were the biggest earthquakes to hit California this century. Only 22 hours later, an “unrelated” earthquake of 5.6 struck less than 20 miles from the Nevada test site itself. It was the biggest earthquake ever recorded near the test site and caused one-million dollars of damage to buildings in an area designated for permanent disposal of highly radioactive nuclear wastes only fifteen miles from the epicenter of the earthquake.” [ratical.org]

So far, more than one million people have died in earthquakes that could be related to nuclear tests. [ratical.org]

WATCH THE BIRDIES
Meanwhile, Taliban fighters pounded night and day north of Kabul were dying from no visible injuries – except the blood flowing out of their mouths from internal bleeding. Near the Rish-Khor military base in the Afghan northern capitol, birds sat on tree branches with blood running from their beaks. As one eyewitness later recounted, “‘We were amazed to see all these birds sitting quietly on branches. But when we shook the tree the birds fell down and we saw blood coming out of their mouths. Then we climbed the trees to see those that were still stuck on tree branches, all of them had bled from their mouths. Two of the birds appeared to be partly melted into the trees branches’.”

According to PhD Mohammed Daud Miraki, who collected many first-hand accounts on the after-effects of heavy U.S. bombing, “many dead Taliban soldiers had severe discoloration of the skin, orange, without being burned, while others had their rifles melted in their hands.”

A medical doctor named Wazir reported, “Most of the victims have had respiratory problems and internal bleeding for which there is no apparent cause.” [khalifa.com Oct 30/01]

Were these symptoms caused by the massive concussive blasts of fuel-air bombs?

Very likely. When American jets dropped bunker busters at daybreak on the mud homes of Karam, the village was completely destroyed in massive craters. Many residents were killed from what appeared to be internal concussive injuries.

But other victims of American bombing exhibited symptoms of radiation sickness. In describing “another bizarre, yet tragic scene,” Dr, Mohammed continued, “Many Taliban soldiers that survived the bombing in the north have died after returning to their native villages in the south and southeast of the country. They had no physical injury upon their death, however, died from internal bleeding and other bizarre symptoms including uncontrolled vomiting, diarrhea, and blood loss in urine and stool. Their families were shocked with disbelieves.” [Afghan DU & Recovery Fund]

Perplexed by such symptoms, and uniquely “hot” munitions debris, medical teams and technical experts thought they were looking at “enhanced” Non-Depleted Uranium from a new generation of radioactive cannon shells, bomb and missile casings.

In fact, they were very likely looking at severe contamination from actual nuclear weapons.

SOMETHING NEW THIS WAY COMES
By May 2002, many more critics of the indiscriminate bombardment of Afghan cities and villages suspected that new weapons were being tested. That month, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, founder and director of Canada’s Uranium Medical Research Center, sent a team in-country to interview and examine civilians in heavily bombed Nangarhar. This province, the BBC reported, had become “a strategic target zone for the deployment of a new generation of deep-penetrating ‘cave-busting’ and seismic shock warheads.”

The British broadcasters failed to mention that each of these new weapons was tipped with more than one ton of NDU.

Alerted to the “radioactive, toxic uranium alloys and hard-target uranium warheads used by the coalition forces,” the UMRC team started looking for radiation poisoning. What they found was, in their words, “astonishing” and “astounding”.

Identifying “several hundred people suffering from illnesses and conditions similar to those of Gulf veterans,” the team began administering tests. “Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium internal contamination,” UMRC reported. But the readings were off the scale of previous known DU exposures: “The results were astounding: the donors presented concentrations of toxic and radioactive uranium isotopes between 100 and 400 times greater than in the Gulf veterans tested in 1999.”

A control group three uncontaminated Afghans averaged 9.4 nanograms of uranium per litre of urine. The average for 17 randomly selected patients Jalalabad, Kabul, Tora Bora and Mazar-i-Sharif was 315.5 nanograms. A 12-year-old boy living near Kabul displayed 2,031 nanograms.

The maximum permissible level for members of the American public is 12 nanograms per litre.

A follow-up UMRC visit to Afghanistan in September 2002 bore out the earlier findings. But conditions were much worse, with “a potentially much broader area and larger population of contamination.”

Dr. Durakovic told the BBC he was “stunned” by the results. “I’m certainly not saying Afghanistan was a vast experiment with new uranium weapons. But use your common sense.”

NDU OR NBF? (NUCLEAR BOMB FALLOUT)
The consequences of ingesting radioactive particles were already reaching out to embrace the residents, troops and aid agency staffs in the world’s most impoverished nation – as well as their spouses and subsequent offspring at home.
The baffling problem was, reported Stephanie Hiller, that while hundreds of tested Afghan people presented symptoms resembling those of DU-exposed Gulf War veterans – none of the civilians tested at Nangarhar showed any trace of Depleted Uranium.

The editor of Awakened Woman visited some of the six sites examined by the UMRC team in and around Kabul, where U.S. bunker buster bombs were detonated. With bioassays identifying uranium internal contamination in the Spin Gar (Tora Bora) area, and Kabul up to 2,000% higher than an unexposed population, the UMRC reported: “The isotopic ratios of the uranium contaminant measured in Afghan civilians show that it is not Depleted Uranium (DU). The isotopes of uranium found in the Afghan civilians’ urine is Non-Depleted Uranium.”

Field surveyors found that the bulk of the radioactive contamination occurred in the Tora Bora, Bagram frontline, as well as frontlines north of Kabul, Shaikoot, Paktia, Paktika, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Kunduz – where massive bunker busters and fuel-air bombs were detonated, perhaps in part to mask striking health effects from four nuclear blasts.

Other medical survey teams also reported that in bombardments of the Tora Bora, Shaikoot and Bagram frontline, “large number of antiaircraft weapons and rifles had melted… Many Taliban soldiers were seen with blood coming out from their mouths, noses and ears.” Those who returned to their villages “started to vomit blood and had bloody stools. Subsequently, many have died from their conditions.”

After the bombardment in Khost, public health workers reported seeing skin lesions. In a manner resembling the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Afghan people who developed skin lesions died after their conditions deteriorated.

In Pachir Wa Agam district near Tora Bora, “women started to suffer from a deadly condition. Several months after the bombing, women of the area would become angry by petty things and that anger turns into rage, which subsequently causes the women to collapse and die. My team also reported that many children are born with no limbs, no eyes, or tumors protruding out from their mouths and their eyes,” its leader related.

“Subsequent to the contamination, newborn children have physical deformities, and those that do not have physical deformity are suffering from Mental Retardation. These cases are reported from Paktia, Nangarhar, Bagram, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz,” the UMRC stated.

A man named Assadullah told the team in February 2003 that his wife had given birth to child so badly deformed he hardly resembled an infant. “When I saw my little boy with those monstrous red tumors, I thought to myself, why is it difficult for Americans to understand that they are hated in our country?” Assadullah said. “If I do this to the child of an American family, that family has the right to pull my eyes out of my eye sockets. I like to tell the Americans that they love to live their lives of luxury at the expense of our extermination.” [European Parliament Verbatim Report of Proceedings Apr 9/02]

Zar Ghoon is the father of another victim of U.S. bombing attacks on Kunduz. In December 2002 he told the medical survey team, “My wife was pregnant and we were happily waiting for the moment to see our second child. When the baby was born, it was hardly a human… When my wife saw the baby, she went into shock and died after five hours.”

Speaking with a field volunteers near Tora Bora in April 2003, Sa’yed Gharib lost it. Screaming in grief and rage he shouted, “What else do the Americans want? They killed us, they turned our newborns into horrific deformations, and they turned our farmlands into graveyards and destroyed our homes. On top of all that their planes fly over and spray us with bullets.”

“Tell America, we are not fools. Your words and actions are those of evil. We do not have airplanes like you do, however, we have one thing that you do not have: principles and morals. We will never do anything remotely similar to American children what Americans have done to our children and families,” declared Nurullah Omar-Khail. [Afghan DU & Recovery Fund]

According to Mohammed Daud Miraki’s extensive public health survey, “Most of the people that developed various health problems have died; others suffer from conditions such as kidney disease/failure, confusion, and loss of immunity and painful joints.”

Dr. Durakovic told reporters, “If UMRC’s Nangarhar findings are corroborated in other communities across Afghanistan, the country faces a severe public health disaster… every subsequent generation is at risk.” [BBC May3/03]

By October 2002, Afghan doctors citing rapid deaths from internal ailments were accusing the coalition of using chemical and radioactive weapons. The symptoms they reported (hemorrhaging, pulmonary constriction and vomiting) could have resulted from radiation contamination. [LeMonde Diplomatique Mar/02]

But inhalation, ingestion or wound-contamination by Depleted Uranium particles does not lead to such acute radiation poisoning symptoms immediately after exposure. Nor would “surface water, rice fields and catch-basins adjacent to and surrounding the bombsites have high values of uranium, up to 27 Xs normal,” as the UMRC found.

Hank believes that Afghanistan’s water table contains much more radioacative contamination than can be ascribed to DU and NDU contamination. The effective genetic sterilization of that country’s southern region can also be traced to fallout washing down from the mountains where four American nuclear weapons were detonated. “Rain runs downhill,” he says.

ROUTINE USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
If not exactly “routine”, Hank says, the undisclosed use of five nuclear weapons against Iraq and Afghanistan has resulted in a dangerous shift in U.S. war fighting. As he put it, “Using tactical nukes is now an acceptable doctrine until otherwise notified.”

Iran and the rest of the world, beware. In calling America a “Nuclear Rogue,” the New York Times warned, “Nuclear weapons are not just another part of the military arsenal. They are different, and lowering the threshold for their use is reckless folly.” [New York Times Mar 11/02]

As Alok O’Brien concludes, “There is no longer time to pretend that everything will be alright, and that all thinking and feeling people need to unite in their hopes and dreams and reclaim the earth and their birthright before it is too late.”

With the countdown continuing on Iran – and any constraints against Washington’s use of nuclear weapons already removed by the detonation of five low-yield nuclear bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan – the time to act is now.

Photo Captions/Credits

Part 3
1. Tora Bora blast resembles tactical nuclear detonation                               cooperativeresearch.org
2. Tora Bora blast (insert) Dec 15/01                                                           photo by Kevin Frayer AP/CP
3. Bagram Airport blast Oct 30/01                                                               september11news.com
4. Geroge Bush must give nuclear strike orders                                            watch.windsofchange.net
5. radiation victim (Iraq) Mar 25/04                                                               mindfully.org
6. radiation victim (Iraq) Mar 25/04                                                               mindfully.org

Iraq: US dropped nuclear bomb near Basra in 1991, claims veteran

Iraq: US dropped nuclear bomb near Basra in 1991,

claims veteran

SEE: U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS

DROPPED ON AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ

PART I GOING NUCLEAR

Part II: Sleight Of Nuke

Part III Tora Bora

Rome, 8 Oct. (AKI) – An American veteran of the first Gulf War in Iraq claims that the United States dropped a five-kilotonne nuclear bomb in 1991 in a deserted area outside the southern city of Basra on the Iranian border.

The claim by US war veteran Jim Brown was made during an interview included in a 30-minute current affairs report to be broadcast by Italian state news channel RaiNews24 on Thursday.

Brown told the Italian news channel that the bombing took place on the last day of the war in Iraq on 27 February 1991.

RaiNews24 claims to have conducted its own inquiry and found that a seismic event took place on that day equal to a five-kilotonne blast.

The network cited the online archives of the International Seismological Center, a non-profit UK-based organisation, as confirmation of its research.

The Italian journalist in charge of the inquiry Maurizio Torrealta told Adnkronos International (AKI) that there is no definitive proof of the nuclear blast and that it should not be taken as a fact.

Instead he asked the international community to further investigate the claims by Brown.

“We are asking journalists and the international community for help, in order to clarify this,” said Torrealta.

However, in the documentary, which was shown to the media on Wednesday, Torrealta said that one of the possible reasons that the US may have dropped the bomb, was in retribution for the launch of Scud missiles on the US Dhahran military base in Saudi Arabia on 25 February.

Twenty-eight American soldiers died in the attack.

The US veteran, Jim Brown was not present during the alleged launch of the bomb and it is not clear how he obtained the information.

RaiNews24 said that 45-year-old Brown was originally a fourth-level engineer in the US Army and was demoted to third-level after health problems, following a vaccination against chemical weapons.

The injection deteriorated his health and he was eventually discharged from the army with honour.

He is now director of the GulfWatch I.N.S. organisation. Its website claims to have 350 supporters who are or were involved in coalition intelligence during the 1991 Gulf War.

“These people have agreed to work together to make sure that as much information about the war as possible is released about the activities prior to, during and after the war that have affected the health of potentially hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and their spouses and children,” said a statement on the website.

The documentary included an interview with an Iraqi doctor, Jawad al-Ali, who told RaiNews24 that before the beginning of the first Gulf War in 1989 there were 32 cases of tumours, while in 2002 the number had risen to 600 in the Basra area.

Al-Ali also told RaiNews24 that tumours that used to affect older citizens had started to impact younger children. He then showed alleged photos of the tumours in the documentary.

During the RaiNews24 report , Torrealta said that the US State Department had rejected Brown’s claims and said only ‘conventional’ weapons had been used during the first Gulf War.

TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW, TRANSLATED FROM ITALIAN

-It can occur?
il mio nome è Jim Brown, sono un veterano dell’esercito americano con dieci anni d’ esperienza. my name is Jim Brown, is a veteran of the American army with ten years’ experience.

-quando è stato in Iraq? -when he was in Iraq?
Sono stato mandato in Arabia Saudita in appoggio alle truppe che dovevano intervenire in Iraq, Ho iniziato la mia attività il 25 settembre e ho lasciato l’ Arabia Saudita il 16 di Febbraio. I was sent to Saudi Arabia in support of troops that had to intervene in Iraq, I started my business on September 25 and I left the ‘Saudi Arabia on 16 February. 1991. 1991.

-Cosa è avvenuto là che non è mai stato rivelato? -What happened there that has never been revealed?
I militari americani assieme ai loro alleati hanno sganciato una bomba nucleare di circa cinque Chilotoni di potenza, nell’area di Bassora in Iraq. The U.S. military along with their allies have released a nuclear bomb about five Chilotoni power in Basra in Iraq.

-Dove è stata usata ? -Where was used?
La bomba fu utilizzata tra la città di Basra ed il confine con l’ Iran. The bomb was used between the cities of Basra and the border with ‘Iran.

-Chi l’ha sganciata? -Who released?
E’ stata usata dai militari americani, l’arma utilizzata è una bomba nucleare da cinque Chilotoni viene anche chiamata bomba nucleare a potenza variabile. E ‘was used by American military, the weapon used was a nuclear bomb by five Chilotoni is also called a nuclear bomb power variable.

-Che tipo di arma era ? “That was kind of weapon?
L’ Arma è essenzialmente una bomba a penetrazione ad alta efficienza, quando viene sganciata penetra all’interno dell’obbiettivo, in questo caso è penetrata all’ interno del terreno ed è esplosa là dentro. L ‘weapon is essentially a bomb to penetrate the high-efficiency, when released gets inside the objective, in this case is penetrated’ s soil and exploded inside there. Viene anche utilizzata per rendere inaccessibili certe aree. It is also used to make certain areas inaccessible. Significa in pratica che l’ intera area viene irradiata di radiazioni. It means in practice that ‘s entire area is radiated radiation. E’ anche un messaggio molto efficacie se volete dire a qualcuno di stare lontano da quel posto. It ‘a very effective message if you want to tell someone to stay away from that place. Viene chiamata “Bunker Booster” It is called “Bunker Booster”

La versione DEL VETERANO The veteran
di Maurizio Torrealta Mauritian Torrealta

Secondo l’accusa del veterano Jim Brown , durante la prima guerra del Golfo una piccola bomba nucleare di 5 Chilotoni, sarebbe stata fatta esplodere tra la città irachena di Basra ed il confine con l’Iran. Se cosi fosse stato, si sarebbe trattato della terza bomba nucleare usata durante un conflitto dopo quelle di Hiroshima e Nagasaki According to the indictment of veteran Jim Brown, during the first Gulf War a small nuclear bomb than 5 Chilotoni, would be made to explode between the Iraqi cities of Basra and the border with Iran. If it had been so, this would be the third nuclear bomb used during a conflict after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Una bomba nucleare di 5 Chilotoni è una bomba relativamente piccola, più piccola di quella di Hiroscima che era di 16 Chilotoni, e di quella di Nakasakhi che era di 22. A nuclear bomb of 5 Chilotoni is a relatively small bomb, smaller than Hiroscima who was 16 Chilotoni, and that of Nakasakhi who was 22. Gli effetti della radioattività, però sono ugualmente terribili. The effects of radioactivity, but they are equally appalling.

Siamo venuti a conoscenza della testimonianza di Jim Brown grazie a Willam Thomas un giornalista canadese che ha molto lavorato con I veterani dell’Esercito Americano e ci ha messo in contato con lui. We have come to the attention of the testimony of Jim Brown with Thomas WILLAME a Canadian journalist who has long worked with the veteran American dell’Esercito and put us in contact with him.

JIM BROWN Jim Brown
-Non ha paura di parlare di queste cose? -Not afraid to talk about these things?
Bisogna capire cosa é la paura. We need to understand what is the fear. C’è un punto in cui devi dire: basta, e quando superi quella linea non hai molto compagnia accanto a te, o lo fai o non lo fai, quando ero nei militari ho alzato la mano destra ed ho fatto un giuramento ed ho detto “questo è quello che io difenderò” There is a point where you say: enough, and if it exceeds that line you do not have much company next to you, or you do or do not do this, when I was in the military have raised their right hand and I made an oath and I said “This is what I defend”

Chi è Jim Brown ? Who is Jim Brown?

Nato nel 1965 entra nell’ esercito a 22 anni , diventa Ingegnere meccanico nella decima divisione montana di Fort Drum. Born in 1965 comes in ‘army in 22 years, becomes mechanical engineer in the tenth mountain division of Fort Drum. Partecipa a Desert Storm in Arabia Saudita dal 25 settembre del 1990 al 16 Febbraio 1991,rientra per problemi familiari e comincia ad accusare strani disturbi. Participates in Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia since 25 September 1990 to February 16, 1991, falls to family problems and begins to experience strange symptoms. Come altri veterani inizia una lunga battaglia perché la sua malattia venga riconosciuta. si ammala, a suo dire, a causa di un vaccino contro l’ antrace che gli è stato iniettato in arabia Saudita , Nel 1997 viene ripreso ufficialmente per alcuni contrasti e degradato da Ingegnere di Livello 4 ad ingegnere di 3 livello. Like other veterans began a long battle because his illness is recognized. Falls ill, he said, because of a vaccine against ‘anthrax that has been injected into Saudi Arabia, in 1997 is officially taken over for some contrasts and degraded by Level 4 engineer to engineer 3 level. L’abbassamento di livello non gli permette di svolgere la mansione delle quale è incaricato e quindi viene congedato, ma con onore. The lower level it impossible for him to perform the task of which is appointed and then dismissed, but with honor. La sua attività nell’ organizzazione dei veterani dell’esercito americano lo ha gia portato AD ESSERE CITATO DALLA GRANDE stampa , come in questo articolo del 2003 sul New York Times EA ESSERE ASCOLTATO DAL Comitato di Consulenza della Presidenza degli Stati Uniti sulle malattie dei Veterani della Guerra del Golfo. His work in ‘organization of veterans of the American army has already resulted TO BE SUED BY LARGE print, as in this article of 2003 on the New York Times EA be heard by the Advisory Committee of the presidency of the United States on diseases of Veterans Gulf War.

Di ritorno da Desert Storm fonda l’ Organizzazione di Veterani Gulf Watch Intelligent Networking Sistem. Returning from Desert Storm based l ‘Organization of Gulf Veterans Watch Intelligent Networking System. Jim Brown pARLA PER LA PRIMA VOLTA DELL’uso di una piccola bomba nucleare sotto pseudonimo nel sito del giornalista canadese Thomas William. Jim Brown SPEAKS FOR FIRST TIME use of a small nuclear bomb under the pseudonym site of Canadian journalist William Thomas. Questa è INVECE LA PRIMA INTERVISTA TELEVISIVA di Jim BROWN SULL’ARGOMENTO . This is HAND THE FIRST TELEVISION INTERVIEW of Jim Brown on the subject.

- Perchè è stata usata? - Why was used?
la spiegazione migliore che sono stato in grado di verificare fino ad ora è che è stata usata per mandare un messaggio a Sadam che eramo determinati a finire questa gueera e vincere il confllitto the best explanation that I was able to check so far is that was used to send a message to that Sadam Eramo determined to finish this gueera and win the confllitto

Ma quali sono i riscontri al suo racconto? But what are the findings to his story? Abbiamo controllato se nella banca dati online del Centro Sismologico Internazionale, nella area intorno alla citta di Basra in Iraq, era stato registrato un evento sismico della stessa forza di 5 Chilotoni, 5 Chilotoni corrispondono ad una Magnitudo di circa 4,2 nella scala Richter . We have checked whether the online database of the International Seismological Center, the area around the city of Basra in Iraq, was a seismic event of the same strength of 5 Chilotoni, 5 Chilotoni correspond to a Magnitude of about 4.2 in the Richter scale.

Abbiamo trovato che l’unico evento sismico avvenuto durante i 43 giorni di Desert Storm è stato un evento di magnitudo : 4.2 scala Richther ed è stato registrato proprio nella zona descritta da Jim Brown tra la città di Basra e il confine con l’Iran . We found that the only seismic event occurred during the 43 days of Desert Storm was an event of magnitude: 4.2 scale Richther and was recorded precisely in the area described by Jim Brown between the cities of Basra and the border with Iran.
E’ catalogato con il numero 342793 è avvenuto il 27 di Febbraio del 1991 , proprio l’ultimo giorno del conflitto, alle ore 13:39. E ‘cataloged with the number 342793 was the case on 27 February 1991, just on the last day of the conflict, at 13:39. Il fenomeno è stato registrato da 9 centri sismici, 2 in Iran, 4 in Nepal , uno in Canada ,uno in Svezia ed uno in Norvegia , questi due ultimi hanno anche misurato l’intensità dell esplosione di circa Magnitudo 4, 2. La sua profondità viene collocata nel primo livello superficiale che fa da 0 a 33 km, The incident was recorded by 9 seismic centers, 2 in Iran, 4 in Nepal, one in Canada, one in Sweden and one in Norway, the latter two have also measured the intensity of explosion around Magnitude 4, 2. His depth is placed in tier surface which is from 0 to 33 km,

Ulteriori informazioni possono essere fornite dall’ analisi delle onde sismiche registrate dalle stazioni nei diversi Paesi ma data la vastità del lavoro chiediamo agli organismi internazionali che svolgono il monitoraggio antinucleare ed ai centri sismici nazionali coinvolti , di aiutarci nella raccolta di elementi certi e dirimenti per capire se sia trattato di una esplosione o di un terremoto. Further information can be provided by ‘analysis of seismic waves recorded by stations in different countries but given the vastness of the work we ask international organizations that perform monitoring and anti-national seismic centers involved, to help in gathering evidence and dirimenti to understand if they are treated to an explosion or an earthquake.

Ma in che contesto storico e politico un’arma come quella di cui ci parla il veterano avrebbe potuto essere utilizzata durante “desert sorm”? But in that historical context and political weapon as the one that we talk the veteran could be used during “SORM desert? rileggiamo la sequenza dei fatti: re-read the sequence of events:

il 2 agosto 1990 Saddam Hussei invade il Kwait Aug 2 1990 Saddam Hussei invaded Kwait

16 gennaio 1991 Il Presidente George Bush annuncia al mondo che è inizata “Desert Storm”la più grande opeazione bellica dopo il 1948 , 28 paesi intervengono a fianco degli Usa. 16 January 1991 President George Bush announces to the world that began “Desert Storm” the largest opeazione war after 1948, 28 countries are involved alongside the United States.

Ma come avrebbe reagito il mondo islamico? But how would react the Islamic world?

Dichiarazione James Baker Statement by James Baker
noi vogliamo creare le basi che ci mettano nella posizione di avere una credibile opzione per l’ uso della forza (nucleare) che è molto differente da dire che il Presidente abbia preso la decisione di muoversi in quella direzione , noi vorremo che fosse un segnale molto chiaro, -e lo è molto chiaro -ed indiscutibile che quando il Presidente dice che non vuole escludere la possibilità non l’ abbiamo esclusa come opzione ma la riteniamo una credibile opzione we want to create the foundations that we put in a position to have a credible option for ‘use of force (nuclear) which is very different from saying that the President has taken the decision to move in that direction, we want it to be a very clear-and-is very clear and indisputable that when the President says that will not exclude the possibility l ‘we have excluded as an option but we believe a credible option

Se Sadam avesse utilizzato armi chimiche o batteriologiche il Pentagono avrebbe potuto rispondere anche con l’atomica, ma sull’ utilizzo del nucleare viene lasciata una voluta ambiguita, tanto che lo stesso Segretario di Stato James Baker conia l’espressione “Dottrina dell’ambiguità calcolata, If Sadam had used chemical or bacteriological weapons, the Pentagon could respond with nuclear, but on ‘use of nuclear energy remains a deliberate ambiguity, so that the Secretary of State James Baker coins the term “doctrine of ambiguity calculated ,

JIM BROWN Jim Brown
Il punto centrale è che comunque fosse andata si sarebbe trattato di risultato positivo per gli Stati Uniti: potevano lanciare questa bomba in una delle zone più deserte immediatamente disponibili, nel corso di un conflitto , poteva essere riconosciuta per quello che in realtà era o non poteva neanche essere riconosciuta dal momento che esplodeva in parte sottoterra, poteva essere vista una versione minore del caratteristico fungo atomico, ma se si era abbastanza distanti, non si sarebbe capito quello che stava succedendo. The central point is that in any way was this would be a positive result for the United States could launch this bomb in a deserted area immediately available during a conflict, could be recognized for what it actually was or could not not even be recognized as partially exploded underground, could be seen a smaller version of the characteristic atomic mushroom, but if it was quite distant, would not have understood what was happening. Gli effetti potevano essere immediati e a lunga scadenza. The effects could be immediate and long-term.

Ma nel 1991 un altra arma fa il suo debutto sul campo di battaglia: l’uranio impoverito But in 1991 another weapon makes its debut on the battlefield: depleted uranium

- Durante Desert Storm per la prima volta sono stati usati proiettili all’ uranio impoverito perche? - During Desert Storm for the first time bullets were used all ‘because depleted uranium?
L’uranio impoverito el’ uranio non impoverito, entrambi mostrano una sorta di firma radioattiva che poteva permettere di confonderli uno con l’altro, di scambiarli l’uno con l’altro, inoltre con l’uranio impoverito, gli effetti immediati che vengono provocati sugli individui, sui palazzi, sui veicoli, imitano in qualche modo gli effetti che vengono provocati da una esplosione nucleare più grande come l’essicazione dei corpi, l’immediata distruzione delle strade, la perdita di sangue dagli occhi e dal naso. Le radiazioni rilasciate da piccoli proiettili all uranio impoverito sono anche esse sempre presenti, ma se questi proiettili vengono usati ripetutamente come ad esempio nelle mitragliatrici dell’aereo A 10, un proiettile dopo l’altro, uno dopo l’ altro, provocano un forte impatto di radiazioni, non solo nelle polveri che rilasciano, ma nelle radiazioni liberate dalle esplosione dei proiettili . The depleted uranium and ‘depleted uranium does not, both show a kind of radioactive signature that could afford to confuse with each other, to exchange them with one another, also with depleted uranium, the immediate effects that are caused on individuals, on buildings, vehicles, in some ways mimic the effects that are caused by a nuclear explosion as the largest drying of the bodies, the immediate destruction of roads, the loss of blood from the eyes and nose. The small radiation released by depleted uranium projectiles all they are always present, but if these projectiles are used repeatedly, such as machine guns in the air 10, a bullet after another, one after the ‘other, causing a strong impact radiation, not only in the dust emit, but the radiation released by the explosion of bullets.

-Poteva servire a coprire? -Could serve to cover?
Poteva coprire praticamente tutto quello che avveniva Could cover virtually everything that happened

Se fosse fondata la denuncia del veterano jim brown, quale potrebbe essere stato l’evento che ha convinto l’amministrazione americana ad usare una mini atomica proprio l’ultimo giorno di guerra? possiamo solo fare un’ipotesi: 2 giorni prima della ipotetica decisione di sganciare una bomba atomica, il 25 febbraio , un missile scud lanciato dagli iracheni riuscì a colpire la base americana di Dhahran in Arabia Saudita uccidendo 28 militari americani e ferendone 99. Questo provocò un forte reazione americana : nella notte tra il 26 ed il 27 di febbraio fu distrutta una intera colonna di macchine di fuggitivi appena oltre il confine del kuwait . If the complaint was based veteran Jim Brown, which may have been the event that convinced the American administration to use a mini atomic its last day of the war can only make a hypothesis: 2 days before the hypothetical decision release of an atomic bomb, February 25, a Scud missile launched by Iraqis managed to hit the American base in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia killing 28 American soldiers and wounding 99. This provoked a strong reaction American in the night between 26 and 27 February was destroyed an entire column machines fugitives just across the border of kuwait. potrebbe non essere stata l’unica azione di ritorsione si tratta di un’ipotesi azzardata ma la politica dell’ amministrazione americana nel 91 è stata volutamente ambigua : may not have been the only act of retaliation is a hypothesis but risky policy of ‘American administration in 91 was deliberately ambiguous:

-Ci sono dei testimoni? -Are there any witnesses?
Ci sono testimoni, io personalmente ho parlato con persone che si trovavano sul posto nel periodo in cui questo è successo , so di altre persone che hanno parlato con altre persone- lo so che sembra strano, ma questo è il modo in cui funziona la intelligence comunity : si sente una informazione da un individuo, la si verifica con un altro e alla fine si butta fuori l’ intero dettaglio e si raccoglie la storia completa. There are witnesses, I have personally talked to people who were on site during the period in which this happened, so other people who have talked with other people-I know that seems strange, but this is the way it does the intelligence community: you hear information from an individual, the occurs with another and eventually threw himself off the ‘full detail and collect the full story. Quando è coinvolto il governo , non esiste un governo al mondo che ammetterà mai di avere fatto nulla di questo genere. When the government is involved, there is no world government to admit that you have never done anything like this.

-Come è venuto a saperlo? -How did you know?
L’ organizzazione che ho creato che si chiama GULF WATCH Intelligence Networking System, noi abbiamo provato per molti anni a raccogliere queste informazioni per farle diventare pubbliche ed impedire che possa succedere questo di nuovo , perché ti posso garantire che se sono riusciti a passarla liscia su questo argomento nel 91, l’hanno passata liscia anche nel 2002 e continueranno a passarla liscia finché gli verrà permesso di fare questo e questo deve finire L ‘organization that I created which is called GULF WATCH Intelligence Networking System, we have tried for many years to collect this information for them to become public and prevent this could happen again, because you can guarantee that if they succeeded in passing on smooth this in 91, have gone smoother in 2002 and continue until a smooth pass will be allowed to do this and this must stop

Prima di mandare in onda questa intervista abbiamo informato il Dipartimento della difesa che un veterano dell esercito americano ci aveva raccontato che una minibomba nucleare era stata usata durante desert storm, ci hanno chiesto delucidazioni sul giorno in cui sarebbe successo e ci hanno inviato il seguente comunicato: Before you send broadcast this interview we have informed the Defense Department that a veteran of the U.S. army had told us that a nuclear minibomba had been used during desert storm, we have requested clarification on the day that would have happened and we have sent the following communiqué :

Durante la guerra del Golfo del 1991 sono state usate solo armi convenzionali , Gli Stati Uniti hanno un certo numero di munizioni che hanno una capacità esplosiva di oltre 5000 pound (duemila tonnellate), non è possibile per noi confermare il preciso incidente al quale vi riferite , ma se una bomba potente fosse stata sganciata in quel luogo è ragionevole supporre che la detonazione sarebbe stata registrata dalle attrezzature di rilevamento sismografico. Di nuovo sono state utilizzate solo munizioni convenzionali durante la guerra del golfo del 1991. During the Gulf War of 1991 were used only conventional weapons, The United States has a number of munitions that have an explosive capacity of over 5,000 pound (two thousand tonnes), it is not possible for us to confirm the specific incident to which you refer But if a powerful bomb had been released there is reasonable to assume that the detonation was recorded by detection equipment sismografico. Again have been used only conventional munitions during the Gulf War of 1991.

In un lettera successiva il Dipartimento della Difesa ci informa che potrebbe essere stata utilizzata la bomba BLU-82 che ha una capacità esplosiva di circa 7000 tonnellate e ribadisce che sono state utilizzate solo armi convenzionali. In a subsequent letter the Department of Defense announced that there may have been used to bomb BLU-82 that has an explosive capacity of about 7000 tonnes and reiterates that have been used only conventional weapons. La bomba BLU-82 detta anche madre di tutte le bombe o taglia margherite facendo esplodere di ossigeno idrogeno ed altri elementi nell’ aria e non sottoterra produce però una maglitudo 3 scala Richter e non 4.2 come appare nei dati sismici The bomb BLU-82 also known as mother of all bombs or by exploding daisies size of oxygen and hydrogen elements in others’ air and not underground but produces a maglitudo 3 Richter scale and not 4.2 as it appears in seismic data

JIM BROWN Jim Brown

Queste bombe venivano usate contemporaneamente con altre testate: l’FI, le bombe a aereosol esplosivo, conosciute anche come MOEB, madre di tutte le bombe. These bombs were used simultaneously with other titles: the FI, the aerosol explosive bombs, also known as MOEB, the mother of all bombs.

La differenza principale tra le due è che la MOEB, o la bomba FI, hanno gli stessi effetti di una bomba nucleare, possono anche causare l’effetto di un fungo atomico, ma non c’è inquinamento radiattivo. The main difference between the two is that the MOEB, or the bomb FI, have the same effects of a nuclear bomb, may also cause the effect of an atomic mushroom, but there is no radiative pollution. Mentre il problema con una testata ucleare è che quando esplode non hai solo la detonazione ma rimangono delle fuoriuscite di inquinamento radiattivo. While the problem with a header ucleare is that explodes when you have not only remain but the detonation of radiative pollution spills. Questa non è una cosa che semplicemente accade e poi passa, è una cosa che succede e resta. This is not something that just happens and then goes, is something that happens and remains. Inoltre, c’è una questione generazionale che si pone. Moreover, there is a generational issue that arises.

Il racconto di Jim Brown è tanto agghiacciante quanto al momento privo di tutte quelle conferme che possano certificarne la veridicità la sua tesi che l’suo dell’uranio impoverito abbia potuto coprire l’esplosione di un’atomica resta una pura ipotesi che tuttavia doverosamente registriamo attenendoci ad una sorta di “principio di precauzione : quando un’ipotesi, non palesemente falsa, è di così drammatica rilevanza sociale, parlarne è molto meglio che tacerne aspettando anche perchè molte persone e troppi bambini si sono ammalati dopo “Desert Storm” nella zona intorno a Basra. Siamo riusciti a contattare durante una conferenza ad Instambul il dott Jawad al ali responsabile della divisione oncologica dell’ ospedale di Basra, autore di diverse ricerche su la radioattività nella città. The story of Jim Brown is as chilling as when devoid of all those confirmations that can certify the veracity of its argument that its depleted uranium could cover the explosion of un’atomica remains a mere hypothesis but dutiful record adhere to a sort of “precautionary principle: when a hypothesis, not blatantly false, is so dramatic social relevance, talk is much better than waiting tacerne also because many people and too many children were sick after” Desert Storm “in the area around Basra. We were able to contact during a conference at Instambul Dr Jawad al ali responsible for the division of cancer ‘hospital in Basra, author of several research on radioactivity in the city.

JAWAD AL ALI Jawad AL ALI
La storia delle radiazioni in Bassora è cominciata durante la prima guerra del golfo nel 1991 quando circa 300 tonnellate di proiettili e bombe all’uranio impoverito sono state sganciate su Bassora e questo ha portato alla moltiplicazione del livello delle radiazioni rispetto a quello di sfondo che a Bassora era molto basso. The history of radiation in Basra began during the first Gulf War in 1991 when some 300 tons of bullets and depleted uranium bombs were dropped on Basra and this led to the multiplication of the level of radiation than a background Basra was very low.

E’ stato l’attacco più aggressivo quello del 1991, hanno distrutto completamente le infrastrutture del Paese, hanno distrutto tutti i ponti e non era possibile viaggiare da Basra a Bagdad . It ‘been the most aggressive that in 1991, have completely destroyed the infrastructure of the country, have destroyed all the bridges and it was not possible to travel from Basra to Baghdad. Il problema si è ripetuto nel 2003 e questa volta centinaia di tonnellate di Uranio impoverito sono state scaricate di nuovo sulla popolazione civile in aree dove abitava solo gente comune e questo ha provocato nuovi problemi cioè l’aumento dei tumori,l’aumento di malformazioni congenite come sapete il tempo di decadimento della radioattività dell’uranio è di 4,5 bilioni di anni, il problema si configura dunque come un tentativo di uccidere la popolazione irachena tramite l’avvelenamento del suolo e delle risorse idriche dell’Iraq per milioni di anni. The problem is repeated in 2003 and this time hundreds of tons of depleted uranium have been dumped back on the civilian population in areas where people lived alone and this has caused new problems that the increase in cancer, the increase in congenital malformations as you know the time decay of radioactive uranium is 4.5 billion years, the problem is therefore as an attempt to kill the Iraqi people through the soil and poisoning water resources of Iraq for millions of years .

- E’ difficile fare ricerca sulla radioattività a Basra? - It ‘s difficult to do research on radioactivity in Basra?
Non vogliono che nessuno parli di radiazioni eccetto i portavoce ufficiali e noi non lo siamo, possiamo fare ricerche sulla diffusione del cancro ma non possiamo fare studi sui fattori di rischio, non danno fondi per nessuna di queste ricerche, puoi fare ricerche epidemiologiche o cliniche ma non ricerche su radiazioni o relative a questo settore They do not want anyone talking about radiation except for official spokesman us and we are not, we can do research on the prevalence of cancer but can not do studies on risk factors, they do not give money to any of these queries, you can do clinical or epidemiological research but no research on radiation or relating to this sector

Fare indagini sulle radiazioni in Iraq è difficile non solo in Iraq ma anche in Italia sentiamo l’ esperienza dell’allora Ministro all’ambiente Gianni Mattioli Do surveys of radiation in Iraq is difficult not only in Iraq but also in Italy feel ‘s experience to the then Minister Gianni Mattioli

PROF. PROF. GIANNI MATTIOLI GIANNI MATTIOLI

E’ nel gennaio del 2001 che chiede di incontrarmi il Ministro della sanità iracheno Mubarak, nel corso dell’incontro Mubarak mi presenta gli elementi per una situazione davvero grave per zone che erano state bombardate con proiettili all uranio impoverito, la richiesta da parte del ministro Mubarak è che l’Italia collabori ad una ricerca epidemiologica per mettere in evidenza la dimensione della problematica, la individuazione delle zone ma anche possibilità in qualche modo di innescare salvaguardia. E ‘in January 2001 asking to meet the Iraqi Health Minister Mubarak, Mubarak during the meeting I presented the elements for a really serious situation for areas that were bombed with depleted uranium bullets all, the request by the Minister Mubarak is that Italy will work for epidemiological research to demonstrate the size of the problem, the identification of possible areas but also in some way to trigger safeguards. Io venni a sapere che c’era una precisa obiezione, un vero e proprio divieto da parte dell’Amministrazione atlantica, del Patto Atlantico I came to know that there was a specific objection, a real ban on the part of the Atlantic, the Atlantic Pact

Ma nonostante i divieti di svolgere ricerche i dati sugli effetti delle armi utilizzate a Basra con gli anni cominciano drammaticamente ad emergere But despite the prohibitions of research data on the effects of the weapons used in Basra over the years are beginning to emerge dramatically
JAWAD AL ALI Jawad AL ALI
Quest grafico mostra l’aumento della mortalità a causa di tumori a Basra che è aumentato in modo significativo e nel 2001 ha superato il numero di 600 morti all‘anno a causa di tumori, nel 1989 i morti per tumore erano solo 34.Per quanto riguarda le foto, ho collezionato le foto dei casi più strani come l’istiocitoma fibroso maligno sono tumori molto rari e sono strettamente associati alle radiazioni, sono causati dalle radiazioni cosi ho documentato con le foto quei tumori. This chart shows the increase in mortality due to cancer in Basra that has risen significantly in 2001 and has exceeded the number of 600 deaths per year due to cancer in 1989 cancer-related deaths were just as 34.Per respect to photos, I have collected photos of the strangest cases like istiocitoma malignant fibrous tumors are very rare and are closely associated with radiation, are caused by radiation so I documented with pictures these tumors.

Ho collezionato foto di bambini che hanno tumori , perche i tumori sembrano avere cambiato gruppi di età in cui si manifestano , alcuni tumori che prima si manifestavano in pazienti anziani ora si manifestano in paziegiovanissimi di soli sei anni, c’è stato uno slittamenteo di tipologie di tumori da fascie di eta di pazienti maturi a bambini sotto i dieci anni e questo è rarissssimo e così come è rarissimo che si manifesti tumore all apparato linfatico di bambini sotto i dieci anni sono casi rarisimi. I have collected photos of children who have cancer because the tumors appear to have changed age groups where they occur, some tumors that are first expressed in elderly hour paziegiovanissimi occur in only six years, there has been a kind of slittamenteo cancer by age bracket mature patients to children under ten years and this is rarissssimo and as it is rare that it occurs all apparatus lymphatic cancer in children under ten years rarisimi cases.

Le altre foto sono foto di famiglie moglie e marito che hanno avuto piu di un caso di tumore nella stessa famiglia, ho studiato circa 31 casi di questo genere con più di un parente affetto dal tumore nella stessa famiglia e le famiglie sono aumentate fino a 71, è moltl raro che una famiglia abbia due casi di tumore Perché avviene che tutti e due son affetti da tumore? The other pictures are photos of families husband and wife who have had more than one case of cancer in the same family, I studied about 31 cases of this kind with more than one relative affected by cancer in the same family and families have increased up to 71 , Moltl is rare that a family has two cases of cancer that occurs Why all son and two suffering from cancer?

JAWAD AL ALI Jawad AL ALI
Questa mappa mostra la distribuzione di quelle famiglie che hanno almeno due malati di cancro , 21 famiglie si trovano nella area centrale di Basra, 7 nell’area Nord ed una in quella Ovest e 2 nella zona sud est This map shows the distribution of those families who have at least two cancer patients, 21 families are in the area of central Basra, 7 in the North and one in the West and 2 in the south east

Questa e la mappa della distribuzione percentuale dei cinque tumori più comuni This is the map of the distribution percentage of the five most common cancers

Gli effetti disastrosi della guerra a Basra sono evidenti, tra le cause probabili anche le radiazioni , per il dottor Jawad provocate dall’uranio impoverito. The disastrous effects of war in Basra are evident among the likely causes the radiation, Dr. Jawad caused dall’uranio uranium. quello che racconta Brown, e cioè che le armi ad uranio impoverito celassero l’uso di una bambo atomica, lo ripetiamo ancora una volta, non che una sua ipotesi. quello che e? what Brown says, that the depleted uranium weapons celassero the use of an atomic Bambo, we repeat once again that not a hypothesis. and what? certo, invece, e’ che nel 1991 le armi all’ uranio vengono sdoganate, i proiettili all’uranio impoverito entrano a far parte degli arsenali della nato di Israele della Russia e della Cina e di altri paesi, e si affiancano alle bombe nucleari che sono già negli arsenali americani, inglesi, francesi, israeliani, russi , cinesi, indiani e pachistani e di altri paesi, pronte ad essere utilizzate sul campo. certain, however, and ‘that in 1991 all the weapons’ are cleared uranium, depleted uranium projectiles becoming part of the arsenals of Israel born in Russia and China and other countries, and is flanked to the nuclear bombs that are already in the arsenals Americans, British, French, Israelis, Russians, Chinese, Indians and Pakistanis and other countries, ready for use in the field. davanti a questa, che è già ora una realtà spaventosa, non chiudiamo gli occhi davanti alle immagini di alcune delle vittime che il dott Jawadi ha avuto in cura before this, which is now a frightening reality, not close our eyes to the images of some of the victims that Dr Jawad has been in care

JAWAD AL ALI Jawad AL ALI
Questa è Ali Isra ha 15 anni e soffriva di leucemia acuta ed è morta a causa della leucemia. This is Ali Isra 15 years and has suffered from acute leukemia and died because of leukemia.

Questa è Wala Habit Mosan, ha 5 anni ha un tumore alle ovaie, che è molto raro a questa età , è una malattie delle donne di mezza eta. This is Wala Habit Mosan, has 5 years has ovarian cancer, which is very rare at this age, is a disease of women in middle age.

Questa è una donna anziana con un tumore molto grosso ai linfonodi del collo e nella parte alta del torace This is an old woman with a very large cancer of the lymph nodes in the neck and upper chest

Questo bambino che ha solo 5 anni, ha un Non Hodgkins linfoma che è raro sotto i dieci anni ed è morto il primo giorno di ammissione all’ospedale. This child has only 5 years, has not Hodgkins lymphoma that is rare in the ten years and died on the first day of admission to the hospital.

Questo ragazzo ha 14 anni si chiama Leiv, ha un tumore alle ossa, il tumore si è diffuso al torace ed è morto per questa ragione . This guy has 14 years called Leiva, has bone cancer, the cancer has spread to the chest and died for this reason.

Questa bimba ha 3 anni ha un linfoma Non Hodgkins che molto raro a questa età, è morta a causa di questo tumore dopo una operazione al torace. This little girl was 3 years has not Hodgkins lymphoma that very rare at this age, died because of this cancer after a chest operation.

Questa signora ha un tumore alle ossa, alla mascella, era una rifugiata in Iran e poi viveva nella zona attorno a Basra. This lady has a bone tumor, the jaw, was a refugee in Iran and lived in the area around Basra.

Questa giovane, Sheda ha 12 anni, ha un tumore alle ossa, il tumore si è diffuso le è stato tagliato un braccio , è morta per questi tumori This young, Sheda has 12 years, has bone cancer, the cancer has spread has been cut off an arm, died of the tumors

Questo ha una testa molto grossa piena di liquido sono foto simili a quelle di Hiroshima dopo l esplosione della bomba atomica This has a very large head filled with liquid are similar to those photos of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb explosion

JIM BROWN Jim Brown

-pensa che l’abbiano usata altre volte? -thought to have used other times?
In Afghanistan nel 2002 In Afghanistan in 2002

-Può essere più specifico sulle date -Can be more specific on dates
da 1 al 3 Marzo from 1-3 March

Invitiamo i nostri colleghi giornalisti di tutto il mondo e le organizzazioni internazionali preposte al monitoraggio dell’attività nucleare nel pianeta a collaborare nella verifica di queste notizie. We urge our fellow journalists from around the world and international organizations responsible for monitoring nuclear activity in the world to cooperate in the verification of these reports.

“A” is for Allah, “J” is for jihad

By Davis, Craig

Craig Davis is a dual Ph.D. candidate in the departments of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. He conducted fieldwork on Afghan education in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1999-2000, as a David L. Boren graduate fellow.

In the late 1980s

and early 1990s, the Education Center for Afghanistan, located in Peshawar, Pakistan, and operated by the Afghan mujahidin (holy warriors), published a series of primary education textbooks replete with images of Islamic militancy. These schoolbooks provided the mujahidin (who, after a ten-year struggle, drove the Soviet occupying forces from Afghanistan in 1989) with a medium for promoting political propaganda and inculcating values of Islamic militancy into a new generation of holy warriors prepared to conduct jihad against the enemies of Islam. Consider the following introduction to the Persian alphabet in a first-grade language arts book:

Alif [is for] Allah.

Allah is one.

Bi [is for] Father (baba).

Father goes to the mosque…

Pi [is for] Five (panj).

Islam has five pillars…

Ti [is for] Rifle (tufang).

Javad obtains rifles for the Mujahidin…

Jim [is for] Jihad.

Jihad is an obligation. My mom went to the jihad. Our brother gave water to the Mujahidin…

Dal [is for] Religion (din).

Our religion is Islam. The Russians are the enemies of the religion of Islam…

Zhi [is for] Good news (muzhdih).

The Mujahidin missiles rain down like dew on the Russians. My brother gave me good news that the Russians in our country taste defeat…

Shin [is for] Shakir.

Shakir conducts jihad with the sword. God becomes happy with the defeat of the Russians…

Zal [is for] Oppression (zulm).

Oppression is forbidden. The Russians are oppressors. We perform jihad against the oppressors…

Vav [is for] Nation (vatn).

Our nation is Afghanistan…. The Mujahidin made our country famous…. Our Muslim people are defeating the communists. The Mujahidin are making our dear country free.

As in this passage, the promotion of violence for the sake of Islam is the predominate theme throughout the mujahidin textbook series in both mathematics and language arts for grades one through six.

Although these violent images were officially edited out of the schoolbooks in 1992, my fieldwork in Afghanistan and among the Afghan refugee population in Pakistan in 1999 and 2000 revealed that the unedited versions of these textbooks were still in use in both countries. Aid workers reported that the unedited versions promoting violence occasionally surfaced in classrooms in Pakistan and were sanctioned by the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Peshawar’s secondhand bookshops regularly stocked the old textbooks, which are filled with messages of Islamic militancy and illustrations of tanks, rocket launchers, and automatic weapons.

When I visited Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, in May 2000, I discovered that the stores stocking Taliban-approved textbooks were selling freshly printed copies of the old, unrevised mujahidin texts. Reports coming out of Kabul confirm the continued use of these schoolbooks, even as the new interim government assumed power. These textbooks glorify martyrdom, celebrate jihad, and speak of execution of “the enemy.” However, such messages and images of violence aimed at children are by no means a recent phenomenon. Consider this poem from a first-grade language arts textbook, published in 1970:

On the road

to our independence,

Our bodies, our heads, our possessions,

We will sacrifice,

We will sacrifice.

If, with designs on our land,

Our dirty enemies

Come forward one step,

We will cut off their feet,

We will cut off their legs,

We will cut off their legs.

If, in the direction of our land,

If, in the direction of our land,

The unjust enemy

If he casts a sharp glance,

We will pluck out his eyes,

We will pluck out his eyes.

A joke in fifth-grade language-arts schoolbook from the same period displays a macabre sense of humor: A boy returning from war was asked, “What did you do in the war?” He answered, “I cut both legs off an enemy at the knees.” When asked why he did not cut off the enemy’s head, the boy answered, “Someone else had already cut it off.”

These are but two instances in which educational materials were used to train young minds in a fanatical form of loyalty to the nation. The hostile imagery was part of the official curriculum during the reign (1933-73) of King Zahir Shah, the 88-year-old exile who has lived in Rome since 1973 and to whom many Afghans still turn for a sense of legitimacy and stability.

A new series of Afghan textbooks was developed during the period of communist government in Afghanistan, which stretched from 1978 under Nur Muhammad Taraki’s rule–and the subsequent Soviet invasion in 1979–to Muhammad Nagibullah’s fall in 1992. These textbooks promoted Marxist ideology within an Afghan cultural context. In “Martyrs,” a poem printed in a fourth-grade textbook, the students learned that they were the “martyrs of Western oppression.” Martyrdom and sacrifice were stressed as necessary components of the communist revolution and resistance against the enemy: “agents of the British,” “agents of colonialism,” and “agents of Western oppression.” These all were euphemisms for the mujahidin, who formed the militant resistance against the communist government after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Ironically, the term “mujahidin” was avoided in the textbooks of the time.

This series was still in limited use in May 2000 in some Afghan schools in the region, including in Estiqlal Lycee, a small coeducational Afghan elementary school in Islamabad, Pakistan. Almost half of the 236 students then at the lycee were girls, many of whom had come from Afghanistan after 1996, when the Taliban seized power and implemented policies that denied girls access to education past grade three.

One reason the school uses these books may be because women tend to fare better in the communist-era textbooks than in most of the other series. The textbooks attempted to appeal to young Afghan girls by stressing the important role that women played in the April Revolution, as the Afghan communist revolution was called. Mothers, female combatants, and the women of the proletariat were elevated to hero status at the expense of the revolution’s enemies: “Eternal glory to the nation’s heroic martyrs who have sacrificed their own lives in the struggle against the enemies of the April Revolution and of the people of Afghanistan…. Women combatants of the nation! Become active participants in the social, political, and economic life of the homeland, and strengthen…the April Revolution…. Boundless glory to the mothers of the heroes and the proletariat women of the nation.”

Ironically, the emphasis these textbooks placed on women’s participation in Afghanistan’s communist revolution may have played into the hands of the Islamic extremists who stripped Afghan women of their rights when they gained control of the country.

Far more violent, religiously oriented, and potentially damaging to Afghan children was the next generation of textbooks, developed in Peshawar in the late 1980s by a committee of Afghan educators under the auspices of the seven-party alliance of mujahidin, who formed the legitimate political and military resistance to the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul. These textbooks aimed both to counterbalance the Marxist ideology of the communist series and to indoctrinate young Afghan children in Islamic militancy. Thus this subtraction problem, from a third-grade mathematics textbook: “One group of mujahidin attack 50 Russian soldiers. In that attack 20 Russians were killed. How many Russians fled?”

A fourth-grade mathematics textbook poses the following problem: “The speed of a Kalashnikov bullet is 800 meters per second. If a Russian is at a distance of 3,200 meters from a mujahid, and that mujahid aims at the Russian’s head, calculate how many seconds it will take for the bullet to strike the Russian in the forehead.”

Another irony is that this textbook series was underwritten by U.S. grants. One of the responsibilities of the mujahidin-operated Education Center for Afghanistan was to write, print, and distribute textbooks. The ECA was funded by the Education Program for Afghanistan at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), under a $50 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development that ran from September 1986 through June 1994. The UNO program staff chose to ignore the images of Islamic militancy in the children’s textbooks during the first five years of the program.

Raheem Yaseer, an Afghan educator who worked at the UNO office in Peshawar during the early years of the program and now acts as the campus coordinator for the program in Omaha, defends the decision to allow the mujahidin parties to develop the violent content of the textbooks free of outside intervention. The staff, he says, was acutely aware of Afghan “religious and cultural sensitivities” during the war with the Soviets. Moreover, the University of Nebraska did not wish to be seen as imposing American values on Afghan educators. 1

After the Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Education Program for Afghanistan–under increasing pressure from Afghan parents and teachers, and various aid organizations–decided in 1991 to remove the militant images from the mujahidin textbook series. The revision process was completed by 1992. Educators commonly refer to the edited versions as the revised UNO textbooks, which are widely used in Pakistan and Afghanistan today.

However, two years ago, Joyce Gachiri, a project officer on education for the Afghanistan Country Office of UNICEF located in Islamabad, reported seeing many of the unrevised mujahidin books in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as well as in the province of Badakhshan, which was then in the hands of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. 2 During my visit to Kabul in May 2000, I purchased an entire series of the unrevised textbooks.

According to Ahmad Shah Durani, the printing press manager at the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) in Peshawar–the organization responsible for printing the revised UNO textbooks–the unedited mujahidin textbooks were not printed by ACBAR after 1992. When I confronted him in June 2000 with new copies of the violence-filled unrevised textbooks I had purchased in Kabul, he said that the inferior quality of paper and ink used pointed to an independent printing press in Peshawar.

The appearance of these unedited textbooks freshly printed in Peshawar and sold at textbook shops in Kabul some eight years after they were to have been replaced suggests that the Taliban wished to inspire a new generation of militants with the message of jihad. But the Taliban, who came to power in 1996, may not be entirely to blame. Between 1992 and 1996, militant factions of mujahidin ruled and battled over Kabul. Thus it is likely that these textbooks never fell out of favor with the mujahidin leadership, who were responsible for the militant content in the first place.

Much has been written since September 11 about the madrasa (theological school) system of education in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, extremist Muslims in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere helped to fund the madrassas, many of which have become vehicles for inculcating militant values in students. The most violent product of the madrasa system are the Taliban, who promoted absolute theocracy, public militancy, violent repression, and jihad in conjunction with terrorist groups. Even though the Taliban has been crushed, it would be a mistake to underestimate the political force of the madrasa system. Because of the inability of both the Afghan and Pakistani governments to provide universal education within their respective nations, many parents still look to madrassas to fill the void. In other cases, many students attending secular schools in the morning regularly study at madrassas in the afternoon. Recent estimates suggest that between 10 and 15 percent of Pakistan’s 45,000 madrassas promote violence; if true, the next generation of graduates will likely be a political force to be reckoned with.

One of the greatest challenges to the establishment of a lasting peace in Afghanistan and to the success of representative government there may lie in reforming the country’s educational system. But as the new interim government assumed power in Kabul, the future of Afghan education was unclear. Will the mujahidin, who are once again in a position to influence policy, insist on teaching Islamic militancy to school-children? Will Afghan children once again be exhorted to cut off the legs and pluck out the eyes of their “dirty enemies”? If so, Afghanistan’s road away from violent unrest will be a long one indeed.

The translations from the Persian for the textbook illustrations were provided by Nahid Seyedsayamdost.

Notes

This essay is drawn from a longer, unpublished analysis, “Nationalism, Revolution, and Jihad: Images of Violence in Afghan Primary Education Textbooks,” the research for which was made possible by a David L. Boren graduate fellowship. The author would like to thank Jamsheed Choksy, Paul Losensky, and M. Nazif Shahrani for their comments and insights.

1. Interviews with the author, December 5 and 7, 2001.

2. Conversation with the author, March 30, 2000.

Illustration (Children with weapons marching to flag of Afghanistan)

Darkness Visible: The Pentagon Plan to Foment Terrorism is Now in Operation (2005)

by Chris Floyd

From the Moscow Times, Jan. 25, 2005. This is the follow-up to “Into the Dark.”

More than two years ago, we wrote here of a secret Pentagon plan to foment terrorism: sending covert agents to infiltrate terrorist groups and goad them into action – i.e., committing acts of murder and destruction. The purpose was two-fold: first, to bring the terrorist groups into the open, where they could be counterattacked; and second, to justify U.S. military attacks on the countries where the terrorists were operating – attacks which, in the Pentagon’s words, would put those nations’ “sovereignty at risk.” It was a plan that countenanced – indeed, encouraged – the deliberate murder of innocent people and the imposition of U.S. military rule anywhere in the world that American leaders desired.

This plan is now being activated.

In fact, it’s being expanded, as the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh revealed last week. Not only will U.S.-directed agents infiltrate existing terrorist groups and provoke them into action; the Pentagon itself will create its own terrorist groups and “death squads.” After establishing their terrorist “credentials” through various atrocities and crimes, these American-run groups will then be able to ally with – and ultimately undermine – existing terrorist groups.

Top-level officials in the Pentagon, the U.S. intelligence services and the Bush administration confirmed to Hersh that the plan is going forward, under the direction of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld – just as we noted here in November 2002. Through a series of secret executive orders, George W. Bush has given Rumsfeld the authority to turn the entire world into “a global free-fire zone,” a top Pentagon adviser says. These secret operations will be carried out with virtually no oversight; in many cases, even the top military commanders in the affected regions will not be told about them. The American people, of course, will never know what’s being done in their name.

The covert units – including the Pentagon-funded terrorist groups and hit squads – will be operating outside all constraints of law and morality. “We’re going to be riding with the bad boys,” one insider told Hersh. Another likened it to the palmy days of the Reagan-Bush years: “Do you remember the right-wing execution squads in El Salvador? We founded them and we financed them. The objective now is to recruit locals in any area we want. And we aren’t going to tell Congress about it.” Indeed, we reported here last summer that Bush has already budgeted $500 million to fund local paramilitaries and guerrilla groups in the most volatile areas of the world, a measure guaranteed to produce needless bloodshed, destruction and suffering for innocent people already ravaged by conflict.

Incredibly, as Hersh notes, the Bushists are now openly citing a sinister role model for their campaign: Britain’s brutal repression of the Mau Mau in Kenya during the 1950s, when British forces set up concentration camps, created their own terrorist groups and killed thousands of innocent civilians in putting down an “insurgency” against their colonial rule. And in fact, Rumsfeld and other Bush officials increasingly talk of combating not just terrorism but a “global insurgency” – as if the whole world is now an American colony, filled with recalcitrant “natives” rising up against their rightful masters.

The activation of the Pentagon terrorist operation is part of Bush’s second-term expansion of the “war on terror.” Despite some obfuscating rhetoric about “diplomacy,” the Bush regime is pressing ahead with a hard-line strategy aimed at opening new military fronts in the “global free-fire zone.” Any dissenting voices within the government are being ruthlessly purged. The Pentagon’s secret forces are set for operations in at least 10 countries, and Bush insiders “repeatedly” told Hersh that “Iran is the next strategic target.”

Iran has long been a focus of the small clique of “global dominationists” – led by Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and their acolytes – who engineered the invasion of Iraq. This group is determined to “whack Iran,” as one insider put it, and they’re not at all discouraged by the debacle in Iraq; indeed, to them it’s a rousing success. Their first objective – openly stated years ago, before Bush took office – was the overthrow of Saddam’s regime and the planting of a U.S. “military footprint” in Iraq. This has now been done. The fact that it has plunged the Iraqi people into a hell of violence, chaos, terror and extremism is of no real concern to the clique. Their lofty rhetoric about “freedom” and “liberation” is meaningless sham, shuck and jive for the rubes. By the admission of the clique’s own publications, they seek strategic control over the world’s energy resources in order to preserve and expand American geopolitical and economic hegemony in the new century. Everything else – including the security of the American people, put at increasing risk by the clique’s reckless policies – is of secondary importance.

U.S. forces are already conducting military reconnaissance inside Iran in preparation for strikes on alleged nuclear weapons facilities, Hersh reports. The Pentagon is feverishly updating war plans for a “maximum ground and air invasion of Iran,” incorporating the new staging areas now available in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, while employing an Iranian terrorist group, MEK, to launch covert ops and terrorist acts against Tehran. MEK was once given sanctuary by Saddam Hussein, who used the group as a brutal enforcer against Kurd and Shiite insurgents. Now Bush, “riding with the bad boys,” has embraced the MEK murderers as his own.

In their ignorance and arrogance, the Bushists will almost certainly strike at Iran – despite the fact that even Iranian dissidents support the effort to make their nation a nuclear power and would join the mullahs in retaliation. The result will be a conflict far surpassing the horror and magnitude of the Iraq disaster.

In our original report on the Pentagon’s terror scheme, we wrote: “Bush and his cohorts are plunging the world into an abyss, an endless night of murder and terror – wholesale, retail, state-sponsored, privatized; of fear and degradation, servility, chaos, and the perversion of all that’s best in us.” Now the night has come. Now the United States stands openly – even proudly – for terrorism, torture and the Hitlerian principle of aggressive war. America has fallen into the pit – and the hopes of the world go with it.

Into the Dark: The Pentagon Plan to Foment Terrorism

by Chris Floyd

From the Moscow Times, Nov. 1, 2002. This piece was chosen as number 4 in Project Censored’s “Top Censored Stories of 2002.”

“This age: layers of lime harden in the sick son’s blood…
There’s nowhere to run from the tyrant-epoch…
Who else will you kill? Who else glorify?
What other lies will you invent?”
— Osip Mandelshtam, “1 January 1924″

This column stands foursquare with the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, when he warns that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. We know, as does the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, that this statement is an incontrovertible fact, a matter of scientific certainty. And how can we and the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, be so sure that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large?

Because these attacks will be instigated at the order of the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense.

This astonishing admission was buried deep in a story which was itself submerged by mounds of gray newsprint and glossy underwear ads in last Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. There – in an article by military analyst William Arkin, detailing the vast expansion of the secret armies being massed by the former Nixon bureaucrat now lording it over the Pentagon – came the revelation of Rumsfeld’s plan to create “a super-Intelligence Support Activity” that will “bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception.” According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, the new organization – the “Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)” – will carry out secret missions designed to “stimulate reactions” among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to “counterattack” by U.S. forces.

In other words – and let’s say this plainly, clearly and soberly, so that no one can mistake the intention of Rumsfeld’s plan – the United States government is planning to use “cover and deception” and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let’s say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people – your family, your friends, your lovers, you – in order to further their geopolitical ambitions.

For P2OG is not designed solely to flush out terrorists and bring them to justice – a laudable goal in itself, although the Rumsfeld way of combating terrorism by causing it is pure moral lunacy. (Or should we use the Regime’s own preferred terminology and just call it “evil”?) No, it seems the Pee-Twos have bigger fish to fry. Once they have sparked terrorists into action – by killing their family members? luring them with loot? fueling them with drugs? plying them with jihad propaganda? messing with their mamas? or with agents provocateurs, perhaps, who infiltrate groups then plan and direct the attacks themselves? – they can then take measures against the “states/sub-state actors accountable” for “harboring” the Rumsfeld-roused gangs. What kind of measures exactly? Well, the classified Pentagon program puts it this way: “Their sovereignty will be at risk.”

The Pee-Twos will thus come in handy whenever the Regime hankers to add a little oil-laden real estate or a new military base to the Empire’s burgeoning portfolio. Just find a nest of violent malcontents, stir ‘em with a stick, and presto: instant “justification” for whatever level of intervention/conquest/rapine you might desire. And what if the territory you fancy doesn’t actually harbor any convenient marauders to use for fun and profit? Well, surely a God-like “super-Intelligence Support Activity” is capable of creation ex nihilo, yes?

The Rumsfeld-Bush plan to employ murder and terrorism for political, financial and ideological gain does have historical roots (besides al Qaeda, the Stern Gang, the SA, the SS, the KGB, the IRA, the UDF, Eta, Hamas, Shining Path and countless other upholders of Bushian morality, decency and freedom). We refer of course to Operation Northwoods, oft mentioned in these pages: the plan that America’s top military brass presented to President John Kennedy in 1963, calling for a phony terrorist campaign – complete with bombings, hijackings, plane crashes and dead Americans – to provide “justification” for an invasion of Cuba, the Mafia/Corporate fiefdom which had recently been lost to Castro.

Kennedy rejected the plan, and was killed a few months later. Now Rumsfeld has resurrected Northwoods, but on a far grander scale, with resources at his disposal undreamed of by those brass of yore, with no counterbalancing global rival to restrain him – and with an ignorant, corrupt president who has shown himself all too eager to embrace any means whatsoever that will augment the wealth and power of his own narrow, undemocratic, elitist clique.

There is genuine transgression here, a stepping-over – deliberately, with open eyes, with forethought, planning, and conscious will – of lines that should never be crossed. Acting in deadly symbiosis with their supposed enemies, the terrorist mafias, Bush and his cohorts are plunging the world into an abyss, an endless night of black ops, retribution, blowback, deceit, of murder and terror – wholesale, retail, state-sponsored, privatized; of fear and degradation, servility, chaos: the perversion of all that’s best in us, of all that we’ve won from the bestiality of our primal nature, all that we’ve raised above the mindless ravening urges and impulses still boiling in the mud of our monkey brains.

It’s not a fight for freedom; it’s a retreat into darkness.

And the day will be a long time coming.

Mind Control The Ultimate Terror

By Ken Adachi

The topic of mind control is elaborate, multifaceted, and multi layered. For the casual reader, it can quickly become numbing, overwhelming the senses and creating a desire to exit the topic, but avoiding this subject is the most foolish thing you could possibly do since your only chance of surviving this hideous and insidious enslavement agenda, which today threatens virtually all of humanity, isto understand how it functions and take steps to reduce your vulnerability.

The plans to create a mind controlled workers society have been in place for a long time. The current technology grew out of experiments that the Nazis started before World War II and intensified during the time of the Nazi concentration camps when an unlimited supply of children and adults were available for experimentation. We’ve heard about the inhumane medical experiments performed on concentration camp prisoners, but no word was ever mentioned by the media and the TV documentaries of the mind control experiments. That was not to be divulged to the American public. Mind control technologies can be broadly divided into two subsets: trauma-based or electronic-based.

The first phase of government mind control development grew out of the old occult techniques which required the victim to be exposed to massive psychological and physical trauma, usually beginning in infancy, in order to cause the psyche to shatter into a thousand alter personalities which can then be separately programmed to perform any function (or job) that the programmer wishes to”install”. Each alter personality created is separate and distinct from the front personality. The ‘front personality’ is unaware of the existence or activities of the alter personalities. Alter personalities can be brought to the surface by programmers or handlers using special codes, usually stored in a laptop computer. The victim of mind control can also be affected by specific sounds, words, or actions known as triggers.

The second phase of mind control development was refined at an underground base below Fort Hero on Montauk , Long Island (New York) and is referred to as the Montauk Project. The earliest adolescent victims of Montauk style programming, so called Montauk Boys, were programmed using trauma-based techniques, but that method was eventually abandoned in favor of an all-electronic induction process which could be “installed” in a matter of days (or even hours) instead of the many years that it took to complete trauma-based methods.  (Read more)

A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

By Leon Festinger

SURVIVAL, EVASION, AND RECOVERY

FM 3-50.3

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis

Bush Family Fortunes

Unconstitutional

How to Create an Angry American

The Money Masters – How International Bankers Gained Control of America

When Will Americans Have Had Enough?

Hezbollah’s Winning Strategy during Lebanon War

Muqawama, Hezbollah’s Winning Strategy during Leb. War Hanan Awarekeh Readers Number : 56 09/10/2008 Two Years and few months have passed on the Second Lebanon War and the Israeli army, officials, military analysts and media are still trying to figure out what really happened during that war and still trying to find out the gaps that led to the defeat of the most powerful army in the Middle East, which was used to be called “the undefeatable army”. In his latest analysis, and not the last, Israeli journalist Ron Ben-Yishai wrote an interesting analysis in the Israeli electronic site “Ynet” on Thursday under the title “In Search of a Winning Strategy”, in which he started with the Israeli defeat in Yom Kippur in 1973 and ended with the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Ben-Yishai says that the State of Israel’s security situation this Yom Kippur is seemingly reasonable, even though a grave threat the likes of which had never threatened the Israeli home front is taking shape on the horizon. However, on all the frontlines and in the territories relative calm prevails at this time. He says, “The war tensions that prevailed a year ago at this time in the wake of the strike on the Syrian nuclear site had greatly dissipated.” He adds that the only exception was of Hezbollah’s intention to avenge the assassination of its military commander Imad Mugniyah (Haj Redwan); at this time there is nothing that may spark a large-scale confrontation in the immediate future. “Even more encouraging is the fact that this situation is not prompting Israel’s security establishment to delude itself. Top defense officials, just like the citizen on the street, are convinced that this relative quiet will not last long.” He continues that contrary to the arrogance that characterized the Israeli army and political leadership 35 years ago, on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, this year the defense establishment shows a high level of readiness and is in the midst of intense work: The army is vigorously working to correct the flaws in capabilities and values exposed during the Second Lebanon War; the military’s buildup ahead of future challenges is proceeding at a reasonable pace; most areas that are the responsibility of the Shin Bet and Mossad are being handled with praiseworthy efficiency and professionalism; and even the government somewhat improved its decision-making abilities on the security front over the past year. Ben-Yishai says that despite this readiness, there is still no guarantee that Israel can cope with the growing strategic threat on its very existence. He says that they lack today “a winning strategy”. Such strategy would enable Israelis to successfully cope with the “slow destruction” strategy used by Iran, Syria, and Islamic resistance elements to undermine Israel’s staying power. According to the Israeli journalist, Hezbollah utilized this strategy with a great degree of success during the Second Lebanon War and name it: Muqawama (“Resistance” in Arabic.) He says, “In its current format, the Muqawama identifies three Israeli vulnerabilities: The civilian home front, the Israeli public’s sensitivity to civilian causalities and even more so to IDF (Israeli occupation army) casualties, and the sensitivity of our political leaders to international public opinion and to the pressures exerted by bereaved families, captives’ families, and the media.” UNDERGROUND FORTIFICATIONS, TUNNELS, AND BOMBS “The Muqawama also takes into account the Israeli army’s relative advantage in accurate air power, the maneuvering and attack abilities of ground forces, and the ability to acquire accurate intelligence information. As a result, Islamic resistance has upgraded the Muqawama strategy and premised it on the means and principles that enable its users to powerfully hit Israel’s weak spots while minimizing or annulling Israel’s military advantages: Missiles and ground-to-ground rockets, fired by the dozens and hundreds out of well-hidden sites and civilian population centers, mostly with the aim of disrupting the daily and economic routine and put Israelis in an ongoing state of anxiety. This move also aims to disrupt the Israeli army’s ability to call up reserve forces and use its aircraft.” Ben-Yishai continues, “Other means include Russian-made anti-aircraft weapons systems that to some extent are immune to disruption… Meanwhile, huge quantities of advanced anti-tank rockets are aimed at targeting Israel’s armored corps until heavy casualties prompt Israeli public opinion to press the government to end operations.” “Maintaining launching capabilities over time is the main achievement the Muqawama aspires for. The main operational tactics are as follows: Launches, fortification and combat out of civilian population centers; avoidance of direct clashes with Israeli troops, while maintaining constant evasion; causing casualties and moral setbacks to Israeli forces and the home front; threatening the Israeli army with confrontation in one arena, Lebanon for example, should it decisively operate in another theater, like Gaza.” EXPECTING ISRAELI’S COLLAPSE The report says, “All of the above does not aim to prompt Israel’s surrender at once, but rather, to exhaust it time after time, round by round, until it collapses on its own. Iran’s nuclear weapons have an important role to play in this strategy.” “Besides that, for the time being at least, it is quiet clear that the Ayatollahs and even Ahmadinejad believe that Israel’s collapse and disappearance are nearing as result of the blows delivered against it by the Muqawama, and as result of the leadership and moral crisis it currently faces, with no way out. Therefore, there is no need to get entangled in a nuclear adventure – all that is needed is some patience. Yet even without using nuclear weapons, if and when Iran acquires them, Muqawama groups and Syria would enjoy greater freedom to utilize the strategy. Israel’s ability to respond would be limited, which would serve to boost the sense of helplessness and anxiety among our citizens.” This strategy was not devised by an ingenious Islamic planner. It emerged out of trial and error since the 1970s: The Katyusha rockets and infiltrations from Lebanon, and later the fighting in the South Lebanese security zone; the missiles fired at Israel in the First Gulf War; the intifadas; and the latest upgrade – the Second Lebanon War. Ben- Yishai concludes his report saying, “What’s amazing is that after so many years of contending with the Muqawama, the IDF, other security branches, and Israel’s political leadership have been unable to formulate a strategy and an arsenal of means that would enable us to win.”

Leahy Concerned About NorthCom’s New Army Unit

Leahy Concerned About NorthCom’s

New Army Unit

Under this “Immediate Response” exception, local military commanders can even act without prior approval from their superiors. “Imminently serious conditions resulting from any civil emergency or attack may require immediate action by military commanders, or by responsible officials of other DoD agencies, to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate great property damage,” it says. “When such conditions exist and time does not permit prior approval from higher headquarters, local military commanders and responsible officials of other DoD Components are authorized by this Directive, subject to any supplemental direction that may be provide by their DoD Component, to take necessary action to respond to requests of civil authorities.” – Matthew Rothschild

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Published on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 by The Progressive

by Matthew Rothschild

Senator Patrick Leahy is concerned about the Pentagon’s decision to designate an Army unit to Northern Command.

On October 1, the Pentagon, for the first time ever, dedicated an Army force specifically to NorthCom, which is in charge of securing not some foreign region but the United States of America.

The unit it assigned is the 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team, which has spent three of the last five years in Iraq. It was one of the first units to get to Baghdad, and it was active in retaking and patrolling Fallujah. One of its specialties is counterinsurgency.

This marks a change for NorthCom, which was established on October 1, 2002. Its website still says it “has few permanently assigned forces,” and that “the command is assigned forces whenever necessary to execute missions, as ordered by the President and the Secretary of Defense.”

Leahy “asked for a briefing from his staff” on this development and “wants to monitor the situation,” an aide to Leahy said.

Leahy was instrumental in getting Congress to repeal the “Insurrection Act Rider” in the 2006 defense appropriations bill. That rider had given the President sweeping power to use military troops in ways contrary to the Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act. The rider authorized the President to have troops patrol our streets in response to disasters, epidemics, and any “condition” he might cite.

Leahy said last December that this rider “made it easier for the President to take over the Guard and to declare martial law.” In a Senate statement on April 24, 2007, he cautioned against inserting the military “into domestic situations.” As he put it: “One of the distinguishing characteristics of the United States is that we do not use the military to patrol our communities and neighborhoods.” A few months before that, he warned that we must ensure that “the military is not used in a way that offends and endangers some of our most cherished values and liberties.”

The repeal of the rider was signed by Bush on January 28, though Amy Goodman reports that “Bush attached a signing statement that he did not feel bound by the repeal.”

The roles the 1st Brigade Combat Team will take on at NorthCom are a bit unclear.

“They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control,” said the Army Times when it first reported on it. These duties would be in addition to dealing with “potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.”

Soldiers in the unit “also will learn how to use ‘the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has field,’ 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them,” the article noted.

Cloutier even bragged to the Army Times: “I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered.”

The Army Times has since issued a correction, stating that the “non-lethal crowd control package” is “intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in the U.S.”

NorthCom’s own press release of September 30 says, “This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance, or crowd control.”

The unit will have its regular weapons, however. It will store other weapons in “containers,” and will have access to tanks, as Amy Goodman has reported and the Pentagon has confirmed.

The Army is taking a strong interest in this deployment.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey personally observed the combat team’s training exercise, entitled “Vibrant Response,” which was held at Fort Stewart, Georgia, last month. According to NorthCom’s public affairs department, Gen. Casey “pointed out that being part of the new force requires a shift in thinking for soldiers who are accustomed to taking charge.”

One soldier in the exercise said he learned that the troops should “preposition containers and equipment.”

NorthCom’s website, in a section on frequently asked questions about Joint Task Forces-Civil Support, cites “DoD Directive 3025.1″ as laying out the criteria for how the Pentagon will respond in domestic situations.

That directive talks about “military support in dealing with the actual or anticipated consequences of civil emergencies.” Those civil emergencies could be “arising during peace, war, or transition to war.”

While it states that such support “does not include military support to local law enforcement,” there is a provision in the directive for the military to take over functions of the civilian government.

Military personnel “shall not perform any function of civil government unless absolutely necessary on a temporary basis under conditions of Immediate Response. Any commander who is directed, or undertakes, to perform such functions shall facilitate the reestablishment of civil responsibility at the earliest possible time,” the document states.

Under this “Immediate Response” exception, local military commanders can even act without prior approval from their superiors. “Imminently serious conditions resulting from any civil emergency or attack may require immediate action by military commanders, or by responsible officials of other DoD agencies, to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate great property damage,” it says. “When such conditions exist and time does not permit prior approval from higher headquarters, local military commanders and responsible officials of other DoD Components are authorized by this Directive, subject to any supplemental direction that may be provide by their DoD Component, to take necessary action to respond to requests of civil authorities.”

The Pentagon’s decision to dedicate the First Brigade Combat Team to NorthCom has raised alarms, especially in the context of the current economic crisis. In Bush’s National Security Presidential Directive 51, he lays out his authority in the event of a catastrophic emergency. In such an emergency, “the President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government” and will coordinate with state, local, and tribal governments, along with private sector owners of infrastructure.

NSPD 51 defines a catastrophic emergency as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function.”

Notice the use of the word “or” above. In our current circumstances, it might be more relevant to read the definition this way: “any incident . . . that results in extraordinary levels of . . . disruption severely affecting the U.S. . . . economy.”

President Bush could declare a catastrophic emergency today. And he’d have the 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team, well trained from its years patrolling Iraq, at his disposal here at home.
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Copyright 2008 The Progressive Magazine

Brazil, Argentina abandon US dollar

Brazil’s President Lula da Silva (R) and Argentina’s President Fernandez de Kirchner
Brazil and Argentina have launched a new payment system in their bilateral trade, doing away with the US dollar as a medium of exchange. The two Latin American nations started the Payment System on Local Currency (SML) on Monday following a last month agreement inked by their presidents to use local currencies in a bid to end transaction in dollars.

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Tue, 07 Oct 2008

Brazil’s President Lula da Silva (R) and Argentina’s President Fernandez de Kirchner
Brazil and Argentina have launched a new payment system in their bilateral trade, doing away with the US dollar as a medium of exchange.

The two Latin American nations started the Payment System on Local Currency (SML) on Monday following a last month agreement inked by their presidents to use local currencies in a bid to end transaction in dollars.

On Thursday, Argentine Central Bank President Martin Redrado and his Brazilian counterpart Henrique de Campos Meirelles signed the enforcement of the agreement for the SML, under which exports and imports between the two countries will take place with the Brazilian real (BRL) and the Argentine peso (ARS).

The new monetary system mainly favors small and medium industries in both countries because it will save them bank charges when averting their local currencies to dollars.

According to the Central Bank of Argentina, the trade between the two major South American economies stands at about 25 billion US dollars per year.

Although the SML seeks to gradually eliminate the dollar from the bilateral trade, the currency will continue its presence in transactions between Brazil and Argentina, as their central banks will set the exchange rate for the real and the peso with respect to the dollar.

Brazilian authorities said that the SML deepens the integration between Brazil and Argentina and hope it will serve as an example to be adopted by other countries of the Mercosur, like Paraguay and Uruguay.

MRS/RA

Deconstructing The Power of the Global Elite: Brute Force, The Power to Hurt, and Psychological Control

Deconstructing The Power of the Global Elite: Brute Force,

The Power to Hurt, and Psychological Control

by Judith H. Young

In the aftermath of Congressional approval of bailout legislation granting sweeping powers to the  financial elite, the body politic appears to be helplessly mired in the relentless unfolding of classical fascism before its very eyes.

Coming to terms with this terrifying predicament can benefit from a primer that renders naked the forms of raw power used by the global elite in advancing its agenda for full spectrum dominance. This will enable us to determine if we are in fact helpless and to use care and deliberation in finding the means to take our power back.

In his seminal book Arms and Influence, Thomas C. Schelling addresses the comparative efficacy of brute force and the power to hurt in influencing or controlling others.1  A classic example is the application of American power to achieve the unconditional surrender of Japan in World War II:  continuing to use brute force to overcome Japanese military forces and occupy Japan (as the Allied Forces had done in Germany) was deemed far more cumbersome than terrorizing the Japanese through the use of atomic bombs against two civilian targets.  This use of the power to hurt, with the implicit threat of its further use on a wider basis, got virtually immediate results.

The application of these two sources of power by the power elite is not hard to find.  With respect to brute force, it is no secret that the US military has been training and arming state and local law enforcement across the country, including supplying some of the same weaponry used in a war zone against an external opponent.  Even more alarming, the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team Unit, fresh from action in Iraq and having access to both lethal and non-lethal weapons, including tanks, has recently been assigned to a 12 month tour of duty for domestic security operations.2

Regarding the power to hurt, as the populace witnesses the official acceptance of torture, as well as the increasing brutalization of ordinary citizens (e.g., the use of taser guns to inflict massive electrical shock and even death), it inevitably adopts a mode of self-protective retrenchment or “self-censoring.”

In a pervasive climate of fear, protest and dissidence become less and less likely, and the march to a full-blown police state is thereby facilitated.  Among the most blatant applications of the power to hurt, used as a form of terrorist manipulation, have been the elite’s obscene threats of a massive depression and nationwide martial law in the service of its bailout legislation.

But in addition to brute force and the power to hurt, the elite uses another form of power that is  chilling in its efficacy: sophisticated techniques for controlling information and, more generally, for controlling the perceptions and behavior of the populace through mental and emotional manipulation of  the very reality it experiences.

Elite control of the media extends beyond manipulating the news that the public receives to molding public opinion and behavior by means of media advertising and entertainment.  Examples range from sponsorship of the TV show 24, which attempts to legitimize “enhanced interrogation techniques” (the sanitized phrase for torture), to manipulative TV commercials showing stars cheerfully accepting personal identification technology that smacks of Big Brother.  The elite cabal exploits its control over media and entertainment to keep the public misled, distracted and ultimately imprisoned in a matrix of disinformation, rampant consumerism and the lowest common denominators of human nature, including raw violence and mindless sexuality.

In a renowned speech given in Berkeley in 1962, British writer Aldous Huxley contrasted his dystopic novel Brave New World with George Orwell’s novel 1984, written just after the collapse of the Hitlerian terror regime and while the Stalinist terror regime was still in full swing.3  In Huxley’s view, 1984 was “a projection into the future of a society where control was exercised wholly by terrorism and violent attacks upon the mind-body of individuals,” whereas his own novel addressed “other methods of control…probably a good deal more efficient.”

• “We are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy…to get people to love their servitude….There seems to be a general movement in the  direction of this kind of…a method of control by which a people can be made to enjoy a state of affairs by which any decent standard they ought not to enjoy.”

Huxley’s concerns about the newly available non-terrorist techniques for “inducing people to love their servitude” were echoed by Nobel Prize winner Bertand Russell, who predicted that as a result of the gradual and ruthless use of technological advances, “a revolt of the plebs would be as unthinkable as an organized insurrection of sheep against the practice of eating mutton.”4

A powerful form of psychological control used by the global elite is to induce widespread depression stemming from a feeling of futility or helplessness.  This brings to mind the famous quote from Thoreau that most humans live “lives of quiet desperation,” which he elaborated on by stating that “what is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”  It also brings to mind the concept in clinical psychology known as ‘learned helplessness’.

The phenomenon of learned helplessness was discovered through psychological experiments in 1967 by Martin Seligman and Steve Maier.  A group of harnessed dogs was given painful electric shocks, which they could end by pressing a lever. Another group received shocks of identical intensity and duration without a means to stop them. The dogs who could stop the pain recovered from the experience quickly, but those who could not learned that they were helpless and exhibited symptoms similar to chronic clinical depression: when they were put in a shuttle-box apparatus in which they could escape electric shocks by jumping over a low partition, most of the dogs just lay down passively and whined rather than trying to escape the shocks.5

Another powerful from of elitist mind control is to create dependency on authority figures  through “shock and awe” techniques. In her brilliant work on the “shock doctrine” of disaster  Capitalism, Naomi Klein argues that it is the knowledge of human nature gained through the application of torture techniques by intelligence agencies that has infused the broader mind control strategies of the disaster capitalists.6

In the CIA’s basic interrogation manual declassified in 1963, for example, a window of opportunity is highlighted in which torture reduces its victim to a state of traumatized disorientation and childlike regression, creating an opening for the interrogator to be transformed into a protective father figure.  This is one of the classic tactics of tyrants across the planet. In the view of Klein and others, it was used after the shock of 9/11 to create a national lens of perception within the overall control matrix, a kind of template to be used by the mind to reflexively process all relevant concepts in terms of the ‘war on terror’.

Klein sees the solution as contained in the problem: as we gain awareness of the same pattern playing out again and again, we can become prepared for the next shock and its exploitation by disaster  Capitalists:

• “If we understand how our states of shock are exploited, if we can recognize the signs, then the next time there is a crisis (and it can be an economic crisis)…then when the next shock hits we can prepare.”
  

• “I have a quote…from Milton Friedman, who says that only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change, and…when the crisis hits, the change depends on the ideas that are lying around. So it’s not just about recognizing a pattern; it’s also about having your [reformist] ideas lying around when the next shock hits.” 7

Despite the apparent setback of the new bailout legislation, I share Klein’s confidence in our ability to overturn the psychological impairments resulting from shock and awe tactics.  More generally, I am  optimistic about reversing the spectrum of impairments grouped here under the rubric of psychological control.  Even cases of severe mental disorders induced by the horrific CIA mind control program known an MK Ultra have been healed, in a benevolent use of a technique known as reverse engineering.

As a practitioner in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), I have become  personally familiar with extraordinary new techniques for healing previously intractable syndromes such as learned helplessness and war-induced post-traumatic stress disorder.

As an educator who has worked with children and adults with cognitive disabilities, I have seen next to miraculous results from the innovative methods now available.

And, finally, as a human being who reveres the human spirit and its perennial  indomitability, I refuse to believe that a small cabal of beings solely in service to self will ever be able to take over the minds and souls of mankind.

As our best minds address the hair raising elitist victory represented by the bailout legislation, I encourage their deconstructing just how this criminality managed to succeed by tracing its origins in history in terms of the threefold model of power given in this article. In my own view, the current crisis is a crisis in the Chinese sense of the term, i.e., an opportunity in disguise. Because the  crisis is rightly perceived as a conflict between Wall Street and Main Street, as an incongruence  between the actions of government and the political will and best interest of its constituents, and more generally as a power grab by authoritarian capitalism that is in full daylight for all to examine, it is an opportunity like no other for educating the populace.  It is an opportunity like no other to awaken and educate the people so they are no longer sitting ducks for the three forms of power delineated in this article.  Especially the third: history abounds with examples of how the first two forms of power lose their hold, indeed in many cases back off, when confronted with a people who value the quality of life over life on any terms, a people who will go to any lengths to protect their basic  rights as human beings.

It is that spirit that infused the birth and early life of our Republic. I am betting that it is still alive and well in America.

THE “CHOSEN ONES” AND THE GOD OF WAR

Israel: Wedded To War?

Far from learning the lessons of past conflict, the country’s military seem ever more willing to resort to brute force

By Ben White

08/10/08 “The Guardian” – – For Israel, the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon war was all about questions. What mistakes were made, and who made them? What could be done to restore the Israeli military’s “deterrence” after a widely perceived defeat? In general, what lessons could be learned from the confrontation with Hizbullah in order that next time, there would be no question of failure? Unfortunately, it seems that entirely the wrong kinds of conclusions are being reached, at least in the military hierarchy and among the policy shaping thinktanks. On Friday, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper published comments made by Israeli general Gadi Eisenkot, head of the army’s northern command. Eisenkot took the opportunity to share the principles shaping plans for a future war.

The general promised “disproportionate” force to destroy entire villages identified as sources of Hizbullah rocket fire, the reasoning being that they are “not civilian villages” but rather “military bases” – the kind of reasoning that can land you in a war crimes tribunal.

Eisenkot pointed to how Israel levelled the Dahiya neighbourhood of Beirut in 2006 and confirmed that this would be the fate of “every village from which Israel is fired on”. In case there was any doubt, he added: “This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.”

The frank promise of “disproportionate” force will be chilling for the Lebanese, who even last time round were subjected to indiscriminate attack, the targeted destruction of civilian infrastructure, and carpet cluster-bombing. But what Ha’aretz dubbed the “Dahiya Doctrine” received enthusiastic support in some quarters, such as veteran Israeli TV and print journalist Yaron London.

London seemed highly pleased with Eisenkot’s determination to “destroy Lebanon”, undeterred “by the protests of the ‘world’”. London, while looking forward to Israel “pulverising” some “160 Shi’ite villages” made the implications of Eisenkot’s thinking clear: “In practical terms, the Palestinians in Gaza are all Khaled Mashaal, the Lebanese are all Nasrallah, and the Iranians are all Ahmadinejad.” The meaning of “practical terms” did not need repeating.

The Ha’aretz report also described how similar conclusions were being reached in reports by military-academic institutions. One such paper, published by the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University, and unambiguously titled “Disproportionate Force”, details the author’s (reserve Colonel Gabriel Siboni) understanding of the lessons of 2006:

With an outbreak of hostilities, the IDF will need to act immediately, decisively, and with force that is disproportionate to the enemy’s actions and the threat it poses. Such a response aims at inflicting damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes.

Siboni urges the Israeli military to strike disproportionately at “the enemy’s weak points”, and only afterwards to go after the missile launchers themselves. Devastating “economic interests”, “centres of civilian powers”, and “state infrastructure” will “create a lasting memory among Syrian and Lebanese decision makers” and thus increase “Israeli deterrence” and tie up “enemy” resources in reconstruction.

A further new INSS publication by a former head of the National Security Council, urges Israel to guarantee that next time around, the Lebanese army and civilian infrastructure “will be destroyed”. Or as the author pithily puts it, “People won’t be going to the beach in Beirut while Haifa residents are in shelters”.

This determination to “create a lasting memory” in the minds of the Syrian and Lebanese is reminiscent of previous Israeli declarations of intent. In 2003, the IDF’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Moshe Ya’alon, said that the war being waged in the occupied territories would “sear deep into the consciousness of Palestinians that they are a defeated people”.

In 2006 in fact, the likes of Dr Reuven Erlich, head of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre at the Centre for Special Studies in Tel Aviv, also recommended “searing” into the “Lebanese consciousness” the “steep price they will pay for provoking and harassing us”.

Using brute force to “sear” certain truths into the consciousness of Arabs of varying descriptions has a certain heritage in Israeli and Zionist thought, going all the way back to Jabotinsky’s theory of the “iron wall”. In the 1920s he wrote candidly that “every indigenous people will resist alien settlers as long as they see any hope of ridding themselves of the danger of foreign settlement”. The need then was for an “iron wall” of force to bring the Palestinians to the point of giving up “all hope”.

While the brutal logic of settler-colonial domination has been a guiding principle for Israeli military strategists through the decades, it has been complemented by the racist “anthropological” cliche that the “Arabs only understand force”. Interestingly, such tropes are now commonplace in US military discourse, as the Pentagon is also now in the position of directly occupying a Middle East country and facing resistance.

Thus it seems Israel is learning entirely the wrong lessons from the 2006 conflict. Wrong, of course, from a moral point of view (though that only seems to enter the picture in terms of an anticipated international backlash). The conclusion could also be seen as flawed from the perspective of the kind of response it could invite. Fundamentally though, these pledges of disproportionate devastation show that the Israeli military leadership suffers from tunnel-vision policymaking, wedded to the idea that Israel will gain acceptance in the Middle East through force of arms.

Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out “Crowd Control”

Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S.

Streets Ready to Carry Out “Crowd Control”

Members of Congress were told they could face martial law if they didn’t pass the bailout bill. This will not be the last time.

By Naomi Wolf

08/10/08 “AlterNet” – Background: the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of October 1. Their stated mission is the form of crowd control they practiced in Iraq, subduing “unruly individuals,” and the management of a national emergency. I am in Seattle and heard from the brother of one of the soldiers that they are engaged in exercises now. Amy Goodman reported that an Army spokesperson confirmed that they will have access to lethal and non lethal crowd control technologies and tanks.

George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus, thus making it legal for military to patrol the U.S. He has also legally established that in the “War on Terror,” the U.S. is at war around the globe and thus the whole world is a battlefield. Thus the U.S. is also a battlefield.

He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far broader powers in the event of a loosely defined “insurrection” or many other “conditions” he has the power to identify. The Constitution allows the suspension of habeas corpus — habeas corpus prevents us from being seized by the state and held without trial — in the event of an “insurrection.” With his own army force now, his power to call a group of protesters or angry voters “insurgents” staging an “insurrection” is strengthened.

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said to Congress, captured on C-Span and viewable on YouTube, that individual members of the House were threatened with martial law within a week if they did not pass the bailout bill:

“The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. … Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no.”

If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to consider that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is foolish to assume they will never use that threat again. It is also foolish to trust in an orderly election process to resolve this threat. And why deploy the First Brigade? One thing the deployment accomplishes is to put teeth into such a threat.

I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and patriot David Antoon for clarification:

“If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?”

“Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress would be at the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them not to obey illegal orders.”

“But these orders are now legal?’”

“Correct.”

“If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?”

“Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken.”

“If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?”

“Nothing.”

“What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?“

“Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq — send a tank down a street in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they did into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else.”

“What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?”

“They’d probably be treated as deserters as in Iraq: arrested, detained and facing five years in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann Wright shows that deserters — reservists who refused to go back to Iraq — got longer sentences than war criminals.”

“Does Congress have any military of their own?”

“No. Congress has no direct control of any military units. The Governors have the National Guard but they report to the President in an emergency that he declares.”

“Who can arrest the President?”

“The Attorney General can arrest the President after he leaves or after impeachment.”

[Note: Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has asserted it is possible for District Attorneys around the country to charge President Bush with murder if they represent districts where one or more military members who have been killed in Iraq formerly resided.]

“Given the danger do you advocate impeachment?”

“Yes. President Bush struck down Posse Comitatus — which has prevented, with a penalty of two years in prison, U.S. leaders since after the Civil War from sending military forces into our streets – with a ‘signing statement.’ He should be impeached immediately in a bipartisan process to prevent the use of military forces and mercenary forces against U.S. citizens”

“Should Americans call on senior leaders in the Military to break publicly with this action and call on their own men and women to disobey these orders?”

“Every senior military officer’s loyalty should ultimately be to the Constitution. Every officer should publicly break with any illegal order, even from the President.”

“But if these are now legal. If they say, ‘Don’t obey the Commander in Chief,’ what happens to the military?”

“Perhaps they would be arrested and prosecuted as those who refuse to participate in the current illegal war. That’s what would be considered a coup.”

“But it’s a coup already.”

“Yes.”

Time To Face The Facts On Afghanistan

Time To Face The Facts On Afghanistan

By Eric S. Margolis

08/10/08 — - Toronto October 06, 2008 — For those who savor historical irony, the Soviet Empire collapsed in the years 1989-1991 because of an implosion of its economy brought on by a ruinous arms race with the United States and the heavy costs of occupying Afghanistan.
Seventeen years later came the turn of the world’s other great imperial power, the United States. Lethally bloated by runaway debt, and burdened by 50% of the world’s military spending, the house of cards known as the US economy finally collapsed.

The doomsday news from New York and Washington has obscured most other world affairs. This is unfortunate because for the first time there is a flicker – and I mean only a flicker – of light at the end of the Afghanistan tunnel. It may only be an oncoming truck bomb.

The US-installed Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, revealed last week he had asked Saudi Arabia to broker peace talks with the alliance of tribal and political groups resisting Western occupation collectively known as Taliban. Saudi Arabia had been one of the few nations to recognize the Taliban government and retains considerable influence in Afghanistan and remains a loyal friend of Pakistan.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar quickly rejected Karzai’s offer, and claimed the US was heading toward the same kind of catastrophic defeat in Afghanistan that the Soviet Union had met. The ongoing financial panic in North America lent substance to his words.

The US economy is in grave peril and its big three automakers may soon face bankruptcy. In a crazy sidebar, as Wall Street and the Us banking system faced meltdown, the insouciant Pentagon just announced it would spend $300 million with American `contractors’ to spread pro-US propaganda in Iraq. This remarkable idiocy notwithstanding, Washington could soon run out of money necessary to keep paying for operations in Iraq, and bribing Pakistan with $250-300 million a month to wage war against its own rebellious Pashtun tribes people along the Afghanistan border.

The able and forthright US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, urgently called for at least 10,000 more troops. US and NATO forces in Afghanistan are increasingly on the defensive, hard pressed to defend vulnerable supply lines in spite of massive fire power and total control of the air.

Attacks on US and NATO convoys are even beginning at the port of Karachi. The prospect of the US spreading a war it can’t win in Afghanistan into Pakistan is military and political madness.

Startlingly, Gen. McKiernan appeared to break with Bush administration policy by proposing political talks with Taliban and admitting the war had to be ended by diplomacy. The military men know this war cannot be won on the battlefield. McKiernan’s predecessor told Congress that 400,000 US troops would be needed to pacify Afghanistan. There are currently 80,000 western troops in Afghanistan, many of them unwilling to enter combat.

By sharp contrast, I recently asked Karl Rove, President Bush’s former senior advisor, how the US could ever hope to win the war in Afghanistan. His eyes dancing with imperial hubris, Rove brightly replied, `More Predators(missile armed drones) and helicopters! Then we’ll go into Pakistan.’

Which reminded me of poet Hilaire Beloc’s wonderful line about 19th century British imperialism that I use in my new book, `American Raj:’ `Whatever happens/we have got/the Maxim gun* /and they have not.’

*Maxim gun – early machine gun

Though Karzai’s olive branch was rejected, the fact he made it public is very important. By doing so, both he and Gen. McKiernan broke the simple-minded Western taboo against negotiations with Taliban and its allies.

Let us remember that Taliban is not a `terrorist movement,’ as claimed by western war propaganda, but was founded as an Islamic religious movement dedicated to fighting Communism and the drug trade.

Taliban received US funding until May, 2001. In fact, CIA keep close contacts with Taliban, many of whose members were US-backed mujahidin from the anti-Soviet war of the 1980’s, for possible future use against the Communist regimes of Central Asia and against China. The 9/11 attacks made CIA immediately cut its links to Taliban and burn the associated files.

In recent years, Western war propaganda has so demonized Taliban that few politicians have the courage to propose the obvious and inevitable: a negotiated settlement to this pointless seven-year war. A noteworthy exception came last April when NATO’s secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who admitted the war could only be ended by negotiations, not military means.

The Karzai government cannot extend its authority beyond Kabul because that would mean overthrowing the very same Uzbek and Tajik drug-dealing warlords and Communists chiefs that are its base of power. There is no real Afghan national army, just a bunch of unenthusiastic mercenaries who pretend to fight.

The current war in Afghanistan is not really about al-Qaida and `terrorism,’ but about opening a secure corridor through Pashtun tribal territory to export the oil and gas riches of the Caspian Basin of Central Asia to the West. The US and NATO forces in Afghanistan are essentially pipeline protection troops fighting off the hostile natives..

Both Barack Obama and John McCain are wrong about Afghanistan. It is not a `good’ fight against `terrorism,’ but a classic, 19th century colonial war to advance western geopolitical power into resource-rich Central Asia. The Pashtun Afghans who live there are ready to fight for another 100 years. The western powers certainly are not.

As that great American founding father Benjamin Franklin said, `there is no good war, and no bad peace.’ Time for the West to face reality in Afghanistan.

FEMA sources confirm coming martial law- Wayne Madsen Report

FEMA sources confirm coming martial law Wayne Madsen WMR October 8, 2008

WMR has learned from knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country. In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources report that the assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North is to augment FEMA and federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern Command. On April 3, 2008, WMR reported on a highly-classified document regarding the martial law scenario: WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources within the US financial community that an alarming confidential and limited distribution document is circulating among senior members of Congress and their senior staff members that is warning of a bleak future for the United States if it does not quickly get its financial house in order. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among those who have reportedly read the document. The document is being called the “C & R” document because it reportedly states that if the United States defaults on loans and debt underwriting from China, Japan, and Russia, all of which are propping up the United States government financially, and the United States unilaterally cancels the debts, America can expect a war that will have disastrous results for the United States and the world. “Conflict” is the “C word” in the document. The other scenario is that the federal government will be forced to drastically raise taxes in order to pay off debts to foreign countries to the point that the American people will react with a popular revolution against the government. “Revolution” is the document’s “R word.

“Islamic Jihad,” Didn’t Yemen Just Link Them To Mossad?

Blogrolling.com has been Hacked

by “Islamic Jihad”???

qrswave’s blog

I tried to add a link to my “Great Sites” page which is powered by Bloggrolling.com (TM) and THIS is what I got…

Anybody got any clues as to WHO is behind this nonsense and what if anything Blogroll did to deserve being targeted like this???

My guess is that “Islamic Jihad” is about as much responsible for this hack job as they were responsible for the attack against the US embassy in Yemen…

Someone at Blogroll must be getting too close to the Truth…

BTW – someone take a screen capture of the hack job and post it online for the record.

Thnx!

BÝSMÝLLAHÝRRAHMANÝRRAHÝM

HaCkEd By ÝsLaMi CiHaD

(EjDeR21 & cryptoqrapher & batin)

ejder2121@windowslive.com

In The Name OF Him We Start And Finish

ALLAH IS GREATEST

And Mohammed Hist Massenger

“Ýnned Dine Ýndallahil Ýslam”

CIA AND PAKISTANI RADICALIZATION OF PAKISTANI AND AFGHAN CHILDREN

Pakistan’s educational system

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

08 September 2008
Himal South Asian

Pervez Hoodbhoy is a physicist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

————————————-

‘Alif’ is for Allah
‘Bay’ is for bundooq (gun)
‘Hay’ is for hijab
‘Jeem’ is for jihad
‘Tay’ is for takrao (collision)
‘Zal’ is for zunoob (sin)

For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian Peninsula. This continental drift is not geophysical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its Southasian identity for an Arab-Muslim one. Grain by grain, the desert sands of Saudi Arabia are replacing the alluvium that had nurtured Muslim culture in the Indian Subcontinent for over a thousand years. A stern, unyielding version of Islam – Wahhabism – is replacing the kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis and saints.

This drift is by design. Twenty-five years ago, the Pakistani state pushed Islam onto its people. Prayers in government departments were deemed compulsory; floggings were carried out publicly; punishments were meted out to those who did not fast during Ramadan; selection for academic posts required that the candidates demonstrate knowledge of Islamic teachings, and the jihad was emphasised as essential for every Muslim. Today, such government intervention is no longer needed due to the spontaneous groundswell of Islamic zeal. The notion of an Islamic state – as yet in some amorphous and diffused form – is more popular than ever before, as people look desperately for miracles to rescue a failing state. Across the country, there has been a spectacular increase in the power and prestige of the clerics, attendance in mosques, home prayer meetings (dars and zikr), observance of special religious festivals, and fasting during Ramadan.

Villages have changed drastically, driven in part by Pakistani workers returning from Arab countries. Many village mosques are now giant madrassas that propagate hard-line Salafi and Deobandi beliefs through oversized loudspeakers. They are bitterly opposed to Barelvis, Shias and other Muslims who they do not consider to be Muslims. Punjabis, who were far more liberal towards women than were the Pashtuns, are now beginning to embrace the line of thought resembling that of the Taliban. Hanafi law (from one of the four schools of thought or jurisprudence within Sunni Islam) has begun to prevail over tradition and civil law.

Among the Pakistani lower-middle and middle classes lurks a grim and humourless Saudi-inspired revivalist movement (which can be called ‘Saudi-isation’) that frowns upon every form of joyous expression. Lacking any positive connection to culture and knowledge, it seeks to eliminate ‘corruption’ by strictly regulating cultural life and seizing absolute control of the education system. “Classical music is on its last legs in Pakistan; the sarangi and vichtarveena are completely dead,” laments Mohammad Shehzad, a student of music. Indeed, teaching music in public universities is vehemently opposed by students of the Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba, religious fundamentalists who consider music haram. Kathak dancing, once popular among the Muslim elite of India, has no teachers left in Pakistan, and the feature films produced in the country are of next to no consequence. Meanwhile the Pakistani elites, disconnected from the rest of the
population, comfortably live their lives through their vicarious proximity to the West.

School militarism

More than a quarter-century after the state-sponsored Islamisation of the country, the state in Pakistan is itself under attack from religious militants, and rival Islamic groups battle each other with heavy weapons. Ironically, the same army – whose men were recruited under the banner of jihad, and which saw itself as the fighting arm of Islam – today stands accused of betrayal, and is targeted by Islamist suicide bombers on an almost daily basis. The militancy that bedevils Pakistan is by no means confined to the tribal areas; it breeds feverishly in the cities as well. Pakistan’s self-inflicted suffering comes from an education system that propagates the jihad culture, which ceaselessly demands that Islam be understood as a complete code of life, designed to create in the minds of the school child a sense of siege and embattlement.

The process begins early. For example, the government-approved curriculum of a Class V Social Studies textbook prescribes that the child should be able to “Make speeches on Jehad and Shahadat”, and “Understand Hindu-Muslim differences and the resultant need for Pakistan.” The material placed before the Pakistani schoolchild has remained largely unchanged even after the attacks of 11 September 2001, which led to Pakistan’s abrupt desertion of the Taliban and the slackening of the Kashmir jihad. Indeed, for all the talk of ‘enlightened moderation’, then-General Pervez Musharraf’s educational curriculum, passed down with some dilution from the time of Zia ul- Haq, was far from enlightening. Fearful of taking on powerful religious forces, every incumbent government has refused to take a position on the curriculum. Thus, successive administrations have quietly allowed the young minds to be moulded by fanatics.

As such, the promotion of militarism in Pakistan’s schools, colleges and universities has had a profound effect on young people. Militant jihad has become a part of the culture in college and university campuses, with armed groups inviting students for jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan. The primary vehicle for ‘Saudi-ising’ Pakistan’s education has been the madrassa. During the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, madrassas provided the US-Saudi-Pakistan alliance that recruits needed for fighting a ‘holy’ war. Earlier on, this role had been limited to turning out the occasional Islamic scholar, using a curriculum dating back to the 11th century with minor subsequent revisions. The principal function of the madrassas had been to produce imams and muezzins for mosques.

The Afghan jihad changed everything. Under Zia, with active assistance from Saudi Arabia, madrassas sprang up across the length and breadth of Pakistan, and now number about 22,000. The free room, board and supplies provided to students has always constituted a key part of the appeal to join these madrassas. But the desire of parents across the country for their children to be ‘disciplined’, and to be given a thorough ‘Islamic’ education, is also a major contributing factor.

One of the chief goals of the Islamists is to bring about a complete separation of the sexes, the consequences of which have been catastrophic. Take the tragic example of the stampede in a madrassa in Karachi in April 2006, in which 21 women and eight children were crushed to death, and scores more injured; all the while, male rescuers were prevented from assisting. Likewise, after the October 2005 earthquake, as this writer walked through the destroyed city of Balakot, a student of the Frontier Medical College described how he and his male colleagues were stopped by religious elders from digging out injured girls from under the rubble of their school building.

The drive to segregate the sexes is now also influencing educated women. Vigorous proselytisers of this message, such as Farhat Hashmi – one of the most influential contemporary Muslim scholars, or ulema, particularly in Pakistan, the UK and the US – have become massively successful, and have been catapulted to heights of fame and fortune. Two decades ago, the fully veiled student was a rarity on any university or college campus in Pakistan. Abaya was once an unknown word in Urdu, but today many shops in Islamabad specialise in these dreary robes, which cover the entire body except the face, feet and hands. At colleges and universities across Pakistan, female students are today seeking the anonymity of the burqa, outnumbering their sisters who still dare to show their faces.

The immediate future of Pakistan looks grim, as increasing numbers of mullahs are creating cults around themselves and seizing control over the minds of their worshippers. In the tribal areas, a string of new Islamist leaders have suddenly emerged – Baituallah Mehsud, Fazlullah, Mangal Bagh and Haji Namdar among others – feeding on the environment of poverty, deprivation, lack of justice, and extreme
disparities in wealth.

In the long term, Pakistan’s future will be determined by the ideological and political battle between citizens who want an Islamist theocratic state, and citizens who want a modern Islamic republic. It may yet be possible to roll back the Islamist laws and institutions that have corroded Pakistani society for over 30 years, and defeat the ‘holy’ warriors. However, this can only happen if Pakistan’s elected leaders acquire the trust of the citizens. To do this, political parties, government officials and, yes, even generals will have to embrace democracy, in both word and deed.

Pervez Hoodbhoy is a physicist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

COMMENTS:

CIA Radicalization of Pakistan

We cannot forget that the CIA is the main reason for the Wahhabi penetration of Pakistan and the rest of the Islamic world.  The problems caused by radical madrassas are going according to the CIA plan to radicalize a generation of Afghan and Pakistani boys for  the American/Saudi/Israeli jihad.  The Jihadi textbooks created by the University of Nebraska Omaha, under the cover of USAID, were the centerpiece of the program to subvert Islam and undermine the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  According to contacts I have made, the UNO program that created the militarized texts went on to produce a generation of textbooks and teacher training in Pakistan, “in the late eighties.”

In “The Subtle Subversion” (The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan), Edited By: A. H. Nayyar and Ahmad Salim, the Pakistani “post-1979 curricula and textbooks openly eulogize Jehad and Shahadat and urge students to become mujahids and martyrs.”

This puts the blame for the radical mosques and texts squarely on the United States.  It took a lot of money and effort to produce a generation of pissed-off radicalized Muslims to pose as the ghost armies of “al Qaida.”

As for the author’s claim that “a string of new Islamist leaders have suddenly emerged – Baituallah Mehsud, Fazlullah, Mangal Bagh and Haji Namdar among others,” this emergeance of so-called “local Taliban” has also been exposed as another CIA subversion project.

We produce imposter adversaries to justify massive military retaliation against those governments foolish enough to ally themselves with us.

Peter Chamberlin | Wed, 2008-10-08 15:14

Thank you Peter

Just a very small piece from your link:

This study is by no means the first to point out these issues. The civil society of Pakistan reacted almost immediately to the Zia government’s policies of Islamization of education.

A number of educationists wrote articles, research papers and books highlighting the way in which the educational space was being usurped by blatant indoctrination.

The first question they addressed was regarding distortions in history, and the contributions of Pervez Hoodbhoy, K. K. Aziz, I. A. Rahman, Mubarak Ali, and A. H. Nayyar were noteworthy.

The first known work on the deliberate distortion of history for ideological reasons was from Pervez Hoodbhoy and A. H. Nayyar, pointing out the policy directive that had brought about the change and the subsequent distortions entering the Pakistan Studies textbooks, the foremost target of the process of Islamization of education.

Soon thereafter, the Lahore-based Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE) produced a report in 1986 on Pakistan’s curriculum based on a countrywide consultation involving a number of eminent educationists of the country.

Mubarak Ali, through his thought provoking works, brought forth the distortions, inaccuracies and biases in textbooks through his books, newspaper articles and booklets both in English and Urdu.

K.K. Aziz also pointed out errors in history textbooks in a chapter of his book Historians of Pakistan, published in the early 90s.

In another famous book on the subject, Murder of History in Pakistan, Professor Aziz analysed in detail 66 school textbooks and identified historical errors and inaccuracies.

Renowned human rights activist and journalist, I. A. Rahman has also touched upon the issue of historical distortion in textbooks regarding the tragedy of 1971 (Fall of Dhaka).

The earliest work on gender bias in textbooks emerged from Simorgh and Aurat Foundation, NGO’s that specialize in women related issues.

In 1993 Rubina Saigol conducted a content analysis of language and social studies textbooks to find out the amount of hate material, and nationalistic and militaristic ideologies packed in the textbooks.

In her Ph.D. thesis in the early nineties and subsequently in her various research papers, books and monographs, she conducted a detailed analysis of social studies, civics, history and Pakistan Studies textbook.

She also identified such additional categories of problems in curriculum and textbooks as ‘glorification of the military’, and did a comparative analysis of textbooks from the pre-Ayub period, Ayub era and the Bhutto era.

Rhiannon | Wed, 2008-10-08 21:27