CIA keeping drone attacks data secret

BY GARETH PORTER

IPS NEWS AGENCY

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned predator drones in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region, combined with recent revelations that CIA operatives have been paying Pakistanis to identify the targets, suggests that managers of the drone attacks programs have been using the total secrecy surrounding the program to hide abuses and high civilian casualties.

Intelligence analysts have been unable to obtain either the list of military targets of the drone strikes or the actual results in terms of al Qaeda or civilians killed, according to a Washington source familiar with internal discussion of the drone strike program. The source insisted on not being identified because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue.

“They can’t find out anything about the program,” the source told IPS. That has made it impossible for other government agencies to judge its real consequences, according to the source.

Since early 2009, Barack Obama administration officials have been claiming that the predator attacks in Pakistan have killed nine of 20 top al Qaeda officials, but they have refused to disclose how many civilians have been killed in the strikes.

In April, The News, a newspaper in Lahore, Pakistan, published figures provided by Pakistani officials indicating that 687 civilians have been killed along with 14 al Qaeda leaders in some 60 drone strikes since January 2008 – just over 50 civilians killed for every al Qaeda leader.

A paper published this week by the influential pro-military Centre for a New American Security (CNAS) criticizing the Obama administration’s use of drone attacks in Pakistan says U.S. officials “vehemently dispute” the Pakistani figures but offers no further data on the program.

In an interview with IPS, Nathaniel C. Fick, the chief operating officer of CNAS, who coauthored the paper, said Pentagon officials claim privately that 300 al Qaeda fighters have been killed in the drone attacks. However, those officials refuse to stipulate further just who they have included under that rubric, according to Fick, and have not offered any figure on civilian deaths.

What is needed is “a strict definition of the target set – a definition of who is al Qaeda,” said Fick.

Press reports that the CIA is paying Pakistani agents for identifying al Qaeda targets by placing electronic chips at farmhouses supposedly inhabited by al Qaeda officials, so they can be bombed by predator planes, has raised new questions about whether the CIA and the Obama administration have simply redefined al Qaeda in order to cover up an abusive system and justify the program.

The initial story on the CIA payments for placing the chips by Carol Grisanti and Mushtaq Yusufzai of NBC News Apr. 17 was based on a confession by a 19-year-old in North Waziristan on a video released by the Taliban. In his confession, the young man says, “I was given 122 dollars to drop chips wrapped in a cigarette paper at al Qaida and Taliban houses. If I was successful, I was told, I would be given thousands of dollars.”

He goes on to say, “I thought this was a very easy job. The money was so good so I started throwing the chips all over. I knew people were dying because of what I was doing, but I needed the money.”

The video shows the man being shot as a spy for the United States.

A U.S. official told NBC news that the video was “extremist propaganda,” but a story in The Guardian May 31 said residents of Waziristan, including one student identified as Taj Muhammad Wazir, had confirmed that tribesman have been paid to lay the electronic devices to target drone strikes.

The knowledgeable Washington source told IPS the Guardian article is consistent with past CIA intelligence-gathering methods in Afghanistan and elsewhere. “We buy data,” he said. “Everything is paid for.”

The implication of the system of purchasing targeting information for drone strikes is that there is “no guarantee” that the people being targeted are officials of al Qaeda or allied organizations, he said.

Fick, who is a veteran of the post-9/11 military operations in Afghanistan and the early phase of the Iraq war, said that kind of intelligence for targeting is “intrinsically problematic”.

Although the CNAS paper by Fick, Andrew Exum and David Kilcullen does not explicitly call for ending drone attacks, it is highly critical of the program, charging that the use of drones represents a “tactic… substituting for a strategy”.

It concedes that, by “killing key leaders and hampering operations”, the drone attacks against al Qaeda and some other militants in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) “create a sense of insecurity among militants and constrain their interactions with suspected informers”.

But it argues that the drone attacks have also “created a siege mentality among the Pashtun population in northwest Pakistan”, and likened them to similar strikes against Islamic militants in Somalia in 2005-2006. The net result of those earlier strikes, the authors assert, was to anger the population and make the Islamic insurgents more popular.

The drone strikes in Pakistan are having a similar impact, not only in the tribal areas but in other provinces as well, the paper said. In a panel discussing the paper at the think tank’s annual meeting Thursday, Exum, a former officer in Afghanistan, said, “We are not saying that the drone strikes are not part of a solution, but right now they are part of the problem.”

The new CNAS criticism of drone strikes is of particular interest because of the close relationship between the think tank and CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, who was the keynote speaker at Thursday’s conference. The new president of CNAS, John Nagl, is a former adviser to Petraeus and co-author of the Army’s counterinsurgency manual. CNAS is widely regarded as reflecting the perspective of the Petraeus wing of the U.S. military.

Another co-author and former Petraeus aide, Australian David Kilcullen, who was also a senior fellow at CNAS last year, had already come out strongly against drone strikes as politically self-defeating.

However, Nagl himself told IPS that he disagrees with the CNAS paper’s position on drone strikes. He said he believes the benefits of the strikes are greater than have been publicly communicated by the administration, and suggested the failure to release any more figures on the results could be attributed to a “culture of secrecy”.

Petraeus made no mention of the issue in his presentation to the CNAS conference on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Washington Post reported Jun. 1 that Petraeus wrote in a secret May 27 assessment, “Anti-U.S. sentiment has already been increasing in Pakistan… especially in regard to cross-border and reported drone strikes, which Pakistanis perceive to cause unacceptable civilian casualties.”

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, “Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam”, was published in 2006.

IPS NEWS AGENCY

Pakistan SitRep

What he does know is that he has to strike terror into the hearts of his enemies. He has to force them down onto their knees through carnage and bloody mayhem. But here too he displays his typical ignorance. He knows not that his enemies have changed over the centuries and now recognize tyranny even when it comes dressed in a beard and a cloak. They now know that all oppressors invoke the name of God only to violate it when that suits them better. They can clearly make out the fearsome contours of his grisly visage and what it entails for them. They now are ready to give any sacrifice to keep him at bay and will not be terrorized. This the mullah does not know. He does not know that his enemies now laugh at his “God’s rule in God’s land” ruse as a cunning slogan. They laugh because they know that God will not personally descend down from his throne to decree “His Rule”. It will be the Mullah who will become His sole medium. They now call it for what it is-a crafty control tactic that will throw them into the Mullah’s ruthless grind. And they have had clear glimpses of his implementation of “God’s rule in God’s land” in the neighboring Afghanistan when the mullah ruled supreme there. They call that as the most ruthless, most irrational and most hurtful of times for Afghan society from which not only is Afghanistan still hemorrhaging but has also been thrown back by decades. – Anwaar Hussain

---

By Anwaar Hussain
World Prout Assembly
June 13 2009

SitRep is a military acronym for Situation Report.

Following is Pakistan’s SitRep for the past fortnight or so.

06/13/09 – “WPA” – Murder and carnage continues unabated in Pakistan. On May 27, Lahore was struck yet again by a suicide bomber. The primary target seemed to be the ISI building but, owing to good defenses, could not be penetrated. The attackers instead hit their secondary target, the police Rescue15 building adjacent to the primary target. Result- twenty-six dead, including fifteen policemen and an ISI colonel, and many hundreds injured.

Just twenty-four hours later the bombers struck with a twin-bomb attack, this time the celebrated Kissa Khwani Bazaar of Peshawar. Casualties- eight dead and over sixty injured. Another explosion in the city of Dera Ismail Khan left three dead and a dozen injured. On June 1, an explosion in Kohat killed two and left seven injured.

On Friday, June 5, the bombers struck at a mosque in Dir; killing forty and leaving dozens injured. An attack on the PC hotel, the only 5-star facility in Peshawar, on June 9 left fifteen dead and over sixty injured. This last Friday, in the afternoon prayers, a bomber struck a mosque in Nowshehra Cantonment leaving behind five dead and over a hundred injured. Simultaneously in Lahore, a bomber assassinated a renowned cleric Dr. Sarfraz Naeemi, one of the very few moderates on Pakistan’s religious landscape, killing half a dozen other innocent citizens along with him.

Only this morning, a powerful bomb blast killed at least nine people at a market in the north-western Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan with more than fifty wounded. The casualties may rise later if some of the wounded succumb to their injuries. Incidentally, this is the same town where twenty-five people were killed in a bomb attack on a funeral procession in February this year.

For all of the above mentioned attacks, the Taliban have owned up responsibility upfront.

And here is the real SitRep of Pakistan.

With an ominous foreboding, the mullah has sensed the approaching grand finale. Riding on the crest of time, slowly but surely with each passing day, reason and rationality, his twin nemeses are encroaching upon him. Imprisoned in a time warp, seeing only with the whites of his eyes, unwilling to let go, hitting out wildly in all directions, the mullah fights back. One almost pities him.

One pities him because he knows not what he is doing. Being uneducated and ignorant of the true nature and philosophy of the religion that he so professes to love, he is now a condemned captive; condemned to following religious dogma blindly, faithfully and till death.

One also pities him because he has not reached here of his own free will. Vested interests colluded and conspired to keep him enchained in his archaic beliefs, giving him only a gun barrel view of the world around him, to use him as a programmed troll to serve their agendas. He did that and more.

But above all one pities him because he knows not that his time is up. The inevitable march of time has rendered him useless. Common people today are better informed than at any other point in human history. Because of that, human civilization, of which Muslims are an inherent part, is changing its course. His masters, who themselves are controlled by strings from beyond the horizons, too have felt the inevitable tug of times. They are letting go. The mullah, therefore, has become totally redundant. He has to give or risk becoming a red entry somewhere on the side margins of history when humanity does finally and firmly change its course. He knows it not.

What he does know is that he has to strike terror into the hearts of his enemies. He has to force them down onto their knees through carnage and bloody mayhem. But here too he displays his typical ignorance. He knows not that his enemies have changed over the centuries and now recognize tyranny even when it comes dressed in a beard and a cloak. They now know that all oppressors invoke the name of God only to violate it when that suits them better. They can clearly make out the fearsome contours of his grisly visage and what it entails for them. They now are ready to give any sacrifice to keep him at bay and will not be terrorized. This the mullah does not know.

He does not know that his enemies now laugh at his “God’s rule in God’s land” ruse as a cunning slogan. They laugh because they know that God will not personally descend down from his throne to decree “His Rule”. It will be the Mullah who will become His sole medium. They now call it for what it is-a crafty control tactic that will throw them into the Mullah’s ruthless grind. And they have had clear glimpses of his implementation of “God’s rule in God’s land” in the neighboring Afghanistan when the mullah ruled supreme there. They call that as the most ruthless, most irrational and most hurtful of times for Afghan society from which not only is Afghanistan still hemorrhaging but has also been thrown back by decades.

The mullah also does not know that though his enemies look down upon mindless killing with nauseous disgust owing to their sane minds, and because of which he has come thus far, now say enough to enough. They have seen the mullah behead their kith and kin, stone to death innocent human beings, dig out to desecrate dead bodies from the graves, whip their women, blow up their children’s schools to stifle modernistic thought and throttle their sense of inquiry. People now call his draconian laws instruments of suppression and not of enlightenment. Now that they know that he wants to be the arbiter of their destinies-the judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one, they say a resounding No to him and his ferocious yearning for his dark agenda.

The Mullah does not know that his enemies are finally united in their revulsion for his barbaric excesses and promise to make him feel the steel of their resolve on his jugular.

But above all what the Mullah does not know is that with his ghastly misdeeds, he has brought the Pakistani nation to such a turn that now they care not a hoot whether he knows or knows not. They are coming for him come hell or high water.

Be that known.
________________
Anwaar Hussain is a prolific Internet author and journalist. His website is “Truth Spring” and he can be reached at eagleeye@emirates.net.ae

Journalist Jeremy Scahill On Obambush

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Military Industrial Complex 2.0

(ABC News)

Fighting wars for hire has become an essential part of the Pentagon’s MO since 2001

By Frida Berrigan

• Cubicle mercenaries, subcontracting warriors, and other phenomena of a privatizing Pentagon

Seven years into George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror, the Pentagon is embroiled in two big wars, a potentially explosive war of words with Tehran, and numerous smaller conflicts – and it is leaning ever more heavily on private military contractors to get by.

Once upon a time, soldiers did more than pick up a gun. They picked up trash. They cut hair and delivered mail. They fixed airplanes and inflated truck tires.

Not anymore. All of those tasks are now the responsibility of private military corporations. In the service of the Pentagon, their employees also man computers, write software code, create integrating systems, train technicians, manufacture and service high-tech weapons, market munitions, and interpret satellite images.

People in ties or heels, not berets or fatigues, today translate documents, collect intelligence, interpret for soldiers and interrogators, approve contracts, draft reports to Congress, and provide oversight for other private contractors. They also fill prescriptions, fit prosthetics, and arrange for physical therapy and psychiatric care. Top to bottom, the Pentagon’s war machine is no longer just driven by, but staffed by, corporations.  (more here)

Mercenaries Set Off for Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: They are trying to be more discreet and less murderous than in Iraq. In Kabul, foreign mercenaries don’t let loose with rapid fire at intersections and the laws attempt to compel them to cooperate with Afghan companies. However, with the improvement of the situation in Iraq and since Barack Obama announced that Afghanistan and Pakistan were the “central front” of the war against al-Qaeda, they’ve been arriving.

The most attractive prospects and contracts for the future, private military companies deem, are on the Afghan front. The Taliban’s progressive return over the last three years and the rise in kidnappings assure their business: very few foreigners circulate without protection in the streets of the Afghan capital.

One incident drew attention to their presence. Returning from dinner on May 5, after an automobile accident, four paramilitaries working for an American company unheard of up until then, Paravant, machine-gunned an Afghan car, leaving one person dead and two wounded. The lawyer for the paramilitaries asserts that they were confronted with an insurgent attack, although the police investigation proved that the passengers in the vehicle were unarmed merchants. As in Iraq, as in other incidents in Afghanistan, justice will not be done: the men fled to the United States.

However, the episode did reveal that Paravant, which has a contract to train the Afghan police, is a discreet subsidiary of Blackwater, the biggest mercenary company in the world and symbol of the privatization of war during the Bush years, involved in multiple killings and assassinations in Iraq and renamed Xe. It also revealed that these men respected neither the law nor their contract, bearing arms outside of their service, AK-47s that can be purchased in the black market for a few dollars.

The Obama administration has not indicated its intentions with respect to the privatization of the war. In Iraq in 2007, the number of contractors, mercenaries and others compared to soldiers in uniform had reached a one to one ratio. Something that had never been seen before in the history of warfare. And a problem for democracy, since the contracts are often opaque and these men elude both national and military justice. It’s not just the law of the jungle, but also war with complete impunity.

Blackwater-Xe has been removed from Iraq, close to two years after the Iranian government formally made the demand following a September 2007 killing in the center of Baghdad (17 dead). The contract for the protection of State Department diplomats in Baghdad terminated May 7 and has been transferred to Triple Canopy. Blackwater still maintains two contracts in Iraq, one for the protection of diplomats in the South, the other for its aerial division, Presidential Air. One was renewed for $22.2 million in February – that is, after Mr. Obama’s arrival in the White House, which evoked a howl from part of the American left. And none of this counts the secret contracts: Blackwater doesn’t say a word about its activities in the intelligence field, although its connection to the CIA is very tight – to say the least.

In Afghanistan, Blackwater-Xe has a visible presence with Presidential Air, which effects helicopter operations. The contract for protection of State Department diplomats has just been consigned to the British company Aegis. But the May 5 incident reveals that Blackwater-Xe profits from other contracts, like Paravant’s. The training contract had originally been awarded to Raytheon, which signed a subcontract with Paravant. While Blackwater is the target of investigations in the United States by Congress and the Pentagon, Erik Prince’s company is still supported by the administration, which entrusts it with sensitive missions.

“There will be no reversal” in policy, thinks one American officer. “Unless it significantly increases defense budgets, the Obama administration will not be able to renationalize war. Yet these guys only make problems for us. Apart from their earning ten times more money than our soldiers, they are not subject to a single one of our rules. They have neither command nor sanction. We try to rally the population, while they don’t give a fuck. They come to earn dollars and they leave.” The four mercenaries who opened fire May 5 were fired by Blackwater. But in other similar cases, men have returned to the field through another company or a dummy company.

“The more war there is, the more mercenary activity there is,” rejoices “Bob,” a British mercenary speaking under the cover of anonymity. “The novelty is that after September 11, our activities became super-legal. We’ve never made so much money. It’s a golden age.” He acknowledges that the “arrival of the guys from Iraq poses a problem, because, here, we have to be more discreet, not machine-gun civilians like they did over there.” “Bob” concedes that his employers’ interests differ from those of NATO: “The American and British and other armies are here to win a war. For us, the more the security situation deteriorates, the better it is.”

Ice breaker: Indian envoy, Pak minister hold talks

14 Jun 2009, 0335 hrs IST, TNN

NEW DELHI

: In the run-up to the first summit-level handshake between Manmohan Singh and Asif Zardari in Yekaterinburg, India’s envoy to Pakistan

Sharat Sabharwal met Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik on Saturday to discuss Pakistani investigations into 26/11 attacks. ( Watch )

While PM and Zardari will certainly meet in Russia, it may be a while before actual dialogue is resumed. Sources said this particular meeting would be in the nature of a breaking the ice. Notwithstanding the PM’s desire to start talks or US’ ‘advice’ to India, it will need some substantive steps by Pakistan.  Despite declaring it wanted talks with Pakistan, India is not convinced about Pakistan’s bonafides in tackling terror.

In an interview to a private TV channel, foreign minister S M Krishna said, “The whole approach of Pakistan has become debatable in as far as terror and attacking terror is concerned.”

Krishna added, “We are hoping that Pakistan sees the path of reason and they would live upto what we expect them to do. Then perhaps it becomes smoother for any dialogue to be meaningful. There should be a very conducive atmosphere and that is what we are trying to create.”

Sabharwal on Saturday raised the issue of release of LeT amir, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed with the Pakistan interior minister. Krishna stressed the importance of Saeed. “We haven’t heard anything from Pakistan about the appeal that they are supposed to make in a higher court of law. The very release of a known terrorist who was instrumental and masterminded the terrorist attack on India on 26/11 has certainly created doubts in us about the sincerity of Pakistan in dismantling the terror instrumentalities that have come up on the soil of Pakistan.”

Malik for his part, told Sabharwal that Pakistan was committed to bringing 26/11 perpetrators to justice and India should cooperate with it in the probe. While Malik said they were trying to appeal the release of Saeed, experts point out that this may be easier said than done. Pakistan would have to reframe the charge-sheet, specifically naming Saeed as an accused in the Mumbai attacks, which Pakistan is unwilling to do, that gives India cause for concern.

But five other LeT operatives, chiefly Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, are also facing trial in Pakistan for their involvement in the attacks. The evidence against them is much more convincing and prosecuting them should be much easier. Agencies report Malik saying process would be “complicated and long”.

In a chat with TOI, Bruce Riedel, US president Barack Obama’s chief strategist on Af-Pak said, “The US should demand a real and thorough crack down on the LeT in Pakistan including arresting and jailing the masterminds of Mumbai. Only then can the India-Pakistan bilateral dialogue resume and tensions reduce.”

Riedel, who recently co-chaired the interagency body that crafted the Af-Pak strategy has taken a hard line on what he calls Pakistan’s “selective counter-terrorism.”

Meanwhile, there is also speculation that one of Zardari’s closest aides, Salman Farooqui, might take over the back channel negotiations with India, as and when they may be restarted. It shows, say sources, that Pakistan is keen to start the talks again, which were stopped by Pakistan in 2007. S K Lambah, PM’s special envoy had completed several rounds of negotiations with Tariq Aziz, Musharraf’s close aide, even identifying the broad contours of a resolution in Kashmir.

That said, the fundamentals of India’s demands from Pakistan are unlikely to be met. According to senior officials, despite the ongoing bruising military offensive in the tribal regions, Pakistan army and ISI continue to segment the terrorist groups against India as “good”.

Pakistan orders manhunt for Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud

Islamabad accuses country’s most wanted man of involvement in suicide bombings it says have killed at least 1,200 people

Men carry the coffin of Muslim cleric Sarfraz Naeemi, an anti-Taliban cleric whose killing has been followed by Pakistan launching attacks against the militant leader Baitullah Mehsud. Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

The Pakistan government has ordered the army to hunt down the Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in his mountain hideout in South Waziristan.

“Baitullah Mehsud is the root cause of all evils,” said the governor of North-West Frontier province, Owais Ghani, announcing the operation in Islamabad.

The precise details of the manhunt remain unclear and the military said it was “evaluating the orders”. But the operation promises to be a tough campaign against a determined enemy in some of the world’s most difficult fighting terrain.

South Waziristan is a rugged mountainous area that was the scene of fierce battles between British colonial forces and tribal rebels during the 1930s and 40s. It is considered a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden.

Mehsud, a former bodybuilder and smuggler, is the most prominent of Pakistan’s Taliban leaders. His Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group has allies across the tribal belt and has participated in recent battles against the Pakistani army in the Swat valley.

Mehsud has become public enemy number one in Pakistan for his role in dozens of suicide bombings in major cities over the past two years that the government says has killed over 1,200 people. But he has denied involvement in the most notorious attack of recent years – the assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.

Limited operations against him have already started. Fighting erupted over the weekend in the village of Spinkai Raghzai, at the entrance to Mehsud’s mountain demesne.

The nature and size of the forthcoming operation remain unclear. An army spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, told the Associated Press: “The government has made the announcement. We will give a comment after evaluating the orders.”

The operation is of great interest to the US because Waziristan is the base for hundreds of foreign al-Qaida fighters, some of whom are believed to be plotting attacks on the west.

Waziristan is also the base for several large groups of Pakistani Taliban fighters, who use the rugged terrain to cross into Afghanistan and fight US-led Nato forces.

Over the weekend a presumed US drone attacked a three-vehicle convoy near Makeen, in Mehsud’s area, killing five people.

The most pressing question for the army is whether the other two major Taliban commanders in the area – Qari Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan and Maulvi Nazeer in the south – will join hands with Mehsud. The three militant leaders, previously rivals, formed a tactical alliance earlier this year.

Mehsud also faces an internal challenge from a fellow tribesman, Qari Zainuddin. But Zainuddin has limited forces and is tainted in the eyes of some tribesmen by his supposed support from the army. A second, less significant, challenge to Mehsud comes from a commander called Turkistan, who controls territory in the neighbouring Bhittani area.

Russia hosts SCO conference for closer Asia ties

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Impending battle of Waziristan

[Very nice!  If it must be done, here is the right way.]

Impending battle of Waziristan

Asif Haroon Raja

The swift and focused operations on multiple fronts and from four directions in Malakand Division helped in forcing militants to come out in open and wage pitched battles. Mass attacks were covered by suicide attackers riding explosive laden vehicles. At one place, when main gun of the tank targeted a vehicle in Swat, cluster of 21 suicide bombers along with their vehicles and motorcycles was destroyed because of sympathetic detonation. Open resistance by militants suited the army since it negated guerilla tactics. Large numbers of militants were gunned down in ensuing clashes thereby forcing them to abandon mass attacks and to attack in smaller groups from all directions against one military target. When this strategy too failed in slowing down the advance of determined army sub-units led by courageous young officers, and their senior leadership based in Peuchar fled the scene, it caused panic and they decided to flee.

Lower Dir , Buner, Swat and Shangla districts have been retaken by the military within a span of one month. Command structure, logistic dumps, arms and ammunition stocks and training areas have all been dismantled and second and third tier leadership as well as large number of militants killed. Notwithstanding continuation of small-scale terrorist acts in these areas, by and large the backbone of militancy has to an extent been broken. The army is now helping in restoration of services of gas, electricity and water as well as in supplying relief goods to the affected.

Gen Kayani has aptly remarked that the tide has turned in Swat. Visit by army and air chief to battle zone on 8 June was a morale booster. Now that the military is reorganizing and consolidating its gains, it has entered into critical phase of retaining captured territory. It will have to establish check posts, outposts, carryout mobile patrolling, maintain troops deployed all over Malakand Division from brigade/battalion administrative areas entailing movement of vehicles, thereby presenting softer targets. The militants have been dispersed but not eliminated completely. Guessing from their past tactics, after a breather, they would again regroup and resort to their favorite tactics of hit and run, hitting vulnerable spots.

The runaway leadership and militants from Malakand Division must not be given any respite. They have the option to either hide within the areas where they have been beaten, or move to adjoining districts, or any of the tribal agencies, or major cities, or Afghanistan . The latter course should be pre-empted by pressing US military to play its role. Fazlullah has been targeted five times but somehow he has escaped. In the last attack on Kabal he got injured. The noose has however been tightened around him. Unless senior leadership of Taliban in Swat, Bajaur and in Waziristan is got hold of, ideological movement would not die down. It may peter out temporarily but would resurface with greater vengeance once the military returns to barracks. As long as top leadership of Swat Taliban remains at large, one cannot say with firmness that back of militancy has been decisively busted. Baitullah, Fazlullah and some other prominent leaders have been provided Israeli made chip technology which forewarns them of impending danger enabling them to escape each time the noose is tightened around them. Our agencies will have to counter chip technology or spread their intelligence network all over to net the wanted 21 militant leaders on whom head money has been announced. There is talk of impending operation in Waziristan . President Zardari has already let the cat out of the bag thereby denuding the army of the advantage of element of surprise. On one hand he has forewarned Baitullah led forces to hone their weapons and prepare a bloody reception; on the other he has created feelings of insecurity and unease among the non-militants of that region and many have already started to migrate to safer areas. Till such time Malakand Division is fully cleared and writ of civil administration re-established, the second front should as far as possible not be opened in Waziristan . Reaction of militants in Bajaur is yet to be seen. In all probability, they would like to open additional fronts like Upper Dir to cause dilution of effort on the army. Most of the runaways from Malakand regions must have escaped to adjoining districts and Bajaur where the militants still have a toehold in Mamond District. Some new areas like, Kohistan, Battagram, Malakand Agency could be heated up. Restive Mohmand Agency and Khyber Agency are other possibilities that could get activated. Working on the age-old principle that contact with enemy must never be lost, Waziristan should be kept under constant surveillance. It should be kept engaged by keeping it under continuous observation and some small-scale actions. This policy was not followed in Swat each time the army was made to withdraw prematurely without completing operation in totality. The battle plan for Waziristan should include isolation of militants and making them immobile by targeting their vehicles, blocking escape routes of militants to Afghanistan or neighboring areas within Fata, division through creation of armed lashkars and village defence force and encirclement. Khost has become main supply centre for meeting needs of Baitullah. Booth RAW and RAAM are supervising reinforcements of men and material. This route needs to be sealed. Each army unit should have quick reaction force with desired mobility and firepower to reach out to the area where help is needed by the locals or civil law enforcing agencies.

The base of terrorists where suicide bombers are recruited and trained must be located and destroyed. Qari Hussain in South Waziristan supposed to be a specialist in motivating and churning out suicide bombers, should be targeted. Communication system of militants should be jammed through C4I electronic means. Maulvi Nazir in South and Haji Gul Bahadar in North Waziristan who are averse to fighting Pak army and believe in waging Jihad in Afghanistan against occupation forces should be taken on board. Importance of effective media campaign to counter negative propaganda of militants needs no emphasis. Choking effect on single main supply route because of movement of IDPs should be accounted for by creating alternative routes. All supply routes will have to be well protected since the militants are focusing a lot on this aspect to make supply lines unsafe. In April-May, over 130 convoys of police, paramilitary forces and army have come under attacks in different parts of NWFP. The militants in hiding open up indiscriminate firing. They have sufficient ammunition for a sustained firefight even when reinforcement arrives. Leakage of information must be plugged and anti-ambush drills as well as dispatch of quick deployment force at the site of occurrence well-rehearsed. Administrative tail will have to be drastically cut to avoid unnecessary movement of vehicles.

During search and destroy operations, efforts should be made that no innocent person gets killed or property destroyed. Displaced persons should be well looked after and protected since relief camps become one of the hunting grounds for the militants to enroll recruits. Within the battle zone, peaceful citizens who opt to stay should be protected. Lashkars and village guards should be further strengthened and motivated. An effective, elaborate and well coordinated local intelligence network free of CIA and FBI should be put in place at grass root level. Displaced persons could become useful informers to disclose inner intelligence of the militants. Since Swat has been neutralized where suicide bombers were trained, such sites in South Waziristan must be traced and destroyed to prevent suicide bombers streaming into cities. Likewise IDPs in camps and outside should be screened and guarded from RAW agents.

—The writer is a defence and political analyst.

U.N. Official Calls for Review of American Raids

By ADAM B. ELLICK

Published: June 13, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — In unusually firm remarks, the chief of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said there was an “urgent need to review” the Special Operations forces here.

The official, Kai Eide, called the political costs of civilian casualties from special operations raids “disproportionate to the military gains,” and said the Special Operations forces needed to become “more Afghanized.”

His comments, made in a video conference call from Kabul with NATO ministers in Brussels on Friday and released on Saturday, were

the latest sign of just how worried some United Nations and military officials are that the fallout from civilian casualties is jeopardizing the American-led mission in Afghanistan.

Special Operations forces, which conduct raids against high-level insurgent targets, have been criticized for relying heavily on airstrikes when they come under fire from militants during raids and house searches in villages.

An aide to Mr. Eide said that his call to have the forces “Afghanized” means having Afghans conduct the raids.

“We must all make sure that the training of military personnel is such that they are fully aware of Afghan sensitivities,” said Mr. Eide, a Norwegian diplomat. “We cannot eliminate civilian casualties, but we cannot afford mistakes that lead to the loss of civilian lives, the alienation of the population and media headlines month after month that overshadow all the positive trends.”

The use of airstrikes by American Special Operations forces has resulted in two high-profile cases of civilian casualties that bookend Mr. Eide’s 15-month tenure in Kabul, the capital.

Last August, airstrikes in Azizabad, in western Afghanistan, killed more than 90 civilians, the majority of them women and children, according to the Afghan government, human rights groups, intelligence officials, and a United Nations investigation. The United States military said that 30 civilians had died.

In May, American airstrikes in Farah Province killed dozens of Afghan civilians, the result of significant errors by American forces, according to an American military investigation.

Both events touched off outrage among the Afghan public and leaders like President Hamid Karzai, who harshly criticized foreign troops.

American military commanders have promised to address the problem. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and the new commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, attended the NATO meeting on Friday and spoke afterward of the need to minimize civilian casualties.

The number of civilian casualties rose 40 percent in 2008, according to the United Nations. Most were caused by the Taliban and other insurgents, who killed nearly 1,300 civilians last year. The United Nations attributed 828 civilian deaths to international and Afghan forces, mostly from airstrikes and village raids.

On Friday night, a suicide bomber driving a pickup truck detonated his payload of explosives in a hotel parking lot used by NATO trucks in Helmand Province, killing four Afghan drivers and wounding eight, Afghan officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, in Gereshk District, and said it killed 33 security guards and burned 17 vehicles, mostly fuel tankers.

“In the future, we will continue to target convoys and those who escort and drive them,” said Qari Yousuf Ahmad, a Taliban spokesman.

A NATO official said the attack would have “absolutely no effect on our supplies,” because the forces possess ample storage supplies around the country.

“We have so many different ways of getting into the country,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

As the American-led war intensifies in this landlocked nation, and as security in Pakistan deteriorates, the issue of supply lines has become a source of concern.

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar.

Zardari seeks full SCO membership for Pakistan

Moscow (PTI): President Asif Ali Zardari will seek full membership for Pakistan of the China-Russia led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), where it currently holds an observer status along with India, Iran and Mongolia.

Mr. Zardari reached the Russian city of Yekaterinburg this morning for the SCO summit on the sidelines of which he is expected to meet his host Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“Pakistan attaches great importance to joining the SCO. We would like to fully participate in the programmes and events of SCO and play an appropriate role in achieving the goals of the organisation.

“That’s why Pakistan expects its admission into this organisation as a full-fledged member,” Mr. Zardari told local business daily ‘Kommersant’.

In 2001 Pakistan had formally applied for SCO’s membership, but due to differences between Moscow and Beijing over the issue, the Shanghai Six had frozen the entry of new members.

Russia and several other central Asian states were against Pakistan’s entry into the body due to its ‘negative’ track record on anti-terrorism measures and had wanted the inclusion of India.

However, China was for simultaneous entry of India with Pakistan. In 2005 India, Iran and Pakistan were granted observer status by the SCO.

Get Baitullah, forces ordered

NWFP governor says full-fledged war against Taliban launched
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has launched a “full-fledged” assault against the Taliban in the lawless northwest tribal belt and will continue until all militants are eliminated, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani said on Sunday.

“The government has launched a full-fledged operation in the tribal areas including Waziristan,” he told a press conference in Islamabad. “Operations will continue till the elimination of the militants.”

Owais Ahmed Ghani said the Pakistan Army had been ordered to carry out a full-fledged offensive against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters in South Waziristan Agency (SWA).

“The military and law enforcement agencies have been ordered to carry out a full-fledged operation to eliminate these beasts and killers by using all resources,” Owais told reporters. He didn’t give an exact starting date, but implied that military action had already begun.

Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told The Associated Press: “The government has made the announcement. We will give a comment after evaluating the orders.” Over the past five weeks, as Pakistan has pursued an offensive against militants in Swat Valley, rumours have swirled that it had plans to go into South Waziristan tribal region to target the country’s most powerful Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud. -Agencies

Our Khar, Bannu, Wana and Mingora correspondents add: At least, 50 militants, including two commanders, and five children were killed when security forces pounded the hideouts of militants with jet fighters and artillery guns in Bajaur Agency, FR Bannu and South Waziristan Agency on Sunday.

In Bajaur, 20 militants, including two commanders, were killed when jet fighters of the PAF blitzed suspected hideouts of Taliban fighters in Charmang, Sheda Shah, Asghar Killay, Chinar in Nawagai Tehsil, Darra Banda in Salarzai subdivision and Garigal in Mamond, sources told The News.

Besides 22 militants, five children were also killed and two persons were injured when artillery shells fired by security forces hit houses at Sor Dagi in Salarzai and Garigal in Mamond Tehsil of Bajaur Agency. The civilian deaths caused anguish in the area and forced the people to start migrating from their villages.

Two militant commanders were also among the dead, but the official sources said their names couldn’t be ascertained. There was no word from the Taliban militants about their losses. The sources added that security forces had entered Charmang, a stronghold of the militants in the agency. They took control of the strategically important locations and established positions on the hilltops.

In FR Bannu, 18 militants were killed when security forces targeted their hideouts in Bakakhel and Janikhel areas with artillery from Bannu Cantonment. Official sources said security forces continued the operation against the militants in the troubled semi-tribal areas of Bakakhel and Janikhel on the fifth consecutive day.

Security forces travelling in a convoy shot dead a youth identified as Hakimullah Shah in Doghawara Sorani area. Miscreants fired three rocket from an undisclosed location, one of which landed at the house of Parvez, slightly injuring his mother.

The second shell landed on the ground of the Government Girls’ Primary School, Lalozai, while the third one fell in the fields. The District Police Officer (DPO), Iqbal Khan Marwar, has imposed a ban on the entry of displaced people from Janikhel and Bakakhel areas.

He warned the local people against sheltering or renting out houses to the displaced tribesmen. Police also arrested 10 tribesmen under the 21 Frontier Crimes Regulation and sent them to jail.

In South Waziristan Agency (SWA), eight militants were killed when jet fighters hit hideouts in Makeen and Spinkairaghzai Kot areas early in the day, official sources said. Also, three civilians were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Angoor Adda.

The sources said a container loaded with Nato supplies was on its way to Afghanistan when a roadside improvised explosive device planted by unidentified miscreants went off at 9:00 am near Barmal area of Angoor Adda, completely destroying the truck and nearby parked vehicles. Those killed in the blast included Muhammad Nauroz Wazir, Painda Khan Kharoti and Jan Gul Salyankhel while Saudal Khan and Noor Wali were injured. The injured were taken to the nearest clinic.

The political authorities confirmed the incident, saying that the incident took place in Afghan territory on the Pak-Afghan border.In Swat Valley, two suspected militants were shot dead at Green Chowk of Mingora while a soldier was killed and three others injured during an exchange of fire between the militants and security forces in Kabal Tehsil.

Another soldier sustained injuries when fired at in Kalla Killay in Kabal.Sources said two suspected Taliban militants were gunned down at Green Chowk. “A brief firing took place in the evening and later we came to know that two suspected militants have been killed,” the sources said.

It was learnt that the people could not identify the bodies. Curfew was not relaxed on Sunday in Mingora and other areas of the valley. Troops continued to patrol the streets in the city.The ISPR in a statement said security forces were consolidating their positions in Kabal area. A search operation was launched in Kabal on Sunday. During the process, exchange of fire took place between the forces and militants, resulting in the killing of a soldier, besides injuries to three others.

As the forces were engaged in strengthening their positions in the valley, search and consolidation operation was also being conducted in Godand Banda, Chuprial and Arkot Qilla areas of Matta.

The ISPR said Wenai-Sijbanr road had also been opened besides firming up positions at Ring contour and heights located east of Chuprial. In this area, a huge cache of arms and ammunition had been recovered from tunnels.

Cordon and search operation was being carried out in Matta town, Loi Namal and Koz Shawar in Matta Tehsil. In Matta town, house-to-house search was being carried out to track down the hiding Taliban militants, the ISPR said.

Four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were recovered between Koz Drushkhela and Sambat areas of Matta. The militants have planted mines and IEDs in parts of Swat valley to inflict human and material loss on security forces.

About the relief activities, the ISPR said three truckloads of rations were distributed among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in union councils of Sawala Dher, Bakhshali, Garhi Kapora and Jalala. Another two truckloads of relief goods were distributed in Mardan. About 200 displaced families had been shifted from Bisham to Kalam while the IDPs from Kalam were asked to report in Bisham where security forces had made arrangements for their transportation to Kalam.

Abbas aide urges world shun Netanyahu over speech

By Mohammed Assadi

RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 15 (Reuters) – World powers should isolate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he unveiled tough terms for a Middle East peace accord, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday.

In a major policy speech on Sunday, Netanyahu responded to weeks of pressure from Washington by finally giving his endorsement — with conditions — to the establishment of a demilitarised Palestinian state.

Palestinians were dismayed by his demand they first recognise Israel as a Jewish state and his failure to heed a call they and U.S. President Barack Obama have voiced to halt Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. “The international community should confront this policy, through which Netanyahu wants to kill off any chance for peace,” Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters.

“They must isolate and confront this policy which Netanyahu is adopting and exert pressure on him so that he adheres to international legitimacy and the road map,” he said, referring to a U.S.-sponsored 2003 peace plan.

Netanyahu pledged to keep all of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — defying Palestinians’ claim on the city — and hedged on whether Israel would ever remove West Bank settlements.

He ruled out the admission of Palestinian refugees to Israel proper and said Abbas must impose his authority over the breakaway Hamas Islamists ruling the Gaza Strip.

U.S., EUROPEAN PRAISE

The address, in which Netanyahu urged the Palestinians to resume talks with Israel immediately, was welcomed by the White House as “an important step forward” for implementing Obama’s vision. The European Union also praised Netanyahu’s speech.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said mediators should challenge Netanyahu on whether he was prepared to tackle territorial issues such as borders, Jerusalem and settlements.

“Netanyahu is talking about negotiations about cantons — the canton of the state of Palestine, with a flag and an anthem, a state without borders, without sovereignty, without a capital,” Erekat said.

Netanyahu’s speech was greeted with circumspection across the political spectrum in Israel, which has seen almost two decades of stop-start talks about a “two-state solution”, a concept the right-wing Likud party chief had balked at endorsing.

“Welcome, Mr Prime Minister, to the 20th century. The problem is, we’re already in the 21st century,” political commentator Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv newspaper.

Netanyahu’s cabinet secretary, Zvi Hauser, described the speech as an opening move in what Israel hoped would be discussions of a peace deal involving the wider Arab world.

“Look, of course we must all distinguish between what is desirable and what is at hand. Yesterday, the prime minister delineated what is desirable,” Hauser told Israel’s Army Radio.

“As of this morning, we have to deal with what is at hand, and what is at hand is not just in our court. What is at hand is mainly in the other side’s court.” (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Andrew Dobbie) (For blogs and links on Israeli politics and other Israeli and Palestinian news, go to blogs.reuters.com/axismundi)

The Judeo-Christian oxymoron or the real clash of civilizations

Andrew Winkler, The Rebel Media Group

Whenever it comes to the dreadful Mid-East conflict, Zionst controlled media and politicians like to invoke Judeo-Christianity as opposed to radical Islam. It’s one of those deliberately misconstrued expressions that Jews like to use in order to confuse and manipulate us. They know very well that what the term ‘Judeo-Christianity’ implies, a common Judeo-Christian heritage does not exist.

Christian churches as we know them are the last thing that Jesus had on his mind when he lead his revolt against the oral traditions of the Pharisees. What after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple was codified as the mother of all hate literature, the Babylonian Talmud, was nothing short of a Satanic heresy of the Old Testament or Torah.

Real nature of Christianity

When killing Jesus didn’t stop his followers from challenging the Pharisees, one of their top inquisitors, Apostle Paul, came up with the brilliant idea of redirecting their missionary efforts towards the Gentiles. To make the new ‘faith’ more palatable for Gentiles and less of a threat to the Pharisees, Paul and his fellow moles incorporated all sorts of popular elements from other religions. The Egyptian Isis cult became the model for the Christian adoration of the Virgin Mary, Jesus miracles are copyright infringements of the tales of the Greek God Hercules, and Roman Mithraism was ruthlessly gutted for the layout of Christian churches, liturgies and even the celebration of Jesus’ birth. In fact it was common practice for Christians to simply kick the Mithrais people out of their temples and convert them to churches.

Christianity is Judaism minus the oral tradition of the Pharisees plus lots of features stolen of competing Mediterranean religions. The only part that Christians, Jews and – let’s not forget – Muslims supposedly share, have effectively been abandoned by the Jews, even though they will never admit that.. The Pharisees and – their modern descendents – the rabbis have always been quite frank about the fact that they are putting “the Law”, that is their perverted re-interpretations of the Torah, above “God’s word”.^[1]

In spite of this brilliant strategy of the Pharisees, of fighting off Jesus’ challenge, Christianity, their own creation, was still making inroads amongst Jews. Too harsh and hateful was the rabbinic oppression and too attractive Jesus proposition of universal love and forgiveness. That’s why they had to create a competing faith, Islam, designed to destroy or weaken the Christian threat. Muslims all over the world are amazed by the rapid victory of the faithful troops against the collapsing Roman Empire.^[2] What they don’t realize is that this victory was financially and politically engineered by Jewish bankers. This also explains why Jews had such a privileged position in the Arab and Ottoman empires and were routinely entrusted with the day to day running of the countries.

When the Catholics kings of Spain forced the Jews to convert or move to Holland, things massively changed. Suddenly there was a whole group of rich and powerful Jews who no longer could profit from helping the Muslim rulers to oppress the local Christians. So they quickly destroyed the Muslim monopoly on the profitable slave and spice trade, which is how European colonialism came about. The raise of England and Holland was the direct result of the Spanish decision to kick out the Jews.

The Jew-engineered cock fight between Christians and Muslims continued. When England converted from coal fired to oil fired war ships, it was deemed necessary to take over control of Arab oil. The Young Turks movement of crypto-Jews were created and bankrolled by London bankers, with the sole purpose of destroying the Ottoman Empire. To upset Western Christians with the Turks, a massive genocide was organized on Christian Armenians. The Zionist movement was lobbied to choose Palestine as location for the future Jewish State. Germany was enticed to enter into a war with England to put pressure on the Brits to help the Zionists fulfill their dream of Greater Israel, which conveniently extends from the Euphrates to the Nile. When Britain gave in to the pressure in the Balfour declaration, Germany’s Jews did their bit to sabotage the German war effort.

The raise of Hitler

The only problem was how to bully enough European Jews into moving to Palestine to effectively control the Middle-East.. That’s why Hitler came along, the real father of the Jewish State. His raise to power was bankrolled by Jewish bankers. The last thing he was going to do is kill all European Jews. Rounding up the Jews and imprisoning them into concentration camps was done for two reasons: to protect them from the Allied terror bombing and to prepare for their emigration to the future state of Israel. The Nazis in cooperation with the Jewish press did a wonderful job at making Europe’s Jews feel unwelcome, even fear for their lives.

The war on terror

A lot of people argue whether the war on terror is a war for oil or a war for Israel, as if their was a difference. For the Jewish bankers war is business and business is war. The meeting rooms of Jewish corporations are called ‘war rooms’ for a good reason. Jewish business predators like Bill Gates are known for their aggressive ‘take no prisoners’ approach and have no qualm about profiteering from war. The Jew-engineered clash of civilizations is nothing but the latest version of the two thousand year old Jewish war for profit. It’s time for Christian and Muslim families to learn their lessons and stop providing the cannon fodder for the Jews.

Footnotes:

[1] Even without the Pharisean heresies, the Torah is quiet a piece of work. It’s full of lust for blood, cruel punishment and genocide against the perceived enemies of the Chosen ones. You’d think you can’t top that kind of hatred, until you study the Talmud. If you don’t believe me on that matter, I suggest you read Michael Hoffman’s “Judaism Discovered”.

[2] Jews don’t really learn from their mistakes. Their tendency of creating new enemies to fight old enemies they created themselves always bites them in the back, like it does today with Hezbollah and Hamas, which were supposed to weaken the PLO.

Cheney almost “wishing” US be attacked, says CIA chief

[What does that say about a country that chooses such psychopathic personalities for its leaders?  Fighting to preserve criminal interrogation and war-fighting practices that go way beyond mere war crimes, hoping for vindication of these radical beliefs by outside forces fulfilling the most dire of predictions, Cheney and Bush are disgraces to every previous administration, in that the world they leave behind teeters on the brink of economic and military collapse far beyond the scope of anything seen before....It would take volumes to recount the multiple crimes, deceptions and destabilizations ordered by these gangsters.  Go f@#k yourself, you big Dick!!]

Cheney almost “wishing” US be attacked, says CIA chief

WASHINGTON : Former vice president Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of security matters suggests he wants the United States to be attacked, CIA chief Leon Panetta said.

“I think he smells some blood in the water on the national security issue,” Panetta told The New Yorker magazine for its June 22 edition.

“It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that’s dangerous politics.”

Cheney, who played a lead role in the George W. Bush administration’s implementation of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, has said that President Barack Obama is making the United States less safe by banning the controversial methods and planning to close Guantanamo Bay.

Some 230 “war on terror” prisoners are still held at Guantanamo, a prison camp set up by Bush at the US naval base in southern Cuba to hold detainees captured abroad in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In a fierce attack on Obama’s security policies last month, Cheney blasted the new president’s ban on rough interrogations as “recklessness cloaked as righteousness” and called his reversal of Bush-era anti-terror efforts “unwise in the extreme.”

The comments by Cheney, regarded by many as one of the most powerful vice presidents in US history, were “dangerous politics,” Panetta said.

Asked whether he agreed with the intelligence chief, Vice President Joe Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would not question Cheney’s motives.

However, he added: “Dick Cheney’s judgment about how to secure America is faulty. I think our judgment is correct.”

Australian death squads in Afghanistan

Hamish Chitts

Last month the Melbourne Age revealed that members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) had covered up the killing and wounding of civilians in Afghanistan by Australian Special Air Service (SAS) troops. In the same month, The Australian newspaper proudly reported the use of SAS patrols as death squads carrying out assassinations in Afghanistan.

In July 2006, near Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province, Abdul Baqi was driving with members of his family when their car was fired upon. Baqi was killed, his wife blinded and their daughter so badly injured she later had a leg amputated. His son, a niece and a nephew were also injured. Afghan MP Haji Abdul Khaliq, who is related to the victims of the attack, told the May 11 Age he was convinced Australian soldiers were responsible. Khaliq said: “We asked the governor and police chief who made the investigation. They said that they were Australians [who had fired at the car]. They did not give any sign to stop. And my car’s windows were not dark. Inside the car was visible.” He said none of the Australian soldiers helped the injured. “They didn’t even give them a bottle of water and they didn’t even take them to hospital.”

ADF chief Angus Houston told an Australian parliamentary hearing in early 2007 that an investigation had found no substance to the allegations that Australian troops were involved in the shooting. An ADF spokesperson told The Age that Khaliq’s claims did “not correspond to coalition patrol reporting”. This contradicts the evidence ADF investigators found — that a SAS patrol was nearby when Baqi’s car was attacked and reported a “contact” (meaning they’d fired their weapons) in the same area where the car was hit. At the time, the SAS patrol believed taxis were ferrying Afghan resistance fighters in the area. Abdul Hakim Monib, the former governor of the area, told reporters that a senior ADF officer had told him Australians were responsible. “They expressed their sorrow for the incident and they said, ‘We thought they were the enemy.’ They said it was a mistake and we are upset about it”, said Monib.

Plausible deniability?

The Age reported that it was “almost certain” the information about Australian troops having attacked the Baqi family was not passed on to Houston before he gave his testimony to the parliamentary committee. However, it is unlikely that relatively low-ranking ADF investigators, upon finding that Australian troops may have killed and maimed the family of an Afghan MP, would decide not to inform the officials in Canberra. It is more likely that the Australian government tried to conceal the fact that Australian operations had resulted in the slaughter of innocent civilians. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has refused calls to hold an independent investigation and has asked Houston to set up an investigation of the original investigation, whose correct findings never saw the light of day.

Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US and Australian governments used the supposed existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify the invasion. When they could no longer hide the fact that these weapons did not exist, these same governments called this “a failure of military intelligence” and blamed their intelligence agencies for not giving them the correct information. In reality, it was known even at the lowest levels of Australia’s spy organisations that there were no weapons of mass destruction. When the truth came out, the politicians were ably assisted in covering up the fact that they had lied to a few senior intelligence officials, who took the blame for deceiving the public and resigned — taking decent payouts and still able to pursue lucrative consulting contracts with private military and security corporations.

The Department of Defence has yet to release the findings of two inquiries into allegations Australian troops were responsible for the deaths of Afghan civilians this year. In January, an Australian military operation allegedly left four civilians dead. Five children were killed in an incident involving Australian troops in February. No doubt investigators will find there is no substance to these allegations as well.

Phoenix program revisited

The May 7 Australian reported that ADF special forces troops had taken part in a “targeted assassination” of a senior Taliban leader, Mullah Noorullah. The report could not say how senior Noorullah was, nor when the assassination took place, but it did say the assassination occurred in Deh Rafshan district in southern Uruzgan, where the Australian Special Operations Task Group is based. The Australian went on to admit: “The SOTG tag is commonly used by [the ADF] as a synonym to describe elite Special Air Service operatives authorised to hunt and kill Taliban leaders in an Afghan variation on the Vietnam-era Phoenix Program.”

The Phoenix program officially ran from 1967 to 1972, but the US and its allies in Vietnam employed similar tactics before and after these dates. Through infiltration, detention, terrorism and assassination, the program was designed to “neutralise” the civilian infrastructure supporting the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam. The program used small special forces units, including the Australian SAS, for the systematic murder of Vietnamese civilians suspected of supporting the NLF. Men, women and children who were family members of an alleged NLF leader were massacred. Between 20,000 and 70,000 people were murdered, and tens of thousands more were detained and tortured.

The US military and CIA also used these methods in Latin America throughout the 1970s and ’80s and up to the present day. US-funded and trained death squads have propped up brutal and unpopular pro-US governments in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In Colombia they continue to operate, murdering union officials and anyone considered a left-wing leader. Today Washington uses death squads in an attempt to destabilise the leftist government of Bolivia and the revolutionary government of Venezuela.

Washington has also used death squads in Iraq since 2003. In a report by Rafael Epstein for the ABC Lateline program in November 2008, Australian Major General Jim Molan admitted to overseeing assassinations of suspected resistance supporters. In 2004 Molan was chief of operations, coordinating all of the occupation forces in Iraq. He said:“I conducted these kind of operations every day of the week for the year that I spent in Iraq. We go to extraordinary lengths to try to get it right. But in a war, things don’t always go the way you want them to go and unfortunate accidents, incidents, do happen.”

Operation Peeler

Operation Peeler is the name given to the activities of Australian SAS death squads in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province. According to Australian military documents, its aim is to “disrupt Taliban leadership and Improvised Explosive Device facilitators”. This means night raids on villages, doors kicked in and detention or assignation of people suspected of being part of or supporting the resistance. Those detained face torture at the hands of local and foreign interrogators — the same people behind extraordinary renditions, waterboarding and the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse.

In November 2007, the SAS killed three men, two women and a child during an assault on an alleged insurgent house. The alleged insurgent was not there. Last September, the SAS was ordered to assassinate someone identified as “Musket”. Pro-government villagers thought the approaching Australian troops were resistance fighters; the Australians thought the villagers were resistance fighters and in the ensuing gunfight mistakenly shot dead a district governor, Rozi Khan, and another man and wounded five others. An Australian investigation found: “The forensic evidence is not available to definitively attribute responsibility for Rozi Khan’s death.” During March and April this year, the SAS reportedly carried out a major operation in parts of Helmand province that resulted in the deaths of 80 alleged Taliban fighters. In at least one case, it called in US air strikes on a civilian house where a resistance commander was allegedly making a last stand.

The use of Australian SAS troops as death squads that originate in the US Phoenix program should disgust all working people, including soldiers involved in Operation Peeler. The fact that these operations continue under Rudd and US President Barack Obama should shatter any illusions that these politicians are any different from Howard and Bush. There is no real difference between the policies of the leading capitalist politicians in Australia and the US; they all serve the interests of imperialist capitalism, with its drive to dominate the natural and human resources of the Third World.

Hamish Chitts is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and one of the founders of Stand Fast — veterans and service people against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Source: Direct Action