Repairing eight years of damage

Sounds wonderful:

"I come to Europe on behalf of a new administration determined to set a new tone in Washington, and in America's relations around the world," Mr Biden said.

"We will engage. We will listen. We will consult. America needs the world, just as I believe the world needs America," he said.

"Our administration has set ambitious goals... to advance democracy not through its imposition by force from the outside, but by working with moderates in government and civil society to build the institutions that will protect freedom."

On Russia, Mr Biden said: "It's time, to paraphrase President Obama, to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should work together."

But then Biden acknowledged:

He added that the US would continue with its plans for a missile defence shield in Central Europe.

[snip]

On Iran, Mr Biden said: "We will continue to develop missile defences to counter a growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven to work and cost effective.

[snip]

He added: "We will do so in consultation with our Nato allies and Russia."

He reiterated President Barack Obama's pledge to communicate with Iran, saying the US offered a clear choice: "Continue down your current course and there will be pressure and isolation; abandon your illicit nuclear programme and support for terrorism and there will be meaningful incentives." "

WTF? We still have the useless Star Wars program being advanced? Is this because of the Iranian satellite that was just launched? Or is this more about a nuclear Pakistan becoming destabilized? Or is it the inability to peel off an entrenched defense contractor?

What it's guaranteed to do is piss off Putin....

Georgia on my mind

Billmon at the Daily Kos on the fiasco of Georgia and Russia, egged on by the incompetence and thoughtlessness of US politicians:

And so, with an absolute minimum of democratic process, the United States of America committed its full prestige and power (if not, just yet, a legally binding guarantee) to the defense of the two former Soviet republics, even though the Russians have repeatedly stated that they regard NATO membership by either country as a direct threat to their own vital security interests. As others have already noted, this is as if China had unilaterally announced a military alliance with Mexico and Cuba. Actually it’s worse: Imagine the US reaction if China announced a military alliance with Mexico, after which the president of Mexico started dropping public hints about taking New Mexico back – by whatever means necessary. (And if that comparison seems unnecessarily paranoid, consider the history of Russia in the 20th century. Even paranoids have real enemies.)

A careful search of Nexus and Google reveals that the number of stories appearing in the pages of major US newspapers and magazines, or on the wires of major American news services, taking note of this fateful decision, equals exactly one: a brief item out of UPI’s Moscow bureau, warning of the Russian reaction. The Georgian and Ukranian press, on the other hand, gave the new law saturation coverage – encouraged by their respective governments, both of which issued official statements describing their future NATO admissions as, in effect, done deals.

If you have time, read the post. He offers a wealth of background and facts, and works through the tangle of connections and intrigue to present a very clear picture of the recent events.

crossposted at SteveAudio

No wonder he took his marbles

And went home early.



He's not just a lame duck, he's a dead duck.

Europeans say 'Naaaaaahhhh'

BUCHAREST, Romania - President Bush suffered a painful diplomatic setback Wednesday when NATO allies rebuffed his passionate pleas to put former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia on the path toward membership in the Western military alliance.

[snip]

It was a sour outcome for Bush at his final NATO summit as he sought to polish his foreign policy legacy. Instead, he wound up sidetracked by opposition and splits among European allies. It was a result that was foreshadowed by public statements from France and Germany but Bush nevertheless put his prestige on the line and even made a stop in Ukraine on Monday to argue his case.

[snip]

Bush was counting on the summit to strongly endorse plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe despite once-heated objections from Moscow.

The summit's opening dinner ran two hours longer than scheduled as the discussion went around the table, with each leader making his or her case. The White House expressed confidence that NATO would give a strong statement of support for its mission in Afghanistan and that a number of countries would pledge additional troops.

Bush, going into the talks, said he was "optimistic that this is going to be a very successful summit."

Diplomats said the alliance would offer a statement saying NATO's door will remain open if Ukraine and Georgia move ahead with political and military reforms and build support for NATO among their citizens.

Afghanistan loomed as the summit's No. 1 topic, a point of contention between some Europeans who see the NATO mission as largely a humanitarian effort and the Bush administration and others who see it as a central front in the fight against terrorism.

Canada had threatened to pull its troops from the front lines in southern Afghanistan unless other allies sent an additional 1,000 combat troops to help.

NATO has about 47,000 troops in Afghanistan, but commanders are pleading for more troops in the south, where Taliban insurgents are wreaking the most havoc. The United States supplies the largest contingent, about 14,000 for NATO, plus the United States has 13,000 operating separately in eastern Afghanistan hunting terrorists and training Afghan forces.

"We expect our NATO allies to shoulder the burden necessary to succeed" in Afghanistan, Bush said a midday news conference with Romania President Traian Basescu on a Black Sea beach.

We killed number 3! Number 7? 22! We are winning!

Pakistani forces kill one Taliban guy:

Islamabad, Pakistan (AHN) - The Pakistani military said government security forces shot and killed a key figure in the Taliban organization fighting Afghan and NATO forces and captured four others in an encounter Baluchistan province, southwestern Pakistan near the Afghan post Monday.

Lt. Col. Baseer Haider Malik said Mansoor Dadullah, brother of slain Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah and four others, were cornered in Qila SAifullah, Baluchistan town, province in Pakistan at around 10am local time.

Which proves that Musharraf is dealing with terrorism?:

But the second attack in eight months on Mr. Sherpao, 64, who was until recently his nation’s most senior law enforcement official, left him more frustrated and more outspoken about the failure of the government to respond aggressively to the rapidly spreading Taliban insurgency that is seeking to destabilize Pakistan.

The weakness of the Pakistani police and the army response to determined and religiously motivated Taliban fighters was allowing the insurgency to get stronger day by day, he said.

“The police are scared,” Mr. Sherpao said. “They don’t want to get involved.” The Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force that could help in tracking down leads on suicide bombers, was “too stressed, fighting all over,” he said. The Pakistan Army has forces in the tribal areas where the militants have built their sanctuaries but the soldiers have remained in their headquarters. “They are not moving around,” he said. “That’s their strategy.”

[snip]

In most cases, Mr. Sherpao said, the police have had a boilerplate approach to solving the suicide bombings. They have blamed them on Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of a new association of Taliban militia in the tribal areas, who has been cited by Washington as having links to Al Qaeda, and left it at that, Mr. Sherpao said. “Not one suicide bombing has been resolved,” he said. “They just link it to Baitullah Mehsud, and that’s all.”

The director of the C.I.A., Gen. Michael V. Hayden, said last week that he believed terror networks directed by Mr. Mehsud were responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the opposition leader and former prime minister of Pakistan.

In a measure of the fast moving strength of the jihadists, Mr. Sherpao said the militants’ bases were no longer confined to North and South Waziristan, two districts inside the tribal area that have long been considered training grounds for suicide bombers.

The militants were now spread across the entire tribal region, including the district of Mohmand, which abuts the village of Sherpao and is close to Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, he said.

Three months ago, Mohmand was free of the Taliban, Mr. Sherpao said. Now, he said, the district was being used as a base to strike at the area around his village, and the bigger town of Charsadda where Mr. Sherpao survived a suicide bomb attack at a political rally last April.

But in reality:

If victory is redefined as eliminating individual personalities rather than defeating a complex network or ideology, the bitter pill of failure can not only be sweetened but also showcased as a sweetmeat for citizens' consumption. This carefully crafted ruse of selling defeat as success begins with lionization of an al-Qaeda-affiliated leader through relentless coverage of his dreaded activities in the state-browbeaten media. The next step is to keep releasing stories that a hunt is on for the high-value target and that US/North Atlantic Treaty Organization intelligence is closing in on the star figure.

Since warfare is lethal, the likelihood of an operational commander being killed in combat is not far-fetched. After months or years of media buildup about the significance of a particular jihadi leader and the extent of havoc he has caused, when the subject does meet his maker, the event will be hailed by American spokespersons as a major milestone and feather in the cap for the "war on terror". The reality on the ground is likely that a replacement for the slain leader has already slipped into his new shoes, but Western media will be asked to raise a toast and self-congratulations will resound in Washington and London that they are one step closer to extinguishing the Islamist threat.

So Bush's attempt to show the War on Terror is being won by a secret court passing down the death sentence on some supposed 9/11 terrorists without addressing the cause, without a trial to educate and illuminate why such a sentence is needed and just, inflames people even further:

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said an announcement of the charges, which would be tried before a military tribunal, will be announced Monday.

Military prosecutors will ask for the death penalty for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, according to a second official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.

[snip]

The men would be tried in the military tribunal system that was set up by the administration shortly after the start of the counterterror war and has been widely criticized for it rules on legal representation for suspects, hearings behind closed doors and past allegations of inmate abuse at Guantanamo. Original rules allowed the military to exclude the defendant from his own trial, permitted statements made under torture, and forbade appeal to an independent court; but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the system in 2006 and a revised plan set up after Congress enacted a new law has included some additional rights.

Defense lawyers still criticize the system for it's secrecy.

The decision to seek the death penalty also is likely to draw criticism from within the international community. A number of countries, including U.S. allies, have said they would object to the use of capital punishment for their nationals held at Guantanamo.

Repeat until senseless: If you can kill all the terrorists, then you have won the War on Terror!

But the truth is more horrible: There can never be a war on a noun or a concept. Every time we kill someone, ten more terrorists are made. Killing the terrorists one by one by one is like trying to stop a flowing faucet by filling teacups of water. We need to address the source. Diplomacy is needed. Understanding is needed. Political and economic actions are needed. Education is needed. We will never stop the anger which creates terrorism until we address the wrongs done.

We cannot bomb our way to peace. We can only bomb ourselves to hell.

crossposted at SteveAudio.

Explosive island, humanitarian gesture

SAN'A, Yemen (AHN) - A volcano erupted Sunday in a tiny Yemeni island in the Red Sea, spewing lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air forcing local Yemeni authorities to evacuate a military base.

Local authorities said that joint NATO and Yemeni ships were searching for eight soldiers reported missing.

Reports from the Yemeni news agency SABA said that the eruption caused a landslide collapsing the western part of Jabal al-Tair island, reported.

The oval island, about two miles wide, lacks a settled population although it houses military installations used for naval control and observation for large cargo ships passing nearby.

The report, however, was not clear how many people were stationed on the island, although it confirmed that Yemeni ships had evacuated all personnel and were searching for eight missing military personnel.

Ken Allan, a Navy Public Affairs with the Canadian Armed Forces said a NATO fleet passing nearby reported seeing a "catastrophic volcanic eruption" at 7 p.m. local time Sunday on the island, about 70 miles off the Yemeni coast.

With the fleet was sailing toward the Suez Canal when it spotted the eruption, the government of Yemen asked NATO to assist in searching for survivors.

The closest ship in the vicinity, the HMCS Toronto, immediately headed toward the island.

Thank goodness there are some who remember we are all on this earth together.

Uh oh... I'd advise all schools and wedding parties to be extra careful

Because we have such a good track record understanding local customs in Afghanistan and Iraq....and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Serbia, South Korea, Lebanon..... looking at the Commander Guy, you'll understand...

US to hunt the Taliban inside Pakistan

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Since last September, North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan have been pressing Islamabad for the right to conduct extensive hot-pursuit operations into Pakistan to target Taliban and al-Qaeda bases.

According to Asia Times Online contacts, NATO and its US backers have gotten their wish: coalition forces will start hitting targets wherever they might be.

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf is expected to make an important announcement on extremism during an address to the nation in the next day or two.

The ATol contacts in Islamabad say that coalition intelligence has pinpointed at least four centers in the tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan from which Taliban operations inside Afghanistan are run. These bases include arms caches and the transfer and raising of money and manpower, the latter in the form of foot-soldiers to fight with the Taliban-led insurgency.

Operations inside Pakistan might be carried out independently by the United States, probably with air power, by Pakistani forces acting alone or as joint offensives. In all cases, though, the US will pull the strings, for instance by providing the Pakistanis with information on targets to hit.

And here's the part of the article where your hair should stand on end: (my bold)

Senior US officials, including John Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, and Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state, recently visited Pakistan to spell out to opposition leaders that the US is still behind Musharraf, although it will support the participation of secular, democratic political parties in government.

This development occurred even as Washington voiced its dissatisfaction over Musharraf's performance with regard to the Taliban: it pointed to Pakistan's clear involvement in supporting the insurgency in Helmand province since last year.

Indeed, the US was even prepared to withdraw its support of Musharraf, who seized power in 1999, but after a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney to Pakistan, the general remains in favor. Cheney's office is believed to run the United States' Pakistan policy.

The reasons are probably twofold: the US needs Pakistan's support should it attack Iran (covert operations into Iran are reportedly already taking place from Pakistan), and the US is concerned over the revival of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

With regard to the latter, the head of the US Central Command, Admiral William Fallon, followed up Cheney's visit, warning Islamabad that the US needs Pakistan's assistance and approval to confront the bases. He also made it clear that any delay on the part of Pakistan to allow NATO operations could result in another major terror operation in the West. And if that happens, Pakistan will face the music.

Musharraf has already agreed to take some prisoners from the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay (see Pakistan to help as the US's jailer, Asia Times Online, June 29). Now he's opening his doors to the United States' soldiers. It's a move fraught with danger for Musharraf and Pakistan, and one that could influence the direction of both the war in Afghanistan and the "war on terror".

So Cheney gets to keep his torture dungeons AND maneuver for an attack on Iran? So what will Cheney do to get his second Pearl Harbor moment that will allow him to attack?

Just how far will he be willing to go?

Irrefutable evidence that Cheney's fingerprints are all over this

What will Dick do if Georgie doesn't bomb Iran?

WASHINGTON - In a development that underlines the tensions between the anti-Iran agenda of the US administration and the preoccupation of its military command in Afghanistan with militant Sunni activism, a State Department official last week publicly accused Iran for the first time of arming Taliban forces, but the US commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan rejected that charge for the second time in less than two weeks.

Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns declared in Paris on June 12 that Iran is "transferring arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan", putting it in the context of a larger alleged Iranian role of funding "extremists" in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Iraq. The following day, he asserted that there was "irrefutable evidence" of such Iranian arms supply to the Taliban.

The use of the phrase "irrefutable evidence" suggested that the Burns statement was scripted by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. The same phrase had been used by Cheney himself on September 20, 2002, in referring to the administration's accusation that then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had a program to enrich uranium as the basis for a nuclear weapon.

But the NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill, pointed to other possible explanations, particularly the link between drug and weapons smuggling between Iran and Afghanistan.

McNeill repeated in an interview with US News and World Report last week a previous statement to Reuters that he did not agree with the charge. McNeill minimized the scope of the arms coming from Iran, saying: "What we've found so far hasn't been militarily significant on the battlefield."

He speculated that the arms could have come from black-market dealers, drug traffickers, or al-Qaeda backers and could have been sold by low-level Iranian military personnel.

McNeill's remarks underlined the US command's knowledge of the link between the heroin trade and trafficking in arms between southeastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. The main entry point for opium and heroin smuggling between Afghanistan and Iran runs through the Iranian province of Sistan-Balochistan to its capital, Zahedan. The two convoys of arms that were intercepted by NATO forces last spring had evidently come through that Iranian province.

Massive and systematic violations of human rights

Done by us to others in the name of liberty, freedom, and the spreading of democracy. The Bush administration has ruined the name of all that is good in the United States.

The special investigator concentrates essentially on two black sites in Poland and Romania. Discussing the Polish secret prison Stare Kiejkutz, Marty told the British TV station Channel Four: "The Polish setup was devoted to those people considered to be the most important terrorists, the ring leaders of the movement, who had the most responsibility. They were the most wanted men."

These so-called "high value detainees" (HVD) included the main strategist of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, high-ranking al-Qaida member Abu Zubaydah, and alleged 9/11 co-conspirator Ramzi Binalshibh.

Marty lists eight flights during the period between 2003 and 2005 alone that he and his assistants attribute to the CIA'S HVD program. Most of the planes came from Kabul. The black site at Mihail Kogalniceanu in Romania was in use between 2003 and 2005 and used for lower-ranking HVDs, according to the report.

[snip]

Marty's final report says records show that there were 1,245 proven CIA flights between 2002 and 2005, although it seems that only some of them were prisoner transfers.

The "series of illegal acts" carried out by the CIA was either tolerated or supported by the member countries of the Council of Europe, according to Marty. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) provided the necessary international backing through resolutions passed on Oct. 4, 2001 -- which allowed what Marty describes as "blank check" overflight permits, for example. Marty suggests that secret protocols, to which he does not have access, record additional concessions the Europeans made to the United States. During the negotiations over the secret prison in Romania, for example, the US promised Bucharest its support for the Eastern European's country application for full NATO membership, the report alleges.

US President George W. Bush officially acknowledged the existence of a classified CIA program for the seizure, arrest and interrogation of terror suspects on non-US territory only last September, announcing at the same time that the measure would be discontinued following the transfer of 14 suspects to Guantánamo.

Spencer Ackerman of TPM Muckraker quotes the report:

Clothes were cut up and torn off; many detainees were then kept naked for several weeks. ...

At one point in 2004, eight persons were being kept together at one CIA facility in Europe, but were administered according to a strict regime of isolation. Contact between them through sight or sound was forbidden... and prevented unless it was expressly decided to create limited conditions where they could see or come into contact with one another because it would serve (the CIA's) intelligence-gathering objectives to allow it. ...

The air in many cells emanated from a ventilation hole in the ceiling, which was often controlled to produce extremes of temperature: sometimes so hot that one would gasp for breath, sometimes freezing cold.

Many detainees described air conditioning for deliberate discomfort.

Detainees were exposed at times to over-heating in the cell; at other times drafts of freezing breeze.

Detainees never experienced natural light or natural darkness, although most were blindfolded many times so they could see nothing....

There was a shackling ring in the wall of the cell, about half a metre up off the floor. Detainees' hands and feet were clamped in handcuffs and leg irons. Bodies were regularly forced into contorted shapes and chained to this ring for long, painful periods.

And we're fighting to spread these freedoms to countries around the world even if they don't want them. Makes you feel proud all over, don't it?

The Germans are unimpressed with our super duper deflector shield

And the moat with sharks with lazers on their foreheads:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging the US government to engage in a broader discussion about the missile defense shield it plans to erect in Poland and the Czech Republic to protect it from enemy missiles.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged the US to refrain from acting unilaterally with its plans to erect a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

"We should always make sure that we discuss everything in a spirit of trust to avoid rifts," Merkel said in a speech to a conference on trans-Atlantic economic cooperation in Berlin. "No one can master the new challenges on their own." She said that applied to the European Union as well as the United States. The German chancellor was in Poland on Friday and Saturday to press its leaders to back a broader discussion on the missile shield within NATO.

I think she's just cautious about being in a contained area with Georgie....

When you volunteer for something, it's for life. Your life.

Pentagon Extends Afghanistan Deployment For 3,200 Soldiers:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A new order from the U.S. Department of Defense will keep 3,200 soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, in Afghanistan for an additional 120 days and away from their homes and families in Fort Drum, New York.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed the extension, which will help supplement the ongoing NATO effort to defeat a resurgent Taliban.

Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, says, "What is certain is that Secretary Gates is very interested in ensuring that the successes that we've achieved in Afghanistan are not lost, and that commanders on the ground have sufficient forces to build upon the successes that we've achieved so far in Afghanistan."

Gen. Richard Cody, Army vice chief of staff, adds, "The Army is very proud of the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, and will ensure that they and their families have all the support and resources they need during this challenging time."

"These soldiers have accomplished a great deal in Afghanistan and will continue to get the mission done for our Army and this nation. They and their families are truly Army strong, and I am thankful every day for their professional and selfless commitment."

Update: NATO asked to step up Afghan support:

Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels have agreed to step up their military and economic assistance to Afghanistan, officials have said.

The decision came as the US pledged an extra $10.6bn (£5.4bn) to bolster its Afghan effort and retain troops there.

On the even of the meeting, the US made it clear it expected other Nato members to bolster their commitment too.