Video: Neocon Petraeus Stakes Out Conflict with Obama over July 2011 Afghanistan Pullout; Lays Foundation for GOP Presidential Draft in 2012

(RussiaToday) – General Petraeus has said he does not plan to run for President, but he is also making remarks that directly contradict Defense Secretary Gates and President Obama on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Is there a political motive at play? RT contributor Webster Tarpley said yes! He argued that while Petraeus said he has no current plans to run, this does not mean he does not have an agenda. When push comes to shove Petraeus may be on the ballot, argued Tarpley.

Targeted Assassinations – Challenging US Policy – Stephen Lendman

(Rense) – The WikiLeaks “Afghan War Diaries” provided documented evidence of America’s out-of-control lawlessness, including Special Forces death squads (Task Force 373) extrajudicially murdering or capturing suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda figures, many hundreds or perhaps thousands on a so-called Jpel (joint prioritized effects) list, also willfully killing civilian men, women and children, the London Times Kabul-based Jerome Starkey reporting earlier on these crimes, suppressed in US media accounts, presenting an embedded view of the war, omitting the targeting of Americans until then Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged it in February, explaining that:

CIA operatives and Special Forces death squads have been authorized to kill US citizens abroad, suspected of terrorist involvement, Blair saying:

“If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that,” the criteria being “whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American is a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved. We don’t target people for free speech. We target them for taking action that threatens Americans or has resulted in it,” based on suspicions, not evidence.

Celente – Bull Run Or BS? Crash Of 2010 On Its Way

(Rense) – 2010 has thundered past the half way mark and is galloping into history. What will the rest of the year hold?

Most of the “Top Ten Trends for 2010” forecast by Gerald Celente this past winter in the Trends Journal® have either come to pass or are about to manifest. Celente predicted:

The Afghan surge would fail.
The economic recovery would never materialize.
Terrorist threats would increase.
Tea parties would gain strong momentum.
Obama’s popularity would wane and/or plummet.
Anti-Immigration sentiments would intensify.
In 2009, “experts” rejoiced at the sight of the impending recovery’s “green shoots” and predicted the advent of a roaring bull stock market run.

Bull market or BS? Celente called the green shoots a mirage and recovery “a cover up.” Sure enough, the Dow is now trading at 1999 levels. He also wrote “Geopolitical and sociological fallout will threaten the entire European Union” and he forecast the “Crash of 2010.”

Will the “Crash” happen at all? Will it happen on schedule? Events conspiring in that direction are explored in detail in the Summer Trends Journal®, just sent to subscribers.

Video: Ron Paul – Feds spend $400/gallon on gas in Afghanistan

This is an unofficial illustrated version of Ron Paul’s July 12 broadcast on Afghanistan. And you thought a few $69 toilet seats were a big deal.

Video: New York Times Planted Story on Afghan Mineral Wealth Designed to Prolong US Occupation, Spur Neocon-Backed Petraeus Presidential Candidacy

(WebsterTarpley) – To provide a new and spurious economic looting argument for making the US occupation of Afghanistan virtually endless, and to advance the candidacy of General David Petraeus as the principal neocon warmonger candidate for president on the Republican ticket in 2012 – these are the purposes of the story planted in the June 13, 2010 New York Times under the byline of James Risen, who is acting as stenographer for the neocons in the great tradition of his predecessor Judith Miller. In retrospect, this article may well be seen as the opening gun of an overt push to place General Petraeus in the White House in 2012 as the new Field Marshal von Hindenburg.

World War

(SouthLebanon) – The Biggest Threat to Peace in Middle East

A build up of heightened tension in the Middle East is escalating in the last few weeks. American and Israeli postures towards Lebanon, Syria, and Iran have become more threatening. Listening to speeches of political leaders one hears talks only about war not peace. Iranians and Israelis are continuously training hard for a possible showdown Read More Here

(MoneyTeachers) – Did North Korea Just Start World War III?

Sinking another country’s ship is considered an act of war. Examples include “The Maine”, “Lusitania”, Pearl Harbor and the Tonkin Gulf. I realize that these were either permitted or “False Flags”. Yet, they did provide the pretext for the Spanish American War, World War I, WWII and Vietnam. Read More Here

(SouthLebanon) – Israel’s Ongoing War Against the Press

The recent arrest of an Israeli journalist who allegedly leaked materials to a reporter, and the gag order that followed, is just the latest in a long string of Israel’s systematic attacks on press freedom. Read More Here

(YNet) – Eisenkot: IDF prepared for all-out war within hours – Read More Here

(SouthLebanon) – The Simplicity of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

There is a general perception that the reason the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has continued for so long is because it is extremely complex. Nothing could be further from the truth. Placed in historical context, understanding the root cause of the conflict is simple, and in doing so, the solution becomes apparent. Read More Here

(Fox) – Senate Takes Up ‘Emergency’ War Bill Despite Obama Pledge to End Practice

A year after President Obama pledged to end the practice of funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with “emergency” spending bills, the Senate is taking up a $60 billion request that would do exactly that. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – America’s Exalted Capacity for Murder

What does the new British government make of its war in Afghanistan? While we await a clear statement, events in the blighted country hurtle with their own menacing momentum towards the endgame. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – Obama’s Drone Blitz: They Seek Them Here, They Bomb Them There …

Let us imagine that Spain invaded Mexico in similar fashion to the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 because Madrid suffered a terrorist atrocity that was planned by a Saudi Arabian fanatic living in Chihuahua. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – Memorial Day 2010 – Corporations Profit from Permanent War – Bill Quigley

US law officially proclaims Memorial Day “as a day of prayer for permanent peace.”

However, the US is much closer to permanent war than permanent peace. Corporations are profiting from wars and lobbying politicians for more. The US, and the rest of the world, cannot afford the rising personal and financial costs of permanent war. Read More Here

(PressTV) – ‘Israel offered nukes to apartheid SA’

Declassified documents cast new light on Israel’s nuclear arsenals, revealing an offer by Israel to provide South Africa’s apartheid regime with nuclear arms.

In an article published on Sunday, UK-based daily The Guardian explained how South African officials asked for nuclear warheads and Tel Aviv promised to sell them to the apartheid regime. Read More Here

(NoOneHasToDieTomorrow) – Robert Rodriguez Backpedals on His ‘Message to Arizona’

After weeks of being at the forefront of controversy over his ‘Cinco de Mayo Message to Arizona’, Robert Rodriguez is on the run.

Rodriguez is now labeling his Machete trailer a “fake” and excusing himself by calling it a “case of too much tequila”. His pathetic and arrogant backpedaling was posted on Ain’t it cool news, the same site that originally released the illegal Machete trailer. Here is a small sampling of his recent interview with Harry: Read More Here

(NorCalTruth) – U.S. Pays Off Afghan Poppy Farmers

ABC report is describing a “new approach” to the poppy production in Afghanistan.
“If WE SECURE them getting a good harvest, now they’re going to get paid for their hard work. Then we can deal with trafficking afterwords” – U.S. Soldier in new ABC report. View More Here

(GlobalResearch) – Pentagon Contractor Profits Rise —Along With Casualties – Sherwood Ross – Read More Here

Video: Palestinians Dehumanized By Israeli Checkpoints –

World War

(ABC) – Israel FM: Iran, Syria, NKorea New ‘Axis of Evil’

Israel’s foreign minister on Wednesday declared North Korea, Syria and Iran the new “axis of evil,” claiming that North Korean weapons seized in Bangkok in December were bound for Middle Eastern militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Read More Here

(PressTV) – Israel must sign NPT, IAEA chief says

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has called for international input to pressure Israel into joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Read More Here

Video: Seymour Hersh – U.S. troops executing prisoners in Afghanistan – View Video Here

(ThePeoplesVoice) – No Influential Voice in U.S. Supporting War on Iran: Peter Feaver

A Harvard University graduate, a current Alexander F. Hehmeyer Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University, and the director of Triangle Institute for Security Studies (TISS), Peter D. Feaver is perhaps best known for his mission under President Bush as the special advisor for strategic planning and institutional reform on the National Security Council from 2005 to 2007. Read More Here

(Uruknet) – 6,500 disabled children in Gaza after war

Recent statistics shows an increment in the number of children who have lost at least one or more of their limbs during the war in Gaza. The number is an estimated 6,500. Read More Here

(PoliticalTheatrics) – The Tragedy That is Gaza Today And The Role Of The EU

In mid January 2010, the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG) organized a 50-person delegation of MPs, politicians and former ministers into Gaza to witness firsthand the conditions on the ground one year after the 22-day Israeli invasion that laid waste to the Gaza Strip. Here is the report the delegation prepared (PDF) Read More Here

(CNN) – Video: 50 Killed by Drone Attack in Pakistan – Drone Attack – Video Link Here

(LATimes) – Digging up chemical weapons in D.C.

After World War I, munitions including shells of poisonous liquid mustard were buried in a then-rural area. The cleanup has forced evacuations at American University and prompted concerns about illness. Read More Here

(DesertPeace) – Iraq Genocide and More… – Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

In this digest: Resumption of indirect negotiations a waste of time, video of protest in Nabi Saleh, John Greyson calls on Elton John to cancel appearance in Tel Aviv, Obama’s wrong appointment to the Supreme Court, proposal for an commemoration of Iraq Genocide, how an Israeli general tried to cover-up the murder of Rachel Corrie, and two Nakba articles. Read More Here

(Reuters) – Obama adviser warns Russia against arms sale to Iran

The United States has made it clear to Russia that delivering an anti-aircraft system to Iran would have severe consequences for U.S. ties with Moscow, a senior advisor to President Obama said Tuesday. Read More Here

(Almanar) – Barak: Israel to Keep Nuclear ‘Ambiguity’ with US Backing

Media reports have said the United States agreed in 1969 that as long as Israel did not test a nuclear weapon or publicly confirm that it had one, Washington would not press it on the issue. Read More Here

(Haaretz) – MESS Report / Nobody wants war, but Israel-Lebanon border is heating up

As Hezbollah grows in strength, concern over a possible confrontation in the north is becoming an international issue. Read More Here

(Haaretz) – Netanyahu on northern border: Iran is trying to drag Israel, Syria into war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday blamed Iran for trying to drag Israel and Syria into a military confrontation. During a meeting with reservist officers at a Northern Command training base, Netanyahu said that “Iran is trying to stir up war between Israel and Syria in order to cause tension in the region.” Read More Here

(AsiaTimes) – Helmand’s poppy growth surges – Read More Here

(Rense) – Top Prof Fired For Opposing Israeli Gaza Slaughter

Denis Rancourt is a distinguished, tenured Professor of Physics, a recognized expert in his field, and an Environmental Science Researcher at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

Yet because of his activist position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he was unfairly fired and barred from campus on threat of arrest – a violation of his tenure, academic freedom, and beliefs about human rights and equal justice. Read More Here

(Newswise) – Multi-Symptom Pain Disorders Plague Returning Service Men and Women

Nine in 10 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans return with some form of pain and about 60 percent have significant pain, mainly from the cumulative effect of exposure to recurring blasts which cause unimaginable injuries, according to prominent VA pain clinicians speaking at the American Pain Society’s annual scientific meeting. Read More Here

(C-Span) – Video: We Must Give Israel Intelligence Logistic & Political Support So They Can Successfully Attack Iran!

(CNN) – Video: No Reason To Be In Afghanistan! –

World War

(AntiWar) – Deputy PM: Israel ‘Primed’ for War With Iran

Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and former military chief Moshe Ya’alon today announced that Israel’s air force was “primed” for a war against Iran, and said that the nation also had the capability to attack Gaza, Lebanon, and fight a conventional war against Syria. Read More Here

(AmericanEveryman) – The Fake “Global War on Terror” in a Nutshell

You want to go to war with Afghanistan to run the Trans Afghan Pipeline? Falsely claim the Taliban refused to give up al Qaeda…

You want to go to war with Iraq to get control of oil fields? Falsely claim Saddam is helping fund al Qaeda… Read More Here

(Lataan) – Is The U.s. Preparing to Escalate Their War in Pakistan?

Much Western media attention has been devoted to the Saturday, 1 May, failed bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square. Read More Here

(AntiWar) – Clinton: Pakistan Officials ‘Harboring’ Bin Laden

In perhaps the clearest signal yet that tensions between the US and Pakistan are on the rise, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accused unnamed parties in Pakistan’s government of harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Read More Here

(SouthLebanon) – Israeli Hypocrisy: Talking Peace While Preparing for War and Institutionalizing Dire Conditions in Gaza – Read More Here

(TomDispatch) – Afghan Escalation Funding – More War, Fewer Jobs, Poor Excuses – David Swanson

Isn’t it time to call what Congress will soon vote on by its right name: war escalation funding?

Early in 2009, President Barack Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan with 21,000 “combat” troops, 13,000 “support” troops, and at least 5,000 mercenaries, without any serious debate in Congress or the corporate media. The President sent the first 17,000 troops prior to developing any plan for Afghanistan, leaving the impression that escalation was, somehow, an end in itself. Certainly it didn’t accomplish anything else, a conclusion evident in downbeat reports on the Afghan war situation issued this month by both the Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon. Read More Here

(SydneyMorningHerald) – Allawi warns of sectarian war

Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister who scored a surprise win in the recent general election, has warned that Iraq risks descending into a new sectarian war. Read More Here

(NYTimes) – Times Square Fizzle Non-bombing Provides Excuse to Launch Drones in Pakistan – Read More Here

(Reuters) – U.S. missiles kill at least 24 in Pakistan

U.S. drone aircraft killed at least 24 suspected militants in two attacks on Tuesday in Pakistan’s North Waziristan, a major al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary, Pakistani security officials said. Read More Here

(Reuters) – Iran says it warned off U.S. plane near manoeuvres

Iran’s military warned off a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft trying to approach Iranian naval manoeuvres, Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The incident involving the two old foes happened on Monday, the semi-official news agency quoted the armed forces chief as saying. Read More Here

(FireDogLake) – Video: Afghan Mothers Face Worst Conditions in the World

Each year Save the Children publishes a report for Mother’s Day on the state of women and children in countries around the world. It’s a valuable and sobering view that may surprise many. Norway led in conditions this year, the US comes in at 28th – and Afghanistan is at the very bottom of the list, even compared to other “least developed” nations.

Here are the facts: Video Link & Stats Here

(Antiwar) – Who lied us into war?

The easy answer: George W. Bush. But that’s too easy. It’s highly unlikely the President of the United States got up there and knowingly fibbed about the existence of weapons that would surely not be found. No doubt he fully expected the evidence to turn up, verifying what he and other members of his administration had been saying all along: that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction capable of posing a regional threat. Read More Here

Rats in Wolves Clothing – Narco Nexus May Be Managing Terror War – Gordon Duff

Tens of thousands will die from this harvest of death. Who profits and why is it necessary for chaos to continue for the money to flow? Read More Here

(PressTV) – US, Israel hold war game in Germany

The United States and Israel have staged a joint aerial war game in Germany, using live ammunition in their first such maneuver in the German soil. Read More Here

(PressTV) – US missiles kill 14 in NW Pakistan

Pakistani government has publicly condemned the drone attacks, saying they violate the country’s sovereignty, although there is a wide belief that US uses its Pakistani air bases to launch drone attacks against alleged militant strongholds. Read More Here

(CNN) – Video: Are Drone Strikes Moral?

Video: David Ray Griffin on 9/11 & the war in Afghanistan

Video: Fox News Makes Excuse for CIA’s Afghan Opium Cultivation

(KurtNimmo) – In an amazing propaganda segment, Fox News’ Gerald Rivera talks with an occupation soldier about U.S. support of the opium trade in Afghanistan. The soldier tells Rivera he does not like supporting Afghan opium production. The U.S., he insists, has turned a blind eye to the cultivation because it is a cultural thing. He’d rather the Afghans grow watermelons.

World War

(GlobalResearch) – Uprisings against the New World Order: Thailand, Kyrgyzstan, and Revolution – Shamus Cooke

Are revolutions happening in Thailand and Kyrgyzstan? Are they instead “uprisings”? Does it matter? The distinction is important insofar as it helps to educate others inspired by these recent events, with hopes to radically change their own political and economic systems. Read More Here

(NewsHoggers) – Chasing News That Isn’t News – The Latest Scare Story About Iran: Missiles Targeting US by 2015

Today, the papers are full of a claim that the new Ballistic Missile Defense Review Report (PDF) from the US Dept. of Defense says Iran could have the missile capability to reach the U.S. by 2015. You’ll find the claim being repeated by the UK’s rightwing Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, by NewsMax, Israel’s press, Pakistan’s “Dawn”, ABC News, Reuters and more. Read More Here

(ForeignPolicy) – More Hype About Iran? – Read More Here

(AFP) – US military option against Iran still on table: Pentagon

US military action against Iran has not been ruled out, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday, after a top official said such an option was off the table in the “near term.” Read More Here

(DangerRoom) – U.S. Soldier on 2007 Apache Attack: What I Saw

Ethan McCord had just returned from dropping his children at school earlier this month, when he turned on the TV news to see grainy black-and-white video footage of a soldier running from a bombed-out van with a child in his arms. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three years, and he knew exactly who the soldier was. Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – The Afghan War: “No Blood for Opium”

The Hidden Military Agenda is to Protect the Drug Trade – Read More Here

(Uruknet) – Democracy and depleted uranium

When my sister, 101st Airborne Army Capt. Chaplain Fran E. Stuart, returned from Iraq, she was forever changed.

Not only had the desert sand, gun blasts and heat penetrated her psyche during her one-year deployment, but a carcinogen had made its way into her body as well. Unbeknown to her, the carcinogen was making a home in my sister’s body, along with the Anthrax vaccine, depleted uranium, burn pit smoke and contaminated water dished up at every meal. Read More Here

(Uruknet) – Their homes reduced to rubble

ISRAELI FORCES carried out several major home demolition operations on Wednesday, April 14, within three separate areas in the occupied West Bank. The demolitions left dozens of people homeless in Hares (near the northern town of Tulkarem); and the towns of Beit Sahour and al-Khader near Bethlehem. Read More Here

(AntiWar) – US Vows New Sanctions Against Iran in ‘Weeks’

Much as they did several times last week, and several times the week before that, and indeed innumerable times this year, last year, and the year before that, the US today vowed that there would be new sanctions against Iran in a matter of weeks. Read More Here

Video: The Road to Total War

From Napoleon to Nagasaki, The Road to Total War charts how the social, economic and technological developments of the last two hundred years have made warfare so efficient that it can now destroy us all.

Part one of the six-part series War, hosted by Gwynne Dyer, examining the nature, evolution and consequences of modern warfare.

NATO killing of civilians doubled

(PressTV) – NATO statistics show that Afghan civilians killed by foreign forces have more than doubled this year compared to the same period a year ago.

According to the figures released by the International Security Assistance Forces, NATO troops killed 72 Afghan civilians in the first three months of 2010 — up from 29 in the same period last year.

Pakistani air raids kill 70 civilians

(DeutschePresse-Agentur) – Pakistani forces killed 23 Taliban militants on Sunday, a day after 70 civilians reportedly died and over 50 were injured in air raids in country’s militancy-plagued tribal region near the Afghan border, officials and locals said.

Video: Wikileaks to release new video showing murder of scores of Afghan civilians

(Uruknet) – Remember this from May of last year?

Wikileaks, the scourge of governments from China to the US, will soon release a video related to this killing of more than a hundred innocent Afghan civilians in May 2009. This comes on the backdrop of the release of helicopter footage of the slaying of Iraqis in 2007. Take note of what the US were saying when the news broke last year of the casualties:

US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan

(Uruknet) – US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened, Afghan investigators have told The Times.

How Americans Are Propagandized About Afghanistan

(CommonDreams) – On February 12 of this year, U.S. forces entered a village in the Paktia Province in Afghanistan and, after surrounding a home where a celebration of a new birth was taking place, shot dead two male civilians (government officials) who exited the house in order to inquire why they had been surrounded. The Pentagon then issued a statement claiming that (a) the dead were all “insurgents” or terrorists, (b) the bodies of three women had been found bound and gagged inside the home (including two pregnant women, one a mother of 10 children and the other a mother of six children, and a teenage girl), and (c) suggested that the women had already been killed by the time the U.S. had arrived, likely the victim of “honor killings” by the Taliban militants killed in the attack.

Karzai steps up attack against US war policy

‘The tensions between the West and Karzai exposed publicly last Thursday, when he accused “foreigners” of perpetrating fraud in the August presidential elections. ‘
(PressTV) – Afghan President Hamid karzai says there will be no military operation in the southern province of Kandahar unless the Afghan people support it.

World War

(Examiner) – Look Your Victims in the Eyes: This is Iran, These are Iranians to be Killed in the Next US War

‘If you don’t already know that claims for war with Iran are all provable and absolute lies, start here. Read More Here

(Aljazeera) – Video: Putting a price on Afghan life

In Afghanistan, if foreign troops kill an innocent civilian by accident, families may receive compensations of around $2,500. Video Link Here

(Pravda) – U.S. Iran Sneak Attack?

It has been revealed that hundreds of powerful U.S. “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California in the U.S. to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran. Although Diego Garcia is part of British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius. Read More Here

US/NATO Death Squads Killing Indiscriminately in Afghanistan

(WSWS) – The New York Times reported this week that the overall commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan is seeking to impose tighter control over the activities of special forces units, after recent operations led to more civilian deaths. General Stanley McChrystal’s concern is not the deaths, however, but the manner in which they are fuelling Afghan hatred for the US-led occupation and their occasional exposure in the international media.

Video: The CIA and Taliban work together – Wayne Madsen

(RussiaToday) – The CIA is working together with the Taliban? Is this a misprint? Not according to RT contributor Wayne Madsen, he says that is how the US got to the Afghan Talibans number two commander. You may recall last month the CIA and the Pakistanis reported his capture.

Video: House Votes Against Ending Afghan War

(AntiWar) – It may have produced hours of fiery debate, but in the end Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D – OH) House Concurrent Resolution 248, which would have mandated the end of the US military presence in Afghanistan by December 31 ultimately failed, as was widely expected.

How Kucinich’s Resolution to End the War Will Help Us End the War

(AfterDowningStreet) – Tomorrow, Thursday, March 4, Congressman Dennis Kucinich plans to introduce a privileged resolution to end the Afghan War. The resolution requires that the House debate, within the next week, the continuing war in Afghanistan, now the second longest war in American history.

Blackwater News

(RawStory) – Scahill: Blackwater used shell company to defraud US government

Blackwater set up a shell company to “defraud the government” by leading it to believe it wasn’t contracting with the notorious security contractor, investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill says. Read More Here

(WashingtonIndependent) – Blackwater Took Hundreds of Guns From U.S. Military, Afghan Police

Senate Inquiry Shows Contractor Signed for Rifles Using ‘South Park’ Alias Read More Here

(RevolutionaryPolitics) – Blackwater on Trial: Murders, drugs & alcohol

American security guards charged with killing two civilians in Afghanistan had criminal records, a Senate committee has heard. They were guilty of assault, battery and drug-taking in the past. The men were in Afghanistan with a subsidiary of the private security firm Blackwater, previously accused of murdering civilians in Iraq. View Video Here

Video: Fears of humanitarian crisis in Marjah

(Aljazeera) – More than a week into the Nato-Afghan military offensive against the Taliban in the southern Helmand province town of Marjah, warnings of a humanitarian crisis are growing.

Members of a fleeing family tell Al Jazeera they fled the fighting because they could stop neither the Taliban nor US soldiers from entering their homes.

Gordon Duff: Afghan Leaders Call Surge, “Imbecilic and Tragic”

“WRONG REGION, WRONG ENEMY, WRONG TACTICS, BAD ADVICE”
“AMERICA RECRUITING 10,000 TERRORISTS A DAY IN AFGHANISTAN”
(VeteransToday) – Last year a number of contractors were thrown out of Afghanistan over the infamous “butT-crack” video showing nude imbeciles involved in an unsanitary ceremony. Little did we know that these must have been the people who planned the American “Surge” meant to stabilize Afghanistan, supplied the intelligence for General McChrystal, may actually have written his report. Top leaders of the Afghan people weighed in on our operation in Helmand province with American Marines and British troops. They call it “imbecilic” and “tragic,” faulting nearly every aspect as uninformed, misinformed or simply wrong. Read More Here

Video: Civilian Casualties Soar; Key Afghan Metric Headed In Wrong Direction

(HuffingtonPost) – Civilian deaths in Afghanistan climbed in 2009 to their highest number since the fall of the Taliban, the United Nations says in a recent report.

Iran says US, UK, Canada assist Afghan drug trade

(PressTV) – A senior Iranian anti-drug official has accused the US, Britain and Canada of playing a major role in Afghanistan’s lucrative drug trade.

The Anatomy Of America’s Defeat In Afghanistan

(PakAlert) – With the long awaited decision by the Obama Administration in regards to the new strategy for Afghanistan, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated to the point that the US commanders started using the word ‘defeat’ in their report to Washington. The word defeat has rarely been uttered by military; however, Afghanistan is the exception, where defeat is a realistic outcome. There, defeat is a reality that all invaders have faced since the beginning when Pashtuns have inhabited this region. The Pashtuns’ resistance is one of multiple factors characterizing the Anatomy of US’s Defeat in Afghanistan, where the inevitability of defeat for the US and NATO appears to be a certainty.

Obama to Seek $33 Billion More for Wars

(AntiWar) – When President Obama requested a $106 billion “emergency” was funding bill in early 2009, it was promised that this would be the last time the administration would ever seek such a supplement, and that they would instead simply increase the size of their regular defense funding bill to cover the wars.

MSM: US forces in Afghanistan ‘should expect up to 500 casualties a month’

(TimesOnline) – US forces in Afghanistan should brace themselves for up to 500 casualties a month this year, a senior retired American general has warned.

Afghanistan: Shooting Handcuffed Children

The occupied government of Afghanistan and the United Nations have both concluded that U.S.-led troops recently dragged eight sleeping children out of their beds, handcuffed some of them, and shot them all dead.  While this apparently constitutes an everyday act of kindness, far less intriguing than the vicious singeing of his pubic hairs by Captain Underpants, it is at least a variation on the ordinary American technique of murdering men, women, and children by the dozens with unmanned drones.

MSM: Afgan Attacker Was CIA Informant

(ABC) – The suicide bomber who killed at least six Central Intelligence Agency officers in a base along the Afghan-Pakistan border on Wednesday was a regular CIA informant who had visited the same base multiple times in the past, according to someone close to the base’s security director.

MSM: Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan civilians, including children

(Times) – American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.

9/11 was pretext for attacking Afghanistan

Editor: Hats off to Tom Beattie (The Times, Dec. 27) for his comments on the illegal invasion of Afghanistan, in which Canada is unfortunately a major player. While I’m at it, hats off to The Times for printing his letter.

Afghan war relentless on civilian death: UN

(PressTV) – UN figures indicate a 10 percent growth in the civilian death toll from the US-led war in Afghanistan with a good share of fatalities caused by foreign forces.

In Nightmares Begin Responsibilities – Why War Will Take No Holiday in 2010

Excuse the gloom in the holiday season, but I feel like we’re all locked inside a malign version of the movie Groundhog Day. You remember, the one in which the characters are forced to relive the same 24 hours endlessly.  Put more personally, TomDispatch started in November 2001 as an email to friends in response to the first moments of our latest Afghan War.  More than eight years later… well, you know the story.

Afghan Children Are Neglected Casualties Of War

Years of war, bad government, corruption and poverty have left Afghanistan with the highest infant mortality rate in the world, according to UNICEF. More than one out of every five children are dead by the time they are five.

House Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill

(AntiWar) – There was a time when the federal government’s annual budget was submitted by the president and decided by the Congress in a relatively straightforward fashion. A time when it wasn’t so difficult to figure out what the government spent taxpayers’ money on.

The Nine Surges of Obama’s War – How to Escalate in Afghanistan

(C4L) – In his Afghan “surge” speech at West Point last week, President Obama offered Americans some specifics to back up his new “way forward in Afghanistan.”  He spoke of the “additional 30,000 U.S. troops” he was sending into that country over the next six months.  He brought up the “roughly $30 billion” it would cost us to get them there and support them for a year.  And finally, he spoke of beginning to bring them home by July 2011.  Those were striking enough numbers, even if larger and, in terms of time, longer than many in the Democratic Party would have cared for.  Nonetheless, they don’t faintly cover just how fully the president has committed us to an expanding war and just how wide it is likely to become.

MSM: Mullen Says U.S. Losing War in Afghanistan

(Telegraph) – “This is the most dangerous time I’ve seen growing up the last four decades in uniform,” Adm Mike Mullen told audiences of soldiers and marines, some of whom are weeks away from flying to conflict.