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POPSAfghanistan Conflict Rapidly Worsening What a mess. Nato troops given new mandate to attack heroin drug barons in Afghanistan NATO accused of sheltering Afghan heroin trade Karzai's brother denies links to drug trade Nato happy to ignore explosion in Afghan opium output, says Russia
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POPSPetraeus Talk Bolsters Obama Cont.... Petraeus also came out unambiguously in his talk at Heritage for opening communications with America’s adversaries, a position McCain is attacking Obama for endorsing. Citing his Iraq experience, Petraeus said, “You have to talk to enemies.” He added that it was necessary to have a particular goal for discussion and to perform advance work to understand the motivations of his interlocutors. Yet Petraeus emphasized throughout his lecture that reaching out to insurgent groups — some “with our blood on their hands,” he said — was necessary to the ultimate goal of turning them against irreconcilable enemies like Al Qaeda in Iraq.
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POPSAfghan president Karzai calls for peace with Taliban Our correspondent says that many Afghan and western officials believe that the insurgency cannot be defeated militarily and that a political accommodation must be reached, but there has been fierce disagreements between Western countries and the Afghan government as to how this process should proceed. Correspondents say that earlier attempts to negotiate with the Taleban have been beset by difficulties, especially when foreign powers have been involved.
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POPSAfghan leader assails airstrike on civilians “It is quite obvious, the Americans bombed the area due to wrong information,” he said by telephone. “I am 100 percent confident that someone gave the information due to a tribal dispute. The Americans are foreigners and they do not understand. These people they killed were enemies of the Taliban.”
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POPSThe Truth About Afghanistan Every American Should Know The pre-9/11 plan to invade Afghanistan and the oil pipeline deal behind it, that neither McCain nor Obama will discuss as relevant. Again 9/11 was the pretext for both Iraq and Afghanistan regime change and arranged prior to that "catalyzing event". pre-911: Unocal lavished money and attention on Taliban, flew a senior delegation to Texas Now: Afghanistan just signed a major deal to launch a long-planned, 1680 km long pipeline project expected to cost $ 8 billion. "Mission accomplished". Note the role that Karzai played prior to his installment. Note also how Pakistan fits into this equation which has nothing to do with terrorism. But there are only two practical ways to get gas and oil out of land-locked Central Asia to the sea: through Iran, or through Afghanistan to Pakistan. For Washington, Iran is tabu. That leaves Pakistan, but to get there, the planned pipeline must cross western Afghanistan
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POPSDeadliest Attack in Afghanistan The Afghan Interior Ministry hinted that the attack was carried out with help from Pakistan's intelligence service, saying that "terrorists have carried out this attack in coordination and consultation with some of the active intelligence circles in the region." The Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said Pakistan condemned the attack and terrorism in all forms. Unfortunately we have no more troops to send to Afghanistan.
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POPSKarzai orders probe into deadly U.S. strike "The wedding party was supposed to be going from one village to another to take the bride to the house of the groom," Gul said. "You will have to ask the Americans whether these were terrorists. So far as I know they were men, women and children traveling to a wedding." Imagine how you'd feel if your wedding party was bombed! ANOTHER ATROCITY, DAMMIT!
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POPSTaliban Are Weaker As NATO Attacks Rebels (Update2) Afghan officials said the Taliban have now been cleared from the villages outside the city. Taliban rebels, seeking to overthrow President Hamid Karzai's government, stepped up their insurgency in southern and eastern provinces and increasingly targeted the capital, Kabul, with suicide bombings in recent months. While acknowledging the jail break and fighting posed difficulties, Wood said the international community wouldn't allow the district to fall to the insurgents. Our unified assessment in Kabul is that the Taliban is weaker in 2008 than it was at the beginning of the fighting season in 2007. The Islamist fighters last year lost districts and the U.S. has intelligence of ``some dissatisfaction among the rank and file of the Taliban with their focus on terrorism against innocent civilians. NATO leads a force of more than 53,000 soldiers battling the Taliban.
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POPSAngry Afghan President: Will No Longer Tolerate Cross-Border Attacks.
Analysts said they doubt military action by Afghanistan is imminent, but Pakistan's prime minister said the threat "will not be taken well." A Taliban spokesman warned that the Afghan army would be defeated by thousands of armed tribesman. Speaking on the grounds of his fortified presidential palace, Karzai told a news conference that Afghanistan has the right to self defense, and because militants cross over from Pakistan "to come and kill Afghan and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to do the same." Then, Karzai warned Pakistan-based Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud that Afghan forces would target him on his home turf. Mehsud has been accused in last year's assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. "Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house," Karzai said. "And the other fellow, (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar of Pakistan, should know the same," Karzai continued.
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POPSAfghan prison attack stirs tensions with Pakistan Just as I thought. When they first reported that about 200 prisoners escaped, I smelled the stench big lie. Now, they're saying it was 870 prisoners. Ha. I am SURE the number is at least twice and perhaps 3-4 times that amount. Very good. Hamid Karzai is nothing but a cheap hoe of the big pimp. Big pimp and Karzai are mass murderers and torturers. Most of the people in those jails are innocent of criminal activity. So I am very very happy to see them free and I hope this kind of thing happens much more often.
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POPSKarzai Says He'll Send Troops to Pakistan Karzai said in recent fighting in the Garmser district of Helmand province - where hundreds of U.S. Marines have been battling insurgents the last two months - that most of the fighters came from Pakistan. Karzai called Pakistan a "brother government" and "friend," but also urged it to "act against those elements that are making Pakistan and Afghanistan insecure." He said it was better for Afghan troops to be killed during offensive operations into Pakistan than in militant attacks in Afghanistan. His comments come as Pakistan is seeking peace deals with militants in its borders, including with Mehsud. The deals have come under criticism from U.S. officials, who warn they will simply give militants time to regroup and intensify attacks inside Afghanistan. But Pakistan insists it's not negotiating with "terrorists," rather militants willing to lay down their arms. Karzai is talkative and good for nothing
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POPSMilitants Attack Afghan Prison With Car Bomb, Free Inmates Lawmaker Habibullah Jan said some of the hunger strikers had been held without trial for more than two years. Others were given lengthy prison sentences after short trials. Jan said 47 of the prisoners had stitched their mouths shut during the hunger strike in May.
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POPSBEST NEWS OF THE DAY: Militants attack Afghan prison, free inmates How cruel a regime is the USA. Prisoners held for years without trial or charge. THAT'S FUCKED UP NO MATTER WHAT THE EXCUSE. Prisoners so desperate they stitched their mouths close in protest. THAT'S how cruel the United States of America has become. So it is a very happy day for humanity that the whole muthafuckin goddam prison escaped the cruelty of chief pimp USA and its slut whores in Kandahar.
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POPSPashtuns Oust Gen. Musharaf's pro-Taliban Allies The ANP are followers of the famous pacifist Pashtun Leader, Khan Ghaffar Khan, known as Bacha Khan, who led non-violent resistance movement against the British. After the creation of Pakistan, Bacha Khan was kept under house arrest in Pakistan and his allies were prevented from participating in elections for decades.
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POPSBritish Plan Revealed for Taliban Training Camps It gets confusing because we are told one thing while the Anglo-American ops covertly do something else. The CIA started and trained what became called Al Qaeda (see other clips) and here the Anglos covertly are behind certain Taliban training. You see, the Taliban were merely an excuse to blame for 9/11 (which they denied, along with Bin Laden) to overthrow their control of government in Afghanistan (so an oil pipeline from Caspian Sea could be erected which they had denied), but are really no threat internationally as "terrorists". Allegation plus Repetition do not equal Truth, but Propaganda.
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POPSEx-Taliban Commander Lectures Mullah Omar About Koran "My brothers," Salaam says, "these were the first five verses of the Koran that were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad at Mount Hira: 'Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created all, has created man from a blood clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, who has taught by the pen, has taught man that which he knew not.'” Salaam says those verses led him to question who the Taliban really are after seeing them "taking pens from our children and taking away schools and education."
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POPSAnd to think... ...we are right on the doorstep of becoming just like them. With the Patriot Act and FEMA's little known outrageous powers it wouldn't take much for Bush, or whom ever is next, to tighten the noose and pull the handle of the trap door.
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POPSProvide Taliban Propaganda victory, or Fund the Taliban? More: The officials who confirmed details of the 2004 spraying for the first time made no secret of their opposition to the program that's being contemplated. "It was a dry run," said a senior State Department official. "People freaked out." "The results of those inert tests were: 'Don't do this, don't do this,'" recalled another senior U.S. official. "Every goat with a bad ear and every (legitimate) crop that doesn't grow will be blamed" on the spraying. The problem facing both Afghanistan and the United States is that opium production is almost out of control. Last year, Afghanistan produced a record 93 percent of the world's opium — 17 percent more than in 2005. Opium production and heroin trafficking are fueling epidemic corruption and providing the Taliban with an estimated $30 million to $100 million per year for their war against Karzai's government and 40,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops.
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POPS Increasing Talibanization in Pakistan's Seven Tribal Agencies Musharraf himself admits that the crisis in the area is increasingly turning out to be a Pashtun insurgency. However, the factors that "limit" Pakistan's effective clampdown on all things Taliban in FATA remain linked to its fear about increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan if the Taliban are comprehensively defeated, and the lack of Pakistani public support for anything that appears to be done in pursuance of the U.S.-led global war on terrorism. These perceptions significantly affect the morale of army commanders and soldiers operating in the region. Musharraf has largely failed to make a strong case to his people about the need for strong military action against the Taliban in FATA. (Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan) He has often called this policy as being in the "national interest," but has not convincingly explained how the army alone defines the national interest.
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POPSAmerica on the Downward Slope: (Bush taking slaps in the face.) BUSH: "My message to him is, when we catch you playing a non-constructive role, there will be a price to pay." (Later, a National Security Council spokesman had to offer a correction, insisting the threat was aimed only at Iran, not Maliki.) Then, to add insult to injury, just a week after Bush and Karzai met in Washington, Ahmadinejad headed for Kabul with a high-ranking Iranian delegation to pay his respects to the Afghan president "in open defiance of Washington's wishes." Think slap in the face. What made this little regional diplomatic dance all the more curious was the fact that Karzai and Maliki are such weak (and weakening) American-backed leaders -- thinkingblue: Everyday in one form or another there is an item of horrifying news coming out of this Iraq occupation by the US. If that isn't enough for Congress to start thinking and acting upon withdrawal then, I guess, nothing will..
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POPSBush knew he was lying -- and he was lying with a purpose.
The US media's flagship, the New York Times, did not even mention Bush's falsehood, much less point out the inaccuracy of the remark. It smoothed over Bush's actual words with a bland paraphrase, saying only that Bush "is deeply suspicious of Iran's nuclear ambitions, a view he reiterated Monday." That is a further lie in aid of the original lie. Bush did not say he was "deeply suspicious" of Iran's nuclear ambitions; he said outright that Iran has declared its desire for nuclear weapons. There was no "suspicion" about the statement at all; Bush retailed it as an established fact. Some like the Washington Post, did report Bush's remark -- and even went on to note that "Iran actually has not proclaimed a desire to build a nuclear weapon." But instead of asking why Bush would tell such a glaring, provocative lie, the Post merely, and meekly, allowed a spokesman to explain away the remark with a non sequitor: Iran had once kept its nuclear energy program a secret.
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POPS Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan Cont'd: But counterdrug proposals by some U.S. officials have met fierce resistance, including boosting the amount of forcible poppy field destruction in provinces that grow the most, officials said. The approach also would link millions of dollars in development aid to benchmarks on eradication; arrests and prosecutions of narcotraders, corrupt officials; and on alternative crop production. Those ideas represent what proponents call an "enhanced carrot-and-stick approach" to supplement existing anti-drug efforts. They are the focus of the new $475 million program outlined in a 995-page report, the release of which has been postponed twice and may be again delayed due to disagreements, officials said.
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