World-News

CIA sets up another drone base in Afghanistan

"Officials said the CIA now conducted most of its Predator missile and bomb strikes on targets in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region from the Jalalabad base, with drones landing or taking off almost hourly," The New York Times reported.

https://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=218404


From Information Clearing House

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Looking for 'Cost-Free War', US to Increase Drone Training
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/08/23-0



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By Eric Margolis

An election held under the guns of a foreign occupation army cannot be called legitimate or democratic.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23352.htm

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Fragments of the Afghan state

The American Prospect
by Matthew Yglesias

08/23/09

Today, Afghans head to the polls fearing attack from Taliban forces who’ve labeled the process a ‘program of the crusaders.’ Most likely, Taliban efforts to derail the voting will fail, and incumbent President Hamid Karzai will stay in office. A smooth election, if it happens, should provide a morale boost for an Obama administration that’s lately been struggling with grim assessments of Afghanistan’s political situation. But even given a best-case scenario, no election result should distract from the United States’ desperate need to frame realistic objectives in Afghanistan...

https://tinyurl.com/mv8n9m


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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The New York Times reported Friday that the company that used to be known as Blackwater has taken over from the Central Intelligence Agency the job of arming the agency's Predator drones that patrol over Afghanistan.

https://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/21/world/worldwatch/entry5257267.shtml


From Information Clearing House



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Thomas Renard, writing for La Libre Belgique: It is necessary to acknowledge that [NATO's counter insurrectional efforts in South Asia] have proved to be largely ineffective - one could almost say counterproductive - up until now. The principle reason for this failure is limited to the complete absence of strategy, as much on the side of the Atlantic Alliance, as on the American side, and that remains true in spite of President Obama's new 'AfPak Strategy' ... This lack of strategy is linked to the deep disagreement that divides NATO members with respect to the nature of the mission in Afghanistan."

https://www.truthout.org/082009X?n



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By Ted Rall

When you can't tell whether you're winning or losing, you're losing.
https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23319.htm



We Have the Moral High Ground

By Cindy Sheehan

While the so-called left is obsessed over supporting a very crappy Democratic health care plan, people in far away countries are being deprived of their health and very lives by the Obama Regime's continuation of Bush's ruinous foreign policy.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23313.htm



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Ballots and Bullets for Afghanistan
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/19-4

Karzai and Warlords Mount Massive Vote Fraud Scheme
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/08/19-9

The Afghan Pipe Dream
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/19-3

Former CIA Operatives Agree: American Occupation of Afghanistan Threatens US Security
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/08/19-4

Rethink Afghanistan
https://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/08/19-0

Oxfam International: A Third of Afghans at Risk of Hunger Shows Need for Urgent Aid Reforms
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/08/19-9

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Why These Deaths Hit Home as Hard as the Somme

By Robert Fisk

Not so long ago, I seem to remember, Bush was telling us that we would be betraying the American dead in Iraq if we gave up the fight. We owed it to the dead to go on killing more Iraqis. And now we owe it to the dead to go on killing more Afghans. Who, of course, will go on killing us. Is there no end to this madness?

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23305.htm



There is no "Victory" to be Won in Afghanistan

"The notion that we are in Afghanistan to make our country safer is just complete b...s"

Video

Three former high-ranking CIA agents to explain why. There is no "victory" to be won in Afghanistan.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23309.htm



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19. August 2009

Im Zusammenhang mit den Präsidentenwahlen am 20. August eskaliert die Gewalt in Afghanistan. Dazu erklärt Christine Buchholz, Mitglied im Geschäftsführenden Parteivorstand:

Die Bundeswehr muss ihre Rolle als Kriegspartei am Hindukusch beenden und abziehen. Bomben und Panzer bringen weder Frieden noch Demokratie. Die Truppen der USA und der NATO lösen keines der Probleme, sie sind das Hauptproblem für eine friedliche Entwicklung in Afghanistan. Die NATO hat seit seiner Einsetzung als Präsident das Regime Karsai unterstützt. Karsai fungiert als Adressat für die milliardenschweren Zuwendungen internationaler Geber. Immer wieder gibt es Vorwürfe, er habe in seiner Position durch die Verteilung von Pfründen ein persönliches Patronagesystem aufgebaut. Er gehe mit einem Septett von Warlords ins Rennen, die fast alle als mutmaßliche Kriegsverbrecher auf entsprechenden Listen der UNO und mehrerer Menschenrechtsorganisationen stehen. Vor Beginn der heißen Wahlkampfphase habe er zahlreiche Vereinbarungen mit einflussreichen Warlords, Regionalfürsten, Gouverneuren, Parteichefs und Stammesältesten geschlossen und diesen bei erfolgreicher Wiederwahl Teilhabe an der Macht versprochen. DIE LINKE fordert den Abzug der deutschen Soldaten aus Afghanistan und weiß sich damit im Einklang mit einer Mehrheit in der Bevölkerung. 69 Prozent der Bundesbürgerinnen und Bundesbürger hatten sich in einer repräsentativen Umfrage im Juli für einen Truppenabzug ausgesprochen. Die Bundesregierung betreibt stattdessen die Ausweitung des Truppeneinsatzes. Deshalb sind auch wichtige Hilfsorganisationen auf Distanz zu dieser Politik gegangen, wie erst kürzlich die Welthungerhilfe. Ihr Generalsekretär Wolfgang Jamann wirft der Bundesregierung zu Recht vor, dass die Entwicklungshilfe durch die Wiederaufbauteams in den Provinzen als Instrument für politische und militärische Interessen missbraucht wurde und sogar Teil der Militärstrategie geworden ist.

https://www.die-linke.de/nc/presse/presseerklaerungen/detail/artikel/bomben-und-panzer-bringen-weder-frieden-noch-demokratie/

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Zweifel an bewaffneter Wahlhilfe

Der Einsatz der Bundeswehr in Afghanistan ist wieder in der Kritik.
https://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/30/30942/1.html



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Manufacturing Consent For The Continued Occupation Of Afghanistan

By Press TV

"We must never forget this is not a war of choice, this is a war of necessity," he said. "If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al-Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans," he said.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23295.htm



British Politician Tony Benn Condemns Escalation of War in Afghanistan

While President Obama defended his escalation of the war in Afghanistan on Monday, in Britain, America's closest ally, antiwar sentiment is growing.

https://snipurl.com/qh0i4



Afghan Election Fraud is Unearthed

By Ian Pannell

An investigation by the BBC has found evidence of fraud and corruption in Afghanistan's presidential election. Thousands of voting cards have been offered for sale and thousands of dollars have been offered in bribes to buy votes.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23296.htm


From Information Clearing House



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Has France lost all critical sense? Afghanistan is not our first war outside our borders. Algeria and Indochina are tragic experiences from which the country appeared to have learned some lessons. But France, in spite of all, got involved in that conflict. A conflict which – if one believes Roland Hureaux - nonetheless bears all the signs of an illegitimate war.

https://www.truthout.org/081709X?n



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You Don't Want to Know

By Jean MacKenzie

Call it protection money, call it extortion, or, as the Taliban themselves prefer to term it, "spoils of war," the fact remains that international donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy.

https://informationclearinghouse.info/article23276.htm



What Does Barack Obama Really Want in Afghanistan?

By William Pfaff

There have been eight years in which to capture bin Laden and it's not been done yet, and there seems no reason to think that anything important would change if the thousands of Marines now scheduled for Afghanistan did capture him. What did it change to capture and execute Saddam Hussein in Iraq?

https://informationclearinghouse.info/article23285.htm



Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time

What are our servicemen dying for? There are glib answers to that: bringing democracy and development to Afghanistan, supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai in its attempt to establish order in the country, fighting the Taliban and preventing the further spread of radical Islam into Pakistan.

https://snipurl.com/qe5i7



Much Of Afghan Drug Money Going To 'Our Friends'

The Senate report says the United States inadvertently contributed to the resurgent drug trade ... by backing warlords who derived income from the flow of illegal drugs. ... These warlords later traded on their stature as U.S. allies to take senior positions in the new Afghan government.

https://snipurl.com/qe5jg


From Information Clearing House



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