Twelve years “war on terror” terrorizing nationals; foreigners get out says Afghan activist

Afghanistan

People's uprising can end foreign wars against world peoples

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

W

ar on Afghanistan COMMANDED, LED: October 7, 2001-October 7, 2013: United States President Barack Obama; United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron; Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. Preceded by: United States President George W. Bush; United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair; United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Iraq

U.S. President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel the al-Qaeda [now the U.S. reportedly allies with al-Qaeda against the government of Syria] network which was supporting the Taliban in its war with the Afghan Northern Alliance [the U.S. previously also allied with the Northern Alliance].

The Taliban [allegedly] recommended that bin Laden leave the country… but declined to extradite him without evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

T

he United States refused to negotiate and launched ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ against the people of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. The U.S. aggression was joined by the United Kingdom and later by Germany and other western allies in attacking the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in conjunction with the Northern Alliance.

“The War in Afghanistan (2001–present) refers,” in the phrasing of a Wikipedia article on this subject, “to the intervention by NATO and allied forces in the Afghan political struggle, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to dismantle the al-Qaeda terrorist organization and to remove from power the Taliban government, which at the time controlled 90 percent of Afghanistan and hosted al-Qaeda leadership.”

A

Civilians in crossfire
Afghanistan 

fghan activist, survivor of numerous attempts on her life, former member of the Afghanistan parliament, Malalai Joya, author of A woman among warlords: the extraordinary story of an afghan who dared to raise her voice appeared last Thursday  in interview with Democracy Now leading into the twelfth year of the United States’ invasion and occupation of Afghanistan ─ and even longer its collusion with oppressive factions (warlords, drug lords, terrorists, fundamentalists, corrupt politicians) arrayed against the independent rise and advancement of the Afghan people and their institutions. This is some of what Malalai Joya said.

Afghan women

War has wrought the worst

U.S.
against
its own people

The presence of tens of thousands troops is “like hell for millions of Afghans,” Malalai Joya said. “Women are still the most and the prime victims” suffering “rape, domestic violence, acid attacks, burnings of the girls’ schools.” And violence continues to rise, she said.

Together with the horror of foreign troops is the “Taliban in different provinces doing public executions [of women], without at least bringing them to [Afghanistan’s] fundamentalist or mafia court,” she said. “They [Taliban] control Afghanistan day by day [and] are getting more powerful.” Foreign troops “double our miseries and the sorrows of our people. 

Unfortunately… imperialism and fundamentalism have joined hands to lead the world toward barbarism.

“That’s why we want the withdrawal of [foreign] troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible,” she said. Withdrawing foreign troops will lessen the power of terrorists. “If they leave at least the warlords and the Taliban, these terrorists, will not become even more powerful,” making it for them “easier to eliminate the democratic people of Afghanistan and increase the suffering or killing of innocent people who survive or remain in the country.…”

Character of, call to Americans

Clearly evident in U.S. character today, Joya says, is two-facedness. One face is “the dirty imperialist government.” Another is “the great people … who stand up against the wrong policies of their government, the war crimes and warmongers.”

The latter “lives in the hearts of millions of democratic justice-loving people around the world ─ especially oppressed people of the world. They are the heroes for my people,” she said. And Afghanistan needs Americans’ support against the “negative role of the occupiers” and against the “brutalities and barbarism of fundamentalists who are puppets of the United States.”

The Afghan activist called for “the support and solidarity of justice-loving people of the United States to join their hands with us. We need to be united and continue our struggle against the warmongers,” she said. Whether concerning Iran or Iraq, Palestine, Libya or Syria, “we should fight against the warmongers.”

Looking toward the future, the “great source of hope,” Malalai Joya sees, are “justice-loving people around the world, and especially in the United States,” engaged in “glorious uprisings against warmongers and economic crises.”

 

GLOBAL TERROR 12 years on 

2013

  

September 18 U.S. in Syria

“U.S. President Barack Obama has waives provision of federal law that bans supply of ‘lethal aid’ to terrorist groups in order to arm ‘selected’ members of the opposition in Syria.”

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/18/324737/obama-waives-ban-on-arming-terrorists/

October 3 U.S. in Afghanistan

Bombs account for most of the estimated 1,319 Afghan civilians killed in the first half of 2013 says new United Nations report. Afghan military officials say bombs are responsible for about 50 percent of the casualties among the country’s security forces. Twelve years after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, part of Washington’s so-called war on terror, the country continues to grapple with rampant violence. According to the United Nations, civilian deaths in Afghanistan jumped 16 percent in the first eight months of 2013, while in some eastern provinces there was a 54 percent hike in civilian casualties in the same period compared with last year. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/03/327423/taliban-kill-afghan-mayor-in-helmand/

October 4 U.S. in Yemen

The United States has come under fire repeatedly for breaching nations’ sovereignty. Protests of drone attacks continue in Yemen; people have held many demonstrations to condemn the violation of their national sovereignty.

 

Yemenis took to the streets of a northern town on Friday to denounce the United States and Israel for interfering in the country. The protesters held a mass rally in Sa’ada against interference by Washington and Tel Aviv in the country’s internal affairs. Protesters again expressed anger over assassination drone attacks by the United States inside the country. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/04/327615/yemenis-denounce-us-israel-meddling/

October 5 U.S. in Afghanistan

At least 3,385 U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan have lost their lives since the 2001 invasion -- which was launched with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/05/327763/rockets-hit-us-base-in-afghanistan/

 

October 5 U.S. in Somalia

“Foreign special forces” in Somalia have carried out a pre-dawn attack against an al-Shabab base in a town in the south of the country. The attack was carried out against ‘high-profile’ targets in the town of Barawe in the early hours of Saturday, officials said. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/05/327668/foreign-forces-attack-alshabab-base/

 

October 6 U.S. in Somalia and Libya

Supporting U.S. Special Forces attacks on sovereign nations and peoples of Somalia and Libya, the U.S. Secretary of State essentially said we kill them to bring them to justice. “We will continue to try and bring people to justice in the appropriate way with hopes that ultimately these kinds of activities against everybody in the world will stop,” he said. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/06/327871/kerry-defends-africa-military-operations

October 6 U.S. in Libya

The government of Libya strongly condemned the military operation by the U.S. Special Forces on its soil, describing the aggression as “an act of kidnapping.”

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/06/327921/libya-blasts-us-raid-in-tripoli/

 

October 6 U. S. in Pakistan

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in the bombings and other militant attacks since 2001 when Pakistan entered an alliance with the United States in the U.S. “global war on terror.”

Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence and militancy sweeping across the country.  http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/06/327917/pakistan-govt-urged-to-curb-taliban/

  

Sources and notes

U.S. War in Afghanistan: October 7, 2001 – present,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)

“‘Imperialism and Fundamentalism Have Joined Hands’: Malalai Joya on 12 Years of U.S.-Led Afghan War,” October 3, 2013,  http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/3/imperialism_fundamentalism_have_joined_hands_malalai

Leading into the 12th anniversary of what has become the longest war in U.S. history; while the United States reportedly plans to pull out the bulk of its 57,000 troops in Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the United States is seeking to sign an accord [as they did in Iraq] to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan for an indefinite future.

Recent news reports from Press TV, http://www.presstv.ir/

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Extrajudicial Extermination-USA comes home

Global drones breach with impunity

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Christian Science Monitor staff writer Brad Knickerbocker reported on Saturday, “The presence of drones in the United States was brought home Wednesday night when some people thought they saw a UFO along the Capitol Beltway in Washington.”

It was in fact “a disc-shaped X-47B UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air System) being hauled from Edwards Air Force Base in California to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland for testing.”

Civil libertarians have warned “that ‘unmanned aircraft carrying cameras raise the prospect of a significant new avenue for the sur­veillance of American life,’” as the American Civil Liberties Union reported in December 2011. Quoting the ACLU, Knickerbocker continued.

The technology is quickly becoming cheaper and more powerful. Interest in deploying drones among police departments is increasing. And our privacy laws are not strong enough to ensure that the new technology will be used responsibly and consistent with democratic values.

All the pieces appear to be in line for the eventual introduction of routine aerial sur­veillance in American life – a development that would profoundly change the character of public life in the United States.

Tom Carter today at the World Socialist Web Site linked this U.S. threat to an ongoing global breach of law and human rights.

“With the push of a button,” Carter wrote, “thousands of pounds of high explosives can be dropped on anyone anywhere in the world.…

“Thousands of innocent civilians have already been murdered in this way in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.”

From safe spaces “behind video screens at military bases” on the mainland of the United States, “military drone operators refer to their victims as ‘bug splats.’

With disturbingly deadly omen, he concludes, “With tens of thousands of drones flying overhead; with the U.S. mainland designated as a ‘battleground’ in the never-ending, geographically unlimited ‘war on terror,’ —

[t]he U.S. ruling class hopes one day soon to be able to eliminate its domestic opponents with similar ease.

Sources and notes

  

“Drones over America: Are they spying on you? — Thousands of drones could be routinely flying over the United States within the next ten years. They can help with law enforcement and border control, but they also raise questions about invasion of privacy” (by Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer), June 16, 2012, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0616/Drones-over-America.-Are-they-spying-on-you/(page)/2

“Thousands of military drones to be deployed over U.S. mainland” (by Tom Carter, wsws.org, published by the International Committee of the Fourth International) , June 18, 2012, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/dron-j18.shtml

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Toward U.S. global Tiananmen?

 Tiananmen Square
June 3-4 incidentGovernment Crackdown on protesters
100s dead
1,000s woundedBeijing, China
June 5, 1989 

“America must take a different direction,” says U.S. Representative Dennis John  Kucinich, a consistent voice of nonviolence
Editing by 
Carolyn Bennett

This is some of Kucinich's advice on the “us versus them” U.S. foreign policy and the callously malicious assassination justice and global drone warfare.

U.S. foreign relations violence

“I think we need to move this country away from militarism and away from war as an instrument of policy,”  Kucinich says.

“If [service] means anything, it should mean a new direction for America away from war and toward giving our young people a real future where they can use all their talents and ability serving in many different capacities.” 

Alter this course

Kucinich
 Sheehan 
et al.

The global war on terror “has been a pretext for aggressive war.” America must take a “different direction:

• Rejecting war as an instrument of policy
• Reconnecting with the nations of the world, so that we can address the real issues that affect security all over the globe and affect our security at home:
• Getting rid of all nuclear weapons
• Participating in the chemical and biological weapons conventions, the landmine treaty
• Joining the International Criminal Court
• Signing the Kyoto climate change treaty

“The world is waiting for an American president who reaches out in a hand of friendship; who understands this is a complex world, but doesn’t see the world in terms of enemies.

“The minute we have dichotomous thinking, ‘us versus them,’ we lose the opportunity to be able to connect with people.”

Consider far-reaching consequences of U.S. drone war

“These attacks undermine the morals, values and the strategic goals of the United States. The fact that they are conducted with complete impunity and with no accountability threatens to set a dangerous precedent that could unravel the very laws and international standards the U.S. helped to create. 

“Even the most ardent supporter of the current President should consider the precedent created by granting the President the power to circumvent the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Fifth Amendment (Constitution of the United States) breach:

Drone attack
North Waziristan, Pakistan
Afghanistan border

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; 


nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; 


nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has opposed the use of combat drones against suspected terrorists abroad since the first known attack in 2004.

In February 2006, he asked the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to suspend the use of Predator drones citing the “high toll in innocent civilian life.”

In the 111th Congress, Kucinich sponsored a bill to prohibit the extrajudicial killing of U.S. citizens abroad in response to revelations that the Administration included U.S. citizens on its targeted killing list.

Wisconsin Network for
Peace and Justice 

The Congressman currently is leading a growing number of Members of Congress in demanding “the President’s legal justifications for drone strikes.”

American for nonviolence

Dennis John Kucinich (b. October 8, 1946) has been a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Ohio’s 10th congressional district since 1997. He was a candidate for the U.S. presidency in 2004 and 2008; and before entering Congress, Kucinich was Cleveland, Ohio’s 53rd mayor (1977-1979).

In the U.S. Congress, Dennis Kucinich sits on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. In a Congressional career in which he has stood for bringing articles of impeachment against former U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard (Dick) Cheney; and against the 2003 invasion of Iraq and consistently for nonviolence, for diplomacy, for peace, Kucinich will end his congressional career in January 2013, following a redistricting by Ohio’s Republican-controlled state legislature that abolished the congressional district in which he serves.

Hon. Dennis J. Kucinich 

 Ralph Nader praises Kucinich as a “genuine progressive.”

Sources and notes

“Dennis Kucinich on Homeland Security,”

Democratic Representative (OH-10), On the Issues,

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Dennis_Kucinich_Homeland_Security.htm

Source: 2007 Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum Dec 1, 2007

Source: 2007 South Carolina Democratic primary debate, on MSNBC Apr 26, 2007

“Kucinich Leads Congress in Demanding Accountability and Transparency for Drone Strikes

 Drone Killings a Stain upon Our Nation,” Washington, May 31, 2012,

http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=297742

Ralph Nader praised Kucinich as “a genuine progressive”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich_presidential_campaign,_2004

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich

His Congressional Biography: KUCINICH, Dennis, a Representative from Ohio; born in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, October 8, 1946; graduated from St. John Cantius, Cleveland, Ohio, 1964; B.A., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1973; M.A., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1973; member of the Cleveland, Ohio, city council, 1969-1973, 1983; clerk of courts, Cleveland, Ohio, 1975; mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, 1977-1979; member of the Ohio state senate, 1995-1996; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Fifth Congress and to the seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1997-present); unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. http://kucinich.house.gov/

Images

Behind the News online

Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

Josh Brolier of WNPJ member group Voices for Creative Nonviolence writes ...

wnpj.org

http://truthaholics.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/a-good-friday-meditation-the-drone-and-the-cross/

http://alifeconnected.wordpress.com/

Tiananmen Square (Britannica)

Image: A Chinese man temporarily blocking a line of tanks on June 5, 1989, the day after demonstrators were forcibly cleared from Beijing's Tiananmen Square

June 4 incident: A series of protests and demonstrations in China in the spring of 1989 that culminated on the night of June 3–4 with a government crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Tiananmen Square incident: “From the outset of the incident, the Chinese government’s official stance was to downplay its significance, labeling the protesters ‘counterrevolutionaries’ and minimizing the extent of the military's actions on June 3–4. The government’s count of those killed was 241 (including soldiers), with some 7,000 wounded; most other estimates have put the death toll much higher. In the years since the incident, the government generally has attempted to suppress references to it. Public commemoration of the incident is officially banned. However, the residents of Hong Kong have held an annual vigil on the anniversary of the crackdown, even after Hong Kong reverted to Chinese administration. (Britannica)

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Past, Present U.S. lawlessness scrutinized

Values of violence — apropos current news from U.S. Bagram Prison 

Today in history: USA kills its head of state — November 22, 1963, U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, Texas.

On this day commemorating Kennedy's death, the Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia] War Crimes Tribunal finds former U.S. President George W. Bush and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of war crimes. 

IRAQ

The five-judge tribunal unanimously decided that Bush and Blair committed genocide and crimes against peace and humanity when they invaded Iraq in 2003 in blatant violation of international law,” Press TV is reporting. “The judges ruled that war against Iraq by both the former heads of state was a flagrant abuse of law, act of aggression that amounted to a mass murder of the Iraqi people. In their verdict, the judges ruled that the United States, under the leadership of Bush, forged documents to claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. They further said the findings of the tribunal be made available to members of the Rome Statute and the names of Bush and Blair be entered into a war crimes register.

Legal action charity Reprieve this month and last published updates on U.S. continued crimes against its  Bagram prisoners and a legal petition and Pakistani court action concerning the prisoners at this facility in Afghanistan.

Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

U.S. BAGRAM beyond law

The United States used Bagram Prison “to process prisoners captured during ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’” [the war on Afghanistan and other countries] and “has become backlogged with prisoners who are held for years — without charge, trial, or legal rights.”

 

Unlike U.S. Guantánamo detainees, who can at least engage a legal team to represent them at a military hearing, “prisoners at Bagram have no access to lawyers, and so are unable to challenge their detention.

Hamidullah Khan is among the United States’ illegal or extrajudicial detainees at Bagram.

Hamidullah Khan was 14 years old when forces picked him up. At the time of this abduction, Hamidullah Khan was “travelling from Karachi to his father’s village in Waziristan to salvage the family’s possessions during the ongoing military operation. … [H]is family are desperate for his return.”

Abu Ghraib

The Obama government, though “conceding that many prisoners are wrongfully held” at Bagram has in the past year “attempted to legitimize Bagram Prison, claiming that conditions and procedures at the facility have been improved.”

Families of Bagram prisoners asked Pakistan’s Lahore Court to secure the immediate release of their loved ones and a High Court Pakistani judge has ordered the country’s Government to visit the U.S. prison in Afghanistan in order to interview seven Pakistani nationals — including one prisoner originally captured by UK forces in 2004 — detained there illegally.

“This case,” Reprieve says, “tests the Obama Administration’s resolve and the Pakistani Government’s commitment to securing the rights of its citizens in illegal detention facilities abroad.…

Guantanamo Bay

Reprieve founder and director Clive Stafford Smith says, “the problem here is not the Pakistani Government – it is the U.S. Government holding Pakistani citizens for years beyond the rule of law.

“The U.S. must return to supposed American values – justice and the rule of law – and either give these men a fair trial or release them.”

Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world; its current casework involves representing 15 prisoners in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, assisting over 70 prisoners facing the death penalty around the world, and conducting ongoing investigations into the rendition and the secret detention of ‘ghost prisoners’ in the so-called ‘war on terror.’

Yesterday's Bagram update from Reprieve was that Pakistan's government was expected today to report to a court on the illegal detention of seven Pakistan nationals being held at a U.S. prison in Afghanistan.

Source and notes

 “Judge Orders Pakistan Government to interview citizens held illegally by U.S. at Bagram,” October 21, 2011, The High Court judge at Lahore acted in response to a petition filed by non-profit law firm Justice Project Pakistan (JPP).

“The seven prisoners on the JPP petition are Awal Noor, Hamidullah Khan, Abdul Haleem Saifullah, Faizal Karim, Amal Khan,Yunus Rahmatullah and Iftikhaar Ahmed. All seven are Pakistani citizens who are being held indefinitely at Bagram without access to lawyers and without having been informed of the evidence against them. Some have been there for many years. Some have been abused. One prisoner is merely 16 years of age and was seized two years ago at the age of 14. Another was not permitted to speak to his family for six years, and is believed to be in a grievous physical and psychological condition.”

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_10_21_bagram_order/?utm_source=Press+mailing+list&utm_campaign=bdb287e4d1-2011_11_21_bagram_hearing&utm_medium=email

Reprieve is a legal action charity that uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners — from death row to Guantánamo Bay.

Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves.

Clive Stafford Smith is Reprieve’s founder and he has spent 25 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.  http://www.reprieve.org.uk/news/

November 21, 2011 update

Pakistan Government due to report on illegal detentions by U.S. at Bagram prison, Afghanistan. The Pakistani Government is expected today to report back to a court on the illegal detention of seven of its nationals at a U.S. prison in Afghanistan.

In a hearing at the Lahore High Court, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is due to fulfill an order made last month by the judge, requiring them to send a representative to the U.S.-run Bagram prison to interview seven Pakistanis held there without charge or trial. http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_11_21_Bagram_prison_Pakistan/

Lahore is second largest city of Pakistan and the capital of Punjab province. It lies 811 miles (1,305 km) northeast of Karachi in the upper Indus plain on the Ravi River, a tributary of the Indus.[Britannica note]

‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ (OEF) is the official name used by the U.S. government for the War in Afghanistan, together with a number of smaller military actions, under the umbrella of the global ‘War on Terror’ (GWOT).

The U.S. government originally called the operation ‘Operation Infinite Justice’— often misquoted as ‘Operation Ultimate Justice.’… U.S. President George W. Bush’s remark that ‘this crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while,’ prompted widespread criticism from the Islamic world and may have contributed renaming of the operation.

The Operation some have reported comprises several subordinate operations:

1. Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan (OEF-A)

2. Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines (OEF-P) (formerly Operation Freedom Eagle)

3. Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA)

4. Operation Enduring Freedom - Pankisi Gorge (completed in 2004)

5. Operation Enduring Freedom - Trans Sahara (OEF-TS) (see also Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present))

6. Operation Enduring Freedom - Caribbean and Central America (OEF-CCA)

7. Operation Enduring Freedom - Kyrgyzstan (completed in 2004)

Wikipedia note

Bagram Airfield (also referred to as Bagram Air Base) is a militarized airport and housing complex that is located next to the ancient city of Bagram, 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) southeast of Charikar in Parwan province of Afghanistan.

The base is run by a U.S. Army division headed by a major general; a large part of the base is ‘owned’ by the United States Air Force (455th Air Expeditionary Wing).

The Detention Center at Bagram (Bagram Theater Internment Facility) has been heavily criticized for its abusive treatment of prisoners.

In May 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross revealed that since August 2009, the Bagram Prison had been “informed by U.S. authorities about inmates of a second prison where detainees are held in isolation and without access to the International Red Cross, which is usually guaranteed to all prisoners.” Wikipedia note

“Bush, Blair found guilty of war crimes in Malaysia tribunal,” November 22, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/211548.html

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Callous disregard for life, law — Rumsfeld re-released

There is an entrenched pathology, a raw callousness acted out repeatedly in U.S. governance that an indifferent, a tribal sect/sexuality/race/partisan-centered populace tolerates and in its tolerance endorses. 

Excerpts, editing, re-reporting, comment by Carolyn Bennett

CONSEQUENCES OF ENTRENCHMENT

U.S. President Gerald Ford (right) with
Donald Rumsfeld Oval Office of  White House,
February 6, 1975

As U.S. Defense Secretary, he said he had a “high tolerance” for other people’s pain and death — and demonstrated this in repeated acts and orders of lawlessness — and for forty years, not unlike leaders of Arab countries, this man was given high positions in U.S. business, government, and academic institutions.

Document 20 – Working Paper, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Working Paper, ‘Discussions w/CENTCOM re: Sy Hersh Article,’ October 22, 2001, 1:19 p.m., Secret, 2 pp.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (center)
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Finn
U.S. Embassy compound
Kabul, Afghanistan  April 27, 2002

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was talking about drone missiles. He was recorded saying, “‘I have a high tolerance level for possible error. That is to say, if he [U.S. Central Command Thomas (Tommy) Franks] thinks he has a valid target and he can’t get me or he can’t get Wolfowitz in time, he should hit it.… I expect him to be leaning far forward on this.’”

“The paper … contradicts previous instructions that aerial attacks should be precise and limited in Afghanistan.”

America’s own 

RUMSFELD

Politician and business owner Donald Henry Rumsfeld (b. 1932) was U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 in the Gerald R. Ford administration and Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 in the George W. Bush administration.

Chronology of influence

In the Richard Nixon administration, Rumsfeld was Director of the United States Office of Economic Opportunity, assistant and counselor to the President, Director of the Economic Stabilization Program (member of the Cabinet) 1969-1970

In 1973, Rumsfeld was U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium, and the United States’ Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council and the Defense Planning Committee, and the Nuclear Planning Group (representing the United States in wide-ranging military and diplomatic matters).

In 1974-1975, Rumsfeld was Gerald R. Ford’s White House Chief of Staff and later U.S. Secretary of Defense (George H. W. Bush became Director of Central Intelligence).

Business — Government/Business revolving door

From 1977 to 1985, Rumsfeld was Chief Executive Officer, President, and then Chairman of G. D. Searle and Company, a worldwide pharmaceutical company based in Skokie, Illinois.

From 1990 to 1993, he was a ‘foreign policy consultant’ to the U.S. State Department

From January 1997 until being sworn in as Secretary of Defense in January 2001, Rumsfeld was Chairman of Gilead Sciences, Inc. [Gilead Sciences is the developer of Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), used in the treatment of bird flu].

Reagan Administration (1982–1983) Special Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty; (1982–1986) member of President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control; (1983–1984) Special Envoy to the Middle East

On his visit to Baghdad on December 19–December 20, 1983, Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein had a 90-minute discussion during which “they largely agreed on opposing Syria’s occupation of Lebanon; preventing Syrian and Iranian expansion; preventing arms sales to Iran.

“Rumsfeld suggested that if U.S.-Iraq relations could improve the U.S. might support a new oil pipeline across Jordan, which Iraq had opposed but was now willing to reconsider. In that visit, Rumsfeld brought many gifts, including pistols, medieval spiked hammers and a pair of golden cowboy spurs, from the Reagan administration to Saddam Hussein …

During his brief bid for the 1988 Republican nomination, Rumsfeld said that restoring full relations with Iraq was one of his best achievements.

Ten years later, (January 29, 1998), he signed a Project for the New American Century (he was a founder and active member PNAC) letter calling for President Clinton “to implement ‘regime change’ in Iraq.”

(1989–2005) Chairman Emeritus, Defense Contractor, Carlyle Group;

(1990–2001) Board of Directors (member) ABB Ltd

Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, operating mainly in the power and automation technology areas, ABB is one of the largest engineering companies and one of the largest conglomerates in the world with operations in around 100 countries with approximately 130,000 employees, reported global revenue (2010) $31.6 billion, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABB_Ltd.

In 2000, ABB sold two light-water nuclear reactors to KEDO for installation in North Korea, as part of the 1994 agreed framework reached under the Clinton administration.

Rumsfeld’s office said the Rumsfeld then Secretary of Defense “did not ‘recall [the sale] being brought before the board at any time’ but ABB representative Björn Edlund told Fortune that ‘board members were informed about this project.’”

(2000) Chairman of the U.S. Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
President George W. Bush  

In 2001, Rumsfeld was named Defense Secretary in the George W. Bush administration

In the earliest stages of the September 11 attacks, despite the lack of evidence, Rumsfeld was looking to tie Saddam Hussein and Iraq to these attacks.

In April 2006, a Rumsfeld memo listed instructions to Pentagon staff including:

Keep elevating the threat ... Talk about Somalia, the Philippines etc.

Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld “was deliberate in crafting the public message from the Department of Defense.

“People will ‘rally’ to the word ‘sacrifice,’ Rumsfeld noted after a meeting.

“‘They are looking for leadership. Sacrifice = Victory.’

“In May 2004, Rumsfeld considered whether to redefine the war on terrorism as a fight against ‘worldwide insurgency.’

“He advised aides ‘to test what the results could be’ if the war on terrorism were renamed.

“Rumsfeld ordered [and reviewed] specific public Pentagon attacks on and responses to U.S. newspaper columns that reported the negative aspects of the war

“Rumsfeld defended the George W. Bush administration’s decision to detain ‘enemy combatants’ without protection under the Third Geneva Convention.”

November 2006, former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison until early 2004, told Spain’s El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld that allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.

The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods, sleep deprivation ... playing music at full volume, [and more]...

Rumsfeld authorized these specific techniques.

She said that this was contrary to the Geneva Convention and quoted from the document: ‘Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.’

According to Karpinski, the handwritten signature was above his printed name and, in the same handwriting in the margin, was written, ‘Make sure this is accomplished.’

Pentagon headquarters U.S. Department of Defense
Arlington county, Virginia

December 18, 2006, Donald Vance filed suit against the U.S. government and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld on grounds that he was tortured and his rights of habeas corpus were violated.

To criticisms of the U.S. military’s failure, after its 2003 invasion, to protect Iraq’s historical artifacts and treasures located at the museum and other cultural institutions, Rumsfeld is quoted saying, ‘Stuff happens ... and it’s untidy and freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.…’

In early 2006, eight retired U.S. generals took the unprecedented step of calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation on the grounds of ‘abysmal’ military planning and lack of strategic competence. The Bush government in early November announced Rumsfeld’s resignation as U.S. Defense Secretary.

A year later, Rumsfeld received a one-year appointment as a “Distinguished Visiting Fellow” at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

Recently released documents showing the lawlessness of the man

“Document 18 – Memorandum and Attached Paper: Office of the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld to Douglas Feith, ‘Strategy,’ Attachment, ‘U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan,’ National Security Council, October 16, 2001, 7:42 a.m., Secret/Close Hold/ Draft for Discussion, 7 pp. [Excised], http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB358a/index.htm#16

The U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld five weeks after the events of September 11, 2001: “Operationally the U.S. will ‘use any and all Afghan tribes and factions to eliminate Al-Qaida and Taliban personnel [while inserting] CIA teams and special forces in country operational detachments (A teams) by any means, both in the North and the South. … Third country special forces UK [excised] Australia, New Zealand, etc., should be inserted as soon as possible.’

“Diplomacy is important ‘bilaterally, particularly with Pakistan, but also with Iran and Russia [however] engaging UN diplomacy… beyond intent and general outline could interfere with U.S. military operations and inhibit coalition freedom of action.’”

U.S. General Tommy Franks (left)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
2002

Breathing contempt, violence to rule the world

Document 13 – Memorandum for the President , The Office of the Secretary of Defense, Memorandum for the President, "Strategic Thoughts," September 30, 2001, Top Secret/Close Hold, 2 pp. [Excised], http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB358a/index.htm#16

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld advises President George W. Bush: “Instead of focusing exclusively on al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the U.S. should think more broadly —  

 
‘It would instead be surprising and impressive if we built our forces up patiently, took some early action outside of Afghanistan, perhaps in multiple locations, and began not exclusively or primarily with military strikes but with equip-and-train activities with local opposition forces coupled with humanitarian aid and intense information operations.’

 “The memo argues that the U.S. should ‘capitalize on our strong suit, which is not finding a few hundred terrorists in the caves of Afghanistan [but using] the vastness of our military and humanitarian resources, which can strengthen enormously the opposition forces in terrorist-supporting states.’ The approach to the war should not focus ‘too heavily on direct, aerial attacks on things and people.’

U.S. Geopolitics
Asia-Middle East-Horn of Africa
Britannica image

“‘If the war does not significantly change the world’s political map, the U.S. will not achieve its aim.

“‘There is value in being clear on the order of magnitude of the necessary change. The USG [U.S. Government] should envision a goal along these lines: New regimes in Afghanistan and another key State (or two) that supports terrorism (To strengthen political and military efforts to change policies elsewhere).’”

Press TV reports today on newly released U.S. documents concerning the roots of the United States’ global war: “The U.S. in Afghanistan was the beginning of a broader plan devised by the Bush neo-conservatives administration for the Middle East region.

“The Bush administration used the 9/11 attacks as the pretext to launch new wars of aggression. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush declared the so-called ‘war on terror’” and on October 7, 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan “with the stated mission of removing the Taliban and capturing al-Qaeda elements.

“In March 2003, the U.S. expanded the reach of its ‘war on terror’ by invading Iraq. The U.S. claimed that Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaeda and was in possession of massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.” Various independent investigations later discredited both allegations.  

“Ten years on, the U.S. is [said to be] seeking to lure the Taliban to the negotiating table.”

Today the United States, its entrenched politicians and policies of destruction are being protested in demonstrations across the Middle East, Southwest/Central Asia and within the United States of America.

Sources and notes

The Project for the New American Century is “a neo-conservative think-tank dedicated to maintaining U.S. Primacy.”

Rumsfeld profile from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumsfeld

“Secret U.S. Message to Mullah Omar: ‘Every Pillar of the Taliban Regime Will Be Destroyed’

New Documents Detail America's Strategic Response to 9/11, Bush White House, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB358a/index.htm

Document notes from George University the National Security Archive, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/index.html

GWU Photo captions http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB358a/index.htm

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (center) and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Robert Finn, given a tour of the U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 27, 2002. OSD Package No. A07D-00238 (DOD Photo by Robert D. Ward)

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and President George W. Bush  (Source: Department of Defense)

Britannica captions

President Gerald Ford (right) meeting with Donald Rumsfeld in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, D.C., February 6, 1975 [Marion S. Trikosko/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital. id. ppmsca.08465)]

General Tommy Franks (left), commander in chief of Central Command, with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 2002 [Robert D. Ward—U.S. Department of Defense]

The Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, Arlington county, Virginia

America’s own

WOLFOWITZ

A leading neoconservative (Republican and former Democrat), Paul Dundes Wolfowitz was Deputy Secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration, a ‘major architect of this president’s Iraq policy “and ... its most hawkish advocate.”

Chronology of Wolfowitz influence

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Wolfowitz and his then-assistant Scooter Libby wrote the Wolfowitz Doctrine to ‘set the nation’s direction for the next century.’ At that time, the official administration line was ‘containment.’ The contents of Wolfowitz’s plan called for ‘preemption’ and ‘unilateralism.’

In 1992, Defense Secretary Richard Cheney produced a revised plan which included many of the Wolfowitz Doctrine ideas, later part of the Bush Doctrine.

In 1977, Wolfowitz was U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Programs for the U.S. Defense Department, under U.S. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown in the Jimmy Carter administration

In 1982, Wolfowitz was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz

From 1986 to 1989, Wolfowitz was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia during the military-backed Suharto government

From 1989 to 1993, Wolfowitz was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy under then-U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in George H.W. Bush administration

From 2001 to 2005, during the George W. Bush administration, Wolfowitz was U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense reporting to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

In 2005, Wolfowitz was nominated by U.S. President George W. Bush (and confirmed by Congress) to be president of the World Bank

As a Visiting Scholar of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Wolfowitz has blogged with the AEI and appeared in group events. He writes columns that appear in publications such as The Independent, 

The Sunday Times, and Newsweek.

Wolfowitz is a former steering committee member of the Bilderberg group. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz#Undersecretary_of_Defense_for_Policy

Bilderberg group —

The original conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg, near Arnhem in the Netherlands, from May 29 to May 31 1954; initiated by several people, including Polish politician Józef Retinger, concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe.

The original Bilderberg group proposed an international conference at which leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting ‘Atlanticism’ – better understanding between the cultures of the United States and Western Europe to foster cooperation on political, economic, and defense issues.

The role of the Bilderberg meetings in the flow of events since its founding in 1954 is a matter of debate among scholars and journalists such as G. William Domhoff and Caroline Moorehead.

“In his 1980 essay The Bilderberg and the West, researcher Peter Thompson argues that the Bilderberg group is a meeting ground for top executives from the world’s leading multinational corporations and top national political figures to consider jointly the immediate and long-term problems facing the West. According to Thompson, Bilderberg itself is not an executive agency.

“However, when Bilderberg participants reach a form of consensus about what is to be done, they have at their disposal powerful transnational and national instruments for bringing about what it is they want to come to pass.

“That their consensus design is not always achieved is a reflection of the strength of competing resisting forces outside the capitalist ruling class and within it.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group

“[DOCUMENT] Bush’s premeditated ‘regime-change’ policy revealed,” October 5, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/202742.html

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