The Truth About ISIS With Syrian Girl

How to Understand the ISIS Threat

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-to-understand-the-isis-threat/

By Philip Giraldi • July 1, 2014

• Bush 2.0
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Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Americans have become so accustomed to going to war based on lies that they hardly flinch when the latest round of bellicose innuendo surfaces.

Schweitzer Sends Shot Across Clinton's Bow

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/12/19/schweitzer_sends_shot_across_clintons_bow_121004.html

Schweitzer running the same campaign against Hillary that Obama ran.  Not likely but we'll see if Democrats still know what a warpig is.

The "War On Terror" Is A Fraud - It Is Not Meant To Be Won, It Is Meant ...

REASONS FOR WAR

But in a logical shell game reminiscent of the Bush administration’s selling of the war in Iraq—you know, to get rid of al-Qaida, I mean weapons of mass destruction, I mean Saddam Hussein, I mean to have democratic elections, I mean to stabilize the country so the Iraqi army and police can take over, but we’ll keep bases and troops there more or less indefinitely—Panetta says the Taliban are giving our troops a hell of a time.

So, just to recap, we went into Afghanistan to get rid of those al-Qaida bastards who took down our World Trade Center. Now there are fewer than a hundred left, but we’re still there because their hosts continue to dislike us. And doing something about that is worth the life of every teenage kid we can suit up and drop off over there.

Any more good news? Panetta says it’s been years since we had any idea where Bin Laden is. Oh, and we continue to make deals with the mercenary dingbats formerly known as Blackwater because, despite a track record of killings and flying into mountains, they underbid everyone else, Panetta says.

A great president once said, “You fool me, ye can’t get fooled again.” Words to live by. —PZS

NPR:

On a separate issue, Panetta said that the CIA had no choice but to hire the company once known as Blackwater for $100 million to provide security in Afghanistan.

Panetta said the company, now known as Xe Services, underbid others by $26 million and that a CIA review concluded that the contractor had cleaned up its act.

US Strategy of Dual Central Position (by A. H. Amin) - Media Monitors Network

US Strategy of Dual Central Position (by A. H. Amin) - Media Monitors Network

“Dual central positions”

Afghanistan provides multiple strategic objectives
threaten both Russia and China
threaten both Pakistan and Iran
entire Central Asian Region
future Islamic Insurgency in Chinese Singkiang
independent Kashmir
Pakistani and Iranian Baluchistan

aerial strikes against Pakistan, Afghanistan combined with Baluchistan would create a US line of communication from Chah Bahar and Gwadar to Central Asia which would create a new base to launch deep strategic forays in Russia and China cutting off both from natural oil and gas reserves of Central Asia

severing the Russian line of communication with Oil and Gas rich Siberia

China and Russia (should) start aiding Afghan insurgents

Iraq is second central position.
Syria, Lebanon , Iran
Saudi Arabia in case a radical anti monarchist coup threatens
Turkey in case the Islamists gain greater strength
fix iran by Kurdish insurgency
Discipline Turkey by Kurd separatism
Dominate Middle East Oil ensuring strategic control on worlds economy

but all may not be at USA’s feet in case Syria remains defiant Iran assists Iraqi Shiites, Arab masses decide to remove the shackles

Dual Central Positions has germs of defeat. USA strategic objectives for which it has occupied Afghanistan
“ Final Solution of Pakistan’s WMD capability”
“ Domination of Central Asia and Western Iran”

Pakistan, not Iraq, is the centre of gravity of Islamic military resurgence

Afghanistan is where Islamist forces based in Pakistan train. Afghanistan is not a US objective but a staging area to deal with a strategic objective (s) i.e. Pakistan ,Iran ,Central Asia , China , Russia etc

Pakistan has to be neutralised
because it posseses WMD
and stands in between Chinese Singkiang and USA

Iran has to be neutralised
is a base of anti US/Israeli low intensity warrior groups

Afghanistan can prove dangerous for the USA. It is here that mother nature challenges US technology. no deserts where airpower can strike at will, no big urban targets like Baghdad capture of which can lead to the collapse of the whole house, no docile vassal states like Kuwait and Jordan.

One side is tribal area, One side is Iran, north is Russian Army

Therefore, more of a liability than a blessing. Any serious US move which threatens the strategic balance may bring China and Russia actively. Iraq security depends on Arab masses.

Low Intensity War i.e. War in the Shadows is far more complex than winning the Second World War with industrial might. There are no Hiroshima’s or Nagasakis in this region. The area is vast. More vast than air power capability, More rugged than Vietnam, More diverse, but races which inhabit it cannot be wiped out like Apaches,Sioux

This war for Mackinder’s Heartland will be fought in all parts of the world including all major US and European cities

The Cult of Counterinsurgency | The American Prospect

The Cult of Counterinsurgency | The American Prospect

Counterinsurgency means an attempt to defeat guerilla fighters who hide among a civilian population over an extended period of time, "low-intensity conflicts," French in Algeria, the British in Malaysia, and the Soviets in Afghanistan

current U.S. strategy based on French and English doctrine as well as Vietnam.

special allure for liberal writers because it offers a holistic approach, win the hearts and minds, transform autocratic governments into ones that respect human rights, women's education, and the rule of law.

Skeptics say warfare of the nastiest, most brutal kind, and it lasts for years and years. In the early days of Iraq, it was used on an ad-hoc basis to build relationships with local civilians in order to track down insurgents

It wasn't until Abu Ghraib scandal of 2004, Haditha in 2005 the need arose to re-evaluate wanton violence among some units. the dismal state of the war prompted Petraeus. In February 2006, Petraeus hosted a workshop, co-sponsored by Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights
in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

In COIN, civilian and military activities are integrated, cooperate with humanitarian workers in an effort to win over the local population, employs anthropological tools that map social networks

"the surge." to Iraq in 2007. The Washington Post Bob Woodward says High-Value Targeting, Anbar Awakening paying 100,000 individuals $300 a month. And Sunni tribal sheikhs make millions more through U.S. contracts. pullback by Muqtada al-Sadr.

These disparate elements have come together and tamped down the bloodshed

Still, the conventional wisdom is that Iraq has improved because of the new approach.

John Nagl does not like the word "colonialism, whether it is called neocolonialism or counterinsurgency, will be applied in various regions over the next several years.

The thinking man's war has a chapter on morals and values, big on hearts and minds. It has its own subculture, the rock stars (Nagl and Kilcullen celebrity couple (Kilcullen and Janine Davidson, author of the forthcoming book The Fog of Peace, a guru (Petraeus), and a cult-classic film (Battle of Algiers), a magazine (Small Wars Journal)

Nagl stands out. Counterinsurgency, as Nagl explains, is "80 percent political, 20 percent military." (He is quoting David Galula, "the Clausewitz of counterinsurgency. It could be modeled on the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support, or CORDS which coordinated military and civil affairs in Vietnam.

Troops are studying manuals on cultural awareness and learning the basics of Islam. They are also learning how to fight in a civilian environment
The Marines are engaged, openly and passionately, in a discussion set in an empirically based field of study. Yet somehow they remind me of the guys in Reservoir Dogs -- jewelry thieves who join in a textual analysis of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" while sitting in a diner.

Counterterrorism is "the long war," and counterinsurgency is part of this effort. semantics matter. in Baghdad, they could find an insurgent or a terrorist.

counterinsurgency may also involve dirty tactic "the dark side." In Vietnam, "the dark side" was Operation Phoenix or the getting rid of Viet Cong leaders "by any means necessary, it was part of the CORDS program.

underlying ideas of Operation Phoenix have worked their way back into the U.S. military. The Iraq-era version of this is known as High-Value Targeting, house raids, "snatch missions," it used to be carried out by Special Forces only. Now, all troops conduct them. U.S. and NATO air strikes in Afghanistan have increased, "If you kill a very large number of civilians, you'll cow a population,"

Luttwak of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It depends on how much "blood and treasure" you put into it. He is the author of Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook, says U.S. troops should pull out of Afghanistan
I've been to Afghanistan. Basically, you'd have to kill every single Afghan and take all the children and put them in boarding school, preferably in England."

current policy, less about making the world safe for democracy than making the world safe for U.S. economic and political interests

The Guineapigs - Chapter 9

The Guineapigs - Chapter 9

from where was the dedicated British Army office to get his guidance? Clearly a serving, experienced military man was needed. Enter Frank Kitson.

Kenya (where he 'blacked up' and went out in the bush to form 'pseudo-gangs' of informers and deserters to hunt down the Mau Mau, led Kitson in 1969 to Oxford University where he received a grant to write his idea of the definitive British officer's textbook – Low Intensity Operations

Kitson was sent to Northern Ireland in the spring of 1970

In his book he had spoken of the need for rapid grass-roots intelligence-gathering and stated that...Kitson's obsession with 'low-level intensity' intelligence-gathering has led into unaccustomed fields such as 'community relations' projects similar to American strategy of 'hearts and minds', a more sinister role to play – that of an intelligence exercise.

Guerrilla warfare is the 'war of the flea', and until recently the Army has been forced to use sledgehammers to crack nuts

Paul Craig Roberts: Is Petraeus McChrystal's Replacement or Obama's?

Paul Craig Roberts: Is Petraeus McChrystal's Replacement or Obama's?

People elected Obama, because they were tired of Bush’s wars based on lies. So Obama gave us a new war in Pakistan and reignited the Afghan war. No one knows what these wars are about or why the bankrupt US government is wasting vast sums of money, which it has to borrow from foreigners, in order to murder the citizenry in two countries that have never done anything to us.

Johann Hari on Chomsky, Hitchens, Iraq, and anarchism

Link to: Nick Cohen: Writing from London


having a kind of anarchistic temperament towards power is quite useful. Serially doubting what people in power are telling you, and assuming that they will only do good things if they are forced to by social movements, is a very sensible way of looking at the world.

he basically disputes the two major institutions of power in the world today: the nation-state and any institution of market capitalism

as a first premise: The world should not be in any way as it is now, very valuable when you are looking at the IMF and World Bank – completely illegitimate institutions of corporate fundamentalism that are imposing on poor countries a completely failed economic model.

firstly the alternatives that Chomsky posits are unbelievably vague and, at times, incoherent; and secondly, when you look at his philosophy on markets

alternatives are voluntaristic, anarchist communities. Firstly
how that could work except on a very small scale. he gives an example of anarchist communities that sprang up during the Spanish civil war

But they were crushed precisely because they were anarchists and unable to mount a proper defence. should they have an army to defend themselves? Chomsky said, “I’m not going to get into that. implausibility of these voluntaristic, anarchist communities in a world of 6 billion people with extremely complex urban societies can be organized in that way.

you have to acknowledge there will be some structure of power and that they should be a damn sight more democratic.

For example, he voted for Kerry rather than Bush. John Pilger, who refused to acknowledge any difference and basically said voting in America is pointless and you have to wait for the revolution.

He has used the word “bullshit” to describe the idea that markets in any way generate wealth. markets are a tool need to be extremely tightly regulated. They do things
like abuse workers’ rights or trash the environment. you need very strict, tight democratic regulations and strong trade unions within those regulations. they generate wealth. Chomsky denies that

And there’s another element of Chomsky’s thought which is very important which is his analysis of the media. I was initially skeptical of it but I think there is some truth in it.

MK: You write in the mainstream media.

MK: Do you feel pressure? Do you think if you said certain things your editors would mention something?

MK: It’s unspoken?

JH: Yes. What he would say is you internalize the norms and there are certain things that you don’t say. I think that is how it works; it doesn’t work as self-censorship
I think trusting one of the most important institutions in a free society – the media – to the benevolence of billionaires is pretty dodgy

MK: How else do you structure it though? You can’t have it under state control can you?

MK: He’s into independent non-corporate media though isn’t he? But that’s hard to get off the ground.

JH: The Guardian is a good example but he would say that is corrupted by the fact they have to take advertising from corporations

It is a manufacturing of a common sense that people do absorb. I’ve seen it most clearly on things like asylum.

Norman Finkelstein.

What he has done in exposing Joan Peters who is a fraud and liar was amazing. I think he is now doing the same thing with Alan Dershowitz. I think it is very valuable. I love what he says about Elie Wiesel. I hate the mystification of the Holocaust and the attempt to turn it into a kind of quasi-religious thing. I love – partly because Finkelstein has the unimpeachable moral authority of having two parents who survived the Holocaust – he can say this in a way that if other people said it you would instinctively be more suspicious of it. Elie Wiesel says things like “the Holocaust cannot be comprehended by human beings.” That is a ridiculous thing to say. It was one of the worst crimes of the 20th century. It was unbelievably evil but it is comprehensible. if you set it up as being incomprehensible you increase the chances of happening again

The American occupation has bought with it a program of extreme neo-liberalism – far more extreme than anything tried in any democratic country, just like the one imposed on Russia. When I interviewed Joseph Stiglitz about this he said “The way they are acting in Iraq suggests they think what they did in Russia after the fall of Communism was a great success,” when in fact it saw the country slide back towards fascism which is basically where it is under Putin

Islamism is a totalitarian movement. There’s another half to that equation. Totalitarian movements do not emerge in vacuums. The context for Nazism was the humiliation imposed by the Versailles treaty. the context for this psychopathic, totalitarian ideology is what has been done to the Arab world over the last 60 years
“It’s a psychopathic movement” – yes, that’s true but psychosis rarely occurs in a vacuum. The reason why this psychotic movement has developed is that for the last 60 years Western governments have systematically murdered all the liberals and democrats in those countries. When there was a profoundly democratic movement in Iran in the 1950’s what did we do? We installed a sub-fascist dictator because they wanted a stable access to oil.

look at Chechnya. Look at what happened in Beslan – murdering and torturing school children. look what’s happened with the Chechens over the last 40 years Chechnya was deported by Stalin to Siberia, half died half died on the way back. Soviet Union fell they wanted to be independent.

They weren’t allowed to be and they were further brutalized. And a third of the population of Chechnya has died since 1991. You look at aerial picture of Grozny and it looks like it’s been nuked.

INSURGENCY IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

“The invader's strategy must be one of lightning war. If we can hold out for three or more years, it will be most difficult for them to bear up under the strain.”

Mao's concepts of guerrilla warfare were later translated (in the 1961 book “On Guerrilla Warfare,” by S. B. Griffith) into three phases of insurgency.

the first phase of insurgency is a “survival” phase

Mao said that during the first phase of insurgency, the infrastructure of guerrilla warfare is developed: a recruiting campaign, repositioning of weapons and munitions, and a new ideology of resistance and a propaganda apparatus to spread the ideology.
All this happened in Iraq.

The US and other likely counter-insurgents are fortunate that most revolutionaries find it easier and “cooler” to follow leaders like Guevara than Mao. The protracted revolutionary war theory dictated by Mao is certainly more universal and effective for the majority of strategic settings but the idea has to be solid.

I would even propose that the “war of ideas” should have four components rather than two –

• the idea,

• the individual experience of the leader,

• the sales package, and the

• sales methods.

The final piece involving communication techniques that stimulates emotions and invokes passion in the people will establish the power base.

The idea itself is the core of the political phase, and since a lot of time is spent in this phase following guerrilla and conventional warfare setbacks, it must never be diluted. This demands charismatic and dynamic leadership. Therefore the perfect blend of a Guevara type “cool guy” and a Mao theory would ensure the best results for an upstart revolutionary.

Yes, the political movement must occur before the guerrilla operations and the leader must set the conditions for shifts in priority of effort between phases; however the very nature of the leader is key in a society that puts a lot of emphasis on the short term solution.

Mao’s theory is predicated on the idea that success may take decades to achieve. Additionally, he planned to have setbacks.

the coalition forces must win the war of ideas in the political realm in both Afghanistan and Pakistan to achieve long term success in the region.

Insurgency is a “survival” phase. Mao defines insurgency, the infrastructure of guerrilla warfare developed by recruiting, repositioning of weapons and munitions, and a new ideology of resistance and a propaganda apparatus to spread the ideology

small-scale offensive to shake the determination of the invading forces, attempted
by the use of roadside bombings, rocket-propelled grenade assaults and sniper attacks.

Point #1 – Protracted Campaign, revolutionary war meant millions dead. This required revolutionary endurance to frustrate the efforts of a large, modern Western Army. The need to exhaust the strategic patience of the U.S public. the longer one can draw out, the more it will cost. valuable resources – $$$ and U.S. lives

Point #2 – Political Mobilization, the first and most important phase is to build a dedicated cadre by recruiting and organizing popular support at the appropriate level, only selective use of violence and guerrilla warfare is permissible, exploited the needs and desires of the discontent, build an inexhaustible cadre of believers
who support their ideological pursuits. avoid one-on-one conventional confrontation with Coalition forces, used a wide range of violence, terrorist attacks, and methods of guerrilla warfare to attrit Coalition resolve and to excite additional popular support

the process of recruiting and organizing popular support. Who is the best salesman of ideas? you have to win the war of ideas.

the “Foco” revolutionary war theory jumps the first step of the Mao war theory. “Che” got success due to unique characteristics for that time. The political mobilization and support of the populace was completed before Che and Fidel started with the guerrilla operation.

• level of corruption
• lack of commitment
• military forces and the social problems
  

strategic victory is not determined by tactical success alone. One must understand the importance of gaining popular support. In iraq, One major difference from the theory is that although the insurgent groups are small, most of them do not have overwhelming support of the local population.

The first phase would be considered the “survival” phase. This is relevant in relation to Iraq. The start of the insurgency when major combat operations ended

• recruiting campaign,
• repositioning of weapons and munitions
• new ideology of resistance and a propaganda apparatus to spread the ideology

followed by

• small-scale offensive, which consisted of IEDs, rocket-propelled grenade assaults and sniper attacks
• to rally support for the insurgents at home and abroad,
• which raises funds and recruits
  

If there is a successful first phase, the second phase can progress

• larger-scale offensive activity
• carefully planned, coordinated attacks
• important human targets
• intelligence-gathering capability grows more sophisticated,
• frequent and deadly activity
  

insurgency also grows decentralized. killing or capture or key individuals, less significant

The last phase is the decisive stage. this phase has not taken place in Iraq. insurgents will remain in the current phase.

insurgency warfare is meant to convince the enemy’s decision-makers that victory was too costly and give up.

Mao succeeded in portraying himself as an ally to the peasants and an enemy to landowners, businessmen, and Imperialism. insurgents we face today lack the commitment to stand their ground for the protracted fight

***guerilla warfare tactics routinely target the same civilian population that they desire to influence, which in reality does nothing less than counter their message***

***the U.S. faces in the GWOT are opportunists and thugs, not revolutionaries
trying to undermine the new governments. They are fighting only because the U.S. is involved.

Taliban is not trying to free the people from Karzai. They want to get back into power for themselves, purely financially motivated***

do not do near as good of a job at influencing the population. They do it out of fear, rather than making themselves seen as heroes to the peasantry. Just as LaCour stated, these are a group of thugs for the most part who are simply in it for themselves and relish any event to attack the U.S. – not revolutionaries.

FRANK KITSON AND PSEUDO GANGS

‘pseudo gang’—a state sponsored group used to advance an agenda, while discrediting the real opposition. General Frank Kitson, a British officer
first thought up the concept that was later used in the formation of Al Qaeda.

It was used in both Kenya and Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, most of the violence that was attributed to ‘Loyalists’ was in actuality not their handiwork, but the result of the activities of the death squads affiliated to the British secret state...

Rhodesians also used the “pseudo gang” to blame the violence on Patriotic Front guerrillas fighting for national determination against the racist government. Rhodesians had experience in counter-insurgency dating back to 1956 in Malaya which had included the Rhodesian African Rifles. They also modeled their ‘pseudo gangs’ after counter-insurgency strategy used in 1950s Mau Mau uprising in Kenya.

South Africa staged violent “black-on-black” to create the impression that ANC ‘terrorists’ were responsible, and police reports always blamed the ANC.”
South African police run strategic deception unit called Stratcom
“Jailed security police death-squad commander Colonel Eugene de Kock
admitted, Stratcom clandestine attacks on white people, to provoke a right-wing backlash

It is this sort of “backlash” the Anglo-American fake terror is designed to provoke against Muslims and Arabs. The neocon plan to wage a Thirty Years’ War, the “clash of civilizations” crew with the desire to expand their hold on
oil and resource rich Middle East and East Asia) and a faux schism between western and eastern civilization fits the ticket.

current round of dirty and murderous covert tricks carried out by moles and patsies under the guise of Islamic terrorism. Embedded experts are able to conceal their partisan roles behind the façade and legitimacy of academic status...

They reinforce US neoconservative propaganda. academic terrorism ‘experts’ – or terrorologists – are deeply embedded in the elite power structure. They
blur distinctions between political dissent, resistance to oppressive regimes, and violent threats to populations thus sanitising Western state.

terror as legitimate techniques for self-defence

In the 1960s and 1970s the ‘counter-insurgency school’ Richard Clutterbuck and Frank Kitson drew on their extensive experience in counter-insurgency campaigns, which set out to eradicate any resistance. They faced a sustained resistance which took the forms of both political and armed struggle.

They saw a ‘continuum of insurgency’ or ‘spectrum of political conflict’. popular protest, industrial action and terrorism were located on
points along a continuum of political violence.

In his book, Low Intensity Operations, Kitson (1971) argued that military forces must recognise that subversion and insurgency were now a part of ‘one total war’. Counter-insurgency theory provided a strategic framework for how a state should respond to insurgency, by treating political resistance as a military problem. According to Clutterbuck: ‘history has shown that terrorism can be and has been eliminated by a ruthless response to it, for power does ultimately lie with the government and its security forces’.

As Kevin Toolis has noted: ‘The counter-terrorist solution to revolt was always the same: military repression, assassinations, torture programmes and state-licensed killing squads’ (2004: 26).

infiltration of the local population can be achieved by covert operations, normally conducted by special forces

At the heart of this was the strategy of ‘turning.’ The method of acquiring and using agents was to spy on the guerrilla’s contacts with the people, identify who those were in touch with them, persuade a number of those to turn traitor, and so disrupt the rest of the organisation so that the guerrillas were fairly sure to go on relying on at least some of those people that would in the end betray them by giving ‘advance precise information’ (Clutterbuck, 1973: 212).

used to facilitate the further surrender of enemy personnel and the murders of those who allied themselves with the insurgents. Local populations who did not conform could be manipulated by, for example, cutting off their food supplies until they withdrew support for insurgent groups.

The British were notoriously brutal as does ‘low-intensity warfare’ today.

St Andrews-RAND nexus: redefining terrorism

Just as journalists are now ‘embedded’...

TIE A YELLOW RIBBON

Mental health is the leading cause of hospitalizations in the military.
Source: Defense Department


By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Mental health disorders caused more hospitalizations among U.S. troops in 2009 than any other reason, according to medical data released recently by the Pentagon. This historic high reflects the growing toll of nearly nine years of war.

Last year was the first in which hospitalizations for mental disorders outpaced those for injuries or pregnancies in the 15 years of tracking by the Pentagon's Medical Surveillance Monthly report.

SUPPORT THE TROOPS

Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend addressed the 101st Airborne Division with military brusqueness: Suicides at the post had spiked after soldiers started returning home from war, and this was unacceptable.

"It's bad for soldiers, it's bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our Army and our country and it's got to stop now," he insisted. "Suicides on Fort Campbell have to stop now."

THE ROVING EYE Collateral Pentagon By Pepe Escobar

"We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."

That was General Stanley McChrystal

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Public opinion in the Pentagon-defined "arc of instability" from the Middle East to Central Asia may see it for what it is: the "rules of engagement" for a Pentagon serially engaged in perpetrating "collateral damage"

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"shoot an amazing number of people" rules of engagement in both, has just been provided by the small, independent Wikileaks website.

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This is definitely not Academy Award winner The Hurt Locker - where American soldiers are selfless heroes and Iraqis are faceless ghosts

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the kind of heroes who mistake a telephoto lens for an rocket-propelled grenade

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"Oh, yeah, look at those dead bastards."
"Nice."
"Good shoot'n."

"Thank you."

TOM ENGEHARDT: BELIEVE IT OR NOT

some figures offered in a Washington Post piece by Lieutenant General James H. Pillsbury, deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, who is deeply involved in the "drawdown of the logistics operation in Iraq": "There are... more than 341 facilities; 263,000 soldiers, Defense Department civilians and contractor employees; 83,000 containers; 42,000 vehicles; 3 million equipment items; and roughly $54 billion in assets that will ultimately be removed from Iraq."

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U.S. taxpayer dollars floated in boatloads of foreign sand from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to create those 15-ton blast walls at $3,500 a pop. U.S. planners are now evidently wondering whether to ship some of the leftover walls thousands of miles by staggeringly roundabout routes to Afghanistan at a transportation cost of $15,000 each.

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Triple Canopy, $438 million since mid-2005 simply to guard the massive, 104-acre U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest on the planet

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his company has no trucks

“Well, It’s Their Fault for Bringing Their Kids into a Battle”

OVERVIEW
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.

After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement".

Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.

WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.

WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.

WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work."

MERCENARIES IN AFPAK

covert mercenary networks in "Afpak"), and Iraq to murder tribal militants. former senior Pentagon official Mike Furlong, International Media Ventures (IMV), to provide the US military with "cultural information" about Afghanistan’s Pashtun tribes.

Codename: Operation Capstone. "the Cultural Engineering Group" of Florida, and "Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program" of Virginia funded Furlong with $24.6 million.

Furlong hired former special forces to assassinate Pashtun leaders and target tribal compounds for strikes by US Predator drones. free enterprise known as "Murder Inc."

Dewey Clarridge from the 1980’s Afghan war, were involved. IMV’s CEO came from major defense contractor L-3



huge ruckus. Pentagon has cut Furlong adrift. Shades of CIA agent Ed Wilson set up as a deniable "independent" arms and explosives to Libya and Angola. this intrigue blew, Wilson was buried alive in federal prison

This latest recalls 1980’s guerilla war in El Salvador government death squads and
1968–1972 Operation Phoenix in South Vietnam, killed from 26,000 to 44,000 suspected Communists

growing criticism of 275,000 mercenaries (AKA "private contractors") in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, operate without any accountability, legal structure, or oversight



US mercenaries are likely behind bombings of civilian targets in Peshawar. Indian intelligence spreading mayhem to destabilize Pakistan

Xe (formerly Blackwater) and DynCorp have raked in fortunes running private armies for the US. They are major donors to the far right of the Republican Party



private armies are goose-steps away from Nazi Brownshirts of late 1920’s Germany

US Special Forces in Afpak not until this month under control of McChrystal. They reported to Petraeus in Tampa. McChrystal rose leading US Joint Special Operations Command who were on campaigns of liquidation and intimidation in Iraq, and
Afghanistan

To the Pentagon’s fury, CIA runs its own. paramilitary drone assassination ops. 90%
are civilians. "wet affairs" undermine the agency. CIA’s paramilitaries report to Langley. Pakistan is not informed

How many of the 15 other US intelligence agencies are running private armies. special forces from NATO whose operations are deep secret

Australia criticism for attacks on civilians by SAS units

Britain’s renowned SAS and SBS commandos are very active

US brands all as "illegal combatants, denying them due process and Geneva Convention

Mass Casualties:

Thursday 18 February 2010

by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Review
"Mass Casualties": The Dark Underbelly of Occupation, an Army Medic's Account

Thursday 18 February 2010
an insider's scathing testimony of an ongoing illegal and unethical military action in a distant, once-sovereign state, by the US

The late historian and Author Howard Zinn held the book in high regard. "Michael Anthony's memoir is not about the politics of Iraq. Instead it takes us deep inside the war, inside and outside the operation room, the barracks, the talk of the soldiers, the feeling of the situation ... unique and powerful," Zinn wrote.
If for nothing else, "Mass Casualties" gains immense importance in its honest portrayal of a young soldier's vulnerability as he struggles hard to cope with his shattered illusion about the Army

FROM INFORMED CONSENT

Meanwhile, the main strategy of the Israeli and Jewish-American Right to preserve Israeli capacity to continue the colonization and to act belligerently in the region had been the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. That strategem has failed, as I argued in Salon. The Shiite fundamentalists who have taken over Baghdad are pro-Hizbullah and pro-Palestinian. (Hizbullah was in part set up by the Islamic Mission Party, Da'wa, of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and Da'wa supported Hamas in the recent Gaza War). Moreover, Baghdad has ceased helping contain Iran for the Sunni Arab world and the West, and is now a close ally of Tehran. The prospect of a well-armed, 250,000-man Iraqi army now being reconstituted, and riddled with agents of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, must be a matter of consternation for Israelis. Only Jordan separates them from Iraq, now an outpost of the Shiite religious parties allied with Khamenei. The Neoconservatives, such as Richard Perle, David Frum, Paul Wolfowitz, Irv Lewis Libby, Michael Rubin, Douglas Feith, John Bolton, Larry Franklin and others thus not only shot themselves in the foot, but they shot Israel in the chest.

This Iraq strategy, which intended to stop the Rabin peace process and prevent the return of Gaza and the West Bank to the Palestinians for their state, was laid out by Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and other Neoconservatives in a white paper for Bibi Netanyahu in 1996. Many of the authors were subsequently put in high office by Bush-Cheney and pushed for an American war on Iraq with dirty tricks and false propaganda in 2002-2003. They included Canadian gadfly journalist David Frum, who authored Bush's 2002 'Axis of Evil' speech in consultation with Perle. The mostly Jewish Neoconservatives were only one faction in the Bush-Cheney coalition that wanted regime change in Baghdad, which included the Christian Right, Big Oil, and the military-industrial complex. However influential, they were not 'in control' and most Jewish Americans opposed their ideas and policies.