Author: mara.ahmed

Security companies reach arrangements with the local Taliban, the local warlords and various insiders to pay them off for protection. It’s very much like an extortion racket and very much like a protection racket, and it amounts to huge amounts of money. Some say ten percent, some say far more than ten percent, of the convoys. Some say that most of the security budgets are going towards these payments to the Taliban and to the tribal leaders and the warlords. watch interview on DN!

beautifully written by matthis chiroux, an american hero.

“It’s time to take care of your troops, America. We are mired in violence and gun lust, post traumatic stress and substance; outward anxiety and inward extremism. Maj. Nidal Hassan is one of us. Eight years we’ve been at war now. The youngest victim of Hassan’s murderous rampage was but 11 when the towers fell. For years, Maj. Hassan listened to the horrors of the occupations which resulted, and it made him crazy, as it made me crazy. Then they told him it was his turn to go, as they told me it was my turn.” Full article.

The United States could do more to acknowledge Pakistan’s political interests in the region given its strong partnership with India. India’s growing influence in Afghanistan is perceived as a threat to Pakistan’s stability and has led to accusations of India supporting insurgents in Balochistan, a conflict-ridden province of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. A holistic international diplomatic effort that recognises the interlocking nature of conflicts in the region, and includes both high-level principled negotiation and local level reconciliation efforts in its plan to solve them, could pay conflict resolution dividends. Full article.

At least 24 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a car bombing in the north-western Pakistani town of Charsadda, police say.

The blast occurred as shoppers thronged the main market in Charsadda, which lies north-east of Peshawar.

The attack is the third in as many days in North West Frontier Province.

More than 300 people have been killed in a wave of attacks as Pakistani troops launched an assault against the Taliban in South Waziristan. Full article.

Across the United States, thousands of people, including U.S. citizens, immigrants and asylum seekers, languish needlessly in detention facilities every day without even the right to a hearing to determine whether their detention is necessary. While detained, they are often held in poor conditions with limited access to family, medical care, or attorneys. Full article.

Hersh also quotes Rahimullah Yusufzai, the most knowledgeable and astute analyst of frontier politics:

The turmoil did not end with the Army’s invasion. “Most of the people who were in the refugee camps told us that the Army was equally bad. There was so much killing,” Yusufzai said. The government had placed limits on …reporters who tried to enter the Swat Valley during the attack, but afterward Yusufzai and his colleagues were able to interview officers. “They told us they hated what they were doing—‘We were trained to fight Indians.’ ” But that changed when they sustained heavy losses, especially of junior officers. “They were killing everybody after their colleagues were killed—just like the Americans with their Predator missiles,” Yusufzai said. “What the Army did not understand, and what the Americans don’t understand, is that by demolishing the house of a suspected Taliban or their supporters you are making an enemy of the whole family.” Full article.

so obama commits another 40,000 troops to afghanistan – one of the poorest countries in the world. why? coz it’s the “good” war? american veterans who have fought america’s wars in iraq and afghanistan beg to differ. they frequently call these wars imperialistic, racist, genocidal. many of them can’t even talk about what they’ve seen. to some suicide is the only way out. listen to their testimonies. watch the video.

Veterans reveal the truth about Iraq and Afghanistan in a six-part web series by David Zeiger, Director of Sir! No Sir!, and Bestor Cram & Mike Majoros, Directors of Unfinished Symphony. “There are no more authoritative voices to speak out about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than the people who have been there under fire,” declares singer Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman, Rage Against the Machine), as he leads an intense celebration of three days of intense, painful, and liberating testimony. And while James Gilligan reveals the deep similarities between the “bad war” (Iraq) and the “good war” (Afghanistan), Jon Turner declares for all, “I am sorry for the things that I did, I am no longer the monster that I once was.”

No Longer a Monster revised 10/14 from Displaced Films on Vimeo.

i’ve explained this context to people ad nauseum. can’t believe i’m hearing it from clinton. she must have been on the campaign trail at that time…

the american public doesn’t want war but who cares… let’s go for a troop surge anyway!

Washington – President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and completes a trip to Asia later this month, administration and military officials have told McClatchy. Full article.