The truth at any cost lowers all other costs
Berto Jongman
PROTECTING THE HOMELAND AGAINST MUMBAI-STYLE ATTACKS AND THE THREAT FROM LASHKAR-E-TAIBA
Testimony by Dr. Stephen Tankel, Professor, American University & Nonresident Scholar, South Asia Program Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
House Homeland Security Committee
June 12, 2013
Franklin Lamb Esq.
Why Obama is Declaring War on Syria
Veterans Today, 15 June 2013
(Beirut) – The short answer is Iran and Hezbollah according to Congressional sources. “The Syrian army’s victory at al-Qusayr was more than the administration could accept given that town’s strategic position in the region. Its capture by the Assad forces has essentially added Syria to Iran’s list of victories starting with Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, as well as its growing influence in the Gulf.”
Other sources are asserting that Obama actually did not want to invoke direct military aid the rebels fighting to topple the Assad government or even to make use of American military power in Syria for several reasons. Among these are the lack of American public support for yet another American war in the Middle East, the fact that there appears to be no acceptable alternative to the Assad government on the horizon, the position of the US intelligence community and the State Department and Pentagon that intervention in Syria would potentially turn out very badly for the US and gut what’s left of its influence in the region. It short, that the US getting involved in Syria could turn out even worse than Iraq, by intensifying a regional sectarian war without any positive outcome in sight.
Ambassador Ahmed Akbar
Drones kill three bad guys — and 30 innocents: Akbar Ahmed
Jun 12, 2013, 12.00AM IST 
[ Sameer Arshad ]
The latest drone strike to hit Pakistan’s tribal region came days after the country’s new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif demanded an end to such attacks. Academic Akbar Ahmed has authored The Thistle and the Drone on the dynamics of drone strikes. Speaking with Sameer Arshad, Ahmed discussed why drones are ineffective, the fall-out of using these, the US-Pakistan relationship — and how the Taliban has grown in power but could also face resistance:
What do drone strikes just before and after Nawaz Sharif’s inauguration reflect about US policies towards his government?
These reflect a certain contradiction in American policy — these almost suggest a confrontation with the new PM which the US does not want.
However, Sharif is a seasoned politician. He will find a way out to maintain Pakistan’s integrity while America pursues its aims. The relationship is mutually beneficial and important to both.
Are drone strikes making the world safer?
I can categorically answer that in the negative. Apart from the dubious arguments justifying drones, this is a highly ineffective method of checking violence. With every three bad guys killed, there are some 30 innocent women and children who die. And every strike feeds into anti-Americanism — after over a decade of using drones, neither have suicide bombers stopped, nor have those following them dwindled.
We need other methods of checking violence effectively.
CIA Drones Have a 98% ERROR Rate
Pakistan: In response to two US drone attacks since taking his oath of office last week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued an official statement after his first cabinet meeting. “The policy of protesting against drone strikes for public consumption, while working behind the scenes to make them happen, is not on.”
He told the cabinet that drone attacks were a violation of national sovereignty and the government “had chalked out a policy” to counter them. He said it was a matter of concern that after he took charge of the government’ drone attacks were launched which was not acceptable in any way
Comment: Over the weekend, the new government summoned the US Ambassador to deliver an official protest. The statements at the cabinet meeting signify that the new government will go beyond issuing pro forma protests. Sharif has a policy in mind and changes are likely.
Sharif also ordered a 30% cut in the staff of the Prime Minister to set an example for the rest of the cabinet whom he ordered to cut 30% of non-developmental expenditures. He told the cabinet to set priorities consistent with his guidance and report back to him in two weeks on how to revive the economy. He also advised that those who fail will be replaced.
RELATED:
“I felt like a sociopath” – Drone Operator Says He Is Haunted By The 1,600 He Killed
Berto Jongman
Not new, but now becoming more transparent to the public.
Book: Deviant Globalization: Black Market Economy in the 21st Century (2011)
Berto Jongman
35 Islmaic comunes across 22 states
Published on Dec 9, 2012
http://www.christianaction.org/
Scattered around the United States, unknown by most Americans, are dozens of Islamic terrorist-training compounds known as “Muslims of the Americas.” Under the leadership of a radical Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Mubarik Gilani, Muslims of the Americas has thousands of devoted followers who are being groomed for homegrown jihad.
In never-before-seen video footage, Christian Action Network exposes these dangerous terrorist compounds and reveals for the first time a secret training tape in which American Muslims are recruited to “join one of the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare”… right here in America.
Part 2:
Berto Jongman
UK pays price for MI5 courting terror
By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Asia Times, 30 May 2013
The brutal murder of an off-duty British soldier in broad daylight in the southeast London district of Woolwich raises new questions about the British government’s national security strategy, at home and abroad. Officials have highlighted the danger of “self-radicalizing” cells inspired by Internet extremism, but this ignores overwhelming evidence that major UK terror plots have been incubated by the banned al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as Al Muhajiroun.
Equally, it is no surprise that the attackers had been seen earlier on the radar of MI5, the UK’s domestic counter-intelligence and security agency. While Al Muhajiroun’s emir, Syrian cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed – currently self-exiled to Tripoli in northern Lebanon – has previously claimed “public immunity” due to murky connections with British intelligence, compelling evidence suggests such connections might still be operational in the context of foreign policy imperatives linked to oil and gas interests.
Who? Mini-Me?
Huh?
Thousands call on Turkey’s leader to quit
Protests swept Turkey on Friday and deep into Saturday morning as thousands of protesters called on prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to resign.
What began as a demonstration against a shopping mall project turned into one of the biggest challenges in recent years to Mr Erdogan’s rule, as whole districts of Istanbul resounded to the banging of pots and pans into the early hours of the morning. Drivers hit car horns in support of the demonstrators.
. . . . . . . .
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However, the size of the protests, and the speed with which they grew, appeared to be a reaction not just to the police crackdown on the initial demonstration in Gezi Park but to Mr Erdogan’s general approach to government.
“Gezi park is the new Tahrir of the region,” said Koray Caliskan, a Turkish columnist, in reference to the epicentre of Egypt’s 2011 revolution.
Who? Who?
“Rendition Flights Database has been compiled in collaboration with Reprieve, and represents the world’s largest set of public flight data relating to those aircraft suspected of involvement in the global network of renditions, secret detention and torture. The interactive here has been produced in collaboration with Craig Bloodworth from The Information Lab, and allows users to search for, and visualise, renditions flights from the underlying database…We hope that by bringing together the data into one place, researchers across the globe will be able to help build a clearer picture of the movements of aircraft associated with the renditions network. In particular, we hope to identify those flights which can be linked to known or suspected detainee transfers between secret detention sites, or which may have played a subsidiary role in servicing the global system of secret detention and interrogation.
Click on Image to Enlarge
The Rendition Flights Database currently contains flight data on 122 US-registered civilian aircraft, as well as some military flights into Guantanamo Bay. In total, the current version of the database contains over 11,000 individual flights, many of which have been logged by more than one source of data. Of particular importance have been the results of a Freedom of Information project by Access Info Europe and Reprieve, that has unearthed significant new flight data on renditions aricraft. This has not been integrated before now, and sits in our Database alongside data from Eurocontrol, Council of Europe and European Parliament investigations, and a range of other sources. As the project develops, new data will be integrated as it is released into the public domain.”
Berto Jongman
‘Conclusive proof’ CIA torture flights landed at Scottish airports
Investigators believe they have found “conclusive” new proof that CIA-linked planes landed regularly in Scottish airports as part of the “extraordinary rendition” programme.
The three airports which it is claimed were used as part of the “war on terror” are Aberdeen, Inverness and Wick. A study, conducted by two academics at UK universities, found that 13 flights to these airports may have been involved in the US security service’s controversial “extraordinary rendition” programme. Extraordinary rendition was used by the US Government in the years after the September 11 attacks. It involved the secret kidnapping, detention and transfer of terror suspects to other countries for interrogation and alleged torture.
Sam Raphael of Kingston University in London, developed the Rendition Project with Ruth Blakely, from Kent University. He said: “The Rendition Project database provides conclusive evidence that airports in the north of Scotland were visited by numerous CIA planes at the height of the rendition and secret-detention programme.” The project revealed data which shows five flights with CIA links landed at Wick and Inverness, with a further three landing at Aberdeen International Airport. New details released by the study describe the planes and routes, showing that several went on to land in locations where it is claimed that terror suspects were being held in secret prisons.
The study claims to cast a new light on the operations, and has identified 11,006 flights suspected of being involved in rendition. More than 1600 of these are thought to have landed in the UK.
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