Afghan Soldiers Attack NATO Troops
Second 'Green-on-Blue' Attack This Week
by Jason Ditz
A pair of Afghan soldiers attacked a group of NATO troops outside of a base today. None of the NATO soldiers were killed but one of the attackers was. The other attacker was reportedly captured.
The Taliban took The nationality of the soldiers attacked today in the Laghman Province was not released, but NATO officials said there were no fatalities. They declined to comment on if anyone was wounded.
27 NATO soldiers have been killed in such incidents so far this year, the most in any single year yet. Several of the incidents involved Taliban infiltrators, but many were also the results of arguments between Afghans and occupation forces.
US Deploying Surveillance Drones Near China
Even John McCain called the move "unnecessarily provocative"
by John Glaser
The Pentagon will begin flying surveillance drones off the coastlines of Japan, China and Taiwan, an agreement reached after talks between Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto at the Pentagon on Sunday.
Source: BBC
In keeping with the Obama administration’s antagonistic military postures towards China, the US has backed various neighboring countries from Japan to the Philippines. And it’s no surprise drones have taken a larger role in what the Pentagon plans to make a new military theater of Air-Sea Battle.
Afghan Police Commander Kills Three US Special Ops
People continue to get killed in Afghanistan purely for the political reputation of politicians in Washington
by John Glaser
Gunmen in Afghan uniforms shot and killed three US special operations forces in southern Afghanistan, marking the 28th killed by so-called green-on-blue attacks this year.
The
US troops were lured to their deaths by an Afghan police commander who
invited them to dinner Thursday night. The Taliban claimed
responsibility and said the gunman had defected to the insurgency.Despite Israeli ‘Leak’ US Intelligence Still Solid on Iran’s Lack of Nuke Program
Israelis pounced on the opportunity to push the US to war, but Obama administration still says Iranian nuke is far off
by John Glaser
Following rumors in Israel of a new US intelligence report warning of Iranian progress on a nuclear weapon, US officials told Reuters on Thursday that their intelligence still says Iran is not on the verge of getting nuclear weapons.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israeli news media
early Thursday that a new US intelligence report parted ways with
earlier estimates finding Iran had no nuclear weapons program. No new or credible evidence was given in these reports of any Iranian weapons program, however.Nuclear Righteousness
Nuclear Righteousness
But you have to say it without the doubt, the regret -- the horror -- of Robert Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist extraordinaire and director of the Manhattan Project, who famously uttered these words in reference to the Trinity nuclear explosion in New Mexico's Jornada del Muerto desert on July 16, 1945.
When you remove Oppenheimer's moral awareness from the quote, it sounds more like: "Oh, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the choice. I'd wipe 'em out. You're gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we've never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. ... That's their tough luck for being there."
At Drone Convention, Zero Tolerance for Peace
At Drone Convention, Zero Tolerance for Peace
by Medea Benjamin,
But AUVSI, the lobby group for the drone industry, brooked no dissent at its August 6-9
The Drug War Expands to Africa
Ignoring trillion-dollar annual budget deficits and a nearly
$16 trillion national debt , the American Empire is still growing.
The latest imperial foray is expanding the ineffectual U.S. drug war
into Africa to combat such smuggling into Europe. Yes, Europe. Not
only does the United States spend tens of billions of dollars a year
subsidizing the defense of rich European countries, it is now
swelling such welfare spending to include essentially financing a
drug war in Africa for Europe. Never mind that cocaine use is a
declining problem back home in the U.S.
The Drug War Finds New Ways to Fail
The federal government’s effort to battle drug abuse has
been a tragic and expensive failure. But of course, admitting that
would make politicians, who regularly endorse it to sound tough, seem foolish and careless with taxpayer
dollars. So the War on Drugs continues, while of necessity it
slowly morphs into new forms of federal waste and unnecessary
intrusion into people’s lives.
Militarized federal law enforcement just can’t cope with trendiness in recreational drug use. Cocaine use is so yesterday (the 1980s, to be exact) and is a declining problem. Even at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the mid-1980s, only 5.8 million people in a population of about 240 million were using the drug; the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that only 1.5 million in a population of 313 million use cocaine. In recent years, methamphetamine use has also declined. Lately, heroin use is up slightly but still affects a minuscule portion (less than .08%) of the American population.
Militarized federal law enforcement just can’t cope with trendiness in recreational drug use. Cocaine use is so yesterday (the 1980s, to be exact) and is a declining problem. Even at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the mid-1980s, only 5.8 million people in a population of about 240 million were using the drug; the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that only 1.5 million in a population of 313 million use cocaine. In recent years, methamphetamine use has also declined. Lately, heroin use is up slightly but still affects a minuscule portion (less than .08%) of the American population.
Quagmires Are Often Just a Few Steps Away
Despite its massive annual federal budget deficits and national
debt, the American superpower continues to meddle in faraway
countries that pose little direct threat to U.S. national security.
Examples of those nanny-like interventions have recently occurred in
Syria and South Sudan.
Otto Does Foreign Policy
Does anyone remember Otto, the brain
damaged ex-CIA assassin played so deliciously by Kevin Kline in A
Fish Called Wanda?
Otto cruised around London in a massive old Chrysler, driving on
the right and forcing British drivers off the road while screaming
that they were a**holes. Described by one reviewer as a walking id,
Otto’s most famous line was “Oh, you English are so
superior, aren’t you? Well, would you like to know what you’d be
without us, the good ol’ US of A to protect you? I’ll tell you.
The smallest f***king province in the Russian Empire, that’s what!
If it wasn’t for us, you’d all be speaking German! Singing
‘Deutschland, Deutschland über alles’….”
New York Declares War on Iran
New York Declares War on Iran
Why do you think they call it the 'Empire State'?
by Justin Raimondo,
While speaking truth to power is not the sort of thing one expects the executive of a leading bank to indulge in, we’ll take it where we can find it. Here‘s the Group Director of the Standard Chartered Bank responding to the charges, leveled by New York State bank regulator Ben Lawsky, that SCB was involved in financial dealings with Iran to the tune of $250 billion:
"You f—king Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with the Iranians?"
This, by the way, is cited in the complaint filed by the state of New York: Lawsky apparently thought it was incriminating enough to include. There is plenty of evidence this case has little to do with the sanctions, and more to do with bank protectionism: SCB is a British bank, and the city of New York is now engaged in a strenuous campaign to lure the high finance crowd away from London and back to the Big Rotten Apple. The Group Manager, who goes unnamed in the complaint, is asking the right question, which apparently Senor Lawsky isn’t prepared to answer – so I will.
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