Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Afghans don't wnat more US troops

According to interviews conducted by ABC, Afghans don't ant more US troops and they see them as foreign invaders.

The article says there is a large number of Afghans – the majority of those interviewed by ABC News – who see the American military as the latest in a long line of foreign invaders of Afghanistan.


One Afghan interviewed also said that "Afghans were fed up with both sides – the Taliban for causing violence and the foreign forces for failing to stop it," as groups like RAWA and Malalai Joya have been saying for a long time.

Iranian and Israeli missiles

Glenn Greenwald has a good post on the double standards against Iran.

For instance, re: missiles.

Israel also has missiles that can reach Iran and beyond.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Did Iran "cheat"?

There is some uncertainty as to whether Iran did or did not cheat by not revealing earlier the existence of its new uranium enrichment facility.
Scott Ritter says that Iran did not technically cheat.
But here James Acton says it did.
But Sahimi says Iran did not cheat.

See this document (para. 15) from IAEA giving some info.

I'd say Acton is technically right because Code 3.1 of the General Part of the Subsidiary Arrangements cannot be repealed unilaerally, unlike the Additional Protocol, which was implemented voluntarily.

civil disobedience in Palestine

Neve Gordon tells the story.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Roger Cohen on Iran

Roger Cohen is not as hysterical as others in the mainstream and says sanctions won't work.

Ahmed Rashid on Afghanistan

Rashid in NYR of Books.


My comments in [ ].


[Why doesn't the US target Pakistan if it supports the Taliban?]:

In North Waziristan two key Afghan Taliban networks—one led by the Pash- tun warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin Haqqani, and the other by the Muslim extremist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar—have been on the payroll of Pakistan's ISI since the 1970s and the ISI still allows them to operate freely. Al-Qaeda militants also live in North Waziristan, as do militant groups of Pakistani Punjabis, who launch terrorist attacks in India and Afghanistan.

The key question is whether the Pakistani army and the ISI, which have intermittently supported the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban since 2001, can now make a strategic shift—turning decisively to eliminate not only the Pakistani Taliban but also the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda. Until now the Pakistani army has considered the Afghan Taliban a strategic asset in its battle against India and other regional rivals for influence in Afghanistan.

[Taliban strength]:

For much of this year the Taliban have been on the offensive in Afghanistan. Their control of just thirty out of 364 districts in 2003 expanded to 164 districts at the end of 2008, according to the military expert Anthony Cordesman, who is advising General McChrystal. Taliban attacks increased by 60 percent between October 2008 and April 2009. Forty-seven American soldiers died in August, making it the deadliest month in the war for the US Army. Forty-four were killed in July.


[Elections]:
The Taliban had threatened to derail the elections and, to a considerable degree, they did, because much of the terrified population did not vote. The turnout is expected to be between 30 to 40 percent, much less than the 70 percent who voted in 2004. There were four hundred Taliban attacks on election day and many polling stations never opened.

In fact, as I recently wrote elsewhere, the fraud was assured months ago when Karzai began to align himself with regional warlords, drug traffickers, and top officials in the provinces who were terrified of losing their lucrative sinecures.


[Costs]
Meanwhile the military operation in Afghanistan is now costing cash-strapped US taxpayers $4 billion a month.

Iran missiles

Iran has not yet deployed missiles that can reach Europe, but in the Pentagon's view, it is headed toward that capacity. Earlier this year, it did carry out a successful test of a two-stage missile using solid fuel called the Sejil-2. That has a range of about 1,200 miles, which could reach parts of Europe from Iran.

Iran does not currently have missiles capable of hitting Western Europe.

From BBC, which gives a map of missile reaches:

A recent study conducted by missile experts from the United States, Europe and Russia for the International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded that Iran does have the technical and industrial capacity to develop a new missile capable of reaching Western Europe.

The Safir has limited military utility and could not be converted into a viable military, ballistic missile. The Sajjil modestly increases Iran's strategic reach, from about 1,500km for the Shahab-3 to about 2,000km for a one-ton payload.

But the Sajjil is several years from reaching operational status. Additional flight testing will be needed to validate the missile's performance parameters and reliability.

There are no indications to date that Tehran intends to develop intermediate-range missiles, those capable of hitting targets in Western Europe.


Nor is there any evidence that Iranian missile engineers are developing a larger diameter solid propellant motor capable of lifting larger payloads to distances beyond 3,000km.

The absence of such activities does not mean that Iran will not pursue longer range missiles in the future, but it indicates that Iran is many years away from establishing an ability to threaten Germany, France or the United Kingdom.

Taliban finances

The U.S. military has estimated that the Taliban collects $70 million annually from poppy farmers and narcotics traffickers. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, which monitors opium production, earlier projected that the Taliban and its affiliates earned as much as $400 million a year from the drug trade. The agency later revised the figure sharply downward, to about $100 million a year.

Also it is widely believed that Pakistan's ISI supports greatly the Taliban.
But the US won't attack Pakistan of course...

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Scott Ritter on Iran's nuclear "new" nuclear facility

Scott Ritter has so far the best article on Iran's "new" uranium enriching facility in Qom.

India's defense and nuclear markets

India is planning to spend $100 bn over the next 10 years to modernize its military, so US and other countries' companies are all looking forward to that.

Also, Canada is about to conclude a nuclear deal with India.

Canada is close to signing a deal with India to sell nuclear technology and materials. Canada said it did not foresee any threat of Canadian materials being diverted to military uses elsewhere in the region because of India's commitment to allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as tough transparency and reporting requirements.

That's crap: Canada halted nuclear co-operation with India after the country diverted material from Canadian-designed reactors to make a nuclear bomb in 1974.

So the risks are the same today. The point is just that businesses don't care about those things.

The deal is made possible by the US-Indo nuclear deal last year that was signed by Bush to allow nuclear trade with India even if it has not signed the NPT. This Bush deal assists India's production of nuclear weapons.

Iran's nuclear facilities

AP has a good description of the various nuclear facilities in Iran.

Riachard Falk on Goldstone report

Richard Falk has a long summary of the Goldstone report here. Excerpt:

Given this background of a prior international consensus on the unlawfulness of Operation Cast Lead, we must first wonder why this massive report of 575 pages has been greeted with such alarm by Israel and given so much attention in the world media. It added little to what was previously known. Arguably, it was more sensitive to Israel's contentions that Hamas was guilty of war crimes by firing rockets into its territory than earlier reports had been. And in many ways the Goldstone report endorses the misleading main line of the Israeli narrative by assuming that Israel was acting in self-defense against a terrorist adversary. The report does describe the success of the ceasefire with Hamas that had cut violence in southern Israel to very low levels, and attributes its disruption to Israel's attack on 4 November 2008, but nowhere does it make the inference that would seem to follow, that the Israeli attacks were an instance of the international crime of aggression. Instead, the report focuses its criticism on Israel's excessive and indiscriminate uses of force. It does this mainly by examining the evidence surrounding a series of incidents involving attacks on civilians and non-military targets. The report also draws attention to the unlawful blockade that has restricted the flow of food, fuel and medical supplies to subsistence levels in Gaza before, during and since Operation Cast Lead. Such a blockade is a flagrant instance of collective punishment, explicitly prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention setting forth the legal duties of an occupying power.

AND importantly:

The report also ignores Hamas' repeated efforts to extend the ceasefire indefinitely provided Israel lifted its unlawful blockade of Gaza. Israel disregarded this seemingly available diplomatic alternative to war to achieve security on its borders. Recourse to war, even if the facts were to justify self-defense, is according to international law, a last resort. By ignoring Israel's initiation of a one-sided war the Goldstone report implicitly accepts the dubious central premise of Operation Cast Lead, and avoids making a finding of aggression.

Also disappointing was the failure of the report to comment upon the Israeli denial of a refugee option to the civilian population trapped in the tiny, crowded combat zone that constitutes the Gaza Strip. Israel closed all crossings during the period of the Gaza war, allowing only Gaza residents with foreign passports to leave. It is rare in modern warfare that civilians are not given the option to become refugees. Although there is no specific provision of the laws of war requiring a state at war to allow civilians to leave the combat zone, it seems like an elementary humanitarian requirement, and should at least have been mentioned either as part of customary international law or as a gap in the law that should be filled. The importance of this issue is reinforced by many accounts of the widespread post-traumatic stress experienced by the civilians in Gaza, especially children, who comprise 53 percent of the population. One might also notice that the report accords considerable attention to the one Israeli soldier held prisoner by Hamas in Gaza, recommending his release on humanitarian grounds, while making only a very general recommendation that Israel release some of the thousands of Palestinians being held under conditions of harsh detention, suggesting that children especially should be released.

AND:

Despite these limitations, the report is an historic contribution to the Palestinian struggle for justice, an impeccable documentation of a crucial chapter in their victimization under occupation. Its impact will be felt most impressively on the growing civil society movement throughout the world to impose cultural, sporting and academic boycotts, as well as to discourage investment, trade and tourism with Israel. It may yet be the case that as in the anti-apartheid struggle the shift in the relation of forces in the Palestinian favor will occur not through diplomacy or as a result of armed resistance, but on the symbolic battlefield of legitimacy that has become global in scope, what might be described as the new political relevance of moral and legal globalization.

Small democracy in East Jerusalem

Palestinians in a neighborhood of East Jerusalem ignore Israeli municipal elections and vote for their own representatives. There you go.

Defund Blackwater

Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater's contracts.

Iran nuclear program

Another article in the NYT describes how US intelligence and the Obama administration came to learn of the new Iranian pilot enrichment facility. The US had known for quite some time about the facility, so what's the big fuss now? If the facility is military that would be a problem but there doesn't seem to be any proof of that.

To get a better perspective on Obama's idiocies, read Gordon Prather for example.

Also, Obama once again acted illegally under the UN charter by threatening Iran militarily (it's illegal to do so):
"Asked about the prospect of using military force to stop Iran from getting the bomb, Obama said, "With respect to the military, I've always said that we do not rule out any options when it comes to U.S. security interests, but I will also re-emphasize that my preferred course of action is to resolve this in a diplomatic fashion. It's up to the Iranians to respond.""

There are also accusations that Iran was concealing the facility. Iran says that such a facility must only be declared 6 months prior to becoming operational, and Iran says that facility will become operational only in 18 months. Anyway, Iran had notified the IAEA of its existence earlier this week before the Western powers brought it to light. Iran acknowledged the facility's existence for the first time in a letter Monday to the IAEA that said the enrichment level would be up to 5 percent, suitable only for peaceful purposes. Weapons-grade material is more than 90 percent enriched.

But the IAEA has rejected Iran's contention it must notify the agency of new facilities only six months before operations. The agency says Iran is obliged to make such a notification when it begins design of such facilities. The Iranians said in March 2007 they were "suspending" the modification to their IAEA safeguards agreement requiring that early notification. But the IAEA countered that a government cannot unilaterally abandon such an agreement.

So according to the IAEA Iran would technically not have respected its agreement with the IAEA.


Canada and Harper support the US here, nothing surprising.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Iran nuclear

Another great piece of Western propaganda, duly conveyed by the NYT.

The claim this time is that the US found a "hidden" enrichment facility in Iran. Yes, so what? The facility is not even in operation yet and will just be added to the Natanz facility. This proves nothing, once again.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Iran nuclear

Gareth Porter has a good interview about the recent developments in Iran on the nuclear front.

And an article about Chinese oil companies supplying Iran with petrol.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Latin American oil for locals

This article surveys the trends in Latin American energy and argues that a trend is that several countries have enacted measures to divert more revenue to their own nationals rather than foreign owned companies.

Afghanistan political-warlords dynamics

A good article here which illustrates the political dynamics in Afghanistan between a governor who is not supporting Karzai and who says the Karzai government is arming warlords in his province to undermine his authority.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

NYT on Iran

The NYT has an article on Iran entitled "At UN, views on Iran and N. Korea are divided". It talks about the fact that some countries are hesitant to apply sanctions to Iran that would cut off its supply of refined fuel products, such as gasoline.
This is misleading and typical of mainstream coverage as it assumes that everybody agrees on sanctions and that the only debate is about what kind of sanctions. In fact, most of the world opposes sanctions on Iran when one looks at public opinion polls in the world.

Afghanistan troops

The big debate on Afghanistan at the moment is whether the US should send more troops. The military, led by General McChrystal, wants more, up to 45,000 new troops on top of the 68,000 already approved. He outlined his plans and ideas in this unclassified assessment published by the Washington Post.
As Glenn Greenwald notes, the review on Afghanistan involved a dozen of the usual pro-war think tankers like the Kagans, someone from RAND, etc.
There are however some officials in Obama's administration that are are reluctant to send more troops.
The British military also wants more troops, 1,000 to 2,000.
This debate is typical of mainstream debates on the war. Note that the two options we can choose here are only "more troops" or "not more troops"--the options of "less troops" or "withdrawal" are not part of the debate.
This is reflected in the mainstream media as well. So the New York Times has asked six "experts" on Afghanistan the following questions:
"How should additional troops be deployed? What types of specialized personnel are needed now?"
So the questions assume that we can only send more troops.
Many of the answers are pretty much empty bla bla and/or general statements that could be said of basically any topic.

Bagram

Der Spiegel on Bagram and torture.

Iran makes no compromises

Read Juan Cole, who is arguing that Iran runs the risk of becoming a pariah state if it continues making non compromises.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Russia also cancels its missile plans near Poland

Russia will scrap a plan to deploy missiles near Poland because the U.S. no longer wants to place a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, a Russian deputy defense minister said Saturday.
Obama's decision to scrap the plan was based largely on a new U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran's effort to build a nuclear-capable long-range missile would take three to five years longer than originally thought, U.S. officials said. The new U.S. missile-defense plan would rely on a network of sensors and interceptor missiles based at sea, on land and in the air as a bulwark against Iranian short- and medium-range missiles.

And Polish people agree that canceling the Bush missile system was a good thing. An opinion poll was taken and the survey, published in the daily Rzeczpospolita by polling firm GFK, showed 48 percent of Poles believed the decision was good for Poland, while 31 percent had the opposite view.

CIA presence increases in Afghanistan

The CIA is increasing its numbers in Afghanistan at the moment, Leon Panetta said. They are also adding bases there.
All this is to support Obama's surge of troops in Afghanistan.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Private military contractors in Afghanistan

A good report on private military contractors in Afghanistan is here.

Contractors now outnumber US troops in Afghanistan and account for 57% of all personnel there, the highest percentage ever.

Israel's missile defense system

Obama may have canceled the US missile defense scheme in Eastern Europe but is helping Israel with its own missile defense shield.
Some parts of it are already in operation, others will be soon.

Israel and NPT

Israel doesn't want to join the NPT.
Arab states in the U.N. nuclear assembly on Friday won narrow approval of a resolution urging Israel to put all its atomic sites under U.N. inspection and join the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The vote passed 49-45, the divide being between the West (opposing) and developing countries (favoring). Canada tried to block to resolution, another great Harper administration move.

Afghan elections

A little update on the Afghan elections.

Iran's captives

The NYT asks Iran to release 5 Americans.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Iran and nuclear shield

Obama's decision to scrap the nuclear shield in Eastern Europe could be a move to convince Russia to get tougher on Iran, write Afrasiabi. We'll see...

Greenwald's post

Glenn Greenwald has a good post as usual.

Blackwater

An article on Blackwater's mischiefs in Iraq, and its owner, Erik Prince, who believes he is on a Christian crusade to kill Arabs.

It was reported last month that the CIA had hired Blackwater in a campaign to assassinate top Al Qaeda operatives.

Israel rogue nuclear state

The IAEA voted 100-1 in favor of a resolution calling on the Middle East to be a nuclear-weapons free zone, meaning that all countries of the region should abandon nuclear weapons. Only Israel has nuclear weapons now, and only Israel voted against the resolution. There were also 4 abstentions: US, Canada, India and Georgia. (Last year the vote was 82-0 with 13 abstentions).
Israel said it voted no because the draft retained a clause calling "upon all states in the region to accede" to the NPT.

Also, Ehud Barak, Israel's Defense Minister, rejected the idea of a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone, saying that the Mideast is too unruly for a region-wide nuclear arms ban. Asked if Israel would sign on to a treaty for a nuclear-free Mideast, Barak said that "until the Muslim world from Marakesh to Bangladesh behaves like Western Europe, there can be no debate on nuclear disarmament."

Iran nuclear program

An IAEA statement said the IAEA "has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapon program in Iran."
The statement was made in the context that some Western diplomats claim that the IAEA is withholding a secret annex incriminating Iran. AP has obtained a leaked version of this supposed annex.

Obama scraps missile defense in East Europe

Obama scrapped Bush's missile defense plans in Eastern Europe and will replace it with a system based on navy ships in the seas.
That appears to be a good decision.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Iran nuclear

Kaveh Afrasiabi has a good summary of the issues on the Iranian nuclear crisis as negotiations will take place in Turkey in a couple weeks.

CIA Cold War exaggerations

A study was released documenting the exaggerations of the CIA during the Cold War about Soviet capabilities. See also here.

Obama, Bagram, Guantanamo

Glenn Greenwald has a good post on Obama, Guantanamo and Bagram.
As many have noted, Obama is replacing Guantanamo with Bagram. The Obama administration is challenging the opinion that Bagram detainees have habeas corpus rights (the right to challenge their detention).
Andy Worthington also has an article here.

Still 3 million Afghan refugees

A new ICG report about Afghan refugees notes that there are 900,000 registered refugees in Iran and 2 million in Pakistan.

Such migration is not new to Afghanistan. By the early 1990s, following the Soviet invasion of the country, there were an estimated 6.2 million Afghan refugees globally. This meant that about 1/3 of the population (15 million or so) had left the country!

So since the 2001 invasion, about 5 millions returned to Afghanistan, but today there are still 3 million refugees in Pakistan and Iran alone.

See also this wikipedia entry on refugees of Afghanistan.

US intelligence says Iran not working on nuclear weapon

US intelligence told Obama that Iran was not working on a nuke.
This confirms the last assessment in late 2007 which said the same thing.

Obama may drop missile shield plans in East Europe

And this would make Russia happy. In exchange Obama could convince Russia to enact sanctions on Iran and/or to make more concessions on the START negotiations to reduce the number of nuclear weapons.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

New report on Gaza attack

A new report was released by the UN on the Gaza attack, the result of an investigation led by Richard Goldstone. The New York Times' headline was:
"UN finds signs of war crimes on both sides in Gaza".

Yes, about, what, 1% by Palestinians and 99% by Israel? NYT shows again its pro-Israel bias...

Canada refuses to release Afghan war costs

See here.

Detainee have no rights at Bagram

Though the Department of Defense has made a big deal about the major changes being made in the detention procedures at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, and the notion that for the first time detainees will have something resembling rights while in US custody, the Obama Administration has made it clear today that those “rights” don’t extend very far.

Today the administration made a filing with the US Court of Appeals in Washington challenging a previous determination by a judge that some Bagram detainees actually had legal rights to challenge their detention.

See also Andy Worthington on the recent Obama announcement to supposedly provide more rights to Bagram detainees.

US world leader in sending children to prison

The US is the world leader in sending children to prison.
In 22 US states, children as young as 7 still can be tried as adults. There is no age limit in Missouri, but it is 10 in Kansas. As of June, juveniles could not be sentenced to life without parole in seven states, including Kansas. That makes the United States the only nation in the world where juveniles can be sentenced to life without parole, the study reported.
All children who offend at age 12 or younger should be put into juvenile care, the Texas study contends. And it found that when they are put in adult prisons, juvenile offenders are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted and 36 times more likely to commit suicide.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Corporate executives salaries increase 10%

The Guardian conducted a survey of executives' salaries and said that for the last year, their salaries on average increased by 10%.
This is more than three times the 3.1% average pay rise for ordinary workers in the private sector. The big rise in executives' basic pay – more than double the rate of inflation last year – came as many of their companies were imposing pay freezes on staff and starting huge redundancy programs to slash costs.
So there you go: cut on the poorer but increase salaries for the richest.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Russia #1 oil exporter in the world

Russia is now the world's #1 oil exporter, overcoming Saudia Arabia. Russia is also the world's #1 gas exporter. Russia supplies about 1/3 of the European Union's oil needs. This gives political to Russia over Europe and the West.

Obama and Bagram prison

The Obama administration is supposedly preparing procedures to review the case of detainees held at Bagram.
The Obama administration had sought to preserve Bagram as a haven where it could detain terrorism suspects beyond the reach of American courts, agreeing with the Bush administration’s view that courts had no jurisdiction over detainees there.

Another article here is very good on the details of the new procedures.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Taliban have permanent presence in 80% of Afghanistan

The Taliban now have a permanent presence in 80% of Afghanistan, up from 72% in November 2008, according to a new map released today by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS). According to ICOS, another 17% of Afghanistan is seeing ‘substantial’ Taliban activity. Taken together, these figures show that the Taliban has a significant presence in virtually all of Afghanistan.
In November 2007, ICOS assessed that the Taliban had a permanent presence in 54% of Afghanistan, and in November 2008, using the same methodology; the result was a finding of a permanent Taliban presence in 72% of the country.

The way ICOS assesses the Taliban presence is by counting Taliban attacks by province: provinces in which there is an average of one or more weekly Taliban attack count as having a "permanent Taliban presence", so 80% of provinces.

One important aspect is that although the Taliban have always been strong in the South and South East, they are now spreading to the north.

The map of Taliban presence can be found here
.

US to hold unconditional talks with Iran

The US said it would hold unconditional talks with Iran--finally. This means that the US will talk to Iran even if Iran has not suspended uranium enrichment. Under Bush, the US refused to hold talks without Iran first suspending its enrichment of uranium.
The decision to engage directly with Iran would put a senior representative of the Obama administration at the bargaining table, along with emissaries from five other nations.
Those talks could become the first substantive talks between the US and Iran since the 1979 revolution.

Friday, September 11, 2009

US military in Colombia

Benjamin Dangl discusses US plans to increase their military's presence in Colombia.
He says that under the plan developed with Colombia, "the US would have access to seven military bases for 10 years, stationing up to 1,400 US personnel and private contractors."

Iran nuclear question

Iran has presented a package for negotiations with the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany) which can be found here.

The US dismissed the package and is instead preparing for enacting a fourth round of sanctions. But Russia said the proposal could be the basis of further discussions and said further sanctions on Iran were unlikely.

Iran offers package on nuclear negotiations

Kaveh Afrasiabi discusses Iran's new package offered to the "Iran 6" (P5+1).

50 unanswered questions about 9-11

Pepe Escobar asks 50 questions about 9-11 that have been unanswered by the official narrative.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Afghanistan by the numbers

TomDispatch has a good article gathering a lot of numbers on the costs of the Afghanistan war. For example:
Total funds for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2002-2009: $228.2 billion.
Percentage of U.S. funding in Afghanistan that has gone for military purposes: Nearly 90%.

Number of U.S. prisons and holding centers: approximately 36 "overcrowded and often violent sites" with 15,000 detainees.

Number of U.S. bases: at least 74 in northern Afghanistan alone, with more being built. (The total number of U.S. bases in Afghanistan seems not to be available.)

Number of military contractors hired by the Pentagon in Afghanistan by the end of June 2009: Almost 74,000, nearly two-thirds of them local hires, a 9% rise over the previous three months.

Percentage of the Pentagon's force in Afghanistan made up of contractors in March 2009: 57%.

Monday, September 7, 2009

IMF gives $150 million to Honduras

Mark Weisbrot notes that the IMF, dominated by the US, is giving support to the coup leaders in Honduras by giving them $150 million.
Of course this does nothing to restore the democratically elected government of Zelaya.

Karzai pardons drug lords

Karzai issued a decree in April pardoning five well-connected traffickers sentenced to between 16 and 18 years in prison after they were caught with more than 260 lbs of heroin.

One, Bilal Wali Mohammad, was the nephew of Haji Din Mohammad who is a powerful tribal leader and Mr Karzai's election campaign manager.

The other traffickers are thought to have been pardoned in secret.

Karzai was accused of not upholding the rule of law by Mehro Hameed, one of the country's most senior judges who rules on counter-narcotics cases, who said there would be no justice in Afghanistan until the president supported a judiciary under constant threat from organized crime. Some judges do a good work of catching traffickers, but when Karzai pardons them this undermines their work.

But unfortunately, Judge Mehro said the pardons were frustrating because drug kingpins were rarely arrested in the first place and most prosecutions involved lowly couriers.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

US dominates world arms trade

The US expanded its leading position in the worldwide arms trade.

The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before.

Italy was a distant second, with $3.7 billion in worldwide weapons agreements in 2008, while Russia was third with $3.5 billion in arms sales last year — down considerably from the $10.8 billion in weapons deals signed by Moscow in 2007.

The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.

The increase in American weapons sales around the world “was attributable not only to major new orders from clients in the Near East and in Asia, but also to the continuation of significant equipment and support services contracts with a broad-based number of U.S. clients globally,” according to the study, titled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations.”

Bush's free market approach to Afghanistan

The Bush administration tried to help Afghanistan's agricultural development through free-market reforms in the agricultural sector of the sort the US doesn't even have for its own agricultural sector.
The Obama administration said it would try to adopt an approach more geared towards agricultural development to produce food for domestic needs for Afghans. We'll see to what extent this really happens.
US government organizations like USAID have had a number of their specialist staff let go in the 1980s and 1990, and today we see the consequence: they're now less competent to manage development projects and have to rely on private contractors who are in for the money.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Pilger: Megrahi was framed

John Pilger makes the case that Megrahi was framed. Megrahi was accused by Britain and the US of being the Lockerbie bomber but recently was allowed to go to Libya. He had come up with a defence that would have invalidated claims against him so the British let him go and canceled the new hearing to avoid their case to be discredited.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Fraud in Afghan elections

A report summarizing the fraud in Afghan elections can be found here.

Israel harvesting Palestinian organs?

Jonathan has a very good summary of the scandal about Israel harvesting organs from the Palestinians killed by the Israeli military.
His main point is that although we do not have hard evidence that this is indeed true, the matter should be investigated fully because there are many hints that point towards the possibility that it is indeed true.

Norway government divests from Israeli arms company

The Norwegian government has divested from an Israeli arms company involved in the construction of the separation wall.

Norway's pension fund is invested in 41 different Israeli companies.

A research project by the Coalition of Women for Peace called "Who profits from the occupation" found that almost two thirds of those firms are involved in West Bank construction and development.

Taliban use US-provided weapons

Gareth Porter reports that the Taliban are using mines which were made by Italy and that were supplied to the mujahideen by the US when they were fighting the Soviets. So, America's policies generate blowback again.

There have also been reports that some USAID money (i.e. US taxpayers' money) was going straight to the Taliban
. This is because USAID's projects need to pay some money to the Taliban for "protection".

Faster withdrawal would save $1 trillion

A new Congressional Budget Office study says that faster withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan would save about $1 trillion over 2010-2019.

It also says that so far the two wars have cost $944 billion.

Anand Gopal interview

There is a good interview with Anand Gopal here. He is a journalist in Afghanistan and describes the situation there and in Pakistan.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

56% of Americans oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan

A new poll revealed that 56% of Americans oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, while 35% support sending more troops (9% have no opinion or aren't sure).

The Pentagon is expected to request 45,000 more troops this month, which would bring the total of US troops in Afghanistan to about 110,000 (there are currently 68,000).

The breakdown is interesting: the least educated, poorest, women, minorities, and youth are the most opposed to sending more troops:

Women oppose sending more troops by 60-30, men by 52-40.

The biggest opposition to sending more combat troops comes from people who're 18-34 and drops with age. Young adults oppose additional troops by a margin of 61-32; those who're 35-54 oppose it by 54-37; and those who're 55 and older were against it 53-36.

Similarly, those who make the least money were the most opposed, with those making less than $25,000 opposed by a margin of 70-27; those making $25,000-$50,000 opposed by a margin of 58-35; and those making more than $50,000 split, 45-45.

Geographically, the West was the most opposed to sending more troops, followed by the Northeast, South and Midwest.

Opposition to more troops was strongest among the least educated: 67-28 among those with less than a high school education and 49-38 among those with some college. The tide turned among the college educated, with 46 percent favoring more troops and 44 percent opposed.

Hispanics were the most opposed, 86-9, followed by non-Hispanic blacks, 78-15, and non-Hispanic whites, 49-42.

Politically, independents were the most opposed, 67-18, followed by Democrats, 66-27. Republicans favored sending more troops by a margin of 52-40.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Opium in Afghanistan--new report

UNODC has a new report on Opium in Afghanistan.

It says that cultivation (the number of hectares on which poppies are grown) has dropped 22%; but production (the amount of opium produced) has dropped by only 10%.

Farmers have made $438 million this year, a drop from last year by about 40%.

The report also notes the emergence of "narco-cartels" in the style of Colombia, among insurgents (Taliban), which means a deeper involvement in the drug business. Now it is not only by taxing the trade that insurgents are involved, but also by having more control over production, trafficking, etc.

It is thought that for the last few years Afghanistan has been producing somewhat more opium than the world demand, hence there is a surplus produced, and prices at the farm-gate (price that farmers get from traffickers) have decreased over the last few years. So the report notes that the lower production in 2009 can be interpreted as a market correction on the part of growers and traffickers.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

More US troops in Afghanistan?

General McChrystal is preparing a new request for additional troops in Afghanistan.

As the NYT reports: Shortly after taking office Mr. Obama ordered 17,000 more combat troops and 4,000 more trainers to Afghanistan, and once they all arrive the American force there will number 68,000.

There are also 40,000 other troops from other countries, for a total of 110,000.

Also, the Afghan government currently has about 134,000 police officers and 82,000 soldiers, although many of them are poorly equipped and have little logistical support.

But there is also a civilian "surge" that shows well that Obama doesn't care very much about sending civilians and prefers the military: he announced that 450 new civilians would be sent to Afghanistan, and only 90 to 100 of those have arrived there. (They are mostly from USAID, the Department of Agriculture, and the State Department).