CIA paying Karzai officials

The CIA is paying a number of high officials in the Karzai administration to obtain information on him and his government. Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are apparently doing the same.

The CIA bankrolled Afghanistan's intelligence service, and its financial ties to government officials has proliferated in recent years.

"There are probably not too many officials we haven't met and contacted and paid," a former CIA official said.

US builds long term bases in Afghanistan

The US is building military bases in Afghanistan that show that they intend to stay in the long term.

US Iraq

Juan Cole has a good summary piece on the US role in Iraq at CNN.

Immigration

The Secure Communities program is accused of being a pretext to deport immigrants who have committed minor "crimes".

Iraq

Ken Pollack writes about the myth of US combat troops withdrawal from Iraq:

Myth: As of this month, the United States no longer has combat troops in Iraq.

1.Not even close. Of the roughly 50,000 American military personnel who remain in Iraq, the majority are still combat troops -- they're just named something else. The major units still in Iraq will no longer be called "brigade combat teams" and instead will be called "advisory and assistance brigades." But a rose by any other name is still a rose, and the differences in brigade structure and personnel are minimal.

American troops in Iraq will still go into harm's way. They will still accompany Iraqi units on combat missions -- even if only as "advisers." American pilots will still fly combat missions in support of Iraqi ground forces. And American special forces will still face off against Iraqi terrorist groups in high-intensity operations. For that reason, when American troops leave their bases in Iraq, they will still, almost invariably, be in full "battle rattle" and ready for a fight.

What has changed over the past 12 to 18 months is the level of violence in Iraq. There is much less of it: The civil war and the insurgency have been suppressed and the terrorists have been marginalized, so American troops have been able to pass the majority of their remaining combat responsibilities to the Iraqi security forces. Most U.S. troops now have little expectation of seeing combat in Iraq. Instead, they are spending more time acting as peacekeepers, protecting personnel and facilities, and advising Iraqi formations. But that didn't start this month: It's more or less what they have been doing since the "clear and hold" operations to take back the country from militias and insurgents ended in 2008.

US and Russia competition in Central Asia

Russia is trying to increase its influence in Central Asia, just like the US, with implications for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Conspiracy theories

A list of the top 10 conspiracy theories.

Costa Rica

Article on how the US will bring military equipment to Costa Rica in the name of the war on drugs:

The Lowest Form Of Military Aggression.
Luis Roberto Zamora Bolaños. Americas Program. August 10, 2010

On July 1, 2010, Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly authorized the U.S. military to undertake policing duties in Costa Rica, based on an expired "Cooperation Agreement." Just one small problem: Costa Rica abolished its army in 1949 and since then has had no national military forces.

Costa Rica is world-renowned for its natural environment, its political and democratic stability in a region of conflict, it's commitment to protecting human rights, and its peaceful and unarmed neutrality in foreign affairs.

Throughout ithe country's history since independence, Costa Rica has distanced itself from the power struggles in the region, with only occasional exceptions, including the U.S. invasion in 1856. The country has grown alongside increasing indices of human development, which by the 1980s had nearly reached First World levels.

In 1949, after its last internal conflicts, Costa Rica established a new republic. The Constitution prohibited an army and delegated the power to "monitor and maintain public order" exclusively to civilian police forces. The country became a leader in promoting human rights and the American Convention on Human Rights was signed in San Jose, Costa Rica in 1969.

Later the Cold War turned hot in Central America and spread throughout the isthmus. In the middle of pressure from the Nicaraguan Sandinistas and the contras (counter-revolutionary forces) trained by the CIA, then-President Luis Alberto Monge proceeded in November of 1983 to declare the permanent, unarmed neutrality of Costa Rica vis a vis the violent conflicts of other nations. This enabled the country to maintain peace in the midst of the wars and conflicts of its neighbors, and to continue to develop within a region that was collapsing.

Recently, Costa Rica became the first country in the world to recognize and declare the Right to Peace. Remarkably, this happened in the midst of a process of destruction of the judicial apparatus that the government of Oscar Arias put into practice, for which Costa Rica has been reported to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights under charges of judicial bias in favor of former President Arias, his families and policies. The Right to Peace declaration was the result of two cases brought by the author before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The first case challenged the Costa Rican government's support for the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003. In this case, the Court annulled the support, stating it violated the commitment to neutrality because it was a unilateral act. It also declared that support for the U.S. invasion violated the United Nations Charter and contradicted a fundamental principle of "the Costa Rican identity", which is peace as a fundamental value. Never before had the court annulled the support of a government for an invasion.

The second case filed in October of 2008 concerns a decree issued by Oscar Arias-a Nobel Peace Prize recipient-that authorized the extraction of thorium and uranium, nuclear fuel development and the manufacture of nuclear reactors "for all purposes." The Court annulled the contested decree, recognizing the existence of a Right to Peace, which had been violated by the decree due to the fact that it contained elements directly related to the "anti-value" of war.

The "Right to Peace" imposes both positive and negative obligations on the State. Positively, the State must promote international peace; negatively, the State must refrain from authorizing war-related activities, including entry, production, purchase, sale, storage, import, export, etc., of items, goods or services made or intended to be used in a war. The Constitutional Court of Costa Rica issued this decision.

Apart from the Costa Rican history, the world has been affected by multiple problems, among them drug trafficking. Unfortunately, in today's world with today's politicians and their way of conducting what Plato called "the art of governing," drug trafficking has become a convenient "security excuse" for achieving their own economic or hegemonic imperialist purposes.

Despite its legal obligations to peace, Costa Rica has not been an exception to the rule. It simply needed a few servile puppet governments willing to do anything for their own interests and that of their boss, to trample and destroy the achievements of the sovereign people won through democratic struggles and within the institutional framework.

The permission granted by the legislature to the United States military is based on an agreement for joint maritime patrols between the U.S. and Costa Rica that expired in October 2009. This permit that ended in 2009 only allow for Coast Guard patrols and never authorized the entry of the United States military personnel and only covered coast guard missions.

However, the Legislature has now authorized the entry of 12,207 U.S. soldiers and 46 military vessels, 45 armed with artillery. Forty-three of these are warships similar to the "Oliver Hazard Perry." The ships carry 180 Sikorsky Blackhawk helicopters in the SH-60 and MH-60 categories designed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, naval special warfare, combat search and rescue, among others.

In addition to the exorbitant sum of 180 helicopters, the entry of ten McDonnell Douglas (Boeing) AV-8B Harrier II aircraft carriers was authorized. These are land attack planes (for supposed sea operations?) that can carry on board 25 mm. Equalizer GAU-12 machine guns, four 70 mm. LAU-5003 rocket launchers with a capacity of 19 CRV7 rockets, and six AGM-65 Maverick missiles or two AGM-84 Harpoon or two AGM-88 HARM. These ships may also carry CDU-100 cluster bombs, Mark 80 unguided bombs, Paveway laser-guided bombs or Mark 77 napalm bombs.

The agreement also grants permission for aircraft carriers such as the "Wasp amphibious attack," which are specifically assault ships.

Everything on the list of ships, aircraft, helicopters and troops detailed above is designed and intended to be used in a war. Therefore, they cannot be deployed in our country because the negative obligation requires the State to reject them as elements that are counter to and in violation of the Right to Peace.

The U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica says there is no problem because the United States will not send all the equipment authorized. Two points are important here. First, I do not believe the U.S. ambassador's word on this. Second, the problem is not what the U.S. sends; the problem is a domestic one, lying in what was authorized to enter and operate within the country.

Despite the legal limitations in the country, and despite a constitutional obligation to invest only civilian police with the duties of monitoring and enforcing our public order, the submissive legislative assembly-dominated by the ruling parties-is allowing the U.S. military to play war games on our sovereign land as if it were a game of chess.

As a Costa Rican, the saddest part of this situation, besides the destruction of our history, is that we're going to militarize the country with foreign armies to protect the Colombian drugs and Venezuelan oil that the United States consumes. If the U.S. government's purpose was really to eliminate the drug problem, it would attack the problem where drugs are grown or in countries closer to production. The "war on drugs" is nothing more than an excuse for ulterior motives. If there is a battle, the free soil of this country of peace-a nation with no army and a pledge to neutrality-will enable and facilitate the return of the Cold War that the United States so badly needs for its survival.

The whole situation is grotesque, to me the lowest form of military aggression in modern times.

Luis Roberto Zamora Bolaños is a trial lawyer in his hometown Heredia, Costa Rica. He received his degree in Law from the University of Costa Rica, has litigated in promoting the Right to Peace, achieving constitutional recognition in 2008. Prior to that, he successfully went to the Supreme Court to force his country to withdraw the support given to the coalition invasion of Iraq. Since 2005 he has participated in forums and conferences in promoting the Right to Peace, including the World Peace Forum in Vancouver 2005, the World Social Forum 2007 in Nairobi, the 62 UN DPI Conference on Disarmament, in Mexico in 2009, the Conference on the 60th anniversary of the Stockholm Declaration of 2010 on nuclear disarmament in Paris, among others. Parallel to his work as a trial lawyer, Zamora works pro-bono for peace related issues. Currently he is involved as an expert on the right to peace and nuclear disarmament in international forums.

Torture investigations

Torture investigations are taking place in several countries around the world regarding participation in the US torture policies. But not in the US, as Obama wants to protect Bush officials.

Obama's counter terrorism operations

Article about the Obama administration’s shadow war against Al Qaeda and its allies. In roughly a dozen countries — from the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics crippled by ethnic and religious strife — the United States has significantly increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and training local operatives to chase terrorists.

The administration’s demands have accelerated a transformation of the C.I.A. into a paramilitary organization as much as a spying agency, which some critics worry could lower the threshold for future quasi-military operations. In Pakistan’s mountains, the agency had broadened its drone campaign beyond selective strikes against Qaeda leaders and now regularly obliterates suspected enemy compounds and logistics convoys, just as the military would grind down an enemy force.

For its part, the Pentagon is becoming more like the C.I.A. Across the Middle East and elsewhere, Special Operations troops under secret “Execute Orders” have conducted spying missions that were once the preserve of civilian intelligence agencies. With code names like Eager Pawn and Indigo Spade, such programs typically operate with even less transparency and Congressional oversight than traditional covert actions by the C.I.A.

And, as American counterterrorism operations spread beyond war zones into territory hostile to the military, private contractors have taken on a prominent role, raising concerns that the United States has outsourced some of its most important missions to a sometimes unaccountable private army.

American hikers in Iran

Good article on the 3 American hikers detained by Iran, who are three US activists.

Obama deepens US Israel relationship

The US is increasing military aid and contacts with Israel under Obama.

Mexico drug war

Article criticizing Calderon's war on drugs in Mexico, which has resulted in the militarization of Mexican domestic policy.

Human rights groups on wikileaks

Human rights groups have criticized wikileaks for not removing all names of Afghans who could be targeted by the Taliban for acting as informants to NATO.

Farm subsidies

Rich countries give even more subsidies to their farmers than last year, hurting LDCs.

Saudi Arabia Iran

Iran and Saudia Arabia have cooperated and competed over the years.

$220 million for Blackwater

Blackwater keeps getting contracts from the US government, recently, $220 million for operations in Afghanistan.

Immigration

Obama is deporting more people than Bush. A few articles here and here.
The pretext is that he is deporting illegal immigrants who committed crimes, but the vast majority (70%) of those deported is non criminals.

Civilians in Afghanistan

A study says that the more civilians NATO kills in Afghanistan, the more insurgent attacks it faces, as a sort of revenge. So decrease attacks on civilians and you also reduce attacks on troops.

Drugs Iran video

Good video showing the way Iran has improved its drug policies. And one on alcohol.

US aid increases killings in Colombia

A new report confirms that when the US gives more aid to Colombia, killings increase:

The report was based on a two-year study using records of 3,000 reported extrajudicial killings since 2002 and lists of 500 military units approved to receive U.S. assistance. It found that in regions that received the largest increases in U.S. aid, the number of reported extrajudicial killings surged 56 percent on average in the four years surrounding the aid boost. When U.S. assistance was withdrawn or reduced, the number of army killings of civilians dropped.

There is also an associated website.

Afghanistan media

Afghan media owned by warlords (Qanuin owns Noorin supposedly) conduct anti-woman propaganda.