Iran nuclear deal

Afrasiabi on Iran's nuclear deal.

Obama has more troops in Iraq and Afghanistan than Bush

There are currently about 124,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 65,000 in Afghanistan. There were 142,000 in Iraq and 31,000 in Afghanistan when Bush left office.

That’s 16,000 more imperialist troops occupying foreign territory, being where they shouldn’t be, meeting with resistance, getting killed under President Obama than under Bush.

Afghan warlords

Afghan warlords or commanders still have much influence in the country:

It is difficult to make accurate assessments of Afghan public opinion, but the attempts at polling that have been made consistently show that the Afghan people want the government to take action against these figures and that they view corruption within the government as a top concern. A 2006 survey by Integrity Watch Afghanistan found that nearly 60 percent of respondents considered the post-2001 period the most corrupt period in the country in the past 50 years, compared to only 9 percent who said corruption was highest during the period of Taliban rule. A 2004 Afghan Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium survey at the beginning of Karzai’s first term in office found that 88 percent supported reducing the power of former commanders in Afghanistan, and another Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission poll in the same year found that more than 75 percent said it was “very important” for those who had committed past crimes be brought to justice.

More recent polling by the Asia Foundation in 2009 found that those identifying warlords specifically as the main source of insecurity in their area had dropped to 7 percent, but that broader concerns about corruption and the government’s failure to deliver services remained strong. Afghan attitudes toward the international community have steadily soured as the Karzai administration has reincorporated warlords back into its government structures without establishing effective checks on their abuse of power. These warlords may offer tactical assistance against terrorist targets, but American association with these figures taints Afghan perceptions of U.S motivations in the country.

Obama expands US military presence in Colombia

Officials have said it would increase U.S. access to seven Colombian bases for 10 years without boosting the number of service personnel and contractors beyond the cap of 1,400 specified by U.S. law. U.S. law specifies that no more than 800 U.S. military personnel and 600 civilian contractors may be in Colombia at any one time. Currently, there are some 230 U.S. service personnel and 400 contractors in the country.

Under the pact, U.S. military personnel will continue to enjoy diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Some Colombians had objected to exempting U.S. military personnel from local criminal jurisdiction.

Increased U.S. military aid to Colombia's armed forces since 2000 has been key to the recent weakening of the country's main leftist rebel group. The U.S. military has offices at armed forces headquarters and advisers attached to Colombia's main army divisions.

Although there's no evidence of any direct correlation, the boost in aid and cooperation also has coincided with a sharp increase in extrajudicial killings by Colombia's military.

US intelligence spends almost $50 billion

US spy agencies have received increased funds.

Iran nuclear deal

Gordon Prather on the details of the Iranian nuclear deal.

Cambodia bombing

John Pilger on bombing of Cambodia.

US/NATO allied with warlords and militias in Afghanistan

Gareth Porter summarizes some of the cases where US and NATO forces in Afghanistan pay millions of dollars to warlords and illegal militias to provide security for their troops and bases. He suggests that the U.S. and NATO contingents are spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually on contracts with Afghan security providers, most of which are local power brokers guilty of human rights abuses.

Two anonymous United Nations sources cited in the report [by Jake Sherman et al.] estimate that 1,000 to 1,500 unregistered armed security groups have been "employed, trained, and armed by ISAF" and "Coalition Forces" for security services. As many as 120,000 armed individuals are estimated by the U.N. sources to belong to about 5,000 private militias in Afghanistan.

Karzai and Diem

Justin Raimondo compares Karzai to Diem: both are not really liked by the US, which is trying to get rid of Karzai as it did for Diem in Vietnam in the 1960s. That's why there was a leak in the NYT outing Karzai's brother as a CIA asset in order to discredit him in the upcoming elections on November 7.

Another good article about the parallels says that:
"The New York Times article [on Ahmed Karzai], based on statements of "American officials" indicates only one thing: that the White House has clearly decided to confront the CIA, and Karzai, over Afghan policy, undermining both in one quick news attack."

Obama's new missile defense against Iran

An article here that explains the differences over Bush's plan. Both are obviously ridiculous.

Taliban take over Nuristan province

The Taliban have taken over Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan, and NATO troops are departing. This is an important victory for the Taliban.

Karzai's brother on CIA payroll

Big news from the NYT: Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.
The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money are flowing through the southern region, and nothing happens in southern Afghanistan without the regional leadership knowing about it,” a senior American military officer in Kabul said.
Other Western officials pointed to evidence that Ahmed Wali Karzai orchestrated the manufacture of hundreds of thousands of phony ballots for his brother’s re-election effort in August. He is also believed to have been responsible for setting up dozens of so-called ghost polling stations — existing only on paper — that were used to manufacture tens of thousands of phony ballots.

A former C.I.A. officer with experience in Afghanistan said the agency relied heavily on Ahmed Wali Karzai, and often based covert operatives at compounds he owned. Any connections Mr. Karzai might have had to the drug trade mattered little to C.I.A. officers focused on counterterrorism missions, the officer said.

“Virtually every significant Afghan figure has had brushes with the drug trade,” he said. “If you are looking for Mother Teresa, she doesn’t live in Afghanistan.”

Some American counternarcotics officials have said they believe that Mr. Karzai has expanded his influence over the drug trade, thanks in part to American efforts to single out other drug lords.

In debriefing notes from Drug Enforcement Administration interviews in 2006 of Afghan informants obtained by The New York Times, one key informant said that Ahmed Wali Karzai had benefited from the American operation that lured Hajji Bashir Noorzai, a major Afghan drug lord during the time that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, to New York in 2005. Mr. Noorzai was convicted on drug and conspiracy charges in New York in 2008, and was sentenced to life in prison this year.

Habibullah Jan, a local military commander and later a member of Parliament from Kandahar, told the D.E.A. in 2006 that Mr. Karzai had teamed with Haji Juma Khan to take over a portion of the Noorzai drug business after Mr. Noorzai’s arrest.

Amnesty new report on water in Palestine

The report says Israel prevents Palestinians from getting the amount of water they need while Israelis consume much more water.

The report is here.

Palestinians detained by Israel

Read the story of how Palestinians are being locked up by Israel.

Afghan elections

Eric Margolis on the US purpose behind holding elections in Afghanistan. Basically, he says that the US would have liked to remove its puppet Karzai, but then chose to hold elections in August to shore up its legitimacy. Then the electoral fraud backfired because of course this did not bring any legitimacy, on the contrary. So now the US is trying to salvage things by holding another election....

90% of Afghan women abused

According to NGOs, 90% of Afghan women are abused. Watch the video here.

US target list of drug traffickers in Afghanistan

The US has a list of 50 drug traffickers in Afghanistan that US and NATO forces are authorized to kill or capture.

As the WP reports, for years, the NATO-led military coalition in Afghanistan ignored the opium trade, saying their mission was to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda, not drug dealers. Afghanistan's poppy fields supply about 90 percent of the world's opium.

At a meeting in Budapest last October, however, NATO defense ministers reversed their strategy and authorized their forces to confiscate narcotics and target drug labs as well as kingpins who provide monetary or other support to the Taliban.

It's important here to note that the drug traffickers that NATO are now authorized to kill, even in the face of Afghan opposition, are only those with "proven links" to the Taliban. So it doesn't mean that NATO or the US cares about eradicating drugs: they only care about fighting the Taliban.

Afghanistan

The UN envoy to Afghanistan, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, endorsed McChrystal's call for more troops:
"I do believe, yes, that additional international troops are required," Eide said. "And I emphasize in particular the need that we have for such troops in order to partner better and mentor the Afghan national security forces as they grow."

The British military also agrees that more troops are needed.

NATO endorses McChrystal's plan

Summary here.

Iran nuclear

Gordon Prather on the developments in Iran's nuclear dossier, among other things, the possible agreement to ship nuclear fuel to Russia for enrichment to 20% and then return it to Iran to be used for medical purposes.

New military commissions

Joanne Mariner here.

US cuts funding to "democracy" groups in Iran

This funding was under Bush but now cut. Anyway it hurt real human rights activists in Iran who opposed that funding.

Drones Kill Civilians in Pakistan

New study says 320 civilians have been killed by US drones in Pakistan since 2006.

Jundallah

Sahimi says that there is ample evidence that the George W. Bush administration was deeply involved in funding Jundallah. While it is not clear what the policy of the Obama administration is regarding Jundallah (the State Department flatly rejected Iran’s accusations), it is unlikely that the CIA’s direct or indirect support for Jundallah has ended.
But despite its claims, Jundallah is a sectarian, not liberation, movement. It is made of Sunni extremists who hate the Shi’ites, and its goal is to foment conflict between the two sects.
There is a movement in Pakistani Balochistan against the discrimination that the Baloch people suffer at the hands of the central government. The Baloch minority (totaling about 1 million) in Iran has also been discriminated against, although the Iranian government has been trying to improve the economy there. But Jundallah is not part of either struggle. Jundallah is simply a Sunni Salafi group of the Taliban or al-Qaeda variety, believed by many to have links to both groups and to be involved in drug trafficking as well.

He makes an important point that such probably US-backed attacks act also as an inhibitor on the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, which the US opposes:

But Iran and Pakistan have signed an agreement to construct a pipeline from southern Iran to Pakistan for transporting Iran’s natural gas to Pakistan. Initially, the pipeline was supposed to continue to India, but under pressure by the Bush administration, India withdrew from the project.

If constructed, the Iran-Pakistan pipeline, which has been dubbed "the peace pipeline," will be in direct competition with the pipeline through Afghanistan, if and when that pipeline is constructed. Instability in Iran’s Baluchestan will scare away potential investors in the Iran-Pakistan pipeline, and may prevent its construction altogether. These facts play an important role in Jundallah’s attack on Iran, but the mainstream media has ignored them.

ATonline also discusses the fact that Saudia Arabia is worried about Iran's rising influence in the region.

DEpleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan

See Counterpunch article here.

Colombia land grabs

An article in the Guardian describing how mining, timber and other companies pay some armed groups to chase peasants away from their land and grab the land for their commercial activities.

Locals have even less love for palm oil companies. They swept in in the 1990s on the heels of rightwing paramilitaries who killed and evicted peasants from their fields of corn and yucca, claiming they were guerrilla sympathisers.

Thousands of farmers, displaced and desperate, sold their land to companies that planted thousands of hectares of palm, which is used to make margarine, crisps, chocolate, soap, cosmetics and biofuel.

Armed groups have seized around 5.5m hectares during the past two decades, with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities bearing the brunt, the relief agency Cafod said. "Current policies promoting the exploitation of natural resources, most recently biofuels, increase the risk that land belonging to displaced communities will end up, by dubious or illegal means, in the hands of businesses."

State loans have funded the palm expansion, with some firms returning the favour by funding President Alvaro Uribe's election campaigns. He promotes the plantations as a way to bring the countryside into the 21st century.

The army, officially neutral, appears to side with plantation owners. The Guardian accompanied one peasant, Jorge Lopez, 64, as he tried to reclaim his land after a 12-year absence. Soldiers first tried to block him, then summoned the palm company foreman.

The government, embarrassed by international scrutiny and criminal investigations into 23 palm companies, recently ordered some firms to return land to peasants.

Taliban finances

The C.I.A. recently estimated in a classified report that Taliban leaders and their associates had received $106 million in the past year from donors outside Afghanistan, a figure first reported last month by The Washington Post. Private citizens from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and some Persian Gulf nations are the largest individual contributors, an American counterterrorism official said.
Top American intelligence officials and diplomats say there is no evidence so far that the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or other Persian Gulf states are providing direct aid to the Afghan insurgency. But American intelligence officials say they suspect that Pakistani intelligence operatives continue to give some financial aid to the Afghan Taliban, a practice the Pakistani government denies.

Drugs is a second source of income.

A third major source of financing for the Taliban is criminal activity, including kidnappings and protection payments from legitimate businesses seeking to operate in Taliban-controlled territory, American authorities say.

The United States has created two new entities aimed at disrupting the trafficking networks and illicit financing. One group, the Afghan Threat Finance Cell, is located at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul. The second group, the Illicit Finance Task Force based in Washington, also aims to identify and disrupt the financial networks supporting terrorists and narcotics traffickers in the region.

See also this article in the WP.

Iraq oil contracts

Iraq's cabinet approved the contract with BP to develop the Rumaila field.

But anti-war groups criticized the deals.

Iran oil trading in non-dollar currencies

Since October 2007, Iran has received 85 percent of its oil revenues in currencies

other than the US dollar and Tehran is determined to find a substitute for the US dollar for the rest of its 15 percent of oil revenues.

Peter Galbraith and the Kurds' oil

An article describing Peter Galbraith's dealing in Kurdish oil is here.

Galbraith--the son of John Kenneth Galbraith--has worked as an adviser for the Kurds in Iraq and has argued strongly for a decentralization of the country, including strong Kurdish control over the oil resources in their region.
But in June 2004, Galbraith established a small, U.S.-registered company, Porcupine, that held a five percent stake in a newly exploited oilfield in Iraqi Kurdistan, a Norwegian daily revealed last Saturday.
So the issue is that he had a conflict of interest.

Agent Orange

The VA estimates that there may be as many as 200,000 US veterans who are suffering from Agent Orange-related illnesses. But according to a court case brought on behalf of Vietnamese victims, which was dismissed by a US Federal District Judge who ruled that there was “no basis for the claims,” there are at least three million Vietnamese, and possibly as many as 4.8 million, who are suffering the same Agent Orange-related illnesses as American veterans and their children. It is estimated that as many as 800,000 Vietnamese in the country’s south currently suffer from chronic health problems due to Agent Orange exposure, either to themselves, or to a parent or grandparent. Most of these victims, some of whom are retarded, and others of whom cannot walk or have no use of their arms, need constant care.

Agent Orange was sprayed over 1.4 million hectares—12% of the total land area of Vietnam and almost 25% of the southern half of the country.

Karzai's cabinet

Karzai promised a lot of political positions in return for electoral support. Also, he has to balance warlords and ethnic chiefs with bureaucrats and technocrats and Western favorites.

House votes for Iran sanctions

The vote was 414-6. The bill permits US states, local governments and pension funds to end investments in firms that have 20 million dollars or more invested in Iran's petroleum or natural gas operations.

Security and opium cultivation in Afghanistan

A map of Afghanistan showing that areas where security is worst also have higher levels of opium cultivation.

Russia's nuclear preemptive strike doctrine

Russia, just like NATO, reserves the right to use nuclear weapons first.
See also here.

Iran

Sahimi on Iran: On the first day of negotiations Iran made a symbolic, yet significant, concession. It agreed to transfer three quarters of its low-enriched uranium (LEU), about 1200 kg, to Russia to be enriched to 19.5 percent (Iran’s LEU is at the 3.8 percent level) and then to France to be converted to fuel rods. Tehran needs the fuel for its 5 MW nuclear research reactor, now operating at 3 MW due to lack of fuel; it will completely run out of fuel in 18 months after all of its Argentine-supplied fuel is spent. Note that once enriched uranium is converted to fuel rods, it can never be used for weaponization.

Russia refuses sanctions on Iran

As reported in the NYT.

Will India test nuclear weapons?

India might test a nuclear weapon.

Millions will starve as rich countries cut aid

Tens of millions of the world's poor will have their food rations cut or cancelled in the next few weeks because rich countries have slashed aid funding.

The result, says Josette Sheeran, head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), could be the "loss of a generation" of children to malnutrition, food riots and political destabilisation. "We are facing a silent tsunami," said Sheeran in an exclusive interview with the Observer. "A humanitarian disaster is unrolling." The WFP feeds nearly 100 million people a year.

The US, by far the world's biggest contributor to food aid, has so far pledged $800m less than in 2008; Saudi Arabia has paid only $10m in 2009 compared with $500m in 2008; and the EU has given $130m less. Britain's promise of $69m (£43.5m) this year is nearly $100m (£63m) less than 2008, and, if nothing more is given, will be its lowest contribution since 2001.

Iran medical uranium

A story on the possible deal between Iran, Russia and France to provide Iran with uranium enriched at 19.75% to use in Iran's medical facilities. And another clearer one here.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Anybody who still thought the Nobel Peace Prize meant anything will have to change their views, as Obama just won it.

Greenwald on Iran

Glenn Greenwald points out that there is no evidence that Iran revealed to the IAEA the existence of their new facility at Qom because they learned that the US knew, so they wanted to save face.

Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan

A GAO report on contractors.

Afrasiabi on nuclear Iran

In ATonline.

Zunes on Goldstone report

the report also concluded that Israel's military assault on Gaza was "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish humiliate and terrorize a civilian population," citing Israel's deadly attacks against schools, mosques, private homes and businesses nowhere near legitimate military targets.

The report confirmed other ones such as this one by B'Tselem.

Gaza war and women

This article reports on PCHR's report on the Gaza attack's impact on women.

Israel nuclear weapons

The UNSC voted for Israel to give up its nukes.
All 10 nonpermanent members voted for the resolution, along with permanent members Russia, China and the United Kingdom. France and the United States abstained. By U.N. rules, that means the resolution passes.
The resolution calls for a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East. It also demands that Israel sign the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and submit its nuclear facilities to international inspection. Two similar, albeit nonbinding, resolutions were approved last September by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

Sahimi on Iran's nuclear program

Here.

Americans on Iran

Opinion poll on Americans' perceptions of Iran.

Israeli blackmail

Jonathan Cook on how Israel blackmailed the PA into pursuing no action on the Goldstone report by threatening not to allow the Palestinians to go ahead with a cell phone project that has great economic potential.

Rearm the warlords!

Richard Bennett argues that the West must rearm the warlords to fight the Taliban.
This is certainly the most ridiculous idea of the day.

Doubts on Annex to nuclear reports on Iran

Gareth Porter reports on the leaked Annex on the Iranian nuclear program and casts doubts on its allegations that Iran is conducting military activities in the nuclear field.

Oil trade in a basket of currencies

Robert Fisk reports that oil could well not be traded in US dollars anymore in the near future, but in terms of a basket of currencies.

Iran: nuclear latency option

Juan Cole argues that Iran's strategy is to achieve nuclear latency, or the "Japan Option". This means that Iran would develop the capacity to make a bomb in case of emergency, without developing a military nuclear program.

Israel #1 nuclear threat in Middle East

"Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses," ElBaradei was quoted as saying.

Gilad Shalit and Goldstone

Uri Avnery writes: The great propaganda advantage of the Israeli government, so clearly shown in the Shalit affair, is now also being tested in the matter of the Goldstone report. The efforts of the Israeli government to prevent the referral of the report to the UN Security Council or General Assembly, or to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, are now supported by President Barack Obama and the European leaders. The inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, like the Palestinians in Israeli jails, have become mere tokens, objects without a human face.

Opium in Helmand

Helmand alone produces half of the world’s opium. Much of the land under cultivation is in areas controlled by the Taleban and other insurgent groups; still more is protected by corrupt police or government officials.
Eradication programs are riddled with corruption.

Germany gives Israel nuclear submarines

Germany helps Israel again to "compensate" for Nazi atrocities:
It just gave Israel another 2 submarines that are fitted to carry nuclear missiles.

With the latest delivery, Israel now holds five state-of-the-art U212s, designed for a crew of 35 and capable of launching cruise missiles that carry nuclear warheads to a distance of 2,810 miles.

Iran nuclear program

Gareth Porter outlines a legal case in favor of Iran:

Although it has remained unreported in the news media, however, Iran has a legal case that it has remained in compliance with its Safeguards Agreement.

In March 2009, the director of the IAEA Office of Legal Affairs, Johan Rautenbach, called Iran’s reversion to implementation of the earlier version of the Code 3.1 "inconsistent with its obligations under the Subsidiary Arrangements."

But he went on to say that it was "difficult to conclude that providing information in accordance with the earlier formulation in itself constitutes non-compliance with, or a breach of, the Safeguards Agreement as such."

The Safeguards Agreement itself clearly forbids unilateral "modification" of a Subsidiary Arrangement, but it says nothing about withdrawal from such an agreement, which is what Iran is asserting it did in March 2007.

The distinction between "modification" and "withdrawal" from provisions of an international agreement is well established in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

Unilateral withdrawal is permitted under that Convention, provided that the provision in question is separable from the remainder of the agreement, is not the essential basis of consent by the other party and continued performance of the remainder of the agreement would not be "unjust."

The head of the IAEA Legal Department appears to have accepted that those three conditions applied to the case of Iran’s "Modified Code 3.1" agreement.

Asian energy

Pepe Escobar on Asia, energy and geopolitics.

China calls for US withdrawal from Afghanistan

As reported by Asia Times online.
China also suggests that the international community work to bring a peace transition and send an international peacekeeping force to Afghanistan.
This is the first time that a Chinese commentary has openly called for the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan in immediate terms as a pre-requisite of peace.

Iran agrees to send some uranium to Russia and France for enrichment

As reported by the NYT.

The uranium would then be returned, enriched, to Iran, which could use it for medical applications.

Tehran also agreed to open its new facility to inspectors within 2 weeks.

Iran’s uranium is enriched to about 3.5 to 5 percent, the officials said; the Tehran reactor for making medical isotopes, last powered by Argentine-made fuel in 1993, needs uranium enriched to 19.75 percent, still far below weapons grade. And that uranium must then be fabricated into metal rods for the reactor.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is justifying a West Coast missile defense against Iranian missiles--which in no way can reach the US.

Pentagon policy chief Michele Flournoy, appearing before the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said the 30 ground-based interceptor missiles to be deployed in Alaska and California by the end of 2010 will "provide the United States with full protection of the homeland against an Iranian ICBM threat."

Opium in Afghanistan

"We want the international community and NATO to help more, only the UK and U.S. has helped us a lot. But a bullet that comes out of an insurgent's Kalashnikov has been paid for by opium."

A Brookings report on Obama's new drugs strategy in Afghanistan.

Scott Ritter on Iran interview

A good transcript of an interview here.

NATO propaganda kills girl

Even when NATO is not shooting and only dropping propaganda leaflets, they kill.

IAEA and Iran

ElBaradei said there is "no credible evidence" Iran has a nuclear weapon.
He said though that Iran did not have 6 months to let the IAEA know about the new facility, that it should have been informed as soon as it decided to construct the facility.