At WSWS, Niles Williamson reports:
Secret US government documents published this week by The Intercept have shed new light on the bureaucratization and institutionalization of the American government’s international drone murder operation.
The documents, a series of secret Pentagon briefing slides and internal reports outlining details of their drone killing programs in Africa and the Middle East, were leaked to The Intercept by an anonymous source within the intelligence community who has worked on drone killing operations.
Under the guise of the “war on terror” that began in 2001, two separate but parallel drone assassination operations, one overseen by the Pentagon and the other by the CIA, have been developed to carry out regular drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Iraq. These operations have now been extended to Syria.
One selection of documents given to The Intercept provides a summary of a military campaign in Afghanistan, codenamed Operation Haymaker, carried out in Kunar and Nuristan provinces between January 2012 and February 2013 that highlights the chaos and death produced by drone assassination attempts.
The internal documents reveal that during a five-month period, ninety percent of those people killed by drone strikes in the operation were not direct targets. Out of the 235 people killed in Operation Haymaker only 35 were direct targets; the other 200 were bystanders. The operation had targeted not only alleged members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban for death, but also members of local Salafist militia groups that were actively resisting the US occupation.
The Drone War is the war America especially ignores.
But if drones were firing on US cities, you better believe we'd care.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
"Save the cheerleader, save the world," NBC's Heroes insisted throughout its original run but the imprisonment and/or death of at least one cheerleader might have saved the world -- at least when that cheerleader was Tony Blair.
War Criminal Blair lied to the Iraq Inquiry when he testified just a few years ago but he's been lying since 2002. He's a War Criminal and he's a liar.
David Millward (Telegraph of London) reports:
The controversy over Tony Blair’s decision to back George Bush over
the Iraq war has been rekindled after a memo emerged showing the Prime
Minister pledged to support an invasion a year ahead of the conflict.
Details of the Prime Minister’s readiness to back the US in bringing down Saddam Hussein are contained in a note from Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, to George Bush, ahead of Mr Blair’s April 2002 summit with the President in Crawford Texas.
The memo was found in a batch of secret emails on the private server of Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, which was made available by the US courts.
As Millward reminds, a year before the start of the Iraq War, Tony Blair was lying to the world by insisting the efforts were towards a diplomatic solution. Millward also reports, "A second memo says that Mr Blair used spies within the Labour party to help influence public opinion in favour of the war."
Tony Blair is exposed as the liar he always was, yes.
But it also exposes two other liars: Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton.
Colin The Blot Powell.
Remember when that piece of trash went on 20/20 insisting his lies to the United Nations were unknown by him at the time (he knew, use the link).
He's a dam liar.
He's a piece of filth trash.
And that brings us to the little puppy following around sniffing at his crotch little Larry Wilkerson.
MSNBC tried to turn him into a star and saint but the Scott Pritchard to Colin Powell's David Brice never took because he's unphotogenic and highly off putting.
But MSNBC tried, didn't they?
Rachel Maddow had him on countless times, this apologist for Colin Powell, this member of the War Machine, this liar to the American people.
It's not just the original liars, it's these news ones. Rachel Maddow's Iraq special, for goodness sake, was even called out as fraudulent by Randi Rhodes.
Yet Rachel is held up as a truth teller when all she's ever been is a little liar. She was for the Iraq War -- she was even calling for it to continue when Air America Radio started and repeatedly insisted on air that "if you break it, you own it. That's the Pottery Barn policy." But it wasn't the Pottery Barn policy and Iraqis -- the owners of Iraq, please grasp -- were not asking US forces to stay in Iraq.
But a liar like Rachel, a corporate whore, just sets up her own end. So she lied when Lizz Winstead walked from Unfiltered and told people Lizz was just sick. She lied about the fact that Unfiltered had only a month left and that they would be replaced by trash TV merchant Jerry Springer. She had her father being a sock puppet on the Unfiltered message board. And she was paid off for her lies by getting her own Air America Radio show.
To get her MSNBC show, she insisted to AP that Chris Matthews was sexist and then, when informed she'd have her own show, she carried out her tit-for-tat part of the agreement by insisting Chris Matthews was not a sexist.
Chris Matthews is a sexist.
This was a known reality long before Rachel used the charge in 2008 to leverage her own show.
But not according to Rachel.
She's a liar who'll say anything and only the ridiculous idiots at The Nation magazine will pretend otherwise and pretend that her corporate and centrist politics are at all left -- she's actually about as left as Joe Lieberman.
The same woman (who along with Lizz -- sorry, Lizz) refused to have war resisters on Unfiltered continues to preach and promote policies and candidates who are not left.
She's the perfect foil for Hillary Clinton's campaign of destruction that runs right through the White House.
And Hillary . . .
She feels so sorry about her Iraq War vote, right?
That's her lie she insists.
But she won't talk about it.
Turns out, she wouldn't talk about the arrangement Bully Boy Bush and Tony Blair had.
She'd communicate it in e-mails.
But to the American people, the ones she needs to vote for her?
She just continued the lies because she is a liar.
This was a Republican deal -- Bully Boy Bush was in the White House.
So why has she covered up for them?
She (ghost)wrote that bad book Hard Choices Easy Whoring and supposedly that told the truth about Iraq.
Supposedly.
Turns out the whore can't stop lying about Iraq.
She'll say anything, put her name to any text someone else writes, because she's a dishonest liar.
And she and Colin are now exposed as the eternal liars they both are.
For years now, both gutter dwellers have insisted they were misled -- by intel, by this, by that.
They're just liars who cover up for other damn liars.
From liars and cheerleaders to beauty queens . . .
Iraq is scheduled to hold the county's first Miss Iraq pageant since 1972. Alexander Smith (NBC News) reports that over "150 women have applied" to compete but "15 hopefuls have already dropped out amid a barrage of criticism -- and even death threats." Meg Warner (New York Daily News) explains, "The 2015 pageant won’t be a direct copy of its Western counterparts -- for example, the swimsuit round will be replaced with a segment featuring more conservative outfits -- but still sticks to the requirements that would make the winner eligible to compete in Miss Arab and potentially Miss World. Following those regulations, Miss Iraq hopefuls will not wear headscarves."
Last month, Stephen Kalin (Reuters) revealed the contest had already been postponed from October 1st to some time in December and that:
A pro-Shi'ite Muslim television channel warned this month that the event would corrupt public morals and "create a base culture while our people face the danger of terrorism".
It accused the organizers of being Freemasons, a loaded insult in the Middle East where the secretive, fraternal organization is widely seen as pro-Zionist and hostile to Islam.
Reuters has a photo here of Wijdan Burhan al-Deen who was crowned Miss Iraq in 1972 and competed in the Miss Universe Contest.
The hope is that the pageant will be a step forward for Iraq and, specifically, for Iraqi women.
But allegedly filled with remorse over what her support of the Iraq War did to Iraq, Hillary hasn't bothered to even note this possible pageant. This despite many noting her non-stop references to her gender.
There's a world of difference between self-obsession and feminism.
Hillary trying to garner support by insisting her being a first elevates all women is a bit hard to believe when her entire campaign is about I-I-I and me-me-me.
Feminism?
Gray, ugly and disappointing, 76-year-old 'feminist' Eleanor Smeal (mis)used her position at the laughable Feminist Majority Foundation and as publisher of the now-embarrassing Ms. magazine to promote war this week. If that's news to you, see "Eleanor Smeal, Ms. magazine and the Feminist Majority Foundation embrace war" and you'll find a link there for Smeal's trash that we linked to Friday only in fairness and that we won't link to again.
Ellie's sexually excited and delighted that US President Barack Obama broke another promise and has decided to extend the Afghanistan War beyond 2017 (he leaves office in January 2017).
Ellie finger-banged herself relentlessly at the prospect of more years for US troops in Afghanistan.
"Feminist" Ellie loves the fact that the US government, as the New York Times exposed last month, is aiding, abetting and assisting with pedophilia in Afghanistan.
As a feminist, I wasn't aware pedophilia was something we were supposed to support but that's Eleanor Smeal for you -- always breaking new ground . . . in shame and self-embarrassment.
You go a long way, baby, straight to the pits of hell.
Apparently since the victims of these assaults are young boys -- not girls -- Eleanor Smeal sees this as 'progress' and something to stand up for.
Not everyone sees continuing the Afghanistan War as something to have a sexual orgasm over.
Thanks @NicholsUprising for excellent piece calling for end to blank check for war. Congress should repeal AUMF now http://www.thenation.com/article/barbara-lee-is-still-right-to-object-to-the-blank-check-endless-war-in-afghanistan/ …
Ultimately the challenges in Afghanistan must be resolved through
political means by the Afghan ppl. US military force can’t solve this.
War in Afghanistan is the longest in US history & there’s no end in sight. Time to recognize there is no military solution. #StopEndlessWar
But Eleanor Smeal feels differently. Having created her own organization (because she couldn't work with others) and used that organization to destroy Ms. magazine (non-profit is the biggest political con job there is -- and effectively silences your voice which is why more and more left activist oppose the move), she now wants to make clear that she supports US airstrikes on Afghanistan hospitals.
Continuing the Afghanistan War also means continuing The Drone War in Afghanistan (and elsewhere). Eleanor's a-okay with that.
She's a 'publisher' who lies for officials.
-
To manipulate drone numbers, Obama adm calls all victims "enemies killed in action" when their identity is unknown https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/manhunting-in-the-hindu-kush …
New docs: "Nearly nine out of 10 people who died in airstrikes were not the Americans' direct targets," by @rdevro https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/manhunting-in-the-hindu-kush …
Full story revealed of how Bilal el-Berjawi had his citizenship revoked by UK so he could be killed by a US drone https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/the-life-and-death-of-objective-peckham/ …
The secret process of how Obama chooses which people will be put on their assassination list, by @coracurrier https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/the-kill-chain …
She's not bothered by any of that.
Not a bit, not a bit.
Some might point out that Afghanistan is a failed policy but if Eleanor Smeal couldn't embrace a failed policy how could she keep from slitting her own wrists when surveying what passes for her life?
FTFCOTESWFP.
Foreign Policy
Verified account
The New York Times tries to sugar coat it:
President Obama abandoned his hopes of ending the two wars he inherited http://nyti.ms/1Qz6EGa
Abandons hope?
Abandons promise.
But you can't expect honesty on Iraq from the New York Times at this late date unless you're a hopeless full or an illiterate.
On the topic of The Drone War:
-
PHOTOS: Images reportedly showing a
#US drone which crashed in Kut, southeast of Baghdad,#Iraq. -@IraqiSecurity
Conflict News
While the drone crashes, the US and others continue to drop bombs on Iraq.
This includes the government of Turkey which violates Iraq's sovereignty with these bombings as well as with on the ground raids. US-installed Haider al-Abadi, like a good puppet, has learned to be silent on these actions. But all the silence in the world will not sugar coat the destruction Turkey's war planes are carrying out.
Pieter Stockmans (Middle East Eye) reports:
Turkey continues to conduct airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in spite of the unilateral ceasefire brought forth by the PKK. As the bombings go on, Turkey has scheduled critical elections less than three weeks away.
The announcement of the PKK’s ceasefire offer came immediately after the largest attack in Turkey’s modern history. On 10 October, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a peace rally in Ankara, only five days after Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met EU leaders in Brussels to discuss the situation of Syria's refugees. In return for keeping Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, Erdoğan is asking the EU to support his war on the PKK.
Civilians, however, have bared the brunt in this war. Most of the casualties have been non-combatants, and a significant portion of those killed never took up arms against Turkey, but instead fought the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq.
We're closing with the following regarding Barack's extension of war on Afghanistan:
http://worldbeyondwar.org/reject-plan-to-continue-war-on-afghanistan/
Signers of this statement are listed below.
“The
U.S. and NATO occupy my country under the name of all the beautiful
banners of democracy, women’s rights, human rights. And for this long
time, they shed the blood of our people under the name of the war on
terror…” —Malalai Joya
President Obama’s decision to leave actually ending, as opposed to
officially “ending,” the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan to his successor
(barring Congress developing the nerve and the decency to act)
illustrates our collective and his personal failure to overcome what
candidate Obama once called the mindset that gets us into wars. The idea
that year 15 or year 16 is going to go better in Afghanistan than the
first 14 years have gone is based on no evidence whatsoever, but merely
the hope that something will change combined with a misguided and
arrogant sense of responsibility to control someone else’s country. As
numerous Afghans have been saying for nearly 14 years, Afghanistan will
be a disaster when the U.S. occupation ends, but it will be a larger
disaster the longer it takes to do so.
This longest-ever U.S. war since the destruction of the Native American
nations is, when measured in deaths, dollars, destruction, and numbers
of troops and weapons, far more President Obama’s war than President
Bush’s. Yet President Obama has been given credit for “ending” it,
without actually ending it, for nearly seven years, including while he
was more than tripling the U.S. troop presence. The idea that escalating
a war helps to end it, built on myths and distortions about past wars
(Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Iraq “surge”), has to be set aside after
these many years of failure. The pretense that a military can both end
and not end the occupation of another people’s country by shifting to
“non-combat” troops (even while bombing a hospital) must be abandoned.
The view that further war, in particular with drones, is counterproductive on its own terms is shared with us by
—U.S. Lt. General Michael Flynn, who quit as head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in August 2014: “The more weapons we give, the more bombs we drop, that just… fuels the conflict.”
—Former CIA Bin Laden Unit Chief Michael Scheuer, who says the more the United States fights terrorism the more it creates terrorism.
—The CIA, which finds its own drone program “counterproductive.”
—Admiral Dennis Blair, the former director of National Intelligence: While “drone attacks did help reduce the Qaeda leadership in Pakistan,” he wrote, “they also increased hatred of America.”
—Gen. James E. Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “We’re seeing that blowback. If you’re trying to kill your way to a solution, no matter how precise you are, you’re going to upset people even if they’re not targeted.”
—Sherard Cowper-Coles, Former U.K. Special Representative To Afghanistan: “For every dead Pashtun warrior, there will be 10 pledged to revenge.”
—Matthew Hoh, Former Marine Officer (Iraq), Former US Embassy Officer (Iraq and Afghanistan): “I believe it’s [the escalation of the war/military action] only going to fuel the insurgency. It’s only going to reinforce claims by our enemies that we are an occupying power, because we are an occupying power. And that will only fuel the insurgency. And that will only cause more people to fight us or those fighting us already to continue to fight us.” — Interview with PBS on Oct 29, 2009
—General Stanley McChrystal: “For every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies.”
—U.S. Lt. General Michael Flynn, who quit as head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in August 2014: “The more weapons we give, the more bombs we drop, that just… fuels the conflict.”
—Former CIA Bin Laden Unit Chief Michael Scheuer, who says the more the United States fights terrorism the more it creates terrorism.
—The CIA, which finds its own drone program “counterproductive.”
—Admiral Dennis Blair, the former director of National Intelligence: While “drone attacks did help reduce the Qaeda leadership in Pakistan,” he wrote, “they also increased hatred of America.”
—Gen. James E. Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “We’re seeing that blowback. If you’re trying to kill your way to a solution, no matter how precise you are, you’re going to upset people even if they’re not targeted.”
—Sherard Cowper-Coles, Former U.K. Special Representative To Afghanistan: “For every dead Pashtun warrior, there will be 10 pledged to revenge.”
—Matthew Hoh, Former Marine Officer (Iraq), Former US Embassy Officer (Iraq and Afghanistan): “I believe it’s [the escalation of the war/military action] only going to fuel the insurgency. It’s only going to reinforce claims by our enemies that we are an occupying power, because we are an occupying power. And that will only fuel the insurgency. And that will only cause more people to fight us or those fighting us already to continue to fight us.” — Interview with PBS on Oct 29, 2009
—General Stanley McChrystal: “For every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies.”
Afghanistan need not be “abandoned.” The United States owes Afghanistan
reparations in the form of significant actual aid, the cost of which
would of course be less than that of continuing the war.
The U.S. air strikes on the Kunduz hospital have generated more
attention than many other U.S. atrocities committed in Afghanistan. Yet
horrific attacks have been the mainstay of this war which was begun
illegally and without U.N. authorization. The motivation of revenge for
9-11 is not a legal justification for war, and also ignores the
Taliban’s offer to have bin Laden face trial in a third country. This
war has killed many thousands of Afghans, tortured and imprisoned,
wounded and traumatized many more. The top cause of death among members
of the U.S. military who have gone to Afghanistan is suicide. We
shouldn’t allow continuation of this madness to be depicted as
reasonable and cautious. It is criminal and murderous. A third U.S.
president should be given no opportunity to continue “ending” this war
for additional years.
End it now.
SIGNED BY:
David Swanson, director of World Beyond War
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
Medea Benjamin, Co-founder, Code Pink
Ret. Col. AnnWright, former U.S. diplomat, including in Afghanistan
Mike Ferner, former Navy Hospital Corpsman and president of Veterans For Peace
Matthew Hoh, Former Marine Officer (Iraq), Former US Embassy Officer (Iraq and Afghanistan)
Elliott Adams, former National President, Veterans for Peace, FRO
Brian Terrell, co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Ed Kinane, Steering committee, Syracuse Peace Council
Victoria Ross, Interim Director, Western New York Peace Council
Brian Willson, Esq., Veterans for Peace
Imam Abdulmalik Mujahid, Chairperson, World Parliament of Religions
David Smith-Ferri, Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Dayne Goodwin, secretary Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice, Salt Lake City
Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Randolph Shannon, Progressive Democrats of America – PA Coordinator
David Hartsough, Peaceworkers
Jan Hartsough, San Francisco Friends Meeting
Judith Sandoval, Veterans for Peace, San Francisco
Jim Dorenkott, Veterans for Peace
Thea Paneth, Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Arlington United for Justice With Peace
Rivera Sun, author
Michael Wong, Veterans for Peace
Sherri Maurin, Global Days of Listening co-coordinator
Mary Dean, Witness Against Torture
Dahlia Wasfi MD, Iraqi-American activist
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
Medea Benjamin, Co-founder, Code Pink
Ret. Col. AnnWright, former U.S. diplomat, including in Afghanistan
Mike Ferner, former Navy Hospital Corpsman and president of Veterans For Peace
Matthew Hoh, Former Marine Officer (Iraq), Former US Embassy Officer (Iraq and Afghanistan)
Elliott Adams, former National President, Veterans for Peace, FRO
Brian Terrell, co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Ed Kinane, Steering committee, Syracuse Peace Council
Victoria Ross, Interim Director, Western New York Peace Council
Brian Willson, Esq., Veterans for Peace
Imam Abdulmalik Mujahid, Chairperson, World Parliament of Religions
David Smith-Ferri, Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Dayne Goodwin, secretary Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice, Salt Lake City
Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Randolph Shannon, Progressive Democrats of America – PA Coordinator
David Hartsough, Peaceworkers
Jan Hartsough, San Francisco Friends Meeting
Judith Sandoval, Veterans for Peace, San Francisco
Jim Dorenkott, Veterans for Peace
Thea Paneth, Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Arlington United for Justice With Peace
Rivera Sun, author
Michael Wong, Veterans for Peace
Sherri Maurin, Global Days of Listening co-coordinator
Mary Dean, Witness Against Torture
Dahlia Wasfi MD, Iraqi-American activist
--
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director ofWorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books includeWar Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
