Stunning report in the UK Independent. Adding to this detail is the presence of private mercenaries working alongside Afghan and Western forces committing acts that may be illegal. Accountability is non-existent. Much more on this in time: Covert forces of CIA-trained Afghan paramilitaries are being built up to continue the US-led war on the Taliban…
Showing all posts tagged Afghanistan
Targeting the contracting leeches in the “war on terror”
Since 9/11 countless corporations are making a killing in Iraq, Afghanistan, the US and beyond. It’s a privatised dream, as the US war machine now couldn’t survive without outsourcing help (including, according to a new report, Pentagon contractors writing their own contracts). Hackers and trouble-makers Anonymous have attacked Booz Allen Hamilton (a company with quite…
The betrayal of whistle-blower hero Bradley Manning
An interesting feature in New York magazine about the alleged leaker to Wikileaks of countless US documents. Manning is a hero because he saw American illegality in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond and wanted to act. Not remain silent. He was bullied in the US military as a gay man. A troubled soul who has changed…
How legally unprepared was Australia for invading Afghanistan?
According to new evidence, clearly deeply. Of course, we’ve seen countless examples in the US of senior government officials escaping any kind of punishment; it’s all about targeting individuals low down the food chain. When a so-called democracy refuses to take responsibility for illegal actions in war, little stops future leaders doing exactly the same…
Line up to see yet another “liberal” academic back key victim state Israel
The first rule of liberal Zionism is never talk about what liberal Zionism means. The second rule of liberal Zionism is never acknowledge the inherent blindspots within liberal Zionism. Hence an essay in this month’s Monthly magazine by Australian academic Nick Dyrenfurth – yes, the man does spend an amazing amount of time policing the…
Obama’s war in Afghanistan simply becoming more privatised
It’s occupation by another name. Pratap Chatterjee explains: The number of contractors in Afghanistan is likely to increase significantly in the next year as the Obama administration pulls back some of the extra 68,000 troops that it has dispatched there since January 2009. Typically, the U.S. pays one contractor to support every soldier that has…
Hands up who knows the enemies in the false “war on error”?
Robert Fisk on the “terrorists” so needed by the West to assist them in their own “war on terror”: If you held a mirror up to the vast “anti-terrorism” conference in Tehran this weekend – the anti-Iranian version of terrorism, of course – you would see three men sitting down in private to discuss what…
America’s drone wars are wonderful earner for conflict addicts
Disturbing New York Times feature which barely touches on the ethical question of killing “terrorists” (and more often innocent civilians) from a great height thousands of miles away. Murder is still murder: Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another…
Praising Sri Lanka for murdering countless Tamils
Oh what a glorious war. After killing up to 40,000 Tamils civilians during the end of the country’s civil war, Colombo recently organised a conference to show the world the wonderful techniques used to silence, intimidate and destroy Tamil hopes for a homeland. Naturally, many other countries were keen to hear such wise words, including…