Michael Hastings: They say [the shooter] has a traumatic brain injury. But what we see on a weekly basis is”¦Afghans being killed. It happens because we have 100,000 troops in Khandahar who know that we’re leaving”¦ If he’s insane, he’s a symptom of an insane policy.
Showing all posts tagged war on terror
Australia inspired by the best…Guantanamo Bay
Having spent extensive time in Australian detention centres across the country, this news, via the Sydney Morning Herald, is sadly predictable but shows the utter contempt by authorities towards a free press. Following America’s lead in Gitmo for media? What cretins. And what role, if any, has British multinational Serco played in these restrictions? The…
Pre 9/11, Pakistan knew a thing or two about private occupation
What a fascinating piece of history, via the Washington Post, and an indication that mercenaries and private contractors have been part of war well before the “war on terror”: As U.S.-funded Afghan jihadists battled the Soviets in the late 1980s, the unassuming American-run bar in this ancient frontier city bulged with gossiping foreigners. Today, with…
Remind me how CIA forces in Afghanistan will help the Afghan people
Sorry what? If true (via Associated Press) this is the kind of insane idea that simply reinforces the belief across the Muslim world that Washington is determined to occupy Afghanistan indefinitely: Top Pentagon officials are considering putting elite special operations troops under CIA control in Afghanistan after 2014, just as they were during last year’s…
Why can’t we just stay in Afghanistan forever?
The last decade has seen an explosion in private security and intelligence companies making a killing in the “war on terror”. And now, with growing anger towards both mercenaries and the Western occupying forces that use them, this suggestion seems both delusional and symptomatic of the rot that imperial thinking guarantees: The chairman of the…
Wikileaks unloads with the Global Intelligence Files
The role of private companies in spying, monitoring and controlling public (and private) policy and debate sorely needs investigation. It’s not just about Western firms assisting repressive states censor the internet. Today Wikileaks launches the Global Intelligence Files: Today, Monday 27 February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails…
Please, Washington, keep those conflicts bubbling along for our bottom line
The “war on terror” has been a lovely earner for many Western corporations. For them, wars winding down in Iraq and Afghanistan could be bad for business. Here’s Walter Pincus in the Washington Post: The U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command on Feb.… 1 approved a $330… million five-month extension on a five-year contract. That contract now…
Hello MSM; this is how you challenge Israeli propagandists
More here on the outrageous case of Khader Adnan (who is apparently ending his long hunger strike).
How vulture capitalism in the “war on terror” really works
I’m on a number of global email lists that discuss privatised security post 9/11. This is from an anonymous retired navy captain: Somebody’s civilian friends or benefactors have always been making money on our wars. The funny twist is how the “military industrial complex” of years gone by has evolved into a “personnel support complex”…