Showing all posts tagged war on terror
Our wars are being controlled by somebody else
The massive expansion of privatised military forces since 9/11 is largely unreported. Death squads paid for by tax dollars. American journalist Tim Shorrock examines this huge expansion in the age of Obama. It’s a world that is so bloated and so reliant on endless American wars that it’s no wonder the arms and defence industries…
Australia and Canada working together to kill Afghans (and private firms keen to help out)
This is an explosive story that appears to have received no coverage in Australia. So many questions need to be asked. The privatisation of war, the targeting of so-called insurgents by Australians and the involvement of Israeli equipment: Canadian aircrew played a significant, largely unheralded role in helping Australia get its unmanned aerial vehicle program…
We pay drug dealers in Afghanistan
This is what the glorious “war on terror” is all about: When Hajji Juma Khan was arrested and transported to New York to face charges under a new American narco-terrorism law in 2008, federal prosecutors described him as perhaps the biggest and most dangerous drug lord in Afghanistan, a shadowy figure who had helped keep…
Of course Canberra wants other people to protect our empire in Afghanistan
Australia begins to copy the American mercenary model; outsourcing essential tasks with little or no parliamentary oversight: Australia has awarded a $20 million two-year contract guarding diplomats in Kabul to a private security company owned by a special forces soldier turned British lord and that once hired a former South African apartheid-era assassin. The move…
Scahill faces threats from deep inside the Empire
A revealing comment from Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now! last week that highlights the establishment fear of fearless reporters doing their job: I wanted to also say, Amy, that after I did the story for The Nation in November 2009 talking about JSOC’s operations inside of Pakistan and the involvement of Blackwater, elite soldiers from…
How dare you look into our boys doing bad things, says US
Here are just two examples of Washington pressuring nations not to pursue investigations into alleged human rights abuses committed by the US post 9/11. Real democracy in action. One: US officials tried to influence Spanish prosecutors and government officials to head off court investigations into Guantánamo Bay torture allegations, secret CIA “extraordinary rendition” flights and…
Yes, US involved in shady dealings globally and its standing is still low
Another day and more Wikileaks revelations. Who the hell is saying there’s nothing in these documents? Only people who resent light being shone on the true dealings of the US. More, please. One: Pakistan‘s president, Asif Ali Zardari, whose wife, Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a suicide bombing, has made extensive preparations in case of…
Whispering sweet Saudi nothings into Obama’s ear
One of America’s finest allies in the Middle East: Last year, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia proposed an unorthodox way to return Guantánamo Bay prisoners to a chaotic country like Yemen without fear that they would disappear and join a terrorist group. The king told a top White House aide, John O. Brennan, that the…
America’s real priorities (and the arms industry are very happy)
Some revealing facts from the essential War is Business blog: $10.9 billion was the value of military training and sales agreements executed in fiscal year 2000 by the Pentagon’s global arms delivery service, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. $31.6 billion was the sum of the agency’s business in fiscal year 2010, which concluded at the…