World-News

The American Spectator
by Tom Bethell

Why are we there? At first it was retaliation for 9/11. We should ‘get the people who attacked us,’ as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. It is the one reason that Americans understand and do accept. I was certainly in favor of the Afghanistan invasion of 2001, and perhaps that’s why Obama called it the necessary war. Striking at al Qaeda made sense in a way that invading Iraq never did. But that was a reason for going into Afghanistan, not a reason for still being there eight and a half years later... (for publication 04/10)

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/26/why-are-we-in-afghanistan


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Obama In Afghanistan: '9/11', 'More Troops on the Way'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/28-9

Obama's Flawed Premises in Afghanistan
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/03/29-0

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Obama in a Bomber Jacket

Norman Solomon, Truthout: "President Obama has taken a further plunge into the kind of war abyss that consumed predecessors named Johnson, Nixon and Bush. On Sunday, during his first presidential trip to Afghanistan, Obama stood before thousands of American troops to proclaim the sanctity of the war effort. He played the role deftly - a commander in chief, rallying the troops - while wearing a bomber jacket."

http://www.truthout.org/obama-a-bomber-jacket58110



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Connecticut Post

03/28/10

Hundreds of Afghans have protested a NATO airstrike in the country’s north that killed seven policemen. Separately, the government says six civilians were killed in weekend explosions. The demonstrators stood outside a district government building in Kunduz province Sunday, shouting for justice...

http://tinyurl.com/yj838vl



Afghanistan: NATO airstrike kills four civilians

Daily Times [Pakistan]

04/07/10

A NATO air strike in southern Afghanistan targeting suspected Taliban mistakenly killed four civilians, including two women and a child, the military alliance said on Tuesday. … Separately, Afghanistan’s military said 27 Taliban were killed in ground fighting and air strikes in a western province on Tuesday, in what appeared to be a major blow to Taliban influence in the region...

http://tinyurl.com/yzc888w


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Pacified

Kathy Kelly, Truthout: "If the US public looked long and hard into a mirror reflecting the civilian atrocities that have occurred in Afghanistan over the past ten months, we would see ourselves as people who have collaborated with and paid for war crimes committed against innocent civilians who meant us no harm."

http://www.truthout.org/kathy-kelly-pacified58143

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Afghanistan: Four civilians killed in Nato airstrike

An air strike by Nato jets killed four civilians including a child during a fire fight with Taliban militants in occupied Helmand province Afghan officials have said.

http://snipurl.com/vbap7


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Helmand
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kunduz
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Gordon Lubold, The Christian Science Monitor: "The Pentagon wants $33 billion in additional funding to pay for the war in Afghanistan this year and train the Afghan military, but members of Congress want to make sure they're not writing a blank check."

http://www.truthout.org/pentagon-wants-33-billion-more-war-afghanistan58037

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CIA Paper Reveals Plans to Manipulate European Opinion on Afghanistan

By Daniel Tencer

Among its proposals, the policy paper suggests playing up the plight of Afghan women to French audiences, as the French public has shown concern for women's rights in Afghanistan.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25088.htm

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CIA-Paper zur Beeinflussung der europäischen Öffentlichkeit

In den USA fürchtet man nach dem holländischen Regierungskollaps über eine Verlängerung des Afghanistaneinsatzes vor allem ein Wegbrechen der deutschen und französischen Beteiligung.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/32/32346/1.html



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.50 Caliber Ammunition May Violate the Rules of War.
http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article4830



US-Led Forces In Afghanistan Are Committing Atrocities, Reporter Says

The story behind the story about the NATO massacre in Paktia.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/23/at-war-baradars-successor_n_509800.html



Civil War Certain as "Afghan National Army" Now Over 60% Tajik

There are any number of "Big lies" put forward by the USA in Afghanistan and slavishly repeated by our politicians and media. Here are a few of the "Big lies".

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/03/civil_war_certa.html



US rockets kill two Afghan children

US forces, after being ambushed by Taliban militants, fired two rockets which did not reach the intended target but hit a house, killing two children and wounding four others, including two women, said our correspondent in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

http://presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121638&sectionid=351020403



U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan are committing atrocities, lying, and getting away with it

Jerome Starkey recently reported for The Times of London about a night raid on Feb. 12 in which U.S. and Afghan gunmen opened fire on two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials -- an atrocity which NATO's Afghanistan headquarters then tried to cover up.

http://snipurl.com/v25vp


From Information Clearing House

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Afghanistan Experts at USF Symposium Agree on One Thing: Things Don't Look Good
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/25-5



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Opposition spricht bereits vom möglichen Rücktritt des Ministers.
http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/8/147282



Die untergeschobenen Zivilisten von Kundus

Der Kundus-Untersuchungsausschuss zeigt noch einmal deutlich, warum der ehemalige Verteidigungsminister Jung gehen musste.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/32/32341/1.html

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20. März 2010

Zu Guttenberg muss sich umgehend öffentlich erklären

Der stellvertretende Vorsitzende der Linken, Klaus Ernst reagiert empört auf die Ankündigung von Verteidigungsminister zu Guttenberg, erst am 22.April zu seiner Rolle in der Kundus-Affäre Stellung zu nehmen. Guttenberg müsse sich umgehend öffentlich erklären, wenn er nicht den Verdacht der Vertuschung verstärken wolle.Andernfalls müsse er vom Parlament zu einer Debatte gezwungen werden. Ernst erklärt:

Der Verteidigungsminister kann nicht ernsthaft glauben, dass er die Öffentlichkeit noch einen ganzen Monat hinhalten kann. Zu Guttenberg muss sehr schnell vor der Öffentlichkeit Stellung nehmen und seinen Beitrag zur Aufklärung der Kundus-Affäre leisten. Er irrt, wenn er denkt, dass er diese Sache aussitzen kann. Die Vorwürfe, die im Raum stehen, sind schwerwiegend. Alles sieht danach aus, als ob er hochrangige Berater für die Vertuschung seiner eigenen Fehleinschätzung geopfert hat. Wenn das so stimmt, dann hat er öffentlich die Unwahrheit gesagt. Diese Vorwürfe muss er entkräften. Das Land kann nicht einen ganzen Monat lang mit einem Verteidigungsminister da stehen, an dem der Verdacht der Lüge klebt. Ich erwarte, dass zu Guttenberg in der nächsten Woche der Öffentlichkeit Rede und Antwort steht. Sonst muss das Parlament handeln und zu Guttenberg zu einer Debatte zwingen.

http://www.die-linke.de/nc/presse/presseerklaerungen/detail/artikel/zu-guttenberg-muss-sich-umgehend-oeffentlich-erklaeren/



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Covert troops who killed two pregnant women and a teenage girl in eastern Afghanistan went on to inflict "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" on the survivors of a botched night raid, a report by the UN said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7063184.ece


From Information Clearing House

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$6 Billion Later, Afghan Cops Aren't Ready to Serve

T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, Mark Hosenball and Ron Moreau, Newsweek: "Mohammad Moqim watches in despair as his men struggle with their AK-47 automatic rifles, doing their best to hit man-size targets 50 meters away. A few of the police trainees lying prone in the mud are decent shots, but the rest shoot clumsily, and fumble as they try to reload their weapons. The Afghan National Police (ANP) captain sighs as he dismisses one group of trainees and orders 25 more to take their places on the firing line. 'We are still at zero,' says Captain Moqim, 35, an eight-year veteran of the force. 'They don't listen, are undisciplined, and will never be real policemen.'"

http://www.truthout.org/6-billion-later-afghan-cops-aren%27t-ready-serve57891



Policing Afghanistan: How Afghan Police Training Became a Train Wreck

Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch.com: "The Pentagon faces a tough choice: Should it award a new contract to Xe (formerly Blackwater), a company made infamous when its employees killed 17 Iraqis in Baghdad in 2007, or to DynCorp, a company made infamous in Bosnia in 1999 when some of its employees were caught trafficking young girls for sex?"

http://www.truthout.org/policing-afghanistan-how-afghan-police-training-became-a-train-wreck57866



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
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Afghan family killed as special forces defy night raid ban

The body of his cousin, a 32-year-old construction engineer who had taken a break from his job in a far-off province to visit his family, lay sprawled next to those of his wife and their seven-year-old son. Blood ran in dark pools on the mud floor of the terrace outside their door.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7061069.ece



Survivors of family killed in Afghanistan raid threaten suicide attacks

A family whose members were killed in a botched night raid in eastern Afghanistan have rejected "blood money" from the Government and vowed to carry out suicide attacks unless the perpetrators are brought to justice.

http://snipurl.com/uutlo



Anti-US rally held in Afghanistan

Protesters took to the streets in the eastern province of Kunar on Monday to condemn the killing of ten Afghan civilians by American troops.

http://presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120854&sectionid=351020403


From Information Clearing House

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Afghan civilians killed in NATO-Taliban crossfire

Earth Times

03/25/10

Two civilians were killed and four were injured during an exchange of fire between NATO-led and Afghan troops and the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan as the United Nations said Thursday that 385 civilians were killed in the first two months of this year...

http://bit.ly/aHYh3L



NATO admits Afghan civilian deaths in night raid

MSNBC

04/04/10

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan acknowledged on Sunday it had killed five Afghan civilians, including three women, during a botched night raid on a home in the southeast of the country in February. Civilian casualties during operations by foreign forces cause deep anger among Afghans and President Hamid Karzai has called for night raids to be banned...

http://tinyurl.com/yhdmsj3


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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The Nation
by Tom Hayden

03/11/10

A plain reading of yesterday’s vote on the Kucinich war powers resolution is that an overwhelming majority of the House has authorized the Afghanistan war, including a majority of Democrats. The war now has greater legitimacy. The vote was 356-65-9. (If Rep. John Conyers had been present, the dissenting bloc would have been 66, including just five Republicans. Few members took the option of abstaining.) Strong Kucinich supporters will feel vindicated that their hero took a lonely stand and forced the House to a moment of choice. Critics will note that a dubious war has been legitimized, and that it will be more complicated for those who voted ‘aye’ to reverse course in the months ahead. The outcome will make the anti-war forces appear weaker for now than they are, and appearances do matter...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100322/hayden2


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kucinich
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Hayden

In a test of congressional support for President Barack Obama's new Afghanistan strategy, lawmakers are set to vote on Wednesday on a resolution that would direct him to pull U.S. forces out of the war.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6293CF20100310



A Petition Requesting the U.S. Congress to Stop Funding Additional Troops
http://kucinich.us/afghanistan/


From Information Clearing House



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The State Department is failing to properly oversee nearly $2 billion in contracts to battle the drug trade, build infrastructure and train police in Afghanistan, according to a bluntly worded internal assessment.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-03-09-embassy_N.htm


From Information Clearing House



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