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The real Obama scandal: fighting illegal wars in Libya and Pakistan

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Michael Cohen - May. 16 (Comment) - The AP, IRS and Benghazi controversies are political sideshows. Obama's use of illegal force abroad is true concern Washington DC appears to have reached peak hysteria this week. The confluence of not one, not two, but three potential scandals involving the White House has given practically every Beltway scribe a case of the vapors as they don their Woodward/Bernstein capes and doggedly uncover the truth behind the Obama Administration's lies. What's missing, however, is actual evidence of wrongdoing. The IRS scandal is certainly the most politically toxic, but it remains unclear that anyone from the Obama Administration knew what the IRS was doing or that the agency was even targeting conservative groups for partisan political reasons. The Department of Justice's subpoena of phone records from the Associated Press is far more troubling because it offers a glimpse into the prosecutorial zeal that has defined DoJ's investigation of leaks from within the Obama Administration. Finally, there ...

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Of elections and extremes: Pakistan's Pamela Anderson takes on a mullah

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - May. 11 (News Analysis) - The parliamentary race between pinup-film-star-turned-politician Musarrat Shaheen and a man described as a powerful, Taliban-tied cleric highlights the dual nature of Pakistan. ...

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Pakistan's women face battle for the right to vote

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Tracy McVeigh - May. 04 (News) - Female activists plan to deploy protection teams to polling stations in forthcoming elections Fears over the safety of women voting in next week's elections in Pakistan are rising after letters have been circulated in regions of the country warning men not to allow their wives, sisters and daughters out to the polling stations. In an increasingly fraught and violent runup to the 11 May vote, leaflets are appearing stating that it is "un-Islamic" for women to participate in democracy. Now a group of young female activists are planning to challenge what they call the government's inability to protect women's right to vote by organising their own protection teams at individual polling stations in tense and volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the four provinces of Pakistan, formerly known as the North West Frontier Province. In what is being called Pakistan's youth election – almost a third of the electorate is between 18 and 29 – a growing tide of young women are determined to overcome ...

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The Blowback from Interventionism

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Melvin A. Goodman - Apr. 27 (News Analysis) - American foreign policy remains locked in a cycle of violence, with the Obama administration failing to escape the neocon insistence on a swaggering “tough-guy-ism” abroad. That reliance on military intervention also comes with the cost of “blowback,

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NATO airstrike kills dozens in Afghanistan

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

aljazeera.com - Apr. 07 (News Report) - Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has condemned a NATO air attack that has killed 11 children in eastern Afghanistan. The children were killed during a joint Afghan-NATO operation against Taliban fighters in the Shigal district of restive Kunar province bordering Pakistan late on Saturday.

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The Truthers of Pakistan

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Huma Yusuf - Mar. 01 (Opinion) - Conspiracy theories persist in Pakistan because they often turn out to be true, author argues.

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Pakistan's rulers under fire after Quetta bombing

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Feb. 17 (News Report) - Attack on market by Sunni extremists deepens Shia suspicions that intelligence forces are turning a blind eye to bloodshed Pakistan's government, which is gearing up for elections expected within months, faced growing anger on Sunday for failing to deliver stability after a sectarian bombing in the city of Quetta killed 81 people. Leaders have done little to contain hardline Sunni Muslim groups, which have stepped up their campaign of bombings and assassinations of minority Shias. On Saturday, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), regarded as the most ruthless Sunni sectarian group, claimed responsibility for the attack in Quetta, which deepened suspicions among Shias that Pakistan's intelligence agencies were turning a blind eye to the bloodshed or even supporting extremists. "The terrorist attack on the Hazara [an ethnic minority almost entirely belonging to the Shia sect of Islam] community in Quetta is a failure of the intelligence and security forces," Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, governor ...

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Drone Strikes Test Legal Grounds for War on Terror

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

ProPublica - By Cora Currier - Feb. 06 (Investigative Report) - In his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama declared that “a decade of war is now ending.”

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Malala vows to continue with her campaign

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

aljazeera.com - Feb. 04 (News Report) - A Pakistani schoolgirl, who was shot by the Taliban, remains defiant in arguing for girls' education, saying she would keep up the same campaign that led to her attack. Speaking clearly but with the left side of her face appearing rigid, 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai said she is "getting better, day by day" after undergoing weeks of treatment at a British hospital.

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Afghanistan 2014: How the US will Lose Yet another fruitless War (Jones)

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment - By Juan - Jan. 28 (Opinion) - Ann Jones writes at Tomdispatch.com: Kabul, Afghanistan — Compromise, conflict, or collapse: ask an Afghan what to expect in 2014 and you’re likely to get a scenario that falls under one of those three headings. 2014, of course, is the year of the double whammy in Afghanistan: the next presidential election coupled with the departure of most American and other [...]

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US strikes 'Taliban compound' in Pakistan

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

aljazeera.com - Jan. 06 (News Report) - At least 12 people were killed and eight others were wounded in a US drone strike against suspected Taliban compound in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, according to Al Jazeera's Pakistan bureau. More militants were believed to be in the locations whe

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Bashir Ahmad Bilour, Taliban Opponent, Is Buried in Pakistan

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By SALMAN MASOOD - Dec. 24 (News Report) - Bashir Ahman Bilour, a minister in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province who was killed in a suicide bombing, was buried in Peshawar.

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More polio vaccination workers killed in Pakistan

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Dec. 19 (News Report) - Three separate attacks on Wednesday leave two dead and one in a critical condition in latest assaults on campaign to stamp out crippling disease Three more workers in a polio eradication campaign have been shot in Pakistan, and two of them killed, the latest in a string of attacks that has partially halted the UN-backed global health campaign to stamp out the crippling disease. Following the violence, the United Nations in Pakistan has pulled all staff involved in the immunisation campaign off the streets, spokesman Michael Coleman said. There were at least three separate attacks on Wednesday. In the north-western district of Charsadda, men on motorbikes shot dead a woman and her driver, police and health officials said. Hours earlier, a male health worker was shot and badly wounded in the nearby provincial capital of Peshawar. He remains in a critical condition, said a doctor at the Lady Reading hospital where he is being treated. Four other women health workers were shot at but ...

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Taliban attack on Pakistani airport highlights changed tactics

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - Dec. 17 (News) - Ten men from the Pakistani Taliban attacked the international airport in Peshawar last night. Six people were killed after a stand-off between the militants and Pakistani ...

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Pakistan Army blocks anti-drone protest in tribal region

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Ishtiaq Mahsud - Oct. 08 (News Report) - The Pakistani military blocked a convoy of Pakistanis and a small contingent of US anti-war activists from entering South Waziristan on Sunday to protest American drone strikes. ...

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Captive US soldier safe, says Haqqani commander

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Kathy Gannon - Sep. 09 (News) - A U.S. soldier held by Afghan militants will not be harmed despite the Obama administration's decision to declare his alleged captors a terrorist group, a senior member of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network told The Associated Press on Saturday. However, the United States and NATO can expect stepped up attacks, he said. ...

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Remembering Our Forgotten War

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Tom Engelhardt - Aug. 27 (News Analysis) - This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website. In the wake of several deaths among its contingent of troops in a previously peaceful province in Afghanistan, New Zealand (like France and South Korea ) is now expediting the departure of its 140 soldiers. That's not exactly headline-making news here in the U.S.

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The Cost of Women's Rights In Northwest Pakistan

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - By Mike Shuster - Jul. 19 (Special Report) - Earlier this month, 25-year-old Farida Afridi, who ran an organization that provides information for women about their rights, was gunned down in the street, near the city of Peshawar in northwest Pakistan. No one has been arrested for this killing. In all likelihood no one will be.

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Timbuktu world heritage site attacked by Islamists

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Jul. 01 (News) - Islamists armed with Kalashnikovs and pick-axes have destroyed the centuries-old mausoleums of saints in the Unesco-listed city of Timbuktu in front of shocked locals, witnesses say. The attack by the al-Qaida-linked Ansar Dine group came days after Unes

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Pakistan: Who Killed Pashto Singer Ghazala Javed?

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Global Voices - By Kumail Ahmed - Jun. 29 (Opinion) - Ghazal Jawad, a charismatic Pashto singer was gunned down in the city of Peshwar. Mystery shrouds the identity of the real perpetrators. Was this an honor killing by her ex-husband, who disapproved of her singing? Or was this an act by the Taliban, who she defied throughout her career?

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Tunisia: Final Draft of New Constitution Preamble Causes Controversy

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Global Voices - By Ahmed Medien - Jun. 18 (Opinion) - Tunisians are fuming over the final draft of the preamble (prelude) of the new constitution, drafted by their first elected parliament after the fall of the Ben Ali regime. Many netizens did not agree with the assembly members' vision of post-revolution Tunisia. Ahmed Medien summarises reactions.

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Barack Obama: use former war budget to boost US economy

Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 05 (News Report) - Barack Obama has declared that his goal of defeating al-Qaida is within reach and that the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan would free up money to help rebuild the US economy. The US president said on Saturday that it was time to focus on domestic concerns, such as helping the middle class who have been squeezed by the economic downturn. Four days after he visited Afghanistan, Obama said that money saved from ending wars should be used to reduce the country's debt and to boost healthcare, education and infrastructure. "The tide of war has turned in Afghanistan," he said in his weekly radio and internet address. "We've broken the Taliban's momentum. We've built strong Afghan security forces. We've devastated al-Qaida's leadership. And one year ago our troops launched the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

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Afghan massacre families 'payout'

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Mar. 25 (News Report) - Afghan families who lost relatives in the Kandahar massacre have been paid compensation by the US military. They received $46,000 (£29,000) for each person killed and $10,000 (£6,300) for each person injured, Afghan officials and tribal elders said. US staff sergeant Robert Bales was charged on Friday with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Meanwhile, eight Afghan police officers and an Isaf foreign soldier have been killed by a bomb in Kandahar province. They were on patrol when they were hit by an improvised explosive device late on Saturday, officials said.

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The ‘Stan: An officer’s unvarnished view

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

armytimes.com - By Lance M. Bacon - Feb. 06 (Special Report) - An Army officer is fed up with “rosy official statements” that paint Afghanistan as a picture of progress, and he is demanding military leaders come clean about the “absence ofsuccess on virtually every level.”

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McChrystal: US lacks knowledge to bring end to war in Afghanistan

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Oct. 07 (News) - McChrystal says the US and its allies are only 'a little better than' 50% of the way to reaching their war goals The US began the war in Afghanistan with a "frighteningly simplistic" view of the country and even 10 years later lacks knowledge that could help bring the conflict to a successful end, a former top commander said on Thursday. Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that the US and its Nato allies are only "a little better than" 50% of the way to reaching their war goals. Of the remaining tasks to be accomplished, he said the most difficult may be to create a legitimate government that ordinary Afghans can believe in and that can serve as a counterweight to the Taliban. McChrystal, who commanded coalition forces in 2009-10 and was forced to resign in a flap over a magazine article, said the US entered Afghanistan in October 2001 with too little knowledge of Afghan culture. "We didn't know enough and we still don't know ...

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