Posts Tagged war on terror

WikiLeaks and the Afghan War

“This report is republished with permission of STRATFOR

July 27, 2010 | 0856 GMT

By George Friedman

On Sunday, The New York Times and two other newspapers published summaries and excerpts of tens of thousands of documents leaked to a website known as WikiLeaks. The documents comprise a vast array of material concerning the war in Afghanistan. They range from tactical reports from small unit operations to broader strategic analyses of politico-military relations between the United States and Pakistan. It appears to be an extraordinary collection.

Related special topic page

Tactical intelligence on firefights is intermingled with reports on confrontations between senior U.S. and Pakistani officials in which lists of Pakistani operatives in Afghanistan are handed over to the Pakistanis. Reports on the use of surface-to-air missiles by militants in Afghanistan are intermingled with reports on the activities of former Pakistani intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, who reportedly continues to liaise with the Afghan Taliban in an informal capacity. Read the rest of this entry »

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Poll: Nearly 6 in 10 Pakistanis view US as enemy

by ROBERT BURNS

Despite billions in aid from Washington and a shared threat from extremists, Pakistanis have an overwhelmingly negative view of the United States, according to results of a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday.

Most Pakistanis want improved relations with the United States, according to the poll. But most view the U.S. with suspicion, support for American involvement in the fight against extremists has declined, and nearly two-thirds want U.S. troops out of neighboring Afghanistan.

Nearly six in 10 Pakistanis polled described the U.S. as an enemy and only one in 10 called it a partner.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/AP/Search/World/Default.aspx?id=1105790

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Once a Muslim, now an Objectivist, Bosch Fawstin talks about Islam

The book is a collection of illustrations, cartoons & essays that serves as a preview for The Infidel, a story about twin brothers whose Muslim background comes to the forefront of their lives on 9/11. One responds by creating a counter-jihad superhero comic book called Pigman, as the other fully submits to Islam. Their separate paths inevitably brings them back together into an escalating conflict that is echoed by Pigman's battle against his arch enemy, SuperJihad.

From Mohammed to Ayn Rand

by David Swindle

“Whether it’s a religion or a political movement, the most effective critics are always those who were once believers. Whether it’s David Horowitz dissecting the American Left, Bart Ehrman challenging fundamentalist Christianity, or Ayaan Hirsi Ali critiquing Islam, those that have been on the inside can cut the deepest.

Not all critics write academic tomes. Ex-Muslim cum Objectivist Bosch Fawstin’s new book will contain several essays explaining his challenging, often controversial views on Islam and the War on Terror. But as a cartoonist, Fawstin is the ideal person to make the definitive anti-Jihad superhero: Pigman.

Bosch Fawstin: The enemy is Islam, the so-called moderate Islam of the West is not really true Islam at all.

BF: They say Islam, we say anything but Islam, leaving the troubling impression that the enemy’s religion is something other than Islam.

There is no “Political Islam” or “Totalitarian Islam” that is distinguishable from Islam itself.

Islam is normatively political and totalitarian. We have evaded the true meaning of Islam in the name of respect for religion. But we cannot avoid the consequences of doing so.

Mohammed was a Muslim and his religion was Islam; he was not an Islamist practicing Islamism. He was a Muslim who practiced Islam and engaged in its violent Jihad, forcing Islam into a world it failed to get into on merit.

And any Muslim who is peace-loving and tolerant is by implication condemning their violent, intolerant “prophet” and the means by which their religion was spread.

How Islam spread tells us exactly what Islam means. When the moral standard for an entire culture is a bad guy who crossed the line as a way of life, it explains why his most devout followers are the most violent among Muslims.

We can try our best to stay clear of Islam, but Muslims have proven that they will never keep Islam to themselves unless they are forced to.

It is a faith that sanctions any evil against those who are not part of it. Our not calling this evil by its name, Islam, is sanctioning it and leaving ourselves at the mercy of those who will stop at nothing to bury all we hold dear.”

http://www.islam-watch.org/ExMuslims/Mohammed-to-Ayn-Rand.htm

http://fawstin.blogspot.com/

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
–Albert Einstein

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Chemical-weapon attack by the Taliban: revealed in U.S. military logs released by WikiLeaks

“Most of the reports catalog counterinsurgency’s basics — weapons caches found, gun battles fought, village elders chatted up.

But buried in the tens of thousands of U.S. military logs dropped Sunday night by WikiLeaks are incidents that are anything but routine: a suspected chemical-weapon attack by the Taliban; rumors of Al Qaeda poisoning the U.S. military food supply; a tip about Osama Bin Laden’s status.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/chem-weapons-scare-bin-laden-clue-in-wikileaks-wardocs-dump?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

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Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Leaked Reports Assert

Nadeem Khan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, center, the former head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, was arrested during a 2007 demonstration.

“Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants, according to a trove of secret military field reports made public Sunday.

The reports suggest that the Pakistani military has acted as both ally and enemy, as its spy agency runs what American officials have long suspected is a double game — appeasing certain American demands for cooperation while angling to exert influence in Afghanistan through many of the same insurgent networks that the Americans are fighting to eliminate.

Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul ran the ISI from 1987 to 1989, a time when Pakistani spies and the C.I.A. joined forces to run guns and money to Afghan militias who were battling Soviet troops in Afghanistan. After the fighting stopped, he maintained his contacts with the former mujahedeen, who would eventually transform themselves into the Taliban.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26isi.html?_r=1

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Combat Outpost Keating

" A Chinook helicopter lands at Combat Outpost Keating, Afghanistan, in this March 2007, file photo. A military investigation of a Taliban attack last fall on the remote U.S. army outpost that left eight American soldiers dead and 22 wounded has resulted in administrative punishments for two commanders blamed for "inadequate measures taken by the chain of command." (Sgt. Amber Robinson/U.S. Army)

“[Combat Outpost Keating] was opened in 2006 in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan Province, an area of mountain escarpments, thick forests and deep canyons with a population suspicious of outsiders. The outpost’s troops were charged with finding allies among local residents and connecting them to the central government in Kabul, stopping illegal cross-border movement and deterring the insurgency.

But the outpost’s fate, chronicled in unusually detailed glimpses of a base over nearly three years, illustrates many of the frustrations of the allied effort: low troop levels, unreliable Afghan partners and an insurgency that has grown in skill, determination and its ability to menace.”

http://ispeedtoo.newsvine.com/_news/2010/07/26/4752762-strategic-plans-spawned-bitter-end-for-a-lonely-outpost

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U.S. missiles kill 16 suspected militants in northwest Pakistan

A US Predator unmanned drone armed with a missile is seen on the tarmac. A US drone on Saturday fired four missiles into a compound used by Islamist fighters in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt

“ISLAMABAD (AP) — U.S. missiles hit a suspected militant hide-out, killing 16 insurgents in a troubled Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border before dawn Saturday, intelligence officials said.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-07-24-missile-strike-pakistan_N.htm?csp=34

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Dying faces, body bags: How trauma hits a US unit

“— More than half a year after one of the deadliest battles ever waged by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the men of Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry are still fighting in — and with — their memories.

Sgt. Daniel Rodriguez, 22, of Stafford, Va., with Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry, was awarded Silver Star for his actions in one of the deadliest battles ever waged by U.S. forces on Oct. 3, 2009 when hundreds of insurgents attacked their combat outpost "Keating" in eastern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

“They cannot forget Oct. 3, 2009. On that day, 300 insurgents attacked two outposts in eastern Afghanistan manned by 72 soldiers, sparking a 12-hour fight. By nightfall, eight U.S. soldiers were dead. Three days later, the outposts were closed.

Like so many of their comrades, they suffer from mental trauma. Nearly 20 percent of the 1.6 million troops who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress or major depression, according to a 2008 study by Rand Corp.

Only slightly more than half of those sought treatment.

Sgt. Daniel Rodriguez sees the face of a dying soldier when he tries to sleep.

“There’s not a night that I go to sleep that I don’t think about it,” says Rodriguez, 22. “He was speechless. His eyes were open like he was trying to tell me something and it didn’t come out. And he was gurgling. And I’m trying to pull him in and it just isn’t happening, and it kicks in that there’s nothing I can do for my friend.”

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/07/24/4742638-dying-faces-body-bags-how-trauma-hits-a-us-unit

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Fanning the Flames of Jihad

By Scott Stewart

On July 11, 2010, al-Malahim Media, the media arm of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), published the first edition of its new English-language online magazine “Inspire.” The group had tried to release the magazine in late June, but for some reason — whether a technical glitch, virus (as rumored on some of the jihadist message boards) or cyberattack — most of the initial file released was unreadable.

The magazine was produced by someone who has a moderate amount of technological savvy, who speaks English well and who uses a lot of American idioms and phraseology. We did not note any hint of British or South Asian influence in the writing. A government source has suggested to us (and we have seen the claim repeated in the media) that Inspire was produced by a U.S citizen who was born in Saudi Arabia named Samir Khan. Khan is a well-known cyber-jihadist — indeed, The New York Times did an excellent story on Khan in October 2007. Given Khan’s background, history of publishing English-language jihadist material and the fact that he reportedly left the United States for Yemen in 2009 and has not returned, it does seem plausible that he is the driving force behind Inspire.

“This report is republished with the permission of STRATFOR: www.STRATFOR.com.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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Traumatic Brain Injury & the Military

“[Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is all too commonly associated with modern warfare, particularly the War on Terror. Many veterans suffer from these injuries without realizing it, until serious problems develop. Through awareness, we can help our military friends and family members avoid the serious implications of a traumatic brain injury.]

Military men and women are continually involved in situations where risk of injury is high. One silent war wound that often goes unnoticed is a traumatic brain injury (TBI). A TBI affects the function of the brain and can often cause life-altering damage ranging from personality and behavioral changes to complete loss of brain function and the ability to communicate. Therefore, some of the affects are not just life-altering, but also life threatening, and wind up requiring, long-term, specialized traumatic brain injury rehabilitation.”

http://americanranger.blogspot.com/

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Four more British soldiers die in Afghanistan

Marine Jonathan Crookes died while on foot patrol in the Helmand Province

“Four British soldiers have died in Afghanistan over a 24 hour period, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

A British marine and two British soldiers were killed in separate explosions in Helmand yesterday.

The marine was named by the Ministry of Defence today as Jonathan Crookes.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295469/Four-British-soldiers-die-Afghanistan-taking-death-toll-322.html#ixzz0u3uh6bQI

Major James Bowman on a patrol in Helmand on June 26. He was killed this week by a rogue Afghan soldier

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Nate Henn, American working with Uganda’s abducted “child soldiers”, killed in Uganda blast

Nate Henn, 25, was killed in Uganda when simultaneous explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final at a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant.

“Nate Henn, a Wilmington, De., native who was working with Uganda’s child soldiers, died in the blast in Kampala Monday while watching the soccer match at an outdoor rugby field.

Dozens were killed at the rugby club, where revelers had gathered to watch the final on a large TV screen set up outside. Well over a dozen more people died in a separate blast at an Ethiopian restaurant in Kampala.

Henn, 25, was remembered as a tireless and devoted activist by the California-based aid group Invisible Children, which sponsored his work in Uganda.

“From traveling the United States without pay advocating for the freedom of abducted child soldiers … to raising thousands of dollars to put war-affected Ugandan students in school, Nate lived a life that demanded explanation,” the group said in a statement on its website.

“He sacrificed his comfort to live in the humble service of God and of a better world, and his is a life to be emulated.”

Six missionaries from the Christ United Methodist Church in Selingsgrove, Pa., were injured in the blast: Lori Ssebulime, Emily and Joanne Kerstetter, Kris Sledge, and Pam and Thomas Kramer.

“Emily was rolling around in a pool of blood screaming,” said Ssebulime, who has helped bring in U.S. church groups since 2004. “Five minutes before it went off, Emily said she was going to cry so hard because she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay the rest of the summer here.”

Blood and pieces of flesh littered the floor among overturned chairs at the scenes of the blasts, which went off as people watched the game between Spain and the Netherlands.

http://patdollard.com/2010/07/al-qaeda-bombers-kill-64-world-cup-fans-in-uganda/

Let me ask you: which seems more like a Religion of Peace? The one that inspires followers to blow up people watching a soccer game or the one that inspires followers to help kids who have been abducted and forced to become soldiers?

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Lockheed Using Gravity to Spot ‘Subterranean Threats’

“The military could soon be hunting for terror threats using detailed maps of the planet’s subterranean territory — thanks to aerial vehicles that tap into the “anomalous gravity signature[s]” of structures built beneath the earth’s surface.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/lockheed-using-gravity-to-spot-subterranean-threats/#ixzz0tt3StQIb

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The Other US Border Dilemma

From: IDGA

… U.S.’s often overlooked northern border has some very serious challenges of its own and there are real and very serious criminal and terrorist threats along its long frontier.  The U.S. Canada border has been called the worlds friendliest and for a long time many Americans viewed crossing the border into Canada on par with crossing state lines.  It has commonly been seen as very easy to cross, low hassle, and having minimal security presence even at checkpoints.

For those very same reasons this same border has been becoming increasingly attractive to criminals and terrorists that see great opportunity for smuggling and low chance of being apprehended.  The U.S. Canada border is massive in terms of mileage and greater in size than the southwest Mexican border that is very large in its own right.

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Afghanistan: army major murdered by rogue Afghani soldier

Major James Joshua Bowman was killed in his sleeping quarters by a rogue Afghan soldier Photo: MoD/PA

“Major James Joshua Bowman, 34, from Salisbury, Wilts, was one of three soldiers from the 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles murdered on Tuesday by Taleb Hossein at the base they shared in Helmand province.

Hossein, 23, shot dead Maj Bowman in Patrol Base 3 in Nahr-e Saraj district, near Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, in southern Afghanistan.

The Afghan soldier also fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the base’s command centre, killing Lt Neal Turkington, 26, from Craigavon, Northern Ireland, and Cpl Arjun Purja Pun, from Nepal, and wounding four other UK soldiers.

The attack was the second time in eight months that members of Afghanistan’s security forces have turned on UK troops.

Five British soldiers were killed and six injured when an Afghan policeman opened fire on them at a secure checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand in November.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7891375/Afghanistan-army-major-shot-by-rogue-soldier-was-brave-leader.html

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