Watching the Warmakers is based in Brighton, England.
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which confront those struggling for peace and justice.

News archives for the week ending 10th October 2008

Afghanistan in 'downward spiral'

A draft report by American intelligence agencies concludes that Afghanistan is in a “downward spiral” and casts serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban’s influence there, according to American officials familiar with the document.

The classified report finds that the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the government of President Hamid Karzai and by an increase in violence by militants who have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks from havens in Pakistan.

New York Times, 8/10/08

Israeli support for Obama

A Jewish group in the United States has recruited a number of retired Israeli Defence Force and high-ranking Mossad officials to appear in a video supporting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying he would be a better partner for Israel in the White House.

In the video, released by the pro-Obama Jewish Council for Education & Research, Brig.-Gen (Ret.) Shlomo Brom, former IDF commander of strategic planning, said that the Bush administration caused major damage to Israel's interests. He said Obama would be a better president for Israel than his rival John McCain, whose policies, Brom said, would likely be too close to those of Bush that were "not so helpful for Israel."

Similarly, Yossi Alpher, a former Mossad senior officer, said that McCain would maintain the same pose that the Bush administration adopted, which, Alpher said, had failed. He said Bush's approach had strengthened radical Islamic elements, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Alpher said that he was excited when he saw Obama's readiness to bring a fresh approach to the region.

Jerusalem Post, 5/10/08

US defense secretary attacks British 'defeatism'

America's Defence Secretary Robert Gates has accused the British ambassador and top military commander in Afghanistan of being "defeatist" for saying the Taliban could not be beaten.

"While we face significant challenges in Afghanistan, there certainly is no reason to be defeatist or to underestimate the opportunities to be successful in the long run," Mr Gates said on board a military aircraft flying to Europe for Nato meetings.

He was speaking in reaction to comments from Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, who said in a newspaper that the war against the Taliban could not be won, and the ambassador, Sherard Cowper-Coles, who said an "acceptable dictator" would be the best political solution for Afghanistan.

Daily Telegraph, 7/10/08

America's ghost warriors...

U.S. military officials don’t talk about our secret war in Pakistan. Don’t even ask, I was told, on U.S. military bases in Afghanistan at Bagram and Jalalabad.

Don’t ask about the remotely-controlled American drones armed with missiles that are now hunting across the Pakistani border, searching through the mountain peaks, valleys and dusty villages inside Pakistan for the leaders of a few dozen networks of al-Qaida fighters, Taliban militants, warlords, weapons smugglers and opium traffickers.

And certainly don’t ask about the troops on bases here in Afghanistan who don’t wear uniforms, have long beards (so they can better blend in during covert operations), tattoos and don’t mingle with regular soldiers. They eat in their own chow halls, plan their own missions and don’t talk much. They don’t talk at all to the media.

They’re the men who have been called in to cross into Pakistan when the drones can’t get deep enough to find and kill their targets. They are elite Special Operations Forces, the most-highly trained and covert of the U.S. military. They are America’s ghost warriors.

NBC, 7/10/08

...and Iraq's secret executions

The Independent has learnt that secret executions are being carried out in the prisons run by Nouri al-Maliki's "democratic" government. The hangings are carried out regularly – from a wooden gallows in a small, cramped cell – in Saddam Hussein's old intelligence headquarters at Kazimiyah.

There is no public record of these killings in what is now called Baghdad's "high-security detention facility" but most of the victims – there have been hundreds since America introduced "democracy" to Iraq – are said to be insurgents, given the same summary justice they mete out to their own captives.

Independent, 7/10/08

Iraq election law will exclude minorities...

Staffan de Mistura, the UN special representative for Iraq, expressed concern over the exclusion of article 50 from the new provincial election law, passed by the parliament last month.

Article 50, which guaranteed representation to ethnic and religious minorities in provincial council elections, was avoided when the new law was unanimously passed on September 24 and called for holding the election before January 31, next year.

Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities objected to the exclusion of the article that enables them to contest in a limited number of seats on the local councils.

RTT News, 6/10/08

...and endanger women candidates

The 38-year-old teacher wanted to participate in Iraq's first provincial elections in four years — until she realized that a new law would require the ballot to list her name, not just her party. Even as violence has declined, lingering fear bred by rampant crime and a small but die-hard insurgency has left many Iraqi women afraid to run in the elections, to be held by Jan. 31.

"I feel that I am unprotected," said the teacher, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity because of her fears. "I am not going to run in the elections because I fear for the safety of members of my family who might be targeted."

Inaam Hamid, who accepted a spot on the Baghdad provincial council in 2005 with the main Shiite party the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council said she'll run for re-election — but will do so as anonymously as possible.

"I won't put my picture on a poster. I won't use mass media. I'll depend on the people who know me to get my votes," she said during a recent interview in her ground floor office at the provincial government headquarters in Baghdad.

"It's a disaster — the names being out there," Hamid said, fiddling with her wedding ring as the air conditioner muffled the noise coming from Iraqi petitioners and a group of U.S. soldiers in the busy hall of the heavily fortified building.

Associated Press, 6/10/08

Turkish warplanes bomb northern Iraq

Turkish warplanes have bombed bases belonging to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, the military has said. The raids late on Saturday came after PKK fighters killed 15 Turkish soldiers in an attack staged partly from Iraqi soil.

General Hasan Igsiz, the Turkish military chief, has accused leaders in northern Iraq of tolerating PKK fighters. The Turkish government is urging Iraqi Kurdish leaders to arrest the fighters and cut their supply lines.

Friday's attack touched off the deadliest battle between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters in eight months. Fifteen soldiers and at least 23 fighters were killed, while another 20 soldiers were wounded and two were still missing, the military said.

Iraq's national government has pledged to cooperate with Turkey. Jalal Talabani , the president, who is also a Kurd, told Gul in a phone call on Saturday that he condemned Friday's attack.

Aljazeera, 6/10/08

Pakistanis bury victims of US strike

Pakistani villagers have collected the corpses and body parts of at least 20 people killed by a reported US strike. Intelligence officials and villagers said a pilotless drone fired a missile at a house in Mohammad Khel, North Waziristan, near the Afghan border. The dead are said to include several suspected Arab militants.

A number of cross-border operations have been undertaken by US-led forces in Afghanistan since late August. Pakistan says the attacks violate its sovereignty, kill civilians and anger the local population, making it harder to tackle the militants.

BBC News, 4/10/08

Afghan war is about oil pipeline

The Taliban are not "terrorists." The movement had nothing to do with 9/11 though it did shelter Osama bin Laden, a national hero of the war against the Soviets. Only a handful of al-Qaida are left in Afghanistan.

The current war is not really about al-Qaida and "terrorism," but about opening a secure corridor through Pashtun tribal territory to export the oil and gas riches of the Caspian Basin to the West. Canada and the rest of NATO have no business being pipeline protection troops.

Edmonton Sun, 5/10/08

US radar in Israel is trained on Russia...

A Time Magazine article citing Israeli military officials suggests a sophisticated long-range American radar system about to be deployed in Israel may be less about providing early warning of an Iranian missile attack, and more about hemming in Russia. The radar base will be the first permanent deployment of foreign troops on Israeli soil in the country's short 60-year modern history.

Initial reports were that Washington offered the early-warning radar to Israel as compensation for not supporting plans to preemptively attack Iran's nuclear facilities. But Time learned that Israel will not have direct access to the data collected by the radar, and will only be fed intelligence second-hand on a need-to-know basis by the Americans.

That means Israel will not know whether the radar is trained on Iran or southern Russia. Furthermore, the US tried to obtain permission to deploy the radar in Turkey and Jordan earlier this year, but was rebuffed by those nations.

Israel Today, 3/10/08

...as Israel criticises Russian arms 'threat'

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel apparently failed to win a firm pledge on Tuesday that Moscow would halt advanced weapons sales to Israel’s enemies.

“My feeling is the Russian government understands well the Israeli position and is aware the possible influence such supplying could have on stability in the region,” Mr. Olmert told reporters traveling with him. But he gave no direct response when asked if Russia had agreed not to sell an air defense system to Iran, which Israel sees as a threat.

Israeli defense officials have said Iran is seeking to buy a Russian antiaircraft system to help fend off airstrikes against its nuclear facilities.

New York Times, 7/10/08

British ambassador calls for 'acceptable dictator' in Afghanistan

A coded French diplomatic cable leaked to a French newspaper quotes the British ambassador in Afghanistan as predicting that the NATO-led military campaign against the Taliban will fail. That was not all. The best solution for the country, the ambassador said, would be installing an “acceptable dictator,” according to the newspaper.

“The current situation is bad, the security situation is getting worse, so is corruption, and the government has lost all trust,” the British envoy, Sherard Cowper-Coles, was quoted as saying by the author of the cable, François Fitou, the French deputy ambassador to Kabul.

“The presence of the coalition, in particular its military presence, is part of the problem, not part of its solution,” Sir Sherard was quoted as saying. “Foreign forces are the lifeline of a regime that would rapidly collapse without them. As such, they slow down and complicate a possible emergence from the crisis.”

Within 5 to 10 years, the only “realistic” way to unite Afghanistan would be for it to be “governed by an acceptable dictator,” the cable said, adding, “We should think of preparing our public opinion” for such an outcome.

New York Times, 3/10/08

US sells arms to Taiwan

The US government has notified Congress of plans to supply Taiwan with arms worth more than £3.4bn.

The sales include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache helicopters and submarine-launched missiles. Correspondents say the decision is likely to anger China, which regards Taiwan as its territory and opposes US military support of the island. The move could also complicate efforts to get North Korea, an ally of Beijing, to end its nuclear programme.

The US Defence Security Co-operation Agency said the sales would "help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance and economic progress in the region".

BBC News, 3/10/08

Taliban steadily expanding presence...

The Taliban is steadily expanding its presence and influence in the countryside, and U.S. military officials report violence has surged by 30% over last year. Areas of "extreme risk," where the Taliban exert considerable pressure, now make up about a third of the surface area of Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence reports the country is being flooded with foreign fighters. Chechens, Uzbeks, Saudis, Iraqis and Europeans are all rushing to fight in Afghanistan via Pakistan. According to intelligence estimates, there are more foreign fighters in Afghanistan now than in Iraq.

"The influence of the insurgency has expanded beyond traditionally volatile areas and has increased in provinces neighbouring Kabul," says a report by Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, released last week.

National Post, Canada, 3/10/08

...and rejects talks with 'US puppet'

A senior Taliban officer is spurning calls for negotiation from Afghanistan's government, calling President Hamid Karzai a U.S. "puppet" amid rumblings that peace talks could be in the offing.

"We reject an offer for negotiation by the Afghan's puppet and slave President Hamid Karzai," Mullah Brother told Reuters by satellite telephone Friday from an undisclosed location.

Karzai, delivering a message to commemorate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday, had called for Saudi Arabian head of state King Abdullah to help moderate peace talks between insurgents and the government. But Karzai had no right to negotiate, said Brother. "He only says and does what he is told by America," he said.

CBC News, Canada, 3/10/08