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Presence of U.S. troops on Pakistani soils brings controversy August 14, 2010 "The natural calamity has provided the United States with the best excuse to step onto the Pakistani soil," a foreign journalist touring the flood affected areas in the northwest commented on anonymity in the backdrop of rising anti-American sentiment. USS Peleliu, a helicopter borne amphibious assault ship moored in open waters off the coast of southern port city of Karachi with 19 "multi-purpose" helicopters and 1,000 marines set to operate in partnership with Pakistani military throughout the country's flood affected areas.
The whole place was peaceful right up until the moment the US attacked.
The new head of US forces in Afghanistan is reserving the right to back away from the July, 2011, deadline set by the Obama administration to begin withdrawal of US forces.
Gen. David Petraeus, who took over as commander of the Afghanistan war effort from Gen. Stanley McChrystal last month, told NBC's Meet the Press that the nature of the withdrawal will depend completely on conditions on the ground at the time.
"It would be premature to have any kind of assessment at this juncture about what we may or may not be able to transition," Petraeus told NBC's David Gregory in an interview taped in Kabul.
Imagine my (absence of) surprise!
by Felicity Arbuthnot For your years as an enthusiastic partner in the silent slaughter of Iraq's children under the embargo, a dedication to the seventeen infants in the neo-natal unit of Basra's formerly fine maternity hospital, all who died on the very threshold of life due to your representative at the UN, with his US counterpart, vetoing importation of oxygen. You were jointly responsible for denying even the air that we breathe to Iraq's newborn.
It's an honor to be attacked by the left and the right
Attacked by left, smeared by the right – I must be doing something right. That, at least, is what I'm led to believe by the two most recent polemics directed at your humble servant. The first, from the pages of the Daily Caller – the right-wing answer to the Huffington Post – is really a study in the damage that public school has done to our youth: the incoherence is palpable. Entitled "Sun Tzu versus Justin Raimondo," the piece, by one Kerry Patton, takes on my most recent appearance on Judge Andrew Napolitano's "Freedom Watch" program, albeit through a tangled thicket of tortured prose, to wit:
"While many conservatives and libertarians argue similar points of interest, they oftentimes are arguing the same message."
There never were plans for a mosque at "ground zero." The entire story is made up by a public relations agency working with the Israeli government and the GOP. There are plans for an Islamic center in an old Burlington Coat Factory store blocks away. That far down the island of Manhattan, a couple blocks away is "across town." The idea that Israel is financing the "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy when Mossad agents were arrested, dancing in the streets on 9/11, is an obscenity.
The American people does not deserve that their government supports the wrong side, once more, while they pay the price with their blood, credibility and reputation. It should support those fighting for freedom and peace not those who promote racism, occupation and terrorism.
By Ray McGovern,
"Information Clearing House" – I guess I was naïve in thinking that The Atlantic and its American-Israeli writer Jeffrey Goldberg might shy away from arguing for yet another war — this one with Iran — while the cauldrons are still boiling in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It's worth remembering how Goldberg helped to make the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. For instance, on Oct. 3, 2002, as America's war fever was building, Goldberg wrote in Slate, the online magazine:
"The [Bush] administration is planning … to launch what many people would undoubtedly call a short-sighted and inexcusable act of aggression. In five years, however, I believe that the coming invasion of Iraq will be remembered as an act of profound morality."
The question for Anderson Cooper becomes - what will you do NOW to bring out the rest of the truth you've been helping to suppress?
Please do not omit a note to the five million orphans, liberated from their parents since 2003, to the million widows, liberated from their husbands, and to the nearly five million refugees, liberated from their homes.
Perhaps your last word should be addressed to the parents of another Mohammed, also ten, suffering from leukaemia - treatment vetoed. It was five months before the invasion. "Please, when you go home, ask Mr Bush and Mr Blair, do they want all our children as child sacrifices?" said Mohammed's father, as the tears of his mother poured down her face, on to her immaculately pressed abaya. The answer to his question now seems obvious.
In the three weeks before the signing, perhaps you could also research some dedications to the charred, maimed and dispossessed of Afghanistan, of Gaza, the 2006 assault on Lebanon, and the May 31st murders on the aid flotilla. No doubt you have access to minute detail, in your incongruous role as Middle East Peace Envoy. Should you have any problems, I would be delighted to offer further (gratis) assistance.
"What the world did not see is the months of training that led up to the incident, in which soldiers were taught to respond to threats with a barrage of fire---a "wall of steel," in Army parlance---even if it put civilians at risk," report Sarah Lazare and Ryan Harvey in the August 16th issue of The Nation magazine.
Former Army Specialist Josh Stieber said that newly arrived soldiers in Baghdad were asked if they would fire back at an attacker if they knew unarmed civilians might get hurt in the process. Those who did not respond affirmatively, or who hesitated, were "knocked around" until they realized what was expected of them, added former Army Specialist Ray Corcoles, who deployed with Stieber.
American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky is formally protesting U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) plans to purchase 21 Russian-made transport choppers for use in Afghanistan.
And again the jobs go to overseas companies! Setting aside the obvious slap in the face of American workers, I seem to recall that those Russian choppers didn't do too well over Afghanistan!
Setting aside the obvious slap in the face of American workers, I seem to recall that those Russian choppers didn't do too well over Afghanistan!
An ambitious military operation that Afghan officials had expected to be a sign of their growing military capacity instead turned into an embarrassment, with Taliban fighters battering an Afghan battalion in a remote eastern area until NATO sent in French and American rescue teams.
The fighting has continued so intensely for the past week that the Red Cross has been unable to reach the battlefield to remove the dead and wounded.
When George Bush launched the Iraq War, it was obvious to any observer that we were in that country because they had oil, and our government wanted that oil. But this isn't the only time that our military has been used to help businesses take control of the natural resources of a country. In fact, it's happened a lot more than you might think. Mike Papantonio talks about our war addiction, and how US corporations are helping to make these wars self-perpetuating, with David DeGraw, a founding member of the Amped Status blog.
"You are a General," Tillman's father writes Jones after being presented with a briefing book of his findings. "There is no way a man like you, with your intelligence, education, military, experience, responsibilities (primarily for difficult situations), and rank... believes the conclusions reached in the March 31, 2005 Briefing Book. But your signature is on it. I assume, therefore, that you are part of this shameless bullshit. I embarrassed myself by treating you with respect [on] March 31, 2005. I thought your rank deserved it and anticipated something different from the new and improved investigation. I won't act so hypocritically if we meet again."
"In sum: Fuck you... and yours."
Lawrence Davidson shows how popular apathy and parochialism, combined with control of the information flow by the US government and its allied mass media, has led to a situation whereby the American public views injustice and illegality with complete indifference.
By Congressman Ron Paul
Last week the National Bureau of Economic Research published a report on the effect of civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq that confirmed what critics of our foreign policy have been saying for years: the killing of civilians, although unintentional, angers other civilians and prompts them to seek revenge. This should be self-evident.
The Central Intelligence Agency has long acknowledged and analyzed the concept of blowback in our foreign policy. It still amazes me that so many think that attacks against our soldiers occupying hostile foreign lands are motivated by hatred toward our system of government at home or by the religion of the attackers. In fact, most of the anger towards us is rooted in reactions towards seeing their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and other loved ones being killed by a foreign army. No matter our intentions, the violence of our militarism in foreign lands causes those residents to seek revenge if innocents are killed. One does not have to be Muslim to react this way, just human.
Lying critically injured in a hospital bed, a brave soldier's sacrifice in Afghanistan is clear to see.
Kingsman Anthony Cooper was flown back to Britain close to death after a roadside bomb exploded while he was on patrol.
The 22-year-old lost both legs below the knee, his right eye, fingers on his left hand and fingertips on the right, as well as a severe brain injury.
By Jeff Gates
Treason in Plain Sight
The same two Senators who insisted that the U.S. invade Iraq on false intelligence are now marketing Pakistan as the next in a series of "plausible" Evil Doers.
Their complicity runs deep. The consistency of their conduct confirms that what we see again unfolding is treason—ongoing in plain sight and, to date, with legal impunity.
With transparency, that impunity will end. With exposure, accountability will follow. The Founders made treason a capital crime for good reason.
Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, an outspoken Jewish Zionist, have long been political partners and fellow travelers. Along with Senator Jon Kyl, a Christian Zionist from Arizona, they co-sponsored the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.
Human rights lawyer Francis Boyle has pointed out, the war in Afghanistan, as the one in Iraq, is illegal under international law. "Congress never declared war. The UN Security Council never authorized it under Article 51. And the Taliban never attacked the United States or authorized or approved such an attack."FBI Director Robert Mueller, and CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin admitted finding no link between the Taliban and 9/11."
Since the dramatic release of a US military film of a US airborne shooting of unarmed journalists in Iraq, Wiki-Leaks has gained global notoreity and credibility as a daring website that releases sensitive material to the public from whistleblowers within various governments. Their latest "coup" involved alleged leak of thousands of pages of supposedly sensitive documents regarding US informers within the Taliban in Afghanistan and their ties to senior people linked to Pakistan's ISI military intelligence. The evidence suggests however that far from an honest leak, it is a calculated disinformation to the gain of the US and perhaps Israeli and Indian intelligence and a coverup of the US and Western role in drug trafficking out of Afghanistan.
"The commission has already ruled that confessions made by Khadr which were clearly obtained through coercion, abuse and torture will be admitted as evidence against him. Prior to the commencement of Khadr's "trial," the commission ruled in another case that the sentence imposed on a Sudanese detainee Ibrahim al-Qosi — convicted as part of a plea bargain of the dastardly crime of being Osama bin Laden's "cook" — will be kept secret until he is released. What kind of country has secret sentences?"
The US media has launched a full-scale effort to suppress growing popular opposition to the war in Afghanistan, using one-sided propaganda about Taliban atrocities to conceal the murderous character of the American intervention. Beginning with the cover of Time magazine, showing a young woman mutilated by her Taliban husband, the media blitz now focuses on the killing of 10 medical aid workers Friday in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. Six of the ten were American citizens.
The media is, again, drumming up support for expansion of the war in Afghanistan by appealing to women's rights. This was precisely the same strategy employed during the war in Iraq, when statistics about female kidnapping, honor killings and so on were massaged to argue that further American intervention in the area was needed, when, in point of fact, the opposite was true - it was the US intervention that had provoked the deterioration in the general economic picture and, as a consequence, the treatment of women. This is in keeping with the old colonial strategy described by post-colonial feminist critics - "White men rescuing brown women from brown men…"
Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer said earlier in Kabul that the Afghan president will soon set a deadline for dissolving the private security firms, calling it "a serious program that the government of Afghanistan will execute."
Lapan said the Pentagon understood there were problems with the private security firms, but was working to address the issues raised by Karzai in a way that also met US security needs.
One has to wonder if Karzai will actually be allowed to give private contractors the boot, in light of the fact that the US and NATO absolutely don't have enough military boots on the ground to begin to fight the Taliban.
Both God's blessing and his generosity are best exemplified this month, as giving alms to the poor, suppressing greed and lust, along with feeling for suffering of the other all dominate interaction between people, bringing out the finest in both men and women. The Intifada Palestine Team
"President Obama has decided to write the next sad, pathetic chapter in the book of military commissions," Lt-Col Jackson said. "So forever Obama's military commissions will be remembered for starting with a case against a child soldier."
New Hope For Afghanistan's Women By Hillary Clinton Saturday, Nov. 24, 2001 Critics--some domestic, some in the Islamic world--say that America has no right to impose its values on Afghan society. They argue that to promote equal rights for women and a role for women in Afghan government and society amounts to cultural imperialism, destined to arouse the animosity of Muslims throughout the region. I believe such criticism fails on at least two counts. One, it does not recognize that we, as liberators, have an interest in what follows the Taliban in Afghanistan. We cannot simply drop our bombs and depart with our best wishes, lest we find ourselves returning some years down the road to root out another terrorist regime.
TIME Magazine's recent depiction of a mutilated woman on its cover to illustrate "what happens if we leave Afghanistan" (without a question mark, mind you) has heated tempers on all sides of the debate over the American occupation there. As Antiwar.com's Jeff Huber put it today, "If [TIME editor Richard] Stengel wanted to show us what is really happening, why didn't he run images of Taliban leaders receiving bribe money that came from the United States? Why not show pictures of President Hamid Karzai's political machine stealing the most recent election? Why not show the heroin crop our military has been ordered not to destroy?
"We had to blow the women to bloody bits to keep them from being oppressed!" -- Official White Horse Souse
In an experiment in citizen journalism, Greenwald, of RethinkAfghanistan, has trained dozens of intrepid local Afghan interns in film reporting and armed them with simple camcorders. One of these brave souls entered the area and and has released footage of interviews with the survivors.
The video is linked further down
Sick from DU, guarding opium plants for profit and flooding the U.S. with heroin, suicide rates spike, now the soldiers are going thru nicotine withdrawal. no wonder the suicide rates are going up.
The number of civilians killed in the Afghan conflict in the first six months of the year rose 25 percent compared with the same period a year ago, with insurgents responsible for the spike, the United Nations said in a report Tuesday.
Actually, the US is responsible for all the civilian casualties, because there would be no civilian casualties if the US had not invaded in the first place.
Time magazine has recently published a picture of an Afghan women Aisha, and described her horrifying story which is connected to the Taliban under the title 'Afghan women and the return of the Taliban'.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan rejects this fabrication by the Americans, who are publishing these lies to divert attention of the people from their clear and disgraceful defeat.
This desperate propaganda by Time magazine has shown the whole world to the lengths which the world media will go to please America, even at the cost of their Journalistic integrity.
Yeah, well, we kinda already knew that about the presstitutes anyway.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is set to call on Washington and its allies to shut down their private security companies in the violence-stricken country.
President Karzai will announce the details of his demand late Saturday during a press conference in Kabul, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Informed sources in the presidential office said the Afghan leader was set to impose a ban on Western-backed security firms and announce his new policy on the fight against corruption.
President Karzai had earlier accused foreign security contractors in the country of operating as militias, saying that these firms are only worsening the security situation in Afghanistan.
The Taliban claimed responsibility and said the group had been trying to convert people to Christianity. Another Islamist group also said it had carried out the killings.
But Dirk Frans, IAM executive director told a news conference in Kabul that local police suggested bandits had committed the murders. The group's valuables had also been stolen.
Or, US/Israeli agents carried out the killings to try to justify a continued US occupation of Afghanistan in the face of growing opposition to the wars.
The report said that 386, or 12%, of the Afghan casualties were due to US, Nato and other pro-government forces.
There would not be ANY civilian casualties if the US had minded its own business and stayed out of there! So, in a very real sense, 100% of those casualties are due to the US invasion.
This is like saying George Washington ordered the army to shoot American colonial women. Does it make any sense?
A Christian aid group has cast doubt on Taliban claims it had shot dead ten members of a medical team in northeastern Afghanistan and insisted he did not try to convert Muslims to Christianity.
The 10 team members — six Americans, two Afghans, one Briton and a German — were shot on Thursday by gunmen after finishing a two-week mission providing medical care to impoverished villagers in remote Nuristan province.
Monday, August 9, 2010 Murder of Aid Workers in Afghanistan A Convenient War Psyops? The tragic murder of 10 medical workers in northern Afghanistan could very well have been done by thugs and thieves or is there a military/CIA/Mossad psyops at work? But on the other hand, when this incident is looked at through the concept of 'war by deception,' it's not too far-fetched to speculate that the intelligence agencies and their paid proxies working in the area may have actually committed the war crime. Killing western civilians doing humanitarian work is a deceitful way to stir public opinion for a war going downhill fast in the minds of many Americans.
The province of Kunduz, in northeast Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan, isn't supposed to be Taliban territory. But at a police checkpoint in the Ali Abad district in southern Kunduz, only a winding river separates insurgents from government forces.
Zukrullah, a junior officer in the Afghan national police, says he's sure the Taliban are watching his men.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called on the United States and its allies to stop supporting private security companies, saying the activities of these firms aggravate the country's problems.
Just now figured that out, eh?
In her statement, Clinton called the killings a "despicable act of wanton violence" that demonstrates the brutality of the Taliban. She said she was heartbroken by the loss of the aid workers...
Someone refresh my memory; did Clinton have equally harsh words when Israel attacked and murdered aid workers in international waters, including an American lying helpless on the dead when the IDF pumped bullets into his skull?
Adnan Shukrijumah, 35 formerly of Brooklyn, New York and Miami Beach is more likely to carry the real name Levine or Goldstein. The "legend," intelligence jargon for a false background constructed for an imaginary person, created for Shukrijumah is paper thin. An FBI Agent named Brian LeBlanc in an "exclusive interview" with the Associated Press warned the world of this new "bin Laden" clone.
Jeffrey Rudolph – Informed Comment
Can You Pass the Terrorism Quiz?
Misconceptions about terrorism, regularly promoted by the mainstream media, have facilitated harmful US government actions—two wars, domestic legislation that curtailed civil liberties, excessive national security spending. That basic, factual information about terrorism is so rarely reported thus serves to reinforce the power of those who benefit from a fearful population.
Public support for President Obama's Afghanistan war policy has plummeted amid a rising U.S. death toll and the unauthorized release of classified military documents, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows. Support for Obama's management of the war fell to 36%, down from 48% in a February poll. Now, a record 43% also say it was a mistake to go to war there after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
In case you haven't noticed, President Obama is slipping badly in the latest polls; a recent Quinnipiac poll indicates that a GOP candidate would defeat him 39% to 36%. Polls can be misleading at times and subject to error, but this one from a respected source should be quite alarming for the Democratic Party. And it's certainly a very bad sign when some fellow Democrats running for reelection would rather that he did not campaign for them. Wow!
How did he manage to alienate so much of his base in so little time? Here is my best assessment of what has happened. These disillusioned supporters were looking for a real visionary, someone who would stand up for what is right, a president who would go up against the Establishment, including the military, and not back down. They got nothing of the sort.
The cover of Time's Aug. 9 edition features a shocking photo of an 18-year-old Afghan woman whose nose was brutally cut off by the Taliban. The stories associated with the photo assure us that this will be the fate of many, if not all, Afghan women if the U.S. does not continue its occupation ad infinitum.
The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan is a "lost cause," said a former Pakistani intelligence chief, and the United States needs to negotiate peace with Taliban leader Mullah Omar. "You have to talk to him, and I'm sure it will work out very well," Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview to air Sunday.
U.S. intelligence documents published last week by WikiLeaks cited Gul and implicated Pakistani intelligence as supporting al Qaeda. Gul has denied the allegations. "I'm quite a convenient scapegoat," he said. "I don't support any one faction in Afghanistan. I support the Afghan nation."
What this man is saying is painfully logical, which means that the US will dismiss this notion about a negotiated settlement with the Taliban out of hand.
Dr. Hesham Tillawi discussed the story of pastor terry Jones of dove outreach center who plans to burn copies of the Quran . Hesham discussed and Debunked Jones' Ten Reasons to burn a Koran ( Quran)
The current concern is President Obama allowing Israel to use tactical nuclear weapons or simply a military adventure against the Islamic Republic in a misguided attempt to stop its supposed nuclear program. There is no doubt that many members of the U.S. Congress and the Zionist lobby are encouraging a military strike against Iran.
Stuart Littlewood considers the impunity with which state-sponsored murderers and war criminals operate and argues that if universal jurisdiction is not made to work, then upright, socially responsible citizens may have to dispense justice themselves. "Assassination may not remain the private playground of shadowy CIA and Mossad operatives for much longer."
Any citizen, any foreign spy, any member of the Taliban, and any terrorist can go to the WikiLeaks web site, and download detailed information about how the U.S. military waged the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009. Members of that same military, however, are now banned from looking at those internal military documents. "Doing so would introduce potentially classified information on unclassified networks," according to one directive issued by the armed forces.
That cry you hear? It's common sense, writhing in pain.
This article is pure propaganda to point the finger of blame firmly upon a disposable private contractor of Kellogg Brown & Root for causing cancer to servicemen, contractors, and the indigenous peoples of those two countries. The article blames open pit burning of trash for causing the rise of cancer rates among our service men and women and part of this story might be true. But you must recall that the USA military expended over twenty tons (a low ball guess estimate) of depleted uranium munitions in these countries, creating great radioactive dust bowls, so bad that adjoining countries are complaining about it. In my opinion, this article is fiction to redirect the eventual backlash of cancer suits to a straw man company. -- kdtroxel
-- Article begins --
Hundreds of military service members and contractor employees have fallen ill with cancer or severe breathing problems after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they say they were poisoned by thick, black smoke produced by the burning of tons of trash generated on U.S. bases.
President Hamid Karzai's office said late on Wednesday the inquiry shows 39 civilians -- all women and children -- were killed in the attack.
By Vincent Bugliosi – Veterans Today
The Legal Framework for the Prosecution
"That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution." —Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765
"No living Homo sapiens is above the law." —(Notwithstanding our good friends and legal ancestors across the water, this is a fact that requires no citation.)
I don't like to carry more information than necessary about U.S. affairs, but the simple fact is that things are rapidly coming to a head in the States.
With mid-term elections coming up in just four months time, and U.S.–backed Israel scheming to start a war with Lebanon which will inevitably drag in Syria and Iran, and then quite possibly Russia and China (who have multi-billion dollar investments in Iran's oil infrastructure), America as we know it, and quite possibly the world itself, may be considerable changed for the worse by the end of this year.
When facts are inconvenient, when international law, human rights and history get in the way, when war crimes can't easily be justified or explained away, when logic doesn't help much, the current crop of American political leaders turns to what is now the old reliable: 9/11. We have to fight in Afghanistan because ... somehow ... it's tied into what happened on September 11, 2001. Here's Vice-President Joe Biden: "We know that it was from the space that joins Afghanistan and Pakistan that the attacks of 9/11 occurred."
One of the attacks left at least 30 people dead and injured. The other strike, which hit a funeral procession in a separate area, killed 13 civilians including two children.
"We needed to make sure he was dead, dammit!" -- Official White Horse Souse
Parliament voted unanimously on 27 July to send Tongan soldiers to Afghanistan in response to a request from the British Government. The vote was taken after a lengthy and non-acrimonious debate took place in Parliament following a briefing by a team from The Tonga Defence Services led by the Commander, Brigadier General Tau'aika 'Uta'atu.
When Britain decides to dump the war on the Tongans, then the war is lost and just looking for a place to fall down.
The calculator busily counting out how much money the United States has spent on wars since 2001 has raced past $1 trillion — $1,024 billion plus at the start of August. There is little point in trying to give a more refined figure since the clock ticks remorselessly on, mesmerizingly faster than you can write the sum down, about $260,000 blown away in each passing minute.*
Meanwhile, the wars are being lost rather than won, U.S. and allied soldiers are dying and being maimed every day, tens and sometimes hundreds of innocent civilians are killed daily, and billions of dollars are being wasted and millions of lives being destroyed for no good reason apart from the overweening egos of politicians who are not prepared to admit that they are wrong.
Let me get this straight. Robert Gates, the Secretary-Of-Defense-For-Life, is touring the TV news shows and major newspapers pleading with great angst lines in his forehead that WikiLeaks is "guilty" and "morally culpable" for releasing 75,000 field reports from Afghanistan to the American public because they endanger Afghans allied with US forces.
But he and the US militarists who initiated the war in Iraq and who have continued the war in Afghanistan for nine years, the people who keep everything about these wars secret except what is useful to sustain them, the people who finance these wars on credit without raising taxes, dumping the costs on future generations – these people are not "morally culpable," "guilty" or endangering anyone?
Do I have that right?
Public support for President Obama's Afghanistan war policy has plummeted amid a rising U.S. death toll and the unauthorized release of classified military documents, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.
Support for Obama's management of the war fell to 36%, down from 48% in a February poll. Now, a record 43% also say it was a mistake to go to war there after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
"Quick; have Israel nuke something symbolic in the US!" -- Official White Horse Souse
President Obama disagrees with the Pakistani president's conclusion that the U.S. war in Afghanistan is already lost because of the failure to win over the Afghan people, the White House said Tuesday.
"That war CAN'T be lost until after the November elections dammit! Now shut the @#$% up before we invade YOU!" -- Official White Horse Souse
So, every young American who dies or is crippled between now and November is being sacrificed to prop up the re-election chances of the Democrats!
Let us all agree that every coffin that comes home between now and November be decorated with a banner that reads, "Killed for a re-election campaign!"
By Ron Paul
Almost two years ago many voters elected someone they thought would lead us to a more peaceful, rational co-existence with other countries. However, while attention has been focused on the administration's disastrous economic policies, its equally disastrous foreign policies have exacerbated our problems overseas. Especially in times of economic crisis, we cannot afford to ignore costly foreign policy mistakes.
We should follow constitutional protocol when going to war. It is there for a reason. If we are legitimately attacked, it is the job of Congress to declare war. We then fight the war, win it and come home. War should be efficient, decisive and rare. However, when Congress shirks its duty and just gives the administration whatever it wants with no real oversight or meaningful debate, wars are never-ending, wasteful, and political. Our so-called wars have become a perpetual drain on our economy and liberty.
The founders knew that heads of state are far too eager to engage in military conflicts. That is why they entrusted the power to go to war with the deliberative body closest to the people -- the Congress. Decisions to go to war need to be supported by the people. War should not be covert or casual. We absolutely should not be paying off leaders of a country while killing their civilians without expecting to create a lot of new problems. This is not what America is supposed to be about.
Ron Paul
Our foreign policy was in the spotlight last week, which is exactly where it should be. Almost two years ago many voters elected someone they thought would lead us to a more peaceful, rational co-existence with other countries. However, while attention has been focused on the administration's disastrous economic policies, its equally disastrous foreign policies have exacerbated our problems overseas. Especially in times of economic crisis, we cannot afford to ignore costly foreign policy mistakes. That's why it is important that U.S. foreign policy receive some much needed attention in the media, as it did last week with the leaked documents scandal.
Completing "the mission" before economic collapse overtakes us will eventually force our leaders to embrace the total war solution. They understand this; it has always been the plan. The cost of this solution will be paid in massive collateral death. It will be unavoidable in the end. Such a move will do serious damage to America's image in the court of world opinion, seriously undermining any agreements or understandings based on trust.
On the eve of his meeting with David Cameron, the Prime Minister, Mr Zardari warned the international community that it had "lost the battle to win hearts and minds".
In an interview with Le Monde, the French newspaper, on Tuesday Mr Zardari said the US and Nato-led coalition forces had "underestimated the situation on the ground" in Afghanistan, Pakistan's war-torn western neighbour.
"I believe that the international community, which Pakistan belongs to, is in the process of losing the war against the Taliban," he told the paper just hours before meeting Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, in Paris on Monday night.
"And that is, above all, because we have lost the battle for hearts and minds."
Who benefits from invading and occupying Iraq? Are Americans defending U.S. national security, or the security of our colonial outpost in the Arab World? This interview discusses the neoconservative Zionist cabal of the Bush administration who beat the drums for our illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
At midnight last night, the United States formally recorded its most lethal month in the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan. Some 66 servicemen died – at least two a day, every day, for 31 days. That was July. June was the deadliest for the coalition as a whole, and the first six months of 2010 were among the bloodiest for civilians since records began in 2007. What will August bring? Or September and October, months which, General David Petraeus, the US commander, has warned may well bring even more intense fighting? By that time, the war will have gone into its 10th year, and so will move towards, and beyond, the landmark when it will have lasted longer than the First and Second World Wars combined.
In Afghan fields the poppies grow.Between the crosses.Row on row.
Must listen interview with former Republican Congressman Paul Findlay:
Findley speaks out about the Israeli lobby and its manipulation of US foreign policy in the Middle East, resulting in thousands of American deaths and tens of thousands of Muslim deaths
Paul Findley in following youtube with nearly 3 million views :
Continue Reading
Afghan police fired shots on Friday to disperse hundreds of people protesting the deaths of civilians in an accident involving a U.S. Embassy vehicle, officials said.
When President Obama announced his new war plan for Afghanistan last year, the centerpiece of the strategy — and a big part of the rationale for sending 30,000 additional troops — was to safeguard the Afghan people, provide them with a competent government and win their allegiance.
Eight months later, that counterinsurgency strategy has shown little success, as demonstrated by the flagging military and civilian operations in Marja and Kandahar and the spread of Taliban influence in other areas of the country.
Nine years on, the only way out will be through a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. At that point, the US will need to negotiate with whatever government is left in Kabul for the oil pipeline and mineral rights, which puts the US squarely where it was in August of 2001, when the Bush administration thought that the price being demanded by the Taliban was "too high", and that somehow, a war - and the cost in blood and money - would be "cheaper".
Most of the crooks and liars who form the political class today aren't old enough to remember them, but there must be some institutional nostalgia for the days when America fielded vast armies of conscripts in a global struggle against tyranny. Congress must feel like fighting terrorism with a mere handful of volunteers is for military pikers. Iraq isn't the kind of war that molds politicians into "great men." And naturally, all politicians view themselves as great men.
What you need for real war, for firebombing cities, human wave attacks, and concentration camps—is to enslave pretty much everyone. You just can't find enough volunteers for that kind of work.
The night Canadian Master Corporal Darrell Priede of Brantford died in Afghanistan, the Afghan war took a sudden dangerous new twist.
A stream of secret U.S. military intelligence reports released this week by the WikiLeaks website suggests the May 2007 death was the result of a Taliban attack with a heat-seeking, surface-to-air missile launched from the shoulder.
In all likelihood, the deadly weapon was provided by Iran.
Those two facts alone may be transforming the almost nine-year-old Afghan war.
It's amazing how quickly "suggests" and "likelihood" become "facts"
The Netherlands is ending its military involvement in Afghanistan, after four years in which its 1,950 troops have won praise for their effectiveness.
Press clips gathered by the CIA and discovered in the National Archives' stored CIA files point to an agency keenly interested in any leaks about the highly-classified CIA-Mossad program to establish Osama Bin Laden and the most radical elements of the Afghan Mujahidin as the primary leaders of the anti-Soviet rebels in the 1980s.
Following the attack, the Hebrew media made fun of Afghanis. The idea of freedom warriors walking through harsh mountainous terrain wearing old sandals while fighting one of the most sophisticated weapons on earth was presented as hilarious. A decade later Americans are tired and seeking for a honorable way to retreat. Old sandals have won the most sophisticated technology.
The Rising Tide of Barbarism
Western societies and states are moving inexorably toward conditions resembling barbarism; structural changes are reversing decades of social welfare and subjecting labor, natural resources and the wealth of nations to raw exploitation, pillage and plunder, driving living standards downward and provoking unprecedented levels of discontent.
We will proceed by outlining the economic political and military processes driving this process of decay and decomposition and follow with an account of the mass popular responses to their own deteriorating conditions. The deep structural changes accompanying the rise of barbarism become the basis for considering the prospects for socialism in the 21st century.
By Raja Mujtaba
Editor – Opinion Maker Pakistan Warned; Noose Being Tightened "There is no doubt in anyone's mind that should an attack against the United States be traced to be Pakistani it would have a very devastating impact on our relationship" – Hillary Clinton
The U.S. Army, along with the National Guard and Army Reserves, averaged a suicide a day in June, making what already was a bad year even worse.
Thirty-two soldiers, including 11 in the Guard and Reserve, killed themselves last month, a rate of suicide not seen since the Vietnam War. Seven of the suicides took place I Iraq or Afghanistan.
Rioting erupted in Kabul Friday when scores of Afghan men set fire to two US embassy vehicles after one collided with a civilian car killing a number of occupants, officials and witnesses said.
Television pictures showed the vehicles in flames and young Afghan men throwing stones at them.
Winning their hearts and minds!
War is highly corrosive to democratic values hollowing a nation's wealth, its institutions, and its legislatures. Leaders who are supposed to lead are diminished to pathetic sycophants, pandering to the grand subterfuge. Where the instigators of this war, most prominently the USA, measure losses in terms of lives lost and money spent we are far from recognizing the damage done on the home front, not physical damage to cities and populations but the damage done to our democratic institutions, to the trust and the credibility of government, to the social contract with citizens. This despicable war has proven us to be our own worst enemy inflicting far greater damage on ourselves than any coterie of terrorists could do in ten life times.
Harper's Ottawa is a blighted political landscape where not so honorable members loiter in the halls of power lacking courage and conviction, oblivious to their misdeeds.
Veterans Today
It is unfortunate that the US was unable to use the window of opportunity that it had in the immediate aftermath of the removal of the Taleban Government in late 2001. It could have brought in a truly broad-based Afghan government and invested in the development of the country. Instead, it continued its military actions and brought corrupt and criminal elements into power in Kabul. Before the West invaded Afghanistan my country had no suicide bombers, no jihad and no Talebanisation
There is now a general recognition that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily. All the Taleban have to do to win is not to lose. The Americans won't stay and everybody knows that.
Vice President Joe Biden says U.S. forces are inflicting "significant damage" on the al-Qaida terrorist network in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Rejecting suggestions that al-Qaida is becoming entrenched in Pakistan, Biden said in a taped interview broadcast Thursday that the United States is moving forward in the war on terror.
THE Dutch troop deployment in Afghanistan, often held up as a model for other peace missions, ends after four years on Sunday amid concerns about the void it will leave.
Nice "coalition" we have here
President Barack Obama is signing legislation to fund his troop surge in Afghanistan.
Before Congress passed it on Tuesday, the bill was stripped of money for domestic stimulus programs. Obama was signing it in a low-ley Oval Office session Thursday.
US Congress rejects pullout of troops from Pakistan By Anwar Iqbal Thursday, 29 Jul, 2010 The measure, moved in the House of Representatives, was sponsored by two anti-war Republican congressmen — Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) and Ron Paul (Texas) — and was in reaction to reports that the US was running a secret war in Pakistan. The lawmakers argued that any war effort not approved by Congress violated the War Powers Act. It was voted down 38-372. Thirty-two Democrats and six Republicans voted for the measure. Four congressmen voted "present", three Democrats and one Republican.
Passenger List of ABQ-202 Wednesday, 28 Jul, 2010 A Pakistani man checks the lists of the passengers killed in a plane crash in The Margala Hills on the outskirts of Islamabad, at the Karachi airport on July 28, 2010. – AFP
In his bible for counterinsurgency, Field Manuel 3-24, General David Petraeus argues, "The cornerstone of any COIN effort is establishing security for the civilian population." As one village elder who attended the Holbrooke meeting—incognito for fear of being recognized by the Taliban—told Green, "There is no security in Marjah."
Nor in much of the rest of the country. The latest U.S. assessment found five out of 116 areas "secure," and in 89 of the areas the government was "non-existent, dysfunctional or unproductive."
Al Qaeda Doesn't Exist is the forthcoming documentary by The Corbett Report. It interrogates the theory that Al Qaeda is a centrally-operated terrorist organization run by Osama Bin Laden that perpetrated the attacks of 9/11. The documentary looks at Al Qaeda's roots, its ties to western intelligence agencies and the fictions that have been created to enhance its myth in the corporate-controlled media.
For years, the government has denied that depleted uranium (DU), a radioactive toxic waste left over from nuclear fission and added to munitions used in the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars, poisoned Iraqi civilians and veterans.
But a little-known 1993 Defense Department document written by then-Brigadier Gen. Eric Shinseki, now the secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), shows that the Pentagon was concerned about DU contamination and the agency had ordered medical testing on all personnel that were exposed to the toxic substance.
The VA, however, never conducted the medical tests, which may have deprived hundreds of thousands of veterans from receiving medical care to treat cancer and other diseases that result from exposure to DU.
The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center recently reported that ten years of data confirm that service members tend to have higher rates of certain cancers compared to civilians, according to the Army Times. While researchers suspected that service members are diagnosed with cancer more often and at a younger age because they have guaranteed access to health care and mandatory exams, the data does not explain the disparities in diagnosis among branches of the military. For example, the rate of lung cancer among sailors is twice that of other branches, while Marines have much lower cancer rates across the board.
Wikileaks and Julian Assange are starting to look like a very clever false-front.
The body of Jarod Newlove was recovered days after his companion, Justin McNeley, was confirmed dead following an ambush in the Taliban-infested Lowgar province.
Reporting from Camp Mike Spann, Afghanistan — The second of two American servicemen who disappeared last week in a Taliban-infested area south of the Afghan capital has been confirmed dead as well, a U.S. military official and Afghan authorities said Thursday.
The solution to our fiscal crisis, The Nation magazine editorializes, is to "end the wars, allow the tax cuts to expire and restore robust growth." That's because nearly the entire deficit this year and those projected at least for the short term are the result of "the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush tax cuts and the recession," the publication says in its lead editorial of August 2nd.
Yet, while the Obama administration has just pushed through $59 billion more to send 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan to intensify that war and for "nation-building", it has done way too little to help the States maintain needed jobs. "Spending on local projects plummets," was a June 25th headline in "USA Today."
Many observers have noted that we are already in the early stages of what future history will view as the third World War. I would add to that observation that the same future history will observe that we are already losing it. That we have been put on a wartime economy is beyond question. Trillions of dollars are being spent on the machinery of death while support for life ebbs daily across this nation. As George Bernard Shaw observed, there is nothing in man;s industry but his greed and his sloth; his heart is in his weapons. Forget the speeches; what a government truly wants is what they will spend the peoples' money on. So who is winning these wars, and who is losing? Victors are for history and white flags to determine, but I already see who is losing this war. We have fifty acres of tents down at the bottom of this hill filled with the victims of the3se lost wars. Although the rich rulers may never feel the sting, the fact is that every business that closes, every home that is foreclosed, every job that is lost is a victory for the enemy and a defeat for this nation. It does not matter who wears the ribbons and medals; those who pay the costs of wars look pretty much the same on all sides of the conflict, living looted lives while burying their children. Textbooks will point to one group and say they are the better for having achieved victory, while this other group are inferior because they were forced to surrender, but in truth the people on both sides of war are always the losers, while the powerful count the riches looted during the confusion and count themselves clever indeed for it all. But the truth is that WW3 has already begun, and the USA has already lost it. Take a look around you at the shattered economy, the abandoned factories, the poverty, the decay, the homelessness, and tell me that it could be otherwise.
That we have been put on a wartime economy is beyond question. Trillions of dollars are being spent on the machinery of death while support for life ebbs daily across this nation. As George Bernard Shaw observed, there is nothing in man;s industry but his greed and his sloth; his heart is in his weapons. Forget the speeches; what a government truly wants is what they will spend the peoples' money on.
So who is winning these wars, and who is losing? Victors are for history and white flags to determine, but I already see who is losing this war. We have fifty acres of tents down at the bottom of this hill filled with the victims of the3se lost wars. Although the rich rulers may never feel the sting, the fact is that every business that closes, every home that is foreclosed, every job that is lost is a victory for the enemy and a defeat for this nation. It does not matter who wears the ribbons and medals; those who pay the costs of wars look pretty much the same on all sides of the conflict, living looted lives while burying their children. Textbooks will point to one group and say they are the better for having achieved victory, while this other group are inferior because they were forced to surrender, but in truth the people on both sides of war are always the losers, while the powerful count the riches looted during the confusion and count themselves clever indeed for it all.
But the truth is that WW3 has already begun, and the USA has already lost it. Take a look around you at the shattered economy, the abandoned factories, the poverty, the decay, the homelessness, and tell me that it could be otherwise.
I asked the IPPNW member aboard the Mavi Marmora, how he, as a practicing psychiatrist, would evaluate the mental state of the Israeli leadership, he quipped that he was merely a psychotherapist, and did not deal with cases of grave psychosis.
By Gerd Appenzeller Indiscretions like those currently from WikiLeaks and the newspapers that reprinted portions of the text therefore have but one goal in mind: to make the truth known.
Translated By Ron Argentati
Edited by Gheanna Emelia
Germany – der Tagesspiegel – Original Article (German)
From Vietnam to Afghanistan: You can't wage war against the truth. And you shouldn't, because it's not truth that's endangering national security.
How the papers got the leaks July 28, 2010 Davies contacted people close to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and found out he was scheduled to speak before European parliament on June 21. Davies met with Assange and said he would offer a team of researchers to identify stories in the documents. On June 22, during a six-hour coffee-soaked meeting in a Brussels café, Davies says Assange suggested another idea — that The Guardian and The New York Times be given an advance look at some information the site had on the Afghanistan war, with each paper publishing its own take on the documents. Within the next 24 rs, Davies says Assange told him Der Spiegel should be included as well.
The democrats up for re-election are against it, and the Democrats NOT up for re-election for it!
The White House is screaming like a stuck pig. WikiLeaks' release of the Afghan War Documents "puts the lives of our soldiers and our coalition partners at risk."
What nonsense. Obama's war puts the lives of American soldiers at risk, and the craven puppet state behavior of "our partners" in serving as US mercenaries is what puts their troops at risk.
Keep in mind that it was someone in the US military that leaked the documents to WikiLeaks. This means that there is a spark of rebellion within the Empire itself.
In the words of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is credited with masterminding the 9/11 attacks, their purpose was to focus "the American people ... on the atrocities that America is committing by supporting Israel against the Palestinian people …."
President Barack Obama's pick to lead the U.S. military command overseeing operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere said on Tuesday he wanted top leaders of two major insurgent groups designated as terrorists.
"I mean, just because we've stolen their country and blown up several hundred of their friends and families in drone attacks is no reason for them to hate us. They are being completely unreasonable!!!"
The Obama Administration has threatened to end billions of dollars in American aid to Pakistan if the Zardari government does not do something about claims that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency has been backing the Taliban.
Perhaps the most fascinating part of this is that the threat seems to be the first fallout from the WikiLeaks release of some 92,000 Afghan War related US documents.
"Because, you know, all those civilian deaths are really no biog deal, right?" -- Official White Horse Souse
Though one would have expected that the massive release of some 92,000 classified documents Sunday underscoring just how poorly the war is going would have changed some minds, the Obama Administration has gotten its way once again, with the House of Representatives approving the $59 billion emergency funding bill to keep the war going by a 308-114 vote.
About 10 years ago, employees of Dyncorp International, a major defense contractor, were accused of buying and selling women throughout Eastern Europe.
Buried among the 92,000 classified documents released Sunday by WikiLeaks is some intriguing evidence that the U.S. military in Afghanistan has adopted a PR strategy that got it into trouble in Iraq: paying local media outlets to run friendly stories.
The White House is screaming like a stuck pig. WikiLeaks' release of the Afghan War Documents "puts the lives of our soldiers and our coalition partners at risk."
What nonsense. Obama's war puts the lives of American soldiers at risk, and the craven puppet state behavior of "our partners" in serving as US mercenaries is what puts their troops at risk.
Tensions between the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan were further strained today after the leak of thousands of military documents about the Afghan war.
As members of the US Congress raised questions about Pakistan's alleged support for the Taliban, officials in Islamabad and Kabul also traded angry accusations on the same issue.
Further disclosures reveal more evidence of attempts by coalition commanders to cover up civilian casualties in the conflict.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is in hiding. The U.S. authorities apparently want to shoot the messenger (hopefully only in a figurative sense).
U.S. National Security Advisor General James Jones released a statement alleging that the leaks "could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security."
Excuse me, but the leaks are just shining a light on the reality of that war. And we already knew -- or suspected -- many of these "secrets".
Following up on reports emerging over the weekend, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office is confirming that a NATO attack in Sangin District of the Helmand Province struck a houseload of civilians hiding from a nearby battle, and that at least 52 civilians were killed.
The tens of thousands of classified military documents posted on the Internet Sunday confirm what critics of the war in Afghanistan already knew or suspected: We are wading deeper into a long-running, morally ambiguous conflict that has virtually no chance of ending well.
According to an incident report filed by the U.S. military unit, 205TH RCAG (Regional Corps Advisory Group), four Canadian soldiers were killed and seven others and an interpreter were wounded on Sept. 3, 2006, when a jet dropped a bomb on a building they occupied during the second day of Operation MEDUSA.
The Canadian military reported at the time that the four soldiers died in battles with Taliban forces.
Activist Post
In the wasteful, failed war on drugs the hypocrisy of our government knows no bounds. We spend billions and billions of dollars to put lowly drug dealers and users in "for profit" jails, while our CIA, military, and large banks seem to be the real drug dealers. These institutions have a profit/funding motive not to end the insanity of prohibition. The photos below show your tax dollars hard at work:
How about an inquiry into the war crimes? How about an inquiry into just how we got tricked into this stupid war in the first place? How about an inquiry into why we don;t just call it quits and bring our kids home?
Find all the current Wikileaks Mirrors here. Helpful, if the main site - wikileaks.org - is down.
According to the Department of Defense, only 4000 Jews serve in the American military. Over 200,000 American Jews have been trained at US expense by the IDF in Israel but only a handful defend Israel in the current wars in the military of the country of their birth, the United States of America. 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel. 40% of the world's Jews live in the United States with 2.2 million residing in New York City alone. If any nation has been the homeland of the Jews, it has been the United States.
There are some problems with the claims coming out of the documents. That tabloid-esque story about Osama arranging a marriage seems like the US propagandizing its own troops. Second, whatever the Taliban are shooting down US aircraft with, they are NOT Stingers left over from Charlie Wilson's war, because even with proper storage the shelf life of a Stinger rocket motor is only ten years. After that cracks develop and anyone dumb enough to use one will probably fly a lot further than the Stinger itself.
In Afghan fields the poppies grow. Between the crosses. Row on row.
Rangers, here is your task today. Please copy this article and post it everywhere you see the US Government whining about the release of the Afghanistan Logs. Let the world know that it isn't national security or honor that is the issue, but the drug profits.
"The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security ," Jones declared in a statement released by the White House.
"Not to mention that opium." -- Official White Horse Souse
US intelligence records reveal civilian killings, 'friendly fire' deaths and shadowy special forces
The Obama administration condemned the unprecedented leak of thousands of classified documents on the Afghanistan war, saying website Wikileaks.org "made no effort" to contact the federal government before releasing them.
Daniel Ellsberg did not contact the administration before releasing the Pentagon Papers. He would have been foolish to do so. The fact is that the US Government has started to act just like Israel. They wish to commit war crimes such as targeted assassinations and killing innocent civilians, but they do not wish their public image to suffer for it. You need to read all these papers about the conduct of the war in Afghanistan, because you paid for all of this!
You need to read all these papers about the conduct of the war in Afghanistan, because you paid for all of this!
What is America doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? It's called "nation building." What business is it of America to be building other's nations? It's really none of their business. It's nothing more than the arrogance of power.
U.S. special operations forces have targeted militants without trial, Afghans have been killed by accident, and U.S. officials have been infuriated by alleged Pakistani intelligence cooperation with the very insurgent groups bent on killing Americans.
Still, they also included unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings and covert operations against Taliban figures.
Assange told reporters in London that what's been reported so far on the leaked documents has "only scratched the surface" and said some 15,000 files on Afghanistan are still being vetted by his organization.
The new Pentagon Papers scandal.
We hope the impact will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the war in Afghanistan and modern warfare in general. - Wikileaks
(SALEM, Ore.) – WikiLeaks has done it again; over 90,000 documents from the war in Afghanistan have been released to the public. Wikileaks called, The Afghan War Diary (AWD), "An extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
"The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related detail."
Latest Tweets * Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:50:42 wikileaks: WikiLeaks' "war logs" are online. NYT: nyti.ms/dacIql Guardian: bit.ly/dlNzWx Der Spiegel: bit.ly/bpjIZk Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-milit... * Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:22:55 wikileaks: Afghan war logs: massive leak of secret files exposes hundreds of abuses bit.ly/9KJWfq http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708314,00.html
Many of the wounded are innocent Afghan civilians whose neighborhoods have become battlefields. In fact, Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) (an independent and impartial Afghan rights group) reports that 1,074 civilians were killed and over 1,500 were injured in the first six months of 2010.
More NATO troops will die in Afghanistan as violence mounts over the summer, but Washington's goal of turning the tide against the insurgency by year's end is within reach, the top U.S. military officer said on Sunday.
Paul J. Balles argues that the continued presence of 1,000 American military bases outside the USA nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union is a symptom of the arrogance of power that threatens local communities and ultimately the USA itself.
"What is America doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? It's called 'nation building'. What business is it of America to be building other's nations? It's really none of their business. It's nothing more than the arrogance of power."
Tim Coles takes us through 11 steps necessary to create a "terrorist state". Using Yemen as a case study, he argues that these steps precisely match US and British policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran as well as Yemen to grow "very poisonous seeds", some which have ripened while others are ripening.
Two American soldiers went missing after driving off their base in Kabul on Friday afternoon, and the Taliban later claimed to have captured them in eastern Afghanistan, NATO officials said Saturday, the same day five U.S. troops were killed in the south.
A US-led air strike has reputedly left dozens of civilians dead in Afghanistan, raising concerns about the growing number of civilian casualties in the country.
The late Friday bombardment took place in the city of Sangin in southern Helmand Province. Locals told Press TV that the attack has also injured seven children in Helmand Province.
Those injure were taken to the city's Central Hospital. Foreign forces and Afghan officials have yet to comment on the incident.
The international foreign ministers conference held in Kabul Tuesday formally endorsed President Hamid Karzai's proposed 2014 target for Afghan forces to assume the lead responsibility for the country's security, while acknowledging that the foreign occupation will continue indefinitely.
U.S. troop deaths have reached their highest levels of the nine-year war. Last month a record 60 Americans were killed in Afghanistan; the most recent fatalities bring the tally for July to more than 50.
*hyperlinks and interview live at source*
James Fetzer interviewed me on his radio show and podcast, The Real Deal, in discussion of the evidence to prove beyond any doubt current US wars are tragic-comic unlawful; Orwellian in the distance between the disclosed and verifiable evidence and the law. The article with links of documentation is here to prove all claims for war were known lies as they were told, with this information now uncontroversial but corporate media lying in omission in their failure to announce this to the American public.
These lies that levied war on US soldiers are treason; with escalated war policy under President Obama that includes threat to attack Iran based on similar lies that preceded war with Iraq.
Consider a strange aspect of our wars since October 2001: they have yet to establish a bona fide American hero, a national household name. Two were actually "nominated" early by the Bush administration — Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old private and clerk captured by the Iraqis in the early days of the American invasion and later "rescued" by Army Rangers and Navy Seals, and Pat Tillman, the former NFL safety who volunteered for service in the Army Rangers eight months after 9/11 and died under "enemy" gunfire in Afghanistan.
The irony here is that the decision to declare enemy fighters in Afghanistan as "unlawful enemy combatants" -- which is what, in turn, "justified" denial of Geneva Conventions protections for them (at least until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise) -- was grounded in the fact that they do not, as Mukasey put it, "wear uniforms, follow a recognized chain of command, carry their arms openly." That's what made them, in the U.S. lexicon, not only "unlawful combatants" but even Terrorists. But, of course, exactly the same is true for our countless private contractors who are acting as combatants for the U.S. in multiple parts of the world; as Priest and Arkin document, they are so numerous and unaccountably embedded in secret government functions that they are literally "countless"
- Snopes.com toes the militarists' line -
Snopes.com, officially known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, has since its humble inception in 1995 come to be regarded as one of the most trusted debunkers of conspiracy theories on the internet. Described by one of its many fans – it apparently has over 6 million visitors per month – as "the grand-daddy of all fact-checking sites," Snopes is downright cavalier, however, in its attitude to facts surrounding Israel's role in the 9/11 attacks.
It may take decades before Afghanistan's vast mineral wealth can start generating the big bucks. So in the meantime, the U.S. military is working to bolster another traditional Afghan industry: carpets.
The Pentagon and the Interior Department are about to issue a year-long, no-bid, $7 million contract to Adelphia, New Jersey's Tremayne Consulting to turn Afghanistan's storied, broken carpet business into an international powerhouse.
Perhaps the US should recognize that it has a second-rate military at phenomenal cost—an enormous, largely useless national codpiece. It is embarrassing. The Pentagon's preferred enemies are lightly armed, poorly equipped peasants, which makes for a long war and thus hundreds of billions of dollars in juicy contracts for military industries. Yet the greatest military in history (ask it) gets run out of Southeast Asia, blown up and run out of Lebanon, shot down and run out of Somalia, with Afghanistan a disaster in progress and Iraq claimed as an American victory rather than Shiite.Do the aircraft carriers intimidate North Korea? No. Iran? No. China? No. For this, a trilliaon dollars a year?
The irony here is that the decision to declare enemy fighters in Afghanistan as "unlawful enemy combatants" -- which is what, in turn, "justified" denial of Geneva Conventions protections for them (at least until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise) -- was grounded in the fact that they do not, as Mukasey put it, "wear uniforms, follow a recognized chain of command, carry their arms openly." That's what made them, in the U.S. lexicon, not only "unlawful combatants" but even Terrorists. But, of course, exactly the same is true for our countless private contractors who are acting as combatants for the U.S. in multiple parts of the world; as Priest and Arkin document, they are so numerous and unaccountably embedded in secret government functions that they are literally "countless":
We are watching history in the making in Afghanistan; but it is history of a certain stamp – the slow-motion unraveling of a disaster. The international conference meeting in a palatial hall in Kabul has all the unreality of similar doomed assemblies in the past. Think of the States General of France in 1789, the Duma in Russia in 1905 – you get the picture. Here we have high-ranking international diplomats and foreign ministers, the supposed "movers and shakers" of the world, but they have encountered the immovable and the unshakeable: the victorious Taliban and the treacherous warlords of Afghanistan.
The current war in Afghanistan costs in excess of $48,000 a minute.
Meanwhile, a National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is talking about cuts to Social Security, Medicare and the home mortgage deduction to address the nation's growing budget deficit.
The replacement of the July 2011 drawdown date with a more speculative 2014 date is scarcely completed, and already that date too is being disavowed by NATO Secretary General and Afghan War enthusiast Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Needless to say, my jaw dropped when Hillary admitted with a straight face, that the US and Pakistan created the supposed enemies we now face.
This is obviously something that most of us knew, but to watch them admit it, and use it as a reason to stay there and or expand, is beyond insanity.
In September 2009, Fallujah General Hospital, Iraq, had 170 new born babies, 24% of whom were dead within the first seven days, a staggering 75% of the dead babies were classified as deformed.
This can be compared with data from the month of August in 2002 where there were 530 new born babies of whom six were dead within the first seven days and only one birth defect was reported.
Doctors in Fallujah have specifically pointed out that not only are they witnessing unprecedented numbers of birth defects but what is more alarming is: "a significant number of babies that do survive begin to develop severe disabilities at a later stage."
Maidhc O'Cathail Snopes purports to debunk a claim that "four thousand Israelis employed by companies housed in the World Trade Center stayed home from work on September 11, warned in advance of the impending attack on the World Trade Center."
US President Barack Obama told that US will continue it's fight against the terrorist group Taliban, who killed innocent civilians in the US and the UK.
Prove it, President Pussy. Because your word is no longer sufficient, not after breaking your campaign promise to end the wars as your first act in office.
Because your word is no longer sufficient, not after breaking your campaign promise to end the wars as your first act in office.
The troop levels haven't changed. The troop labels have changed.
Bibi Unmasked!
On the eve of the latest policy conference, top US and NATO officials have arrived in Kabul to pledge their support to the continuation of the Afghan War, with promises of an unending commitment to propping up the Karzai government going forward.
Do we really think that those children who survive and reach adulthood will be thankful to the western countries? Do we really think that Afghanistan will not become the greatest reserve of desperate people without a real future? And where there is no future, you need hope; hope that, as we know, radical interpretations of religion can easily offer. Our attempt to achieve security through bombs and useless killing today will be the reason for our continued insecurity tomorrow.
9/11 was like Pearl Harbor to America, uniting many, awakening bitter skepticism in a few. Where Pearl Harbor began America's official role in crushing the Fascist juggernaut that threatened to dominate the world, 9/11 had quite the opposite effect. America's response to 9/11 was oppression at home and a tirade of frenzied phobic reactions around the world. No American institution suffered more than the military. The team of Cheney and Rumsfeld, together since the disastrous Nixon years, began a process of purging America's military of talent and leadership, instead building a force to serve a sinister agenda of religious heresy and extremist politics.
'Scary' growth of gangs in war zones Chicago cop who served in Afghanistan and Iraq has warning: Gang members are coming home with military training July 18, 2010 BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter Stoleson, who stressed he was not speaking for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections or the Army, said it appears the problem is worse than ever. He warned that soldiers who return to gang life back home are especially dangerous because they know military tactics that they can use against the police and the public -- as a Marine did in 2005 when he killed a police officer and wounded three others in a California ambush. "Gang members are coming home now with one or two tours," he said. "Some were on the field of battle."
By Lawrence Davidson
While in Israeli custody I, along with everyone else was subjected to endless abuse and flagrant acts of disrespect. Women and elderly were physically and mentally assaulted. Access to food and water and toilets was denied. Dogs were used against us, we ourselves were treated like dogs.
By Khalil Nouri – Veterans Today
The southern city of Kandahar, the last Afghan territory to be handed over by the British in 1830, was also known as the center of greatest resistance to the Russian occupation in the 1980's. Today it measures as the epicenter of intense political competition, drug trafficking and an operational nightmare for a U.S. led counterinsurgency campaign; once again proving its historic destiny as a make-or-break location for another Afghan war.
Ken O'Keefe My 1984 reality is culminating with the United States and Israeli Governments treating me and/or charging me with being a "terrorist". Americans worry not, you can sleep better at night knowing your "homeland" is being defended from the likes of me. And Israel, rest easy as well, it's Ken O'Keefe and his Arab collaborators who are in the Mossad crosshairs.
have not read the book, yet, but if this book is as comprehensive as Dr. Stephen Sniegoski' says it is, then it will make a good weapon to carry into the battle.
Dr. Sniegoski
President Obama and his military team recognize that it is less damaging at home, where there is almost no support for this endless occupation, to foment civil war in Afghanistan and pay desperate Afghans to slaughter each other as a means of reducing U.S. casualties.
U.S. taxpayers who are experiencing devastating cuts in state and local budgets, layoffs of municipal workers, soaring tuition hikes in public colleges—all because of budget shortfalls—will see billions of their tax dollars go to fund the occupation of Afghanistan and pay the salaries of poor Afghans so that they can shoot other poor Afghans.
This is so sickly immoral, I just don't know where to start.
This war in Afghanistan has absolutely nothing to do with the safety and security of this country; it has everything to do with potential private profit from the installation of pipelines with which to control Eurasian oil, from the drug trade, and from unexploited mineral deposits.
Britain plans to increase aid to Afghanistan by as much as 40 percent, International Development Minister Andrew Mitchell said.
Even Imaginary Enemies Can Get Tired
For the last decade, America has been shuffling its entire military, including hundreds of thousands of private contractors, in and out of the Middle East on little more than a "snipe hunt." Time for a reality check. Iraq never attacked the US. Reports say Al Qaeda may have fewer than 30 men in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has been asking for a cease fire for months. Turkey and Brazil negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran ending any possible threat, one we strangely, very strangely ignored. "Thermo-nuclear Israel's" continual whining and manipulation is wearing thin. America's economy, her Army and her suffering veterans demand an end to our Bush era phony war.
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Where the US claims its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is only temporary the massive infrastructures established in these countries in the form of military bases belies this claim. They are not dispensing "Enduring Freedom" but an enduring presence and Afghanistan and Iraq are only the most recent franchises in a global network of over 700 US military bases.
Imperialism is a very expensive game and has left America the most indebted country in the world. It is fighting foreign wars with borrowed money on borrowed time. It then becomes necessary to defray the costs of this cretinous extravagance by coercing allies, namely NATO, into being the whores of US imperialism all too willing to cough up cash and lives in a sorely corrupted cause for despicable motives.
By Mark Perry - Foreign Policy
Soldiers killed themselves at the rate of one per day in June making it the worst month on record for Army suicides, the service said Thursday.
...Huge amounts of money [are] regularly being secreted out of Afghanistan by plane in boxes and suitcases. According to some estimates, since 2007, at least $3 billion (€2.4 billion) in cash has left the country in this way. The preferred destination for these funds is Dubai, the tax haven in the Persian Gulf. And, given the fact that Afghanistan's total GDP amounts to the equivalent of $13.5 billion, there is no way that the funds involved in this exodus are merely the proceeds of legal business transactions...
"Relax. It; snot like it's my own money or anything." -- Official White Horse Souse
Neither do U.S leaders so what's the big deal??
Before a July 20th donors conference in Kabul, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, announces the Afghan war cannot be won militarily.
"As you said, Mr. Chairman, there is no military solution here, so as General Petraeus and General McChrystal said, you cannot win this war by killing every member of Taliban," Holbrooke, told US senators on Wednesday, Press TV reported.
Despite the high-profile spin in Washington and Kabul about progress made in Afghanistan, the Afghan people have only witnessed and suffered an intensifying armed conflict over the past six months. Contrary to President Barrack Obama's promise that the deployment of additional 30,000 US forces to the country would "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Taliban insurgents and their al-Qaeda allies in the region, the insurgency has become more resilient, multi-structured and deadly.
By Stephen Sniegoski – america-hijacked.com
By William A. Cook
The British government's decision to withdraw troops from Sangin in Helmand province marks a watershed in the relentless conflict in Afghanistan. The military mission has been very costly for the United Kingdom, with a third of the total casualties sustained in one district alone. More than a hundred lives of soldiers lost and many more wounded coming home is a sign of how difficult the mission has been. In a classic display of guerrilla tactics of asymmetrical warfare, the armed opposition has refused to fight a modern army equipped with high-tech weaponry on its enemy's terms. Instead, the insurgents have fought on their terms, using rudimentary explosive devices and small weapons with devastating effect. Reaction of Afghans in Sangin will shock many in Britain.
With record foreclosures and child poverty at a shameful level, can we really afford to stay in Afghanistan and Iraq for 10 years?
Depending on just what you counted, there were anywhere from 700 to perhaps 1,200 or more U.S. bases, micro to macro, acknowledged and unacknowledged, around the globe. Meanwhile, the Pentagon was pouring money into the wildest blue-skies thinking at its advanced research arm, DARPA, whose budget grew by 50%. Through DARPA, well-funded scientists experimented with various ways to fight sci-fi-style wars in the near and distant future (at a moment when no one was ready to put significant government money into blue-skies thinking about, for instance, how to improve the education of young Americans).
Afghan insurgent attacks killed six U.S. soldiers Saturday, bringing the total to 1,171 -- and counting. Eight years after achieving our initial war aims, disrupting al Qaeda and punishing its Taliban protectors, we have 94,000 troops in-theater, chasing "50 to 100" Al Qaeda operatives, "maybe less," says President Obama's CIA director.
Good news, though: Construction of Kabul's 900,000-square-foot Police Training Center is "progressing according to plan." After $27 billion spent, Afghan police are still "illiterate, corrupt, and trigger-happy," their instructors lament, but a spiffy new training complex can't hurt.
Enough. With American casualties mounting, it's clearer than ever that "Operation Enduring Freedom" has become a sickening waste of blood and treasure.
The attacker escaped, and the motive for the assault in Helmand province is unknown. The incident could be deeply embarrassing for Kabul and Washington, renewing concerns about the infiltration of Taliban militants or sympathizers into Afghan security forces.
So why is the U.S. in Afghanistan? Obama owes Americans the truth.
The truth here, sadly, is that the US and NATO military are here for three reasons, all of them having to do with private profit, and none of them having to do with the safety or security of the US or NATO countries.
They are:
1. The installation of oil pipelines with which to control Eurasian oil (mission singularly unaccomplished here).
2. The control of the drug trade from which so many profit so handsomely (mission very much accomplished here, to the point that the Russian government is openly complaining about the cheap heroin flooding their country).
3. The control of Afghanistan's vast mineral wealth (mission bungled severely, in light of the fact that, as reported at:
Karzai is giving Japan "...priority to explore and extract untapped mineral resources...")
So this means that every single US and NATO soldier who has been died or maimed for life in this meatgrinder has had this happen not to defend the security of their respective countries, but to extract wealth for private corporations from Afghanistan.
All the families and friends who mourn their dead, and grieve for those who have been maimed for life need to understand just why their loved ones have had this happen to them.
Andy Worthington
The Guantanamo Files: The Story of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison. In Andy Worthington's The Guantanamo Files, the whole story of the Cuban camp emerges as a ghastly experiment in which the terrorist suspects became guinea pigs in a vast experiment of methods to crack the human soul. [This] is a powerful, essential and long-overdue piece of research, providing the first real Who's Who of those held at the Cuban base. –Stephen Grey, New Statesman
Our leaders would rather avoid embarrassment than be honest about the horrific futility of the wars we are fighting
Some Pakistani officials are convinced that the United States' ongoing military surge against the Taliban in Afghanistan is doomed, and that the diminishing western appetite for the war will position it as the key to a future political settlement, Pakistani analysts said.
Pakistan's foreign policy leaders, notably its powerful army chief, consider the June 23 exit of Gen Stanley McChrystal as the commander of US forces in Afghanistan as indicative of a growing acceptance by the Obama administration that the conflict cannot be settled by force, they said.
This was an unwinnable war from the beginning, with never enough military resources on the ground to create anything that would ever look like a military victory to a sensible human being.
At the end of the day, and after almost 9 years of blood and money spent, the US and NATO need to declare victory, bring their troops home, and negotiate with whatever government is left standing in Kabul for the oil pipeline rights.
The United States may still be in the Afghanistan and Iraq region for another ten years, according to Gen. George Casey.
"The types of conflict that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I think are likely to be fighting here for a decade or so, are focused on the people," Casey, the army's Chief of Staff, said Friday night at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival.
"We are not going to succeed in either place by military means alone. You are only going to succeed when the people perceive there is a government represented by their interests, when there is an economy that can give them a job to support their families, when there are educational systems that can educate their family. All those things are essential to the long term success of the military operation."
Memo to Gen. George Casey: the US shouldn't be in either Iraq or Afghanistan for another 10 seconds, let alone 10 years!
We do not have the person power in terms of troops with which to manage these wars without reinstituting a draft, and the borrowing costs for these immoral and illegal wars without end will bankrupt this country.
Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents are training monkeys to use weapons to attack American troops, according to a recent report by a British-based media agency.
By Chase Madar Source: orwellsdreams
President Obama may lack the nerve to stare down Liz Cheney or Bibi Netanyahu, but no one can deny that our commander in chief has the guts to take on a child soldier. Come August, a military commission in Guantánamo will try Omar Khadr, a Canadian national captured outside Kabul in 2002, when he was just 15 years old. This will be only the third Gitmo trial and the Obama administration's first, and there won't be anything kinder and gentler about it.
June's devastating record death toll in Afghanistan, 103 NATO troops including 61 Americans, may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to second in command Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez.
Lt. Gen. Rodriguez' comments suggest the toll is the new normal, and furthermore he cautions against drawing any conclusions about how badly the war is going based on the massive death tolls. "This is a contest of wills," he insisted, adding that there was an "upward trajectory in the war.
I am waiting for the "body count" moments to begin on the corporate news regarding Afghanistan soon, just as happened in the unwinnable, immoral, and illegal war against North Vietnam.


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Art Print
Collect your choice of gallery quality Giclée, or fine art prints custom trimmed by hand in a variety of sizes with a white border for framing.
i'm looking for limited run, signed artists prints from victor calahan, anyone know where i could grab one?
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Wilder disappointed with draw
Oxford manager Chris Wilder was left disappointed after his side's 2-2 draw with Wycombe.The Us eased into a two-goal lead through Alfie Potter and an own goal from Dave Winfield before Scott Rendell and Jon-Paul Pittman salvaged a point for the Chairboys.Wilder said: "I'm gutted we haven't won that game. I thought we were great, especially in the first half, but we had a mad ten minutes. Their keeper made three or four good saves and we should have had a penalty."I don't understand how the ref didn't give that, and he even had the whistle in his mouth. The decisions didn't go for us. But for us, we've again not won a game that we should have seen out. It's happened too many times here. And that's the difference between us and Wycombe at the moment."We showed a good reaction from losing at Bury last week, and James Constable really worked his socks off and got after their two centre halves. I possibly made a mistake in taking him off in the second half, in hindsight, but you do these things to try and win the game."I thought we might have nicked one at the end when we got over the disappointment of them getting back into the game. They're a good side and they're not going to lie down, and that's why they're up there. But Nikki Bull made an unbelievable save for them from Tommy Craddock."
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Palm Beach Apartment,Los Boliches,Fuengirola
from £35 /night help
Availability Your dates are available
Apartment | 1 bedrooms | sleeps 4
Key Info |
A very sunny and tastefully furnished one bedroom apartment on 3rd floor (two lifts), in the popular and beautifully maintained Palm Beach apartment building on the front line in Los Boliches, Fuengirola. Large (24 ft X 7ft) west facing balcony overlooking superb garden and two communal pools. Sun on balcony from mid-morning till about 7pm. The spacious accommodation includes one bedroom with twin beds,two chests of drawers, fitted wardrobes,bedside lamps, portable fan and en-suite bathroom. Lounge with leather settee, a new double sofabed, sideboard, coffee table,wall lamps, dining table & 4 chairs. Wall-mounted flat screen 26' Sony TV with Cable TV receiving most of the usual british channels plus sky sports , and also continental chanels . There is a Radio/CD player.Ceiling fan operated by remote control.Winter heating is by electric oil-filled radiator. New kitchen area with breakfast bar & 2 stools, 4 ring ceramic hob, microwave oven, small oven, toaster, kettle,Liebher German fridge, separate freezer 50 litres, hair-dryer, Bosch washing machine, iron, ironing board. There are 2 security guards in block. Very good supermarket underneath Palm Beach.
Keys will be posted to you by recorded delivery two weeks before your holiday so you will have the keys with you when you arrive. When you return home you must send the keys back to us promptly by recorded delivery.
There is also an enclosed, secure, landscaped garden for sunbathing. There are three pools in the gardens, one of which is a children's pool, and a water cascade There is also a changing room and renovated toilets next to the pool. There are numerous golf courses within driving distance. Malaga airport is 20 minutes drive away by car. There is also a regular train service to and from Malaga airport direct to Los Boliches train station (runs till late evening) it runs every 20 minutes and is easily accessed just outside the airport arrivals hall.
There is a very nice department store with excellent food hall, called El Cortes Ingles, opposite the train station at Los Boliches. There are plenty of shops and banks and ATM machines nearby and an English church st.Andrews, in Los Boliches and an Evangelical Scandinavian church.
From Fuengirola bus station there are frequent buses to the picturesque village of Mijas. Also frequent buses to Marbella. Buses also run to Torremolinos, Malaga, Ronda, Gibraltar, Seville ,Coin etc.
Size | Sleeps up to 4, 1 bedrooms |
Nearest beach | Los Boliches |
Will consider | Long term lets (over 1 month) |
Access | Car not necessary |
Nearest travel links | Nearest airport: Malaga 20 km, Nearest railway: Los Boliches 300 m |
Family friendly | Suitable for people with restricted mobility |
Notes | No pets allowed, No smoking at this property |
Features and Facilities
Pool | Shared outdoor pool (unheated), Children's pool |
General | TV, CD player, Satellite TV, Wi-Fi available |
Standard | Kettle, Toaster, Iron, Hair dryer |
Utilities | Cooker, Microwave, Fridge, Freezer, Washing machine |
Rooms | 1 bedroom, 1 bathrooms of which 1 En suites |
Furniture | 1 Sofa beds, Single beds (2), Dining seats for 4, Lounge seats for 4 |
Other | Linen provided, Towels provided |
Outdoors | Shared outdoor pool (unheated), Balcony or terrace, Shared garden |
Access | Secure parking |
Further details indoors | The bedroom has 2 beautifully comfortable single beds with new memory foam mattresses, fitted wardrobes, bedside cabinets, two chests of drawers, and electric fan. Patio doors to balcony. The bathoom is en-suite with a full size bath with shower over, wash handbasin and w.c. White upright storage unit, and spotlights. The lounge has a 2 seater settee,a Danish double sofabed,dining table with seating for 4,sideboard, coffee table and Eurocable TV receiving BBC 1, BBC 2,BBC3, ITV1&2&ITV3 , Eurosport/movies/documentaries/history/news/ and many other channels. Also Spanish and Scandinavian channels. Radio.Recessed wall lights .Ceiling fan operated by remote control. Newly fitted kitchen, well equipped with 4 ring ceramic hob, microwave, fridge and separate small freezer, small oven with grill , washing machine, kettle, toaster, iron, ironing board,etc. Bedlinen and towels are provided, but please bring own beach towels.Apartment cleaned before and after each let. There is an oil filled electric radiator for winter heating . Sorry, no children under the age of ten years allowed in the apartment. |
Further details outdoors | There is a large west -facing balcony (23ft by 7 ft), with table, sun parasol and 4 patio chairs of which two are recliner chairs.Lovely views of communal garden and 3 pools. Well kept garden with two swimming pools plus child's pool.There is a private car park at the rear of Palm Beach and for a small ,returnable deposit paid locally,a remote control key for the car park is available for those with a car. There are two security guards in the Palm Beach apartments.There are security cameras in the building and entrances. The apartment is a non smoking one although you may smoke on the balcony. |
Further details | No children under 10 years of age. Access to the apartment on day of arrival is 2.30pm onwards. On day of departure you must vacate the apartment by 10am. We also rent out for holidays another one bedrroom apartment in a frontline building very near the port in Fuengirola-please enquire and mention/ask about Edificio Arena. |
About this location
The Andalucia region
Fuengirola is at the heart of the Costa del sol, it is located midway between the resorts of Malaga and Marbella.
There are day trips from Fuengirola and Los Boliches to the city of Granada ,Cordoba, Gibraltar,Nerja etc.
The local bus station has frequent buses to Mijas, Marbella (takes about 45 mins),Benalmadena, Malaga,Torremolinos etc.There are excellent shopping areas in Fuengirola, the new Myramar shopping mall, the new El Corte Ingles department store, as well as lots of shops in Fuengirola itself.
The Costa del Sol has hot, sunny summers and mild winters.
Fuengirola has a lovely promenade , part of the 7 km stretch of sandy beaches along the bay.
There are also frequent excursions to places such as Mijas, Granada. Gibraltar,Nerja,Malaga and Marbella.
There is a large aquapark in Fuengirola, and a zoo. There are ferry trips from Fuengirola port to Benalmadena.
In Malaga there is the Cathedral and Picasso museum to visit. There is a half-hourly local train that runs from Fuengirola to all the Malaga stations and airport and which has a stop in Los Boliches (5 minutes walk on the flat from our Palm Beach apartment).
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Write a review18 May 2014
"Secure appartment in popular seaside town"
Well equipped and well-furnished, with large balcony overlooking pool in well-tended garden. Just a few minutes walk from busy town centre, and across the road from the beach. Supermarket on site, with bars/cafes just outside. Very convenient.
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John and Elaine C.
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Calendar last updated:25 Feb 2015
Based in United Kingdom
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