'U.S., NATO Forces Rely on Warlords for Security'"

For IPS, Gareth Porter writes:

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (IPS) - The revelation by the New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg of heavy dependence by U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists.

U.S. and other NATO military contingents operating in the provinces of Afghanistan's predominantly Pashtun south and east have been hiring private militias controlled by Afghan warlords, according to these sources, to provide security for their forward operating bases and other bases and to guard convoys. 

[Porter throws in some interesting, prior Canadian context, recalling also that Wali Karzai himself has said, "I work with the Americans, the Canadians, the British, anyone who asks for my help," although he denies being in the direct pay of the CIA]:

"CanWest News Service's Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda reported in November 2007 [also see related, and here] that the Canadian military had hired a "General Gulalai" to provide security for an undisclosed forward operating base. Gulalai is a warlord in southern Afghanistan who drove the Taliban out of Kandahar in 2001. The same reporters revealed that Col. Haji Toorjan, a local warlord allied with…

OF course, we will follow the pro-war, DND-pundit reaction to this breaking story:

The Canadian military has no business recruiting in Quebec schools, argues a newly formed coalition made up of unions and student groups.

If the army wants to recruit, it should open recruitment centres and "leave schools alone," said Réjean Parent, head of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ).

When it made its debut last month, the coalition called it worrisome to see the army in schools recruiting youths who aren't even 18 yet.

[Funniest pull quote goes to...]

"A spokesperson with the Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre in downtown Montreal argues that what it does in schools isn't recruiting. "It's information that we give to youths. We don't recruit in schools," said Capt. Lucie Rosa." [Montreal Gazette]

[Note: Two years ago, an initially successful effort to kick Canadian Forces recruiters off of the University of Victoria campus was overturned following an aggressive pro-military propaganda counter-surge.]

This includes a $1.3 billion provision for the 'Sons of Afghanistan,' which basically gives military commanders briefcases full of cash to try and bribe insurgents to switch sides, replicating the brilliant plan - part of the execution of King David Petraeus' genius 'counterinsurgency' effort - in Iraq. Speaking of Iraq, the death toll of the largest bomb attack since the 'successful' 2007 'surge' surpassed 150, with another 500 wounded. For an update on the ongoing war in and occupation of Iraq, listen to Monday's interview with al Jazeera reporter Ahmed Habib, on Flashpoints.

"I'm very impressed by what Matthew Hoh has just done. Here's a former marine captain -- my own roots are as a marine -- who has resigned and refused high posts with Amb. Holbrooke in order to tell the truth. This is the highest form of patriotism. I'd like to see him sitting down with President Obama to tell him what the war looks like from the Taliban-controlled provinces he just came from and brief the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- he knows a lot more about the situation than any of them.
 "I see the situation as Vietnamistan: If you put more troops in this year, the Taliban will be stronger next year. We recruit as we kill and support a corrupt, dope-dealing government. There's no way of making this government look like it really cares about the Afghan people. No foreign troops have ever carried out a successful counter-insurgency campaign in terms of actually winning over the population." [Via IPA]

- Ellsberg's film, 'The Most Dangerous Man in America,' is currently in theaters.

- On Matthew Hoh, the "first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war," see here, here, here.

We picked up on this over the weekend, but were glad to see Democracy Now! cover it briefly this morning: 

'Activists Protest Mercenary Trade Association Meeting'

Goodman: "And the [Orwellian-named] International Peace Operations Association is holding its annual conference in Washington this week. The trade association represents mercenary groups and private military contractors, including DynCorp and Triple Canopy. A coalition of activist groups, including CODEPINK, Africa Action and the Hip Hop Caucus, are planning to hold a protest and forum today to counter the mercenary conference."

- 'The Young Honduran Revolution,' a new film focusing on resistance to the coup, by Johannes Wilm, which can viewed online, here.

- Also, 'Striking Graphic History Tells Story of Honduras Coup and Unrest' [Click on the image above, or here]

In no particular order, and not to (necessarily) suggest a WOD endorsement of the respective viewpoints, here's an array of AfPak-related articles from the recent and upcoming issue of The Nation:

- Tom Hayden: 'Kilcullen's Long War'

- Robert Dreyfuss: 'How to Get Out'

- Stephen M. Walt: 'High Cost, Low Odds'

- Ann Jones: 'Remember the Women?'

- Mosharraf Zaidi: 'The Best Wall of Defense'

- Selig S. Harrison: 'The Ethnic Split'

- Priya Satia: 'The Attack of the Drones'

- John Mueller: 'The 'Safe Haven' Myth'

- Nation Editorial: 'Obama's Fateful Choice'

Taking a page out of Richard Seymour's fine book (The Liberal Defence of Murder, which we at WOD finally read recently, and recommend you do the same), historian Thadeus Russell writes:

"Should President Barack Obama continue his escalation of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it will be the liberal thing to do. What too few Americans realize—especially the president’s anti-war supporters, who accuse him of betraying liberal or "progressive" values—is that if he accedes to General Stanley McChrystal's request for more troops in Afghanistan and intensifies the drone attacks in Pakistan, he will follow squarely in the footsteps of the great liberal statesmen he has cited as his role models. Though opponents of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cheered loudly when Obama spoke reverentially in his campaign speeches of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy, those heroes of the president promoted and oversaw U.S. involvement in wars that killed, by great magnitudes, more Americans and foreign civilians than all the modern Republican military operations combined." [The Daily Beast]

"America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon. In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using  “open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos, and radio reports generated every day." [Wired; h/t: Freeze]

[Update: Today, Democracy Now! interviewed the journo who broke this story, Noah Shachtman.]

'Former US President George W. Bush garners noisy protest in Edmonton':

"While former U.S. president George W. Bush talked about democracy inside a downtown Edmonton conference centre on Tuesday, hundreds of protesters were outside exercising their right to free speech with signs, songs and screams. "Stop the killing, stop the war," the protesters chanted to the beat of a drum. They held signs that said "Bush is a war criminal;" "Bush lied, 1,000s died;" and "Canada is not Bush Country." [Canadian Press]

(That said, why was Bush's fellow war criminal (and, cough, Nobel Peace Prize winner) Henry Kissinger able to casually stroll into the country last week, unopposed,  to a major international elitist gathering?)

- Also see Gail Davidson's article in advance of Bush's latest visit, 'Barring George Bush From Canada: Time for the Law to Step in.'

[Update: as Bush snakes his way across Canada, the war criminal welcoming committee in Saskatchewan  assailed him "with an array of insults."]

[Another Update (if his ankles were in shackles, he wouldn't be able to move so quickly): 'Demonstrators throw shoes ahead of George Bush speech', '2 Arrested at anti-Bush protest in Montreal'

"The demonstraors included university students, political activitists such as the Raging Grannies, and various left-wing supporters." [Montreal Gazette, CBC]

We've been very busy here in the WOD, and haven't been able to properly track the goings-on concerning the 'Responsibility to Protect,' one of the most important (if also neglected & little understood) debates in global politics. Thanks go to Alberto Cruz for drawing much-needed attention to this, in arguing that, if anyone should receive a Nobel prize, it is Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, in part for his heroic R2P 'intervention' on July 23rd of this year in the UN General Assembly.

"D'Escoto's last months as President of the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly will go down in the history of international relations for having set in train two initiatives that upset the West a great deal. First, he organized of a conference on the global financial and economic crisis and its impact on development (New York, June 24th-26th) and second, he invited distinguished intellectuals like Jean Bricmont, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Noam Chomsky, among others, to debate – in September - the forever intellectually dessicated UN diplomatic representatives on the new strategy the West wants to impose on international relations : “the responsibility to protect.”

Please, read on at Scoop...; we will be sure to update the many other important R2P developments  in due course...

Here, we re-produce a fabulous letter to the editor published in today's Toronto Star. If we are not mistaken, the author is the same person who used to write fairly regularly (and trenchantly) about Canadian foreign policy and other interesting topics. If true, we here at WOD are reminded that we would like to see him return to the fold:

Re: Canada's military peers into the future, Oct. 17

The future will indeed be scary if we allow it to be shaped by the "needs" of the Canadian military and its think tanks. Eight years into a failed quagmire in Afghanistan, and an unending stream of lies to the public about why Canadian troops are there, the military technocrats dream of a globe-spanning, high-tech fool's errand in which Canada invades and occupies sovereign countries to maintain its trade relationship with the U.S. Lovely.

Is there no value that these monsters won't sacrifice on the altar of their vain ambitions? Canadian exports to the U.S. are being maintained at the cost of bombed Afghan wedding parties and torture.

We are going down fast if we allow the blood lust of Rick Hillier and Co. to lead us into further military interventions for corporate profit, dressed up in the moral panic of terrorism and its phony discourse.

The government needs to de-fang the military and depoliticize the general staff. Ending the failed mission in Afghanistan and co-operating with the parliamentary inquiry into the torture of Afghan civilian detainees would be a good first step.

A Truth…

- We hope to see some sort of clarification/apology from Moore on this one; one has to wonder if he pounded back some Tequila before his Kimmel appearance, which might help explain his bizarre yarn:

"In an interview last October 9th on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the renowned and award-winning documentarian, Michael Moore lied vulgarly about his encounter with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez during the Venice Film Festival this past September. In the interview, Moore responds to Kimmel’s request for an explanation of a photo of Moore with President Hugo Chávez. Apparently embarrased about the encounter with one of Latin America’s most prominent and influential heads of state, Moore proceed to completely make up a fairy-tale, attempting to pass it off as reality." [Eva Golinger, via Postcards from the Revolution; Moore on Kimmel via YouTube]

- 'The Balance of Power - Exchanges with BBC Journalists'

"In our previous alert...we described how the media's insistence that journalists be 'balanced', that they keep their personal opinions to themselves, is used as a tool of thought control. Journalists who criticise powerful interests can be attacked for their ‘bias', for revealing their prejudices. On the other hand, as we will see in the examples below, almost no-one protests, or even notices, the lack of balance in patriotic articles reporting on the experience of British troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, on the credibility of British and American elections, or on claims that the West is spreading democracy across the Third World..." [Media Lens via ZNet] 

- (Also see MediaLens' earlier post 'The Westminster Conspiracy' ... "In reality, the demand for 'balance' means that journalists can say pretty much what they like in favouring powerful interests, but they will be severely castigated for losing 'balance' when they criticise the wrong people...")

- And related to the above, FAIR illustrated an excellent example of such hypocrisy in the case of Afghanistan on this week's episode of Counterspin. Wrote Steve Rendall:

When NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Richard Engel recently returned from Afghanistan, he told MSNBC's Morning Joe, "I honestly think it's probably time to start leaving the country." Engel added, "I really don't see how this is going to end in anything but tears." Engel's comments caused …

- 'Obama quietly deploying 13,000 more US troops to Afghanistan': 

"President Barack Obama is quietly deploying an extra 13,000 troops to Afghanistan, an unannounced move that is separate from a request by the US commander in the country for even more reinforcements." [Guardian]

- 'Support Troops Swelling U.S. Force in Afghanistan':

"President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized -- and the Pentagon is deploying -- at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials." [Washington Post]

[Update: 'Pentagon Denies Report of 'Unannounced' Troops in Afghanistan':]

"The story confirms that 68,000 is still the number. So nothing is missing. Nothing is hidden. The 13,000 doesn't somehow increase from 68 [thousand] to above that. So we've consistently said by the end of the year, on the current glide path, 68,000. And as the story acknowledges, that's where we'll be," said Lapan." [VOA]

"U.S. military censors recently rejected a Pentagon lawyer's donation of an Arabic-language copy of the political activist and linguistic professor's 2007 anthology "Interventions" for the library, which has more than 16,000 items" [Said Chomsky, "This happens sometimes in totalitarian regimes...Of some incidental interest, perhaps, is the nature of the book they banned. It consists of op-eds written for The New York Times syndicate and distributed by them. The subversive rot must run very deep." [McClatchy]

"...there are solid grounds for believing the US economy will experience a second dip followed by extended stagnation that will qualify as the second Great Depression. Some indications to this effect are already rolling in with unexpectedly large US job losses in September and the crash in US automobile sales following the end of the “cash-for-clunkers” programme." [Thomas Palley, FT.com]

"What began as a coup aimed at deposing a millionaire landowner president, whose “crime” had been to gradually shift Honduras away from US control and implement mild pro-people reforms, has spurned on a mass resistance movement with the potential to revolutionise the country. " [Green Left]

- See also 'Landowners in Honduras hired Colombian paramilitaries, UN says' [Guardian] 

'Anti-Olympic signs could net 6 months' jail: rights group'

"A new B.C. law could allow municipal officials to enter homes to seize anti-Olympic signs with only 24 hours' notice, and violators could be fined up to $10,000 a day and jailed for up to six months, according to the B.C. Civil Liberties Association." [CBC]

CODEPINK, which "emerged out of a desperate desire by a group of American women to stop the Bush administration from invading Iraq," is reportedly "rethinking" their position on the Afghan war/occupation. It began with a Christian Science Monitor article on Tuesday, provocatively headlined, ''Code Pink' rethinks its call for Afghanistan pullout.' The key passage in question is this quote from CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin:

"We would leave with the same parameters of an exit strategy but we might perhaps be more flexible about a timeline," says Benjamin. "That's where we have opened ourselves, being here, to some other possibilities. We have been feeling a sense of fear of the people of the return of the Taliban. So many people are saying that, 'If the US troops left the country, would collapse. We'd go into civil war.' A palpable sense of fear that is making us start to reconsider that." 

Interviewed afterward by Antiwar'com's Scott Horton, Benjamin did little to allay concerns that there was a flip-flop in the making (continuing anti-war proclamation's on CODEPINK's website aside) . This has led others to proclaim 'the selling out of the anti-war movement,' while FOX news and the liberal imperialist crowd are cautiously gleeful over the possible development.

We'll keep our watchful eye on this one. While potentially disappointing (if this results in an unequivocal flip-flop), it will be more damaging if/when CODEPINK advocates for a 'responsible' withdrawal while at…

Mairead Maguire, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976, had this to say about Obama's winning it today:

"I am very disappointed to hear that the Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama. They say this is for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples, and yet he continues the policy of militarism and occupation of Afghanistan, instead of dialogue and negotiations with all parties to the conflict...Furthermore, I believe the Nobel Committee has not met the conditions of Alfred Nobel's will where he stipulates it is to be awarded to those who work for an end to militarism and war, and for disarmament. This is not the first time the Nobel Peace Committee in Oslo has ignored the will of Alfred Nobel and acted against the spirit of what the Nobel Peace Prize is all about. Giving this award to the leader of the most militarized country in the world, which has taken the human family against its will to war, will be rightly seen by many people around the world as a reward for his country's aggression and domination." [Institute for Public Accuracy,  BBC; also, more reaction from Tariq Ali, Naomi Klein via Democracy Now!]

And so began 'the long war,' with nary a debate, Canada blindly entered the Afghan abyss...

'Canada sending ships, planes, special forces to join war on terror' 

"Canada will send a third of its warships, as well as planes and special forces troops to join an American-led campaign against terrorism,'' Defence Minister Art Eggleton announced Monday...Lord George Robertson, secretary-general of NATO, praised the Canadian move, calling Canada one of the key allies in . . . the campaign against terrorism.''...The Canadian Alliance and the Conservatives both support military action, while the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois have counselled restraint and urged that those responsible for the U.S. terror attacks be brought to justice through the courts...[CDS Ray] Henault said Canada is one of the top five contributors to the campaign...On Sunday, Chretien said Canada is part of a broad international coalition committed to the war against terrorism, and military action is just one aspect of the campaign. He repeated that the government plans to introduce legislation and other measures _ including more money _ to fight terrorism, choke off its funding and improve intelligence and security apparatus. Chretien warned that the fight will take time, and that Canadians should not expect a quick or painless victory...The struggle to defeat the forces of terrorism will be a long one,'' he said. I cannot promise that the campaign against terrorism will be painless, but I can promise you that it…

"Eight years into a war that many commentators are now calling a quagmire from which NATO forces should extricate themselves as soon as possible, most Canadians are unaware of the link between the war and Canada's increasing involvement in the "Great Game" for the region's abundant natural resources."

[by Anthony Fenton / Special to Vue Weekly]

'Court gives CSIS expanded search powers': 

"The Canadian spy agency has gained new powers to eavesdrop on so-called homegrown terrorism suspects as they travel overseas...Considering the case "urgent", CSIS applied in January to take their surveillance overseas and in his newly released decision, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that CSIS could continue its interceptions with the help of the Communications Security Establishment. The CSE, which is part of the Department of National Defence, has the high-tech tools to monitor anyone in the world but is forbidden from spying within Canadian borders or on Canadian citizens anywhere." [Toronto Star]

- In [somewhat] related news, 'Police Question Friend of Olympics Critic Chris Shaw: Nursing student surprised at school by intelligence officers. Councillor calls it 'harassment.'' [The Tyee]

On the eve of the eight-year anniversary of the neo-colonial war in Afghanistan, this is good to see, even if there should be several more zeroes...

"Nearly 300 demonstrators marched from a park honoring a Union general killed in the Civil War to the White House on Monday to protest the War in Afghanistan." [Infozine]

Related:

- 'Students to protest Afghanistan war on 25 campuses' [Common Dreams]

- 'Cindy Sheehan arrested at White House in anti-war protest'

- 'Americans want troops out of Afghanistan' [Video, Russia Today]

- 'Our Best Way Forward in Afghanistan is Out' [Huff Post]

"In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar." [The Independent]

[UPDATE: 'Dollar Hysteria: Is the Sky Really Falling' "Superpower status rests on the flimsy foundation of the dollar, and the dollar is beginning to crack. Fisk is right to this extent; big changes are on the way. Only not just yet..." (Mike Whitney via Counterpunch)]

Ever since Denis Coderre played front man and spin doctor for Canada's first-ever 'lead role' in an illegal coup d'etat as Prime Minister Paul Martin's 'special advisor' on Haiti (2004-2006), I had hoped to see what is being described today as a potentially "inglorious end to Coderre's" career in Liberal politics (I'd like to say politics, period, but it would be unsurprising, for example, to see him end up in Conservative Blue). Many of us had also hoped to see him led away in shackles facing war crimes and crimes against humanity charges. We'll see what comes of Coderre...For now, as a reminder of his understatedly "inglorious" record in office, here's a satirical article that I wrote following his appointment as coup cover man in 2004. 

In August, we noted that Chomsky finally made his way to Venezuela. Here is a copy of one of the talks he gave there. [ZNet]