Tag Archives: Taliban

Close Guantanamo Now!
Close Guantanamo Now! By May 15, 2013
As president and commander-in-chief, Obama has legal authority to do so. On May 3, New York City Bar President Carey R. Dunne wrote him. He did so on behalf of the organization he heads. He called indefinite detention “legally...
Pakistan Election: Will The Violence End?
Pakistan Election: Will The Violence End? By
KARACHI — Pakistan is gearing up for elections that are being hailed as the country’s first-ever democratic transition, but the ongoing political violence will likely overshadow the May 11 vote.  According to local media tallies, more than 100 people have died...
Poll: Pakistanis Fear Taliban, Disapprove Of US War And Drone Campaign
Poll: Pakistanis Fear Taliban, Disapprove Of US War And Drone Campaign By
Pakistan’s Taliban has threatened in a letter to carry out suicide bombings during Saturday’s election. Meanwhile, the mood in Pakistan on the eve of the elections has been described as “dismal,” with a US poll saying that the majority of voters...
Afghan President Ready To Let US Have 9 Bases
Afghan President Ready To Let US Have 9 Bases By
The U.S. can keep nine bases in Afghanistan after the scheduled 2014 NATO combat troop pullout, the country’s president said Thursday, the first time he has made such an offer in public. Hamid Karzai insisted on “security and economic guarantees” first. Talks...
Update: US Covert Actions In Pakistan, Yemen And Somalia
Update: US Covert Actions In Pakistan, Yemen And Somalia By
Two CIA strikes kill at least eight in Pakistan, including an al Qaeda commander. US drone strikes return to Yemen after an 85-day pause. Militants launch one of their most well organised and deadly attacks to date, on a court house in Somalia.   Pakistan April...
The Usual $uspects: Chronic Fraud By US Defense Contractors
The Usual $uspects: Chronic Fraud By US Defense Contractors By
In 2009, the United States government filed a formal claim against Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman — two major defense contractors — in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in regard to alleged violations of the False Claims Act, according to...
Filling the Empty Battlefield
Filling the Empty Battlefield By
Tom Engelhardt Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire was published in March 2000 — and just about no one noticed.  Until then, blowback had been an obscure term of CIA tradecraft, which Johnson defined as “the unintended...
Former Official: Bush Administration Knew Most Guantanamo Detainees Were Innocent
Former Official: Bush Administration Knew Most Guantanamo Detainees Were Innocent By
The retired Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson has called out the Bush administration, alleging that the “vast majority” of the 774 prisoners who have passed through the Guantanamo Bay detention facility since 2002 are innocent, according to an investigation by Truthout. Wilkerson,...
Karzai Blames Both U.S. And Taliban For 12 Afghan Children Killed In Strike
Karzai Blames Both U.S. And Taliban For 12 Afghan Children Killed In Strike By
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is blaming the U.S. and the Taliban for an April 6 attack that killed 17 civilians, including 12 children in Shigal village, Kunar Province. The recent statement reflects a broadening rift between Kabul and Washington over attacks by coalition...
UN: Afghan Opium Production Increases
UN: Afghan Opium Production Increases By
Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been increasing for a third year in a row and is heading for a record high, the U.N. said in a report released Monday. The boom in poppy cultivation is at its most pronounced in the Taliban’s heartland in the south, the report...