Friday, October 28, 2011

US Killer Drones to get their own 51st State?


Arnold Schwarzenegger "Terminator" movie image [found here]

My comment to David Swanson's article on Drones getting their own 51st State (scroll down in this post for excerpt):
Terminator, Rise of the Police State

The American people are enemies to the offshore corporate and bankster operators of the US Government and US Military. No rules apply to them, and after we are sucked dry we are no longer of use, just a nuisance to be dealt with.


This craziness is not gong to stop until we the people force are hand to get honest policing and legitimate courts run by the people, not organized criminals. If US Attorney General Eric Holder and Barack Obama greenlighted, the ATF "Fast and Furious" program to get guns from American gun shops into the hands of Mexican drug gangs to commit wholesale murders to take out the 2nd Amendment, Holder and Obama are criminals and should be arrested. Cheney, Bush, and crew should also be arrested for their crimes against humanity. Jails should be for connected and powerful criminals, not just fathers who can't pay, not won't pay child support, and for those who use the CIA's products, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.

The military taking over major parts of the US for "exercises" is an extremely bad sign. All US taxpayers spending billions to make the NYPD and international policing, spying, and military organization is also pure lunacy. [story and link to CBS 60 Minutes video]


A 51St State For Armed Robotic Drones

By (about the author)

Weaponized UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), also known as drones, have their own caucus in Congress, and the Pentagon's plan is to give them their own state as well.

Under this plan, 7 million acres (or 11,000 square miles) of land in the southeast corner of Colorado, and 60 million acres of air space (or 94,000 square miles) over Colorado and New Mexico would be given over to special forces testing and training in the use of remote-controlled flying murder machines. The full state of Colorado is itself 104,000 square miles. Rhode Island is 1,000 square miles. Virginia, where I live, is 43,000 square miles.

The U.S. military (including Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines) is proceeding with this plan in violation of the public will, new state legislation on private property rights, an exceptionally strong federal court order, and a funding ban passed by the United States Congress, and in the absence of any approved Environmental Impact Statement. Public pressure has successfully put the law on the right side of this issue, and the military is disregarding the law.

I spoke with Jean Aguerre, whose organization "Not 1 More Acre" ( http://not1moreacre.net ) is leading the pushback against this madness. Jean told me she grew up, during the 1960s, on the vast grasslands of southeast Colorado, where the Comanche National Grasslands makes up part of a system of grasslands put in place to help the prairie recover from the dust bowl. The dust bowl, Aguerre says, was the worst environmental disaster in the United States until BP filled the Gulf of Mexico with oil. The dust bowl had been brought on by the government's policy of requiring homesteaders to plow the prairie. The recovery programs created large tracts of land, of 100,000 acres and more, owned by "generational ranchers," that is families that would hand the ranches off to their children.

Aguerre said she grew up on a ranch of incredible beauty and natural wealth, with a 165-million-year-old dinosaur track way and petroglyphs from 12,000 years back. Grasslands are the most threatened ecosystems in the world because they are so accessible, Aguerre says, and the only intact short grassland left in this country is the one being targeted for the "51st state."

Round One began in the 1980s. Fort Carson, an Army base in Colorado Springs, had been kept open after World War II and now began looking for more land. The people of the area were opposed. The U.S. Congressman representing the area agreed to oppose any landgrab. But Senator Gary Hart took the opposite position. As a result, during the early 1980s, the Army Corps of Engineers started telling ranchers to sell out or risk seeing their land condemned and taken from them.

The ranch next to Aguerre's is called Wine Glass Rourke. It was sold to a shill, as Aguerre describes the buyer. He ran the place into the ground with too many cattle, she says, and then sold it to the military, "And they were off and running!" With condemnations the military put together 250 thousand acres. Ranchers, along with their cattle, were moved off their own land by federal marshals. "We didn't know when we'd be next," Aguerre says of her own family.

Luckily for the people of Colorado and New Mexico, and all of us, Aguerre got involved in politics. She became a political director for Congressman Tim Werth who later became a U.S. senator. Aguerre took him to see the Wine Glass Rourke ranch and told him "Let's take it back." Werth dedicated his staff to the effort for three years, resulting in the transfer to the Forest Service of 17,000 key acres.

The Army used its new land less than twice a year for maneuvers, but caused horrible environmental damage whenever it did. That was the case for about 30 years, until the activity of recent years made everything that came before look sensitive and sustainable.

In the meantime, people like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were theorizing the transformation of the U.S. military into a force for robotic warfare. Aguerre believes it was in 1996 that a decision was made that the military would need a robotic warfare center. Around 1999 the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement was created. This precedes the more specific Site Environmental Impact Statements. The U.S. public, just like the public of any foreign nation where new U.S. bases are being planned, was told nothing.

In 2006, Aguerre was working in Oregon when friends started asking her to come home and help because something big was happening. An Army land expansion map had been leaked that showed plans for taking over 6.9 million acres, the whole southeast corner of the state. Aguerre thought she would come home for two weeks but has never left. An Environmental Impact Statement for the site was about to be released, and Aguerre knew that meant the project was pretty far along. She formed organizations and found a lawyer in Colorado Springs named Steve Harris to help. The two of them, she says, were absolutely dedicated to NEPA and FOIA. NEPA is the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. FOIA is the Freedom of Information Act of 1966. "NEPA is intended to prevent our government taking our world apart piece by piece without our knowing it," explains Aguerre. [click here, more from source]

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This blogger goes off on a rant with links at the bottom of [this post] on why he blogs, and why he won't give up on the subject of Connecticut State Police brutality, Judicial Misconduct, and an attempt at pursuing the American Dream, an absolute nightmare in Stafford Springs, Connecticut.


http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2011/03/fusion-center-locations-and-information.html

http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2006/11/attn-fbi-and-ct-state-senator-tony.html

http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2008/06/nepotism-and-corruption-in-connecticut.html

[click here] for:

How Android Type Cell Phones put you in Danger

Should you be concerned about using and carrying your cell phone?



[more]

[click here] for embedded video in blog post on how smart electric meters are used to spy on you.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Federal Reserve and the price of Beer


Natural Ice beer package image [stolen from here]

The private bank, known as The Federal Reserve aka "The Fed," can print money to cover debts, called, "Monetizing the Debt."

With more money in circulation, every American is taking a pay cut.

For those who shop Wal-Mart, the price of food is going to go up. The US Dollar is no worth less.

I am not saying whether I shopped recently for beer in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or Vermont. The price for a 12 pack of Natural Ice was $7.99 at Wal-Mart and only $6.99 at a Mom and Pop shop owned by two women. The woman at the counter said all beer prices are going up, and they price their beer, milk, and what are considered essentials below the Wal-Mart prices. Good for them.

I expand on my thoughts here:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2011/10/1-of-richest-for-obama.html


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James Grant Interviewed on Capital Account 10/24/11 (Part 1)


Text with video:

Uploaded by on Oct 24, 2011

In this episode of Capital Account, Lauren Lyster speaks with Founder of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, Jim Grant to speak about Europe, the Federal Reserve, and Quantitative Easing. As the Eurozone comes out of a weekend to resolve the debt crisis with more "to be determined," are more people losing faith that Europe will make it? And when we talk about the exposure of US investors to Europe, in a case of unintended consequences is it because of Federal Reserve policies that fund managers took their money overseas to indebted banks and nations that now could stand to fail? And speaking of the Fed, are we seeing a campaign forming for more QE? This is Part 1 of the interview. For Part 2 please visit the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fblTCGpjQs



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I placed the below text as an additional comment to [this opedmews.com post]:

Writing here on Opednews.com, respectfully requesting what you want done with your tax dollars, being against illegal wars of occupation, or proposing legislation to elected officials to try and fix the police state and Soviet style courts can land a citizen on a Homeland Security Fusion Center enemies list. If you want information on the location of the nearest fusion center [click here].

Smart electric meters are used to know when you are home, or not, and report your use and patterns to authorities. More states are pushing for laws so citizens have to have keys to their houses in lock boxes outside, accessible to police and other officials so they have 24/7 access to your home when you are there, or not. Cell phone and internet providers illegally cooperate with illegal government domestic spying programs. Police are paying informants to file fast reports to facilitate arrests and false imprisonment, and beat up citizens to retaliate against them for making police misconduct complaints or because they are politically active.

Maybe 75%, or more, is spent on policing, rigged courts, the military, government, and mounting interest on the debts you never agreed to pay in the first place. The corruption is in your face. The government's security programs are not for you, it is for them. They don't want to be prosecuted, they don't want the people to connect the dots, and successfully rise up. Growing your own food is pretty much illegal, the government is going after small businesses, the self-employed, intact families, and homeowners. The ATF is supplying guns to Mexican Drug Gangs. The Government wants to end cash transactions between citizens. Do you get the picture?


"Smart Electric Meters" are good for the Police State:
http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Is-your-electric-meter-spy-by-Steven-G-Erickson-110712-518.html

Smart Meters


http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2011/03/fusion-center-locations-and-information.html

stevengerickson At yahoo dot com

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Should the New York City Police Department become another tentacle of the Pentagon with CIA and US Military capabilities for spying, killing, bombing, propaganda, furthering offshore corporate and bankster agendas, and enslaving citizens worldwide?


[click here] for:

Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Abused to Make NYPD, WORLD POLICE

Right on network television, right before your eyes, offshore corporate banksters show you how they steal billions.



[more]

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Monday, October 24, 2011

1968 or 1969, The Doors perform "The End" Stockholm, Sweden

Text with video:

Uploaded by on May 21, 2011

The Doors 1969 .Stockholm , Sweden Live -The End





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http://thesrv.blogspot.com/2011/10/chossudovsky-killing-of-gaddafi-and.html


http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2011/03/fusion-center-locations-and-information.html

http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2011/10/color-purple-and-solidarity-with-occupy.html

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17. The Doors - Wild Child (Stockholm 1968 2nd Night)


Text with video:

Uploaded by on Mar 18, 2011

The first Doors' upload is the complete Stockholm gig.There's a soundboard recording, but the bad quality of the microphone complicate the listening of the first night.In When The Music's Over, is very hard to listen the Jim's voice.At the second night, the microphones were in better quality, and the sound is great.You're Lost Little Girl is performed with very expressivity, and Wild Child is very energic.The bad performance of the first night is Light My Fire, while A Little Game and The Hill Dweelers are amazing.There's one of my favourite Doors' bootlegs, and in the complete version for the first time on Youtube.

The Doors people are strange - New York CBS


Text with video:

Uploaded by on Aug 11, 2010

no description available



Moonlight drive


Text with video:

Uploaded by on Sep 18, 2010

The Doors - Moonlight drive, Strange Days (1967)



THE DOORS - Strange Days (lyrics included, 1967)


Text with video:

Uploaded by on Oct 31, 2010

Second album "Strange Days", opening track

The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California. Throughout its existence, the group consisted of vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger. The band took its name from Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception the title of which was a reference to a William Blake quote: "When the doors of perception are cleansed, things will appear to man as they truly are...infinite." They were among the most controversial rock acts of the 1960s, due mostly to Morrison's wild, poetic lyrics and charismatic but unpredictable stage persona. After Morrison's death in 1971, the remaining members continued as a trio until finally disbanding in 1973.

"Strange Days" consists of songs that were written in 1965-1966 , but did not make it onto their debut album, such as "Moonlight Drive", which was one of the first songs written by Jim Morrison. The song was recorded in 1965 (demo) and 1966 (intended for their first album). In 1967 a final version was recorded and released on this album. Strange Days contains some of The Doors' most psychedelic songs. It includes songs such as "Strange Days", "People Are Strange", "Love Me Two Times" and "When the Music's Over".



Jim Morrisons Last Performance 1971


Text with video:

Uploaded by on May 11, 2008

The Doors Crawling King Snake Jim Morrisons Last Performance broadcasted on Australian TV from LA, 1971.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Chossudovsky: Killing of Gaddafi and NATO's Money-Driven Wars of Conquest

Text with below video:

Uploaded by on Oct 21, 2011

After nearly a two month manhunt, former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was found and killed. Revolutionary forces flooded his hometown, Sirte, and according to some reports, the US fired a drone missile at his convoy causing his death.

Michel Chossudovsky, director for the Centre for Research on Globalization, tells us more about today's events.

Originally aired on RT, October 20, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4sKK30_7g





My thoughts on this subject:
http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-veterans-of-foreign-wars-are.html

A great source for video, independent news, podcasts, interviews and more, The James Corbett Report:
http://www.corbettreport.com/

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Courts Rule US Government Above the Law


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Uploaded by on Oct 18, 2011

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=2855

Manhattan Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein has declined to hold the CIA in contempt for destroying videos that it had been ordered by the courts to preserve.

Find out more about the decision, what it means, and its context in this week's edition of Behind the Headlines.



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http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2011/03/fusion-center-locations-and-information.html

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The Death of Dr. David Kelly - GRTV


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Uploaded by on Oct 12, 2011

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=2803

On July 18, 2003, British biowarfare expert and UN weapons inspector David Kelly was found dead on Harrowdown Hill, near his home in Oxfordshire. Ruled a suicide by the official judicial inquiry chaired by Lord Hutton, now a group of British doctors is challenging the Attorney General's decision not to hold a coroner's inquest into the death, citing the overlooked, suppressed and modified evidence suggesting Dr. Kelly was murdered. This is the GRTV Backgrounder on The Death of Dr. David Kelly.



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The Story of Lisa Masterson aka Elena Cook:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2006/08/lisa-masterson-of-uk-victim-of.html

http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2010/10/corkscrew-worms-of-lyme-disease.html

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Chossudovsky: War in Afghanistan: A Crime Against Humanity


Text with video:

Uploaded by on Oct 7, 2011

The decade-long war waged by the US and its allies in Afghanistan does not seem to be coming to an end. With tremendous civilian casualties and a ruined economy and institutions, the justification for the war seems to be dubious and ill-considered.

The war against Afghanistan was an act of illegal aggression by the United States and NATO despite its being presented as a response to 9/11, believes Michel Chossudovsky, editor at the Centre for Research on Globalization.

However, "Afghanistan as a country was not behind the attack," he underlines.

The legacy of the war which started in 2001 is a wrecked economy and institutions, lack of public health and mass unemployment, he adds. Chossudovsky doubts that it is possible to plan a large-scale war in Central Asia in just four weeks.

"The war on Afghanistan was on the drawing board of the Pentagon. It was in advanced stages of planning before 9/11," he claims.

"And 9/11 provided the pretext and justification for waging a war on a sovereign country, an impoverished country in Central Asia," he says, labeling it as a fabricated pretext.

"This war still stands out as violation of international law and a crime against humanity," he claims.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, former commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, has harshly criticized the US campaign in Afghanistan, claiming that allied forces are only "50 per cent of the way" towards achieving their goals.

The retired general said, "We didn't know enough and we still don't know enough. Most of us, me included, had a very superficial understanding of the situation and history, and we had a frighteningly simplistic view of recent history, the last 50 years."

According to Michel Chossudovsky, "the statement by General McChrystal is a cynical statement." He notes that it somehow suggests that this is a humanitarian operation to come to the rescue of the people of Afghanistan, while all the evidence demonstrates quite the opposite.

Originally aired on RT on October 7, 2011,
on the 10th anniversary of the NATO invasion of Afghanistan
http://rt.com/news/war-afghanistan-crime-humanity-327/



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http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2011/10/jimmy-carter-sold-peanuts-ronald-reagan.html


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INFOWARS.COM - Willie Nelson and Jesse Ventura: The Lost Interviews HD.


http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2011/10/color-purple-and-solidarity-with-occupy.html


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Saturday, October 08, 2011

CIA Covert Wars in the Islamic World

The below, cut and pasted, [from here]

by Sajjad Shaukat

John Stockwell, ex-CIA Station Chief in Angola in 1976, also worked for the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under George Bush (Senior) spent 13 years in the agency. He testified before the Congress that during the Cold War era, over 6 million people have died in the CIA covert wars.

After the September 11 tragedy in the US homeland, although a number of Islamic countries such as Indonesia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Pakistan and almost all the Gulf states joined the Bush anti-terrorism war, yet they became target of the CIA covert wars. In this respect, in words, President Bush repeatedly said that his ‘different war’, is not against the Muslim countries, but in practice, only Islamic countries were targeted under the pretext of terrorism or Al Qaeda which became a scapegoat of American secret designs which are being fulfilled by the clandestine techniques of CIA.

CIA agents are present in all the Islamic countries, implementing various tactics of psychological warfare. Its operations are conducted with great professional skill which include the establishment of a huge network inside the target country. It has used propaganda, political dissent, ethnic divisions, sectarian violence, economic backwardness and criminal elements to foment subversion to weaken the related Muslim states in conssonance with American ambitions. However, application of these nefarios designs vary from country to country as CIA incursion in these countries prove.

Assassination of political figures and innocent persons in the Islamic countries is the key aim of this agency. In this connection, Ramzi Yousaf who was well-aware of the activities of the American and Israeli secret agencies had stated in the US court in 1997, “You are butchers, liars, and hypocrites. You keep on talking about terrorism to the media, but behind closed doors you support terrorism”.

Besides, disinformation is also one of the tactics of this rogue intelligence agency. For instance, before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a deliberate disinformation campaign was launched by the CIA all over the world that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMDs). In that respect, a self-fabricated report was prepared about Iraq. Afterwards, Iraq was attacked and occupied by the Anglo-American forces, but no WMDs were found. In fact, main aim of Washington was to occupy the oil resouces of that country.

While confirming US Central Intelligence Agency’s expanding operations, Jeremy Scahill’s report, published in a daily revealed that since the 2006 US-led Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, the CIA maintains a growing security complex in the country, located right behind Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport. The complex contains over a dozen buildings as well as several metal hangars, which house CIA aircraft. Now a new report by United Press International claims that the clandestine American campaign in the horn of Africa “appears to be growing daily”, and that the CIA complex contains a prison for the suspected militants who are routinely interrogated and tortured by the members of a Mogadishu-based CIA team. Scahill also discloses that the growing CIA presence there is part of a wider expansion of America’s campaign in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Indonesia, Somalia etc. For this purpose, the Somali government is using American financial aid to hire European private security firms. The mission there is also to train Kenyan and Ugandan troops for special operations including sabotage and assassinations.

Since 9/11, under the pretext of terrorism, American CIA in collusion with Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad tortured the Muslims in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graid and other cells through brutal tactics which killed majority of the innocent civilians.

As regards the CIA role to exploit the Iranian election protests in 2009, its programme involved playing the media as well as having secret agents on the ground in Iran. In this regard, in May 2007, ABC News reported that the CIA had received secret presidential (Bush) approval to mount a covert “black” operation to destabilise Iranian government.

Starting from Iran, protests and armd clashes inspired by the CIA resulted in revolt in Tunisia, expanding uprising and demonstrations to Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Syria and Libya.

On May 20, 2011, The Guardian indicated, “US President Obama placed Washington on the side of popular uprisings not only in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya but also in Syria and Bahrain—a longtime American ally.” It wrote, “President unveils shift in US policy towards Arab countries—tells Syria’s Assad to get out of way.” On March 31, 2011, the Guardian revealed that the President Obama had signed a secret order authorising covert help to arm Lybian rebels. The New York Times reported that the CIA had inserted secret agents to gather intelligence, identifying targets for airstrikes inside Libya.

On March 2, 2011, Yemen’s President Saleh, describing the role of CIA and Israeli Mossad, claimed, “I am going to reveal a secret…there is an operations room in Tel Aviv run by the White House with the aim of destabilising the Arab world. Saleh also said that opposition figures meet regularly with the US ambassador in Sanaa.

In its cables, Wikileaks have also disclosed that the CIA organized demonstrations in Syria and other Middle East countries.

However, in line with the Obama’s strategy, CIA agents succeeded in ousting Tunisian President Ben Ali, Egyptian Mubarak (a close ally of the US) and Lybian President Gaddafi.

Nevertheless, some latest resources suggest that under the pretext of Al Qaeda, the Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for CIA in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack Al Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen.

Question also arises as what the US will gain by waging its covert wars in these Islamic countries? It is notable that the politics places a big role in the unrest in the Middle East, while economic concerns are equally important. In these terms, US seeks to create instability in the Middle East and the Muslim North African countries in order to protect the interests of Israel. And it wants to control the oil fields of the Arab countries. While on the other side, despite CIA support to violent protests in these countries, resentment is running high against America and Israel. In this context, Egyptians victorious attack on Israeli embassy on September 9, 2011 in Cairo might be cited as an example.

It is mentionable that following the false flag of 9/11, the Bush administration announced to go after the so-called “axis of evil,” specifically Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Now Obama has presumed Pakistan, Iran and Syria as ‘axis of evil.” In this respect, determination of Iran to continue its nuclear programme and country’s support to Hezbollah which also defeated Israel in 2006 and Syrian stand for Palestinian cause irritate America.

Notably, Pakistan has become special target of the US-led India and Israel because it is the only ‘nuclearised’ Islamic country. While, frustrated with the defeat in Afghanistan, with the support of RAW and Mossad, the Obama administration has been implementing CIA secret war in Pakistan through bomb blasts, suicide attacks and targeted killings so as to destabilise our country. For the purpose, America has planned a CIA covert war against Pakistan, while the US, India and Israel are already assisting the insurgents and their paid-agents with money and weapons.

Recently, tension increased in Pak-US relations when American retiring top military officer Mike Mullen accused that Pakistan is waging a ‘proxy war’ in Afghanistan with the assistance of country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), alleging for a recent assault on the US embassy in Kabul. Mullen’s irresponsible statement was also repeated by the other US high officials who issued stern warning about Islamabad’s failure to crack down on the Haqqani network, and raised the possibility of US unilateral action in North Waziristan. Meanwhile, the US-backed intermittent attacks by the armed militants who infiltrated in Pakistan from Afghanistan have continued.

Nonetheless, Pakistan’s civil and military leadership, while rejecting US allegations and pressure, refused to launch military operation in North Waziristan—and made it clear that in future, Islamabad will deal with Washington on equal basis.

Under the pretext of cross-border terrorism and Haqqani group, US could intensify drone attacks on North Waziristan. Besides, as part of its covert war, America will also shift Afghan war to Pakistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

No doubt, CIA has been waging covert wars in the Islamic World so as to fulfill American secret designs including those of India and Israel.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Bill Doriss on Amanda Knox and Anwar al Awlaki

I think it is a dangerous precedent when Americans can be put on target on kill lists, no trial, no arrest. The Amanda Knox shows what pressure can come from exposing a case to the world. There was sympathy for Ms. Knox. There are so many miscarriages of justice in the US, and the world, let's see to it that there is more justice for everyone.
-stevengerickson AT Yahoo Dot Com

The Anwar al Awlaki killing in Yemen over the weekend raises Constitutional questions according to the N.Y. Times original report and discussed yesterday on Talk of the Nation/NPR. I'm in agreement with critics of the killing. It clearly shows the govt. denies due-process rights to those it designates as criminals or "enemy combatants", whether they are in fact criminals or combatants. The designation itself is key, and thusly gives agents for the govt. permission to carry out their dirty deeds.

Designants are denied the right to contest the designation with evidence and counter arguments.

It's abominable practice and a serious mistake by the Obama administration. It may cost him more than anything he has done to date, although his mistakes and missteps thus far will be having a cumulative effect. Liberals, particularly liberals educated at some of our most elite colleges and universities, are adept at masquerading their hypocrisies with respect to rights and due process. A man spewing forth hatred against the U.S. is designated an enemy combatant and targeted for extrajudicial death sentence. Meanwhile, the man may have had weapons no more lethal than pen and keyboard.

Targeting and "entrapment" are both abominable practices which our govt. uses routinely. The U.S. of A. was not founded on principles of targeting and entrapment. Quite the contrary!

In Connecticut, the designation "criminal" automatically empowers the state to deny citizen-residents Constitutional rights and due process without proper review or accountability. CT is a rogue state operating outside of normative best practices nationwide.

The Amanda Knox acquital is welcome news, and puts the spotlight on how incompetent and ineffective our own judicial review process is. Now how does Amanda get her four years spent in prison back? How is she going to be made whole?

P.S., Amanda bears a striking resemblance to my own daughter Ashley. That's meant as a compliment, of course. Congratulations Amanda for maintaining your innocence and speaking truth to power.
Bill

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http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2010/01/target-on-enemies-list.html

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