Now Frankenstein does the bidding for Bush. There never was a victory in Aghanistan. You know, I can't believe the DISINFORMATION this program pumps out as fact. It really is tabloid journalism.
Let's get up caught up on Afghanistan.
Taliban Gains in Afghanistan Due to U.S.-Led Policy, Study Says
By Alex Morales
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aIxrzepD8Bkk&refer=canada
Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The Taliban is gaining ground in Afghanistan due to ``misguided'' policies of the U.S.-led coalition and NATO that focus on fighting insurgents rather than combating poverty, a security and drugs policy analyst said.
U.S.- and U.K.-led counter-narcotic programs in Afghanistan to eradicate the cultivation of opium poppies, and ongoing military campaigns in the south, have accelerated the insurgency and led many Afghans to support the Taliban, the Senlis Council said today in a 217-page report.
``The Taliban has de facto military control of half of Afghanistan, as well as strong psychological control,'' Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of the council, told reporters in London. ``Because the Taliban is helping ordinary people, support for them is growing.''
Blair's legacy is a reckless adventure that's wreaked havoc the world over
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1865720,00.html
The prime minister sealed his fate by signing up in full to a policy now recognised by most Americans as a disaster Jonathan Freedland in Washington
Wednesday September 6, 2006
The Guardian
The Americans can't quite believe it. Getting rid of Tony Blair? Are you Brits crazy? Like Thatcher before him, Blair finds that the acclaim abroad lingers even when there is derision at home. Maggie was a legend in the States when she was shoved aside by the Tories, and the same is true of Blair. When he does his farewell tour - part Sinatra, part royal goodbye - he'd be a fool not to make a stop in America. Here the ovations are guaranteed.
And yet here, he might also reflect, is where his troubles began. Next week marks the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks which radically altered the course of American foreign policy. Blair's great error, the one that historians will identify as the cause of his decline and eventual downfall, was to sign up for that new programme in full - even when it led to disaster.
September 11 2001 was the turning point. It's easy to forget now that in the election campaign of 2000, Governor George W Bush promised a more "humble" international role for America. Not for him the Balkan entanglements and reckless folly of "nation-building" of the Clinton years. Bush's America would step back.
September 11 changed all that. The "realists" of the Bush administration, those cautious folk who believed in diplomacy and alliances, were banished in favour of the ideologues, those who sought to use US power to remake the world.
So was born the Bush doctrine. It declared that America wouldn't wait for anybody's permission slip to act: if it detected a threat it would strike first, alone and pre-emptively if necessary. And, believing that repressive Arab governments were to blame for driving their frustrated youth to extremism, it would use American might to spread democracy in the Middle East and beyond.
That was the new doctrine: unilateralism, pre-emption and coercive democratisation. And what has been the fate of this new faith? Judged from any and every point of view, it has proved the most spectacular failure.
NATO: Up to 60 Taleban Insurgents Killed in Southern Afghanistan
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-09-05-voa17.cfm
Pte. Dave Partridge of Whitby, Ont., left, Sgt. Chad Garton, center, and Pte. Chris Brooks of Brampton, Ont., wait for orders in Panjwaii, after hearing that one of their comrades died in a friendly fire incident nearby, Monday, Sept 4, 2006
Canadian front-line soldier mistakenly killed by U.S. fighter jet
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=d507b7d1-09ad-48fd-b97a-0254cf2a023f&k=23577
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A Canadian soldier was killed and dozens wounded, five seriously, when two U.S. fighter jets called in for close air support mistakenly strafed them with cannon fire Monday morning near the front lines of a battle where four Canadian soldiers died and several were wounded the day before.
Pte. Mark Anthony Graham, a member of 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based at CFB Petawawa, Ont., died in a friendly fire incident involving an American A-10 Warthog aircraft.
NATO Says 200 Taleban, 4 Canadians, Killed in Afghanistan Offensive
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-09-03-voa6.cfm
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says it has killed about 200 Taleban fighters in the first two days of a major military operation in southern Afghanistan.
Canada confirms that four of its soldiers in the NATO-led force have been killed
UK troops in Afghanistan beyond 3 years
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-09-05T225105Z_01_L05622945_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-AFGHANISTAN-MILITARY.xml
LONDON (Reuters) - British troops will probably have to stay in Afghanistan beyond their three-year mission, the new head of Britain's army said Tuesday.
Asked whether he thought his troops, who entered southern Afghanistan this year, would stay beyond the three years announced by the government, General Sir Richard Dannatt said: "We have undertaken a mission that is pretty comprehensive."
"Security may take longer than the three years currently funded for," Dannatt said. "It is a decades-long enduring relationship with southern Afghanistan. I fully anticipate we will be there for longer. How long, I don't know."
Blair's offer: I will go in a year Brown: that's not good enough
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labourleadership/story/0,,1865758,00.html
Chancellor demands a timetable, a public declaration and for his Blairite critics to be muzzled Patrick Wintour, political editorWednesday September 6, 2006The Guardian
Tony Blair gives a keynote speech on social exclusion at the Folk Hall, New Earswick in York. Photograph: John Giles/AFP/Getty
Gordon Brown made clear yesterday that Tony Blair's coded offer to leave Downing Street within the next 12 months was not good enough.
Allies of the chancellor said that Mr Brown was demanding that the prime minister set a timetable for his departure and make the details public.
Mr Brown also wants Mr Blair to rein in the chancellor's critics, such as Stephen Byers and Alan Milburn, who have been making speeches and writing newspaper articles arguing that Blairite reforms be continued after he has stepped down.
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AND YOU WERE WORRIED ABOUT THE BIRD FLU !
Global alert over deadly new TB strains
http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,,1865719,00.html
World health officials last night put out an unprecedented warning that deadly new strains of tuberculosis, virtually untreatable using the drugs currently available, appear to be spreading across the globe.
The new strains are known as extreme drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB. They have been identified and have killed people in several countries, including the United States and eastern Europe, and they have recently been found in Africa, where they could swiftly put an end to all hope of containing the Aids pandemic through treatment.
Yesterday Paul Nunn, who heads the World Health Organisation's TB resistance team, said the situation was very serious. There are 9m cases of TB in the world and the WHO estimates that 2% of them - or 180,000 - could be XDR-TB.
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Anyone getting the feeling the media of the USA is doing nothing but blowing joy up everyone's Ho-ha-ha?
How about the BOG called Iraq?
Britain forced to send more troops to Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1865688,00.html
Britain is to reinforce its military presence in Iraq in a move that reflects increasing concern about the threat to its troops and the inability of local forces to take over responsibility for the country's security.
The decision was announced by the Ministry of Defence as the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, on her first visit to Iraq, warned that it was making "very slow" progress on security. Separately, a leading international thinktank warned that the conflict in Iraq was producing highly trained and motivated jihadists ready to commit terrorist acts in Europe and elsewhere.
The 360 extra British troops will be deployed in southern Iraq to reinforce the 19 Light Brigade which takes over from the 20 Armoured Brigade, at present based in Basra, later this year, the MoD said. They will include soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, based in Cyprus, Royal Engineers, Royal Marines and Military Police.
Iraq needs to be left to Iraqis. The USA and Britain are killing people they see as a threat. But, a threat to who? It could be speculated The West are killing people that are valuable to the culture and country of Iraq, because American has become the target to rid the country of our troops. The war isn't about stabilizing Iraq anymore. It is about defending The West's position in Iraq. The Iraqi military are not interested in killing Iraqis. They are stepping down from the fight. The West aren't wanted there and are the enemy of the Iraqi people. This is NOT our country. We are occupying a country that no longer sees The Coalition as an asset.
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And what about the prison that was to hold the most dangerous terrorists in the world? Gitmo?
Abu Ghraib is closed; now it's Gitmo's turn
http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/286945774062167
Make that one down and one to go.
Iraq's now-infamous prison at Abu Ghraib is now empty and it's about time. Iraqi officials have reported that last week U.S. authorities finished moving about 3,600 prisoners from the prison in recent days with most going to U.S.-run detention centers — Camp Cropper, near Baghdad International Airport, and Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in southern Iraq. Some were released.
And with this international embarrassment now closed, let Guantanamo Bay at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba be next.
Saudi Arabia releases 9 Gitmo detainees
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Saudi_Guantanamo_Detainees.html
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabian authorities have released nine men who were previously held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as terror suspects, a Saudi security official said Tuesday.
The nine were part of a group of 37 Saudis held in Guantanamo and handed over by the United States to the Saudi government, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said.
He said they were released after investigations showed they were not involved in any criminal acts based on Saudi laws.
In May, the Saudis released three of the returned prisoners after clearing them of any wrongdoing.
Of the 450 men suspected of terror links still being held at Guantanamo, about 83 are Saudis. The Saudi government has previously said it hopes Washington hands them over.
The majority of those being held in the Cuba-based prison were captured in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led war on terror.
Oldest Gitmo detainee, at least 71, is sent home
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060829/NEWS/608290347/-1/State
By Ben Fox Associated Press
San Juan, Puerto Rico The oldest detainee at Guantanamo Bay - an Afghan man who is at least 71 and hobbled around the U.S. prison in Cuba using a walker - has been sent home, his lawyer said Monday.Haji Nasrat Khan was among five men from Afghanistan transferred over the weekend, said attorney Peter Ryan, who received the news in an e-mail from the U.S. Department of Justice.Ryan was not told why Khan was transferred, and was trying to determine whether he would be held in custody in Afghanistan or allowed to return home.
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News secretary
Attorney Says German Gitmo Detainee Free
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401526.html
By DAVID McHUGH
The Associated PressThursday, August 24, 2006; 9:03 PM
BERLIN -- A German-born Turkish citizen held for more than four years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay has returned to Germany after being released, his attorneys said Thursday.
Murat Kurnaz, 24, was flown to Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany where he was set free, attorney Bernhard Docke said in a statement.
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Had enough? I think I proved my point tonight. Let's look in on Castro. I hear he is feeling well enough to receive dignitaries. I betcha Georgie didn't even send him a get well card.
Castro loses 18 kg, but 'worst time is behind'
http://english.people.com.cn/200609/06/eng20060906_300064.html
The worst part of a health crisis that made him shed 18.5 kilograms was over, Cuban President Fidel Castro said in a handwritten statement published yesterday, adding that he would attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana next week.
"You can say the most critical moment is behind me," Castro said in the statement, published in the official daily Granma and accompanied by dozens of snapshots.
"Today I'm recovering at a satisfactory pace. I'll be receiving distinguished visitors over the next few days," he wrote.
"That doesn't mean that every activity (of mine) will be immediately covered by film and photos, although news coverage will always be provided."
Cubans had last seen Castro on Friday, when video pictures showed him chatting in his sickbed with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. On August 14, the day after his 80th birthday, he issued a statemeent.
Prior to that, Castro had not been seen since before July 31, when a statement was read on his behalf on television, saying he had undergone surgery and had temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul.
"All of us must understand it is not convenient to systematically provide information or images on my state of health," Castro wrote yesterday.
Castro, who in the latest pictures is dressed in blue or white pyjamas, said he lost weight dramatically in just a few days and that after 34 days of convalescence doctors had removed the last stitches from his intestinal operation.
The Cuban leader is reported to have weighed 88 kilograms before the surgery.
"We must all just as well understand, with a sense of realism, that a full recovery, like it or not, will take a long time," he said.
He said he was in no hurry and that "nobody should be in a hurry," because the country was "doing well and moving ahead."
Referring to Friday's video images, Castro said: "Some people, with reason, said I looked a little thinner, as the only thing unfavourable. I'm very happy they recognized that."
He said "not a single day" went by, even at the start of his illness, that he did not make "an effort to overcome the adverse political consequences of such an unexpected health problem."
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The USA is teaching the farmers in Afghanistan better farming techniques. The Afghan Warlords don't consider opium a weed.
Karzai dismayed over highest opium production
http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?153278
KABUL: President Hamid Karzai has once again urged upon the international community to boost its assistance in the fight against drugs.
The President expressed dismay over the shoot up in opium production in his country. A day earlier, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) announced 59 per cent increase in opium production in Afghanistan this year.
A statement released said the president, during his meeting with the UNODC’s executive director Antonio Maria Costa, observed that the situation was disappointing.
Pakistani president to travel to Kabul for talks with Afghan leader
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/05/asia/AS_GEN_Afghan_Pakistan.php
KABUL, Afghanistan Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will visit Kabul on Wednesday for anti-terror talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
The meeting between two key U.S. allies in the war on terror comes amid Afghanistan's deadliest spate of violence since an American-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Musharraf will lead a high-level delegation on a two-day visit to discuss security issues, the struggle against terrorism, bilateral and regional cooperation, as well as cultural relations, said Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen.
"We hope it will be a major, positive step for relations between the two countries and for cooperation in fighting terrorism," Baheen said.
Militants cross between Afghanistan and Pakistan through their porous 2,450-kilometer-long (1,470-mile-long) border. The two neighbors routinely accuse each other of not doing enough to stamp out militancy along the frontier where bin Laden and other al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives are believed to be hiding.
Musharraf to visit Afghanistan: FO
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Sep06/05/11.htm
* Will also visit Cuba for NAM summit, might meet Manmohan
ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf has accepted an invitation to visit Afghanistan and try to boost badly strained relations between the neighbours, the Foreign Office said Monday.
“Currently arrangements are being made and while I cannot talk about the exact date of the president’s visit, I can confirm to you that yes the visit is taking place,” FO spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a weekly briefing.
“The visit is taking place at the invitation of President Karzai. The purpose of the visit is to further strengthen bilateral relations,” she said. Aslam rejected suggestions that Gen Musharraf was only visiting Afghanistan to curry favour with Washington ahead of a meeting next month with US President George W Bush.
“Good relations, strong relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are too important for both countries to be fostered or strengthened for the sake of any third party,” she said.
The West should fulfil its promises
http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/world/10065287.html
Gulf News
Afghanistan is set for a booming harvest this year of poppies. Cultivation of the flower, the basis of the drug opium, is estimated to increase by nearly 60 per cent over last year.
This will mean Afghanistan will be the producer of about 92 per cent of the world's supply of opium, or approximately 6,100 tonnes, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Ironically, most of the supply will come from provinces in the south, which are dominated by Taliban warlords, but poppy cultivation was at its lowest when the Taliban "ruled" Afghanistan.
Karzai grieved over Iran plane crash
http://www.pajhwak.com/viewstory.asp?lng=eng&id=23787
Pajhwok Report
KABUL, Sep 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai has expressed his deep sense of grief and shock on the plane crash in Iran.
In a statement released here on Saturday, Karzai said he was deeply saddened by the tragedy that resulted in the killing of 29 civilians. An Iranian Tu-154 passenger plane skidded off the runway and burst into flames in Iran's northeastern city of Mashhad on Friday, killing 29 people aboard.
Karzai, on behalf of the people and government of Afghanistan, extended his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the people and government of Iran. He prayed for the souls of the dead and early recovery of those injured in the crash.
One last issue. I saved the BEST for last.
Netanyahu points to 'cracks' in Iran leadership
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3300273,00.html
Likud chairman who visited Washington, says: 'If military option is layered in sanctions, we won't need it'
Yitzhak Ben Horin
Published:
09.06.06, 05:02
Washington – Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu said he saw cracks in the Iranian leadership during a visit to Washington.
Netanyahu, who met with US Vice President Dick Cheney and a group of senators, said that the Iranian nuclear program could be stopped if the United States led a determined campaign.
Speaking to reporters in the American capital at the end of the meeting, Netanyahu said he did not think Iran's program was irreversible.
The Likud chairman met with 15 American senators, and said he was surprised by the level of their distress and worry over the developments in Iran.
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