Category Archives: U.S. policy

Iran shoots at US drone

November 9, 2012 – 12:50 pm

The cold war between America and Iran has just gotten a whole lot hotter. CNN has reported that Iran shot at an unarmed US drone. According to CNN, which never quotes Iranian officials and instead relies entirely on unnamed US officials, the drone was in international waters near Kuwait on a routine mission when it was fired upon. But as John Glasser points out

The claim that the drone was in international airspace cannot be confirmed, but it is dubious considering the difficulty Iran would have of firing on a small drone far from its own territory.

The claim that the unarmed Predator drone was engaged in “routine maritime surveillance” is also very dubious. First of all, just because it was “routine” has no bearing on whether its activity could justly be seen as hostile.

And if it was routine, and the Pentagon has nothing to hide, then the surveillance mission should not have been classified, as it was.

Thankfully there are still media organizations like Antiwar.com and the Christian Science Monitor who are questioning CNN’s reporting on this incident. For a great take on how CNN is merely acting as a PR firm for the White House read Glenn Greenwalds piece from yesterday.

All of this comes on the heels of Patrick Clawson’s disturbing comments on how the US could provoke a war with Iran. Clawson is the head of the Israeli funded pro-Israel think tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in America, Iran | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Drones, drones, and more drones

September 25, 2012 – 7:13 pm

While our peace loving President gave another bland and erroneous speech at the UN today on how much America loves the Muslim world and democracy, a new report came out detailing the destructive and violent nature that the drone wars have been inflicting on the people of Pakistan.  The report is yet another damning look at how awful and illegal this particular policy is.  The report in entitled “Living Under Drones” and I urge anyone unfamiliar with the drone war to read it.  It is time that the American people wake up and throw off the shackles that our political overlord have placed upon us.  We do not need to be engaged in constant warfare in which we murder innocent people in order to make us “safe”.  This is the most counterproductive way of going about protecting America.  When you step into that voting booth in 42 days here are a few things you should think about.

(Via: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

CIA Drone Strikes in Pakistan 2004 – 2012

Total US strikes: 346
Obama strikes: 294
Total reported killed: 2,570-3,337
Civilians reported killed: 474-884
Children reported killed: 176
Total reported injured: 1,232-1,366
For the latest Pakistan strike data click here.

US Covert Action in Yemen 2002 – 2012

Total confirmed US operations (all): 52-62
Total confirmed US drone strikes: 40-50
Possible additional US operations: 117-133
Possible additional US drone strikes: 61-71
Total reported killed (all): 357-1,026
Total civilians killed (all): 60-163
Children killed (all): 24-34
For the latest data from Yemen click here.

US Covert Action in Somalia 2007 – 2012

Total US strikes: 10-22
Total US drone strikes: 3-9
Total reported killed: 58-169
Civilians reported killed: 11-57
Children reported killed: 1-3
For the complete data on Somalia click here.
By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in Pakistan | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Clinton bows down before Iranian cult

September 21, 2012 – 1:18 pm

Here is some advice to any terrorists trying to get off the State Department terror list; work for the United States and Israel. The MEK will be taken off the list at the behest of Secretary Clinton as early as today. The evidence that the MEK is being used by Israel to assassinate Iranian scientists is very well documented at this point. And the intense lobbying by American officials on behalf of the terrorist cult is widespread in Washington DC.

The delisting should prove to Iran and its population that America has every intention of fomenting regime change, and no intention of negotiating a peaceful settlement over the nuclear issue. Like all other US policies towards Iran, the delisting should also help to consolidate the Iranian elites power over the population. Liberal Tehran Iranians don’t like the MEK. They will not side with an Israeli/American backed terror group against their own government. The brutal sanctions have not resulted in Iranians rising up against the regime. Why would a terror group that fought on the side of Saddam Hussein be welcomed by the Iranian public? Iran’s population will see this as yet another attempt by the United States to try and dominate them.

Here is a decent look at the group that Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Frans Townsend and all the other plastic people in DC are so eager to embrace.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in Iran, Terrorism | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

“We didn’t make that movie!”

September 21, 2012 – 11:27 am

A new low been reached in the ongoing saga over “The Innocence of Muslims” video and the protests that have engulfed the Muslim world. The US State Department has bought $70,000 worth of TV air time in Pakistan to run adds proclaiming how they had nothing to do with making the video. These adds include this pathetic statement from Sec. Clinton

Let me state very clearly, the United States has absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its contents

Here are a few things that the US government have done that may be causing people in Pakistan to protest.

-Massive drone strikes.

This one is a no brainer. Maybe Clinton has forgotten that her boss has murders hundreds of Pakistanis with robots. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that might engender some resentment towards the US government. Either the administration is completely stupid, not totally unbelievable, or they are so cynical that they don’t care. If you drop a bomb from a flying death robot and kill someone’s brother, uncle, or daughter, chances are they are not going to go out in the street and praise you.

-CIA running amok

Again this is another no brainer for the US government. America would never stand for a foreign intelligence agency running around killing and kidnapping people. Why would the Pakistanis be ok with this? The Pakistani public still remembers Raymond Davis. And guess what, they are still upset about it.

-Bin Laden raid

This one seems to be the most difficult
for Obama and his cronies to understand. The White House is still under the impression that the Pakistanis should be bowing down before their imperial overlords, kissing their feet for murdering Americas sworn enemy. The average Pakistani does not care about Bin Laden. They are more concerned with providing for their families and avoiding drone strikes, not with the fate of Bin Laden. In fact if you asked most people in Pakistan or the Muslim world at large they would agree with most of what Bin Laden preached. Most Muslims are in agreement that the constant occupation of their countries, green light for Israel to conduct wars, and support of brutal dictators are despicable policies that America is guilty of. Now while most Muslims are not in favor of flying airplanes into the Twin Towers, they are also not in favor of American special forces illegally flying into their nation and killing people. Unsurprisingly the Pakistanis also don’t like when the CIA recruits a corrupt doctor to give phony vaccinations to children in a vain attempt to find Bin Laden.

-Aid and support for military and corrupt government

This aspect may in fact be the most corrosive. American aid money and support to a corrupt military and government that willingly participates in the war on terror has led to widespread hatred of America. The Pakistani government would not be able to commit some of its more heinous crimes if it were not for American aid money. Pakistanis are not stupid. They understand that their puppet masters are controlled by Uncle Sam.

This is why people are protesting in Pakistan.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in Pakistan | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

James Traub is an imperialist

September 6, 2012 – 4:15 pm

There was a time in my life when I used to read Foreign Policy and think that it was really cutting edge and unbiased, alas this is no longer the case.  Eventually I woke up to the fact that Foreign Policy is the mouth piece of the warmongering bipartisan foreign policy establishment in Washington.  James Traub is an excellent example of the kind of fools that Foreign Policy employs.  He is a fellow at the Center on International Cooperation which is like all the other establishment Beltway think tanks.  In his weekly column, Terms of Engagement, he attempts to show how it is now time for President Obama to really get involved in Syria.  Traub hardly hides his imperialist reasons for why Obama should start massively arming the rebels

The rebels have been forced again and again to break off battles they might otherwise win for lack of ammunition and firepower. With anti-aircraft capability, the rebels could create a safe haven on their own. With anti-tank missiles, they night quickly turn the tide in other disputed areas.

The United States has a profound interest not only in bringing the slaughter in Syria to an end, but in having a meaningful presence on the ground when that happens — as it did in Libya thanks to the NATO air campaign. It will not be easy, under any circumstances, to prevent Syria from collapsing into religious and ethnic enclaves, or into a war of all against all. But if Washington remains on the sidelines, as it has until now, it will have little influence with those who will ultimately prevail, and thus little ability to help shape the post-Assad landscape.

Obama might decide to postpone the decision until after the election, but that would be an act of consummate cynicism. He should act now, before it’s too late.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in Syria | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Breaking the Silence Silenced by RNC convention

August 27, 2012 – 6:30 pm

The indispensable Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence has released a new report on children and youth in the Occupied West Bank.  Complete with video testimonies the new report paints a disturbing picture of the daily violence that the IDF inflicts on Palestinian children.  Now normally the American media would try their best to ignore this sort of report.  They may even try their best to some how portray this as yet another viscous anti-Semitic attack.  Lucky for the media the Republican National Convention will be eating up most of their time and energy.  So before you get all worked up over the RNC and DNC conventions take the time and read through the report.  If you cant read the whole report here are articles in The Independent, The Guardian and Ynet, all of which deal with the recent report.  When your watching the balloons falling from the convention arena ceiling, you may want to take a minute and think about how your tax dollars go to funding this decades long occupation.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in America, Israel, Israel/Palestine, Occupied territories, Palestine | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Assange extradition reaches new level of insanity

August 16, 2012 – 8:42 pm

The ongoing persecution of Julian Assange has reached a new level of absurdity today after it was announced that Ecuador had granted the founder of Wikileaks asylum. In the aftermath of Quito granting asylum to Assange the
British government sent this letter to the Ecuadorians

You should be aware that there is a legal basis in the U.K. the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act which would allow us to take action to arrest Mr. Assange in the current premises of the Embassy.
We very much hope not to get this point, but if you cannot resolve the issue of Mr. Assange’s presence on your premises, this route is open to us.
We understand the importance to you of the issues raised by Mr. Assange, and the strong public pressure in country. But we still have to resolve the situation on the ground, here in the U.K., in line with our legal obligations. We have endeavored to develop a joint text, which helps both meet your concerns, and presentational needs.

After sending this letter threatening to storm the Ecuadorian embassy the British government denied that this was a threat. This denial of a threat was followed by the sending of non-threatening police vans to surround the Ecuadorian embassy. Continuing in this vain of non threatening behavior by the British government, William Hague had this to say regarding diplomatic asylum

We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom, nor is there any legal basis for us to do so. The United Kingdom does not recognise the principle of diplomatic asylum.
It is far from a universally accepted concept: the United Kingdom is not a party to any legal instruments which require us to recognise the grant of diplomatic asylum by a foreign embassy in this country.
Moreover, it is well established that, even for those countries which do recognise diplomatic asylum, it should not be used for the purposes of escaping the regular processes of the courts. And in this case that is clearly what is happening.

So are we really meant to believe that Britain is willing to break diplomatic conventions and storm a foreign embassy (exposing their diplomats to untold dangers overseas) and arrest Julian Assange so he can be brought to Sweden for QUESTIONING( he has never been charged) in a sex crimes case against him? The answer is no. Britain is jumping through all of these hoops at the behest of their American cousins. This has nothing to do with rape allegations. That is merely the justification for extraditing Assange to Sweden do he can be sent to the United States for trial or indefinite detention. If Britain were so forthright with prosecuting sex offenders they would have extradited Pinochet who had countless women raped while he was dictator of Chile. Luckily for Pinochet he commanded a greater deal of respect from the British government. Indeed if Sweden was so concerned with these two women who have accused Assange of rape, why have they turned down multiple invitations to question Assange in London? Because they too are doing the bidding of the Americans.

I know I am rehashing a lot of stuff here, but the point is to really make clear how extraordinarily outrageous this whole affair is. All of this is being done at the behest of our liberal democracy loving president to punish someone for exposing the truth about Americas crimes around the world. England, Sweden, and Australia are all willing to put their own diplomats in danger all because the president and America got embarrassed. This should instill a sense of shame and rage in all Americans. The saddest part of all of this is how blatant it is. No one is even trying to spin this as an extradition meant to uphold the law and bring justice for these alleged rape victims. As Marcy Wheeler so brilliantly points out, this whole diplomatic fiasco is doing exactly what Wikileaks did in the first place. Which was to

expose publicly what has become true but remains largely unacknowledged: the US and its allies find international law and protocols to be quaint. That was obviously true under Bush, with the illegal Iraq war and his disdain for the Geneva Conventions. But Obama, too, continues to do things legally authorized only by the most acrobatic of legal interpretations.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in America, Julian Assange | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Iran still isn’t building a bomb

August 10, 2012 – 10:56 pm

Once again the United States admits that Iran is not building a nuclear bomb. This time around it was in response to the erroneous claims that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has been making to the media in the Jewish state. Barak recently said that the American position on Iran was finally moving closer Israel’s. This was after Haaretz reported that there was a new NIE stating that Iran was in fact constructing a nuclear bomb. The Haaretz report is as false as Barak’s comments. No where in the Haaretz report is new intelligence cited. The same old lies about a supposed “clean up” at the Parchin military facility are cited as evidence by Haaretz, despite it having been debunked already. Haaretz also relies on anonymous Western and Israeli diplomats as sources for this new revelation. The other “reliable” source used by Haaretz comes from the violent Iranian terrorist cult group the MEK. I won’t even take the time here to break down how the MEK has absolutely no credibility.

So let’s be clear so we don’t have to go through with this for the two hundredth time. Iran is NOT building a nuclear weapon. They ceased construction in 2003 and have not begun again. This was the revelation that was made in the 2007 NIE, and it is still true today. As the L.A. Times pointed out five days ago, there is no nuclear program in Iran. It does not exist. For some further clarification on how ridiculous these claims are, here is former US Navy intelligence analyst John Schindler writing on his blog about these false claims:

A couple rules of the road. NIEs are very special things, exceptionally LIMDIS (limited distribution); when I was a full-time spook I didn’t read them – that was way above my pay-grade. That’s for the White House and related bigwigs. And they are always NOFORN: not for foreigners.

So, a few possibilities. Barak and his government are playing one huge head-fake with Obama, whom they openly dislike, even though he just dumped more money on Israel. Or, they have seen it – how, exactly, this former counterspy wonders – and are diming out DC in a very tough game of hardball.

Regardless, the rules of the spy game are clear and have been since Moses was a boy. When intelligence services share information, as they do every day, you don’t pass it to third parties without clearance. Ever. And if you do, eventually you will get burned and nobody will want to play marbles with you.

Barak and the other warmongers in Israel simply can’t wait to bomb Iran. Netanyahu and Barak are both savvy enough politically to understand that the American public by and large is gullible enough to so take that they say as fact. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times government officials or the mainstream media tells the American people that Iran isn’t building a bomb; they just don’t buy it. Netanyahu and Barak use this fact to brainwash Americans into blindly marching into war with Israel’s enemies. Israel’s enemies are not always our enemies. It’s time for Israel to fight their own battles. If that means attacking and oppressing Muslims through out the Middle East then fine, but we can not be dragged into this. The Muslim and Arab world already hates us enough. Can you really fathom what would happen if we worked with or allowed Israel to attack Iran? Can you imagine how fast Iran would build a bomb if they were attacked? All of the liberal western orientated Iranians that Americans love so much would side with the Ayatollah. A regional as well as global conflict involving other super powers could result in world war three. Once again the United States is driving down the road headed towards another 9/11.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in America, International Relations, Iran, Israel, National Security | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Secretary of Hypocrisy

August 8, 2012 – 2:17 pm

Hillary Clinton always manages to out do herself with a relentless litany of contradictions. Our supposed democracy loving Secretary of State told reporters at a news conference in Pretoria that

We have to send very clear expectations about avoiding sectarian warfare. Those who are attempting to exploit the situation by sending in proxies or terrorist fighters must realize that will not be tolerated,

Well it seems that Secretary Clinton ether forgot or is unaware that this is precisely what the United States is doing in Syria. It’s unlikely that she is unaware or forgot as she is one of the principle officials pushing this policy in Syria. Using the CIA to funnel arms and equipment to rebels so as to overthrow Assad and weaken Iran is the definition of using proxies. Furthermore, using these proxies is only exacerbating the sectarian strife in Syria. The administrations support of Sunni’s is shifting the conflict further in a direction which pits Sunni’s against Christians and Alawites.

Now if a big bad Republican had said this Democrats would be screaming bloody murder. And herein lies the problem with liberals. They are perfectly content with calling out conservatives when they advocate dangerous and illegal policies, but they are unable to reprimand their own people for doing the same thing. If a war criminal like George W. Bush had done this it would have been very bad. When the great liberal savior Barack Obama does it it’s different because he is doing it with good intentions. At least Republicans have the decency to be upfront and admit that their awful policies are aimed at ensuring American imperialism and hegemony over the world. Democrats hide behind the veil of humanitarianism and human rights when implementing their domineering foreign policy.

When Bush claimed to be bringing democracy to Iraq anyone with half a brain was able to see that this wasn’t the case. Instead it had everything to do with getting rid of someone who didn’t submit and play by Americas rules, and putting in place a puppet beholden to the United States and it’s interests. To a lesser extent is also
had to do ridding the region of Israel’s only real adversary. Unsurprisingly this didn’t turn out the way it was planned. Instead Saddam was replaced with another authoritarian leader who has exacerbated sectarian and ethnic tensions far beyond Saddam. Maliki is not beholden to anyone except his own desire for power. He has become increasingly close with America
and Israel’s sworn enemy Iran. The Obama administrations goal in Syria has a much to do with human rights and democracy as Bush’s Iraq strategy did. The real goals in Syria are two fold. Weaken and isolate Iran, and slow down the Arab Spring by putting in place an American stooge that will look out for America not Syria’s interests. Liberals and Democrats need to wake up to this sooner rather than later. In a few months it may not be possible to undo a civil war that will engulf the entire region.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in Interal conflicts, Syria | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

More evidence of Afghan civil war

July 25, 2012 – 4:25 pm

A police commander from Bala Boluk District in Farah Province has defected to the Taliban; taking with him twelve police officers and a cache of arms. Authorities say he also poisoned seven other police officers for refusing to defect. There have been countless police and military personal who have attacked the Afghan state in the past couple years. Those in question though we’re already members of the Taliban. This incident on the other hand is the first recorded instance of someone within the Afghan government defecting to the Islamic Caliphate of Afghanistan. A civil war in Afghanistan will come to fruition when ISAF forces leave the country. More and more defections will take place, and many lives will be lost.

By porkinspolicyreview | Also posted in Afghanistan, America, South Asia, Taliban, Terrorism | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)