December 23, 2012

Syrian Peace Deal: UN’s Cloak to NATO’s Dagger

Turkey begins fabricating “cross border” incidents to justify Brookings prescribed “safe havens” inside Syria.
by Tony Cartalucci on April 9, 2012

From the very beginning, US policy makers admitted that Kofi Annan’s “peace mission” to Syria was nothing more than a rouse to preserve NATO’s proxy forces from total destruction and create “safe havens” from which to prolong the bloodshed. It was hoped that with established “safe havens” in Syria, protected by Turkish military forces (Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952) violence and pressure verses the Syrian government could be perpetually increased until it finally collapsed and the carving up of Syria could commence.

Photo: Annan is a trustee of Wall Street speculator George Soros and geopolitical manipulator Zbigniew Brzezinski’s International Crisis Group (ICG), along side Neo-Conservative corporate lobbyist and warmonger Kenneth Adelman, US State Department-listed Iranian terror organization MEK lobbyist - General Wesley Clark, Wall Street-backed color revolution leader- Mohammed ElBaradei of Egypt, and Brookings Institution’s Samuel Berger. Serving as “advisers” to the International Crisis Group include, Neo-Conservative warmonger Richard Armitage, former Foreign Minister of Israel Shlomo Ben-Ami, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Bank of Israel Governor Stanely Fischer, and President of Israel Shimon Peres. While Annan poses as a representative of the “United Nations” he is in reality representing the pro-regime change agenda of the ICG and the special interests that fund its work.

….

This has been confirmed by Fortune 500-funded, US foreign-policy think-tank, Brookings Institution which has blueprinted designs for regime change in Libya as well as both Syria andIran. In their latest report, “Assessing Options for Regime Change” it is stated (emphasis added):

“An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership.This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts.” -page 4, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.

Click to enlarge

Image: Also out of the Brookings Institution, Middle East Memo #21 “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf),” makes no secret that the humanitarian “responsibility to protect” is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.

….

And while “peace” was being peddled by Soros-funded International Crisis Group trustee Kofi Annan, the US, UK, France, and members of the West’s proxy Arab League simultaneously called for Assad to stand down and withdraw troops from secured cities while openly declaring that arms and cash would continue to flow to the rebels. The “Friends of Syria” summit would even ludicrously declare that “wages” would be paid to rebels to continue their battle to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Clearly the label “peace deal” is inappropriate for a proposal that seeks to empower and indeed see one side prevail militarily over another whose hands are purposefully tied. It is an unconditional surrender to foreign-funded terrorists simply labeled as a “peace deal.”

The Brookings Institution’s “safe havens” and “humanitarian corridors” are meant to be established by NATO-member Turkey, who has been threatening to partially invade Syria for weeks in order to accomplish this. And while Turkey claims this is based on “humanitarian concerns,” examining Turkey’s abysmal human rights record in addition to its own ongoing genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people both within and beyond its borders, it is clear they are simply fulfilling the agenda established by their Western patrons on Wall Street and in the city of London.

Photo: Turkish tanks entering Iraq to raid Kurdish towns and hunt suspected rebels in 2008. More recently, Turkey has been bombing “suspected” rebel bases in both Turkey and Iraq, as well as conducting mass nationwide arrests. Strangely, as Turkey verifiably does what Libya’s Qaddafi and Syria’s Assad have been accused of doing, in all of their hypocrisy, are now calling for a partial invasion of Syria based on “humanitarian concerns.”

….Now, Turkey is fabricating stories involving Syrian troops “firing across” the Turkish-Syrian border. The New York Times published these bold accusations before admitting further down that “it was unclear what kind of weapons caused the injuries on Sunday around six miles inside Turkish territory,” and that “there were conflicting accounts about the incident.” As are all the accusations used by NATO, the UN, and individual member states to justify meddling in Syria’s affairs, these tales involve hear-say from the rebels themselves.

It is clear that Turkey, NATO, and the UN are attempting to set the pretext for the establishment of “safe havens” and “humanitarian corridors” intended to circumvent the UN Security Council which has seen attempts to green-light military intervention vetoed twice by Russia and China. As the UN “peace deal” deadline of April 10 comes and goes, we can expect an ever increasing din of propaganda purporting Syrian violations against Turkish sovereignty, the continued propaganda campaign accentuating the “victimization” of NATO’s death squads, and the public roll-out of Brookings’ Turkish established “safe haven” within Syrian territory.

Image: Some of the corporate sponsors behind the Brookings Institution, from whose playbook Kofi Annan is being directed in his disingenuous “peace mission” to Syria. (click image to enlarge)

Image: Just some of the corporate and “institutional” sponsors of the International Crisis Group, upon which Kofi Annan sits as a “trustee” with other dubious personalities including George Soros, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Egypt’s Mohammed ElBaradei, and Neo-Cons Richard Armitage and Kenneth Adelman. (click image to enlarge)

….The UN “peace deal” was a rouse from the beginning. The West has no intention of leaving Syria intact and will seek all means by which to prevail in toppling the government, carving up the country along sectarian lines, plunging it into perpetual violence as it has Libya, and moving next toward Iran. While it is essential to expose the truth behind Syria’s unrest, is also important to identify the corporate-financier interests driving this nefarious agenda and boycott them entirely while seeking out viable local solutions to support instead. If none exist, it is our duty to use our time, money, attention, and resources to create such alternatives instead of perpetuating the self-serving agenda unfolding before us.

Ultimately it is “we the people” paying into this current paradigm that allows it to continue moving forward, therefore it by necessity must be “we the people” who undermine and ultimately replace it.

Source: https://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/syrian-peace-deal-uns-cloak-to-natos.html

Pakistani General gives OK to Fire on NATO

Pakistani army top general gives troops ok to fire on NATO. Since Pakistan govt and army are notoriously corrupt it remains to be seen if this is more hot air looking for additional US loans to cool down.

According to the latest news feeds pouring in from Rawalpindi, the Pakistani Army Chief has suspended the regular chain-of-command system and all forward operating units have been ordered to retaliate in case of aggression from the eastern border with Afghanistan. The implementation of this order allows Pakistan Army units based at checkpoints along the Afghan border to retaliate in case of any NATO/US incursions without seeking permission from the military high command.

Pakistan had recently blocked the NATO supply routes into Afghanistan due to the unprovoked NATO/US attack on a Pakistani checkpost which left 25 soldiers dead. Relations between the two forces have been tense since the attack and NATO’s belligerent behaviour has left it in a dangerous Afghanistan with an evenly irked nuclear powered neighbour.

The Afghan End-Game certainly seems to be approaching at a blistering rate and international powers have already started siding with the fast emerging winner. With more non-cooperation measures, such as the evacuation of Shahbaz air base (Jacobabad) & the withdrawal of fly over rights, looming on the horizon relations between the US led NATO and Pakistan are destined to take a new low.

Source:

https://www.islamist.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1267

Report: Russia Delivers Supersonic Cruise Missiles To Syria

Military source confirms delivery of missiles, according to an AFP report; second official says missiles will protect Syria from ‘possible attack from the sea.’

Russia has delivered supersonic cruise missiles to Syria, AFP reported on Thursday.

A military source told the Interfax news agency, “The Yakhont supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles have been delivered to Syria,” although it was not made clear exactly when the shipment was made.

A second Russian official speaking to Interfax said the missiles “will be able to protect Syria’s entire coast against a possible attack from the sea.”

Russia signed a contract reportedly worth at least $300 million in 2007 to supply Syria with cruise missiles, and Russia intended to deliver a total of 72 of the missiles to Syria, AFP reported.

It was not clear how many of the missiles have so far been delivered by Russia to Syria.

The delivery was made amid the continuing violent crackdown of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime against the opposition, which according to a UN statement made on Thursday, has claimed 4,000 lives since March this year.

While international pressure against the Assad regime has increased over the past month, Moscow has stood by its ally, criticizing further sanctions slapped on Syria by Western and Arab League states.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected calls at the United Nations for an arms embargo against Syria on Tuesday, saying that a similar move against Libya had proved one-sided, helping rebels to topple Gadhafi in August.

“We know how that worked in Libya when the arms embargo only applied to the Libyan army. The opposition received weapons, and countries like France and Qatar publicly spoke about it without shame,” he told a news conference.

Russia has close political and strategic relations with Assad’s government and has been one if its main arms suppliers. Syria accounted for 7 percent of Russia’s total of $10 billion in arms deliveries abroad in 2010, according to the Russian defense think-tank CAST.

 

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/report-russia-delivers-supersonic-cruise-missiles-to-syria-1.399048

The Coming War With Pakistan (Video)

BBC rewrites 10 years of history and declares Pakistan the new enemy.

BBC are propagandists whose lies have killed people. Their documentaries are made upon request by special interest groups whose narratives are sewn verbatim into what would otherwise look like a “documentary.” With BBC’s name attached, it is hoped, these tissues of lies are then able to gain traction and begin rewriting reality.

Their recent hit on Pakistan is not the first time they have been caught peddling wholesale lies dressed up as “documentaries.” Earlier this year, they also cobbled together “This World: Thailand - Justice Under Fire,” where evidence drawn from paid lobbyists of Western-backed opposition leaders and US State Department cables and used to promote Wall Street and London’s corporate-financier interests in Thailand.

BBC’s two-part Secret Pakistan documentary attempts to frame the 10-year foreign occupation of Afghanistan and the lack of progress as the result of “Pakistani duplicity.” In reality, even upon watching BBC’s “documentary,” one can clearly see that the US, UK, and NATO have simply traded places with invading Soviets and now face the same fierce indigenous force fighting against occupation. Indeed, just as Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI supported Afghans during the Soviet invasion, they are very likely to be supporting Afghans now in their current bid for freedom.

However, BBC is entirely unable to establish this and instead, crutches its argument along on false pretenses, such as the Taliban “are” Al Qaeda, that the US, UK, and NATO have a right to be in Afghanistan in the first place, and that Pakistan has some sort of obligation to unconditionally cooperate with these foreign occupiers.

While it may be instructive for many to watch the lengthy, two-hour “documentary,” there are two quotes from prominent interviewees that give BBC’s game away while perfectly summing up the reality of the Afghanistan war.

BBC’s Secret Pakistan Summed Up in Two Quotes.

Sherard Cowper-Coles was a British diplomat who served as the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2009-2010, before that as ambassador to Israel and Saudi Arabia, and is now the international business development director of British defense contractor BAE Systems. He claims during the BBC documentary that (44:00), “the real military threat is the Taliban - a serious insurgency that’s got nothing to do with Bin Laden. Bin Laden, in operational terms, is utterly spectacularly irrelevant.” Quite clearly this contradicts the “war on terror” narrative and instead suggests that current US, British and NATO operation in Afghanistan has more to do with Western interests in the region than fighting the alleged perpetrators of 9/11.

The next important point is garnered nearly toward the very end of the documentary where former CIA officer Bruce Riedel (57:35) claims, “there is probably no worst nightmare for America, for Europe, for the world in the 21st century than a Pakistan that is out of control, under the influence of extremist Islamist forces armed with nuclear weapons.” This comment, however, is not as straightforward or as truthful as Cowper-Coles’. However, if one realizes that this destabilization Riedel is hinting at is actually the work of the US and NATO done as a pretext to invade Pakistan, then it becomes truly telling — and we see the BBC documentary as yet another corporate-media conjured casus belli.

Riedel’s “Pakistan out of control” is a long planned plot to invade Pakistan.

In a 2007 article from the London Guardian titled, “Bush handed blueprint to seize Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal,” it is stated that fears of destabilization inside Pakistan might prompt the United States to occupy Islamabad and the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, and Baluchistan in an attempt to secure Pakistan’s nuclear warheads.

The report was written by Fredrick Kagan who sits within the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). AEI’s board of trustees represents a wide variety of corporate-financier interests including those of the notorious Carlyle Group, State Farm, American Express, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (also of the CFR). War criminal Dick Cheney also acts as a trustee. Joining Kagan as members of AEI’s “research staff” are warmongers Newt Gingrich, John Bolton, Richard Perle, John Yoo, and Paul Wolfowitz.

Kagan’s report regarding Pakistan’s partial occupation and the seizure of its nuclear arsenal is founded on what may first appear to be a reasonable concern, one shared by Bruce Riedel; the fear of Pakistan collapsing and its nuclear arsenal falling into the wrong hands. According to Kagan’s narrative, Islamic extremists seizing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal pose as much a threat today as “Soviet tanks” once did, a sentiment that echos Riedel’s words in the BBC’s “Secret Pakistan.

Bruce Riedel is a former CIA officer and was a senior adviser to three US presidents, including President Obama. His area of focus is the Middle East and South Asia and he is currently a “Senior Fellow” at the corporate-financier-funded (page 19 .pdf) Brookings Institution. It was at Brookings that Ridel would help co-author the 2009 “Which Path to Persia?” a documented conspiracy to overthrow the government of Iran with foreign-backed color revolutions, covert military operations, sanctions, invasion, and even funding terrorists groups including the US State Department listed, French/Iraqi-based Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and Baluchistani terrorists who straddle the Iranian-Pakistani border.

For those that believe Riedel is nothing more than a paunchy, pencil-pushing “expert” used to pad out BBC documentaries, and that think-tanks like the Brookings Institution are merely dispensing advice and not corporate-approved policy, it should be noted that Riedel’s “Which Path to Persia?” has already long since gone operational. It is also noted within the BBC documentary itself, that Riedel was advising the US president regarding Pakistan.

Riedel is indeed right about the threat of a nuclear-armed Pakistan being destabilized and falling into the hands of extremists, but by now it should be clear by looking at Riedel’s background that these are extremists like those armed by US British and NATO forces in Libya, who were then provided air cover to commit sweeping genocide before handing the nation over to the West’s proxy rulers. And in Pakistan, the forces of destabilization are likewise being armed and backed by the West.

US backing terrorists to destabilize Pakistan.

One group amongst this “force,” are the Baluchi terrorists that straddle the Iranian-Pakistani border. In a 2006 report by the corporate-financier funded think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace titled, “Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism,” violence starting as early as 2004-2005 is described. According to the report, 20% of Pakistan’s mineral and energy resources reside in the sparsely populated province. On page 4 of the report, the prospect of using the Baluchi rebels against both Islamabad and Tehran is proposed. In Seymour Hersh’s 2008 article, “Preparing the Battlefield,” US support of Baluchi groups operating against Tehran is reported as already a reality. As already mentioned, in Brookings Institution’s “Which Path to Persia?” the subject of arming and sending Baluchi insurgents against Tehran is also discussed at great depth.

The 2006 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report makes special note of the fact that above all, the Baluchistan province serves as a transit zone for a potential Iranian-India-Turkmenistan natural gas pipeline as well as a port, Gwadar, that serves as a logistical hub for Afghanistan, Central Asia’s landlocked nations as well as a port for the Chinese. The report notes that the port was primarily constructed with Chinese capital and labor with the intention of it serving as a Chinese naval station “to protect Beijing’s oil supply from the Middle East and to counter the US presence in Central Asia.”

This point in particular, regarding China, was described in exacting detail in the 2006 Strategic Studies Institute’s report “String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China’s Rising Power across the Asian Littoral.” Throughout the report means to co-opt and contain China’s influence throughout the region are discussed.

The Carnegie Endowment report goes on to describe how the Baluchi rebels have fortuitously begun attacking the development of their province over concerns of “marginalization” and “dispossession.” In particular attacks were launched against the Pakistani military and Chinese facilities. The question of foreign intervention is brought up in this 2006 report, based on accusations by the Pakistani government that the rebels are armed with overly sophisticated weaponry. India, Iran, and the United States are accused as potential culprits.

The report concludes that virtually none of Pakistan’s neighbors would benefit from the insurgency and that the insurgency itself has no possibility of succeeding without “foreign support.” The conflict is described as a potential weapon that could be used against Pakistan and that it is “ultimately Islamabad that must decide whether Baluchistan will become its Achilles’ heel.” This somewhat cryptic conclusion, in the light of recent reports and developments can be deciphered as a veiled threat now being openly played.

Quite clearly when Islamabad accused foreign governments of fueling and arming the unrest in Baluchistan, they were absolutely correct. Seymour Hersh’s report lays to rest any illusions over whether or not America is arming Baluchi rebels. Brookings’ “Which Path to Persia?” report also openly calls for arming and sending Baluchi rebels out against Tehran. More recently, longtime proponent of a Baluchi insurgency, Selig Harrison of the Soros-funded Center for International Policy, has published two pieces regarding the “liberation” of Baluchistan itself.

Harrison’s February 2011 piece, “Free Baluchistan,” calls to “aid the 6 million Baluch insurgents fighting for independence from Pakistan in the face of growing ISI repression.” He continues by explaining the various merits of such meddling by stating, “Pakistan has given China a base at Gwadar in the heart of Baluch territory. So an independent Baluchistan would serve U.S. strategic interests in addition to the immediate goal of countering Islamist forces.”

Harrison would follow up his frank call to carve up Pakistan by addressing the issue of Chinese-Pakistani relations in a March 2011 piece titled, “The Chinese Cozy Up to the Pakistanis.” He begins by stating, “China’s expanding reach is a natural and acceptable accompaniment of its growing power—but only up to a point. ” He then reiterates his call for extraterritorial meddling in Pakistan by saying, “to counter what China is doing in Pakistan, the United States should play hardball by supporting the movement for an independent Baluchistan along the Arabian Sea and working with Baluch insurgents to oust the Chinese from their budding naval base at Gwadar. Beijing wants its inroads into Gilgit and Baltistan to be the first step on its way to an Arabian Sea outlet at Gwadar.”

Selig Harrison is also a regular attendee at the “Balochistan International Conference” and frequently reiterates his calls for a “free Baluchistan.” With him is Washington lobbyist Andrew Eiva, a former special forces operator who took part in supporting the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan. He proposes a vision of a bright future where Baluchis will enjoy their gas and oil wealth one day in their own autonomous, free nation. Such encouragement from Harrison, whose Center for International Policy is funded by the Ford Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Institute, and Rockefeller Family and Associates, or Eiva’s flights of petroleum-fueled fancy at a Carnegie Endowment function – funded by Exxon, Chevron, BP Corporations of North America, the GE Foundation, Shell International, as well as the globalist mainstays of Soros, Rockefeller, and the Smith Richardson Foundation – would be almost laughable if real people weren’t dying and Pakistan’s entire future being put at risk.

With the inclusion of fake human rights NGOs like Soros’ Open Society-funded Human Rights Watch, attempting to tie the hands of the Pakistani government in dealing with these admittedly foreign-armed and backed militants, we can see the trifecta of NGOs, covert military support, and political propaganda destabilizing yet another nation. We also see a clear, over-arching strategy not aimed at Afghanistan, not even aimed at Pakistan, but ultimately aimed at disrupting and ending Chinese interests on their own border. This “trifecta” could also be seen successfully at work in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar where covert military operations, coupled with foreign-funded NGOs, and political propaganda supplied by fake “democracy icon” Aung San Suu Kyi, were successfully used to stop the construction of a joint Chinese-Myanmar mega-dam in the northern state of Kachin.

Conclusion

Quite clearly, then, Riedel’s fears regarding Pakistan are somewhat disingenuous. In reality, he knows that the US is willfully destabilizing the country and setting the pretense for wider US and NATO military aggression throughout the region, including the invasion of Pakistan and the seizure of its nuclear arsenal. He also knows that the grand strategy is aimed not at neutralizing themanufactured threat of terrorism, but at containing China; a policy that was openly declared by current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton within her article titled, “America’s Pacific Century.”

That BBC produced a two-hour long “documentary” to shoehorn every aspect of the “War on Terror” into the new narrative of Secret Pakistan and elude that the war “has a life of its own,” is a horrific piece of propaganda aimed at perpetuating, even expanding an already catastrophic conflict. BBC willfully misleads its audience into believing that Pakistan has “betrayed” its Western allies and is partially responsible for the now thousands of US, British, and NATO troops that have died in the war.

In reality, Pakistan is doing what it must against a nation that invaded its neighbor under false pretenses and has conspired within the halls of its corporate-funded think-tanks to subvert, overthrow, and then invade Pakistan. BBC and the corporate media have by far helped send more US, British and NATO troops to their needless death with their lies than any Pakistani intelligence agency.

The words of Kagan, Reidel, and Harrison, who are documented to have conspired against the sovereignty and security of foreign nations, must be spread far and wide. If soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines want to continue fighting with full knowledge that they do so for a corporate-financier agenda to eliminate Wall Street and London’s global competitors, so be it. At least they have the right to know what they are really fighting for and for what they may potentially die for. Pakistan can likewise defend itself from this army of mercenaries without disingenuous liars like the BBC twisting reality around and portraying Pakistanis as “duplicitous.”

 

Source: https://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/coming-war-with-pakistan-video.html

 

Pakistan Snubs US Probe Into Lethal Strikes

ISLAMABAD (AFP) Islamabad has so far refused to take part in a US probe into air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, exacerbating fears Saturday of a prolonged US-Pakistani crisis as a result of the attack.

Pakistan was invited to cooperate in the probe into the November 26 strikes on the Afghan border, which enraged Islamabad and propelled US-Pakistani ties to their rockiest in years, but officials have declined to do so.

“They have elected to date not to participate, but we would welcome their participation,” said Pentagon press secretary George Little.

Washington had expected a refusal given the fury in Pakistan, which has already seen Islamabad shut down NATO’s vital supply into Afghanistan and boycott an international conference on the war in Bonn set for Monday.

Pakistan also ordered American personnel to leave the Shamsi air base, widely understood to have been a hub for a covert CIA drone war on Taliban and Al-Qaeda commanders in Pakistan’s troubled border areas with Afghanistan.

In Pakistan, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity Saturday that a formal reply would be conveyed to the Americans, but confirmed there was no interest in taking part in the inquiry.

“Officially our response has yet to come, but we will not participate in the investigation because there was no outcome from the two previous inquiries and we feel that third inquiry will be the same, so there’s no purpose,” he said.

Pakistan claims NATO attacks in 2010 and 2008 were poorly investigated.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal quoted US officials as saying Pakistani officers at a coordination centre gave a green light for the strikes believing they had no troops in the area.

But a Pakistani official told AFP that the Americans relayed the wrong coordinates, instead for a site 15 kilometres (nine miles) to the north.

“This is totally ridiculous,” he said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

“They thought there is some activity in that particular area… We confirmed there was no activity in that area. After some time, the same border coordination centre said we’re sorry it’s the wrong coordinates,” he added.

Pakistan says there was then a second air strike.

“The first strike could have been a mistake. They pulled out. What was the purpose of coming again? That is the most disgusting thing,” the official said.

US officials told the Wall Street Journal that Afghan forces and US commandos were pursuing Taliban fighters near the border when they came under fire from what they thought was a militant encampment.

But it also quoted officials as saying there were mistakes on both sides: “There were lots of mistakes made,” one official said. “There was not good situational awareness to who was where and who was doing what.”

The United States has voiced regret over the strikes but has stopped short of issuing an apology while the American military conducts the investigation.

“It’s safe to say that the incident has had a chilling effect on our relationship with the Pakistani military, no question about that,” Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

“Both sides deem it to be as serious as it was.”

Pakistan called the strikes a “deliberate act of aggression” and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani is understood to be facing fury from the ranks and junior officers livid with the Americans.

Kayani told troops to respond to any future attack without waiting for approval from commanders in what local media interpreted as a change in the rules of engagement.

Kirby suggested the US military would also review its operations and tactics for forces stationed in eastern Afghanistan.

“Clearly, an incident like this causes you — and should cause you — to take a step back and look at how you’re doing things and whether there need to be improvements made or any kind of tactical decisions …(to) do things a little differently,” Kirby said.

In an angry response to the strikes, Pakistan is boycotting an international conference on Afghanistan starting Monday in Bonn.

In an interview with a German weekly, Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan, seen as vital to any prospect of stability in his war-ravaged country, of sabotaging all negotiations with the Taliban.

“Up until now, they (Pakistan) have sadly refused to back efforts for negotiations with the Taliban,” Karzai told Der Spiegel weekly in comments reported in German and due to be published on Monday.

Source: https://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/pakistan-snubs-us-probe-into-lethal.html

Pakistan Military Told To Retaliate If Attacked By Nato Forces

Pakistan’s army chief has issued an order instructing troops to return fire if they come under attack from NATO forces operating in the region.

The latest directive follows the recent deaths of 24 Pakistani troops after a NATO airstrike on border posts 300 meters within Pakistani territory.

Pakistan had previously retaliated by stopping NATO cargo supplies from being shipped through its territory, as well as blocking the United States from using an airbase to stage operations.

The decision is a major setback for the military alliance, which has viewed Pakistan’s cooperation as vital to stabilizing neighboring Afghanistan.

 

Source: https://rt.com/news/line/2011-12-03/#id22983

Nato Base Blast:1 Dead, Up To 70 Injured In Afghanistan

A suicide bomber attack at the NATO coalition base in the Afghan Logar province has left at least 1 person dead and up to 70 injured.

The attacker used an explosive-laden truck to set off a powerful explosion just outside the entrance to the base on Friday morning, local authorities reported.

The majority of those wounded are civilians, Logar’s health director, Mohammad Zarif Nayebkhail told AFP. Seven of the wounded are Afghan security guards from the base. Atiqullah Ludin, the local governor, said the deceased victim was an Afghan carpenter.

“The suicide attacker wanted to ram his explosive-laden vehicle into the coalition forces base, but he was stopped at the gate and detonated the truck outside the base,” said local Deputy Police Chief Mohammad Abed.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the terrorist act.

In September, 77 US troops were wounded in a truck bombing which targeted a NATO base in Wardak province, which borders Logar. US officials blamed the attack on the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban faction, which Washington says has strong ties with Pakistan.

There are currently 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan. The number is set to decrease by the end of 2014, but a substantial presence is expected to remain in an effort to train Afghan security forces.

Source: https://rt.com/news/nato-base-70-injured-843

Vietnam-Style Exit: Russia Could Deliver Death Blow To NATO in Af-Pak War Theater

Russia could deliver death blow to Nato, say analysts

ISLAMABAD: With the Russian threat to cut land routes for supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Afghan battleground may turn into a cold death trap for NATO, defence analysts believe. They say that Pakistan should utilise the opportunity for a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan by pulling it out of the American war.

Russia has threatened to cut off NATO supply routes to Afghanistan if the alliance doesn’t compromise on its missile defence plans. “If NATO doesn’t give a serious response, we have to address matters in relations in other areas,” Russian news services reported. Russia’s cooperation on Afghanistan may be an area for review, the news services reported.

Pakistan has already cut NATO supply routes after the Mohmand Agency attack by NATO troops that killed twenty-six Pakistani soldiers. Lt General (retd) Hameed Gul, while talking to The News, said that Russia would utilise every option to take revenge on the Americans and the time has come for the Russians to do this. He said that Russia wants to join hands with Pakistan and Pakistan should re-consider its policy towards Russia. “Americans and NATO troops have been strangled in Afghanistan and the time has come for Pakistan to avail itself of the opportunity that it missed on 9/11 to regain respect and sovereignty”, Gul said.

He mentioned that Americans will have to leave Afghanistan and will ask for concessions and Pakistan should negotiate with them on their exit. If Russia cuts its supply routes then the route will be from Georgia to Baku and then to Azerbaijan, which means NATO will never get the supplies, said Gul.

“Now NATO troops will have to exit Vietnam-style, and that too by using Pakistan’s airspace because Iran will never let the USA use its airspace”, the retired General said. He mentioned that the war against terror that was started with our own people will come to an end at once and there will be peace in no time once the Americans leave Afghanistan. He said that Indian interests in Afghanistan were growing but India will get nothing from Afghanistan.

Maria Sultan, defence analyst, while talking to this correspondent said that if the Russians also cut the supply line of NATO then it will turn out to be a cold death for NATO troops. “They will literally be strangled in Afghanistan with 90,000 troops, and as they admit that they have reserves for three months, which actually means they have reserves for two months, then NATO will have to airlift the troops and during the airlift only 15 to 20 percent can get out alive out of the 90,000 troops”, Maria said.

She mentioned that in Afghanistan everything comes from outside and the insurgency this year has been very high as 700 [NATO] causalities have been reported. Therefore, after the Russian decision, Afghanistan will turn into a reverse Kargil for NATO. “They will have weapons but no bullets to fire; and if Pakistan shuts the air corridors to NATO then it would be a cold death for them and America will have to renegotiate with Pakistan”, she said.

 

Source: https://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27964

Libya: Atrocities Starting to Come to Light

In Libya, the body of Muammar Qaddafi was buried in an unmarked grave at a secret location. Like many revolutions, the end of this one was bloody.

There are questions about how the rebels dealt with both the dictator and hundreds of others. CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports that the question of whether rebel fighters executed Qaddafi is still under investigation. So far, the new Libyan government has shown little interest in getting to the bottom of the matter.

Nearly 300 bodies, many of them with their hands tied behind their backs and shot in the head, have been collected from across Sirte and buried in a mass grave. The new government has been slow to confront allegations of atrocities by rebel fighters, despite repeated calls for them to do so.

“You have to bear in mind that these young man have seen their friends killed in front of them, who saw their cities burned, who saw their sisters raped. I am amazed at their self-restraint,” said Ali Tarhouni, oil minister.

The evidence indicates that little restraint was shown.

There are no names in one graveyard, only numbers: 572 so far and counting. That’s because the graves hold the bodies of alleged mercenaries. Most were killed in the fighting, but local officials freely admit that some were summarily executed.

The governor of a prison in Misrata thinks that amounted to justice.

“There was no mercy for foreign mercenaries,” Sheikh Fathie Dariez said.

The nearly 500 prisoners he holds seemed well treated, but this man said that in another jail he had been brutalized. He said they beat him because they assumed he was pro-Qaddafi.

Libya’s new rulers are at risk of being accused of the same kind of abuses they fought to overthrow.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/2300-18563_162-10010114.html

Obama Not To Apologize To Pakistan: White House

WASHINGTON — The White House has for now overruled State Department officials who favoured a show of remorse to help salvage relations after a deadly NATO airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Citing administration officials, the newspaper said the United States ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, told a group of White House officials that a formal video statement from President Obama was needed to help prevent the rapidly deteriorating relations between Islamabad and Washington from cratering. The ambassador, speaking by video-conference from Islamabad, said that anger in Pakistan had reached a fever pitch, and that the United States needed to move to defuse it as quickly as possible, the officials recounted.

But Defence Department officials balked, the Times said. While they did not deny some American culpability in the episode, they said expressions of remorse offered by senior department officials and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were enough, at least until the completion of a United States military investigation establishing what went wrong.

Some administration aides also worried that if Obama were to overrule the military and apologize to Pakistan, such a step could become fodder for his Republican opponents in the presidential campaign.

On Wednesday, White House officials said Obama was unlikely to say anything further on the matter in the coming days.

“The U.S. government has offered its deepest condolences for the loss of life, from the White House and from Secretary Clinton and Secretary Panetta,” said Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, referring to Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, “and we are conducting an investigation into the incident. We cannot offer additional comment on the circumstances of the incident until we have the results.”

With everything at stake in the relationship with Pakistan, which the United States sees as vital as it plans to exit from Afghanistan, some former Obama administration officials were cited as saying the president should make public remarks on the border episode, including a formal apology.

“Without some effective measures of defusing this issue, Pakistan will cooperate less rather than more with us, and we won’t be able to achieve our goals in Afghanistan,” said Vali Nasr, a former State Department official who specialized in Pakistan.But David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration official and the author of “Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power,” said Pakistani officials need to understand that in the next year, the Obama administration will be less willing to make nice.

“I do think that it’s important for them to recognize that political dynamics in the United States will lead to a hardening of U.S. positions, and the president will have less and less flexibility to accept the kind of behaviour that he has in the past,” Rothkopf was quoted as saying. “The prognosis for U.S.-Pakistani relations is bleak.”

Source: https://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/01-Dec-2011/Obama-not-to-apologize-to-Pakistan-White-House