NOVANEWS

Military personnel watch on a screen as President Barack Obama makes a live address at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, Wednesday, May 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON — In a dramatic address to Americans broadcast from a military hangar outside Kabul, Afghanistan, President Barack Obama on Tuesday trumpeted the near-end of U.S. military operations in the country, 10 years after the U.S. invasion and one year to the day after he ordered the assassination of Osama bin Laden.

Speaking against the backdrop of two armored military vehicles, one draped with an American flag, Obama said that he just signed “an historic agreement” with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai outlining a new, post-war relationship between the two countries.

But before outlining the agreement, Obama reminded Americans why U.S. troops were there in the first place: Osama bin Laden, a topic that the president and vice president haven’t been shy about highlighting on the campaign trail.

“It was here, in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden established a safe haven for his terrorist organization. It was here, in Afghanistan, where al Qaeda brought new recruits, trained them, and plotted acts of terror. It was here, from within these borders, that al Qaeda launched the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children,” the president said.

Obama ran through the successes of the U.S. military since the 9/11 attacks and tied them directly to his goal of toppling al Qaeda.

“We broke the Taliban’s momentum. We’ve built strong Afghan security forces. We devastated al Qaeda’s leadership, taking out over 20 of their top 30 leaders. And one year ago, from a base here in Afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. The goal that I set — to defeat al Qaeda, and deny it a chance to rebuild — is within reach,” Obama said. “Here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon.”

As for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Obama noted that nearly half of the Afghan people already live in places where Afghan forces are moving into the lead. While international troops will continue to assist the Afghan military, the U.S. is shifting into a support role and bringing its troops home. Some 23,000 U.S. troops will leave by the end of the summer, followed by reductions at “a steady pace” until 2014, when all U.S. troops will be removed, the president said.

As part of the 10-year strategic partnership agreement struck with Karzai earlier Tuesday, Obama said his administration has been “in direct discussions with the Taliban” to tell them they can be part of the transition in Afghanistan if they break with al Qaeda and renounce violence.

“Many members of the Taliban, from foot soldiers to leaders, have indicated an interest in reconciliation. A path to peace is now set before them,” Obama said. “Those who refuse to walk it will face strong Afghan security forces backed by the United States and our allies.”

In the meantime, some U.S. troops will stay in Afghanistan through 2014 to help the country stabilize. “Otherwise, our gains could be lost, and al Qaeda could establish itself once more. And as commander-in-chief, I refuse to let that happen,” Obama said.

The president’s remarks came hours after he arrived in Afghanistan on a surprise trip. In a conference call earlier Tuesday, senior administration officials maintained that the goal of the trip was to sign the agreement with Karzai. But the visit also gave Obama the chance to meet with U.S. troops and, not coincidentally, to do so on the anniversary of bin Laden’s death.

The officials outlined the five components of the new U.S.-Afghan agreement: promoting shared Democratic values; advancing long-term security; reinforcing regional security; social and economic development; and strengthening Afghan governance. The agreement hasn’t been made public, but it will be “soon,” according to the officials who spoke on background. The agreement also doesn’t commit to specific funding or troop levels beyond 2014, when the U.S. will cease combat operations in Afghanistan.

“Those are the decisions that will be made in consultation with the U.S. Congress,” said an official.

The U.S.-Afghan agreement has been in the works for 20 months. Obama and Karzai had a goal of finishing it before an international summit later this month in Chicago, said the official, and they agreed it would be signed “on Afghan soil” to show their commitment to building a future together.

A second U.S. official said it was “always the president’s intention” to spend the anniversary of the assassination of bin Laden with U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“It was an extraordinarily capable group of U.S. service members who carried out that operation,” said this official. “What better place to spend time with the troops than with those here in Afghanistan who are in harm’s way?”

Before delivering his address to the nation, Obama spoke to U.S. troops stationed at Bagram Air Base.

“We did not choose this war. This war came to us on 9/11. And there are a whole bunch of folks here, I’ll bet, who signed up after 9/11,” the president said to a group of about 3,200 troops, according to a White House transcript.

The crowd responded, “Hooah!”

“Because of the sacrifices now of a decade, and a new Greatest Generation, not only were we able to blunt the Taliban momentum, not only were we able to drive al Qaeda out of Afghanistan, but slowly and systematically we have been able to decimate the ranks of al Qaeda, and a year ago we were able to finally bring Osama bin Laden to justice,” Obama said, drawing applause and another “Hooah!” from the crowd.

Back in Washington, Obama’s trip drew mixed responses from Senate Republicans.

“I am pleased that the President has traveled to Afghanistan,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement.

McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the trip “a significant opportunity” for Obama to hear directly from military commanders on the ground about progress in defeating al Qaeda. He also highlighted the importance of Obama signing the strategic partnership agreement.

“I am hopeful that it will send a signal to friends and enemies in the region that the United States is committed to a secure and free Afghanistan,” McCain said.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) tweeted Tuesday night that a secure Afghanistan “is vital to natl security & today’s agreement signals that US will remain key partner of Afghan people.”

But Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, accused the president of making the trip for political purposes.

“Clearly this trip is campaign-related,” Inhofe said in a statement. “We’ve seen recently that President Obama has visited college campuses in an attempt to win back the support of that age group since he has lost it over the last three years. Similarly, this trip to Afghanistan is an attempt to shore up his national security credentials, because he has spent the past three years gutting our military.”

UPDATE: 10 p.m. – Mitt Romney said in a statement released by his presidential campaign:

I am pleased that President Obama has returned to Afghanistan. Our troops and the American people deserve to hear from our president about what is at stake in this war. Success in Afghanistan is vital to our nation’s security. It would be a tragedy for Afghanistan and a strategic setback for America if the Taliban returned to power and once again created a sanctuary for terrorists. We tolerated such a sanctuary until we lost thousands on September 11, 2001. Many brave Americans have sacrificed everything so that we could win this fight for a more secure future. Let us honor the memory of the fallen, not only by keeping them in our daily thoughts but also by staying true to their commitment. We are united as one nation in our gratitude to our country’s heroes.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AGREEMENT:

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U.S. commits to support Afghanistan’s social and economic development, security, institutions and regional cooperation.

NOVANEWS

The information put out by the White House about the killing of Osama Bin Laden is a DELIBERATE LIE! OSAMA BIN LADEN HAS BEEN DEAD SINCE 2001!!! As shown below by reports from Taliban fighters, Osama Bin Laden’s family, Heads of State, the CIA, Pakistani Intelligence, Israeli Press, NY Times, and other sources, Osama Bin Laden died of natural causes in Tora Bora in December, 2001.

Why the hoax about his death at this time? It is because the US doesn’t need the Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda boogeyman to justify attacking Muslim nations anymore. The Al-Qaeda boogeyman was used successfully to attack Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and other places. But as evidenced in Libya, all that needs to be done now is claim that leaders are killing their people and the US and NATO will have all the justification they need to attack other sovereign nations. We are led to believe that the same murderers of millions of Muslims, plunderers of their lands and haters of Islam have transformed themselves into the saviors of the Muslim masses. We should not be fooled by their appealing propaganda playing on the goodness of our hearts. Their goals are always the same – steal Muslim countries resources and gain world dominance for Israel’s benefit. They see how easy it is to provoke protests in Arab countries, send their mercenaries in to kill the people, blame the killings on Arab leaders and then bomb those countries. They are very selective about this process choosing to execute the complete process in Libya and now itching to do it in Syria on their road to waging war on Iran. Their aim is to weaken and decimate Muslim countries whether friend or foe. Tunisia and Egypt were friendly countries whose cruel, corrupt and self serving leaders did more to please the West than to satisfy the needs of their people. Libya and Syria are not considered friendly countries by the West in the same light as Egypt and Tunisia. Yet friend or foe, both types of leadership has to be toppled because the aim is to leave the Muslim world weak and helpless subject to the dominion of the West. Iraq and Afghanistan are good examples of what they want for the Muslim world after their escapades of bringing “freedom” to the Muslim masses. That “freedom” has only left those countries ruined and destroyed in much worse shape than they were in before their “saviors” from the West invaded.

Michael Rivero of whatreallyhappened.com had his website hacked right before Obama was about to make the announcement about Osama Bin Laden being killed. Why hack his website at this time?Michael gave this response:

Yes, we were hacked. Starting just moments before President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, our website was hit with what the hosting company described as a massive distributed denial of service attack, no doubt to prevent the public from accessing the documentation showing Bin Laden actually died in December of 2001 of natural causes. My concern here is that the US or Israel will now stage a false flag attack on the US, claim it is “revenge” by “Al Qaeda”, and use it to justify total war on all Arab/Muslim nations. The US may start WW3 just because they cannot think of anything better to do!

Besides the reasons given above for announcing that Osama Bin Laden has been killed at this time, there are many others including increasing Obama’s chances for re-election to make him look like a hero for killing the world’s most wanted “terrorist” during his presidency. It also puts him in  a great position to have the whole country unified behind him around the issue of “bringing the 9/11 killers to justice”. It also promotes the exposed myth about the false flag 9/11 event being done by Muslims and keeps that fresh on the minds of Americans. The news media is doing non-stop propaganda, pulling out all the stops to broadcast this event in the most excellent manner. Even searches in Google to get information about Osama dying in 2001 is drowned out by a proliferation of hits dealing with him being killed in 2011.

Pakistan is also in the cross hairs of the US for “harboring” Osama Bin Laden. The US is ramping up for another full scale war on Pakistan using OBL amongst other reasons for justification. They want to invade Pakistan to clean up the “terrorists”.

Please check out the information below showing proof of Osama Bin Laden’s death in 2001.Make sure to go to the links listed for further verification. After claiming that they have Osama Bin Laden’s body and taking DNA tests, the media is now reporting that Osama Bin Laden has been buried at sea. How convenient!!! Well I guess we have no way now of verifying if their claims were true. I think more likely it would have been verifying how false their claim was if anything. As dumb goyim we have to blindly believe our media and government! With Osama Bin Laden’s body buried somewhere under the sea we have no way of ascertaining the truth. Their claim in burying Osama so fast is to fulfill the requirements of a Muslim burial as if they respected him so much or the crimes that they associated with Osama had anything to do with Islam. But what Muslim burial tradition were they following?

Evidence Bin Laden Is Dead

Translation of Funeral Article in Egyptian News Paper al-Wafd, Wednesday, December 26, 2001 Vol 15 No 4633 Reporting News of Bin Laden’s Death and Funeral

A prominent official in the Afghan Taliban movement announced yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qa’da organization, stating that bin Laden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, stated to The Observer of Pakistan that he had himself attended the funeral of bin Laden and saw his face prior to burial in ToraBora 10 days ago.

He mentioned that 30 of al-Qa’da fighters attended the burial as well as members of his family and some friends from the Taliban.

In the farewell ceremony to his final rest guns were fired in the air.

The official stated that it is difficult to pinpoint the burial location of bin Laden because according to the Wahhabi tradition no mark is left by the grave.

He stressed that it is unlikely that the American forces would ever uncover any traces of bin Laden.

Reported Funeral: Translation on right.

2001 Osama Bin Laden spent time in American hospitals,
Untill his death in mid-December

The Truth About Osama Bin Laden

Israeli Intelligence: he died and all new videos are faked

http://www.welfarestate.com/binladen/funeral/israel-intel.txt

He had Kidney operation July 4 in Dubai, reports “La Figaro”

CNN reported 2/1/02 bin Laden aged enormously
http://www.welfarestate.com/binladen/funeral/aged.txt

Pakistan President Musharraf says he died of Kidney Failure
http://www.welfarestate.com/binladen/funeral/laden-dead.txt

Doctor says he is extremely ill requiring dialysis
http://www.welfarestate.com/binladen/funeral/laden-dialysis.txt

New York Times Article Reporting Osama Bin Laden dead
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/opinion/11TAHE.html?ex=1089432000&en=373a282aeff2716a&ei=5070&todaysheadlines

Bin Laden’s voice was detected regularly until two weeks ago by intelligence operatives monitoring radio transmissions in Tora Bora, according to the Pentagon. Telegraph, 12/28/2001

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader. “The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead,” the source said. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html
A prominent official in the Afghan Taleban movement announced yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qa’da organization, stating that binLaden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1366508/US-casts-doubt-on-bin-Ladens-latest-message.html

Along with the above, there is much, much more evidence. Some people believe that even Benazir Bhuzzo, former Pakistani Prime Minister, was killed because she also revealed the truth about Osama Bin Laden being murdered in 2001. Think for yourself people. Don’t believe these media lies. At the very least try to ascertain the truth before you judge.

Posted By: Siba Bizri

Arabic Shoah Editor in Chief

كابول – كاميليا انتخابي فرد
في الأسبوع الماضي، شنّ متمردون سلسلة من الهجمات العنيفة في كابول وفي أربع محافظات أخرى في أفغانستان، مُبدين بذلك قدرة كبيرة على تحدّي جهاز الاستخبارات الحكومي في مدن كبيرة مثل كابول وجلال آباد.

وبعد حوالى أسبوع على تسليم العمليات الليلية إلى قوات الأمن الأفغانية، تحدّت حركة «طالبان» والمتمرّدون قدرات أجهزة الاستخبارات الأفغانية والقوات الخاصة من خلال إرسال 36 انتحارياً إلى أنحاء مختلفة من البلد، علماً أنّ معظمهم شنّ هجوماً على العاصمة. وفي 15 نيسان (أبريل)، دخل نحو 20 انتــحارياً في غضون دقائق إلى كابول مدجّجين برشاشات ثقيلة وقاوموا قوات الأمن الأفغانية على مدى 20 ساعة. ولم يكن الهدف من الهجمات التي نفّذت من أعلى المباني الشاهقة ضد سفارات أجنبية ومقر «إيساف» التسبب بسقوط ضحايا مدنيين، بل زرع خوف دائم في نفوس الشعب الأفغاني القلق أصلاً على المستقبل بعد انسحاب القوات الأميركية والحلفاء عام 2014.

لم تذكر حركة «طالبان» التي أعلنت مسؤوليتها عن سلسلة الهجمات التي وقعت في كابول وإقليم نانجهار وباكتيا وجلال آباد، أسباباً واضحة دفعتها إلى شنّ هذه الهجمات، كما أعلنت شبكة «حقاني» مسؤوليتها، معتبرة أنّ الهجمات نُفّذت للثأر من الجندي الأميركي الذي قتل 16 فرداً من عائلة واحدة في قندهار منذ شهر. غير أنه لا يمكن إثبات صحة هذا الادعاء، لا سيّما أنّ المناطق التي استهدفتها الهجمات الأخيرة لم تكن قريبة من المقرات الأميركية، مثل السفارة الأميركية أو قاعدة «باغرام» الأميركية في كابول.

اليوم، يجري الحديث في كابول عمّا يسمى بشبكة حقاني. لكن يبدو أنّ هذه الشبكة تشكّل غطاء جيّداً للعمليات التي تنفذّها حركة «طالبان». كما حمّل البعض العضو الأسبق في جماعات «المجاهدين» قلب الدين حكمتيار مسؤولية الأعمال الإرهابية المريبة التي وقعت خلال الأشهر القليلة الماضية.

ويُعرف حكمتيار الذي تولى على مدى سنة رئاسة الوزراء في حكومة «المجاهدين»، بالدور الدامي الذي أدّاه عند تدمير كابول خلال الحرب الأهلية الأليمة التي اندلعت في التسعينات. ويرى عدد كبير من الأشخاص في النخبة الأفغانية، أنّ حكمتيار هو العقل المدبّر للهجمات التي شُنّت في أفغانستان بما في ذلك الهجوم الذي وقع في الأسبوع الماضي في كابول.

حالياً، يربط تحالف متين بين قلب الدين حكمتيار وحركة «طالبان». ويضمّ حزبه «الحزب الإسلامي» أعضاء مدربين وأوفياء، علماً أنّ البعض منهم يعمل في إدارة كارزاي ويتبوأ مناصب عليا في الحكومة الأفغانية. تمّ تحميل «الحزب الإسلامي» مسؤولية القتل والدمار الكبير الذي لحق بكابول في نهاية التسعينات من القرن الماضي، ما دفع عدداً كبيراً من الأفغان العاديين إلى الترحيب ببروز حركة «طالبان».

ويرى السياسيون الأفغان، أنّ حكمتيار هو أحد أهم الزعماء المتمردين الناشطين في أفغانستان إلى جانب الملا محمد عمر وشبكة حقاني.

من المهمّ بالنسبة إلى الرئيس كارزاي أن تصل محادثات السلام مع حركة «طالبان» إلى مرحلة معيّنة قبل نهاية عام 2014 ورحيل القوات الأجنبية. هل بوسعه بلوغ هذا الهدف في غضون هذا الوقت القصير في حين يقتل المتمردون أكثر الأشخاص نفوذاً وأكثر السياسيين كفاءة في أفغانستان لا سيّما خلال العام الماضي؟

أشار ديبلوماسي أفغاني معني بالمجلس الأعلى للسلام، إلى أنّ «حكمتيار طموح ويعتبر نفسه مرشحاً قوياً في الانتخابات الرئاسية القادمة». كما لفت المصدر نفسه إلى أنّ حكمتيار يعتبر أنه قادر على العمل مع حركة «طالبان» وعلى إقناعها بوقف القتال في حال أصبح رئيساً. وبما أنه ينتمي إلى قبيلة البشتون الإثنية ومقرّب من بعض المجموعات التابعة لحركة «طالبان»، يعتبر حكمتيار المرشح الأنسب للرئاسة خلال الفترة التي تلي الاحتلال.

كان برهان الدين ربّاني خصم حكمتيار. ويرى قادة كبار في جماعات المجاهدين أنّ عدداً كبيراً من أعداء حكمتيار قتلوا خلال السنة الماضية. ومع رحيل الرجال الذين يحظون بمكانة عالية والجديرين بالثقة مثل ربّاني، سيكون حكمتيار قادراً على فرض نفسه كمرشح جدير بالثقة بسبب غياب المرشحين الأكفاء الآخرين.

والواقع أنّ محادثات السلام لم تحقّق بعد نجاحاً مهمّاً، لأنه من غير الواضح كيف أنّ عدداً كبيراً من المجموعات والخصوم لا يزالون يتقاتلون بعضهم مع بعض.

تمّ إعلان خبر تجديد محادثات السلام مع «الحزب الإسلامي» حين أعلن الرئيس كارزاي أنّ الانتخابات الرئاسية في أفغانستان ستجري بعد سنة، أي في عام 2013 في محاولة منه ربما للحصول على مساعدة أكبر وعلى التزامات أمنية من المجتمع الدولي قبل رحيل القوات الأجنبية.

وقبل أسبوع من الهجمات الأخيرة في كابول، أعلن المجلس الأعلى للسلام أنه سيستأنف قريباً محادثات السلام مع حكمتيار. تمّ إنهاء محادثات السلام سريعاً مع ممثلي حكمتيار منذ أشهر عدّة، بعد أن طرح حكمتيار 17 شرطاً، فضلاً عن مطالبته برحيل القوات الأجنبية وإرساء حكومة انتقالية بعد إجراء الانتخابات الرئاسية. واعتبر ربّاني والرئيس كارزاي هذه المطالب غير مقبولة، فتمّ حينها إنهاء المحادثات.

ومنذ الأسبوع الماضي، انتقد حميد كارزاي حلف شمال الأطلسي وأجهزة الاستخبارات الأفغانية لأنها أخفقت في تفادي الهجمات الأخيرة. غير أنه أشاد بقوات الأمن والشرطة الأفغانية لإبدائها قدرة كبيرة في محاربة الإرهاب.

غير أنّ ضعف الاستخبارات الذي انتقده الرئيس ليس جديداً على أفغانستان،

فمنذ سنتين تقريباً انعقد مجلس السلام في كابول، الذي جمع حوالى 1600 زعيم وطني لمناقشة الخروق الأمنية التي قد تعرضهم لخطر هجوم من حركة «طالبان»، وقد أجبر كارزاي رئيس الاستخبارات عمر الله صالح ووزير الداخلية أتمار على الاستقالة. وعارض سياسيون خارجيون ومحليون القرار الذي اتخذه كارزاي.

وبعد أيام على إقالته من منصبه، أخبرني صالح أنّ الرئيس كارزاي كان يتعرّض لضغوطات كبيرة من باكستان لا سيّما من أجهزة الاستخبارات للتخلّص من صالح في حال أراد كارزاي أن يتحسّن الأمن الأفغاني وأن يحصل على تعاون باكستان. وأذعن كارزاي، فرحّل صالح عن منصبه، إلا أنّ جهاز الاستخبارات لم يف بوعده ولم يتمّ تحسين الأمن في أفغانستان. وفي أيلول (سبتمبر) 2011، تعرّضت كابول لهجمات نفذّتها حركة «طالبان» ضد السفارة الأميركية وتمّ منذ ستة أشهر اغتيال الرئيس الأفغاني الأسبق ربّاني الذي كان مفاوضاً كبيراً مع حركة «طالبان» في المجلس الأعلى للسلام، في منزله.

وشكّلت الهجمات الأخيرة أكبر سلسلة من الهجمات تشهـــدها كابــــول بعد حـــــــكم حركة «طالبان». لماذا لم يجبر الرئيــــس كارزاي رئيس الأمن في البلد على الاستقالة في حين يتمّ تحميل فشل أجهزة الاستخبارات المسؤولية؟

كان أداء الشرطة وقوات الأمن الأفغانية جيّداً . أدّت العملية الليلية الأفغانية إلى بلوغ المرحلة النهائية من القتال ضد الإرهابيين في كابول، وتعدّ مصدر فخر لأفغانستان. تمّ التشكيك بقدرة أفغانستان واستعدادها لإدارة العمليات الليلية التي سُلّمت إلى جهاز الأمن الأفغاني قبل أسبوع على وقوع الهجمات. إلا أنها نجحت في مواجهة الانتحاريين الذين نفذّوا هجماتهم في الأسبوع الماضي. يشعر البلد بفخر وبرضى كبيرين، علماً أنّ هذا الشعور كان غائباً منذ مقتل رئيس الائتلاف الشمالي أحمد شاه مسعود. لقد أخفقت أجهزة استخبارات الحكومية وكارزاي أيضاً، إلا أنّ الشعب الأفغاني وقوات الأمن الأفغانية نجحت في الدفاع عن نفسها

الحياة

NOVANEWS

By Ismail Salami

Hell is empty and all the devils are here. — William Shakespeare, The Tempest.

A country robbed of peace and bereft of aspirations, Afghanistan seems to be plunging more and more into a pitiful morass of grievances brought about by the military madness the US troops exhibit in the beleaguered land with brazen-faced contumely.

One such instance of military insanity is reflected in the two-year-old photographs recently published by the Los Angeles Times which show US soldiers posing with the mangled bodies of Afghan militants.

These repugnant photos dealt a rapid blow to US-Afghan relations at a time when Washington seeks a strategic deal with Afghan President Hamed Karzai to maintain a presence in the country after the 2014 pullout of most foreign troops.

Karzai slammed the photographs as “inhuman” on Thursday, calling for a rapid transition from NATO to Afghan security in order to stall further similar incidents. A statement issued by Karzai’s office says, “The Afghan president emphasized that the only way to prevent such bitter experiences in the future is a quick and complete security transition from foreign forces.”

The 18 photos were provided by a soldier who served in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne’s 4th Brigade Combat Team from Ft. Bragg, N.C. who believed that the photos “point to a breakdown in leadership and discipline.”

Apart from the rage these revolting photos sparked all across Afghanistan and the aversion they created in international community, these photos represent the absurdity and the devastating nature of a war initially waged in the name of de-talibanizing the country at the hands of those who have lost the very quintessence of humanity.

In 2010, a group of US soldiers made up a kill team and decided to go on a shooting spree in their neighborhood. Stationed in Kandahar, they went for a human hunt all for the sake of gratifying a mad passion neighing in their breasts. With no fear for any pangs of conscience that might later prick them to death, two men of Bravo Company, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes embarked on their devilish journey until they reached La Mohammad Kalay, an isolated farming village. They caught sight of a young Afghan whose age could not possibly exceed 15. His name was Gul Mudin. The young boy was killed in cold blood and his blood-stained body was used by the same soldiers to pose for photos. In an unnamable act, Pfc. Andrew Holmes then cut off the Afghan’s pinky for a keepsake. Later, it transpired that the US soldiers in his Platoon “[threw] candy out of a Stryker vehicle as they drove through a village [and shot] children who came running to pick up the sweets.” Later, Spiegel Online published some of these photos.

Desecrating the dead in Afghanistan by US soldiers is nothing new. In another inhuman act, a 40-second clip shows four men in combat gear urinating on three dead bodies.

They are also heard to say jokingly, ‘Have a great day, buddy’, ‘Golden like a shower’ and ‘Yeahhhh!’

It is very shocking to note that there is no limit to their insult. In February, US soldiers at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan burned some copies of the Holy Quran.

Hatred for the US government is on the rise in Afghanistan. Any iota of optimism that Washington launched an expedition into the country in order to wipe out the Taliban and give the Afghans a breath of freedom is obsolete now. The Afghan people’s cognizance of US agenda in the country may be next to nothing but they now know the sadistic-fetishistic acts the US troops perform on dead bodies in the country are an egregious affront to the Afghans in the first place and a desecration of all qualities revered by every sensible person in the second.

Colonialism has run its course. Yet, the US troops in Afghanistan have travelled back in time when Americans colonized people through the malicious practices of serfdom, indentured servitude and debt bondage and treated them as chattels. Figuratively speaking, they built their houses on the bones of their slaves.

But Afghanistan is not a US colony!

NOVANEWS

by Kathy Kelly and Hakim

Last weekend, in Kabul, Afghan Peace Volunteer friends huddled in the back room of their simple home. With a digital camera, glimpses and sounds of their experiences were captured, as warfare erupted three blocks away.

Two Afghan youth taking refuge together with the Afghan Peace Volunteers

The fighting has subdued, but the video gives us a glimpse into chronic anxieties among civilians throughout Afghanistan. Later, we learned more: Ghulam awakens suddenly, well after midnight, and begins to pace through a room of sleeping people, screaming.  Ali suddenly tears up, after an evening meal, and leaves the room to sit outside. Staring at the sky and the moon, he finds solace.  Yet another puzzles over what brings people to the point of loaning themselves to possibly kill or be killed, over issues so easily manipulated by politicians.

I asked our friend, Hakim, who mentors the Afghan Peace Volunteers, if ordinary Afghans are aware that the U.S. has an estimated 400 or more Forward Operating Bases across Afghanistan and that it is planning to construct what will become the world’s largest U.S. Embassy, in Kabul.  Hakim thinks young people across Kabul are well aware of this. “Do they know,” I asked, “that the U.S. Air Force has hired 60,000 – 70,000 analysts to study information collected through drone surveillance?  The film footage amounts to the equivalent of 58,000 full length feature films. The Rand Corporation says that 100,000 analysts are needed to understand “patterns of life” in Afghanistan.”

Hakim’s response was quick and cutting: “Ghulam would ask the analysts a question they can’t answer with their drone surveillance, a question that has much to do with their business, ‘terror’: “You mean, you don’t understand why I screamed?”

Two days ago, “Democracy Now” interviewed Hakim about on-going U.S. military occupation in Afghanistan.  “If we don’t address the agreements that the U.S. and Australian governments and other governments are making for a long-term war strategy in Afghanistan,” Hakim observed, “we are heading for an increase in violence in this part of the world, in South Asia, perhaps perpetual war, more serious than the Kabul attacks.”

Analysts could better understand patterns of life in Afghanistan by mixing with Afghans in their homes and along their streets, unarmed.

The analysts would spend less tax-payer money but possibly obtain a genuine perspective on everyday life in Afghanistan. If they interacted with Afghan people instead of surveying them from the air, they’d be better equipped to study ‘terrorism,’their supposed intent.

What if U.S. analysts could feel the frustration Afghans feel as convoys of trucks bearing fuel and food for U.S. soldiers drive past squalid refugee camps where children have starved and frozen to death (250 die of starvation every day; 40 froze to death since January, 2012 ).

Hakim again: “They would understand quickly, even through cursory study by one ‘non-analyst,’ that Afghans are just as infuriated by U.S. soldiers urinating on corpses as U.S citizens are by their own police pepper-spraying college students.

They would understand that just as U.S. citizens can’t even imagine living under the barrel of the Mexican army, Afghan citizens, including of course those labelled ‘insurgents’, dislike foreign guns. No number of Special Ops forces staying on perpetually beyond 2014 can make Afghans like foreign guns. This is what the U.S. Afghan Strategic Partnership War Agreement will do with at least 4 billion U.S. tax payer dollars a year spent just on Afghan security forces.”

16 year old Ali understands that the agreement being readied for the NATO summit won’t accomplish foreign troop withdrawal. This creates what for some is deadly distrust. Ali knows that a long-term foreign military means that the firing and killing will continue.  “It’s tit-for-tat,” says Hakim, “U.S. soldier-for-Talib, dollars-for-rupees, and all those insensible human decisions that would occasionally make Ali cry.  But, the military and militant apparatus does not have human ears. It has bombs. So, when the recent Kabul attacks were going on, as seen in the very human moments in the video clip, the Afghan youth crouching in the refuge of a room were assured and delighted to hear from Voices activists, from across the miles, calling to ask how they were.

‘Ah! Someone cares. Someone listens,’

The monthly Global Days of Listening conversations which the youth have had with ordinary U.S., European, Middle Eastern and Australian citizens have helped change their lives person-to-person, overcoming the cold impersonal ‘shoosh’ of overhead rockets and under-running bloodshed.

Every day, Ghulam studies, cooks, washes the dishes and lives, very normally. But some nights, in the stupor of nightmares, Ghulam shouts subconsciously, out of ear-range to the million-dollar intelligence spies, ‘What kind of world is this that still insists on signing war agreements?

NOVANEWS

Is Afghanistan a House of Cards, Just Waiting to Fall?

…by Khalil Nouri STAFF WRITER / EDITOR

High vantage points – a standard Taliban tactic

The wave of coordinated attacks unleashed by the Taliban militants in Afghanistan on Sunday targeting Parliament and eastern cities gives a grim realization that Western backed Afghan President Mr. Karzai’s staked peace deal efforts with the Taliban aren’t working.

But the real question is whether the fragile empire that Mr. Hamid Karzai has built will stay seamed together when international troops begin to leave Afghanistan in 2014 – or will it be swept aside by dangerous political fractures opened up by his efforts to negotiate peace with the Taliban?

Evidently, Mr. Karzai’s pursuit of peace was, from the outside, driven by political pragmatism, not high principle.

From 2006, the Taliban began a relentless assassination campaign targeting traditional tribal leaders in the Kandahar region (Mr. Karzai’s traditional power-base).

The campaign, which is estimated to have claimed over 150 lives, ensured that Mr. Karzai’s efforts to reach out to Alokozai Pashtun leaders would collapse; that his prestige among his own Popalzai clan was diminished; and evidently caused his controversial half-brother, Ahamad Wali Karzai, to be killed last summer.

Although vote rigged, the 2009 elections made evident that Hamid Karzai had little support among southern Afghanistan’s ethnic Pasthuns. His victory against key rival Abdullah Abdullah was secured because of support from ethnic minorities; those grouped around the warlords akin to Haji Muhammad Mhaqiq, and those loyal to Abdul Rashid Dostum.

Is the finger in the wind an effective policy?

In a desperate effort to rebuild his political foundations, Mr. Karzai turned to the networks of Mr. Rabbani’s Jamaiat-e-Islami – the centerpiece of the Islamist movement; which, from the 1970’s dethroned Afghanistan’s traditional elite; and now, the son of slain Rabbani, Salahuddin Rabbani is in the driver seat to weld the fruitless peace process.

Mr. Karzai also sought help from Gubuddin Hekmayar’s Hezb-e-Islami, a party which though still ostensibly insurgent, has proxies in the political system.

Inside the Kabul palace—as it became clear western forces would draw down in 2014 — figures considered close to Pakistan acquired critical importance; among them, his chief of staff Abdul Karim Khurram.

From 2010, Mr. Karzai initiated an ever-more desperate search for peace with the Taliban and alienating large swathes of the opposition. Even though Pakistan proved unwilling, or unable, to rein in Taliban operating from its soil, Mr. Karzai continued to reach out; hoping a deal could be struck.

In 2010, the very same warlord Mr. Muhaqiq reneged on his earlier support, warning: “the new political path that Karzai has chosen will not only destroy him, it will destroy the country”, and “It’s a kind of suicide.” Those are words Mr. Karzai ought to be carefully considering now.

The recent attacks were a great embarrassment for the Afghan government, despite the allegation that they were directed by the Pakistani intelligence apparatus; which like Mr. Karzai’s usual blame game on others, particularly NATO, was not accepted by the majority in the wake of the incident.

Multiple car bomber attacks – another standard tactic

Having recently praised the direction of Special Forces night raids away from US control, the infiltration of fighters equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests and machine guns inside Kabul’s secured green zone must obviously count as a major security lapse.

In fact, it will be a moment of re-evaluation for representatives of Afghanistan’s ethnic minorities who have been in talks to build a united front ahead of the 2014 elections—hoping to create a broad coalition that could include leaders from the south, like United States-based scholar Ali Ahmad Jalali and even a royalist Hamayoon Shah Asifi.

In the last ten years, many more people in Afghanistan have developed deep interests in the need for keeping the peace. There are businessman and contractors with stakes in the system; young people who have invested in their education; even orphanages who already face charity contribution hurdles; and the list goes on for many whose businesses will be disrupted by ongoing war.

The question, though, is how to create and maintain a security apparatus for a fragile country; and not allowing it to slip back into repeated mayhem?

The clash of civilizations

It is clear that the same Taliban that Mr. Karzai hoped to make peace with has no intention of accepting any kind of deal that Afghanistan’s political system, as a whole, could live with.

In addition, a path to peace cannot be achieved when a government has not gained the allegiance of its people; nor can peace be attained with a group that has brutalized women and minorities in the past.

The world knows that the Taliban have no intention of relinquishing its Islamo-fascist mentality.

Does Mr. Karzai have a plan “B” despite all that has recently happened? If not, he has become certain of one thing for sure: Pakistan alone has held the key to peace in Afghanistan?

He should consider salvaging the first Afghan President Mohammad Daud Khan’s policy to unite the Pashtuns by vigorously opposing Pakistan’s de-Pashtunization of Pasthuns That should be the key to long lasting peace for Afghanistan.

Khalil Nouri is the cofounder of New World Strategies Coalition, a native think tank for nonmilitary solution studies for Afghanistan, and member of Afghanistan Study Group.

NOVANEWS

By GRAHAM BOWLEY  and ALISSA J. RUBIN

NOVANEWS

Gilad Atzmon interviews Sarah Gillespie

I have been working with Sarah Gillespie for the last five years. Sarah is an incredible singer songwriter, a very unique combination of poetic power coupled with natural compositional skills. Sarah doesn’t follow the book, she doesn’t fit into any recognized genre. Through collages of sounds, beat poetry and broken associations she manages to communicate yearning, pain, disillusion, joy and sometimes, hope.

I spoke to Sarah about her new project, The War On Trevor – a narrative piece of music depicting the plights of a luckless London lad whose life unravels in 1 day.

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Gilad Atzmon: Why Trevor?

Sarah Gillespie: Obviously it is a pun on the slogan ‘The War on Terror’. A pun is a figure of language that depends on similarity of sound and disparity of meaning. It matches 2 sounds that fit perfectly together as aural shapes yet stand provocatively apart in sense. The name ‘Trevor’, like ‘Brian’ signals safe, middle of the road, normality. ‘The Life of Brian’ would not work as a concept if the protagonist was called ‘Tarquin’ or ‘Joshua’ for instance. The joke relies on the implausibility that anyone called ‘Brian’ could possibly be the Messiah. Like Brian, Trevor is totally devoid of glamour, exoticness, power or danger. Therefore, in the title alone, there is already sense that Trevor is probably a harmless, ordinary plonker. He is the innocent twin of ‘Terror.’

Gilad Atzmon: Does our imaginary Trevor posses the capacity to dwell on The War on Trevor?

Sarah Gillespie: Initially no, because he assumes it has absolutely nothing to do with him. He just wants to go to work in the morning, get paid and live a normal life. That’s exactly what he is doing in the beginning when he gets caught up in anti Capitalist riots and needs to pee. He just wants to be in the world, but the environment around him conspires to make it impossible. Three cataclysmic events happen: he is arrested, he is dumped and he is misidentified as a terrorist. This trauma induces an awakening, a metamorphosis, which is played out in the final song ‘The Banks of the Arghandab.’ (The Arghandab is the main river running through the Helmand Province in Afghanistan).

Gilad Atzmon: But here we may face a slight problem, why is a ‘middle of the road ‘Trevor’ identified as a terror suspect? Is he a Muslim, an Arab? Is it his dark skinned? In Zionised Britain people become suspicious of being enemies of the State when they fit into a very specific profile. And yet, the War On Trevor sounds to me as a Kafkaesque tale, is it possible that you express here some nostalgic yearning to the horrific bureaucratic State? At least in Kafka’s universe ethics and the absurd are lucid and transparent, something you cannot attribute to the English speaking empire. At the end of the day we kill millions in the name of liberty, democracy and freedom.

Sarah Gillespie: For sure, the War On Trevor is Kafka-eque. Yet where as Josef K was persecuted by a pre-war bureaucratic authority, Trevor is stalked by a contemporary cocktail of political correctness, so-called ‘security measures’, fear of annihilation and the Enlightenment itself. Trevor doesn’t need to be an Arab to be under suspicion. For Jean Charles de Menezes it was enough to have slightly olive skin and brown hair to get 7 bullets in the head from the Metropolitan Police. This was after days of being under surveillance. It’s impossible to conceive of a more Kafkaesque scenario than that. This means that the criteria, to become a target is vast and, with that in mind, there is a sense in which we are all ‘Arabs’.

Gilad Atzmon: Are Trevor, Brian, the so-called ‘middle of the road’ capable of thinking politically, ideologically or ethically? Or are they, together with the rest of us, totally robbed by now?

Sarah Gillespie: Like all of us, Trevor’s ability to think is disabled by the systems of knowledge he’s born into, the pedagogy, the culture, the movies etc. He can’t help it, it’s not his fault. However, while he may not be able to think ethically, he is still capable of experiencing ethics on a visceral level and no one can ever rob him of that. In the final song ‘The Banks of the Argandab’ Trevor suddenly identifies the world around him for the first time and he is swamped with grief and shock. He doesn’t present coherent slogans or action plans. Instead the contradictory images in the lyrics paint a dissociation and despair. Finally he cries out ‘we are mute and we’re sorry.’ He is robbed of his ability to articulate – but he’s not robbed of his gut, his sorrow, his heart. He simply wants to cry on the banks of the Arghandab. This is not something you would write on a badge or a placard. It is a total break down.

Gilad Atzmon: This is indeed very interesting. I also believe that 150 years of slogans has robbed us of the ability to think authentically and even operate emotionally. As if this is not enough, political correctness, which is really a set of political stands that do not allow political criticism, is there to kill and sensor any form of genuine ethical and political reflection even before it reaches a level of consciousness. I guess that in the case of Trevor it is the collapse of his symbolic order which introduces new realisations. Would you agree that politics and ideologies belong to the past. They both failed us and we come to realise it all. We are now entering the great era of civil impotence? We can’t even imagine what our means of resistance should or could be.

Sarah Gillespie: I couldn’t agree more. When I was young I was enchanted by Francis Fukuyama’s conceit that history had arrived at its destination. Modern Liberal Democracy was the utopia we had always been striving towards across the centuries. This is obviously exposed now as nothing more than a fleeting, ethnocentric, self-love festival. We are in one of those crucial moments in time where the future is unimaginable. Every ideology has failed us. The rhetoric of pseudo compassion in the Left has robbed us of true compassion. The eagerness to pretend to understand the Other has divorced us from ourselves. The slaughter of millions of Muslims in the name of Liberty has transformed us into a heartless collective. Global Capitalism has given birth to ‘tent cities’ erupting across the USA. In the light of this, all the motifs of ‘resistance’, the scarf wearing, marching, boycotting etc, though done in good faith, really provide no more than a fig leaf across our gaping impotence. It is hard even to know which topic to protest against. There are so many to choose from. All we can really hope to do is begin to think in new ways and hone our awareness. As artists, we must express ourselves freely. New ways of being in the world will invariably unfold.

Gilad Atzmon: It is more than clear to me, at least, that we cannot envisage an alternative reality or future because the reality in which we are living in is a magnitude amplification of the so-called ‘self’. The so-called ‘credit crunch’ is an amplification of our personal deficit. Neocon righteous wars are the true embodiment of our righteousness. Even when engaged in some colossal genocidal crimes we manage to convince ourselves that is all done in the name of some moral interventionist reasoning, after all we always ‘liberate’ others. Liberal Democracy has been presenting itself as the embodiment of the our ‘free will’ and, as it appears, our will is bottomless. I believe that this is why the artist is the true meaning of redemption. While the politician is stuck within the symbolic order, the artist is there to introduce a new symbolic order. Sarah, do we have a role as artists or should we just let ourselves be?

Sarah Gillespie: Both. We can only have a role as an artist of we let ourselves be. People always say about modernity ‘follow the dollar’. Perhaps the enduring adage of the future might be ‘follow the beauty.’ I’m an optimist despite everything.

Gilad Atzmon: Is the rise of Trevor just another symptom of the decline of the music industry? Isn’t he a product of an authentic independent thinking?

Sarah Gillespie: I don’t know about the mainstream music industry because I’m not a part of it. Still I doubt very much that a 16 min anti-war narrative piece of music about a bloke called Trevor is likely to be an MTV hit. I think that when music is created for the sake of itself, and not for reasons to do with commerce or identity craving, then it will convey a purity that is authentic. It might not be amazing music but it will most definitely be uncontaminated.

Gilad Atzmon: I totally agree, the collapse of our industry may as well mean that we are free at last to play and sing the song we had in mind for so long. What next?

Sarah Gillespie: new music, new poetry and a hope that we might curtail our self-loving mechanisms for the sake of a better world.

NOVANEWS

US makes many errors in Afghanistan, passes them by lies

By Press TV US Desk

“The US has made an incredible number of errors and we could pass those errors by simply lying about it…because the American troops were simply lost and broke into the wrong home. That’s happened not dozens of times but hundreds of times.””

A prominent political analyst says the US makes “an incredible number of errors” during its war activities in Afghanistan, simply lying about them to pass them over.

The United States and Afghanistan have signed a deal on the controversial night raids carried out by the US-led forces.

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However, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had demanded an end to such operations, with Afghans saying the raids violate their privacy.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Gordon Duff, senior editor for Veterans Today, to further discuss the issue.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Technically speaking, in operational terms, what is going to change after this MOU is signed between the Afghan Government and the US military?

Duff: According to the agreement, over the last year, the US has been involved in 3,000 night operations which, as you’ve had described to you, simply refers to having troops breaking into people’s homes in the middle of the night and fighting their children.

The US claims that 81 percent of those raids have yielded terror suspects.

In a recent poll held in the United States, 69 percent of Americans are opposed to US involvement in the war in Afghanistan. By those standards, US troops could break into 69 percent of American homes and could detain suspects as well.

This is an issue we have in this country all the time with our own police. They’re continually breaking into the wrong homes, shooting innocent civilians in their sleep. It’s a very common thing.

The issue is very simple, it was a deal that Karzai cut with tribal leaders to allow the Americans to stay even though the US is totally dependent on these operations.
We agreed because it was more important for us to stay and save face, and depend on the Afghan troops that our commanders have been telling us for 11 years, ‘we’re never coming up to capability’.

Two days ago the Special Operations troops in Afghanistan were no good at all. Today they’re the best in the world. Why? -Because if we don’t use them the US has to leave.

Press TV: There are various types of raids that are carried on homes in Afghanistan, like the ones conducted by the CIA forces. Does this MOU encompass all types of operations targeting Afghan homes or is it just talking about a particular type?

A Marine Gathering Intel of a Different Kind

Duff: When they refer to Special Operations forces, the MOU probably includes all CIA and CIA contractors. It’s a fairly wide statement. Your earlier speaker with his point was a critical one.
I remember this during the Vietnam War.

For these raids, you depend on intelligence. That intelligence comes through signals-intelligence which is overhearing satellite calls using our sophisticated equipment or it depends on what people tell us.

Well, that depends on people not lying to Americans. Were I an Afghan who considered myself a patriot, giving information to Americans that would lead to arrests in the middle of the night, might not be consistent with my values.

The US has made an incredible number of errors and we could pass those errors by simply lying about it.

The key issue, there is no way to enter a private home, no matter whose it is, safely. And there is no way for American troops to travel across Afghanistan in the middle of the night with the most remote idea of where they are.

Frankly, so many of these incidents, when I read the real reports on them, are because the American troops were simply lost and broke into the wrong home. That’s happened not dozens of times but hundreds of times.

Press TV: The US government claims to be the torch bearer for human rights in the world. How does this justify violations of the privacy of Afghan homes on such a large scale, as you’ve just pointed out?

Duff: The funny thing is the same issue, people entering American homes without knocking, kicking down doors. The same purpose of Special Operations troops operate throughout the United States all the time.

To Americans, we’re just as armed as any people on earth or more so. If someone comes to my home in the middle of the night and kicks down the door, they’ll find me with an assault rifle firing back. That’s here.

It’s considered a simple human right to defend. It’s part of our right as American citizens to defend our homes. We should extend that right to everyone else. The point you’re making is we are not doing it.