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The real Obama scandal: fighting illegal wars in Libya and Pakistan

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Michael Cohen - May. 16 (Comment) - The AP, IRS and Benghazi controversies are political sideshows. Obama's use of illegal force abroad is true concern Washington DC appears to have reached peak hysteria this week. The confluence of not one, not two, but three potential scandals involving the White House has given practically every Beltway scribe a case of the vapors as they don their Woodward/Bernstein capes and doggedly uncover the truth behind the Obama Administration's lies. What's missing, however, is actual evidence of wrongdoing. The IRS scandal is certainly the most politically toxic, but it remains unclear that anyone from the Obama Administration knew what the IRS was doing or that the agency was even targeting conservative groups for partisan political reasons. The Department of Justice's subpoena of phone records from the Associated Press is far more troubling because it offers a glimpse into the prosecutorial zeal that has defined DoJ's investigation of leaks from within the Obama Administration. Finally, there ...

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Lawmaker wants military to promptly alert Congress about drone strikes

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Craig Whitlock - May. 09 (News Report) - A leading House Republican said Wednesday that he wants to require the U.S. military to “promptly” inform Congress about every drone strike it conducts outside Afghanistan as well as other military operations to kill or capture suspected terrorists outside declared war zones. ...

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How the CIA's Bags of Cash Undermined the Afghanistan War

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Spencer Ackerman - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - It’s the most understandable, intuitive and tempting mistake in geopolitics: secretly pay a powerful foreigner to do what you want. The CIA, like many spy agencies, has done it throughout its history, and now we know it helped undermine the America’s longest war.

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Millions In 'Ghost Money' Paid To Afghanistan President's Office, New York Times Reports

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Apr. 29 (News) - The so-called "ghost money" was meant to buy influence for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying. "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan", one American official said, "was the United States."

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A Desperate Situation at Guantánamo: Over 130 Prisoners on Hunger Strike, Dozens Being Force-Fed

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 29 (News Report) - Lawyers for the prisoners say more than 130 men are taking part in the hunger strike, which began in February. One of the hunger strikers is a Yemeni man named Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel. In a letter published in The New York Times, he wrote: "Denying ourselves food and risking death every day is the choice we have made. I just hope that because of the pain we are suffering, the eyes of the world will once again look to Guantánamo before it is too late."

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Russia caught bomb suspect on wiretap

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Apr. 28 (News Report) - Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call.

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China tests its borders again, this time in the mountains

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - Apr. 24 (News Report) - India is alleging a Chinese border incursion in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, putting diplomatic pressure on an otherwise warming relationship between the two Asian giants. ...

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What America's Leaving Behind in Afghanistan: Trained Militias Accused of Rape and Murder

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Jennifer Norris - Apr. 21 (News Report) - Despite some success in achieving security gains, the ALP program has been plagued by such problems as Taliban infiltration and insider attacks. But most controversially, ALP units have been accused of committing serious human rights abuses against local populations with apparent impunity.

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Afghan Girls School Poisoning: 74 Girls Poisoned in Suspected Taliban Gas Attack

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

policymic.com - Apr. 21 (News) -

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Hamid Karzai Seeks to Curb CIA Operations in Afghanistan

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Emma Graham-Harrison - Apr. 20 (News Report) - "Some of them are said to be working with the NDS, but they are not armed by the NDS, not paid by the NDS, and not sent to operations by the NDS. Sometimes they only inform the NDS minutes before the operation," Faizi said. "They are conducting operations without informing local authorities and when something goes wrong it is called a joint operation."

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These Soldiers Did the Boston Marathon Wearing 40-Pound Packs. Then They Saved Lives.

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Tasneem Raja - Apr. 17 (Comment) - Tough Ruck soldiers clearing a path to victims Military Friends Foundation More MoJo coverage of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings At 5:20 a.m. on Monday, four hours before the Boston Marathon's elite runners took off, a group of 15 active-duty soldiers from the Massachusetts National Guard gathered at the starting line in Hopkinson. Each soldier was in full combat uniform and carried a "ruck," a military backpack weighing about 40 pounds. The rucks were filled with Camelbacks of water, extra uniforms, Gatorade, changes of socks—and first-aid and trauma kits. It was all just supposed to be symbolic. "Forced marches" or "humps" are a regular part of military training, brisk walking over tough terrain while carrying gear that could help a soldier survive if stranded alone. These soldiers, participating in " Tough Ruck 2013 ," were doing the 26 miles of the Boston Marathon to honor comrades killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, or lost to suicide and PTSD-related accidents after ...

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The C.I.A.’s Angry Birds

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By MAUREEN DOWD - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - Over the winter, I heard military commanders and White House officials murmur in hushed tones about how they would have to figure out a legal and moral framework for the flying killer robots executing targets around the globe. They were starting to reali

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The President's Priorities

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Apr. 11 (Opinion) - Debt in 2014 will hit 78.2% of the economy. President Obama is pitching his new budget proposal as a fiscal peace offering to Republicans, but the details suggest everyone should expect more conflict. The fiscal 2014 plan he released Wednesday is a very slightly modified version of his previous budgets that reduces the deficit by raising taxes and trading defense cuts for more domestic spending. The real news is that his budget ratifies much of the spending increase of the first term and tries to lock it in. He wants the feds to spend $3.78 trillion next year ($11,944 per American), which would still be 22.2% of national output nearly four years into an economic recovery. Before the financial panic in 2008, the government was spending about $1 trillion less, or closer to $2.7 trillion a year and an average of 20% of GDP—and President Bush was no slouch as a spender himself.

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NATO airstrike kills dozens in Afghanistan

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

aljazeera.com - Apr. 07 (News Report) - Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has condemned a NATO air attack that has killed 11 children in eastern Afghanistan. The children were killed during a joint Afghan-NATO operation against Taliban fighters in the Shigal district of restive Kunar province bordering Pakistan late on Saturday.

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Pakistan’s Precipitous Decline

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By WILLIAM MILAM - Apr. 04 (Opinion) - Nuclear arms, sectarian violence, a too-powerful military and dysfunctional institutions make for a dangerous mix.

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Study: Iraq, Afghan war costs to top $4 trillion

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ernesto Londoño - Mar. 29 (Special Report) - The U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost taxpayers between $4 trillion to $6 trillion, taking into account the medical care of wounded veterans and expensive repairs to a force depleted by more than a decade fighting, according to a new study by a Harvard researcher. Read full article >>

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As Gitmo Prisoners Revolt, Obama Admin Challenged on Indefinite Detention at OAS Hearing

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 13 (News Report) - As more than 100 Guantánamo Bay prisoners enter the fifth week of their hunger strike, the Obama administration has defended their detention at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. A number of prisoners have been held without charge for more than 11 years, and more than half have been cleared for release. Attorneys for the prisoners told the hearing that the lack of hope for release among those who do not face charges has created a climate of despair.

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American 'Bloodlust' Led to Secrets Leak, Says Manning

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Ed Pilkington - Mar. 01 (News Report) - "We were obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists and ignoring goals and missions. I believed if the public, particularly the American public, could see this it could spark a debate on the military and our foreign policy in general [that] might cause society to reconsider the need to engage in counter-terrorism while ignoring the human situation of the people we engaged with every day."

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Pakistan's rulers under fire after Quetta bombing

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Feb. 17 (News Report) - Attack on market by Sunni extremists deepens Shia suspicions that intelligence forces are turning a blind eye to bloodshed Pakistan's government, which is gearing up for elections expected within months, faced growing anger on Sunday for failing to deliver stability after a sectarian bombing in the city of Quetta killed 81 people. Leaders have done little to contain hardline Sunni Muslim groups, which have stepped up their campaign of bombings and assassinations of minority Shias. On Saturday, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), regarded as the most ruthless Sunni sectarian group, claimed responsibility for the attack in Quetta, which deepened suspicions among Shias that Pakistan's intelligence agencies were turning a blind eye to the bloodshed or even supporting extremists. "The terrorist attack on the Hazara [an ethnic minority almost entirely belonging to the Shia sect of Islam] community in Quetta is a failure of the intelligence and security forces," Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, governor ...

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Rand Paul’s Bin Laden Claim Is ‘Urban Myth’

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Robert Farley - Feb. 09 (Fact Check) - In two recent statements, Sen. Rand Paul made the unsubstantiated claim that the U.S. government once "armed" and "funded" Osama bin Laden. The CIA and several of its top officials deny that the U.S. ever recruited, trained, armed or funded bin Laden during the Afghan war over Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Bin Laden himself has denied it. ... More >>

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Trumpeting technological strength, Iran releases video it says is from downed US drone

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - Feb. 09 (News Report) - The release of the video comes as Iran showcases a slew of scientific and technological advances to herald the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which will be celebrated on Feb. 10.

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The law of war does not shield the CIA and John Brennan's drone kill list | Morris Davis

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Morris Davis - Feb. 08 (Comment) - The US prosecuted Omar Khadr in Guantánamo for not being a lawful combatant. Exactly the same applies to the civilian CIA The disclosure Tuesday evening of the Department of Justice white paper on targeted killing (pdf) has sparked a lot of debate, much of it focused on the Obama administration's extraordinarily broad interpretation of what constitutes an "imminent" threat that justifies lethal force as an act of self-defense. As Senator Rand Paul (Republican, Kentucky) told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday, "only a team of lawyers could define 'imminent' to mean the exact opposite" of what the word means in the real world. There are, no doubt, many Americans alive today who should be thankful their healthcare providers did not apply the administration's interpretation of "imminent" to decide if they had crossed over the line of imminent death and said pull the plug. Some people have acquired power and profits in post-9/11 America by pandering to and perpetuating fear. As ...

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Drone Strikes Test Legal Grounds for War on Terror

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

ProPublica - By Cora Currier - Feb. 06 (Investigative Report) - In his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama declared that “a decade of war is now ending.”

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Afghanistan 2014: How the US will Lose Yet another fruitless War (Jones)

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment - By Juan - Jan. 28 (Opinion) - Ann Jones writes at Tomdispatch.com: Kabul, Afghanistan — Compromise, conflict, or collapse: ask an Afghan what to expect in 2014 and you’re likely to get a scenario that falls under one of those three headings. 2014, of course, is the year of the double whammy in Afghanistan: the next presidential election coupled with the departure of most American and other [...]

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Op-Ed Columnist: Break All the Rules

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN - Jan. 23 (Opinion) - At a time when we measure our secretaries of state more by miles traveled than milestones achieved, what’s the next secretary to do? Here’s a plan.

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