ARMY SAYS CIA IGNORANT ABOUT AFGHANISTAN
"... Major General Michael Flynn, deputy chief of staff for intelligence in Afghanistan for the U.S. military and its NATO allies... described U.S. intelligence officials there as "ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the powerbrokers are and how they might be influenced ... and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers"... calling the United States "clueless" because of a lack of needed intelligence about the country..."
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre60403v-us-afghanistan-usa-intelligence/
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
STATUS OF U.S. IN AFGHANISTAN AT NEW YEAR
"... the US is killing schoolchildren far too often, enraging the Afghan public. It has provoked a studnet protest movement against it in Jalalabad and Kabul. Its informants are double agents (who blew up 7 CIA officers). Its supposed partner, the Afghan army, mostly doesn't actually exist and couldn't be depended on to show up to anything important; and that is when they aren't taking potshots at US troops; and there is no Afghan government as we go into 2010."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/01/serial-catastrophes-in-afghanistan.html
"... the US is killing schoolchildren far too often, enraging the Afghan public. It has provoked a studnet protest movement against it in Jalalabad and Kabul. Its informants are double agents (who blew up 7 CIA officers). Its supposed partner, the Afghan army, mostly doesn't actually exist and couldn't be depended on to show up to anything important; and that is when they aren't taking potshots at US troops; and there is no Afghan government as we go into 2010."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/01/serial-catastrophes-in-afghanistan.html
U.S. RAIDERS SHOOT 8 SCHOOL CHILDREN, SPARKING STREET PROTESTS
"The US military launched a raid in Kunar Province... in which President Hamid Karzai alleged that 10 civilians, some 8 of them schoolchildren, had been killed (some say dragged out of their beds and executed).... "They gathered eight school students from two compounds and put them in one room and shot them with small arms."... The charitable theory is that in a nighttime raid, US troops got disoriented and hit the wrong group of young men...
"The outraged Afghan public saw this raid as an atrocity, and... mounted street protests against the US in Jalalabad, an eastern Pashtun city, and Kabul. In Jalalabad, hundreds of university students blocked the main roads, and then marched in the streets, chanting "Death to Obama" and "Death to America," and burning Obama in effigy..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/world/asia/31afghan.html?_r=2
"... ten Afghans, eight of them schoolchildren, were killed... US-led troops dragged innocent children from their beds and shot them during a nighttime raid. Afghan government investigators said the eight students were aged from eleven to seventeen, all but one of them from the same family... NATO officials have insisted that they believe the people who were killed were part of a Taliban network making improvised explosive devices, homemade bombs, the roadside explosives..."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/6/us_led_forces_accused_of_executing
"The US military launched a raid in Kunar Province... in which President Hamid Karzai alleged that 10 civilians, some 8 of them schoolchildren, had been killed (some say dragged out of their beds and executed).... "They gathered eight school students from two compounds and put them in one room and shot them with small arms."... The charitable theory is that in a nighttime raid, US troops got disoriented and hit the wrong group of young men...
"The outraged Afghan public saw this raid as an atrocity, and... mounted street protests against the US in Jalalabad, an eastern Pashtun city, and Kabul. In Jalalabad, hundreds of university students blocked the main roads, and then marched in the streets, chanting "Death to Obama" and "Death to America," and burning Obama in effigy..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/world/asia/31afghan.html?_r=2
"... ten Afghans, eight of them schoolchildren, were killed... US-led troops dragged innocent children from their beds and shot them during a nighttime raid. Afghan government investigators said the eight students were aged from eleven to seventeen, all but one of them from the same family... NATO officials have insisted that they believe the people who were killed were part of a Taliban network making improvised explosive devices, homemade bombs, the roadside explosives..."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/6/us_led_forces_accused_of_executing
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
CHINA GETS THE CENTRAL ASIAN GAS PIPELINE INSTEAD OF U.S.
"China's President Hu Jintao on Monday unveiled a landmark pipeline to transport Turkmen natural gas to China, a key victory for Beijing in its drive for access to Central Asian resources.... The 7,000 kilometre (4,350 mile) gas pipeline is a significant victory for Beijing, marking the culmination of years of lobbying for influence over the region's strategic energy resources... It first runs for 1,800 kilometres in Central Asia -- snaking through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan -- before linking up with a further 5,000-plus kilometres of pipeline in China's far-west Xinjiang region. The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) will eventually import up to 40 billion cubic metres of gas a year through the pipeline when it reaches full capacity in 2012-2013..."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2ySwtf_yx7ojznvMBz0S0wmqFvg
"A common explanation for the US presence in Afghanistan is Washington's interest in Central Asian fuel sources-- natural gas in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and petroleum in Kazakhstan. The idea... was to bring a gas pipeline down through Afghanistan and Pakistan to energy-hungry India... For this reason some on the political Right in the US actually supported the Taliban as a force for law and order. If that was the plan, it has failed. Instead, China has landed the big bid to develop a major gas field in Turkmenistan, along with a pipeline to Beijing... So the US is bogged down in an Afghanistan quagmire, and China is running off with the big regional prize."
http://www.juancole.com/2009/12/china-wins-struggle-for-pipelinestan.html
"China's President Hu Jintao on Monday unveiled a landmark pipeline to transport Turkmen natural gas to China, a key victory for Beijing in its drive for access to Central Asian resources.... The 7,000 kilometre (4,350 mile) gas pipeline is a significant victory for Beijing, marking the culmination of years of lobbying for influence over the region's strategic energy resources... It first runs for 1,800 kilometres in Central Asia -- snaking through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan -- before linking up with a further 5,000-plus kilometres of pipeline in China's far-west Xinjiang region. The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) will eventually import up to 40 billion cubic metres of gas a year through the pipeline when it reaches full capacity in 2012-2013..."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2ySwtf_yx7ojznvMBz0S0wmqFvg
"A common explanation for the US presence in Afghanistan is Washington's interest in Central Asian fuel sources-- natural gas in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and petroleum in Kazakhstan. The idea... was to bring a gas pipeline down through Afghanistan and Pakistan to energy-hungry India... For this reason some on the political Right in the US actually supported the Taliban as a force for law and order. If that was the plan, it has failed. Instead, China has landed the big bid to develop a major gas field in Turkmenistan, along with a pipeline to Beijing... So the US is bogged down in an Afghanistan quagmire, and China is running off with the big regional prize."
http://www.juancole.com/2009/12/china-wins-struggle-for-pipelinestan.html
U.S. FIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN WHILE CHINA INVESTS
"... the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion... for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak. Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper — an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China... In a single move, Beijing strengthened its hold on a vital resource, engineered the single largest investment in Afghan history, promised to create thousands of new Afghan jobs and established itself as the Afghan government’s pre-eminent business partner and single largest source of tax payments... While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/world/asia/30mine.html?_r=2&sudsredirect=true
"... the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion... for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak. Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper — an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China... In a single move, Beijing strengthened its hold on a vital resource, engineered the single largest investment in Afghan history, promised to create thousands of new Afghan jobs and established itself as the Afghan government’s pre-eminent business partner and single largest source of tax payments... While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/world/asia/30mine.html?_r=2&sudsredirect=true
Monday, December 28, 2009
INSURGENTS LEARN TO DESTROY MRAPs
"... insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs) that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs... The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, also raise questions about how vulnerable a new, lighter MRAP, the M-ATV, which is now being shipped to Afghanistan, are to the massive explosive charges... The Pentagon has spent more than $26.8 billion to develop and build three versions of the largest MRAPs, totaling some 16,000 vehicles... Another $5.4 billion is being spent to produce 5,244 M-ATVs, the smaller version..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/336/story/78443.html
"... insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs) that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs... The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, also raise questions about how vulnerable a new, lighter MRAP, the M-ATV, which is now being shipped to Afghanistan, are to the massive explosive charges... The Pentagon has spent more than $26.8 billion to develop and build three versions of the largest MRAPs, totaling some 16,000 vehicles... Another $5.4 billion is being spent to produce 5,244 M-ATVs, the smaller version..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/336/story/78443.html
TIME RUNNING OUT IN AFGHANISTAN
"... intelligence officials are warning that the Taliban -led insurgency is expanding and that "time is running out" for the U.S... the Taliban now have... "a full-fledged insurgency" and shadow governors in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, including those in the north, where U.S. and other officials had thought the Islamic extremists posed less of a threat. The Taliban's return to the northern provinces, including Baghlan, Kunduz and Taqhar... poses serious security, logistical and political problems for the U.S... (because they) now threaten the northern supply route..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20091228/wl_mcclatchy/3386724
"... intelligence officials are warning that the Taliban -led insurgency is expanding and that "time is running out" for the U.S... the Taliban now have... "a full-fledged insurgency" and shadow governors in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, including those in the north, where U.S. and other officials had thought the Islamic extremists posed less of a threat. The Taliban's return to the northern provinces, including Baghlan, Kunduz and Taqhar... poses serious security, logistical and political problems for the U.S... (because they) now threaten the northern supply route..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20091228/wl_mcclatchy/3386724
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