Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai appears on a large video screen as he delivers his opening speech for the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss Alpine resort town of Davos January 23, 2008. This year's annual meeting of some 2,500 political, business and cultural leaders will address the forum's overall theme 'The Power of Collaborative Innovation'.
Karzai says war "engulfing region" around Afghanistan (click here)
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday that violence was engulfing his region and called on countries to confront militancy with action not rhetoric.
"While Afghanistan is still a critical battlefield, a rapidly spreading war is engulfing the wider region," Karzai said in a speech to the World Economic Forum.
"Our strategies in this war have often been short-changed by a host of deceptive rhetoric," he said. "Governments in the region need to move beyond rhetoric and cease to seek the pursuit of interests in the use of extremist politics".
Karzai did not accuse any country by name, but his relations with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf have at times virtually broken down over Afghan complaints that Taliban insurgents operate from Pakistan's side of their common border.
Many al Qaeda and Taliban militants took refuge in the border areas after U.S.-led troops drove Afghanistan's Taliban government from power after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Afghanistan is now battling an intense Taliban insurgency while Pakistani forces are confronting pro-Taliban militants in different parts of the northwest, near the Afghan border....
Government can't be trusted on Afghanistan, lawyers argue
ALEXANDER PANETTA
Canadian Press
January 24, 2008 at 4:23 PM EST
OTTAWA — Human-rights lawyers pushing for a stop to prisoner transfers argued in court Thursday that Canada's government cannot be trusted to tell the truth about what goes on in Afghanistan.
Lawyer Paul Champ told a Federal Court hearing that the government would clearly have covered up prisoner abuses by Afghan authorities had it not been for the ongoing legal battle.
In a secret policy shift almost three months ago, Canadian soldiers stopped transferring detainees to Afghan authorities after they were convinced some had been beaten in violation of the Geneva conventions.
“The government shouldn't be making those decisions,” Mr. Champ said during a break in proceedings.
Members of Parachute Company, Third Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battalion Group lead detainees from a residential compound in southwest Kabul in this 2004 file photo. (MCpl Brian Walsh)
“It should be the court because (the government has) shown in the past they're wrong and the consequence of their errors has been that torture had been committed.”
The move came after the government spent nearly a year dismissing abuse allegations and ridiculing opponents who raised them.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080124.wdetaineereax0124/BNStory/Afghanistan/home?cid=al_gam_mostemail
Turkey launches fourth air raid on Iraqi Kurds (click here)
By Tom Chivers and agencies
Last Updated: 2:29am GMT 16/01/2008
Turkish aircraft have bombed targets in northern Iraq as part of their ongoing campaign against Kurdish rebels, according to the Turkish army.
One-hundred thousand Turkish troops are camped near the Iraqi border, and in October the country's parliament authorised cross-border military attacks against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for the coming year. Turkey, together with the USA and EU, consider the PKK to be a terrorist organisation. The strikes, described as "intensive", hit PKK positions in the Avasin-Basyan and Hakurk regions of the country, said the statement, which was posted on a website by the Turkish military.
The statement said that "maximum care" was taken to avoid civilian casualties, although no figure was given. "The aircraft returned safely to base after successfully completing their mission," it added.
The strike was the fourth such cross-border air attack confirmed by the Turkish military since Dec 16 last year. There have also been ground operations intended to stop militants entering Turkey.
Iraqi Kurds in the region claim that there have also been two more, unconfirmed, air raids....
Remeber these? The million dollar Anti-Death machine, guaranteed to keep American forces safe while destroying any living thing in it's path?
U.S. soldier in Iraq becomes first to die in attack on new MRAP vehicle
By Associated Press
BAGHDAD (AP) - A soldier killed over the weekend south of Baghdad was the first American casualty in a roadside bomb attack on a newly introduced, heavily armored vehicle, a military spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The V-shaped hull of the huge MRAP - Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected - truck is designed to deflect blasts from roadside bombs, a weapon that has killed more American soldiers than any other tactic used by Sunni insurgents and militia fighters in Iraq.
The soldier who died Saturday was the gunner who sits atop the MRAP vehicle. Three crew members tucked inside the cabin were wounded. The vehicle rolled over after the blast and it was not clear how the gunner died - from wounds in the explosion or in the subsequent roll-over.
Maj. Alayne P. Conway, deputy spokeswoman for the 3rd Infantry Division, said the attack and the death were under investigation.
There now are more than 1,500 of the costly vehicles in service in Iraq and the Pentagon is working to get at least 12,000 more, using $21 billion provided by Congress. MRAPs cost between $500,000 and $1 million, depending on their size and how they are equipped.
http://www.klewtv.com/news/national/13970682.html
And while Bush lusts after dictatorship, Cheney seeks to destroy the USA Constitution.
Cheney Again Calls For Telecom Immunity
By Jason Lee Miller - Thu, 01/24/2008 - 11:26am.More BS from the BA
Let me preface by saying I think the current administration – from the top all the way down to appointees who blindly cooperate – should be tried for treason. That way we bring any allegations of bias or slant to the forefront and you know where I stand. No need to bring in theories about what lies beneath the words; the words are out in the open.
That doesn't make me anti-Republican or anti-conservative. It makes me anti-this-administration, which has about 10 months left to screw with everything, and protesting against governmental abuses of power is the American way – not the liberal or conservative way.
So, what's fired me up this morning is Vice President Cheney's latest call to expand the government's ability to spy on the American people whenever it wants for whatever reason without accountability, whether it is Constitutional or not, and his demand that the people be denied their right to even the pursuit of justice via lawsuits against the telecommunications industry for participating in illegal government activities.
Is there anything less ideologically American than the US government not only abusing its power to get around Constitutional authority but also denying the people their right to hold them (and co-abusers) accountable for it? Wasn't that the whole point of our break from Britain? The madness of King George, redux.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/01/24/cheney-again-calls-for-telecom-immunity
Reid Clears Hurdle for Bush-Cheney Spying Bill
The Nation Thu Jan 24, 3:24 PM ET
The Nation -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cleared a key hurdle for the FISA Amendments Act on Thursday, advancing President Bush's preferred version of the spying bill, a move opposed by the majority of Reid's Democratic colleagues. The vote, 60-34, sets the Senate on a course to validate more warrantless spying by the Bush administration and provide retroactive amnesty to telephone companies accused of breaking surveillance laws -- an unpopular approach.
The ACLU, which has collaborated with a network of constitutional activists and bloggers to oppose the administration's surveillance policies, condemned the Democratic leadership in unusually tough language after the vote. "Under Democratic leadership, the Senate will now continue its debate on surveillance with a bill that resembles something from the administration's playbook. Six months after being hoodwinked into passing the Protect America Act, Americans are still waiting for Congress to grow a spine," read an official statement released Thursday afternoon.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080124/cm_thenation/15274927
Bush has far bigger problems than Iraq as Commander and Chief. When are these people going to be impeached !!!
Bush plan for Iraq would be a first
No OK from Congress seen; Constitutional issues raised
By Charlie Savage
Globe Staff / January 25, 2008
WASHINGTON - President Bush's plan to forge a long-term agreement with the Iraqi government that could commit the US military to defending Iraq's security would be the first time such a sweeping mutual defense compact has been enacted without congressional approval, according to legal specialists.
After World War II, for example - when the United States gave security commitments to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and NATO members - Presidents Truman and Eisenhower designated the agreements as treaties requiring Senate ratification. In 1985, when President Ronald Reagan guaranteed that the US military would defend the Marshall Islands and Micronesia if they were attacked, the compacts were put to a vote by both chambers of Congress.
By contrast, Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki have already agreed that a coming compact will include the United States providing "security assurances and commitments" to Iraq to deter any foreign invasion or internal terrorism by "outlaw groups." But a top White House official has also said that Bush does not intend to submit the deal to Congress.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/25/bush_plan_for_iraq_would_be_a_first/
Taliban seize Nato supplies in Pakistan
By Isambard Wilkinson in Tank, Pakistan
Last Updated: 3:38am GMT 25/01/2008
The suspected mastermind behind Benazir Bhutto's assassination has stolen sophisticated Nato equipment by raiding the alliance's supply lines running through Pakistani territory.
Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban commander who American officials hold responsible for Miss Bhutto's death, has emerged as a threat to the flow of supplies for British and American forces fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Mehsud's increasing prominence shows how Pakistan under President Pervez Musharraf is steadily falling under the sway of Islamist militants.
Mr Musharraf, who is touring Europe, will speak in London today on "a vision for Pakistan and regional harmony". His critics believe, however, that turmoil in Pakistan is fuelling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and helping to destabilise South Asia as a whole.
A senior government official, based near the frontier town of Tank, told The Daily Telegraph that Mehsud's men regularly ambushed container lorries carrying hardware bound for Nato forces in Afghanistan.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/25/wpak125.xml
Imran Khan Brings Anti-Musharraf Campaign to U.S.
by Steve Inskeep
Audio for this story will be available at approx. 9:00 a.m. ET
Alex Wong
Imran Khan holds a briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, Jan. 24, 2008. Getty Images
Morning Edition, January 25, 2008 · A former cricket star who leads one of Pakistan's minority parties spent time in Washington this week meeting with lawmakers and speaking out against U.S. support of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Imran Khan, an international celebrity since his days as a sports star, leads a much smaller party than that of Benazir Bhutto, the leader who was killed last month. But in Pakistan, he's nearly as well known as Bhutto.
And he says that next month's elections there won't be real, if they happen at all.
Musharraf removed the independent judges who would referee them. Yet Khan knows the president remains a U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.
"Gen. Musharraf has done a brilliant PR job here where he has convinced the people that he is one man holding these hordes of terrorists, the bastion against these extremists...." Khan says.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18402782
