Die riesengrosse Online-Community von Herrn Zuckerberg (Facebook) startete vor wenigen Jahren mit einer kleinen Idee!
Ganz nach dem Motto: "Beginne klein und denke groß!"
Und das tat Herr Zuckerberg auch: „Er holte sich die richtigen Partner mit an Bord! Diese investierten insgesamt gerade mal 11.000 US-Dollar und der Rest ist Geschichte“
Stop! Wissen Sie überhaupt, was aus diesen 11.000 US-Dollar geworden ist?
„Nach nur 4 Jahren ist aus dieser kleinen Anfangssumme ein Netzwerk von 500.000.000 Fans entstanden. Dies ist eine Marketingmacht, woraus aus 11.000 US-Dollar => 175.000.000 US Dollar wurden!
Und das alles nur, weil Jemand seine Freunde auf Facebook eingeladen hat und diese wiederum ihre Freunde u.s.w.! Mehr war nicht nötig, um dieses riesige Internetimperium aufzubauen, das Milliarden abwirft.
http://www.sitetalk.com/?sponsor=derob2b
Posts mit dem Label USA werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label USA werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Donnerstag, 10. November 2011
Mittwoch, 19. Oktober 2011
Pakistan warnt die USA vor Einmarsch
Planen die USA eine Operation gegen Terroristen in Pakistan? Hochrangige Militärs des Landes beobachten einen massiven Aufmarsch der Amerikaner an der Grenze zu Afghanistan - und machen im Gegenzug verbal mobil. Washington bekäme es mit einer "Atommacht" zu tun.
Hamburg/Islamabad - Alarmstimmung im pakistanischen Armeehauptquartier in Rawalpindi: "Wir nehmen zur Kenntnis, dass die USA ihre Truppen an der Grenze zu unserem Land in Afghanistan verstärken", sagte ein Militärsprecher SPIEGEL ONLINE am Mittwoch. Es werde schweres Geschütz aufgefahren, Kampfhubschrauber bezögen Stellung, Hunderte von amerikanischen und afghanischen Soldaten seien in der Region stationiert.
Nach Meinung von Beobachtern deutet vieles darauf hin, dass die USA einen Angriff auf das terroristische Haqqani-Netzwerk planen, das sich in der pakistanischen Krisenregion Waziristan versteckt. In den vergangenen Tagen hatte Washington bereits seine Drohnenangriffe in dieser Gegend verstärkt. In Miranshah, Verwaltungshauptstadt von Nord-Waziristan, sorgten Meldungen über die amerikanische Truppenverstärkung für Panik. Pakistanische Fernsehsender berichteten, Menschen würden sich auf eine Flucht vorbereiten.
Pakistans Armeechef Parvez Ashfaq Kayani erklärte vor Mitgliedern des Verteidigungsausschusses, er halte einen Einmarsch von US-Truppen zwar für "unwahrscheinlich". Sollten die USA einen solchen Schritt aber erwägen, sollten sie sich ihn "zehnmal überlegen", mahnte Kayani. Zwar sagte er nicht, wie Pakistan in einem solchen Fall reagieren würde, jedoch erinnerte er die USA daran, "dass Pakistan eine Atommacht ist und nicht mit Irak und Afghanistan verglichen werden kann".
Einem Parlamentarier zufolge, der an der Sitzung mit Kayani teilnahm, sind sich die Militärs einig, dass ein Angriff auf Pakistan das Scheitern der USA in Afghanistan vertuschen solle. "Bevor die US-Truppen Vietnam verließen, wissend, dass sie den Krieg verloren hatten, griffen sie auch Laos und Kambodscha an", sagte ein General SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Es wäre fatal, wenn sie jetzt, vor dem bevorstehenden Abzug aus Afghanistan, Pakistan angreifen würden."
Die USA haben das Haqqani-Netzwerk im Visier, das nach Erkenntnissen Washingtons für einen Großteil der Angriffe auf US-Soldaten in Afghanistan verantwortlich sein soll. Dessen Kämpfer werden angeblich in Pakistan ausgebildet und hätten auf pakistanischem Territorium einen "sicheren Hafen". Washington hat in den vergangenen Monaten mehrfach von Islamabad verlangt, militärisch gegen das Netzwerk vorzugehen.
Im September warf US-Generalstabschef Mike Mullen Pakistans Geheimdienst ISI sogar vor, das Haqqani-Netzwerk zu nutzen, um eigene Interessen in Afghanistan durchzusetzen. Mitte September war die US-Botschaft in Kabul angegriffen worden - vermutlich von Haqqani-Mitgliedern.
Pakistan geht nur zögerlich gegen die Haqqani-Truppe vor
Kayani sagte jetzt nach Angaben von Parlamentariern, er habe den USA deutlich gemacht, dass Pakistan selbst über den Zeitpunkt eines militärischen Vorgehens in Nord-Waziristan entscheiden werde. Druck aus den USA sei "nicht hilfreich". "Wir haben ihnen [den USA] gesagt, dass das Problem in Afghanistan liegt, nicht in Pakistan", zitierte ein Abgeordneter Kayani. "Wenn mich jemand überzeugen kann, dass es gut läuft, wenn wir in Nord-Waziristan einschreiten, werde ich sofort dafür sorgen, dass wir militärisch aktiv werden", sagte Kayani weiter. Pakistan habe "langfristige Interessen in Afghanistan". Diese dürften nicht geopfert werden zugunsten "kurzfristiger Interessen".
Inwieweit die Vorwürfe aus den USA stimmen, dass das Haqqani-Netzwerk heimlich von den pakistanischen Streitkräften unterstützt wird, lässt sich nicht überprüfen. Innerhalb der US-Regierung aber wächst die Ungeduld, dass Pakistan nichts gegen die Militanten auf pakistanischem Boden tut. Die Lage in Afghanistan ist instabil, der Druck auf US-Präsident Barack Obama wächst, wenigstens einen kleinen Erfolg in der Region vorzuweisen.
Manche seiner Berater drängen daher zu der militärischen Aktion - so, wie die USA schon mit ihrem Schlag gegen Osama Bin Laden im pakistanischen Abbottabad im Mai dieses Jahres erfolgreich waren. Gleichwohl dürften viele in Washington vor einem militärischen Vorgehen ohne Einverständnis der pakistanischen Regierung zurückschrecken - längst hat sich Pakistan mit China und Saudi-Arabien starke Verbündete gesucht.
Die pakistanische Regierung geht tatsächlich nur zögerlich gegen die Mitglieder der Haqqani-Truppe vor, weil sie befürchtet, dass die sich im Falle eines Krieges in Nord-Waziristan mit Terroranschlägen im ganzen Land rächen würden. Bislang hält sich Haqqani mit Gewalt auf pakistanischem Boden zurück. "Die USA sollten auch einmal versuchen, unsere Position zu verstehen", sagte ein pakistanischer General SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Welches Interesse hat Pakistan daran, weiteren Terror im eigenen Land anzufachen?"
Aus afghanischen Regierungskreisen hieß es dagegen, die US-Truppenverstärkung entlang der Grenze sei mit Pakistan abgesprochen. "Kämpfer des Haqqani-Netzwerks sollen auf dem Weg von Pakistan nach Afghanistan abgefangen und getötet werden", erläuterte ein afghanischer Beamter aus dem Verteidigungsministerium den Plan.
In der ostafghanischen Provinz Khost würden amerikanische und afghanische Soldaten Häuser durchsuchen, in mehreren Orten bestehe derzeit eine Ausgangssperre. Afghanistans Verteidigungsminister Abdul Rahim Wardak hatte am Dienstag bestätigt, dass Nato und afghanische Streitkräfte eine neue Offensive gegen das Haqqani-Netzwerk gestartet hätten. Das pakistanische Armeehauptquartier in Rawalpindi wollte diese Version nicht bestätigen.
Quelle: www.spiegel.de
Hamburg/Islamabad - Alarmstimmung im pakistanischen Armeehauptquartier in Rawalpindi: "Wir nehmen zur Kenntnis, dass die USA ihre Truppen an der Grenze zu unserem Land in Afghanistan verstärken", sagte ein Militärsprecher SPIEGEL ONLINE am Mittwoch. Es werde schweres Geschütz aufgefahren, Kampfhubschrauber bezögen Stellung, Hunderte von amerikanischen und afghanischen Soldaten seien in der Region stationiert.
Nach Meinung von Beobachtern deutet vieles darauf hin, dass die USA einen Angriff auf das terroristische Haqqani-Netzwerk planen, das sich in der pakistanischen Krisenregion Waziristan versteckt. In den vergangenen Tagen hatte Washington bereits seine Drohnenangriffe in dieser Gegend verstärkt. In Miranshah, Verwaltungshauptstadt von Nord-Waziristan, sorgten Meldungen über die amerikanische Truppenverstärkung für Panik. Pakistanische Fernsehsender berichteten, Menschen würden sich auf eine Flucht vorbereiten.
Pakistans Armeechef Parvez Ashfaq Kayani erklärte vor Mitgliedern des Verteidigungsausschusses, er halte einen Einmarsch von US-Truppen zwar für "unwahrscheinlich". Sollten die USA einen solchen Schritt aber erwägen, sollten sie sich ihn "zehnmal überlegen", mahnte Kayani. Zwar sagte er nicht, wie Pakistan in einem solchen Fall reagieren würde, jedoch erinnerte er die USA daran, "dass Pakistan eine Atommacht ist und nicht mit Irak und Afghanistan verglichen werden kann".
Einem Parlamentarier zufolge, der an der Sitzung mit Kayani teilnahm, sind sich die Militärs einig, dass ein Angriff auf Pakistan das Scheitern der USA in Afghanistan vertuschen solle. "Bevor die US-Truppen Vietnam verließen, wissend, dass sie den Krieg verloren hatten, griffen sie auch Laos und Kambodscha an", sagte ein General SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Es wäre fatal, wenn sie jetzt, vor dem bevorstehenden Abzug aus Afghanistan, Pakistan angreifen würden."
Die USA haben das Haqqani-Netzwerk im Visier, das nach Erkenntnissen Washingtons für einen Großteil der Angriffe auf US-Soldaten in Afghanistan verantwortlich sein soll. Dessen Kämpfer werden angeblich in Pakistan ausgebildet und hätten auf pakistanischem Territorium einen "sicheren Hafen". Washington hat in den vergangenen Monaten mehrfach von Islamabad verlangt, militärisch gegen das Netzwerk vorzugehen.
Im September warf US-Generalstabschef Mike Mullen Pakistans Geheimdienst ISI sogar vor, das Haqqani-Netzwerk zu nutzen, um eigene Interessen in Afghanistan durchzusetzen. Mitte September war die US-Botschaft in Kabul angegriffen worden - vermutlich von Haqqani-Mitgliedern.
Pakistan geht nur zögerlich gegen die Haqqani-Truppe vor
Kayani sagte jetzt nach Angaben von Parlamentariern, er habe den USA deutlich gemacht, dass Pakistan selbst über den Zeitpunkt eines militärischen Vorgehens in Nord-Waziristan entscheiden werde. Druck aus den USA sei "nicht hilfreich". "Wir haben ihnen [den USA] gesagt, dass das Problem in Afghanistan liegt, nicht in Pakistan", zitierte ein Abgeordneter Kayani. "Wenn mich jemand überzeugen kann, dass es gut läuft, wenn wir in Nord-Waziristan einschreiten, werde ich sofort dafür sorgen, dass wir militärisch aktiv werden", sagte Kayani weiter. Pakistan habe "langfristige Interessen in Afghanistan". Diese dürften nicht geopfert werden zugunsten "kurzfristiger Interessen".
Inwieweit die Vorwürfe aus den USA stimmen, dass das Haqqani-Netzwerk heimlich von den pakistanischen Streitkräften unterstützt wird, lässt sich nicht überprüfen. Innerhalb der US-Regierung aber wächst die Ungeduld, dass Pakistan nichts gegen die Militanten auf pakistanischem Boden tut. Die Lage in Afghanistan ist instabil, der Druck auf US-Präsident Barack Obama wächst, wenigstens einen kleinen Erfolg in der Region vorzuweisen.
Manche seiner Berater drängen daher zu der militärischen Aktion - so, wie die USA schon mit ihrem Schlag gegen Osama Bin Laden im pakistanischen Abbottabad im Mai dieses Jahres erfolgreich waren. Gleichwohl dürften viele in Washington vor einem militärischen Vorgehen ohne Einverständnis der pakistanischen Regierung zurückschrecken - längst hat sich Pakistan mit China und Saudi-Arabien starke Verbündete gesucht.
Die pakistanische Regierung geht tatsächlich nur zögerlich gegen die Mitglieder der Haqqani-Truppe vor, weil sie befürchtet, dass die sich im Falle eines Krieges in Nord-Waziristan mit Terroranschlägen im ganzen Land rächen würden. Bislang hält sich Haqqani mit Gewalt auf pakistanischem Boden zurück. "Die USA sollten auch einmal versuchen, unsere Position zu verstehen", sagte ein pakistanischer General SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Welches Interesse hat Pakistan daran, weiteren Terror im eigenen Land anzufachen?"
Aus afghanischen Regierungskreisen hieß es dagegen, die US-Truppenverstärkung entlang der Grenze sei mit Pakistan abgesprochen. "Kämpfer des Haqqani-Netzwerks sollen auf dem Weg von Pakistan nach Afghanistan abgefangen und getötet werden", erläuterte ein afghanischer Beamter aus dem Verteidigungsministerium den Plan.
In der ostafghanischen Provinz Khost würden amerikanische und afghanische Soldaten Häuser durchsuchen, in mehreren Orten bestehe derzeit eine Ausgangssperre. Afghanistans Verteidigungsminister Abdul Rahim Wardak hatte am Dienstag bestätigt, dass Nato und afghanische Streitkräfte eine neue Offensive gegen das Haqqani-Netzwerk gestartet hätten. Das pakistanische Armeehauptquartier in Rawalpindi wollte diese Version nicht bestätigen.
Quelle: www.spiegel.de
Mittwoch, 20. Juli 2011
Pest Control Technician
Jobbeschreibung
DynCorp International is a global government services provider in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives, delivering support solutions for defense, diplomacy, and international development. DI operates major programs in logistics, platform support, contingency operations, and training and mentoring to reinforce security, community stability, and the rule of law.
Position Description:
DynCorp International is a multifaceted, global enterprise that provides innovative solutions to the diverse technology and professional services needs of government and commercial industry worldwide. While we are a highly successful provider of critical support to military and civilian government institutions, we also have important commercial business in aviation, infrastructure development, security, and logistics.
Job Summary:
Perform detection, prevention and control of mosquitoes, rodents and anything that transmits viral or parasitic disease
Principal Accountabilities:
Spray chemical solutions or toxic gases to kill pests that infest buildings and surrounding areas
Locates, surveys and monitors breeding sites
Collects identifying specimens
Collects analyses and interprets data for use in reporting and recommending corrective action and for information purposes
Performs needed pesticide and/or herbicide applications
Maintains safety manual and procedures for vector control functio
Maintains records, reports and other specialized maintenance records, including photographic records of facilities and equipment
Jobanforderungen
Knowledge & Skills:
Hold current certification as a pesticide applicator in accordance with Army Regulation AR 200-5, Pest Management or hold specific state license.
Knowledgeable of environmental laws, rules, regulations, test data and related recommendations
Knowledge of the hazards and safety precautions common to vector control operations
Ability to establish and maintain effective preventive maintenance programs, policies and procedures
Ability to maintain effective record keeping procedures
Ability to carry out assigned projects to their completion
Ability to communication effectively verbally and in writing
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with employees, supervisors and vendors
Knowledge of mosquito biology, chemistry and math sufficient to perform duties
Knowledge of general biology sufficient to deal with rodents such as rats, mice and pigeons
Skill in the operation of listed tools and equipment
Maintains certifications required for pest control
Must be able to lift twenty-five (25) pounds and occasionally lift weights up to one hundred (100) pounds
Must be proficient in the use of Microsoft Office programs (specifically Excel, Word, and Outlook)
Physical Requirements:
Living and working conditions at the assignment location could be remote and uncomfortable. Long hours, exposure to weather and hazardous conditions. Personnel should be aware of moving on short notice and under adverse conditions.
Experience:
Typically, one (1) year experience in vector control is required.
Education:
High School Diploma or equivalent.
Equal Opportunity Employer - EOE/M/F/V/D
DynCorp International is a global government services provider in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives, delivering support solutions for defense, diplomacy, and international development. DI operates major programs in logistics, platform support, contingency operations, and training and mentoring to reinforce security, community stability, and the rule of law.
Position Description:
DynCorp International is a multifaceted, global enterprise that provides innovative solutions to the diverse technology and professional services needs of government and commercial industry worldwide. While we are a highly successful provider of critical support to military and civilian government institutions, we also have important commercial business in aviation, infrastructure development, security, and logistics.
Job Summary:
Perform detection, prevention and control of mosquitoes, rodents and anything that transmits viral or parasitic disease
Principal Accountabilities:
Spray chemical solutions or toxic gases to kill pests that infest buildings and surrounding areas
Locates, surveys and monitors breeding sites
Collects identifying specimens
Collects analyses and interprets data for use in reporting and recommending corrective action and for information purposes
Performs needed pesticide and/or herbicide applications
Maintains safety manual and procedures for vector control functio
Maintains records, reports and other specialized maintenance records, including photographic records of facilities and equipment
Jobanforderungen
Knowledge & Skills:
Hold current certification as a pesticide applicator in accordance with Army Regulation AR 200-5, Pest Management or hold specific state license.
Knowledgeable of environmental laws, rules, regulations, test data and related recommendations
Knowledge of the hazards and safety precautions common to vector control operations
Ability to establish and maintain effective preventive maintenance programs, policies and procedures
Ability to maintain effective record keeping procedures
Ability to carry out assigned projects to their completion
Ability to communication effectively verbally and in writing
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with employees, supervisors and vendors
Knowledge of mosquito biology, chemistry and math sufficient to perform duties
Knowledge of general biology sufficient to deal with rodents such as rats, mice and pigeons
Skill in the operation of listed tools and equipment
Maintains certifications required for pest control
Must be able to lift twenty-five (25) pounds and occasionally lift weights up to one hundred (100) pounds
Must be proficient in the use of Microsoft Office programs (specifically Excel, Word, and Outlook)
Physical Requirements:
Living and working conditions at the assignment location could be remote and uncomfortable. Long hours, exposure to weather and hazardous conditions. Personnel should be aware of moving on short notice and under adverse conditions.
Experience:
Typically, one (1) year experience in vector control is required.
Education:
High School Diploma or equivalent.
Equal Opportunity Employer - EOE/M/F/V/D
Montag, 11. Juli 2011
USA frieren Teil der Militärhilfe an Pakistan ein
Die USA wollen 40 Prozent ihrer Militärhilfe für Pakistan einfrieren. Laut dem Stabschef des Weißen Hauses, William Daley, geht es um etwa 800 Millionen Dollar. Er bestätigte damit einen Bericht der Zeitung "New York Times". Insgesamt gewähren die USA den pakistanischen Sicherheitsbehörden Hilfen in Höhe von zwei Milliarden Dollar.
Daley begründete im US-Fernsehsender ABC den Beschluss der Regierung von Präsident Barack Obama mit den "komplizierten Beziehungen zu Pakistan". Pakistan sei zwar ein wichtiger Partner im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus und sei selber häufig Opfer terroristischer Attacken, sagte der Stabschef in der Sendung "This Week". "Aber sie haben ein paar Schritte gemacht, die uns veranlassen von uns an ihr Militär gewährte Hilfe auf Eis zu legen."
Seit Mai kühlen die Beziehungen merklich ab
Seit der Tötung des Al-Kaida-Gründers Osama bin Laden durch ein US-Spezialteam in der pakistanischen Garnisonsstadt Abbottabad Anfang Mai haben sich die Beziehungen zwischen den USA und Pakistan merklich abgekühlt. Ranghohe US-Vertreter hatten einigen Mitgliedern des pakistanischen Geheimdienstes ISI und des Militärs vorgeworfen, Bin Laden und andere Terrorverdächtige gedeckt zu haben. Später nahm US-Generalstabschef Mike Mullen die Vorwürfe zurück. Die pakistanische Seite beschuldigt die USA dagegen, bei der Jagd mit Drohnen auf mutmaßliche Terroristen im afghanisch-pakistanischen Grenzgebiet auch immer wieder Zivilisten getötet zu haben.
Mitte Juni hatte die US-Botschaft in Islamabad bekannt gegeben, dass auf Bitte Pakistans hin die Zahl der amerikanischen Militärberater in dem Land reduziert worden sei. Medienberichten zufolge soll es sich um mindestens 100 Spezialisten des US-Auslandsgeheimdienstes CIA gehandelt haben, welche Starts und Landungen der US-Drohnen auf einer Luftwaffenbasis überwachten. Zudem hatte Pakistans Verteidigungsminister Chaudrey Mukhtar den USA den Einsatz der raketenbewaffneten Predator-und Reaper-Drohnen in der Provinz Ost Waziristan untersagt.
Quelle: tagesschau.de
Daley begründete im US-Fernsehsender ABC den Beschluss der Regierung von Präsident Barack Obama mit den "komplizierten Beziehungen zu Pakistan". Pakistan sei zwar ein wichtiger Partner im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus und sei selber häufig Opfer terroristischer Attacken, sagte der Stabschef in der Sendung "This Week". "Aber sie haben ein paar Schritte gemacht, die uns veranlassen von uns an ihr Militär gewährte Hilfe auf Eis zu legen."
Obama verhandelt über Haushaltskürzungen
Daley zeigte sich jedoch zuversichtlich, dass die USA und Pakistan die Unstimmigkeiten beseitigen könnten. "Aber bis dahin werden wir einen Teil des Geldes, dass die Steuerzahler gegeben, zurückhalten", fuhr er fort. Damit deutete er auch an, dass der Schritt eventuell in Zusammenhang mit den schwierigen Haushaltsverhandlungen steht, die Obama derzeit mit dem US-Kongress führt. Der Präsident halte an seinem Ziel fest, den Etat insgesamt um fast vier Billionen Dollar zu kürzen, stellte Daley in derselben Sendung klar.Seit Mai kühlen die Beziehungen merklich ab
Seit der Tötung des Al-Kaida-Gründers Osama bin Laden durch ein US-Spezialteam in der pakistanischen Garnisonsstadt Abbottabad Anfang Mai haben sich die Beziehungen zwischen den USA und Pakistan merklich abgekühlt. Ranghohe US-Vertreter hatten einigen Mitgliedern des pakistanischen Geheimdienstes ISI und des Militärs vorgeworfen, Bin Laden und andere Terrorverdächtige gedeckt zu haben. Später nahm US-Generalstabschef Mike Mullen die Vorwürfe zurück. Die pakistanische Seite beschuldigt die USA dagegen, bei der Jagd mit Drohnen auf mutmaßliche Terroristen im afghanisch-pakistanischen Grenzgebiet auch immer wieder Zivilisten getötet zu haben.
Mitte Juni hatte die US-Botschaft in Islamabad bekannt gegeben, dass auf Bitte Pakistans hin die Zahl der amerikanischen Militärberater in dem Land reduziert worden sei. Medienberichten zufolge soll es sich um mindestens 100 Spezialisten des US-Auslandsgeheimdienstes CIA gehandelt haben, welche Starts und Landungen der US-Drohnen auf einer Luftwaffenbasis überwachten. Zudem hatte Pakistans Verteidigungsminister Chaudrey Mukhtar den USA den Einsatz der raketenbewaffneten Predator-und Reaper-Drohnen in der Provinz Ost Waziristan untersagt.
Quelle: tagesschau.de
Sonntag, 10. Juli 2011
Panetta sieht Niederlage von El Kaida in Reichweite
Kabul — Bei seinem ersten Afghanistan-Besuch als neuer US-Verteidigungsminister hat sich Leon Panetta zuversichtlich über einen baldigen Sieg gegen El Kaida gezeigt. Die strategische Niederlage des Terrornetzwerks sei "in Reichweite", sagte Panetta auf dem Weg zu der unangekündigten Visite am Hindukusch. In Kabul traf der Pentagon-Chef dann unter anderem mit dem afghanischen Präsidenten Hamid Karsai zusammen.
Panetta zufolge haben die USA seit der Tötung von El-Kaida-Chef Osama bin Laden zehn bis 20 Führungsfiguren in Pakistan, Jemen, Somalia und im Maghreb identifiziert.
Mit dem Ausschalten von Bin Laden sei bereits ein Anfang getan, das Netzwerk zu besiegen, sagte der frühere CIA-Chef, der das Pentagon am 1. Juli von Robert Gates übernommen hatte. Sowohl in seiner früheren als auch in seiner jetzigen Funktion sei er davon überzeugt, dass die strategische Niederlage El Kaidas nicht mehr weit sei. Es sei nun der richtige Zeitpunkt, um weiterhin "maximalen Druck" auf das Terrornetzwerk auszuüben, sagte Panetta weiter.
Nach Angaben des scheidenden US-Oberbefehlshabers am Hindukusch, General David Petraeus, befinden sich in Afghanistan derzeit noch "50 bis 100" El-Kaida-Kämpfer. Diese würden sich vor allem in den östlichen Provinzen Kunar und Nuristan verschanzen, sagte der General, der als Nachfolger Panettas an der CIA-Spitze feststeht.
Der neue Verteidigungsminister äußerte zudem die Erwartung, dass auch Pakistan, wo Bin Laden Anfang Mai von US-Soldaten aufgespürt und getötet worden war, die USA im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus unterstützt. So sei der neue El-Kaida-Chef Aiman el Sawahiri eines der Ziele, die Pakistan anvisieren müsse.
Bei Panettas Gespräch mit Karsai ging es unter anderem um die Übergabe der Sicherheitsverantwortung an die afghanischen Streitkräfte in einigen Regionen nach dem ersten Abzug von US-Truppen Mitte des Monats. Das Treffen sei "sehr produktiv" verlaufen, sagte Panetta.
US-Präsident Barack Obama hatte am 22. Juni den Abzug von 33.000 US-Soldaten bis Ende September 2012 angekündigt, die er Ende 2009 zur Verstärkung nach Afghanistan geschickt hatte. Rund 10.000 von ihnen sollen das Land bis Ende des Jahres verlassen.
Quelle: AFP
Panetta zufolge haben die USA seit der Tötung von El-Kaida-Chef Osama bin Laden zehn bis 20 Führungsfiguren in Pakistan, Jemen, Somalia und im Maghreb identifiziert.
Mit dem Ausschalten von Bin Laden sei bereits ein Anfang getan, das Netzwerk zu besiegen, sagte der frühere CIA-Chef, der das Pentagon am 1. Juli von Robert Gates übernommen hatte. Sowohl in seiner früheren als auch in seiner jetzigen Funktion sei er davon überzeugt, dass die strategische Niederlage El Kaidas nicht mehr weit sei. Es sei nun der richtige Zeitpunkt, um weiterhin "maximalen Druck" auf das Terrornetzwerk auszuüben, sagte Panetta weiter.
Nach Angaben des scheidenden US-Oberbefehlshabers am Hindukusch, General David Petraeus, befinden sich in Afghanistan derzeit noch "50 bis 100" El-Kaida-Kämpfer. Diese würden sich vor allem in den östlichen Provinzen Kunar und Nuristan verschanzen, sagte der General, der als Nachfolger Panettas an der CIA-Spitze feststeht.
Der neue Verteidigungsminister äußerte zudem die Erwartung, dass auch Pakistan, wo Bin Laden Anfang Mai von US-Soldaten aufgespürt und getötet worden war, die USA im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus unterstützt. So sei der neue El-Kaida-Chef Aiman el Sawahiri eines der Ziele, die Pakistan anvisieren müsse.
Bei Panettas Gespräch mit Karsai ging es unter anderem um die Übergabe der Sicherheitsverantwortung an die afghanischen Streitkräfte in einigen Regionen nach dem ersten Abzug von US-Truppen Mitte des Monats. Das Treffen sei "sehr produktiv" verlaufen, sagte Panetta.
US-Präsident Barack Obama hatte am 22. Juni den Abzug von 33.000 US-Soldaten bis Ende September 2012 angekündigt, die er Ende 2009 zur Verstärkung nach Afghanistan geschickt hatte. Rund 10.000 von ihnen sollen das Land bis Ende des Jahres verlassen.
Quelle: AFP
Freitag, 8. Juli 2011
Polizei schnappt Nr. 3 des „Zetas“-Kartells
Mexiko-Stadt – Der mexikanischen Polizei ist ein weiterer Schlag gegen die Drogen-Kartelle gelungen: Sie nahm ein Führungsmitglied der Bande „Los Zetas“ fest. Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar alias „El Mamito” gilt als Nr. 3 des berüchtigten Killertrupps.
Als die Polizisten ihn am Sonntag in einem Vorort von Mexiko-Stadt festnahmen, leistete er keinen Widerstand.
Die USA hatten eine Belohnung von fünf Millionen Dollar für Hinweise zu seiner Festnahme ausgesetzt.
Der Drogenboss soll mitverantwortlich sein für die Ermordung eines US-Grenzbeamten im Norden Mexikos, sagte ein Vertreter des Ministeriums für öffentliche Sicherheit am Montag. Bei dem Angriff vom Februar war ein zweiter US-Beamter schwer verletzt worden.
„El Mamito“ war seit Anfang der 90er Jahre selbst Elitesoldat gewesen, desertierte dann aber im Februar 1999. Er wurde Mitbegründer des Kartells „Los Zetas“ und soll nach Polizeiangaben die Geschäfte der Verbrecherbande in Zentral- und Nordmexiko geführt haben.
Erst im April hatte die mexikanische Polizei den mutmaßlichen Kopf der Killerbande, Martín Omar Estrada Luna , genannt „El Kilo“ geschnappt, sowie weitere fünf Verdächtige.
Die Mitglieder der „Zetas“ liefern sich seit dem vergangenen Jahr im nordmexikanischen Bundesstaat Tamaulipas einen blutigen Kampf mit dem Golf-Kartell um die Vorherrschaft im Drogengeschäft.
SCHIESSEREI
Am Montag lieferten sich Kriminelle im Grenzgebiet zu den USA mit mexikanischen Soldaten eine Schießerei. Laut Armeeangaben wurden dabei 13 Verbrecher getötet.
Die Schießerei begann, als eine Militärpatrouille am Montagmittag in der Grenzstadt Rio Bravo angegriffen wurde. Anschließend beschlagnahmten die Soldaten sieben Fahrzeuge mit Waffen und nahmen einen Mann mit einem Sturmgewehr fest.
Die Region ist einer der Schwerpunkte des Drogen-Kriegs: Von den 50 000 Soldaten, die in Mexiko gegen die Rauschgiftmafia im Einsatz sind, befinden sich mehr als 4000 in Tamaulipas.
Offiziellen Angaben zufolge wurden allein seit dem Amtsantritt von Präsident Felipe Calderón im Dezember 2006 mehr als 37 000 Menschen im mexikanischen Drogenkrieg getötet.
Quelle: bild.de
Als die Polizisten ihn am Sonntag in einem Vorort von Mexiko-Stadt festnahmen, leistete er keinen Widerstand.
Die USA hatten eine Belohnung von fünf Millionen Dollar für Hinweise zu seiner Festnahme ausgesetzt.
Der Drogenboss soll mitverantwortlich sein für die Ermordung eines US-Grenzbeamten im Norden Mexikos, sagte ein Vertreter des Ministeriums für öffentliche Sicherheit am Montag. Bei dem Angriff vom Februar war ein zweiter US-Beamter schwer verletzt worden.
„El Mamito“ war seit Anfang der 90er Jahre selbst Elitesoldat gewesen, desertierte dann aber im Februar 1999. Er wurde Mitbegründer des Kartells „Los Zetas“ und soll nach Polizeiangaben die Geschäfte der Verbrecherbande in Zentral- und Nordmexiko geführt haben.
Erst im April hatte die mexikanische Polizei den mutmaßlichen Kopf der Killerbande, Martín Omar Estrada Luna , genannt „El Kilo“ geschnappt, sowie weitere fünf Verdächtige.
Die Mitglieder der „Zetas“ liefern sich seit dem vergangenen Jahr im nordmexikanischen Bundesstaat Tamaulipas einen blutigen Kampf mit dem Golf-Kartell um die Vorherrschaft im Drogengeschäft.
SCHIESSEREI
Am Montag lieferten sich Kriminelle im Grenzgebiet zu den USA mit mexikanischen Soldaten eine Schießerei. Laut Armeeangaben wurden dabei 13 Verbrecher getötet.
Die Schießerei begann, als eine Militärpatrouille am Montagmittag in der Grenzstadt Rio Bravo angegriffen wurde. Anschließend beschlagnahmten die Soldaten sieben Fahrzeuge mit Waffen und nahmen einen Mann mit einem Sturmgewehr fest.
Die Region ist einer der Schwerpunkte des Drogen-Kriegs: Von den 50 000 Soldaten, die in Mexiko gegen die Rauschgiftmafia im Einsatz sind, befinden sich mehr als 4000 in Tamaulipas.
Offiziellen Angaben zufolge wurden allein seit dem Amtsantritt von Präsident Felipe Calderón im Dezember 2006 mehr als 37 000 Menschen im mexikanischen Drogenkrieg getötet.
Quelle: bild.de
Terror Suspect Was Held on Navy Ship for 2 Months
WASHINGTON -- A Somali citizen captured in April was interrogated aboard a U.S. warship for two months and is now in New York to face terrorism charges.
The case against Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame shows the Obama administration is sticking by its plan to use civilian courts to prosecute terrorists, a strategy that was successful for years under President George W. Bush but which has drawn fire from Republicans since Democrat Barack Obama became president.
The case also offers a glimpse at how the U.S. plans to interrogate detainees now that Obama has closed the CIA's network of secret prisons.
After the interrogation was complete, the FBI stepped in and began to interrogate Warsame from scratch, in a way that could be used in court. After the FBI informed Warsame of his rights under U.S. law not to incriminate himself, to remain silent and to have an attorney, he opted to keep talking for days, helping the government build its case.
One of the unanswered questions of the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy has been what it would do if it captured an important terrorist. Obama does not want to send more people to Navy's Guantanamo Bay prison used by the Bush administration, and the CIA's so-called "black sites" are closed.
The unusual case against Warsame was foreshadowed in congressional testimony late last month when Obama's choice to become commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Navy Vice Adm. William H. McRaven, told senators that the U.S. could hold suspected terrorists on naval ships until prosecutors file charges against them. McRaven did not say exactly how long such detentions could last.
The senior officials who spoke to reporters Tuesday said there are no other detainees in custody aboard ships. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is continuing.
The normally routine machinations of criminal prosecution have become political issues since Obama took office promising to end harsh interrogation tactics and close Guantanamo Bay. Congress has blocked the administration from transferring any detainees out of Guantanamo Bay for trial in the U.S., and some in Congress are also questioning whether all new terrorism cases should be handled by military commissions. Most recently, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, said two men arrested by the FBI on terrorism charges should be prosecuted at Guantanamo Bay.
That has rankled many at the Justice Department and FBI. Congress has designated the FBI as the nation's lead domestic counterterrorism agency. But some lawmakers contend the FBI's reliance on the U.S. system of informing prisoners they do not have to incriminate themselves and are entitled to an attorney, makes the bureau incapable of handling terrorism cases.
Senior administration officials said the intelligence interrogations were conducted by the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, a team of people from the military, intelligence agencies and Justice Department. Because those sessions were conducted before Warsame was read his rights, the intelligence can be used to underpin military strikes or CIA actions but are not admissible in court.
That is why the FBI restarted the interrogations from the beginning.
Warsame pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday. His lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, did not immediately return a phone message for comment. Warsame's next court appearance was scheduled for Sept. 8.
Court documents unsealed Tuesday show that the Justice Department plans to use a laptop computer, handwriting analysis, USB drives and a memory card as evidence against Warsame at trial.
The case against Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame shows the Obama administration is sticking by its plan to use civilian courts to prosecute terrorists, a strategy that was successful for years under President George W. Bush but which has drawn fire from Republicans since Democrat Barack Obama became president.
The case also offers a glimpse at how the U.S. plans to interrogate detainees now that Obama has closed the CIA's network of secret prisons.
The military captured Warsame on April 19, and then put him aboard a Navy warship, where he was interrogated at sea by intelligence officials, senior administration officials said Tuesday. Under interrogation, Warsame gave up what officials called important intelligence about al-Qaida in Yemen and its relationship with al-Shabab militants in Somalia. The two groups have been known to have ties, but the extent of that relationship has remained unclear.
After the interrogation was complete, the FBI stepped in and began to interrogate Warsame from scratch, in a way that could be used in court. After the FBI informed Warsame of his rights under U.S. law not to incriminate himself, to remain silent and to have an attorney, he opted to keep talking for days, helping the government build its case.
One of the unanswered questions of the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy has been what it would do if it captured an important terrorist. Obama does not want to send more people to Navy's Guantanamo Bay prison used by the Bush administration, and the CIA's so-called "black sites" are closed.
The unusual case against Warsame was foreshadowed in congressional testimony late last month when Obama's choice to become commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Navy Vice Adm. William H. McRaven, told senators that the U.S. could hold suspected terrorists on naval ships until prosecutors file charges against them. McRaven did not say exactly how long such detentions could last.
The senior officials who spoke to reporters Tuesday said there are no other detainees in custody aboard ships. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is continuing.
The normally routine machinations of criminal prosecution have become political issues since Obama took office promising to end harsh interrogation tactics and close Guantanamo Bay. Congress has blocked the administration from transferring any detainees out of Guantanamo Bay for trial in the U.S., and some in Congress are also questioning whether all new terrorism cases should be handled by military commissions. Most recently, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, said two men arrested by the FBI on terrorism charges should be prosecuted at Guantanamo Bay.
That has rankled many at the Justice Department and FBI. Congress has designated the FBI as the nation's lead domestic counterterrorism agency. But some lawmakers contend the FBI's reliance on the U.S. system of informing prisoners they do not have to incriminate themselves and are entitled to an attorney, makes the bureau incapable of handling terrorism cases.
Warsame is not believed to be a senior member of either organization, but court documents unsealed Tuesday said he was a fighter for al-Shabab and helped train others in the organization in 2009, then helped support and train al-Qaida in Yemen until 2011. That makes him a potentially valuable intelligence asset, since he had unique access in both groups.
Senior administration officials said the intelligence interrogations were conducted by the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, a team of people from the military, intelligence agencies and Justice Department. Because those sessions were conducted before Warsame was read his rights, the intelligence can be used to underpin military strikes or CIA actions but are not admissible in court.
That is why the FBI restarted the interrogations from the beginning.
Warsame pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday. His lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, did not immediately return a phone message for comment. Warsame's next court appearance was scheduled for Sept. 8.
Court documents unsealed Tuesday show that the Justice Department plans to use a laptop computer, handwriting analysis, USB drives and a memory card as evidence against Warsame at trial.
Quelle: military.com
Donnerstag, 7. Juli 2011
US-Generalstabschef: Iran verstärkt Waffenlieferungen nach Irak
Der Iran verstärkt nach US-Angaben seine Waffenlieferungen für schiitische Milizen im Irak. Der Iran schicke zunehmend moderne Waffen in den Irak, sagte US-Generalstabschef Mike Mullen am Donnerstag (Ortszeit) in Washington. Teheran unterstütze "sehr direkt extremistische Truppen, die unsere Soldaten töten", sagte Mullen. Die iranischen Waffenlieferungen seien "bedeutend" und hätten zugenommen. Es bestehe kein Zweifel daran, dass Teheran seinen Einfluss vor allem im Süden des Irak auszudehnen versuche.
Quelle: AFP
Quelle: AFP
Samstag, 14. März 2009
US missiles kill 24 in Pakistan
US missiles fired from a Predator drone aircraft killed at least 24 people in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Kurram Thursday evening. The American military attack came in the midst of an intense political crisis that is calling into question the stability of the Pakistani government.
According to unnamed US and Pakistani security officials cited by major wire services, the target of the attack was a "training center" run by a local Taliban commander, and the victims, whose bodies local villagers dug from the rubble, were "mostly militants."
At least 50 others were wounded in the attacks, which involved four or five missiles that struck a residential building. It was the second such missile attack in the Kurram tribal region in less than a month. An attack on February 16 killed 31 people.
The attacks are part of a major escalation of the US military intervention in both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan as part of the Obama administration's emerging strategy for the region.
The administration is expected to formally unveil this strategy as early as next week. According to Pentagon and White House officials who spoke to the Associated Press, the plan will place particular emphasis on Pakistan, demanding that it take greater military action to suppress anti-US occupation forces in the tribal areas.
Even before the issuing of the report, Obama has ordered an additional 17,000 US troops into Afghanistan in response to a growing insurgency that has deprived the occupation forces and the US-backed regime of President Hamid Karzai of control over roughly three-quarters of the country. This is the first installment on an escalation that is expected to double the number of US troops in the country to 60,000.
The inevitable result of such a buildup of US military forces will be a dramatic increase in the deaths of Afghan civilians, which already rose 40 percent in 2008 over the previous year.
On Thursday, US Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus and Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, delivered a closed-door briefing to leading members of the US Senate in what was apparently part of the preparation for the public presentation of the new strategy for waging the war that was first launched by the administration of George W. Bush nearly seven and a half years ago.
In an appearance on PBS Television's "Charlie Rose Show," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the strategy review would focus on "the safe haven in Pakistan, making sure that Afghanistan doesn't provide a capability in the long run or an environment in which Al Qaeda could return or the Taliban could return."
The Associated Press quoted an administration official as saying that "one thrust was that Pakistan needed to recognize that combating extremism was in its own interest as well as that of US and NATO fighting forces across Afghanistan."
A similar note was sounded by the top civilian leader of NATO Friday. Speaking in Warsaw, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stressed the daunting challenge posed by the growing insurgency to the US-led NATO occupation forces. "We cannot make it all by ourselves," he said.
He insisted that Pakistan had to do more to suppress resistance in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the mountainous Pakistani-Afghan border.
"For that we need Pakistan because the same people who want to destabilize the FATA in Pakistan are the guys who are coming over the border and making life for Polish and Dutch and Canadian and Danes and Americans miserable in Afghanistan," he said.
Within Afghanistan itself, Obama and other administration officials have floated the idea that Washington will try to bribe sections of the insurgency into collaborating with the occupation along the lines of the strategy employed in Iraq to win over Sunni militia elements who were paid by the US military. US officials have spoken of opening up talks with elements of the Taliban.
Taliban representatives have responded that they have no interest in any talks until all foreign forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan.
The British daily Telegraph, citing US official sources, reported that the proposal for such talks is linked to plans to dramatically escalate military violence in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The newspaper reported: "...officials consulted on the plans said the military conflict would be raised to new levels of intensity before talks could begin. ‘There will be talks but the Taliban are going to experience a lot of pain first, on both sides of the border,' said one senior Western diplomat."
Both the Afghan and Pakistani governments have repeatedly complained that US air attacks and the civilian casualties they inflict in both countries have only served to increase support for the anti-occupation insurgencies while destabilizing the political situation in Pakistan. There are ample indications, however, that such protests from the Pakistani government are for public consumption, aimed at assuaging popular anger over the air strikes while the Pakistani state provides direct support for these attacks, including allowing the US to launch its drones from a base located inside Pakistan.
The latest missile attack is particularly provocative, given the escalating political crisis in Pakistan. Washington is signaling all sides that it will act with impunity in carrying out military actions on Pakistani soil while demanding that domestic political conflicts be subordinated to the US "war on terror."
US officials have intervened aggressively in a bid to force an end to the showdown between President Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and his political rival Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML).
Obama's special envoy Holbrooke, the US Ambassador in Islamabad Anne Patterson and British Foreign Secretary David Milliband held conference calls and meetings with Zardari and Sharif demanding a speedy resolution of the power struggle between the two bourgeois parties for fear that its continuation could lead to the government's collapse.
According to the Pakistani daily Dawn: "Representatives of the US and the UK governments told President Zardari that political instability in Pakistan weakens their efforts on the war on terror and thus political unrest should be overcome, otherwise it will help militants to reorganise and emerge with more force to meet their agenda. The US and the UK leaders were of the view that political mayhem in Pakistan is creating a vacuum in the country leaving the militants unchecked."
In particular, Washington and London are anxious to reach some kind of power-sharing settlement between the two parties before the scheduled March 16 arrival in Islamabad of a "Long March" organized by Pakistani lawyers and supported by the PML. It is feared that the march, called to demand the reinstatement of judges who were removed from the bench under a 2007 emergency rule decreed by former military strongman Gen. Pervez Musharraf, could produce violent confrontations.
Already, security forces have arrested at least 1,000 lawyers and politicians, while many demonstrators have been beaten. Late Thursday, security forces blockaded the main highway out of Karachi—a principal supply route for US occupation forces in Afghanistan—in an attempt to prevent protesters from leaving the city for Islamabad.
In an another repressive act, the Dubai-based Pakistani news television channel Geo News was forced off the air after cable operators were threatened by the government and told to halt their broadcasts of the channel, according to Pakistani press reports.
One year after Zardari came into office it is becoming increasingly evident that he is employing much the same methods as his predecessor, the military ruler Musharraf. As Pakistan's News International commented in its lead editorial Thursday: "Even in Pakistan's troubled history of democratic governments, it is rare to find the kind of open fascism we are seeing today." Zardari, it continued, had abandoned the "pretense of democratic practice" and reacted like "many bloodthirsty dictators."
Ultimately, the adoption of such methods is a function not merely of the political squabble between the PPP and the PML, but of the political, economic and social agenda of Pakistan's capitalist state, which is deeply unpopular with the broad masses of workers, peasants and the poor.
In an ominous development, the Indian-based news service IANS reported that the chief of the Pakistani army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, delivered Zardari an "internationally backed" 24-hour deadline to bring an end to the political crisis.
The deadline was "backed by Washington, London and the army establishment," according to the Pakistani Internet news site "A Pakistan News." The site went on to say that Zardari will "be asked to go" by the army and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani "if he does not accept a new deal hatched by them in consultation with foreign powers."
In his interview with PBS, US Admiral Mullen said the Pentagon was closely following the political confrontation in Pakistan and cited concerns that it could "possibly generate a crisis, which may cause actions to be taken on the part of the military."
Mullen praised his Pakistani counterpart, Gen. Kayani, declaring him "committed to a civilian government" and insisting that "the last thing in the world he wants to do... is take over as President Musharraf did." The admiral added, "He wants to do the right thing for Pakistan. But he is in a very tough spot."
The implications are clear. Washington is prepared to back the imposition of another military dictatorship in Pakistan should it conclude that the present civilian government is proving an unacceptable impediment to its escalating military intervention in the region.
According to unnamed US and Pakistani security officials cited by major wire services, the target of the attack was a "training center" run by a local Taliban commander, and the victims, whose bodies local villagers dug from the rubble, were "mostly militants."
At least 50 others were wounded in the attacks, which involved four or five missiles that struck a residential building. It was the second such missile attack in the Kurram tribal region in less than a month. An attack on February 16 killed 31 people.
The attacks are part of a major escalation of the US military intervention in both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan as part of the Obama administration's emerging strategy for the region.
The administration is expected to formally unveil this strategy as early as next week. According to Pentagon and White House officials who spoke to the Associated Press, the plan will place particular emphasis on Pakistan, demanding that it take greater military action to suppress anti-US occupation forces in the tribal areas.
Even before the issuing of the report, Obama has ordered an additional 17,000 US troops into Afghanistan in response to a growing insurgency that has deprived the occupation forces and the US-backed regime of President Hamid Karzai of control over roughly three-quarters of the country. This is the first installment on an escalation that is expected to double the number of US troops in the country to 60,000.
The inevitable result of such a buildup of US military forces will be a dramatic increase in the deaths of Afghan civilians, which already rose 40 percent in 2008 over the previous year.
On Thursday, US Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus and Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, delivered a closed-door briefing to leading members of the US Senate in what was apparently part of the preparation for the public presentation of the new strategy for waging the war that was first launched by the administration of George W. Bush nearly seven and a half years ago.
In an appearance on PBS Television's "Charlie Rose Show," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the strategy review would focus on "the safe haven in Pakistan, making sure that Afghanistan doesn't provide a capability in the long run or an environment in which Al Qaeda could return or the Taliban could return."
The Associated Press quoted an administration official as saying that "one thrust was that Pakistan needed to recognize that combating extremism was in its own interest as well as that of US and NATO fighting forces across Afghanistan."
A similar note was sounded by the top civilian leader of NATO Friday. Speaking in Warsaw, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stressed the daunting challenge posed by the growing insurgency to the US-led NATO occupation forces. "We cannot make it all by ourselves," he said.
He insisted that Pakistan had to do more to suppress resistance in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the mountainous Pakistani-Afghan border.
"For that we need Pakistan because the same people who want to destabilize the FATA in Pakistan are the guys who are coming over the border and making life for Polish and Dutch and Canadian and Danes and Americans miserable in Afghanistan," he said.
Within Afghanistan itself, Obama and other administration officials have floated the idea that Washington will try to bribe sections of the insurgency into collaborating with the occupation along the lines of the strategy employed in Iraq to win over Sunni militia elements who were paid by the US military. US officials have spoken of opening up talks with elements of the Taliban.
Taliban representatives have responded that they have no interest in any talks until all foreign forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan.
The British daily Telegraph, citing US official sources, reported that the proposal for such talks is linked to plans to dramatically escalate military violence in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The newspaper reported: "...officials consulted on the plans said the military conflict would be raised to new levels of intensity before talks could begin. ‘There will be talks but the Taliban are going to experience a lot of pain first, on both sides of the border,' said one senior Western diplomat."
Both the Afghan and Pakistani governments have repeatedly complained that US air attacks and the civilian casualties they inflict in both countries have only served to increase support for the anti-occupation insurgencies while destabilizing the political situation in Pakistan. There are ample indications, however, that such protests from the Pakistani government are for public consumption, aimed at assuaging popular anger over the air strikes while the Pakistani state provides direct support for these attacks, including allowing the US to launch its drones from a base located inside Pakistan.
The latest missile attack is particularly provocative, given the escalating political crisis in Pakistan. Washington is signaling all sides that it will act with impunity in carrying out military actions on Pakistani soil while demanding that domestic political conflicts be subordinated to the US "war on terror."
US officials have intervened aggressively in a bid to force an end to the showdown between President Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and his political rival Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML).
Obama's special envoy Holbrooke, the US Ambassador in Islamabad Anne Patterson and British Foreign Secretary David Milliband held conference calls and meetings with Zardari and Sharif demanding a speedy resolution of the power struggle between the two bourgeois parties for fear that its continuation could lead to the government's collapse.
According to the Pakistani daily Dawn: "Representatives of the US and the UK governments told President Zardari that political instability in Pakistan weakens their efforts on the war on terror and thus political unrest should be overcome, otherwise it will help militants to reorganise and emerge with more force to meet their agenda. The US and the UK leaders were of the view that political mayhem in Pakistan is creating a vacuum in the country leaving the militants unchecked."
In particular, Washington and London are anxious to reach some kind of power-sharing settlement between the two parties before the scheduled March 16 arrival in Islamabad of a "Long March" organized by Pakistani lawyers and supported by the PML. It is feared that the march, called to demand the reinstatement of judges who were removed from the bench under a 2007 emergency rule decreed by former military strongman Gen. Pervez Musharraf, could produce violent confrontations.
Already, security forces have arrested at least 1,000 lawyers and politicians, while many demonstrators have been beaten. Late Thursday, security forces blockaded the main highway out of Karachi—a principal supply route for US occupation forces in Afghanistan—in an attempt to prevent protesters from leaving the city for Islamabad.
In an another repressive act, the Dubai-based Pakistani news television channel Geo News was forced off the air after cable operators were threatened by the government and told to halt their broadcasts of the channel, according to Pakistani press reports.
One year after Zardari came into office it is becoming increasingly evident that he is employing much the same methods as his predecessor, the military ruler Musharraf. As Pakistan's News International commented in its lead editorial Thursday: "Even in Pakistan's troubled history of democratic governments, it is rare to find the kind of open fascism we are seeing today." Zardari, it continued, had abandoned the "pretense of democratic practice" and reacted like "many bloodthirsty dictators."
Ultimately, the adoption of such methods is a function not merely of the political squabble between the PPP and the PML, but of the political, economic and social agenda of Pakistan's capitalist state, which is deeply unpopular with the broad masses of workers, peasants and the poor.
In an ominous development, the Indian-based news service IANS reported that the chief of the Pakistani army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, delivered Zardari an "internationally backed" 24-hour deadline to bring an end to the political crisis.
The deadline was "backed by Washington, London and the army establishment," according to the Pakistani Internet news site "A Pakistan News." The site went on to say that Zardari will "be asked to go" by the army and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani "if he does not accept a new deal hatched by them in consultation with foreign powers."
In his interview with PBS, US Admiral Mullen said the Pentagon was closely following the political confrontation in Pakistan and cited concerns that it could "possibly generate a crisis, which may cause actions to be taken on the part of the military."
Mullen praised his Pakistani counterpart, Gen. Kayani, declaring him "committed to a civilian government" and insisting that "the last thing in the world he wants to do... is take over as President Musharraf did." The admiral added, "He wants to do the right thing for Pakistan. But he is in a very tough spot."
The implications are clear. Washington is prepared to back the imposition of another military dictatorship in Pakistan should it conclude that the present civilian government is proving an unacceptable impediment to its escalating military intervention in the region.
Freitag, 27. Februar 2009
Grand Jury Charges Enemy Combatant With Supporting Al-Qaeda
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 27, 2009; 2:12 PM
Prosecutors today unsealed criminal charges against suspected al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali Sahleh Kahlah al-Marri, setting in motion his transfer from a South Carolina naval brig into the custody of the Justice Department in one of the government's most closely watched terrorism cases.
Marri, 43, has spent the past 5 1/2 years in confinement in the military prison as the country's sole remaining "enemy combatant."
With the conspiracy and material support for terrorism charges unveiled today in federal court in Peoria, Ill., U.S. law enforcement officials are seeking to avert a Supreme Court hearing that could tie their hands in the handling of future terrorism suspects.
"This indictment shows our resolve to protect the American people and prosecute alleged terrorists to the full extent of the law," said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. "In this administration, we will hold accountable anyone who attempts to do harm to Americans, and we will do so in a manner consistent with our values."
The Marri case had been a special focus of experts and human rights advocates, because it could send signals for how the Obama administration will make decisions about 245 remaining detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Last month President Obama created a government wide task force to review inmate files and make recommendations about where to send the remaining detainees before the facility is shuttered within a year. He also explicitly ordered officials to take a fresh look at the case against Marri.
New Justice Department leaders said that Marri could be transferred into their custody as soon as the Supreme Court passes judgment on a motion they file later today to dismiss his case, which was to be heard in late April.
Lawyers for Marri said the decision to bring charges in a traditional American court was "an important step toward restoring the rule of law and is exactly what should happen when the government suspects an individual of terrorist acts."
"This case is now finally where it belongs: in a legitimate court that can fairly determine whether Mr. al-Marri is guilty of a crime," said Jonathan Hafetz, attorney with the ACLU National Security Project and lead counsel in al-Marri's Supreme Court case.
If Marri is convicted, the Qatar citizen faces as many as 15 years in prison, authorities said.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 27, 2009; 2:12 PM
Prosecutors today unsealed criminal charges against suspected al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali Sahleh Kahlah al-Marri, setting in motion his transfer from a South Carolina naval brig into the custody of the Justice Department in one of the government's most closely watched terrorism cases.
Marri, 43, has spent the past 5 1/2 years in confinement in the military prison as the country's sole remaining "enemy combatant."
With the conspiracy and material support for terrorism charges unveiled today in federal court in Peoria, Ill., U.S. law enforcement officials are seeking to avert a Supreme Court hearing that could tie their hands in the handling of future terrorism suspects.
"This indictment shows our resolve to protect the American people and prosecute alleged terrorists to the full extent of the law," said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. "In this administration, we will hold accountable anyone who attempts to do harm to Americans, and we will do so in a manner consistent with our values."
The Marri case had been a special focus of experts and human rights advocates, because it could send signals for how the Obama administration will make decisions about 245 remaining detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Last month President Obama created a government wide task force to review inmate files and make recommendations about where to send the remaining detainees before the facility is shuttered within a year. He also explicitly ordered officials to take a fresh look at the case against Marri.
New Justice Department leaders said that Marri could be transferred into their custody as soon as the Supreme Court passes judgment on a motion they file later today to dismiss his case, which was to be heard in late April.
Lawyers for Marri said the decision to bring charges in a traditional American court was "an important step toward restoring the rule of law and is exactly what should happen when the government suspects an individual of terrorist acts."
"This case is now finally where it belongs: in a legitimate court that can fairly determine whether Mr. al-Marri is guilty of a crime," said Jonathan Hafetz, attorney with the ACLU National Security Project and lead counsel in al-Marri's Supreme Court case.
If Marri is convicted, the Qatar citizen faces as many as 15 years in prison, authorities said.
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Xe offers a range of protective security training courses designed to assist your organization with managing risk. In addition we can assist with developing effective security operations to improve your company’s safety and security environment.
Maritime Operations
USCG approved school for mariners, offering basic shipboard safety training (STCW 95) and tactical training courses for law enforcement and the military. Xe can develop and teach courses of instruction in support of all facets of the maritime industry and ship operations, serving both domestic and foreign clients.
Law Enforcement Operations
Our extensive tactical firearms training facility, the U.S. Training Center (USTC) is capable of providing a wide range of instruction and training for all types of law enforcement organizations. From basic firearms training to complex SWAT tactics our corps of instructors can meet all your training requirements.
Exercise Design & Support
Training is a key element for successful execution of any operation. With decades of operational expertise Xe can design simple to complex real world training scenarios to provide realistic training and feedback. The 7,000 acre USTC and a compliment of role players are available to assist with your training and evaluation.
Homeland Security Operations
Man-made and natural disasters require an immediate robust response. The USTC and staff of former military and law enforcement professionals can provide the needed training and operational expertise to prepare security teams to effectively support state and federal emergency response units.
International Training Teams
Xe has successfully provided assistance in training foreign military organizations in combating transnational terrorism, coastal/harbor patrol threat interdiction, interdicting terror activity, and interdicting weapons of mass destruction, in support of Department of Defense security initiatives, and other US Government agencies.
Xe Services, LLC
PO Box 1029
Moyock, NC 27958
Primary Number 252.435.2488
Fax Number 252.435.6388
www.xecompany.com
Overview
Safe, realistic, and challenging are the hallmarks of our training performance record. Whether its small arms training, advanced counterterrorism training, language training or gaining cultural knowledge for a specific country, we serve to improve the mission capability and ultimate success of law enforcement organizations, military organizations, and other federal agencies. Several courses offered can be also be adapted for export to your location.
Services
Protective Operations
Xe offers a range of protective security training courses designed to assist your organization with managing risk. In addition we can assist with developing effective security operations to improve your company’s safety and security environment.
Maritime Operations
USCG approved school for mariners, offering basic shipboard safety training (STCW 95) and tactical training courses for law enforcement and the military. Xe can develop and teach courses of instruction in support of all facets of the maritime industry and ship operations, serving both domestic and foreign clients.
Law Enforcement Operations
Our extensive tactical firearms training facility, the U.S. Training Center (USTC) is capable of providing a wide range of instruction and training for all types of law enforcement organizations. From basic firearms training to complex SWAT tactics our corps of instructors can meet all your training requirements.
Exercise Design & Support
Training is a key element for successful execution of any operation. With decades of operational expertise Xe can design simple to complex real world training scenarios to provide realistic training and feedback. The 7,000 acre USTC and a compliment of role players are available to assist with your training and evaluation.
Homeland Security Operations
Man-made and natural disasters require an immediate robust response. The USTC and staff of former military and law enforcement professionals can provide the needed training and operational expertise to prepare security teams to effectively support state and federal emergency response units.
International Training Teams
Xe has successfully provided assistance in training foreign military organizations in combating transnational terrorism, coastal/harbor patrol threat interdiction, interdicting terror activity, and interdicting weapons of mass destruction, in support of Department of Defense security initiatives, and other US Government agencies.
Xe Services, LLC
PO Box 1029
Moyock, NC 27958
Primary Number 252.435.2488
Fax Number 252.435.6388
www.xecompany.com
Q+A - Crisis in Pakistan; What's happening this time?
By Zeeshan Haider and Simon Cameron-Moore
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A year after an election returned Pakistan to civilian rule the country has slid back into a political crisis, with street protests erupting in towns and cities across central Punjab province.
The timing, as usual in Pakistan, is awful.
The new U.S. administration is conducting a regional review of its strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan for defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban.
There are worries the Pakistan government is too ready to appease militants, after a peace deal worked out in a northwestern valley earlier this month.
Meantime, the economy has been propped up by the International Monetary Fund, but needs more external support.
The last thing Pakistan needs is a power struggle, so soon after former army chief Pervez Musharraf was forced to resign as president last August.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A year after an election returned Pakistan to civilian rule the country has slid back into a political crisis, with street protests erupting in towns and cities across central Punjab province.
The timing, as usual in Pakistan, is awful.
The new U.S. administration is conducting a regional review of its strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan for defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban.
There are worries the Pakistan government is too ready to appease militants, after a peace deal worked out in a northwestern valley earlier this month.
Meantime, the economy has been propped up by the International Monetary Fund, but needs more external support.
The last thing Pakistan needs is a power struggle, so soon after former army chief Pervez Musharraf was forced to resign as president last August.
Mexico rejects US drugs warning
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has rejected US concern that his country could become a failed state because of a growing wave of drug violence.
Mr Calderon, in an interview with the Associated Press, said the cartels did not control any part of his country.
He said that he intended to withdraw the army from the fight before he leaves office in 2012.
Last month, the US military singled out Mexico and Pakistan as two countries most at risk of sudden collapse.
More than 1,000 people are reported to have been killed in Mexico so far this year as gangs battle over lucrative drug routes into the US.
But President Calderon said that Mexico's territorial integrity, unlike Colombia's, was still intact.
"To say that Mexico is a failed state is absolutely false. I have not lost any part, any single point, of the Mexican territory," he said.
"Colombia lost [territory] during several decades… and even today huge parts of its territory [are] in the hands of the criminals, or the guerrillas, or some combination of drug traffickers and guerrillas.
"But in Mexico, all the territory is in the hands of the Mexican authorities."
US demand
Mr Calderon said that smuggling could not be totally eradicated as long as Americans continued to use drugs.
But he said he hoped that by 2012 the cartels would be worn down to a point where the army and federal police could withdraw and leave the problem in the hands of local police.
A report published in January by the United States Joint Forces Command called Mexico and Pakistan "two large and important states [which] bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse".
Mr Calderon sent troops and federal police into drug strongholds on his first day in office in December 2006.
But violence has increased, with more than 5,000 people killed in drug-related incidents in 2008.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, in a separate interview with AP, said that 90% of those killed were involved in the drugs trade, while only 4% were innocent bystanders. The rest, he said, were police officers and soldiers.
Mr Calderon called on Washington to do more, by stopping the flow of drugs cash and powerful US assault weapons into Mexico.
He applauded cross-border operations that US officials said culminated this week with the arrests of 755 Sinaloa cartel members and the seizure of $59m (£41m) in the US.
But he acknowledged that Mexico could not be President Barack Obama's top priority, saying the US would help Mexico most by fixing its own economic crisis.
He said Latin American leaders had high hopes for President Obama's first trip to the region at the Summit of the Americas in April.
"President Barack Obama has a tremendous opportunity to recover the leadership of the United States," he said.
Pentagon lifts media ban on photos of war dead
The new policy lets the families of fallen troops decide on press coverage, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says.
Reporting from Washington -- The Pentagon has decided to rescind a long-standing prohibition against press coverage of returning war dead, allowing families to say whether news organizations may photograph the arrivals, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday.
The remains of all U.S. service members killed overseas are flown to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base. But photographic images have been prohibited since 1991. The administration of President George W. Bush rigorously enforced the ban, preventing pictures of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan from appearing in news coverage.
The new policy will leave it up to the families of slain service members to decide whether to allow the media to photograph the arrival of the remains in Dover.
"My conclusion was, we should not presume to make the decision for the families. We should actually let them make it," Gates said.
The question of media access has deeply divided the military as well as veterans and family groups.
Some favored keeping the ban, and others wanted to give families the option of allowing the media in, said Joyce Raezer, the executive director of the National Military Family Assn.
"We are hoping whatever comes out of this new policy accommodates a variety of wishes," she said.
Gates has assigned a group of Pentagon officials to work out details. Concerns include: what to do if a flight is carrying remains of several service members and families are divided over access, or what services will be provided for families who want to be present for the return.
Many Pentagon officials have worried that opening up Dover will result in pressure on families to go to the base to meet the arriving flights. If they do, Raezer said, the military needs to be prepared with chaplains, counselors and lodging.
"If they are going to open it up to families, do they have the capability of assisting those families?" she said. "There are lots of unanswered questions."
One organization, Military Families United, said a survey of military families found that 84% opposed changing the policy.
"We are pretty disappointed in the president's decision to overturn the ban," said John Ellsworth, the group's president, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004. "This is a complete disregard for the will of America's military families and their need for privacy during this solemn moment."
Ellsworth said he would not have wanted to choose whether to leave his grieving family and go to Dover to receive the body of his son, Justin.
"I don't believe my family would have been best served for me to go to Dover," he said. "But I would have felt torn if I had to make the decision."
Gates said he had been opposed to the media ban and first considered dropping it a year ago. At that time, he asked officials to review the prohibition. Those reviewing the policy recommended keeping it unchanged, and Gates decided to accept the recommendation. The Bush White House was not involved in that review, he said.
But the day after President Obama said this month that he wanted to revisit the issue, Gates launched a new, wider review.
"I talked directly with the senior leadership of the services and solicited their views," Gates said. "I'll be perfectly honest about it. There was a division in the building."
Gates said everyone in the military -- on both sides of the issue -- was motivated by trying to help the families of fallen service members.
"People were all trying to do what was right by the families," Gates said. "It just seemed to me that we ought to let the families make that decision."
Reporting from Washington -- The Pentagon has decided to rescind a long-standing prohibition against press coverage of returning war dead, allowing families to say whether news organizations may photograph the arrivals, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday.
The remains of all U.S. service members killed overseas are flown to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base. But photographic images have been prohibited since 1991. The administration of President George W. Bush rigorously enforced the ban, preventing pictures of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan from appearing in news coverage.
The new policy will leave it up to the families of slain service members to decide whether to allow the media to photograph the arrival of the remains in Dover.
"My conclusion was, we should not presume to make the decision for the families. We should actually let them make it," Gates said.
The question of media access has deeply divided the military as well as veterans and family groups.
Some favored keeping the ban, and others wanted to give families the option of allowing the media in, said Joyce Raezer, the executive director of the National Military Family Assn.
"We are hoping whatever comes out of this new policy accommodates a variety of wishes," she said.
Gates has assigned a group of Pentagon officials to work out details. Concerns include: what to do if a flight is carrying remains of several service members and families are divided over access, or what services will be provided for families who want to be present for the return.
Many Pentagon officials have worried that opening up Dover will result in pressure on families to go to the base to meet the arriving flights. If they do, Raezer said, the military needs to be prepared with chaplains, counselors and lodging.
"If they are going to open it up to families, do they have the capability of assisting those families?" she said. "There are lots of unanswered questions."
One organization, Military Families United, said a survey of military families found that 84% opposed changing the policy.
"We are pretty disappointed in the president's decision to overturn the ban," said John Ellsworth, the group's president, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004. "This is a complete disregard for the will of America's military families and their need for privacy during this solemn moment."
Ellsworth said he would not have wanted to choose whether to leave his grieving family and go to Dover to receive the body of his son, Justin.
"I don't believe my family would have been best served for me to go to Dover," he said. "But I would have felt torn if I had to make the decision."
Gates said he had been opposed to the media ban and first considered dropping it a year ago. At that time, he asked officials to review the prohibition. Those reviewing the policy recommended keeping it unchanged, and Gates decided to accept the recommendation. The Bush White House was not involved in that review, he said.
But the day after President Obama said this month that he wanted to revisit the issue, Gates launched a new, wider review.
"I talked directly with the senior leadership of the services and solicited their views," Gates said. "I'll be perfectly honest about it. There was a division in the building."
Gates said everyone in the military -- on both sides of the issue -- was motivated by trying to help the families of fallen service members.
"People were all trying to do what was right by the families," Gates said. "It just seemed to me that we ought to let the families make that decision."
'Enemy combatant' expected to be charged
The move in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah Marri may be timed to avoid a showdown in the Supreme Court.
Reporting from Washington -- The Justice Department is preparing to bring criminal charges against the only person detained in this country by the military as an "enemy combatant," possibly defusing a dispute before the Supreme Court over whether the president has the right to hold civilians without charges.
Prosecutors are expected, as early as today, to charge Ali Saleh Kahlah Marri with supporting the Al Qaeda terrorist network, said government sources familiar with the case. His lawyer said he had unofficial confirmation that Marri had already been indicted on charges of material support for terrorism.
The charges against Marri by a federal grand jury in Springfield, Ill., would come at the request of federal prosecutors there in consultation with officials in Washington, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case remained under seal.
The case has been closely watched by civil rights advocates as a test of whether the Obama administration would reverse course on the Bush administration's claims that the president has the power to declare someone -- including a civilian like Marri -- an enemy combatant and hold him indefinitely without charges or a trial.
Marri was arrested in December 2001 at his home in Peoria, Ill., by federal agents who thought he was an Al Qaeda operative sent to the U.S. to help launch attacks after the Sept. 11 terrorist assault.
He is challenging his designation as an enemy combatant in a case scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court in April.
A criminal indictment would not automatically resolve the legal issues, one of his lawyers said Thursday. And the Obama administration has not said whether it intends to proceed with the case or reverse course and not defend the Bush administration's stance.
If the criminal charges are true, "it's certainly a step in the right direction in restoring the rule of law in this country, and it is something that should have happened when he was first arrested seven years ago," said Jonathan Hafetz, lead counsel in Marri's case before the Supreme Court.
"But the Supreme Court also needs to hear the case to make it clear once and for all that the president does not have the power to lock up American citizens or legal residents and hold them indefinitely without charge or trial," Hafetz, a lawyer with the ACLU National Security Project, said in an interview.
The Justice Department and White House had no comment on the Marri case or on whether he would be moved from a military brig in South Carolina to face terrorism-related charges in Illinois.
One source familiar with the case said charges would not be surprising because one of President Obama's first moves after taking office was to order a review of all detainee cases -- and Marri's in particular.
Marri was scheduled to stand trial on fraud and other non-terrorism charges in 2003, but the case was halted at the last minute when President Bush designated him an enemy combatant.
In December, over the objections of the Bush administration, the Supreme Court voted to hear Marri's appeal.
Legal experts say the government was expected to lose the case, given that a five-justice majority last year rejected the Bush administration's policy at Guantanamo Bay and said the detainees, though captured abroad, were entitled to hearings before a federal judge.
Reporting from Washington -- The Justice Department is preparing to bring criminal charges against the only person detained in this country by the military as an "enemy combatant," possibly defusing a dispute before the Supreme Court over whether the president has the right to hold civilians without charges.
Prosecutors are expected, as early as today, to charge Ali Saleh Kahlah Marri with supporting the Al Qaeda terrorist network, said government sources familiar with the case. His lawyer said he had unofficial confirmation that Marri had already been indicted on charges of material support for terrorism.
The charges against Marri by a federal grand jury in Springfield, Ill., would come at the request of federal prosecutors there in consultation with officials in Washington, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case remained under seal.
The case has been closely watched by civil rights advocates as a test of whether the Obama administration would reverse course on the Bush administration's claims that the president has the power to declare someone -- including a civilian like Marri -- an enemy combatant and hold him indefinitely without charges or a trial.
Marri was arrested in December 2001 at his home in Peoria, Ill., by federal agents who thought he was an Al Qaeda operative sent to the U.S. to help launch attacks after the Sept. 11 terrorist assault.
He is challenging his designation as an enemy combatant in a case scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court in April.
A criminal indictment would not automatically resolve the legal issues, one of his lawyers said Thursday. And the Obama administration has not said whether it intends to proceed with the case or reverse course and not defend the Bush administration's stance.
If the criminal charges are true, "it's certainly a step in the right direction in restoring the rule of law in this country, and it is something that should have happened when he was first arrested seven years ago," said Jonathan Hafetz, lead counsel in Marri's case before the Supreme Court.
"But the Supreme Court also needs to hear the case to make it clear once and for all that the president does not have the power to lock up American citizens or legal residents and hold them indefinitely without charge or trial," Hafetz, a lawyer with the ACLU National Security Project, said in an interview.
The Justice Department and White House had no comment on the Marri case or on whether he would be moved from a military brig in South Carolina to face terrorism-related charges in Illinois.
One source familiar with the case said charges would not be surprising because one of President Obama's first moves after taking office was to order a review of all detainee cases -- and Marri's in particular.
Marri was scheduled to stand trial on fraud and other non-terrorism charges in 2003, but the case was halted at the last minute when President Bush designated him an enemy combatant.
In December, over the objections of the Bush administration, the Supreme Court voted to hear Marri's appeal.
Legal experts say the government was expected to lose the case, given that a five-justice majority last year rejected the Bush administration's policy at Guantanamo Bay and said the detainees, though captured abroad, were entitled to hearings before a federal judge.
Mittwoch, 25. Februar 2009
Most Troops Out of Iraq by August 2010
February 25, 2009
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is expected to order all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by August of next year, administration officials said, closing the door on a war that has led to the death of 4,250 American Soldiers.
The pullout recommended by Obama's security advisers would free up troops and resources for the war in Afghanistan, where Obama has said the threat to national security is acute. The Iraq withdrawal would be completed 18 months from now.
"We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war," Obama said in his address to Congress on Tuesday.
Iraq's government is welcoming the withdrawal report, saying Iraqi forces would be ready to take full responsibility for security.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supports an accelerated pullout and Iraqi officials will work closely with American commanders under a possible timetable to remove U.S. Soldiers from the battlefield by August 2010, said Sadiq al-Rikabi, one of al-Maliki's top advisers.
An announcement could come as early as this week, a senior White House official said Tuesday, adding that Obama has not yet approved the final details. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement was not yet planned, said Obama could discuss Iraq during a trip to North Carolina on Friday.
Obama built enormous grass-roots support for his White House bid by promising a quick end to the unpopular Iraq war. His 16-month withdrawal plan, based on removing roughly one brigade a month, had been predicated on commanders determining that it would not endanger U.S. troops left behind or Iraq's fragile security.
Officials said that upon entering the White House, Obama requested a range of options from his top military advisers, asking for plans ranging between 16 to 23 months.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had recently forwarded three withdrawal alternatives for Obama's consideration - 16, 19 and 23 months, the longest an alternative preferred by Iraqi officials and some of Obama's Iraq-based generals. The 19-month plan, which was selected, was pegged to his January inauguration.
Other senior military officials were more sanguine about a quicker pullout. Marine Maj. Gen. John Kelly, who just left his job overseeing U.S. operations in Anbar Province, said Tuesday that violence there has dropped to an almost "meaningless" level over the past year. Kelly told reporters Tuesday most U.S. forces in Anbar could have pulled out months ago.
The emerging plan now leaves Obama two months off his campaign pledge, and with between 30,000 and 50,000 troops still in Iraq to advise and train Iraqi security forces and to protect U.S. interests.
The residual force would include intelligence and surveillance specialists and their equipment, including unmanned aircraft, according to two administration officials and a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.
The complete withdrawal of American forces will take place by December 2011, the period by which the U.S. agreed with Iraq to remove all troops.
About 142,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq, roughly 14 brigades, about 11,000 more than the total in Iraq when President George W. Bush announced in January 2007 that he would "surge" the force to put down the insurgency. He sent an additional 21,000 combat troops to Baghdad and Anbar province.
Although the number of combat brigades has dropped from 20 to 14, the U.S. has increased the number of logistical and other support troops. A brigade is usually about 3,000 to 5,000 troops.
Congress has approved more than $657 billion so far for the Iraq war, according to a report last year from the Congressional Research Service.
As the Obama White House prepared to address the Iraq pullout, the man Obama defeated for the White House challenged suggestions by administration officials that the United States should lower its expectations in Afghanistan.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., insisted in remarks prepared for a speech Wednesday that Afghanistan could be turned around with sufficient resources.
In a speech planned at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, McCain said the United States should brace itself for violence in Afghanistan that worsens before it gets better.
McCain said that while "some suggest it is time to scale back our ambitions in Afghanistan," the U.S. should start spending more on development to keep Afghans from being seduced by the Taliban.
But McCain also echoed recent cautions from Obama, Gates and Mullen that the Afghan conflict would be hard going in the coming months.
"The scale of resources required to prevail will be enormous, and the timetable will be measured in years, not months," said McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
A recent classified Pentagon report urged Obama to shift the military strategy in Afghanistan to de-emphasize democracy-building and concentrate more on targeting Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuaries inside Pakistan with the aid of Pakistani military forces.
Militarii români din Irak vor acţiona în cadrul operaţiunii "Apus de soare"
Militarii români din Irak vor acţiona, începând de astăzi, în cadrul Operaţiunii denumite "Apus de Soare", în baza acordului bilateral semnat între România şi Irak.
"Apus de Soare" înlocuieşte operaţiunea "Iraqi Freedom", la care România a fost parte începând din 2003. Totodată, începând cu data de 3 martie comanda operaţiunilor militare româneşti va fi preluată de Comitetul mixt româno- irakian. Potrivit memorandumului, a cărui valabilitate expiră la 31 iulie 2009, militarii români din Irak vor avea patru tipuri principale de misiuni - non-combat, de sprijin umanitar, sprijin medical, instruire şi consiliere -, majoritatea urmând a fi dislocaţi la Tallil, iar personalul medical, la Camp Bucca si Camp Cropper. Ministerul Apărării Naţionale a precizat că, ţinând cont de noile misiuni asumate de România, efectivul total al militarilor români care vor îndeplinii misiuni în Irak va fi de aproximativ 350 de militari.
DynCorp International Has $77 Million LOGCAP IV Task Order In Kuwait
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – February 18, 2009 – The U.S. Army Sustainment Command has authorized DynCorp International (NYSE:DCP) to proceed under a LOGCAP IV task order for support services in the Kuwait Area of Responsibility (AOR). This task order was awarded to DynCorp International on November 7, 2008, but the award was under a stay-of-performance due to a protest by the incumbent. The stay-of-performance was lifted February 11, 2009, following denial of the protest by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
This is the first task order award to DynCorp International under LOGCAP IV. DynCorp International will be responsible for movement control operations, managing the in-transit logistics and facilities needed for U.S. military personnel to arrive and depart the Kuwait AOR. This includes base camp services, life support and operations and maintenance for U.S. government facilities, including designated debarkation seaport and airports.
The potential value of this task order is $77 million for a transition period and one year at full performance. Up to four option years may also be awarded at the discretion of the government.
DynCorp International was also previously awarded a task order for services in support of the Udairi Army Air Field in Kuwait. This task order has a value of $20 million, and is currently under a stay-of-performance due to a protest by the incumbent.
Under the LOGCAP IV contract, DynCorp International is one of three providers who will support U.S. forces worldwide with immediate focus on those deployed in the Middle East. DynCorp International holds several important logistics and contingency contracts for the U.S. military, and was the sole holder of the LOGCAP II contract from 1997-2002.
About DynCorp International
DynCorp International is a provider of specialized mission-critical services to civilian and military government agencies worldwide, and operates major programs in law enforcement training and support, security services, base operations, aviation services, contingency operations, and logistics support. DynCorp International is headquartered in Falls Church, Va. For more information, visitwww.dyn-intl.com
This is the first task order award to DynCorp International under LOGCAP IV. DynCorp International will be responsible for movement control operations, managing the in-transit logistics and facilities needed for U.S. military personnel to arrive and depart the Kuwait AOR. This includes base camp services, life support and operations and maintenance for U.S. government facilities, including designated debarkation seaport and airports.
The potential value of this task order is $77 million for a transition period and one year at full performance. Up to four option years may also be awarded at the discretion of the government.
DynCorp International was also previously awarded a task order for services in support of the Udairi Army Air Field in Kuwait. This task order has a value of $20 million, and is currently under a stay-of-performance due to a protest by the incumbent.
Under the LOGCAP IV contract, DynCorp International is one of three providers who will support U.S. forces worldwide with immediate focus on those deployed in the Middle East. DynCorp International holds several important logistics and contingency contracts for the U.S. military, and was the sole holder of the LOGCAP II contract from 1997-2002.
About DynCorp International
DynCorp International is a provider of specialized mission-critical services to civilian and military government agencies worldwide, and operates major programs in law enforcement training and support, security services, base operations, aviation services, contingency operations, and logistics support. DynCorp International is headquartered in Falls Church, Va. For more information, visitwww.dyn-intl.com
U.S. soldier, Iraqi interpreter killed by police in Mosul
BAGHDAD, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- An American soldier and an Iraqi interpreter have died as a result of small arms fire attack in Iraq's northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
A military statement said the attack took place at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) on Tuesday during a meeting at an Iraqi police station in the city.
Three U.S. soldiers and a second Iraqi interpreter were also wounded by the attack, another military statement said without elaboration, adding the cause of the incident is under investigation.
"Injured personnel were taken to the Combat Support Hospital in Mosul, where the U.S. soldier died of his wounds," the statement said.
On Tuesday, a local police source said two Iraqi policemen opened fire on U.S. soldiers in the city, killing four of them and an Iraqi interpreter, before they fled.
On Feb. 9, a suicide car bomber killed four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi interpreters in Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad.
The attacks proved that violence continues in large parts of northern and central Iraq despite massive U.S. and Iraqi military offensive in the past year.
Mosul remains a stubborn stronghold of Sunni insurgency, including extremist militant group al-Qaida.
The latest death raised the toll of the U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq to 4,251 since the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq in March 2003, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.
Dienstag, 17. Februar 2009
Pinnacle Claims Forgery in Fight
There's a behind the scenes battle going on between Pinnacle Armor, the Air Force, the National Institutes for Justice and the Army.
You'll remember that a year ago the Air Force debarred Pinnacle after it found that the company had pumped up the ballistic capabilities of its SOV 2000 armor claiming it was Level III compliant when it wasn't. This ban of Pinnacle products came on the heels of the Army's very public outing of Dragon Skin test results conducted by Army ballistics experts and witnessed by Pinnacle president Murray Neal himself.
But after the dust cleared, the tenacious Neal waged his own battle against the debarment, filing suit and compiling evidence that he claims shows Army testers forging test result documents and intentionally painting Dragon Skin in a bad light to the Air Force.
I spoke with Neal about this at length, and while I'm skeptical that the Army is resorting to lying and forging documents, there are some things that definitely look fishy about this case.
Neal provided me with an example of a document that purportedly shows forged test results and failures of the armor that didn't happen during tests conducted for the Air Force by H.P. White Labs. A lot of Pinnacle proponents point to a recent article by the hysterical bloggers at Soldiers for the Truth as explanation for the suspected forgeries and other skull duggery and I'll let DT readers make their own judgment on that.
But Neal claims that when the actual shooters at HP White were cross examined during depositions, they claimed that over two days of testing they did NOT see the failures tabulated on the result summary table. I asked Neal to forward me some copies of the deposition transcripts to prove that. What he sent me didn't seem to correlate with what he was claiming (they are too large to upload so email me if you want to see them)...prompting still more questions about what is actually going on here.
Seems to me Neal at least has some cause here for fighting the debarment. Rumor has it the Air Force/NIJ is willing to settle and reverse the ban. I've had difficulty with Pinnacle's claims and chafed it the company's absolutist claims and hyperbolic publicity stunts, but there's a limited number of armor makers in the world and there's no sense in keeping anyone out of the fold unless their product is totally bogus -- which Dragon Skin is not.
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