MIKE WHITNEY: The CIA’s Killing Spree in Lahore

The following column is reprinted with permission from Mike Whitney.
 

The CIA’s Killing Spree in Lahore
©  Mike Whitney
February 24, 2011

*  The Case Against Raymond Davis

When CIA-agent Raymond Davis gunned down two Pakistani civilians in broad daylight on a crowded street in Lahore, he probably never imagined that the entire Washington establishment would spring to his defense. But that’s precisely what happened. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mike Mullen, John Kerry, Leon Panetta and a number of other U.S. bigwigs have all made appeals on Davis’s behalf. None of these stalwart defenders of “the rule of law” have shown a speck of interest in justice for the victims or of even allowing the investigation to go forward so they could know what really happened. Oh, no. What Clinton and the rest want, is to see their man Davis packed onto the next plane to Langley so he can play shoot-’em-up someplace else in the world.

Does Clinton know that after Davis shot his victims 5 times in the back, he calmly strode back to his car, grabbed his camera, and photographed the dead bodies? Does she know that the two so-called “diplomats” who came to his rescue in a Land Rover (which killed a passerby) have been secretly spirited out of the country so they won’t have to appear in court? Does she know that the families of the victims are now being threatened and attacked to keep them from testifying against Davis? Here’s a clip from Thursday’s edition of The Nation:

Three armed men forcibly gave poisonous pills to Muhammad Sarwar, the uncle of Shumaila Kanwal, the widow of Fahim shot dead by Raymond Davis, after barging into his house in Rasool Nagar, Chak Jhumra.

Sarwar was rushed to Allied Hospital in critical condition where doctors were trying to save his life till early Thursday morning. The brother of Muhammad Sarwar told The Nation that three armed men forced their entry into the house after breaking the windowpane of one of the rooms. When they broke the glass, Muhammad Sarwar came out. The outlaws started beating him up.

The other family members, including women and children, coming out for his rescue, were taken hostage and beaten up. The three outlaws then took everyone hostage at gunpoint and forced poisonous pills down Sarwar’s throat.” (“Shumaila’s uncle forced to take poisonous pills”, The Nation)

Good show, Hillary. We’re all about the rule of law in the good old USA.

But why all the intrigue and arm-twisting? Why has the State Department invoked the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to make its case that Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity? If Davis is innocent, then he has nothing to worry about, right? Why not let the trial go forward and stop reinforcing the widely-held belief that Davis is a vital cog in the U.S.’s clandestine operations in Pakistan?

The truth is that Davis had been photographing sensitive installations and madrassas for some time, the kind of intelligence gathering that spies do when scouting-out prospective targets. Also, he’d been in close contact with members of terrorist organizations, which suggests a link between the CIA and terrorist incidents in Pakistan. Here’s an excerpt from Wednesday’s The Express Tribune:

His cell phone has revealed contacts with two ancillaries of al Qaeda in Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Taliban of Pakistan (TTP) and sectarian Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has led to the public conclusion that he was behind terrorism committed against Pakistan’s security personnel and its people… This will strike people as America in cahoots with the Taliban and al Qaeda against the state of Pakistan targeting, as one official opined, Pakistan’s nuclear installations.” (“Raymond Davis: The plot thickens”, The Express Tribune)

“Al Qaeda”? The CIA is working with “ancillaries of al Qaeda in Pakistan”? No wonder the U.S. media has been keeping a wrap on this story for so long.

Naturally, most Pakistanis now believe that the U.S. is colluding with terrorists to spread instability, weaken the state, and increase its power in the region. But isn’t that America’s M.O. everywhere?

Also, many people noticed that U.S. drone attacks suddenly stopped as soon as Davis was arrested. Was that a coincidence? Not likely. Davis was probably getting coordinates from his new buddies in the tribal hinterland and then passing them along to the Pentagon. The drone bombings are extremely unpopular in Pakistan. More then 1400 people have been killed since August 2008, and most of them have been civilians.

And, there’s more. This is from (Pakistan’s) The Nation:

A local lawyer has moved a petition in the court of Additional District and Sessions… contending that the accused (Davis)… was preparing a map of sensitive places in Pakistan through the GPS system installed in his car. He added that mobile phone sims, lethal weapons, and videos camera were recovered from the murder accused on January 27, 2011.” (“Davis mapped Pakistan targets court told”, The Nation)

So, Davis’s GPS chip was being used to identify targets for drone attacks in the tribal region. Most likely, he was being assisted on the other end by recruits or members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban.

A lot of extravagant claims have been made about what Davis was up to, much of which is probably just speculation. One report which appeared on ANI news service is particularly dire, but produces little evidence to support its claims. Here’s an excerpt:

Double murder-accused U.S. official Raymond Davis has been found in possession of top-secret CIA documents, which point to him or the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) operating in the region, providing Al-Qaeda terrorists with “nuclear fissile material” and “biological agents,” according to a report.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned “grave” as it appears that open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States, The European Union Times reports… The most ominous point in this SVR report is “Pakistan’s ISI stating that top-secret CIA documents found in Davis’s possession point to his, and/or TF373, providing to al Qaeda terrorists “nuclear fissile material” and “biological agents”, which they claim are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to re-establish the West’s hegemony over a Global economy that is warned is just months away from collapse,” the paper added. (“CIA Spy Davis was giving nuclear bomb material to Al Qaeda, says report”, ANI)

Although there’s no way to prove that this is false, it seems like a bit of a stretch. But that doesn’t mean that what Davis was up to shouldn’t be taken seriously. Quite the contrary. If Davis was working with Tehreek-e-Taliban, (as alleged in many reports) then we can assume that the war on terror is basically a ruse to advance a broader imperial agenda. According to Sify News, the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, believes this to be the case. Here’s an excerpt:

Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, once brushed off Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s claim, that the U.S. was “arranging” the (suicide) attacks by Pakistani Taliban inside his country, as ‘madness’, and was of the view that both Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who believed in this U.S. conspiracy theory, were “dysfunctional” leaders.

The account of Zardari’s claim about the U.S.’ hand in the attacks has been elaborately reproduced by U.S. journalist Bob Woodward, on Page 116 of his famous book ‘Obama’s Wars,’ The News reported.

Woodward’s account goes like this: “One evening during the trilateral summit (in Washington, between Obama, Karzai and Zardari) Zardari had dinner with Zalmay Khalilzad, the 58-year-old former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the U.N., during the Bush presidency.

“Zardari dropped his diplomatic guard. He suggested that one of the two countries was arranging the attacks by the Pakistani Taliban inside his country: India or the U.S. Zardari didn’t think India could be that clever, but the US could. Karzai had told him the U.S. was behind the attacks, confirming the claims made by the Pakistani ISI.”

“Mr President,” Khalilzad said, “what would we gain from doing this? You explain the logic to me.”

“This was a plot to destabilize Pakistan, Zardari hypothesized, so that the U.S. could invade and seize its nuclear weapons. He could not explain the rapid expansion in violence otherwise. And the CIA had not pursued the leaders of the Pakistani Taliban, a group known as Tehreek-e-Taliban or TTP that had attacked the government. TTP was also blamed for the assassination of Zardari’s wife, Benazir Bhutto.” (“Pakistan President says CIA Involved in Plot to Destabilize Country and Seize Nukes”, Sify News)

Zardari’s claim will sound familiar to those who followed events in Iraq. Many people are convinced that the only rational explanation for the wave of bombings directed at civilians, was that the violence was caused by those groups who stood to gain from a civil war.

And who might that be?

Despite the Obama administration’s efforts to derail the investigation, the case against Davis is going forward. Whether he is punished or not is irrelevant. This isn’t about Davis anyway. It’s a question of whether the U.S. is working hand-in-hand with the very organizations that it publicly condemns in order to advance its global agenda. If that’s the case, then the war on terror is a fraud.

[End.]
__________

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

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ERIC SOMMER: Demonizing the demon in Egypt and elsewhere

The following commentary is reprinted with permission from Pravda, Moscow. (Emphasis added by Inteltrends.)
 

Demonizing the demon in Egypt and elsewhere
©  Eric Sommer
Source:  Pravda.ru
February 21, 2011

I was personally involved in the movement against the U.S. intervention and bombing of Yugoslavia in the late 1990’s under Clinton. At that time I coined the phrase ‘Demonizing the demons’. I did so because I noted that progressive and well-meaning people in North America were often befuddled and divided as to whether to support the demonizing of Melosovik by the U.S. government or not.

The real problem was not that Melosovik was, in fact, a demon whose government had engaged in serious human rights violations in Croatia but that he was a demon whose actions had been, in a way, supported or condoned by the U.S. state and media to some extent previously before they decided to demonize and attack him.

At that time, I pieced together the following formula used by the U.S. government and media ever since World War II as a lynchpin of U.S. foreign policy:

Step 1:  Actively support, or even instigate, the installation of a demonic dictator or semi-dictator. Especially do so in any case where there is danger of a socialist or even truly independent national government coming to power in a country.

Step 2:  Support the U.S.-supported demonic dictator by continually supplying massive amounts of military equipment or funds each for such equipment each year, to prevent any internal opposition from gaining the upper hand. Mubarak in Egypt, for example, received around 1 Billion dollars in military aid each year. Also, impose IMF or other measures designed to advantage international capital, allowing for the looting of the local resources and cheap labour at ridiculously low rates when possible, and conceal or downplay any and all resulting extreme human rights violations and impoverishment of the dictators people;

Step 3:  When it is no longer expedient to support the demonic dictator – either because internal opposition has grown too strong, or for geo-strategic or other reasons – then proclaim that he is a ‘Demonic Dictator’, ignoring the reality that he was installed and maintained in power by yourself.

This scenario of ‘Demonizing the Demon’ is the formula pursued ever since World War II by the U.S. state throughout the world.

Suharto in Indonesia, Marcos the dictator of the Philippines, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mubarak in Egypt, Pinochet in Chile, and many other ‘demons’ were installed with the support of the U.S. state and its CIA spy service and military aid; maintained in power by tremendous military and other non-socially-beneficial ‘aid’; and then ‘demonized’ and deposed with the help of the U.S. state when they were no longer needed.

The losers in all cases have been the ordinary people who suffered – first from the Demonic dictators, then from their removal, and then from their replacements (the new demons chosen for them by the U.S. state).

Sound exaggerated? Consider this:

The Egyptian Example

A few weeks ago the media reported on a possible successor to Mubarak in Egypt as follows: “Mohamed ElBaradei, the former United Nations nuclear chief who has become an opposition figurehead, said he would ‘serve if called on’. He earlier held his first negotiations with the American and British ambassadors, proposing potential scenarios for a transfer of power”.

Note that Mohamed ElBaradei held “negotiations” with “American and British ambassadors” for a ‘transfer of power’. Since when does a future ‘leader’ have to ‘negotiate’ with the representatives of the U.S. and British governments! Moreover, since when does a future leader need to “propose” to the representatives of two foreign powers the “scenarios for a transfer of power” in his own country!

It could not be any clearer that Mohamed ElBaradei – and the U.S. and British governments – do not really regard Egypt as a sovereign state; rather, they regard these two foreign powers as the real masters – or at least believe they should be the masters – of Egypt’s destiny.

In Egypt as elsewhere, the process of installing, propping up, and then deposing ‘demons’ is the game of U.S. foreign policy. It’s high time for the people of the world to put a stop to it.

[End.]

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Overthrowing regimes in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela is a U.S. intelligence priority: analyst

The following article is reprinted with permission from Russia’s Strategic Culture Foundation.
 

Radical Separatism:  Contours of the Conspiracy
©  Nil Nikandrov
Source:  Strategic Culture Foundation
February 20, 2011

Overthrowing the regimes in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela is on Washington’s list of strategic objectives. Separatist leanings spread and radical groups proliferate in the countries with a clear backing from the outside world. No means of undermining the regimes remain unused, separatism – a traditional and proven instrument from the U.S. intelligence community’s arsenal being one of them.

An International Confederation for Regional Freedom and Autonomy (CONFILAR) was created on September 16, 2006 in Guayaquil, Ecuador by the pro-autonomy groups from Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru. The blueprint for the conference which established the confederation is attributed to Alberto Mansueti, vice president of the Rumbo Propio (Our Own Destiny) group based in Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia state. Mansueti is known to have authored CONFILAR’s underlying philosophy, a brand of radical separatism disguised as the demand for civilized autonomy. The extent of autonomy as requested by Mansueti and his brethren is practically tantamount to the abolition of centralized control over the corresponding territories. The radical position largely stems from its proponents’ aversion to the socialist policies pursued by the populist leaders such as H. Chavez, R. Correa, and E. Morales. Mansueti’s version of the autonomy envisages complete absence of economic or political regulation to be exercised by the central authority. The promised benefits of the arrangement are considerably better life quality, exceptional education and health care standards, jobs, higher pensions, and hefty social aid packages for the poor including food stamps, free tuition and medical care, while corruption, for example, is supposed to evaporate. In the past, similar pledges were generously dispensed by Correa’s ferocious critic Jaime Nebot and other leaders from the affluent Manabi province sited on the Pacific shore, which for a decade hosted a U.S. military base. Created with the stated goal of fighting drug trafficking, the base actually gave the U.S. control over the region’s countries. Correa pledged not to renew the base lease as he ran for president – and immediately faced a separatist surge in response upon coming to office. The CIA instigated separatism in Manabi in the hope that reaching an agreement on the base with the separatists should not be a problem, but Washington’s plans for the province failed to materialize. President Correa’s views on the U.S. military presence in Ecuador remain unchanged. In September, 2008 some 70% of the country’s population expressed at a national referendum support for a new constitution upholding the principles of solidarity, justice, and wealth for all. Ecuador acts independently in international politic, opposes the U.S. imperialist aspirations, and backs Latin American integration. In Guayaquil, however, the referendum was won by a relatively narrow margin.

CIA-coordinated separatist movements also rose in Bolivia and Venezuela. A May, 2007 referendum in Bolivia’s Santa Cruz province was won by deep autonomy enthusiasts who promised the population a greater share of the oil and gas revenues. Similar referendums were held in the Beni and Pando provinces in June the same year. Morales did not recognize the outcome citing low turnouts and likely rigging, and his supporters described them as a liberals’ mutiny, an offensive against the country’s new constitution launched by the opponents of socialism, and a step towards the Balkanization of Latin America.

The second CONFILAR forum convened in Santa Cruz in September, 2007 to broadcast solidarity with the Bolivian pro-autonomy groups. Separatist tendencies dominated Bolivia’s political agenda in 2008 and the early 2009, but the elimination by the Bolivian special forces of a group of terrorists sent to the country by the CIA from Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Ireland had a sobering effect on the populations of the defiant Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, and Pando provinces. It became widely known that the Santa Cruz leadership maintained close ties with the U.S. embassy and that weapons were secretly supplied to separatists from abroad. The computers seized by the Bolivian authorities contained files with a detailed plan of destabilization in Bolivia and the assassination of president Morales. A number of terrorists were arrested and others fled to the U.S.

In Bolivia, as in Ecuador, the constitution serves as the main barrier in the way of separatism. Bolivia’s constitution which entered into force in February, 2009 was the country’s first one to be propped up by a popular vote and to grant the native population a special status. The constitution handed to the state extensive powers in the sphere of economic regulation, and established the autonomy of provinces, municipalities, and Indian communities. It also shuts foreign military bases out of the country and bans the privatization of its energy resources. The opposition predictably reacted to the constitution with a grudge, and recurrences of confrontation with the rightists in Bolivia’s eastern part remain likely.

The CIA, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, and DEA managed to build a separatist stronghold in Venezuela’s Zulia state. For a long time, Zulia used to be run by Chavez’s staunch opponent Manuel Rosales who routinely discussed with U.S. ambassadors Brownfield and Shapiro bilateral deals between Zulia and the U.S., the theme to which Caracas explainably has a thin skin. Normally, the state is not entitled to independent foreign policies, though Brownfield admitted publicly that for him Zulia was “an independent republic” and openly urged the local elites to wrestle with Caracas over unrestricted autonomy.

Rosales’s Un Nuevo Tiempo party refrains from statements that might be regarded as downright calls for divorce with Venezuela, but its separatist agenda is not deeply hidden. As for Rosales, he used to combine separatism as a creed with corruption as a hobby, and eventually had to flee amidst the official probe into his machinations. He took shelter in Peru as a result, but the separatist forces in Zulia are still at work. Currently the Rumbo Propio, a party blessed by Rosales and maintaining divisions in several Venezuelan border states spearheads the activity. One of its leaders Nestor Suares calls the party’s supporters to push for Zulia’s full autonomy and to defy Chavez’s socialist legislation. Another Rumbo Propio key figure – former Venezuelan ambassador to the Dominican Republic Julio Portillo – declared severing all ties with “Chavez’s dictatorship” during the 2002 coup but his reckoning proved wrong as Chavez regained his presidency and Portillo had to turn to “regional patriotism” as a legitimizing concept. This must be the explanation behind his radical separatism and calls for an independence referendum in Zulia. Portillo was among the founders of the Zulia’s People for Constitution Democratic Front which sprang up when vacant lands south of the Maracaibo Lake were allocated to rural cooperatives. Money is poured into Zulia’s separatist groups both by the CIA and the local banks like Banco Occidental de Descuento.

The presence of a Columbian population numbering hundreds of thousands factors into the state’s turbulent situation. Many people sought refuge in Venezuela from Columbia’s internal conflict but are members of rightists paramilitary groups. They tend to be hostile to Chavez, meaning that the CIA and the separatists can count on them as a potential strike force which can help bring about Zulia’s sovereignty.

The Guayaquil – Santa Cruz – Zulia separatist axis will continue to be used to undermine the populist regimes and the regional integration initiatives in Lain America. Separatist groups will be given the key role if Washington opts for the Balkanization of Latin America, as the onset of chaos would make it easier to justify the U.S. intervention in the region. Any moment the U.S. Southern Command is ready to implement Plan Balboa which was put together five years ago.

[End.]

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CAUCASUS EMIRATE MEDIA: “Stratfor made a pretty ignorant statement on Moscow airport bombing”

The following article is reprinted with permission from Kavkaz Center (KC), Caucasus Emirate (mujahideen) news agency. Originally published under the title listed below, the title was later changed to “KGB active measures: Stratfor made a statement on Moscow airport bombing”.
 

Stratfor made a pretty ignorant statement on Moscow airport bombing
©  Kavkaz Center
February 9, 2011

The U.S. analytic site STRATFOR published a strange and rather ignorant statement of its analyst Ben West, given as an opinion of editorial by using the word “we”, which Russian propaganda dubbed as “a statement of CIA veterans”.

The news agency RIA-Novosti, which since the Soviet Union was and is a structural division of the KGB/FSB, was the first reported about the “statement of CIA veterans”.

The KGB agents cited several passages from the statement. The full text of it is not present anywhere in Russian propaganda.

A statement on the website Stratfor says:

“At STRATFOR we’re pretty skeptical of this video. We’re not convinced that it necessarily proves that Dokku Umarov did order the Jan. 24 attack even though he claims it.

First of all, Dokku Umarov isn’t really known ([to whom is he not known?] – KC) to work with militants from Ingushetia, he himself has more frequently in the past worked with militants from Chechnya and Dagestan.

He doesn’t necessarily have as close of links to Ingushetia. So the fact the prime suspect in the Jan. 24 bombing is Ingushetian leads us to become skeptical of the connections between Dokku Umarov and the bomber.

Additionally Umarov has made false claims before. Back in 2009 he claimed responsibility for an explosion at a dam in Russia (Stratfor is quite a topic, if they are so “smart” that they did not know it was not about the dam, which no one blew up, but the HPP’s engine room, then after these words of “CIA veterans” on their “state of affairs” could not be read at all. In addition, Dokku Umarov had never done on any statement [about] this topic as Russian lying. There was a written statement by Martyr Brigades Riyad-us-Saliheen – KC).

However we later learned (from the Russian propaganda – KC) that the explosion was due to mechanical failure (what a folly: no explosives in the metal, – KC) and not a terrorist activity. So Umarov does have a reputation (in the disinformation department of KGB – KC) for making false claims so we have to be pretty skeptical of this claim.

STRATFOR’s current assessment of the militant threat for the Northern Caucasus and Russia is that they’ve (i.e., the Mujahideen – KC) split and that individually each district poses a threat, but without Dokku Umarov as its head they don’t have the ability to coordinate these resources and pose a significant threat to Moscow.

But the revelation of this latest video means that STRATFOR is going to have to take a closer look at Umarov and the role he plays in the militant structure in the Northern Caucasus”, concluded the Startfor analyst.

It is to be mentioned in this context that the propagandist agent of the FSB in Finland, Backman, has recently reported to co-worker media in Russia, and [they] printed it, that Dokku Umarov is living in the U.S., so the “Stratfor specialists” may look for him in their country and interview.

And here is how the Russian propaganda concealing his text from readers presents a statement by Ben West:

– CIA veterans doubt that the attack in Domodedovo organized by Dorku Umarov, Gazeta.Ru
– CIA veterans do not believe the statements of Dokku Umarov about the terrorist attack in Domodedovo, GZT.RU
– CIA veterans: Domodedovo was not blown up by Dokku Umarov, Russian News Service
– CIA experts doubt that the terrorist attack in Domodedovo was organized by Umarov, Firstnews
– CIA analysts do not believe that Umarov was involved in the terrorist attack in Domodedovo, TCH.ua
– CIA analysts: Dokku Umarov did not blow up Domodedovo, 178 soobsheniy
– Site STRATFOR, uniting CIA analysts veterans, expressed “dissenting opinion” about the statement of the leader …

– CIA analysts do not believe in Dokku Umarov’s involvement in the terrorist attack in Domodedovo, NEWSru Israel
– CIA doubts that Umarov was behind the Domodedovo attack, Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper
– Militants groups in the North Caucasus are fragmented and do not have a single center…, Echo of Moscow radio

Kavkaz Center has long noted the remarkable transformation of KGB propaganda and related structures in the West supporting the KGB.

A very interesting phenomenon goes. More recently, even a sound of a child’s firecracker was declared “terrorist attack of Chechen (Caucasus) militants”, and now even, if Dokku Umarov himself set fire to the wick of a bomb and recorded it on video, Russian and Western “analysts” unanimously will deny what they see with their own eyes.

By the way, on the eve the Russian Service of Radio Liberty doubted the fact of the very existence of the individual Dokku Umarov. According to one analyst at Radio Liberty, at the last video it is allegedly “not clear whether this is Dokku Umarov, or his double”. In general, Hollywood has a rest, when there are cell phones with cameras in the Caucasus Mountains.

Everything is topsy-turvy in the minds of the Russian political gang elite.

Even a few years ago, after every explosion a “Chechen trace” was immediately tapped in pipelined manner, which led directly to al-Qaeda, but now, after the declaration of a complete victory in Chechnya and the final rising of Russia from the knees, the “Chechen trace” has been put under a categorical ban.

Since Russia and Putin claim to win, “Chechen terrorists” should not exist in nature. And if they are still remaining, then only “in the holes from which they have to be scraped off”.

Naturally, by definition it is impossible to organize the bombing of the Nevsky Express train or subway station “Lubyanka” from the mountain holes under the nose of the FSB. Hence, there is a violent rejection of any hint that the “Chechen terrorists” are capable [of shedding] “Russian blood” in the heartland of “Mother Russia”.

A “Caucasian trace” is also highly undesirable, since it is not leading to al-Qaeda but to a clearer understanding of the fact that “the Chechen war” has long turned into the Caucasus jihad.

And a Jihad in the Caucasus for Russia and its backers in the West is very, very unpleasant thing.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

[End.]

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Los Zetas Holds U.S. Drug Business at Gunpoint

The following article is reprinted with permission from Russia’s Strategic Culture Foundation. (Bold font appears in original version.)
 

Los Zetas Holds U.S. Drug Business at Gunpoint
©  Nil Nikandrov
Source:  Strategic Culture Foundation
February 5, 2011

Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel run by former special forces officers, turned independent several years ago. The officers sent the Z letter as the codename during their army service, hence the name of the group. For a long time, Los Zetas members used to be hired as bodyguards and hitmen by the influential El Golfo cartel supplying cocaine and heroin from Colombia to the U.S. Eventually Los Zetas outgrew the role and started fighting for control over drug markets and supply routes, regarding El Golfo as the main rival. Fairly soon other Mexican drug cartels found themselves dragged into the strife.

Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s war on drugs contributed to the complexity of the situation. In a clear attempt to boost his popularity following a rather unconvincing victory in the presidential race, Calderon launched a campaign targeting drug cartels which so far met with virtually no resistance in Mexico. Facing an increasingly aggressive drug supply from Mexico which the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the FBI were unable to counter, Washington readily blessed Calderon’s aspirations. The global financial crisis forced many of the U.S. banks to welcome cocaine-related financial flows, thus helping breed drug groups which evaded the control exercised by DEA and other U.S. special services. Washington, in its turn, simply sought to regain control as the drug revenues slipped away.

Such were the settings in which the Zetas started building their own bases in the U.S., Central and South America, and the Caribbean in a hope to establish new routes of drug supply from Peru and Colombia to the U.S. via the Pacific and Atlantic “corridors”. The advent of a strong unfamiliar player to the drug market did not go unnoticed. The ferocity of Zetas seemed shocking even for the drug business: they serially killed witnesses, tortured and beheaded their victims to intimidate competitors and law-enforcement agents, and never hesitated to kill people in numbers.

It is an open secret that today’s world owes the spread of torture as an almost routine practice to the CIA, DEA, and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. The Zetas surely learned the craft at the time when their careers were interwoven with those of professionals from the above services. The Zetas record can be traced back to the 1970s-1990s, the epoch of counter-insurgency in Mexico and Central America. U.S. instructors trained a total of 15,000 Mexican special forces officers at Fort Bragg (North Carolina) and the School of the Americas (SOA) sited in the proximity of the Panama Canal, and later – when SOA closed – at Fort Benning (Georgia). Quite a few of the trainees acquired combat experience later during the offensives against the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas in 1994-1995. Miserable pay and lack of social status lead thousands of Mexican soldiers and officers to flee from the army and some escapees were recruited by various criminal groups. Switching from army service to organized crime is a phenomenon occurring frequently not only in Mexico, but also in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Those who received counter-insurgency training under the U.S. oversight – for example, the Kaibiles, a Guatemalan analog of the Zetas – tend to be particularly ruthless.

U.S. agencies, aware of what Pentagon’s pets are like, seem alarmed by the increasingly tight alliance of Mexican and Guatemalan organized crime groups. At the moment Washington is trying to eradicate the monsters of its own upbringing, but the U.S. is clearly behind the curve as the carefully tuned and perfectly controllable U.S. domestic drug business is already exposed to the Zetas onslaught. The threat that the war over the drug market is going to spread from Mexico to the U.S. is growing day by day. As of today, the Zetas are fairly entrenched in the part of the U.S. bordering Mexico where the group is known to be buying administration officials, ethnic Latin Americans being the prime target group. Until recently a network of informants managed to help Zetas avoid serious defeats. The drug cartel is heavily armed with various types of weaponry from guns to grenade launchers which the group obtains from gun stores sited all along the 3,170 km U.S.-Mexican border. In some cases, Zetas resort to the assistance from their Mexican army contacts who have access to Pentagon’s arsenals and get the best of the U.S.-made supplies like latest versions of bullet-proof waists, advanced means of communication, helmets equipped with night-vision systems, etc.

Presidents of Central American Countries, Mexico, and Colombia will convene in Guatemala in June, 2011. The stated integration agenda will likely be overshadowed by urgent issues related to the fight against drug cartels. Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom warned that – unless drastic measures were taken to suppress drug trafficking – the death toll in 2011 would reach unprecedented proportions, and Salvador’s Mauricio Funes expressed concern that Zetas are making inroads into his country’s army and police top brass.

One might get an impression that the campaign against drug cartels is the Latin American leaders’ brainchild, but in fact the blueprint including the plan for coordination between the region’s armies, police, and intelligence agencies was fed to the local representatives during consultations at the respective U.S. embassies. Washington’s motivation behind the agenda is clear: it hopes to build a barrier against the drug threat before the narcotic flow spills across the U.S. border. Mexico as the country which lost over 30,000 lives in the drug war presents a stark example of human, socioeconomic, and political costs of a protracted drug-related conflict. Washington is not going to wage a serious war against the drug business within the U.S. as it would put in jeopardy the country’s financial system propped up by billions of dollars in “drug investments” from across the world. While large-scale offensives against drug groups are launched almost anywhere – in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, or Peru – nothing of the kind happens in the U.S., where the “home” drug mafia remains untouchable. Arrests on the lowest order may be carried out on a regular basis to showcase some activity, but the financial indicators of the U.S. drug mafia are never severely affected. Some 10 million Americans are cocaine addicts plus 30-40 million are occasional drug users, and the people’s comfort should not be infringed upon if it’s a market economy. The U.S. public discourse reflects the society’s progressing tolerance to drug use. The “weakness” explainable under the conditions of modern life’s permanent stress is portrayed with understanding in movies and books, and even politicians oftentimes admit lightheartedly to flirting with drugs back when they were college kids.

Latin American countries are confronted with a lot more stringent criteria, though. These liberal novelties are not meant for their populations and therefore hard times await drug cartels defying DEA control. El Golfo boss Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén and a bunch of his bodyguards were shot dead in Matamoros (Tamaulipas) in November, 2010 during a raid launched by Mexican marines after the group was tracked down by DEA and CIA operatives. Frightening pictures of the dead drug lord and his guards – with broken sculls and amidst pools of blood – were posted in the Internet. The raid left a total of at least 50 dead. Of course, these were Mexican, not American dead – the U.S. is fighting on other countries’ territories and at the cost of other nations’ blood.

… Brownsville is a nice place on the Rio Grande, at the Mexican border. It is home to a university, several museums, and a host of golf fields. Tourists flock to Brownsville mainly to watch hordes of birds in their original environment. At nights Brownsville’s cozy restaurants are packed as visitors savor Margaritas and other staples of the Mexican cuisine. Brownsville is a nice place, and, importantly, a peaceful one, in contrast to the country just across the river.

[End.]

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INTELTRENDS: While all eyes are fixed on Egypt, is anyone watching Pakistan?

©  Inteltrends
By Steve in Wisconsin
February 1, 2011
 

The popular uprising currently underway in Egypt is grabbing the world’s attention, but it is also grabbing the attention of Muslims in other states.

Some media commentaries mention nearby regimes in Algeria, Jordan and Yemen, and speculate as to whether or not they will follow suit. However, analysts are largely overlooking Pakistan — a tinderbox and U.S. ally — whose people are also facing price increases in food and fuel, shortages of goods, utilities and services, plus growing unemployment. These are the same catalysts that launched rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt.

Public dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s pro-Western (seemingly spineless) President Zardari and his government’s inability to stem U.S. drone attacks inside Pakistan’s tribal areas, coupled with a growing interest in fundamentalist Islam have brought Pakistanis’ tolerance level of the status quo to just below simmering. Keep in mind, also, that if there were ever a country that could mobilize hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people at the drop of a hat, it’s Pakistan.

Pakistan is very technologically advanced: cellphones, high-speed internet, and a sizeable blogging network need only to be inspired to rapidly mobilize the masses. Additionally, ever since Pervez Musharraf’s departure it is my opinion that current Pakistani leadership cannot discount the threat of a military coup, or elements of the security services (police and military) joining a popular uprising — with their weapons. Even if the government shuts down internet and cellphone service, Pakistan’s high-density urban population will continue to communicate using simple methods of decades past: vehicle-mounted loudspeakers and bull horns.

Pakistan’s security forces are likely sufficient to contain even large-scale uprisings, but not without substantial civilian casualties and property loss. This is assuming, of course, that elements of these services refrain from joining the rebellion.

The United States (from a purely self-serving standpoint) is making a mistake in turning its back on long-standing regional allies as this sends a message to other rulers and their security services that the U.S. may stand aside and allow events to run their course. America should also reconsider encouraging opposition forces through the use of social networking sites. [See: Inteltrends’ Special Report: The role of social networking websites in global unrest, and, as a further example, Google Launches Service Letting Egyptians Tweet by Phone.

An editorial in today’s Daily Times (Lahore, Pakistan) takes note of the simmering situation there. It reads, in part:

One should in any case be cautious in dismissing the possibility of a movement of the people in Pakistan. However, there is another dimension to the situation here, which could be the cause of great concern. After four decades of nurturing of jihadis and extremists, any popular revolt will be at risk of being hijacked by extremist forces, who have recently rallied together on the issue of the blasphemy laws and are not in a mood to arrest the momentum of their campaign against the government. In these circumstances, the people of Pakistan have the sorry option between an inept and corrupt political leadership and the entire spectrum of right-wing forces from centre-right to extreme right. The decline of the liberal, democratic and progressive community is at the heart of this crisis. Unless these forces strengthen their cadre, induct fresh blood into their ranks and mount a challenge to the extremists, Pakistan has little hope of salvation.

Recent history has shown that countries which have overthrown unpopular dictators are not necessarily pro-Western once a new government replaces them. [See Stanislav Mishin’s analysis: How the Muslim Brotherhood Saved the U.S. Dollar.]

[End.]
__________

Steve in Wisconsin is a former deputy sheriff with travels in Africa, Asia and Central America. His primary blog is inteltrends.wordpress.com.

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GORDON DUFF: Mysterious Death Of American Ally, Reagan Friend, In Pakistan

[Blogmaster note:  I posted the news of Col. Imam’s death in my Newsmarks column — and sent it out via RSS almost as fast as it hit the Pakistan newswire. Not too many folks clicked on the link, which attests that Col. Imam was largely an unknown figure among my readers. Gordon Duff offers a fitting tribute.]

The following column is reprinted with permission from Gordon Duff, staff writer and Senior Editor at Veterans Today.

Mysterious Death Of American Ally, Reagan Friend, In Pakistan
©  Gordon Duff
Source:  Veterans Today
January 24, 2011

*  “Colonel Imam” Kidnapped By Taliban Group Believed “Mossad” Backed

Colonel Imam (Photo: G. Duff) may have been the single driving force that pushed Russia out of Afghanistan. A modern day “Lawrence of Arabia,” Imam or Sultan Amir Tarar, a Pakistani Brigadier General, trained with American Rangers and Special Forces at Ft. Bragg, was as instrumental as Lech Walesa in bringing down the Soviet Union.

The group that kidnapped Imam 10 months ago along with Khalid Khawaja, who was murdered and a British journalist, has been misrepresented as former Pakistani intelligence who have joined a rebel Taliban faction from Punjab. This is disinformation. The group, the “Asian Tigers” is a terrorist group funded and organized by the substantial Israeli/Indian operational forces in Afghanistan, the Mossad/RAW. These groups organize terrorism inside Pakistan, working to destabilize that nation, support the heroin trade in Afghanistan and simulate “Al Qaeda” terrorists when needed.

They are an international terrorist organization, one proven to exist, one proven tied to Israel, one responsible for the killing of, not only Pakistani citizens by the hundred but American and NATO military and U.N. aid workers as well.

Without this organization, the “Asian Tigers” and similar groups, casualties in the Af/Pak theatre would diminish significantly.

However, no reports of this ever reach the western media, this information, intelligence contained in reports withheld by Wikileaks, censored, not only by Julian Assange and the New York Times but the CIA as well. These groups, though they attack Americans also, are protected just as the opium crops are, at the direction of the highest authorities in the American command.

It isn’t just Julian Assange and his New York Times partners that get their directions from Tel Aviv.

In briefings I received in Pakistan and Washington, estimates of these forces and their activities varied but one thing was for certain, they exist, they are a threat and they are being lied about. Whether India or Israel or both, Americans are dying at the hands of friends profiting from war, drugs and corruption in, not only American politics but the Pentagon establishment as well.

Colonel Imam, an American hero without equal, died at the hands of such an organization.

Col. Imam

I met the Colonel at the home of General Mirsa Aslam Beg, former Chief of Staff of Pakistan’s Army. With me were, among others, author Jeff Gates and VT [Veterans Today] editor, Raja Mujtaba. The Colonel was attired in a white turban and military field jacket. The patches, U.S. Ranger and Special Forces. The surprising part, his accent. It was, not only American but clear “old South.” This was a Georgia boy!

Despite the accusations thrown at the Colonel and General Beg, accusations also thrown at VT editor Lt. General Hamid Gul and others, of working with terrorists or supplying the Taliban, there was always one thing in common, the quest for peace and stability in the region. Where others are called “war criminals” by those profiting from continual conflict, the attacks against Colonel Imam always fell on deaf ears.

Few non-Americans have ever had the respect and friendship he enjoyed, not only in Congress, but among the special operations community who knew him to be fearless and loyal. I saw that immediately.

Colonel Imam was a gentle and honorable person, decent and kind. He died in captivity, said from “cardiac” problems. He died at the hands of terrorists, real enemies of the United States, real enemies of the people of Pakistan, real enemies of the people of Afghanistan, real enemies of all humanity.

He will be missed.

[End.]
__________

Gordon Duff is a U.S. Marine Vietnam veteran and Senior Editor at Veterans Today. His career has included extensive experience in international banking along with such diverse areas as consulting on counter insurgency, defense technologies or acting as diplomatic officer of U.N. humanitarian groups. He is a widely published expert on military and defense issues.

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Fidel Castro: Israel, U.S. Killed Iran Nuclear Scientists

[Blogmaster note:  Although out of power for many years, Cuba’s Fidel Castro Ruz continues to write articles and commentaries about current affairs. These “Reflections of Fidel” are published in Spanish but usually appear a few days later in English.]

The following commentary was translated by Granma International, Havana, citing “CubaDebate” as the Spanish source.

What would Einstein say?
©  Fidel Castro Ruz
Source:  Granma Int’l
January 7, 2011

IN a Reflection published on August 25, 2010, under the title “The opinion of an expert,” I mentioned a totally unprecedented activity on the part of the United States and its allies which, in my view, underlined the risk of a conflict of a nuclear nature with Iran. I made reference to a long article by the well-known journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, published in The Atlantic Monthly, a U.S. magazine, datelined September of that year, titled “The Point of No Return.”

Goldberg was not anti-Israel, but on the contrary an admirer of Israel, whose citizenship he shares with that of the United States, and did his military service in the former country.

In the initial part of his article he wrote, textually: “It is possible, as well, that ‘foiling operations’ conducted by the intelligence agencies of Israel, the United States, Great Britain, and other Western powers (programs designed to subvert the Iranian nuclear effort through sabotage and, on occasion, the carefully engineered disappearances of nuclear scientists) will have hindered Iran’s progress in some significant way.”

The parentheses are his as well.

After mentioning that enigmatic phrase, I proceeded with an analysis of that Gordian knot of international politics which could lead to the war so much feared by Einstein. What would he say if he had known about the “foiling operations” aimed at the physical disappearance of the most capable nuclear scientists?

Perhaps because it seemed absurd and incredible, I didn’t pay it too much attention, but on reading some months later the recent exposés of the government of Iran, as well as news and opinions from well-informed people, that paragraph came forcefully back to my mind.

Four weeks before the end of 2010, an AFP cable reported:

Iranian nuclear scientist murdered
Tehran accuses USA and Israel of being behind double bomb attacks.
AFP, November 30, 2010

‘The hand of Western governments and the Zionist regime is involved in the assassination.’ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in no doubt at the point of discovering those responsible for the double attack on nuclear experts perpetrated in the early hours yesterday in Tehran. Majid Shahriar, a professor at the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and a member of the Nuclear Society of Iran, was killed and his wife wounded in an explosion a few meters from their home. His colleague, Fereidoun Abbasi, a laser physics specialist at the same university, and his wife were wounded in an attack with similar characteristics. Although Abbasi’s death was announced in the media, the Mehr agency finally confirmed that his life had been saved. According to the Fars agency, ‘unknown terrorists’ on motorcycles had attached magnetized bombs to their cars.

Members of the Ahmadinejad executive, such as Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, directly accused the CIA and Mossad – U.S. and Israeli intelligence services respectively – of being behind these acts, which would seem to be a fresh blow to the country’s nuclear program on the threshold of a new round of talks with members of the 5+1…

With yesterday’s attack, three Iranian scientists have now been murdered since 2007. Doctor Masoud Ali Mohammadi lost his life in Tehran last January in a bomb blast outside his home, a death that has not been clarified by the authorities, which also accused Western intelligence agencies of attempting to abort what they consider a right, their nuclear program for civilian purposes. The first victim in the heart of the scientific community was Ardeshir Hosseinpur, who died in strange circumstances in 2007 at the Isfahan nuclear plant.

I do not recall any other moment in history in which the assassination of scientists became the official policy of a group of powers equipped with nuclear weapons. The worst is that, in the case of Iran, they are implementing it in a Muslim nation, with which, while they can compete and surpass it in technology, they could never do so in a terrain where, on account of cultural and religious matters, it could surpass them many times over in terms of its citizens’ disposition to die at any moment if Iran should decide to apply the same absurd and criminal formula to its adversaries’ professionals.

There are other serious events related to the butchery of scientists, organized by Israel, the United States, Britain and other powers against Iranian scientists, details of which the corporate media is not informing world opinion.

An article by Christian Elia published on the Rebelíon website on August 25, 2010, communicates the following:

An explosion killed the father of Iran’s drone aircraft, but he is merely the latest scientist to have lost his life in the country.

Finding a photo of Reza Baruni on the Internet is mission impossible. However, in the last two days, his name has been at the center of a mystery with many international aspects…

The only known fact is that Iranian aeronautical engineer Reza Baruni is dead. All the rest is shrouded in total mystery. Baruni is considered by all analysts in the industry to be the father of the […] Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) of the Islamic republic. His house was blown up on August 1, 2010.

On August 17, 2010, Debka (very close to Israeli intelligence) published the news of Baruni’s death and announced its conclusions: the Iranian engineer’s home flew through the air as a result of the detonation of three highly powerful explosive devices. Baruni was murdered.

But the murkiest episode, on the other hand, is that of the death of Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a nuclear physics professor at the University of Tehran, killed on January 11, 2010 in the Iranian capital. Professor Ali Mohammadi died in a remote controlled car bomb attack when he left his house to go to work…

An article published on the CubaDebate website states:

Israel admits responsibility for death of Iranian nuclear scientist last week

The Israeli secret service, Mossad, has claimed responsibility for the assassination last week of Majid Shahriar and the wounding of another physicist in Iran, according to sources linked to Mossad itself, in an operation carried out in Tehran. ‘It is the latest operation of the chief of Mossad,’ as heads of Israeli secret services meeting at their headquarters in Geliot, north of Tel Aviv, confirmed with satisfaction.

Gordon Thomas, a British expert on Mossad, confirmed to the U.K. Sunday Telegraph that Israel was behind the double operation to hinder Tehran’s nuclear program.

Thomas affirms that all attacks carried out in recent years against individuals linked to Iran’s nuclear program were organized by the Kidon (bayonet) unit.

According to the Hebrew Yediot Aharonot daily, Kidon comprises 38 agents, including five women, all aged from 20 to 30, who speak different languages, including Farsi, and travel to Iran with fake identities. Their base is in the Neguev desert.

In the times of the Diaspora, the world’s left was in solidarity with the Israeli people. Persecuted on account of their ethnicity and religion, many of them fought in the ranks of revolutionary parties. The peoples condemned the extermination camps which the European and world bourgeoisie attempted to ignore.

Today, the leaders of the state of Israel are practicing genocide and are associated with the most reactionary forces on the planet.

Still to be clarified is the alliance that the leaders of that state sustained with the odious South Africa of apartheid, to which, in complicity with the United States, it supplied the technology to develop nuclear weapons destined to strike the Cuban troops who, in 1975, confronted the invasion of racist South Africa, whose contempt for and hatred of the African peoples was in no way distinguishable from the ideology of the Nazis who murdered millions of Jews, Russians, Romany peoples and other European nationalities in the extermination camps of Europe.

If it had not been for the Iranian revolution – which, lacking weapons swept aside the best equipped ally of the United States on the southern flank of the Soviet superpower – today, the Shah of Iran, supplied with nuclear weapons, not Israel, would be the principal bulwark of the yankee empire and of NATO in that highly strategic region, immensely rich in oil and gas for the secure provision of the most developed countries of the planet.

It is an almost inexhaustible subject.

Fidel Castro Ruz
January 6, 2011
8:16 p.m.

[End.]

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GORDON DUFF: Are Terrorists Supplying Our Airport Scanners?

The following column is reprinted with permission from Gordon Duff, staff writer and Senior Editor at Veterans Today.

Are Terrorists Supplying Our Airport Scanners?
©  Gordon Duff
Source:  Veterans Today
November 18, 2010

Profit From Scanner Sales May Have Caused Terror Attack

Two very dubious terror attacks, both seriously discredited, have provided the impetus for 70 American airports to buy scanners. The two attacks trace down to Yemen and an Al Qaeda cell that the government there has openly accused the State of Israel as funding and managing. The most recent attack is now believed to never have happened at all. The infamous “printer bandit” bombings, first aimed at Chicago synagogues, then for “mid air” explosions have been debunked. The government of Dubai says the flights didn’t exist. The government of Britain said there were no explosives and the French suspected they may be nuclear weapons.

Every day, Americans are confronted with videos of children being subjected to intrusive searches of their genital areas, we see the panic and screaming. Airline pilots, some security heads of airlines and pilot associations report the scanners are, not only ineffective but potentially dangerous sources of radiation.

The scanners themselves exist only to provide fully detailed nude videos of all passengers, highly detailed depictions of genital/pubic areas, breasts on women. From a legal standpoint, no TSA employee is authorized to view child pornography, a federal standard that the scanner images clearly qualify as. Federal law prevents even prosecution and defense attorneys in pornography cases from viewing identical images in a closed courtroom. Law enforcement officers subjected to the same images require special screening and are subjected to extensive oversight. This is considered the most distasteful and reprehensible assignment for any police agency and yet, hundreds of thousands of TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) employees are given these tasks.

The best of them will be traumatized. It is one thing for a gynecologist or urologist to stare at genitalia hours each day, quite something else for an airport screener. In 2006, the spokesman for DHS was, himself, arrested for child sex crimes:

WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department spokesman, Brian Doyle, was held Wednesday on felony charges of sexually preying on a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl through explicit online conversations. He was quickly suspended without pay from one of the nation’s top crime-fighting agencies.

The arrest of Brian J. Doyle, 55, raised doubts about the ability of an agency responsible for safeguarding the country to ensure the security credentials of its own people. Doyle is accused of 23 felony charges related to sexually graphic conversations with what he thought was a teenage girl, who was in fact an undercover Florida detective. The charges, lodged Tuesday night by the Polk County, Fla., Sheriff’s Department, included 16 counts of sending pornographic movie clips to a minor.

Authorities said Doyle also sent non-sexual photos of himself. They included one of him in Homeland Security headquarters, wearing an agency pin on his lapel and a lanyard that says “TSA,” which stands for the Transportation Security Administration… Homeland Security also oversees an Operation Predator unit, which investigates child predators and pornographers.

The “Crotch Bomber” Fiasco

Nearly a year ago, a Nigerian “refugee,” really the son of a powerful government official with direct ties to both the CIA and Mossad, carried an explosive device onto a plane in Amsterdam, a device he attempted to explode in Detroit.

This incident is the primary rationale for the billions of dollars being spent on scanners. Initially, this incident wasn’t considered enough. Then the “printer bandit” incident, which now appears to only be a series of false newspaper reports, was staged. Both acts are tied to Yemen, a country whose terrorism problems were, even initially, tied to Israel and are now reported by the New York Times as being staged by the government to bilk the United States out of funding to be used for local political infighting between tribes.

There is, in fact, no substantive evidence of the existence of “Al Qaeda” in Yemen, a group that the BBC, has shown was a creation of the CIA and, in fact, has never existed. Video of the Al Qaeda stronghold in Afghanistan where the CIA claimed it stormed the thousand man, 10 level, underground bunkers system, proves conclusively that the entire Al Qaeda-bin Laden myth was created to support government excesses much as the more recent supposed terror attacks now have the American government “terrorizing” travelers.

YouTube – Veterans Today

“Crotch Bomber” Incident Caused By Foreign Ownership Of Airport Security

When the “Crotch Bomber” flew into Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, he was greeted by airport security and walked around customs. Though he had a passport back in Nigeria with an American visa, he wasn’t carrying any passport at all. He should never have been allowed on the plane from Abuja in the first place.

Worse still, employees of the Israeli owned security company that manages this airport along with Detroit and other airports, including all those that the reputed 9/11 hijackers were said to have used, are directly tied directly to Israeli intelligence.

Schipol Airport is one of the most modern and heavily secured in the world. It is equipped with HD video cameras and layers of biometric security capable of, not only facial recognition but particle detection, even at long range. The day the “crotch bomber” came to Schipol, airport security devices were turned off, all video was disabled and, worse still, airport security personnel were witnessed walking a terrorist with a bomb onto an aircraft, seen by two Detroit area attorneys who discussed this incident on, not only the news but the talk show circuit as well.

This utterly bogus “false flag” terrorism incident, an obvious fundraiser for the scanner manufacturers represented by former DHS head, Michael Chertoff, is now being treated as though it actually happened. Have we lost our minds?

A Year Later, What We Have Not Seen

Since America is in a panic over one proven imaginary attack, one simply invented by the news media itself, let’s look at a couple of the things wrong with the Detroit “attack.”

·   The missing video from Schipol Airport, 40 cameras worth, has never been openly reported or discussed. As it is believed to show security personnel openly assisting a terrorist, as was reported by reliable eyewitnesses, this is particularly disturbing. Even more disturbing is the fact that the actual act of boarding the bomb toting terrorist has never been accounted for. One moment, security personnel are telling the airline “we do it all the time” and the next moment, terrorist and bomb are on the plane. What happened?

·   During the flight, a “passenger” was seen filming the terrorist over a long period of time. This “passenger” was arrested in Detroit and taken, in handcuffs, past the sequestered passengers. This person was never arraigned in federal court, in fact there is no record of his arrest or even subsequent release. He is never named. The video of this individual being moved through the airport by the FBI and local police has also been destroyed. Who was this person?

Ionizing Radiation Causes Cancer, Airport Scanners Are Medically Insane

Hospital x-ray rooms are always in basements, rooms are lined with lead and employees are shielded as are patients to the degree possible. When Alexandr Solzhenitsyn wrote his famous work, Cancer Ward, describing hospital employees in a radiology unit dying from the harmful effects of x-rays, the world knew little of the danger. Shoe stores used powerful ionizing radiation on customers’ feet as a matter of routine and dental x-rays were, at that time, more powerful than those we now use to check the welds on the hulls of nuclear submarines. X-rays killed thousands, we will never know how many.

Since that period, technology has improved and levels of radiation have been lowered substantially to what is now considered “relatively safe” levels. However, there are known proven safe levels of ionizing radiation, the kind used in conventional x-rays and the scanner units deployed in 70 airports across the United States. There has also been no safety study regarding the failure to adequately shield multiple radiation sources in an open area nor the effect on TSA employees or those likely to be frequently exposed such as airline personnel.

The initial risks are two fold:

·   Women who are pregnant, particularly those who are in the first trimester and may be unaware they are carrying a fetus that is extremely vulnerable to damage from any level of ionizing radiation

·   Skin cancer has been deemed as a real risk

Paul Joseph Watson writes:

Airport body scanners could lead to an increase in skin cancers according to scientists at Columbia University, who warn that the dose emitted by the naked x-ray devices could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated, in another clear example of how the scanners are completely illegal, dangerous to public health, and need to be removed immediately.

Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s centre for radiological research, warns that children and people with gene mutations whose bodies are less able to repair damage to their DNA are most at risk.

“If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk. The population risk has the potential to be significant,” said Brenner.

Brenner’s research shows that the scanners will likely contribute to an increase in a common type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma which affects the head and neck.

If there are increases in cancers as a result of irradiation of children, they would most likely appear some decades in the future. It would be prudent not to scan the head and neck,” added Brenner.

Lies About Scanner Specification

Several years ago, it was announced that “Al Qaeda” was surgically implanting bombs into humans. The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, parent company of Fox News has reported:

“Female suicide bombers are being fitted with exploding breast implants which are almost impossible to detect, British spies have reportedly discovered. It is believed the doctors have been trained at some of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals before returning to their own countries to perform the surgical procedures. MI5 has also discovered that extremists are inserting the explosives into the buttocks of some male suicide bombers.”

Though these reports have been proven outrageously false, total fabrications, as with the Yemen “printer cartridge” bombs, it is believed that current scanner technology using dangerous ionizing radiation, though at moderately low levels, will be scaled up to respond to this imaginary threat. Levels of radiation then used will represent, particularly in an open terminal setting, a clear and present physical danger to the public, not to mention TSA employees.

Pure Scam

If one were to be honest about the dangers of terrorism, particularly in relation to airport security, these would be my recommendations:

·   Immediately eliminate all foreign ownership and control of companies that control airport security or manufacture, install and service airport security devices

·   Accept that the involvement of security agencies known to be directly involved in terror attacks themselves in profiting from the sale of security devices has, not only brought about an exaggeration of terrorist threats but has actually caused the threats themselves

·   Accept that America’s overreaction to questionable incidents of terrorism has made America a target, not of real terrorists, but of the use of terrorism to push America into surrogate conflicts, such as support of Israeli policies in Gaza or the Tribal conflicts in Yemen.

The billions being spent to endanger and inconvenience air travelers could be better applied toward port security, an area of vulnerability far beyond our air passengers. With billions of dollars of narcotics coming into the United States each month and thousands of undocumented aliens entering the country each week, searching airline passengers to what can only be called obsession, is poorly considered. It is time America reprioritizes its national security.

Addendum:

APA president Captain Bates’ letter in full:

Fellow Pilots,

In response to increased threats to civil aviation around the world, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has implemented the use of Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) body scanners at some airport locations.

While I’m sure that each of us recognizes that the threats to our lives are real, the practice of airport security screening of airline pilots has spun out of control and does nothing to improve national security. It’s long past time that policymakers take the steps necessary to exempt commercial pilots from airport security screening and grant designated pilot access to SIDA utilizing either Crew Pass or biometric identification. As I recently wrote to the TSA Administrator:

“Our pilots are highly motivated partners in the effort to protect our nation’s security, with many of us serving as Federal Flight Deck Officers. We are all keenly aware that we may serve as the last line of defense against another terrorist attack on commercial aviation. Rather than being viewed as potential threats, we should be treated commensurate with the authority and responsibility that we are vested with as professional pilots.”

It is important to note that there are “backscatter” AIT devices now being deployed that produce ionizing radiation, which could be harmful to your health. Airline pilots in the United States already receive higher doses of radiation in their on-the-job environment than nearly every other category of worker in the United States, including nuclear power plant employees. As I also stated in my recent letter to the Administrator of the TSA:

“We are exposed to radiation every day on the job. For example, a typical Atlantic crossing during a solar flare can expose a pilot to radiation equivalent to 100 chest X-rays per hour. Requiring pilots to go through the AIT means additional radiation exposure. I share our pilots’ concerns about this additional radiation exposure and plan to recommend that our pilots refrain from going through the AIT. We already experience significantly higher radiation exposure than most other occupations, and there is mounting evidence of higher-than-average cancer rates as a consequence.”

It’s safe to say that most of the APA leadership shares my view that no pilot at American Airlines should subject themselves to the needless privacy invasion and potential health risks caused by the AIT body scanners. I therefore recommend that the pilots of American Airlines consider the following guidelines:

Use designated crew lines if available.

Politely decline AIT exposure and request alternative screening.

There is absolutely no denying that the enhanced pat-down is a demeaning experience. In my view, it is unacceptable to submit to one in public while wearing the uniform of a professional airline pilot. I recommend that all pilots insist that such screening is performed in an out-of-view area to protect their privacy and dignity.

If screening delays your arrival at the cockpit, do not cut corners that jeopardize the safety of the flight. Consummate professionalism and safety are always paramount.

Maintain composure and professionalism at all times and recognize that you are probably being videotaped.

If you feel that you have been treated with less than courtesy, respect and professionalism, please submit an observer report to APA. Please be sure to include the time, date, security checkpoint and name of the TSA employee who performed the screening. Avoid confrontation.

Your APA Board of Directors and National Officers are holding a conference call this week to discuss these issues and further guidance may be forthcoming.

While I cannot promise results tomorrow, I pledge to dedicate APA resources in the days and weeks to come to achieve direct access to SIDA for the pilots of American Airlines. In the meantime, I am confident that you will continue to exhibit your usual utmost professionalism as you safely operate and protect our nation’s air transport system.

[End.]
__________

Gordon Duff is a U.S. Marine Vietnam veteran, grunt and 100% disabled vet. He has been a U.N. Diplomat, defense contractor and is a widely published expert on military and defense issues. He is active in the financial industry and is a specialist on global trade. Gordon Duff acts as political and economic advisor to a number of governments in Africa and the Middle East. He is Senior Editor at Veterans Today.

[End.]

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America conducts subversive activities in friendly territories

The following commentary is reprinted with permission from Pravda, Moscow.

America conducts subversive activities in friendly territories
©  Pravda.ru
By Sergei Balmasov and Vadim Trukhachev
November 13, 2010

The United States found itself embroiled in a major spy scandal. As many as five countries caught the Americans illegally spying on their citizens.

Nobody would think it was strange if we were talking about the citizens of Russia, China, Iran, Syria and Venezuela. With these five countries, everything is clear: U.S. officials constantly refer to them as those presenting threats to the national security. But this time the U.S. was caught by quite friendly countries of Northern Europe – Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

The scandal erupted earlier this month. On November 3, Norwegian television channel TV2 released a report which stated that over ten years, a group of Americans have been doing surveillance on 15 to 20 Norwegian subjects – mostly participants of various kinds of rallies. Potential terrorists and other undesirable persons were photographed, and the information was sent to Washington.

The report stated that the purpose of the surveillance was supposedly to prevent terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies. Nordic Governments were not informed of such actions.

The spokesman of the U.S. State Department, Philip Crowley, on November 11 said that the Norwegian authorities have been notified about a covert operation. “We are implementing the program throughout the world and are vigilant against people who can keep track of our embassies, as we understand that our diplomatic missions are a potential target,” he explained.

However, the Scandinavians were not satisfied with this comment. A representative of the American embassy was called to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry for an explanation, but no clear answers were provided. It turns out that the surveillance was conducted without the knowledge of the Norwegian authorities.

If it was limited to Norway, this episode could have been considered an isolated case. Yet, after the Norwegians, Denmark spoke about the surveillance of its citizens. Local newspaper Politiken wrote that all American embassies have groups of employees leading external surveillance of suspicious persons in order to address threats to the U.S. security. It has been suggested that Denmark was hardly an exception.

Former head of the Danish security service PET Jorgen Bonniksen said that he had never heard of such groups: “If this is true, then we have to deal with illegal intelligence operations in Denmark. On Danish territory such operations can be conducted by PET, and PET only,” he stressed.

The current head of PET, Jakob Scharf, made it clear: if illegal activity is determined, “of course, we will take action.” Justice Minister of Denmark Lars Barfoeda has been summoned for an explanation to the Folketing (parliament). The U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, as well as in Oslo, provided no clear comments.

Followed by Norwegians and Danes, Swedes brought up the illegal activities of American agents. According to the Minister of Justice of Sweden Beatrice Ask, people connected with the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm have been spying on people on the Swedish territory since 2000. The Minister stated that it “is not yet known whether in this case Swedish law was violated.” She did not rule out that the objects of the surveillance actually might have been people who pose a threat to the U.S. security.

On his part, head of the local security police Anders Danielsson directly accused the U.S. of violating international norms. He said that the U.S. did not bother to inform the Swedish authorities of their intentions. “The Swedish security police (SÄPO) did not give the U.S. a permission to engage in activities that are contrary to Swedish law,” he said.

Representatives of the U.S. embassy were quick to say that “they have nothing to hide” and that they have notified the Swedish authorities about their actions. However, Sweden is the third country which had been “made aware.” Could the Scandinavian countries have entered into a conspiracy to defame the United States?

When we talk about three countries at once, it looks like a trend. Following its neighbors, Finland grew concerned as well. Local security police SUPO originally said it had not found anything illegal in the activities of the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki. However, they immediately proceeded to a more detailed verification. Apparently, the Finns also did not believe the assurances of the Americans.

Only the small Iceland with the population of 320 thousand with no army is lacking to complete the picture. On November 11 it was revealed that the islanders also have questions for the U.S. Local authorities immediately declared that they suspected members of the American Embassy in Reykjavik in espionage. The diplomatic mission is being verified.

This is a stunning picture. The U.S. did not even consider it necessary to inform its allies of its actions on their territory, as if they were colonies. In fact, Denmark, Iceland and Norway joined NATO and, consequently, they entered the circle of the closest allies of the U.S. Finland and Sweden are not members of the North Atlantic alliance, but are working with it very closely. That’s how Americans value their allies.

However, Washington seems to have confused Scandinavians with Poland, Lithuania and Romania. These countries have repeatedly been suspected of placing secret CIA prisons on their territories. The authorities of these states have been blindly following in the footsteps of American politics in the past two decades. This is not true about rich countries of Northern Europe. Given the national pride of the Scandinavians, they are unlikely to forgive the Americans the dismissive attitude.

Denmark is the only country that followed the U.S. without asking questions. Sweden and Finland harshly condemned the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Norway was among the first to withdraw its troops from Iraq, as well as (unlike Americans) has signed an agreement with Russia on the delimitation of the Arctic shelf. Even little Iceland allowed itself to contradict the States when it refused to extradite the late chess player Robert Fisher, who was facing a jail term at home.

The explanation of the incident with the need to combat terrorism, of course, can be taken into account. Radical Islamists are making themselves visible in Denmark and Sweden, as well as Norway and Finland. Yet, the United States could have informed the local security forces of their suspicions as these countries also have qualified staff. And as for surveillance of Icelanders – it is simply ridiculous. They have fewer than a hundred of Muslims, let alone Islamists.

The author of numerous books on the work of intelligence Alexander Kolpakidi commented on the behavior of the U.S. agents in the Nordic countries for Pravda.ru.

“There is nothing surprising here. U.S. intelligence services have always behaved that way around the globe. Virtually all countries of the world, including the members of European Union and NATO, have secret CIA tracking stations. This is not the first scandal of this kind. For example, several years ago, the Greek police found one of these stations having mistaken it for a terrorist base. When the attack began, “terrorists” opened a furious fire, killing a police officer.

Why is America conducting subversive activities in foreign territories, including, apparently friendly countries? This is because in an era of the global crisis, the U.S. changed its strategy. If before it had adhered to the concept of the “golden billion” according to which the good life was allowed to a limited group of countries, mainly Western countries, but now it has changed the strategy to the “golden million,” which implies that the good life is the exclusive privilege of the U.S. “.

[End.]

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