Tom Dispatch: Prisons, Drones, and Black Ops in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, "victory" came early, with the US invasion of 2001. Only then did the trouble begin. Ever since the US occupation managed to revive the Taliban, one of the least popular of popular movements in memory, the official talk, year after year, has been of modest "progress," of limited "success," of enemy advances "blunted" of "corners" provisionally turned, and always such talk has been accompanied by grim on-the-ground reports of gross corruption, fixed elections, massive desertions from the Afghan army and police, "ghost" soldiers, and the like. Year after year, ever more American and NATO money has been poured into the training of a security force so humongous that, given the impoverished Afghan government, it will hardly be owned and paid for by Washington until hell freezes over or until it disintegrates: $11 billion in 2011 and a similar figure for 2012, and year after year stories appear like the recent one from Reuters, that began: "Only 1 percent of Afghan police and soldiers are capable of operating independently, a top US commander said Wednesday, raising further doubts about whether Afghan forces will be able to take on a still-potent insurgency as the West withdraws." And year after year, the response to such dismal news is to pour in more money and advisers. In the meantime, Afghans in army or police uniforms have been blowing away those advisers in startling numbers and with a regularity for which there is no precedent in modern times. (You might have to reach back to the Sepoy Mutiny in British India of the nineteenth century to find a similar sense of loathing resulting in similar bloody acts.)

John Glaser: US, Iraqi Officials: Al-Qaeda Behind Syria Bombing

Elements of al-Qaeda's affiliates in Iraq have been moving into Syria to distribute weapons to the opposition, and to carry out attacks against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to US and Iraqi officials. These terrorists, often described as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) carried out two recent bombings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and likely was behind the suicide bombings on Friday in the city of Aleppo that killed at least 28 people, anonymous US officials told McClatchy Newspapers. Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Assadi said in an interview with the press on Saturday that AQI has sneaked across the border to aid the Syrian opposition forces with arms. "We have intelligence information that a number of Iraqi jihadists went to Syria," he said, adding that "weapons smuggling is still ongoing" from Iraq into Syria. "The weapons are being smuggled from Mosul through the Rabia crossing to Syria, as many of the same families live on both sides of the border," Assadi said. There is not yet substantial independent confirmation or evidence of these claims made by US and Iraqi officials, but if it's true, it may pose a number of problems. First, the claims appear to verify Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's allegations that al-Qaeda terrorists have been involved with the uprising against his regime, and go against claims by the Syrian opposition which held that Assad's regime had staged the bombings to discredit those who have protested this past year. This would harm claims by some influential figures in Washington that the US ought to support the armed groups, like the "Free Syrian Army" fighting the Assad regime. 

Gareth Porter: Army Officer's Leaked Report Rips Afghan Success Story

An analysis by Lt. Col Daniel Davis, which the US Army has not approved for public release but has leaked to Rolling Stone magazine, provides the most authoritative refutation thus far of the official military narrative of success in the Afghanistan War since the troop surge began in early 2010. In the 84-page unclassified report, Davis, who returned last fall after his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, attacks the credibility of claims by senior military leaders that the US-NATO war strategy has succeeded in weakening the Taliban insurgent forces and is building Afghan security forces capable of taking primary responsibility for security in the future. The report, which Davis had submitted to the Army in January for clearance to make it public, was posted on the website of Rolling Stone magazine by journalist Michael Hastings Friday. In a blog for the magazine, Hastings reported that "officials familiar with the situation" had said the Pentagon was "refusing" to release the report, but that it had been making the rounds within the US government, including the White House. Hastings wrote that he had obtained it from a US government official. Contacted by IPS Friday, Davis would not comment on the publication of the report or its contents. Witing that he is "no Wikileaks guy Part II," Davis reveals no classified information in the report, but he has given a classified version of the report, which cites and quotes from dozens of classified documents, to several members of the House and Senate, including both Democrats and Republicans.    

John Glaser: Iran to Unveil Big New Nuclear Field

Iran will soon unveil "big new" nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Saturday at a rally in Tehran, while reiterating his regime's readiness to negotiate with the West. "Within the next few days the world will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the nuclear field," Ahmadinejad said. Iran manufactures its own nuclear fuel rods, which provide fuel for reactors, since international sanctions prohibit them from buying them in foreign markets. In January, Iran said it had produced its first such fuel rod. Aside from progress on fuel rods, Iran's upcoming announcements could be about its underground enrichment facility at Fordo. Iran agreed in August that Forodow fell under IAEA safeguards, and that highly enriched uranium needed to build a bomb would not be made there. The underground enrichment site at Fordow has been inspected at least ten times since October 2009, according to Micah Zenco at the Council on Foreign Relations. In fact, all of Iran's 15 declared nuclear sites are routinely inspected by the IAEA. "Iran is ready for talks within the framework of equality and justice," Ahmadinejad repeated on Saturday, but warned that Tehran "will never enter talks if enemies behave arrogantly." The US has made no moves to negotiate with the Iranian government on nuclear issues, instead resorting to harsh economic sanctions, cyber-terrorism, covert war, and constant public threats of military action.  

Finian Cunningham: War Plan Iran: Dispelling the Lies!

Telling the Truth about Western Aggression in the Persian Gulf: The year 2012 may become known as a watershed for humanity, the year when mankind was precipitated into a global conflagration involving nuclear weapons. The signs are indeed grimly ominous as formidable military forces converge on the Persian Gulf in the long-running stand-off between the United States and Iran. On side with the US are its European allies in NATO, primarily Britain, Washington's Middle East client states: Israel and the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf, all bristling with weapons of mass destruction. Recent naval exercises by Ira in the Strait of Hormuz have also displayed a fierce arsenal of missiles and military capability, and Iran has strategic alliances with Russia and China, both of whom will not stand idly by if their Persian partner is attacked. The conflict between the US-led powers and Iran has wider ramifications. It is part and parcel of Washington's bid to engineer the social and political upheavals across the Arab world in order to redraw the region in its strategic interests. It is no coincidence that fresh from NATO's conquest of , and regime change in Libya, the focus has quickly shifted to Syria, a key regional ally of Iran. As Michel Chossudovsky has pointed out "the road to Tehran goes through Damascus". Regime change in Syria would serve to isolate Iran. Subjugating Iran and returning it to Western tutelage is the prize that Washington and its allies have been seeking for the past 33 years, ever since their client the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was deposed by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.  

Stephen Lendman: America's Sham Economic Recovery!

Official government data are manipulated. Credibility is entirely lacking. Reported good news is hype. Grim underlying reality is suppressed. The monthly Labor Department jobs report is typical. Progressive Radio News Hour regular economist Jack Rasmus calls the latest January one "largely statistical legerdemain." A reported 243,000 non-farm jobs reported lacked credibility. Manipulation manufactured them. Even the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) admits: "The confidence level for the monthly change in total employment is on the order of plus or minus 430,000 jobs." With that level of accuracy, why bother reporting them at all. Monthly numbers are meaningless. January's reflect the problem. Rasmus said those allegedly created aren't actual jobs. "They represent seasonal adjustments made to the raw data" January numbers, in fact, reflect "an anomalous upward revision of the raw jobs data, due to assumptions about seasonality and alleged new business formations." Comparing actual versus seasonally adjusted figures show marked differences. Data reported for December 2011 and January 2012 revealed "an incredible 7 to 10 fold increase in the difference between" seasonably and non-seasonally adjusted figures. For January, raw data showed large job losses, not gains. Included were "about 300,000 construction jobs, another 600,000" retail ones, and "400,000 in business professional services, since most businesses trim their labor force at the start of the year to keep costs down." In addition, hundreds more were lost for a 2.7 million total overall. Reporting 243,000 new jobs denies reality.   

Sean Lengell: Obama Wants to Outlaw Guns in 2nd Term!!

The top official with the National Rifle Association said Friday that President Obama will move to "destroy" gun rights and"erase" the Second Amendment if he is re-elected in November. While delivering one of the liveliest and best-received speeches at the Conservative Political Action Action Conference in Washington, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said the president's low-key approach to gun rights during his first term was "a" "conspiracy to ensure re-election by lulling gun owners to sleep." "All that first term, lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term," he said. "We see the president's strategy crystal clear: Get re-elected and, with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms' freedom, erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and excise it from the US Constitution." Mr. LaPierre said the president's two Supreme Court appointees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, are "two of the most rabid anti-gun justices in history." He also accused Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of being a foe of gun rights. With the possibility of two or more Supreme Court justice positions opening during the next four years, the NRA official warned that gun ownership would be in jeopardy if Obama stays in office.