Afghanistan: Deep corruption of the ruling elite

NY Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — In early 2009, as President Hamid Karzai scanned the landscape for potential partners to run in his re-election bid, he was approached from an unusual corner: a bank.

The president’s brother, Mahmoud, and another Afghan businessman, Haseen Fahim, were shareholders in Kabul Bank, one of the freewheeling financial institutions that had sprung up over the past decade since the Taliban’s fall.

According to Afghan officials and businessmen in Kabul, Mahmoud Karzai and Mr. Fahim recommended Mr. Fahim’s brother, Gen. Muhammad Qasim Fahim, to become the president’s running mate.

President Karzai agreed, and in a stroke co-opted his ethnic Tajik opposition and placated an old political foe with a checkered record on human rights and corruption. After the deal, Kabul Bank poured millions into Mr. Karzai’s re-election campaign, Afghan officials said. Mahmoud Karzai and Haseen Fahim, drawing on Kabul Bank’s resources, were able to enrich their families aided by tens of millions of dollars in loans.

Now, Kabul Bank sits at the center of a financial crisis that has exposed the shadowy workings of the country’s business and political elite, and how such connections shielded the bank from scrutiny. The panic surrounding Kabul Bank is threatening to pull down the Afghan banking system and has drawn in the United States. And it is driving a wedge between the Fahims and the Karzais, the two Afghan political families that benefited most. Now, the financial-familial arrangement is teetering on the edge of collapse.

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Hague blocks access to Megrahi officials

FT

Britain has refused requests from a US Senate investigating team to interview officials involved in the decision to free the Libyan convicted for destroying Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

William Hague, UK foreign secretary, has made clear that the employment code for civil servants prohibits them from discussing with a foreign nation any advice given to past ministers.

The decision will be a blow to the Senate Foreign Relations committee investigators, who arrive in London this week seeking to collect evidence on the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing who was freed by the Scottish government last year.

The Senate began an inquiry into the case after evidence emerged that BP lobbied the British government to ratify a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya in 2007, when Tony Blair was prime minister.

Mr Megrahi’s release, however, was not made under this arrangement; instead the Scottish authorities chose to free him on compassionate grounds because he was dying of cancer.

The senators want more information about how the Scottish government reached the medical conclusion that he had only three months to live. They are also seeking details of communications between the UK government and BP, the oil company, over the release.

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British troops in Afghanistan face heroin smuggling probe

British military police are investigating claims that the country's servicemen may have trafficked heroin out of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence in London said Sunday.

An inquiry has been launched into what officials termed "unsubstantiated" allegations that service personnel had bought the drug and used military aircraft to transport it out of the war-torn country.

British troops at airports in Camp Bastion and Kandahar are under investigation and security has been tightened with additional sniffer dogs brought in as part of the crackdown.

"We are aware of these allegations," said a ministry spokeswoman.

"Although they are unsubstantiated, we take any such reports very seriously and we have already tightened our existing procedures both in Afghanistan and in the UK, including through increasing the use of trained sniffer dogs."

She added that if any British troops were found to have smuggled illegal narcotics they would "feel the full weight of the law".

Afghanistan is the world's largest heroin producer with annual exports worth up to three billion dollars helping fuel a nearly nine-year Taliban insurgency.

Security in Afghanistan Is Deteriorating, Aid Groups Say

NY Times

Even as more American troops flow into the country, Afghanistan is more dangerous than it has ever been during this war, with security deteriorating in recent months, according to international organizations and humanitarian groups.

Large parts of the country that were once completely safe, like most of the northern provinces, now have a substantial Taliban presence — even in areas where there are few Pashtuns, who previously were the Taliban’s only supporters. As NATO forces poured in and shifted to the south to battle the Taliban in their stronghold, the Taliban responded with a surge of their own, greatly increasing their activities in the north and parts of the east.

The worsening security comes as the Obama administration is under increasing pressure to show results to maintain public support for the war, and raises serious concerns about whether the country can hold legitimate nationwide elections for Parliament next Saturday.

Unarmed government employees can no longer travel safely in 30 percent of the country’s 368 districts, according to published United Nations estimates, and there are districts deemed too dangerous to visit in all but one of the country’s 34 provinces.

The number of insurgent attacks has increased significantly; in August 2009, insurgents carried out 630 attacks. This August, they initiated at least 1,353, according to the Afghan N.G.O. Safety Office, an independent organization financed by Western governments and agencies to monitor safety for aid workers.

An attack on a Western medical team in northern Afghanistan in early August, which killed 10 people, was the largest massacre in years of aid workers in Afghanistan.

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Le Monde: The United States did not end with September 11

lemonde.fr

Nine years since the company aircraft American Airlines crashed into the twin towers of World Trade Center in Manhattan , killing nearly three thousand people and injuring about six miles, in an attack claimed by al-Qaida.

Or was it military aircraft? And is there not more been wounded seventy miles if you count the victims of toxic dust?  What is expected to try the alleged perpetrators? Why Ground Zero is still under construction? Nine years after then, the questions remain and the U.S. are far from finished with 11-September.

Still no trial. A year after announcing that five perpetrators of the attacks of September 11, 2001 would be tried by a federal court in New York , and not by a military court, the White House now seems in no hurry to judge these men.

According to the Daily News , the government struggles to find a city willing to host this trial, which could last for years and have an impact on local life.

Moreover, with midterm elections ahead tricky for Democrats, they have no incentive to bring up this issue in the public agenda.

For the Republicans, themselves, expect it to again accuse Mr. Obama of mismanagement and request the continuation of Guantanamo. "Obama's administration is guilty of criminal negligence. They mishandled this case from the beginning "said a Republican congressman late August at the Daily News.

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The secret dossier of lawbreaking that spells trouble for Rupert Murdoch...and David Cameron

The News of the World paid a private detective to provide hundreds of pieces of confidential information, often using illegal means, a confidential document obtained by The Independent on Sunday has revealed. 

The "Blue Book", a ledger of work carried out by Steve Whittamore for News International titles, including the NoW and The Sunday Times, details a series of transactions including obtaining ex-directory phone numbers, telephone accounts, criminal records checks and withheld mobile numbers. It reveals the itemised details of checks on public figures, including Peter Mandelson, ordered and paid for – at up to £750 a time – by reporters working for the redtop. Staff from a number of other national newspapers made similar requests, and their details are contained in further dossiers held by the Information Commissioner, the privacy watchdog.

Among the journalists requesting information from Mr Whittamore, who was later convicted of offences committed under the Data Protection Act, was the former NoW editor Rebekah Wade, now Rebekah Brooks.

The contents of the dossier were collated by the Information Commissioner following a raid on Mr Whittamore's Hampshire office in 2003, but the watchdog has previously refused to disclose its contents, to protect the identities of the people named within it.

The disclosure of the extent to which the NoW and its sister titles used the services of private investigators to obtain personal information by questionable means will add to the controversy threatening to engulf News International (NI), whose bosses have consistently denied any wrongdoing over the affair.

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Pentagon aims to buy up book 'Operation Dark Heart'

Washington Post

The Defense Department is attempting to buy the entire first printing - 10,000 copies - of a memoir by a controversial former Defense Intelligence Agency officer so that the book can be destroyed, according to military and other sources.

"Operation Dark Heart," which was scheduled to be published this month by St. Martin's Press, recounts the adventures and frustrations of an Army reservist, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who served in Afghanistan in 2003, a moment when the attention of Washington and the military had shifted to Iraq.

Shaffer, who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington, describes a number of planned covert operations, including an aborted cross-border surveillance operation using sophisticated eavesdropping technology that targeted high-level al-Qaeda operatives based in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The operation was shut down by military officials concerned about offending Pakistan, according to Shaffer's account.

Shaffer's book was reviewed and cleared in writing by the Army Reserve earlier this year, but this summer the Defense Intelligence Agency objected to the use of the names of American intelligence officers, among other issues.

A senior Pentagon official said that the DIA obtained a copy of the manuscript in mid-July, adding that the agency "did a quick review" and found "some issues we were very concerned with." The agency then referred the matter to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which distributed the manuscript to other agencies, presumably including the CIA, "all of whom had major objections to things in the book," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

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US court rejects Binyam Mohamed torture case

A US court has narrowly ruled that Binyam Mohamed, the British resident secretly rendered to Morocco by the CIA before being held in the Guantánamo Bay prison camp for four years, cannot sue over his alleged torture in overseas prisons because it would compromise national security.

Mohamed was the lead plaintiff in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of five former prisoners who claim they were tortured after being transferred to other countries through the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme.

They are fighting for the right to sue Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary accused of arranging flights for the CIA.

A US court ruled last year that the case could proceed, but the Obama administration appealed and yesterday the court of appeals for the ninth circuit dismissed the case – although the judges were divided by six to five on the decision.

Judge Raymond Fisher said the majority had "reluctantly" concluded that "legitimate national security concerns" meant the case should not be heard.

Although the alleged offences were committed under the Bush government, the decision is a victory for the Obama's administration's aggressive efforts to prevent anything it believes would jeopardise national security reaching the public domain. Earlier this year, after a British court ordered disclosure of a seven-paragraph summary of classified CIA information showing what British agents knew of Mohamed's torture, the White House said it was "deeply disappointed" by the ruling and it could have an impact on intelligence-sharing between the countries.

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US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies'

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.

In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army's criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to "toss a grenade at someone and kill them".

One soldier said he believed Gibbs was "feeling out the platoon".

Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a "kill team". While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed "by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle", when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January.

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9/11 Anniversary Becomes American Day of Hate

Spiegel

Sept. 11 used to be a day when America came together -- party politics took a backseat to reconciliation. Not so this year. From the Muslim prayer room at ground zero to Koran burnings in Florida to a certain gathering in Alaska, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks this year threatens to become a day of hate.

The open letter was born of a desire simply to mourn. The signatures on the letter included the father of Jonathan Ielpi, a firefighter who died in the ruins of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001; the sister-in-law of Myra Aronson, who was on American Airlines Flight 11 when it was hijacked en route from Boston to Los Angeles and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center; and Mary Ellen Salamone, wife of John Salamone, who was at work on the 104th floor of the North Tower at the time of the terrorist assault.

Together with many others also mourning loved ones, they wrote: "To hold rallies of any nature on Sept. 11 would be inappropriate and disrespectful to all of us who see 9/11 as a day outside of politics."

The letter was targeted at activists who want to use this Sept. 11 of all days, to protest the planned construction of a mosque -- actually an Islamic cultural center with a prayer room -- near Ground Zero.

The open letter didn't have much of an effect on the anti-mosque demonstrators. "We need to be at Ground Zero, Sept. 11, 2010, now more than ever," they insist, well aware that choosing the date for a protest is a good way to guarantee headlines.

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Crisis casts new doubt on U.S. effort

Washington Post

KABUL - Kabul Bank became the pride of Afghanistan's financial system by offering the conveniences and thrills of 21st-century capitalism: branches in far-flung provinces, plentiful ATMs, and lottery prizes of cash and houses.

But the scene outside the bank's headquarters Wednesday was far from that modern ideal: Police used batons to beat back hundreds of government employees desperate to cash their paychecks amid fears that Kabul Bank will go bankrupt because of alleged corruption among its top executives.

This rapid turnabout in Kabul Bank's fortunes has led Afghans to question whether Western-style free-market capitalism is just another broken U.S. promise, along with secure neighborhoods, transparent elections and ambitious development. Many here blame the United States, saying it did not provide strong oversight and alleging American complicity in last week's financial meltdown.

"The problem with the U.S. is they always implement the modern formula in Afghanistan, and that's not possible in a country like this," said Siddiq Ahmad Usmani, chairman of the Afghan parliament's Budget and Finance Committee. "They're responsible for whatever crisis will come to our country."

Depositors have mobbed Kabul Bank over the past week, withdrawing $300 million of its $500 million in cash assets. Some have sought to move their money into accounts at one of two national banks run by the Finance Ministry. Those two banks have received new deposits this week totaling $60 million, a ministry official said.

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Creepy Biometric IDs to Be Forced Onto India's 1.2 Billion Inhabitants

Alternet

In September, officials from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), armed with fingerprinting machines, iris scanners and cameras hooked to laptops, will fan out across the towns and villages of southern Andhra Pradesh state in the first phase of the project whose aim is to give every Indian a lifelong Unique ID (UID) number.

"The UID is soft infrastructure, much like mobile telephony, important to connect individuals to the broader economy," explains Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the UIDAI and listed in 2009 by Time magazine as among the world's 100 most influential people.

Nilekani is a co-founder of the influential National Association of Software and Services Companies and, before this assignment, chief of Infosys Technologies, flagship of India's information technology (IT) sector.

According to Nilekani, the UID will most benefit India's poor who, because they lack identity documentation, are ignored by service providers.

"The UID number, with its 'anytime, anywhere' biometric authentication, addresses the problem of trust," argues Nilekani.

But a group of prominent civil society organizations are running a Campaign For No-UID, explaining that it is a "deeply undemocratic and expensive exercise" that is "fraught with unforeseen consequences."

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US Investors Sue Germany Over Weimar-Era Bonds

'Rebuilding Hitler's War Machine'

A group of American investors have filed several lawsuits to pressure Germany to honor bonds issued by the Weimar Republic. Hitler banned repayment of the bonds and Berlin says a deadline for registering the bonds passed decades ago. Should Germany lose, it could cost the country billions.

Their age and provenance are clear enough: The bonds were issued by the Weimar Republic some 80 years ago to raise cash. Just how much they might be worth today is open for debate. But six investors in the US are taking Germany to court to find out -- and to force the country to pay up.

The certificates were issued by the Weimar Republic in the 1920s as a way to help pay debts and reparations demanded after World War I. They are still, in fact, being traded with investors hoping they can eventually be redeemed. 

Now a handful of investors hope lawsuits filed in several federal courts in the US will force Germany to pay off the bonds. Their value could be hundreds of millions of dollars, with some estimates going into the billions. A month ago, a Miami court ruled against Germany's request to dismiss the lawsuits; Germany had argued that US courts did not have jurisdiction.

The investors argue that a German victory in this case could have negative consequences for the global bond market -- it would damage investors' confidence, they claim, in the security of all government bonds. "Our position is not only correct under the law, it would avoid such a potentially far-reaching precedent," investor attorney Sam Dubbin told the Associated Press.

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New lawsuit to challenge laptop searches at U.S. border

Washington Post

Criminal defense lawyers, press photographers and a university student are challenging the Obama administration's search policy permitting officers at U.S. borders to detain travelers' laptop computers and examine their contents even without suspecting the traveler of wrongdoing.

In a federal lawsuit to be filed Tuesday in the Eastern District of New York, the plaintiffs allege that the Department of Homeland Security policy violates constitutional rights to privacy and free speech.

At issue is the government's contention - upheld by two federal appeals courts - that its broad authority to protect the border extends to reviewing information stored in a traveler's laptop, cellphone or other electronic device, even if the traveler is not suspected of involvement in criminal activity. In the government's view, a laptop is no different than a suitcase.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the George W. Bush administration took an expansive view of the government's authority at the border in an effort to stop terrorists from entering the country, and to find evidence of terrorist plots.

The Obama administration has followed suit, the plaintiffs said, with a pair of DHS policies issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August 2009 that reaffirmed the policy of suspicionless searches at the border.

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Pensions street rumbles, the government did not bend

Le Monde

The mobilization was against the proposed pension reforms, Tuesday, Sept. 7, was attended by between 1.1 and 3 million people, according to sources.  A success for the unions, which evoke "the largest mobilization in recent years," and are ready to hold further demonstrations before the end of September, if the executive swayed his position.  Speaking through the Minister of Labour, Eric Woerth , the government indicated it would maintain the cap. Nicolas Sarkozy will speak on Wednesday to clarify certain points of the reform.

Figures for mobilization are higher than the previous June 24 strike on the same subject (two million demonstrators according to unions, 800,000 according to police), but also in the mobilizations of 1995 against the Juppe plan on reform Social Security and 2003 on the pension (2.2 and 2 million demonstrators, according to figures from the CGT).  Peak mobilization remains the demonstration on 19 March 2009 for the defense of employment and purchasing power, which attracted 3 million people according to the union (1.2 million according to the police).

The movement has been followed in particular Province: 40 000 demonstrators were reported to police after Bordeaux (100,000 according to unions), 27000 Marseille (200,000 according to the unions) or 19000 Lille ( 32,000 for the unions).

Along with parades throughout France, the draft law on pension reform came under discussion in the National Assembly during a session of questions to the Government particularly stormy. Most hammered in recent days that it would not give essentially delaying the legal age of retirement, even if the executive has confirmed Tuesday gestures of long careers, jobs painful, the polypensionnés or retired women.

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End The Lies: Iran Is NOT Paying The Taliban To Kill American Soldiers

by Alicia Hope

The propaganda from the MSM never seems to stop even after being totally discredited about WMD'S and mobile biological labs. And, don't forget about the babies being pulled from incubators lie!

Now, they are claiming that Iran is paying Taliban fighters $1,000 for each U.S. soldier they kill in Afghanistan.

The demons (NWO) don't even realize that we know Iran and the Taliban are ENEMIES.

Iran remains a key regional player in the anti-Taliban alliance.

This is from Time Magazine:

Iran is implacably hostile to the Taliban over that movement's extremist theology and over its killing of Afghan Shiite Muslims. In 1999, Iran almost went to war against the Taliban after its militia killed eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist after capturing a predominantly Shiite town, and has worked together with Russia to support anti-Taliban opposition forces. Despite the overtures between the reformist president Mohammed Khatami and the West on ways of cooperating against terrorism, hard-line spiritual leader Ayatollah Khameini insisted that while Iran condemned the terror strikes in the U.S., Tehran could not support U.S. military action against Afghanistan. Still, whether working directly with the U.S. or not, Iran remains a key regional player in the anti-Taliban alliance.

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The Illuminati & Their Spacewar System

by SaLuSa | GLF

You are moving so far ahead of the dark Ones, that they have no hope of altering the outcome. They have no answers to the growing Light levels, and can only persist with their attempts to stop you reaching Ascension. Their nature is to follow what worked previously, but you have become much wiser and are no longer easily fooled. You now have the power and it cannot be taken from you, providing you continue to keep your focus on the Light. You will be helping create the conditions that will lead to the changes destined to give you to victory over the dark Ones. Already there is confusion in their ranks as it becomes obvious that they are losing their way. There is also a global revolution against them, as the truth about them is becoming known.

We would ask you not to relax your efforts to bring more Light to Earth, as the more successful you are the sooner our Allies can come to the fore. Although the main focus is upon activities in the U.S., the fact remains that there are other countries that will play an important role at this time. They have had to work in unison to face the might and power of the Illuminati, and have made a stand against them. Fortunately for all concerned, we monitor such events and are able to give assistance when needed. In reality we always have the edge, because of our resources and advanced technologies. We have had to smile at times because of the audacity of the Dark Ones, believing that we would allow them to develop a Space Wars System. Off Earth we have the last word in matters such as this, and we have prevented weapons of mass destruction being positioned in Space.

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Stop The Islamophobia! Islam Accepts All Religions!

Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.

[Qur'an 2:62]

Mossad Impersonating U.S. Intelligence Operatives and Trying to Recruit Arab Americans

The CIA took an internal poll not long ago about friendly foreign intelligence agencies.

The question, mostly directed to employees of the clandestine service branch, was: Which are the best allies among friendly spy services, in terms of liaison with the CIA, and which are the worst? In other words, who acts like, well, friends?

“Israel came in dead last,” a recently retired CIA official told me the other day.

Not only that, he added, throwing up his hands and rising from his chair, “the Israelis are number three, with China number one and Russia number two,” in terms of how aggressive they are in their operations on U.S. soil. 

Israel’s undercover operations here, including missions to steal U.S. secrets, are hardly a secret at the FBI, CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. From time to time, in fact, the FBI has called Israeli officials on the carpet to complain about a particularly brazen effort to collect classified or other sensitive information, in particular U.S. technical and industrial secrets.

The most notorious operation employed Jonathan Pollard, the naval intelligence analyst convicted in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison for stealing tens of thousands of classified documents for Israel.

One of Israel’s major interests, of course, is keeping track of Muslims who might be allied with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, or Iran-backed Hezbollah, based in Lebanon.

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9/11 Experiments: The Mysterious Eutectic Steel