CIA chief John Brennan makes surprise Israel visit for Syria talks ~ Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood
The Guardian
‘The CIA chief has made an unexpected visit to Israel to meet senior political and military figures to discuss the deteriorating security situation in neighbouring Syria.
John Brennan, who took up his post two months ago, met the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, military chief of staff, Benny Gantz, and Mossad chief, Tamir Pardo, according to reports in Israel media.
The unannounced meetings followed two Israeli air strikes on weapons stores near Damascus a fortnight ago. Israel has repeatedly warned it will take action to prevent advanced or chemical weapons being transferred to the Syrian regime’s Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, or falling into the hands of jihadist groups fighting alongside the Syrian opposition.
According to a report in the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth, the visit stemmed from “the American fear of escalation in the region against the backdrop of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah’s threats to act against Israel in the Golan Heights and the American sense that Israel is disappointed by the ineffectuality of the Obama administration with regard to the ongoing deterioration in Syria.
“It is assessed that Brennan was sent to Israel to co-ordinate a joint policy between the two countries and prevent Israel from taking action on its own in Syria.”‘
Turkey arrests ‘prime suspect’ over blasts ~ Al Jazeera
‘Turkish police have detained a man they believe to be one of the main perpetrators of car bombings that killed more than 50 people near the Syrian border, officials have said.
Hatay governor Celalettin Lekesiz said police had detained a man, who local media named as Mehmet Genc, shortly before midnight on Thursday in Samandag district, near the Syrian border, and that he was being treated as a prime suspect.
Turkey has accused Syria of involvement in the two bombings last weekend in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province. Damascus has denied any role.’
The UN and 250,000 Dead Somalis ~ Counterpunch
by THOMAS C. MOUNTAIN
Counterpunch
‘The UN has announced that in 2010-2012, including the Great Horn of Africa Drought period, at least 250,000 Somalis starved to death.
Most of those who died from starvation were internally displaced persons, displaced in the main by the military invasion and occupation of southern Somalia by the UN backed Ethiopian Army and then the AU “peacekeepers”, today some 25,000 strong.
When I last wrote about starvation in Somalia I spoke of the UN budgeting 10 cents a day for food aid to feed each Somali refugee. Its called a “budget shortfall” as in “we want to help but we just don’t have the money”.
Yet during this period of mass starvation of the Somali people the UN and its western overlords spent over $1 billion funding its military “peacekeeping mission” in what’s left of the country.
$1 billion for war and 250,000 Somalis left to starve to death?
Maybe knowing that the head of the largest UN food aid “ngo” in Somalia, UNICEF, is Anthony “Tony” Lake, formerly National Security Advisor of the USA and once nominated to be Director of the CIA can help one understand why this happened.’
Israeli ministries propose toll on Palestinian goods to plug budget deficit ~ Haaretz
by Barak Ravid
Haaretz
‘During the marathon budget talks this week, the Defense Ministry and the Finance Ministry made a creative suggestion for covering Israel’s deficit: a new toll for Palestinian merchandise at Israeli border crossings. The proposal was scrapped only after intervention by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror.
A high-ranking Israeli official said that during the budget talks earlier this week, the two ministries proposed amending a law stipulating that the interim agreement between Israel and the PLO regarding the territories be implemented. The suggested amendment would give the defense minister the power to “determine amounts of tolls and operational expenses” that could be collected on merchandise passing through inspection points and border crossings between Israel and the West Bank.
During the cabinet meeting, Defense Ministry and Finance Ministry representatives said that Israel could collect between NIS 100 million and NIS 300 million per year by charging the Palestinian Authority new fees for incoming and outgoing merchandise.
The proposal, one of dozens submitted for approval by the ministers during the budget talks, was met with more than a little opposition. Foreign Ministry officials said such a move would constitute unilateral action that would violate the Paris Protocol of 1994, an annex of the Oslo Accords that Israel signed and that regulates the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.’
AUMF, Never-Ending War, and America’s ‘Instruments of Tyranny’ ~ Antiwar
by John Glaser
Antiwar
‘[...] why insist on keeping the blank-check-for-war AUMF intact?
First, the 2001 AUMF was a wet dream for the Masters of War in Washington who yearn for the day when any and all constraints on their actions in the realm of “national security” would evaporate. It carries with it immense, unchecked power that they are wont to preserve.
Second, in order to continue to carry out their Imperial Grand Strategy, they need to perpetuate a bogeyman. Without a monster to destroy, the public is much less apt to grant the state carte blanche to make war at will and keep it secret.’
Was Benghazi “Consulate” a CIA Front? ~ IPA
Institute for Public Accuracy
‘CNN’s Gloria Borger noted on Tuesday: “White House spokesman Jay Carney says the White House changed the wording from ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ to be more accurate. So what does that mean? Thanks to the digging of Glenn Kessler in The Washington Post, it looks very much like the Benghazi consulate ‘was not a consulate at all but basically a secret CIA operation.’”
In fact, Goodman wrote in November for ConsortiumNews that: “the consulate was the diplomatic cover for an intelligence platform and whatever diplomatic functions took place in Benghazi also served as cover for an important CIA base.” See: “The Why Behind the Benghazi Attack.
Goodman is director of the National Security Project at the Center for International Policy. He was an analyst at the CIA for 24 years. His most recent book is the just-released National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. Goodman just wrote the piece “The Real Benghazi Scandal” for CounterPunch, which states: “When congressional Republicans complete manipulating the Benghazi tragedy, it will be time for the virtually silent Senate intelligence committee to take up three major issues that have been largely ignored. The committee must investigate the fact that the U.S. presence in Benghazi was an intelligence platform and only nominally a consulate; the politicization by the White House and State Department of CIA analysis of the events in Benghazi; and the Obama administration’s politicization of the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General, which has virtually destroyed the office and deprived congressional intelligence committees of their most important oversight tool.
“When U.S. personnel were airlifted from Benghazi the night of the attack, there were seven Foreign Service and State Department officers and 23 CIA officers onboard. This fact alone indicates that the consulate was primarily diplomatic cover for an intelligence operation that was known to Libyan militia groups. The CIA failed to provide adequate security for Benghazi, and its clumsy tradecraft contributed to the tragic failure. On the night of the attack, the small CIA security team in Benghazi was slow to respond, relying on an untested Libyan intelligence organization to maintain security for U.S. personnel. After the attack, the long delay in debriefing evacuated personnel contributed to the confusing assessments.”’
Libya’s rebirth isn’t a success so far ~ The National
‘Libya is proof that Nato knows how to destroy a country, but doesn’t know how to rebuild it.
Most of the news coming from Libya is distressing, the London-based daily Al Quds Al Arabi said in its editorial yesterday, following the deadly car bomb explosion in Benghazi.
“The country is experiencing successive crises over more than one aspect of affairs: daily living, politics and security, and they are mostly because of the inability of the feeble political elite to build and empower state institutions,” the paper said.
[...] Libya is experiencing chaos because of armed militias that have taken over the country since the revolution and are coercing government institutions into acquiescing to their demands.’
The Real Benghazi Story: U.S. Op to Arm al-Qaeda in Syria ~ Kurt Nimmo
by Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
Last November, we reported that the murder of ambassador Christopher Stevens wasn’t about a lame anti-Muslim video. It was connected to an arms shipment as part of the on-going “creative destruction” of the Middle East and North Africa.
During an interview with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, radio talk show host John Baxter said the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus had nothing to do with an extramarital affair with his biographer, reserve Army officer Paula Broadwell, but was related to U.S. policy in the Middle East, ongoing “color revolutions” in the region, and specifically the operation underway to arm al-Qaeda in Syria and overthrow the al-Assad regime.
“Benghazi is not about Libya, Benghazi is about the policy of the Obama administration to involve the United States without clarity to the American people, not only in Libya but throughout the whole of the Arab world now in turmoil,” Baxter told Kudlow. “Benghazi is about the NSC directing an operation that is perhaps shadowy, perhaps a presidential finding, perhaps doesn’t, that takes arms and men and puts them into Syria in the guise of the Free Syria Army.”
Retired Lt. General William Boykin said in January that Stevens was in Benghazi as part of an effort to arm al-Qaeda, what the corporate media calls the rebels. “More supposition was that he was now funneling guns to the rebel forces in Syria, using essentially the Turks to facilitate that. Was that occurring, (a), and if so, was it a legal covert action?” Boykin said during an interview with CNS News.
Boykin said Stevens was “given a directive to support the Syrian rebels” and the State Department’s Special Mission Compound in Benghazi “would be the hub of that activity.”
In 2011, Stevens was officially appointed to be the Obama administration’s liaison with the “budding Libyan opposition,” according to ABC News. By March, 2011, it was firmly established that the so-called Libya opposition was interchangeable with al-Qaeda. Stevens and the State Department worked directly with Abdelhakim Belhadj of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Belhadj has direct connections to al-Qaeda.
The murder of Stevens, of course, did not slow down the flow of arms from Libya to al-Qaeda in Syria. “The United States is launching a covert operation to send weapons to Syrian rebels for the first time as it ramps up military efforts to oust President Bashar al-Assad,” The Sunday Times reported in early December, 2012.
“Mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles will be sent through friendly Middle Eastern countries already supplying the rebels, according to well-placed diplomatic sources. The Americans have bought some of the weapons from the stockpiles of Muammar Gadaffi, the Libyan dictator killed last year. They include SA-7 missiles, which can be used to shoot down aircraft.”
In late April, an SA-7 missile under the control of al-Qaeda may have narrowly missed a Russian passenger plane.
Emails show the then CIA-chief David Petraeus objected to Obama administration’s version of Benghazi terror attack events ~ Daily Mail
by JAMES NYE
The Daily Mail
‘The then CIA-Director David Petraeus strongly objected to the Obama administration’s version of events of the terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, newly released emails reveal.
Petraeus, who was forced to resign in disgrace in November after an extra-marital affair became public, wanted to see more detail made available, including a warning issued from the CIA about plans for an embassy attack.
The documents give a glimpse into the administration’s message control as officials carefully debated via email which details U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice should highlight when she went on talk shows five days later to discuss the September 11 assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.
The White House on Wednesday released 99 pages of emails and a single page of hand-written notes made by Petraeus’ deputy, Mike Morell, after a meeting at the White House the day before U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice began giving interviews to the media based on the agreed ‘talking points.’’
Syria’s Civil War Fueling Violence in Iraq ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
Antiwar
‘Tensions between Iraq’s Shi’ite majority and its Sunni Arab minority are nothing new, but after a previous sectarian civil war broke out during the US occupation, many believed the Sunnis had been beating into virtually submission.
The ongoing Syrian Civil War may be doing a lot to change that, as the prospect of Western-backed regime change putting a Sunni, likely Islamist, government in charge in Syria has many in Iraq’s border provinces, themselves Sunni Arabs,seeing a key new ally emerge.’
SEE ALSO: Over 160 Killed in Three Days of Iraqi Sectarian Violence (Antiwar)
SEE ALSO: Syria Begins to Break Apart Under Pressure From War (New York Times)
SEE ALSO: Number of Syrian refugees tops 1.5 million (Reuters)
Rebels: Dozens wounded in Damascus chemical attack ~ Ynet
by Elior Levy
Ynet News
‘Syrian rebels quoted by Al Arabyia claim that Syrian President Bashar Assad has used chemical weapons once again – in Damascus and in the city of Saraqeb in the district of Idlib.
According to the report, dozens of people suffered respiration problems after the Syrian army bombarded the Al Asali district in Damascus with chemically laced mortars. There were no further reports regarding the condition of the wounded.
In another, second attack, rebels reported being hit by phosphorous laced mortars in residential areas in which fighting is currently being conducted.’
Ultra-Orthodox Jews in mass protest against Israel army draft ~ BBC
BBC News
‘Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews have protested in Jerusalem against plans to force members of their community to serve in the Israeli military.
Several people were arrested after bottles, stones and a smoke grenade were thrown at police. Protesters and police were hurt in the clashes.
Ultra-Orthodox Israelis are currently exempt from military service while they study in religious schools or yeshivas.
Secular Israelis object to this and plans are being made to enlist them.’
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator: we’re being asked to make all the sacrifices ~ CS Monitor
by Scott Peterson
Christian Science Monitor
‘Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and a presidential candidate, says that offers from six world powers demand far more short-term sacrifices of his government than the Islamic Republic considers reasonable or reciprocal.
The current offer from the so-called P5+1 group (the US, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany) requires Iran to suspend all 20 percent uranium enrichment, disable an impregnable underground enrichment facility at Fordow, and agree to more intrusive inspections, before modest relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy.
“Their proposals are unbalanced,” Mr. Jalili told The Christian Science Monitor in an Istanbul interview today, a day after his inconclusive meeting with Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief who leads negotiations for the P5+1. “The other party needs to appreciate that they need to table proposals that have the necessary balance,” says Jalili. “If they accept to do so, then we can engage in talks that will hopefully bring about that required balance.”’
Abandoned: UAE rape victim jailed ~ Yahoo!
Yahoo!
‘Dubai is being promoted as a luxury high-class paradise in the desert, but the reality is brutally different, as Australian Alicia Gali discovered. Gali took a job in the UAE with one of the world’s biggest hotel chains, Starwood. What happened next makes this story a must-watch for every Australian planning on travelling through the region.
Gali was using her laptop in the hotel’s staff bar when her drink was spiked. She awoke to a nightmare beyond belief: she had been savagely raped by three of her colleagues. Alone and frightened, she took herself to hospital. What Alicia didn’t know is that under the UAE’s strict sharia laws, if the perpetrator does not confess, a rape cannot be convicted without four adult Muslim male witnesses. She was charged with having illicit sex outside marriage, and thrown in a filthy jail cell for eight months.’
Police Bring Iraq-Style ‘Counter Insurgency’ Strategy To US City ~ Business Insider
by Geoffrey Ingersoll
Business Insider
‘In the year since Massachusetts State Trooper Mike Katone was given permission to use counter insurgency tactics in the city of Springfield, crime has dropped as much as 25% in the targetted areas, CBS reports.
The former Green Beret was featured in Sunday’s most recent episode of 60 Minutes and told reporters that the operations work at home as well as they did in combat.’
KBR Tells U.S. Army it will Cost $500 Million and Take 13 Years to Close out Its Iraq Contract ~ All Gov
All Gov
‘The recipient of the largest government services contract in U.S. history has told military officials it will take another 13 years and half a billion dollars to finish off its work stemming from the Iraq war.
This assessment from KBR Inc., which won the $38 billion deal from the U.S. Army way back in 2001, is at the heart of a legal battle between the two sides.
KBR was responsible for aiding virtually all American military support operations as part of the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (pdf) (LOGCAP) III in Iraq.
With the conflict over and the pullout of combat units, the Pentagon sought to alter the terms of payment for the remainder of the contract. U.S. Defense Department officials want to pay KBR a fixed amount for what’s left to do (which could save it hundreds of millions of dollars), while the company wants to be reimbursed for its efforts, which has been the case since the deal was arranged last decade.
The Army’s move to implement the change prompted KBR to sue in court, where its lawyers argued that the remaining duties will cost $500 million and take 13 years to complete.’
US has seen Syria chemical weapons evidence, says Obama ~ BBC
Editors Note: The US was dismissive of any evidence until late April when Israel made the official announcement that it believed the Syrian government had used chemical weapons. Israel claimed that the Syrian had used them five times, whereas the US claimed two uses. Last week Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan claimed ‘at least 200′ uses stating that he had absolute proof. Obama has also stated that he had already seen the proof, but reiterated that ‘more specific information’ is needed. The UN however have said that only one incident of their use has taken place and that it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, who used them. This claim was dismissed out of hand by the US, with them stating that it was probably carried out by the Syrian military even though Syrian soldiers died as a result.
BBC News
‘President Barack Obama has said the US has seen evidence of chemical weapons being used in Syria.
However, speaking after meeting Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he insisted it was important to get more specific details about alleged chemical attacks.
Earlier, residents of a north Syrian town told a BBC reporter how government forces had dropped poisonous gas canisters on them from helicopters.’
Obama: U.S. preserves diplomatic, military options on Syria ~ Reuters
SEE ALSO: U.S. announces new sanctions against Syria (L.A. Times)
SEE ALSO: Obama and Erdogan demand Assad step down (Herald Sun)
by Nick Tattersall and Matt Spetalnick
Reuters
‘President Barack Obama said on Thursday he reserved the right to resort to both diplomatic and military options to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but insisted that U.S. action alone would not be enough to resolve the Syrian crisis.
Taking a cautious line at a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Obama voiced hope that the United States and Russia would succeed in arranging an international peace conference on Syria, despite signs of growing obstacles.
Erdogan had been expected to push Obama, at least in private, for more assertive action on Syria during a visit to Washington this week, days after car bombs tore through a Turkish border town in the deadliest spillover of violence yet.
Obama – who has been reluctant to arm Syrian rebels or become enmeshed militarily in the conflict – made no mention of deeper engagement in Syria during an appearance at the White House, where the leaders sought to project a united front.’
Syrian Rebels Carry Out Public Executions
WARNING: Graphic content. Viewer discretion advised.
The al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra rebels have released two videos, showing their fighters executing Syrian soldiers. The Nusra rebels regularly release videos of executions, much to the concern of international organisations given their influence in Syria.
This first video, released on Wednesday [May 15], shows the execution of three soldiers in Raqqa, with a statement read saying it was “retaliation” for claimed government massacres in Baniyas and Homs.
This second video, released the following day, shows 11 soldiers, bound and blindfolded before being shot to death. The executioner in the video said the killings were ordered by “the sharia court for Deir Azzor.”
Senators introduce bipartisan bill to arm Syrian rebels ~ FP
SEE ALSO: British leader urges pressure on Syrian regime and rebels to agree on transition government (Washington Post)
SEE ALSO: U.N. urges support for Syria opposition; Russia opposed (Reuters)
by John Hudson
Foreign Policy
‘Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Bob Corker (R-TN) introduced a bill Wednesday to arm the Syrian rebels, the latest piece of legislation aimed at pressuring the Obama administration to intervene more aggressively in the protracted civil war. The bill provides lethal weapons to vetted members of the Syrian opposition and beefs up sanctions on weapons sales and petroleum sales to President Bashar al-Assad‘s regime.
In short, it has all the hallmarks of the bill Menendez introduced last week, but with a bipartisan sheen. As Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, described the Menendez bill last week, “If you want to pressure the president into acting, it’s a pretty good bill …The last time the Hill moved on Syria was sanctions on Syrian oil in the summer of 2011. That pressured the president to move, and this could too.” Its new bipartisan gloss could give it that much more power.
The legislation is set to be taken up by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a markup session scheduled for Tuesday, May 21.’
Pakistan’s Age-Old Battle: Sharif vs. The Army ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
Antiwar
‘After a decisive win in this weekend’s election, Pakistani politician Nawaz Sharif is set to form a record third government in his 30 year political career. In exile before the last election, Sharif’s return shows he is nothing if not a survivor.
But Sharif is also one half of the most fierce rivalries in the nation’s history, one against Pakistan’s powerful and largely independent military. There is a reason that the three-time ruler is seeing only the first peaceful transition of power between civilian governments in Pakistan’s history.’
Egypt ‘suffering worst economic crisis since 1930s’ ~ Guardian
by Patrick Kingsley
The Guardian
‘Egypt is suffering its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a former finance minister of the country and one of its leading economists have warned.
In terms of its devastating effect on Egypt’s poorest, the country’s current economic predicament is at its most dire since the 1930s, Galal Amin, professor of economics at the American University in Cairo, and Samir Radwan, finance minister in the months after Egypt’s 2011 uprising, said in separate interviews with the Guardian.’
Israel Hints at New Strikes, Warning Syria Not to Hit Back ~ NY Times
by MARK LANDLER
New York Times
‘In a clear warning to Syria to stop the transfer of advanced weapons to Islamic militants in the region, a senior Israeli official signaled on Wednesday that Israel was considering additional military strikes to prevent that from happening and that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, would face crippling consequences if he retaliated.’
J-Post: Ed Miliband Is World’s 20th Most Influential Jew ~ HuffPost
by Jessica Elgot
The Huffington Post
‘He has at times struggle to exert influence even within his own party, but Ed Miliband can take heart he is the 20th most influential Jew in the world.
Miliband has often described himself as an atheist, telling the BBC in 2010 after he became leader “I don’t believe in God personally”.
[...] Both his parents came as refugees from the Holocaust to Britain, but his father, the Marxist historian Ralph Miliband, kept a strictly secular household.
The list, compiled by the Jerusalem Post, is topped by Yair Lapid.’
Benghazi: CIA Terrorist Hub ~ Breaking the Set
Abby Martin breaks through the corporate media’s fixation over Obama’s rhetoric on Benghazi whilst ignoring the real scandal of the CIA’s role in supporting al-Qaeda terrorists.
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SEAL Team 6 Families Believe the 2011 Chinook Shootdown in Afghanistan was Planned ~ Navyseals.com
Navyseals.com
‘The August 6, 2011 Chinook shootdown in eastern Afghanistan is considered the worst loss of U.S. military life in the war-torn country since the Operation Red Wings in 2005. The crash killed all 38 people on board– twenty-five Navy SEALs, five U.S. Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, one Afghan interpreter, and a U.S. military dog. For the families of the fallen special operations personnel, all they want is for Congress to investigate the tragic incident; but why is it so hard to make that happen?
On Thursday, three families of the Navy SEALs killed in the attack took their case to the public via a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The families felt their sons were purposely targeted by the Taliban after the Obama administration confirmed that it was the Navy SEALs Team 6 who killed Osama bin Laden three months earlier. WND reported that the families also questioned the sudden replacement of seven Afghan commandos on board the helicopter just before take-off. As it turned out, the seven Afghan commandos killed in the helicopter shootdown were not the seven listed in the flight manifest. To this day, none of them know who those dead Afghans were.’
Britain Threatens Pakistani Official Over Comments on Internal Secession ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
Antiwar
‘The London Metropolitan Police are threatening to jail a high profile Pakistani politician today after a speech he made earlier this week regarding internal Pakistani policy sparked “complaints” from British citizens.
[...] British High Commission Adam Thomson claimed that Hussain’s speech about even the possibility of the secession of Karachi could violate Britain’s own law against “hate speech,” even though the speech was about Pakistani politics, made inside Pakistan, by a Pakistani politician.’
MI6 distributes ‘ghost money’ as bribes to Afghan warlords, drug cartels ~ Press TV
Press TV
‘Britain’s foreign spying apparatus MI6 has been funneling tens of millions of pounds to corrupt officials in Afghanistan as bribes in a corrupt attempt to buy influence in the country.
According to western media reports, MI6 is secretly spending UK taxpayers’ money in the form of ‘ghost money’ bribes in Afghanistan to prop up warlords and corrupt authorities.
MI6 has a long history of trying to buy influence in countries of interest.’
UN: Ousted ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh has right to run for president ~ Press TV
Press TV
‘The United Nations Envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar has said that the country’s ousted ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and his son have the right to run for presidency.
Benomar said the US and Saudi-backed transition deal which paved the way for transition in Yemen in 2012 does not prevent Saleh and his son from returning to political stage and that they can run in the next presidential election.
Saleh, who ruled Yemen for almost 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 after nearly a year of mass street protests against his leadership under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity.’
US Steps Up Special Forces Operations in Afghanistan ~ Antiwar
SEE ALSO: Longer Afghanistan tours for British soldiers (BBC News)
SEE ALSO: Afghans wrongly taxed U.S. construction projects by $1 billion, audit finds (Washington Times)
by Jason Ditz
Antiwar
‘The “drawdown” in Afghanistan is primarily a political goal, not a military one. Reducing the number of US soldiers occupying the nation isn’t about a transition to Afghan control. Instead, an escalation of Special Forces deployments aimed to keep effectively the same power on the ground with less people, and in the administration’s minds, less questions.
While every misstep of the regular ground forces in Afghanistan eventually ends up in the media (and then usually denied without a plausible excuse) the Special Forces operate in secret. They do things quietly. They bend and break all the rules of engagement.’
