Obama is reluctant to swallow Netanyahu blood-filled kosher meal
Started by Adnan Darwash, Yesterday, 01:58 PM
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#1 Adnan Darwash
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Posted Yesterday, 01:58 PM
Despite being labelled as the first Jewish President of America, Obama knows the current dire economic, military and political situation the US is in to contemplate launching a war on Iran; merely to satisfy the powerful Jewish lobby. Following the drastic and costly war on Iraq, the Americans became the most hated people and currently, it is too dangerous for US citizens to travel to most Arab countries in North Africa and Middle East. As a result, the American role in shaping events in the Middle East became extremely limited. In addition, the Arabs have experienced, first hand, US double standards and selective morality. As an example, the Americans want the Arabs to oppose Iranian Nuclear programs; peaceful or otherwise, while at the same time they are afraid of even mentioning the Israeli massive nuclear arsenal. Similarly, the Americans wanted to stop the massacres in Syria and Libya but not those taking place in Yemen, Bahrain or in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the Arabs haven’t forgotten the American support for the Israelis when they carried out massacres against the populations of Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008.
The Americans also know that the few Arab agents and stooges remaining holding power are afraid of promoting their views let alone implementing USraeli designs. Right now, only deaf people can’t hear the Israeli drums for war on Iran. Like the many ‘experts’ who have warned against attacking Iran, Arabs do hope that the US will fall in the Israeli-prepared and managed Iraqi-style, Iranian quagmire. Before the war on Iraq in March 2003, the Jewish-controlled media and AIPAC had warned of Iraq's WMD that can reach Europe within 45 minutes. People like Wolfowitz, Cohen, Albright, Berger, Friedman, Simon, Lieberman and Blitzer became permanent fixtures on US TV Channels and newspapers. It is ironic that AIPAC and the same Jewish Gurus started to warn about the dangers to the world of Iran nuclear program and the need to launch military strikes to destroy Iran infrastructure and not only its nuclear facilities. One must indicate here that a balanced approach to nuclear disarmament in the M.E. is needed through which the UN inspect, account for and dismantle Israel nuclear facilities before asking the Iranians to stop their Uranium enrichment program. In this regard, the policies of pro-Israeli Obama, are not different from those of G.W. Bush or Bill Clinton that led to wars and destruction. It is Iran this time and not primitive Afghanistan, besieged Gaza, tiny Lebanon or disarmed Iraq. The re-election of Vladimir Putin will complicate matters further for the USraeli designs for Syria, Iran, Hezbullah and the rest of the Middle East. It is not difficult to understand Obama's reluctance to test Netanyahu Kosher recipe as the damage to US intersts in the area may be 1000 times bigger than that sustained following the invasion of Iraq.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL (Reuters) - Five Taliban detainees held at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay military prison have agreed to be transferred to Qatar, a move Afghanistan believes will boost a nascent peace process, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said on Saturday.
The transfer idea is part of U.S. efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table to avoid prolonged instability in Afghanistan after foreign combat troops leave the country at the end of 2014.
"We are hopeful this will be a positive step towards peace efforts," Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi told Reuters, adding the Taliban detainees would be re-united with their families in Qatar if the transfer takes place.
It would be one of a series of good-faith measures that could set in motion the first substantial political negotiations on the conflict in Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001 in a U.S.-led invasion.
A year after it was unveiled, the Obama administration's peace initiative may soon offer the United States a historic opportunity to broker an end to a war that began as the response to the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States.
But the peace drive also presents risks for President Barack Obama.
He faces the potential for political fallout months before a presidential election, as his government considers backing an arrangement that would give some degree of power to the Taliban, known for their brutality and extreme interpretation of Islam.
Despite months of covert diplomacy, it remains unclear whether the prisoner transfer will go ahead.
Doubts are growing about whether the Taliban leadership is willing to weather possible opposition from junior and more hard-core members who appear to oppose negotiations.
Asked about the disclosure by Karzai's office that the detainees were willing to be transferred, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said: "The United States has not decided to transfer any Taliban officials from Guantanamo Bay."
"We are not in a position to discuss ongoing deliberations or individual detainees, but our goal of closing Guantanamo is well established and widely understood," she said. "In general, any decision to transfer a detainee from Guantanamo would be undertaken in accordance with U.S. law and in consultation with the Congress."
U.S. WANTS RESULTS BEFORE NATO SUMMIT
Karzai's top aide, Ibrahim Spinzada, visited the Guantanamo facility this week to secure approval from the five Taliban prisoners to be moved to Qatar.
Karzai's government has demanded the five former senior members of the Taliban government, held at Guantanamo Bay for a decade, give their consent before they are transferred to the small Gulf state where they would be under Qatar's custody.
U.S. officials hope the peace initiative will gain enough traction to enable Obama to announce the establishment of full-fledged political talks between the Karzai government and the Taliban at a NATO summit in May.
That would mark a major victory for the White House and might ease some of the anxiety created by NATO nations' plans to gradually pull out most of their troops by the end of 2014, leaving an inexperienced Afghan military and fragile government to face a still-formidable insurgency.
The Taliban detainees are seen by some U.S. officials as among the most dangerous inmates at Guantanamo.
Their possible transfer has drawn attack from U.S. politicians from both parties even before the administration formally begins a required congressional notification process.
Among the prisoners who may be sent to Qatar is Mohammed Fazl, a "high-risk" detainee alleged to be responsible for the killing of thousands of minority Shi'ite Muslims between 1998 and 2001.
They also include Noorullah Noori, a former senior military commander; Abdul Haq Wasiq, a former deputy intelligence minister; and Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former interior minister.
Karzai has complained the United States has repeatedly sidelined his government in a process that is supposed to be "Afghan-led" after it emerged that U.S. officials had established contacts with the Taliban in Qatar.
But his worries seem to have eased, and there are signs that the Kabul government is prepared to extend greater support to the Qatar process, even though it wants Saudi Arabia and Turkey to facilitate talks as well.
Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasool will visit Qatar to meet government officials to discuss reconciliation with the Taliban, a ministry spokesman said earlier.
Rasool is scheduled to leave for Qatar soon, Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told Reuters. He will visit Saudi Arabia before then.
The Taliban announced in January they would open a political office in Qatar, suggesting they may be willing to engage in negotiations that would likely give them government positions or control over some of their historical southern heartland.
An Afghan official described Rasool's visit as a "very important step".
The Afghan government has had some contact with the Taliban while U.S. diplomats have been seeking to broaden exploratory talks that began clandestinely in Germany in late 2010.
There are other factors that could make or break peace efforts, in particular Pakistan. The regional power is a critical player because it is believed to have influence over the Afghan Taliban and allied groups like the Haqqani network.
Pakistan could encourage militants to lay down arms, or to keep fighting if it determined it did not have enough say in a peace settlement, or if it feared a settlement might give old rival India undue influence in Afghanistan.
Pakistan denies accusations it has ties to Afghan insurgent groups.
(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robert Birsel and Philip Barbara)
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American opens fire on Afghans, 15 dead
Associated PressBy HEIDI VOGT and MIRWAIS KHAN | Associated Press – 50 mins ago
BALANDI, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. service member walked out of a base in southern Afghanistan before dawn Sunday and started shooting Afghan civilians, according to villagers and Afghan and NATO officials. Villagers showed an Associated Press photographer 15 bodies, including women and children, who they said were killed by the American.
The shooting could deepen strife between U.S. forces and their Afghan hosts just as weeks of violence set off by the burning of Muslim holy books at a U.S. base had started to die down. The burnings sparked violent protests and attacks that killed some 30 people. Six U.S. service members have been killed in attacks by their Afghan colleagues since the Quran burnings came to light.
NATO officials apologized for Sunday's shootings.
"I wish to convey my profound regrets and dismay at the actions apparently taken by one coalition member in Kandahar province, said a statement from Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, the deputy commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
"One of our soldiers is reported to have killed and injured a number of civilians in villages adjacent to his base. I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized ISAF military activity," he said, using the abbreviation for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
NATO spokesman Justin Brockhoff said a U.S. service member had been detained at a NATO base as the alleged shooter. The casualties were evacuated to NATO medical facilities, he added.
The incident took place in two villages in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province. The villages — Balandi and Alkozai — are about 500 yards (meters) away from a U.S. base. The shooting started around 3 a.m., said Asadullah Khalid, the government representative for southern Afghanistan and a member of the delegation that went to investigate the incident.
A resident of the village of Alkozai, Abdul Baqi, told the AP that, based on accounts of his neighbors, the American gunman went into three different houses and opened fire.
"When it was happening in the middle of the night, we were inside our houses. I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again," Baqi said. There was no immediate verification of his account.
Helicopters were circling overhead in the village as a delegation from the Kandahar province Gov. Tooryalai Wesa's office arrived to determine exactly what happened in Alkozai and nearby Balandi village.
There were reports of protests in Panjwai following the shooting and the U.S. embassy warned travelers in Kandahar province to "exercise caution."
An AP photographer saw 15 bodies between the two villages. Some of the bodies had been burned, while others were covered with blankets.
Khalid, the government representative, said he had tallied 16 dead, a number that matched accounts from villagers.
Twelve of the dead were from Balandi, said Samad Khan, a farmer who lost all 11 members of his family, including women and children. Khan was away from the village when the incident occurred and returned to find his family members shot and burned. One of his neighbors was also killed, he said.
"This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act," said Khan. "Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women."
Khan demanded that Afghan President Hamid Karzai punish the American shooter.
"Otherwise we will make a decision," said Khan. "He should be handed over to us."
Residents in Alkozai village also demanded that Karzai punish the American or hand him over to the villagers. The four people killed in the village were all from one family, said a female relative who was shouting in anger. She did not give her name because of the conservative nature of local society.
"No Taliban were here. No gunbattle was going on," said the woman. "We don't know why this foreign soldier came and killed our innocent family members. Either he was drunk or he was enjoying killing civilians."
The Taliban called the shootings the latest sign that international forces are working against the Afghan people.
"The so-called American peace keepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians in Kandahar province," The Taliban said in a statement posted on a website used by the insurgent group.
Just as news of the incident started to break, Karzai stressed the importance of foreign forces leaving Afghanistan to preserve the country's national sovereignty in a speech at a public even in Kabul.
Any international forces that remain after 2014 — when Afghans are scheduled to take over responsibility for security countrywide — would have to operate under strict guidelines governing their responsibilities and when they could leave their bases, he said.
"We have a strong army and police, so it is to our benefit to have good relations with the international community, not have international troops in our country," Karzai said. His office had no immediate comment on the shootings in Kandahar.
The president has demanded that international forces stop night raids on the homes of suspected militants as a condition to signing the strategic partnership agreement.
The raids have caused widespread anger among Afghans, who say civilians too often end up the victims of violence or indignities during the raids.
Some of the most egregious examples of misconduct, however, have not come from night raids.
Four soldiers from a Stryker brigade out of Lewis-McChord, Washington, were sent to prison in connection with the 2010 killings of three unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province's Maiwand district, which is just northwest of Panjwai. They were accused of forming a "kill team" that murdered Afghan civilians for sport — slaughtering victims with grenades and powerful machine guns during patrols, then dropping weapons near their bodies to make them appear to have been combatants.
And in January, before the Quran burning incident, a video that purportedly showed U.S. Marines urinated on corpses of men they had killed sparked widespread outrage.
President Barack Obama has apologized for the Quran burnings and said they were a mistake.
___
Vogt reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writers Sebastian Abbot and Rahim Faiez contributed to this report in Kabul.
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