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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Fix US First then others'

Terrorist Attack on US in NY Court:Al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Ghailani acquitted of all but one charge of 285 counts

November 17th, 2010 · Democrats, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Attack, Treason

Only in America will you find that TERRORIST have more Constitutional Rights that it’s Citizens.
This is an OBAMA-nation.

By TOM HAYS – The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 6:49 PM

NEW YORK — The first Guantanamo detainee to face a civilian trial was acquitted Wednesday of all but one of the hundreds of charges he helped unleash death and destruction on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 – an opening salvo in al-Qaida’s campaign to kill Americans.

A federal jury convicted Ahmed Ghailani of one count of conspiracy to destroy U.S. property and acquitted him on more than 280 other counts, including one murder count for each of the 224 people killed in the embassy bombings. The anonymous jurors deliberated over seven days.

Prosecutors said Ghailani faces a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison at sentencing on Jan. 25.

Ghailani, 36, rubbed his face, smiled and hugged his lawyers after the jury left the courtroom.

Prosecutors had branded Ghailani a cold-blooded terrorist. The defense portrayed him as a clueless errand boy, exploited by senior al-Qaida operatives and framed by evidence from contaminated crime scenes.

The trial at a lower Manhattan courthouse had been viewed as a possible test case for President Barack Obama administration’s aim of putting other terror detainees – including self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – on trial on U.S. soil.

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Petraeus warns Afghans about Karzai’s criticism of U.S. war strategy

November 15th, 2010 · Defense, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow and Karen DeYoung  Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 15, 2010; 12:24 AM

KABUL – Gen. David H. Petraeus, the coalition military commander in Afghanistan, warned Afghan officials Sunday that President Hamid Karzai’s latest public criticism of U.S. strategy threatens to seriously undermine progress in the war and risks making Petraeus’s own position “untenable,” according to Afghan and U.S. officials.

Officials said Petraeus expressed “astonishment and disappointment” with Karzai’s call, in a Saturday interview with The Washington Post, to “reduce military operations” and end U.S. Special Operations raids in southern Afghanistan that coalition officials said have killed or captured hundreds of Taliban commanders in recent months.

In a meeting Sunday morning with Ashraf Ghani, who leads the Afghan government’s planning on transition, Petraeus made what several officials described as “hypothetical” references to an inability to continue U.S. operations in the face of Karzai’s remarks.

The night raids are at the heart of Petraeus’s counterinsurgency strategy and are key to his hopes of being able to show significant progress when the White House reviews the situation in Afghanistan next month.

Officials discounted early reports Sunday that Petraeus had threatened to resign. But “for [Karzai] to go this way, and at that particular stage, is really undermining [Petraeus's] endeavors,” one foreign diplomat in Kabul said. “Not only his personally, but the international community.” Several officials in Washington and Kabul requested anonymity in order to discus the issue.

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Despite successful U.S. attacks on Taliban leaders in Afghanistan’s northwest, insurgency remains in control

October 25th, 2010 · Deception, Defense, Democrats, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Government Control, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat, Treason, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 24, 2010; 1:34 AM

MAQUR, AFGHANISTAN – October has been a calamitous month for the Taliban guerrillas waging war from sandy mountains and pistachio forests in this corner of northwestern Afghanistan.

The first to die was their leader, Mullah Ismail, hunted down and killled by U.S. Special Operations troops. Next came the heir apparent, Mullah Jamaluddin, even before he could take over as Taliban “shadow” governor. Within a week, several other top commanders were dead, a new governor had been captured and the most powerful among the remaining insurgents had lit out for the Turkmenistan border – all casualties of the secretive, midnight work of American commandos.

And yet what has happened here in Badghis province also shows how large a gap remains between killing commanders and dismantling an insurgency. Nearly half of the province remains under insurgent control, an Afghan intelligence official estimated. A new Taliban governor has already been dispatched to the province, Afghan officials say, even though NATO portrayed Mullah Ismail’s killing as a “huge blow” that would “significantly reduce Taliban influence throughout the region.”

“Fighting in Afghanistan is like hitting coals with a stick, it just spreads to other places,” said Delbar Jan Arman, who as provincial governor is trying to stave off the Taliban advances. “It will continue.”

The barrage launched against the Taliban by Special Operations forces here in recent weeks is part of a broader American effort that is clearly succeeding. As other U.S. goals in Afghanistan have faltered – reforming the government, winning hearts and minds – Gen. David H. Petraeus and his new troops have so far succeeded at killing their enemies. American officials have held up the example of the onslaught against the Taliban leadership as a clear sign of progress, a development sure to factor into President Obama’s December review of the Afghan campaign.

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U.S.-led Afghan reconstruction projects to end because of security dispute

October 22nd, 2010 · Defense, Foreign Policy

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 22, 2010; 12:43 AM

KABUL – U.S.-funded development firms are beginning to shut down massive reconstruction projects because the Afghan government has refused to rescind a ban on their use of private security guards, according to U.S. officials and aid workers here.

The decision to start shuttering the projects, collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars, could have far-reaching effects on the U.S.-led military campaign against the Taliban, disrupting a central component of the strategy to counter the insurgency at a critical moment in the war. Programs to assist Afghan farmers and improve local government, which are vital to the overall U.S. effort to stabilize the volatile southern and eastern parts of the country, are among those that will be affected, the officials said.

The consequences of the ban on development firms employing private guards “will be catastrophic,” said one U.S. official involved in the issue. “If these projects grind to a halt, we might as well go home. They are essential to the counterinsurgency strategy.”

Another U.S. official said the ban would affect about $1.5 billion in ongoing reconstruction work. More than 20,000 Afghans will lose jobs in road-building and energy projects alone, the official said.

The prohibition, which was enacted by President Hamid Karzai, has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the oft-strained U.S.-Afghan relationship, raising new questions about his willingness to cooperate with the international community and potentially complicating crucial year-end assessments of the war effort by the White House and NATO.

The ban, which goes into effect Dec. 17, affects all development firms and non-governmental organizations, including those funded by other countries and the United Nations. It also applies to private contractors who guard supply convoys for the military bearing food, fuel and other essential supplies, as well as to international banks and other private entities whose services support reconstruction work.

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Pentagon plans $60 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia

October 21st, 2010 · Defense, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, National Security, Technology, War on Terrorism

By Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 21, 2010; 12:58 AM

The Defense Department has notified Congress that it wants to sell $60 billion worth of advanced aircraft and weapons to Saudi Arabia. The proposed sale, which includes helicopters, fighter jets, radar equipment and satellite-guided bombs, would be the largest arms deal to another country in U.S. history if the sale goes through and all purchases are made.

Congress has 30 days to review the sale before the Pentagon and the weapons makers go into more detailed contract discussions with Saudi Arabia. Congress is expected to review the deal when it is back in session after the elections.

The arms package includes 84 new F-15 fighter jets and upgrades to 70 more F-15s that the Saudis already have, as well as three types of helicopters: 70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and 36 Little Birds. Saudi Arabia would also get versions of a satellite-guided “smart bomb” system, plus anti-ship and anti-radar missiles.

The deal could be completed over five to 10 years, depending on production schedules and training needed.

Defense industry analysts said the weapons sale is key to U.S. efforts to boost support among Arab allies and counter any threats from Iran. The deal is also seen as a boon for U.S. defense companies as the Pentagon tightens its budget in ways that could curb contracting opportunities.

Boeing makes the F-15, the Apaches, the Little Birds and some of the other equipment. Raytheon makes some of the anti-radar missiles.

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Senate report: Mismanaged U.S. contractor money aids enemy in Afghanistan

October 8th, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Economy, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, National Security, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat, Treason, Unemployment, War on Terrorism

Reference: SASC Report on Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan 10/07/2010

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 8, 2010; 12:34 AM

The U.S. military has only minimal knowledge of – and exercises virtually no control over – the thousands of Afghans it indirectly pays to guard its installations, including “warlords and strongmen linked to murder, kidnapping, bribery” and to the Taliban, Senate investigators said in a blistering report released Thursday.

The bipartisan report, compiled after a year-long investigation, notes that the military has recently launched its own investigations of the situation and has taken some steps to address it. In one of the most significant steps, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has issued new contractor guidelines.

Still, the Senate investigation documents a failure to properly vet, train and supervise Afghan security subcontractors, hired by U.S. and other international firms under multimillion-dollar military contracts.

That failure has cost American lives, undermined the U.S. mission and the Afghan government, and “helped play into the hands of the enemy,” said Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Some of the Afghan security subcontractors, Levin told reporters Thursday, are “creating the very threat they are hired to combat.”

Committee staff reviewed more than 125 Defense Department security contracts dated between 2007 and 2009 and provided a detailed account of two in which subcontractors had direct and well-known ties to the Taliban. The report recounts an instance in which the military raided a Taliban meeting being held at the house of a subcontractor. It also notes instances in which security subcontractors were believed by U.S. military intelligence to be Iranian agents.

According to the U.S. Central Command, the report said, there were more than 112,000 Defense Department contractor personnel in Afghanistan as of April 30. As of May, more than 26,000 armed private security personnel – nearly all of them Afghans – worked for the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies.

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U.S. proposal targets reform of Iraqi civil service while Economy still gloomy at home.

October 5th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Economy, Ethics, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 4, 2010; 8:25 PM

The United States has developed an ambitious plan to help Iraq reorganize its civil service of 3 million employees, including promoting a decentralized system that establishes provincial authorities to run governmental activities at the local level.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) outlines the proposal in its request for bidders on a four-year, $180 million contract to work with Iraq’s prime minister and parliament in setting up civil servant laws and regulations, and also creating local institutions to deliver services to the population.

Meant to assist civil servants in more than 26 Iraqi ministries and 10 ministries of state, the “Iraq National and Provincial Administrative Reform Project” is described by USAID as the “rightsizing of Iraq’s federal structure.” The agency adds that it “is a monumental undertaking.”

“In the past, lack of GOI [government of Iraq] political commitment to carry through on reforms has jeopardized efforts to achieve targeted reforms,” USAID notes.

Potential contractors are advised that they need to be aware of changes in Baghdad’s leadership and must build “a broad and active Iraqi constituency” that would help hold the government accountable for reforms.

The current system has several obstacles, USAID has said. They include “obsolete and confusing” law and a large “number of employees requiring skill development.”

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Analysis: Americans left at risk as transportation safety fixes are delayed

October 3rd, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending

By Ryan Phillips and Aarti Shahani – News 21
Saturday, September 25, 2010; 7:02 PM

Americans are exposed every day to risks in highway, air, rail and water travel because of government delays in acting on recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates accidents and proposes ways to prevent them.

The delays arise from a bureaucratic system that is convoluted and inefficient, according to an analysis of thousands of pages of documents, reports, and accident and investigation data from the NTSB and federal regulatory agencies.

For example, more than 710 people have died over the past 30 years in plane crashes in which ice built up on the wings of aircraft while the Federal Aviation Administration has considered NTSB recommendations to reduce icing dangers.

The Federal Railroad Administration took 36 years after the first NTSB recommendation to settle on a rail car design that gives passengers and workers a better chance of surviving crashes.

Twenty-four years passed before the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration required trucks to have anti-lock brakes recommended by the NTSB.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has yet to fully implement a 2002 recommendation to keep medically unfit bus and truck drivers off the roads. During that time, unfit bus and truck drivers have caused more than 800 fatal accidents.

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Pakistan blocks NATO’s Afghan-bound supply trucks after airstrike kills 3

September 30th, 2010 · Defense, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Karin Brulliard  Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 30, 2010; 12:49 PM

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – Pakistani officials said Thursday that NATO supply trucks had been blocked from entering Afghanistan at a key border post in response to an early morning NATO airstrike that they said killed three Pakistani border security soldiers.

According to a Pakistani military statement, the attack occurred at 5:25 a.m. at the Mandata Kandaho border post about 600 feet inside Upper Khurram agency, a region in Pakistan’s tribal belt that borders Afghanistan’s Khost province. After the helicopters “engaged through cannon fire” with the post, the six soldiers stationed there fired warning shots with their rifles, and the helicopters responded with two missiles that destroyed the post, according to the Pakistani account.

Within hours, the border crossing at Torkham had been ordered closed by federal officials, and NATO supply trucks were idling there, according to transporters stuck at the pass and officials in the region, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The pass, which lies north of Peshawar, is the most important entry point for coalition forces’ fuel and supplies, most of which come into Pakistan through the southern port of Karachi.

“We will have to see whether we are allies or enemies,” Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said of the border incident, without mentioning the blockade.

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Good intentions aside, should the Pentagon fund cancer research?

September 28th, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Deception, Defense, Democrats, Economy, Federal Spending, National Security, Non-Transparency, Tax Dollars, Taxes, War on Terrorism

By Walter Pincus – Monday, September 27, 2010; 7:53 PM

Top Pentagon officials are to appear before the Senate and House Armed Services committees Tuesday and Wednesday to support Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates‘ ambitious effort to reduce Defense Department overhead by $100 billion in the next five years and to eliminate redundant spending.

Although members of Congress generally welcomed Gates’ approach, the few who faced immediate reductions that affected their constituencies were less supportive. For example, Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) has called for Gates to provide “full justification” for the plan to eliminate the Joint Forces Command located in the Norfolk area.

The Pentagon has described the command, established to encourage collaboration in training and deployment among the services, as becoming “over time an unneeded extra layer and step in the force management process.”

Two Joint Forces Command programs over the past two weeks raise questions about its unique relevance. In mid-September it sponsored, along with the National Defense University, a two-day conference entitled “Rise and Fragmentation of Great Powers,” held at Old Dominion University. Analysts and academics talked about Russia in particular.

Last week at Camp Pendleton, Calif., it sponsored, along with the Office of Naval Research, an interactive training tool called “Future Immersive Training Environment.” There, Marines spent time with actors and others in realistic war scenarios replicating what they may face in Afghanistan.

I won’t mention the approximately $500 million spent annually on military bands.

But there are even more controversial budget-cutting targets within the Defense Department’s $700 billion budget if Gates really meant what he said when he indicated that even spending on health issues would be reviewed. For example, he might take a look at the roughly $200 million the Defense Department spends each year on cancer research through programs run primarily by contractors.

I am not against cancer research – far from it. But I raise the Pentagon’s cancer-research program because it is a textbook illustration of how money over the years for worthwhile and some not-so-worthwhile government undertakings have been funded through the Pentagon because it is so easy to get Congress to approve money in the defense budget. Be honest: Items get approved in the name of defense that would never make it if found in the budgets of other departments.

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