Afghanistan overdoses on military bases

And who do you think paid for them all?
But the more obvious question is, why are there so many?

The size of Afghanistan, at 652,230 square kilometers, makes it slightly larger than the fledging nation of South Sudan, just smaller than the US state of Texas. The latter holds 203 military bases within its borders. That's high for a US state, but nothing compared with Afghanistan.

New figures provided by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) joint command suggest that Afghanistan is one of the most heavily garrisoned nations on the planet. Given its size and population, it is likely the most thoroughly militarized country in the world.

Recently, TomDispatch.com revealed there are approximately 550 ISAF combat outposts (COPs), forward operating bases (FOBs) and patrol bases in Afghanistan. Added to this are 200 more ISAF

checkpoints. And when you count various logistical, administrative, and support facilities - such as ammunition storage facilities, barracks, equipment depots and training centers - the grand total of all foreign military installations, according to a military spokesman,tops out at around 1,500.

That, however, is only about one third of the story.

According to ISAF, military posts manned by the Afghan National Security Forces dwarf the number of ISAF outposts in the country. Counting COPs, FOBs, patrol bases, checkpoints and other types of logistics and support facilities, the total number of Afghan bases currently sits at about 2,700. Essentially, a country the size of Texas is home to 4,200 military installations, foreign and domestic.

All of this means that Afghanistan, the 41st largest nation in terms of

U.S. transfers Bagram prison to Afghans

The U.S. military prison known as Bagram, a hated symbol of U.S. interference in Afghan affairs, was officially transferred to Afghan control Monday.

The long-demanded handoff of Parwan detention center, the facility's official name, occurred amid tensions between Washington and Kabul over the army's ability to guarantee security at the prison and the court system's preparedness to competently adjudicate detainee cases.

Pledges of mutual cooperation masked a behind-the-scenes dispute over about three dozen captives whom the United States has refused to release. The U.S.-led military coalition also held back the transfer of more than 600 more recently captured prisoners, but officials said that process would begin next week.

Even some Afghan officials fear that courts will end up releasing dangerous captives from

Vladimir Putin: Syria reform 'cannot come with bloodshed'

Welcome back Mr.P.
You are such a refreshing "Voice of Reason".

Speaking in his first full television interview since resuming the presidency, Mr Putin said: “Today some people want to use militants from al-Qaeda or some other organisations with equally radical views to accomplish their goals in Syria. This policy is dangerous and very short-sighted.”

The Russian leader was responding to a host at the Kremlin-controlled RT channel who suggested that western and Arab nations were “sponsoring terrorism” by supporting the rebel coalition, the Free Syrian Army, which was “suspected of hiring known al-Qaeda fighters”.

Do you ever hear any of this wisdom from any of our leaders?
NO!

Mr Putin expressed agreement with the assessment and said: “In that case, one should unlock Guantanamo, arm all of its inmates and bring them to Syria to do the fighting - it's practically the same kind of people.”

He warned against foreign intervention in Syria, saying that “no one is confident” that US troops will have stabilised Afghanistan by the time they withdraw.

“The most important task today is ending the violence," he added. “We must urge all the warring parties, including the government and the so-called rebels, the armed opposition, to sit down at the negotiating table and decide on a future that would guarantee security for all of the stakeholders within Syria.”

US ends investigation of terror detainees' deaths without charges

No charge.......Only the lowly

The Justice Department announced Thursday that it has ended a lengthy investigation into the CIA's interrogation and treatment of prisoners without bringing any criminal charges.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the investigation into the deaths of two suspected terrorists who died in CIA custody -- one in Iraq and another in Afghanistan -- was ended without charges because "the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt."

The two cases include the highly publicized case of Manadel al-Jamadi, who died in a shower stall at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq while in CIA custody. Several U.S. soldiers, who were photographed with al-Jamadi's body, packed in ice inside a body bag, were later prosecuted and convicted in military courts for prisoner abuse.

The investigation spanned more than four years. It began

Revealed: After Baghdad massacre, Blackwater split into 30 shell companies

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/revealed-blackwater-formed-30-shell-companies-suck-taxpayer-money/


Why do we need a private company to load missiles? What exactly is there left for military enlistees to do anymore, if jobs like that are outsourced to private companies?
And since when can't the CIA provide their own in house security?



The security company Blackwater Worldwide formed a network of 30 shell companies and subsidiaries to try to get millions of dollars in government business after the company faced strong criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, The New York Times reported Friday.

The newspaper said that it was unclear how many of the created companies got American contracts but that at least three of them obtained work with the U.S. militaryand the CIA.

But recently the company was awarded a $100 million contract to provide security for the agency in Afghanistan, prompting criticism from some in Congress. CIA Director Leon Panetta said that the CIA had no choice but to hire the company because it underbid others by $26 million and that a CIA review concluded that the contractor had cleaned up its act.

Last year, Panetta canceled a contract with Xe that allowed the company's operatives to load missiles on Predator drones in Pakistan, and shifted the work to government personnel

Afghanistan war logs: How US marines sanitised record of bloodbath

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/26/afghanistan-war-logs-us-marines

No you didn't read about this from any journalist, because they are under threat of death by the United States Military to cover up the exposure of their crimes.
It makes you proud to be an American...... doesn't it?

War logs show how marines gave cleaned up accounts of incident in which they killed 19 civilians


Brevity is the hallmark of military reporting, but even by those standards the description of one disastrous event is remarkably short: "The patrol returned to base."

It started with a suicide bomb. On 4 March 2007 a convoy of US marines, who arrived in Afghanistan three weeks earlier, were hit by an explosives-rigged minivan outside the city of Jalalabad.

The marines made a frenzied escape, opening fire with automatic weapons as they tore down a six-mile stretch of highway, hitting almost anyone in their way – teenage girls in fields, motorists in their cars, old men as they walked along the road. Nineteen unarmed civilians were killed and 50 wounded.

None of this, however, was captured in the initial military account, written by the marines themselves. It simply says that, simultaneous to the suicide explosion, "the patrol received small arms fire from three directions".

British and US accused of poppy plague warfare in Afghanistan

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7682412/British-and-US-accused-of-poppy-plague-warfare-in-Afghanistan.html

Is there anything they don't bet on?

Fighting and opium seizures had already been credited with pushing farm gate opium prices up by 19 per cent since last year as speculators bet on reduced supply.

Blackwater guards stole weapons in Kabul and went on deadly rampage

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7040078.ece

Not a pretty image when you start to put the puzzle pieces together.
These people ARE licenced to be our keepers

Private American security guards working for the US military in Afghanistan removed hundreds of handguns and automatic weapons from stores intended for the exclusive use of the Afghan police and used them on drunken shooting rampages that killed two Afghan civilians and injured at least two more.

The guards included a former US Marine with a criminal record of assault and battery and a former soldier discharged from the US Army after testing positive for cocaine, Congress heard yesterday.

Contractors outnumber full-time workers at DHS; lawmakers 'astounded'

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/...tor/index.html

Thousands of vets could get benefits upgrade

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-01-25-veterans-pentagon-benefits_N.htm


The military has agreed to expedite a review of the records of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans discharged with post-traumatic stress disorder to determine whether they were improperly denied benefits.
The agreement stems from a judge's order in a class action lawsuit originally filed by seven combat veterans who alleged the military illegally denied health care and other benefits to those discharged because of the disorder during a six-year period that ended Oct. 14, 2008.

Legal notices are currently being mailed to about 4,300 veterans informing them that they can "opt-in" to the lawsuit until July 24 to participate in the expedited review. Attorneys for the veterans estimate that millions could be paid to veterans under the agreement, with some veterans receiving hundreds or more dollars in increased monthly benefits.

Report: US weapon test aimed at Iran caused Haiti quake

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116834§ionid=351020104

They don't care what they do or who it affects.

An unconfirmed report by the Russian Northern Fleets says the Haiti earthquake was caused by a flawed US Navy 'earthquake weapons' test before the weapons could be utilized against Iran.

United States Navy test of one of its 'earthquake weapons' which was to be used against Iran, went 'horribly wrong' and caused the catastrophic quake in the Caribbean, the website of Venezuela's ViVe TV recently reported, citing the Russian report.

After the report was released, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also made a similar claim, saying that a US drill, carried out in preparation for a deliberate attempt to cause an earthquake in Iran, had led to the deadly incident in Haiti, claiming more than 110,000 lives.


In 1997, US Secretary of Defense William Cohen also expressed concern about activities that "can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves."

The US government, however, has chosen to stick to its position that HAARP is merely a program aimed at analyzing the Earth's ionosphere for the purpose of developing communications and surveillance technology.

Outsourcing War - Rise Of Private Military Contractors (PMCs)

http://www.rense.com/general89/outs.htm

If it was your bread and butter, would you end the gravy train?

Defining a Mercenary

Article 47 in the 1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions provides the most widely, though not universally, accepted definition, based on six criteria, all of which must be met.

"A mercenary is any person who:

(a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;

(b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities:

(c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of the Party;

(d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;

(e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and

(f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces."

U.S. spending in Afghanistan plagued by poor U.S. oversight

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/82448.html


How much has the government spent on our antiquated grid lately?

The U.S. has spent more than $732 million to improve Afghanistan's electrical grid since 2002, but delays and rising costs have plagued many of the projects in part because of poor oversight by the American government, a watchdog agency reports.

In 2006, the USAID awarded the two U.S. companies a five-year, $1.4 billion joint contract to build many of the roads and energy projects that now are under way in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's electrical capacity has increased in the last eight years from 430 megawatts to more than 1,028 megawatts, a significant achievement in a country in which only about 6 percent of rural citizens have electricity, the auditors said.

However, it's unclear whether Afghanistan will be able to operate the system without foreign aid, they said.

One major hurdle is collecting enough money to keep the grid running, the report said. The reason: systemic corruption.

War bonds proposed to pay for Afghanistan, Iraq conflicts

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/80756.html

And we'll pay for it with war bonds because it's a great show of patriotism.
Hey people, I believe we're broke. Someone finally tallied the tab.

Lawmakers in both houses of Congress have introduced legislation to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq by using a method that's a throwback to prior U.S. conflicts: war bonds.

Saying that it would "promote national shared sacrifice and responsibility," Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., introduced a bill Wednesday in the House of Representatives that would authorize the treasury secretary to issue and sell war bonds to Americans to fund the wars.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., filed companion legislation in the Senate earlier this week.

"At a time of tremendous sacrifice for our military families, we need to promote shared sacrifice and shoulder collective responsibility as a nation as we fight two wars halfway across the globe," Meek said, calling war bonds a "cost-effective way" to reduce dependence on foreign creditors.

He also said the bonds would "create an outlet for Americans to express their patriotism and support for our service members as well as the security mission for which they are deployed."

For U.S. Troops in Afghanistan, Supplies Are Another Battle

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126075201256889955.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments



The White House has settled on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, and now the Pentagon must grapple with another thorny problem: how to support them once they get there.

For Ashton Carter, the top Pentagon official in charge of weapons purchases, that has meant focusing on the concrete -- literally. Basic materials for building bases are in short supply or nonexistent in Afghanistan, so U.S. officials must search for staples like concrete next door in Pakistan.

View Full Image

Associated Press

Ashton Carter, center, the top Defense Department official in charge of weapons purchases, with a new mine-resistant all-terrain vehicle at the Pentagon in November.
.Another priority: Getting thousands of blast-resistant trucks from Oshkosh Corp.'s factory in Oshkosh, Wis., to U.S. forces in the Afghan hinterlands.

"At this phase, Afghanistan is a logistics war as much as any other kind of war," said Mr. Carter, whose formal title is under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, in a recent interview.

Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan has no modern infrastructure. Critical supplies such as fuel must be imported. The country is landlocked and has just three major overland routes. Enormous distances separate bases and outposts. High mountains and valleys, as well as extreme weather, make air travel difficult.

President Obama's Secret: Only 100 al Qaeda Now in Afghanistan

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/presid...ory?id=9227861

A slightly unbalanced picture I'd say. I think it's the prelude to Pakistan, because they moved.

As he justified sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion a year, President Barack Obama's description Tuesday of the al Qaeda "cancer" in that country left out one key fact: U.S. intelligence officials have concluded there are only about 100 al Qaeda fighters in the entire country.

A senior U.S. intelligence official told ABCNews.com the approximate estimate of 100 al Qaeda members left in Afghanistan reflects the conclusion of American intelligence agencies and the Defense Department. The relatively small number was part of the intelligence passed on to the White House as President Obama conducted his deliberations.

President Obama made only a vague reference to the size of the al Qaeda presence in his speech at West Point, when he said, "al Qaeda has not reemerged in Afghanistan in the same number as before 9/11, but they retain their safe havens along the border."

Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html?_r=1

Is there anybody we don't give a paycheck to?

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America’s war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.

DEA Agents Among 14 Americans Dead In Afghanistan

http://wcbstv.com/national/DEA.agents.afghanistan.2.1272192.html


A U.S. military helicopter crashed Monday while returning from the scene of a firefight with suspected Taliban drug traffickers in western Afghanistan, killing 10 Americans including three DEA agents in a not-so-noticed war within a war.
The casualties marked the Drug Enforcement Administration's first deaths since it began operations here in 2005. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium — the raw ingredient in heroin — and the illicit drug trade is a major source of funding for insurgent groups.

The U.S. has decided to target production and distribution networks after programs to destroy poppy fields did little except turn farmers against the American-led NATO mission.

In the past year, the DEA has launched an ambitious plan to increase its personnel in Afghanistan from about a dozen to nearly 80, greatly expanding its role.

Gas Costs $400 a Gallon in Afghanistan

http://www.military.com/news/article...=1186032325324

The logic about how the war in Iraq would pay for itself from oil revenues never did pan out in spite of the fact that it’s an oil-rich country. How much worse is the situation in Afghanistan, then, where there is no oil industry and the very cost of getting fuel to U.S. forces – buying, shipping and hauling – has become embarrassingly high?

About $400 per gallon worse.

That’s the figure the Pentagon has come up with after crunching all the costs related to getting gasoline into the tanks, Humvees and helos operating in the Afghan theater, according to the Pentagon.


The number emerged after the Pentagon’s comptroller was directed to spell out why the Afghan war costs about $1 billion for every 1,000 Americans deployed there, according to a report in The Hill newspaper, which said the Obama administration uses that number in estimating costs of sending the up-to-40,000 new troops requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The reasons given for the overall high price for fuel – what the Pentagon calls the “fully burdened cost of fuel” – is the lack of infrastructure in Afghanistan and a geography that’s unforgiving of ground transport bound for remote bases in mountainous regions.

Group: U.S. is monitoring journalists in Afghanistan

http://www.kmtr.com/news/world/story/Group-U-S-is-monitoring-journalists-in-Afghanistan/EEHP8MpYukuPnNziNN-UPA.cspx?rss=194

Just Another example of the selective insurance to make sure you view the US military interventions framed in the positive light that they would have you see it in.


The International Federation of Journalists complained Wednesday that news people covering the war in Afghanistan are being monitored by the U.S. military to see if they are sympathetic to the American cause.

The federation said journalists seeking to travel under the protection of U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan may be screened first by an American public relations firm to see if their coverage portrays the military in a positive light.

"This profiling of journalists further compromises the independence of media," Aidan White, general secretary of the Brussels-based federation, said in a statement.

"It strips away any pretense that the army is interested in helping journalists to work freely," the federation statement said.

The complaint followed the publication Aug. 24 of an article in the Stars and Stripes, an independent daily covering the U.S. military, reporting that journalists were being screened by The Rendon Group, a Washington-based public relations company.

The article said the company "gained notoriety

3 more Camp Lejeune Marines killed in Afghanistan

http://www.news14.com/content/local_news/coastal/613107/3-more-camp-lejeune-marines-killed-in-afghanistan/Default.aspx

Yeah this war is real, and now they are asking for more kids and a time frame of a dozen years has been referenced.
It's time to get real about the cost of all of this and if they really can be afforded.

They've been identified as 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Patrick Schimmel, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Javier Olvera and 23-year-old Lance Cpl. Dennis Burrow. Schimmel was from Winfield, Mo., Olvera was from Palmdale, Calif., and Burrow was from Naples, Fla.

All were killed in separate incidents in combat in Afghanistan over the weekend. They were all assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division.

The number of U.S. and international troops killed in Afghanistan has soared this year. July was the deadliest month for U.S. and foreign troops since the start of the war in 2001.

At least 16 deaths