Posts Tagged ‘Yemen’
Notes on the US Budget for FY2011 as it Affects Afghanistan and Pakistan
This review of the U.S. President’s FY2011 budget request reflects two underlying concerns: (1) how much of the U.S. taxpayers’ money is being provided for military and diplomatic expenditures in the main theaters of war; and (2) how long can the United States sustain these levels of spending, and at what cost? While these questions are not [...]
For Americans: Liberty and Justice under Presidential “Findings”
Antiwar | By Philip Giraldi | 13 February 2010 Civis Romanus Sum “I am a Roman citizen” was a proud boast in the first century A.D. It implied the obligations of citizenship but also guaranteed privileges and rights that would be observed and protected by the Roman government. Among those rights was the ability to demand one’s day in [...]
Insecure Americans, Abdulmutallab, & Terrorism
New American | By Joe Wolverton, II | 4 February 2010 “The government can’t deliver the mail, it can’t operate surveillance cameras at an airport; it can’t pay back its debts; it can’t tell the truth.” — U.S. Judge Andrew Napolitano On January 9, 2009, an apparently fit, though slightly limping Umar Abdulmutallab entered the [...]
U.S. Intelligence Community’s Threat Assessment: Country Excerpts
The Threat Perceptions of a Paranoid Hyperpower Admiral Dennis C. Blair, U.S. Director of National Intelligence, presented the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on 2 February 2010. The public proceedings are available as a video (at the Senate Select Committee on [...]
Tangoing with the Taliban
Aljazeera | By Marwan Bishara | 2 February 2010 Despite the US military 'surge', Afghanistan is proving more challenging than Iraq. Unlike the general Iraqi distaste and hostility for al-Qaeda's methods and objectives, Osama bin Laden's network remains the Taliban's most potent strategic partner in its fight against the central government and [...]
U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) 2010: Text of Executive Summary
The U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review 2010, that was leaked over the weekend, was released formally by the Department of Defense at 1:00 p.m. EST at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (together with the Defense budget request—for FY2010 Supplementary, FY2011 Base Budget, and FY2011 Overseas Contingency Operations). This post reproduces the Executive [...]
U.S. Assassination Target, Muslim American, Awlaki on “RAND Islam”
"After 9/11, Aulaqi publicly condemned the attacks." — Washington Post. "The fact that the U.S. has administered the death and homicide of over one million civilians in Iraq, the fact that the U.S. is supporting the deaths and killing of thousands of Palestinians, does not justify the killing of one U.S. civilian in New York City or [...]
Jeff Huber: The Counterinsurgency (COIN) Myth
Antiwar.com | By Jeff Huber | 11, 13 & 18 January 2010 The COIN Myth Part I The U.S. military’s fabled counterinsurgency field manual (FM 3-24) is an authoritative-sounding 281-page volume of balderdash. Even the legend of its origin is a fabrication. Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of forces in Iraq and now in charge of [...]
U.S. “Black Ops” Teams Deeply Involved in Yemen
Washington Post | By Bana Priest | 27 January 2010 U.S. military teams, intelligence deeply involved in aiding Yemen on strikes U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops who in the past six weeks have killed scores of people, among them six of 15 top leaders of a regional [...]
Pakistan Will Assist in “Reconciling” Afghan-Taleban to Karzai Government
Times | By Deborah Haynes | 25 January 2010 General David Petraeus: full transcript of interview with The Times Afghanistan It seems that the Pakistanis are talking at all levels to Afghan Taleban and President Karzai will be announcing this reconciliation plan for low to mid-level Taleban... It is really reintegration to be [...]
