Evans Liberal Politics, News Update from Citizens for Legitimate Government and others, CLG News used with permission, quoted verbatim from email newsletter, Unedited copy from newsletter — Evans Liberal Politics simply is presenting this important AfPak news with no comment. Photo of Afghan villagers by Steve Evans:

Omar Deghayes: ‘He was brought in manacled and hooded’

CLG   — Libyan-born British resident held in Afghanistan was warned he faced a long period of incarceration in US hands 14 Jul 2010 In an MI5 report on the interrogation of Omar Deghayes, a Libyan-born British resident held by the Americans at Bagram airbase north of Kabul, an officer wrote to his superiors in London: “Deghayes was brought to the interview room manacled and hooded. When the hood was removed, Deghayes looked pale and shaky.” …Deghayes told the [MI5] officers that he was suffering internal bleeding and complained that no evidence had been presented against him… “He was treated better by the Pakistanis; what kind of world was it where the Americans were more barbaric than the Pakistanis? We listened but did not comment.” MI5 interrogated Deghayes again and told a senior American officer in Deghayes’ presence, that the detainee had not been co-operating. “If he sticks to his story and just gives a few more details, we propose disengaging and allowing events here to take their course,” the officer wrote. In the autumn Deghayes was flown to Guantánamo Bay, where he stayed for more than five years. At one point he was so severely beaten that he was blinded in one eye.

The torture files: the interrogations

CLG   — (guardian.co.uk) 14 Jul 2010 These documents detail for the first time the experiences of a detainee under interrogation. Omar Deghayes records his complaints about his treatment in the Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan in July 2002 and the willingness of MI5 officers to let him be removed to Guantanamo Bay.

Pakistan: Blackwater still active in Capital

CLG   — 13 Jul 2010 On May 14 and May 26 last, the exact postal addresses of 33 houses in posh residential localities of the Federal Capital – that were confirmedly hired by US Marines and Blackwater personnel – were first published in this newspaper. Further information indicates that out of those 33 houses – either hired by US Marines in the garb of humanitarian workers of US Office of Defence Representatives to Pakistan (ODR-P) or by Blackwater mercenaries – five residences-to-offices have been relocated to alternative venues and highest possible security measures are being adopted for their protection so that no one can track them. They were previously located in the sectors F-7/3, F-8/3 and F-6/2 of the Federal Capital but now they have been moved to E-7 and G-6/4.

Carl Levin backs strikes inside Pakistan

CLG   — 13 Jul 2010 A leading Democrat said the U.S. should be more aggressive in conducting airstrikes against groups inside Pakistan that threaten the mission in neighboring Afghanistan. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Tuesday morning that the U.S. should go after groups like the Haqqani network that “directly threaten” the mission [?] in Afghanistan. [What, exactly, *is* the 'mission' in Afghanistan, besides protecting opium and gas pipelines and enriching US corporaterrorists and mercenaries? - Comment by Lori Price.]

Twelve US-led soldiers killed in 48 hours

CLG   — 14 Jul 2010 Five more American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan’s volatile south, bringing to 12 the number of foreign soldiers killed over the past 48 hours. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Wednesday that four of the soldiers lost their lives in a bomb attack, while the other one was killed in a gunfight with the Taliban in the volatile south. The latest casualties come a day after seven NATO soldiers — four British and three American — were killed in the war-torn country.

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Gunned down as they slept: Rogue Afghan soldier shoots dead three British troops inside military compound

CLG   — Attacker used grenade launcher and is now on the run 13 Jul 2010 A renegade Afghan soldier is on the run today after killing three British soldiers in southern Helmand while they slept. Another four British soldiers were wounded in the attack inside a joint patrol base near Nahr-e Saraj early this morning.

Afghan soldier murders British troops

CLG   — 13 Jul 2010 A rogue Afghan soldier was on the run tonight after murdering three British troops and wounding another four. The killer launched his attack on soldiers from 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles at a base in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan early this morning. He shot one dead in his sleeping quarters and killed the other two in the base’s command centre using a shoulder-mounted rocket-propelled grenade launcher, sources said.

More AfPak & Military News

Senators urge clarity on Afghan war:

  — AlJazeera.net, July 15, 2010, by AlJazeera:

US politicians have voiced their concern over the war in Afghanistan, saying US and Nato war efforts suffer from a crippling “lack of clarity”.

At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday, the legislators said Barack Obama has not done enough to explain his exit strategy.

They were referring to the US president’s self-imposed July 2011 deadline for starting a withdrawal of US forces.

The hearing comes in the wake of heavy casualties suffered by US forces in 24 hours, with the confirmed deaths of eight soldiers in attacks, including a Taliban raid on a police compound in the southern city of Kandahar.

Taranis: The £143million unmanned stealth jet that will hit targets in another continent

  — 13 Jul 2010 Defence firm BAE Systems today officially unveiled its first ever high-tech unmanned stealth jet. The Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder, is about the same size as a Hawk jet and is equipped with stealth equipment and an ‘autonomous’ artificial intelligence system. The plane will test the possibility of developing the first ever autonomous stealthy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) that would ultimately be capable of precisely striking targets at long range, even in another continent.

Karzai Approves Plan to Keep Taliban Out of Villages

  — By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service, Department of Defense News:

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2010 – Afghan President Hamid Karzai has approved a program that will set up local police forces in towns and villages where the Taliban are attempting to infiltrate and intimidate the population.

The local police forces will bridge the gap until fully trained government forces can step in, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said at a news conference today.

“While we are simultaneously operating at a far higher tempo and degrading the Taliban so they are less of a threat to these local communities, we can utilize a willing, local, armed population to do community policing,” Morrell said.

The local police forces are not militias, Morrell explained. Karzai approved a plan to put up to 10,000 community police in place, to be paid by the government and to operate under the control of the Afghanistan’s interior ministry.

Petraeus wants Taliban in Pakistan on terror list

  — AP News hosted on Google News, July 14, 2010, by Pauline Jelinek:

WASHINGTON — The new military commander in Afghanistan and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee are urging the State Department to add to its terrorist list some Afghan insurgent commanders who operate from hiding places in neighboring Pakistan.

Commander of NATO forces Gen. David Petraeus wants some leaders of the Haqqani network added to the list, a senior U.S. Defense official in Washington said Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to describe internal administration discussions.

On Tuesday, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., urged the State Department to take the same action. Levin is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Both asked for sanctions against the al-Qaida-linked group, led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Siraj. The Haqqani network launches attacks against U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan from the Waziristan tribal region in Pakistan.

In Afghanistan, drug rehab for children

  — MichaelMoore.com, July 14, 2010, by Aunohita Mojumdar / Christian Science Monitor:

Children in Afghanistan are often fed opium to stop their crying, and many are born to addicts. A few clinics offer drug rehab for youths, but they are scarce and socially taboo.

Afghan war unwinnable under Karzai, says rights group

  — Reuters on MichaelMoore.com, July 14, 2010, by Rob Taylor:

(Reuters) – It would take “a miracle” to win the war and restore viable peace in Afghanistan under the inept government of President Hamid Karzai despite a massive surge in foreign troops, a rights group said on Monday.

The surge had also driven violence to its worst levels since the Taliban’s 2001 ousting, with 14 civilians killed or wounded on average each day, Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said in a new report (see below).

“Contrary to President Barrack Obama’s promise that the deployment … would ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat’ Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda allies in the region, the insurgency has become more resilient, multi-structured and deadly,” the group said.

Taliban attacks kill 8 US soldiers within 24 hours

  — Christian Science Monitor on MichaelMoore.com, July 14, 2010, by Kristen Chick:

Taliban attacks on Tuesday night and Wednesday killed eight US soldiers within a 24-hour period, highlighting the intensifying insurgency waged by the Taliban, which this year is carrying out more attacks than ever in the nearly nine-year-long war.

On Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed four US troops in the south, reports the Associated Press. A fifth soldier died the same day of wounds from a gun battle.

On Tuesday night, a Taliban attack on the headquarters of a police unit in the Afghan city of Kandahar killed nine people, including three US soldiers. It came hours after an Afghan soldier killed three British troops in neighboring Helmand Province, and days after six additional US troops were killed in Taliban attacks Saturday.

Tuesday’s attack on the police post began when a suicide bomber exploded his car at the entrance to the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police, reports AP. Fighters then began firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, but the Afghan police, along with NATO troops, kept the insurgents from entering the compound.

Afghanistan Rights Monitor SLAMS Washington
Spin About “Progress” in Afghanistan

  — Firedoglake, July 14, 2010, by Derrick Crowe:

The Afghanistan Rights Monitor’s (ARM) mid-year report on Civilian Casualties of Conflict (pdf) blasts the happy-talk coming out of the Obama Administration about the deteriorating security situation and its effect on civilians.

Despite the high-profile spin in Washington and Kabul about progress made in Afghanistan, the Afghan people have only witnessed and suffered an intensifying armed conflict over the past six months. Contrary to President Barrack Obama’s promise that the deployment of additional 30,000 US forces to the country would “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” Taliban insurgents and their al-Qaeda allies in the region, the insurgency has become more resilient, multi-structured and deadly. Information and figures received, verified and analyzed by Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) show about 1,074 civilian people were killed and over 1,500 were injured in armed violence and security incidents from 1 January to 30 June 2010. This shows a slight increase in the number of civilian deaths compared to the same period last year when 1,059 deaths were recorded.

…In terms of insecurity, 2010 has been the worst year since the demise of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Not only have the number of security incidents increased, the space and depth of insurgency and counter-insurgency-related violence have maximized dramatically. Up to 1,200 security incident were recorded in June, the highest number of incident compared to any month since 2002.

The administration and their allies have continuously that “we’re making progress,” “we’re turning the tide,” or “we’ve begun to reverse the insurgents’ momentum,” but the data doesn’t support their assertions. As ARM’s report shows, civilian casualties continue to climb even as more troops flood into the country — troops executing a counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy supposedly premised on “protecting the population.” The rise in troop levels and civilian casualties has been accompanied by an increasingly large and sophisticated insurgency and a widening lead in sympathy or support for the insurgents in key districts of Afghanistan.

Also see Poll: Americans Again Pessimistic on Afghan War, AntiWar.com, July 14, 2010, by Jason Ditz:

After falling to a relatively pessimistic low shortly before his December announcement of the McChrystal Plan and the latest escalation, America’s public perception of the Afghan War had been running comparatively high, with only about half of Americans believing the war was going badly as recently as May.

… Summer is back though, and with June’s record death toll comes a return to pessimism about the war’s prospects. The latest poll shows 62 percent believing the war is going badly now, with only 31 believing it is going well.

The poll also showed a majority of Americans, 54-41, want a timetable for exiting Afghanistan.

Also see India, Pakistan in high-level talk, ABC News.net, July 14, 2010, by Sally Sara: The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will hold talks later today for the first time since the Mumbai terrorist attacks. (This is the only possibly good news of the day. ~ Paul Evans)

Visit ReThinkAfghanistan.com to see effective, compelling videos about how escalation of the war in Afghanistan and meddling in Pakistan is the wrong move for America.

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