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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A Newsday article from 2005 details the dirtbags, including Neil Bush, who served on Pope Ratzinger’s ‘ecumenical foundation’ — all protected from on ‘High.’ Also in 2005, Pope Rat(zinger) asked US President [sic] George W. Bush to ‘declare the pontiff immune from liability’ in a lawsuit that accused him of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three boys by a seminarian in Texas. In September 2005, the U.S. asserted that the lawsuit should be dismissed, as the Pope enjoys immunity as head of state of the Holy See.

TODAY: Catholic Cardinal rejects sex abuse ‘gossip’ (BBC) 04 Apr 2010 A senior cardinal has said the Roman Catholic faithful will not be swayed by “petty gossip” about child sex-abuse allegations. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, made the remark in an unusual message of support to Pope Benedict XVI during Easter Mass. The Pope did not mention the scandal directly in his Easter address. He said humanity was suffering from a “profound crisis” and needed “spiritual and moral conversion”.

THE BACKGROUND: The New Pope Benedict XVI –Neil Bush, Ratzinger co-founders — President’s younger brother served with then-cardinal on board of relatively unknown ecumenical foundation By Knut Royce and Tom Brune, Washington (Newsday) April 21, 2005 Neil Bush, the president’s controversial younger brother, six years ago joined the cardinal who this week became Pope Benedict XVI as a founding board member of a little known Swiss ecumenical foundation. The charter members of the board were all well-known international religious figures, except for Bush and his close friend and business partner, Jamal Daniel, whose family has extensive holdings in the United States and Switzerland, public records show. The Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1999 to promote ecumenical understanding and publish original religious texts, said a foundation official. Besides then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, founding board members included Rene-Samuel Sirat, the former chief rabbi of France; Jordan’s Prince Hassan, a Muslim dedicated to religious dialogue; the late Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, another prominent Muslim; Olivier Fatio, director of the Institute of the History of the Reformation; and foundation president Metropolitan Damaskinos, a Greek Orthodox leader. Gary Vachicouras, a theologian and foundation official in Geneva, would not explain in a telephone interview yesterday why Bush, who has no clear public connection to religious causes, was on the first board… In his highly publicized divorce last year, Bush revealed he and Daniel are co-chairs of Texas-based Crest Investment Co., which pays him $60,000 a year for consulting. Recently, Crest Investment officials used Bush’s name as a reference in cutting an exclusive deal with Texas officials on construction of a liquid natural gas storage facility that will guarantee Crest payments of at least $2 million a year, according to the Los Angeles Times… The foundation, based at the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Geneva, is listed by Dun & Bradstreet business credit reports as a management trust for purposes other than education, religion, charity or research… Fatio, who left the board three years ago, said the foundation “never had any money.” Vachicouras declined to discuss finances.

Pope seeks immunity over sex abuse suit (The Associated Press, The Sydney Morning Herald) 17 Aug 2005 Lawyers for Pope Benedict XVI have asked US President [sic] George W. Bush to declare the pontiff immune from liability in a lawsuit that accuses him of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three boys by a seminarian in Texas, court records show. The Vatican’s embassy in Washington sent a diplomatic memo to the State Department on May 20 requesting the US government grant the pope immunity because he is a head of state, according to a May 26 motion submitted by the pope’s lawyers in US District Court for the Southern Division of Texas in Houston. Joseph Ratzinger is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit. Now Benedict XVI, he’s accused of conspiring with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to cover up the abuse during the mid-1990s. The suit is seeking unspecified monetary damages. In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Gerry Keener, said today that the pope already is considered a head of state and automatically has diplomatic immunity. Keener said Benedict doesn’t have to ask for immunity and Bush doesn’t have to grant it.

U.S. Government Says Pope Immune from Lawsuit By Nicole Winfield, Rome (The Associated Press, carried in Fort Worth Star-Telegram) 20 Sep 2005 The U.S. Justice Department has told a Texas court that a lawsuit accusing Pope Benedict XVI of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian should be dismissed because the pontiff enjoys immunity as head of state of the Holy See. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler said in Monday’s filing that allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be “incompatible with the United States’ foreign policy interests.” There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the southern district of Texas in Houston. However, U.S. courts have been bound by such “suggestion of immunity” motions submitted by the government, Keisler’s filing says. A 1994 lawsuit against Pope John Paul II, also filed in Texas, was dismissed after the U.S. government filed a similar motion.

Pope ‘led cover-up of child abuse by priests’ (London Evening Standard) 30 Sep 2006 The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight. In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church’s interests ahead of child safety. The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

Visit Citizens for Legitimate Government.

Read the Wikipedia article on Catholic sex abuse cases.

According to Jay Nelson’s Priests of Darkness: Sex, Sin and Satanism in the Catholic Church – Priest Pedophile Statistics:

* Between 1950 and 2002, 10,667 individuals made accusations during those years.

* US clerics (priests, deacons, bishops, etc.) accused of abuse from 1950-2002: 4,392.
About 4% of the 109,694 serving during those 52 years.

* Victims’ ages: 5.8% under 7; 16% ages 8-10; 50.9% ages 11-14; 27.3% ages 15-17.

* Victims’ gender: 81% male, 19% female

See, Vatican Sex Crimes – Pope Benedict’s Obstruction of Justice, May 16, 2008: I thought this too graphic to show my audience, so be warned.

In related reading, See, How the Corporations Broke Ralph Nader and America, Too, Truthdig, April 5, 2010, by Chris Hedges:

ABC: Pope still protecting pedophile bishops

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Government attempts to keep torture case secret –Holding case taken by former Guantánamo detainees behind closed doors would set ‘very dangerous precedent’, says lawyer 08 Mar 2010 The government will attempt today to have a case about torture heard entirely behind closed doors in a move that some lawyers say would extend secrecy to a new area of hearings, overriding ancient principles of English law.

This morning a case will come before three appeal judges in London in which seven men are seeking damages against the government for mistreatment during what they say was their “extraordinary rendition” and torture facilitated by the British security services.

Alleged torture victims facing ‘secret and one-sided justice’ –Legal experts have warned the judgment threatens British principles of justice and have branded it a ‘constitutional outrage’. 08 Mar 2010 British intelligence services must be stopped from using secret evidence against former Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Appeal Court heard today. Alleged torture victims seeking to sue the Government over Britain’s complicity in their unlawful imprisonment are facing ‘secret and one-sided’ justice, their lawyer claimed. Six former detainees are hoping to win damages from the Government over allegations that Britain knew about their ill-treatment. Their lawyers have begun a challenge at the Court of Appeal against a ruling which would allow the security services and the Government to withhold evidence from the men during the civil case.

Commentary by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: They said Obama was “soft on terrorism”: exCuse me, is anybody listening here? Do you think they might be trying for a conviction, here??? Republicans, are you really that stupid, or are you just lying about how tough Obama in fact IS on terrorism and trying desperately to score some big political points. McCain tried that on Obama in the campaign, too. (The fact is, the United States has decided to do basically the same thing Great Britain is doing here: secret trials with military tribunals. Right, and the Patriot Act renewal, too. The surge in Afghanistan, do you think that might be evidence Obama is going to always do the right thing, even if the left doesn’t like it? Oh, I know you’re going to try to claim credit for that, the incredible force of your protests at the still possible trials in New York, the force of your incredible patriotism, I know.) You Could try actually reading the news…. Oh, you do that? Well then you are a bunch of lying demagogues, who don’t really care about the facts of the matter at all. What’s Actually going on is that Obama is so tough on secrecy, the Patriot Act renewal, terrorism, the surge in Afghanistan, etc., that he has managed to alienate the whole left wing of the Democratic Party, isn’t that the case? Go away Republicans, you are annoying Obama and nobody’s impressed. Seriously, grow up!

UPDATE: See Experts Urge Keeping Two Options for Terror Trials, The New York Times, March 8, 2010, by Charlie Savage and Scott Shane.