Journal: UK Complicity in torture of its own citizens

09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Ethics
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Editorial, Wednesday 25 November 2009

Allegations about Britain's role in the torture of its own citizens in Pakistan are not new. They have been made persuasively by our own investigative reporting. What is new in the report published yesterday by Human Rights Watch is the corroboration it obtained from the torturers themselves. Ali Dayan Hasan, HRW's senior south Asia researcher, found sources in Inter-Services Intelligence, the military-controlled spy agency in Pakistan, and the Intelligence Bureau, a civilian-controlled one, to admit they tortured five British citizens at the behest, and with the full knowledge, of British intelligence.

Journal: Afghanistan

05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Civil Society, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

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Pentagon preparing to send 34,000 troops to Afghanistan, official says

CNN   November 24, 2009

Pentagon planners expect orders to send about 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a defense official told CNN, a day after the president's final meeting to decide the next moves in Afghanistan.  The military has planning under way to send three U.S. Army brigades, totaling about 15,000 troops; a Marine brigade, about 8,000 troops; a headquarters element, about 7,000 troops; and between 4,000 and 5,000 support troops — a total of approximately 34,000 troops, according to a defense official with direct knowledge of Pentagon operations. CNN reported last month that this was the preferred option within the Pentagon.

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Cynthia McKinney Letter to the President

Please bring our troops home now.

A peace demonstration is being organized for December 12, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally, also known as the End US Wars Rally, is scheduled for 11am at Lafayette Park at the White House. I wholly endorse this rally and encourage all who can to participate in Washington, DC or to help a local peace organization committed to ending U.S. wars on that date.

Journal: True Cost of Health Care–Fraud Squared

07 Health, Ethics

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A Doctor Walks into the ER. The Punchline? A $5,000 Bill

He needed 29 stitches to patch up a two-inch cut, and was in and out of the ER in two hours. The nearly $5,000 price of the bill was only one aspect that disgusted Dr. Budris:

It listed something called “M/S SUPPLY GENERAL,” which came to $1,247. Then there was another $2,425 for “EMERGENCY ROOM GENERAL.”

“I'm a doctor and I can't tell you what all of that means,” said Budris.

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Journal: Afghanistan War surtax–‘Pay as you fight’

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Key Players, Policies, Threats

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David RogersMon Nov 23, 2009

Call it “pay as you fight.”

After months of listening to conservatives caterwaul over deficits and health care, senior House Democrats want a graduated surtax on individuals and corporations to pay for another big drain on the treasury: the Afghanistan war.

Three full committee chairmen — including the House’s top tax writer, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) — are backing the initiative together with the chair of the party caucus, Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), and close allies of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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Journal: In Iraq Two-Way British-American Hostility

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Key Players, Methods & Process, Policies, Strategy, Threats

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The deep hostility of Britain’s senior military commanders in Iraq towards their American allies has been revealed in classified Government documents leaked to the Daily Telegraph.

By Andrew Gilligan,  22 Nov 2009

In the papers, the British chief of staff in Iraq, Colonel J.K.Tanner, described his US military counterparts as “a group of Martians” for whom “dialogue is alien,” saying: “Despite our so-called ‘special relationship,’ I reckon we were treated no differently to the Portuguese.”

Col Tanner’s boss, the top British commander in the country, Major General Andrew Stewart, told how he spent “a significant amount of my time” “evading” and “refusing” orders from his US superiors.   …

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Journal: A Nation of Naive Inattentive Infidels

08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement

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Lethal Weapon: Islamist Perfidy or Western Naivety?

by Raymond Ibrahim,   Pajamas Media, November 23, 2009

The narrator’s enthusiastic talk of NYPD brass standing in awe of the “cadences of the call” makes it difficult to discern exactly which verse is being recited. Only the last few words — qawm al-kaffirin, “nation of infidels” — are crystal clear, raising red flags. Thanks to my trusty Arabic Koranic concordance, I have placed this phrase as part of Koran 2:286, which supplicates Allah “to make us [Muslims] victorious over the nation of infidels.” Bear in mind that, from an Islamist point of view, the United States is the “nation of infidels” par excellence.

And there it is: From an American president who publicly defines his mission by quoting a jihadi-related verse, to American-Muslim leaders who publicly pray for the subjugation of non-Muslims (in the middle of an NYPD auditorium, no less), it is clear that the ultimate threat comes more from Western carelessness and indifference — in a word, naivety — than it does from active Islamist machinations. In short, Islamists peddling misleading interpretations for the word “jihad” is but the very tip of the iceberg.

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Journal: French Amphibious Ship in Russia

06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Military

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France shows off cutting-edge navy ship in Russia

By IRINA TITOVA, Associated Press Writer

Mon Nov 23, 2009

The head of the Russian navy has said that a Mistral-class vessel could put as many troops in Georgia in 40 minutes as the Russian Black Sea Fleet took 26 hours to land during the nations' August 2008 war. Moscow declared the Russian-allied breakaway Georgian territory of Abkhazia an independent nation after the war and sent thousands of troops there. Russia, Georgia and Ukraine all have Black Sea coastlines, as does Abkhazia.

Slideshow:France shows amphibious assault ship

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