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POPSOpium, Rape and the American Way
Truth from the women in Afghanistan: (read the whole article for the real story) "In eight years less than 2,000 Talib have been killed and more than 8,000 innocent civilians has been killed," she went on. "We believe that this is not war on terror. This is war on innocent civilians. Look at the massacres carried out by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Look what they did in May in the Farah province, where more than 150 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. They used white phosphorus and cluster bombs. There were 200 civilians on 9th of September killed in the Kunduz province, again most of them women and children. You can see the Web site of professor Marc Herold, this democratic man, to know better the war crimes in Afghanistan imposed on our people. The United States and NATO eight years ago occupied my country under the banner of woman's rights and democracy. But they have only pushed us from the frying pan into the fire. They put into power men who are photocopies o
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POPSMurderous US drones condemned by UN. Americans who are confused by the grotesque transformation of the modest aim of capturing a few bad men into a conflagration that has destroyed the lives of millions echo the Guardian of the 1920s, which asked why the British government had to send "all this machinery, all these forces...if we were establishing a political system on the basis of popular consent?" Without distinguishing between drones that protect our troops and those that drop bombs and hover menacingly over an occupied people, The Economist taunts, "like them or not, drones are here to stay." Now, who are the terrorists here and which is the rogue state ?
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POPSZinnie to Obama: Time's Up on Afghanistan Decision If Zinni is calling for more troops Now then things are more serious than we're hearing. And I bet he didn't use the word "dillydallying". I just read that 8 US soldiers were killed today by roadside bombs. Either support our people there or throw our integrity to the wind and leave.
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POPSThe Washington Post's 2002 "reporting" on Iran
The issue isn't whether you believe Iran desires to develop nuclear weapons; it's obviously possible (even rational) that they do. The issue is the painfully reckless, transparently irresponsible, and Iraq-replicating "journalistic" methods for disseminating these war-fueling assertions. In perfect 2002 fashion, Warrwick does not have a single named source for these scary allegations; instead, this is who fed him these claims: "many U.S. and European intelligence officials" and "two former senior U.S. officials" and "intelligence officials from the United States and allied nations" and "a senior Middle East-based intelligence official" (one wonders, in vain, which "allied nation" and which "Middle-East based" country might have whispered these things?). And while Warwick provides a cursory paragraph devoted to denials by Iranian officials of these accusations, he does not include a single expert or named source to dispute these claims. It's a purely one-sided, unquestioning and en
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POPSTHEORY or FACT So, why would former CIA director Woolsey, as the Fire Department’s Anti-terrorism Consultant, be gagging Isaac and his colleagues about what they saw and heard, i.e. bombs exploding in the building if not to cover up the government conspiracy, the inside job behind the supposed demolition of the WTC by two jetliners, whose fuel fire supposedly melted the redundant steel frames which caved and caused a pyroplastic free-fall of each building in some ten seconds. All at once the conspiracy of the lone Muslim airliner hijackers destroying the towers goes down the drain, glub, glub! That’s why Firefighters and Police Officers were gagged
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POPSObama Quietly Deploying 13,000 More US troops to Afghanistan
In addition to the deployments under way, McChrystal has also requested an extra 40,000 troops he says are necessary to prevent the country falling into the hands of the Taliban. The Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, today expressed support for McChrystal's request. "I'm fully behind him for what he's seeking in this report," Karzai told ABC's Good Morning America. As part of the internal debate, the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, who is cautiously supporting McChrystal, is due to meet later today the vice-president Joe Biden, who is opposed to the troop increase and favours a shift in priority to tracking down al-Qaida in Pakistan. A decision on McChrystal's troop request appears to have been postponed for a few weeks. Any extra troops will come as a result of a parallel reduction in the number of US troops in Iraq. A US military planner told the Army Times: "We've increased forces in Afghanistan before we've reduced forces in Iraq in a meaningful way.
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POPSChechen, North African and Pakistani Fighters Helping Taliban
Defense Minister Requests More International Troops, Says Thousands Bolstering Taliban Insurgency (AP) Thousands of foreign fighters have poured into Afghanistan to bolster the Taliban insurgency, the country's defense minister said Saturday as he called for more international troops. The remarks come as the U.S. debates whether to substantially increase its forces in Afghanistan or to conduct a more limited campaign focused on targeting al Qaeda figures - most of whom are believed to be in neighboring Pakistan. An American and two Polish troops were killed by bombs in the latest violence reported by NATO forces. U.S. military officials said they could not immediately comment on the claim of a recent influx of foreign fighters. Afghanistan's interior minister, who also spoke to parliament, endorsed a strategy promoted by the top U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal to focus on protecting civilians rather than simply killing insurgents.
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POPS Then There’s The Iran Bit Reidel led the Obama Administration’s strategy review of Afghanistan and Pakistan earlier this year. But he’s also worried about Iran. “It’s clear that U.S.-Iranian relations now are going to go into an increasingly difficult period,” Reidel said. “If I was sitting in Teheran, I’d be looking for the place where you could hurt the Americans the most and that’s Obama’s war right next door in Afghanistan.” Remember that Chicagoland speech in The Untouchables? “He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.” Not exactly the community-organizing Chicago way, I know … Anyway, another nuance overlooked in the complex AfPakInd picture painted by the AP’s Reid today. It isn’t just a war about al-Qaeda, or the Taliban, or Pakistan or India. It’s a war about Iran, too. A lot like Iraq that way. jules crittenden
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POPSOklahoma To Post Abortion Records On Public Website More: Apparently, in Oklahoma, "small government" Republicans are only interested in keeping government out of the private lives of men, and those women who make the personal health choices with which they agree. If you think this list won't be used to intimidate women and lead to violence, you are either a liar or deluded. The anti-abortion fringe has been killing people and setting off bombs for years. Mark me, the moment this goes into effect, some woman is going to be the target of violence, and she will have been identified by this database.