No commentary required (and similar things are clearly happening in Afghanistan, I heard it discussed routinely during my recent visit there). Eli Lake reports for The Daily Beast: During the war in Iraq, battalion commanders were allocated packets of $100 bills and authorized to use them for anything from repairing a schoolhouse to paying off…
Showing all posts tagged Afghanistan
Scahill on Obama’s war on Muslim civilians
The relentless US-led drone war against “terrorists” in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and beyond rarely examines who is actually being killed. President Obama has massively expanded the global program. This weekend saw a Drone Summit held… in Washington DC that highlighted this still largely secret war. A keynote speaker was the leading investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill…
Shadow of Bin Laden continues to haunt
The life and times of Osama Bin Laden post 9/11 remains shrouded in mystery. During my recent visit to Pakistan, I spent time with Shaukat Qadir, a retired Pakistani Army Brigadier, who personally investigated the story behind Bin Laden’s killing last year. This lead story in the Guardian by Jason Bourke adds more details to…
Role of Taliban central in Afghanistan (whether the West likes it or not)
Intriguing interview in The Daily Beast that highlights the internal struggles within a movement that has beaten the US and its allies in Afghanistan: Not so long ago,… Agha Jan Motasim… was one of the most important men in the Afghan Taliban. That was before he was sacked as head of the ruling Quetta Shura’s political committee—and…
What Afghanistan truly needs
My friend Benjamin Gilmour, film-maker and writer, is in Afghanistan. Here are some of his reflections (which match much of what I heard during my recent visit): How can we bring development to Afghanistan if we don’t have security? It is still the question put to us by backers of our longest war, and we…
Private military and intelligence still alive and well in Afghanistan
My following investigation appeared in Australian publication Crikey last week: The private security compound is on the outskirts of Kabul, along the road to Jalalabad, a notorious strip of highway, the landscape is predominantly industrial, with shipping containers set against a string of mountains on the horizon. Several logistics companies sit behind these concrete walls”‰—”‰this…
Not killing Afghans to save David Cameron’s arse
Joe Glenton fought in the British army in Afghanistan. No more. He explains why in the Guardian: Recent… attacks in Kabul… confirm the occupation is falling to pieces. Claims about “decisive years” and “turned corners” are little more than cant. Instead for all their lack of air power, drones and high-tech equipment, the Taliban are gaining ascendancy.…
War business in Afghanistan
My following investigation is published by Lebanon’s Al Akhbar: Since the US invasion in 2001, Afghanistan has seen multiple private armies take control of the country’s security sector. The private security compound was on the outskirts of Kabul. Situated along the road to Jalalabad on a… notorious strip of highway, the landscape was industrial with sun-drenched…
ABCTV News24”²s The Drum on Afghanistan and Murdoch scandal
Last night I appeared on ABCTV’s The Drum (video here) talking about a range of Australian issues, Afghanistan and Murdoch thuggery in Britain. Having just returned from Pakistan and Afghanistan, I talked about the reality of life in the latter under Western occupation and what’s likely to happen once most troops leave at the end…
The vast, unprecedented web of American surveillance
We are being watched and monitored on a scale never seen in human history. National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney spoke to Democracy Now! last week and said that he… estimates the NSA has assembled 20 trillion “transactions” — phone calls, emails and other forms of data — from Americans. This probably includes copies of almost…