Infinite Unknown

- Drones Visualization: Every U.S. Drone Strike In Pakistan Since 2004 (GRAPHIC) (Huffington Post, March 26, 2013):

Pitch Interactive, a Berkeley-based data visualization unit, has created a graphic tracking every drone strike the United States has carried out in Pakistan since 2004. Wesley Grubbs, who created the visualization, joined HuffPost Live host Ahmed Shihab-Eldin Tuesday to explain the motivation behind the visualization.

“We want to shock people,” Grubbs said. “What we tried to do though with this was not just shock people with the number of casualties, but to shock people with the amount of information that we really don’t know.”

The visualization, seen below, tracks the victims of the strikes using data from the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, specifically noting children and civilian collateral damage. Note the sharp uptick after President Obama takes office in 2009:

View the visualization at Pitch Interactive.

Tags: Barack Obama, Bush administration, Children, Civilians, George Bush, Global News, Government, Military, Pakistan, Politics, Terrorism, U.S.

- At Least We’re Not Measles: Rationalizing Drone Attacks Hits New Low (Rolling Stone, Feb 14, 2013):

Read an absolutely amazing article today. Entitled “Droning on about Drones,” it was published in the online version of Dawn, Pakistan’s oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper, and written by one Michael Kugelman, identified as the Senior Program Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

In this piece, the author’s thesis is that all this fuss about America’s drone policy is overdone and perhaps a little hysterical. Yes, he admits, there are some figures that suggest that as many as 900 civilians have been killed in drone strikes between 2004 and 2013. But, he notes, that only averages out to about 100 civilians a year. Apparently, we need to put that number in perspective: Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Children, Drones, Global News, Government, Military, Pakistan, Politics

- The Children Killed by America’s Drones. “Crimes Against Humanity” committed by Barack H. Obama. (Global Research, Jan 26, 2013)

Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Global News, Government, Military, Obama administration, Pakistan, Politics, U.S., War, Yemen

- Pakistani Supreme Court orders arrest of prime minister in corruption case (CNN, Jan 15, 2013):

Islamabad — The Pakistani government came under attack from two angles Tuesday as the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the country’s prime minister and a rowdy anti-government rally took place near the national parliament.

Even by the standards of Pakistan’s often turbulent politics, it was a stormy day that ratcheted tensions ahead of national elections later this year.

The Supreme Court, which has clashed repeatedly with Pakistan’s political leaders in recent years, issued the arrest order for Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and a number of other officials over allegations of illegal payments for electricity generating projects when Ashraf was minister for water and power.

Continue reading »

Tags: Government, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle. The U.S. is conducting drone strikes in in at least three countries beyond Iraq and Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Stanley Thompson)

- Everything We Know So Far About Drone Strikes (ProPublica, Jan 11, 2013):

Jan. 11, 2013: this post has been corrected.

You might have heard about the “kill list.” You’ve certainly heard about drones. But the details of the U.S. campaign against militants in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia — a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s national security approach – remain shrouded in secrecy. Here’s our guide to what we know—and what we don’t know.

Where is the drone war? Who carries it out?

Drones have been the Obama administration’s tool of choice for taking out militants outside of Iraq and Afghanistan. Drones aren’t the exclusive weapon – traditional airstrikes and other attacks have also been reported. But by one estimate, 95 percent of targeted killings since 9/11 have been conducted by drones.  Among the benefits of drones: they don’t put American troops in harm’s way.

Continue reading »

Tags: Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, Barack Obama, CIA, George Bush, Global News, Government, Iraq, Military, Obama administration, Pakistan, Politics, Somalia, U.S., Yemen

- Revealed: U.S. carried out 333 drone strikes in Afghanistan this year alone – more than the entire drone strikes in Pakistan over the past eight years COMBINED (Daily Mail, Dec 21, 2012)

Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Drones, Global News, Government, Military, Obama administration, Pakistan, Politics

- Iran seizes 20 time bombs at Pakistan border: Iran police cmdr. (PressTV, Dec 22, 2012):

Second-in-commander of the Iranian police, Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Radan, says 20 time bombs have been discovered at Iran’s border with Pakistan.

“We urge the government of Pakistan to carry out its duties with regard to controlling border areas because the country’s border [with Iran] has turned into a route for saboteurs,” Radan said on Saturday. Continue reading »

Tags: Global News, Government, Iran, Pakistan, Politics

- Newtown kids v Yemenis and Pakistanis: what explains the disparate reactions? (Guardian, Dec 19, 2012)

Tags: Barack Obama, Global News, Government, Military, Obama administration, Pakistan, Politics, U.S., yeman

- CIA’s brand of Taliban now come with tattoos (Veterans Today, Dec 16, 2012)

Tags: Afghanistan, CIA, Global News, Government, Military, Pakistan, Politics, Taliban, U.S.

The US government (CIA) hates competition:

- Veterans Today’s Gordon Duff: Obama’s Drone Strikes On Pakistan Not Targeting Terrorists, But Securing $80 Billion US Opium Empire

- Afghanistan: Opium Cultivation Rose Substantially In 2012 (New York Times)

- Afghan Opium Poppy Farming Increases 20%, Fuelled By High Opium Prices (Guardian)

- CIA Created Afghan Heroin Trade (Veterans Today)

- Afghanistan: Is Creating A ‘Narco-State’ Considered ‘Nation-Building?’ (Veterans Today)

- Brought To You By Poppy Bush, Obama Bin Bush And Al-CIAda: Photos Of U.S. And Afghan Troops Patrolling Poppy Fields June 2012 (Public Intelligence)

- Breaking News: Afghanistan – America’s ‘Total Lie War’ (Veterans Today)

- Afghanistan: Heroin Production Rose Between 2001 And 2011 From Just 185 Tons To A Staggering 5,800 Tons/Year (Daily Mail)

- Afghan Opium Production Increases By 61 Percent, Opium Yield Rises 133 Percent From 2010 (AFP)

- War On Drugs Revealed As Total Hoax: US Military Admits To Guarding, Assisting Lucrative Opium Trade In Afghanistan (Natural News)

- Afghan Opium Production ‘Rises By 61%’ Compared With 2010 – Per-Hectare Price Of Opium More Than Doubled (BBC News)

U.S. Special Forces board two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. The State Department uses similar aircraft to try to slow down the drug trade. Photo: DoD

- U.S. Ready to Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion for a Drug-War Air Force (Wired, Dec 4 , 2012):

Unsure how your private security firm makes money as the U.S. war in Afghanistan winds down? One option: Go into the drug trade — more specifically, the lucrative business of fighting narcotics. The State Department needs a business partner to keep its fleet of drug-hunting helicopters and planes flying worldwide. You could make up to $10 billion-with-a-B.

Starting next month in Melbourne, Florida, the State Department will solicit some defense-industry feedback on a contract to help operate its 412 aircraft, based in at least eight nations, before it reopens the contract for bidding. Among the missions the diplomatic corps needs fulfilled: “Provide pilots and operational support for drug interdiction missions such as crop spraying, and the transport of personnel and cargo,” according to a pre-solicitation the department’s bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs released on Friday.

From its headquarters at Florida’s Patrick Air Force Base, the State Department directs 51,000 annual hours worth of air operations. In Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Pakistan, and Guatemala, it mostly performs “counternarcotics and law enforcement activities,” explains State Department spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala, and in Afghanistan it does transportation support as well. Diplomats at the mega-embassy in Iraq also rely on State’s contractor air fleet to move about the country. And in recent years, that fleet has also needed to perform short-term air missions in Sudan, Honduras, Malta, Libya and Egypt. Private-security giant DynCorp currently holds the contract for supporting the diplomatic fleet.

Continue reading »

Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Bolivia, Colombia, Drug Cartels, Drugs, DynCorp, Egypt, Global News, Government, Guatemala, Heroin, Honduras, Libya, Malta, Military, Obama administration, Opium, Pakistan, Pentagon, Peru, Politics, State Department, Sudan, U.S.