THERE LIVE
Afghanistan based drones: Civilian deaths in Pakistan 2006-2009
60 drone hits kill 14 al-Qaeda men, 687 civilians Friday, April 10, 2009
By Amir Mir
LAHORE: Of the 60 cross-border predator strikes carried out by the Afghanistan-based American drones in Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders, besides perishing 687 innocent Pakistani civilians. The success percentage of the US predator strikes thus comes to not more than six per cent.Figures compiled by the Pakistani authorities show that a total of 701 people, including 14 al-Qaeda leaders, have been killed since January 2006 in 60 American predator attacks targeting the tribal areas of Pakistan. Two strikes carried out in 2006 had killed 98 civilians while three attacks conducted in 2007 had slain 66 Pakistanis, yet none of the wanted al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders could be hit by the Americans right on target.Read more...
However, of the 50 drone attacks carried out between January 29, 2008 and April 8, 2009, 10 hit their targets and killed 14 wanted al-Qaeda operatives. Most of these attacks were carried out on the basis of intelligence believed to have been provided by the Pakistani and Afghan tribesmen who had been spying for the US-led allied forces stationed in Afghanistan.The remaining 50 drone attacks went wrong due to faulty intelligence information, killing hundreds of innocent civilians, including women and children. The number of the Pakistani civilians killed in those 50 attacks stood at 537, in which 385 people lost their lives in 2008 and 152 people were slain in the first 99 days of 2009 (between January 1 and April 8)
Declining Christian population of Mid East
In the early 20th Century, some 20% of the population of the Middle East was Christian. Today, the figure has fallen to 10%. The Christian Science Monitor looks at why their numbers have dropped:
Outside Iraq, which is a unique case, the most common motivator is economics, not persecution. "People want to seek a better life, and that's relevant for all people in the region, Muslims as well," says Fiona McCallum, a professor at Scotland's University of St. Andrews who studies Christian communities in the Middle East. But Christians in the region have traditionally been better positioned to emigrate than their Muslim counterparts because of their higher education levels.Read more...
With a lower birth rate than Muslims, the Christian population would decline even without emigration as Muslim births outpace Christian births. And religious discrimination is also a factor. In Egypt, Coptic Christians say they are subject to systemic government discrimination. And in the Palestinian territories, Christians cite intimidation and land theft.
Americans more loyal to Israel than Israelis?
. . . a new poll of Israelis finds that "a sweeping majority of Israelis think his [Obama's] treatment of this country is friendly and fair"; "most Israelis don't believe politicians who call Obama anti-Semitic or hostile to Israel"; and that "more people said Netanyahu's behavior [in this conflict] was irresponsible than said he acted responsibly." Put another way, the American Right is demanding a level of American loyalty to Israel far higher than Israelis themselves expect, and the American Right itself is far more blindly supportive of the Israeli Government than Israeli themselves are.Read more...
Birth defects in Fallujah
The Iraqi government line is that there are only one or two extra cases of birth defects per year in Fallujah, compared with the national average.The worst affected area of Fallujah?
But in the impressive new Fallujah General Hospital, built with American aid, we found a paediatric specialist, Dr Samira al-Ani, who told us that she saw two or three new cases every day. Most of them, she said, exhibited cardiac problems.
At the clinic we were told that the worst problems were to be found in the neighbourhood of al-Julan, near the river.A formal investigation cannot begin soon enough. Read more...
This was the heart of the resistance to the Americans during the two major offensives of April and September 2004, and was hit constantly by bombs and shells.
Why did Israel snub the Vice President of the United States?
Haaretz asks:
Why would Israeli officials degrade Israel by humiliating the vice-president of the United States? What conceivable advantage is there in the Interior Ministry choosing the occasion of a high-profile visit by Joseph R. Biden, Jr., a mission aimed at soothing strained relations between Israel and the Obama administration, to announce the approval of 1,600 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem?Good question. US economic assistance to Israel since 1949 has totaled $101 billion. Israel has received one quarter of that amount in the past decade. Why would any country gratuitously disrespect such a benefactor? The newspaper offers this explanation:
The profit, for the hard right, is political. It mines an emotional vein along a relatively small but potent segment of the Israeli electorate, which holds that to insult Israel's indispensible ally is to assert the Jewish state's independence.If that's the correct answer, what's the correct response? Read more...
In their drive to expunge any trace of hitrapsut - groveling to the colonial master. . . .
On the whole, the farther right one goes in Israel, the more pronounced the sentiment. Avowedly pro-Kahane extremists, now strong enough to have placed their own representative in the Knesset, have gained shock cred by lining highway underpasses with posters of the "Jew-hater Obama" photoshopped into wearing a Palestinian kaffieh.
Harder to fathom was the Defense Ministry's Monday announcement that work would resume on 112 homes in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit, units whose construction had been suspended under a White House-spurred settlement freeze.
Chalk it up, if you like, to the powerful pro-settler presence in certain strata of Israel's bureaucracy. Or credit the mercurial, not to say, erratic, policy style of Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak. Or accept the official explanation that the timing of the decision was coincidence, entirely unconnected with the vice-presidential visit.
In the anarchic swirl of current Israeli governance, the correct answer may well be: all three.
Team Turkey at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver
Türk sporcular Vancouver Kış Olimpiyatları Açılış Töreni için yürüyüşü. Read more...
Team Israel at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver
הספורטאים הישראלים לצעוד לתוך טקסי הפתיחה של האולימפיאדה בוונקובר
Israeli athletes march into the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver Read more...
Israel in Haiti
An Israeli doctor's account of the Israeli relief effort -- one of the first up and running in Haiti following the earthquake.
Read more...Plea for Obama to support NGO in Gaza
How well was the 2008 Israeli invasion of Gaza covered by the American media? Based on conversations I have had with Middle East residents, Muslims, and American journalists on the subject, there is widespread agreement that US news coverage failed to convey the terrible impact of the invasion on the residents of Gaza. (During the invasion, blogs were the best way grasp what was happening on the ground. In December and January of 2008, ThereLive.com compiled the definitive list of live-bloggers of the Israeli strike on Gaza).
A few months later a new president gave an inspiring speech at Cairo University on peace in the Middle East. However, since then, the US Administration has actively deterred American citizens from turning Obama's hopeful words into good works. The US and other Western countries have been preventing their own citizens from entering Gaza to engage in NGO work. I find it hard to fathom what good is supposed to come from such a policy.
Pam Rasmussen, an activist, has written an open letter to President Obama on the matter:
... perhaps what I have found most upsetting is the complete lack of US willingness to foster the people-to-people exchange we say will help bridge the West/East divide. Some of us in the Freedom March want to live and work in Gaza with nongovernmental organizations dedicated to emergency relief, human rights monitoring and mental health treatment. However, the only way Egypt will allow me into Gaza right now is if I present a letter from my embassy asking that my entry be permitted. Is that too much to ask? It isn’t for individuals with Indian citizenship; the only person who has been granted entry into Gaza since Egypt clamped down in the wake of the Viva Palestina “uprising” (other than a 50-person MP delegation from Europe) has an Indian as well as American passport. He bypassed the US and wisely sought the assistance of India. He got in, and is still there, working on an MIT research project. Ireland has signaled a willingness to help its residents as well. But for those of us who live in the US, Canada, UK, Germany and Portugal? We’ve been flatly turned down. Why? “It’s dangerous,” we’re told.Afghanistan and Iraq are also dangerous, Rasmussen notes. She certainly has a point. Surely Westerners who want to volunteer to help rebuild Gaza ought to be encouraged to do so. Read more...
Photos of funny Egyptian cats
Shroud Cat
In the city of Alexandria I photographed a number of cats (here and here).
However, one photo stuck me as particularly unusual. I had never encountered a blue and green cat before!
Drone attack mortality statistics
According to Pakistani sources, the civilian mortality rate from drone attacks relative to the number of terrorists that have been killed is extremely high. Moreover, the ratio of civilians killed to suspected terrorists appears to have gone up since Obama took office. More here.
Corruption Index 2009: Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria
Some countries in the Middle East -- Egypt, Turkey, and three Gulf States -- did relatively well on Transparency International's corruption index this year:
- Egypt has the same perceived level of corruption as Indonesia (#111), but the "land of baksheesh" is perceived as being less corrupt than Lebanon (#130) and Syria (#126) and even Vietnam (#120).
- Turkey (#61) and Italy (#63)are perceived as being almost equally corrupt, but Turkey (still considered unfit to join the EU) ranks higher than both Italy and dismally-ranking Greece which is tied with Romania at #71.
- Three Gulf states are perceived as less corrupt than Israel (#32)
Thais most exploited workers in Israel
Reuters (h/t Thai Report):
About 30,000 migrant workers hired by farms in Israel pay thousands of dollars to middlemen for their jobs but earn less than the minimum wage and are cheated out of overtime, according to an Israeli report.Read more...
The rights group Kav LaOved says the workers come mostly from Thailand but also Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Palestinian Territories.
Its report calls them "the most exploited segment of workers in Israel".
"The Thai workers come from rural areas after paying middlemen in Thailand and Israel brokerage fees running from $8,000-10,000," the report says. ...
According to Kav LaOved, "the most common complaint among agricultural workers is that their wages, especially the Thais', are withheld for months, or sent to their home countries without them receiving any accounting".
Afghanistan: text of resignation letter by Matthew Hoh
Ambassador Nancy J. Powell
Director General of the Foreign Service and
Director of Human Resources
U.S. Department of State
2201 C. Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Ambassador Powell:
It is with great regret and disappointment I submit my resignation from my appointment as a Political Officer in the Foreign Service and my post as the Senior Civilian Representative for the U.S. Government in Zabul Province. I have served six of the previous ten years in service to our country overseas, to include deployment as a U.S. Marine officer and Department of Defense civilian in the Euphrates and Tigris River Valleys of Iraq in 2004-2005 and 2006-2007. I did not enter into this position lightly or with any undue expectations nor did I believe my assignment would be without sacrifice, hardship or difficulty. However, in the course of my five months of service in Afghanistan, in both Regional Commands East and South, I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan. I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end. To put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.
This fall will mark the eighth year of U.S. combat, governance and development operations within Afghanistan. Next fall, the United States' occupation will equal in length the Soviet Union's own physical involvement in Afghanistan. Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people.
If the history of Afghanistan is one great stage play, the United States is no more than a supporting actor, among several previously, in a tragedy that not only pits tribes, valleys, clans, villages and families against one another, but, from at least the end of King Zahir Shah's reign, has violently and savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and modern of Afghanistan against the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional. It is this latter group that composes and supports the Pashtun insurgency. The Pashtun insurgency, which is composed of multiple, seemingly infinite, local groups, is fed by what is perceived by the Pashtun people as a continued and sustained assault, going back centuries, on Pashtun land, culture, traditions and religion by internal and external enemies. The U.S. and NATO presence and operations in Pashtun valleys and villages, as well as Afghan army and police unites that are led and composed of non-Pashtun soldiers and police, provide an occupation force against which the insurgency is justified. In both RC East and South, I have observed that the bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in Kabul.
The United States military presence in Afghanistan greatly contributes to the legitimacy and strategic message of the Pashtun insurgency. In a like manner our backing of the Afghan government in its current form continues to distance the government from the people. The Afghan government's failings particularly when weighed against the sacrifice of American lives and dollars, appear legion and metastatic:
- Glaring corruption and unabashed graft;
- President whose confidants and chief advisers comprise drug lords and war crimes villains, who mock our own rule of law and counternarcotics efforts;
- A system of prvincial and district leaders constituted of local power brokers, opportunists and strongmen allied to the United States solely for, and limited by, the value of our USAID and CERP contracts and whose own political and economic interests stand nothing to gain from any positive or genuine attempts at reconciliation; and
- The recent election process dominated by fraud and discredited by low voter turnout, which has created an enormous victory for our enemy who now claims a popular boycott and will call into question worldwide our government's military, economic and diplomatic support for an invalid and illegitimate Afghan government.
I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our young men and women in Afghanistan. If honest, our stated strategy of securing Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda resurgence or regrouping would require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, etc. Our presence in Afghanistan has only increased destabilization and insurgency in Pakistan where we rightly fear a toppled or weakened Pakistani government may lose control of its nuclear weapons. However, again, to follow the logic of our stated goals we should garrison Pakistan, not Afghanistan. More so, the September 11th attacks, as well as the Madrid and London bombings, were primarily planned and organized in Western Europe; a point that highlights the threat is not one tied to traditional geographic or political boundaries. Finally, if our concern is for a failed state crippled by corruption and poverty and under assault from criminal and drug lords, then if we bear our military and financial contributions to Afghanistan, we must reevaluate and increase our commitment to and involvement in Mexico.
Eight years into war, no nation has ever known as more dedicated, well trained, experienced and disciplined military as the U.S. Armed Forces. I do not believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex, opaque and Sisyphean mission as the U.S. Military has received in Afghanistan. The tactical proficiency and performance of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines is unmatched and unquestioned. However, this is not the European or Pacific theaters of World War II, but rather is a war for which our leaders, uniformed civilian and elected, have inadequately prepared and resourced our men and women. Our forces, devoted and faithful, have been committed to conflict in an indefinite and unplanned manner that has become a cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure. Similarly, the United State has a dedicated and talented cadre of civilians, both U.S. government employees and contractors, who believe in and sacrifice for their mission, but have been ineffectually trained and led with guidance and intent shaped more by the political climate in Washington, D.C. than in Afghan cities, villages, mountains and valleys.
"We are spending oursleves into oblivion" a very talented and intelligent commander, one of America's best, briefs every visitor, staff delegation and senior officer. We are mortgaging our Nation's economy on a war, which, even with increased commitment, will remain a draw for years to come. Success and victory, whatever they may be, will be realized not in years, after billions more spent, but in decades and generations. The United States does not enjoy a national treasury for such success and victory.
I realize the emotion and tone of my letter and ask you excuse any ill temper. I trust you understand the nature of this war and the sacrifices made by so many thousands of families who have been separated from loved ones deployed in defense of our Nation and whose homes bear the fractures, upheavals and scars of multiple and compounded deployments. Thousands of our men and women have returned home with physical and mental wounds, some that will never heal or will only worsen with time. The dead return only in bodily form to be received by families who must be reassured their dead haves sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can anymore be made. As such, I submit my resignation.
Sincerely,
MATTHEW P. HOH
Senior Civilian Representative
Zabul Province, Afghanistan
Source of letter: scribd.com Read more...
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