For what, getting a taste of their own medicine?
Related:
[.... If Americans must die in a criminal war directed by the CIA, it is preferable to me that the victims are CIA operatives instead of the soldiers under their command. In my opinion, it is wrong to celebrate in their killing, though I know that if and when they begin killing my friends and neighbors here, I would feel the same way.] -- more
I'm not feeling as generous towards those monsters, sorry.
"8 Americans die in suicide blast in Afghanistan....
In Kabul, protesters carried signs that read: "Does peacekeeping mean killing children?" and "Stop killing us." A protester with a bullhorn called on Obama to "take your soldiers out of Afghanistan."
Related:
Several hundred Afghans chanted anti-American slogans at protests in the nation’s capital, Kabul, yesterday. (Musadeq Sadeq/ Associated Press)
Shades of the GEORGE BUSH DAYS, 'eh, America?
Obama doesn't care; did he even say sorry?
"Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan civilians, including children
American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.
No wonder the NYT said killed in fighting.
So the air strike was a better sounding cover story for this WAR CRIMINAL ATROCITY, huh?
People chant anti-American slogans and burn an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama in Jalalabad, south Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009., during a protest against the recent killings of 10 civilians allegedly by the coalition forces in Kunar province, eight of them boys aged between 12 and 14. A NATO official said initial reports from troops involved in the fighting on Sunday indicated that the victims were insurgents. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
More: Afghanistan: Assassinations, Audits, Abductions, and Airstrikes
According to the NATO statement, the initial review by Wafa's delegation "asserted that the dead were unarmed civilians removed by international forces from their homes and shot."
The international force's account of what occurred was much different. NATO said that on Saturday, a joint coalition and Afghan security force entered the village of Ghazi Khan looking for an insurgent group responsible for a series of violent attacks in the area. "As the joint assault force entered the village, they came under fire from several buildings and in returning fire killed nine individuals," the NATO statement said.
Well, I KNOW WHO I BELIEVE, and it AIN'T a LYING OCCUPIER!
"Several assault rifles, ammunition, and ammonium nitrate used in bomb-making were discovered."
The PLANTED WEAPONRY and BOGUS CLAIMS are NOT CONVINCING ME!
Besides they PROBABLY GOT THEM from the WEST, anyway!!
Yeah, that didn't make my printed paper; this did:
"8 Americans die as bomber hits CIA Afghan base; Agency’s highest toll of war includes a Mass. civilian" by Joby Warrick, Washington Post | December 31, 2009
Related: The Washington Post is the CIA 's newspaper.
Why not, huh?
WASHINGTON - A suicide bomber infiltrated a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least eight Americans in what is believed to be the deadliest single attack on US intelligence personnel in the eight-year-long war and one of the deadliest in the agency’s history, US officials said.
Incredibly out there with it this time, aren't they?
CIA usually keeps its trap shut.
One of the men killed was Harold Brown Jr., a 37-year-old from Bolton, Mass., who had been working as a civilian with the US military, according to Stanley Wysocki, a member of the Bolton Board of Selectmen. Brown is the son of Harold Brown, head of the Bolton Department of Public Works and a fixture in town, and the Bolton community was in mourning last night, Wysocki said. He could not describe Brown’s role with the military last night, only saying he served in a contractor role with the military.
We will get to his front-page eulogy below.
The attack, which the Associated Press reported the Taliban claimed responsibility for, represented an audacious blow to intelligence operatives at the vanguard of US counterterrorism operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing officials whose job involves plotting strikes against the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other extremist groups that are active on the frontier between the two nations. The facility that was targeted - Forward Operating Base Chapman - is in the eastern Afghan Province of Khost, which borders North Waziristan, the Pakistani tribal area that is believed to be Al Qaeda’s home base.
Related: CIA base attacked in Afghanistan supported airstrikes against al-Qaeda, Taliban
WaPo going to TELL YOU THAT, America, or they going to leave it vague?
US sources confirmed that all the dead and injured were civilians and said they believed that most, if not all, were CIA employees or contractors. At least one Afghan civilian also was killed, the sources said. It is unclear exactly how the assailant managed to gain access to the heavily guarded US-run post, which serves as an operations and surveillance center for the CIA. The bomber struck in what one US official described as the base’s fitness center....
An INFORMANT turned into an INSIDE JOB?
See: Pakistan Taliban (TTP) says it carried out CIA attack
The CIA has been quietly bolstering its ranks in Afghanistan in recent weeks, mirroring the surge of military troops there.....
Related: "Al-CIA-Duh" Invades Afghanistan
CIA Assassins Lend a Helping Hand in Afghanistan
CIA Strike Teams Swoop Into Afghanistan
The Boston Globe Bucks Up the CIA
The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: Blackening Out Blackwater Assassins
More Assassins Headed to Afghanistan
That who been heading over?Agency officers have provided hundreds of spies, paramilitary operatives and analysts in the region for roles ranging from counterterrorism to counter-narcotics.
And the VIOLENCE and DRUG-RUNNING JUST GETS WORSE, huh?
See: The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: Karzai's Kin
Oh.
The agency also operates the remote-control aircraft used in aerial strikes on suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the lawless tribal provinces on the Pakistan side of the border. The campaign of strikes in Pakistan has not been officially acknowledged, but it has escalated rapidly in the past two years....
Yes, they DID ADMIT in the MIDDLE of the PIECE!
Hope you didn't MISS IT, readers!
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert and professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, said the bomber and those who aided him must have had very good intelligence to gain access to the secure base without arousing suspicion, he said.
Like, maybe he was AN INFORMANT?
Nearly 90 CIA deaths are memorialized by stars on a wall in the agency’s Langley, Va., headquarters. The inscription on the memorial reads: “We are the nation’s first line of defense. We accomplish what others cannot accomplish and go where others cannot go.’’
That REALLY MAKES ME WANT TO PUKE!!
Yeah, "By deception, thou shalt make war!"
Also yesterday, NATO announced that four Canadian troops and a journalist from Canada were killed in an explosion in Kandahar province, one of the most dangerous areas of southern Afghanistan. The international coalition said the journalist was traveling with the troops on a patrol. Kandahar is a hotbed of the insurgency. On Dec. 24, eight people, including a child, were killed when a man driving a horse-drawn cart laden with explosives detonated the cache outside a guest house.
--more--"
Also see (my emphasis):
"Jordanian Among Dead in Attack on CIA Base
.... In Palestine, CIA members work among the Palestinian alternative security forces, the Intelligence forces, and they are issuing arrest warrants against leaders of Hamas and members of the resistance, and are widely known to be engaged in torturing them during interrogations. The Americans from the CIA in Palestine were also involved in the Israeli murder of three Palestinians in Nablus in the northern of the West Bank last Saturday 26 December 2009."
"The West Bank has been relatively calm in the past two years, as Abbas’s security forces began exerting control over former militant strongholds such as Nablus, and renewed some coordination with Israeli troops."
They ARE EVERYWHERE, aren't they?
And UNDER NON-OFFICIAL COVER, too!!
"Covert action programs, a particularly secret category in which the role of the United States is hidden"
"Victim’s work was a secret to most; CIA ties possible for Mass. man" by John R. Ellement and Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | January 1, 2010
Harold Brown Jr., 37, was one of eight Americans killed Wednesday in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber infiltrated a US forward operating base near the volatile border with Pakistan. The Taliban has claimed responsibility.
Yesterday, the CIA said seven of those killed worked for the nation’s spy agency, but did not specify who the eighth person worked for....
I covered that above; he is the Jordanian.
The true nature of Brown’s work in Afghanistan - even the agency he worked for - remains a mystery. A State Department official said he could not provide any information about Brown. But a statement from the CIA yesterday called those killed “colleagues,’’ lauding them for “doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism.’’ The statement did not reveal the identifies of those killed.
CIA officers serving overseas often use the State Department as their official “cover’’ to avoid revealing the true nature of their work and as a measure of personal protection. More details emerged yesterday about the attack, in Khost Province. The New York Times reported....
Who cares what they said?
With Brown’s background, several US officials said, it was likely he was gathering intelligence for the US-led war effort there. They also pointed out that the CIA is operating armed drones in the area that have been used to strike Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan’s lawless border region....
“He did what he wanted to do to make a better world. How could anyone not want that?’’ Barbara D. Brown asked.....
Gross.
He worked for SAIC, a defense contractor based in Virginia....
In a letter of condolence to CIA employees yesterday, President Obama called the deaths “a sad occasion in the history of the CIA.’’ Before yesterday’s attack, 90 CIA agents had been killed in the line of duty since the agency was established in 1947. “These brave Americans were part of a long line of patriots who have made great sacrifices for their fellow citizens, and for our way of life,’’ Obama wrote. “The United States would not be able to maintain the freedom and security that we cherish without decades of service from the dedicated men and women of the CIA.’’
I wish he would s*** the f*** up.
**********************
If he worked for the CIA, Brown will be eligible for an anonymous star on the memorial wall inside CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., in honor of CIA officers who have lost their lives in service of their country....
William D. Spratt, a friend of Brown Jr. from their high school days, said that over the years, he learned never to question Brown about what he did for the Army or his more recent employers....
he was formerly an Army intelligence officer.
Given ALL the COVERS this guy has had and how quiet, he was a DEFINITE CIA SPOOK!!!!
--more--"
Okay, BACK to the BASE!
"Afghan deaths a blow to CIA; Bomber had been invited onto base" by Pamela Hess and Adam Goldman, Associated Press | January 1, 2010
WASHINGTON - The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in southeastern Afghanistan had been invited onto the base and had not been searched, two former US officials said yesterday.
EL STINKO!
A former senior intelligence official said the man was being courted as an informant and that it was the first time he had been brought inside the camp.
STINKING even MORE!!
An experienced CIA debriefer came from Kabul for the meeting, suggesting that the purpose was to gain intelligence, the official said. The former intelligence official and another former official with knowledge of the attack spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The CIA would not confirm the details, and said it was still gathering evidence on the incident. “It’s far too early to draw conclusions about something that happened just yesterday,’’ said spokesman George Little....
It is RARE that they ACKNOWLEDGE anything, so WTF?
The bombing yesterday dealt a blow to the tightknit spy agency.
Yeah, a "community" of killers.
Among those killed was the chief of the CIA post, whom former officials identified as a mother of three.
Wow, HE GOT CLOSE!!!!!
Six more agency personnel were wounded in what was considered the most lethal attack for the CIA since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001 and possibly even since the 1983 embassy bombing in Beirut....
President Obama and CIA Director Leon Panetta were joined by several leading lawmakers yesterday in praising agency employees for their work. “Those who fell yesterday were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism,’’ Panetta said in a statement confirming the deaths....
SHUT UP, war criminal liars!!!!
Obama acknowledged that the spy agency has been tested “as never before’’ since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The CIA did not release information about the victims, citing the sensitivity of their mission and other ongoing operations. According to one former agency employee, the death toll represents a significant portion of the CIA’s clandestine force in the region....
Bull-oney!
They have been putting in HUNDREDS of SPIES!!
The bigger question for CIA operations will probably be whether the agency moves to tighten safety rules for its employees. The incident occurred at a former military base on the edge of Khost city, the capital of Khost province which borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold.
The Taliban claimed responsibility. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that an Afghan National Army officer wearing a suicide vest entered the base and blew himself up inside the gym. A US official briefed on the blast also said it took place in the gym.
Only four known CIA operatives have been killed in Afghanistan since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. CIA officer Micheal Spann was killed in a prison uprising in November 2001. An agency officer died in a training exercise in 2003, and two contractors operating out of a CIA base in Shkin district of Paktika Province were killed the same year.
--more--"
And ONCE AGAIN I get a TWO DY INVISIBLE INKER that NEVER APPEARS in my PRINTED PAPER (well, maybe it did Saturday; I didn't buy).
"Bombing reveals CIA’s changes; Agency’s role, risks expand in Afghanistan" by Mark Mazzetti, New York Times | January 1, 2010
Yeah, such a SYMPATHETIC GROUP!
WASHINGTON - The deaths of seven CIA operatives at a remote base in the mountains of Afghanistan is a pointed example of the civilian spy agency’s transformation in recent years into a paramilitary organization at the vanguard of America’s far-flung wars.
I thought ONLY BAD GOVERNMENTS and DICTATORS had those, AmeriKa!!
The CIA operatives stationed at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost Province, where Wednesday’s suicide bombing occurred, were responsible for collecting information about militant networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and plotting missions to kill the networks’ top leaders. In recent months, US officials said, CIA officers at the base had begun an aggressive campaign against a radical group run by Sirajuddin Haqqani, which has claimed responsibility for the deaths of dozens of US troops.
Oh, Haqqani, huh?
"Haqqani.... credited with introducing suicide bombing to the region.... cultivated as a "unilateral" asset of the CIA and received tens of thousands of dollars in cash for his work.... He may have had a role in expediting the escape of Osama Bin Laden.... In July 2008, CIA officials confronted Pakistan officials with evidence of ties between Inter-Services Intelligence and Haqqani. Haqqani has been accused of involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul...."
Just like all the rest!
Even as the CIA expands its role in Afghanistan, it is also playing a greater role in quasi-military operations elsewhere, using drone aircraft to launch a steady barrage of missile strikes in Pakistan and sending more operatives to Yemen....
What is "quasi" about that, NYT?
Pfffft!!
Over the past year, the CIA has built up an archipelago of firebases in southern and eastern Afghanistan....
Current and former intelligence officials said yesterday that early evidence indicated that the bomber, in Afghan military fatigues, might have been taken onto the base as a possible informant and might not have been subjected to rigorous screening.
Is that the COVER STORY we are being given?
But details about the episode remained murky....
Pffffft!
Translation: They are still working on it.
CIA personnel regularly take foreign agents onto the base before sending them on intelligence collection missions in eastern Afghanistan and across the border into Pakistan, said one Pentagon consultant who works closely with the CIA in Afghanistan....
The CIA has always had a paramilitary branch known as the Special Activities Division.
So shhhhhhhhhhh!
--more--"
Think they could be the guys who snatched these people?
"2 journalists missing in Afghanistan" by Associated Press | January 1, 2010
PARIS - Two French journalists and their local guides have gone missing in Afghanistan, the French government said yesterday in what one Afghan official called a kidnapping.
Are you SURE they were JOURNALISTS?
Also see: British Botch Rescue of Reporters
BBC denies reporter staged kidnapping
Are you sure they were kidnapped?
The journalists for France-3 television went missing Wednesday while traveling in Kapisa Province, where French soldiers are fighting Taliban and other insurgents as part of a NATO mission to help bring more stability to Afghanistan....
Bring MORE stability? AS IF it were STABLE at all?
And BRINGING MORE WAR isn't going to HELP!!
Yup, we DOLE OUT the WEAPONS and then COLLECT 'EM in this wonderful piece of propaganda fooleys, 'murka!
"Afghans cash in on weapons tip program" by Associated Press | January 2, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - A Defense Department program under which Afghans can tip off foreign forces about hidden mines or weapons and get money in return has paid out nearly $200,000 in its first three months, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement yesterday....
YOUR TAX DOLLARS!
Related: How The USA Funds The Taliban
Militants' possession of Israeli arms raises questions
Use of Israeli-made light arms by militants against security forces in Waziristan has raised several questions amongst many recently. TheNation has learnt on good authority that militants are using Israeli-made light arms including “Uzi gun” and “Rapid-fire pistol” against security forces in North Waziristan as the operation Rah-I-Rast reached its final stage. In addition to Israel-made sophisticated arms, militants are making use of the latest version of US-made M-16 carbine with laser designator and binoculars, Bulgarian and Czechoslovakia made Kalakov and M-4 carbine with a grenade launcher and laser designator, which is a unique weapon with the US marines."
How many of those are turning up in Afghanistan?
So IS IT WORTH IT, America
Similar cash-for-weapons programs have been instituted by the US-backed government in Iraq....
Is the PSY-OP PROP WORTH IT, America?
--more--"
I KNOW this particular brand is not:
KABUL, Afghanistan - Both Afghan and Pakistani Taliban groups claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing this week that killed eight Americans - seven of them CIA officers - suggesting that the attack was viewed as a success and could be used to gain recruits and financial support.
The competing claims, made Thursday and yesterday, did little to clarify the circumstances of the attack, as each group offered a different account of how the CIA base in Khost Province, in southeastern Afghanistan, had been infiltrated Wednesday.
You know, you would like to think they could keep THEIR OWN LIES straight, huh?
The Afghan Taliban said the suicide bomber was a disillusioned Afghan National Army soldier, supporting accounts from NATO officials that the attacker was wearing a uniform over his suicide vest.
Then I tend not to believe that one.
The Pakistani Taliban said the attacker was someone the CIA had recruited, who then offered the militants his services as a double agent....
THAT SOUNDS MORE BELIEVABLE! CIA got BURNED on this one!!
Both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban rely on funding from foreign donors.
That is what the "Al-CIA-Duh" payroll is for!
Related:
Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh's Greatest Hits
Prop 101: The "Terrorism" Business
"Al-CIA-Duh" School in Somalia
New York Times Admits War on Terror is U.S. Creation
"Al-CIA-Duh," right, NYT!What do you mean there is no Al Qaeda?
You mean Al Qaeda doesn't even exist?
Oh, yeah, this is "Taliban."
Well, you know what you have to look forward to, kids:
"US troop casualties in Afghanistan doubled during ’09, data show" by Jim Heintz, Associated Press | January 1, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - US military deaths in Afghanistan doubled in 2009 compared with a year ago as 30,000 additional troops began pouring in for a stepped-up offensive and the Taliban fought back with powerful improvised bombs....
Among other forces, Britain took the worst blow in 2009 with 107 deaths and Canada lost 32, including four who died Wednesday when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb. Other countries in the international military operation lost a total of 59 service members. US military officials acknowledge that the insurgency has momentum and that more troops on the battlefield means the death toll is likely to remain high in the near term. Another 30,000 reinforcements are due in coming months, raising the American presence to 100,000.
And what about the AFGHANS?
In contrast, US deaths in Iraq dropped by half as troops largely remained on bases and the United States prepares to withdraw from that country by the end of 2011. There, 152 American service members died, down from 314 a year earlier, according to figures compiled by the AP from US Defense Department information.
I DIDN'T ASK about IRAQ!!!
The sharply rising death toll in Afghanistan was an obstacle for President Obama as he decided in November to send more forces to the war, which is increasingly unpopular in both America and Europe.
But we get MORE anyway!
Afghan civilian deaths are more difficult to track, but according to the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, 2,021 were killed in the first 10 months of the year, nearly 1,400 of them by insurgents and 465 by US and other progovernment forces.
That is what the U.N. says. Aren't they the ones who signed off on a skewed rigging of an election?
Over the past eight years, at least 933 US service members have died in the military campaign that was launched in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to US Defense Department figures that include deaths in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and support operations elsewhere. As the second surge gets underway, the potential carnage troops face from improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, is a major worry.
Related: The first one, America, failed!
Related: Why Americans Must Die in Afghanistan
Is it WORTH IT?
The Taliban were slower than Iraqi insurgents to adopt IEDs, but they now appear to be the weapon of choice against the Americans’ artillery and armored vehicles, said a senior intelligence official with the international force. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue....
--more--"Hope you ain't one of them:
"Event to honor 650 troops going overseas
The Massachusetts National Guard is preparing a send-off ceremony for about 650 troops being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Governor Deval Patrick is scheduled to attend the ceremony this morning at TD Garden. Three military units are being sent for yearlong deployments. Members of the First Battalion, 101st Field Artillery will team with the Regional Corps Assistance Group to support and mentor Afghan police and army personnel. The National Guard’s 164th Transportation Battalion will provide heavy equipment transport services for military operations in Iraq (AP)."
And about those SPY STRIKES:
"Pentagon says militants intercepted drone spy videos" by Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press | December 18, 2009
WASHINGTON - The military has known about the vulnerability for more than a decade, but assumed adversaries would not be able to exploit it.
Then....
OOOOOPS!
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military continually evaluates the technologies it uses and quickly corrects any vulnerabilities found.
--more--"
Actually, that's ANOTHER MILITARY LIE!!!
The same security weakness that allowed Iraqi insurgents to record video from unmanned US surveillance aircraft might also have let them spy on American battlefield robots produced by a local firm....
The US military has purchased more than 3,000 Talon robots. Many are used for video surveillance patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan. Qinetiq officials said the security hole was plugged in 2007, when Talons received upgraded video equipment. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that laptop computers belonging to captured Iraqi insurgents contained video images from US surveillance drones. The insurgents had used TV receiving gear and a cheap piece of software purchased on the Internet to record unencrypted video from the aircraft.
Then WHAT is with the DOMESTIC TYRANNY, huh?
They CAN'T EVEN PROTECT their OWN STUFF!!
There’s no evidence that enemy forces actually tapped into video feeds from the Talon robots.
Would you tell us if they had?
But Eric Rosenbach, executive director of research at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, expressed surprise that the military would ever transmit battlefield data over an insecure channel....
Well, if YOU are "terrorists" then there is NOT MUCH TO WORRY ABOUT, is there?
Instead, the change was a consequence of the military’s efforts to reduce the terrible toll inflicted on US troops by roadside bombs in Iraq. Many of the bombs were detonated remotely by radio transmitters such as cellphones. The US Army responded by deploying Talon robots along key roadways to seek out the bombs and by equipping supply convoys with powerful radio jammers. The jammers created a sort of electronic bubble around the convoy, so that nearby radio-controlled bombs could not be detonated....
Bob Quinn, Qinetiq’s vice president of Talon robot operations, said that there was never any risk that an enemy hacker could have taken command of a Talon, because the robot’s remote control system has always used an encrypted digital radio system. Letting a Talon come under enemy control could have deadly consequences, as some are equipped with remotely-controlled machine guns.
But just being able to see surveillance video could be very useful to an enemy. “It gives them the ability to know where and how the US is surveilling targets,’’ said Rosenbach. For instance, an insurgent could use intercepted video to warn his comrades that one of their “safe houses’’ was actually being watched by the Americans. The US military has purchased thousands of robots from another Massachusetts company, iRobot Corp. of Bedford.
See: War Looter's Wednesday: Peering Into the Future
Like the Qinetiq Talon, iRobot’s PackBot is frequently equipped with video cameras for surveillance work. But the company won’t say whether its video feeds are encrypted. IRobot spokeswoman Nancy Dussault-Smith said the company “does not comment on communications security or other operational security topics.’’
Answer: no
Maybe that's how they compromised the base, huh?
Hackable Drones, Crumbling Empire
What happens when global resistance forces get a handle on the game America and their allies are playing and begin leveraging the weaknesses of such systems, not of least of which are the ideological blind spots plaguing their developers, into a wholly subversive high-tech détournement in a bid to level the playing field? But as Graham points out, the "often wild and fantastical discourses" of high-tech military theorists have run into a brick, not a silicon, wall: the will to resist.
All that money wasted!
