are iranian mines killing us soldier OR

are us mines (equipment) LEFT OVER FROM THE CIA (who gave them to afghanistan to help them fight the RUSSIANS) killing us soldiers? i'm more apt to believe it's the arms given to the afghanis by the cia to help them fight 'the russians'. oh we are good aren't we?

Taliban's bombs came from US, not Iran
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - In support of the official United States assertion that Iran is arming its sworn enemy, the Taliban, the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Dennis Blair, has cited a statement by a Taliban commander last year attributing military success against North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces to Iranian military assistance.

But the Taliban commander's claim is contradicted by evidence from the US Defense Department, Canadian forces in Afghanistan and the Taliban themselves that the increased damage to NATO tanks by Taliban forces has come from anti-tank mines provided by the United States to the jihadi movement against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The Taliban claim was cited by the ODNI in written responses to Taliban's bombs came from US, not Iran
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - In support of the official United States assertion that Iran is arming its sworn enemy, the Taliban, the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Dennis Blair, has cited a statement by a Taliban commander last year attributing military success against North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces to Iranian military assistance.

But the Taliban commander's claim is contradicted by evidence from the US Defense Department, Canadian forces in Afghanistan and the Taliban themselves that the increased damage to NATO tanks by Taliban forces has come from anti-tank mines provided by the United States to the jihadi movement against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. .....

what would you think of me if i said

the taliban should save america a whole hell of a lot of time and money and kill pfc bowe bergdahl (who is from idaho and who is 23 years old and who was recently kidnapped by the taliban. we do NOT yet know under what circumstances he was taken. even if we DID know, would you ever forgive me for saying that?)

what if keith olbermann said that? what if barack obama said that? what if rachel maddow said that? what if senator franken said that?

what would happen if those words (or similar ones) were uttered by a so-called 'liberal'? what would you do if they were uttered on cnn or nbc or cbs or msnbc? would you be outraged? would you call for the firing (as a consultant, newscaster, etc) for the person that said those horrid, ugly, hateful, treasonous words? would you demand the network who aired that evil broadcast to at the very least apologize?

well faux 'news' let them be uttered by their 'strategic analyst' RETIRED lt. col ralph peters (who also said in the future, service members were going to kill end up murdering journalists, just because........

where is our outrage over what was said by peters? where is our outrage about faux 'news' allowing this to be said? where is our sympathy for the family and friends of pfc bergdahl?

isn't pfc bergdahl an american soldier? is this how we allow american soldiers to be talked about?

can you just image what that 23 year old is going through? can you imagine what his family is going through? well i can't. i know what i'm going through and i don't even know him. he is in my thoughts and prayers for a SAFE AND SPEEDY return

Fox analyst: Taliban should kill US soldier if he deserted

By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer
ust a few months after he advocated for military attacks on journalists, Fox News strategic analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters is telling viewers that the soldier captured by the Taliban, now positively identified as 23-year-old Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Idaho, collaborated with the enemy by appearing in a Taliban hostage video.

Peters also said that the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s disappearance suggest he may have deserted his unit — and implied the Taliban should kill the US serviceman for that.

“We must wait until all the facts are in to make a judgment, but … he is an apparent deserter,” Peters told Fox’s America’s News Headquarters on Sunday. “Reports are indeed that he had abandoned his buddies, abandoned his post and walked off.”

Bergdahl disappeared from a base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30, and was declared “missing-captured” on July 3..........

Fox News Guest Ralph Peters Suggests Taliban Should Kill U.S. Soldier If He Deserted

Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who has been captured by the Taliban and appears in a video released this weekend by his captors, “went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.” The circumstances of his capture are still unknown. ABC News reports, “Defense officials said it appeared he somehow left his base in Paktika Province at night, likely accompanied by several Afghan soldiers.” On July 6, the Taliban claimed that “a drunken American soldier had come out of his garrison” and was captured by them.

On Fox News yesterday, guest Ralph Peters, a retired Army Lt. Col., urged against leaping to conclusions. “I was to stress first of all that we must wait until all of the facts are in until we make a final judgment,” Peters said, but quickly added, “He is an apparent deserter,” “he is collaborating with the enemy,” and “we know that this private is a liar.” Peters then suggested that if Bergdahl is a deserter, the Taliban should kill him:.........

a very good tribute

to a very good woman who was also a very brave woman indeed. she had the strength and courage of many.

Sitara Achakzai, Martyr for Muslim Women

By Kamran Pasha

Hollywood filmmaker, author of “Mother of the Believers”

This weekend, the Taliban murdered Sitara Achakzai, Afghanistan’s leading activist for women’s rights. She was gunned down in broad daylight by assassins in front of her house. Ms. Achakzai was an instrumental figure in promoting women’s rights in the war torn country that has become the symbol of everything that is wrong with the Muslim world today. Earlier this year, she led a nationwide sit-in of 11,000 Afghan women in seven provinces who gathered to pray for peace on International Women’s Day.

As a Muslim man, as a believer and as a voice in Hollywood and the media, I am here to say to her killers: you are evil, twisted men, and you will not escape the consequences of your crime against our Muslim sister, who stood for peace and justice. Even if you flee into the protective arms of your Taliban sponsors, Allah is the Lord of justice, and you will never escape Him, in this world or the next.

And you will not succeed in destroying Ms. Achakzai’s legacy. In fact, you have only given it greater power. For you have made Sitara Achakzai a martyr. She died for the same reason as the first martyr of Islam, a woman named Sumayya bint Khayyat, who was killed for speaking truth to power................

there's a video at the link below

Outcry in Pakistan after video of a 17-year-old girl's flogging by the Taliban is shown on TV

• Declan Walsh in Islamabad
• The Guardian, Saturday 4 April 2009
• Article history

The Pakistani government has ordered an inquiry into the flogging of a 17-year-old woman by Taliban militants in the troubled Swat valley, after public outrage triggered by shocking video footage of the punishment.

The images, played yesterday on private television channels, show a burka-clad woman being pinned to the ground by two men while a third whips her backside 34 times. The woman is seen screaming and begging for mercy as a crowd of largely silent men look on. She is accused of having had an illegal sexual relationship, according to local law. Her brother is among those restraining her.

President Asif Ali Zardari led a wave of public condemnation, and ordered the arrest of the perpetrators. Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani termed it "shocking" and called for an immediate inquiry. At the supreme court, the newly reinstated chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, summoned officials to a hearing scheduled for Monday to investigate the incident.

"Our constitution allows no space for such public brutality, and our civilisation and culture have no tolerance for it either," said Sherry Rehman, a former information minister...........

(ht: americablog)

this is the funniest horror i have ever heard of

i mean it's not REALLY funny in any way shape or form of course. it's absurd. it's obscene. it's ridiculous. it's insane. it's fucked up

we're getting our asses handed to us on a plate so what do we (the we is NOT me or any SANE person, it's king george and his band of merry white boyz) do?
this:

U.S. will give free weapons to Afghan civilians
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster

One way to quell a violent and deteriorating situation, according to the U.S. military, is to flood the place with guns. That's exactly what is planned for Afghanistan, where a rising tide of chaos is slowly pushing the country past Iraq as the most dangerous battlefield Americans tread upon.

"The U.S. military plans to help the Afghanistan government recruit, train and arm local Afghans to fight a resurgent Taliban," reported CNN's Barbara Starr.

"For the United States, the most sensitive part of the proposal will be the use of American military funds to purchase small arms, most likely AK-47 rifles, that will be given to local Afghans, according to a U.S. military official."

"There are worries," Starr continued, "putting even more weapons in the hands of local communities could lead to tribes fighting each other instead of the Taliban. U.S. troops could get caught in the middle." The plan would also hinge upon the weak Afghan government to maintain the loyalties of the newly armed populace...........

and this my dears is EXACTLY why we're

f**king up in afghanistan AND elsewhere

(see previous posting)

our right hands don't know what our left hands are doing. our government is promising people that help them payment or other incentives, then backing out. our government uses whatever means necessary (again see previous story) then denies denies denies. one agency swings one way, another agency swings another and no one knows what's in the middle (or who is caught there).

the ONLY people i feel sorry for are the troops who have lost their lives or come back unwhole AND the innocent people of the countries we've 'brought our form of democracy' to

Tangled U.S. Objectives Bring Down Spy Firm
Private Agents Snared Afghan Drug Kingpin
By Richard Leiby
Washington Post Staff Writer
After a federal jury in New York swiftly convicted a major Afghan heroin trafficker and Taliban supporter named Haji Bashir Noorzai, the government promptly issued the usual celebratory news release thanking the men and women of the DEA and FBI for their "countless sacrifices" in making the case.

Left out was any credit to the party most responsible for the government's victory: an unusual three-man private intelligence firm called Rosetta Research and Consulting.

At the instigation of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Rosetta agents lured Noorzai to America and delivered him right into the feds' hands. He spent 11 days in an Embassy Suites Hotel in Manhattan in 2005, enjoying room service and considering himself a guest of the U.S. government -- until he was arrested. He was imprisoned for three years awaiting his trial, which concluded in September. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced in January. .......

whatever it takes

including 'pharmaceutical enhancements for aging patriarchs with slumping libidos'

well normally i wouldn't care about such things EXCEPT
isn't almost all intelligence coming out of afghanistan saying WE ARE UP SHITE'S CREEK?
don't most of the people that support this king and all he has done under his reign believe not only should a woman's choice be abolished BUT THERE SHOULD BE NO CONTRACEPTION? so women can't choose regarding THEIR bodies, but MEN GET ENHANCEMENTS LEFT AND RIGHT.

the story mentions a 60 something year old tribal chief with four younger wives. the cia tosses viagra at him so he can get it up. yet it says NOTHING about how the wives feel or for that matter are treated (then again i think we all know how women and grrrls are treated in afghanistan)

hmmmmmmmmmm
Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

For U.S. intelligence officials, this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won. While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country's roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations. ...........

girls

are no better off than before. worse even. and how much money did we toss into pakistan anyway? not millions my dears BUT EFFING BILLIONS. and yet, grrrls CANNOT GO TO SCHOOL WITHOUT THREATS OF MURDER. fuck the taliban and fuck ANY person who doesn't think grrrls belong in school

Taliban threaten to kill Pakistani schoolgirls: officials
Agence France-Presse
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Taliban extremists in Pakistan's troubled northwest Swat valley have banned girls from attending school, threatening to kill any female students, officials said Thursday.

The threat was delivered this week by local Taliban commander Shah Durran in an address carried on an illegally-run radio station in the area, local officials told AFP.

"You have until January 15 to stop sending your girls to schools. If you do not pay any heed to this warning, we will kill such girls," one official quoted the commander as saying...........

bringing them freedom, justice and

democracy. oh, as only WE can (read: NOT at all)

as usual, the people WE leave in charge (not just in afghanistan but we've done it ALL over the world) are corrupt thugs (and in some instances way worse than thugs)


The Other Front
By Sarah Chayes

...................He had put his finger on the heart of the problem. We and our friends in Kandahar are thunderstruck at recent suggestions that the solution to the hair-raising situation in this country must include a political settlement with "relevant parties" -- read, the Taliban. Negotiating with them wouldn't solve Afghanistan's problems; it would only exacerbate them. Ask any Afghan what's really needed, what would render the Taliban irrelevant, and they'll tell you: improving the behavior of the officials whom the United States and its allies ushered into power after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ...........

..........Instead, we gave power back to corrupt gunslingers who had been repudiated years before. If they helped us chase al-Qaeda, we didn't look too hard at their governing style. Often we helped them monopolize the new opportunities for gain. A friend of mine, one of the beneficiaries, was astounded at the blank check. "What are we warlords doing still in power?" police precinct captain Mahmad Anwar asked me in 2002. "I vowed on the Holy Koran that I would fight the Taliban in order to bring an educated, competent government to Afghanistan. And now people like me are running the place?" I had to laugh at his candor............

the answer to the headline of this story is

OBVIOUSLY YES. if one looks up women and girls in afghanistan, they will see they are hardly treated better NOW than before the taliban ruled

vital voices
a little help

Is Laura Bush Delusional?"
Posted by Julia , Firedoglake

The Bush family have recorded a Story Corps interview about George W. Bush's presidential legacy, and what they're most proud of. This is what Mrs. Bush had to say

Well, it’s certainly been very rewarding to look at Afghanistan and both know that the president and the United States military liberated women there; that women and girls can be in school now; that women can walk outside their doors without a male escort.

I worry about Afghanistan, but I will always have a special place in my heart for the women that I’ve met there, both on my visits to Afghanistan and then the many women from Afghanistan who’ve traveled to the United States on scholarships or with the Afghan American Women’s Council, or with a lot of other ways that American citizens have opened their homes to women in Afghanistan so they can be educated quickly, because they missed their education when they were children or young women, because they weren’t allowed to learn anything.

Well, then. I would have been more charitable, but since Mrs. Bush has chosen this as her legacy, allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Bush's legacy:............

our friends in pakistan

this is the country we are pouring MILLIONS (if not billions) into. these are our friends?
Thousands Cheer as Pakistani Militants Decapitate, Shoot Afghans Accused of Spying for U.S.
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A gang of Pakistani militants executed two alleged U.S. spies in front of thousands of cheering supporters Friday as a top U.N. official expressed fears that Pakistani government peace deals with the gunmen were sparking a wave of human rights abuses.

At least 5,000 people gathered by a stream in the Bajur region to watch the executions, which highlighted the power of local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Masked militants pulled the two blindfolded Afghans from a car and forced them to kneel on the ground........

women:

you can't live with 'em, you can't (obviously) live without 'em (if you can't tell that's sarcasm, just click that little "X" in the upper right hand corner of your screen right now





women can and should do what men can (and should) do - in the armed services that is. here is a stunning example of the bravery of an 18 YEAR OLD WOMAN
they ended up pulling pfc brown out of afghanistan JUST BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T HAVE A PENIS. well i'm glad she's out, but i think if women want to join combat regiments they sure as hell should be allowed to do so.


Woman Gains Silver Star -- And Removal From Combat
Case Shows Contradictions of Army Rules



By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer


KHOST, Afghanistan -- Pfc. Monica Brown cracked open the door of her Humvee outside a remote village in eastern Afghanistan to the pop of bullets shot by Taliban fighters. But instead of taking cover, the 18-year-old medic grabbed her bag and ran through gunfire toward fellow soldiers in a crippled and burning vehicle. .........





,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, She is the second woman since World War II to receive the nation's third-highest combat medal.
Within a few days of her heroic acts, however, the Army pulled Brown out of the remote camp in Paktika province where she was serving with a cavalry unit -- because, her platoon commander said, Army restrictions on women in combat barred her from such missions.
"We weren't supposed to take her out" on missions "but we had to because there was no other medic," said Lt. Martin Robbins, a platoon leader with Charlie Troop, 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, whose men Brown saved. "By regulations you're not supposed to," he said, but Brown "was one of the guys, mixing it up, clearing rooms, doing everything that anybody else was doing." ...............





Army Spec. Monica Brown's case shows that the need for women in combat roles is at odds with Army rules intended to bar them. Photo Credit: Photo: Ann Scott Tyson/Post Photo

yup let's bomb the shite out of yet ANOTHER country

first let's pour BILLIONS of dollars in bribes and goddess only knows what else, to the country, then let's kill 'em all! yeah! blood guts AND money. MY f**king money and YOUR f**king money. that's not EVEN counting the lives we're obliterating (i'm NOT advocating for the taliban or al-qaeda. i'm saying we have NO bid-nez bombing ANYONE in pakistan unless their name is osama bin laden)

U.S. Steps Up Unilateral Strikes in Pakistan
Officials Fear Support From Islamabad Will Wane

By Robin Wright and Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writers
The United States has escalated its unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, partly because of anxieties that the country's new leaders will insist on a scaling back of military operations in that country, according to U.S. officials. Washington is worried that pro-Western President Pervez Musharraf, who has generally supported the U.S. strikes, will almost certainly have reduced powers in the months ahead, and so it wants to inflict as much damage as it can to al-Qaeda's network now, the officials said.
Over the past two months, U.S.-controlled Predator aircraft have struck at least three sites used by al-Qaeda operatives. The attacks followed a tacit understanding with Musharraf and Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani that allows U.S. strikes on foreign fighters operating in Pakistan, but not against the Pakistani Taliban, the officials said. ........

88% of the women are illiterate

57% are forced to marry prior to their 16th birthday. 1 in 9 women dies giving birth. they're offered in trade, just like a cow or a bushel of grain. yeah, we're REALLY making a difference.
Women's lives worse than ever
By Terri Judd
Grinding poverty and the escalating war is driving an increasing number of Afghan families to sell their daughters into forced marriages.
Girls as young as six are being married into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple members of their new relatives. Banned from seeing their own parents or siblings, they are also prohibited from going to school. With little recognition of the illegality of the situation or any effective recourse, many of the victims are driven to self-immolation – burning themselves to death – or severe self-harm.
Six years after the US and Britain "freed" Afghan women from the oppressive Taliban regime, a new report proves that life is just as bad for most, and worse in some cases.
Projects started in the optimistic days of 2002 have begun to wane as the UK and its Nato allies fail to treat women's rights as a priority, workers in the country insist..........

............The banned practice of offering money for a girl is still rampant – along with exchanging her as restitution for crime, debt or dispute. With the going price for a child bride at £800 to £2,000 – as much as three years salary for a labourer – many grooms are forced to take loans or swap their sisters instead, explained Partawmina Hashemee, the director of the Afghan Women Resource Centre..................

lest we forget about our men and women in

afghanistan...............the terrorists haven't. they've killed MORE of them in 2007 than any other year

U.S. casualties in Afghanistan hit record
By Jason Straziuso - The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. military deaths, suicide bombings and opium production hit record highs in 2007. Taliban militants killed more than 925 Afghan police, and large swaths of the country remain outside government control.
But U.S. officials here insist things are looking up: The Afghan army is assuming a larger combat role, and militants appear unlikely to mount a major spring offensive, as had been feared a year ago. Training for Afghan police is increasing.
Still, six years after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, violence persists in much of southern Afghanistan where the government has little presence, and recent militant attacks in Pakistan highlight a long-term regional problem with al-Qaida and the Taliban........

...........Afghanistan in 2007 saw record violence that killed more than 6,500 people, including 110 U.S. troops — the highest level ever in Afghanistan — and almost 4,500 militants, according to an Associated Press count. Britain lost 41 soldiers, while Canada lost 30. Other nations lost a total of 40.........

how does this work?

let's see. 700 million get taken away from our children and our needy. then king george turns around and gives pakistan 5 billion (to build weapons to threaten india)???????? so our kids and elderly and our needy get thrown down the sewer and pakistan gets big guns courtesy of the united states of america.

why aren't people shouting from their rooftops? why are we allowing this to continue? when will we wake up?

Medicaid Funding for Schools Cut
The Bush administration yesterday eliminated about $700 million a year in Medicaid reimbursements to schools, sidestepping an attempt by Congress to block such a move.
The new rule, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is expected to save the federal government $3.6 billion over five years, transferring those costs to school districts.
Lawmakers this week passed legislation to place a six-month moratorium on Medicaid implementing the rule change, but President Bush had not signed the bill.
A wide range of medical services, such as speech and physical therapy, are furnished to students in schools. Medicaid, the government's health insurance program for the poor, will continue to pay for those services for low-income children............


Billions in Aid to Pakistan Was Wasted, Officials Assert
By DAVID ROHDE, CARLOTTA GALL, ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped. In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the officials said, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs........

WHY WHY WHY

are we allowing king george and his court to continue to run us (and everyone else we come into contact with) into the ground?
the news is NEVER good. NEVER
U.S. Notes Limited Progress in Afghan War
Strategic Goals Unmet, White House Concludes

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
A White House assessment of the war in Afghanistan has concluded that wide-ranging strategic goals that the Bush administration set for 2007 have not been met, even as U.S. and NATO forces have scored significant combat successes against resurgent Taliban fighters, according to U.S. officials.
The evaluation this month by the National Security Council followed an in-depth review in late 2006 that laid out a series of projected improvements for this year, including progress in security, governance and the economy. But the latest assessment concluded that only "the kinetic piece" -- individual battles against Taliban fighters -- has shown substantial progress, while improvements in the other areas continue to lag, a senior administration official said. ...........

lest we forget about the OTHER war

we're 'winning'

Taliban Torture, Execute 5 Afghan Police
By NOOR KHAN Associated Press Writer
Nov 18th, 2007 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Taliban militants slashed the hands and legs of five abducted policemen in southern Afghanistan and hung their mutilated bodies from trees in a warning to villagers against working with the government, officials said Sunday.
The discovery of the bodies came as officials said that recent violence and clashes had left at least 68 people dead across Afghanistan.
The officers had been abducted two months ago from their checkpoint in southern Uruzgan province, said Juma Gul Himat, the provincial police chief. The Taliban slashed their hands and legs and hung the bodies on trees Saturday in Gazak village of Derawud district, he said.
"The Taliban told the people that whoever works with the government will suffer the same fate as these policemen," Himat said. "This village is under Taliban control. There are more than 100 Taliban in this village."
Two tribal elders received the bodies of the policemen on Sunday, he said...........

UN Report Suggests Afghan Massacre Coverup
Investigation Shows That Most Suicide Bomb Victims Were Also Shot By Lawyers' Bodyguards
Up to two-thirds of the 77 people killed and 100 wounded in a suicide bombing last week were hit by bullets from visiting lawmakers' panicked bodyguards, who fired on a crowd of mostly schoolchildren for up to five minutes, a preliminary U.N. report says. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says only a "small number" of the victims were hit by gunfire, but an Afghan official in Baghlan province told The Associated Press that bodyguards were "raining bullets" on the crowd. The suicide bomb contained ball bearings, the Interior Ministry said, which may have caused wounds that look like bullet holes. An Afghan doctor who treated patients after the Nov. 6 blast, meanwhile, told the AP that a high-ranking government official told him not to publicly reveal the number of gunfire victims, suggesting a possible government cover-up. .......

critical allies?

more like a puppet on his lap (or is that dick in a box?-which by the way IS wickedly funny if you've not seen it)
this f**ker is OUT OF CONTROL
U.S. Is Likely to Continue Aid to Pakistan
By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID ROHDE
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 — The Bush administration signaled Sunday that it would probably keep billions of dollars flowing to Pakistan’s military, despite the detention of human rights advocates and leaders of the political opposition by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the country’s president. In carefully calibrated public statements and blunter private acknowledgments about the limits of American leverage over General Musharraf, the man President Bush has called one of his most critical allies, the officials argued that it would be counterproductive to let Pakistan’s political turmoil interfere with their best hope of ousting Al Qaeda’s central leadership and the Taliban from the country’s mountainous tribal areas.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that ...........

Musharraf Leaves White House in Lurch
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 — For more than five months the United States has been trying to orchestrate a political transition in Pakistan that would manage to somehow keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power without making a mockery of President Bush’s promotion of democracy in the Muslim world. On Saturday, those carefully laid plans fell apart spectacularly. Now the White House is stuck in wait-and-see mode, with limited options and a lack of clarity about the way forward.
General Musharraf’s move to seize emergency powers and abandon the Constitution left Bush administration officials close to their nightmare: an American-backed military dictator who is risking civil instability in a country with nuclear weapons and an increasingly alienated public. .................

i'm NOT making this up. i wish i was but i'm not

now THIS IS funny

'Taleban-like beard' sees Metallica frontman detained at airport





James Hetfield, frontman of US metal rockers Metallica, was detained at a British Airport before his appearance at London's Live Earth gig on Saturday.
According to British newspaper The Times, the rocker jetted into Luton airport ahead of Saturday's Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium - where his legendary rock band was due to perform - but was halted by officials before he could leave the terminal.............





(hey, as long as it wasn't NEIL DIAMOND, i don't care!!!)





James Hetfield performs at the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium in London. Photo / Reuters

(p.s. i hope you do know i'm KIDDING about neil diamond)