We aren't sending any clear messages to the terrorists people...seriously, we aren't.

If I hear that phrase (we are sending the terrorists a message...blah blah..fill in the rest yerself) one more friggin time, I am gonna lose my lunch or my head will explode, I swear to Buddha.

Its that type of skewed logic that keeps our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and our money flowing to places like Pakistan. Pakistan...don't get me started on those two-faced yahoo's. That anyone actually believes we can 'pay them off' to be our allies..well, they are either delusional or lying. Pakistan's leaders take our tax dollars (or money borrowed from China) and smile, then they go and laugh their collective asses off about how stupid we are to give them money when they hate us and work to kill us.To them, we are nothing more than Stupid Americans with bags of money.

And that makes me sad because so many Pakistani's are poor and live in squalor. So many have never been inside a classroom to learn how to raise themselves up from the bottom of the barrel.

Yet Pakistan has nukes...and that's some scary shit I know. But giving them billions isn't changing anything, no one will ever convince me that it does. How much of that money makes it down to the poor that need it the most? Corruption is rife in Afghanistan, from the head fuckwad all the way down..so why do we think it's any different in Pakistan?

The terrorists will never go away, we will never kill or jail them all..they have something that guarantee's they will fight to the death to end America as we know it..it's called hate. It's instilled in them as early in their lives as possible and hate is something that is hard to wipeout..just look at various parts of our own country that still treat people of color or anyone different as shit...as anything but equal. The ACLU has to file lawsuits to keep states like Arizona and now Utah, from instituting hosed-up, so-called immigration laws designed to make individuals second class citizens m'dear reader.

If we can't end racism and inequality in our own country, how the fuck do we think we can end global terrorism?

We need to clean our own house before we try to force others to clean theirs. Its a no-fucking-brainer.

Omar Suleiman- Torturer-in-Chief

I always had a feeling that Omar wasn't any better than Mubarak, because Mubarak picked him. DemocracyNow tells us that he isn't. From their link:

During his televised speech on February 10, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak delegated some of his presidential authority to handpicked Vice-President Omar Suleiman. Professor Lisa Hajjar of the University of California, Santa Barbara chronicles Suleiman’s record, including his role in the U.S. extraordinary rendition program, his close ties to Israel and his personal involvement in the torture of prisoners.

WikiLeaks gives us the truth Obama's administration won't...

WikiLeaks has struck again!! The Obama administration responded with the following from the whores at Politico:

The White House responded swiftly and sharply to publication Sunday evening of more than 91,000 secret documents painting a bleak picture of the Afghanistan war, calling the leak “irresponsible” and saying that the source – the whistleblower website WikiLeaks -- “opposes U.S. policy in Afghanistan.” WikiLeaks said its "Afghan War Diary" consists mostly of reports "written by soldiers and intelligence officers ... describing lethal military actions involving the United States military." WikiLeaks gave three news organizations – The New York Times, The (British) Guardian and Germany’s Der Spiegel – advance access to the "war logs" trove.

They oppose the Afghan War? Who the fuck doesn't? Oh boo-fucking-hoo you lying, covering-up, war mongering bastards! Meanwhile...the NYT has run an article, entitled the War Log which they explain and validate here, based on Wikileak's info. From the WikiLeak writeup:

25th July 2010 5:00 PM EST WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary (AWD), an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.

The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related detail.

The document collection will shortly be available on a dedicated webpage. 

The reports cover most units from the US Army with the exception of most US Special Forces' activities. The reports do not generally cover top-secret operations or European and other ISAF Forces operations.

We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually, in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.

The data is provided in CSV and SQL formats, sorted by months, and also was rendered into KML mapping data.

It's gonna be a doozie folks you can wade thorough it all HERE...fasten your friggin seatbelts, its gonna be a bumpy, horrendous ride. And Team Obama ain't gonna like it and neither will the Bushies. Fuck em all I say..warmongering bags of shit.

Pakistan assembly to Musharraf: Resign or face possible Impeachment

From Jurist:

Pakistan's Punjab Provincial Assembly on Monday voted to ask President Pervez Musharraf to resign or face possible impeachment by the country's parliament. Of the body's 371 members, 321 voted for the motion, including the majority of Musharraf's own Pakistan Muslim League-Q party. In response to the vote and impeachment plans led by the country's coalition government, Musharraf stated he will fight the allegations of wrongdoing and asserted that the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) simply wants to impose their rule over his own. For the potential impeachment to succeed, it would require the endorsement of two-thirds of legislators in a joint session of parliament. The lower house of parliament was scheduled to meet later on Monday to consider the move. BBC News has more.

Why can't our Congress do this? It is a rhetorical question...

Makhdoom Amin Fahim will run in Bhutto's spot.

The party of Benazir Bhutto has already picked a new candidate. But you wouldn't know who by the individual who was doing the talking at the latest press conference. Bhutto's husband spoke longer and more often than Bhutto's son or the new candidate that will represent the opposition party in place of Benazir Bhutto.

Yet Fahim predicted that Zardari would be the kingmaker — consolidating his hold on the party by creating his own clique of advisers — and that some of those close to Bhutto would fade away.- per the IHT article linked above.

I don't know about you, my dear reader, but its a crap-shoot in Pakistan. There are plenty of folks that want to change the status quo in the PPP party. The Pakistan Peoples Party has held together with bailing wire and rhetoric.

Stay tuned..this story is far from over.

Bring your hip-waders, its getting thick..

The doctors who attended to Benazir Bhutto have run as fast as they can from the government's version of how she died. You remember that one don't you? The 'hitting her head on a lever' line? From the NYT writeup:

Athar Minallah, a board member of the hospital where Ms. Bhutto was treated, released her medical report along with an open letter showing that her doctors wanted to distance themselves from the government theory that Ms. Bhutto had died by hitting her head on a lever of her car's sunroof during the attack.

In his letter, Mr. Minallah, who is also a prominent lawyer, said the doctors believed that an autopsy was needed to provide the answers to how she actually died. Their request for one last Thursday was denied by the local police chief.

Seems to be quite the cover-up doesn't it? Her husband didn't want an autopsy, the government didn't want an autopsy..but her doctors and everyone else in the world want one.

In other news..Bhutto's 19-year old son will lead the PPP party..assisted of course by his father, Asif Ali Zardari. That is one helluva load to put on a kid that isn't even old enough to drink yet. In another surprise move, Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister, also decided Sunday to call off his previously announced boycott of the vote. From the NYT writeup:

The announcement that Ms. Bhutto's first-born son, Bilawal, an Oxford undergraduate with no political experience, would lead her party was made at a chaotic news conference at the family's ancestral home here in a southern Pakistan village.

His father, Asif Ali Zardari, said he would manage the chairmanship on his son's behalf until he finished his university degree, for a minimum of three years.

To make it interesting, Bilawal is changing his last name from Zardari to his mothers maiden name..Bhutto. Things in Pakistan keep getting curiouser and curiouser..

Stop me if you have heard this one before..

Click pic for larger image

Al-Qaeda did it. Its all Al-Qaeda's fault. Every nasty, horrific thing that has transpired in the last 6 years is the fault of Al-Qaeda. This includes of course the killing of Benazir Bhutto.

Yeah right..

So why is it then that Robert Fisk draws many parallels today in his piece for the Independent that go directly to Musharraf? From Fisk's article:

It doesn't, after all, take much to comprehend that the hated elections looming over Musharraf would probably be postponed indefinitely if his principal political opponent happened to be liquidated before polling day. So let's run through this logic in the way that Inspector Ian Blair might have done in his policeman's notebook before he became the top cop in London.

Question: Who forced Benazir Bhutto to stay in London and tried to prevent her return to Pakistan? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who ordered the arrest of thousands of Benazir's supporters this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who placed Benazir under temporary house arrest this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who declared martial law this month? Answer General Musharraf.

Question: who killed Benazir Bhutto?

Er. Yes. Well quite.

Tomorrows Independent has a good read up as well on this subject. Like, why didn't Bhutto's husband want an autopsy? In fact, according to the current Prime Minister of Pakistan..her husband insisted that there not be an autopsy. From Sunday's edition:

Suspicions over the complicity of Pervez Musharraf's government in the killing were fueled by its failure to order a postmortem, regardless of Mr Zardari's wishes, and the fact that the scene of the bombing was washed down with a high-pressure hose within an hour, removing potential forensic evidence. Under the criminal law of Pakistan, an autopsy should have been mandatory, according to a leading lawyer, Athar Minallah.

"It is absurd because without autopsy it is not possible to investigate," he said. "Is the state not interested in reaching the perpetrators of this heinous crime, or was there a cover-up?"

Christ, what a mess, what a coverup..what a freaking bunch of hooey.

Tags: Musharraf, Bhutto, Zardari

Benazir Bhutto assassinated

She was far from perfect but she was a better alternative than Musharraf. At a rally this morning she was shot and killed with at least 20 of her supporters murdered in the process as well. From the MSNBC article:

A party security adviser said Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle, then the gunman blew himself up. No group has claimed responsibility.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene of the bombing could see body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the park where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded people.

Musharraf gave lip service to her killing saying; "I want to express my resolve and seek the cooperation from the entire nation and we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."-If he wanted to get rid of the wingnuts, he has had years to do so. He is part of the problem, not the answer to Pakistan's problems.

Bhutto's return to Pakistan had fueled the opposition to Musharraf's military regime. She originally had aligned herself with her former nemisis Nawaz Sharif, but that didn't last long since she wanted to institute talks with the Musharraf regime and Sharif refused to take part in such negotiations.

Bhutto and her husband had been tried in abstentia for corruption, the ruling was later overturned.

How this will affect the scheduled elections in January is unknown at this point. It was a three-way horserace between Musharraf, Bhutto and Sharif. A nuclear-laden country, Pakistan has received over $10 million in 'aid' from the US to fight terrorism.

That has worked out well hasn't it?

Online Pakistani tv here. Kinda choppy however.

Tags: Benazir Bhutto

Pakistani's protest anyway..

From MSNBC we get the following video. Musharraf also arrested 12 of the 17 Supreme Court justices in an attempt to keep them from ruling that he was no longer eligible to stay on as 'President" of Pakistan. This is more about power than it is about quelling Al-Qaeda my dear reader.


Clashes after Pakistan crackdown

Tags: Pakistan, marshall law, Musharraf

Going to hell in a handbasket..Pakistan-style

Have you been paying attention to Pakistan? Its all going downhill at warp speed there. Today, the lil Dictator, aka General Pervez Musharraf, had all the activists and lawyers rounded up and arrested. Via the IHT link, we get the newest:

About 500 opposition party workers, lawyers and human rights activists were arrested Sunday as the government of General Pervez Musharraf tried to consolidate its control after imposing emergency rule.

About a dozen privately run television news stations remained off the air, and international channels, including the BBC and CNN, were suspended. In the city of Lahore, police officers armed with tear gas tried to break up a meeting of regime opponents at the headquarters of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission. They took dozens of people away in police vans.

Around the country, at least 80 lawyers were arrested in an apparent bid to head off demonstrations that lawyers' groups had planned for Monday.

Of course, the US official position is strained at the moment, and it leaves little to the imagination. It seems Bush's dance partner left the party with someone else..

A U.S.-backed military dictator who is risking civil instability in a country with nuclear weapons and an increasingly alienated public.

Nukes..these folks have nukes my dear reader. Shaky fingers should not be anywhere near that special button..or phone, whatever the case may be. Condo said whatever she could without really saying anything. This also is an important fact that shouldn't be lost:

The United States has given more than $10 billion in aid to Pakistan since 2001, and much of it goes to the military.

Damn, that is money down the fucking drain ain't it, our propped-up head of state went off the deep end? And don't get me started about the nukes..arresting people because of their beliefs and nothing more?

But BushCo will stand behind their lil dictator..you know that right? Oh man, and get this...

Musharraf quoted Abraham Lincoln when he read his State of Emergency decree on State-run tv Saturday night..I shit you not.

Benazir Bhutto said: "This is not emergency, this is martial law." (emphasis mine for obvious reasons)

Tags: Pakistan, Musharaf, nukes and nutjobs

Al Qaeda come on down!

The lousy and very suspect 10 month truce with the local tribal leaders and the government of Pakistan has ended. This bullshit truce, according to most experts, gave Al Qaeda a place to train and rest in Pakistan in between killing American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

So, do we mourn the end of this 'truce' or just chalk it up to the usual bs that it was all smoke and mirrors from the get-go?

I say the latter..also Musharraf isn't making any new friends either.

Tags: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Musharraf