Chris Floyd

Here's the way the game works. First you get the outright lie, then later, in dribs and drabs, you get a few, grudging crumbs of the truth.

For example, first you get: "No, there are no Blackwater operatives in Pakistan. None. That's just a conspiracy theory, terrorist propaganda. These kinds of lies just make it harder for us to do good in the region." Then later: "Well, yes, we do have Blackwater operatives in Pakistan. But, uh, we don't actually cut their checks directly in the Pentagon."

Or what about this more recent example? First: "The United States has no troops in Pakistan. None. We are not going to send troops to Pakistan. That's just wild talk, a conspiracy theory. And it makes it harder for us to do good in the region."

Then later: "Well, yes, we do have a few troops in Pakistan. All right, a couple hundred. But that's it. We promise. And they're just training their counterparts in Pakistan's military. Oh yeah, and also working alongside paramilitary militias in the frontier regions. And maybe, you know, following up on some of our drone strikes. That is, our alleged drone strikes, because we are not, as you know, officially admitting that we are carrying out an ever-accelerating campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan, although if we were, these strikes would be very surgical, and the hundreds of people who might have been killed in just the past few months by these strikes, if they happened, would have all been vicious savage murdering 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! terrorists. But other than these 200 troops we have in Pakistan now, we have no troops in Pakistan. Never have. Except, of course, for the 12 American troops who have been killed in, well, battle, in, er, Pakistan since 2001. But that's it. Look me in the eye; would I lie to you?"

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Kingsley Kobo

If you have ever been to any international airport in Africa, you might have observed two kinds of African travellers: one holding his country's passport, and the other a foreign passport - an American, British or European Union.Both are Africans by origin, but do not possess the same power and status.

The first is African because he was born in Africa, of African parents and has been rooted in Africa. The second was probably born abroad or shares a parent who owns a foreign nationality, or acquired a foreign nationality by his long stay abroad.

The first needs to book an appointment at the embassy; needs to answer a lot of questions from the consul; and needs to furnish tons of documents before hoping to obtain a visa. The second only calls up a travel agency, books his flight for Milan, Paris, London or New York and buys just a one-way ticket – because he’s heading for his second home!

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Des Moore

Climategate – IPCC’s Flawed Temperature Picture Revealed

Since Copenhagen there have been revelations overseas of important flaws in the science used in reports by the IPCC. Believers in the dangerously rising temperature thesis have brushed these aside as “unfortunate” mistakes but as not affecting the alleged scientific consensus that continually rising temperatures result from the emissions of CO2 and usage of fossil fuels. Hence, it is argued, government action is still needed to prevent dangerous increases in temperatures in the future.

Now, however, we have a major new analysis by two Australian scientists showing that the temperature data published by the IPCC and other organisations has been manipulated to give the appearance of a warming trend - but not one that has actually occurred. In essence this analysis severely, probably fatally, damages the basis on which the IPCC and its supporters rely for their call for government intervention to reduce emissions. Needless to say, this has major international implications in regard to the policies to be adopted by countries on emissions reductions.

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Ed Kinane

"Frequently those killings had no combat or defensive role whatsoever. Like aerial warfare generally, those killings were out-and-out state terrorism. Why doesn’t it call those nations deploying armed drones against civilians what they are: rogue states? And why doesn’t it describe their cowardly airborne killings as what they are: terrorism?"

Drones are remote-controlled airborne robots. They come in all shapes and sizes. These unmanned high-tech weapons are remarkably versatile. From thousands of feet in the air some reportedly have heat-detecting and surveillance instrumentation that can distinguish between an automatic weapon that has been recently fired and one that hasn’t.

Unlike the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine, most US Americans are oblivious to drones. But we’d better wake up. Drones are poised to become tools of domestic surveillance.

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Aurobinda Mahapatra

The opinion polls in Afghanistan conducted in December 2009 and revealed this month have shown India as the most favourable country among the people particularly in aspects of initiating development measures. This development is not liked well by many regional players. Pakistan’s policy of keeping India out of the solution format of the Afghan turmoil and its discomfiture particularly at Pakistan-US deliberations about India’s influence in its neighbourhood is well known.

The recent reiteration of Pakistan of ‘thousand years of war’ with India in Pak controlled Kashmir has brought into the forefront the deep tensions in the South Asian politics. The likely Afghan scenario after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2012 and the strategies of various players in the region has further complicated the geopolitical matrix of the region.

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