Paul R. Pillar

An image from a Taliban video showing Bergdahl in captivity.
Sgt. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 25, was declared Duty Status Where-
abouts Unknown (DUSTWUN) on July 1, 2009 and his status
was changed to "Missing-Captured" on July 3, 2009.

By definition, “terrorism” applies to attacks on civilians for political ends. But the U.S. government has revised the term to cover any attack on Americans, including soldiers fighting anywhere in the world, a misuse of the concept that is hampering a deal to free a U.S. POW, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.

The only current American prisoner of war, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, remains in captivity largely because of the mistaken equating of war fighting with counterterrorism. That false equation has contributed to the suffering of many other Americans in uniform and their loved ones.

It lent believability to the Bush administration’s rationale to launch the Iraq War, and it has underlain continuation of the Afghanistan War for a decade after Operation Enduring Freedom achieved its immediate counterterrorist objectives. The hardship of Sergeant Bergdahl and his family simply adds to that toll.

The exact circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture in Paktika Province in Afghanistan in June 2009 are somewhat in doubt, but not in doubt is that he was a combat soldier in a military unit conducting counterinsurgency operations. His capture was not some block-the-street-with-a-car terrorist kidnapping in a city. His captors were insurgents against whom NATO is waging its counterinsurgency campaign.

Secret talks reportedly have pointed to a possible deal under which Bergdahl would be released in return for transferring five Taliban prisoners now at Guantanamo to the custody of the government of Qatar.

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Stephen Lendman

Dehumanization facilitates warmaking. It also desensitizes law enforcement agents to target Muslims and other designated state enemies. Doing the wrong thing works best when Groupthink becomes policy.

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton said that's where the money is. Washington targets the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia because it's where most proved oil and gas reserves are.

Waging war require enemies. Pretexts create them. Muslims are demonized as threats. They're portrayed as culturally inferior, dirty, lecherous, untrustworthy, religiously fanatical, and violent. Slanderous media commentaries suggest gun-totting terrorists threatening US interests.

Fear is heightened. Strategically timed false flag terror plots make headlines. So do arrests of entrapped Muslims despite no evidence of crime or intent to commit one.

Americans are manipulated to believe domestic and foreign jihadists threaten national security. Resource wars follow.

Enemies are dehumanized. Military training creates Groupthink. Recruits are manipulated to hate. Indoctrination involves sensitizing them to become effective combat killing machines.

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Ray McGovern

In this season of graduations – and the rush to bestow honorary degrees on the “great and powerful” – one ironic moment will play out at Fordham University, where Jesuits are giving top billing among its honorees to White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan, notes Fordham grad (and ex-CIA analyst) Ray McGovern.

Since even readers of the New York Times are aware of deputy national security adviser John Brennan’s open identification with torture, secret prisons and other abuses of national and international law, Fordham University’s invitation to him to give the commencement address on May 19 brought, well, shock and awe to many Fordham students, faculty and alumni.

It now turns out we didn’t know the half of it. Piling outrage upon indignity, Fordham announced this week that Brennan will enjoy pride of place among the “eight notables” on whom it will confer honorary degrees at commencement. The others receiving a Doctorate in Humane Letters, honoris causa, include Timothy Cardinal Dolan (Archbishop of New York), and Brooklyn congressman Edolphus Towns.

Unlike his co-recipients, Brennan is widely known for his advocacy of kidnapping-for-torture (aka “extraordinary rendition”) and killing “militants” (including U.S. citizens) with “Hellfire” missiles fired by “Predator” and “Reaper” drone aircraft.

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Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook argues that the newly announced coalition in Israel between the Likud and Kadima parties will give Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu time to entrench moves towards authoritarianism – weakening the media, human rights groups and the courts – and allow him to further undermine rival centres of power and overturn even the most sacrosanct of Israel’s basic laws.

Israelis barely had time to absorb the news that they were heading into a summer election when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on 8 May pulled the rug from underneath the charade. Rancourous early electioneering had provided cover for a secret agreement between Netanyahu and the main opposition party, Kadima, to form a new, expanded coalition government.

Rather than facing the electorate in September, Netanyahu and his hardline right-wing government are expected to comfortably see out the remaining 18 months of his term of office. Not only that, but he will now have the backing of more than three-quarters of the 120-seat Israeli parliament, leading one commentator to crown him the “King of Israel”.

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