Taliban militants fighting US troops in Afghanistan taunted Washington over the government shutdown on Wednesday, accusing US politicians of "sucking the blood of their own people". ● The Islamist militants issued a statement describing how US institutions were "paralysed", the Statue of Liberty was closed and a fall in tourist numbers had hit shops, restaurants and hotels in the capital. "The American people should realise that their politicians play with their destinies as well as the destinies of other oppressed nations for the sake of their personal vested interests," the Taliban said.

At least three people have been killed in a US assassination drone strike in the Boya area of Pakistan’s North Waziristan. ● The attack was carried out during the early hours of Monday, when a killer drone targeted the tribal area near the Afghan border. A senior Pakistani security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the three were killed by two missiles. The incident took place hours after another drone killed at least six people in the northwestern tribal area of Dargamandi in North Waziristan. The attacks come days after the Pakistani government confirmed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would seek an immediate halt to the US drone strikes during his speech at the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. On September 22, seven people died in a US killer drone strike in the same area.

Lisa O'Carroll: Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism – close down the news bureaus of NBC and ABC, sack 90% of editors in publishing and get back to the fundamental job of journalists which, he says, is to be an outsider. ■ He is angry about the timidity of journalists in America, their failure to challenge the White House and be an unpopular messenger of truth. Don’t even get him started on the New York Times which, he says, spends “so much more time carrying water for Obama than I ever thought they would” – or the death of Osama bin Laden. “Nothing’s been done about that story, it’s one big lie, not one word of it is true,” he says of the dramatic US Navy Seals raid in 2011. Hersh is writing a book about national security and has devoted a chapter to the bin Laden killing. He says a recent report put out by an “independent” Pakistani commission about life in the Abottabad compound in which Bin Laden was holed up would not stand up to scrutiny. “The Pakistanis put out a report, don’t get me going on it. Let’s put it this way, it was done with considerable American input. It’s a bullshit report,” he says hinting of revelations to come in his book. [H/T]

Balochistan government spokesman Jan Mohammad Buledi Wednesday morning confirmed that 238 265 people have died in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that flattened almost everything in the Awaran district, while 8 persons perished in Turbat of Balochistan, Geo News reported. ● Buledi said that in all six districts of Balochistan were hit by the earthquake, which included Turbat, Awaran, Panjgor, Chagi, Khuzdar and Gawadar, while of them Awaran witnessed widespread devastations, where in Tehsil Mashkay alone 55 persons died. The provincial government has declared emergency. Rescue work is underway and the Frontier Corps and the Army are providing aid to the victims. District Administration and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority are also doing its utmost to provide relief and succour to the suffering people in the area. The scale of the territory involved is daunting. Awaran district has an estimated population of around 300,000, scattered over an area of more than 21,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles). Officials said the tremors demolished hundreds of mud houses and it was feared that the death toll would increase.

Geo News: بلوچستان: زلزلے سے جاں بحق افراد کی تعداد 265 ہوگئی
BBC: Pakistan earthquake: Hundreds dead in Balochistan - Video

We as Americans largely ignore when our own government, in countries around the world, murders innocent children but when an American child dies, our media and our nation can focus on nothing else. Meanwhile, U.S. drones are killing children and terrorizing families abroad. Earlier this year, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that 176 children have been murdered in Pakistan alone. And along with drone attacks, an average of 4.8 children are killed per day in Afghanistan where earlier this year, a U.S. sergeant is reported to have killed 9 children. Will these murders be deemed worthy of our thoughts and prayers, or even our news headlines?

A Pakistani court indicted Pervez Musharraf in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, escalating legal challenges to the ex-military dictator since he ended his self-exile in March. ● Charges were read out to Musharraf that he was complicit in Bhutto’s killing as he failed to provide adequate security at a political rally she was attending, public prosecutor Chaudhary Mohammad Azhar told reporters after a brief court appearance by the former general. “Musharraf was charged for murder, criminal conspiracy for murder and facilitation of murder,” Azhar said. “He denied the charges.” Six other people were also indicted and the hearing was adjourned till Aug. 27, state-run Pakistan Television reported, citing court proceedings.

The People's Voice: Blackwater involved in Bhutto and Hariri hits: former Pakistani army chief
Postings by The People's Voice with regard to the killing of Ms. Benazir Bhutto: HERE and HERE.
The Nation (Pakistan): US special squad killed Benazir
Ramtanu Maitra: The Planned Killing of Benazir Bhutto

The CIA unmanned aircraft deliberately targeted rescuers attempting to help victims of previous drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found. ■ A field investigation by the Bureau focuses on drone strikes in a single village in North Waziristan last year when the CIA was after Yahya al-Libi, an alleged senior al-Qeada member who was finally killed in one of the aerial attacks on June 4, 2012. The CIA had at the time shown a video to Congressional aides in which only Libi is killed in a drone strike. It was first in February 2012 that an investigation by the Bureau found that the CIA had conducted 11 drone attacks on rescuers of previous strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas between 2009 and 2011. The tactic, called “double-tap” strikes, apparently stopped in July 2011 but new reports show that the CIA had resumed the strikes a year later. Five double-tap strikes took place in mid-2012, killing 53 people and injuring 57 others. One of the attacks targeted a mosque, a report by Pakistani journalist Mushtaq Yusufzai, commissioned by the Bureau, found.

At least six people have been killed in an attack by a US assassination drone in northwestern Pakistan. - The casualties come after two missiles hit a convoy of people in the Shawal area of North Waziristan Sunday evening. Local security officials say several people were also severely injured in the fatal attack, which sent shock waves across the troubled region. The latest attack come as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has recently blasted US assassination drone strikes in his country, describing them as a violation of international law and the UN charter. Islamabad has repeatedly condemned the attacks, saying they violate Pakistan's sovereignty.

PressTV: 6 die in US killer drone strike in Yemen

The United States has agreed to extradite Aafia Siddiqui - a Pakistani woman it had abducted and jailed - to her country under a prisoner exchange deal. - The US has offered Islamabad an agreement in which both sides will release each other’s inmates. The US government agreed to send back Siddiqui after finalizing the deal. The terms of the deal demand that Pakistan accept the ruling of a US court, in which Siddiqui was convicted on terror-related charges. The Pakistani woman also has to complete the remaining of her prison term in Pakistan. The swap deal is likely to be signed soon. Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has formed a task force to follow up on the US offer. Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison after she was convicted of grabbing a US soldier’s assault rifle and trying to shoot a group of FBI agents and soldiers at an Afghan police compound in July 2008. She denied the charge against her during the trial.

Information about Aafia Siddiqui on Another World Is Possible

Michel Chossudovsky: A new wave of camouflage is underway at the Pentagon and the CIA. The bin Laden “death files” contained in the Pentagon’s data bank have become the object of controversy. Navy Vice Admiral William McRaven has been entrusted in removing these secret military files concerning the May 2011 Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s alleged hideout in Abbotabad, Pakistan from the Pentagon’s data banks. The files of the bin Laden SEAL operation had to be removed to sustain the Big Lie. Osama was allegedly killed on the orders of the US government, despite ample evidence that he was already dead at the time of the attack. Several members of the SEAL raid are now dead, allegedly “due to combat and training accidents”. [...] The Pentagon spokesperson denied the fact that the removal of these files was to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

US Navy Seal Commander, Who Killed Osama Bin Laden, Commits ‘Apparent Suicide’ In Afghanistan. - Over 20 navy seals are now dead who killed bin laden, coincedence? Yeah.. right. There STILL isnt any evidence at all that we even killed him. My guess is that he was already dead and has been dead for years. The Osama Bin Laden shown in the videos at the abbotabad compound is a double. A fake used by whomever for propaganda purposes. It’s a omplete lie and shame like 9-11 or the jfk assassination investigation.

Paul Craig Roberts: The Osama bin Laden Myth
Paul Craig Roberts: Creating the bin Laden Reality
Paul Craig Roberts: Americans Are Living In 1984
Stephen Lendman: Lies, Damn Lies, and Bin Laden's Death
Stephen Lendman: Media Lies and Misinformation on Bin Laden
CNN: CNN, CBS confirm: No Bin Laden death photos to be released

The historic residence of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Pakistan’s South western Balochistan province was bombed and destroyed by militants on Saturday. Militants have bombed the historic residence of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah in restive Quetta city of Pakistan’s Southwestern Balochistan province, destroying it completely and killing a policeman deployed for security there. A police official, pleading anonymity said a group of four to five militants entered the 121-year-old historic building at Ziarat, about 120 kms from Quetta in the wee hours today. “The militants hurled rocket propelled grenade, destroying all the old memorials inside the residency”. He said memorial chairs, beds, and historic photographs of Pakistan’ founder were raised to rubble in the fire. “The wooden structure of the residence had been burnt completely. However, the exterior structure made of bricks was still intact,” he said. The official said militants also fired on the policemen deployed for safety of the building. A policeman was killed in the militant firing. [...] According to Pakistan newspaper, Express Tribune, outlawed militant outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed the attack on the Jinnah residency in Ziarat.

■ In the two and a half weeks since President Barack Obama’s speech at the National Defense University justifying his policy of drone assassination, as many as 25 people have been killed and as many as 12 others injured in four US drone missile attacks in Pakistan and Yemen. The attacks demonstrate that the Obama administration intends to continue indefinitely its illegal assassination campaign.
■ In Pakistan, seven people were killed and as many as four more injured in a drone strike June 7. According to Pakistani intelligence officials, the attack came shortly after sunset in the village of Gubez in North Waziristan’s Shawal region, near the border with Afghanistan. The area is known to be a stronghold of Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a coalition of militias fighting the US occupation of Afghanistan and the Pakistani state, which is collaborating with the US war. The June 7 attack came approximately a week and a half after the last strike in Pakistan. A CIA drone May 29 killed at least seven people in North Waziristan, including Wali Ur-Rehman the second in command of the Pakistani Taliban.

BNF/Scribd: Youth Disrupted: Effects of U.S. DroneStrikes on Children in Targeted Areas

US to dictate Pakistani government’s policy: Atif Ali - Video - Press TV: Now, [Pakistani] Prime Minister [Nawaz] Sharif has said that he was against US drones operating in Pakistan and just after a couple of days after his inauguration we saw the first American drone attack, which killed several people. What message is Washington trying to give Islamabad? Ali: Well, it is a pretty standard operating procedure for Pakistan now, there is a new government sworn in; a democratic government who came with a heavy mandate from the people of Pakistan. And this drone attack, which should be called now by its name that is arbitrary extrajudicial killing wire flying machine; we call it drone, it is sending us a clear message to Pakistanis that nothing has been changed. There is going to be a consistency in the policy; there will be the same reign of terror and fear on Pakistan.

At least seven people have been killed in an attack by a US assassination drone in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region, local officials say. - The incident took place early Wednesday after the US drone fired two missiles at a house in Chashma village near Miranshah, a town in the North Waziristan district. The strike was the first such move since Pakistan’s recent general elections won by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League. Sharif, who is expected to take office for a third term in the first week of June, has described US drone strikes as a “challenge” to the sovereignty of Pakistan.

PressTV: Islamabad condemns recent US assassination drone strike

Bill Maher is taken apart by Glenn Greenwald for trying to absolve the US from any responsibility for the mass slaughter and destruction in Muslim countries, blaming it on Islamic fundamentalism, as if the Afghanistan and Iraq wars never happened, as if the US wasn't pushing for more war in Iran, as if it isn't intervening in Somalia and Yemen.

A new report shows that US assassination drones in Pakistan have killed “scores of innocent civilians” instead of targeting terrorists. - On Tuesday, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) published a report entitled “Drones: Myths and Reality in Pakistan” that says the United States’ refuses to acknowledge that the CIA-led drone campaign “undermines efforts to assess the program’s legality.” The ICG called on Washington to “demonstrate respect for the international humanitarian law principles of humanity, distinction, proportionality and military necessity.” The report said the US must “establish clearer lines of authority and accountability, including greater congressional and judicial oversight.”

“The Obama administration should terminate any practice, such as the reported signature strikes, that does not comply with principles of international humanitarian and human rights law. It must also introduce transparency to the drone program, including its governing rules, how targets are selected and how civilian damage is weighed.”

Signature strikes target groups of men by using behavior patterns associated with terrorist activity rather than targeting terrorists with known identities. Pakistan’s tribal regions are often attacked by US assassination drones.

Pakistani voters decisively repudiated the country’s outgoing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led government, which for five years served as a pliant instrument of US imperialism, extending the AfPak War across northwestern Pakistan and imposing IMF austerity measures. - Official results of Saturday’s national and four provincial assembly elections are not expected for several more days. But unofficial partial returns indicate that the PPP’s traditional electoral rival, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) or PML (N), will obtain a strong plurality or possibly a majority of the seats in the National Assembly. The PML (N) also retained control over the government of the Punjab, home to 60 percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people.

Hussain Yasa: Pakistan: Elections with Fragmented mandate [Saturday 11 May 2013]

The government of Pakistan ordered the New York Times' bureau chief in Islamabad to leave the country on the eve of national elections, the newspaper said on Friday. - A two-sentence letter was delivered by police officers to the home of the bureau chief, Declan Walsh, at 12:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, it said. "It is informed that your visa is hereby canceled in view of your undesirable activities," the Times quoted the letter as saying. "You are therefore advised to leave the country within 72 hours." The newspaper protested the action and urged the government to reconsider, said Danielle Rhoades Ha, a company spokeswoman.

Blackwater mercenaries already busy little assassination bees: Anti-US Drone Candidate Imran Khan injured in Pakistan poll rally fall 07 May 2013 Leading Pakistani politician Imran Khan has been injured after falling off a lift that was taking him on stage for an election rally. Officials told the AFP news agency that the former cricketer suffered head injuries after the fall in Lahore. TV footage showed supporters carrying a bloodied and dazed Mr Khan away from the rally. Mr Khan has recently emerged as a serious contender in May's elections, with thousands attending his rallies. "He has received injuries to his head and he has been taken to hospital," Malik Ishtiaq, a local spokesman for Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) told the AFP news agency. [Right, the hospital - where CIAciopaths will 'finish the job.']

PolicyMic: Pakistan Election 2013: Imran Khan Vows to Shoot Down US Drones If Elected

Even as Americans grieve over the Boston Marathon bombings, they should know that US assassination drone strikes worldwide kill many more people weekly and continue unpunished, an analyst says. - “While we mourn the horrific events in Boston, we must remember that our government perpetrates a Boston bombing weekly in Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan,” political commentator Sean McElwee says. He adds that although the White House administration alleges that it prefers trials for the rule of law, the true reason for its targeted killing program across the globe is that: it’s cleaner, simpler and less embarrassing to just off the suspected terrorists. The government uses mafia logic - why waste time and energy risking the rule of law when you can just swoop in and launch a smart bomb?

In particular, Mazzetti’s April 6 article, “A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood,” exposes the wanton and deliberate criminality with which the CIA launched its drone murder program in Pakistan in June 2004. Using a missile launched from a Predator drone, the CIA killed Pashtun tribal leader Nek Muhammad—who Pakistan wanted out of the way—and six other people as they were sitting down to dinner, including two children aged 16 and 10. Mazzetti reveals that the assassination of Muhammad was part of a quid pro quo: the CIA agreed to murder Muhammad in return for assurances from Pakistan’s authorities that the CIA would be free to use Pakistan’s airspace to carry out future assassinations. Meanwhile, the governments of both Pakistan and the US agreed to falsely claim that Pakistan had carried out the attack. The two children and the other men killed in the attack were labeled “militants.”

The humiliation of Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf deepened today when he was arrested by police and taken before a judge - a day after he fled from court in an apparent bid to avoid detention. Police arrested the former dictator overnight at his “farmhouse” on the outskirts of Islamabad and took him to the court of a judicial magistrate. He was later allowed to return to his residence which has been classified as a “sub-jail” and where he will be held under house arrest. In a comment posted on social media following his arrest, Mr Musharraf claimed the charges against him were politically motivated. "I will fight them in the trial court, where the truth will eventually prevail" he said. Television footage showed Mr Musharraf being led to the office of the judge, walking past lines of police and paramilitary soldiers. He was taken inside the building and then later taken back to his house in the Chak Shahzad neighbourhood in a convoy of vehicles.

The Nation: Musharraf’s fate (Op-Ed)
The Nation: Musharraf shifted to police headquarters
The Frontier Post: Nawaz says 'Musharraf committed great crimes'
The Frontier Post: Treason case: Musharraf submits plea to form full bench
The News: Pervez Musharraf arrested, granted 2-day transit remand
The News: Pervez Musharraf arrested, in government’s custody: Habib

The former military ruler of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, fled a courtroom in the capital on Thursday, making a dramatic escape after a judge revoked his bail over a case dating to his nine years in power. - Television footage showed Mr. Musharraf being jostled as his security detail pushed through the court precinct following the hearing, then quickly driving away in a convoy of SUVs as angry lawyers chased behind. The escape was the latest twist in Mr. Musharraf’s quixotic bid to return to Pakistani politics. It was the first time in Pakistan’s history that a former army chief faced potential imprisonment, which analysts said could open a new rift between the courts and the military. After fleeing Thursday, Mr. Musharraf drove to his luxury farmhouse on the outskirts of the capital, where he has been living since returning from exile last month, and which is protected by retired commandos and soldiers still in the armed forces. At the hearing, the court refused to extend Mr. Musharraf’s bail in relation to his controversial decision to sack and imprison the country’s top judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007.

CIA's drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens
of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or
were attending funerals (All Hail the Assassin in Chief!)

“Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror,” Obama told reporters in the White House briefing room. “What we don’t yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual.”

There is undoubtedly a political struggle within the US government and its intelligence apparatus over how to make use of the events in Boston to advance US security policies at home and militarist policies abroad. There was an immediate campaign to place the events within the narrative of the “war on terror,” which has been used to legitimize unending militarism abroad and the dismantling of democratic rights within the United States. Media coverage has sought to connect the events with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The aim is once again to utilize the tragic events to justify the massive buildup of the government’s military, security and intelligence apparatus. The immediate response to the attacks has been a security clampdown not only in Boston, but nationwide, to condition the public for another expansion of the militarization of American society.

Boston Globe: Image shows suspect carrying, perhaps dropping, black bag
Politico: Reports: Suspect identified in Boston Marathon bombing
PressTV: Obama lied about targets of drone strikes: report
Tony Cartalucci: Boston Highlights the Illusion of Terror & Security

Reader Comment (Russia Today): Boston blank: No suspects, no motives over deadly bombings - Like the FBI-CIA-NSA-TSA-DHS-Nazi Bastards-Pedophiles are going to find evidence against themselves...?

PressTV: ‘False-flag’ meme goes mainstream on Boston Marathon bombings - On September 11th, 2001, the US media began chanting “Bin Laden” in unison almost from the moment the attack was reported. The possibility that US government insiders had orchestrated the attack - in order to blame Muslims, launch wars on Muslim countries, and seize near-absolute power - was never mentioned. But after the Boston bombings of April 16th, 2013, even the corporate monopoly media could no longer ignore the possibility of a false-flag attack. Yahoo News asked “Who's behind the Boston Marathon bombings?” and offered 4 theories: (1) Islamic jihadists, (2) Right-wing militia types, (3) the government, and (4) a criminally-insane lone wolf. Numbers (1), (2), and (4), of course, are the usual suspects. But including (3) “the government” on the suspects list is unprecedented for a mainstream news story reporting on a domestic terror incident.

At least four people have been killed in an attack carried out by a US assassination drone in northwestern Pakistan, Press TV reports. - On Sunday, the US killer drone fired two missiles at a house in Datta Khel area located some 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan. Officials say the house was completely destroyed in the attack. Pakistan’s tribal regions are attacked by US assassination drones almost regularly with Washington claiming that militants are the targets. However, casualty figures clearly indicate that civilians are the main victims. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism said in a report released in February that the United States has carried out more than 360 assassination drone attacks in Pakistan since 2004, killing nearly 3,500 people.

Webster Tarpley/PressTV: US seeks to divide Pakistan through drones, Afghan war - Video

Jason Ditz: US Drone Strike Kills Five in North Waziristan (Pakistan) - Six drones were involved in the attack, according to locals, and they fired either two or three missiles in the attack, depending on the accounts. The missiles set the house on fire, and the bodies were burned beyond recognition within. It is the latest in a long line of US drone strikes against North Waziristan, and the latest in which the victims have been dubbed “suspected militants” without any apparent idea who any of them are.